GAMES
The best PS4 games for 2021
The PlayStation 5 may have dropped, but getting your hands on the device is still as difficult as it was on launch day. As such, you shouldn’t abandon your faithful PlayStation 4. Right now, the device has one of the best catalogues in console history. You should definitely take advantage of that with a new PS4 game or two.
There’s a rich library of AAA games exclusive to the PS4: Spider-Man, Bloodborne, The Last of Us Part 2 and God of War, to name a few. And then, of course, there are the cross-platform titles and indie games. It’s an embarrassment of riches.
Editors’ top picks
Subscribe to CNET Now for the day’s most interesting reviews, news stories and videos.
Read more: Best PS4 gaming headset for 2021
So, you’re ready to start gaming. However, before you buy, consider the following:
- We’ve included links to the digital version of each game at the PlayStation online store, if you don’t want the disc version, which are sold at linked retailers via the red buttons.
- Apex Legends is free to play (for PlayStation Plus subscribers), just use that digital link to download it.
- Fall Guys is currently free for PlayStation Plus subscribers.
- In addition to freebies like Apex Legends, Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone, subscribers to PlayStation Plus get two free games per month. It’s fine, but comparatively stingy when put up against the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate collection, which offers subscribers open access to dozens of games.
- Nearly all PS4 games should be playable on the PS5, so any investment you make in these games should transition easily if and when you upgrade to the new console.
With those caveats in place, on to the games.
Ghost of Tsushima
Sucker Punch/Screenshot by Sean Keane/CNET
See digital version at PlayStation Store.
Ghost of Tsushima is yet another open world banger from Sucker Punch Productions, one of the most consistent first party studios under Sony’s vast umbrella.
Set in Japan during the first invasion of the Mongols in 1270, Ghost of Tsushima may borrow heavily from open world tropes seen in other, superior titles — but it’s still a gorgeously made video game. A real visual swansong for the PS5.
Fall Guys
Devolver Games
Fall Guys is a battle royale game unlike any you’ve ever played before. 60 players start, but after a cut-throat series of insanely fun, but bafflingly unfair, mini-games, there can only be one winner. Think Ninja Warrior crossed with Peppa Pig.
This game has taken the internet by storm, and while I expect the hype to die down in a month or so, right now Fall Guys is the most exciting game on the planet. It’s also free on PlayStation Plus right now.
Activision
See digital version at PlayStation store
Endless online discourse about its difficulty aside, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is another masterpiece from Dark Souls creator FromSoftware.
Sekiro shares a little of the DNA that made Dark Souls so compelling, but it’s absolutely a brand-new beast, even more distinct from the Souls series than Bloodborne. It requires learning a whole new skillset (mainly parrying) but it’s worth the initial pain.
Santa Monica Studio
See digital version at PlayStation store
It’s a complete reinvention for one of the PlayStation’s most consistent series.
God of War is extremely good. The new combat system takes a while to get used to, but once it clicks, it really clicks. God of War is an absolute showcase for the PlayStation 4 (and especially the PlayStation 4 Pro). Get that thing going on 60 frames per second. You’ll have yourself a good time.
Respawn Entertainment
See digital version at PlayStation store
Well this game came out of nowhere.
Apex Legends is the game no-one saw coming. In 2018 Fortnite literally ruled our cultural universe, but now its position atop the battle royale genre is being challenged by Apex Legends and with good reason. Designed by the core team responsible for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and, more recently, the excellent Titanfall series, Apex Legends just feels so good minute to minute. Look for this game to stick around.
Guerilla Games
See digital version at PlayStation store
Horizon: Zero Dawn is like Video Games: The Greatest Hits.
It has the sprawling mission structure of The Witcher 3, Metroid Prime-style scanning, Tomb Raider-esque bow and arrows and survival.
And it has fricken’ robot dinosaurs with fricken’ laser beams.
It also — somehow — weaves its ludicrous high concept into a story that not only works, but is actually incredibly compelling, affecting and features great writing and layered characters.
It’s arguably the best game on the PlayStation 4.
FromSoftware
See digital version at PlayStation store
FromSoftware doesn’t make bad video games. It makes classics, stone-cold classics, one after another.
But Bloodborne might be the best FromSoftware game yet.
A brand new universe, a faster paced combat style, ludicrously well-designed environments and beautiful enemy design. Bloodborne is difficult, but it’s intensely rewarding. Crucially, it’s a great entry point into the “Souls” genre.
CD Projekt Red
See digital version at PlayStation store
The Witcher 3 is glorious.
A mind-bendingly massive open world that somehow doesn’t sacrifice depth. Visually glorious. It also features surprisingly good writing and a mission structure that makes traditional side-quests feel meaningful.
