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59 Articles

‘New meets old’ defines modern gaming, and especially in this issue. But, to make sure it’s not just our nostalgia being tickled, we’ve been on hand to dig deep into the reinventions. Rest assured, there might be a lot of throwbacks, but there are some bold steps forward on show. Things kick off (literally) with the big EA Sports FC rebrand, dropping the FIFA name (p6). The changeover feels like it doesn’t miss a step, while at the same time using the opportunity to give us some of the biggest shakeups we’ve seen since FIFA ’09. It’s change that defines all these new takes. Cover feature Lords Of The Fallen (p52) may have exactly the same name as its sole predecessor, but with a new studio at the helm and an original…

THIS MONTH’S FALLEN FEW

Dashiell Wood CONTRIBUTING WRITER He’s no lord but he has fallen, spending plenty of time in our cover game’s Umbral Realm. GAME OF THE MONTH Shadow Gambit BEST LORD Blessed Lord Of Salty Shores (Blasphemous) Jess Kinghorn GAMES EDITOR Learnt all the best ways to pull off a heist from the Payday 3 devs, notes taken on PLAY Towers’ blueprints. GAME OF THE MONTH Stray Gods BEST LORD Lady Dimitrescu (Resi Village) Miriam McDonald OPERATIONS EDITOR The Venom PS5 faceplates’ moment of truth will be whether they can withstand the attention of Mim’s cats. GAME OF THE MONTH Venba BEST LORD Godfrey, First Elden Lord Milford Coppock MANAGING ART EDITOR Lara Croft’s emo phase has haunted Milf his whole career, and this time she’s back with a feature-length vengeance. GAME OF THE MONTH Shadow Gambit BEST LORD Star-Lord Ryan Robbins DESIGNER The screenshots have been scoured, but he’s yet to find the Prince’s Lost Crown – where’d you last have…

THIS MONTH’S FALLEN FEW

FC 24 reinvents UT with women players

Getting you closer to PlayStation’s most exciting stories, people, and culture Footballers’ in-game body types are modelled to closer match reality. The FIFA series is dead – and so too are traditional Ultimate Team forward lineups. Next season you’ll earn bonus chemistry for pairing Chelsea tandem Christopher Nkunku and Samantha Kerr, or Lyon super-strikers Ada Hegerberg and Alexandre Lacazette. To make pairings like this possible, 1,600 female players from 74 clubs are being added to the Ultimate Team database, ushering in the era of EA Sports FC 24. It’s a colossal step forward for the most lucrative mode in all of videogaming, marking the biggest influx of new cards since Ultimate Team began in FIFA 09. Crucially, female ratings are ranked on par with male ones in FUT. “If you think about how…

FC 24 reinvents UT with women players

Getting gooped up

The long-awaited, full-fat sequel to Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Spider-Man is almost here. While seeing the likes of Lizard and Kraven The Hunter forced to deal with the might of two Spider-Men, in the shape of Peter Parker and Miles Morales, appeals, it’s Venom who steals the show. Well, not Venom exactly – but the inky black symbiote that will call itself Venom when it finds a host that’ll support their jacked up, comic-accurate form. Not only will Peter Parker have a story arc in the game where he embraces the symbiote suit and it starts to make him cranky, so can players thanks to official accessories. Both a special DualSense and PS5 face plates (for both disc and digital models) depict the classic Spidey red being overtaken by symbiosis. PLATE UP In the…

Getting gooped up

Gex is back. As are Tomba, Jurassic Park, Clock Tower, and many more vintage classics. Not only are these enhanced ports being published by Limited Run Games, but the niche-by-design company is involved directly in the development pipeline. As well as resurrecting old games, it’s empowering devs to create new games inspired by the past. LRG’s Carbon Engine, previously used to revive the original Shantae and River City Girls Zero, is what’s enabling these slices of history to return. However, this new wave of titles is pushing its capabilities, bringing the development tools’ support for legacy code all the way forward to PS1. The engine’s foundations lie in emulation, but its power stems from how developers can then interface with it to produce highly accurate versions of the original games while…

When Shrek said that, like an onion, ogres have layers, we didn’t realise that one of those was a penchant for skidding round a track in a go-kart and blasting away opponents. Though, handily, that self-same onion is just one of many weaponised powerups that he and other iconic Dreamworks characters will be using to reach (fishing) pole position. With 20 racers each with their own kart, Dreamworks All-Star Kart Racing really emphasises the behemoth that Dreamworks has become, with some genuinely iconic characters. Shrek is, of course, joined by Donkey, and after the success of spin-off movie The Last Wish, Puss In Boots is here with his nemesis Wolf (though the latter is only available as part of the Digital Deluxe edition). On top of that you’ve got the likes…

A bite out of the Big Apple

Wave goodbye to Washington DC – the gang’s back in business in New York. Almost a decade after going their separate ways at the end of Payday 2, the crew members are reuniting to wreak havoc in what lead producer Andreas Häll-Penninger describes as “the capital of capitalism.” He explains, “We just have a lot more opportunities to create heists in locations that are more iconic. They feel more Hollywood and just more epic in general. So there’s not really a specific mechanic tied to the New York setting, it’s more about the atmosphere, the immersion.” That doesn’t mean the action hasn’t evolved, though. In addition to the change of city, there’s been a temporal shift, opening the door to more techy touches. “The Payday gang have updated their gadgetry […] So…

