Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2019 i PLAY

Oscar Taylor-Kent GAMES EDITOR Marvel’s Avengers? Elden Ring? Deathloop? Nope, Oscar’s fave from E3 was the return of the Tales series. He’s an animaniac. GAME OF E3 Tales Of Arise FAVE GAME CAMEO Mark Hamill Jess Kinghorn STAFF WRITER After a week at E3 living off American pizza, Jess has all the knead-to-know news. We crust her; our writer’s a professional. GAME OF E3 Control FAVE GAME CAMEO Sigourney Weaver Miriam McDonald OPERATIONS EDITOR Unwinding in Dreams, Mim’s been making a garden of skull-flowers – they’re Deathodils. GAME OF E3 Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga FAVE GAME CAMEO Helena Bonham Carter Milford Coppock MANAGING ART EDITOR Milf got through our tough E3 deadline with a lot of coffee. It was worth it; this issue’s collectible covers are brew-tiful. GAME…

“A DARK, MODERN SHOOTER IMBUED WITH TRADITIONAL IDEAS.” ”Shooters are in our DNA […] Outriders draws on all of our experience from all of our previous titles. It’s a game we’ve wanted to make for a very long time,” says Bartosz Kmita, creative director at People Can Fly, during this year’s E3 reveal of the dev’s new three-player co-op shooter. The last game People Can Fly released on PlayStation was Bulletstorm, the manic first-person shooter that played like a proto-Doom 2016. While still an FPS, Outriders is a more serious take on the genre, mixing fantasy and sci-fi influences. Kmita describes Outriders as a dark, modern shooter imbued with traditional ideas: “we are creating a shooter with a strong story, that you can enjoy with your friends or on your…

BE EXCELLENT Who’s that making a surprise cameo at the end of the Cyberpunk 2077 trailer? Keanu Reeves! This action RPG just got most excellent. NATE CHARTED The Tom-Holland-starring Uncharted movie is a real thing, and it’s set for a Christmas 2020 release date. Now that’s a prezzie we can look forward too. KINGDOM HEARTY Square will release the Kingdom Hearts Re:Mind DLC this winter – it enables you to play as Roxas, Aqua, and Riku. That warms our hearts. CONTRA-VERSIAL Konami teased a big reveal. Silent Hill? Castlevania? Nope, Contra: Rogue Corps Okay. We love Contra, but what’s this hot mess? Our inner fanboy loves it, our critical mind tells us to steer clear. FAST? FURIOUS The good news is there’s a new Need For Speed due later this…

Videogames are often compared to other media – especially movies – in an effort to demonstrate their importance in society. This usually takes the form of revenue comparisons, ignoring the fact that a game can cost ten times more than a cinema ticket. The thing is, games are like movies in some ways, but unlike them in many more. I’m not here to send you to sleep listing similarities and differences between the talkies and the, er, playies. However, it’s worth noting that they share genres. Action, sci-fi, horror, fantasy, romance (though this is largely left to the indie sector)… the game industry does intentionally ape cinema. But where are all the comedies? Sure, Nathan Drake quipped with the best of them during his adventures, but Uncharted isn’t a comedy.…

Metal Gear Solid 2 Despite being busy on a deadly op, Raiden is constantly pestered by Rose about their first date via Codec. Watch Dogs 2 Wrench may constantly wear an electronic mask, but DedSec’s engineer still somehow gets a date in Ubi’s sandbox. Mass Effect trilogy Do one-night stands count as dates? If they do, the ready-to-Shatner Shepard has dated his entire crew. Did we miss your favourite date? Got a brilliant In The Mood For idea? Show and tell at twitter.com/opm_uk.…

Format PS4 ETA Q3 2019 Pub R8 Games Dev R8 Games Just to nip it in the bud, yes, Pacer shares a lot of DNA with WipEout. This futuristic anti-gravity racer was made by some of the same coders and designers as those original games (including R8 Games founder Andrew Walker), and even features music from Cold Storage, so the similarities are undeniable. But Pacer has its own identity nonetheless. The tracks are colourful and vibrant, but feel a bit more grounded (heh!) than WipEout’s, and you’re able to customise your vehicles and choose exactly how you want to race. Vehicle types are distinct from one another, and you can take your starting one and hop into the garage to tweak the engine, the anti-grav, and other components to your…

