Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2019 i PLAY

“PLAY BEACH SPORTS AND EAT YOUR WAY THROUGH THE ALL-INCLUSIVE BUFFET.” Sequel to the brilliant and satirical Job Simulator for PS VR, in which robots interpreted human jobs for us to play (for example, being a mechanic involved fooling your clients), Vacation Simulator aims to take the idea to sunny climes. “Vacation Simulator is bigger than anything we’ve done before, and we’re excited to see how everyone experiences ‘vacation’ in their own way,” says Devin Reimer, chief executive owl at Owlchemy Labs. “The sheer interactivity and connected world we’ve built with Vacation Simulator makes for truly mind-boggling possibilities. It’s VR — there is no wrong way to play.” This playfulness is what made Job Simulator one of PS VR’s best and most downloaded games. Essentially a blend of minigames tailored…

IAN DEAN EDITOR “THE SERIES SHOULD EMBRACE ITS LOOT SHOOTER HERITAGE AND GO GALACTIC.” Destiny 2 was muddled, Anthem’s a mess, and The Division 2 is ironically divisive, so we need a hands-down, perfect loot shooter on PS4. Borderlands 3 could be that game. The core ingredients are already there; we were scooping loot on Pandora when ‘games as a service’ was a twinkle in Bungie’s marketing eye. But imagine a PS4 sequel that left the confines of the series’ homeworld and opened up a galaxy of loot on other planets. It would mean rewards wouldn’t be restricted to guns but could include spaceships, mods, and even planetary bases of operations. Borderlands 3, I believe, should be borderless. JESS KINGHORN STAFF WRITER “WILL THE NEW BORDERLANDS CHANGE LOOT SHOOTERS?” It’s…

@MORELAREC Well, now I have a big decision to make… Which light bar decal shall I pick first? Pretty good problem to have on a Tuesday. Thanks @OPM_UK @KENY2KEN @OPM_UK will continue to be worth my time because, all their fun features aside, they can barely make it through a 20-word paragraph without slipping at least one pun in there. @CHRISJM89 I love magazines. @XFLOWERSTARX I think my first magazines were Disney’s Big Time, the old Smash Hits magazines, the old Official PlayStation Magazines and the N64 magazines. I don’t think I knew what magazines were in 1993 until the late 90’s. [I feel old – ed] @EDPENN13 I miss this magazine so much. [Er, you replied to it! – Ed] @AZAKIUSLIVE I’m super excited for Concrete Genie. I think…

This is 2019 and here I am making an argument for fixed camera angles. (Don’t worry, I’m not trying to resurrect tank controls too.) The visual conceit of many a horror title from yesteryear attempting to make the most of limited hardware is much maligned – and unfairly so. This isn’t 300 words lambasting other 3D camera systems but more an acknowledgement that each view achieves something different. By discounting more fixed angles from developers’ selection of tools, we’re limiting what we can achieve overall. That’s not to say I think games should be more like films; what works for film doesn’t always work for an interactive medium. As the adages go, ‘do, don’t just show’ and ‘who enjoys QTEs, really?’ But there’s a lot to be said for how…

CRASH TEAM RACING What happens when roadkill comes back to life and steals your car? Your mission is to hunt down this manic orange creature before it wreaks havoc as it seeks to destroy the people who squashed it. FORMAT PS4 ETA 21 JUN WARHAMMER: CHAOSBANE A rhythm game where you have to juggle headbanging at a metal concert with waving your glowing axes in the air. Hair customisation is graded on a sliding scale for extra points. FORMAT PS4 ETA 4 JUN MONSTER JAM: STEEL TITANS Bizarre platformer in which your character is a chunky truck, and instead of gaining new abilities, custom features are added, from bouncy tyres to a propeller for hovering. FORMAT PS4 ETA 25 JUN…

“IT’S AN ADVENTURE GAME, BUT GOSSIP PLAYS AS BIG A ROLE AS SOLVING PUZZLES.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2019 PUB DIE GUTE FABRIK / DEV DIE GUTE FABRIK Welcome to Mutazione, a reclusive community of mutants formed after the Moon Dragon meteor hit a tropical resort some 100 years ago. Kai comes to  Mutazione to aid her ailing grandfather, and ends up wrapped up in small-town-style drama and intrigue. Expect some weird twists. In some ways it’s an adventure game, but gossip plays as big a role as solving puzzles. You’ll meet a colourful cast of mutants and learn all about their lives as you make friends, and come up against a hidden darkness that lurks beneath. The gorgeous texture style of the artwork makes it seem like it will…

