Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2014 i PLAY

Christmas to one and all. This issue we’re celebrating not just the holiday season, but an amazing milestone for PlayStation: the 20th anniversary of PS1. Sony’s now given the world two decades of unparalleled entertainment, and while the first year of PS4 has suffered from too many delays, the next 12 months threaten to be the best yet for Team PlayStation. If you’d permit me brief a moment of ‘bah humbugging’ I quickly want to talk about reviews. In short, there are fewer in this issue than we’d have liked. Mostly it’s because Day One patches prevented early access to code, but in some cases format-exclusivity deals kept things out of our hands (in one case we were invited to review a title on another format – we laughed, we…

GT’S SEVENTH HEAVEN Let the decade long wait for a new Gran Turismo commence. We jest… probably. Series creator Kazunori Yamauchi says Gran Turismo 7 will be released in, “2015 or 2016.” He also says, “the high quality of data that we have being rendered on PS4 is going to make an incredible difference.” Good to know. FAR, FAR CRY AWAY By the time you’re reading this we’ll all be going frozen bananas for Far Cry 4, but Far Cry 3.5 was almost a thing. According to Ubi’s comms manager Gary Steinman, the publisher talked about, “taking Jason’s story and growing it,” back on the Rook Islands. This idea ultimately lasted for, “about four days.” ESPORTS DAY Sony has launched an eSports platform for PS4 in Spain. The league, which…

“I get approached to do other kinds of games, sometimes to do with Alien.” Sigourney Weaver is clearly a woman (and a voice) in demand. “The strange this is, until I got here, I didn’t realise he was the narrator.” Hugh Laurie didn’t know his chum Stephen Fry was working on LBP 3. “I thought it was going to be like PONG, and I would just have to introduce it.” Michael Ironside wasn’t fully clued up going into Splinter Cell.…

Love like blood I have a confession: I just can’t control my excitement whenever a certain game appears. I am of course talking about Bloodborne. I’ve never felt so passionate for a title, even though I’ve not even played it. The last time I felt this connection (if that’s not too weird a way of putting it) was when I finally got my hands on Fallout 3, into which I invested a hefty amount of my adolescence. But anyway, Bloodborne is the sole reason I’ve got my PS4 – it's what swayed me completely in the war of the consoles. Daryl Lawrence via email Easy there, tiger – you don’t want scare it off by being too needy. You need to take it slow. Act all cool up until release…

The DualShock 4 is unquestionably the best controller Sony has ever made. Everything about your favourite touchpad-sporting peripheral screams new-gen. The satisfying click of p and its close personal friend i. Those curves. And the real crowning glory: that unmistakable rippling pleasure of gaming’s best damn rumble motors. My sweaty mitts are forever in your debt, PS4. Rumble is the unsung hero of videogames. If it were a footballer, you’d be dealing with the unglamorous hand-shaking of Phil Neville. For so many games it’s that silent intangible which makes a control scheme feel ‘right. I love Red Dead Redemption to such a degree, I’d happily have tiny John Marstons tattooed on my nipples, but Rockstar’s ponies can’t hold a neighing candle to Argo in Shadow Of The Colossus. Guess which…

FORMAT PS4/PS3 / ETA 20 MAR PUB EA / DEV VISCERAL GAMES/DICE If you thought Dead Space protagonist and welding mask aficionado Isaac Clarke had a daunting task ahead of him when he set foot aboard the USG Ishimura, consider the challenge that series’ developer, Visceral Games, faces. Battlefield Hardline, a shooter influenced by police procedural TV shows, is the first full game in the series not developed by DICE. It’s aiming to reinvigorate a single-player component that was starting to smell a bit off in Battlefield 4, and also deliver that large-scale, multi-vehicular, shootingdown-fighter-jets-while-falling-to-your-death multiplayer action on which the series has built its name. And in light of BF4’s considerable problems with servers, stability and bugginess, it needs to deliver both solo and online portions flawlessly. Give us a…

LARA CROFT & THE TEMPLE OF OSIRIS In the cold dark future, pest controllers have traded pesticide sprays for pistols in this tactical bug squasher. Stuck with a big infestation? How about a giant, angry dog in fancy dress? That’ll do the trick. FORMAT PS4 ETA 9 DEC PERSONA 4 ARENA ULTIMAX Do you have what it takes to stare it up with the big boys and girls? Dust off that poor PS Camera, stick your mug into the lens and attempt to out-gawp the world without blinking first. No blowing. FORMAT PS3 ETA 21 NOV HATSUNE MIKU: PROJECT DIVA F 2ND This inappropriately dressed brawler tasks you with freeing humanity from the rule of evil cubes and notes with a hairstyle best described as ‘neon Klonoa’. FORMAT PS3 ETA…

