Innholdsfortegnelse for Xmas 2020 i PLAY

“GT7 PROMISES THE RETURN OF CLASSIC TRACKS, CARS, AND GAME MODES.” PlayStation 5 will be out in the wilds as you read this, but the launch is just the start of the next gen. Looking ahead to 2021, with some major games coming to PS5 in its first year, we asked OPM’s readers to vote for their most-wanted games arriving next year. Here are the top five games you want to play on PlayStation 5 in 2021… 1. GOD OF WAR RAGNAROK Scooping 44% of your votes, it seems everyone wants to play Sony Santa Monica’s teased sequel. We could be venturing back to Midgard next winter – what better Christmas present could Sony give us? Having finished the last game on a cliffhanger with Thor knocking on Kratos’ door…

“ACTIONS BECOME MORE TANGIBLE AND PHYSICAL [USING DUALSENSE].” “The great news is that Sony has upped the game once more with the new Create button on the DualSense controller, and Gollum will make full use of all system level capabilities to capture and instantaneously share player experiences worldwide,” says Jonas Hüsges, publishing director at Daedalic Entertainment as we chat about how The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum will make full use of PS5. This stealth adventure, based on the high fantasy of Tolkien, was one of the first games be announced for Sony’s latest console, so as we prepare to plug in our new hardware on 19 November it’s fitting we discover what the dev makes of PS5. “Every new generation allows players to experience something completely new,” says Hüsges,…

”Final Fantasy XVI’s adventure takes place in a land called Valisthea, which is studded with colossal mountains of glittering crystal called Mothercrystals,” reveals the game’s producer Naoki Yoshida. The Mothercrystals supply the people below them with aether, and because of this various kingdoms have grown around them – the Grand Duchy Of Rosaria, the Holy Empire Of Sanbreque, the Kingdom Of Waloed, the Dhalmekian Republic, and the Iron Kingdom. Having fought among themselves for generations they now need to put aside any differences and unite to fight the Blight. Or can they? The Game Of Thrones comparisons are obvious, but we’re okay with that. The young knight and the tattooed man from the reveal trailer are the same. “His name is Clive Rosfield, and he’s the main protagonist of this…

“OVER TIME YOUR TEAM OF CHARACTERS CAN LEARN NEW ABILITIES.” FORMAT PS4, PS5 / ETA 8 DEC / PUB SEGA / DEV SEGA Ronaldo or Messi? Alien or Predator? Sonic or Knuckles? Tetris or Puyo Puyo? These are the burning questions of our lifetime. This December we can finally put one of them to bed as Puyo players can again take on Tetris fans in this puzzle sequel. The core gameplay remains the same: match four or more identically coloured Puyos or connect falling blocks to bust out Tetrimino-clearing combos. Doing so throws ‘garbage’ onto your rival’s screen, clogging up their board and reducing their HP. You can play either unadulterated Puyo Puyo or pure Tetris, but the fun really starts when you mix the two games in one match.…

“WITH A CONSOLE THIS POWERFUL, PLAY REALLY DOES HAVE NO LIMITS.” SUPER-FAST GAMING PS5 features custom CPU, GPU, and SSD tech, along with integrated I/O that changes what a PlayStation is capable of doing. Expect near-instant load times, with PS5 games created to make use of the SSD to create gameplay we’ve never experienced before. RAY TRACING Rays of light are individually simulated to create realistic shadows and reflections, making videogame worlds that offer never-before-experienced depth and subtlety. UPGRADE YOUR COLLECTION Existing PS4 games can be upgraded to take advantage of PS5’s SSD, ray tracing, and other features. Turn to p96 to see those that are coming soon. GOING BACK PS5 supports almost all PS4 games from day one. This means thousands of fantastic games straight out of the box.…

Pulse 3D wireless headset Mark Cerny’s Tempest 3D AudioTech is the fledgling superstar of PS5. While the console’s visual splendour and fast load times grab most of the headlines, Sony’s commitment to developing a new audio experience on PS5 makes the Pulse 3D wireless headset an essential day-one addition to your setup. Featuring a refined design to match PS5’s organic curves, Pulse 3D comes packaged with dual noise-cancelling microphones, USB Type-C charging and easy-to-use controls. Inside the headphones you feel like sound is coming from every direction, coming from all around you, to place you directly into the world; you hear players behind you calling for the ball in FIFA 21 and an enemy approaching from off-screen trying to take you by surprise in Godfall. DUAL MICROPHONES You’ll never suffer…

