Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2024 i PLAY

Getting you closer to PlayStation’s most exciting stories, people, and culture “Imagine committing a robbery, only to see that several witnesses are streaming your shenanigans on GTA’s internet.” We always hoped that little-known PS3 game Grand Theft Auto V would get a sequel someday. Fortunately Rockstar Games gave us an early Christmas present in the shape of the first trailer for GTA VI (in fact, we got to see it extra early, after hackers leaked the trailer, the cads). We got a look at protagonist Lucia, some stunning shots of bustling Vice City, and a possible hint of how crime might be reported in the first Grand Theft Auto in *checks notes and gulps* ten years. After feasting our eyes on some lovely pink-hued skies, we meet Lucia in prison.…

FORMAT PS5 / ETA TBC / PUB TEMPO LAB GAMES / DEV TEMPO LAB GAMES / PLAYERS 1 Fan of fast-paced games? The Bishi Bashi Specials and the Point Blanks? Then we’ve got great news for you – Bits & Bops is a colourful collection of hectic rhythm games. The animation is crisp, the characters are fun, and – most importantly – the music is so catchy it’ll be bouncing around your head for hours after you’ve played it. “THE CATCHY MUSIC WILL BE BOUNCING AROUND YOUR HEAD FOR HOURS AFTER YOU’VE PLAYED IT.” For our hands-on preview, we’re trying out three minigames, all with very different mechanics wrapped up in adorable little scenarios. The first asks us to take photographs of a seal as it pops out of the…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 1 FEB / PUB CYGAMES, INC / DEV CYGAMES, INC / PLAYERS 1-4, ONLINE MULTIPLAYER Based on the massively popular mobile game, this is an adventure that’s been a long time coming, and we’re glad to be going hands-on with it. Throwing down with swords and spells is par for the course, but what we hadn’t expected is how cosy this ARPG feels. First we try out a fairly early part of the game. The crew of the Grandcypher stumble upon the town of Folca, where their quest begins; after meeting relationship-counsellor-slash-handyman Rolan, the gang hurry to push back some fighty goblins at his request. Naturally, the goblins aren’t causing a ruckus for fun, there’s a far greater disturbance at play. We head straight to…

FORMAT PS5 / ETA TBC PUB BANDAI NAMCO DEV SPIKE CHUNSOFT / PLAYERS 1–2 Quick bit of localisation trivia: the Dragon Ball: Budokai Tenkaichi series of 3D arena fighters was, in Japan, called Dragon Ball: Sparking. And it’s from the original developer too. (While XenoVerse cribbed the style, it was never quite the same.) Yes, it’s become commonplace to joke that almost every anime fighter is a 3D arena one now, but these were the originals and beloved for a reason. Huge rosters and flashy combat recreated the dramatic, over-the-top, planet-shaking brawls that the series was known for. You’d actually crunch opponents square into rubble. All that and more is here, and at a previously unseen level of detail. It’s a spark for now, but expect a flame.…

FORMAT PSVR2 / ETA 18 APR PUB PLAYISM / DEV ORIGAME DIGITAL PLAYERS 1 This is a sandbox photography game with a lot to say, casting you as a documentarian of the final days before a looming disaster in Tauranga Aotearoa, a near-future that’s a stone’s throw from our own (‘umurangi’ means ‘red sky’ in Te Reo). Given photo bounties, you need to explore each area and set the shots up, keeping things like composition in mind to net the best rewards – including new gear that’ll help you get better snaps. It’s the perfect setup for a VR game, with this update pulling out all the stops to keep you immersed, such as making menus diegetic (bounties can be viewed on your wrist). Don’t have VR? A flat-screen version…

