Latest Features
Soapbox Live from PlayStation Is PS4's Secret Killer App
Stream machine
As a part of the media that trades primarily in words, I’m told that my role will be redundant soon. Reading is still a popular means of acquiring information, but gaming is a visual medium, and improving broadband speeds are making video a much more viable option. This can be evidenced all over the Internet, where broadcasters such...
Feature How You Helped Shape PS4 Sequel inFAMOUS: Second Son
Enjoy your power
inFAMOUS: Second Son would have been a very different game without you. While you may not be aware of it, the upcoming superhero sequel was designed in direct response to your actions, with both your narrative choices and playstyle culminating in crucial decisions during the construction of the release. It’s uncommon for a title...
Push Rewind Departures, Dead Bodies, and The Dark Knight
Hate to say goodbye
The past few days have been a bit mixed for the PlayStation Nation, as the departures of Jack Tretton and Amy Hennig may have brought a tear to your eye. Fortunately, any sadness should have been washed away by the announcement of Batman: Arkham Knight, which is punching o
Interview Digging into SteamWorld Dig on PS4 and Vita with Image & Form
Going underground
The mining genre has launched an unearthly assault on the PlayStation brand over the past few months. While they may have been late to the construction site, the likes of Minecraft, Terraria, and Spelunky have all taken Sony’s systems by storm. Next on the rota is SteamWorld Dig, which is set to tunnel its way onto the...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 23
Zombies ahoy
It's evident from the Push Square staff blurbs below that now is definitely a good time to be a PlayStation gamer. Whether you're an RPG, shooter, puzzle, visual novel, or action-adventure fan, there's something for everyone this weekend. Of course, this isn't a one way street, so don't forget to let us know which titles you'll be...
Video Watch As We Recap February's Best PlayStation Games
Ready, teddy, go
Games, games, games. We may be staring headfirst into the abyss known as 'Marchmageddon', but there was still plenty to keep your DualShock controllers busy in February. Following on from yesterday’s delightful Game of the Month recap, we’re back with a video roundup for your eyes and ears to enjoy. If you like this, then you...
Feature Five Badass Things You'll Do in Batman: Arkham Knight on PS4
How Rocksteady is bringing plenty of pow to Sony's new system
A cynic may argue that it’s taken far too long for the cogs in the next-gen announcement cycle to really get turning, but Batman: Arkham Knight appears to have finally kicked the PlayStation 4 hype machine back into life. In production at series creator Rocks
Game of the Month February 2014 - Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Despair wins again
There may not have been too many releases to get our sweaty hands on last month, but February still proved to provide a much stronger lineup than January's rather weak offering, as a number of games walked away with some high scores. Of course, the presence of such highly praised titles meant that our staff vote was always going...
Who Would Win Wednesdays Morrigan vs. Bayonetta
Round six
Push Square staff watched in horror during last week's Who Would Win Wednesdays as Wei Shen spin-kicked favourite Kazuma Kiryu right around the chops. As such, we thought that it would be best to step away from the testosterone of sweaty men and put forward a duel between two female characters. As always, we'll provide you with information...
Push Rewind Cruddy Castles, Cancelled Exclusives, and Reactionary Price Cuts
Horrid histories
This week may yet prove pivotal in the PlayStation 4’s battle against the Xbox One, as Microsoft reduced the price of its struggling new system in the UK. It’s too early to tell what impact the strategic adjustment will have, but with mega shooter Titanfall right around the corner, we suspect that the Redmond-based manufacturer...
Guide Slaying for Beginners in Toukiden: The Age of Demons on PS Vita
Slay school
Greetings wannabe Slayers, and welcome to what will hopefully be a helpful beginner's guide to Tecmo Koei's Oni slaughtering simulator. As we stated in our review, Toukiden: The Age of Demons may not be quite as demanding as titles of a similar nature like Capcom's Monster Hunter series, but there are still quite a few mechanics to wrap...
Poll Is Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes Worth the Price on PS4?
Much more than a packet of cigs
Few franchises are big enough to fashion a furore out of demos, but Metal Gear Solid has always existed among the select few properties that can. When a clever Konami opted to bundle the opening moments of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty with new property Zone of the Enders, many purchased the latter just to see...
Who Would Win Wednesdays Wei Shen vs. Kazuma Kiryu
Round five
After last week's Who Would Win Wednesdays saw Kratos absolutely devastate Dante by the feature's biggest margin of victory yet, we thought that it would be best to reel in the fighters somewhat and have ourselves a duel between two mortals. As always, we'll provide a helpful dollop of information regarding the combatants, a poll where...