Format PS4 ETA TBC Pub THQ Nordic Dev Airship Syndicate While we continue to wait for Darksiders 4, some of the series’ original talent, including comic artist Joe Madureira, have spun-off this dungeon-crawling shooter from the mainline series. Essentially Darksiders meets Diablo, in which you play as the gun-toting Strife and the sword-wielding War, who are called upon to maintain balance in the universe in the face of a plotting Lucifer, Darksiders: Genesis will fill the Horsemen-shaped hole until number four emerges. The grind is a simple one: kill everything that Heaven, Hell, and all worlds in between can throw at you, and grab as much loot as you can along the bloody road to victory. The realms are linked by Serpent Holes, enabling the duo to move between Heaven…

Format PS4 ETA 2020 Pub Bigben Interactive Dev Cyanide Studio While the tabletop RPG Vampire: The Masquerade forms the basis for not one but two upcoming videogames, the first-ever one based on its furry cousin, Werewolf: The Apocalypse is on the way too. Both tabletop games are part of the World Of Darkness, a fictional universe incorporating supernatural horror elements in a modern urban setting. Earthblood has you take on the role of werewolf Cahal. Once banished from his clan, the exile must now return to protect them. As a Garou warrior, he is opposed to the way civilisation reaps from nature without giving back. Needless to say, he loathes car-centric urban planning with a passion. Nature plays a big role in werewolf culture, so it’s only natural that Cahal…

Format PS VR ETA 2019 Pub Rebellion Dev Dev Rebellion/Just Add Water This PS VR shooter stands out for its commitment to using the superb PS Aim controller. Set in the same Italian World War 2 scenario as Sniper Elite 4, and based on a new story by Tony Schumacher (author of the acclaimed John Rossett novels), Sniper Elite VR tasks you with infiltrating a Nazi U-boat facility near Sicily. With the Aim controller in hand, you can freely move about the game’s rooftops and alleyways to get the perfect shot. That’s achieved by moving the controller to your eyes and squinting down the in-game virtual sights. If you don’t have an Aim controller, Sniper Elite VR also supports playing with two PS Move controllers or DualShock 4, though obviously…

Format PS4 ETA Sep 2019 Pub Konami Dev Konami This year’s PES is placing a heavy emphasis on two of its club stars, Lionel Messi and Andrés Iniesta, which in-game translates to a more expansive first touch and dribbling system, called Finesse Dribble. We’ve seen the game’s Messi trap a ball on the toe of his boot and flick a pass over his head with his heel. The new close control means we can weave through defenders, too. The inclusion of Ronaldinho (a free ten-match loan with the Legend Edition) really looks to have inspired the devs; his tricky close-control and tricks make it into the game, including context-sensitive kick accuracy. As attackers improve so does the defence, and players can stop goals in more realistic ways. Keepers can head…

Format PS4 ETA TBC Pub Sony Dev Team Ninja Like its starring samurai Nioh stands alone, a unique twist on the soulsborne genre. In a post-Sekiro world, Team Ninja’s combat-heavy Japanese adventure is still very much its own yokai. The secret of its success is its combat. Playing as a samurai is about standing your ground and trading blows rather than darting around. Each weapon has different combos you need to become comfortable with, from damage and ki (stamina) usage to attack timings, and these differ depending on what stance you’re in. You can switch between low, middle, and high stances, and reading an enemy’s stance and answering with your own to out-manoeuvre them is key to coming out on top. Beyond katanas, Nioh 2 will have an array of…

After last year’s leap to Unreal Engine 4, this year’s MotoGP is more of an evolutionary instalment. MotoE is the biggest new inclusion, seeing riders old and new zipping about on zero-emission, electric superbikes.1 You get to race the same seven European races that are happening in the real MotoE’s inaugural championship and, once you get used to the dog-bothering whine the electric motors make, they’re fun little machines – not that different from Moto 2 in terms of speed and feel. Everything looks a little better, though the game still only runs at 30fps, compared to MotoGP 17’s 60fps.2 Pre-race and garage scenes look better, and the TV-style presentation is pleasantly slick. Under the hood (er… saddle?), the AI is ostensibly all-new, having ‘learned how to ride’ from scratch,…

Scheduling is the true final boss of any RPG party’s campaign, and sometimes there’s just no helping it. When real-world game night is cancelled, what’s a self-respecting nerd to do? For The King has the answer: play with yourself. Your adventure is set upon a hexagonal, turn-based stage with a selection of campaigns to choose from,1 each following a travelling party consisting of hapless adventurers created by you.2 As a roguelite, your adventure comes to an end if you run out of lives or earn the dubious honour of a TPK. But each adventure grants Lore points that you can spend to make any future campaigns just a little easier with new classes, encounters, equipment, and the like. You’ll pick up the groove pretty quickly after your first adventure. It’s…