2001 BURNOUT • With years of middleware work and some so-so PC and Dreamcast titles behind it, Criterion hits the big time on PlayStation 2 with the original Burnout and oft-forgotten hoverboard Tony Hawk rival Airblade. 2004 BURNOUT 3: TAKEDOWN • A big year for Criterion as EA snaps up the studio and celebrates the release of Burnout 3: Takedown. 2010 NEED FOR SPEED: HOT PURSUIT • After experimenting with first-person shooters (2006’s Black) and taking Burnout open-world (2008’s Burnout Paradise), Criterion is set to task on EA’s money-printing racing franchise Need For Speed and rescues the ailing series with a much-needed injection of development nitrous oxide.…

PaRappa The Rapper beanie As our mothers used to say, “an orange beanie will never go out of fashion.” Wise words, particularly when said headwear is a replica of the one worn by canine rhyme-smith PaRappa. Wear it and receive knowing nods of approval from PS1-savvy strangers. insertcoinclothing.com Metal Gear coat This flowing field jacket won’t just keep you warm when it’s lashing down, it’ll also give you that unmistakable Metal Gear chic. With discrete Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker branding, this is simply a damn nice coat first, and wry nod to your favourite stealth series second. musterbrand.com Gamer DNA shirt Show everyone your molecular makeup consists of 97.2% gaming material with this stylish tee. Forget T, C, A and G bases – with this shirt, the world will…

Ask anyone what their football game of choice is and the likely answer will be, “FIFA, but I always used to play PES.” Well guess what? It’s time to hop back over the fence; PES 2015’s on-field action is precise, versatile, and better than FIFA’s. ‘The Pitch Is Ours’ is this year’s bold tagline, and the entire game is powered by that sentiment. There are no hollow gimmicks, no vapid boasts about first-touch this or off-the-ball that – PES 2015 is about the football, pure and simple. The first thing long-suffering fans of PS3-era PES will notice is the drastic improvement in player responsiveness. They swivel, dip and shimmy with the faintest flick of your thumb, enabling you to play reactively and at the speed of thought. Gone is that…

Who would’ve thought being a goblin in a human world would provide such a useful allegory for being an outcast? Colour me surprised. (Or should that be green?) As a small, ugly-mugged chap I’m constantly hiding, desperate not to be caught by my bigger (and dumber) foes, and it creates really palpable tension. Styx: Master Of Shadows is a classic stealth game through and through. If I’m caught I’m all but dead. I can parry blows, but doing so offers no protection against enemies who decide to sandwich me between their swords. On the highest difficulty setting, my ability to parry is even removed entirely. Goblin kebabs, anyone? Keeping my green-skinned hide alive is all about sneaking through shadows, extinguishing wall lamps,1 scaling ledges and using cover. There are even…

Corridors in first-person shooters aren’t always boring. Some of them are made of bamboo forests interspersed with blood-filled demonic altars and rabbits quietly making love on the leaf-strewn floor. Some are actually Hong Kong backstreets with cars that explode as soon as you look at them and gangsters that moosh into heaps of meat should you brush them with your katana. Shadow Warrior might not rock any videogame boats, but it sure does make its corridors interesting. You are Lo Wang, a kung fu fighter assigned by his dubiously rich boss to obtain a mythical blade in a $2 million deal that’s destined to go awry.1 A betrayal, and the violent rise of a demonic Shadow Being horde later, Wang finds himself picking through level after level of narrow but…

Blending Pac-Man: Championship Edition with ancient mobile favourite Snake and a pinch of Chu Chu Rocket, Pix The Cat is an instant classic: a blistering and sometimes maddening arcade game that’s genuinely hard to put down. As the eponymous feline, your job is to collect eggs, which instantly hatch into ducks that you must deposit into nests before descending into the next maze, repeating the process until time runs out. There’s no way to gain extra precious seconds, but there’s an optimal route through each stage, and learning and memorising it is the trick to earning a high score on the game’s first arcade mode, Starter. Soon you discover that it’s not merely about picking up the eggs, but collecting them all before you touch the first nest to drop…

You know what really BOILS MY POTATO? Well, aside from that deep-fat fryer currently on standby in my kitchen for emergency Mars Bar batterings. That’s right: Day One patches. They really are getting out of hand now. Not to point any judgemental digits at our reviews section this issue, but there’s more than one big-hitter we had to drop at short notice because of promised-but-not-delivered-on-time launch day download fixes. Even some of the games that made the reviews cut this month still sit squarely in the JERKWAD CORNER. Just look at The Evil Within on p92; a game Matt thoroughly enjoyed but one that throws a techy tantrum should you not have web access. Minus the v1.01 patch, Mikami’s new horror shudders around up to 10fps slower than the patched…