Hardware Review PS Vita Slim - Screen if You Wanna Go Faster
Slimmer, lighter, better?
Hardware revisions are a fact of gaming life; as manufacturers find new ways to cut costs and reduce their overheads, we invariably see new iterations hit the market in the hope that new consumers can be drawn in by the allure of fresh tech and hefty discounts. However, such revisions can come with significant drawbacks;...
Talking Point Should Sony Respond to Microsoft's UK Xbox One Price Cut?
Incredible crisis
You’ve got to hand it to Microsoft, it knows how to react quickly. The Redmond-based manufacturer has been flip-flopping between Xbox One strategies faster than Usain Bolt in sandals, starting all the way back at E3 where the company controversially defended its abhorrent digital rights management policies – only to yank them...
Hands On Traversing the Trenches of PS4 Shooter Wolfenstein: The New Order
Führious
1981 saw the release of Castle Wolfenstein, a very early Commodore 64 top-down stealth action title that found you angrily taking down the entire Nazi war machine singlehandedly via a series of small, pixelated rooms. Now, some thirty years after the series’ inception, Swedish studio MachineGames is looking to continue the veteran...
Push Rewind PS4 Sales, System Launches, and Strider
Play and peace out
As the sun sets on another busy week at Push Square towers, we’re taking this opportunity to recap all of the biggest stories from the past seven days. There’s never a dull moment in the so-called PlayStation Nation, but the last few days have been especially action packed, with the PlayStation 4 launching in Japan and The...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 22
Back to school
Guess what? There are only 305 days until Christmas! More importantly, though, there are only ten days until everyone's favourite time of the year – Pancake Day. Here at Push Square, we're all about forward-thinking, and that's exactly why we're letting you in on our gaming plans for the weekend. But in between your sudden rush to...
Blast from the Past This Time Last Year, You Were Awaiting the Unveiling of the PS4
Bombs away
At the precise moment that we’re penning this article exactly one year ago, the PlayStation 4 wasn’t officially announced. Sony had teased its big 20th February press event in New York, but it still hadn’t disclosed exactly what it was going to reveal.
Hands On A Fresh Spawn's Journey Through the First Few Hours of Dark Souls II
Soul sister
The Souls series is not for the faint-hearted. Constant deaths, insane difficulty spikes, and an ever present sense of doom are just a handful of reasons behind the brand’s success among a growing niche of brave gamers. Somehow, developer From Software has managed to make its once masochistic franchise a bit of a blockbuster, and with...
Opinion EA Found Its Call of Duty Killer, and Committed a Titanic Mistake
Bracing for a fall
To say that EA is obsessed with Call of Duty would be an understatement. The publisher has been desperately trying to pick off Activision’s multiformat cash cow ever since Infinity Ward – a studio originally made up of Medal of Honor veterans, we hasten to add – changed the entire first-person arena one poorly balanced perk...
Who Would Win Wednesdays Dante vs. Kratos
Round four
Well, well, well, if it isn't another round of Who Would Win Wednesdays. Time flies when you're busy imagining fictional video game characters kicking the stuffing out of each other, as proven by the fact that the mighty brawl between Lu Bu and Ezio Auditore da Firenze took place a whole week ago. Everyone's favourite cunning Italian...
Feature Four Facts You Need to Know About PS4 Exclusive The Order: 1886
London's burning
In perhaps the most hotly anticipated unveiling of the year so far, Sony has fanned away the fog surrounding PlayStation 4 exclusive The Order: 1886 for the first time since its official announcement at E3 last summer. In addition to a brand new cinematic trailer – which you can observe in
Soapbox How a Niche PS Vita Exclusive Made Me Feel Wanted
Kerry Brunskill has been wooed
This sort of topic tends to get emotions running high and insults flying faster than you can shout “Burn the witch”, so I thought that it would be a good idea to lay a few points on the table first. To begin, this is not an anti-male article or even a pro-feminist one; this is just a collection of my own personal...
Push Rewind Love Is in the Air, The Last of Us: Left Behind, and Lu Bu
The week that was
As the match sticks stuffed beneath this sleepy editor’s eyelids testify, we post quite a lot of content on Push Square every week. However, with busy lives and backlogs to bust, it can sometimes be hard to keep on top of all of the key content that hits the site’s homepage. Fortunately, we’ve come up with a solution, and...
