Bethesda Softworks Game Reviews
New mystery, same old Indy
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants is a fun little slice of Indy action. Set within the maze-like tunnels beneath the Vatican City, Indy, working with a priest and his pet parrot, is trying to uncover a millenia-spanning mystery regarding giant warriors. The DLC, which runs for about three hours or...
Review DOOM: The Dark Ages (PS5) - Medieval Mashup Slows Down for FPS Excellence
Mace us proud
DOOM: The Dark Ages is different, and whether that’s a good thing or not is dictated almost entirely by how you feel about id Software’s last game. After the breakneck DOOM Eternal, the developer has dialled its action back for a medieval prequel that feels reserved in comparison. The pace is slower and the platforming is gone,...
PS5 whips Indy adventure into shape
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has finally landed on PS5, after a brief period of Xbox, PC exclusivity. We’ve been keen to get our hands on the latest from MachineGames, the team behind the Wolfenstein series, and now with DualSense haptics and even a PS5 Pro enhanced version, PS5 is the best place to...
Review Fallout 4 (PS5) - Timeless Gameplay Loop Stuck in an Outdated RPG
Radioinactive
Nearing a decade after its original release, Bethesda has ported Fallout 4 to PS5, promising the kind of improved technical performance that you'd expect from a generation-jumping upgrade. But does the once highly-rated, open world RPG still hold up in 2024? That's a surprisingly difficult question to answer. Some would argue that...
Review Hi-Fi Rush (PS5) - Xbox Gem Makes Its Rhythmic Debut on PS5
It takes two to tango
Hi-Fi Rush was easily one of the surprise hits of 2023, which just so happened to be one of the best years for game releases collectively. Despite not having the immediate chance to experience the latest creation by Tango Gameworks due to Xbox exclusivity, Microsoft’s recent announcement of PS5 support has finally enabled us...
Review Fallout 76 - A Shockingly Bad Attempt at Multiplayer Survival
Nuclear hazard
Republished on Wednesday, 28th December, 2022: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of January 2023's PS Plus lineup. The original text follows. Fallout 76 will be remembered as a defining moment for Bethesda Game Studios, and not in a good way. This entirely multiplayer take on the Fallout...
Review Ghostwire: Tokyo (PS5) - Not the Bethesda Swansong We Hoped For
The evil without
From The Elder Scrolls and Fallout to Dishonored and Wolfenstein, the Bethesda catalogue has been a staple of many a PlayStation console's third-party lineup. Its games are unique and varied. And while not all of them land, you're always in for something a bit different. Microsoft's acquisition of the company means that's all set to...
Dragon it out
Available as either a full release priced at £47.99 / $49.99 or as a discounted upgrade to 2016's Special Edition, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Anniversary Edition is quite simply the best version of Skyrim to ever grace a PlayStation console. Although, admittedly, that's not saying much. The original game on PS3 was and still is a...
Review Deathloop (PS5) - Arkane Does It Again in Confident Shooter
Loop Hero
For as much as Deathloop presents itself as a complex game, asking you to work out how to break a time loop upon the island of Blackreef, it's actually a somewhat simple one. Arkane Studios has designed the opening hours of the game it made after Dishonored and PREY to be overwhelming, introducing mechanic after mechanic and sprinting...
Review DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods - Part One - Much More of PS4's Best FPS
Back with a vengeance
If DOOM Eternal was the kick up the arse the gaming industry needed towards the start of this year, DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods - Part One will leave those buttocks raw. The Slayer himself has returned with the first instalment in a new expansion so utterly relentless that a rude awakening is in order for even those who...
Mini Review The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor - Return Trip to Skyrim Is Another Decent Adventure
Hey, you're finally awake
The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor is the MMO's big expansion for 2020. As with previous 'Chapters', players get access to a whole new zone that's yours to explore, complete with a new storyline, new quests, new dungeons, and fresh activities. It's yet another solid outing for those already invested in The Elder Scrolls...
Mini Review DOOM 64 - After More Than 20 Years, DOOM's Oft-Forgotten Third Instalment Packs a Punch
It's been 64 years
It’s easy to forget that DOOM 64 is not simply a port of the original DOOM to Nintendo 64, but a fully-fledged sequel that was developed Midway Games. It’s even easier to forget that this was actually a pretty impressive step forward. While aiming is still archaic – lateral aiming only – the level design represents a...
Review DOOM Eternal - The Best First-Person Shooter on PS4
Hell's Bells
After a dismal start to the year for new releases, id Software has issued the industry with the firmest kick up the arse imaginable. DOOM Eternal is absolutely incredible. In building off of a fantastic predecessor, the Texas-based studio has reached new heights as its equation of intense, fast-paced action and enjoyable exploration has...
Review Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot - An Unexpectedly Impressive PSVR Excursion
I, robot
Machine Games and Arkane Studios’ Wolfenstein collaboration spans two titles, but much of the emphasis during marketing was on the cooperative shooting of Wolfenstein: Youngblood. The PlayStation VR title, Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot, has hardly gotten any attention. It was shown – briefly – at this year’s E3, and apart from the odd...
