Sam Brooke
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Writing For
Push Square Latest Reviews
Just when you thought PES was getting old and stale, it gets a new name. That’s right, for a franchise that began as International Superstar Soccer, changed to Pro Evolution Soccer, and sporadically adopted and rejected the name of Winning Eleven, Konami has decided 2020 will mark the new era of eFootball PES 2020.
Desert Child is pretty special. Stylistically, it’s a magical experience, its ‘90s adventure game art style mixing well with an absolutely fantastic soundtrack. Set on Olympia, a city on a fully-colonised Mars, in a not-to-distant future, its world is an intoxicating mix of cultures, from Aussie beach bums to Middle Eastern markets.
Steve Harvey. Bradley Walsh. Phillip Schofield. Game show hosts are truly the most influential people of our time: they crack jokes met with a sensible chuckle, engage in light-hearted conversations with hopeful contestants that they probably hate, and console poor old Brenda from Swindon after she answers a question about Eastenders incorrectly. The Fox, host of Frantics, the latest phone-based PlayLink offering for PS4, may not join these true kings amongst men in terms of personality, but the title itself provides a fun enough time in its 15 madcap minigames.
Sorry to aggravate the aggregate heads, but Gravel isn’t actually about everyone’s favourite loose collection of rock fragments – sadly, it’s only a fun arcade racer. Coming from the motorheads at racing game specialists Milestone, Gravel focuses less on raw simulation and more on down-and-dirty off-road action, delivering an enjoyable – albeit somewhat unpolished – experience.
Fun fact: did you know that L.A. Noire actually released closer to the 1940s than to 2017?
Marker pens, however old you are, always seem to be the unsung heroes of life: in school, we used them to write the latest playground swear on mucky whiteboards; in college, we used them to cover every inch of our textbooks so we looked like we were learning something; and in adult life we use them whenever the trusty Biro runs out. Yet they’re never quite as useful in real life as they are in Max: The Curse of Brotherhood, in which the titular character uses a magic marker – well, an “infused with the spirit of an old woman” marker – to travel through an unknown world and save his brother Felix.
Yes, the football season may have just started in the UK, but across the pond, something different is going on: the football season is about to start. Not the one with feet or balls, mind you, but one even more complicated and technical, a sport in which “PA Max Protect” actually means something.
Upon its release in 2011, Minecraft drew plenty of comparisons to LEGO. It was like playing with everyone's favourite Danish export – no, not him – but virtually, and without the damage to your bank account. Hell, LEGO even made Minecraft sets, so you could play your favourite virtual LEGO game in real life with LEGO.
So, it's all over: seven months in the making, Hitman is finally finished and all episodes are released. From the heights of stunning Sapienza to the lows of crummy Colorado, it's certainly been a journey – but does Hokkaido end up being a fitting swansong to an excellent game or a bad note to end on?
We haven't had a snowboarding game in a while, let alone a good one – and you could say the same of the entire extreme sports genre as a whole. The last shredding simulator came out in 2012, and even then it wasn't a very good one; it seems that the golden age of SSX and Shaun White Snowboarding on PS2 is well and truly over. Mark McMorris Infinite Air seeks to bring this genre back to its original heights, but make no mistake: this is not the next SSX.