Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2023 i PLAY

We don’t envy the team that had to come up with a TV show adaptation of PS1’s car combat classic Twisted Metal. But with development helmed by Michael Jonathan Smith (perhaps best known for several Cobra Kai episodes), this tongue-in-cheek apocalyptic journey starring Anthony Mackie (the current Captain America) feels like it’s pressing the right buttons already. Come July, we’ll know for certain. Mackie plays John Doe, a quippy milkman on a mission to deliver a mysterious package (and we’re betting it isn’t milk), which means crossing a dangerous wasteland. Naturally, he’ll come up against fellow motorheads looking to take him out, a perfect situation for deploying some car-nage courtesy of Doe’s side-mounted machine guns. Like in the game, there’s a grittiness to the tech on show, with weapons roughly…

As we noted last issue, Atelier Ryza 3 is the Atelier series’ 24th entry, making the first game in the alchemy-based RPG sequence a venerable one. What we didn’t mention was that the original recipe has been lost in Englishspeaking countries, and so July’s upcoming Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist Of Salburg will be the first time we’ve ever got to officially play it in this part of the world. While respecting the original’s design, the pixel graphics have been reworked – now they’ll have a gorgeous, diorama-like 3D look as you wander around to gather alchemy ingredients and fell monsters. During events, the ’90s-style anime aesthetic remains for the character art, but they’re animated in a much livelier way. It’s a great way to re-energise the isometric style of…

The sound of water, the flicker of candlelight, the smell of crayons – it’s amazing what can bring it all back to you. Protagonist Mimi cannot recall a large part of her childhood, particularly the summers spent with her grandmother near the river Dordogne. So when the matriarch passes on, Mimi returns to relive those sun-dappled days. At the beginning of our hands-on, Mimi is sheltering from the rain in her car. Her Dad is blowing up her phone, saying he’s sold the house and that there’s no value in returning – he’d rather let the past lie. No matter how we choose to respond, tension bristles between them. Tucking away the buzzing brick, Mimi continues on her journey. The clouds finally part near her grandmother’s house, revealing a glimmer…

FORMAT PS5 / ETA 2024 / PUB 10:10 GAMES DEV 10:10 GAMES / PLAYERS MULTI Can Lego’s stranglehold on cute multiplayer pop-culture nostalgia games ever be toppled? Love the dolls or hate ’em, Funko’s the only real competition. Fusion pulls in plenty of Universal licences, such as Jurassic World, Umbrella Academy, and, perhaps most interestingly, the likes of Child’s Play, Shaun Of The Dead, and The Thing. Action looks chunky and satisfying as you run around familiar locales, and its less child-friendly yet still tongue-in-cheek tone could scratch an itch.…

With silver blades and red dragons, githyanki warriors fly between the realms to pry out the malignant influence of the tyrannical, tentacular mindflayers. Thousands of years ago this psychic menace reigned over an empire and enslaved the githyanki – to become one of them would be a truly cursed fate for a githyanki warrior. And this is the abject horror Lae’zel is facing. Captured by the Cthulhuesque creatures, the silver-clad fighter has been implanted with an illithid tadpole that will feast upon her intellect before finally transforming her into another mindflayer within a matter of days. She’s already in the throes of the ultimate insult by fate, then – and then she meets our tiefling bard. Also abducted by mindflayers and also doomed to become one of them if nothing…

The best parts of Star Wars have always been those moments of wonder big and small – whether they’re sweeping views of massive, impossible planets or the simple pleasures of lightsabers buzzing and clashing, or the electric *pwang* of blaster fire. Just like its predecessor, Fallen Order, Survivor delivers plenty of both, and thanks to PS5’s power does it at a level of spectacle like little else. And yet there’s some disturbance thanks to a few disparate parts and a struggle with how to move things forward. Time has passed since we rolled credits on Cal’s last adventure (and closed the book on the tie-in novel between the games too if you’re that kind of Star Wars fan, like us). The crew of the Mantis as we knew them have…

Enhance has usually focussed on delivering audiovisual and multisensory experiences in its games. The who, what, and where are relative to how playing makes you feel, and when it comes to puzzle games, the studio can afford to be pretty abstract about its ideas. So there’s something novel about Humanity as it asks you to negotiate not blocks or wireframes but people, and a multitude of them at that. Ironically, given the story explores seven themes of humanity, it’s experienced from the perspective of your protagonist, a glowing shiba inu who’s tasked with leading crowds of faceless and dependent people to the light, the goal of each stage. It’s a simple idea but one which provides surprising variety, as each stage and sequence introduces more commands and mechanics. At first,…

