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Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015EDITOR’S LETTER“343’S SPREAD OF RADICAL ALTERATIONS ARE LIKELY TO WOW”As excited as I am for Guardians, I just can’t buy the idea that the ol’ Master Chief has turned bad. ‘Hunt the truth’ all you want, but I’ve got a feeling he and his three buddies are going to be vindicated by the game’s end. If he and Locke don’t jetpack off into the sunset together in the final cutscene, I’ll eat my space helmet. In the same way, I think 343 Industries’ spread of radical alterations – a coop focused campaign, AI buddies, the ambitious Warzone – are likely to wow, despite not reading like classic Halo ingredients on the page. Turn to page 26 to find out how the team is shaking up the formula.EMAIL matthew.castle@futurenet.com LIVE OXM Pesto…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015IS THIS SHELTER SIM A WINNER?Nuclear moreIt’s a pre-order exclusive, but fan-fave map Nuketown will be getting another futuristic overhaul for Call of Duty: Black Ops III.War is hell. Unless you’re an Xbox One owner. Then war is ace. Gears of War, Wolfenstein: The New Order, several Call of Duty games… we just can’t get enough of that intense shooting action.But This War of Mine isn’t interested in the soldiers on the front line, it’s about the damage done to the civilians who have to live through the conflict. Inspired by the suffering of the Bosnian people during the 1992-1996 siege of Sarajevo, it places you in charge of a makeshift shelter. A survival strategy game then, where you have to keep as many inhabitants alive as possible until the war ends. You need to…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015“PSST, CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET? BECAUSE OPEN-WORLD GAMES CERTAINLY CAN’T”So I was driving through the desert in Mad Max, my head shaven, skin bleached, spraying chrome paint into my mouth (immersion) when I saw something glimmering on the horizon. An abandoned car? A mysterious new weapon? True happiness? Oh. Wait. The map had already told me that it was some scrap I could pick up, so I didn’t wonder what it was. Thanks to that map, I never have to feel a sense of wonder again. Drive around enough and it’ll happily fill itself in, highlighting every secret, solving every mystery, playing the game for me.Max is hardly the first offender, nor will he be the last. Assassin’s Creed Unity is so excited about all of the treasure chests it’s hidden around Paris, that it can’t help but blurt…3 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015HOW TO SPEAK DEVELOPER“We’ve been delighted with the fan response to the free DLC, and believe all developers should do the same.”Before we cash in that goodwill by charging for the remaining DLC, we’d like to briefly patronize all the devs who didn’t strip stuff out of their games and then release it for ‘free’ later.“We are really disappointed that our fitness app didn’t hit sales expectations.”When have any of you thought, ‘I’d better watch my health’ outside of a game?“We’ve enjoyed developing for consoles, but now we’re focusing on mobile gaming. If we weren’t happy, how do you explain our smiling photos over the credits?”My son has a stronger bond with his phone than with me. I just want him to see my face again.…1 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015STAR WARS BATTLEFRONTSo what’s new? They announced a playable Jar-Jar yet?Don’t hold your breath. DICE has announced three new multiplayer modes – Supremacy, Drop Zone and Cargo – though it’s being cryptic about the latter two. Supremacy battles are fought on large maps, with five control points. The team that controls the most points after ten minutes reigns supreme.So what’s wiser? Attack or defence?Supremacy caters to both. Defensive players (cowards) can focus on guarding captured points, while attacking types (heroes) slaughter their way to victory. We’re promised the majority of Battlefront’s vehicles will feature here, so don’t come crying to us when you take a TIE fighter or X-wing laser to the back.How’s a common footsoldier meant to defend against that?They might not have to, as Heroes and Villains can be unlocked.…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015COVENANT OF CHAMPIONSYou have to feel sorry for the Covenant at this point. They just I can't catch a break. For over a I decade. Halo: Combat Evolved s I motley crew of extra-terrestrial bogeymen have tussled with I Master Chief and the United Nations Space Command for control of the galaxy. They've laid down their lives on planet after planet, beachhead after beachhead. They've expired beneath the tires of Warthog jeeps, crumpled under rocket fire or tumbled, limbs waggling comically, from the co*ckpits of shredded Banshees. They've been rammed and routed, bombarded and crushed.In the course of the long struggle with Earth, the Covenant have come to see the Chief as no mere flesh-and-blood adversary but a figure out of myth - a "Demon", to quote the hysterical Grunts of Halo…18 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015Maciej BinkowskiThis is a radically different space to Harran so we’re curious how much carries across. How does parkour factor into endless fields?We have these big open spaces but the locations that you’re getting to are all parkour based. You go into a farm and you can go all over it. In the demo we see people who just walk in the doors, but others will see a haystack and then plot a route into the barn roof and smash through a window to find a secret stash. We have big industrial complexes too, which are big parkour areas.How do you maintain tension in an open world?We adapt all the AI, giving enemies new behaviours to keep pace with you – you’re not only running, but you’re driving. The basic approach…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015Call of Duty: Black Ops IIIBluffer’s GuideThe most popular game on the planet, CoD is made