Other PS4 titles include Odin Sphere Leifthrasir, West of Dead, Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness and Contra: Rogue Corps (which are backwards compatible on PS5). The PS4 and PS5 titles include Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2, Unpacking, Planet Coaster: Console Edition, Tails Noir, Cloudpunk, Call of the Sea and PAW Patrol The Movie: Adventure City Calls.

The only PS5-exclusive title is This War of Mine: Final Cut. The above titles are a part of the Game Catalog for Extra and Premium subscribers. The latter gets access to three Star Ocean titles – Star Ocean First Departure R, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time and Star Ocean: The Last Hope – 4K and FHD Remaster – and Dragon’s Crown Pro, all on PS4.

Developer Ion Lands has announced that it’s partnering with Merge Games to bring Cloudpunk to PS5. It will launch digitally for the console on August 19, followed by a physical launch a week later on August 26. The PS5 version will feature run in 4K at 60 FPS, and will feature support for Activity Cards, DualSense features, and more.

Other visual upgrades include higher fidelity and resolution skyboxes, increased draw distances and render distance, better fog quality, improved volumetrics, higher quality bloom, and better lighting effects. For the first time on consoles, Cloudpunk’s PS5 version will also feature a cockpit mode. The PS5 version will be a free upgrade for anyone who already owns the game on PS4.

Check out a trailer showing the game’s PS5 version in action below. For now, there’s no announcement regarding an Xbox Series X/S version of the game.

Last year, Ion Lands also released a sequel-sized DLC for Cloudpunk, titled City of Ghosts. The DLC is only available on PC, with no word yet on when (or if) it will launch for other platforms as well.

In our review of Cloudpunk, we awarded it a score of 7/10, saying, “Cloudpunk reaches higher and achieves more than I thought it would, barely missing a spot among the giants of its genre.” You can read the full review through here.

Cloudpunk is currently available on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Developer Ion Lands is currently also working on open world life sim Nivalis, which is set in the titular cyberpunk city that Cloudpunk also takes place in. Read more on that through here.

Ion Lands’ intriguing cyberpunk adventure Cloudpunk is getting some paid DLC. City of Ghosts takes place directly after the main story and features Rania and Hayse, a new character, exploring Nivalis. With Curzona, the Debt Corps and a killer cyborg after Rania, it’s all she can do to survive.

Hayse, on the other hand, is looking to clear his debt before the next morning and has a CorpSec android accompanying. How these two stories intertwine will be revealed in the DLC, which has a “sequel’s worth of content” as per the developer. Said new content includes street races with the ability to customize one’s HOVA and multiple endings based on decisions made in Cloudpunk and City of Ghosts.

Nivalis itself offers new areas to explore and new characters to interact with. The campaign will be fully-voiced and “as long” as that of the base game. It also seems that other characters will be playable besides Rania and Hayse. A release date for the DLC wasn’t provided so stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

Rania, or 14FC, as she is addressed by her supervisor, a mysterious character known as “Control”, embodies a certain spirit in her character that anyone who’s ever worked a repetitive, dead-end job just to make ends meet will immediately understand and empathize with. She’s not exactly thrilled to be where she is but she’s making the best of it. Picking up and delivering packages as Rania for Cloudpunk is the core of the gameplay. Getting in your HOVA to cross the vast stretches of the cityscape, landing it on the right platforms, and strolling to the package’s destination to hand it off to the recipient is an accurate way to describe the gameplay loop, but to say that’s all Cloudpunk is would be missing the forest for the trees. The real essence of the game is found in the story, it’s characters and slowly soaking in the atmosphere. Over time you get to understand how things work, and while it’s simple on the surface, there is some depth to be found here.

The frame rate, at least on console is best described as reliably unreliable. Interestingly it’s fairly serviceable when you are walking around on the ground but completely takes a nosedive when you start flying around and your HOVA, despite being in the exact same environment. It never quite got into motion sickness territory for me, but if you are particularly sensitive to that sort of thing, it’s probably worth checking to see if it’s been cleaned up with a patch before you purchase the game. At the time of writing this review the PS4 version has not been. It’s a shame that this is an issue for Cloudpunk at this point, but here’s hoping it gets resolved soon.

"The real essence of the game is found in the story, it’s characters and slowly soaking in the atmosphere. Over time you get to understand how things work, and while it’s simple on the surface, there is some depth to be found here."

