Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2018 i PLAY

GAME OF THE MONTH Monster Hunter: World BEST GAME GANGSTER Tommy Vercetti We’re leaning heavily on Japanese games this issue, which recalls PS2 in its heyday. Though cover game Yakuza 6: The Song Of Life (p32) is bringing Kazuma Kiryu’s story to an end, there’s no better time to catch up than now – exclusive to PlayStation 4, it’s shaping into one of the year’s best open world games. The overseas influence continues with Shadow Of The Colossus. The Team Ico classic has been remade for PS4 and we review it this issue (p86), where it’s joined by Monster Hunter: World (p76). The Japanese line-up concludes with Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom – we go hands-on with the latest JRPG from hit-maker Level-5 (p44). All these titles are timely…

GOING ROGUE Formerly PS3-exclusive Assassin’s Creed Rogue is coming to PS4. A semi-sequel to Black Flag, it puts you in the shoes of assassinturned-Templar Shay Patrick Cormac as he hunts down his former allies. In sharp 4K on PS4 Pro and 1080p on PS4, this villainous upgrade also comes with all the DLC. DANTE’S BACK AT IT Want to whup some demons? The original Devil May Cry trilogy is getting a rerelease on PS4. This remaster bundles up the original game along with its PS2 sequels, Devil May Cry 2 and Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening Edition. If you fancy whipping out Ebony and Ivory again, this collection lands on 13 March. PREPARE TO SIGH Dead Cells, a pixel art indie metroidvania, is heading to PS4 this year. What…

What’s your favourite game soundtrack?* *We took out the one-vote wonders – so many great soundtracks! 27% Sink into The Witcher 3’s sweeping music. 22% Love the hip sound of Life Is Strange. 17% Still love the original Tomb Raider. 13% Prefer the soundtrack Nobuo Uematsu wrote for Final Fantasy VII. 10% Want to hear The Last Of Us. 11% Can’t forget Shadow Of The Colossus’ themes. NEXT MONTH Who’s the scariest horror game boss of them all?…

Ah, February. The month of bitterly cold weather, Valentine’s Day (or moaning about Valentine’s Day), and wondering which games to play to get away from it all. The Christmas rush has finally settled down and if Santa treated you to a few games over that period, there’s a high chance you might want to try something new. But instead of hunting down the latest blockbuster, why not discover something a bit different? You see, the industry goes a little quieter in these winter months. Not to sleep – we have reviews of Monster Hunter: World and Shadow Of The Colossus in this issue as proof of that – but the bigger games are few and far between. I used to use this time of year to sink further down the…

FORMAT PS4 / ETA 20 MAR PUB SEGA / DEV SEGA How do I always end up back in this damn city?” asks Kazuma Kiryu, the gangster with a heart of gold. This ageing Yakuza craves a quiet life. But there’s always some new crisis that draws him back in to this fictionalised version of Tokyo’s red light district. Once again, it’s personal: Kazuma’s adoptive daughter, Haruka, has gone missing. The biological daughter of his childhood love, the pair formed an unconventional familial bond at the beginning of the series. More recently, the pair have grown distant as Haruka pursued a career as an Idol. She gave up her dream mid-concert to reform a family with her ‘Uncle’ Kazuma. She reunites with a heavily injured Kiryu on a snowy street.…

1 We steal a plane and start to look for a target. An Eden’s Gate-held train yard catches our eye. Exiting the plane we parachute towards danger. 2 Once on the ground we sneak to a high vantage point and use the binoculars to tag Seed’s lackies. A zipline offers a quick and quiet way into the train yard. 3 Choosing to go in quiet, we stalk the tagged cultists and take them down one by one. This dodgy guy gets a well-swung baseball bat to the face. 4 Once the stronghold is cleared of cultists it comes under our control. The new occupants will offer leads on missions, stores, and a shop to buy upgrades.…

“HUMANITY IS THREATENED BY THE RISE IN AI.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA TBC PUB DAEDALIC / DEV DAEDALIC While we await David Cage’s Detroit, this unique-looking low-poly indie is aiming to tread similar ground: a tech-obsessed future where androids demand equal rights and humanity is threatened by the rise in AI, an oppressive surveillance state, and dwindling natural resources. For many in State Of Mind’s 2048 Berlin the answer to these problems is to retreat inside the virtual world of CITY 5 through advanced ‘mind transfer’. Journalist Richard Nolan is among them, but something goes wrong and he now exists in both places at once… oh, and his family has vanished. Kai Fiebig, production lead for the neo-noir thriller, describes Nolan as a tech sceptic. “He is questioning the way…

“SHOWCASES IZUKU’S POWERS WITH A VARIETY OF DESTRUCTIBLE STAGES. YOU’LL BE ABLE TO TEAR IT UP IN THE CITY.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2018 PUB BANDAI NAMCO / DEV BYKING STUDIOS Originally manga, then anime, My Hero Academia is now coming to PlayStation, albeit with a slight name change. Hero Izuku Midoriya is born without special abilities – but in his world superpowers, or Quirks, are the norm. Bullied for being different, he proves himself and is bestowed with a Quirk of his own by the world’s greatest hero, his idol, All Might. Izuku’s then sent to a hero training school. Gameplay details are thin, but it’s fair to say be you’ll be throwing more than a few punches. The central conflict within the world of the My Hero Adacemia…

