There were very few, if any, empty seats at the glorious Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, South Korea. The throngs of fans, eagerly awaiting to see the showdown between China’s Weibo Gaming and South Korea’s T1 at the League of Legends Worlds 2023 Finals, filled the stadium with an energy that was immensely palpable. We were ready for the esports event of the year, but Riot Games knew how to turn up the hype even more.

• READ MORE: The 25 best K-pop songs of 2023

Star-studded performances kicked off the Worlds 2023 Finals opening ceremony on a high – being able to watch it live was definitely a core memory moment. Heartsteel were up first with their debut single, ‘Paranoia’. Featuring League of Legends characters Ezreal, Kayn, K’Sante, Sett, Yone and Aphelios – with the first four having real-life counterpart musicians that provide their vocal talents: EXO‘s Baekhyun, Cal Scruby, Tobi Lou and OZI, respectively. The clever mix of augmented reality and computer graphics with real life performances heightened the experience in a way that allowed Riot Games to put on a truly unique show that showcased the League of Legends IP.

Maria Egan, head of music and live events at Riot Games, tells NME that the “Baekhyun and Ezreal collaboration was a dream from the beginning”. When it comes to matching up the artists to the Heartsteel members, it’s usually a trial and error process that takes months. “You want to make sure that the artist is super invested,” she said. “We ended up in a place where they all feel very connected to the champions that they ended up performing.”

All four musicians appeared on the main stage to perform their parts, but what happened during the final chorus of ‘Paranoia’ was the biggest surprise. While you couldn’t tell just by watching the main stage, on the screens to the left and right, you could see the virtual counterparts of Heartsteel pull up in a car and join their real-life ones on stage together. The transition was incredibly smooth and, expectedly, the crowd erupted.

Virtual avatars have been around for over two decades, but have started to become increasingly popular – especially in the world of K-pop, with the likes of aespa, MAVE:, Superkind and more. Egan emphasises that many successful virtual bands don’t appear out of nowhere, and uses Gorillaz as an example. Musician Damon Albarn and comic artist Jamie Hewlett were already at the peak of their careers. Albarn was the frontman for the influential rock band Blur while Hewlett worked on comics such as Judge Dread and Doom Patrol. Together with their talents, the two created the idea for Gorillaz.

Egan also mentions the Japanese vocaloid, Hatsune Miku. She is one of the few virtual avatars that was able to gain massive popularity without an existing fanbase. Hatsune Miku was originally just a voice synthesiser where people would enter the melody and lyrics of a song, then be able to sing in a synthetic voice. However, Hatsune Miku’s personification and character design as a cute girl with blue hair on the outside of a box made Yamaha Corporation’s Vocaloid 2 product stand out amongst its competition of other vocaloid software.

Since then, Hatsune Miku has been treated like an actual artist rather than just a mascot of a piece of computer software. This is all thanks to fan and community support, where fans created original music and Hatsune Miku covers of popular ones. “So Gorillaz has had its own story, and then Hatsune Miku’s is really about the community and about co-creation,” Egan explains. “So that’s a very different thing where the community is at the center of it, and not necessarily an artist.”

League of Legends‘s success with its virtual music groups is a mix of both Gorillaz and Hatsune Miku’s approaches. The community is already passionate about the champions in League Of Legends – they’ve become invested after years of gameplay, learning all about their backgrounds, lore, play styles and more – and seeing Riot reinvent them is just the cherry on top. The fans’ adoration for these characters extend into other ventures that they are placed in, including music.

“For us, it’s this beloved, massive IP at the centre of it. And that’s really what the core of all of our projects are like, telling stories of Runeterra and telling the stories of the League IP in a new context in a new world that’s more accessible in pop culture,” Egan adds. She also notes how difficult it is to even make one song. While technology has made the motion capture process easier, it’s not enough to just drop one piece of cool animation and call it a day. There needs to be a fanbase or audience that really loves what you do.

The moment that a new virtual band is revealed needs to feel special, and to do so took many departments at Riot Games banding together just to create ‘Paranoia’. “Just making Heartsteel takes almost a year, with a lot of people touching it like composers, songwriters and producers crafting and getting the sound right,” Egan says. “There are many different versions of that song on the cutting room floor.”

Heartsteel is a good example of surprising fans with new experiences that keep them engaged and coming back for more League of Legends content. “Nobody saw that coming. Our goals are just to continually elevate and raise the bar of what we’ve built on before,” she says. Now that Heartsteel joins the ranks of K/DA, Pentakill and True Damage, fans are wondering if some of the other groups are due for a comeback soon.

“Stay tuned on that front,” Egan says In response to whether K/DA would return. “Everyday, we’re figuring out how we meet players’ expectations and also blow them away.”

League of Legends is available to play on PC and Mac.

The post Riot Games on Heartsteel: “The Baekhyun and Ezreal collaboration was a dream” appeared first on NME.

Web-slinging superheroes, enormous fighting robots, lightsabers locked in combat and rolling virtual dice across the tabletop fantasy realm, it’s been a mind-blowing 12 months in gaming. But with so much choice and an ever-lengthening ‘must-play list’, how will you choose which ones to settle down with over the festive period?

Luckily, we here at NME HQ have spent the year mouse-clicking and smashing buttons until our fingers bled – just to bring you this, the ultimate, undisputed (OK, a little bit disputed) ranking of 2023’s greatest games. We hope you enjoy.

Alex Flood, Interim Commissioning Editor (Entertainment)

Contributors: Jen Allen, Vikki Blake, Andrew Brown, Francisco Dominguez, Alex Flood, Francis Kenna, Jordan Oloman, Dominic Preston, Sarah Thwaites, Sherry Toh.

20 ‘Humanity’

Platforms: PS4/5, PC

This popular puzzle platformer put us in the paws of a canine shepherd, tasked with helping humans find their way to a luminescent cube and the mysteries that lay beyond. Directing an endless cohort of Lemmings-style knuckleheads through increasingly complex 3D puzzle boxes sounds like it could get a bit samey, but the addictive action was complemented by reactive soundscapes that created a curious sense of momentum. Your controller’s haptic feedback only deepened the immersion, with a chorus of pattering feet and the pop of confetti coursing through your fingers. As levels flowed into one another and new obstacles arose, the minimalist vistas grew in scale and scope, imbuing the adventure with consistent surprises to marvel at. Like any good puzzle game, there was plenty of frustration to be felt ahead of the eureka moments – but it just made your eventual success all the more satisfying.

Best bit: Every time you pinpoint the path to a level’s end, the disorganised chaos of the crowd turned into an almost meditative harmony.

For fans of: Rez, Superhot. SThwaites

19. ‘Lies Of P’

Platforms: PS4/PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC

If the local Punch and Judy show freaked you out as a kid, then do not play Lies Of P. Set in a nightmarish fairytale world inhabited by creepy clockwork puppets that come to life and hack approaching humans to death, the Soulslike slasher made for a surprising, sinister delight when it hit shelves in September.

The game revolved around an Edwards Scissorhands-esque Stalker, half-puppet and half-real boy. Armed with an array of dismantlable weapons – giant scimitar, exploding shield, steampunk flamethrower – the pitiless Pinocchio allowed us to go on a murderous rampage and, in a crucial difference to the other robots, tell lies. This played a crucial role during important story decisions, which occurred in between the tricky but satisfying boss levels.

With a few too many similarities to its genre contemporaries – Bloodborne, Sekiro, Dark Souls – Lies Of P could have benefitted from a bit more tinkering in Geppetto’s workshop. But when there was this much fun to be had, who’s complaining?

Best bit: There is nothing more grimly satisfying than battering a few robots, and admiring your oil-drenched chemise afterwards.

For fans of: Bloodborne, Steelrising. AF

18 ‘Bayonetta Origins: Cereza And the Lost Demon’

Platforms: Nintendo Switch

Far removed from its predecessors, Bayonetta Origins: Cereza And the Lost Demon forwent chaotic character action for a more narrative-driven action-adventure title. Presented in the format of a children’s storybook, a younger, inexperienced iteration of the franchise’s leading witch Bayonetta had to rely on her disobedient Demon ally, Cheshire, when it came to battles. It was in stark contrast to the no-nonsense hack-and-slash of her later adventures, yet combat remained flexible and continued to expand throughout the duration of the game.

Even then, it took an unfamiliar form to what series veterans will be used to, while the puzzle-solving sat next to the likes of The Legend Of Zelda in its ingenuity. In addition to an exceptionally distinct artistic style, and a wistful story exploring the relations between parent and child, this prequel found arresting ways to explore sides of Bayonetta we’d never seen before.

Best bit: One of Bayonetta’s iconic abilities making its canonical debut just in time for the epic climax.

For fans of: The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (2019), Ōkami. FK

17 ‘Metroid Prime Remastered’

Platforms: Nintendo Switch

We may not have had so much as a screenshot since Metroid Prime 4 was announced six long years ago, but that at least gave Nintendo time to put together a top-to-bottom remaster of the first-person spin-off series’ debut game. A painstakingly faithful recreation of the GameCube classic, it only had two meaningful changes: updated graphics that pushed the Switch hardware to breaking point; and revamped modern controls that reflect how much the first-person shooter format has changed since 2002. While Metroid may have looked like a sci-fi shoot-em-up, in reality this was a sombre, lonely trek up, down and across a ruined planet, casting you as explorer and archeologist as much as it did bounty hunter and badass. Oddly melancholy for a game where your chief way of interacting with the world is via laser gun, and as good as it ever was 20 years ago.

Best bit: The first time the flare of weapons fire reveals Samus’ reflection in the visor, a trick few games have dared copy since.

For fans of: Metroid Dread, Prey. DP

16 ‘Amnesia: The Bunker’

Platforms: PS4/PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC

Developer Frictional’s latest horror game was a triumphant return to form. Tense, tragic and terrifying in equal measure, Amnesia: The Bunker required just one thing of you: to get the hell out of there, and as quickly as possible. But what started out as such a simple pursuit became increasingly more complex the longer you crept around in its dimly lit environment – and we learned the hard way exactly what’s meant by the old adage, “necessity is the mother of invention”. Just don’t expect to ever get acclimatised to the rats, dark or endless eviscerated corpses you keep tripping over. These were once men with dreams and fears and sweethearts waiting for them back home. And this is why Frictional is the undisputed master of the macabre. Don’t miss it.

Best bit: Becoming best friends with a generator. Yes, a generator.

For fans of: SOMA, Alien: Isolation. VB

15 ‘Pikmin 4’

Platforms: Nintendo Switch

With this fourth chapter, one of Nintendo’s most misunderstood franchises finally got its well-deserved day in the sun. A real-time strategy puzzle game where you direct leafy minions to collect discarded pretzels and battle disproportionate nightmare creatures, it sat awkwardly next to its name-brand siblings, Mario and Zelda. Fortunately, Pikmin 4 saw the series escape its reputation as aesthetically endearing but mechanically off-putting, and delivered an accessible experience to be enjoyed by die-hards and newcomers alike. Previous games were cortisol cocktails, overwhelming players with time limits and difficulty spikes, dragging them away from the series’ heartwarming moral centre. While retaining a rewarding sense of challenge, Pikmin 4 avoided previous pitfalls but still compelled us to size down and reinterpret the clumsy minutiae of the world around us – to appreciate trash as treasure. A tranquil odyssey full of giggles and gambits, this underrated Nintendo curio is up there with the best and brightest adventures.

Best bit: You’ll be joined on your journey by a Pikmin-carrying puppy companion called Oatchi, who grows alongside you as you progress the adventure.

