Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2020 i PLAY

Rocksteady Studios is ditching the cowl for its long-in-development new game. Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League may be set in the same universe as the developer’s Batman: Arkham series but we’ll be playing as Harley Quinn, King Shark, Deadshot, and Captain Boomerang in this all-new game. “ IT’S ABOUT THE HEART AND SOUL OF THE CHARACTERS.” Heading to PlayStation 5 in 2022, this game puts four-player co-op up front, though you can play the entire story campaign solo and hot-swap between the four infamous team members. Protagonist and antagonist Amanda Waller has planted explosives in the heads of our unlikely heroes; DC’s super villains reluctantly become part of Waller’s secretive Task Force X. We anticipate all is not what it seems. “This is a continuation of the Arkhamverse. You’ll…

Cuddly Porgs impersonating Luke, blue milk moustaches, and some truly epic Star Wars sequences recreated in Lego: the first in-game footage from Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga ticks all the blocky boxes. Packing in the most famous scenes from all nine Star Wars films, we get to play the best moments from the prequels (pod racing), the original trilogy (the Deathstar trench run), and the new trilogy (Kylo and Rey battling across the Jedi’s Death Star ruins on Kef Bir) in one game. The action we’ve seen has it all. We see Han shooting first, C-3PO wearing a shower cap as he takes an oil bath on Tattooine, and many more moments tapping into TT Games’ kooky sense of humour as much as the films’ most iconic scenes. The…

“Multiplayer/ social VR, large-scale VR, AI driven characters… All feel like natural evolution for the [VR] medium.” Innerspace VR co-founder Balthazar Auxietre wants big things for VR. “We even got an urbanist in our team […] We just hired him to just help us design a city that makes sense, you know?” Paweł Mielniczuk tells us how Night City came to be. “RPGs are one of the riskiest kinds of game to develop from a financial perspective.” Fortunately for Yoshitaka Murayama, Eiyuden Chronicle was Kickstarted.…

ETA 11 FEB / PUB BANDAI NAMCO / DEV TARSIER STUDIOS Creepy dolls, disembodied hands scampering spider-like across hardwood floors, and a teacher who’d rather slap you senseless with a ruler than make you do lines: this sequel has the makings of something incredibly unnerving. If Blumhouse Productions made Roald Dahl’s The Twits, it would look something like this. As a newcomer to Tarsier’s macabre world of shadowy delights, the bag-headed Mono is on a quest to find the Black Tower and confront the mysterious Broadcaster. Perhaps he’s seen the finale of Doom Patrol series 2 and was not happy. The latest demo isn’t giving much of Little Nightmares II’s story away, but it does reveal how we’ll puzzle past some snappy traps – throwing pine cones onto hidden bear…

Given the current zeitgeist, it’s safe to say that there is a need for more POC characters to have lengthy campaigns built around them, rather than just shorter games or expansions. And I’ve noticed that this has been a mainstay in gaming for too long – POC characters just being relegated to short games or expansions. Think of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Dishonored: Death Of The Outsider, or Assassin’s Creed: Freedom Cry, which are all games with POC protagonists with short campaigns. It’s clear that it’s still seen as a risk by developers and publishers to put Black characters front and centre... Yet on the movie front we’ve had the sheer amazingness of the Miles-starring Spider-Man: Into The Spider-verse, a brilliant animated film that I’ve rewatched to death, which picked…

1 The longsword is a balanced, versatile weapon for a wide variety of enemies with a standout heavy Attack Finisher that ends your combos with a flourish. 2 Polearms deal damage to enemies at greater range, but there’s a cost – they only do a small amount of base damage compared to other weapons. 3 Warhammers are powerful, two-handed hammers that can carve through enemy defences with ease. Pick this if you’re happy to sacrifice speed for raw power. 4 Greatswords are similar in combat to warhammers, offering the wielder massive damage and great momentum at the cost of speed and agility.…

“GATE CRASHER IS THE STANDOUT EVENT TYPE, ALLOWING US TO CREATE OBSTACLE COURSES FOR CARS TO GUN DOWN.” FORMAT PS4, PS5 / ETA 6 NOV (PS4), TBC (PS5) PUB CODEMASTERS / DEV CODEMASTERS Does your brain get a shot of serotonin whenever you hear the sound of plastic pieces overturning? Almost as alluring as Lego bricks or Hotwheels track  pieces is Dirt 5’s Playground mode, a level creation mode that offers similar imagination-stimulating creativity in an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor in the style of, say, classic Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. We get to try out a work-in-progress version of the mode, and it’s already easy to search through the levels, with multiple categories to highlight different types of stage. Built around using certain vehicles, even the harder Playground levels feel doable,…