1 Kimmy is a whiz with technology and summons a giant laser cannon for an assault from the air. That ought to make short work of your foes. 2 Still need firepower? Chi Pi is similarly cannon-obsessed and can rapidly build a more conventional-looking one on the ground to rain down on enemies. 3 Just so you don’t forget it’s a fantasy game, Rumpel can call on a giant, dragon-like Inciniraptor to spray hellish flames upon the opposition. 4 Marlene uses a magical perfume to charm enemies into doing her bidding. What’s that smell? That, dear reader, is the sweet scent of victory.…

He’s been dead for 80 years, but HP Lovecraft is still influencing other horror creators. His impact can be seen in everything from Silent Hill to Hideo Kojima’s forthcoming Death Stranding. But translating his stories to videogames has proved as elusive and slippery as the The Great Old One itself. It’s why Cyanide’s take on the lore is looking so good: based on the pen-and-paper RPG, it’s got its roots in an already-successful game using the complex mythos. Cyanide’s lead level designer, Romain Wiart, explains how anxiety and terror, solving puzzles, and choices drive the action, not gunplay. He tells us how the tabletop game has inspired but not dictated the videogame, and touches on the insanity system that determines how you progress, and how your Cthulhu journey unravels and…

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.…

“LANDING A HOOK REMAINS EQUAL PARTS SATISFYING AND WINCE-INDUCING.” INFO FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW PUB EA DEV EA EA Sports games are a lot like entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: top quality, with production values higher than Snoop Dogg, but an overarching sense that they are all kind of the same. You know exactly what you’re getting – a slick sports sim, with all the usual trimmings, from a career-spanning story mode to a card-collecting Ultimate Team, ripped from FIFA. You’ll be particularly familiar with UFC 3’s offerings if you’ve dabbled with previous titles in the series. The brutal, crunching action returns: landing a hook remains equal parts satisfying and wince-inducing – there’s always a sickening sense that something’s broken, such is the quality of the mo-cap…

INFO  FORMAT PS4 (REVIEWED), PS3, PS VITA ETA OUT NOW PUB PQUBE DEV FRENCH-BREAD, ARC SYSTEM WORKS There’s plenty to like about this, and not just that the end-game boss is called Hilda.1 There’s no shortage of cartoony 1v1 beat-’em-ups on Sony consoles, but this distinguishes itself in one important way: it allows for the fact that not everybody is a master of the genre. There’s the ever-popular auto combo triggered by repeatedly mashing a single button, and CPU opponents on the highest difficulty, while no pushover, are a little more easily defeated than those in comparable games. That said, if you want the trophies for beating arcade mode on highest difficulty without losing, or beating time attack in under 12 minutes with three different characters, you’ll have to work…

“AN RPG THAT COULD PUSH BEYOND 100 HOURS, YET CAN BE WRAPPED UP INSIDE 25.” INFO FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW PUB SQUARE ENIX DEV TOKYO RPG FACTORY You know what they say: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Which isn’t to suggest Tokyo Game Factory’s debut, I Am Setsuna, wasn’t without flaws, but the Japanese role-player’s charm and wistful demeanour offset many its perceived shortcomings. Lost Sphear, the developer’s likeminded follow-up, sets out to improve on its predecessor but fails to recapture what made the 2016 original quite so special. While it’s perhaps unfair to compare Lost Sphear so closely with its forerunner, by declaring itself a “spiritual successor” to what’s come before – one which pays deference to the same traditional genre trappings, such as open…

INFO FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW PUB DEVOLVER DIGITAL DEV FOURATTIC Wow, the ’80s, right? Not that I know anything about the decade first-hand. Thankfully there’s plenty of media that can clue me in. But, with its pixel art presentation and Saturday Morning Cartoon style cutscenes, is there more to this 2D puzzle platformer than 20th century nostalgia? Not really – but that’s okay! Something’s very wrong in the small town of Tajunga.1 After a destructive storm, the barrier between the living and the dead has been disturbed, throwing a five-man-band of plucky youngsters right into the middle of a government conspiracy. Via a magical MacGuffin, you’ll need to switch between living and dead protagonists, using each one’s unique abilities in order to solve puzzles, defeat evil adults, and exorcise…

The days may have been cold and the turkey gone, but that didn’t mean present season was over in January. The decorations hadn’t even been put away when Santa Sony revealed a PS Plus haul giving us the chance to visit future Prague, crime-ridden Gotham, and fight to death in a VR spaceship. DEUS EX: MANKIND DIVIDED was the biggest game in the package, an immersive FPS which continued the story of Adam Jensen’s clandestine investigation into the Illuminati. We were huge fans of it on release, thanks to the improved combat (it felt every option, from stealth to running and gunning, was viable) and some extraordinary level design, especially in the main hub world of Prague. Okay, the story felt heavy-handed at times, but who cared about that when…

ROCKET LEAGUE Ben Tyrer puts in a MVP performance (in his mind) Pysonix’s addictive soccar game is something I’ve been playing a lot across my time at OPM. Barely a month goes by when I’m not humblebragging/ complaining about it, so it feels fitting that I should return one last time. I dip my toes back in with a 2v2 duel. I score a lucky goal around the second minute, but that just angers our opponents. Three saves within 40 seconds keeps us in the match until a tap in means it’s 1-1. Fate ensures I score the winning goal, which feels weirdly kind of Rocket League. DRAGON BALL FIGHTERZ Jess Kinghorn‘s power levels go over 9,000 Now, honestly, I’m terrible at the actual fighty bits of games like DBZ,…

