Tag: Hands On - Page 8
Hands On Persona 5 Has Absolutely Stolen Our Hearts on PS4
Let us start the game
There's no point in beating around the bush: from what we've played so far, Persona 5 is utterly brilliant. We're around 20 hours in, and although we still have potentially triple that amount of playtime to go, we can't deny that we're absolutely enraptured with Atlus' latest. Even as we're sitting here right now, writing this...
Hands On Clicker Heroes on PS4 Is Going to Become a Problem
Oh no
Not this again! A handful of you may know that this author's addiction to so-called "clicker" AdVenture Capitalist became such a problem that we had to delete it from the office PlayStation 4. But now there's a new danger in town: Clicker Heroes. The premise is much the same: you start out smashing the square button in order to deal damage on...
Hands On Turning Back Time with Yooka-Laylee on PS4
A Rare treat?
The employees over at Playtonic have been through a lot to say the least, many of them coming from backgrounds at the ever-celebrated developer Rare that was responsible for such timeless classics as Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye 007, and Donkey Kong 64 to name a few. So there's a pedigree to these people to say the least, but have...
Hands On Tagging Tangos and Having a Great Time in the Ghost Recon: Wildlands PS4 Beta
Tango yankee
Ghost Recon: Wildlands had its open beta over the weekend, so before the tidal wave made up of March releases comes crashing down on us, we decided to sink a fair few hours into it. This isn't the finished game of course, but Ubisoft's open world shooter definitely shows promise - particularly when enjoyed with friends. Wildlands plays...
Hands On Is Disc Jam the Next Rocket League?
Jammin'?
We're not entirely sure who's responsible for Windjammers' sudden surge in popularity, but we're thankful for it all the same. The Frisbee-based NeoGeo cult classic – which itself is set to get a PlayStation 4 port later this year – has inspired a string of copycats, with Disc Jam being the first to reach open beta on Sony's new-gen...
Hands On Jumping at Shadows in Prey on PS4
A player chooses, the prey obeys
Welcome to the first-person perspective of Morgan Yu, the androgynous protagonist of Prey. Once you've assigned Morgan a gender (a choice with no experiential ramifications) you awake in Morgan's apartment, decorated in a style delicately coined 'neo-deco' that somehow feels like a familiar sight. It's here that Prey...
Hands On Slashing Samurai and Killing Knights in For Honor
Does Ubisoft's hack-'n-slasher earn its place in Valhalla?
It's hard to believe that, for a company that's been around for more than 30 years, Ubisoft doesn't have a huge catalogue of hack-'n-slash games. For those complaining about the French publisher's perceived lack of varied output, For Honor should represent a drastic change from its usual...
Hands On Final Fantasy XV's Moogle Chocobo Carnival Is Fun for All of Five Minutes
At least you can get in for free
We didn't have high hopes for Final Fantasy XV's first real slice of additional content, and to be brutally honest, it feels like we've wasted an hour of our life just giving it a try. The Moogle Chocobo Carnival, which is only available for a limited amount of time, redecorates the city of Altissia with colourful...
Hands On Yakuza 0 Proves the Series Still Packs One Hell of a Punch on PS4
80s revival
Kazuma Kiryu knows how to have a good time. The Yakuza series' central protagonist likes to run around red light districts kicking the absolute crap out of anyone that gets in his way, and then when's he's cracked enough skulls for one night, he hits the nearest karaoke bar to belt out a few bangers. Just 20 years old in Yakuza 0, Kaz is...
Hands On Going Back to Hell with Diablo III's Retro Dungeon
Where it all began
Diablo III is a game that just keeps on giving. Ever since it launched on PlayStation 4 back in 2014, developer Blizzard has been tweaking and adding to the title on a regular basis, enticing players to dive back into the action role-playing game in the process. The studio's latest attempt to reel in both new and old blood is the...
Hands On Fighting for Our Lives in The Flame in the Flood on PS4
Up a creek without a paddle
It seems that this generation saw the rising popularity of difficult, procedurally generated survival action games, but it makes sense when you think about it. There's something immensely satisfying about overcoming impossible odds by the skin of your teeth, and the procedural generation allows for nearly limitless...
Hands On Swinging for the Fences with Super Mega Baseball 2 on PS4
Does Metalhead's baseball extravaganza hit a home run?
This particular writer has never had much fascination with sports games; there's just something about playing a virtual game that does its best to approximate a real game that just comes off as a pointless endeavour. The medium of video games allows for limitless potential, so why restrain the...
