For PS5 players, action hack and slash title Soulstice will be available. PS4 players can look forward to Tacoma, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Killing Floor 2. A game trial for WWE 2K23 will also be available, though this is more than likely exclusive to PS Plus Premium.

It’s worth noting that several other titles like ELEX 2, Redout 2, MX vs ATV Legends, PAW Patrol Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay, My Friend Peppa Pig and DC League of Super-Pets: The Adventures of Krypto and Ace for PS4 and PS5 are mentioned in a recent PlayStation Access video. You also have The Talos Principle: Deluxe Edition, Lonely Mountains: Downhill, Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York, A Hat in Time, Carto, Forager, Dodgeball Academia, The Wild at Heart and Thief coming to PS4.

Classics coming to PlayStation Plus Premium include Killzone: Liberation for the PSP and Worms and
Herc’s Adventure on the PlayStation One.

Dying Light 2 Stay Human

Techland’s sequel to 2015 sleeper hit Dying Light 2 Stay Human is rightly praised for its freewheeling first-person parkour, but its melee heavy combat is uber-satisfying too. In the spirit of post-apocalyptic societal collapse, surviving face-to-face encounters with bands of ravaging zombies requires utilising whatever object comes to hand – bats and batons to bludgeon, machetes to slice, axes to dice. The brutality of Dying Light 2 Stay Human’s combat is ravishing, with parkour skills in the form of flying kicks upping the fun factor.

Dead Island 2

Deep Silver’s zombie sequel delivers heaps of ridiculous hack and slash action, done so hilariously over the top the blood-soaked brawling on the streets of a zombie-ravaged Los Angeles feels slapstick or cartoonish. And on Dead Island 2’s streets are a mass of improvised weaponry – pipe wrenches and pool cues, meat cleavers and makeshift swords, with an endless supply of craft-able upgrades to boost limb damage, or burn, maim, and shred the undead into gloriously gory bits and pieces.

Dead Rising 2    

To survive the hordes of hungry zombies in Dead Rising 2 – sometimes congregating in gangs thousands strong – player character Chuck Greene can combine everyday objects to create ludicrous improvised weaponry. Duct taping a machete to a toy helicopter creates the Heliblade, the Auger attaches a drill motor to a pitchfork, the brutal bat axe Defiler combines a sledgehammer and a fire axe. Even makeshift vehicles make an appearance such as the battery-fied electric wheelchair, which, to push things even more sadistically can be combined with a merc assault rifle to craft the Blitzkrieg, the perfect killing machine to masochistically roll through crowds of zombies.

State of Decay 2: Juggernaut Edition

Open world zombie survival sim State of Decay 2: Juggernaut Edition focuses most on the grim reality of life after a zombie outbreak levels society. Scavenging for food, cobbling resources with other survivors, building a community, and fortifying a home base are the flesh on State of Decay 2’s bones, but with a smattering of zombies stalking the countryside there arises opportunity for hacking and slashing too. Now, ranged weaponry is the usually the safest option, but with a huge list of melee weapons at each survivors’ disposal, it’s much more satisfyingly savage to whack a zombie on the cranium with a nail puller, or get up close and savour every gory detail with a rusty screwdriver.     

Days Gone

There’s a lot to love in Deacon St. John’s odyssey through zombie-ravaged Oregon in Days Gone. Principally, the strategic funnelling of hordes of infected freakers through carefully laid traps to eliminate their numbers en masse in sheer joyous desperation is a seriously well implemented gameplay loop that’s still relatively unique amongst video games some four years after release. This being a post-apocalypse, there are of course plenty of blunt objects dotted around with which to bash freakers over the head with. Crafting recipes unlock even grislier concoctions too: 2×4’s can be stuffed with a box of nails, baseball bats can be made much more durable with a little bit of scrap metal and pipework; even a stool leg can be combined with a saw blade to rip faces off.

The Last of Us Part I

Featuring much more intense hand-to-hand combat brought over from 2020’s The Last of Us Part II, last year’s The Last of Us remake improved character animations, made enemy AI smarter and more tactically astute, and rejuvenated stealth encounters. Of course, encounters can be stealthily skipped, but an aggressive approach to combat is always ultra-satisfying. Whilst it’s a shame Part II’s dodge ability wasn’t included in Part I, the melee weapon-based action remained and with it the brutal satisfaction in decking runners in the skull with a brick or shanking a clicker in the back with a shiv blade.

