Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2019 i PLAY

“THE MASTERMIND VIEWS THE MATCH IN PROGRESS BY FLICKING BETWEEN CCTV VIEWS OF THE SURVIVORS.” Multiplayer and Resident Evil have always had a spotty relationship, to say the least. Co-op in Resident Evil 5 was great fun, but at the cost of tense survival horror. Online shooter Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City didn’t feel like a Resi at all. Resident Evil Outbreak (released on PS2) was ahead of its time, and the servers have long since shut down. But with Project Resistance, the latest Resident Evil project, Capcom might just have worked multiplayer magic. The concept is a simple one – the sort of asymmetrical experience that’s become more and more in vogue. Four players make up a team of Survivors who must work together, and they’re pitted against a…

“THE WORLD OF LITTLE NIGHTMARES IS SO MUCH BIGGER THAN SIX.” The journey of Little Nightmares’ yellow-raincoat-clad protagonist Six is far from over, though she no longer travels alone. Last issue we revealed that Six is stepping out of the limelight in Tarsier Studios’ anticipated sequel, accompanying new playable protagonist Mono as an AI character. Mono has different abilities to Six, though the biggest contrast is that he can defend himself using whatever small objects you find lying around. On top of that, he’s quite partial to an eclectic array of headgear. “Like most kids, [Mono] very much enjoys putting things on his head,” lead narrative designer Dave Mervik tells us, “and that bag you see him wearing is just the tip of the iceberg!” Mervik continues, “I don’t blame…

On 4 October, the PlayStation Hits family welcomed three more critically acclaimed members. You can now pick up Gran Turismo Sport, God Of War, and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy for the extremely reasonable price of £15.99 each. That brings the total number of titles in the Hits range to 44. Alas, so many games and so little time… We’re of the view that The Lost Legacy was long past due for inclusion alongside the other Uncharted entries on the list, and the other two titles have seemed like a shoe-in for a long time. These might be big Hits, but God Of War and the Uncharted series aren’t just limited to this low-cost hard-copy range. Both God Of War and Uncharted 4 have joined the PS Now selection, alongside InFamous:…

“A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO EXPLORE AND A TERRIFYING SPACE TO FEAR.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA 3 DEC / PUB TECHLAND PUBLISHING / DEV PICCOLO STUDIO As Arise is the debut game from a first-time studio, general manager Alexis Corominas says the team are pouring their hearts and souls into it: “It’s our dream coming to life. We want to take you on this one-of-a-kind journey that will bring back memories of your own life, both happy and sad, but all part of your story.” While it sounds a lot like Marley And Me: The Game, it’s actually not. Thank goodness. What Arise: A Simple Story is, however, is an adventure through a character’s life. The game starts where many begin, on a fiery funeral pyre. As your Nordic protagonist’s soul…

“NIGHT ASKS YOU A QUESTION: HOW FAR ARE YOU GOING TO PUSH IT?” FORMAT PS4 / ETA 8 NOV / PUB ELECTRONIC ARTS / DEV GHOST GAMES The difference between the two halves of Need For Speed Heat is night and day. Literally. The backbone of your Palm City racing career is flipping between the two times. “The real simple explanation,” says Ghost Games’ creative director Riley Cooper, “is day is the fastest place to earn Bank, night is the fastest place to earn Rep. And you need both to fuel your progression.” Depending on which time of day you sign up for events “you’re chasing kind of a different goal and a much different feeling,” says Cooper. The idea of Heat is hardly new to the Need For Speed…

“EXPLORE HOW WE HUMANS WOULD LOOK TO AN OUTSIDE FORM OF INTELLIGENCE.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2020 / PUB ENHANCE / DEV THA LTD Debuting in last month’s State Of Play, this game introduced itself with a vision of teeming masses navigating a strange obstacle course, hurling themselves through the air in order to make it to their platform, and fighting one another for territory. And we thought our daily commute was bad… Joking aside, the crowd management title has been in development for the last three years. Tha Ltd is primarily a design studio that has worked with big names like Japanese musician Cornelius and brands such as Uniqlo and Muji. This isn’t its first game (nor its first title focused on crowds collaborating) but it is its first…

1 TLOU2 is filled with realism, but gamey resources still litter the environments. Scrap is your best friend, allowing you to show your guns some love. 2 Even in the upgrade menus The Last Of Us 2’s lighting is incredible. Ellie actually physically turns a lamp on, shining a light on the surface where she’s working. 3 It’s not a matter of whether you should upgrade, but when you can do it. Upgrades give you bigger magazines, higher damage, zoomier zooms, and more. You’ll want it all. 4 As the camera zooms in on the workbench Ellie dismantles and places the gun on the table. When you upgrade, she actually makes modifications. There’s a wonderful physicality to it.…

Resident Evil VII Welcome home Playing the entirety of Resi VII in PS VR blows the Kitchen demo out of the water. The only thing we’ve got against it is having to give the office headset an especially deep clean after every sweaty session. The Persistence In space, no-one can hear you scream Caught in a cycle of death and cloned reawakening, you must use your limited resources to get your ship home. Fantastic sound design takes centre stage as a means to unnerve. Transference Coming home will never be the same This computer-simulated home is anything but sweet, though the scenery’s glitchy aesthetic is well worth soaking in. It makes our list for oozing style as much as it does silliness. Here They Lie Breaking up and down Relationships…

With Layers Of Fear, Bloober Team made you distrust your surroundings. Its later cyberpunk thriller is no different. As cybernetically enhanced cop Daniel Lazarski, you investigate the deceaseds’ neural implants for clues, and their dying dreams are far from sweet. In between loud, jumpy scares, you’re left to appreciate surreal worlds. But the chase sequences throughout have us on the edge. For instance, we think we’ve snuck out of harm’s way while exploring Helena Nowak’s mind, only for the scenery to change and zap us back into the cross-hairs of a pursuing mechanical monstrosity. Sleep tight. INFO PUB ASPYR DEV BLOOBER TEAM RELEASE 2017 HOW TO PLAY PS STORE…

