Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2019 i PLAY

“THE SUIT NEEDED A STRONG IDENTITY OF ITS OWN.” When Marvel needs someone to design Iron Man, artist Adi Granov is at the top of the company’s list. Having worked on the relaunch in the comics, the character’s design in the movies, and the Nova comic with Bill Rosemann (who’s now the creative director at Marvel Games), when Ryan Payton from Camouflaj asked if he’d be interested in designing the new suit for Iron Man VR, “it was a pretty logical thing for me to take on,” says the artist. Being familiar with Iron Man and how Marvel works, Granov knows how vital it is to get the character’s silhouette and ‘expression’ spot-on. “I always find that there is a real sweet spot to arranging the position of the eyes…

Since its heyday in the noughties the province of simulation games has evolved into a strange domain, populated by a mix of hardcore sims and comedy riffs on the same format. Some of the team behind one of the classics, Theme Hospital, got the band back together under Sega to create Two Point Hospital for PC – and it’s being transferred with a doctor’s note to PS4 with all the DLC included. In part it’s a cynical business management game, but its heart is full of goofy fun. You have to try to make as much money as you can while curing patients of often-bizarre illnesses (the Jest infection, for instance, turns them into clowns). As you progress you can expand your hospital however you like across different maps, adding…

GREAT BALLS OF FUR Releasing 29 October, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD is a remake of the 2006 Nintendo Wii game. On PS4 we get improved graphics and controls to make the classic physics-based monkey-in-a-ball obstacle courses even more fun. A new minigame Decathalon mode adds to the furry fun. LUST IN TRANSLATION A spin on Romeo and Juliet, A Rat’s Quest – The Way Back Home is certainly original. As Mat the rat, you’re on a mission to ‘rescue’ Nat, who’s being held as a pet. The action switches from a rat’s-eye-view (you physically scamper across the floor and up curtains) to 2D platforming. Not one to be sniffed at. GET HYPED FOR PS1 The fashion brand Hype revealed its new T-shirts, hoodies, and swimwear inspired by the…

“THESE GAMES GIVE PLAYERS AGENCY … CHOICES MATTER.” “Once we started digging into the code for these games, we realised we’d underestimated the amount of work this would take. We ended up having to rewrite hundreds of thousands of lines of code just to stand these games up on modern platforms,” says Cameron Tofer, Beamdog co-founder, of the firm’s work on revitalising five classic Dungeons & Dragons RPGs (Baldur’s Gate, Baldur’s Gate II, Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment, and Neverwinter Nights). “There were a few times when I’d get frustrated by a piece of old code and think ‘Who the heck wrote this?’ only to discover my own name beside it.” We’re talking about how the developers have revived the late ’90s and early 2000s games for PS4 for the first…

Best readers! I have just read the star letter in which William Ashton is trying to find OPM Demo 57 and I’ve managed to source one on Ebay. I’m waiting for it to be delivered so please let me know your office address so I can send it on when I receive it Mark Bates via email That is brilliant, Mark, thank you so much. Mark was the first OPM reader to offer a disc, but we’d like to thank him and everyone else who also offered one. It’s really heartwarming to see what a generous, caring bunch gamers are! Trophy for one “IT INFURIATES ME THAT DEVS FORCE US TO COMPLETE MULTIPLAYER/CO-OP TROPHIES TO GET THE PLATINUM.” I was really, really looking forward to getting Cyberpunk 2077 until I…

1 Cyberpunk 2077 If this isn’t one of next year’s big hits, we’ll eat our PlayStation-branded baseball caps. Everyone wants to play CD Projekt Red’s retro-futuristic adventure. FORMAT PS4 ETA 16 APRIL 2 Final Fantasy VII Remake This can’t be released soon enough – then all the tacky internet arguments over whether Tifa is less, erm, bouncy will stop. FORMAT PS4 ETA 3 MAR 3 The Last Of Us Part II Joel and Ellie are sliding slowly down the chart. Has tackling shambling, mindless enemies lost its thrill? We shall see… FORMAT PS4 ETA TBC 4 Shemue III Clearly you want something to see you through the long winter nights. Yu Suzuki’s meticulously paced revenge tale fits the bill. FORMAT PS4 ETA 19 NOV 5 Two Point Hospital Rushing into…

GHOST RECON BREAKPOINT Play as Jon Bernthal’s best friend and give him all the affection he deserves, from playing tag in the woods, and playing with RC drones, to the good ol’ fireman’s lift. Just make sure his affection meter doesn’t drop to zero! FORMAT PS4 ETA 19 SEP DEATH STRANDING Play as Norman Reedus as he is rocketed to Hideo Kojima’s private celebrity space station on the moon. Not all is as it seems, and you’ll need to hide from Guillermo del Toro in thrilling stealth sequences. FORMAT PS4 ETA 8 NOV NBA 2K20 This is Anthony Davis’ ball, and nobody else can have it. Create a custom character, and take the ball by any means as you track Anthony in a vast open world. This is one basketball…

