Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2016 i PLAY

“SWING OVER TO P66 TO DISCOVER THE AMAZINGLY OPEN COMBAT SCENES.” The end is nigh. Since 2007, Uncharted has been the king of gaming. Nathan Drake’s adventures are among the best experiences ever to grace PlayStation, but now the time has almost come to say goodbye to our hero of heroes. And boy, are we prepared to wave Nate off in style. This issue we’ve compiled over 24 pages of Uncharted goodness, including the first ever hands-on with Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End’s prodigious campaign. Believe me when I say you have no idea how good this is shaping up to be. Ben’s jaw-dropping playtest begins on p66, so swing across to discover Drake’s sandbox vehicle sections and the amazingly open combat scenes that will have you replaying levels multiple…

SWATS AMORE Rebellion has its sights firmly set on releasing the fourth instalment of its popular WWII stealth-sniping series. Sniper Elite 4 – taking place in ‘40s Italy – releases this year, and will boast a glorious 1080p resolution with substantially larger maps for elite marksman Karl Fairburne to sneak through. WRESTLING CONTROL This is different: LittleBigPlanet 3 dev and racing game expert Sumo Digital is taking charge of zombie-slashing sequel Dead Island 2. Deep Silver has handed over the reins (or machete, perhaps?) from Yager to the British studio, which is “looking forward to exceeding fan expectation.” Set expectations high, then. SAVE THE DATES Update those pretty OPM UK calendars with some tasty release dates, hot from the PS4 oven. Turn-based stealth title Invisible, Inc. arrives 19 April; Uncharted…

“NATE’S TIME IS UP – HIS STORY NEEDS TO COME TO AN END.” BEN TYRER STAFF WRITER Too obvious? Maybe, but Uncharted shouldn’t exist without Drake – this thief needs to meet his end if his series is going to as well. Nate’s slow transformation from opportunistic treasure hunter to reluctant hero is complete, so Uncharted 4 risks spoiling three games’ worth of character development if Nate doesn’t find himself in an impossible situation with his luck running out. Furthermore, this is the chance for Naughty Dog to showcase its ever-improving writing. Drake’s death should feel inevitable and powerful, without pulling any cheap tricks that would offer an emotional ending while keeping alive the glimmer of a possible revival. “SORRY ELENA – IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO SAY A FOND…

“I WAS BOWLED OVER BY UNCHARTED 3 – IT’S THE TRUE REALISATION OF THE SERIES’ AMBITIONS.” WRITER BIO A militant Nintendo fanboy as a child, a PC evangelist as an adult, and now a proud PlayStation 4 owner, GamesMaster magazine’s production editor Robin Valentine is what is known as a ‘platform traitor’ and should not be trusted. As a latter-day Sony convert, I never touched Uncharted games on release. (I’ll allow a pause for your gasps.) Thanks to The Nathan Drake Collection, however, I’ve finally caught up, marathoning through Nate’s adventures this year. The leap in quality from the first game to the second is astonishing, a comprehensive escalation of spectacle and scale. Series fans had assured me this was the peak – the third is fine, they said, but…

“THE SCREEN’S CHOCK-A-BLOCK WITH GALACTIC GORGEOUSNESS.” As we bounce through bustling Metropolis, our robot buddy strapped to our back, it’s impossible not to have a big, fat, Galaxy Burger-eating grin plastered across our face. Playing the new iteration of Insomniac’s legendary 3D-platforming shooter is like catching up with an old friend – familiar, joyful and uncomplicated. Except your friend suddenly got really hot. And grew some extra alien limbs. Hot alien limbs. Alright, maybe it’s a little complicated. Yes, this is absolutely a retelling of that iconic 2002 PS2 story of our beloved Lombax and his alloyed ally. It’s also a transformation. Modernised controls, a revamped arsenal and overhauled areas lend the Ratchet & Clank reboot an unmistakable star quality. QUARTU DETOUR The game is based…

“ALAN, FUELLED BY THE TEARS OF SMALL CHILDREN, IS THE MOST PSYCHOTIC.” What’s more tedious than a loading bar? A biology lecturer banging on while it fills. We boot up the free-to-play, multiplayeronly shooter... and are dropped into a classroom of slack-jawed teens, our teacher’s nasal drone assaulting our ears. This is our nightmare . Head, prepare to meet desk. But on the way down, we spy our notebook – the portal to fast-paced, ultra-violent multiplayer insanity… The drivel fades into the background as fuzzy punk pounds in its place. Drawn To Death’s wonkily scribbled world unfolds, with colourful, obscene scrawls ripped from the mind of a bored student. Drawing Frog is the Virgil to our Dante in this surreal hell. We whizz off to the Training…

“ITS FEROCIOUS PACE OF THREE-MINUTE ROUNDS MEANS YOU WON’T GET BORED.” Speed isn’t something we associate with Resident Evil. Sure, later games in the series have some nippy enemies, but Umbrella Corps’ online competitive multiplayer looks blisteringly rapid. That’s why Multi-Mission Mode is perfectly suited to the swift gameplay, with a playlist of eight game types that randomly cycle each round, forcing constant adaption. You never know what’s coming… Capped at five rounds, the majority of games are variations on two teams of three working to take out each other and/or the zombies that scamper around maps. In Target Hunter, for instance, points are earned only when you kill one specific player on the other team, while Collar War is similar to COD’s Kill Confirmed: you only get points from…

“REEKY’S ONE OF THE REMAINING MEMBERS OF A BANDIT GROUP THAT IS RANSACKING VILLAGES – YOU NEED TO FIND OUT WHY.” Warhorse’s technically ambitious RPG is initially deceiving. Sure, you see the medieval setting, first-person view, dialogue choices and melee combat, and immediately assume that this is another stab at what makes Skyrim so endearingly popular. Not so. Kingdom Come grounds itself in actual history, forgoing the temptation to add in magic or orcs. Our demo begins with player-character Henry on the trail of Reeky in the kingdom of Bohemia. Reeky’s one of the remaining members of a bandit group ransacking villages, and you need to sort him out. With no map markers in sight, we must question villagers and complete favours to track him down – but quests have…

1 We just want to give Toby, this squeaky little penguin, a big hug. Wait, is that a mech suit? And a railgun? Maybe we’ll save the hugging for later… 2 Eldrid warrior Galilea’s shield not only protects her, but can also be thrown at foes with o. How to fight her? Sneak-attack from behind. 3 Old duffer Kleese is a lot more deadly than he looks. The barmy prof’s Ultimate lets him summon a black hole that sucks in enemies. Alright for some. 4 El Dragón’s Ultimate is different: En Fuego soups up his other abilities for a limited time. Great, now we’re getting dropkicked and we’re on fire.…