As videogame adaptations go, Alien: Isolation succeeds by carving out its own space within the film mythos and telling a new story that makes the most of its medium. Aboard the Sevastopol as Ripley’s daughter, Amanda, nowhere is safe – especially not when you’re trying to save. To record your progress, you must find a terminal and save manually. Any hostile force can sneak up behind you and send you all the way back to the save point before. Hiding in a locker doesn’t guarantee safety for long, and don’t get us started on scrabbling through the vents. Even after picking up the flamethrower in mission 10, playing a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with the Alien in the tight confines of the server farm is no walk in the park.…

If we could, we’d put this at the top of our list. But while we could argue that the inability to play PT is part of the appeal, its outright removal from the PlayStation Store aiding its steady migration into urban legend territory, it’s also the reason it can’t make our list officially. Ultimately revealed to be a ‘Playable Teaser’ for the long-since-cancelled Silent Hills, you play as a man caught in an infinite corridor of terror and regret. Haunted by the oddly proportioned spectre of Lisa, we didn’t dare look behind us as we dug deep into this demo’s layers of secrets. Considering Lisa herself has inspired a wave of imitations and that we’re still uncovering hidden horrors years later (such as the discovery that Lisa is always only…

WHAT YOU DO IN… CONCRETE GENIE ALSO ON PLAYSTATION VR The VR Experience is relatively light but charming as you get better acquainted with your ragtag bag pal, Splotch. It’s also worth doing if you want PS VR functionality for Free Painting mode. The only drawback is that you need two PS Move controllers to paint in VR. FRIENDS & ENEMIES The first genie you ever draw to life, she’s a supportive presence. The ringleader of the bullies, who sneers at Ash’s love of art. One of the bullies, he has ideas for helping you out in later chapters. THE FIRST FIVE HOURS… 1 It’s like walking around a stop-motion film! We love Denska! 2 Already, Concrete Genie’s sketch book of designs gets our ‘stamp’ of approval. 3…

The NBA doesn’t hand out medals for effort. If it did you’d have to award one to whichever Visual Concepts developer suggested what its latest b-baller needed was… Idris Elba.1 In a series which has grown stagnant, Elba’s inclusion as your MyCareer character’s coach elevates this above humdrum 2K18 and 2K19 efforts. When matches become a grind, you’re carried through by the desire to see the next twist in the pair’s love-hate relationship – a neat use of a bona fide megastar. While DCI Luther running a college team is unconventional, Visual Concepts otherwise sticks to its staple diet of realistic, authentic, challenging hoop-shooting.2 This is a sim that expects you to grasp the basics fast. Even on lower difficulties, failure to mark your man when defending is a fast-track…

Ever get so stuck hitting your scaly head against a difficult part of a game that you go and do everything else possible before you come back and have to take it on? That’s the entire idea behind Yooka and Laylee’s sophomore adventure. You’re thrown into the Bee Stingdom to take on Capital Bee once again, and pursue him through his Impossible Lair. Quite early on, you’ll (probably) meet a sticky end, and be thrown out into the game’s overworld. If, by some miracle, you didn’t fail… then congratulations! For you, the game is a single level long. The rest of us, however, have to travel through the scattered chapters of a book across the overworld, reassembling the Royal Beettalion Guard. With each guardsbee collected, you’re able to take another…

After spending the last few years sitting on the bench watching FIFA play to the crowds, this year PES has laced up its boots, puffed out its cheeks, and is getting a run in PS4’s first team. And it’s not wearing a knock-off market stall kit. For the first time Konami has tackled the issue of licences, or lack of, head-on. That name change? EFootball.pro’s an eSports company, founded by Gerard Piqué, that features pro gaming teams from the likes of Barcelona, Celtic, and Monaco. So they’re in, as are over 400 other fully licensed clubs, including Manchester United and Juventus. There’s even training this year on how to import edited kits, teams, names, and stadia. Marketing aside, PES 2020 has had a visual overhaul. Famous player likenesses are perfectly…

WHAT YOU DO IN… CODE VEIN STAT PACK 24 Blood Codes – like swappable classes – at least to mix and match Gifts from. 6 Revenants to partner up with and fight at your side. They’re pretty, but lacking in chat. 11 Areas to explore and claw your way through. And to swear at the map over as well. 14 Tortured bosses to beat in the main story, such as Butterfly Of Delerium and The Queen’s Knight. FRIENDS & ENEMIES Has a shirt that leaves little to the imagination, and a tortured backstory. Cool-headed, sharp-eyed, and protective of her younger sibling. Jack-the-Revenanthunter’s companion, with one hell of a voice. LOVING/ HATING FANGED FASHIONISTAS We adore how ridiculously everyone is dressed in this post-apocalyptic world, and can’t get enough…

Put down your pitchfork and pick up your pad – this retro-inspired sequel isn’t the (total) wretch we expected. Adopting the controls of twin-stick shooters, Contra: Rogue Corps puts you up against waves of zombies, mechanical monsters, and bulbous, vomiting aliens. Just surviving is your first aim, then you want to rack up the combo kills, chase the loot, and do it in style. The oddball characters – a ninja girl with an alien in her abdomen and a cyborg panda – grab the headlines, but it’s the gunplay grind that keeps you hooked. Story mode can be played alone or in four-player co-op and mixes a variety of mission styles, from wave rooms to explorable dungeons to screen-filling boss fights that tease the series’ roots.1 Controls are tight and…

