Latest Previews
November2025
Hands On Where Winds Meet PS5 Is Vast, Visionary, and on the Verge of Collapse
A free-to-play epic unlike anything we've encountered before
After approximately 20 hours of play, we’ve barely scratched the surface of Where Winds Meet. We’d considered publishing a Review in Progress, but it quickly became evident that the scale of this game far exceeds the playtime we had available prior to release. Furthermore, we have...
Preview Starsand Island Is a Cosy PS5 RPG Straight Out of a Studio Ghibli Daydream
Your new Spirited Away escape
We recently had the opportunity to go hands-on with Starsand Island, an upcoming cosy RPG developed by Seed Lab. This gorgeous anime-style life sim takes place on the titular Starsand Island which feels like something straight out of Studio Ghibli. Players create a character and explore the island paradise in an...
October2025
Preview Marvel Tokon's Biggest Battle Isn't in the Arena
Too mighty for mere mortals?
Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is without a doubt one of 2026’s most exciting PS5 releases. But the game, which has garnered a tremendous reception, has a challenging tightrope to walk: it needs to appeal to the pros who show up at events like Evo, while simultaneously sustaining the interest of casuals who don’t...
September2025
Preview It's Mine's Time to Shine in Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties
We play the all-new expansion included with SEGA's remaster
You never forget your first. And when it comes to Ryu ga Gotoku, many of you will have taken your first taste of the franchise with Yakuza 3. That’s because, in the West at least, it was the first entry in the series to release on Sony’s next-gen system at the time, the PS3...
Preview PS5's Most Promising 2026 Shooter Pragmata Is Starting to Take Shape
Dot hack
We’ve played PS5 shooter Pragmata three times now. It’s honestly quite rare these days to get so much hands-on time with a game prior to release, but we think Capcom’s desperate to communicate what sets its latest shooter apart. While on the surface it may look like yet another third-person action affair, as we’ve pointed out on a...
Preview We Played Anime Open World Ananta, and It Could Change Everything
We talk to NetEase about the most disruptive game in years
Two years ago, when we interviewed Ashley Qi from NetEase subsidiary Naked Rain, we asked the Lead Producer outright: is Ananta – then known as Project Mugen – real? He insisted it was, and now having played a PC build of the outrageously impressive anime open world for around 30...
Preview Dispatch's Superpower Is Its One-Two Punch of Management and Narrative Choice
Man in the chair
AdHoc Studio is a development team led by some ex-Telltale Games talent, and it really shows in its debut game, Dispatch. It's a workplace comedy starring superheroes, and by and large, it looks as though it plays out in much the same way as titles such as Tales from the Borderlands. Dispatch is a mostly linear, narrative-focused...
Preview Teamwork Is the True Terror of Little Nightmares 3
Screamwork makes the dream work
It’s a testament to the success of the two previous Little Nightmares titles that this third instalment exists at all. With Swedish series creator Tarsier switching to new title Reanimal, publisher Bandai Namco has turned to Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games to make this co-op focused threequel. In some...
Preview Heat Is Everything World of Tanks Isn't and That's What Makes It a Blast
Warming up those tracks
The market for arcade, adrenaline-fueled vehicular combat games is pretty slim these days. While we occasionally get an indie title come through or an old Twisted Metal game gets released onto PS Plus Premium, there isn't much choice out there. WarGaming is known for creating realistic vehicular combat games, but at...
Preview How The Smiths Shaped Suda51's Wildest World Yet in Romeo Is a Dead Man
Morrissey meets murder
With a career spanning over 30 years, Suda51 could be forgiven for running out of ideas. But his upcoming Romeo Is a Dead Man, a scrappy mix of third-person shooting and melee combat, may be his most insane creation yet – not bad for a director whose credits also include zany efforts like Killer7 and Killer Is Dead. We...
Preview Why Digimon Story Time Stranger Will Scratch Your Pokémon Itch on PS5
Gotta Gomamon
It’s been decades since this author has interacted with anything involving Digimon, but at a recent behind closed doors Bandai Namco event, the key art proved an attractive draw. Building on the blueprints of past Digimon Story titles, specifically Cyber Sleuth – which first released on the PS Vita – and its pseudo-sequel...
