Crossing Souls leverages the classics from the 80's while telling a powerful tale of the space between life and death.
After a small lull in the series with the third episode, What Ails You puts Batman: The Enemy Within back on track to be the most original and intriguing re-imaging of the Dark Knight's rogues gallery and among Telltale's very best output to date. If you're not playing this series, you're missing out on some fantastic gaming water cooler moments and some of the greatest character driven storytelling for years.
Vesta is an interesting and often tense puzzle game that lacks that final polish and tries to do too much. It feels like the game should have stuck to what it does well – the puzzle designs, the soundtrack and bold visual art style – instead of trying to include combat which results in the core mechanics being at odds with themselves. Vesta is at its best when it's challenging your grey matter rather than your thumb reaction speed and thankfully, it does that more often than not.
Dynasty Feud is an ideal game to add to a party playlist among friends (who you wouldn't mind becoming enemies). It's a fast-paced, well designed, thrilling 2D platform brawler with a bold but basic art style and a catchy soundtrack in which anything can (and invariably will) happen. Matches can change in an instant because of the changeable nature of the characters, environments and abilities which lean into the unpredictable but can be mastered with practice. It's a shame that the online modes seem so unstable, even with a stable internet connection, but Dynasty Feud seems like a game best played together on the same TV (but always just out of arm's reach) anyway.
Factotum 90 is a solid, if simple puzzle game that doesn't require too much from the player. If you want a test, you won't find one here because it fails to capitalise on the mechanics it has. It lacks polish but that premise and split-screen controls are interesting enough to get you through the games 30 missions before they overstay their welcome. Factotum 90 occupied me for a solid 6 hours and this feels like a solid return on investment for a budget handheld game.
Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier is a game at odds with itself that's near-essential for fans of the film series but a snoozefest for anybody else.
A returning character turns Episode 3 of Telltale's Batman: The Enemy Within AKA Broken Mask into an action packed and tense period in the series.
Before The Storm Episode 2, Brave New World, is packed full of nods to the original Life Is Strange but the brashness and immaturity of Chloe is starting to wear thin.
After a year delay, My Name Is Mayo has finally made its way to the EU PSN store and "the easiest platinum game ever" can't even get that right.
Road Rage wildly misses the mark of successfully replicating the magic of Road Rash. It's a poorly put together game that has more bugs than an insectarium and contains only a handful of enjoyable moments. The combat, which works better than almost every other Road Rash inspired title I've played, and the soundtrack are the only positives to this turgid, unfinished mess that'll make you Rage Quit rather than Road Rage.
Assassin's Creed Origins is the epic adventure that the series has always been building towards. The FingerGuns Review;
Rugby 18 is as painful to play as a Chris Robshaw blindside tackle.
Rogue Trooper Redux is showing its age but this Trooper certainly deserves a second tour of duty. The FingerGuns Review;
Son of Scoregasm improves upon the original with an innovative risk vs. reward system that's perfect for short bursts of portable play.
Fragments of Him tells a powerful story of love and loss but suffers from limited interactivity and repetition.
36 Fragments of Midnight proves that procedural generation doesn't necessarily benefit some games.
Veteran writer Bob Bates is back with the charming text adventure Thaumistry: In Charm's Way that harks back to the good ol' days.
Telltale's Batman: The Enemy Within continues with a fantastic second episode that's full of surprises and gets back to basics.
By transplanting the same mechanics and theme from the original Firefighters – The Simulator into a setting that's devoid of any life or fun, VIS Games have managed what I thought was impossible by creating a follow-up that is worse than the original. Firefighters: Airport Fire Department is a disaster and is certainly a contender for the worst game on PS4.
The game's website claims that Energy Hook is "a coherent vision that focuses on its visceral core gameplay with no extra fluff like combat or cut scenes". Unfortunately, that extra fluff is exactly what the game is missing.