Author: Ken Talbot | Push Square

Author Profile

Ken Talbot has been playing games since they came in the form of cassettes. Over 30 years of experience in all genres and on all platforms, with a particular corner of his heart for Playstation and Nintendo. Ken has worked in the software industry for over a decade, which keeps him close to the tech and business decisions that drive the gaming industry. He loves to play everything, but is an enthusiast for survival horror and fantasy RPGs.

Username: kendomustdie
Articles: 67 (57 reviews)
First Article: Tue 24th, May 2016
Avg. Review Score: 6.9
Find Them On: LinkedIn • Twitter/X • Instagram

38
Review South Park: Snow Day! (PS5) - 3D Co-Op Card Brawler Is a Step Back for the Franchise

Let's Fighting Love
The South Park franchise has an eclectic history of genre choices, trying (and mostly failing) everything from FPS to kart racer. 2014's South Park: The Stick of Truth and its comic-book-themed follow-up redressed the balance with an excellent comedic spin on the old-school RPG. Now it takes another genre pivot, becoming the...
- Mon 25th Mar 2024
- Reviews
- THQ Nordic
- PS5
- South Park: Snow Day
17
Mini Review Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story (PS5) - A Trippy Odyssey Through a Yak's Brain

Drama Llama
Part of its lovingly curated Gold Master Series, Digital Eclipse’s exploration of Llamasoft is a comprehensive and fascinating package. Essentially an interactive museum, Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story presents documentary snippets, archival materials, and, most importantly, the games. A truly singular voice, Minter has been...
- Wed 13th Mar 2024
- Reviews
- Digital Eclipse
- PS5
- Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story
- Mini Reviews
6
Mini Review War Hospital (PS5) - Triage the Wounded in Grim Wartime Sim

Casualties of war
We seem to be experiencing a new era of bleak realism in management sims. The likes of This War of Mine and Frostpunk eschew optimistic growth in favour of grim survival at all costs. The latest in this cycle is War Hospital, a WWI-era triage-'em-up that has you overseeing a medical compound under relentless assault from enemy...
- Wed 24th Jan 2024
- Reviews
- Nacon
- PS5
- War Hospital
- Mini Reviews
26
Game of the Year Ken's Top 5 PS5, PS4 Games of 2023

Faeruined
Our individual Game of the Year articles allow our lovely team of writers to share their own personal PS5 and PS4 picks for 2023. Today, it's the turn of reviewer Ken Talbot. 5. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor: I wasn’t sure how Respawn was going to handle the follow-up to the brilliant Fallen Order. Would it go bigger and risk diluting...
- Tue 19th Dec 2023
- Game of the Year
- PS5
- PS4
- Features
30
Mini Review The Lord of the Rings: Return To Moria (PS5) - Survival Adventure Not Worth Treasuring

And they call it a mine, a mine!
Free Range Game's hairy spelunking simulator comes hot on the heels of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, a low point of the year and a horrible adaptation of Tolkien's IP. While it isn't as abjectly awful as Daedalic's folly, The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is, sadly, also a disappointment. This is a survival...
- Tue 12th Dec 2023
- Reviews
- Open Door Entertainment
- PS5
- The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria
- Mini Reviews
1
Mini Review Headbangers Rhythm Royale (PS5) - Musical Party Game Is Frustrating and Fun

Let's get this bread
Glee Cheese Studio's Headbangers Rhythm Royale is the latest in a growing roster of battle royale party games. Heavily reminiscent of Fall Guys, the game sees floppy-headed pigeons duke it out in rhythm-based puzzles. Thirty competitors fight to earn the coveted title of master headbanger. You'll be familiar with the format by...
- Fri 27th Oct 2023
- Reviews
- Team 17
- PS5
- Headbangers Rhythm Royale
- Mini Reviews
12
Mini Review Hellboy Web of Wyrd (PS5) - Visually Striking, But Fails to Inspire as a Brawler

Don't mess with him, he's been drinking with skeletons
The tumultuous multimedia journey of Anung Un Rama continues with Hellboy Web of Wyrd — a roguelike brawler that might help wash away the taste of the abysmal 2019 cinematic reboot. Developer Upstream Arcade has attempted to transpose the visual style and narrative spirit of Hellboy from the...
- Wed 18th Oct 2023
- Reviews
- Good Shepherd Entertainment
- PS5
- Hellboy Web of Wyrd
- Mini Reviews
14
Review Company of Heroes 3 (PS5) - Veteran RTS Series Enjoys Pyrrhic Victory on PS5

