Tag: Hands On - Page 5
Hands On Beyond Blue Helps Bring BBC's Nature Series To Gaming
Da-Ba-Dee, Da-Ba-Die
Scattered among all of the big titles at PAX East 2019 is a veritable treasure-trove of indie games. One of the titles that grabs our attention right away is an aquatic adventure title, Beyond Blue, from E-Line Media, the team behind the absolutely wonderful Never Alone. A game that blended a great platforming title with a...
Hands On Dangerous Driving Is Burnout 3 on Burnout 1's Budget
Second hand model
Dangerous Driving is the game Three Fields Entertainment has been building towards for the last few years. The small studio, founded by Criterion's top dogs Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry, first released Dangerous Golf in 2016, a destructive, score-attack golf game that spoke to the developer's intentions. A successor to Burnout, or at...
Hands On Battlefield V's Battle Royale Mode Is Too Little Too Late
Putting the flame out
Battlefield V's Battle Royale mode, Firestorm, feels like the game's last chance to capture any sort of significant player base. After a rocky launch in November 2018 that failed to light the world on fire, the promise was made that a significant amount of content would be added to the experience by way of a long, long roadmap...
Hands On Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy Has No Objections from Us So Far
Pre-order in the court?
We're a mere three cases into the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on PlayStation 4, so we're not quite ready to give you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help us Shuhei, the jury is still out. But we have seen enough to allow us to make a pretty compelling opening statement before we render our...
Hands On Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Is a Harsh and Fascinating New World to Conquer
First impressions of From Software's latest
Whether or not you've played From Software's previous action titles before, you're not prepared for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Fans of the studio will have to ditch all their Dark Souls habits, as this game plays by its own rules. It's certainly in the same wheelhouse, but Sekiro is a bold and distinct...
Hands On A Complete Package at Launch, The Division 2 Puts Its Looter Shooter Competition to Shame
Target acquired
The Division 2 is here, and while we haven't yet played enough to bring you a full review just yet, we can go ahead and say that we think the game's off to a great start. For this hands on article, we've got deputy editor Robert Ramsey and senior staff writer Liam Croft -- both of them well versed in the ways of looting and shooting...
Hands On Borderlands 2 VR Is Much Better with the PSVR Aim Controller
The best way to play
Borderlands 2 VR launched last year and played perfectly fine with the DualShock 4 controller, but we weren’t fond of its PlayStation Move support. Unfortunately, the game lacked PSVR Aim Controller support at launch – despite frequent requests from fans for its implementation. Thankfully, developer Gearbox listened, and a...
Hands On Days Gone Has Some of the Flashiest Menus on PS4
User inter-ace
One thing we can be confident of: Days Gone has awesome menus. We haven’t waxed lyrical about a title’s user interface since the hazy days of Persona 5, but Sony Bend’s upcoming open world survival horror does have a pretty nifty pause screen. You can bring it up by pushing the touchpad or by swiping in one of four directions,...
Hands On Can Days Gone Keep Sony's First-Party Streak Alive?
Three hours with Bend's biker horror
Guerrilla Games got a lot of credit when it transitioned from the linear Helghan corridors of Killzone: Shadow Fall to the vast open expanses of Horizon: Zero Dawn, but Sony Bend may be making one of the biggest leaps in gaming history with its all-new apocalyptic intellectual property Days Gone. For the past 15...
Hands On Bus Simulator Blends Crazy Taxi, SimCity, and Train Sim World to Addictive Effect
Just the ticket
There are simulator games for practically everything these days, so it’s perhaps surprising that Bus Simulator is launching so late in the generation. Austrian developer Still Alive Studios has been checking tickets on the PC for a while now, but this year it will make a stop on the PlayStation 4. Recognising this author’s fandom...
Hands On How Well Does ANTHEM Run on PS4 and PS4 Pro?
Better than the demos, at least
After roughly one week of early access on other platforms, ANTHEM is finally out on PS4. We've already put a number of hours into the game, mostly so that we can determine how well it runs on Sony's system. You see, ANTHEM hasn't been doing too hot on PC and Xbox. Technical issues have been present since the demos...
Hands On The Division 2 Is Shaping Up to Be Another Rock Solid Looter Shooter
The usual
Massive Entertainment learned a lot from The Division. The game had a rocky first few months after its launch back in 2016, and it was clear that the developer had work to do. Fortunately, it was able to make positive changes across the board, gradually transforming the title into a truly addictive and well made looter shooter. And it...
Hands On The Amazing Monster Hunter: World Witcher Crossover Event Goes Above and Beyond
Geralt of Rivia, Witcher
Capcom's really gone all out with this. Monster Hunter: World's latest free update adds a new crossover event to the game, welcoming The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt protagonist Geralt of Rivia to the fray. As soon as you start this quest up, you know something's different. There's more dialogue, like Monster Hunter suddenly has a...
