THREE TO PLAY
PSN games you might have missed Every month, loads of games come to the PS Store. You’d be hard-pressed to play them all, so here we’re looking at some that didn’t make the cut for a long review. This month, we’re immersing ourselves in some of PSVR2’s m
Just like how rowing a kayak requires you to cleave through water on both the right and the left, Kayak VR: Mirage has its rather impressive sights set on two sides of the gaming, er, boat (steady, steady…): arcade-style time trials, and a stricter simulation mode of play. Boating through locales like Norway and even the Antarctic (complete with penguins), you can master race courses or simply explore the ocean, taking in some of the most realistic and high-fidelity graphics PSVR2 has to offer.
Turn on stormy weather if you want to feel your stomach churn. Rowing with your single-stick paddle can feel a bit odd as the Sense controllers aren’t physically linked (owners of a stick peripheral can toggle on a mode), and the courses won’t take long to complete, but if kayaking appeals this is definitely worth pushing the boat out for. Compared to something like Cities VR (p87), Townsmen VR has a more old-school vibe as you get hands on with your small settlement and grow it across a campaign so the resulting civilisation spreads all across the island-based world. It’s a classic vibe, but PSVR2 allows it to feel fresh, taking that familiar feeling and adding a new sense of immersion to the thrill of reaching over, godlike, and, picking up one of your townsmen. As you pick up and play around with your civilisation, you can zoom in and out to explore it at different scales. It’s fun to see it up close as you build it up and even defend it from enemies like pirates. A sandbox mode means it’s potentially endless. Embracing an Akira-style ’90s anime aesthetic (just look at that pink-tinged sky!), Runner asks you to do two things: blast enemies (drones, police tanks, and even giant spiderrobots) at high speeds, and look totally cool while doing it. As you whizz down the highways of a futuristic city laser sights help you aim – and you’ll need the assistance as you can shoot down missiles and even deflect shots with a laser sword. Some nice haptic feedback comes from the Sense controllers too. As a bonus, the game comes bundled with Preamble, a non-PSVR2 prologue visual novel to play on the big screen.