sequentially by Treyarch, Infinity Ward and new boys Sledgehammer. This year is Treyarch’s turn to dazzle.If the multiplayer beta on Xbox One is anything to go by (and it probably is), Black Ops III promises to be one of the most freeform and playable shooters ever. By adding Titanfallesque wall-running and Advanced Warfare’s booster-pack double-jumps to that classic Modern Warfare-esque gunplay, Treyarch’s well on its way to creating a superb shooter.After all the much-vaunted (and much-vaulted) ‘verticality’ that got everyone excited for last year’s CoD, it’s refreshing to see that Treyarch’s map design is comparatively simple. Most high areas are left deliberately inaccessible and the game is tighter for it. Most deaths come from being ambushed or outgunned, rather…5 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015Lego Marvel’s AvengersBluffer’s GuideA comic book made into a film made into a toy made into a game, starring five superheroes, a spy and a man’s whose special power is ‘arrows’.The nemesis of Lego Marvel’s Avengers isn’t Ultron, or Thanos, or robots from beyond the stars: it’s the gnawing feeling we’ve seen this all before. Thankfully, despite being constructed from the same intuitive components as all other Lego games, this has some Loki-like tricks concealed up its armholes.It takes in both Avengers films – the excellent Assemble, and the lessexcellent Age of Ultron – but features characters from across the movies and comics. The roster is bewilderingly huge. There are over 100 characters, and loads of them appear here for the first time. As well as all the stars of the movies,…3 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015THE DICEMAN COMETHE asily written off as a Battlefield production line, DICE has been rocking up at 2015’s gaming shows with nary a bullish soldier to be seen. You’re more likely to find it rubbing shoulders with alien bears or squeaking said shoulder against the sterile glass of a future city. How does a war machine re-equip itself for the whimsical and the weird? With Star Wars Battlefront and Mirror’s Edge Catalyst both on the final straight, OXM talked to studio general manager Patrick Bach to find out.I’m interested how DICE came to make Battlefront. Is it as obvious as ‘EA gets the Star Wars license and says DICE is obviously going to make a shooter’, or is it more complex?It’s actually even more obvious than that. Disney came to EA looking…12 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015ZOMBIREVIEWERTOM STONELive OXM Tom Stone @TheTomStrangeTHE KNOWLEDGEWHAT IS IT?The Wii U survival horror, ported to Xbox One.WHAT’S IT LIKE?Xbox 360’s Condemned, a game that still inspires nightmares today.WHO’S IT FOR?Horror fans who miss a time when a zombie bite was the scariest thing in the world.Zombies have become a joke. A shambling, groaning punchline – cannon-fodder for lazy devs. So Zombi deserves credit from the off for reminding us why we feared gaming’s most frequent foes in the first place. These are the sprinting, 28 Days flavor of undead and they’re not to be taken lightly.See one alone and you should be able to take it out with your humble cricket bat. Two earns a gulp and a reach for the gun holster. Three or more and it’s time to…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015BROTHERS: A TALE OF TWO SONSREVIEWEREMMA DAVIESLive OXM Emma @emceteraTHE KNOWLEDGEWHAT IS IT?A puzzler in which you control one character on each analog stick.WHAT’S IT LIKE?A beautiful, inventive and thoroughly charming test of coordination.WHO’S IT FOR?Anyone who didn’t experience this on Xbox 360.Sweden is often rather underrated for its myriad contributions to the cultural landscape: melancholic crime drama, ABBA, Ikea meatballs. And now this, a fairy tale-esque puzzler in which you guide the titular siblings through an oh-so-Nordic environment on a quest to find a special spring that might cure their ailing father. Well, we say ‘now’, but Brothers was originally released on Xbox 360 back in 2013 – proving one of the surprise critical hits of that year, and deservedly so.You take the reins of both of these siblings – and rather than swapping…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015NOVA-111REVIEWERJOE SKREBELSLive OXM Joe @2plus2isjoeTHE KNOWLEDGEWHAT IS IT?A stop-start adventure that doesn’t want to decide what it is.WHAT’S IT LIKE?A cheery dungeon crawler but one with no patience for your dawdling.WHO’S IT FOR?Fiendish mechanical explorers who can multitask.Games are either turn-based or real-time. We’ve created whole genres based on this assumption. Sometimes the boundaries are bent, but they are never broken. Yet somehow Nova-111 is both types simultaneously. It has its cake and eats it and, for once, that saying makes sense because the game promotes this weird doublethink as part of its design.You are a spaceship, set in a gridded world. Every move you make to get to the level exit takes a turn. When you take a turn, everything else living in it takes a turn. Except when…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015VELOCITY 2XREVIEWERCHRIS SCHILLINGLive Rockin Stroll @schillingcTHE KNOWLEDGEWHAT IS IT?A jet-heeled Jack of all trades: platforming, puzzling and shooting.WHAT’S IT LIKE?Did we say it was fast? It’s fast. And sometimes frustrating.WHO’S IT FOR?Got quick reflexes and plenty of patience? Here’s your dream game.Velocity 2X straddles two genres – top-down shooter and side-scrolling actionplatformer – expertly. As Lt Kai Tana, you’ll zip around in a nippy little craft, blasting nasties and rescuing survivors. Occasionally the labyrinthine levels require you to trigger gates to deactivate energy barriers, and often that requires you to dock, whereupon Tana exits her ship to sprint, slide and leap around a 2D stage. The controls are responsive, the action fast and fluid and the strikingly angular art ensures it looks as good as it plays. The story is fairly…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015BATTLEFIELD 