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The obvious joke to make would be that we never stopped seeing that town in our restless dreams, and that we still thrash about whenever we think of Homecoming. But, clichéd quips aside, our dreams have finally come true: after more than a decade with little more than a peep from the series, Silent Hill will return. The headline act is Silent Hill 2. Like a Mannequin springing back up after taking a battering, Silent Hill 2 will come home as a from-the-ground-up remake from Bloober Team. Developed using Unreal Engine 5, it will be a 12-month timed exclusive on PS5 during an as yet unannounced release window. In addition to the studio behind Layers Of Fear and The Medium, Masahiro Ito (the original series creature designer) and Akira Yamaoka…

We’ve not seen the last of futuristic metropolis Night City – nor dishy silver-haired monster slayers. Witcher and Cyberpunk developer CD Projekt Red has announced multiple continuations of its heaviest hitters, plus something completely new. First, let’s talk about the leader of the pack: The Witcher. While Wild Hunt concludes Geralt’s arc, there are plenty of Witcher stories left untold. CD Projekt Red has already teased Project Polaris with a shot of a lynx medallion. As another story-driven, open world RPG set to kick off a brand-new Witcher trilogy, this one’s the biggie. Developed in-house by about 150 devs, it’s deep in pre-production, and the plan is to release all three games that make up its arc within the same six-year span. But that’s not all from a series proving…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 2023 / PUB PRIME MATTER / DEV MAD HEAD GAMES / PLAYERS 1 Science fiction often likes to tease us with the big question of whether we are alone in the universe before answering with a definite, deadly ‘No’, leaving us asking the followup question of, ‘How the hell am I going to survive this?’ That’s the case in Scars Above: when a strange alien structure appears over Earth, the Sentient Contact Assessment and Response team (SCAR) is sent to investigate, only to be flung off to a mysterious exoplanet. This third-person action adventure shooter has the vibe of a lower-budget Returnal, and a protagonist sporting a Lara Croft ponytail (only here you’re an astronaut rather than a tomb raider). Kate Ward isn’t some super-soldier…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA SPRING 2023 / PUB AWACEB DEV AWACEB / PLAYERS 1 PREVIEW “WE APPROACH THIS PHYSICS-DRIVEN PLAYGROUND WITH CHILDLIKE WONDER.” We’ve been on many open world adventures where things have been less than rosy, the location being either a post-apocalyptic wasteland or taken over by brutal invaders, so it would be nice if we could have a virtual paradise to just, you know, chill out in for once. Tchia’s New-Caledonia-inspired archipelago, then, might provide the tropical getaway we’ve been waiting for. Not that these islands, home to the titular protagonist, are a complete paradise. Tchia’s father has been abducted by the archipelago’s tyrannical ruler, Meavora, who has also let his enchanted minions, called Maano, loose all over. Yet even though the stakes are high, we don’t…

Yes, Batman really is dead and, yes, it really is up to his extended Bat-family to watch over Gotham in his absence. It’s a complicated adventure in some ways, not least because it soon becomes clear that the Arkham series is the Catwoman to this game’s Batman; sometimes the object of its affections, sometimes its enemy… and, often, both. It’s very important to understand that this is not an Arkham game. Nonetheless, comparisons are inevitable, and the truth is that this rarely ends well for Gotham Knights (which doesn’t do itself any favours by including a few abilities that mimic ones from the Rocksteady games). Nonetheless, after 45 to 60 minutes spent sulking that this isn’t a new Arkham, something clicks for us, and we suddenly start enjoying the game…

Russian mercenaries, Iranian terrorists, and a Mexican drug cartel walk into a bar. It sounds like the set-up to a bad joke, but there’s nothing tongue-in-cheek about the portrayal of these disparate elements in Modern Warfare II’s story campaign (we’ll be taking a deeper look at the multiplayer next issue once we’ve had more time with it). Even so, if you can overlook a clumsy plot punctuated by a handful of particularly uncomfortable moments, a sequence of stellar set-pieces makes for an action blockbuster without equal. While the story of 2019’s Modern Warfare was far from perfect, it set a high bar for presenting a grounded narrative. The developers sensibly opted to set the action in a largely fictionalised locale, interspersing the array of shooting galleries with more sombre sections…

Silent Evil sounds like something you might produce after a day eating nothing but baked beans, but it’s also a good nickname for this game. A love letter to old-school Resident Evil and Silent Hill written in blood, it borrows freely from the early days of those well-loved and influential series while still walking its own twisted path – both for better and for worse. By exploring the environment at the beginning of the game, we discover that we are some sort of android and the captain of our crashed ship has gone missing, so we set off to find her. Of course, the situation is much, much more complicated than that, something that gradually becomes apparent through both conveniently dropped notes and the handful of anime-styled cutscenes. While a…