“A CARING, QUICK-WITTED AND DEFTLY NIMBLE ROGUE, NATE’S NOT AN AVERAGE HERO.” It’s not the shooting. It’s not the set-piece spectacle. Hell, it’s not even Sully’s masterfully groomed moustache. No, the real reason you love Uncharted so damn much is simple: Nathan Drake is just a super likeable guy. By moving on from a near mute elf adventurer to a wisecracking, warm-hearted Indiana Jones impersonator, Naughty Dog stamped its passport to greatness, thrilling an entire generation of PlayStation gamers with a new breed of action title. A type of game that was personable, well-written and oh-so-chiselled. Skip back to 2007, and the PlayStation landscape was a considerably duller place than the verdant PS4 paradise we all bask in today. Resistance and MotorStorm had done their best to convince punters to…

MAP IT OUT Nate discovers Francis Drake’s coffin near Panama – it contains a map of a mysterious island. ROMAN EMPIRE Searching for El Dorado, Drake and Sully run into treasure hunter Gabriel Roman, who shoots Sullivan. CRASHING IN Nate teams up with Elena, but the reunion is cut short when their plane crashes during the flight to the island. HOLD THE FORT Nate saves Elena from a fortress, kills cursed Spaniards, then reunites with (a very much alive) Sully. GOLDEN BOY El Dorado turns out to be a golden sarcophagus, not a city. The relic ends Roman, then our heroes escape.…

1 CHOPPER CHASE Drake and Chloe flee a helicopter during a breakneck chase across Nepalese rooftops and collapsing buildings. It’s a showcase set-piece that oozes electric action. 2 RUNAWAY TRAIN Wow. Uncharted 2’s 13th level is a stunner. After Nate boards a speeding train, he blazes through the Himalayas, capping men in carriages in an utterly brilliant chapter. 3 VILLAGE RETREAT Naughty Dog shows its mastery for quiet reflection when Drake explores a sleepy Himalayan village. Pulling a few yak tails and playing football with the kids are serene highlights.…

Shortly after Drake’s Deception was released, a lot of people started to complain about its controls. Despite game director Justin Richmond claiming Naughty Dog had adjusted “the sensitivity to be much higher in Uncharted 3 to give you a more precise feel,” while writing on the PlayStation Blog, shooting simply didn’t feel as nuanced as Uncharted 2’s model. Indeed, initial fan feedback on the changes to the aiming system were so negative that the studio ended up patching Among Thieves’ eight-directional model into the game as an optional control setting in the 1.02 patch, a little over a month after Uncharted 3 was released.…

“BOTH THE JUNGLE AND DRAKE’S, AHEM, HANDSOMENESS STILL LOOK FANTASTIC.” Launch titles carry a special burden. They’re the showcase for the future of what your new machine can do. Golden Abyss, however, takes this potential pitfall and turns it into its biggest strength. It’s the series’ most experimental entry, but retains those set-pieces that keep us so enamoured with Drake’s games. Take the collectibles. While the home console titles keep you picking up random shiny treasures, Golden Abyss uses PS Vita’s touchscreen to add a little extra to the trinkets you find throughout the jungle, by making you wipe off mud and muck. Even just rotating an object by swiping your finger across the scene makes them feel just that extra bit special. It’s not just improving on what’s come…

“THE STORY IS DELIVERED WITH FIRE AND GRIT BY THE EXCELLENT SEAN BEAN.” Kholat falls somewhere between Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture and Slender, meaning it’s a first-person exploration game in which you’ll walk around a giant sandbox collecting story scraps. These scraps come in the form of diary entries or straight-up narration, delivered with fire and grit by the reliably excellent Sean Bean. Coupled with the effective audio cues and eerie score, this is a world that feels unwelcome, lonely and, above all, cold. It’s based on 1959’s infamous Dyatlov Pass incident, in which nine hikers died in mysterious circumstances on the slopes of Russia’s inhospitable Kholat Syakhal. Kholat runs with the theory that secret government testing was conducted in the area, the effects of which you’ll encounter first-hand…

“THE STAMINA SYSTEM HAS BEEN REWORKED – YOU CAN’T JUST SPAM SPINNING KICKS.” From Fight Night’s Total Punch Control to NHL’s genius Skill Stick, great controls bring you closer to any sport you’re playing. In EA’s second crack at UFC, you’ve got the stand up, which is easy to understand – two competitors throw strikes at one another in an attempt to score a knockout. Then there’s the grappling. This can be just as exciting, but it takes a well-trained eye to fully appreciate what’s going on. Grappling in the original game was a bit odd. Quarter and half-circle rotations of your DualShock’s stick would allow you to attempt to change position. Now, you choose which position you’re looking to get into from a selection based…

Think your item-hoarding days died with the ink ribbon? Think again. On day one of shelterdom you might be content with a few petrol cans, but by day 47, you’ll be squirrelling away mannequin heads as if they’re megalixirs. A post-apocalyptic survival game in which family comes first, Sheltered slots into the not-so-snug gap between Fallout Shelter and The Sims. Set in a world in which anti-radiation tablets are as common as candy canes at Christmas, you need to micromanage your nuclear family in their daily grind for no better reason than that old arcade chestnut: the high score. Like The Sims, your family members have bars that indicate when they need to perform basic functions such as showering and snoozing.1 Unlike The Sims, however, goopy carbonara isn’t on the…

Twenty-three years after its original release, Day Of The Tentacle still delivers the goods. It’s the story of a purple tentacle who quaffs toxic sludge and is transformed into a maniacal appendage set on world domination – and the trio of unlikely heroes who set out to stop him. Long heralded as one of the adventure genre’s finest ever entries, this PS4 remaster should be celebrated like PS3’s Monkey Island revivals. Science boffin Bernard, pothead roadie Hoagie and dopey med student Laverne are the three leads who step up to bring an end to Purple’s evil ways. But quicker than you can say “Portaloo,” they’re trapped in a bizarre bog-blunder of unflushable proportions and are scattered through history by time-travelling toilets. Bernie’s trapped in present day, Hoagie’s washed two centuries…

By jove, this shall not do. Every tentative gentleman’s agreement from the era of GoldenEye is void for Screencheat, a splitscreen FPS in which everyone is invisible and the only way to figure out where they are is by, um, screen-cheating. Cue mayhem as four players fizz around pop art arenas, using the environmental detailing on their mates’ screens to pull off shots.1 It’s an ingenious premise that works if you vividly remember the games it’s repurposing. Thanks to an old-school nippiness to the shooting that prioritises speed over accuracy, there’s immediate fun to be had barrelling through levels and hitting constant thin air. With plenty of modes that go through the spectrum of uniqueness, variety certainly isn’t an issue. Options range from the vanilla Deathmatch and Capture The Fun…