“KEEP YOUR COMBO METER RUNNING BY DEMOLISHING HUTS AND PORTALOOS.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA OCT / PUB NACON / DEV TEYON With a monster truck on the box and a no-nonsense name, you know what you’re going to get with Monster Truck Championship. But unlike the arcadey,  exaggerated monster truck action we usually see, this game sets out to realistically simulate this very American motorsport. So is crushing cars really as much fun as it looks? You won’t find out straight away, as serious racing is front and centre. While seeing the huge wheels spinning up close with dirt flying is cool, the realism in the driving physics doesn’t make the racing particularly frantic. These trucks just love to oversteer, which means tiptoeing around in bumper cam view if you…

1 The Pyromancer does what it says on the tin: mances some flames. Erect walls of fire, cause enemies to catch alight. Crowd control options are plentiful. 2 The Trickster’s movement options mean you can zip around taking out enemies, from teleporting behind them to throwing slow-debuffing bubbles. 3 The Devastator is the tank, using rocks to throw themself into the thick of action, shaking the battlefield with earthquakes and leaping to cause tremors. 4 The supportive Technomancer drops handy turrets and heals teammates, and also summons rocket launchers, freeze bombs, and toxic bullets from the air.…

SACKBOY: A BIG ADVENTURE Sumo Digital’s Ned Waterhouse says the DualSense will allow you to feel what Sackboy feels. He mentions a “weapon mode” on i that will allow the adaptive triggers to offer feedback when Sackboy uses a grappling hook, and also convey a sense of tension when he’s carrying an object around the stage. GODFALL Check OPM #179 for our deep dive into how Godfall uses the DualSense controller. Counterplay Games’ Keith Lee says you can tell weapons apart by feel rather than having to look at the UI, and, similar to Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, you can use haptic feedback to sense where enemies are in relation to you. HORIZON FORBIDDEN WEST While the development team hasn’t said much about the bow yet (despite a bow and…

GOLD AWARD Awarded to a game that’s brilliantly executed on every level, combining significant innovation, near-flawless gameplay, great graphics and lasting appeal. EDITOR’S AWARD Not at the very highest echelon, but this is a game that deserves recognition and special praise based on its ambition, innovation or other notable achievement. 10 INCREDIBLE The kind of phenomenal experience rarely seen in a console generation. 9 OUTSTANDING Unreservedly brilliant – this should be in every collection. 8 VERY GOOD A truly excellent game, marred by just a few minor issues. 7 GOOD A great concept unfulfilled or the familiar done well, but still well worth playing. 6 DECENT Fun in parts, flawed in others, but more right than wrong. 5 AVERAGE What you expect and little more, this is for devotees only.…

True to classic indie game style, as Windbound’s protagonist Kara you wash up on an island with little instruction as to what you need to do. However, it soon becomes apparent that you need to seek out the beacon-like structures scattered across a handful of small isles in order to open up a pathway to the next area. Of course, to travel between those isles you’ll need a boat, and that means staying alive long enough to craft one. Windbound is a survival game. You need to monitor Kara’s hunger meter, as well as her health bar, at all times. Since resources are scarce, each island can only sustain you for so long.1 The crafting tab is where you assemble weapons, boats, and campfires to cook meals. (Eat raw meat…

Having 13 protagonists is a tricky balancing act in itself. But when you’re dealing with characters with multiple identities, dreams that might in fact be memories, and time travel – which sometimes means a flashback is of events in the future – you can be forgiven if your brain hurts when keeping up with 13 Sentinels. You play as a group of Japanese high schoolers who pilot mech Sentinels to fight an invasion of kaiju known as Deimos. This is essentially the game’s apocalyptic climax as you’re pitted against waves of them in semi-realtime battles. But Vanillaware is more interested in how everyone’s fates are connected leading up to the big fight. Most of your time, then, is spent in the adventure-like Remembrance mode as character paths overlap and branch…