Back in 2010, Codemasters was on a high, coming off the back of two fantastic racers, namely Race Driver Grid and Dirt 2. The company’s EGO engine was head and shoulders above every other racing game’s, offering incredible detail, spectacular crash damage, and a revolutionary ‘rewind’ feature. The thought of all that being applied to a licensed F1 game was mouthwatering, and the one we got didn’t disappoint. Loading up the game now, you can see the Grid/Dirt DNA in everything from the 3D menus and trailer-dwelling front end to the rock music (complete with wah pedal guitar solos) in the race replays. And it’s amazing how close the game feels to its current counterpart. It may only run at 30fps and even below that in busy scenes, and it’s…

See that CCTV camera? You can hack that from your phone. That electrically-powered gate? You can hack that too. Security van? Send it crashing backwards with a swish and flick of your phone screen. It’s amazing what you can do with your phone – all this and selfies too. Ditching the first game’s distinctly dislikeable protagonist Aiden Pearce, this Watch Dogs sequel surveys an all-new city through the eyes of fresh-faced Marcus Holloway, a good-looking young chap who gets drawn into the shadowy world of hacking after being framed for a crime he didn’t commit. Three years after the events of the first game, the next generation of Blume’s near-future neural network ctOS debuts in San Francisco – and accuses Marcus of carrying out a high-tech robbery. After setting the…

Getting you closer to PlayStation’s most exciting stories, people, and culture 4K OLED screens, improved motion controls, and more draw you further into the action. Talk of a Zuckerburg-shaped future in which the ‘joy’ of work meetings is translated into a soulless VR void has dominated the virtual reality tech conversation to the point it’s easy to forget these devices already have a fun, mainstream, practical application: videogames! Beat Saber, Astro Bot Rescue Mission, and more are great uses of VR, and PSVR2 is only going to make things better. (You won’t have to pretend to be interested in a Zoom meeting while using it, for one thing.) We went hands-on with the new kit at Tokyo Game Show to learn how it will take us even deeper into the…

Criterion, developer of Hot Pursuit and 2012’s Most Wanted, is returning to the wheel of EA’s flagship arcade racing series after almost ten years away. Titled Need For Speed Unbound, this upcoming entry brings underground racing to the streets of Lakeshore – a fictional region of the US based on midwestern cities like Chicago. Thanks to a striking new visual direction inspired by street art and urban graffiti, this open-world city will be your canvas. Illustration-like driving effects illuminate your surroundings with colourful tags as you zoom around town, adding extra oomph when you hit jumps or perform boosts. The slick results seem particularly impressive in motion, and a renewed focus on car customisation ensures that you will have more control than ever when it comes to how things look…

We already know a lot of things to expect from Final Fantasy XVI in 2023, including the most cursed knowledge of all: that our protagonist is called Clive, of all things. But there’s still something missing from this picture – the background. Clive’s quest crosses Valisthea, a world punctuated by Mothercrystals. These towering obelisks grant magical aether to the people but such abundance doesn’t last. Enter the Blight, an infection that saps life and magic from the land. The scarcity left in its wake causes tensions to flare between Valisthea’s six realms – and then the Eikon Ifrit picks a fight with Phoenix. Scarcity causes tensions to flare between Valisthea’s six realms – and then Ifrit picks a fight with Phoenix. POWERS COMBINED Clive’s home, The Grand Duchy of Rosaria,…

FORMAT PSVR2 / ETA NOV 2023 / PUB CYBORN / DEV CYBORN / PLAYERS 1 When it comes to developing games for new hardware like PSVR2, you might expect the first-party studios to be the ones that really flex the tech, but Cyborn’s science-fiction action adventure is every bit as stunning a VR showcase. Originally announced as a regular PSVR title, the switch to the newer system, with its impressive new controllers, is giving the game more opportunity to shine. “LIKE NATHAN DRAKE, WE’RE MOVING OUR HANDS FROM ONE LEDGE TO ANOTHER.” Although basic movement relies on traditional controls – using the stick for walking, clicking in to run, and pressing q to jump – the rest is purely *ahem* in our hands. We’re an agent in training for the…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 2023 / PUB CAPCOM / DEV CAPCOM / PLAYERS 1-2 Okay, round two: Kimberly (us) versus Ken (an enemy with a fun, if rude, PSN name). New versus old. How can we get the upper hand? We could throw a spray can a way behind him, then poke him in the hope that he’ll back off into the can’s explosion. We could use our dash attack, let it connect, then bounce back at him with a command grab. Or, perhaps, cancel out of that sprint at the last second for a low slide. It all sounds standard if you’re familiar to fighting games. What’s special here, though, is that players old and new are empowered to think in the same way. We’ve spent hours taking…

