Tag: Previews - Page 12
First Impressions Is Pretty PS4 Exclusive The Order: 1886 a Victorian Victory?
Antique action
Insomniac Games may have taken a half-step outside of the House of PlayStation, but Sony may have already found the studio’s replacement in Ready at Dawn. Much of the conversation surrounding Victorian adventure The Order: 1886 has centred on its storyline and steampunk art style, but after a short hands-on demo, we came away more...
First Impressions What New Tricks does Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition Learn on PS4?
Yes Wei
Many would argue that the original Sleeping Dogs was the overlooked sandbox gem of the last generation. The title's setting of Hong Kong had a quirky feel to it, and gameplay mixed exploration, kung-fu combat, and a surprisingly enjoyable story. It certainly wasn't as polished or as vast in scope as something like Grand Theft Auto V, but...
First Impressions PS4 Teen Horror Until Dawn Is So Bad That It's Scarily Good
#Dead
David Cage makes games that aren’t supposed to be funny, but sometimes wander into the realm of comedy anyway. The Parisian auteur, who’s perhaps best known for PlayStation 3 exclusive Heavy Rain, tends to discuss Quantic Dream’s ‘emotional’ output in a very self-serious manner – and yet, scenes such as ‘Jason, Jason’ often...
First Impressions OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood Is Raily Good
Grinding cheers
British indie Roll7 knows how to make a game feel good. The studio's inaugural outing OlliOlli felt fantastic, ensuring that you experienced the satisfaction of every single landed trick. With a hit already on its hands, the teensy company is not exactly reinventing the wheel with the pun-tastic PlayStation 4 and Vita sequel OlliOlli...
First Impressions What's Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's Frontline of the Future Like on PS4?
Time to respawn
The Call of Duty series is perhaps one of the most popular yet widely criticised franchises in the modern era of gaming. Fans of the brand adore the game to its core, playing every iteration for countless hours on a quest to reach the maximum prestige; others feel quite opposed to the series and the impact that it has made on the...
First Impressions Testing the Hype in Destiny's Exclusive PS4 Alpha
We say jump, you say how high
Over the last four days, we've spent 26 hours exploring Destiny's surprise First Look Alpha. Announced during Sony's E3 2014 press conference, the 6.6GB download offers a shockingly robust early look at the upcoming sci-fi epic, sporting an impressively vast map full of enemies, a player-versus-player mode, a lengthy...
Hands On Playing Hide and Seek with PS4's Alien: Isolation
Fresh undies encouraged
From the ashes of Gearbox’s dismal Aliens: Colonial Marines rises an experience that promises not only to reinvigorate its parent property but also the entire survival horror genre. Alien: Isolation bleeds with the key components of Ridley Scott’s blockbuster, and weaves it into a thrilling fight for your life that never...
First Impressions Burning Bodies in The Evil Within on PS4
You're Mikami crazy
When legendary developer and horror game kingpin Shinji Mikami first unleashed the T-Virus onto the PSone in 1996, he not only managed to popularise the genre with mainstream audiences, but also founded a blockbuster franchise that would go on to sell millions. Some 18 years later, it could be argued that the long running...
First Impressions PS4 Puzzler The Swapper Is a Ridley Scott Meets Metroid Masterclass
Do the old switcheroo
Games are the perfect medium for escapism, transporting us anywhere from the depths of the ocean to the furthest reaches of the universe. The Swapper depicts an unnerving return to the desolate realm of space, as you’re whisked away to the apparently abandoned Theseus Space Station. Using an experimental device, can you...
First Impressions PS4 Puzzler MouseCraft Whiffs of Tetris, Lemmings, and Mature Cheddar
Dairy glee
Freed from the shackles of financially motivated businessmen, the indie space is awash with bonkers ideas, and Crunching Koala’s upcoming MouseCraft is no exception. The lovechild of Tetris and Lemmings, the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and Vita titles puts you in the steampunk shoes of a crazy cat scientist – aptly named...
First Impressions Taking a Toll Free Tour of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number on PS4
So wrong but so right
Did you like hurting other people? If so, then you were no doubt very happy when a new Hotline Miami game was revealed to be in the works. The critical and commercial success of the original made the sequel a virtual certainty, and with Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number due for release later this year, we got the chance to take the...
First Impressions Beating Up Siblings in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle
Keep it in the family
For the uninitiated, the constant wave of previously Japanese-only titles getting a Western release can be extremely daunting. Despite the recent successes of Persona 4 Golden, Catherine, and even the likes of Demon’s Souls, there still exists a barrier that very few people are willing to cross in the name of newer, more...
