GHOST OF TSUSHIMA

We’ve had our fix of assassins, cowboys and carjacking criminals, sure, but where are all the samurai? In the long-awaited Ghost of Tsushima from Sucker Punch Productions, that’s where.

It’s a project several years in the making for the studio that brought us the Sly Cooper and Infamous series. Set to be another tantalising PS4 exclusive, Ghost of Tsushima is set in a late-13th-century feudal Japan being invaded by the Mongol Empire. As one of the last surviving samurai on Tsushima Island, you have to fight back and defend your country’s freedom. In gameplay terms, that presumably means katana-combo mastery and, judging by the ‘Ghost’ in the title, a potential large helping of stealth.

It already looks stunning, with a sprawling countryside world just begging to be explored. Sucker Punch apparently plans to do away with maps littered with distracting waypoints, very much a staple of open-world games in recent years. See somewhere you want to go? Don’t look for a marker, just go there. It’s your adventure, after all.