For fans of: Ape Escape 2, X-Com. JO

14 ‘Dredge’

Platforms: PS4/PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PC

All aboard! In spooky fishing game Dredge, nothing is as it seems amid a sea of Lovecraftian terrors. By day, cast your net into the briny blue and make a living by selling the mutated monstrosities you catch. By night… well, you don’t want to be caught on the water when it gets dark. For many reasons, Dredge was one of the most creative and atmospheric games of 2023. You could spend long, peaceful minutes fishing to pay for a new engine – only to realise it was getting dark and you were a worryingly long way from shore.

Cleverly mixing tranquil moments with the spooky, this single-player indie didn’t waste a second of its relatively short story, while a sanity meter meant you were always left second-guessing every bump in the night. If you prefer smart horror that manipulates tension over jump scares, then consider Dredge a must-play debut from Black Salt Games.

Best bit: Your first night at sea, which proves that what you don’t know can in fact hurt you.

For fans of: Dave The Diver, Subnautica. AB

13 ‘Armored Core 6: Fires Of Rubicon’

Platforms: PS4/PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC

Fresh off creating gothic fantasy Elden Ring in 2022, developer FromSoftware returned to its sci-fi roots this year with action blockbuster Armored Core 6: Fires Of Rubicon. A far cry from Elden Ring, this brutal yet rewarding thriller swapped magic for missiles as it let players take control of highly-customisable mech robots in winner-takes-all deathmatches.

The real joy was in creating a mech of your own though, before unleashing it in a believable universe filled with cutthroat corporations and legendary fighters. Whether you wanted to make a lumbering tank or flying swordsman, a flexible customisation system felt deeply rewarding to play with – doubly so when you came up with the perfect killing machine for a boss you’d spent hours unsuccessfully trying to take down. Oh, and don’t forget the explosions. So many explosions.

Best bit: Deciding where your loyalties lay in a climatic series of twists.

For fans of: Bayonetta 3, Bloodborne. AB

12 ‘Super Mario Bros. Wonder’

Platforms: Nintendo Switch

Another highlight from an already-brilliant year for Mario fans. Though the series broke new ground with a box office-busting movie and well-received remake of cult classic Super Mario RPG, Super Mario Bros. Wonder was a return to the series’ 2D roots that reminded us why we fell in love with Nintendo’s plucky plumber in the first place.

Filled with tricky platforming challenges and Goomba-stomping goodness, the game takes place in the leafy Flower Kingdom, where Mario and company are tasked with foiling yet another of Koopa Bowser’s villainous schemes. Fans left waiting years for another 2D adventure could’ve been forgiven for wondering if Mario’s side-scrolling days were over. They needn’t have worried though, this once-familiar format felt as fresh as ever.

Best bit: Hopping along with a parade of singing Petey Piranhas.

For fans of: Kirby’s Return To Dreamland, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. AB

11 ‘Venba’

Platforms: PS4/PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PC

It’s unusual to play a game that makes you hungry, but that’s precisely what Venba did. It told a touching story of two Tamil immigrants in Canada learning to adjust to a different culture while raising their son, and all the challenges that entails.

An incredibly touching tale even if you don’t have directly related life experience – we’ve all known what it’s like to adapt to somewhere or something new – Venba was a mixture of a visual novel and puzzle game, that proved immensely satisfying when trying to figure out how best to cook traditional food with familial love oozing from every meal.

Short but sweet, Venba also only took an hour or two to play through, meaning it was an appropriate palate cleanser for gaming’s more aggressive mainstream world. The only things you could have asked for more of were its recipes, as some of the meals were impossible not to drool over.

Best bit: Cooking a Biryani for your son before he heads to college feels like a true labour of love with multiple layers to build upon the delicious rice-based curry.

For fans of: Unpacking, Florence. JA

10 ‘Cocoon’

Platforms: PS4/PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PC

This delightfully inventive puzzle platformer asked players to direct a small flying insect through various weird and wonderful worlds – all packed with tantalising challenges and bigger bugs determined to squash you. If you’d played designer Jeppe Carlsen’s other games – the quietly moving sidescrollers Limbo and Inside – you’d probably have been expecting gorgeously rendered environments and a tearjerking story. And you wouldn’t have been disappointed.

But Cocoon was a progression of Carlsen’s style too – adding 3D elements and a mechanical complexity that blew anything he’s done before out of the water. When you consider the game’s controls consist of just one button (plus directional abilities) it makes this achievement seem all the more stunning. Cocoon takes just five hours to play through, but you’ll be thinking about it for days after.

Best bit: The first time you’re sucked, Rick And Morty-style, from one psychedelic world and into another.

For fans of: Planet Of Lana, Limbo. AF

9 ‘Street Fighter 6’

Platforms: PS4/PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC

Coming off the heels of a poorly conceived fifth entry, Capcom managed to confidently rejuvenate its seminal fighting game series with Street Fighter 6.

In an attempt to break down the infamous barrier of entry to a genre that often seems impenetrable, this latest instalment went the extra mile with an optional, simplified modern control scheme, comprehensive individual character breakdowns, a training mode that made its contemporaries seem archaic by comparison and industry-leading accessibility options. The result was the most accessible entry to date; and it achieved all of this without ever alienating veteran players.

The hardcore competitive scene is still the beating heart of Street Fighter 6, as its expertly polished mechanics (including the new Drive Meter), along with superb online infrastructure, ensures that it will continue to have a healthy player base for years to come. Another genre-defining classic from Capcom? It’s hard to argue otherwise.

Best bit: Every single time an opponent is opened up to take the brunt of a Level 3 Super Art in an online ranked match.

For fans of: Mortal Kombat 1, Tekken 7. FK

8 ‘Dead Space’

Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC

With several major remakes already released this year (and more on the way), you might be beginning to wonder if we’re experiencing a remake glut – and if that’s a good thing. Motive Studio’s remake of Dead Space was a persuasive argument that it is. Though sticking closely to the 2008 original, engineer Isaac Clarke’s isolated search for his girlfriend Nicole aboard the infected USG Ishimura was eerily more relevant in 2023 and the wake of COVID-19 than it was when the game was first released in 2008.

The remake’s audio and visual upgrades, along with the combat mechanic’s gory new ‘Peeling System,’ were a masterclass in terrifying immersion, and even in the bright light of day left us jumping out of our skins at the slightest sound and expecting baby-like Necromorph Crawlers at every turn. The inclusion of a content warning system that popped up mid-game, along with the option to blur distressing scenes, made this gory horror accessible to a broader audience than before.

Best bit: The satisfaction (and relief) from killing the Leviathan Necromorph still stands out.

For fans of: Alien: Isolation, Alan Wake. SToh

7. ‘Hi-Fi Rush’

Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PC

Though musical action game Hi-Fi Rush launched back in January, it remains one of this year’s biggest surprises. When would-be rockstar Chai is mistakenly fused with his MP3 player, he sets off on a toe-tapping mission to fight the villainous Vandelay Technologies.

Off the back of lavish horror Ghostwire: Tokyo, nobody could have predicted that developer Tango Gameworks’ next title would be a colourful action-rhythm adventure with a banging soundtrack. The one thing that didn’t come as a surprise? Bashing robots to tunes from Nine Inch Nails, The Prodigy and The Black Keys was incredibly fun.

Forgiving controls meant you didn’t need a perfect inner metronome to save the world either, though it was impossible to make it through certain fights without headbanging. A short and sweet surprise, Hi-Fi Rush left us pining for an encore all year.

Best bit: Turning robots into scrap while ‘Invaders Must Die’ blared.

For fans of: Metal: Hellsinger, Devil May Cry. AB

6. ‘Resident Evil 4’

Platforms: PS4/PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC

This long-awaited update of the 2005 classic was never going to be less than a banger. Capcom’s remake team already knocked it out of the park with Resident Evil 2 in 2019 and, to a lesser extent, Resident Evil 3 in 2020 – but this was the game it had all been building to.

With improved graphics and even more exciting action, this leaner, cleaner and downright meaner approach to the horror/action hybrid didn’t disappoint either. Knife and melee combat were brought to the fore, guns re-balanced and ammo made scarcer to put the emphasis back on desperate survival.

Throw in some structural tweaks and a whole new set of miserably bad jokes from the franchise’s ‘funniest’ protagonist – and you had the definitive take on one of gaming’s all-time greats.

Best bit: Nothing will ever top the opening village fight – as single enemies give way to an intelligent horde and you realise that none of the old Resi rules apply.

For fans of: Dead Space, Alan Wake 2. DP

5 ‘Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’

Platforms: PS4/PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC

The galaxy far, far away may have become a tedious place in the diminishing returns of its many sequel films and spin-off TV series, but for gaming fans it’s never been more thrilling. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the long-awaited sequel to 2019’s Fallen Order, found its now-battle-scarred hero Cal Kestis on the brink of a discovery – one that could potentially turn the tide of his continued struggle against the evil Empire.

Whether he managed to get to his goal was up to you though – and the improved combat mechanics, more fleshed out side-quests and (thank god) less complicated map made this new journey even more enjoyable than the last. The genuinely moving story had us in tears at its emotional climax too. Perhaps the team behind Star Wars’ next movie should take note…

Best bit: Cere Junda’s final, epic face-off with you-know-who somehow topped every lightsaber boss battle that came before.

For fans of: Horizon Forbidden West, God Of War Ragnarök. AF

4 ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’

Platforms: PlayStation 5

This year, Insomniac Games took Spiderman to bold, audacious new heights by capturing the charm, nimbleness and unstoppable velocity of Marvel’s best superhero(es) like never before.

With each tremendous swing, blocks of New York City swooshed past in the blink of an eye. You could ascend the Empire State Building quicker than Tom Holland, then divebomb down 34th Street at exhilarating speed. Web-based navigation not enough? Spidey-suit’s new wings were on offer, so you could glide through Manhattan in acrobatic style. It was an indulgent power fantasy for adrenaline junkies, taken to the max with Peter Parker’s powerful Symbiote suit and Miles Morales’ high-voltage moves.

Despite an A-list of villains, Kraven, Sandman and company never stood a chance. Without that precise moment-to-moment Spidey sensation, its thrilling, high stakes character drama, memorable set pieces and fine tag-team action would have hardly mattered.

Best bit: Miles Morales’ pursuit of Black Cat through a chain of portals is both a thrilling chase through NYC and audacious technological showcase – and it gets even better with that exciting backs-to-the-wall finale.

For fans of: Batman: Arkham Knight, Sunset Overdrive. FD

3 ‘The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom’

Platforms: Nintendo Switch

The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom didn’t just live up to its critically acclaimed predecessor, Breath Of The Wild, it exceeded it in every way imaginable. With series antagonist Ganondorf returning to wreak havoc and Princess Zelda cast back in time, it was once again up to plucky hero Link to save Hyrule.

However, it wasn’t the same kingdom we’d grown accustomed to: the addition of massive floating islands and vast underground caverns make this Link’s biggest adventure yet, while his old powers had been replaced with new reality-bending abilities.

Flying through ceilings, rewinding time and even building an assortment of hodge-podge vehicles meant players found they could tackle Nintendo’s devious puzzles with untold creativity. Throw in one of this year’s prettiest scores and the return of series-staple dungeons, and we were left with an adventure that was nothing short of magical for both new and returning Zelda fans.

Best bit: When Link finally got his hands on the Master Sword – we’re not crying, you are!