FORMAT PS5 ETA 2 FEB (EARLY ACCESS FROM 30 JAN) PUB WARNER BROS GAMES DEV ROCKSTEADY STUDIOS PLAYERS 1-4 There’s no denying the phenomenal success of the Arkham games. Since coming out of the gate strong with Batman: Arkham Asylum in 2009, they’ve all been critical and commercial hits, as well as massively influential on the wider industry. (How many of the games that followed aped Arkham’s rhythmic combat and detective vision?) Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League – described as a ‘third-person action shooter’ – is a direct successor, set in the same universe… but what’s making the bat computer beep, whirr, and spit out reams of dot-matrix paper is just how different a beast this new title is shaping up to be. Gotham City doesn’t feature; instead the…

With both trilogies and The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles now available in the West, that’s all Ace Attorney games covered, right? Hold it! While we wouldn’t say no to a remastered port of Professor Layton Vs Phoenix Wright, the glaring oversight is the lack of a port of Ace Attorney: Investigations. Investigations, which spawned two games, the second of which hasn’t even been translated into English, puts prosecutor Miles Edgeworth front and centre. Don’t worry, this is not about spending your time in the courtroom defending criminals. Instead, you move Edgeworth around crime scenes to (you guessed it) investigate crimes, similar to the scene investigations from the main games albeit with added depth and complexity. In place of interrogations, you have arguments with suspects and your partners in crime investigation…

COCOON Pondering the orbs FORMAT PS5, PS4 / PUB ANNAPURNA INTERACTIVEDEV GEOMETRIC INTERACTIVE Like fitting your entire fist inside your mouth, there’s something irresistibly compelling about this puzzler’s levels-within-levels design. You’re cast in the glimmering carapace of a teeny weeny beetle, putting your feelers out for various spherical keys that may in fact be traversable levels themselves! With an organic fleshiness to each world, you won’t be able to resist pulling and prodding at each conundrum. As you hop between a series of magnificent marbles, you’ll notice there’s a shellac-like sheen to this project – which is perhaps to be expected considering some members of the team also worked on both Limbo and Inside. Unlike either of those more interpretive side-scrollers, this top-down puzzler is a softer touch when it…

What makes life worth living during a zombie apocalypse? For our nameless lone survivor protagonist in VR sequel Arizona Sunshine 2 it’s having someone to tell your dumb jokes to. That someone turns out to be a dog, who your dude decides to call Buddy. While good boys have been practically memed to death, we haven’t connected emotionally with a virtual animal like this since Trico. It’s what largely elevates an otherwise straightforward but entertaining shooter as you criss-cross through the state of Arizona on the search for Patient Zero, who might hold the solution to curing humanity of the plague that’s causing zombification. At the same time you’re also trying to survive in the face of hordes of undead – or ‘Freddies’, the name our protagonist indiscriminately gives them.…

Finished last year’s epic, combat-heavy revitalisation of Final Fantasy and want more? Then load up your endgame save and get ready for an adventure that takes place right before the final mission – though it doesn’t add much more than that. With that said, it’s still great to see a full party of our heroes set out on one more quest all together before the narrative’s inevitable conclusion, especially as the base game only rarely allows you to rock around with a four-person squad (including your dog, of course). Unfortunately Echoes doesn’t really capitalise on the group dynamic all that much, Clive’s companions more or less dropping the odd comment to him rather than feeling integral to the action. Despite the two- to three-hour runtime it all feels quite slight,…

You don’t need to look far to find Warhammer games on PlayStation, but Realms Of Ruin is something of a rarity. Most games stick with Old World-era campaigns or 40K, neglecting the Age Of Sigmar setting. That makes this an interesting choice by Frontier. However, while it had potential, it’s another middling real-time strategy game. It’s set in the Mortal Realms, and you play as the Stormcast Eternals, fierce warriors who basically feel like magic Space Marines. You’re tasked with defending Harkanibus, a Ghur city that’s faced relentless assaults from the Orruk Kruleboyz. A quest for ancient, powerful artefacts to stop them isn’t an especially original premise, but there’s an enjoyable story that doesn’t require much prior understanding of Age Of Sigmar. Rounding out this story are two further factions,…