Talking Point Who's the Cutest Couple on PlayStation?
Love at first sight
Roses are red, violets are blue, and believe it or not, there’s a PlayStation couple out there for you. While you deal with the consequences of buying your significant other the wrong box of chocolates, we figured that you may appreciate a spot of escapism. And what better way to celebrate the current commercially exaggerated...
Feature Five PS3 Favourites That Deal with True Love
Something in the air
It’s that time of the year where we find ourselves bombarded with terrible Hugh Grant romantic comedies, overpriced chocolate shapes, and vomit-inducing teddy bears holding twee little love hearts. But just because it’s the ideal day to showcase your soppy side, that doesn’t mean that your games can’t join in on the...
Who Would Win Wednesdays Lu Bu vs. Ezio Auditore da Firenze
Round three
Wednesday sure comes around fast, doesn't it? It only feels like yesterday that stern ninja Ryu Hayabusa was busy beating the daylights out of crazy ol' Yoshimitsu, but now that we're about halfway through a whole new week, it's once again time to ask the eternal question: who do you think would win this Wednesday? As always, we'll...
First Impressions Turtle Rock Is Transforming Co-Op with Evolve on PS4
Evolve or die
Boss battles are quite common in games. Usually equipped with a sequence of rules, they give you the opportunity to face a gargantuan challenge in search of closure or progression. So what happens when you open this ideology up and create a game that’s a constant non-scripted, unpredictable, and intense boss fight? Well, Turtle Rock...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 21
Saturday scares
While Valentine's Day may only be around the corner, some of our writers are more interested in scaring themselves silly than snuggling up with a romantic visual novel. Assuming that you're not too busy trying to track down roses or crying in a corner, though, do let us know which games you'll be gorging on this weekend. Go on, you...
Interview Double Helix Games on Carving Out a New Strider for PS4
Studio taking it all in its Strider
It’s all change at Double Helix Games, with online retailer Amazon recently announcing that it had acquired the company outright. Fortunately, the takeover has not disrupted development on the studio’s promising Strider reboot, which is set to cut your console of choice to pieces on
Soapbox Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition Lights a Path for Future PS4 Ports
Sammy Barker wants more next-gen upgrades
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition eclipsed my expectations. Having spent my Christmas break exploring the unkind shores of Yamatai on the PlayStation 3, I really wasn’t expecting Crystal Dynamics’ seemingly overpriced next generation upgrade to catch my attention a
Game of the Month January 2014 - Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
One more treasure for Lara
For once, January was a relatively quiet month here at Push Square in terms of reviews. With no real blockbusters bursting onto the PlayStation scene, last month's vote was always going to be a tricky one, as we had to round up titles that some of our staff had never even heard of. But as they say, the show must go on –...
Interview Connecting the Blocks with Surge Deluxe Developer FuturLab
Brick-a-brac
Brighton-based developer FuturLab may just be the most consistent studio working on the PlayStation Vita right now. Having made its name in the PlayStation Minis space, the award-winning outfit has made the jump to native portable production with the kind of poise that you’d expect from a more experienced team. And with the brilliant...
Who Would Win Wednesdays Ryu Hayabusa vs. Yoshimitsu
Round two
Welcome dear Push Square readers to another 'Who Would Win Wednesdays' – a weekly feature where we pit two PlayStation personalities against each other for your amusement. We'll give you a brief introduction to each combatant's abilities and character, and then leave you to decide on a winner in our poll. Last week's contest saw Batman...
Interview Beatshapers on Racing Away from the Competition with PS4 Title Ready to Run
Honk your horn if you're happy
We’re still very much in the PlayStation 4’s honeymoon period, which means that every piece of software announced for the next generation system is generating colossal amounts of consumer enthusiasm. That’s not to say that Beatshapers’ upcoming remote controlled racer Ready to Run is undeserving of the...
Feature Mad About Madden - Then and Now
It's (still) good
With the United States bracing itself for its annual football frenzy in the form of the elaborately named Super Bowl XLVIII this weekend, we’re avoiding predictable prophecies regarding likely victors, and instead looking a little closer to home. While the game of American Football has always remained something of an underground...
