097REVIEW
LAST MONTH
ON PS PLUSNew Year, new you. Whether you were
jumping on the bandwagon of healthy
resolutions or simply welcoming the
fresh start, January’s PS Plus games
were right there with you. This lineup
seemed to ask, “What better time to try
something a little different?”Diving straight into
the new year was
PS4 headliner Steep.
This open world
extreme winter sports game plopped
you down on a mountain and gave you
the choice between skis, snowboards,
wingsuits, or a paraglider. With a heavy
focus on online multiplayer, this title was
reinvigorated from its PS Plus inclusion.
Also on PS4 was
fantasy-themed
craft-’em-up Portal
Knights. You partied
up, with a range of classes to choose
from, either online or for split-screen
couch co-op across a blocky, randomly
generated land.
If you’d yet to get your fantasy fix even
after that, there was Fallen Legion
on PS4 and PS Vita. This action RPG
told a different story depending on the
platform you played on. On PS4, you
were princess Cecille. On PS Vita, you
were opposing general Laendur. Either
way you legged it between battles and
mashed through bosses with each party
member mapped to a different button.
On PS Vita alone you could enjoy
Super Mutant Alien Assault. This
arcade shooter starred a scrappy little
robot besieged by aliens, with nowt but
the thin hope the RNG gods would smile
upon them with a powerful weapon drop.
Lastly on PS3 was Zone Of The
Enders HD Collection. This mecha
throwback updated the first game and
The 2nd Runner with crisp visuals.
Jehuty was joined by the similarly sci-fi,
though far more musical, Amplitude
on PS3. From Harmonix (of Guitar Hero
fame), in it you sailed your ship through
30 tracks from a number of videogame
composers into the new year beyond.@KoeniginKatzePS VR REVIEW
A FISHERMAN’S TALE
Agameworthpullingsomestringsfor
T
he biggest, best trick
PS VR pulls off is
making you forget the
world outside the
headset exists. That those PS
Move-controlled hands in
front of you aren’t really your
hands. That you probably
shouldn’t stride confidently
forward into that shin-height
corner of the coffee table.As convincing as it is, the
technology isn’t perfect, and
every now and then something
will inevitably break the spell.
When it does, the sense of
disconnect hits much harder
than in a normal videogame.
A Fisherman’s Tale chooses to
steer right into that mental
tidal wave, putting the artifice
front and centre.
See, you’re not playing the
fisherman the title promises,
exactly, but a puppet of
one. Your floating wooden
hands have visible points of
articulation along the fingers.
There’s a button you can press
to send one of them shooting
forward to grab something out
of reach. You can even see the
strings being pulled to make
them move. It’s all a constant
reminder these aren’t really
your hands.PUPPET PEEVE
There are plenty of other
reminders that the world you
can see is not real which are,
unfortunately, less intentional.
PS Move detection can be a bitINFO FORMATPUB VERTIGO GAMES PS VR ETA OUT NOW DEV INNERSPACE VR@alexjayspencerVERDICTWEIRD FISHERS
wobbly, and your hands will
often pass through an item or
bit of level geometry, causing
whatever you’re carrying to
ping off into the distance.
Which is frustrating, given the
entire game revolves around
picking stuff up and moving
it to another place. Doubly
so, because the stuff you’re
handling is often tiny.
The puzzles in A Fisherman’s
Tale all revolve around the idea
that you’re a puppet who has
built a model of the lighthouse
he lives in, with a tiny puppet
version of yourself inside.
Lift the roof off the model,
look up, and you’ll glimpse a
giant wooden hand swooping
overhead. It’s puppets all the
way down, and items can be
dragged from one plane of
reality to the next, embiggening- or indeed debigulating
- them to fit the task at,
ahem, hand. The game plays
wonderfully with scale and this
worlds-within-worlds setup,
forcing you to recalibrate your
brain. You won’t forget that the
world you’re interacting with
isn’t real, but for the most part - when you’re not struggling
against your misbehaving
hands, that is – that’s all part
of the fun.
A smart, charming game that
makes the most of PS VR for
puzzles, but never quite cuts
the strings of its technical
limitations. Alex Spencer