Preview Why 007 First Light Is the Most Exciting Game of 2026
From Hitman to Her Majesty
007 First Light’s debut demo left us both shaken and stirred. You’ll no doubt be reading this breathless after Sony’s latest State of Play presentation, but we’ve had a little over a week to process our reaction to IO Interactive’s latest. In a nutshell? This upcoming effort, due out on 27th March, is sitting...
August2025
Preview Lumines Arise on PS5 Is the Eye-Popping Glow-Up the Series Deserves
Glitter bomb
While it isn't a household name in the same way Tetris is, Lumines can stand proudly alongside it as one of the great falling-block puzzle games. The two series share an interesting connection, perhaps best represented by Tetris Effect — a combination of the game's timeless line-clearing gameplay with the audiovisual splendour that...
Preview The New LEGO Batman Plays Like Arkham, Brilliantly Rebuilt in Bricks
Bricking bat
It’s been 10 long years since Batman: Arkham Knight, a title which was undeniably divisive in its day. We simply didn’t know how good we had it at the time. After a decade out in the wilderness working on the disastrous Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, there is word that UK developer Rocksteady may finally be turning its...
Preview Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Already Feels Like a Respectable Rival to Mario Kart World
Gotta go fast
Time has been kind to Sumo Digital’s iconic PS3 and PS Vita kart racer Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. The multi-discipline arcade racer – which pulled liberally from SEGA’s back catalogue and found you piloting jet-skis and airplanes as well as cars – is often mentioned in the same breath as Mario Kart, the genre’s...
Preview The Outer Worlds 2 Doubles Down on RPG Gameplay to Great Effect
More money, more problems?
We recently managed to play through the opening hour of The Outer Worlds 2, where we got a feel for gameplay, a peep at the far glitzier graphics, and tested out the foundations of its RPG leanings. We walked away not entirely won over, but certainly intrigued to play more. Our play time with the game was on the Xbox...
Preview Denshattack Is a Dreamcast Era Throwback Mostly Riding the Right Rails
All aboard the DC Xpress
Denshattack looks and plays like a long-lost Dreamcast game. That’s probably the greatest compliment we can pay to Spanish studio Undercoders’ latest effort, because we still have fond memories of that early 2000s era of SEGA software, like Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi. For the uninitiated, this is a train game – but...
Preview Anime-Inspired Arcade Racer Screamer Is the Genre's Most Exciting in Over a Decade
Scream if you wanna go faster
Sometimes a game grabs you by the balls and makes you realise it’s what you’ve been yearning for all along. Screamer, the upcoming anime-inspired PS5 racer from industrious Italian developer Milestone, is that game. This is the sequel to an ancient PC arcade racer, which was notable for pushing the limits of...
Preview Train Sim World 6 Finally Goes Fully Global in Its Sixth Iteration
But not necessarily at launch
One of the biggest complaints we’ve had with Train Sim World since its inception is that its definition of the globe has largely focused on the UK, Germany, and USA. While we appreciate these are probably the biggest markets for the game, we’ve always been eager for the franchise to live up to its namesake. To...
Preview Hellraiser PS5's Sexual Horror Is Pushing Its M Rating to the Max
Pain for pleasure
Within the opening ten minutes of our Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival demo, we’d seen protagonists Aidan and Sunny f*cking while sticking pins in each other and seductively cutting each other with sharp objects. Hellraiser is a franchise known for being horny, and the game is not shying away from that. This is a deeply...
Preview Rolling the Dice on PS5's Next Big Gacha, the Anime Open World RPG NTE
Zenless zone hero
Genshin Impact has a lot to answer for. Like the many dark fantasy Soulslikes that seem to be releasing every single week, anime gacha games have become a genre all of their own. There are dozens of them now, from Zenless Zone Zero to Wuthering Waves and everything in between. Neverness to Everness, or NTE for convenience, is...
