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The ultimate guide to PlayStation gaming, offering complete coverage of PS4, PS3 and PS Vita

PLAY2 min read
Welcome
Greetings! There are so many great games being released for PS5 and PS4 at the moment that I appreciate you taking the time to read us. Though with a release period this jam-packed, I hope we’re able to provide some guidance on what games you most wa
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This Month’s Avalanche Allies
CONTRIBUTOR A deluge of great indies sends Rachel past cloud nine to the moon, reporting back from Jupiter’s with indie Europa. GAME OF THE MONTH Saltsea Chronicles BEST REMAKE Spyro Reignited Trilogy GAMES EDITOR Could she really be A. Wake?
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Rusty Rabbit Digs The Best Kind Of Hole
Getting you closer to PlayStation’s most exciting stories, people, and culture Chewing on a carrot as though it’s a cigar, old soul and “shitty father” Stamp the bunny has already stolen our heart. He stars in Rusty Rabbit, an intriguing exploration
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Having A Noodle
You’ve spent dozens, maybe even hundreds of hours, climbing the competitive ladder in Rocket League. You’ve sacrificed so much in your pursuit of videogaming perfection. Then, as your eyes begin to sag, you hear a rumbling noise in the distance. When
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Reinventing The Feel
Three years to the day since PS5’s debut, Sony’s trying something fresh with our beloved current-gen console. Besides sporting a lighter, narrower shape, there’s new hardware under the bonnet of this new PS5. Both the physical and digital editions of
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Chopping Block
There’s a satisfaction found in rummaging inside the guts of virtual machinery. From cranking wheels and pulling levers in post-apocalyptic vehicle sim Far: Lone Sails to prodding the insides of charming contraptions in GNOG, fixing things in games i
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Darkness
On her quest, Pict Senua is almost constantly terrified, but one sequence particularly stands out – at one point, she has no choice but to enter a cave. You can’t see where you’re leading her, and all the while you’re hearing voices and threatening n
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“Hit A Wall? Revisit Past Areas And Reflect On Why You’re Playing.”
WRITER BIO James Daly is a writer, producer, silly goose, and willing servant to good RPGs. Once of GamingBible, you can find him now at FGS. Lies Of P is exceptional. A soulslike reimagining of The Adventures Of Pinocchio, this visually impressive
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“Devs Aren’t Casino Chips; Publishers Need To Stop Gambling With Their Lives.”
WRITER BIO Luke Kemp enjoys some live service games. What he doesn’t enjoy is hearing about the latest round of live service developer layoffs. This year has seen the release of some fantastic games, with a few potential GOTY contenders still to com
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Summoning All Fans
Almost ten years have passed since the last Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival in London (the European leg of the global event shuffles between host cities). But the fans truly showed up; we ourselves were sitting excitedly in the packed crowd awaiting t
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Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth
FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 26 JAN / PUB SEGA DEV RYU GA GOTOKU STUDIO / PLAYERS 1 With the series’ title changing from Yakuza to Like A Dragon, action brawls switching to turn-based RPG scraps, and lead Kazuma Kiryu bowing out to allow newcomer Ichiban K
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Foamstars
FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 2024 / PUB SQUARE ENIX / DEV TOYLOGIC / PLAYERS 8 There’s no human being on Earth with access to bubble bath who hasn’t, at least one or ten times, given themselves a bubble beard and smirked at themselves in the mirror. While
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Decapolice
FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 2023 / PUB LEVEL-5 / DEV LEVEL-5 / PLAYERS 1 Picture a virtual world created to store real-life memories of past crimes in order that they might be solved in the future. That’s Decasim, a perfect digital recreation of our world
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On The Horizon
The classic survival horror gets a gritty revamp, with heroes played by David Harbour and Jodie Comer. FORMAT PS5 / ETA 16 JAN PUB THQ NORDIC Vanillaware’s latest tactical RPG packs fantasy flair at a truly massive scale, with huge battles and load
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Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road
FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 2023 / PUB LEVEL-5 / DEV LEVEL-5 / PLAYERS MULTI After seven years in development, the latest Inazuma Eleven game is finally ready to kick off on PlayStation. The series is defined not by realistic simulation but RPG-like grand
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Lil’ Guardsman
FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 2023 / PUB VERSUS EVIL / DEV HILLTOP STUDIOS / PLAYERS 1 Developer Lucas Pope released Papers, Please back back in 2013, forever sealing the dystopian document thriller as part of gaming history. It’s surprising, then, that twi
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Europa
FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 2024 / PUB FUTURE FRIENDS GAMES DEV HELDER PINTO / PLAYERS 1 The influence of Studio Ghibli’s animated movies is unparalleled. Its feature films – particularly those directed by Hayao Miyazaki – have inspired generations of art
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Synduality: Echo Of Ada
