gameinformer

U B | 50 ЕТ EXPLORES

THE VOLATILE POLITICAL CLIMATE WITH A GROUNDBREAKING AND CONTROVERSIAL LOOK AT HOMEGROWN TERROR

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ФР HYUNDAI 5:295.

When you’re not playing Xbox 360° or watching movies on the 7-inch touchscreen of the Veloster, you can always upload your : favorite photos to its hard drive. YouTube.com/VELOSTER. Engineered for whatever. i E

ANDY McNAMARA EDITOR-IN-CHIEF andy@gameinformer.com

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Read my column or comment on this letter at

gameinformer.com/mag or follow

visit gameinformer.com daily for the latest and greatest, and follow @gameinformer on Twitter

ю

@GI_AndyMe

For the Sake of Argument

‘ve never been shy about pointing out things that annoy me, and like any good loudmouth, | get proven wrong on a frequent basis. It comes with the territory.

The Nintendo Wii? From day one the controller and lack of HD graphics annoyed me. Do | love some of the games on the system and think it's imperative that a gamer own one to play all the greats? Without question, because Nintendo is one of the greatest - if not the greatest - game developers in the world. | know | won't be the only gamer blowing the dust off a Wii, ejecting a copy of Super Mario Galaxy 2, and smiling through the lingering cloud as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword slides into the disk drive.

Do | think | was wrong about Nintendo Wii? Probably, as the system has dominated sales this generation and entertained tens of millions of gamers around the globe. But at the same time, in the last year the excitement around the system has slowed to a crawl. Some of it can be attributed to the announcement of Wii U, but | think there has been some fatigue at the gim- micky control system.

Nintendo isn't the only company guilty of mis- takes, Xbox 360s still break around this office and at friends’ homes like drunken, blind mice built them. Can anyone turn on a PlayStation 3 without having to install an update? Of course, some people's original Xbox 360s are still chug- ging to this day, and if you play PlayStation 3 every day, there must be at least be one or two days a year without an update (| kid, І kid).

At the end of the day, all these complaints and criticisms are just part of being a gamer. Complaining about games, game machines, developers, publishers, game magazines, CEOs, and websites are part of the fun. If we didn't have arguments about review scores and whose system was better, what would we talk about or use to show the depth of our nerd cred? Gaming is all about the fun when the machine is оп, and when the machine is off, arguing about games is sometimes as entertaining as playing the games themselves.

Enjoy the issue. Cheers,

contents

»54

Rainbow 6 Patriots

This entry in the legendary shooter series sheds the genre's clichéd Middle Eastern or Russian enemies in exchange for a threat closer to home. Rainbow 6 Patriots conveys the impact of terrorism not only through the eyes of the elite operatives, but also has players step into the roles of the terrorists themselves and the civilians caught in the crossfire.

By Matt Bertz

Checking Vita's Vitals

regulars

= 6 Feedback This month we respond to

explore a host of interest- elated Halloween

» 12 Connect Check out candid post- mortems on incredible titles

Gears of War 3 and Batman:

Arkham City, catch up with the Assassin's Creed lore, and discover this season's hottest gifts in 2011's Holiday Buying Guide.

77 80 Previews

We dive head first into M

Effect 3's rewarding multi-

player, explore the first se ої Final Fantasy

in on one of gaming's unluckiest anti- heroes in Max Payne 3.

Э 106 Reviews

The holiday avalanche of

great games keeps roll-

ing with Uncharted 3, Th 1 of Zelda: Skyward , and Battlefield 3

Can you guess which we

gave a perfect score?

з creation of the upcoming ed. Learn what hap when you mix robot dinosaurs with an RTS.

contents

3

4 contents

з n Might & Magic Heroes VI

Interview: Jay Wilson

games index

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Battlefield 3

Binary Domain.

Crysis

Darkness II, The.

Darksiders II

Disney Universe.

Final Fantasy Xill-2

Fortune Street

Forza Motorsport 4

Game of Thrones: Genesis, A

Gears of War 3: RAAM's Shadow Guardian Heroes

House of the Dead; Overkill Extended Cut, The Hulk Hogan's Main Event

Just Dance 3

Kaio: King of Pirates

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance Kirby's Return to Dream Land

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, The. Lord of the Rings: War in the North, The Mario Kart 7

Mass Effect 3

Max Payne 3

Might & Magic Heroes МІ

NASCAR Unleashed

Need for Speed: The Run.