1 FREE REC ROOM Fancy making a few new friends online? Okay, in our experience that’s rarely a good idea, but Rec Room is a surprisingly good-natured attempt to marry a social network to a mini-game collection. There is a whole host of games for you to try, from paintballing to paddleball, and even some that don’t have any balls, like 3D Charades. Okay, it’s all very “jack of all trades, master of none”, with the games never quite being as good as we want them to be, but meeting real people in an online game who don’t immediately tell you to jog on is a pleasure. The cutesy art design helps cultivate a relaxed atmosphere, and the fact you add friends to your network by literally shaking their hand…

1 “IT MAKES A SLOW-MOVING SPORT EXCITING, WITHOUT SACRIFICING STRATEGY OR SKILL.” 2 “A GAME FIT TO SPEND A NUCLEAR WINTER WITH – THE BOSTON WASTELAND IS ABSOLUTELY SATURATED WITH THINGS TO DO.” 3 “ABSOLUTELY MADE TO BE PLAYED AGAIN, WITH NEW PERSPECTIVES, NEW ENEMIES, AND NEW POWERS ALL UNLOCKED AFTER YOU’VE SEEN THE CREDITS ONCE.” 4 “GIFTS YOU 21 DISTINCT PLAYSTYLES, PROVIDING CONSISTENTLY DRAMATIC MATCHES FUELLED BY YOUR IMPROVING SKILLS.”…

PICK #1 NEX MACHINA Ian Dean champions Housemarque’s finest retro shooter and genre swansong The studio may have now turned its back on retro-inspired games, but Nex Machina is proof few did it better. On the lowest settings this Robotron-alike is a sherbert dip shooter fizzing with explosive eye candy; switch it up, however, and the sugar rush sours. Success requires weeks of practice and a photographic memory to etch every attack pattern into your noggin. PICK #2 DARKEST DUNGEON Jess Kinghorn is a glutton for punishment, and sanity mechanics I was on the home stretch out of not-quite-the-shadiest dungeon when some cosmic horror accosted my party, driving one over the edge of sanity and two to a heart attack, killing them. ‘Punishing’ doesn’t cover it. But my final fighter…

Ben Tyrer GAMES EDITOR Ben reviewed platformer Celeste (p82). The climbing game made him yell so loudly in frustration he gave us mountain-ear ache. GAME OF THE MONTH Celeste BEST GAME GANGSTER 50 Cent Jess Kinghorn STAFF WRITER Not one for violence, Jess found her inner gangster in Yakuza 6 (p32) when she got to open a cat cafe. It was her purrrfect day. GAME OF THE MONTH Yakuza 6: The Song Of Life BEST GAME GANGSTER Kazuma Kiryu Miriam McDonald OPERATIONS EDITOR Monster Hunter’s adorable Palicoes (p76) put Mim in a spin. She’s purr-sueded the team to play more. [Paw-lease – ed.] GAME OF THE MONTH Monster Hunter: World BEST GAME GANGSTER Vito Scaletta Milford Coppock MANAGING ART EDITOR After three hours with Shadow Of The Colossus (p86), we…

$51,983 Raised by the Crossing Souls’ Kickstarter (reviewed p93). 04 Award nominations for Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom at Gamescom 2017. 228.6mm The height of the special edition God Of War Kratos and son figure. 45,000,000 People have boarded Fornite’s Party Bus. (Two million concurrently.) 01 Monster Hunter: World’s UK chart position at launch – congrats Capcom! £79.99 How much the After Hours Premium Edition of Yakuza 6 will set you back by. 90 Characters for you to unlock in Koei Tecmo’s Dynasty Warriors 9. £50,000 is what Capcom’s offering for proof that the Yeti exists.…

“WITH A SOLID 60FPS AND 4K VISUALS ON PS4 PRO, THIS CLASSIC GAME WILL SPARKLE LIKE NEVER BEFORE.” Seen as one of the greatest games of all time, the original Dark Souls RPG released towards the end of PlayStation 3’s lifespan but grew into a gaming phenomenon that’s constantly referred to and aped. While the two sequels released on PlayStation 4, the game that launched a thousand imitators [Maybe 10 or so – ed] is finally getting a remastered release on 25 May. It means we can at last suffer in Lordran all over again, and again, and again. If you have the gumption to take the challenge once more, Dark Souls: Remastered will at least look good while you repeatedly die. With a solid 60 frames per second and…

BURNOUT PARADISE It’s looking like one of PlayStation’s greatest racers might be remastered for PS4. Several retailers have listed it as having a rough March release date. Fingers crossed! BANG THE DRUM The PS VR rhythm game Beat Saber has us excited. Use PS Move controllers to hit blocks as they tumble towards you in time to the music. COLOSSAL TUNES The Shadow Of The Colossus two-LP vinyl soundtrack is a thing of beauty. (Art ed Milf wasted no time ordering his.) PS4 SHOE-IN NBA star Paul George, Nike, and Sony have worked together on a pair of sneakers called ‘Nike PG-2 PlayStation Colourway’. Mouthful name aside, these look too cool for school. (Do the kids still say that?) NO FUND Original God Of War creator David Jaffe has had…