WHAT YOU DO IN… GHOST RECON: BREAKPOINT STAT PACK 268 Headshots I pulled off in PVE, according to Breakpoint’s stats tracker. Deadeye. 60 Total perks, split between Field Medic, Assault, Panther, and Sharpshooter. 2.4K Number of Ghost Coins you need to buy a scopes bundle. You can buy 2800 for £15.99. 150 Gear level required to tackle end-game raids. That’s a whole lot of Breakpoint. FRIENDS & ENEMIES Your fully customisable spec ops agent. They’re surprisingly chatty. A shady businessman with the beadiest eyes you ever did see. An idealistic Bill Gates type who becomes your (very) reluctant ally. LOVING/ HATING SHOTS FIRED The one thing Breakpoint has going for it is its gun combat. Whether you’re firing in first person or third, weapons handle with real impact.…

This rally sim is at its best when its weather is at its worst. Huge pine trees appear out of thick fog, graded in layers of grey, swaying violently in the wind as you creep around slippery corners, trying to nurse your damaged car home. The challenge is immense, and you’ll often wonder how you’re managing to survive as you follow your co-driver’s very English-sounding instructions1 through dense, impressively varied scenery, grazing the walls of houses as you redline sideways through hamlets. In these moments, the essence of rallying is truly captured. But the storm eventually passes,2 and with it the excitement. When the weather is more clement, it’s a very last-gen-feeling experience. The graphics lack polish, having shimmery edges and only updating at 30fps, which is half the framerate…

Though sadly not a crossover between Hello Games’ spacefaring sandbox and Quantic Dream’s Ellen Page vehicle, No Man’s Sky Beyond does at least represent the most feature-rich and coherent version of the game to date. With a list of additions and improvements equivalent to a sci-fi Domesday Book, it’s not only a big step forward for multiplayer, but the best way to start your journey into the great beyond – sorry, Beyond. That’s in part due to some sensible overhauling of the opening tutorial, which has grown and morphed into something totally different than the few hours of floundering new players were met with at launch. Not only is it easier to get your head around the core systems of resource gathering and crafting now, it’s also that touch more…

Offline Wreckfest likes to make you wait. And wait. It has longer loading times than post-Brexit Dover. Going online there’s still a delay before things rev up, but once you’ve made it into a lobby races (and utter carnage) tend to come at a steady pace. This crash and burnout racer is that rarest of games; it’s one that’s better online than off. Wreckfest performs well too, with very little stuttering and few framerate drops. Netcode aside, it’s the destruction derby of fun that will keep you playing, earning credits and XP to unlock new cars to trash. You will need to get used to jokers who would rather crash than win, often hunting lower classes for points. But we guess that’s all part of the fun. VERDICT Some of…

We’ve arrived at our third tutorial on how to create artwork in Media Molecule’s amazing software, Dreams. “I’LL SHOW YOU HOW TO CREATE SCENES THAT COULD POTENTIALLY SPAN MANY KILOMETRES IN-GAME.” This time around, I’ll take you through the process of building a complete scene using only a few items. The purpose of this is to show you how to make optimised scenes in Dreams – scenes that could potentially span many kilometres in-game without having a heavy impact on performance. I’ll also talk a bit about how to organise your creations, and how to make ‘smart objects’ that you can edit after using in the scene, and then see those edits reflected across all instances of the object. If you’re clever about how you use your items in Dreams,…

“YOU CAN USE YOKAI POWERS IN BATTLE YOURSELF.” When we heard this prequel would be doing away with our silver-haired samurai husband William to focus on a custom character, we feared our hero might not feel that integral to Team Ninja’s demon-infused spin on Sengoku-era Japan. In a hands-on, we discover we were worrying needlessly – and that embracing our demonic yokai aspect is also critical. We also encounter infamous historical figure Oda Nobunaga. Along with our ally, Toukichiro, we pledge allegiance to Nobunaga, and together the two of us take on the name Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In reality, Nobunaga was indeed Hideyoshi’s liege lord, and Hideyoshi eventually took over from Nobunaga, bringing an end to the era of warring states. In Nioh, William had to strike down a resurrected Nobunaga,…

Sid Meier’s city-building epic is making its way to PS4 for the first time with the latest game in the series, Civilization VI. In addition, you’ll be able to play its two expansions, Rise And Fall and Gathering Storm, as a bundle. If you’re unfamiliar with the series, in Civilization you choose a leader and set about building your very own civilisation from scratch – starting in the Stone Age and progressing all the way through to the Modern Era. It’s turn-based, and other players (up to four humans or AI) are developing rival civilisations at the same time. You need to balance expanding your borders, how you shape your evolving culture and technology, and diplomacy with the other civilisations (which are just as hungry to grow). It’s a difficult…

FIVE POWER Gaming is far from an environmentally friendly hobby but Sony is making positive steps with the next generation. In an announcement from the newly formed Playing For The Planet alliance, SIE boss Jim Ryan said that PS5 will aim to waste less power than its predecessor with the suspend play feature. WITH A VIEW Fireproof Games has been delighting mobile players with its series The Room for some time. But now the series is entering the virtual dimension with The Room VR: A Dark Matter, announced for PS VR early in 2020. Part escape room and part a series of puzzle boxes, it’s a perfect fit for PS VR. BODY OF PROOF LA Noire: The VR Case Files hit the PlayStation Store last month. Featuring cases from all…

“A FIRST-PERSON SHOOTER WITH A FULLY EXPLORABLE POST-APOCALYPTIC LOS ANGELES TO RUN AROUND.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA 15 NOV PUB REEF ENTERTAINMENT / DEV TEYON Everything we’re about to write comes with one important caveat: this developer/publisher partnership was responsible for Rambo: The Video Game. That on-rails PlayStation 3 shooter was a dark moment in licensed gaming. We get cold sweats just typing these words. Fortunately, it’s clear Teyon has learned a thing or two since Rambo. For starters Terminator: Resistance is a first-person shooter with a fully explorable post-apocalyptic Los Angeles to run around. Set in Terminator’s official Future War, this looks a lot like the rubble-strewn streets the films depict. Expect there to be plenty of skulls getting crushed under heavy metal feet. The dev’s licence is for…

