Developer/publisher CD Projekt (CD Projekt Red) Format PC, PS5, Xbox Series Release September 26
Since Cyberpunk’s launch, the polished press demos of E3s past have become infamous for their smoke and mirrors. But a lot has changed since then. We sit down for 90 minutes with the game’s expansion, and with quest director Paweł Sasko, a man who has the air of having read every review. If there are any remaining doubts that CD Projekt has learned its lesson, they dissipate when, halfway through that time, Sasko says the magic words. “I have a proposition: let’s just fuck around with some systems.”
No sticking to the scripted path here, then. We’re encouraged to create our own chaos, summoning a vehicle (using the new, streamlined system) and using its chassis-mounted machine guns (new) to see how Dogtown’s (new) wanted system and Phantom Liberty’s (new, improved) AI works. Throughout our demo, Sasko provides a commentary on what has been added, or expanded, or ripped out like malfunctioning cyberware and replaced. In short: everything.
The most immediately impactful of these changes are to character builds. The original skill trees have been felled, with new ones erected in their place – “the driving aim,” Sasko tells us, is to replace intangible percentage increases with skills that actually feel different. We sample some of these as a prebaked fast Solo, using our katana to deflect bullets back to sender before closing in with the new double jump and air-dash to run our upgraded mantis blades through a few bodies. That katana can be used in vehicle combat too: riding a motorcycle with a sword slung by your side is a perfect cyberpunk visual.
Many of these additions will be available even for players who don’t buy Phantom Liberty – the expansion will be accompanied by the biggest of the mea-culpa updates CDPR has been doing since the base game’s launch. What they won’t have access to is Dogtown, the slum district of Night City, which comes complete with new types of side mission (look out for red smoke), or the Idris Elba-starring story, which poses the question: are you a bad enough dude to rescue the President?
Although in truth, POTNUS Rosalind Myer is a bad dude herself. As two strangers enter our apartment, we waver over dialogue choices and she shoots them both dead – for the rest of the demo, Sasko points to moments when the pair would have appeared and helped us. Guilt trip aside, it’s a marker of how CD Projekt is refocusing on what it is good at: stories heavy on choice and consequence. With expectations of some impossible GTA beater wiped away, we’re excited to return to Night City with fresh eyes. And not just the Ripperdoc-implant kind.
PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE LOST CROWN
Developer/publisher Ubisoft (Ubisoft Montpellier) Format PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series Release January
Arriving at SGF’s Kickoff Live showcase late, and without a functioning phone or the ability to rewind time, we only learn about the new Prince Of Persia game after the fact. By the time we discover that its reveal attracted the ire of the Internet, we’ve already played it, and know for certain that the reaction is nonsense. It is a shame that Sargon and his ancient Persian Immortals are voiced as a bunch of Cockney lads, true, but we’re not especially sympathetic to the cries for the stillabsent Sands Of Time – were there not enough remakes this summer? And while Sargon’s design is a little naff, surely that is in the grand tradition of the previous fellow, with his floppy curtains and soul patch.
Besides, all these concerns disappear with the very first backflip. Sargon is beautifully lithe, just as you’d expect from the Montpellier team behind Rayman Legends, and within minutes we’re chaining together slides and wall jumps without a second thought. What initially look like fearsome gauntlets of spiked pits and swinging traps can, thanks to the responsive controls, be taken at a sprint. And even if things go wrong, the introduction of a teleport power, with which you can place down a copy of Sargon and rewind to that spot at the push of a button, makes it easy to cut your losses and try a different route.
The fights, however, prove to be a little less forgiving. Sargon is armed with a sword, a bow with a limited quiver of arrows, and a magical throwable chakram blade, which recharges on a cooldown. Yet to prevail in combat you’ll really need to master parry timing, which not only opens up enemies for a big counter but fills your specialability meter: one bar unleashes a screen-filling attack, while two drops a generous healing zone. Thinking we’ve got all this cracked, we take on the game’s first big boss: a manticore-like creature that strikes with its barbed scorpion tail and summons health-sapping clouds that chase you around the arena.
It’s a battle that utilises everything we’ve learned: sliding under its stomach to attack the monster’s rear while it’s busy spitting poison; using the teleport power to zap straight into an arrow shot from the opposite flank; parrying its headlong charge to buy a little healing time. Yet it bests us again and again, as the remaining minutes of our half-hour appointment tick down and down. We leave wishing that we too had the ability to rewind time – but it’s to The Lost Crown’s credit that we are drawn back to its station the following day, blitzing through the entire level on Switch (running at a steady 60fps, no less) just for the chance to beat the barb-tailed boss. Well, better late than never.
ARMORED CORE VI: FIRES OF RUBICON
Developer FromSoftware Publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment Format PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series Release August 25
It’s been over ten years since the previous instalment of FromSoftware’s mech battler, and in that time things have changed significantly for the studio – it’s now one of the most respected in the world. Naturally, then, this is being presented as something of a reboot, reflected by the choice of director: Masaru Yamamura, a newcomer to this series who got his start on Dark Souls and worked his way up to lead designer of Sekiro.
There’s talk of similarly intertwined level design, which will be a minor miracle if it can be pulled off, given the enormity of the industrial superstructures you’re travelling through, and the tools you have to do it. Remember how much of a revelation it felt being able to jump at will in Well, here you can skate around on boosters, fire into a long jump and shoot skywards with your jetpack. Combat, too,
