January 2024

Rise of the Ronin appeared at the 2024 Sony State of Play, with a new gameplay trailer showing off new weapon types and gameplay. The game was previously confirmed as releasing on March 22, 2024.

Rise of the Ronin is set during the Bakumatsu period of Japanese history when American gunboats forced a crisis that would result in the fall of the Shogunate and the return of political power to the Imperial family.

We also saw characters wearing the blue and white colors of the Shinsengumi, a political group active at the time. The trailer featured grappling hook and glider gameplay and stance-based combat with swords, spears, and guns. Later, a flamethrower, a saber, and a rifle with a bayonet were also shown.

You can watch the trailer for Rise of the Ronin below:

A new Silent Hill game, The Short Message, was revealed at the January 2024 State of Play showcase. As well as its announcement, the game was released immediately as a free download for PS5.

Silent Hill: The Short Message stars a girl named Anita entering a crumbling apartment building, following messages from her friend Maya. She is searching for something, although what she's looking for is unclear.

The trailer shows the game as a first-person horror game, where a monster stalks Anita through dark hallways. Themes related to bullying and suicide appear to be prevalent, including graffiti and notes covering the walls.

The full trailer can be seen below:

At the end of the January 2024 State of Play, Sony announced a February 6, 2024 FFVII Rebirth State of Play showcase. That presentation will focus entirely on the RPG ahead of its debut later in the month.

Very few details came up regarding what this additional presentation could discuss. Additional gameplay footage will appear. There will also supposedly be detail and “exciting news.” This could be a reference to some sort of demo that will be released ahead of the game’s debut. As a reminder, Square Enix did release a Final Fantasy VII Remake demo back in March 2020 for the PS4. That showed up just ahead of its release.

The last bit of footage shared about the game was a brief clip on FFVII Day. It showed footage of Cloud playing the piano in FFVII Rebirth’s new free-play minigame and element. In it, it showed how someone could use the feature to play original songs, as the video has him playing “Happy Birthday.”

Konami revealed a new gameplay trailer for the Silent Hill 2 remake at the January 2024 PlayStation State of Play showcase. It's the latest news on the project since Bloober Team made an update on social media in October 2023.

The new trailer showed off the combat gameplay in the Silent Hill 2 remake, as James navigates the Wood Side Apartments. The game now features an over-the-shoulder camera angle similar to the Resident Evil remakes. Some of the puzzles from the apartment building are also shown, including the grandfather clock from the original game.

The full trailer can be seen below.

At the January 2024 State of Play, Sony and Mintrocket announced both the Dave the Diver PS4 and PS5 ports and Godzilla DLC. The game is already on the Switch and PC. 

The new trailer began by confirming that yes, the game is coming to the PS4 and PS5. Duff is sitting on a couch, holding a Dualsense 5, and playing the game. From there, a bit of footage appeared. Once that was done, it confirmed an April 2024 release window.

However, after the halfway point of the footage, the new crossover appeared. Godzilla then rises from the Blue Hole and towers over everything. That’s confirmed to be a free DLC for the game. That will appear in May 2024. 

Here’s the new footage.

A new Sonic game titled Sonic X Shadow Generations was announced at the Sony State of Play event. The game is in development and set to release on PS4 and PS5 some time in Autumn 2024.

The trailer showed a mix of traditional Sonic racing in both 2D and 3D, as they'd take part in skateboarding, roller-skating, and combat focused sections. This included a boss fight. The game appears to feature three different playable characters: a fully proportioned Sonic, a miniature Sonic, and Shadow. During Shadow's section, he interacts with a single-eyed starfish-like creature, though it is unknown if it will be an ally or enemy.

Square Enix has shared new information about characters Bonnie and Formina from the upcoming SaGa Emerald Beyond. A new trailer introduced the police duo alongside other characters that will appear in their story. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

Former marine Bonnie Blair and expert sniper Formina Franklyn are a pair of rookie police officers investigating an assassination attempt on the President of Capitol City. When the duo corners the suspect, he reveals that the President is a traitor before being devoured by a beast.

You can check out the new SaGa Emerald Beyond trailer introducing Bonnie and Formina here:

At the January 2024 State of Play, Sony and HoYoVerse shared a new Zenless Zone Zero PS5 trailer highlighting characters. It essentially confirmed that it will be on the console and showed some cast members we already knew about. 

A handful of agents from different groups shwoed up. For example, Belobog Heavy Industries’ Koleda appeared first. Then Nicole and Nekomata from the Cunning Hares appeared. At the end, a confirmation of the PS5 version’s development came up. 

The release date for Stellar Blade was announced in a new trailer at the January 2024 PlayStation State of Play showcase. The game will be released on April 26, 2024.

The trailer showed off a bunch of new details of Stellar Blade. You play as Eve, a member of the airborne squad left on a post-apocalyptic Earth to fight off alien invaders called NA:tives. Through the story she'll be accompanied by two companions named Adam and Lily.

