Innholdsfortegnelse for Christmas 2018 i PLAY

GAME OF THE MONTH Red Dead Redemption 2 FAVE RESI HERO Jill Valentine Capcom’s Resident Evil games offer some of PlayStation’s most defining moments – we all have a favourite game. So, iron on your T-shirt patch, wear your RPD sweatband with pride, and turn to p58 as we recap the Resi series. Bringing things up to date, we take a closer look at our cover game, the stunning Resident Evil 2 remake. Over on page 44 discover the 50 reasons why this is shaping into one of PS4’s hottest new games. There’s more to look forward to on PS4 in 2019, too. Leading the Big 10 this issue is our exclusive look at Anthem’s exo-suits in action – BioWare’s producer, Thomas Singleton, takes us on a tour, on p6.…

Picking 20 games to examplify a console that had almost eight thousand releases was always going to divide fans. The games installed on PlayStation Classic will be: Battle Arena Toshinden, Cool Boarders 2, Destruction Derby Final Fantasy VII, Grand Theft Auto, Intelligent Qube, Jumping Flash, Metal Gear Solid, Mr Driller, Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee, Rayman, Resident Evil Director’s Cut, Revelations: Persona, Ridge Racer Type 4, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, Syphon Filter, Tekken 3, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, Twisted Metal, and Wild Arms. So, let the debate begin… OPM reader Tom Knowles says: “This is such a good lineup. They were never going to fit everyone’s favourite game on here but I’m way more interested in getting one now.” Chloe Haynes says: “Metal Gear Solid was a deal breaker for me…

PLAY ME THE HITS Gaming on a budget’s been better than ever since Sony introduced the PlayStation Hits range, knocking down some of PS4’s best to a permanent £15.99 a pop. And the range has recently expanded. Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection is a new highlight, alongside Until Dawn, Metal Gear Solid V, and more. ARLAND BEFORE TIME If the news that the Atelier series is returning to Arland excites you, then you’re absolutely the target audience for Atelier Lulua: The Scion Of Arland. Usually this cutesy JRPG moves from trilogy to trilogy, so we can’t wait to revisit our memories of Arland. An Arland Trilogy remaster is also incoming. END OF THE WORLD What if when you took off your PS VR headset, not everything went away? That’s the…

The Spencer mansion zombie; the saliva-spilling Licker; the STARS-hunting Nemesis – PS1-era Resident Evil enjoyed some of the series’ most iconic terrors. My favourite? The second game’s big *blorp*ing alligator. Seriously, that scaly son of a gun gave me nightmares for months following that frightfully claustrophobic set-to. Yet despite how it lives on in my mind, Producers Tsuyoshi Kanda and Yoshiaki Hirabayashi once considered axing the croc from the Resident Evil 2 remake – suggesting the rework’s darker tone left little room for my favourite baddie. Likewise, the original’s novelty characters HUNK (a ruthless special agent) and Tofu (a literal piece of tofu) faced the cutting room floor. All three will, however, feature come 25 January next year, which, for my money, is crucial for both…

“YOUR AUDIENCE IS MORE THAN HAPPY TO HELP KEEP THE ACTION GOING.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA 15 FEB PUB KOEI TECMO / DEV TEAM NINJA You could cut through the tension with a kunai… or, in the case of our staff writer’s fighter of choice, a wakizashi; it’s Kasumi versus Ryu Hayabusa, ninja versus ninja, Kinghorn versus Taylor-Kent. Kasumi is fast but Hayabusa hits harder and our games editor is desperate to make a comeback after a series of defeats. He’s been gracious but frustration simmers beneath his steely surface. He bides his time for when his colleague’s overconfidence tips into carelessness and BAM! The match point is his… though the kraken helped. We climbed aboard the pirate ship back in OPM #154, destroying its decking, raiding the below-deck booty…

BIOMUTANT Fed up of life in a cosmetics testing facility, this rodent is on the rampage. Turn the tables in this open world RPG (rodent-playing game), unlocking new powers – super-glossy hair, non-smear eyeliner – to get your revenge. FORMAT PS4 ETA 31 DEC UPPERS Pretty anime boys clash in this battle dance arcade smash. Choose your hero, his floppy hair, and button time your hot moves to win the heart of the boy/girl of your dreams. Do you have all the right moves? FORMAT PS4 ETA 31 DEC TALES OF VESPERIA – DEFINITIVE EDITION Nine heroes are squashed together in this unique JRPG. Combined, they have to save the world. Let’s hope they all get along. FORMAT PS4 ETA 11 JAN…

“WE DIDN’T JUST CRAM BORDERLANDS INTO A HEADSET AND CALL IT A DAY.” FORMAT PS VR / ETA 14 DEC PUB 2K GAMES / DEV GEARBOX SOFTWARE You might be thinking that the irreverent, hectic first-person shoot-and-loot-’em-up Borderlands 2 might be a bit much for PS VR. To a point, you’re probably right – this Borderlands 2 VR version does include the game’s full campaign. But Gearbox producer Brian Burleson promises it won’t feel that way: “We didn’t just cram Borderlands into a headset and call it a day – we did copious research into how VR plays best to update the experience”. Since porting the game to PS4 as part of The Handsome Collection (alongside Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel), the team has been playing around with options for how best…