4 – NIGHT OPERATIONSIt’s a sign of the times when an online game being supported with patches and updates two years after release is seen as something praiseworthy. We’re more accustomed to servers being turned off around this point, or to last year’s installment becoming a wasteland of hackers and cheats.In the case of Battlefield 4, the motive may be to cultivate goodwill – the game launched in a sorry state. These days it’s healthier than ever, and the dev has seen fit to release a bonus map, free of charge.Zavod: Graveyard Shift is a reworked version of one of the base game’s best maps, taking the sunny environment of Zavod 311 and turning out the lights. The minimal emergency lighting found inside buildings is completely destructible, and indoor areas are plunged into…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015How to be a bigger and better bossMetal Gear Solid V isn’t the most transparent of experiences. It’s deeper than just about any title on Xbox One, but does a poor job of explaining those depths. Happening upon some hidden tactic or skill is a big part of the game’s appeal, but when you’re still learning how to play after 40 hours it’s okay to ask for a few pointers. We’ve compiled the information we wish we’d known at the outset, as well as highlighting a few Easter eggs you might enjoy along the way.Uncovering the other side of Xbox gamingSAVE YOUR BULLETSSneaking behind a guard with your weapon drawn lets you hold them up and issue commands to the now-cowering goon. Bring up the interaction menu with the left bumper and select ‘get down’ to force…6 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015Blast CorpsLOVING The little man’s arm-pumping run when dashing aboutHATING Uncontrollable dumptruck BacklashRare’s second N64 game, following Killer Instinct Gold, helped establish the studio’s reputation as the cream of the crop. Blast Corps was critically acclaimed, wonderfully unique and, while not exactly a huge seller, it paved the way for a seemingly unstoppable run of chart-topping success.There’s still nothing quite like it. It’s an action-puzzle hybrid where the aim is to clear a path for a nuclear missile carrier that can’t be allowed to slow down. If the carrier touches anything on its relentless crawl, it’s game over.The cool twist is that each level must be completed with a set selection of vehicles. Levels have you racing to push blocks, move cranes, drive trains, shunt explosives, demolish houses and hop between…1 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015SpelunkyReports from Xbox’s biggest communitiesDetails Dev Mossmouth / Pub Mossmouth / Reporter Alex DaleLast summer, YouTuber Spelunky God set a new Spelunky world record, darting through the platformer’s 20 stages in a logic-frazzling one minute, 41 seconds, beating his own record by six seconds. Speedrunning through Spelunky is an interesting challenge, because you can’t just rely on muscle memory like you can with most platformers, as the level layouts change with each playthrough.This means you’re beholden to a large extent to Lady Luck – and she shone brightly on Spelunky God that day. The first slice of good fortune occurs when he happens upon a shop stocked with a teleporter, compass and a jetpack in the opening moments of Stage 1-2; the trinity of special items considered essential if you…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3Offer me a ride on an actual skateboard, and I’ll scream and call the police. Spare me the challenge of riding your wheelie plank; you’re talking to a man who gets out of breath when he looks at a set of stairs. Stick me in front of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, however, and I won’t let go of the pad for days. I might even start speaking in horrifying skate lingo as if I know what I’m talking about.This is a game that let a jelly-legged stumbler like me grind down ten-foot rails, backflip over gaping half-pipes and even do a kickflip. To this day, I’m still not quite sure what a kickflip is. Yet thanks to Pro Skater 3, I can do one with both hands tied behind…4 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015THE BIG SLEAZY//THE GAME’S ILLUSION OF FREEDOM CREATES A POWERFUL SENSE OF TIME AND PLACE//New game from Double FineHeadlander is a side -scrolling adventure where you’re the disembodied head of the last human in the universe. Fight a deranged computer by solving puzzles that involve attaching the head to various bodies. Sounds very… Double Fine.Boo! Get off the stageRock Band 4 will cost $20 more on Xbox One than on PS4, due to the game being boxed with an adapter for your old instruments. Annoying, but still a lot cheaper than shelling out for a whole new band kit…You haven’t played a game quite like Mafia III. Sure, you’ve played open-world adventures, and you’ve seen games with accurate settings from different periods in history. But you haven’t seen anything quite as rich…5 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015ROCKET SCIENCEPALE GREEN DOTKSP is set on Kerbin, a planet that’s a bit like Earth. It’s populated by Kerbals, little green men who grin and scream unintelligibly through their journeys into the beyond. They’re a bit like Minions, really, but with a real job.FAR OUT, MUNBeyond Kerbin is its moon, Mun, and analogs for Venus, Mars and lots of our other neighbors. Getting to them, as in real life, is a stiff challenge: your first dozen hours playing the game will be occupied by the Mun.STAGE DIRECTIONSYou don’t just build rockets – you fly them. This means planning the ‘stages’ of each craft’s flight – when solid fuel boosters detach, sections separate and, crucially, when parachutes deploy. You don’t want to miss that last one.What’s the story?KSP puts you in charge…3 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015IT’S COLLECTOR’S EDITION SILLY SEASON!Ubisoft theme park plannedSeriously! Scheduled to open its doors in Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia in 2020, it’ll give punters a chance to star in their own game.Are those Christmas bells we hear jingling? Or is it the pockets of videogame marketers as they make off like bandits with your life savings? That’s right, the holiday season is upon us and that means game retailers are offering the opportunity to supersize preorders of this winter’s biggest games with collector’s editions that come packaged with an assortment of ludicrous extras. Some of it is brazen garbage, others… are quite cool. Let’s unpack a few of the higher-profile offerings with our eyes, shall we?Rise of the Tomb Raider Collector’s EditionBoth splinters and goodies await you once you bust into this crateshaped edition. It includes…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015RAINBOW SIX SIEGEDelayed! Why not just shoot me in the face?Sorry, but we won’t be shooting anyone in Siege until December 1. Delays are always infuriating, but we’d rather have a game working from launch than an early but unplayable mess. Some good news is that the five-vs-five multiplayer should be more accessible than ever, with a new Spectator mode for an 11th player.What does it do? Time travel me to December?Our hands-ons with the game have been fun, but harsh. Just when we think we’ve got the hang of it, we realize we’ve actually got a bullet lodged in our skull. Spectator mode aims to help new/crappy players learn by watching. Hopefully this’ll teach you the secrets to being a killing machine, or at least surviving a few seconds.Peeking through the…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015MessagesCONTACT USfacebook.com/oxmuk@oxm eoxm@futurenet.comgamesradar.com/oxmThe times they are a-changing for Xbox One. Some of you seem excited by change – others less so, with concerns about how we’re naming games, the Dashboard update and even Scalebound.Scale back the hypeSo, I checked out Scalebound to see what you and all the internet were hyping on about. From what I can see, everyone’s getting so excited because ‘it has a dragon in it’. Oh, and the man wears headphones. Great. I honestly just don’t get it this time. Of the major games in Xbox One’s 2016 lineup, this doesn’t seem to offer anything special. Quantum Break has an X-Man armed with incredible time powers and the new Crackdown lets you flatten entire cities! Compared to these genuinely next-gen games, I just don’t see what…3 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015ScaleboundIt feels like Hideki Kamiya, Bayonetta creator and serial Twitter abuser, has been working toward Scalebound for some time. Through his work runs the theme of the small calling on the big, be it demons woven from Bayonetta’s hair or the tiny citizens of The Wonderful 101 uniting into towering blades and whips. In the pairing of Scalebound’s human, Drew, and dragon, Thuban, we see that same relationship played out in frantic real time. As the former nimbly murders foot soldiers with swords, spears and other pointy implements, his pet crushes their barracks, or belches flames at giant insects that wander into the fray. Where Kamiya once used massive beasts as the payoff to a desperate struggle, here one’s on-screen at all times. And it is mesmerizing.Thuban’s a complex AI…5 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015Elite: Dangerous – HorizonsBluffer’s GuideA season of expansions for Elite: Dangerous – the first of which will allow you to, finally, land on planets.Elite: Dangerous has been available for a while as part of Xbox’s Game Preview program. But if you fancy taking advantage of the prerelease discount then you’d better get your afterburners out, because the full, finished game hits Xbox One on October 6. There’s no definite timeframe as to when the Horizons season of expansions will follow, but we know for sure that it will, as Frontier Developments boss man David Braben confirmed as much during an ‘Ask Me Anything’ section on zeitgeisty internet site, Reddit.Up first on Horizons’ agenda is Planetary Landings, the expansion that brings… the ability to land on planets. But what the expansion lacks in crypticness,…3 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015UnravelBluffer’s GuideUltra-cute platformer Unravel appeared in the mind of developer Martin Sahlin when he was camping with his family. He instantly crafted a physical Yarny and took pictures of him in the woods (but not in a creepy way).The word ‘charm’ is horribly overused when it comes to indie games. It’s almost as bad as ‘quirky’. (Don’t even get us started on ‘whimsical’.) Yet when it comes to describing the adorable Yarny, a knitted character who leaves a trail of wool behind him, there just aren’t many words that suit Unravel better. Charm positively seeps out the screen during our extended hands-on. We’re immediately powerless to resist feelings of distinct fuzziness as we trot through a garden filled with fluttering butterflies and surprisingly satisfying Limbo-esque physics puzzles.Yarny is all about,…3 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015The Escapists: The Walking DeadBluffer’s GuideA standalone spin-off of February’s indie prisonbreak sandbox. Now you’re plotting your way around zombies instead of prison guards.Well, if anything proves The Escapists is all about bizarre crafting combinations, this is it. Team17 has taken February’s pixelprison indie smash and duct-taped it to seemingly the nearest random thing to hand: a set of Walking Dead comic books. It really shouldn’t work. And yet!Unlike Telltale’s side-stories, this is ripped straight from the comic’s pages – kicking off with cop Rick Grimes’ hospital escape, then racing across issues to take in key scenes such as Hershel’s farm. But the narrative backbone isn’t allowed to mess with The Escapists’ winning formula: there’s all the planning, discovery, crafting and – let’s face it – sometimes mind-numbing routine that made the original. But…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015GEARS OF WAR: ULTIMATE EDITIONSometimes our memories of a distant game can be about as reliable as a concrete parachute. We all have favorites that we remember looking incredible, stunningly realistic. They’ll never top that, we think. But booting up an old classic is almost always a nasty slap to nostalgia. We may claim to look past graphics if the gameplay impresses, but 99% of us can’t get through an early Xbox game without our eyes hurting. That’s the Coalition’s greatest achievement – it’s given us the Gears of War we remember, and then some.Gears of War is the story of Marcus Fenix, a gravel-voiced solider imprisoned on the planet Sera. Once a pleasant, human-populated planet, Sera has been devastated in a war with underground monsters called the Locust Horde. For at least nine…8 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015DISHONORED: DEREVIEWEREMMA DAVIESLive OXM Emma @emceteraTHE KNOWLEDGEWHAT IS IT?One of last-gen’s most enjoyable stealth games, repackaged with DLC.WHAT’S IT LIKE?Murderous or merciful – it’s entirely up to you – in a world crammed with detail.WHO’S IT FOR?Anyone who didn’t play Dishonored on 360, or those wanting a recap ahead of the sequel.The beauty of Dishonored lies in how much freedom you’re given. You’re a supernatural assassin, but you don’t have to kill a soul. Every target can be neutralized non-lethally – although, arguably, these are often fates worse than death. It’s a stealth game, but sneaking can consist of anything from teleportation to bending time to possessing a guard and using his body to access forbidden areas. You can use a pistol, or summon up a swarm of rats to nibble…3 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015DISNEY INFINITY 3.0: STAR WARS STARTER PACKREVIEWERTOM STONELive OXM Tom Stone @TheTomStrangeTHE KNOWLEDGEWHAT IS IT?The third Disney Infinity game, now with Star Wars characters.WHAT’S IT LIKE?Playing as characters from the prequel trilogy but actually having fun. A paradox?WHO’S IT FOR?Younger fans who aren’t ready for Battlefront. Wait, Star Wars is for children?Anakin Skywalker seems an odd choice of hero for a kids’ videogame. Doesn’t Disney remember the scene in Revenge of the Sith where he decided to kill some younglings? Shady protagonist aside, this is easily the best Disney Infinity game yet.With this Star Wars starter pack you get two new figures, Ahsoka Tano and Anakin Skywalker (better characters sold separately) and the Twilight of the Republic campaign. It’s a mix of light platforming, so-so space battles that play a bit like my-first-Battlefront, and hack-and-slash lightsaber…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015DON’T STARVE: GEREVIEWERJOE SKREBELSLive OXM Joe @2plus2isjoeTHE KNOWLEDGEWHAT IS IT?A horror-comedy survival game with a charming aesthetic and gruesome difficulty.WHAT’S IT LIKE?The terror of nighttime in Minecraft, but all the time.WHO’S IT FOR?Crafting enthusiasts and people who need to be told not to die.Survival games ask a tough question of their players. Can you, when faced with a fantastical situation, be bothered to stop doing amazing things and make sure your character is warm enough? This micromanagement will thrill some, but stop less masoch*stic players before they start. The problem, most often, is it’s just not clear enough how those steadily emptying meters can be filled.Klei performed visual magic with Mark of the Ninja, with every element of the game apparent to the player at first glance. The studio performs the same…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION – THE DESCENTWhere The Jaws of Hakkon was an exercise in tying up loose ends, The Descent feels as though it’s fashioning new ends and leaving them loose as anything. Earthquakes are rocking Ferelden’s underworld, spilling the underused Darkspawn back into the dwarven Deep Roads – typically, the Inquisitor is called in to find out what’s causing the tectonic-demonic kerfuffle.This is as linear as Inquisition has ever been, a three-hour spelunk down six levels of mineshaft. You’ll mop up most collectibles on your first run, unlocking extra operations for a Deep Road-specific take on the War Table as you go. BioWare wants you to reach the end in as efficient a way as possible – but that doesn’t mean there isn’t resistance.Unlike Hakkon, this pack’s designed to be played at any time…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015TRIALS FUSION – AWESOME LEVEL MAXA gun-toting cat riding a purple-maned unicorn that breathes fire. That’s an instant red flag that a game might be trying a bit too hard to prove how crazy it is.It wouldn’t be an issue if the mystical stallion was a fun lead, but after months of playing with Trials bikes, a hoof landing on the track instead of a tire just feels wrong. The six stages (of 30 new here) that you play as the unicorn are a mixed bag, too. For us, the best Trials tracks have you inventing solutions on the fly. That’s made a lot trickier by levels that constantly teleport you between locations and OTT visual design that can feel like your eyeballs are being assaulted by a kaleidoscope. The internal logic of the wackier…1 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015Perfect DarkBECAUSE… “I want soul, not just a soldier”LOVING Having the freedom to figure things out for myselfHATING The ultra-whiffy AIOriginally released on N64 in May 2000, Perfect Dark is almost old enough to get married, or drive a moped, or, er, both at the same time. It was born into a world before Halo and Call of Duty stamped their authority all over the first-person shooter genre, and that leaves it feeling oddly dated – even though so many of its ideas were ahead of its time.The lack of iron sights and jumping is jarring, even though there’s no practical need for either. And even right to the end I was tapping both trigger buttons to shoot while dual-wielding, a neural misfire that cost Joanna Dark a few brain cells…3 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015UnderwurldeLOVING