From immersive headsets that transform how you hear every footstep and explosion, to controllers designed for both style and precision, PlayStation continues to push the boundaries of gaming technology. The new PS VR2 brings virtual worlds to life like never before, while the PlayStation Portal lets you take your PS5 games anywhere in your home. Add in a lineup of must-play titles — from family-friendly adventures to intense action games — and it’s clear that PlayStation has crafted the ultimate holiday wish list.

In the guide below, we’ve rounded up our favourite PlayStation products this year, highlighting what makes each one stand out and why they would make perfect gifts for any gamer. Whether it’s for immersive gameplay, stylish hardware, or unforgettable experiences, these picks are designed to deliver the best of what PlayStation has to offer.

Playstation Gaming Headsets

I recently started playing with high quality headsets and it is a game changer. Video Games today are so good and the attention to detail is so high that you really do not want to miss out on some of the experience, and that includes the sound. Options for Playstation headphones are between the headphones and the earbuds. It comes down to personal preference, length of charge and portability. Here is some info about the ones we have been eyeing.

PULSE Elite Wireless Headset

The PULSE Elite Wireless Headset is PlayStation’s flagship over-ear gaming headset, built for immersive, high-fidelity sound on the PS5 and beyond. It uses planar-magnetic drivers — a technology more often found in high-end audiophile headphones — to deliver incredibly detailed and balanced sound. Whether you’re exploring atmospheric single-player worlds or playing online with friends, the Elite headset captures subtle in-game nuances and deep bass tones with precision.

Connectivity is another major strength. The PULSE Elite connects through PlayStation Link, Sony’s new low-latency, lossless wireless standard designed specifically for PlayStation 5, PlayStation Portal, and PC/Mac. It also supports Bluetooth, allowing you to pair your phone or tablet at the same time — so you can take a call or listen to music while gaming. This dual connection makes it one of the most versatile headsets in its class.

Battery life is impressive, lasting up to 30 hours (and even longer in some real-world tests), and the headset includes a convenient charging hanger that doubles as a display stand. Its retractable boom microphone uses AI noise rejection to ensure your voice stays clear, even in loud environments. The over-ear design is generally comfortable, with plush padding and a sturdy headband, though a few users have noted slight creaks or looseness in the joints during movement.

Overall, the PULSE Elite is a powerful choice for PlayStation fans who want immersive, studio-grade sound and low-latency performance. It’s ideal for long sessions on PS5, PC, or the PlayStation Portal, and for anyone who values strong audio quality without the wires. The trade-offs? There’s no active noise cancellation, and at around $200 CAD, it’s not cheap — but for what it offers, the Elite stands out as a premium addition to Sony’s ecosystem.

PULSE Explore Wireless Earbuds

The PULSE Explore Wireless Earbuds bring much of that same PlayStation audio technology into a far more portable design. Like the Elite headset, the Explore earbuds use planar-magnetic drivers — a rarity for true wireless earbuds — giving them rich, accurate sound and an impressive level of clarity for their size. They’re engineered to work seamlessly with PS5, PC, and the PlayStation Portal via PlayStation Link, ensuring lossless, low-latency audio for gaming.

In addition to PlayStation Link, the Explore earbuds also feature Bluetooth connectivity, so they can be used with your smartphone, tablet, or laptop. You can even stay connected to both simultaneously, making it easy to answer a call or switch to mobile audio without unplugging or re-pairing devices. The integrated microphones are enhanced by AI-based noise rejection, which helps filter out background sounds for clearer voice chat.

Battery life is decent but not spectacular — about five hours per charge, with the included charging case providing an additional ten hours, for roughly 15 hours total. The case itself is a bit bulkier than typical true wireless earbuds, but it’s sturdy and well-designed. The earbuds come with multiple ear-tip sizes for a secure fit, though their slightly protruding design may not be the most discreet.

The PULSE Explore earbuds are perfect for gamers who value mobility and minimal setup. They pair instantly with the PlayStation Portal, making them ideal for handheld or remote play, and their sound quality is excellent for both games and media. However, the shorter battery life and lack of active noise cancellation make them less suited for marathon gaming sessions compared to the Elite headset. Still, for players who want PlayStation’s signature audio experience in a lightweight, travel-ready package, the Explore earbuds deliver impressive performance.

Which Should You Choose?

The choice between the PULSE Elite Headset and the PULSE Explore Earbuds comes down to how and where you play. If you’re usually gaming at home, value comfort for long sessions, and want the most immersive audio possible, the Elite headset is the better pick. Its long battery life, deep soundstage, and high-quality microphone make it ideal for both casual and competitive play.

On the other hand, if you often play on the go — especially with the PlayStation Portal — or you prefer a more compact setup, the Explore earbuds are a smart alternative. They offer similar audio technology in a portable form, with the flexibility to switch between your console and your phone seamlessly.

Both models showcase Sony’s push to elevate in-game audio with premium hardware. The Elite excels in power and comfort, while the Explore focuses on convenience and versatility. Either way, both are designed to bring the best of PlayStation’s immersive sound to whatever (and wherever) you’re playing.

Playstation VR2

I first tried Playstation VR with their original model. It required an external camera to be set up and the controllers were like ski poles and not great for a variety of games. This all changed with the release of the VR2. No camera, better controllers and a new way to play not just VR games but any game by using it as a screen viewer to play on a digital movie screen in your view screen. It is also great for movies, especially when combined with a gaming headset for sound localization.

