Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2020 i PLAY

“SEPTEMBER IS NOW A STELLAR MONTH FOR PS4.” As Nick Fury will tell you, putting together a team takes time – at least five movies and a few billion dollars. Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait a little longer for the videogame teamup. Developer Crystal Dynamics announced that Marvel’s Avengers has been delayed from its 15 May release to a new date of 4 September. The studio released a statement apologising for the delay and explaining the reasons behind it. The dev decided that if it were to deliver on its mission statement of “an original story-driven campaign, engaging co-op, and compelling content for years to come,” more time was needed. Crystal Dynamics explained that it intends the final game to be “the ultimate Avengers gaming experience,” and went on to…

Made to slot into the jacks below the PS button on the back of your DualShock, the DualShock 4 Back Button Attachment has fully programmable buttons and opens up new ways to play. The tiny digital display at its centre details what’s currently mapped to the buttons on either side, and you can save up to three different combinations at a time. The back paddles make the most of how you’d naturally hold the DualShock 4 – no awkward stretching required – and the attachment overall feels unobtrusive over hours of play. At £25.99, it’s a great compromise if you want a more customisable controller without having to cough up for a third-party pro model. And while most of the business is around the back, as an unexpected bonus it…

ABE’S RARE ODDITIES As we await Oddworld: Soulstorm’s PS4 release, the developer is tapping into its legacy. Out now is the art book Oddworld: Abe’s Origins, which crams officially-licensed Oddworld Inhabitants concept art into its 288 pages. It also includes an interview with Abe creator Lorne Lanning. DYING LIGHT 2 DELAYED What a month for devs missing deadlines, eh? Dying Light 2 joins the list of Triple-A games moving from their spring release dates (see p10). While Techland’s parkour zombie adventure has yet to get a firm new date, we do know a next-gen edition was being planned. Will it be on PS5’s launch line-up? FUNKO POPS 2077 The game may have been delayed until September but the Cyberpunk 2077 merchandise is in full swing. Funko revealed its male and…

“None of these delays are really surprising. Gotta put out a date out there to motivate a bit […] but games are so complicated, always doing new stuff, that it’s so tough to predict.” Remedy’s Thomas Puha tells it how it is. “A zany sense of humor is very important in life.” Hideki Naganuma hands out some life advice. “I’m working on a title as a core member. I hope the title won’t be cancelled.” Masahiro Ito has something in the works.…

“EVERY EMBRACE IS SURE TO LEAVE YOU WITH A CASE OF THE WARM FUZZIES.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA TBC / PUB THUNDER LOTUS GAMES / DEV THUNDER LOTUS GAMES The newest guest on Stella’s houseboat for the dead is a giant snake coiled under a heavy cloak. Only recently departed, she’s already hissing about making preparations for her trip to the afterlife. But ferry-girl Stella knows it’s not the journey or even the destination that matter – it’s the friends we make along the way. So what if hers are dead? Summer the snake first requests her own onboard meditation space – one with plants and lots of light and even a hammock she can curl up in adorably. After a quick visit to the Shipyard, our sweet old snake…

FORMAT PS4 / ETA 31 MAR / PUB ATLUS / DEV P-STUDIO Bet you never saw this coming. Like Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 Golden before it, this is a massively expanded rerelease of a mainline Persona game with more characters, challenges and story elements added. That’s all well and good but we’re especially excited about one quality-of-life improvement in particular: you no longer have a strict bedtime enforced by your talking cat. We jest, but only slightly – and Morgana still tells you to get an early night on important story days anyway. However, given what was already one of the biggest JRPGs on PS4 just got even bigger, you’re going to need that extra time in the evenings. Those after-school hours are prime time for packing in…

Jin Kasai is a legend. Some say he died on the beaches of Tsushima, repelling the first Mongol invasion of Japan. Others say he lived on, a one-man army, striking fear into the hearts of the invaders. The truth is for you to discover, as you play the island’s last surviving samurai as he tries to save it from devastation at the hands of the occupying army. Ghost Of Tsushima is Sucker Punch’s love letter to Japanese cinema, and a culmination of the previous open worlds it created married to the mastery that only comes from working with PS4 for so many years. Here’s everything we know so far, and all the reasons you need to strap on your samurai armour. 1 NEXT-GEN BLOOD “EXPECT EVERY DROPLET OF POWER TO…

