Latest Reviews
Review Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms (PS Vita)
Choose your husbando
Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms is a visual novel otome game and a direct sequel to last year’s Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds. The main character Chizuru Yukimura is still trying to find her missing father and is still hanging out with the Shinsengumi, a military police unit made up of hunky ronin. The game tells of a time between the waning...
Review Slice, Dice & Rice (PS4)
Cut short
Slice, Dice & Rice is a fighting game without any of the fluff. In most cases one hit equals one kill, and so the mind games that we typically associate with the genre are pushed right to the forefront of the experience. Do you swing and hope that your opponent walks straight into it? Do you jump and catch them off guard? Or do you...
Review Life Is Strange: Before the Storm - Bonus Episode: Farewell (PS4)
Friends reunited
Life Is Strange: Before the Storm’s final episode bids a fond Farewell to Max and Chloe before their story’s even properly began. Set days prior to Miss Caulfield’s departure to Seattle, developer Deck Nine promised this would be a happy send-off for series creator DONTNOD’s beloved teenage pairing. Well, it’ll leave you...
Frantic Mr Fox
Steve Harvey. Bradley Walsh. Phillip Schofield. Game show hosts are truly the most influential people of our time: they crack jokes met with a sensible chuckle, engage in light-hearted conversations with hopeful contestants that they probably hate, and console poor old Brenda from Swindon after she answers a question about Eastenders...
Review Blasters of the Universe (PS4)
It's a blast
Blasters of the Universe is a virtual reality bullet hell, wave survival, space shooter, and if that hasn’t sold you already, we’re not sure what will. Although this is far from the first shooter on PlayStation VR – with the likes of Shooty Fruity, StarBlood Arena, RIGS: Mechanized Combat League, Farpoint, and Until...
Review Fear Effect Sedna (PS4)
Real-time tragedy
It’s been 17 years since the last Fear Effect game came out, and thinking back, the one thing that always tends to come to mind about the series is the questionable marketing that surrounded the second game. Fear Effect was always touted as a more adult take on the Resident Evil formula, but the way in which Eidos – the...
Always further on
Mulaka is a third-person action-adventure game from Mexican developer Lienzo that tells the story of the titular character who is the Sukuruame, or shaman, of the Tarahumara people of Mexico. It tells an interesting story, incorporating true-to-life fables and stories of the Native American people of Chihuahua. On a spiritual...
Beerly departed
While the objective in most games is to stay alive, Suicide Guy tasks you with terminating your beer bloated existence. Chubby Pixel’s first-person puzzle platformer could have been vulgar, but there’s enough irreverent humour in this bizarre sequence of bonkers vignettes to make its dark premise work. Still, while it’s not a...
Review Jettomero: Hero of the Universe (PS4)
Space junk
Jettomero: Hero of the Universe joins a small collection of PlayStation 4 games that focus on explorative playfulness above all else. Titles such as Grow Home, Hohokum, or Everything are chilled out, easy going experiences, and this little game about a giant, clumsy robot treads similar territory. However, we're not sure it offers quite...
Review The Longest Five Minutes (PS Vita)
You can pack a lot into five minutes
Become a hero, face down the origin of all evil, and try to cope with the crippling loss of all your memories and abilities. This is the unique concept of The Longest Five Minutes – a new Vita adventure from NIS America. There's something really engaging and accessible about this old school Japanese RPG,...
Everything old is new again
Republished on Wednesday 28th February 2018: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of March's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. With the release of Ratchet & Clank on the PlayStation 4, this long time Sony series has amazingly managed to go full...
Review Bloodborne (PlayStation 4)
The 'borne supremacy
Republished on Wednesday 28th February 2018: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of March's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. It's been an excruciating nine months since Bloodborne was first unveiled to wide-eyed spectators, as, much like more...
Review Bridge Constructor Portal (PS4)
Quantum physics
Who could've seen Bridge Constructor Portal coming? A mashup of the popular physics title and the prestigious first-person puzzler? It might sound like an unusual pairing, but rest assured, the formula works. Developer ClockStone has successfully merged its simple bridge building game with the modern classic to create a title you...
Vin Gravel
Sorry to aggravate the aggregate heads, but Gravel isn’t actually about everyone’s favourite loose collection of rock fragments – sadly, it’s only a fun arcade racer. Coming from the motorheads at racing game specialists Milestone, Gravel focuses less on raw simulation and more on down-and-dirty off-road action, delivering an...
Totally rad. Not
Another week, another Kickstarter game makes the leap from PC to PlayStation 4. This time around it’s Rad Rodgers, a “spiritual successor” to those side scrolling platformers that graced the PC back in the nineties, such as Commander Keen and Jazz Jackrabbit. Nostalgia is definitely the main aim here, and for good or bad it...