Hands On Apex Legends Is the First Compelling Twist on the Battle Royale Genre
No need for titans
Many attempts at Battle Royale have come and gone since Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds exploded onto the scene a few years back, but only a select few have stood the test of time. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's Blackout mode is one of them, and Respawn Entertainment's Apex Legends is set to be the next. Not because it's...
Hands On Jump Force - Does the Most Ambitious Anime Crossover Ever Have Fighting Game Chops?
Super-realistic Saiyan
If there are two things that are pretty huge in pop culture right now, it’s the biggest companies putting together the most ambitious crossover events in history, and Hollywood’s desire to bring every one of your beloved cartoon memories into the real world (and we dread the eventual reveal of live-action Sonic the...
Hands On Dreams Is Arguably PS4's Most Impressive Exclusive Yet
Media Molecule's made a social network for your imagination
Dreams is going to win awards, and we don’t just mean gongs of the Geoff Keighley kind. No, we’re talking real-world innovation awards – the likes of which Media Molecule’s going to have to collect in tuxedos as opposed to its usual hipster threads. The game’s been a long time...
Hands On ANTHEM Shows Promise in VIP Demo, But the Finished Game Needs to Be So Much Better
Rough around the edges
The ANTHEM VIP Demo weekend was a train wreck. Any hype for the thing was quickly buried beneath a mountain of technical issues, from connection errors and constant lag to infinite loading screens and game-breaking bugs. That said, EA and BioWare had managed to straighten stuff out -- at least partially -- by Sunday, and so we...
Hands On The Grand Tour Game Puts a New Spin on Episodic Gaming
“It’s like playing a film!”
Not long after being forcibly removed the BBC and its insanely popular car show Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May, along with their producer and apparently most of the behind-the-scenes talent, started a new show of the same ilk on Amazon Prime called The Grand Tour. It takes all of the crazy...
Hands On Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown in PSVR Passes with Flying Colours
More please
For some, a huge part of the appeal for Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is its additional PlayStation VR mode. Much has been made of the VR content in Bandai Namco's aerial arcade action title, as the idea of dogfighting among the clouds sat in the virtual cockpit is a perfect fit. Luckily, Project Aces hasn't hastily slapped something...
Hands On Resident Evil 2's Demo Is a Tantalising Preview of a Sure-Fire Hit
King Kennedy
We’ve played a bit of Claire Redfield’s campaign previously, but we weren’t going to turn down another 30 minutes of Resident Evil 2, were we? Capcom’s crafty 1-Shot demo gives you a full half-hour with its remade campaign, and while it’s nowhere near enough to offer any conclusions about the resurrected sequel, we really...
Hands On Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Spreads Christmas Cheer with Operation: Absolute Zero
Tis the season to be jolly
Call of Duty is back, and it really is better than ever. After launching as the greatest entry in the series this generation, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has received its first major content drop in the form of a new Operation, titled Absolute Zero. The update brings with it sweeping changes to a variety of different modes,...
Hands On Fallout 76's Massive 47GB Patch Does Nothing to Improve the Game's Awful Performance on PS4
Great
Earlier this week, Fallout 76 update 1.02 launched on PlayStation 4. The colossal 47GB patch promised performance improvements, specifically a fix for the game's stuttering issue. Those of you who have read our review of the release will already know that we highlighted this problem because it has a substantial negative impact
Hands On Fallout 76's PS4 Performance Is Embarrassing in 2018
Here we are again
There's no getting around it: Fallout 76 is a bit of a mess on PlayStation 4 as far as technical performance is concerned. Those familiar with developer Bethesda Game Studios' track record may have seen this coming, but that can't be used as an excuse. Fallout 76 isn't a total train wreck on Sony's system, but after having spent...
Hands On Spyro: Reignited Trilogy Fires Up Our Nostalgia with Gorgeous Remake
Flamin' good
Spyro holds a special place in our heart. The little purple dragon that could sits right alongside Crash as one of PlayStation's first great platforming heroes, so it's a pleasure to see him given the same treatment with a current gen remake. Spyro: Reignited Trilogy, much like Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, brings together all three...
Hands On The Quiet Man's Audio Patch Brings Some Clarity to the Ears
Girlfriend or Mum? Now we know
The Quiet Man needs to be a lesson to all developers and publishers in how not to release a video game. After deploying to a critical panning from ourselves and other reviewers, the title is back a week later with the 1.02 update that adds audio in order to entice a second playthrough that promises to answer all the...
