Latest Reviews
Purr-fection or cat-astrophe?
Cat Quest is an open world RPG set in the land of Felingard which has been conquered by dragons. You play as the last of the blood knight cats meaning you have the ability to slay these dragons with the help of your trusty sword. That’s not the only issue in these lands, though, as an evil pussy named Drakoth has...
Motorcyc-hell
THE FUTURE. Sick of being taken advantage of by power hungry, money grubbing fat cats, the disenfranchised people of the city of Ashen rise up against their oppressors the only way they know how: by forming motorcycle gangs and hitting each other with big sticks. This is Road Rage: a dreadful vehicle combat game that is probably only...
Review Guardians of the Galaxy: Episode Five - Don't Stop Believin' (PS4)
I am Groot
It's probably a little bit late in the day but Don't Stop Believin', the final episode of Telltale's Guardians of the Galaxy, is easily the best episode of the series to date. That might not sound like glowing praise given the often painful mediocrity of the previous episodes, but it at least makes for a nice surprise and leaves us with a...
Review LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 (PS4)
Loki alright
With Marvel releasing films almost weekly, it feels like the superhero craze of the last decade is starting to reach critical mass. The comic-book giant’s huge catalogue of heroes and villains seems inexhaustible, yet LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2 puts them all to good work, using and dispatching them with the cold-heartedness of a Disney...
Review Minecraft: Story Mode Season Two - Episode 4: Below the Bedrock (PS4)
Rock bottom?
Below the Bedrock is the penultimate episode in Minecraft: Story Mode Season Two and boy are we glad it’s going to end soon. With the opening three episodes getting very mixed reviews we weren’t expecting much to change for the fourth, however we were surprised with a genuinely enjoyable and well balanced experience. ...
Review Max: The Curse of Brotherhood (PS4)
Making its mark(er)
Marker pens, however old you are, always seem to be the unsung heroes of life: in school, we used them to write the latest playground swear on mucky whiteboards; in college, we used them to cover every inch of our textbooks so we looked like we were learning something; and in adult life we use them whenever the trusty Biro runs...
Dealer's choice
A mysterious dealer sits in a rickety wagon, casting your fate across the table in an ominous game of cards. He offers cryptic insight into the game itself while dictating your destiny as if it were preordained. This is the basic premise of Hand Of Fate, Defiant Development’s brawler cum tabletop RPG. The dealer presents your...
Review League of War: VR Arena (PS4)
Basic combat training
If there’s one thing League of War: VR Arena will be remembered for, it’s that utterly atrocious name. Seriously, it’s like a clueless investor looked at what’s popular right now and took a few buzzwords from that to form something slightly coherent. But alas, that’s not what we’re here to judge. The question...
Review .hack//G.U. Last Recode (PS4)
Hacker’s paradise
It’s hard to believe that it’s been 15 years since the .hack franchise began. It was a franchise with a really unique setting – you were put in the shoes of someone playing a fictional MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) called The World. As well as being able to play in The World, you could also log out...
Review Spintires: Mudrunner (PS4)
There will be mud
Games are great because they let you do anything or be anyone. You can be Aloy, an adventurous warrior adept at killing robotic animals in a far-flung future. You can explore entire planets and travel through a vast galaxy in No Man’s Sky. In Everything, you can be, well, anything. In Spintires: Mudrunner, your goal is to move...
Review Slayaway Camp: Butcher's Cut (PS4)
Slayer
Slayaway Camp: Butcher's Cut is a sliding puzzle game, very similar in style to Hitman Go and Lara Croft Go. A bunch of kids have set up camp upon an old burial ground, making for your typical spooky story setting. Playing as a killer you must rid the camp of all its innocent children in the most brutally murderous way possible. The...
Review Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back (PS4)
What could possibly go wrong?
Oh, Bubsy. Where to even start? The first couple of 16-bit titles were actually fairly enjoyable, but everything unravelled for the maligned mascot with the arrival of Bubsy 3D, certainly one of the worst games to grace a PlayStation console. To answer his catchphrase, everything did go wrong, and with his name in...
Review Assassin's Creed Origins (PS4)
Welcome Bayek
Assassin's Creed Origins has exceeded our expectations by some distance. After the disaster that was Assassin's Creed Unity and the solid but unremarkable Assassin's Creed Syndicate, it was clear that Ubisoft needed to take a step back and reassess its sandbox property. Fortunately, the company made the right call when it decided to...
Review Worms Battlegrounds (PlayStation 4)
At war with itself
Republished on Wednesday 1st November 2017: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of November's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. Way back in the hazy days of 1995, we doubt that plucky British studio Team 17 imagined that it would be making Worms games a...
Just dance
Republished on Wednesday 1st November 2017: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of November's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. As demoscene veterans, it's no surprise to see Polish developer Plastic's latest obsess over visual effects. Bound is a ballerina-based...
