ISSUE 155 DECEMBER 2018 £5.99 gamesradar.com/opm

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The PlayStation Classic revealed: why you need ’s mini-console!

ISSUE 155 / DEC 2018 Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA Welcome Editorial Editor Ian Dean @IanDean4 [email protected] pen world games are commonplace 01225 442244 now, but few do justice to the idea of Art Editor Milford Coppock @milfcoppock Operations Editor Miriam McDonald @crinolinerobot ‘go anywhere, do anything’ quite like Games Editor Oscar Taylor-Kent @MrOscarTK O Staff Writer Jessica Kinghorn @KoeniginKatze the Just Cause series. And number four is Brand Director Tony Mott Senior Art Editor Warren Brown shaping up to be yet. This issue we Contributors visit Avalanche Studios in New York to play Chris Burke, Ian Evenden, Jordan Farley, Malindy Hetfeld, Luke Kemp, Catherine Kirkpatrick, Mitchell Lineham, David Meikleham, its new game, and discover why the weather Alex Spencer, Justin Towell, Alan Wen, Ben Wilson, Robert Zak Advertising matters in this war-torn sandbox. Read Media packs are available on request Commercial Director Clare Dove Oscar’s hands-on, starting on page 50. [email protected] Account Director Kevin Stoddart There are more first-hand impressions [email protected] 01225 442244 this issue too, as we go hands-on with International Official PlayStation Magazine is available for licensing. Contact the Fallout 76 and discover why more people International department to discuss partnership opportunities International Licensing Director Matt Ellis isn’t a bad thing (p36). We play Battlefield V [email protected] GAME OF THE MONTH Assassin’s Creed Odyssey ahead of release (p32), experience Devil May Subscriptions FAVE OPEN WORLD Email enquiries [email protected] Cry V’s new Dante gameplay (p6), and see UK orderline & enquiries +44 (0)344 848 2852 Grand Theft Auto V Overseas order line and enquiries +44 (0) 344 848 2852 why Days Gone’s Freakers will test your Online orders & enquiries www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk Head of subscriptions Sharon Todd endurance as much as your nerves (p12). Circulation Head of Newstrade Tim Mathers Back to open worlds, and one of the year’s Production Head of Production Mark Constance best is already here: Assassin’s Creed Production Project Manager Clare Scott Advertising Production Manager Joanne Crosby Odyssey is reviewed on page 72. Digital Editions Controller Jason Hudson Production Manager Vivienne Calvert Why not subscribe to OPM and not miss an Management issue or our gifts? Skip over to page 58 to Chief Content Officer Aaron Asadi 003 Commercial Finance Director Dan Jotcham Group Content Director Paul Newman see our latest games-themed T-shirt offer. Head of Art & Design Rodney Dive Printed by William Gibbons & Sons Ltd on behalf of Future “WE DISCOVER Distributed by Marketforce, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, , E14 5HU www.marketforce.co.uk Tel: 0203 787 9001 ISSN 1752210 WHY WEATHER We are committed to only using magazine paper which is derived from responsibly managed, certified forestry and chlorine-free manufacture. The Secure paper in this magazine was sourced and produced from sustainable managed MATTERS IN OPM #156 forests, conforming to strict environmental and socioeconomic standards. Ian Dean The manufacturing paper mill holds full FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) + special Resident certification and accreditation JUST CAUSE 4’S EDITOR Evil 2 gift pack All contents © 2018 Future Publishing Limited or published under licence. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used, stored, transmitted or [email protected] Subscribe reproduced in any way without the prior written permission of the publisher. EPIC WAR-TORN on page 58 Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in England @IanDean4 and Wales. Registered office: Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as SANDBOX.” far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Future cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. You are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly with regard to the price of products/services referred to in this publication. Apps and websites mentioned in this publication are not under our control. We are not THIS MONTH’S GUFFS OF WIND responsible for their contents or any other changes or updates to them. 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The ABC combined print, digital and digital publication circulation for Jan-Dec 2017 is 25,190 A member of the Audited Bureau of Circulations Oscar Taylor-Kent Jess Kinghorn Miriam McDonald Milford Coppock GAMES EDITOR STAFF WRITER OPERATIONS EDITOR MANAGING ART EDITOR This month Oscar jettted Recently obtaining Still haunted by the sheer Getting too into all the info off to New York to see destructive powers, the size of Geralt’s third on Control, Milf is beginning Just Cause 4. Someone team’s had to make Jess adventure, Mim’s perfect to swear he has psychic stop him playing Spidey to less angry than usual when comedown is playing with powers, glaring at Ian until show us where he went. chatting 2. those slimy stress balls. he gets his coffee.

Future plc is a public Chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne company quoted on the Non-executive chairman Richard Huntingford GAME OF THE MONTH GAME OF THE MONTH GAME OF THE MONTH GAME OF THE MONTH London Stock Exchange Chief financial officer Penny Ladkin-Brand Hollow Knight 428: Scramble Slime Rancher Control (symbol: FUTR) www.futureplc.com Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244 FAVE OPEN WORLD FAVE OPEN WORLD FAVE OPEN WORLD FAVE OPEN WORLD Spider-Man Yakuza 6 The Witcher 3 Horizon Zero Dawn HIGHLIGHTS The big 10 006 DEVIL MAY CRY 5 Dante and Nero need to budge up – a third playable character’s joining the adventure. The big 10 014 PLAYSTATION CLASSIC Discover the teeny-tiny console packed with the biggest retro games! cover feature 050 JUST CAUSE 4 It’s raining men… er, man, as we go hands-on, riding the storm with Rico Rodriguez. interview feature 060 CONTROL Remedy’s Thomas Puha discusses the dev’s return to PlayStation with its new title. review 072 ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY Be a lover as well as a fighter in this Ancient Greek epic. review 084 FIFA 19 Can the footie sim deliver the sport to match the licences? SUBSCRIBE NOW! Subscribe to OPM and not gamesradar.com/opm only will you get a special subs cover, and for less money, this .com/OPM_UK issue we’re offering a free facebook.com/OfficialPlayStationMagazine T-shirt! Details on page 58.

010 088 072 THE Games index 048 428: SHIBUYA SCRAMBLE 038 ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN 072 ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY 079 032 BATTLEFIELD V 082 BLACK CLOVER: QUARTET KNIGHTS 050 090 BLIND 083 CATASTRONAUTS 060 CONTROL 080 CREED: RISE TO GLORY 012 DAYS GONE 011 DEATH STRANDING 048 DÉRACINÉ 097 DESTINY 2 – FORSAKEN 016 012 006 DEVIL MAY CRY 5 010 DIRT RALLY 2.0 036 FALLOUT 76 048 FARMING SIMULATOR 19 084 FIFA 19 019 FINAL FANTASY XV POCKET EDITION 005 082 FISHING SIM WORLD 014 091 FIST OF THE NORTH STAR: LOST PARADISE 048 GRIP 048 HELL WARDERS 018 HITMAN 2 092 HOLLOW KNIGHT: VOIDHEART EDITION 050 JUST CAUSE 4 039 LEFT ALIVE 042 006 084 088 LIFE IS STRANGE 2 094 MEGA MAN 11 095 NBA 2K19 016 PROJECT JUDGE 090 SLIME RANCHER 078 SNK HEROINES: TAG TEAM FRENZY 042 SPYRO REIGNITED TRILOGY 032 100 STRANGE BRIGADE 048 TALES OF VESPERIA: DEFINITIVE EDITION 047 TEAM SONIC RACING 046 EFFECT 078 THE GARDENS BETWEEN 040 THE SINKING CITY 078 TORN SECTIONS AT A GLANCE 087 TRANSFERENCE 086 V-RALLY 4 THE BIG 10 PREVIEWS FEATURES REVIEWS NETWORK RETRO 096 VALKYRIA CHRONICLES 4 All the hottest news Latest info, screens To-the-point, In-depth verdicts on Max out your PS4, STATION and biggest games and playtests detailed analysis every big new game online and off 019 WORLD OF FINAL Classics revisited FANTASY MAXIMA 006 031 050071 099 106 090 ZONE OF THE ENDERS: THE 2ND RUNNER – MARS Imagine if Reservoir Dogs had been about demon hunters and, well, you get the idea.

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WITH HIS PENCHANT FOR SPEAKING IN VERSE, V SEEMS A LITTLE DIFFERENT TO NERO AND DANTE. 10 MUD AND THUNDER Dirt 2.0 is the sequel we demanded. 14 OLD SCHOOL PlayStation Classic: a retro delight. 16 PRIVATE DICK TheBig10We play Yakuza dev’s Project Judge. STORIES EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT Getting the DMC party crazy one weapon at a time 007 Our red-coated hero is back with style, taking on a job from the mysterious V

We’ve met we’ve come to expect from Nero and Dante and Dante, though we’ll find out more Nero before about him as the game’s January – now meet launch date looms ever closer. Devil May Cry 5’s IT TAKES TWO 01 mysterious The job on offer has to do with the new playable underworld taking over the human character, V, revealed at this year’s world on what seems to be a global Game Show. scale, and leads to Dante, Lady, and Dante needs to take a page from Trish meeting up with Nero and his Nero’s book. Even in this economy, mechanic Nico as they slay a hefty he insists on keeping up the number of demons in an attempt to spacious main Devil May Cry office, push back the legions of Hell. rather than take his younger The two groups will be working version’s slayers-on-wheels together in the fight, and it turns out approach. He even admits he needs that Nico’s grandmother was the to turn the water back on and get one who created some of Dante’s flushing toilets when offered a new original weapons, including Ebony cash-in-hand gig. and Ivory, his classic pistols. New The client? V. (Also the name of character she may be, but she Cyberpunk 2077’s lead. The name ‘V’ already has ties to the series’ story, is clearly the ‘Harry’ of the future.) and maybe even to Sparda himself. At this point, introducing a new And just who was it who stole character who doesn’t have white Nero’s original Devil Bringer arm? hair immediately raises suspicion. Does it play a part in the hellish ritual With a cane, hefty tome, and a that’s laying waste to the entire penchant for speaking in verse, V world? Does Dante’s brother Vergil, seems to offer something different lost to the underworld since Devil to the all-out action superstar antics May Cry 3, have something to do LIGHT YOUR DARK SOUL Trish and Lady are both present in Devil May Cry V, after originally butting heads with Dante in the first and third games TheBig10 respectively. There’s plenty of room to make friends – but will the new V be a STORIES EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT firm ally to the others?

with all this? While the game will be and he can even turn it back into a darkness, so it’s a good job the plenty of fun for newcomers, this bike and do doughnuts mid-combo. underworld has one ready and first return to the main series in ten Showboating? More like showbiking. waiting for him. It’s great to see his years is already giving long-time On top of that, we’ve also seen old comrades Lady and Trish taking fans plenty to chew on. Dante strap on Balrog – this game’s on the job alongside him. While they’ll version of the gauntlet weapons that be present within Dante’s gameplay, TRIGGER HAPPY power up his punches and kicks (like it’s unclear yet how much – both We’ve now seen plenty of how Dante Gilgamesh in DMC4). Balrog, in were playable in 2015’s DMC4: will play, and he still has a distinct particular, seems to make use of Special Edition. combat style from Nero. He has a ducking and weaving, and then laying unique sense of style too, and seems down close-up smackdowns on BUST A MOVE to favour a slightly heavier, more demons. The Coyote shotgun makes Do you like shiny things? Who considered approach to ploughing a return as well; Dante one-hands it, doesn’t? To satisfy our inner through his devilish foes. knocking enemies back as he fires, magpies, the game’s Deluxe Edition, If you’re familiar with the series, but at a much reduced fire rate which will give access to some extra you will be pleased to see Dante compared with Ebony and Ivory. And content, has been announced. Nero return with the signature it looks like Dante’s still using the will be able to utilise four bonus Devil combination of Ebony and Ivory, plus awakened Force Edge (known as Breaker arms, with highlights being his Rebellion sword. With these, Sparda, after his demon father), the fork-tipped Pasta Breaker, and combos are as you’d expect – you with the transforming weapon the Mega Buster – the latter being a use the guns to juggle and keep the shifting niftily between a scythe replica of Mega Man’s signature moves flowing between close- and a sword. arm-cannon. It’ll also give Dante the quarters slices. Rebellion still has Further enhancing Dante’s hefty Cavaliere R, a red alternative to his long thrusts, the million stabs move, armoury is his Devil Trigger form, standard bike; 12 battle music 008 as well as launchers and downward which allows him to power up for a tracks from the first four games if thrusts. On a basic level Dante will be limited time, enhancing his weapon you want to give demons hell to far from alien, and it looks like he movesets as well as making him nostalgic bangers; alternative even has skill options to zip between more powerful. announcers for the style ranks; and enemies and dodge incoming attacks With weapons like these, Dante’s – most intriguingly – live action at the last second if needed. ready to take on a whole army of cutscenes, whatever that means. If Dante’s motorbike, the Cavalier, is it results in us getting to see Reuben of course a weapon too. The bike Langdon, Dante’s voice and motion splits into two massive saw-blades WITH WEAPONS LIKE actor, rocking the natty red coat in which Dante waves around like your the flesh some more, then we just uncle when he insists on making you THESE, DANTE’S READY hit the jackpot. a bed rather than nipping down to TO TAKE ON A WHOLE ARMY Ikea. It’s got heavy weapons, which What weapons would you like to see in look like they’ll pack quite the punch, OF DARKNESS. Dante’s arsenal? Let us know @OPM_UK!

It says something about the series when the only way to make it any crazier is to create a weaponised chainsaw bike. Rev it up!

Q Nero’s ‘armless, except to demons. Then he’ll use a laser arm to melt you.

Q With Lady and Trish making a return, the cast of Devil May Cry V is sizeable. Not all demons are going to be pushovers. Dante will have to use everything he’s got to vanquish some.

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Q How do you keep a combo going? Never stop the hits coming, and what’s better for that than guns? Lots of guns.

Dante’s Devil Trigger is always a great option for powering up in a pinch and laying down the pain. On the road or off it, rubber’s going to fly, and things will definitely get messy.

010 Racing just got a little dirtier reveals the thoroughly unclean Dirt Rally 2.0

Do you like dirt? than heating up with an too. Where the first game offered a Does a pool of mud announcement of a follow-up that large selection of stages over three delight you, and promises to be an even dirtier ride. locations, Dirt Rally 2.0 is putting its make you want to One thing that’s certainly not all jetsetting cap on to take the racing 02 just get into it and that grubby about the game is the to six real-world rally locations. roll around until the number of official licenses. These wet, brown substance begins to help to recreate the sport in realistic MUD BROTHERS congeal and you become one with detail, and provide that extra level of dev talk The sequel is retaining the “Rally is incredibly the filthy, filthy earth? If yes, then immersion for those who already important to simulation-style rally racing that was chances are you’re follow the sport Codemasters and so good in the first game, so you can already a fan of outside the gaming the entire team is expect things to feel just as great, if rally, the MIX IT UP ON realm. Retaining absolutely dedicated not better, this time around. It’s a motorsport that SOME OFFICIAL and building on the to creating the most sport that’s really geared around sees cars cleave licensed material authentic experience. that feeling of physicality as the cars WORLDRX […] We are not afraid through courses present in the to make a challenging take on different types of road, so both on and off the CIRCUITS. original game, Dirt game. Driving a rally the realistic physics are great to see road – and you’ll be Rally 2.0 is the car down a stage is in a game like this, and with Dirt Rally thrilled to learn that Dirt Rally 2.0 is official game of the FIA World not easy and we 2.0 not only do the cars and tracks coming to PS4 on 26 Feb 2019. Championship presented want players to look nicer, but they appear to handle experience that same Codemasters already did what it by Monster Energy. You can also adrenaline rush.” even more viscerally too. does best with the first Dirt Rally expect to see all your favourite rally Pre-orders of the game will (we gave the sublime racer a 9/10 in cars – from 2018 season’s modern Ross Gowing include a Porsche 911 RGT Rally Chief games designer, OPM #122 if you want to dig the old cars to retro classics – and to mix it Codemasters Spec, and the Deluxe Edition brings issue out), so our engines are more up on some official WorldRX circuits with it some extra goodies for the SECRET IDENTITY ’s character seems to share a skull mask theme with Tommie Earl Jenkins’. Are both antagonists? How many others TheBig 10 can summon monsters? Only time (and Kojima-san) can tell… STORIES EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

As well as avoiding creepy invisible creatures, it seems you’ll have to avoid ones you can see too.

The man with the golden mask 011 Here comes a new challenger in Death Stranding

If you thought good Bridges (main man Norman Reedus’ old Koj had run out character). Sam is interrupted by of friends, then this stranger while carrying we’re sorry to say someone on his back, and it seems 03 you don’t know Mr the golden-faced man wants to get Hideo Kojima very in Sam’s way. Taking off his mask, well. Just when you think Death he’s able to channel some of the truly Dirt Rally-devoted. It’ll include Stranding’s cast couldn’t get more world’s sinister dark energy into it access to the first two post-launch interesting, someone else appears. to summon some sort of giant, seasons of Dirt Rally 2.0, which have Maybe it’s because he was the golden-masked ooze lion that, in his been announced as including three mastermind words, “looks new locations each, split between behind hungry”. Both the rally and rallycross-type races. before leaving to THE stranger and On top of that the Deluxe Edition form his self-titled STRANGER IS Sam’s suits beep will come with some early car studio Kojima furiously at the unlocks, in-game bonuses, and Productions with ABLE TO CHANNEL monster, though it better starter cars, and purchasers Sony; maybe it’s THE WORLD’S appears to be will get the game four days earlier, the purity of his different to the on 22 Feb as opposed to 26 Feb. It love of Mads DARK ENERGY. invisible creatures seems early unlocks for higher value Mikkelsen (see his we’ve glimpsed so editions of games are becoming Twitter for receipts). Either way, the far. Just what else hides in this more the norm, but if you really can’t auteur’s beloved. hidden realm just out of sight? wait to get muddied up and revel in Tommie Earl Jenkins joins the cast Before he disappears, the the sheer dirtiness of rampaging as an unnamed skull-faced stranger tells Sam the only way to round in a rally car, then it’s not one character, alongside Troy Baker survive is to avoid getting eaten. to sleep on. (Sam Drake in , and Ocelot Next, cue some gameplay (we hope) Expect a full hands-on with Dirt in MGS V), an also-mysterious man where Sam will do just that – but 2.0 in a forthcoming issue. in a golden mask, who was the quite how, we’re left to wonder. centre of the most recent trailer. Get the announcement trailer in front Seemingly an antagonist, he seems Who else could be pop up in this all-star of your eyes here: bit.ly/dr2trailer. to be causing trouble for Sam game? Give us your thoughts @OPM_UK. WE CAN HEAR THE MURMUR AND SLOSHING OF THE FREAKERS IN THEIR MUDDY NEST. HIGHWAY TO HELL The new mission we’ve seen is called ‘You Got A Death Wish’, and is what director John Garvin describes as “wide-linear”. Deacon TheBig10 needs parts for his bike, and runs into a Freaker nest along the way… STORIES EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

Q Clearing out Freaker nests will Q The game runs on the Decima engine, like unlock new map areas and missions. Horizon Zero Dawn, so it looks amazing. Days Gone gets its Freaker on 013 Sony Bend demos the exhausting nest missions

If crowds The Freakers wake and give make you chase. This is when you need to anxious then remember where you placed your we’d suggest bombs, so you can lead the frenzied you turn the mass past the planted explosives page now, and other handy environmental 04 as Sony Bend hazards. The truck of logs goes up sheds a little first, catching some of the throng, more light on how the Freaker horde then the tanker erupts and more fights play out in Days Gone. ghouls perish. Set against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, Deacon St John is RUN FREAKER, RUN scurrying from one point to the next There are 300 Freakers in pursuit in in a mud-clogged logging camp, this new demo. The strategy is clear: planting bombs as he goes. One pause briefly to turn and shoot oil against a trailer loaded with logs, barrels, throw Molotovs, and lead another against a fuel truck… the horde into choke points to pick Deacon’s not exploring the world, them off with a rattle of gunfire. he’s laying traps. Soon Deacon is running circuits The Freaker nest missions in Days around the logging camp, adapting Gone look like they’re going to be a tactics as he passes destructible full workout – of your strategies, objects that can stall or kill Freakers, , and gun skills. As things whittling their numbers down. aren’t so quiet, we can hear the These nest missions are a lot of murmur and sloshing of the work, but that just makes the final Freakers in their muddy nest. To get payoff, clubbing the last ghoul to the things going Deacon hurls a Molotov ground, even more satisfying. cocktail, selected from a slow-mo radial menu familiar to anyone who’s Days Gone will release 22 February. played Spider-Man, into the pit. How do you think the game’s looking? the big shot eagle-eyed analysis

Want to quit a game and return to the boot-up menu? Then press your fat finger onto this tiny button.

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Is the light on? Yep, it’s a power indicator. This button turns the console on just like it used to.

PlayStation Classic is here Sony’s new mini-console revealed

The all-new Flash, , and Final PlayStation Fantasy VII. More titles will Classic (or be revealed, but for now our mini-Station to readers have had their say. 05 its friends) will “I love Croc! However, I think a hit shops on realistic good choice would be the Two PS1 controllers come 3 December, priced £90. Almost Spider-Man game,” says Jay packaged. These are the 25 years after the original Giurleo. Toby Cruse comments: original designs and not GreyStation was released, the “Honestly the Playstation Classic the DualShock pads. new mini-console has stormed to will be entirely worth the price if the top of our Christmas wish list. it just came bundled with every It’s roughly 45% smaller than single @OPM_UK demo disc.” Aww, the old machine, and comes with if only we could. 20 games pre-loaded. The five titles revealed so far are: Visit www..com to 3, Type 4, Jumping pre-order your PlayStation Classic. The console has a single HDMI port and plugs into a USB power lead. How very modern. number game we do the maths

962Million. Total number of games (units) sold on the original PlayStation. 10,000,000 Sales of PS1 was celebrated with a 1994rare Midnight Blue edition. The year PS1 launched in Japan, on 2,4183 December just like the PS Classic. The number of games released for 015 PS1 during its lifespan.

Years it took to develop (Yamauchi-san had5 the idea as a child).

102Million original PlayStation consoles have been sold. It’s a record breaker.

The lid doesn’t open, silly, this is a mini-replica. This button actually changes the ‘virtual discs’. 128KB Capacity of PS1’s original external 8,766memory cards. So tiny! Days between PS1 launching and the arrival of PlayStation Classic. A disgraced lawyer turned private eye haunted by his past is cheesy, but it works.

016 The Yakuza dev bears a judge Ex-lawyer turned detective stars in the studio’s new game

The latest project something to you, then this is a character you can immediately get from Ga definitely the game for you. If not behind. Having been disgraced as a Gotoku Studio, the (and you’d be forgiven), rest assured defence attorney when a successful developer behind that Kimura is a very big deal in defendant was immediately accused 06 the Yakuza series, Japan, starring in many TV shows, of a new murder, he now works as a takes a step onto as well as being a member of the private detective, forever haunted by the cleaner side of the law. Called boy band SMAP. He also lent his the one case he couldn’t crack. Judge Eyes in Japan, with the voice to the titular Howl in Howl’s actor talk But what he will be cracking: “It’s my first time working English title of Project Moving Castle. Kimura has spent a playing a videogame skulls, with martial arts. After all, Judge, the game long time helping character, so I’m Project Judge is developed by the follows a defence YOU COULD to shape his very excited! Since team behind Yakuza, so fights still attorney turned character, and with the Yakuza series play a big part. They control like a private detective, EASILY MISTAKE things like the has always been a refined version of Yakuza 6’s Takayuki Yagami, opening sequence big presence for combat, with added style switching PROJECT JUDGE me, I was wondering as he investigates and theme music if I could too enter making a welcome return from brutal crimes. FOR AN ACTUAL by rock band a world like that, Yakuza 0/Kiwami. Yagami’s a brutal You might think J-DRAMA. Alexandros, plus like everyone else and quick fighter, with all sorts of it’d be hard for fantastic graphics, in the studio. I was ridiculous moves. While the story Yagami to top Kazuma Kiryu, you could easily mistake Project wondering how might seem much more serious in it would go – my Yakuza’s strongman with a heart of Judge for an actual J-Drama. imagination was tone than some of the goofier bits in gold, as a lead character, but thanks running wild.” Yakuza, there are still going to be to the casting of Takuya Kimura, AKA GRUDGE AND JURY plenty of out-there moments in Takuya Kimura Kimutaku, it’s looking possible. Having gone hands-on with the Actor, Project Judge Project Judge, with one Japanese Suffice to say, if that name means demo, we can confirm that Yagami is screenshot showing Yagami fighting SHIN YAKUZA Project Judge may flip the script, but a new, Kiryu-less Yakuza is still in the works, though it’s not announced TheBig10 for the West just yet. It’ll star newcomer Kasuga Ichiban. STORIES EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

info patches update your brain

Q Being a detective isn’t just about being sneaky. You’ve gotta rough ‘em up too.

Yakuza. While we control Yagami fully, he still has to complete QTEs in certain sections to leap over objects VRMAGEDDON or avoid things being thrown at him. PlayStation had a big showcase at Tokyo Naturally, the scene ends with us Game Show, which included a huge amount giving the man a vicious beating, and of upcoming PS VR support for the next year. hitting him with a bin. With Ace Combat 7, Kill X, Everybody’s Golf VR, and, most importantly, Space Channel 5 VR: Arakata Dancing Show, PS VR’s future is SAME-UROCHO going to be a bright one. In some ways Project Judge feels like a step forward for the studio’s Yakuza-type projects, but there’s no 017 getting around how close to Yakuza it feels. The game even takes place in that series’ main setting, the Kamurocho red-light district in Tokyo. The map is basically exactly the same. Though perhaps that leaves the door open to fun cameos from Yakuza characters? Given how close what we’ve played feels to actual Japanese TV, it’ll have to make up the difference in KEYS TO THE KINGDOM tone, and in its characters. And we With Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far have yet to see just how deep or releasing as you’re reading this – a mega package containing everything released so using a conspicuously shaped complex the investigation elements far on PS4 – the pre-Kingdom Hearts 3 catch “massager” as a weapon, and things go. At the moment, Kimura’s up doesn’t end here. The Kingdom Hearts like pinball parlours and drone racing performance as Yagami is enough to VR Experience dropping this winter let’s you making appearances. capture our hearts, and we’re explore its history in the virtual realm. Unlike Yakuza, though, which is already invested in seeing where the predominantly fighting, Project mystery leads, and what more the Judge includes some refined studio has in store. investigative elements to reflect Yagami’s role as a detective. The Project Judge releases in Japan this mission we take on in the demo has December, and in the UK in 2019. us tracking down a suspect. At first, we search for him outside a hostess club, where we must match his features from a checklist against a bunch of people who for some reason look quite similar. After that, we tail him, taking cover behind neon signs and checking our phone to look NOT SO REMNANT The Last Remnant Remastered arrives on casual. As we watch him make a PS4 in December, celebrating the classic shady deal in an alley, we investigate game’s tenth anniversary with its PlayStation key parts of the scene from a debut. This Square-Enix-developed JRPG isn’t distance. Spotting us, he runs, and part of a series, and by being standalone has the chase that follows feels a lot Q Picking locks, donning disguises, some interesting twists, like its intricate and smoother than similar sequences in spying, and more: detective work is fun. in-depth battle system. The Colombian jungle presents plenty of stealth opportunities, for you and a rival in Ghost mode.

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Hitman 2 gets spooky Beat another player to the targets in Ghost mode

There’s only one as a ghost, so you’re essentially players online. It’s great to see person out there operating in different realities. Hitman continue to experiment with the skills to Meaning if you mess up, the only with this, and facing off against match Agent 47, one you’re inconveniencing is others to one-up each other with 07 the world’s yourself. You both start in the kills is an exciting twist on the ultimate assassin: same location, and you will need simple leaderboard rivalries. himself. Hitman 2’s Ghost mode is a to use all the tricks in the book, brand-new 1v1 competitive mode including ICA drops, weapons, SILENT AND DEADLY that challenges you disguises, and Ghost mode will launch as part of to kill more targets other items, to the Miami destination. Post-launch than the other GHOST MODE outwit your rival. will see it roll out for the other player, in a ‘first to IS A BRAND-NEW Hitman 2 already stages. Fans will be pleased to see five’ situation. The experimented the environment line-up for Agent marks are the 1V1 COMPETITIVE with bringing 47’s latest globe-trotting festival of same, but you’ll also VARIANT. multiplayer to the death includes even more variety need to make your traditionally solo than the first, with the most recent kills smarter and cleaner in order to series with the excellent co-op announcement showcasing a deep, get the leg up. in the game’s pre-order Sniper dangerous Colombian jungle. As you compete, you’ll be Assassin stage, and previous able to see the parallel Agent games had players construct How would you like to try to out-Hitman 47 interacting with the world assassination challenges for other your friends? Let us know @OPM_UK. PRELUDE IN VIOLET New content for FFXIV arrives in the form of a hefty update, Prelude In Violet, which continues PlayStation the story and adds side-missions too. Stay tuned, and we’ll have voices the latest from Fan Fest. the month in mouthing off

Almost like a cutesy Spidey voice demake, the familiar is rendered adorable in actor Yuri FFXV Pocket Edition. Lowenthal loved meeting the web-slinger’s creator, Stan Lee: “A dear, sweet, gracious, funny man [who will never know the impact he’s had on my life].”

EA’s Daniel 019 Berlin shares Is this the remaster; one of his vital Battlefield V tips: “Keep your is this just fantasy? squad together, Final Fantasy spin-offs get the PS4 treatment and alive!”