Killing Floor 2

Killing Floor 2 is dripping in visceral guts and gore, with limbs and entrails constantly flung across the screen. The game’s raft of melee weapons provides multiple satisfying ways in which to rip enemy ZEDs apart too, from conventional slashing katanas and swords, to more unusual items such as the bruising bone crusher, the combination sledgehammer shotgun known as the pulveriser, and the buzz saw spewing eviscerator. One of the best melee weapons in the entire game though is the medieval sword zweihandler. It isn’t especially expensive, but once paired with the massacre perk will transform players into an unstoppable slicing, dicing tornado of death.

Lollipop Chainsaw

Grasshopper Manufacture’s mindless Lollipop Chainsaw, in which players arm cheerleader zombie hunter Juliet Starling with a bedazzled chainsaw before slicing her way through a zombie infested high school, is perhaps the game made for this rundown. Juliet’s knack for pirouetting in kaleidoscopic rays of rainbow and blood is endlessly fun, and that chainsaw in question features tons of humorous, schlocky upgrades: adding an engine and exhaust pipes grants Juliet power to dodge, an 8 rocket cartridge transforms the bedazzled chainsaw into an explosive long-range grenade launcher, and possibly most sadistic of all is the Nick Popper, a speaker phone type attachment capable of launching jock boyfriend Nick Carlyle’s detached head as a projectile.

Zombie Army 4: Dead War       

Ostensibly a shooter set within an alternate history where humankind is locked in endless battle against Hitler’s undead Armageddon, Zombie Army 4: Dead War also features its fair share of glorious hack and slash elements. The sadistic X-ray kill cam from developer Rebellion’s Sniper Elite series makes an appearance here too alongside some seriously killer melee combat, with powerful close-quarter combat weaponry accompanying the brutal fisticuffs. The electric fist, for instance, is a powerful knuckleduster which stuns enemies with a supercharged electrical current; divine blast knocks multiple opponents down with a very useful shockwave; the machete smash blade slices through enemies like a hot knife through butter; and last but not least, the incendiary modified hatchet sets anything within range on fire as well as simultaneously cutting chunks off zombie soldiers withered bodies.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

This isn’t your typical horror; Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice instead chills players to the bone by way of its psychosis laden trauma dripping in existential dread, bringing Ninja Theory’s action adventure close to the realms of the best psychological horror games. Of course, it’s hack and slash combat can be exciting to pull off too, with spritely dodge ability and precise parry systems bringing an element of skill to the button mashing sword swings. Rudimentary combos are also possible with light and heavy attacks that can be chained together to a spectacular stab and launch-kick finishing move.

And another thing – visually portraying a weapon’s character is only half the story. Animators must stimulate that most nebulous of concepts too: game feel. How does the player feel holding the weapon? Of course, there’re additional aspects at play: the weapon’s appearance, its fire rate and sound design, for instance. These aspects exist in harmony with weapon reload animations creating a tactile sensation for the player. If a firearm’s reload animation doesn’t match the rest of its design elements, then game feel is lost, and player satisfaction gone.

So, without further ado, here are fifteen totally awesome reload animations, ranging from rapid in-and-outs for breakneck gunplay, to stately, tactical, detailed reloads, with unnecessarily inefficient but visually epic flamboyance stuffed in-between.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

Wearing its retro-future 80s action clichés firmly on its sleeve is Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. Playing as Cyber Commando Sergeant Rex Colt, himself a tongue-in-cheek homage to Terminator-esque half-man half-machines, gave animators plenty of wiggle room for flashiness. There’re excessive exaggerations in Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon’s reload animation; movements are wide and freewheeling, shotguns unnecessarily spin mid-air before cartridges are coin flipped down the barrel in carefree volition, providing both visual ostentation and information for players of Sergeant Colt’s robotic strength and precision. In short, they’re totally unrealistic, eye-popping attention-grabbers.

As announced earlier in the month, Final Fantasy 7 will be among the first of several classic Final Fantasy titles that will come and that starts this month. Another 7 is Tekken 7, the latest and ongoing entry in the classic fighting franchise, which will be on the service until February 28 of next year. To round out the lineup, there is also the shooter Killing Floor 2, the indie adventure game Windbound, and two very different RPG titles with Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Moonlighter. You can see more details on the official PlayStation blog through here.

All of these titles will be available on PlayStation Now via PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and PC starting on September 7th.

This week’s free slate of games are now available on the Epic Games Store. They include Tripwire Interactive’s Killing Floor 2, Team 17’s The Escapists 2 and Stage 2 Studios’ Lifeless Planet. Claim them before July 16th and keep them forever (though an Epic Games Store account and the launcher are necessary).

Killing Floor 2 should be familiar to many FPS players. It’s renowned as one of the best co-op horde shooters out there with tons of weapons, interesting maps and enemies, and terrifying zombies. Despite its age, the title continues to receive new content and updates.