Blast from the Past This Time One Year Ago, Sony Promised to Give Us a Glimpse of the Future
Turning back the clock
An old sage once said that time flies when you’re having fun – and the past twelve months have proved that anonymous philosopher right. This time last year, we were sitting in stunned silence staring at a cryptic video clip that promised to give us a glimpse of the “future” on 20th February. Naturally, our instincts...
First Impressions Toukiden Looks to Forge a Strong Handheld Slay-'Em-Up
Face your demons
From the developers of Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors comes Toukiden: The Age of Demons, a monster-slaying, loot-grinding, Eastern-styled action RPG that seems tailored to portable play. Publisher Tecmo Koei's dedication to Sony's troubled handheld console is admirable – but does its newest creation shine like a beacon of...
Interview Sharing Horror Stories with the Studio Behind PS4 Exclusive Basement Crawl
What lurks beneath?
For a title that was originally intended to launch alongside the PlayStation 4 in November, we didn’t learn a whole lot about Basement Crawl until a couple of weeks ago. The release – a maze-based multiplayer affair starring creepy clowns and telepathic teddy bears – has been described as a mix of Bomberman and Twisted...
Feature Three Reasons Why You Should Skip the PS Vita Slim and Snag the Original
Handheld heartache
As predicted, Sony announced the PlayStation Vita Slim for the UK and Europe earlier today. The redesigned handheld will release on 7th February and will replace the existing model of the pocketable platform. Already available in Japan, the overhauled h
Who Would Win Wednesdays Old Snake vs. Batman
Round one
Greetings loyal Push Square readers, and welcome to the first ever 'Who Would Win Wednesdays', a new weekly feature where we pit two PlayStation characters against each other, giving you a quick profile of each combatant before letting you vote on who you think would emerge victorious in a battle to the death. From the giants of the...
Feature Eight PlayStation Properties That Deserve a Shot at the Silver Screen
Hollywood highfliers
Sony’s gone cinematic adaptation insane. Not content with the Ratchet & Clank and Heavenly Sword movies announced last year, the firm has now confirmed that cunning raccoon robber Sly Cooper is set to sneak into theatres in a couple of years. With the platform hold
Talking Point Is the Vita Really Dying a 'Slow, Painful Death'?
Last legs
Seasoned industry analyst Michael Pachter couldn’t possibly paint a bleaker picture of the future of Sony’s handheld gaming business. Speaking with Game Informer in a recent interview, the popular sales predictor noted that the platform holder “misjudged the market” with the PlayStation Vita, and hinted that it
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 20
Weekend wonders
Issue 20? Wow, time flies – it feels like only yesterday that we began this feature. Nevertheless, things haven't really changed much since then, as the majority of us here at Push Square towers will be once again using our weekends to start new adventures, continue old quests, and shoot stuff. Except one of our writers, who has...
Hardware Review Turtle Beach Ear Force PX4 - Perfect Sound for PS4
With a few headaches along the way
Audio is arguably the most underrated element of gaming. We spend hours poring over screenshots and gameplay videos, rarely giving a second thought to the sound as we inspect textures, lighting effects, and polygons. Despite this, a game’s ability to move or engage is often closely linked to the quality of its...
Feature Ten PS4 Games to Drag You Through the Next-Gen Drought
Time fillers
You can’t have a new hardware release without a drought. With publishers eager to prepare their wares in time for the lucrative launch period, there’s always a barren window that follows in close proximity. And while this author may still have a sizeable backlog to keep him occupied, we suspect that a handful of you will be...
Feature We Predict the Stories Set to Shape PS4 and Vita in 2014
Fortune tellers
With our Game of the Year awards now a thing of the past, we’re turning our attention to the future. Sony’s enjoyed an explosive start to 2014, with the platform holder wasting no time to host a couple of press conferences – and announce its cloud streaming service PlayStation Now in the process. However, wi
Talking Point Do the December NPD Results Flag a Flaw in PS4's Strategy?
Chink in the armour
Isn’t it funny how your expectations can adapt in little to no time at all? This intrepid author has spent the past seven or so years scouring negative PlayStation 3 news, but within the span of a couple of months, the outlook of Sony’s home console market has significantly changed. Since its release late last year, the...
Talking Point Do Sony's Family Franchises Have a Future on PS4?
Eye to eye
Nintendo fans may try to convince you otherwise, but Sony was the first to unlock the casual game market. Its competitor may have found global success with the motion controlled Wii, but the Japanese giant had already spent several years marketing brands such as Buzz and EyeToy to a more mainstream audience by that point. However, with...
