Dragon’s Dogma 2 rises onto the PLAY cover
Plus: Life Is Strange successor Lost Records, BioWare veterans’ new sci-fi epic, the Tekken 8 verdict, and loads more inside!
Amidst an extremely busy Q1 (and don’t get us started on the other letters), we recommend finding the time to peruse through PLAY #37, which is out right now! Somehow we’ve also managed to find time to tear ourselves away from playing games to tell you all about them, from upcoming mega hits like Dragon’s Dogma 2 (well, it had better hit, I’m trusting you to do the right thing here) to reporting back from newer indies you might not know too much about yet!
Or buy the current issue here!
Dragon's Dogma 2
But first, Arisen, we rise! And Dragon’s Dogma 2 is set to raise the roof across both a ‘raising the game design ceiling for immersive open worlds where you stumble upon your own adventures’ and also a ‘it’s popping in the club’ kind of a way.
In our big cover feature, we pull apart everything we’re most looking forward to playing with in the huge world, plus director Hideaki Itsuno talks all monsters big and small and designing for current-gen, and lead composer Satoshi Hori and sound director Ryo Yoshii talk designing an epic soundscape.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage
There’s nothing we’re bloomin’ ragin’ about here, as Don’t Nod returning to some of the vibes we loved about their breakout hit Life Is Strange is exactly what we want to see. Don’t Nod Montreal creative director Michel Koch discusses new beginnings and creating the studio’s 90s-set spiritual successor.
Exodus
Introducing Exodus, the new sci-fi RPG from former BioWare veterans; The Elder Scrolls Online’s new Gold Road expansion heads to West Weald; the problems ahead for WWE 2K; taking your time in Spider-Man 2’s New York City; and more in our Insider section!
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Get on yer bike for our previews
What do you get when you cross Jet Set Radio with Crazy Taxi? Parcel Corps! With an eye for replicating bike controls, things take an arcadey twist as you hop and grind all across the city to make your deliveries on time. We go hands-on in our big preview.
Also in previews: Umurangi Generation, Go-Go Town!, House Flipper 2, The Mermaid’s Tongue, Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons Remake, and more!
Interview: Alan Wake composer Petri Alanko
We chat with Petri Alanko about music, creativity, his long-standing relationship with Remedy Entertainment, and how he’s forged a deep connection to helping Alan Wake step out of the shadows with unique soundscapes.
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth surfs into the reviews section
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth takes the lead in our stacked reviews section with a massive six pages. Does the Hawaiian shakeup work for Ichiban Kasuga and Kazuma Kiryu? Has combat evolved for the better? Well, the answers to those are both ‘yes’, but that doesn’t take up six pages, so there’s way more to love in our deep dive.
On top of that we’ve got our expert verdicts on Tekken 8, Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown, The Last Of Us Part 2: Remastered, Alan Wake 2: The Final Draft, Immortality, Bahnsen Knights, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy, and more!
RetroStation
I have one more thing to announce: Peggle... One! That’s right, in this RetroStation we revisit the original Peggle for the PS3. It might be delisted but if you jump through several hoops it is possible to get a physical edition if you crave that collectibility.
That’s not all, though, as we also stick up for Tunic’s Librarian, ‘draw’ the long straw with Final Fantasy VIII as it turns 25, ponder whether ‘sad dads’ have much history in retro gaming, take a second look at Gotham Knights now that it’s on PS Plus, and show you our favourite moment from the PSN classic Calling All Cars.
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Games Editor Oscar Taylor-Kent brings his Official PlayStation Magazine and PLAY knowledge to continue to revel in all things capital 'G' games. A noted PS Vita apologist, he's always got his fingers on many buttons, having also written for Edge, PC Gamer, SFX, Official Xbox Magazine, Kotaku, Waypoint, GamesMaster, PCGamesN, and Xbox, to name a few.
When not knee deep in character action games, he loves to get lost in an epic story across RPGs and visual novels. Recent favourites? Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree, 1000xResist, and Metaphor: ReFantazio! Rarely focused entirely on the new, the call to return to retro is constant, whether that's a quick evening speed through Sonic 3 & Knuckles or yet another Jakathon through Naughty Dog's PS2 masterpieces.