The trailer also showed some more of the Stellar Blade combat mechanics. In addition to the hack and slash gameplay previously seen with swords, some third-person shooter gameplay was also shown off. We also got to see more of the game's world, which appears to have an open world setting featuring towns full of NPCs. There are also camps out in the wasteland where Eve can replenish her health, purchase supplies and get upgrades.

You can see the full Stellar Blade release date trailer here.

The rumours were true! Until Dawn, Supermassive Games’ breakthrough horror game previously exclusive to PlayStation 4, is coming to PC in a remastered re-release later this year.

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Almost 10 years after Hideo Kojima left the Metal Gear Solid series behind to start his indie studio, the celebrated developer and Instagram film influencer is planning to return to the genre that made his name with a brand new action-espionage game. And in true Kojima fashion, the video game is said to be just as much a movie as it is a game.

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Sony has shared footage of swanky action-RPG Stellar Blade at the publisher's latest State of Play event. It’s launching on April 26th for PS5 – there’s no PC release date just yet, and I do hope developer Shift Up make the effort, because some rather cheesecakey female character models notwithstanding, this looks pretty decent.

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Sony and Hideo Kojima have released a new Death Stranding 2 trailer alongside the game's full title - Death Stranding 2 On The Beach. It's out in 2025 on PS5, with a PC release date still to be revealed, and appears to be as free-wheeling and self-serious yet whimsical as you'd expect from a Kojima joint. I got as far as the pet anime dragon before my brain squirmed out through my ear.

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The latest taste of Judas, the spiritual successor to BioShock from the former director of BioShock, has confirmed that, yes, this is definitely a game from at least some of the people that made BioShock. That looks to be only a good thing, mind.

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Sonic Generations, which mixed the series’ old-school 2D and modern 3D platforming into a single game, is returning in a remaster later this year - and Sonic’s edgy cousin Shadow the Hedgehog is along for the ride.

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Sony have released a new trailer for Konami and Bloober's Silent Hill 2 remake at today's State of Play showcase, showing off a few of the horror reboot's redesigned environments and enemies. They've also surprise-released an all-new free-to-play Silent Hill game, Silent Hill: The Short Message, though it's only available on PS5 for the minute.

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Ducky and Varmilo make some of the best keyboards in the scene, and the Miya 69 Pro is a brilliant keyboard that they've each played a part in. This 65% size mechanical retailed at £100 - a fair price for a reasonably high-end model like this - but today it's down to £59.99 at Overclockers, a sweet £40 discount.

This particular model comes with Cherry MX Brown switches, white backlighting and a snazzy 'Holy Flame' colourway that shifts from black to white with thick, premium PBT keycaps arranged in an ISO UK layout. I think it looks great, so if it catches your fancy, the affiliate link below has your name on it:

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Do you want to build a PC? Not ready to give up your older Ryzen motherboard but still want great gaming performance? Previously your only option was the (superb) 5800X3D, which uses a 3D V-Cache to massively boost gaming performance, but now the cheaper 5700X3D is also available.

Made from silicon that wasn't quite good enough to turn into the 5800X3D, these processors boost slightly lower but come with the same complement of extra L3 cache, making them still head and shoulders above models like the 5600X, 5800X, 5900X and even 5950X - not to mention older Ryzen 1000, 2000 and 3000 models.

Following its launch this month, the brand new Ryzen 7 5700X3D is now available from B&H Photo and Amazon in the US for $249 or Amazon UK for £233, a great price that undercuts the $308 5800X3D significantly. Here's some links:

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On January 31, Sony held it’s regular State of Play broadcast to show off upcoming games in its ever-growing library. We got a close look at Rise of Ronin, as well as Stellar Blade, and a few more intriguing titles. So let’s dig into everything we saw at the showcase.

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If Death Stranding is not your usual Hideo Kojima vibe, it sounds like Kojima Productions is working on something more along the lines of Metal Gear Solid. During the State of Play presentation that took place on January 31, Kojima joined Sony’s Hermen Hulst to announce a new action-espionage project called Physint.

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During Sony’s State of Play livestream on January 31, the company gave us a look at developer Shift Up’s third-person character action game Stellar Blade, which looks both cool as shit and ridiculous as hell as you beat up robots in a variety of outfits, including a bunny one because Playboy rabbits also need to…

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It's been a good long while since we've seen anything concrete from Konami and developer Bloober Team's Silent Hill 2 remake, but the project has now received a fresh airing as part of Sony's latest PlayStation State of Play showcase, this time with a trailer focusing on the game's "improved and modernised" combat.

Combat perhaps isn't the first thing you'd expect Konami's marketing material to dwell on given it's quite some way down the list of elements that made the original Silent Hill 2 such a beloved horror experience, but the trailer does, in fairness, hang back a whole 40 seconds before switching out the atmospheric meandering for bat-swinging, shotgun-blasting action.