Swing and a miss
ELEX is an open world role-playing game from a developer with an incredibly spotty track record. No stranger to B-tier titles (with the B sometimes standing for Bin), German studio Piranha Bytes has amassed something of a cult following over the years. ELEX is bound to find an audience, but that audience is bound to be small – and...
Trials of fluff
In the same vein as Abzu, Journey, and the recent AER: Memories of Old, Oure likes to keep itself a little vague. Developer Heavy Spectrum, best known for its work on last year’s Shadow of the Beast, has taken clear inspiration from the likes of thatgamecompany’s masterpiece – but does this help turn Oure into a memorable...
Review PixelJunk VR Dead Hungry (PS4)
McDead
Back on the PlayStation 3, the PixelJunk games were a staple of the digital offerings on the PlayStation Store. Whether it was Racers, Monsters, Eden, or the ever-popular Shooter titles, each game managed to bring something new to the table and make it fun. Developer Q-Games is now looking to continue that mythos in virtual reality with...
Review Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (PS4)
Make America great again
No one was really expecting that much from Wolfenstein: The New Order when it came out a few years back. It was a nice surprise to find that its bloody, satisfying combat and memorable, well written characters helped make it one of the best shooters on the PlayStation 4. Now that the sequel – Wolfenstein II: The New...
Review Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon (PS4)
Let’s get jiggly with it
Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon is an action role-playing title set an unspecified number of years after the first game. Foul fiends, tainted by the blue blood of the Nightlord, still roam the land and there are rumours that a dreaded Moon Queen has appeared as the new ruler of the demons. If she isn’t sealed...
Worth a Halfpenny
Rugby’s had a turbulent history with video games to say the least, and with publisher Bigben Interactive’s last two attempts (Rugby 15 and Rugby World Cup 2015) getting utterly battered by critics, the French company has taken a couple of years off and come back with Rugby 18 – developed for the first
Review No Heroes Allowed! VR (PS4)
Not bad, man
No Heroes Allowed! is one of those strange, first-party PlayStation properties that keeps getting new entries without anyone really batting an eyelid. Having started life on the PlayStation Portable, the irreverent What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord? series has spawned all sorts of silly spin-offs – including a surprisingly...
Review AER: Memories of Old (PS4)
Sky high
AER: Memories of Old is like the beautiful lovechild of Journey and The Legend of Zelda. It has the unmistakable indie whimsy of the former and takes clear inspiration from the latter. It's a simple but wonderful little experience, focusing on exploration, light puzzle elements, and relaxation. AER guides you through a broken yet peaceful...
God almighty
Even ignoring the fact that Megaton Rainfall was created by one man, this game is a technical marvel on the scale of a No Man’s Sky or other similar procedurally generated games. You play as Superman in all but name, and your task is to protect the Earth – amid brief vacations among the stars, of course. Sound fun? It’s actually...
Free for all
Fighting games are difficult to get into. To be truly good at a Tekken, or a Street Fighter, you need to have grown up alongside them, learning their systems, and mastering at least one of their characters’ movesets. In order to stay competitive, you need to keep playing, studying minute details like the number of frames in an...
Review South Park: The Fractured But Whole (PS4)
Fart attack
Given the mire that mankind currently finds itself in, we should probably applaud Trey Parker and Matt Stone's scattershot, omnilateral approach to satire in South Park: The Fractured But Whole, a game which mercilessly skewers all facets of modern life. Regardless of which side of the political spectrum you align with, your...
Review Gran Turismo Sport (PS4)
U-turn
We’ve always taken Gran Turismo’s slogan, “the real driving simulator”, to be something of an underhand admission. Polyphony Digital’s simulation series may have repeatedly set standards in the physics department, but it’s never been much of a racer really – even if flinging a flat-tired Fiat Panda around the auburn Autumn Ring...
Puzzles: A Tale of Two Thumbs
Semispheres, an indie puzzler from Vivid Helix, may have found its home on the PlayStation Vita with this recently released port. The game has been available on the PlayStation 4 since February, but the short running time and simple controls feel like a much better match for Sony’s “legacy” handheld. In...
Review Battle Chasers: Nightwar (PS4)
Up all night to get lucky
Battle Chasers: Nightwar is a turn based role-playing game with an emphasis on traversing randomised dungeons. However, it's not an endless loot-'em-up dungeon crawler – it has a story, a cool cast of characters, and an interesting game world to explore. It's also got a gorgeous art style and a fantastic soundtrack...
Review Life Is Strange: Before the Storm - Episode 2: Brave New World (PS4)
What's past is prologue
Life Is Strange, with its unique brand of teen drama, was already a franchise with a very distinctive vibe – but developer Deck Nine has done a great job leaning into that with its prequel side-story Before the Storm. The game’s rip-roaring first episode saw rebellious protagonist Chloe Price playing a role-playing game...