TYRANT VIRUS You can’t go wrong with the classic zombie. Except they are very wrong. Umbrella Corporation’s T-virus strains were intended to create regenerative super-soldiers, but ended up making the undead so they pivoted to bioterrorism. Oops. GOLGOTHA VIRUS Unfortunately, like the T one, this didn’t really work, making those infected mutate even further and more savagely – and also grow extra eyes. Its creator, Birkin, mutated into the hulking G mutant you encounter throughout Resident Evil 2. LAS PLAGAS After previous failures, Umbrella turned its attention to these parasites to help create mindless, super-powered slaves. Originally used by the Los Illuminados cult, Umbrella successfully gained control of the parasite for nefarious ends. CHRYSALID VIRUS A mixture of the Umbrella viruses that preceded it, this one led to zombies that…

FORMAT PS1 RELEASED 1998 PUB CAPCOM DEV CAPCOM Tackling scary zombies in an abandoned mansion is one thing, but what would happen if a zombie outbreak actually took over a city? Set two months after the first game, this sequel seeks to answer just that,  moving the action from the Spencer mansion to Raccoon City, focusing mainly on the Raccoon City Police Department and the paths taken by new recruit Leon Kennedy, and Claire Redfield, who’s looking for her missing brother Chris (from the first game). The crisscrossing routes make Leon and Claire’s stories feel distinct, and things are different depending on which you finish first. The more discrete storylines, new characters, and grander setting really helped to move Resident Evil from a scary haunted house into a much bigger…

FORMAT PS1 RELEASED 1999 PUB CAPCOM DEV CAPCOM Originally developed as a spin-off, this more action-focused and chaotic jaunt in Raccoon City eventually became part of the main series in its own right. Starring Jill Valentine in a return from the first game, it’s set just  before and after Leon and Claire get caught up in the same T-virus outbreak during Resident Evil 2. Your goal is simply to escape a city in chaos, but that’s harder than it seems. In a departure from the preceding games, the story almost exclusively follows Jill, only trading off to another character for you to control briefly. It’s more action-packed than RE1 and 2, both in terms of the big bangies (that’s what we call things like ammo and explosive barrels), and the…

RESIDENT EVIL SURVIVOR / SURVIVOR 2 Released for PS1 and PS2 respectively, these first two games in the Gun Survivor series are a lot of fun. Off-rails lightgun shooters, they’re action-heavy first-person adventures, but don’t strictly require a lightgun to play. RESIDENT EVIL: DEAD AIM The fourth in the Gun Survivor series (the third is a Dino Crisis game), this one has third-person movement that goes into first-person when aiming, making it a sort of interesting combination of lightgun and normal Resident Evil gameplay. RESIDENT EVIL CHRONICLES These two on-rails shooters – The Umbrella Chronicles and The Darkside Chronicles – focus on retelling the events of Resis 1 to 3 and Code: Veronica. But there’s plenty of extra content in here, expanding on the series’ lore in surprising and necessary…

White-haired devil slayer Dante is an icon nowadays, but at one point the cheeky chappie didn’t exist. Conceptually, Capcom knew that Resident Evil 4 needed to be fresh, and it took a lot of iterations to produce the game we eventually got. One idea, which got sidelined off into its own thing for straying too far from being survival horror, eventually became Devil May Cry. That just means we have both Devil May Cry and RE4, though, so no complaints here.…

FORMAT PS3, PS4 RELEASED 2012 PUB CAPCOM DEV CAPCOM This game is a lot. With four campaigns following different characters, and their own supporting characters – some new, some returning – it’s as mixed a bag as you can get. It tied together a whole heap of story strands into one huge-scale global event. But it might have taken on more than it could headshot… LEON KENNEDY Leon teams up with newcomer Helena Harper to help the people of a small US town in the grip of classic zombies. You get old-school survival horror vibes from the setting, so it’s a nostalgia trip, if a little slight. CHRIS REDFIELD Chris teams up with newcomer Piers Nivans, a fellow BSAA operative. More action-packed, it’s quite removed from its survival horror roots.…

BEDROOM This chilling escape room DLC is a standout moment in the game. You must escape being trapped in a bedroom by exploring it while avoiding arousing the suspicion of Margaret Baker as she cooks you some disgusting food. JACK’S 55TH BIRTHDAY A goofy diversion, in this you have to scour locations in the mansion within a time limit to get enough food to satisfy Jack. It may or may not be canon, but it’s a fun and challenging diversion. DAUGHTERS Playing as Zoe Baker, you relive first-hand the terrible night when her family are infected and she tries to escape. There are chilling moments of both high-intensity and quieter scares that make it a must-play. NOT A HERO Chris Redfield returns in this epilogue chapter to the main game…

01 Classic PlayStation Gift Set £24.99 Whether they’re just beginning their journey or simply clumsy with glassware, this set is perfect for anyone who wants more PlayStation in their life. EMP.co.uk 02 Vault Boy 3D Mug £14.99 Those who sup from the cup of Vault Boy’s cranium shall go far in the apocalyptic wasteland that is the kitchen after Christmas dinner. playstation-gear.com 03 Call Of Duty Zombie Soda Framed Print £14.99 Home is hopefully not where the zombies are but where the Juggernaut Soda flows freely. Perk yourself up after a mountain of pigs in blankets with this tasteful but no less flavourful art print featuring the undead. playstation-gear.com 04 Fat Chocobo Hooded Blanket £35.99 After you’ve finished scarfing down your festive Gysahl Greens, you can curl up and relax…

01 PlayStation 1 Memory Card Bottle Opener £6.99 Whether you’re having a cold one with the boys, the girls, or anyone really, this gamer gear will be there in your moment of need. geekstore.com 02 Destiny 2 Limited Edition Ghost Candles Set £21.99 There are plenty of things you can cram into your Ghost, so why not scented candles? We can neither confirm nor deny the inside of the Traveller smells like vanilla, though. playstation-gear.com 03 PlayStation Coloured Controllers Backpack £24.99 This capacious backpack’s perfect either for back-to-school or simply for the big kid on your gift-giving list. geekstore.com 04 PlayStation 1 Memory Card Socks £4.99 It wouldn’t be Christmas without a plentiful restock of socks, and these are surprisingly tasteful. Keep your tootsies warm in comfy grey cotton. geekstore.com…

