SPINE's Cinematic CQC Gameplay Will Send Shivers Down Yours on PS5 | Push Square

South Park: Snow Day seems like it would be an ideal Christmas game. A third person cooperative adventure set in Trey Parker and Matt Stone's fictional Colorado town, it sees you battling through its icy streets, banding together with Cartman & co to save your home from an endless winter. That'd be ideal for whiling away the long winter evenings with three of my pals. But forget all that because it's coming out next March.

Free Range Game's hairy spelunking simulator comes hot on the heels of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, a low point of the year and a horrible adaptation of Tolkien's IP. While it isn't as abjectly awful as Daedalic's folly, The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is, sadly, also a disappointment.

The fierce battle for streaming rights rages on, and it looks like Disney+ has conquered when it comes to acquiring exclusivity on Hideo Kojima’s hotly anticipated documentary. Announced a little while ago – and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this summer – Hideo Kojima: Connecting Worlds is scheduled to release globally Spring 2024.

Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is essentially an enhanced re-release of the ill-fated Granblue Fantasy Versus — a really good fighting game that had its competitive scene smothered by the coronavirus pandemic, while shoddy netcode meant its online community was all but dead on arrival. Rising, then, feels like a deserved second chance for the 2D fighter, flaunting an overhauled combat system, loads of new features, and, perhaps most importantly, rollback netcode.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a game this writer has been waiting a long time for. In many ways, it is the Hogwarts Legacy for fans of big blue folk and vibrant alien worlds. But with that apt comparison and Ubisoft Massive at the helm, does it do enough to stand on its own two feet? Or is it nothing more than a pretty tour through Avatar’s greatest hits? While it certainly is pretty and it does its best to hit those Avatar beats, Frontiers of Pandora actually won us over with one of the most enchanting open-worlds available on PS5.

The Game Awards has come and gone again, with 2023's show proving somewhat contentious, depending on who you ask. Something that became increasingly apparent as the show progressed was the pressure winners appeared to be under to wrap things up. Even Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke, who managed to snag Game of the Year with Baldur's Gate 3, appeared to be whisked off the stage after around 30 seconds, surprisingly spry in a suit of armour.

God of War Ragnarok’s hotly anticipated free DLC expansion Valhalla, due out later today, will add more Trophies to the game – although they’ll be listed separately from the campaign, so you won’t need to worry about them if you haven’t earned the Platinum just yet. Writing on Twitter, game director Mihir Sheth confirmed the tidbit.

Ubisoft Original Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has crept up, releasing 18th January on PS5 and PS4, bringing the series to an entirely new generation after a 14-year hiatus. At The Game Awards, we were treated to a story snippet and a playable demo, and now we've got an expansive overview trailer to gush over.

God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla is the best kind of DLC — it makes an already fantastic game even better. Available for free to all who own God of War Ragnarok itself, this is an epilogue to the main story that gives you a very good excuse to dive back into the action. Not only does Valhalla contain some valuable narrative beats to enjoy, it does so while putting a roguelike spin on the brilliant combat, giving you effectively limitless challenges to conquer.

We're weren't totally convinced that Final Fantasy 16 needed story-based DLC, but now that we've played through Echoes of the Fallen — the first of two promised expansions — we're actually glad it's happening. If nothing else, this additional slice of adventure is a welcome reminder of how flashy and downright fun 16's combat can be.

There are so many roguelikes and roguelites now that it's getting harder and harder to stand out, and that's something Have a Nice Death doesn't quite overcome. By and large, this is a perfectly decent side-scrolling action game, but it doesn't reach the upper echelons of this competitive niche.

A new trailer has just emerged for Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown, and it's probably the game's best showing so far. The Hong Kong-set open world racer has been a long time coming, and it finally looks like it's ready for the road.