For fans of: Elden Ring, Minecraft. AB

2 ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’

Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC

Over the summer, role-playing game Baldur’s Gate 3 gripped fantasy fans like nothing else – and it still hasn’t let them go. The action begins with players getting infected by Mindflayer Tadpoles, which will turn them into tentacled terrors if not treated. But the true majesty of Baldur’s Gate 3 was in the freedom you had to make that adventure your own. Want to test your sword and bow against one of the world’s strongest necromancers? You can do just that – or just turn him into a sheep and punt him off a cliff.

Months later, we’re still discovering new ways to complete quests in this open-world epic, and the hold that its charismatic party members have on us shows no signs of letting up. Still not sold? A picture says a thousand words – just look at Larian founder Swen Vinke struggling to hold Baldur’s Gate 3’s many awards trophies… from one ceremony.

Best bit: Entering the city of Baldur’s Gate for the first time and feeling like, tens of hours in, your adventure had just begun.

For fans of: Dungeons & Dragons, Divinity: Original Sin 2. AB

1 ‘Alan Wake 2’

Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC

Remedy’s Alan Wake 2 – an atmospheric, supernatural chiller stuffed full of deliciously cruel jump scares and tortuous twists – was a sequel that was oh-so-worth waiting for. Masterfully balancing third-person action with detective mini-games and one of the most engrossing stories we’ve played in years, it blended full-motion video with in-game graphics to craft a world that feels as real as you and me, making it one of the most astonishing-looking games ever made.

It didn’t matter where you went; whether you were picking through the detritus of an abandoned theme park or just trying to escape a subway station with your sanity intact, Alan Wake 2’s world was rich, detailed, ripe for exploration, and desperately good fun. Yes, we wanted all the Cult Stashes. Yes, we wanted to solve all the Nursery Rhyme puzzles. Not because we’re completionists, but because we never wanted the ride to end.

Best bit: Rock Opera. ‘Nuff said.

For fans of: Control, BioShock. VB

The post The 20 best games of 2023 appeared first on NME.

Eric ‘ConcernedApe‘ Barone is a musician disguised as a game developer. He’s best known as the creator of indie hit Stardew Valley, a farming life simulator where millions of players have whittled away the seasons growing crops, tending to animals, and throwing diamonds at townspeople to romance them.

• READ MORE: How ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ got narrator Amelia Tyler through “very dark times”

Yet Stardew Valley’s soundtrack, which was Barone’s one-person project like the rest of the game, can’t be overlooked. The score is one of Stardew‘s best bits – a soaring celebration of the seasons, from upbeat spring ballads and snappy summer instrumentals to melancholy Autumn tracks complete with the sound of wind whooshing through dry leaves. Stardew Valley’s music has racked up millions of plays on Spotify, while next year’s live orchestral tour sold out so quickly that new dates have been added across the globe.

“Before I ever considered making a video game, I always wanted to be a musician,” Barone tells NME over Zoom, raindrops trickling down the cosy greenhouse background behind him. “That was my dream.”

Barone has been playing music since his parents brought home a “cheap” keyboard, and was a member of several bands growing up. “The first was a nu-metal band, and it sounded awful,” he says, laughing. “Then I briefly played in a kind-of-screamo band, and in college, I was in… well, it was also embarrassing. It was experimental pop music.”

Even Barone’s first-ever game, which he doesn’t want anyone to see because it’s “cringe,” was a LucasArts-style point-and-click game made for his pop band’s album. Though Barone was always “huge” on games growing up, he never considered they would become his career – he nonchalantly studied computer science at college because his local college happened to offer courses, and only made games on the side to get better at programming. Yet as he explored his creative side, his future began to take shape.

“Because I knew how to do music, and would doodle around with art and stuff, I had some really amateur skills to be able to put together in a video game,” shared Barone. “And then it just kind of grew from there.”

That’s a bit of an understatement. Barone’s breakout hit Stardew Valley, which tasks players with turning a run-down inheritance into a bustling farm in a cosy rural town, has sold over 20million copies. It’s a must-play for many reasons, including the game’s wholesome sense of community, endearing characters, and compelling just-one-more-day farming formula. But to Barone, one of the game’s finest qualities is its music.

“I actually think it’s an underappreciated soundtrack actually, in terms of video games,” he says. “I always say to myself, ‘the fact Stardew Valley became so popular means people will finally listen to my music!’”

Like much of Barone’s style, the game’s score was “intuitive,” inspired by classical music and ‘90s role-playing game soundtracks. During development, he took a “somewhat recreational” approach to scoring the game. He would often make a “bunch” of tracks and then retrospectively try to fit them into scenes he’d made, though found it difficult to create songs with a specific use in mind.

“The best thing is when I’m just making music, I’m not even thinking about what it’s for, and it gives me ideas for the game,” says Barone. “It will make me think of a particular scenario or environment, and then I really envision it through the music and put that into the game. That’s my favourite way to develop, actually.”

Barone refers to it as “music-guided game development,” and has never heard of another developer working in the same way. To him, it’s instinctive a way of getting in toucher with creativity at its purest. “Music is direct. It’s language,” he explains. “The way you normally think about things through an inner dialogue or symbolic representation? It’s removed. Music is somehow pure, you don’t think of it in terms of symbols. It just exists, it’s like magic. It feels like a way you can almost directly interface with the transcendental or divine.”

Recently, Barone has been working with Tokyo-based music company SOHO Live to create live orchestra performances of Stardew Valley’s music. The tour, which will span Europe, Asia and America, was announced back in October. Today (November 29), even more stops have been added due to overwhelming popularity.

It was an idea that Barone had in the back of his mind, but was too busy to act on until SOHO Live reached out. Though he can’t read music, he’s been composing and providing feedback through MIDI files, using adages like “Every Good Boy Does Fine” to place notes. Nearly eight years after Stardew Valley launched, Barone finds it “touching” that there are enough fans to justify things like a concert tour.

“I’m really glad that people love the game so much,” says Barone. “It resonated with so many people. I never expected that.”

Looking ahead, Barone is currently working on Haunted Chocolatier, a “life-affirming” RPG about ghosts and chocolate. Barone, who occasionally felt musically “constrained” by Stardew Valley’s countryside vibes, says his next soundtrack will be more authentic to the electronic music he usually makes.

“I plan on going more experimental with it,” he says. “In Haunted Chocolatier, the whole idea of the game is that it’s more exploring these weird, transcendental ideas and scenarios with ghosts and weird stuff. I feel like I can go weirder with the music, and do things that I couldn’t do with Stardew Valley, so it’s kind of freeing and interesting.”

Barone has drawn inspiration from from a number of places, ranging from “old-school PlayStation One” RPGs like Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy, to his own electronic music tastes. “When I started working on Haunted Chocolatier, I was listening to a lot of vaporwave music and stuff,” he explains. “There’s a little bit of that influence, but I’d call it almost a post-vaporwave influence.”

“But it’s not like [Haunted Chocolatier] has a vaporwave soundtrack,” he clarified. “But I keep my finger on the pulse of what’s going on in weird, underground music circles, and a little bit of that will always make it in.”

Barone is also keen to work in more moments like Stardew Valley’s ‘Dance Of The Moonlight Jellies’ festival, when townspeople gather at the beach to watch the glow of passing jellyfish. Their migration marks the end of summer, and it’s an emotional cutscene brought to life by its chiming, melancholy music – you can listen to Barone playing it below.

“My whole goal as a game creator is to create these moments where I want people to feel something, like actually feel this connection to something deeper than you would normally feel like in a video game. I want to go deeper, and connect with people in a real way that’s memorable, that they’ll take with them for the rest of their life. I think music is integral to that. I’m really excited with Haunted Chocolatier to create more of these special musical moments that will really touch people.”

Seeing these moments brought to life in concert is something Barone is particularly excited about. Years after Stardew Valley changed his life, Barone admits he’s often “numb” to how surreal his life has become since becoming an indie celebrity. Yet once he’s sat in a venue, watching one of next year’s orchestral performances, he suspects the shock will hit him once again.

“It feels like my life has been worthwhile because of Stardew Valley, even if I were to die tomorrow,” he says. “It feels good to see it manifest in new ways, and see people appreciate it.”

You can check out the new dates for Stardew Valley: Festival Of Seasons here

The post ‘Stardew Valley’ creator Eric Barone discusses his life in music, concert tour, and ‘Haunted Chocolatier’ appeared first on NME.

On a dreary November afternoon in Birmingham, Amelia Tyler slips between voices. Her “party trick” is making mundane things like instruction manuals sound filthy. A more sing-song style is reserved for making jokes at her expense or impersonating rude Redditors. It’s her normal speaking voice though, in which she narrated fantasy role-playing game Baldur’s Gate 3, that millions of people will recognise.

Created by Belgian developer Larian Studios, Baldur’s Gate 3 is set in the world of tabletop phenomenon Dungeons & Dragons, where players’ determine their every action via dice roll. The game follows a party of adventurers on a quest to rid themselves of parasites that are slowly taking over their brains. Since launching in August, it’s become a critical and commercial hit, selling millions of copies and a popular Game Of The Year choice for many.

As The Narrator (also known as Dungeon Master), it’s Tyler’s job to describe everything the player sees and feels throughout their journey – from the gratitude on a rescued child’s face, to the thrill of a supernatural serial killer reliving last night’s murder.

“I love what we’ve managed to create with Baldur’s Gate 3 – it’s very intimate,” says Tyler from the floor of a chilly photography studio, where we’re both sat in front of a portable heater. “The image I always had [while narrating] was with my chin on the player’s shoulder, whispering in their ear and [saying] ‘look at that’, tilting their chin but never manipulating them. It was nice to experiment with that – and see how far I could push it.”

Raised in Warwickshire, Tyler has been acting since she was very little. Her career started at five years old, when her actress mum “couldn’t get a babysitter” and brought her along to a voiceover shoot. She proved a natural, voicing “cute little kid” adverts until around 12 when she remembers bawling her eyes out after her first truly demanding session.

“I was brought up with a lot of expectations, [which is] the kind way of putting it,” says Tyler, who describes a difficult relationship with her mum several times during our interview. “So the thought of being dreadful at something I’d been doing for so long was heartbreaking for me.”

Though she considered running away from the challenge, Tyler decided to “knuckle down and sort this shit out,” practicing for hours every day after school. As a result, she describes her sight-reading – the ability to perform a script without going over it first – with an exaggerated chef’s kiss, and says this is how she read every line in Baldur’s Gate 3.

“If I read the entirety of Baldur’s Gate 3 before each session, it would have taken me forever, and there were a lot of tweaks on the fly,” says Tyler. “I always approach characters from what’s going on in their mind… If I can get there, I don’t have to read a script beforehand.”

Much of that comes from Tyler’s academic background. In 2003, she graduated the university of Bristol with a BsC degree in experimental psychology, though she would have preferred to study acting. “I would have loved to go to drama school, but my mum was an actress and was like, ‘Don’t you dare – you go to university!”

That said, Tyler grew to love psychology. Her speciality was psychoanalysis – at the time called ‘abnormal psychology’ before it was changed to destigmatise mental illness – and would have seen her working on “some real dark stuff” by exploring the mindsets of serial killers. Though teachers urged Tyler to continue studying for a master’s degree, she worried she was only pursuing this career because other people told her to. While she contemplated her future, she took a year-long break to work in voice acting.

“I didn’t go back,” says Tyler, who has been acting ever since. She was the monstrous Siren Queen in pirate adventure Sea Of Thieves, several characters in British dystopia We Happy Few, and mysterious half-demon Malady in another Larian hit Divinity: Original Sin 2. Yet by a wide margin, Baldur’s Gate 3 is her biggest role yet.