FAIRWEATHER FRIENDS Evolution has its much-touted dynamic weather update on its to-do list, too. It still has the capacity to be amazing, but risks alienating its users while we all wait for that fruition. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! If it ain’t broke, eh 2K? INFO FORMAT PS3 PUB 2K GAMES DEV 2K AUSTRALIA REVIEW ISSUE #103, 8/10 As you might expect from a game with a title that seems designed to do nothing but wriggle itself out of a proper sequel’s responsibilities, very little has changed since Borderlands 2 when it comes to online play. Four-player co-op is still ridiculously simple to set up and stable enough that playing through the entire game with the same folks, night after night, is achieved without breaking a sweat. Ho-hum. We’re spoiled by the…

MIDDLE-EARTH: SHADOW OF MORDOR – POWER OF SHADOW PACK If you can get past its labyrinthine title, this free DLC drop adds a new skin for hero Talion, namely the nefarious Black Hand. It also comes with three fresh Epic Runes, each with dastardly extra effects. ZEN PINBALL 2 – SOUTH PARK TABLES PACK Curb your withdrawal symptoms from Colorado’s most famous cutout prepubescents with two new tables based on the show your parents disapproved of in ‘97. Wow, no, not that VHS your mate got from the petrol station. South Park, you mad fool. GRID AUTOSPORT – DRAG PACK Tired of navigating those bloody, bloody corners? This drag racing-themed pack for unsung racing hero Grid Autosport is just for you. Along with a new drag race event type focusing…

Planning on going for Destiny’s Plat? Then you’d better be ready for the long haul as you’re looking at well over 100 hours to get the job done. Some lids will unlock naturally as you progress, but to get others you will have to adjust your usual playstyle. For example, you should rack up the first kill in a PvP match to unlock Ask Questions Later, which is best achieved by dashing straight towards the opposition as a round begins and landing a well-placed grenade as you’re about to clash. For Valorous you have to earn the maximum score of 100 Vanguard Marks in a week. These are mainly rewarded for finishing Strikes, but as the highest level Nightfall Strike is the only one to give out double figure Vanguard…

1 GRAND THEFT AUTO V No game could live up to the pre-release hype that surrounded Rockstar’s latest open-world effort, and yet somehow expectations were surpassed by the phenomenal final product. The largest entry in the series is also one of the most ambitious games ever, but its fusion of thrilling missions, entertaining characters and scathing satire looks effortless. There can be no better way to bring a generation to a close. 2 UNCHARTED 2: AMONG THIEVES The game that sparked a million mancrushes, with a perfectly pitched script, crunchy combat and set-pieces like no other. In three words: unprecedented. Unequalled. Uncharted. 3 RED DEAD REDEMPTION A near-perfect open-world fusion of engaging storytelling, truly compelling characters and a living environment ripe for experimentation. No sandbox since has got us quite…

Phil Iwaniuk GAMES EDITOR A COD and Battlefield shooter double whammy gave Phil gaming PTSD. The poor guy now flinches at every cracker pull. Dave Meikleham NEWS EDITOR News ed Dave dubiously claimed ‘exclusive eating rights’ for p6’s PS1 cake. His Secret Santa present WILL be a lump of coal. Dom Reseigh-Lincoln PRODUCTION EDITOR Is it cold outside? Nope, that’s notorious Xmas-hater Dom spreading his unique holiday ‘cheer’. Ben Wilson GUEST WRITER WWE mega-fan Ben is having a December To Dismember with WWE 2K15 on p91. Do you like it Ben? “No! No! No! No! No!”…

What a difference somewhere in the region of 350+ days make. It may have birthed more delays than a First Great Western timetable, but 2014 has been a busy year for PS4. The Last Of Us Remastered; Destiny; Metro Redux; Alien: Isolation; inFamous: Second Son; Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Ed; NBA 2K15 – and that’s not counting the glut of big hitters landing in shops this November including Dragon Age Inquisition, AC Unity, GTA V and Far Cry 4. Anyhoo, now we need our beautiful readers (that’s you) to pick OPM’s Game Of The Year. What we’re after is your top three games of 2014. These can be from any PlayStation platform (well, within reason – no PS2 voting, you wags), so don’t forget to give PS Vita (Velocity 2X!)…

