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GAMING FEATURE

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WHAT’S COMING IN JANUARY?

ONE PIECE ODYSSEY Captain Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirates return, in a very special outing to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the One Piece story. The collision of classic JRPG with the wild anime universe has been overseen by original author Eiichiro Oda, who’s contributed new characters and monster designs, as well as advising on the main plot. It sees trusty vessel the Thousand Sunny in tatters, the crew members scattered far and wide and, possibly the greatest calamity, Luffy has lost his straw hat!

FIRE EMBLEM ENGAGE All the grand adventure of the Fire Emblem series continues as you aim to save the continent of Elyos. A vicious war broke out between people of Elyos and the Fell Dragon a thousand years ago, causing the people of Elyos to call upon Emblems to help them imprison their adversary. However, signs are pointing to the Fell Dragon being resurrected. Step into the shoes of Alear, the Divine Dragon, and fight alongside your allies in tactical RPG battles to prevent the resurrection and save Elyos.

MULTIPLAYER?

MULTIPLAYER?

RPG

13/1/23

TACTICAL RPG

20/1/23

FORSPOKEN Set to be an absolute PlayStation 5 spectacular, this new Square Enix narrative-driven adventure tells the tale of young Frey Holland, who finds herself spirited away from NewYork City to the magical land of Athia. Here she discovers new supernatural powers, which she must master as she sets off to find a way home. Naturally that involves quite some challenge, as Frey is reluctantly recruited to help save the surviving Athia citizens from a devastating corrupting blight known as The Break.

DEAD SPACE It’s a legend in sci-fi survival horror games, and it’s making its return for a whole new console generation. Yes, Dead Space is back, and stepping into the shoes of engineer Isaac Clarke again promises to be creepier and more claustrophobic than ever! The game has been completely rebuilt, harnessing the advantages of the latest technology, and taking the opportunity to offer a deeper and more immersive experience. Just when you thought space was safer, it’s time to face the Necromorphs again!

MULTIPLAYER?

MULTIPLAYER?

ACTION RPG

24/1/23

SURVIVAL HORROR

27/1/23

1 What’s the first game that you remember playing? The first game in my memory is Sopwith , a side-scrolling game on an old IBM 8088 PC where you flew a biplane and dropped bombs while dodging enemy fire. 2 What was the last game that you finished? I don’t finish many games. I suppose the closest I’ve come to recently is Inscryption , a roguelike deck builder that absolutely captivated me last Christmas. 3 What’s your favourite video game/series of all time? X-COM: UFO Defense remains my favourite game, but the Ultima series of video games is far and away my favourite series. Ultima was the first game I ever played where the world felt alive, just beyond the screen, no matter how crude the graphics appear to be by today’s standards. 4 What do you think is the most underrated game of all time? I think recently we’ve started to do better as an industry in recognising our past classics, but I guess I’d say ToeJam & Earl on SEGA Mega Drive. Is that underrated? Is it even good? Honestly, I don’t know, I just have really fond memories of playing it for hours with my brother! 5 What’s the game that you most wish you’d worked on? Minecraft ? Vice City ? Stardew Valley ? Skyrim ? I mean, I doubt I would have helped those games become any more iconic than they are now – they certainly didn’t need me - but I would have loved to be there to see historically incredible games like that take shape.

Creative director on Marvel’s Midnight Suns at Firaxis Games. JAKE SOLOMON

20 DECEMBER 2022

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