Game of the Month: The Best PlayStation Games of July 2015

July was a pretty dreary month for new releases, as evidenced by the list of nominees that we scraped together just days ago. With no heavy hitting blockbusters lining store shelves, it fell to several indie games to pick up the slack, and thankfully, four of them answered the call. May this be remembered as Push Square's finest indie apologist moment, as we crown July's Game of the Month.

Bronze Trophy: Q.U.B.E: Director's Cut

Shapes, puzzles, and a thoughtful use of colour make Q.U.B.E an interesting concept, even if we can't stand typing out its name. Compared by many to Valve's superb Portal 2, we gave it a rather good score of 8/10 in our review. "Q.U.B.E: Director's Cut does very, very well for a game in a genre perfected by Portal, and while it's not quite at that calibre, it's a polished, complex, and enjoyable puzzler," wrote intrepid reviewer Sam Brooke.

Silver Trophy: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

Sporting a lovely open world packed with detail, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter's arrival on the PlayStation 4 proved to be just as engrossing as it did when it first launched on PC back in 2014. "This game delivers an intriguing and thought-provoking detective experience that – in its own words – doesn't hold your hand," wrote our always enthusiastic reviewer Graham Banas, who scored the mystery-'em-up a great 8/10 in our review.

Gold Trophy: N++

Described as "super stylish" and "excellent to play" by reviewer Stephen Tailby, N++ is a minimalistic PS4 platformer that won our hearts with expertly balanced difficulty and incredibly tight gameplay. "For those who like a hard-as-nails platformer and want a fresh compelling experience, you can't do much better than N++," our review concluded, before Stephen slapped a 9/10 on the release. Just a bit of advice on this one: don't judge a game by its screenshots.

Platinum Trophy: Rocket League

It's the final seconds of a heated match. The ball is out of control as it bounces rather awkwardly off the wall – only a real pro could make a winning shot out of this. Rocket League engages its boosters and blasts down the pitch, screaming towards the sphere before clipping it just right. The crowd falls silent as the ball seems to travel in slow motion, and then everyone erupts as it nestles gently into the back of the net. Rocket League's done it – it's won Game of the Month.

In reality, things weren't quite that close. In fact, the jet-powered sport sim absolutely annihilated the competition in our staff vote to find last month's best PlayStation game, and so here we are. Described as a "a good idea that's been expertly executed" by editor Sammy Barker, Rocket League is a deserved winner. Dubbing it "the beautiful car game", Sammy went on to stick the number 9/10 shirt onto Psyonix's superb creation.

And so another worthy game is crowned. Do you agree with our winner, or even our nominees? Boost up a wall and slam a shot straight into the comments section below.