“I’m 42 years old, and I’m done with being normal”

Tyler spent countless hours in a recording booth, and the whole thing took three and a half years. The Narrator’s lines were read in 17 different styles, to account for all the different options players have at every point. Despite its enormity, the role was a “touchstone” for Tyler during a turbulent time in her life, and became much more than a simple job. “Recording for this game saw me through some very dark times,” she says.

In 2020, Tyler’s father died after an illness, right when her career was hitting new heights. “I was caring for him at home and recording Baldur’s Gate 3 at the same time,” Tyler remembers. “It was never because Larian was pressuring me to do that. But the morning after Dad died and they took him away, I was not ready to deal with that yet. I wanted to escape. We had a recording session penciled and I went ‘Is it okay if we go ahead with this? I just need to not be me for a minute. I need to be the Dungeon Master.’”

She leans in to show us the necklace she’s wearing. A toothy silver shark, made by her dad in the ‘70s, hangs at the end of its chain. “I’m really glad that just before he got ill, he got to see the first scenes of me in Baldur’s Gate 3. He’s the one who got me into video games with Treasure Island on the Commodore 64. And then I got to show him this thing [I’d made]. I wish he’d got to play it, he would have loved that,” she says, wiping away tears. “This is kind of a love letter to my dad.”

Tyler was also diagnosed with ADHD during the casting process, which helped explain behaviour that she’d sometimes struggled to understand. “I don’t think I realised how tense I was, from pretending to be normal,” Tyler admits. “I’m done with that now,”

The diagnosis gave Tyler confidence to bring more of herself to roles, and that empowerment carried into Baldur’s Gate 3. She reveals The Narrator was originally meant to talk like Jeremy Irons’ sneering villain Scar from The Lion King, “watching you fuck up and really enjoying it,” but Larian decided to go with Tyler’s own voice after being impressed by her gravitas and emotional range.

It was a good decision. For many, Tyler brings Baldur’s Gate 3 to life – a constant companion, with a deadpan observation or dry comment for every situation. “Hearing people say they couldn’t imagine anybody else in this role makes me so happy, because it means I’ve taken something that can be quite sterile to a different place that I don’t think has been explored before,” she says, beaming.

When Baldur’s Gate 3 took the gaming world by storm, Tyler’s narration proved deeply popular. Almost overnight, she became a celebrity within the gaming world. More than one million people have watched her hilarious recording booth bloopers on social media (including lines like “Chlamydia, come and get ya’ dinner!”), and she was nominated for Best Supporting Performer at the Golden Joystick Awards – the world’s biggest gaming awards show voted for by the public – though lost out to fellow Baldur’s Gate 3 star Neil Newbon for his performance as the charming vampire Astarion.

“Recording for this game saw me through some very dark times”

Tyler is happy, though not always comfortable, with the spotlight she’s found herself in. “I wasn’t expecting to get noticed. It’s quite rare for a woman to be put in a position of power [in a game] like that, and you can never quite tell how that’s going to go down with the public,” she says, referencing gaming culture’s well-documented sexism problem. “I was bracing myself when it was first announced, but everyone’s been so welcoming and supportive.”

Tyler says she sometimes feels like “a bit of a fraud” when it comes to voice acting. “I’m not a parrot. I’m not one of those people who can do a million different accents. But through the course of this game, I’ve realised that the one thing I do exceptionally well is emotional versatility. Apparently that’s quite a rare thing, so I’m really proud of it, and that so many people like it.”

So what’s next? Following the success of Baldur’s Gate 3, Tyler is frank about wanting to star in another Larian game. “I would bite their fucking arms off to work with them again,” she laughs, though she hopes to play a party member next time around.

“I keep getting shit from players because Larian keeps casting me as the woman you can’t sleep with, but can’t progress the plot without,” she says, grinning. “So after edging them for two games, it’s time.”

Outside of her upcoming performance as goddess Hecate in fantasy roguelike Hades 2, Tyler’s next roles are very hush-hush. But the process of creating Baldur’s Gate 3 has given her a deeper understanding of herself, along with more self-belief. As we wrap up our interview, reluctantly leaving the portable heater, Tyler is deeply confident about her future. “I’m 42 years old, and I’m done with being normal,” she says. “Within the next couple of years, you will see me in roles I was born to play.”

The post How ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ got narrator Amelia Tyler through “very dark times” appeared first on NME.

Call of Duty made its debut in 2003, and for every year since, we’ve dutifully picked up a new game in the series. Activision Blizzard‘s first-person shooters have become a mainstay in autumn’s busy release season, and now with a whopping 20 games in the series, most generations can point to their favourite CoD game with ease.

• READ MORE: Best FPS games: what’s the best shooter you can play in 2022?

While some Call of Duty games are looked back on as classics, not all of them have lived up to the hype – in short, there have been a few stinkers (spoilers – one of them is Ghosts). Below, we’ve ranked the 20 “mainline” Call of Duty games -meaning no Warzone, sorry – to work out which is which and definitely not cause any arguments.

From the very first Call of Duty to this year’s Modern Warfare 3, read on to find out where your favourite CoD sits on our ranking – and more importantly, which Call of Duty game we consider the all-time greatest.

Words: Jake Tucker, Andy Brown

20. Call of Duty 3 (2006)

Console-only, Call of Duty 3 was a mess of ideas that was hugely overshadowed by what came next, Modern Warfare. Featuring class-based multiplayer, vehicles and even scorestreaks, it was a very mid-2000s Xbox 360 shooter that didn’t really compete with what Battlefield and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas were doing at the time.

The campaign has its moments, particularly by forcing you into hand-to-hand combat sequences that felt cinematic for the time, and could see players using the Sixaxis movement sensing on the PlayStation 3 controller to beat enemy soldiers to death. Grim.

Call of Duty 3 was developed in just 8 months and was no doubt hurt for being wedged between Call of Duty 2 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – but it has some nice ideas that were incorporated into better, later, CoD games.

Platforms: PS2, PS3, Xbox, Xbox 360, Wii.
Best map: Most of Call of Duty 3’s maps are reskins of CoD and CoD 2 maps, but Stalag 23 is all-new and lets players charge around a PoW camp while one tower overlooks it all.
Bonus celebrity voice: American TV mainstay Mark Deklin stars as Maj. Gerald Ingram.

19. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2018)

Despite Black Ops being one of the most beloved single-player Call of Duty campaigns, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 ditched the single-player campaign and its ’70s setting to go for a near-future multiplayer shooter that, frankly, sucked.

The story was delivered instead in the game’s multiplayer, although you would be forgiven for missing it as you ran around at 500 mph, desperately trying to avoid getting killed by the all-new specialists and their ridiculous signature weapons.

It’s mostly notable for Blackout, a battle royale mode that was an early attempt at Warzone, and for Specialist Ajax’s 9-bang, a flashbang that detonates multiple times and served as a tremendously funny fuck you to camping enemies.

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Best map: Contraband is one big bridge that holds a constant running firefight while flankers are funnelled into two wide-open areas to fight for dominance.
Bonus celebrity voice: This one is light on star power, but Black Ops mainstay James C. Burns returns as Sgt. Woods.

18. Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013)

The United States is no longer a superpower. That’s the horrifying world portrayed in Call of Duty: Ghosts, a fairly meh entry in the series that commits the cardinal sin of being nearly completely unmemorable, with a single-player campaign that ends with a miserable cliffhanger that will never be resolved. There’s also a dog, and a cool bit where you defend a space station from enemies before scuttling it.

The multiplayer is fairly underwhelming but a load of stuff has been done on the technical side: this was the first game to have sliding, leaning and animations for when you’re clambering around the environment, creating a more dynamic feeling CoD. It also has a very fast time to kill (TTK) and bigger maps than before, hinting at a Call of Duty that was trying to reinvent itself. The coolest part though was the Field Orders, which were a special pick-up from the first death of the match that would bestow upon its owner a special mission. Complete the mission and you’ll get a resupply and other powerful rewards, but die and you’ll drop a pickup for another player to have a go. This could lead to map-destroying events such as a mortar strike or even blowing up an entire baseball field.

Sadly, Ghosts failed to hit the mark as the first indicator that the Call of Duty series was folding under its own weight, which led to serious changes in how the games were developed.

Platforms: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC
Best map: Warhawk drops you in a town in Nebraska with plenty of buildings for snipers to set up in, but alleyways are often filled with stealthy players setting up ambushes and flanks
Bonus celebrity voice: Stephen Lang plays retired U.S Army Captain Elias Walker, but you can call him Scarecrow. Cringe.

17. Call of Duty (2003)

Sorry, but it’s true. Call of Duty’s very first entry had real promise but it’s nowhere near the Call of Duty you’ll recognise today, playing like a very basic WW2-themed Quake 3. Which, it basically was, being built on the same engine.

Still, it’s hard not to appreciate how early the team at Infinity Ward locked in core components for Call of Duty: there are different viewpoints, celebrity voices and a push towards realism by adding iron sights – allowing players to aim down sights for one of the first time in video games. There was even a shellshock mechanic, which messed you up if you were near explosions in the single-player campaign.

Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Best map: Carentan, later recreated as Chinatown in Modern Warfare,  is a French town with roads, buildings and backyards, while mounted machine guns provide solid anchor points. It’s also the only CoD map to get namechecked in The Office.
Bonus celebrity voice: Jason Statham shows up as your commander Sargeant Waters, and the campaign is greatly improved for him growling in your ear during the British campaign.

16. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023)

The latest Call Of Duty, to enter our rankings, this dull reimagining of Infinity Ward’s original Modern Warfare trilogy felt utterly phoned-in. Despite the return of series villain Makarov, Modern Warfare 3‘s single-player campaign is both lifeless and shockingly short. Meanwhile, Zombies took COD fans’ favourite undead-blasting game mode and turned it into a limp extraction shooter.

The fact that Modern Warfare 3 continued on from 2022’s Modern Warfare 2 meant that multiplayer was a surprisingly balanced affair from day one. Yet even the return of iconic maps from 2009 couldn’t stop this entry from feeling like it should have been an expansion, not a full game.

Platforms: PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Best map: Airport shoot-em-up Terminal, though this one’s cheating because MW3 launched with the same maps as 2009’s Modern Warfare 2.
Bonus celebrity voice: Shadow And Bone star Julian Kostov drops by to play ultranationalist baddie Vladimir Makorov, but cheesy writing leaves him sounding like a Marvel villain.

15. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 (2015)

A mind-bending story and a stellar voice cast are huge wins for an otherwise forgettable Call of Duty entry. The addition of cybernetics, robot combatants and even the cybercore abilities layer in a lot of systems to the single and multiplayer aspects of the game, but it often feels like there’s just too much going on and so little freedom.

By the end of the game you visit the Battle of the Bulge for some reason (despite the sci-fi setting) and there’s a horde of zombies to defend yourself from. The tonal whiplash and the fact these elements aren’t handled that well puts a dampener on a campaign with solid ideas.

The multiplayer adds in unique operators but is bland and disinteresting. If you haven’t played this already, you haven’t missed much.

Platforms: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Best map: Micro is not the best map in the game – sorry – but the most interesting, this shrinks down your soldiers and throws them into a pitched battle for dominance of a picnic table. Shoot ants to see them explode.
Bonus celebrity voice: Ben Browder, star of Farscape and the later Stargate SG-1 series’ is the voice of the male player character. Sci-fi legend Kate Sackhoff appears as Sarah Hall.

14. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011) 

Modern Warfare 3 was the first of Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty games after co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella left the company and Activision, taking with them a host of the core team that made Modern Warfare and its sequel possible.

