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The Preamble So, you have stumbled across The Gamer Guide and you are wondering, “Why do I need a guide to gaming?” Well, we will not guide you on how to game, but we will keep you informed as to what the gaming industry has to offer to get you the best gaming experience! Now, the second thing you are probably wondering is, “How did The Gamer Guide start?” Well, it can be a slightly long story. However, the shortened version is that the journey of three Twitch streamers brought them together, and with their passion for gaming, their experiences of streaming, and their love for everything within the world of entertainment… The Gamer Guide was born. But what exactly is The Gamer Guide? The Gamer Guide is a digital magazine that focuses on everything gaming and streaming. This includes the latest/upcoming releases, reviews on gaming accessories, streaming tips, and even interviews with streamers and industry professionals from across the globe. Our readership is predominantly other gamers and streamers, just like us! We understand that the love and passion for gaming extends far beyond just playing a game, and that is what we are all about! So, who are the people behind this magazine?

Cal Howie - Operations Director Cal, also known as EyeStayProd has been streaming since September 2020 and loves everything about it whether it be the community, the rage moments or even just having fun and brightening people’s days! Predominantly he is an Xbox Gamer and recently added the Series X to his arsenal, but he also has a PS4 for certain games as well as having the Nintendo Switch to hand! His game of choice is Apex Legends but is no stranger to RPGs and other games, such as every Pokémon game in the franchise, the Fable Series, Call of Duty amongst loads more. Brandon Sawyer - Content Director Brandon, also known as Sawyers Gaming Central or Sawyer for short has been streaming since April 2020 and absolutely loves everything about it from the communities to the gameplays and reactions even a couple of rages thrown in there on a couple of occasions, but mostly he just loves to have fun and make people laugh which he can be quite hilarious at times! Predominantly he is an Xbox Gamer where he mostly plays his Xbox Series X but also has a gaming pc, a Nintendo switch, and even a Playstation. Sawyer is mainly a variety streamer where his main love is Gears of war and RPGs and due to Sawyers background he has come on board with The Gamer Guide as the Content Director, so we’re sure you’ll all learn to love this familiar face and don’t hesitate to pop by and say hi! Emily Welfare - Creative Director Emily, also known as CreativeTrashGaming, started streaming in the latter half of 2020 with the goal of bringing a bit of joy and laughter to the world, as well as the aim of raising money for various charities.Her favourite types of games are those with a compelling story, or those that just make her inner Fantasy Nerd go ballistic. She also likes spooky stuff, not just in the gaming realm but in general, and has a podcast with her two sisters where they discuss all things horror. Emily loves to dabble in the art world often, creating digital art pieces and learning new crafts. A graphics designer in her full time job, Emily is an integral part of the team whom designs the entire layout of our magazines from top to bottom!

contents CARE - UKRAINE CRISIS FUND

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tgg youtube update

upcoming games in june and july 2022

karnage clan

insert coin

brazen

godox

hover

fall guys coming to xbox

fifa 23 to change name

what’s included in playstations game pass?

xbox news

other game news

tiny tina’s wonderlands

trek to yomi

vampire the masquerade: swansong

sniper elite 5

lego star wars: the skywalker saga

echnida

ryan stoker

thatpetra Property of Big Bad Wolf

CARE

Ukraine crisis fund Terrible things are happening in Ukraine, and many feel as if they are unable to help. However, streamers across the globe have come up with a way to raise money in order to assist with aiding the people in need. They have united with the charity CARE who have boots on the ground in Ukraine helping to provide food, water, shelter, and financial aid. They will be hosting non-stop charity streams where viewers can donate to this wonderful cause. One popular streamer and political commentator HasanAbi has already raised a lot of money for Ukraine relief working alongside CARE. Hasan had originally planned to have an unspecified donation goal but CARE set it to $100,000, which he reached in around twenty minutes and it is still climbing daily. In addition to the donations made through CARE Hasan is matching the first $25,000 and also donating $10 for every death he has within the game he is playing. You can find Hasan’s stream here: HasanAbi - Twitch CARE is accepting donations for the Ukraine emergency providing “immediate aid and recovery, food, water, hygiene kits, psychosocial support and cash assistance for families in the country and those fleeing. CARE also links to stories about the crisis on their site and offers other ways to get involved. You can find additional information about CARE and what they do below or you can donate directly through CARE over at their website:

www.care.org About CARE Ukraine Crisis Fund CARE is launching a humanitarian response to support the most vulnerable Ukrainians, particularly women-headed households and the elderly. Nearly 30% of people in need of assistance in Ukraine are over the age of 60, which is the largest percentage of people affected by conflict in a single country. While many younger people are able to flee the violence, many older people are less mobile and have no choice but to stay. Older women, in particular, may be literally “left behind” to care for grandchildren with little support and face more challenges in moving to safety. CARE is working with a local humanitarian organization already operating in Ukraine to rapidly deliver emergency assistance. Through this partnership, we aim to impact 4 million people. Our first priority is to meet the immediate needs of affected families through the distribution of critical food and water supplies as well as hygiene kits, cash assistance and psychosocial support. Current Situation in Ukraine As of this moment, over 3.6 million Ukrainians have fled war, with many travelling to neighbouring countries such as Romania, Poland, Slovakia and Moldova. The citizens in these neighbouring countries have welcomed these families with open arms and are working day and night to provide shelter for them. CARE are currently dispersed in amongst these countries as well as attempting to assist those still in Ukraine that wish to leave. If you too would like to get involved with the teams working on these charity streams then do please get in touch with us over at our Twitter where we can point you into the right direction: @TheGamerGuide_

upcoming games in Tgg youtube update feb and march 2022 Did you know we also produce YouTube content and work alongside some of the best companies within the gaming industry? Well we do and this month we unboxed the all new PS5! It was a great thing for us as they are super rare to get a hold of but team TGG managed to pull through. Make sure to check out the video below as we know you’ll love it.

Life is Strange Remastered Collection Platform: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, PC Developer: Ubisoft Release date: January 20th 2022 (Out now!)

Pokemon Legends: Arceus

Platform: Switch Developer: Game Freak Release date: January 28th 2022 (Out now!)

Dying Light Stay Human Platform: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox, Switch Developer: Techland Release date: February 4th 2022

Sifu Whats In store for future YouTube content? Platform: PS5, PS4, PC As you may be aware we work with many companies within the gaming industry some more frequent Developer: Sloclap than others we can now happily call our partners. Release date:which February 8th 2022 Coming over the new few weeks we have some more trading card game content brought to you

CrossfireX by Chaos Cards where one of our TGG team members will be unboxing some all new pokemon

Platform: XboxisSeries Xbox One packs which not toX/S, be missed! Not only that we will also be working very closely with our partners Developer: Remedy Entertainmennt, Smilegate RØDE microphones on some of their all new products including their very popular all new NTH-100 Release date: February 10th GO 2022 headphones and Wireless II’s, We also can’t wait to showcase you whats to come in the future and as the summer approaches we will be launching our all new IRL series where we showcase some War: of the Warhammer best in gaming events and hotspots across the United Kingdom with hopes the globe Total 3 someday. Platform: PC Developer: Creative Assembly We can’t wait to show you more to come so please head over to our YouTube Page below. It would Release February 17thsubscribe 2022 be greatdate: if you could also to our channel and maybe even support us by liking some of the videos or sharing with your friends as the support means everything to us.

Horizon Forbbiden West

YouTube: @TheGamerGuide Platform: PS5, PS4 Developer: Guerilla Games Please stay to our channel Release date:tuned February 18th 2022 and check out our website where you can read all of our previous issues and sign up for free to be told about future issues!

www.thegamerguidemag.com Property of Avalanche Software

upcoming games in june and july 2022 The Quarry Platform: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PC Developer: Supermassive Games Release date: June 10th 2022

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes Platform: Switch Developer: Omega Force Release date: June 24th 2022

Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course DLC Platform: Xbox One, PC, Switch Developer: Studio MDHR Release date: June 30th 2022

Wayward Strand Platform: Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Switch, PS5, PS4, PC Developer: Ghost Pattern Release date: July 2021

Live a Live Platform: Switch Developer: Square Release date: July 2022

Digimon Survive

Platform: Switch, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PC Developer: Witchcraft & Hyde Release date: July 28th 2022

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Platform: Switch Developer: Nintendo Release date: July 29th 2022

KARNAGE Clan, established in 2011, is a popular and widely recognized organisation in the fast-growing gami Duty. KARNAGE pioneered content direction and created popular series su

TGG: Hey Apollo, it’s an absolute pleasure to interview you today & the world renowned KARNAGE Clan. First of all, we would like to thank you for chatting with us today. How have you been? World Renowned?! Wow, I think that’s the first time hearing that. Thank you! Truly an honour. I’ve been doing well, busy, but well! I actually just got back from a long-overdue family get together. We celebrated my grandmother’s 93rd birthday, mother’s day, and I finally met my 6 month old niece for the first time! Running an organisation is quite a task and the entrepreneurial life comes with great sacrifice, sometimes even taking time away from spending time with family. So this trip was not only great, but necessary. Regardless of how busy things get, always have to find balance in your worklife to avoid burnout and losing the passion for what you love. Balance is key to success. KARNAGE Clan is a huge org in our eyes and it deserves the title of world renowned thats for sure! It’s great to hear you’ve set aside some family time too as family is very important. It’s great to hear you got to meet your little niece and celebrate such a milestone of a birthday with your grandmother. So let’s get to know you first, tell us a little bit about yourself. What got you into content creation and starting up an org like KARNAGE Clan? I’m 25 years old, born and raised in Maryland about 45 minutes from Baltimore. I wasn’t allowed a gaming console until the Christmas of 2010 when I was given the Xbox 360 alongside Black Ops 1. I remember playing until the early morning

ing industry. KARNAGE built its name on exceptional gameplay in one of the most popular games ever, Call of uch as “Team Challenges’’ that focused heavily on team play and cohesion.

that evening on a massive 60 inch TV in our family living room - not exactly the most ideal gaming setup haha. But once the following year came with the new title launch of Modern Warfare 3, it was game time. I started KARNAGE and became obsessed with content production and growing a brand in the gaming space. I became so obsessed that my grades began to suffer throughout highschool. However, my sophomore year, I lost my grandfather. This was my first experience with death and it hit me pretty hard. It made me realise how precious life and our time here truly is, so I locked in and began to work harder than I ever had before. I focused on my academics, turning my grades around entirely while grinding content. My original intentions were that once I graduated and moved on to college, I’d have to put my side hustle with content creation aside as “life would get more serious”. However, the year before graduating we had our single largest year for growth, surpassing 100,000 subscribers. It was at this point that I realised this could be so much more. That year we just continued to explode withBlack Ops 3 and surpassed 500,000 subscribers. I went to college where I continued to pursue a high standard in my academic performance all while growing KARNAGE to be the brand it is today. Graduating with a 3.84 GPA in Marketing, I then took KARNAGE full-time, moved to Texas in which we had a team house for two years before moving to the New York area. It has been quite the journey, with plenty of ups and downs. I’ve been doing this for nearly a decade now, it has quite literally been my life and I’ve sacrificed more than anyone would

ever know to get to this point. I’ve met some of the most incredible people, friends and individuals I’d now consider family - that to me, is priceless. Gaming has changed my life and it has been a beautiful thing to see how far this industry has progressed since I first began in 2010. It’s great to hear this story and see you progress from such a prime time in gaming, it’s great to see that you also pushed your grades and a big congratulations is in order for graduating. It’s awful that you had to go through a rough patch and I’m sure your grandfather will be so proud of you. So, how long have you been into content creation and or streaming? This November 26th will be the 10th year anniversary of KARNAGE as a content organisation. A decade. Crazy to think about, humbling. Spent nearly half my life on this project and my entire adolescence. As for streaming, I started consistently streaming just about 3 years ago. Wow a decade is such a long time, it is so good to see you’ve kept up and constantly out performed over the years, As for streaming only 3 years seems so short in the streaming world but it is a great time to push things especially with KARNAGE. Content creation can’t be the only thing you do so please tell us and our readers what do you do in your spare time away from all of this? I am a very social person, I love people, I love hanging out with people, meeting new people and getting out and about - going to events and experiencing new places and things. That for me is a requirement to live a happy and healthy life. I am an absolute lover of music so one of my favourite things to do is go to music festivals and concerts with friends. It’s an opportunity to escape reality, listen to good music, dance, have good conversation with good company all while being outside in good weather. Truly one of my favourite things to do. Other than that, I love sitting in a coffee shop, having good conversation or going on adventures where you may not even know the end goal. Anything with good company is fun to me.

Hey we can relate to this one so much events and festivals are our go to places with Sawyer having a previous background in security he’s been to / worked at many festivals across the globe which have been life changing experiences and lets not forget gaming event the people we meet are so special and unique in every way, it’s great to hear that you love being outdoors and socialising that’s always a great trait to have. Let’s talk about your setup. What are the top most essential things that you need to produce your content that is streaming or just day to day things for KARNAGE Clan? Believe it or not, the most essential tool in operating KARNAGE is Twitter and Discord - both used for communication amongst team members, partners, community members and affiliates. 90% of work is conducted over these platforms in comparison to traditional email. Other than that, when it comes to my setup, my PC is certainly the most important aspect obviously. Though for me, having the most expensive, updated PC is unnecessary. My PC may not be the best, but it gets the job done in everything that I do. I use an Elgato HD 60 capture device for my gameplay, an Elgato Facecam for recording content and streaming, a Razer keyboard that I’ve used for nearly 7 years and has just the right amount of mechanical feel to it’s touch and the GO XLR alongside my SM7B microphone to channel the perfect audio for streams and video content. We see how active you are on Twitter and we couldn’t agree more. It’s a great tool to really stay connected with your community as for the equipment you are once again spot on with the PC and the vocals plus camera quality those are the best in the game right now. Do you have any key advice that you would personally give to any smaller creators about making their content better and growing their brand and or content? My advice to an up and coming streamer and or content creator would be this; spend your time efficiently. Work smart, not hard. There comes a point where doing 10 hour long streams is no longer “grinding” but what I like to call “busy work” where you distract yourself, thinking you’re being productive and grinding when in reality you’re wasting time. That time should be cut up into more efficient blocks, stream 4 hours then spend 3 or so hours editing a YouTube video, 2 hours editing short-form content and an hour uploading/ scheduling it all. This way you’re not putting all

of your eggs in one basket and you’re diversifying your inputs, covering a mass array of social media rather than just streaming for a hunk of time. Wow COD 4 on the Wii that’s crazy, it is also great to see some strong games there in your top 5. On the subject of gaming, what got you into gaming? In middle school, I was the only kid that didn’t have an updated gaming console. I was still playing on the Nintendo 64 and single-player modes on my PS2 while others were experiencing the greatest Call of Duty experience; MW2 at the time. So any time I got to go to a friend’s house, we’d stay up until the early morning playing and I quickly became hooked, wanting a console of my own more than anything. From there, I began watching creators such as Tmartn, ChaosxSilencer, Drift0r, Ali-A and others to better my skills in Call of Duty. I was eventually inspired to make content and that eventually led to starting a gaming clan. Single player games are very strong and unique so i’m not surprised you sat back and played those, i was a veteran call of duty player since call of duty 2: Big Red One on Xbox now that brings back memories, It’s also great to see you followed some of the OGs we too used to watch some of those especially the veteran himself Mr Ali-A. We all love the subject of console wars, so tell us what is your go to console choice and why? Xbox 360 without a doubt. That was my first console, so I may be biassed, but nothing beats the party chat features the console game has as well as its UI and capabilities. To be honest the Xbox 360 was probably the best era for gaming of all time in our opinion, the online COD lobbies were just top tier and hilarious, gaming just felt perfect back then. If you could only play one game for the rest of your life what game would that be and why? Though I’d love to go with Call of Duty and/or Warzone - I think eventually, maybe 50 years down the line, I’d start getting a bit burnt out. I’d have to go with a game such as Minecraft or GTA that has a lot of replayability and collaborative experience.