The PlayStation VR2 is Sony’s next-generation virtual reality headset, designed exclusively for the PlayStation 5. It builds on the original PS VR but represents a complete technological leap forward, offering vastly improved visuals, tracking, and immersion. The headset connects to the PS5 with a single USB-C cable, eliminating the mess of external boxes and cameras required by the first model. Its goal is to deliver premium, high-fidelity virtual reality experiences while maintaining the ease of use that console gamers expect.

At the heart of the PS VR2 are its dual OLED displays, each boasting a resolution of 2000 × 2040 pixels per eye with support for HDR, 90 Hz, and 120 Hz refresh rates. This results in crisp, vibrant visuals and smoother motion than its predecessor, with a 110-degree field of view that enhances immersion. The headset also introduces eye-tracking technology, which not only allows for intuitive interactions but also enables advanced rendering techniques that focus processing power where you’re actually looking, improving both performance and realism.

Tracking and feedback have also evolved dramatically. Instead of relying on an external camera, the PS VR2 uses inside-out tracking, meaning the cameras are built directly into the headset to follow your movement and the position of its Sense controllers. These new controllers bring the same adaptive triggers and haptic feedback found on the PS5’s DualSense controller, while adding finger-touch detection for more natural gestures. The headset itself even includes haptic feedback, subtly vibrating to mirror in-game sensations like rushing wind or a character’s heartbeat, adding a tactile layer to the experience.

Setting up the PS VR2 is remarkably simple — just plug it into your PS5 via USB-C. The headset supports 3D Audio, a built-in microphone, and includes earbuds for immersive sound. Players can choose from multiple play modes: seated, standing, or room-scale, with the ability to map out a custom play area using the headset’s cameras. Features like See-Through View let you glimpse your surroundings without removing the headset, and Cinematic Mode transforms the display into a large virtual screen for non-VR PS5 games or streaming content.

The PS VR2’s biggest strength is how seamlessly it integrates with the PlayStation 5, offering one of the most immersive console-based VR experiences available today. Games like Horizon Call of the Mountain, Resident Evil Village VR, and Gran Turismo 7 VR showcase its stunning graphics and innovative controls. However, there are a few limitations worth noting. The headset must remain tethered to the PS5 by a cable, which provides stability and quality but limits mobility compared to wireless systems like Meta Quest. Additionally, PS VR1 games are not compatible, meaning players will need new or updated VR2-ready titles.

At around $549 CAD, the PS VR2 represents a significant investment — especially since it requires a PS5 console to function — but for those who already own a PlayStation 5 and want to experience virtual reality at its best, it’s a compelling option. The combination of OLED visuals, haptic immersion, and intuitive controls makes it one of the most polished and powerful VR systems currently available for console gamers.

Playstation Controllers

Playstation has quite a few offerings in terms of controllers. Their regular DualSense controllers have some new designs called the Chroma series which have metallic and pearlescent colours from pearl to pink and blue to purple. They also have the more advanced DualSense Edge that allows for more button mapping and quick switching between premade gaming setups.

Chroma Series

The Chroma series gives the standard DualSense controller a fresh aesthetic twist with an iridescent finish that shifts colour depending on the angle — think pearlescent, shimmering hues rather than solid matte or gloss.

Variants like Chroma Teal, Chroma Pearl, and Chroma Indigo offer different colour-shift styles (greens, pinks/creams, blues/purples) while keeping all of the core DualSense features intact. In other words, if you love the feel and functions of the DualSense — haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, ergonomics — but want something visually more unique or stylish, the Chroma series is a great way to get that flair without sacrificing performance or compatibility.

DualSense Edge (Midnight Black is awesome)

The DualSense Edge is PlayStation’s “pro-level” controller, and the Midnight Black edition gives that premium feature set a sleek, more understated finish. It’s built for customization: you can remap buttons, save and swap control profiles on the fly with the Fn-button, adjust stick sensitivity and dead zones, swap out stick modules and stick caps, and even change trigger lengths for hairpin triggers.

The Midnight Black version includes a matching carrying case, and uses the same high-performance hardware as the white version — so you get all the advanced features in a darker, more modern aesthetic. It’s ideal if you want that level of control over how your controller behaves during gameplay, especially for competitive or precision gaming, but prefer a more “stealthy” look than the standard white-black Edge.

PS Portal

The PlayStation Portal Remote Player delivers a stylish and streamlined way to bring your PS5 experience off the big screen and into your hands. Designed for players who want the full DualSense experience without being tethered to the TV, this handheld device streams your PS5 games directly over Wi-Fi, giving you instant access to your console’s library from anywhere in your home.

The Portal features an 8-inch LCD display that runs at 1080p and up to 60 frames per second, making visuals crisp and responsive. It’s not an OLED, but the picture quality is impressive — bright, sharp, and well-suited to everything from fast-paced shooters to cinematic story games. The most remarkable part is how familiar it feels: both sides of the device mirror a DualSense controller, complete with haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. Those familiar sensations make it clear this isn’t just a streaming tablet — it’s a true PlayStation controller with a screen in the middle.

The Midnight Black finish elevates the design significantly. It’s sleek, subtle, and pairs perfectly with Sony’s darker accessories like the DualSense Edge or Pulse Elite headset. The darker tone gives it a premium, understated aesthetic — one that feels a little more “pro” than the original white model.

Performance-wise, the experience depends heavily on your home network. When connected to a strong Wi-Fi signal, gameplay feels smooth and responsive, with minimal latency. However, since the Portal streams from your PS5 rather than running games natively, any weak connection can lead to hiccups or compression artifacts. It’s worth noting that this is not a standalone handheld system — you’ll need your PS5 on and connected to the internet (or in rest mode) to use it.

