While it marvelously blows up during the final moments of its descent, Fort Solis is a mostly successful voyage. Puzzling together what happened at the station is an engaging exercise that incentivizes players to inspect every computer and voice recorder in order to shine light on its dark mysteries. Its narrative doesn’t seem to branch much or push forward in any new directions, yet it achieves its modest goals rather well. Fort Solis was misused as a facility by its staff, but Fallen Leaf and Black Drakkar have utilized it well to tell one effective sci-fi thriller.

The Shoot is a decent game overall. It doesn't bring anything new to the table, but it perfectly fills the void of a truly fun-to-play, laid-back shooter that's been missing on the PlayStation 3.

Lifeless Planet released at a time when the game has the biggest chance to make a name for itself. It’s just a shame the end result feels more like a prototype than a fully fleshed-out game.

Almost everything from The Dwarves‘ gameplay to the presentation seems unpolished. It’s a real shame, since there are some good ideas, and the book it’s based upon is ripe for a video game adaptation.

It’s a bit rough around the edges, but Foreclosed’s story and style are worth a look, especially for the PS+ launch price of $15.99 ($19.99 normally). When I think of my time spent in Foreclosed, I think it made for a good, short adventure that had me impressed by its presentation, but ultimately left me wanting more. More story, more combat, more world building, more consequences from my actions. Just about the only thing I didn’t want more of would be the stealth sections. So, with any luck, the open-ended nature of Foreclosed’s endings, combined with enough sales of this game, may result in us seeing a sequel down the line.

Ripping off enemies’ bollocks and ripping through their throats may feel rewarding, but it doesn’t make up for the game’s lackluster storyline, lack of any online multiplayer element, and poor overall effort put into the game.

Edge of Eternity just sort of is. There is nothing really memorable here, just a bunch of ideas that don’t really deliver much of a kick. The UI is just disastrous, turning any task into a kick in the privates and the combat is just flat, with nothing really exciting about it. The basic premise of the story is strong enough and the characters aren’t horrible, but the dialogue felt rushed far too often.

Despite some of the sound issues, Crazy Taxi still looks great, plays great, and is sure to get everyone from the hardcore to the casual involved.

It's in no way a bad game, especially once the Galleries are factored in, it's just not, at all, a good one. There was potential, and the campaign's story and mood are easily the best in any hunting game, but, in the end, it simply doesn't hit its mark.

As someone who plays every NHL yearly release all year long, it is unfortunate to see just how badly this has gone. I can somewhat understand taking out 6v6 online play if it wasn’t ready, but taking out features in Be a GM or making Be a Pro completely unplayable is just ridiculous.

As far as VR turret shooters go, Gunjack sets the benchmark fairly high. Its lack of a concrete story may be a turn-off for some — it does have its roots in the mobile space — but that feeling of gunning down ships from the comfort of your cockpit is as exhilarating as it is immersive. At the risk of sounding pejorative, CCP’s spinoff can in many ways be likened to VR junk food — short, sweet, and fulfilling in the moment. Just don’t expect a VR experience for the ages.

The gameplay remains the same, but the graphics have been upgraded to 1080p at 60 frames-per-second. But with the painful omission of custom soundtracks, there is little incentive to re-visit the game once you’ve completed it, and even less after you collect all the stars in the campaign (which will be quite a challenge nonetheless).

There are a lot of good pieces in place here, with the gameplay mechanics and the co-op, but they’ve been packaged in a very scant box that doesn’t do them justice. Ancient Amuletor needs to be more than a short PSVR experience that is barely longer than the demo that’s already available for free. Perhaps all of the elusive “Coming Soon” content will fix that, but at launch Ancient Amuletor finds its quiver running out of arrows too soon.

A bland beat 'em up plagued by monotonous gameplay and an extremely inclusive story.

God Mode would not feel out of place in a traditional arcade, and I could see many people pumping quarters into a machine to play this game for hours.

For fans of the first game, and fans of JRPGs structure, White Knight Chronicles II is an engrossing trek through a large, beautifully rendered world. It's a game that provides a large foundation of content to explore, which is only prohibited by its average gameplay.

It’s just a shame that the actual gameplay ends up being underwhelming, and the art style prevents anything from being frightening. Blood Drive could’ve been something special, but a general lack of polish really hurts the overall quality of the product.

It’s not perfect, but SOMI gets major points for trying something new and exploring mechanics that other games don’t. Maybe it’s time to look a little deeper into the mirror that Retsnom offers and reflect on your own reasons for avoiding indie games.

I cannot recommend it to you unless you love its aesthetics and fanservice.

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia is the best entry in this mini-series.

Those who are able to accept Metal Gear Survive for what it is will find one of the most captivating survival games in recent memory. It’s an incredibly unforgiving experience, which can definitely be detrimental at times, but one that ultimately feels fulfilling.

Super Neptunia RPG feels like a good idea gone awry. On paper, having everyone’s favorite Hyperdimension Neptunia characters come together for a more traditional JRPG style makes plenty of sense. That’s especially true since the classic JRPG style is a wealthy mine for comedy. But instead, Artisan Studios made a game that looks and feels cheap, due to a bizarre focus on platforming that detracts from the experience more than it adds.

There are a lot of great strategy games on the PlayStation 4. Maybe, if that weren’t the case, it would be easier to forgive 1971 Project Helios being a bland adventure with largely forgettable characters engaging in claustrophobic encounters against enemies that all sort of blend together. I mean, it works well enough on the system. The loading screens are a little long for something so basic, but that isn’t an egregious offense. You can even see how sometimes it is trying to push people to be aggressive. Unfortunately, I found it completely unappealing in every way, which isn’t great when it was surrounded by better games every time I turned on my system.

Not much about the game stands out as must-play, but it’s a good recommendation for RPG-loving friends who are looking for a sci-fi/steampunk RPG to play.

If positioned as a PSN downloadable title, All-Star Fruit Racing may have been considered a great budget offering, however launching the game at full retail release brings with it higher expectations. Where some of them are met with easy to grasp controls, plenty of customization and the odd thrilling circuit, there are a number of minor faults that sour the overall package.

I was utterly surprised and impressed at how smooth the online matches were, and just how much I enjoyed it overall. For the first of its kind, Burning Skies does a hell of a job replicating the online multiplayer experience found on consoles-complete with lobbies, matchmaking, voice chat via Party, social aspects via Near, and leaderboards.

It’s a real shame that even though the game looks so bright and colorful the whole package is just incredibly dull. With only a handful of game modes, a bland story, and no local co-op mode to spice things up a bit, it’s not going to take you long to tire of this. Even if you’re a fan of the anime it’s probably better to give this one a miss.

Morphite is exhausting in its meandering loop of planet-hopping, and it doesn’t work hard enough to keep the players’ interest.