Yeah we can see that with Call of Duty we love GTA & Minecraft and can see much more of a variety in the long run with those two so a solid choice right there. Back to some more questions about yourself, what are the five top moments in your career so far that you would want in a montage? Now THAT is a hard question, with over 10 years in this space, there are certainly some monumental moments. Firstly, I’d like to talk about my gaming experiences of 2018 during Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. This year was the peak for content creation thus far, the game and experiences allowed for creative and authentic content to be birthed allowing for significant growth of the KARNAGE brand. Secondly, I’d have to go with our relationship with Gamers Outreach in which we have collectively raised over $20,000 and put two gaming kiosks in Children’s hospitals allowing for them to game right from their hospital bedrooms. Thirdly, would have to be reaching 100,000 subscribers. This happened shortly before I graduated high school and prior to this milestone I had told myself that I would have to “take life seriously” once I graduated and moved onto college, that I’d have to leave gaming and YouTube behind. This milestone allowed for me to recognize that this was no longer just a little

with anxiety and it’s something that I sometimes even have anxiety in regards to my anxiety as in I know others have it too and don’t want to ever be perceived as seeking sympathy - which of course, I am aware is not a healthy mindset to have. Social media can be incredibly overwhelming, imposter syndrome is a real thing, the opinions and views of thousands of people directed towards you for a decade will certainly take a toll on anyone. Though I love the Internet and social media, it’s important that we find a balance with it and don’t let it consume us. As I like to say, oftentimes, I’m happiest when I’m off the Internet. Thank you so much for sharing this with us we have come across so many alike even some that work with us, it’s not a great battle and please do never feel alone we are here for you and i bet everyone else at KARNAGE is too, Keep up the amazing work you are doing and never let anything stop you as you grow KARNAGE to the max. Now onto KARNAGE Clan, being the owner and founder of KARNAGE Clan please tell our readers a little bit about the org, like when or how it all began and what KARNAGE Clan is. side hobby but could become something so much more. For the fourth spot, I’d have to give that to our relationship with GFUEL Energy and the two co-branded shakers that we launched with them. Our first GFUEL Energy shaker cup sold out in about 5 months while our second that we just recently launched this year had twice the quantity and is nearly sold out in just about 1 ½ months. Their overall support of our brand over the years has been unmatched. Last but certainly not least, I’d have to go with the support and love that our community has shown over the years. What we pride ourselves in the most is the positive and genuine group of people that uplift the KARNAGE brand. We’re truly blessed to have such a lovely community of friends. WOW! Those are some serious milestones. We are so happy to hear them all and the fact that you’ve done so much for the community and helped a great respectable charity like Gamers Outreach is phenomenal. One final question about yourself before we get onto KARNAGE Clan, what is something that no one who watches your channel/content or follows you knows about you? I think something that most people do not know about me and something I keep relatively private is my struggle with severe anxiety. Many struggle

Of course! One of my favourite things to talk about. Back in 2011, when Modern Warfare 3 released, it came with a new addition to the franchise; Call of Duty Elite. This app allowed users to create their own “Elite Clan ‘’ in-game and level it up with those who you invited to join. Immediately I registered and created a team called “K4RN4GE Clan ‘’ at the time. We quickly grew to be one of the top elite clans, garnering a massive amount of interest in joining as well as placing top 5 in almost every clan operation event. My original intentions behind creating a clan was actually to meet players that were better than me to play with and learn from. I was fascinated with how good some people could be and wanted to surround myself with players that were much better than my capabilities. This later led to creating a YouTube channel for the team and beginning to recruit YouTubers that were in the “pubstomping scene” which were individuals who could get the most kills in a single game or the most amount of streaks. What is now known as “KARNAGE” has evolved significantly from that scene, though it still holds those roots dear to our core, we have since focused more on gaming entertainment through personality driven content, our team challenge series in which we strive for some of the most impossible feats ever accomplished in Call of Duty and branching out

to become more of a team-oriented brand rather than just simply a Call of Duty clan. Wow that is such a great story of how it all came together, when Sawyer started competing back in 2006 it was the retro Game Battles website and Major League Gaming (MLG) where clans had to showdown and come together, it was great to see Call Of Duty introduce their own back in 2011 and great to see you took advantage and made KARNAGE what it is today. At what point did you think wow this is really blowing up and getting noticed, this could be a full time successful thing here? And how did you feel when this happened? As stated earlier, this moment certainly occurred right before I had graduated highschool in 2015. It was a surreal feeling certainly, the idea that I’d be able to continue pursuing building what I had always dreamt of was a feeling that will stick with me forever. It changed my life emotionally and mentally. 2015-2016 went on to be one of the largest years for growth that we’ve experienced. Such an emotional rollercoaster it would seem but so great to see you’ve kept it up and continuously progressed over the years keep up the amazing work! We can see that KARNAGE Clan is powered by GFuel, please tell us a little about these, what they do, who they are? Gladly! GFUEL Energy is a sugar-free, vitaminfortified, focus-enhancing energy drink that helps with focus, reaction time and stamina. GFUEL comes in a wide variety of fun flavours, in fact so wide that there is slim to no chance that you wouldn’t be able to find at least one flavour that suits you best. GFUEL comes in powder tub forms, carbonated cans, hydration (caffeinefree) powdered tubs as well as hydration bottles. GFUEL Energy has always been an advocate and incredibly supportive of the creator space, focusing on personalised partnerships with creators both big and small. Their support of their partners is truly unmatched, launching co-branded shaker cups and even flavours on a routine basis, they truly know how to connect with the gaming community. We have been trying to get a hold of GFUEL for some time for an interview as we’d love to learn more from them but sadly haven’t had the chance yet, however you guys hooked us up with some and we must say the flavours were amazing! It’s great to see how well they work with creators and such an amazing brand to pull you all along the way. On the subject of GFuel what would be your

recommended flavours? My all-time favourite flavour has to be Raspberry Iced Tea, it’s simply unmatched. Runner-ups would have to be Sour Blue Chug Rug, Pewdiepie’s Lingonberry, Shiny Splash and one of their holiday flavours Peach Cobbler. We got to try Pewdiepies and the shiny splash and you’re not wrong they were so flavoursome and we loved every last bit! How do you pick your creators to join KARNAGE Clan, do you have any requirements that our readers would love to know and someday achieve them and join KARNAGE Clan? KARNAGE has one of the smallest rosters out of any team in gaming and that isn’t by mistake. We are extremely selective in who we bring on to the team and will always aim to keep our roster size limited as one of our most unique attributes is the close-knit bond many of our members have with each other. There are a plethora of things we keep in mind when deciding on a new recruit. Firstly, do they have a good personality, one in which is humble, easy-going, level-headed, understanding and uplifting? A well-rounded personality is incredibly important to the overall health of the team. Once that’s been determined, next up is the individual’s level of creativity and quality in the work that they produce. We typically look for facecam that showcases that additional level of personality, well-edited content that is engaging and unique in its concept and presentation as well as concise and to the point. Lastly, we look for consistency. Is the creator on some kind of schedule on at least one platform? These all play into our decision when it comes to recruitment. We’re an invite-only organisation and recommend creators to focus on their own grind while involving themselves in our community so we’re made aware of their interest in joining our team. This is probably the best way to put it keep your circle full of humble liked minded people we love it and we love to see it we are not surprised you are so successful which such a tight net of like minded people we hope to see more people added to the roster soon as we love to watch all of KARNAGE as they really are a great bunch of people. Can you give us an idea of a day to day life at KARNAGE Clan HQ, What happens behind closed doors? and what it takes to run an org like KARNAGE Clan? A lot. Many fail to recognize the sheer magnitude

of operating an organisation. It’s hard to put into words the day to day and what is involved to keep things operating. Yeah we can only imagine how busy and how everyone steps up and provides such great work to make KARNAGE run as well as it does. How much are KARNAGE Clan involved in esports? KARNAGE is not an esports organisation and currently does not have any active involvement in esports. I suppose everyone has their own niche. It would be great to see you guys host some tournaments within the esports sector though I know we’d love to be there!. On the subject of esports, KARNAGE Clan has a massive influence on the Call of Duty scene, what does KARNAGE Clan have planned for the year ahead with their Call of Duty Competitions? And how can people be a part of these? Though KARNAGE does not have any competitive involvement, we will have game nights, podcasts, viewer games and other events such as our current on-going “KARNAGE Extravaganza” that our community will be able to get involved in alongside potential upcoming recruitment challenges. Game nights sound super fun. We can’t wait to see what this involves and we hope maybe some of our readers take note and try to join such a wonderful org like KARNAGE Clan. On the subject of Call of Duty, what are your top three Call of Duty games of all time? Though this might come with great backlash, my personal Top 3 Call of Duty’s ever would have to be: Modern Warfare 3, Black Ops 4 and Black Ops 3. These games were nothing but fun and entertainment, offering great opportunities of content creation as well. I can say this is the first time we haven’t seen COD4! but those three games are super strong contenders regardless so solid choice! You have just launched an all new shaker which we may say is very nice, the design is awesome! What went into producing such a product? YES! And thank you, we’re very proud of our second every co-branded product with GFUEL

Energy! On April 2nd, we launched our second shaker cup with GFUEL, this time a tall boy in comparison to the shorter shaker GFUEL typically produces which we had back in 2019. We’re proud of the way it turned out as its sleek design gives it that “cool” factor to bring out to the gym or on a run. We’re proud to say that it’s nearly sold out in just about 2 months so make sure to grab one while you still can at GFUEL. com! Wow that’s great to hear how well its done, we love it! I (Sawyer) personally smash protein shakes in it on a regular basis. It’s such a great design and I’ve had plenty of compliments in the gym and where to get one! We see that KARNAGE Clan has a bunch of great sponsors. Could you tell us a little bit about those, who they are and what they do as we are sure our readers would love to support them too. We pride ourselves in the sponsors we’ve selected to work with as they are companies that provide products we believe in full-heartedly. GFUEL Energy providing the best, healthiest energy on the market for our gaming sessions, to Gamer Advantage protecting our eyes while we game and bettering our sleeping habits and SCUF Gaming providing us with the ability to perfect our movement while getting Ws in Warzone - we are so thankful for our partners in every way imaginable. Oh - and you can use the code “KARNAGE” at checkout to save yourself some money on your orders! We had the pleasure of working with Gamer Advantage so we can see why you chose these as for the other two they are very favourable and strongly recommended within the industry so again can see why you have chosen to work with such amazing brands. Having such a great following on social media, do you have any tips on how to keep those socials booming to become verified like yourself? A: I’d recommend being yourself, posting your thoughts and things that are unique to you. Don’t fear posting your accomplishments but also your struggles. Post about content that is relevant to your content production and the space you’re in as well! One of my favourite things to do is to post on Twitter about things that will inspire thought,

motivate but also encourage engagement and that’s how you can find growth on a platform such as Twitter. Debate and conversation is the best to encourage through your posts.

I mean that. My teammates inspire me each and every day to do better, be better and workharder. They’re my rock and I’m so proud to besurrounded by such a great group of people.

We follow your socials a lot and can say that the content you provide is great and really does connect the communities. That’s great advice. I’m sure our readers will take this onboard and opus the same way. We can see how great KARNAGE Clan is and everyone seems like one big family. Are there any specific people over at KARNAGE Clan that you’d specifically like to shout out for their hard work that they put in each day?

Such great words and we can see how much you appreciate your entire team and org. Finally, is there anything new and upcoming in the works for KARNAGE Clan throughout the year which you would love to share with our readers? LOTS! We’ve got new apparel collections coming throughout the summer, events, streams, potential tournaments but most importantly content, content, CONTENT! We’re reviving our content production and rolling out consistent content across the board! Towards the end of the year, Modern Warfare 2, the newest title in the Call of Duty franchise will be launching and boy - do we have plans. Daily videos, that’s all I’m going to say. And for those looking to possibly join KARNAGE, we might just have the right opportunity for you as well! Stay tuned, we’re about to get crazy over here at KARNAGE!

I can’t because each and every individual on the team is on their own unique grind and hustle, working hard to build their brands through superb video and streaming content. Each member of the team has been handpicked for a reason, we are a collective of inspired, motivated, passionate and hard-working creators striving for goals we’ve all set for ourselves. At the same time, we’re surrounded by our teammates who are striving for the same goals allowing us to bounce ideas off of each other, get opinions on which thumbnail variation is the best, collaborate and play with each other on stream. If I were to list what makes each member of the team special, I’d be here delivering a novel, and

Wow that’s a lot and we look forward to seeing more! We have noticed the apparel launch and may we say its awesome! we can’t wait to get a hold of some over here! Thank you so much for your time Apollo, it means thje world to us that you have taken part in this interview. It was an absolute pleasure!

If you would love to check out KRARNAGE Clan and Apollo then you can check out all their links below: KARNAGE CLAN: Web: KARNAGE Clan – karnageclan YouTube: KARNAGE Clan Twitter: @KARNAGEclan Facebook: @karnageclan Twitch: @karnageclan Instagram: @KARNAGEclan Apollo: Twitter: @ApollosMission Instagram: @apollosmission Twitch: @ApollosMission

www.insertcoinclothing.com Facebook: @InsertCoinClothing Twitter: @InsertCoinTees Instagram: @insertcoinclothing 19

insert coin clothing gears of war range Love videogames, pop references and awesome designs? Hey, us too! And we recommend this amazing company called Insert Coin. Games are in our blood and we love playing them. The ‘Insert Coin’ name is based on our earliest memories of hanging out in arcades when we were kids. Insert Coin started making tees so everyone could celebrate the games we all loved playing - not just on screen, but out in the real world, in the same way we could for our favourite bands and movies. And that passion has guided everything they have done ever since. Innovating new products, making everything from scratch, representing our favourite games - this is what drives Insert Coin forward. Insert Coin truly wants you to love what they make, and they want every product that they release to be the perfect link between Inert Coin, you, developers and the games we all love. We hope you enjoy choosing (and wearing) Insert Coin gear as much as you love playing the games they represent - and most importantly it’s time to get your geek on!

The Gamer Guide are massive fans of the world famous franchise called Gears of War, now we collaborated with Insert Coin and their awesome range of Gears of War merchandise in which they sent us some of their products to try test and review, well we were blown away with not only the quality but the designs which are showcased. The clothing is so soft and comfortable with zero irritation, you can throw the items in and out of the wash several times with even dryer use and the designs look brand new every single time, Insert Coin do set the bar above with their premium quality products which we highly recommend such a product, not only that Insert Coin always help out their consumers with regular sales and up to date discounts which are an absolute bargain of a deal once they go live making their product affordable for everyone. You can check out Insert Coins store and socials below as well as some of their Gears of War range in the pictures showcased today! If you are quick you may even catch them during their big sale!

Premium Chairs on a budget Increasingly, more people have begun streaming, gaming or even working from home over the past two years. Whether that’s partially or full-time, we’re spending more time in our home behind a desk, sitting in a chair more than ever before, and in a lot of cases, they’re not up to scratch. An average lets say sub £100 seat might seem great for you when it’s only used on the weekend or for a brief gaming session in the evening, but for an extended period, it becomes uncomfortable and is undoubtedly doing more harm than good. So, it might be time to invest in something a little bit more premium. Your back will thank you. On paper, the BraZen Emperor XXX Elite Esports PC Gaming Chair sounds like a contender for your cash, promising a luxurious and ergonomic sitting experience. And it is. Don’t be fooled by its somewhat juvenile and needlessly verbose name. It’s a grown-up approach to a gaming chair. The world’s video game enthusiast population is getting older, and so gaming chairs have grown with them. No longer does every company offer a chair that looks like someone’s ripped a bucket seat straight out of a car and coated it in whatever shades of neon paint they can find. Working in Partnership with BraZen Here at The Gamer Guide we have been lucky to work with BraZen before and they have happily become a great partner and chair sponsor of ours, even so that they sent us some of their Emperor XXX Elite Esports PC Gaming Chairs to really try and test and review for our readers. Emperor XXX Elite Esports PC Gaming Chairs Our BraZen Emperors sport an all-black variant in which is very slick and would go with anyone’s

It’s also incredibly comfortable, once I got used to how it forces you to sit. Historically, I have a habit of sitting in a host of weird ways that are likely ill-advised, but the BraZen Emperor made me sit correctly, and my posture is better for it. It comes with two mould pillows that are wellplaced to ensure good back support, allowing me to work or game at my desk for multiple hours without discomfort or feeling the need to shuffle into a better position. The padding in the seat’s base is also excellent, preventing the dreaded numb bum that lesser chairs often provide. It’s easy to assemble! It’s relatively straightforward to assemble as well, even for one person. With another helping hand, it would take no time at all. But if you’re tackling it solo, you can expect it to take anywhere from half an hour to an hour. Regardless, it’s simple to put together, and you won’t find that you need to rely on the instructions all that much since it’s a logical build. Not everything is perfect but it’s nearly there! The only real downside to the BraZen Emperor XXX Elite Esports PC Gaming Chair is the armrests. Compared to the rest of the chair, they are somewhat lacking. The material feels a little less premium and isn’t the greatest of comfort at times either, after testing out the arm rest over several days we did somewhat get used to them but there is a few ways in which you can upgrade them for comfort for example some attachable arm pads or just taking them off completely as we didn’t really have a day to use of these as we mainly use the desk for our arm support when typing/working and or gaming. Now the arm rests are also adjustable but changing the position becomes somewhat a bit of a battle slightly more than it should be for a relatively simple task.

Overall what did The Gamer Guide think?

Price

We do love BraZen and their chairs as they do set the bar above for the consumer and those who are on a budget, we do highly recommend this chair as it does range from around the £299 range in the UK which for a premium product is the perfect price and substantially cheaper than its competitors.

