Table of contents for December 2023 in PLAY

This is a weird one, but let’s see if you can get your teeth into it. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, the long-awaited sequel to the 2004 CRPG cult hit, is back. First announced in 2019, a lot has happened since then. The short version is this: Seattle-based developer Hardsuit Labs initially led development, only to be entirely removed from the project early in 2021. Publisher Paradox Interactive said it was working with another developer to finish the game but would not say which one – until now. Enter The Chinese Room, known for bringing fear and delight in the form of Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs and Dear Esther. Rather than start from zero, the Brighton-based studio is completing or otherwise overhauling the work initially begun by Hardsuit…

FORMAT PS5 / ETA EARLY 2024 / PUB SECRET MODE / DEV THE CHINESE ROOM / PLAYERS 1 When it comes to horror, outer space and the deep sea are not so different. Each is an environment extremely hostile to human life, and as a result both offer extreme, claustrophobic isolation – but most importantly, humanity still understands very little about either. That said, The Chinese Room’s next tale of terror (slated for release before its other big surprise project, which you can read more about on p14) promises to be something beyond the obvious comparison of ‘wet Aliens.’ “ENCOUNTER A FOE THAT CANNOT BE BLASTED AWAY.” You are Caz McLeary, a bloke with a deeply complicated personal life that leads him to deliberately take work as an electrician on…

FORMAT PS5 / ETA TBC / PUB CAPCOM DEV CAPCOM / PLAYERS 1 (WITH SOCIAL FEATURES) “GRABBING HOLD WITH R2, WE CLAMBER UP TO ITS HEAD TO DEAL CHUNKS OF DAMAGE.“ Breathe a sigh of relief if you’re a Dragon’s Dogma fan: this sequel doubles down on everything that made the original an open world adventure like little else. But hold that next breath – you’ve been tossed into the air by a big beastie. It only takes seconds for it to happen to us. We turn around as we’re unleashed on the open world and immediately get jumped, beak-first, by a griffin. Our fighter leads the charge in return, backed up by our three allied pawns (two of which are effectively on loan from other players around the world…

FORMAT PS5 / ETA 2024 / PUB PANIC DEV COAL SUPPER / PLAYERS 1 “VISUAL GAGS HIDDEN IN SCENES MAKES THEM A TREAT TO PORE OVER.” This indie ‘slapformer’ stars a travelling salesman making his way through a quirky northern English village. Almost everywhere you go, you’re greeted with the refrain “Thank goodness you’re here” from its bizarre residents as they give you odd jobs. There’s a definite emphasis on the ‘odd’, as the jobs range from helping a fishmonger set up his market stall (which sells fresh fish stuffed with cigarettes) to finding the ingredients for a comically oversized pie. Everything is solved by completing light platforming tasks or slapping, your only other way to interact with objects. The rural setting is rendered in beautiful, hand-drawn animation, everything from…

Described as a “cross-team collaborative endeavour” that different departments pitch in with, there’s no strict pattern to character creation, and each figure can materialise differently. The team gives us a glimpse into the process nevertheless to show how two characters got their ticket to ride… JING YUAN HoYoverse Jing Yuan was defined at the beginning of the design process as one of the six generals of the Xianzhou Alliance. In fact, he was one of the earliest Xianzhou characters to be revealed. ‘Jing’ can mean ‘sunlight’, while ‘Yuan’ can signify ‘preeminence’ in Chinese. In the early stages of the story, Jing Yuan remained behind the scenes, orchestrating and strategising. However, after the Stellaron crisis broke out, Jing Yuan stepped onto the stage and personally intervened, using his formidable martial…

INFO FORMAT PS5 (reviewed), PS4PRICE £69.99 (PS5), £59.99 (PS4)ETA Out nowPUB 2KDEV Visual ConceptsPLAYERS 1-10LENGTH N/AACCESSIBILITY Adjustable rules and quarter length; customisable turbo/fatigue meter; fatigue, injuries, camera shake, vibration, trigger effect, and photo strobe flashes on/off; adjustable game speed and volume sliders; adjustable assist strengths This year’s entry may surprise you in ways both good and bad. In the ‘good’ half of the court sits a new feature for the WNBA, improved animations for the biggest stars drawn directly from TV footage, (slightly) easier shooting below Hall Of Fame difficulty, and a salary cap mode for MyTeam lineups online. In the ‘bad’ half is… well, a lot – and it all stems from the microtransactions. This year’s brief seems to have been to expand the older, more affluent section of…