Things have changed in the 30 years since Zool first appeared. 1 This gremlin ninja was sent to Earth in order to earn ninja rankings, achieved after beating seven worlds by jumping, spinning, and shooting through many levels. Zool Redimensioned is a faithful recreation of the original game for better or worse.2 For purists, this remaster is accurate, a mixture of tricky combat and fast-paced platforming. For first-time players, it can be incredibly frustrating. It holds true to the original – this means the hitboxes are a bit wonky, the jumping often lacks precision, and the music is repetitive. Those who played Zool the first time around will feel a spark of nostalgia, and rightly so, as this is a colourful overload reminiscent of a childhood trip…

Love RPGs but find it difficult to make the large time investment many require? Then Live A Live is just the ticket, featuring seven distinct tales that still only add up to a fraction of a single Persona playthrough. But to frame it simply as a treat for the time-poor player would be to sell it short – this is, after all, a once-lost gem that was exclusive to Japan for almost three decades. You could call it the inspiration for Octopath Traveler as it’s an RPG starring an ensemble of protagonists with their own arcs, but it also avoids the conundrum of trying to tie their narratives together as these are essentially standalone stories spanning different periods of time, from the prehistoric stone age to the the distant future…

Drawing on science-fiction spinoff Planetfall with regards to fine-tuning (and PlayStation implementation) but returning to the PC series’ high fantasy style, Age Of Wonders 4 is like trying a new recipe for your favourite comfort food and, better yet, it actually working. While none of the previous Age Of Wonders games were released on PlayStation, this entry is strong enough to stand up on its own without requiring any knowledge of past Circle Of Evermore shenanigans. Though on a smaller scale than some of its turn-based strategy peers, AOW4 shakes things up by making you a powerful spellcaster who also serves as ruler of your people, allowing you to unleash devastating magic on your enemies, their cities, and anyone unlucky enough to be standing too close as you conquer fantasy…

Anarchic. That’s the first word that comes to mind for the Road 96 games. The first was a hitchhiking simulator powered by unpredictability and a yearning for freedom. This prequel, while more linear, channels a furious energy that propels you forwards until the very end. There’s nothing quite like it, despite it being significantly inspired by Sayonara Wild Hearts. Intentionally or otherwise, its energy helps mask some storytelling flaws while making others easier to forgive. Put the brakes on to carefully dissect the story and how it’s told, and there are undeniable improvements to be made. Best friends Kaito and Zoe come from two class extremes, which isn’t explored in quite as much depth as you might hope, and your influence over the story is minor. Yet the chaotic joy…

From updates to favourites – the games we just can’t quit We weren’t expecting a Monster Hunter crossover with Universal Classic Monsters, and yet that’s one way to describe Sunbreak, in a loose fashion at any rate. Sailing from Kamuro Village to Elgado, hunters face new monsters, namely those nicknamed the Three Lords, each referencing a classic movie monster. Garangolm’s head shape is reminiscent of that of Frankenstein’s monster, while Lunagaron is basically an ice-based werewolf that can even attack while standing on its hind legs, and flagship monster Malzeno has huge Dracula energy (the name of Bram Stoker’s creation means ‘son of the dragon’). The new map, the Citadel, has a ruined castle where you face them and a distinctly gothic vibe, especially as the hunt goes on and…

The fourth-wall breaking Merc With A Mouth is no stranger to jumping outside the pages of comic books, but before the Ryan Reynolds-led 2016 flick it was rarer to see him the centre of attention like he is in this now-delisted romp. Licensing issues mean you’ll need a hard copy to play. “I have it on disc after a lucky local find,” shares reader @motombo87. “Only played the first two levels but it was really fun. Need to go back to play some more.” The game begins with Deadpool forcing the developers to make the game, hiring Nolan North as his own voice actor, and rewriting the script in crayon. WEAPON X-MEN As ever with Deadpool, a lot of the jokes do land. But games aren’t only about laughs. “The…

This is a love letter to those online games that you stay up late at night playing. Getting you closer to PlayStation’s most exciting stories, people, and culture An expansive free-to-play MMORPG, Wayfinder represents a lot of firsts for developer Airship Syndicate. The studio’s best known for creating Darksiders Genesis (a co-op prequel to the hack-and-slash Darksiders trilogy) and the single-player League Of Legends RPG Ruined King. This online interconnected open world is not only its first original IP but already shaping up to be its most ambitious game yet. That said, even when working with other companies’ properties, Airship Syndicate’s staff enjoyed freedom to experiment with their past projects, to the point where some games felt very much their own. “Spiritually, Ruined King felt like the only title where…

