Introduction
Almost two years into the Sony Playstation 4's life and its game developers are really hitting their stride now. We're seeing some fantastic games on the way, thanks to a rather spectacular showing at this year's E3.
But equally the PS4 has a lot of great games that you can play right now.
Some are pretty obvious, but there will be other that you might have missed out on. So we've got our Playstation 4 experts to curate a list of the absolute must-play games in the PS4's current catalog.
If you haven't played some of these yet then there's no time like the present. After all, the winter months are some of the best in terms of game releases and finding some time to finally catch up on that growing backlog.
So shut the curtains, block out the sun's radiated rays and settle down to some of the best gaming entertainment in console-land.
Let us know what you think though. Are there some blockbuster titles or hidden gems we've missed out?
Hit us up in the comments.
1. Grand Theft Auto V
Of heists and men...
Not only is it the best sandbox game on the platform, GTA V is also the best golf game, the best tennis sim, the undisputed virtual yoga champ, one of the best racers… it's even a pretty serviceable MMO.
We're used to scale and scope from Grand Theft Auto, but what Trevor, Franklin, and Michael bring us is a staggeringly well-realised city seen from three entirely different perspectives. Trevor, the maniacal rampage killer whom we discover to be in all of us when we play a Rockstar game; Franklin, the classic rags-to-riches character with street smarts and the ability to pull off a bandana; and Michael, the troubled criminal with a dysfunctional family and a beer gut to show for his life of violence.
However you play GTA V – a multiplayer muckabout, a story-driven third-person actioner, a flight sim – it reveals itself to be the best game on both this generation and the last.
2. The Last Of Us Remastered
Naughty Dog's best, made better
Many games have offered us post-apocalyptic visions of the future, but none have been as brutal, as believable, or as touching as Joel and Ellie's story.
It was near-perfect on PS3, but with current-gen's increased performance ceiling Naughty Dog found ways to ramp up the visual fidelity to 'drop the controller and stare' levels. A radical tonal departure from Uncharted's jovial treasure-hunting escapades, The Last Of Us Remastered demonstrates the California studio's ability to strike a darker mood, populating the overgrown ruins of its setting with a cast characterised by murky morals but still getting you to care for them like your own bessies.
3. Bloodborne
Hope you don't have a swear jar
From Software's enigmatic and notoriously challenging Souls titles all hold critical and fan acclaim, but none are as stylistically interesting as the quasi-Industrial era Bloodborne.
It plays like an RPG set indelibly on a hidden difficulty mode with all the helpful text pop-ups removed, which is to say it requires more than a modicum of patience from the player.
But that's the point – in Bloodborne, you get out what you put into it. Victory's all the more rewarding when you've watched your enemy, memorised his attack patterns, struck at the opportune moment and prevailed via the game's impeccable melee combat.
4. Batman: Arkham Knight
Waynes, pains and Batmobiles
It's a Batman simulator. You get to be Batman.
If you want to pretend you need more reasons than that alone to play it, how about the smugness of knowing it runs better and actually has more advanced graphical features on PS4 than PC? (For now, at least.)
Or the stellar track record Rocksteady has for peerless fisticuff-based combat, empowering gadgetry and dark storytelling? Or the playable Batmobile? In short, it's the complete superhero sim package, presented impeccably and unrelenting in its delivery of show-stopping cinematic set-pieces. Even standing on top of a building watching your cape dance gently in the breeze makes you feel cool.
5. Destiny
Out of this world online multiplayer
Calling Destiny ambitious is a disservice to the game. It's an ambient world (er, galaxy) that operates in real time. It combines single- and multiplayer into a single campaign, seamlessly transitioning between the two. It's from the team that made Halo, so while Destiny may not have the iconic face of Master Chief plastered on the box, it will have the same creative minds doing what they do best: sci-fi.
So what do you do? Imagine a first-person shooter-inspired World of Warcraft. You'll create a character and build him/her from a rookie enforcer to earth's savior by unlocking abilities and improving your expertise with one of the four main types of weapons. Before long you'll be haunting the same locales for a rare weapon drop and partying up with friends to take down some of the toughest space brutes this side of a Sith Temple.