DECAY OF LOGOS FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2019 PUB RISING STAR DEV AMPLIFY CREATIONS Based on European folklore, this game’s story focuses on a girl and her elk, who only just manage to escape a village massacre. It’s a large world, so travelling by elk will be necessary, but as it’s a skittish creature you’ll need to put in the time to befriend it and keep it calm early in the game. Bizarre creatures stalk the land, and their attacks are punishing. In the – dare we say it? – Dark Souls-esque combat you need to make sure you make each swing count, and stay out of reach of enemies. Clearing areas and opening gates so your elk can keep up and journey with you are a must. ARY AND…

Protagonist Jesse’s hair was white in the early concept stages of the project. Even after casting Courtney Hope, an actress Remedy had worked with previously, the developers’ thinking was that white hair would clearly differentiate Jesse Faden from Hope’s previous role as Beth Wilder in Quantum Break. But as time went on, Control’s developers decided that vivid red hair marked Jesse out far better against the muted, neutral palettes of the brutalist environments. The developers wanted to work with Courtney Hope again partly because a planned side-story centred around the Beth Wilder character was cut early in the production of their previous title. Kasurinen reflects: “We felt bad about it and we really loved her in [that earlier game], and then it was really a natural fit to have her…

While the Encounter system keeps Jesse’s hands full of Hiss, there’s more in store for her after you’ve completed the main single-player story. Alongside heapings of Hiss remaining after the end, you can go back and complete any side-missions you’ve missed (though hopefully you won’t have left fridge-watching Philip all on his lonesome until after the end of the game). There are also the time-sensitive Bureau alerts: if you complete those within the time limit, you’ll net yourself some better loot. In addition to this, Remedy intends for Control to be an experience with some staying power thanks to two post-release expansions. These will be called ‘The Foundation’ and ‘AWE.’ Remedy has these planned out but has yet to release further details on them or start work on them proper…

SWARMERS Your regular Freaker is seldom alone, roaming in groups of at least two or three. They’re sluggish during the day but become stronger at night and under adverse weather conditions like rain. Ever-hungry, they’re easy to sneak up on as they chow down on corpses. HORDE Swarmers often group together in large numbers to form a horde. Hordes exhibit migration patterns, hibernate in caves during the day, and act almost like a single organism. Where there’s a horde there are often also nests nearby – just to keep your on your toes. SCREAMERS Often popping out of the nests you seek to destroy (burning nests or facing the horde opens up more fast travel routes), these enemies shriek to call any nearby Freakers to their aid. If you’re not…

OPM: What influenced the Days Gone musical score? NW: I think the two biggest influences on the Days Gone score are Deacon St John, our protagonist, and the setting of the Pacific Northwest. Deacon is a biker and a bounty hunter, and biker culture is definitely present in the game. I thought including some guitar in the score could be interesting but writing a score that’s all rowdy bar-rock felt wrong. The Pacific Northwest setting is absolutely beautiful and it really felt like the score needed to connect to this environment as well. It’s rural but extremely different from the rural south. There are high deserts, snowy mountains, massive forests, and all these elements look stunning in the game. Deacon and the environment seemed to call for an organic, lived-in…

Frogwares has an impressive track record, but what the studio is doing in The Sinking City is more ambitious than anything it’s done to date. We sit down with CEO Wael Amr to discuss what it took to create Frogwares’ first open world adventure, and how Lovecraft’s mythos differs from the world of Sherlock Holmes. OPM: In Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter you experimented with more open areas, but making a full city is something else. How did you accomplish that? Wael Amr: The first thing that we had to do was to completely reformat the way that the team was working, change the full organisation of the team, change the experiences, and the way we were working without growing the team actually. And that was a base to be…

