Today is long-time editor Ben Wilson’s last on OPM. In his final piece as mag boss, he reveals nine of his favourite OPM memories – including Mr Bitey, his first 10/10 score, and what he’ll always remember as the ‘Rob van Dam tequila incident’.
Make no mistake: this Skywalker-styled spin-off of the biggest game ever to grace a smartphone is one of the most creative, addictive, and just plain cute offerings available on your PS4 right now. To own Angry Birds: Star Wars is to instantly commit yourself to endless nights of just-one-more-go mania, as you slingshot variously-powered avians at an assortment of bacon-faced enemies. It is, in a word, ingenious. Sadly it is also, in four, a scandalous rip-off.
Imagine ordering the world’s largest steak sandwich, only to discover that while it looks succulent on the outside, there’s little actual taste to it. Madden NFL 25 on PS4 is that meaty sanger in virtual form. Everything is here that should be: Ultimate Team featuring players past and present, a career mode packed with off-field distractions, realistic looking stadia and players – yet there’s just something missing. And sadly, it’s more than a side of béarnaise sauce.
If there’s a single word that summarises EA Canada’s first crack at next-gen football with FIFA 14, it’s ‘intricacy’. The big-money transfer to PS4 United has seen this long-standing franchise change in ways too numerous to count, but it’s the subtle touches on and off the park which really stand out.
Should you want to know how the PS3 version of EA Sports’ mammoth football franchise FIFA 14 has fared, wander over to our FIFA 14 PS3 review (hint: it’s really rather good). But if you’re more interested in all things shiny and next-gen (and we can’t blame you for that), then read on.
Over the last half decade, thanks mainly to its basketball series, 2K has deservedly garnered a reputation as the go-to company if you’re looking for attention to detail in sports games. So fans were justifiably delighted when it picked up the rights to Yuke’s WWE series after THQ went under at the turn of 2013. Wholesale changes were anticipated that would transform wrestling videogames for the better when WWE 2K14 hit this November. Well, here we are. And if you were one of those Rock-worshipping, Cena-bashing die-hards expecting a whole new ‘rasslin experience… you’ll have to wait until next-gen.
With no PES coming to PS4 as yet, EA’s mega-bucks football franchise is currently the only horse running in the next-gen title race. Even so – and thankfully – it’s not taking anything for granted, as our extended playtest with next-gen FIFA 14 demonstrates…
Wondering whether or not Warner Bros Montreal’s first crack at Batman can live up to the two Rocksteady games which preceded it? You’ll know this Friday, with Official PlayStation Magazine’s exclusive Batman Arkham Origin’s PS3 review.
Which of this year’s football games does the best likenesses? Our experts (editor Ben Wilson, deputy editor Joel Gregory and news editor Dave Meikleham) look at 31 in-game recreations of the best players in the world to deliver the definitive verdict.
The trouble with iterative sports games is that, year on year, you rarely feel like you’re truly getting a new experience on first play. Familiarity breeds contempt. So cue up The Great Escape and prepare your clumsiest Ian Holloway touchline dance, because this year EA’s footballing colossus has changed more than at any time since the series moved to PS3 in 2007. It does feel like a new game, in the very best way possible.
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