@BANDAINAMCOUK We LOVE this cover in the latest issue of @OPM_UK with #DragonBallFighterZ! @SANITYSOLDOUT Who needs sleep when you have a kick ass games library? @MRTJ_808 I’m happy to see Monster Hunter making its return to PlayStation after many years. @IANE1986 Command and Conquer the original was a brilliant game. I still play it on occasion to this day. @HIGGIE_BABY Thanks to your Dragon Ball FighterZ review I decided to hit that preorder button. @OVIDIUSPRIME I wonder what it feels like to get spanked with a @OPM_UK magazine. [Don’t tell us – ed] @STOCKHARRY03 You should choose leaving the game and playing warframe. TROLL OF THE MONTH @CHARTORTLE Really considering having this gorgeous @OPM_UK cover framed. @KENJI__HARIMA Can’t wait for the Friday… Because it’s not any, it’s The Friday... @BENONTWLTTER…

Videogames are amazing things, capable of inspiring almost any emotion. Although it’s incredible that a game such as Life Is Strange can make us feel loss and sorrow for people who never existed, that’s not what I want to talk about right now. We need to consider the implications of a more base, more common, more easily triggered emotion: anger. Am I immune to getting furious while playing a game? Am I heck. Although I’ve never flung a controller away in rage (hey, those things are expensive), it’s very rare for a whole week to pass without me fuming at the TV screen. Frustrating siege sequence? Unfair boss battle? Poorly designed, forced stealth? LUKE SMASH! I’m sure that you can sympathise when I say that the one aspect of gaming…

1 OXENFREE A group of teens spend the weekend on a remote island only to open a rift into another dimension. While at its heart a coming-of-age story, Oxenfree maintains an eerie atmosphere, mostly from the radio you use to tune into strange frequencies, which can trigger time loops. 2 GHOSTHUNTER It sounds like a Ghostbusters rip-off, including a premise which has your cop hero unwittingly push an actual red button that releases a horde of ghosts from confinement. That said, it was a fairly pretty game for its time and struck a balance between creepy and campy. The true horror turned out to be its level design. 3 BEYOND: TWO SOULS Jodie Holmes shares a psychic link with incorporeal being Aiden, the second soul tied to her since birth.…

1 Restaurants and convenience stores are dotted around. You’ll need to make frequent pit stops to keep Kazuma’s health up by filling his bottomless stomach. 2 A cat café side mission makes its debut in this entry. You’ll need to befriend strays, though not every kitty will settle for the bog-standard slop. 3 You’ll get your chance to chat up a number of glamorous hostesses once again. Come for the conversation, stay for maybe more… 4 Club Sega and a few smaller arcades return with a range of playable classics. Take a break from beating up thugs to beat your record in Virtua Fighter.…

“THE TOUGHEST ROAD COURSE OF ALL THE WORLD’S GP CIRCUITS.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA MAR / PUB BIGBEN INTERACTIVE / DEV KYLOTONN When a game’s biggest draw is that it contains more corners than any other racing game (264 turns on 61km of road) you know you’re getting your hands on a serious simulation. And on occasion it’s good to drop the arcade sensibilities and test your skills against an unforgiving racer. Boasting the official riders and superbikes to take into those 264 turns, TT Isle Of Man: Ride On The Edge puts its licensed body where its bravado is – realism is at the game’s beating, oily heart. Each bike has been accurately recreated from the real-world machines using lidar scanning, photogrammetry, and other techy terms sent to baffle…

1 Controls are simple, with handy prompts explaining how you can interact with the environment or chew through dialogue trees. 2 While not open world, the game features large explorable areas. Neo-noir Berlin, neon barely lighting the rainy streets, is a unique place to explore. 3 The robo-apocalypse is here! Oh, you just want to cook our dinner and clean our house. Servant, slave, or terrorist? State Of Mind asks hard questions.…

“WHILE THE GAME IS MELEE-FOCUSED, IT OFFERS A BLEND OF PLAYSTYLES.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2018 PUB FATSHARK / DEV FATSHARK Translating tabletop RPG games to console has always been a tough ask. The wealth of complex systems and labyrinthine lore of Warhammer’s Old World is enough to give any dev cold sweats. Fatshark’s response was to push it all aside and use the license as an excuse to create a fun, frenetic, and, frankly, bloody co-op FPS. Well, FPS is a stretch. The original Vermintide focused on melee combat – “it has one of the best FPS melee mechanics there is,” says Mats Andersson, executive producer – and asked you to dismember the rat-like Skaven across a series of horde missions. The sequel will again feature five main characters,…

SNK HEROINES: TAG TEAM FRENZY FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2018 / PUB SNK / DEV NIS AMERICA Given emphasis in this SNK four-player tag-team beat-’em-up is placed on spending your earned XP on over 100 new accessories – cat ears and face paint included – we don’t think hardcore fighters should be quaking in their dojos. SNK Heroines brings together some of the dev’s most-loved female characters in a simplistic combo battler that aims to be accessible – specials are activated by pressing one button. It’s likely SNK Heroines will only challenge your fashion sense. SLIME-SAN FORMAT PS4 / ETA EARLY 2018 / PUB HEADUP GAMES DEV FABRAZ If you’re missing your Meat Boy sweats and need a fix of pixel-perfect platforming, then cast your hungry eyes over Slime-san. Featuring…