Leaving its handheld home on PS Vita, The Caligula Effect – which bears an undeniable likeness to the Persona franchise1 has migrated to PS4 in this “Overdose” remaster packing oodles of new content – for example, you’re given the opportunity to pick your character’s gender for the first time. The action takes place in a virtual reality called Mobius, a high-school time loop manufactured as an escape for people struggling with their lives. For most people school life hardly creates memories of the carefree sort. However, it’s a valued part of the Japanese culture which seeps from the game’s every pore, and along with the Japanese voice acting, ensures the game puts an authentic J into JRPG. Beneath the vibrant dungeon environments and catchy soundtrack runs the desire for escapism,…

Simplicity is the name of the game. Or at least it would be, if it weren’t actually Trials Rising. It’s all about balance. You ride your zippy little motocross bike from one end of the track to the other, making sure it stays on two wheels over all the bumps and jumps you encounter. Yes, Trials Rising will throw increasing numbers of obstacles in your way, but the essential objectives never really change: don’t fall off; reach the end as fast as you can. Despite the fact that we all work with the laws of physics every day without thinking about it, they’re far from simple. The way physics works in Trials Rising is intuitive, but still has the same depth of physics as real life.1 To master the courses,…

With a loot shooter like this, online play is a big part of the game. So aware of this is Bioware, that Anthem auto-matchmakes you into a squad of four in every mission you pick. Finding a game is a pretty smooth process. What’s more of a pain is that often you start at slightly different times from the other players, and you arrive to find the rest of your squad are already flying off to the objectives. The mission structures do end up being quite repetitive and samey, so there’s little reason to stick around from objective point to objective point. Stray too far off course and you’ll receive a warning that you’ll be beamed to where the rest of your squad is – after a loading screen. (Expect…

SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER – THE SERPENT’S HEART Get a new skill, outfit, and weapon for Lara, but most importantly a new challenge tomb to conquer as part of a quest. The watery ruins will put you to the test with spikes, flames, and tricky climbs. NI NO KUNI II – THE TALE OF A TIMELESS TOME A rabbit-man named The Conductor appears to young King Evan in a dream. He then leads Evan through the dream (which reveals a lot more about the pasts of your favourite party members from the main game), fighting Nightmares on the way. LEGO DC SUPER-VILLAINS – BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES This level pack is based on the superb Mask Of The Phantasm movie of the animated series. As well as the level,…

Did you think Tom Holland’s Peter Parker making everyone weep in Infinity War, or Insomniac’s Spidey perfecting videogame traversal was as good as the last 12 months could get for Marvel’s friendly neighbourhood wall-crawler? Think again. An animated wonder, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse isn’t just up there with the best superhero films of 2018, it’s one of the best films of 2018. Bringing fan-favourite mixed-race Spidey Miles Morales to the big screen for the first time, the film unites all manner of weird and wacky Spider-Folk, who are sucked into Miles’ world when Wilson Fisk’s particle collider bridges the gap between multiple dimensions. But the collider is on the verge of collapse, and only the Spider-Men, -Women and -Pigs can save the multiverse. The first thing you can’t help but…

With games, I give everything a try. As a child I rented any game I could get my hands on, and platformers like Castlevania dominated the gaming landscape back then. However, I enjoy playing more when improving is a result, not the purpose, of a game, and if I don’t feel like I’m doing the same thing over and over. “THE EPITOME OF A GAME THAT’S JUST AS EASY TO PUT DOWN AS IT IS TO START.” I’ve never quite warmed up to the thrill of the unknown in games: jumping down when you can’t see the bottom, not knowing where you’re going, encountering mechanisms you don’t know the purpose of. Hollow Knight exacerbates this feeling with its setting, a giant cave full of rickety platforms and seemingly little else.…

PICK #1 APEX LEGENDS Jess Kinghorn is only here to lend a hand Readers with long memories will recall tales of the squeaking other battle royales inspired. I’m not much of a markswoman but playing as Lifeline means I’m far from dead weight. With every match I become more bloodthirsty, and there’s far less squeaking involved when you’re the one doling out damage. Now, if only I could learn to not rush to my teammates’ aid and score a total squad elimination for the other side. PICK #2 WARFRAME Oscar Taylor-Kent is in the ’frame Looking for sci-fi multiplayer shooty games? You’re spoiled for choice these days. Warframe is a completely free game that is a contender for the top spot. What’s amazing is how much it has flourished, and…