A bite out of the Big Apple

Pair of Panthers

Team-ups are commonplace in the world of comics, but two big-budget games starring the same hero going to head-to-head is more unusual. While Skydance (the studio led by Amy ‘Uncharted’ Hennig) announced its historical Captain America and Black Panther romp last year, EA has just announced a game of its own starring the latter supe. The also-untitled Black Panther game is being developed by new EA studio Cliffhanger. It’s led by Kevin Stephens, formerly of Monolith Productions, and staff include other veterans from that studio who have worked on other big series (including God Of War). Describing Wakanda as a “sandbox” the team are keen to explore, the game will be third-person and single-player. HAIL THE KING The Monolith connection might lead you expect the Black Panther game will take cues from that…

Pair of Panthers

Onward to new horizons

How often do MMORPGs get to put a pin in a years-long adventure? That’s what previous FFXIV expansion Endwalker pulled off in 2021, ending a story that had been running for over a decade. The game’s next update, Dawntrail, set for summer 2024, promises to be a breath of fresh air. That’s thanks in part to the sea breeze as much as it is big additions coming to the long-running MMORPG. While Warriors Of Light have explored entire other worlds, Dawntrail sees players and their cohort of allies heading to a previously-unexplored continent, Tural, and exploring a new culture only a ship’s throw away. While we’re sure plenty of drama is in store, so far it looks like being a chiller adventure than the last one, with the chance to build on…

Onward to new horizons

GEAR: STUFF WE LOVE

GETTING LUCKY Danganronpa 2’s Ultimate Lucky Student, Nagito, joins the Pop Up Parade figure line, with an RRP of £36.99. He’ll remind you to have hope in any situation… and at any cost. VITA MEANS LIFE SANDEEP RAI £35 ETSY.COM/UK/SHOP/2OLD4GAMING This lovingly assembled hardback collects together parts of Rai’s previous PS Vita books with new material. Taking you through the console’s history, it contains interviews with developers, retrospectives on the biggest series (like Persona, Uncharted, Shovel Knight, and more) and a catalogue of every game. In cute A5 size, it’s nice to have on the shelf. ALL GAMES ARE GOOD PRESS RUN $24.99 LIMITEDRUNGAMES.COM Rather than simply listing games that are good, writer and podcaster Stuart Gipp takes you on a personal journey to find the good in games that many might think less than great. Anyone…

GEAR: STUFF WE LOVE

With a striking Giger-like aesthetic, Scorn intrigued us when it was released on other platforms a few months ago. Now it’s set to be released on PS5 later this year, we’ll be able to enter the nightmarish bio-tech labyrinth for ourselves. And the PS5 version is no simple port; the team at Ebb Software have used the advanced tech in the DualSense controller to enhance the wonderfully off-putting grimness of the game’s world. Everything in Scorn is designed to evoke a sombre and disturbing atmosphere. As you explore the strangely organic alien environment you feel a real sense of discovery, and are forced to reckon with your nerves, fear, and revulsion. In first person, dialogue-free, and with minimal combat (any encounters are very dangerous as resources are scarce), you often interact…

Which TV show needs to become a game?

RYAN ROBBINS DESIGNER “TIME LOOPS ON TIME LOOPS ON TIME LOOPS…” While I’d love to see how every episode of Love Death + Robots would fare as a game, the one that stands out is The Witness. It’s creative and different but also has quite an intriguing, dark feel. The story is gripping, too. Picture this: after witnessing a murder, you’re stuck in a time loop and trying to break out. During each loop you try a different path, slowly gaining more knowledge of the unfolding story – before ending up with blood on your own hands and a bit of a head [blorp!]. And Deathloop and Returnal have proved we all love a time loop. Lupin The Third hasn’t seen much videogame action since the PS2 era. JESSICA KINGHORN GAMES EDITOR “IT’S TIME FOR THE RETURN…

Which TV show needs to become a game?

1 DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN Android Markus and his band of revolutionaries make their way into a TV station and hold the staff there hostage while he demands equal rights for androids. While you decide the content of the speech, he always starts it by essentially telling humans they suck – clearly a future when ChatGPT hasn’t replaced humans. 2 WOLFENSTEIN 2: THE NEW COLOSSUS With Irene Engel’s death on live TV, the Kreisau Circle declares its revolution against the Nazis. Wyatt takes to the cameras to tell the people that “we are the whirlwind they reap for sowing wind.” A great speech, followed by a bad cover of Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It. 3 MARVEL’S GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY If a battle is looking bad for the Guardians, a speech by Star-Lord can…

“AC MIRAGE’S LACK OF PRESENT-DAY SECTIONS MAKES IT MY GOTY.”

Desmond is a charmless git who does nothing but whine. WRITER BIO Abbie Stone can’t get enough of parkour, history, and assassinating people. She also somewhat enjoys the Assassin’s Creed games. Recently, I got nostalgic for stabbing some virtual Italians – er, let’s rephrase that. I recently got nostalgic for some classic Assassin’s Creed, so I downloaded The Ezio Collection. This series has still never given us a better lead than Renaissance Italy’s Ezio Auditore da Firenze. A witty, fun-loving cad with a big heart and seemingly unlimited charisma, there’s a reason so many later Creed protagonists are ‘Ezio 2.0’. Replaying his arc across these games, leaping from rooftops, beating up the occasional pope, and assassinating wrong ’uns is a constant joy. Except it’s not constant. Because the historical fun is repeatedly interrupted to…

“AC MIRAGE’S LACK OF PRESENT-DAY SECTIONS MAKES IT MY GOTY.”