“PS5 OFFERS MORE WAYS TO SCARE PEOPLE THAN ANY CONSOLE BEFORE.” BEFORE The scene is flat and soft, and the detail on the ‘werewolf’ is muted by the faked lighting. Good for its time, but on PlayStation 5 the same scene feels like a real space… AFTER …On Sony’s next-gen the light casts authentic shadows, and the character’s hair diffuses the light passing through it. This feels like a living space – inhabited by terrible living beings, albeit well-lit ones.…

This verdant land, with its grassy plains and wooded foothills, is overshadowed by a corrupting presence. The Hunter has travelled alongside her eagle to this strange new place, not only to purge the corruption with her trusty bow but to better understand the land’s secrets. Boasting a massive open world to shoot across, The Pathless is a departure for developer Giant Squid Studios, which is known for compact, artistic titles. Creative director Matt Nava explains this choice by reflecting on the studio’s last title: “Abzû is this kind of linear game [where] every single area that you enter is unique and we didn’t really know how many rooms there were going to be until the very end – it was this kind of mad dash putting the track in front…

Having to wait for new games after a console’s launch can be painful. It won’t be with PlayStation 5. With a slew of publishers offering a path to upgrade our games from PS4 to PS5 we no longer have to settle for the limitations of a launch-day lineup. This can be harder to get your noggin around than you might expect, however. For the most part upgrading is free but in some cases things are more complex – you’ll need to buy certain PS4 games digitally, and some publishers charge for a spruce-up. Fundamentally, PS5’s upgrade system enables you to download a patch to your new console for a PS4 game you already own, so your game can take advantage of the best of the next gen. This is different…

The promise of PlayStation 5 is huge: more detailed games, with more realistic lighting and physics, and fewer (or no) loading screens to pull you out of the experience. It’ll be easier than ever to get lost in virtual worlds, no matter whether they’re alien planets or the grittier parts of this one. To get the full effect of the new games, you’ll need a setup that’s as capable as PS5 itself. 4K HDR televisions have been the norm for a few years now but not everyone has upgraded yet, and PS5 is the perfect excuse to do it now. But even if you did step up to 4K early on, the difference between what older (or budget) sets can do compared to the TVs we’re going to highlight is…

Are you getting the full PS5 experience if your sound isn’t as good as your pictures? No. And today’s thin TVs don’t have the space for powerful speaker systems. The answer is to get a soundbar or surround sound upgrade. Sony plans to make its 3D audio system built for headphones work with TV sound systems in the future, but hasn’t released any details on how that would work technologically. So for now, we’ll focus on amazing sound from systems that use the leading 3D audio format for movies (Dolby Atmos), knowing that this will still give you an excellent surround experience, and hopefully will work with whatever Sony does later. “SONY PLANS TO MAKE ITS 3D AUDIO SYSTEM BUILT FOR HEADPHONES WORK WITH TV SOUND SYSTEMS IN THE FUTURE.”…

To get a real mood going when you’re playing, you need to bring on the atmospheric lighting. And these days, lighting can get way more atmospheric than you’d think. Customisable RGB lighting is nothing new to gaming, but we’re not talking glowing keyboards here: bigger smart lighting can do some very cool stuff with the overall tone of your room. At the simplest level you can use smart bulbs to dim the lights when you’re playing, or give the room a moody hue. But if you get more into it, you can have the lighting around the room react to what’s happening on the screen in real time. Our pick of the smart lighting to choose is Philips Hue (£129.99, philips-hue.com), because it’s the most flexible system in terms of…

WHAT YOU DO IN… BUGSNAX FRIENDS & ENEMIES Keener on science than ethics. Why is there a leg in their study? A gossip-hungry Grumpus. But what’s she hiding herself? Snaxburg’s mayor, he tasks you with bringing everyone back to town. STAT PACK 100 Different Bugsnax to catalogue. Feed them to people and watch them change. 12 Grumpuses to reunite in Snaxburg. They’re all pretty cute, in a weird way. 9 Areas to explore on Skaktooth Island. What creepycrunchies live in each one? 1.3 Million calories in a Daddy Cakelakes. We still went back for seconds and thirds. THE FIRST FIVE HOURS… TROPHY CABINET BRONZE Wait until gossip guru Beffica has vacated her cave to snag her scandal-laden diary and this trophy. SILVER Fill your pockets with ’snax and then…