Preview Masters of the Brawliverse! The New Retro He-Man Game Hits Hard
The ultimate Eternian beat-'em-up
We’re in a golden era for retro-style arcade games, and UK studio Bitmap Bureau is one of the many devs leading the way. Its upcoming effort, the mouthy He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Dragon Pearl of Destruction, is being developed concurrently with the highly anticipated Terminator 2D: No Fate – two...
Hands On Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter Feels Like a Huge Step Forward for Falcom's RPG Series
Sky high
We've been saying this for a good few months now, but Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter really is shaping up to be one of this year's best RPGs. For those totally out of the loop, this is a complete remake of the first game in Falcom's long-running Trails franchise. What was once a sprite-based adventure is now a fully 3D revival sporting a...
Preview Pragmata Goes Full Anime in Extended Gameplay Demo, And We Love It
Hacking our way through a few more minutes of Capcom's shooter
What else is there to say about Pragmata? We recently had the opportunity to play an extended gameplay demo of the upcoming Capcom shooter, and we still think it’s D’s knees. (D for Diana, the little android girl who’s on your back. Geddit?! Whatever.) The point is this is...
Preview Capcom's Onimusha: Way of the Sword Seems Steeled for Success
We go hands-on with fantasy action
When we previously previewed Onimusha: Way of the Sword, the long-awaited successor to Capcom’s action fantasy franchise, we went out of our way to say it isn’t Dark Souls. It may seem strange to talk about what a game isn’t, but we know how all-encompassing – and, honestly, overbearing –...
Preview Here's Why Resident Evil Requiem's Tension Is Off the Charts
Our impressions after two playthroughs of Capcom's white knuckle demo
Capcom understands Resident Evil’s secret sauce, and that’s evident in this first demo of upcoming entry, Resident Evil Requiem. At a recent demo event prior to Gamescom, playing on a PS5 Pro, we were able to test out about 20 minutes of the upcoming survival horror. Except,...
Preview PowerWash Simulator 2 Is Bigger, Better, and as Satisfying as Ever
Now you're washing with power
For a certain type of player, PowerWash Simulator is about as satisfying a game experience there is. Sweeping a high-pressure jet of water across absurdly filthy surfaces, carving cleanliness into objects big and small bit by bit, is a strangely meditative, rewarding way to spend your time. There's already dozens of...
Preview Battlefield 6 on PS5 Is the Battlefield We've Been Praying For
Beautiful chaos
Being a Battlefield fan is a tumultuous experience. We’re used to the cycle of getting hyped for a new release, thinking it’ll be the one, and then being let down by some kind of change that EA has made. Well call us fools, because after a couple of hours with Battlefield 6 on PS5, we think it really could be the one...
July2025
Preview Dying Light: The Beast May Be the Best the Series Has Ever Been
Going beast mode for our old pal Kyle Crane
Dying Light: The Beast is basically Dying Light refined, and we think that's great news. We recently travelled to Poland to get some hands on time with Techland’s latest on PC. After four hours of exploring its new setting of Castor Woods, experiencing its story, and coming to grips with the hilariously...
Hands On Chronological Mode Is a Fascinating Way to Play The Last of Us 2 Again
Going through with it in order
The Last of Us Part II is probably about the furthest you could possibly get from a normal video game in the AAA space, and that's a very good thing. Naughty Dog took story and structural risks that paid off with an outstanding experience in 2020 — but what if it hadn't? In a rare "what if" scenario, the California...
Preview Way of the Sword Reforges Onimusha for a New PS5 Era
Lookin' sharp
Would it be lazy to compare Onimusha: Way of the Sword to Dark Souls? Probably, but after seeing Capcom’s latest character action adventure in motion for approximately 20 minutes, we can’t help but sink into FromSoftware shorthand. The reality is that the likes of Elden Ring have had such an overwhelming influence on the genre,...
June2025
Preview Don't Sleep on Capcom's Pragmata, the Most Inventive PS5 Shooter in Years
It could be Hugh
If you think Pragmata looks like another plodding sci-fi shooter, then you’re dead wrong: this is one of the most promising TPS titles we’ve previewed in years. The game, originally announced alongside the PS5 and delayed heavily in the years since, revolves around one crucial gameplay mechanic: hacking. As the hulky spaceman...