INFO FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW PUB WIRED PRODUCTIONS DEV CAGED ELEMENT Trying to recapture the feeling of playing classic PS1 racer Rollcage is a near-thankless task for a dev. But in a bold ‘hold my beer’ moment Caged Element has done just that. It helps that key members of the team worked on the original game. It also means Grip is less a new game but rather a recreation of a moment in time, which is no bad thing.1 Like Rollcage, Grip is purely about speed. It’s so fast, in fact, your slab-like car can drive up walls and across ceilings to maintain momentum, the camera flipping instantly to adjust to your new position. Naturally everyone else in the race is able to do the same, which can deliver…

INFO FORMAT PS4 PUB 2K DEV VISUAL CONCEPTS REVIEW #155, 8/10 Online, 2K’s dunker offers more ups and downs than a session of trampoline b-ball. The good: live team and injury updates, plus importable past and future draft classes for MyLeague, which brilliantly enable you to play as though Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal were just emerging from college and embarking on their NBA careers. The bad and the ugly: having to use microtransactions to level up and/ or improve the appearance of your MyCareer character despite the fact that it’s largely a single-player mode. Haircuts are now free after widespread backlash last year (woo, right?) but there’s still too much onus placed on tempting you into spending real cash. A shame, given 2K’s history as a trendsetter for the…

NI NO KUNI II – THE LAIR OF THE LOST LORD DLC A gate in the Rubbly Ruins has opened and its ruler is intent on destroying Evermore Kingdom. Journey to the Labyrinth and confront them. A new battle system which draws on characters’ memories comes with this DLC. STEEP – X GAMES The extreme sports game crosses over with the world-famous real-life winter sports freestyle competition. It introduces the Alaska X Games Village, and brand-new ski and snowboard events. Superpipe, Slopestyle, and Big Air are all here to put your freestyle skills to the test. STRANGE BRIGADE – THE THRICE DAMNED 2: THE SUNKEN KINGDOM Each new Strange Brigade DLC pack gets closer to being an Iron Maiden album cover. The all-new three-part campaign now moves below the surface,…

The sixth film in a series is rarely the best of the bunch, but that’s what Tom Cruise and co. have achieved with Ethan Hunt’s latest impossible mission. Not only that: it’s the best action movie since Mad Max: Fury Road. A sequel to 2015’s Rogue Nation, Fallout is the first Mission to ask what makes its leading man tick. The plot, as with most Missions, is a labyrinth of fake-mask fakeouts, quadruple crosses, and I-can’t-believe-they-just-did-that stunts in pursuit of [insert name] MacGuffin. Here, Ethan must re-acquire some stray plutonium before returning nasty Solomon Lane can wreak havoc. Christopher McQuarrie, the writer/ director, is the first man to helm two Mission movies. But rather than a Rogue Nation rerun, Fallout is a radical reinvention for the series; a muscular urban…

INFO PUB SQUARE ENIX DEV OMEGA FORCE RELEASED 2017, PS4 GET IT NOW PS STORE, £47.99 WHAT? A hack-and-slash spin-off of the long-running JRPG series, Dragon Quest Heroes II takes its cues from the Dynasty Warriors series, swapping turn-based combat for massive real-time battles, all wrapped up in anime cutesiness. You’d struggle to find two things I know and care less about than Dragon Quest and Dynasty Warriors, so this mash-up is about as appealing to me as a fart in a lift even before I fire my PlayStation up. Now, a few hours in, I’m convinced it was created specifically to hurt me. First, it renders me insensible with a parade of unbearably earnest cutscenes, in which living anime tropes burble at one another about a prophecy while a…

Oscar Taylor-Kent GAMES EDITOR Having played Hitman 2 all issue we’re a little wary of Oscar’s present. Why is it shaped like a cat, and why is it moving? Oh no… GAME OF THE MONTH Hitman 2 FAVE RESI HERO Leon S Kennedy Jess Kinghorn STAFF WRITER “It’s an empty box, it can be whatever you want it to be,” says Jess. She should stop playing D’Avekki’s shapeshifting game. GAME OF THE MONTH The Shapeshifting Detective FAVE RESI HERO Claire Redfield Miriam McDonald OPERATIONS EDITOR 22 pages of Resi has left Mim exhausted – she’s a grammar zombie. “Words! Give me better words for Christmas,” she groans. GAME OF THE MONTH Lego DC Super-Villains FAVE RESI HERO Ada Wong Milford Coppock MANAGING ART EDITOR Playing Red Dead 2 has gone…

10 Different series from which fighters have been picked for Jump Force. 175,320 Hours between the original PlayStation’s and the Classic’s release. £177 For Kingdom Hearts III’s Special Edition, including three Bring Arts figures. 633,744,000 Seconds between the original MediEvil and the gameplay trailer being released. 55 Songs, including all DLC, to play in Persona 5: Dancing In Starlight. 3.3m Copies of Marvel’s Spider-Man sold during its first three days on sale. 02 RDR2’s position in the list of biggest entertainment launches. (No.1? GTA V.)…