Hands On Seeing What's Left with What Remains of Edith Finch on PS4
Taking magical realism to the next level
Of all the games we tried at PSX 2016, What Remains of Edith Finch was easily one of the most memorable. The creepy vibes given off by the narrative-centric game immediately drew us in, and left us with more questions than answers. Giant Sparrow has done a great job of crafting an engaging narrative, and it...
Hands On NieR Automata Seems Like Yet Another Must Have PS4 Exclusive
Add it to the list
Wow, the PlayStation 4's on some run, eh? While many would argue the platform got off to a slow start – it's not necessarily a sentiment we agree with – it's unquestionably finding its feet these days, with the early half of 2017 bringing a cavalcade of exclusive content. And one of those titles is NieR Automata, the sequel to...
Hands On Surviving by the Skin of Our Teeth in Nex Machina on PS4
Housemarque's latest manages to wow again
At PSX 2016 this year, the popular Finnish developer, Housemarque, unveiled the latest in its long lineage of arcade shooters. With titles such as Resogun, Super Stardust HD, and Alienation under its belt, the studio's got a lot to live up to, but it seems that the new game, Nex Machina, will rise to the...
Hands On Getting Creative with LEGO Worlds on PS4
If you can dream it, you can build it
Ever since the launch of LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game years ago on the PlayStation 2, the LEGO games have enjoyed a lengthy, if somewhat predictable, lineage of excellent platformers. The formula is relatively set in stone at this point, as you build, fight, and explore LEGO universes across a broad variety of...
Hands On Running the Collectathon in Yooka-Laylee on PS4
A solid tribute to an underappreciated genre
Back in the days of the Nintendo 64, a particular genre of exploration-focused platformer emerged from the jump to three dimensions, and Banjo-Kazooie was arguably the greatest example of this. Since those days, it seems that the genre has fallen a bit by the wayside, but the developers of Banjo-Kazooie...
Hands On Losing Our Minds with Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy on PS4
A faithful reproduction of a classic
At the beginning of this year, Sony reinvigorated the Ratchet & Clank franchise with the surprisingly excellent PlayStation 4 remake of the first Ratchet & Clank (and a rather unfortunate feature film). That Ratchet & Clank remake proved that there was a high demand for re-imagined old games, and it...
Hands On The Last Guardian on PS4 Is a Breath of Beautiful Fresh Air
Worth the wait
Fumito Ueda and his team have just been waiting for technology to catch up. The Last Guardian may have taken just under a decade to release, but this isn't a title that's been trapped in development hell, clawing at the broken brains of its creators to get out. The game, available on the PlayStation 4 this week, instead merely...
Hands On Why Farpoint Should Be on Your PlayStation VR Wishlist
Take aim
Farpoint, the PlayStation VR exclusive from Impulse Gear, continues to really impress us. We went hands on with the title earlier in the year and really enjoyed the arcade-like first-person shooting, but running a similar demo on the PlayStation 4 Pro this week reminded us how much we're looking forward to the extraterrestrial blast-'em-up...
Hands On Quit Bitchin'! PS4 Pro Is a Big, Beautiful Step Forward
HDR you ready?
As we predicted a few months back, Sony's had a right job on its hands this holiday. Its two latest products – PlayStation VR and the PlayStation 4 Pro – are difficult to sell, because they need to be seen first-hand in order to be truly appreciated. We spent the best part of a year waxing lyrical about t
Hands On Dragon Ball XenoVerse 2 Seeks to Be a Safe But Solid Sequel
History repeats
Dragon Ball XenoVerse is a good game in itself, but it's one of those titles that's begging for a sequel. For a first attempt, XenoVerse gets a heck of a lot right, but as is the case with many licensed Japanese titles, it's really just laying the foundations for something bigger and better. Enter Dragon Ball XenoVerse 2 - a sequel...
Hands On Does PlayStation VR Really Have Tracking Issues?
Dreaded drift
In some ways, it's a shame that the PlayStation VR embargo had to lift. We'd encountered problems with the headset prior to this week's verdicts, which we outlined in our review: the resolution of the screen, the number of cables, and the flawed nature of the PlayStation Move controllers. But we hadn't encountered any tracking issues...
Hands On Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered Is Far More Than Its Title Suggests
Shock and awe
What is a "remaster"? The moniker implies an older game that has been updated to adequately match the technological standards of the present day in numerous ways, such as with polished assets, minor alterations to gameplay, and so forth. Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection and Twilight Princess HD are excellent examples, but what...
Hands On Dragon Quest Builders Is One of the Most Addictive Games of 2016
Can't stop the block
We can't stop playing Dragon Quest Builders on PlayStation 4 - it's as simple as that. The delightful little adventure is capable of sucking away hours upon hours of your time thanks to its initial accessibility, and once you're hooked, it's difficult not to just keep digging deeper and deeper, expanding your town and taking...