FORMAT PS5 / ETA TBC / PUB BANDAI NAMCO ENTERTAINMENT DEV GAME STUDIO INC / PLAYERS MULTI Bandai Namco loves its anime games, and if it isn’t publishing or developing a game that’s already got a show and fanbase, chances are it’ll just make those th
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Returning To Gaia
FORMAT PS5 / ETA 29 FEB / PUB SQUARE ENIX / DEV SQUARE ENIX / PLAYERS 1 Remake was just the beginning. The ambitious 2020 ground-up reimagining of the 1997 classic tours through familiar story beats: eco-terrorist cell Avalanche’s bombing of the Mak
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Chasing New Dreams
FORMAT PS5, PS4 ETA 2024 PUB BANDAI NAMCO DEV SUPERMASSIVE GAMES PLAYERS 1-2 (ONLINE ONLY) Shadows at the end of our bed, a beloved toy subtly turning in the darkness to meet our gaze, or a noise our young minds can’t quite place beyond the fact it’
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Alan Wake 2
Hey, lean in close – I want to tell you a secret: The emotion lying at the heart of any creative block is fear – fear of what could be, fear of what might never be because of your own intervention or lack of ability, fear that you may never write aga
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Saltsea Chronicles
You could call Saltsea Chronicles a post-apocalyptic story. To many of us that means something with zombies, military regimes, and ruins. But in this world people have rebuilt after disaster, and found a way out of the ‘Great Expansion’ (a time of un
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Sonic Superstars
Addicted to a cycle of reinvention, the hyperactive ’hog is constantly switching lanes, and Superstars’ retro throwback direction would be more exciting if it was the first time Sonic had taken it. In terms of quality, it’s sandwiched between 2010’s
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Cocoon
So there we are, wandering around a level as an unusually cute beetle, when we see a white circle on the floor. We stand on it, tap q and whoosh! We’re flung out of the level into a hub area, left standing next to a little sphere containing the level
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Agatha Christie – Murder On The Orient Express
Detectives need a good eye for a crime scene, and we’re combing over this one to figure out what went wrong. A modernised take on the iconic mystery, it’s a dull escapade with asinine gameplay and new bits of story bolted on, undermining Christie’s c
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Lil Gator Game
You don’t have to be a cute, long-snouted critter for Lil Gator Game to make you feel nostalgic. This charming open world is packed with personality and enough childhood antics to occupy a whole school full of kids hyped up on blue smarties. It’s a l
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Honkai: Star Rail
With a ‘seed of destruction’ implanted inside them, the Trailblazer, the amnesiac male or female star of this live service science-fiction RPG is just like us, for real. It mirrors the danger of a gacha game like this being really, genuinely great. W
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Pizza Possum
Getting your children into stealth games isn’t easy. You could threaten to cancel Christmas unless they memorise the entire Metal Gear wiki, but then you’ll most likely have to practise some stealth of your own when Child Protective Services come kno
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The 7th Guest VR
When the mansion you’re stepping into happens to belong to sinister toy maker Henry Stauf, it’s only natural to expect it’ll contain more playfully twisted contraptions than the Spencer Mansion. And there are indeed more than 15 elaborate puzzles thr
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The Legend Of Nayuta: Boundless Trails
Despite its name, this PSP remaster is completely separate from Nihon Falcom’s lengthy Trails RPG series. Here there’s an action focus, hero Nayuta teaming up with a mysterious fairy to liberate her world by clearing bite-size levels using his sword
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Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1
Collecting together the first three Metal Gear Solid games, the two MSX games and their NES counterparts, motion comic versions of the graphic novels, and more, the title ‘Master Collection’ is fitting. All the games here are nicely presented versio
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Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery
With their big eyes and wide field of vision, frogs seem like ideal detective material. Just one problem: they’re long-sighted. Which might explain why Frog Detective can’t leave his office without picking up his magnifying glass. Yet it’s basically
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Lords Of The Fallen
You could be forgiven for having completely forgotten 2014’s Lords Of The Fallen, a Dark Souls rip-off so brazen it might as well have been called Sark Douls. Almost a decade later, here comes a confusingly named sequel and it’s got a bright idea of
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Assassin’s Creed Mirage
Rather than attempting to one-up the huge open world of the last Assassin’s Creed, with this latest game Ubisoft’s taking aim at the series’ roots. A more condensed setting, the removal of many obtrusive RPG elements, and a linear narrative might mak
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Fate/Samurai Remnant
E do, Japan, 1651. Seven masters, each with a servant who’s a heroic spirit summoned forth from history and legend, duke it out in the Waxing Moon ritual (read: feudal-Japan-flavoured Holy Grail war) in the hope of having their wish granted. There ar
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Anonymous;Code
Talk about getting right into the action! The opening moments of this dynamic visual novel are relentless: playing as plucky 16-year-old student-turned-hacker Pollon Takaoka, you’re on the run from the army in the company of Momo, a strange girl dres