Fire in the hole
After almost two decades of setting the standard for WWII real-time strategy on PC, Relic Entertainment's venerable series reaches PS5 with Company of Heroes 3. Burdened by a hefty legacy, it's another valiant attempt at streamlining the genre's interface for controllers. It succeeds in part, but the masterful combat is at odds with...
- Mon 29th May 2023
- Reviews
- SEGA
- PS5
- Company of Heroes 3
12
Mini Review Zool Redimensioned (PS4) - Blast from the Past Packs Neat Modern Features

Return of the ninja
Gremlin Interactive has a storied history, dating back to the early days of console gaming. Developing titles for Commodore 64, marshalling the Premiere Manager series through several generations, and later heading to PlayStation (anybody remember cult isometric shooter Loaded and its sequel?) — it's safe to say it has a varied...
- Mon 15th May 2023
- Reviews
- Secret Mode
- PS4
- Zool Redimensioned
- Mini Reviews
2
Mini Review Strayed Lights (PS5) - Defence Is the Best Medicine in This Mysterious Adventure

Artful dodger
Demonstrating a striking visual style from the outset, Strayed Lights is an indie fantasy that opens with an abstract sensory assault. A newborn spark (a fitting first protagonist for dev studio Embers) staggers out of a cave into a vast, alien landscape. Quickly evolving into adult form and battling a shadowy version of itself, it...
- Tue 25th Apr 2023
- Reviews
- Embers
- PS5
- Strayed Lights
- Mini Reviews
118
Review Atomic Heart (PS5) - Alt History Shooter with an Identity Crisis

SovietShock
An alternate history set in the wake of World War II. A technological utopia hiding terrible secrets. A square-jawed, bloodthirsty protagonist. Mick Gordon spewing fire from the speakers. You'd be forgiven for thinking Bethesda just stealth-dropped another Wolfenstein. Alas, this isn't a new adventure for the Blazkowicz family, but it...
- Mon 20th Feb 2023
- Reviews
- Focus Entertainment
- PS5
- Atomic Heart
10
Preview EA Sports PGA Tour Makes a Promising Swing at a Familiar Golf Sim

Hole in one?
It's been seven long years since a golf game had the EA Sports logo on the box. Dominating the genre since 1990, the publisher took a step back after Rory McIlroy PGA Tour in 2015, letting 2K Sports shoulder its way to the front of the pack. Now, the licence switches hands again on PS5 with the simply named EA Sports PGA Tour, boasting...
- Thu 19th Jan 2023
- EA Sports
- PS5
- PGA Tour
- Previews
- Features
20
Mini Review Return to Monkey Island (PS5) - Original Creators Return to Beloved Point and Click

Rubber chicken with pulley optional
We find the mighty pirate Guybrush Threepwood sitting on a park bench, a bit older but not necessarily wiser. He is relaying the tale of a quest from The Secret of Monkey Island to a familiar youngster. The story that plays out is essentially the greatest hits of his first two adventures, with a sprinkling of...
- Tue 8th Nov 2022
- Reviews
- Devolver Digital
- PS5
- Return to Monkey Island
- Mini Reviews
13
Mini Review Hardspace: Shipbreaker (PS5) - Slow But Satisfying Ship Scrapping

Job's a goodun
In these uncertain times of economic instability, what better way to unwind than to play a game in which you're an indentured labourer, working off an impossible debt? Hardspace: Shipbreaker has you scrapping gigantic vessels to chip away at a huge financial obligation to the Lynx Corporation. This clearly shady conglomerate has you...
- Tue 20th Sep 2022
- Reviews
- Focus Entertainment
- PS5
- Hardspace Shipbreaker
- Mini Reviews
50
Review Aliens: Fireteam Elite (PS5) - Competent Co-Op That Entertains But Is At Odds with Itself

Prep for dust off, we need immediate evac
To say that video game adaptations of the Alien franchise are hit and miss is a bit of an understatement. On the one hand, we have genre-defining classics like Alien vs Predator (1999) and Alien: Isolation. Then there's Aliens: Colonial Marines, a release besmirched by industry lies. Isolation succeeded by...
- Fri 27th Aug 2021
- Reviews
- Focus Home Interactive
- PS5
- Aliens: Fireteam Elite
19
Review NEO: The World Ends With You (PS4) - Kingdom Hearts' Little Brother Finally Gets Its Long Awaited Sequel