Life on Promethea, the latest planet to be bled dry by warring corporations, is hard, but the three protagonists of New Tales From The Borderlands have learned to make the best of it. Anu, a scientist opposed to violence, by leaving for Atlas HQ. Her adopted brother Octavio by believing his big break is around the corner. Fran, a woman in her 50s in a hoverchair, by running her parents’ frogurt shop. Things are going well until the Tediore corporation invades Promethea to secure its Vault. Anu, Octavio, and Fran decide to take the Vault for themselves, and things spiral from there. New Tales poses an interesting question: what if things didn’t end with finding a Vault? Unfortunately, while the dialogue feels natural and is expertly voiced (Anu’s actress is…

Fair warning – if you have a fear of rats, you should avoid this game like… well, you know. In an alternate-history 14th-century France, the Black Death is starting to devastate the country, but here it has a supernatural origin, and rats appear in numbers large enough to eat people in seconds and tear entire buildings apart. The plague has arisen due to a family curse, the Prima Macula, which has manifested itself violently through a young boy named Hugo. The sequel to A Plague Tale: Innocence opens on the tail end of a period of peace, but before long the situation becomes worse than ever before. It once again falls to Hugo’s sister Amicia to protect him and, indeed, the entire country. Requiem will put a very special sort…

Fast-paced and brutal, this looks like it came out in the ’90s. If it walks like a duck, and Quakes like a Doom, it’s a boomer shooter. 1 Prodeus sets out to be the version of Doom 3 we never got, and to that end it succeeds par excellence. All the hallmarks are present: twisty levels; coloured keys; and running backwards at full tilt screaming at the approaching horde. The sprite animation looks fantastic, and each weapon feels meaty and fun to use, despite the clunky way you switch between them. The developers’ talent is clear, but Prodeus struggles to establish an identity beyond that of its forebear; most of the campaign’s 30-ish stages take place somewhere that looks like Mars.2 The few enemy archetypes present are recognisably demonic…

Should you enjoy a dash of Greek and Roman mythology in your soulslikes then Asterigos could be a flavoursome twist for you. You’re put in the (presumably) sweaty sandals of Hilda, a young warrior who’s aiming to find her lost father, but who gets sidetracked by, well, lots of bosses and random quests along the way. It’s standard stuff really, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun. As with so many soulslikes, the combat is probably the most important aspect here, and while it’s not especially nuanced it does have some cool ideas. Take the staff you can use, for example: instead of merely casting spells, you fling them out at your enemies using different motions, which makes the magical attacks feel a little more weighty. You can also equip…

On a small beach a fox wakes up, at the foot of some stairs. You have no idea who they are, or how or why they arrived at this place; but you know that they are adorable! As a bonus, you soon find a stick and start hitting things with it. That’s always fun! Don’t worry, it won’t be too long before you upgrade to a sword. You’ll need it. Tunic soon makes two things very clear. One, very little will be directly explained; and two, the journey is going to be a lot more difficult than the superb cartoony art might suggest. When the game is almost over, you unlock a dash that passes through enemies and their attacks. Consider this a warning for how difficult the final boss…

Players unfamiliar with the mechanical intricacies of Blizzard’s 2016 hero shooter could easily to jump into a match in its sequel and wonder what’s actually changed. Behind the obvious surface-level tweaks such as a shiny new menu system and updated visuals, however, there lies a radically reimagined experience – one that prioritises fast-paced arcade action over the more methodical team play of its predecessor. The result of the changes is a faster game, filled with rapid one-on-one encounters. Emblematic of this shift in focus is the move to a 5v5 format, from Overwatch’s 6v6. With now only one Tank per team, the arsenals of characters like D.VA, Zarya, and Orisa have received substantial buffs across the board. On the whole, Tanks now have weapons that deal considerably more damage, health…