1958 Year Terrence C Carson (ie the voice of Kratos) was born. ZEEEUUUSS!!! 360,000 Flat-shaded polygons (calm down) PS1’s CPU can process per second. 125m Hours racked up in Destiny during the game’s first month on sale. Hot. Damn. 18 Weeks EA titles have topped the UK charts in 2014 as of the end of Oct. 42.6GB Size of COD: Advanced Warfare’s digital version. Find our review on p78. 10% Percentage of canonical Metal Gears that feature a monkey in Y-fronts. 1992 Year GTA: San Andreas is set. CJ’s title recently celebrated its 10th birthday. $5.5m Amount raised by charity Extra Life for a 24-hour gaming marathon in October.…

Fly me to the ‘Masamune’ and let me play among the stars. Blame Sony’s bizarre firmware codename for our semi-tenuous Sinatra opening. Then immediately thank it for finally introducing music playback on PS4 with an update that also brings an improved UI and the ability to virtually pass control of a game over to PSN friends. Update 2.0’s headline act is undoubtedly Share Play, which Sony has previously described as a, “virtual couch.” This ‘pass the pad’ feature, which is capped at 720p for the guest player, enables PS Plus pals to take control of your games for up to an hour at a time. Anyone fancy taking on level 28 Phogoth for us in Destiny? Please? The new firmware launched on 28 October and is one of the most…

IN REDEFINING STEALTH AND STORYTELLING, METAL GEAR SOLID RESHAPED THE FUTURE OF GAMES. Before David Hayter brought ‘Snnnaaaake!!!’ to lead-throated life, most games delivered their plots through simple text or jumbled Clangers speak. MGS was one of the first titles to take full advantage of CD’s superior audio storage, allowing Kojima and co to pump hours of brilliantly overwrought dialogue into the Alaskan adventure. The classic sneaker also single-handedly revived the stealth genre: there would be no Sam Fisher or blokes in historical hoodies without Snake. More importantly, it tried to tell its story like a film; influencing countless games to come. LET’S NOT KID OURSELVES: TEKKEN 3 SINGLE-HANDEDLY PUT 3D FIGHTERS BACK ON THE CONSOLE MAP. 1998 was a big year for Sony’s debut console and not because of…

That shiny new PS4 sitting under your telly might be the most impossibly cutting edge piece of tech to ever a grace a living room, but as a storytelling medium games are still in their infancy. For every The Walking Dead or The Last Of Us there are half a dozen Heavy Rains or Heavenly Swords – respectable stabs at storytelling that fall short of the basic standards to which TV and film are held. But there’s one crucial way in which science fiction and fantasy games in particular have proven themselves more than a match for their screen counterparts – ruddy great world building. In fact, there’s little to rival the sheer imagination and honest-to-goodness world building that games have demonstrated of late. Worlds I just want to exist…

1 Melee takedowns are the equivalent of writing someone down in your book. More of a formality, really. Sheesh – bloody boring paperwork, amirite? 2 When the perp gets twitchy, there’s always good ol’ fashioned ‘shooting them’. The boys back at the academy would be proud of that marksmanship. 3 The patient SWAT officer tags his enemies before engaging. Sometimes you’ll reveal a wanted crim in the process, and get extra rewards for nailing him. 4 Some textbook badge-showing here. This works on one to two foes, freezing them in place while your gun’s trained at them so you can move in and melee.…

FORMAT PS4 / ETA SPRING PUB DAEDALIC ENTERTAINMENT / DEV DAEDELIC ENTERTAINMENT This adventure title offers a very specific fix. One that anyone who spent lengthy periods of the late ’90s scanning pre-rendered scenes and poking them for clues will be familiar with. It’s a defiantly old-school PC point-and-click. On PS4. We’re not completely ignorant to the genre in these PlayStation pastures, of course. Telltale’s The Walking Dead episodes offer a modernised take on that genre’s dusty old blueprints but feel undeniably edgy. And the series could certainly never be mistaken for Myst if you saw one of its screenshots. That’s actually a strength for Silence, too. Cast your eyes around the page. Looks like concept art, doesn’t it? It isn’t, and in motion the game engine’s camera projection tech…

FINAL FANTASY XIV: A REALM REBORN – HEAVENSWARD FORMAT PS4/PS3 / ETA SPRING 2015 / PUB SQUARE ENIX / DEV SQUARE ENIX Square Enix’s ambitious MMORPG is finally getting its first big expansion and boy is it a big ‘un. Heavensward increases the player cap from 50 to 60, introduces a new race with both male and female variants, adds lots of new dungeons and areas to explore (the story is set during the 1,000-year-long Dragonsong War) and a series of brand spanking new Primals (summonable beasties). Oh, did we mention you can now build and fly airships as well? Airships, people! Just take our money now. CHIVALRY: MEDIEVAL WARFARE FORMAT PS3 / ETA 3 DEC / PUB ACTIVISION/TORN BANNER STUDIOS DEV / TORN BANNER STUDIOS After starting out as…