Prepare to sacrifice much of your life to this behemoth.
Kojima Productions/Konami
See digital version at PlayStation store
From a storytelling perspective Metal Gear Solid V is a brutal, unfinished mess.
But that doesn’t even matter.
Because the absolute core of Metal Gear Solid 5 — the sneaking, the moment-to-moment cat-and-mouse game of evading guards — is just so mechanically dense and polished.
Metal Gear Solid is simultaneously the most accessible Metal Gear game ever made and the most complex. I’m still scratching my head as to how they achieved that.
Play this video game.
Warner Bros./Screenshot by CNET
See digital version at PlayStation store
Mortal Kombat is still kicking and, some might say, is better than ever. Ignore. Once upon a time Mortal Kombat was a gimmicky ultraviolent competitor to the sublime Street Fighter II. Now it’s a spectacular fighting game in its own right, with its own set of strengths. This is the best Mortal Kombat game to date.
Psyonix/Screenshot by Taylor Martin/CNET
See digital version at PlayStation store
Rocket League is soccer with cars and it is so good I can’t even believe it exists in this broken, corrupt world.
It’s not quite as popular compared to when it was initially released and everyone was going crazy, but Rocket League still has a massive core community.
And the game is just so instantaneously fun. So you should probably play it.
Naughty Dog
See digital version at PlayStation store
Uncharted 4 isn’t the strongest entry in the series (that’s still the bar-setting Uncharted 2) but it’s still a benchmark in visual storytelling excellence.
It’s a little bit too long, with way too many shooting sections, but Uncharted 4 does some truly ground-breaking things in terms of video game storytelling.
And it’s one of the most beautiful games ever made.
The Witness
Jonathan Blow
See digital version at PlayStation store
The Witness is designed to make you feel like a complete idiot.
In a good way.
You know how games like Metroid and Zelda sort of guide your progress by slowly giving you items that act like keys to unlocking brand-new areas?
The Witness is sorta like that, only it upgrades your actual brain. With puzzles.
This game is extremely good.
Bethesda
See digital version at PlayStation store
Doom is extremely good. This is established fact. This reboot had no right being as good as it is. It harks back to a different kind of first-person shooter. It’s about getting up close and personal with monster-demons and spilling their innards on blood-stained floors.
PlatinumGames/Square Enix
See digital version at PlayStation store
Nier: Automata was released in the same calendar year as games like Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey and Horizon: Zero Dawn, but there are people who think Nier: Automata was better than all of those video games.
I disagree, but even coming close to that level of quality is intense. Nier: Automata deserves your attention at the very least. It’s extremely good.
Capcom
See digital version at PlayStation store
Every so often Resident Evil becomes awesome again. There’s a cycle.
Resident Evil 2: awesome. Resident Evil 4: very awesome.
Resident Evil 5 through to 6: not awesome.
Resident Evil 7: extremely awesome.
It’s great to see the granddaddy of video game horror series back to its best. This game is wild. Brace yourself.
Respawn Entertainment/EA
See digital version at PlayStation store
Just when you think it’s safe to write the first-person shooter off as a banal genre devoid of innovation, along comes Titanfall 2. Titanfall 2 is like any other shooter except wall running, double jumping, turning into gigantic robots and uh…
Actually it’s not like another shooter at all. That’s why it’s so great.
FromSoftware
See digital version at PlayStation store
Dark Souls 3, like all Dark Souls games, is an acquired taste. But once you acquire that taste, everything else is ash in your mouth.
These games are good.
Dark Souls 3 is great because it’s refined and modern and eliminates a lot of the clunk of Dark Souls. It also features some of the best level design in any “Souls” game to date.
Inside
Playdead
See digital version at PlayStation store
Inside is short, disturbing and stays with you long after you’re done.
It really is one of those unforgettable gaming experiences. To explain more would spoil it. Just know that it is polished, smart, unique, interesting: It’s a well-made “thing” that you should experience. (Note that the retail version, linked below, comes packaged with Limbo, another excellent — albeit short — game.)
Capcom
See digital version at PlayStation store
Monster Hunter: World is the new kid on the block.
In a lot of ways it feels like a coming out party for the Monster World series, which has always been huge in Japan, but has only flirted with success in the west.
Now it feels like everyone is talking about Monster Hunter, and with good reason. It takes what we already love about Monster Hunter and makes it more accessible and… bigger. We’ve been used to playing Monster Hunter on underpowered handhelds. Playing it on a big boy console just takes Monster Hunter to the stratosphere.
