December 2011
Star Wars: The Old Republic, Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: MW 3 - and more...
A WISE MAN ONCE SAID: THIS IS A WAR AND WE ARE SOLDIERS (YES, I KNOW IT WAS MORPHEUS FROM THE MATRIX, I JUST WANTED TO SEEM MORE EDUCATED AND LESS A NERDY - I OBVIOUSLY FAILED), AND IT'S NEVER BEEN TRUER THAN IN THIS MONTH. An Insane amount of terrific games arrived, and it seems pretty hopeless to clear up enough free time to play with all of them. Hell, who am I kidding, you'd need all the 168 hours of next week. I just hope that your boss and your girlfriend are tolerant of your gaming habits. (If your girlfriend is your boss, then... well, no hope for you, sorry pal.) It's never easy to tell your loved ones that if they want to talk to you in the next couple weeks, they better start a demon hunter in Diablo III and fight the demonic hordes of the underworld together with you. Give it a shot, though. When the world is safe again and you're happy with the loot that you collected from the corpse of the Lord of Terror with your invisible vacuum cleaner (and again on Hell difficulty, and again on Inferno difficulty...) you can bullet-dive through Max Payne 3 in a few days as well. But then, if you want to play with Dragon's Dogma too, losing 60+ hours of your life is inevitable. And it's not even the end of the list yet. Anyway, hurry up. E3 2012 is coming, and you better finish all of your games soon, because as we browsed through the awesome titles to be presented in Los Angeles in a few weeks, it's safe to say that Q3 and Q4 will make your "real life vs digital life" battles a lot bloodier. Well, a life of a gamer is never easy, right?
January 2012
The Top 100 Games of 2012 - and more...
BIGGER, AND NOW WE WENT... WELL, BIG. At least, putting together the 100 best games of 2012 was a really ambitious project - as we found out on our third or fourth sleepless night. Of course, there are quite a few games still unannounced, and some will probably be delayed to 2013, but if you dig through our forty-page-long mega-compilation, you will definetely be up-to-date regarding the whole gaming scene. Believe me, it will take some time, so you might as well order a pizza before you start. Fortunately, January was a bit slow on reviewable games - so we were able to include a few games that didn't make it to our December issue, like Zelda: The Skyward Sword. Also - to favor PC gamers this time - King Arthur II was a really nice surprise, a true gem for strategy fans. And once I started to name a few highlights, I definetely have to mention Grand Theft Auto III's anniversary edition: firstly, it's mind boggling that 10 years already passed since its release, secondly, we're playing it on our tablets and mobile phones now, and it looks like it did ten years ago on our PC and PS2. Mind officially blown. So, more previews than reviews this time. But be prepared, from next month there will be no stop, since awesome games are coming in February. And a lots of them.
February 2012
Prototype 2, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Kingdoms of Amalur - and more...
EMBRACE YOURSELVES, THRONGS OF GAMES ARE COMING! January was the calm before the storm, and by taking a look at the contents of this issue (also by looking at the horizon - Mass Effect 3, anyone?) this first quarter is definitely the strongest in recent years of gaming history. It's not bad, not bad at all, I think we all can live with the burden of choosing which awesome game to play, right? And now we have a lot to choose from, regardless of the genre or the platform: Darkness II for those with a strong stomach, Kingdoms of Amalur for those longing for honour and glory, Syndicate for wannabe cyberpunks, to only name a few. Also, PlayStation Vita finally launched outside Japan too, so we had the chance to take the matter in our own hands (literally) and review Uncharted: Golden Abyss as well. There are great titles further down the road as well, we had a chat with the devs of Prototype 2, also had some hands-on time with Spec Ops: The Line and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier - you can read our impressions in the Previews section. Man, it's good to be a gamer this year.
March 2012
Risen 2, Resident Evil 6, Mass Effect 3, Shogun 2 - and more...
