Tag: Hands On
Hands On The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR Is Massively Underwhelming So Far
House of horrors
At what point do we consider Until Dawn a curse? UK developer Supermassive has been trying to better the PS4 narrative horror for the best part of a decade, with both its ongoing The Dark Pictures anthology and standalone The Quarry coming up short. Now, based on the first half of our playthrough, we’re sad to report that the...
Preview Has Like a Dragon: Ishin's Journey to the West on PS5, PS4 Been Worth the Wait?
SEGA's historical period drama finally arrives overseas
It’s as ancient as Like a Dragon: Ishin’s backdrop, but there was a time when Yakuza fans had to fight tooth and nail like Kazuma Kiryu for Yakuza games. Back when Yakuza Ishin released as a Japanese exclusive launch title for the PS4 in 2014, PlayStation’s third-party evangelist Gio...
Hands On PSVR2 Represents the Next Big Step for VR
Our first impressions having played it
For the time, Sony's PSVR headset was competent and functional. It didn't push the boat out compared to other devices, but by making itself at least somewhat affordable, Sony struck gold with the best-selling VR headset to date. The firm is now looking to beat the sales of the device with PSVR2, except it's...
Hands On Is Marvel's Midnight Suns Any Good on PS5?
Strategic superheroes
In the aftermath of Cyberpunk 2077, any game that leads solely with PC reviews is right to arouse suspicion. We only received PS5 review code for Marvel’s Midnight Suns today, and have been eager to put the release through its paces in order to bring you some early hands-on impressions. The good news is, so far, we’ve had...
Hands On Crunchy Combat Shines in PS5, PS4's Wildly Impressive The Callisto Protocol
Prison break
You’ve got to feel a semblance of sympathy for Striking Distance Studios. Fronted by Dead Space’s executive producer Glen Schofield, the team has clearly designed The Callisto Protocol in direct response to the clamours for a return to EA’s iconic sci-fi horror. But on the eve of the gruesome debut’s release, Motive has started...
Hands On God of War Ragnarok on PS5, PS4 Is PlayStation At Its Pomp
Impressive, boy
After several hours with God of War Ragnarok there are some things we can tell you and much, much more we cannot, but we’ll begin with our overriding sentiment so far: this is why we love PlayStation. The reality is, biased as we may be, no one does it quite like PS Studios. Nintendo may be the kings of gameplay – and, to be...
Hands On Resident Evil 4 PS5 Makes a Masterpiece Even Better
We played the remake's first 30 minutes
In 2023, there won't be a safer full-price purchase than the Resident Evil 4 remake. With the 2005 original still judged to be one of the best games of all time, it's extremely difficult to see how a PS5, PS4 modernisation could go pear-shaped. A recent Hands On session at Capcom's UK headquarters revealed to...
And the community is playing a huge part
We shouldn’t forget that Media Molecule makes amazing games. The likes of Tearaway and LittleBigPlanet were award-winners, but Dreams’ post-release discussion has centred squarely on its community. This will please the modest Guildford-based first-party, of course: it has one of the most collaborative...
Hands On Side-Scrolling Multiplayer Shooter SquadBlast Is Like 2D Overwatch
And it has potential
It's difficult to stand out in today's overcrowded games market, especially in the highly competitive, make-or-break multiplayer landscape. We don't envy any developer currently crafting a game that needs thousands of players logging in each and every day. However, the right combination of interesting concept and good execution...
Hands On You Know What? Sonic Frontiers Might Actually Be Okay
Maybe
We played Sonic Frontiers at EGX not once, but twice. Normally, we wouldn't put ourselves through a Sonic demo more than necessary, and the queue was, as you'd expect, constantly lengthy. The trouble is, after playing the 15-minute slice of the "open zone" experience for the first time, we realised something rather shocking. Had we really just...
Hands On Goat Simulator 3 Doubles Down on the Dumb on PS5
Goated
As the playable demo for Goat Simulator 3 got started, we had to ask: what's the real reason Coffee Stain North labelled this as the third game in the series, when it is, in fact, the second? Stuart Docherty, sound designer and composer, provided a simple, honest answer. It turns out the team just thought it would be really funny. This would...
Hands On Modern Warfare 2 Scraps Red Dots, But This Is a Great Beta
Mini-map mysteries
"Welcome to the new era of Call of Duty," the Modern Warfare 2 beta very proudly proclaims on the PS5 home screen. Is it, though? Infinity Ward's latest looks a lot like the other 18 mainline instalments before it, but with Warzone 2 alongside the main game, we could be about to enter another generation of Call of Duty dominance...
