SPRING INTO ACTION
THE nights are lighter, the weather is warmer and there is a host of exciting new games hitting consoles this month. There’s sci-fi thrills with Prey, superhero fighting action with the release of Injustice 2 and there’s some old school thrills with Ultra Street Fighter III.
PREY XBOX ONE, PS4, PC Release: May 5
DESCRIBED as the ‘spiritual successor’ to 1994’s System Shock, Prey sees you fighting for survival aboard a space station.
Set in an alternative timeline, you have to gather weapons and resources to fight off the aliens and escape back to Earth.
This game has been in development hell for a long time. Originally envisaged as a sequel to 2006’s Prey, Prey 2 went into development in 2009 and was later cancelled in 2014.
Developer Arkane Studios picked up the gauntlet, and last year announced it was treating Prey as a re-imagining of the original.
Prey’s lead designer Ricardo Bare, says the game will have multiple endings – meaning the choices you make while you play, decide the outcome.
INJUSTICE 2 PS4 Release: May 19
GODS Among Us was a huge hit when it landed back in 2013.
Set within an alternate Justice League universe, Gods Among Us saw Superman portrayed as a tyrant who has destroyed Metropolis.
In a desperate bid to end the devastation, Batman summons counterparts of the League’s members from another universe, including his own and Superman’s.
Injustice 2 picks up where the first left off, as the insurgency works to piece society back together. There’s a new group of villains to battle, a new evil regime to bring down and a whole rosta of new playable characters, including Scarecrow, Swamp Thing, Gorilla Grodd, Deadshot, and Poison Ivy to name but a few.
FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE GAME PS4, XBOX ONE, PC Release: May 26
FUNDED through a kickstarter campaign, this will be available as a multiplayer-only game at launch and players will require a PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live Gold subscription on PS4 and Xbox One. This third-person horror-survival game allows you to play as a teen counsellor, or as the masked maniac Jason Voorhees. You and up to six other players must fight for survival and escape Camp Crystal Lake, while the gamer playing as Jason has to hunt down and kill you all. Developer IllFonic is working on a patch which will introduce an offline, single-player mode and there are plans to release the game for purchase on a physical disc.
ULTRA STREET FIGHTER II: THE FINAL CHALLENGERS Switch Release: May 26
IF YOUR thumbs have survived the rigours of Injustice 2, by the end of the month it’s time for some street fighting.
This is an updated version of 1994’s Super Street Fighter II Turbo, which has been polished up for Nintendo’s Switch console.
Choose to play in two very different graphic styles, the classic pixel art graphics of the original game, and updated high definition graphics.
In the classic art style, the game is played in 4:3, using the original arcade soundtrack and voice acting. If you don’t fancy old schooling it, you can play in widescreen with remixed music and Japanese voice acting from the Street Fighter IV series.
With a rosta of 19 players, including Akuma – who is no longer a hidden character – there’s hours and hours of play.
STAR TREK: BRIDGE CREW PS4, PC Release: May 30
THIS VR adventure takes place in the alternate reality established in the 2009 film and follows the USS Aegis searching for a new homeworld for the Vulcans.
They are heading for a region of space called The Trench – a region the Klingons are also interested in, and are willing to go to war to defend.
Bridge Crew claims it’s the only game Star Trek game that offers a true-to-life level of immersion, and was launched with the help of Trek actors Karl Urban, LeVar Burton and Jeri Ryan.