Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2021 i PLAY

Even though Ghost Of Tsushima’s developers are passionate about cinema, it’s perhaps a touch unclear what a director’s cut of a game actually is. After the studio cut of a film has made its way through the box office, most of us know a director’s cut as a marketing term for a re-edited rerelease of a film that supposedly reflects the director’s vision more closely. Ghost Of Tsushima isn’t losing anything as it’s rereleased on PS4, but it is gaining a new island to explore as well as new-gen features for its debut on PS5. More than a year after the original’s release, Ghost Of Tsushima Director’s Cut will deliver an expanded vision of Jin’s story on 20 August. In addition to everything in the base game and all the…

Few developers boast a history like Nihon Falcom’s. Founded in 1981, it’s one of the oldest studios still making games. Known for JRPG series like Ys, Tokyo Xanadu, and The Legend Of Heroes, it has fostered a dedicated fanbase during that time, growing in the West in recent years. To celebrate four decades of making games, it’s announced four new translations via longtime publisher NIS America. The games are: The Legend Of Heroes: Trails Into Reverie, which continues the Trails series; the previously PSP-exclusive The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails; and both The Legend Of Heroes: Trails From Zero and The Legend Of Heroes: Trails To Azure, a duology of originally PSP-exclusive adventures. These JRPGs are all story-heavy, featuring lengthy scripts, which has made translating them into English a costly…

Standalone game Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora promises to make the most of bleeding-edge tech, with an updated version of the Snowdrop engine bringing the planet of Pandora to life. Snowdrop has previously been used to power The Division series’ believably cluttered urban battlegrounds, but here it’s been pushed further to realise dense forests on the ground and breathtaking vistas from the air. A micro-detail system allows for thousands of assets within a single frame. The automated placement of vegetation and the use of complex, interactive shaders makes for biomes you’ll want to reach out and touch, while the volumetric cloud system is just one of many features to entice you into the air. Besides global illumination and realistic reflections bringing the world to photorealistic life during the day, ray tracing…

1 Maxence Hardouineau  Game: Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Adventurers love exploring beaches. ”I tested all the possible situations a bit,” explains Max, before deciding “to show the beach and the sea with the presence of the character Nathan Drake in the centre to have all the elements, a bit like the Yin and the Yang.” 2 Dale Aistrop  Game: Gran Turismo Sport “I chose Gran Turismo Sport because it doesn’t get enough credit for its amazing scapes,” says Dale. Its photo mode allows you to position cars for the perfect shot. “This game is a small niche for photography and most virtual photographers are not car gamers.” It’s one to look into if you’re hunting for a new way to snap. 3 Peter Trevena  Game: Assassin’s…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 10 SEP / PUB SQUARE ENIX / DEV DECK NINE GAMES / PLAYERS 1 For a long time Alex Chen has felt cursed. As an empath she can sometimes hear people’s most emotionally-charged thoughts. Particularly strong emotions can affect her behaviour too, causing her to lash out. In the wake of her brother Gabe’s death, she discovers her so-called curse may be her secret weapon. The other residents of Haven Springs are quick to dismiss Gabe’s death as a tragic accident but there’s more to the story. Alex’s investigation meets resistance from a town eager to put the past behind it. Her power is invaluable as it allows her to hear what people are afraid to say out loud. “COULD ANGER FUEL THE CREATION OF…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 2 SEP / PUB UBISOFT / DEV UBISOFT ANNECY / PLAYERS 1-64 Featuring many of the same extreme sports as Steep, and coming from the same developer, you might wonder why Riders Republic ditches the downhill name. “Adding a sport, such as the bike - this is a kind of a stupid answer - but it makes it way less steep,” laughs creative director Igor Manceau. “I’m sorry, I’m kind of direct, but [...] I would say a third of the map is pretty much flat.” Though there’s more to it than that. While both games share plenty of DNA, there’s a lot about Riders Republic that snowboard-grinds in a new direction. “If you’re a fan of Steep, at first you’re gonna have a hard…

“IT’S ACTUALLY UP TO YOU AS LEADER TO DECIDE ON A SPEECH THAT WILL RESONATE.” FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 26 OCT / PUB SQUARE ENIX / DEV EIDOS-MONTRÉAL / PLAYERS 1 This might be another Marvel game from Square Enix centred on a superhero team, but don’t expect this to be a reskin of last year’s Marvel’s Avengers. Headed up by Eidos-Montréal, Guardians is playing to the developer’s strengths, taking the colourful vibrant personality of the comics and creating a focussed single-player action game with light RPG elements. You take on the role of team leader Star-Lord, commanding the other four Guardians to use special moves during combat. Featuring the team from the movies, you’ll be calling on Gamora, Drax, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot, each assigned to a face…

FORMAT PS4 / ETA TBC PUB TBC / DEV SANDLOT PLAYERS TBC The bugs are back, and they’re still extremely nasty. Set some years after the last mainline entry in the series (released in 2017), in this game the giant insectoid aliens have returned to Earth and this time they’ve brought friends in the form of at least one gun-toting giant. Given that 90 per cent of Earth’s population has already been lost it’s a wonder the titular military operation has two new recruits to rub together, but EDF6 features redesigned versions of a number of mainstay classes, including the Air Raider, Wing Diver, Fencer, and Ranger. For now, the overhaul appears to only be visual but we’re assured broader aspects of the game will be tweaked before release too.…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 7 SEP PUB BILIBILI / DEV TIGAMES PLAYERS 1 This side-scrolling metroidvania is far from content to sit on its creepily human-looking hands. Once a peaceful home for anthropomorphised animals, Torch City has been taken over by the machine legion. Former resistance fighter Rayton now lives in seclusion but is forced to reclaim his mechanical fist after his friend is arrested. Platforming through a dieselpunk world, the beefed-up bunny uncovers a conspiracy that’s swept up not only the aforementioned legion and the resistance but organised crime too. Equipped with a massive shiny metal fist that can transform into a drill and a whip, combat takes the form of over-the-top, arcade-y action.…