Bloober Team’s sequel to its brilliant 2016 artist-go-mad-’em-up moves the walking sim action to a ship where a movie actor playing his ultimate role delves deep into his troubled psyche. Unfortunately, though, this is a nine-hour cruise you’re going to want to skip. First off, the good (and you can wait for a giant ‘but’ to arrive). Layers Of Fear 2 is beautiful. From the rivets up, this hell-ship is a first-class experience, and Bloober Team knows how to deliver atmosphere. Whispers… radio static… creaking doors… endless creepy mannequins1 creaking into life as you edge past… rooms switching while your back is turned. It’s more of the clever stuff that was so effective in the original. And yet, despite its obsession with Hollywood and piling on unsubtle horror film references,2…

Whereas the racing itself is smooth and good fun (the team aspect being much more intuitive and fluid than you might expect), the online aspect of Team Sonic Racing isn’t as quick off the starting grid. On a core level, having a game where you both race as a team and matchmake with other players creates a confusing extra layer. It’s hard to know how to group up with friends and queue as a team, and more often than not you’ll be playing with random people or AI replacements. Race rule variants add little spice to the online game. The most infuriating thing, however, is how much downtime there is between races, whether that’s spent queuing, waiting to select a course, or watching as points are tallied for the result.…

Editorial Editor Ian Dean @IanDean4 ian.dean@futurenet.com 01225 442244 Managing Art Editor Milford Coppock @milfcoppock Operations Editor Miriam McDonald @crinolinerobot Games Editor Oscar Taylor-Kent @MrOscarTK Staff Writer Jessica Kinghorn @KoeniginKatze Editorial Director, Games Tony Mott Brand Director Matthew Pierce Content Director, Games & Film Daniel Dawkins Senior Art Editor Warren Brown Contributors Louise Blain, Sarah Connock, Jordan Farley, Malindy Hetfeld, Leon Hurley, Luke Kemp, David Meikleham, Aaron Potter, Rob Speed, Alex Spencer, Justin Towell, Robin Valentine, Ben Wilson Advertising Media packs are available on request Commercial Director Clare Dove clare.dove@futurenet.com Account Director Kevin Stoddart kevin.stoddart@futurenet.com 01225 442244 International Licensing PlayStation Official Magazine – UK is available for licensing. Contact the Licensing team to discuss partnership opportunities. Head of Print Licensing Rachel Shaw licensing@futurenet.com Subscriptions Email enquiries contact@myfavouritemagazines.co.uk UK orderline & enquiries +44…

IAN DEAN EDITOR The idea of a videogame featuring a story arc that spans years like the MCU’s decade-long saga is impressive. The way things stand, and if rumours are to believed, we could actually see the Guardians Of The Galaxy appear in Square’s game-verse before the third film arrives. If the dev can stay agile and deliver fun, inventive Marvel worlds and characters it could break free from comparisons to the MCU and create a true MGU. Free from the pressures of the MCU we could play as fringe heroes over the standard characters… Hellcat, Spider-Woman, and Moon Knight anyone? “STOP OBSESSING OVER THE MCU; THE MGU COULD OFFER MORE IMAGINATIVE CHARACTERS.” JESS KINGHORN STAFF WRITER I’d love to see Square Enix, and developers Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montréal,…

There was a moment recently, while moving from icon to icon, from bandit camp to mutant nest, shooting anything that moved to tick another task off my map’s inflating to-do list, when I stopped. I just stopped. Rage 2’s poorly designed open world and quest loop had me questioning whether open world games are worthwhile. Well, of course they are. But Rage 2 felt like the poster child for a current trend, that of devs shackling one style of game (FPS) to an open world and assuming it’ll all work out fine. But unless that world is created to be an interesting, living space the whole thing collapses into a hot mess. I love Days Gone because it’s a world that feels like it’s been designed with the totality of…

Format PS4 ETA 2020 Pub Rebellion Dev Rebellion Developments By 1946 the Allies have seen off zombie Hitler and his Plan Z. But after throwing the infamous ’tache into Hell at the end of Zombie Trilogy, things aren’t as quiet as they should be. Playing the Milan level of Zombie Army 4, a direct sequel to the cult classic undead shooter that lifted the core gameplay from Sniper Elite V2, then added four-player co-op and the titular zombie army, it’s clear the world isn’t back to normal. The zombie Nazis have reanimated and the spectre of a returning undead Hitler hangs over Europe. Shooting feels great in this sequel, and it’s clear Rebellion has honed this aspect of the game, while learning what did and didn’t work from its recent…