“AIMS TO BE ENGAGING WHILE TREATING ITS HISTORICAL BASIS WITH RESPECT.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA TBA / PUB GAMING COMPANY / DEV PIXELATED MILK Things are looking *blorp*ing dicey. We’ve found the last squad of German mortar men. Unfortunately, while our advance was strong, we’re running out of ammo. The Polish home army’s recruits have been worn down by their previous engagements with German troops earlier that week, so our men and women for this mission are some of the least experienced… and some of the youngest. Warsaw is a tactical RPG with art direction like Darkest Dungeon and a historically informed approach to mechanics like This War of Mine. Unlike that latter game, though, you’re not fighting to survive an imaginary conflict; this is set over the course of…

1 Agnes worries about her boy and dreams up bizarre worst-case scenarios, like marauders crushing her son’s teeth before making him snort them. 2 Grimm looks after what remains of Stellar Bay. Here, he’s expounding on the innuendo-laden nicknames of his favourite sports personality. 3 Sanjar Nandi describes the Board’s departure from Stellar Bay as part of “a long line of professional, erotic, and athletic disappointments.” 4 Rose is the first Iconoclast you meet at their base in Amber Heights. A dippy idealist, she offers you a pamphlet despite the faction having run out of paper.…

“PING PONG PLAYS LIKE A STRIPPED-BACK VERSION OF VIRTUA TENNIS.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA SUMMER 2020 / PUB SEGA / DEV SEGA Our editor’s tubby avatar stumbles at the starting line, after mistiming his push from the blocks. We laugh out loud as the on-screen athlete staggers, stumbles, and struggles to pick up his little legs to hurriedly catch up with the pack who are busy jumping hurdles and winning medals. What’s refreshing about Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – The Official Video Game is how much Sega has drawn on its historic knack for making fun arcade games; the kind of experiences that rely on skill and quick reactions. These sporting events tap into the immediacy of the dev’s arcade classics. Forgoing the push for realism and embracing fun, each…

Sweaty palms, our heart pounding through our chest, and more swears muttered in the last five minutes than heard in an average Channel 5 documentary about Brexit – Call Of Duty is back, and we’re playing it. While it feels like the Modern Warfare of old, the one that changed preconceptions of what a multiplayer shooter should be, there are enough new ideas here to ensure this soft reboot has its own personality. After spending time huddled in the corner of a burnt-out room, twitchily scanning our gun sight between two doorways, our Modern Warfare muscle memory is kicking in. This is how we remember playing online in 2007. It should be no surprise the feel of this reheated Call Of Duty is so effective, as some of the key…

Killstreaks are back, and provide a way to ease any misgivings you might feel at not having a minimap on screen, as one of the options is to unlock a personal UAV. After spending time with the multiplayer we’ve become accustomed to the new compass system, as it still reveals the vague whereabouts of the enemy but demands we pay more attention to the environment’s vertical levels. This leaves us with more room to ratchet up the Killstreaks, which include precision airstrikes, gun chopper support, and the returning Juggernaut armoured assault suit – it can take magazines-worth of punishment and has a near-endless supply of ammo.…

There is a severed eyeball with a spear through it looking inquisitively around your television screen, as intrigued about what’s about to happen next as you are. “THE TAPE-GRABBING, COMBO-TRICKING SKATE FRENZY WOULD GARNER A CULT FOLLOWING.” The song Police Truck by anti-corporate punk rockers Dead Kennedys starts to pummel through your speakers. Tony Hawk fades in, completes a full loop, nails a back smith, then cuts to Bob Burnquist sending a one-foot backside 360, a fakie 5-0 and a method air. You are brought to the main menu of a game that will launch one of the most famous series in videogames history, change the face of skateboarding, and make you disproportionately happy about finding weird, glowing videotapes hovering in inopportune places. NEARLY NEVER It is now 20 years…

“YOUR CPU SISTER PULLS HER WEIGHT IN A FIGHT, AND HEALS YOU WHEN YOU NEED IT.” BJ Blazkowicz has gone missing, but that doesn’t mean Nazis can go back to trolling people on Twitter in peace. Partly this is because it’s 1980s Paris, and Twitter hasn’t been invented yet, but also partly because BJ’s twin daughters have decided to don a pair of power suits and carve their way through fascists until they find their dad. Hitler may be dead, but the Nazi party is the Nazi party no matter who’s in charge. So when a new leader rises, surrounding himself with his preferred cronies and ruthlessly following a plan he claims will restore dignity, prosperity, and power to his nation, any attempts at resistance are crushed. Enter Jess and…