As Ellie stabs to death a tracker dog that found her hiding place, and the shouts of mercenaries echo around a Seattle suburb, it’s clear The Last Of Us Part II is not here to play nice. Our hero is all grown up, and the emotional subject matter that Naughty Dog’s PS4 exclusive is ready to face is also more adult. “Ultimately, this is a story about the cycle of violence, right? But beyond that, it’s a conversation about the effects systemic trauma can have on your soul,” explains the game’s co-writer, Halley Gross, as we sit down for an extensive hands-on. “ULTIMATELY, THIS IS A STORY ABOUT THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE.” The Last Of Us Part II starts five years after we last saw Ellie and Joel. Following…

01 Thanks to the way nature’s been steadily reclaiming the world since most of humanity was eradicated, even in former urban areas there’s plenty of long grass which can hide Ellie from view as you sneak around enemy patrols. 02 Listen mode makes use of Ellie’s excellent hearing to highlight enemies so you can avoid them getting the drop on you – here she’s pinpointed a person and their dog. But things get chaotic quickly when you’re spotted. 03 Holding e allows Ellie to go prone to use patches of shorter grass or hideaways to her advantage, making the most of even limited cover. You can also still use weapons, like bows, while lying flat on the ground. 04 Don’t rest easy when you’re out of the sight of fellow…

Getting jumped by the Hiss or coming a cropper at the furry hands of mould zombies are always nerve-wracking experiences, but it’s not just the telekinetic action that gets your blood pumping in Control. As you dive into internal documents and explore the Oldest House to tackle an extradimensional invasion, many scares are slow burners drawn from, in game director Mikael Kasurinen’s words, “the mundane meeting the strange”. A case in point is the NSC power plant. It’s central to the day-to-day operations of the Bureau but no-one will tell you exactly what ‘NSC’ stands for. No, you’ve got to go digging – or rather levitating – on your own to uncover that appalling little titbit. The revelation, which we’re sure will be the cause of another lockdown one of…

Simon Jarrett, after undergoing an experimental brain scan, finds himself teleported to a scientific facility in the far-flung future. The robots here have run rampant, professing that they’re not robots at all. The film Tetsuo: Iron Man, in particular, is cited by game director Thomas Grip as a key influence, due to its “disturbing mixtures of human flesh and machine.” Your first brush with the game’s antagonists comes when the Construct slams itself against a door, which is thankfully locked (you can open it, but who would do that?). Shortly after, Simon falls (literally) into a deadly game of hide-and-seek. For such a hulking form, the Construct can pick up an impressive, lumbering pace if it spots you. Your only recourse is to run. “For such a hulking form, the…

Yharnam’s benighted townsfolk are turning into beasts, and the hunters who are sent out after them are transforming into monsters themselves. There are terrifying creatures that can only be seen by the mad… or those on the brink while caught in the cosmic creature’s grasp. And, yes, all those things are scary – horrifying, even! But that’s not what gets the hardened horror-nauts of Team OPM. No, it’s the *blorp*ing pigs. If you charge ahead without due caution in a particular narrow sewer, one little piggy will decimate a low-level character with a surprisingly powerful charge attack. But we’ve really got a bone to pick with the ‘Goliath Pigs.’ These two even bigger blighters lurk outside the Hypogean Jail, and their ear-piercing squeal as they thundered towards us gave us…

Siren One hell of a callback The living are few and far between in Hanuda. Sightjacking – the ability to see through the living dead’s eyes – is their only hope of survival. The droning sound design and uncanny facial capture makes this an unsettling classic. Silent Hill Oh, to return! This is one of the best-known examples of devs turning limitations into assets. Besides that fog hiding a limited draw distance, the low-polygon graphics welcomed ambiguity and added to the horror. We miss this series! Project Zero II – Crimson Butterfly That’s the spirit! A haunted village, the ritual sacrifice of twins, and sibling protagonists with only a camera for protection. A recipe for disaster that we wish we could play more easily on modern systems. Resident Evil The…

Naturally, it was quite a job for our OPM STARS to pick the moment that would crown this top ten list, let alone select one from this classic series, and it wouldn’t make a Licker of sense for us to not so much as mention Resi VII here. However, the chill you feel on hearing those booming footsteps drawing closer and it dawns on you that, yes, Mr X gon’ give it to ya more than justifies knocking the seventh mainline entry off of our list. We all know by now just where ol’ Trenchy can and cannot show his big wrinkly head, but Mr X is still not a force to be trifled with. Beyond the fact he’s all but unkillable, and not worth wasting ammo on unless you’re…

You’ve heard the expression ‘less is more’, right? On the basis of Borderlands 3, we’re not sure Gearbox has. The game is stuffed as full as one of its loot chests, with so many enemies and side-missions and upgrades that they practically spill out of the screen onto your floor. And that’s before we get to the billion guns Borderlands 3 is capable of generating. The number of meaningfully different firearms is, we suspect, much lower – but it still makes for an unprecedentedly huge arsenal. As well as Diablo-style damage stats, each gun comes from a specific manufacturer with its own proprietary features: COV guns let you hold the trigger down without worrying about reloading, but will eventually overheat and break down. However, with a Tediore-brand weapon reloading’s the…