Ron Perlman’s skeletal gunslinger sounds weary – as well you would if you’d been killed so many times. Upstream Arcade’s twin-stick roguelike issues the kind of granite-hard challenge that will invite a certain type of player to crack their knuckles and steel themselves for the purgatorial onslaught to come. Yet the level completion stats suggest most are likely to retreat whimpering from its shadowy corners, waving the white flag long before they reach the finish. Still, you usually walk through the saloon doors at the start of each run knowing exactly where you went wrong on the last. After a few attempts, you grow attuned to the deliberate pace of its taut, cover-based encounters. You know how long a destructible barrier has before it crumbles and you need to skid…

WHAT YOU DO IN… PROJECT CARS 3 STAT PACK 234 Accolades to unlock. Each has a bar that fills up after you race, giving a sense of achievement. 51 Track locations, though a handful of those are historic/modern duplicates. Like old Hockenheim! 211 The total number of cars available to choose from in Quick Race mode, right from the get-go. 32 The highest number of cars that can compete in one race. It’s impressive – and actually works. HOW TO… MAKE PROGRESS FAST Your first car can be upgraded cheaply and easily, allowing you to enter many races and even clear the first few tiers of events. Upgrade weight reduction and turbo mods without pushing the bar into the next tier and you’ll be very competitive. LOVING/…

The best thing about PS VR is the way it can persuade even the most self-conscious wallflower to bust a move as long as they’re doing something that makes them feel extremely bad-ass. Rhythm game Pistol Whip is essentially Beat Saber’s shooty-bang cousin, but its genius is that it can feel just like playing an old-school arcade lightgun shooter. Across 15 themed levels without any contrived plot to run through,1 it’s a no-nonsense on-rails shooting gallery as you shoot, dodge, and melee-attack bad guys. Blasting them as they pop out in front of you from above and below is perfectly enjoyable in its own right, but to chase those high scores you have to start thinking how the game wants you to play to the beat, and then its rhythmic…

After apocalypses, deserted wastelands, and zombies, Fall Guys drops in with something completely different. Rather than running around guns akimbo, players are instead placed onto a physics-based obstacle course. Participants are picked off by either falling into the drink or failing to run the full gauntlet before the end of the round. There’s a good variety of routes to learn the inner workings of as you race towards the finish line. You’ll be hopping over whirligigs, dashing between propellers, barrelling through false walls, and more besides. The physics system itself is more slapstick than frustrating; your little dude can be bowled over and sent careening far off course after anything heavier than the lightest tap but, while definitely squishy, if they get knocked down they can easily get up again.…

Originally released on Nintendo GameCube and requiring four handheld consoles to play as intended, Crystal Chronicles has always been a niche entry just in terms of sheer accessibility. Yes, the Remaster looks gorgeous, has English voice acting, and new weapons and bosses – but most importantly it includes online multiplayer (though local play is absent). This makes it much more convenient to sit down and play. You can host public or private games, as well as matchmake – a welcome addition. Hacking enemies, combining magic, and nabbing treasure is fun with pals. However, campaign progress only counts for the game host (though a free lite version of some of the game makes it easier to do). VERDICT A refreshingly focused change from the Destiny-like models that proliferate. This is an…

1 AGENTS OF SHIELD Impervious to bullets and most explosives, the riot shield’s great for tackling campers. Sticking thermite or Semtex to a shield remains a perfect counter. Explosive crossbow bolts are another option. 2 TWICE AS NICE Akimbo has been added as an unlockable perk for pistols. While it puts you at a disadvantage in long-range firefights, it makes you deadly up close, and rocking two guns at once will always be cool. 3 IN THE ZONE Warzone, COD’s take on battle royale, has proved explosively popular. Season five sees the addition of Mini Royale, a faster-paced version with shorter matches and a higher rate of enemy encounters.…

FORMAT PS4 / PUB UBISOFT / DEV UBISOFT QUEBEC / RELEASED 2018 / SCORE 9/10 When you land on Krete, a man promises to allow you to fight the minotaur in combat if first you prove yourself at some comically low-budget tasks. Venturing into its lair, you discover it’s that very same man in a mediocre disguise. It’s one of those great moments of genuine humour and charm. Perhaps the truth behind those myths was just simple con-artistry and a desire to believe in mythology after all? Well, think again. Not too far from the fake cave lie the ruins of Knossos Palace. A young boy who’s looking for his vanished father leads you deep below the rubble to a strange and otherworldly gate that blocks the entrance to the…

