Latest Reviews
iRobot
The Fall explores AI in an interesting and seldom seen way, and it's so superbly written and voiced that this tale can fully immerse you in its drama and peril. However, a stiff challenge with the combat and puzzles frequently threatens to put you off. You are an AI construct called ARID housed within a suit designed to aid an injured human...
Review Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrive (PS4)
Cluster luck
Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrive can be one heck of a fun beat-'em-up on PlayStation 4, but only under the right conditions. This is a downloadable title that's seemingly got plenty going for it, from its attractive sprite-based art style to its over-the-top combat, but it struggles all too often to fulfil its potential...
Review EA Sports Rory McIlroy PGA Tour (PS4)
Missing the bread and putter
EA Sports Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is this year's NHL 15. Moment-to-moment, the gameplay is great, and thanks to a few solid control schemes, anyone can play it. But beyond the swinging, putting, and aesthetics is a lacklustre, depthless sports game. Period. And this really is a shame because the title gets off to a hot...
Review Legend of Kay Anniversary (PS4)
O-Kay?
Bringing a video game back from the annals of history to be remastered or remade is tricky. Publishers have to ask themselves if it's something original fans and newer players could fall in love with. Should it get a new coat of paint or be rebuilt from the ground up? Has it been too long or short since its original release? With this in...
Review Life Is Strange: Episode 4 - Dark Room (PS4)
Dark side of the moons
French developer DONTNOD really kicked things into overdrive with the third episode of Life Is Strange. While the first two episodes were certainly divisive – even amongst the staff here - it would be hard to argue that the series wasn't in the process of carving out its own niche. Episode three was where proceedings truly...
Average square
In a time dominated by people being tethered to mobile gadgets, there's no shortage of reaction puzzle games. The fast paced, play-any-time nature of the genre makes it ideal for short spurts of play sprinkled throughout the day, and that's what Squares by LEAP Game Studios is – a minimalistic puzzler that focuses more on testing...
The nth degree
Metanet Software has come a long way with its acclaimed N series. Ten years ago, the studio launched N as a freeware Flash game, and released an expanded version on consoles a few years later. Fans of the series have had to wait a long time for the sequel, but it's finally here, and it positively dwarfs its predecessors. With a...
Square pusher
Often video games are formed from many different ideas, complex puzzles, and imaginitive wonders. Velocibox, a PlayStation 4 and Vita cross-buy title, replaces all of this with very simplistic gameplay which, although straightforward in theory, actually presents one of the sternest challenges that we've experienced in quite some time...
Robotic robbery
It's a well-known fact that, back when Britain had an empire, you couldn't step into the foggy London night without occasionally tripping over the odd robot here and there. Every house and factory had a small army for protection, complete with complicated computers and pressure-sensitive mines. Like a pair of Queen Victoria's...
Review Nutjitsu: Reforged (PS4)
Like a thief in the nut
A squirrel and their nuts are not easily parted, so when the ninja squirrels have their stash of acorns stolen by a band of samurai foxes, it's up to one of their number to venture forth and retrieve their supply from right under the snouts of their enemies. In Nutjitsu: Reforged on the PlayStation 4 you'll be guiding a lone...
Review Onechanbara Z2: Chaos (PS4)
Devil don't care
The Onechanbara series has been around for a while in Japan, shamelessly fusing ridiculous combat with girls in skimpy costumes for a good 11 years now. It's safe to say that it's a franchise that knows what its fans want, and as such, it's never tried to move away from its aforementioned core concepts. The same is true of its...
Review Hatoful Boyfriend (PS4)
Somebirdie to love
In the opening scene of Hatoful Boyfriend – the PlayStation 4's premiere pigeon dating simulator – its main character Hiyoko Tosaka attempts to describe the school that she attends. "It's a long story," she laments, before quickly giving up. If you want to see everything that this bizarre title has to offer, you'll have to...
Review Game of Thrones: Episode 5 - A Nest of Vipers (PS4)
The penultimate peril
While developer Telltale's release schedule for Tales from the Borderlands could be described as sporadic at best, the studio's done a reasonably good job of delivering episodes in its Game of Thrones series in a relatively timely fashion. And this trend has continued with the season's penultimate episode, Game of Thrones:...
Pilgrim's progress
Journey is as magical today as it was when it first released on the PlayStation 3 back in 2012. thatgamecompany's masterpiece is a thought provoking, emotional experience that everyone should try at least once, and now that it's on the PlayStation 4, complete with cross-buy support and enhanced visuals, there's never been a better...
Review Tembo the Badass Elephant (PS4)
Peanut stutter
Tembo the Badass Elephant should have been ten tons of fun, but instead it's a steaming pile of missed opportunity. This is Pokémon developer Game Freak's first PlayStation release since surgeon simulation Click Medic deployed in Japan over 15 years ago, and so it carries the weight of industry intrigue for that reason alone. But...