NFL Blitz

Ninja Gaiden З

Okabu

Payday: The Heist .

Professor Layton and the Last Specter Ratchet & Clank: All 4 Опе.

Rayman Origins

Rocksmith

Saints Row: The Third . .

Sims 3 Pets, The

Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time Solatorobo: Red the Hunter .

Sonic Generations

Spider-Man: Edge of Time

Super Mario 3D Land.

Theatrythm Final Fantasy.

UFC Undisputed 3

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. . .

130

130

Cell contracts are lame... Pm on lockdown for a couple years!!!

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Сопіасі 05

feedback@gameinformer.com

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his month in Feedback, readers discuss the nature of the video game

beta, question our currency converting skills, describe their video game-inspired Halloween costumes, and praise our Zelda anniversary coverage while simultaneously accusing us of hating Nintendo.

Happy Birthday, Zelda | don't think I've ever enjoyed reading an article more than issue 22215 "The Legend of Zelda: 25 Years of Magic and Master Swords.” Seeing some of my favorite games again, reading some of your reactions to the ones | missed, and glimpsing where Link and Zelda are going next was easily the highlight of my day.

Jared Williams

via email

| have been a subscriber for a little more than a year and | haven't seen a single Nintendo cover story. When | opened my mailbox, | almost leapt for joy when | saw the cover. It was Link! | went in my house, and unleashed my excitement by literally dancing around my table and reading the magazine (at the same time). Since Game Informer didn't really cover Mario's 25th anni- versary, | wasn't expecting you guys to cover Zelda's. But to my surprise, you not only covered a great game that's coming out this year, you did stories on all of the Zelda games. Game Informer, you have made many Nintendo (and Zelda) fans very happy.

Drake Smith

via email

After naming The Legend of Zelda as the best game of all time in issue 200, how could we not celebrate Link's monumental anni- versary? Be sure to check out even more Zelda festivities at gameinformer.com/zelda,

including videos of Skyward Sword in action and a full playthrough (with our commen- tary) of the original Legend of Zelda on NES.

You Can't Please Them All Game Informer, we need to talk. All of a sudden you have been jumping on the Nintendo bandwagon because of their new systems and games, whereas before you have been completely mean to Nintendo. Need | remind you that Nintendo started everything! You have upset me with your Nintendo hating magazine for the last time! Then all of the sudden in your latest issue you claim that you want to honor Link and his 25th anniversary! Bull crap! It is not fair for all of the Nintendo fans to have to put up with your utterly disappointing magazine. Maybe if you were to be original and get some class, we the Nintendo fans would respect you and your magazine.

Nathan Everson

via email

Congratulations, Nathan. This is one of the most confusing letters we have ever received from a reader. We truly hope you figure out what it is you want from life.

Gorilla Math

І enjoyed last month's article entitled

“Currency Converter: Calculating Video Game Exchange Rates” (issue 222). As the instruc- tor of an anthropology class at the University of

Colorado at Boulder, however, | must point out a glaring error in the description of your mathemat- ical conversion, which you stated “might seem magical to our Mesopotamian ancestors.” The ancient Sumerian city-states of Mesopotamia were known for their advanced economy and adept merchants. In fact, cuneiform — one of the first forms of writing on Earth - was developed by the Sumerians to record economic transac- tions. That being the case, they would not be the least bit flummoxed by the mathematics of your conversion. Otherwise it was a great article. Keep up the clever writing and, when used appropriately, archaeological references.

Guy David Hepp

Boulder, CO

My girlfriend pointed a flaw in issue 2226 Currency Converter article. Concerning Fallout 3's Мика Cola caps, you fail to take into consideration the fact that drinking a Nuka Cola gives you one cap back, Brian 5. Hudson via email

It appears both the ancient Mesopotamians and Brian’s girlfriend are better at math than we are. Factoring in the bonus Nuka Cola cap, the U.S. debt is actually only 202 trillion caps - not 210 trillion, as stated in the article. We’re that much closer to post- apocalyptic financial solvency!

