A remaster of the 2003 GameCube classic — a 1-4 player action-RPG where a young Crystal Caravan traveler journeys the land collecting myrrh to protect their village from poisonous miasma. This version adds enhanced visuals, new voice acting, online crossplay multiplayer, extra dungeons, and a character-customization system.
The Review
The Amano-inspired art style holds up beautifully and the soundtrack is still excellent. Online multiplayer is a genuine improvement over the original’s link-cable setup and makes the caravan loop far more accessible. Combat and mission structure feel dated by modern standards, and I ran into some connection hiccups trying to get a full party together online.
What I Liked
Distinct, still-charming art style
Online multiplayer is a real quality-of-life win
Excellent, nostalgic soundtrack
What I Didn’t
Netcode/multiplayer connection issues
Combat and mission structure feel dated
Customization system leans a bit microtransaction-y
Games · Purchased February 23, 2023 · $13.49 via PSN
Photo: Enhance Games / Steam
The Setup
Second purchase after the headset itself, and it wasn’t close. Tetris Effect: Connected wraps classic Tetris mechanics in synesthetic audiovisual presentation — music, lighting, and particle effects all sync to your play — and the PSVR2 version adds native VR, layered haptics, and eye tracking on top.
The Review
This is the game I hand the headset to skeptical friends for. It’s meditative, stunning, and the "Zone" mechanic (freezing time to clear lines) adds real strategic depth to something as simple as Tetris. There’s a huge amount of content here across 30+ stages plus robust cross-play multiplayer.
What I Liked
Stunning, meditative audiovisual design
The Zone mechanic adds real strategic depth
Huge amount of content and modes
PSVR2’s haptics and eye tracking genuinely add something
What I Didn’t
Pricey re-buy if you already own the PS4 version
Pacing can feel slow until you learn the Zone/Journey modes
Hardware · Purchased February 22, 2023 · $918.27 via EbGames
Photo: GameStop
The Setup
Launch day. I lined up a PSVR2 the moment EbGames opened on February 22nd, and immediately followed it with a small pile of launch titles (more on those in separate posts). The headset has dual OLED panels, eye tracking, inside-out tracking with no external cameras needed, and the Sense controllers with adaptive triggers and haptics.
The Review
The display is sharp enough that I stopped noticing the screen-door effect within an hour, and the eye tracking genuinely changes how some games render and play. The Sense controllers with their adaptive triggers are the best VR controllers I’ve used. The single tether cable, though, is a constant low-grade annoyance — there’s no wireless option, and I’ve caught it on my chair more than once mid-session.
Game Review · Purchased November 9, 2022 · $100.00 CAD via Walmart.ca
God of War Ragnarok. Photo: PlayStation Store
The Setup
Picked up right on launch day, Ragnarok continues Kratos and Atreus’s Norse saga three years after 2018’s God of War, as the pair prepare for the prophesied Ragnarok while confronting Thor and Odin across all nine realms.
The Review
The combat retains everything that made the 2018 game feel so good — the Leviathan Axe and Blades of Chaos are just as satisfying to swing here, and the environmental puzzle design across all nine realms gives exploration real texture rather than just padding between fights. The story is the real headline, though: this is genuinely ambitious mythology-building, with Thor and Odin as compelling antagonists, and letting you directly control Atreus in dedicated sections adds welcome variety to a formula that could have easily just repeated itself.
A few specific encounters have unfairly spiky difficulty that stands out against how well-tuned most of the rest of the combat is, and the second half leans on more backtracking than I’d like. The health-item button doubling as the grapple button also caused more than a few accidental deaths in the heat of combat. None of that meaningfully dents what’s otherwise a hugely ambitious, well-told conclusion to this era of the series.
What I Liked
Combat retains the brutal, satisfying feel of the 2018 game
Ambitious Norse mythology storytelling with compelling new antagonists
Playable Atreus sections add genuine variety
Excellent PS5 visuals and performance/graphics mode options
What I Didn’t
Some specific encounters have unfairly spiky difficulty
Noticeable backtracking in the second half
Health item and grapple sharing a button causes accidental deaths in combat
The Verdict
Rating: 5/5
A hugely ambitious, well-earned conclusion to this saga — an easy launch-day purchase that was worth every bit of the hype.
Game Review · Purchased February 20, 2022 · $335.99 CAD via Amazon.ca
Horizon Forbidden West. Photo: PlayStation Store
The Setup
Six months after the events of Horizon Zero Dawn, Aloy pushes further west into a post-apocalyptic America to track down a mysterious blight threatening what’s left of the ecosystem, navigating a whole new set of tribal politics along the way. The sequel arrived as one of the bigger PS5 showcase titles of early 2022, and it’s a significant step up in scope from the original.
The Review
The core loop of stealth takedowns and precision ranged combat against the game’s robotic creatures is still the star of the show, and it’s meaningfully expanded here — the Pullcaster grappling tool and Shield-Wing glider both open up traversal in ways the original never had, and the sheer variety of weapons and elemental weaknesses to exploit keeps big machine fights feeling fresh well into the back half of the story. The writing is a real step up too; Aloy and the surrounding cast get far more room to breathe than in Zero Dawn, and the story has some genuine, well-earned turns.
The frustrating holdover is climbing: despite all the new traversal tools, you’re still restricted to pre-marked handholds rather than anything resembling freeform movement, which stands out more now that the rest of the traversal kit feels so much more open. Melee combat is also still the weak link — functional, but clearly the least-polished part of the moment-to-moment gameplay. Visually and technically, though, this is one of the best-looking, most content-dense PS5 games of its era, and the machine fights alone make the $60+ price tag an easy justify.
What I Liked
Machine combat is as good as ever and meaningfully expanded with new tools
Pullcaster and Shield-Wing genuinely improve traversal variety
Much stronger characterization and story writing than Zero Dawn
Massive amount of content — side quests, collectibles, exploration
What I Didn’t
Climbing is still limited to pre-set handholds, not freeform
Melee combat remains the weakest part of the combat kit
Some new systems (base building, arena) feel unnecessary
The Verdict
Rating: 4.5/5
A genuinely huge step up from Zero Dawn in almost every category that matters, and easily one of the best PS5 exclusives of the year.
