STACK #219 January 2023

THIS MONTH at

GAMING FEATURE

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STACK’s ROVING REPORTER

What’s your all-time favourite game or game series?

BEST SELLERS at

My all-time favourite series would 100 per cent be Life Is Strange . They’ve impacted my life in a huge way ever since the first one came out. I’ve gone so hard with the games that I also own all the soundtracks, comics, art books, limited

DEMPSEY PARKER @ JB Hi-Fi Gepps Cross Home, SA

DECEMBER 2022

1 FIFA 23

editions of the games across all consoles, and everything!

2 CALL OF DUTY:

MODERN WARFARE II

3 POKÉMON VIOLET

What’s the best thing about working in games at JB?

4 POKÉMON SCARLET

What have you been playing most lately?

Being able to be so passionate about the content and products you’re selling; and offering customers a full solution while also being able to gush about how cool the things they’re looking at are, and creating a fun vibe in your own department.

5 NINTENDO SWITCH SPORTS

A bit of a mix between replaying the Life Is Strange series again for the hundredth time, and also Assassin’s Creed Valhalla . I’ve clocked 180 hours into Valhalla , and just recently got the Ragnarök DLC, so I’m keen-as to smash some of that out.

6 MARIO KART 8 DELUXE

7 NBA 2K23

What’s your earliest video gaming memory?

You can only have one games console from any era – what would it be and why?

8 JUST DANCE 2023 EDITION

The absolute earliest I can remember is being around four or five and playing Freddi Fish on the family computer! My younger sister and I would argue all the time over who got to play first, so my dad went out and bought a small laptop so I could play in my bedroom without my sister pestering me all the time.

I would truly love to one day own an HTC Vive. Virtual reality is insanely fun and I do play a lot of my PS VR, but naturally all the games I want to play are on PC. I do love playing the Five Nights at Freddy’s VR on the PS5, but I would love to be able to do more indie games and horror games on a fully fleshed out VR setup. Maybe one day...

9 SONIC FRONTIERS

10 GOD OF WAR RAGNARÖK

GAME CHANGERS! A YEAR IN GAMING With what was now three big players in the console world duking it out with their sixth-generation machines (PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Nintendo GameCube), it was time for the game developers to show off their worth – and that they certainly did… 2002

It had long been proven that cool cartoon protagonists sold games, and 2002 saw several new entries into the field. Ty the Tasmanian Tiger flew the flag for Australia with his eponymous debut on multiple formats, and it was developed right here at home by Krome Studios. Meanwhile, Sucker Punch Productions introduced part of the world to Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus , while here and in Europe we knew it as Sly Raccoon . Combining 3D platforming with stealth, it went on to spawn many sequels. But not as many as the big pair from 2002, PS2 pals Ratchet & Clank . The titular Lombax (a catlike creature) and robot

Several original new titles that were destined for various degrees of success in the franchise department also hit our screens in 2002. Tecmo’s Fatal Frame – known here as Project Zero - may have been a

With the fifth console generation having upped the ante for games of a larger scale, just a few years later the next generation sequels came faster, and faster, and faster… Nintendo chimed in with Super Mario Sunshine , Metroid Prime , and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker all taking space in the hearts of gamers, while taking bucks from their wallets. Meanwhile Sony and Microsoft fought it out for supremacy with, variously, such (sometimes arguably) superb sequels as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City , Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 , TimeSplitters 2 , PaRappa the Rapper 2 , Jet Set Radio Future , Medal of Honor: Frontline , Red Faction II , Virtua Fighter 4 , Tekken 4 , and Resident Evil Zero .

bit niche, but having four sequels is impressive, as was the survival horror gameplay. Also niche, but loved by many, was SEGA’s trippy musical shooter Rez , which in Japan came packaged with a USB attachment known as the Trance Vibrator… 2K’s Mafia was also introduced, taking us deep into the world of organised crime, while two mega-franchises saw their beginnings in Square Enix’s collision of Final Fantasy and classic Disney, Kingdom Hearts , as well as EA’s FPS behemoth Battlefield, which kicked off on PC and Mac via Battlefield 1942 .

came from Insomniac Games, and they’ve gone on to star on every PlayStation console since.

38 JANUARY 2023

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