Latest Reviews
Rumble in the urban jungle
Look, we like Judgment protagonist Takayuki Yagami — even though he was a bit of a wet blanket in Lost Judgment — but he's been completely outdone by Masaharu Kaito, the man who usually plays second fiddle as Tak's roughhousing sidekick. The ex-yakuza is the star of the show in his very own expansion — appropriately...
Review Weird West (PS4) - Ambitious Top-Down RPG Comes Close to Greatness
Darn shootin'
With the success of Deathloop last year, the comeback of immersive sims from their late 90s/early 2000s heyday seems to be in full swing. Through dogged determination and fantastic game design, Arkane Studios has almost single-handedly revived the genre a decade after releasing the first Dishonored title. So it makes sense that Weird...
Mini Review Agent Intercept (PS5) - Modern Spy Hunter Is Shallow But Satisfying Fun
Mission absolutely possible
Agent Intercept is an extremely accessible game, but that's not to say it doesn't deliver some thrills and spills. This modern, Spy Hunter-esque title is an easy breezy good time that aims to put a smile on your face, and we'd say that's mission accomplished. Gameplay is very basic; you simply steer, boost and drift with...
Review Tiny Tina's Wonderlands (PS5) - Borderlands Fantasy Spin-Off Can't Quite Find the Magic
No time to dice
If you read our review of Borderlands 3, then you've basically read our review of Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, only this game isn't as good. We're just doing it again in different words, and we're a little more weary this time around. Nothing of much consequence has changed between the two games. The budget is lower, clearly, and the...
Review Hood: Outlaws & Legends (PS5) - Competitive Stealth Title Is Real Refreshing
But it Sherwood help if it had more players
Republished on Wednesday 30th March 2022: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of April 2022's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. What if a classic Assassin’s Creed quest was the basis for a competitive multiplayer game? Hood: Outlaws &...
Review SpongeBob Rehydrated - Battle for Bikini Bottom Remake Is Rough and Ready Fun
Doing the Sponge
Republished on Wednesday 30th March 2022: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of April 2022's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. Say what you like about SpongeBob SquarePants, but there's a reason it's still one of Nickelodeon's most popular shows. The cartoon starring a...
Mini Review Crusader Kings III: Console Edition (PS5) - Strategic Royalty Rewards Patient Players
King me
Crusader Kings III is the kind of game that you could quite easily lose days, weeks, or even months to once you've wrapped your head around its many, many systems. It's a ridiculously in-depth strategy title — the kind that you rarely see on consoles — but port studio Lab42 has done a solid job of making the whole thing manageable on...
Review Ghostwire: Tokyo (PS5) - Not the Bethesda Swansong We Hoped For
The evil without
From The Elder Scrolls and Fallout to Dishonored and Wolfenstein, the Bethesda catalogue has been a staple of many a PlayStation console's third-party lineup. Its games are unique and varied. And while not all of them land, you're always in for something a bit different. Microsoft's acquisition of the company means that's all set to...
Mini Review The Ascent (PS5) - Gorgeous Cyberpunk Shooter Is Enhanced on PS5
A steady climb
The Ascent was met with slightly mixed reviews when it launched on PC and Xbox platforms around eight months ago, but it arrives on PlayStation 5 a much improved game. A slew of updates have fixed bugs and rebalanced various gameplay elements since the title's 2021 release. What's more, new content — like New Game+, a transmog...
Mini Review Paradise Killer (PS5) - A Wild Murder Mystery That Puts the Player in Charge
Nani the hell?
The core conceit of Paradise Killer is so brilliant and yet so simple: the player dictates how the whodunnit story plays out. This first person adventure title drops you into a fantastical island setting where you must solve a mass murder, but the responsibility rests with you. There's little guidance — you simply need to explore...
Review GTA 5 (PS5) - Rockstar's Los Santos Is Still One of the Best Open Worlds Ever Assembled
Four stars
It’s staggering to think that GTA 5 got its start on the PlayStation 3. Even today, almost a decade since it first debuted, Los Santos feels more lived in than virtually any other open world. In fact, compared to its urban contemporaries, like Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City, it’s startling just how believable the Hollywood-inspired...
Mini Review ANNO: Mutationem (PS5) - Cyberpunk Adventure Is More Style Than Substance
Pixelated puddles
ANNO: Mutationem has always looked good, with its mix of pixelated characters and 3D environments. The question was, could it deliver an engaging experience to match that style? It sort of does, but it has a few too many rough edges. The game is a mix of two quite different parts. There's 3D adventure gameplay, in which you...
Review Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (PS5) - Utterly Ridiculous Final Fantasy Spin-Off
Elixer? I hardly knew her!
The first four minutes of the ludicrously titled Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin set the scene perfectly. There’s a cutscene of a dark knight annihilating a platoon of soldiers while he carries an unconscious princess on his shoulder. Then you’re in a boss battle against a multi-headed creature without...
Review Babylon's Fall (PS5) - This Limp, Confusing Service Game Has Nothing Going for It
Babylon's Fail
Let’s begin the review with a stark personal story. We promise this is 100 per cent true: we fell asleep playing Babylon’s Fall. Multiple times. Sat there in an office chair, DualSense in hand, fast asleep. That could almost be the end of the review, surely? A new game from Platinum of all people, patron saints of hardcore gaming...
Review WWE 2K22 (PS5) - A Return to Form for 2K's Wrestling Franchise
Head of the table
WWE 2K22 is a better game than WWE 2K20. There, that's the headline. For a variety of reasons 2K20 was released in such a disastrous state that we called it "a comedy horror title" in our review at the time. Surely taking stock of just how much the WWE license is worth to them, 2K and beleaguered developer Visual Concepts made the...
