May2018
Review Trials Fusion (PlayStation 4)
Motorcycle menagerie
Republished on Wednesday 30th May 2018: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of June's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. There aren’t nearly enough motorcycle games that let you play a round of tennis with a penguin, of that we can all agree. Alas, until some clever...
April2018
Everybody loves Rayman
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. After spending far too much time in the shadow of the Raving Rabbids, Rayman made a triumphant return to consoles in Rayman Origins. While...
March2018
Review TrackMania: Turbo (PS4)
Round the bend
Republished on Wednesday 28th March 2018: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of April's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. Despite the brand debuting well over a decade ago, TrackMania: Turbo marks the arcade racer's first release on a PlayStation platform. A favourite on the...
Daddy issues
If an AI were to create a game based on popular Google search terms for video games, Far Cry 5 would likely be the result. Whether that's a good or a bad thing largely depends on what you expect from Far Cry at this point, and probably games in general. Because Far Cry 5 isn't a bad game – in fact, it's an awful lot of good old...
Review Assassin's Creed Origins: Curse of the Pharaohs (PS4)
More of a blessing than a curse
Following on from the enjoyable, if a little boring The Hidden Ones, Curse of the Pharaohs is Assassin's Creed Origins' second expansion, and it's a lot more ambitious. Once again, protagonist Bayek -- now getting on in years -- is informed of ill happenings off in a different part of Egypt. This time, he's...
January2018
Review Assassin's Creed Origins: The Hidden Ones (PS4)
Bayek for more
The Hidden Ones is a story-driven expansion to Assassin's Creed Origins, a game that seriously surprised us with how good it actually was when it launched last year. Origins' recreation of Egypt is so well crafted and gorgeous that we've struggled to stay away from the open world title, coming back to it each day in order to complete...
November2017
Review Assassin's Creed Origins (PS4)
Welcome Bayek
Assassin's Creed Origins has exceeded our expectations by some distance. After the disaster that was Assassin's Creed Unity and the solid but unremarkable Assassin's Creed Syndicate, it was clear that Ubisoft needed to take a step back and reassess its sandbox property. Fortunately, the company made the right call when it decided to...
October2017
Review South Park: The Fractured But Whole (PS4)
Fart attack
Given the mire that mankind currently finds itself in, we should probably applaud Trey Parker and Matt Stone's scattershot, omnilateral approach to satire in South Park: The Fractured But Whole, a game which mercilessly skewers all facets of modern life. Regardless of which side of the political spectrum you align with, your...
August2017
Review Child of Light (PlayStation 4)
Painted paradise
Republished on Wednesday 30th August 2017: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of September's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. Child of Light, a new two-dimensional role-playing game from Ubisoft, is best described using the titles that it was so...
December2016
Bark or bite?
This is what you wanted, people – this is what you voted for. No, not Trump or Brexit, but a city run by the Blume Corporation where absolutely everyone is constantly under the gaze of an advanced Big Brother surveillance system. This near future society is a Black Mirror-esque teched-up metropolis where ctOS2.0 connects everyone...
November2016
Numa Numa nay
Just Dance: the worst part of every E3. Just Dance sometimes feels like the Ubisoft series no one can takes seriously – or even cares about anymore. This year's edition really doesn't add much in terms of gameplay or modes, but it's still solid. Firstly, the tracklist: there's a lot of variation this year, with modern hits like...
August2016
Just playing the game, having a BUD
It was perhaps a little surprising to see a sequel to last year's botanical platforming adventure Grow Home, especially one that would release so swiftly. Grow Up released less than 12 months after its predecessor, and we were curious to find out what could've changed in that short space of time. As it turns out,...
June2016
Review Trials of the Blood Dragon (PS4)
A e s t h e t i c
For all its faux-eighties foolishness, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon was a very clever game. It took an established franchise, gave it a splash of visual variety, and then injected it with some bizarre characters and mechanics. Above all, it was silly, fun, and endearing. Unfortunately, Trials of the Blood Dragon is none of those things...