We asked and the OPM readers answered. You shared so much more than just the first games you remember playing – perhaps one or two people even overshared. For every naughty tweet about Tekken (that we absolutely cannot print) and for every responder insisting that an internet ghost story was in fact their first game, there were plenty more responses that celebrated 25 years of PlayStation history. Here is a selection of some of our favourites. Is yours here? WITH FEELING “It was Kingdom Hearts for me… I mean I’ve played PS1 games but to actually own a PS2 and get to sit and play it on my time… Kingdom Hearts was it” @LeX_215 “Actua Soccer 2. Still the best commentary in any football game.” @hillsiola “Riiiiiidge Racer!” @FranklinMargate “GTA…

CRASH BANDICOOT Is it any surprise that PlayStation’s own orange whirlwind claimed such a large share of the vote? Between Crash Bash, good old CTR, the Bandicoot’s premier platforming outing, and, uh, The Wrath Of Cortex, he gives one heck of an introduction to the PlayStation family! His devilish attitude sold PlayStations. METAL GEAR SOLID Who else would sneak up behind the top spot? However, we hope that this doesn’t mean Snake is about to put Crash to sleep. Even at this early point in his career, Kojima wore his cinematic influences on his sleeve. This game’s presentation, on top of its tactical espionage action, hooked many and never let them go. SPYRO THE DRAGON You obviously love your brightly coloured puzzle platformer protagonists. The original scale baby flew into…

Alchemy is the focus of this long-running JRPG series. Every Atelier sees you bunging ingredients you collect while exploring the world into a pot, then mixing them together to make quest items or tools to use in battle.1 All the same, Gust always stirs the pot between releases, ensuring each game feels fresh and unique without making the older titles feel outdated. The Dusk Trilogy encompasses the final three games for PS3,2 forming a self-contained arc set in the Land Of Dusk where the secrets of a precursor civilisation have been forgotten, and the world is threatened with once again becoming inhospitable. Visually, it’s proof that strong art direction can trump realism. While these are in many ways obviously last-generation games, the watercolour-style designs of the characters and environments still…

Think the title of this anime-infused 2D action platformer sounds like a Saturday morning kids’ TV show? Rest easy: that’s the vibe it’s going for. Placing you in the shoes of an elite mercenary able to pilot the eponymous Hardcore Mecha, the act of boosting, shooting, and gut-punching your way through hordes of cyber-enemies never ceases to be satisfying – and it’s made all the more epic by an inherently charming SD art style.1 This is the perfect example of an indie shoot-’em-up that knows not to bite off more than it can chew, delivering all the punchiness and kineticism of, say, Dragonball via its cutscenes2 before letting you loose across a fun, and often challenging, eight-part campaign. Hardcore Mecha isn’t short on ideas either, introducing mechanical challenges at least…

Scores are tricky things. When this follow-up to DICE’s first literal Star Wars warfighter launched, we weren’t pleased with its barebones game modes and progression system. But that was 2017. More than two years of updates and listening to the community have culminated in the Celebration Edition. It’s the Star Wars battle game we all wanted it to be at launch. You can upgrade to the Celebration Edition from the base game or buy it as a standalone. It gives you access to hundreds of character skins, voice lines, and emotes, so you can set things how you want, whether that’s having Obi-Wan gesture ‘hello there’, or loading up Lando to rock the Donald Glover look from Solo. Battlefront II is a real celebration of the series, a curated museum…

You may not be racing across cluttered tabletops and through oversized gardens, but this game’s default overhead view and simple yet demanding gameplay puts us in mind of Micro Machines’ heyday (in much the same way as the last Micro Machines game didn’t). Combine the optional PS VR with the closest view, and it even becomes a pretty good go-kart simulator. Online supports up to four players at once, though we could never find more than one at a time. Players are few and far between, something the developer has anticipated by allowing you to play solo while waiting for a race to be found. It’s worth persevering, as online races can be surprisingly tense at times, whether you opt to play with or without weapons. VERDICT Intuitive, and open…

