Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2025 i Edge

Videogame magazines and websites have always centred on reviews because that’s the starting point for most conversations about a game: what’s it like? Is it any good? Should I buy it? We even ascribe numerical values to these things, mostly because that’s just the way it’s always been done. As time has passed, though, the concept of a review delivering some kind of definitive perspective has become difficult to get behind. Not because the people writing reviews aren’t working with the best intentions, but because games have become living things. Once immutable, frozen in time at the point at which their code was set to silicon, they must now evolve – to address bugs, to add money-spinning DLC, or in the case of Fortnite to even switch genre to try…

Almost exactly seven years ago, these pages played host to a little game called Sable, showcasing a visual style inspired by legendary French comic artist Jean ‘Moebius’ Giraud. Seeing a trailer for the debut release from Shedworks, around that time, was what first inspired Sydney Ravaz to begin work on the game featuring in the same spot this month. “It presented a simple concept but with incredible artistic direction,” Ravaz says of Sable. It led him to start work on a prototype in the same engine, Unity, with a style that would be equally eyecatching, taking some visual inspiration from a different French cartoonist. Lewis Trondheim’s comics often juxtapose anthropomorphic animal characters with more realistic background and adult content; Ravaz likewise “wanted a naïve and cute universe with this violence…

Developer/publisher RiffRaff Games Format PC, Xbox Series Origin New Zealand Release 2026 Even accepting the caveats – that what we’re playing is a very early build – E we’re a little concerned when we begin Sleight Of Hand. Faced with the prospect of sneaking past an armed guard, we spend a punishing few minutes failing to attract his attention, then scoot through an adjacent room to circle behind him. As stealth games go, it’s an inauspicious introduction. But in the next room we’re given a handful of enchanted cards to play with, and in a stroke our clumsy creeping transforms into power fantasy. As if by black magic, we have a world of possibility at our fingertips. Now Sleight Of Hand feels like Dishonored, or at least like the quiet approach you…

Game Big Walk Developer House House  Publisher Panic Format PC Release 2025 You surely don’t need to be told that 2019’s Untitled Goose Game was a surprise hit for its developer, House House. Nor, most likely, do we need to describe how that game managed to perfectly capture the essence of an English village, in its hedgerow-delineated serenity and simmering resentments alike. But did you know that its creators were adapting this place from the far side of the globe, in Melbourne? House House’s followup, Big Walk, brings the developer back home – specifically, to Wilsons Promontory, a national park at the southernmost tip of mainland Australia. “It’s a big granite isthmus that sticks out into the ocean, so it’s got quite a unique biosphere,” says Jake Strasser. His full…

Format PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series Developer/publisher Visai Games Origin Canada Release 2023 Venba is in her happy place. Music blares from the kitchen radio as she cooks, harmonising with the sizzle of hot oil. With no recipes guiding her, she works from instinct and with skill, tossing ingredient after ingredient into the pan to make her dish. Before long, piles of food rest upon her kitchen table, laid out carefully in anticipation of a visit from her son, Kavin, her only family member in Toronto since the death of her husband. With a smile on her face, Venba dozes off on her apartment balcony. Hours later, a text message from Kavin wakes her: “Sorry amma! Something came up last minute.” As silence falls, the camera zooms out,…

Developer/publisher Raccoon Logic Format PC (tested), PS5, Xbox Series Release Out now Sometimes the blending together of art and life can be a little too harmonious. 2020’s Journey To The Savage Planet poked fun at corporate greed, short-sightedness and idiocy; shortly after its release, the entire studio was made redundant by its owner, Google. In the months that followed, the core team frantically raced to set up a new operation and get back the rights to their series. It’s a rousing story of creation – which is a good thing, since the resulting sequel takes a while to find its true voice. Like its predecessor, Revenge Of The Savage Planet is a blend of comedy, action and exploration. It follows a corporate patsy who finds themself dropped onto the surface…

Developer Fallen Tree Games Publisher Kwalee Format PC (tested), PS5, Xbox Series Release Out now Seen from The Precinct’s overhead-camera perspective, Averno City circa 1983 is a simplistic diorama. Gangs and civilians, cops and criminals – they’re all nondescript, person-shaped blips that can slot into archetypal dramas for your avatar, fresh-faced beat cop Nick Cordell Jr, to intervene in. Some are tussling on a street corner for reasons unknown. Others are lugging boxy TV sets away from a clattering burglar alarm. All can be taken away in a shiny new pair of silver bracelets. Visually, it’s early Grand Theft Auto. But it’s also the most flattering angle for the American law enforcement apparatus, if not any policing system: zoomed out to the big picture, the roles are obvious and the…