GUITAR HERO LIVE Ben Tyrer relives his teenage years with Fall Out Boy Scouring Guitar Hero TV for some digit-stretching exercises, I lock onto an emo masterpiece from my (unfortunate) teen years. Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down by Fall Out Boy. For three minutes and 49 seconds, I’m on my feet thrashing around the living room, playing it for every teenage crush who’s just a line in a song. I even clamber onto my chair to jump off during the chorus. Then it’s over. I remember that my neighbours downstairs will fear me crashing through their ceiling and make a mental note to never play it again. STREET FIGHTER V Try as she might, Jen Simpkins just can’t see through Ryu Matchups are fine, but I enter an endless procession of…

Hitman is a smooth operator, but there have been a couple of online issues that have caused the ol’ White Dot Of Suspicion to sprout above our heads. For one, the (infrequent) server disconnects, which stop your run and hoof you back to the title screen. Secondly, the delay of the marquee online feature, Elusive Targets, in which you get one shot at taking out an unmarked target dropped into the level. Luckily, regular Escalation Contact drops (where you repeat a hit in five increasingly convoluted fashions) keep the bodycount rising, and each one so far has been superbly crafted. Subtly upping the stakes with each passing round, it forces you to approach levels, previously thought mastered, from new angles. VERDICT A constant stream of contracts – from IO and…

PES 2016 – UEFA EURO 2016 Free to owners of the full game, the Euros add-on boasts authentic strips – and, erm, faces – for the 15 teams (of the total 24), such as England, that have been licensed. It will also launch as a PlayStationexclusive standalone edition on 21 April. JUST CAUSE 3: SKY FORTRESS Do you believe you can fly? Believe you can touch the sky? Kit out Rico in a new rocket-propelled wingsuit, which also features a machine gun and missile launcher – perfect for attacking a giant airship in a set of new missions. Free with the Air, Land And Sea Season Pass. DRIVECLUB UPDATE 1.26 It’s time to leave the countryside behind for a bit of city-slickin’. Zip around the new Scotland – Old Town…

INFO PUB THEKLA, INC DEV THEKLA, INC RELEASED 2016, PS4 GET IT NOW PSN, £29.99 WHAT? Depending on your perspective, The Witness is a critical darling that amazes puzzle fans with its deeply complex, witty design… or it’s a notoriously difficult line-drawing game that’s as pretentious as a wine sniffer.…

PICK #1 METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES Editor Matthew Pellett salutes Big Boss’ other sandbox PS4 sneak-’em-up An ’80s wildchild such as me was always going to love The Phantom Pain, but while Kojima’s final full-fat MGS is sitting pretty atop our Hall Of Fame, nobody should forget about its bite-sized prequel. Ground Zeroes may seem tiny on the outside, but it’s an adventure with surprising depth. An essential slice of PS4 stealthing. “THINK OF A VIBRANTLY HUED, EVEN MORE POLYGONAL MGS, AND YOU HAVE VOLUME.” PICK #2 VOLUME Staff writer Jen Simpkins sticks to the shadows in the intricate indie blinder Think of a vibrantly hued, even more polygonal MGS, and you’ve basically got Mike Bithell’s top-down modern retelling of Robin Hood. Your light-footed charge is not Snake,…

Jen Simpkins STAFF WRITER Jen was apprehensive about playing Drawn To Death for Previews this issue. “Hmm, it looks a bit sketchy,” she proclaimed. GAME OF THE MONTH Salt And Sanctuary PS VR HIGHLIGHT Star Wars Battlefront VR Ben Tyrer STAFF WRITER A trip to the Dangerous Golf studio lived up to its name when Ben smashed his front teeth. The fool tried to eat a sand wedge. GAME OF THE MONTH Heavy Rain Remastered PS VR HIGHLIGHT SuperHyperCube Andy Westbrook PRODUCTION EDITOR Back in the office after a month of dirty nappies and late-night crying sessions kept him away. In unrelated news, Andy’s a new dad! GAME OF THE MONTH Dirt Rally PS VR HIGHLIGHT VR Worlds/The London Heist Edwin Evans-Thirlwell GUEST WRITER “I don’t get the name,” said…

24/05 Ninja Turtles: Mutants In Manhattan is out on this date. It’s pizza party time. 230 Number of developers working on innovative PlayStation VR experiences. 36,000,000 PS4s have now been sold worldwide, according to SCE boss Andrew House. 10 Minutes it took for Amazon UK’s initial stock of PS VR headsets to sell out. 1000% Approximate rise in PS Camera sales, following the PS VR announcement. £349.99 The launch price tag on Sony’s magical helmet of dreams, PlayStation VR. 1997 The year the first Oddworld game released. A new title’s coming in 2017. 1.4 The Fallout 4 update that adds Super Mutant meat totems, bags and carts.…

CALM BEFORE THE… Oddworld: Soulstorm isn’t your typical spit ‘n’ polish remaster. Instead of just updating Abe’s Exoddus, series creator Lorne Lanning is crafting a much darker tale for our farting hero. BULLY FOR YOU Two more PS2 Rockstar classics are now available on PS4. That means 1080p up-rendering and trophies galore for survival horror Manhunt, and schoolyard sim Canis Canem Edit (aka Bully). ON YOUR POD Team OPM are back on the airwaves with a podcast bringing our voices to your earholes! Subscribe to us on iTunes, or you can find us at http://bit.ly/1RR5SpJ. ‘CRAFTWORK Minecraft Story Mode Episodes 6, 7 and 8 are coming. Telltale’s series previously left us cold, but maybe we’ll warm to the new characters? ART FAILURE Who’s a Naughty boy then? Nate just can’t…

“UNCHARTED 3’S SET-PIECES SHOULD HAVE WON US OVER, BUT SONY BLEW ITS WAD FAR TOO EARLY.” WRITER BIO Matthew Pellett is a big spoiler-baby who still laments the fact that Capcom ruined Ada’s shock return from the dead during Resident Evil 4’s previews. He dreams of an alternate reality in which *that* cutscene wasn’t spoiled. When Robin loudly declared that Uncharted 3 is vastly superior to Uncharted 2 (left), there were audible gasps in the OPM office, followed by a wall-shaking argument. But while I’m a firm believer that Among Thieves is the series’ pinnacle, the more I think about it, the more Robin’s view makes sense. Uncharted 3 was fantastic, for sure. Sadly, for those of us already invested in the series, it was spoilt by an eagerness to…