Modern Warfare 3 fares fairly well when you consider all of the dramatic occurrences going on behind the scenes, but it mostly coasts on the Modern Warfare name. Modern Warfare 3 hits the same notes as MW2, even including a playable terror attack on civilians that can be skipped. This is the end of the original Modern Warfare trilogy, meaning a lot of players might have gone through this just to find out what happens with Captain Price and pals.

There’s a wealth of content for players who want to stick it to the AI, with survival mode and spec ops letting players team up and batter enemies. The multiplayer is fairly average too, slightly worse than its predecessors, but interesting enough for the time. MW3 is an iterative entry rather than anything really interesting.

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii
Best map: Hardhat: this construction site is full of unfinished buildings, but the best scraps are to be had in the central building that occupies the center. Furious close-quarters action is here, with a multitude of angles ensuring every firefight is a chaotic mess. It’s fun, though.
Bonus celebrity voice: Idris Elba, Timothy Olyphant, William Fichtner all star, while Billy Murray returns at Captain Price and Craig Fairbrass is in yet another Modern Warfare voicing Walcroft, this time.

13. Call of Duty: World at War (2008)

A love letter to World War 2 films, World at War follows up the franchise-defining Modern Warfare by taking a giant step back into the past.

You’ll storm the beaches of Normandy like in Saving Private Ryan, crawl through the streets of Stalingrad Enemy At The Gates-style, and take orders from Kiefer Sutherland and Gary Oldman. World at War does do a surprisingly good job at being scary, with some sections merely being downright unpleasant and others channeling some genuinely spooky energy into their warfare.

However, gruelling difficulty spikes and a German army outfitted with an unlimited supply of grenades make actually playing the campaign frustrating. Elsewhere, the multiplayer has the same compelling Modern Warfare feel, but things are slightly off. This also marks the introduction of the attack dog care killstreak, one of Call of Duty‘s most infuriating additions.

Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, DS
Best map: Banzai: one huge bridge is the focal point for most of the combat, but below that there are scores of paths cutting their way under and around the bridge, giving players a way to rustle out the snipers hiding in the map’s dense vegetation.
Bonus celebrity voice: Gary Oldman plays the role of Sgt. Reznov, your Russian combat dad in the campaign. Kiefer Sutherland is Sgt. Roebuck, U.S combat daddy.

12. Call of Duty: WW2 (2017) 

WW2‘s biggest issue is that it’s set in…well, you know. The French locales and the WW2 setting make the game feel jaded, but it actually had some fresh ideas, most of them in the campaign.

The knee-slide that has cursed modern CoD games was replaced with a button to throw yourself prone and AI squadmates will even keep you supplied, handing you grenades and ammo during big assaults. For the six to seven hours that you’re tangled up in WW2’s story, you’ll enjoy every second, but once you’re done you’ll struggle to remember what you got up to.

The multiplayer was a bizarre experiment from Sledgehammer, a soft reboot of sorts just before Modern Warfare came along. A social area for WW2 has players crowded around the beach at Normandy, as loot boxes fall from the sky to bestow gifts upon players. It would be grotesque if it wasn’t so outright bizarre.

Elsewhere, multiplayer is decent but feels too modern, a trap that every World War 2-set Call of Duty seems to fall into since 2007’s Modern Warfare: everything feels slick and modern, with red dots and lasers strapped to 1940s weaponry. Wouldn’t it be better to get some gunplay with a bit of heft to it? Still, it’s possible to have a great time if you load dragon’s breath rounds into your shotgun and go to town.

A strong entry, but not quite strong enough to land it in the big 10.

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Best map: Ardennes Forest: a battle of the bulge set three-lane classic, this is what COD maps are all about. Good sight lines mean scrappy running firefights.
Bonus celebrity voice: Josh Duhamel – soon to appear in The Callisto Protocol – starts as technical sergeant William Pierson

11. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (2016)

One of the best Call of Duty campaigns ever made collides full-body with a terrible multiplayer offering. Infinite Warfare takes Call of Duty into space, with your character throwing down against some Martians – human colonists determined to take earth – with all sorts of hard-fiction gadgets.

There are so many highlights: the freedom to tackle the campaign in your own way, the fact that you have a combat robot programmed to spew one-liners to help ingratiate himself with the team, and even Kit Harrington taking a genuinely chilly turn as Admiral Kotch. Did I mention the zero-gravity firefights on deep-space capital ships? Honestly, at moments this is the best Call of Duty has ever been.

The multiplayer, however, is terrible. Everyone moves too fast, but combat inversely feels too slow, with a long TTK and weapons that feel ineffectual. Even a futuristic Terminal reskin can’t save this from just feeling a little bit disappointing.

Even now, the campaign is worth your time. We don’t get enough hard sci-fi shooters and Infinite Warfare shows how much of a shame that is.

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Best map: Retaliation takes you to a war-ravaged Geneva, with a giant main building for close-quarters combat, with plenty of places for longer-range fighting and wall-running outside.
Bonus celebrity voice: Kit Harrington is in this and he is a right baddie.

10. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014)

Another stellar campaign, Advanced Warfare feels like playing the best action movie you can think of. In one segment you’re executing a high-stakes raid on Camp David to rescue the President, in another you’re bounding down the Golden Gate Bridge, bounding over trucks to take out clusters of enemies. The kineticism at the heart of Advanced Warfare is a large part of its charm, and often feels like more of a Titanfall sequel – before we actually got one of those – than something in Call of Duty.

It’s a Call of Duty that actually says something, too: a condemnation of private military companies and the influence they can wield, although sadly that has been eroded by the fact that leading Advanced Warfare‘s military company is the disgraced Kevin Spacey, whose heel turn later in the story is now overshadowed by his acts in the real world.

Elsewhere, quick-time events and a lack of freedom really marred the experience. The multiplayer has wall-running and a lot of mobility, but somehow still feels approachable, with clean maps that make the game feel like a tighter Titanfall rather than the mess of high-speed shootouts you might see in Infinite Warfare or later Black Ops entries.

Platforms: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Best map: Riot has two big open areas, three lanes and a mix of cover, high jumps and vantage points. Advanced Warfare is big on mobility, and this plays into that in a big way.
Bonus celebrity voice: Kevin Spacey is in this, as the giant gross elephant in the room.

9. Call of Duty: Vanguard (2021)

Vanguard hits a lot of the same notes as the other recent World War 2 Call of Duty games, but gets a higher position due to its inclusion of the Gunsmith customisation system and a fairly robust destruction mechanic that allows players in campaign and multiplayer to absolutely shred the world around them.

You join the world’s first special forces team, a force made up of Nazi-punchers from different nations. Sadly, you join them during their ultimate mission, so most of their tale plays out through origin stories and flashbacks set long past the point of frustration.

However, the performances are good and you get to do a lot of fun set pieces, it’s just a shame the campaign doesn’t really spend a lot of time exploring how this team works together and instead has characters blubbing over the death of friends, family and commanding officers until it all comes to a satisfying conclusion.

The multiplayer is good fun, albeit with the same problem as WW2: using modern customisation options with era-inappropriate options, giving players the option to create some truly cursed guns without really adding any mechanical support to the fact we’re in WW2.

Platforms: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Best map: Eagle’s Nest is an all-time great Call of Duty map, encompassing one long building and two winding paths that led around it. Grab a shotgun and head inside for a fun shootout, but the outside paths offer interesting options.
Bonus celebrity voice: British TV actor and Banshee star Chiké Okonkwo stars as Arthur Kingsley, and he’s brilliant.

8. Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War (2020)

I love a spy story, and with Raven‘s first campaign for Call of Duty, the developer tells a masterful one with a few interesting mechanical quirks: trying to solve puzzles in an ’80s safehouse in Berlin is memorable, and shootouts inside locations like a Russian recreation of small town America are some of the best moments Call of Duty has to offer.

The campaign, sadly, is short and vanishes before it wears out its welcome. This is one of the bigger reasons Cold War doesn’t rank higher in the list – that, and the multiplayer lets things down. Coming directly after 2019’s Modern Warfare reinvented the wheel, Cold War‘s multiplayer often feels infuriating and never delivers the same serotonin hit as either version of the Modern Warfare franchise.

Platforms: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Best map: Miami has the benefit of actually feeling like Miami, with a beach and hotel both providing memorable battlegrounds. Hunkering down and sniping from the hotel balcony is a great time, until you get flanked.
Bonus celebrity voice: Not strictly a voice, but Bruce Thomas – the motion capture body for Master Chief in Halo 4,5 and Infinite – appears here as Russell Adler.

7. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (2012)

Remember that incredible Black Ops 2 commercial? Starring faces like Robert Downey Jr, Jack Black and FPSRussia, it was the most 2012 commercial ever and it was awesome.

Black Ops 2 examines America’s behind-the-scenes scraps and scrapes, and does some fun stuff: a shootout in a club full of civilians – soundtracked with dubstep because it’s 2012 – feels tense, and there are elements of real-time strategy, narrative branches and stories taking place in 1986 and 2025, giving you a good mix of different elements. The story itself is pretty gross, with some dodgy character motivations and even Michael Rooker showing up to spew exposition everywhere.

The multiplayer is better for getting rid of the ridiculous movement mechanics, with high-tech gadgets like thermal scopes that are fun to play with, but the real draw is that the levels blend retro style with the near future.

The character customisation is solid in multiplayer too, with create-a-class becoming the pick-10 system, which let players pick 10 things to use rather than just picking perks, weapons and attachments. Longer sight lines in the maps mean you often have a little more time to prepare for fights and the skill ceiling feels higher than many of the newer games in the franchise.

This was the last phenomenal Call of Duty game before 2019’s Modern Warfare – after this, the mutliplayer started to unravel.

Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U
Best map: Grind drops you into a skate park and has players charging around the place trying to navigate a world of half pipes, ramps and some brutal sniper positions to punish anyone who tries to climb either.
Bonus celebrity voice: Michael Keaton gives a memorable performance as Jason Hudson, taking the reigns from Ed Harris who – spoilers – plays the role in Black Ops.

6. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022)

The sixth greatest Call of Duty, 2022’s Modern Warfare 2 followed fan-favourite tough guys Soap, Ghost, Gaz and Captain Price as they romped across the world on a hunt for stolen missiles. It’s got no shortage of blockbuster setpieces, but Modern Warfare 2‘s campaign truly shines in its moments of restraint – like a stealthy crawl through an occupied Mexican town, or a sniper-fuelled spiritual successor to CoD 4‘s All Ghillied Up. Within these quieter missions, Infinity Ward explores its characters with more charm than we’re used to seeing from Call of Duty – and Modern Warfare 2 is all the better for it.

As for the multiplayer, Modern Warfare 2 offers a big step up to 2021’s Vanguard: weapons feel responsive and deadly, while new game modes like Prisoner Rescue offer a compelling middle ground between high stakes Search and Destroy games and more traditional death matches. While some disappointing map design cast a damper on Modern Warfare 2, the rebooted sequel is proof that Infinity Ward remains one of the best FPS developers in the business.

Platforms: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Best map: Embassy is the best of a bad bunch – two buildings of an embassy have several routes to explore and a central area where all parts meet in repeated grisly bloodshed
Bonus celebrity voice: Barry Sloane returns from 2019’s MW1 to voice Captain Price, but video game fans will likely recognise Warren Kole – who voices Graves – as bad dude Rafe Adler from Uncharted 4. He’s also “Galaga Guy” from the first Avengers movie.

5. Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010)

Black Ops is a worthy successor to the 2007 Modern Warfare and is one of the best settings for a Call of Duty game, letting players explore America’s secret wars through the eyes of a few celebrity cameos.