“THE EIKON SHIVA’S ICY POWERS MANIFEST AN ALMOST PROTECTIVE VEIL AT YOUR BACK.” Traditionally, the Phoenix grants its feathers to the firstborn of the Archduke of Rosaria – but it skipped over strapping young Clive and bestowed the gift on his gentle younger brother Joshua. As the Grand Duchy of Rosaria burns, Joshua has no choice but to fight through the flames and invading forces that lit the match. Gasping for breath every time he calls on the Phoenix’s power, we can’t help but wonder how different things might have been. We already know that Joshua won’t survive the night, triggering protagonist Clive’s decade-spanning quest for revenge. Knowing we will also briefly play as the doomed younger sibling during the incendiary downfall of the brothers’ beloved home just makes the…

The Forgotten Realms is not just Dungeons & Dragons’ most popular setting, but one that belongs to everybody. One where the story told by your dungeon master across a dining room table is every bit as valid as the one projected onto a cinema screen in Honor Among Thieves. It’s no surprise, then, that it’s proved a perfect playground for videogames - a medium where the storytelling is shared between you, the player, and the professional writers who’ve put together your dialogue options. From Baldur’s Gate to Neverwinter, in RPGs and action games, developers have been sending us to the Realms for decades now. And in the absence of a passing bard, we’re your guide to the very best of it. Infinity and beyond The most respected videogames in Dungeons…

Paying homage can be a difficult line to walk. How do you balance using inspiration as a jumping off point with dooming yourself to living in its shadow? Many soulslikes have failed that particular gauntlet, but Stray Blade’s love of Dark Souls creates a charm that’s infectious, and executes mechanical twists inventively, even if the end product can be a little rough around the edges. You play lone adventurer Farren who, upon finding the legendary Acrea valley, ends up dying. Yet, embedded with a strange crystal, you’re given the ability to resurrect when you fall, and quickly end up teaming up with little wolf guy Boji as you fell the God-Kings to eventually free yourself, and cleanse the valley of corruption. As a native of the land, Boji has lots…

Diving from a helicopter onto the site of a raging inferno, it’s instantly clear that the firefighter under your control in Nuclear Blaze is perfectly built for the job. Tiny they may be, but they’re stuffed to the gills with bravado, and you’ll need it all once you stumble into a top-secret hidden facility, where all burning hell breaks loose. Indeed, Deepnight Games’ platform squirt-’em-up is all about condensing energy into small packages, serving up a short adventure that piles up neat ideas at a relentless pace. Armed with a back-mounted hose, your aim is to douse patches of flame as you descend further into this apparently abandoned research lab. But malfunctioning systems and the spread of the raging fire mean there’s more for you to worry about than simply…

What would you do if you had detachable body parts? Er, actually, don’t answer that. Instead we’ll tell you what the hero of our story, Bob, does. He goes on a grand adventure across the seas in search of Libertalia, a place of joy and true freedom. It turns out that literally losing your head (and sometimes hands and/or legs) can come in handy, especially in VR puzzling. This is the developer’s fifth game (including the prequel to this one), and it’s clear that it has a very good understanding of how to get the most out of VR spaces. All heights and angles of the environments are exploited, and pathways and objects are hidden in ways that always have a reasonable and logical solution. This is where your bodypopping…

The thought of playing as a Victorian ghost with supernatural powers is an exciting one. Imagine all the preposterous moustaches you could blow a chill wind through, and all the penny-farthings you could tip over! Well, here you move blocks around a house in order to set up routes for Lemmings-style clockwork soldiers to follow, so they can reach the latest exit. That’s okay too, we guess. The basic concept is familiar, and easy to grasp. The lil’ soldier guys march forwards until they bump into something to change their direction (or fall to their doom), so you need to ensure that they keep bumping into the right things at the right time until they make their way safely through a little door. While things start off as a simple…

Once a staple of the Resi series, we last saw Mercenaries revived in Village after almost a decade’s absence. While fun, that first-person incarnation never quite captured the magic of the original Resi 4’s fast-paced iteration. With the recent remake, however, Capcom has brought the minigame back in all its glory. Competing for high scores, short bursts of high-intensity survival is the draw here. Competing for high scores against a strict time limit, short bursts of high-intensity survival is the draw here. With an on-screen combo meter, achieving the highest possible scores involves the careful chaining of headshots with the devastating effects of crowd-clearing environmental traps. The remake’s combat still shines and the introduction of more powerful enemy types, including an almost comical number of chainsaw men, makes for a…