WHAT YOU DO IN… WOLFENSTEIN: CYBERPILOT 8% Cursing the developers for thinking everybody plays PS VR in a banqueting hall. 12% Healing yourself even though you were hit by a total of three bullets. 5% Having a little chuckle at a smart line of script. 35% Piloting a mech, thinking that it should be more fun. 30% Performing tasks at your base like a handyman rather than a hacking hero. 10% Idly shooting the scenery while watching the surprisingly long end credits. STAT PACK 120 Minutes (at a push) of gameplay. It’d be a lot less without the tedious prep sections. 3 Nazi machines that you get to pilot remotely: a Panzerhund; a Drone; and a Zitadelle. 1 Prey Easter Egg at the end of the game. Arkane Studios…

Succinctly describing the anime this arena fighter imagines an alternate scenario for is as difficult as finding a screenshot fit for print. Kill La Kill is set in a world where special clothes are imbued with sentient, alien life forms that can give the wearer greatly enhanced abilities. Every fighter here has a variation of these sweet (if skimpy) threads in their wardrobe. There’s a lot more nonsense going on beyond that but we’ve only got so many words to deliver our verdict. Both the A and B story scenarios are brief, action-packed romps you’ll need to blaze through in order to unlock the full roster of fighters, though they commit the unforgivable twin sins of not only ending on ‘it was all a dream’ but also dragging out what…

At first glance, this has all the ingredients for the perfect PS VR party game: an amusing conceit, vivacious – if blurry – visuals, and a whimsical score. Add its intuitive mechanics into the mix, and I’m Hungry could’ve been one of the most endearing, accessible VR games we’ve played. Emphasis on “could’ve been”. You spend your inaugural hours in a fast-food frenzy as you grapple with the simple but effective controls. With four fast-food machines at your disposal – ice cream dispenser, fryer, cola machine, and, uh, weird Tupperware that can toast buns and fry burger meat – your job is simple: keep the customers fed. You learn to multitask, simultaneously serving fries and slamming cash into the till. It’s not just a test of your speed and dexterity;…

The ’80s revolution of the nostalgia cycle is still in full swing and we can’t pick up a DualShock without encountering the synth sounds and neon hues of a game in love with the decade. This roguelike punts its VHS vision past two apocalypses, centring on a Breakfast Club of stereotypes surviving in the ruins of civilisation. One among them volunteers to venture out into the radioactive, procedurally-generated Fallow in order to save what remains of humanity. With ancient technology, your teenage protagonist is remade so they may weather the environment’s wasting atmosphere by absorbing it. This plays havoc with your fragile, fleshy form and leads to a smorgasbord of mutations. These can range from health buffs to offensive abilities to even new modes of movement, and mutations can stack…

There’s nothing remotely new about this throwback shooter. In fact, everything is old. Yet for a time, while the synth soundtrack pulses and another cyborg explodes into a plume of pixel debris, you just won’t care. In many ways this is one of the best games never to release on a 16-bit console. There’s a bit of Midnight Resistance, a smidgen of the Aliens coin-op, a morsel of Metal Slug… but mostly it’s a whole lot of Contra III: The Alien Wars.1 That it’s easier to list a string of games Blazing Chrome is like without ever needing to explain what it is speaks volumes for this homage. So what is it? It’s a run-from-left-to-right retro shooter with some neat design choices. Holding R1 enables you to root your fighter…

F1 2019’s online racing is predictably chaotic, with the usual crashfest at turn one, corner-cutting cheaters at the front, and now a new breed: those who drive perfectly well for six laps, then inexplicably slow down just to ram you off the road. But get in a close, fair fight and there are few better online racers. Five-lap sprints or 25% distance quick races come in ranked and unranked flavours, alongside community events and both public and private leagues that you can put in your diary. Lose connection mid-race and you can jump back into your car if you return in time. This isn’t entirely bug-free, with driver-dropped cars occasionally glitching ahead even after the race ends, but that aside, this is ultra-solid and full-featured. Great stuff. VERDICT Rich in…

CRASH BANDICOOT GETS A REMAKE Creator Milbox has made a homage to Crash Bandicoot, and it’s brilliant. We particularly love how the animation matches up to the PlayStation original, and includes Crash’s classic spin attack and weighty double-jump. LEVIATHAN AXE MikeyCslt’s model of Kratos’ famed axe from his Nordic romp impresses so much even Santa Monica Studio just had to comment. “O… M… G, give it to us now. Thank you Media Molecule for giving your fans such an incredible creative playground,” tweeted the God Of War developer excitedly. STYLISED CITY ASSET PACK Creator Joep has been working on this GTA-like city with the feel of the film animation studio Illumination. If you want to use the assets from this stylised The Secret Life Of Pets-meets-GTA mash-up, you’re in luck:…

We’re appreciating even the slightest chill in the air after that heatwave earlier in the summer. Happily, Monster Hunter: World’s massive expansion introduces an area that’s a welcome snow-capped vision. In Iceborne, you’re able to venture into Hoarfrost Reach after completing the base game’s story. You also need to have attained Hunter Rank 16 as Iceborne opens up the ‘Master Rank’ and introduces plenty of monsters that will have you calling on every bit of experience you earned while ascending those 16 ranks. During our hands-on we’re bested by Banbaro, a giant woolly ram with sizeable horns that can tear up everything in its path. But there are bigger fish – or rather snow sharks (Beotodus) and furry owlbears (Nargacuga) – to fry in Hoarfrost. And then there are the…

