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The year is still young, but already the games are heating up in a big way. Which is why we had to dedicate a huge chunk of this issue to reviewing them so you can stay in the know and find out what takes your interest. Leading the way, bow-string ta

Nothing stands between Rachel and konbini ramen served by a ghost cat. Not even yokai. GAME OF THE MONTH The Artful Escape BEST GHOST Morris Lupton (I Am Dead) Too much Horizon means Jess dismantled PLAY Towers’ coffee machine, but got good loot at

The Witch Queen is back, and not only is she bringing Season Of The Risen with her, but the expansion also introduces the “twisted wonderland” of Savathûn’s Throne World and a shiny new crafting system, too. A whole year of content awaits. ■

There are rumours that Ubisoft has big plans for its Viking RPG Assassins Creed Valhalla. According to a report published by Bloomberg, a planned fourth expansion for the game has been developed into a standalone title and will launch either later th

It's great that Disney’s racer is being released on PlayStation, but our feelings are still hurt over the news that adorable kart racer Chocobo GP will not be coming to our consoles. C’mon Square Enix, why did you have to do us dirty like that? ■

17,200,000 The number of PS5s in the wild – and Sony still can’t make ’em fast enough to satisfy consumer demand. 116.8 Million PS4s are out there and still whirring away, on the other hand. This is why cross-gen is a thing. 06 Million Cleaners hav

I’ve definitely got a soft spot for Insomniac’s PS3 alternate history sci-fi shooter series, Resistance. Fall Of Man’s unusual choices of locations (Grimsby, Manchester Cheddar Gorge?!), coupled with Insomniac’s flare for unusual weaponary piqued my

This is a game you’re not meant to be playing. Some kind of shareware, you access the quickfire kill-’em-up via a meta-layer UI. It constantly asks you to evaluate your choices, and to leave. But you keep coming back, so it asks why you choose to pla

“There’s always a lighthouse” indeed. Bioshock can never avoid winking knowingly at the camera. Yes, you are playing a game. Travel freely between timelines in a game that knows full well you’re making choices, then works that into the story itself.

So, let’s be real, I’ve been clamouring for a Wonder Woman videogame for a long time now. It’s the ultimate power fantasy for me. Especially since I had the exhilarating experience of watching her (long overdue) first solo movie back in 2017 at the c

The word ‘economy’ might sound dull as a level-1 sword, but as fans of gaming, we’re all perhaps more familiar with large-scale financial concepts than we realise. Anyone who has held off buying lobster on an online gaming marketboard because it’s to

There are two seasons of anime based on Granblue Fantasy, animated by A-1 Pictures and then MAPPA. Hiroaki Hirata is the Japanese voice of both Granblue’s Rackam and FFXII’s sky pirate Balthier. Cygames is known for its hugely popular mobile games, b

Rumbleverse was originally stated for a 2022 early access launch, but has been pushed back indefinitely. The name of the battle royale genre is taken from a popular Japanese movie, itself based on a book. Rumbleverse is published by Epic Games, the c

Season one of the Telltale series takes place almost 20 years before the Fables comics. Season one was also adapted as a comic. Fables: The Wolf Among Us finished its 48-issue run in 2015. Adam Harrington will return as the voice of Bigby Wolf alongs

You can find bones part-buried or collect them from enemies, and spend them on items or stat level-ups. Despite being mostly self-funded, the devs returned to Kickstarter to replicate Shovel Knight’s community. Jake Kaufman, the musical mind behind S

FORMAT PS4 / ETA 24 MAR PUB WIRED PRODUCTIONS DEV LUMINAWESOME GAMES LTD PLAYERS 1 The trailer for Lumote makes one thing obvious: Luminawesome Games is a great fan of both bioluminescent creatures and David Attenborough, even though the game’s envir

FORMAT PS4 / ETA 24 JUN PUB SPIKE CHUNSOFT DEV SPIKE CHUNSOFT / PLAYERS 1 After AI: The Somnium Files’ bizarre take on brain-visiting and body-hopping serial killers that melded Inception with a good dose of anime logic, we don’t expect anything but

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 12 MAY PUB SQUARE ENIX / DEV HAND INC. PLAYERS 1 If the words ‘live-action game’ and ‘Square Enix’ make you think of the The Quiet Man, know that the publisher has been involved with FMV games much longer, and much more successf

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 8 JUL PUB BANDAI NAMCO DEV BANDAI NAMCO / PLAYERS 1 Back in 1997, at the dawn of the 3D platformer, Namco decided it was time it had its own mascot. The result was Klonoa, a character who could be any number of animals put into

FORMAT PS4 / ETA SUMMER 2022 PUB CHIBIG / DEV CHIBIG, TALPA GAMES, UNDERCODERS / PLAYERS 1 Koa, the protagonist of Chibig’s farming adventure Summer In Mara, is back, this time in a jump ‘n’ run game set during her childhood. Clearly, Chibig has a lo

Here are three spectacular real-life locations that you visit in Ghostwire: Tokyo – just try to look past all the bloodthirsty spirits who are trying to kill you Beat the queues and magically jump and grapple your way to the top of Tokyo’s most famou

Games: Genshin Impact, Smite Tanuki are incredibly prominent in Japanese mythology and are probably one of the best-known types of yokai. They are raccoon dogs who have a reputation for being mischievous but also friendly. They are skilled shapeshi

Sure, most of them are bloodthirsty spirits, but they’re a fascinating, if aggressive, insight to Japan’s wonderful mythical creatures. Take your time to explore the parks and shrines nestled in the city; there might be items hidden there that can h

Every month, loads of games come to the PS Store. You’d be hard pressed to play them all, so we take a look at some that didn’t quite make the cut. This month things get blocky as we set out on retro-inspired adventures, from the gleefully bloody to

The Lantern Light ritual pulled us back in, and exploring Enkanomiya keeps us there. There’s a wealth of new content to catch up on, all of it well implemented, as we continue to make our handsome anime team the best they can be. We’ve got the super

Endlessly stylish, we keep coming back to this time and time again. Trapped on a time-looping island, Colt must blast his way out by assassinating eight targets in one day, using special powers to get the upper hand, all while avoiding a (sometimes p

Tetris, yeah? It might be a great game, but it’s easy to understand why you’d brush this version off as ‘just more Tetris’ at a glance. Yet Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s trippy, transcendent take on the block-based puzzler is nothing short of a masterpiece. Su

You won’t find another open world quite like this, the streets of Los Santos paling in comparison to this gorgeous western sprawl. Arthur Morgan’s wild west adventure is epic, emotional, and has enough teasing mysteries on every Horizon for no two co

Essential numbers that add together to tell you everything you need to know about the game 200% Completion possible, a secret, duplicate, upside-down castle doubling the length while still feeling fresh. 700,000 Copies sold across the US and Japan

PLAY Licensed music features heavily in Alan Wake. Can you tell us a bit about how these songs were chosen and the process of getting them in the game? Petri Alanko Very early [on we] started exploring the need of music, both bespoke orchestral (wri