Badge of honour
The World Ends With You launched in 2007 on Nintendo DS and quickly gained a cult following despite that year being packed with a seemingly endless supply of classics. Designed by Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura, it was a darker variant of the usual Square Enix RPG formula. Taking a modern setting, a prescient focus on memetic...
- Mon 26th Jul 2021
- Reviews
- Square Enix
- PS4
- NEO: The World Ends With You
10
Hands On NEO: The World Ends With You Brings a Stylish Afterlife to PS4

Put a pin in it
A little-known but well-loved entry in Square Enix's JRPG pantheon, The World Ends With You is a unique experience with gorgeous art from Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuyo Nomura. The game looked at concepts like social media influence and memetic learning way before those things were as pervasive as they are today. Nomura's designs,...
- Thu 3rd Jun 2021
- Square Enix
- PS4
- The World Ends With You
- Hands On
- Previews
11
Hands On Co-Op Puzzle Adventure It Takes Two Offers Outrageous Variety

Toy story
After the grounded reality of his co-op prison break game A Way Out, film director and game designer Josef Fares is returning to the bright fantasy of his studio’s debut game, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. It Takes Two follows May and Cody, soon-to-be divorcees who find themselves enchanted into dolls by their daughter. The distraught...
- Tue 2nd Mar 2021
- EA
- PS5
- PS4
- It Takes Two
- Hands On
3
Mini Review Torchlight III - Torchlight Returns with a Familiar Dungeon Crawling Adventure

The owl or the retriever?
Torchlight III has had a somewhat troubled development. With original developer Runic Games, it was tooled as a free-to-play MMO called Torchlight Frontiers. After poor fan and dev reactions, Echtra Games — a team made up of Torchlight and Diablo luminaries — was formed. It acquired the license and rebuilt the project...
- Tue 13th Oct 2020
- Reviews
- Perfect World Entertainment
- PS4
- Torchlight III
5
Review Inertial Drift - Arcade Racing with a Twist

Neon dreams
It feels like ages since we’ve had a decent arcade racer on PlayStation. Quick thrills often take a back seat to realism and vehicle calibration. Thankfully, Belfast-based dev Level 91 has channelled the likes of Burnout and Ridge Racer for its neon-drenched title Inertial Drift. There are no comprehensive difficulty modifiers here;...
- Tue 8th Sep 2020
- Reviews
- PQube
- PS4
- Intertial Drift
16
Review Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time - Jack Returns in a Simple But Fun Brawler

He has a bad feeling about this...
Between 1995 and 2005, Cartoon Network gave us some of the greatest animation ever produced by any lone studio; Dexter’s Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls, Johnny Bravo, and the original animated Clone Wars is just some of the quality output of that period. Yet, towering above even those fantastic shows, was Genndy...
- Fri 21st Aug 2020
- Reviews
- Adult Swim Games
- PS4
- Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time
12
Mini Review Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus - Stylish, Turn-Based Tactical Combat

Cyberpunk 40k
The Adeptus Mechanicus is a faction of cybernetically enhanced warrior priests. They seek divinity through the pursuit of knowledge and consider organic flesh as a form of weakness. Your enjoyment of Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus will hinge on how you engage with a fusion of religious iconography and cyberpunk. The Tech-priests of the...
- Fri 17th Jul 2020
- Reviews
- Kasedo Games
- PS4
- Warhammer
- Mini Reviews
10
Review Disintegration - Squad-Based Tactical FPS from Halo Co-Creator Unfortunately Misses the Mark

Robot Wars
Marcus Lehto was the creative art director at Bungie for 15 years. During that time he helped create and grow Halo, a series that’s arguably as influential in the FPS arena as DOOM, Half-Life, or Call of Duty. Breaking away from Bungie in 2012 to form independent studio V1 Interactive, he began work on Disintegration, intending to...
- Wed 17th Jun 2020
- Reviews
- Private Division
- PS4
- Disintegration
9
Review One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows - You Too Can Defeat Any Enemy with the Press of a Button

One hit wonder
Starting life as a viral webcomic back in 2009, One Punch Man is a celebration and a send-up of superhero fiction. It’s creator, aptly named One, envisaged the story of a hero who was already the best. Tired of being able to defeat every enemy he faces with one punch, protagonist Saitama worries more about missing the supermarket...
- Sat 29th Feb 2020
- Reviews
- Bandai Namco
- PS4
- One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows

Ken Talbot

Contributor

Author Profile