Round Up Déraciné PS4 Reviews Divide Critics
FromSoftware's faerie tale splitting opinion
Déraciné reviews are out, and we’re still not sure how to pronounce it. Is it ‘Day-ress-a-nay’? Is it ‘Deh-rah-seen’? Is it ‘Day-rass-an-eee’? Goodness knows – what we do know is that critics can’t quite decide whether they like it or not. There are some glowing reviews for this...
Hands On Fallout 76 PS4 Beta Has Us Worried for the Full Game
Take me home
We've been playing the Fallout 76 beta on PlayStation 4, and to be frank, it's not looking particularly good. Being a multiplayer adaptation of Bethesda's beloved franchise, the game's no stranger to scrutiny even at this early stage, but after spending around eight or so hours with the beta, that scrutiny is, unfortunately, starting to...
Hands On Tetris Effect Is a Borderline Spiritual Experience with PSVR
Yours forever
There were no shortage of people who scoffed at Tetris Effect when it was announced at E3 2018 earlier in the year, but anyone who’s played Rez Infinite on PlayStation VR will have understood. Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the mastermind behind the likes of Lumines and Child of Eden, excels at evoking emotional responses through audio-visual...
Hands On Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Is One of the Best Multiplayer Games This Generation
The king is back
It's completely understandable for you to be sceptical of the reviews that have dropped for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 so far, as it's a series that has stagnated somewhat during the PlayStation 4 generation as fans fight for the return of more grounded combat while studio heads offer more and more means of mobility. Call of Duty:...
Hands On Devil May Cry 5 Is the Sequel You've Been Waiting For
Dante stop believin'
Wherever you stand on DmC: Devil May Cry, the fact is that Ninja Theory didn’t deliver the game that fans wanted. By rebooting the series and changing a certain character’s hair colour, the Cambridge developer lost most ardent fans overnight; the combat, despite being especially good in the remastered Definitive Edition,...
Hands On Resident Evil 2's Action Is Intense on the PS4
Busting Birkin
Resident Evil 2 feels like the best kind of déjà vu. You’ll undoubtedly recognise characters and locations in Capcom’s long-awaited PSone revival, but this PlayStation 4 remake is still very much its own game. We recently got to go hands on with Claire Redfield’s portion of the campaign, and while our demo was restricted to a...
Hands On The Best Indie Games at EGX 2018
Small but cool
While it’s the big blockbusters that always draw the largest crowds at conventions like EGX 2018, the most fun can usually be found nestled away in the deepest, darkest corners of Birmingham’s behemoth NEC, with indie games galore vying for… Well, any attention at all. This year’s show played host to approximately a billion...
Hands On Sekiro's Going to Be as Hard as You Fear - Or Hope
Samurai souls
Playable for the first time, FromSoftware’s ninja-action death frenzy Sekiro was the 2018 Tokyo Game Show’s hottest ticket. Sekiro sets out its threat in the subtitle: Shadows Die Twice. On the subject of death, we were reminded of a story by Pulitzer-winner Annie Proulx, in which she sees a goat after a family visit, representing...
Hands On Spyro Reignited Trilogy Is Fire for Fans and Fresh Faces Alike
Lit
Activision may draw the ire of gaming enthusiasts for its annual Call of Duty flagging and insidious Destiny expansion packs, but by the grace of Mark Cerny does Bobby Kotick and his boardroom know exactly what they’re doing. Enter the oft-requested Spyro Reignited Trilogy, three vibrant recreations of Insomniac Games’ legendary PSone...
Hands On Ace Combat 7's Unknown Skies Are Reassuringly Familiar
Triggered
You can always rely on Ace Combat to bring a dose of melodrama to the war-torn skies of fictional states. Except it’s been four long years since the last instalment in the series – and even that was a shoddy free-to-play version for the PlayStation 3. No, you have to go back as far as 2011 for the last Ace Combat proper: the divisive...
Hands On Team Sonic Racing Takes a Tailspin on PS4
Not-so super, Sonic
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is, for our money, one of the few kart racers that deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence as Nintendo’s all-conquering Mario Kart series. The celebration of SEGA’s illustrious legacy not only revelled in ridiculous fan service (Burning Rangers, anyone?) but it also had a sharp...
Hands On Starlink: Battle for Atlas Shows Promise That Could Prove Costly
Toys to life
As a concept, it feels like Starlink: Battle for Atlas is three years late to the party. The toys to life fad died out a long time ago, and so to see a title basing itself around the act of collecting weapons and ships out in the real world in the year 2018 almost seems like a foolish business decision to us. We got a chance to sample...