It’s like Prince Of Persia – really? We never imagined we’d be comparing Gollum, the foul-mouthed hermit from JRR Tolkien’s fantasy novels, with Ubisoft’s parkour prince, but there’s a touch of his magic to this PlayStation 5 adventure. Developer Daedalic has a track record of making good adventure games, and is using some of that know-how to ensure Gollum’s stealth feels both unique and in-character. “ GOLLUM’S NO FIGHTER. HIS STRENGTH IS IN CUNNING, NOT COMBAT.” The world is a vertical space in which Gollum can clamber and climb to get the drop on his enemies. Yet he’s no fighter. Gollum’s strength is in cunning, not combat. You won’t take on enemies directly; instead you’ll use items to distract guards, activate environmental hazards to crush foes, or coerce enemies to…

Limited physical runs and collectibles aren’t new to Iam8bit. You’ve got the company to thank for your Wattam records, Hyper Light Drifter prints, and other gems. But Untitled Goose Game’s Lovely Edition and vinyl is something new, with 100% recyclable eco-friendly packaging (the vinyl’s repurposed). It’s the evolution of the firm’s ethical ethos. For instance, it produced the Fortnite World Cup using recyclable cups. “We’re trying to move the needle as best we can with the influence we have,” says co-owner Jon M Gibson. “Not only were we engineering sustainable packaging, we also had the collector in mind, in terms of it feeling substantial. It was important that our eco-friendly packaging didn’t feel cheap or flimsy — that it felt premium, while still being environmentally conscious.” Even so, it’s no…

ETA TBC / PUB SONY / DEV INSOMNIAC GAMES This duo feel inextricable from PlayStation. Insomniac Games, on the other hand, only joined the PlayStation family officially in 2019, after Marvel’s Spider-Man launched. But seeing the studio lead the way on PlayStation 5 feels right. Not only is Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales pencilled in for later this year, but it was also recently confirmed that Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart will be a launch-window title for PS5 – and Insomniac gave us a glimpse of the gameplay. The studio confirmed that the game will offer two resolution modes to make full use of the next-gen hardware – 4K at 30fps, plus a smoother 60fps performance mode. PS5’s custom SSD has done away with in-game load times. Bits of scenery instantly…

ETA 2021 / PUB BANDAI NAMCO DEV BANDAI NAMCO STUDIOS Some of Team OPM really can’t get enough anime nonsense, and so this melee combat RPG from the team behind the flawed but stylish Code Vein attracts our attention. The people of New Himika have become so technologically advanced they can access psychic powers from a brain gizmo called the Psynet. This in turn has attracted the attention of The Others, alien beings who feed on brains. What are the chances? Combat looks pacy, and on PS5 we’ll get a solid framerate. Will it be perfect? Probably not. Will it feature surreal and grotesque anime combat? Oh yes.…

“AS IN LIFE IS STRANGE, CHOICE LEADS TO NEW AND SURPRISING PATHS.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2020 / PUB BANDAI NAMCO / DEV DONTNOD ENTERTAINMENT It’s been over a year since Dontnod teased its mystery adventure, Twin Mirror. You still play as Sam Higgs, you’ve still got your mind palace, and  you’re still returning to your hometown in the wake of a tragedy. Game director Florian Desforges tells us tweaks have been made over the past 12 months, however, from refining the story to improving the overall presentation. The biggest change is the departure from an episodic structure. Head of publishing Xavier Spinat explains, “Episodes implied partial endings and reopenings, and it was breaking some of the rhythm […] We felt that the game worked better as a single storyline.”…

“THE TEAM HAVE CREATED NEW QUESTS THAT DIG INTO THE WORLD.” FORMAT PS5 / ETA 2020 / PUB TBC / DEV BLOOBER TEAM While that cyberpunk game is grabbing all the headlines, and nabbed OPM’s cover last issue, this cult classic is getting a PS5 makeover. New missions, cases, and gameplay are just the start of  what we can expect from this upgrade to Bloober Team’s cult horror sleuth-’em-up. “Cyberpunk stories and worlds have so much opportunity to tell stories with tiny details,” says Piotr Babieno, Bloober Team CEO, as we dig into what’s in Observer: System Redux. Specifically, this story is about uncovering the secret lives of murder victims amid the rain-drizzled back alleys of a bleak future Kraków. As Daniel Lazarski, a detective in the Observer police force,…