Preview Borderlands 4 Leans into All Its Best, Familiar Strengths on PS5
Our thoughts after three hours of play
Video game developers love a trilogy, so when one keeps going and adds a number four to the title, it can also work like a statement: we're not done yet. Borderlands, despite The Pre-Sequel and Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, is remembered for those three mainline instalments. So, with a fourth title now just a few...
Hands On MindsEye Is a Boring Mess
How did it come to this?
There's been a lot of mystery surrounding MindsEye, a third-person action adventure from new studio Build A Rocket Boy – even more so when review codes weren’t sent out early. However, we’ve now managed to wrack up a few hours with this latest PS5 release and... well, it isn’t great. MindsEye is a very weird game...
April2025
Preview Arc Raiders Could Be the Definitive Extraction Shooter on PS5
Heads on a swivel
Arc Raiders is an extraction shooter that wants you to pay attention. It wants you to scan the horizon and really listen to its soundscape, and that makes it one of the most exciting multiplayer games heading to PS5 this year. We've had our eyes on Arc Raiders since its announcement back in 2021. However, once developer Embark...
Hands On Oblivion Remastered Is Still Oblivion in All Its Glory, Crap Frame Rate Aside
By the Nine frames-per-second
We've played around 25 hours of Oblivion Remastered since it shadow dropped earlier in the week, and we've come to one key conclusion: Oblivion is still really good fun. The original game is almost 20 years old, but the core gameplay loop still holds up extremely well. Seriously, Bethesda's knack for creating...
Preview Capcom Fighting Collection 2 Is Shaping Up to Be Another PS4 Compilation That Slaps
The school of hard knocks
It feels a little strange to preview a retro compilation like Capcom Fighting Collection 2. After all, the titles included in this bundle have existed in some form for decades, so there are few surprises here. If you’ve already played the previous Capcom Fighting Collection or Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection, then...
Hands On Hitman: World of Assassination Is a Must-Play on PSVR2
VR port finally hit its target
Hitman in VR is a match seemingly made in heaven, but whether it was on PSVR, PCVR or Meta Quest, IO Interactive has never seemed to get it quite right. The ill-fated PSVR release with Hitman 3 in 2021 was an admirable attempt, although shocking motion tracking through the DualShock 4 (?!) meant it felt like a half...
March2025
Preview Being the Good Guy Is Fun for Once in Classic GTA Police Sim The Precinct on PS5
Beat it
You’ve heard the saying: good guys finish last. While that’s usually the case, we had a soft spot for doing the right thing in Fallen Tree’s new isometric cop sim The Precinct. The UK studio, you may recall, previously had a hit with American Fugitive, a top-down PS4 crime sim that appealed to that rose-tinted era of PS1 GTA games...
Preview Rejuvenated Atari Is Bringing Some Absolute Bangers to PS5
Here's how you bring back an iconic brand
You may not have been paying attention, but Atari is back. The once legendary console manufacturer turned third-party publisher has gone through all kinds of turmoil and management turnover, but the current incarnation of the company is awesome: it respects its legacy – warts and all – and genuinely...
Siege stays strong
If you can believe it, Rainbow Six Siege is coming up on its 10th anniversary. That’s 10 years of new operators, new maps, meta changes, and plenty of battle passes. However, a literal decade down the line and Ubisoft is far from done with one of its few live service hits. In fact, Rainbow Six Siege X, a celebratory revamp of...
Preview Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Looks Stunning, Hits Hard, and Feels Fresh on PS5
33 is the new 80
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an ambitious title heading to PS5 later this year from new studio Sandfall Interactive. However, playing through a three hour demo this week, we would have never guessed this is the French developer’s first project. Expedition 33 is a polished and AAA feeling experience that takes its inspirations...
Preview Atomfall Proves a Must-Play Mystery on PS5, PS4
90 minutes with Rebellion's latest effort
Atomfall is the first completely new IP from British developer Rebellion in seven years, and it feels like it's landing at just the right time. After years of quality Sniper Elite and Zombie Army instalments, the studio has been working away on an experience that's quite a bit different: a detective-esque...