Hands On Shadows of Rose Turns Resident Evil Village into Magic
Return to Castle Dimitrescu
If Resident Evil Village was proof Capcom isn't afraid to change the sort of enemies its survival horror franchise has to offer, then DLC Shadows of Rose is evidence the developer can do the very same for its main character. Ethan Winters' daughter Rose may use the same weapons her father became accustomed to, but she has...
Hands On Street Fighter 6 Makes It Fun for Newcomers
Quick Step to victory
Every game genre comes with some level of complexity, but fighters perhaps struggle the most with their onboarding process. With more complex controls to master and a hardcore community to get up to speed with, it's no surprise many newcomers fall at the first hurdle. Street Fighter 6 attempts to streamline those first few...
Hands On Star Ocean: The Divine Force Needs Work, Serious Work
Charge my AP Gauge
You've always been able to tell when Square Enix has decided not to give one of its upcoming RPGs a suitable budget, but the Star Ocean series feels like an IP devoted entirely to the lower echelons of its monetary commitments. Not since the PS2 generation has the franchise had a quality instalment, and The Divine Force looks set...
Hands On Valkyrie Elysium May Well Be a Pleasant Surprise
Goddess of war
Announced in the same State of Play showcase as Star Ocean: The Divine Force, the return of the Valkyrie series with Valkyrie Elysium isn't getting quite as much fanfare as it perhaps deserves. With a PS5, PS4 release just weeks away, a demo quietly released on the PS Store
Hands On Crisis Core Is a Welcome Reunion with Final Fantasy VII
We're on a Digital Mind Wave
It's already been almost two and a half years since Square Enix reinvented the story of its 1997 JRPG classic Final Fantasy VII, and we're itching to see what the Japanese publisher has in store next. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will provide those answers next winter, but to tide us over until then, Crisis Core: Final...
Hands On Train Sim World 3 PS5, PS4 Is on Track to Be Dovetail's Best Railway Sim Yet
Rollin', rollin'
Train Sim World 3 chugs to PS5 and PS4 today, and while we need to spend several more hours in the driver’s seat before we bring you a verdict, we thought we’d engage the throttle on our first impressions. TL;DR: it’s a revelation compared to Train Sim World 2 in some ways, thanks to the tidier user interface and vastly...
Hands On Sonic Frontiers Is a Positive Step Forward That Needs Further Work
Welcome to the Starfall Islands
Sonic Frontiers didn't leave the strongest impression when SEGA first revealed it. Despite positive first previews, concerns were raised regarding combat and the game's visual design, amplified by the publisher's
Hands On Turning Back Time with Train Sim World 2's Spirit of Steam on PS5, PS4
Steamy stuff
In the aftermath of the Train Sim World 3 announcement this week, this rail head couldn’t resist returning to Train Sim World 2 for one last relaxing trip on the tracks – and Spirit of Steam was always going to be our destination. In truth, readers, Dovetail Games was kind enough to hook yours truly up with a code when it released...
Hands On The DioField Chronicle Is a Bit Dull, But It Could Still Be a Special Strategy RPG
Fredret and the dreamers
When The DioField Chronicle was first announced, we must admit that its debut trailer didn't leave us impressed. Believe it or not, out-of-context dialogue slapped over janky-looking gameplay cuts isn't the best way to sell a project. Thankfully, Square Enix has made the right move in giving the game a lengthy playable demo...
Hands On Digimon Survive Has Potential, But It Feels Padded So Far
Visual novel RPG is slow to start
Digimon Survive is out right now for PS4, but you may have noticed that we don't have a review here on Push Square yet. This is unfortunately due to issues outside of our control, but having sunk roughly six hours into the game, we thought that it would be best to bring you some hands on impressions ahead of the...
Hands On Rollerdrome Feels Utterly Phenomenal to Play
We preview the first six levels
There's a real sense of speed, motion, and style fuelling Rollerdrome that can only be matched by the early Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games of the PS1 era. The second game in the space of six months from British team Roll7 feels sublime to play, asking you to kill enemies with a touch of swagger in between performing...
Hands On Saints Row Is That Same Dumb Fun, But Better
Like a boss
It almost feels like the initial, divided reaction to the new Saints Row title was for an entirely different game considering how similarly it plays to past entries. We recently had the chance to play the latest open worlder for a whole four hours, and we can report this is the same Saints Row you know and — quite possibly — love...
Hands On The Crew 2's PS5 Patch Feels Better at 60fps, But There's a Catch
It's stinging our eyes
The Crew 2, due in part to outstanding ongoing support from publisher Ubisoft and developer Ivory Tower, remains relevant four years on from its original release. In fact, you could argue the game is getting better, with the latest season adding events inspired by Formula Drift World Champion Chris Forsberg – it’s...
