Today sees the addition of the first-person narrative adventure Close to the Sun for all three platforms, followed by Hell Let Loose on January 4th. Action-adventure title Figment is available on January 9th, followed by Super Mega Baseball 4 (via EA Play) and We Happy Few on January 11th. Psychological horror Those Who Remain rounds out the first wave on January 16th.

Several games will also be leaving the library soon. Grand Theft Auto 5 on cloud and console will be gone on January 5th. Check out the rest of the list (which subscribers can purchase at 20 percent off) below before their removal on January 15th:

• Garden Story (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• MotoGP 22 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Persona 4 Golden (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Persona 3 Portable (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

The guerrilla warfare aspect and lack of a radar in Metal Gear Solid 3 turned sniping into a fairly important mechanic. Rifles could be used to scout ahead and pick off foes from a safe distance, after all though you still had to be careful about leaving bodies. The true test came when facing The End – if you actually tried fighting him, then tracing his position and not getting caught out was key, especially with how incredible his aim could be. This also opened up a number of strategies like capturing and releasing his parrot while using the directional microphone to find his position.

Team17 – known primarily for developing and publishing the Worms games – has been Black Matter’s publisher for Hell Let Loose, but it seems the success of the game has seen the former investing further in the game. It’s been announced that Team17 has fully acquired the Hell Let Loose IP.

The acquisition involves an initial sum of £31 million, in addition to contingent payments of up to £15 million. Team17 says it will look to “create additional opportunities to extend the lifecycle” of the game, which should include “further downloadable content and ongoing support as well as exploring potential sequels and other commercial opportunities.”

Team17 also says it’s creating a new “core gaming label”, and that Hell Let Loose is going to be the first game under that label. This label, according to the company, will “utilise dedicated funds providing a specific focus to source the best core-gaming content across the globe.”

Team17 CEO Michael Pattison said: “We are delighted to be announcing the acquisition of the Hell Let Loose IP. Hell Let Loose has quickly become a highly credible and innovative multiplayer tactical first-person shooter supported by a very passionate and highly engaged community with over six million players. Having built a close and extremely productive relationship with Black Matter already, we believe that by bringing Hell Let Loose into the Team17 stable, we can serve and build upon the needs of an ever-growing community, improve and expand upon the existing player experience and develop new ways to entertain and delight. We firmly believe Hell Let Loose can become the definitive large-scale team-based military simulation.

“This acquisition represents an important next step in our strategy to expand our ownership of IP that is not only of the highest quality, but importantly has long-term growth potential.”

Black Matter founder and CEO Max Rea said: “This is a wonderful opportunity for our fans and a logical next step-up in the development of Hell Let Loose as a brand. Team17 love our brand and community as we do, which has expanded across multiple platforms successfully. We’ve worked very closely with our good friends at Team17 over the last several years and firmly believe that this acquisition is the next logical step to enable us to further deliver great content to the highly passionate HLL community, as well as find new ways to engage and entertain in the future.

“We are really excited to continue to work with Team17 on the next stage of growth for Hell Let Loose.“

Hell Let Loose is currently available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Black Matter has previously said that it has no plans for PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game.

Hell Let Loose doesn’t waste much time before thrusting you into its mix of first person shooting and real-time warfare strategy. Once on the ground, you’ll want to immediately begin and sustain constant communication with as many of your squad mates as possible, as the most organized and efficient team of 50 is often the winner of the game’s 2 main modes; Offensive and Warfare. Both of which are basically centered around the concept of a huge map where up to 100 players compete for control of the map’s handful of zones scattered throughout the area while a timer ticks away. As previously mentioned though, communication is the main key here. One can voice chat with their designated unit, with whoever is near their current location, or of course commanders can functionally talk to the entire army by talking directly with leaders of each unit. Soldiers within each 6-player unit are tasked with carrying out their specific duties whether that be medical, engineering, assault, support, or other focuses. All of which have their own unlockables that slowly fall into place as you use them. But everyone also needs to be able to think on their feet and pick up players’ slack at a moment’s notice, and this is where a lot of the spice of Hell Let Loose comes from. When a rigid strategy comes into conflict with unexpected complications, your team’s mettle will be tested, and you will either sink or swim together.

"While its unforgiving nature might be an acquired taste for many, and it likely won’t really click with you until you’re several hours in, this particular road to hell is likely worth traveling for those looking for a truly hardcore World War 2 simulator."

Respect for the game’s general concepts and themes aside, on a technical level it’s a bit more of a mixed bag. The environments are generally well-crafted and highly detailed with dilapidated fences, partially-incinerated houses, and other ravages of war abound. These pockets of highly engrossing areas don’t encompass the majority of most maps though. Most of what you’ll see as you traverse the landscapes on your way to your next destination are large empty fields lined with the same bushes and trenches that you saw in the last map, and while this is probably more realistic than loading up each map with all sorts of interesting locations, it also can make long stretches of gameplay feel a bit dry as you will spend a rather large chunk of your playtime crossing big swaths of the map.

This is especially true when you’re first starting out or when you end up on a poor team since you’ll be dying more often. This can of course be alleviated with vehicles, but then you pay the price of being a massive target for enemy forces. Even when you’re in one of the game’s more visually interesting spots there’s rarely anything to find there anyway. In fact, they can draw the eye of the enemy as well, so your team really shouldn’t hang around in them for long anyway, unless of course your strategy specifically requires that. Customization of your soldiers’ attire is similarly full of respectably accurate options but nothing special. The flipside for the game’s visuals being a bit barren and plain is the game running pretty well most of the time and setting the mood effectively with nice lighting on top.