Format PS4 ETA 2019 Pub Team17 Dev The Game Kitchen Bodies are sliced in half, a cartwheel crushes a man’s head, and our pixellated gothic knight, called The Penitent One, stamps on a foe’s head until gooey, chunky cranial matter splatters the screen. Despite being a classic side-scrolling pixel art adventure, Blasphemous packs in some amusingly horrendous detail. We may be fighting our way across the grim land of Cvstodia as a character who looks like 2000AD’s Torquemada crossed with Monty Python’s Black Knight, but we’re still adhering to the gospel according to metroidvania. Cvstodia is made up of crumbling castle keeps, sweaty dungeons, and tombs piled high with the bones of some vile creature’s victims. Then there’s the floating electrified zombie head, the giant baby with blind, blood-dripping eyes,…

Format PS4 ETA Q1 2020 Pub Sold-Out Software Dev Metronomik The evil EDM empire No Straight Roads has come to Vinyl City, and it’s doing more than just dropping the bass. Rockers Mayday and Zuke, outcasts confined to the city’s sewers as NSR won’t allow anyone not signed to its label to play, have decided it’s high time for an intervention. The pair plot to storm the stage of every single NSR artist in this musically-minded action adventure that plays out the eternal battle of EDM against rock. “TAKES MORE CUES FROM DEVIL MAY CRY THAN DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION.” From an intergalactic DJ set to a mer-magical pop concert under the sea, each boss arena is visually distinct and impressive to behold. Every artist’s weakness lies in the beat of…

Format PS4 ETA 2020 Pub Sony Dev IllFonic Did you enjoy Evolve? Do you love Predator? Can you quote Jesse Ventura as if your life depended on it? Then Sony and Fox’s PS4 exclusive is a must. While not directly aligned to the ’87 movie, Predator: Hunting Grounds builds on the idea of a lone alien hunting special forces operatives in a jungle. The asymmetrical online shooter plays a little like Evolve with a bit of Friday The 13th: The Game sprinkled in (IllFonic co-created the latter cult hit). Athletic and stealthy, playing as the Predator is as much about navigating the environment undetected as it is mastering the contents of the crazy weapons locker we’ve seen in the movies, which does include the chest-busting Plasmacaster. If you’re one of…

Format PS4 ETA 2019 Pub Focus Home Interactive Dev Deck 13 The first sci-fi soulsborne in this series had one good idea, and it’s being doubled down on for this sequel. The Surge 2 enables you to target specific parts of an enemy to attack, and chop them off. As we duel with our armour-clad opponent the targeting system – activated easily by locking on and pushing the stick to highlight a specific body part – enables us to reveal and create weak spots to focus on. We also discover we can disarm enemies by targeting body parts; pesky camouflaged assassins become less stressful after we’ve hacked off their cloaking tech. “WE CAN DISARM ENEMIES BY TARGETING SPECIFIC BODY PARTS.” The fun really begins when we experiment with the crafting…

Format PS4 ETA TBC Pub Sony Dev Breaking Walls Natural disasters are threatening the lives of every species on a near-future Earth-like planet, and it’s all the reason you need to scamper off to a safer place. In Away: The Survival Series, you play as a small mammal called Sugar Glider. Seeing the world from the perspective of this tiny beast makes the dangers feel even greater. “Given the Sugar Glider’s small size, we made sure every plant, leaf, and blade of grass was accounted for, and this attention to detail pays off,” says creative director Laurent Bernier. The little scamp needs to run and stealth its way across this beautiful world, gliding from treetops, exploring caverns, and scurrying across the remnants of a lost civilsation. There’s a clear ecological…

Format PS4 ETA 25 Oct Pub Private Division Dev Obsidian Entertainment We’ve had to wait almost a decade, but finally Obsidian is serving up another full-fat, dystopian RPG. Looking like an interstellar take on its beloved Fallout: New Vegas, the studio’s latest roleplayer is set in a world where multinationals are trying to outdo each other as they colonise space. Combining deliberately cheesy 1950s sci-fi imagery with crunching violence – think an X-rated take on The Jetsons – Outer Worlds already looks more interesting than Fallout 4. With a customisable character who owns a faster-than-sound ship that acts as a hub, the game encourages you to explore the universe while making buddies along the way. As you befriend sidekicks and complete their missions, you’ll dole out third-person melee attacks, fire…

Format PS4 ETA 2019 Pub Focus Home Interactive Dev Spiders Take your time to think about the consequences,” says the voice. That sums up all you need to know about Greedfall, an RPG where your decisions, no matter how small, can change the world around you. We’re in BioWare territory, but it’s a place EA’s dev has currently forsaken and Spiders is eagerly embracing. While this game’s visual style has stolen headlines – its 17th-century setting and Baroque overtones are rarities – it’s the complexity of its world that stands out when you play it, as it explores the nature of colonialism like few other games have dared to. You can side with or oppose the many political and religious factions of the island of Greedfall, including the indigenous population…

