MICROPHONES

A good microphone can be the difference between a professional sounding triumph, or a crackly, tinny disaster

DOUBLE TROUBLE

Whatever happened to MULTI-GPU setups?

KENWAY AHEAD

Smooth sailing and pearly whites in ASSASSIN'S CREED IV BLACK FLAG

SUNDOWNER

Wipe out a cult with one bullet in CHILDREN OF THE SUN

HELL GOES GREEN

How The Nordschleife in ASSETO CORSA COMPETIZIONE was built.

DIGGING IN

We speak to Concerned Ape himself, Eric Barone, about the state of STARDEW VALLEY in 2024

SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME

AFTER A DIFFICULT YEAR, DESTINY 2: THE FINAL SHAPE HAS A LOT TO PROVE. BUT BUNGIE IS DETERMINED TO END THE SERIES' FIRST SAGA WITH A BANG

SHOOTING STAR

Kaz Adams, lead weapons artist on WARFRAME, is gunna explain how to design boomsticks

NO REST FOR THE WICKED

One of the smartest Soulslikes I've played in a long time

BORING PLATFORMER

In a good way! The superb drilling of PEPPER GRINDER is sublimely chaotic

COUNTER INTUITIVE

PICK & POKE your way through this gorgeous tabletop roguelite

The 400 Mini

MORE FUN, LESS HASSLE?

THE IMPACT OF 3rd STRIKE STREET FIGHTEr III

THEY SAY THIRD TIME'S A CHARM, ALTHOUGH STREET FIGHTER III DIDN'T IGNITE FIGHTING GAMES IN THE SAME WAY AS ITS PREDECESSOR UNTIL 3RD STRIKE. MEMBERS OF THE FIGHTING GAME COMMUNITY TELL US HOW THIS COMEBACK CEMENTED ITS PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF 2D FIGHTERS

PSP Go

While Sony was no stranger to tinkering with its hardware, the PSP got a lot of attention over the years – the PSP Go was the fourth major iteration of the hardware, and the most radical redesign.

THE MAKING OF CAPTAIN BLOOD

AS HE TRAVELS THE HYDRA GALAXY IN HIS SHIP THE ARK, CAPTAIN BLOOD MUST TRACK DOWN AND DISINTEGRATE HIS FIVE REMAINING CLONES. TO DO SO, HE’LL HAVE TO COMMUNICATE WITH SEVERAL ALIEN SPECIES USING THE UPCOM, A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE DEVICE. UNIVERSALITY IS THE KEY CONCEPT BEHIND THIS WIDELY ACCLAIMED FRENCH CLASSIC

Datasette

If you’re going to adopt a common storage method across a range of computers, it makes sense to make the hardware as widely compatible as possible – and that’s just what Commodore did with the Datasette, known by the model numbers 1530 and C2N.

THE MAKING OF STAR TREK 25TH ANNIVERSARY

SPACE MAY BE THE FINAL FRONTIER BUT STAR TREK ADVENTURE GAMES WERE PRETTY MUCH THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY IN THE EARLY NINETIES. AT LEAST UNTIL STAR TREK: 25TH ANNIVERSARY CAME ALONG A GAME THAT DARED TO GO WHERE NO STAR TREK GAME HAD GONE BEFORE

THE MAKING OF BURNOUT 3 TAKEDOWN™

THIS IS THE REMARKABLE STORY OF HOW CRITERION'S DISASTROUS DEAL WITH EA TO REMAKE A CLASSIC SKATEBOARDING GAME SOMEHOW LED TO THE BRITISH STUDIO CREATING ONE OF THE BEST RACERS OF ALL TIME

PLAYING CO-OP

This month's collector isn't going it alone

SUPER METROID AN ENDURING LEGACY

AS NINTENDO'S SCI-FI CLASSIC TURNS 30 WE REVISIT THE PLANET ZEBES AND SPEAK TO DEVELOPERS OF BOTH METROIDVANIAS AND ACTUAL METROID GAMES TO LEARN WHAT MAKES SAMUS ARAN'S 2D ADVENTURE SO SPECIAL

ARCADE WRATH OF THE MUTANTS

A NEW TURTLES BEAT-'EM-UP IS FINALLY HEADING HOME AFTER YEARS OF DELIGHTING ARCADE-GOERS WE TALK TO EUGENE JARVIS AND MARC-ANDRÉ JUTRAS TO LEARN HOW THIS THROWBACK BRAWLER CAME TO BE, AND HOW IT'S BEEN EXPANDED FOR CONSOLES

Shaping your worlds

Jess Kinghorn chats with world-building masters from Larian Studios, Techland, HoYoverse, Billy Goat Entertainment, and CD Projekt Red about what goes into crafting your favourite places on PlayStation

MultiVersus

Welcome to the slam

System Shock

Nightdive Studios' swanky, ground-up remake of 1994's genre-launching classic System Shock is finally heading to PlayStation which should make you very excited if you have any interest in crawling through vents or bonking cyborg mutants on the head with blunt objects.

Tracking Monster Hunter's future

Ahead of Monster Hunter Wilds next year, two story-focused spinoffs come to PlayStation

Freedom Planet 2

Not so much beating Sonic at his own game’ as evolving it

GENERATION OPEN

From ambitious RPGs to sweeping adventures, Jeremy Peel unpacks the history of the open world from PS1 to PS5

Dragon's Dogma 2

Our heart has been stolen

Synduality: Echo Of Ada

Nonsensical name, enjoyable game

Planet Zoo: Console Edition

Radio the keepers, its about to get wild