Speaking of walking around you can do it in three different perspectives most of the time. A fixed camera angle from far away, a more traditional 3rd person angle that you can control, and a first person view. Cloudpunk never really does much to make one camera style preferable to another, so it’s really just about your preference. I appreciate the options, but I mostly found the regular 3rd-person angle to be the best balance most of the time.

The two main hemispheres of Cloudpunk’s gameplay are somewhat unbalanced in their importance, and not in the way you might suspect at first. Flying the HOVA is fine, and serves as a nice excuse for the game to give you little drips of exposition, but the game is actually far more interesting while you’re on foot, picking up objects, observing the tone of the world, buying things for your apartment, and interacting with the slew of fascinating characters. Cloudpunk’s NPC’s go a long way towards building this world with unique designs, great writing, and mostly fitting into one of three categories; Taking advantage of society’s shortcomings for their own gain, being victims of it, or doing their best to hold things together with duct tape, hopes, and dreams. All of these character archetypes shine a light on many of the destructive attributes we see emerging today and the growing uncertainty fueled by economic deterioration.

It doesn’t really provide any sort of overt commentary or judgements on those things, but it does a tasteful job of depicting an eerily believable future stage of them. The one character that sort of defies the doom and gloom is Camus, Rania’s dog. He rounds out the cast of characters nicely and provides some much needed levity in the game. Despite being written and performed, distracting similarly to Doug from Up, I rather enjoyed him and how he actually gives Rania something to personally care about. Overall, the writing, the voice acting, and the context behind the game’s many seemingly mundane deliveries is what really drives the experience forward and keeps it interesting. Many times, Rania is faced with morally grey choices that you decide on by how and where you deliver a package. These moments are some of the best in the entire game. They force you to consider options, perhaps go back and forth a bit, and ultimately make a call. Before you know it, you’ll be hanging on every one of Rania’s lines and genuinely worrying about the ramifications of whatever choice you made.

"Overall, the writing, the voice acting, and the context behind the game’s many seemingly mundane deliveries is what really drives the experience forward and keeps it interesting."

Meanwhile, the other side of the game is driving you HOVA around, which controls more or less like a floating tank, this isn’t helped at all by the bad framerate on the PS4, which I imagine isn’t any better on the Switch. Using the right stick to control elevation and the triggers to control going forward and backward is instantly easy to get used to, that said, the driving does suffer a bit from depth-of-field issues. I found myself hitting things that I had no idea I was close enough to come into contact with more often than I should have, and I think they could have been a little more generous with how close I needed to be to a parking space to land on it. That said, I never found it to be agonizingly bad, it just happens to be the weakest element of the game overall. Managing your damage and gas do help a bit with fleshing this part of the game out on paper, but I mostly felt like these things were just distracting me from Cloudpunk’s better half; the story.

To describe Cloudpunk as a delivery game with a good story, wouldn’t be entirely accurate. That’s more of a description of Death Stranding, whose gameplay is mostly focused on the adventure of the delivery itself. Cloudpunk doesn’t quite do that. It’s not really a delivery game with a story as much as it is a story-driven adventure game that just happens to use a delivery system as a device to propel its narrative. It’s not so much about figuring out “how” to make a delivery as it is about asking “why”. Cloudpunk’s world wants Rania to think it’s simple and straight up. But it’s characters and it’s story force you as a player to realize it’s anything but.

It pulls this dichotomy off with such elegance, that it’s ultimately a little disappointing to see that it doesn’t have much else up its sleeve. It goes out of its way to constantly remind you of the interesting world you’re in, yet ultimately, only uses what it has created to remind you that it exists. Some players may find that to be perfectly fine, and that to have some sort of singular moral grandstand on one perspective or another would ultimately subvert the games underlying theme of choice and consequence, and I don’t necessarily disagree with that. But at the same time, I would be lying if I said I felt totally satisfied after being shown such a well-crafted series of quandaries over and over without ever seeing it lead anywhere other than to more reminders of its own profundity.

"Despite its flaws in the technical department, which are, at times fairly egregious, Cloudpunk does a pretty good job of making you forget about that with a surprisingly good story most of the time."

Despite its flaws in the technical department, which are, at times fairly egregious, Cloudpunk does a pretty good job of making you forget about that with a surprisingly good story most of the time. Once the story reaches the bottom of it’s bag of tricks however, you might start to notice its untapped potential becoming more noticeable as the game wears on. Depending on the player, the momentum created at the beginning might be enough to carry you through, but for most, I suspect, the ceiling created by its own unpolished gameplay and it’s inability to conclude in a satisfying way, will just barely keep it from achieving actual greatness.

