A gamer since the 80s, Alex longs for a return to consoles with wood panels and games with manuals the size of phone books. When not working on his time machine he spends his time playing games like any normal person — with the controls inverted.
Hands On Has Just Cause 3 on PS4 Blown Us Away?
Where does he get those wonderful toys?
The Just Cause series has always done insane spectacle better than anyone, but with Avalanche Studios having already gone pretty much as big as you can go in Rico Rodriguez's first two outings, how do you up the ante yet again? Based on the first few hours playing Just Cause 3 the answer appears to be: you...
Review Star Wars Battlefront (PS4)
Yavin a good time
With many excellent Star Wars games committed to gaming history, it's unfortunate that the last five years or so have been a bit of a disappointment. A trend towards mobile games and titles targeting a younger demographic has left many yearning for a Star Wars game that can stand alongside classics such as TIE Fighter, Knights of...
Fantasy football
With turn-based strategy games usually taking place in some sort of military or empire building setting, it's always nice to see a title bring something a little different to the table. In Blood Bowl 2, American football's been forced through a Warhammer fantasy filter to create a violent sport where Humans, Orcs, Elves, and Dwarves...
Review Persona 4 Dancing All Night (PS Vita)
A beary good time
What a versatile bunch the Persona 4 gang are! Having already appeared in an RPG, a dungeon crawler, and a couple of fighting games, it's clear that they're willing to give anything a go. In their latest outing – Persona 4 Dancing All Night – they're probably furthest from their shadow bashing wheelhouse, but as luck would have...
First Impressions Shadow of the Beast Is Bloody Brilliant on PS4
Stepping out of the shadows
One of the quieter demo stations that we saw this year at EGX was for the reboot of eighties gaming classic, Shadow of the Beast. Now, this wasn't much of a surprise, especially since its announcement a couple of years ago at Gamescom was met with a resounding "huh, never heard of it" from anyone under the age of...
First Impressions Is Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain on PS4 the Best Entry Yet?
Tactical espionage excellence
It's night in Afghanistan, as the soldier known as Big Boss surveys a Russian outpost from afar. Soldiers, searchlights, and machine gun emplacements pepper the settlement, making his mission to rescue a prisoner held there even more difficult. The question is: what approach should the legendary soldier take? Should he...
Review Risen 3: Titan Lords - Enhanced Edition (PS4)
Still rolling with it
Dug up from the last-gen graveyard, the PlayStation 4 version of Risen 3: Titan Lords shares one big similarity with the unnamed hero at the heart of its own story: everyone thought that they were both dead and buried. Unfortunately the similarities end there, as only one's been resurrected to sail the high seas, in a quest to...
Review Abyss Odyssey: Extended Dream Edition (PS4)
Life’s abyss and then you die
As far as unrepresented settings in video games go, 19th Century Chile is right up near the top, so it's nice to see such an unexpected backdrop used in Abyss Odyssey: Extended Dream Edition. In this unconventional genre mash-up on PlayStation 4, you'll find a roguelike role-playing game that not only has a unique...
Review Nutjitsu: Reforged (PS4)
Like a thief in the nut
A squirrel and their nuts are not easily parted, so when the ninja squirrels have their stash of acorns stolen by a band of samurai foxes, it's up to one of their number to venture forth and retrieve their supply from right under the snouts of their enemies. In Nutjitsu: Reforged on the PlayStation 4 you'll be guiding a lone...
Review Payday 2: Crimewave Edition (PS4)
The heist life
As a law abiding citizen, committing robbery is probably the last thing on your mind. That said, somewhere inside your deepest thoughts – whether you'd admit it or not – you've probably pondered what it would be like to throw off the shackles of society's laws, and turn to a life crime. In Payday 2: Crimewave Edition for the...
Review Arcania: The Complete Tale (PlayStation 4)
Archaic adventure
Stop us if you've heard this one before: a man sets out on a quest for revenge after his idyllic life is shattered by the destruction of his home at the hands of a marauding army. On his journey for retribution, not only does he become a great warrior – who handily ends up saving the world – but this nameless hero even manages...
Review Nom Nom Galaxy (PlayStation 4)
Interstellar soup seller
Q-Games' PixelJunk series has always had its own quirky style, and while the developer's experiments may not have always hit the mark, they've at worst been worth a look. With the company's latest game Nom Nom Galaxy landing on PlayStation 4 – after hitting Steam Early Access last year – it's time to find out what the...
