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THE 100 GAMES TO PLAY NOW
TEAM PICKS
Jessica Kinghorn
Staff writer
At the risk of
echoing oft-
heard sentiments
and an earlier
opinion piece of
mine, I still feel
PS Now is missing a trick by
not capitalising further on the
nostalgic draw of its retro back
catalogue. A number of classics
are playable on the service via
their later remasters but it’s
well known how the Silent Hill
series was done dirty by its own
HD collection. Not only would
it be fantastic to replay the
PS2 classics via the streaming
service but it wouldn’t hurt to
expand the Now library with one
of the most well-loved original
PlayStation titles and our first
eerie foray into the titular town.
The Elder Scrolls
Online: Tamriel
Unlimited
Alduinyoua faavour
FORMAT PS4 / YEAR 2015
PUB BETHESDA SOFTWORKS
DEV BETHESDA GAME STUDIOS
ISSUEN/A/SCOREN/A
26
This might just be the
base version of The Elder
Scrolls Online, but you
still benefit from the
many updates that have come to
the game since its 2015 release,
making it a terrific MMO. Plus the
ability to stream the game saves
you a hefty 90GB file hanging
around your PS4. Essentially this
plays like the Elder Scrolls games
you love, but online. That means
fluid first-person combat, and level
scaling that means the world feels
welcome to you exploring, also set
deep within TES’ past.
BioShock
Atlassluggged
FORMAT PS3 / YEAR 2008
PUB 2K GAMES / DEV 2K BOSTON,
2K AUSTRALIA, DIGITAL EXTREMES
ISSUEOPM #25/SCORE10/10
29
BioShock is what
happens when you sweat
the details. The deep
combat pairing of guns
and plasmids is probably the least
ambitious element of Irrational’s
deep-sea dystopia. Every little
corner of Rapture feels deliberate
and dripping with meaning,
whether it’s occupied by a
former-inhabitant-turned-strung-
out-genetics-junkie or an upturned
book. Yes, there are twists – some
very famous twists – but even
without them, BioShock would earn
a place in this hallowed list for
virtuoso world-building.
Yakuza 5
Catchupontheclassicseries aheadofitsremaster
FORMATPS3/YEAR 2015 /PUBSEGA/DEVRYU GA GOTOKU STUDIO/ISSUEOPM #117/SCORE8/10
25
For many years it looked like this Yakuza adventure would remain exclusive to Japan. Now we are due a PS4 remaster
early next year, but if you’re raring to go this PS Now version still runs a treat. Just like the number in the title, this
crime thriller features five playable characters – which still remains the highest number of characters in any Yakuza
game. One of the new characters is Haruka, leading man Kazuma Kiryu’s adopted daughter, who has been the
emotional heart of the series since the first game. Flipping between all these characters it tells a complex crime story, all in
a new (at the time) engine, making it one of PS3’s best-looking games.
Until Dawn
Stillgivessuscchills
FORMAT PS4 / YEAR 2015
PUB SONY / DEV SUPERMASSIVE
GAMES / ISSUE OPM #114
SCORE8/10
24
As a celebration of the
horror genre few games
are as intelligent and
downright gruesomely
fun as Until Dawn. A bunch of
teens are partying in a lodge on
Blackwood Mountain as the snow
falls and the storm comes in, and
it’s not long before a serial killer
and other nasties come out of the
woods. Powered by the Decima
engine, Until Dawn looks beautiful
and the dev has a clear passion
for the genre’s best and worst
tropes. Love TV shows like Scream
Queens and American Horror
Story? You’ll die for Until Dawn.
God Of War
Gorgingoon Goorgons
FORMAT PS2 / YEAR 2005
PUB SONY / DEV SANTA MONICA
STUDIO / ISSUE OPS2 #60
SCORE9/10
23
While three subsequent
games have fleshed out
the story prior to Kratos’
one-man war on Ares,
the original deity slayer remains of
the most impressive debuts in PS
history. With David Jaffe pulling the
creative strings, God Of War
created a stylised vision of Ancient
Greece that spawned five more
entries in the blood-soaked series.
Mixing a smattering of
environmental puzzles and a
drizzle of platforming, God Of War
still knew where its strengths lay.
On PS Now you can experience the
bloody fun in its PS3 HD form.
Tekken 7
PlaythebbestfighterPSNNow
FORMAT PS4 / YEAR 2017
PUB BANDAI NAMCO ENTERTAINMENT
DEV BANDAI NAMCO STUDIOS
ISSUEOPM #137/SCORE9/10
22
What’s to say other than
this was one of the best
fighting games on PS4
- and thanks to love and
care in the form of updates from
the devs, remains so. The
soundtrack might be pulse-
pounding, but the combat is
measured and easy to understand.
The weighty moves mean when
you’re caught off guard you’ll often
feel like you could have predicted
the hits and blocked appropriately.
It’s an open, easy-to-understand
fighting system that makes Tekken
7 fun to pick up and play whether
you’re a new teran.
Darksiders II
Deathinitive Edition
Morethan a ggoodpun
FORMAT PS4 / YEAR 2015
PUB THQ NORDIC / DEV VIGIL GAMES,
GUNFIRE GAMES
ISSUEN/A/SCOREN/A
28
Part two of the
Darksiders quintology is
the best of the bunch,
and on PS Now we get
the remastered PS4 Deathinitive
Edition. The action-RPG mixes
many game styles, poaching from
God Of War, Castlevania, Shadow
Of The Colossus, and more to
deliver an involved blend of puzzles,
melee combat, and stat-levelling.
New abilities enable you to explore
previous map areas, while new
weapons offer experimentation.
It’s a big game too, clocking in at
over 60 hours, making this an
essential PS Now player.
Prey
Don’ttouchthhat mug...
FORMAT PS4 / YEAR 2017
PUB BETHESDA SOFTWORKS
DEV ARKANE STUDIOS
ISSUEOPM #137/SCORE8/10
27
Having little to do with
the 2006 game, Prey is
an FPS immersive sim
where you can approach
a lot of situations how you want
- think Deus Ex, BioShock, or
Arkane’s other fantastic series,
Dishonored. Breaking out of a
simulation, you discover you’re on
the Talos I space station, where a
disaster has occurred at the
hands of the strange Typhon
species. As you explore you can
choose whether to engage or
sneak and how much you want to
use neuromod implants to upgrade
your character. With this, you can
even absorb alien powers... but is
that at the cost of your humanity?