2009-2015 BLOOD BOWL SERIES A team-up with a tabletop RPG company, this time veterans Games Workshop, a trend in Cyanide’s gameology, led to this unique blend of fantasy, RPG, and tactical sports. It’s niche but oddly addictive. 2014-2017 STYX SERIES Mixing RPG gameplay and stealth, Styx is a unique and often overlooked series. The fact you play as a miserly, unsavoury, and often rude goblin is one of the series’ big pluses – that and you can pick it up cheap. 2018 WEREWOLF: THE APOCALYPSE Partnering with White Wolf Publishing, Cyanide is bringing the World Of Darkness RPG universe to PS4 this year. Playing as a werewolf warrior you’ll need to unite the tribes against a unprecedented supernatural threat.…

“NO AMOUNT OF WIDE-EYED CATS IN FUR HATS CAN HIDE THE BRUTALITY OF THE HUNT.” INFO FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW PUB CAPCOM DEV CAPCOM The hardest part of playing Capcom’s action role-player is learning to enjoy the kill. You may go in thinking ‘Look at that loopy Paolumu; I don’t want to put a lance through its pink, furry face’. But after the beast takes a lump or two out of your leg, the gloves are off. Monster Hunter: World isn’t as cute as it looks, and no amount of wide-eyed cats in fur hats can hide the brutality of the hunt. The question marks over Monster Hunter: World have never been around the buzz you get from taking apart a 50-foot beast with an oversized katana –…

INFO FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW PUB CARTOON NETWORK GAMES DEV GRUMPYFACE STUDIOS Based on the Cartoon Network show, the Crystal Gems – Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl – and their titular charge must fight waves of monsters overrunning Beach City and investigate the motives of a new gem. This game’s the follow up to 2.5D RPG-lite Attack The Light on mobile, but you don’t need to have played it to play this. The story has nothing on the show’s engrossing overarching narrative, though the light dialogue options offer rewarding, though brief, character moments between Gems who may not usually get along. A few words of encouragement can also bestow extra experience or charge special teamup moves in combat.1 In addition to the simplified – though faithful to the show –…

“IT LOOKS ASTONISHINGLY GOOD. THE RESULTS ARE NEVER LESS THAN EYE-AROUSING.” INFO FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW PUB SONY DEV BLUEPOINT GAMES When you first boot up Bluepoint’s behemoth-brutalising redux, there’s a danger a little voice may needle at you. It’ll whisper in your ear: “Wait, Shadow Of The Colossus always looked like this, right?” Well, you can mute that nostalgic nutter right now. Rest assured, Team Ico’s PS2 masterpiece (nor its well-handled PS3 remaster) in no way, shape, or form looked this beautiful. And yes, this is a remake, not a remaster. At least from a visual standpoint. When it comes to core content, Shadow Of The Colossus on PS4 is more or less identical to the 2005 original, which may disappoint those hoping Bluepoint would reintegrate the…

INFO  FORMAT PS4, PS VITA ETA OUT NOW PUB WZO GAMES INC DEV WZO GAMES INC Will O’Neill is no stranger to telling powerful stories, and Little Red Lie, a grievous exploration of debt, family turmoil, and middle-class poverty, is the independent developer’s first game on PlayStation. Don’t be fooled by its looks; beneath that cheerful, cartoony veneer lies a complex drama that reflects society’s obsession with money, and the problems this invariably creates. The game follows two very different central characters: Sarah Stone, a financially compromised millennial; and Arthur Fox, an obnoxious high-rolling businessman. Naturally, the two live at opposite ends of the wealth spectrum but have one thing in common: each of their player-directed actions is contextualised by a lie.1 In the former case, this centres around Sarah’s…

“TUCKED INTO EVERY CORNER OF THE EXPANSIVE MAP ARE STUNNING VISTAS.” INFO FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW PUB KOEI TECMO DEV OMEGA FORCE The liberal use of artistic licence and anachronism, the eclectic soundtrack combining traditional instruments with cheesy rock goodness, the return of the one-man army: Dynasty Warriors is definitely back. But rather than a strictly ballroom performance, the ninth instalment adds a few new steps to the tried-and-true routine of previous entries, going open world for the first time, among other things. Once again, grand-scale military battles form much of the backdrop as your chosen champion of the three rival states takes centre stage. Between mashing r for basic combo attacks and interjecting with e for special Musou moves, the ninth instalment stuffs a few more tricks…

A new challenger approaches… again? INFO FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW PUB CAPCOM DEV CAPCOM Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition is what the game should have been at launch. It’s taken almost two years, but finally Capcom has beaten the fighter into a state it can be proud of. Actually, it’s better than that: Street Fighter V, in its current state, might even be the best entry in the series. If you already own the game, the Arcade Edition upgrade is free. It’s a sizeable offering, rolling all the previously-released DLC characters into one package, and throwing in new modes and a retouched UI too. That UI shift might be small, but it’s mighty – coating the health bars and super meters with a fancy layer of gold, it just…

INFO FORMAT PS4 PUB DOUBLE FINE DEV BONE LOAF REVIEW #146, 7/10 Offline Gang Beasts is a great multiplayer game, especially when you watch your friends’ luck turn on a dime and can laugh alongside them at your misfortune. Online, however, it’s a little harder to love. Perhaps it’s down to an increase in the player count – from four to eight – which does the small maps no favours. Maybe it’s because the frenzy of swinging punches and flinging heads lacks the oomph you get when you can see the person you’re battering recoil in glee alongside you. These are only minor nitpicks, but it undeniably loses a little in translation despite online and offline modes offering the same things. Still, if you have no-one at home to play…