As implied by the title of this substantial (and free) update, Ghostwire’s biggest addition is a separate mode where you descend through 30 floors of challenges in a roguelite structure. Not all are focussed on combat; some missions ask you to jump through a number of torii gates within a set time. The further you descend, the more items and upgrade options become available in shops you visit in intervals, staffed again by ‘nekomata’ yokai cat merchants. The middle school location is the closest the game gets to being downright chilling. Unless you’re a fan of roguelites, however, this mode does take away the game’s biggest strength – exploring an open world Shibuya – as you’re confined to smaller areas, walled off by spider webbing. You also have to slowly…

While we await the imminent arrival of Street Fighter 6, revisiting this fully featured Champion Edition of Street Fighter V is a great way to remind ourselves of how far its predecessor came since launch, and of the enduring nature of fighting games. Completely new iterations may come and go, but on a basic level every fighting game, no matter how old, can remain quite playable, thanks in part to the simplicity of the genre: punch, kick, and grapple your way to victory. Even so, they don’t always have a draw that lures us to make that return trip. Despite a rocky launch (SFV’s in 2016 felt truly underwhelming after the excellent Ultra Street Fighter 4), by the end of its current-game status Street Fighter V has, pleasingly, managed to…

FORMAT PS4 / PUB SONY / DEV TEAM JAPAN, GENDESIGN / RELEASED 2016 By the time you emerge outside in The Last Guardian’s ruined city, you’ve forged a firm ally in giant cat-dog-bird hybrid Trico. Now, how do you fancy putting that relationship to the test in a literal leap of faith? Faced with a chasm to jump across, Trico perched on the other side, you just hope he’s ready to make the catch. As you anticipated, the jump is too great to make under your own steam. You begin to plummet, with nothing but mist visible beneath the platforms you’re trying to cross. Time slows to a crawl and for a moment you’re almost floating, giving you just enough time to fear you’ve made a terrible mistake. Then, when…

There’s some wind up to the story of how C-Smash VRS director Jörg Tittel took his shot. He begins: “I was a videogame journalist at the turn of the century… Jesus.” Time waits for no-one. Leafing through an issue of Famitsu in 2001, he says, “I saw this picture of this game with a style that struck me incredibly. And I was like, ‘What is this?’ And it said, Cosmic Smash, and then it said Dreamcast, and [I’m like] ‘Dreamcast? But they just announced it’s discontinued,’ and I looked at the release date, and it was later in the fall – and I needed to have that game.” Tittel describes Cosmic Smash as “Pong meets Breakout.” It appeared on arcade machines across Europe and Japan, but only the latter territory…

“THE PARTY MEMBERS SHARE THE RESOURCE NEEDED TO USE SPECIAL SKILLS.” After an opening with a character called Kafka (on an intergalactic most wanted list) playing an invisible violin as alien lifeforms warp in to try to take control of a space station, your own amnesiac protagonist (known as The Trailblazer) wakes from a deep sleep, itching to tackle the aforementioned danger. Deeply anime, chaotic, and bold, Honkai doesn’t really slow down from here – start as you mean to go on. If you’ve played Genshin Impact, developer MiHoYo’s massively successful PlayStation hit, you’ll find this a weird mix of familiar things and exciting new ones. Going hands-on, the immediate difference is that Honkai: Star Rail is turn-based, not real-time. You can pick a fight with the enemies roaming the…

The most impressive thing you’ll notice when picking up the pad for a round of this 4v4 team-based Crash spin-off is how little it feels like a spin-off. The spinniest it gets is Crash’s own twirl attacks, performed with r as usual. It’s all as usual for every character we get our marsupial mitts on in our session, with the roster of returning faces from Crash 4 playing almost exactly the same as they do in that game. It’s a far cry from the likes of PS1’s Crash Team Racing or Crash Bash, which tasked the jungle’s heroes and villains with the piloting of karts, tanks, pinball machines, and pogo sticks. Crash Team Rumble is rooted in the gang’s platformer origins, and therefore shares those games’ strengths: gather as much…

The cel-shaded visuals might have failed to impress when this one debuted as ‘Tom Clancy’s XDefiant’ back in 2021, but, after almost two years of radio silence, Ubisoft’s foray into the world of competitive shooters has returned with a shiny fresh coat of paint. Ditching the cartoony punk-rock inspired art direction in favour of a more grounded feel, XDefiant is now gunning for a place among today’s hardcore military greats. The overhaul isn’t purely cosmetic, though, and the quiet removal of the Tom Clancy moniker is emblematic of a wider change in course. Built around a unique faction system, what was initially revealed to be a roster containing four groups from across the Clancy-verse has grown to encompass some of Ubisoft’s other most popular properties. Thanks to new arrivals repping…