“IF I CAN FEEL A HUGE SENSE OF ACHIEVEMENT IN SF6, SO CAN ANYONE.”

The imbalanced match-ups feel like a thing of the past. WRITER BIO Alan Wen plays Street Fighter 6 with a stick, and despite improving is still working on controlling his temper against Ken match-ups. Compared to other live-service games, Street Fighter 6 may not boast as much incentivising content – look at the barebones rewards in the free tier of its fighting pass, for example. That, however, matters less as the real incentive for any fighting game fan to keep playing is the fighting itself. Boiled right down to fundamentals, the attraction is in improving yourself. I say that as someone who has loved the Street Fighter series since the ’90s, but when it comes to my abilities I’ve always been something of a scrub, which is even more apparent once I get online.…

“IF I CAN FEEL A HUGE SENSE OF ACHIEVEMENT IN SF6, SO CAN ANYONE.”

FOLLOW US HERE facebook.com/PLAYgamingmag gamesradar.com/playmag twitter.com/@PLAYgamingmag play@futurenet.com “THEY COULD HAVE SAVED THIS MESS AND REMARKED DINO CRISIS. I’LL NEVER UNDERSTAND THEM. THIS GAME IS HORRIBLE.”ALEXANDRA TASHKINA’S NO EXOPRIMAL FAN“DEAD ON ARRIVAL SINCE FANS WANTED DINO CRISIS AND NOT THIS.”CLAYTON BUGEJA CONCURS IT’S A STEAL I’m fed up of scalpers. It’s bad enough when some cool merch is released and they buy it all and then sell it on eBay or wherever for loads more (I’ve missed out on loads of vinyls because of that) but it’s just happened with the new PS5 Spidey face plates. Surely Sony’s a big enough company that they can work out how to sell just one of something to each customer? Harry McKinley You’ll hear no arguments from us with regard to scalpers, especially when it comes to things that are known to be…

Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 15 JAN / PUB UBISOFT DEV UBISOFT MONTPELLIER / PLAYERS 1 “OUR MAN CAN BACKFLIP IN MID-AIR, RUN UP WALLS, AND SLIDE UNDER FALLEN COLUMNS.“ Back in the PS2 era, a generation of players got to know the Prince as a floppy-haired idol who could magically rewind time to undo a missed jump, a fatal blow from an enemy, or even an ill-judged kiss (genuinely part of Sands Of Time’s plot; the early ’00s were a wild time). But before that he’d enjoyed a long history as a lad who was just very good at jumping. Ubisoft’s latest take on this decades-spanning series splits the difference. It’s a side-scrolling action platformer in the style of the 1989 original, with a hero who is very, very good at jumping…

Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown

FORMAT PS5 / ETA 2023 / PUB LEVEL INFINITE / DEV NEXT STUDIOS / PLAYERS THREE-PLAYER TEAMS You’d need to be braver than us to peek into the shooter category of any digital storefront and think ‘Yup, I’m going to unleash a futuristic loot-shooter on the world’. As if there aren’t elventy gazillion versions of the same game out already. As if Bioware’s Anthem – another futuristic loot-shooter with a considerably higher profile – didn’t wither and die within two years of its debut. To its credit, Next Studios is trying to do things differently with Synced. Yes, it’s a free-to-play shooter, but it’s a little bit roguelike, too, with each match “playing out as a fresh run on non-linear battlefields”. Yes, you can decide whether to team up with pals or…

Warhammer Age Of Sigmar: Realms Of Ruin

FORMAT PS5 / ETA TBC / PUB FRONTIER DEVELOPMENTS / DEV FRONTIER DEVELOPMENTS / PLAYERS 1-2 As one of the few RTS titles coming to PS5, this Warhammer adaptation is well worth keeping an eye on. Whether you’re a seasoned tabletop veteran or a complete newcomer, our hands-on suggests you’ll enjoy plenty of strategic goodness across both the story campaign and multiplayer matches. Although the campaign is more linear, with frequent cutscenes and clear objectives to guide your progress, your goal in each mode is roughly the same: to deploy units and capture Arcane Conduits littered across the battlefield. Taking control of conduits generates resources, allowing you to build stronger soldiers and work your way through upgrade trees. It’s not a groundbreaking formula, but everything we’ve seen so far is well-polished, with…

Warhammer Age Of Sigmar: Realms Of Ruin

Laika: Aged Through Blood

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 2023 PUB THUNDERFUL PUBLISHING / DEV BRAINWASH GANG / PLAYERS 1 The wasteland is under threat from an invading army of birds, and coyote warrior Laika is willing to do whatever it takes to protect her tribe. After stumbling upon the corpse of a friend who was brutally disembowelled by her flying foes, she ventures out into the remains of civilisation to have her revenge. This is a bleak tale set against a beautiful apocalypse, one filled with bright, hand-drawn vistas and inhabited by an equally colourful cast of anthropomorphic animals. It’s hard not to find yourself immediately drawn in by the brutal stakes and oppressive tone, but our time with an early build also makes it clear that its mechanics are equally inviting. Billed as the very…

