Tales of Kenzera: ZAU Review (PS5) | Push Square

Stellar Blade was the best-selling physical game in the UK last week, with its launch sales on PS5 being enough to see it top sales charts in the region. Sony and Shift Up haven't shared any official sales data just yet, but this marks a good start for the title, which holds the potential to sell well long-term. TopSpin 2K25 was another new entry in the UK sales chart last week, debuting in third place.

Today marks a momentous occasion for Sea of Thieves: it expands to all-new platforms with a PS5 release, Season 12 content expands the game for all players (Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC), and developer Rare makes its debut on a PlayStation console. Early access players have been testing the PS5 version for the past five days now, but in just a short amount of time, the standard edition releases and opens the floodgates for all.

Microsoft has announced that it'll be hosting its 'Xbox Games Showcase 2024' on the 9th June, which, under previous circumstances, wouldn't necessarily be a huge deal for us here on the PlayStation side of the fence. However, with Microsoft's now obvious push towards more and more multiplatform titles, it's all but guaranteed that we'll see some games that will inevitably end up on PlayStation platforms.

Following yesterday's launch of Sea of Thieves on PS5, Microsoft has now delivered on its initial multi-platform promise to bring some of its exclusive Xbox experiences to new consoles. Having made the surprise announcement in February, the firm has brought Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush, Grounded, and the aforementioned seafaring adventure to PS5, PS4 boxes as well as Nintendo Switch. During the presentation that revealed Microsoft's multi-platform plans, Phil Spencer and his team refused to discuss any efforts beyond those four titles. Is that it, then? Will Microsoft now return to releasing first-party titles exclusively for Xbox Series X|S and PC? Those questions can't be answered definitively yet, but probably not.

The next playable character joining the fun in Capcom's Street Fighter 6 is a proper series staple. The powerful antagonist, Akuma, is next in line, and he'll be swinging his fists when he arrives on 22nd May, 2024.

It seems that the cat is indeed out of the bag, as we now have a release date and some additional gameplay for the slightly disturbing Gori: Cuddly Carnage. Prepare to skate 'n' slash your way through a freakish feline world from 29th August on PS5 and PS4.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has been updated to support a new graphical mode running at 40 frames-per-second while boasting higher resolutions. Available to download now on PS5 as part of patch 3.2, the mode can be used on 4K TVs that support up to 120Hz. Prior to this, Avatar PS5 only had Quality and Performance Modes, but this new option looks to feature the best of both worlds after the 2.4GB download.

Another Crab's Treasure might not look like a soulslike action RPG, but it is one. Take out the dark, oppressive nature of FromSoftware's output and replace it with SpongeBob, and you're more or less there. Purposely juxtaposing the established tropes of the genre, this title offers a fresh, more lighthearted experience without sacrificing the level of challenge you'd expect.

It seems we aren't the only ones counting down the hours until the release of the PS5 exclusive Stellar Blade. Developer Shift Up has posted an impossibly drawn-out clip of the «secrets» contained within the game's PS5 physical box, which, as far as we can tell, amounts to a reversible cover/dust jacket and a download code for some cosmetic goodies.

We are in the midst of a Metroidvania renaissance. Metroid: Dread, Ori, Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, and more have kept fans of the genre fully satiated in recent years. 2024 has already seen the launch of one of the genre’s best in Price of Persia: The Lost Crown.

is a new game that explores the depths of grief, a topic often avoided in and outside of games. Published by EA Originals, Electronic Arts’ indie-focused label, is a project born out of Surgent Studios’ Abubakar Salim’s own journey through grief. The metroidvania was announced at The Game Awards 2023 by Salim himself, who shared a portion of his story and how the game came into being. is an homage to Salim’s late father, Ali Abubakar, who died over 10 years ago from cancer.

Loss is inevitable, and yet, knowing that makes it no less difficult. Grief is all but guaranteed to touch your life — to touch my life. And, most certainly, it already has. That assuredness — that we’ll all be touched by death — is part of the reason so much art is dedicated to interrogating those feelings. For so long, video games have been one medium that, for all its death, dying, and multiple lives, had not quite unpacked the emotion of grief. There was little reason to: When you die in a video game, you always come back to life. The danger of death amounts to nothing but a few hearts on a screen, a number. Oftentimes, it’s encouraged. The more kills you get, the better. Death is not something to mourn there, but a celebration. But this isn’t a universal truth across all games. More and more video games are exploring what it means to lose — no longer just a level, but the more tangible, life-altering loss. It’s games like Spiritfarer, a “cozy management game about dying,” which is about life after death; What Remains of Edith Finch, about the stories that are left behind; or A Mortician’s Tale, which has you going hands-on with death. You’ll find grief in games, too, that are not explicitly about loss; like I said, it’s inevitable.