THE END OF FEBRUARY WAS ALL ABOUT MASS EFFECT 3 - SERIOUSLY, the PR folks at Electronic Arts launched an overwhelming global offensive and they made sure everyone is talking about that certain attack on Earth, you know, the final one. (I can only imagine the puzzled looks of the national security guys when all of the reports were flowing in. "Dammit, Jenkins, call the President immediately! Wait, what's a... Reaper?") Then all of a sudden, Mass Effect 3 arrived, and people simply disappeared. Yeah, the game is that good. If you still don't believe it, just read our review. But Mass Effect is not the only great title this month. What's more, it seems like this is the busiest March of our recent history (well, in terms of video game releases). But it's not a surprise, really. The media always suggests that video games are the devil's work, so it's just fitting that the developers and publishers want to keep us from leaving our living rooms and enjoy the spring sunshine. No, they are conspiring and keep throwing awesome games to our face, and well, what can we do? We keep playing 'em. Run, while you can, enjoy the beautiful weather, don't look back, it's already too late for us, we have to review all these games. And you thought miners have a hard life?
April 2012
Assassin's Creed III, Guild Wars 2, Medal of Honor: Warfighter - and more...
IT'S HANDS-ON TIME! YOU'D THINK THAT APRIL IS A BIT SLOW ON RELEASES (WHICH ISN'T ENTIRELY TRUE - THE WITCHER 2'S RELEASED ON XBOX 360, AND RISEN 2: DARK WATERS, YAKUZA: DEAD SOULS ARRIVED AS WELL), but that doesn't matter anyway, since we had the chance to try some of the best games of the near future. We've previewed Dragon's Dogma (which was a reallyreally pleasant surprise), and also Suda 51's Lollipop Chainsaw, which... well, it wasn't a surprise, because it's already on the top of our most wanted list. But the two most important beta events of the month were World of Warcraft's Mists of Pandaria, and our cover story, Guild Wars 2. World of Warcraft is still alive and kicking, but Guild Wars 2... It's too early to say now, but if Dragon's Dogma was a pleasant surprise, Guild Wars 2 was a total pleasure shock. Check out our preview, but brace yourself, we got quite enthusiastic. The whole MMO scene is going to rumble this summer. I could go on, but you'll see. There are a lot of exciting titles around, so don't let me keep you from reading about them - have fun!
May 2012
Max Payne 3, Diablo 3, TERA, Prototype 2, Dragon's Dogma - and more...
A WISE MAN ONCE SAID: THIS IS A WAR AND WE ARE SOLDIERS (YES, I KNOW IT WAS MORPHEUS FROM THE MATRIX, I JUST WANTED TO SEEM MORE EDUCATED AND LESS A NERDY - I OBVIOUSLY FAILED), AND IT'S NEVER BEEN TRUER THAN IN THIS MONTH. An Insane amount of terrific games arrived, and it seems pretty hopeless to clear up enough free time to play with all of them. Hell, who am I kidding, you'd need all the 168 hours of next week. I just hope that your boss and your girlfriend are tolerant of your gaming habits. (If your girlfriend is your boss, then... well, no hope for you, sorry pal.) It's never easy to tell your loved ones that if they want to talk to you in the next couple weeks, they better start a demon hunter in Diablo III and fight the demonic hordes of the underworld together with you. Give it a shot, though. When the world is safe again and you're happy with the loot that you collected from the corpse of the Lord of Terror with your invisible vacuum cleaner (and again on Hell difficulty, and again on Inferno difficulty...) you can bullet-dive through Max Payne 3 in a few days as well. But then, if you want to play with Dragon's Dogma too, losing 60+ hours of your life is inevitable. And it's not even the end of the list yet. Anyway, hurry up. E3 2012 is coming, and you better finish all of your games soon, because as we browsed through the awesome titles to be presented in Los Angeles in a few weeks, it's safe to say that Q3 and Q4 will make your "real life vs digital life" battles a lot bloodier. Well, a life of a gamer is never easy, right?
June 2012 INCREDIBLE SALE, limited time promotional price!
Dead Space 3, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Spec Ops: The Line - and more...
E3 2012 WAS... WELL, GREAT. NOT "ERMAHGERD! MIND! TOTALLY! BLOWN!" great, but great nonetheless, loud and flashy as always, sometimes a bit controversial (Agent 47 slaughtering fetish nuns - what's up with that?) and sometimes a bit too violent (Sorry Warren Spector, but we cheered at the end of The Last of Us' demo too). All in all, it was great. It was interesting to see Nintendo trying to move forward with Wii U, expanding the gaming experience (in all dimensions). And it was interesting to see Microsoft and Sony doing the same, but without leaving their comfort zones - Microsoft with the SmartGlass technology, using a smartphone or a tablet, and Sony using PS Vita as a super-intelligent, overpriced controller for the PS3. And of course, the games: we love it so much when someone can keep a secret and surprise us at the show! This E3 was full of excellent surprises, so in the aftermath of this year's event one thing is certain: we'll have lots of awesome games to play this year, regardless of platform or genre. What's more: we're already booked for 2013 as well. Even the next-gen is around the corner, and if we have to wait for the next Xbox or PlayStation to play games like Star Wars 1313, so be it. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, we still have a lot to do first. You, for example, still need to read our game previews and reviews. We won't keep you any longer, enjoy the magazine!