Laika: Aged Through Blood

Tsukihime -A Piece Of Blue Glass Moon-

FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2024 / PUB ANIPLEX DEV TYPE-MOON / PLAYERS 1 “THERE’S ALWAYS A HINT OF SOMETHING SINISTER UNDERLYING PROCEEDINGS.“ You’re a ten-year-old boy. You’ve been in an accident, and not only are you recovering from near death, you’ve been banished by your own father for your injury! If that’s not rough enough, a side-effect of your accident is that you’re able to see ‘Death Lines’, red, graffiti-like marks that represent the ways people will die. It wouldn’t be easy staring at death daily, would it? An older woman who spots you running from the hospital during your recovery gives you glasses that block the lines from your sight, helping you enjoy a normal childhood. Eight years later, the father who exiled you passes away, and your sister invites you to…

Tsukihime -A Piece Of Blue Glass Moon-

The Crew Motorfest

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 11 SEP / PUB UBISOFT / DEV UBISOFT IVORY TOWER / PLAYERS 1-32 Whereas the first two Crew games (sort of) gave you the whole of the USA to drive around in, new game Motorfest is going to be confined to a version of the Hawaiian island of O’ahu. If you’re expecting this to translate to a much less ambitious experience, slam the brakes on those expectations right now. Don’t worry, we’re here to get you up to speed. The set dressing of a festival for petrolheads is leapt upon as an excuse to cram in as many vehicles (all licensed) and event types as possible. Drifting events using customised street beasts, races with classic cars, rallies, 1v1 races, hypercars, motorbikes… all these and more will be…

The Crew Motorfest

Agatha Christie – Murder On The Orient Express

FORMAT PS5 / ETA 19 OCT / PUB MICROIDS DEV MICROIDS STUDIO LYON / PLAYERS 1 “[THE GAME WILL] SURPRISE EVEN THE MOST DEDICATED FANS.” Those grey cells aren’t feeling so little, with Microids publishing another Hercule Poirot mystery-’em-up less than two months after the last (The London Case, which is out about a week after this issue). This time developed internally, the isometric-style of the last two games is abandoned to bring the chin-stroking closer. Off the train tracks, you take control of new character Joanna Locke, who’s uncovering details of an earlier crime while Poirot ponders the murderous results of it within the carriages. Claiming to “surprise even the most dedicated fans”, it also promises to be faithful to the book. Recent Poirot games have featured new stories, and whether…

Agatha Christie – Murder On The Orient Express

FORMAT PSVR2 / ETA 19 SEP PUB PERPETUAL DEV DEFICIT GAMES / PLAYERS 1 This may promise you can “break your bones virtually so you don’t have to in real life”, but you’ll still need to be careful playing it standing up. No matter how tempting it is to lock eyes on the board – don’t. The power of your skater’s trainers is actually in your hands, after all, with you using the Sense controllers’ motion tracking to mimic the moves you’d be making with your feet in real life. With flips, grabs, manuals, grinds, and slides, there are plenty of tricks to learn. You’ve got seven maps in which to rack up points, including the Mega Ramp and the stomach-churning Chasm. Leaderboards and board customisations to unlock give you reason to…

FORMAT PSVR2 / ETA 21 SEP PUB VERTIGO GAMES DEV MIXED REALMS / PLAYERS 1 If you’ve been keeping up with our PSVR2 reviews, you’ll know we love it when games aren’t afraid to put the power of movement within a virtual space directly into our hands. With Hellsweeper, that’s what it’s all about; you’re pitted against demons in first person, blasting them with both guns and elemental magic, or getting closer with fists and swords. If you have a problem with one of the hulking enemies, try a fresh perspective. Though rather than taking a step back to think about it, we mean a step up and then a flip to tumble through the air, continuing to give them, well, hell – even when upside-down. Might this be too much…

FORMAT PS5 / ETA 20 OCT PUB PHOENIXX / DEV INDIE-US GAMES PLAYERS 1-3 For many MMORPG players, the mechanics they enjoy the most coalesce not in the daily grind, but in the endgame boss battles that throw loads of attacks at you and require both precision and co-ordination with your allies. While TrinityS isn’t an MMORPG, it’s an action RPG designed specifically to drill down into that boss rush pleasure, the sort that you might experience on a raid night with friends all miked up. There’s no need to grind out gear or item levels to take part, as TrinityS dispenses with all that fluff to just get you into the action. While playable solo with an AI party, it’s best played with a full party of three (a knight,…

The Isle Tide Hotel

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 12 SEP PUB WALES INTERACTIVE DEV WALES INTERACTIVE, INTERFLIX MEDIA / PLAYERS 1-3 When Josh discovers his daughter has been hauled off to the titular hotel by a bizarre cult with plans to sacrifice her, he must ask himself one key question: what role will he play? Will he be the absent father making up for lost time? Detective dad who’s going to get to the bottom of this? Or will he be just another anonymous Adam who falls into the holidaying cult’s clutches? In this FMV mystery, your choices ultimately lead to multiple endings (many of which are quite hidden), and there are many more rabbit holes to disappear down through point-and-click-style exploration on the way. Actor Michael D Xavier of Gentleman Jack fame…

The Isle Tide Hotel

The Grinch: Christmas Adventures

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 13 OCT PUB OUTRIGHT GAMES DEV CASUAL BROTHERS / PLAYERS 1 Putting you into the curled shoes of The Grinch himself, you get to play as the master of mischief before his heart grows too big (though it’s sure to happen along the way). With side-scrolling platforming (and the odd bit of running at the camera), it’s an adventure that throws back to the PS2 tie-in glory days. Stealthy elements are in the mix as well, as you’ll need to don your Santa suit to gain access to the homes of Whovillians in order to make off with their pressies before the big day. Loyal dog Max is along for the ride, and you’ll have a range of gadgets to get around, including a candy cane…