Ride! Ride! Sorry, start again Pretty much every motorbike sim used to pitch itself as ‘Gran Turismo on bikes’, but that’s actually a fitting description of Ride 4. With its bike ownership, regional events, and marque-worshipping bike reveals, it feels very Polyphony, and a commendable simulation of the two-wheeled world. Progress over Ride 3 is obvious,1 as now even the base PS4 game looks solid, with some of the best rendering of distant scenery around. It’s still running at 30fps, which isn’t ideal, but it’s remarkably stable. And with impressive lighting and realistic environments, it’s a good-looking game. Other areas haven’t progressed, though. The AI is unbalanced, inexplicably slowing on flat-out sections yet finding equally inexplicable speed on corner entry. The presentation seems to have taken a step backwards, with…

WHAT YOU DO IN… DIRT 5 HOW TO… DESIGN YOUR LIVERY A lot of the stickers and paints are locked at first, so your ride can only look more swanky as you progress. You start with a basic pattern and paint, then apply textures and stickers, then (after several hours) sponsor stickers. Look, Pepsi! STAT PACK 375 Tokens – that’s how many you need to win if you want to 100% the game’s career mode. 63 Cars in the garage, split into 13 categories from Rock Bouncers to Modern Rally. 138 Events to complete, 13 of which are ‘Throwdown’ invitational challenges. 76 Racetracks across ten environments, plus infinite player-created arenas. LOVING/ HATING THE RIGHT TRACK In 60fps mode, the hit in detail is minor and the game…

”Sony has made a lot of great choices for the players,” says Benoit Jacquier, technical director, KT Engine, at Kylotonn, the studio behind WRC 9 and the ambitious next-gen racer Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown. “PLAYSTATION 5 PROMISES MORE THAN A VISUAL UPGRADE.” Speaking broadly and exclusively, Jacquier tells us he believes Sony’s next generation will go beyond simply delivering incredible graphics. “Of course,” he says, “upcoming games already look stunning, […] more details, better lighting, and in my opinion we will have many more years to come full of improvements and amazement.” Yet PS5 promises far more than a visual upgrade. “I think this is not the one thing that defines this new generation,” he explains, “but rather the democratisation and accessibility of many features such as massive online…

Sony’s arena smash-and-grab racer Destruction AllStars has been delayed from PS5’s launch to February next year. It’s sad news, but there’s a twist: it’ll be free. If you have a PS Plus account you’ll be able to download Destruction AllStars for free, for two months, starting in February. The game is a multiplayer racer that mixes in aspects of battle royale and even parkour combat after drivers are expelled from their cars, so it makes sense to try to get as many people playing on day one as possible. With so many blockbusters launching with PS5, this quirky but explosive racer could have found itself behind the day-one pack. Sony’s learned from Fall Guys’ PS Plus release, which propelled that game onto everyone’s summer playlist. We’ll all be AllStars in…

SNEAKER ATTACK Express your excitement for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla by taking to the streets in the Reebok capsule collection inspired by the game and the Northern Lights. The three exclusive colourways evoke the spirit of the game, although we’ve yet to see the bloodied, headless monk edition. GHOST RELEASE No Man’s Sky PS5 update includes a visual and 3D audio upgrade, DualSense support, and even a new 32-player online mode. Running at 4K, 60fps, and including extra planetary detail, it’s a notable step up. This is one of the more comprehensive updates coming to the next gen, and it’s free. FULL HOUSE One of the more surprising PS5 launch games is Poker Club, “the definitive next-gen poker videogame” according to the press blurb. Releasing 19 November, Poker Club features 4K,…

WARHAMMER CHAOSBANE: SLAYER EDITION A lockdown sim that enables you to grow wild beards in all manner of styles, before heading online to showcase your look. Advanced PS5 hair physics brings every fibre to life. FORMAT PS5 ETA 31 DEC PET CLINIC: CATS & DOGS The animals are in charge and they have no clue how to heal their human pets. Can you collect enough human info to heal your clients and find the time to lick your own bum? FORMAT PS4 ETA 3 DEC FAHRENHEIT 15TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION Use the DualShock 4 thumbsticks to break the ice on this classic adventure – just make sure you do it within the time limit to unlock the game. FORMAT PS4 ETA 11 DEC…