From the weird to the wonderful, and from there to the downright adorable, welcome to our indie playlist. Here you’ll find a number of indie darlings getting a new lease on life on PlayStation, a few absolute bangers from devs you’ve never heard of, and maybe even your next favourite. Whether you’re into more wholesome vibes or are after something perhaps more spooky, there’s a little bit of everything on these pages, as with all of the best mixtapes. Stick with Team PLAY as we take a look at 14 titles that should absolutely be on your own 2021 And Beyond playlist. HADES A godly roguelike “ONE OF TEN GODS MAY APPEAR TO GRANT YOU A STAT INCREASE OR EVEN A SPECIAL ATTACK.” FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 13 AUG…

INFO FORMAT PS5 PRICE £34.99 (free upgrade from PS4) ETA Out now PUB Deep Silver DEV 4A Games PLAYERS 1 LENGTH 30 hours ACCESSIBILITY Adjustable aim mode; changeable subtitle size and background; subtitles via the DualSense speaker; turn off tinnitus sounds The original version of Metro Exodus was 4A Games loading up at the PS4 buffet. This PS5 edition is the developer going back for seconds, loosening its belt, undoing a top button and feeling uncomfortably pogged. But incredibly satisfied. Metro Exodus: Complete Edition on PS5 wrings every last feature from the hardware. Delivering 60fps at 4K with ray tracing throughout Metro Exodus is a true next-gen event. What’s astonishing is how colourful the updated game feels. Now in 4K, with multiple light sources illuminating the snowy Moscow tunnels and…

INFO  FORMAT PS4 PRICE £11.99 ETA Out now PUB TFL Studios DEV Leonard Menchiari, Daniele Vicinanzo, Giulio Perrone PLAYERS 1 Rarely is the fiction surrounding a game more interesting than the game itself. However, purporting to be a modernised version of a 1987 platformer that never saw release, The Eternal Castle [Remastered] is perfectly primed to intrigue. It’s refreshing to see the game’s audio and visuals are designed to back up the myth, with 2-bit CGA animated graphics to offer players a style of 2D retro throwback they probably haven’t seen before. It works for the most part, even if your eyes have to work harder than usual to fill in any negative space.1 Trying to discern environments is just as much of a challenge as defeating enemies. Your ultimate…

INFO FORMAT PS4 PRICE £24.99 ETA Out now PUB Square Enix DEV Square Enix PLAYERS 1-2 LENGTH 20-60 hours ACCESSIBILITY Option to disable encounters Played any of Legend Of Mana’s predecessors? Well, this won’t be what you expect – it completely forgoes the idea of a contiguous plot and leaves it up to you where to go, who to help, and even where to place locations on the world map. A considerable amount of freedom for a game originally released in the West in 2000; smart in theory but precarious in practice. Visually, the devs were happy to stick with Legend Of Mana’s 16-bit style for this remaster – the game was a last hurrah for the 2D look when it was originally released. The hand-painted backgrounds are now beautifully…

INFO FORMAT PS5 (reviewed), PS4 PRICE £54.99 ETA Out now PUB EA DEV Codemasters PLAYERS 1-2 LENGTH 6 hrs (story); 20-60 hrs (one career season) ACCESSIBILITY Three colour blind modes for the dynamic racing line Of all the many ways this game improves on last year’s F1 2020 – which was superb in itself – the one that really stands out here is the new, fully fleshed-out story mode. It’s called Braking Point (groan) and features CG cutscenes in the style of Codemasters’ vintage classic TOCA Race Driver 2. The result briefly turns this racing simulation into a videogame again, and that’s very cool. You’ll recognise sneering racecar driver Devon Butler from the tentative toe-in-the-water story scenes included in F1 2019 as you control two other fictional drivers: new F2…

WHAT YOU DO IN: D&D: DARK ALLIANCE FRIENDS & ENEMIES CATTI-BRIE Archer with a cheesy name, she’s Bruenor’s adopted daughter, and future wife of Drizzt. BRUENOR BATTLEHAMMER Dwarven king. Retook Mithril Hall with the help of the others. HAGEDORN A tricky boss. Keep your distance as it has some nasty surprise attacks. STATPACK 01 Dragon. Just one! Icewind is the final boss, and is a demanding, multi-stage affair. Do not attempt this at a high difficulty alone. 36 Novels (so far) have been released featuring dark elf Drizzt Do’Urden. His first appearance in print was in 1988 in The Crystal Shard. 08 Gear slots to fill, and eight different gear sets per character. Equip three, five, or all eight pieces of one set at once to nab…