Review Wolfenstein: Youngblood - What Happened Bethesda?
Daddy issues
A few years back, Bethesda couldn’t stop boasting about its line-up of purely single player titles. The space for solo players was never in any real danger of disappearing completely, but in the age of online looter shooters and the rise of the games as a service concept, the commitment was appreciated. Fast forward to 2019, however,...
Review RAGE 2 (PS4) - Some of the Best Shooting This Gen Doesn't Get the Attention It Deserves
What a wasteland
RAGE 2 is a bit of an odd one. It's been marketed as a sandbox of insanity since its initial reveal, but the reality is that it's actually a pretty tame open world shooter — you could even call it safe. It can be loud but it's no Mad Max: Fury Road, it can be sassy but it's no Borderlands, and it can be brutal but it's no DOOM...
Review The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset (PS4)
Have you heard of the high elves?
Ah, Summerset. The picturesque island home of the high elves. Vibrant in colour and steeped in magic, it's a wondrous Elder Scrolls setting that's yet to be properly explored in video game form, and The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset does a great job of bringing it to life. Like last year's Morrowind...
Imp-ressive?
Bethesda sure are the good guys this Christmas, eh? After coveting controversy with its review code policy over a year ago, the publisher’s really recaptured the adoration of gamers this holiday, supporting fledgling new formats like the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation VR. And following on from last month’s transformative virtual...
Review The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR (PS4)
Fus Ro Dayum
The story of the Dragonborn is one endlessly retold. Quite literally, in fact – this is the third time that The Elder Scrolls V has released on a PlayStation platform in little over five years. But unlike last year’s strong yet safe PlayStation 4 remaster, Skyrim VR represents a seachange for Bethesda Game Studios’ gigantic...
Review Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (PS4)
Make America great again
No one was really expecting that much from Wolfenstein: The New Order when it came out a few years back. It was a nice surprise to find that its bloody, satisfying combat and memorable, well written characters helped make it one of the best shooters on the PlayStation 4. Now that the sequel – Wolfenstein II: The New...
Review The Evil Within 2 (PS4)
Subdued spooks
There’s a certain genius to madness. That’s especially true for crafting superb survival horror that balances the irrational and bizarre with careful consideration. The Evil Within, which put players in a psychopath’s mind-made reality, was one such example. There was tension-inducing enemy encounters amid erratic pacing...
V.A.T.S. more like it
Republished on Tuesday 26th September 2017: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the release of Fallout 4's Game of the Year edition on PlayStation 4. The original text follows. Well, here we are. Seven years after Bethesda's last crack at post-apocalyptic America, Fallout 4 is easily one of the...
Review Dishonored: Death of the Outsider (PS4)
Lurking around
The immersive sim is one of the most rewarding genres in gaming. The more you put into them, the more you get in return, and the Dishonored series is one of the best examples of this in recent years. Death of the Outsider is a smaller scale adventure at around half the length of 2016’s Dishonored 2, but it retains the same brilliant...
Review The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind (PS4)
Magic mushrooms
The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited is stuffed with interesting places to visit, as you'd expect of such a gigantic massively multiplayer online world. From the frozen wastes of Skyrim to the harsh deserts of Hammerfell, you can't fault the game's environmental variety, but nothing quite equals the strange majesty of...
Would Yu kindly?
2017 has been a magical year for games thus far. The first few months were crammed with more amazing titles than we’ve seen in entire years before. But this hot streak must end sometime, right? Well, Arkane Studios – specifically, the company's second studio in Texas – has ensured it's not the ones to end this streak, as...
Knife to see you again
Stealth. Games that do it really well don't come along all that often, with most choosing merely to dabble their toes in the murky waters where a knife in the dark is king. When looking back over those titles that made sticking to the shadows most satisfying, there was one thing that they all had in common: options. Whether...
Review The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Special Edition (PS4)
Shout it louder
Like it or not, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim remains a landmark role-playing game. When it first arrived in 2011, it's no exaggeration to say that the last-gen version introduced a whole new audience to the genre. In many ways, developer Bethesda Game Studios had cracked it – Skyrim carefully walked the line between being an...
Review Fallout 4: Nuka World (PS4)
Capping things off
Fallout 4's selection of post-release content has been divisive. Many will tell you that far too much emphasis has been placed upon the title's settlement crafting system, while others will swear that Far Harbor is better than the main game. From where we're sitting, it feels like Bethesda's latest hasn't quite lived up to its...
Review Fallout 4: Vault-Tec Workshop (PS4)
Digging not-so deep
Fallout 4's penultimate slice of downloadable content comes in the form of the Vault-Tec Workshop - another settlement-based add-on in which you follow a series of short, simple quests while building your own underground vault. This certainly isn't your typically large expansion - as you can probably tell from the price tag - but...
Review Fallout 4: Far Harbor (PS4)
Fogging hell
The fog of Far Harbor is to be feared. It inflicts radiation poisoning on those who dare to trek through it, it gives birth to horribly slimy creatures of the deep, and it does an admirable job of obscuring your view of the fiends that stalk the wilderness. The island's residents have a right to fear the mist: it keeps them penned...