As mentioned above these can be picked up for around £299 (£299.95 atm to be precise) with free shipping in and around the UK which for a premium product is an absolute bargain as you can see some of the other gaming chair companies are double if not triple that for such a similar product. Rating

Comfort As for comfort the lumbar and headrest pillows are great for not only your back and neck but your posture too this alone adds such a great touch to keep your back in a healthy position during those long periods of sitting and supports your neck to again avoid any unwanted problems and or cramping, however those armrest do knock down the score a little but during a everyday use we didn’t really feel the need to use them so it wasn’t much of a problem.

Overall we will score this with a TGG score of 9/10, why? Because the price is spot on and budget friendly, the lumbar and head/neck support is second to none and the comfort alone in the chair is an all around pleaser with the one flaw with that being those arm rests but it did not bother us too much. If you want to pick up one of these chairs then you can do so here: BraZen Emperor XXX Elite Esports PC Gaming Chair (brazengamingchairs. com) and if you would also like to stay up to date with BraZen and their new stuff coming soon then check out their website and socials below.

www.brazengamingchairs.com Facebook: @brazengaming.chairs Twitter: @brazenchair

ES45 Kit High-Quality lighting is the key to helping your live stream stand out amongst the rest, and the GODOX ES45 is the perfect solution to help you achieve that. The ES45 is a slim-lined Bi-Colour LED light panel that produces beautifully diffused lighting, designed to reduce eye fatigue. It has a high CRI of +96, and a TLCI of +97 for impeccable colour rendition, making it perfect for live streaming, as well as being suitable for broadcast purposes. Whilst the ES45 has been put together to meet the demands Gamers and E-Sports tournaments, who live stream to platforms such as TWITCH and YouTube, it can be used for video conferencing and other types of live streaming. Sleek Streamlined Design The ES45 features a stylish slim-profile design with solid metal construction, with a desk-mountable telescopic stand. Since the stand clamps directly to your desktop or table-top, the ES45 stands flush against your wall and takes up very little desktop real estate, for a clean, modern look. The ES45 stand features an articulated joint, which enables you to reposition your light any way you require. Easy on The Eyes The ES45 uses Edge-Lit LED technology, to produce a diffused of light, which reduces harsh shadows and specular highlights for more flattering results. The diffused lighting of the ES45 also makes them easier on the eyes, enabling you to lave extended streaming sessions, with less chance getting eye fatigue. ZERO Noise Godox ES45 has zero fan noise with incredible passive heat dissipation. It’s great for any type of video production.

Cool-Running Unlike traditional fluorescent lights which can make your steaming environment warm and uncomfortable, the ES45 uses a super-efficient cooling system which keeps excess heat build-up in your streaming environment to a minimum. This enables you to enjoy hours of streaming, without getting hot and sticky. Adjust the Tonality of your Stream The Colour Temperature of the ES45 can be adjusted anywhere between 2800K and 6500K. This enables you to match the colour temperature of your streaming environment. It can also be used to select whether you want your stream to have a warmer colour-tone or a cooler colour-tone. Impeccable Colour Accuracy The ES45 features excellent colour rendition capabilities. With a Colour Rendition Index (CRI) of 96, you can rest assured that colours will be accurately replicated in your stream. It also has a Television Lighting Consistency Index (TLCI) of 97, the ES45 is suitable for television production and broadcast use. Detachable Magnetic Wireless Control Panel The ES45 comes with a 2.4GHz detachable wireless control panel with a built-in rechargeable battery, which enables you to adjust the brightness and colour-temperature of the light remotely, so you do not have to reach behind your light to make any adjustments. Once your streaming session has ended, simply re-attach the control panel to the back of the ES45 light panel, which will autocharge the battery in the control panel for you.

UNIVERSAL GAMING STORAGE TOWER FOR USE WITH – UNIVERSAL Keep your games and accessories tidy with the Universal Storage Tower. Store up to 10 games, 4 controllers and 2 headsets. Plus, keep cables and other gadgets safe by storing them in the convenient drawer. TGG Review Finally the final product we got a chance to review was which seems to be fairly popular the universal gaming storage tower, now this product has to be assemble together and it does feel fairly flimsy and easily snappable but the price point is on par and very consumer friendly, the tower itself comes with a storage compartment to store any nintendo switch joy cons or accessories or anything you seem fit to place inside, it also comes with a headphone stand at the top which is fairly convenient but be careful with the weight you use as the stand itself seems a little unstable, the tower also gives you the ability to hold up to four controller these can be Playstation or Xbox controller with the PS5 controller being a bit too clunky in our opinion for this tower, on top of all that you have room for up to ten games these can be Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo or PC games anything smaller you would not be able to store. Overall the price is great the product itself has great storage capabilities but the actual plastic which is used does feel a tad cheap but its what you’d expect with such a low price to store so many items, so overall we would give this product a solid 7/10 mainly due to the storage capabilities having so many and being very convenient.

£19.99 - TGG 7/10 26

Bluetooth Connectivity The ES45 features Bluetooth connectivity, enabling you to control it via the GODOX Light app for smartphones or tablets. This enables you to control either a single light or multiple lights simultaneously. The ES45, is the perfect lighting tool for people who frequently stream gaming content, or e-sports tournaments online. The sleek, modern design of the ES45 LED lights to ensure that it fits in seamlessly with your online gaming station, whilst taking up next to no desk real estate, whilst providing you with flattering illumination. The perfect solution for Game Streamers, E-Sports, as well as for video conferencing using platforms such as Zoom etc. But what does The Gamer Guide Think? The ES45 is a fantastic piece of equipment with such a great design and comes with an awesome portable control panel to change the lighting from the comfort of your desk and not needing to use a phone to do so which can look very sloppy on stream.This product is truly a great piece of kit and defiantly gives the Elgato key lights a run for their money, the price is on point for the standards you receive and it offers a non-blinding light which is a must when your streaming or competitively gaming.

are live streaming or just in a zoom meeting or producing content. Overall TGG Rating So, what is our overall rating? Well as you may know there is no 10s here at TGG as nothing is perfect and I think the availability and price point may not fit everyone’s budget or needs but overall it is a solid strong 9 / 10 we cant fault this product at all and Godox are a fantastic leading supplier in the lighting industry who we highly recommend.

TGG STAMP OF APPROVAL 9 / 10 If you would love to purchase this product yourself or even find out more information on Godox then you can check out their website below where it will have all of their information on there for you.

www.godox.com

We stress tested this product intensively with daily use over a three month period and it felt like it was still brand new right out of the box and we didn’t find a single fault after this period and to top it all off the light itself makes zero noise where as some of its competition does make a horrible obnoxious buzzing sound when in use. There is also a Godox official lighting mobile app which we found to be great and connected very well via Bluetooth unlike its competition which has several problems with connectivity, If you like to control with your mobile device then this app is great but do take into consideration that this product comes with a wireless control panel which itself is perfect and very unique as you don’t see any competition on the market with this nice additional touch. With the capabilities to go up to 6500k and down to 2800k this product sits perfect for all you creators out there it lights up a green screen perfectly well and adds a wonderful glow to your skin this alone will make you stand out and shine while you

Hover is a new social media platform solely for gamers where you can create and share your clips via various mediums whether that be directly from Twitch, Xbox or Playstation. There is weekly contests for users to get involved in, the ability to link your Twitch directly as well as showing when you are live on Twitch making it easier than ever for new people to find you and become part of your community.

Hey! Thanks for speaking with us! Firstly, could you provide me with some insight into your history in terms of career, how you came to be in, not only the gaming industry, but also part of Hover?

That sounds great and really tailored towards the creator! As a fairly new company, how do you ensure growth moving forward? How important is innovation, how do you keep up with the advancements in technology and current trends?

I’ve always been an avid gamer, I came across Hover through a friend and it’s very very early stages. I entered one of the challenges and I lost in the final! Very soon after they were advertising for someone to host the show, I applied and luckily enough got the position! The more time I spent with the platform, the more I got involved with organizing events, chatting to external brands and such - I moved into the Community Manager role in the Summer of 21 and got offered the position of Company Operations Office in January 2022.

We are always looking at how the scene is developing, but as well how our community is using the app.

That’s some come up! Could you briefly describe Hover and what it’s mainly used for?

That’s amazing, forever evolving and listening to the creator is what’s needed! With your brand name, and position in the industry, do you run a sponsorship or brand ambassador program?

Hover is a social media platform that allows users to easily pull, edit and create clips from Xbox, Playstation, Twitch, and Twitter. Our users share these moments and Hover matches them with the perfect audience most likely to watch it and jump into their live stream. Well that sounds easy as pie! What for you, differentiates Hover from other similar companies operating within the same industries as yourselves? There are a range of ways Hover is operating in a different space. Every single moment posted by a user has a “visit on Twitch” button - making it a one-click feature to quickly be able to get to someone’s profile if you enjoy their short-form content. When a user is live on Twitch, a red “live circle” will appear on every single clip, elevating the need to post “going live” posts - this appears on every single clip posted. So regardless of a viewer’s discovery experience, if you are live they will know you are live with the ability to press one button and jump straight in. We also have three feeds, our “live,” “discover,” and our “feed.” The feed is simply everyone you follow, the discover feed is new creators sprinkled with people you follow, and the live feed is every one that is currently live on Twitch. If your favorite creators aren’t currently live, you can browse the live section, find some short-form content you like and jump straight in - similar to how Netflix recommends new series to you.

We listen to the feedback from our community and adjust at speed to their needs and requirements, where possible. Innovation is at the heart of what we do, with an incredibly talented, creative team as well as a forward thinking community it enables us to stay ahead of the game.

We currently have a very small partner program, which we plan on expanding when out of beta. There are currently no set requirements, we look at the top performing users on the platform (based on percentages, not total amounts). We look forward to seeing that become bigger and better! On another note, we know you’re a gamer yourself, what is your gaming platform choice, what is your go to game, and what really excites you about the gaming world? Has to be a PC! I’ve played console for a long period of my life, but PC I’ve always had the most fun on. As for games, if we are talking ‘all time’, then it has to be Halo - right now, probably Valorant or Apex Legends. The most exciting thing is how more and more people are flocking to the scene, it’s growing at a rapid pace and I think it’s just the start to a new era of entertainment. Some solid picks right there! We see there’s a button on the app and website to directly visit someone’s Twitch. We think this is an amazing idea, in the future will you be adding buttons for YouTube and Facebook streamers also? Yes! We are currently exploring adding them in the near future.

Great! The more creators the merrier! We also see there is a GG button as well as a like? Could you explain to us how the GG is different from the like? A GG like is essentially a super like, you get 2 every 4 hours and they have more ‘weight’ in gravity. Well that’s amazing! We also see there is something called gravity on the platform. Could you briefly describe to us how it works and Hover highlights streamers and their clips? You earn gravity by doing various actions on the platform, such as, liking, commenting, GG liking and referring others to the app. As of right now, it is just a points system, but we have some exciting ideas for the future to bring a viewer and creator closer than they’ve been before! We can’t wait to see what they are! We see you run weekly challenges where users can add their clips to the competitions. What was the thought process behind this and how has the response from the community been? We showcase creators weekly through our clip

competitions. These competitions can quite literally be anything, from “chubby bunny” challenges, to fails, epic moments, wholesome - we’ve even had a pet flex challenge. We have three of these challenges a week, with the top four taking home cash prizes. We have thousands of entries and 16 are showcased. The 16 will not be notified in advance, with hundreds of viewers tuning in to see if they’ve made it. The community as a whole tends to love being involved in them! We’ve seen them before and they’re so amazing! What advice would you give users wanting to grow on Hover and how could they develop their content to make a bigger impact? Post consistently, with content that is to the point and super engaging! There is no need to post a certain amount of times a day, we prefer quality over quantity! Well that’s amazing advice! Looking ahead, what are the plans and projects for 2022? We have so many features to release, the Beta should be over, TwitchCon and a ton of some really cool collaborations with some dope brands!

Check out Hover now!

www.hover.gg Twitch: @Hover Twitter: @ShareOnHover Instagram: @shareonhover

Fall Guys finally coming to Xbox in june with f2p relaunch Mediatonic has announced that colourful last-bean-standing party game Fall Guys is coming to Xbox at last, with the madcap multiplayer madness going free-to-play across all platforms on June 21st. It’s been almost two years since Fall Guys first graced our screens, launching on PS4 via PS Plus and enjoying the same kind of crazy popularity that propelled Rocket League into the big leagues. Now, with a soft relaunch as the game goes free-to-play across all major platforms, it looks like Fall Guys might just get a second shot at prime-time success next month. Fall Guys will be free-to-play on Xbox The chaotic battle royale-esque game takes the form of a multi-round physical game show, pitting those adorable little bean folks against one another across a series of increasingly ridiculous events. There were some concerns that the almost two-year wait since the game’s first release could hurt any chances of success on Xbox but making it free not only fits the format of the game but is sure to give the player base a massive boost. Cross-play and cross-progression are also supported across all versions, so you can get your nonsense on and go in search of crowns wherever and whenever you like. Here’s how the game will stack up across all Xbox consoles:

Mediatonic has also confirmed that Xbox Game Pass Perks will provide members with three monthly costume drops, while people who own the game on other platforms will get the Legacy Pack, including three special costumes and Season 1’s Premium Season Pass.

FIFA 23 to be final title to bear fifa name as ea sports fc promises ‘exciting new era’ of football EA has announced that FIFA 23 will be the final entry in its colossal football series, with the company set to abandon the licensed name for next year’s instalment, which will be called ‘EA Sports FC’. It’ll be a first for the series, which has been FIFA since the release of FIFA International Soccer in 1993. “After nearly 30 years of creating genre-defining interactive football experiences, we will soon begin an exciting new era,” said Cam Weber, Executive VP of EA Sports and Racing. “Next year, EA Sports FC will become the future of football from EA Sports. Alongside our 300+ license partners across the sport, we’re ready to take global football experiences to new heights, on behalf of all football fans around the world.” EA promises the same FIFA experience, with all of the usual modes, leagues, tournaments, clubs, and players, including Ultimate Team, Career Mode, Pro Clubs, and VOLTA Football. Licensing will continue to extend to more than 19,000 players, over 700 teams, 100+ stadiums, and 30 leagues like the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, and the MLS. “This new independent platform will bring fresh opportunity – to innovate, create and evolve,” Weber continues. “This is much more than just a change of symbol - as EA Sports, we’re committed to ensuring EA Sports FC is a symbol of change. We’re dedicated to meaningfully reinvesting in the sport, and we’re excited to work with a large and increasing number of partners to expand to new authentic experiences that bring joy, inclusivity and immersion to a global community of fans.” In October 2021, FIFA issued a statement suggesting it no longer wanted to extend exclusive licensing rights to EA, and with the company seemingly mulling a name change for a long while, the EA Sports FC title is now official, with first details set to emerge in July 2023. In the meantime, FIFA 23 promises to be the “most expansive” series entry to date, with first details to drop soon.