March2016
Review Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4)
Flu York, Flu York
In The Division it's amazing how quickly society goes to pieces. Admittedly, a genetically engineered super virus that manages to wipe out a large swathe of New York's population seems a reasonable catalyst, but you would have thought that it would have taken more than a few weeks for things to get as messed up as this. Anyhow, in...
February2016
Evolution not revolution
It's easy to imagine that when the team behind Far Cry Primal were deciding what their latest outing should be, they looked back over their previous titles and asked: what do people most enjoy about Far Cry? One of the things that would probably be near the top of that list would be the hunting and crafting that acted as one...
Review Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia (PS4)
Bad Marx
What's most puzzling about Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia is who its target audience is. Anyone who didn't like the previous two games has no reason to play this, yet because of the carbon-copied formula, anyone who did like the previous two games has no reason to play it either, because it's quite literally same thing. What's...
January2016
Review Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India (PS4)
We can't think of a pun(jab)
The Assassin's Creed series – hell, Ubisoft's entire portfolio – has been getting a lot of flak lately due to the samey nature of each instalment. The expected announcement of Watch Dogs 2 seemed to excite no one, and it seems like no one really cares about the Assassin's Creed movie that's coming out this very year...
December2015
Review Assassin's Creed Syndicate: Jack the Ripper (PS4)
From heaven
There's a perverse fascination with Jack the Ripper, so it's no surprise that Ubisoft has selected the infamous serial killer as the star of Assassin's Creed Syndicate's first major expansion pack. The romanticised murderer – portrayed as a kind of low-rent Scarecrow here, complete with growly lower-class accent and sack mask –...
Review Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege (PS4)
Once more unto the breach dear friends
A teammate is yelling at the hostage to be quiet. Whether they've had a serious mental break causing them to scream at what amounts to a collection of polygons on a screen is up for debate, but what is certain is that you're both in deep trouble. What was believed to be a fortified, secure room is now anything...
October2015
Tonight's gonna be a good night
Just Dance is the bane of every Ubisoft press conference – from last year's huge group of dancers to this year's out-of-tune and insanely awkward Jason Derulo, it's never been a property that's been taken too seriously. Yet this year's edition has plenty of new features and content – most of which isn't available...
Review Assassin's Creed Syndicate (PS4)
Ten a penny
Yes, it's better than Assassin's Creed Unity. Ubisoft's romp through revolutionary Paris was a steaming mass of merde, so the publisher had little margin for error with Assassin's Creed Syndicate – the latest instalment in the French firm's flagship open world franchise. But while transposing the property's iconic undercover killing to...
September2015
Son of a beech
Grow Home is yet another small indie-esque release from Ubisoft, following closely in the footsteps of Child of Light and Valiant Hearts. It combines unique gameplay, a stunning graphical style, and a cute story about robots and plants in an attempt to recreate the sensation of rock-climbing. But does this plucky platformer climb to...
August2015
Review Toy Soldiers: War Chest (PS4)
I love the smell of polyurethane in the morning
Occasionally there comes a game that sounds like the next big hit on paper but crumples into a steaming heap when in practice. Enter Toy Soldiers: War Chest, a game that pits the likes of the Care Bears against the armies of Castle Grey Skull in this tower defense escapade that takes a fundamentally...
There's no U in Zombi
ZombiU was an innovative and genuinely scary survival horror title which hit the Wii U at launch – one that made excellent use of Nintendo's second screen GamePad to enhance the terror to all new levels. Now, three years later, the title has been ported to the PlayStation 4, complete with a control overhaul to shift...
Mind boggling
Ubisoft's board game train ain't showing any signs of slowing, with Boggle the latest passenger on the quality time carriage. A popular pastime originally designed by Allan Turoff in the early 70s, the tabletop title works a little like a word search whereby you can snake between different letters, as long as you can find a way to...