CALL OF DUTY: WWII – THE RESISTANCE Three new historically significant sites, named Anthropoid, Occupation, and Valkyrie, set the stage for multiplayer. Plus an urban rescue mission for War mode (Operation Intercept) and a Zombies stage, The Darkest Shore. SOUTH PARK: THE FRACTURED BUT WHOLE - DANGER DECK Accessible from the Freedom Pals Base, this add-on places you in a holographic simulation. There you can beat back waves of increasingly difficult enemies in order to earn goodies to aid you on alternate playthroughs. FORTNITE 2.2.0 UPDATE In addition to smaller quality-of-life improvements, this update allows you to explore an array of new locations. These include a city, a mine shaft, a rundown motel and a junkyard. Existing areas have been further fleshed out, adding more plantlife and greater detail.…

Agatha Christie’s classic whodunnit has been adapted for the screen countless times, but Kenneth Branagh’s lavish update has a unique selling point – a collection of stars that would put the average constellation to shame. Assembling a who’s who of modern acting greats (including Judi Dench, Derek Jacobi, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Johnny Depp) the cast is first-class, even if the film as a whole is distinctly ‘standing room only’. Adding a new introduction in Jerusalem, we quickly learn about the brilliance of Hercule Poirot (Branagh), a Belgian detective with an obsessive eye for detail. That he also possesses an absurdly large moustache goes mostly unmentioned. Shortly after boarding the Orient Express on a journey from Istanbul to Calais, Poirot’s skills are required when a passenger is found dead under curious…

INFO PUB DEEP SILVER DEV 4A GAMES RELEASED 29 AUGUST 2014 GET IT NOW PLAYSTATION STORE, £24.99 WHAT? Metro Redux offers remasters of both 2033 and its sequel Last Light. Both games are based on the novels by Dmitry Glukhovsky and feature a mix of stealth, survival, and first-person shooting. WHO? Ian Dean’s inner Gremlin keeps getting loose and saying things it shouldn’t. But there are worse things out there, like bad Russian accents. Can the Metro series redeem itself? Playing a like slow-burning Russian novel, one of those hefty ones people pretend to read in coffee shops, and featuring a cast of characters who revel in their post-apocalyptic suffering, Metro Last Light was a hard sell when I could have been playing BioShock. This FPS enjoyed depressing me. So…

1 REZ INFINITE Fifteen years after the original’s release, the psychedelic rhythm rail shooter has achieved its final form. In PS VR, creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s vision becomes reality, the glittering polygonal trance-world and pounding techno inspiring total synaesthesia within you. Its crowning achievement? New level Area X, powerful enough to bring players to tears. Deserving of its name, this is a truly timeless title. 2 THUMPER Make no mistake: the brave chrome beetle gave Rez a run for its money for our top spot. Hurtling down a violently kaleidoscopic track, pounding notes and scraping round corners is exquisitely tough – and the manic magic is enhanced and perfected in PS VR. 3 KEEP TALKING AND NOBODY EXPLODES Who knew bombs could bring people together? With one headsetted Defuser, and as…

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…

“IMAGINE IF FIREWATCH LOOKED LIKE A FINAL FANTASY CUTSCENE.” Developer Unity Technologies, responsible for making the graphics tech behind many PS4 games, has released a demo running in its new proprietary Unity engine, due for release later this year. Called Book Of The Dead, this isn’t a new PlayStation game. So why should you care? Because Unity’s demo is a glimpse of the future, in particular what a PlayStation 4 game could look like 18 months from now. The beautifully rendered demo shows what the new Unity engine will be capable of in the hands of talented developers. It’s a visual marvel, a blend of lifelike grasses gently blowing in the wind and dappled sunlight streaming across a realistically wet forest floor. “Forests are amazing,” says Veselin Efremov, Unity Technologies’…

I’ve only ever fired a real gun once, and had the unnerving desire to stare down its barrel. So I walked away, never to touch the things again. However, with 24 hours in Japan I’d take the opportunity to overcome my compulsion to put my face in harm’s way by visiting Tokyo’s novel gun-themed bar, Shooting Bar EA. Alongside a chilled martini I’d order from the club’s varied airgun menu – opting for the Samurai Edge, a realistic replica of the .45 calibre pistol from Resident Evil. Videogame memorabilia and shots that come in cartridges and not down the barrel of a gun… Now that’s more my style. “3AM START YOU SAY? NOT A PROBLEM. TAXI! TO TSUKIJI FISH MARKET, PRONTO!” With only 24 hours, it pays to start early,…

But Jess,” someone is undoubtedly saying, “Aren’t you some kind of humourless feminist? Shouldn’t you be banging on about how dating games objectify women, presenting them as little more than vending machines to be plied with kindness coins until naughty pictures drop out?” Well, yes, I am great fun at parties, after all. But I’m not here for that particular spiel today. No, today, I have something to disclose: I really dig dating sims and visual novels. While I’m no Gal*Gun gal, if there’s a tearful rooftop confession or the chance to help that cutie confront their inner demons, I’m on board. LESSONS IN LOVE For me, someone who does not fare super-well in real-world talky situations, the genre has a special place in my heart, if only for imparting…