KONAMI HITS 50 To celebrate 50 years of hit games Konami is releasing three retro collections this month, titled Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection, Castlevania Anniversary Collection, and Contra Anniversary Collection. The must-play anthologies span classic series including Gradius, Contra, and Castlevania. COP A LOAD OF THIS… Indie dev Fallen Tree Games is bringing cops-and-robbers chaseathon American Fugitive to PS4. The sandbox game has a simple premise: escape the police and prove your innocence in an adventure that resembles classic GTA funnelled through a love of ’80s TV movies. Prepare to escape the law later this year. DEATH STRANDED Talking with Japanese website J-Wave recently, Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima commented that “many studios lag behind the planned release date. Death Stranding is slightly out of the initial plan, but not…

What makes the wild world of videogames uniquely exciting – and where it’s always had the advantage over TV, books, and movies – is that the way we interact with it is constantly evolving. Whether it’s in something as simple as the analogue stick’s introduction or the gradual move towards downloading our favourite titles, every console generation has differed greatly from the last. With this in mind, Sony’s decision to sit out E3 2019 and re-evaluate how best to market its upcoming first-party lineup makes a lot more sense. Many initially took this news as a sign of weakness, when in fact it’s the opposite. Sony’s proved time and again that it takes a player-first attitude with PS4, so who are we to judge this swift change of pace? It’s…

1 Charlotte relies on beauty and blades in her super special attack. Throwing a rose at her opponent stalls them, giving her time to get stabby… very stabby. 2 Shrine maiden Nakoruru fights alongside her hawk Mamahaha, who picks her up and throws her into her enemy so she can get stabby… very stabby. 3 Haohmaru is the game’s Ryu. His super special is a revised version of his classic move: he hurls three whirlwinds at his enemy and then gets… oh, you know. 4 Galford’s husky companion, Poppy, leaps to his side during his super special, catching the ninja’s sword and driving it into his enemy. Yep, even she gets stabby.…

1 Ryo Hazuki; a Japanese high school boy whose father was murdered. Somewhat oblivious but with a heart of gold, he’s come to China in search of the killer. 2 Bailu Villager Shenhua Ling seems to share some sort of dream link with Ryo. Her family is connected to the mysterious Dragon and Phoenix mirrors. 3 Lan Di is a cartel member and the rotter who murdered Ryo’s daddy – but it was his own revenge quest. He wants to get hold of the mirrors for his own ends. 4 Tom the American hot dog seller was Ryo’s friend in the first game, passing on fighting skills and the joys of hip-hop. Could he make a surprise return?…

O PM: How did you develop the idea of the shapeshifting gun, the Director’s Service Weapon? Mikael Kasurinen: There’s an aspect to it which is kind of a mundane reasoning. I initially didn’t like the idea that the director of this Bureau would be a person who would go through this world and collect this arsenal of weapons […] That just didn’t work for me. I wanted to find something that is more like a powerful weapon but also at the same time, will be a part of that character’s identity, not just personally, but also like, what they represent. Being the director of the Bureau, they should be a symbol for it, but at the same time, it should reflect core elements of who that person is as well.…

OPM: How many writers work on the game? John Garvin: Uh, me! I have a couple of writing assistants who are amazing and helped do a lot of research. I had a couple of other writers who helped do backstory and help write out the lore – for example, the Rippers [a doomsaying death cult and faction in the game]. OPM: What has the writing process been like for this game? JG: Big question and a good one. I think it’s probably similar to writing for any medium. The thing again that makes it unique for a game like Days Gone [is that] the story and the characters and the gameplay and the setting and what you’re doing all have to work together. And I think that, you know, I’ve…

Far from the Victorian terraces of Baker Street, the East Coast city of Oakmont, Massachusetts is windy, wet, and grim. Detective Charles Reed secures passage there after having strange visions of a submerged city and a strange, tentacled creature. During the First World War he was in the Navy, and he’s still haunted by something unfathomable he saw while serving, something he can’t quite remember. But his own troubles aren’t the only case the detective ends up taking on. Playing as Reed, you have to track down evidence from all corners of the city, linking clues with your own deductions. Here are the scraps we managed to recover from our hands-on investigation with the first two cases of the game, which took us a good few hours’ detective work. 1…