What do you do when a witness won’t talk, and you need to track down a serial killer who’s taking their victims’ left eyes as trophies? The answer for ABIS (Advanced Brain Investigation Squad) agent Date Kaname is simple: psync with them. Using a special machine the unit can hop into someone’s dreams, but only for six minutes at a time. Date is aided in his dream delving by Aiba (short for AI-ball), his AI partner who lives inside his false eye. As his avatar when investigating dreams, time only moves when she does, and different actions incur different time costs. Each ‘Somnium’ you hop into is essentially a self-contained adventure game that uses dream logic, which you need to puzzle together in the right order. How you complete peoples’…

We’ve seen an adorable hat; it’s outside the shop on the street to Cloud 9. The only problem is it’s currently sitting on someone else’s head. We’ll have to lop it off from the neck up, but the violence will be worth it to look like Crocodile Dundee. “Call that a knife?” Actually it’s a Gaia Lancer, and just right for the job. The Surge 2’s thing is its unique combat system and loot grind that enables you to lock onto a body part and hack it off in a series of gruesome close-up death blows. You can then add that part to your inventory to craft better armour and weapons, and use spares for upgrades. It’s a simple idea that changes how you approach every confrontation as going for…

Seldom do you encounter the terms ‘EA’ and ‘fan service’ in the same sentence, so it’s a surprise and a relief to say that this year’s FIFA chiefly aims to address long-standing community requests. Five-aside football returns via Volta mode, Ultimate Team gets restructured, and the career mode receives a coat of paint. So far, so promising. While the now-defunct FIFA Street often felt like an opportunist method of milking the series’ audience for a few extra quid, Volta’s integration here is seamless and at times spectacular. Offering three-, four- or five-a-side play across eight varied arenas, its blend of absurd skill moves, crazy scores, and uproariously daft celebrations injects a sense of fun which FIFA has lacked for much of this generation. Which is not to say it’s failed…

With Tropico 6, another instalment of the city-building heavyweight makes its way to PS4 to let you experience the joys of dictatorship. New developer Limbic Entertainment doesn’t change much about the classic formula – this is still a city-builder in which you mostly make nice with several political factions warring for dominance on your archipelago, and build relationships with international powers via trade routes and other business contracts. The interface is inherited from Tropico 5. You select maps and building tools from a ring menu, which you navigate with the right analogue stick. Thumbing through submenus, for example to select a specific type of plantation or look further into the stats of a building, is done using the buttons on the D-pad. Outside of menus, you use the D-pad for…

The Neverending Story and Final Fantasy ought to swap names, so terrifyingly long is the list of mainline and spin-off titles in Square Enix’s series. This 20-year-old, tidied-up chapter may be familiar to you. Calling it a ‘remaster’ seems rather generous, mind you; while character models now look ten years old rather than 20, the backgrounds are still partying like it’s 1999. The messily pixellated environments can occasionally obscure doorways and passageways, not that this will be an issue for existing fans diving in to drink in some sweet, sweet nostalgia. In fact, let’s face it – existing fans of FFVIII will know the experience inside and out already. What if you missed it the first time around? The story is primarily concerned with grumpy teen Squall and his pals,…

This is the same campy, romantic puzzler you knew and loved in 2011… for better and worse. This expanded rerelease follows indecisive Vincent as he finds himself caught between an abundance of K/C/Qatherines.1 On top of an extra layer of polish, there’s a new (and very welcome) difficulty setting for those more into the story than the puzzles. A fun, though not deep, Remix mode introduces Tetris-like blocks for a twist on the block-pushing conundrums, and these remain a fiendishly compelling challenge however you play. The original’s love triangle is now a square as Vincent is drawn to another other woman. Rin is an adorable amnesiac, pure of heart and someone you can’t help but root for.2 She’s a seamless addition to the story, showing that Vincent is occasionally capable…

Green fingers clearly run in the family. And no, we’re not talking about Tung’s relatives, though he’s one of the residents of Mutazione island whose family is literally green. We mean Kai’s family. While visiting her ailing grandpa (and shaman) from the big city, she begins to take up his task of tending to the island’s gardens and strange, mutated flora. Mutazione is a mutant community built upon the ashes of a calamity: when a meteor hit an island resort, it obliterated most of the area’s inhabitants, but also allowed new life to spring forth. The mutated human population is now only numerous enough to fill a small village living under the massive Papu tree. As Kai, you help out your grandpa, in the process realising your activity has wider…

To learn a skill there is no shame in imitation,” says Dreams creator Robert Moneagle. Having made games previously, Moneagle turned to Dreams as a way to master making music for videogames, and chose to replicate the 8-bit blips and blops of his favourite retro title as a test. “DREAMS’ STRENGTH IS ITS ACCESSIBILITY. [IT’S] AN IDEAL ENTRY POINT.” “I’m an ’80s boy and in my humble opinion there is no better computer game music than Rob Hubbard’s main theme to Monty On The Run,” says Moneagle, who began by scouring the internet for a piano arrangement, choosing one by Paul Nelsen on musescore.com. “The music tools in Dreams were a delight to learn, even for someone as musically illiterate as myself. When I was happy with my music I…

01 LOOSENESS? Looseness is one of the things you should use to your advantage in Dreams. It’s a good (and performance-cheap) way to add textures and variation to your models. Looseness defines the distance between and the size of the flecks that cover all surfaces in Dreams, and you can use it as a way to smooth hard edges. In this example you can clearly see the difference between the left (without looseness variation) and the right one (with). To paint with looseness in your models, switch to the Looseness tool while you’re scoped into a model. 02 LET’S ROCK Let’s make a rock. We make this using the basic Clay tools – use the square Clay brush set to Stamp mode, then use add and subtract to rough it…