The Grinch: Christmas Adventures

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 29 SEP / PUB ANNAPURNA INTERACTIVE DEV GEOMETRIC INTERACTIVE / PLAYERS 1 What if a level in a game was also an item? So posits the gleefully recursive Cocoon, put together by a new team formed from Playdead alumni (Limbo, Inside). Your little bug hero can shift the orbs that contain each stage onto his back, and then enter other worlds, with the extra one applying an effect like making invisible platforms visible or simply being used to hold down buttons. It’s simple in practice, yet manages to wow constantly, no mechanic outstaying its welcome.…

Nickelodeon All-Stars Brawl 2

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA AUTUMN 2023 / PUB GAMEMILL / DEV FAIR PLAY LABS, LUDOSITY / PLAYERS 1-4 As the publisher’s aiming to release this about a year after the first game, you’d be forgiven for being cynical about the need for a sequel. But everything we’re seeing here makes the original feel like a first draft – though with that being so rough around the edges that’s not the most glowing praise. Still, with voice acting at launch (the absence of which was widely panned in the predecessor until it was patched in), nicer visuals, redesigned stages, and a whole suite of new moves for every fighter, there’s more than enough for this platform fighter to exist. New brawlers like Squidward, Jimmy Neutron, and two Turtles join the mix…

Nickelodeon All-Stars Brawl 2

Armored Core VI: Fires Of Rubicon

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 25 AUG / PUB BANDAI NAMCO ENTERTAINMENT / DEV FROMSOFTWARE / PLAYERS 1, MULTI We only review finished games, so in Viewpoint we go hands-on with near-final code of a game that just missed our review deadline. AC newcomer Alan Wen gets a baptism of fire assembling his mech for his first four hours on Rubicon. Whether you’re an Armored Core veteran or not, it’s been more than a decade since the last entry, so forgive us as we take FromSoftware’s soulsborne games as a point of reference on how to approach a series that’s sometimes viewed as even more intimidating to get to grips with. But with FromSoftware having done much to improve its onboarding, Armored Core VI might be one of the most approachable titles…

Armored Core VI: Fires Of Rubicon

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

FORMAT PS5 / ETA 13 OCT / PUB CI GAMES / DEV HEXWORKS / PLAYERS MULTI Having foolishly abandoned our trusty shield in order to dual-wield two giant pickaxes, a lucky shot from a pesky archer sends us tumbling down a hidden pitfall to our doom. We land on a pile of bloody corpses, face to toothy visage with a hulking boss who dispatches us to the realm of Umbral in a single bite. Merely beginning to figure out how to defeat this giant creature seems like an insurmountable challenge, but it’s the kind of enormous obstacle that formed the basis for this pseudo-sequel in the first place. The original game, developed by Deck13, was a breakout hit that helped bring the soulslike subgenre into the mainstream. Now, almost a decade later,…

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

Way of the demon

FORMAT PS5, PS4 ETA 3 OCT PUB NIS AMERICA DEV NIPPON ICHI SOFTWARE PLAYERS 1 As any player of turn-based strategy knows, blindly charging forward is rarely a smart move. Sometimes if you want to make progress, you first have to take a step back. In the case of Disgaea, though – a 20-year staple on PlayStation consoles – it’s developer Nippon Ichi that’s had to make a tactical retreat. The last mainline release in its once-pioneering series, Disgaea 6: Defiance Of Destiny, fell rather flat even with long-term fans, leading some to question whether the whole endeavour was running out of steam. As Disgaea 7 sails towards our shores, then, the Japanese studio has ground to make up, and hopes to do it by going back to basics. As we discuss…

Way of the demon

Have you ever been playing Bloodborne, exploring its gothic streets, and found yourself wishing for an assault rifle? No, us neither, but someone at Gunfire Games clearly has. A chunk of Remnant II takes place in streets reminiscent of Yarnham, you see, complete with clawed beasts and pitchfork-wielding locals who don’t take kindly to ‘outsiders’. Perhaps that’s only fair, though, since you’ll soon be mowing them down with automatic weapons. Thanks to Remnant II’s planet-hopping scenario, the places you blast through – either solo or with up to two friends – offer plenty of fresh sights. The levels comprising grubby Victorian streets and gothic cathedrals take up around a quarter of the campaign, with the rest spent blasting up entirely new worlds. When you next warp to a forest dotted with…

Tea towel on the steaming plate, idli batter dolloped in, and then twisted just so to ensure each plate’s steam moves up to the next one. That’s the key to the soft texture that Venba remembers from her grandma’s recipe, one she’s utilising here for the first time, the generational cookbook forming the foundation of this family tale. Each time we check in on Venba’s life, significant time has passed. While we first help her with those breakfast rice cakes, she and her husband Paavalan are already feeling the pinch of being immigrants to Toronto, Canada from south India, with bills to pay and their own skills undervalued due to discrimination. And that’s just with two mouths to feed, but a third pops up soon after the idli. On the cusp of…

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical

You can take the girl out of the theatre, but you cannot take the theatre out of the girl, and that dooms me to like Summerfall Studios’ debut more than a merely normal amount. It’s a modernised take on mythology mixed with a murder mystery, and you crack the case by following the musical theatre rule: ‘when you can’t speak, sing.’ An interactive musical in three acts, your investigation winds through many branches of dialogue choices both on and off stage. Sometimes you’re asking the tough questions and at other times you’re picking lyrics to belt out, but most often when the music starts you’re selecting an approach rather than choosing exactly what to say. You play as Grace, a talented but directionless young woman who watches a god die and becomes…