Almost every reimagining of Final Fantasy XV, Final Fantasy complete with voice acting from is someone’s the original game. Chibi versions favourite, and of your best boys are, as we’ve 08 even the spin- always said, how they get you. offs endure. To Less of a port and more of an keep the legend alive, enhanced version is World Of Final has announced a “Legacy Of Final Fantasy Maxima, out 6 Nov, which Fantasy,” bringing some of the takes the nostalgia-ride original biggest side-stories to the big game that looks back at the history screen with PS4 ports. of the series and crams in even “What we’re Already released is Final Fantasy more champions and mirages. XV Pocket Edition. It’s a chibi Chocobo’s making now Every Buddy! is a remaster of the doesn’t feel like 2007 two-player co-op dungeon crawler in which you play as a an indie game…” chocobo, and arrives this winter. The icing on the cake, however, is teases his new Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition, which brings studio’s the super-cute, super-fun four- first player co-op game to PS4, with online co-op removing the hassle of project. the hard-to-play original version.

Q World Of Final Fantasy is a terrific series Which Final Fantasy games do you still celebration, so getting even more is a treat. want on PS4? Let us know @OPM_UK. Ancient Aztec and Mayan instruments were used to create the music for Shadow instant Of The Tomb Raider. opinion strong vs wrong

RED DEAD BETA Red Dead Online will launch in November, blending narrative, co-op, and competitive multiplayer. GTA Online v.2? Sounds great. SPIDER-SALES At the time of going to print, Marvel’s Spider- Man is the second- fastest-selling game of the last 12 months, after FIFA 18. FANG THEORY Drumming to Castlevania Requiem: Symphony Of The Night and Rondo Of Blood are a new beat on the PS Store… now! 020 They’re two classic Why videogame music is a new art form games you need to play, and are out just in time for Halloween. Composer, sound Spanish conquest, which sadly designer, and field decimated almost all records of their POTTY FOR POTTER recordist Brian rich musical culture.” A leaked gameplay video D’Oliveira took Using a mixture of recordings by 09 Shadow Of The archaeologists playing discovered of a new Harry Potter Tomb Raider’s instruments, studying the lost game got us very soundtrack in a new direction. The cultures, and his own collection of excited, and then game, released last month, featured Mayan and Aztec instruments, Warner Bros cast its music that seamlessly blended with D’Oliveira began building the game’s the adventure’s sound design. unique blend of sounds. This included Evanesco spell and it The musician explains: “My aim finding Lara’s musical personality. vanished. Will we ever was to find the perfect balance of “I see my work as that of a see it again? Hmm, we Lara’s more ‘classical’ musical storyteller and not just a musician, think so. influences along with a true and it’s imperative that I express all and honest the subtleties of the PARTY POOPER representation of characters… My SIE Worldwide Studios’ the rich Mayan and I SEE MYSELF ancient 1780 chairman Shawn Aztec musical AS STORYTELLER, Baroque cello and cultures that have flute lend Layden confirmed been mostly lost AND NOT JUST A themselves to being there’ll be no PSX this because of the MUSICIAN. her ‘inner voice’,” year. That’s it, there’s no says D’Oliveira. joke. We’re too sad to It took time to perfect the music laugh at this news. for Tomb Raider; D’Oliveira spent the first two two years iterating the VITA R.I.P. sound design. During production he even played live in a domed venue Sony Interactive while 150 speakers played sampled Entertainment senior jungle sounds to immerse listeners. vice president Hiroyuki “I plan to now do this live set, and Oda says there’s no I am also contemplating doing a plans for a new PS Vita. dance-floor friendly set,” he says. Oscar’s taken Q Brian D’Oliveira is now planning a live Go to www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk compassionate leave to set – music to our ears. to buy OPM #154 and get the music CD. get over the news.

FORTNITE FOR ALL Sony has launched a cross-play beta for Fortnite enabling gameplay, progression stats, and The Big 10 purchases to be used across PS4 and other systems. Console gaming STORIES EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT just changed, thanks to Sony.

just one more question… 10 the team debate this month’s burning issue Cross-play is a reality – so which game will benefit the most?

022 IAN DEAN JESS KINGHORN OSCAR TAYLOR-KENT MILFORD COPPOCK EDITOR STAFF WRITER GAMES EDITOR MANAGING ART EDITOR

CROSS-PLAY IS THE FAMILY THAT WHEN EXPLORING THIS TOWN IS BIG GREAT, BUT WILL IT PLAYS TOGETHER, LORDRAN I DON’T ENOUGH FOR ALL REIGNITE THE STAYS TOGETHER. WANT PEACE. OF US… CONSOLE WAR? My kid sister, the young One online game, whose When Red Dead It’s a bold step by Sony fool, is a traitor. Even sense of community Redemption 2’s online to allow cross-play; it’s after much begging and constantly has me mode launches, there’s something pleading, she Switched to intrigued, is Dark ’. no doubt that every refused to do when it the dark side. Truly, such Almost wordless, you can gunslinger in the land is briefly had the better- a sin from one of my own only communicate going to be jumping in to selling console ( 360 blood cannot be forgiven properly by messages make their dreams come versus PS3). Whether it and must be paid for, laid on the ground via true in the new frontier. will truly catch on is victory royale style. For pre-written prompts, or The gold experience could another matter, but given the mere notion that I by gesturing at one be even better if the Epic is working with Sony could best her at Fortnite, another. And, of course, world was truly open to to create a stable she called me deluded. you can summon players all. I want to play fast and cross-play system, we While it may be true that in to aid you in difficult loose with all comers, no could see future games the battle royale areas, or invade players’ matter which platform built using 4 behemoth is something of worlds to cause them they hail from. With such offering the service, or a young person’s game, grief. Some invaders will a huge and detailed world, indeed adding cross-play she won’t know what hit bow respectfully and wait it doesn’t feel like it to current UE4 games. I’d her when she enters my for you to be ready, while should be one with love to take on all comers domain in my beloved in other areas they may limitations on who can in Dragon Ball FighterZ, Dragon Quest X… though sneak up on you and mosey on down to where. for example. The real considering neither of us taunt you. But it’s always These lands should be question is: does this end speak Japanese, perhaps a good time. As the bustling with a new kind the decades old console the playing field will be games get older, we need of civilisation – gamers war or merely shift it more level than I would every hollowed warrior from the world over online? I’m hoping like for the Japan- we can get across any gunning down, whoever everyone can get along, exclusive MMORPG. Let platform, so that the fire they want and riding old, regardless of system. Q the battle commence. Q may never die. Q broken donkeys. Q

REPLIES F facebook.com/OfficialPlayStationMagazine T @OPM_UK W gamesradar.com/opm E [email protected]

#154 Yeehaw! We went over the past 12 months hands-on with the game or so. With so many CAN I GET A RT? everyone’s talking about. remakes and remasters The most pleasing tweetings currently available for from the @OPM_UK timeline… the PS4, it’s great that so many younger gamers can participate in some @turbogeek421 of yesteryear’s best Love my Vita! games. In regard to Out of the top 5, I’ve platinumed 3 of them, this, we have numerous played 1, and not played Atari 2600 and 1… the 1 I’ve not played is Mega Drive remasters your top pick! in circulation from the Might be time to change past few generations, yet that! there has never been an collection available @NorthLightFilm for any of the consoles. I Aim high while the understand that licensing beckons. your PS VR, Brian. While Virtual gifts issues or missing/lost [Very zen! – ed] I recently picked up PS digital purchases have game code could be a VR along with Batman VR their benefits, being factor in this. To be able and Skyrim VR and loved transferrable isn’t one to relive classics such as @DannyRosamond of them. We’re guessing Embarrassing admission. it. Unfortunately, though, Sensible World Of Soccer I’ve never played I have had to get rid of enabling people to pass (best football game ever), games on doesn’t make Symphony of the Night. 024 it all on doctor’s orders Cannon Fodder, Elite, Time to correct that. thanks to my epilepsy. sound business sense, Elite 2: Frontier, Turrican so is unlikely to happen. It’s an amazing piece of 1-4, Uridium 1 and 2, @Mick_Boss technology and Batman Which is a shame. Beneath A Steel Sky, had to pick opm even especially was fantastic Flashback, Alien Breed though i read a million so I’m totally gutted after Classics rock 1 and 2, Syndicate, and red dead redemption 2 previews already getting having bought 20+ VR As an avid reader and possibly the hardest game a physical mag with one games from PSN. a 45-year-old gamer, I game ever made (dream is all part of that ritual We need a way to gift/ would like to say great on, trilogy) when a new Rockstar transfer purchases on work on your recent retro Impossible Mission, would game is on the way for PSN as I could pass my gaming retrospectives be a great nostalgic trip me (also wanted the large games on to other people poster) #gaming #ps4 seeing as I won’t be able #Playstation @OPM_UK to use then now. WE NEED A WAY TO GIFT/ troll of the month Brian Malcolm via email TRANSFER PURCHASES ON PSN @Tonyc6661 We’re sorry to hear AS I COULD PASS MY GAMES ON Haha boobs I am going to you’ve had to give up TO OTHER PEOPLE. start playing fortnite again now haha for gamers of my ilk Star letter Pure gold but also show younger Looking through the free retro magazine [with OPM gamers that the Amiga @realjallen1981 #153] and reading about all the remakes I noticed that was one of the best If the new PlayStation is a lot of them are programmed by . gaming platforms in the to be a real ‘classic’ then late ’80s/early ’90s. it has to have a Wipeout of If I remember Bluepoint Games made the excellent some description on it. Uncharted Golden Abyss on PS Vita. Surely it would Wayne Dannatt via email not take a great deal of work to convert this to PS4. @TimeToSplitters The way that remakes are being done even the Some games do head I can already hear the TS2 motion sensor sections wouldn’t be a problem for the to the PS Store, like Siberia level song in head. DualShock 4. I think if it was put out as a digital edition Another World, but *sheds tear* in the same way as Lost Legacy at the right price all you’re right, in a world Every time... Uncharted fans would buy it. obsessed with pixel art Phil Hall via email Metroidvanias, where’s @mattygamer73 Turrican? For more Red dead 2 comes out the retro, flip back to page day before my marriage, We’re afraid taking a game from PS Vita to PS4 early wedding gift for me!! would be a lot of work, Phil – but with Uncharted’s 14 to fnd out about the Wonder what my bride will sizeable fanbase, it might be worth the effort. PlayStation Classic and think!! all its fab games. best comments from facebook.com/officialplaystationmagazine “I don’t want a half-assed Joel inclusion. “Bring Cayde back. Either make him a decent part of the Forsaken made story or have him have died tragically.” everything worse.” Matt booth wants all or the last of Joel It did for Cayde, Jericho wolf

READERS’ MOST WANTED Which games are bleeping loudest on your radar?

Red Dead Redemption 2 Out only a few days after this Ghost Of magazine, you’ve not long to Tsushima wait to discover if this open- Sneaking onto the end of world western will grab you your Most Wanted list, it’s by the posse. Sony’s beautiful-looking FORMAT PS4 samurai adventure. We’re ETA 26 OCT going to be drooling over this one for some time yet. FORMAT PS4 ETA 2019

The Last Of Us Part II VOTE Like Ellie, we’ve only the 025 memory of that kiss to NOW! keep us going… but we will survive till this one Tell us the five games hits our PS4s! you can’t wait to play at FORMAT PS4 ETA TBC [email protected]

Cyberpunk 2077 Winter makes us all hanker Kingdom Hearts III after long games to cosy This one should brighten our New up with, and news of The Year – but have you got enough time Witcher TV series reminds to learn all the convoluted lore first? us of CD Projekt Red’s FORMAT PS4 finest work. We want more ETA 25 JAN 2019 from that dev, right now! FORMAT PS4 ETA TBC

EXIT 23% Go for 6% Choose the ’s still-respectable POLL arcade action. Shadow Fall. Our Facebook What was your fans answer a 7% Pick favourite PS4 16% Decide 38% 1920s-themed NEXT final question to troll us and Reckon it’s puzzle-platformer launch title?* say Knack. Assassin’s Creed Contrast. MONTH IV: Black Flag. Which game would 10% – only you most like to *See p64 for ours 10%! – opt for Lego Marvel see remastered Super Heroes. for PS4? OPINION

Oscar Taylor-Kent AS GAMES GET DEEPER, THERE’S ONE CATCH-ALL TO ADD SPICE TO ANY LIFE: A LITTLE BIT OF ROLEPLAY NEVER HURT ANYONE.

For better or worse, these days everything’s an RPG

ut isn’t any game where playing Junior back on the you play as a character an original PlayStation for all my RPG RPG?” That’s my dad. He needs (Level 3, obviously). knows damn well that’s While the numbers help, the heart not what I mean, as I of a good RPG is more of a feeling explain to him yet again than whether it ticks off a checklist 026 Bwhat RPG is short for, and why I’m definition. A great RPG pulls you into playing so many of them. In a sense, its world, and allows you to inhabit it. he is right. When we inhabit the That’s why exploring Ancient Greece sneaky, footprint-leaving boots of holds so much appeal in Odyssey, or Solid Snake we are inhabiting his the streets of Night City in Cyberpunk character, but Metal Gear Solid still 2077. Not just because we level up or isn’t a role-playing game. choose a spicy or mild response to As time’s gone on, though, my dad’s something our friend says, but because become more and more right. As WRITER BIO they use the language of games to technology’s moved forwards and Oscar Taylor-Kent made the choice to give hook us and draw us in, to make us things you can do in games have grown himself over to RPGs a long time ago. But the really feel like it’s us down there doing real question is whether he’s really Oscar at deeper, the way you play around with all, or is he just playing a character? If that’s the exploring ourselves. characters in these digital realms has the case, then he really should have thought With advancements in hardware, had to get deeper too. Narratives and about his stat distribution a bit harder. some tricks won’t work on us in the characters can have much more fidelity way they used to. Switching up to 4K these days, but how do you fit this Origins made, Odyssey sees you step is nice, but it lacked the mind-bending seamlessly into a game and improve a further into the sandals of your punch of that first move away from player’s connection with that world? chosen avatar – Kassandra or Alexios the blocky polygons of old to What better way to improve your – than ever before. Dialogue choices smoother visuals, or the brain-Mentos relationship than with a bit of now affect how missions will progress, buzz of getting a high-definition telly harmless role-play? and you get the option to pursue for your PlayStation 3 and gaining a Assassin’s Creed is a series that’s romance choices with a ton of other new level of appreciation for Nathan been experiencing characters. As Mass Effect has taught Drake’s not-so-hidden rear treasure. some changes lately. us, what’s more RPG than that? Big worlds just aren’t going to cut it What was once a any more. We’re already well-travelled tower-climbing, RPG LAUNCHER enough. What’s truly impressive now hay-jumping action Because really, while one is how detailed you can make a world. adventure has morphed way of looking at RPGs While Red Dead Redemption 2 might into a more level-driven, is numbers and stat-based not be a traditional RPG, Rockstar’s RPG-lite experience, – Cyberpunk 2077’s commitment to adding depth to the especially with all the gameplay demo had setting adds a new layer to it as an changes brought to last enough digits to make open-world game, one you explore as year’s Assassin’s Creed my calculator blush – Arthur Morgan. It’s not what you’d Origins. This year, follow-up that’s far from what think of as an RPG at all, but if I can Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is RPGs really mean to feel like I’m Morgan, pottering around taking the Origins template and fans of the genre. If that exploring cupboards and forging doubling down on the RPG wasn’t the case, then I relationships, what’s the difference? elements. On top of the changes would have stuck to The future is RPG. OPINION

Jess Kinghorn Malindy Hetfeld

WHEN ARE WE GOING TO I WOULD RATHER PLAY TAKE THE LONG-TERM A NEW GAME THAN WATCH PRESERVATION OF OUR AN ADAPTATION OF A MEDIUM SERIOUSLY? CLASSIC ONE.

There’s got to be a better way beyond buying Films can introduce games to broader audiences, the same games over and over again but maybe games work better on their own

his December, Sony a number of ways to enjoy old ollywood isn’t giving Sure, if voice actors were to will throw its hat into favourites regardless of the up on getting a piece take up their characters’ roles, the ring of retro, tech you have to hand. of the videogame that would be similarly Tquarter-sized console Unfortunately, the current Hcake, even after unconvincing (and result in reproductions with the approach leaves massive blind several setbacks. We can Troy Baker being everywhere), PlayStation Classic. As spots in PlayStation’s library… argue the merits of films but we used to look to films excited as I am to get my and no, I’m not going to use such as this year’s Tomb to prove the mass appeal of 027 similarly tiny mitts on it, I this opportunity to bang on Raider until we’re blue in game worlds and stories to can’t help but look far about my Shadow Hearts full the face, but none of these audiences. Since then, more beyond this Christmas and remake pipe dream – that’s films have achieved (or people have grown up with think about the long-term what the podcast is for. deserved) critical acclaim or games or started playing. conservation of games. financial success. As Netflix Games have matured, yet By their experiential nature, ACTION STATION is gearing up for another make the unbelievable seem and due to the onward march I’m not one to turn my nose attempt, I’m asking myself normal, and nothing outside of tech, games are difficult to up at any future consoles-of- who the desired audience is. of superhero films seems to preserve, though that doesn’t gaming-past-reproductions, The fact that even a TV be able to replicate that sort stop not-for-profits such as but it would be wrongheaded giant like Netflix, known for of juxtaposition and not look The History to leave the responsibility of high production values and a weird. Honestly, I just hope Foundation attempting the preserving PlayStation media hand in changing the Henry Cavill pulls off Geralt’s task. Founder Frank Cifaldi solely at Sony’s door. In the perception of telly as a worse magnificent silver mane. cites the example of early film face of old tech’s fragility (and alternative to films, is working preservation (or rather lack the pulling of repair support on a Witcher TV series is a PLAYING A ROLE thereof, as so much released for elderly consoles), a fantastic argument for the Instead, I’m now enjoying the before the 1950s is now lost) reproduction model production value of games. intersection of both worlds as the impetus behind the benefitting from today’s parts That same value makes it whenever a screen actor foundation’s mission seems logical, but the lack of hard for me to see TV and appears in a game. Several statement. While much of integration with modern film as anything but a copy. generations of Japanese stars this group’s current work conveniences such as PSN is a Game narratives have made appear in the Yakuza series. covers earlier videogame missed trick. huge strides, now offering Elsewhere, established actors history, more needs to be Much as I appreciate having “cinematic” narrative such as Clancy Brown in done by a number of parties the option to re-experience structures. Character models Detroit: Become Human gain in order to facilitate the games, buying the same ones and graphics are becoming new fanbases that way. It preservation of titles released over and over makes me feel ever better. This means I have seems as if games are the here and now. the human equivalent of a become so attached to iconic place to be. Maybe The It’s not a dystopian future disc read error. The assertion characters and their voice Witcher will be the adaptation for games: between remakes, that backwards compatibility actors, I would rather play that combines an adequate remasters, PS2 classics on PS4 isn’t wanted hits the ear as something by people familiar budget with a dedication and also those available for pleasantly as the dreaded with the tone of a game than to the source material. download via PS Now there’s grinding of hardware failure. watch an adaptation. Meanwhile, I’ll play a game.

WRITER BIO WRITER BIO Jess Kinghorn, as a pint-sized gaming machine herself, enjoys similarly petite Malindy Hetfeld believes that games no longer profit from the thrill of ‘coming consoles. Her collection of titles from generations past is anything but compact, to life’ on the big screen, mostly because she’s still bitter no-one jumped at the and it’s best not to ask what other small but mighty tech she has stashed away. chance to make a film featuring every Mass Effect alien. 1 BUDDY COPS

Buddy Cops Demolishing doughnuts and busting perps with PlayStation’s finest police pals

1 FAR CRY 5 4 TIME CRISIS 2 7 LA NOIRE With Hope County infested There ain’t no friendship like Unlike Raymond, everyone 2 with the followers of evil cult a friendship that’s been hates Cole Phelps. His patrol Eden’s Gate, your mute solidified with lightgun unit? Total resentment. The deputy isn’t afforded many bonding. Time Crisis 2 was traffic desk? Can’t stand him. opportunities for bobby-on- the first game in the series The homicide and vice desks? the-beat bonding with their to introduce co-op, allowing All the hate… with extra colleagues. When your you to partner with a chum contempt thrown in. It’s not 028 custom character isn’t as you take control of agents until the elastic-faced ’tec fighting the Seed Family, Keith Martin and Robert lands on the arson desk that Sheriff Earl Whitehorse (and Baxter while the compadres he finally makes a friend in his stupendous ’tache) is foil a nefarious terrorist plan amiable cop Herschel Biggs. happy to have a chinwag. involving satellites. 8 DRIVER: SAN 2 : 5 RESIDENT EVIL 4 FRANCISCO STREETS OF LA Leon receives the most Tanner and Jones are just It’s a scientific fact that horrid of welcomes upon like Riggs and Murtaugh adding Christopher Walken arriving in Resi 4’s rural from Lethal Weapon. One’s a to anything makes it 76% Spain. Still, though by-the-book lawman, the better. This is the case with parasite-infected locals try other’s a renegade who can Luxoflux’s so-so sandbox, to gouge his face off, at project his consciousness 3 where Walken’s cop George, least he becomes pals with into every car in San Fran a kindly desk sergeant, is the ex-cop Luis Sera. The special via a magic coma. All right, only likeable character to agent and hunky po-po they’re sod-all like Riggs and interact with Nick Kang. The become Gandos-slaying Murtaugh. At least Tanner two share a father/son allies… well, until Luis gets and Jones share some bond, and we all wish Chris skewered like a sea bass. banter before the former’s Walken was our pop. extended nap. 6 3 MAX PAYNE 3 Axel Storm, Blaze Fielding, 9 DETROIT: When he’s not off his face on and ex-boxer-turned cop BECOME HUMAN Kong whiskey, Max is Adam Hunter all get the ‘Buddies’ may be stretching granted plenty of time to chance to grow closer on the affection between befriend ex-cop Raul Passos, those 16-bit streets while android cop Connor, and his once the Colombian talks him whupping the collective arse partner Hank, a jaded into taking a protection job in of Mr X’s evil forces. Well, alcoholic. Depending on your São Paulo. After one of their provided your definition of choices, the pair either bond protectees is kidnapped, the ‘grow closer’ involves never while trying to stop the two former NYPD detectives talking to each other, eating robot renegades, or kill each get to share in their love of chicken off the ground, and other. For the purpose of pithy put-downs, sharp suits, kicking an Ultimate Warrior this list, we’ll choose the and slo-mo shootouts. wannabe in the teeth. police pals option.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS Ratchet & Clank 3 Miami Vice Starsky & Hutch In the Lombax’s threequel, You know who asked for a Another rubbish licensed game Ratchet joins the Q-Force; a shoddy PSP tie-in of Michael that couldn’t be saved by either group that more or less acts Mann’s Crockett and Tubbs its cop companions, nor the as intergalactic police. reboot? Norman Nobody. superfly Huggy Bear.

Did we miss your favourite buddies? Got a brilliant In The Mood For idea? Show and tell at twitter.com/opm_uk. 4 7

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42 SPYRO REIGNITED TRILOGY We give the little dragon a workout – and you can really feel the burn!

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CONTENTS BATTLEFIELD V 32 | FALLOUT 76 36 | ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN 38 | LEFT ALIVE 39 THE SINKING CITY 40 | TETRIS EFFECT 46 | TEAM SONIC RACING 47 | DÉCRACINÉ 48 HELL WARDERS 48 | GRIP 48 | FARMING SIMULATOR 19 48 PREVIEW

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From WW1 with Battlefield 1 to WW2 with Battlefield V, EA DICE is still the master of large- scale historical warfare. PREVIEW

“CONFLICT IS EPIC, SPRAWLING, CHAOTIC, AND ALWAYS DEADLY.”

FORMAT PS4 / ETA 20 NOV PUB EA / DEV EA DICE BATTLEFIELD V We shall fight on the beaches… 033 over and over again

The heavy, rapid thud of our assault rifle as we take down some unwitting soldiers poking up above cover; scrunching forward through snow as we stay low to the ground; the drone of planes overhead punctuated by intermittent machine gun fire; and the whirr of treads as a tank crashes through a nearby building – friend or foe? Perverse as it may be, all that’s the sound of home.

To clear a capture point we lob a grenade into a first- storey window. It explodes and the interior of the building crumbles piece by piece around the cadavers of the enemies within, the collected snow sliding off the roof as it collapses outward. With enemy soldiers cleared for now we rally and capture the point. That’s a story of success. But across these huge multiplayer maps tons of these little micro-stories are playing out at once. As we capture this point, just across the way comrades are beaten back. There’s a reason the game’s called Battlefield, after all. Check your quickfire at the door – conflict in Battlefield V is epic, sprawling, chaotic, and always, always deadly. Lone wolves will get the team killed, and squad play is the key to that big “V” victory. TURNING THE TIDES Our latest hands-on with Battlefield V is played as the game should be – with heaps of other people running amok thanks to the shooter’s Tides Of War mode. With 64 players in a game, it’s the sort of PREVIEW

Left You’ll find plenty of cover in the half-ruined buildings of Battlefield, as dogfights rage above.

Right Vehicles are still a highlight. Driving a tank and raining big-shell death down an enemies is as big a rush as it ever was.

You can hop onto your friend’s tank to pilot a mounted machine gun. As long as they stop driving in circles…

The grandest of operations How two in-game days on a multi-step multiplayer map puts you to the test

While you might play a map The default spawn points in Taking down AA guns allows Vehicles are key to the like Arctic Fjord in several Airborne are all mobile, with for an easier time during Battlefield experience. 1modes, your varied objectives 2allied planes moving across the 3Day 2. A bit like a segmented 4Playable Spitfires dogfight change the way you interact with map constantly for you to respawn Conquest, Breakthrough is about above the map. On the ground you the spaces immensely. from and parachute back down. capturing and holding points. can deliver hot death in a tank. PREVIEW

thing you can only truly experience alongside many fellow online soldiers, where you’ll make quick friendships with your comrades, and also forge heated rivalries as you contest points. The Dutch city of Rotterdam was devastated during World War 2, but here we play through it early in the conflict while it’s still fairly intact, navigating wide roads and elevated train tracks, ducking through narrow alleys, and weaving between open buildings around the port. The huge number of different routes through the streets can easily see your team de-synergise if you’re not careful. There’s a whole new sense of tangibility and physicality to how you scramble over the maps, fighting to control critical points in the city. We get to play around with each of the four main classes: Assault, Recon, Medic, and Support, with one combat role to try for each (though in the full Above Rotterdam truly feels like a city abandoned in the middle of something. game, each main class will have several possible It’s haunting, but filled with lovely little shortcuts and tons of makeshift cover. roles). With each class having different loadouts and traits, getting a good spread in your team is a must. Assault’s Grenadier role is perfect for flushing out points, Recon’s Sniper is great for picking off “WE HOP IN A TANK – advancing troops, and the Field Medic can use Syringe Revive to recover any fallen ally (regular A BIG BRITISH troops can revive their squadmates – squads are sub-teams of four players that can act as a unit, and CHURCHILL CROCODILE provide moving spawn points). FACTRICK NORWAY AROUND IT 1. FIRESTORM The Arctic Fjord map, set in Norway, – AND ALL OUR CARES This is the title of the new Battle Royale-style game also impresses for other reasons. The mode that’s obligatory in snowy setting couldn’t be more different 035 MELT AWAY.” shooters now. to Rotterdam’s port city streets, not just 2. TAKE COVER because we have to battle the Scandinavian Bullets can realistically elements, but because it’s a wider map that puncture through thin cover, so make sure you’re not seems to lead to some stricter laning and giving yourself away. tighter squad play as a result. Even when 3. WAR STORIES you play in Conquest mode, aiming to Single-players, worry not. control key points just like in Rotterdam, it War Stories mode returns feels quite different. But the Fjords are also to tell snippets about interesting aspects of WW2. the setting for a taste of the new Grand Operations mode – where, in the full game, four in-game day mini-matches roll into the next from one another. In our two-day taster of the Fall Of Norway operation, we play through Airborne, which sees paratroopers on a night-time raid escorting explosives to destroy anti-aircraft guns, and then a match of Breakthrough the morning after, where two points at a time have to be captured and held before moving on to the next segment of the map, as territory is battled for fiercely and big pushes are Above Going off on your own is a good way to get killed and lose made to gain ground. your team’s respawns. Squad up to capture points tactically. Things aren’t going too well for a while as we tussle for control over the final two capture points. It’s a bit of a stalemate, and both teams are nearly neck-and-neck with revives as the clock ticks down. But then we hop in a tank – a big British Churchill Crocodile – and all our cares melt away as we trundle down the hill to the final point, rag-dolling enemies out the way with massive explosions. Our tank is taken down, of course, but it provides just enough of a window for us to get that last capture. And that’s just day two of the Grand Operation – with two more days to play through, who knows how it will progress from here? As usual, there’s going to be plenty of content to chew on in Battlefield V, Above Nobody’s left behind. You can revive your squadmates but the true war stories are going to be the ones we to keep boots on the ground, and medics can heal anyone. make ourselves along the way. “THE IDEAS IS THAT YOU ARE THE FIRST HUMANS BACK OUT ON THE SURFACE.”

