Probably the biggest strike against Berserk and the Band of the Hawk is, paradoxically, that it got me into the Berserk franchise.
Despite some interesting ideas The Witch and the Hundred Knight: Revival Edition ultimately fails to engage. The plot is surprisingly dull despite letting you take a walk on the dark side and the combat soon becomes chore-like as you diligently spam square until your reach the next area.
The PS4 is kind of renowned for its dearth of decent racing titles, particularly after the disappointment of both Driveclub and Gran Turismo: Sport failing to live up to expectations. It's unlikely that The Crew 2 is going to change this perception in any meaningful way but it can't be denied that it is a fun little diversion for racing fans.
Apex Construct is heavily flawed, with a fun and fairly precise shooting mechanic unfortunately not enough to make up for the dismal movement controls and derivative narrative. Simple tasks like switching out inventory items or hacking consoles are made enjoyable and, when everything's working in your favour, the battles can contend with the best of the best of VR shooters, but everything quickly falls apart as soon as you're forced to move about with any degree of accuracy.
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.
The Wonder Boy Collection is a solid retro collection that finally puts some respect on old Tom-Tom's name (and Asha's as well, for that matter). Despite some anachronistic design elements and difficulty spikes due to the earlier titles' arcade origins, all four titles included here are well worth diving into if you're a fan of classic gaming and, if nothing else, the theme song from the first title is a straight up banger.
Creed: Rise to Glory offers up a decent enough experience for players wanting to step into the shoes of a professional boxer, but the gossamer thin narrative, imprecise controls and tracking issues all work against the game reaching its true potential.
It was probably evident throughout the review but I'm not particularly a fan of party games; maybe this is because they're often intrinsically local multiplayer dependent and getting a group of friends together in the same place for a night of gaming goodness has become more and more difficult as the responsibilities and tufts of ear hair start to accumlate alongside the years.
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.
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.
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.
The thing about Sword Art Online Re: Hollow Fragment is this: The game has a lot of flaws.
Despite shaking things up a bit with the introduction of aerial combat to multiplayer, The War Machine is essentially no better or worse than most other Call of Duty expansions; there's a handful of decent maps, each with their own pros and cons, and another stab at the lumbering undead, but ultimately it all boils down to how much you like the core gameplay loop of the game and wish for more of the same.
Sometimes it's the simpler experiences that really draw you in, especially when playing in VR; that's not to say that I don't wish Cold Iron was a little longer and had a bit more meat on the bone, but for a compact budget experience it's well worth taking a look.
Unlike some who may be considering picking this up, I was a fan of the original release of Patapon and, as such, found that despite my initial misgivings playing Patapon on the PS4 is generally just as fun as it was in portable format.
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.
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.
After I had completed a majority of the content I thought that I was done with The Division but the Underground DLC has managed to rope me back into spending a few hours a day levelling up and accruing loot in a far more enjoyable manner than that offered by the Dark Zone.
Although I had a ton of fun with Dead by Daylight, I have to admit that playing as a survivor did become repetitive far quicker than I expected. Whether or not this is just fatigue from playing through another similar title in such close proximity, I'm not sure there's enough on offer in this category to maintain my interest for the required levelling up of each character.
Although certainly not without its flaws, Battleborn is a solid foundation for Gearbox to build upon in the upcoming months. There's the feeling of a distinct lack of modes and variation in the mission structure. Adding enhancements to your character is a fun exercise and allows for a lot of experimentation, even if it can be a little hard to focus on during the heat of battle and the mixture of genres works surprisingly well, for the most part.