That’s a lot of seasons. There’s even a big World Cup now (see the top of the page). Which makes this summer the perfect time for Fortnite to have an all-new season celebrating its history. “THE PERFECT TIME FOR FORTNITE TO HAVE A SEASON CELEBRATING ITS HISTORY.” Everything’s been mixed up thanks to a rift in time and space – old parts of the island have long-awaited returned alongside new elements. Dusty Depot, which fans had been clamouring to make a comeback, is back, and so is the meteor that destroyed it at the end of Season 3, hovering above it and waiting to be explored. The BRUTE mech is the biggest addition, allowing two players to combine forces – one controlling movement, and the other its weapons. It all…

We’re still none the wiser as to what sort of game Death Stranding will be but a teaser from San Diego Comic Con zeroes in on a famous face. Nicolas Winding Refn, the Danish director of divisive and deliciously dark films like Drive and The Neon Demon, plus the Mads Mikkelsenled Valhalla Rising, lends his face to the game’s impressively star studded cast. “HEARTMAN IS A SINGULAR AND UNUSUAL MEMBER OF BRIDGES.” It’s important to note that, in a situation similar to Guillermo del Toro and the character Deadman, Winding Refn is only lending his likeness to a character’s 3D model – not his voice or a motion-captured performance. But, that said, this cameo has still got heart… and no, we’re not done with the puns yet. The character sporting…

Engrams. The Crucible. Gambit. Nightfall. Sparrows. Either these words seem like nonsense to you, or they elicit a mixture of strong emotions. That’s the nature of an ongoing live-service game like Destiny 2. You’re either in or you’re out. It’s a tough juggling act. “THIS IS ABOUT CRUSHING THE BARRIERS BETWEEN FRIENDS.” That is, until now. Bungie has split with Activision, meaning as an independent game developer it can now approach the issue of attracting new players however it wants. Its answer? Destiny 2: New Light. It’s an updated version of the base game, which has undergone serious changes to make it both a free-to-play starting point, and one that tears down barriers between players. It’s launching right around now, alongside the paid-for Year 3 expansion, Shadowkeep. MAKING LIGHT WORK…

1 With nary a piece of roboarmour, weapon, or even our memory we wake up during a prison break. Naturally, we drop by the armoury on our way out. 2 Fighting past the warden, we make for a resistance base at the abandoned Seaside Court mall. But their leader, Brother Eli, needs a favour before he’ll help us. 3 Eli’s drug peddler brother Little Johnny has been causing trouble in Port Nixon. Thanks to his drug, the journey to taking him out is a dangerous one. 4 Ah, turns out “Little” was just a nickname. He’s large and in charge, in an even larger spider robot. We need to take out its legs, then whale on him.…

“TAKE A CLOSER LOOK BY CALLING ON BLACKSAD’S FELINE SENSES.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA 26 SEP / PUB MICROIDS / DEV PENDULO STUDIOS Our scene opens with the body in full view. An especially grisly sight, the victim was left hanging from the rafters of his own gym. The cleaning lady, none the wiser, starts her shift. This opening shot, dripping in dramatic irony, drags out the seconds before she makes the grim discovery. This is a noir vision of 1950s’ New York, populated by anthropomorphic animals with adult problems – even the Statue Of Liberty has a tail! Your protagonist is a black cat, the fittingly named private detective John Blacksad. The comic-book basis for this videogame investigation is not only hugely popular in its native Spain, but also…

1 Tennis but with smaller everything, ping pong is a perfect videogame sport, and Sega knows how to simplify everything to a fun level. 2 Timing your strokes perfectly makes you go faster and use less stamina; managing the balance is key to winning races in the 200m medley swimming race. 3 You can load your perfect records onto an online leaderboard, and in Medal Rankings mode they add to your real-life country’s tally. 4 While events are arcadified, everything is played out against real Tokyo venues, including the Olympic Stadium where track and field will be held.…

WHAT YOU DO IN… WOLFENSTEIN: YOUNGBLOOD 8% Ending your cloaked sneaking with a deliciously violent stealth kill. 5% Ending your cloaked sneaking by stumbling into an enemy. 7% Desperately hammering the Pep button when you’re scarily close to death. 65% Killing Nazis and destroying their toys, making a satisfying mess. 5% Rolling your eyes at the script’s clunky attempts to depict The Yoof. 10% Your heart high-fiving your brain when you make a brilliant, bonce-exploding headshot. HOW TO… GET EXTRA LIVES 1 The only way to nab extra lives for the sisters is to open one of these crates. They’re fairly rare and only contain one life each, but they refill each time you leave the map. 2 Grab hold of one of the handles on the side,…