“YOU WANT THEME PARK VISITORS LINING UP OUT OF THE DOOR.” FORMAT PS4, PS5 / ETA HOLIDAY / PUB SOLD OUT DEV FRONTIER DEVELOPMENTS An early tooltip tells us that a little bit of fear is necessary for any successful ride – but creating the perfect theme park is all about balance. Scare your  customers silly and they won’t come back, but bore them to death instead and you may as well throw the tarp over your entire site. The tension of keeping many plates spinning is what makes the construction and management sim genre so compelling. In our hands-on, we’re pushed and pulled by four different advisors, each with their own concerns for our park. You’ve got to make money, but charge too much and your customers will seek…

While Raven makes the single-player campaign, Treyarch is looking after the multiplayer. Leslie tells us Cold War’s multiplayer mode has three main pillars: Deniable Operations; a variety of locations and maps; and cross-gen cross-play. Deniable Operations are the missions you didn’t know about, designed to test your skill beyond anything you may find in the single-player campaign. Creative specialist Miles Leslie says: “We’re sending elite operators into places no-one knew. And again, that historical reality is touching on history. So if players look this up, they might get that conspiracy feeling; like whoa, did that actually happen?” Scale and variety is something else Cold War’s multiplayer will embrace. Offline the campaign is heading around the world, so it’s no surprise to hear we’ll be globetrotting in multiplayer. “The variety of…

On the off-chance you’re unfamiliar with the feel-good smash hit of the summer, Fall Guys’ lead game designer Joe Walsh will get you up to speed: “The initial [pitch for the] design of the game was ‘Takeshi’s Castle is amazing and I want to know what it feels like to be an overweight, middle-aged Japanese businessman at the start of a muddy obstacle course that’s probably gonna ruin my life.’” Truly, Mediatonic has realised this very specific vision. (If you’re still a bit perplexed, read on, and make sure you check out our online review starting on p84.) Debuting as part of August’s PS Plus lineup, the round-based multiplayer title quickly enjoyed meteoric success. We ask the developers about the challenges of developing a live game that quickly gains a…

WHAT YOU DO IN… NO STRAIGHT ROADS SECOND OPINION SERIES EXPERT When someone is too emotional to speak in a musical, they sing. Here, you rock out. While the dance of avoiding attacks matched to the beat isn’t much more complicated than a one-two-step, the visual direction and the soundtrack are a double act that proves to be the perfect headliner. You owe it to yourself to give this one a spin. Jess Kinghorn FRIENDS & ENEMIES One half of band Bunk Bed Junction. Friendly and ready to rock. Looks like a person in a cheap unicorn suit. The best/worst NPC. Zuke’s brother, called by NPR to challenge BBJ to rap battles. THE FIRST FIVE HOURS… 1 How dare those judges fail to recognise our musical talent! Time…

The game formerly known as The Golf Club is the most fun you never knew you could have in a badged sports blazer.1 But while the new layer of licensed content grabs the limelight, it’s the refined gameplay that shines. The core of what worked in The Golf Club returns, but the grind of the game is improved. Putting, in particular, is now a joy, with shot power easier to manage, ensuring those replay-grabbing 50-foot putts are achievable. PGA Tour 2K21 does an excellent job of turning us armchair Scottie Schefflers into on-par performers. You can select clubs and stances using the D-pad, and holding o enables you to adjust the ball’s spin, loft, fade, and draw. Those and the timing meter mean you will be dropping the ball onto…

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of sports anime bedrock Captain Tsubasa in 2018, the series returns to mainline consoles to deliver what can only be called anime sports – a football game that while following the regular rules also allows you and your opponents to dash into each other, perform goal-ripping special shots, and engage in midair-battles for the ball. While it can be viewed as a football game for people who don’t like football games, Captain Tsubasa is still essentially a football game, albeit one stuffed with fan content.1 While most of your time is spent dribbling, sprinting, and passing, certain plays reward you with scenes from the series. The visual effects for attacks such as Tsubasa’s Tiger Shot are great, and the sound design is impressive, but the…