February2025
Hands On Monster Hunter Wilds Performance Certainly Isn't Perfect on PS5, PS5 Pro
Monster mashed
How well does Monster Hunter Wilds run on PS5 and PS5 Pro? Having now played Capcom's action RPG for close to 100 hours, we wanted to give you an overview of how the game performs on Sony's system — especially since last year's poorly optimised beta sparked a lot of scepticism with regards to frame rates and resolutions. The good...
Preview Elden Ring Nightreign Is the Most Interesting PS5, PS4 Multiplayer Game of 2025
Rise together, Tarnished
Elden Ring Nightreign is not your typical FromSoftware experience. It’s a multiplayer game and draws inspiration from battle royales and looter shooters. It’s certainly not what you expect from the team behind some of the best RPGs of the last two decades. Yet after spending more than six hours with the game on PS5,...
January2025
Preview Assassin's Creed Shadows Is the Golden Ticket Ubisoft Needs
Our four hours spent in Feudal Japan
Assassin's Creed Shadows feels like quite a bit more than just another video game release for Ubisoft. With speculation surrounding its future ownership, a sales disappointment in Star Wars Outlaws, and now two delays for its newest open worlder, the stakes are high for the French publisher. This doesn't just...
Preview Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii Is an Absurd, Great Twist on Like a Dragon
Hands on impressions after two hours of play
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is the sort of video game name where the subtitle warrants a sentence all to itself. Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. RGG Studio has always embraced the series' comical facets, but not until now has it ever been so blatant and — quite frankly — proud of them. After more...
December2024
Hands On Final Fantasy 16's Clive Is Ridiculously Well Realised in Tekken 8
The only fantasy here is yours
Clive Rosfield, of Final Fantasy 16 fame, is the first guest character in Tekken 8 — and the final part of the game's first season pass. Armed with his trusty blade and a slew of Eikon-based superpowers, Clive would feel far more at home in SoulCalibur than Tekken. But much like Noctis in Tekken 7 — also a DLC...
November2024
Hands on with four hours of series reboot
Tomohiko Sho is humble about his personal accomplishments when we meet him in a swish Parisian hotel basement after several hours of hands-on time with Dynasty Warriors: Origins. “I practiced martial arts,” he casually informs us, moments after admitting he’s practically a scholar of 14th century...
Hands On PS Plus Cloud Streaming Is a Game Changer for PS Portal
Sony's surprisingly successful PS5 handheld gets even better
Sony made a surprise update to the PS Portal today, enabling PS Plus Premium cloud streaming on the device. <related ids="158279,174730"> This effectively transforms the Remote Play peripheral into a full-blown handheld, although it comes with some caveats. First, you’ll obv
Hands On Spider-Man 2 All in on Ray Tracing for PS5 Pro
Fidelity Pro vs Performance Pro
Given that Insomniac Games only just released Marvel's Spider-Man 2 one year ago with fantastic graphics and options for frame rate enthusiasts, the chances the studio would be able to tap into an entirely new level of visual quality on PS5 Pro were slim. Therefore, it has taken a different route as it looks to...
Hands On PS5 Pro Injects More Magic into Hogwarts Legacy
Ray tracing the star of PS5 Pro update
Due to the sheer amount of content open world titles generally have to render at any one time, it's a lot more difficult for them to be deemed visually spectacular. Many on PS5 are more than competent, but pit them against the linear, story-focused experiences of Sony's first-party teams and they will almost...
Hands On The Last of Us 2 Marries Visuals and Frame Rate in PS5 Pro Game Changer
Best of both worlds on offer
The very first game Sony chose to market its upgraded PS5 Pro console alongside during its short reveal video was The Last of Us Part II Remastered, which at the time, felt like a double-edged sword. Its outstanding quality means hardcore PS5 owners are always open to a replay of the Naughty Dog game, but from a visual...