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical

Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist Of Salburg

The land around Salburg is plagued by troublesome beings – bandits, wolves, and horned demons. “But let those champions have their epic stories,” states Atelier Marie’s opening. Playing as Marlone (guess her nickname), you have bigger problems – you’re in danger of flunking out of the magic academy, with one last chance to redeem yourself and graduate. Granted, it’s a generous extension that sees your tutor Ingrid acknowledging that the way you learn may be different to how your peers do it (which is how we know Salburg is in a fantasy land). You’re given five years to run your own alchemy shop, with Ingrid giving you small tasks along the way (optional – they’re basically tutorials), and judging your best item once the time limit expires. TIME AND PUNISHMENT That ticking clock…

Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist Of Salburg

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew

Ahoy, matey! When a game features undead pirates, it’s fair to assume that they’re the bad guys, but not here – that’s you, that is. Just as well really, as the supernatural shenanigans you and your crew are capable of ensure that there are a hundred different ways each mission could go. No two people will have the exact same playthrough. It’s not entirely accurate to describe this as ‘isometric Hitman’, but that does set up your expectations rather nicely. The various islands you visit are all infested with fanatical members of the Inquisition, and they’re none too friendly towards the undead, so you need to carry out your missions as quietly as possible. There’s still plenty of killing, don’t worry (although you can opt for nonlethal attacks); you just need…

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew

My Instagram is enjoying a fresh lease on life. This perspective-shifting platformer is to thank (or perhaps blame) for that, tracing similar lines to 2019’s Superliminal and 2021’s Maquette, but with a photographic twist. Polaroids, artwork, and magic-eye-style illusions play a pivotal role within the central reality-warping mechanic. As you explore each level, you either find photos lying around or take your own, before carefully laying them over the scenery with L2. Once you’ve perfectly positioned your picture, pressing R2 sees the world contort itself to make your photographic vision a reality. No clear way forward? You can easily remedy that by taking a snap of a path, placing it precisely over a sizable gap in the scenery, and pressing R2 to create a new path in your world. Or say, you…

Dyschronia: Chronos Alternate

Part Minority Report, part Psycho-Pass, this time-hopping detective series ends up being nowhere near as interesting as either obvious inspiration after three lengthy episodes. Hal Scion (yes, really) is a temporally talented ‘Supervisor’. In the domed city of Astrum Close, this euphemistic role sees Hal diving into residents’ dreams to play therapy cop, chasing the bad thoughts away and keeping criminality at bay via Simon-Says-Style minigames. Then there’s a murder. Complicating Hal’s caseload, catastrophic flashes forward predict only seven days before life as he knows it ends. From there Dyschronia pulls out all the clichés in search of something that sticks, even stumbling into more than a few genuinely neat visual ideas made all the more arresting by being experienced in VR. OUT OF TIME Hal is a ‘Variant,’ a human able to…

Dyschronia: Chronos Alternate

The Expanse: A Telltale Series Episode 1: Archer’s Paradox

Don’t pour whiskey down the hatch before your latest score has hatched… so says the age-old wisdom of the idiom I just made up on the spot. Telltale’s returned, though not quite as you remember it, and is working with Deck Nine on this episodic prequel series to a space opera that’s already successful on the little screen. Clocking in at a runtime closer to a Stranger Things season four episode, this first act of a five-part series respects your time and doesn’t let the action run out of air. Actress Cara Gee reprises the role of Camina Drummer, an interstellar scavenger hoping to evade her past for at least one more cycle. We’re introduced to Camina as her captain aboard the Artemis promises that their next score will be the…

The Expanse: A Telltale Series Episode 1: Archer’s Paradox

The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom

What do you feel Elder Scrolls Online could do with more of? Tentacles? Dimension hopping? Giant piles of books all over the place? How about the colour green? The latest expansion’s got you covered on all four of these important bases, and more besides. There are also lots of comically large mushrooms, for example, so there’s no need to worry about getting spored. There’s plenty to discover here. In terms of new areas to explore, you get a two-for-one deal here. The eponymous Necrom is a city in the now-available Telvanni Peninsula, over in Morrowind. This area is full of colourful and bizarre plants and fungi, sprinkled with often strange-looking beasts keen to make pretty patterns with your innards. Aesthetically, it leans pleasingly into the idea of otherworldly fantasy, much more…

The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom

From the view you have of the Twin Planet system as you awaken from cryosleep to the moment you surface from the water after crash-landing, every attempt is made to wow you with Hubris’ visuals. Even its characters are impressive; you get to see some of their faces, including a hologram of your superior as they give you the mission to prove yourself to the Order Of Objectivity. Think of the order as a secret service in space – it’s even called Triple-O for short. Your recruit is sent to a remote planet to find another missing agent. You’re joined by your ship’s pilot, a chirpy Australian called Lucia, though rather than tag along in person she accompanies you via a remote-controlled spherical drone, piping in to tell you what to…

Koa And The Five Pirates of Mara

From oceanic farming game to level-based 3D platformer. The jump from the chill Summer In Mara to this more athletic spin-off sequel is more interesting than the game itself, which features pleasingly vibrant visuals but basic action. Mara’s town island, Qälis, is at the centre of the action once again, but now it’s a hub where you can take on challenges and buy upgrades. Your boat returns too, though here exploring the high seas amounts to scooting between the levels as you tackle each set of platformer pirate trials and unlock new ones. It’s cute that the sea features the same basic layout as in Summer In Mara, and stages are adapted from that game’s locations. Black Volcano is now more than an area in which you nab rockfish, becoming instead…