Friendship lasts forever,” screeches our Elf ranger with the inflection of a spoilt Cali girl as she puts an arrow into yet another bandit. If Frodo Baggins had had to walk into Mordor with Katy Perry he’d have dropped the Ring off at the border. We’re made of sterner stuff. Such idiosyncrasies can drag you out of the world Pathfinder: Kingmaker goes to great lengths to create. Ultimately, however, the wealth of lore at your fingertips trumps any Legally Blonde moments. Being based on the tabletop game of the same name helps, and at every turn you get to bathe in lore, scraps of detail, and stat-check-led narrative segments that reward with XP and plot twists.1 There’s a lot to the game, which builds from a simple party-based dungeon explorer…

With FIFA Street swallowed by the main series, a new game concentrating on street football has… well, an open goal ahead of it. Yet despite the fact that there’s effectively no competition, we still can’t recommend this. And not only (but undeniably partly) because of the quite frankly terrifying caricatures of real stars of the sport. The fundamental issue of presentation is odd. Horrific avatars aside, our first experience of the game – heading straight for what passes for a story mode – was freestyle champion Sean Garnier spending several minutes against a backdrop of game footage telling us how great he is.1 Once in the game proper, we find something unsure of what it wants to be. The players are real, but the pitches are not. There are plenty…

EXPANSION FREE Ghost Of Tsushima: Legends Four mythical samurai for the price of one – bargain! Call us a fortune-telling lucky cat, because as soon as we held down p so Jin could revive an ally in the campaign we thought, “this seems like something you’d do in a co-op multiplayer game”. The prediction comes to pass as this free DLC adds two- to four-player action this autumn. Legends is a self-contained mode filled with elements based on folktales and myths. For two players, buddy-samurai story missions await. These increase in difficulty as you progress, and require good working knowledge of the combat system, working with new skills with “magical twists”, according to Sucker Punch. For four players, the action’s based on wave-based survival missions involving stronger enemies than we’ve…

1 “EXAMINING THE FINAL DAYS OF A HANDFUL OF NORMAL PEOPLE WITH NO CYNICISM.” 2 “WITH A PAIR OF PS MOVE CONTROLLERS YOU LITERALLY DO HAVE TO COPY YOUR OPPONENTS’ DANCE MOVES.” 3 “THERE ARE FEW WORDS ADEQUATE TO DESCRIBE EXACTLY HOW JOYOUS YOU’LL FEEL AS YOU DON THE BATSUIT PIECE BY PIECE, TRYING ITS TOOLS FOR SIZE.” 4 “AT ITS CORE […] WILL MAKE EVEN THE MOST UNCO-ORDINATED PLAYER FEEL LIKE A BADASS WITH TWO INCANDESCENT RAPIERS.”…

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.…

“WE WANTED HEROES WHO EMBODIED DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF THE BAT-FAMILY.” If we’ve learned anything from comic books, it’s if you can do it yourself, you can do it with superfriends. That’s the driving force behind WB Games Montréal’s Gotham Knights. Though not set in the same universe as the Batman: Arkham series, the game is aping much of what made that trilogy so outstanding. The big difference? Gotham Knights is embracing the action RPG trend to tell a Gotham-set story in a new way. Gotham Knights’ creative director Patrick Redding says: “One of our goals was to really tap into aspects of the Batman universe that hadn’t necessarily had exposure yet in games. We drew on the idea of the Batman Family, really as a core element of that. Family,…

“ CHOOSING TO WORK WITH KERO KERO BONITO WAS A “NOBRAINER.” The ridiculously catchy refrain is ‘It’s Bugsnax’ but just what is Bugsnax? Well, it’s very simple: it’s half bug and half snack with a side order of ‘you are what you eat.’ As a reporter, you travel to remote Snaktooth Island to follow up on a tip-off from an explorer. Your goal is to capture the titular tasty ticks and prove their existence to the world. But when you arrive, the explorer is nowhere to be found – and that’s just the start of your problems. This is all recounted in the theme song by Kero Kero Bonito, a track so catchy that since first hearing it, it’s haunted our every waking hour (and some of the ones we…

We’ve seen low-poly horror before, but there’s something uniquely expressive about every bit of art that’s gone into making Mudaun – everything is hand-penciled by creator Michel Ziegler himself. “All the textures are hand-drawn with pencil and paper,” he explains. “I begin by creating a 3D model, then I print the UV map and use that as a rough template to base the texture drawing on. They are then scanned and applied to the 3D models.” It’s a unique look. “Where things are left unspoken, unseen, or the visuals have a degree of abstraction, the imagination of the player can run wild a bit.” The game’s set in a secluded Alpine valley, and you ascend the mountain as you uncover the mystery surrounding your grandfather’s death. “The world and lore…

