Tag: PlayStation

PowerWash Simulator: Warhammer 40,000 Special Pack, The Crossover Nobody Expected to Work This Well

DLC Review · Purchased March 11, 2024 · $12.31 CAD via PSN

Key art for PowerWash Simulator: Warhammer 40,000 Special Pack
PowerWash Simulator: Warhammer 40,000 Special Pack. Photo: Steam

The Setup

On paper, this is the strangest pairing in PowerWash Simulator’s entire crossover catalogue: the grim, ultra-serious tone of Warhammer 40,000 meets a game about cheerfully spraying grime off objects with a pressure washer.

The Review

That tonal mismatch is exactly why this became one of the most talked-about packs in the game’s community. Cleaning centuries of grime and battle damage off Space Marines, Titans, and other iconic 40K hardware, rendered in PowerWash Simulator’s cheerful, low-stakes visual language, creates a genuinely funny contrast that the developers clearly leaned into rather than shying away from. It helps that the underlying level design and attention to the source material’s iconography is just as careful here as in the more conventionally “fun” crossovers like SpongeBob or Back to the Future.

What I Liked

  • A genuinely inspired, funny tonal mismatch that works better than it has any right to
  • Strong attention to Warhammer 40K’s distinctive iconography
  • One of the most talked-about packs in the whole crossover line for good reason

What I Didn’t

  • The joke and appeal depend heavily on knowing Warhammer 40K’s tone well enough to appreciate the contrast
  • Same short runtime as every pack in this series

The Verdict

Rating: 5/5

Genuinely one of the standout packs in the whole PowerWash Simulator crossover line, and easily my favourite of the five I bought this year specifically because the concept should not work and absolutely does.

Where to Buy

Jurassic World Aftermath Collection: Tense, Stylish, and a Little Too Short

DLC Review · Purchased February 16, 2024 · $17.91 CAD via PSN

Key art for Jurassic World Aftermath Collection
Jurassic World Aftermath Collection. Photo: PlayStation Store

The Setup

A stealth-adventure VR experience set in a dinosaur-infested Jurassic Park facility, distinguished by a cel-shaded, comic-book art style rather than attempting photorealism, bundling both included episodes into one collection.

The Review

The art direction is genuinely the standout feature here: sneaking around a facility while avoiding raptors hits differently when the whole world looks like it stepped out of a graphic novel, and it holds up better over the course of the game than a more realistic art style might have on comparable hardware. Tension-building is well handled throughout, with a strong sense of danger even though the actual dinosaur encounters are more about evasion than direct confrontation. Where reviews (and my own experience) landed more critical was pacing across the back half of both included episodes, where the core stealth loop starts to feel a bit repetitive before the credits roll.

What I Liked

  • Distinctive, well-executed cel-shaded art style
  • Genuinely tense stealth gameplay in the front half
  • Both episodes bundled together for a reasonable price

What I Didn’t

  • Gameplay loop wears thin by the later stages
  • Overall runtime is on the shorter side even with both episodes included

The Verdict

Rating: 3/5

Reasonable at this price for a good tension-building VR experience, just do not expect a long campaign or a lot of mechanical variety across the runtime.

Where to Buy

PowerWash Simulator: SpongeBob SquarePants Pack, The Most Charming of the Bunch

DLC Review · Purchased February 3, 2024 · $12.31 CAD via PSN

Key art for PowerWash Simulator: SpongeBob SquarePants Special Pack
PowerWash Simulator: SpongeBob SquarePants Special Pack. Photo: Steam

The Setup

Bought one day after the Back to the Future pack, this crossover sends you scrubbing down Bikini Bottom locations, the Krusty Krab included, using the same core PowerWash Simulator gameplay loop.