INFO  FORMAT PSVR PRICE £24.99 ETA Out now PUB Perp Games DEV ILMxLab PLAYERS 1 You will take time out from saving the galaxy far, far away to swoosh your Move controllers, burble your lips and mumble “Kershzoom… schwom… woom… Shttttt”. The fact the game makes these noises for you is meaningless. This is a Star Wars fantasy and you will lose yourself. Vader Immortal is the game PSVR and Move controllers were made for: a three-hour cinematic story built around a childhood desire to waft your arms around and pretend you’re a Jedi For the most part it works perfectly. Holding your Move controller you can fan-gasm over the detail of the lightsaber1 before tapping r to ignite the plasma blade – fashoom – and then waft it around…

INFO  FORMAT PS5, PS4 PRICE £9.79 ETA Out now PUB Serenity Forge DEV Team Salvato PLAYERS 1 This cute visual novel, which debuted on PC in 2017, centres on the titular after-school club and whichever of its three female members you’re trying to woo. Between meetings, you’ll scramble for the right words to put into a poem for the object of your affection and then… hey, wait, what do you mean this game isn’t suitable for ‘children or those who are easily disturbed?’ As you may already be aware, you can’t judge this book by its cover. A broad content warning is one of the first things you see. You’re then offered the option to receive more specific, in-game messages to flag a rough scene before it happens. A welcome…

Everyone loves a heist – especially when it goes wrong. That’s the situation returning protagonist Aiden Pearce finds himself in while pursuing the remote control to an army of killer robots. He’s far from happy when agent of chaos Wrench swipes the object right out of his grasp. Things go from bad to worse when the original owner of the stolen tech takes Aiden’s nephew, Jackson, hostage as collateral before forcing Pearce to hunt down Wrench and his ill-gotten gains. Taking place after the terrorist attack that closes out Legion’s prologue but before a new DedSec cell establishes itself in the main game, you aren’t recruiting a ragtag team of hackers. You’re stuck with grumpy Aiden and his more gun-focussed loadout to start with. Wrench is playable later, and brings…

Following on from November’s Steel Dawn update, Steel Reign – a free update for existing players – presents a conclusion to the narrative thread the Brotherhood Of Steel has become tangled up in. With the First Expeditionary Force’s leader Leila Rahmani at loggerheads with her second-in-command Daniel Shin, things already looked dicey. But when a group of Super Mutants turn up in Appalachia and people start disappearing, it’s even harder for the Brotherhood to see a clear path forward. In this update, you unravel the mystery behind the disappearances, steer the steel ship, and much more. Naturally there’s plenty to scrounge from the Brotherhood’s arsenal but now you can also nab Legendary Upgrades, allowing you to craft legendary items with up to three-star ratings. KD Inkwell also returns for another…

01 Tetris Effect Tetris, yeah? It might be a great game, but it’s easy to understand why you’d brush this version 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 PSVR, but in the virtual space it really becomes next level, transforming one of the tightest puzzle games ever made into an emotional ride. 02 Hitman 3 Every mission in the World Of Assassination trilogy can be played in PSVR via the latest entry in the series. That’s a lot of murderous action. It all plays brilliantly too, with the act of puzzling through hits as Agent 47 perfectly suited to virtual reality. One of PSVR’s best. 03 The…

Starring new protagonist Adam Jensen, who famously never asked for any of this, Deus Ex returned after an eight-year absence in the form of a prequel. Mortally wounded after a terrorist attack, Jensen is fitted with cybernetics against his wishes by his employer, Sarif Industries, which just happens to be one of the world’s largest manufacturers of artificial organs. Jensen’s story asks philosophical questions about corporate overreach and personal autonomy. However, his metal body parts paradoxically present an alluring fantasy for many players. Reader Timmy Trebuchet speaks to part of the appeal of transhumanism and more broadly the cyberpunk genre, commenting: “As someone with a leg/foot disability, the idea that I could just replace the offending item with a stronger, faster limb (or four) if I wished, it was an…

Dictator Antón Castillo, as played by Giancarlo Esposito, has it all: charisma, nerve, menace and power. But while Castillo may be the series’ future, Far Cry 6 will also be looking to its past in the just-announced season pass. In post-release DLC, you’ll get the chance to play the villain for a change. Classic series’ antagonists Vaas Montenegro, Pagan Min, and Joseph Seed each find themselves in what at first appears to be a dream. Vaas sees himself on television, Pagan enjoys a moment of peace with his family, and Joseph sees his apocalyptic church regrown. But the layers of each supposedly pleasant scene peel back to reveal a nightmare, and each antagonist’s own personal hell beyond it. UNLEASH THE BEAST What’s brought these baddies here has yet to be…

THE LAST OF US PART II – ABBY STATUE DARK HORSE $199.99 DIRECT.DARKHORSE.COM One of many new items released to celebrate the game’s first anniversary, this 14-inch statue stands out. Featuring Abby in her hammer-and-pistol pose, this intricately crafted rendering is worth the high price tag. She’s built as a follow-up to Dark Horse’s previous Ellie statues (one with a bow, and one with a machete), so will fit alongside them on any shelf. THE DARK PICTURES: HOUSE OF ASHES – PAZUZU EDITION BANDAI NAMCO £49.99 STORE.BANDAINAMCOENT.EU This reasonably priced collector’s edition comes with DLC, stickers, art print, pin, and an “underworld creature” figure (9x9x10cm). The only downside is it spoils the creature design that was otherwise delectably teased in the trailer. Alas. But at least…