Overall, the PlayStation Portal Remote Player is an elegant, well-built device that caters to PlayStation fans who value flexibility and style. It’s perfect for players who share a TV or want to enjoy their PS5 from the comfort of bed or another room. While it won’t replace your console or offer the freedom of a true portable gaming system, it nails its purpose: delivering the full PS5 experience, DualSense feedback and all, in a sleek and convenient handheld form.

Games

Playstation has so many good games it has been a struggle to play them all, but we made a good effort anyway. You can see all of our REVIEWS HERE if you are looking for some more in depth analysis of the ones we reviewed. Other than that, here are some of our favourite games right now that you should check out.

Family Friendly Games

Astro Bot is a standalone, full-length 3D action platformer for PlayStation 5 that sends the cheerful robot Astro across more than 50 vibrant planets in multiple galaxies to repair the wrecked PS5 mothership and reunite with his scattered crew. Players explore diverse themed worlds, use new powers to overcome obstacles and battle quirky enemies and large bosses, and collect coins and over 150 iconic PlayStation-themed “VIP” bots along the way. The game showcases inventive level design, playful challenges, and immersive use of the PS5 DualSense controller’s adaptive triggers and haptic feedback, making it a rich celebration of PlayStation history and platforming gameplay.

MLB The Show 25 – For those looking to play some baseball in the offseason, be sure to check out this latest entry in the long‑running baseball simulation series, inviting you into a full‑fledged player career, team‑management mode, and competitive multiplayer experience. You begin your journey in high school and then college before ever stepping into the big leagues, giving your athlete’s story a broader “from the ground up” feel. Meanwhile, the Diamond Dynasty mode has been re‑worked to remove the old Sets & Seasons mechanic, letting you focus on building your team without the time‑lock of outdated systems. On the field, hitting now lets you perform an “Ambush” by guessing the pitch location for bonus impact, and fielding animation updates and smoother mechanics make the gameplay feel sharper and more responsive. With this well‑rounded package, the game stands as a compelling pick for fans of the sport who want both authenticity and depth in their baseball experience.

Gran Turismo 7 – Gran Turismo 7 is from Polyphony Digital and offers a deep, content‑rich driving simulation experience. With hundreds of cars, dozens of real‑world and fantasy tracks, a detailed customization system and excellent core driving physics, it appeals to both longtime fans and newcomers alike. The game recently gained full compatibility with PlayStation VR2, enabling a fully immersive cockpit perspective where you’re literally inside the car — many consider it one of the best VR racing games available. From menu‑based progression to time trials and full championships, Gran Turismo 7 blends old‑school racing simulation roots with modern visuals and technology. In flat‑screen mode it already stands out for its attention to detail and driving mechanics. But in VR, the sense of speed, vehicle behaviour and spatial awareness reach a whole new level of realism and immersion. For console racers who own a VR headset, this one delivers an experience that goes beyond typical arcade‑style driving.

READ OUR REVIEW OF Gran Turismo 7 HERE

Games for Adults

Battlefield 6 – Battlefield 6 is the latest entry in the long-running Battlefield series, developed by EA and its in-house Battlefield Studios. The game immerses players in large-scale, global conflicts where infantry, vehicles, and environmental destruction all play a role in shaping the battlefield. Unlike faster-paced shooters like Call of Duty, Battlefield 6 slows things down a bit, focusing on strategic squad play, wide-open maps, and tactical decision-making. Explosions, destructible buildings, and dynamic terrain allow players to alter cover and create new opportunities, making each encounter feel unique. It’s a game built for players who enjoy intense, realistic warfare with more depth, spectacle, and the freedom to approach combat creatively.

Death Stranding 2 – Death Stranding 2 is the latest entry in Hideo Kojima’s groundbreaking action‑adventure series, following the story of Sam Porter Bridges in a fractured, post‑apocalyptic world where players deliver cargo and rebuild connections between isolated settlements. The game expands on the original’s unique blend of traversal, stealth, and light combat mechanics while maintaining the series’ focus on metaphorical storytelling, environmental puzzles, and social connection systems. Developed by Kojima Productions, it continues the auteur-driven vision that made the first Death Stranding a standout for its cinematic presentation, unconventional gameplay, and philosophical exploration of isolation, responsibility, and human bonds.

Expedition 33 – In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 you join a doomed‑by‑design squad sent into a surreal Belle Époque‑inspired world to confront a mysterious force called the Paintress that enacts a yearly ritual known as the Gommage, erasing those above a certain age. The game blends sharp turn‑based RPG mechanics with real‑time dodging, parrying, and quick‑time‑events, creating tension in every battle. Its art style is bold and haunting, both beautiful and unsettling, with visual and musical design that sticks with you long after finishing. The storyline is rich with themes of sacrifice, mortality and purpose, populated by a compact cast whose journeys feel intense and earned. If you’re after an RPG that stands out in both mood and mechanics, Expedition 33 offers something rare — a full‑fledged experience that feels tailored and complete.

Ghost of Yōtei – Set three centuries after Ghost of Tsushima, Ghost of Yōtei continues Sucker Punch’s samurai-inspired anthology with a new protagonist and setting. The game follows Atsu, a mercenary driven by vengeance in a stunning open-world recreation of Hokkaido’s Mount Yōtei region. It expands on the series’ signature swordplay and stealth mechanics while introducing new elements like a wolf companion and creative side activities, including painting with the DualSense touchpad. While the story revisits familiar revenge themes, the world’s beauty and combat fluidity make it a strong standalone entry — not a direct sequel, but a fresh tale within the same spirit of the Ghost universe.