Koa And The Five Pirates of Mara

Every month, loads of games come to the PS Store. You’d be hard pressed to play them all, so we’re looking at some that didn’t quite make the cut. This month we experience whiplash shifting between the quirky and the self-serious, with some dragons to boot. Not much time has passed between High On Life being released on other platforms and on PlayStation, but it’s long enough to have given us more than a few new reasons to feel complicated about Justin ‘Rick And Morty’ Roiland’s role in this off-kilter science-fiction shooter. Voicing your primary gun (all weapons are voiced), he doesn’t stop. Your mileage for that kind of comedy may vary, but far from trading on gross-out jokes alone, the fast-paced shield-popping blasting feels great. It’s easy to say that,…

Like one of its genetically modified neosaurs, Capcom has combined the DNA of other shooters to create something almost entirely new. This is an ambitious effort with some of the boldest multiplayer design that we’ve seen in years, but an opaque progression system hides some of the best bits behind a barrage of repetitive story content. Exoprimal’s biggest shortcoming is its attempt to haphazardly cram all the contents of a single-player story into a multiplayer format. Rather than offering a traditional campaign, cutscenes play out at regular intervals between online matches. It’s a sporadic style of storytelling that, while intriguing at first, is ultimately ill-suited to conveying the complex time-travel narrative. The Exosuits’ superbly balanced abilities incentivise a wide range of playstyles. You’re the pilot of an Exosuit (a futuristic military mech) trapped…

Naraka: Bladepoint

Better late than never, this wuxia-inspired, melee-based twist on battle royale finally arrives on PS5 with arguably more content to sink your blades into. But the decision to go free-to-play technically means you start with less unless you’re prepared to pony up or patiently grind to unlock Naraka’s rich and continuously growing lineup of warriors Melee boils down to an understandable combat triangle where attacks are colour-coded. Nonetheless, the starting four are a fine introduction to Morus Island. This is still a case of navigating a gradually shrinking open world to scavenge resources before picking off your rivals (a maximum of 60 per game) until you’re the last trio or duo standing. In its bid to ease in players, bots help you acclimatise to its brutal world in initial matches, while solo…

Naraka: Bladepoint

Wolf & Wood Interactive has resurrected Dreamcast’s cult hit. In single-player mode it’s pure arcade heaven. It’s just as good in multiplayer, but no-one is playing. The varied game modes stretch the simple squash-meets-Arkanoid concept to its limits, adding combative modes and tactical games that require skill to master. Head-to-head is a classic Versus take on the main game (smash the most blocks to win), while Bodyshot has you targeting your opponent in a fun game of attack and defence. Multiplayer is faster and more hectic than the single-player game. It’s just a shame it’s tough to find opponents. INFO FORMAT PSVR2 PRICE £24.99 ETA Out now PUB RapidEyeMovers DEV Wolf & Wood Interactive Limited OFFLINE REVIEW 8/10, PLAY #30 PLAYERS 1-2 CROSSPLAY No…

Crime Boss: Rockay City

Forget going solo, Crime Boss’ co-op modes deliver the goods. While Urban Legends borrows heavily from the campaign, replacing the NPC squadmates with human players makes a huge improvement. The more linear challenge of Urban Legends, mini campaigns in which you tackle three increasingly difficult missions, is a pleasant change of pace. The shooting still shines and its roster of special characters provides a compelling reason to replay. Sadly, there are still some rough edges and, while the comically amateurish voice acting becomes even funnier with friends, the uneven difficulty can frustrate. INFO FORMAT PS5 PRICE £34.99 ETA Out now PUB 505 Games DEV Ingame Studios OFFLINE REVIEW 5/10, PLAY #30 PLAYERS 1-4 CROSSPLAY No…

Crime Boss: Rockay City

PS5 Hall of fame

01 Resident Evil 4 Remaking one of our favourite games always balanced on a knife’s edge, but thanks to how good that knife is to use, this one’s a success. Sumptuous visuals and terrific combat join the ultimate spring clean to create one of the best third-person action thrillrides we’ve had the pleasure to play. A more independent Ashley is welcome, and those gory Las Plagas and chainsaw-wielding foes are a joy to pepper with bullets. 02 Deathloop Everything we love about Arkane’s detailed, dense, and destructive gameplay in a game you’ll keep coming back to. Unavoidably, as hero Colt’s trapped in a time loop until he can pull off eight kills in a day, while being hunted by Julianna (who can be controlled by another player). 03 Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart A delightful…

PS5 Hall of fame

PS4 Hall of fame

01 Red Dead Redemption 2 You won’t find another open world quite like this, the streets of Los Santos paling in comparison to this gorgeous, realistic western sprawl. Arthur Morgan’s wild west adventure is epic, emotional, and has enough teasing mysteries on every horizon for no two cowboys’ journeys to feel the same. With train robberies, tootin’ headshots, and racists to kill, there’s never a dull moment in Rockstar’s greatest. 02 Grand Theft Auto V Laughing in the face of other cross-gen ports, GTA V on PS4 is more than a mere HD remaster. Upped to a glorious 1080p, it weaves together everything that made the PS3 original great, with new music, more dynamic weather, and a game-changing FPS mode. 03 God Of War A departure in some ways but a resounding return in others,…