FORMAT PS4 / ETA 14 NOV / PUB BETHESDA / DEV BETHESDA GAME STUDIOS FALLOUT 76 036 Up and atom in the multiplayer apocalypse

F inally it’s time to leave the vault The map is huge, four times the and populate the wastelands size of Fallout 4. We find a water park, of Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic explore a mine, fight ghouls on a golf MMORPG, but we have some course, and blow up a mutated bear in concerns. First, is 25 years really a garage. We also pick up mutations of long enough for the nuked, our own. Alongside radiation damage, irradiated world to be habitable? And, mainly, are you have a random chance of changing. we really going to allow other gamers to trample Having deliberately poked around in over our precious Fallout experience? radioactive material, one of our group develops the Marsupial mutation, As we start playing one thing’s clear: the game allowing him to leap like a kangaroo. mostly looks and plays like Fallout 4, except for there being other players milling around. You start GOOD GRIEF(ER) in a group of four, in instances of up to PvP is also a big part of Fallout 76, 24, but if you prefer solo play you can go but the devs have gone all-out to Top The VATS system is back but now plays in real time to FACTRICK off on your own at any time. There are no ensure griefers won’t ruin your game. accomodate the online co-op 1. SCARRED OFF human NPCs – the idea is that you are the Kill another player who’s not fighting direction of Fallout 76. Your character will change first humans back out on the surface, and back and you become a murderer, based on how you play. Get missions are acquired through interacting with a bounty (from your own caps) into a lot of fights and they’ll grow visible scars. with the world (holotapes, robots, and so for other players to claim, and your 2. CALLING CARD on) while every human you fight or trade weapons receive a debuff. It’s a great Fallout 76 has a photo mode, with is a real person, fresh out of the vault. bit of that punishes while and you can use it to take We still find plenty of mutated creatures, providing a dramatic wasteland event. snaps of your in-game hero ghouls, and other familiar foes, and running Or, if you prefer, a ‘pacifist flag’ will for their ‘ID badge’. squad skirmishes with super-mutants is a turn off all human damage. 3. FACE TIME new but logical experience. You can swap Despite the multiplayer angle, the You can change the look of out acquired Perks at any time, to balance single-player promises to be just as your character at any point in the game. Handy for us squad strengths. Aside from missions, there gratifying as the previous games, with contrary gamers. are sporadic events; we fight a Scorch Beast Bethesda confirming to OPM that – a massive dragon – that is way too high there are hundreds of hours’ worth a level for us. If you thought Deathclaws were brutal, of quests outside of the main path. these things are terrifying. The VATS targeting Enough to keep even the most rabid system returns, but in real time. It’s trickier too, and Fallout fan as happy as a bloatfly in will require Perks and practice to make it optimal. radioactive muck. PREVIEW

Fallout 76 can look good, and you’ll forget it’s an online MMORPG.

Play nice 037 We discover it pays to play well with others in Fallout 76

Our group finds a public After skirmishing with ghouls, One of our group starts A full-on battle with crafting station and starts we head to The Whitespring. shooting up the robots. Protectrons and Assaultrons 1tooling up using resources we 2This former luxury resort is 3They respond with extreme 4ends in a lot of scrap , gather, making armour, knives, and still being serviced by robot butlers prejudice. Man down! Time to help and plenty of XP to share among the handy pipe-revolvers. and mechanical security guards. out our buddies… group, to level us all up.

Left Exploring the Above You can play the game typical wasteland towns solo like classic Fallout, but and shacks with other Bethesda is clear online is players feels better than the way to play this new we’d anticipated. addition in the series. PREVIEW on the box judged only by their covers

“IN PS VR THE WHOLE Puzzler in which you need to THING BECOMES stack your broken cars one on top of the other without The game’s near- the whole caboodle toppling MORE PERSONAL.” future sci-fi look over. Rival players can team adds to the spectacle. up to slam their cars into your precariously balanced stack. Wreckfest? Wreck- FORMAT PS4, PS VR / ETA 18 JAN / PUB BANDAI NAMCO / DEV PROJECT FORCES feast more like. FORMAT PS4 ETA 20 NOV ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN 038 Takes our breath away

It’s a celebration that may slip under the Once in the sky, those dials and radar, but Ace Combat is about to mark digits become useful, enabling us to its 23rd anniversary. It’s a date worth check altitude and air speed, toggle toasting, though, as the jet fighter series weapons and rockets, and generally get has been a PlayStation stalwart worth savouring. set for the fight that’s coming. This seventh edition ticks all the boxes you’d While outside VR the main game PILLARS OF expect from the series: impressive visuals, bonkers can feel a little clinical, essentially ETERNITY II: plot, simcade controls, poetic subtitle, and oodles lining up and shooting blinking targets DEADFIRE of things to explode. in the HUD, in PS VR the whole thing RPG set in a land where becomes more direct and personal. men can wear skirts to It’s also doing something new to the series. Ace Targets are tracked with line-of-sight, work, birds fly around Combat 7: Skies Unknown embraces PS VR. In so turning our head and actively uncaged, and LARPing many ways the franchise was destined to be a virtual looking around, up, and even down isn’t laughed at. Welcome to Deadfire. reality trailblazer. After all, what better game suits the outside of the plane reveals enemy FORMAT PS4 ETA 31 DEC the new immersive tech than a flight sim? aircraft. Once locked on you need to This is no afterthought either. Ace Combat 7’s maintain eye contact until the missiles PS VR support has been developed in tandem with explode in puffs of fire and smoke the main game’s story mode. From the title menu trails. In Ace Combat 7 you can choose the PS VR option, which opens up offers fast and giddy dog fights, far an entirely new roster of missions, set within the removed from the long-range fire and world and timeline of the main game. forget of the main game. After nearly a quarter of a century, FLIGHT CONTROL Ace Combat has evolved. Impressively, the plane controls have been designed specifically for virtual reality, so everything is one- to-one ratio and even the dials and buttons work. Just sitting in this cockpit gives us goosebumps, and METRO EXODUS then the mission begins in earnest. From the off Fed up with rising train the game lays the spectacle on thick. As our plane fares and being nudged taxis down the runway enemy fighters and bombers under tall people’s armpits, in this walking swoop over our head; some are caught by our side’s sim everyone’s leaving the AA guns and explode across the runway. We peer underground, where they over our shoulder to get a good look at the burning Above Missions end with a classic fight; discover they could have wreckage and wonder if that’ll be us very soon. this beast releases waves of drones. walked to work all along. FORMAT PS4 ETA 22 FEB PREVIEW “THE MAIN DRAW IS The wanzer (mech) battles TAKING ON WELL- make a difficult game even more challenging – expect EQUIPPED ENEMIES to die often. WITH VERY LIMITED RESOURCES.”

FORMAT PS4 / ETA 28 FEB / PUB SQUARE ENIX / DEV SQUARE ENIX LEFT ALIVE Ha ha ha ha staying alive, staying alive

Front Mission is a long-standing you need to pick your battles wisely: Japanese franchise that, despite “Resources are scarce; you may run offering a blend of turn-based tactical out before defeating someone. If you roleplaying and a strong narrative, never do, that person may leave something really found a Western audience. Front Mission: new for you to use, however.” Evolved heralded the series’ transformation to a Sometimes a wanzer, Front Mission’s third-person shooter. Left Alive, set in the same version of a mech, may spot you. Once universe, follows the pattern. that happens, you need to engage it in a mech battle. Due to their hulking, We start our trek through Novo Slava, an occupied slow nature, this will be one of Left Russian city, as a soldier hiding from enemy forces. Alive’s toughest challenges. She is crafting a molotov cocktail while trying to It’s not all about you – there are sneak around a warehouse undetected. civilians to rescue. Sometimes you “The main draw of this game is how you take need to convince them to follow you on very well-equipped, militarised enemies with a first, either with words or actions. very limited selection of weapons and ammunition, Unfortunately, Left Alive looks forcing you to think on your feet,” game director visually rough for a game due to be Toshifumi Nabeshima explains. You start on the released early 2019. It’s grey and jagged battlefield with nothing and need to gather the around the edges, not yet showcasing materials necessary to construct weapons, smoke the full potential of the great designers grenades, and sensors for detecting enemies. on the project, such as Metal Gear designer Yoji Shinkawa. There’s still Above Since the game is little detail available about the overall all about survival rather The objective of Left Alive is to make it out of the narrative, but what we have seen than confrontation, stealth city as three characters: a soldier, a police officer, looks like standard fare that could use is encouraged but not and an escaped convict. Nabeshima-san emphasises more tension. absolutely mandatory. PREVIEW

FORMAT PS4 / ETA 21 MAR / PUB BIGBEN INTERACTIVE / DEV THE SINKING CITY Tide is high for games – could this be your number one?

Where Cyanide’s horrible. He gets double vision and for game (a call we answered last just a second the world around him is issue) plays it close to the page, unrecognisable – it’s almost like his Frogwares’ game offers another wartime trauma is happening again – take. In its titular city, the but Reed returns to himself to further Lovecraftian monsters and the investigate the scene. Not too far from streets are drawn closer together every day as a bloody sewing machine, we see the the flood waters rise. But the city in question, intruder left a sick gift behind. Oakmont, isn’t really a stand-in for Innsmouth. WHAT A PICTURE As Frogwares’ community manager Sergey Oganesyan Having explored the room, Reed 040 explains in a recent developer diary, “Lovecraft reveals his superpower: the ability to was really good at exploring these really intricate see snippets of a selected space’s past. philosophical concepts, like our place in the universe, Slowly things click into place. A raspy fear of the unknown, and fatalism and all that. But old woman enters the apartment, she when it comes to details and descriptions he was gets the attention of the dog, the dog surprisingly vague, which actually works great for us is killed, and she begins to sew. Then as it gives us a lot of freedom.” a neighbour apparently familiar with Oganesyan later goes on to state that the game the woman gets a picture of Joy’s is not an adaptation of any of Lovecraft’s visitor but the camera flash draws her work, but rather ‘an expansion’. Familiar attention. The neighbour is definitely FACTRICK monsters may appear, but the story itself, someone we need to visit. 1. TELLING TALES while borrowing ideas, will be original. After getting no response to our Frogwares has made games Playing as traumatised soldier Charles knocking, clearing a cellar of cosmic based on literature, such as Winfield Reed, a man drawn to Oakmont horrors, and retrieving the neighbour’s the Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes series. after a supernatural event in his past, you’ll key, we let ourselves in, only to 2. NUMBERS GAME need to talk to residents, gather evidence discover the neighbour in much a The Holmes series has sold and cross-reference clues to fully uncover similar condition to Joy’s poor pup – over seven million copies, this mystery. there’s that seesawing between dread and The Sinking City is being and dreadful again; the game racking made by a team of 80. ON THE CASE up the tension before a horrible 3. TOP TEN One stepping stone on the path to the release. But he leaves a clue behind, a Since opening in 2000, the bottom of things comes in a note from a harried note about his recent – and Ukrainian developer has released ten games across librarian named Joy. She asks you to come apparently last – photo opportunity multiple platforms. to her place of work but when you do, you with the raspy older woman, also get a sense of what she’s been through known as Granny Weaver. already. Between lips sewn shut (disturbing in itself), Back at the library, Joy is too she hisses, “Her. In my apartment. Again.” scared (and presumably pained) to The apartment building doesn’t look like it would say much else about her unwanted be anyone’s home sweet home, with broken walls guest. Thankfully there’s a lot we can and detritus strewn around. Not frightening, but discover on our own now we have unsettling. With Joy’s key in hand, her flat looks like the information in the neighbour’s she’s done her best to make the most of a bad spot. note. Turning to the library shelves, A melted camera on the floor is out of place but a we quickly discover more about the well-used rug and dog bowl suggests a not entirely local myth of Granny Weaver and miserable life was led here… well, that’s what we highlight another address worthy of think until we find the dog. investigation. We can’t wait to see The sight of what remains of the dog is almost too how the plot will thicken, and our much for Reed to bear. Things tip from unsettling to nerves be strained, from there. PREVIEW

Oakmont is a submerged open world, meaning you’ll need to travel across parts of it by boat just as frequently as you will on foot.

“REED REVEALS HIS SUPERPOWER: HE CAN SEE SNIPPETS OF THE PAST.” 041

The Old Great Ones heavily influence the lives of Oakmont’s citizens. Perhaps they’ll even pay a visit.

Above There are many horrors lurking in Oakmont… and we’re not just talking about the fleshy creatures we encountered in the demo. PREVIEW

042 PREVIEW

“THE REMADE SPYRO’S LEVELS AND ANIMATION LOOK IMPECCABLE.”

FORMAT PS4 / ETA 13 NOV PUB / DEV SPYRO REIGNITED TRILOGY 043 Dragon up the past

Not for the first time, Crash Bandicoot changed everything. Last year’s remake trilogy is still riding high in the charts, proving we can’t get enough of the warm, burbly nostalgia that comes with replaying games from our childhood. And just like on PS1, Spyro is following in the orange furball’s boardies. Can the dragon set the charts alight like PlayStation’s other mascot?

Of course he can. Spyro Reignited Trilogy, a remade collection of the first three Insomniac-developed games on PS1, is shaping up to be another sharply recreated slice of nostalgia. Created using Unreal Engine 4, the remade Spyro’s levels and animation look impeccable. The tiny dragon scampers and dashes around the colourful open-ish worlds like a manic splash of purple fun. But the charm lies in the details, such as the way Spyro preens himself and stretches, cat-like, if you leave him idle. There’s an air of Penelope Pussycat about how Spyro springs from platforms, his little feet dangling in mid-air. PURPLE REIGN Part of the draw of these remade games is seeing how the developer can fill in the gaps the aging PS1 While the level design is identical, the rest of the technology couldn’t – 20 years ago our imaginations game has been remade papered over the polygonal cracks. from the ground up. We This remake is awash with juvenile charm: breathe love the ’90s. fire near small Rhynoc fodder, and rather than stand PREVIEW

Left Christmas has come early… the second game’s remade Winter Tundra world looks like something out of Harry Potter, and it’s just as magical.

Right Tutorial realm Sunny Villa from Year Of The Dragon is one of those worlds that showcases Reignited’s visual vibrancy.

Proud to be back on PS4, Spyro could be the year’s sleeper hit, given the power of nostalgia.

Proof is in the revisiting Think Spyro was a beautiful game? Just look how it’s improved…

The second world from Spyro: …In the newly remade Sheila’s Alp is home to the first … In Spyro Reignited Trilogy Ripto’s Rage!, you probably version on PS4 it’s as good playable character other than we finally get to see her how 1remember Autumn Plains as 2as you wanted it to look. The 3Spyro in Year Of The Dragon. 4Insomniac intended. Look at a brown-and-red hued world with devs have added the detail your Sheila The Kangaroo is a mess, but her big eyes, bobbing hair, and subtly drawn dawn sky… imagination had to create. don’t tell your younger self… cute jacket. Brilliant. PREVIEW

and fight, they run in panic. Watching these big bads lose their cool, charge around like headless chickens, and collide comically like two Looney Tunes characters always raises a smile. And that’s the heart of Spyro, right there. Of course, enemies vary in size and tactics; while smaller Rhynocs can be rammed larger ones need to be burnt to send them scurrying away. But now remade on PS4 everything feels more alive, like a moving cartoon. It’s how our grey cells remember the game. SCALED UP If the animation and vibrant visuals are Spyro’s immediate hook, it’s the level design that stands the test of time, regardless of visual splendour. Perched high on a ledge in Sunny Villa we can see all around. Shiny gems tease us for collection; dragon statues and eggs can just be made out. But how do we get Above Look at his little face. You’d have to have a heart of stone not to click there? The world building perfected on PS1 is back, pre-order. Right. Now. [Milf, that means you – ed.] and playing in it as addictive as ever. If you think Spyro is ‘for the kids’ then remember how tricky some of the worlds were. Peter Kavic, senior producer at Toys For Bob, points us in the “WE WANTED TO direction of Tree Tops, the level found in Beast Makers Homeworld from the first game. “It’s known CREATE A LOVE as one of the more challenging levels in the game and it just looks beautiful,” he says. “Set in a village built high up among massive trees, Spyro LETTER BACK TO must use supercharge ramps to make his FACTRICK way around the various huts, all the while THE FANS WITH 1. KENNY CAN at risk of falling into the abyss below.” Tom Kenny, Spyro’s original Aided by reworked controls, these remade voice actor from games two worlds feel like they were designed for PS4. 045 and three, returns for the THIS REMASTER.” Reignited Trilogy. Spyro is dynamic and responsive. He turns 2. LOADSALEVELS and spins with a new-found agility, the All three games combined camera easily keeping pace with the titular offer over 100 levels of dragon’s on-screen antics. dragon scampering fun. Whether running or gliding through That’s a lot of game. the Dragon and Avalar Realms, the game 3. EGG-STATIC plays with the kind of modern flourishes All of the collectibles are that you’d expect from a new PS4 release. in the same places as they were in the originals. How It certainly makes the endless exploration, good’s your memory? collection, and discovery pitch of the trilogy as enjoyable as your old head remembers. There’s a clear passion for the source material that breathes fiery life into these remade classics. “We wanted to create a love letter back to the fans with this remaster and unleash the dragon in a significant way that reminded fans why they fell in love with gaming in the first place,” explains Kavic. HOT TUNES This passion feeds through into every aspect of the Above Before Kratos got there, Spyro was doing the Norse game. Even the music has been re-recorded, with myths thing. Cloud Spires returns and looks stunning. ex-The Police drummer Stuart Copeland hitting the studio again. Tiger Train is a new title track for the trilogy that “blends recognisable musical motifs from the first three games into a memorable, orchestral- rock score,” says Kavic. But like much of the game, the fun is in the detail. If you tire of the new music you can switch between the remastered and original Copeland soundtrack as you play. All the ingredients are here for another retro takeover, and if the success of Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is a foreshadowing of what’s to come, we’ll all be fans of the purple dragon come November. Kavic is willing to go a step further for his love of Spyro: “I would dye my hair purple Above Volcanic world Magma Cone looks fantastic rendered if we go to number one,” says the developer with on PS4. Surely a dragon’s not scared of a little heat? confidence. His embarrassment is in your hands. PREVIEW

“AFTER REMOVING THE PS VR HEADSET WE FEEL ZENNED-OUT.”

FORMAT PS VR / ETA NOV 2018 PUB ENHANCE, INC. / DEV RESONAIR TETRIS EFFECT Virtually the same game

The Tetris effect: a psychological phenomenon whereby people visualise the shapes, colours, and patterns of the perennial block-building game to help create a sense of geometric order in the real world. It’s a fitting name then, for a PS VR title that 046 makes Tetris fill your entire visible reality.

Not that Tetris Effect envelops you in tetrominoes, or sends you on a nauseating first-person plummet from a block’s perspective. It’s still ‘classic Tetris’. There are a couple of new mechanics, such as the time-freezing Zone meter, but that shouldn’t stop anyone slotting right in. The game’s director, (of Rez and Lumines fame), makes his mark with vocalised electronic music and sparkly visuals that sprinkle down after each placed block and completed line. On the levels we play, this gives the Tetris Effect a satisfying sense of impact and rhythm. The areas surrounding the relatively small Tetris column in front of us range from endless astral fields to abstract geometries. As we play on, experiencing a second level, these pretty visuals get distracting at times, but for the most part they heighten the meditative nature of the timeless task at hand. After removing the PS VR headset, we feel zenned-out: this is the most immersive variation yet on one of gaming’s most familiar experiences.

When you clear lines, prepare for a beautiful, sometimes distracting shower of visuals.

Above The natural immersion of PS VR, paired with a smooth soundtrack, makes Tetris Effect feels like a cerebral massage. PREVIEW

The team-based system will keep things exciting, despite the lack of characters from Sega’s other IPs.

Above The teamplay is a welcome twist on the traditional formula, encouraging communication beyond the usual screams associated with battle racing. FORMAT PS4 / ETA DEC 2018 “PULL OFF ENOUGH PUB SEGA / DEV TEAM SONIC RACING TEAM MOVES, AND YOU Sega’s latest battle racer pulls into position, CAN EXECUTE AN but without the supporting cast Sonic & All-Star Racing Transformed ‘ULTIMATE BOOST’ was one of the few decent kart racers on PlayStation, a mechanically sound battle THAT HURTLES YOUR racer spanning land, sea, and air, set 047 across wildly themed tracks from IPs as varied as TEAM FORWARDS.” Sonic and . Sumo Digital’s latest Sega-themed racer, Team Sonic Racing, focuses on Sonic and his companions, Why is Tails the slowest? and restricts the action to kart racing rather than Because he’s only one competing in more outlandish vehicles. In place Miles Prower! (Hey, where are you going?…) of the eclectic madness of the last game is a new hook: each race is team-based, as you and two other players share items, speed boosts, and points. The team with the most points at the end (in other words, the highest combined finishing position) wins. It’s an interesting idea, giving a rare twist to a traditionally staid genre. Closely follow in a teammate’s slipstream, for example, and you get a speed boost. Or if you’re leading the pack, why not send your buddy that projectile power-up you don’t need? Pull off enough team moves like these, and you can execute a powerful ‘Ultimate Boost’ that hurtles the lot of you towards the finish line. This feels fine in action, and could really flourish in the 12-player four-team online multiplayer. But what we’ve seen so far – just two tracks – lacks the absurdity and unpredictability of its predecessor, leaving things feeling bland, a little grounded, with only the cast of Sonic for company. Here’s hoping more mayhem is just round the next corner.

Above You can’t create characters, but you can customise existing ones. Above The tracks we played in the hands-on felt a little rote. PREVIEW PREVIEW ROUND-UP This issue we finish DÉRACINÉ up in the grasp of a FORMAT PS VR ETA 6 NOV / PUB SONY retro-influenced DEV FROMSOFTWARE, SIE racer, embrace an Fans of the developer underworld throng, should feel a delightful shudder when hearing of a and explore ye completely new game from spooky olde boarding FromSoftware and its lead creative genius Hidetaka HELL WARDERS FORMAT PS4 / ETA WINTER 2018 / PUB PQUBE school in PS VR. Miyazaki, responsible for DEV ANTI GRAVITY GAME STUDIOS Life’s more varied the Soulsborne genre. But if you’re expecting anything Part hack-and-slash and part tower on PlayStation… familiar, don’t. Miyazaki is defence, you have to fight back wave full of surprises yet. The team’s virtual reality debut after wave of hellish monsters as is a much slower-paced they seek to overwhelm your forces and experience, where you play shatter your crystal. To do this you’ll need an invisible faerie exploring to build up your forces on each map, from a Victorian-looking boarding soldiers to archers and , to hold school. As time is frozen, them up at choke points. You’re the sort of you’re free to explore, commander who likes to get stuck in, though uncovering clues to a larger – and your forces are going to need your mystery, and learning more assistance. To get the job done you can take about the school and the control of a sword-wielding knight, a gun- 048 children within it, immersed in PS VR. toting hero, or a big lad with a hammer.

TALES OF GRIP FARMING VESPERIA: FORMAT PS4 / ETA 6 NOV SIMULATOR 19 PUB WIRED PRODUCTIONS FORMAT PS4 / ETA 20 NOV DEFINITIVE DEV CAGED ELEMENT PUB FOCUS HOME DEV GIANTS INTERACTIVE EDITION We’ve already got to grips FORMAT PS4 / ETA 11 JAN PUB BANDAI NAMCO (pun intended) with this If you’ve skipped the last DEV BANDAI NAMCO topsy-turvy car-’em-up’s few iterations on the Ten years from its original speedy race tracks and series, then now might launch, this fan-favourite battle arenas, so what be the time to hop (yes, entry in the Tales series more could surprise us? like the crop) back in. This heads to PlayStation in this How about “carkour”, a year’s edition features a PS4 definitive edition. The hefty game mode set to complete graphical upgrade. cel-shaded visuals have challenge even the most Simulated farming has been given a revamp, and patient of petrolheads, and never looked so good. When new playable characters, to turn lovely limited edition it comes to farming, it’s costumes, new music DualShock 4s into dust in all about the licences, so tracks and extra story frustrated palms. “Reach this year agriculture fans elements have been added. the end,” they say when will be pleased to see the The plot follows former we try it for ourselves, franchise add legendary Imperial soldier Yuri Lowell but these devious obstacle tractor marque John Deere as he forms an independent courses make even that to its ranks of fully licensed guild, the Brave Vesperia, a challenge, forcing us to vehicles and machinery, which becomes embroiled in employ all sorts of flips and alongside the likes of the mystery surrounding jumps. But that high when Challenger and others. With Aer energy, and the Blastia we succeed is bliss. Our new farms in European and devices that harness that handler shrugs: “I’ve seen it American regions, we’re power for the Empire. done 35 seconds faster.” ready to blossom.

JUST CAUSE 4

050 WE G T ST Francesco Antolini explains how Avalanche Studios is blowing winds and minds with the latest Just Cause JUST CAUSE 4

051 JUST CAUSE 4

052

eather-beaten is large map of Just Cause 4’s world “It was kind of a dream,” he tells a phrase that that’s pinned up on the wall, us of being offered the job. “Those takes on a totally alongside early concept art and a were the guys who made Just new meaning for swathe of graffiti designs that will Cause 2, my favourite open world Rico Rodriguez, feature in the game. He chuckles game so far at the time.” the smooth as he introduces us to the team Open worlds have always been a Wsuper-spy in Avalanche’s members, a grin on his face as he passion for Antolini. He’s the kind long-running open world series. tells us about the “destruction of person who will tell you all He takes the fight to the next designers” whose sole purpose is about his thesis project on The level in Just Cause 4, thanks in to make blowing stuff up fun. Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (“It was no small part to Avalanche one of the first open worlds where Studios’ Apex Engine. THE BIG GRAPPLE you could really just go around and Geared specifically around The New York office is personal do whatever you want. I was simulating an open world to Antolini, because joining the mesmerised, taken away by that.”), environment, the engine creates all studio from to work as and check off an impressive list of the detail you need to have fun in lead designer on also his favourite open world games a crazy sandbox world. Even down, meant helping to establish the NY through the years. in this instalment, to the vicious office. And he’s proud to be here. What was it that drew him, side of Mother Nature as she hurls along with so many others, to some nasty weather your way. But that second game in the Just that weather can be Rico’s friend Cause series? “The freedom,” he or foe, depending on how prepared answers confidently. “The system you are for it. where your destruction was Happily for us, the weather in meaningful everywhere in the couldn’t be nicer game, and really it didn’t matter as the game’s director, Francesco how or where you’d destroy things. Antolini, takes us around the No series does wingsuits like Just Cause I’ve tried a lot to go back studio. Proudly he shows us the – soaring again is going to feel fantastic. to that feeling with Just Cause 4 We can’t wait to start calling in Supply Drops of vehicles – this one looks ripe for causing fast-paced mayhem.

