In its current state the game should have been a £1.99 PlayStation Mobile title, not a £7.99 PlayStation 4 game. The title is coming to PS Vita this week and will be cross-buy but not cross save, and is certainly more suited to short bursts of gaming on a bus.
Despite borrowing a lot of well-worn themes from other games and movies (Hello, creepy shop mannequins from Silent Hill), The Evil Within feels fresh and exciting. It's easy to recommend to fans of the original Dead Space and the earlier Resident Evil games.
With nearly eight hours of content for such a small price it will keep you entertained for many a bus journey to work.
Minutes does exactly what it says on the tin and it does it beautifully, which is quite a feat considering developer Red Phantom Games is actually just one person, Richard Ogden. An essential title for on-the-go gaming on PS Vita, and a damn fine puzzler on PS4.
I really enjoyed the time I spent with We Are Doomed but I cannot overlook the price and length of the game. At a lower price point it would make a great Vita game, but on PS4 there a number of other titles that you could buy for the same amount of money and get many more hours of gameplay. Sadly I have to dock a few points from the score for that which is a real shame.
Project Root is a frustrating game because there is a genuinely good shooter hidden under a number of poor design choices. It is rather like a Michael Bay movie in that when it works, it works really well, with explosions going off left, right and centre, hundreds of bullets and a genuine sense of excitement. However, it also shares the same problems and the levels are far too sprawling, the plot is terrible and sometimes you have no idea what is going on. I really hope there will be a sequel and the team do some serious play-testing and refine the game.
Ultratron is a simple game in which you move around a single screen and shoot bad guys. That said, it does that single screen shooting very well. I would have liked some variation in the level design, and the graphics can get rather muddled at some points, but overall it's a polished little package. The local co-op is great for when you want a quick game to play with friends – younger players will love it – and the Vita version will be excellent for killing ten minutes on a bus journey.
I've never played a game that's affected me as much as SOMA, and to be honest I'm not sure I want to ever again, although I'm very glad I did. It has the DNA of movies like Alien, 2001, Sunlight, and Event Horizon, with a splash of the original Dead Space and Bioshock, but brings plenty of new ideas to the table. It makes you think about what it means to be alive, and indeed how you classify life, and is a brilliant example of just how far video games have evolved.
Non-fans will find an competent, if short, beat 'em up which is perhaps a little over priced, but die hard fans will be yelping, punching the air and reliving their childhoods by transforming in to a semi truck and chasing Ravage as he pounces across Cybertron. I loved every single second and hope it sells well enough to get the sequel teased by the end credits. This is by far the best Transformers game that has ever been made.
Just Dance 2016 is a one trick pony and if you have beers and friends, or children who need to be entertained, it's a great way to spend a few hours. As a solo game it's a bit dull and you do start to notice that the tracking of your dancing is dubious to say the least. It's also somewhat of a half-way house between a full release and a subscription service, and behind the pumping beats of Lady Gaga you can hear the sound of the bottom of a barrel being scraped as superfluous new modes are added to the game and cheap cover versions are used.
The core concept of Kromaia Ω is that of a solid 360º shooter which can generate some epic battles, but the combination of frantic shooting, chilled out story and trippy visuals have been done better, most notably in Ubisoft's Child of Eden. Whilst unremarkable, it remains entertaining and challenging, with the included co-op mode a worthwhile and welcome addition.
You already know if you are going to be buying Firewatch, and if you loved Everybody's Gone to the Rapture or Life Is Strange then this is the game for you. It's small, short and almost perfectly formed, it's just the shame the game broke so many times when I was playing it. I'm hoping these problems can be found and fixed very quickly after launch and I would suggest holding off buying the game until a patch has been released, but until then we don't have much of a choice but to mark an otherwise lovely game down due to the problems encountered.
Layers of Fear sits somewhere between the pejoratively classified 'walking simulators' and a full game experience, as for the most part you are simply wandering around and solving the odd puzzle. Despite the clichés and obvious jump scares, I rather enjoyed my time exploring the mansion and I'm looking forward to having another play through to see what I missed the first time round. If you enjoyed the Silent Hills teaser P.T. and want more of the same, then Layers of Fear is well worth a look.
I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a game as much as Ratchet & Clank.
Having recently reviewed Layers of Fear, a game which also dealt with the themes of mental illness and horror, I was expecting a lot more from The Park. Walking around a fun fair for an hour with a shouty, sweary woman who is only interested in herself is about as much fun as it sounds. I suggest you save your money for a ticket to a real fun fair and hope you get stuck on a rollercoaster for an hour. That would be much more thrilling than The Park.
I've never been very good at games that have you mastering combos and chasing high scores, so I'm quite surprised just how much I enjoyed chaining together attacks in Shadow of the Beast. The game, whilst quite short, just begs to be played over and over as you chase scores and unlock secrets, and the inclusion of live feeds which pop up and tell you when one of your friends has beaten your score is a clever way to keep you playing. Storytelling annoyances aside, it's a solid and polished game with just the right amount of nostalgia for us oldies.
Quite how anyone thought this game was ready for release is beyond me. It’s more like a proof-of-concept demo, and for the many people looking for a nostalgic return to classic football games, a massive disappointment.
The one saving grace is that Ghostbusters is dull rather than boring. Played in short bursts, a level or two at a time, it’s still rather fun, even more so when you have some friends in tow. Parents with young children who fancy a break from endless LEGO titles may also consider a look at Ghostsbusters, but for everyone else, I recommended you hunt down the far superior Ghostbusters: The Video Game from 2009.
It’s a good first effort from the tiny three-person team based in Southampton, and you can clearly see a lot of love and effort has gone into the game. If you have some spare cash and some young children to entertain then you could do a lot worse. It’s a game with bears in it, it shows a poo when you are in last place, and I’m in a good mood, so Strangely Named Studio’s first game gets an encouraging…
Despite my initial impressions, I really enjoyed The Bunker. I’m never going to play it again, but for the couple of hours it lasted it held my attention and expertly racked up the tension. It is certainly not for everyone, but it entertained me for it’s duration and you can’t really ask much more than that. Grab your significant other and some popcorn and The Bunker will make a great evenings viewing.