TEKKEN 7 SEASON PASS 3 The King Of Iron Fist Tournament rages ever on, with four new fighters set to enter the ring over the course of a new season. Zafina returns from Tekken 6 right now (also available for £4.99), and new character, Leroy Smith, will join soon. RAGE 2 – RISE OF THE GHOSTS Fair warning: they’re not actual ghosts. This cannibalistic bandit cult returns from the first game to wreak havoc on the wasteland. Explore their overgrown city home as a new region on the map as you struggle to deal with them – now evolved and more powerful than before. DEAD BY DAYLIGHT: STRANGER THINGS The Netflix series is a brilliant fit for this asymmetric survival horror. Adding the Hawkins Lab as a new map, the…

While we’ve seen plenty of Cal Kestis and BD-1 in action so far, the latest showcase from Respawn introduces us properly to Cal’s mission throughout Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Cal’s taken in and mentored by fellow Force-sensitive and fugitive Jedi Knight Cere Junda. He then joins his new mentor on a journey to restore the Jedi Order – battling some batty enemies along the way. “AT ONE POINT WE HEAR THE TELL-TALE INTAKE OF ROBOTIC BREATH.” He might be being pursued by the Second Sister and the rest of the Inquisition, but escape is not Cal’s ultimate goal. Alongside Junda, he’s looking for “something very precious to the Empire”, which seems to be vital in helping to restore the Jedi to glory. The closer Cal gets, the more ire…

Mark 4 February down on your burgeoning 2020 calendar as it’s the date horror-survival shooter Zombie Army 4: Dead War will drag its bloody carcass onto PS4. With The Last Of Us Part II out towards the end February, with Final Fantasy VII Remake and Cyberpunk 2077 hot on its heels, we’ll have just enough time to get stuck into Rebellion’s co-op shooter. Going hands-on with the team-based shooter we are impressed. It’s a slick blast that demands teamwork and plays on an arcade core too few games embrace on PS4. There’s a raw satisfaction that comes from popping a Nazi zombie’s head off from 100 yards. Taut choke points force you to rely on secondary weapons and using the environment against the horde, but it’s the beating co-op heart…

From 8 November, the mysteries of Death Stranding may finally be explained. Or, more likely, we’ll find ourselves all tangled up in the first knots of the ‘strand’ genre. But there’s one thing we are certain of: we’d love to take a delivery of this suitably themed 1TB PlayStation 4 Pro console and DualShock 4 controller, announced to celebrate the game’s anticipated launch. “THE AMBER HUE IS TAKEN FROM THE BRIDGE BABIES’ PODS.” Ahead of the winter release date, the console sports chilly, glacier-white panels with the textbook oily handprints of a Beached Thing smeared over the top. It’s a striking design – notice the way the world’s continents are folded into the BT’s palm impressions? You’ll be able to pick up the console as part of a special edition…

Hero or zero? I play or have played some of the Assassin’s Creed games for about 500-plus hours. I would not be hurt nor surprised if Ubisoft didn’t remove all user-created XP-farming quests. If gamers don’t want to play the game as the designers intended, or perhaps don’t have the time to invest, then perhaps the AC games are not for them. Origins was BIG and Odyssey is HUGE and sometimes I’ll just sit on a hillside or on the beach and just enjoy the view and return to the XP grind after an in-game relaxing moment. IMHO, Ubisoft has replaced our hectic real-life challenges with an immersive world where we can be heroes. Having to do a bit of hard work to attain that status, I think, is acceptable.…

1 The Last Of Us Part II A brand-new trailer and we’ve fallen in love with this one all over again – and it looks like we’ll be getting it as a belated Valentine present. Sometimes things just Clicker. FORMAT PS4 ETA 21 FEB 2 Cyberpunk 2077 Everyone’s still eager to upgrade themselves and move to sunny Night City. Get modified next spring. FORMAT PS4 ETA 16 APR 3 Final Fantasy VII Remake A fresh look at Midgar’s whetted your appetite to see even more of the city. Fear not, Cloud’s on the horizon… FORMAT PS4 ETA 3 MAR 4 Death Stranding Out not long after this issue’s in your hands, we’ll have a full review of Koj’s enigmatic ‘strand game’ in the next OPM. FORMAT PS4 ETA 8 NOV…

1 Hero is Ichiban’s starting job, because he was able to pull the spiked baseball bat out of the ground when nobody else could, and he loves Dragon Quest (really!). 2 ’Yojimbo’ means bouncer or bodyguard. Combine that with a nod to Kurosawa’s samurai film of the same name, and Ichiban gets a sharp suit and katana. 3 Making it rain champagne is Ichiban’s goal when he takes on the Host job, showing his enemies a good-time-turned-bad with his party-starting moves. 4 Goro Majima fans rejoice. The Dancer job has shades of Yakuza 0’s Breaker fighting style. Ichiban’s got some serious moves (and serious faces) to bust.…

“GIGANTIC MUTATED CREATURES ARE READY TO HURL A CAR YOUR WAY.” FORMAT PS VR / ETA 2020 / PUB VERTIGO GAMES / DEV VERTIGO GAMES In the 1980s the world succumbed to an ice age; Los Angeles froze and the population turned to designer drugs to get them through the crisis. Big mistake. Twenty years later the world is plagued by mutated, zombified drug addicts who have developed a taste for human flesh. Behind After The Fall’s pulpy setup is developer Vertigo Games, best known for the excellent PS VR first-person shooter Arizona Sunshine. While this game swaps the heat of the Arizona desert for a wintry post-civilisation LA, you’ll still be shooting wave upon wave of zombies, known here as the Snowbreed. Where Arizona Sunshine focused on survival, After…

1 Structures like this big bridge require collaboration between players to build. They take more effort to make but can make travelling a lot easier. 2 Leave signs behind to alert other players to dangers, or point out helpful areas such as rest-inducing hot springs, then watch the Likes flow in. 3 Stand in this shelter and your cargo’s sprayed with a repair gas. Shelters can be customised to showcase your tastes, such as by blasting J-Pop. 4 Run out of equipment during a boss fight? Press the communication button and ghostly figures of other players can chuck you weapons. Handy!…