Hands On Arca's Path Brings Marble Madness to PSVR
Super monkey ball
Virtual reality allows us to interact with video games in ways that simply wouldn't be possible with a controller, and Arca's Path, from British developer Dream Reality Interactive, is about to introduce yet another take on control and movement within the PlayStation VR space. Without any sort of DualShock 4 or PlayStation Move...
Hands On Man of Medan Is a Return to Form for Until Dawn Dev
Ghost ship
Developer Supermassive Games has been treading water for far too long now. After its 2015 title Until Dawn became a bit of a cult hit that deserved a lot more love, it overloaded itself with PlayStation VR projects, most of which missed the mark by a big margin. The likes of Bravo Team and The Inpatient seem to be behind the studio now,...
Hands On In Hitman 2, You Can Finally Claim Fatalities as a Flamingo
An assassin's need
There’s surely a formula to the very best Hitman levels, and the good news is that Hitman 2’s new Miami stage follows it to a tee. While you get the feeling this vibrant environment could have been added as an episode to the first season, developer IO Interactive would no doubt argue that a lot has changed under the hood. From...
Hands On Dreams Is Going to Be a Game of the Year Candidate
If it ever comes out
Media Molecule’s showing a compilation of mini-games that it’s made in Dreams here at EGX 2018, and the highest compliment we can pay them is that many of them would comfortably hang in the indie stand. We don’t even need to get hands on time with the package’s impressive and comprehensive creation suite to realise that...
Hands On Metro Exodus Pledges a Petrifying Apocalyptic Playground to PS4
From Russia with blood
For a franchise named after Russia’s subway system, Metro Exodus certainly seems big. The sequel to the PlayStation 3’s Metro: Last Light hints at its scale as we pull up its in-game map; we’re located in the bottom-left of the survival sandbox, but there’s clearly miles of apocalyptic landscape to explore here. It’s...
Hands On FIFA 19 Demo - Five Things We Learned
Pep talk
The FIFA 19 demo has been out since last week to give fans of the FIFA franchise a chance to have a feel of the game before its 29th September release date. It’s worth noting that the demo is an old build and the full version of FIFA 19 will feel more fluid according to the EA Game Changers who were present at the game’s final capture...
Hands On Mega Man 11 Brings the Blue Bomber Bang Up to Date on PS4
You rock, man
Capcom should probably send a thank you letter to Keiji Inafune before the year’s out. While it could be argued that the Japanese publisher has been laying the foundations for a new Mega Man with various re-releases and compilation packs, it doesn’t take a cynic to suggest that Mighty No. 9’s enormous Kickstarter success may have...
Hands On Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's Blackout Gives Fortnite Stiff Competition
Nuketown funk
Another Battle Royale mode. As if the constant presence of Fortnite over our everyday lives wasn’t enough, we now have to deal with the increasing number of clones releasing. Grand Theft Auto V did it, Battlefield V’s doing it, and, of course, so is Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Those exhausted by the proliferation of the genre might...
Hands On Destiny 2: Forsaken Is Feeling More and More like a Taken King Turning Point
The Forsaken King?
The original Destiny was in a rough state before The Taken King swooped in and sorted out so many of its problems. The big expansion was the definition of a turning point for Bungie's shooter -- it laid the foundations for a much more enticing experience, and expanded upon the stuff that the game actually got right...
Hands On Dragon Quest XI Is a Really Refreshing Return to Japanese RPG Greatness
Quest for the best
We were ten hours into Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age when we realised something: it's been way too long since we played a proper, old school Japanese role-playing game -- especially on PlayStation 4. Despite being over 30 years old, the Dragon Quest series hasn't changed much at all on a fundamental...
Hands On Bending Reality with the Case of Ted Walter in Transference
Unexplained wonder
If you were hoping to get some clarification on what Transference, the upcoming game from the Elijah Wood-fronted studio SpectreVision, is exactly, then this pre-release demo probably won't satisfy your needs. What we have here is a 15 minute teaser that dives into a weird and wondrous world to set up the events of the main game...
Hands On Is Shenmue I & II a Knock Out on PS4?
The day the snow turned to rain
Even in 2018, there’s something unusual about Shenmue. While most games strive to create lush, idyllic fantasy worlds, mid-80s Yokosuka is a claustrophobic dive, inhabited by everyday people living uninspiring lives. It’s this slice of life format that’s made the series a mainstay in gaming culture for almost...
Hands On What Kind of Side-Content Is in Marvel's Spider-Man?
Extra activities
Marvel’s Spider-Man will see the eponymous superhero battling the Sinister Six over the course of the campaign, with hundreds of henchman recruited to get in the web-slinger’s way. You can expect a dense storyline in Insomniac Games’ latest, exploring Peter Parker’s life as a scientist, as well as his relationships with...