First Impressions Sliding Down the Slipway with Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day
Ranko's Creed
In case you're unaware, Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day is not technically a game in the normal sense of the word. Instead, it's a rather big bundle of delight, featuring four short anime movies from acclaimed directors who brought you cult classics such as the 1988 blockbuster Akira, and a rather quirky gameplay segment...
First Impressions Murdered: Soul Suspect Makes a Compelling Case on PS4
Ghost crimebuster
A plunge from a fourth floor window to the street below isn’t quite enough to kill hard as nails detective Ronan O’Connor. The seven bullets that follow are. The introduction to our hands-on with the PlayStation 4 version of Murdered: Soul Suspect was certainly arresting, and made us eager to find out more about this upcoming...
First Impressions Rolling with the PS4 Port of Skating Smash OlliOlli
Deck the mall
We won’t need to expend too many sentences to summarise the PlayStation 4 port of Roll7’s surprisingly strong skateboarding sim OlliOlli: it’s the PlayStation Vita game amplified to the size of your television screen. Rather than develop the title in-house, the British-based studio has offloaded the heavy lifting to BlitWorks,...
First Impressions Is the PS Vita Dragging Murasaki Baby Back?
Who loves ya, baby?
Murasaki Baby is a gobstoppingly gorgeous title – but it’s yet to prove that it’s an entertaining one. The inaugural escapade by Italian outfit Ovosonico shares similarities with creative director Massimo Guarini’s previous outing Shadows of the Damned, in that it provides an inviting aesthetic, but not enough immediate...
Hands On Ubisoft Abandons Weapons for Watercolours in Child of Light on PS4
Sweet child o' mine
Female protagonists are a rare sight. Most games lean towards a male lead, allowing women to – at most – occupy the role of a sidekick. Child of Light, however, sees a young girl take centre stage in an intriguing PlayStation 4 production. Elaborately named Aurora, the protagonist is a princess, and although her crown slips...
First Impressions Staying Alive in Alien: Isolation, the Tensest Title on PS4 So Far
Ripley's believe it
That we’ve already sneaked through a short sample of upcoming PlayStation 4 survival horror Alien: Isolation says a lot about the game and its developer. Knowing that it could have easily been haunted by the spectre of Gearbox’s atrocious Aliens: Colonial Marines, The Creative Assembly has instead punctured any scepticism...
Hands On Scouting Out Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes on PS4
Looking foxy
You’re no doubt sick and tired of reading about Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes’ running time, so we thought that we’d give you a break from that line of discussion, and focus on the actual game for a change. Having recently had a chance to go hands-on with Hideo Kojima’s gorgeous next-gen debut, we’ve compiled our...
Hands On Smoking Out Seattle in inFAMOUS: Second Son on PS4
Burning down the house
Holy smokes, it’s less than two weeks until you’ll be playing inFAMOUS: Second Son. A cynic may argue that the PlayStation 4’s first few months on the market have been dryer than the Sahara Desert, but Sucker Punch is aiming to finally light up your system with a showering of neon and smoke powers later this month. And...
Hands On Traversing the Trenches of PS4 Shooter Wolfenstein: The New Order
Führious
1981 saw the release of Castle Wolfenstein, a very early Commodore 64 top-down stealth action title that found you angrily taking down the entire Nazi war machine singlehandedly via a series of small, pixelated rooms. Now, some thirty years after the series’ inception, Swedish studio MachineGames is looking to continue the veteran...
Hands On A Fresh Spawn's Journey Through the First Few Hours of Dark Souls II
Soul sister
The Souls series is not for the faint-hearted. Constant deaths, insane difficulty spikes, and an ever present sense of doom are just a handful of reasons behind the brand’s success among a growing niche of brave gamers. Somehow, developer From Software has managed to make its once masochistic franchise a bit of a blockbuster, and with...
First Impressions Turtle Rock Is Transforming Co-Op with Evolve on PS4
Evolve or die
Boss battles are quite common in games. Usually equipped with a sequence of rules, they give you the opportunity to face a gargantuan challenge in search of closure or progression. So what happens when you open this ideology up and create a game that’s a constant non-scripted, unpredictable, and intense boss fight? Well, Turtle Rock...
First Impressions Toukiden Looks to Forge a Strong Handheld Slay-'Em-Up
Face your demons
From the developers of Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors comes Toukiden: The Age of Demons, a monster-slaying, loot-grinding, Eastern-styled action RPG that seems tailored to portable play. Publisher Tecmo Koei's dedication to Sony's troubled handheld console is admirable – but does its newest creation shine like a beacon of...