For a game about gaming, there’s really not all that much to play here. Instead, 198X uses the style of ’80s videogames to provide a primarily narrative experience, though it’s one you interact with directly by stopping every now and then to play short snippets of original games in the style of classics you’ll recognise. But it’s not random, each one serves a purpose – and often the lines between protagonist The Kid’s gaming life and real life blur. The Kid narrates the story, set in American suburbia, of how they used arcade videogames as an escape from reality. Feeling trapped in the suburbs, and struggling with a tough home life and being in that in-between phase of being a teenager, The Kid dreams of something more, of leaving it…

Recently I opined that rhythm games should borrow more from stage musicals [Opinion, OPM#163]. Well, it would appear that a little birdie not only told Joysteak Studios this but time-travelled back more than two years ago to do it. All of which is to say, in many ways, Songbird Symphony is the game I’ve been waiting for. Playing as pint-sized melody machine Birb, you start the game having yet even to hatch. An introductory tutorial acquaints you with Symphony’s rhythm mechanics, tapping along to the beat to chip away at the shell. It’s a promising start that unites music, story, and mechanics. On a quest to track down Birb’s family, you’re tasked with meeting the forest’s feathered denizens to learn new notes. Birb’s adventure is presented through detailed pixel art,…

Seafaring is an apt metaphor for loneliness and weathering life’s obstacles, as we’ve already seen most recently in Sea Of Solitude and Far: Lone Sails. Solo is a similar, metaphorically minded puzzle game but with added questions about your love life. Throughout the archipelago you reignite lighthouses and field questions from curious totems while chasing the phantom of partners past. The totems’ questions pry but never chide you for answering honestly. However, a phantom of your imagined partner will always offer a new perspective on your answer. Their observations will often make you pause, not only for the introspection they prompt but for the reassurance they implicitly ask for. Many of their lines will hit close to home. Before you set sail from your lonely island home in search of…

WHAT YOU DO IN… RAD 31% Throwing various bits of your anatomy at enemies. 9% Appreciating all the synonyms the booming narrator uses for ‘meat’. 3% Enjoying the way the booming narrator says ‘loin’. 36% Wanting more than this mutie-bashing, wasteland life. 15% Swearing you’ve heard this one on the synthy soundtrack before. 6% Chasing the image of your tiny, mohawked mutant babies out of your nightmares. STAT PACK 59 Exo mutation powers, such as a cobra head or bat wings, to whack muties with. 8 Styles of sick threads for your runner. Even in a wasteland, who wants to be a scruff? 36 Endo mutations, like invulnerability to lightning, to aid (or sometimes hinder) you in the Fallow. 8 Total endings to unlock. That’s enough to mean you…

Remember that bit in the third season of Stranger Things where, trying to make a screening at the cinema, Mike and Lucas needed to make their way through service corridors, smacking rats to death and turning on the power for lifts? What about when Hopper had to chase a villain through a funhouse? Yes! Now you remember. And how that funhouse was five floors, filled with scientists who threw test tubes at him, and had clown faces, and asked you riddles? Gah, lost you again. Such is the core loop of this 16-bit-styled version of Stranger Things’ latest season.1 You mostly explore the isometric world for items, and brawl with enemies. Events follow the plot beats of the season, following the episode-by-episode structure. Each of the plot threads from the…

After spending time online with Samurai Shodown it becomes clear why the dev introduced its unique offline AI learning system, where you download AI versions of real players to fight. Online this returning classic fighter is just… okay. The rollback netcode setup works – to a degree – by predicting your next frame of movement, but it means matches can feel sluggish. In a game that’s built around thoughtful duelling this can still result in some close matches, and if you land a good lobby you can stay in and keep challenging. As well as ranked and causal matches, there’s a training mode. Best of all, team-based fights, in the shape of Elimination and Points matches, add an extra dimension to online play. VERDICT While the netcode can result in…

“WE’LL USE A COMBINATION OF SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SCULPTING AND DRAWING FEATURES.” For this first tutorial in a longer series on how to make assets and art in dreams, I’ll show you how to build a tree. We’ll be using a combination of some of the most important sculpting, drawing, and styling features of the program, and the tools and techniques we employ in this project can be used in the creation of many other different types of items. FEAT OF CLAY I’ll focus mainly on sculpting using the clay tools in Dreams, and will then talk about how you can change the appearance of hard shapes to resemble that of a tree crown, and even how to add animation to that. Each of the tutorials I’ll show…