The Review

Of the five PowerWash crossover packs in my 2024 haul, this is the one I would call the most charming purely on aesthetic fit: SpongeBob’s exaggerated, colourful art style translates into the game’s cleaning mechanics in a way that feels almost purpose-built for it, grime and grease disappearing off cartoonishly oversized objects with the same satisfying visual payoff the base game is built around. The attention to specific, recognizable Bikini Bottom locations shows the same level of care the Back to the Future pack demonstrated a day earlier.

What I Liked

  • Aesthetic and gameplay loop fit together unusually well
  • Recognizable, well-realized Bikini Bottom locations
  • Consistent quality with the rest of the crossover line

What I Didn’t

  • Same short-content-for-the-price tradeoff as every other pack in this line
  • Appeal is entirely tied to fondness for the source material

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

Cheap, short, and well made, consistent with everything else in this DLC line, and a personal favourite among the five packs I bought this year specifically for how well the visual style fits the gameplay.

Where to Buy

PowerWash Simulator: Back to the Future Special Pack, The One That Started My Crossover Addiction

DLC Review · Purchased February 2, 2024 · $12.31 CAD via PSN

Key art for PowerWash Simulator: Back to the Future Special Pack
PowerWash Simulator: Back to the Future Special Pack. Photo: Steam

The Setup

The first of five separate PowerWash Simulator crossover packs I bought across 2024, this one lets you scrub down the DeLorean and other Back to the Future locations using the base game’s signature power-washing gameplay loop.

The Review

PowerWash Simulator’s crossover packs have become a genuine phenomenon within the game’s community specifically because they are so consistently well produced: a handful of new levels built tightly around the licensed property, recognizable music cues and voice work where licensing allows, and level design that clearly understands what made each specific piece of media memorable in the first place. The Back to the Future pack nails the small details, cleaning grime off the DeLorean’s iconic panel lines feels specifically satisfying in a way a generic vehicle would not.

What I Liked

  • Faithful, detail-oriented level design
  • Short but genuinely well-crafted content
  • Strong recognizable music and audio cues

What I Didn’t

  • Very short additional playtime for the price if you are not already invested in the base game
  • A pack you either want specifically for the license or can easily skip

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

If you already own the base game and like the property, these packs are short but polished, which turned out to be the norm across every single one I bought this year.

Where to Buy

Dead Island 2 Expansion Pass: Solid Extra Content, Not Essential Content

DLC Review · Purchased January 16, 2024 · $32.92 CAD via PSN

Key art for the Dead Island 2 Expansion Pass
Dead Island 2 Expansion Pass. Photo: PlayStation Store

The Setup

The expansion pass covers Dead Island 2’s story-focused post-launch DLC, HAUS and SoLA, each a self-contained side story with new areas rather than extensions of the main campaign itself.

The Review

Both expansions deliver more of what the base game (reviewed separately in this series) does well: weighty, gory melee combat and a strong sense of place, this time in more contained, bespoke environments than the open-world districts of the main game. HAUS in particular leans into a stranger, more surreal art-house setting than the base game ever attempts, which was a genuinely interesting swing even if the actual mission content within it was fairly short. Community and critical reception on both expansions has landed in similar territory: fine, enjoyable extra content, but nothing either expansion does feels essential to the core Dead Island 2 experience.

What I Liked

  • Distinct, well-realized bonus environments
  • Consistent combat quality with the base game
  • HAUS specifically takes an interesting stylistic swing

What I Didn’t

  • Neither expansion feels essential
  • Each runs shorter than the price might suggest on its own outside the bundle

The Verdict

Rating: 3/5

Only makes sense if you are already committed to playing through both expansions specifically. On their own, this is a modest value add rather than a must-buy, and it makes far more financial sense bundled into the Deluxe Edition than purchased separately after the fact.

Where to Buy

Dead Island 2 Deluxe Edition: Buying the Whole Meal Instead of Ordering Extras Later

Game Review · Purchased January 16, 2024 · $70.50 CAD via PSN

Key art for Dead Island 2
Dead Island 2. Photo: PlayStation Store

The Setup

Dead Island 2’s Deluxe Edition bundles the base game with its full expansion pass and a handful of cosmetic extras, essentially pre-purchasing both the story expansions I reviewed separately elsewhere in this series and the core game in a single transaction.