FINAL RITES Given the episodic nature of FFVII Remake, and the wide scope of the original game, do you not think it somewhat likely that many of us will never actually see the end of it? I mean, I’m already 52, and the gang have only just left Midgar. It’s all very well for Cloud, Barrett, and Aerith - well, maybe not Aerith - as they don’t age, but us real-life characters don’t weather so well. Also, do you think the next proper instalment will be an open-world game? Steve Cabus We’d lay money on the next mainline Final Fantasy not being open-world, as there’s a story to see through. But we do think we’ll see the end of it eventually – and it’ll be worth waiting for. “GIVEN THE…

“DRONES CAN (AND SHOULD) STILL BE USED TO SCOUT THE WAY AHEAD.” FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 16 SEP / PUB UBISOFT / DEV UBISOFT MONTREAL / PLAYERS 1-3 Ubisoft could be forgiven for continuing to sit comfortably on the popular and profitable Siege. After all, servers have been busy and updates have been plentiful since 2015. The next Rainbow Six, however, is an unexpected mixture of the familiar and the new, and it just might work. Excepting the largely ignored PvE elements, Siege is a tense and often slow-paced 5v5 PvP experience. Extraction, on the other hand, is entirely PvE, and will involve a lot more action. An alien race known as the Archaeans has landed on Earth and taken over locations in New York, San Francisco, and Alaska.…

02 months HOUSE OF ASHES The latest from the Dark Pictures Anthology. Iraq war soldiers fall into the den of an ancient evil. FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 21 OCT / PUB BANDAI NAMCO 04 months DYING LIGHT 2 STAY HUMAN A free-running zombie horror sequel throws even more traversal options as a new protagonist. FORMAT PS5, PS4 ETA 7 DEC / PUB TECHLAND 06 months GHOSTS An interactive movie that follows a film crew as their supernatural investigation goes horrifically awry. FORMAT PS4 / ETA Q1 2022 PUB TBC…

“YAGAMI WON’T JUST BE PONDERING CRIME SCENES.” FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 24 SEP / PUB SEGA / DEV RYU GA GOTOKU STUDIO / PLAYERS 1 Private detective Takayuki Yagami is back on the case after his former colleague Saori Shirosaki calls in a favour. In this followup to 2018’s Judgment (itself a spin-off of the Yakuza series), Shirosaki’s latest case has unspooled to reveal a murderer somewhere in their midst. She calls on Yagami to get to the bottom of her client’s involvement. While it’s one of the game’s big draws, Yagami won’t just be pondering crime scenes. As you might expect from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, there’s much more than investigation afoot. Besides throwing hands against those who’d rather the truth remained concealed, there are plenty of other…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 10 SEP / PUB BANDAI NAMCO ENTERTAINMENT / DEV BANDAI NAMCO STUDIOS / PLAYERS 1 Five years after the last Tales outing, and just missing the series’ 25th anniversary, it’s a relief to finally get a handle on how Tales Of Arise will reinvigorate the long-running JRPG series. Certainly, Bandai Namco Studios’ decision to switch from its archaic in-house engine to Unreal means a leap for the visuals, while still retaining the signature anime style, though not a complete return to Vesperia’s cel-shading. While Berseria took the series down a darker path, Arise also aims to take a more mature narrative direction, as it explores themes of colonialism and resource exploitation, depicted by the technologically advanced Rena’s rule over the oppressed people of Dahna. However,…

FORMAT PS4 / ETA 24 AUG PUB PRIME MATTER DEV 1C ENTERTAINMENT / PLAYERS 1 The once-prosperous land of Nostria has a necromancy problem – and that’s on top of the court conspiracy and sabotage that is threatening to tear the kingdom apart. Taking to the hex-grid, every choice matters in this tactical turn-based RPG. As one of three heroes, each with their own discrete route through the story, you experience a non-linear narrative full of tactical clashes where your choice of battlefield matters thanks to volumetric scenery. Landscape features from ravines to hills add tactical variety to every bounty – and that’s to say nothing of the walking dead roaming the countryside. The fate of the shattered kingdom may well rest in your hands, so make every move on…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 30 SEP / PUB MILESTONE SRL DEV MILESTONE SRL / PLAYERS 1-12 Collect all your favourite tiny toy vehicles and put them to the test in this colourful arcade racer. Customisation options allow you to make each vehicle’s livery your own so you can make a lasting, if somewhat blurry, impression on the track. In keeping with the pocket-sized playthings that inspired it, the tracks you compete on are laid out across a variety of recognisable real-world settings, such as a dusty attic, a college lecture hall, a skyscraper construction site, and others besides.…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 21 JAN / PUB BANDAI NAMCO ENTERTAINMENT / DEV FROMSOFTWARE / PLAYERS 1 You’re a weakened warrior waiting for death in a cursed land. Then a mysterious stranger comes to give you hope and a new sense of purpose, sending you on an epic quest. The premise is FromSoftware to a praising-the-sun T, and yet much of Elden Ring excites us because of the way the developer is using what it’s already mastered to forge something entirely new. With a large open world, dynamic traversal, and many opportunities for character customisation, Elden Ring is a Soul unto itself. With the shattering of the legendary Elden Ring from within the central Erdtree (a huge, golden Yggsdril-type of thing), the guidance of grace has returned to your…