Format PS4 ETA Mar 2020 Pub Paradox Interactive Dev Hardsuit Labs The Vampire Council will tell you the one rule of undeath is this: keep the existence of vampires secret. But things are more complex than that. Everyone’s got their fingers in Seattle’s Sweeney-Todd-like pies, and everyone wants you to do their dirty work. Thankfully it doesn’t count as breaking The Masquerade if you simply kill your enemies. From leaping high to summoning bats to sucking blood, your skills are diverse – and there’s always the low-tech option of a shotgun. However, guns are loud, so combat is mostly melee-focused… if you can’t talk or sneak your way through a hairy situation, that is. A branching narrative put the decisions in your hands as try to curry favour with the…

FORMAT PS4 ETA 26 JUL PUB BETHESDA SOFTWORKS DEV MACHINEGAMES, ARKANE STUDIOS We only review finished games, so in Viewpoint we go hands-on with near-final code of a game that just missed our review deadline. Oscar Taylor-Kent loves fighting for justice and hates Nazis, so he strapped on his power suit to liberate Paris and get stabby with a friend. The blood splatter resulting from a well-blasted Nazi in MachineGames’ über-violent Wolfenstein series is  excessive. And glorious. It’s the kind of ultraviolence that’s often personal. But the biggest thing in Youngblood is that it’s the type of personal you can share with a friend – a bona fide sister. It’s impossible to play Youngblood alone. Even in solo play, you’ll be joined by an AI companion controlling either Jess or…

Football game fans argue hourly over which of PES and FIFA has the best facial likenesses, so launching a niche sports game with some rocky visuals is at best brave, at worst foolhardy. Kudos to Aussie studio Big Ant, then. Its licensed attempts at Joe Root’s late-teenager stubble and Steve Smith’s sandpapered jawline won’t have you mistaking this for a Sky Sports broadcast,1 yet Cricket 19 keeps you hooked by nailing the fundamentals of bats, balls, and bouncers in a manner that feels both game-y and authentic.2 It’s a sim where walloping sixes in 20-over contests provides immediate appeal, but real depth and nuance comes from digging in for a five-day test: picking off bad balls as you build to a century, or executing a bowling plan to capitalise on…

This is one of those rare games to come out on PS4 after other platforms, but at least we’re getting the definitive version of the charming action-adventure from the devs behind Rayman Origins, Valiant Hearts, and other games made using the UbiArt Framework engine. Inspired by the classic 16th-century Chinese novel Journey To The West, Unruly Heroes casts you as a quartet of ancient warriors tasked with saving the world by piecing together the scattered fragments of a sacred scroll. What ensues is a blend of frantic platforming and colourful combat as you and up to three friends swap between Wukong The Monkey King, Sanzang The Sleepy Monk, Kihong The Greedy Pig, and Sandmonk The Sensitive Brute, utilising each one’s skills to overcome obstacles and defeat enemies. Each of the…

This pain-stake-ingly crafted collection leads on the first three games which set the template for Konami’s acclaimed series. Beginning with 1987’s Castlevania you explore the 2D side-scrolling corridors of a Transylvanian castle, whipping zombies, bats, and creatures of the night to defeat Dracula. The sequel, Simon’s Quest, introduces RPG elements and puzzle solving, giving this entry a progressive feel. The trilogy ends with Dracula’s Curse, which adds four playable characters and multiple routes, taking us even closer to the metroidvania approach we love. Arguably the best game in this collection, it demonstrates why director Hitoshi Akamatsu1 is one of the unsung heroes of the 8-bite, erm, -bit era. Castlevania: The Adventure and Rebirth were both Gameboy titles, and they’re… functional. The SNES’ Castlevania IV is a 16-bit remake of the…

WWZ has a dedicated community – that’s clear from how easy it is to find high-level players and Zeke zlayers just starting out on their apocalyptic adventure alike. The dev team is still hard at work on new content, with an additional Tokyo mission and special zombie type in the works at the time of writing. The future looks bright for this multiplayer post-apocalypse. But in the present we’re still trying to connect to the servers. While we enjoyed multiplayer and online co-op at launch, a month later we’re having connectivity issues. At time of writing there’s no option for a private lobby, meaning you’ll often be paired with randos mid-way through their own missions who’ll leave you behind in their horde-hurting dust. VERDICT New content is coming but it…

