Latest Reviews
Review Mafia: Definitive Edition - This Is How You Do a Remake
Scarf ace
After the complete and utter disaster that was Mafia II: Definitive Edition, the only way was up for its prequel. Mafia: Definitive Edition is a remake of the 2002 original, bringing back the classic tale of Tommy Angelo and his descent into the world of organised crime within the US city of Lost Heaven. And 18 years later, there are many...
Mini Review Crysis Remastered - A Poor Remaster of a Pretty Important Game
Not-so incredible Crysis
Everyone remembers Crysis, of course. But what’s easy to forget is Crytek’s PC shattering behemoth of a technical marvel released 13 years ago. The industry has changed rather a lot in that time. For example, 13 years ago, Crysis was a pretty good game. Now? Well, it’s complicated. Memes aside, the PS4 can mostly...
Mini Review Unrailed - Simple Train Survival Game Runs Out of Steam
Do the locomotion
Unrailed is a co-op survival game in which you must keep a train going for as long as possible. It's a novel twist on the genre that sees you and three other players protecting a locomotive rather than yourselves. It even has the usual trappings of survival games, such as procedural level generation and crafting, but it keeps it...
Review Tennis World Tour 2 - A Winner
Match point
Tennis games tend to be a lot of fun, but even the best ones struggle to capture the intricacy of the sport. In franchises like Virtua Tennis, the emphasis is on baseline rallies rather than pin-point ball placement, and so matches devolve into a battle of attrition as players slug it out from left-to-right until the angles no longer...
Review 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - Excellent Visual Novel Is a Mind-Bending Experience
Lucky for some
Wow, what a ride 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is. Vanillaware — the talented Japanese developer behind impressive action games like Dragon's Crown Pro and Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir — is back, and it's trying something totally new with its latest release. 13 Sentinels is primarily a visual novel with some very light puzzle solving,...
Review Spelunky 2 - Rock Hard Roguelike Is a Superior Sequel
To the moon
Spelunky is the definition of "harsh but fair". A roguelike platformer with a myriad of moving parts, the procedurally generated underground worlds have a strict set of rules, and you must follow them, lest you be punished in surprisingly gruesome ways. It's of course very much the same with Spelunky 2, a sequel that builds upon the...
Review WWE 2K Battlegrounds - Rubbish Wrestling and Microtransactions Galore
World Wrestling Spendertainment
Honestly, there's something sinister about WWE 2K Battlegrounds. And no, we don't mean Bray Wyatt's creepy mask, or the grotesque character models that look like they were designed by somebody watching Wrestlemania through one eye after a big night on the gin. No, there's a nefarious aura surrounding this game because...
Mini Review eFootball PES 2021: Season Update - Football, Bloody Hell
Flying without Ings
If you want to know more about eFootball PES 2021: Season Update then you can simply read our review of eFootball PES 2020, as this is almost identical in every single way. To be fair to Konami, it’s been uncharacteristically upfront about the nature of this year’s soccer simulation, pointing out at practically every...
Mini Review Bounty Battle - A Truly Terrible Attempt at Indie Smash Bros
Wanted dead
In concept, Bounty Battle is the Super Smash Bros. of indie games. In reality, Bounty Battle is nothing short of a disaster. It's a terribly made brawler that, at its worst, is borderline unplayable. It's a joyless, almost baffling experience that'll make you wonder how the heck it even managed to secure characters from Owlboy, Darkest...
Mini Review The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon - A Solid But Very Safe Expansion
Welcome back, Captain
Bloody corporations, eh? They've only gone and done it again! Peril on Gorgon is The Outer Worlds' first expansion, and all told, it's a solid excursion. Your intrepid Captain and their crew find themselves travelling to the hellish Gorgon asteroid — a (mostly) abandoned testing site for dodgy space drugs. You're contracted...
Review Buried Stars - We Stan One K-Pop Mystery
A buried gem
Visual novel Buried Stars is an interesting one. With many saying online that the game has come from nowhere, its sudden release has surprised, and delighted, a lot of people. From Korean Studio Largo, Buried Stars follows the events of the titular reality show, which is set in the final stages of a K-pop talent contest. Unfortunately...
Mini Review Tamarin - Tonally Confused Monkey Business
Is that a monkey? He's got a gun!
Tamarin bears some striking resemblance to Jet Force Gemini — an N64 game in which you save a peaceful planet from an invading race of alien insects. The key difference, though, is that in the 1999 Rare title, you play as the titular group of galactic soldiers, while in Tamarin, you play as a tamarin. After a very...
Review NBA 2K21 - Perfect for Those in the Bubble, Good for Everyone Else
Ballers only
NBA 2K21 captures the see-saw flow of real-world basketball so well that you’ll feel at one with thousands of virtual fans when you nail a clutch corner three with seconds left on the clock. Visual Concepts’ simulation has, along with the MLB The Show series, always been a cut above the competition when it comes to broadcast-style...
Review Hotshot Racing - Cracking Arcade Racer Is a Constant Joy
Drifting into our hearts
It's no secret that arcade racers have sort of gone away for most of PlayStation 4's lifespan. Most of the generation's best racing games lean towards simulation, which is fine, but those looking for a more casual experience don't have nearly as many options. This is where Hotshot Racing slides sideways into view, with all...