“CLOSE-UPS REVEAL AN EXTRA LEVEL OF DETAIL, ESPECIALLY IN THE FACIAL ANIMATIONS.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2020 / PUB ARC SYSTEM WORKS / DEV ARC SYSTEM WORKS Currently just a working title, the nice, clean original name of the latest Guilty Gear game is revealing. In some ways, it’s going back to basics, but it also signifies a fresh start. Despite the success of Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2, directors Daisuke Ishiwatari (the series’ creator) and Akira Katano are keen to make it clear this is not part of the Xrd series. This is a brand-new Guilty Gear. That said, the fighter’s signature devotion to style is very much present, even in the small glimpses of the game we’ve had. It’s scored to hype rock music, and the 3D visuals…

01 Ellie and Dina have to put on gas masks to avoid inhaling the spores of the infected while exploring an abandoned supermarket. After a tumble, the blind Clickers are alerted, and Dina has to take action to defend Ellie. 02 As always, noises like gunshots can alert enemies – infected or not – to your presence. Though the immediate threat’s been dealt with, Dina and Ellie now have to deal with even more Clickers drawn by the noise of firing. 03 Clickers rely on hearing because they can’t see you. This means you can sneak up on them (or past them), but staying quiet is paramount. Get close enough, and you can take them out, making the world a teensy bit safer. 04 Because they’re reliant on sound to…

As the world went crazy for the first hands-on with The Last Of Us Part II there was a sour note, as Naughty Dog confirmed there will be no online multiplayer at launch. However, game director Neil Druckmann explained the team had worked on a multiplayer component for the game but it evolved into something bigger than anyone expected. The upshot? We’ll be shooting one another in the face with bows and arrows later, after release. It feels like Naughty Dog is taking a page out of Rockstar’s playbook, and realising that The Last Of Us Part II Online could be a bigger deal as a separate release. A dedicated online mode similar to RDR2 could also be something that links a PS4 release to a PS5 remaster.…

The Maw is a fittingly named vessel. Chapter four begins with the ship taking on passengers referred to in-game only as ‘The Guests.’ Filing into the ship’s dining area, its tables piled high with all kinds of strange and seriously unappetising meat, they sit and gorge. But they’re never so distracted by their meal that they’ll ignore protagonist Six’s presence. Just as you begin to think you’ve figured out how best to sidestep the doddering Guests, they begin pouring out from rooms on all sides, forming a hungry tidal wave. What they lack in speed while upright they make up for in their terrifyingly determined crawl. With their grasping hands to either side and behind Six, the only way to get out is to go through. The Maw casts a…

Supermassive’s first original IP was inspired by teen terror movies and became a horror classic in its own right. It pits its young adult cast against not only the elements and each other but a strange supernatural force atop Blackwood mountain. You can choose either to lean into genre conventions, developing each teen into their respective shlocky stereotype, or steer their character arcs into subversions of classic tropes – for better and for worse. Assertive Emily is a case in point. Many players see her as one of the frostiest presences on the mountain, and gleefully direct her to her death. However, if you keep her alive she quickly proves to be the teen with the keenest survival instinct and instrumental in unravelling the mountain’s mysteries. Delving deeper into the…

“A LOOK THAT’S REMINISCENT OF SOME OF THE BEST STOP-MOTION FILMS OF THE LAST DECADE.” The fishing village of Denska was once prosperous, but after a series of disasters those days are long gone. The streets are quiet save for a group of very unhappy youngsters, most of whom ride around on their bikes and lash out at the brick walls that can’t fight back – and then there’s you, Ash. Ash remembers what the village used to be and still visits it – despite his parents’ warnings – to make the most of a quiet place to sketch. That doesn’t last long as the town’s other teens find him and tear up his sketchbook, scattering the pages to the wind before abandoning him at a derelict lighthouse. But, in…

WHAT YOU DO IN… BORDERLANDS 3 STAT PACK 256 Weeks between the last Borderlands game (The Pre-Sequel) and this one. 3 Pets FL4K can choose between. One of them is a pistol-wielding cyberpunk monkey. 109 An (apparently conservative) estimate of the number of unique guns on offer in the game. 6 Number of Sirens that can exist at one time. In Borderlands 3 you meet most of them. FRIENDS & ENEMIES Southern belle, mechanic, and part of a surprisingly female-led cast. A Vault Hunter from a previous game who returns as an NPC. Big Bad, one half of the Calypso Twins, and… successful streamer? LOVING/ HATING BOUNCING BACK Brought low by enemy fire? No bother – simply kill an enemy before the timer runs out and you’ll be…

More Spanish-Catholic-inspired than Gothic, Blasphemous is a gruesome pixel hack-and-slash that riffs on all things holy and, well, unholy too. You play as The Penitent One, the only survivor of the massacre of the Silent Sorrow at the hands of a curse named The Miracle that has befallen the land of Cvstodia. Things get bloody as you tackle evil single-handedly, mowing down strange creatures – including some large, nightmarish bosses. The world is wonderfully rendered, and sparks the imagination thanks to a mixture of terrifically smooth animation and drop-dead gorgeous pixel art. (It’s lored up to the brim too.) In Castlevania fashion exploration is non-linear,1 and opens up from very early on, making the process of eking out your own path rewarding and tantalising. There’s plenty to find, from prayers…

WHAT YOU DO IN… THE SURGE 2 ALSO ON PLAYSTATION 4 PRO The Surge 2 developer Deck13 has some love for PlayStation 4 Pro players, with upscaled 4K at 30fps (Beauty mode), or fluid 60fps at 1080p (Performance mode) on offer. Sadly, the only playable mode is Performance, so you’ll need to take a hit on textures to make your blows count. LOVING/ HATING ON TARGET Being able to target areas of an enemy and parrying to inflict maximum damage are two of the best new additions to soulsbornes… MONSTER MASH … Though this goes out of the window somewhat for the boss battles, in which levelling and button mashing can be your best weapons. MULTIPL AYER The game’s online mode turns into a very handy tool…