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“THIS ISN’T JUST ABOUT LIBERATING REGIONS, BUT A more than LARGE, ALWAYS-ONGOING WAR.” in 3.” The idea of checking over the country. This isn’t just and how he stopped things off a list doesn’t hold as about liberating regions, but a playing after it wouldn’t let him much appeal as going around and large, always-ongoing war that’s cross a bridge in the world until experimenting for yourself. “In constantly playing out in Solís. It’s after he’d completed a mission. “I Just Cause 4 what happens is that all about context. was just like ‘why?’” he says. “You destruction is always meaningful “That’s the philosophy that I try know that’s the point: let’s make wherever you destroy stuff, and it to keep in all my games – that the things so that they are actually real doesn’t go […] into this concept of world explains itself,” Antolini tells and it makes sense, rather than location completion, it rather us. “What you do has actual just being an obstruction from a accrues your chaos that works a consequences that you see as part design standpoint.” little bit like notoriety.” of the world, right?” He grins and We get hands-on with the game goes off on another tangent, this as Antolini is happy to sit back FRONTLINE FROLIC time about Far Cry 2, laughing and see what we get up to, As your chaos increases, the about how awesome the map was. messing with physics objects on a game’s actual front line moves, as He pauses as he talks about bridge, before diving down to do

Rico’s army gains more control another game he won’t name, battle on the front line. Soon JUST CAUSE 4

peel back layers of customisation enough we’re herding a tornado 15 minutes of an 80-hour – though the systems are and flipping through the wind. It’s playthrough. [Could] we add this designed in such a way that a thing of power, but not so as a persistent thing in the world?” they’re just as playable without deadly to Rico that we want to Thankfully, with improvements having to wade in too deep. stay away. Instead, we soar to the open-world-specific Apex dangerously close, looking for Engine, proprietary to Avalanche, FREEDOM FIGHTER ways to turn it to our advantage, the answer was yes. Everything But that’s just one aspect of the and use it to suck our enemies makes sense within the world, huge sandbox that makes up Just up into the sky. even to the point where challenges Cause 4. As Antolini says, it’s about freedom. Playing as Rico, with his multi-purpose grapple “SOON ENOUGH WE’RE HERDING hook, and combination of both a wingsuit and a parachute, A TORNADO AND FLIPPING we wreak havoc wherever and however we please, punctuated by THROUGH THE WIND.” plenty of laughter. Between all three grapple modes “You see this battle and you scattered around Solís have a – retract, booster, and airlift – know that if you stay on this side purpose – the wingsuit challenge and the different modifications it’s a lot safer, if you go on the courses, for instance, are to help you can give all those abilities, other side you are behind the make a stunt film. Points earned Avalanche promises a mind- enemy lines,” Antolini explains through this can then be spent to boggling four million or so about the front line. customise your loadout how you possible combinations. You can Needless to say, it makes a great see fit and play it your way. switch between three active spot to pick up some nifty new Every Supply Drop (when you loadouts that define what each equipment and cause some chaos. call in a delivery of weapons or a mode does, or which ones to do at The idea is born of some of the vehicle) is the same. You always once, how powerfully, or what (if missions in Just Cause 3 where know what you’re working anything) to automatically deploy, the rebels and military are in an towards and have the option to all-out conflict. “It was gorgeous to see the whole world in a battle,” Antolini 054 reminisces. “That was so cool, I don’t want this to happen in just

Rico’s phone book is filled with three things: allies, enemies, and explosions. And this time around, it’s ringing off the hook. JUST CAUSE 4 or do when you tap the grapple MAKING A HERO button, or do when you hold it. The master grappler only exists because of experimentation. There’s so much, but it never Avalanche’s founder and chief creative officer Christofer feels too confusing to get the hang Sundberg and narrative designer Omar Shakir explain… of. We spend most of our time just playing around, seeing what is OPM: Have you been parachute and the grappling surprised to see players possible, and the answer is: pretty hook – we identified an issue latch on to the grappling hook that we didn’t want to ignore. much anything. Put balloons on a Jet fighter versus twister – which one since the first Just Cause? tank and boost around in rockets? do you reckon will last longest? It wasn’t necessarily part of the plan originally but it made Check. Attach yourself to an Christofer Sundberg: It’s so much sense for what we explosive barrel and stay aloft about getting over that were trying to pull off. In a progress in the game – if you mental hurdle that it’s using a wind gun? Absolutely. want to progress into the game. development environment believable. From JC1, where often times those decisions Putting booster rockets on every If you want to, because another it was a grapple gun you had horse on a carousel to create a get overlooked because big aspect of the sandbox is that to equip, to JC2, where we everybody’s so focused on spinning wheel of death, and then you have plenty of opportunity to attached it to his arm, and the plan. But when you look at attach several people to said death experiment and just fool around now see where it is today the nature of the franchise, wheel to break their bodies? You’d with millions of combinations and the nature of its avatar for no purpose, but doing it. Not of modifications. The better believe it. many games do that.” – there’s never a plan with grappling hook is such a Rico, right? There’s an action DIGGING THE BOX It’s the kind of game where strong character in itself and and then a consequence. huge explosions can turn the that’s what it’s become. The It kind of speaks to the But just what is it that makes world into fire, and now with the grappling hook came up from development of the IP as well. one of our programmers as the game a sandbox? “First of all extreme weather, natural disasters It’s sort of “it doesn’t make I would say the physics itself, a test. He was just bored of sense for Rico, he would do can quite literally shake the world. having to climb stuff. So he’d and the ability that you have “The last thing is very it this way.” just [ba-ding] shoot this little It’s funny to watch the to actually manipulate these important, about the opportunity thing that was a pink line. physics in the world,” Antolini maturation of the franchise, to experiment, it’s important that for the game to be developed tells us. “Second, the fact that also from a design perspective Omar Shakir: It was a debug in that same abstract of: “It things based on physics, namely line that would connect to doesn’t make much sense for exploding objects, the chaos another point and allow him us to fall and die, let’s do it to quickly traverse a space. objects and other stuff, are our way.” And that’s the birth actually what you need to do to of the parachute, that’s the CS: And then that led to birth of the grappling hook, that parachute. Because and it just constantly evolves you fell once you were from there. 055 attached to something that was way high up, and then OPM: We guess to make an you fell and you died and it experimental game, you have was like “this is boring, let’s to be experimental yourself. just give him a parachute that CS: Absolutely. A lot of stuff will come out of his back in in our games has come about this little pouch. through experimentation, like the grappling hook. [In Just OS: It’s just a series Cause 4] the tornado came of challenges and then out from Demo Days. We have solutions. It actually speaks one day where the team can to the nature of Avalanche just do whatever they want Studios as a team. It’s a and we have certain themes. very inclusive and a very There’s been so much stuff, collaborative environment. like the mech [in Just Cause So, the example of the 3’s Mech Land Assault DLC].

Weather is inherently chaotic. But that’s okay, because so is Rico Rodriguez. CAUSE 4

JUST felt items like the parachute and wingsuit had reached their limits. make chaos. And then that chaos The fundamentals of movement you give players invitation and goes back into the game.” already feel so good, so there’s no opportunity to experiment. It incentive to overdo it with Rico. really boils down to not punishing WEATHER WIZARD “So let’s try to experiment, let’s them for doing so,” Antolini “The question, it’s basically one try to add a new layer to the stions, it’s explains, giving us the benefit of of the classic que physics,” says Antolini. Why his years and years of thinking probably the question you start upgrade Rico when you can about the fundamental building a sequel with is, ‘what’s the new upgrade the world around him? blocks of open world design. thing? What are we doing as a “We did brainstorming with “So there is nothing in Just new thing?’” Antolini begins as we different things. I think a certain Cause that kills in one shot. Even ask him how the weather system point that was getting traction when you are struck by lightning, that defines this new entry in the was ‘let’s do oil’, because people you’re not gonna die. You go series came about. “I thought that had this image of shooting a fuel down, so you understand that’s Rico had actually had more or less tank, seeing oil dripping bad, but you don’t die. Why? enough added to him. [If we gave] making the puddle, and then you away, Because if you were to die then him more abilities, then you’d shoot at the puddle, and then you you see it a second time you’ll really need to be able to play see the oil track act as a fuse. But flee away, and you do not piano to do all those things.” yeah, in Just Cause, I have a experiment any more, and you While in Just Cause 4 Rico’s bloody rocket launcher in my will never discover how that grappling hook has more modes hands, I’m not gonna shoot at the actually works and so on right? I and functions that work together puddle, I’m gonna shoot at the don’t want you to be afraid of than ever before, the team simply thing directly, so oil didn’t live a explosions, I want you to marry long life,” he laughs. explosions. To go into them and

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“I DON’T WANT YOU TO BE AFRAID OF EXPLOSIONS. I WANT YOU TO MARRY EXPLOSIONS.” T C S A U SE 4

“Then what we did was wind, because with wind, whereas in other games when it’s mostly cosmetic, just something to make vegetation sway, in Just Cause you spend most of your time either in a parachute or in a wingsuit.” WINDS OF CHANGE It’s true. From the very first time we wingsuit in Just Cause 4 it feels like Rico has mastered the air like never before, able to bob, zip, and soar almost effortlessly. “With wind you are creating gameplay literally out of thin air, so it was quite exciting I think. We started with wind, and it was a nice feeling getting the wingsuit and going into the wind, or being carried along a military base built inside a canyon, so you could just shoot, not having to think about navigation.” The very fact Avalanche can even model the effects of wind in this way is impressive, and all thanks to the Apex Engine’s power. “However it was calm. It was not over-the-top. It was not 057 Just Cause,” says Antolini. “So then we question ourselves, we wondered ‘How do we make wind over the top?’ From there extreme weather came. So it was kind of an organic process, nobody woke up one morning thinking about a tornado. […] Once that was there, we built a narrative around it.”

WEATHERED WORLD That question’s important for a reason. Despite all the other tweaks that make this the best realisation of the core Just Cause promise yet – essentially to blow stuff up and have fun – it’s the weather that’s the biggest takeaway. Each of the four biomes has extreme weather to call its own: you’ll face tornadoes, sandstorms, blizzards, or storms, depending on which biome you’re in. While all four can obstructalso Rico in certain ways, you can learn how to use them to his advantage – and they’re all active all the time, moving around Solís. Like everything else in Just Cause 4’s Solís, these storms make sense, and you can master them. You’ll discover how to manipulate wind, dodge sandstorms, and bring the thunder. Rico is the master of his grapple, and Mother Nature the latest tool in his arsenal. READER OFFER SUBSCRIBE TO

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Remedy takes back Control Thomas Puha talks to OPM about Remedy’s return to PlayStation with Control

060 emedy last released a game on PlayStation 15 years ago – the rather excellent Max Payne 2: The Fall Of Max Payne. But during that time the studio’s been far from quiet, working on many other projects, and perfecting its style – not to mention working away on developing and refining its very own Northlight engine. So it was a pleasant surprise when, at E3, the announcement trailer for Control was one of the highlights of Sony’s excellent showcase. A bit of a departure for Remedy, Control is much more open-ended than its usual offerings. Taking inspiration from the ‘new weird’ genre (think the books of Jeff VanderMeer and China Miéville), it sees lead character Jesse exploring a twisted and surreal New York building, The Oldest House, and facing off against the supernatural using some impressive paranormal skills of her own. We sit down with Remedy’s Thomas Puha to get the latest on the studio’s PlayStation comeback. OPM: Games like Max Payne, and Alan Wake on PC, are all pulpy feeling, clearly based around certain genres. What was the aesthetic idea behind Control? Thomas Puha: We talked a lot about it with Sam [Lake, the game’s creative director] like what a ‘Remedy game’ is, and Remedy games tend to be based in reality. […] In Control it’s set in the present day, and all the styles, the building, the game takes place in is in New 061

It’s Jesse’s first day at the Bureau Of Control and she’s already director. Smash that glass ceiling, girl! THE OPM INTERVIEW

THERE’S A LOT LESS HAND- HOLDING FOR THE PLAYERS – IT’S A MUCH MORE GAMEPLAY DRIVEN EXPERIENCE.

York. We again, like, rule things into reality Thomas Puha’s been but then we have that layer of supernatural and in the industry for 20 a lot of craziness. I mean, the term we use is years, but Remedy’s ‘new weird’ – that’s kind of been used around his home now. at the studio quite a lot to describe the atmosphere of the game. It’s definitely a lot 062 darker than our previous games, and there’s a lot less hand-holding for the player – it’s a much more gameplay-driven experience. OPM: So what is the thinking behind making it more contained within The Oldest House versus some of the more sweeping locations of previous Remedy games? TP: The Oldest House is this transforming building. [In the trailers] you’ve seen that the house really is a lot bigger on the inside than what you’re led to believe from the outside. So when you get in there it’s this transforming really kind of open-ended place, and the Federal Bureau Of Control has been there for quite a while and are trying to control The Oldest House. So there’s these control points that were visible in the trailer and in the demo. It’s a very, very unique setting. The kind of core of the building is stable, so let’s say you get out of the elevator and everything kind of looks like an office but still weird, but the deeper you get into the office [part of the] house the crazier it gets. It gets very otherworldly so we want to make sure absolutely that there’s going to be enough variety, especially visual variety and in Middle “The Janitor did it” is quickly becoming the new “The Butler did it”. terms of locations. Left Levitation is but one of Jesse’s powers. Right Boo, hiss – it’s the Hiss!

OPM: Given the shifting world, how does the abilities like Levitate that you’ve seen in the demo you’ll be like “Hmm, more open-ended approach used here maybe a couple of hours ago when I saw those different locations, maybe compare to previous, more strongly I can now get there”. There’s a lot of that, a lot of things like that in the structured, Remedy games? game. It’s also a gameplay-driven experience and what that means is TP: Compared to Remedy’s past, which has players can kind of play at their own pace. So, yes, there is a main been super-linear, this is a lot less linear. We storyline and the story missions attached to that, but then there’s a throw around the word ‘Metroidvania’, which bunch of side-missions as well, and all of that is – this being Remedy – I think most people are not expecting from a all of those side-missions are very much tied to the lore and they give Remedy game. We have a lot of interconnected you a lot more background information on the characters as well. And spaces in The Oldest House – so as you get then on top of that there’s some other really challenging content. THE OPM INTERVIEW

NEED O KNOW OPM: What is Jesse Faden’s main goal in learn, and you’ve got to take on the Hiss. On a exploring The Oldest House? very high level that’s what it’s about. But then TP: It’s very much Jesse’s journey – the main there is something pretty abstract [too], so yeah character’s journey – that’s what the story is it’s a very interesting juxtaposition. very much about. Jesse becomes the director of the Bureau right at the beginning of the OPM: Max Payne introduced the bullet-time game. All of that gets explained, so it’s dive to the gaming world. Remedy’s always important to realise that the mission of the adding new twists to combat in its games. REMEDY game is not to become the director, you become What are some of the unique aspects of TONICS FOR PLAYERS the director very, very early on. But it’s about fighting in Control? HAVE INCLUDED… then accepting the responsibility and figuring TP: Early on we talked about how the gun is out Jesse’s mysterious past and the sorts of always the easy choice, right? Like, sure it’s not 2001 things that drive her. easy to make a headshot feel really good – like MAX PAYNE in Destiny no matter how many times you QThis seminal shooter OPM: If you start off being the director, does shoot a Cabal head, the pop just feels really introduced the gaming world to bullet-time dives, that kind of get you into the plot and action good. We really wanted to challenge ourselves and the titular ultra-pulp quite quickly then? [with Control’s combat] – let’s make the detective. Most modern TP: We had a lot of back-and-forth on abilities really impactful, and getting the shooters owe a lot to the ’s beginning, which was very abilities to feel really good. Like Launch, where sheer invention of this one. slow-paced, and had a lot of setting up. you grab objects and throw them – you have to Which was very deliberate. This gets to the get the physicality right. How does it work 2010 point a lot faster. when I look at objects, do you have to kind of ALAN WAKE QIt never came to point at what you pick? – which kind of goes PlayStation, but this PC OPM: At one point in the demo we saw against this being an action-driven game. A lot evolution of a Remedy Game someone watching a fridge, which seemed to of work has gone into that. You kind of look took a lot of inspiration hint at a side-quest. How do those things tie around and you see the object that you kind of from Stephen King and Twin Peaks, and was about a in to the broader picture of Control? feel you want, but we should be able to predict writer whose books seemed TP: Suffice to say, even though Control is a that too – and then you grab it and then you to be coming to life in a very gameplay-driven game, a lot more of a get to throw it, and that has to feel right when creepy American town. systems-driven game than what we’ve done it impacts the possessed Bureau troops or the before – at the end of the day it’s gameplay Bureau agents you’re gonna fight against, that 063 2016 that keeps people playing, but then the story has to feel really good. People really like QUANTUM BREAK and how everything connects… we can be shooting guns in games, so we really want to QRemedy’s take on sci-fi confident that we can get that right, yeah. We challenge ourselves so that the abilities would made the controversial choice of adding in know how to do that stuff so we can kind of give you that same sort of a powerful feeling. full-length TV episodes that talk about it less, but Anna [Megill, narrative We’re still working on it for sure. were of questionable quality. lead], Sam [Lake], and the rest of the writing Thankfully the return to team… we’re making sure that everything is OPM: We really enjoyed the variety of Hiss. PlayStation with Control won’t have this. connected so when you do play the side- There’s the basic Hiss you can use a shield missions they’re not just gonna be random stuff and fling things at, then you have the Hiss like pick up this and that and it doesn’t tie into that do pirouettes in the air, and then the greater theme of things. We definitely want obviously the boss Hiss at the end of the to make sure that everything is connected and that people who want to demo in particular. know more can do it if they want. That whole worldbuilding is something TP: And that’s like kind of a mini-boss! We’re that’s really key, and what we’re trying to do is not take away control, and going to go very crazy with actual bosses. you’re going to have to stop and listen, but say like “Hey, something When we built the demo I was like okay, the interesting is happening here, if you want you can go see it, you can go take away for people will be like “That’s a boss listen, you go find out more.” It’s more sort of layer-driven. fight.” It is and it’s not. They will be a lot bigger-scale and epic than what you saw there. OPM: It’s interesting to see things like side-quests in a Remedy game, That was kind of to give you sort of a taste. especially as you say they’ll tie into the lore! Considering that, what are some of the main themes that all of that will be tying into? OPM: To those who loved the look of the TP: There’s the clear sort of… we’re using brutalist architecture. If you Control gameplay demo, what would you look at The Oldest House it’s straight lines, it’s very sparse, very clean. highlight for them to expect with the Then you have the Hiss [the enemy] – it’s not like a single person or finished game? anything like that. So there’s order and chaos, and that’s the two sorts of TP: It’s just great that, you know, Remedy’s conflict in the game. company strategy is to be multi-platform, so it’s just great to be out on a PlayStation OPM: At one point in the demo Jesse clearly says “I walk between platform [again]. That especially is great. It was two straight lines”, is this her explaining the world of Control is not definitely fun to have the trailer in the Sony as orderly a place it looks? briefing [back at E3], which was very, very cool. TP: Yes, so it’s very much about order and chaos, and control and losing The demo’s a demo – it showcases certain control. Having an agency that kind of deals in very volatile things that aspects of the game but it’s far from being a are hidden from the public eye and not really knowing what they’re finished product. It’s very fun, so once you get dealing with. So on a thematic level that’s definitely something that’s to play the final product you’ll probably be deeply, deeply in there. I think fans of Remedy expect that there’s going surprised at how different it ends up being. to be a pretty deep story and there’s a lot more going on. But on a very, And how sort of more open-ended and less very high level it’s like, okay you became the director, and you’ve got to linear than what we’ve done in the past. LAUNCH DAY REVISITED

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Five years ago on 28 November Sony launched PS4 in the UK. In anticipation we’re replaying some of the key launch-day games to find out which stand up to the test of time LAUNCH DAY REVISITED

065 Killzone Shadow Fall still has an active – albeit small – online community half a decade after launch.

aunch-day lineups have always been a online features and power. When it came to PS4 hard sell, but hidden away are gems that we had a broad mix of shooters, sports sims, never dull. PS1 shone with WipEout and racers, and, well, Knack. Ridge Racer, PS2 wowed us with SSX The OPM team settles down to replay a selection and TimeSplitters, and PS3 had of the key titles from launch – so do they all still Resistance: Fall Of Man to promote its hold up five years later?… 066 L

KNACK into small spaces or go big and take out waves of enemies. He’s GET IT NOW: PS STORE, £15.99 Ratchet and Clank in one body. With attacks on the face “Why Knack?” questions Mim buttons and dodge-roll on the as we settle onto the OPM sofa. right thumbstick Knack is a Knack was the pet project of trickier game than its cartoon PS4’s creator Mark Cerny, and style suggests. was devised to be a mascot in the “It’s punishing,” moans Oscar same way Crash Bandicoot was as a tiny troll knocks half of for PS1. The message was clear: Knack’s health bar down in one PS4 is not just about first-person go. “It’s almost like Mega Man.” shooters, it’s also about a weird “Looks like you’ve not quite creature made from randomly got the knack of that,” teases Jess. jiggled-together bits and bobs. The real let-down is Knack’s “Knack’s got attitude, he’s like visual design. For a game on a a mid-’90s PlayStation mascot. new console with, at the time, 1.88 In another era he would have unheard-of power, Knack just The total worldwide sales of Knack, in millions. been voiced by Bruce Willis,” feels a bit kit-bashed. It’s like quips Oscar as we start playing. characters from five different iOS “It does look quite cute. He’s games have been fudged together. not the cutest, but he’s kind “As a launch PS4 game it’s of cute,” confirms Jess. quite nice, but it’s just tech,” The game is a simple moans Ian. “If it had stronger platform adventure art design it would have been with the titular Knack good. The problems this game able to change size has aren’t because it’s a launch by losing or adding game, they’re because it has an ‘bits’ of himself. uninspired design.” Doing so means “It’s technically very good… he can squeeze but it looks like for every LAUNCH DAY REVISITED

decision they made regards the RESOGUN art design they rolled a dice,” adds Oscar. GET IT NOW: PS STORE, £9.99 “Wait!” shouts Jess. “Does Knack have triangular nipples?” PS4 was the indies’ console, so Yes, yes he does. Sony’s pitch went at launch. STILL WORTH BUYING? King of the indies was Resogun from , a studio that made its name with well- KILLZONE crafted retro shooters. “Best game at launch,” SHADOW FALL proclaims Ian as he hands the GET IT NOW: PS HITS, £15.99 DualShock to Jess, a first-timer on Resogun. It’s a deceptively simple On that note, it’s time to play shooter. Your little ship flies Killzone Shadow Fall. The around a cylinder blasting aliens Killzone games have always and collecting humans and 800 been visual spectacles wrapped spiriting them away to safety. Million – the score you need if you want to top around bare-bones gameplay, Weapon power-ups add extra Resogun’s leaderboard. and to its credit Guerilla Games bang and buzz, alien bosses fill tried to tip the balance with the screen, and a completed level Shadow Fall. Adding open-ish turns into an explosion of small maps, stealth, and touchpad colourful voxels. controls to call in the OWL “You can’t go wrong with combat drone, it’s a first- an arcade game, and it uses 17.8 person shooter with a distinct PS4 to create a really smooth The average time, in hours, personality, even five years on. experience,” says Oscar. it takes to finish Killzone “So I’m a kid being led from a “I’m quite scared,” whispers Shadow Fall. burning city by my dad? That’s Jess as the first boss appears, 067 going to end badly,” says Ian, just filling the screen and suggesting as said dad is gunned down in a path into it’s inner core. “I front of us. keeled him,” she yells as the “It does still look good, there’s screen erupts into sparkling dust a sheen and polish to it some and blocks, and her tiny ship games don’t even achieve now,” does a lap of honour. says Oscar. “I mean, it opens up “Everything explodes in this with rain splashing on a window. game,” adds Milf. What’s not to love?” “I wanted a game that put me “It was about justifying your in the action so I could shoot purchase,” says Milf, a day-one stuff, so here you go. I’m into it,” PS4 owner. confirms Jess, a convert. The real surprise after booting STILL WORTH BUYING? up Shadow Fall now is finding the servers are still up and gamers are eagerly shooting one ASSASSIN’S another in the face. But there’s a nagging feeling the eight players CREED IV: we meet online are the Shadow BLACK FLAG Fall community, or Guerilla GET IT NOW: PS HITS, £15.99 Games employees unable to give it up. Either way, it’s impressive the game’s still being played. “Do you like pirates, Jess?” asks Does it hold up? “Just about,” Oscar as Black Flag loads. says Ian as he empties a clip into “Eh, only if they’re lady a room full of Helghast, who pirates,” she replies. Don’t we all? handily all group together in Black Flag was not a PS4 a doorway. “It’s not the exclusive, coming to the console best shooter on PS4, a month after its PS3 release. but for its age, it “I enjoyed it at the time but I still looks good.” bet it’s not aged well,” says Ian. A visual spectacle wrapped “That said, I think it has some of around bare-bones gameplay, the best characters and story of you could say. all the Assassin’s Creed games.” STILL WORTH BUYING? Seeing it now, Black Flag still plays well. “I think it’s aged better Battlefield 4 got us into the action quickly, and you can’t beat a bit of Bonnie T.

than , but maybe I’m just a five years too late. Oscar’s not fool, a fool in love,” says Oscar. totally convinced. With a cast of famous pirates It’s a racer that feels like the and the whole of the Caribbean amalgam of all the dev talent to explore, how could you not involved. With a mix of open 068 still love Black Flag? world racing and the unique “Look at that water! Ah! I AllDrive system that enables want to be there,” exclaims Oscar you to go from solo racer to as he leaps from a cliff and down online speedster seamlessly, plus into the azure seas. Black Flag slow-mo crash porn, Criterion still looks stunning. is all over Rivals. But then there “The Welsh accent does all are the upgradable gadgets of the work. It’s brilliant,” says the former Blur dev, and rain- Jess picking out Matt Ryan’s drizzled photoreal cars of the performance. “I love that moment ex-Forza Horizon team. where he’s told ‘all you English It’s more than the sum of its are the same, and he replies, ‘I’m parts, just. But it takes time to no Englishman, I’m Welsh!’” get up to speed. Showing its age, For all the love we’re giving it, you need to complete a checklist Ian points out it commits one of tasks before the roads open up. of the greatest crimes of all the “This is stressing me out,” Assassin’s Creed games: “It has moans Oscar. “I just want to do pirate ship stealth. You actually a race; instead I need to get a have to navigate quietly past bronze on a thing and earn XP.” ships in the night. Terrible idea.” It doesn’t help that the STILL WORTH BUYING? narrator feels half-bored as she details your next task. “It’s one of those ones where NEED FOR they’ve gone for the most cold SPEED RIVALS narrator possible,” suggests Oscar, pondering: “What if there GET IT NOW: PS HITS, £15.99 was no emotion?” “Calm down, David Cage,” A cops-versus-not-cops game shouts former OPM staffer Jen carrying the DNA of the Need Simpkins from across the office. For Speed series, Rivals still has Once the races and events start enough street smarts to hook us. in earnest Rivals proves a lot of “The problem at launch is fun. It still looks polished and everyone went racer and no-one controls smoothly, with some went cop,” quips Oscar. great changing weather patterns. “Go cop,” insists Jess, as if But every now and then Rivals 139Cars in trying to redress the imbalance reminds you of its vintage. Rivals. That’s a big garage. LAUNCH DAY REVISITED

“It’s Linkin Park!” shouts Jess the pad from his hands. “Protect as the music rises. “I grew up the dog at all costs,” she giggles. listening to them.” It only takes a realistically Ian asks: “Did they have a rendered canine to finally get rapper or something?” OPM’s staff writer to play an “Yeah, Mike Shinoda… Oh god, FPS. Ghosts has a purpose. #01 The map most played online, I know his name,” mutters a red- STILL WORTH BUYING? five years on, is Siege Of faced staff writer. Shanghai. STILL WORTH BUYING? BATTLEFIELD 4 GET IT NOW: PS STORE, GHOSTS £15.99 GET IT NOW: , £16.49 The other tentpole shooter released at PS4’s UK launch was DICE’s elegant team- “The dog! It’s the one with the based FPS. It was seen as a dog,” grins Oscar. transitional title in the series At a time when Call Of Duty where the single-player story fatigue was taking over, we only was given more attention, really remember Ghosts because and has a similar near-future of its beautifully mo-capped setting to Ghosts. German Shepherd. In-game he “15 minutes earlier, really? still looks great. Is that what they took Getting our first glimpse of from COD’s single-player Ghosts’ gun dog comes after campaigns, the old timey-wimey we’ve shot our way through an switcheroo?” says Ian. orbital space station, plummeted “This feels super-smooth to to earth, and caused armageddon. play, though, it’s really nice,” adds 069 Still, the upshot is we get a real Oscar. “It’s still all brown but it doggy to accompany our looks great, much better than shooter fun. Ghosts, and it’s really responsive.” “It’s not as pretty as Killzone. “It’s opening with Bonnie It looks like PS3 COD,” says Jess. Tyler’s Total Eclipse Of The “I don’t hate this,” comments Heart… so I’m in,” smiles Jess. Ian as he shoots through an Five minutes into Battlefield 4 orbital space station. “But there we’re already doing more than has been a lot of time here we did the first hours of Killzone where I’m not doing much.” and Ghosts combined. The “That’s always been the case single-player mission riffs on with COD openers,” reflects Battlefield’s sandbox map design, Oscar. “It feels like I’m watching using jeeps, boats, and tanks to a film rather than playing a game. traverse the environment. I really am just holding forward.” “Killzone looks nicer but in “I think this is one of the terms of how it feels to play better CODs of recent years,” in 2018, Battlefield 4 is the best adds Milf. “I think it suffered of the launch-day shooters,” because people were getting sick argues Oscar. of the modern-day CODs, but STILL WORTH BUYING? now it feels surprisingly good.” It’s a testament to how Call Of Duty has made small changes A clear favourite among the rather than sweeping ones over team is Resogun, the best game the years that Ghosts still plays at launch and the brightest light well. Shooting feels snappy and five years on. But there were even just an hour in we’re surprises: Killzone Shadow Fall pushed from one explosive set- is still popular, AC IV: Black Flag piece to the next. holds up due to its smart pirate “Oh it’s the dog! That is a world-building, and Battlefield good boy,” says Jess as the on- 4 remains one of PS4’s standout screen pup wags his tail. shooters. All can be bought “Shall I shoot the dog, Jess?” secondhand or found lurking asks Ian, grinning. around the PS Store sales, and “Don’t shoot the dog, you you can also buy them as part of monster,” shrieks Jess, wrestling Sony’s PlayStation Hits range.

88 LIFE IS STRANGE 2 Getting to safety is no walk in the OPM SCORES park for Sean and Daniel. GOLD AWARD

GOLD AWARD Awarded to a game that’s brilliantly executed on every level, combining significant innovation, near-flawless gameplay, great graphics and lasting appeal.

EDITOR’S AWARD

EDITOR’S AWARD Not at the very highest echelon, but this is a game that deserves recognition and special praise based on its ambition, innovation or other notable achievement.

10 INCREDIBLE 071 The kind of phenomenal experience rarely seen in a console generation. 9 OUTSTANDING Unreservedly brilliant – this should be in every collection. 8 VERY GOOD A truly excellent game, marred by just a few minor issues. 7 GOOD A great concept unfulfilled or the familiar done well, but still well worth playing. 6 DECENT Fun in parts, flawed in others, but more right than wrong. 5 AVERAGE What you expect and little more, this is for devotees only. 4 BELOW AVERAGE Any bright ideas are drowning in a sea of bugs or mediocrity. 3 POOR A seriously flawed game with little merit on any level. 2 AWFUL Disgraceful: the disc would be more beneficial as a coaster. 1 HORRIFIC Own this and you’ll be swiftly, justifiably, exiled from society.

CONTENTS ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY 72 | ASTRO BOT RESCUE MISSION 79 | CATASTRONAUTS 83 FIFA 19 84 | V-RALLY 4 86 | FIST OF THE NORTH STAR 91 | HOLLOW KNIGHT 92 MEGA MAN 11 94 | NBA 2K19 95 | VALKYRIA CHRONICLES 4 96 | DESTINY 2 – FORSAKEN 97 REVIEW

GOLD AWARD

AN OLYMPIC GAME @IanDean4 ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY Doh! Not that Homer…

hen you have a grand 072 sprawling adventure fringed with role- playing ideas where dialogue choices affect the world in a material way, all you really want INFO to know is: can you FORMAT PS4 smooch your way across Ancient Greece? Of ETA OUT NOW courseW you can. You can’t walk 500 yards on PUB UBISOFT DEV UBISOFT QUÉBEC one of the game’s many idyllic islands without receiving a coy wink or, indeed, an upfront proposition for a good time under the toga. It’s the Greek way, we’re told. Hashtag MeToo? More like hashtag MeQuoque.