Taking a trip down memory laneHATING Taking a trip down yet another four-screen death chasmOh, I’ve enjoyed watching YouTube players struggle with Underwurlde. They pinball desperately off the walls like a piglet trapped in a bus. They frown and mutter “What?” and “I… what?” And no one spots the helpful catapult sitting three pixels left of their starting position. I was bewildered by Underwurlde too – but bear in mind we’re talking some 30 years ago.I was eight when the UK’s Your Spectrum magazine ran a three-page Underwurlde preview. It was 1984: no internet, no forums, no demos. So game hype happened inside you. My little brain filled the Underwurlde information vacuum with hoped-for wonders. What secrets lay beyond that intricately furnished mansion room? What amazing sights were just…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015Fallout 3Dev Bethesda Game Studios / Pub Bethesda Softworks / Reporter Tom StonePeople dismissing videogames as ‘just for children’ is incredibly aggravating. Usually we slap them across the face with something aimed at adults, like Fallout 3. But now someone’s worked out a way to play through Fallout 3 as a baby. Touché.The game’s tutorial is a brief summary of your childhood, taking you from crib to Capital Wasteland, but if you run out of a room fast enough while you’re a toddler, you can exploit one of the game’s 8,356,882 glitches and remain a baby forever. Granted, finishing the game without ever hitting puberty is only possible thanks to some clever PC mods – but now that mods are confirmed for the Xbox One version of Fallout 4, is this…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015GAME ROULETTEEvery month, OXM dips into its Games Cupboard of Doom and plucks out a random game from Xbox history. Will it be a classic or a howler? Let the balls decide...THIS MONTHPETER JACKSON’S KING KONG: THE OFFICIAL GAME OF THE MOVIEA launch title for Xbox 360, Kong wowed critics with its unique feature of being a game based on a movie that wasn’t absolute dreck. Playing as Jack (Adrien Brody, reprising his role from the film), you land on the promisingsounding Skull Island. Soon you’ll meet giant bugs, giant bats and regular-sizebut-still-toobig-for-ourtastes raptors. These monsters try to slaughter you every chance they get. They must recognize Brody from Predators.//Skewering tastier foes into kabobs, you lob them as bait//The game has guns, but they might as well shoot out flags with…1 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015HOW TO MAKE A GIANT MUSHROOM PLAY NICE WITH A SPACE MARINE1 EvolveGearbox had finished Borderlands 2 and wanted to push its levels of expertise, and make a game where these characters, on paper, should not be in the same game. That meant taking the sci-fi space marine and having it exist alongside a mage, a sword-wielding samurai, and have them play differently. Then experiment having them in multiplayer. Then wonder what it would be like to have them in a story, too, and make a story to have this all make sense.2 Know what worksBattleborn is a £$60 boxed product. 2K makes premiumpriced triple-A games and that is what Battleborn is. We have no other business model and we do well in the triple-A space. There was never any question that it wasn’t going to be full retail.3 Face your…3 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015“NEW MOMBASA IS COMPROMISED! THE COVENANT MUST BE BLOCKED!”THE CITY“I took tons, and I mean tons, of pictures of the buildings from the level in the game,” says Cassidy. “I then told each person who was doing a building to pick their favorite and recreate it.”UNSC VEHICLESCassidy used a program called Lego Digital Designer to help him construct “the smooth, slightly angled grey pieces to get the sharp, industrial feel of the Warthog.”COVENANT SHIPSLikewise Lego Digital Designer, essentially enabled him to design these ships before he built them. This gave him “the blue curved pieces I used to get the organic flow of the Covenant Banshee.”SOLDIERS“Most of the parts are official Lego parts that I found either matched the colour or design of the soldiers,” explains Cassidy. “Weapons and armor are designed by third-party Lego vendors and custom…3 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015STRIKE VECTOR EXThese Battlefront screens look a bit off.Described by its developer as an ‘aerial FPS’, Strike Vector was an aerial combat shooter that swooped onto PC early last year. It earned a lot of praise for its space dogfights, clever mix of claustrophobic and open maps, and old-school style multiplayer that focused on player skill.Don’t worry about my skills; I’ll be flying faster than the speed of light!Ships are fast, but it’s worth slamming on the brakes to enter ‘hover’ mode. This enables superior aiming, but naturally makes you a sitting duck for other ships to take out. Best of all, when you’re shot down you get a few seconds to steer the flaming wreckage into another ship. Kills don’t come much cheaper, or more satisfying.Perfect! Why haven’t I heard of…1 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015Social ServicesModern Manchester so you have a threat of getting robbed or stabbed on every corner.Joe CookeFeudal Japan. Playing as a ninja fighting against an evil samurai warlord would be the perfect setting for an AC game.Marcus Dovahkiin DeakinsThe 1930s would be cool, with sections that go back to the First World War.Rob GrayAgain in Britain. So many more historical events and characters to be explored. Connor Long-johnsonPersonally I’d love one based in WWII Berlin taking down Nazi Templars.Dan WebbAncient Egypt, or during the Salem witch trials would be epic.Logan CarrilloIn space? Nah that’d be terrible.Erik HagemannCan they bring back the modern-day sections? Those were my favorite parts.Christian HarrisDuring the revolution in Russia when the Tsar and his family were killed.Kurtis ProsserEgypt, in the deserts. It’d be cool to see how…1 