Push Square
HomepagePush Square's Reviews
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a meaningful step forward, smartly evolving the gameplay without losing that fun-loving core.
Aside from the near total lack of side content, The Kaito Files has everything that you'd expect from a Yakuza-style experience. Its shorter length actually works in its favour, allowing for a well paced story that doesn't get caught up on overplayed plot points or filler missions. As RGG Studio's first crack at a proper expansion, it's a roaring success.
Side missions and a score attack mode with leaderboards are available once you're done with the Campaign and its daft story. These provide a little more challenge, but there's only so much mileage to get from what is quite a concise game. It's not going to last you that long, then, but it fills that time with stylish, flashy fun that makes you feel like an unstoppable agent.
Weird West sets its sights high by promising player freedom and a responsive world to butterfly effect the hell out of, and it very nearly delivers on all of it. At its best, WolfEye Studios' first outing offers delightfully chaotic combat and an interesting supernatural setting that leaves no actions without consequence. But while in many respects Weird West achieves some of its grander ambitions, it fails to nail some of the basics. Immersive sim fans will be in their element here, but Raphael Colantonio's latest won't have as wide an appeal as his previous successes with Arkane.
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands retains the inherently entertaining shootin' and lootin' gameplay that the Borderlands series is known for, but you're frequently held back from enjoying it because of repetitive missions, tedious busywork, oodles of padding, and the game's relentless need to be funny. It's characters won't shut up, frequently stopping you playing so it can perform another inane comedy routine that limply, embarrassingly fizzles out like a deflating corpse, farting decomposition gases to the tune of "Ta-dah!"
It's easy to see why Crusader Kings III is so revered on PC. It's a brilliantly deep and dynamic strategy title that simply never stops giving — but you'll need to commit to learning its near countless intricacies before diving in proper. A dangerously addictive game once you're invested.
The Ascent's a solid, if somewhat repetitive shooter, propped up by eye-popping environments and a reasonable amount of RPG depth. If you can stomach some grindy mission design and the occasional buggy interaction, then there's explosive fun to be had here.
However, Paradise Killer will gradually win you over. Part of its smart design is letting you begin the endgame trial, where you'll make your final accusations, whenever you like, giving you complete control over the outcome. When you're satisfied you know what happened, you can start proceedings and present your case — there is no single correct answer. Combined with a great, low-tech aesthetic and an excellent soundtrack, and this is a game with both style and substance.
Ghostwire: Tokyo feels like a step back from what Tango Gameworks has produced in the past. While its combat system is fun in bursts, it becomes repetitive far too quickly. The open world is jam-packed with busywork, and the story doesn't go anywhere interesting either. Excellent PS5 DualSense controller support, haunting elements, and nice visuals aside, Ghostwire: Tokyo will have to go down as a miss.
There's surprising scope in the game — you can dismantle items to get materials, which you can then combine into new weapon modules. There are side missions and mini-games, like serving cocktails to earn money. It's also kind-of open world, albeit a very small one. While the ambition is admirable, overall we feel the game comes across as quite unfocused. It's an enjoyable experience, and everything here is reasonably good, but the result is a game that doesn't really shine, save for its rainy, neon-infused aesthetic.
GTA 5 is beginning to show its age, but it's a testament to Rockstar's original vision that Los Santos still stacks up. The improvements to image quality and framerate give this sunny sandbox a new lease of life, and while some of the single player gags may not hit as hard as they did in 2013, there are still plenty of memorable missions across the release's 30 or so hour running-time. Meanwhile, GTA Online's freeroaming multiplayer lobbies remain unmatched, and while newcomers may find the learning curve borderline impenetrable, if you can overcome its idiosyncrasies there's nothing quite like the crime caper on offer here.
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin thinks that it's Daniel Craig's James Bond but it's actually Austin Powers. There's barely a moment in the game that isn't stretching credulity, be it the absurd writing, bewildering story, or inane characters. There's a host of technical issues, too. But somehow, despite everything, it manages to fail upwards and be a pretty good time. Maybe we've lost the plot but we liked it.
Given the nature of live service titles it's possible that Babylon's Fall could see a phoenix-style resurrection with some rebalancing, but somehow, we doubt it. Hopefully this absolute misfire doesn't signal a profound change in direction for Platinum Games; this title had a troubled conception and it shows, but rather than iterate on things, we'd rather see a return to single player dominance. There's just nothing about Babylon's Fall that warrants going back to the drawing board. Except for that fantastic boss battle in which you race the Batmobile against those jorts-clad pink elephants. Oh wait, that was just a dream we had when the game put us to sleep.
Dawn of Ragnarok does enough to satisfy by the time that the credits roll, but if you're burnt out on Assassin's Creed Valhalla, there isn't much here that'll reignite your interest. The mythological angle is well played, the fantastical setting is cool, and Odin makes for an intriguing lead, but after a year of DLC and updates, Valhalla's gameplay loop is wearing a bit thin.
There's no mechanics, really, to speak of. There's no combat for us to discuss. You can't even jump on command — only at specific places. Submerged is a chillout experience about exploration with a slight story and basically nothing else, and honestly, we're okay with that. Not everything has to be explosions or sad-times-my-kid-died-and-now-I've-grown-a-beard depressing drama. Pop on Submberged as a palette cleanser between more involved titles or as an escape from the horror of reality and you'll be fine. This is fine.
WWE 2K22 is the return to form the WWE 2K series has desperately needed. Skipping 2K21 and delaying the release by five months may have caused the roster to be largely outdated, but the game is stable, plays great, and is practically bursting at the seams with content. An excellent Rey Mysterio Showcase really bolsters the experience, and every other mode (perhaps with the exception of MyFaction) sets a strong foundation for WWE games to come.
What the game ultimately delivers is a charming, unique debut title from a studio we’re certainly interested to see more of.
Simple but tight, Shadow Warrior 3 is a solid shooter with some occasional flashes of excitement. It's a shame the game's attempts at comedy squeeze the life out of it — and £40 for an eight-hour campaign is barely good value.
Fighting game fans can't really go wrong with King of Fighters XV - a sequel that doesn't shy away from the technical depth of its predecessors. It's obviously still early days, but it feels like SNK has improved upon King of Fighters XIV in all of the ways that matter. Better visuals, expanded mechanics, and, perhaps most importantly, smooth online netcode make for fighter that's hard to fault - even if it's lacking the cutting edge of its peers.
Gran Turismo 7 is a game for everyone: the racing enthusiasts, the novices, and anyone in between.