STACK #230 December 2023

THIS MONTH at

GAMING FEATURE

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STACK’s ROVING REPORTER

What’s your all-time favourite game series?

BEST SELLERS at

Ratchet & Clank. They’re still so much fun, even going back to the original PS2 games. They hold up really well.

CAMERON BOYS @ JB Hi-Fi Narellan, NSW

NOVEMBER 2023

What have you been playing most lately?

1 CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE III

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

After finally finishing with Baldur’s Gate 3 after a few hundred hours, I’ve started playing Alan Wake 2 . I never actually finished the first one, but I’m a big fan of Remedy’s previous game Control , so I thought it was a great time to jump in.

2 MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN 2

Getting to spend all day around stuff that I’m passionate about and sharing that passion with customers.

3 SUPER MARIO BROS. WONDER

4 HOGWARTS LEGACY

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

What’s your earliest video gaming memory?

5 EA SPORTS FC 24

Getting a PS2 with The Simpsons: Hit & Run for Christmas! Getting to drive around Springfield and see everything mapped out and brought to life was so much fun.

Probably the PS2, as it was my first proper console and still has heaps of my favourite game series on it.

6 MARIO KART 8 DELUXE

7 SUPER MARIO RPG

MERCH MONT H M H of the If you’re right into Mario Kart hazards, watch out for these plushies!

Bowser Shell Mocchi Plush

Chomp Mocchi Plush

8 NBA 2K24

9 ASSASSIN’S CREED MIRAGE

Banana Mocchi Plush

10 JUST DANCE 2024

Bob-omb Mocchi Plush

2013

GAME CHANGERS! A YEAR IN GAMING November became an absolutely mega month for console fans, with two new heavyweight contenders entering the fray, while Naughty Dog proved that there was still plenty of life yet in the seven-year-old PS3…

On November 22, Aussies said hello to the Xbox One, the successor to the super-successful 360. Billed as an “all-in-one entertainment system”, it boasted several multimedia features including a Blu-ray drive, came with a slightly redesigned controller, and optionally with the Kinect 2.0 motion controller, which delivered voice recognition amongst other features such as motion-control for gaming. The system was not without controversy, with requirements for an always connected internet and Kinect device amongst policies that were reversed only just prior to launch.

Developers Naughty Dog had a great reputation amongst PlayStation gamers,

If you were a system agnostic gamer you needed to be flush in November of 2013, as the 29th saw the launch of the much anticipated PlayStation 4, just a week after the Xbox One. The system came with a greatly overhauled DualShock 4 controller and included the novel ability to remote play your games on the PS Vita handheld. Seen as being more capable than Xbox’s competing offering, the PS4 was lauded by critics and public alike, and it eventually became the second best selling console of all time, behind the PS2 (although Nintendo’s Switch

with such hit series as Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter, and Uncharted. They cemented their reputation for top notch games even further

with the arrival of their action adventure The Last of Us , which presented players with a post-apocalyptic USA to navigate, with several survival horror elements mixed in. The tale of main characters Joel and Ellie resonated with gamers the world over, leading to a raft of accolades, and well-received DLC add-ons, before an eventual 2014 PS4 release.

has since pushed it to number three).

DECEMBER 2023

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