READ OUR REVIEW OF Ghost of Yōtei HERE

Silent Hill f – In Silent Hill f, you step into the shoes of Hinako Shimizu, a young woman trapped in 1960s rural Japan when her secluded town of Ebisugaoka is swallowed by a mysterious fog and the line between reality and nightmare blurs. The game delivers rich psychological horror with a setting deeply rooted in Japanese folklore and societal pressures, twisting familiar survival‑horror conventions into something unsettling and thoughtful. Gameplay blends exploration, environmental puzzles, and tense encounters where stamina, dodging, and weapon durability keep you vulnerable and alert. The visuals bring the fog‑choked town to life with haunting beauty, while the story gives you multiple paths to explore in subsequent playthroughs. Overall, Silent Hill f offers a bold new chapter in the franchise — one that honours the legacy of fear and dread while carving out its own identity.

READ OUR REVIEW OF Silent Hill f HERE

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater – In Strike’s jungles of 1964, you step into the role of Naked Snake in a remade origin story of the legendary soldier. This version keeps the same spy‑action, survival mechanics and emotional stakes of the original while dressing them in modern visuals and optional control styles. The dense jungle terrain, camouflage systems, close‑quarters combat and stealth remain front and centre — refined to feel smoother yet still recognisably the game fans remember. With high‑fidelity models, updated lighting and Unreal Engine 5 enhancements, the game delivers a lush re‑creation of the Cold War era mission while preserving its original cast and narrative core.

READ OUR REVIEW OF Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater HERE

Whether buying something for your kids, partner, relative or friend, the current lineup of Playstation 5 accessories is abundant. So see what the gamer in your life needs to complete their collection and check out the PlayStation‘s Holiday Gift Guide offerings here.

The post 2025 Holiday Gift Guide: Gaming Edition (Playstation 5) appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

Rather infamously, the PlayStation started life as a Nintendo console, in what was supposed to be a collaboration between the two Japanese home entertainment giants. But when Nintendo balked, choosing the day after Sony’s announcement to declare, nope, Nintendo was teaming up with rival Philips instead, Sony turned insult into opportunity. If Nintendo wasn’t going to release the Nintendo PlayStation, damned if Sony wasn’t going to do it themselves – and beat Nintendo in the process.

History tells us who won. The PlayStation (later rebranded the PS1) handily outsold the Nintendo 64, 102.49 million units to the N64’s paltry 32.93 million. The subsequent PS2 would go on to become the best-selling console of all time, selling 160 million units against Nintendo’s 21.74 million GameCubes.

Since then, Sony and Nintendo have gone back and forth each successive console generation, the Nintendo Wii outpacing the PS3, the PS4 dramatically outselling the little-loved Wii U (which probably saw less sales than a graphing calculator), before Nintendo rebounded with the Switch, which outsold all competition and now ranks a comfortable second to the PS2 in all-time hardware sales.

Still, it’s interesting to observe how, all these decades later, it’s Nintendo which continues to dominate pop culture – my mom still calls any video game a “Nintendo” – despite Sony’s best efforts, and those of so many others – Atari, Sega, even Microsoft – who have come and gone. But if Crash Bandicoot never became a household name like Mario or Donkey Kong, that’s no knock against a long, proud Sony console tradition which started on September 9, 1995.

Here, then, are our Thirty for Thirty: the top PlayStation games of all time. As always, this list is only as good as its author: if I haven’t played it (sorry, Suikoden, Final Fantasy Tactics) it didn’t make the cut. Shout at me in the comments.

1. Metal Gear Solid (1998, HD remaster available on PS4/5 in the MGS Master Collection Vol. 1)

There had been two Metal Gears before this, but nobody was prepared for the sheer audacity of Metal Gear Solid, Hideo Kojima’s monumental, wildly idiosyncratic ode to spy fiction. Starring the ridiculously named super-spy Solid Snake (voiced by Toronto’s own David Hayter), MGS is a Bond film on steroids: there are clones, shapeshifters, an alphabet’s soup of all-caps nomenclature (FOXHOUND, DARPA, FOXDIE, etc.), and supremely convoluted government conspiracies, which would grow even more convoluted and conspiratorial as the series wore on. Possessed of a wonderful, fourth-wall-breaking sense of humour, MGS gets just as much mileage out of its action-movie thrills (check out that Cyborg Ninja fight) as it does from the quieter, sillier moments, like hiding in plain sight under a cardboard box, or any time it pokes fun at you, the player, right through the screen.

2. Final Fantasy VII (1997, available on PS4/5; avoid the weird reboot misleadingly known as FFVII: Remake )

Still the best JRPG ever made, this extraordinary fantasy epic plays like a distant cousin of both Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, its memorable band of heroes – Cloud, Aerith, Tifa, and so on – still spoken of in awed tones all these years later. With its well-realized quasi-open world (your airship can take you pretty well anywhere across the planet Gaia), FFVII’s best feature isn’t the brilliant gameplay or the then-leading edge graphics, but its sophisticated approach to storytelling, which habitually subverts player expectations, daring us to question whether what we’re seeing is really the whole truth of the story.

3. Parasite Eve (1998, unavailable on modern systems)

Purists will scoff, but for my money Square’s first – and to date, only – attempt at survival horror is one of the capital-G Great entries in the PlayStation library, narrowly surpassing even the Silent Hills and Resident Evils of the world. Cinematic in a way only Square could pull off, what makes PE such a singular experience is its incredible setting, a snowy Christmas-week New York overrun with horrifically mutated animal life, ranging from giant rats to grotesque centipedes and worse. Its innovative menu-based real-time combat system has never really been replicated, outside Vagrant Story, also published by Square (and appearing lower on this lsit).

4. Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night (1997, available on PS4/5 in the Castlevania Requiem: Symphony of the Night collection)

The release that helped define the Metroidvania genre, it remains a perennial favourite for fans of any game which rewards exploration for exploration’s sake. One of the few of the genre in which backtracking does not grow frustrating after a certain amount of time, SotN has a bestiary to rival Ghosts ‘n Goblins, and the boss battles (and game-upending postscript) to show for it.

5. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (1997, HD remaster available on PS4/PS5, Switch, Windows, and Xbox One as part of the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy)

While Sony never did quite get its own Mario, Crash Bandicoot sure tried his best, across a console-defining trilogy from Santa Monica-based developers Naughty Dog, future creators of Uncharted and The Last of Us. You could honestly pick any of the Crash games for this spot, but Crash 2 just barely edges out its counterparts by virtue of introducing Crash’s baby polar bear pal – and the incredible chase sequences it stars in.

6. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 (2000, remake available on PS4/5, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, Switch, and Windows)

I will never be nimble or balanced enough to pull off even skateboarding’s most basic tricks, but damned if the Tony Hawk series didn’t make me feel cool, if only in a virtual sense. All (well, almost all) the THPS games are great, but it’s the second entry which has maintained a consistently stellar reputation among PS1 stalwarts, with its flawless gameplay, incredible selection of levels, and bevy of unlockable secrets.

7. Silent Hill (1999, unavailable on modern consoles)

Popular consensus suggests its PS2-era sequel is better, but Silent Hill is no mere test run: eerie and unsettling, its eschewal of typical video game tropes – your weapons are weak and ineffectual; you can barely see what’s going on thanks to omnipresent fog – is what elevates it over its more action-oriented counterparts (see next entry). In Silent Hill, running in helpless terror is the point.

8. Resident Evil 2 (1998, remake available on PS4/5, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, Switch, and Windows)

I think it’s worth clarifying that I’m a huge fan of the Resident Evil series, and consider one of its later entries (not the one you’re thinking of) one of the scariest games of all time. While the first entry is excellent in its own right – giant spiders! mutant sharks! – it’s hard to deny RE2’s increased scare factor, improved combat, and better storytelling. The addition of the terrifying monstrosity that is Mr. X, a giant zombie with a nasty habit of bursting through walls just when you’re trying to relax, elevates it beyond the other PS1-era RE games.

9. PaRappa The Rapper (1997, HD remaster available on PS4/5)

There’s a plethora of great music games on PS1, but PaRappa is likely top of many players’ lists, if only because of the PlayStation Underground demo disc everyone seems to have possessed at at least some point. While the whole game can be beaten in less than twenty minutes (once you get good enough), that’s no knock against its absurdly entertaining rhythm-based gameplay and dangerously memorable soundtrack. Kick, punch, it’s all in the mind.

10. Jet Moto 2 (1997, original available on PS4/5 via the PlayStation Store)

If these rankings were based purely on total hours I personally devoted to each game, Jet Moto 2 would win in a landslide. Sci-fi racing fans will try to tell you that F-Zero or WipeOut are better, but for my money it’s hard to top Jet Moto 2’s incredible track design, innovative control scheme – your jet-bike boasts a magnetic grapple hook to swing around death-defying corners – and highly addictive gameplay loop. Conquering JM2’s heaven-and-hell stage is one of my all-time gaming accomplishments.

11. Bushido Blade (1997, unavailable on modern consoles)

So far ahead of its time the rest of gaming is still trying to catch up, Bushido Blade is a multiplayer duelling game in which the precision sword fighting is meant to feel real – as in, nick your opponent’s hand, they drop their weapon; land a blow to the neck, it’s instant game over. With no health bars, grindable “experience points”, or other gamification to speak of, it’s a pure test of skill like no other.

12. Gran Turismo (1997, unavailable on modern consoles)

Hugely influential, the original GT isn’t much to look at today, but at release its leading-edge graphics and obsessively accurate real-world car physics were a gift to gearheads everywhere. Deep Forest Raceway is, to this day, one of the greatest race tracks ever rendered in a digital space.

13. Spider-Man (2000, unavailable on modern consoles)

Before the MCU forced everything Marvel to fit in a nice shiny corporate-approved box, we were blessed with awesome, slightly gonzo comic book games like this one, which combines an Extremely 90s™ clone/symbiote storyline with a bevy of cameos and references to the broader Marvel universe. That includes, of course, a pitch-perfect “what if” mode narrated by Stan the Man Lee himself.

14. CTR: Crash Team Racing (1999, HD remaster available on PS4/5, Switch, and Windows as Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled)

It’s a rip-off, but a damn fine one, doing for PlayStation racing games what a certain mustachioed plumber did for Nintendo. (Crash Bash sucked though.)

15. Rival Schools: United By Fate (1997, unavailable on modern consoles)

Despite all three of us Rival Schools fans losing our minds when Akira Kazama showed up in Street Fighter V, there’s been nary a peep from Capcom about returning to this – perfectly designed, incredibly stylish – 2.5D fighting game which was a mainstay of my childhood multiplayer tournaments. The recent Capcom Fighting Collection Vol. 2 bizarrely included only its sequel, omitting the superior first entry.

16. I.Q. Intelligent Qube (1997, available on PS4/5)

Loosely resembling a 3D Tetris or maybe Bomberman, the brilliantly addictive I.Q. is hard to explain – there are rolling blocks, you’re a little dude trying to blow them up without getting smushed – but oh-so-satisfying once you “get it”.

