July2019
Review Heavy Rain - Moody Narrative Thriller Loses Its Edge in PS4 Release
Rain dunce
Republished on Tuesday 2nd July 2019: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of July's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. Love it or loathe it, Heavy Rain is an important game. The drizzly depression session certainly didn't invent the idea of interactive drama – developer Quantic...
Review Detroit: Become Human - Quantic Dream's Android Adventure Is Its Finest Yet
Cage against the machine
Republished on Tuesday 2nd July 2019: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of July's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. Despite its all-new setting and story, Detroit: Become Human’s unlikely to surprise Quantic Dream fans. While this interactive adventure sticks...
June2019
Review Crash Team Racing - Naughty Dog Created the Best Kart Racer on PSone
Bandicoot power slide
Start your engines, and fasten your seatbelts for another Naughty Dog creation. In this case it's CTR: Crash Team Racing from 1999, which also happens to be the greatest kart racing game on the PSone. Released in the same year as Speed Freaks, and colourful mascot racers like Bomberman Fantasy Race on PSone, Crash Team Racing...
December2018
Review Just Deal With It! - A Party Game without the Excitement
Bad hand
A theme in our reviews of the recent wave of PlayLink games has been whether a game is necessary. When PlayLink was revealed last year, it felt like something new: That’s You couldn’t have been made without smartphones, while other titles like Hidden Agenda at least attempted something interesting. Fast-forward to this year, though,...
Review Battle Arena Toshinden - Significant But Not Special
Not quite a load of old Tosh-inden
"Play History. Make History." The marketing tagline for the 2018 release of the PlayStation Classic highlights an added attribute of the miniature console in the sense that all 20 games included may not actually be classic PSone games, yet even the less worthy inclusions provide gamers with a snapshot of playing...
November2018
Review Marvel's Spider-Man: Turf Wars - Another Helping of Spidey Goodness
War never changes
You probably know what to expect from Turf Wars, the second chapter in Marvel's Spider-Man's City That Never Sleeps expansion. As with The Heist, this DLC pack for Insomniac's immensely popular superhero action game sticks with the established formula, providing a good excuse to get back into the swing of things. Yes, it's more of...
Review Chimparty - Mario Party for Chumps
Monkeying about
Developed by NapNok Games, Chimparty is one of PlayLink’s first forays into the family game market, something it pulls off with mixed success. On first impressions, its art style is very endearing, with colourful characters and nicely-themed levels being easy on the eye. The fact that you can unlock items throughout the game for...
Review Knowledge Is Power: Decades - An Unnecessary But Functional Trivia Title
Decadent
We’re not sure if anyone needed it, but a new Knowledge Is Power game is here. Knowledge Is Power: Decades does exactly what it says on the tin, taking you through questions themed on the 80s through to the 2010s. That’s pretty much all there is to it, with Wish Studios not adding much to a game that was a solid addition to the...
Review Spyro the Dragon - The Classic Collectathon That Put Insomniac on the Map
Don't Gnorc it
While Insomniac Games has become one of PlayStation's most recognised developers, it cut its teeth with the little known PSone first-person shooter Disruptor, which launched in 1996. It was a DOOM clone among many others that populated the gaming landscape at the time, but there were aspects to it that made it stand out among the...
Review Déraciné - PSVR's New Narrative Gold Standard
FromSoftware with love
Long before FromSoftware burst into the public consciousness with its Souls titles, it already had a large body of work to its name dating back decades. But after finding mainstream success with the likes of Bloodborne, its newest title Déraciné offers a glimpse to the past. And while this PlayStation VR foray is unlike...
October2018
Review Marvel's Spider-Man: The Heist - More of the Same
With great power comes great repetition?
Publishers are pretty risk-averse when it comes to a major new release – and for good reason. Video games are expensive, and you don't want anything getting in the way of a return on that lofty sum of cash you've put forward just to make your game happen. But surely DLC gives you a chance to tear up the...
Review Astro Bot Rescue Mission - Just Like Super Mario VR
Asobi-Wan Kenobi
Astro Bot Rescue Mission is the closest thing you’ll get to a Nintendo platformer on a PlayStation platform. Japan Studio hinted at something special in The Playroom VR’s acclaimed Robot Rescue tech demo, but this fully-fledged campaign is destined to be one of the sleeper hits of 2018. Designed specifically for PlayStation VR,...
September2018
Review Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4)
The (actually) Amazing Spider-Man
There are three reasons why Marvel's Spider-Man feels important. First, it offers a chance at some form of redemption for Sony, after The Amazing Spider-Man movies turned out to be, well, not all that amazing. Second, since Batman: Arkham Knight brought that incredible franchise to a close, we're sorely...
August2018
Review God of War III Remastered (PS4)
Titan fall
Republished on Wednesday 29th August 2018: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of September's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. God of War has, over the course of six entries, got itself into a bit of a rut. Make no mistake, each instalment has been consistently excellent –...
And here they’ll stay
When Sony set out to launch its own virtual reality headset, one of the most important things that it had to do is make sure that it had lots of games released alongside it. Through the years, the games industry has seen many a peripheral fail miserably due to a lack of support. To combat this, an impressively large launch...
Review Knowledge Is Power (PS4)
Limited power
Fresh from releasing the inaugural PlayLink title That’s You in July, Wish Studios has come back with a second game for Sony’s smartphone-based lineup: Knowledge Is Power – a one to six player quiz game. While it’s more orthodox compared to the delightful oddball that was That’s You, the Brighton studio’s...
April2018
Review Beyond: Two Souls (PS4)
A girl and her ghost
Republished on Wednesday 25th April 2018: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of May's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. Time has been tough on Beyond: Two Souls, and we don't mean from a graphical perspective. Quantic Dream's divisive 2013 adventure game hasn't aged...
March2018
Home run
Sony San Diego doesn’t always get the credit that it deserves for MLB The Show, with the franchise routinely overlooked by PlayStation fans as forum list wars focus on the heavy hitters like God of War and The Last of Us: Part II. But the developer’s quietly created one of the best sports series available on any platform, and while this...
Squad goals
The elite squad of United States hotshots Bravo Team think they’re home and hosed: they’ve successfully escorted the president of a fictional Eastern Europe country safely back to her destination, and all that’s left is a pat on the back and a rousing round of ‘Oorah’. But a sudden coup sees the dignitary snatched away, and...
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...
February2018
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...
January2018
Old-school platformer, new-school technology
Republished on Wednesday 31st January 2018: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of February's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. Way back in February of this year, millions of viewers around the world witnessed the reveal of...
Wendigo prophecy
Until Dawn’s breakout success has spawned all sorts of spin-offs, none really capturing the essence of the original teen slasher. The Inpatient continues this trend with a straight-faced, narrative-based PlayStation VR experience set in the 1950s. You play as a patient sectioned in Blackwood Sanatorium during its final days of...
December2017
Lost in space
Republished on Wednesday 27th December 2017: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of January's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. Overwatch in virtual reality is not a bad pitch on paper, but it's one that struggles in practice. StarBlood Arena has its heart in...