Better With А Friend | just wanted to thank you for the article about great co-op games (Co-Oped Ор!, issue 222). | have been searching for a few weeks for games that | could play with my girlfriend. She recently has been begging to kick my ass in video games; she already beat me in Mario Kart on the Wii so | thought | would try to research some games that we could play together. Thanks to your team of hardworking editors, | now have a great list of games | can play with my girlfriend. Jai Gordon via email

| want to thank you for your Co-Oped Up! article. | laughed when | saw it; not even three weeks ago, | told my husband we needed to get a dun- geon crawler we could play together. It's great you guys are acknowledging that often co-op is more enjoyable than solo or competitive multi- player, or at the very least makes decent games better. We will definitely keep this list in mind the next time we go game shopping!

Rachel Marshall

via email

CANDID PHOTOS FROM THE VIDEO GAM

Damned If You Do... I'm sure you have already received numerous emails about the Battlefield 3 beta. I’m tired of listening to gamers complain about the most obvious and expected problems (i.e. glitches and poor graphics) from a 1.3GB download for the Xbox 360, instead of reporting useful changes to developers to improve the game. | have a list of real problems that | will save for EA. Even though | am pleased with the beta I’m dissatis- fied with how unreliable EA's servers are. If this is happening in the beta what's the likelihood there will be server problems with the actual game’s multiplayer? Isaiah Drungo Hampton Roads, VA

We couldn't agree more. Gamers need to understand that a beta is for the developer’s benefit, not the players’. Betas exist so that Participants can help test unfinished code and server capabilities, not to entertain impatient gamers with early access to the final product. We tip our hats to players who take the beta process seriously and provide useful feedback to developers instead of incoherent rants. As for EA’s server woes: To see if DICE addressed the problems that emerged in the multiplayer beta, read our- Battlefield 3 review on page 110.

Most Likely To Succeed I'm a 15-year-old girl gamer who enjoys intense games with intriguing storylines and great graph- ics, like Red Dead Redemption and Assassin's Creed. However, my mother has a problem with my gaming. Every time | spend more than an hour on my PS3, she chastises me about concentrating on my schoolwork. The thing is, | have a 3.83 GPA, I'm a district representative of my high school, I'm class president, and I'm preparing to take college classes to get my associate's Degree by graduation...and I'm also rookie of the year on my softball team. How can | convince her that I'm on top of everything; | just want some downtime? Katniss Everdeen San Francisco, CA

This would normally be the time where we would tell you to quit complaining and listen to your mother, but it sounds like you have your schoolwork under control. Instead

of waiting for her to yell at you in the middle of a gaming session, try negotiating a weekly schedule for when and how you want to use your free time beforehand. If that doesn’t work, take a cue from your pal Altair and hide in a hay bale to escape your next confrontation.

b

x ELIT , E INDUSTRY

Short Answers to Readers" Burning Questions

"Would | get arrested if | ran through your office in a panda suit?"

Probably.

“What are the chances that Game Informer could send me my own Xbox 360 and use that as a tax write-off?”

Poor.

“How do you go about asking pub- lishers/developers to remake/re- release a game? Especially when the company is defunct."

That's what wishing wells are for.

We Get It!

Countless readers wrote in

to complain about Link's right-handedness on the cover of issue 222. We are not responsible for choosing how Link wields his sword. If we were, we'd make him swing the sword with his foot.

Worst News Tip of the Month:

"on gun game on call of duty if you get in a tower and wait you'll come in first almost. every time ;)"

LL LLC ЕРДА УУУ LEED ZZ ZELL LLC LE GL LLL COGEO LOED GEORG CER LLL FP

(Left) Chair's Laura Mustard sent

in this picture of her daughter Abby playing the Xbox 360. Based on her expression, we're guessing she's play- ing Dark Souls. (Center) Kyle has only been at GI for a few months, but that hasn't stopped him from torturing his newborn baby with his homemade Portal test chambers. It's a cruel welcome to the world for Claire Chell Godbold Hilliard. (Right) In an effort to impress Fatshark's Martin Wahlund and Gunnar Johansson, Bryan showed them the fanciest feature at the GI office: our spiral staircase. They were not impressed.

continued on page 8

feedback 7

BEBE REE g BERBER SEB RRB eee "mmmuuuENMENH "ummuumumuu нипипининим пипинвииоюи BEB u 2 2 2 2 2 | mmm mm mn

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W Zelda Anniversary Coverage 33% E Halloween Costume Plans 19%

Wi Resistance 3 Review Complaints 14%

19 "Battlefield Is Better Than Modern Warfare!" 11%

Wi" Modem Warfare Is Better Than Battlefield!" 10%

Wi Co-Oped Up! Praise 8% Wi Southern Gamer Supporters 5%

Which video game enemy scares you the most, and why?