Occasionally a game slides into our disc drive which begs the question: “Surely, someone, at some point during the development of this game, has played it and realised how awful it is?” Deadfall Adventures is one of those. Starring the infinitely hateable ancestor of the fictional Allan Quatermain, this first-person shooter feels instantly familiar. There’s a race against time to discover archaeological treasure before some Nazis get there first. There’s a female sidekick whom the punchable hero feels obliged to belittle with snidey, face-tearingly smarmy innuendo at every turn.1 There’s even a little notebook that can be turned to whenever one of the simple puzzles threatens to slow down your progress. It’s like swimming down a river polluted with the trash thrown out of other, better games, and occasionally coming…

No, it isn’t better than NBA 2K15. Of course it isn’t. But unlike last year’s effort from EA, NBA Live 15 does show signs of improvement. Think of it as the beleaguered Philly 76ers matching up against Kevin Durant and the OKC Thunder. Major revisions to player animations and AI move its version of basketball beyond the bizarre puppet show that featured last year, and there are equivalent modes to 2K15’s, albeit straight-to-DVD versions. Rising Star lets you control one player from the Rookie Showcase to league domination without any of the dramatics within 2K’s staggering MyCareer, while Ultimate Team and Live Seasons offer your obligatory card-collecting and franchise-tweaking long games. And there are even a couple of modes without direct equivalents from the competition: Rewind and Big Moments, which…

Remember when Super Aguri cobbled together a car built around a creaking Arrows chassis that was probably old enough to buy scratchcards? The one Anthony Davidson lost control of and span off while warming up his tires on the parade lap? Stepping back into F1 2014’s ageing infrastructure feels a bit like driving that very same Super Aguri. Perhaps I’m being especially petulant because it forces me to come crawling back to PS3, petrol station flowers in hand – there’s no PS4 version this year, but Codemasters promises next year’s game will be new-gen and will come earlier in the year. So right now we’re in limbo, stuck with the decrepit Ego engine wheezing along well under 30fps as it renders Lewis and Nico stretching into the distance in their…

ASSASSIN’S CREED IV: BLACK FLAG Dom Reseigh-Lincoln has a stab at m’player Why do I do it to myself, ah? Deep down in the very pit of my very soul I know that AC’s borked online component just isn’t for me. Not that I haven’t given it a chance – rabid fanboyism alone forced me through hours of m’player in Brotherhood, Revelations and ACIII, determined to shake off that ‘Does this suck? This really sucks doesn’t it?’ feeling. So I give ACIV’s piratical take one last sail, leaping into Wanted mode. Half a dozen shanks later I hang up my PvP blade and come to a startling realisation: it sucks. NBA 2K15 Phil Iwaniuk develops an eye for swag on the mean streets of Visual Concepts’ baller sim That’s right…

What do you do when you’re trying to follow a surprise smash? Well, step one is to never take advice from the Baha Men or Chumbawamba. But after that there’s a pair of broad options: continue with the same formula, or go in a completely different direction. Given that seeing Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum in a four-hour black-and-white interpretive dance piece might have been bad for business, 22 Jump Street proceeds resolutely down that first path. In fact, it proceeds down it with such gusto that most of the opening act is shamelessly self-referential about the fact that the movie is re-treading the exact same ground. Thankfully all the things that made the original flick so good are still valid second time around. The two leads are both likeable…

This cartoon escapade breezed onto PS2 like a life-saving breath of fresh air to JRPGs. As the genre attempted to bury itself under its own stuffiness, Level-5 rose above it and delivered a fun-packed masterpiece. Make no mistake, the stat-heavy grinds are certainly still present, but they’re hidden behind a veneer of cel-shaded brilliance. And the classic tropes are so well disguised even the biggest RPG naysayer will be sucked in. And this is what makes it so good. The gloss is immediately applied by the talented hand of character designer, Akira Toriyama. Each area of this cartoon world looks excellent, making it a treat to stomp around with Hero and his band of merry men and women. You know how enemies are supposed to look intimidating in games, right?…

1 THE LAST OF US REMASTERED Like a full-bodied Stilton, this modern masterpiece just gets stronger with age. A starkly brutal, emotionally honest take on the end of the world, Naughty Dog’s stealth shooter is quite simply one of the best written, most wryly-paced videogames in history. This PS4 version looks astounding too, with a 1080p/60fps makeover offering a huge increase in clarity and fluency. There’s nothing last-gen about this incredible port. 2 DESTINY Blurring the lines between single-player shooting and co-op camaraderie, Bungie has created an epic MMO hybrid built on incredibly fluid firefights. An essential experience with friends and the perfect platform for PS4’s social features. 3 MINECRAFT Bigger, better and blockier than ever before on PlayStation, this iconic build-’em-up benefits massively from PS4’s additional power and gives…