“It’s eye-catching and looks especially beautiful on PS5.” INFO Format PS5 (reviewed), PS4 Price £49.99 ETA Out now PUB Bandai Namco Entertainment Dev Bandai Namco Studios Players 1 Length 40+ hrs Accessibility Basic subtitles; optional vibration; remappable controls Coming from a talented development team that’s worked on entries in both the Tales and God Eater series, this title feels especially tied to another in particular from Bandai Namco Studios’ past: Code Vein. Yes, surprise, we’re talking about the anime vampire game again. Both projects are drenched in eye-catching anime aesthetics, and tell original tales set in post-apocalyptic worlds stricken by both supernatural and environmental threats. For Scarlet Nexus, that’s a monster-spawning layer of smog called the Extinction Belt and the brain-hungry creatures it generates, simply known as Others. But rather…

INFO  FORMAT PS4 PRICE £14.99 ETA Out now PUB Merge Games DEV Merge Games, Jankenteam PLAYERS 1 This is yet another remake of a retro game, although whether it deserves to be called a classic depends on whether you genuinely regard Sega’s pre-Sonic mascot’s 1986 debut adventure as a platforming milestone or are simply suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, having been a cash-strapped child forced to play the one game built into their Master System. Nonetheless, this remake, done in a similar fashion to Lizardcube’s faithful remake of Wonderboy: The Dragon’s Trap, shows Jankenteam has a clear fondness for it. However, instead of hand-drawn visuals, DX features modern, expressive pixel art graphics accompanied by a new arranged score.1 The dev has also tried to expand upon the original in subtle ways…

INFO FORMAT PSVR PRICE £24.99 ETA Out now PUB Rebellion DEV Rebellion, Just Add Water PLAYERS 1 LENGTH 8 hrs ACCESSIBILITY Colour blind mode; adjustable movement, controls and UI detail; left or right-handed setup; manual or auto reloading Snipers are cool, calm, and collected. They hunt their prey silently, unseen and unheard in the shadows. What they don’t do is jam two bits of plastic together, fumble for a virtual bolt, and curse loudly as they grasp at bullets around their on-screen belt, dropping cartridges, dropping the gun, dropping down dead. The life of a sniper is hard. This is the fine balancing act Sniper Elite VR manages; it’s a good adaptation of Rebellion’s series. It puts accurately modelled guns of the World War 2 era in your hands, surrounds…

INFO  FORMAT PSVR PRICE £22.99 ETA Out now PUB Univrs, EXPVR Inc DEV Univrs, EXPVR Inc PLAYERS 1-3 Finally, we have a use for those swivelling chairs every office has but everyone hates, and it’s for virtual broomstick racing. Pointy hats and overexcited squeaks are optional (Jess, this means you). Little Witch Academia: VR Broom Racing gets the basics right. The voice cast and writers of the popular anime are on hand to create a world that’ll have fans reaching for their replica wands in excitement. The core activity works well to embellish this setting and offer a fun virtual broomstick experience (the things we have to write). Controls enable you to shift the broom’s momentum by turning the controller to slightly affect direction, while leaning and physically moving around…

WHAT YOU DO IN: F1 2021 THE DUALSENSE DIFFERENCE STATPACK 21 Tracks to race on at launch, though that number includes China and Australia, which have both fallen off the real-world Formula 1 calendar. 03 Practice session development tasks, down from five. You can also simulate them with clearly shown odds of success. 08 Camera views. That might seem a lot of ways to view the on-track action. In fact, you now get ‘nose’ and ‘nose alt’. Why? Nobody nose. HOW TO… AVOID PRACTICE Practice sessions have been streamlined, even allowing you to play a chance-based game for your R&D points. Choose an objective like setting a decent qualifying time, along with percentage odds of achieving it, then weigh up how much time you want to spend…

INFO  FORMAT PS5, PS4 PRICE £15.99 ETA Out now PUB Maximum Games DEV Only By Midnight Ltd PLAYERS 1 Piloting a ship and blasting away at aliens across a 2D plane is no longer enough. These days developers of shoot’em-ups have to think more outside the box, innovating on the classic arcade genre’s core staples while offering fresh ways to keep the bullet-hell action interesting. In Curved Space’s case this means nailing the formula from an all-new angle – the game literally lives up to its name, as you battle cosmic spiders across cylindrical maps that can wrap around, wind, and twist. Such enthralling visuals do well to hold your attention, though it can quickly become disorientating. Interesting power-ups are obviously key in a game like this, and on this…

INFO FORMAT PS4 PRICE £19.99 ETA Out now PUB Armature Studios LLC DEV Armature Games PLAYERS 1 LENGTH 8 hrs (one playthrough) ACCESSIBILITY Alterable text speed and size; no spoken dialogue When a sinkhole opens up near his house, Whit Anderson (that’s you) needs to figure out how to rescue his dog from it. And so you end up falling all the way down it in a bathtub. Strange oddities await at the bottom, leading you to reflect on all the life choices that brought you to this point. This results in you playing through some major milestones in Whit’s life, making the decisions that shape his life in rural America. There’s a dreamy surreality to the presentation - everyone except Whit is a kind of frozen reflection - but…

INFO FORMAT PS4 PRICE £34.99 ETA Out now PUB Focus Home Interactive DEV Gasket Games OFFLINE REVIEW #3, 7/10 PLAYERS 1-2 CROSSPLAY All consoles The multiplayer in Storm Ground plays out like a hard-but-fair version of the singleplayer. That means you’re going into fights where everything is better balanced, but your opponent can plan ahead and will make moves that make sense. To win, you either need to take out the enemy commander or destroy their Soul Prison. Both can be accomplished by throwing a lot of units at the problem, rather than with brilliant tactics. What results is a bit like chess, but less involved, as rather than trying to take the opponent’s king, you surround them and kick them to death. It’s aggressively okay.…

