What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 507 | Push Square

Our Game of the Year coverage continues with the Best PS5, PS4 Developer of 2023, of which a top four has been put together by the Push Square editorial team. Here we'll crown the best studio of the year and recognise teams that have gone above and beyond for their titles, from releasing lots of games within the 12-month period to those supporting them after launch.

Developer Jukai Studio, the team behind the poorly received horror title Stray Souls, has announced its closure several months after releasing the game on PS5 and PS4. In a statement, the developer cites the surprise closure of publisher Versus Evil as a contributing factor, in addition to relentless cyber attacks, bullying, and disappointing sales.

CD Projekt Red has seemingly weathered a storm of its creation, the chaotic launch of Cyberpunk 2077, which was ultimately redeemed through years of additional work culminating with the release of Phantom Liberty. With another Witcher game in development and a trio of other projects in the offing, it's an exciting time for the Polish company. It should come as no surprise to learn that the studio has no desire to be acquired by the likes of Sony or Microsoft.

CD Projekt Red has provided a quick update on the commercial success of Phantom Liberty — the big Cyberpunk 2077 expansion that released back in September of last year. The DLC launched alongside the game's 2.0 Update, which once again propelled the open world RPG back into the spotlight.

After a year of back-to-back releases of massive video games in 2023 for both consoles and PC, it doesn't look like game developers are slowing down any in 2024. The already-announced releases that are planned for the coming months have so many incredible-looking games that it is easy to forget about some, even ones that sound pretty impressive in their own right. As the launches of each of these titles draw closer, they will likely pick up a bit more hype, but even now it is fun to look at what is on the horizon and relish the anticipation of what games look appealing.

No plans for New Year's Eve? Fret not, the Baldur's Gate 3 fanbase is coming to the rescue. Instead of going out to the pub, boot up a save and blow up Gale.

Just finished Tokyo Xanadu eX+ on PS4 after 63 hours of playtime. I started playing this game back in September and I managed to finish the base game before new releases in October grabbed my attention instead. Then I had the epilogue and the new story content in the PS4 version left to play, which I just finished.

It’s been an action-packed year, hasn’t it? From the Activision Blizzard courtroom drama through to the absolutely stacked release calendar from start-to-finish, this is our first real opportunity to reflect on 2023. Merry Christmas, by the way, we sincerely hope you and your entire family have a fun one. You’ll find us lingering near to the Selection Box.

As most of our readers certainly know, Polish developer Techland released Dying Light 2: Stay Human in early 2022. The long awaited sequel was quite successful right away, and the developer promised to enhance it with a ton of new content and features for at least five years after launch, just like they did with the original game.

If you're considering taking a trip to Japan in the coming months and have strong and unresolved feelings about the fate of characters from across Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's Yakuza / Like a Dragon franchises, then boy, do we have the cultural event for Kir-you. Beware of SPOILERS below.

Revealed during last week's Geoffening, Exodus is the first game from Archetype Entertainment, a new studio that includes former members of BioWare and Naughty Dog. It's a sci-fi odyssey with third-person shooting that looks and sounds a lot like Mass Effect, but it has one differentiating Big Idea (aside from Matthew McConaughey): time dilation, whereby time passes different in different places, depending on relative velocity and local gravity.

The fast paced and highly destructive free to play multiplayer shooter The Finals, has been released on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. The launch trailer captures how fast paced the game appears to be with a lot of destruction in the environment, with people crashing through windows, walls, and ceilings. Season 1 brings with it the map of Las Vegas, and you can see the full patch notes below.