John-Paul Jones's Reviews
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord roundly excels because it lets players be whatever they want to be and rather than penalise those choices, instead makes players own those decisions and provide a peerless theatre for them to thrive. Though technically not perfect, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord invites players to weave their own tapestry of ambition and be whomever they like in their own Game of Thrones, letting them wage war, engage in diplomacy, fight in the arenas, trade illicit goods, be a town alderman and absolutely everything in between in one of the most ambitious PS5 games to date. If you'll let it, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord II will become your new obsession. And you should.
Though that Tenchu shaped hole in my heart remains unfulfilled, I do appreciate how NIS America have reached back some sixteen years in time to bring Kamizawa: Way of the Thief to an all-new audience. Sure, it's very much a relic of its time that struggles to escape the gravity of its PS2 era origins, but for those willing to invest the time and patience, Kamizawa: Way of the Thief is a steadfastly warm-hearted stealth yarn that satisfies so long as you can forgive its largely archaic/nostalgic design.
Don't let the delightfully twee My Little Pony style aesthetic fool you, Them's Fightin' Herds is an ultra legitimate, one on one fighter with an abundance of charm and an unexpectedly compelling story mode. Though the diminutive roster is a concern, Them's Fightin' Herds is nonetheless a superb fighter that I fear owing to its decidedly cutesy presentation, not nearly enough folks will play.
Certainly it's difficult to make a strong argument for exactly whom should be buying Persona 5 Royal on PS5. If you've absolutely never played Persona 5 before than that person would be you, although you there is a compelling argument for just buying the PS4 version at a cheaper price anyway. For everyone else that has already sampled the delights of the game on PS4 and PS4 Pro, Persona 5 Royal not only doesn't offer enough to make the leap worthwhile but the lack of charitable continuity when it comes to save files and cross-gen upgrades makes it that much more challenging to provide a reason for its existence in the first place. This should have been a free PS5 patch upgrade, it's that simple.
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection on PC not only cements Sony's commitment to delivering some of the best single-player games money can buy on the platform in optimised form, but also brings the best of Naughty Dog's whip smart action adventure series to PC gamers for the first time. As true as it is for PlayStation gamers the world over - Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection is utterly essential for PC gamers.
The Eternal Cylinder then remains a roundly entertaining survival adventure with a true eccentric streak that runs through every aspect of its design DNA. Equal parts Q Bert and Spore, if you've been sat on the fence regarding ACE Team's excellently off-beat survival adventure offering, now is the time to hop in thanks to this superb PS5 update.
LEGO Bricktales not only clearly shows that the LEGO property is more than capable of standing up on its own two block-feet without the aid of a fancy licence, but it also more importantly reminds us why LEGO is loved the world over in the first place. LEGO Bricktales is all about firing up the imagination to construct LEGO to solve challenges as you subconsciously grin with the sort of wide-eyed wonder that LEGO has always prided itself on inciting in builders both young and old. Quite simply, LEGO Bricktales is brain-teasing, warmly charming and purely distilled joy that everybody should play.
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous represents not only a significant improvement over its predecessor, but an enormous and sophisticated CRPG that players with a hankering for epic adventure and narratives will surely enjoy. Though it still isn't quite as polished as it needs to be and is complicated enough that genre newcomers might struggle with its information packed menus, largely text driven dialogue and detailed mechanics, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is nonetheless a vastly epic, incredibly entertaining and meaty adventure that is deserving of your time.
A beguilingly beautiful and practically pitch-perfect mixture of Legend of Zelda and Dark Souls mechanics, Tunic is a boundlessly charming and highly challenging adventure that gets so much right that it borders on ridiculousness.
Sure enough with its relatively simplistic challenge, brisk battles and unspectacular presentation, The DioField Chronicle will likely struggle to find an audience among the burgeoning throng of armchair generals looking for their next tactical fix. For everyone else however who would like to a dip a toe or two in those genre waters, The DioField Chronicle is the sort of easily accessible, dip-in/dip-out tactical RPG that you need in your life right now.