NetherRealm has successfully turned back the clock on its flagship fighter, crafting a solid pseudo-reboot that serves as both a satisfying followup to the dense, lore-filled story of MK 11’s campaign and a surprisingly approachable entry point for newcomers. The stripped-down side-modes and lack of overall innovation may disappoint, but it’s hard to komplain too much in the face of a story campaign that’s just this good. This single-player offering is by far the strongest part of the package, and from the very first cutscene everything about its presentation simply oozes style. Following on from the events of the last game’s Aftermath expansion, which concluded with series hero Liu Kang gaining enough power to reset the entire timeline, the story takes place in an all-new universe. This means a fresh…

The new FIFA is not called FIFA. After 30 years of making games tied to football’s governing body, EA has branched out on its own – and mostly delivered the changes fans spent years clamouring for. Ultimate Team gets overhauled. Presentation receives a huge upgrade. Gameplay is slower, and subtler. Refreshingly, and surprisingly, that name change isn’t just a gimmick. Where to start unpicking it all, then? Well, gameplay is paramount, so it has to be there. We’ll probably never see a game nail intricate passing football like Pro Evo did at its peak, but FC24 offers a taste of what made it so imperious. Time is of the essence: you can recycle possession while seeking opportunities on goal. A new precision pass, where a line on the pitch shows…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / PUB SEGA / DEV SONIC TEAM / RELEASED 2023 Your eyes do not deceive you. That’s Amy Rose, the Piko-Piko-hammer-wielding Sonic The Hedgehog mega-fan, standing in Green Hill Zone from Sonic 1. It’s never happened before (outside of unofficial ROM hacks), but here we are, 32 years after the original release on Mega Drive, with the Blue Blur usurped by the Pink... er, Prodigy. Yes. Her appearance completes a circle started in 1994, when Sonic & Knuckles’ Lock-on cartridge allowed you to play as Knuckles in Sonic 2, kickstarting a whole slew of official ‘character X in…’ mash-ups. But until now, Amy’s always been left out. She wasn’t even playable in her debut game, Sonic CD, so her inclusion here is a pretty big deal. Funnily…

Although the announcement came out of the blue, the most surprising thing about Lara’s early adventures being remastered is that it hasn’t happened before now. Finally, the legendary games are coming back to provide a nostalgia rush for older fans and something of an education for a new generation. The remasters have particular significance for PlayStation. Not only did the series begin life on Sony’s PS1 (whisper it: and PC), Uncharted and its charismatic star Nathan Drake owe more than a little to Lara’s globetrotting, treasure-hunting adventures. Tomb Raider was explosively successful in its heyday, and Aspyr and Crystal Dynamics are hoping to recapture at least some of that with this bundle. These are remasters, not remakes, so a little tolerance for the quirks of platform adventures a quarter of…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 2 FEB / PUB SEGA DEV P-STUDIO, ATLUS / PLAYERS 1 PREVIEW “YOU NOW CONTROL EACH PARTY MEMBER AS THEY CALL UPON THEIR PERSONA POWERS.“ The Dark Hour has rolled around again, but this time things are different. As the clock strikes midnight the port city of Iwatodai is swallowed up in darkness, the school twisted into a dungeon reaching skyward called Tartarus, and everyone still wandering around at such an hour is turned into coffins of obsidian. Everyone, that is, apart from a ragtag group of moody teenagers. So far, so horrifyingly familiar, but Reload is a ground-up remake of the classic PS2 RPG. Our hands-on splits the Dark Hour two ways, revealing more than simply what we remember from the 2008 original seen…

FORMAT PS5 / ETA EARLY 2024 / PUB KEPLER INTERACTIVE / DEV IRONWOOD STUDIOS / PLAYERS 1 The Olympic Exclusion Zone is far from abandoned. Just for starters, you’re trapped inside the devastated area. For seconds, you’re definitely not alone – and no, we’re not anthropomorphising the station wagon central to this weird road trip. Game director Seth Rosen calls it “a run-based driving survival adventure game with crafting elements,” quipping, “which is a whole bunch of words!” We see for ourselves what they mean in our hands-on. “YOU’RE AVOIDING AND LEARNING ABOUT THE ANOMALIES IN THE AREA.” Our demo starts, as all runs do, in the garage. Here you can check the routes already charted throughout the Zone and plan where to head next, as well as repair your…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 1 FEB / PUB CYGAMES / DEV CYGAMES / PLAYERS 1 (OFFLINE), 1-4 (ONLINE) With only brief sightings to sustain us over the years, this long-awaited action RPG is finally coming in to land. Originally developed in collaboration with PlatinumGames, the chaotic thread of combat wasn’t lost when Cygames took over as sole developer. In our hands-on, we find there are plenty of ways to blast a boss out of the sky, and we diligently test them all. Our demo mission serves up a set of seven heroes from popular mobile game Granblue Fantasy. Even this small slice of the full roster shows us how they synergise. In addition to the flashy Link team-up attacks, which you can trigger by pressing Ⓞ once you’ve stunned…