1 No, you can’t just have it – you’ve got it earn it. Collect bolts (a cool 15,000 of them) and head to a Gadgetron vendor to get your hands on a Pixelizer. 2 Once she’s in your hands, it’s time to let rip. Point the thing in the direction of lowly mobs or big bosses, and fire with i. Simultaneous cackling is optional. 3 Not so “spritely” anymore, eh, peckbot? Or are you? Sniggering triumphantly, making horrible puns, bash them to pieces with your Omniwrench. 4 If you’re not done retrofying every poor soul in sight, keep an eye out for Raritanium shards. They’ll let you upgrade the gun in myriad ways.…

1 Vampiric droid Cyborgula can use his bat-wings to fly about levels, and fires homing missiles from within the depths of his own creepy cranium. Ouch. 2 Brit punk Johnny Savage for Dad Of The Year. Armed with a Satanic guitar, he screams “Stay away from my f*cking family!” after pulverising you. 3 Our favourite special in Diabla Tijuana’s devilish arsenal is her ability to summon infinite pentagram surfaces in the air. Tricksy wall-jumping, anywhere. 4 Oh, Alan. You won’t find this cuddly toy at your local Build-A-Bear Workshop. He can turn invisible and chuck his chainsaw across arenas for headshots.…

“IF HOLMES BUILDS THE CASE, HE CAN SEND ANY SUSPECT TO THE NOOSE.” Ever built a mind palace? It’s the trick of mapping information to a mental visualisation, so you need only conjure that image to remember any connected details. Ours is our old bedroom – the pile of dirty T-shirts is our debit PIN, the half-eaten pizza our PSN password. Very handy. Sherlock is a classier gent, of course. He sees case facts as neurons in need of networking – string logically compatible info together and a deduction is born. This was the hook of 2014’s Crimes And Punishments, and a feature that now enters murkier territory. “The system is the base of our free detective investigation,” says Frogwares CEO Waël Amr, “giving [you] the possibility to understand events,…

“A BRILLIANT SHOWCASE FOR THE JOYS OF BREAKING STUFF IN SLO-MO.” What do you get if you take an ornate French ballroom, a highly combustible golf ball and 480 champagne glasses stacked neatly in a pyramid? Chaos – beautiful, mesmerising and instantly addictive chaos. Three Fields’ debut focuses on the gratifying sensation of watching stuff crumble, shatter and break, as you attempt to orchestrate the madness into a high score. To begin, we enter Sorry, We’re Closed – a solo tour that opens with Burger Off. A dimly lit kitchen awaits, with a healthy stock of condiments, meat slabs and other teasing targets all ripe for destruction. From here, the level’s broken down into three stages. First is the Tee Off, otherwise known as the calm before the storm. This…

INSURGENCY: SANDSTORM FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2017 PUB FOCUS HOME INTERACTIVE DEV NEW WORLD INTERACTIVE Forget charging headfirst into the online battlegrounds of New World’s FPS, patience and teamwork are what count here. A Steam favourite for its focus on realism, this isn’t your standard port from PC. Wholesale changes include a switch to Unreal Engine 4 – the original uses Source – so expect some ultra lovely graphics. There’ll also be a single-player campaign to go with the online deathmatches, and an eSports-friendly framework is in the works, meaning the pieces are in place for a sneak assault on the COD/ Battlefield duopoly. THE CHURCH IN THE DARKNESS FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2017 / PUB PARANOID PRODUCTIONS DEV PARANOID PRODUCTIONS No, this isn’t about Midnight Mass. It’s about infiltrating…

Uncharted was originally known as ‘Big’ during development, and as you can see, both Nathan and Elena once sported very different looks. Your favourite treasure hunter first rocked fairer locks, giving off a slight ‘annoying surfer dude’ vibe. Thankfully, his design was changed to the one we all know and love. Ms Fisher also underwent a makeover before Uncharted’s final release. Originally a brunette, Naughty Dog settled on a look that more closely resembled her motion capture and voice actress, Emily Rose.…

“LOCATIONS, CAST, SET-PIECES… NAUGHTY DOG TURNS UP THE DIAL IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY.” Holy hell in a handbasket, is this how you ever do a follow-up. Drake’s Fortune may have given the PlayStation Nation a small sampler of Naughty Dog’s winning scripting and canny feel for pacing, but Uncharted 2 took PS3 to a level few could have envisioned the console being capable of just a couple of years before. There’s set-piece scale and an eye for action movie flair that would send most blockbusters crying home to their A-list mommas. There’s ludicrously impressive tech feats. Oh, and that bit with the train. Uncharted 2 has a very decent claim on containing the greatest videogame opening ever committed to disc. Taking inspiration and some cracked glass…

IN LIKE FLYNN Nate’s old pal Harry Flynn and new love interest Chloe Frazer ask the fortune hunter to steal an oil lamp. COLD FLEET Flynn betrays Nathan after the lamp reveals the location of Marco Polo’s Lost Fleet. The fiend. BORNEO FREE Nate finds the fleet of ships in Borneo, before discovering that the legendary city of Shambhala is in Nepal. TRAIN AND GAIN Epic train chases follow, as Nate, Chloe and a returning Elena journey into the Himalayas to find Shambhala. HIT AND KISS In Shambhala, Drake defeats baddie Lazarevic, who’s after a relic of huge power. Cue kisses with Elena.…

1 BURN NOTICE After Nate and Sully track down an amulet in an opulent French manor, they’re soon forced to escape one hell of a house fire when Talbot’s men start playing with matches. Hot stuff indeed. 2 PLANE SAILING Don’t look down! Drake battles a group of heavies after stowing away on a plane headed for the Rub ‘al Khali. A mid-air fistfight on the cargo ramp proves quite the highlight. 3 CONVOY CARNAGE We’ve given the ship chapters a lot of love to the left, so we’ll highlight this chase scene in which Nate rides a horse during a daring desert attack on a convoy. It’s heart-stopping stuff.…

Ever wondered who’d win in a fight between Doughnut Drake and Wetsuit Drake? Wonder no more. PS Vita’s turn-based card romp charges you with building posses of Uncharted heroes, then pitting them against other teams. Borneo Chloe versus Heist Chloe: fight! Jeff the Cameraman versus Tenzin: fight! Genghis Khan versus King Solomon: fight! It also offers Cross-Play with Golden Abyss – earning trophies and collectibles in Nate’s other PS Vita adventure unlocks power-up cards in FOF. Pity about the spotty match-making.…

GOLD AWARD Awarded to a game that’s brilliantly executed on every level, combining significant innovation, near-flawless gameplay, great graphics and lasting appeal. EDITOR’S AWARD Not at the very highest echelon, but this is a game that deserves recognition and special praise based on its ambition, innovation or other notable achievement. 10 INCREDIBLE The kind of phenomenal experience rarely seen in a console generation. 9 OUTSTANDING Unreservedly brilliant – this should be in every collection. 8 VERY GOOD A truly excellent game, marred by just a few minor issues. 7 GOOD A great concept unfulfilled or the familiar done well, but still well worth playing. 6 DECENT Fun in parts, flawed in others, but more right than wrong. 5 AVERAGE What you expect and little more, this is for devotees only.…