6. Guitar Hero: Live
Come for the career, stay for the online multiplayer
The Guitar Hero franchise needed a break. Like a band that's been touring for too long, the act had gotten stale, repetitive and quite frankly, expensive, to keep up with. Guitar Hero Live is the return to form for the series, hitting all the right notes while still forging its own path.
One of my biggest criticisms of past entries is that they relied on pricey DLC to keep the show going after the story mode ended. Guitar Hero Live bucks that trend by offering new songs for free on its MTV-esque music video channel called GHTV. You'll still have to shell out to unlock every song Activision's ever put out, but the solid mix of tunes will forever end the never-ending scrolling through setlists that pervades parties.
7. Fallout 4
The homecoming we've waited seven years for
All things considered, this is one of the best games Bethesda has made. It ticks all the boxes: a massive, detail-oriented open-world; still-fantastic tenets of looting and shooting; a story filled with intriguing side quests and subplots that feel like they matter; and of course a classic soundtrack that brings it all to life. In many ways it's the game we've been waiting for since Fallout 3 steered the series away from its top-down role-playing roots. Not only is the world itself wider, but the plot is better, and more digestible, than any of the games before it. There's still a sense of mystery about what's happening but you no longer have to dig forever and a day through terminals to piece it together.
Welcome home, stranger.
8. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
Multiplayer doesn't get any better than this
We do a lot of whining about Call of Duty. We roll our eyes and joke how there's a new one every year and how there's, like, no difference. We say all these things and yet every year we know how we're going to spend the month of November: fragging friends and family in the latest Call of Duty game.
Black Ops 3 deserves a spot in your gaming armory for two reasons: it has awesome multiplayer - and there's almost no better way to blow off steam than going 10 kills in a row and calling in an airstrike on a team of people you've never met before but suddenly want to beat in the worst way imaginable - plus, it has one of the greatest game modes ever conceived, zombies.
If shooting zombies straight in the face doesn't you feel like it's money well spent then nothing will.
9. NBA 2K15
Hate basketball? Here's the game that'll change everything
It's not that an advanced understanding of the sport is irrelevant in NBA 2K – you'll appreciate its depth and ultimately get a lot more out of it if you're an aficionado of the real sport – but rather that it's so good, the uninitiated will want to learn both the game and the sport.
Other sports sims attempt to create the illusion of a wider universe beyond game day, but Visual Concepts' game goes way above and beyond. Its MyCareer mode plays out like a star-studded series of One Tree Hill, tracking your user-created baller's progress from rookie to All-Star and league MVP via a ridiculous number of celebrity cameos, dressing room dramas and tough moral decisions.
It's Mass Effect in Air Jordans, essentially.
10. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Stories don't come bigger than this
Geralt didn't have the smoothest of entries to PS4, but after some heavy patching and a lot of angry words about visual downgrades, we're left with an RPG boasting tremendous scope and storytelling.
Oh, and combat. And don't forget Gwent, the in-game card game. And there's the crafting to get stuck into. And the alchemy.
You're rarely short of things to entertain yourself with in The Witcher 3's quasi-open world, then, and all the better that you're in a universe that involves the supernatural without leaning on the same old Tolkien fantasy tropes. Invigorating stuff.
11. Battlefield Hardline
You have the right to remain violent
The era of military shooter over-saturation has long passed – so naturally, Battlefield's latest outing ditches the camo for riot gear and lets you joyride cars (and for a while, inexplicably, a sofa) in a well-balanced and surprisingly class-focussed take on the cops and robbers fantasy.
It has its tech grumbles – multiplayer is notably lower in visual fidelity than the solo campaign – but it remains PS4's best shooter. Weapon feedback is impeccable, the story isn't tripe, and multiplayer's been translated thoughtfully into a new context.
Killzone Shadow who now? Call of Whaaa?