FORMAT PS5 / ETA 26 OCT / PUB 505 GAMES / DEV ONE MORE LEVEL / PLAYERS 1 Wall-run, grapple, deflect incoming bullets, slide downward toward an enemy, and then: slice. Gutted in a single, smooth motion. Another enemy nears, bulky, with a large red blade of their own. They swing. Tapping block at the right moment we stun them, following with another attack to run their head through. This sequel doesn’t miss a beat. We feel as skilled at traversing the dangerous Dharma Tower as Jack, the ghostrunner we’re controlling. Our hands-on encompasses just the opening of the game – these slick platforming sequences over terrifying drops into the guts of humanity’s last bastion and fast-paced arenas of one-hit death are just the beginning. But it’s a testament to…

INFO FORMAT PS5 (reviewed), PS4PRICE £69.99 (PS5), £59.99 (PS4) ETA Out nowPUB Ubisoft DEV Ubisoft Ivory Tower PLAYERS 1-32 LENGTH 18-22 hrs (playlist completion)ACCESSIBILITY Customisable UI, subtitle size/background, and assists; input tips, subtitles, controller audio, camera shake, and HUD high contrast on/off; invertable Y axes; left-/one-handed controls; and much more As the Forza Horizon series isn’t available on PlayStation, we won’t linger on the fact that The Crew Motorfest is extremely (almost amusingly) similar. Instead, we’ll just mention that this is an open world car game with races and activities scattered all over the map – in this case, an adapted version of the Hawaiian island of O’ahu, with plenty of varied terrain. In fact, we were a little harsh just now, because ‘variety’ was clearly at the core of…

INFO FORMAT PS5 (reviewed), PS4PRICE £19.99ETA Out nowPUB Ko_Op Mode IncDEV Ko_Op Mode IncPLAYERS 1LENGTH 5+ hrsACCESSIBILITY Text colour options and text backdrop opacity in subtitles; left and right stick sensitivity slider; timing on/off for various mechanics; controller vibration on/off; slow dialogue mode; auto advancing of dialogue on/off; trigger resistance for choices on/off Dinosaurs, high school, and the end of the world – this interactive animated series has it all. A giant space rock threatens to take everything from aspiring musician Fang and their pals just as senior year draws to a close in a coming-of-age tale that asks exactly what we owe each other. It all comes together in one of the most prescient, poignant teen dramas we’ve experienced in years. There’s ambition in every frame of what remains…

Fantastic news of something that couldn’t possibly go wrong: an inventor has created animatronic puppets and filled the city with them. Sadly, everything’s gone a bit Westworld, in that a fun premise takes itself way too seriously. Oh, and because the puppets turned homicidal in an event called the ‘Puppet Frenzy’ (stop giggling at the back) it’s up to Pinocchio and his lovely hair to engage in brutal hacky-slashy combat with his fellow puppets. Time for an original action-RPG, then, with enemies tucked craftily around corners, silent levels punctuated by epically-scored boss fights, and… hang on… Round8 Studio hasn’t been inspired by FromSoftware’s Bloodborne, it’s practically remade it, right down to making jumping as unintuitive as possible. Click the left stick to leap? You’re lucky we didn’t make you jump…

Our species has done horrible things to the oceans: polluting them; making their creatures extinct; Meg 2: The Trench… So here comes a game that wants to teach us why we need to treat them better. It starts promisingly, with pretty waters to wander and swimming controls that are tight and responsive. You get a great little submarine that can speed you through the sea, making exploring a treat. You have a scanner for navigation, but this isn’t simply a case of pinging stuff on the radar, then heading mindlessly towards it. Often routes are blocked, forcing you to seek out other pathways. The game has the confidence to frustrate you, knowing you’ll feel all the more satisfied when you do find your way. Navigation becomes a true maze towards…