1 Gemma’s Sclerokinesis renders Yuito impervious to damage for a limited time. Sink some XP into this ability and it’ll do the same for status effects. 2 Tsugumi’s Clairvoyance lets you to see through smoke and enemy invisibility. Combine this with a dodge and your followup counter will knock down enemies. 3 Luka’s teleportation abilities alter Yuito’s dodge, allowing for easier hit-and-run attacks. Level up Luka’s powers and you can combine this with aerial attacks. 4 Second playable character Kasane looks like she has similar psychokinetic powers to Yuito… You can unfurl the twist in this tale from her point of view.…

1 Creepy, dangerous enemies known as Puppets litter the Monad facility, alluding to an evil presence that can be felt around every corner. 2 Unfortunately, these shambling lads don’t always go down to a headshot, and ammo is scarce. Sometimes it’s better to sneak past them. 3 Captain Thomas is here to look for survivors, which is a risky endeavour in itself, but far worse things than the flames may have already got to them. 4 What was that? We’re not sure what we just saw. About the only thing that still makes sense to us are the familiar flames. Good luck out there!…

While PS5 launched earlier this month in Japan, Australia, and America, we’re only days away from Sony’s next-gen console landing on these shores. Christmas is absolutely coming early for many of us. So what can you expect from Sony’s – let’s be honest – large box of tricks? Let’s get into the specs and what they mean for us as players. The cutting-edge CPU, GPU, and 825GB SSD all work together to offer unparalleled performance. It’s a big leap forwards from PS4’s aging tech but as it moves into the future PlayStation won’t abandon its past. The next-gen console’s architecture is partially based on PS4’s, meaning that PS5 will have backwards compatibility with much of your PS4 library (though that’s where official backwards compatibility support will end on PS5). It’s…

The PlayStation Store no longer has its own app. Everything is now on a tab on the home screen, making it more accessible. It includes some personalised content, and will still feature PS4 games that are backwards-compatible. Similar to the news card in the Control Centre, you can access a screen of the latest news for games you follow. This is a great way to pull up the latest trailers instantly and check out big announcements without having to go through other apps just to watch a video. Scroll on the home screen with a game selected, and the activities from the Control Centre will be right there for you to select from the minute you turn on your console. This area will also collect news and community-created content about…

DEMON’S SOULS You’ll never get taken by surprise again as you can hear enemies approaching from all sides, even off-screen. Sound will help you gauge their weight and mass too. MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN: MILES MORALES Immerse yourself in the noise of New York City’s bustling streets; the sound of cars gets louder the closer you get to street level. RETURNAL Housemarque’s horror shooter will be using 3D audio to properly give us the willies. Given the comments we’ve quoted from Harry Krueger, we’re betting its beasties will all make distinctive – and scary – sounds. DEATHLOOP Arkane’s shooter exists in a living world built where AI characters go about their business, and eavesdropping on conversations will be easier with 3D audio. RESIDENT EVIL VILLAGE Resi’s going to milk 3D audio for…

PS5 promises to bring the realistic light show of cinema CG to next-gen games with the inclusion of hardware-based ray tracing. We’ve heard a lot about this visual wizardry over the past 18 months, and even recently experienced it in a limited way with Crysis Remastered’s software-based approach. But what is it, and why should you care? Put simply, ray tracing is a method of simulating realistic light in real time. It maps the path of light particles as they interact and bounce off and pass through objects in a scene. This means the light has a volume and exists in a space, ensuring reflections and shadows are all accurate. In current-gen games light is fixed. It acts as a rigid block that can be made to look realistic in…

With a mix of new, original, remade, and remastered games to play, PS5’s launch-day roster can feel daunting. We review Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (p130) and Bugsnax (p134) later in this issue. Here we look at what else you should play on 19 November. Our deep dives include the best of Godfall, a chat with Sackboy: A Big Adventure’s developer, and a tour of Demon’s Souls, the remake that is fast becoming one of PS5’s best games.…

01 Combat makes DualSense It may look like a glittering version of Dark Souls but Godfall’s combat is more front-footed, and you’re encouraged to play aggressively. Dodging and sliding get you out of danger, and light and heavy attacks on u and i rumble through the DualSense; you’ll feel every parry and strike. Beside the main- and weapon-variant combos you have Polarity attacks, Breaching, Soulshattering, and Weakpoints in your arsenal. Polarity is neat: if you hot-swap weapons mid-combo you inflict bonus damage on an enemy. 02 Gold-standard graphics We’re now able to play a soulsborne baked in colour. And everything is sumptuous. Ray tracing brings the world to life as every corner of Godfall feels deep with believable shadows and reflections. The art direction is Blizzard-meets-He-Man, influenced by ancient Egyptian…