Fans of CD Projekt Red’s phenomenal The Witcher 3 are already well aware of the studio’s commitment to the story side of epic, sweeping RPGs. Its attitude towards making a game’s side content just as engaging as the main questline is continuing into Cyberpunk 2077, with quest designer Patrick Mills making it clear that we shouldn’t notice a difference between main quests and side-quests. Everyone who’s played The Witcher 3 can recall times when, even though they were overlevelled, they’d want to see a side-quest through to the end just to experience the story, even without gaining much character XP as a reward. This is pretty special in a genre where in many cases fetch quests can be used to bulk out a game – going somewhere on the map…

RESPAWN POINT Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has been confirmed for Christmas 2019, and the firm has a second game in development – Titanfall 3, perhaps? HIGH STAKES Making $725 million in worldwide retail sell-through during its first three days, Red Dead Redemption 2 broke all the records. SEGA SHOPPER The official Sega online store launched, your one-stop place for all your Yakuza goodies – Jess and Oscar are in so much debt now. DAYS GOING, GONE Sony Bend’s open world non-zombie survival adventure has been delayed again. Now set for release 26 April it means February has become a little easier on the wallet. It’s a disappointing but good decision from Sony. PLAYSTATION HOME Would you love to have PlayStation-designed furniture? If so it’s good and bad news…

Like my ex fiancé, you pulled me back in… …with unfulfilled promises. Just like in Issue 153, ‘PS VR Lootbox’ tempting me with VR reviews, and “engaging the rule of cool with some of VR’s slickest, most stylish title” reviews in (the then upcoming) Issue 154. I couldn’t wait to read your recommendations, but hey, what the... no reviews? Actually, not even your ‘PS VR Lootbox’ section! Too busy getting excited ‘bout ‘RDR2’ I suspect? Don’t worry, we’re still engaged, you and I, but any chance of the promise being fulfilled? Chris Taggart via email The Virtual Realtor exists in all of time and space at once, which paradoxically makes her hard to pin down. We’ll definitely have more PS VR coverage in future as there are some great games…

As I ease into my mid-30s with all the grace of an alcoholic bull stomping around a shop that sells Ming vases to millionaires, I’ve come to a realisation: banality is brilliant. Increasingly, I find myself craving the mundane. A dream day for this surly Scot involves almost zero human contact, six litres of English Breakfast tea, and, above all, absolutely no surprises. Strangely, I’m also starting to pine for similarly humdrum high jinks from my PlayStation games. I blame/thank Shenmue. I’ve been playing a lot of Yu Suzuki’s recently remastered action-adventure, and hoo-boy has it made me appreciate how oddly compelling profoundly grounded, fantasy-free videogame settings can be. Indeed, Ryo Hazuki’s earnest, often campy tale of revenge can be so dull there’s a good chance your own day-to-day life…

1 DEAD ISLAND Worst. Island retreat. Ever. Banoi may be easy on the eye, but even the most patient tourist would be screaming for a refund after an hour here… mainly because a zombie would probably be chewing on their spleen. Located off the coast of Papua New Guinea, a deadly infection turns this resort into a dream for coffin-dodgers. 2 RIME If you found yourself washed up on a pretty desert island, would you rather a) make a volleyball your BFF, or b) chase an adorable fox around? Sorry Wilson and Tom Hanks, we’re going with the fox. Rime’s gorgeous island combines puzzles and monster chases in an artful indie that makes a poignant statement about grief. 3 CRASH BANDICOOT To this day, we’re not sure what a bandicoot…

1 Prepare for the mother of all retaliations. Punt your opponent into these oversized eggs for a follow-up attack from a not-so-friendly pterodactyl. 2 Trust us, Bayman is having the time of his life here. Shove your rival over a barrier of overgrown vines in order to access a new level of the stage. 3 There are all sorts of toys to play with in the various levels. A lower level is an abandoned enclosure with some still-electrified walls. Watch the sparks fly! 4 You may be wondering where the enclosure’s specimen is. Hurl your opponent into this jeep and wonder no more! Grub’s up, and your foe is the guest of honour.…

To remake something well, you’ve really got to love the original. You have to know what made it so great, what makes it worth repeating. And when we sit down with Yoshiaki Hirabayashi and Tsuyoshi Kanda, their passion for Resident Evil is immediately apparent. OPM: Do you have a favourite game or character in the Resident Evil series? Yoshiaki Hirabayashi: I have a lot of favourite characters but if I had to choose one I would say Ada Wong. Tsuyoshi Kanda: I love the eccentric Baker family from Resident Evil VII, and especially the son, Lucas. Just thinking of the scene where he peels off his fingernails makes me break into a sweat… OPM: Much is made of videogames needing more female heroes. Do you think Resident Evil series has…

OPM: It’s been 22 years since the first game released. Why do you think Resident Evil is still so popular? Yoshiaki Hirabayashi: The series is so much more than survival horror – it has appealing characters and a mysterious world in which the story unfolds, and those aspects have really spoken to many fans I think. Tsuyoshi Kanda: I think players love the catharsis that comes from facing and getting through fear. It makes the gameplay really satisfying. Also, players really get invested in the world and characters, and the creatures make a huge impact on then.…

There is a version of Resident Evil 2 that you might not know about. Since dubbed “Resident Evil 1.5” by its developers, it was a mostly finished version of the game that Capcom completely scrapped and remade to avoid releasing something it wasn’t happy with. This version dropped some detail to have more zombies on screen, had a more modern-looking police station, and instead of Claire you had Elza Walker (whose costume is in the remake) – though her story didn’t cross with Leon’s.…