PS4 Hall of fame

PSVR2 Hall of fame

01 NEW 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 Edge Who shot…

PSVR2 Hall of fame

The Testament Of Sherlock Holmes

Holmes mania was in full swing in 2012, with two huge shows on TV (the Benedict-Cumberbatch-led BBC one and the Johnny Lee Miller one across the pond) and the Guy-Ritchie-directed film duology having just wrapped up. Frogwares, however, had the jump on all of them, having become the de facto gaming custodian of the great detective with an ongoing – if often reinvented – series since 2002 on PC. But in 2012 the studio capitalised on the fever with one of its most ambitious mysteries to date, and its first on PS3. The tale’s framed with some (rather creepy-looking) children going through Dr Watson’s case notes, which they find hidden in an attic. They immediately stumble upon the doctor’s fears that someone close to him may be hiding the truth of…

The Testament Of Sherlock Holmes

Metal Gear Solid

When it was released, there really wasn’t anything quite like Metal Gear Solid. It combined arcadey stealth gameplay with a commitment to telling a deep story with fully voiced characters. And, not only did it look great, those visuals mattered (“Whose footprints are these?”). You had to play it to believe it. Fortunately, a past iteration of this mag had a demo, and many readers say it’s what got them on board. Andrew Grieve shares: “I had the demo from PlayStation Magazine and played it to death!” Dom Corroboy has a similar story: “I had the demo from [OPM] and caned it to death! I ended up picking a copy up years later alongside MGS2/3 and never looked back.” It’s one to revisit too. “It absolutely holds up today, its storytelling, acting,…

Metal Gear Solid

When you first meet Stardew Valley’s Haley, she’s thoroughly unimpressed by you, and not too shy to let you know, either. Pelican Town has its fair share of residents who need time to warm up to you first, but Haley is interesting because she doesn’t change quite as much as most of the others, even if you marry her. Haley is a bit of an airhead, and she is pretty shallow, but it’s not a mask put on to hide her insecurities or some tragic backstory – she just thinks cows smell bad and getting leaves stuck under her shoes is annoying. That makes it even more satisfying to see her slowly leave her comfort zone as your relationship with her improves. Haley will get dirty. She will think about hobbies…

RAIDING THE PAST

FORMAT PS2 / RELEASED 2003 / PUB EIDOS INTERACTIVE DEV CORE DESIGN / GET IT NOW EBAY, FROM £2.99 This year marks the 20th anniversary of Lara Croft’s grittiest adventure to date: Tomb Raider: The Angel Of Darkness. Wrongly accused of her mentor’s brutal murder in Paris, the sixth series entry sees Lara set out to clear her name and continue Von Croy’s work, retrieving the five Obscura paintings. Each painting hides a piece of the Sanglyph, an artefact that holds the power to revive the last remaining Cubiculum Nephili, known as ‘The Sleeper.’ For alchemist Pieter van Eckhardt and the Cabal, rebreeding the entire race remains the goal. But before Lara could stop yet another evil mastermind, her journey from developer’s page to console was every bit as demanding. “We’d built quite…

RAIDING THE PAST

Killzone: Liberation

PSP had a lot of great games across a whole range of genres, but the weird gaming nipples it had in place of a pair of proper analogue sticks made it completely unsuitable for first-person shooters. However, those fun nubs drove Guerrilla to take a completely new approach on handheld, and boy did it pay off. This is the only Killzone that’s played in third- rather than first-person, but even so it’s one of the best entries in the entire series; the intervening years have done it no damage at all. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the version we’re able to play on PS Plus has been properly optimised for modern consoles,1 but nonetheless, it boasts game design that has aged very well. The campaign is split up into a series of…

Killzone: Liberation

A BRIEF HISTORY OF Final Fantasy

FFXII (2006) did away with random battles and added auto-orders, which was divisive. FFX-2 (2003) was the first direct mainline sequel in the series. FF Tactics (1997) remains a favourite in a series with too many spin-offs to count. SEVENTH HEAVEN PS1’s secret weapon FFVII’s 1997 release was a milestone not just for the series, but for PS1. The first to be exclusive to the console, and the first to use 3D, it ushered in a new generation of gaming, where cinematics were jaw-dropping, action was spectacular (those summons felt massive), and the story mature. There’s a reason its fandom remains strong, and the game is still revisited to this day. FINAL FANTASY VII COMPILATION SPANS SEVERAL CROSS-MEDIA SEQUELS AND SPIN-OFFS, LIKE THE REMAKE PROJECT. Iconic monster fighting TCG Triple Triad was introduced in FFVIII (1999).…

A BRIEF HISTORY OF Final Fantasy

Parroting the truth

FORMAT PS4 / PUB CAPCOM / DEV CAPCOM / RELEASED 2019 Not only is Phoenix’s childhood friend (and recent rival) Miles Edgeworth being tried for murder, but it’s Edgy’s formidable mentor who’s prosecuting. Manfred von Karma has never lost a case – which is suspect in itself. Throughout the back-and-forth in court, von Karma never lets up, leading you into dead ends and objecting fiercely should you ever press a suspect on anything not directly linked to the case at hand. You know something is up with the owner of the boat rental shop, who was near to the crime scene, but as he’s old and suffering from lost memories, you can get little out of him. That includes his identity – he doesn’t even have fingerprints. Overjoyed at watching Phoenix Wright squirm,…

Parroting the truth

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