Already one of PS4’s most visually arresting games, Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition is taking everything we love about Capcom’s hack’n’slash adventure and powering it up with the tech inside PS5. That means from the day you get your new console you can experience Dante in 4K at 60fps, with ray tracing, 3D audio, and more. If you really want to go rock’n’roll then play in 120fps mode for the most astonishing DMC ever. We ask producer Matt Walker what makes it special. OPM: Why does Vergil always appear in the special editions of the Devil May Cry games? Matt Walker: I can tell you for DMC5 in particular, the dev team had their heads down and their hands full trying to create all of the original content. At…

Environmental puzzles can boost your eagle’s stamina. Keep an eye out for some head-tilting sights 01 Many secrets require a little help from your eagle companion to unravel. Here they’re lifting something to weigh down a switch. 02 The Hunter will need to purify more than just dusty architecture. Animals can be touched by corruption – which you can clear. 03 Many puzzles will require you to shoot some hoops – after your eagle has properly aligned the targets for you. Feel the bow via your DualSense!…

“THE CONSOLE HAS SOME EXTRA TRICKS THAT REALLY REQUIRE DEDICATED SUPPORT FROM YOUR TV.” These are the TVs to really show off what your new PlayStation 5 can do. PS5 games will obviously look better than PS4 games on any TV thanks to the console’s graphical power and new features such as ray tracing, but it does have some extra tricks to help games work their best that require dedicated support from your TV: specifically, Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), 4K at 120fps, Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), and (maybe less importantly) 8K video. We’ve explained what all of these mean in the blue column opposite. We’ve focussed here on picking out televisions that support these features, but the more important thing is that they’re all mind-blowingly good TVs anyway, with…

Snakebyte Twin:Charge 5 PRICE: £14.99 Snuggle your DualSense controllers into this dock that imitates the look and feel of the official charging dock for almost half the price. At £14.99 it’s a solid buy and comes with features you’d expect, such as the neat little LED that shows the charge of each pad. WWW.MYSNAKEBYTE.COM Stackers Metal Headphone Stand PRICE: £20 Whatever headset you use with your PS5, keep it in good nick (and looking sweet in your setup) with a headphone stand. For £20, it gives you an Insta-worthy place to store them. WWW.STACKERS.COM Elgato 4K60 S+ PRICE: £389 If you’re going to capture or stream your gaming, you’ve gotta do it at the highest possible quality, right? This box sits between your PS5 and your TV, and records everything…

As we put it in 1995, it was “the biggest hardware launch of the decade.” Having looked on as Japan and the US got to try PlayStation ahead of us here in the UK, we confidently said this was “Sony’s biggest launch since the Walkman, [and] puts PlayStation in prime position to be the next-generation machine.” It wasn’t easy for Sony – by the end of 1994 Sega Saturn had outsold PlayStation by 200,000 units – but with US and European launches planned for 1995 Sony began to market its console to a new, older, cooler customer. At the first E3 in LA on 11 May 1995, Olaf Olafsson, the head of Sony Computer Entertainment America, revealed PlayStation would cost $299, undercutting Saturn by $100. Sony then revealed its killer…

Sony’s decision to label PlayStation 2’s 128-bit CPU ‘the Emotion Engine’ was fitting. At the time PS2 launched, however, the overriding emotion was disappointment. The day-one lineup included Ridge Racer 5 and Street Fighter EX3, mediocre legacy franchises. Quirky fireworks puzzler FantaVision threatened to excite, demonstrating PS2’s power to push particles en masse. However, it was left to Rockstar Games to tease where PS2 would succeed, with the open world innovations of Midnight Club and Smuggler’s Run. Ultimately, though, PS2 would be Sony’s greatest success, and the only emotion we have looking back at the misshapen black box is dewy-eyed love. According to Guinness World Records, 157.68 million people have owned a PS2 during their lifetimes. At launch Sony got two things right. First the price: at £299 PS2 was…

