HACK THE PLANET!

We can’t resist a good Hackers reference, so we’ve unashamedly used that one twice in the span of a single issue of this magazine we do. Except that’s not strictly true, because we do feel just a tiny bit ashamed. Then again, Watch Dogs. So the reference is entirely necessary.

In case you missed that, our May issue is lathered in Watch Dogs. There’s also other stuff in it! And most of the stuff in it has absolutely nothing in common with awkwardly awesome hacking sequences from the ’90s.

So, to reiterate (again): Watch Dogs. We’ve touched it and looked at it and shared pleasant moonlit strolls on the beach with it. And now we’re ready to share all its filthy secrets with you, like an irked lover airing our former companion’s dirty laundry all over Facebook. That’ll teach it.

We also take a brief look at some of history’s most famous (and infamous) Star Wars video games. It’s weird to think that there have been so many Star Wars-flavoured interactive adventures, and yet at the same time it feels like there haven’t been nearly enough of them. Then again, maybe that’s just our undying love for the franchise speaking. Either way, words were written, and you should read them. Then, in the spirit of diversifying our gaming portfolio, we decided to try new things! So we loaded up some PlanetSide 2 and got punched in the face by people who are much, much better at the game than we are. They were good punches though. Fun punches. For some of us at least.

Several thousand reviews await, covering everything from Strider and Risk of Rain to Yoshi’s New Island and Banished. Diablo III: Reaper of Souls pulls us right back into the habit of frantically clicking things until they explode in showers of delicious loot. Dark Souls II kills us, again, and we love every minute of it. Infested Planet is Starship Troopers: The Video Game. Could Infamous: Second Son be the best reason to own a PS4? And is South Park: The Stick of Truth the greatest thing to happen to humanity since ManBearPig’s public vasectomy?

The previews section this month is small, but it’s got heart. Batman returns in Arkham Knight, and this time he means Batmobile Business. WizFight is… it’s wizards fighting. Clockwork Empires is city building done right, complete with drunken citizens summoning fishy horrors. OUR EXCITEMENT IS READY.

Hardware. Maaaan, do we have hardware for you. SSDs go head-to-head, Steam Machines are thrust under the microscope, GPUs are pushed to breaking point, notebooks are dangled out of second-floor windows until they TALK, DAMN IT and all manner of peripherals are left out in the sun for far too long, just because.

There’s all this juicy juiciness to be squeezed out of the pages of the May issue of NAG, plus more if you know where to look. Trees are important, obviously, so if you’d like to save some of them maybe you should consider our digital edition over on Zinio.

Below is that hackerific cover, along with the full contents page. Browse, and ye shall be browsed in turn. EXCELSIOR.

Click here for the contents PDF [84.5KB]