Here’s what’s included in playstations xbox game pass competitor As of 16th May 2022 Sony has now revealed an initial library of games coming to its revamped PlayStation Plus service. The new tiers include games from Sony’s first-party studios, third-party titles, some PS1 classics, and streamable PS3 games. Sony’s revised PS Plus subscription service and Xbox Game Pass competitor is broken down into three tiers: Essential, Extra, and Premium. Essential ($9.99/£6.99/€8.99 a month) is unchanged from the PS Plus subscription as it is now, while Extra ($14.99/£10.99/€13.99 a month) also gives subscribers access to a catalogue of PS4 and PS5 games, and Premium ($17.99/£13.49/€16.99 a month) basically combines PS Plus with PS Now, giving members access to the previously listed benefits, as well as PS3 games (via streaming), and library of classic PS1, PS2, and PSP games. PS Plus included games library As announced by Sony, here is a “selection” of what’s included in the PS Plus library, so you can see how it compares to the current list of Xbox. PS4 and PS5 game catalogue, included with Extra and Premium PlayStation Studios • • • • • • • • • •

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Third-party partners • • • • • • •

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Classic PS1 and PSP Games Catalogue with PS Plus Premium

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PlayStation Studios • • • • • •

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Third-party Partners • • • •

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PlayStation Studios • • • • •

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• • •

Original PS3 Games (via streaming) Included With Premium

Third-party Partners Mr. Driller | Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc., Original PlayStation Tekken 2 | Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc., Original PlayStation Worms World Party | Team 17, Original PlayStation Worms Armageddon | Team17, Original PlayStation

• • • • • • • • • • • •

Third Party-Parnters • • • • • • • •

As part of PlayStation Plus Premium, subscribers will also get access to time-limited game trials for Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, Horizon Forbidden West, Cyberpunk 2077, Farming Simulator 22, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, and WWE 2K22. Ubisoft has also announced it’s partnering with Sony for PlayStation Plus. Beginning on May 24th, Ubisoft will launch a new Ubisoft+ subscription that will be bundled with PS Plus Extra and Premium tiers and will include various classic Ubisoft games. Ubisoft+ Classics “on PlayStation is a curated selection of popular games,” including Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, The Division, For Honor, and more. Ubisoft+ Classics will launch with 27 titles and grow to 50 by the end of 2022. No mention has been made about Ubisoft+ Classics coming to Xbox Game Pass. Here is the full list of games coming to Ubisoft+ Classics. Ubisoft+ Classics • •

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla For Honor

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

The Crew 2 Child of Light Eagle Flight Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon Far Cry 3 Remaster Far Cry 4 Legendary Fishing Risk: Urban Assault South Park: The Fractured but Whole South Park: The Stick of Truth Space Junkies Star Trek: Bridge Crew Starlink: Battle for Atlas STEEP The Crew The Division Trackmania Turbo Transference Trials Fusion Trials of the Blood Dragon Game Trials Rising Valiant Hearts: The Great War Watch Dogs Werewolves Within ZOMBI

When Sony first announced the service, it mentioned that subscribers would be able to access “up to 400 PS4 and PS5 games’’ and an additional 340 classic games, so this is not the definitive list that is included with PS Plus. What is interesting here is the Ubisoft/PlayStation partnership. Will Xbox Game pass be getting the Ubisoft+ Classics collection too, or will it be exclusive to PS Plus? Fingers crossed Xbox Game Pass subscribers get it also!

xbox Xbox & Bethesda Showcase Fills The E3 2022 Void Xbox & Bethesda are primed to fill the hole left by E3 2022’s cancellation with the announcement of a June 12th showcase, which promises a “diverse line-up of games” from Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda, and their partners. While E3’s cancellation meant that this year’s one-stop-shop for a large portion of the industry’s hottest news won’t be going ahead, other companies have announced their own summer plans, such as the Xbox & Bethesda showcase. Microsoft has announced that it’ll be hosting another Xbox & Bethesda Showcase for 2022, which is said to include a “diverse line-up of games coming soon to the Xbox ecosystem, including upcoming releases to Game Pass on Xbox and PC.” Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda, and Microsoft’s third-party partners will be featuring their titles, and if last year’s show is anything to go on, we could be in for a good time. The event will kick off at 10am PT/1pm ET/6pm BST/7pm CEST on Sunday, June 12th. It’ll be available in over 30 languages and streamed on the Xbox YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok accounts, as well as the Xbox ASL Twitch channel.

Xbox Cloud Gaming Brings Fortnite Back Onto IOS Fortnite as of the 5th May 2022 has the honour of becoming the first non-Game Pass title playable via Xbox Cloud Gaming, creating a workaround for the battle royale game to be playable on iOS devices after it was pulled from the App Store in 2020. The Xbox Cloud Gaming library continues to grow every month despite the service still being in beta, but it’s typically just games featured in the Xbox Game Pass library that get the cloud treatment.

Well, it looks like Microsoft is making an exception this time, offering a cheeky loophole to get Fortnite back on Apple devices after two years.

Play Fortnite on iPhone and iPad with Xbox Cloud Gaming Interestingly, you don’t even need an Xbox Game Pass membership to play Fortnite via Xbox Cloud Gaming just head to xbox.com/play on your device, sign in with a Microsoft account, and you’re good to go. Technically you could do this on PC as well but sacrificing the mouse-and-keyboard advantage of the native PC client for latency and a controller probably won’t make bagging a Victory Royale particularly easy. According to Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming boss, Catherine Gluckstein, this is just the start in terms of branching out with cloud support. She says that Microsoft “will look to bring more free-to-play games people love in the future,” although doesn’t give anything more away. Other F2P titles like Apex Legends and Destiny 2 continue to perform impressively on our Xbox Gameplay Chart, so would seem likely candidates... Roblox does well on the list too, although it already has its own native mobile version. “At Xbox, we want to make gaming accessible to the three billion players around the world, and cloud has an important role in that mission,” she continues. “Quite simply, we want you to have more choice in both the games you play and the way you choose to play them.”

Xbox online DRM heavily criticised following major outages Xbox has been criticised for several major Xbox Network outages that left many unable to play games across the weekend, including some single-player games they own. The Xbox Network went down Friday evening here in the UK, with players reporting that they could not purchase or launch games or play titles using Xbox Cloud Gaming. The service was then

news restored on Saturday, before going down again later that day. According to the Xbox Status support page, all services are now up and running without fault, though it appears some users are still having issues.

Xbox players unable to play purchased digital games offline With users unable to play some of their purchased games during these outages, Xbox was heavily criticised for its online digital rights management (DRM) policy. Host of the Kind of Funny Xcast and Gamertag Radio, Parris Lilly, criticised Xbox’s DRM policy on Twitter (thanks, VGC) and called for change. “The Xbox outages have made it clear that something needs to change with their DRM policy, games that are downloaded to my console should have a window to be offline and playable without checking in,” Lilly said. “Hopefully we get some clarity and a solution to avoid this issue again.” According to Windows Central’s Jez Corden, the issue could lie with various third-party publishers requiring Xbox to perform DRM checks, even with

single-player games that are strictly offline. However, the Twitter account Does It Play?, which “tests commercial releases to ensure they work entirely internet free” suggested it was purely an Xbox issue and that PlayStation and Switch do not require online DRM check-ins for games to work when offline. “If the PlayStation servers go down tomorrow permanently, every single-player game you own will work offline almost permanently (provided the console is working and the account was linked). There are a tiny subset of titles that will not,” the account said. “Xbox needs to fix their DRM problems. Handwaving won’t help.” Some found that the issue was down to their Xbox console not being set as their ‘home’ console, though others were still seeing issues despite changing that later on or having it set as their home console in the first place. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft responds to this, and if we’ll get a detailed explanation into this issue. Last year, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said he hoped that the industry would do more to help preserve games. This latest debacle seems to fly in the face of that.

Call of duty: modern warfare 2 release date confirmed The release date for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the sequel to 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, has now been confirmed — although that seems to be all the news we’re getting on the matter for now. Modern Warfare’s sequel was announced way back in February, but we’ve now got confirmation of an October release date for Modern Warfare 2. When will Modern Warfare 2 release? Modern Warfare 2 will release on October 28th. The Modern Warfare sequel was announced alongside Warzone 2, but Activision is keeping its cards close to its chest, and the announcement only told us that both games will be built with a brand-new engine. Although it’s not sharing too many details, Activision hasn’t held back in hyping up Modern Warfare 2, saying that the Modern Warfare sequel will be “the most advanced experience in franchise history,” while “the new free-to-play Warzone experience, which is built from the ground-up alongside the premium game, features ground-breaking innovations to be revealed later this year.” In other Call of Duty news, it’s been reported that Call of Duty 2023 might have been delayed to the following year.

Modern Warfare Sequel will be “the most advanced experience in franchise history” Activision’s financial results for the first quarter of 2022 also note “substantial gameplay improvements” for Vanguard and Warzone, and state that 2022’s Call of Duty game, a sequel to 2019’s Modern Warfare, will be “the most advanced experience in franchise history.” In its financial results, as spotted by Nibel, Activision says, “The Call of Duty teams delivered substantial gameplay improvements for Vanguard and Warzone in the first quarter. Development on this year’s premium and Warzone experiences, led by Infinity Ward, is proceeding very well.” The publisher then goes on to add, “this year’s Call of Duty is a sequel to 2019’s Modern Warfare, the most successful Call of Duty title to date, and will be the most advanced experience in franchise history,” while “the new free-to-play Warzone experience, which is built from the ground-up alongside the premium game, features ground-breaking innovations to be revealed later this year.” Previously, Activision added that we can “expect a massive evolution of Battle Royale with all-new play space and a new sandbox mode.” It might not be such good news for Call of Duty 2023, which has reportedly been delayed to the following year.

Saints Row customisation undressed by volition Saints Row’s vast suite of customisation options has been uncovered via a Volition showcase alongside a brand-new trailer style your boss, recruits, criminal ventures, HQ, vehicles, weapons, and... socks? Volition’s next entry into the Saints Row series looks to be boasting the most extensive set of customisation tools we’ve seen yet. The deep dive showcase and trailer debuted on the official Saints Row website yesterday, but Volition creative director Brian Traficante wrote an in-depth article over on the PlayStation blog that was published simultaneously. “We put player choice first in Saints Row; across the board, we offer the best, most vibrant mix of customization features that make this by far the best customization toolset in a Saints Row game to date,” says Traficante. Saints Row is about crafting your own experience, whether that’s in the look of your character, or Boss as they’re called here, your weapons, your vehicles, or everything else. Customising your Boss is one of the first things you’ll do in the game, and Volition’s suite of options should cater to every player. There are no gender boundaries for players in Saints Row, you can create a Boss in any manner you choose, whether that’s a resemblance to the real you, someone completely different, or any other style that you wish to express yourself with “you can put anything on without limits and rules.” The customisation toolset allows you to customise your character’s face and body with various types and textures, as well as to add prosthetics, tattoos, piercings, scars, veins, muscle definition, and more. Even your hair colour can be customised in individual sections, from the roots to the tips. It also allows for asymmetrical face customisation, which offers up a ton of additional options. Of course, clothing customisation is another major player in your Boss’ overall look. Layered clothing is returning with a fresh coat of paint, so expect to be able to match your undies to your socks or don’t match them at all, you wild child! Outside of your personal character, there are plenty of other things in the world that can be played with, such as vehicles. Saints Row will include over 80 vehicles to find and customise throughout Santo Ileso. Boats, jet skis, helicopters, cars, trucks, bikes, and a hoverboard can be found, customised, and enjoyed. The vehicles’ paint, body, wheels, under glow, windows, and more can be changed to suit your style. They can even access Signature Abilities, such as ejector seats, a wrecking ball, or crab steering that allows you to strafe down the street. Customisation looks to be deeply integrated into this instalment. Weapons can be customised with different models, paints, finishes, cases, and more. From your gang’s HQ to various locations around Santo Ileso, it really looks like Volition is giving us the toolset to craft whatever story we wish, and we’re all for it. If you want to see the all new trailer we mentioned in the article, then you can do see here: https://youtu.be/1tzVN-p9bQw

Square enix sells up western studios in $300 million Embracer deal Embracer Group has announced that it has entered an agreement with Square Enix that will see the publisher pick up Crystal Dynamics and Eidos/SE Montréal, as well as IPs like Tomb Raider and Deus Ex, for ‘just’ $300 million. A detailed post on Embracer’s site outlines the deal, which will place Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montréal, and Square Enix Montréal under the Embracer umbrella, along with around “1,100 employees across three studios and eight global locations.” As for games, the deal will include “a catalogue of IPs including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, Legacy of Kain, and more than 50 back-catalogue games.” Square Enix’s own press release clarifies its reasons for selling up, stating that “the transaction enables the launch of new businesses by moving forward with investments in fields including blockchain, AI, and the cloud.” Deus Ex, Tomb Raider, and other major series will be affected by the $300 million deal

This deal comes after Square Enix has encountered ongoing issues with its western wing, from the Tomb Raider reboot selling millions of copies but still apparently performing below expectations, to the more recent flop of Marvel’s Avengers as the lukewarm game chased live service money without the content to back it up. It’s worth noting that Square isn’t completely pulling out of the west with this deal the press release also states that Square “will continue to publish franchises such as Just Cause, Outriders, and Life is Strange.” There’s also the matter of the costing, which seems like a steal for the quality of the studios and properties offered, especially when the likes of Microsoft are throwing around billions at Bethesda and Activision Blizzard, while Sony has valued Destiny developer Bungie at 12 times the price of this deal. Embracer also notes that it has “secured additional long-term debt funding commitments for this and other transactions in the pipeline,” so there could be other similar announcements still to come with other deals. The acquisition still needs to go through all of the relevant regulatory channels but is expected to complete by September this year.

Starfield and redfall delayed On May 12th 2022 Bethesda Game Studios confirmed a delay for both its sci-fi RPG Starfield and its vampireslaying co-op shooter Redfall, with both games now expected to launch in the first half of 2023. Starfield was one of the most highly-anticipated launches of 2022, so it’s a shame to see it pushed back to the first half of 2023 along with Arkane’s Redfall.

When will Starfield launch? Quoted via Bethesda in which they said “We’ve made the decision to delay the launches of Redfall and Starfield to the first half of 2023,” Bethesda says. “The teams at Arkane Austin (Redfall) and Bethesda Game Studios (Starfield) have incredible ambitions for their games, and we want to ensure that you receive the best, most polished versions of them. “We want to thank everyone for their excitement for Redfall and Starfield. That energy is a huge part of what inspires all of us every day and drives our own excitement for what we are creating.” The devs do say that we’ll see the “first deep dive” into gameplay for Redfall and Starfield “soon.” “We can’t wait for you to play Starfield, but we need some more time,” Bethesda Game Studios concludes. “We’re so thankful for all the support and encouragement and are excited to show you the game soon.” Starfield and Redfall will both now launch in the first half of 2023.

The day before: Steam’s most wish listed game shifts to unreal engine 5 but gets a delay The Day Before – the open world survival MMO currently sitting at the top of Steam’s most wish listed games chart – is switching to Unreal Engine 5 but will be delayed to March 1st, 2023 as a result. Revealed exclusively with IGN, developer Fntastic has released a statement explaining that the game will shift to the advanced new engine, but also has to be delayed from its originally scheduled June 21 release.

The statement reads: “Millions of people have added The Day Before to their Wishlist, making The Day Before one of the most anticipated games in the world. “Feeling and understanding the great responsibility that we face, with enormous gratitude in our hearts, we are pleased to announce that The Day Before is switching to the new Unreal Engine 5 technology! The transition to a more advanced and adapted open worlds engine, will make the gameplay of The Day Before even more fantastic. “In this regard, we inform you that the new release date of the game will be March 1st, 2023.” The Day Before is a gritty open world MMO, aiming to mix survival gameplay with in-depth combat, vehicle gameplay, and even social elements inspired by the likes of Animal Crossing. Even before its switch to Unreal 5, the game was aiming for high-end visuals, having shown off a 4K raytracing trailer.

Summers game fest officially gets a date and time slot It’s official Summer Game Fest will return live on Thursday, June 9! Tune in at 11 am PT / 2 pm ET / 6 pm GMT. E3 may have been cancelled this year, but E3 season still looks to be in full swing this June, with Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest dated for 9th June 2022. Keighley will be hosting a “live cross-industry showcase” with the usual array of game announcements and reveals, and will also be incorporating Day of the Devs, as usual. This time around, however, Summer Game Fest will be teaming up with IMAX to bring the show to participating IMAX Live theatres across the UK, US, and Canada. “With Summer Game Fest we are building a next-generation global event - decentralised physical events for the community in IMAX, big showcases from us and partners, play at home content, and much more,” said Keighley in a statement. “This is the future and it feels good.... we are just getting started!” While Summer Game Fest will be hosting its own event with announcements from multiple publishers and developers, it also has other shows under its June umbrella, including this year’s Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase and the Tribeca Games Spotlight. More June events will be coming, according to Keighley, who recommends players “keep checking” the official Summer Game Fest website. Last year’s Summer Game Fest showcase saw the reveal of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Elden Ring gameplay, Metal Slug Tactics, and Two Point Campus, among others.