1. RESISTANCE: FALL OF MAN PUB: SONY DEV: INSOMNIAC GAMES Memorable for its 40-person online multiplayer, inventive 1950s sci-fi-inspired weaponry, and a level set in a grockle-free Cheddar Gorge, Sony’s launch-day shooter had everything it needed to succeed in 2007. Of course it was a shameless land grab for Halo’s fanbase, a me-too shooter designed to steal some of the thunder from Sony’s rival. Yet in its own right Resistance: Fall Of Man delivered on all its promises, the robust campaign offering a sci-fi Call Of Duty in which Insomniac could bring a shade of Ratchet & Clank to the arsenal. The alien weapons included the Auger, which fired shots that could burrow through walls and pick up momentum and damage as they did. Then there was self-guided ammo from…

WHAT YOU DO IN… MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN: MM HOW TO… GET PHOTOS OF SPIDER-MAN! Expect screenshots to flood your social media timeline. The photo mode is one of the most in-depth we’ve seen, with loads of options for getting a perfect snap for the Bugle, including adding spotlights or sphere lights and changing costume. LOVING/ HATING SUITING UP Visual effects are tied to suits, like 2099’s foggy eyes. The Spiderverse suit has an option to mimic the lower framerate movie animation. CABLE GUY Environmental puzzles are more interesting than in the last game, but following a cable to find generators is only fun a couple of times. ALSO ON PLAYSTATION 5 We played through the game on PS5, mostly sticking with the default 4K visuals with ray…

”We are very excited about the future and very, very excited for this generation and what it means for this project,” says game director Dinga Bakaba as he shares why PS5 and Deathloop are a perfect fit. “It only takes a few seconds to go from the menu to the map, from the beginning of the day to the end of the day […] As a player you stay engaged and focussed.” “[DUALSENSE] FELT LIKE SOMETHING WE WANTED TO HAVE FUN WITH.” This matters as Deathloop presents a living, breathing world to manipulate. Taking out the crime lords of the game’s island is hero Colt’s way home, but to do this you need to puzzle them into position, upsetting their schedules and toying with the world’s AI cast to get…

Our most-wanted fighter, Guilty Gear Strive, will be bringing its fluid animation and stunning visuals to PS5 when it launches on 9 April 2021. A completely new game, the elements of Guilty Gear we know and love have been reworked into a fresh take on the series. “YOU CAN’T OVERSTATE THE CHANGES BEING MADE.” With the full 15-character starting roster now all but announced, we know we’ve got some newcomers to the fight. Special ops officer Giovanna is the latest, joined by her faithful companion Rei. Giovanna fuses with her wolf pal to gain superhuman speed to deliver fast attacks. A rushdown character, she’s all about closing gaps and using her acrobatics to deliver hit after hit, with some spiral kicks and throws for good measure. She’s the second brand-new…

1 The main action is typical 3D platform fare: you search for keys to unlock the 80 costumes one by one, and use their abilities to progress deeper into the game. 2 Faster-paced sections can see you skating down an icy half-pipe or zipping along suspended train tracks in the fairground level. 3 Then you face a large boss. You don’t appear to be graded based on how quickly you defeat the boss, but we live in hope that we’ll dispatch them fast. 4 Finally, there’s a co-op mode in which you and a friend can work together to overcome the game’s many environmental puzzles and obstacles.…

“WORMS ARE MORE MOBILE THAN EVER, WITH WALL JUMPS ALLOWING YOU TO NAVIGATE EASILY.” FORMAT PS4, PS5 / ETA 1 DEC / PUB TEAM 17 DIGITAL / DEV TEAM 17 DIGITAL At a glance this is Worms as you know it, in its classic 2D perspective. But look at the large mall map and you’ll notice everyone is wiggling around at once. In  Rumble, turn-based play goes out the window, and instead you have real-time chaos with up to 32 individual worm players. Deathmatch mode provides a fairly traditional Worms experience, one in which you’re trying to score kills by blasting your fellow meat tubes to the gates of heaven. Fan-favourite weapons return, from the likes of the bazooka to the Holy Hand Grenade. Because it’s played in real time,…