WITCH WITCHER? Geralt is heading to PS5! Everyone’s favourite grouch is getting a next-gen debut in a remaster of The Witcher 3, featuring ray tracing and fast SSDenabled load times. NEW MAN’S SKY No Man’s Sky dev Hello Games is working on a new, ambitious title, and it’s not a sequel to the space exploration sim. CROWD-KILLER Aragami 2 is bringing back the cult homage to Tenchu, and this time we get to stealth-kill with two friends in tow. The best news? It’s getting a PS5 release. HIT MAKER The Street Fighter III: The Collection four-disc box set will feature 72 tracks from the classic Capcom series on beautiful vinyl. We wants it! KEEP DREAMING Media Molecule co-founder Alex Evans is leaving the Dreams studio after 13 years with the…

“IT’S ALMOST AS IF 3D AUDIOTECH WAS MADE SPECIFICALLY WITH HORROR GAMES IN MIND.” ETA 2021 / PUB CAPCOM DEV CAPCOM Witches, werewolves, and vampires in our Resident Evil universe? Oh yes, we want it so badly. Resident Evil Village is shaping up to be one of PS5’s hottest games. It’s embracing Resi VII’s first-person mode and putting more emphasis on horror, which means it’ll make the most of the impressive next-gen 3D audio tech. “Audio is a key feature to really push the next-gen experience with PS5,” says Capcom’s Jun Takeuchi on the PS Blog. “It’s almost as if 3D Audiotech was made specifically with horror games in mind. It used to be that in order to get that spatial audio, players would have to invest a lot of…

ETA 2021 / PUB GEARBOX PUBLISHING / DEV NORSFELL Your village holds the Seed Of Yggdrasil, which protects the Norse gods from the threat of other realms. As a human Viking you’ll need help defend it from various beasts and the Giant of Jotunheim, who wants to destroy Midgard and the world. Handily you can team up with nine other players to prep for war, scavenging, crafting, and building defences. But it’s PS5’s 3D Audio that should impress. It can use many layers of sound that convey enemy movement and what’s going on in distinct areas of the environment to clue you into what’s out there, in the wilds.…

1 One of the new cases, Her Fearful Symmetry, is a psychotic love story featuring dystopian and transhumanist themes. Can you solve it? 2 To uncover clues you must interact with objects in the environment. The game is played in first person and every lead you uncover feels hard-won. 3 Your Bio Vision technology can be used to scan areas of the world for new evidence, some of which will take you in dark and surprising new directions. 4 You can reread the case log, evidence, and clues to gain new angles on a case. You interrogate characters you meet on your quest through dialogue trees.…

“WE USE OUR ANOMALY SKILLS AS FREQUENTLY AS WE USE OUR GUNS.” FORMAT PS4 / ETA Q4 2020 / PUB SQUARE ENIX / DEV PEOPLE CAN FLY Yes, there is cover in Outriders, but it wouldn’t be accurate to call it a cover shooter. During our hands-on, we only spend a fraction of our time ducking behind the ol’ waist-highs, our moments of  catching our breath brief. Instead, the shooting is much closer to that in something like Vanquish, rewarding electric daredevil activity with bounteous advantages, not least of all recovering health. To cower behind cover in Outriders is to die slowly – only by meeting enemies in a blaze of glory will you be able to live forever. During cryosleep, your Outrider (chosen from four classes) was given special…

We don’t yet know how this year’s Call Of Duty will end, but we do know this: it’s entirely up to you. Raven Software, the studio behind the game’s single-player campaign, is building a player-led story where what ultimately happens is entirely down to the decisions you make. Set in the 1980s (with flashbacks to 1968 Vietnam), Black Ops – Cold War is a direct sequel to the first Black Ops and sees Woods, Hudson, and Mason reunited to find Perseus, a real-life Russian spy. It oozes ’80s espionage cool as the team shoot their way through locations such as Ukraine, Laos, Moscow, Berlin, and Turkey in search of the legendary Soviet agent. “One of the things early on the guys cracked was this idea of vintage through a modern…