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015Dying Light: The FollowingBluffer’s GuideHitting zombies with hammers and scrambling up walls is going to tire even the hardiest of heroes. Why not go for a relaxing drive in the countryside?You’d be forgiven for thinking The Following was a sequel as opposed to a simple expansion. Taking place in the countryside around Harran, it presents rolling cornfields, forests and craggy cliffs over an area equal to the size of the city’s two regions combined. It’s this scale that our demo is keen to emphasize, as a claustrophobic cave network opens into a panoramic mountaintop view of the new playground. That we’re then invited to dive into a distant lake below suggests this is a slightly more fantastical trip than the grueling struggle faced in Harran’s zombie-plagued streets.The fear is that, well, there would…3 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015CobaltBluffer’s GuideA quick-paced shooter, valuing the classic, instantaction feel of old-school deathmatches.Yes, this is indeed the first game to be published by the developers of Minecraft that isn’t anything to do with the block-building masterpiece. And that’s interesting. But do you know what’s more interesting? The fact that Cobalt is a hell of a lot of fun, and exactly the kind of game we could see ourselves losing many an hour to.It claims to be an action-platformer, but Cobalt’s main draw is its fourplayer deathmatch mode. In it, four players compete for the most kills – à la all deathmatches ever – in various arena-like stages. Playing out in a style akin to a 2D platformer, Cobalt values a quick pace and flowing movement over things like… well, aiming. Instead…3 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015Martin SahlinYou were a big surprise in the middle of EA’s conference. What was that experience like?It was quite overwhelming. It was absolutely not what I expected – it was so beyond anything you could ever imagine. It’s interesting; I saw the video of it afterwards and I look really terrified, but the thing is, I totally wasn’t. Yes, you’re nervous, of course, but most of all I was so excited about it. I mean, we’ve been working on the game for two years now and it gets better and better. It gets to the point you have to share this with someone because this is so cool.What do you think it is about Yarny that really attracts people?It might be something about that perspective. That they are looking at things…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015WWE 2K16Bluffer’s GuideThis year’s title focuses on the WWE career of Stone Cold Steve Austin – the beerchugging face of wrestling’s rowdy boom period of the late ’90s.At some point in the midto-late 1990s the WWE (then WWF) underwent a metamorphosis so dramatic, even butterflies were like, “steady on”. It was out with the family-friendly Hulk Hogan era, which had served the company well in the ’80s but was now beginning to look cartoonish, and in with something ruder, cruder and more in touch with the mood of the time: the beer-swilling, trash-talking Attitude Era. Wrestling historians differ on when exactly the shift began, but the earliest date offered is June 23, 1996 – the night Stone Cold Steve Austin, a gifted but overlooked wrestler trapped in the mid-card doldrums, catapulted…4 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015MAD MAXREVIEWERTOM STONELive OXM Tom Stone @TheTomStrangeTHE KNOWLEDGEWHAT IS IT?The 2015 postapocalypse openworld game that isn’t Fallout 4.WHAT’S IT LIKE?A barren GTA, but with no pesky law and order to spoil your fun.WHO’S IT FOR?Road-rage sufferers who dream of running other cars off cliffs.Walking really should be obsolete in 2015. We’ve had cars for at least ten years now, so why are we still using our ghastly legs to limp us from A to B? If WALL-E taught us anything, it’s that when we start getting everywhere in hover chairs, we’re all going to be a lot happier and more comfortable about our weight. We might as well just snap our legs off now and be done with it.Avalanche clearly agrees, as a good 90% of Mad Max is spent behind…5 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2016REVIEWERALEX DALELive ChocoboOfDoom @SporadicDalerTHE KNOWLEDGEWHAT IS IT?PES Productions celebrates its 20th anniversary with the best PES yet.WHAT’S IT LIKE?Silky-smooth on offense, crunchingly thuggish on defense.WHO’S IT FOR?Soccer fans who knows thair Cabayes from their Kouyatés.To the untrained eye, it would appear Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer series hasn’t done that much actual evolving over the course of its lifespan. Sure, the boots have gotten more colorful and the haircuts sillier, but it’s still basically the same game that wowed PS2 owners 14 years ago, isn’t it?Maybe, maybe not. But the fact remains that although PES is seemingly as unchanging as Steven Gerrard’s haircut, every fall we feverishly await the latest game all the same. And that’s because, despite their broad year-on-year similarities, each PES game is balanced differently from the last.…5 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015FORZA MOTORSPORT 6REVIEWERPAUL TAYLORLive Paulus McT @mynameisptTHE KNOWLEDGEWHAT IS IT?Microsoft’s premier racing series returns, replacing microtransactions with personality.WHAT’S IT LIKE?Getting the keys to a billionaire’s garage, mashed in with the best bits from Forza 5 and Horizon 2.WHO’S IT FOR?Car bores, the car curious, and anyone who appreciates shiny metal.While the opening credits say this is a Turn 10 production, there’s DNA from Playground Games’ cheekier Forza Horizon 2 stuffed inside Microsoft’s racing sim. Don’t be too alarmed: Forza 6 is still more about tearing up tarmac than prancing through poppy fields, but its influence has led to a more joyful, generous racer that thunders onto your screen in full, fist-pumping 1080p/60fps.Forza 5 may have been a welcome launch title, but it’ll go down in history as one of Xbox’s more tight-fisted…5 