“THIS WORLD IS TOO BIG AND TOO DANGEROUS FOR THOSE CHILDREN.” FORMAT PS4, PS5 / ETA 11 FEB (PS4), TBC 2021 (PS5) / PUB BANDAI NAMCO / DEV TARSIER STUDIOS Boy-with-a-bag-on-his-head Mono awakens in the forest beside a dimly illuminated TV set. The cold comfort of its buzzing screen soon fades, and oppressive darkness bears down  on the tiny figure. Mono runs right. Dashing over precipices, past something that has rotted past all recognition, and into a storm drain, Mono soon has his first brush with danger. The Little Nightmares games are fully 3D but the fixed, scrolling camera in both lends itself well to an eerie atmosphere, creating a 2.5D ‘doll’s house’ effect. Producer Lucas Roussel tells us, “Little Nightmares II will remain faithful to the original approach, but…

The big boy is finally here. Now that PlayStation 5 has officially arrived at OPM Towers, it’s time to better acquaint you with its finer details. Measuring just under 40cm tall, 26cm deep, and 10cm wide when stood upright, it’s heftier than even PS4 Pro. It may not fit snugly on your media shelf but we think it more than deserves a prime position of its own. Here are ten things we love about Sony’s funky white box. IT’S REALLY FAST PS5’s curved wings conceal some serious power, all but wiping out load screens in launch title Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Hop on the subway in Harlem and, after a fleeting fade to black, you’ll pop up in the Financial District so quickly you won’t even have had enough time to…

“CHAT WHILE VIEWING A PICTURE-IN-PICTURE DISPLAY OF YOUR FRIEND’S GAME.” Activities can be represented directly on cards for games that support the feature. This means you can instantly load a level from this menu, or see how far through to completion you are (with an average playtime left). Named the Control Centre, this smart bar can pop up on screen without interrupting your game. This seamless mixing of windows allows you to hop into regular party groups and share what you’re playing with friends. You can chat while viewing a picture-in-picture display of your friend playing something else while you play your own game, or join them in an online game, which takes only a few seconds to boot up. These cards give you extra information at a glance, again…

Time to slip into something a little more comfortable. With Sony refreshing the PlayStation console inside and out for the new generation, it only made sense that the controller would also be revitalised. Dropping the ‘Shock’ moniker that had been applied from PS1’s DualShock all the way to PS4’s DualShock 4, the DualSense is something all-new, but it still carries a strand of PlayStation DNA. It’s building on the past – a smart evolution. PS5 is all about adding an extra layer of immersion, whether that’s via the Tempest 3D AudioTech or SSD-powered load times to keep you in the action longer. But the DualSense is what creates that connection between game and player, and it’s there that the real magic begins. The way it feels in your hands creates…

ASTRO’S PLAYROOM You can feel the different materials Astro runs across in this colourful pre-installed platformer, as well as the wind pushing back against you. MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN: MILES MORALES Haptics indicate where attacks are coming from, and enhance Miles’ powers, enabling you to feel the charge of a venom blast. GODFALL Haptics allow you to feel where enemies are around you, and tell the difference between the weapons you’re using, all without having to check on the UI. QUANTUM ERROR You play as a fireman, and the team are aiming to use the controller creatively, trialling things like allowing you to feel for backdraft behind doors. HORIZON FORBIDDEN WEST New weapons have been constructed to make use of the DualSense whether you’re fighting humans or giant metal beasts, so each…

Now we’ve got our hands on our own funky white box, we’re ready to tell you all of its secrets. We’ve already explored the next-generation console’s tech on p50 and got to grips with the DualSense on p62 – but what else can you expect from PS5? You’ve got questions… and we’ve got the answers in our exhaustive FAQ. What are the differences between the physical and digital editions of PS5? Basically, the optical drive – the physical edition has one, the digital edition doesn’t. Aside from that, both versions boast the same internal hardware and will be able to play all the same games. The only other big difference between them is the price: the physical edition is priced at £449.99 and the digital edition costs much less at…

Developer Bluepoint has become the go-to studio for remaking cherished games of yesteryear. After perfectly updating Shadow Of The Colossus for PS4 the developer could do no wrong. But bringing back Demon’s Souls, the forbear to Dark Souls and Bloodborne, one of the greatest cult games of the PS3 era, is a literal double-edged sword. As a launch game Demon’s Souls needs to showcase what PS5 can do, which means pushing the audio and visual experience as far as it can go. But you don’t want to ruin the rhythm of this white-knuckle duel to the death. You want this remade action RPG to make full use of the fast-loading SSD, for example, but you don’t want the pace spoiled. As it turns out, we shouldn’t have worried. DYING TO…