continued from page 7

(Left) Ben looked a little emasculated when he

met up with former Gl editor- turned-Gear Meagan Marie. er) Ben's encounter with this Lollipop Chainsaw cosplayer didn't go very well, either. Right) Ben Hanson really wanted to start his own West Side Story dance gang with Harmonix's Annette Gonzalez and Dance Central 2 choreographers Ricardo Foster Jr. and Chanel Thompson, but they thought the idea was lame.

continued on page 10

8 feedback

In issue 222, we asked readers what video game character they were going to dress as for Halloween. For the first time in our Question of the Month replies, there was no consensus; everybody wants to dress up as someone different. Here are some of the responses.

Cole MacGrath, hands down. The cos- tume is easy to make, cool looking, and the people that were too cool to dress up won't walk around calling you a fruit pop for going as somebody like Link (no offense to Link, of course).

Jason Hensley

| plan to dress as Link for the third year in a row. Not only is he my favorite character, but we also have a lot in common. For instance, guessing from his taste in fashion, we both have the same favorite color. However, it is somewhat humiliating when people guess that you're Zelda.

William Harline

I'm going to try to get some friends to go as Angry Birds. Then, when we go trick or treat- ing, we're not going to ring the doorbell. We are just going to sling-shot ourselves into people's houses and raid their candy.

Kyle Piklor

If | were to go out on Halloween as a video game character, | would not go out on October 31st. | would, in fact, wait until November 31st and dress up as Slowpoke from Pokémon. It seems like a really good idea and | think people would like it. | certainly would enjoy all the month-old candy.

Greg Irvin

| am not very creative, nor do | have an immense amount of disposable income to spend on an extravagant endeavor. That's why | decided to go with a costume that has great visual appeal and instant recognition: my Xbox 360 Avatar. Quite a handsome fellow.

Gary V. Walters

“ADDICTIVE...AWESDME... 5; (E "WE'RE BLOWN AWAY... YOU WILL LEARN GUITAR” ; DEVELOP REAL SKILLS"

“IT WORKS INGREDIBLY WELL” i “THE FIRST REAL GUITAR GAME”

ANYONE САМ PLAY GUITAR

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AVAILABLE NOW

ON MOST MAJOR PLATFORMS

a

PLUG IN ANY REAL GLIITAR*AND THE GAMEPLAY WILL ADAPT TO YOUR SKILL LEVEL, WHETHER YOU'RE AN EXPERIENCED MUSICIAN, OR HAVE NEVER PLAYED A GUITAR IN YOUR LIFE. CHOOSE FROM A HUGE LIBRARY OF SONGS IN DIFFERENT STYLES. MASTER NEW TALENTS WITH FUN MINIGAMES. DEVELOP REAL SKILLS WHILE PLAYING REAL MUSIC. ALL WITH AN

HONEST-TO-GOODNESS GUITAR.

TIC: x XBOX Mic (e XBOX 360. LIVE. | scEHOwiT WORKS AT ROCKSMITH.COM

Mild Cartoon Violence

Music Downloads Not Rated by the ESRB

Enter the Game Informer Reader Art Contest. All you need to do is draw, paint, scratch, spit, or carve the best dam art you can think of and send it to us. Please include your name, phone number, and retum address. If you're the monthly winner, we'll feature your work in GI and you'll receive a video game prize from the Game Informer vault. All entries become the property of Game Informer and can't be returned.

Send to:

Game Informer Reader Art Contest 724 191 St N., 3rd Floor

Mpls, MN 55401

continued from page 8

(Left) Nintendo's Kit Ellis and Bill Trinen wisely wouldn't let Dan into the building, but they did take this picture with him by the sign outside. (Right) After checking out Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Tim and Sanzaru Games' Bil Van Ness, Mat Kraemer, and Glen Egan decided to pull their own heist. It did not go well

10 feedback

just had to throw an arm from room to room. 2 7 aylor The Mushroom Kingdom's females get a makeover,

except Toat

ing mushroom. 3

family portrait of Arkham Asylum's villain-

a hidden Riddler tropt nelby Robertson sure why

guy with the pro ler body needs

two Volvos worth of metal to protect him

while the skinny female is fine with two

square feet of tank top. 5

No use in trying to throw tl ntry away,

because we know it'd come back even if threw it into the sun.

