GamesTM Issue 114

[prinnysquad]

Cover - Dark Souls

Reviews
Dark Souls - PS3/360 - 9
Resistance 3 - PS3 - 8
Dead Island - 360/PS3/PC - 7
Gears of War 3 - 360 - 9
Rise of Nightmares - 360 - 5
FIFA 12 - 360 etc - 9
Nuclear Dawn - PC/360 - 6
Bleach: Soul Resurrection - PS3 - 4
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - 360/PC/PS3 - 5
Bodycount - 360/PS3 - 4
Crimson Alliance - 360 - 5
Aliens: Infestation - DS - 6
Toy Soldiers: Cold War - 360 - 7
Quarrel - iPad/iPhone - 7
Dead Rising 2: Off The Record - PS3/PC/360 - 8
PES 2012 - 360 etc - 8
NHL 12 - 360/PS3 - 8
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 - DS - 8
Rock Of Ages - 360/PS3 - 5
The Baconing - 360/PS3/PC - 7

Online component reviews
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition - 360/PS3 - 9
Driver: San Francisco - 360/PC/PS3 - 6

Features
From Software - Profile of the Dark Souls mongs.
Fight For The Future - the mag meets the dev stars of the fighting game world, to appraise the current state of the genre, and its future.
Amanita's Designs - Chat with Amanita Design about its projects.
Board Stupid - a look at the link between board games and videogames, and potential future cooperation.

Discuss
Mass Hysteria - Chat with Ray Muzyka about ME3.
Yo! Joe! - the mag meets Hello Games, the devs of Joe Danger.
Roundcube - Chat with Nick Baynes of Roundcube, which rose from the ashes of Black Rock.
Dead Again - Jason Leigh of Capcom Vancouver talks about Dead Rising 2: Off The Record.
Literary Games - Chat with Tern Digital's Simon Meek bringing books to digital life.

Retro
Behind the Scenes - Postal
Collector's Corner - Panasonic Q
Year In Review - 1984
Aftershocks - id's Tim Willitts remembers Quake.

[EvilBoris]

I can't believe they gave __________ a _!
Especially when they scored ________ a _!111

[PaTaito]

Was hoping for a little better from aliens infestation...still picking it up mind.

[Neon Ignition]

Broadly pretty reasonable this time, I'll be curious to see what they say about Dead Rising as from what Capcom's shown so far it looks like cash theft of the worst kind

[endo]

Cripes, I don't usually post in magazine threads, but a 9 for the online component of Third Strike is a bit daft considering it was released broken. The game is a 9 easy (probably a 10), of course, but that's the underlying game not the online component. Once it's fixed, sure it's going to be amazing, but right now it doesn't work properly.

[Brad]

Any way to see the review text for Dark Souls?

[Goemon]

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition - 360/PS3 - 9

Are they serious?
Did they even play it? If they had they'd know it was so buggy it was pretty much unplayable. I think I've managed to get into about 10 games total in ranked since it released, and half of them were unplayable due to unbelieveable lag. You can't even search for sessions while playing arcade - SF4 has that feature already!!! I've been unable to upload a replay, I've had game breaking bugs in lobbies that have required me to leave the session.

These problems were so bad they've had to force a patch out already!

Yea, that deserves a 9 - all day.

[Kaladron]

Any way to see the review text for Dark Souls?

It'll be up on the gamesTM website as soon as we're able. Some time next week I imagine.

[EvilBoris]

It'll be up on the gamesTM website as soon as we're able. Some time next week I imagine.

That as a good answer, I was just going to say BUY IT

[Kaladron]

Well you should do that too, of course.

[Golgo]

Looks like a good issue. Deffo want for the From Software article and DS review. It in the shops yet?

[rmoxon]

Its out in the shops tomorrow I think.

Shame about the Alien Infestation score, I was looking forward to that, will have to read a few more reviews first now.

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record getting an 8 suprised me too actualy, I was thinking it was just a pointless money making add on, now I am unsure.

[Neon Ignition]

The DR2 score puzzles me too, the game is a reskin with one new area and some minor tweaking. It's like the Gold Edition of DR2, Capcoms setting an awful predicent lately with its releases. The footage released so far shows that most of the content, cutscenes included, is the same game as DR2. Given it's a lower price, maybe the tweaks refine it enough to make it a more pleasant experience than DR2.

[Lebowski]

Dark souls a 9, They need a new scoring method this should be a hardcore 9, and a five for everybody else, as 95% of the people that play this will never see the end. its hardly a near perfect game now is it, I picked the first one and was anialated after about an hours a few times and never went back. most people don't have this sort of time to waste on progress these days, for the single, childless hardcore few I can see how rewarding this game could be (my 14 year old self would of loved this) but for the rest its a pointless exercise in self torture.

Dead rising has interested me as it finally delivers what the original demo promised in giving you a world to explore without the need to find medicine or rescue people.

[Neon Ignition]

That's what makes me unsure of with Dead Rising. The sandbox mode alleviates a lot of the constraints the previous games gave the player but in doing so might get tiresome as it largely just leaves the clunky combat, though that's purely a personal taste thing.

Similar with Dark Souls, fans would cry havoc but I find it stupid that it doesn't contain an easier setting and is even being promoted on the basis of being a harder game. That just leads to cannibalising an already niche fan base whereas they should be looking at ways of building on their surprise success and getting more gamers.