Developer Far Out Games Publisher Konami Format PC (tested), PS5, Xbox Series Release Out now Courier work can be stressful – especially when your latest package is a live blue marlin, convulsing violently as it dangles over the bed of your truck. As you wind through a city composed of extremely destructible buildings, you’re also expected to sate the appetite of the colossal creature. So, as you swerve around structures and pedestrians, you slam into baskets of fish, which duly fall down its gullet. Oh, and don’t forget to dip the marlin into a tank of paint, so that the grizzled fisherman receiving the delivery will think that it’s one of those rare albino specimens. It’s stupid but it’s funny. Pandemonium is the point of Deliver At All Costs, courier…

Developer Housemarque Publisher SIE Format PS5 Release 2021 Although the game has now reached its fourth birthday, Housemarque clearly hasn’t forgotten about Returnal, which at the end of April received an update to improve its visual quality when played on a PS5 Pro. And that’s entirely appropriate, because memories of this sci-fi shooter are hard to shift from the mind of anyone who’s ever experienced it. For some, these will be grim recollections of bouncing off its unyielding surface, those diamond hard boss attacks scything them to pieces, resulting in thrown DualSenses and a (frequently broken) commitment to never again return to the cursed thing. For others, there will be memories of the time in which it simply consumed their lives until it was conquered, standing alongside Bloodborne in its…

Fishbowl The Wholesome-published Fishbowl is a coming-of-age story from the two-person team Imissmyfriends, based in India. You play as 21-year-old Alo, who is living by herself in a new city while working from home as a video editor for a social media star. The game involves unpacking your late grandmother’s belongings and rediscovering bittersweet memories, as well as doing chores around your home and checking in on loved ones through video calls. Fishbowl has been in development for four years, and was included in the first cohort of Sony’s India Hero Project incubator programme in 2024. One Move Away The developer of One Move Away has clearly taken some inspiration from the smash hit Unpacking. But then, with that game’s creator, Witch Beam, having confirmed that Unpacking won’t receive a…

GRAND THEFT AUTO VI Developer/publisher Rockstar Games Format PS5, Xbox Series Origin US Release May 26, 2026 HELLO SUNSHINE Developer/publisher Red Thread Games Format PC Origin Norway Release TBA MAFIA: THE OLD COUNTRY Developer Hangar 13 Publisher 2K Games Format PC, PS5, Xbox Series Origin US Release August 8 SOL CESTO Developer Chariospirale, Géraud Zucchini, Tambouille Publisher Goblinz Studio, Maple Whispering Format PC Origin France Release TBA THE DEVIL’S DUE Developer/publisher Games People Play Format PC Origin Norway Release 2026…

Developer Uvula Publisher Annapurna Interactive Format PC (tested), PS5, Xbox Series Release Out now There is something quintessentially Keita Takahashi about the high concept behind Uvula’s episodic narrative adventure, which offers a tantalising glimpse into an alternate universe where the Wattam creator is a showrunner for a kids’ TV series. This tale of a teenager stuck in a T-pose might be the example of the bug-to-feature pipeline: Takahashi has built a game around one of the medium’s most familiar glitches. That, however, is merely the starting point for a story that takes a typically sideways look at the human condition. Much as this singular creator would ordinarily be dismissive of such an assessment, or at least reluctant to elaborate on it (like the late David Lynch, Takahashi prefers to let…

Developer Shiny Shoe Publisher Big Fan Games Format PC (tested), PS5, Switch, Xbox Series Release Out now How can you not love a deck-building game that includes a card called Pseudoscience? Pseudoscience comes with a range of buffs, only one of which will be randomly applied once the card is played. It’s dangerous and unpredictable, which is entirely fitting. The card belongs to a clan of mad scientists and their abominations, whose standout conceits include the ability to mix up attributes and create new one-off cards on the fly. This outfit’s all about the unstable nature of creativity. This is entertaining stuff, even before you get into the synergies and combos. It’s also an early indicator that Shiny Shoe still understands that a deck-building Roguelite should feel like a laboratory,…

Developer/publisher Strange Scaffold Format PC Release Out now Strange Scaffold’s game development philosophy is admirable in the face of the wider industry’s encumbrance of bloat and feature creep. From El Paso, Elsewhere to I Am Your Beast, the pattern is clear: find an entertaining hook, exploit its potential to span a tight few hours, then on to the next game. In TMNT: Tactical Takedown, the same approach is applied to turn based tactics. It’s another neat construction, pulling on some of the same strings as Into The Breach, but on this occasion somewhat betrayed by its lack of scope. The hook is as sharp as any, though. Comic-style panel presentation wastes no time throwing the turtles into battle against the Foot Clan, albeit one at a time. Each level gives…

Developer Pixelopus Publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment Format PS4 Release 2019 You’re introduced to the game in suitably creative fashion: a brush dipped in paint. You haven’t set foot in the world yet, nor moved the camera around to investigate your surroundings. Instead, you’re presented with a scrapbook of doodled monsters, all pen-and-ink affairs, just waiting to be coloured in. It’s a wonderful initiation into Concrete Genie’s particular take on paint, thick in the centre and watery towards the edges. It’s also surprisingly hard to accurately apply with the DualShock’s gestural inputs. Or, at least, there’s a knack to it. Whether owing to a glitch in the programming or a splinter of anarchic intent in the design, the paint can shift gently on the page when you least expect it to.…