IT JUST POPPED IN THERE… It’s as if someone read our recent Classic Game feature and agreed PlayStation 3’s Ghostbusters: The Video Game needs to be remastered. A spruced-up version of what is essentially, given the original cast and writers involved, Ghostbusters 3, will be coming to PlayStation 4 later this year. DON’T BLINK Doctor Who will venture into a new realm of time and space: virtual reality. Well, that’s not strictly true as animated short The Runaway does exist earlier in the timeline. But The Edge Of Time is a fully playable PS VR experience that’ll pit you against series villains old and new later this year. IT’S ALIVE! Capcom confirmed during a financial briefing that it has multiple games in development on the RE engine, though their titles…

PlayStation heroes have graced cinemas before, of course. Let’s not forget 2016’s reasonably harmless Ratchet & Clank. Yet the creation of this new division shows there’s been a marked change in thinking at Sony about how it adapts its IPs for film and TV. From here on out, it will be Sony and Sony alone that dictates the artistic direction of all forthcoming PlayStation big- and small-screen spin-offs. Led by Asad Qizilbash – who’s worked in Sony marketing for over a decade – PlayStation Productions will produce projects internally. Why is this such a big deal? Well, in the past, Sony would often look to outsource potential PlayStation tie-ins to external studios… studios that probably knew diddly-squat about what makes your favourite PlayStation games so special. Want to see what…

1 THE DARKNESS So having your body and soul merged with demonic tentacles won’t improve your love life. Who knew? Early in this paranormal horror, Jackie and his love interest Jenny celebrate the wiseguy’s 21st birthday at her flat. Cake and cosying up on the couch ensue. Sadly, Jenny gets whacked by Jackie’s evil uncle. 2 HATOFUL BOYFRIEND Only in games could you see a story about a teenage girl dating sapient birds at an avian-only high school. After a deadly strain of bird flu leads to highly intelligent avians becoming Earth’s dominant species, your character is forced into dating brainy doves, pigeons, and partridges. 3 THE WITCHER 3: THE WILD HUNT Being a randy devil, Geralt can enjoy multiple romantic trysts in The Witcher 3, yet he can only…

Format PS4 ETA TBC Pub Larian Studios Dev Larian Studios/Logic Artists Divinity: Original Sin 2 was more than just its combat system. In fact, as it was an in-depth old-school style RPG, you could often avoid fighting altogether. That’s not the case in Fallen Heroes, a spin-off that’s all about the fights – each chapter is a progression of strategic battles. The tactics use Original Sin 2’s as a base, with plenty more lovingly lathered on top, such as extra abilities, and elemental effects like oil that will ignite when used near fire magic (chain reactions based on the elements are a core part of the tactical setup). The game’s more akin to a bowl of meaty kibbles than a soupy RPG, then, as each battle is a chunk of…

Format PS4 ETA 30 Aug Pub Bandai Namco Dev Supermassive Games Until Dawn is one of PS4’s best horror games, and developer Supermassive Games is back doing what it does best: jump-scaring us out of our PlayStation socks. Pitched as the first of a new horror anthology series, Man Of Medan features choice-led gameplay where key moments are influenced by the decisions you make, branching the narrative and affecting the characters’ relationships. The early part of the game teases what’s to come. The dislikable, heroic, goofy, and young horny character types that made Until Dawn so much fun are back, and now they’re scaring and hitting on one another (or not, depending on your choices). There’s an eeriness to every scene that satisfies our need to be spooked. Pirates commandeer…

Format PS4 ETA 2019 Pub Mossmouth Dev Mossmouth As a roguelike platformer, the first Spelunky challenged you with randomly generated caverns filled with deliciously dangerous-to-reach treasure. Spelunky 2 refines those aspects, and adds plenty of surprises for veterans. Some of the additions are enemies with behaviours you’ll need to learn, like a mole that leaps out of the earth; others are traps like a falling log. But flowing liquid takes the cake, as lava can now spill out if you blow up a misjudged block. You’re your own undoing. On top of that, online functionality is taking the co-op chaos to greater depths. When multiple people are taking on the threats, it can feel easier – but it’s a double-edged sword as the extra explosions and traps activated can turn…

Format PS4 ETA 2019 Pub Cygames Dev Arc System Works Arc System Works (Guilty Gear, Dragon Ball FighterZ) has been enlisted by Cygames to make the fighting game version of its popular mobile phone JRPG, Granblue. Arc is adept at replicating 2D visuals in 3D, so that a game looks like anime in motion, and the airy world of airships and fantasy characters looks stunning in three dimensions. Versus’ fighting system is simpler than you might expect, possibly to appeal to players who are familiar with the turn-based JRPG. But that’s not to say its systems don’t have depth. Every character has simple light, medium, and heavy combos on r, w, and e, and they alter depending on direction. Unique character moves on q, including things like extra dashes, a…

