Latest Reviews
Play of the game
Six months since the Philadelphia Eagles snatched Super Bowl LII from Tom Brady’s greedy clutches, a new season of the NFL beckons, with a fresh crop of rookies all eager to ply their trade in one of the league’s 32 teams. EA Sports, as has been the case for decades now, has also returned with a new entry in its annual Madden...
Hello and goodbye
Have you ever wondered what’s happening behind the closed doors and drawn curtains of your neighbour’s house? Ever wished you could sneak into their abode and reveal the inner workings of their secret lives? In Hello Neighbor, you do just that. The premise of this stealth horror game is a simple one. A young boy, innocently...
And here they’ll stay
When Sony set out to launch its own virtual reality headset, one of the most important things that it had to do is make sure that it had lots of games released alongside it. Through the years, the games industry has seen many a peripheral fail miserably due to a lack of support. To combat this, an impressively large launch...
Review Knowledge Is Power (PS4)
Limited power
Fresh from releasing the inaugural PlayLink title That’s You in July, Wish Studios has come back with a second game for Sony’s smartphone-based lineup: Knowledge Is Power – a one to six player quiz game. While it’s more orthodox compared to the delightful oddball that was That’s You, the Brighton studio’s...
Masochistic mechanisms
The last few years have seen numerous attempts at the asymmetrical multiplayer experience, but none have exactly hit the mark to such a degree as say, the infamous Team Deathmatch format. The most memorable of these attempts is Evolve, which saw an alright reception, progressively dwindling player numbers, and a confusing...
Review Castaway Paradise (PS4)
Life's a beach
Castaway Paradise is an addictive Animal Crossing-esque title that sees you steadily develop a tropical island. You'll farm, fish, craft, build, and even invest in order to make your little slice of paradise flourish, and a sunny, relaxing atmosphere makes the whole thing a treat for those seeking a laid back but engaging experience...
Review The Banner Saga 3 (PS4)
Iver bad feeling about this
The Banner Saga 3 is a fitting end for the light tactical RPG series, and one that feels less like a sequel and more like the third act of a cohesive whole. The combat system used in the series up until this point remains relatively unchanged, and most of the mechanics are carried over as is. This isn't about reinventing...
Review Airheart: Tales of Broken Wings (PS4)
Crash land?
On the floating island of Granaria, life for Amelia promises to be much different to the harsh surface world she’s left behind. A beautiful city set amidst the clouds, Granaria’s main industry is skyfishing. But with skies teeming with pirates, life in the heavens may not be as simple as Amelia anticipated. Airheart: Tales of Broken...
Mind the gap
We still haven’t quite concluded what makes the “work simulator” sub-genre so compelling, but Train Sim World definitely taps into it. Like the early days of Farming Simulator, this game’s obsessive adherence to protocol and attention to detail makes it an experience we’ve found strangely compulsive – even if we’ve spent...
Review Mega Man X Legacy Collection (PS4)
Xalted
Mega Man X, the gold standard for rock solid, fast paced dashing and crashing action, is back again in what seems like the property's hundredth re-release. This time, however, it's available across two collections with all eight entries in the mainline Mega Man X series. Most of us should know what Mega Man is by now, but for the...
Review Far Cry 5: Lost on Mars (PS4)
Spaced out
Far Cry 5, like a few of Ubisoft's high profile releases, has come with the promise of a weird and wonderful DLC schedule that takes the base game and places it in increasingly strange scenarios. Lost on Mars is the latest bizarre excursion for the open world shooter, and it's probably about what you're expecting. It doesn't take itself...
Review Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion (PS4)
A pirate's life for me
Adventure Time has been a juggernaut series for Cartoon Network since debuting way back in 2010. Its 10-season run is about to come to an end, and over this span the escapades of Finn the Human and Jake the Dog have spawned six video game entries covering a wide variety of genres. The latest entry, Adventure Time: Pirates of...
What's past is prologue
Back when Atari’s attorneys rocked up on Jeff Minter’s farm and issued one of his prize llamas with a cease and desist letter, it seemed unlikely that Tempest 4000 would ever release on consoles. The eccentric industry veteran had planned on porting the PS Vita’s agonisingly underappreciated TxK to the PlayStation 4,...
Better left dead
The Left 4 Dead franchise was one of the defining reasons for the rise in popularity of co-operative multiplayer shooters during the previous generation, and looking back on things, it’s kind of crazy to think that neither instalment ever made its way onto the PlayStation 3. However, the genre has taken a bit of backseat in recent...
Mug shot
Our time with Mugsters has been short, it has been simple, and it has been sweet. Mugsters is the newest game from the publisher behind Overcooked, The Escapists 2, Yooka-Laylee, and most recently Yoku’s Island Express. Knowing all that, Mugsters has some big shoes to fill. Can it keep up with the endless wonder of Yooka-Laylee? Can...
