Chris Harding's Reviews
SUPERHOT VR is the epitome of cool. You're thrown into your very own action movie that'll have you slaying fools over and over again as you spawn, shoot, die, repeat. If you're a PSVR owner, you owe it to yourself to at least try this out
THPS1+2 is probably the best remake I've played. It perfectly captures the core fun of the original games, including the original soundtrack and skaters, and brings it up to modern standards with surprisingly few tweaks outside of the graphics and audio work. Perfect for long time loyal fans, and a great starting point for newcomers.
What The Dub?! is the best party game I've ever played - simple as that. Its core concept is super simple and the execution is easy. The hard part? Being funny enough to make it worth playing, but that's on you.
Awesomenauts provides fun by the bucket load. It takes a while to get accustomed to the different characters and play stlyes, but once you've mastered the basics the rest falls into place. Solid fun and even better if you can get a few mates together.
The Last of Us: Part 1 is the definitive version of Naughty Dog’s classic. Sadly, I’m afraid the conversation, at least among the old guard who first took Ellie under their wing all those years ago, will hone in on the economics rather than the breakthrough emotional storytelling and the grounded gameplay.
A high-octane racing and driving simulator with 500 cars spanning across decades of automotive innovation. DualShockers was provided with a copy of the game for review purposes.
For me, Tethered is the first true full single player game for PlayStation VR. It's not just that it offers great value in terms of playtime, but it's a great game, too. There's more than meets the eye with this cute little strategy game, and it's far too easy to get lost within its colourful worlds.
Holoball made me sweat, and for that I hate it. But it also gave me hours of fun, and for that I love it. It's the most simple concept in gaming that's older than myself: Hit a ball back-and-forth and try to score a point. A premise so simple, yet so elegantly executed. Toss in the fact it's releasing at a fair price and you've got yourself a genuine bargain.
Yooka-Laylee is just what the industry needed: a firm, colourul, kick up the bum. There's lots to do, even more to see, and even more to collect. An expandable game that really does justice to the genre it's trying to revive. It's been a long time that a game has kept my attention with pure gameplay alone. It's a timeless classic that'll join the ranks of Spyro, Crash and Banjo, and deservedly so. Gimme more. Please.
Farpoint is a must-have game for any PSVR owner - so long as you're willing to drop the cash on the gun bundle. The story is good enough for what it sets out to do, but it's the meaty single-player offering and the online co-op that propels Farpoint to the higher reaches of the VR stratosphere.
The Hong Kong Massacre is a treasure of a game. It’s basically John Woo’s Stranglehold, but as a top-down shooter, and as Stranglehold is one of my favourite game’s of the PS360 era, that’s the highest praise I can give it.
Hotshot Racing is pure fun, and that's something I can always get behind. It's good fun for all ages, but I suspect the older generation will look on Hotshot Racing with a little more love in their eyes than the clueless kids of today.
The Walking Dead: Onslaught is an easy game to recommend. The gameplay is solid and very, very fun, even if it's a little gross at times. The story isn't the highlight, and it does fall into some traps of repetition and tropes, but The Walking Dead fans will be happy to take a step into the miserable world with Daryl as their avatar. The real highlight is in Scavenger missions and all the walker bashing it brings. It's a shame there's no co-op, and not all of the original cast voice their characters, but there's really not much to complain about.
DIRT 5 is a brilliant racer and that provides an early taste of next-gen, at least on PS4 Pro. The gameplay is great arcadey fun, and there's depth to the single-player mode that gets much deeper with the player creation kit in Playgrounds. Dirt 5 blurs the lines between current and next-gen with DIRT 5. It's ahead of the game and perhaps one of the best racers of this console generation, and if you're left playing on the older machines this side of Christmas, you shouldn't feel too hard done by - you're still getting an exceptional racer.
Ubisoft delivers another open-world epic, but this time it's a focused and streamlined affair. The graphical overhaul works to announce the end of one era and the beginning of another as Assassin's Creed continues its ongoing evolution as an accessible action-adventure for the long-time fans, while still offering a deep RPG experience for those introduced via Origins and Odyssey.
Korix takes the RTS genre and puts its own little twist on it. It's simple to get into but if you intend to master the intricacies and explore its hidden depths in the multiplayer component, you'll need to invest some time and really get your tactical mind to work.
Marvel's Spider-Man leans heavily on the tried-and-tested open-world formula, to its benefit and its loss. While it apes those that came before at every turn, it does so in such a way that it doesn't even matter - it's a beautiful Spider-Man game that tells its own story while delivering gameplay that's familiar but fine-tuned. Spend a few minutes swinging around and you'll barely care for the game's shortcomings. This isn't just the best Spider-Man game to do - it's the best super-hero game thus far.
If you've got a hankering for a colourfully fun shooter that doesn't take itself too seriously, Dick Wilde won't do you wrong. The lack of extra modes is a bit of a bummer, but the general gameplay and presentation more than makes up for it.
Arcade Paradise lives up to its name by essentially being a modern plug-n-play TV compilation (remember those?) wrapped in a competent and rewarding business sim dressed up in the most garish of 90s fashion, complete with dial-up internet, Solitaire on the PC, and more turquoise tracksuits than I’d ever like to see. The collection of games on offer is massive, and the earn-buy-earn loop works well at keeping the game from becoming too stale too soon.
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is a fitting finale for the hero that's been knocking around with the PlayStation brand for almost a decade. There's highs and lows, and while it's not a perfect game, it does a helluva lot more right than it does wrong. The story is so-so but that's what we kinda expected. What really shines are the characters, the locales and the gameplay. Four out of five ain't bad. If you've a passing interest in story-driven shooters, give this one a go and then do it again to try out the different playstyles/collect the trophies. It's been worth the wait.