Format PS4 ETA Q3 2019 Pub Sony Dev PixelOpus Denska might be a polluted city, but that just makes its pockets of beauty stand out all the more, whether that’s the soft halo of streetlamps on brick, the distant cries of seagulls, or the neon that bursts from Ash’s brush as he paints the town red (and other colours). The poor young fella’s bullied by a gang, who tear up his sketchbook. But thanks to that magical paintbrush, Ash is able to turn the whole city into his canvas, painting graffiti on the walls that then comes to life – whether that’s something like a picture of a fire, or actual creatures – to help him solve puzzles. As Ash, how you design things alters not just what they can…

Format PS4 ETA 27 Sep Pub EA Dev EA Vancouver Who knew EA could be so wistful? Taking a page – presumably dotted with Panini stickers – from its footie goliath’s late ‘90s era, the new ‘Volta’ mode is taking proceedings back to a simpler style of soccer. A combination of the dearly departed FIFA Street and the indoor matches that last graced the series around 1998, it centres on pro futsal games. Embracing the spirit of Nike’s 2002 ‘Little Less Conversation’ Elvis World Cup advert, Volta lets you take part in 3v3 Rush (without goalies), traditional 4v4, 4v4 Rush, and 5v5 matches. This is no flashy afterthought, though. Instead, Volta seems to be packing enough content for an entire spin-off series. Not only does this indoor soccer hybrid get…

Format PS4 ETA TBC Pub Bethesda Softworks Dev Tango Gameworks Tango Gameworks’ latest might not be the survival horror you’ve come to expect from The Evil Within developer, but it is “spooky” according to creative director Ikumi Nakamura. The game is more of an action adventure than one that has you struggling to survive. But that doesn’t mean there won’t still be some scary things along the way. Ghostwire: Tokyo is set within the bustling Japanese capital, and it makes full use of the urban setting. We get a glimpse of some unsettling monster designs that draw inspiration from Japanese folklore – something like a kappa, weird men with long fingers hiding underneath umbrellas, and a creepy shrine maiden. Not to mention people seem to be disappearing into thin air,…

Format PS4 ETA TBC Pub Sony Dev Camouflaj Forget other superhero games, the real dream is stepping into the metal shoes of Tony Stark. After all, aside from his genius, his powers are basically just owning a high-tech suit. Which makes this perhaps the only superhero game that truly makes sense to play in VR. Yes, we loved Batman: Arkham VR, but it was essentially a Being John Malkovich-type situation. In Iron Man VR, you’re strapped into a suit just as Tony Stark is strapped into Iron Man, experiencing all the heads-up display information Mr Stark would actually see through his high-tech visor. The suit can be upgraded with different skills, so you can tweak the action of your PS Move controller repulsor beams (you literally point and shoot). We’ve…

Format PS4 ETA Q1 2020 Pub Techland Publishing Dev Techland The post-apocalyptic parkour-’em-up is back and bigger than ever. As you tear through an urban environment ravaged by 15 years between this sequel and its predecessor, it won’t just be the the rival factions’ goons or the zombies that hit you; you’ll be struck by its size too. And while you’re wall-running and jumping as before, it’s not just your locomotive skills that open up a number of new paths to you. The narrative has grown lots of new branches, with many of your decisive actions massively shaping the world around you. BEST FRENEMIES In the E3 demo, we have to choose whether to stick to our guns or side with the straight-talking Colonel, whose men may be responsible for…

“The bureau is trying to study these items and understand them and control them and the interesting thing is many of them are unexplained and dangerous. And the question is, ‘can they be understood or can we understand?’ So, another purpose of the side-missions is to take you back through a lot of these spaces. So when you get the ability to levitate, higher levels of the panopticon open up over time. [...] You could run past Philip the fridge guy and never stop to learn about him or his story but you’re rewarded for engaging.”…

Format PS4 ETA TBC Pub Bandai Namco Dev FromSoftware So, if you’re a fan of both Dark Souls and Game Of Thrones, you might want to have a little lie-down. A collaboration between FromSoftware and George RR Martin, Elden Ring is the equivalent of 50 Christmas Days… minus the awkward socialising with relatives you can’t stand. Suffice to say, the melding of minds behind two of the great pieces of fantasy fiction of the last 20 years is kind of a big deal. Though concrete details of exactly what type of title Elden Ring is are still thin, a recent interview with FromSoftware’s Hidetaka Miyazaki provides some important details. First, it’s an open world RPG that focuses more on customisation than this year’s (still awesome) Sekiro. The game’s hero can…