Hands On Destruction AllStars' Improvements Tease PS5's Live Service Future
Glimpses of a new era
We’ll let you in on a secret: we had a wager running at Push Square Towers regarding when Sony would pull the plug on Destruction AllStars. This may prove difficult reading for the team at Lucid Games, so it’s important to stress that our internal book was entirely tongue-in-cheek – after all, we’d never purposefully...
Hands On Assassin's Creed Origins PS5 Patch Reminds Us That It's One of the Series' Best Games
A cut above Odyssey and Valhalla
It might be cool to hate on Assassin's Creed these days, but there's no getting away from the fact that the series is more successful than ever before, raking in absurd amounts of dosh for Ubisoft. What was once a stealth-focused sandbox franchise is now a proper open world RPG property, with Assassin's Creed Odyssey...
Hands On Roller Champions Has a Strong Core, But Struggles to Maintain Momentum
Dropped the ball?
Roller Champions is the newly released free-to-play multiplayer game from Ubisoft, presenting players with a brand new digital sport to master. On a surface level, it combines roller derby with basketball, though it folds in its own rules to make for a fresh experience. It's a perfectly good idea, and there are most definitely...
Hands On Two Point Campus on PS5, PS4 Is a Tycoon Title That's Too Cool for School
School's out for summer
What a time to be alive! This author grew up on the Bullfrog era of tycoon titles, meticulously managing theme parks and hospitals on a 14” CRT from the edge of his bed. That spirit is very much alive with the Aardman-inspired Two Point series; the excellent Two Point Hospital already reminded patients not to die in the...
Hands On MultiVersus Leans on Fantastic Cast of Characters in Entertaining Smash Clone
Nostalgiaverse
MultiVersus, as its name implies, is a game in which characters from disparate worlds come together to duke it out. To what end, we're not sure, but it makes for a wildly entertaining platform fighter nonetheless. If you grew up watching Tom & Jerry, for example, hearing the cat's iconic scream as he's flung from the arena is...
Hands On Sifu's New Difficulty Settings are a Superb Addition
Something for everyone
When Sifu first launched back in February, its steep difficulty curve wasn't necessarily criticised, but it was enough to put a lot of potential players off. Indeed, even if you go take a look at our review — which dropped prior to release — the comments section is full of people questioning whether they'd be willing to...
Hands On Matchpoint: Tennis Championships Could Be the Ace We've Been Waiting For
We 15-love it so far
When you really stop and think about it, tennis and video games will forever be tied. Pong, one of the earliest arcade success stories, may be simplistic – but it’s effectively tennis in everything but name. Ever since this author got Anna Kournikova’s Smash Court Tennis on the PS1 (remember her?!), we’ve been huge fans...
Hands On Sniper Elite 5's PS5, PS4 Sandbox Design Has Us Hyped
Lone ranger
With open worlds larger than ever, we appreciate the developers designing denser sandbox levels. Ever since the excellent GoldenEye on Nintendo 64, we’ve been a fan of the sandbox format: the idea that a single stage can be approached in a dozen different ways, whether it’s stealth, full-on combat, or a combination of both. Hitman...
Hands On eFootball PS5, PS4 Feels Better Than FIFA 22 After Major Update
But is still a glorified demo
You’re not going to believe this but eFootball feels better than FIFA 22 after its latest update. Konami’s disastrous soccer sim was the butt of all jokes when it launched last year, with turgid gameplay and some hilarious graphical glitches. But the publisher released its long overdue v1.0 patch thi
Hands On Returnal's New Co-Op and Endless Modes Reinvigorate a PS5 Great
Back in the loop
It's no secret we're big fans of Returnal here at Push Square. Its rogue-like elements certainly aren't to everyone's tastes, but we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of Selene's time-looping escapades on Atropos. It's an extremely compelling adventure, not to mention satisfying when you overcome some serious challenges along the way...
Hands On LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Massively Builds on Predecessors
The Force is strong with this one
The last LEGO Star Wars game to grace PlayStation was The Force Awakens, and that feels like a long time ago. Like most of its predecessors, and even later entries from TT Games, it's a very safe platformer that sticks to the established blueprint. As fun as they can be, the LEGO games have been making almost no...
Hands On Is GTA 5 PS5 Worth It?
One night in Los Santos
Aw sh*t, here we go again! Grand Theft Auto 5 is one of the greatest selling games of all time, shifting over 160 million copies in the decade or so since it debuted. First released on the PlayStation 3 in 2013, the game was a mainstay on software sales charts throughout the entire PS4 generation, and now it’s launched on...