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.…

After a prison heist gone wrong and a scrape with the warden, pirate captain Monkey D Luffy becomes separated from the rest of the “Straw Hat” crew. With his friends scattered and ship out of commission, it’s up to the cheery and somewhat oblivious captain to pick up the pieces – and he ends up helping out the inhabitants of Prison Island1 along the way. Based on Eiichiro Oda’s anime/manga, there’s enough One Piece DNA in World Seeker that it wouldn’t be out of place as one of the movies. A downtrodden populace, familial discord, conflict between the world government and pirates – all the elements that make up One Piece are here, with a surprising amount of heart in the limited story scenes.2 They key difference here is that…

Developer Henchman & Goon bills this explore-’em-up as ‘a game for everyone’ in much the same vein as Unravel Two. Like that game, it takes two characters to solve puzzles here. Offering drop-in-and-out co-op, when you’re on your tod you can switch between characters Bulder and Glo by pressing w, or if you’ve a pal on hand they can take one of them over. Unlike Unravel’s twin Yarnies, Pode’s protagonists possess complementary differences.1 Bulder starts out rocking more abilities to solve puzzles, making them the ideal character for the more experienced of your pair. While Glo’s initial passenger seat role gives a potentially less experienced player time to get to grips, they soon gain the ability to teleport. This adds a new dimension to puzzles, elaborating on pre-established mechanics in…

APEX LEGENDS Jess Kinghorn’s mad for metals and Mirage I’ve scored a bit of in-game pocket change just by playing as the free Legends and levelling up. But after bumping into a few Mirages out in King’s Canyon, I know exactly what I want to spend it on. What can I say? I’m completely bamboozled! The more I play alongside the pure evil Caustic, the more tempted I am to buy the Legend for myself… especially if it means using my crafting metals to kit him and all my mains out in flamingo-pink getups. I do have to question the thinking behind having not one, not two, but three different in-game currencies, mind. MONSTER HUNTER: WORLD Will Oscar Taylor-Kent lay down the hammer? With a few events hitting the New…

MARY POPPINS RETURNS 15 APR This sequel to Disney’s musical was burdened with 54 years of expectations, but turned out practically perfect in every way. FLEABAG S1&2 15 APR Solo’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge wrote and stars in this dark comedy about a young woman stumbling through life in the wake of a tragedy. THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST 15 APR Scorsese’s controversial classic about Jesus’ torment on the cross is still incendiary 30 years on. PROSPECT 22 APR Pedro Pascal, soon to be seen in The Mandalorian, stars in this low-budget sci-fi about a father and daughter in a fight for survival. MORTAL ENGINES 22 APR Fantasy misfire about a post-apocalyptic future where giant mobile cities devour one another. Not as much fun as it sounds. ALIEN 22 APR 40th anniversary…

et’s be honest, most RPGs L aren’t exactly profound. Pretty young protagonists working their way up through the ranks to fight a big bad is all well and good, but most don’t plumb the depths of human experience. Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer’s Call does – and as it forces you to stare into the abyss, it lets you know it’s staring right back. Lucifer’s Call was the first Shin Megami Tensei (or MegaTen) game to release in Europe, introducing a new continent of players to the brooding, gothic aesthetic. It instantly gained notoriety among RPG fanatics – something Atlus had fully planned for. The developer knew the West would be hungry for a different kind of RPG: something darker, something deeper, something harder. The game, like the rest of the…

17 GB: the surprisingly small initial file size of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (p78). 2,160 Hours – the length of Apex Legends’ first season, which ends in early June. 30 Playable heroes now in Overwatch – the newest is battle medic Baptiste. 7,400 The pennies you’ll need for Dead Or Alive 6’s first season pass. Yikes. 260 Pages in the Days Gone art book in the special and collector’s editions. 47 Reach this level on Fortnite’s season 8 battle pass to unlock the Peely skin.…