Everybody knows Die Hard’s the best Xmas film ever, but what’s the best Xmas game of all time? If Macaulay Culkin and Creepy Pigeon Lady proved anything while bringing down the Sticky Bandits in Home Alone 2, it’s that New York is synonymous with Christmas. The Division creating a dystopian take on the Big Apple hardly screams Xmas cheer, true. Yet thanks to the care that‘s gone into the construction of its city, Ubisoft’s MMO shooter could prove to be the ultimate Christmas game… even if it’s not coming out until 2015. SLAYED IN MANHATTAN “There are two reasons we chose New York,” says Rodrigo Cortes, senior brand art director on The Division. “Firstly, it’s like the pillar of civilisation. It encompasses everything we’ve become. It’s also rich in culture…

”If you only knew the power of the Darkslides.” That’s not only a borked Star Wars quote, it’s also a new special move in the recently revealed sequel to the one of PS Vita’s most surprising indie smashes. Webster’s – or, Roll7’s – Tricktionary redefined what a skateboarding game could be last year. Now, the tiny Deptford studio has its maplewood aimed at the silver screen with OlliOlli2: Welcome To Olliwood. Get ready to dust off those adorable shins… “Ten years ago, if you walked into PlayStation and pitched a 2D skater, you’d have probably been laughed out of the room,” Simon Bennett tells us, as we chat about a movie-focused skating sequel that’s been radically revamped to reflect the fact your tiny extreme sports dude will now bust out…

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick poured a vat of piping hot potential on a rumoured GTA HD Collection by stating, “we wouldn’t rule anything out,” during an earnings call. Whispers suggest you can’t free roam in MGS V’s world if on a mission. The IMDB page of actor George Newbern points to Superman showing up in Arkham Knight. PS4’s Suspend/ Resume feature is still on its way according to SCEE’s Murray Hume. A leaked screen posted on NeoGAF has outed Japan as an upcoming location for Driveclub’s world.…

HIGH FIVE We thought it was impossible to improve GTA V. We were so wrong. The PS4 version features a stunning first-person mode, rail guns, light bar sirens and… yep, we’re drooling. THE NEXT OF PLUS The next two months of PS Plus deliver ALL the PS4 goodies. Injustice: Gods Among Us – Ultimate Edition is due in Dec, with Jan bringing inFamous: First Light. NOT THE LAST OF US Are you a fan of murderous mental patients? Then you’ll be chuffed indie outfit Red Barrels has confirmed it’s making Outlast 2. IT’S ALL MINE You may have noticed Microsoft purchased the rights to Minecraft. Not great news for Team PlayStation, but rest assured the PS3, PS4 and PS Vita versions of the game will still be supported. DEAD ON…

@THE1PAZ I didn’t get Driveclub today, just Alien. I’m not rewarding any more BF4 style f**k ups. @ALLRUNA_ Current #DRIVECLUB skill level: *screeeech* *CRUNCH* *screeeeech* *BANG* *silence* @DOLLAR1075 People who buy The Evil Within, you’re frigging nuts! #scaredypants @GIMMETHEFIFE Now that it’s dark, it’s time for The Evil Within. For survival horror and Shinji Mikami reasons. @THADTZE That satisfying moment when you’ve branded all the warchiefs in Middle-earth: Shadow Of Mordor. @DUVALMAGIC I book that as a win. If you deliver 35 hours of fun & your customer is sad it’s over, you've done good. TROLL OF THE MONTH @EVERMONSTERR WTF a new Call Of Duty game is here? It’s been forever since we’ve had one of those! @LILYSAUR No regrets buying The Evil Within. I squealed and made man-yells…

Why do developers insist on making jogging the default movement speed for most characters? As far as life’s most important questions go it’s not quite, “why are we here?” but it’s an issue that’s been nagging at me for a good few years now. I enjoy games in which I’m walking much more than I enjoy games in which I’m jogging, which isn’t evidence as such – it could just mean that the slower-paced games are designed better. However, I think I’ve understated just how much I’ve been thinking about this. I’ve really mulled over this one. So much so I want to put forward a theory. The theory of Pellettivity goes as follows: many games can instantly be improved if the default movement speed was reduced to walking pace.…