Hands On Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Feels Like the Tightest, Most Polished Borderlands Yet
A familiar fantasy, but still magic
It’s been almost a decade now since the release of Borderlands 2’s Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep DLC, which reframed the looter shooter as a Dungeons and Dragons-style tabletop campaign DM’d by the titular Tiny Tina. Acclaimed as that mini-campaign was, it’s a little unusual to see Tiny Tina’s...
Hands On Don't Sleep on Machine Strike, Horizon Forbidden West's Chess-Like Board Game
Putting all the pieces together
While Horizon Zero Dawn was a wonderful debut entry from Guerrilla Games — a studio that was entering all-new territory with an open world action RPG — it did have its flaws. Built up towns were one of them; they looked cool from a distance, but had little to do once you got inside. Horizon Forbidden West goes to...
Hands On Cyberpunk 2077's PS5 Version Actually Feels Like a Finished Game
It only took 14 months
When CD Projekt Red announced that it was going to host a Cyberpunk 2077 livestream following months of silence on the game's future, we felt a small jolt of hope. But when the developer kicked said livestream off with a hugely underwhelming 'next-gen' demo, we knew that we'd have to play the newly released PlayStation 5...
Hands On They Made Destruction AllStars on PS5 Good
Like, for real
When it released last year, Destruction AllStars ultimately disappointed. Lucid Games’ chaotic crash-‘em-up was not a dud – in fact, between its diverse cast of well-animated characters and compelling use of the DualSense controller, there was much to like – but it just didn’t feel quite right. It was hard to put into words,...
Hands On Atelier Sophie 2 Seems Like a Very Promising JRPG Sequel
The story continues
Atelier’s Mysterious Trilogy was recently re-released on the PlayStation 4 but Gust has obviously decided that it isn’t quite finished with that story. Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream takes place in between the first and second games, and we were recently given access to the opening couple of hours on...
Hands On OlliOlli World Is a Bold and Brilliant New Spin on the Skateboarding Series
JollyOlli good
Before getting our hands on the PlayStation 5 version of OlliOlli World for this preview, we refreshed ourselves on the basics in OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood. We quickly remembered the challenging but intuitive controls, the ridiculously addictive allure of besting your scores on each level, and the clean, understated...
Hands On God of War PC Is a Great Way to Play a PS4 Classic
RT-Axe on
In 2018 Sony Santa Monica shipped God of War, a soft reboot of the fan-favourite action-adventure trilogy that traded the Greek pantheon for Norse mythology. Featuring an emotional narrative that focused on the relationship between the rough-edged Kratos and his young son Atreus, God of War reinvigorated the series without straying too far...
Hands On The Matrix Awakens Is an Unreal Demonstration of PS5's Power
The truth, nothing more
There are some who would argue that the PlayStation 5 has yet to have its true next-gen moment. Exclusives like Demon’s Souls and even Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart look phenomenal, of course, but are they really a significant step-up from the PS4? Sony, in many ways, made a rod for its own back with its generational...
Hands On Kid A Mnesia: Exhibition Is a Truly Haunting Tribute to Everything Radiohead
You won't forget it
It’s almost quaint to think that Radiohead’s Kid A and Amnesiac albums were considered such esoteric, difficult listening twenty years ago. With the benefit of hindsight they are simply part of the natural progression in sound from The Bends to the beloved OK Computer, doubling down on that album’s themes of alienation and...
Hands On FromSoftware Puts Its All into Elden Ring
Rise, Tarnished
Elden Ring feels like everything FromSoftware has been doing for the past 12 years all at once. Sure, you could probably describe its latest title as open world Dark Souls and be more than halfway there, but to do so would ignore the obvious undertones of Bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice that help make this new title stand...
Hands On Is the GTA Trilogy Really That Bad on PS5, PS4?
A number six with extra dip
In response to the headline: honestly, no. As is so often the case when there’s an online backlash, the reality isn’t quite as bad as the memes would lead you to believe – but make no mistake, the GTA Trilogy deserves better, and Rockstar has its work cut out rectifying this sorry state of affairs. This is a...
Hands On All Hallows' Dreams: Ghost Train Is a Frightfully Fun Halloween Event on PS4
Dreams' latest community collab is a treat
Dreams provides players with a toolset with which to make more or less anything they please, but as with any creative medium, a blank canvas can be the most daunting thing of all. It's why one of the game's best ongoing features is the community jam, which provides everyone with a theme, and a deadline to...
Hands On FIFA 22's Underrated VOLTA Arcade Is Football Fall Guys
Minigame madness
Hated, adored, never ignored. The motto may predominantly be used by Man United fans who argue that, win or lose, the club is rarely out of the headlines – but it also applies to FIFA Ultimate Team. Look, here’s a mode that draws the angst of hardcore gamers all around the world – and yet franchise fans absolutely adore it...