BACK FOR MORE Turtle Rock Studios, the developer behind 2015’s Evolve plus Left 4 Dead on PC, has announced the latter’s spiritual successor Back 4 Blood, promising joyful four-player co-op blasting. BEYOND BELIEF Hello Games’ free No Man’s Sky: Beyond update adds multiplayer features, won’t require a subscription, and has no microtransactions. You had us at Hello. IT’S PRECIOUS The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum has been announced by Daedalic. A stealth game with a strong narrative in which we play as Gollum and Sméagol? Love it, but not until 2021. (CYBER)PUNK MUSIC Lady Gaga was spotted at CD Projekt Red’s mo-cap studio, causing speculation that she may be set to cameo in Cyberpunk 2077. BROKEN HEARTS Idea Factory in Japan made a slew of visual novel announcements, but they…

Sony’s not showing anything at E3 – so why don’t they just admit they’re working on PS5 and put us out of our misery? All my friends are saying because of the no-show that PlayStation’s dead. Why can’t Sony show us what they’re working on and give us PlayStation fans something to talk about? Olly Edwards via email Control. Days Gone. Sekiro. Devil May Cry 5. The Division 2. Those aren’t just highlights from this year, Olly, they’re from this issue. With the great games we’ve already got, and the ones coming, PS4 could keep us happy for years on its own. That said, Sony will be working on something for the future – but we’d rather wait and be presented with something finished than be fed a lot of…

Gaming has been a powerful source of escapism for many people, and helps us cope with a variety of difficult situations. For me, my go-to for pure escapist jollies was always the Saints Row series – you can vent your frustrations via a wibbly-wobbly Dildo Bat! What’s not to love? Sometimes you need more than a simple distraction – something you can really sink your teeth into. But why on earth would you choose a Soulsborne title during a period of severe anxiety like I did? After all, the term ‘Soulsborne’ has arguably become synonymous with ‘excruciating difficulty’ and ‘a special kind of Hell.’ In reality, this isn’t the case. The difference between a Soulsborne and many modern mainstream titles is that it forces you to forget what you know…

1 CALL OF DUTY: ADVANCED WARFARE Ah yes, the old ‘Hold q to pay respects’. Between the exosuit shenanigans, this forgettable COD finds time for a funeral you won’t care a jot about. It turns out asking players to emotionally invest in a doomed background character who can’t even survive the opening level is futile. 2 RED DEAD REDEMPTION Even nine years on, John Marston’s mournful dirt nap is tough to write about. After being gunned down by treacherous government cronies, John’s wife and son bury the charismatic cowboy under a tree on the family ranch. When that forlorn melody kicks in, we challenge your tear ducts not to flood. 3 GOD OF WAR Never doubt PS4 Kratos has a soft side. Although 97 per cent of rebooted GOW’s action…

1 The theatre is one of the game’s many standout locations, but there’s no time to admire the ornate design, as you need to find your sister’s notes… 2 She hid them in her private box, way above the stage, on the night of the opera. Time to navigate the ruined theatre and search her research. 3 Maybe you shouldn’t have, as Ludwig, a recurring character who’s out for your blood, lurches from the shadows. It’s time to run.…

“THE BIGGEST, MOST BUILT-OUT STEAMWORLD GAME TO DATE.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2019 / PUB THUNDERFUL / DEV IMAGE & FORM As our party members have fallen, our hands of six cards have become more and more greyed out with moves we can’t use. Only our main warrior, Armilly, stands against this enemy who’s launched a terrible attack on our village – a uni-wheeled armoured robot with a caged canary for a head. Its health is low, but we’re only just holding on ourselves. One more hit will turn us into scrap. Then with one last draw of the cards, we assemble a hand that we have just enough Steam Power to pull off, playing a full chain combo to win the fight, and polish off our two chapters with…

“ELSWEYR IS A GREAT PLACE TO START BECAUSE IT HAS DRAGONS.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA 4 JUN / PUB BETHESDA SOFTWORKS / DEV ZENIMAX ONLINE STUDIOS Our first look at Elsweyr reacquainted us with the Khajiit’s lunar lore and sparked much debate among Team OPM. One question reigned supreme: “D’you reckon Khajiit have litters?” So when we meet the team behind the game, we ask. After a pause, director Matt Firor says, “So there are so many places you could have gone with that question… Thank goodness you went there.” As we venture into Elsweyr, we see the full breadth of Khajiit amid the splendour of Star Haven. It’s home to students of grand adept Ma’jha-dro, and their recruitment criteria does not discriminate. From the Alfiq, which resemble the feline…