Hands On Playing Non-VR PS4 Games on PlayStation VR
Putting the Cinematic Mode through its paces
Without any shadow of a doubt, the biggest question we received after publishing our PlayStation VR review this week pertained to Cinematic Mode, the feature which allows you to play non-virtual reality games inside the headset on a simulated cinema screen. But what features can you use in this mode –...
Hands On Playing Our Own Way in Dishonored 2 on PS4
Corvo, blimey?
It's been 15 years since the events of Dishonored, and we've left the city of Dunwall behind for the vast streets of Karnaca. Emily is now banished, removed from her throne by a powerful outsider, and it's our job to set things right as we're thrust back into Arkane's intricate level design, malfunctioning moral compass, and exquisite...
Hands On Looking Through the Viewfinder of Outlast 2's PS4 Demo
Found footage
Well this is a pleasant surprise! We'd forgotten how much we enjoyed the original Outlast, but playing this hastily released demo for its sequel has brought all of those good memories flowing back. This sampler – deployed today on the European PlayStation Store – is set in a dingy rural village, where clearly there's some kind of...
Hands On Battlezone's PlayStation VR Co-Op Is Brilliant Fun
Cockpit moshpit
What more is there to say about Battlezone right now? The forthcoming PlayStation VR launch title is absolutely a must-own, but you already knew that when we previewed it earlier in the year. This week we were invited back up to Rebellion to feast our eyes on the final build, and our opinion hasn't really changed: the Oxford-based...
Hands On Little Nightmares Is a Spooky PS4 Surprise
Sweet dreams
You wouldn't expect a puzzle platformer to be one of the pleasanter surprises at EGX 2016. Perhaps the booth should have been a better indication; Little Nightmares wasn't stuffed away in the corner of the convention, but instead commanded centre stage, with an elaborate labyrinth-like setup involving towering drawers and dressed-up...
Hands On Is Dragon Quest Builders Spades Better than Minecraft?
Dig dug
Minecraft's an interesting phenomenon. Its wide-spread impact is not under question, but old-fogeys like this very author struggle to derive much entertainment from its free-form format. Dragon Quest Builders aims to bring the best of both worlds, then – it's got the creative opportunities of Mojang's masterpiece, but also the quest-based...
Hands On Could Horizon: Zero Dawn Be Sony's Next Big Blockbuster?
Aloy, saveloy
The best thing about PlayStation is that it's reinvented itself time and time again. Sony's original console was defined by Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon, but a contractual blunder meant that both series went multiformat. Sony had to reinvent itself, and we saw the introduction of Jak & Daxter and Sly Cooper. Now on its...
Hands On Sonic Mania on PS4 Runs Rings Around Recent Entries
Super Sonic
Let's face it: aside from Sonic Generations, the Blue Blur's had a pretty iffy history on PlayStation consoles. The hog's starred in a couple of decent Wii titles – and he's even enjoyed a handful of decent handheld outings – but the character's struggled to live up to his iconic legacy on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and now...
Hands On Destiny: Rise of Iron Seems Like Another Solid Expansion
Bringing the fire
We've sunk about 10 hours into Destiny: Rise of Iron, and in that time, we've completed the main set of story quests, tackled several side objectives, and jumped about ten light levels. We've perused some super cool looking armour, glanced at a few tempting exotics, killed more Splicers than we care to count, and spent minutes at a...
Hands On Trying to Solve a Mystery in Virginia
That game you like is going to come back in style
We recently spent some hands-on time with developer Variable State's upcoming game, Virginia. A first-person mystery title, Virginia sees players assume the role of FBI Agent Anne Tarver. As Tarver, the goal is to discover the whereabouts of a missing person: Lucas Fairfax. We had the chance to play...
Hands On PlayStation VR Continues to Impress in Epic Preview Session
Resident Evil! Batman VR! Farpoint! More!
We've been lucky enough to play PlayStation VR on several occasions now, and the novelty's yet to wear off. Granted, we haven't yet had to cope with cables, plugs, and calibration – a real-world headache that could significantly reduce the thrill of entering a virtual space – but we're yet to walk away...
Hands On How Does Fallout 4: Nuka World Run on PS4?
Please don't be another Far Harbor
If you were around for that whole saga with Far Harbor's horrible frame rate issues on PlayStation 4, then you'll know that we here at Push Square take technical performance quite seriously. Fallout 4's previous expansion ran terribly on Sony's console when it launched, constantly dipping below the 20...
Hands On Does PlayStation Now Stream Successfully to PC?