Well, this hurts. If the goal of a VR boxing game is to leave you feeling like you’ve gone ten rounds with Rocky, the Philadelphia Stallion, the Iron Horse himself, then step up to this upgraded version of Survios’ movie tie-in. After an hour in PSVR2 pummelling the treadmill, waving my arms like a windmill at a punchbag, and going the distance with an imaginary heavyweight champ I am a sweat bomb. The headset is a watery delight. Survios has sold me a fitness game in the guise of a bloodsport – well played. If you own the original Rise To Glory on PSVR then you’ll feel at home with Championship Edition; it’s largely the same game but with a new campaign, extra fitness minigames, and new fighters to challenge…

The League Of Legends ecosystem is ever-expanding, and indie-focussed spin-off publishing house Riot Forge might be its most interesting branch. It gives studios LOL characters to centre their games on, allowing them to develop their stories and expand the universe. But in the case of The Mageseeker, the developer’s biggest obstacle might be the very character it’s focussed on. The Mageseeker in question is Sylas, a character who has spent 15 years in prison after evidence of his magical powers – outlawed in his homeland of Demacia – came to light. Sylas’ inherent abilities are limited, but he can sense magic in others and absorb it, taking on their powers for a short time. After using that ability to stage a prison break, Sylas finds himself on the front line…

Spires of concrete, cracked asphalt that seems to wind on forever, incredibly limited public transport… and we thought LA during E3 was bad. In this post-game DLC, millennia of volcanic eruptions have carved up the concrete jungle into an archipelago of white sand beaches. Pursuing a villain from beyond the stars, Aloy crash-lands amid these titularly tepid tides and encounters the other half of the shipwrecked Quen expedition from the base game. For much of the mainline quest, new companion Seyka is along for the ride. A Quen warrior, Seyka’s determination to save her loved ones leads her to pick up a Focus. As for the rest of the Quen, their settlement, Fleet’s End, becomes your base of operations. It’s a bustling hub full of neat little touches, from the…

The Mega Man Battle Network games have spawned a fair few awesome indie titles that copy their innovative grid-based battle system, which blends real-time blasting with tactical grid-battling and deck-building. Revisiting these originals, though, we experience a weird mix of nostalgia, bemusement, and frustration. They’re still good, but without many new additions they’re not quite, well, mega. There’s no doubt that many of us in our 30s and older have some long-held affection for these games (originally on GBA), and simply from a preservation perspective it’s great to have them neatly accessible on modern hardware. The collection itself is split into two parts, the first containing the first three games and the second containing the last three. The games follow Lan Hikari as he navigates not only the trials and…

This will be a free-to-play game when it launches fully at some point before Q2 next year, but if you want to get started straight away you can pick it up right now as a ‘Founder’ for a price that starts as low as the cost of a small game. Everyone gets to race the world as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck; further characters are available with higher-edition tiers, or you can grind for in-game shards to buy them. Sounds like a bore? Pirate Bay is an all-timer, with huge, duelling galleons and kraken tentacles to dodge. Well, boring is one thing this game is most certainly not. It’s an absolute riot of speed, colour, weapon attacks, and classic Disney iconography. You may baulk at the rather chiselled appearance the…

You may think the price of £64.99 for six games ranging from about 20 to 35 years old a little steep – and it is – but it’s still fantastic that we’re able to play some of the most historically important RPGs ever made on modern consoles. Still, unlike how the more recent Final Fantasy games lean into beautiful graphics and action-packed spectacle, these pixel recreations are more squarely (less Enixly) aimed at Final Fantasy fans like myself. And boy, do we love to nitpick. This collection is great… while also feeling like a missed opportunity. Arriving a fair while after the PC and mobile releases, some updates have been made to the PS4 version to address the initial wave of complaints. For instance: the awful font can now be…

The XCOM series has long held a reputation for brutalising players, and honestly it’s a fair cop. Its alien invaders have always been obscenely efficient at tearing your soldiers to shreds, sometimes in ways that seem downright unfair. Yet that’s precisely what makes it so gratifying when you survive, and XCOM 2 refined that risk-reward formula to a dagger-sharp point. 2012’s XCOM: Enemy Unknown rebooted the ’90s turn-based strategy series and brought it to PlayStation. It was a huge success (our previous incarnation awarded it 9/10), so a followup was inevitable. Few games, let alone turn-based ones, cause panic the way XCOM 2 can. As you manoeuvre a squad of makeshift marines towards their objective, the stakes for almost every decision you make are vertigo-inducingly high. Cover is everything, but…