Stefan L's Reviews
Sometimes it's worth trying to reinvent the wheel, and Turn 10's renewed Forza Motorsport takes the series in some new and worthwhile directions. The 'CarPG' levelling and pre-race practice sessions really help to foster familiarity and confidence with cars and tracks over time, and Forza is now on a par with Gran Turismo and others for the online race structure. It all sets the foundations for years of new cars, tracks, races and further improvements that I'm looking forward to seeing.
F1 Manager 23 evolves and grows upon the foundations of Frontier's motorsports sim, adding an accessible new Race Replay mode based on real-world events, and expanding some key options for team management. However, it's not quite there with the overall presentation, and there's some AI quirks that you need to babysit through race weekends, whether you're fighting for every point possible or hunting for championships.
There's a pleasing mixture of the familiar and the new within Pikmin 4. The fresh camera view and tweaks to the gameplay make it feel more accessible, but for returning players, the focus on the Dandori ethos of planning, efficiency and adaptability provides new arenas to test your skills. Oh, and Oatchi's a real cutie too.
Planet of Lana looks and sounds as wonderful as its original reveal promised. While it doesn't redefine the adventure platformer, the adorable partnership between Lana and Mui, the gorgeous art direction and sweeping soundtrack make this well worth experiencing.
As if it was really in doubt, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is another sublime entry in this series. It's not as thoroughly refreshing as Breath of the Wild was six years ago, but as a direct sequel, it takes the same world and manages to transform it with a new over and under world, while Link's powerful new abilities foster ever-more creative play, and a new epic tragedy unfolds before you. As we head into the Nintendo Switch's twilight years, this is practically essential.
Whether being completely cut off from civilisation is a fantasy or a nightmare to you, Stranded: Alien Dawn includes everything from base building as hunter-gatherers, to rediscovering technology and eventually making a successful escape, or setting up a rugged military base. It's just a bit limited in terms of thematic variety, and needs a little more work on the console controls and UI, but constructs a compelling sci-fi take on the survival management sim genre.
Dead Island 2 does a great job of reanimating this dormant zombie-battling series, with the gore-filled combat and excessive weaponry that goes well with the oversaturated LA setting. It's an enjoyable romp, but at the same time, ironically feels like it's playing it safe.
Meet Your Maker is a cunning blend of testing your skills and wits against devious deathtraps, and the creative joys of creating your own murderous mazes. The progression systems are a bit slow, the restrictions it puts on your ability to create levels somewhat restrictive, but there's the foundations of a game here that Behaviour Interactive can build upon.
While it paints its dystopian future in broad strokes and has some rough edges, there's a worthwhile and enjoyable tale to experience within The Last Worker.
Playing Before Your Eyes in VR brings your even closer to embodying the life and times of Benjamin Brynn. There's some quibbles from the jump to VR, but Benny's tale remains a beautiful told story that's well worth experiencing.
With a solid and dependable blaster-led Star Wars adventure as its basis, there's more to Tales from the Galaxy's Edge than initially meets the eye, with the most fun to be had in the side tales picked up in Seezelslak's bar. This has had a big glow up since its original Meta Quest release, but left me wanting something more consistently inventive and truly built for PSVR 2 and higher powered systems. Hopefully we'll get to see that in future.
Demeo is a fun and accessible digital board game, evoking games like HeroQuest with its turn-based dungeon-crawling. In VR it's a pleasingly tactile experience that's great to share with co-op friends, but if you need or prefer to play on a TV screen? Well that's still good too.
Cosmonious High makes being the new kid in class feel truly special. It's not quite as universal as the "robots do human things" humour of Job Simulator, but never gives up on being positive, from the alien character designs, to the vibrant colour palette, and the sandbox of simple puzzles and powers to use. It's just missing that half step of complexity as a VR experience.
Leaning on the power of PS5, Kayak VR: Mirage is filled with wonderful locations to visit around the world and explore with paddle in hand. It looks stunning and makes for a great way to demo PSVR 2 or VR in general, but personally, I was left wanting something a little more.
Nobody said being a giant tentacle monster was easy, but Tentacular's mix of physics puzzles and quirky story and setting does make it rather fun.
With a positively batty sense of humour, What The Bat? is a thoroughly daft VR successor to What The Golf? and the best baseball game I've played in years – also the only baseball game I've played.
Horizon Call of the Mountain is an ideal showcase for what PlayStation VR 2 can do. Stunning PS5-powered vistas and a great blend of intuitive climbing and combat make this a must-play game for anyone picking up the next generation headset.
We Were Here Forever certainly grew on us the more we played, with some great brain-teasing puzzles that really make the most of the split player perspectives (though we did give up on the walkie-talkies).
Deliver Us Mars is another engaging science fiction tale with something to say about our modern world. This message is wrapped in a more personal story this time around, that's bolder in how it tells it, and mixes it well with broader action and puzzling, so it's just a shame that the game can't match that ambition with some technical weaknesses even on the latest consoles.
High on Life is a conflicted game. On the one hand it's a solid shooter that often feels like more than the sum of its parts, and comes with an engaging art style and ideas, but the sense of humour is just so subjective that it's hard to recommend to anyone that isn't a die hard Rick and Morty fan.