From a wider view of the game, those drawn-out segments of traversal and strategy are really just the connective tissue between the game’s brutal firefights where one wrong move can alter the course of the entire battle. It’s in these moments – where you and your opposition are finally having it out – the most prepared and efficient team will almost surely prevail, and all of the buildup of strategizing and execution comes to a head. The nuts and bolts of the combat are about as basic as it gets though. Holding R1 will bring up your unit-specific options like health packs, grenades, mines, or binoculars, but the rest of the controller layout is standard FPS fare. Although I do appreciate the ability to sprint while crouched – which you don’t see every day. While I never found any major problems with the combat itself, and support for the DualSense’s adaptive triggers was nice, I have to admit some of the basic actions are a little too slow and chunky for their own good.

"From the arrhythmic snaps of distant gunfire to the iconic ping of an MI Garand’s final bullet ringing out, Hell Let Loose’s atmosphere is brought together nicely with a vast array of authentic sounds that engulfed the many battles of World War 2."

Ducking behind a wall to avoid incoming fire, or going prone in the grass to avoid being seen by an enemy soldier as they’re coming around the corner feels like it takes an eternity in those tense moments, and in a game that punishes mistakes so heavily by taking you all the way back to one of your claimed spawn points, that can be a real bummer at times. Still, everyone you’re fighting against has to deal with the same things, so I suppose it’s technically not unfair. It’s just moderately annoying in those moments, and it doesn’t help the already prickly gameplay go down any smoother. Getting killed by enemies you never even see and having very subtle – if any – indication of where their fire is coming from are also things that are should be filed under the category of “effectively realistic but at the cost of congeniality”. Fleeting moments of frustration can quickly give way to the game’s many satisfactions if you luck out with a great team, but the opposite can be said if you don’t, unless you have at least 40-ish friends who are all as good at (and dedicated to) the game as you are. But I think for most of us that won’t be the case.

The game’s sound design brings an extra bit of shine to the overall experience. From the arrhythmic snaps of distant gunfire to the iconic ping of an MI Garand’s final bullet ringing out, Hell Let Loose’s atmosphere is brought together nicely with a vast array of authentic sounds that engulfed the many battles of World War 2.

Hell Let Loose is something that most online multiplayer shooters are afraid to be. As any misstep in unbalanced map design or overpowered classes could result in an instantly broken experience for everyone. Despite some clunkiness with finer movements, some stretches of dullness that go on a bit too long, and the inevitable inconsistencies that any online game is destined to deal with, Hell Let Loose often adds up to a good time, and sometimes even a great one. It doesn’t do much to go above and beyond, and its deficiencies might be enough to stop some from enjoying its strong points, but for the players the game is clearly aimed at, its flaws are mostly forgivable.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

Speaking to The Loadout, Black Matter CEO Max Rea said there are no real plans at this time to bring the game to PS4 and Xbox One. While he didn’t rule out the possibility, he said getting the game (which was never really designed to be on consoles) up and running on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S was a challenge already. He said for now, the complexity of downporting is a no-go.

“If I’m shooting from the hip, I would say no just to give kind of a hard and fast answer. What you see on console is a result of us having to really live develop the game during our early access period. And then also as a result of taking a game that wasn’t built with console in mind, and then trying to make it work on console.”

Hell Let Loose is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. Those who are subscribed to PS Plus can redeem the PS5 version for the month of October, which you can read more about through here.

Hell Let Loose is a multiplayer shooter set against the backdrop of World War II, and will be exclusive to PS5 owners. Mortal Kombat X is still one of the best fighting games available, although the game is already a part of the PS Plus Collection, which PS5 owners will have access to already (should they have a PS Plus subscription). Lastly, there’s PGA Tour 2K21, which is also a fine enough game.

As it turns out, leaks were right on point again. An interesting point worth noting about this month’s offerings is the fact that Sony was giving a month of PS Plus subscription for $1, as a part of its promotional offer in the US. The games will be available to download for subscribers from 5th October onwards.

According to the aforementioned report. PlayStation Plus subscribers will get free access to multiplayer World War 2 shooter Hell Let Loose, PGA Tour 2K21, and Mortal Kombat X. Hell Let Loose will be available only to PS5 players, and it’s worth noting that, according to the report, Mortal Kombat X’s base version (not XL), will be given away for free. That is, of course, a tad disappointing, but for someone who hasn’t played the game yet, it’s a really good deal nonetheless.

This isn’t confirmed yet, of course, but with September nearly over, it won’t be too long before Sony officially announces next month’s PS Plus lineup. Stay tuned, and we’ll keep you updated on any new details that come our way.

An interesting point worth noting is that Hell Let Loose‘s cross-play implementation is that it only works on console, and PC players wouldn’t be able to play with console players. Of course, that’s largely understandable since PC players will obviously have an advantage from aiming with the mouse – and sorting that out requires quite a bit of rebalancing in competitive natured games.

Cross-play is quickly becoming one of the most requested features in any multi-platform game, and it’s certainly great to see developers like Black Matter catering to the request of fans. Implementing it can still be cumbersome, given Sony and Nintendo’s stances and associated policies on the matter.

Cross platform play will be coming to Hell Let Loose on console, between PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles.

We'll be keeping PC and console separate though.

— Hell Let Loose (@hell_let_loose) August 18, 2021

Hell Let Loose started development as a hobby project at Black Matter way back in 2015, and the game entered Steam’s early access program in 2019 following a successful Kickstarter campaign. After a plethora of updates to the game over time, Hell Let Loose will finally be launching as a full game on July 27th, with a new update adding more gear and maps to the game.

Hell Let Loose has sold more than a million copies during its Early Access period, and a constant drip-feed of new content should keep players hooked. E3 2021 is far from over, with a plethora of conferences and events slated for the coming days, so stay tuned for all the latest updates.