MINDHUNTER SEASON 2 FORMAT NETFLIX PRICE £8.99 A MONTH The second season of David Fincher’s serial killer series is finally upon us. After establishing a radical system for criminal profiling, Ford and Tench use their method to catch the person responsible for the Atlanta Child Murders. Not exactly a cheery watch… UNDONE FORMAT AMAZON PRIME PRICE £9.99 A MONTH Starring Battle Angel: Alita’s Rosa Salazar, Undone – about a young woman who can travel through time after a near-death incident – is noteworthy for two reasons: the rotoscoped animation is truly trippy, and it was co-created by BoJack Horseman’s Raphael Bob-Waksberg. ROCKO’S MODERN LIFE: STATIC CLING FORMAT NETFLIX PRICE £8.99 A MONTH Originally shown on ’90s Nickelodeon, kids’ TV classic Rocko’s Modern Life is returning with a 45-minute special, which…

“ 1 THE SECOND BRICK-BUILDING SPINOFF FROM THE MAINLINE IS ALMOST ILLEGALLY UPLIFTING” “ 2 PULPY FUN THAT WRITHES IN ITS TAKE ON LOVECRAFTIAN LORE […] A HAMMER-HORROR-LIKE CULT CLASSIC IN THE MAKING.” “ 3 SHOOT A WHOLE BUNCH OF NAZIS, PERFORM STEALTH TAKEDOWNS, AND RETURN TO A HUB AREA OCCASIONALLY TO CONVERSE WITH RAGTAG REBEL CHUMS.” “ 4 THE MOST AMBITIOUS GAME ON PS4 AND AN MMO THAT RISES ABOVE STORY PROBLEMS BY LETTING YOU CREATE YOUR OWN EPIC NARRATIVE.”…

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.…

FORMAT PS4 / PUB EA / DEV DICE / RELEASED 2016 / SCORE 8/10 Typically, when it comes to depicting the notion of finality, games suck. Death is almost never permanent and failure can be instantly fixed with a quick revive, while the concept of definitive, irreversible loss is less common than a dodo with its own late-night show. Battlefield 1’s intro is the harrowing exception to the rule. One of the most sobering opening acts on PS4, it puts you boots-on-the-ground with the Harlem Hellfighters, an infantry unit out of the New York Army National Guard that broke down barriers within the American armed forces. Made up of mainly African American troops, it was a pioneering regiment that fought in some of the bloodiest battles of World War I.…

“[WE GIVE] THE PLAYER MUCH MORE AGENCY IN HOW THEY CHOOSE TO CONQUER THE GAME’S CHALLENGES.” “The hot-wiring of the fire extinguisher into a flame thrower […] is particularly gratifying but extremely volatile,” Lorne Lanning tells us. But the veteran director and designer isn’t admitting to a past of pyromania, he’s talking about the possibilities of Oddworld: Soulstorm’s crafting system. “As Abe was always an action/adventure/puzzle class of hero, he always had to scrounge up ways to cleverly get around his challenges, but those solutions were always locked to the immediate problem and level at hand. This was very limiting in the number of ways the player could approach a problem and gave the player no stockpiling in how they would approach future problems,” Lanning begins, later elaborating on the…

“THEY’VE COME A LONG WAY, AND THE GRAPHICS ARE IMPRESSIVE.” Codemasters’ F1 2019 released last month to critical acclaim (9/10, #165) but what does a real-life F1 driver make of PlayStation 4’s ‘ultra-realistic’ release? It turns out Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen and McLaren’s Lando Norris are fans, but F1 2019 has even hooked self-confessed non-gamers like Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, the Honey Badger surprised by his first taste of PS4 racing. “I got to try out F1 2019 in Baku [at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix],” says the race driver. “I had a go and it was all set up for me. It was pretty cool. I wouldn’t say I play videogames any more; I have grown out of them a little bit. But I found myself doing more laps than…

This gorgeous new vinyl set might seem a bit superfluous considering we hear the Bloodborne soundtrack every day already – as we fall asleep, lost to the Hunter’s Dream, an everlasting nightmare… But how could you not want it? The limited edition ‘grim green’ deluxe version (which has a double gatefold sleeve) drives home the murky world of Bloodborne, but a standard set is also available. Spanning 21 of the PS4 exclusive’s most iconic tracks, it comes on two vinyl records. The streets of Yharnam don’t feature a Church Of Audio Mixing, so the job was done at Abbey Road Studios, London, and recorded at Air Studios. The gorgeous artwork adorning the collector’s package features a vista of Yharnam’s iconic, foreboding architecture, and a stunning picture of the Hunter’s Dream…

“WE CAN ALWAYS SEE THE PAST AND POSSIBLE FUTURE AROUND US.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2020 / PUB MODUS GAMES / DEV DREAMS UNCORPORATED, SYCK In many ways this is a throwback to JRPG favourites. There’s turn-based combat, magic to cast, and villagers to talk with. But Cris Tales’ defining feature is a unique one: lead protagonist Crisbell suddenly discovers she’s a time mage, and so can use the power of time crystals. This means as you walk around the world you can always see the past and possible future around you, represented wonderfully on screen by its triangular segments. The left of the screen is the scene in the past, and the right is the future. Talking frog Matias leads us to discover this ability, and it’s also he…