From updates to favourites – the games we just can’t quit Few things are as satisfying as murder and stealing. They’re also fun in videogames, which is why we’ve spent most of our time out on bail this month enjoying free-to-play team FPS The Finals. You play as part of a team of three – one heavy (big health, slow movement), one light (stealthy, but weak), and one medium (take a wild guess) – competing with other teams to stash a set amount of money. In Bank It, our favourite mode, kill an opponent and they’ll drop $1,000. That’s more than most print game journalists make in a lifetime, but small change compared to the major payouts an in-game vault offers. These hold several thousand dollars, are marked on the…

GT4 was announced for PSP but didn’t happen, despite promotional box art being made. On 21 Jan we’ll see the end of online for GT Sport. Dry those eyes. Last year’s movie adaptation proved to one of gaming’s best (though it’s a low bar). TEASE ME How it worked before DLC Outside the core series, there were ‘Prologue’ versions of GT4 and 5 to tide eager players over. There were also three ‘Concept’ releases on PS2: Gran Turismo Concept: Tokyo, Tokyo-Seoul, and Tokyo-Geneva. These boxed releases were low on content but they sold well. PS3 then received a downloadable demo dubbed ‘HD Concept’ featuring just one track set in the Alps. THE DEFINITIVE GRAN TURISMO CONCEPT IS 2002’S TOKYO-GENEVA– IT’S GOT THE MOST CARS 2004’s Gran Turismo 4 introduced the…

You wouldn’t think a small town in North England would make a particularly interesting location for a game, but Thank Goodness You’re Here! proves you wrong. Developer Coal Supper has turned the apparently quiet town of Barnsley into a stage for an absurdist comedy adventure where smoked kippers are dead fish sucking cigarettes and grocers are engaged in fruit-based warfare with their customers. “Surrealism is the best vehicle for delivering on one of our key ambitions, which is to surprise and delight the player,” Coal Supper developer Will Todd says. “I think there’s also an appeal in making something that feels like it could be sort of highbrow but is actually just really daft.” Here, the daily rituals, hometown oddities, and vibrant characters usually found in small towns have been…

“REINA HAS THE ELECTRIC WIND GOD FIST – AND IT’S JUST SO SATISFYING!” FORMAT PS5 / ETA 26 JAN / PUB BANDAI NAMCO ENTERTAINMENT DEV BANDAI NAMCO ENTERTAINMENT, ARIKA / PLAYERS 1 Sometimes not even eye lasers are enough. Jin Kazama has failed to beat his own down-for-destruction devil daddy, Kazuya Mishima. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the defeat was so devastating it locked Jin’s own devil gene away. Worse still, Mishima has thrown down the gauntlet to all of humanity, resurrecting the King Of Iron Fist Tournament with world-altering stakes: lose to Kazuya Mishima, and you’ll see your home country struck off the map. The situation’s dire enough, but now a new challenger appears – one who calls dear old moody boy Jin… ‘senpai.’ Is your skin crawling…

02 months DRAGON’S DOGMA 2 The sequel fans have been begging for is almost here – and dare we say it’s looking suitably epic? FORMAT PS5 / ETA 22 MAR PUB CAPCOM 04 months SKER RITUAL Go loud against the Quiet Ones and blast monsters in this round-based action sequel to survival horror title Maid Of Sker. FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA APRPUB WALES INTERACTIVE 06 months DESTINY 2: THE FINAL SHAPE A delay means you’ll have to wait a little longer to get inside the Traveler. FORMAT PS5, PS4 ETA 4 JUN / PUB BUNGIE…

FORMAT PS5 / ETA 2024 PUB BEHAVIOUR INTERACTIVEDEV SUPERMASSIVE GAMES PLAYERS 1 Four teens, miles of abandoned tunnels, and one creepy man in a broken welding mask. What could possibly go wrong? Plenty, we’re sure, and we’re eager to get involved – but we doubt the game itself will go wrong. A collaboration between Behaviour Interactive (Dead By Daylight) and Supermassive Games (Until Dawn, The Dark Pictures) means we’re set for another choice-based, narrative thrill-ride where all our favourites will come to sticky ends and we’ll have to play it again out of guilt. Curiously, this is actually set within the DBD universe, making this the first time the lore-dense online multiplayer horror has expanded in this direction.…

