MULTIFORMAT+PC

ALIEN: ISOLATION 2

Developer/publisher Sega (Creative Assembly) Format PC, PS5, Switch 2, Xbox Series Release TBA

Having come to the horrifying realisation that we’ve fled this specific alien before, we have to wonder: will it remember any human tricks and tactics for this latest encounter?

The surface of the planet where we begin our demo of Alien: Isolation 2 is a far cry from the claustrophobic corridors of the first game’s Sevastopol Station. We ought to be grateful for the abundant space. Squeezing ourselves into all those lockers made us feel like canned alien food, just waiting to be discovered and devoured. But now that we’re finally outside, the total lack of cover – there are no desks to hide under, no sturdy bulkhead doors to seal behind us – leaves us feeling more vulnerable than ever before. “We want the player to experience a sense of exposure,” creative director Al Hope tells us. “A fear of open spaces.”

With the weather getting worse, and increasingly ominous updates starting to come over the radio from our Xeno-fodder companions (“We’ve found something…”), we breathe a sigh of relief when we finally discover the charred wreckage of a spaceship’s lab module, offering sanctuary of sorts. But after we’ve pried open the emergency exit and shimmied down the ladder, a realisation hits us: we’ve been here before. This is the very same lab module we once jettisoned from Sevastopol itself – the one that we trapped the alien inside. There’s a hissing sound nearby. The clomp of jagged, taloned feet. Maybe the surface wasn’t so bad after all.

But suddenly, a saving grace. Back on Sevastopol Station, it often felt as though there was only one possible route into a level and one route out. Here, however, we can choose to escape either by repairing a broken door or by turning a creaky valve to open the sprinklers and extinguish some corridor-blocking flames – rather than just waiting for the alien to give up and jump back into a ceiling vent, it feels like our instincts and intuition will play a greater role in our survival. “If you take the risk, the payoff is a potentially easier or shorter route to safety,” Hope points out.

We decide to pick the door, and by also making judicious use of the shoulder-button peek system, with dry mouth and elevated pulse we get safely back to the ladder. We’ll brave the weather, thank you. It feels like we’ve been through a lot in the past 25 minutes; mindful that the original game was criticised for its protracted length, Hope says that Creative Assembly is trying to make Alien: Isolation 2 more focused and impactful. “I can’t put a figure on [Alien: Isolation 2’s run time] because we just don’t know at this stage,” he concludes. “But we’ve been analysing over a decade of feedback and that is definitely a part of it. Our aim is to make a weighty experience.”

STUNTMAN: HOLLYWOOD

Developer/publisher Saber Interactive Format PC, PS5, Xbox Series Release TBA

C onsidering it’s been almost 20 years since we last heard from Stuntman, you might expect the series’ return to have been carefully strategised and reverse-engineered, as if Saber Interactive had been waiting for just the right moment in the market to revive this unorthodox driving game. But the studio’s chief creative officer, Tim Willits, makes it sound as though Stuntman: Hollywood simply happened. “We had a team who had some experience with driving games before and they were basically like, ‘Stuntman would be cool’,” he tells us. “We went to

Universal – ‘It would be cool if we could get some real movies in here’ – and they were like, ‘That’s great!’ The franchise teams worked with us. We came up with ideas. All the ingredients just fell into place.”

Sitting down with Stuntman: Hollywood at SGF, this enthusiastic energy is reflected in how it handles and feels. Between MudRunner, RoadCraft and even the relatively cartoonish Toxic Commando, Saber has built a reputation for slower-paced, physics-based driving simulators. Stuntman: Hollywood is not like that. Every car is fast, responsive and ready to leap into a handbrake doughnut or reverse 180, and as well as nailing the key cinematic beats in order to pass each scene, you earn higher points for greater acts of daring. You could weave between the two trucks as they pass one another at the intersection, but if you twitch the steering wheel right at the last minute and get as close to them as possible – make it really look like they’re about to carve your car in two – the director will be much happier.

“The franchise teams worked with us. We came up with ideas. All the ingredients just fell into place”

And if you botch it, you can restart almost instantly. The result is a self-motivating hybrid of Roguelike, driving and rhythm game; you’re continually pushing yourself to hit every note and perfect the run. The fact it’s built on Unreal Engine 5 rather than the proprietary tech that Saber normally uses is further testament to how different Stuntman: Hollywood is to the studio’s previous four-wheeled output.

As for the licensed films and TV shows, they serve as inspirations rather than direct subject matter – there certainly aren’t this many ramps, cop cars and vans full of terrorists to swerve around in the real Back To The Future. Then again, we still have to drift and twist the DeLorean to keep it in line with two rows of orange fire, and create the iconic effect of hitting 88 miles per hour. The Fast And The Furious, Knight Rider, Miami Vice and Mad Max are already confirmed for the final game, and more tie-ins are still to be revealed. “We’re always very opportunistic,” Willits says, name-dropping other in-development Saber projects such as Jurassic Park: Survival and Hellraiser: Revival. “We follow the opportunity.”

RESIDENT EVIL VERONICA

Developer/publisher Capcom Format PC, PS5, Switch 2, Xbox Series Release 2027

The tension builds slowly in the trailer for Capcom’s remake of Resident Evil – Code: Veronica. A young American woman arrives at an apartment block in snowy Paris and must ring the buzzer twice before a nice old lady opens the door and beckons her in. She’s led upstairs and across the landing to the interior of her brother’s messy flat, where there is time to sift through the items on a coffee table and wonder where he has got to before there’s a knock at the door. Even then, there’s still time to lift the cover of the peephole and take in what looks to be an empty corridor before the jump scare is finally delivered.