17. Grand Theft Auto (1997, unavailable on modern consoles)

While its PS2 sequel would set the cinematic template we know today, the original GTA remains a surprisingly fun top-down crime simulator, the goal simply being to cause as much mayhem as possible, in as many stolen vehicles as possible, before getting caught by the cops. Fun fact: the game’s six levels are spread out across three locations possessing very familiar names: Vice City, Liberty City, and San Andreas.

18. Vib-Ribbon (1999/2014, unavailable on modern consoles)

Delightfully simple but dangerously addictive, the best thing about this early entry in the rhythm game pantheon is that it relies on your own music, auto-generating levels based on whatever CD you insert in the console. Like the next entry, it finally came to North American shores a decade late via the PS3 Store, and those lucky enough to snag it can attest to its bizarre brilliance.

19. LSD: Dream Emulator (1998/2010, unavailable on modern consoles)

A Japan exclusive, this psychedelic, nearly incomprehensible experimental art game would eventually make its way to North American players through the PS3-era PlayStation Store, and for those of us who tried it, it remains an indelible, brain-breaking, experience.

20. Einhänder (1997, unavailable on modern consoles)

Shmups (“shoot-em-ups”) usually get short shrift on these lists, but it’s impossible to ignore the importance of Einhänder, widely considered one of the best of the genre thanks to its impeccable level design, brilliant arsenal of weaponry, and tough-but-fair challenge. Like Parasite Eve, it’s another genre one-off from fabled developers Square, and proof that they’re more than just the House of RPG.

21. Tomba! (1997, HD remaster available on PS4/5)

I will never not take advantage of a chance to shout out beloved oddball 2.5D platformer Tomba!, the anthropomorphic pig-chomping game from Tokuro Fujiwara, better known as the creator of Ghosts ‘n Goblins. Thank you GameFAQs.com for helping me navigate its secret-laden world.

22. Dino Crisis (1999, unavailable on modern consoles)

Putting together this list, it’s been interesting to see the extent to which survival horror dominated the PS1, this unabashed Resident Evil-but-dinosaurs knockoff (by RE publisher Capcom, no less) a prime example of how to iterate on the genre in interesting ways. More games need stealthy velociraptors which stalk your every move.

23. Medal of Honor: Underground (2000, unavailable on modern consoles)

Steven Spielberg’s first foray into game design was the Medal of Honor series, released in the wake of his Oscar-winning Saving Private Ryan, and which arguably peaked with this second entry, which took the then-unusual step of starring a female lead, French resistance fighter Manon Batiste (voice actor Elea Oberon).

24. MediEvil (1998, remake available on PS4/5)

One of the best things about the ill-fated PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale (2012) was that it introduced a whole new generation of players to Sir Daniel Fortesque, the comically creepy walking skeleton who starred in a pair of half-forgotten adventure games that look like they came from the mind of Tim Burton. A 2019 remake brought Sir Dan back to life (see what I did there) and sparked fervent hope for a proper sequel. We’re still waiting, Sony…

25. Tekken 3 (1997, unavailable on modern consoles)

Like many gamers, I probably spent more time with the arcade cabinet than the home console port, but either way Tekken 3 is a landmark achievement in fighting game history, perfecting its 2.5D combat scheme in which side-stepping attacks is a perfectly viable – and infuriating – tactic.

26. Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (1998, available on PS4/5, Xbox One, Switch, and Windows as part of the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection)

Its sequel is the undisputed superior, but the first entry in this legendary series is excellent in its own right, with a 2-vs.-2 format that encourages – and rewards – exciting pop culture mashups like Gambit/Mega Man vs. Ryu/Wolverine.

27. Spyro the Dragon (1998, remake available on PS4/5, Xbox One, Switch, and Windows as part of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy)

The friendly rivalry between Naughty Dog’s Crash Bandicoot and Insomniac’s Spyro games was a highlight of the PS1, and it’s hard to deny the simple, freewheeling charm of this first Spyro game, with its big, beautiful, bright green fantasy worlds where exploration is its own reward.

28. Tomb Raider (1996, HD remaster available on PS4/5, Xbox X/S, Xbox One, Switch, and Windows as part of Tomb Raider I–III Remastered)

Only the second game on this list with a 32-bit T. rex, the original Tomb Raider may have aged inelegantly – the graphics are rough, especially when compared to something like Metal Gear Solid; the tank controls remain clunky (though still infinitely better than the “modern” controls in the recent remaster) – but it remains an incredible adventure, successfully translating Indiana Jones-style tomb raiding to an interactive medium.

29. Rayman (1995, unavailable on modern platforms)

The little dude with no limbs, Ubisoft’s plucky platforming hero offers a textbook study in optimized gameplay: everything about Rayman’s world, from the way he jumps, to the precise placement of platforms, to enemy movement patterns, has been honed to perfection. It was, perhaps, inevitable that this series, which began with the tense chase sequences seen here, would culminate in the delightful music stages of later entries.

30. Vagrant Story (2000, unavailable on modern platforms)

I may be a Vagrant Story skeptic, but there’s no denying the uniformity of vision – and flawless gameplay – of this forgotten medieval-themed JRPG by Squaresoft, a sort-of distant cousin to the similarly-structured Parasite Eve… but with way more swords.

***
Looking for more classic gaming recommendations?

Check out our 25th anniversary roundup of the Greatest PS2 Games of All-Time, our picks for the Best Canadian Games of All Time, or any one of the entries in our ongoing “Late to the Game” series.

The post The PS1 at 30: The Greatest PlayStation Games of All Time appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

WHAT IS IT?