FORMAT PS2, PS3, PS4 RELEASED 2005 PUB CAPCOM DEV CAPCOM “Where’s everyone going? Bingo?” Leon Kennedy quips, as the horde of Los Ganados, Spanish villagers infected with the mind-controlling parasite Las Plagas, retreat to the sound of a ringing bell. As they swarmed him he had to take a lot of them out  with his weapons, creating space in the village – avoiding traps, bottlenecking the infected attackers in one of the house’s top floors, and fleeing out of the window himself. He even chanced death with one wearing a bag on its head, revving a nasty chainsaw. This spectacle all happens within the first 15 minutes or so of Resident Evil 4, after Leon stumbles upon the infected village following a moody and ominous walk through a Spanish forest.…

ALBERT WESKER This classic Resi villain is constantly manipulating events behind the scenes and dying-but-not-actually dying. Originally in STARS, he turned out to be a double agent – also an Umbrella researcher. Due to his experiments, he is superpowered. WILLIAM BIRKIN Another Umbrella Scientist, another superpowered experiment gone wrong. Developer of the G-virus, he unfortunately mutates into the hulking G creature after being caught in the crossfire between Umbrella operatives and the US military. NEMESIS A T-virus-mutated Tyrant creature, Nemesis was created by Umbrella to prove those infected with the virus could act with intelligence. Hunting down STARS members during the Raccoon City incident, he repeatedly encounters Jill in RE3. RAMON SALAZAR Despite looking like a tiny old man, Salazar is apparently only around 20 years old. One of the…

FORMAT PS4 RELEASED 2017 PUB CAPCOM DEV CAPCOM After the dense lore of Resident Evil 6, it was hard to see where the series could go. The answer was ‘back to basics’. In the same way RE4 stripped back what you knew about Resi to make the game more action-packed, so too did Resident Evil VII, but  more drastically. It is entirely in first-person, filled with new characters, and with only hints of the pre-existing lore for most of the game. What’s most brilliant is it does so while being more like Resident Evil than ever, modernising that survival horror, and once again setting it in a small, detailed, and chilling location: the Baker mansion. You step into the shoes of Ethan Winters, who’s received a tip-off that his missing…

01 Recon 200 Headset £49.99 In cool, crisp Glacier White, these mid-tier headphones will keep your ears snug while providing a boost to the bassier parts of the action. The sensitive mic keeps your commands crystal-clear, even over a booming soundtrack or when the other team bombards you with everything they’ve got. turtlebeach.com 02 PS VR Starter Pack with Astro Bot Rescue Mission & Resident Evil VII £199.99 The permanent price drop means there’s never been a better time to strap on a PS VR headset. Recent releases such as Astro Bot Rescue Mission and Resident Evil VII, while an undeniably odd pairing, make this a bundle you’ll want to ask Santa for. game.co.uk 03 Stealth 300 Headset £69.99 These enormous headphones, boasting four audio EQ presets, will encapsulate your…

01 Fortnite Monopoly £25.99 There can only be one winner in this property battle royale. After the turkey dinner when you’re all feeling like winners, it’s time to drop onto this board and show them who’s really the boss. playstation-gear.com 02 Tomb Raider Legends: The Board Game £49.99 Operating on a similar Highlander-esque logic, you go up against yourself in this battle of wits to determine who is the real Lara Croft. Set to release in early 2019, you can preorder this and give the Tomb Raider fan in your life something to look forward to. store.eu.square-enixgames.com 03 Deadly Premonition: The Board Game £39 This investigation game, based on Swery’s cult classic, encourages questionable ethics from its investigators, and is bound to sever allegiances just as assuredly as Fortnite Monopoly.…

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.…

INFO  FORMAT PS4, PS VITA ETA OUT NOW PUB AKSYS GAMES DEV EXPERIENCE Rumour has it that anyone who possesses the mark will die. You wake up confused, branded, and with no memory. The only way to figure out what’s going on, get your memories back, and survive the gruesome and unusual death you’re fated to meet before dawn is to enter Kujou mansion and join forces with other people marked for death (hence the name of the game). The teeth-mark-shaped brand is slowly draining your memory. Death Mark is a well-executed supernatural horror visual novel from Aksys. It pulls fast-paced, timer-forced life-or-death choices out of nowhere.1 This mechanic alone sets Death Mark apart from other visual novels in the same genre, making for a much more interactive experience than…

HITMAN Jess Kinghorn becomes oddly elusive around deadline day Before the sequel dropped, the first season saw all its limited time elusive targets reactivated. If you missed any of these one-shot missions the first time around, you could finally take a pop at it… unfortunately I’ve missed out on a number of these targets twice now. It’s just me and The Entertainer left, and his face tattoos don’t exactly suggest he’s much of a laugh. Usually I like to perfect my approach to any given mission but there’s no chance to reload here and the path to Mr Giggles is paved with many a killing joke. HELLDIVERS Oscar Taylor-Kent’s dragging everyone down to hell with him I missed out on this at launch. What better way to spend lunch than…

INFORMER 26 NOV BBC-produced miniseries about a Pakistani man who’s coerced into becoming an informer for a shady counter-terrorism officer. Compulsive viewing. WESTWORLD SEASON 2 3 DEC The second season of HBO’s sci-fi series is as violent, profound and confusing as the first. Will make you feel bad for killing NPCs in RDR2. THE DARKEST MINDS 3 DEC YA adaptation set in a world where 98% of children die, but the remaining 2% develop superpowers. Swings and roundabouts... ANT-MAN AND THE WASP 3 DEC Lesser Marvel it may be hot on the heels of Avengers: Infinity War, but this second outing for the MCU’s smallest super is huge fun. UNFRIENDED: DARK WEB 10 DEC Sequel to the innovative, but schlocky, horror set solely on PC screens. Interesting fact: it released…