“THIS WORLD IS CREATED FROM DATA TRANSFORMED INTO A LIVING ECOSYSTEM. THE WORLD ITSELF IS A STORY.” FORMAT PS VR / ETA TBC PUB ICO PARTNERS / DEV PIXEL REEF Big data is being turned into a big country in the latest game from Eric Chahi, the code-wizard behind retro classic Another World. Played in PS VR it promises an open world that will react to your actions, and grow accordingly. There’s a hint of our own wild world in the sweeping landscapes and craggy mountains of Paper Beast. With rolling clouds above the yellowing, dusty landscape, this could be a wildlife shot from Serengeti. But it’s not. The herd of elegant, equine creatures galloping beneath those voluminous clouds are strange; their bodies spiral into distorted shapes, as if made…

“AS YOU RUN AND JUMP ACROSS THE COMIC’S PANELS, THIS LOOKS FANTASTIC.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2019 PUB ATOMIC WOLF / DEV ATOMIC WOLF You haven’t sent a hot take on Twitter, or posted a photo of your lunch. You’ve failed to selfie your enviable holiday to that Greek island from Mamma Mia!, and you certainly haven’t spent your evening looking at cats in hats. You have no social ‘life’, and that’s bad. So bad the police are after you. In the dystopian, online-obsessed world of Liberated not having a social media presence is a crime, the assumption being you have something to hide. Played out across comic panels, this adventure blends QTEs with shootouts, and dialogue choices offer you the chance to quiz your friends and enemies or make…

Remember that bit in The New Colossus where you jumped onto the back of a Panzerhund and used it to roast Nazis? That was pretty cool, right? Taking this idea and expanding it into a bigger PS VR experience should result in something pretty darn special. Yeah, it should, but we’re sorry to say that this is more BO than BJ. Story-wise, this takes place just before the events of Youngblood (p78), and in the same alternate-history version of 1980s Paris. One of the three ‘Brother’ Nazi command towers has already been attacked by the French resistance by the time Jess and Soph arrive in their game, and one of the Cyberpilot missions explains how this happened, by getting you to do it. That’s the only meaningful connection between the…

This retro turn-based strategy game has come to PS4 a little after other platforms – but that means we’re getting an improved version. For instance, you can set your own checkpoints in the middle of the long battles, and tweak difficulty between several parameters to ensure the level of challenge is just right for you. That’s the level of ongoing attention to detail you can expect from the devs. Despite the cartoony spritework and fun animations (check out the ‘battlepup’ units), Wargroove is fairly harsh. Each battle takes place on a focused map (some of which can get quite large later on), with objectives that span from defeating an enemy commander or stronghold to helping evacuate villagers before the big bad comes and squashes everyone. Capture villages and barracks and…

Like the Miami Dolphins, videogaming’s most storied gridiron franchise has spent the last half-decade in a state of constant transition, forever just one more season away from rekindling past glories. Unlike the Miami Dolphins, however, it feels like this may finally be its year. Sliding smart on-field tweaks into deep, detailed off-field modes, Madden finally adds longevity and substance to its abundant promise. In a move that belies EA’s reputation for prioritising gimmicks over fundamentals, its main strength is getting the feel of American football spot-on – for the first time in the longest time. Effective rushing plays require astute thought as well as brute force and/or elite speed, with linemen working to provide one key gap for you to zip (or bulldoze!) through. Wide receivers demonstrate accurate ball and…

Sleepwalking can be dangerous. Especially in Redacre. Though in this sleepy mountain suburb, it’s often worse for those around the shuffling sleeping-like-the-dead than those in the land of nod themselves. Rather than having a simple sleeping problem, the sleepwalkers are being controlled by a demon once the sun goes down, forced to build bizarre contraptions in tunnels they dig beneath the town, and also patrol to keep watch for those who aren’t asleep. If they catch you awake? Well, they’re going to be tucking you in, kicking and screaming, to join their ranks. “THE SLEEPWALKERS ARE CONTROLLED BY A DEMON ONCE THE SUN GOES DOWN.” The game begins with an optional single-player prologue that introduces you to what you’ll be doing. It’s tense, thrilling, and frightening. Our hero, Bella, is…

Bringing a colony to its knees seldom takes much – hunger here, lack of materials there. This top-down base management strategy game spices up the winning genre formula1 with a slightly steampunk aesthetic and (potentially) billions of zombies on screen at once, as the name suggests. Shuffling corpses can turn your civilians against you rapidly, a tiny trickle becoming a tidal wave if your defences aren’t airtight. However, if you stay on your toes, you may well not catch even a whiff of hundreds of the undead, let alone billions.2 Veterans of the genre will find themselves well situated, with plenty of terrain tilesets to unlock for your procedurally generated maps. There’s a range of difficulty settings, including the number of days for which you need to survive intermittent zombie…

