4 GAMES TO PLAY ...
Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown
PC, Xbox One, PS4
Ace Combat 7 is a satisfying blend of serious aircraft simulator and arcade dog-fighting thrills, so it’s a surprise the series hasn’t taken the skies in over 10 years. The sub-metal Gear Solid war zone narrative feels dated, despite some photorealistic cut-scenes, and can be cheesy at times. But forget the guff – flight controls are tight and new hard turning abilities, strong AI and open missions create opportunities to find your favoured attack style, then develop it by unlocking the vast amount of craft and equipment. But the real star is the PSVR mode, a truly staggering example of how immersive VR can be. This is Ace Combat’s finest hour.
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes
Switch
This is a spin-off from the two intentionally bonkers No More Heroes games first released on Wii. Both of those outings took series hero Travis Touchdown on a quest to become the world’s top assassin, serving up motion-controller based combat built around his trusty beam katana. Travis Strikes Again picks up after the second game, as Travis and his nemesis Badman become sucked Tronstyle into a VR console and have to carve their way out, the perfect setting for the game’s fourth-wall breaking video game culture references. But despite the unique dressing, the game is a plain, basic exercise in button tapping battles with no motion-wizardry, artificial obstacles and repetitive enemies.
A Fisherman’s Tale PC, PS4
A Fisherman’s Tale brilliantly lives up to its intriguing billing of “co-operative singleplayer”. After an uninspiring intro, this intelligent VR puzzler lands a spectacular visual sucker punch with the discovery your character, a puppet-like lighthouse keeper, is living inside a scale model owned by a giant version of himself. That giant’s lighthouse is towered over by an even larger version, and so on, while your room also contains a model in which you can see a tiny clone mirroring your every move. This echoing image continues to be a wonderfully unnerving experience even as you grapple with shrewd challenges that require manipulation within the many environments, creating a compelling interactive adventure.
This War Of Mine: Complete Edition Switch
Forget heroic soldiers in fantasy conflicts: This War Of Mine’s ruthlessly realistic depiction of normal lives in the crossfire comes to Switch at last. But while the award-winning war zone survival game’s pacifist message is admirable, the powerfully balanced gameplay is just as praiseworthy. In classic mode, you control a band of survivors who must scavenge and craft the resources they need, from food to medicines and weaponry, while the Stories expansion brings particular scenarios, such as a father seeking his lost daughter. Each timelimited day is a battle of priorities, while night brings nail-biting tension as you have so much to lose and so little to gain.