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015MADDEN NFL 16REVIEWERALEX DALELive ChocoboOfDoom @SporadicDalerTHE KNOWLEDGEWHAT IS IT?It’s EA’s 28th(!) consecutive football game. Maddeningly prolific.WHAT’S IT LIKE?New catching options force you to approach old situations in new ways.WHO’S IT FOR?Despite the bump in showstopping catches, this is a Madden for the tacticians.On November 23 2014, in a match between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys, rookie wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr made a spectacular onehanded reception that was immediately dubbed ‘the touchdown of the century’ by pundits. A video clip of the play went viral around the world – even in countries that wouldn’t normally know the end zone from their elbow.In recognition, this year’s Madden pays tribute to the art of the wide receiver with a thoughtful and engaging update to the oft-ignored catching side of the game.…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015ALSO RELEASEDFrom best to worst, the latest additions to Xbox Live Marketplace1 ARKHAM KNIGHT -1989 MOVIE BATMOBILE PACKComes with two Batman Returnsthemed racetracks.Price: $1.992 ARKHAM KNIGHT – 1ST APPEARANCE BATMAN SKINDress as Batman from his Detective Comics debut.Price: $0.993 ARKHAM KNIGHT – BAT-FAMILY SKIN PACKThree outfits for Batman, one for Catwoman, two for Nightwing.Price: $1.994 ARKHAM KNIGHT – RED HOOD STORY PACKSomehow manages to be even shorter than the Harley Quinn DLC.Price: $1.995 ARKHAM KNIGHT – PROTOTYPE BATMOBILE SKINBest hold out for the Prototype Batsuit that Bruce stitched from actual bats. Or not.Price: $1.996 THE WITCHER 3 – NEW GAME +That’s enough Batman. Restart your Witcher 3 save with all your skills carrying over.Price: FREE…1 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 201515 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT FALLOUT 4#01 IT REWARDS YOU FOR GOING SOLOAt least a dozen companions have been confirmed for Fallout 4, including a faithful hound, a humanitarian gunslinger and a robot butler. A great feature no doubt, but a big part of what made Fallout 3 special was the isolation. You were one of the few left alive, a feeling that really sank in when crossing the hostile wasteland alone. So it’s to Bethesda’s credit that you can still explore the wasteland that way if that’s how you want to live your post-apocalyptic life. You won’t be punished for the lonesome approach either – instead, you’ll be granted access to unique perks.#02 WE’LL LEARN MORE ABOUT ‘THE INSTITUTE’The Institute is a secret organization with access to incredibly advanced technology. Those who dug deep into…8 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015Grabbed by the GhouliesLOVING The brilliantly British humorHATING The Grim Reaper. WhaddajerkBack when Grabbed by the Ghoulies was new, something always saddened me: the ballroom scene. There are zombies and skeletons all dancing really happily to an electric-guitar version of the theme tune, complete with vinyl scratches from a badass mummy on the turntable. So cool. But when I try to join in, I always seem to get into a scuffle on the dancefloor and ruin everyone’s fun.Sure enough, making my way across the now-HD dancefloor in Rare Replay, remastered in glorious 1080p, the final skeleton is indeed right in the middle of the exit gate. I disturb him, he attacks, his friends see the fracas… and I have to (re-)kill them all. Yes, I feel awful. Again.But then, after finishing the shortish…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015Raw cutsUncovering the other side of Xbox gamingPreorder WWE 2K16 and you unlock two rather unorthodox additions to the game’s already-bulging roster – two T-800 Terminator cyborgs, one based on the model from original 1984 movie, the other from the famed 1991 sequel Judgment Day. To publicize the offer, Arnold Schwarzenegger joined forces with various WWE Superstars to recreate one of the second film’s most iconic scenes (Dean Ambrose took the role of the unlucky chap who lost his clothes, his boots and his motorcycle). You’d think a couple of clanking, murderous Metal Mickeys would stand out like a sore thumb, but then again, WWE has had more than its fair share of inhouse oddballs over the years...//Arnold Schwarzenegger joined forces with various WWE Superstars to recreate one of the second…3 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 2015Batman: Arkham KnightDev Rocksteady Studios / Pub Warner Bros /Reporter Tom StoneWe thought Batman felt no fear. Until earlier this year, that is, when we took a stroll along Gotham’s rooftops and Man-Bat jumped out of nowhere, screaming in our faces. We practiced our screaming, too. Even months later, we still sleep with the lights on, in a bed made of guns. Better safe than sorry, hey?Terrified as we were, we still managed to catch Man-Bat, stick some cure in him and turn him back into weedy Dr Kirk Langstrom. After putting the doc behind bars in the Gotham City Police Department lockup, we were looking forward to a nice retirement of grappling up buildings without monsters jumping out at us. But then we heard rumors of some of hidden Arkham Knight…2 min
Official Xbox Magazine|December 201520 BEST DRIVING SURFACES IN FORZA MOTORSPORT 6Whether you’re a car, a horse or something in between, you’re always going to need a surface to drive on top of and do skids around. With this in mind, Forza 6 proudly boasts 148 unique driving surfaces, the most any developer has ever crammed into a driving game. Here are 20 of the best…01 Tarmac Made of small rocks, tar and old bits of Hubba Bubba, tarmac is widely regarded as the finest driving surface around.02 Asphalt Similar to tarmac, but sounding a bit like ‘ass fault’, it has the unfortunate connotations of a bathroom disaster.03 Gravel Loads of tiny rocks arranged roughly in a straight line by people too lazy or poor to build a real road.04 Sand The tiniest and most bothersome kind of rock there is.…3 min
