Author Profile

Username
Mason
Articles
96 (46 reviews)
First Article
Thu 30th, September 2010
Avg. Review Score
7.0
Find Them On
  • Review Pure Chess (PlayStation Vita)

    Pawn shop

    With an extensive range of tutorials tucked beneath its board, Pure Chess is set to make a grandmaster out of the freshest chess newbie. There are unforced errors in its approach, however, that prevent it from matching up to the age-old game's traditional quality. Pure Chess is the work of VooFoo Studios, the team behind Hustle Kings, and...

  • Feature Should Games Find Inspiration in Television?

    Suitable for broadcast

    The video game industry has been infatuated with cinema for years. The obsession stretches back to the late 1980s, if not earlier. Titles like Prince of Persia scattered cinematic setpieces throughout: leaps of faith into nothingness, climactic battles upon crumbling bridges. There was delight when SEGA's Mega CD allowed the...

  • Review Floating Cloud God Saves the Pilgrims (PlayStation Minis)

    Keep the faith

    You get lots of things if you're a cloud god. Your very own personal, environmentally friendly air transportation, the power to smite the mightiest of demons with only the tips of your fingers and the undying devotion of as many little old men as you like. It's not all lounging on beds of water vapour and gobbling grapes, though...

  • Review EA Sports FIFA Football (PlayStation Vita)

    Transfer listed

    The portable FIFA titles have come a long way since the days of Game Boy Advance, when pitched down versions were the norm. These days EA takes the portable market a little more seriously, going on PlayStation Vita from day one and launching FIFA Football alongside the new system. If you've played a home console FIFA title in the...

  • Review Rayman 3 HD (PlayStation 3)

    'Armless fun

    With his goofy haircut, non-existent limbs and a nose that threatens to eclipse the remainder of his face, Rayman's popularity is pretty surprising. After being sidelined in favour of screaming leporids for the last few years, the Glade of Dream's number one hero burst back in vogue after the exceptional Rayman Origins. Taking advantage...

  • Interview Canabalt (PlayStation Minis)

    Don't stop moving

    What do you do when aliens invade your planet? Run. Canabalt is the simple tale of one man's escape from destruction and world domination, a dash across roof tops as a city crumbles around him. Obstacles pepper his path, and with well-timed button presses you must avoid them so as to gather speed and get as far away as possible...

  • Feature PlayStation 3's Best Games

    The best of the best

    PlayStation 3 reaches its fifth birthday in Europe this week, where it finally released on 23rd March 2007 after a lengthy delay. In that time the system has been through highs and lows, but ultimately has proven to be a dominant beast in the living room, embracing multimedia such as TV and film streaming services, Blu-rays and...

  • Review Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (PlayStation 3)

    No braaains

    Set as a side story during the events of Resident Evil 2's Raccoon City outbreak, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City drops you in the heavy boots of an elite Umbrella commando squad. Your assignment: retrieve the G-Virus or, failing that, destroy all evidence of Umbrella's connection and remove any dangerous survivors — Leon S...

  • Review Touch My Katamari (PlayStation Vita)

    Roll with it

    Katamari Damacy began as a happy ball of creativity, an innovative concept revolving solely around the simple act of rolling. Eight years after it first arrived, the novelty has dissipated, the industry nary raising an eyebrow at the series any longer. Time, and a lack of forward movement, has normalised the Prince and King of All...

  • News Silent Hill Unleashes a Downpour Over North America

    Bring your umbrella

    Good news for convict Murphy Pendleton: during a prison transfer, an accident opens up an avenue towards all the freedom of a fugitive lifestyle. Bad news: he's crashed right up near the notorious town of Silent Hill, and the weather isn't looking too rosy. Silent Hill: Downpour is now available in North America on PlayStation 3...

  • News Team Up on PSN, Shoot Many Robots

    Fry their microchips

    The world's gone to pot, the robots have become self-aware and humanity's in peril. But wait — all's not lost, as a paranoid hillbilly has been waiting for this very day with an impressive stockade of weaponry. And beer. Demiurge Studios' Shoot Many Robots arrives on the European PlayStation Network today. The side-scrolling...

  • Out Now Journey (Europe)

    Sand play

    PlayStation Plus members have been skidding through the sand in thatgamecompany's Journey for a week already, but now it's time for everybody to set off on their own adventure. Lucky North Americans got the game yesterday for the tidy sum of $14.99, while European travellers can pick it up for £9.99 as of today. Thatgamecompany's third...

