Includes PushSquare
Last reviewed: Mina the Hollower · 5 days ago
A referential and joyful deep dive into the world of Batman, the latest LEGO effort from TT Games is elite brick gaming. Legacy of the Dark Knight just wants to be an enjoyable time, and it refuses to falter from that commitment. This new LEGO Batman will be some of the best fun you have all year.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is an excellent action RPG that offers an even more hardcore take on the increasingly popular Soulslike formula. It's fast, frenetic, and hits like a truck, with one of the most mesmeric combat systems we've ever had the pleasure to master. It might scare off more casual players, but those looking for a challenge, well - you can stop looking.
Another double-edged sword is the brevity of the game. While we'd argue that a lot of visual novels pad out the running time and get a little long in the tooth, the eight hours we spent with Harmony weren't enough to effectively flesh out the world or the characters. That said, the story moves at brisk pace, and we never found ourselves bored even if we were sometimes a little confused.
The online multiplayer space is so competitive that it's tough to judge whether Crash Team Rumble will be able to carve out its own niche and warrant support beyond what Toys for Bob has already committed to. However, those who give the game a chance will find a really fun fight for Wumpa Fruit with varied classes and characters. Addictive just enough to look past the lack of local play and potentially long load times, Crash Team Rumble is worth trying - even if you wish Crash would just stick to what he's known best for: platforming.
C-Smash VRS is a brilliantly restorative VR experience. With finely tuned motion controls, sparklingly simple visuals, and a chilled-out electronic score, it's yet another fine addition to Sony's roster of VR titles. We can even see it becoming a go-to with friends who just want to game and have a catch up. Yet while the core experience is fun enough, its lack of content and currently empty matchmaking experience leaves it feeling like an unfulfilled promise - especially if you're playing solo. We'd love to see an improvement to matchmaking and servers, but until then, C-Smash VRS will leave more of an impact on our battered walls than it will our memories.
Although Dr Fetus’ Mean Meat Machine is presented gorgeously and provides an interesting twist on the genre, it lacks the meaty content required to keep players engaged. The steep difficulty results in frustratingly repetitive level restarts, and with all stages locked with no hints, tips, or level skips the majority of players won’t see it past world one. There’s definitely more enjoyable ways to beat your meat elsewhere.
At its best, Final Fantasy 16 is a jaw-dropping epic of rarely seen proportions. It's pretty much the pinnacle of cinematic spectacle in modern games, and its often gripping, emotional story is only matched by its fantastic combat system. While its overall quality does dip outside of the main plot, this is still a must-play action RPG, and the best single-player Final Fantasy in over a decade.
Park Beyond will probably be pretty good one day, but it is not this day. Currently, it's a theme park building sim that doesn't include features that we'd consider to be a basic requirement of the genre, it's poorly balanced with systems that feel wildly misjudged, and it's also riddled with bugs and glitches that range from comical to pad-tossingly infuriating. Avoid it like Alton Towers during the school holidays.
And all of the customisation, the staple of the series, returns in the background – allowing you to build your own team, right down to the minutiae like uniforms and logos. While there’s no shortage of pre-created content, Super Mega Baseball 4 will reward those willing to invest the time to personalise it exactly how they want it. It’s that, paired with its very entertaining arcade gameplay loop, that ensures this fourth instalment doesn’t drop the ball – even if it never quite feels like the seismic upgrade we’d expected when developer Metalhead Software was acquired.
F1 23 is a solidly packed racing experience that improves upon its predecessor in almost every way. With a little something for everyone, on top of an immersive and impressive experience on PS5, it's a worthwhile addition to the libraries of enthusiasts and casuals alike. We loved how tailormade the game could become, whether that was a heavily assisted racing experience, or a brutally immersive one. The campaign doesn't always hit the mark, and F1 World while expansive isn't exactly revolutionary, but at the very least, it's nice to see Formula 1 get the same care and attention that many other popular sports games have been receiving for years.
We Love Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie is the best version of what is generally considered the best Katamari title. That being said, if you own the original and are looking to buy it just for the Royal Reverie content, its extremely short runtime makes it hard to recommend for that alone. However, for anyone who hasn't played this weird and wonderful game (or series) it's a definite recommendation – and a game with an extremely fitting name.
Amnesia: The Bunker sticks a little too close to what Frictional Games has been doing for over a decade now, but with a more free-form approach to gameplay, the team is back on the right track again. Coupled with an excellent setting, Amnesia: The Bunker represents a vast improvement over its predecessor. You'll still encounter the same stumbling blocks of old, but this horror experience comes recommended.
Ultimately, the issues that arise aren’t enough to quash the immense level of fun or the mastery of design on display. Red Matter 2 is a PSVR2 must-play.
Despite our complaints, though, Killer Frequency is lifted by its daft charm. It's an intriguing, unorthodox murder mystery that fans of narrative-driven games will certainly enjoy — it just needed a little bit more tuning.
Five to six hours of playtime will be enough to reach one of the game's three endings, in which time you'll explore a number of eccentric rooms that wonderfully capture the visuals of the PS1 generation. We'd argue some of the environments look slightly better than what Sony's first home system was capable of, but the character models are absolutely bang on. With conversations presented just like Metal Gear Solid, it's a wonderful trip down memory lane.
A good time loop mechanic is supposed to give you enough variety so that repetition doesn't set in. Unfortunately, this is where Loop8 falls flat. You’ll be going over the same conversations and they’re just not interesting enough to make it worthwhile. It also doesn’t help that there’s only a small variety of enemies, and that the underworld is mostly just the town with a different colour palette. It's hard not to get annoyed when you realise that you’re still not strong enough to take out the next boss, and have no choice but to repeat the last few weeks.
Diablo 4 is the true successor to the bad old days of action RPGs and oozes quality in its frenetic combat and deep, engaging character development. It tells a complex, gritty narrative set in the darkly beautiful world of Sanctuary. Even better, it provides a solid foundation for years of Diablo content to come.