PS4 Game Reviews
Review Ether One (PlayStation 4)
Never forget
Dementia is a horrifying illness that addles the minds of those afflicted by it. Weakened reasoning and unexpected changes in personality are two of its effects, but what causes the most sorrow to the victim and especially their loved ones is the gradual loss of memories. Forgetting where you've lived, who your friends are, or what you...
Review Farming Simulator 15 (PlayStation 4)
You reap what you sow
Farming Simulator 15 feels like work – and we intend that as a backhanded compliment, by the way. Giants Software's agricultural adventure has been at the butt of many a joke since its inception in 2007, but despite the finger pointing, there is something curiously compelling about the Swiss studio's soil turning title...
Review Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - Ascendance (PlayStation 4)
Fastest food
You know that the world has really hit the skids when zombies take over a fast food restaurant, the last bastion of all that is good in our western society. The blank stares, the lust for blood, the senseless grunting – all of that is gone, replaced by hordes of the undead. In the latest slice of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare DLC,...
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 Lost Orbit (PlayStation 4)
You die and you learn
Like its protagonist, Lost Orbit runs on something; the difference is that instead of jet fuel, the self-proclaimed dodge-'em-up is powered by risk and reward. Quickly zooming past two asteroids set to collide, using a planet's rings to catapult from one place to the next, and flying through gas giants for an extra boost of...
Review Life Is Strange: Episode 3 - Chaos Theory (PlayStation 4)
Life is beautiful
Life Is Strange: Episode 3 – Chaos Theory marks the third of five planned story instalments in Remember Me developer DONTNOD's divisive high school story. We had our fair share of problems with the first two episodes, but left the door open for the developer to truly deliver on the glimpses of promise that it had shown thus far...
Review Project CARS (PlayStation 4)
The last tinker
Project CARS is not your average Sunday drive. Rather than attempt to tune the release to a common ideal, developer Slightly Mad Studios has instead served up a racing simulation that requires real effort if you intend to get the most out of it. Everything about the game – from the controls to the heads-up display – is malleable,...
Review Color Guardians (PlayStation 4)
Rainbow runner
Color Guardians takes place in a colourful kingdom full of joyful citizens. However, when a monster swoops in from the sky and sucks up every single colour from the world, only the titular Color Guardians can stand in its way and return the realm to its former vibrant glory. But how will the majestic warriors achieve this? Well, the...
You're Toren us apart
Toren marks the first release by Brazilian developer Swordtales, and is the latest of the smaller indie titles to grace the PlayStation 4. Sony's console seems like a great fit for the foray, too, as it takes a huge helping of inspiration from a PlayStation 2 classic, ICO. Of course, while drawing influence from such an iconic...
Review Final Fantasy X|X-2 HD Remaster (PlayStation 4)
Love in high definition
Spira's a colourful and inviting world, and it looks great on the PlayStation 4. The setting of Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2, it's a land that mixes nature, strange architecture, and ancient machinery, and it always feels interesting and engaging as a result. Indeed, the two titles that make up this remaster still...
Review Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (PlayStation 4)
Night of the Living Führer
MachineGames has made a much quicker than expected return to the Wolfenstein series that it helped to re-popularise. After a number of years outside of the limelight, Wolfenstein: The New Order marked an exciting and exceptionally well constructed return to form for the franchise. Gone was the overbearing emphasis on...
Review Tropico 5 (PlayStation 4)
Havana good time
Back when Bullfrog was considered a big name, construction games were all the rage. The likes of Theme Park and Theme Hospital were among the most popular releases on the PSone, but as the genre increased in complexity on computers, these console ports became increasingly less common. Tropico 5, then, is something of a rarity: a...
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 Shovel Knight (PlayStation 4)
Dig in
Funded through Kickstarter and developed by a team of less than ten people, Shovel Knight was one of 2014's unexpected Game of the Year contenders. Indeed, the retro jump-'em-up was met with praise from game journalists and YouTube personalities alike, and now that it's finally made its way to PlayStation, not much has changed – it's still...
Review Project Root (PlayStation 4)
Bullet hell
There are so many things worth spending your money on: a gift for that creepy man in the bus stop, one of those rubbery, gooey aliens that were popular in the '90s, or – if all else fails – a can of delicious Spam. With so many quality products on the market, Project Root may just seem a little bit underwhelming. Indeed, it doesn't...
Review Aaru's Awakening (PlayStation 4)
For free?