The campaign is good fun although weirdly paced. You’re hurled between assassinations, invasions and wars throughout history with barely enough time to catch your breath, in a story that rips stuff from Fight Club. It’s not high art, but it does mean a lot of time riding around in Chinooks getting your hands on a variety of ’70s weaponry.

The multiplayer is exceptional too, taking what made Modern Warfare work and lacquering it with Cold War-era cool. It’s not quite as much fun, but killing an enemy with a ballistic knife – a knife you shoot like a gun – or even rinsing enemies in Search and Destroy with a FAMAS, ensures this is a game many players will be fond of.

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC, DS
Best map: Nuketown has become a Call of Duty icon, but it’s easy to forget quite how well-designed it is. A cul de sac of carnage, two houses face each other with scant cover and nowhere to hide.
Bonus celebrity voice: Ed Harris, Gary Oldman and Sam Worthington star, but Ice Cube’s turn as Joseph Bowman is the most memorable.

4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)

Building on Modern Warfare‘s reinvention, Modern Warfare 2 is a confident, stylish romp. It may lack the substance of its predecessor but it made up for that with flash. Iconic moments are nearly constant: watching Soap tackle a man from the roof of a favela, skulking through a military base in a snowstorm by using a heartbeat sensor, and the famously maligned but actually quite tame airport section which sees you gunning down an airport full of civilians in a sequence that was seemingly designed solely for edge 16-year-olds.

As the story gets sillier and sillier, it never really stops being fun. There aren’t many games that would have you holed up in a burger restaurant, trying to kill invading Russian troops as an invasion force rolls across a car park, but no matter – Modern Warfare 2 has already nailed it. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, mind, but by the time you’ve seen the flaws you’ve already bought in.

The multiplayer is famous for the sheer variety of completely broken, rage-inducing, combos. Modern Warfare 2 is a game where you can be killed by sentry guns, riot shields, sawn-off twin shotguns or even a throwing knife that has bounced down from a rooftop to kill you instantly – likely just in time for it to be the game-ending killcam, embarrassing you for years as part of someone’s frag video forever more.

Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Best map: In a game filled with top-notch maps, Terminal takes the prize. A map so beloved it’s even a popular GMOD fixture, this is an airport turned into a shooting gallery
Bonus celebrity voice: Lance Henriksen takes a break from starring in every horror movie ever to appear as the villainous Lieutenant General Shepherd.

3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)

Call of Duty was in a bad spot when Modern Warfare’s reboot came in 2019. Sales were down and while it was still the biggest game in the world, it wasn’t all that exciting. This game mixed things up, and made everything feel fresh again: gone was the boiling world war that ended the original trilogy, and in its place was a quiet skulk through a house in Camden, looking for terrorists in the wake of a terrorist attack.

It’s still jingoistic. A war crime perpetuated in the real world by American forces has been rewritten to make Russia the baddies, and the franchise still goes all-in on how amazing the unaccountable special forces are, but generally the story is engaging and introduces a likeable cast.

Then, there is the cracking multiplayer. Gunsmithing makes Modern Warfare‘s arsenal feel huge and lets you personalise guns to your own needs, while the maps are excellent. Firefights around the stalled busses in Piccadilly Circus, or through underground caves, all feel solid, while the fidelity afforded to these means that firefights feel close to overwhelming sometimes.

Modern Warfare‘s team had an impossible mission: to make Call of Duty cool again. They pulled it off.

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Best map: Shoothouse is a rat run of slaughter, with three lanes crisscrossed with flanking routes and cover placed smartly to encourage a cornucopia of violence
Bonus celebrity voice: Claudia Doumit – Victoria Neuman from Amazon’s The Boys – appears as Farah Karim.

2. Call of Duty 2 (2005)

Call of Duty 2‘s campaign is good fun, but hard to distinguish from Call of Duty‘s – although the romp through Africa as British Desert Rats feels ahead of its time. Infinity Ward also does D-Day again, having originally tackled it in Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Now, it’s memorable for its non-linear levels, which was a bold move before Call of Duty slid deep into scripted events and blockbuster explosions.

But if you have fond memories of Call of Duty 2 it’s more likely to be for its online elements. On PC Call of Duty 2 has 64-person multiplayer, and it’s gloriously clunky with weapons being tricky to use. Persevere with it and the reward is firefights that feel just the right side of unpleasant, and combat that requires genuine thought to improve at. Picking your way through ruined buildings with a single-shot rifle while watching out for an ambush from the 32 enemy players out to ruin your day is a feeling that no Call of Duty has ever successfully emulated. I played Call of Duty 2 so much back in the day that I used to dream about the ping of an M1 Garand.

Platforms: PC, Xbox 360
Best map: Lots of excellent Call of Duty maps come back from Call of Duty 2, but El Alamein is a new addition that might be the best of the bunch, filled with trenches, sniper spots and inky nighttime for stealthy players to take advantage of
Bonus celebrity voice: Band of Brothers’ Michael Cudlitz gets back into WW2 character as Sgt. Glenn Hawkins.

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)

Admit it, you were expecting this. Much has been made of Modern Warfare for the way it shaped the franchise into what it is today. The praise is well-deserved. Combat in the campaign is pacey and engaging.

It’s easy to forget how innovative Modern Warfare actually was, too. So many of its innovations are now commonplace not only in the Call of Duty franchise, but across contemporary shooters in general. The tutorial is an SAS shoothouse set as the player passes selection, while the opening level is an assault on a cargo ship as rain whips around the deck. ‘All Ghillied Up’ remains an all-time best FPS level as you sneak around an irradiated Chernobyl, and ‘Aftermath’ even offers a bleak look at the horror of nuclear attacks by letting you experience death by nuclear fallout, moments after a nuke is detonated at the end of a campaign mission.

‘Aftermath’ works best when you play it directly. Even years later I think about the struggle directly before that level as your character, Sgt. Paul Jackson, fights through the streets of Basrah trying to rescue a downed pilot so she isn’t captured by the enemy. It’s all heroism and derring-do, soldiers bravely risking themselves to make sure everyone comes home. Moments later it’s all irrelevant, and every single soldier you encountered in the American portion of the campaign – including the pilot – is obliterated. As Jackson, you might as well be the last person alive in the whole of Iraq, and you control him for a minute or so as you try to make sense of what the game wants you to do before you perish. There is no objective here. No hope for survival.

Games have played with this since, but in 2007? In a jingoistic military shooter? It was unthinkable. Revisited in Modern Warfare 3, you get to see the other side of the coin as the ultranationalist Makarov orders the detonation of the nuke, but this was at its best for new players in 2007, trying to get their heads around what they had seen.

For me, however, the quiet black-and-white horror of ‘Death From Above’ is the shooter’s most effective moment. Your character sits quietly in the skies in an AC-130 while a colleague dispassionately comments on the slaughter you’re bringing to the ground below. It’s almost humorous, if not for the Wikileaks Apache footage that emerged in 2010 showing just how true to life ‘Death From Above’ actually was.

The multiplayer was revolutionary too: regenerating health, create a class, the perk system. That all came with Modern Warfare. The prestige system allowed players to start the levelling grind all over again in exchange for a new emblem on the player screen and this became an early status symbol for online gaming. It also meant getting your favourite weapon at level 36 (it was the G36, it’s okay to admit it) before packing it away again at level 55 as you started anew like a beautiful, combat-fuelled, butterfly.

This is the best Call of Duty has ever been, and probably the best it ever will be.

Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii
Best map: Shipment might have had more of an impact, but Crash is the real winner, encompassing the town around a helicopter crash, this might just be the best CoD map ever created.
Bonus celebrity voice: Billy Murray from cop show The Bill plays Captain Price, while walking embodiment of the cockney accent Craig Fairbrass plays Gaz.

The post ‘Call of Duty’ games ranked – what’s the best Call of Duty of all time? appeared first on NME.

Rude tourists are the worst. That goes double on Pandora, a lush planet that the Resource Development Administration (RDA) has travelled far from Earth to plunder. Rampant environmental damage and trigger-happy soldiers mean they’re not a popular bunch with the land’s native Na’vi, and in open-world action game Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora, your job is to give them the blue boot by any means necessary.

• READ MORE: The best RPGs you can play in 2023

To do so, you play as a customisable Na’vi warrior who was kidnapped and trained by the RDA 15 years ago. Now, they’re free to reconnect with their people’s culture and lead the fight against their former captors. In our two-hour hands-on with the game, this translates to a fairly run-of-the-mill formula for anyone who’s played developer Ubisoft’s Far Cry series. RDA outposts are dotted across Pandora, and can be cleared by either picking off its defenders unseen or charging in guns-blazing. As your character is trained in both Na’vi and RDA weapons, this often involves using a bow to pick off soldiers silently, then switching to an assault rifle when things get loud.

Yet finding your target can be tough. One of the most controversial parts of Frontiers Of Pandora will likely be its navigation system, as many of the quest objectives we encountered didn’t feature waypoints. Instead of following a dot on the compass, you’re often given rough directions to find your way.

Tracking down an RDA campsite means retracing a Na’vi patrol’s route through hills and rivers, while finding a nearby clan’s settlement meant searching for a towering rock covered in willow trees. There’s a lot less hand-holding than in other Ubisoft games, and while some players will likely appreciate that, others may find stumbling blindly through a jungle slightly irritating.

Even when you’re lost, Pandora is a gorgeous setting – especially when you’re soaring above it. In Avatar director James Cameron’s films, there’s a magic to the planet’s natural beauty and the impossible scale of everything. Frontiers taps into this awe when it’s time to tame our own ikran, a flying dragon-like beast, to fly. As we scaled its towering rookery, leaping between vines and gigantic tree branches, Pandora unfolded below, revealing one of the most vibrant open-world settings we’ve seen this year. It’s an enchanting climb, and at the end of it you’re (eventually) rewarded with an ikran of your own to fly.

After a scenic flight, we were back on the ground with one last mission: destroying a massive oil refinery that’s sucking the life out of its surroundings. We were encouraged to sneak around the base, setting up hacks for machinery and turrets that could all be triggered at once later on. But we were quickly spotted, turning the mission into a hectic bloodbath. Though gunplay is again fairly standard, there are some fun ideas at play. Unarmoured soldiers are shockingly fragile and often die with a single bullet, but those in imposing AMP Suit exoskeletons require breaking an armoured glass cockpit to get to the squishy human within.

As a result of the guerrilla battles, our preview concluded with an all-out war between the Na’vi and RDA on the horizon. The story, of rousing fragmented Na’vi clans into a planetary revolution, is shaping up to be an exciting one – though our time with the game ended just as things were heating up.

Despite the name, our hands-on with Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora didn’t really play like a new frontier for Ubisoft. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – the developer’s outpost-clearing collect-athons are hugely popular for a reason – but from this preview, it does feel like the studio’s sticking closely to what it knows despite having a blockbuster alien landscape to play with. Fans will likely have a lot of fun evicting the planet’s would-be conquerors, but it remains to be seen how much Frontiers Of Pandora will embrace its weird and wonderful world.

Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora launches on December 7 for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5. 

The post ‘Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora’ puts a ‘Far Cry’ twist on James Cameron’s epic appeared first on NME.

Superheroes are in Bryan Intihar’s DNA. Speaking to NME from his California home, the creative director behind blockbuster action game Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is surrounded by artwork of his fave web-slinger. He still remembers where the paint on his childhood Spider-Man toy faded because he held it too tightly. There’s a photograph of him as a child at Christmas, posing with bright green, oversized Incredible Hulk gloves. Growing up, he admits to once wearing “six to eight” comic book-themed t-shirts because he “didn’t know what superhero” he wanted to be that day.