Most great adventure games get away with shallow gameplay because of how satisfying their stories are. Cloudpunk gets closer to that than I thought it would, but still stops short of it. This particular adventure game does deliver the goods, just not quite enough of them, or in a consistent enough manner, for me to overlook it’s issues. In Cloudpunk, the good and the bad are simply a package deal.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Resident Evil 3

Capcom returns with yet another remake in the Resident Evil series, this time of 1999 PS One classic Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. Along with stunning new visuals, the remake includes new designs for Jill Valentine and Carlos Oliveira, new mechanics for Nemesis (like a flamethrower and increased agility) and expanded story beats. There’s an online mode, Resident Evil Resistance, which sees four players attempting to survive the schemes of a player-controlled Mastermind. Even with some mixed reviews here and there, Resident Evil 3 is still worth checking out on April 3^rd for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake

The legendary RPG finally gets its remake and thankfully, it’s not far off now. Final Fantasy 7 Remake is only the first part of the story, running till the escape from Midgard. However, it features a completely redone battle system focused on hack and slash combat, gorgeous graphics, expanded interactions and scenes, and gameplay length to rival a mainline game. If the demo was any indication, Final Fantasy 7 Remake will likely, hopefully exceed expectations when it launches on April 10^th for PS4.

Gears Tactics

What happens when Gears of War meets XCOM with executions and snapping to cover? You get Gears Tactics, developed by The Coalition and Splash Damage, which takes place several years before the first game. The objective is to defeat a Locust mastermind, recruiting and customizing squad members over a 40 hour plus campaign. Tactical turn-based fans are advised to keep an eye out for Gears Tactics. It launches on April 28^th for PC via Steam and the Microsoft Store.

Predator: Hunting Grounds

4v1 asymmetric multiplayer titles are nothing new but this is IllFonic, known for Friday the 13^th: The Game. Predator: The Hunting Grounds breaks up the monotony all the more, seeing four soldiers – who navigate a map and deal with enemy NPCs while completing objectives – surviving against the Predator. With four soldier classes and three Predator classes, a variety of weapons and gadgets, Predator: Hunting Grounds promises a tense experience when it releases on April 24^th for PC and PS4.

Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories

A new entry in Granzella’s action adventure series, Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories is all about escaping from the city when a cataclysmic earthquake hits. This time around, players will be able to enter different buildings and find survivors. You also need to manage “cleanliness” and keep stress down. As an alternative to everything else, Disaster Report 4 might be worth checking out when it releases on April 7^th for PC, PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

Deliver Us The Moon (Consoles)

Originally released on PC, Deliver Us The Moon is a sci-fi thriller that will be releasing for consoles on April 24^th. As an astronaut, your job is to investigate the sudden loss of communication with a World Space Agency colony on the Moon. Where has everyone gone and what ultimately happened? You’ll be managing these mysteries in both first and third person, exploring the colony for clues and solving puzzles. Deliver Us The Moon will be available next month for PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

Hellpoint

Cradle Games’ Hellpoint is a Souls-like sci-fi with a dash of weirdness. Taking place on a ruined space station overrun by threats from another dimension, the player must explore and fight them off. The twist is that various dynamic events can occur – including enemies randomly attacking and bosses appearing – making each playthrough unique. After playing Hellpoint: The Thespian Feast, the free standalone follow-up available on Steam, I’m hopeful for a more fleshed-out and polished experience with Hellpoint. We’ll find out how it fares on April 16^th for PC, Xbox One, PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

Cloudpunk

Set in a sprawling futuristic metropolis called Nivalis, Cloudpunk centers on Rania, starting the first day as a delivery agent. Throughout your experience, you’ll meet different characters, make decisions that influence the city’s well-being and encounter different mysteries and secrets. There’s some intrigue over what you’re delivering – about not missing a delivery or asking what’s in the package. All of this just makes us more curious for when Cloudpunk debuts on April 23^rd for PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

Fallout 76: Wastelanders

Sure, it’s actually a free update but Bethesda’s Fallout 76: Wastelanders is still a major release in its own right. It changes the online title in many ways, from revamping the main quest and adding a brand new one to bringing back human NPCs and factions. Players will interact with either the Settlers or Raiders through dialogue trees, complete different tasks for reputation, and ally with one or the other. Over time, you’ll be able to recruit and romance companions, explore new locations, and earn new weapons and armor. Fallout 76’s Wastelanders update is out on April 14^th for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.