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;...
Review Marvel's Avengers - Crystal Dynamics' Heroic Risk Is a Game of Two Halves
Guardians of the GaaS
If anything, Marvel's Avengers has become the victim of its own marketing cycle. Pitched under the Games as a Service banner, loot to grind for, repeatable missions, bounties, daily and weekly tasks, and microtransactions are all very much a part of this superhero undertaking. However, it is also so much more than that. Crystal...
Review Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 - The Birdman Is Back with Fantastic Remake
Back to the old grind
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is a series that defined early PlayStation just as much as Crash Bandicoot or Tomb Raider. The games are fondly remembered for their tight controls, licensed soundtracks, and endlessly replayable levels, although the franchise has certainly bailed a few times as well. Never fear, though, because Tony...
Review Control: AWE - An Intriguing Must for Alan Wake Fans, But No One Else
It’s not a lake, it’s a CONTROLcean
Alan Wake is a property of Remedy’s that has a pretty hardcore, dedicated fanbase. There have been promising signs by way of the spin-off American Nightmare or the more recent instance of Remedy buying back the right to the IP, but Control: AWE is by far the best indicator yet. Much like Control: The...
Review Wasteland 3 - Fallout Meets XCOM in This Engrossing But Slightly Buggy RPG
Power Armour Rangers
Wasteland 3 is one of those games that you can get completely lost in. Between its world building, its characters, and its player progression, it's an engrossing experience from start to finish. It goes without saying, but the veteran developers over at inXile really know how to make a role-playing game. Wasteland 3 is what...
Review Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series - Star Wars and VR Are Made for Each Other
Be proud of this technological terror
Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series came as a bit of a surprise. We'd expected a bit of a cash grab, but the actual product is decent if unorthodox package. We get a campaign spread across three episodes plus three waves-based challenge modes. There’s actually a surprising wealth of content when viewed...
Mini Review Ary and the Secret of Seasons - A Solid, Good-Looking Indie Action Adventure
A woman for all seasons
Something is amiss in the world of Valdi. The seasons are in disarray, meaning that fierce winter winds bellow in place of gentle summer breezes. It’s up to a girl named Ary to restore balance at the behest of a mysterious society, the Guardians of Seasons. Ary and the Secret of Seasons is an action adventure in the...
Mini Review Nexomon: Extinction - With an Update or Two, This Could Be a Solid Pokémon Clone
Nixomon
Nexomon: Extinction is the best Pokémon clone you'll find on PlayStation 4 -- but admittedly, that isn't saying much. The addictive quality of catching and training often cute, sometimes cool looking monsters is here, but the game as a whole is let down by some uneven design. Nexomon doesn't really care that it's a blatant Pokémon...
Review WRC 9 - A Compelling Rally Sim That's Gone from Good to Great
Don't confuse speed with haste
Annual games have a bit of a reputation for rehashing the same old thing year after year with only minor improvements. Some say it’s a license to print money. Rally is hardly in the mainstream, however, and neither is developer Kylotonn’s approach to the FIA World Rally Championship. With significant strides made...
Mini Review The Last Campfire - Cosy Puzzles from Hello Games
Marshmallow mania
If No Man's Sky is the ambitious, boisterous member of the Hello Games family, The Last Campfire is the subdued, charming one. Released to very little fanfare, this simplistic puzzler does enough to provide a weekend's worth of enjoyment. Just don't expect anything too impressive from those two days of fun. The hazy fairy tale...
Review Madden NFL 21 - Football Brings All the Boys to the Yard
Fumble
Madden NFL 21 finds itself in a particularly peculiar position this year. The football simulation’s launching less than three months prior to the PlayStation 5, and while there will be a free upgrade to the next-gen console, it really shows. Despite bundling in a potential series cornerstone in the Yard, this is a relatively low-effort...
Review Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions - Anime Hijinks Liven Up Uneven Arcade Footy
Missed a sitter
We can't imagine there's a huge overlap on the Venn diagram for football fans and anime and manga and enthusiasts, but here we are. Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is aiming squarely for the demographic of people that have both a Sky Sports and a Crunchyroll subscription, and good luck to it, we say. If you're not familiar...
Darkened crystal
The original Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles on the Nintendo GameCube was nothing short of a nightmare to set up. If you wanted to play co-op, each player needed their own Game Boy Advance and link cable. The handheld would become your controller, and its screen would display important information, like inventories and maps. It was...
Review Project CARS 3 - A Somewhat Fun Arcade Racer Going Through an Identity Crisis
Change is good. Or is it?
Project CARS 3 is not a simulator. Those familiar with the series may be surprised by this, but it’s true. It doesn’t look or feel like a simulator, either on the track or away from it. There are over 200 cars with most of the big hitters on the roster, but there’s no celebration of them in the menus like you get in...
Review Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition - A Complete Package At Last
Round 2
Republished on Wednesday 26th August 2020: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of September's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. With its Arcade Edition update, Street Fighter V finally feels like a complete fighting game – a title that can fully appeal to both competitive and...
Review PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds - Return of the Battle Royale King?
Royale lineage
Republished on Wednesday 26th August 2020: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of September's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. While not the first battle royale game, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (also known as PUBG to its friends) managed to kick-off a genre land grab in...