Though the actual core mechanics of flying and fighting dragons in Century: Age of Ashes are both hugely satisfying and ably complimented by a decent set of game modes, the presently hefty paywalled economy means that players have little choice than to dive into their own pockets to buy the shinier cosmetic items. Coupled with a wildly inconsistent level of technical performance, it's clear that while developer Playwing has an intriguing online multiplayer effort on their hands, more work is required to balance out its economy and iron out the performance issues that otherwise detract from a highly enjoyable offering.
It may take time getting to show it, but Hokko Life is a delightfully deep and engaging community sim that lets you move at your own pace. Patience is very much required to see the best of it.
By maintaining its easily accessible JRPG mechanics, gorgeous tabletop aesthetic and engrossing narration, Voice of Cards: The Beasts of Burden manages to elevate itself above its Voice of Cards brethren thanks to a neat, Pokémon style monster collection mechanic. Much more than just a token inclusion, this new monster collecting mechanic not only expands the player's arsenal in battle, but provides ample additional incentive to explore The Beasts of Burden's painterly, card-flipped lands far and wide in search of rare monsters to recruit.
Shifting the action from both the muddy trenches of the Western Front and the snow-dappled rural expanses of the Eastern Front to the blood-soaked peaks of The Great War's arguably most sophisticated theatre of conflict, developers BlackMill Games and M2H have excelled themselves with Isonzo. A thoroughly thoughtful and visceral first-person shooter where tactics and strategy are valued equally to a quick trigger finger, Isonzo isn't just the best entry in the WW1 Game Series to date, it also happens to be one of the best tactical multiplayer shooters full stop.
Certainly representing the definitive version of the flawed but ultimately enjoyable Biomutant on PlayStation consoles, Biomutant's PS5 debut largely erases the performance issues and instability that plagued the PS4 version of the game, delivering a handsomely made open-world adventure that can be enjoyed by gamers of all ages.
If you're the sort of person who saw martial arts movies in your teens (or younger) and immediately started mimicking scraps with your best mates as you left the cinema, then Midnight Fight Express is for you. Jacob Dwinzel feels like he is aspiring to be the games industry's equivalent of The Raid and Gangs of London director Gareth Edwards and cannot wait to see whatever violent delights this acolyte of cinematic violence comes up with next. For anyone else with even a passing affection for roaming brawlers, Midnight Fight Express boasts some of the most satisfying combat I have experienced in any game of the last few years and on that fact alone carries it to a high recommended indeed.
There's no denying that The Last of Us Part I might be a tough sell to folks who expected a reworked content offering in line with the overhauled audiovisual presentation and other technical advances. For those with accessibility needs, the lucky few who have yet to experience The Last of Us at all or even just the number of players who want to immerse themselves in the ultimate form of Naughty Dog's opus, The Last of Us Part I makes a more than compelling case for its existence and stands shoulder to shoulder with the best games on PS5.
In the end, though Turrican Anthology Vol. 2 doesn't feel quite as essential as its predecessor, the inclusion of both Turrican 3 and Mega Turrican, not to mention Super Turrican 2, still makes this ensemble of side-scrolling, platforming shooter retro goodness a worthwhile venture for fans of the genre.
The fact remains however that Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered is easily one of the best superhero games on PC, at least until Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales rocks up very shortly anyhow, and fans of drop-dead gorgeous open world action adventures that do tremendous justice to the original source material will find very much to love here. Quite simply, Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered turbocharges the superhero genre on PC and it has been a long time coming.
All in all, Turrican Anthology Vol. 1 does a commendable enough job of packing together a handful of retro shooters from yesteryear that are still a lot of fun to play and boast refreshingly non-linear level design for the most part. Throw in a smattering of visual tweaks and a superb map system and it soon becomes apparent that Turrican Anthology Vol. 1 is a no-brainer purchase for anyone who has even a passing fondness for side-scrolling platforming shooters.