Since 2014, Intihar has been living that little boy’s dream. His first game as a director was Marvel’s Spider-Man, released in 2018. It is still the best-selling superhero game of all time. Its spin-off, which introduced a second webhead besides original Peter Parker, Brooklyn-based Miles Morales, launched to critical acclaim in 2020. Comics fans fell in love with Spidey’s trademark humour and heart, while the thrill of swinging through the streets of Manhattan remains unmatched.

This month, Intihar and California studio Insomniac Games eye greater heights with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. The sequel lets you play as both Morales and Parker, while the introduction of classic villain Venom means even more is at stake for the pair.

“We’re going to show something that has not been done in our Spider-Man franchise, something really epic,” Intihar says, pointing to Spider-Man 2’s stunning opening battle with skyscraper-sized baddie Sandman as an example. “Technically and individually, we’ve raised the bar for what we can do.”

Before Intihar was working for Insomniac, he was writing about the studio as a games journalist, another job he “dreamed” of doing as a child. While he grew up gaming – laughing, he recalls practising Mortal Kombat 2 fatalities on his parents and “scrounging quarters” to play at the local arcade – actually working with them was a distant fantasy. Instead, Intihar studied psychology at the University Of Connecticut, with hopes of becoming a clinical psychologist. But in his final semester, a part-time job at GameStop and an internship at Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine kicked off his career in writing, where he spent years covering releases and meeting developers.

During this time, he was impressed by Insomniac’s passionate work culture and the kindness shown to him by its founder, Ted Price, who Intihar considers a role model. Inspired, he left journalism behind to join Insomniac Games as a community manager. He worked on the studio’s fan-favourite Ratchet & Clank titles, along with the grittier Resistance series. Eventually, Intihar made the jump into game production with Fuse, a co-op shooter that challenged players with saving the world from a company making alien-enhanced weapons. Tasked with organising everybody from writers and designers to the game’s creative director, Intihar was “thrown into the fire” – but says the experience was formative.

“That first year on Fuse was one of my favourite years ever, because that was when I really learned how games were made,” says Intihar. Gradually, he was given more opportunities to “flex some creative muscles”, including on Sunset Overdrive, a vibrant post-apocalyptic game that became a hit. He was ready for the big leagues.

“I’m making this game for that kid with the Incredible Hulk muscles, holding his Spider-Man toy”

When Sony approached Insomniac about making a Marvel game, Intihar saw his chance to step up. He adored the way that developer Rocksteady fleshed out the DC Comics universe with its Arkham series of Batman games, and dreamed of doing the same for Marvel. With that vision now within his grasp, he marched into Price’s office. “I remember Ted going ‘We don’t need a producer right away’,” recalls Intihar. “I said ‘I don’t want to be the producer. I want to be the creative director.’”

“I’ve never been that assertive before,” he says, surprised at how confident his younger self was. Though Intihar speaks loudly when he’s excited, he’s rarely forceful unless he’s praising a peer. Yet his passion won out, and he got the gig. Job done, right? Wrong.

“Those first couple of years as a creative director were not fun at all,” admits Intihar, who struggled heavily with imposter syndrome. “I was like… what’s this former journalist and producer think he’s doing, making a video game? I felt I had to prove myself to everybody, that I knew everything at all times and could answer any question. That went horribly wrong, to the point when the team told me I had to trust them. That was a big wake-up call. Around half-way through the project, I learned to let them do their thing.”

Now, trust and collaboration are two of Intihar’s greatest values as a director. Whenever he’s asked about his achievements, or why Marvel’s Spider-Man succeeded, he praises dozens of his colleagues, and frequently apologises if he thinks he might be forgetting someone. “It was a really good thing that those first years were rocky,” he says. “Or I wouldn’t be the creative director I am now.”

It’s an attitude that Yuri Lowenthal, who voices Peter Parker in the Spider-Man series, respects. “[Working] with him has allowed me to learn to trust the process and trust directors,” he tells NME over Zoom. Lowenthal also struggled with imposter syndrome, and sometimes worried he wasn’t good enough to play Spider-Man. Intihar helped relieve that feeling. “I’ll obsess over my performance when I look at it, but if the director says it’s good, I’ve learned to walk away,” he says. “That’s really helped my brain and my soul, to be able to do that – Bryan helped me get there.”

When we pass this on to Intihar, he beams. “A big thing [as a director] is learning to trust people who are really good at their job, help clear the way for them to work better, and provide clarity so they can move with confidence. And when they do a great job – which they always do – fucking tell them!”

“Maybe my ‘rah-rah’ nature isn’t for everybody, but it’s who I am”

Intihar does so often, recalling times when he’s run laps of the studio’s performance capture stage after a productive session, or gushed about a “fucking awesome” scene in a group Zoom call. “Maybe my ‘rah-rah’ nature isn’t for everybody, but it’s who I am,” he says. “And I want people to know exactly who I am.”

“This shit is really hard,” he continues. “Sometimes it feels like you’re hitting your head against a wall over and over again, and when you finally break through, you should celebrate those victories. Ninety per cent of game development can be really tough, but that 10 per cent makes up for it. It carries you through those tougher times.”

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is shaping up to be one of those victories, with a five-star review from NME and widespread critical acclaim. In the ambitious sequel, New York City’s finest vigilantes have their work cut out for them. Spider-Man protégé Miles Morales is trying to find his place in the world after his father’s murder, while Parker has traded his signature red costume in for an inky-black symbiote suit. These new threads give him powerful abilities, but the alien symbiote is alive and takes Parker down a dark path, making the superhero believe he needs the new powers it gives him as they warp his mind and twist his relationships.

In tandem with sadist killer Kraven The Hunter and toothy terror Lizard, Intihar agrees Spider-Man 2 tells a “darker story”. Additionally, Peter’s relationship with the symbiote is used to explore themes of addiction. “This isn’t the sweet Peter Parker that we love,” he says. “There’s a roughness to him.”

For Intihar, “one of the best parts” of Spider-Man 2 is the way it tests and expands the relationship between Peter and Miles. “The north star that we’ve had since the beginning of working on this thing was wanting to deliver the Spider-Man fantasy,” he says. “But it’s equally important to tell that relatable, human story. When you get people to care about stuff outside of the mask, they’re going to care even more when Miles and Pete are inside the mask.”

While Spider-Man 2 goes to some dark places, it doesn’t lose the “heart and humour” that made the first game so popular. Instead of respinning the spider’s web, they’ve found ways to expand it. “We didn’t fuck up the stuff people liked from the first game,” says Intihar, pointing to the addition of web-wing gliding, new battle abilities and parrying. “We didn’t screw up swinging, or combat. We found things that people liked about it and looked for opportunities to lift them up.”

The biggest of these additions has been making both Miles and Parker playable characters, which fans can jump between at the push of a button. Making this work has been a “big part” of Intihar’s job – and it’s something he’s incredibly proud of pulling off.

“Writing a game that features not one but two heroes is unbelievably complicated,” he admits. “It’s really hard because you’re telling a story of the world, of each of them, and then you’re telling a story of them together. It’s a miracle these things even get made.”

As he talks, Intihar is a bundle of nerves and excitement. He’s “pumped” to show off his team’s achievements, but acknowledges the expectations surrounding a game of this size are monumental. However, Intihar believes that fans are right to expect the world and points to Sony’s animated Spider-Verse films, which blew up the box office thanks to their stylish visuals and heartfelt stories. “I need my game to be that,” he says. “Otherwise I won’t feel like I truly did my job.”

Like Spider-Verse, millions around the world will likely flock to Spider-Man 2 – yet for Intihar, his target audience lies much closer to home. “I’m making this game for that kid with the Incredible Hulk muscles, holding his Spider-Man toy,” Intihar says. “I never lost that love.”

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 launches on October 20 for PS5

The post How Bryan Intihar made a video game masterpiece in ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’ appeared first on NME.

In 2010, Remedy Entertainment wrote a story within a story. Titled Alan Wake, the psychological thriller followed its titular author through the mysterious town of Bright Falls, plagued by his wife’s disappearance and a haunted novel he doesn’t remember writing. After 13 years, its long-awaited sequel Alan Wake 2 is nearly here – and during its creation, creative director Sam Lake had just one question. “Can we be more ambitious?”

• READ MORE: Best horror games: what’s the best horror you can play in 2023?

The answer is a resounding yes. In Remedy’s return to Bright Falls, fictional novelist Alan Wake is on a reality-bending mission to write his way out of the nightmarish Dark Place he’s been trapped in for 13 years. Meanwhile, FBI agent Saga Anderson is investigating Wake’s disappearance and a string of ritualistic murders, but finds herself caught in a horror story of the author’s making.

Alan Wake 2 is better compared to David Lynch’s surrealist Twin Peaks series than its contemporaries in the survival horror genre. Remedy’s ambitious story can’t be contained to just one medium, as we’ve seen from its unsettling live-action scenes and ties to other Remedy games like supernatural shooter Control. Now, the studio has even teamed up with Finnish production house Fried Music to create licensed music for each chapter of Alan Wake 2. That includes the rousing anthem ‘Wide Awake’, and dark-pop track ‘Follow You Into The Dark’ – the latter of which NME can reveal exclusively below.

While ‘Wide Awake’ revolves around Wake’s imprisonment in The Dark Place, ‘Follow You Into The Dark’ explores Anderson feeling torn between her family life and job as an FBI profiler, which she excels at due to an inherited supernatural power. The lyrics for both are inspired by poetry that Sam Lake wrote. Speaking from a studio in Helsinki, Lake and members of Fried Music tell NME about the two-year process to bring Alan Wake 2’s music to life.

“It’s been a long time coming,” says Lake, pointing to Poets Of The Fall – Finnish rockers who play songs as fictional band Old Gods Of Asgard in the first game. “We’re working with Old Gods Of Asgard again [In Alan Wake 2], but we wanted to do much more and have a lot more ambition. Fried Music gave us that opportunity.”

It all began with a mysterious songwriting camp, where musicians from all over the world were flown to Finland, with no clue they would be soundtracking Alan Wake 2 until they arrived. “One of the hardest things was getting people to come here without knowing what they were signing up for, and selling this idea without telling anyone,” says Teemu Brunila, a songwriter who helped set up the camp.

The only rule, Lake told musicians at the camp, was that their lyrics had to tell Alan Wake 2’s story. Everything else was up to them – an approach that his collaborators found refreshing. “Usually you’re just chasing hit singles,” says Brunila, who has co-written and produced for the likes of Kylie Minogue and David Guetta. “It’s always up-tempo and uplifting. Nobody ever asks for haunting downtempo stuff and weird shit. If they say ‘We want it to be crazy’ and you give them something crazy, they say: ‘Why did you give me something crazy!?’”

“Style-wise, there weren’t any restrictions,” agrees Antti ‘RZY’ Riihimäki, who worked on ‘Wide Awake’. “There wasn’t anything we couldn’t do – it was really inspiring.”

“The brief that Sam gave us was so well done and coherent,” says Jurek Reunamäki, a singer-songwriter who grew up playing Remedy games. “For me, it was really easy to jump right in. The poems were really beautifully written, dark, and super cool, so it was such a treasure trove of material to start with.”

It was a highly collaborative process. In notes for ‘Follow You Into The Dark’ and its early demos, Lake shares poems he wrote about Anderson, along with themes and musical inspirations he wants to pursue. “Think Julee Cruise,” reads one line, referencing the late singer behind Twin Peaks’ theme song. As part of that back-and-forth process, ‘Wide Awake’ was originally created with a female vocalist, yet it was changed to a male singer at the request of Remedy, bringing it closer to Wake’s perspective.