FORMAT PS5 / ETA 16 FEB / PUB UBISOFT DEV UBISOFT SINGAPORE / PLAYERS MULTI This time, for real, Ubisoft is promising its pirate game is going to be released. And it’s so soon that there seems to be no way the developer can get out of it. But will this be smooth sailing or leave us feeling a tad seasick? To tell the truth, this whole game feels like it’s been walking the plank, teetering on the edge of delivering Assassin’s Creed IV-inspired greatness while raising the black flag of ill-advised live service. But the prospect of piracy always does have us hoisted.…

CAPTAIN BOOMERANG Like a hyperactive child, Captain Boomerang is all about staying on the move, thanks in part to a speed force gauntlet he pilfers early on. Even though he’s tapping into the same energy as speedy supe The Flash, he uses it differently, homing in on his trusty boomerang and materialising right in front of enemies to deliver a surprise blast of shotgun shells to the face. DEADSHOT Unsurprisingly, Deadshot is all about the guns – it’s just a question of how close you want to use them. Even his melee attacks aren’t strictly melee, as he uses wrist cannons when he gets up close and personal. Able to get the most out of almost any weapon, he can tear things up with an assault rifle before using his…

Good news: this game is similar to the movies in some significant ways. Bad news: this game is similar to the movies in some significant ways. The problem isn’t necessarily that it looks better than it plays; more that it struggles to decide whether it’s an Avatar game or an Ubisoft game, as it seems the two are rather different. Frontiers Of Pandora pulls off a neat trick with the premise. Set between the two films released thus far, with events taking place in a previously unseen area of the Na’vi homeworld Pandora, it creates a situation allowing for both adherence to the source material and creative freedom. It largely succeeds on both fronts (to the point where anybody who hasn’t watched the first film might occasionally find themself a…

WHAT YOU DO IN: ARIZONA SUNSHINE 2 HOW TO… CRAFT EXPLOSIVES Scavenged junk can be used to craft explosives when you find a crafting box. Open it, then select a card for a mine, stick grenade, molotov, or pin grenade. The relevant ingredients will pop up for you to pick up and smoosh together. Make sure you’ve got space on your wrists for them. LOVING/HATING BUDDY BOY The best dog-petting mechanics ever, not just because you’re physically petting but because Buddy’s fur moves accordingly. GUN SHUFFLE Manually reloading is satisfying in VR but fiddly to do when facing a zombie horde – not the best time for hand tracking issues to occur. MULTIPLAYER The campaign is playable in co-op, even if that breaks the narrative of a lone survivor and…

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women in it merely players; they have their exits and their entrances, which they usually make themselves with the help of firearms and explosives. So said William Shakespeare, and who could have guessed that the Bard’s precise wording would be so relevant to a heist-planning videogame released hundreds of years later? But that’s genius for you, we guess. Anyway, enough about him, and more about your life of crime. The campaign is peppered with neat surprises, but generally speaking, a typical mission will task you with destroying or stealing a bunch of stuff (with optional targets that you can hit for extra points). Each map is made up of voxels, and almost everything is destructible, so you can get from…

Ever felt like you’re missing something? That’s what Chants is all about, starting when you wake up at the bottom of a tower unable to understand not one but four languages, spoken by the different inhabitants of each storey. But that doesn’t mean you’re unable to interpret them. As players, we’re used to puzzling things out – and these slices of different cultures we can wander around as we search for a way up the tower are essentially puzzles. WORD UP When each of a bunch of robed monks says the same thing on meeting you, perhaps that’s a greeting? When they point, are they talking about the object, or the action they want you to take? Each language’s glyphs are well-designed, and concepts are shared, so you can draw…