It’s been nine years since we assaulted Dragon Keep, in Borderlands 2’s last major expansion, and now Tiny Tina is back for more, with a fresh game of ‘Bunkers & Badasses’. A Borderlands spin-off, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands feels entirely like a new entry in the series, with a few little twists of its own, like the ability to wield spells and clout enemies with melee weapons. There are some decent tongue-in-cheek nods to fantasy tropes, too, in a story imbued with typically daft Borderlands humour. There’s a sense of fun and chaos here that’s infectious, and the looter-shooter action is as moreish as it’s ever been. Starting you off as one of six different classes, each boasting their own abilities, perks, and buffs, Wonderlands sees you playing as a custom character for the first time, Borderlands’ Vault Hunters side-lined for an unpainted figurine referred to as the ‘Newbie’. As said Newbie, your destiny is to become the fabled Fate maker, which means vanquishing the evil Dragon Lord, voiced with gusto by Arrested Development and Murderville actor Will Arnett. Your choice of class falls into the usual fantasyRPG archetypes, the ‘Stabbomancer’ fulfilling the rogue role, while the Brr-Zerker lays at the other end of the spectrum, as an axe-wielding barbarian sporting frosty elemental powers. The Graveborn class, meanwhile, wields dark magic and has a floating skull companion that provides support (a bit like a floating drone at your side); and the Spore Warden specialises in toxic attacks and archery, bringing along an adorable little Mushroom buddy. The Spellshot class is Wonderlands’ powerful mage, and the 51

mage, and the Clawbringer is a formidable warrior class, boasting a handy fire-breathing Wyvern companion. Upon reaching a certain point in the campaign, you’re presented with a secondary class, enabling you to mix things up and expand your repertoire. There’s no shortage of depth available in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, although anyone who’s played Borderlands 3 will recognise a lot of the mechanics and options on offer. Nevertheless, Wonderlands sets itself apart with a tabletop board game Overworld to explore from an isometric perspective (your hero transformed into a diminutive figure with an oversized head), peppered with discarded drawing pins, erasers, cheesy snacks, soda cans, and bottle caps that can be shoved over to form makeshift bridges and ramps, unlocking shortcuts. Wonderlands really leans in to the fact that you’re a playing piece in a fantasy board game, fellow players Valentine (voiced by Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Andy Samberg) and robot Frette (played by Curb Your Enthusiasm regular Wanda Sykes) chiming in frequently as Tina (Ashly Burch) changes up the game and its story on-the-fly. Tina’s random digressions worked well in Assault on Dragon Keep, and they work similarly nicely here, keeping things relatively unpredictable and precarious throughout. While trekking across the Overworld, you’ll come across random encounters - which can be slapped away with a melee attack – encampments to clear out, and dungeons harbouring hidden shrine pieces, complete sets of which can be exchanged for a permanent

buff. Twenty-sided lucky dice boost your loot luck stat upon being collected, and, as you’d expect, there’s a wealth of side quests to tackle within each region and the Overworld itself. Some of the game’s silliest references are reserved for Wonderlands’ side quests, like ‘The Ditcher’, in which you have to come to the aid of monster slayer, Gerritt of Trivia, while he regales you with anecdotes about “copulating on a unicorn”. Sounds familiar. Predictably, there’s a glut of weaponry to hoover up across Wonderlands’ realm, which, in keeping with the fantasy setting, now encompasses pistols that fire crossbow bolts and oversized swords, battle axes, hammers, and enchanted frying pans. Spell tomes arm your character with elemental magic to hurl at foes, shields are referred to as ‘wards’, and rings and amulets can be worn to provide further buffs – it’s all very recognisably Borderlands, then, everything given a fantasy slant, replete with goblins, wyverns, skeletons, zombies, brigands, assassins, poisonous mushroom folk, land-dwelling sharks called dogfish, and

snake-like creatures known as coiled. And like any Borderlands game worth its salt, bosses come in all shapes and sizes, enemies attack in abundance, and loot is strewn across the ground in glowing piles. Should you thirst for more of Borderlands’ brand of anarchic silliness and relentless shooting and looting, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands won’t leave you feeling short-changed. Though repetitive in spots – especially during the selfcontained combat encounter sequences – there’s an energy and brio to developer Gearbox Software’s game that’s difficult to resist, and enough to distinguish from the mainline series from whence it sprang. Technical snafus with the game’s Shift login (required for crossplay) that cause the game to momentarily freeze on console notwithstanding, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is an enjoyable take on the Borderlands formula, though superficially more of the same. If it’s raw fun you seek, weary traveller, then a trip to the Wonderlands might just be one worth taking.

Overall TGG Rating Should you be in the market for more of Borderlands’ frenetic looter-shooter mania, then Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands fits the bill, its uniquely daft take on fantasy tropes and tabletop board games proving robust and infectiously good fun.

7/10 Audio 8/10 Some lovely ditties and exuberant voice work from a game cast. Explosions and spells fizz, crackle, and pop – it’s good.

Visuals 7/10 Borderlands’ signature style is back in full effect, looking as good as it did in Borderlands 3. The side is let down by some performance issues that cause the game to intermittently lock up, usually when it’s trying to log in to Gearbox’s Shift service.

Playability 7/10 A bit repetitive at times, Wonderlands still manages to deliver enjoyable shooting and looting, this time with some D&D-inspired elements, like spells and swords. If you enjoyed Borderlands shoot and loot gameplay loop, then you’re undoubtedly going to enjoy it again here.

Delivery 7/10 A ten-chapter campaign and dozens of side quests prove a generous offering, while the endgame Chaos Chamber has endless shenanigans to tackle solo or with friends in co-op. A pretty generous and well-presented package that’s hard to sniff at, despite being essentially more of the same. [Version tested: Xbox Series X]

Reviewed by: Brandon Sawyer 54

In feudal Japan, a quiet life in the village doesn’t remain quiet for long. And so it goes in Trek to Yomi, as young, burgeoning samurai Hiroki finds himself springing into action when his home is invaded by a marauding gang of bandits, and his adoptive master rushes to the gates in a heroic effort to stop the onslaught. No prizes for guessing what comes next, as we flash forward to Hiroki as a grown man, his village besieged once more by thieves and thugs. Amid the flames, destruction, and pillaging, you’re a lone warrior, a stoic protector who’s more than handy with a katana. The work of developer Leonard Menchiari, with support from Shadow Warrior studio Flying Wild Hog, Trek to Yomi wears its samurai cinema influences on its sleeve, rendered in lustrous black and white, replete with scratches and marks that help in mimicking the look of old celluloid film. It’s an artistically impressive game, its moonlit environments forming the backdrop to its dramatic tableaux, silhouetting Hiroki and his foes against dark skies, punctured by light rays breaking through clouds and forest canopies. There’s a very clear nod to the work of Akira Kurosawa here, and it’s remarkably pretty. As you progress through paddy fields, deserted burning houses, temples, and muddy streets strewn with cracked pots, crates, and abandoned carts, you’ll find hidden areas, scrolls, health, stamina, and ammo capacity boosting collectibles, as well as points at which you’ll learn new moves and combos. Initially, Hiroki begins his journey with nothing more than a few basic light and heavy slashing attacks, a block, and a parry, but before long you’ll be able to string together short sequences of strikes, timing successful counter attacks to 55

swiftly cut down your enemies and leave them in the dirt. Exploration between combat encounters plays out in 3D, and always proves worthwhile, whether you’re helping stricken villagers or simply scouring an area for collectible trinkets. As for combat, this invariably takes place from a purely side-scrolling two-dimensional perspective, and later encounters see new enemy types thrown into the mix, whether it’s spear-wielding bandits that attempt to stave you off from a safe distance, or armoured fighters who are more susceptible to thrusting, piercing attacks. You’re often made to change up your tactics on-the-fly, especially when stuck in the middle with enemies approaching from both sides. In addition to his katana, Hiroki can throw boshuriken or launch arrows from his bow, before acquiring a slow but lethal Ozutsu rifle that takes an age to reload. Ammunition is in abundance (at least at the game’s ‘normal’ Bushido difficulty setting), so you’re encouraged to use ranged items liberally, but there’s no substitute for standing toe-to-toe with an opponent, then slashing them down to size. Crucially, Yomi’s parry system proves to be quite gratifying once you’ve mastered the (slightly unusual) window, indicated by a subtle glint from your rival’s blade as they prepare to attack. It’s perfectly straightforward, but aggressive stabbing assaults can, nonetheless, catch you off-guard, and can be significantly trickier to parry. Fortunately, health replenishing shrines – which also provide a saved checkpoint – are generously dotted around each level, so after most encounters, you’re able to push on at full strength, safe in the knowledge that death is

only ever a relatively minor setback. Also, it’s usually your fault if you’re overwhelmed by bad guys – more often than not, it’s impatience and button-mashing that will see you coming unstuck. Trek to Yomi does tend to suffer during its latter parts, leaning increasingly into the supernatural - Yomi being the land of the dead in Japanese mythology - while forcing you through lengthy encounters without a checkpoint. At one point, the camera also zooms out to such a distance, that it’s difficult to even see what the hell is going on, which can lead to a few rather egregious, and immensely irritating, deaths. After delivering such an even-handed challenge – and compelling narrative, in which Hiroki grapples with his inner demons, and his own fragile grip on the meaning of honour – it’s a shame to see the game make such a frustrating misstep, with horrid difficulty spikes and cheap boss encounters. Still, the diversity of moves and combos that

Trek to Yomi’s combat affords will likely carry you through, especially as your list of abilities expands and you gradually combine different directions, stances and moves to get the better of your foes. Finishers and counters also reward you with small health boosts, keeping you in the fight against bosses, or sections during which the game decides to throw more and more enemies your way. And in spite of its trifling niggles, I wanted to see Yomi through to its denouement. Choosing Hiroki’s path, confronting his past failures, and ultimately deciding his fate, while engaging in enjoyable, meticulously crafted sword-swishing duels, ensures that Trek to Yomi is a journey worth embarking upon. While it has the occasional annoyance, it’s an experience that can feel hugely rewarding. At one point, I may have wanted to turn back, much like Hiroki himself, but I found myself pushing on. “I dread what lies ahead,” he remarks at one particularly trying juncture, “but to turn back would betray all that I am”. Damn straight.

Overall TGG Rating A stylish side-scrolling samurai epic, Trek to Yomi combines cinematic influences and sharp combat to great effect but descends into frustration towards the end. Nonetheless, this is a journey worth sticking with.

7/10 Audio 7/10 Excellent Japanese voice work and an evocative, atmospheric score frame the action beautifully. The only issue is that some late-game dialogue seems to be missing.

Visuals 7/10 A sumptuous black and white art style inspired by ‘50s and ‘60s samurai cinema, Trek to Yomi looks fantastic. If we’re nit-picking, character models are ever-so-slightly rough when viewed close-up.

Playability 7/10 Streamlined combat, exploration, and a handful of simple puzzles make for a consistently enjoyable experience, while learning new moves, and how best to deal with different enemies, keep things fresh.

Delivery 7/10

A playthrough will take you about 5-7 hours, but with three paths to take to different endings, there’s a nice bit of replay value on offer. The one-hit kill Kensei mode is also unlocked upon completing the game, and it’s as hard as it sounds. Late game difficulty spikes also conspire to spoil the fun.

[Version tested: Xbox Series X]

Reviewed by: Brandon Sawyer 57

It all begins with a doom-laden premonition, before you’re hurled headlong into the deep end of Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong’s Boston Camarilla, a secret society of bloodsuckers, expected to know what’s going on without being given very much in the way of context. You’re told that ‘The Masquerade’ of the title is how vampires hide themselves from the rest of the world, and anything that compromises it is cause for alarm. One such compromise has occurred, an attack on vampire kind initiating a ‘Code Red’, throwing the Camarilla into disarray. As three different vamps, it falls to you to learn the truth behind the cause of the Code Red, at the behest of Prince Hazel Iversen. Eventually, Swansong will get its hooks into you, but it’s bloody tough going at times, and an abrupt opening isn’t the most welcoming start. During the game’s first hour or so, in all likelihood, you’ll feel completely adrift. Unless you’re already well versed in all things Vampire: The Masquerade, or prepared to read reams of codex entries, it’s hard to know exactly what is going on. Clearly, there’s some kind of emergency afoot, but Swansong expects you to start making dialogue choices without adequately setting up the story. It’s all a big, confusing mess from the outset, but, if you take the time to get to know protagonists Emem Louis, Galeb Bazory, and Leysha, then attempt to wrap your head around the inner workings of the Boston Camarilla, Swansong slowly becomes more palatable. 59

Developed by The Council studio, Big Bad Wolf, and based upon the current fifth edition of the Vampire: The Masquerade tabletop RPG, Swansong is a messy affair. It takes some pretty Herculean perseverance to get to its good bits, and subsequently to get to grips with the various intricacies of its systems, which are informed by the tabletop source material. Emem, Galeb, and Leysha have their own unique vampiric abilities to help them make their way through the high society of the Camarilla, with its political chicanery and litany of mysterious, brutal murders committed from the shadows. Each of Swansong’s vamps also has their own dedicated skill tree and character sheet, the latter of which is connected to the same set of core skills. It can be tricky to predict which of these skills you’re going to need for each of Swansong’s scenarios, however, so pouring XP into technology or security prowess might see you come unstuck, when points might have been better spent on improving your linguistic proficiency. Given the volume of chat in the game, it generally seems wiser to invest in your vamp’s social skills – intimidation, persuasion, or rhetoric allowing you to get the results you want in differing ways – but then, when you’re stuck with a device you can’t hack or a locked door in your path, you can often question your choices. Either way, there’s a depth and diversity to the abilities at your disposal, making progression a frequently agonising series of decisions.

There’s no combat in Swansong. The crux lies in making dialogue choices, and these are best exemplified in the ‘confrontations’ you’ll have with some of the game’s more difficult characters. Winning an exchange hinges upon a number of factors, including your ability to focus, which in turn expends your willpower. As your willpower dwindles, so, too, does your capacity to counter during a heated tête-àtête, leaving you without an option to respond effectively. Similar limits are placed upon your vampire powers, which are connected to your hunger level, topped up by surreptitiously feeding upon unsuspecting civilians. You’ll need to locate safe zones in which to do this, then avoid overdoing it via the mini-game gauge, as holding the trigger down to feed for too long will kill your prey. Leaving behind dead bodies isn’t a great way to uphold ‘The Masquerade’, as they tend to invite suspicion. Funny, that. Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is slow to get started, and initially its glacial pace and lack of background context can be hugely offputting. Textures popping in and out, stilted animation, shabby lip syncing, some ugly character models, occasional glitches, and a choppy frame rate do little to help make a compelling case for the game, but, if you decide to stick with it, a rather involving narrative begins to emerge. Puzzles also promote a fair bit of player agency, trusting you to figure

out the solution for yourself with minimal hand holding. Soon the slower pace becomes somewhat hypnotic, and Swansong’s myriad technical flaws become less of a major issue, and more a bothersome hindrance. Certain mechanics are quite muddled and poorly presented, and when conversations end in a tie, diverting to a 50/50 dice roll, and then things don’t go your way, it’s immensely frustrating. Nonetheless, weeding out a traitor and figuring out whether Prince Hazel can be trusted, while developing each of your character’s traits and abilities, as well as solving intricate puzzles, eventually proves to be a relatively enjoyable experience. Unfortunately, Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong’s lack of polish and attention to detail drags it down into the doldrums, its low-level production values ultimately scuffing what is otherwise a fairly interesting and complex game of vampiric machinations and intrigue. There’s a good game in here somewhere, but you’ll have to work exceedingly hard to find it. Should you manage to look past the shoddy presentation and dodgy visuals, Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong will reveal itself to be a mildly engaging tale of hidden bloodsuckers, unravelling a mystery brimming with murder and betrayal. Beauty, in this case, really is more than skin deep.

Overall TGG Rating Should you manage to look past the shoddy presentation and dodgy visuals, Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong will reveal itself to be a mildly engaging tale of hidden bloodsuckers, unravelling a mystery brimming with murder and betrayal. Beauty, in this case, really is more than skin deep.

5/10 Audio 5/10 Voice performances are perfectly fine, while the game’s soundtrack is entirely unobtrusive. As such, the soundscape is a little on the unremarkable side. Completely serviceable stuff, and that’s about all there is to say about that.

Visuals 5/10 Take a cursory look at Swansong, and it looks alright. Seeing it in motion, on the other hand, is altogether different. Character models and textures are fairly poor, but environments are relatively decent. Overall, it’s not much of a looker.

Playability 5/10 At first, Swansong can seem enormously daunting, the game hurling you into a maelstrom of characters, stats, dice-rolling nonsense, and such. You’d be forgiven for giving up early-on, but it’s a game that proves rewarding in the long term.