Aaru's Awakening (that's pronounced 'er-ooh' for anyone curious) is the latest indie to launch on PlayStation as a free PlayStation Plus game, and just to be clear, it loves putting its artsy attitude front and centre. Don't get us wrong, we were entertained, if not occasionally peeved, by the challenging run and jump gameplay – but the...
Review Don Bradman Cricket (PlayStation 4)
Not Brad, man
Cricket is like the spaghetti western of sports: what it lacks in lightning-fast thrills, it makes up for in slowly creeping suspense. With Don Bradman Cricket, developer Big Ant Studios has attempted to take this classic calculating core and convert it into a robust and exciting digital experience for Sony's super system. But does the...
Review Broken Age (PlayStation 4)
If it ain't broke, don't fix it
Broken Age is the newest release from Double Fine, the developer founded by adventure game legend Tim Schafer. The release is noteworthy for having a massively successful Kickstarter campaign; with a goal of $400,000, the studio ended up raising almost $3.5 million. Of course, with huge money came big expectations,...
Review LA Cops (PlayStation 4)
D'oh-nuts
Hotline Miami's not necessarily the kind of game that you'd expect to attract a string of copycats, but LA Cops follows developer Dennaton's brutal blueprint down to the most specific of details. You play as one of six clichéd LAPD law enforcers, with your objective to bring justice to some of America's most wanted. You'll do this by...
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 We Are Doomed (PlayStation 4)
Kaleidoscope of colour
If you were to take Geometry Wars and TxK and produce a hybrid of them, you would most certainly end up with We Are Doomed. This twin-stick arcade shooter is another classic example of the 'easy to learn, hard to master' gameplay philosophy, and it's accompanied by explosive graphics, techno music, and a swarm of simplified...
Review Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China (PlayStation 4)
Creed of the chronic
It's been a rocky road for Ubisoft lately, with the publisher on the receiving end of bad press for the likes of Watch Dogs and Assassin's Creed Unity. It may be time for a bit of stability, then, and that's where Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China comes into the equation. A 2.5D adventure full to the brim with typical franchise...
Review Krinkle Krusher (PlayStation 4)
Krushems
Have you ever heard of a Krinkle? Nah, we thought not. Well, let us introduce you to them: Krinkles are small creatures with sharp but pristine gnashers and their favourite food, of course, is cake. So, when they smell the sweetness in the air of the biggest cake in the kingdom – made to celebrate the fruition of a mighty tree – they...
Review Paperbound (PlayStation 4)
Crayon carnage
Couch multiplayer titles have made somewhat of a resurgence of late, because nothing quite matches the sight of pure anguish when it's coming from the seat across the room. Paperbound very much agrees with this line of thought, bringing a mixture of simple multiplayer arena brawling and some interesting gravity mechanics to...
Review Titan Souls (PlayStation 4)
Fall of the Titans
There are people that would say that you deserve to die if you go on your monster-squashing quest armed with nothing but a single arrow, a pink bow in your hair, and a backpack filled with only the finest Waitrose-branded good intentions. Titan Souls doesn't have a story, but it improves the game tenfold if you view it as a fable...
Review MLB 15 The Show (PlayStation 4)
Infield home run
It's hard to believe that MLB The Show is now celebrating its 10th anniversary. Despite dominating every other baseball title for the majority of these years, Sony's series has never shown complacency. Instead, it's aged like a fine wine, and gotten better with each new release. When booting up MLB 15 The Show, there's nothing here...
Review Omega Quintet (PlayStation 4)
Poor first gig
It often feels like there are two contrasting ways to critique these anime-esque Japanese role-playing games. Do you rate it expecting readers to have intricate pre-existing knowledge of the tropes and experience that they're signing up for, considering that the vast majority with any potential interest will? Or do you discard this...
Review Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin (PlayStation 4)
The Director's Cut
The release of Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin is timely. Bloodborne is currently thrilling PlayStation 4 owners all over the globe, yet like its distant relative Demon's S
Review Jamestown+ (PlayStation 4)
Sir Walter Rambo
Sony's new console isn't running short on stellar shoot 'em ups – in fact, it already has two instant classics and a great update in the form of Resogun, Velocity 2X, and Super Stardust Ultra. But like the many monsters that we find ourselves blasting away in this genre, maybe you're still hungry for more. Fear not, despite some...
Review Scram Kitty DX (PlayStation 4)
You think dogs and cats fight rough? The mice have lasers
Having started life as a Nintendo Wii U exclusive – where it was peculiarly named Scram Kitty and His Buddy on Rails – this clever indie platformer/shooter has made its way to the PlayStation 4 and Vita, shortening its name to the slightly-less-confusing-but-still-delightfully-quirky...