“DESIGNING MAN-MADE OBJECTS REQUIRES THOUGHT ABOUT THE OBJECT’S FORM AND FUNCTION.” For this tutorial we’re taking a trip to outer space, and for that we need a spaceship. So that is what we’ll be sculpting. Complex models like this are best created in stages. We’ll go through a design phase, a refinement phase, and finally a finish phase where we’ll apply materials and paint the model. I personally find that this type of sculpt is more difficult to do than organic scenery, as designing man-made objects requires more thought about the object’s form and function. It’s not enough for something to look good, it also needs to convince the viewer that it could do the things you’re claiming it can. As with any sculpt, your final scene is only as…

The last time the world saw Patrick Stewart’s legendary Starfleet Captain Jean-Luc Picard on screens was almost 20 years ago in dismal Next Gen movie Nemesis. Now, hot on the heels of resurgent series Star Trek: Discovery, Picard has been given a shot at redemption, and the results are a stratospheric success. Set in real-time some two decades after we last saw Picard, the years have not been kind to Jean-Luc. He may be living an idyllic life at Château Picard winery in France with his adorable pup (who he calls ‘Number One’), but his sleep is haunted by the event that drove him out of Starfleet – the destruction of Romulus and the botched rescue of its 900 million inhabitants. Then he finds a new purpose when a mysterious…

Anything PlayStation 5 will send us into a fever, and leaked in-game footage of confirmed next-gen launch title Godfall certainly ticked the boxes. Though developer Counterplay Games later took to Twitter to reveal the footage is credible, it also offers some context. “IT LOOKS LIKE ENEMIES ARE ABLE TO ADAPT TO YOUR ATTACKS.” “We can confirm that the circulating trailer is year-old PC footage used as part of an internal presentation. We are energised by your excitement and look forward to showing you just how far this game has come. Stay tuned for a more detailed look soon!” So while what is shown is not running on a PlayStation 5 developer kit, and doesn’t appear to feature the bells and whistles expected, such as ray tracing, it gives us an…

We haven’t even begun trying to track down the powerful spirit stones of 1555 Japan, necessary to keep our immense yokai (demonic) powers under control, yet Koei Tecmo has disclosed that three post-release DLC expansions will develop the tale further. “PLENTY OF CHALLENGE FOR THOSE THIRSTING FOR MORE.” In Nioh 2 you take on the role of yokai hunter Hideyoshi to locate these sacred stones before the land’s demons and ghouls can get to them. As they’re used both to control your own yokai abilities and also to communicate with the yokai, they’re incredibly valuable. During your adventure you will partner with a wandering merchant, Toukichiro, fight alongside a skilled yokai hunter named Mumyo, and eventually align yourself with the warlord Oda Nobunaga. The story of Nioh 2 will be…

Gun away Thank you for James McMahon’s article, Giving Up The Gun, in OPM 171. He’s summed up perfectly how I feel from time to time, that playing a game without a gun is a grand and necessary thing to do. I loved Journey, though I failed to finish Unfinished Swan, and maybe I never will. I don’t want to ban games with guns (if I’m honest, I’m really not very good at the FPS, Dishonored I’m looking at you), but I think it’s no bad thing to step away from the games you normally play to try something completely different. The guns will always be there but sometimes you just need that calm quiet moment before you return to the fray. Pippa Baddeley via email We agree! Gaming’s more…

VOTE NOW! Tell us the five games you can’t wait to play at opm@futurenet.com 1 Ghost Of Tsushima Sneaking into top place on your Most Wanted list, it’s Jin. For now, turn to p48 and find out why he deserves the no. 1 spot. FORMAT PS4 ETA TBC 2 The Last Of Us Part II Since it was announced, this has been one of your Most Wanted games. There’s not long to wait now… FORMAT PS4 ETA 29 MAY 3 Cyberpunk 2077 It’s slipped and rumours of developer crunch are sadly circling. Here’s hoping this lives up to the high expectations. FORMAT PS4 ETA 17 SEP 4 Final Fantasy VII Remake We now know we’ll land in Midgar on 10 April. Are you ready to take Cloud on an…

“THE VARIOUS SURFACES YOU DRIVE ON REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA 3 MAR / PUB BIGBEN INTERACTIVE / DEV ZORDIX RACING Despite the timer ticking steadily away – these obstacle courses are ostensibly competitive – we take a moment to think, idling our engine, sizing up the route ahead. This is our 20th attempt to tackle this final hill in this particular hilltop challenge. At first glance, it’s a steep hill, the same as any other. But we know this one now. It’s an old, worthy foe by this point. We know that the middle of the incline is too steep to take on straight-up, the approach too bumpy for us to maintain both grip and speed. The right side is too muddy, the clay-like surface causing…