An action-packed virtual reality xeno-extravaganza.

IS IT GOOD?

In spurts.

WHO SHOULD PLAY IT?

Aliens diehards.

CREW: EXPENDABLE

The title Alien: Rogue Incursion is a bit of a misnomer, as this is not so much an Alien game as it is an Aliens game. As in, an action-packed, pulse-blasting, action thrill-ride inspired by (and borrowing from) James Cameron’s legendary 1986 sequel Aliens, with an “s”.

This distinction matters a lot. As I have written (probably too many times) before, the xenomorph fandom can easily be divided into two camps. In one, there’s the Alien fanatics, like me, who prefer the slow-burn, oppressive terror of the original 1979 film. In the other camp, there’s my buddy Matt and others like him, who prefer the roller-coaster adrenaline rush of its immediate sequel, Aliens. (There have been seven more films since then, but anyone who says Alien: Resurrection or Prometheus is their favourite has clearly been infected by a parasitic organism and can safely be ignored.)

Whether a video game is inspired by the first or the second film can, in other words, tell you a lot about what to expect. Alien: Isolation (2014), which happens to be one of the scariest video games ever made, functions as a remarkably faithful tribute to the 1979 original. The long-running Aliens vs. Predator series, which is far better than that title might suggest, is decidedly more action-oriented. To be clear, both options are valid: sometimes, it’s fun to experience an unstoppable killer organism bearing down on you; other times, you just want to unload a film-accurate pulse rifle on a horde of xenomorphs.

Alien: Rogue Incursion, which really should be called AlienS: Rogue Incursion, falls so firmly in the latter category it may as well come with a cute kid sidekick and a “Game Over, Man” screen every time you die. Loud, dumb, and only intermittently scary, it’s a VR game for action junkies who don’t mind more than a few technical hiccups.

MU/TH/UR!

Alien: Rogue Incursion begins confidently, with a thrilling opening spaceship crash sequence which quickly introduces central character Zula Hendricks (Andia Winslow) and her “Working Joe” robotic companion Davis 01 (Robbie Daymond). Hendricks and Davis are, I am told, characters from the old Dark Horse comic book line, though I’m far more intrigued by the fact they name drop Ellen Ripley’s daughter Amanda, suggesting this is a kind of sequel to seminal horror title Alien: Isolation. Of course, Alien: Isolation had exactly one xenomorph to fend off; Alien: Rogue Incursion has approximately a bagazillion.

And that’s where Incursion‘s problems really begin. In this game, it seems like you can’t take five steps without a xenomorph peeling itself off a wall and making a beeline for you. Firing your weapon – there’s a pulse rifle, shotgun, revolver, and eventually proximity grenades – will typically make quick work of it, though it’s easy to get overwhelmed when too many xenomorphs (or facehuggers) are on-screen.

This is fun and even scary the first few times it happens. It becomes mind-bogglingly dull and rote long before the game ends. It doesn’t help that xeno-attacks are heavily telegraphed: activate or unlock something, you better believe a xenomorph is going to drop in to say hi; enter a new area, you may as well have your pulse rifle armed and ready.

It really doesn’t help that checkpoints are few and far between, forcing you to replay sections ad nauseam every time you die at the acidic jaws of the umpteenth xenomorph horde. At least the death animations are awesome (and the closest this game comes to giving you a heart attack).

EVERY BULKHEAD AND EVERY VENT

It also doesn’t help that Rogue Incursion is plagued by technical deficiencies.

VR controls are notoriously fiddly at the best of times, but Incursion does you no favours with a confusing array of motion-controlled actions which never quite seem to work. It takes like six steps to reload your pulse rifle; you’ll often be dead by the third step because your arm started flailing about while a xenomorph bore down on you.

Shades of Alien: Isolation, most of the game’s retro-tech is tactile, with levers to pull and buttons to mash; this too becomes a problem when the controls are unresponsive and put you at an unfair disadvantage during even the simplest of tasks. Heck, even the act of holstering your pulse rifle is frustrating; you might think you’ve safely stowed it, only for it to fall clattering to the floor at your feet. Sometimes, the game just crashes.

In any other game, those failings would be fatal. In Alien: Rogue Incursion, the excitement of exploring this otherwise well-realized fictional world is enough to keep you going, despite the glitches.

It is, after all, very cool to be exploring this world, with its absurd number of vents just begging for a creepy-crawly to leap out of. Every once in a while, Incursion even has a hint of that Alien: Isolation magic which made that (slower, more thoughtful) game one of my all-time favourites. So even though Incursion is clumsy and broken and, worst sin of all, renders the xenomorphs boring, I still can’t resist recommending it to fans of the series or, for that matter, those looking for a slightly different VR horror experience.

Look out behind you.

***
Final score: 7/10 Bill Paxtons.

Visit the official website for Alien: Rogue Incursion here.

The post Alien: Rogue Incursion (PSVR2) Review: So Many Vents appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

WHAT IS IT?

A B-movie masquerading as a video game masquerading as another video game masquerading as a B-movie.

IS IT GOOD?

It’s spooktacular.

WHO SHOULD PLAY IT?

Scooby Doo and the gang.

AFTER DAWN

Seven years ago, future Academy Award-winner Rami Malek and a bunch of other hot young actors got themselves trapped at an abandoned mountain lodge, picked off one by one by unseen foes of debatably supernatural origins. Until Dawn, arguably the greatest horror/comedy video game ever made, was a minor PS4 masterpiece. Gleefully cliché, over-the-top, often absurd, it was also terrifying. Aided by its impressively robust consequence system – characters could easily die if you did or said the wrong thing – Until Dawn had all the trappings of classic B-horror fare, and all the amazibad writing to make it work. Until Dawn made us laugh and shriek with terror, and it had a plot strong enough to keep us entertained.