Of course everything is consensual, and when and if it’s not, like the moment I stumble into an illegal sex dungeon, you can right the wrong with a slice of your sword. Ultimately it’s in your hands (NOT THAT), and that’s the real difference Assassin’s Creed Odyssey holds over its predecessors. This world is your playground and how you act impacts it, not simply in monumental narrative ways but in small, incremental causes and effects. Your first big decision is whether to play as Kassandra or Alexios. That’s right, Assassin’s Creed finally has a fully-fledged female lead, even if it’s fudged and the decision is given to you, the player. Kassandra is, according to the dev, the canonical hero of Odyssey, so she’s our gal. “YOU CAN’T WALK 500 YARDS WITHOUT RECEIVING A COY WINK, OR, INDEED, AN UPFRONT PROPOSITION.” 073

Kassandra is the series’ first proper female lead. She’s also one of the best to date. REVIEW

Above Kassandra knows how to party. Make the most of Athens; the goat is optional.

You can disarm an enemy once the move is unlocked, then stab them with a dirty 074 great big spear.

Above left The Nation Battles are epic, but whiff of Dynasty Warriors.

Above right Battle royale comes to Assassin’s Creed in the Hundred Hands storyline.

Left The world is full of unusual sights, like this prehistoric snake.

Right Dialogue choices have genuine effects. REVIEW

Starting small on the island of Kephallonia, Odyssey would just be an Of course, when smooth Kassandra is a character who skirts the line expansion of Origins then put words fail your sword does all between good and bad. She’s a rogue who’s fallen them aside. While it shares the talking. It’s here Odyssey in with surrogate farther figure Markos and is many systems with last year’s really differs from Origins. pushed from one dodgy deal to the next. entry, Ubisoft Québec has Where Bayek relied on shield How much of this life you choose to revel in taken the time to iron out defence and parrying to whittle is down to you over the course of the first few any shortcomings making down an enemy’s health one- missions – rescue a family from being killed as adventuring in Ancient Greece on-one, combat in Odyssey a plague spreads, steal the eye from the ‘Cyclops’, more accessible. focuses on attack and dodge, and flirt with an adventuress with a hot Greek For example, there’s only often against two, three, or lineage. You can begin to lead Kassandra along one place in a town or village even hundreds of enemies at a the good path, or double down on the bad. But to upgrade gear and weapons. time. It’s a setup that puts you that’s actually doing the branching choices a Bows now only come in one on the front foot, forcing you disservice, as the dialogue options you choose are ‘type’, but by upgrading your to launch melee combos. Even more nuanced than a good/bad divide. Choices skill tree you can set up the the abilities unlocked as you affect how characters behave or view you, they multi- and sniper-shots of level up lean towards attack alter the world in real ways, and ensure, for the Origins. Likewise, fall damage over defence, with the famed first time in the Assassin’s Creed series, you can can finally be eradicated 300 Spartan kick being an early define your hero. through levelling your hero – upgrade. Later moves enable you can even cause area affect you to imbue blades with fire LOVE LIFE damage by and poison, and throw a knife Anchored by fun, frothy holding i. for linked silent kills. writing Kassandra is a bold “THE WORLD FEELS Your The decision to go ‘full and expressive lead. Just actions have Spartan’ on the combat has watching her reactions to MORE ALIVE THAN ANY consequences many knock-on effects. For some of our choices is a now: steal too instance, it makes defeating metagame in and of itself. PREVIOUS ASSASSIN’S much loot and higher-level enemies harder There’s wide-eyed disgust, mercenaries will than in Origins. Where in shock, laughter, and a CREED SETTING.” be put on your Egypt you could patiently shave brightness to her delivery that trail. Coupled health of an opponent from the Origins’ Bayek could never muster. Of course, they with the impact of dialogue safety of a shield, in Greece have different drives – Bayek was a traditional choices and the addition of you need to rely on timed rolls Assassin’s Creed hero pursuing revenge, whereas Exploration mode, which from danger (this boils down Kassandra is an explorer, a warrior seeking her removes direct guides, icons, to quickly tap-juggling between place in the world, on a quest to find her parents and goals, and Odyssey’s world dodge on r and attack on u 075 after her father, Spartan King Leonidas, threw feels more alive and eventful to jiggle around an opponent). her and brother Alexios off a cliff (or vice versa, than any previous Assassin’s The upshot is you’re forced to depending on your choice of sibling) and all four Creed setting. take on side-quests and explore family members separate into the world. Odyssey is to Origins what the map to earn the XP needed Kassandra’s a hero who knows how to push her Black Flag was to AC III, not to reach higher levels and open enemies’ buttons, too. Remember that stolen eye? simply because full-blown up the world more. Odyssey She shoves it up a goat’s bum to get a rise from sailing (which we’ll get to) has is a game that wants you to the ‘Cyclops’. He’s not the villain from the legend been added, but because the experience its setting, and it’ll but a local criminal who needs teaching a lesson. best bits have been expanded, twist your arm to make sure you do so. Before long you’ll outgrow Kephallonia and Below Choose rough edges smoothed out, want to explore the map, which is where the to play as and the whole thing wrapped game really begins to show its true colours, and Kassandra in a story worth pursuing with SPARTA FOREVER the scale of this poetic journey becomes clear. or Alexios. characters who always raise an The real reason for the switch The map is enormous, littered with eyebrow or a smile. in combat style, however, is dozens of islands, each We’ve flirted with teasing the introduction of Conquest crafted with unique priestesses, and uncovered the Battles, large-scale military personalities and Cult Of Kosmos that threatens skirmishes between Sparta and tales to tell. Odyssey’s all of Greece, which in turn Athens with over 300 soldiers take on Ancient Greece is dovetails with Kassandra’s on screen at once, all swinging an addictive one. There’s a search for her mother, father, at one another. beauty shot from every peak, and brother. We’ve partied To unlock a Conquest Battle mist-shrouded forests, crumbling in Athens with Protagaros, you first need to weaken temples, the bones of ancient, Socrates, and Thrasymachus, a side’s Nation Power by foreboding creatures crawling from naturally taking time out for an undertaking some traditional mountainsides, and opulent cities orgy. This party is a microcosm Assassin’s Creed doings, such layered with side-quests, colourful of Odyssey’s hidden mechanics as assassinating a nation’s characters, and just enough – wear your armour and the regional leader, or demoralising romance to keep you interested. guests fear you, refusing to their army by killing soldiers, And those mythical creatures? talk; dress the part and you burning villages, and pillaging They’re here, and handled can charm your way into new a nation’s treasure. perfectly. Compared to quests. At every turn there’s Being a mercenary you can Origins this is choices that lead to new roll up and fight for either a more colourful time, opportunities or dead ends. At side. Being on the winning in both tone and no point do you feel cheated side rewards you with XP, rare application. out of a narrative path, because weapons, and gear, plus cold, If you had there’s so much happening hard cash. It’s a riff on Dynasty any concerns there’s little time for regrets. Warriors, with the two armies’ Above If you Left You can played Black recruit new Flag then you’ll crew members, feel at home on who bring their these seas. own skills when 076 in battle.

‘health’ meters decreasing as soldiers are killed. can splinter it in half. Boarding retelling the greatest Greek Taking out a commander leads to a faster victory. a ship results in more loot myths and legends. He’s a These battles aren’t essential, and can become but there’s always a risk, and rumpled narrator spinning wild a case of button-mashing your way through it takes longer than a swift tales on the tides. lower-levelled throngs, but like much of Odyssey barrage of arrows. There’s very they are one part of a broader whole. Odyssey little that’s fundamentally new SALTY TALK casts its net wide and catches more good than if you played Black Flag, except You’ll be spending a lot time bad. The world is the draw, and dipping into its now you can recruit people with Barnabas, too, as you many treasures feeds a constant need to explore. met in the world to your crew, settle into Odyssey’s core grind While you can run or ride (horses have which adds a new degree of of uncovering the identities personalities; some are courageous, while others personalisation. My first flirt of the many members of the love scrambling around mountains) across the Odessa, who proclaims she’s Cult Of Kosmos. You need to map, sooner or later you’re going to need to descended from Odysseus, discover and dispatch them embrace the return of ship warfare. This is proper agrees to join my crew but all before they find and kill oceanic sailing, none of that pootling about in others may require money or your family. With each kill you rowing boats from Origins. Like in Black Flag threats. Each comes with buffs collect an Isu artefact to take to these seas are large and deep, and littered with to improve areas of the ship, The Forge, an ancient temple wrecks to explore, sunken temples to plunder, so recruiting new mates soon where your inherited weapon, and aggressive ships to sink. Depending on becomes an obsession. the Spear Of Leonidas, can be the colours you’re flying, some ships will pass Sailing from island to island upgraded. For a game called without a care or turn for attack. could become a chore if it Assassin’s Creed it’s the only You can launch flurries of arrows and spears weren’t for the tease of hidden genuine nod to the wider series on u and i, and now ramming an enemy ship treasures, new stories to but there’s so much happening uncover, and unusual characters from island to island you’ll to seduce and assassinate. rarely miss the Assassins/ “SOONER OR LATER YOU’RE Like much of Odyssey your Templar lore that has, in the time on the ocean is anchored past, cluttered too many games GOING TO NEED TO EMBRACE by snappy dialogue from the in the series. charismatic Barnabas. It’s like In fact, the triumph of SHIP WARFARE.” going to sea with Peter Falk Odyssey is how it touches on REVIEW

THE OPM BREAKDOWN

WHAT YOU DO IN… AC ODYSSEY

12% Sleeping 20% Becoming with every man obsessed with and woman (and finding every goat) you meet. Cult Of Kosmos member. 8% Diving for 42% treasure at a Climbing, looting, moment’s notice. knifing just about everything you 15% Stopping at can see. the top of every 3% Trying to cliff to snapshot convince your the astonishingly latest smooch to beautiful world. join your crew. Above Bows are simpler now, with new shots accessed on p. STAT PACK 5033 44 5 Right There The number The game you Dastardly Cult Abilities to are so many of levels to get for free with Of Kosmos unlock, spread Cult Of Kosmos unlock in order a Season Pass members hidden across Hunter, to become the – Assassin’s on the map to Warrior, and targets. Who’s ultimate Spartan Creed III, to be find and Assassin the big bad? warrior. precise. assassinate. classes.

SERIESOGRAPHY

077

Above Even side-quests take the time to present cinematic moments. Black Flag put the sparkle back into the Assassin’s Creed series, and gave us

Assassin’s Creed | 8 | Creed Assassin’s 9 | II Creed Assassin’s 7 | III Creed Assassin’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag | 8 Assassin’s Creed Unity | 6 Syndicate Creed 7 Assassin’s | Assassin’s Creed Origins | 9 our first taste of moments of Assassin’s Creed explore the world to earn XP, high-seas combat. lore while weaving through its such thinking neglects the fact COMPEL-O-GRAPH own epic narrative, and finding this is a joined-up world where time to make every side-quest decisions in a minor narrative Sex marathon with Only grinding feel Homeric. thread tie into the wider world, an old woman. through Each island has a story to and your emotional connection side-quests. tell and they’re all worth taking to the main story. your time over. Washing up on It’s that central plot that Flirted with Time for an the Delos islands you’ll begin hooks you in, and it’ll take Odessa. Athens orgy. Seduced a by helping a rebellion against you on a journey of love, loss, rebel leader. the Athenians, before being and regret, but do so in such a spun through a story of lust, breezy manner you can forgive murder, and political intrigue; any open-world shortfalls. you’ll make love on the beach Coupled with one of the series’ 0 TIME 15 hours and duel in the sand against a best leads, and the sense rosy-fingered dawn. every inch of this world has a IS IT BETTER THAN? story to tell, and playing this GREEK GRINDER game feels like a celebration While underpinning everything of storytelling – it’s by no is the prescribed Assassin’s coincidence it’s called Odyssey. Creed grind for targets, loot, and collectables, there’s such VERDICT a desire to tell compelling So big The Witcher 3 wants stories you’ll rarely notice the a rest. This is an epic told cracks in Ubisoft’s tried-and- with flair, coupled with one of YES NO YES tested formula. And while the liveliest open worlds on Warmer, funnier, and Equally epic and just Equally strong female some may get frustrated by PlayStation 4. Odyssey is not larger than Origins, as sexy, but The characters and a Odyssey pips Bayek to Witcher 3 is deeper larger, more detailed the levelling linked to the main just the best Assassin’s Creed being our preferred and more complex world – Odyssey’s story missions, forcing you to in years, but one of the finest Aassassin’s Creed. than Odyssey. our choice. play through side-quests and action RPGs you’ll play. Ian Dean REVIEW

FORMAT PS VR ETA OUT NOW FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW INFO PUB ASPYR DEV ASPYR MEDIA INFO PUB NIS AMERICA DEV SNK INFO PUB THE VOXEL AGENTS DEV THE VOXEL AGENTS

PS VR REVIEW

TORN SNK HEROINES: TAG THE GARDENS A Myst opportunity TEAM FRENZY BETWEEN All tag, no drag Friendship grows like a flower s Patterson, a vlogger out for a morning stroll, you stumble upon a his crossover fighter where female n a dark and stormy night, two Adilapidated mansion in the woods. SNK favourites have been kidnapped friends, Arina and Frendt, are Your vlogger instincts and deep sense of Tand forced to fight in a mysterious Osheltering from the rain in their entitlement encourage you to nose around, pocket dimension wearing compromising shared treehouse between their two houses. and soon you’re on the trail of a story that outfits1 shouldn’t work. But, like a burlesque Mysteriously, they end up transported to a unravels at a steady pace, teasing nuggets show, there’s a huge amount of craft on surreal world of islands akin to something of weirdness to keep you interested.1 offer here that results in a fighter that really out of a pop-up book, populated by giant Your guide through the house is a floating has no right being as good as it is.2 recreations of their shared . It’s ball of ‘posh’ light with perfect diction. Each Casual is the name of the game. The joy an imaginative journey told wordlessly, as room in the house is a large circuit board: of SNK Heroines lies in how far it leans into the two friends ferry from one diorama-like hidden wires lurk behind the walls and under being a more approachable take on a fighter, island to the next in their treehouse. the floor, and using an acquired torch gizmo all put together by the veteran hands at SNK. You don’t control either of the pals directly you can follow the lines and plug in furniture Your two fighting gals share a health bar, – instead you’ve got a handle on time. The and ornaments to connect the circuits. but have separate special bars. With r you camera follows the girls around as they The physics-based puzzles are fun, if not have a weak attack you can combo easily, make their way from their makeshift boat 078 demanding, and any time you get to push, pull, w is a stronger attack, e can be modified to a gate at the end of an island’s path, and and throw things around in PS VR is a joy. for a range of basic specials, and there’s a you either fast-forward or rewind them on Connect the electrical dots in each room grab on q. o blocks, and moving during it their route using the , D-pad, or and a machine whirrs into life. This sends results in your heroine pulling off a classic p and i.1 Beyond that, you’ll only be using your consciousness to another realm where King Of Fighters-like evasion. There’s no q to get them to interact with objects. The you meet Dr Lawrence Talbot in the ‘flesh’. crouch. Repeat: there is no crouch. ultimate goal is for one of them to carry a The more puzzles you solve, the more With everything pared down so much, light in a lantern to the gate at the end, while ‘memories’ you collect, and the more of the competition revolves around simple the other can activate things like switches. house’s history the Doc reveals. exchanges, reducing human players down to The islands move as time progresses,2 While Torn occasionally adds new trading off the fundamentals in a delightfully and often you’ll be switching between conundrums to the mix, they’re little more pure fashion. Adding interest are things like multiple states, or controlling lines of time than moving pattern puzzles, and it’s items that you can unleash with the right slightly differently, to make everything come incredibly slow – originally released on thumbstick. All matches must end with a together. Some puzzles use this ingeniously, Oculus last year, the game is a step behind Dream Finish, achieved by hitting u once getting you to mess with the order of newer PS VR releases.2 That said, visually your opponent’s life is in the red. The tension inputs, or align objects in certain ways. the house is a beautiful place to explore, and of pulling these off can lead to some great For the most part they’re intuitive and just Garry Schyman’s soundtrack is impeccable. recreations of the sort of hype stakes the the right level of taxing, with only a couple The real issue is there’s no sense of bigger fighters get at high-level play, but of particularly tricky leaps of logic. While a tension. You’re trapped in an abandoned reachable by all players. simple concept, the game itself is just the mansion hidden in the woods, surrounded by Content here, like the fighters’ costumes, right length to stop the idea spreading too ‘dark science’, at the beck and is slight, and mechanically it thin. With a beautiful ambient call of a mysterious imprisoned only goes so deep. But that’s soundtrack, and a warm being, yet at no point do you sort of the point, and it pulls off story wonderfully told, it’s one feel threatened. Torn? More like the look it’s going for very well that will stick with you for a slightly frayed. Ian Dean indeed. Oscar Taylor-Kent while. Oscar Taylor-Kent

FOOTNOTES 1 The script is co-written by BioShock’s Susan FOOTNOTES 1 In a twist, some of the unlockable outfits are much FOOTNOTES 1 Sometimes you’ll find yourself scrubbing backwards O’Connor, so expect quirky ’50s-style sci-fi. 2 Even the teleport less revealing than the defaults. 2 The bizarre story is bare-bones, and forwards too often, and wishing you could change the speed. movement setting is slow, only beaming you a foot ahead at a time. though it does justify the crazy outfits in a strange way. 2 Every island is beautiful, filled with the pair’s shared experiences. REVIEW

Astro Bot and his buds would be worthy PS VR mascots.

PS VR REVIEW

EX MACHINA @KoeniginKatze

ASTRO BOT 079 RESCUE MISSION EmbraceSony’svirtualspaceoddity

stro Bot’s most endearing quality is its 3D platformer’s somewhat and the unlockable challenges, perseverance. Whether it’s death from fixed perspective. This does there’s plenty to enjoy. gravity or the improbably explosive make the odd jump difficult to While occasionally Atermination resulting from too much judge, especially as you can’t frustrating, levels are seldom roughhousing, the teeny bot gets right back up backpedal in a level, which tricky to traverse. Enemies are again, as eager as ever to save its friends. All becomes heartbreaking when easily dealt using Astro Bot’s INFO without a word of sass to you about missing you realise you’ve left one of right hook, rocket boots, and FORMAT PS VR that same jump five times in a row. Astro Bot’s buds behind. arm cannon. For one so small, ETA OUT NOW the bot packs quite the arsenal. PUB SONY DEV SIE JAPAN You first encounter the bot in a spaceship full of A PLACE IN SPACE While your buddy jumps, glides STUDIO similarly micro machines, as their craft is torn Astro Bot is adorable, always and tightrope-walks, you’ll be apart by a grabby alien that never learned not to keen to wave to you from headbutting through obstacles, snatch. Its friends sent hurtling into space, it’s up platforms on high. The way dousing slimes with water, to you and Astro Bot to hunt each of them down its friends are hidden around and deploying hook shots. across a number of strange planes. From simple, levels, attempting to blend in Mercifully for the more self- plastic beginnings to a world underwater, and as a cactus in one instance, conscious, the game doesn’t even a level that gives way to an annoying slot car and relaxing on the beach demand exaggerated gestures section, you’ll want to take in your surroundings. in another, keeps things from you. Bosses bookend In PS VR, you glide through levels along a track, cute, though the ship you’re worlds, feeling familiar but requiring you to fully inspect your surroundings, trying to fix and fill with the shining in their presentation, leaning, peering, and looking behind yourself. stragglers you find lacks the and there’s a joyful, nostalgic Unlimited lives and generous checkpointing same level of personality. The tone throughout. neuter any frustration that may arise from this main point of interest on board is a gacha machine – pour the VERDICT coins you gather across levels There’s nothing scaled-down “ASTRO BOT IS ADORABLE, into it for even tinier dioramas about this family-friendly PS VR of enemies and levels. While adventure. A delightful romp for ALWAYS KEEN TO WAVE TO these are detailed, this side both PS VR veterans and the content is pretty surface-level. pint-sized adventurers in the YOU FROM PLATFORMS.” Still, between the main levels family. Jess Kinghorn The game looks great, and KO punches light up the visor.

PS VR REVIEW

080 BODY BLOW IanDean4 CREED: RISE TO GLORY A fight night worth the virtual entrance fee?

fter a mere ten minutes of play, this exhausted by the final bell. you can feel them in the PS game delivers the Rocky thrills you As the song goes, “It’s getting Move controllers, and there’s are hoping for as you’re pushed into hard now”. a real sense of achievement Aa training montage ahead of your first But it’s all over far too soon, when you dodge a combo and fight. The stirring strings and helium vocals of and these moments are too few. successfully counter with a Gonna Fly Now rise as you punch the bags and The bulk of the story drifts flurry of your own. The faster hit the treadmill, with your surly coach egging between training montages and your swings, the harder your you on to give more to the cause. Inside the PS INFO fights, and after six of these the punches, but learning combos VR headset, it feels great. FORMAT PS VR credits roll, leaving you feeling is essential to success on ETA OUT NOW a little deflated. The game took higher difficulty settings. PUB MGM (US The artsy right side of my brain is having VERSION TESTED) me so high, promised so much, Advanced controls enable a smashing time wallowing in the Rocky DEV SURVIOS and left the ring leaving me you to move slowly around atmosphere, but my logical left side has to barge wanting more. your opponent by holding the in and break up the love-in: “Can Creed: Rise To PS Move controllers’ buttons Glory stay the course?” it questions. Oh fudge, DOWN, NOT OUT and waving your hands one no, no it can’t is the reality. That’s not to say Creed: Rise over the other like Daffy Duck The main career mode lasts around two hours, To Glory isn’t fun while it demanding you ‘put ’em up’. but can go a little longer if you play on a higher lasts. It offers a great virtual (Honestly, it feels better in difficulty setting. While it lasts, like much of reality boxing experience. The PS VR than it sounds.) Creed, it’s brilliant fun. The story puts you in game uses what Survios calls While mechanically Creed the gloves of raw amateur Adonis Creed and sets its ‘Phantom Melee Technology’ delivers a solid-feeling VR you on a journey to the top (just like in the film to deliver a genuinely physical boxing sim, it does lack of the same name). Getting there has some fun experience. When punches land the deeper tactical play of, twists and creative moments: for example, there’s a flashback to a back alley fight against ‘Mad Dog’ Pono after Creed is kicked out of a club. Best “ROUNDS CRASH INTO ONE of all is a brilliant montage fight against ‘Pretty’ Rick Conlan in which you need to go the distance ANOTHER, LEAVING YOU (again, just like in the movie); rounds crash into one another with no break leaving you physically PHYSICALLY EXHAUSTED.” REVIEW

Right Learning to block is vital, particularly against Balboa THE OPM BREAKDOWN who can take the hits. WHAT YOU DO IN… CREED: RISE TO GLORY

7% Staring out 12% Replaying your rival and the ‘Pretty’ Rick Below Rival on refusing to touch Conlan montage gloves to start. fight because the canvas? it’s so good. Wave your 15% Replaying 38% arms to get the the training Flailing wildly at exercises to your grimacing crowd pumped. git gud. 8% Trying to opponent until get that darned 20% Testing you learn your title song out of your skills online combos. your head. against the best of the best.

STAT PACK 91735 Fighters to Training Number of Gyms to unlock choose from in montages to play rounds you need and train in, Free Play mode, through, all with to last against including Mighty including Rocky that theme song. ‘Pretty’ Ricky Mick’s – as much Balboa in his It’ll burn into your Conlan. Live out part of Rocky as ‘70’s prime. brain by the end. the movie! Stallone himself.

HOW TO… KNOCK DOWN AN OPPONENT

It’s not enough to pummel your opponent, you need to watch for openings, then strike. 081 A good combo will break his defences, leaving you to hit pin-point punches into his weak Above left Fights begin when you bump gloves with your opponent. areas. Land the hits while he’s vulnerable to send him to the mat. particularly, rival PS VR as it was thrown at you. The THE FIRST FIVE HOURS… punchfest Knockout League, drive to present a vaguely which presents rival fighters as realistic boxing sim has sucked 13245 brawling puzzles that you need some of fun out of the events. to memorise and counter. By Just as Creed looks down comparison Creed’s opponents and out, however, it pulls itself lack real variety. While on up and plays a wild card – paper one may be a speed PvP. Taking your boxing skills fighter and another a slugger, in online in 1v1 fights against 1 You’re on the road to greatness, but first you need to get fit. 2 Time the ring they can feel the same other Rocky fans not only to get in the ring and show what you can do. 3 You’re a superstar in the and lack the tells Knockout delivers the challenge the main ring but outside you’re getting drawn into back-alley drama. 4 Back to League sold so well. game lacks, but forces you to training, now Sly Stallone himself is in your corner and the title fight is hit the training exercises to coming. 5 Story complete, all that’s left to do is train and match your GLASS JAW improve. These PvP fights last skills against real people in PvP and the CPU in free play. Post-story you can dip back longer than those of the story into fights in free play mode, mode, forcing you to go the TROPHY CABINET adjusting settings and rules distance. You’ll puff out your to increase the challenge. The cheeks and build a sweat as you ING ONE IME ND E T A H A biggest time soak, however, box, and wins feel physically T T T S A D H is the option to replay sets of exhilarating. In the last round, N C

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training exercises. The mix is Creed pulls it back. R

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VERDICT O sessions with Sly Stallone, … dodge bag tests, and the chance Less a rise to glory and more to hit a hanging slab of beef – a stumble towards modest BRONZE SILVER GOLD a Rocky staple. success, Creed feels good but Rile up the audience, Block all punches from Get the maximum star Again they’re not as fun or lacks the depths of its closest after knocking out your a rival’s combo with rating on every training opponent, by waving one hand. You really montage. S’pose you’ve as challenging as the minigames rival, Knockout League. It’s good your arms around. You rather impressive earned the right to offered in Knockout League, fun and a visceral experience, rotten show-off. show-off. show off now… which had you punching trash but it’s over too soon. Ian Dean REVIEW

FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW INFO PUB KOCH MEDIA DEV CHUNSOFT INFO PUB DOVETAIL GAMES DEV DOVETAIL GAMES INFO PUB BANDAI NAMCO DEV ILINX

428: SHIBUYA FISHING SIM WORLD BLACK CLOVER: SCRAMBLE All ‘bout that bass QUARTET KNIGHTS The city never sleeps Never giving up, but we wish it would race yourself, because this is the here’s a kidnapping gone wrong, a perfect plaice to indulge OPM’s terrible ere in a world where everyone uses mysterious crime syndicate, a deadly Bhalibut of making codawful puns. magic, you play as a young boy without Tvirus, and, of course, a dedication to This game aims to offer you the reel thing, Hit. Well, that’s not strictly true; Asta recycling the right items in the correct bins. licensing deals with the likes of Bass Cat can use anti-magic, the rock to many 428: Shibuya Scramble finally gets its English and Sonik netting the developer hundreds of wizards’ magical scissors. Black Clover’s a release, ten years on from its Japanese recognisable rods and accessories. Add in hugely popular manga and , and this debut – it’s unique, and still one of the best a variety of lakes from Europe and the USA tie-in delves into the past of Asta’s fellow visual novels out there.1 (and our own Grand Union Canal, in case Black Bulls Magic Knight, Captain Yami. It begins with a ransom hand-off, where you’ve ever fancied catching anything other You’ll slice your way through golems and the victim’s twin sister is handing over a than typhus in a river in London), and there’s other characters in wave-based battles, large sum of money for her return at the potential for a fishing sim on a grand scale. three-on-one arena fights, and even a bit of crowded Shibuya crossing. You follow Fishing’s not the activity for everybody, capture the flag. Story mode is brief,1 with Shinya Kano, one of the detectives assigned and the controls and systems may initially much of the gameplay found in replaying to the case. Things quickly go awry, and seem a little intimidating; but there’s no the small selection of story missions as both the money and the sister go missing. need for newbies to be koi. There is a small different characters or under set conditions. 082 As you hop between a selection of other number of video tutorials, which we strongly The optional challenge missions are even characters, the narrative web becomes recommend you watch. They’ll help you learn more bare-bones. While there’s a number increasingly complex. the basics inside and trout.1 of new animated scenes, these aren’t to the Even though the plot is a rollercoaster There are two different control systems same standard as the show, and the game’s ride of things constantly getting out of hand, for casting your line. The easier method presentation is fairly flavourless. it never feels too complicated. The writing involves holding then releasing a button to Combat itself is more mashed than is witty, sharp, and easy to follow. Each determine the distance of your cast, and if I like my potatoes. You’ll be hammering hour block of the day is played separately, even that’s too difficult, this isn’t the game shoulder buttons no matter who you play and you have to switch characters to follow for you. The other, Total Cast, method is set as, though you can occasionally co-ordinate their stories, making choices and jumping up as difficult to master, but the combination with your team mates for a Link Magic between them as they pass one another to of flicking the right stick and holding then attack. Unfortunately, despite the flashy make sure all their tales go smoothly.2 It’s all releasing p is actually pretty simple. The fanfare these special attacks are about very dynamic, and even the bad endings feel real challenge comes when you take up a as interesting as a plain baked potato, the like ones you’d want to see through rather perch and start fishing. damage they deal also being on the same than just annoyances cutting scenes short. Fish bite much more quickly than they level as a damp squib. As you can jump around the timeline easily, do in real life, allowing you to tackle them Playing as different Magic Knights, many the game never feels punishing. If you’re with pleasing regularity… if you learn how of whom are more interesting than Asta,2 curious about visual novels, this is where to to kelp up with all the systems, that is. The spices things up but it isn’t tantamount to start. At times, this is one of the funniest core fishing can be surprisingly compelling, bacon bits, and fights never graduate to games you’ll ever play as you follow these but tournaments are unlikely to keep you anything impressive, not even when the quirky characters through this coming back.2 Let’s cut the carp J-Pop theme song kicks in. stressful day, but thanks to here: Fishing Sim World is great Much like a baked potato, it’s all their humanity, the emotional for fishing fans, but unlikely to perfectly serviceable but not moments hit home all the salmon hordes of new people to very interesting unless you’re harder. Oscar Taylor-Kent the sport. Luke Kemp a carb fiend. Jess Kinghorn

FOOTNOTES 1 Part FMV game, 428 uses real actors and photos of FOOTNOTES 1 C’mon, that pun’s pretty good. 2 Though there are FOOTNOTES 1 Including the timey-wimey twist after clearing the Japan. 2 A choice in one route might not matter for that character, competitive online modes, and yes, people are playing. You could main story that offers another character’s perspective. 2 Noelle’s but could have disastrous consequences for another. theoretically have boat races if anybody was up for it, too. water magic is a fun diversion though functionally similar. REVIEW

Fanning the flames of conflict is actual fire. Opening the airlock will put it out, but you may lose crew too.

