Shooty Fruity is a goofy little title that marries the mundane task formula of games like Job Simulator with an absurd shooting gallery. Don't be fooled by the cutesy aesthetic, however, as the gunplay can get pretty intense at times and contending with your duties adds an extra dimension of difficulty.
It could be argued that, when you strip away all of the spectacle and flashy superpowers from the game, that Megaton Rainfall essentially boils down to being nothing more than a fancy UFO wave shooter, although this would be missing the point entirely.
Sometimes, after hours spent blasting Nazis, Zombies, Aliens and Alien Nazi Zombies, you just want to unwind with a relaxing title that's not going to hinge on how quick your reflexes are. LocoRoco 2 is that title, for me at least, although it must be said that, beneath the deceptively simplistic veneer, the gameplay can actually get quite challenging at times.
When you drop into an area and the electronic bass is pumping and screeching away like a Transformer humping a washing machine and then all of a sudden, as demons attack from all directions, a shredding guitar riff kicks in and disintegrates every pair of panties in a twelve mile radius with the sheer fucking Metal brutality of the whole scenario… Well, that's a sensation that only a Doom game can provide, and this epicness is cranked up to eleven when playing in VR.
Aside from small additions such as new ‘Masterworks' variations of weapons being available and the requisite cosmetic items, players can also tweak the look of their armor sets by completing tasks in-game or take part in a kind of ‘raid-within-a-raid' which again just reuses the environment from the first major raid.
Diving headfirst into the pool of experiences available on PSVR has had me trying out titles from genres I wouldn't have looked twice at under normal circumstances and, almost without fail, finding that the simple virtue of playing in VR has made these games far more engaging.
There seems to be a reluctance to embrace VR by most major gaming media outlets and even some developers, such as Ubisoft and EA who, after tentatively dipping their toes in the water, seem to have entirely given up on the format.
There's definite potential to be found in Comrades, as when you get a decent team behind you and you're taking on all manner of beasts it really adds a new dynamic to how you approach combat when compared to the single player game.
It's great to see developers, particularly smaller ones, not only support VR gaming but also expand upon it in a meaningful and, most importantly, fun way; the central mechanic of using your microphone in order to see fosters constant engagement between the player and the game and is a large part of why this charming little indie effort stands out so far from the pack, for me at least.
Call of Duty: WWII is precisely what fans have been clamouring for over the last few years – A return to traditional boots-on-the-ground gameplay with an increased focus on skill and I have no doubt that it will resonate with fans in a way that the last few games have failed to manage.
John Johanas has masterfully taken up the directorial reigns and given us a game that, while it shares many trace elements of DNA with its predecessor, has more than enough of a distinct identity in order to separate it from the pack.
As a newcomer to the Ys series, I couldn't recommend Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana enough. Touted as being twice as long as previous instalments, the fast pace of the combat system and bountiful questlines available makes for a consistently entertaining experience with little in the way of grinding.
The black sheep of the PlayStation-era Final Fantasy behemoths certainly deserves attention from those who have somehow avoided playing it in some form or another over the last seventeen years and feels like slipping into a worn but comfortable pair of slippers for any returning players.
I didn't delve into the level of customisation available or the immense amount of loot you'll encounter as you grind your way through the levels, although I think that most familiar with this type of game will already have a rough idea of what elements such as these have to offer and nobody wants to read a two thousand page revew.
Besides the visually overhauled campaign, there's also a Raid mode where players can return to campaign levels that have been altered slightly and play through using different characters, allowing for online co-op. This mode also features an entirely new chunk of content dubbed Ghost Ship: Chaos, which may or may not be enough to entice players to return to the game once again.
Ark: Survival Evolved has more bugs than the grill of a Mack truck and your first introduction to the game can feel akin to the sensation of being hit by aforementioned truck, but peel away the layers of abstruse game mechanics and you'll find a strangely compelling game that'll make you feel like the Pope of Dino-Town at times and want to open a vein in a hot bath at others.
Although not as impenetrable to newcomers as earlier entries, F1 2017 in some ways falls victim to the curse of annual releases; with such a rigid release schedule in place the opportunity to meaningfully expand upon last year's effort is reduced and often the best you get is possibly a new mechanic and a whole heap of fine-tuning of established mechanics.
Despite its shortcomings, I enjoyed my time with Agents of Mayhem. I would love to see a patch in the future that would allow online cooperative play, but I can also understand why Volition elected to focus on making this a single player experience first and foremost.
With 9 different endings and playthroughs taking anything from 10-12 hours for your first time, plus multiple difficulty levels that crank up scares that are unique to that mode, there's a lot of content here for horror fans to sink their teeth into.
For me, as great and occasionally teeth grindingly frustrating an experience that Matterfall was, it was a one and done experience and I have no desire to come back to the game in its current state.