WINNER This month's winner will receive a copy of Assassin's Creed: Revelations on the

_ system of their choosing.

Get earlier access to new content than print subscribers. New issues will be delivered directly to your inbox. Game Informer's First Look and Exclusive coverage takes on a whole new meaning when you go Digital.

Experience multimedia content that's deeper, richer and more immersive than what the physical world can offer with active links, videos and more.

Get immediate access to over a year's worth of previously published issues with a keyword-searchable online archive.

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вого tor

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DISHON RED

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NOTABLES

20

26

afterwords: batman: arkham city

big reveals coming for spike's vgas

dragon quest x: set up to fail?

interview: man up's christopher moynihan

the essential assassin's creed

interview: blizzard's jay wilson

2011 holiday buying guide

7 -—

Into Pocus ^ б “A

are experiencing a particularly fertile period with so many

great games coming out, but concrete signs point to both Microsoft and Sony preparing

their next home consoles for release in the upcoming few years. Not only are companies

` like Epic talking about the timetables for their middleware engines for the next gen-

] eration, but more and more chatter is surfacing from publishers and developers about - projects for the upcoming round of home consoles.

connect 13

pic practically defined the software of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 thanks to its ubiquitous Unreal Engine 3, which was used by many companies to great effect. Naturally, everyone is waiting on Epic’s next tech, the aptly named Unreal Engine 4 (shown previous page), to see how it may define next-gen systems and games. In March at GDC, the company unveiled the engine through its Samaritan demo - a gorgeous introduction to what Epic thinks may be possible when the PlayStation 4 and so- called Xbox Next come out. The demo showed off the engine handling anumber of jumps forward in graphical features such as light- ing, reflections, depth of field, and much more. Epic founder, CEO, and regular programmer Tim Sweeney said in an interview with IGN that he spends 60 percent of his day on research work for the engine and the next round of consoles. In particular, he says the current challenge Epic faces in regards to the new engine as compared to Unreal Engine 3 is scaling up its usage of multiple cores in real-time. Sweeney says he believes the engine will prob- ably be ready іп 2014 — which is perhaps not so coincidently when some in the industry think PlayStation 4 and Xbox Next will come out. Avalanche Studios (Just Cause 2) says it has a triple-A project lined up for 2014, and we're sure it isn’t the only one. “We obviously talk to everybody, and everybody talks to us,” Avalanche New York studio manager David Grijins told Edge magazine a few months ago. “We have some intelligence to go on that, by early 2014, we're pretty sure there'll be at least one next-generation console on the market.” Industry analyst Міспає! Pachter has also said that he doesn't see the PS4 in particu- lar coming out until then. Pachter thinks the upcoming 2012 release of the Wii U system by Nintendo isn't really a kickoff of the next-gen systems, but rather a catch up to the current standards. Nintendo's position is an interesting one. While it's getting a jump on the competi- tion with the release of the Wii U, the question

РРР.

remains whether Nintendo is putting its already contentious third-party relationships in jeopardy by asking those development studios to make software for a 2012 console when they could be setting their sights on the historically more lucra- tive pastures of Microsoft and Sony's platforms. On the first-party side, Microsoft already has employee profile listings for some of its personnel. For instance, Jeff Faulkner is listed as the “Xbox next-gen creative director,” and Patrick Corrigan is a graphic designer working on “groundwork and integration for branding elements for next-gen Xbox.” There are also reports of developers like

That companies are gearing up for the new systems is no surprise. Whether it's 2014 or 2013, just about everybody thinks that the next-gen home consoles will be out in the next few years (and let's not forget the Wii U in 2012). As the middleware engines that will form the backbone of development for most studios start to form and first-parties start production, things are starting to take shape. Although a 2012 release for anything other than the Wii U would be a shock, we expect either Sony or Microsoft to use next year's E3 to say something about their future plans — if only to suck some air out of Nintendo's party. Ф

Lionhead, Rare, Turn 10, and Remedy working on titles for the successor to the 360. Furthermore, Develop cites a source that says Sony's first- party studios are starting early development on PlayStation 4 titles. Although it's likely that the tech specs for both the next Xbox and PlayStation are not yet dialed in, Sony and Microsoft are consult- ing with studios to get their opinions about the needs of software developers. Hopefully this all translates into stronger launch lineups and allows these systems to hit the ground running.