“BE IN NO DOUBT: IO HAS RETURNED TO ITS GLORY DAYS FOR HITMAN’S RETURN.” Viktor Novikov and Dalia Margolis need to die. To the public, they’re celebrity gods: Novikov the billionaire owner of the world-famous Sanguine fashion line, Margolis an ex-supermodel. But behind closed doors, they’re respectively the money and brains behind the IAGO spy ring, and their latest event is just a front for a private auction selling world secrets. Some of the globe’s shadiest elite are on the list, but luckily for us, Viktor and Dalia are on another list entirely… Check it twice if you want, but there’s no question about who’s been naughty or nice: Agent 47’s kill orders are reserved only for scumbags, and he’s never had more ways to stop…

You’d have to be living under a special kind of rock to not have heard of David Cage’s iconic interactive thriller. A soundproof, magazine-proof rock. When it released in 2010, Heavy Rain impressed with unique, emotional storytelling and cinematic presentation – we didn’t mind the boob shots, either. This remaster retains and showcases Heavy Rain’s best assets (I’m so sorry). Some wobbles, however, have also made the jump to PS4. Fortunately, there are chin-wobbles aplenty among them. The tortured saga of Ethan Mars is still enough to keep me glued to the screen with a mixture of tension and my own nasal effluents. No, you’re crying. Six years on, the hunt for the Origami Killer and your abducted son is still suspense-filled, with certain moments – the panic attack, the…

“THE HANDLING MODEL PROVES AS CAPTIVATING AS IT IS BRUTALLY UNFORGIVING.” Dirt 3 represented a tantalising, if partial, refocusing on the purist European roots of Codemasters’ legendary, shapeshifting rally series. Sure, the Warwickshire studio introduced the brash, faddy (though highly entertaining) Gymkhana mode to ensure Dirt’s ongoing Americanisation wasn’t entirely derailed, but the stars of the show were definitely its sodden Finnish and UK routes, plus its selection of legendary vehicles from the motorsport’s heyday. Following Dirt Showdown’s unchecked excesses, Dirt Rally doubles down on that train of thought. It strips away the gaudy baubles and bombast that have cluttered the series of late, and trades on nothing more than the noble beauty of keeping a snarling, spitting hatchback (mostly) under control as you force more horsepower than is strictly…

Early on in this mad spin-off, you’ll get a side-quest in which you need to discover why a mobile game is crashing constantly at a boss fight. Because your character is a digital avatar in the real world, you cyber jump into the phone to discover the cause of the problem. From there, it gets much weirder. So, not quite the nostalgia blast we were expecting.1 But because of the sheer magnitude of crazy the story offers, this fun JRPG creates its own memories. Splitting the action between real world sourcing quests and cyber jumping2 into the dungeon-crawling digital land, the hook is creating and training your own Digimon army. These digital champions hatch, level up and evolve/ devolve into different type paths, with your collection split between the main…

Nutritionists questioning the merit of natural sugars could use online shooter Garden Warfare 2 as proof of fruit’s inherent assholery. Here an orange squirts out laser death, while a corn cob’s buttery bullets claim lives at a rate of five-a-day. They make for a more aggressive Plant army, in turn powering new modes that flip the original’s on their heads by casting zombies as the besieged losers – a role they adapt to with new imp and pirate classes that hunker down and hold the fort. Although lobbies are cluttered with new faces – with the Plants’ Rose proving noticeably over-represented thanks to her OP-homing thorns – this still delivers surprisingly intense class-based brawls. It sits between Battlefront and Battlefield, offering the former’s broad strokes (projectiles have the same weightlessness…

Broforce is, in a word, muscular. It’s a beefy game about hefty slabs of man meat who run around and gun around like it’s 1987, largely from bulky pixel screen left to brawny-enemy-filled screen right, gibs raining as they go. Each level begins with the motivational barks of a general who’d struggle to pass a Russian doping test, and climaxes in hair metal shredding as you fly away on a chopper. Screw green veg – just watching this is guaranteed to put hairs on your chest. Yet glistening on these bulging biceps is the baby oil of sentience. Sure, simply making everything go boom hardly sounds too clever, but it’s tough to stay alive when everything falls apart with such reckless abandon. Clip a nearby barrel…

There are two types of biopic – one which takes a life-long view of its subject and one which focuses on a defining event. As you might expect from celebrated West Wing writer Alan Sorkin, Steve Jobs is neither and both. The Danny Boyle-directed film takes the unusual approach of setting its entire story in the minutes immediately preceding three key product launches during Jobs’ early career in and out of Apple; and lasers in on his relationships with four people: long-suffering marketing executive Joanna Hoffman (a Bafta-winning Kate Winslet), coding genius Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen), CEO John Sculley (Jeff Daniels) and Lisa Brennan, the daughter he initially refuses to acknowledge as his own. Controversially, the film fudges the truth for dramatic purpose, flat-out fabricating certain events and conversations. But…

“YOU GO FROM UNCLOGGING CRAPPERS TO DUCKING GUNSHOTS ON THE STREETS.” INFO PUB EA DEV IO INTERACTIVE RELEASED 2003, PS2 GET IT NOW AMAZON, £10.99 NEED TO KNOW 1 It was originally called FF: Battle For Liberty Island. 2 The game uses a tweaked take on Hitman 2’s engine. 3 The Hungarian Radio Choir worked on FF’s score. When it comes to virtual plumbers, PlayStation has forever been in the shadow of Nintendo and a certain big-boned Italian. Yet for one glorious moment in late 2003, PS2 was treated to a toilet jockey who could not only rub shoulders with Mario, but who’d happily kickstart a bloody Mushroom King coup. Meet Chris Stone and Freedom Fighters – a badass resistance leader in an equally badass squad shooter. Now, a swift…

“I DON’T WANT TO COMMIT HOURS OF MY LIFE TO A PRETTY SUDOKU BOOK.” When it comes to puzzle games, my patience generally lasts about 15 minutes. After that, it’s straight to the internet to discover the solution. Cheating? Course not. Problem solving is all about using the tools to hand and there’s no better tool for most head-scratchers than a quick Google search. So, yes, it’s safe to say that my mindset isn’t the ideal one for Jonathan Blow’s latest. Stepping out into the day-glo courtyard from the tunnel where The Witness’ journey begins, I’m surprised. I actually like the serene pace. I wander around, staring at the blue sky, enjoying the solitude – having grown up in the gloomy Midlands, it’s a rarity I’m still adjusting to. Even…