Just a few short years after the mother of the simulation genre, The Sims, took the world by storm, giving players the chance to create their very own human aquarium, the forgotten gem that is The Urbz: Sims In The City on PS2 was bestowed upon us on PS2. Unlike ports of the core series, The Urbz had been designed with the console experience in mind from the off. It also feels like a bit of a time capsule, evoking nostalgic Y2K vibes, and you feel every minute of the period. Released in the mid-noughties, it came at a time when spinoffs were starting to become a big thing for the series – we also got console versions of The Sims 2: Pets and The Sims 2: Castaway. Just as…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / RELEASED 2022 / PUB FINJI DEV TUNIC TEAM / GET IT NOW PS STORE, £24.99 Back in 2022, a little fox in a tunic woke up on a beach in a mysterious world and everything changed for Andrew Shouldice. But before the fox rose from its sandy slumber, Tunic had been in development in some form or another for several years, appearing at almost every game convention leading up to the pandemic. Each time you saw the game, you’d walk away thinking it was just a cute homage to The Legend Of Zelda. That nice little tribute ended up being nominated for three Game Awards, four DICE Awards (winning one), five BAFTAs (the team brought home two silly faces), and, most importantly, a Golden Joystick [Okay,…

Getting you closer to PlayStation’s most exciting stories, people, and culture Perhaps the most immersive and scary rendition of the game yet. Another year of Tokyo Game Show has come and gone in the land of great food and better gaming, and it’s starting to feel a little like déjà vu. If you cast your mind back to last year’s event coverage in PLAY #21, we talked about the upcoming launch of PSVR2 and how we got a taste of the hardware’s capabilities when we went hands-on with Capcom’s Resident Evil Village VR update. This year the developer was back to deliver another terrifying virtual experience, allowing us to sample its recent remake of Resident Evil 4 in PSVR2. A few factors make converting a classic entry in the horror…

Great third-party pads have been few and far between on PS5. Fortunately Nacon is finally releasing the next in its Revolution series, which we loved on PS4 – though at about £200 the new pad is certainly pricy. Not counting fightsticks, it’s the company’s most expensive controller to date, though it’s still just shy of the official DualSense Edge’s £210 price tag. The Revolution Pro 5 shoots for a similarly luxurious feel, and is loaded with options and features. Building on the last-gen Revolution Unlimited Pro, it’s fully customisable: you can add weights, there are four remappable shortcut buttons on the back, and you can swap both stick heads and sizes. The twin sticks are asymmetrical, as usual with Nacon pads, which some players prefer. There are four remappable shortcut…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA NEVER (PREVIOUSLY 2023) / PUB SEGA / DEV CREATIVE ASSEMBLY / PLAYERS MULTI The Earth is dying and the rich are fleeing, and they’re taking all our Sonic figurines with them. In a dystopian future when giant cargo ships are transporting hoards of precious cultural artefacts to affluent colonies on Mars, it’s up to you and your sketchy squad of intergalactic pirates to take the redistribution of wealth into your own hands. From Rick Astley records to Rubik’s Cubes and Sony Walkmans, not to mention statuettes referencing many of Sega’s own most popular properties, there’s a treasure trove of fully licensed, faithfully modelled nostalgic ’80s goodies just waiting to be snatched. All these priceless plastic relics, collectively dubbed Merch, are kept under lock and key…

FORMAT PS5 / ETA 2024 / PUB PANIC / DEV PLAYABLES / PLAYERS 1 What’s on your bucket list? Do you want to learn a new instrument or perhaps find a way to become incredibly rich? Maybe, at the end of the day, you’re content just knowing that you managed to make someone smile. In this short and sweet adventure, it’s your job to accomplish as many life goals as you can before time runs out. There is one catch, however: while your list of goals is very long, you are one very, very small fly. MAKING TIME The life expectancy of your fly (the overall value that determines your total allowance of time) adjusts depending on your location. If you’re in the United Kingdom, this means you have just…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 17 NOV / PUB OUTRIGHT GAMES LTD DEV ARTAX GAMES / PLAYERS 1-4 The family’s here for fun and frolics. An all-new story based on the children’s animated series sees hound Bluey, her younger sister Bingo, and their parents Bandit and Chilli venture forth for a nice day out with plenty of minigames along the way. From the floor is lava to hot potato, you and three pals can jump in and play together in local co-op. Recognisable locations from the show are here too, allowing your tiny ones to nose around Bluey’s house, the nearby creek, and – of course – the playground.…