1 Lancelot might be lightning-fast, but the leader of the Order Of The White Dragons and ‘Twinfang Prodigy’ actually wields the power of ice. 2 Siegfried was wrongly maligned for murdering his king before reconciling with Lancelot to clear his name and fulfil his promises to the old king. 3 Vane is Lancelot’s staunchest supporter and has survived his own ordeals to become a knight truly worthy of standing alongside his hero. 4 The flame to Lancelot’s ice, Percival considers the White Dragon leader his rival. With flaming sword in hand, he pursues the dream of a land without war.…

“WipEout but also messing around with the 3D T-Rex [on the Demo One disc]. Only a small thing now but back then it was immense” @Quak3r72 “Skeleton Warriors. A video store near me used to allow people to play games in the back for $2 an hour. I chose Skeleton Warriors because it was based off a show I was watching lol. Fun fact: It was Neversoft’s (Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater) first game” @Sric360 “Tony Hawk Pro Skater. [First] game I bought was Resident Evil 2. Paid $54 at the PX in Japan. Happy Anniversary PlayStation!” @JacobPA19 “Total Drivin’ was the first game I ever played about 22 years ago. This might explain why I’m quite good at racing games.” @ant281090 “I remember a friend hyping up Twisted Metal. I…

Gameplay is definitely placed before aesthetics in Flat Heroes, conventional distractions like character design, world-building, and even story having been ditched in order to prioritise fast-paced platformer action. You play as a square which has to avoid and/or fight incoming objects. The 300-plus no-frills levels are short, lasting anywhere between 30 seconds and a minute, and once you get into the swing of things, you find yourself either bolting through levels, or repeating one particularly tricky one over and over with a growing sense of frustration. When everything’s focused on the action physics are important, so you’ll be glad to know that the platforming feels tight and the controls are intuitive. When you die, you’re able to understand what you did wrong, and the fast pace enables you to have…

This 2D point-and-click adventure is built around a supernatural whodunnit. You play as Detective Ito Ayami, an experienced investigator searching for her missing partner, Detective Kazuki Tanaka. As Ito explores Tokyo’s sleazy back streets, she’s confronted with what seems like an unsolvable mystery. Battling her inner demons,1 Ito’s sanity begins to waver as she barters with Tokyo’s criminal class for information. It’s your job to choose which NPCs to interact with and, through dialogue and action choices, to decide which approach will get Ito the evidence she needs. The game autosaves after every decision, so you’d better get it right first time. As Ito uncovers a twisted conspiracy, her perception of the world around her changes.2 To remain of sound mind, you must manage Ito’s sanity, professionalism, investigative skills, and…

01 START WITH BASIC SHAPES The first step of the process is to build out a few rough concepts to find one what you like and want to keep working on. For this we’ll use the Sculpt mode tools, like the cube and sphere Clay tools. Enable guides: Mirror and Clipped Mirror. Start sculpting using the sphere Clay tool. Enter Edit Shape, then stretch the shape a little and enable Section. Switch the Sculpt mode to Stamp since Smear isn’t ideal for this type of work – you want clean, precise edges. 02 BUILD MORE SHIPS Scope out of the model once you’re happy with it. Change the material if you like and add a spotlight to throw some shadows and show the form better. Start building a few more…

ATELIER RYZA – THE END OF AN ADVENTURE AND BEYOND This is a side-story starring creepy clawed cutie Lila and her companion Empel. The pair could fight beside you in the game but this is the first time they’ve both been controllable outside battle. SAMURAI SHODOWN – WAN-FU The fighter with the never-ending story returns, along with his flaming stone pillar last seen in Samurai Shodown II. He can hurl this obelisk, ripped fresh from the temple, at foes at the risk of opening up a small window of vulnerability. DEEMO REBORN – CLASSIC SONG PACKS SEASON PASS For the first quarter of 2020, this reimagining of rhythm game royalty is going to be getting three song packs every month, each containing five songs, and this pass will collect all…

