PlayStation Portal Review – A PS5 In Your Hands?

It's weird that Konami has taken this long to ship Contra: Operation Galuga, which is the classic Contra game fans have been asking for. After the damp turd that was 2019's Contra: Rogue Corps, the publisher handed the reins back to WayForward, the team behind 2008's Contra 4. Turns out that's all that was needed to get a great Contra game, since this latest effort nails what made the original run-'n'-gun experience so infectious in the first place.

Vanillaware doesn't miss. We've been spouting that line for ages, but with the arrival of Unicorn Overlord, it rings truer than ever before. Following up on the superb 13 Sentinels was never going to be easy, but the Japanese studio has somehow manged to produce an equally excellent game three years later — and it's not even in the same genre.

Interior Night has taken pages from the books of Don't Nod, Supermassive, Telltale, and Quantic Dream to craft a choice-driven character drama with As Dusk Falls. The game's stylistic flourishes take time to acclimatise to, but it provides a unique tone and perspective that still stand out in a genre that’s becoming increasingly crowded.

Update: Sony has officially released the PS5 Slim, which is slowly starting to replace the original model at retail. All the details and links you need have been added below.

Converting a traditionally single player IP into one meant for multiplayer too is a process with just as many hits as there are misses, so developer Red Barrels will be delighted it's landed on the right side of history. With up to three friends along for the ride, The Outlast Trials is a slightly different ballgame to its offline counterparts, but it retains enough horror to appeal to those fans picked up through entries past.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth feels like a natural progression. Free from the steel skies of Midgar and its corridor-style design, this direct sequel to 2020's Final Fantasy 7 Remake fully embraces that sense of adventure found in the original Final Fantasy 7, as Cloud Strife and his ragtag group took their first few steps out onto the sprawling world map. Rebirth goes big in terms of scope and scale — but it doesn't always stick the landing.

Years before becoming a household name thanks to a hilarious, impassioned speech at The Game Awards, Josef Fares — alongside Starbreeze — was already releasing quality games. His first venture, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, is an emotional excursion that sees two brothers set out on a dire journey. Now, Avantgarden Games has taken up the task of remaking the 10-year-old game. But has it held up? In a contemporary setting, does Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake still offer the same level of emotional weight and mechanical mastery that the original did all those years ago? Well, the answer to that is: sometimes.

There's something special to a retro gamer about the resurrection of a cult classic, as it either gives a hidden gem a new lease of life, or it introduces gamers to a series they've never heard of before. Sunsoft has capitalised on this idea, as Tasto Alpha has developed the single player platform game, Ufouria: The Saga 2, which manages to combine being part-remake and part-sequel of an underappreciated NES game called Ufouria: The Saga — released as Hebereke on the Famicom in 1991.

As the calendar rapidly approaches WrestleMania 40, the eyes of the world are once again trained on WWE’s big house of muscular lads and lasses. With The Rock’s involvement in this year’s shindig raising the event’s profile to even loftier heights, WWE and 2K have pulled out all the stops to try and ensure the latest entry in their ongoing grappling simulator cuts the mustard. But have they stuck the landing, or will WWE 2K24 go down as a misfire on the road to wrestling’s most prestigious show?

If you've ever looked at a stretch of abandoned road, overcome with mud and muck, and wondered whether your little two-door compact could make it through, MudRunner might be a series you already know. From Spintires to SnowRunner, it's a lovely little franchise that seems to be surviving capably, and its latest is Expeditions: A MudRunner Game, which takes the series in an altogether more scientific direction. Now, your vehicle rescues and arduous mountain climbs have a more intellectual mission briefing before them — but the core gameplay hasn't changed too much.

Despite mixed receptions to its reveal and niche usage, Sony’s PlayStation Portal has done pretty well, selling out in the UK and United States within two days of launch. If you thought demand had slowed over the months, PlayStation vice president of product management Hiromi Wakai confirmed the opposite.

They say you don’t know what’ll work until you try it out, and that’s been a staple of the gaming industry for decades! Between arcades, consoles, handhelds, and everything in between, publishers and developers have tried anything and everything to get people to come to their systems and try out their stuff. It doesn’t always work, but sometimes, you get a revolution, and that can lead to big things on the horizon. Last year, Sony unveiled the PlayStation Portal feature, which would give fans a mobile way to play their PS5 games in a more mobile capacity. At first, it seemed like a “weird peripheral” to have. However, the heads of Sony have been blown away by what it’s doing.