Re ly in Japan, Square Enix held an event to demo its next-gen, DirectX 11-supported Luminous engine. As you can see in the above comparison picture, the com- pany is going after photorealism with this engine that Square Enix says can be used for any type of game. A video of this same environment looked just as nice, and Square says that the photorealistic effect is achieved through the modeling of real-life light, mimicking the physical parameters of real objects, and procedural animation techniques. Of course, there's not a lot going on in the Luminous demo, so it's hard to say how it would handle multiple Al routines, real-time lighting and shadows, etc

Square Enix is confident in what Luminous can do

here are currently no plans to license

the engine). Yoshihisa Hashimoto, the company's chief technical officer, predicts that the engine will lower a game's development cost by 30 percent as well as decrease development time.

Real Time

the apcom announced the Devil May Cry HD Collection for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 for an early 2012 release. It includes - x the original ОМС, DMC 2, and DMC 3: Dante's : Awakening Special Edition, and is priced at $39.99. Not a bad price for two good games!

ony's PSN and Sony Online were attacked again, as

njoy Mark Hamill as the voice of the Joker in Batman: Arkham City, as he says it's the

last time he'll play the iconic villain. “Hello/ P sod Goodbye Joker,” tweeted Hamill. “I've enjoyed every a wu.

— - hackers attempted the minute behind the wheel of the Crown Prince's Crazy ^, { & unauthorized sign-in of 93,000 car - I'm going to miss him more than | can say!!” „ = м, : accounts. Sony says credit card i info wasn't at risk, but it has + є locked those accounts, notified

5: those affected, and advised them

to change their passwords. the TTE » й f

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*We'll probably cancel it.”

of Sledgehammer Games is realistic about the fate of the studio’s third-person Call of Duty project, in an interview with MCV.

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espite developer id Software's obvious chops, the PC version of Rage is marred by texture pop-in and other issues caused by the wrong drivers being released for AMD/ATI and Nvidia graph- ГА T 5 E ics cards. While a patch was issued, the situation 1 caused John Carmack to call the crisis a “clusterf---."

connect 15

16 соппесі

announced

Confirming what we all knew was coming,

and starting all kinds of new speculation, Rockstar somewhat quietly announced Grand Theft Auto V. At the time of this writing, no details about the game were available, but we've по doubt that it will continue its open-world blueprint and be replete with all the crime, craziness, and cash you've come to expect from

the franchise.

ў ADRIAN PETERSON TOUCHDOWNS: 54 | VICTIMS: 1,435

18 соппесі

Gears of War 3

The endcap to Epic Games’ blockbuster trilogy is out in the wild, and many fans have finally seen the end to Marcus Fenix's story - though the online carnage is only beginning. We asked Epic design director Cliff Bleszinski and director of produc- tion Rod Fergusson опт burning questions about locker room dialogue, post-credit

surprises, and the realities of modern DLC development.

Were you able to take the story where you wanted to in the end? Cliff Bleszinski: | feel pretty darn happy that we've answered many, many questions that people have had about the series, and to be frank, not completely answered everything. Because | think people want to know everything, they say they do, but when they find out everything, it's not everything they thought it would be in their head or the sense of mystery sometimes goes away. So, ат | happy? Am | satisfied? Quite.

Rod Fergusson: We never sat down and planned the trilogy from begin- ning to end and said, "Here's our three games with the story that's going to connect them all." With each game we came up with a new story and tried to have it tie in and make sense and have continuity. So being able to have a story that actu- ally has a beginning, a middle, and an end is what's satisfying to me.

The locker room machismo seems toned down in Gears 3. Was that intentional?

RF: It was a mixture of two things. One, it was partly intentional to calm it down a little bit. The other is just having the influence of another writer. All three games have been written by different writers, so they each bring their own sensibilities to it. Karen, coming from a novel background, she writes in a different way from how a video game writer would traditionally write.

CB: When we sat down to build the first game, we never sat down and said, “Hey Rod, what's up dude? Hey bro, let's make the coolest dudebro game.”

AF: But we did. [laughs]

CB: Yeah, we pat each other on the ass every time we leave a meet- ing. It's like a football locker room. [laughs] No, the funny thing is that we all love musicals.

