SEPTEMBER
The release of a Metal
Gear Solid game is usually met with fevered excitement across the internet, and this year was
no exception. Metal
Gear Solid V burst onto
the scene like a backflipping, naked cyborg
ninja, and confounded
most expectations by
not being full of irritating
nonsense. Mostly.
Gone were
the weird shooting controls, although this was
a game in which you
could make a horse poo
on a road in order to
make trucks crash. That
was in no way a bad
thing. It was also a full
sandbox, unusually for
the series, and with all
the benefits and risks
that carries.
AUGUST
WHEN ALE
COSTS 50P A
PINT IT REALLY
WILL BE THE
END OF DAYS.
16
L
ike most Augusts, it
was a quiet time for
the games industry. The
storm of publicity that
came with E3 had come
and gone, and with
only GamesCom by
way of shows - which
mostly
demonstrated
the titles to come, rather
than anything then out
- it was left to the new
games to carry the industry through.
There were some intriguing titles, to be fair,
taking advantage of
the release lull to gain
a foothold of publicity. Beyond Eyes was
flawed, but made a
decent stab at showing
us what can be done
with a game featuring a
blind protagonist, with
some startling and emotional moments to keep
us hooked.
Rare Replay deserved
an honourable mention
for bringing to Xbox
One some of the best
of Rare’s output from the
days when they weren’t
just making casual
games for the Kinect.
Remastered versions of
Jet Force Gemini and
Banjo-Kazooie
were
special highlights, and
almost justify purchase
on their own. It’s a testament to Rare’s skill that
they hold up so well this
far down the line.
Wii U launch title
ZombiU returned from
the grave with its final
letter removed, letting Xbox, PS4 and PC
owners experience the
really quite excellent
multiplayer and slightly
lacklustre campaign for
themselves.
Until Dawn, somewhat of an Eighties
slasher film simulator,
was received well, although suffered from
some problems of player agency, and while
it did receive a few
awards, we’re not sure
how well remembered
it’ll be this time next
year.
Again hyped to the
gills thanks to its pedigree through Dear
Esther developer The
Chinese Room, Everybody’s Gone to the
Rapture tried to carry
off an aura of eerie
abandonment, but only
managed to make players constantly wonder
why they weren’t experiencing all this intrigue
and apocalypse when it
took place, rather than
through flashbacks. A
bit like this retrospective,
we suppose.
In fact, player freedom was something
of a theme throughout
September. Mad Max
came to consoles the
same day as Metal
Gear Solid V, and although lacking in content it did a reasonable
job of bringing the hot,
dirty, chaotic world of
post-nuclear Australia
from silver to small
screen.
Super Mario Maker
was the other major
release, giving players
the first (official) chance
to try their hand at murdering everyone’s favourite plumber in horrible ways. While the
charts were frustratingly clogged
with a mixture
of
absurdly
hard
challenge levels and
gameplay-free ‘automatic’ levels for the truly
brainless, the range of
tools on offer were still
remarkable, and there
were some real gems
among the user-created
levels.
Sandwiched between
bigger releases was
Undertale. It’s a difficult
one to classify, as a reflective and emotional
look over the nature of
RPGs which uses their
mechanics to make
the player feel monstrous. Without spoilers
- the