1 THE LAST OF US PS3’s premier developer proves a misbehaving pooch can learn new tricks in this extraordinary adventure. In true Naughty Dog fashion, the Californian studio subverts everything from zombie and post-apocalyptic tropes to the gameplay beats of its own back catalogue. Effortlessly blending stealth, horror and action with a script destined to break your heart, TLOU is interactive storytelling at its finest. 2 GRAND THEFT AUTO V 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 than this. 3 UNCHARTED 2: AMONG THIEVES The game that sparked a million mancrushes, with a perfectly pitched script,…

“THE HEADSET SUPPORTS 3D AUDIO, HELPING YOU PRECISELY LOCATE EACH IN-GAME GUNSHOT AND GURGLE.” Considering the astronomical price-points of its competitors, we weren’t expecting PlayStation VR to be kind to our wallets. We would have cried bitter, poverty-stricken tears over £599. We could have choked down – given the apparent expense of creating a virtual reality headset – £499. But just £349 and 99 piddling pennies? Oh, Sony. You spoil us. READY, HEADSET, GO If that wasn’t enough to make Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House the flavour of forever, his presentation at GDC 2016 also revealed that PlayStation VR will launch very soon – this October, to be exact. Cue a very happy Halloween of virtual frightfests, and an even merrier Christmas. “Sorry, Nana, can’t chat now: I’m playing…

“IT’S AMASSED MORE THAN 14 MILLION PLAYERS ON PC SINCE ITS 2014 RELEASE.” PS4 has truly been bitten by the battle arena bug. With Epic Games’ multiplayer showstopper Paragon and the distinctly MOBAflavoured (yes it is, Gearbox) FPS Battleborn on their way, tactical team fans have plenty to be excited for. But first, it’s time to meet their maker: Smite, a third-person-view MOBA, is finally hitting PS4. The free-to-play god-ganker’s intuitive controls and mythological lore helped it amass more than 14 million players since its 2014 PC launch. And now, Hi-Rez Studios wants a slice of that player base pie for PS4. After all, the over-the-shoulder perspective is perfect for sofa sessions. Fancy nailing MOBA fundamentals? Smite is essential. Tutorials prioritise CPU minion-farming for experience and gold; jungling (killing beasties…

Could Battlefield 5 take place in a World War One setting? A German retailer’s product listing reveals that could well be the case. Also listed? A 26 October release date. The Titanfall 2 to PS4 evidence mounts – it’s listed for pre-order on Gamestop and Amazon. Red Dead Redemption 2 has popped up on a dev’s CV. All eyes on E3… Overheard chatter at GDC hints at PS4.5 – supposedly with a better GPU and support for 4K output. Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow dev MercurySteam is on the cusp of unveiling its new game.…

@NICKHARB We’re in the midst of a #gaming renaissance, people. @GiantSquidology et al are killing it. #Abzu @ESPYRAMID *every David Cage game flies at me and I effortlessly hit X to dodge all of them* @AMONGTHIEVES Its okay if none of my friends want to talk to me because I’ve got Nathan Drake. @WALLY_BURRR I really can’t wait for #NoMansSky. It’s gonna be my entire life. All I wanna do is explore. @JESSICOOO Finally read the article on Ratchet & Clank. It was awesome :) Cannot wait for the game & movie! @JOHNBOYEGA What’s weird is killing stormtroopers online before… Actually killing stormtroopers… @SERELLAN ”I have this idea for a game.” Said every games journalist ever. @JDANIELWARIYA 4 lasers activated. No walkthrough consulted. All The Witness fans give me a…

“WHY HAS NATHAN DRAKE BECOME SUCH AN ENDURING ICON? BECAUSE NAUGHTY DOG HAD THE BALLS TO MAKE HIM VISIBLY VULNERABLE.” WRITER BIO Dave Meikleham is obsessed with Nathan Drake. He earned platinums for all three of the main Uncharteds on PS3, before deciding he needed to make every last pot ping in The Nathan Drake Collection. Meiks should probably slowly back away from his PS4. Naughty Dog’s artefact-obsessed fortune hunter is a coward. Does that stop him from gunning down men by the hundred, jumping off insanely high balconies or thinking little of clambering up a derailed train carriage hanging off a Himalayan cliff? Hell no. Yet while Nathan Drake’s actions may appear to be heroic and foolhardy, the man himself is an uncomfortable bundle of nerves who’s just as…

1 PRISONER OF WAR Stepping into the silent shoes of Captain Stone, you find yourself slipping out of one POW camp only to wind up in another, eventually working your way up to the notorious Colditz Castle. A lack of combat means you’re relying on your wits, making it a better Great Escape game than the actual Great Escape game. 2 ZERO ESCAPE: VIRTUE’S LAST REWARD Nine strangers wake up to find themselves trapped in a facility with bracelets attached to their wrists. An AI rabbit – Zero III – informs them that to escape they must earn nine points by solving puzzles. No other prison break game is quite as surreal as this one. 3 ASSASSIN’S CREED UNITY Slipping out of cells is pretty common in the AC world,…

We can see the newspaper headlines already: “SICKO RACER REVELS IN MOWING DOWN CYCLISTS!” And, for once, this wouldn’t be an exaggeration – one of the most infamous ‘videogame nasties’ of old is soon returning to PlayStation, and it wants to make up for all those years absent from the tabloid finger-wagging. Its Classic Carma mode sums it up best. One of six different gametypes, it’s a sprint through an open environment with three different opportunities to win. Sure, you could stick to the designated track and hit all of the checkpoints, just as you would in traditional racers. But if that’s too bland for you, the slightly spicier win method number two might be more up your street: wreck every other vehicle to become the last car standing. Victory…

“YOU CAN START A SCENARIO ON A JAIL SHAPED LIKE THE ICONIC USS ENTERPRISE.” After completing a six-month stretch on PC, top-down constructor/manager Prison Architect is transferring to PS4, and the terms of its sentence have improved considerably. New is World Of Wardens mode, in which players download community-made jails, such as luxury cruise liners with sweeping views, or cramped maximum security lockups stuffed with hundreds of offenders, all with their toilets facing each other. Ten of the Steam community’s best are included, so if you’re in no mood to build, you can start a scenario on one shaped like the USS Enterprise. THE HARD CELL If you’re keen to get creating, however, construction is simple. “In some cases, things are faster on our version than with a mouse because…

STRANGER OF SWORD CITY For a quick grip on this otherworldly, dark RPG, think Lost meets Saw. Waking from the crash, play as one of a trio of accessory-strong females desperate to escape their terrifying new hosts. FORMAT PS VITA ETA 29 APR BATTLEBORN Missing The Hunger Games? Relive the glory days of the Capitol by embracing the outrageous and testing your design skills. Take on the fashion elites and wow the crowds to earn the right to dress your own tribute. FORMAT PS4 ETA 3 MAY DOOM In the latest crime sim to get the tabloids raging, you control the shotgun-toting arsonist with just one aim – make the whole world burn. Level-up armour by taking out the fire crews that respond to your carnage. FORMAT PS4 ETA 13…