“It’s really inspiring to write for such extreme characters because when you’re doing music for pop artists, they can be really extreme but they’re still more in touch with normal life and problems,” says Reunamäki. “Whereas with the characters in this game, their problems are extreme and pretty heavy. These characters are twisted, weird, and extreme. It’s such a freeing experience to write pop songs for these weirdos!”

Fried Music co-founder Jukka Immonen agrees, pointing to the day Lake introduced everyone to Alan Wake‘s universe. “It was like a moving train – everybody had to jump in,” he recalls. “When [musicians] saw what they were writing for, everybody knew their music had to be brave enough to fit the game.”

For Lake, his collaboration with Fried Music is the culmination of ideas 13 years in the making. “There was a lot of pent-up energy after trying to make this game happen [for so long],” he says. “It’s been a long, winding road to get here. Now that we’re finally able to make it, we’ve put everything on the line, pushed it, and been ambitious.”

He also believes the multimedia approach will make Alan Wake 2 more immersive. “We have all of these mediums present in our real world and lives,” he says. “We’re creating a fictional world and immersing players into it, and having these different mediums play a part in it makes it deeper and more believable. In some ways, it makes the game feel fragmented, with the things that you discover and in which order you discover them.”

With just weeks to go until Alan Wake 2 launches, the mood at Remedy is already celebratory. “This was in the making for years, and we’ve finally got it together,” says Remedy’s principal audio designer Ville Sorsa. “I’m just ecstatic that we’ve managed to pull this off.”

At Fried Music, the excitement is contagious. Riihimäki and Reunamäki, both gamers, are thrilled to have played a part in Alan Wake 2, while Brunila says the songwriting camp reignited his passion for music.

“Just before the camp, I was not loving music the way I used to,” he admits. “As a professional songwriter, I’m just chasing hits every day. I’ve had a good career, but I [was asking] ‘Have I peaked?’ Then we ran this camp, and it was amazing. It opened the floodgates and ignited my creativity again.”

As for Lake, the resulting music has been “everything [he] could have hoped for,” with seven tracks confirmed for the game’s chapters. Over 23 song demos were created in the process, and when asked if any of them could ever see the light of day, Lake plays coy. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see,” he says, as his peers in the studio burst into knowing laughter. For fans who have been waiting 13 years for Remedy’s return to Bright Falls, what’s a little longer?

Alan Wake 2 launches on October 27 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. 

The post The making of ‘Alan Wake 2’’s “pop songs for weirdos” appeared first on NME.

What do Endless Dungeon and True Detective have in common? On paper, very little. While the latter is a gritty HBO crime drama, Endless Dungeon is a sci-fi roguelike game about helping a group of heroes escape a monster-ridden space station. Yet both are united by the music of Nashville singer-songwriter Lera Lynn, whose folksy Americana uplifts any scene it’s in – whether that’s a frantic shootout with aliens, or Colin Farrell brooding over a cigarette.

• READ MORE: How Inon Zur made the year’s best video game score

Speaking to NME, Lynn acknowledges that her sound and Endless Dungeon‘s futuristic setting “don’t seem to go together” on paper. Yet dig beneath the surface, and her “cinematic” folk rock and Americana-tinged pop are a good match for the game’s “cosmic cowboy vibes”.

Additionally, developers at Endless Dungeon creator Amplitude were already fans of Lynn’s work – perhaps through True Detective, she suggests. When they approached her to make music for Endless Dungeon, keen to keep her “style and tonality intact,” she jumped in.

“I didn’t know a lot about the game [at first],” says Lynn. “We started on the music almost three years ago, while everything was still under development. But they gave me a general rundown of some folklore, and some of the different tones and moods they wanted to create with the songs – then cut me loose to do what I do.”

Four tracks have sprung from this collaboration, though only two of them have been released so far. The first, ‘Free Again’, is a beautiful yet haunting track about feeling trapped in a cycle. “Been walking this same dead ends / Dying this same death again and again,” sings Lynn – relatable to anyone going through a rough patch in life, while also describing Endless Dungeon‘s cycle of life and death to a tee.

Her second song ‘Garden’ is more upbeat and optimistic, but just as literal. “I used Endless Dungeon folklore as a scaffold to build the lyrics,” explains Lynn. “From there, I wanted to make sure that the listener would be able to relate to the songs, whether they were playing the game, or had no knowledge of the game whatsoever. So the lyrics are pretty literal in the context of the game, and while you’re playing you’ll understand everything, but it’s vague enough for a non-gamer to apply to regular life.”

It’s not just the lyrics that are accessible. Though this is Lynn’s first time creating music for a game, she approached it with the same philosophy she applies to making songs in film and TV.

“I’m an artist first,” she says. “I want to make sure that everything I’m involved in has a consistent thread as I don’t want to lose any fans. I’m always appealing to the people who have been standing by my heart for years and years.”

Working in games brought another unique challenge. In Endless Dungeon, players are sent back to the Saloon every time they die – a safe zone where they can upgrade heroes and weapons, chat with the space station’s residents, and listen to an in-game b and play Lynn’s music. As you play more of the game, more band members and instruments are unlocked for the Saloon, which means Lynn’s songs change as the game goes on. This made Endless Dungeon “such a complex assignment,” says Lynn, as Amplitude needed to be able to single out each musical element of her songs.

Though the character who sings these songs now resembles the musician, that nearly wasn’t the case. Lynn was originally pitched as a “mouthless octopus”, but it was “moved from lead singer to keyboard player” due to one small issue: it didn’t have a mouth to sing. “So we’ve settled on a character that looks similar to me, and we designed her apparel together,” she says.

Back in the real world, Lynn recently played some of Endless Dungeon’s music during a show at The Slaughtered Lamb in London – and with the game just weeks away from launching, Lynn is excited for players to hear the songs she’s spent years working on.

“You grow to hate anything when you’ve been working on it for a long time. You get tired of it, disgusted, embarrassed, ashamed, all of these things,” she says, laughing. “You lose sight of the initial inspiration. But [with] time, and space, and revisiting the songs recently to learn them for the show, I’m proud of them. I can’t wait for people to hear them.”

Lera Lynn contributed to the soundtrack of Sega & Amplitude Studios’ Endless Dungeon, due to be released on PC and console on October 19, 2023.

The post How ‘Endless Dungeon’ creates “cosmic cowboy vibes” with singer Lera Lynn appeared first on NME.

Gamescom 2023 certainly left an impression. Though it’s been a month since NME visited Cologne for the city’s annual gaming convention, we haven’t stopped thinking about many of the fantastic games we got to see there.

• READ MORE: The 8 best PC games you need to play in 2023

That includes post-apocalyptic shooter Stalker 2, Sims rival Life By You, Atlus’ Persona 3 remake, and cosy food-roguelike Cuisineer. Yet there are so many other titles that stood out – and to help bulk up your Steam wishlist, we’ve rounded up some of our favourite games that we checked out at Gamescom 2023.

Where Winds Meet

With punishing combat and a flare for theatrics, Where Winds Meet is a shot of pure adrenaline. An open-world role-playing game set in China’s Ten Kingdoms era, we spent our hands-on in a hectic chase on horseback, firing arrows at pursuers until we dismounted for a challenging boss fight. The game’s third-person combat feels fluid and actively rewards riskier tactics, like parrying an attack instead of dodging out of the way.

Yet we were most impressed with the game’s setting – and a supernatural twist at the end of our preview suggests there’s still a lot we don’t know about Where Winds Meet.

Platforms: PC, with consoles yet to be confirmed
Launch: TBA

Menace

What happens if you blend Alien, The Thing, and Warhammer 40,000? The answer is Menace, a sci-fi strategy game that’s left us giddy at the thought of its release.

As the captain of a marine strike force, you’re tasked with restoring order to the outer reaches of space, building relationships with local factions and winning turn-based battles against an army of horrific human-machine hybrids. Though a release date hasn’t been announced just yet, the atmosphere and ambition of Menace means strategy lovers should follow developer Overhype Studios closely.

Platforms: PC
Launch: 2024

Song Of Nunu: A League Of Legends Story

This heartfelt adventure game follows Freljordian child Nunu on a quest to find his mother, accompanied by best friend and lumbering yeti Willump. Each has their own strength: Nunu can use his magic flute to solve puzzles, while Willump’s strength is crucial for fending off Freljord’s less-wholesome characters.

Though League Of Legends fans will recognise a number of familiar faces, you don’t need to have played the original game to understand what’s going on. Every League spin-off in publisher Riot Forge’s two-year run has been fantastic, which means our hopes are high for this adorable third-person platformer.

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch
Launch: November 1, 2023

Galacticare

Medical management simulator Galacticare features the best hospitals you’ll never want to be treated in. Though our space station-turned-hospital was crammed with high-tech treatments for all manner of ailments, it was also filled with vomiting humans, accident-prone lasers, and grumpy aliens.

With a slew of levels ranging from a planet-sized farm to an interstellar Burning Man festival, Galacticare feels creative and deeply funny – and if you’ve spent the last few years hooked on Two Point Hospital, it may just destroy the last dregs of your social life.

Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5
Launch: 2024

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name

It’s hard to sum up one of Sega‘s zaniest franchises, but actions speak louder than words. In just 25 minutes with The Man Who Erased His Name, we laid on the charm in a live-action cabaret segment, won street fights with an exploding cigarette, and visited a glitzy arena to take part in a one-versus-100 battle.

Kiryu’s new Agent Style is some of the most fun we’ve had with combat in Ryu Ga Gotoku’s action series, and we can’t wait to return to The Castle – a vibrant fairground built on a ship – later this year.

Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One
Launch: November 8

Sonic Superstars

With its tricky platforming and surprisingly difficult bosses, Sonic Superstars bruised our ego. It also stole our heart, as the three levels we played were a fantastic blend of old-school Sonic and new ideas.

Though it’s a return to Sonic’s 2D roots, new abilities – like being able to swim up waterfalls – meant we had to think outside of the box to clear several stages, and we aren’t ashamed to admit that some bosses took several tries to beat. Throw in four-player co-op, and Superstars feels like it will be a hit for new and returning Sonic fans.

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One
Launch: October 17

Star Trucker

Created by indie developer Monster And Monster, our 15 minutes with indie hit Star Trucker left a lasting impression. That’s partly because of its stunning detail – repairing your truck means equipping a spacesuit and floating around in zero-gravity to find the damage.

However, it’s Star Truckers’ americana aesthetic that makes it feel truly special. You can banter with fellow truckers by hailing them on a CB radio, and there’s a station of folk rock with every track made specifically for the game. For those of us who spent hours in Hardspace: Shipbreaker, Star Trucker will likely be a must-play.

Platforms: PC
Launch: 2024

Assassin’s Creed Jade

Assassin’s Creed Jade will take Ubisoft’s stealth-action series to Ancient China – and in a major step forward for mobile gaming, it will only be available to play on phones. Yet our hands-on with Jade shows it hasn’t cut any corners to bring Assassin’s Creed to mobile.

Assassinations can be carried out with a single thumb tap, but reaching your target unseen requires all of the planning and patience we’re used to seeing from the series. Similarly, the controls for parkour and combat have been simplified, but little has been lost – in short, this feels like as much a thrill as Ubisoft’s big-screen adventures.

Platforms: iOS, Android 
Launch: TBC

You can check out the rest of our Gamescom 2023 coverage here.

The post Here are some of the best upcoming games we saw at Gamescom 2023 appeared first on NME.