Shine City. A polished dystopia, where the government’s biggest concern is getting the police to crack down on the so-called ‘Lethal League’. At one time the league’s anti-gravity ball game used to be a popular pastime, but after a tragic accident it became outlawed. Those who still play it have been forced underground. The metropolis is at a turning point as the annual Ignite Tournament is on the horizon. It’s not the kind of story you’d expect from a multiplayer game like this, but it’s surprisingly fun and engaging to play through (albeit simply done). The core of the game is as simple as it gets: players hit a ball back and forth in an enclosed 2D-plane arena, trying to inflict damage on each other as they fumble-return hits, until…

Racing is the name of the game, so it might not come as a surprise that online, CTR’s Race mode is significantly more active than its Battle mode. The latter, after all, is more fun when you can see the rage on the face of a pal sitting next to you. Everything within the two categories is voted on in your matchmaking lobby as you wait 60 seconds for the next round to start, with Battle mixing up battle modes as voting options. If you do come up short of players in either mode, other racers are filled in with AI – though we find it often doesn’t take long to find a full racing lobby. “ WITH A FULL LINEUP OF EXPLOSION-HAPPY HUMAN PLAYERS THINGS GET CHAOTIC QUITE QUICKLY.”…

Meet professional animator David Ferguson. When he’s not squeezing in work on Adventure Time the Glaswegian artist likes to dabble in Dreams. But his noodling is better than most. His ‘children’s’ show Have A Laugh With The Funny Giraffes is fast becoming a YouTube hit, and it was all made in Dreams. “I’ve been interested in Dreams since it was announced. […] After I watched a Media Molecule video where they showed off the 3D motion capture tool, I knew I wanted to make a puppet show,” he says. Ferguson uses the Action Recorder tool to record the motions of the PS “IT WOULD BE GREAT IF I COULD USE DREAMS FOR COMMERCIAL WORK.” Move controller, so he grabs his giraffe character in Dreams and “bobs the controller around like…

MUTANT YEAR ZERO: ROAD TO EDEN – SEED OF EVIL Mysterious roots have taken hold of The Ark, threatening Dux and the gang’s lives in post-apocalyptic Sweden. Joining your animal gang in this huge story continuation is Big Khan the moose. DARKSIDERS III – KEEPERS OF THE VOID Fury sets out to the Serpent Holes to take care of an ancient threat (and pick up some Abyssal armour while she’s at it). Brand-new enemies, locations, and weapons that’ll put Fury through her paces await, with plenty of puzzles to boot. WE HAPPY FEW – LIGHTBEARER Nick Lightbearer wakes up with a killer headache, but even the Beatles-esque superstar can’t escape this twisted alternate vision of Britain. When he becomes prime suspect in a series of murders, he must tackle his…

Between The Muppets and Labyrinth, Jim Henson created The Dark Crystal, a puppet-powered fantasy featuring the Skeksis – gnarled, bird-like baddies who traumatised a generation of tots. Thanks to deep-pocketed nostalgia peddler Netflix, the Skeksis are back to terrorise a new generation in prequel series Age Of Resistance. Set dozens of ‘trine’ before the film, the pint-sized Gelflings and ruling Skeksis co-exist semi-harmoniously. But with the Dark Crystal’s youth-preserving power exhausted, the Skeksis discover the Gelflings can be drained of their life-prolonging juices… Told over ten hour-long episodes, Age Of Resistance is a more intricate beast than the 93-minute original. The opening half-hour is hard going – all you can do is attempt to keep up with the onslaught of names. But with the groundwork out of the way, what…

First-person shooters are so often about giving you the ultimate videogame power fantasy. It goes something like this: gun down legions of faceless foes to prove you are, in fact, the most badass person who’s ever lived. Borderlands 2 (much like its predecessor) didn’t get this memo, however, instead casting you as one of four down-on-their luck Vault Hunters in search of that next big score. As the lyrics of Borderlands 2’s Cage The Elephant theme song suggest, the planet of Pandora “ain’t no place for a hero”. It’s a sentiment perfectly in keeping with the commercialised space western setting that Gearbox created when it conceived the loot-shooter concept in 2009, before practically perfecting it in this 2012 sequel. You aren’t the good guy in Borderlands 2, and it’s one…

1 TEARAWAY One of the best platformers on the system, it makes terrific use of the entire PS Vita to create a unique experience: camera, touchscreen, touchpad: it’s all here. The PS4 version has more content, but it remains more intimate and special on PS Vita. 2 PERSONA 4: GOLDEN Where Persona 5 went bigger on PS4, this ultimate version of Persona 4 nails the warmth of a small-town high school setting. Filled with timeless characters, the Investigation Team dig into a murder mystery and befriend demons. 3 UNCHARTED: GOLDEN ABYSS Nathan Drake proves it’s not the size of the package that counts, but what you do with it in this prequel expedition. Packed with Uncharted charm, this pulp action adventure is the biggest spectacle on the little handheld. 4…