Revealing PLAY’s Games Of 2024 special
Haunted themed parks, space heists, bum slapping, and more - the future of gaming starts now!
PLAY #35 is out now! And it’s that time of year again! Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth leads our huge Games Of 2024 feature, where we dig into your next favourite PlayStation games. From heavy hitters like Tekken 8 to newer favourites like Crow Country, we’ve got plenty of games to get on your radar nice and early. Read on for a peek at what’s in store!
Or buy the current issue here!
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth leads the Games Of 2024
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth headlines the feature, and will be one of the earlier releases to welcome in 2024. This Hawaiian-set adventure is a breath of fresh air for the Yakuza series. We speak to chief producer Hiroyuki Sakamoto about bringing Kiryu back for another adventure, the setting shift, and more (did you know a lot of substories are inspired by real life experiences?) — plus report back from our hands-on.
Creating the retro-styled horror of Crow Country
We also jump into the PS1-inspired survival horror, Crow Country. It’s a creepy change of direction for Tangle Tower studio SFB Games in some ways, but we speak to creative director and writer Adam Vian about why it’s a natural evolution, and the challenges around designing a horror game with a retro aesthetic.
In the ring with Tekken 8 and more
That’s just the start! We’ve well over 60 games featured in this mega feature. We return to the ring to give Tekken 8 a near-final look ahead of its January release; we speak to Hideaki Itsuno about finally getting around to Dragon’s Dogma 2; throw fists as a magician in the gritty world of The Thaumaturge, and more! You’ll learn something new here, and that may include a few new games to look forward to!
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Is the PS Portal worth the high price tag?
What’s going on in the world of PlayStation at the moment? We crack it wide open in Insider, starting with our PS Portal impressions. From spending a long time incorporating it into our daily gaming schedule, we dig into whether the remote-play handheld is really worth the £199 (spoiler: probably not).
We also speak to the devs behind the upcoming cyberpunk and Gun-Fu inspired Spine, celebrate Baldur’s Gate 3’s many award wins, question the value of PS Plus Essential in 2024, and more!
Heaps o' reviews!
We’ve got the verdicts on PlayStation’s biggest recent releases. That means diving into Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, perhaps the series’ most divisive entry to date, and feeling just as conflicted, it’s one jump-slide forwards and two back.
We also return to the streets in Like A Dragon Gaiden, explore Persona 5 Tactica’s translation of the turn-based RPG into SRPG form, stretch out our arms to reach for Jusant, and loads more including Journey To Foundation, World Of Horror, Little Goody Two Shoes, EA Sports WRC, RoboCop: Rogue City, Thirsty Suitors, and Ghostrunner 2.
A retro focus on... Dog's Life!?
RetroStation’s feature this month is all about a certain unforgettable classic: Dog's Life! We speak to Andrew Gillett about the creation of Frontier’s infamous doggie platformer, and how it came to be.
Plus, revisiting Bastion in the wake of Hades’ success, taxing our grey cells with Kurushi Final: Mental Blocks, and reminiscing about 2023’s Christmas head-to-head between Jak 2 and Ratchet & Clank 2.
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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.
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