Tacoma is a carefully put together piece of art in the narrative-story driven genre of games. The team at Fullbright have taken everything they learnt from Gone Home and improved on everything from the pacing to the delivery of the story, only without such an emotional ending this time. The majority of your time will be investigating spirit-like reconstructions as you look into the crew members lives and create a bond with each of these people who are no longer aboard the ship. Tacoma isn't a long game, but it's a game which will stick with you and make you want to go back for more, even if it's just to listen to the director's commentary.
Planetbase is a great resource management/colony simulation game. It's very easy to get overwhelmed by the options and processes on hand but if you stick with it then you will get used to the mechanics and soon be running a successful colony. One thing you have to remember is, it isn't a race – there is no time limit and the main goal is to survive. So, take your time and enjoy the experience as you watch your colony grow both bigger and stronger.
For a simple remaster, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel looks and plays great. I say ‘simple’ because there’s not been that many enhancements outside of the visuals. Sure, we get a perfect 60fps, a crystal clear 4k, and the heavenly ‘turbo mode’ which makes traversing the world so much more satisfying, but there’s no extra content, no new chapters, no enhanced backstory, or platform-specific dungeons/areas to visit. However, a game isn’t as good as it looks, it’s as good as it plays; The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is a bloody brilliant JRPG game which I’m quite ashamed I’ve never actually played before grabbing it on the PS4. The story is very interesting, with lots of separate stories and events going on which all combinate into an intriguing and exciting narrative, combined with very satisfying and strategic combat. The combat itself may look generic and simple from the outside, but once you’ve cranked up the difficulty to eleven, it’s time to turn on your little grey cells as you swap your students on the fly and link them together in order to maximise their efficiency.
Death Road to Canada is a very, very fun game. You can experience it either in single player or in co-op with various different game modes and a deep character creation mechanic. No two playthroughs will be the same and each time you die you will want to spend your Zombo Points and jump straight back in for more. I honestly can't think of any reason why you shouldn't pick this game up.
Darksiders: Warmastered Edition is the perfect example of how to port a game over to the less-powerful Nintendo Switch. Giving the players the option of if they prefer the resolution or the framerate, and actually having some noticeable differences, was the best decision the developers could have had. Instead of opting for fancy gimmicks or trying to convert the game to utilise the motion controls or touch screen, the game is a perfect 1:1 recreation of the 2016 remaster which was released on other consoles, only with the added benefit of taking it with you whenever and wherever you want.
If you’re looking for a nice looking game to relax and wind down with, Glass Masquerade fits the bill perfectly. It’s a jigsaw puzzle in which the image isn’t the key to solving it, the curves and angles of each of the shapes are. This adds a new level of difficulty to the game as well as gives you a great sense of achievement once you successfully slot several slivers in succession. I love that the timer is there purely as a ‘git gud’ mechanic and doesn’t actually halt gameplay or deal any kind of punishment/restriction on those who take their time. Glass Masquerade is quite simply the perfect game to play when you have a spare moment and want to relax.
Detention is one of those rare games that you come across that not a lot of people may have heard of. It's creepy, eerie and unsettling but thoroughly enjoyable and really interesting to pick up and read all the in-game notes and experience what it was like. I've played and seen people play games much longer than this which don't ever give off the same impact.
From the gorgeous backdrops to the interesting character design, the whole thing feels like an illustrated storybook. The use of the bright, bold colours contrasting with the characters who contain hardly any colour is a great effect – along with the creepy, atmospheric environments and settings. Everything is stylised and designed in such a cute yet terrifying way and you can really tell that the developer has poured a lot of love into this project.
If you enjoy visual novels, dark humour or puzzle solving then you can easily sit down and get lost in it (it took me 56 hours to complete my playthrough of this) and I can't recommend it enough. The graphical style won't be for everyone, but for me it fits in with the previous games and the whole comic book/graphic novel style it is trying to pull off.
Monster Hunter World is an ever-evolving game which will never be over. It appears the game is following its 3DS counterparts with free content being added regularly in order to keep things fresh and new. Sure, some of the hunts can take a while and the game is clearly built on a social platform rather than a single-player experience, but it's enjoyable in both aspects and delivers a game which you can enjoy both on your own and with other people, even if they are strangers
A Hat in Time is a witty, colourful game with tonnes of variety. It's one of the best 3D platformers I've played in quite a while and succeeded where Playtonics Yooka Laylee didn't. The game has taken everything we loved about the games from the golden era of 3D platforming and updated it to modern standards without being locked in the past.
I really enjoyed my time with The Inner World: the Last Wind Monk, it's an aesthetically good looking game with clever puzzles and very funny dialogue. The story will have you wanting more and the characters will have you wishing you could just talk to them all day to see what they will come up with next.
Hand of Fate 2 is a really good sequel to an amazing game. They have improved on every aspect and added new mechanics in the process. There is a perfect mix of both strategic planning and 3rd person brawling which will satisfy fans of either genre. The strategic among you will love the card planning, although you don't have to plan the cards perfectly, if you think about it and set them accordingly then you could give yourself a massive advantage.
For a game about death and murder, Death Coming has rather comical and upbeat gameplay. No two playthroughs will be the same as each NPC has their own set agenda which could change based on the weather that kicks in or become altered if you failed to activate a trap in time. This game is basically one giant logical 'trial and error' game in which you must think a few steps ahead in order to perform genocide and emerge the victor. I doubt you've played anything quite like this within the last few years (at least).
The game can be as easy or difficult as you want it to be with all the passive abilities which can be turned on and off along with the fact that no two playthroughs will play out the same due to the randomness of the various mechanics. If you have played and enjoyed Plague Inc then this is a no-brainer tbh. If you haven't and you want a PS4 game to play then grab Plague Inc as it's just as good. Through its flaws and awkwardness, there is a great game underneath if you have the time and patience to invest into it to learn all the mechanics it has on offer.
Black Mirror is a great reboot, it took what made the original series great and expanded on it without having to reuse the same story. It's atmospheric and dark with a few twists and turns which you uncover as you go along, sometimes by giving you more questions than answers. Don't expect gore and bloodshed but expect a psychological horror with thriller and supernatural themes both thrown into the mix.
It's Quiz Time is a great party game. I've had lots of fun with it locally, online and on my own. Salli is a love it or hate it part of the game and she is there throughout the whole thing so maybe watch a few videos first so you know what you will be experiencing. The question and playlist variety keep the game entertaining and non-repetitive with lots of options for customisation and tweaking to your pleasure. This is by far the best party based Quiz game I've played this generation so far.
Star Ocean: The Last Hope was one of my first 'real' JRPGs that I played and reliving the game on the PS4 in much better quality with a more stable framerate was amazing for me. This is a game that you can pick up and play in either short bursts or long stretches (although save points are far apart, the 'rest mode' on the PS4 really helps) and offers a lot of variety as well as logical thinking and re-reading of notes to find your goal.
Shooty Fruity is my favourite PSVR shooter released so far, the guns feel weighty and real, the splats of the fruit is strangely satisfying and the fruit themselves are all created with love and strategic personalities. The game itself isn't the longest, but with its short mission lengths and multiple objectives per-mission, it's a game you can easily pick up and play a few rounds of here and there.
Tiny Metal has clearly taken a lot more than inspiration from the Advance Wars series, although they have thrown in a few new mechanics and a decent length single player which helps make this game it's own. The story is engaging, exciting and compelling and will have you intrigued all the way to the end with each battle different to the last due to the reveal of new units and mechanics along the way.