We’ve all been in our fair share of dogfights in videogames, but dragonfights are another story, and if there’s one thing I love about Century, it’s that developer Playwing gets the feeling of riding a dragon right. Or at least, it’s how I imagine it’d be (and I’ve spent plenty of time thinking about it). More than reskinning spaceships or planes, there’s a twitchiness to the control of all the game’s dragon types that makes them feel like beasties first and foremost. You duck, you weave, you turn on a dime, and, most importantly, you soar. And spew fire to take down your rivals, of course. Century’s main game modes are built around one team taking down another, racing to get the most kills. That means you’ll spend most of…

While MCU fans have come to expect multiple movies a year, proper videogame adaptations of Marvel comics have been relatively few and far between (the PlayStation-exclusive Spider-Man games from Insomniac certainly *ahem* stick out). That’s set to change, as multiple developers are throwing their capes into the ring, giving us some welcome variety. Is deluging us with games the right move? Quite possibly, because one way in which the upcoming slate of games differs from the MCU, as confirmed in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, is that the titles are not connected. Each has the opportunity to stand on its own. WORLD AT WAR Given Captain America was himself the result of an underground experiment during one of the most perennially popular settings in gaming, the Second World War, it’s surprising…

No, that’s not the name of our latest Monsterhearts RPG campaign, it’s a collaboration between Dynasty Warriors developer Omega Force and EA Originals. Set to debut on 17 February on PS5, Wild Hearts is part Monster Hunter, part Toukiden, and all animal. While the resemblance to Toukiden is unmistakable, it’s clear Omega Force intends Wild Hearts to be a fresh start. Yes, you’re once more hacking up giant monsters inspired by Japanese folklore, but you have many more options for how to go about it. For a start, you can build ziplines and glider platforms. You’ll need these expanded traversal options as the world around you is much grander – a benefit of being on PS5 rather than PS Vita. The beasties, too, match that significant increase in scale, requiring…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 24 MAR / PUB CAPCOM DEV CAPCOM / PLAYERS 1 Leon Kennedy’s still got it. Backed into a corner by vicious, infected villagers in the middle of a creepy forest after being pursued through a ramshackle house, all he has to say for himself is “I’ll see myself out”, before hurling himself through glass like it’s just another day on the job. It’s a good first impression. Settling down to play this long-awaited remake at Capcom HQ (in a suitably darkened room), we have to collect ourselves before we begin. Resident Evil 4’s original release has become iconic for good reason. It changed Resident Evil from slower-paced survival horror into something that felt action-driven yet no less frightening, with a creepy yet campy thriller script.…

FORMAT PS4 / ETA SUMMER 2023 / PUB NIS AMERICA / DEV NIHON FALCOM / PLAYERS 1 While The Legend Of Heroes: Trails Of Cold Steel tied off many threads in the huge, interconnected ‘Trails’ series, it did leave a few loose ends. Cue Trails Into Reverie, which acts as both an epilogue and a new beginning. While Japan has already been treated to two sequels, we’re only now gearing up for the English-language version of this first part. By the time Reverie’s released here, both parts of the older PSP series will have been released in English. Which is just as well, as those games’ Lloyd Bannings takes a starring role alongside Cold Steel’s Rean Schwarzer and the mysterious masked ‘C’. All three scenarios play out alongside one another,…

Frost courses through Kratos’ Leviathan Axe as we slice it through an enemy skull, then hurl it at an enemy across the combat arena. Sprinting, we tap e to lash the Blades Of Chaos to a grapple point, propel ourselves over, and crash down with a smash. Summoning the axe to our hand we spin through surrounding enemies as Atreus rains down arrow fire. Weapons pulsing, we pull out the blades and set them alight, spinning to clear out more. God Of War Ragnarök is a bloody great time where you carve your own path to the goal. Clearly Ragnarök is not a revolution. Rather, it’s a refinement and very much a direct followup to 2018’s soft reboot. The story continues Kratos and Atreus’ journey through godhood in the harsh…

Anyone with a bingo card of ’80s references could get a full house easily with Unusual Findings: BMX bikes with flags, pop culture references aplenty, ‘radical’ vernacular, and old bulky technology give it a Stranger Things vibe. There’s a lot borrowed from the Netflix hit and many ’80s blockbusters besides in this tale of three teenage boys attempting to solve the mystery of an alien crash-landing in their small town, including the kooky bad boy and the disgruntled cops. There’s a lot borrowed from Stranger Things and many ’80s blockbusters besides. As this is a point-and-click adventure, you do a lot of picking up items and combining them with others or handing them to the right NPCs in order to progress. The story is sadly rather generic and strains under…