01 Synapse Telekinesis and guns make a wonderful combo in VR. With one mapped to your left hand and the other to your right, you feel like a conductor of chaos as you blast your way through a rogue colonel’s mind to uncover secrets. Eye-tracking is wonderfully used to target your telekinesis, meaning you can slam enemies all over the place as you reload your arsenal. It’s got a roguelite structure, so you’ll keep coming back. 02 Horizon: Call Of The Mountain Manages to make level after level of climbing compelling with different environments to pull yourself up through, the Sense controllers allowing for neat player expression. Just make sure you take a break, or all that spider monkeying will make your arms throb. 03 Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s…

Save icons for these January moments spin in the PLAY hive mind. Do you remember this? 5 YEARS Resident Evil 2’s impressive remake proved that third-person Resi still had legs, which were much needed for escaping the revised and more dynamic stalker Mr X. The oversized tyrant chases you all around the police station. 15 YEARS Given the film trilogy’s large-scale battles, applying the Star Wars: Battlefront formula to Middle-earth in The Lords Of The Rings: Conquest should have worked better than it did. A memorable misfire, the fighting and objectives were just a bit too ropy. 20 YEARS With its cinematic storyline at the forefront, Mafia was an impressive feat on PS2. Unfortunately it hit the console two years after PC, and GTA sequels had moved the crime sandbox…

Two evil sorcerers walk into a bar – okay, into a Mortal Kombat tournament – forming a deadly alliance to, well, conquer the realms. Hence the title. Having transitioned into the 3D era and ditched pre-console arcade releases in the latter half of the ’90s with MK4 and MK Gold, the Mortal Kombat series entered a dry spell buoyed only by a series of misfires. Here’s looking at you, Mortal Kombat: Special Forces. And who could forget that cinematic abomination, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation? Deadly Alliance got things back on track. It was the first in the series to land on the PS2 generation, launching in 2002. It introduced some fresh faces to the roster, including new favourites who later became series staples, including Kenshi, Frost, Li Mei, and Nitara. They…

FORMAT PS4, PS3 / PUB BETHESDA SOFTWORKS / DEV TANGO GAMEWORKS / RELEASED 2014 Connelly?” Your colleague had turned weird and attacked you in the ambulance. And now, after you’ve crawled from the burning wreckage, he’s here, crouching over something. Or someone. Sebastian picks up Connelly’s discarded gun. Something’s not right. That’s when the head of the victim hits the floor and rolls towards you. Then Connelly swivels his neck to look at you… At first his face is shrouded in darkness. But AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT there’s a flash of lightning and you can see his face. He doesn’t look well, with veins outside his skin and a bit of his cheek missing. It’s either one heck of a good Halloween getup or Oscar Connelly has become one…

SEE PAGE 52 FOR MORE DETAILS Six-month best offer Subscribe to PLAY – The Magazine for six months to get your mag delivered for a great price to make sure you never miss an issue. Print only If you just want a print edition, you’ll pay from £19.46 every six months (overseas options are available as well), so you never have to miss out. Digital only Go all-digital for just £15.57 every six months for iOS, Google, Kindle, and Android devices. For more info, see: www.magazinesdirect.com…

Sonic is responsible. While a phrase not always uttered positively (like when we blame the Blur for any lunchtime soup spillages at PLAY Towers), this time it’s a good thing. Sega is digging out its classic series, and according to Shuji Utsumi, Sega Of America CEO and co-COO of Sega Corp, it’s thanks to Sonic’s recent blazing successes. The series that are making a return are Golden Axe, Streets Of Rage, Crazy Taxi, Shinobi, and Jet Set Radio. We’re told this is just the start, with potentially more to come (gosh, we’re hoping for more Space Channel 5). Collectively given the tagline ‘new era, new energy’, the goal seems to be not just to bring these games back, but to reimagine them with modern twists. BLAST PROCESSING You can stop…