War never changes – it just gets bigger
PlanetSide 2 is a Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) war game that plays out from a Battlefield or Killzone-like first-person perspective. It's so big, in fact, that the PC version holds the Guinness World Record for the 'biggest FPS battle' with 1,158 players logged into a single skirmish. In truth, very...
Review The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (PS4)
Murder, my sweet
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a port of the PC open world murder mystery title by Polish developer The Astronauts. Originally made using Unreal Engine 3, the game has since been rebuilt with Unreal Engine 4, much in the same way that former PlayStation Plus freebie Ether One was a couple of months back. To make it through the...
Review Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess (PS4)
Dreaming of you
So, it turns out that the Devil has another daughter. Shocker, but it seems he has a penchant for sleeping around. The second girl, Velgyrie, haunts our nightmares with traps and death – but who can blame her with a name like Velgyrie? Thankfully, a handy robotic companion is on hand to teach her how to most efficiently murder...
Monster mashed
If you think of cheesy old Japanese movies when someone mentions Godzilla, then Godzilla on the PlayStation 4 may be for you. It's steeped in references to the films which saw men smash up model cities in big rubber lizard suits, and heck, it even plays like one. The problem, though, is that if you don't have a hint of nostalgia for...
X-cellent times
Astebreed is a port of a game that released last year on the PC. Don't let that give you the wrong idea, though: this is about as far from a stereotypical PC game as you could imagine – XCOM it ain't. Instead, it's a shooter that wouldn't be out of place in a late nineties or early noughties arcade. So much so, in fact, that we...
Review Ar nosurge Plus (PS Vita)
Passionate beats
The PlayStation Vita has a formidable catalogue of Japanese role-playing games that always seems to be expanding, but it's fairly easy to make the argument that Ar nosurge Plus is one of the better additions. An enhanced port of the PlayStation 3 title which released last year, it's an enjoyably unique adventure that boasts an...
Review The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited (PS4)
Sweetroll-playing
Taking a step back from its much loved fantasy franchise, Bethesda has left the latest Elder Scrolls title to ZeniMax Online Studios, and if its name hasn't already given it away, The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited is a massively multiplayer online role-playing release. For years now, many fans of the series have wondered...
Review Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward (PS4)
Just like heaven
Final Fantasy XIV has a history of improvement. Since its initial launch, it's already gone through a major revision titled A Realm Reborn, but now we're ready for its first expansion, Heavensward. Welcome to Ishgard, frozen battleground between knights and dragons. Since the cliff-hanger ending in patch v2.55, players have been...
On the Button, or in the pits?
After some unfortunate delays, Codemasters finally wheels out its debut F1 game for the current generation of consoles. Fans who have stayed with the series in its many iterations on the PlayStation 3 can now at last spin around Silverstone with the teams and drivers of the new season along with their new machines...
Soccar
Rocket League is the most moreish multiplayer game since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Psyonix's vehicular soccer simulation adeptly illustrates the idea that simple concepts can succeed when expertly executed. And while it may have taken an entire generation for the seeds sewn by underrated PlayStation 3 exclusive Supersonic Acrobatic...
Review LEGO Jurassic World (PS4)
LEGOsaurus
These days, if a brand finds itself considered pop-culture then there are two eventualities that are almost a certainty. Firstly, the inevitable onslaught of Funko Pop Vinyl figurines that casts every single character in cute and irritatingly adorable plastic models. Secondly, a LEGO game, incidentally involving irritatingly adorable...
Buck up
There's no doubt about it: Oh, Deer!'s got ample game – just not necessarily the right kind. NecroSoft's last hurrah for Sony's ill-fated PlayStation Mobile initiative epitomises everything that the programme should have stood for: it's accessible, affordable, and utterly outlandish. And yet despite all of that, it's more of a proof of...
Review Pneuma: Breath of Life (PS4)
A breath of fresh air?
In Pneuma: Breath of Life, you are a god. Not a deity, not a Kanye West-style god - you're the creator of the universe, omnipresent and omnipotent in all your glory. Yet for some reason, you don't have access to all of these powers; you merely walk around jaw-droppingly rendered Roman-style chambers and halls, pulling levers,...
Review Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut (PS4)
Risky business
Shantae: Risky's Revenge – Director's Cut is a PlayStation 4 port of the 2010 Metroidvania game by WayForward Technologies. Originally released on the Nintendo DSi, the title belly danced to the PC this time last year, and now it's finally the turn of Sony format fans to get their hands on the release. This is actually the second...
Review J-Stars Victory VS+ (PS4)
The Manga Carta
A brawler that takes some of manga and anime's biggest names and pits them against each other in what can only be described as explosive battles, J-Stars Victory VS+ is a welcome addition to the PlayStation 4's library for fans of Japan's numerous colourful creations. With a reasonably big character roster, plenty of fan service, and...
