A journey this long requires a bit more gas in the tank

“When we were making it, one of the

Colophon

EDITORIAL Tony Mott editorial director Jon Bailes deputy editor

WARHAMMER 40,000: DAWN OF WAR IV

A smash-happy RTS with multiple threaded campaigns

ETERNAL ANIMA

Cleaning up a difficult timeline

MEGA MAN: DUAL OVERRIDE

A robot’s work is never done

WO LONG 2: WINGS OF EMBER

Developer/publisher Koei Tecmo (Team Ninja) Format PC, PS5,

MACHINARIUM 2

Developer/publisher Amanita Design Format PC Origin Czechia Release

THE ESCAPISTS 3

Developer/publisher Team17 Format PC, consoles TBA Origin UK

BLACK TIDES: DRAGA’S WAKE

Developer/publisher Strange Creature Factory Format PC, PS5, Xbox

DUNGEON AUTOMATA

Developer Medium Rare Games Publisher Raw Fury Format

Infinite undiscovery

With so many new games arriving constantly, is discoverability an unsolvable challenge?

Prompting investigation

Is artificial intelligence the game industry’s biggest contributor to the climate crisis?

Profile Sawaki Takeyasu

The designer behind El Shaddai has been courted by a fan once more, but this time the admiration is mutual

LOST IN MUSIC

The enduring power of vinyl finds colourful expression in this beat-matching store sim

THIS MONTH ON EDGE

Some of the other things on our minds when we weren’t doing everything else continue quit

DISPATCHES CHRISTMAS

Issue 429 Dialogue Send your views, using ‘Dialogue’ as

Trigger Happy

Shoot first, ask questions later

The Outer Limits

Journeys to the farthest reaches of interactive entertainment

Life in the past

Looking forwards at new games often means looking backwards

RAYMAN LEGENDS RETOLD

A legend worth telling twice?

HELLO SUNSHINE

Staying cool in the shadow of the colossus

GUNDAM: ROGUE ORBIT

Bringing out the big guns

THE STATE THAT NEVER SLEEPS

How Rockstar has rewritten the rules with an escapade across Leonida in Grand Theft Auto VI

Q + A : PHIL HOOKER HEAD OF DEVELOPMENT

How do you run testing on a project of

WARREN SPECTOR

As he calls time on his career, the imm-sim pioneer reflects on 44 years of game creation

THE MEANING OF DEATH

Dying is an inevitable part of games. When it happens so often, though, how can developers make it have an impact?

PROJECT ZOMBOID

How a brave new world for independent games led to a brutal, ceaseless apocalypse

BULKHEAD

Becoming ‘the next big shooter studio’, no matter what it takes

Louder than words

Among this month’s bountiful crop of high-quality releases,

THE LONG GAME

A progress report on the games we just can’t quit

Gears Of War: E-Day

W hile it’s the longest and largest-scale Gears

Order Of The Sinking Star

T he secret to a great puzzle game?

Penguin Colony

The title is in itself an act of

Silver Pines

The most succinct summary we can offer of

Ace Combat 8: Wings Of Theve

F inding ways to enhance the experience of

Final Fantasy Resonance

Y ou’ll occasionally be moseying through a dungeon

Star Wars: Galactic Racer

W inning isn’t everything. Certainly not when you’re

Valor Mortis

T he origin of the firstperson Soulslike is

Minecraft Dungeons II

W hat’s the most important moment in a

End Of Abyss

P erhaps sometimes you need to choose a

Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival

W ithin the first hour of Hellraiser: Revival

Deathloop

Once more through the cycle of the immersive sim that broke loose from expectations of the genre