July 2012
Splinter Cell: Blacklist, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dawnguard, The Secret World - and more...
I GUESS (WELL, I HOPE) YOU HAVE ALREADY NOTICED THAT IT'S SUMMER. And though summer comes with a lot of cool features, "releasing games like there's no tomorrow" is definitely not one of them. But fret not, fellow GameStar reader, we still have a lot to offer you, since this autumn will be pretty overwhelming, lots of games are on their way, so you'd better be prepared. And with us, prepared you'll be. Bot don't know why like Yoda I talk. We have highlighted preview features on Splinter Cell Blacklist, Gears of War Judgment and Dishonored, but have some tidbits in the review section as well - like The Secret World, which is certainly a proper way to spend your summer days and nights at your computer. (We definetely will.) (Okay, I definetely will.) But don't let me keep you from the magazine, just go ahead, you'll certainly find a game which suits you! One more thing: we're planning to continuously improve and enhance the magazine with even more interactive features, like the 3D model we implemented in our We Collect Games section (see p65). If you like it, or just has an excellent idea of what would you like to see in the magazine, just drop us a line - we're always interested to hear your thoughts!
August 2012
Sleeping Dogs, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, Company of Heroes, The Last Story - and more...
WELCOME BACK, OLD FRIENDS, AND OF COURSE WELCOME TO YOU AS WELL, NEW ONES - who maybe (or maybe not) were a little misled by our cover for this month and bought this gaming magazine instead of their favorite tattoo, fitness, wellness... Bible. I hope you'll like it here! On a totally unrelated topic: zombies! Zombies are all over this issue, we had a test run with the histerically popular ArmA II mod, DayZ, we previewed Resident Evil 6, World War Z and ZombieU, reviewed Deadlight... So if you like zombies, you're in for a treat, since they've definetely left some heavy bite-marks on this month's GameStar. And I shouldn't forget to mention Sleeping Dogs, as a total and utter surprise. We can confess now, that we were skeptical, to say the least. Because of the loooong development time (they started in 2008), the publisher changes (Actvision then Square Enix), the re and re and renaming (Black Lotus, True Crime: Hong Kong...) - you know, we just lost hope. But then Sleeping Dogs arrived, loved it. (Hence the six-pack on the cover.) (Sorry again, confused fitness fans, but thanks again for buying!)
September 2012
Guild Wars 2, WoW: Mists of Pandaria, Darksiders 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - and more...
FALL IS COMING WITH FULL SPEED. THE SCORCHING HEAT OF SUMMER IS HISTORY, EVERY SCHOOL REOPENED THEIR GATES TO THE KNOWLEDGE-HUNGRY STUDENTS and the annual autumn videogames paradise season has been arrived. It was an extraordinary strong month. We started with the long awaited Guild Wars 2. At the same time two of our journalist-adventurers started this fantastic journey, you can read their tale on eight pages in this issue of GameStar. This September is a Heaven for the World of Warcraft fanatics too. At the end of the month a new continent, Pandaria emerged from the long isolation and the new, cute Pandarian race tried to breath additional life to the Blizzard aging MMO world. You are not an MMO fan? Nobody can be perfect, but we have some nice title for you too. First of all we had an exclusive interview and preview on the new Call of Duty title (Black Ops II). We have also tested THQ's newest action packed title Darksiders 2 where the main protagonist is Death itself. What? Do you hate action games? Oh come on. But do not worry we have something for you too. We have reviewed two adventure games also: The Testament of Sherlock Holmes and the third Episode of The Walking Dead video game. Of course this is only the pinnacle of the exciting content we hauled to this issue. Let's start reading, but before you are going to jump into the gaming worlds do not forget to check out the October issue, see you there.