O PM: How do you keep things grounded and strike the balance between dream-logic rituals and realism? Brooke Maggs: The grounding element, from my point of view, is the Bureaucracy of the Bureau. You still have to somehow operate as a government organisation with all of this very strange, unexplained stuff happening. And one of the things […] we use to describe it is ‘the mundane needs the unexplained.’ So people trying to do their office work in a shifting building, for example, is really interesting. And so you can say, ‘people are just like me, they’re just trying to find the bathroom but now it’s shifted’ […] We’re actually saying that the amount of bathrooms adds to the realism as well. [Laughs] Yeah, so I think there’s that. But…

DEACON ST JOHN Our hero is a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang. Creative director John Garvin explains, “They are rebels – what they really want is to do their own thing and they don’t like being told what to do. Deacon sort of chafes at anybody telling him what to do. […] A lot of people died because they did what the government told him to do: ‘Go here. You’ll be safe here,’ but they weren’t. That sort of plays into who Deacon is and why he might have survived.” WILLIAM ‘BOOZER’ GRAY The man with a penchant for head tatts is Deacon’s best friend and often his sole companion on the road. While Deacon can act downright unhinged at times, Boozer often acts as his moral compass. Garvin…

01 Deacon uses everything Boozer has taught him about tracking to pick up the survivor’s trail. As she will need fresh water every day, like any human would, it makes sense for Deacon to start his search by the riverside. 02 Deacon follows her footsteps through buildings, noting that moving at night would be risky but the darkness coupled with her small stature would make her harder to see. She’s clearly smart to have survived this long. 03 Mid-trail, Rippers – an unpleasant apocalyptic cult with an admittedly nifty line in scarification – descend on the town, loudly announcing their own intentions to find the girl. We don’t allow them to feel welcome. 04 After a tense first meeting, we persuade the girl to come with us to… the relative…

The Testament of Sherlock Holmes (PS3), 2012 A leap forward for the Sherlock Holmes series, Testament felt truly designed for consoles. An original story, Holmes has to wrangle his toughest case yet, one where he is the main suspect, and has serious issues trying to prove his innocence. Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments (PS3, PS4), 2014 Sherlock Holmes and John Watson take on six cases, one after another, that end up all tying into a larger plot. Often the cases feature moral dilemmas, and as Holmes you have to weigh up how to end each morally grey case. Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter (PS4), 2016 Again a larger plot takes place over a few cases, this time centring around Holmes’ daughter in some areas. A bit more action-packed, it focuses…

What if famous, historical tyrants were actually cute anime girls? And what if they all might want to date me? These are the questions asked by this Warriors-style hack ‘n’ slash with light visual novel elements. A follow-up to an alternate universe spin-off of Fate/stay night, Extella Link is the latest entry to put you in the shoes of a magical Master who has control over a selection of servants based on figures from literature, history, and myth. Taking place over the course of one week,1 there’s a batty plot involving a virtual world based on the moon and an epic battle for the wish-granting Holy Grail. Each day, you choose how you’ll advance your front line but each battle plays out more or less the same. Arenas are broken…

Harry Potter? Pah! Wands are for amateurs. In this game, you pluck fire, ice, and ethereal material out of thin air with your bare hands. Well, with your gloved hands. In virtual reality. Using a pair of PS Move controllers. But you get the idea. Simple and (usually) effective gestures see you conjuring, say, an ice bow or a magical shield into existence. There are several spells, and you’ll unlock them all pretty quickly. Casting these spells is – to begin with, at least – intoxicating in its ease and primal wish fulfilment. Seeing a fireball appear in your virtual hand with a casual wave of your arm is cool, although the daintiness with which you need to throw it in order to maintain any sort of accuracy is unintentionally…

We said goodbye to PS3 and PS Vita titles on PS Plus last month. In March we said hello to a new era. Part of that was welcoming a whopping 100GB of online storage for all your save data on top of the already included subscriber-only store discounts, freebies, and access to online multiplayer. As long as you stay subscribed, you’ll have access to all the PS3 and PS Vita titles you’ve redeemed up until this point. But going forward the lineup will be PS4-focused. March boasted two titles. First up was CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE REMASTERED. Rightly described as one of the best remasters around (we enjoyed it back in issue #130), it was developed as the result of a fan petition and initially released as part of…