INFO FORMAT PSVR2PRICE £24.99ETA Out nowPUB CharacterBank IncDEV CharacterBank Inc, MastiffPLAYERS 1LENGTH 8 hrsACCESSIBILITY Difficulty options (can’t be changed once game starts); dual audio; smooth and snap turning Grand Amnis’ prosperity is built on the back of a dangerous industry, relying on mysterious ruins where a guild of adventurous magi venture each day in search of resources and lost artefacts. But what dangers await deep in the dungeons and at what cost does the town’s wealth really come? You’ll answer these questions as a novice magus in this quest-based VR dungeon crawler. With a shield in one hand and a growing array of equippable spells in the other, the game’s 26 quest dungeons are digestible, as you can usually clear one within 15 minutes (an unlockable endless dungeon being the…

INFO FORMAT PS5 (reviewed), PS4PRICE £28.99ETA Out nowPUB Sabotage StudioDEV Sabotage StudioPLAYERS 1 LENGTH 30 hrs approxACCESSIBILITY Detailed sound options; in-game talismans that adjust game difficulty From the moment they were born, friends Valere and Zale have prepared to become solstice warriors. Born on the winter and summer solstice respectively, they are the only ones strong enough to take on Dwellers, massive monsters created by the evil Fleshmancer. The duo gladly accept this task, only to soon learn that being a hero isn’t all smiles and sunshine. Developed by the studio behind action-platformer The Messenger, Sea Of Stars is an ode to classic JRPGs such as Chrono Trigger, but made to be enjoyed by modern audiences. So while the game does have traditional turn-based combat, individualised timeframes for those turns…

With heavy synth, oodles of violence, and a president crash-landing in a dangerous, self-governed district of Night City, this chunky DLC definitely gives John Carpenter a run for his money at first glance. It’s an escapade keen to play with it all, along with spy thriller set-pieces and even an extended brush with full-on horror. Launching a week after the massive 2.0 overhaul of the base game, Phantom Liberty oozes both ambition and the confidence that it’s able to pull it off. Though it’s not without faults, we can’t hate its attitude. Netrunner Songbird (Minji Chang), who’s crash-landed along with the president, gets V on the case by dangling the promise of a cure for the brain-chip that’s killing them. They’re trapped in Dogtown, a kind of half-ruined Las Vegas-like…

INFO FORMAT PS5 (reviewed), PS4 PRICE £7.99 (base game required) ETA Out now PUB Capcom DEV Capcom PLAYERS 1 We all expected the incredible remake of Resident Evil 4 to be followed by a DLC of Ada Wong’s story at some point – after all, it first appeared as a bonus exclusive to the original’s PS2 release. Our greatest fear was that it was always a bit mid. But it’s not any more – this is a great campaign that offers plenty new. For starters, it’s out with Leon Kennedy’s perfectly flopped hair and in with morally grey super-spy Ada Wong’s flawless bob. Compared to the remade base game, Separate Ways’ faithfulness to the source material is pretty weak – which is for the best (there’s no devastatingly annoying boat…

Did you have two DualShocks and a mate back when The Lord Of The Rings films came out? Then you’ll know this tie-in, which remains a favourite for good reason. The licence meant the game had to follow the movie and not include unadapted elements from the book. However, working with the filmmakers, the developers were able to extend movie set-pieces by using concept art and deleted scenes for inspiration. MORE ’DOR A veritable dragon’s hoard of Tolkien game adaptations have been released over the years, but this remains king. “This and Two Towers were the best Lord Of The Rings games (and say it with me) OF ALL TIME!” shares Billy J Hansen. Despite having different developers, ROTK evolved the hack-and-slash gameplay of The Two Towers with bigger, denser…

The Ape Escape games were unapologetically bright, bold, and silly in a way that today we usually only see from indie developers, and this title rescued from the PSP library is no exception. A remake of the PS1 original, it’s still fun to monkey around with despite a few flaws. Those flaws are mostly limited to the controls, which even in 2005 came in for some criticism. While the PS1 original was made for the DualShock, PSP didn’t have a right analogue stick, and for the remake the controls were tweaked accordingly. As it’s a 3D platformer, your muscle memory will constantly send your right thumb wandering to the analogue stick to move the camera – and as a result, you’ll be constantly reminded that this isn’t actually possible. Camera…