COD Modern Warfare 2 takes aim at PLAY’s cover

PLAY #18 is out now! Call Of Duty cover features have come to plenty of gaming mags over the years, but this is the first time on PLAY. We couldn’t help ourselves, as this new-flavour Modern Warfare II is one of the most exciting and important releases in the series to date. Especially for single-player lovers. UK and digital buyers even get a bonus magazine as part of this premium issue - celebrating Grand Theft Auto over the years, including GTA: The Top 100.

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Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Fortunately, Infinity Ward is on hand to sit down with us to discuss it all. Captain Price and Task Force 141 star in one of the most ambitious FPS campaigns we’ve ever seen, and it seems to be setting a new pace for the series and the genre as a whole, with some prime multiplayer offerings to match. Let’s hope it can stick the landing as we need some single-player wins for the series.

GTA: The Ultimate Companion

We also take the time to celebrate one of our favourite open world series of all time, Grand Theft Auto! A real labour of love, we filled this with everything we could. Our bonus magazine, GTA: The Ultimate Companion, includes:

• GTA: The Top 100: counting down our favourite moments and more from the series
• GTA-Z: a journey through GTA's storied history
• GTA Online: why there's never been a better time to start playing, and how to get started

Gaming movies

Games aren’t the only things that have grown more ambitious over time either – movies based on games have too. We take a look at the history of big-screen adaptations, for better and worse. But between the likes of Uncharted and Sonic The Hedgehog 2, it feels like we’ve finally turned a corner. Join us as we highlight our favourites (including some we feel have become underrated), find the goodness in a bad flick, and tell you which ones to just plain steer clear of.

Skull And Bones

Skull And Bones has re-emerged after we last saw it many moons ago, adrift at an E3. Ubisoft throwing its weight behind another online game isn’t shocking, but this game’s style is a bit more surprising. It promises to be an immersive pirate-’em-up that you can get lost in rather than being twitchy all the time, which is a nice change of pace. Creative director Elisabeth Pellen chats with us to explain how it came to be.

Inside look

PlayStation itself still has plenty up its sleeve to excite PS5 owners. New updates have been rolling out to the beta programme to assist in organisation and provide the long-awaited 1440p resolution, and yet another PSVR2 update reveals more about how the headset camera will function.

It’s not all cold numbers, though. We also talk to the devs behind Marvel’s Midnight Suns about embracing the darker side of superheroics, take a look at JRPG/detective mystery game Mato Anomalies, and crawl into the tunnels to get a glimpse of Aliens’ big new horror game.

Stray curls up in our reviews section

Stray headlines our stacked reviews section. This wonderful indie where you play as a cat really does purr on PS5, but does it completely stack up to the immense hype? We also have four (!) pages of frog reviews thanks to Time On Frog Island and Frogun, a big deep dive into Two Point Campus, and our early verdict on the rather fun MultiVersus. We’ve also got Endling, Hell Pie, Story Of Seasons, and more!

Hands-on with Soulstice, FIFA, and more

If it’s the next big thing you’re looking for instead, we’ve got you covered across hands-ons, studio access, and curiosities aplenty. That includes our own impressions on the likes of FIFA 23 and Exoprimal from EA and Cacpom respectively, but also throwing our hat into the ring part-dating game part-action game Thirsty Suitors, Devil May Cry-like Soulstice, and roller derby management visual novel *catches breathe* Roller Drama. And, of course, more than that too.

RetroStation

Is that too new!? Okay, then let’s get old. RetroStation returns as it does every issue, this time with a big feature about cross-gen games that had substantially different versions. We’re talking the likes of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, which had different mechanics cross PS1 and PS2, and even Sonic Unleashed, where levels had the same themes but vastly different stage designs. It’s really interesting!

Plus a retrospective on Disgaea: Hour Of Darkness, a defence of Monokuma, a look back and Croc… we’re just getting started here, folks! This summer shows no signs of slowing down, so we hope you enjoy reading this packed issue as much as we did making it.

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