INFO PUB EIDOS DEV CRYSTAL DYNAMICS PRODUCTIONS RELEASED 1999, PS1 GET IT NOW PS STORE, £4.99 NEED TO KNOW 1 The game takes place 500 years after Blood Omen. 2 Paradise Lost inspired the fallen vamp idea. 3 It was directed by Uncharted’s Amy Hennig. Thundering cliché it may be, but you really shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Just take Raziel. The star of Crystal Dynamics’ cult action-adventure is an emaciated ghoul who looks like he bought his outfit from Hobos ‘R’ Us. Yet despite his shabby appearance, this cursed, size-zero vamp can run rings around Lara Croft. Compare Soul Reaver’s realm-hopping bloodsucker with the First Lady of PlayStation, and there’s really no contest… well, there wasn’t back in the PS1 era. While Lara may have nabbed global…

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. GOD OF WAR A departure in some ways but a resounding return in others, Kratos is back with a son and a ruddy big axe. Taking the legend from Greek to Norse mythology, this entry brings a lot to the table while improving on what was core to the earlier series’ identity. THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT GAME OF THE YEAR EDITION The…

THE PERSISTENCE Designed specifically for PS VR, this first-person horror roguelike is, arguably, the headset’s first true killer app. With the action structured around short bursts of intense survival, this shooter manages to pack in everything expected of a PS4 release, in VR. Clever ideas, unique weapons, genuine jump scares, and beautiful visuals delivered with zero motion sickness. All this plus inventive couchplay too. REZ INFINITE Creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s vision becomes reality in PS VR. This psychedelic rhythm rail shooter has achieved its final form. Its crowning achievement? New level Area X, it’s powerful enough to bring players to tears. Worthy of its name, this is a truly timeless title. THUMPER Make no mistake: the brave chrome beetle gave Rez a run for its money for our top spot. Hurtling…

“A LOT OF CARE AND ATTENTION HAS BEEN PAID TO UPHOLDING THE ENTIRE KINGDOM HEARTS LEGACY.” Bizarrely enough for a series that’s essentially a massive Disney/ Square Enix crossover RPG, there’s a huge amount of complex lore to Kingdom Hearts. While the latest and long-awaited entry in the series moves the story forward, a lot of care and attention has been paid to upholding the entire Kingdom Hearts legacy. We took a look at the Olympus world in action during our hands-on gameplay all the way back before E3. It played brilliantly then, but now even more has been revealed about Hercules’ world. Herc himself gets involved in plenty of the action, and Zeus, Pegasus, Phil, Hades, Meg, and the Titans all put in appearances. The movie Hercules has been…

IAN DEAN EDITOR “I’LL BE SPENDING CHRISTMAS DOING MY OWN THING IN ANCIENT GREECE, LIKE A LEGEND.” A man in a red suit once told me I could “have whatever I wanted,” looking back, maybe he wasn’t Santa. He may have just been a KFC manager. The point is, and there is a point, this holiday season I’ll be gaming my way, which means charging around the ancient Greek islands of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey hunting down every Mercenary in the game. And with new DLC releasing there’ll be a whole lot more of those pesky Mercs to put to the sword and test my Tier 9 Kassandra. See red suit man, I can have whatever I want. And it doesn’t always have to involve a bucket and a chicken. JESS…

@BL00MYB0Y Podcast !!!!! What…when… how… how long have you people been doing these again and how many have I missed? @DAAAAAANNNY Bring back Cayde @X2NED [PS Classic] Not terrible would have been better Tekken 2 rather than 3 but if Satan left it under the tree I wouldn’t say no but I not ruching out to buy one @NICKBAMBRO If Satan leave anything under my tree I’m off! @DANTESBOOTY Thank you @OPM_UK for this awesome @DevilMayCry poster @REPLICANTUK2049 Yet more click bait. @GALEPHANTOM I cured a guy on the side of the road of venom later on he was in town and allowed me to buy a free gun on his tab as a thank you gift #reddeadstories @WOLFSTUDIOSART Killed the first Legendary bear, loaded my horse with the pelt,…

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” wrote George Santayana. While in my case this means remembering to not wear white when eating in public, there are more interesting and important lessons to learn. Videogames are perfectly placed to teach us much about history… but so far, they’re not doing a very good job. I’m not necessarily thinking of the details in games that deal with historical issues (but don’t expect Call Of Duty or Battlefield to teach you anything meaningful about WW2). To take Assassin’s Creed as an example, the attention to detail is stunning. Although artistic licence has been taken, Origins and Odyssey have a huge amount of factual content. What COD, Battlefield, and Assassin’s Creed have in common is that they’re all aimed…

Myst The PS1 point-and-click’s titular island looked ace in the ’90s. Now? Your toaster could probably render it. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Too soon? How can we pick one island from a game built around half a dozen? (We do love Lesbos’ snake-head terror.) Escape From Monkey Island Guybrush’s PlayStation debut takes him to Mêlée Island. Could use more monkeys, we think. Did we miss your favourite island? Got a brilliant In The Mood For idea? Show and tell at twitter.com/opm_uk.…

FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2019 / PUB TECHLAND PUBLISHING / DEV TECHLAND To find its feet amid the army of zombie games on PlayStation the original Dying Light went, literally, over the heads of its competition. A focus on parkour traversal and ‘zombies’ – really frenzied infected humans with a lust for blood – that were equal to your every move lent the game a unique, if simplistic, take on the survival horror formula. Retaining the good – parkour – and improving the bad – everything else, Dying Light 2 is shaping up to be one of 2019’s sleeper hits. On a base level, like in the first game you can engage in building-shimmying shenanigans easily by pressing one button. But developer Techland has revealed it’s layering RPGlike elements into…