Gun game
Mothergunship feels like it was created in a ‘Random Video Game Generator’. Procedurally generated levels? Yes. First-person shooter? Yes. Bullet-hell shooter? Somehow, also yes. Against all odds, however, it works. Telling the story of an unnamed soldier (that’s you), you’re thrown into a battle against aliens attacking the Earth;...
Full metal CCG
What do you do with a robot if it goes insane? Well in Playniac’s turn-based battler you’ll make it fight to the death in a fun and unique card driven game which puts tactics to the fore. You begin as the friendly and misunderstood little bot called Franklin, who is condemned to fight for his life in a brutal "last bot...
You wanna take this outside?
Three Fields Entertainment has been building up to its eventual Burnout-esque racing game over the course of the last couple of years. Danger Zone aimed to reproduce the magic of Crash mode, and while it largely succeeded, the sequel feels like the next step towards arcade racing goodness. Danger Zone 2 may tread similar...
Review Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered (PS4)
Revolutionary
The last console generation seems like a quainter time compared to now. Granted, we didn’t have as many indie games then as we do now, but for every big-budget blockbuster there were numerous B-games: passion projects lacking polish but full of heart. We’re talking about games like Deadly Premonition, Binary Domain, The...
Review All-Star Fruit Racing (PS4)
Running out of juice
With arcade racing games almost extinct on PS4, the time is ripe for a good old fashioned kart racer, and as far as concepts go, fruit is a surprisingly good fit for the genre. We'll try and keep this pithy: All-Star Fruit Racing pits fruit-themed characters in races through fruit-themed tracks in fruit-themed cars. Is it a...
Review Shining Resonance Refrain (PS4)
Shine on
SEGA's classic Shining series is back, and it's definitely not what old school fans may remember. Shining Resonance Refrain is an enhanced remaster of Shining Resonance -- a PlayStation 3 title that launched only in Japan almost four years ago. It arrives on Western shores with a full (and optional) English dub, as well as a fresh way...
Holding out for a hero
Death in video games is so frequent that it has virtually lost all meaning. Any slip up is instantly forgiven, and the player is often respawned perfectly alive and well almost instantly. Next Up Hero twists this dynamic on its head, turning game death into a playable mechanic. Next Up Hero is an isometric dungeon crawler...
Review The Spectrum Retreat (PS4)
Enjoy your stay
Here's one for you: two years ago, 20-year-old game designer Dan Smith won a BAFTA in the Young Game Designers category for his prototype of what would become The Spectrum Retreat. What's more, publisher Ripstone has stepped in to help turn the game into a fully fledged commercial product. It's quite an achievement for the up and...
Review Salary Man Escape (PS4)
Zero-hour contract
The job simulation gag has felt a little too played out as of late when it comes to virtual reality. Job Simulator nailed the humorous vibe when PlayStation VR first launched back in 2016, but since then, a number of copycats have tried to emulate the experience to little avail. Salary Man Escape is another title that hopes to...
MXGP Con
Milestone releases a large number of racing games every year. Some of them aren’t half bad, such as Gravel, while others, chiefly its motorcycle games, leave something to be desired. Unfortunately, MXGP Pro is one of the motorcycle games, and while this is nowhere near as bad as the absolute debacle that was MXGP 3, it’s a definite step...
Déjà crew
One of the elements that was universally praised about The Crew was its open world. While developer Ivory Tower’s abbreviated version of the USA was a wonderfully put together slice of Americana, the surrounding game, ultimately let things down with its Fast & Furious-inspired story, and disappointing opponent AI. With The Crew...
Review The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset (PS4)
Have you heard of the high elves?
Ah, Summerset. The picturesque island home of the high elves. Vibrant in colour and steeped in magic, it's a wondrous Elder Scrolls setting that's yet to be properly explored in video game form, and The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset does a great job of bringing it to life. Like last year's Morrowind...
Review Super Bomberman R (PS4)
Bombs away
With over 30 entries in the Bomberman series, you’d be excused for thinking the formula would be getting stale and running out of ideas. However, Super Bomberman R proves that there are still a few tricks up those bomb-filled sleeves. Recent years have seen a plethora of spin-offs released, but this year’s entry is a return to the...
Review Lumines Remastered (PS4)
Lumines beings are we
Rhythm games have a long and storied history throughout gaming, and Tetsuya Mizuguchi is one of the most important creators tied to it, having created such masterpieces as Rez, Child of Eden, the upcoming – and incredible looking – Tetris Effect, and of course Lumines. So it’s cause for celebration that the...
Knockout?
Republished on Wednesday 27th June 2018: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of July's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. As we looked away from the screen to make some review notes, another player rounded the corner and started beating our motionless avatar. Not wanting to stand...
