Latest Reviews
Review Destiny 2: Lightfall (PS5) - A Brilliant Yet Disappointing Set-Up
Can an expansion have middle child syndrome?
Since the original launch of Destiny back in 2014, there has been an ambitious yet overly vague storyline building in the depth of its ever-expanding lore. The gist of it? Good versus Evil, or in the case of this universe, the Light versus the Darkness. For so long, it's felt like a meandering excuse for...
Review Trails to Azure (PS4) - Amazing Sequel Has Some of Trails' Best Storytelling
SSSpecial
The second and final game in the 'Crossbell' saga, Trails to Azure executes on everything that Trails from Zero meticulously built up. It immediately goes without saying that you simply must play Zero before jumping into this direct sequel — but don't let the daunting prospect of playing two 60-hour RPGs put you off. When viewed as two...
Mini Review What the Bat? (PSVR2) - Bonkers, Bite-Sized Fun Ideal for Beginners
Going batty
What the Bat replaces your arms and hands with a pair of baseball bats, and has you swinging through a series of short but sweet levels in an attempt to live a normal life. It's madness, but works wonderfully. This PSVR2 curio makes solid use of the hardware to deliver one of its silliest yet most appealing launch games. Playing is so...
Mini Review Garden of the Sea (PSVR2) - Cutesy Farming Adventure That Exudes Tranquillity
Animal Crossing VR
Garden of the Sea is a relaxing farming adventure from Neat Corporation, the developer behind Budget Cuts VR. Set on a series of islands in the middle of the ocean, you're tasked with returning a dilapidated farm back to its former glory. You are eased into the game by the village creatures offering simple fetch quests in the form...
Mini Review Moss (PSVR2) - Charming Adventure Gets Some Major Upgrades
Quill power
Returning with mouse companion Quill to Polyarc’s lovely fantasy world is a delight. Moss is a game we were quite fond of back when it launched in 2018, and it’s only gotten better here. Though the sequel, Book II, remains the superior title, Moss’ Redwall-esque world and environments are as lovely as ever with PSVR2. One of our...
Mini Review Zombieland Headshot Fever Reloaded (PSVR2) - A Simple Yet Fun VR Zombie Shooter
It's time to nut up or shut up
With close to 50 games launching alongside the PSVR2, it’s easy to overlook some of the smaller VR ports like Zombieland: Headshot Fever Reloaded. This is a VR zombie shooter that drops you in the comedically violent world of the 2009 cult classic Zombieland. On first impressions, this isn’t going to be anything to...
Mini Review After the Fall (PSVR2) - Standout Co-Op Apocalypse Shooter
Left4Dead VR
After the Fall is a co-op multiplayer, post-apocalyptic, first-person shooter from the developers of Arizona Sunshine, Vertigo Games. Decades after the 1980s apocalypse turned Los Angeles into a frozen wasteland, you join a group of underground survivors becoming what’s known as a Harvest Runner. Tasked with expanding your group’s...
Review Cosmonious High (PSVR2) - Job Simulator Devs Return with a Vibrant, Playful Sandbox
School simulator
Developer Owlchemy Labs quickly found a winning formula with its virtual reality titles, most notably Job Simulator. It's widely regarded as one of the medium's early successes, giving the player lots of things to interact with and entertaining spaces in which to play. You can feel that same core running through Cosmonious High, a...
Review Pavlov VR (PSVR2) - A Must-Buy for PSVR2 Owners
Get ready to shoot, lie, and shoot some more
Pavlov VR has nestled itself among the roster of PSVR2 launch games, crossing from PC to console for the first time. On the surface, this tactile online shooter is all about the guns, with everything from heavy-hitting snipers to revolvers. In our first session with the game, we were starry-eyed over the...
Mini Review Synth Riders: Remastered Edition (PSVR2) - Back and Better Than Ever
Ride the wave
Synth Riders was a highlight of PSVR: we loved it back when it launched in mid-2021. For a more explicit explanation, you can check out our original review, but know that this is a rhythm title played on a “note highway” and it’s excellent. One of the strengths of the game the first time through was its exceptional soundtrack,...