Mini Review Submerged: Hidden Depths (PS5) - Perfectly Fine Boaty Exploration
Keep Rowin' Rowin' Rowin' Rowin'
Submerged: Hidden Depths is a fine game. It's not fine as in a fine wine, nor is it fine like the little dog from the meme sat in his burning house saying, "This is fine." Submerged is fine fine. It's neither impressive nor offensive, never quite boring but almost certainly not exciting. There's nothing here that...
The end is nigh
Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok is the biggest expansion in series history. Ubisoft's been feeding us that marketing bullet point for months, and having played it for ourselves, it's safe to say that the French publisher wasn't lying. It took us roughly 33 hours to complete everything that Dawn of Ragnarok has to offer,...
Mini Review A Musical Story (PS5) - A Charming Debut Rhythm Title with a Whole Lot of Heart
Movin' right along
A Musical Story is exactly what the title suggests. This debut release from French indie dev Glee-Cheese Studio depicts the journey of an upstart band on its way to perform at Pinewood. While it’s a rhythm game, things are presented with more of a visual novel flair, with individual chapters and vignettes inching you closer to...
Mini Review Shadow Warrior 3 (PS4) - A Very 2014 Shooter
Wang gang
Shadow Warrior 3 might be set in the demon-ravaged ruins of a futuristic Japan, but the game itself feels like a return to the early 2010s. Protagonist Lo Wang is constantly quipping, breaking the fourth wall and using his own name for dick jokes as he auditions to be the next Ryan Reynolds. There's parkour, grappling hooks, and an...
Review King of Fighters XV (PS5) - Rock Solid Brawler Is Better than XIV, But Still Struggles to Wow
Expectations met
There's a lot to like about King of Fighters XV if you're a fan of the genre. Deep, technical gameplay. A large and fairly interesting character roster. All-important rollback netcode, which allows for mostly smooth online matches. All of the ingredients are here, but the finished product still lacks a certain edge — the kind of...
Mini Review Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden (PS4) - Reshuffled RPG Is Largely the Same
Another round?
Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden is a bit like playing a tabletop game with a slightly altered deck; there are some noticeable differences, but you're ultimately still playing the same thing. This follow-up to The Isle Dragon Roars is extremely similar for the most part — including its faults — but small gameplay changes and a...
Review Gran Turismo 7 (PS5) - The Real Driving Simulator Makes Its Grand Return
Back to basics
There are labours of love, and then there's Gran Turismo 7. From famed developer Polyphony Digital and series creator Kazunori Yamauchi, it's abundantly clear every single member of the studio has a passion for cars. In fact, we might even be selling them short. Gran Turismo 7 is a game born out of love. It's just as much about the...
Review Destiny 2: The Witch Queen (PS5) - Bungie's Loot Shooter Vaults Back into First Place
Goodnight Forsaken, Witch Queen awaken
How do you review a game that never ends? The latest expansion in the Destiny 2 cycle – The Witch Queen – arrives amidst typical controversy as the excellent Forsaken campaign is removed – excuse me, vaulted – to supposedly make room for it. We’ve got mixed feelings about the whole situation. On the...
Review Elden Ring (PS5) - By Far FromSoftware's Best Ever Game
A song of life and death
Elden Ring is a special, once in a generation type of game. You can feel it the moment you push open the set of double doors looking out onto the opening area of Limgrave and begin exploring the vast open world at your feet. It’s an astonishing feat, as Japanese developer FromSoftware adapts its wide but ultimately linear...
Review FAR: Changing Tides (PS5) - More of the Same Isn't Always Bad
For the tides, they are a-changin’
The first FAR title, FAR: Lone Sails, was a clever, gorgeous puzzle game about guiding a vehicle across an apocalyptic landscape. So, there was cause to rejoice when developer Okomotive announced it’d be helming a sequel, returning to the exciting world it had crafted. And the reward for that is a fresh new...
Review GRID Legends (PS5) - A Solid Racer with a Lacklustre Narrative
Not quite legendary
GRID Legends finds itself in a bit of a tough spot. Launching a racing game in close proximity to any competition can be a bit dicey, but Codemaster’s latest entry in the GRID series is releasing just a mere week ahead of Polyphony’s much-anticipated Gran Turismo 7. Considering the near nine-year gap since the last properly...
Mini Review Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual (PSVR) - Middling Ideas Propped Up by a Great Script
All Max'd out
The first brand new Sam & Max game since 2010 sees the famed duo welcoming a new recruit: you. To make sure you’re up to snuff, Sam and Max put you through a series trials as you prove your worth to the freelance police. The trials wind up being a series of minigames at an abandoned amusement park and periodically, you get...
Review Martha Is Dead (PS5) - Censorship Is the Biggest Story in This Uneven Horror
The crazy world of Martha drown
Would people know about Martha Is Dead without its censorship debacle? You’ve probably heard by now that this game has been modified for its PlayStation release, common to a trend where PlayStation versions of various anime games tend to be cut and modified for sexual content. Martha Is Dead, though, has been edited...
Cauldron of Dreams
The Atelier games are a somewhat niche Japanese RPG series so it might surprise some to know that it's actually been around for 25 years, with 23 games in the main series and a heck of a lot of enhanced ports and side games. To celebrate this impressive achievement, developer Gust has decided to go back and continue the story of...
Review Team Sonic Racing (PS4) - It's Not Mario Kart, But It's Good Enough
There's no AiAi in Team
Republished on Wednesday, 23rd January, 2022: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of March 2022's PS Plus lineup. The original text follows. Here's the thing: PlayStation 4 does not have many examples of good arcade racing games, let alone kart racers. The few exceptions are trying...