  • Review Hustle Kings (PlayStation Vita)

    The royal touch

    Following the success of Hustle Kings for PlayStation 3, VooFoo Studios' Hustle Kings on PS Vita has arrived. Whether you live in pool halls or just whisk through them once in a blue moon, Hustle Kings is enticing thanks to a variety of options that look out for everybody. The game's pockets are stuffed with enough content to make it...

  • Review Ridge Racer (PlayStation Vita)

    Spare parts

    Ridge Racer and PlayStation fit together like hand in driving glove. Namco's racing series has helped to ignite the launch of each Sony console to date, but with such a strong launch line-up for Vita its finishing position is not quite as assured this time around. With a new online-focused approach, Vita's Ridge Racer is Namco's attempt...

  • Review Table Soccer (PlayStation Vita)

    Hand ball

    Long before FIFA, long before Sensible Soccer, the only way football enthusiasts could get their kicks without going outside was with Subbuteo, a table football game in which your flicking fingertips did all the talking and scoring. Staring the more complex emulations of football right in the goal mouth, Four Door Lemon has brought back...

  • Review Escape Plan (PlayStation Vita)

    The Lil and Laarg Show

    Lil and Laarg aren't the type of guys to make their prison beds and lie in them. Captured by the tyrannous Bakuki, the duo quickly embark on an escape mission through roughly 80 rooms of Escape Plan's labyrinthine prison. It's never as simple as jimmying open a well-placed window with a convenient crowbar, though – in fact,...

  • Review Fireworks (PlayStation Vita)

    Bangers and flash

    Fireworks and the great indoors don’t usually make for the most advisable of combinations, but the PlayStation Network holds the answer for those that really need a fix of sparkly light shows and expensive wastes of gunpowder. Better yet, you don’t even have to leave your armchair to play PS Vita’s Fireworks, a free download...

  • Interview thatgamecompany - Journey

    An emotional trip

    The long-awaited release date of thatgamecompany's Journey was finally announced recently. Before the follow up to flower trots onto PlayStation Network next month — 13th March for North America, 14th March for Europe and 15th March for Japan — Push Square spoke to Jenova Chen, co-founder and creative director of...

  • Review Cliff Diving (PlayStation Vita)

    Making a splash

    With augmented reality being all the rage right now, it’s no surprise to see a camera-exploiting trio arrive on PS Vita at launch to further expand its Swiss army knife-rivalling feature set. In Cliff Diving, the alphabetical first of the three, you take control of Dave and help him become the greatest diver in the world through...

  • Talking Point What Has Sony Learnt for Vita's Launch?

    Alright on launch night?

    The last time Sony launched a console, it didn’t quite go as swimmingly as desired. Now more than ever, with overall company losses of €2.2bn predicted for the latest financial year and a recent downgrading of its credit rating from financial agency Standards & Poor to BBB+, the Tokyo-based company needs to pull...

  • News Evolution Studios Talks MotorStorm RC's Stunning Price

    Micro-transaction

    Sony left Nintendo sputtering in the dust when it announced the price points of first party download-only PlayStation Network titles for PS Vita last week. Most surprising was MotorStorm RC's emergence as the cheapest in the pack at just £4.79. Don't associate that price with a lack of content, though. MotorStorm RC contains 16...

  • Review Asura's Wrath (PlayStation 3)

    Asura, watch

    His wife murdered, his daughter stolen, cast down from the heavens — Asura has a right to be more than a little wound up. Developer CyberConnect2 really grinds this demigod’s gears in its game-come-interactive movie, adequately providing impetus for his titular rage at every turn. Told over 12,500 years, Asura’s Wrath shows off...

  • Talking Point Are Vita's PSN Prices Right?

    Pocket money

    At the start of this week Sony announced UK prices of PS Vita’s download-exclusive launch titles, dazzling fans with low costs of entry. MotorStorm RC will skid onto your memory card for just £4.79, while Top Darts, Hustle Kings and Super Stardust

  • Feature The Positives and Negatives of PS Vita

    Good news, bad news

    PS Vita is nearly upon us, and we couldn’t be more excited. Here at Push Square we've decided to pick our most anticipated elements of Sony’s new handheld baby before it hits stores, from new online approaches to all those control methods, plus more. We've also bashed out a few of our quibbles and concerns, too. Which parts...