Silenos

Always suspicious of this use of the 'number of players' or 'engagement' metric which more often is a sign of disappointing sales.

CO:E33 is the first physical game I've bought in over a year, absolute classic so far, both as a game and a work of music and art. Absolutely thrilled to see it do so well.
What's also striking about those charts is the titles that aren't there.

Excellent review and 8/10 is definitely on the generous side I think, an incredibly overrated game in general. Like most Ubisoft bloat: it's a ton of empty content with no depth. The Burnout games are the way to make these kinds of racers.

What's most significant is what the article doesn't even mention - Hogwarts is smashing ACS. Didn't have that on my bingo card.

Very good review and personally I think the score is absolutely spot on.

Used to be a big supporter of PS+, have now ditched it with no regrets. After decades supporting Playstation in general - bought PS1 the day it came out in Japan - after PS5 may be just the time to bail out in favour of Steam.

This has got to be some kind of parody of an article. Series was absolutely dreadful and completely missed the tone of the original game.

This article is just a poor reactionary take, very disappointed to read this from who I think is the site's best writer by far.

@Jrs1 Just 5/10 for your spelling I'm afraid.

I'll wait to score it when it comes to PS Plus in what will probably be a month or two. Meanwhile I can't believe so many people are giving Ubisoft a free pass over the extremely predatory microtransaction structure built in to a full-price game.

@Czar_Khastik Just give it 3 or 4 months and it'll be yours for free on PS+.

To be honest, by any metric it's a poor selection. For those that have already played Prince Of Persia there's next to nothing.

These arguments are so tired and have been recycled ever since ancient Greek philosophers railed against the art of writing. The exact same argument was pushed when synthesisers and drum machines came on the music scene in the early 80s, that it was doing drummers out of jobs. But music didn't die and new generations all over the world successfully created revolutionary fresh sounds with the new tech. Technology can't be uninvented, it really is what it is and you have to adapt.

Thanks for the review. 'The Island and its monetisation' is a pretty big deal to still be getting 8/10. 2K sports games are notorious for hideous clunky slow UIs employing all the usual exploitative dark arts. Doubt very much they'll have changed for this one.

@N1ghtW1ng FC2 was amazing, arguably the best in the series, that's a great suggestion.

Won't even bother adding Veilguard to my PS+ collection. Looking forward to seeing Avowed for free next month, that one looks more like a slightly more playable game.

Couldn't pay me to play Veilguard, let alone install it for free. Look forward to seeing Avowed on next month's list. Might try Turtles In Time though!

Even as a free monthly game, massive hard pass here. Might try the Sonic game. Absolute desperation from EA.

Absolutely love this cosy game, such a refreshing change from all the prevailing darkness! So much to explore and discover. Hoping they'll expand some multi-player aspects in the future.

@rjejr It'd be like saying you can pay to buy this video on Amazon or pay to stream it on Apple but neglecting to mention that it's free on YouTube.

The tennis game is absolute pants - Jedi and Pacman are the only 2 moderately playable games if they're your thing, am currently enjoying The First Descendant instead though.

@QiaraIris That shocking lack of respect towards Japanese culture in this game, as with the release date itself, is probably down to laziness and incompetence rather than malign intent, but it still reflects very poorly on the developer.

'Canon' or 'rpg' mode, another Ubisoft hard pass here. Assassin's Creed Black Flag was the last entry that was actually fun and not a chore.

Hard pass on this one.

A few hours in and you realise this has DLC expansion written all over it. Naked cash grab releasing it as a standalone title.

@Omegaweapon1987 Actually Himeko is still a top-tier character that has already undergone a renaissance with the Break meta.

@themightyant Spot on! Look what happened to my beloved fully spec'd Seele! Absolutely no use for her nowadays whilst The Herta and Acheron combined with Sunday blow everything out of the water.

@Cakefish so many people get off on hating on things, they always filter what they see and experience in life through what they can find to dislike about something, even when that something is overwhelmingly positive

Yes, a really great game but never a 10/10 in a million years. The combat is really janky and there are issues in pacing and performance.

Looks promising but this whole palaver of creating accounts with 2k and the incredibly cumbersome front end spoils it. Everybody's Golf is ultimately so much more fun.

@RoomWithaMoose it's the same usual suspects 'cancelling' their PS+ every month here! interestingly, at other PlayStation sites this month's games have received overwhelmingly positive comments

Is it a game you can jump into as a brand new player now?

Looks like a cash grab to me - I sense that this 'game' may have originally been intended as an add-on to Elden Ring. Dear From Software, just give us something to be excited about such as a 60fps patch for Bloodborne - or better still, Bloodborne 2!

@Titntin same here, and I do religiously play Honkai and Genshin every day, and now Infinity Nikki too. WW and ZZZ both just feel bland and uninspiring.

All of the lists published so far have been fab but for me Sammy's is the best yet! All absolutely brilliant games.

HSR is a fantastic game that gets better the more you understand the mechanics - its biggest weakness for me is the lack of things to do once new content drops and you finish it.
With Genshin and Nikki it's fun to just explore the open world looking for chests and Whimstars etc and doing minigames and puzzles. Looking forward to Wuthering on January 2nd.

Yet another superb list! Keep 'em coming!

Another great list! Keep it coming!

Thanks for the fantastic review! Having played it a lot already I couldn't agree more with all your observations.
There are a couple of aspects that are rough around the edges like navigating and lag in some of the menus, and incredibly no Y axis inversion option but since it's version 1.0 we can hopefully expect further improvements before long.

@Realist yes, I'm totally with you on the lack of inverted Y, hopefully gets included soon because that should be standard in 2024 already - Sony's implementation of this feature at system level is also poor

@get2sammyb Fab, really look forward to that, Sammy!

Cannot wait to try this one! If anybody's not tried INFINITY NIKKI yet, I also highly recommend that - gorgeous graphics and big open world with lots of cool puzzles and platforming, not to mention the very cute stories and characters. Surprisingly it's not been reviewed here but I'd give it 9/10 and for me one of the best five games of 2024.

That's a surprisingly good list. Nice one.

It hasn't been reviewed at this site (yet?) but I do highly recommend INFINITY NIKKI having now played it for about 100+ hours and done all the chapters - easy 9/10 in my opinion. The graphics are gorgeous and there is surprising depth to its puzzles and platforms within the open world way beyond its premise of dressing up and being a stylist, collecting the various orbs, bugs and materials is genuinely fun and engaging too.

Definitely looking forward to this one, let's pray it lives up to the hype!

@get2sammyb really looking forward to this one on PS5, also do you have plans to do a review for Infinity Nikki that came out very recently?

ZZZ is not a bad game but pales alongside the gameplay of Honkai Star Rail and Genshin, even Infinity Nikki is now becoming a more compelling option in terms of time priorities.

No campaign, no try.