Bethesda/id Software
See digital version at PlayStation store
Doom Eternal rules. It’s very much in the vein of the Doom reboot that launched in 2016, but that’s a good thing. We say it’s the most metal game ever made.
Cool additions include all-new methods of maneuvering throughout the game’s insanely violent universe. Very cool stuff.
More for gamers
GAMES
This Week’s Deals with Gold and Spotlight Sale
GAMES
The German Empire Marches to Italy in a Free Expansion Today
We have a new expansion for our WW1 Italian Front FPS game Isonzo releasing today! It’s the first part of our Caporetto season of free expansions, and features a whole new faction with the arrival of the German Empire on the Italian Front, and brings a new map for the Offensive game mode. There will be two more releases in the Caporetto season, each one with a new map to ultimately link together into a three map Caporetto Offensive.
The German faction comes with more than ten new weapons, as well as historically accurate uniforms and equipment. This first Caporetto map sees you taking part in the early stages of the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, with German troops assaulting Italian positions on the road to Caporetto. Historically it was a military disaster for Italy which brought down the government – but maybe things can go differently with you on the battlefield?
The update sees new uniforms and equipment from the German Empire for Isonzo’s six classes: Rifleman, Assault, Engineer, Officer, Marksman and Mountaineer. For those who aren’t familiar with the game, each class has different weapon, gear and perk options that allow you to specialize your play style within the overall focus of the class. For instance, Marksmen are always sharpshooters, but a lot depends on your loadout. You could be a long-range sniper and observer identifying and eliminating high value targets with a scoped rifle, or you could equip body armor to take and hold a front line position with deadly accurate mid-range fire. Every class has choices to make in this regard.
In Isonzo’s signature Offensive game mode, one side must attack and break through multiple defensive lines. Thick layers of barbed wire, trenches, and whatever extra defenses the enemy engineers put together will stand in the way of a successful attack. Objectives can be taking and holding key points, or planting dynamite to sabotage enemy supply stashes or heavy artillery guns.
The new Caporetto map – the first of three in the season – is a huge battlefield based on the strategically important Monte Kolovrat. There are five defensive lines, where each line has two objectives for the attackers before they can advance further. While in the historical Battle of Caporetto both German and Austro-Hungarian forces were involved, in Isonzo we’ve chosen to focus on the German contribution, so the map recreates the stunning German advance from the town of Tolmein all the way to Kolovrat Ridge. It’s a damp, overcast day when the attack begins, and the attackers must first cut their way through lines of wire to break into a devastated town – including capturing a church defended by multiple heavy machine gun positions. Fortunately, in Isonzo there are many tactical options available to deal with such strong points: artillery barrages, smokescreens, snipers, rifle grenades, even poison gas. From there, it becomes a literal uphill battle for the German attackers as they begin to climb towards the peak of Kolovrat Ridge. They’ll need to sabotage bunkers and capture command posts while navigating rocky trenches and steep forested slopes. At the penultimate fourth defensive line there is a huge siege mortar to sabotage and a cluster of houses providing cover to the Italian defenders – then it’s one last climb to reach the final objective: Hill 1114. If the Germans can take it, the Italians will finally be the ones fighting uphill as their reinforcements stream in to try and counterattack.
Of course, things are no walk in the park for the defenders either – although it’s easier to maneuver when going downhill, and it’s much simpler for officers to deploy flares to call in support, the extensive trench lines can become a liability once the Germans get a foothold, providing cover as they advance. Some of the Italian defensive positions can be exposed against the sky, making it easy for German marksmen to pick off targets. Italian engineers should make good use of their construction abilities to put down additional sandbags and lay out extra wire to prevent German assault troops sneaking through the trees to flank trenches with their grenades or light machine guns.
As we mentioned before, historically the Battle of Caporetto was a disaster for the Italians. Appalling leadership led to poorly motivated and unprepared troops falling apart in the face of the combined Austro-Hungarian and German armies using cutting edge infiltration tactics. The Italian soldiers were not allowed to retreat until too late, and in the end hundreds of thousands would surrender. After Caporetto the top Italian general was fired and replaced by someone far more competent, who managed to turn the war around for the Italians. In Isonzo, it’s a more fair fight where both sides have an equal chance of winning, if they can use all the tactical options available better than their opponents.
The release will also bring other improvements to the game, including a prestige mode and higher level cap. Additionally, for those who want more options for visual customization of their character, the Royal Units DLC is releasing alongside the free expansion and contains uniforms from the German Kingdoms of Bavaria and Württemberg. Though part of the German Empire, these states had their own distinctive uniforms which we’ve carefully recreated with the same accuracy and attention to detail as with the other uniforms in the game.