Delivery 5/10 Occasionally, Swansong can feel like it’s dragging on a bit, and frequent glitches can make a frustrating game more so. At one point, I lost a bunch of save data and had to start over. However, it seems that the day one patch has ironed out a few issues [Version tested: Xbox Series X

Reviewed by: Brandon Sawyer 61

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Sniper Elite series. Maybe it’s because it lets you shoot all of the soft spots of Nazi soldiers, then revel in the grisly, cutaway gore as it unfolds in agonising slow-motion detail. Developer Rebellion knows that people get the same kind of sickening pleasure as I do, watching as Nazi entrails and dangly bits rupture, but it’s worth remembering that Sniper Elite is so much more than stomach-churning X-ray killcams and pulsating guts exploding. Sniper Elite 5 offers a cracking series of sandbox missions, taking a cue from Hitman, albeit with a lot more firepower. Also, Karl Fairburne remains a real American hero. He’s got a tight haircut that never changes, a determined look permanently etched onto his rugged face that lets you know he’s got this, whatever it might be. His voice is pure gravel, his woollen sweater is pristine, and he can wield a sniper rifle like nobody’s business. I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves, our Karl. Few video game protagonists have offed as many Nazis as Fairburne and performed in such a fashion as to earn himself the fearsome moniker of ‘The Shadow’. The very utterance of ‘The Shadow’ puts the shits right up the Hun, and as such, it can feel empowering to inhabit the role of the ace sniper. That said, you can spend a lot of time in Sniper Elite 5 doing very little actual sniping. You could conceivably blast your way through all eight of the game’s open-ended missions with nothing more than an M1911 pistol and an MP40 submachine gun, but to do so wouldn’t really be in the spirit of SE5’s long-distance shenanigans, and, frankly, you’d be missing out. 63

Regardless, where Karl Fairburne foiled a Nazi plot in Sniper Elite 4’s campaign set in Italy, this time around he’s tasked with foiling a Nazi plot in France, working alongside the French Resistance. This one involves something dubbed ‘Operation Kraken’, spearheaded by a sneering Nazi general named Möller, which leads Fairburne to key Axis strongholds, which you’ll have to infiltrate, and, in some cases, sabotage. Across nine massive missions, you can veer off the beaten path to carry out optional objectives, like blowing up a steel mill, toppling a radio tower, destroying AA cannons, or executing a Nazi on your kill list, and it’s all enormously rewarding. Sniper Elite 5’s environments might also be among the best the series has mustered to date, its rendition of rural occupied France - replete with grand chateaus, rustic barns, bombed-out church spires, and rolling fields - is genuinely excellent. Occupied villages give way to floodlit trainyards, secret factories, beachside fortresses, and battleravaged streets; every map offering numerous pathways, opportunities, and approaches. As ever, you can set your loadout prior to each sortie, but in Sniper Elite 5, you can also locate workbenches to unlock new attachments and switch up your weapons. This additional flexibility keeps things pretty fresh throughout SE5’s campaign, but it’s the inexplicable, eternal appeal of the killcam and the reliably robust shooter mechanics that will keep you playing. Fundamentally, SE5 is more of the same, although with numerous new things to shout about, like the Invasion mode, which seemingly tips its hat to Deathloop’s own

invasions, wherein a rival players can drop into your game at any time. In this case, an invading player enters the map as an Axis Jäger sniper, tasked with tracking down and eliminating the Allied player. As the Axis sniper, you have a series of unique abilities to help you get the job done, which is to ruin the Allied sniper’s campaign. Naturally, you can toggle Invasion mode on and off. Beyond the single-player campaign, the twelvewave Survival mode makes a comeback, offering horde-style action for up to four players, while the usual suite of multiplayer modes round out the online options. Invasion mode is the banner addition here, though, offering a shedload of replay value, alongside the alternate mission insertion zones, which you can unlock through exploration. What’s on offer here is superlative stuff, then, even if some of the visual presentation could perhaps do with a little refinement and attention to detail. There’s something smirk-inducing about watching an enemy being blown up in slow-mo, the flurry of shrapnel and the engulfing fireball doing nothing to change their expression. There’s a wee bit of clipping, too, and such

minor shortcomings are open to scrutiny, thanks to the lingering killcam. Enemy AI can also be hilariously inept at times, Nazi troops often running right past you, or standing oblivious while their mate has just had his eyeball explode in front of them. It’s not the best. Little niggles like these do little to diminish what is otherwise another wonderful slice of visceral World War II action, Sniper Elite 5 building upon the previous games with some meaningful new features, and another diverse selection of sandbox missions brimming with objectives and opportunities. Granted, the killcam remains one of the main draws, the splattering blood and organs tickling some sick little centre in my brain, each and every time it happens, but there’s so much more to SE5 than that. Rebellion evidently knows what it’s doing with the continuing adventures of Karl Fairburne, and Sniper Elite 5 sees the studio in fine fettle, working well within its comfort zone to deliver an unapologetically entertaining and remarkably varied bullet-riddled experience. And shooting Nazis in their fleshy bits remains an unbridled joy. Obviously.

Overall TGG Rating Another opportunity to eviscerate Nazis, Sniper Elite 5 is by no means perfect, but it is a wonderfully robust and consistently enjoyable sandbox shooter that’s good, reliable fun. And, as if you need reminding, you can put a bullet through a Nazi’s scrotum, which will never not be brilliant.

8/10 Audio 8/10 Karl Fairburne’s gruff VO? Check. Typically dramatic score? Check. Whizzy bullet sounds and winceinducing brain-bursting noises? Check. This is a Sniper Elite game alright.

Visuals 8/10 Not exactly a huge leap over its predecessors, Sniper Elite 5 still looks pretty great, with some of the most picturesque environments Rebellion has created to date.

Playability 8/10 Every bit as solid and playable as you’d hope, with expansive sandbox missions that encourage return visits. It’s hard to fault what’s on offer here.

Delivery 8/10 The new Invasion mode is an interesting and worthwhile addition, extending the life of the game’s campaign, while the online modes are plentiful. A generous package.

[Version tested: Xbox Series X

Reviewed by: Brandon Sawyer 65

Taking in all nine mainline movies, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is big. It’s so big, the collectibles number more than a thousand, and there are forty-five levels punctuated by sprawling hub areas teeming with puzzles and, yes, mountains of collectibles. This is also the first LEGO Star Wars game to adopt a dynamic third-person viewpoint, throwing in a combo metre, a few additional abilities, and the usual character roster of hundreds. And it’s far, far and away the most complete and all-encompassing LEGO Star Wars game in the series’ seventeenyear history. It’s also no minor miracle that developer TT Games’ LEGO titles still have the capacity to wring such pure entertainment from so well-worn a formula. While the standard activity of breaking things and scooping up copious amounts of LEGO studs as they pour forth, and building objects, remains a staple, there’s clearly been a concerted effort on TT’s part to inject some depth into The Skywalker Saga, whether it’s character upgrades to unlock or relatively lightweight puzzles to solve. Of course, different character types have unique abilities, so Jedi can use mind tricks; Dark Side Sith characters can Force lift, throw stuff (like their Jedi counterparts), and conjure Force lightning; Scoundrels can target specific purple weak points; Bounty Hunters can blast gold bricks to smithereens; and Scavengers can cobble together devices to launch climbing nets, blast through cracked walls, and glide about the place a bit. As far as LEGO games are concerned, this is mostly the usual fare, and, despite the

perspective shift, there are very few surprises. Still, things move along at a brisk pace, blaster battles giving way to space shooter sections, button-mashing lightsaber duels, and neat set pieces, all run through with TT Games’ trademark silly slapstick humour. The Skywalker Saga effectively throws everything into the pot, covering all of the main story beats from the entirety of the nine episodes, with hordes of Stormtroopers, Battle Droids, Clone Troopers, and whatnot to blast with lasers or slash to pieces with a lightsaber. There are little mini-game doodahs at various junctures, which mostly involve matching a d-pad input to a prompt or twiddling the analogue stick, and, as ever, it’s impossible to complete everything without returning for a second time in Galaxy Free Play. Whooping Jabba’s rancor as Luke Skywalker, giving the Hutt himself a good drubbing as Leia and R2-D2, engaging in a fraught clash with Kylo Ren as Rey, doing the Death Star trench run in an X-wing, chasing down and fighting Anakin as Obi-Wan Kenobi during the climax of Revenge of the Sith on Mustafar, The Skywalker Saga has its fair share of memorable highlights from each of the three trilogies, which can be played in any order you see fit. The trilogies, that is you can’t jump straight into Return of the Jedi or The Rise of Skywalker, for instance. You have to start with either The Phantom Menace, A New Hope, or The Force Awakens, then unlock subsequent episodes as you progress. The Skywalker Saga also marks the first time The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker have

been given the LEGO treatment, and as such, both are given their due. Regardless how you might feel about the recent Star Wars trilogy, TT Games has ensured that every one of the nine movies covered here is fun to play, even taking some cheeky, albeit good-natured digs at certain aspects from each film. Across the board, it’s abundantly clear that there’s been careful attention to detail applied to practically every square inch of The Skywalker Saga, TT Games once again demonstrating the love it has for cinema’s most iconic scifi blockbusters. The action can grow a tad repetitive, as you bash buttons and break blocks – the core LEGO game experience is basically the same as it ever was. The prevailing strength of the LEGO games has always been to elevate what is otherwise a faintly hollow, plasticky experience by virtue of what is painted on that plastic; rarely do I not succumb to that paint, and here it is at its most potent. Resistance, it seems, is entirely futile. Five missions per movie mean the events of each are kept pretty lean, but the expansive hubs have countless diversions to partake in, whether it’s checkpoint-based time trial races, secrets to unearth, NPCs to help out, rumours

pointing to secrets on other planets to discover, or mild conundrums to solve. It’s all a little overwhelming. Completing side missions, puzzles, trials, and challenges unlock Kyber Bricks, which can be spent on upgrades, whereas data cards hidden away in nooks serve as the game’s new Red Bricks, unlocking bonuses like stud multipliers, a baguette lightsabre, a Porg companion, ‘Galaxy Rave Mode’, and ‘Pew Pew’ mode, which replaces blaster sound effects with mouthed laser noises. On top of all that, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga looks every bit as tactile as the real thing, right down to the little seams in the plastic, flecked with tiny deposits of sand and grime, to the texture and printed designs on each character’s shiny surfaces. LEGO games have always done a great job of replicating their source material, but Skywalker Saga goes beyond, imbuing its bricks and minifigures with a vibrant life and energy. It makes the epic moments from the films feel epic, the humour balanced just enough to raise a smirk without becoming too irritating. Stir in John Williams’ timeless, sweeping score, and you have an experience befitting the scope of a galaxy far, far away.

Overall TGG Rating What could have so easily been a repeat of previous LEGO Star Wars games, has more than its fair share of new ideas. The Skywalker Saga offers a greatest hits compilation of all nine films, wrapped up in signature knockabout comedy, with enjoyable and uncomplicated, though sometimes slightly dull, gameplay.

8/10 Audio 9/10 Only Billy Dee Williams and Anthony Daniels reprise their roles as Lando Calrissian and C3-PO, respectively, but the rest of the voice cast do a fine job impersonating the likes of Luke, Han Solo, Rey, Leia et al. Also, John Williams’ iconic score remains an absolute joy. Obviously.

Visuals 8/10 Playing the new LEGO Star Wars with loads of actual Star Wars LEGO on a shelf behind me as a reference point, I can confidently report that The Skywalker Saga’s LEGO looks about as close to the real thing as is currently possible. Environments look great, too, and minifigure characters are full of life and personality.

Playability 7/10

While a shift to third-person makes The Skywalker Saga feel a little different to previous LEGO games, this is essentially the same strain of brick-breaking, stud collecting, button-bashing gameplay that we’ve come to know and (sort of) love over the last couple of decades. Starfighter sections are great fun and there are some fine set pieces, which help elevate the action.

Delivery 8/10 Events from nine movies spread across 45 levels, with more than 1,100 Kyber Bricks to collect, loads of hub areas to pick through for hidden secrets, and a glut of side activities. There’s no shortage of content here, or Star Wars characters to play as, Starfighters to pilot, and creatures to ride around. The most polished and complete LEGO Star Wars experience yet. [Version tested: Xbox Series X Reviewed by: Brandon Sawyer 69

8 tips & trick earn more lego star wars: Th 1. Multipliers The most obvious way to boost your income is using the stud multipliers unlocked via the Extras menu. These don’t come cheap (although as ever, nothing in the Extras or Accessibility menus affects achievements), so you should avoid spending too much cash until you’ve at least got the first few of these under your belt. The first comes in at a cool million studs, with the other four rising in price to effectively cost another million base studs, only inflated for the multiplier offered by previous tiers — 2 million for the second, 8 million for the third, 48 million for the fourth, and 384 million for the fifth and final one, which will take you to the Lego endgame’s usual x3,840 multiplier. Each multiplier upgrade will also require one Data card (Skywalker Saga’s Red Brick replacements, but a bit easier to find), so you may want to invest in the Collectable Detector perk in the Core Upgrades tree in order to highlight these on-screen and on the map, along with all other major pick-ups. 2. Bounty Hunters Given just how many enemies The Skywalker Saga likes to throw at you at times, having a powered-up Bounty Hunter character on your side is a must if you want to be earning big from the relatively early stages of the game. This is thanks to their unlockable Hidden Bounties perk, which rewards 250 studs per kill per rank, up to 750 at max level. This might not sound like much, but it adds up extremely quickly, especially when you know how and where to exploit it. The bad news is that unless you 71

picked up the deluxe edition and have a Pocket Mandalorian from the off, adding a Bounty Hunter to your team isn’t especially quick or cheap. Those playing through the movies in release order will get quickest access to a bounty hunter in Greedo after arriving in Mos Eisley. A word of warning, though — completing the Greedo unlock mission in Mos Eisley, Ma Klounkee Most Foul, will remove the single best Bounty Hunter stud farm in the game, so I’d advise against it and wait a little until you can pick up one of the Fetts (whose jetpacks also make platforming Easy Mode) or newcomers, depending on what order you’re working through the movies. What is this farm, you ask? Well, the quest NPCs for the Ma Klounkee Most Foul side mission just so happen to be a trio of Stormtroopers in northern Mos Eisley, near the cantina. They count as enemies, but are non-hostile, barely move, and respawn in a second or two after being defeated. Once you’ve invested in that Bounty Hunter perk, you can simply have your gunslinger stand there and smoke these fools to your heart’s content, and you’ll rake in a fortune in the process. If you’ve already completed this side quest, you can do something similar at the Imperial checkpoint across town, which will spawn unlimited troopers (at a slower rate) until the alarm is deactivated. There’s another spot like this in central Mos Espa that does the same thing but with Rodian goons in an around an alarmed store, although that’s even less effective due to the much larger outdoor area and the slow reinforcement spawns indoors. Still, just having a levelled Bounty Hunter on your side as you play through the game will give

ks on how to e studs in he skywalker saga your wallet a massive boost. 3. Captial Ships The biggest single earner in the game, but not a reliable method to farm due to the random nature of the spawns of these super-ships, and the fact that you need to have played through most of the movies to have access to them. Each of the three — Executor, Steadfast, and Trade Federation Battleship — has a fairly low chance to appear in certain space areas and can be captured after defeat and added to your collection, even summoned while in space to explore as mini-levels in their own right. In terms of cash, though, we’re more interested in the generic replacements that turn up instead of the named ships once you have them. Each is a pretty big fight with loads of targets and hostiles, meaning that it’ll take a little longer than most other options here, but the pay will be way better... one of these earned me the best part of a billion studs on its own at max multiplier. If a capital ship doesn’t spawn as you load in, you can sometimes force a spawn by engaging in those random space battles you see on most maps. If you can get that big boy to come out to play, it’s absolutely worth that extra downtime. 4. Stud Comets In terms of simplicity, stud comets are the easiest and maybe even quickest way to make money in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Each space area spawns one comet — a Kyber comet the first time you encounter/destroy it, later replaced with a stud comet on subsequent

visits. Kyber ones are great themselves as they get you five bricks for minimal effort, but the stud ones are where the money is at, granting around 85 million for each one destroyed with all multipliers active. Better yet, you can simply travel between space zones (or into and out of story missions from the menu) to respawn and farm them. It’s not the most interesting of processes, sure, but it’s a particularly helpful earner when you’re zoning between space maps trying to get the capital ships to spawn, plus it’s a free wad of studs for barely 30 seconds’ work whenever you find yourself in space. 5. Mini Games Astromech Droids, Heroes, and Villains all have perks in their skill trees that makes it possible to skip their respective terminal mini-games but offers a substantial amount of studs for doing it manually — up to 7,500 when maxed out, so around 29 million studs per use with all five multipliers. This is a win/win, with a juicy new income source on the way to that grindtastic 10 billion studs achievements, which later doubles as a time save once you no longer need the extra money. Well worth the investment, as they’ll quickly pay for themselves and then some. 6. Free Play Missions The great thing about so many story levels being short and sweet is that you can blast through some of them in next to no time, with especially the flight and on-rails ones being great targets to replay to grind out studs. With all multipliers on, many missions can net you hundreds of millions in a matter of minutes, but bear in mind 72

that any in-engine cutscenes are un-skippable, so some might not be as quick or efficient as they appear. Still, there are plenty of them so it’s going to be the most interesting way to grind to 10 billion. The stages themselves will come down to personal preference, but we found A Bigger Fish (Episode I) and They Fly Now (Episode IX) to be quick and easy on-rails levels with relatively generous pay-outs, while fast flight levels such as Now This Is Pod racing (Episode I) and Stay On Target (Episode IV) throw studs around like candy. 7. Canto Bight Casino Vault This one isn’t quite the payday it first seemed, but it’s still a nice chunk of change to grab whenever you’re in the area. Make your way all the way to the raised rear area of the Canto Bight level, and to the left of the main casino doors right at the top, you’ll see a tall tower covered in handholds and poles. Using a Jedi, Dark Side, or Scavenger character, make your way all the way up and inside, dropping down into the casino’s vault to complete one of the game’s myriad puzzles. Once you loot the place and pop the door open, it stays open so you never need to do that climb again, but the stash will not respawn until you restart the game, so this trick isn’t too practical to repeat at length.