First Impressions Shining a Spotlight on Free PS4 Shooter Blacklight: Retribution
No cost CoD
Blacklight: Retribution has never been subtle about its similarities to Call of Duty. The popular Kill Confirmed mode, which first appeared in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, took only a short time to appear in the Zombie Studios developed shooter, and supposed leaked screenshots of Call of Duty: Black Ops II tu
First Impressions Tearaway Is Cut Out to Be One of the Vita's Best Titles
No glue required
There comes a point when playing Tearaway where it's near impossible to remove yourself from the delightful world that developer Media Molecule has crafted. Indeed, if there was one word we could use to describe the papercraft platformer, it would be 'delightful'. Like LittleBigPlanet before it, the game doesn't appeal to just a...
First Impressions Switching Genres on the Fly in Velocity 2X on Vita and PS4
Oh Kai
During its short spell at the forefront of PlayStation production, FuturLab has profited from its ability to surprise. Straightforward concepts are at the core of the company’s ethos, but the award-winning developer always manages to marry them with clever twists. That commitment to reinvention resulted in the firm refreshing the entire...
First Impressions Defying Death in Dark Souls II
Bonfire rewire
Our stamina bar drained slowly, as engulfed by utter darkness, the ominous sound of a huge armoured tortoise’s footsteps refused to fade into the black. This is the moment that it suddenly became clear that Dark Souls II would live up to every bit of its gruelling reputation – and not only in terms of difficulty, but also in its...
First Impressions Unmasking Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate on PlayStation Vita
Holy handheld, Batman
There’s some serious pedigree behind Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate. The portable spin-off is being assembled by Armature, the Texas-based game production workshop founded by a trio of ex-Retro Studios employees, and is attempting to piggy-back off the success of Rocksteady’s wildly popular Arkham escapades, only on a...
First Impressions Taking Gran Turismo 6 for a Test Drive on PS3
Round the bend
With the next generation of consoles looming, Gran Turismo 6 feels like a title out of time for many. Launching after the PlayStation 4 hits stores worldwide, the PlayStation 3 racer will attempt to go head-to-head with Forza 5 on the Xbox One. It’s a bold move from Sony to forgo its futuristic console, as it would have been a...
First Impressions Hitching a Ride in the Stalling Grand Theft Auto Online
Grand Theft Manual
Unless you've been hiding away from the federal government for the past week, you'll have no doubt heard about Grand Theft Auto Online's rough start. Connection problems plagued the highly anticipated multiplayer addition to Rockstar's opus, as the title's servers crumbled within minutes of it going live. Even if you were lucky...
First Impressions Testing Our Reactions in Resogun, the Prettiest Game on PS4
Machine of sparkle
If you’ve been unfortunate enough to reside within the general vicinity of this particular author over the past month or so, you’ll have been forced to suffer through an excited recount regarding Resogun. The spiritual successor to Super Stardust HD has been lighting chemical fireworks in our subconscious for several weeks...
Video Reporting for Duty in DICE's Battlefield 4 Beta on PS3
Stand to attention
War never changes – it just gets refined. Never ones to shy away when the world’s plunged into military madness, we’ve been testing our Rambo-esque resolve in Battlefield 4’s beta over the past couple of days. But does the game feel like a true step forward for the franchise, or is it merely more of the same? Check out our...
Hands On Skylanders: Swap Force Looks and Sounds the Part on PS4
Next generation treatment
As we get closer to the release of Skylanders: Swap Force, we’ve obtained better access to the game. Having played through some snatched sections at Gamescom, it was good to be able to take the time to fully investigate the available levels at this year's Eurogamer Expo. Played here on the PlayStation 4, you can see...
First Impressions Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z Covers Us in Zombie Blood
No braaains
The weird Ninja Gaiden spin-off that is Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z surprised us during a recent hands-on. For a series that's always been known for its gory disposition, it feels like proceedings may have gone a little bit overboard, with so much blood and mutilation that we found it difficult to discern what was even happening on screen...
Hands On PS4 Launch Title Knack Is Gradually Gathering Steam
Bigger and better
We’ve had a more turbulent relationship with Knack than the scorned lovers from Wuthering Heights. The throwback platformer in production at Sony’s recently rejuvenated Japan Studio disappointed us earlier in the year, prompting us to ponder the platform holder’s decision to put it at the forefront of the PlayStation 4’s...
First Impressions Sailing Around Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag's Open Waters on PS4
We can almost smell that salty sea air
Only a short time away from launch, Ubisoft has been bombarding the web with countless promotional trailers, developer commentaries, and swag-heavy competitions for months now – but not even this avalanche of content could prepare us for the sense of freedom that we experienced during a recent Assassin's...