TITANS SEASON 2 FORMAT NETFLIX PRICE £8.99 A MONTH DC’s series starring comic book sidekicks (including Robin and Superboy) returns for a second season of super-moody super-heroics. Masked mercenary Deathstroke causes trouble for the Titans, while there’s an expanded role for Iain Glen’s Bruce Wayne. LOCKE & KEY FORMAT NETFLIX PRICE £8.99 A MONTH Based on the acclaimed comics by Joe Hill (the son of Stephen King), this ten-episode supernatural horror series centres on three siblings who move to their creepy ancestral home and find keys that bestow magical abilities. Powers a demon will do anything to attain. TREADSTONE FORMAT AMAZON PRIME VIDEO PRICE £7.99 A MONTH Set in the same universe as the Jason Bourne films, Treadstone explores the origins of the CIA black-ops program that turned Matt Damon…

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 ACTIVISION / DEV SLEDGEHAMMER GAMES / RELEASED 2017 / SCORE 9/10 Blasting enemies in the face might be what you spend 90% of your time doing in Call Of Duty, but as far as campaigns are concerned the series’ most memorable moments occur when the devs change the formula. Midway through COD: WWII Sledgehammer does just that, with the Liberation mission beginning by placing you in a super-tense historical infiltration mission that’s mostly non-combat. Playing as Camille ‘Rousseau’ Denis, a French Resistance leader, you must stealth your way into a German HQ in Paris to recover explosives and rig the charges so that the US soldiers you usually play as can storm the building in the second part of the mission. You go undercover with Major…

“PS4 PRO WAS A BRILLIANT 4K STOP-GAP, BUT THIS WINTER PS5 WILL PROVIDE ONE HELL OF A LEAP FORWARD.” Thought 2020 was Year Of The Rat? Think again. The Chinese Zodiac is way off: this is the year of PlayStation 5. PS4 Pro was a brilliant 4K stop-gap, but when Sony’s new console launches this winter, get ready for one hell of a leap forward. There shouldn’t be any half measures this time out: PS5 will be the next-gen real deal. As we write this no doubt new PS5 details and rumours have circulated online – perhaps Sony has even shown us the hardware. But while the Ghost of OPM Past waits for PS5 to be revealed in the coming weeks, we can make some informed speculation in the here…

Nothing can stop Skyrim. You’ve probably already experienced this incredible open-world RPG in one of its many forms – original flavour, remaster, PS VR edition – and this year you can venture back into its snow-covered mountains in The Elder Scrolls Online’s year-long event, Dark Heart Of Skyrim. “A MORE SINISTER TAKE ON THE REGION THAN WE’RE USED TO.” You can familiarise yourself with the direction of travel with the Harrowstorm DLC releasing in March. Containing two dungeons to battle through, Icereach demands you investigate a series of unexplained storms in the Sea Of Ghosts, while Unhallowed Grave has you exploring a mysterious burial site. Harrowstorm is, however, really just a taster of where Zenimax Online Studios is set to take us in 2020. The real meat and mead of…

Finally there’s a football game for anime fans – though, playing like an over-the-top anime version of PS2’s cult hit Red Card, Captain Tsubasa: Rise Of New Champions should also be in the lineup for football-loving gamers looking for a fresh twist on the sport. Based on the popular Captain Tsubasa manga and anime from the 1980s, this translates the stories’ human drama and hyperbolic action into game form, with a plot that promises to hit beats from the source material. From our hands-on, the action will be familiar to anyone who has played football games before. You’ve got the classics – q to pass, e to lob-pass, w to through-ball. But the difference is you can use energy to pull off special moves, from holding down r as far…

1 The heavy cannon’s micro-missiles are heat-seeking and fast-launching – just the thing you need to crumble as many demon skulls as possible. 2 The combat shotgun’s sticky bombs are perfect for destroying heavy demons’ destructible parts, and making steaming piles of demon flesh. 3 What’s better than one rocket? Three, naturally. The rocket launcher’s lock-on burst mod allows you to target a barrage directly at an enemy. 4 The super shotgun’s meat hook allows you to zip around an arena by digging a chain directly into a poor deemy’s skin and yanking yourself straight to it.…

