PLAY February 2022

Welcome to 2022. With PS5’s launch year behind us, things are really starting to get exciting, and even games being released early this year are threatening to be Game Of The Year contenders. Plenty of titles are cross-gen, straddling PS4 and PS5, but the differences between the two are clearer than ever, with new-gen games running a lot better already. Given this issue’s cover, you won’t be surprised to learn that Elden Ring (p48) is top of our excitement list for this year. FromSoftware is rarely content to rest on its laurels, and this shakeup of what it does best is a celebration of all that’s come before, yet with an open world so dense with things to discover that it astounds – and could change an entire genre. “THE OPEN WORLD…

Rachel Watts STAFF WRITER Hitting the streets to shake down readers for their GOTY picks, Rachel found out what kind of disco detective she is. GAME OF THE MONTH Solar Ash BEST BIG CAT Hunter (Spyro) Jess Kinghorn GAMES EDITOR Can’t believe her eyes at some of FromSoftware’s nasty bosses. Nameless King? Jess named him – but it’s too rude to print. GAME OF THE MONTH FFXIV: Endwalker BEST BIG CAT Alvina (Dark Souls) Miriam McDonald OPERATIONS EDITOR Pulling strings from the shadows, nudging all the pieces of a grand plan into place… could Mim be PLAY’s own evil genius? GAME OF THE MONTH Evil Genius 2 BEST BIG CAT Khajiit (Elder Scrolls) Milford Coppock MANAGING ART EDITOR Between The Matrix and Alan Wake, the team had to rely on Milf’s art vision to tell real and digital apart this issue. GAME OF THE MONTH Solar Ash BEST BIG CAT King (Tekken)…

“We have passionately pursued an opportunity to return to Alan Wake’s story.” Maggie Robertson won Best Performance, Final Fantasy XIV cleaned up with Best Ongoing Game as well as Best Community Support, and It Takes Two won Game Of The Year – but as neat as all that was, there was plenty more to see at the Game Awards last month. In addition to the awards themselves, we were treated to teases and announcements aplenty. One that caught our eye early on was the announcement of Alan Wake 2. The original 2010 game made its PS5 debut recently, and this sequel will follow in its footsteps some time during 2023. Developer Remedy’s creative director, Sam Lake, said, “It’s no secret that we have passionately pursued an opportunity to return to Alan Wake’s story…

Uncharted: Legacy Of Thieves Collection will be making its way to PS5 on 28 January. This remaster package collects together two games: series star Nathan Drake’s last bow, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, and Chloe Frazer’s first turn as protagonist in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. While both looked fantastic in their original PS4 incarnations, they will enjoy a number of current-gen improvements for this rerelease. For starters, you have a wider than usual range of graphics modes to choose from. Alongside the usual suspects of a 4K resolution mode at 30fps and a performance mode that swaps high resolution for a high 60fps, there’s something called Performance+ mode. This third option doubles frames for a rate of up to 120fps at a 1080P resolution. We reckon most people will be satisfied…

Gaming is an expensive hobby, especially as the expectation seems to increasingly be that you’ll rebuy games you own for multiple platforms. Recent rumours suggest Sony will address this soon with a subscription-based model. Codenamed Spartacus, this rumoured service would combine PS Plus and PS Now into a single, three-tiered service. According to a Bloomberg report, the lowest tier would offer the benefits currently provided by PS Plus, the second would offer PS4 and eventually PS5 titles, and the third would offer game streaming and bigger demos, plus PS1, PS2, PS3, and PSP titles. While consolidating Now and Plus makes sense, plugging up PlayStation’s backwards-compatibility holes with a paywall is less than ideal. Sony stayed the hand of execution on some of its legacy storefronts last year but will Spartacus finally kill…

Epic Games has given us a glimpse into the future of gaming with The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience. Available to download on PlayStation 5 (but not PlayStation 4), Awakens is without a doubt the most impressive Unreal Engine showcase to date. “The demo may be short, lasting around 20 minutes if you include the extras, but it packs an ambitious punch.” The demo may be short, lasting around 20 minutes if you include the extras, but it packs an ambitious punch, giving unparallelled insight into the next generation of gaming. In each of its three sections – an uncanny valley character showcase, a playable action sequence, and an open-world city to explore – the technology presented is incredible. TIME TO WAKE UP The Matrix Awakens is designed to showcase Unreal Engine…