Wireframe Magazine #67

CLARISSE LOUGHREY Clarisse Loughrey is the chief film critic for The Independent and co-host of the Fade to Black podcast. Squelching flesh. Protruding bones. The realm of body horror – filled with aberrant depictions of human flesh that make us fear our own physical forms – has always been somewhat over-represented in gaming. Think of every series that, in some respect, deals with plagues and mutations. It’s an exhaustive list: Fallout, BioShock, Bloodborne, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Morrowind, Dark Souls, Borderlands, The Evil Within, Half-Life, Outlast. While playing Elden Ring, you may well come face to face with Godrick the Grafted, a pulpy tapestry of soldiers’ limbs, with a mighty dragon’s head emerging from his left side. In Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, you control Ethan Winters as he’s plunged into…

What was the first scary game you ever played? For me, it was arguably Quake. Its predecessor, DOOM, had its fair share of jolting shocks – mostly when, say, a Cacodemon popped out from around a corner – but Quake was something entirely different. The full-blooded shooting action was matched with long stretches of quiet anticipation. You’d frequently hear the distant hiss of a Scrag before its pallid body floated into view. A zombie attack in a murky sewer would be preceded by spine-jangling groans and tortured sighs. Played through headphones, it could be a truly intense experience. Quake’s sheer, suspenseful brilliance is all the more remarkable given its tortuous development. Early on, the project was conceived as a very different sort of action game, with RPG elements and third-person…

TIf you want a sign of just how popular Supermassive’s Dark Pictures Anthology has become, look no further than publisher Bandai Namco’s stand at August’s Gamescom expo in Cologne. Each day, hundreds of gamers lined up outside the firm’s gigantic stand, all waiting to get their hands on the latest instalment, The Devil In Me. Having worked our way inside the inky-black play area, Wireframe finally got to see what all the excitement was about for ourselves. For The Devil In Me, Supermassive has gone for a rather different approach from the previous three entries in the series: where the previous game, House of Ashes, was essentially a mix of monster flick and war film, this one’s more in the mould of a Saw movie, with its mysterious villain having…

Info GENRE FPS, horror FORMAT PC/PS5/XB S/X DEVELOPER Pet Project Games PUBLISHER 3D Realms RELEASE Q4 2022 SOCIAL @RipoutGame Preventing disaster in the near-future universe of Ripout is not an option. Because it’s already arrived. Instead, the main objective – as made evident in our short hand-son demo – is to simply get in and get out while trying to survive. That way, you stand a chance of ridding whatever mutant menace plagues the space freighter you’re currently docked with, all while gaining enough loot and resources to do a better job the next time around. It’s clear that for its debut release, Pet Project Games aims to craft a different style of online co-op horror FPS, intended to balance action and scares in equal measure, where playing stealthily can…

Info GENRE Squishy survival strategy city builder FORMAT PC DEVELOPER Covenant.dev PUBLISHER Team17 PRICE TBC 2023 SOCIAL @GordTheGame Squishy” is a word that game director and Covenant.dev boss Stan Just uses a lot when describing Gord, his fledgling studio’s upcoming survival-strategy opus. But then again, squishy is perfectly apt for a dark fantasy world positively heaving with slimy, hideous creatures: there’s Ardavan, a bloated, pustule-covered Horror that is one of nine major threats in the game. “He has mosquitoes inside those [pustules],” Just says, grinning mischievously. ”He vomits those mosquitoes at your tribe. It’s kind of disgusting.” Then there are smaller critters, such as slug-like enemies capable of burrowing underground and emerging in the most inconvenient places, or bulbous, froggy lifeforms called Foulspawn that lay poisonous eggs and ooze blood…

01. Tears of joy Mid-September’s surprise Nintendo Direct was chock full of interesting announcements: Fire Emblem Engage being shown officially, the return of Radiant Silvergun, and yet another Kirby game reveal. Almost all of those titles were overshadowed, however, by the sequel to Breath of the Wild finally getting a title: Tears of the Kingdom. The accompanying trailer offered plenty of teases for what it could mean for Link’s next adventure, too. It was also impossible to ignore the Skyward Sword vibes as Link leaped off a floating city and down to the kingdom below. No signs of any Loftwings so far, though. 02. Free to Sim In between countless expansion packs that have whisked players off everywhere from high school, the jungle, and even Star Wars’ planet Batuu, The…