01 Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Nathan Drake’s swan song is a daring evolution. It combines series-defining set-pieces, quietly devastating storytelling beats, and sprawling levels that make you feel like a real-life explorer. This franchise finale retains its signature charm, with the wisecracks firing as fast as the bullets, while the new characters each justify their inclusion. With an astonishing attention to detail, it’s Naughty Dog’s best yet. 02 Red Dead Redemption 2 There are a lot of open-world games, but none that make you feel like you’re a part of a world in quite the same way as Arthur Morgan’s wild west adventure. Tremendously physical, an epic story, and some of the most satisfying headshots you’ll ever find. 03 Grand Theft Auto V Laughing in the face of other…

FORMAT PS1 / RELEASED 1996 / PUB FOX INTERACTIVE DEV PROBE ENTERTAINMENT / GET IT NOW EBAY, £5-7 Videogames are too expensive right? It’s a debate that never goes away, and it’s typically louder at the beginning of new hardware generations when publishers test the waters to see what the market will bear. Don’t worry, this isan article about Die Hard Trilogy – we’ll be talking about blood, fire, and screaming plants very soon – but the cost of games and the perception of value are important here. The game was released in December 1996. It’s fair to say that a lot of PlayStation developers were testing the waters and seeing what the technology could bear. The quality of games was improving but there was still a lot of dross…

Speeding back the years, PS Now has recently gone big on its Sonic collection. You can play 11 Blue Blur hits of yesteryear on the streaming service.1 So why tie up the laces of Sonic The Fighters? You get to punch Knuckles in the face… This Play Now edition is the PS3 version of the 1996 arcade game and asks the simple question: “Can you stop Dr Robotnik and Metal Sonic from unleashing the Death Egg?” With controls and timing reminiscent of the era (stilted and simplistic), Sonic The Fighters is a colourful brawler that will rarely test your broadband connection but will raise a smile from fans. That said, we found the occasional jitter as we pummelled the punch button, making Amy Rose squeak like a deflated balloon, but…

“Walk around crime scenes and morgues, investigating decapitated heads.” We have to hand it to Nacon. The publisher knows how to get our attention – with a lineup that included a bite of everything. Literally, in the case of Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong (whose release date shifted to Feb 2022), which gave the show a gory introduction. Games based on the World Of Darkness tabletop have been springing up all over the place lately, but for our money Swansong’s the one to watch. It’s a narrative RPG, so don’t expect large skill trees of gore-soaked combos. But as it’s from Big Bad Wolf, the developer behind The Council, we’re intrigued. The action looks like it takes cues from the studio’s historical mystery, which combined dialogue choices and light adventure…

“FOR ME, FAR CRY SERIES IS LIKE OTOME GAME! I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING HOW YOU THRILL ME.” IKUMI NAKAMURA VOICES HER LOVE OF THE SERIES IN A RECENT COMIC. “TAKING A LIL SIPPY SIP OF ICE COLD… WATER EVERY TIME SOMEONE SAYS ‘WOW THE PEOPLE WHO MADE LOKI REALLY LOVE CONTROL.’” REMEDY COMMUNITY MANAGER VIDA STARCEVIC ON CONTROL BEING COMPARED TO THE DISNEY+ SERIES. “SO MANY GAMES REFUSE TO LET ME DATE THE CUTE ROBOT. SO MANY GAMES FAIL ME.” CRYSTAL DYNAMICS’ LEAD WRITER SAMANTHA WALLSCHLAEGER REFLECTS ON THE PLIGHT OF LOVERS.…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 2021 / PUB KOEI TECMO / DEV KOEI TECMO / PLAYERS 1 Look who finally came in out of the rain. Known as Fatal Frame in North America, we haven’t snapped this horror series on PlayStation consoles since 2006, when Project Zero 3: The Tormented was released. The series is known for its ghost photography mechanic, which makes you stare horror right in the eye as you attempt to catch its best side in a bid to exorcise it. Maiden Of Blackwater is the fifth entry in the series, and debuted in 2014 on Nintendo’s dual-screen Wii U home console system. As you play a character armed with nothing but a camera, motion controls plus the console’s second screen were a natural fit – but…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 2 SEP / PUB NACON / DEV KYLOTONN / PLAYERS 1-8 Kylotonn’s WRC series continues to ascend like a Group B monster on Pike’s Peak… though it too will be curtailed in a couple of years as the licence migrates to Codemasters. Right now, however, the series is firing on all cylinders as WRC 10 celebrates the 50th anniversary of the famous championship in style. “EVEN THE BENT BITS OF YOUR CAR GLEAM IN THE NEW-GEN SUN.” Playable stages in Estonia, Croatia, and Spain give a good indication of the full experience, especially as all day/night and weather variants are already working very nicely. It feels faster and nimbler than Dirt Rally 2.0, and it’s definitely twitchier, with lightning-fast steering response making for sweaty palms…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 3 AUG PUB MANTISCO / DEV MANTISCO PLAYERS UP TO 30 Free to PS Plus subscribers, this ancient-Asia-themed battle royale pits 30 players against one another. It was in early access on PC for some time, and the full release features crossplay and gameplay improvements, plus five new Hunters to play as. The Hunters have come to blows after Demons have been unleashed upon the world, with tensions rising after the revelation that it was one of their own who broke the seal and sunk the world into chaos. As such, bustups combine both PvP and PvE elements. Dungeons and boss demons offer loot and the opportunity to grow stronger; slaying Hunters takes you closer to claiming bragging rights as the ultimate Hunter.…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 15 OCT PUB SEGA / DEV CYBERCONNECT2 PLAYERS 1-2 Charcoal seller Tanjiro sees the life he knows brought to an end when his family is slaughtered and his sister transformed into a demon. Determined to turn her back, there’s only one thing the young boy can do. Adapting the Taisho-era-set story through to the Mugen Train arc of the wildly popular anime and manga, here Tanjiro and a roster full of his fellow uniquely skilled demon hunters take on a slew of infernal enemies in arena-style fights. Featuring the voices of the original anime cast in both English and Japanese, this is a must-play for series fans.…

