Looking for a New Metroidvania? Tales of Kenzera: ZAU Seems Fine on PS5 | Push Square

By trying to do so much, Rise of the Ronin feels like an inferior version of everything it's inspired by. With an open world populated by map markers and side activities, it’s a worse Assassin's Creed. With a historical Japanese setting, it's a worse Ghost of Tsushima. With a combat system that prioritises parrying, it's a worse Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. At no point is it a bad experience, but the game's so run of the mill, so formulaic that attempting something new and ultimately failing would have been a more tantalising sell. You've already played better versions of Rise of the Ronin — what it's attempting is just fine, which is probably the most boring outcome possible.

Slave Zero X serves as prequel to the cult hit Dreamcast game Slave Zero, but while their stories and universe are connected, they couldn't be more different. Set five years before the third-person shooter original, this new title is a 2.5D beat-'em-up, in which you don a biomechanical super suit as the vengeful warrior Shou is out to kill the city's corrupt leader.

We're not quite ready to deliver our final verdict on Dragon's Dogma 2 right now. Because of circumstances outside of our control, we still need to finish the main quest, and then check out how the game handles New Game+ — which was a staple component of the original Dragon's Dogma.

Since the breakout success of Genshin Impact a few years ago, Sony has slowly been encouraging developers to bring their hit gacha games to PS5, which has resulted in the amusing moniker GachaStation 5. But with Zenless Zone Zero and Wuthering Waves right around the corner, the platform holder may have discovered another gem, likely to explode in Asian territories.

MLB The Show 24 may not be the best-looking sports game on the market anymore, but San Diego Studio continues to lead the field by pushing the boundaries of the genre overall. This year’s release may feel largely familiar when you’re at the plate, but the expansion of narrative-based experiences in the Storylines section demonstrates how the first-party developer is evolving elsewhere.

On paper, Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator seems like a great time. Leisurely picking up fares in one of Europe’s most beautiful cities, Barcelona. Exploring and finding points of cultural interest, forming and customising your own taxi company — it all sounds like a relaxing experience, right? Wrong.

Empire of the Ants, for those who don’t know, is an old-school real-time strategy game which first launched in 2000 for PC. In this PS5 reboot, publisher Microids is partnering with developer Tower Five to create what might be one of the most photorealistic PS5 titles to date. Seriously, this is pushing Unreal Engine 5 to its absolute limits.

We’re getting some really fascinating, unique indie games on PS5 at the moment – and Until Then looks like one that’s well worth keeping an eye on when it drops on 23rd May. The narrative adventure is all about high school life in the Philippines, as protagonist “Mark Borja and his friends navigate the joys and woes of another year of high school”.

How about this for a reveal trailer, then? Plaion has announced Nobody Wants to Die by Critical Hit Games, an upcoming futuristic detective escapade set in a dystopian New York. The action takes place in 2329, where you’ll assume the role of agent James Karra, who’s hunting a serial killer targeting the city’s elite.

Remakes, reboots, revivals. Whether it's a lack of fresh ideas, exploiting nostalgia, or an earnest desire to introduce a new generation to past glories, the entertainment industry loves bringing old things back. And we love old things coming back, too, as long as it isn't Nanna after she's escaped from the home again.

It feels like the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake has been frozen in carbonite forever. And yet, somehow, the unfortunate project is still quite a while away from being ready for launch. Announced in 2021 with Aspyr at the helm, the project has been in Saber Interactive's hands since at least August 2022, with that company recently managing to escape the imploding Embracer Group's clutches in a deal reportedly worth $500 million.

It's weird that Konami has taken this long to ship Contra: Operation Galuga, which is the classic Contra game fans have been asking for. After the damp turd that was 2019's Contra: Rogue Corps, the publisher handed the reins back to WayForward, the team behind 2008's Contra 4. Turns out that's all that was needed to get a great Contra game, since this latest effort nails what made the original run-'n'-gun experience so infectious in the first place.