With Metal Gear Survive releasing this month, what better time to delve back into the iconic PlayStation series? Our exclusive e-book, A Hideo Kojima Book – The Ultimate Guide To Metal Gear Solid, is a complete series history, including an interview with the main man himself, MGS creator Hideo Kojima. The e-book examines all aspects of Metal Gear Solid’s history, from inception right up to PlayStation 4’s outstanding Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. We also take time to scrutinise Hideo Kojima’s deft knack for marketing his games, and highlight the series’ best and strangest bosses. Plus, the spotlight is turned on the 50 greatest moments to grace the games – from codec chat to a giant mech, it’s all here. If you’ve ever tried to decipher the various…

“WE’RE NEVER SHORT OF A SOLUTION TO WHATEVER THE AI THROWS OUR WAY.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA 27 MAR / PUB UBISOFT / DEV UBISOFT MONTREAL The Battle For Sunrise Farm will go down in history as a defining moment in American folklore. A lot of organic veg gave up their fleshy innards in the fight against Joseph Seed and the violent cult that’s taken over a large chunk of Montana. In the skirmish to regain control of this farm we couldn’t help shooting the things; every pumpkin erupted with a satisfying sploosh. That we came a step closer to bringing down the Father, all the better. Our latest hands-on with Far Cry 5 reveals how loose this sandbox shooter’s structure really is. Sunrise Farm is just one of many…

ATTACK ON TITAN 2 Bizarre puzzler in which you and your friend are infected with tiny, malevolent people, and have to flick them off your skin in the minimum number of moves. You get bonus points for removing multiple human fleas in a single flick. FORMAT PS4 ETA 20 MAR MEGADIMENSION NEPTUNIA VIIR Synchronised swimming sim, in which you have to match the routine on screen (by pressing buttons, rhythm action game-style), while wearing the world’s most ridiculous swimsuit. FORMAT PS4 ETA SPRING WE HAPPY FEW Survival horror set in a world where everyone’s turned into clowns, and you have to use weapons like makeup remover and dropped banana skins to avoid meeting a slapstick fate. FORMAT PS4 ETA 13 APR…

 FORMAT PS4 / ETA TBC 2018 / PUB SQUARE ENIX COLLECTIVE / DEV BULKHEAD INTERACTIVE “THIS FPS RECALLS THE CLOSE-COMBAT CHALLENGE OF ’90S SHOOTERS.” Do your eyes get dewy when you remember the good old days of gaming’s past glories? When a floating hand grasping a gun was considered a well-rounded hero? Then this FPS, which recalls the close-combat challenge of ’90s shooters, could be your call to arms. Light on a single-player campaign, this multiplayerfocused blast will rekindle your love of running and gunning. Whereas Activision spotted a gap in the market for a new World War 2 game, UK developer Bulkhead spied a need for an FPS that feels like the classic WW2 shooters of old. Capturing the emotion of playing this style of game is actually a…

“THE STYLISTIC CUES FROM STUDIO GHIBLI ARE STILL THERE.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA 23 MAR PUB BANDAI NAMCO / DEV LEVEL-5 Boasting a sprawling story, a ragtag cast of characters, monsters that you must fight with both might and magic, and a fairy-tale sensibility, familiar JRPG trappings abounded in Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch. But alongside these the sequel introduces new twists on the winning formula. Taking place hundreds of years after the first game, centring on a distant descendant of its predecessor’s cast, this feels much more like a spiritual successor than a direct follow-up. You play as Evan, the many-times-great-grandson of portly moggy King Tom Tildrum from the first game. Evan is far more human-like than his ancestor, and is set to ascend to the…

“DESERVES TO BE MENTIONED IN THE SAME BREATH AS SUPER MEAT BOY.” INFO FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW PUB MATT MAKES GAMES DEV MATT MAKES GAMES For better and (rarely) worse, this outstanding platformer captures the experience of climbing a mountain. From the nimbleness of protagonist Madeline to the spectacular views that await as you get higher up the titular alp, there’s a sense of pushing yourself to limits you didn’t know you had. Especially after the 117th attempt at getting through one of its trickier sections. This pixel art affair follows Madeline, a determined 20-something who is hellbent on reaching the top of Mount Celeste. However, this isn’t a case of slowly trudging up an icy slope and spending evenings huddled in a tent. The higher she gets,…

INFO FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW PUB ALAWAR ENTERTAINMENT DEV WARM LAMP GAMES As a landlord commanded by a totalitarian state to spy on your tenants through various means1 , you must face a terrible conga line of difficult choices. You’ll find yourself wrestling between what is right and what must be done in order to survive. When a relative falls deathly ill, how will you afford their medical expenses? Do you try to complete as many assignments as possible for the state’s monetary rewards or do you blackmail your tenants into footing the bill? Unfortunately, difficult decisions mean nothing without consequences, but here consequences aren’t always as meaningful as they ought to be. Yes, if you don’t pay for their medical treatment in time, that relative will eventually drop…

“THERE ARE SEQUENCES WHICH BECOME HEART-RATE-ACCELERATING.” INFO FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW PUB SONY DEV SUPERMASSIVE GAMES You know a horror game is working when you’re torn between tiptoeing forward and turning off everything in the house and hiding under a duvet. That apprehension flickers to life sporadically in Supermassive’s VR ’60s-set prequel to Until Dawn. There are sequences which become heart-rate accelerating and deliver the jolts you would want. Sadly, there’s also a lot of slowly strolling through memory lane. Not that your character has a lot of memory. Falling back onto the safest cliché around, when you groggily come to at the start of the story, your character is an amnesiac with no clue of who they are or why they are at Blackwood Sanatorium. To learn…