MOONING AROUND KoeniginKatze

CATASTRONAUTS 083 Keep these remixed dishes spinning – in space!

top us if you’ve heard this one before: to a segmented shuttle? To way, and generally it feels an up-to-four-player co-op game say nothing of the shoddy much more sedate than full-on featuring diminutive avatars in timed airlock system! four-player co-op chaos. While Sstages, desperately trying to not be Catastronauts metes out new the option of a solo mission is burned by the flames of failure while they obstacles like this regularly, appreciated, the game simply attempt to grapple with the ‘quirks’ of each balancing its pacing against isn’t at its best here. INFO level environment. You’d be forgiven for an engaging level of challenge. So pull your buds out of FORMAT PS4 thinking we’d already reviewed this game back You’re not overwhelmed cryosleep, you’ve got a ship ETA OUT NOW in OPM #153 but, let us tell you, a spaceship is by new mechanics, as each to save! If you can manage to PUB INERTIA GAME STUDIOS completely different to a kitchen. introductory level will take extinguish fires before the red DEV INERTIA GAME a few tries to get right, shirt turns a truly incandescent STUDIOS For starters, there’s generally more firepower but your failures seldom shade, or resist the urge to aboard such a vessel. The task you’ll be tangoing frustrate. Deaths are almost as fling the hapless twerp out of with aboard the USS definitely-not-a-standard- entertaining as your victories, the airlock, you may just have Starfleet-ship is avoiding the destruction of said and the cloning stations aboard a shot at saving yourselves. ship at the hands of a sneering, scaly alien race. each level mean at worst And if they really are that It’s blast or be blasted as you run between guns they’re only an inconvenience. useless there’s no need to be while trying to patch up the damage to your aggressive, because the end-of- ship. Unfortunately, the person who designed the STAR-CROSSED level award ceremony will tell vessel had apparently never had to pilot such a It’s certainly a novel approach them what’s what. With this craft, or indeed had much involvement with one, to team building, chiefly goofy tone, and even managing as the onboard layout is part of the challenge because it so thoroughly to up the difficulty level you’ll need to contend with. For starters, who destroys friendships. compared to other officers of thought it was good idea to put a revolving Communication is key, but its rank, it’s got all the makings door slap-bang in the middle of a spaceship? this isn’t everyone’s strong of a much-loved party classic. Or decided to assign a single fire extinguisher suit, so if you’re antisocial, you will be pleased to hear that VERDICT you can also put both of your Between the starboard “YOUR DEATHS ARE hands on deck alone, tapping immolation and occasional, rapid the shoulder buttons to switch decompression aft, it’s silly fun, ALMOST AS ENTERTAINING between two crew members. boasting a bubbly personality Score margins are incredibly that’s hardly stern. One to pull AS YOUR VICTORIES.” forgiving when playing this into port. Jess Kinghorn It won’t cause diehard PES fans to switch, but FIFA 19 is a fine football sim in its own right.

084 TABLE TOPPER @BenjiWilson FIFA 19 Answers its critics with a glittering display

he wealthiest competition in club for zippy passing and balletic logo on the box and watching football French-kissing the richest dribbling, but those who prefer the cash roll in. This colossal name in digital sports was never likely their football more industrial licence’s infiltration of said Tto sit well with more rabid sports are catered for too. Indeed, modes brings mixed results – gamers. On which note: welcome to FIFA 19. heading is the one fundamental it’s the only major change to After prising the Champions League licence element revolutionised by career, which is disappointing away from PES, EA’s latest kickabout offers these changes, with powerful – but it certainly drums up a comprehensive implementation of the big boys’ INFO goals off a striker’s bonce and vibe of completeness. favourite mid-week pursuit. For those open- FORMAT PS4 imperious forehead clearances Uniqueness, too, partly minded enough to look beyond preconceptions, ETA OUT NOW enjoyable like never before. PUB EA because of the OTT features this perceived match made in hell provides DEV EA CANADA that go hand-in-glove with the numerous heavenly moments. PERFECT OFF-PITCH tournament: players emerging Those incremental-yet- through the makeshift arch as Before getting to those, let’s make something wholesale improvements on the if attending a royal wedding, clear: on-pitch gameplay is paramount. It’s why, turf are bolstered by the pizzazz that glorious operatic theme for all their presentational excellence, MLB: The of the Champions League off booming out as they line up. Show and NBA 2K have maintained their status it. Available as a standalone And partly because of a new at the top of the sports pyramid for close to a tournament, or within the commentary team in Derek decade. Tweaks made to FIFA 19 put it in the reconfigured Kick-off mode, Rae and Lee Dixon. Emphatic same league. Fundamentals such as passing, career mode, third instalment in delivery and unconventional shooting, and dribbling haven’t been transformed, of The Journey and/or Ultimate in pronunciation thanks to his but from a physical standpoint this is much Team, EA cannot be accused Scots burr, Rae is a revelation, different from its predecessors. of bunging the ball-shaped while Dixon – despite some For instance, pace attributes are lowered across the game, making the on-pitch action more considered. Meanwhile the introduction “LET’S MAKE SOMETHING of contextual 50/50 battles, as players slam into one another to contest loose balls and CLEAR: ON-PITCH GAMEPLAY crosses, instils a sense of physicality befitting elite sportsmen doing battle. There’s still room IS PARAMOUNT.” REVIEW

Right Goalies are more alert to danger, but still imperfect. THE OPM BREAKDOWN (For realism, says EA.) WHAT YOU DO IN… FIFA 19

11% Loving the 10% Cursing icon showing the comeback AI Below There who you’ll switch in Squad Battles, to with o. one of few are more than Ultimate Team 700 teams, with 4% Sampling the 58% weaknesses. Dinamo Zagreb return of Oscar Trying your via the Chinese damnedest not a newcomer. League’s debut. to dab after 12% Marvelling 5% Playing scoring online. at new player piggy-in-the- (And failing.) faces such as middle in the Real Milinkovic-Savic, Madrid dressing Kolasinac, and room, thanks to Rudiger. The Journey.

HOW TO… EARN FAST ULTIMATE TEAM COINS

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1 Don’t buy packs. Most of what you find inside is worthless junk. Instead work the market by picking up cheap silver cards from popular leagues, which will ultimately be required for Squad Building Challenges. 2 As an example, search for silver Premier League centre-backs priced under 300 coins. Bid on them all, but don’t go over 300. 3 Relist any you win at 700 ‘Buy Now’ and watch your coins more than double. Then use this template for La Liga, Serie A, and so on.

STAT PACK 6416 400 25 085 Leagues and La Liga stadiums Cost, in FIFA Years since Above left ‘Player pick’ packs add a degree of choice to Ultimate Team. cups playable as added this year Points, of a the first FIFA standalone – giving you the basic Bronze was released. competitions, complete set, pack. You There’s no outside of other than know what mention in-game career. Barcelona. not to do. though. wonky first-timer moments Alex Hunter’s interactive story – shows more enthusiasm with cameos from Neymar and here than he ever has on ITV Kevin de Bruyne, to name two. MULTIPLAYER Sport. Demonstrating a natural Once more showcasing likeable Online and sofa-based chemistry, the pair make the characters and the better kind play are transformed by mode sing. of B-movie writing, it uses being able to change The CL’s integration into that new licence smartly, and match parameters Ultimate Team is understated. the ability to switch between beforehand. You can There’s sadly no option to Hunter, sister Kim, and pal make only headers and use Rae and Dixon, but sports Danny Williams at any time volleys count, double the value of long-range gaming’s best mode doesn’t go creates variety and some fun goals, or switch rules untouched. A key new feature surprises – such as a passing off entirely. It’s cheaty, is the pack-opening tool that practice in a hotel corridor. sweary, and magnificent. maps everything to a single It’s an appropriate send- button or stick nudge: up to off to a fictional character transfer list, down to quick FIFA diehards have become TROPHY CABINET sell, i to send all cards to surprisingly attached to. So N T T! your club. Division Rivals, with good, you wonder just how RIA NIS HO O IO S T T A weekly rewards for your online the series will evolve in his IS C T H E A F absence. Rae and Dixon across E H performances, are a fantastic R

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T supplement to offline Squad all modes would be a start. P Battles, while Squad Building Challenges – in which you VERDICT submit teams to unlock fresh The best FIFA’s been on packs – are one of the most current-gen in the purist’s BRONZE SILVER GOLD addictive mini-games on PS4 sense, with Champions League Score a left-foot volley Win a penalty Score from more than ever. I’ve lost entire evenings to implementation strengthening against Coventry City shoot-out without 25 yards out with a in The Journey… as missing. Computer defender from them without playing a match. the game’s grip on the genre Alex’s footballer naughtiness makes open-play. Leighton A word, too, for The Journey: from a casual’s perspective granddad Jim. this one tricky. Baines, come on down… Champions, the final chapter in too. Ben Wilson REVIEW

Different disciplines are available if you fancy a break from the loneliness of traditional rally driving.

TANKED ENGINE Jim_Crikey

086 V-RALLY 4 The legendary series returns, hoping to turn a corner

hen rally fans buy a game emulating most satisfying payoff when competence). Everything from their motorsport of choice, they you take a corner at speed repairs (damage is visible, expect the wheel deal. They’re tyred and somehow don’t wreck and also gradually affects Wof arcade experiences, and want to your vehicle. performance) to upgrades get as close to the real thing as possible. This is a constant drain on your is a challenge for Kylotonn because, although GRAVEL AND BLOCK resources, and it’s even possible it (mostly) gives arcade sensibilities the boot, The mud and sand of the to end a race or tournament INFO it hasn’t snagged licensed drivers, tracks, or Kenyan plains, the tight with less money than you went FORMAT PS4 championships. Okay, we’ll belt up with the streets of a Japanese town, an in with. The career should be ETA OUT NOW car puns. It’s getting exhausting anyway. American national park: it’s the main draw, but progression PUB BIGBEN DEV KYLOTONN all excellently designed, and will test your patience. RACING GAMES All the cars are licensed, mind you, and there’s constantly nail-biting stuff. Quick races give you access even a little in-game advertising (um, yay?). The graphics are nothing to everything immediately, The previous V-Rally is now old enough to buy very special (in fact, they’d and the inclusion of offline a lottery ticket, but in some ways, it’s like the look at home on PS3), but split-screen is to be applauded. series never went away. The first three games are the framerate is exceptionally Online, I’m shocked (and more remembered fondly by many rally fans, and much smooth at all times, both off- than a little disappointed) to of what they did right is present here. and online. The physics aren’t find that nobody’s playing One of the most important things to get right entirely realistic, especially buggy racing, which is great in a rally game is the feel of each road surface, when it comes to steering, but fun. I never find a lobby and V-Rally 4 captures this pretty well. Keeping they’re unforgiving. with more than four people control of your car while hurtling over gravel The core experience is solid, (including me) on the occasions is a constant battle, and the difference when then, but the game built around where I can find or connect to you transition to tarmac is as enormous as it is it is not. The career mode one. Like most of V-Rally 4, welcome. The snowy wastes of Siberia arguably is a mess. You start off with online’s stuck in first gear. offer the greatest challenge and, therefore, the enough money for one vehicle, and then you need to earn cash VERDICT from races. The problem is, you The rally fundamentals are “THE CORE EXPERIENCE IS need money not just for new there, but so is a disappointingly cars, but also for entering races, shoddy career mode. Genre SOLID, BUT THE GAME BUILT and staff who need paying fans will find a lot to love, but every in-game week (and their this is far from taking pole AROUND IT IS NOT.” rates go up according to their position. Luke Kemp REVIEW

This is one of the best- looking titles on PS VR, from character models to environments.

PS VR REVIEW

HOUSE OF MEMORIES @KoeniginKatze

TRANSFERENCE 087 Home is where the horror is

ather than describing the act whereby their possessions. Virtualised while the video logs seldom I leave an after-image of my full face phantoms datamosh through outstay their welcome, of makeup on the OPM PS VR headset intense but half-forgotten suggesting the corners of the R(sorry team), Transference explores scenes. Helped by some spooky bigger picture. This willingness the popular sci-fi idea of backing up human sound design, the rooms you to let you fill in the gaps consciousness to storage hardware that’s less walk through are plagued yourself makes heavy-handed INFO squishy but, if anything, more likely to fail in by claustrophobic unease, moments particularly baffling, the long run. A brilliant scientist has cracked and there are more than a few especially when it’s to tell FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW the formula but can’t secure the funding to solid scares. You quickly sense you to find something you’re PUB UBISOFT take his research to the next step. Deciding to there might be something else already looking for. DEV SPECTREVISION, UBISOFT MONTRÉAL go his own way in proving his hypothesis, he trapped inside this simulation, While you can play with looks to his young family… and the initial reveal had us the DualShock 4, this might hammering at virtual door actually be one you’ll want The process was not a smooth one, and you handles, while another late- to dig out your PS Move find yourself exploring the corrupted result. The game ‘boo’ left us instinctively controllers for. Even as full horror of the family’s downfall is hinted at covering our face. the family flat warps into through a polished blend of video diaries, audio nightmarish doubles of itself, logs, and environments surreally transformed DIGIT-HELL these halls have been designed by each member’s subjective experience. Hitting The story follows familiar with such attention to detail light switches allows you to swap between each horror tropes – obsessed that they demand you reach relative’s side of the story, transferring key items patriarch, troubled wife, out and at least mime touching between their various visions. neglected son – but, picking them. That said, your journey Surfaces and objects glitch in and out of through the detritus of through these corridors is far existence, hinting at the instability within the the family’s life, there’s a more satisfying than the place home. The various ghosts in this machine demonstrable awareness they’ll leave you in by the end. whisper cryptically in your ear when you inspect of these stereotypes. You won’t find yourself saddled VERDICT with pages of a diary, as Short and horrifying, it’s worth “THE INITIAL CREATURE Transference attempts to use coming home to your PS VR its chosen clichés efficiently. headset for this family reunion. REVEAL HAD US HAMMERING For example, you’ll only ever These walls talk, and you’ll want see the first two lines of an to immerse yourself in what AT VIRTUAL DOOR HANDLES.” emotional letter to a sister, they have to say. Jess Kinghorn It’s Sean and Daniel – and his unpredictable special abilities – against the world.

088 STRANGE ENOUGH @KoeniginKatze LIFE IS STRANGE 2 – EPISODE 1: ROADS Welcome to the Wolf Pack

ropping everything and starting afresh engage with Daniel through Daniel himself presents is never easy. Whether that be Dontnod it. For example, traipsing a complementary blend of closing the door on much-loved through woods, do you decide moments that are scripted to Dcharacters or this season’s tale of two to point out the wildlife and varying levels, leaving him far brothers on the road after a traumatic event, teach your brother about trail from a frustrating AI partner. it’s challenging to face such uncertainty. With blaze signs? Do you help him Your brother has a mind of Chloe, Max, and time travel left behind in INFO over a fallen trunk or leave him his own, subtly guiding you Arcadia Bay, what has season two stuffed into to trip and fall unaided? What through more open areas as FORMAT PS4 its suitcase as it rushes out the door, and how ETA OUT NOW lessons are you trying to impart he peels off to make his own well prepared is it for the road ahead? PUB SQUARE ENIX about the world through your observations about the world, DEV actions? In many ways, Sean’s even occasionally disappearing Protagonist Sean isn’t super-powered himself superpower is responsibility, from view. You’re able to call but his young brother Daniel is, in possession of with tried-and-true choices him back to you, but we’d be telekinetic powers he doesn’t have full control given new life through the lying if we said that we didn’t over. With no direct command of this force, context of Daniel witnessing experience even a hint of panic Daniel’s powers are used to punctuate the drama them; the question is no longer the first time he went out of rather than as tools for you to wield, forming ‘is this the right thing to do’ our sight, and we really started part of the incident that puts the brothers on but ‘what example am I setting to worry the first time he the road in the first place. Unfortunately Daniel’s for Daniel… and how will that didn’t respond to our call. This memory of this event lacks crucial details that come back to bite me?’ first episode’s major success is Sean simply can’t forget, and the gap between their recollections drives conflict this episode. Much of the action revolves around how you “WHAT EXAMPLE AM I interact with Daniel. Your AI sibling’s presence informs not just story decisions but also SETTING… AND WILL THAT exploration; rather than passively observing the world around you both, you’ll have the option to COME BACK TO BITE ME?” REVIEW

Right Sean’s sketchbook gives you a compelling peek THE OPM BREAKDOWN at his inner life. WHAT YOU DO IN… LIFE IS STRANGE 2

19% Hoping 16% Poring nothing awful over Sean’s Below Will you happens to sketchbook Mushroom and texts. set a good the puppy. 29% example or Wondering just teach Daniel a 18% Thinking lesson? how far you’ve how much of a 11% Keeping come from plastic bad influence one eye on faces and wooden you really want Daniel in more lip syncing. to be. open areas. 7% Wincing less than you’d think at the teen dialogue.

FRIENDS & ENEMIES

EL LA TT NI LY RE DA B

Sean’s baby brother… Sean’s best friend. Sean and Daniel’s but he doesn’t know why Daniel has a crush neighbour. His bullying they’ve left home. on her. starts everything off.

STAT PACK 3 104 300 2 089 Complete US Weeks ago, in Sean and Daniel The wolf is states lie 2016, is when travel this far this season’s between Seattle, this episode is – give or take prominent animal Above left We’ll be keeping an eye on pup Mushroom and Daniel from now on. Washington and set. We were some miles – motif, compared Puerto Lobos playing Mafia 3 in this first to season one’s in Mexico. back then… episode alone. blue butterfly. just how protective you become the way through, the brothers LOVING/HATING towards your new brother. come across a shop. You can steal from it but then what HOME GAME will Daniel think? So we part While Arcadia Bay is in the with our measly funds for past, it’s far from a distant food and grab a somewhat memory. Much of the series’ decent bite to eat for the first identity persists visually, time in two days on a bench tonally, and audibly… though just outside. We did the right the spectre of season one is thing but we’re accosted by the something of a clumsy ghost. belligerent proprietor of the SCRAPBOOKING WELL-TRAVELLED PATH The presentation has received an The story relies on familiar, We won’t spoil it but there’s store, accusing us of stealing; upgrade over season one, and the well-worn pegs for its setup but a key pit stop replete with you can do everything ‘right’ places you’ll go are all worth taking it remains to be seen what new musings about moving away but there will still be racist a moment to sketch. vistas it’ll bury them in. from the past that feels not gits. While an interesting unlike a metatextual brick refashioning of a limitation of IS IT BETTER THAN? through your screen. But since the branching narrative into a we’re talking about season one, strength of the story, it remains this follow-up’s first outing to be seen where this or any is notably more consistent wider discussion of racism in and sure of itself than its America will ultimately lead. predecessor. Even as it tries new things, it carries forward VERDICT plenty of lessons learned. A consistently strong Taking place just before the introduction to the Diaz YES YES YES end of 2016, tensions are high brothers and their plight. We Certainly an Compared to an While this first episode and the characteristic tackling only want the best for them but interesting beginning enjoyable, pulpy romp, doesn’t try to reinvent back then, here and we find this opener’s the illusion, its of weighty themes returns to know full well things are going now this episode is far earnestness slightly presentation is far add another recontextualising to get worse over the course of more consistent. more appealing. more confident. layer to your choices. Part of the season. Jess Kinghorn REVIEW

FORMAT PS VR ETA OUT NOW FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW FORMAT PS VR ETA OUT NOW PUB FELLOW INFO PUB KONAMI DEV CYGAMES INFO PUB MONOMI PARK DEV MONOMI PARK INFO TRAVELLER GAMES DEV TINY BULL STUDIOS

PS VR REVIEW PS VR REVIEW

ZONE OF THE SLIME RANCHER BLIND ENDERS: THE 2ND A good slime to be had by all Cane and able RUNNER – MARS e who corrals the slimes, corrals his isn’t the first time we’ve found Retro recall the universe. On the Far, Far Range, ourselves relying on echolocation, but s it’s a remaster of a remaster of a Hthat’s the name of the game as you Twhile Stifled (reviewed OPM #143, 15-year-old Hideo-Kojima-produced feed slimes and farm the ‘plorts’ they 7/10) pushed our horror buttons this take Amech shooter you’d be forgiven for drop. The entire economy is based on this on the technique focuses on solving puzzles. ignoring this one. But closer inspection resource, with prices for each variety of The setup is the same: you’re placed reveals a tiny w in the bottom corner of plort fluctuating daily. The money you earn inside a dark world whose details are only the main menu, which, once clicked, turns can go into new ranch facilities for holding revealed by sound waves bouncing around this game into a PS VR mini-masterpiece. new types of slimes, unlocking new parts of the environment. Why are you here? After You can now play the entire game in virtual the Range, or upgrading your gear so you a car crash you wake in a mansion, and reality, sitting inside your mech’s cockpit.1 can hoover up even more plorts, slimes, need to problem-solve your way to freedom, Better still, you can swap between traditional and resources alike. rescuing your young brother along the way.1 and VR modes at any point in the game. Beyond the odd offworld email offering While being inside a pitch-black room, Whether in VR or playing traditionally delightful crumbs of a story, there’s not deprived of one of your senses, will the action is identical and ‘of its time’. much more outside of that. You quickly get always be alarming, the game soon settles Each mission is a simple corridor filled into a relaxing rhythm, spurred on by the down into a cosy parade of echo-tapping 090 with cannon fodder and shows its age; cutesy chirps of the chubbily appealing conundrums. Any sense of unease is the eventual boss battles, however, are slimes you hoover up with your vacpack. The jettisoned as you slip into a rhythm of brilliantly inventive. These grand puzzle fights world itself is suitably colourful, each new tapping your cane to uncover a room’s demand you discover the villain’s exploitable zone visually distinct from the others (as secrets, then using your wits to solve a weakness, and they’re worth wading well as offering new slimes, resources, and puzzle and open a door to venture further through the fodder for. farming opportunities), mitigating the lack into the mansion. Your mech comes with homing lasers and of a minimap and the confusing layout of Without any real horrors Blind doubles a giant sword, and an auto lock ensures you the world map. down on its puzzles. Starting with simple never need to track enemies. As the game Not every slime you encounter is happy mazes and switch combos the complexity progresses you earn sub-weapons, special to be a plort mule1 and not every new soon ratchets up, driving you to use upgrades that include shotgun-like blasts, area you venture into will be a walk in echolocation to see inside walls to juggle homing rockets, and machine guns. the park, however, with feral slimes and water flow through pipes, or visualise It’s fun and twitchy, and it really shouldn’t environmental hazards stalking new parts musical notes.2 be as good as it is in VR. The game runs at of the Range. While it’s surprising the first While the story sheds light on why solving a chaotic pace (this remaster in traditional time you come a cropper to such a threat, these brain-teasers matters so much, it mode is 60fps in 4K) as you zip around all are easily ousted when you’re packing lacks the sense of unease the premise the screen and zoom up close for melee the right tools or resources. But danger is warrants. Devoid of any threat, Blind loses strikes. But it does work, as it’s effectively generally fleeting2 on the Far, Far Range, its way and you’re left to stumble from one teleporting you from enemy to enemy if plorts are plentiful, and the slimes are never (albeit good) puzzle room to the next with using melee, and playing out like a classic not adorable… though we wish our inventory little tangible danger to spur you on. You’re arcade shooter if using homing was just a few slots bigger. not so much fumbling in the dark lasers.2 If you’ve never played While gameplay isn’t super-deep, for a sense of direction as you the series, it’s time to start; if you’ll still find yourself returning are coerced towards a not-so- you have, then there’s no better to the slime ranch again and subtle twist. But you will have reason to own PS VR. Ian Dean again. Jess Kinghorn fun getting there. Ian Dean

FOOTNOTES 1 The anime story unfolds via video chats in the FOOTNOTES 1 They’re probably none too happy about the corral FOOTNOTES 1 Naturally it’s not that simple, and there’s a heads-up display, maintaining the illusion of being in a mech. conditions. 2 Feral slimes are just hangry, carnivorous Tarr slimes supernatural twist to the tale. 2 Recordings found in the rooms 2 Lock on using line of sight and fire and forget. dissolve in water, and environmental hazards are easily avoided. have physical effects on the game’s world. REVIEW

While you can’t grab objects as weapons, you can batter foes with their own death cries.

ALREADY DEAD @DaMisanthrope

FIST OF THE NORTH 091 STAR: LOST PARADISE The cult manga goes Yakuza crazy

ou wait for years for a Yakuza game, old, though timing e presses cocktails at the bar, which then they all come at once. Whether just right to insta-kill enemies requires you to shake your you’d count Lost Paradise among with a ‘perfect channeling’ is DualShock furiously, or if you Ythem is another matter. Stick with the the more efficient way to go. decide to put your Hokuto English voices, and you could assume this is skills to healing people at a just the latest game adaptation of Buronson WHAT A WASTE(LAND) clinic via a frankly bizarre and Tetsuo Hara’s cult manga. But switch to Yet while your overpowered rhythm game. But you only INFO Japanese and you’ll instantly recognise that character can make combat a need to a walk a block around FORMAT PS4 muscle-bound protagonist Kenshire shares a walkover until you reach the Eden’s drab environments to ETA OUT NOW PUB SEGA voice with the Dragon Of Dojima. bosses with ridiculous guard see that it’s no Kamurocho DEV RYU GA GOTOKU resistance, it’s not without – and nuclear fallout’s not STUDIO Both men share a tough exterior and unshaking irritations. In crowded battles, entirely to blame. drive to protect the vulnerable from the villains there’s an awful tendency to Things get even more of the world. Lost Paradise’s chapter-based swing at the wrong person forgettable when you roam structure also unfolds mostly in a single city hub, (frustrating when you’re trying beyond the city walls in a complete with side-quests and other distractions, to target someone susceptible dull wasteland, driving a while you’re occasionally assailed by ruffians who to channelling), while often a beaten-up dune buggy that’s have no idea who they’re starting on. strike prompt appears, only only worthwhile if you fancy The stark difference is that whereas Kiryu’s to vanish. Despite running at listening to music from other brutal lessons for his assailants are non-lethal, 60fps, there’s a sluggishness Sega games. It’s a reminder Kenshiro’s mastery of the deadly Hokuto Shinken to Kenshiro’s movements, not you could be playing far better martial art means he’s effortlessly murdering helped by the game running games instead. mohawked punks within seconds of the game’s on an engine that feels ancient opening, and the bodies keep piling up – or coming after Yakuza 6 and VERDICT rather, exploding into a messy shower of gore. Kiwami 2 in the same year. The best game adaptation of If you find Yakuza’s slapstick brawling its least But what’s really missing the manga yet, though that’s appealing aspect, this gleeful ultra-violence can from Lost Paradise is Yakuza’s not saying much. Save for a few be offputting. Even as a guilty pleasure, once charm. It does have its wacky eccentric moments, it plays like you’ve popped a hundred heads with the same moments, particularly when a forgettable and outdated side- few QTE channelling techniques, it quickly gets Kenshiro puts on a tux to mix story. Alan Wen 092 BUGGED OUT @MrOscarTK HOLLOW KNIGHT: VOIDHEART EDITION This bug’s life epic is far from a small adventure

very time you think you reach the edge time. Cornifer, just one of the die, you need to reach that of Hollow Knight’s large, sprawling helpful bugs you encounter point again to recover your lost world, you realise there’s more to throughout the course of the soul (and precious Geo, the Esee. The world design always has an game, will sell you a map. Even game’s currency). answer to your attempts to explore and eke then, it’s bare-bones, and only Purchasable charms tweak out more about the ruined, ancient bug-city updated when your little bug how you play, giving buffs like of Hallownest. Not just what hides within the INFO knight adventurer takes a rest extra reach for your nail (your mines one early corridor hints at, but what lies FORMAT PS4 at one of the game’s benches sword, because you’re a tiny above The City Of Tears with its ever-dripping ETA OUT NOW that act as save points and little bug person), or a little rainfall, or what’s beyond the Failed Tramway. PUB TEAM CHERRY allow you change your loadout. swarm that pick up loose Geo DEV TEAM CHERRY Like everything else you around you. You only have a In broad terms, Hollow Knight is a Metroidvania. stumble upon in Hollow limited number of slots, with You explore, discover new areas, and find Knight, the benches feel more useful charms taking up upgrades and power-ups, some of which let you like epic discoveries as you more slots, so you’ll often need access locations you couldn’t get to before. But forge out into the unknown. to think what you afford to what’s fantastic is while the game works as a Fast travel points like the spend the slots on for a given whole with these components, each area feels dilapidated Stag Stations, situation. Deviously, even the like its own microcosm of the loop it excels at between which you ride The compass charm that marks delivering. This means each time you begin to Last Stag, feel vital because of your location on the map takes master an area, you’re again put on the back foot their scarcity. After all, if you up a notch. Do you really need by unearthing a new environment. You always feel like you’re venturing into the unknown. “EACH TIME YOU BEGIN TO WHAT A CHARMER Each area has breathtaking new twists, visually MASTER AN AREA, YOU’RE and mechanically, and you find yourself without a map of the area when entering for the first PUT ON THE BACK FOOT.” REVIEW

Right Every new area presents things out to squish your THE OPM BREAKDOWN bug. Like green poison water. WHAT YOU DO IN… HOLLOW KNIGHT

21% Collecting 16% Feeling a the Geo to buy a tad too proud Below The lantern, then dying you managed in a tricky location. to finally beat Fungoons’ gas that boss. attacks are 14% Sitting on 27% nasty. What do a bench browsing Realising you can the map, picking now breeze past these guys eat?! where to go next. 13% Finding areas that gave a hidden secret 9% Crying you tons of right next to because you’re trouble before. somewhere lost in Deepnest you’ve walked with no map or past dozens benches in sight. of times. Oh God, why?