Hands On The Crew Motorfest Has Never Looked Better Thanks to the PS5 Pro
The Fast and the Glorious
We’re big fans of The Crew Motorfest here, so we were pleased to see a PS5 Pro Enhanced version announced alongside Sony’s new console. With the Pro finally here, we took to the well worn roads of Hawaii to see if the upgrade was up to much. Ubisoft’s racer was already a looker on the base PS5, but it asked the...
Hands On Cyberpunk 2077, Final Fantasy 16, and Metaphor: ReFantazio All Get a Boost on PS5 Pro
Frame raters
We've spent the last couple of days putting games like Dragon's Dogma 2 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth through their paces on PS5 Pro. Those titles have been handed dedicated updates so that they can take advantage of Sony's supercharged system — but what about popular PS5 games that haven't been Pro-patched? In theory, unpatched titles...
Hands On Serious Pop-In the Only Problem with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Massive PS5 Pro Boost
Cloud nine
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was plagued by an astoundingly blurry performance mode when it first released on PS5 in February of this year. Obvious graphical limitations were put in place so that the RPG could run at 60 frames-per-second; it played just fine, but it could look rough outside of cutscenes. With the PS5 Pro, Rebirth has gained...
Hands On $700 Later and Dragon's Dogma 2 PS5 Pro Performance Is Still Far from Perfect
The cycle continues
Touted as a game that could greatly benefit from the PS5 Pro's arrival, Dragon's Dogma 2 takes advantage of Sony's new system through several graphics settings that were recently added via an update. Those familiar with Capcom's open world RPG will know that the title has struggled to attain smooth technical performance since...
October2024
Preview LEGO Horizon Adventures Is Looking Like the Best LEGO Game Yet
A-toy
LEGO, the versatile Danish toy, has been converted into dozens of great games. Most recently, we’ve enjoyed LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and the Minecraft-inspired LEGO Fortnite. But if we’re being brutally honest, after just shy of 90 minutes of play, LEGO Horizon Adventures is already looking like a standout for the blocky brand...
Preview Planet Coaster 2 Pulls Back the Curtain on PS5 Theme Park Magic
Tricky but rewarding
There’s a thrill to roller coasters. As you clunk, clunk, clunk up the track, you start to contemplate your life. You should have asked that cute person out, should have called your mum more, shouldn’t have gotten on this terrifying contraption. And then, as you crest over the apex of the climb and see the world below you,...
September2024
Preview PS5's Sparking! Zero Feels Like Dragon Ball Z, But You May Need Super Saiyan Reflexes
We speak to producer Jun Furutani and play for over three hours
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero producer Jun Furutani’s smile is as wide as Goku’s chest when we tell him the game feels like an interactive anime; it’s clear this has been Bandai Namco’s goal from the beginning. Having played the latest entry in the acclaimed Budokai Tenkaichi...
Preview Unknown 9 Awakening Plays Like a Long Lost PS3 Remaster on PS5, PS4
Invasion of the body hopper
Unknown 9 Awakening feels like a remastered PS3 game, and we mean that in the nicest possible way. This cross-media debut from Montreal-based studio Reflector is part of a wider push into comics, books, and more. But its largely linear level design and small-scale combat skirmishes feel like they were designed over a...
Preview Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Seeks to Create a Version of the 90s That Never Existed
A memory of a dream
Memories are weird: we think of them as very stable things, these absolute truths of what we experienced in the past, but even a cursory glance at research on the topic will let you know that memories are malleable and often incorrect, exaggerated by emotions or warped by time. DON’T NOD’s newest game, Lost Records: Bloom...
August2024
Preview Cairn PS5 Proves Much More Impressive Than Just a Realistic Version of Only Up
See that mountain...
When you work as a journalist, you train yourself to not be too effusive about a preview build of a game. We’re not fanboys, we’re not here to hype your product. We’re professionals. We are here to play your game and evaluate it. That said, by the time we finished playing Cairn and left the tiny booth in the French...
Preview Capcom's Fighting Game Crossovers Will Take You for a Ride in 2024
Hands on with Terry Bogard in Street Fighter 6 and Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection
Capcom has always been one for a crossover battle, but the stars have now aligned in such a way that Capcom fighting games are crossover-central for the rest of 2024. We just had the re-release of SNK vs Capcom: SVC Chaos, and now SNK poster boy Terry Bogard is...