1 KINGDOM HEARTS II Nothing speaks to the eggnog-necking spirit of Rudolph’s favourite season like the Pumpkin King acting as Santa. In Kingdom Hearts II, Jack Skellington teams up with Sora and co to stop Sleeping Beauty’s Maleficent from ruining Christmas. 2 MAFIA II As far back as we can remember, we’ve always wanted to be elves in Santa’s Grotto. Wait, that’s not right. Goodfellas meets Miracle On 34th Street may not seem like a natural fit, but Mafia II gives damn good Xmas. Driving around in a wiseguy winter wonderland with Dean Martin’s Let It Snow is a top scene-setter. 3 BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS The Dark Knight could be Santa in this Xmas Eve tale. Like Kris, he deals out presents based on how folk behave. Of course, his…

FORMAT PS4 / ETA TBC / PUB SONY / DEV TEQUILA WORKS You’ve seen very little of this game so far, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to see. This, after all, is a title highly unsuitable for the traditional videogame PR blitz. You’ve not seen a combat trailer, because it has no combat. You’ve not been introduced to its cast of characters, because it only has the one. While the big publishers’ blockbusters often seem designed to meet the needs of the hype train as much as those of the player, the team at Tequila Works wants you to go in knowing as little as possible about its game. To know too much would be to spoil it. It’s in keeping with the spirit of the game, too. Rime…

Back in June, Criterion Games pulled back the lid on a concept for a bold new project. After leaving both Burnout and Need For Speed (the latter IP being handed to Swedish studio Ghost Games) in the rear-view mirror, the British racing darling has gone ‘Beyond Cars’ and into the realm of multi-vehicle mayhem. But why has Criterion made this move? Why did it show off early prototype footage at E3 long before a ‘game’ has been made? And why has it binned all of its building’s desks and rebooted the studio into what looks to be a straight cross between a pub and a student flat? General manager Matt Webster reveals all. OPM: Why did you reveal the game so early? Matt Webster: Why not? [laughs] I think it…

Bows of holly? Mistletoe and wine? Screw that – festive tradition is all well and good, but the discerning gamer wants something fancier than a tangerine stuffed with cloves from Santa. Show your loved ones how much you care by picking out a gaming delight from under OPM’s tree. MUST-HAVE TECH Complete your home setup with ace hardware PlayStation TV The teeny new ‘micro-console that could’ can play a wide variety of PS Vita games, while also allowing you to stream your favourite PS4 titles on a second TV. Also, it’s ruddy adorable. It doesn’t come with a pad, though, so you’ll need a DualShock 3 or 4 to use it. amazon.co.uk PS4 bundle with FIFA 15 and Minecraft If you don’t yet own Sony’s new-gen wonder machine, there really…

Ordinarily we wouldn’t judge PS1 classics here – they usually live in our On The Store section over on p100. Yet the re-release of PlayStation rhythm-action classic Vib-Ribbon is so momentous, given the time it’s taken to arrive and the outpouring of love for wireframe rabbit protagonist Vibri, that it felt wrong to squish this gem into a tiny little box. Long before Harmonix made music waves with Guitar Hero or even Frequency, developer NanaOn-Sha created PlayStation’s definitive rhythm-actioner. At its core it sees Vibri dance along a white line, dodging obstacles that appear in time with key music beats. String a healthy combo together and she evolves into an angel to rack up more points; get hit too many times and she’ll degenerate into a frog and then, should…

Sometimes it feels like every mascot and his publishing house buddy has had a stint in a kart racer, but blimey how long has it been since someone has had a properstab at recreating the retro magic of Micro Machines?1 It was before the dawn of PlayStation – 1991 – when Codies first brought miniature vehicles into digital life. Of course, this is not actually Micro Machines remade, that would be a dirty crime seeing as how Hasbro clings to that particular moniker. But grab a pad and you’re ruminating rather speedily on a miniscule fire truck by any other name. Look under the modest hood and this feels every bit the Micro Machines reboot, including the pool table race course, with massive striped balls rolling about the baize, and…

Unless you’ve been nibbling moss in a cave since 2007, you already know how Peggle works. In case you have just returned from an extended hermetic spell, these are the broad strokes – you fire balls at orange pegs1 and attempt to clear them all from the screen before you run out of shots. It’s this simple yet oh-so-addictive premise that has made Peggle one of the most popular casual games around. Music has always played a key role in Peggle’s appeal, and after completing the initial levels with rainbow-farting unicorn Bjorn to a soundtrack of Ode To Joy you’ll discover that each new Master has their own classical theme. Getting an Extreme Fever (clearing the level, essentially) in later stages is accompanied by strains of the William Tell Overture…