In this, and the parade of spooky locations that follow in montage, what’s clear is that a 26-year-old game is being treated with real attention to detail. Alongside all the graphical updates, Capcom is working on the game’s narrative to better fit it into the growing timeline of Resident Evil games. And while the reveal trailer opts for a firstperson perspective, seen through Claire Redfield’s eyes, the publisher has taken pains to clarify that the game itself will unfold in thirdperson. A debut of this stature, and a retooling as luxurious as this, shows a desire to bring these older games in line with the newest horrors.

SCREENBOUND

Developer Crescent Moon Games, Radical Forge Publisher Digital Pajamas, Crescent Moon Games Format PC, PS5, Xbox Series Release 2026

Even with its technical achievements long outstripped, Nintendo’s handheld Game Boy remains, to a certain generation of players, a kind of magical artefact. Screenbound just confirms what we always knew: the games you play on its in-universe Qboy portable console transport you into their worlds. There, the two-and three-dimensional versions of your surroundings exist simultaneously, and you must mentally balance both to navigate, like a mashup of The Plucky Squire and Viewfinder. Excitingly, it turns out that the Mario-ish platformer levels we’ve seen so far are only the contents of the first cartridge, and ‘World 2’ looks a lot like Hyrule. Any chance of Tetris next?

SPYRO: A REALM BEYOND

Developer Toys For Bob Publisher Activision Format PC, PS5, Switch 2, Xbox Series Release Spring

An unexpected side effect of Astro Bot’s success: the return of the mascot platformer? The little purple dragon was always in our lower tier of leapers (why jump when you can fly?) but this revival seems to have taken that to heart. The tiny sliver of in-game action shown has Spyro hurtling through the sky, shooting off fireballs in a way more reminiscent of Panzer Dragoon than Mario. Besides, it’s heartening to see signs of life from Toys For Bob. After spending years in Call Of Duty support-team limbo, the studio split from Activision in the midst of 2024’s layoffs and is now independent (albeit with its former parent company as publisher). Reason enough to hope this is a soaring success.

MINECRAFT DUNGEONS II

Developer Mojang Studios, Double Eleven Publisher Xbox Game Studios Format PC, PS5, Switch, Switch 2, Xbox Series Release September 29

Mobs have become infected by souls in the new instalment of Minecraft Dungeons. This means that small, ineffective enemies are now big and deadly, while enemies that were powerful are now monstrous. Elsewhere, Minecraft Dungeons II promises refinement to the original’s blocky take on Diablo-style combat. There’s both couch and online co-op, supported by crossplay, while the game world is now a single connected space. A new UI arrives along with new weapons, armour and artefacts, and a jump ability that allows for leaping attacks. It’s thoughtful, incremental stuff, and it suggests that, under Microsoft’s often-questionable stewardship, at least Minecraft continues to age gracefully.

ONIMUSHA: WAY OF THE SWORD

Developer/publisher Capcom Format PC, PS5, Switch 2, Xbox Series Release September 25

We’re all in favour of learning curves and the joy that comes from gradual mastery, but based on the 30-plus minutes we see at a private session at SGF, Onimusha’s systems could be a little too busy. Between the multiple gauges that you fill by attacking and blocking, the super-powered Oni armaments that you swap between mid-fight, the stamina bars, the parry and dodging systems, the locked-sword quick-time events, and the many other context-sensitive moments and inputs, there is a sense here of mechanics being piled on top of mechanics. Then again, towards the end of our demo, it does start to cohere, not least when we drain the stamina of multiple foes, setting up a sequence of clinical finishing blows.

VALHEIM

Developer Iron Gate Studio Publisher Coffee Stain Publishing Format PC, PS5, Switch 2, Xbox One, Xbox Series Release September 9

Valheim’s been a fixture of the survival genre since its release in 2021. The tiny team that makes this knockabout Viking sandbox has added a range of new biomes and features as the game’s edged closer to a full release. We now have a date for that 1.0 form – as soon as September this year. The Deep North update will add new weapons and enemies, as well as a wintry environment that features frozen lakes and deep snow. The reveal trailer is a welcome reminder of how much beauty the team has been able to conjure from its world, with cold light shining through mists and dark forests. As it hits 1.0, Valheim will also be released for the first time on PS5 and Switch 2, with crossplay available on all formats.

CROSSFIRE

Developer That’s No Moon Publisher Team K1 Format PC, PS5, Xbox Series Release 2027

Hang on, this one might sound familiar: Crossfire is an attempt to bring the free-to-play multiplayer shooter series, which is enormously successful in South Korea and China, to the west. That was also the story of 2022’s CrossfireX, awarded 3 in our review and shut down the following year due to lack of interest. Any new effort, then, feels like attempting a hill start with a dodgy clutch.

Yet this Crossfire has undeniable credentials: That’s No Moon was founded by veterans of Sony’s Santa Monica Studio, and the project shares some key talent with Uncharted 2, The Last Of Us and 2019’s Call Of Duty:

Modern Warfare. A cynic might point out that this series once dragged down Remedy Entertainment, maker of the previous game’s singleplayer component, but this studio is keen to emphasise the creative freedom it’s been given.