The new issue of PLAY Magazine has arrived, and it’s a honking large one, clocking in at 180 pages.
That sumptuous, sizzling stack of pages is all about the Hot 50, a huge feature where we dig into the biggest upcoming PlayStation games for both PS5 and PS4, with Horizon Forbidden West spearheading the charge. Additionally, we've got the definitive verdict on the latest games, the news you don't want to miss, and a look back at PlayStation's past in the monthly RetroStation section.
The issue is available in supermarkets, newsagents, and digitally, so don’t miss this massive one.
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Horizon Forbidden West
Aloy’s return is set to be a vast adventure, and the next PlayStation Studios hit. Guerrilla Games have been hard at work not only expanding on the first game, but retooling it much in the same way their hero does her tech, so that everything is much deeper than before. From combat to traversal, there’s so much more this time around.
While the game is heading to both generations, its use of PS5 tech appears to be stellar, something we’ll continue to be exploring as the release grows closer.
Elden Ring
Not only has FromSoftware opened the gates to plenty of gameplay, but we’ve even got a January 2022 release date. It’s coming much sooner than The Winds Of Winter, and is the latest project from George RR Martin, who has collaborated with FromSoftware’s Hidetaka Miyazaki on the dark fantasy world’s background. There’s plenty to be excited about.
Shadow Warrior 3
Now heading to PlayStation, the latest Shadow Warrior looks like pure, joyous chaos. We talk to game director Kuba Opoń about bringing the series back, and creating old school feeling shooters in modern times. “There’s some driving need for fast, flippant fun,” he says. It looks like the game is delivering, but find out more in the issue.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
The lombax and robo duo lead 36-pages of definitive reviews. It’s a blockbuster hit, and the biggest PS5 exclusive to date, and it seems set to continue dominating the conversation around the console for some time to come. We get into why it could be the biggest game-changer of the year.
Guilty Gear Strive
Hot on the heels of Dragon Ball FighterZ’ success, Arc System Works have returned to rebuild one of their core fighters from the ground up. Not iterative, Strive has taken everything back to basics before building it up again, making sweeping changes to the fundamentals of what Guilty Gear is. With fantastic visuals on PS5, could this be the de facto fighter for the platform?
20 years of PS2 Online
Yes, it really has been that long since the humble PlayStation 2 introduced many of us to the allure of online gaming. It’s something that’s taken for granted these days, but was a kind of magic in the early 2000s (just mention the word “Socom” to Josh West). We take a retrospective look at some of the games that defined the early online experience in the RetroStation (which also includes the likes of Driver, Final Fantasy X, and Driver).
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Horizon Zero Dawn star Ashly Burch responds to Sony's controversial AI Aloy by pushing for actor protections: "You have to compensate us fairly, and you have to tell us how you're using this AI"
Horizon Zero Dawn's Aloy is the star of Sony's leaked AI-powered character prototype, which allows users to ask questions to an unsettling, emotionless version of the protagonist