Monster meat’s back on the menu in a big way. Coming to PS5 in 2025, Monster Hunter Wilds will see your trapper take on the world. 2018’s Monster Hunter: World introduced a more seamless approach to the action, seeing you hunting big beasties across multiple linked areas. 2023’s Monster Hunter Rise increased those maps by adding verticality, allowing you to move not just onwards but upwards. Wilds expands the scope even more, seeing you chase your quarry through grander open areas, dashing between larger mobs of monsters, and at the mercy of enhanced weather effects. Between sand storms and lightning strikes, you’d best watch your step. There’s no word yet on the return of palicos or palamutes, but we do know a trusty blue steed gets you from A to…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 2024 / PUB FIRESTOKE / DEV MOONLOOP GAMES / PLAYERS 1 Many games have explored what lies beyond the realm of the living (you could say it’s been done to death) but Hauntii’s evocation of the afterlife is particularly alluring. For starters there’s the striking two-tone art style, then there are the ghostly denizens, and finally the sprawling, ethereal city filled with giant hourglasses and towering bridges. Moonloop Games’ afterlife is a big world that you explore as a little guy. The titular Hauntii is a soul freshly reaped from the land of the living. An encounter with an angelic being called Crisp sees our pocket-sized ghost pal attempting to ascend to a higher plane, but during the take-off black chains shoot from the ground…

FORMAT PS5 / ETA TBC / PUB SELECTAVISION / DEV BROKEN BIRD GAMES / PLAYERS 1 Silent Hills has had a lot of influence on interactive horror for a cancelled game. There are obvious parallels here – a first-person journey through a claustrophobic house, a rarely-glimpsed figure stalking you – but this is no straight copy of PT. It has a wonderful understanding of creepiness that’s all its own. The number one rule of effective horror is to suggest far more than you show, and that’s exactly what our taster demo does. We know we’re in the process of moving house, but little more. The precise circumstances, including the loss of somebody close, are muffled by vague hints and the house’s bizarre decoration and geography. “UNSETTLES AND DISTURBS RATHER THAN…

FORMAT PS5 / ETA TBC PUB DON’T NOD / DEV DON’T NOD PLAYERS 1 Despite its insistence, we can’t help nodding – the Life Is Strange studio has been killing it with its output lately. And fans of its previous time-twisty narrative adventure are being well-served here as Lost Records feels like a spiritual successor in all but name – there’s indie rock, decorated notebooks, and beer-sipping teen rebellion. Until something goes wrong, that is. In the summer of ’95, Swann, Nora, Autumn, and Kat discover a glowing purple enigma deep in the forest before going their separate ways. 27 years later they reunite to finally confront what they saw. A little bit Stand By Me, a little bit It, then, but as this studio is King (at narrative games),…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 2024 PUB SQUARE ENIX DEV SQUARE ENIX / PLAYERS 1 All the classic RPG remasters Square has been putting out must be paying off, as joining the recently announced SaGa – the first in aeons – is a new Mana, and it’s not a mobile spin-off this time. While it takes cues from the Secret Of Mana and Trials Of Mana remakes, Visions is much more vibrant and detailed, and has a fully 3D camera to boot. Never before has Mana’s world felt so alive and ripe for exploration. There are icy peaks, tropical jungles, and, of course, lush meadows to run through, all while you get ready to bash foes in fast-paced melee combat. Naturally the Tree Of Mana will feature as well, with…

FINAL FANTASY XVI FORMAT PS5 / PUB SQUARE ENIXDEV SQUARE ENIX While the series is constantly being reinvented, FFXVI might be the biggest departure from the formula yet, eschewing party-based combat to bring lead character Clive to the fore, his Summon-based special attacks echoing the likes of Devil May Cry V. What’s really impressive is how well it all works, combining the epic storytelling of the classics with modern hack-and-slash. RESIDENT EVIL 4 FORMAT PS5, PS4 / PUB CAPCOMDEV CAPCOM Heaps of games have been remade in recent years, and Resident Evil ones in particular, but there’s something about this redo of Resi 4 that stands out. Everything you love about the original is here, but it’s been reshuffled and nudged around in a way that simply makes sense. This…