The Battle for Caporetto Begins…
Isonzo is available right now on the Microsoft Store for Xbox, and the free Caporetto expansion is out today! Plenty of time to master the art of mountain warfare before the German Empire joins the action on the Italian Front. Follow us to get the latest development news as we add the finishing touches!
We’ll see you in the trenches!
Isonzo
BlackMill Games
$29.99
World War One expands to the mountains of the Italian Front – beautiful but deadly in equal measure. Inspired by the two year struggle for control of the Isonzo river valley and the Alps during World War One, Isonzo elevates the WW1 Games Series, figuratively and literally.
From the makers of Verdun and Tannenberg…
Take part in historical offensives from the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo to the Strafexpedition. Reflecting the course of the actual battles, as the attackers advance the fighting will shift through vastly different landscapes within a single offensive: from hillside fortresses to mountain trenches and fierce urban combat on city streets. Everything is recreated based on research and field trips, from sound effects and uniforms down to the houses, vineyards and trenches you’ll be fighting over.
The new Offensive game mode puts you right in the middle of key historical offensives on the Italian Front. Lead the charge across stunning Italian landscapes as you choose your path to victory – cut paths through barbed wire, flank your enemies by following mountain trails, or man a mortar to blast a way through. Shape a dynamic battlefield by laying sandbags and wire, placing ammo crates, deploying trench periscopes or sniper shields, and more.
Call in support with a unique historically accurate flare system: flare guns can mark targets for artillery or biplane flybys, or different colored flares can be used to guide your team. Once the big guns have softened up the enemy, finish the job at close quarters with an Arditi dagger or mountaineer’s pickaxe. Man heavy machine guns, mortars and even mountain guns for more direct fire support.
Choose from six classes based on historical combat roles and build your loadout from a selection of weapons, equipment and perks linked to that class, giving flexibility and variety while staying grounded in what real soldiers might have carried. You’ll be operating wire cutters, bandaging yourself and wounded teammates, and blowing the whistle to start an assault. One shot can kill and even lighter injuries can lead to quickly bleeding out.
Being an effective soldier in Isonzo is not just about being a good marksman. Mastering the terrain is also key – the mountain can be a friend or foe. Learn how to navigate well to maintain cover and surprise your enemies or support your allies.
Finally… watch out for the dreaded poison gas. You’ve never experienced WW1 action quite like this!
Isonzo key features include:
• MOUNTAIN WARFARE: Assaulting mountain fortifications, battling through ruined towns, and fording rivers are just a few of the challenges you’ll face as you fight your way through numerous enemy positions
• TACTICAL MULTIPLAYER FPS: Choose your role and loadout carefully to survive this high altitude combat – play a sniper to pick off the enemy engineers before they can cut your wire, use rifle grenades to clear enemy machine guns, and much more
• WORLD WAR ONE GAMEPLAY: Historical Offensive game mode based on real battles and focused on the unique challenges of Alpine warfare. Fight with 30+ WW1 weapons, poisonous gas attacks, and intense artillery barrages
• BUILD FOR VICTORY: Place your own wire, sandbags, trench periscopes, and more! Whether you’re digging in or on the attack, shaping the battlefield to your advantage will be key to victory
• FACES OF WAR: Make every class your own by picking from a variety of historically class-appropriate uniforms, accessories and headgear. As a finishing touch, you can even pick your mustache from several famous period-accurate styles!
• AUTHENTIC WW1 ATMOSPHERE: Accuracy in everything from maps and weaponry to music and the uniforms – fight for the Kingdom of Italy, the German Empire or the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy
MORE GAMES IN THE AUTHENTIC WW1 GAME SERIES
Immerse yourself in more WW1 action with our other standalone titles Tannenberg and Verdun. Experience trench warfare on the Western Front in Verdun, or maneuver for control of key sectors in Tannenberg on the Eastern Front. These authentic WW1 shooters let players choose from a range of squads from across the war, as they fight for control of the ever-changing frontlines.
GAMES
Transport Fever 2: Console Edition is Bringing the Full Transport Tycoon Experience to Xbox
Today, we proudly share a sneak peek into the development of Transport Fever 2: Console Edition, and how we managed to bring the full transport tycoon experience to Xbox.
Transport Fever is a very popular and highly rated transportation tycoon franchise on PC. Its latest entry, Transport Fever 2, delivers a level of size and detail never before seen in the genre. The goal of the game is to build a successful transportation company by constructing railroads, streets, water and air lines. Starting in the 19th century, the player connects towns and industries to transport both passengers and cargo. In addition to a customizable free game mode, there is also a fully-fledged campaign mode with challenging missions set in real-world transportation history.
