Top Story
The big PlayStation 5 reveal is here
Sony finally revealed PlayStation 5 in earnest yesterday, alongside a bunch of games including some tantalizing exclusives.
First-party PS5 titles
- Horizon Forbidden West — Announcement Trailer
- Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales — Announcement Trailer
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart — Announcement Trailer
- Sackboy A Big Adventure — Announcement Trailer
- Gran Turismo 7 — Announcement Trailer
- Returnal — Announcement Trailer
- Destruction AllStars — Announcement Trailer
Third-party PS5 titles
- Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online — Announcement Trailer
- Project Athia — Teaser Trailer
- Stray — Teaser Trailer
- Goodbye Volcano High — Reveal Trailer
- Oddworld Soulstorm — Announcement Trailer
- Kena: Bridge of Spirits — Announcement Trailer
- GhostWire: Tokyo — Gameplay Reveal Trailer
- JETT: The Far Shore — Reveal Trailer
- Godfall — Gameplay Reveal Trailer
- NBA 2K21 — Announcement Trailer
- Solar Ash — Introduction Trailer
- Demon’s Souls — Announcement Trailer
- Resident Evil Village — Announcement Trailer
- Deathloop — Official Gameplay Reveal Trailer
- Little Devil Inside — Showcase Trailer
- Bugsnax — Announcement Trailer
- Astro’s Playroom — Announcement Trailer
- Hitman III — Announcement Trailer
- Pragmata — Announcement Trailer
- My Hero One’s Justice 2 — Hawks Release Trailer
- Chivalry 2 — Cross Play Announcement Trailer
- Mortal Shell — Gameplay Trailer
Remedy has also confirmed a PlayStation 5 version of Control. Oh, and in case you wonder whether the PlayStation 5 has a horizontal orientation: Yes it does.
Time For A Quick Daily Quiz?
Which Resident Evil movie brought Nemesis to the big screen?
- Resident Evil
- Resident Evil: Apocalypse
- Resident Evil: Extinction
- Resident Evil: Afterlife
The answer will be revealed at the bottom of today’s issue. Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss what the answer could be.
Daily Fact
Nice mask, would be a shame if someone filed a lawsuit over it
The North American port of Namco’s 1989 arcade classic Splatterhouse went through quite a few asset revisions on its way to other platforms. One of the biggest changes was the color of Rick’s mask from white to red. Why? Well, he looked a lot like that Jason Voorhees fella.
All religious symbols were also removed, so the game’s church ended up looking more like a long corridor – although they kept the distinctly liturgical-sounding music. Sound effects were made less disturbing, gore was made less gross, bosses were changed. Not even the ending survived, despite not featuring any obviously disagreeable content.
Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss today’s fact.
Desperados III Review
The real-time tactical revival has begun
Developer: Mimimi Games
Version tested: PC
The Desperados series isn’t the most obvious candidate for a surprise revival, but Desperados III just launched – 13 years after the previous game in the series. And it’s a great comeback to, a great introduction to both the series and the genre.
It’s a prequel, following John Cooper’s quest for revenge against an aging gunman and the slave-trading Dewitt company. It’s a classic Western story told confidently, and if you have a soft spot for pulpy cowboy fiction then you’ll have fun with Desperados III.
Like stablemates Commandos and Shadow Tactics, Desperados III is a real-time tactics game where you need to finish complicated missions with a small team of specialists. Stealth is the name of the game, and although it’s not instantly game over if you get spotted, being spotted typically has disastrous consequences. It’s a slow-paced game with a strong tendency towards execution-heavy puzzle-solving, with a surprisingly broad scope for improvisation.
Your party is typically between one and five members strong, and each character has their unique abilities that can be combined in novel ways to reach your goals. There’s also a Showdown mode that allows you to use every character from the game at once, which enables practically limitless possibilities. There’s really nothing else like it.
There is definitely an element of trial and error, and you are expected to quicksave and quickload frequently. Levels take quite a while to complete, typically over half an hour, and the freedom of choice can be a bit overwhelming for newcomers to the genre. Novice players will typically go for slow and safe approaches, while veterans who know the systems can move more confidently and execute spectacular maneuvers.
Desperados III is not an instantly gratifying game, and requires you to invest in learning both the systems and the clockwork levels. It rewards you for taking your time and observing your environments and wants you to take your time and think carefully about your choices.
If you enjoyed Mimimi’s Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, then you’ll love what they have done with Desperados III. It’s gripping, intricate and hugely replayable, a game that truly rewards you for investing in it and taking it as seriously as it deserves.
Thumbs Up
- Satisfying strategy
- Varied Level Design
- Full of Western charm
Thumbs Down
- Levels can drag on at times
8/10
Gods & Monsters Leaked
Google leaks Gods & Monsters build
An early playable build of Ubisoft’s Gods & Monsters leaked onto Google’s streaming platform Stadia.
The game was available for about half an hour under its codename Orpheus, and some who played it say it resembles The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Ubisoft’s own Assassin’s Creed. Some brief snippets of gameplay have emerged, showing off elements like climbing, exploration and dialogue.
Year-old build: The build is from E3 last year, and there are lots of placeholders and stand-ins from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, including UI and environment art.“Much has changed since then in terms of features, tone, art and character design, and even the name of the game,” said Ubisoft. The game will be revealed properly later this summer.
Apologetic Google: “Regretfully, on Thursday morning, we mistakenly made an E3 2019 demo version of Gods & Monsters from Ubisoft available on the Stadia store that was not intended for the public to play,” said Stadia. “A few hundred gamers were able to play it for less than 30 minutes.”