Review Ziggurat (PlayStation 4)
Rogue wizards
It's been a busy month for Roguelite, first-person-shooters on the PlayStation 4. No sooner have you put your feet up after besting the firearm filled gauntlets of Tower of Guns, when Ziggurat comes knocking on your door to drag you back to yet another randomly generated labyrinth, packed full of all sorts of monsters and traps. In...
Review Tower of Guns (PlayStation 4)
Guns! Guns! Guns!
In the beginning there was a game called Rogue. This ground breaking RPG was swiftly followed by a number of other titles that shared its penchant for randomly generated environments and punishing restarts. Lovingly referred to as Roguelikes, the last fifteen years or so has seen these sorts of titles enjoying a bit of a resurgence...
Review Far Cry 4: Valley of the Yetis (PlayStation 4)
Different, Yeti the same
The latest piece of downloadable content for Far Cry 4 – Valley of the Yetis – serves up another sizeable slice of action for the Kyrat faithful, and sees protagonist Ajay Ghale crash landing in the titular valley while investigating reports that Pagan Min's forces are on the hunt for a mysterious relic. After waking...
Review Zombie Army Trilogy (PlayStation 4)
Just a little off the top
Zombies have been the perennial whipping boys of the shooter genre for a while now, and it was inevitable that at some point they'd get mashed up with Nazis – second in the cannon fodder league table – to create the ultimate guilt-free targets to blast away at. While Zombie Army Trilogy on the PlayStation 4 is far from...
Cult of personality
The chances are that at some point in your life, you'll take some sort of psychometric assessment – such as a Myers-Briggs test – where, based on your answers, you'll be given a full rundown on your personality preferences. Are you an introvert or an extrovert, a thinker or a feeler? Whatever the answer, you'll find some...
Review AeternoBlade (PlayStation Vita)
Aeterno punishment
If there's a checklist for revenge you'd imagine it would go something like this: Step One – dig two graves; Step Two – serve cold. In AeternoBlade – a new action platform title on the PlayStation Vita – the game's heroine, Freyja, could certainly use just such a list. Not only has her hometown just been levelled by Dark...
Review Unmechanical: Extended (PlayStation 4)
The little robot that could
Unmechanical: Extended joins an ever lengthening list of PC and mobile games making the jump to PlayStation consoles. But, while this quirky puzzle game runs a very real risk of being lost in an ever expanding sea of indies, there's something enticing about its backdrop and robocopter protagonist that might just give it...
Review Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition (PlayStation Vita)
Hail to the king, baby
With only a few first-person shooters gracing the PlayStation Vita to date, there's plenty of room on Sony's handheld for anything offering up some half decent blasting. Since the bar hasn't exactly been set particularly high either, there's a perfect chance for classic titles such as Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition to stomp...
Review Cosmophony (PlayStation 3)
Hell in a halfpipe
Cosmophony is a rhythmic shooter for the PlayStation 3 which has you guiding a craft as it flies through a wire frame halfpipe packed full of geometric shapes. These are either obstacles to avoid or targets to blast and each of the five stages available are set to a thumping drum and bass soundtrack from French producer and DJ,...
Review Secret Ponchos (PlayStation 4)
All hat, no cattle
Secret Ponchos is a Spaghetti Western-themed multiplayer game that, at the point of its arrival on the PlayStation 4, is also available to play through the Early Access programme on Steam. This is a little worrying, as for all intents and purposes, the PC version isn’t considered ‘finished’, but yet the console edition is...
Review The Crew (PlayStation 4)
Thank you for driving dangerously
If you’ve ever fancied taking a coast-to-coast road trip across America, then you were probably excited by the announcement that Ubisoft's latest driving game The Crew was offering the chance to do just that. Even with its abbreviated version of the USA, the scale of its game world, coupled with the chance to tear...
Reflections in your rear-view mirror
Before Driver rolled onto the PSone in 1999, developer Reflections Interactive had already delivered two enjoyable driving experiences, in the form of the Destruction Derby games on Sony’s first console. With a physics engine that delivered a fun drive, and destructible vehicles that had debris flying off their...