Little robot fellow Astro is no stranger to shining a light on Sony hardware. The teeny chap was drafted in to demo DualShock 4 and PS VR to us back when they first released. Now he’s here to showcase all the new features of your DualSense, and how it can make you feel the actions our on-screen hero is performing. During the game’s development influence went both ways, with developer Asobi Team making suggestions as to how DualSense could be further improved. Nicolas Doucet, the new head of Sony’s Japan Studio, and creative director and producer of Astro’s Playroom, has told how his team sent feedback on DualSense’s adaptive triggers to Sony’s hardware team, who in turn passed on the ideas to the wider PlayStation Studios family. It took two…

01 Knitted together This adventure supports up to four players running and jumping around at the same time, whether that’s online or locally. You can play the entire game in co-op, and if you and your pals are extra-synergised there’s even a set of co-op specific levels that will put your friendship through its paces. You can interact with your fellow crafties to pull off special moves. You can catapult them to reach higher levels, for example, or jump on them and roll them around like a circus performer on a ball, or give ’em a good kick. “It’s really slapstick and chaotic, and I hope it’ll cause a few arguments at Christmas,” laughs Ned Waterhouse, creative director at Sumo Digital. 02 Getting playful The game is targeting 60fps on…

PRICE: £1,100 Okay, let’s go full power here. Big 3D Dolby Atmos surround sound, with height, from full-sized speakers all around you. Lots of very high-priced companies will help you out here, but Jamo offers this stuff at a price real people might be able to afford. You can customise what kind of setup you want from its S Series range, but two tall multi-driver front left and right speakers, a Dolby Atmos upfiring speaker on each, a central speaker for dialogue, two rear left and right speakers, and a subwoofer should do us for now. But you can always add more later if you want… Jamo’s speakers sound excellent for the money, bringing the kind of depth and impact that only a very large sound system can, and there’s…

METAL GEAR SOLID PUB: KONAMI DEV: KONAMI The success of Metal Gear Solid can be seen as the perfect storm of PlayStation’s new technology, the popularity of Japanese games, and Hideo Kojima’s quirks. A threequal to games few in the West had ever played in 1998, MGS embraced PlayStation’s newness and caught the imagination. The CD format ensured extensive voice acting while the memory cards and DualShock offered innovative fourth-wall-breaking gameplay. When Psycho Mantis started talking to you, not Snake, revealing your games collection and showing how powerful he was by making your controller move, you had to sit back and admire the genius at work. RIDGE RACER PUB: NAMCO DEV: NAMCO Boasting ‘arcade perfection’, Ridge Racer was a dream for coin-op-obsessed gamers in 1994. Now you were promised that…

This was a sleeping giant from a company desperate to avoid the missteps of PS3’s launch. On the surface Sony put on a show; we had a live performance from Tinie Tempah and a plush event at the PS4 Lounge in London’s Covent Garden, and queues of fans lined up for the midnight launch with only free Red Bull to keep them warm. Behind the scenes, though, Sony had limited stock of its eagerly awaited console, and the stuttering start of PS3 weighed as heavily as a weekend hangover. Sony needn’t have feared. The price was right (at E3 earlier that year there had been gasps when its price was announced to be £349), the games were on point, and PS4 shifted 250,000 units in its first weekend on sale,…

Ambitious JRPG crossover Unlike many other long RPG series, Trails leans heavily into continuity. What you have here is not only the final part of the Cold Steel quartet, but also events that affect the later lives of the heroes from PSP predecessors Trails In The Sky and Trails From Zero.1 It gives everything a real sense of place. Following on from a massive cliffhanger, Cold Steel IV hits the ground running, with the younger New Class VII (introduced in the last game) taking centre stage for the opening act. Like the rest of the series, it plays out like a great piece of young adult fiction. The stakes have never been higher, but as the classmates journey across the land they still find time to take on side-quests. As…

Brawler that isn’t short of staff Sadly, there are no monkeys here. The premise is more po-faced, as Chinese village fisherman Wei Cheng takes up his staff to avenge his friends and family, who were killed in a raid by Japanese pirates. With the help of a group of Shaolin monks, it’s not long before the revenge part is over, only for a Bigger Bad to crop up. What you basically get is a traditional brawler as you clear enemies from left to right,1 although a variety of backdrops and baddies keeps things fresh. Learning special attacks also becomes essential to defeating trickier enemies like ghosts or quick-footed ninja, though unleashing these also requires building up energy. A more modern structure appears in between missions as you return to base…