The Review

The base game earned its positive reception honestly: gory, physical melee combat with genuine weight behind every swing, and a strong, distinct sense of place across a zombie-infested, sun-bleached version of Los Angeles that manages to feel different from the series’ earlier tropical island settings despite the shared DNA. Character progression through the skill card system gave real room to build a personal combat style, whether that meant leaning into elemental weapon effects, crowd control, or straightforward melee damage.

Buying the Deluxe bundle upfront, rather than the base game alone with the intention of grabbing the expansion pass later, turned out to be the financially smarter move: bundled together, the combined price undercuts what buying both pieces separately at full price down the line would have cost, a fairly rare case of a “deluxe” tier actually representing straightforward savings rather than just cosmetic upselling.

The expansions themselves (covered in more depth in their own post in this series) landed as solid, if not essential, extra content, which does put a small dent in the overall value proposition of the bundle, but the core game alone was strong enough to make this purchase worthwhile even setting the expansions aside entirely.

What I Liked

  • Genuinely satisfying, weighty melee combat
  • Distinct, well-realized setting
  • Bundled pricing meaningfully undercuts buying the pieces separately later
  • Flexible skill card system supports different playstyles

What I Didn’t

  • Included expansions are decent rather than essential, slightly softening the bundle’s overall value
  • Open-world structure occasionally repeats itself across the map’s different districts

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

Buying the Deluxe bundle upfront was the smarter financial call versus buying the base game and expansion pass separately later at full price, and the core game’s combat and setting hold up well enough on their own to justify the purchase regardless.

Where to Buy

The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR, A Horror Rail Shooter That Knows Exactly What It Is

Game Review · Purchased January 1, 2024 · $35.94 CAD via PSN

Key art for The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR
The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR. Photo: PlayStation Store

The Setup

Switchback VR is Supermassive Games’ on-rails horror shooter spin-off from their Dark Pictures Anthology, pulling characters, monsters, and settings from the existing narrative games into a faster, more arcade-focused format built specifically for VR.

The Review

This is not trying to be a deep narrative experience the way the mainline Dark Pictures games are, and it is better for embracing that instead of fighting it. The on-rails structure keeps the pacing tight, jump scares land with real physical presence in VR in a way they simply cannot on a flat screen, and the callbacks to existing Dark Pictures lore and characters give longtime fans of the anthology a genuine reason to care about scenes that would otherwise just be shooting galleries with a horror coat of paint.

For anyone who has played Man of Medan, House of Ashes, or the other anthology entries, spotting familiar faces and locations adds a layer of context that elevates what is, mechanically, a fairly simple format.

What I Liked

  • Genuinely effective horror atmosphere and jump scares in VR
  • Tight, arcade-style pacing
  • Meaningful fan service for existing Dark Pictures players
  • Solid replay value chasing different scoring and branching moments

What I Didn’t

  • Shallow compared to the mainline narrative games in the same series
  • On-rails structure limits player agency by design, which will not appeal to everyone

The Verdict

Rating: 3/5

Reasonable for what it sets out to be: a shorter, arcade-style horror experience rather than a full narrative adventure. Existing Dark Pictures fans will get the most value out of the callbacks and cameos here.

Where to Buy

A Fisherman’s Tale 2: A Short, Clever VR Puzzle That Knows Not to Overstay Its Welcome

Game Review · Purchased January 1, 2024 · $22.50 CAD via PSN

Key art for A Fisherman's Tale 2 on PSVR2
A Fisherman’s Tale 2. Photo: PlayStation Store

The Setup

A Fisherman’s Tale 2 continues the recursive, mirror-world puzzle concept the original built its whole identity around: you play as a puppet, controlling a smaller puppet version of yourself, inside worlds that fold in on their own scale in ways that would be genuinely disorienting outside of VR and feel like magic within it.