After the huge success of Transport Fever 2 on PC, it was only logical to bring the experience to consoles as well. Not only that, but no efforts were spared to give the console community the full experience that made the game great on PC. In order to achieve this, the engineers at Urban Games had to pull some rabbits out of their engineers’ hats.
Always providing the freshest layer of paint
One of the most cherished features of Transport Fever 2 are its highly detailed vehicles. The game comes with more than 200 lovingly hand-modeled trains, ships, and airplanes, each sporting multiple 4k textures and normal maps.
On PC, it is easily affordable to have all the models and textures in memory whenever needed, as a typical rig has 16 GB of RAM and a GPU with a dedicated extra memory. Consoles, however, are built differently. They have a unified architecture with an overall smaller amount but ultra-fast memory. The key to make it work on consoles is texture streaming, which allows to clear textures of models that are not in view anymore. Moreover, this technology is used in Transport Fever 2 to constantly load textures at the highest affordable resolution to present the stars of the show, like the classic Class A 3/5 steam locomotive, in their best coat of paint at all times.
Keeping the ground like a console pro
A trademark of Transport Fever 2 are its huge maps. During development of the game, it was always paramount to provide a real sense of scale. The engine should allow for maps where a high-speed train, such as the famous Japanese Shinkansen, can really make use of its superior speed. So, a lot of effort was put into designing a highly effective terrain rendering pipeline that can handle maps of more than 120 sq miles of size with a detail resolution of almost 1 yard. Central to this is a dynamic terrain tessellation algorithm on the CPU that, while costing a bit of extra memory, makes sure the engine can render these maps on a wide variety of PCs.
Now, enter the world of consoles with their incredibly well-designed GPUs and graphic APIs. Here, the hardware can be leveraged very well for terrain rendering by making use of the GPU tessellation feature. This feature generates the render mesh for the terrain fully on the graphics card, saving valuable processing time for the complex economy and city growth simulations. While generating more triangles, the hardware approach still costs less memory overall due to its efficiency. So vast maps can be viewed from a bird’s view high up in the sky and seamlessly zoomed in down to individual rocks on a riverbank.
Inspiring the inner architect
Finally, let’s talk about constructions, a central and defining part of the Transport Fever 2 experience. Constructions are large assemblies that consist of dozens of assets, street segments, ground decals and terrain modifications. Think of structures like airports, train stations, docks, highway crossings, and many more. Anything that is needed to build a vast transportation empire.
For a smooth construction experience, it is key that the player really feels that he has precise control over the building placement. On PC, constructions are typically built using the mouse. As the average PC user is very well adjusted to this method of input, it is sufficiently performant to calculate the entire construction each frame and place it under the cursor. However, on consoles, the best way of building constructions is to have them always kept in the center of the screen and move the camera along the map for placement. And moving the camera needs to be as smooth as silk.
So, for the console release of Transport Fever 2, the construction preview pipeline was overhauled. All dynamic calculations are now performed in the background while a static preview of the structure and its underlying ground plan are shown. Not only are constructions now completely stable in terms of FPS, but they also give feedback to the player on what environment features the construction would tear down when built.
Let’s get tycooning on console
We are very excited to bring the Transport Fever franchise to consoles for the first time ever with the release of Transport Fever 2: Console Edition on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One in February 2023, and we hope you will enjoy it as much as we did developing it.
Daily Search Forum Recap: September 26, 2024
Daily Search Forum Recap: September 27, 2024
Squarespace Update Strengthens Its Robust Website Builder
How to Estimate It and Source Data
9 Successful PR Campaign Examples, According to the Data
Google’s 26th Birthday Doodle Is Missing
6 Things You Can Do to Compete With Big Sites
Yoast Co-Founder Suggests A WordPress Contributor Board
Google Volatility With Gains & Losses, Updated Web Spam Policies, Cache Gone & More Search News
Kevin O’Leary: I Got an MBA Instead of Following My Passion
-
SEARCHENGINES7 days ago
Daily Search Forum Recap: September 26, 2024
-
SEARCHENGINES6 days ago
Daily Search Forum Recap: September 27, 2024
-
SEO7 days agoSquarespace Update Strengthens Its Robust Website Builder
-
SEO5 days agoHow to Estimate It and Source Data
-
SEO6 days ago9 Successful PR Campaign Examples, According to the Data
-
SEARCHENGINES5 days agoGoogle’s 26th Birthday Doodle Is Missing
-
SEO4 days ago6 Things You Can Do to Compete With Big Sites
-
SEO4 days agoYoast Co-Founder Suggests A WordPress Contributor Board