Power of the cloud
PlayStation Now's been misinterpreted by many. The cloud-streaming solution – often incorrectly labelled as Sony's answer to backward compatibility – is clearly an initiative in its infancy; the service that's available today represents the building blocks of a much bigger ambition, where PlayStation hardware is replaced by an...
Hands On AdVenture Capitalist May Be PS4's Most Annoyingly Addictive Game
Push square
It was only a matter of time before "clickers" started to infect the PlayStation 4, wasn't it? The popular genre – which is defined by its simple gameplay and constantly increasing numbers – is already a smash on computers and smartphones, and now AdVenture Capitalist is aiming to bring a little of the love to Sony's new-gen system...
Hands On No Man's Sky PS4 Is As Bemusing As It Is Beautiful
Spaced out
It doesn't get much bigger than No Man's Sky – quite literally. Hello Games, the humble British developer behind the likes of Joe Danger, caught the imagination with its retro sci-fi romp from the minute that it was announced – but many pondered whether the slender indie studio could possibly deliver. Three years later and the ten or...
Hands On Overwatch's Olympian PS4 Update Scores with Rocket League Mode
Blast ball
It was only a matter of time before Rocket League's herculean impact extended to other games, with Overwatch seemingly the first to "borrow" from Psyonix's sporting smash. Nintendo fans will probably expect mention of Blast Ball from Metroid Prime Federation Force, but seeing as that's not technically out for another couple of weeks, our...
Hands On Free MMO Neverwinter Is Well Worth Playing on PS4
Roll the dice
A massively multiplayer online game based on the fiction of Dungeons & Dragons, Neverwinter is out now on PlayStation 4 - and it's totally free to download and play. At the time of writing, we've invested around 20 hours into the free-to-play foray, and we have to admit that it's actually quite difficult to put down. That may just...
Hands On Is King of Fighters XIV on PS4 Worthy of Its Royal Title?
Return of the king
Some of us here at Push Square are looking forward to King of Fighters XIV. Honest. Which is lucky, given that a playable demo landed on the PlayStation Store yesterday, giving us a chance to try out this somewhat divisive entry in the series – and we're happy to report that the title shows great promise. But first, let's...
Hands On Seeking the Light in Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue
Saving the best for last
It's no secret that the Kingdom Hearts series has transformed into quite a meandering and occasionally confusing beast. After 2005's Kingdom Hearts II, the series spread itself across three additional platforms and continued telling side stories that expanded the lore, but never strictly progressed it any further than where...
Hands On Going Feral with Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands
Another day, another co-op shooter
The Ghost Recon series is one that's never been known for its open world gameplay, but hey, why not jump on the bandwagon? Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands aims to bring a fully featured open world to the classic military shooter series, one that's touted by Ubisoft as being the largest open world to feature in...
Hands On Taking a Trip to the Dark Ages with For Honor on PS4
Look, Mom, no UbiTowers!
Ubisoft is one of those studios that seems to have been content for the past few years to churn out billions of decent but unexceptional sequels in big franchises like Just Dance, Assassin's Creed, and Far Cry. This is fine, but the studio has shown through games such as Child of Light and Grow Home that it's also fully...
Hands On Fallout 4: Far Harbor's Frame Rate Is Unacceptable on PS4
Come on, Bethesda
What a disappointment this turned out to be. Fallout 4 is easily the best performing title that Bethesda has ever released on a PlayStation platform, but its first big expansion, Far Harbor, is in a real state right now. We're just a few hours into the highly anticipated add-on, and we're honestly finding it difficult to keep...
Hands On Feeling Our Way Through Blind on PlayStation VR
Who turned out the lights?
There were a pretty substantial number of games at PAX East that implemented virtual reality: some used the plethora of headsets for gimmicks, some to generate unique experiences, and some as a framing device for titles that would be less interesting if they were made in the traditional way. Italian dev Tiny Bull Studios'...
Hands On Rain World Conjures Up a Storm on PS4
Flash flooding
Adult Swim Games brought a bunch of the games that it is publishing to PAX East recently, but the one that stood out among the pack would definitely have to be Videocult's Rain World. Described as a survival platformer, Rain World definitely falls firmly on the ambitious end of the spectrum when it comes to the genre. We got some...
Hands On Dispatching Demons in DOOM on PS4
\m/
DOOM wastes no time setting out its stall. There a pentagram, a pistol, and one of Satan's soldiers. Pew, pew – off we go. Extremely late review copies mean that we've only just managed to get our hands on id Software's key card collecting sim – but does this unashamedly old-school FPS make a strong first impression? We're about three or so...