At the heart of No More Heroes there’s always been a grungy anarchism. Whether it’s in Travis Touchdown’s reckless fighting style, the comically violent plot twists, or a collage of cult media references, the series resists formulaic polish. And No More Heroes III doesn’t buck the trend, plastering the screen with sprays of blood and inspiration. At least, that is, on the surface – underneath it feels like it’s treading water. The stakes are raised this time as Travis has to prove he’s the greatest assassin in not just the world but the whole galaxy. A cartel of megalomaniac aliens arrives in town and the beam-sword-wielding antihero must battle each to the death in turn, inching up the ranks until he can take on supreme overlord Fu. Fortunately, Travis remains…

Like a burglar in the night, the 2022 revival of Kamiwaza: Way Of The Thief, Acquire’s spiritual successor to Tenchu, is unexpected. This PS2-era stealth game is an odd one to revive. It focuses on Ebizo, who dreams of becoming a noble thief. When his less-than-honourable peers kill a family during his first robbery, that falls apart. Escaping with an orphaned girl, Ebizo raises her as his own, starting an honest life. But when illness strikes Suzana, he returns to thieving. Set within one town, Mikado, Ebizo must take on missions to secure medicine to keep Suzana alive, selling his loot at a local bathhouse.1 You can grab most items with one button press, though some require multiple hits, which looks like you’re attacking the goods. You can sneak past…

Ask an ally to accompany you into town on an excursion and they can guide you to locations. Street lighting clearly isn’t a priority for the local council in Gravoi. This small Sardinian village may be picturesque by the light of day, but at night very little cuts through the gloom. That’s a problem because you have urgent detective work to attend to this particular evening and can barely see where you’re going. Also because there’s a ravenous monster on the loose. Saturnalia combines the delights of the open investigation genre – think Outer Wilds or Paradise Killer – with hints of Alien Isolation, as you try to avoid being captured and eaten by a horned menace. Fortunately, you can switch control between four characters, and should one of them…

Once more, it’s a pleasure to see RPG Maker horror titles getting ported to console, and The Witch’s House is a short but sweet demonstration of how effective the genre can be. This iteration also boasts reimagined visuals, plus a new unlockable difficulty for extra story events. Making her way through the witch’s house, because the way home is blocked and she doesn’t really have anywhere else to be, Viola must complete various puzzles and avoid death at every turn. You can examine almost everything for a few lines of text, rewarding your curiosity. However, the reward is often death. What happens if you read The Book Of Death? Well, what did you expect to happen? What happens if you read The Book Of Death? Well, what did you expect…

From updates to favourites – the games we just can’t quit This might not be the most conventional sequel, but it’s good to be back in the quirky post-apocalyptic universe of 2016’s Let It Die. An unexpected multiplayer followup set several hundred years after the previous game, Deathverse breathes new life into the methodical soulslike gameplay of its predecessor by transferring the action to an arena setting. Forget trudging around grimy dungeons; fast-paced melee combat is the focus here and I’ve been enjoying mastering my skills as a contestant in the Death Jamboree. That’s a near-future game show that pits 16 players head-to-head in a free-for-all fight for survival. Snappy controls make for thrilling brawls while the inclusion of basic stealth mechanics and a system that rewards hits with bursts…

How’s this for a nightmare situation? Clueless backpackers skydive onto the fictitious Rook islands, soon becoming caught between the native Rakyat tribe’s fight for their home, and pirate lord Vaas Montenegro’s hostile takeover. Remembered for its since widely imitated open world design and a charismatic villain who was never afraid to get up in your face, the third Far Cry marked a true turning point for the series. Reader @Beregrond explains, “I loved Far Cry 2 but it had a lot of issues – 3 corrected every one.” Problems like erratic AI behaviour and a world that seemed to barely notice your presence plagued Far Cry 2 (though it’s still fondly regarded by pyromaniac players). Far Cry 3 addressed many of these elements. JM Baron calls it “The best Far…

FORMAT PS4 / PUB CD PROJEKT / DEV CD PROJEKT RED / RELEASED 2011 Despite the existence of two previous games and a library’s worth of novels, The Witcher 3 was most people’s introduction to the Witcher universe. This dark fantasy story is packed with bittersweet twists and moral gray areas. Fate is practically a character in her own right, and she’s got a peculiar sense of humour. The Bloody Baron arrives in The Witcher 3 as a stock character, a local tyrant ruling his patch of gore-soaked mud with an iron fist. But is the Baron really so bad? Well, yes. He also beats his wife. But our time with Phillip Strenger reveals a haunted, unhappy man, desperate to atone for his mistakes, unable to realise that there’s no…