Review Pinball FX (PS5) - Messy Monetisation Overshadows Enormous Pinball Package
Ball save up
You’d think Pinball FX – the rebooted pinball compilation from Hungarian developer Zen Studios – would be the least controversial release of the year, wouldn’t you? But this is the video game industry, and controversy is effectively its middle name. So, the studio has come under intense scrutiny for not allowing owners of its...
Review Resident Evil Village (PSVR2) - An Even More Intense Version of a PS5 Great
VRillage
Rather than following gaming trends in search of profit, Capcom is beginning to create another of its own: high-quality, big-budget VR ports. After Resident Evil 7: Biohazard successfully translated Ethan Winters’ plight to save his wife into the world of virtual reality, the developer has done it again with the follow-up. While we feel...
Mini Review Ragnarock (PSVR2) - Viking Rhythm Game Has Just Enough Fun to Fill a Stave Church
Tempest rising
Ragnarock is PSVR2’s other launch title about drumming — alongside Drums Rock — though it approaches things differently. Developer WanadevStudio has crafted a rhythm game about Viking boating crews racing each other. The more notes you hit, the farther your rowing team travels as you compete against bots, or more excitingly,...
Mini Review PowerWash Simulator: Midgar Special Pack (PS5) - Another Chill Crisis Chore
Clean up Shinra's dirty deeds
Now that PowerWash Simulator is out on basically everything, we're starting to get some really interesting DLC. With Square Enix Collective publishing the game, we've seen a pair of exciting crossovers so far. The first was with Tomb Raider, in which you wash the exterior of Lara's massive mansion. Next up is this, the...
Review The Legend of Dragoon (PS1) - A Flawed But Charismatic Classic
The legend lives on
For many, the PS1 was defined by the global recognition of Japanese role-playing games. Final Fantasy VII obviously led the charge in this regard, but it was flanked by now legendary properties like Breath of Fire, Wild Arms, and Suikoden. It's easy to see the impact that the JRPG boom had on the gaming landscape of the late 90s...
Mini Review Tetris Effect (PSVR2) - Stunning Puzzler Now Looks Better Than Ever
Memory blocks
Back when Tetris Effect launched on PS4, it was with full support for the original PSVR. At the time, we thought it was glorious, but realistically, the hardware's limitations meant the picture was never super clear. The spectacle of this flashy take on the familiar falling block puzzle game wasn't lost on us, though, and it remains a...
Review Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty (PS5) - Excellent Action RPG a Must Play for Masochists
The stuff Wuxia dreams are made of
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty raises the bar for Soulslike combat to such an extent it deserves to break free from that descriptor entirely in favour of something new. It provides deeply intricate combat and an exhilarating arcade alternative to FromSoftware's more contemplative formula. A game like Elden Ring seeks to...
Mini Review Altair Breaker (PSVR2) - Unfinished Online-Only Sword Fighter Doesn't Cut It
Altair Broken, more like
Altair Breaker is a multiplayer sword-fighting game from Swords of Gargantua developer, Thirdverse. It's set on the floating island of Vastus Isle, once a magical workshop but now turned to ruins by LAWS (Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems). As a sword-fighter, you're tasked with helping Stella, a humanoid AI, in clearing the...
Mini Review Drums Rock (PSVR2) – A Pretty Fun, but Uneven Experience
A snare drum in the plan
Ever wanted to play the drums, but never had the musical inclination? Developer Garage51 has you covered, providing a virtual space to prove that you’ve got the beat. The presentation of the game, while not bad, is familiar territory. Lots of demonic and cartoonish imagery abound, giving the title a Guitar Hero aesthetic...
Review Code Vein (PS4) - A Friendlier, Fashion-Conscious Japanese RPG in the Vein of Dark Souls
Cure your thirst
Republished on Wednesday, 1st March, 2023: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of March 2023's PS Plus line up. The original text follows. For the first few hours of Code Vein, you don’t really play anything at all. No, instead you create your character. With one of the most robust...