INFO FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW PUB ASPYR DEV POLYKNIGHT GAMES Visually, if for no other reason, this game holds your attention. It’s set in an inverted world, one that’s a sphere of water with landmasses dotting the inside. The soft reds and blue tones that distinguish the water and land are lovely, making for a strange but soothing space to be in. Or it would be, if the game itself weren’t closer to water torture than an underwater trip. You play as the Cartographer, a flying drone that’s also capable of diving underwater. Though whether you’re in the water or in the air, the game controls exactly the same so it all feels a bit pointless, to be honest.1 You’re on a quest to collect relics scattered throughout the…

INFO FORMAT PS4 ALSO ON PS3 ETA OUT NOW PUB TELLTALE GAMES DEV TELLTALE GAMES/MOJANG This isn’t really a game about mining, or crafting for that matter. The key to this Telltale adaptation of the wildly popular build-’em-up is in the other half of its name. This is an episodic story about adventure, exploration, and, okay, the occasional bit of crafting – but at its core it’s all about friendship. Over its five episodes, the game examines what happens when a close-knit group of friends grows apart, and asks whether it’s healthy to try to stop this change. On one side you have Jesse, your character, and a band of adventurer pals bonded together by the events of the first season of Minecraft: Story Mode, but since scattered all across…

INFO FORMAT PS4 PUB BLUE MAMMOTH GAMES DEV BLUE MAMMOTH GAMES REVIEW N/A, N/A Don’t let the free-to-play tag put you off – or the fact its been circling PS4 for a couple of months. As platform fighters go, Brawlhalla is great fun. Being free is just a bonus. Six of the 34 oddball characters – including a dandy pirate and a scythe-wielding warrior – are randomly chosen for selection; if you want the complete roster you can pay to unlock them with cash or in-game currency. Each has a mix of melee and weapon-based combos, with items and power-ups dropping randomly as you fight. Key to success is mastering the three jump/wall scaling mechanic to enable even newcomers to master off-platform combat. With none of the grinding that plagues…

SPEEDCROSS STORY BUNDLE Need For Speed Payback gets a new game mode with two cars to unlock and another questline. Become the next Speedcross Champion! FUN PACK DLC Speed into Project Cars 2 with eight new sets of wheels (two are from Vaughn Gittin Jr) and two new rallycross tracks (including Classic Brands Hatch) to tear up. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: VOL. 2 MOVIE LEVEL PACK Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 gives you the chance to play through that opening movie fight against the Abilisk. DINE OUT This add-on for The Sims 4 gives your creations the chance to become culinary connoisseurs, dining out and in, and running their own establishments. ENDURING ICONS PACK WWE 2K18 sees new challengers approach the ring. The Hardy Boyz enter the fray alongside Hall…

THE SNOWMAN 19 FEB Michael Fassbender stars as detective Harry Hole in this Scandi thriller about a sociopath whose calling card is a snowman. Too silly to take seriously. HAPPY DEATH DAY 19 FEB Groundhog Day meets Scream in this high-concept horror about a girl stuck in a time loop while attempting to unmask her own killer. THELMA 26 FEB A closeted woman’s burgeoning sexuality is inextricably intertwined with her latent telekinetic abilities in this quietly superb supernatural drama. THE DEATH OF STALIN 26 FEB The Thick Of It Meets Downfall in Armando Iannucci pitch black ‘comedy’ set in the aftermath of the Soviet dictator’s death. JIGSAW 26 FEB The Saw series makes a welcome return with this belated sequel about another selection of hapless saps stuck in a trap-filled…

“FANCY GADGETS WERE NEVER AN OPTION – AND NEITHER WAS REALISM.” INFO PUB ACTIVISION DEV K2 PRODUCTIONS RELEASED 2003 GET IT NOW GAME, £5.24 NEED TO KNOW 1 Activision set up K2 to work on Wrath Of Heaven. 2 Much of K2 worked on SNK’s King Of Fighters. 3 The theme song to the original Tenchu was sung in Hausa. Nowadays it’s easy to forget that ancient fortresses and feudal hamlets were once a key setting for stealth games. Since then, we’ve tip-toed around government buildings, terrorist-held oil rigs, and secret facilities courtesy of Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell. But back in 2003, the ninja of the Tenchu series, lurking in the shadows, scoffed at Sam Fisher’s night vision goggles fetish. They laughed at Solid Snake’s Soliton Radar.…

1 UNCHARTED 4: A THIEF’S END Nathan Drake’s swan song is a daring evolution. It combines series-defining set-pieces, quietly devastating storytelling beats, and sprawling levels that make you feel like a real-life explorer. This franchise finale retains its signature charm, with the wisecracks flowing as fast as the bullets, while the new characters each justify their inclusion. With an astonishing attention to detail, it’s Naughty Dog’s best yet. 2 THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT GAME OF THE YEAR EDITION The White Wolf’s epic journey is an RPG experience like no other on PS4. It’s been made even more spectacular with this gigantic pack stuffed with DLC, making this a must-have part of any gaming library. 3 HORIZON ZERO DAWN A staggeringly large world that condenses cracking combat, accessible systems, and…