Possible name Jarms Given we’ve seen these near Graces, perhaps they aren’t even enemies? These cute little pots with arms make us want to smash them, but is destroying them the right thing to do? Possible name Hungover Hagrid These giants pull strange coffin-like things around the Lands Between. We’re sweating bullets waiting to crack their loot open. Possible name Lord Armulus Of The Many With a huge arm composed of many arms, he even straps on a dragon’s head to use as a flamethrower. But don’t be fooled, he has extra legs too. Possible name Sparky The Dragon Under a glowing red sky, we’ve seen this lizard hurling lightning our way. Can we even beat it at this point, we wonder, or is escape the…

WHAT YOU DO IN: SCARLET NEXUS HOW TO… IMMOBILISE AN OTHER Arashi’s hypervelocity and Luka’s teleportation can help you keep up with a fast-paced Other but sometimes you’d really rather they held still. Battering them with a combo-ful of Shiden’s electrokinesis is the easiest way to stun an Other long enough to get some serious damage in. STATPACK 09 Squadmates with psychic abilities, from hypervelocity to pyrokinesis, which you can borrow to augment your own, for exciting combos. 12 Active and stand-by story phases to fight through and hang out in. It’ll take you about 20 hours to work through one protagonist’s story. 30 Side-quests to fulfil in exchange for a wardrobe full of seriously strange yet stylish threads. Anime games always deliver on style. LOVING/ HATING…

INFO  FORMAT PS4 PRICE £34.99 ETA Out now PUB Sega DEV Sega PLAYERS 1-2 (offline), 2-8 (online) Despite the licence, this doesn’t feature every sport in the Olympics, with some omissions that would seem perfect for videogames (no archery?). As surprising and disappointing as this is, the 18 sports that made it in form a pretty good game. This is essentially a collection of minigames. This doesn’t mean a mediocre pile of pap that you’ll lose interest in within 20 minutes. Instead, it means each sport is easy to understand and accessible.1 Kudos to the developer for making each sport feel unique in terms of controls and experience. No mean feat. It’s no stickler for realism – you can unlock and dress up in a selection of daft costumes, and…

WHAT YOU DO IN: SNIPER ELITE VR MOVE CONTROLLER HANDLING DualShock is easier and the Aim controller more fun, but the physicality of juggling dual Move controllers to load and prime weapons, cock pistols, and manually grab and throw grenades is unlike anything else. The Move controllers can show their age, however: we encountered the odd detection issue. LOVING/ HATING SILENT SCOPE At heart Sniper Elite VR is a stealth game that demands you play by its rules: sneak and stalk enemies and watch for opportunities. SMALL SCALE Some maps open up and offer small-scale sandboxes but overall the game delivers bite-sized chunks of VR shooting. HOW TO… SHARPSHOOT Making a perfect shot feels great in VR. You need to physically hold whichever controller option you’ve…

“Failed session connections here are, while very much present, the least of our worries.” INFO FORMAT PS5 (reviewed), PS4 PRICE £34.99 ETA Out now PUB Wizards Of The Coast DEV Tuque Games PLAYERS 1 (offline), 2-4 (online) LENGTH 10-12 hr campaign, plus online grinding ACCESSIBILITY Togglable vibration; subtitles have adjustable opacity and background; press or hold to sprint; colourblind mode There aren’t any dungeons per se, and there’s only one dragon, but we suppose Open Spaces And One Dragon At The Very End isn’t quite so snappy. Based loosely on RA Salvatore’s Icewind Dale book trilogy, this D&D adventure is a loot-chasing experience intended to be replayed again and again, although many people will soon lose interest. If you’re looking for a story-rich tribute to Salvatore, you’ve missed your stop,…

INFO  FORMAT PS4 PRICE £3.99 ETA Out now PUB Top Hat Studios DEV Squiddershins PLAYERS 1 Unfortunately for the bizarrely named Perry Merriweather, he’s severely dehydrated, stumbling through the woods to a village filled with some extremely unhelpful villagers. This is where your adventure begins: guiding him to find a cure for his dehydration as a timer drains in the top-left of the screen. But sip from the fountain and a venomous snake leaps out to bite him, changing the dehydration timer to a poison timer. Nip to the nearby hospital and they’ll cure you, but you’ll end up dehydrated again. You skip merrily from one mortal peril to the next like a bull in a china shop, then, constantly substituting one impending doom for another, figuring out how to…