Review Battlefield 2042 (PS5) - Maybe One for the Future
Nostalgia trick
Republished on Wednesday, 1st March, 2023: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of March 2023's PS Plus line up. The original text follows. The games industry stops for no one, and just one week after Call of Duty: Vanguard was put out by Activision, Battlefield 2042 is here to try and eat its...
Mini Review Zenith: The Last City (PSVR2) - VR MMO Is Heavy on Content, Light on Entertainment
Massively middling
Zenith: The Last City is the closest thing we’ve got to a fully-fledged MMO in virtual reality to this point. It checks a lot of the RPG boxes with dungeons to run, raids to complete, gear to grind, and sizable expanses to explore. While it’s undeniably impressive as a proof-of-concept, Zenith is an otherwise painfully average...
Review Scars Above (PS5) - Ambitious Sci-Fi Adventure Fails to Launch
Less isn't always more
With an intriguing set-up, likeable lead, and aspirations of grandeur, Scars Above is a sci-fi adventure game that we really wanted to like. Unfortunately, the experience is held back by lacklustre combat, abysmal map design, and a central narrative that ultimately fails to launch. After a mysterious alien artefact known as...
Mini Review Startenders (PSVR2) - A Delightful Extra-Terrestrial Bartending Experience
Just the usual, please
In Startenders you take on the role of a mundane office worker who has accidentally been abducted and forced into working shifts at the Startenders Bartending Academy. This involves you serving weird yet wonderful concoctions to even stranger beings from galaxies far, far away. It all sounds simple enough, however with a wide...
Mini Review Kayak VR: Mirage (PSVR2) - An Immersive Yet Thin Experience
Paddle away the stresses of the day
A throwback to the early PSVR tech demos, Kayak VR: Mirage is one of those games you just need to try out on PSVR2. The premise is pretty simple: you're dumped on a kayak and will use the PSVR2 Sense controllers to explore varied exotic locations. That's really all there is to it, but its kind of the point...
Mini Review Cave Digger 2: Dig Harder (PSVR2) - A Rock Solid Cave Digging Roguelike
We can dig it
Cave Digger 2: Dig Harder doesn’t beat around the bush much, so we won’t either. It’s a surprisingly solid cave spelunking roguelike. It’s not here to dazzle with unprecedented visual splendour or novel new gameplay ideas. It just provides some good old-fashioned gunslinging and money hoarding fun. Being a roguelike, Cave...
Mini Review Thumper (PSVR2) - A Return to the Music Visualiser from Hell
Things that go Thump in the night
Thumper was a highlight of PSVR's launch lineup back in 2016 — check out our review through the link to learn why. It's a relentless, frantic rhythm title that has you racing through space, matching actions to the beat of the heavy soundtrack. The game is just as excellent this time around, if not better. While...
Mini Review RUNNER (PSVR2) - Akira Inspired Arcade Shooter Will Put You Through the Wringer
Too wild for you to handle
Iconic 80s anime Akira serves as the inspiration for RUNNER, a breakneck sci-fi arcade shooter which arguably tries to do too much. As a smuggler in an aggressively hostile world, you must outrun robo-cops through seven dynamically generated stages, dual-wielding pistols while you issue a little justice all of your own...
Mini Review Tentacular (PSVR2) - Physics Puzzler May (Ten)tickle Your Fancy
Release the Kraken
Tentacular is a physics-based puzzler where you take control of a tentacled monster who's raised by the townsfolk of La Kalma, a small village in the middle of the ocean. You're on a journey of self-discovery, trying to find out how you came to be and where you belong. Using your long sucker-laden limbs to manipulate objects, you...
Review Song in the Smoke: Rekindled (PSVR2) - VR's Best Survival Sim Is Even Better with PSVR2
Smoke on the water
Now virtual reality has been around the block a bit and begun to age out of its awkward teenage years, the technology has gotten a deluge of games in a small morsel of genres. First-person shooters, puzzlers, and rhythm games have proliferated — undoubtedly due to how intuitively and painlessly they make the transition to the...