Preview Metaphor: ReFantazio Won't Blow You Away in Its First Hour
An odd Gamescom demo detailed
Huge JRPGs from Atlus are at their slowest and most basic at the very beginning, so playing the first hour of Metaphor: ReFantazio at Gamescom wasn't exactly the most impressive 60 minutes we've spent with the game pre-release. Full of tutorials and cutscenes, we wouldn't have encountered a single battle if we didn't...
Preview Slitterhead Has Its Jank, But Also Promise and Heart
45 minutes of play at Gamescom
Enough time has passed that a reverence for the jankier, AA games of the PS3 generation is now starting to appear, and for the horror genre at least, Slitterhead is about to be its poster child. Gamescom provided us with the chance to check out 45 minutes of the debut title from Bokeh Game Studio, playing the full...
The humans behind the hunt
It is hard to describe how excited people were for Monster Hunter Wilds at Gamescom in Köln last week. If you have attended the show as a member of the public, you will know that lines to play anything can get pretty damn long. Up until this year, the longest we had ever heard of was the infamous four-hour queue to play...
He may be edgy, but without him we wouldn't have I am... All of Me
Let's just get it out of the way: Sonic Generations is the best game in the series, and if you disagree, you're a coward (or just have a different opinion than us, either works). The 2011 entry into the series was a celebration of the blue blur's best and worst adventures across nine...
Preview Civilization 7 Makes Some Bold Changes, and They're Probably for the Best
A new Civilization revolution
Sid Meier’s Civilization has remained a constant across its 33-year run; each of the mainline games has been at the very least pretty great. Even spinoffs like Civilization Revolution were excellent for what they were. But there is an argument that when you’re that consistent, it’s pretty easy to play it safe, and...
Preview PS5's Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Is a Fiercely Loyal Remake
Hands on with the Virtuous Mission
There are faithful remakes, and then there's Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. A full one-to-one re-release of the PS2 stealth masterpiece from 2004, Konami and co-developer Virtuos are going so far as to re-use the original voice lines in their visual refresh 20 years later. It's an example of how the two...
Preview As Uncharted Rests, Xbox Provides PS5 Adventure in Indiana Jones
We tune in for the Gamescom briefing
So, here we are: because of Microsoft's expanding multi-platform efforts, we're now in a position where we can provide an official Preview of an upcoming first-party game before it's even released on Xbox Series X|S. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle launches for current Xbox systems and PC this December, and...
Preview Directive 8020 a 'Huge Step Forward' for the Dark Pictures Series on PS5
Narrative IP levels up for next entry
Supermassive Games generally releases its trademark style of story-focused horror games at such a consistent rate that it might come as a surprise its premier franchise, the Dark Pictures Anthology, has now been missing in action for two years. That's normal for any other developer, but the Guildford studio...
Preview Double Exposure Stretches Life Is Strange Across Two Gripping PS5 Timelines
Max returns in 30-minute Gamescom demo
The Life Is Strange franchise is at its best whenever Max Caulfield is around, so Double Exposure already has a leg up on its predecessors. The latest narrative entry on PS5 marks only the second time the popular protagonist has played the lead role, and Deck Nine Games isn't purely leaning on her welcome...
Preview Crimson Desert Is Real, Complex, and Potentially Great
One hour with the promising PS5 open worlder
After various "too good to be true" showcases during livestreams in the past, we can now officially confirm that Crimson Desert is an actual, real video game. In a 60-minute session on the Gamescom showfloor, we pressed all the buttons on a PS5 controller connected to a PC and things happened on-screen...
Preview Broken Sword Is Back in the Most Passionate Remaster Possible
Charles Cecil guides us through the labour of love
While there can be some variation, video game previews are generally handled in one of two different ways: we're either left to our own devices whilst playing or a developer will sit alongside us acting as a guide. The former is preferred, but sometimes, the latter can be handled with such genuine...