INFO FORMAT PS5 PRICE £54.99 ETA Out now PUB Bethesda DEV Id Software PLAYERS 1 (campaign) 3 (online Battle mode) LENGTH 20 hrs approx ACCESSIBILITY Customisable DualSense vibration, colourblind mode, and subtitles; tips and tutorials on/off; sentinel armour on/off; weapon bob and screen shake on/off; aim assist on/off; motion blur on/off Fans of showering in giblets, rejoice! The Slayer’s final (for now) gory odyssey has come back to feast on the power of PS5, allowing you to enjoy the disgusting detail in total clarity. It’s the same intense demon-hunting adventure as before, only now with some unholy polish. That said, it may not be quite the leap forward that you were expecting. To be clear, as this isn’t always the case, this is a free upgrade if you own the…

INFO FORMAT PS5 (reviewed), PS4 PRICE £44.99 ETA Out now PUB Bandai Namco DEV Arc System Works OFFLINE REVIEW #3, 9/10 PLAYERS 1-2 (in-game), 1-32 (in lobbies) CROSSPLAY PS5, PS4 As Arc System Works confirms that Strive boasts the best-selling debut in the fighting game series’ 23-year history, players around the world are flocking to the game’s weird Habbo Hotel-like lobbies and laying down their support. Weeks after release, both Ranked and Player pools are bustling and crowded, and thanks to the off-beat, social-focussed avatars milling around, there’s a feel of a festival about it all. “Arc System Works wants to keep you playing, and Strive is doing everything right.” Occasional server outages and maintenance aside, Strive has impressed so far. It’s become the de facto poster child for rollback…

INFO FORMAT PS4 PRICE £49.99 ETA Out now PUB D3 Publisher DEV Yuke’s OFFLINE REVIEW #3, 6/10 PLAYERS 2-4 CROSSPLAY No Anybody who’s tried playing this on the hardest difficulties will know that it swings between ‘tiresome slog’ and ‘painfully unfair’. The whole point of multiplayer, really, is to make these higher levels feasible. Which it does, if you can find anyone to play. There is often a handful of lobbies, but connection failures sometimes stop us from joining those that aren’t password protected. When we doconnect with others (rarely the maximum three), the gameplay is solid – although the busiest moments will dent the framerate. It’s still a watered-down EDF experience.…

FROSTPUNK – ALL EXPANSIONS The Last Autumn, On The Edge, and The Rifts will drop all at once on consoles. Each expansion has been redesigned to be easily playable on a gamepad and presents new challenges for even the most hardened survivalist city-builder. Expand your city and discover more lore. WARHAMMER: VERMINTIDE 2 – LOHNER’S COLLECTIONS You’ll be a-lohner no longer and looking well swish with this pack of ten premium cosmetics. This includes a selection of threads that can make you look like witch hunter Victor Saltzpyre, sharpshooter Kerillian, or feisty flame wizard Sienna Fuegonasus. STREETS OF RAGE 4 – SURVIVAL MODE Using the remnants of Mister X’s brain (the archvillain actually died at the end of SOR4), your raging fighters enter a simulation filled with traps, waves of…

You don’t really expect a game made in the wake of 9/11 to look like Beyond Good & Evil. There’s no flashback to Afghanistan, no presidential address from the White House. The only American accent in the main cast belongs to an anthropomorphic pig whose exclamations evoke the gold rush era (“Cramity! Flagnabbit!”). Yet this colourful fantasy adventure from 2003 is politically of its time. Ubisoft Montpellier set its adventure in Hillys – supposedly a whole planet, but home to just one Mediterranean-style town set in the mountains, which the locals mine for crystals. This otherwise placid setting is disturbed by two things: first, a distinctly French approach to roundabouts; and second, daily attacks by a parasitic alien race known as the DomZ. “The pig encourages Jade not to accept…

Die Hard “Welcome to the party, pal!” Terrorists have taken control of Nakatomi Plaza and McClane must clear all 20 floors, defusing bombs and rescuing hostages as he goes. If trophies were around back then you would have surely earned one for creating a pile of bodies that reached the ceiling. Die Harder “How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?” It’s a good question, but there’s little time for McClane to ponder on his rotten luck as an army of terrorists is lining up to be dispatched. This first-person shooter can be played with a standard controller, but it’s much easier to create carnage if you use a lightgun or a PlayStation Mouse. Die Hard With A Vengeance “Know how to hotwire this thing?” In the…

Beginning a transformation from young nobleman to charming killing machine, Ezio was key to Assassin’s Creed II. But why stop there? Putting AC3 on hold, AC: Brotherhood saw him grow up, and become a leader in Rome. We even play an “I’m too old for this [blorp!]” story in AC: Revelations, where he hangs up the hood, ending his story. He shares a voice actor with Sonic and Apex’s suave Mirage. Ezio and Altaïr aren’t related to each other, they’re just different ancestors to Desmond. His romantic relationships are with real models for Renaissance painters. FIGHT NIGHT Ezio has soul Though he usually attacks from the shadows, Ezio is able to hold his own in a fairer fight. Thanks to his assassin training, he was able to put in work…

FORMAT PS3, PS2 / PUB KONAMI / DEV KONAMI / RELEASED 2001 Zone Of The Enders manages to cram an amazing amount into its opening sequence before getting to the “high speed robot action” it promises. Setting up villain Viola and some important space war stuff, we’re thrown into the Jupiter setting as the focus gradually pulls in on unfortunate protagonist Leo, who is just as clueless as the player and already having a pretty bad time. Leo’s helplessness is made crystal clear as the opening events quickly unfold, setting the painful tone for the whole game. Here are Leo’s friends. They tease him. What are their names? Doesn’t matter, they’re dead now. And on fire. Powerful and ruthless, Viola cements her status as an enemy to be feared. The…