Neil Bolt's Reviews
The transition to an open world has not been easy, quite rough in fact. Still, Dynasty Warriors 9's many changes to the musou formula hold great promise for the future. This is the rebirth the series needed, regardless of its issues.
The new and improved Shadow of the Colossus brings the game into the modern era successfully. It carries over a few flaws and annoyances, sure, but it's been refined where it matters most, and the net result is a return to the forbidden lands that's just as achingly beautiful and magical as it ever was.
While there are plenty of good aspects to Lost Sphear, it does suffer from dipping into the well of nostalgia a little too often. It captures the essence of 90's Japanese RPGs quite well at times, but the application is uneven and that effectively scuttles a lot that Lost Sphear does right.
It took two troubled years, but Street Fighter V is finally where it should be with the Arcade Edition update. If you haven't gotten round to it yet, there's never been a better time to tackle this true king of the fighters.
Iconoclasts isn't a trendsetter within its genre on a mechanical level. It has great puzzles and poorly-handled combat. Yet there's such huge amounts of time and personality poured into how Iconoclasts looks, and how its game world is built up, that it's easy to forgive such issues. It's a gorgeous 2D puzzle platformer with interesting characters, and that is enough to see it rise above merely being 'good'.
This is another chance for one of the most underappreciated adventures to appear on a PlayStation console to gain a new, much deserved, audience. Time has been fairly kind to Okami despite minor gripes. If you've yet to experience the wonderful world of Okami, then this is as good a chance as any.
This is definitely a Dead Rising game, but it certainly isn't the Dead Rising it once was. This is the greying, shuffling husk of a lovably naff series, turned horrifically bland.
It may be occasionally janky, and despite best intentions, it isn't always as easy to understand as it could be, yet Ashes Cricket's bright spots shine through the flecks of grime. This is not a perfect game of cricket, but it is a good one.
There's a lot of well-produced content packed inside Call of Duty WWII's bunker, but very little of it is exciting, engaging, or original. The World War II setting papers the cracks, but constant mixed messaging about that historical conflict reveals the game for a gimmick.
Apart from a small UI overhaul, a fragmented hub, and a batch of new and redesigned characters, this is more Lego, more Marvel, and more collecting. For better or worse.
The good news is that Sonic Forces is not the disaster it could easily have been. There's a fairly enjoyable, silly romp here, that's got some nicely handled fan service. The bad news is that it still makes so many of the same mistakes synonymous with the series' 3D past.
There's a perfectly fine racing game somewhere in this mess of half-baked ideas. A fun arcade racer has been drowned in enough ‘one more thing' additions to fill the entire run of Columbo, and the result is a rather unpleasant muddle of bland story, stop-start driving, and player control being ripped away just as things get juicy.
Pretty much the same, boringly dependable Just Dance experience at heart, but the addition of a kid friendly mode, and a much-needed subscription service in Just Dance Unlimited, make this far more worthy a purchase for front room dance fans than the last few iterations.
Wuppo, despite a couple of small issues, is a heartening adventure in a winsome, self-contained world that's full of quirk-riddled characters and adorably monstrous bosses.
There's no denying that Spintires is a different take on the transportation simulator game, but different isn't enough if the game in question doesn't keep consistency in its simming. A decent title to potter about in, especially with others, but whenever additional rules are implemented, Spintires is apt to suffer.
Whether it's delivering chaos or absurdity, grim drama or theatrical villainy, Wolfenstein II handles it all superbly.
When AER: Memories of Old is focused on soaring through the skies, or tackling a multi-room temple puzzle, it's at its best. The rest of the time it fails to register much interest in its lackluster story and world.
Poorly presented, and lacking in mode variety, Rugby 18 is salvaged by the fact that it's actually a pretty decent representation of rugby union on the pitch. It may not be the definitive version of the sport that the PS4 needs, but it's easily the best available.
Age has slowed this old soldier down, despite some snazzy new upgrades to its core. The best and worst thing about Rogue Trooper Redux is that it plays exactly like a modernised PlayStation 2 shooter. It's decent enough, but 2000 AD fan service aside, there's little about it that stands out in a sea of other shooters that are 'decent enough'.
The most telling thing to say about Detention is that it carves its own niche into the videogame horror genre. It shows a maturity and storytelling finesse for much of its brief run that eludes many within its medium. Despite a slump in the final act, and a couple of coldly logical puzzles that feel out of place with the story, Detention is a smart and sophisticated survival horror that draws from reality to fuel fear.