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.…

The prevailing advice for filmmakers wanting to make their first feature is to start with low-budget horror, fostering their career from there. A similar idea has taken root among smaller game developers with cheap-and-cheerful frightfests a dime a dozen. Yggdrazil Group’s first foray into game development sits comfortably within that scene. You wake up to the sound of your disappeared wife’s voice only to realise that you yourself are also far from home. You’re first pursued by a screaming phantom armed with a box cutter, your only defence to hide.1 You’re not constantly pursued as exploration breaks up spooky pursuits, but blood smeared all over the walls in that early area acts as doorways for the spectre, so the threat of a chase is always present. Thankfully, spooks move at…

What’s great about the Atelier series is that it’s as far from sword-and-sorcery JRPG stereotypes as possible.1 Each game revolves around an alchemist whose main goal is to improve her talents and explore the land in order to create more complex items to help the almost entirely benevolent population. Atelier Lulua takes the surprising step of revisiting the first PS3 trilogy’s Arland setting.2 Fans will welcome checking back in with the characters, and newcomers will enjoy the sense that this world has a very rich history. The series did away with time limits on alchemy requests some time ago, and so in this entry you must simply continue to fill out the pages of a mysterious alchemy book by exploring and crafting along the lines of the hints given. There’s…

This top-down action RPG has many of the elements you’d expect – and some you wouldn’t. You are tasked with freeing a magic dog (named AAAH!) who has surrounded himself with an impenetrable chocolate barrier. Armed with a ruler and a cardboard shield, you must locate and enlist the help of the six powerful witches and wizards of the Poptart Academy. Super Cane Magic Zero drops you – quite literally – into the cartoony land of WOTF, which you can explore alone or in co-op. You are given a choice of characters, each with unique abilities and base stats which you can customise further through gear choices and skill trees as you level up. Both melee and ranged combat feel comfortable and smooth,1 and the quirky enemies are reasonably challenging,…

Ah, there you are: the intelligent and discerning reader of this fine magazine... who are also very attractive. Once again you’ve had the impeccable judgement to cast your eyes upon this column where we look back at what was on offer this month from PS Plus. This June, you could say subscribers were rewarded handsomely. With the third game out 13 September, the inclusion of BORDERLANDS: THE  HANDSOME COLLECTION gave you ample opportunity to investigate for yourself what that business about Sirens, billions of guns, and mayhem across Pandora is all about. The collection included Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (which takes place between the first and second instalments) and all DLC for both games. If you’d already enjoyed more than a few rodeos on Pandora, you were able to…

BLOODBORNE Jess Kinghorn’s holding the gate wide open Reader, I simply couldn’t stay away. After years of agonising over surviving Yharnam and beyond the ‘right way’, I’ve finally said ‘To R’lyeh with it.’ For every boss aside from the Cleric Beast (which I fell single-handedly first time, thank you very much) I ring the Beckoning Bell and let veteran hunters show me how it’s done. They are all courteous, both bowing before the hunt begins and allowing their greenhorn charge to get the last hit in. Between them, in-game notes, and online guides, I’m having a far more pleasant stay in Yharnam than you might ever have imagined. BATTLEFIELD V Oscar Taylor-Kent rides shotgun I’m still entranced by side-mode Firestorm, Battlefield V’s take on the battle royale. It’s not the…

GERMANY RALLY The Baumholder race from the first game returns in Dirt Rally 2.0. It’s a technical challenge on tarmac that will run seasoned players through a German gauntlet. SEASON PASS TOTORI As well as adding a high-level gathering zone to Atelier Lulua, this ensures you do it in style with extra outfits, including series throwback Rorona’s original clobber. CHARACTER PACK 7 Heart herself brings Arcana Heart representation to the BlazBlue Crosstag Battle crossover fighter. Persona’s Teddie plus two more fighters also suit up. WILLIAMS PINBALL VOL. 4 Adds three classic tables – Hurricane, White Water, and Red And Ted’s Roadshow – all playable in both original and remastered presentation. MAI & KULA These two fighting heroines from SNK’s venerable King Of Fighters fight their way into Dead Or Alive…

ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY – THE FATE OF ATLANTIS EPISODE 2: TORMENT OF HADES If you thought Atlantis was a crazy location for Assassin’s Creed, then try Hell itself. Battle through the Underworld and try to get one over on our big man Hades. BORDERLANDS 2 – COMMANDER LILITH & THE FIGHT FOR SANCTUARY That’s right, DLC for a game that released in 2012. This adventure bridges the gap between Borderlands 2 and the forthcoming game, covering the events that lead to Lilith’s situation at the beginning of Borderlands 3. WORLD WAR Z – THE UNDEAD SEA This completely free campaign breathes fresh life into Saber’s surprisingly solid co-op zombie shooter. Lovely stuff. Taking place in Tokyo, it sees the survivors battling through a ferry crawling with the dead, and includes…