PS3, PS4 Reviews - Page 8

Nuts and bolts

Few video game franchises have greater pedigree than PlayStation’s most dependable crime-fighters, Ratchet & Clank. Armed with a plethora of imaginative gadgetry and a never-ending inventory of wisecracks, the Insomniac's series has been a staple of any self-prophesised PlayStation enthusiast’s diet for the past decade. That...

Blockbusters

Even the Dark Knight needs a little help now and then. Bruce Wayne returns in blocky form after his critically acclaimed first outing, and this time he's brought along a huge gang of friends – and their enemies. LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes still hangs on Batman and Gotham City, but the scope has been expanded to give you the chance...

Balls of steel

Zen Studios’ Zen Pinball might be the current king of the pinball ring on PSN, but experienced pinball developer FarSight Studios wants to take a shot at the high score table with The Pinball Arcade. Instead of tackling Zen Studios's arcade-y stylings head-on, FarSight's steel balls have something special that sets their title apart...

Daze dreamer

Games such as Gravity Rush are getting rarer. The Japan Studio-developed handheld adventure eschews committee design and instead coalesces on a consistent creative vision. Driven by the surreal imagination of former Silent Hill director Keiichiro Toyama, the title is a thoughtful exploration of original gameplay mechanics and cultural...

Tainted move

Different people drift towards the world of video gaming for varying reasons. Some see it as an escape from the dreary nature of 'real life' and adore the opportunity to be someone or something else for a few hours. Others delight in uttering some 'smack talk' to anyone daft enough to be wearing a headset with the volume up a few...

Doctor No

The world of Doctor Who has been just begging for a competent game. After all, aren't aliens, robots, destruction, time travel and awkward, often sarcastic, humour all great staples of the medium? It's exactly the sort of television show that could merrily hop over the gap without missing a beat. But despite a clear love of the series and...

Goddammit, video games

It's generally a bad idea to judge anything by its title or cover, but one look at either pretty much spells out what to expect from Grasshopper Manufacture's latest fever dream, Lollipop Chainsaw: comic books, pop music, rainbows, titillating exploitation and lots and lots of violence. These are all the makings for perfect...

A clone of a clone of a clone

Metal Gear Solid is one of the most iconic stealth/action games in the genre to date. The franchise has won a plethora of prestigious awards and is acknowledged by some gamers to be one of the best game series of all time. As it was made popular on the PlayStation and PlayStation 2, there's no surprise that the...

Playing God

One of the video game medium’s greatest assets is its ability to convey power. Whether you’re taking control of a superhero or an everyman with regenerating health, the industry rarely fails in its pursuit to provide you with unreasonable strength. But while potent protagonists are nothing new – almost all would succumb to the...

King of the ring

Virtua Fighter is the Beck of the gaming world. Adored by critics and shouted about by its fans, but virtually inaccessible to newcomers. It's never reached a wide audience like Street Fighter or Tekken, but now Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown has dropped the cost of entry to just £9.99/$14.99 there is no excuse for fight fans not...

Axed at the knee

Insomniac Games left a strong lasting mark when it stepped away from its Resistance series after the atmospheric and emotionally gripping Resistance 3. With Insomniac Games now hard at work exploring new avenues for us to enjoy, Nihilistic Software has stepped in to send us back into the Chimeran infested world once again, with the...

You drive me crazy

A title like Mad Riders conjures up all sorts of wild possibilities. Alas, you might be disappointed to discover that this game does not, in fact, involve racing rollerskate-wearing elephants down rainbow highways, nor does it include oversized hammers to swipe at foes. It's actually a rocket-powered ATV racer, the promised...

A kind of magic

Sorcery is the game that PlayStation Move owners have been craving. The motion controlled title that captivated crowds at E3 2010 has been a constant source of conversation right the way through to its re-reveal late last year. But having spent almost 18 months shrouded in the secrecy of Sony’s invisibility cloak, the title finds...

Broken locks and broken hearts

Everything is different in the dark. The play of light and shadow can lend any partially obscured object an ominous tone. If you've ever navigated your room late at night after waking from a deep sleep, half-aware of reality and half-aware you're no longer in your bed, you know this feeling – the feeling that dwells...

Enchanting

When the original Trine released back in 2009, it took us on a fun yet flawed 2D physics-based puzzling quest, inspired by the cult favourite SNES classic, The Lost Vikings. Even with its faults, nothing stopped the game from rapidly growing a large fan base. With Trine 2, developer Frozenbyte has pulled out every bit of magic it...

Crafty

Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland is the 13th instalment of Gust’s storied Atelier series and the third part of the “Arland” trilogy. While at first glance the sheer amount of ground this series has covered makes for a high barrier of entry, skip this title based on intimidation and you'll miss a very enjoyable experience. The...

Ghost squad

If you're expecting to sneak about undetected for the entirety of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, prepare to be disappointed. While there are many clandestine moments throughout, Future Soldier plays closer to the rulebook established by the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare titles. Levels start out with stealth at the forefront but...

Fender bender

You get the feeling Codemasters has wanted to make DiRT Showdown for a while. Freed from the shackles of the mainline series, Showdown takes DiRT’s semi-reserved personality and steers into a head-on collision with Ken Block culture. With less subtlety than a shocking pink livery, this is a raucous, gnarly and, at times, downright...

All night long

Making music is hard. Ask any budding music producer and they’ll tell you that learning the intricacies of Reason is more challenging than trying to platinum Dark Souls while blindfolded. PixelJunk 4am, the new downloadable title from PSN stalwarts Q-Games, attempts to erode that learning curve by transforming the PlayStation Move...