8. Miscellaneous Cages that once held Kyber Bricks will instead reward you with one purple stud (10,000) when you solve their puzzles to open them again on a return visit. Worth it for the simple ones, for sure, but perhaps not so much for those that are a little more involved. The Scoundrel skill tree’s top ability reduces the cost of rumours, by up to 50% when maxed out. While this doesn’t earn studs, it will save them if you do plan on using the hint system to make tracking missions and key characters easier. Protocol Droids can take a perk which supposedly awards cash for every new translation they perform. In testing this, however, we didn’t get a single stud, which could be due to having spoken to most characters previously, having the Universal Translator unlocked (which was disabled for testing), or simply a bug, so your mileage may vary. The Attract Studs perk in the Core Upgrades tree is extremely useful, especially when maxed out. It draws in studs from a huge distance, meaning you end up earning passive extra income whatever you’re doing, which never hurts.

Hopefully some of these pointers will help put a few more studs in your pocket and get you to that ridiculous 10 billion target a little sooner!

echnida Jennifer ‘Echidna’ Hal is an American Partnered Twitch streamer whose main focus is Halo in which she competes within the Halo esports sector, she is currently a caster for the Halo Championship Series and Grassroots partner within this, She also is a content creator for eUnited who unify esports with world class players.

TGG: Hey Jennifer aka Echidna! First of all, we would like to thank you for chatting with us today. How have you been? I have been well, thank you so much for having me on board! I’m very thrilled for this opportunity to be involved in TGG. That is great to hear we too are thrilled to have you with us for this interview. So, tell us, how long have you been streaming and what made you want to start streaming? Technically I had my first stream 5 years ago. I had no cam, barely used my microphone, and it was straight off of my Xbox One and would go live once every few months playing Big Team Battle with some friends. I didn’t really start streaming routinely until about 3 years ago. My boyfriend actually had gotten me into it. He introduced me to the platform Twitch and said “you could be really good at this, I think you should try it” and I did - and here I am today, still streaming! Many have started that way so we are glad it finally worked out for you and it’s great to see that you had that push from your partner. Away from your streaming life what do you do in your spare time? I work full-time! When I’m not working I love playing outside with my dog, Mocha (she’s a 6 year old chocolate lab). Aside from that, I love sports - I used to play soccer and basketball growing up, and I love being outdoors. I also enjoy reading, listening to music, and rewatching the MCU or Lord of the Rings for the thousandth time.

It is great to see that you love the outdoors with being at a desk a lot of the day. We can only imagine how great the fresh air must be after a lengthy stream. What advice can you give to any smaller streamers about making their stream better and growing their channel/content? Consistency and networking. I started to grow when I would stream around the same time every day - when people expect you to be on they will tune in! As for networking, I don’t mean go around self-promoting yourselves in other streams (don’t be that guy). A lot of my networking came organically and incidentally; I would spend a lot of my time in other twitch chats just making friends and trolling around so much that people would recognize my name in the directory. They would pop in and say “hey! I didn’t know that you streamed!” and gain some new friends/viewers, or better yet earn some hosts from the streamer friends I made just by being supportive and active in their chat, not expecting anything in return. Put out the energy you would like in return, and don’t look at stats! Stream for the love of gaming and streaming and you will go far. Some fantastic advice right there im sure our readers will take note and use this to assist them as they grow also. What got you into gaming and what is your earliest memory of playing games? My earliest memory was sitting in my grandma’s basement and playing Sonic the Hedgehog on her SEGA when I was about 4 years old. I grew up in a large family - I have 2 brothers and 3 sisters. I mainly hung out with my brothers growing up, especially my eldest brother and his friends 76

who were all into gaming. We would play Super Smash Brothers on the N64 every New Years, have Halo LAN tournaments in my parents basement frequently, and spend over half a day playing custom games on games like Mech Assault 2 and 007: Nightfire. Video games were a very prominent and happy part of my childhood. Even when I was getting spawn killed on Boarding Action snipers I was just happy to be included. A good family bond with gaming is what we love to see, such a passion at such a young age very similar to many of us here over at TGG. On the subject of gaming, what is your platform of choice and why? I grew up on consoles, so I think it will always be my preferred platform. However, when my stream started picking up I invested in a PC and started gaming there and fell in love - but I think I will always be a controller player Yeah we can understand that PC is the final form as there is so much you can do with such a powerful machine. As a female streamer & gamer, do you think that females face more negativity in the gaming industry? Yes. It is a male dominated industry, and that presents an environment that isn’t exactly inviting or friendly to women. Moreover I think women have to fight for respect and prove themselves more than our male counterparts and we face this adversity from both male and females. We can understand this and have seen similar situations and do believe this can be a hard thing for many females. We are glad it has worked out for you. On the subject of negativity, what steps do you take to face this? is there any advice you may give similar creators who may struggle with this kind of stuff? Negativity is inevitable, no matter who you are or what you do. Some days the trolls get to me, and I’m thankful to have a circle of friends online and IRL to support and defend me. On those bad days I look for affirmation from those amazing people, and remind myself what those negative people say never matter 77

“Put out the energy

you would like in return, and don’t look at stats! ”

and shouldn’t have any effect on my life - they don’t know me and never will know me, so why should I waste any energy on them? If things are very bad, mute/block exists for a reason and Twitch has parameters to keep these trolls at bay. Support is very key and we are glad you are surrounded by such a great bunch of supportive friends. We see you play a lot of Halo Infinite on stream. What is your go to game mode? I love the ranked arena game mode - in the past Halo games I was more of a social kid, but recently my competitive side has clawed to the surface and I am hooked. As an Onyx ranked gamer myself i totally agree with you on that halo just thrives such a great competitive scene. On the subject of Halo Infinite, what are your current thoughts about the game, the updates, the ranking system and their anti-cheat system? On the surface I think it’s a great game with tons of potential. I’ve always enjoyed the Halo franchise because each game is slightly different from its predecessor, keeping the games fresh and enjoyable. Hopefully soon we get some new game modes and maps so the game doesn’t get too dry, but I’m enjoying it so far with what is currently available. The lack of a good anti-cheat is ruining the integrity of the game and its players. Without it, there’s a lot of speculation and accusations as to who is cheating and who isn’t, especially in these online tournaments and taking away from actual skill and enjoyable gameplay Infinite has to offer. I am looking forward to some major updates in (hopefully) the next few weeks. Yeah we totally understand that one and with the recent updates and new season it’ll only get better with time. Speaking of Halo, what are your top 3 Halo games of all time? Halo 2 is my first pick; it has the best multiplayer and campaign out of all of the Halo games. I loved the Halo 5 multiplayer, the pace and gameplay is absolutely addicting and deserved more love than it got. My third is a tie between Combat Evolved and ODST. Halo CE was my 78

first Halo game and I have so much nostalgia for it - Truth and Reconciliation, as well as Silent Cartographer, are two of my favourite missions in the entire franchise. Meanwhile, ODST has such an enjoyable campaign stacked with a beautiful soundtrack. 100% hit that with halo 2 having the best multiplayer. Me and my friends used to play that for 100s of hours back in the day. It never got boring or outdated; it was at its prime back then. One more Halo related question, we notice you are part of the HCS Grassroots partnership which we would love to congratulate you on by the way. Some of our readers may not know about this, could you please explain this a little more for them and what this partnership means. Thank you! I was approached about joining the HCS Grassroots program around October 2020, to which I (obviously) said yes. The goal for the Grassroots Program is to offer support to its partnered tournament organisers and content creators with resources, opportunities and partnerships, as well as help shine a spotlight on these individuals and organisers to bring in new Halo fans to enjoy the content. For example: after an event, the Halo Twitch channel has used its platform to host its partnered streamers giving them a major exposure boost, allowing for new followers, subscribers, and regular viewers. At multiple LAN events, the Grassroots members (including myself) have been invited to compete in special main stage show matches (i.e. BTB Bonanza) on the main Halo channel. It’s just an awesome opportunity as a Halo streamer to be a part of this program, being included in these special events, and getting support from HCS to help build and grow my community as a content creator. That is awesome and such a great thing that Halo has implemented for their creators, thank you very much for sharing this information as it may assist in other creators pushing for that spotlight within the halo scene. So let’s talk set up! What five essentials can you not stream without? I started with my Xbox One, the Twitch app, eventually a kinect, and a dream. But I will 79

give you pointers for a more advanced setup. If you can invest in a good PC, do it and download a streaming software - I use OBS. Your stream will become much more high quality and customizable that way, allowing for overlays and alerts. Secondly, I tell people that the first thing I look for in the Twitch directory is someone with a camera - it’s not necessary but it helps the stream feel more welcoming, enticing, and personable and more apt to click on someone with a cam rather than not. Thirdly, good lighting - you can have a cheap webcam that looks like a DSLR with the right lighting! I suggest a ring light, or if you can afford it, the key light/key light air from Elgato. A capture card is a must if you’re streaming from a PC, I personally use the Elgato 4k60 pro and it works like a charm. Last piece of the setup is a decent microphone. You don’t have to commit to an expensive one right off the bat, but you want something that isn’t straight out of a happy meal box. This can be a decent headset mic, or an affordable USB microphone. All of these items listed will help take your stream to the next level!

Yeah Twitch does seem like the main go to for creators nowadays as it is very convenient and easy to use. On the subject of Twitch we notice that you are a very respected partner within the community. Please enlighten our readers on what went into reaching such a goal. Honestly, I started with no expectations. The main reason I started streaming was to meet people who are as passionate about gaming as I am. I am very grateful to have built such an inclusive, genuine community. I feel all you need is to build a positive foundation and be the person you want to attract to your stream, seek out and network with those with similar aspirations, and you will! Some great advice. It is great to see that you managed to build this great positivity and push that goal to become a partnered Twitch streamer. What is the best moment you have had streaming? Or if you have a few, what are your top three?

Some fantastic pointers right there, we agree on many of these especially the camera side and quality of audio and scenes. You want to connect with streamers so seeing who they are is really a key point. On the subject of the top five, what would you say are your top five games of all time? In no particular order: Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Halo 2, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Skyrim, and SSX3. I have so many favourite games, but those are the ones I could replay forever. A great choice in games. We are very fond of Splinter Cell and forever are waiting for a new one! If you had to choose one game only to play forever, what would you choose? This is SO hard, but I think I will settle on Halo 2. A great choice with a well done campaign and a fantastic multiplayer this was a great choice. What made you choose to stream on Twitch over the likes of YouTube, Facebook and other platforms? At first Twitch seemed like THE platform

This might sound super lame, but I remember a few years ago I was still streaming directly from my Xbox One. I was playing Halo 5: Guardians with no camera, a cheap Turtle Beach headset, and reading chat from my phone - if anyone decided to talk at all. I noticed at one point my viewer count peaked at 10, and I ended the stream with overwhelming happiness and pride for hitting double digit viewers. I felt so emotional and on top of the world. It was a small but memorable milestone. I would say the other top 2 moments were winning the first Halo Infinite Twitch Rivals event, and every charity marathon stream I have been involved with. Those small beginning moments really do hit hard and make you so overwhelmed it’s great to hear about those moments. The charity streamers are fantastic, please keep those up, We love them and winning a Twitch Rival event is some goal to achieve big congrats on that one. We notice you have some wonderful partnerships and are partnered with the likes of eUnited & Elgato, would you love to give us an insight to these? how well do they work alongside you? and if there may be any codes our readers must use to enhance a sweet discount? I recently signed onto eUnited as a content 80

creator, and I feel we mesh extremely well together. Everyone I have had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with from eUnited is so down to earth, shares the same humour as well as passion for gaming, and I’m so grateful to be signed on with them. EUnited has a partnership with Elgato, which makes up the majority of my streaming setup - their stream deck, lighting, capture card, and camera mounts. Very grateful for the quality boost fo my stream! That’s great to hear we are glad you are fitting in very well over at eUnited and who doesn’t love Elgato it’s great to hear they have hooked you up with a sweet setup! We have seen that you tend to raise a lot of money for various charities including mental health support which we support massively over here at TGG, Please tell us some of your goals and previous accomplishments in raising money & awareness for these wonderful causes. Charity streams are one of my favourite special event streams to take part in. I’ve done some for GamersOutreach where on one occasion we raised $22.5k to build GoKarts for children in hospitals so they can game and make their time recovering more enjoyable. More recently, I alongside other women in the Halo community raised $10k in 24 hours for the American Heart Association. In the near future I’m looking to do a charity stream for Rise Above the Disorder which focuses on mental health and in association with my org, eUnited. The goal for each stream is to raise awareness, and if I’m lucky, money for these charities while doing the thing I love the most. It’s so surreal how supportive people are. My goal is to continue participating and organising things like this and give back to those that need it. The Charity Streams are amazing. It must feel so good to raise all that money for those who are in need, especially the small children. I would have loved to have seen the pure happiness when they received that charitable donation. So, let’s talk a little bit more about you! What is something that no one who watches your channel/content knows about you? This one is a tough question; I’m a relatively transparent person and will talk about 81

Being in the comfort of your own home you can be yourself and speak out. We have seen this with a lot of content creators who are super shy in person but a totally different person on stream. Keep up the hard work we love to see it regardless. Finally, what are you currently working on that you’d like our readers to know about/check out? And do you have any big things planned you’d love to share for 2022? One of my main goals for 2022 is continuing to help build an inclusive community for women and female-identifying Halo players, giving them a safe space to grow individually as a person and as well as a player, encouraging them to improve and refine their skills to one day compete in HCS tournaments. Aside from that, I don’t have anything major I am ready to announce in the near future. My goal is to continue being a positive member in the streaming world, and to focus on growing and refining my community and brand. That is a fantastic goal and we really hope you manage to create something super special out of 2022 and we will be rooting you on from the sidelines! So that wraps up for our interview today. It has been an absolute pleasure and we can’t thank you enough for your time. Give Echidna some love and support by following her Twitch channel and social media platforms!

Twitch: @Echnida Twitter: @Lady_Echnida Instagram: @lady_echnida YouTube: @Echnida

ryan stoker Ryan Stoker is a UK based Twitch Partner and social media personality known primarily for posting POV videos and Call of Duty: Warzone gameplay on his ryanstokerr TikTok account. Due to the popularity of his TikTok account, he has accumulated around 1,000,000 followers and 15 million likes on his profile with around 80,000 followers on Twitch. Hey Ryan! First of all, we would like to thank you for chatting with us today. How have you been? Thanks for having me! I am doing great thanks for asking! That is great to hear. So, tell us, how long have you been streaming and what made you want to start streaming? I have been streaming since November 2020 so for roughly 16 Months now. It has always been something that I have been interested in pursuing not only because of my love for gaming but also because I enjoy entertaining people and making them laugh. Good to see such great progression in such a short period of time, keep up the great work. Away from your streaming life what do you do in your spare time? Outside of Streaming I am a keen Basketball player, It’s my favorite Sport and allows me to let off Steam. I used to be part of a team but play more casually now. I also think it’s important to find time for gaming outside of Streaming & Content Creation so that it doesn’t just become associated with work. Finally, I am a big Lego fan! Basketball, such a great sport and we wouldn’t have guessed it’s good to hear that and who doesn’t love LEGO!. Let’s talk set up! What 5 essentials can you not stream without? For me it has to be the Elgato Stream Deck, GOXLR, at least 2 Monitors, good lighting and most importantly my Community.