The Review

What made the first game work was never raw production values, it was the cleverness of individual puzzle moments, the specific instant where a scale trick clicks into place and you realize the solution was staring at you the whole time from a different size. The sequel leans into that same design philosophy rather than trying to reinvent it, delivering a tight sequence of puzzle rooms that build on each other without ever padding themselves out with filler content.

Playing this on PSVR2 specifically benefits from the headset’s improved tracking precision, since a lot of the puzzle interactions rely on fiddly, small-scale manipulation that a shakier tracking system would make frustrating rather than satisfying.

What I Liked

  • Clever, well-paced puzzle design
  • Short enough to never overstay its welcome
  • Strong use of VR’s unique perspective tricks
  • A natural next step for anyone who liked the original

What I Didn’t

  • Short runtime means it is a light purchase for anyone wanting a long session
  • Puzzle-VR is a narrow enough niche that non-fans of the genre should not expect it to convert them

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

For the genre and the price, this is easy to recommend. It is not a long game, but puzzle-VR titles like this tend to deliver strong “aha” moments per dollar spent, and this one delivers plenty of them.

Where to Buy

Pistol Whip: Still the VR Game I Recommend First

Game Review · Purchased January 1, 2024 · $31.34 CAD via PSN

Key art for Pistol Whip on PSVR2
Pistol Whip. Photo: PlayStation Store

The Setup

Pistol Whip plays like a music video you step inside of: dodge, shoot, and move to the beat across a constantly expanding library of scenes and tracks, blending rhythm-game timing with on-rails shooting in a combination that sounds simple on paper and feels genuinely exhilarating in the headset.

The Review

By the time I picked this up on PSVR2 in January 2024, the game had years of live support behind it and a track library big enough that finding a scene and song combination that clicks with your taste is basically guaranteed. The PSVR2 version specifically benefits from the headset’s improved haptics and tracking, both of which matter a lot in a game where the entire appeal rests on precise, physical timing feeling satisfying in your hands.

This has been consistently rated among the best VR titles available on any platform, and playing it confirms exactly why: it is one of the few VR experiences that genuinely gets people who are skeptical of VR to understand the appeal in a single session.

What I Liked

  • Exhilarating rhythm-shooter gameplay loop
  • Huge, constantly growing track library
  • PSVR2’s haptics and tracking noticeably elevate the experience
  • A genuinely great “convince a skeptic” VR demo

What I Didn’t

  • Repetitive by design once the novelty of a specific track wears off
  • Physically demanding in a way seated VR games are not, worth knowing before a long session

The Verdict

Rating: 5/5

This is a must-own VR title, full stop, and the price reflects a mature, well-supported live game rather than a launch-day gamble. If you own a PSVR2 and do not have this yet, it should be near the top of the list.

Where to Buy

Hob: A Wordless Zelda-Like That’s Been Sitting in My Backlog Since 2017

Games · Purchased March 24, 2023 · $6.74 via PSN

Hob
Photo: Runic Games / Steam

The Setup

A PSN sale finally got me to pick up Hob, six years after it originally released. It’s a wordless action-adventure from the Torchlight developers — the whole story is told through visuals alone, as you explore a mechanical alien world, solve environmental puzzles, and gradually unlock new powers and areas.

The Review

It’s a genuinely gorgeous, atmospheric world that rewards just wandering around and poking at things. The puzzle design is smart without being obtuse, and there’s a real sense of discovery to it that a lot of modern open-world games have lost. Combat is the weak link — functional but clumsy, and the fixed camera has cost me a couple of avoidable deaths.

What I Liked

  • Gorgeous, atmospheric world that rewards exploration
  • Smart, non-obvious puzzle design
  • Wordless storytelling that still lands

What I Didn’t

  • Wordless narrative can leave the plot murky
  • Fixed camera causes a few unfair deaths
  • Combat feels clumsy next to the exploration

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

Where to Buy