The Escapists 2 is a strategy title with some role-playing thrown in as you struggle to escape from prison. There are several different prisons to escape and extensive customization options along with a better combat system than its predecessor. As a time-waster for those who enjoy semi-roguelite experiences, it’s pretty good. Then there’s Lifeless Planet, a puzzle platformer which released in 2014 and has received below average reviews overall.

‼️ FREE THIS WEEK ‼️

Escape prison. Unravel a space mystery. Kill some clones. We've got three different thrills for you this week: Killing Floor 2, Lifeless Planet, and The Escapists 2 – all free until July 16 and yours to keep forever! https://t.co/mqSSRoz26l pic.twitter.com/cRujBCzQgz

— Epic Games Store (@EpicGames) July 9, 2020

Rainbow Six Siege

Ubisoft’s tactical first person shooter may have had a rough launch but its hand animations were fairly good and have only improved. Watching Operators set up barricades, manage different weapons and bashing through obstacles is still enthralling after all these years. The animations behind abilities have become more imaginative as well – just watch Iana activate her Gemini Replicator, which manifests a holographic version of herself to control, or Oryx who busts through walls without a care.

One thing that you can’t say about the gaming world today is that there is a lack of free things being given away. Between the various subscription services, giveaways and just the random deals that get thrown to us anymore, there exists a sea of free games. One of those outputs is the Epic Games Store, which has given out free titles weekly since its release in 2018. And next week, it’s giving out three.

Apparently, Conan: Exiles was supposed to be part of the free offerings this week as Epic Games announced on their Twitter, but it was ultimately pulled. Because of that we’ll be getting three very distinct games instead next week: Killing Floor 2, The Escapists 2 and Lifeless Planet. The Escapists 2 was also scheduled to come to the store at some point earlier, but did not because of undefined technical issues. Apparently, that has been resolved.

The three games will be available for free on the storefront starting July 9th, replacing the current free title, Hue. Conan: Exiles is said to be coming at later date, but it is not clear whether it will be a free title or not.

The Division – Door Closing

When The Division was first revealed to the world, it was completely from what ended up being released. The brutal survival-based title with PvP that could seemingly happen anywhere gave way to a looter shooter with more cover-based gameplay. It wasn’t all that bad – the transition resulted in one of the biggest new IP launches of the generation next to Bungie’s Destiny. However, before launch, fans expected one detail to carry over into the final game – the animation of your Agent dynamically closing a car’s door.

As one moved in cover, any open car door they passed by would be closed by the player character. They simply reached out and nonchalantly shut it. Thankfully, this little bit of detail didn’t just make the jump to the full release – Ubisoft Massive even tracked the number of car doors closed during the beta and also added an Achievement for it in the final game.

Tripwire Interactive is bundling Killing Floor 2 and Killing Floor: Incursion for PlayStation VR into a single bundle for PS4. Killing Floor: Double Feature, as it’s called, will retail for $39.99 and is available on May 21st in both physical and digital storefronts. Check out the announcement trailer below.

Killing Floor 2 is a solid, horde mode-style first person shooter, which has seen a number of content updates since launch. Players can choose from different classes, equip various weapons, and cooperate with up to five more players in Survival Mode. There’s also a mode for 12 players called Versus Survival in case you want some competition.

As for Killing Floor: Incursion, it’s a virtual reality spin-off that sees players exploring a simulation of the first Horzine Corporation outbreak. Using guns and melee weapons, players must take down incoming Zeds while trying to find out why they’ve been dumped into a simulation. Killing Floor: Double Feature will include all the seasonal content that’s released for Killing Floor 2 thus far, along with Mrs. Foster as a playable character.

Humble Bundle’s latest offer is one that should be appealing for PlayStation 4 owners, especially those who love indie titles. The Humble Indie PlayStation Bundle 2019 offers up to nine different games and will be available until February 12th, 11 AM PST. Head here to pick it up for yourself.

The tiered-model is fairly simple – pay $1 and you get Grim Fandango Remastered, The Bard’s Tale Remastered, and InnerSpace. Pay more than the current average, which is about $9, and you get four more titles – Layers of Fear, Wasteland 2 Director’s Cut, The Talos Principle, and Broken Age. If you pay $15 or more, then you also get Killing Floor 2 and Shadow Warrior as well. Not a bad deal, overall.

Along with the games, you’ll also receive soundtracks for Grim Fandango, InnerSpace, Layers of Fear, and Broken Age. These are available at each game’s respective tier. Consumers can also decide how much of their money goes to charity, the Humble Store, or the developers in question.