FRIENDS & ENEMIES

ER TAG ET NIF S RN R T O O S H C A L

E

H

T

Follow a trail of paper The main fast travel in A deadly fighter who and this guy will sell you the game, he’ll ferry uses a needle in combat. a handy map. you between locations. But is she friend of foe?

THE FIRST FIVE HOURS…

13245 093

Above left As you gain mastery over the world, the world evolves to kill you. 1 Even this early in the game we’re finding secrets hidden off the beaten path. 2 What’s this little wormy man crying about? Larvae we’ll have to collect, we find out later. 3 Moving to a new area we get lost, to know where you are in these or nail. It’s a world you explore until we hear the hum of Cornifer. 4 Picking up a dash power-up, we go back and pull off some tricky platforming to collect a charm. 5 Lost and sprawling labyrinths? at your own pace. And with scared again, we follow signs to a Stag Station where we can rest. all four content packs already NAIL BITING included in this PS4 debut, STAT PACK Fighting your way through the that’s a lot to explore. Hallownest caves feels like it While it’s challenging, has a lot of weight. Your nail you always feel like you’re in strikes by default knock you control over how you move 45 5 back, which works excellently with the D-pad, or like you 41.8K Expansion packs The number The cost in Geo The pitiful as you get used to it, creating can change up your approach in the Voidheart of charms it’s for the Lunafly number of hit distance as you read enemy with your loadout. Soul powers edition, all possible to obtain Lantern (if you points you start adding to the in the game to can find the out with. Always attacks. You can even pogo- let you restore health after a already-hefty change up your vendor). Pricy, heal using soul stick your way over enemies small charge, built up by hitting main campaign. playstyle. but worth it. when you’re low! by doing this, and some enemies, so you can find an platforming challenges reward opening to make a comeback, this sort of creative thinking. even in the hardest of fights. TROPHY CABINET How you interact with this Again, everything feels built OD PE ON world has a delightful physical around the world in a way that O HO TI EH LE S P context, alongside the things makes sense, and is a joy to L M A O F like the maps and charms – explore, however frightening C

E

everything makes sense within that unknown can be at times. R U the game’s own world rules. P Bosses are hard, though the VERDICT order in which you’ll have to Visually stunning, mechanically fight them – or whether you rewarding – Hollow Knight is BRONZE SILVER GOLD have to fight them at all – is a game that works on just Vanquish the False Open every Stag This tricky trophy open from early on. You often about every level. It presents Knight, the first boss Station and ride your unlocks after beating you’ll encounter, to pop friend to glory. What the game with 112% have the option to search challenge, but always fairly, with this one. Just the first more can The Last completion! There’s so instead for new charms, or plentiful options to explore new step on a long journey! Stag help you find? much to explore! more upgrades to your skillset pathways. Oscar Taylor-Kent REVIEW

The speed gear is an invaluable aid in your quest.

THE MEG @MrOscarTK

094 MEGA MAN 11 Get ready to rock, man

ll is as it should be. Despite moving new weapons, so in a sense purchased in the main away from the 8-bit retro-styled the first portion gets easier the campaign, to give you an edge throwback of 9 and 10, Mega Man 11 more headway you make. Part if you find a section too tough. Ais wholeheartedly the 11th game in of overcoming the obstacles is The main difference between the Mega Man series. And that’s no bad thing. learning their patterns as you this game and its predecessors Move from playing one of the recent PS4 ports retry failed attempts. is the double gear system, INFO of the classic ’80s games to this one, and it which allows Mega Man FORMAT PS4 feels the same, only smoother. It’s no easy feat WINNING 11 to temporarily enhance his ETA OUT NOW to build on that through-line, and that’s the The 8-bit pixels have been abilities with either a Power PUB DEV CAPCOM magic of Mega Man 11. moved aside, but visually Mega or Speed boost (which both Man 11 is gorgeous. Full of use the same cooldown). You’ll If you have any familiarity with the core Mega bright, vibrant colours, all the need to make sure you don’t Man series then you’ll know what to expect. You 3D models have a fantastic overheat or you won’t be control the sleek, shiny blue guy himself as he smoothness. And it doesn’t able to use them for a while, runs in two dimensions from one screen to the remove that Mega Man feeling but clever use of both boosts next, blasting enemy robots and navigating tricky at all. Stages look fantastic can help you master tricky platforming challenges. At first, you’ll get the because of this, and are full of situations, by either doing choice to tackle eight levels in any order you like, character – from Block Man’s more damage or slowing down before taking on a more difficult final gauntlet in monolithic temples to Torch time briefly for tricky jumps the crazed Dr Wily’s final fortress. Man’s campfire trip gone and slides. And boy, you’ll Each stage is presided over by one of Wily’s horribly, horribly wrong. need them for some of the robot masters, and themed appropriately. It’s still tricky like Mega challenges, especially if you Defeating a robot gives Mega Man its power to Man always was, but it avoids go in for some of the bonus use as an alternative weapon, and each robot feeling cheap in the same way content outside of the main is weak to certain attacks. Part of the fun is those old games sometimes campaign. It’s a mega package. finding your footing, and ferreting out these could. A swathe of difficulty modes makes it approachable VERDICT to everyone, with a newcomer This deftly made return to Mega “IT’S STILL TRICKY LIKE MEGA difficulty level giving infinite Man revives the core series lives (the game’s checkpointing beyond being a novel retro MAN ALWAYS WAS, BUT IT is pretty generous anyway), throwback, giving it a gorgeous and infinite spike and pitfall coat of fresh paint at the same AVOIDS FEELING CHEAP.” protectors. Those can be time. Oscar Taylor-Kent REVIEW

Classic teams allow you to throw together dream match-ups like Chicago ’92-’93 vs Memphis ’05-’06.

UPTOWN DUNK @BenjiWilson

NBA 2K19 095 A must-buy, so long as you can spell ‘Antetokounmpo’

A has dominated videogame sports for are nuances, too, for series make great additions to the the best (or, in cynics’ eyes, worst) part veterans, such as the archetype ‘Neighbourhood’ hub. But many of two decades – at least where frozen system, which enables of those customisation options Ehockey and both kinds of football are individuals to ‘Takeover’ a – and, worse, stats upgrades – concerned. In basketball terms, NBA Live has match for a limited period. A require you to drop money on been consistently outperformed by its 2K rival, playmaker gets a brief shooting virtual currency, edging 2K19 and this year once again sees Visual Concepts’ upgrade, a post-scorer receives into ‘play-to-win’ territory. INFO sim score title honours. Realistic on the court boosted hooks, fades, and Even so, there are elements FORMAT PS4 and packing myriad options off it, it’s an shimmies, and slashers become 2K19’s contemporaries can ETA OUT NOW PUB 2K GAMES essential buy for the hoops completionist. temporarily better at and learn from. Starting MyGM as DEV VISUAL hot steps. It can feel a touch an expansion team is superb, CONCEPTS Still, what of the casual fan or basketball diehard arcadey – almost a throwback and a feature Madden needs who wants more than a roster update? Both types to NBA Jam’s ‘He’s on fire!’ in order to transform digitised of supporter are catered for, though it’s tougher era – but these surges of NFL. Blacktop basketball on to recommend this over picking 2K18 up on individual brilliance do occur in inner-city courts showcases the cheap. Take MyLeague and MyGM, the two real life, and some attempt to how great a FIFA Street spin- versions of NBA’s deep franchise mode. Changes mimic them is neat. off would be. And the option to include the option to assign older players to play as historic teams such as mentor younger prospects, and sliders to adjust CHINESE TAKEAWAY Michael Jordan’s ’92-’93 Bulls contract values and draft pick depreciation. If that The mode Visual Concepts makes every exhibition match has you blinking at this page in a fog of ‘WTF?!’, trumpets annually is MyCareer, matter, and is something all it’s likely you’ll be fine with last year’s offering. where you steer a created sports games should borrow. On court the basics feel near-identical. character to glory. For 2K19 Microtransactions hold it back Shooting, for instance, can be done by tapping it’s titled The Way Back, and from a bigger score, but 2K19 is a button or using the right stick, and 2K19’s tips off in China after your on- still an exceptional baller. pick-up-and-play value is strong. Yet there screen alter- goes undrafted in the NBA. Eventually he VERDICT rebounds to the US pro NBA 2K19 is fantastic at all the “REALISTIC ON THE COURT game, with mixed results: the times when it isn’t asking you wealth of ways to customise to part with real cash. Although AND PACKING MYRIAD your character are welcome, sadly, in MyCareer, you’ll be and activities like dodgeball tempted to open your wallet way OPTIONS OFF IT.” and trampoline basketball too often. Ben Wilson REVIEW

The breathtaking watercolour-like art doesn’t betray the horrors of war.

A GALLIA-NT EFFORT @mitchjaylineham

096 VALKYRIA CHRONICLES 4 A tale as beautiful as it is bittersweet

or ten years you’ve waited to take up better part of an hour, but Despite the serious tone of arms against the devastating Eastern this is where the magic of the narrative, there are a lot of Imperial Alliance, and now comes Squad Valkyria Chronicles lies. You time-out moments and jokes, FE’s chance to fight for what they believe have party members hiding out and optional scenes to learn is right. Blood will be spilled, tears will be shed, in bushes, crouching besides more about the characters and and the emotional devastation of losing an ally sand bags, and rolling forward how they interact with each doesn’t get any easier. Gear up and take to the in tanks, all in the hopes that other. Allies who are friendly INFO battlefield, but keep a box of tissues nearby. you’ll be able to grasp victory with each other are more likely FORMAT PS4 from an overwhelming army to perform joint attacks in ETA OUT NOW PUB SEGA Taking place in the same timeframe as the which seemingly has no end of battle, and these scenes serve DEV SEGA CS3 original Valkyria Chronicles, this fourth reinforcements. It’s satisfying to provide a richer experience. instalment sees Sega attempt to capture a seeing the results screen after a The humour will be familiar Western audience with its mature narrative and gruelling battle, generally being to Japanese game fans, but it’s adult characters. Little has changed from the awarded a medal. a little less loud, where Sega series’ first forays into war, so those disappointed has kept, us, its eager Western in Valkyria Chronicles II’s student-centric cast TEAM TACTICS audience in mind. can rest easy, as the cast here is, refreshingly, You usually have ten members The watercolour-like art is from all walks of life. per battle, with the option to utterly gorgeous, conveying You can change the difficulty whenever you’re switch them around at ally- every emotion, and it almost out of battle, which is handy considering how occupied camps. Each character justifies buying the game on its tough the game can get. You’ll be laid to waste has their own personality which own. Thankfully, gameplay is in no time if you rush blindly in, and you’re affects how they perform. A tight and engaging, leaving no encouraged to fight strategically. Combat is determined character like Kai doubt that this is a must-play turn-based, and the core mechanics are simple may get a short burst where tactical JPG series fans and – you can move as many characters as your CP their accuracy rises, but the newcomers alike. (Command Points) allows. Battles can last the bald Aladdin will perform worse thanks to his “Shiny VERDICT Head”, which makes him self- Valkyria Chronicles has had “EACH CHARACTER’S conscious. Each character is a rocky history in the West, different, and it’s well worth with the third game never even PERSONALITY AFFECTS taking the time to know your hitting our shores, but Valkyria squad. That’s what a good Chronicles 4 is just what the HOW THEY PERFORM.” captain does, after all! fans ordered. Mitchell Lineham REVIEW

FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW INFO PUB ACTIVISION DEV BUNGIE LAST MONTH ON PS PLUS @KoeniginKatze

T’was the season to get your spook on… not that we need much excuse, but the odd scary game certainly helps! But as the nights closed in and things got darker, so too did the PS Plus lineup with plenty of brooding titles.

In time for Halloween was Friday The 13th: The Game, inviting players on a jog around Camp Crystal Lake as one of CAYDE MAN @McMeiks a number of potential survivors trying to outrun and outgun classic serial killer DESTINY2–FORSAKEN Jason Vorhees. This asymmetric co-op Latest DLC delivers the Guardian goods was a bloody good time. If you wanted ood news, Guardian: explosives, these assassination something with a this is comfortably quests feel bespoke and varied. the best expansion slightly more level GBungie has released GAM-BITTEN playing field, then since the first Destiny’s The With a couple of notable the second title on PS4 this month was Taken King. Compared to difficulty spikes as you try to right up your alley. Illuminating Autumn Curse Of Osiris and reach the new soft power level 097 Warmind, the latest DLC of 500, ranking up your evenings with a neon glow, Laser offers a far meatier, more Guardian feels less grindy than League was an excellent, capture-the- compelling tale that kicks off it did in past expansions. It flag-like future sport title. We’re still season four of the shooter helps that the headline new very fond of it after reviewing it back in sequel in style. If you’re a Gambit mode is a pleasure to lapsed fan who hasn’t blast through again and again. OPM #150 and giving it 8/10. touched the base game in A super-smart marriage of Also on PS4 (and, more importantly to months, this satisfying, PvE and PvP, these heated some, on PS Vita too) were two more surprising campaign should matches ask each team to titles. 2064: Read Only Memories rejuvenate your burnt-out collect motes by killing Guardian’s enthusiasm. enemies. The first side to bank looked towards a cyberpunk future 75 of these can then summon where a journalist had to bust open First, though, you’d better ask a Primeval boss, and whichever a kidnapping case. Rockbirds 2: Hawthorne for some hankies. team kills this beastie first wins Evolution was a little more optimistic As teased throughout the the round. The twist? One pre-launch campaign for player from each side can in its vision of the future… if a smidge Forsaken, everyone’s favourite invade the other team’s area bird-brained. This side-scrolling shooter quip-cracking robot does every minute or so, adding could be played with up to four players, indeed bite the big one. But it’s PvP chaos and competition though it left us with a hankering for all in a good cause, as far as the into these superbly thought- storyline goes, at any rate. out skirmishes. nuggets. The Bridge was playable on Cayde-6’s untimely demise Though the Last Wish raid PS4, PS Vita, and PS3. The black-and- at the hands of the returning wasn’t live at time of writing, white 2D puzzler definitely helped us (never more scheming) Uldren Forsaken’s cracking campaign, work up an appetite with its fiendishly Sov (last seen in The Taken trio of tight Strikes, and King, coincidentally enough) compelling end-game – the tricky logic-based conundrums. Closing fuels a revenge quest that sees journey to unlock the Dreaming out the PS4 titles was PlayLink quiz your Guardian hunting down City hub is a hoot – ensure game Knowledge Is Power, which not only Sov, but his psychotic Destiny 2’s latest DLC is already also featured in the September line up. Barons across the new Tangled worth the price of admission. Shore area. These bulky Scorn Lastly, on PS3, was Master Reboot, generals provide Destiny 2 with VERDICT which imagined a world in which death is its best boss fights yet. The sequel’s best expansion by not the end. With your memories stored, Whether entering into a a distance. This update delivers it was all a bit Altered Carbon by way of pike-on-pike smackdown with a lively campaign that deserves The Rider, or diffusing The to lure lapsed players back into a spooky corridor, in first person with Mad Bomber’s array of the Fallen fold. Dave Meikleham puzzles sprinkled throughout.

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on the store 099 102 Assassin’s Creed Odyssey DLC plans Get two whole extra games, and story content so prolonged Homer would proclaim it epic.

on your xmb 104 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Dino-mighty or dino-snores? Let’s count Jeff Goldblum’s scenes… online tests Strange Brigade 100 Don’t be a stranger – be a Strange Brigadier. Mauling mummies and other bounders is more fun in a team. streaming now 105 This month’s hottest shows MULTIPLAYER MODES PUT THROUGH THEIR PACES online tests BY OUR TEAM OF EXPERTS

what we’re playing now review DIVINITY: ORIGINAL SIN II Jess Kinghorn sins as she’s winning Much like planning any session of a tabletop roleplaying game, arranging to play a tens-of-hours-long RPG in co-op is a logistical nightmare. That said, I’ve managed to find someone foolhardy enough to go on this adventure with me (spoiler alert: it’s Oscar). Because I dream of becoming an improbable- haired magical girl, I choose to play as head-like-a-haunted-house-enchanter Lohse… though I’m not sure how I’d handle the latter part of her storyline when the devil comes a-knocking without a little help from my friend.

CALL OF DUTY: 100 BLACK OPS IIII Oscar Taylor-Kent gets brutalised so much he INFO blacks out FORMAT PS4 The new Blackout mode PUB REBELLION brings battle royale to DEV REBELLION COD for the first time. But REVIEW #154, 8/10 it still feels like the COD I know and love, perfectly removing the clunk these games can have for newcomers. Blackout might exist because other Strange Brigade games have popularised the form, but polished gunplay, maps, and movement are where COD excels. Things like Struggling to find players? Par for the curse vaulting fences as I run from other players make everything feel better, hooting undead baddies – thanks to the fact I’m not saying that I even if the bullets in my back don’t. rotters in every sense of the that you will almost haven’t, either.) word – from Ancient Egypt is certainly perform the great fun on your own, but revive away from the HORDE UP SPACE LORDS one person does not a highest concentration The obligatory Horde Ian Dean puts his feet SStrange Brigade make. With the game of enemies. mode is well up in the latest F2Per now on shelves, you should be mauling While it’s every implemented. Taking I have no idea what’s going on here, but it looks mummies, pwning puzzles, and brigadier for themself place in custom maps, oh-so-pretty. Like an destroying demons with three other when it comes to the exploration and Italian comic book from adventurers whenever you like, but nabbing gold and health puzzle elements are the ’80s, this recently things don’t quite work out that way. flasks, any and all hidden understandably dialled revamped free-to-play Though the servers are surprisingly collectables are shared down in favour of more shooter (Space Lords is quiet, they’re not empty. You’ll have very among the group. (I’m intense combat. You the game formerly known as Raiders Of The Broken Planet) is all little trouble finding other people to not saying that I’ve relied start off with just pistol big guns and boobs, on the men as well plough through story levels with. This on other people’s skills to and grenades, earning as the women. There are objectives to brings a few advantages, not least of help complete my cash as you play to be achieved in each map, but I’m more which is the fact that players can revive collection but, you know… unlock better weapons, concerned with headshotting anyone I one another. Strange Brigade’s system see. Leaving the legwork of completing in this respect may seem annoying in the mission to my team mates may be IT’S EVERY BRIGADIER the laziest way to play, but it can be theory, as you must reach whichever the most rewarding. Does this make sarcophagus your buddy has been FOR THEMSELF WHEN IT me the biggest boob in the game? Not teleported to first. In practice, though, quite, but it’s close. revives are much more likely to be COMES TO NABBING GOLD successful than in comparable games, AND HEALTH FLASKS. JOURNEY’S FRIEND Don’t fear not being able to choose your favourite character – duplicates are allowed in a team. Not many games offer zombie-hunting quadruplets, do they?

The season pass adds four new 1 2018’s quickmatch characters to the equivalent is a five-lap, original set. Franked race… and it’s chaos. It doesn’t matter how politely you follow someone; pull alongside and they’ll invariably steer into you, trashing both your cars. The new Sportsmanship score is meant to match you with like-minded racers, but blame is rarely apportioned correctly and lobbies often range from A-D which is hardly ‘matched’. Some players also beat the penalty system and skip over corners, zooming off into an unassailable F1 2018 lead. If you fancy something more Where the rules of racing genteel, you can try 25% distance are only a suggestion races instead, or eschew ranked mode entirely in favour of friendly INFO events or custom championships FORMAT PS4 with friends. It’s technically great PUB CODEMASTERS throughout, but the public mode is DEV CODEMASTERS BIRMINGHAM basically spoiled by the public. REVIEW #154, 9/10 VERDICT A well-implemented online mode that’s often spoiled by cheating 101 and barging. Go friends-only, or just take a deep breath and join the melee. Justin Towell

ffline not much has ammo refill chests, and doors that hide changed, but online, treasure and health drinks. You’ll often Oparticularly in myClub, PES find, unfortunately, that people quit 2019 has undergone many solid games in this mode part-way through. improvements, some cosmetic, A Horde game with four players is a some game-changing. little rarer than you might expect, and a There’s no denying Konami has full team will rarely stay full for long. lifted ideas from FIFA Ultimate Why? Simply because the volume of Team, with new player cards and enemies, understandably, scales up weekly revisals of stats. But this according to how many people are was sort of there anyway, only playing. One four-person round now it’s clearer. What has changed (consisting of 15 waves) can take about is your squad size, and the ability an hour and a half to complete. Solid as to sign up to three players at the experience is, 90 minutes for a once from a Special Agent. This single round is a bit much. PES 2019 means the new trading system will Score Attack is the best mode Do you wanna be in become a metagame in its own for playing with others. Featuring myClub, myClub… right, in due course. much shorter versions of story levels On the pitch PES 2019 is the where you need to chain kills to keep a INFO best edition yet, and if you only play multiplier going, it’s ideal for bursts of FORMAT PS4 online and are happy to ignore the PUB KONAMI competitive fun… but hardly anybody’s DEV KONAMI lacklustre offline tweaks, there’s interested in it! As unpleasantly REVIEW #154, 8/10 no better game of football on PS4. surprising as a hand from a grave. VERDICT VERDICT Brush aside the poor offline Horde mode can start to drag slightly, modes and embrace PES 2019 but everything’s here for hours of online. Welcome changes and the fun… except servers rammed full of best on-pitch action make it a people. Come and help make a good must play. Ian Dean game even better. Luke Kemp EMPTY YOUR WALLETS NOW WITH THE LATEST on the store DOWNLOADABLE DIVERSIONS

expansion dlc

£15.99

MARVEL’S SPIDER- MAN – THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS These three story chapters feature new missions, costumes, and challenges. The first, £29.99 The Heist, is out now. Turf Wars and Silver Lining will then release in November and Assassin’s Creed December respectively. Odyssey DLC plan £4.99 102 The journey continues for Kassandra and Alexios ow you’re playing Assassin’s The First Blade and The narrative quests that will Creed Odyssey, thoughts turn Fate Of Atlantis. The first be added over time; each SHADOW OF THE to its post-release content, will begin to roll out in week there will be new TOMB RAIDER – and Ubisoft has something December 2018, with challenges and daily THE FORGE special planned. We’re not new episodes in that arc contracts; an educational The first of seven DLC Nonly getting new content, two whole releasing every six tool similar to Origins’ adventures releasing extra games are incoming. weeks; and the second Discovery Tour, will be monthly, The Forge That’s right, the post-launch is so big, arc will start in spring added; and we’ll get offers a new standalone story based in the City it effectively triples your gaming 2019, with the same much more besides, Of Paititi. And you get experience. The Assassin’s Creed six-week episode run. such as a new game plus a new Challenge Tomb, Odyssey Season Pass includes We’re also getting free mode, and “new outfits, and weapons, Assassin’s Creed III Remastered, which content. Odyssey: The monstrous and mythical as well as the Grenadier in turn contains a remaster of the Lost Tales Of Greece are creatures to defeat”. skill. The Forge is out PS Vita spin-off Assassin’s Creed 13 November. Liberation. Naturally, it’ll come with all of £4.99 Assassin’s Creed III’s DLC. You can THE POST-LAUNCH expect that to land March 2019. CONTENT IS SO BIG IT The narrative extra content for Odyssey will take the form of two EFFECTIVELY TRIPLES YOUR episodic story arcs, called Legacy Of GAMING EXPERIENCE.

OVERCOOKED – also on psn SURF ‘N’ TURF It’s time to take the co-op fun on holiday with 12 new exotic maps, and three new chefs, including the return of Boof! New £4.99 £7.99 £7.99 £3.99 £7.99 kitchens mean new recipes, and this DLC NEW CHARACTER PACK THE SURGE – THE SPOOKY STUFF COOLER & ANDROID 17 STAR WARS PINBALL: offers smoothies and Both Lei Wulong and Anna GOOD, THE BAD, AND OPM’s Jess loves a bit The fight(Z) must go on! SOLO PACK Williams return to kick off THE AUGMENTED of Halloween, and so Cooler and Android 17 The movie’s digital means BBQ skewers. Just the second season of DLC EXPANSION do the Sims with this are the latest fighterZ crossover DLC, in the watch out for the new content for the fantastic The sci-fi Soulsborne collection of costumes to join the Dragon Ball form of three tables hazards, including a Tekken 7. Also available gets a western-themed and decorations for scary FighterZ roster, available for Pinball FX3: Solo; chaotic conga line. as part of the £24.99 expansion set inside a season. If you have a individually or as part of Calrissian Chronicles; and season pass. Westworld-like TV show. party, invite Jess. the £28.99 FighterZ pass. Battle Of Mimban.

coming soon

on your XMB ESCAPE FROM 29 OCT NEW YORK Metal Gear Solid drew on this John Carpenter classic, remastered on Blu-ray blu-rays alongside ’80s gems Prince Of Darkness and They Live.

THE FIRST 29 OCT PURGE This isn’t the ‘first’ Purge, it’s the fourth. But it’s the first chronologically, covering how the night of legalised crime came to be.

SICARIO 2: 29 OCT SOLDADO Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro return for the sequel to 2015’s war on drugs thriller, this time adding a topical splash of terror to the mix.

BATMAN: THE 29 OCT COMPLETE ANIMATED SERIES Bruce Timm’s legendary animated series was a huge influence on Rocksteady’s Arkham Trilogy.

2001: A SPACE 29 OCT ODYSSEY The greatest sci-fi film of 104 all time? Watch this Blu-ray rerelease pulled from an unrestored 70mm print and decide for yourself.

Jurassic World: UNCLE DREW 5 NOV Film adaptation of a web-series about a team of septuagenarians (played, for Fallen Kingdom the most part, by NBA pros in makeup) who compete in They didn’t stop to think if they should… a street ball tournament. RICK AND 12 NOV ne strange quirk of modern mansion, the segue into MORTY cinema, and the limitless claustrophobic horror SEASON 3 The continued antics of mad potential of CGI, is that even evokes the original scientist Rick Sanchez and the sight of a photorealistic Jurassic Park, with his naive grandson Morty dinosaur running away from new hybrid dino the Smith release on shiny disc. Oan exploding island can evoke apathy. Indoraptor providing But, thankfully, there’s a little more to the scares. INCREDIBLES 2 12 NOV Jurassic World sequel Fallen Kingdom Director JA Bayona Belated sequel sees than its yawnsome centrepiece. (The Orphanage) is in his Elastigirl on a mission to stop a supervillain, while Mr Set several years after the events element here, and lends Incredible is left holding the of Jurassic World, the prehistoric the film a visual poetry baby. But Jack-Jack is no inhabitants of Isla Nublar face a new lacking from Fallen ordinary toddler… extinction-level event. With the rest of Kingdom’s workmanlike humanity unwilling to intervene, Owen predecessor. But by STAR TREK 19 NOV (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas failing to deliver the DISCOVERY SEASON 1 Howard) lead an expedition funded by goods until the mid-way The latest Star Trek series Benjamin Lockwood (an old buddy of mark, it’s too little, too starts off slowly, but hits John Hammond) to swoop in and save late. Claire and Owen warp speed by the stellar all the dinos they can. But not remain bland leads for final stretch. everyone’s motives are altruistic. this new trilogy, but with While the first half of Fallen Kingdom Jeff Goldblum returning SKYSCRAPER 19 NOV follows familiar beats, climaxing in an for a brief cameo, let’s Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson stars in this Die expensive-looking but otherwise hope life finds a way to Hard-inspired actioner Stay till the end (or fast uninspiring action sequence, it’s the bring the old gang back about a security consultant forward) for the series’ first second half where the film shines. Set together for one last who gets framed for a fire in ever post-credits scene. entirely in Lockwood’s spooky gothic hurrah. Jordan Farley the world’s biggest building. Streaming now more to see

Co-writer Mark Bomback is rumoured to be scripting the new Batman movie.