WHAT YOU DO IN: AVATAR: FOP HOW TO… UNLOCK ANCESTOR SKILLS Ancestor Skills are instantly unlocked abilities. Open up your map, look for any pink columns of light, and place a custom waypoint. Once there, look carefully for small blue fairy lights in the air that indicate you’re close. Follow that path, and you’ll soon find the Tarsyu flower. STATPACK 13 Years between the first and second Avatar movie release dates. Sony released two consoles in that time; the last Avatar game was on PS3! 05 Types of Na’vi weapon to find, craft, and mod: Heavy bow, longbow, shortbow, spear launcher, and staff sling. The latter can be used to set traps. 02 Pieces of paid story DLC confirmed, one of which introduces a new region to the map. Despite…

Tipping its sky captain’s tricorn to fighting game tradition, this followup to the 2020 fighter Granblue Fantasy: Versus (which our prior incarnation gave 9/10) isn’t quite a full sequel but is more than a basic upgrade. The anime-style story is longer, the fights more explosive, and online has better netcode. Developed by Arc System Works (which is also behind Guilty Gear and Dragon Ball FighterZ), this translation of the mobile RPG to fighter looks gorgeous in motion, while dishing out moves feels tight and responsive, and it oozes character. Fans of the source material will love the banter and nods to prior adventures, and while newcomers may feel like they’ve been thrown into the deep end of the lore pool, it’s hard to resist diving in. SHIP SHAPE For the…

WHAT YOU DO IN: TEARDOWN HOW TO… UPGRADE TOOLS Tools are upgraded at your computer, and you need cash. Lots of it. During missions, take the time to open cupboards and explore nooks and crannies (such as under elevators) for valuables, some of which give you huge cash boosts. You’re already a criminal; why not go all-in? STATPACK 120 Frames per second is an option, if your TV supports it. We imagine that those voxel graphics make smooth framerates easier to achieve! 20 Mods are available for the game once you download the free mod pack. They include new tools and maps, and even a racing minigame. 10 Maps in total, outside of the mods. Although locations are reused throughout the campaign, the mission structures ensure they never feel old.…

Fellow roguelike liker? Well, if you enjoy God Of War you need to play this. You need to! This is not a silly bonus mode. We repeat: this is not a silly bonus! Considering this is free DLC that dropped days after it was announced, and is accessed from the main menu rather than your personal save, you could be forgiven for thinking it was a little thing thrown together to give you more opportunity massacre legions of Norse monsters. And it is. But just as the stories in the base game are elegantly woven throughout modes of interaction, with important conversations happening as you explore, the same holds true here. As Kratos and Mimir set out to explore the realm of the dead, they deal with the fallout from…

With the Digimon anime becoming a sensation and Nintendo’s own creature features’ popularity peaking, Digimon World seemed poised to be a massive success. When it was released, however, it wasn’t quite what anyone expected. Even so, this tough and obtuse adventure remains unique. “I was 10 and all my digimon turned to poop,” shares @KeepDrawingChar. That this bizarre statement isn’t uncommon sums up the game perfectly. Riffing on the Tamagotchi-like Digimon LCD devices more than the cartoon, your player character is sucked into the digital world where they have to set out into dangerous environments while raising a partner correctly, in order to reassemble a city. The game frequently felt punishing, with your pal dying if it lost too many battles (after which it would have to be reborn). And…

You need to save a world of 2D creatures from a gang determined to turn all food into noodles. At one point, you’re singing along with a horny onion who has his own TV show, and if that doesn’t intrigue you then we really don’t know what to tell ya. This game is wild, and it stands up today extremely well. Partly this is due to the unique and striking art design, which soars above the technical limitations of PS2 and benefits further from a bit of modern HD polishing. The simple and familiar rhythm mechanics help too; you simply hit the buttons shown on screen in time with the music. Then there’s the soundtrack, which is primarily hip hop.1 That certainly goes for the tracks that you tap your…