ION MAIDEN FORMAT PS4 ETA 2019 / PUB 3D REALMS DEV VOIDPOINT This one deserves to be on your watch list for the pun alone. Sadly it’s not a heavy metal shooter but a game that harks back a time when Iron Maiden was a household name. This retro-inspired indie shooter delivers the ’90s thrills, and its no surprise given 3D Realms is publishing and the game is running on Ken Silverman’s Build engine, which powered Duke Nukem 3D back in the day. Playing on your nostalgia as much as your ability to shoot 2D monsters in a three-dimensional space, Ion Maiden isn’t for everyone. But if you grew up on Doom and its ilk, you’ll get a tingle from this throwback. THE BLACKOUT CLUB FORMAT PS4 / ETA EARLY…

FORMAT PS1 RELEASED 1996 PUB CAPCOM DEV CAPCOM There’s a reason that first zombie encounter at the beginning of Resident Evil is so iconic. Taking refuge with your squad in the Spencer mansion after being attacked in the forest, you begin to explore the eerily quiet  house. As each door slowly opens, you’re never sure what you’re about to step into. Moving to the end of a dark corridor, storm beating down outside, you round the corner. The first zombie, chowing down on a man-made meal, turns its head slowly, stares you down, then begins to shuffle towards you, the narrow corridor forcing you to back away. It is chilling to this day. “WITHIN THE SPENCER MANSION, WHETHER YOU ARE PLAYING AS JILL OR CHRIS YOU NEVER FEEL SAFE.” No…

After remaking the first game substantially it didn’t make sense for Capcom to sit on those efforts. That’s how Resident Evil 0, a prequel to the series made within the same engine, came about. As with classic Resi games there are two characters: STARS officer Rebecca Chambers and escaped convict Billy Coen – who you actively switch between to solve puzzles, with AI picking up the slack. Released in 2002, this is where the classic formula started to show its age. A big part of this game involves a train, so if you like trains, this is the one for you.…

CHRIS REDFIELD US Air Force, STARS agent, BSAA operative… Chris’ career has had him following the path of justice and trying to do what’s right, and he’s only grown more muscular over the years – once even punching a boulder. He’d give everything for his friends. JILL VALENTINE Escaping that first incident alongside Chris, Jill’s career also took her to the BSAA in her continued fight against bioterrorism. Usually more than capable of handling herself, she was briefly mind-controlled into committing mischief in RE5. LEON KENNEDY At one point a fresh-faced Raccoon City police officer having a bad day, his survival instincts saw him snapped up as a US-STRATCOM agent. As a result, he’s continued to butt heads with Umbrella’s bioterrorism, and hasn’t run out of quips yet. CLAIRE REDFIELD…

DEAD ACTION For non-gamers the Milla-Jovovich-led live-action series is the cultural go-to for what Resident Evil means. Starring original character Alice, the successful series spans six films of B-movie zombie action. CG-VIRUS Degeneration, Damnation, and Vendetta make up a trio of feature-length CG movies starring characters from the games. While they might not be much better than very good and long videogame cutscenes, there’s plenty of fan service and lore for you to get stuck into. RIDE ALONG The 20-minute 3D movie Biohazard 4D-Executer had a limited theatrical release, appearing in Japanese theme parks otherwise. It centres around a military squad entering the infected Raccoon City to recover a research scientist.…

RESIDENT EVIL: OUTBREAK Online games were rare back on PS2, and 2003’s Outbreak was one of the best. You needed to work as a team to clear scenarios with semi-random elements. The success led to File #2 expansion, but all the servers are now offline. RESIDENT EVIL: REVELATIONS Back in 2012 the main series was big on action, which is why Revelations felt so fresh, with its very creepy boat-set survival horror that sees Jill and Chris facing off against horrific sea-based mutations as they stop a terrorist plot. RESIDENT EVIL: REVELATIONS 2 Building on the success of the first game, this continued to bring some classic-feeling Resident Evil survival action to modern audiences. This time it’s episodic, and stars Claire Redfield alongside RE1 side-character Barry Burton in separate stories.…

01 Fallout 76 Christmas Jumper £35.99 Shrug off the chill of (an apocalyptic) winter in this surprisingly classy Christmas jumper and emerge from your vault to celebrate the tricentennial in style! playstation-gear.com 02 The Last Of Us Part 2 – Ellie’s Tattoo T-shirt £24 If you’re not quite ready to commit to this design in the same way an older Ellie does in the sequel, this is the stylish T-shirt for you. Unlike a tattoo, it’s as easy to remove as to put on. insertcoinclothing.com 03 God Of War Hoodie £45 Heading north, on your PlayStation at least? You’ll need something to keep the chill of a Norse winter out, and you can represent your favourite conflict-deity-turned-father-figure in this tasteful hoodie with appropriate accents. insertcoinclothing.com 04 PlayStation Symbols Funnel Neck…

01 The Last Of Us: OST – Vol.1 £23.08 You can get choked up all over again by listening to the music from Joel and Ellie’s first adventure until The Last Of Us Part II finally releases. mondotees.com 02 No Man’s Sky: Music for an Infinite Universe €55 Whether you’ve had a good or not so good 2018, the New Year holds many possibilities. As you make the universe your oyster, this is the perfect soundtrack. lacedrecords.co 03 Rez Infinite OST £57.03 Ride the synthwave with your fellow Rez-heads with this lovingly-put-together edition plus retrospective book. store.iam8bit.com 04 Katamari Damacy OST £26.93 Get one of the best videogame soundtracks of all time stuck in your head all over again as you roll up the aftermath of Christmas. mondotees.com 05 Doom…

