Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree lead’s PLAY’s open world special

Worlds worth getting lost in are the bread and butter of gaming. This month is all about celebrating that, kicking off with a look at FromSoftware’s hefty expansion for their unique take on open worlds, Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree.

But that’s not all, we give our final verdicts on Dragon’s Dogma 2 and Rise Of The Ronin, talk to developers about the secrets behind creating worlds, and chart the history of the genre from PS1 to PS5. Plus, loads more, of course.

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FromSoftware is one of the best in the business when it comes to their expansions. Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree is different only in the fact that it seems to be their most ambitious yet, well deserving of the long development cycle. We dig into why this new region to explore isn’t just substantial, but will change the way you think about Elden Ring forever.

So what goes into making your favourite gaming worlds? We sit down to chat to the world-crafting masters at Larian Studios, Techland, HoYoverse, CD Projekt Red, and Billy Goat Entertainment about it. That’s a whole lot of different genres and approaches, but one thing’s for sure, it’s not easy!

And how did open world gaming get here? To chart the course, we return to PS1 to pick apart the roots of the genre, then follow that through each console generation to take a look at how it’s evolved over time, how you define an open world, and what’s moved things forward.

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

But what about new open world games? Our hefty reviews section is led by two games: Dragon’s Dogma 2 and Rise Of The Ronin. Perhaps the biggest games in the genre to launch on PS5 this year, both of these huge reviews dig into these landmark releases down to the finest details.

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