Netflix and Quill
Polyarc’s picturesque PlayStation VR platformer Moss is so lovely that you’ll want to snatch your duvet and snuggle up inside its fantasy world. A fairy tale starring the delightfully animated Quill, it reveals a pop-up book plot involving intrepid heroes and lush fantasy environments. Unfortunately, like so many virtual...
I want my mummy
Immortal Redneck is a roguelike first-person shooter/dungeon crawler in which you play as a redneck tourist, who has been mummified after an unfortunate accident. How did he survive the accident? Why has he been mummified? And why is he now trapped in this deserted desert? All his answers await him within the pyramids, and you must...
Past caring
Past Cure tells the story of an ex-soldier named Ian who is suffering from a bout of amnesia pertaining to a three year period in his life, after which he wound up with some extraordinary abilities. He, naturally, wants to know what happened to him in that time and why he can now do things that mere mortal men cannot, and with the help...
Review Metal Gear Survive (PS4)
Not just surviving, but thriving
Arriving with very little fanfare from both its core franchise following and Konami itself, Metal Gear Survive is going to be judged unfairly thanks to the baggage of Hideo Kojima’s exit and what the Japanese publisher has become in recent years. This spin-off ditches what made the Metal Gear Solid series so...
Review Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet (PS4)
It's all in the grind
Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet trades in swords, axes, and spears for assault rifles, rocket launchers, and shotguns. Gone is the fantasy setting of previous Sword Art Online titles, replaced with the brown and grey wastelands of Gun Gale Online. At its core, Fatal Bullet is still a grind-heavy RPG, but it's wearing the mask of...
Grunt and squeak and squawk with the animals
Fe is the latest project from the Swedish studio Zoink! Games, and is a wide departure from its previous work. Swapping out quirky, comical adventure games like Stick it to the Man for something more straight faced, the developer's experiment is a decent effort, but unfortunately falls short of greatness...
Shhh. Be vewy vewy quiet, I’m hunting rabites
Secret of Mana is a remake of one of the SNES’ best loved JRPGs. It was widely praised at the time for its fun hack-'n'-slash combat, beautiful music, and vibrant graphics. However this 2018 remake feels like its stripped away some of the magic of the original and instead made its shortcomings much...
PlayStation
Are we alone in the universe? Whatever the answer ends up being, it has some pretty heavy ramifications across multiple facets of society, such as religion and science. The Station looks to explore these topics by telling the story of The Espial, a space station setup to observe an alien civilisation to determine if first contact should...
Left alone
Marooners is a party game that consists of a collection of mini-games thrown together to form a short, competitive title. Each game will only last a measly five minutes with up to four players local or six players online battling it out to be the last one standing in each mini-game. In arena mode you battle against your opponents,...
Ain’t nobody got time for that
Time Recoil is a top-down, twin-stick shooter from 10tons, who's well-versed in this genre with the likes of Crimsonland, Neon Chrome, and Jydge. In Time Recoil you take on the role of a rebel member that has super powers, enabling her to slow time whenever she gets a kill. Using your powers and wormholes you...
Tyson with death
One of the most powerful experiences in PlayStation VR is when you feel like there’s a real person standing in front of you, and Knockout League’s colourful cast of characters certainly sell the illusion that you’re in a boxing ring. This is unashamedly a virtual reality version of Nintendo’s legendary Punch-Out!! franchise...
Review Kingdom Come: Deliverance (PS4)
Deliver us from evil loading screens
It doesn't feel right to describe Kingdom Come: Deliverance as an RPG – at least not by modern standards. At first glance, you'd be forgiven for comparing it to the likes of Skyrim or The Witcher. It's a first person adventure set in a vast medieval world with swords, danger, and intrigue lurking around every...
Chat crap get banged
You’ll need a strong stomach, but EA Sports UFC 3 simply feels good. Dana White’s snowballing brand of mixed martial arts is not known for pulling its punches, and the third instalment in EA Sports’ series hits similarly hard, with wince-inducing haymakers breaking noses like they’re breadsticks. Industry leading...
Usain Bolt's retirement plan
Movement is one of the toughest things to get right in virtual reality right now. It can work like a charm in some cases, transporting you to a world that you feel fully immersed in as you interact with the environment around you. Or, it can knock you off guard and send you searching for the nearest toilet. Sprint...
There is no game, only Zuul
80s pop culture has been gaining momentum in a big way in recent years, between things like the mega popular Stranger Things and the ever-expanding – and much deserved – popularity of synthwave in the music scene. The decade was rich with shows, films, songs, and everything in between that people young...