Arthur Morgan is a man conflicted. He knows the difference between right and wrong. Riding with the Dutch Gang, he’s one of their leader’s most trusted men – practically raised by him from a young age. They have  a code: to take from those who deserve taking from, and to help those they can. But when you’re as good at killing as he is, it seems there’s often no choice but to reach for a gun, and line up headshot after headshot. Thankfully it’s a lot of fun to do. The secret to the gunplay in Red Dead Redemption 2 is simple in much the same way it was in the first game. Hit an enemy in a vital spot – principally in their meaty, fleshy faces – and the…

INFO FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW PUB ARC SYSTEM WORKS DEV WHITE OWLS Creator of Deadly Premonition Hidetaka ‘Swery’ Suehiro is back with an offbeat side-scroller unlike anything we’ve played in ages, despite borrowing from a range of sources: The Missing has the unsettling atmosphere, death traps, and body horror of Limbo, the dismemberment mechanics of Neverdead, and a dash of cult platform-puzzler Umihara Kawase in the precise stiffness of its controls. The less you know about the story, the better. Suffice to say that the setup – student JJ searches for her BFF on a storm-lashed island – is merely a springboard for a tale that goes to some seriously dark places. JJ is mangled and burned by the traps littering the levels, yet you’re encouraged to put her…

November was the month of big bangs, as Sony understood. After you’d had your fill of colourful explosions, there were plenty of titles for you to curl up with during long winter nights. Whether you were hankering to sling some bullets or hurl some fists, this month’s PS Plus lineup had something for you. BULLETSTORM: FULL CLIP EDITION plopped you down on an abandoned resort planet, full of mutated inhabitants, where you had to choose whether to pursue survival or vengeance. Featuring over-the-top FPS action, 12 co-op maps, and a Skillshot system that rewarded creative kills, it was ridiculous fun. Equally ridiculous in some ways was YAKUZA: KIWAMI. A ground-up remake of the first game in the series, which released on the PS2, this crime drama featured plenty of opportunities…

INFO FORMAT PS4 PUB EA DEV EA CANADA REVIEW #155, 9/10 No modern sports title uses its online powers quite like the often-maligned but still mostly great FIFA. If you own this game, you need to be connected 24/7. Live attribute updates and team lineups mean it never feels outdated by even a fortnight, and Ultimate Team remains the genre’s best mode. Still playable offline, FUT is best experienced through the new online Division Rivals feature, where weekly performances with your team unlock rewards every Monday, tiered according to results, and with a degree of player choice. Promotion and relegation mean you’re rarely outmatched for more than a few days, though you will still be tempted to sling the controller and yell “scripted” over every last-gasp winner. VERDICT Some decry…

A CAPTAINLESS SQUAD This new story can be played after Chapter 10 of Valkyria Chronicles 4, and sees Squad E searching for their missing pup, Ragnarok. Find the best boy, please! THE SECRET MISSION DLC This set of hard missions for Mothergunship offers exotic weapons, gun parts, and story content, and teases an extraordinary secret… THE CROMATION CHRONICLES Shadows: Awakening gets a new dungeon, story, and puppets to play as you uncover the sinister experiments in the Arcanum Laboratory. SKULLOMANIA The classic skeletal ‘super hero’ from Street Fighter EX2 makes his return as a her in gender-skewed brawler SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy. Little skulls fly with every hit. KAZUMA KIRYU SKIN Everyone’s favourite gaming dad makes a return in sci-fi brawler Fist Of The North Star: Lost Paradise. Fist…

It’s a-live! Live gaming, that is. The past month or so had some of our favourite ongoing games play host to spooky sessions, as well as plenty more new launches and updates. These are the games to be playing. While FORTNITE was the highlight of our Halloween gaming, we still made time for the annual tradition of celebrating All Saints’ Wake in FINAL FANTASY XIV. The Sinister Soiree quest in Gridania kicked things off, and saw the return of the Continental Circus, rewarding players with an adorable ghost minion, and, most importantly, Halloween decorations for their homes. Meanwhile in OVERWATCH we were treated to a return of Junkenstein’s Revenge as part of this year’s Halloween Terror event. This time Tracer and Brigitte joined in to help take down the dastardly…

1 “MORE OF THAT SAME SET MENU YOU KNOW AND LOVE, SPICED UP WITH PLENTY OF FRANTIC ACTION.” 2 “YOU COULD SPEND YOUR EVENINGS CLEARING CULT OUTPOSTS OR BLOWING UP ENEMY SHRINES IN A WHIRLYBIRD.” 3 “WELCOMING BACK OLD HANDS AND ENCOURAGING NEWCOMERS […] BEATS ITS OWN PATH AND ENSURES THAT YOU’LL WANT TO WALK IT, KICKING VARIOUS BACKSIDES ALONG THE WAY.” 4 “THIS IS LESS A DIMINISHING RETURN AND MORE A WARNING THAT THE SERIES IS FLIRTING DANGEROUSLY CLOSE WITH CREATIVE EXTINCTION.”…

PICK #1 HITMAN (2016) Jess Kinghorn balds-up for this hit Sneaking around and hiding in plain sight is the bread-and-butter of any Rogue. As the big old nerd that I am, Hitman scratches the itch imparted to me by my favourite Dungeons & Dragons characters. With the sequel not far off, I’ve returned to the original in a vain attempt to contain my excitement. There’s just something so satisfying about leading a grown man to his doom using nowt but shiny coins… PICK #2 MARK OF THE NINJA – REMASTERED 2D is better than 3D for Oscar Taylor-Kent When it comes to stealth games, being stuck in two dimensions might seem limiting at first. With less room to move around obstacles in the environment, how does being sneaky work? Very…