Our first ranked match is against a fully kitted-out Nyotengu and spells the shape of things to come. Even among the lower ranks there’s fierce competition and plenty of people who know what they’re doing far better than you. But your victories are much more strongly weighted than your losses so a losing streak won’t necessarily always spell demotion. These matches also provide a measly offering of costume pattern parts, win or lose, if repeatedly being knocked on your bum doesn’t do it for you (completing the DOA Quest mode is still your best bet for unlocking all the cosmetics). Unfortunately, there’s no sign yet of the option for a lobby match or any other online modes, making for slim pickings all round. VERDICT Like the offline game, it’s a…

STEVEN UNIVERSE This Minecraft pack finally reveals what Steven Universe would be like if it were more blocky. With skins, textures, and music, your cubey world will be like the TV show. MONSTERCAT MUSIC PACK VOL. 1 Get sweaty in PS VR rhythm game Beat Saber with this curated pack of ten extra songs. They’re also available individually for £1.69 a piece. BOWLING NIGHT STUFF Your tiny simulated humans in The Sims 4 are about to be bowled away by this expansion. Adds a bowling hangout, objects, and – of course – bowling-themed fashion. THE CRUCIBLE We hope you like Darksiders III’s combat, because this DLC challenges you to take on 101 waves of enemies. Includes new armour and enchantments too. OCCULT SIEGE This new mission for Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor…

Ever since PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds and Fortnite stepped onto the scene, battle royale has been the hottest genre around. But what will it take for this unique format to have a long, healthy future? For the few hot seconds you could spare in between lavish and expensive Fortnite events, it seemed that the battle royale competition was finally over. Epic’s refinement of what PUBG had popularised was a sensation like no other. Was it even worth other devs trying? Cue Apex Legends, which launched for free with next to no warning. But EA and Respawn knew what they were doing. Rather than give players time to find reason to grouse about Apex, they let them jump right in and see how much fun it was for themselves. Not to mention they…

1 “MAKING ONE OF GAMING’S MOST COMPLEX ACTION RPGS ACCESSIBLE […] YOUR NEW CO-OP OBSESSION.” 2 “EXAMINING THE FINAL DAYS OF A HANDUL OF NORMAL PEOPLE WITH NO CYNICISM, DETACHMENT OR JUDGEMENT.” 3 “AN MMO SHOOTER THAT RISES ABOVE STORY PROBLEMS BY LETTING YOU CREATE YOUR OWN EPIC NARRATIVE WITH FRIENDS EVERY SECOND OF PLAY.” 4 “AN EXQUISITE ENVIRONMENT, MOVEMENT THAT’S RARELY LESS THAN EXHILARATING AND PLENTY MORE OF THE SAME STEALTHY, STABBY THRILLS.”…

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 RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 There are a lot of open world games, but none that make you feel like you’re a part of a world in quite the same way as Arthur Morgan’s wild west adventure. Tremendously physical, an epic story, and some of the most satisfying headshots you’ll ever find. 3 GOD OF WAR A departure in some ways but…

1 TETRIS EFFECT Tetris, yeah? It might be a great game, but it’s easy to understand why you’d brush this off as just more Tetris at a glance. Yet Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s trippy, transcendent take on the block-based puzzler is nothing short of a masterpiece. Sure, you can play it without PS VR, but in the virtual space it really becomes next level, transforming one of the tightest puzzle games ever made into an emotional ride. 2 THE PERSISTENCE This first-person horror roguelike offers perfectly sized chunks of survival bursts. It’s everything you’d expect from a full PS4 release, but in PS VR it’s filled with clever ideas, unique weapons, genuine jump scares, and fab looks – plus great couchplay. 3 REZ INFINITE Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s vision becomes reality in PS VR.…

While the games haven’t totally stopped coming out for PS Vita, they’ve slowed down quite a bit as the hardware production winds down. But that still leaves the handheld console with a stellar library of original games stretching back to 2011, on top of all the PSP and PS1 games you can download through PSN. It’s a packed library you’d never be able to make it through anyway. Now it’s the best time to pick one up for a cheaper price – just don’t wait until they get too scarce!…