When we looked at combat videos of actual soldiers fighting in Fallujah, they actually said, “S--- yeah!" "Get some!" "Oo-rah!" All that kind of dialogue was actually coming out. You can go look it up on YouTube right now. The problem is when you put that in the game, people are like, “Really? Do people really say that?" So you have a perception issue there.

The campaign felt easier this time around. Is that on purpose?

RF: Casual and Normal have been made easier. We felt like Casual cer- tainly wasn't casual enough. It didn't live up to its name in the past. It wasn't for a casual gamer; it was for a casual shooter gamer.

The ability to get revived in Hardcore has given Hardcore a perception of being easier. The actual gameplay itself is pretty much on par with where it was in the past, but it has a little more of a safety mechanism. Insane is still crazy.

CB: l'd rather from the get-go have the game be maybe a smidge easy. Then those who want the difficulty can find and apply the mutators on Insane mode.

Have people been using the mutators much?

RF: One of the things that we're looking at is that some of the muta- tors are a little too challenging. | set the bar a little too high to get them, at least within the first few weeks. So

one of the things we're looking at is how we can massage some of the numbers - the Comet mutator is an example. We're making the require- ments easier so it's a little more broadly accessible.

Would you make another four- player co-op game again, know- ing how much time and effort

it costs?

RF: | would, it's the way that...

CB: Never! [laughs]

My main thing moving forward, for any hypothetical future products that have not been announced, would be to make that accessibility easier in regards to getting together with four players.

| think it led to better combat bowls, honestly, when we were conscious of the fact that there could be four actual breathing people behind the controllers. We allowed for more elbow room, more flanking opportu- nities, which got us a little bit away from some of the corridorish-ness that some of the Gears 2 combat encounters had.

How do you answer people who say Gears 3 is more of the same? СВ: That's the shooter conundrum, right? You're either doing version whatever-point-five and they say

it's a rehash, or you change a lot

of stuff and they say you've ruined the franchise. That's the catch-22 of a shooter. But | think if you look at pound-for-pound the amount of fea- tures that are in this game. ..l'm just exceptionally proud of the product.

Your DLC plan is much more extensive for Gears 3. Is that the right decision so far?

RF: What people need to understand is that extra content is something that you have to plan.

CB: You don't just lift up the rock and say, “Oh, s---! There's new levels!”

RF: There are people who think that the first day of DLC development is the day after you launched. That's not the way it works, A lot of it is that you have to prepare and plan and manage your resources and your people and everything to allow for that. | think that as the industry has matured, we've gotten more into that. It's less about shipping what's left over. It's not about, "Oh, we had this map left over"... It's keeping

the disc in the tray. In a used game culture that you have to actively fight against, | think DLC is one of the ways that you do that.

The freezing profile bug is nasty, and out of character for Epic. What happened there?

RF: It's a very small, small part of our audience because there are some very specific things that you have to do to make it happen. The nice thing is that we've already been looking into it, and we believe we have a fix that we'll be rolling out in the next update that will fix the issue for the people that have it.

CB: | think the biggest thing right now in a world where you're trying to get people's attention with everything is responsiveness. Making sure that our servers are up. If they go down for a couple hours, making sure we warn people. Let them know we

are proactively tweaking the game on a regular basis; we massaged back the gib radius of the sawed-off shotgun very quickly after the game shipped. We're already swapping some weapons on different maps,

to try new layouts to optimize the online experience. To let them know that we're here, and we're tweaking the dials, and we're continuing to improve the game. Ф

В) PENN

20 соппесі

Arkham City

book game of all time by critics and fans alike? That was the challenge facing Rocksteady Studios and its game director, Sefton Hill. Recently we sat down with Hill to discuss Batman: Arkham City’s inception, development hurdles, and amazing open-world gameplay.

In Arkham Asylum, a secret wall revealed a hidden blueprint of Gotham City. This was obviously a hint to what was coming next. Did you know you were going to make Arkham City at this point, or was it just the idea of going to Gotham?

We had sort of a sketched-out story. It wasn't finalized, but we knew exactly where we wanted to go

with it. So we thought it would be quite nice to hide a hint for players to find and guess where the story was going to go next. We wanted to take Batman into Gotham City, but at the same time make it an almost hellish version of Gotham City. We felt that a concentrated pool of vil- lains in one location would provide

a unique and interesting challenge for him. That was kind of the starting off point. We started working on the story from there. We also looked at where we wanted the story to go

in terms of its structure. You know, where it ends and building out the arc from there.