STACK #236 June 2024

SPECIAL STACK

1 Playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare for the first time on an Activision press trip to Cairns in 2007. We knew then it was special and an ingenious pivot from the fatigued World War 2 theatre. 2 Watching the first gameplay of Assassin’s Creed at TGS 2007 and, with mouth agape, marvelling at the horse animations. 3 Scoring an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto. It doesn’t get any better. 4 Being astonished at the magnificent landscapes in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim . ”Why bother going on a scenic holiday when you’ve got this at your fingertips?” came one comment from the office. 5 Flying to Sydney and being one of the first gamers globally to get hands-on with GTA V . We could sense greatness, but could never predict the juggernaut it would become. Our top 5 ‘wow’ moments of the last 20 years

GAMING

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Out of all the software categories at JB Hi-Fi, games have evolved the most in the last 20 years. And we’ve been there following it for most of that journey.

2007 saw the PlayStation 3 join the fray, as we played Super Mario Galaxy, Halo 3, and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare . It would also be the year that STACK attended its first games event, the Tokyo Games Show. Mario and Sonic shocked the world by sharing an Olympics game.

While STACK ’s first games coverage came in 2005, it was October 2006 when the full section arrived, the same year as Microsoft’s shiny new Xbox 360 console, and Nintendo’s soon to be all-conquering Wii.

Nintendo took us to a new dimension with the 3DS handheld in 2011, with Zelda games dominating it and Wii. Action RPG The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim wowed us, then 2014 gave us the PS Vita handheld early on, and the first eighth gen console, Nintendo Wii U, later on.

In 2009, huge IPs were born like Bayonetta, Borderlands, and Just Dance . But Minecraft stole all of their blocky thunder. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 dominated non-Wii play, while motion came to Xbox and PS3 via Kinect, and Move.

2008 would mark the first year STACK would cover E3. That coverage would continue for 11 consecutive years. R.I.P. E3.

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It was on towards the end of 2013 when hot new PS4 and Xbox One consoles hit a week

Console cycles

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Massive sequels continued to dominate, with the cream including The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Metal Gear Solid V, and Fallout 4 . 2016 saw PlayStation bring VR to the PS4, while Battlefield, Call of Duty, Dark Souls, Far Cry, Forza, and Gears of War all delivered hot sequels.

Since STACK first opened its doors, three console generations have come and gone. Initially, it was the original Xbox and PlayStation 2, but as we ramped up our gaming presence, the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3 were all fresh on the scene. Since then, we’ve had the Wii U, PS4, Xbox One, 3DS, PSP, and PS Vita, right through to the current generation of PS5, Xbox Series X and the Switch.

Fast forward to 2020, and it was next-gen console time again, with both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox’s Series X and S variants launching. But Switch game Animal Crossing: New Horizons was the year’s darling, alongside PlayStation’s The Last of Us: Part II and Ghost of Tsushima . By 2013, esports had gone from being a niche pastime to really hitting the headlines beyond gamer circles. With the prevalence of competitive online games, PC gaming had never enjoyed such widespread appeal and continues to grow in popularity every year.

apart, but arguably the biggest launch of the year was Grand Theft Auto V , which conquered allcomers. It would also be the first game that featured on the front – and back – covers of STACK .

Since then, sequels have continued to amaze, with

PlayStation’s Horizon Forbidden West, God of War Ragnarök, and Marvel Spider-Man 2 , plus Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and Super Mario Bros . Wonder all blowing us away. As did PlayStation VR2 on PS5! What’s next in games? Stay tuned to STACK !

It was a big hardware year in 2017 as Nintendo unveiled their Switch handheld/home console combo and launch smash Breath of the Wild . Then came the mind-blowing Super Mario Odyssey ! 2018, meanwhile, was all about Fortnite .

Interviews We’ve interviewed hundreds of

Alex Garland Alex Hutchinson Cliff Bleszinski Hiroyuki Sakamoto Jason West Jeff Minter Ken Levine Mark Cerny Patrice Desilet Lee Mather Peter Molyneux Peter Moore Randy Pitchford Shigeru Miyamoto Takashi Iizuka Todd Howard Warren Spector developers over the years, but the ones we remember the fondest are below.

Randy Pitchford

Cliff Bleszinski

5

Shigeru Miyamoto