That Avalanche Studios has managed to top Just Cause 2’s extravagant pyrotechnics – and in spectacular fashion, no less – is achievement enough on its own. But Just Cause 3 goes much further than a simple ‘bigger, louder’ refit, reshaping itself around the needs of players to such an extent that it makes many of its peers' approaches to gating and checkpointing feel unreasonable. For issue 287’s cover feature we spend two days with protagonist Rico, violently liberating the nation of Medici, and leave wanting more. In our ten-page feature we speak to the team creating this open-world utopia, find out how the game is pushing Havok’s tech to its limit and discover the repercussions of tethering cattle to helicopter rotors. Issue 287 of Edge is available now in print, on iPad, Google Play and Zinio.
Elsewhere this issue we head into RPG territory as we speak to Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata, step inside Square Enix’s new micro studio Tokyo RPG Factory, and take a look at Bossa’s mind-blowing adventure sandbox MMOG Worlds Adrift. In The Making Of… we find out how Larian’s systems-driven CRPG epic Divinity: Original Sin had faith in the genre’s former innovations; in Studio Profile we celebrate 25 years of game development with UK adventure veteran Revolution Software; and in Time Extend we revisit Spore, the ambitious Maxis sim that shouldn’t be an evolutionary cul-de-sac for user generated content.
Our Knowledge section opens with a trip to Paris Games Week, where we assess Sony's performance did in the absence of any competition. We also find out how The Town Of Light is tackling the complex issue of mental health, introduce the new Edge game conference Hype (which takes place on January 14) and salute Q-Games’ astonishing-looking The Tomorrow Children.
Our usual columnists offer their takes on the past month in the industry, and in My Favourite Game we chat to Danny Wallace about his haunted ZX81.
In Hype: Wild, Overwatch, Nier: Automata, Dreams, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Street Fighter V and more.
In Play: Halo 5: Guardians, Guitar Hero Live, Life Is Strange, Rise Of The Tomb Raider, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Yakuza 5, Tales From The Borderlands: S1, Need For Speed, Prison Architect, Broforce, Minecraft: Story Mode – The Order Of The Stone, Rodea The Sky Soldier.
For subscription details in print and digital, click here; and if you've missed a particular edition of the magazine you can grab Edge back issues here.
Our new special edition, The 100 Greatest Videogames, is also out now. You can buy it from all good UK newsagents, or order a copy here.
Dune Awakening launches for $50 without a stay in early access, and while the survival MMO "will not have a monthly subscription" it will have "optional" paid DLC
Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 studio CD Projekt Red won't make survival games just because they're popular, but Netflix's Edgerunners anime is fueling dreams bigger than RPGs