You can’t go wrong with ELgato and a user interface that’s for sure. What advice can you give to any smaller streamers about making their stream better and growing their channel/content? The Number 1 tip that I give to any smaller streamers out there who are trying to grow their streams is to make content on other platforms. It is incredibly difficult to be discovered on Twitch, no matter how good your streams are. Making Content on TikTok & YouTube will enable you to create an audience that you can then bring over to your Streams and this is what I have tried to achieve as these platforms have much better discoverability. You’ve got that right being here there everywhere can really increase that discoverability. We see you really blew up on TikTok amassing 895K followers (at the time of writing) what made you start posting to TikTok? Before I even started my Streaming Journey I used to post on TikTok just for fun. I would make silly sketch videos that would get a couple of hundred views here and there. Once I started Streaming I realized that it would be a great tool to help grow the streams so I started to post more Call Of Duty related videos that started going viral and helped me grow my Stream immensely. That’s great to hear and see. We love the little sketches of yours. Your TikTok community gives you a lot of challenges for Warzone. Where did this idea come from and what were the most challenging and bizarre ones? Challenge videos have been around on TikTok for a while and I always loved the idea of them 84

and wanted to incorporate this into my videos but with my own twist (My DeathComms). I spent a lot of Time trying to find a good gameplay of a challenge I have done and then even more time editing it to make it the best it could be. Some of my favorite challenges that I have done are Snipers only Challenges (Because I love the Kar98k) and the floor is Lava. Yeah those challenge videos do seem to pop off and are done very well from yourself. On the subject of TikTok, what do you think of this platform and do you recommend our readers to post and use this platform for their content? Firstly I will start off by saying that the platform has a lot of positive aspects to it that I love. It’s discoverability, its addictiveness and it’s ability to know exactly what sort of content you are interested in to make it a more personal experience for each person. However it does have it’s floors. There isn’t much support for its creators, for example I have had my account removed multiple times for “Community Guideline Violations” that have been incorrect and it can be hard to get hold of someone to look at it for you. I also feel like TikTok can be quite negative sometimes. A lot of the comments you receive aren’t always the nicest but usually the good outweighs the bad. Yeah we agree it can be super helpful TikTok but sometimes the hate weighs in a little too much and content gets shadowed which shouldn’t. Thanks for the input on your experience. I’m sure a lot have had the same happen to them. Going viral a bunch of times must be a great feeling, what were your initial thoughts when this happened? Do you have any tips to beat the algorithm so people can push for that viral video? Going viral for the first time was an amazing buzz. It’s hard to comprehend how many people have watched your videos at the best of times. It is also addictive so you are always working towards getting that next video that just blows up. My main advice for people who are trying to get a viral video would be just to ensure the basics are covered. Make sure the

quality & lighting are good. When creating a TikTok, keep the goal of the TikTok in mind. It should usually fall into one of the following categories. Funny, informational or emotional. Thanks for the great advice we can only imagine how great that buzz felt when your first viral video happened. One of your most famous sayings is the ‘Im So Cracked’ phrase, please tell us more about this and how it became so Viral? This saying came from nowhere to be honest, I just hit the record button one day and it came out. The sort of videos that it was included in were videos where I was imitating Warzone players who used broken guns and thought that they were good at the game. I never intended for it to blow up! It was hilarious and one of our favorite phrases. It’s good to hear how it became such a popular saying. We notice on your livestream you have played a lot of Warzone lately. Have you always been a call of duty fan? If so, what are your top three call of duty games? I have only recently become an avid Call Of Duty player. My first proper COD was Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare which was released in 2019. Before that I was a big FIFA player since 2014. Oh we wouldn’t have guessed that to be honest, great to see the jump into the call of duty world from fifa it is a big change that’s for sure. On the subject of Call of Duty, what is your go to loadout? Currently I am using the OTS 9 & MW KAR98K Very strong choice, we too love the KAR98K. Being renowned for the hilarious death coms, where do the comical phrases come from , are they on the spot or are they thought out beforehand? Most of the time they are on the spot, especially at the beginning. Although If I do think of a really funny one or if I hear one that I like from someone else I will make sure to try and use it in one of my videos. 86

On the spot comedy is usually the best. Those random one-liners arte great. So, Warzone just dropped a new map and a huge new anti cheat, What are your thoughts on these? To be 100% I am not a fan of the new map at all. I play Rebirth Island which I love but I hope that Verdansk returns one day... In terms of AntiCheat, I think that they have done a decent job. I used to run into hackers every day but now It is once a week if that! Yeah we are not too found on the new map too we do miss Verdansk! Scenario Time! You’re dropping in hot during a quads game and you can bring 3 other content creators to join you. Who are you picking and why? It has to be my two boys, VivaciousPear & CaptainSexseaLive and then I’d throw in TimtheTatman for good measure. You’ve gotta have a timmy in there to take all the damage you need that rock which you carry along the way. Let’s talk about Twitch, So we see your partner please tell us how the grind to partner was and what made you achieve such a great goal? Hitting Twitch Partner was an amazing feeling and a goal that I was set on achieving right from the beginning of my streaming career. It was my Challenge videos that really gave me that boost I needed to get a partner on Twitch. The amount of exposure I was gaining from those videos meant I was gaining 1000+ followers per day on Twitch and this inturn meant that I was meeting the requirements.

a massive FIFA fan so I used to mainly watch FIFA streamers such as Castro1021, Nepenthez, PieFace, Jimmiepop. However the streamer that actually made me hit the go live button for the first time was a small streamer & now friend of my called “AnbuAzrail”. I don’t think I would have started streaming as soon as I did if it wasn’t for him. Some very big names there in the Fifa industry we are glad a smaller streamer now friend aided in you to do what you do now big shout out to AnbuAzrail! Let’s talk about Gaming have you always been a gamer? I have been a gamer ever since I owned my Gameboy back in the day. I used to play all sorts of games on my Playstation 2. I then got an Xbox360 where my love for FIFA started and I was also a big Halo Reach fan. After that I got a Playstation 4 which was what I played my first Call Of Duty on and also what I first started to stream on and I am now the owner of a Gaming / Streaming PC which Is what I use to this day. Retro Gameboy is such a great thing to open you into the world of gaming and such a good path. We too are big fans of the halo games so it’s great to see you dip and change over the years. What was the first games console & game you ever got the chance to play? First proper console that I had was the Playstation 2 and I used to play games like The Incredibles, Disney Skate & Rayman Revolution.

We can only imagine such a challenge but very rewarding after all. What made you choose Twitch as your choice to stream on?

The classic PS2 oh the good ole days, some strong classics right there. What was the most memorable moment you’ve ever had from gaming?

Twitch for me is just the best Streaming platform to build a community. I also think that it has the best interface that is easier to use than other platforms such as YT & Facebook.

I have had many memorable moments, a recent one being hitting my Personal Record on Rebirth Island (27 Kills) . I hit this while I was streaming so it was a great moment for me.

Yeah Twitch does seem to have a much easier interface test for sure. On the subject of Twitch and streaming, are there any streamers that are the reason you decided to stream and look up to?

That’s a massive record right there and to do on stream too I bet you were so happy with that one. What would be your go to console of all time?

As I mentioned before, growing up I used to be

Xbox 360 88

We have to agree with you there the Xbox 360 is king in our opinion that console just changed gaming all together. What are your Top 5 Games of all time? 1: Fifa 15 2: Warzone 3: Halo Reach 4: Modern Warfare 5: Wii Sports Very strong list of games right there, very good choice. If you had to choose one game only to play forever, what would you choose? Call Of Duty: Warzone

can keep doing this for as long as possible! That’s great to hear we are glad it is working out for you and we can’t wait to see you grow within the industry. So, let’s talk a little bit more about you! What is something that no one who watches your channel/content knows about you? Something that not many people would know is that I am a very big Star Wars fan. I have watched all of the Films & TV Shows!

We can see why and with Warzone 2 coming soon we can’t wait to see more from you. What motivates you to keep doing what you are doing from TikTok Videos to streaming on Twitch?

Now we are talking here at The Gamer Guide we too are massive Star Wars fans and we can understand the love for such a masterpiece. Finally, what are you currently working on that you’d like our readers to know about/check out? And do you have any big things planned you’d love to share for 2022?

The thing that motivates me the most to keep doing what I am doing is the community that I have built. I have met people from all across the world that I would never have met if it wasn’t for Gaming / Streaming and I am super grateful for that! As well as this, I am lucky enough to call this a Career for me so it is important for me to stay motivated so that I

One of my biggest plans for 2022 is my YouTube channel. I am planning on putting a lot of my effort into this over the coming months and would like it to be one of the main places where I post content in the coming months & years! There are currently 3 videos up now which took 6 hours to record each and over 12 hours of editing each.

Such great plans ahead and we look forward to seeing more from you as you continue to grow. Thank you so much for your time today. It has been an absolute pleasure to interview with you and learn more about yourself and your world within the industry. Be sure to check out Ryan’s channle and social media platforms below! Twitch: @RyanStoker Instagram: @ryan.hstoker Twitter: @RyanStoker97 TikTok: @ryanstokerr

That Petra ThatPetra is a Swedish streamer and content creator who has been streaming over on twitch since 2018 she has a great community which focuses a lot on tech, gaming and single player games, Petra is very passionate for gaming and reading being a gamer all her life. Petra is currently moving to The United States where she will be pursuing her content creation with her wonderful fiance LastOfCam. Hey Petra First of all, we would like to thank you for chatting with us today. How have you been? Thank you for having me! I’ve been good, keeping busy. That’s great to hear. So, tell us a little bit about your Content creation & streaming life, how long have you been interested in making content and streaming, what made you want to start? Absolutely! So, I have been making content for most of my teenage years and early twenties. I started out with several blogs about daily life, travel, and photography, then moved onto books, and then finally, almost four years ago exactly, tech and gaming. This is also around the time I started streaming after watching some friends play games on Twitch. I have always loved writing, photography, and being creative, so it’s something I was naturally drawn to. Such a great passion, we love to hear it and love to see the jump into the gaming industry. At what point during your career did you think “Damn, I could really make a career out of gaming”? I am still hesitant to believe it’s possible to make this into a full time career, mostly since it’s very hard to get a consistent income. But I started dreaming about it once I was able to get my first paid sponsorship and Twitch Payout. It was an amazing feeling knowing that I could potentially make a living doing what I loved! For now, my realistic dream is to do this part-time next to a more stable job.

We totally understand that and can see where you come from with the consistency it’s great to see you are still pushing on and moving forward. We hope to see this more full time in the future for you. Away from your streaming life & content creation what do you do in your spare time? I love to game in my spare time, and I think it’s important to enjoy your hobbies even outside of content creation. Apart from that, I also love reading and watching movies and TV shows. What can I say, I love a good story! We can relate to this one, who doesn’t love a good story and such a great pastime is gaming and reading. Seeing as you have quite an amazing games room, let’s talk about your setup. What are the top 5 most essential things that are a must have within your setup? Thank you for the kind words! My top 5 must haves would be: OLED TV, PS5, widescreen monitor, Light Strips, and a comfortable bed/ chair. Comfort is very key! And you most certainly need the tech to produce the best quality so we are not surprised to see you are using an OLED and a PS5 right there. Do you have any key advice that you would personally give to any smaller creators about making their content better and growing their socials? Have good lighting and be consistent. Set a day per week where you make all your content ahead of time for the next week or two, that way you avoid the stress while also staying consistent. I like doing Thursdays! Also, enjoy what you do and have fun, or it’ll feel like just any other job. 92

Some very great advice im sure our readers will take this in and we also do recommend lighting as thats a massive perspective nowadays. We follow your journey via social media and have seen some awesome gaming related content for example your games room, please tell us how much effort and time it took to achieve such a great space for gaming. The game room I’m in now was mostly built by my fiance (@LastOfCam) before I moved in, and took him about two years. We have spent the last few months tweaking it to fit in a dual gaming setup so we can play together, plus extra upgrades here and there. It takes a long time getting to this point, and I hope people realize that it comes together one piece at a time, over a very long time period. We spend a lot of our time planning for future upgrades and finding sponsors to help us reach our vision. Shout out to LastOfCam for making that game room to what it is over the last two years and it is great to see you both working so well together to make it to be what you can only dream of. We have seen that you are due to get married having recently gotten engaged and would like to congratulate you and your partner on this. Please tell us a little bit about you and your partner and how gaming brought you both together. Thank you! We met on Instagram, we were both following each other’s gaming accounts for about a year when Cam (@LastOfCam) reached out to me about a potential Twitch collaboration and asked me if I wanted to stream on his community channel, Gamrtalk. I said yes and we have talked every day since! Due to Covid we couldn’t meet up in person until two years into our relationship. As soon as the borders opened up last November, I jumped on a plane to the US and we’ve been together in person ever since, traveling back and forth between the USA and Sweden. We are now engaged and getting married June 3rd! It’s amazing having a partner that shares your interests. 93

We absolutely love to see this. It is absolutely fantastic to see what gaming can do to people and how it brings those together who may have never met. Thanks for sharing this as we believe it will give our readers more insight to communities online and they may just find their loved one through gaming. Speaking more on your social life, we see that you are trying to move to The United States from Sweden could you give us an insight on how all this may impact your career and what was the final deciding factor to move stateside. I am, yes! I’m currently in the process of moving to the US so that I can live with my fiance Cam. It’s a long, expensive, and mentally draining process but something that I’m more than willing to do so that we can continue living together. By moving, I’m losing a lot of my Swedish/Nordic sponsors, which is such a shame because they have been absolutely amazing to work with. But on the other hand, it also opens up more doors since companies are more likely to ship products to the US. It’s a big change for sure, but I think it will benefit me in the end. It’s great to see such commitment we wish you so well in the future with this big change to your life and as for sponsors with us being based in the UK we have come across similar struggles with US based companies and do think your move will help a lot in welcoming a lot of new sponsors. We see you partner with some amazing brands and companies, could you give us an insight to who these are and how they came to be a part of your content? I spend a lot of time each week reaching out to new companies, and I get so happy whenever we can create a new partnership. I have worked with some incredible companies, including most gaming publishers/developers such as Playstaton, Xbox, Nintendo, Bethesda, EA, Ubisoft, Square Enix, Capcom, Bandai Namco; big companies such as Sony, Amazon Prime and Universal Studios; gaming/tech companies such as NZXT, Autonomous, Vizio, Logitech, Blue Microphones, and more who have helped providing products for the setup. It’s all about finding the sponsors who you

would represent even without the partnership, and then spend a lot of time making a presentable Media Kit with statistics and past experience, and then write them a convincing pitch. It’s a lot like a job interview, really. That is a very strong and great list of supporters for you. We love to see it and can relate as we also do very similar things to produce the content our readers see right here within The Gamer Guide. As a female content creator have you had to deal with any negative comments and or hate within your community, if so how did you handle it and how would you recommend others in a similar case would handle this negativity / hate also. I’m happy to say that I have, for the most part, a very positive community and I receive very little hate. However, when a post trends more than usual, or I stream a male dominated game, I get the weird comment here and there. For streaming, I have amazing mods who handle the situation by deleting the comments and banning the user, while I try to ignore it the best I can. These people thrive on reaction, so I try to give them as little energy as possible. I try to keep the same mentality when it comes to my social media as well; delete and move on. It is very great to hear you have such wonderful support in your community and via your moderators thank you for the advice alongside this also im sure it will help a lot. We see you’ve been playing a lot of console related games, specifically on the PS5, what would be your console or platform of choice? The PS5 is definitely my console of choice, although I’m also a big fan of the Nintendo Switch. I love Playstation as both a platform with their trophy system and hardware specs, but also because of their exclusive single player games. Some of my all time favorite games are among these exclusives. Such a great strong choice and we must say you are absolutely right as PlayStation does an amazing job on those single player titles. As a big time gamer what would be your top 5 games of all time? That’s a hard question! It would most likely be

The Last of Us Part 2, Elden Ring, Uncharted 4, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Kingdom Hearts 2. Such a strong choice we are not surprised to see Elden Ring and The Last of Us there such big highly rated games. If you could only play one game for the rest of your life what game would that be and why? Hmm, I would say Skyrim. I feel like I have played that game forever and I’m still nowhere near the end. There’s just so much content! Ah a fellow fan of the finer things. I too am a massive elder scrolls fan with 100s of hours logged in oblivion and skyrim this is such a solid choice. So let’s talk about your highlight reel! What are the 5 top moments in your career so far that you would want in a montage? My top 5 moments are: getting to stream on Gamrtalks community Twitch (where I met my now fiance and several other streaming friends), partnering with Playstation (a lifelong dream), hosting a big giveaway of $4000 in gaming/setup gear, hitting over 1 million views on an Instagram video, & moving to the US. Wow that is such great highlights right there we love to see it and hope to see a lot more in the foreseeable future. On to your streaming life, what would you say is your best all time moment on stream? My viewers can redeem points to make me play the games in funny ways, and I think my all time favorite moment was when someone redeemed that I played with my controller upside down during a Resident Evil boss fight - and I won! Such a cool idea and viewers love to interact that way, congrats on the win i bet it was challenging! What is something that no one who watches your channel/content knows about you? I don’t think many of my followers know I’m bisexual. It’s not something I have “come out” about or even hidden, I simply just don’t think it’s a big deal since it doesn’t impact my content. 96

Thank you for sharing this information with us. The gaming and streaming industry is ever evolving and there are so many different people within the industry we have featured non binary people within one of our latest issues which was a great read. We believe in diversity and at the end of the day we are all gamers at heart. Finally, what are you currently working on that you’d like our readers to know about/check out? I am currently working on putting together yet another massive giveaway with my fiance!

This time to help raise awareness of our fundraiser where people can donate to financially help my move to the US. I have talked to a lot of big brands and we have some pretty incredible prizes lined up. You can read more about the fundraiser on GoFundMe.com/ CamPetra, and keep a lookout on my socials in June for the big giveaway. We will most certainly keep an eye out for this we may even enter! Thank you so much for taking part in this interview here with The Gasmer Guide. It was an absolute pleasure.

Check out ThatPetra’s Twitch channel and follow her social media channels to give her some support! Twitch: @ThatPetra Instagram: @that.petra Twitter: @ThatPetra YouTube: @Cam and Petra

The Gamer Guide - Issue 8