12. Shovel Knight
A retro throwback? Dig a little deeper
Sharing surface level similarities with Towerfall Ascension, Shovel Knight also eschews polygons for beautifully evocative arrangements of pixels that'll make you pine for a bygone era – until you realise that it's actually a hell of a lot more fun to play than the Castlevanias et al that influence it.
A knowing and challenging RPG complete with idyllic villages, impossible boss fights and (mercifully) mid-level saves just to remind you what decade you're in, it's among the best-executed hybrids of old-school punishment and modern amusement in years.
PS4's version gets a wee pixelated Kratos cameo, too.
13. Rayman Legends
Armless fun with PlayStation's most insipid icon
Let's get this out of the way early doors: Rayman is a dial tone of a character, beloved by no one since his very first outing on PS1.
Rayman Legends though? An absolute gem.
Brought to life by the gorgeous UbiArt Framework engine (which also powered Valiant Hearts: The Great War, among others), it's a distinct treat for the eyes. But it's the limbless wonder's level design that really sets Legends apart from other PS4 platformers.
You'll tumble and leap through Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations. You'll find yourself battling a dragon in perfect sync to a wordless cover of 'Black Betty.' You'll swoop and glide through hell, the ocean floor, and… holy damn, if you don't start to like the blithely smiling Rayman a little bit along the way.
You win this round, Ray.
14. Towerfall Ascension
Every arrow points in this pixel-perfect brawler's direction
"I didn't spend three hundred quid on a console for this," you say, gesturing at the lack of 8 X MSAA and god rays in Towerfall Ascension's artfully drawn 16-bit era environments, presumably having just left the Tate in disgust after realising Kandinsky's 'Swinging' is well below 1080p.
Yes, there's a small but vocal backlash against games who share this couchplay multiplayer meisterwerk's retro aesthetic, but let's leave them to miss out on the best two-player local experience the console has to offer.
Ostensibly it's simple enough: armed with a bow, some retrievable arrows and the ability to Mario-jump your opponent to death, two to four of you duel to the death. However, the depth and subtlety just keep on expanding, even after weeks of play.
15. Until Dawn
Every horror fan's fantasy
If you've ever sat through a 90s horror movie shouting directions to the mindless idiots on-screen who are about to get eviscerated because they've all made such obviously stupid moves, then Until Dawn is the game for you.
To be fair the group of teenagers at the centre of the story have made their first mistake going up into an isolated, snowbound cabin with no phone reception, but from there on it's up to you how they interact, where they go and, essentially, who dies.
It's an experience not to be missed.
16. Assassin's Creed Syndicate
London calling
The pains of the previous games have meant a good few gamers have steered clear of the latest round of Templar / Assassins tomfoolery. Which is a damned shame because Syndicate is one of the best Assassin's Creed games to be released in the last few years.
With a pair of protagonists to choose from, either Jacob or Evie Frye, you steadily take over a beautifully realised version of Victorian London with a light touch of GTA-style chase-action thrown in for good measure.
Even if you've grown weary of the convoluted plot, Syndicate is still well worth a bash.
17. Life is Strange
There's always time for a little game...
Life is Strange is emblematic of episodic gaming, beautifully crafted. Sure, Telltale's games have been great examples too, but the writing and themes of Dontnod Entertainment's tale of teenage angst and temporal superpowers is something else.
With a story where your actions have real, and far-reaching, consequences it can be rather tense when it comes to making your choice. And trying to figure out all the possible consequences given the time-shifting fun makes them all the more tricky.
18. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
How many Snakes does it take to change a lightbulb?
Okay, so Hideo Kojima's last game for Konami - and his last ever Metal Gear game - might be a little tough for the MGS n00b to get to grips with, but it's still one of the best stealth-action games ever crafted. The open-world shenanigans will satisfy all your behind-enemy-lines / Rambo fantasies and probably confuse you with crazy plot twists and a million characters all with the same gravel-toned voices.
But hey, that's all part of its charm, right?
December 28, 2015 at 06:15PM
Phil Iwaniuk and Nick Pino
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