“PLAY AS A MECHSUITED PENGUIN WITH SELF-ESTEEM ISSUES.” Summarising such an unabashedly chaotic game is like herding cats. With every seventh kitty exploding. Battleborn’s here, there and everywhere – straddling the FPS and MOBA genres, firing its copious and improbable guns in the air, tossing out new and different characters, modes and loadout choices like so many grenades. Depending on which of the 25 heroes you play as, your grenades may well be of the robot owl variety. The roster is a whirlwind of wackiness. There’s creepy witch Orendi and her Pan’s Labyrinth-style eyeballed-palms; Toby, a mech-suited penguin with self-esteem issues; and a hoverchair-bound mad scientist called Kleese. But we can’t resist ‘German C3PO with a sniper rifle cane’ – aka Marquis. His pet owl Hoodini can be deployed as…

Richard Lemarchand knows a thing or two about laying the groundwork for great games. Now an associate professor teaching game design at the University of Southern California, he’s a Crystal Dynamics and Naughty Dog veteran who’s worked on the likes of The Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver and the Uncharted trilogy. The lead game designer on the first Uncharted (and co-lead game designer on both Uncharted 2 and 3) tells OPM how PlayStation’s biggest franchise evolved, and how he evolved along with it… OPM: What was it like at Naughty Dog in 2005, when you were about to start working on PS3? Richard Lemarchand: It was a very exciting time at Naughty Dog. I remember it quite vividly, though bits are blurry because it was very busy. I’d joined the…

1 LOVE BOAT Naughty Dog blows your socks off as Nate happens upon a German U-boat… A U-boat that just happens to be suspended over a cliff, deep in the Amazon rainforest. A moment of quiet wonder. 2 JEEP IT REAL On the run from an ex-accomplice, Drake and Elena plough through acres of dense jungle while blasting a barrage of enemy bikes with their Jeep’s turret gun. Thrillingly explosive. 3 DROWNED CITY In spite of a clunky jet-ski, Nate’s journey through a partially submerged city is a belting section, filled with wonderful water effects, tense shootouts and stacks of gorgeous architecture.…

Though it often gets forgotten, both Uncharted 2 and 3 boasted underrated multiplayer modes that attracted dedicated communities. Among Thieves kicked off the fun, allowing you and PSN pals to team up in a group of three to complete wave-based co-op matches. You could also wage war in ten-player competitive games, spanning Naughty Dog’s take on base skirmishes, Capture The Flag and more traditional deathmatch variants. Thanks to copious character skins, the action was damn charming – c’mon, who doesn’t want to see Sully teabag Eddie Raja? Actually, don’t answer that. Anyhoo, don’t say Naughty Dog can’t do multiplayer.…

“NAUGHTY DOG CRAFTS THE FINEST FIRE AND SAND TO HAVE EVER GRACED PLAYSTATION.” Pop quiz: how on Earth do you try and top arguably the greatest PlayStation game of all time? Most mere mortals would probably hide in a cupboard and blub their eyes out when faced with such a task, but not Naughty Dog. Instead, the Santa Monica outfit decided it would throw its leading man out of a plane, surround him with French flames, then make the poor adventurer groggily stumble through the most gorgeous virtual desert PS3 had ever seen. Welcome to Uncharted 3, and make sure you shake the sand out of your shoes. Now, a lot of people will tell you Drake’s Deception is no match for Uncharted 2. Those people are wrong. Oh sure,…

RING IT IN A bungled deal to sell Drake’s ring sees our hero cross paths with the evil Katherine Marlowe in London. UBAR BRAWL TE Lawrence’s notebook starts a hunt for the lost city of Ubar, as Nate heads to France for an amulet. ARABIAN FIGHTS A further amulet piece found in Syria reveals Ubar is in Arabia. Drake travels to Yemen for Elena’s help. RUB IT IN After a stormy cruise and a pesky plane crash, Nate finds himself wandering across the Rub ‘al Khali desert. H2-NO! Drake defeats Marlowe’s forces in Ubar before the sect can master the city’s mind-controlling water.…

What kind of witchcraft is this? A game you play… on a board? Burn it! Bandai’s board game is a downright decadent celebration of PlayStation’s manly mascot, coming with 190 cards that span many an Uncharted character. Want to make the world burn as dastardly bald brute Zoran Lazarevic? Have at it. The game supports up to four players, as you and your chums complete ‘Treasures’ and ‘Enemies’ Adventure cards to gain the most victory points.…

“FIREFIGHTS ARE BLISTERING EXCHANGES OVER CONCRETE BARRICADES AND WRECKED AMBULANCES.” Set in a New York laid low by weaponised smallpox, The Division promises a world of chaos. Much of the time, however, it’s the epitome of security. As the agent of a secret high-tech militia, activated by presidential order to police the quarantine zone, you’re swaddled in holographic feedback – a flap of ammo readouts hovering at your hip, a route indicator lancing through the air overhead. Firefights are blistering exchanges over concrete barricades and wrecked ambulances, but that Clancy-brand holo display is always there, keeping the confusion to a minimum. Button prompts spring into place near objects you can hide behind. Mischief-makers are helpfully earmarked in red. The Division even takes care of moving between cover for you, if…

“IT EQUIPS YOU TO ENJOY IT IN WAYS THAT – WHISPER IT – MAY SURPASS SOULS.” A glutton for punishment? Sit yourself down with this excellent side-scrolling Souls-alike. Actually, “Souls-alike” is a tad misleading. It’s 2D Souls. The tiniest slurp is enough to taste lawsuit. But the further you fight through the savagely picturesque island, the more Salt And Sanctuary proves itself an infinitely rich twist on a classic blend. After cobbling together your Tim Burton-esque berserker, you’re spat out onto misty, mysterious shores. There’s barely time to peer through the hauntingly beautiful watercolour vista before a shambling corpse attaches itself to your ’nads. Yep, definitely a Souls-alike. You’re after two things – salt drops from enemies (souls, then), while checkpoint-like Sanctuaries refill your health bar (exactly like bonfires). Upon…

Remember the hacking mini-game from Bioshock? You know, the one in which you need to arrange a path by swapping maze pieces and creating a line from one side to another. Well, this PS Vita title takes that concept, stretches it to near breaking point and uses it to build a charming curio. Kicking off with a generic medieval kingdom in danger, there are plenty of old-school RPG tropes that add some extra flavour to the puzzles. Pick between Wilbert or Wilma, choose their class, and go off to save the world. Well, solve some scrolling puzzles actually. Throughout the levels, you need to swap tiles to make a trail for your character to walk down, and dotted across them are chests full of jewels,1 enemies to battle and shards…