Hands On Fighting for Fun in Killzone: Shadow Fall's Next Generation Multiplayer Mode
Guerrilla Games reloads with Warzones
It may be one of the PlayStation 4’s first big exclusives, but Killzone: Shadow Fall finds itself surrounded by heavy firepower. With both Call of Duty: Ghosts and Battlefield 4 set to accompany the release onto store shelves later this year, Guerrilla Games’ next generation excursion to the Alpha Centauri...
First Impressions Sliding and Slicing in Warframe on PS4
Named and framed
Occupying just three PlayStation 4s at Sony's Eurogamer Expo booth, Digital Extreme's free-to-play co-op sci-fi romp shared the same floor as juggernauts like Killzone: Shadow Fall and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. Warframe's presence brought a homey feel to the otherwise bustling show, as members of the development team talked...
Preview Pointing a Long Lens at Watch Dogs on PS4
Hack attack
Watch Dogs is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated releases in the PlayStation 4’s line-up, so we were eager to point our viewfinder at a behind closed doors demo of the sandbox release earlier in the week. The title, being played on Sony’s next generation super machine, demonstrated several mechanics from the upcoming hack fest,...
First Impressions Basking in the Glow of Child of Light
Baby bright
The second UbiArt-powered game to be unveiled at Ubisoft’s Digital Days 2013 event, Child of Light – which is launching on both the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 – was pitched to us as “a JRPG for those that don’t have the time to invest a hundred hours into a game”. While this quote may trouble some hardcore JRPG fans,...
Preview Digging Deep into the Trenches in Valiant Hearts: The Great War on PS3 and PS4
War and leash
Ubisoft broke new ground in 2011 with its innovative UbiArt Framework game engine, a technology which allows artists to easily create assets and embed them into interactive environments. We’ve already seen it used to brilliant effect in the recent Rayman games, and since then people have been crying out for it to be leveraged in more...
First Impressions Going Underground With Ubisoft's Watch_Dogs
We go hands-on at Ubisoft's Digital Days 2013
One of many blockbuster titles in Ubisoft’s stable adopting their second screen experience initiative, the potential for Watch_Dogs’ iOS "H_ide" app is high — and in a game where you can hack everything, you’re not quite as unhackable as you might think. At Ubisoft’s Digital Days 2013 event in...
First Impressions Join The Crew - Hitting The Road With Ubisoft's PS4 Open World Racer
Burning rubber
Unique social functions and second screen experiences are the new chic for the video game industry at the moment, with every other publisher attempting to shoehorn in ways to ‘enhance’ your gameplay experience. No publisher is pushing for this innovative change more than Ubisoft and its seamlessly online-integrated race-em-up, The...
First Impressions Revisiting Adolescent Angst in Quantic Dream’s Beyond: Two Souls
Holmes alone
Beyond: Two Souls is unlike anything that you’ve ever played before. It certainly shares similarities with developer Quantic Dream’s previous work, but many of those comparisons revolve around the fact that you’ll be interacting with the game world in an unorthodox way. Much like there was an entire sequence in Heavy Rain...
Hands On Cascade Glade Showcases Skylanders: Swap Force on PS4
Next generation
Having had a look at the Winter Keep level in Skylanders: Swap Force, today we’ve got some hands-on with Cascade Glade. Not only that, but we've also moved from the PlayStation 3 to the PlayStation 4. Our initial look at the Cascade Glade level was back when Activision announced Swap Force to a
First Impressions Skylanders: Swap Force Courts Core Gamers
Trading up
Being talked through a game by the developer and playing it at home is a very different experience. To close this “reality” gap, Family Gamer TV went solo with a full level from Skylanders: Swap Force on the PlayStation 4 at GamesCom. Let’s get the elephant out of the room straight away: jumping is not a big deal in the world of...
First Impressions An Audience with Puppeteer, the PS3 Panto Deserving of a Standing Ovation
Pure theatre
Games like Puppeteer don’t deserve to be sitting out in the wings. You’re more likely to find Japan Studio’s side-scroller nursing a cold cup of coffee and pushing about props than strutting its stuff on centre stage. In an industry increasingly obsessed with leading lights like Call of Duty and Battlefield, there’s becoming...
Round Up We've Played a Ton of PS4 Games, Read Our Thoughts
Rewind theatre
While you may still be awaiting your first chance to get to grips with the DualShock 4, we’ve been greedily getting hands-on time with a bunch of the PlayStation 4’s biggest games. Assuming that you’ve been visiting the site on a daily basis – and there are no excuses for not doing so – then you’ll already know that...
First Impressions Stepping into the Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
Use your illusion
Disney has been investing a significant amount of effort in recent years to put the quality back into its video game franchises and reach out to more adult gamers. With the Epic Mickey series adopting a somewhat darker tone, and the forthcoming classic remake of DuckTales: Remastered, it’s obvious that the media giant has been...
