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Saros delivers Returnal 2 in all but name

Housemarque's Returnal remains one of the best PS5 games. Built to kill, raised to die, and fine-tuned to annoy the shit out me while dragging me back in for yet another go at  2AM.  Not-a-sequel Saros ropes in my one of my favourite actors Rahul Kohli into the mix with proper shields, greater weapons freedom, Indian-styled visuals, and borrowing  Xenon 2: Megablast's palette and violence.  Saros is set on Carcosa, a shape-shifting, hostile alien planet. It changes on every death, where a total eclipse changes everything (very Pitch Black!). The video shows the first biome, hopefully the others shift up the palette more than Returnal did.  Along his journey he finds Nitya Chandran (Shunori Ramanthan), adding some depth to the Returnal-mayhem. The stunning environment Arjun explores is that of a lost ancient civilization fueled by the twisted enlightenment of the eclipse.  Saros lands in March 2026, check out the PlayStation blog post for more details on w...

Sony teasing big news in 2014, but what are these mystery games?

After the Vita 2000 UK announce, Sony is now doing its usual teasing for some big game news to come. That's in the fullness of time, after due consideration of all the facts, most likely for PS4, yadda, yadda, ignoring the Vita's super-low-calorie diet of (admittedly brilliant) indie games and the odd hefty Japanese title like Toukiden.

Shahid Ahmad and the other Strategic Content folk are saying "wait a month", while other hints are being dropped to keep a look out at Games Developer Conference. GDC 2014 runs from March 17th-21st, which is more like six weeks, so two different announcements, or is this all part of a coordinated campaign?

I'm trying to think of new, new games, not re-reveals or peeks at stuff we already know about. So, Borderlands 2, Bioshock (whatever they decide, if it ever gets off the ground) and even Gran Turismo don't count. The same goes the old-games-revived motif they're waving around. While all these projects are deeply worthy of respect, and will be more than welcome, they ain't new!

So, what "new" stuff could Sony have up its sleeves?

Most likely contenders are another Uncharted title. That's given the good sales of the first one and that developer Sony Bend can likely pass the engine on to another team, perhaps while they work on a return to the Syphon Filter series, which they did a corking job with on the PSP.

Another option is "what the God of War devs did next." That could be Santa Monica Studios (or whatever they're called having just moved) or Ready at Dawn (currently working on The Order) who handled the excellent PSP incarnations.

Sony has had some fun with its partner Vita efforts, from the likes of Queasy's Sound Shapes, and its more of these left-field games that I'd look forward to most, is Sony Japan figuring out another Patapon or LocoRoco?

Then there's the big unknowns, an all-new IP, which seems to be at the heart of Sony Japan's efforts with Soul Sacrifice and Freedom Wars. Will Sony US or Europe be betting big on an untested idea that has emerged from some cunning coders mind or a dark development session?

Guess we'll find out soon. Any thoughts?

Currently playing on my Vita/PS3/PS4/PS5


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