Additionally, it's reassuring, and perhaps even a little surprising, to see just how closely Bloober Team's Silent Hill 2 remake hews to aesthetic of the original 2001 PlayStation 2 game - it certainly doesn't look like we're in for a radical tonal reinvention here.

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Following tonight's PlayStation State of Play, another show dedicated to Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth was announced.

It's set to take place on 6th February with an "extensive look" at the game and "exciting news you won't want to miss".

What are you hoping to see? Could Square Enix drop a demo like they did with Final Fantasy 16?

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Tonight's PlayStation State of Play offered insight into what we'll see arriving on PS5 during 2024 and beyond, with a selection of surprises mixed in with updates for titles we all already knew were heading our way.

Whether you missed the show or simply want a rundown of all the announcements, along with some of the trailers, you'll find all the show's reveals listed below.

The show began with a look at Helldivers 2. This sci-fi shooter will be released on 8th February, so you don't have long to wait if you're looking forward to Helldivers 2!

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Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League’s full launch is tomorrow (though it’s available now in some regions/editions). If you’re still on the fence about Rocksteady’s looter shooter multiplayer spin on Task Force X, you can watch editors Marcus Stewart and Kyle Hilliard spend 90 minutes blasting through Metropolis and sharing their early thoughts.

Head over to Game Informer's YouTube channel for more previews, reviews, and discussions of new and upcoming games. Watch other episodes of New Gameplay Today right here.

Today's announcement of Sonic x Shadow Generations brought all kinds of love for Sonic's dark doppelganger as longtime fans celebrate Shadow's return after being absent from recent projects like Sonic Superstars and Sonic Frontiers. However, players won't need to wait for the fall launch of Sonic x Shadow Generations to enjoy speeding around as Shadow, as Sega also announced it is celebrating today's announcement by releasing a free equippable DLC costume to Sonic Superstars on February 15.

Sonic Superstars already includes several other skins you can equip onto your characters, ranging from Lego costumes to a Santa costume for Sonic to even the original prototype rabbit design. No screenshots or photos have been released for the newly announced Shadow costume in Sonic Superstars.

Square Enix announced the merger of the Tokyo RPG Factory subsidiary. The company will take over the rights and obligations of the subsidiary after the dissolution of the studio on January 31, 2024. [Thanks, Gamebiz!]

The studio was originally founded in 2014 under the “Tokyo Dream Factory” name by then Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda. The company was a subsidiary of Square Enix. Later, it was officially established as in June 2015.

The studio is behind the development of I Am Setsuna, Lost Sphear, and Oninaki, which released in 2016, 2017, and 2019 respectively. The first two titles are turn-based RPGs inspired by the SNES/Super Famicom era of RPGs, and the games share gameplay and story elements from titles like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy X. Meanwhile, Oninaki is an action-RPG with a focus on the theme of life, death, and rebirth.

During the January 2024 Sony State of Play, a new trailer for the much-awaited Silent Hill 2 remake was released, finally giving viewers a taste of what they can expect from combat. I watched the footage, puzzled as to what I saw. A part of me understands why changes were made — a new audience doesn't want to deal with "bad" controls — but I feel like something was lost as James Sunderland staggered enemies by shooting them in the knees or blasting a Bubble Head Nurse in the head with a shotgun.

While Team Silent may or may not have intentionally made the combat in those first four Silent Hill games clunky, it served a greater purpose within the Survival Horror genre. A majority of the most popular Japanese Horror games of the time functioned on Tank Controls, which arguably isn't great and requires some getting used to.

PlayStation's January State Of Play stream was chock full of big game announcements, including deep dives on Death Stranding 2, two Silent Hill games, Rise Of The Ronin and loads more stuff that will almost certainly be heading to PC at some point down the line. Because let's face it. Everything PlayStation comes to PC eventually. We just have a wait a couple of years for it. Just look at former exclusive Horizon Forbidden West, which is hitting PC on March 21st. That wasn't in tonight's showcase, of course, so let's take a look at everything that was. Start those PC countdown timers now, folks, because it's only a matter of time.

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Well look at that, a new trailer for Rise of the Rōnin - the fancy samurai action-RPG from Ninja Gaiden household Team Ninja. Set in 19th century Japan's Bakumatsu era, the game is a mixture of open-ended exploration, sneaking and agile traversal that puts me heavily in mind of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed series. Unlike most Assassin's Creeds, however, this one has a pretty in-depth, rigorous melee combat system, with bosses that look like they're going to grind my gears no end. Will it be as vicious as Nioh 2? I'd better start stocking up on comfort food.

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It’s been a good few years since we last saw the Metro series in Metro Exodus. Its reappearance during tonight’s PlayStation State of Play showcase combined the surprise of its return with the surprise that the next Metro game will be exclusive to virtual reality.

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