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Trepang2
Played a few FPSs back in the 2000s? If so, you’ll quickly feel at home in Trepang2. True, it’s not a home built for comfort, with its sharp geometry, shiny grey surfaces, hard lighting, and air vents so wide even a claustrophobe could squat-walk thr
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Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged
At first glance it looks like little’s changed from the first Hot Wheels Unleashed. The visuals are as fast and smooth as ever, and driving on the plastic track remains enjoyable thanks to an ace drifting mechanic coupled with a high framerate. But b
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Three To Play
Every month, loads of games come to the PS Store. You’d be hard pressed to play them all, so we’re looking at some that didn’t make the cut. This month we’re mixing and matching food, flesh, and cute robot girls. Uh… all we’ll say is don’t knock it u
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Payday 3
After a disastrous launch week full of matchmaking issues (and in fairness, regular communication from the developers), the latest entry in the heist-’em-up series is now properly up and running. Changes have been made from previous games, but… they
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Cyberpunk 2077 – Update 2.0
From updates to favourites – the games we just can’t quit You may have read my 7/10 review of Cyberpunk: Phantom Liberty in PLAY #33, where I briefly mention something called ‘Update 2.0’, explaining how it relates to that shiny new expansion. But h
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Dead By Daylight – Alien Chapter
After the promise of DBD’s next two Killers being licensed “with a capital L” in the anniversary stream this summer, the Alien chapter is definitely a strong opener. Long-rumoured and highly anticipated by players, this newest chapter of Dead By Dayl
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Street Fighter 6 – AKI
Street Fighter 6 is already riding high as the best fighter of this generation, and the game’s post-launch fighters for season 1 are already in strong form. But following the return of SF5 favourite Rashid, it’s time for some new blood, as long as yo
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PS5 Hall Of Fame
NEW Based on fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons, developer Larian has apparently bottled the essence of only our most electric tabletop sessions to serve up an incredible RPG return. Offering a wealth of options for crafting your own adventurer – and ‘
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PS4 Hall Of Fame
You won’t find another open world quite like this, the streets of Los Santos paling in comparison to this gorgeous, realistic western sprawl. Arthur Morgan’s wild west adventure is epic, emotional, and has enough teasing mysteries on every horizon fo
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PSVR2 Hall Of Fame
Telekinesis and guns make a wonderful combo in VR. With one mapped to your left hand and the other to your right, you feel like a conductor of chaos as you blast your way through a rogue colonel’s mind to uncover secrets. Eye-tracking is wonderfully
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MEMORY CARD Prince Of Persia
When the Sands Of Time trilogy wrapped on PS2, Ubisoft took a fresh approach when it brought its swashbuckling hero to the next generation. Featuring cel-shading, the simply titled Prince Of Persia still looks gorgeous to this day, though it never go
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Patches
The only thing you can rely on with Patches is that he’ll try to trick you. In appearances in games from Demon’s Souls to Elden Ring, he’s the sort who’d sell his own mother, or at least pawn her jewellery. But imagine you’d been cursed to live in Bo
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Limbo
Playdead’s dark adventure is all your childhood nightmares strung together. Like the one where you’re alone and lost, for instance, or the one where you’re being chased by a giant spider, or where older kids suddenly want to kill you for some reason.
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Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139…
Being a Nier fan used to be an act of perseverance, and if you scratched one back in 2010, you’d find a Drakengard devotee underneath. Wait, come back! We’re not going to get into the messy ties connecting the two series, but Nier’s 2021 rerelease pr
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Dinosaurs
The first Dino Crisis was released in 1999. Far Cry 3’s Blood Dragon shoots lasers from its eyes. The Bubble Bobble series began in arcades back in 1986. Exoprimal DLC makes Ryu, Guile, and Chun Li playable characters. You never dinosaur this Ju
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Indiana Jonesing
FORMAT PS3, PS4, PS VITA / PUB MOSSMOUTH / DEV MOSSMOUTH / RELEASED 2013 Deep inside caves full of traps and hostile wildlife, you spy a magnificent treasure: a gleaming golden head as big as yourself, no doubt worth a pretty penny, sitting atop a s
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ISSUE 34 / CHRISTMAS 2023 Future PLC Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA Editorial Editor Oscar Taylor-Kent @MrOscarTK oscar.taylor-kent@futurenet.com – 01225 442244Managing Art Editor Milford CoppockOperations Editor Miriam McDonald @crinolinero
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Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Superhero comics’ greatest curse can be their obsession with the status quo. It’s an issue that can plague long-running game series as well. Bucking this trend is part of what makes this PS5 sequel so good. As fresh as it is familiar, it weaves a str

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