RESIDENT EVIL CODE: VERONICA X Three months after Raccoon City went all moany and hungry for brains, Claire Redfield goes on a Euro gap year looking for her brother… SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI: DIGITAL DEVIL SAGA We forgive you – there have been so many awesome SMT games over the years it’s easy to let a few slip through the cracks. Here’s one of ‘em. G1 JOCKEY 4 Known in some circles as the seminal horse racing/ management game of two generations back, number four is here to sate your incredibly specific equine desires. SHELLSHOCK: NAM ‘67 Before Guerrilla became ‘those Killzone guys’ it was busy conveying the horrors of the Vietnam war via third-person shootery. Watch out for those punji pits though… MIDNIGHT CLUB  IIPS1 When racing game aficionados get…

DOCTOR WHO – SERIES 8 17 NOV The Doc gets infinitely more awesome (and super Scottish) thanks to Peter Capaldi. Also, the first episode has a dinosaur in it. BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICAL 24 NOV The West End’s take on the tale of ballet and miner strikes. All the joys of the theatre in the comfort of your pants on the couch. BLADE RUNNER: THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY 24 NOV Ridley Scott’s sci-fi opus of replicants and all the rain looks more sumptuous than ever in this re-release. WWE PRESENTS: TRUE GIANTS 1 DEC Everybody knows that Vinnie Mac prefers big men over ‘the little guy’. Here, Vader, Earthquake and co stand tall. THE INBETWEENERS 2 1 DEC Your favourite bumbling malcontents travel Down Under for the ultimate lads on tour…

STEP 1 REMOVE THE GLOSSY PART OF THE CONSOLE’S SHELL This is the part of the job this doc never gets used to: sometimes – thankfully very rarely – a PS4 dies. No matter how hard you try to pound its heart back into beating, black plastic shattering in all directions, it slips away. Then, just as you’re scrubbing up and wondering how to deliver the news to its DualShocks, it hits you. “Oh no,” you think in terror. “My Patch Adams bonus materials DVD!” Thankfully Sony designed a fail-safe, warranty-friendly method for retrieving discs from PS4s that won’t turn on, and all you’ll need is a small Phillips head screwdriver and ideally a torch or spotlight. First things first, though: grab your console so that the PS logo faces…

1 THE TEAM’S ACTIVITIES IN MEXICO REVOLVED AROUND TRYING TO RECOVER WMDS RATHER THAN GETTING WASTED ON TEQUILA. 2 GIVEN THE £149.99 PRICE TAG, IT’S NOT WORTH BUYING UNLESS A) THIS IS YOUR FIRST PS3 BAND, OR B) YOU’RE RICH ENOUGH TO BUY THE MOON. 3 WITH A RANGE OF CAMERA ANGLES AND INDICATORS YOU’LL BE BREAK-BUILDING AND LEADING YOUR POTATO-FACED MAN TO VICTORY. 4 THIS MEANS WE CAN FINALLY STOP SENDING LETTERS TO ANA IVANOVIC ASKING HER TO WEAR THAT SANTA OUTFIT WE SENT HER. WELL, AT LEAST ‘TIL NEXT XMAS, ANYWAY.…

(TAO) ALUNDRA Matthew Pellett dives back into the top-down adventure of everyone’s dreams The last time I professed my love about a PS1 classic – Vib-Ribbon – Sony re-released it, so I’ll have an updated version of spectacular RPG The Adventures Of Alundra next, please. This was PlayStation’s Link To The Past, only darker in tone with tougher puzzles and, sadly, fewer fans. I spent hours dipping into NPCs’ nightmares and have long since dreamed of a glorious return. DISHONORED Blink and you’ll miss artsy assassin Adam Bullingham reflecting on a PS3 great Dishonored isn’t usually the type of thing I go for, but it was well worth the gamble. With smart AI, a great art style, involving characters and a solid story it has most of the things I…

1 VELOCITY 2X A ludicrously enjoyable puzzle/platformer hybrid that should come with a health warning. So joyous is the side-scroller’s twin-stick teleporting, there’s a danger you may well grin your face clean off the bone. Masterfully designed, with arguably the best control scheme on PS Vita, Velocity 2X is utterly essential. 2 PERSONA 4: GOLDEN This thoughtful and unique JRPG epic gives you another stab at high school – only this time with intrigue and superpowers instead of nerves, acne and an unpredictable vocal register. 3 FEZ Gomez charms you instantly with his perspective-shifting puzzles and pin-sharp pixel-art, then blows your mind with a world of secret languages, hidden areas and beguiling background tunes. 4 VIRTUE’S LAST REWARD This visual novel/puzzler just gets better over its 40 hours. The dialogue’s…