DAREDEVIL SEASON 3 FORMAT NETFLIX PRICE £7.99 A MONTH The third season of Netflix’s best Marvel series [The Punisher? – ed] picks up after The Defenders, with Matt Murdock recovering from his injuries. Wilson Fisk is back on villain duties, and if internet scuttlebutt is to be believed, Bullseye will make his debut too…

THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS FORMAT NETFLIX PRICE £7.99 A MONTH FORMAT NETFLIX PRICE £7.99 A MONTH The Coen Brothers (Fargo, No Country For Old Men) make their streaming debut with this Outlaw King western anthology movie consisting of six tales. The titular chapter stars Chris Pine heads north of the wall Coen veteran Tim Blake 105 Nelson as an all-singing, efore Mel Gibson lost morally resolute hero. On six-shooting outlaw. Hollywood’s love he made the plus side, MacKenzie Braveheart, the story of does such an impressive Scottish rebel William job depicting medieval Wallace’s revolt against King Scotland in all its bloody, BEdward I. Overlapping with the events muddy glory it’s almost a of Wallace’s rebellion, Outlaw King is, in shame this is heading to many respects, a spiritual sequel to Netflix – there’s visual Gibson’s multi-award winner, albeit one ambition here that would that never hits Braveheart’s heights. benefit from the big Chris Pine puts on his best Scots as screen experience. Robert The Bruce, the ‘outlaw king’ of But without the crowd- 14th-century Scotland. Outnumbered, pleasing, underdog Robert and his meagre force engage in charm of similar David guerilla warfare against the occupying and Goliath stories, THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE English army, forcing rival kings into a Outlaw King overstays its FORMAT NOW TV PRICE £7.99 A MONTH battle for the future of Scotland. welcome, with at least Mike “Oculus” Flanagan is in the midst of shooting Shining sequel Doctor Sleep, but before that there’s Re-uniting with David Mackenzie, the two forest ambushes too this adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s chiller to look director of superb neo-Western Hell Or many. It’ll fill a few hours, forward to. Carla Gugino stars as the matriarch of a High Water, Pine feels out of his element but don’t be surprised if family affected by their haunted home for generations. here. Sporting a dubious mullet, and an your eyes drift towards even more dubious accent, his Robert is the Braveheart DVD on full of contradictions that don’t sit right your shelf throughout. APOSTLE with the film’s depiction of him as a Jordan Farley FORMAT NETFLIX PRICE £7.99 A MONTH Welsh writer/director Gareth Evans is the man behind the astonishing Indonesian martial arts films The Raid and its sequel, so you should be very excited about his English- language debut, starring Dan Stevens as a man who infiltrates a cult to rescue his sister. Not for the squeamish – it may be set in 1905, but it’s a far cry from Stevens’ turn in Downton Abbey. CLASSIC GAME

Homecoming may be the best Spider-Man movie, RETROSTATION but Tom Holland’s ace caper doesn’t have a superb PlayStation tie-in.

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INFO PUB ACTIVISION DEV PRODUCTIONS RELEASED 2004, PS2 GET IT NOW AMAZON, £32.96 NEED TO KNOW Treyarch made a further three 1 Spidey titles. It sold enough copies to become 2 a Platinum title. MGS3’s Josh Keaton voices 3 Harry Osborn. retrostation

Marvel-ous

Every month we celebrate the most important, CLASSIC GAME innovative, or just plain great games from PlayStation’s past. This issue, we sling and swing around a sandbox New York with one of the most heroic movie tie-ins of all time

the friendly neighbourhood web-slinger is a joy to watch, a series of beautifully blended animations combining to create a contorting, pirouetting hero you can’t take your eyes off. Spider-Man 2 What your peepers will want to shun are the Citizens In Distress missions. Thank the Stan Lee above swinging n rare occasions, licensed the sky, rather than physically sticking is such a hoot, because many of the games don’t suck. And to objects in the world. It meant every objectives Spidey has to sully with when we say ‘rare’, we’re Spidey outing before this 2004 classic himself with are far from heroic. Saving talking the equivalent of a felt floaty and fake, with the hero never precariously hanging construction singing dodo performing truly connecting to his surroundings. workers; stopping stolen cars; Les Misérables on Even at the prototype stage, when thwarting purse snatchers; saving little Broadway. Yet against all shown internally at Treyarch, producers girls’ balloons; pizza delivery. And no, Oodds, and years before Rocksteady’s were astounded by the new physics- that last one isn’t a typo. There really Batman trilogy, Treyarch served up a based swinging system. Everyone who is a subset of missions that ask Spidey sensational Spidey title that’s never saw it in action, even without missions to get margheritas from stuffed-crust 107 been topped, even 14 years on. to match, would stare in giddy awe point A to marinara-sauce-slathered Released the same week as Sam and simply revel in the act of swinging point B. Um, Pete… why is our dinner Raimi’s excellent superhero sequel, through and around New York City. Early covered in sticky, translucent goo? Spider-Man 2 was PS2’s best licensed in development, Activision knew it had a game. Why? Because it introduced hit in the making. SWING STAR a pioneering traversal system that It’s easy to see why the publisher Even when missions grate or boss used physics-based algorithms and a was so excited: in the decade-and-a- fights against the likes of Rhino and The techy term called ‘raycasting’ to infuse bit since Spidey 2 launched, few other Shocker frustrate, the core pleasure every web swing with a joyous sense games have come close to replicating of swinging between New York’s of empowering momentum. We’re now its effortless joy of movement. Even skyscrapers never dulls. Subsequent two console generations removed from gliding above rooftops in Batman: Spidey games fiddled with the web- Treyarch’s heroic effort, and there’s Arkham City or working yourself into slinging formula, diluting the purity of arguably never been a more effective a free-running frenzy in Mirror’s Edge what was close to a perfect mechanic. use of in-game physics. can’t quite match the empowering It’s only now, with Insomniac’s wall- The lion’s share of the credit belongs elegance that comes from catapulting crawling reboot, that Marvel’s most to designer Jamie Fristrom. Unhappy Spidey between skyscrapers. In motion, famous hero is fully hitting his swinging with the PS2 tie-in of the original stride again. Spider-Man movie, Fristrom set out PS4’s Spidey may have finally to develop a system where the Wall IN MOTION, dethroned Treyarch’s classic – Crawler’s webbing physically attached Insomniac’s effort isn’t bogged down to a multitude of specific points on THE FRIENDLY by Tobey Maguire’s catatonic voiceover buildings. Previous games had cheated NEIGHBOURHOOD WEB- or Citizens In Distress missions. Still, by giving Peter Parker magic webs dodgy VO aside, we’ll forever be stuck that connected to random points in SLINGER IS A JOY. on 2004’s awesome arachnid.

QSpidey’s swinging system is utterly sensational. QCombat is inconsistent, but webbing goons is fun. QEven Persia’s Prince can’t wall-run like Mr Parker. TIME MACHINE

ISSUE 090 DECEMBER 2013 £599 Name offic alplaystationmagaz ne co uk PS4 EXCLUSIVE OPM TIME MACHINE ASSASSIN’S CREED IV BLACK FLAG that game Massive PS4 playtest of the series’ best game yet

gta online SMASH YOUR MATES W TH Guess the four games, OUR PRO T PS 5 YEARS AGO

REVIEW BATMAN and their scores, from ARKHAM ORIGINS Exclusive verdict Assassins and pirates? That’s the Kenway on Bruce’s ass- these review quotes 51 kicking prequel to do it! Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag OFOF THETHE BESTBESEST KOJIMA TALKS MGS V LITTLEBIGPLANET THE DIVISION IN DETAIL LEVELS EVER BEYOND, PES 2014 & CREATED F1 2013 REVIEWS boarded the cover of OPM #90 1 BRILLIANTLY INVENTIVE. ONE HIGHLIGHT INVOLVES A MUSIC BOX, BUT I’M NOT GOING TO SAY WHY. 2 ONE OF THE SLICKEST, MOST DAZZLINGLY PRODUCED, AND ENJOYABLE PLATFORM GAMES 108 EVER MADE. 3

TACTICAL TEAM- Above But wait! Edward Kenway wasn’t our only cover Below left PS4 wasn’t out, but we still got to play BASED SHOOTER […] star this month. Half the issues printed featured Black Flag on it. Needless to say, we loved it. – THE CHARACTER- everyone’s fave comic book antihero instead, as we had the exclusive review of Batman: Arkham Origins. Below right LittleBigPlanet was a pretty huge world SWITCHING MECHANIC Dark Knight or Black Flag? You had a tough choice. in its own right – so we became your tour guide. SWEETENS THE GENRE. GROUP UP WITH FRIENDS TO AVOID CLUELESS CARNAGE. 4 A BRIGHT, INVIGORATING SPIN ON THE ARCADE RACER WITH A FEW Far left We FOUNDATIONAL talked a lot about ‘Oversized sex ISSUES IT NEVER objects’ in our QUITE MANAGES TO Lego Marvel Super Heroes preview. OVERCOME. Hulk, eh?

Left Oh, go on

4. Onrush, issue #151, 7/10. #151, issue Onrush, 4. then… drinks

3. Overwatch, issue #125, 9/10. #125, issue Overwatch, 3. were on us as

2. Sonic Mania, issue #140, 9/10. #140, issue Mania, Sonic 2. we celebrated #50, 9/10. #50,

1. Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow, issue issue Shadow, Of Lords Castlevania: 1. PlayStation’s ANSWERS most memorable bevvies. retrostation

DON’T MAKE ME PLAY! WHO? Always looking for a new challenge, and PERSONA 5 unable to resist a talking cat, Ian Dean embraces the world of Megami Tensei Don’t like it. Never tried it. Every month we force and menu-manages his way through one of our team to play their most feared game Persona 5.

ver since Persona 5 released I’ve listened to Jess and Oscar prattle and tattle about their Palaces and catching up with Ann Takamaki and the gang Eover a beef nabemono or a hot coffee. You’d be forgiven for thinking this was real. It’s not, of course, it’s life inside Atlus’ JRPG, albeit the highest-scoring WHAT? JRPG in recent times. “An unabashed It’s for this reason, and the 120-hour masterpiece," we INFO gushed in our 10/10 lifespan, that I’ve put off jumping into PUB ATLUS AND review in OPM #134. Persona 5. Can I fit new virtual friends DEEP SILVER It marked Persona 5 into my social life? Do I want to commit DEV P-STUDIO out as the JRPG of this to such a time-sapping ordeal? Well, RELEASED 4 APRIL generation, the Final for the sake of Don’t Make Me Play, and 2017 Fantasy VII for gamers GET IT NOW £39.99, team unity, I’ve joined Shujin Academy. AMAZON weaned on Slack and metanarratives. The It’s four hours in and I’ve had a taste perfect JRPG. of the alternate world of the Palaces, but mostly I’ve gone to school, learned 109 how to clean my room, and got lost in Shibuya tube station. I BECOME MORE ENTWINED IN THESE CHARACTERS’ PERSONALITIES. After another five hours of browsing in shops, messaging my new pals, and hanging out at school, the game finally leans into its turn-based combat. Heading into the ‘Perv Palace’ to steal the heart of the school’s bullying paedophile (done by climbing a penis shaped tower and taking his ‘treasure’) reveals Persona 5’s complexities, and its skewed sense of humour. A combat system that balances magical and weapon-based attacks, linking combos between party members, is instantly invigorating. At every encounter I become more entwined in these characters’ personalities. With the villain dispatched, I’m thrown back into the ‘real’ world of teen angst, school-day dilemmas, and juggling friendships. Everything done in this world boosts my character’s stats and creates my version of the protagonist. It’s clever, stylish, and infinitely more rewarding than most JRPGs released QWith virtual friendships, a talking cat, and a distinctive sense of humour, Persona 5 is the best in the last ten years. I’m a convert. So, JRPG in a generation. Don’t miss out on the joy of going back to school… who’s up for a coffee at Cafe Leblanc? HALL OF FAME

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO CURRENT-GEN’S GREATEST GAMES PS4 HALL OF FAME

1 UNCHARTED 4: A THIEF’S END Nathan Drake’s swan song is a daring evolution. It combines series- defining set-pieces, quietly devastating storytelling beats, and sprawling levels that make you feel like a real-life explorer. This franchise finale retains its signature charm, with the wisecracks flowing as fast as the bullets, while the new characters each justify their inclusion. With an astonishing attention to detail, it’s ’s best yet.

A departure in some ways but a resounding return in In this impressively large Ancient Egyptian open others, Kratos is back with a son and a ruddy big axe. world – there’s a whole desert in your sandbox Taking the legend from Greek to Norse mythology, – you discover the roots of the Assassins. More this entry brings a lot to the table while improving challenging, enjoyable combat and stunning graphics on what was core to the earlier series’ identity. mark a return to form for the series.

3 THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT 10 OVERWATCH GAME OF THE YEAR EDITION PS4’s best multiplayer shooter bursts with colour, The White Wolf’s epic journey is an RPG experience character, and charm. At its core, Overwatch is like no other on PS4. It’s been made even more a pleasing mix of empowerment and teamwork, enhanced by a raucous roster. Expect to become 110 spectacular with this gigantic pack stuffed with DLC, making this a must-have part of any gaming library. obsessed with landing Play Of The Game. Boop.

4 HORIZON ZERO DAWN 11 RESIDENT EVIL VII: BIOHAZARD A staggeringly large world that condenses cracking Capcom’s greatest series returns to terrifying combat, accessible systems, and uncut eye-candy form thanks to a trip to Louisiana to meet the Baker into an action RPG that will please anyone. In Aloy, family, who stalk you around their mansion. While the PlayStation might just have a new icon. Come for the second half of the game doesn’t match the intensity robo-fights, stay for the exquisitely dense mythology. of the first, this is a must for any horror fan.

5 MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN 12 MONSTER HUNTER: WORLD Borrowing heavily from Rocksteady’s Batman series, Presenting a vibrant open world, light on story but NEW! this delivers the heart and soul of Marvel’s famous heavy on action, this is the most accessible entry superhero. This outing ticks every box you could ask in the series yet. Perfecting the feel-good grind for: perfect web-swinging, a powerful story, a roster through its complex systems and pitch-perfect of classic villains, and all of New York to defend. multiplayer, it’s a PS4 must-play.

6 GRAND THEFT AUTO V 13 TOWERFALL ASCENSION Laughing in the face of other cross-gen ports, GTA V You haven’t lived until you’ve enjoyed a four-player on PS4 is more than just a mere HD remaster. Upped free-for-all in this instant couchplay classic. The solo to a glorious 1080p, it weaves everything that made campaign is fine by itself, but almost nothing beats the PS3 original great, with new music, more dynamic the arrow-grabbing, death-defying last-second kills weather, and a game-changing FPS mode. of local multiplayer’s mayhem.

7 14 DISHONORED 2 With the finest third-person melee combat in gaming, This strong follow-up to one of PS3’s greatest mixes a drool-worthy art design and the most twisted creative skillset with impressive level design to create a monsters imaginable, this is a gorgeously gothic Kaldwin-ning immersive sim. From the shifting rooms of must-have. The Old Hunters expansion adds enough The Clockwork Mansion to discovering how to link your nightmare fuel to make a return to essential. powers, there’s near-endless scope for experimenting.

8 METAL GEAR SOLID V: 15 REMASTERED THE PHANTOM PAIN This modern masterpiece just gets stronger with age, While retaining that distinct storytelling and sense of like a full-bodied stilton. A starkly brutal, emotionally wonder that defines an MGS title, MGS V offers a level honest take on the end of the world, Naughty Dog’s of freedom and creativity unheard of in any sandbox. stealth shooter is quite simply one of the best games Grand, majestic, and bittersweet, it’s an instant classic. ever, even if this PS4 port doesn’t add much to it. retrostation

16 PERSONA 5 Atlus’ anime wonder dazzles thanks to its mix of friendship building, stylish dungeons, and speedy BUBBLING UNDER turn-based combat. Add a story oozing with darkness and taboo-busting confidence and you have the gold standard for JRPGs on PS4. Alternative picks 17 LIFE IS STRANGE The sublime writing and pacing of this episodic We mine the library for gold. narrative will have you agonising over choices, and then marvelling at their flawless integration. To quote This month: Lego games heroine Max’s BFF Chloe, it’s “hella” good. You’ll wish you could play it all over again for the first time. PICK #1 LEGO CITY UNDERCOVER 18 ALIEN ISOLATION Miriam McDonald says ditch the IPs Explore Ridley Scott’s original vision of a horror-tinged As the team’s unashamed Lego liker (not Lego future in startling fidelity with an attention to detail that licker; that’d be weird), I know you don’t have to borders on the obsessive. It’s time to remember what be undercover cop Chase McCain to identify the made the xenomorph so scary in the first place… and best Lego game of all. While it’s not based on a then get killed by it. movie or comic book franchise, this crime caper riffs on everything from Columbo to Starsky And Hutch to The Shawshank Redemption as you hunt 19 down Rex Fury. Not convinced? A side mission Bluepoint completely overhauls the visuals of Team has you firing pigs out of a cannon. Now you are. ’s masterpiece but still manages to match the original step-for-step in its remake. New controls and PICK #2 a beautiful photo mode add to the package. Wander’s tragic quest has never looked or played better. LEGO JURASSIC WORLD Oscar Taylor-Kent is a clever girl While I might have thought Jurassic World was 20 DRAGON BALL FIGHTERZ a bit rubbish, what really makes this Lego game The most beautiful game on PS4? Possibly. This shine for me is the recreations of the stories fighter from genre masters Arc System Works is a from the original trilogy that aren’t namechecked polished gem packed with content. Whether you’re a in the title. This is what Lego has done best since hardcore fight fan or solo arcade basher, or just love its movie-cribbing format originated with Star 111 the anime, Dragon Ball FighterZ sets a new standard. Wars – riff on older movies. They might not all be of equal quality, but those three Jurassic Park movies might be my ultimate nostalgia trip. 21 BATMAN: ARKHAM KNIGHT Rocksteady sends the Bat out with a bang. A compelling, cathartic story adds new layers to the THIS IS WHAT LEGO HAS Dark Knight, while PS4 allows Gotham to blossom with a truly amazing engine. The stealth still sings, DONE BEST SINCE STAR WARS – the fisticuffs are fab, and the Batmobile is brilliant. RIFF ON OLDER MOVIES.

PICK #3 22 V: ARCADE ED. This fighter has finally come into its own. Arcade LEGO MARVEL combines all previously released DLC, a slicker UI, and new modes, including fine-tuned online play. The SUPER HEROES 2 titular mode, which explores over 30 years of series Ian Dean loves this broad, blocky lineup history, makes a welcome return to the ring too. Being able to play as Marvel characters from different time periods and dimensions ensures this Lego entry has the best lineup of minifigs and worlds of any game to date. From Black 23 DIVINITY 2: ORIGINAL SIN – DE Panther to Spider-Gwen and Howard The Duck, in The Definitive Edition of this PC classic takes every NEW! locations from Knowhere to Wakanda to Hala and preconception you have about Western RPGs and three New Yorks, Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 jettisons them. Beautiful writing, complex tactical has it covered. It’s a blocky superhero heaven. combat, and months of deep adventuring: it’s the purest high-fantasy RPG on PlayStation 4.

24 FIFA 18 With smooth, gorgeous on-field action and the best suite of modes of any sports game on PS4, EA’s monstrously popular footie sim is back at the top of the table. Fair warning, though: Ultimate Team will suck up every spare moment you have.

25 DRIVECLUB This phenomenal racer leaves its rivals for dust due to gorgeous graphics, strong social features and great handling. Major add-on Driveclub Bikes is also QSquirrel Girl is one of many Marvel characters to make it into the greatest bike on PS4, thanks to Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2. Who doesn’t like that? making driving on two wheels fun again. HALL OF FAME

THE VIRTUAL REALITY HITS YOU HAVE TO PLAY PS VR HALL OF FAME

1 THE PERSISTENCE Designed specifically for PS VR, this first-person horror roguelike is, arguably, the headset’s first true killer app. With the action structured around short bursts of intense survival, this shooter manages to pack in everything expected of a PS4 release, in VR. Clever ideas, unique weapons, genuine jump scares, and beautiful visuals delivered with zero motion sickness. All this plus inventive couchplay too.

2 REZ INFINITE 9 TO THE TOP Creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s vision becomes reality Leaping into our PS VR top 10, this creative in PS VR. This psychedelic rhythm rail shooter has platform-puzzler enables you to scamper, jump, and achieved its final form. Its crowning achievement? New skate across its 35 sandbox worlds. It’s as physically level Area X, it’s powerful enough to bring players to demanding as it is perplexing, and all the better for tears. Worthy of its name, this is a truly timeless title. it. To The Top is a PS VR one-off.

3 THUMPER 10 RIGS: MECHANIZED Make no mistake: the brave chrome beetle gave Rez COMBAT LEAGUE a run for its money for our top spot. Hurtling down Mech-suited, shooter b-ball where you dunk yourself a violently kaleidoscopic track, pounding notes and through the hoop? It might sound goofy, but it’s PS 112 scraping round corners is exquisitely tough – and the VR’s most elegant team sport. Potential nausea manic magic is enhanced and perfected in PS VR. aside, this is the future of competitive gaming.

4 KEEP TALKING AND 11 STAR TREK: BRIDGE CREW NOBODY EXPLODES Mixes the fanboy fantasy of nestling in the Captain’s Who knew bombs could bring people together? With chair (or taking control of the helm, weapons, or one headsetted Defuser, and as many Experts as you engineering section) on a USS starship with the can fit around a 23-page manual, no other VR game strongest co-op experience on PS VR. This is Star comes close for inclusive, endless multiplayer fun. Trek’s finest hour on PlayStation.

5 STATIK 12 SPRINT VECTOR Saw meets Portal in this fantastic puzzler. It makes A crazy mix of SSX racing and obstacle course high ingenious use of the DualShock 4 by giving every jinks, Sprint Vector makes use of the best control button a specific function. You’ll need to use them setup on PS VR to deliver a near perfect experience. all to free your hands from the strange box in which A single-player Challenge mode and online races they’re trapped. An intriguing concept done well. impress; only the poor single-player AI holds it back.

6 FIREWALL: ZERO HOUR 13 BATMAN: ARKHAM VR There’s only one game mode, a cat-and-mouse Not only is the training mission an unparalleled NEW! assault to find and either destroy or protect a exercise in wish fulfilment (Wayne Manor! The laptop, but when the shooting is this laser-focused, Batcave! Batarangs!) but the defiantly sharp, if who could want more? A PS Aim controller is a must short, campaign is the epilogue to Arkham Knight we to get the most from PS VR’s standout shooter. needed and deserved. Bats off to you, Rocksteady.

7 RESIDENT EVIL VII: BIOHAZARD 14 THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM VR Can you can go eye-to-eye with the Bakers? Playing Though compromises have been made to texture in VR raises the tension to almost unbearable levels detail and controls, you get all of The Elder Scrolls V: and has gameplay benefits such as face-aiming, Skyrim, including the expansions, inside PS VR. The which makes shooting a lot easier. A brilliant example scale and organic nature of the world at your feet of how VR can improve already great games. overcomes any shortcomings.

8 DOOM VFR 15 MOSS A new take on a classic game, this proves first- Guide adorable mouse heroine Quill through a person shooters can shine in VR. A mix of control fantasy storybook world full of virtual puzzles, fights choices, including the PS Aim controller, ensures with insects, and perfectly pitched Disney influences. Doom is as fast and fluid in VR as it’s ever been. There’s no need to say cheese, because you’ll be Every PS VR owner needs this in their collection. smiling as you play, all day long. retrostation

16 ACCOUNTING + One of PlayStation’s funniest games is a dark, twisted journey into the world of accounting. It’s ON-THE-GO GOODNESS an Inception-like dive into increasingly bizarre and frequently hilarious scenarios that will scratch the itch of any Rick And Morty fan. PS VITA HALL OF FAME

17 FARPOINT This sci-fi shooter is a brilliant showcase for the PS Aim controller, a versatile bit of kit that makes the satisfying range of weapons feel weighty and real. The game matches it, delivering a strong story and challenging co-op for great VR action.

18 KNOCKOUT LEAGUE Punching things in VR is possibly the least creative use of the medium but when it’s used to create a classic arcade boxing sim that plays like a brutal puzzle puncher, it’s irresistible. It’s also good for you: it tracks your calorie count as you work up a sweat. 1 TEARAWAY One of the best platformers onth the 19 APEX CONSTRUCT system, it makes terrific use of the entire This story-driven FPS demonstrates five-to-eight hour PS Vita to create a unique experience: adventures can work in PS VR. Building its narrative camera, touchscreen, touchpad: it’s organically through physically exploring the game’s world while fending off mechanical creatures with a all here. The PS4 version has more content, but it trusted bow and arrow is a delight. Ambitious. remains more intimate and special on PS Vita.

20 GNOG 2 PERSONA 4: GOLDEN This puzzler doesn’t require PS VR to play, but hugely Where Persona 5 went bigger on PS4, this benefits from it. Giant floating heads hide gentle ultimate version of Persona 4 nails the warmth conundrums, and only by probing them can you discover of a small-town high school setting. Filled with timeless characters, the Investigation Team dig their secrets. A vivid art style makes this already lovely 113 treat feel all the more vibrant. into a murder mystery and befriend demons.

21 STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT 3 UNCHARTED: GOLDEN ABYSS ROGUE ONE: X-WING VR MISSION Nathan Drake proves that it’s not about the size of Climbing into the cockpit of an X-wing is one of the most the package, but what you do with it in this prequel potent bits of wish-fulfilment on PS VR. It may only be expedition. Packed with Uncharted charm, this pulp 15 minutes long, but this free Star Wars Battlefront action adventure is the biggest spectacle on the DLC is a magical portal into the movies. little handheld, and stands with the greats.

22 TUMBLE VR 4 : TRIGGER With its sassy robot, pinpoint-accurate motion- HAPPY HAVOC tracking and block-stacking brainteasers, the virtual If being trapped in a school for the exceptionally reality version of the PS3 physics puzzler is utterly gifted weren’t scary enough, a murderous bear absorbing. Multiple modes including lasers, mines is goading everyone to kill their classmates. and ticking timers make it PS VR’s smartest entry. Investigations and trial scenes; thinking caps on.

23 SUPERHOT VR 5 TXK Time moves only when you move in this exceptional Bright lights and flashing colours. That’s the PS VR first-person shooter that manages to make emergency services come to move you on, as you you feel like you’re playing through a slow-mo action remain still and engrossed in this pulse-pounding movie. The free Superhot Forever update adds even shooter that’s always ready to turn your PS Vita more challenges. Make time for VR bullet time. into a trippy, zen-like getaway.

24 IN THE RHOMBUS OF RUIN HOT MOVES Your cynical inner voice says this is a marketing tool ALL-NIGHT FEVER to remind you how amazing Psychonauts is ahead of Oscar has a fever he simply can’t sweat out Psychonauts 2. Your gamer voice will tell it to shut up whenever he travels to danceland on PS Vita and enjoy one of PS VR’s best virtual adventures. Sometimes when you’re travelling you just want to switch off as you magic yourself mentally from one place to the next. Rhythm games are marvellously absorbing, and plentiful on PS Vita. With 25 ARIZONA SUNSHINE the Persona 3 and 5 versions incoming 4 December, Persona One of the first, and one of the best, uses of the 4: Dancing All Night has returned to my Vita, ever the mainstay. PS Aim controller. This colourful shooter pits you Coming back from the USA, I rocked out through some truly dire and your peripheral against waves of zombies with turbulence, and then almost missed my train stop home. score chasing more important than narrative. It’s Sorry-not-sorry, fellow travellers, for my rad dance moves. old-fashioned, but dead good fun. PARTING SH T Celebrating PlayStation’s finest moments LOOK AWAY! SPOILER ALERT

No.71 Protagonist punch-up! Take on Devil May Cry 4’s big guns, literally

Last FORMAT PS3, PS4 / PUB CAPCOM / DEV CAPCOM / RELEASED 2008 / SCORE 9/10 Next Month Month Inside Metal Gear Oh my blob, ith every game series hell in a church, taking out people to the chest and gruesomely Solid V that’s an comes the best boy left, right, and centre (people removing himself (he gets into Feeling very ending none of smug after us expected. debate and favourite who, admittedly, turn out to be that situation a little too often for taking down a Horrifying, character face-off, demons), you know you’re in for an his own good). With an obligatory mechanised but we’ll roll W unit all by with it… and Devil May Cry 4 finally gives interesting fight. And it gets even “We’re the same, you and I,” the yourself. you the opportunity to battle out more compelling when Nero whips game highlights their similarities the best of them when Nero faces out the demonic trick he’s been that go beyond using the same Dante, DMC 1-4’s beloved hero. At hiding up his sleeve this whole hairdresser: the two share the very beginning of the game, no time: his ‘devil bringer’ arm, which matching demon souls. This isn’t less. But as it goes on, the battle is supernaturally strong and able the last time the two characters of strong one-liners, demonic take- to summon, er, another, giant, arm. go at it, as Dante puts up a downs, and gunslinging leaves you The fight that follows is nothing tougher fight midway through the wondering who’s actually the good short of what you would expect game. But this initial tutorialised guy in the situation. from the series: slow-motion introduction lets you know what a From the moment Dante gun reloads, deadly jump-kicks, mess you’re in for and gives you crashes through the glass ceiling and even the classic scene of the time to ask yourself: who’s (quite literally) and starts causing Dante being impaled by a sword really the best demon hunter? Q NEXT MONTH

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