Featuring one of the most in-depth character creators we’ve seen in years, this fanged soulslike looked poised to fulfil all those vampiric dreams many of a certain age had in the noughties. You can tweak impressively granular details of your undying anime protagonist, from eye-shine design to layers of accessories. Character designs are a pleasingly detailed mix of belts, buckles, harnesses, and high fashion – ridiculous but easy on the eye. The bombastic, chorally-focused score by composer Go Shiina pitches proceedings to be exactly the kind of over-the-top nonsense we can get behind. Unfortunately, what melancholy or drama there is to be found here is decidedly bloodless. Combat presents an incredibly moreish souls-lite loop. We say ‘souls-lite’ as fighting involves a lot of soulslike actions – keeping a close eye…

Given that each stage is a music track, you’d expect this to be a rhythm game. And indeed it is… to a certain extent. At other moments, it’s a shoot-`em-up, a runner, even a driving game. The top line is that the visuals and animation are beautiful, and the music tracks are bangers. But this game is mostly for those who will find those two things enough. You play as a woman with a broken heart who, Sailor-Moon-style, awakens as The Fool, and is tasked with defeating ‘Wild Hearts’.1 Each stage plays out to a different pulse-pounding track, and you mostly zip along collecting hearts and diamonds for points. Just as you’re beginning to settle into the style of a stage, it usually ends (only a few of the levels…

“TRAVELLING ABOUT AUROA IS A HEARTBREAKING SLOG. THE ISLAND DOESN’T HAVE ENOUGH ROADS.” Not to be snarky, but that really should be ‘Breaking Point’. When Ghost Recon first burst onto the scene in 2001 it was a drum-tight tactical shooter. Focusing on claustrophobic confines and teamwork, the series reached its highest point with 2012’s brilliant Future Soldier. What happened next? Ubisoft turned the franchise open-world with Wildlands in 2017, and two years later, we find ourselves in this mess. At the time of writing, Ghost Recon: Breakpoint is not in a release-worthy state. This is as broken and awkward a big-budget sandbox as I can recall playing on PS4. Noticeably uglier than its predecessor, with the blandest open-world environment Ubisoft’s ever made, this feels like a real low for a…

Finally the new MXGP game offers the current season of real-life MXGP and MX2 bikes, teams, riders, and tracks. This makes the already-solid racing feel much more authentic, and it’s now running very well indeed on Unreal Engine 4. The smooth 30fps experience barely stutters, even when there are 22 bikes on the screen, each carving a line through the 3D mud1 on the track surface as they all attempt the ‘holeshot’ by leading the pack into turn one. If the 22 real-world tracks aren’t enough for you, you can make your own. With plenty of segments available, from banked turns to ‘dragon’s back’ bump sequences, it’s only really lacking elevation options and trackside object placement. You can even post your masterpiece online for the world to try. Career mode…

We’ve no doubt the DualShock-passing Movie Night mode will be getting a lot of play this Halloween but Man Of Medan’s two-player, shared story mode is where the game really comes into its own. The lack of accommodation for player communication outside gameplay is an asset as there’s a pleasing tension to playing against the choices of a friend online. On the other hand, as each player can be shown wildly different scenes (some of which don’t appear at all in the single-player modes), keeping your pal on the line doesn’t detract from the spooky proceedings either. Let’s just say hearing them yelling “OH *BLORP*” and not immediately knowing why is a type of scare we can get behind. VERDICT While other modes can feel slow, playing this as a…

GAME METAL MOTHER Creator MadPropz101 digs into a love of Doom for this slick shooter. The controls are solid, and a heat percentage counter ticks away as you shoot. Gameplay is simple – blast evil eyeballs and jump precarious gaps – but in Dreams this feels like a genuine achievement. TUTORIAL ART TUTORIAL – OVERGROWN Seeking to help us all improve, mBergs presents this very useful training to create a beautiful Dreams environment. Each visual step is offered with a detailed caption on how the stages of the scene are created. Dreams could do with more training like this. GAME WISTMAN’S WOOD Dreams maker RadLaddy has crafted this atmospheric game set in a mysterious, mist-cloaked woodland. While gameplay may be sparse on the ground, this walking-sim-like project showcases how the…

The reveal of a new roster of fighters for any Mortal Kombat game is always exciting. But the latest Kombat Pack features some serious fan-love. Not only do we get Terminator’s T-800 from the new movie Dark Fate, there’s also room for MK legend Sindel and The Joker. The T-800 character, complete with a variety of skins, dismemberment Fatalities, intros, and cinematics, is available now to download, and proved popular with the dev team. “As Arnold Schwarzenegger is arguably the most iconic action hero of all time, it was a real career highlight to work on his face and facial rig,” says lead character artist at NetherRealm Studios Brendan George. The Terminator movie fun stretches to new skins for existing characters, including a Sarah Connor-styled outfit for Sonya Blade. “PART…

Single-player might be taking point for Call Of Duty this year (and boy were we thankful to welcome Price’s ’tache back after Blops 4), but its multiplayer options live up to the original Modern Warfare name too. The highlight for us is Spec Ops Survival Mode, which is exclusive to PS4 all the way through to October 2020 – a whole year. It has players collaborating to survive wave after wave of oncoming enemies, putting the best fireteams to the test as you try to make it as far you can. Gather up your friends and see how long you can hold out for. “SURVIVAL MODE HAS PLAYERS COLLABORATING TO SURVIVE WAVES OF ENEMIES.” Spec Ops Survival Mode is just one option, however. There are plenty of other multiplayer modes…