“MANY OF THE MORE DISTINCTIVE BOULDERS HAVE SPECIAL SHAPES AND PROPERTIES.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA TBC / PUB MODUS GAMES / DEV ACE TEAM Too few game devs are inspired by Monty Python, we reckon. Even fewer have the desire to include a giant egg in their games. “I think we should definitely have more games that feature Humpty Dumpty!” says Andres Bordeu, co-founder of Ace Team, and egg fanatic. The big egg Bordeu is obsessing over is from Rock Of Ages 3’s new Humpty Dumpty race mode. The series is famed for enabling you to control a number of goofy indestructible boulders, so you can crash gleefully through anything in your path. Humpty Dumpty mode spins this around: now you’re vulnerable and need to roll your eggy hero out…

1 America-based Arctic Cat is known for its range of powerful ATVs. Unrelated, the firm also makes snowmobiles, hence its wintry name. 2 Polaris is another American company, renowned for its motorbikes as well as its ATVs. You’ll be tackling Overpass’ courses in its off-road vehicles. 3 Well-known for its race-winning motocross bikes, Japanese manufacturer Yamaha brings its offroad A-game to the, well, game. 4 Another well-known Japanese motor company, Suzuki, is world-famous for its UTVs, and ATVs and rounds out the quartet of top-class marques.…

“Metal Gear Solid with my uncle Johnny. Game still blows my mind to this day” @EthanPendejas “Tekken 3 on my Mom’s PS1. She was a gamer in the 90s, lol” @rawwestmanalive “My dad got me a PS1 for my 10th or 11th birthday, first thing he put on was Road Rash and played it in front of me while I got ready for school, we had lots of Road Rash games together after that.” @xain445 “First game I ever remember playing is GTA San Andreas on my brother’s PS2, I was really young and would just bike around and run from the police. I had no idea how to really play but I had a lot of fun” @Mc_Girl12 “My brother let me watch him play FF7 when I was…

STARTING LINE PlayStation’s eight launch games are far from a distant memory, with Battle Arena Toshinden, Jumping Flash, Ridge Racer, and WipEout appearing again and again in the responses we received. However, the other half of the lineup from ’95 seems to have been relegated to the annals of history. Anyone remember Kileak: The Blood, Novastorm, Rapid Reload, or 3D Lemmings? Milf’s got his hand up, but he’s on his own… SECOND WIND PlayStation 2’s list of launch games was twice as large as its predecessor’s but got a lot less love in our survey. In Europe it included forgettable sport games (FIFA 2001, NHL 2001, Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2, International Soccer Superstar), more memorable racers (Wild Wild Racing, Smuggler’s Run, SSX, Ridge Racer V), quirky puzzlers (Fantavision,…

WHAT YOU DO IN… ZOMBIE ARMY 4: DEAD WAR ALSO ON PLAYSTATION 4 PRO Embracing the power of PS4 Pro, Zombie Army 4: Dead War offers two ways to play. Quality mode delivers higher fidelity visuals and a locked 30fps, while Performance mode tones back the graphical effects but ensures a higher number of frames per second. MULTIPL AYER The story campaign can be played in four-player co-op, but it’s Horde mode that offers longterm party play. Survive waves of zombies across four maps, planning ahead and setting traps to whittle the zombie army. Weekly challenges are planned. THE FIRST FIVE HOURS… 1 We’re escaping Milan’s train station when our first heavy arrives. This flamethrower-carrying zombie proves hard work. 2 A zombie shark in Venice? Why not. Shooting…

All the best management games of the 1980s came on cassette tapes, usually picked up from your local newsagent for £2.99. Alas you can’t slot a cassette tape into your PS4, but FT&G feels like a nod to that era: a game you’d grab alongside a Marathon and four packs of Panini stickers, then enjoy non-stop for an entire school holiday. It offers fictional players in editable teams1 playing out matches where you control every kick, but in a very different sense to FIFA. Fixtures take place on a 12x7 square pitch, where your turn lasts three goes: you can dribble, pass, shoot, or move a player with the ultimate objective of scoring in the opponent’s net. It’s more board game than traditional sports sim.2 Dribbling past, or passing through,…

WHAT YOU DO IN… PILLARS OF ETERNITY II STAT PACK 7 Talented (and eccentric) companions to adventure with. Ahoy me hearties! 29 Exotic islands to discover – some of which you get to name – across the archipelago. 70 Powerful spells to scribble into your spell book, from Chill Fog to the lethal Death Ring. 1 Massive capital city. It’s called Neketaka and filled with quests, NPCs, and secrets. FRIENDS & ENEMIES This Wild Orlan is a veteran pirate with deadly, mental powers. He left you for dead. You want revenge. But can you kill a god? Your chill farmer friend who’s also pretty nifty with a longsword. THE FIRST FIVE HOURS… 1 Pirates attacked then sunk my ship. I am not happy. 2 Shipwrecked on a strange island.…