What’s inside PlayStation 5’s case is certainly important (we’ve enthused about its ray tracing, 3D audio, variable frequency CPU, and custom SSD enough already), but what you hold in your hands might be even more crucial. The DualSense is engineered to subtly immerse you in games in ways never felt to this level before. From haptic feedback to the adaptive triggers and everything in between, you’ll have the next generation in your hands before you even turn your PlayStation 5 on. But how will that affect how games feel? Whether it’s sensing the weight of the sword in your character’s hands, or the rain on the windscreen of a car, the DualSense has the potential to put us in the game. Read on… DEMON’S SOULS Some eyebrows were raised at…

WHAT YOU DO IN… MARVEL’S AVENGERS SECOND OPINION WIDOW WANTER I’m tired of how the MCU has saturated the media landscape but Kamala Khan persuaded me to give it one more chance. The single-player campaign begins as her story and is all the better for it. What can I say? Fangirls have got to stick together. Ms. Marvel and Black Widow remain my online favourites, even if the combat isn’t. I enjoy busting heads as much as the next person but I’m looking forward to seeing how the multiplayer powers up over time. Jess Kinghorn LOVING/ HATING TEASE MASTERS A lot of potential updates are teased, from references to Captain Marvel to Hank Pym’s presence, and mentions of Thor’s sneaky brother. TIME TO REWATCH Kamala’s story has…

You’ve got the skills to pay the bills,” coach Davies bellows seconds before we enter the Octagon. At first, we’re not sure, but after getting a few clean jabs in and then pulling off the ground takedown he’s just taught us, who are we to disagree? UFC 4’s career mode is full of such hammy moments. Melodrama aside, it’s a better way to learn the basics of MMA than UFC 3’s sterile training mode. Slight enhancements have also been made to the mechanics, ensuring that the two-and-a-half-year wait between entries has mostly been worth it. First off, the good. That pesky Ultimate Team has been done away with, resulting in uncomplicated 1v1 online bouts where luck is never involved, and a more streamlined progression system that reflects your success in…

Stella and her cat Daffodil have big shoes to fill. As freshly minted spiritfarers they’re picking up old Charon’s duties and ensuring safe passage for the wispy denizens of a whimsical, water-logged world. You set sail in search of resources and new friends in this cosy, side-scrolling management game. From the contemplative piano chords that sound like they’re straight out of a Joe Hisaishi score to the expressive animation packed with personality and charm, its influences are obvious. Coupled with writing that valiantly attempts to walk the line between sensitively handling the mortal dilemmas of your houseboat guests and not completely bumming you out,1 it’s a pleasant sojourn in lavish surroundings. Onboard activities take the form of a satisfying loop that doesn’t feel dissimilar from the pure rush of endorphins…

There’s something unnerving about the world of Hypnospace, beside the fact it’s a dreamlike internet users jack into while they sleep. This 1999 is reminiscent of our own with subtle differences (like the teen obsession with the musical genre coolpunk, and the three-player sport trennis). As a volunteer moderator for Hypnospace as the company gears up for the Year 2000 update, you’re assigned cases to investigate. Different Zones open up as you progress. These are essentially web-ring groupings of community pages (such as the painfully ’90s Teentopia or the conspiracy-riddled Open-Eyed). Early on, cases are simple and have you flagging things like copyrighted content, but they quickly become more complicated, requiring you to uncover secret unlisted pages by searching tags or figuring out passwords in order to clamp down on…

Lil’ Lucky is Lost. Sucked into a portal created by the dimension-bending Book Of Ages, he’s separated from his big sister. But searching for the book’s scattered pages and finding a way home is the least of his troubles as the threat of the evil magician Jinx and his underlings looms large on the horizon.1 If you’re already a fan of a particular purple dragon, then you know what to expect from this mascot platformer. Each themed world is brought to life with visual direction that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Saturday-morning cartoon, and each one’s selection of levels sequester book pages as well as more collectibles than you can shake your tail at. As a fox, Lucky can pounce and burrow to both attack enemies and uncover…

Yes, it’s yet another battle royale, but it genuinely brings something new to the undeniably crowded table. If other games left you cold, this just might be the one to get you hot under the collar. The bright and angular futuristic city setting immediately sets Hyper Scape apart, not to mention the rapid movement and superhuman double jumps. The weapon selection is great, and the ‘hacks’ – cooldown-dependent abilities enabling you to do things like summon a wall or teleport a short distance – introduce a new level of tactical thinking. Upon death (in Squads) you become a ghost, and then it’s a race to the nearest revive point so you can get back into the fight. The whole experience is a fresh, exciting, hectic new take on the genre.…