Ten years on from his iconic Blood Money outing,1 Agent 47 is board. No, really. He’s now a Subbuteo-like plastic figurine who slides between spots on a board game base, evading the gaze of enemy models and bumping into their backs to tip them over for a ‘kill’. Suck it, Cluedo. It’s not as wacky a departure from the source material as it sounds. Hitman has always been a puzzle game first and foremost – and remains so in this issue’s major Hitman review over on p84 – but spin-off entry Go strips away all pretence of action to instead offer distilled, turn-based conundrums. Rather than crouching around corners and tip-toeing up to unsuspecting targets with Fiber Wire flexed, I must ponder each step before shunting my assassin between conjoined…

March’s PS Plus lineup threw a lot at us. The Vote To Play poll returned, and in the resulting skirmish we got ‘roids, asteroids, fighting and stuff on fire – for free. But even Chuck Norris riding onto our PS4s naked and screaming on a fiery dragon couldn’t hide the continued lack of Triple-A titles. We’re waiting, Instant Game Collection… At least worthy Vote To Play victor BROFORCE made an impact on PS4, offering run-and-gun, terrorist-bothering bro action with puzzle-like elements. Fully destructible levels offer endless, unpredictable ways to liberate POWs – and if thinking isn’t your jam, there’s always rocket legs. When ‘Merican minefields got tame, we rocketed those legs on over to GALAK-Z for some PS4 space-shooting. Mech suits, anime art design and blasting bandit ships make it…

A few hours into Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth, you get access to the online coliseum in the DigiLab. It takes the same Pokémon-esque turn-based combat from the main game and substitutes in real players for the computer, while a ranking system gives you the chance to brawl your way into legend. Excitedly dipping your toes in early on is not a good idea, however – if you wade in without highly evolved Digimon, you‘ll quickly and brutally receive the mother of all smackdowns. Some matches I just watch as my Digimon are blown into bytes in seconds. While it makes concessions to ensure an even playing field – such as the fact that all Digimon are Level 50 – it’s best seen as the endgame rather than a mode to…

FIREWATCH THEME Wander back into the wilds of Shoshone National Forest with this stunning dynamic theme, featuring a cycle of six times of day and beautiful music from the game. SFV ALEX The bandana-bonced SFIII protagonist powerbombs into Street Fighter V, now armed with some nasty grapples. Got 100,000 in Fight Money? Then the new guy’s yours for free. TWILIGHT ON HOTHPS Star Wars Battlefront’s night-time map supports seven multiplayer modes, including Walker Assault and Fighter Squadron. The new Survival mission is set in the Ice Caves. THE LAST MAHARAJA Ten new missions for Assassin’s Creed Syndicate have you teaming up with assassin Duleep Singh to stab up Templars. It’s free for season pass holders. HOT RODSPS The Need For Speed update brings manual transmission, drag racing and two new…

THE SURVIVALIST 18 APRIL Bleak but beguiling post-apocalyptic indie about a lone survivor living off the land who gives refuge to a woman and her daughter. HOMELAND: THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON 25 APRIL The espionage show tackles Isis, the Charlie Hebdo shooting and whistleblowing intelligence leaks. IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE 25 APRIL The Alien-inspiring 1958 B-movie about a manned mission to Mars that returns with a stowaway. JOY 25 APRIL Tumblr sensation Jennifer Lawrence stars as real-life entrepreneur Joy Mangano, the inventor of the miracle mop, in David O Russell’s messy biopic. KRAMPUS 25 APRIL Christmas comes early in this festive-themed horror comedy about a malevolent horned beast from European folklore that terrorises a family. SISTERS 25 APRIL Tina Fey and Amy Poehler team up for a comedy…

DOCTOR PLAYSTATION Our console medic fixes your tech woes with actual science THE PROBLEM You’ve taken down a boss, yelling “DID YOU SEE THAT?!”… to nobody. No more! Livestream every dizzying high from your console. We’ll even demonstrate with our own live dissection of Heavy Rain Remastered. STEP 1 HIT SHARE TO GET YOURSELF CONNECTED Twitch? Well, that can happen when the Doc gets a bit enthusiastic with your nerve endings in surgery. Oh, you meant you need help using PS4’s livestreaming functionality? Why didn’t you say so sooner? A printed confession is admissible evidence in court, you know. First things first: load up the game you want to livestream – PS4 broadcasts must be started in-game. Poke that magic Share button and a menu will pop up (buttons tend…

1 “WHEN I SAY ‘WHISPER’, I MEAN OFFERING A HEFTY, GUTTURAL SHOUT IN MY DODGIEST SAHARA-THROATED CHRISTIAN BALE VOICE.” 2 “A LIGHTHEARTED ALTERNATIVE TO STREET FIGHTER. AND WHO WANTS TO PLAY AS KEN WHEN YOU CAN BE BLOODY MACHO MAN?” 3 “MANOEUVRING BETWEEN VEHICLES FEELS LIKE THE TERMINAL STAGES OF BEING DRUNK, WITHOUT ANY OF THE FUN UMBRELLA COCKTAILS BEFOREHAND.” 4 “YOU’RE LEFT IN A STATE OF SUSPENSE AKIN TO WATCHING A BREAKING BAD FINALE WHILE DESPERATE FOR THE LOO.”…

1 METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN Konami might try and scrub Hideo Kojima’s name from the ultimate in tactical espionage action, but it’ll never remove his fingerprints. While retaining that distinct storytelling and sense of wonder that defines an MGS title, MGS V offers a level of freedom and creativity unheard of in any sandbox. Grand, majestic and bittersweet, this is an instant classic. 2 GRAND THEFT AUTO V Laughing in the face of other cross-gen ports, GTA V on PS4 is more than just a mere HD remaster. Upped to a glorious 1080p, it weaves everything that made the PS3 original great, with new music, more dynamic weather and a game-changing FPS mode. 3 BLOODBORNE With the finest third-person melee combat in gaming, drool-worthy art design and…

1 TEARAWAY Peerless crafty platforming from Media Molecule, this time using PS Vita’s raft of touchscreen/ touchpad controls to surprise and delight you in new ways for hours on end. Full of whimsy, charm and enough personality to put most games to shame, Tearaway’s papercraft world remains Vita’s most vibrant title. 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 RAYMAN LEGENDS Rather than losing its lustre on the move to PS Vita, Ray’s second slice of sumptuous side-scrolling is even better on handheld. Touchscreen gestures make this fine platformer all the sweeter. 4 VELOCITY 2X A ludicrously enjoyable puzzle/platformer hybrid that should come…