There’s a certain appeal to games that thrive on stressing you out, but this provides a much-needed refreshment break. It serves an engaging story with barista-based action, as you follow the daily (well, nightly) routine of a café, learning about the regulars and mixing ingredients to provide them with delicious beverages as you help them sort out their lives.1 The simple narrative is enriched with fantasy elements, and the inclusion of elves, orcs, and more definitely spices things up. Your ingredients span only two shelves, which might not seem like many to choose from, but it ensures a decent number of combinations, with the sequence you add things in often having an effect on the outcome. There’s enough variety in orders that it’s not at all as repetitive as it…

WHAT YOU DO IN… SAVAGE PLANET STAT PACK 82 Percentage of AR-Y 26 explored by the time we hit credits. Time to jump back in for the rest. 11 Deaths during our adventure to the tower (most of them from falling from too high). 190 Different things to scan on the planet, including creatures, plants, alien tech, and more. 44 Upgrades for your suit and gear, including the few items you start out with. FRIENDS & ENEMIES The goofy CEO of Kindred Aerospace, who gave you your mission. Various types inhabit AR-Y 26. Peaceful unless provoked. This predator is invulnerable everywhere except its tail. HOW TO… GET TREASURE FROM A CUBE 1 Osmotic cubes contain alien alloys, which you need to print out the best upgrades. They’re impervious…

Go-karting is cool. PS VR (which is optional here) is cool. So why, when the two come together in this way, do we feel like it’s more of a car crash than a dream ride? After all, the game ticks some promising boxes: up to eight players in an online race; a new mini-tournament, consisting of a few randomly chosen tracks, every day; hazards including a giant monkey and a huge, very angry slice of pizza. For one thing, the greatest challenge is finding somebody else to race online (though it can be done on very rare occasions). For another, it’s a rather dull experience, with mostly flat tracks and bots that tend to cause massive pile-ups that ruin any sense of fun. You’d best steer clear – like everybody…

SLIDEOUT 3019 Creator Gauffreman’s homage to WipEout is an impressive Dreams game. It opens with a slick set of menus straight out of Sony’s racer, but it’s the pace of the actual game and recreation of the series’ airbrakes that really impresses. We’d love to see more. TAKEN BY THE RUST – PART 1 Realism is hard to create, particularly in Dreams, but Badrobo82 has managed to sculpt some impressive trees to emulate the textures we normally find in games. That there’s an engaging Myst-like adventure in here too is even more impressive. The Rust has us! TWITTER ARTISTS ORIGINALS Character modeller Kai Frazier has been busy creating this series of incredible original and fan art characters in Dreams for his series Twitter Artist Originals (TAO). As well as new…

Never jumped into the ring? When 14 February rolls round, you’ll be able to buy Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, which includes everything from the base game plus almost every scrap of DLC that’s been released since. However, if you’ve been throwing down with Ken, Cammy, and the rest since 2016, you won’t be left with a mouthful of dust. The Upgrade Kit essentially turns whichever edition of Street Fighter V you started out with into the full Champion Edition. How’s that for a montage moment? The Upgrade Kit will first fill in any gaps in your costume or fighter library (excluding Fighting Chance costumes, which you’ll still need to buy with Fight Money through Menat’s Fantasy Fortune Readings, brand collaboration costumes, and the Capcom Pro Tour DLC). YOU AND…

Year One in DC began by asking you to rescue the President. Episode Two saw the Strategic Homeland Division making off with an impressive bit of kit and one step closer to ending the epidemic. Now, the final Year One episode takes you back to the beginning. Set in New York (the first game’s location), you hunt a fellow agent who betrayed you. We’ll give you three guesses who you’ll have in your sights… Dropping in February, a large portion of Episode Three’s content will be free for all existing players, including two story missions and a specialisation. In addition, Year One pass holders will enjoy two more classified assignments. “WE’LL GIVE YOU THREE GUESSES WHO YOU’LL HAVE IN YOUR SIGHTS IN NEW YORK.” The developer has also announced that…