The title of a talk at this year’s Develop conference will no doubt ring true for many attendees at Brighton’s Hilton Metropole: ‘I Did Survive ’Til 25: Now What?’ In a sign of a battered industry grasping for a way forward, it’s joined by not one but two talks on bouncing back from redundancy. Still, amid the gloom and hand-wringing, there’s also plenty of time for celebration on the schedule. The conference kicks off on July 8 with a keynote from Jens Andersson and Pete Ward of MachineGames on their approach to adapting Indiana Jones. Given the success of The Great Circle, it’s sure to be well attended by those looking for guidance on handling precious IP. In another keynote on July 9, Remedy’s Sam Lake will reflect on 30…

WEBGAME Stealth Crossword bit.ly/letter-campaign What if completing a crossword meant manually sneaking its letters into place, like Solid Snake infiltrating a top-secret base? As game premises go, it’s genius – but really, this is just the setup for Stealth Crossword to layer punchline upon punchline. You’ll find all the classic elements of tactical stealth action here, each given a characterful (pun intended) twist. The guards you evade are represented as letter Gs, while donning a disguise to pass by them means… well, we won’t spoil it. Suffice it to say, there are about as many laughs squeezed into its short runtime as you’d expect from a full-length comedy, especially if you mine its multiple endings. After finishing, take a poke around ComputerJames’ Itch.io page – we’ve yet to find a…

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One of the first things that greets us at Havok’s main office in Leopardstown, about half an hour’s drive south of Dublin city centre, is a Gravity Gun. The model sits on a low table in the reception area, in between two glass cabinets holding trophies, mixed-reality headsets and assorted other memorabilia from Havok’s first 25 years. But the Gravity Gun has earned its place in the spotlight. Half-Life 2 was a watershed moment for videogames in general, but for Havok, which helped Valve put this fundamental force in the hands of players? “That was something that really showed the world what was possible with using physics as a more integral part of the game, rather than just an additional visual effect,” says David Coghlan, Havok’s general manager, who joined…

NEAR MISSES Mario Kart World Switch 2 What a difference a jump makes. We’ve done a couple of circuits of MKW now (though Rainbow Road remains out of reach) but we’re still getting our head – and hands – around the idea of beginning a drift then, as the sparks fly, not touching the stick, in order to charge up our racer’s hop. Since jumping can grant access to rails – grinding them offers a speed boost – and other shortcuts, mastering this manoeuvre will be essential. The difference, say, between coming first in Knockout Tour and being pipped at the post by a fellow journo, who we must simply curse from our lower spot on the podium. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour Switch 2 With each return to this…

Developer MercurySteam Publisher 505 Games Format PC, PS5 (tested), Xbox Series Release Out now MercurySteam has long shown a knack for worldbuilding. Lords Of Shadow, for instance, brought continuity and context to discrete levels, each forming part of a single, breathing folklore. And Blades Of Fire continues that tradition. True, some of its fantasy landscapes are as generic as the game’s title, but MercurySteam sculpts each into a story as well as an episode of an epic quest. A castle teeming with the undead has fallen victim to a necromancer’s curse; the anguished corpse of its lord eternally stalks the halls. Later you’ll fight the necromancer, the region’s dominant power – a pestilent being who regenerates by feeding off captive villagers. Here, however, these layers often overcomplicate your adventure beyond…

Developer MoonHood Publisher Fast Travel Games Format PC, PCVR, PS5 (tested), PSVR2 (tested) Release Out now Before going on a walk, there are two fundamental decisions you’ll want to make: where you’re going, and how you’re going to get there. MoonHood has clarity on the former, but a level of indecisiveness when it comes to the latter. It wants to reach out to you to talk about grief, remorse, regret and how the seemingly insurmountable hurdles we encounter during the darkest moments in our lives can, in fact, be conquered. The problem is, it can’t quite stick to a single path and sometimes loses its way. You play as The Burnt One, exploring a strange, twisted land in firstperson. The walk of the title will, eventually, take you to the…

Developer Cardboard Sword Publisher Plaion Format PC Release Out now Like many a Metroidvania, this one lets you sample your character in full flow before swiping away their powers and asking you to walk before you can run again. In the case of the Sandfox, however – framed for regicide and dropped into a cavernous dungeon – they’re still well-equipped for survival. True, it will be some hours before we climb out again, but here is a wily operator even when down. The unnamed setting recalls Prince Of Persia, but the Sandfox is far from royal. An anonymous hooded figure with an ear to the ground and a knack for going where they shouldn’t, the justifiably silent protagonist is fleshed out through their appearance and animation. You’re at home in…