Supermassive Games’s bespoke choose-your-own-adventure system, a complicated branching narrative tree that sees decisions big and small affect the outcome of the game, was the highlight of Until Dawn. Getting emotionally invested in characters played by the likes of digital Rami Malek and digital Hayden Panettiere is that much easier when you know that every word you speak, every decision you make, could lead to their eventual death – or salvation.

Supermassive’s subsequent efforts in the so-called “Dark Pictures Anthology” have all been pale imitations of that brilliant original. Man of Medan, Little Hope, House of Ashes were all middling to incompetent attempts to recreate the Until Dawn magic. The Dark Pictures have been plagued by obvious budgetary constraints and weird plotting choices – including a self-seriousness that sucks most of the humour out of the B-horror vibe. Until Dawn understood that all a great B-horror story needs is dumb teens doing dumb things, punctuated by scary stuff. Why Supermassive jettisoned that in favour of truly depressing content – such as most of Little Hope – is beyond me.

Even as “Dark Pictures” plods along – another entry is due out next year – Supermassive has seen fit to grace us with the game that comes the closest yet to evoking the Until Dawn experience. It’s got dumb teens and meaty roles for horror greats – David “Dewey” Arquette! Grace “Sarah Palmer” Zabriskie! – and it’s explicitly designed to be played by a bunch of friends gathered ’round the TV, preferably with beers and pizzas in hand. The Quarry is the spiritual successor to Until Dawn that we didn’t know we needed, and it’s got the sense of humour to prove it.

LOST IN THE WOODS

The Quarry is the Friday the 13th of video games. Featuring a stellar cast of uncanny valley actors like Ethan “It’s a Schooner!” Suplee, Star Trek: Picard‘s Evan Evagora, and Justice “Pikachu” Smith, it tells the tale of a group of horny teenagers being terrorized by a greatest hits of horror movie baddies. The setting, a summer camp at the fictional Hackett’s Quarry, is suitably dark and scary, with ever-shifting shadows and creepy old cabins to explore. Events kick off on the final day of summer camp, with the last kids pulling away in a school bus – a convenient plot point that avoids placing actual children in danger – leaving only a handful of camp counsellors behind. Teens being teens, the desire to party hard (and flirt harder) keeps them at Hackett’s Quarry one extra night, in flagrant disregard of the warnings of their elders, including the aforementioned Arquette as camp manager.

Gameplay in The Quarry is all from the third-person perspective, with players controlling characters as they wander campgrounds that are heavy on creaky boardwalks and light on cell phone service. It’s a dialogue-heavy game, which means you are constantly having to make conversational decisions in order to progress the plot. Do you side with this character in an argument; do you flirt with that one? Some choices are easier than others; the tougher ones usually pause the game so you can furiously debate with friends which path to choose. On that note, The Quarry is very much meant to be played with a group, each person taking turns controlling their respective character(s). It doesn’t really matter who’s holding the controller at any given moment; the point is for everyone to watch the scary stuff together and collectively decide how to react.

The active player really only matters for the action scenes. Interspersed between the exploration and dialogue, you regularly find yourself in action-heavy “quicktime” sequences, where quick button presses are required in order to avoid threats or navigate environments. Sadly, these quicktime events are too easy, and very generously timed, so it’s unlikely you’ll lose too many, if any, characters due to a slow button press. It’s an overcorrection to the tough control scheme in previous Supermassive titles, making The Quarry the easiest of these games to date. Part of the tension of Until Dawn was that you knew that, at any time, a missed directional button could send your character falling to their death. Tension in The Quarry isn’t non-existent, but it’s still far less than it should be.

FRIGHT NIGHT

The Quarry‘s near-fatal flaw is that it just isn’t that scary. It has atmosphere, yes, and there are one or two decent jump scares. But it’s striking that across its nine-hour campaign, myself and my friends rarely felt truly scared. And I think I know why.

It’s not quite fair to call The Quarry predictable, but it does follow a fairly rigid structure that doesn’t leave much room for surprise. Back in Until Dawn, the story was legitimately unsettling because it was off-the-wall bonkers. One minute, you’d be surrounded by zombie wildlife. The next, you’d find yourself chained up in a Saw-like torture machine. Until Dawn left you feeling off-balance because the game itself was off-balance. Raw, untested, new.

Five Supermassive games in, The Quarry lacks that rawness, precisely because of how polished the whole thing is. It’s like watching a B-movie director who’s been handed a blockbuster movie, only to get lost in lazy CGI because they don’t have to hack together makeshift special effects anymore. In The Quarry‘s case, this translates into a finely honed cooperative horror game where plot points land where and when you’d expect, and where consequences of choices are telegraphed a bit too well. The return of a “host character”, with Grace Zabriskie taking on a role previously held by Peter Stormare and Pip Torrens, only adds to the feeling of Supermassive doubling down on the house style. I won’t lie: the first time the game ground to a halt so we could check in with Zabriskie’s Fortune Teller, our gaming group all groaned.

To be fair, though, we also laughed. The Quarry is a game made for laughter. It’s hilarious watching dumb teens make dumb horror movie choices, and it’s even funnier when you’re the one making those choices. It’s a fine balance between being deliberately stupid for the sake of it, versus trying to make the choices you think your character – the dumb jock, the hot influencer, the geek – would actually make in the circumstances. This is also where The Quarry is at its best: when you’re confronted with obviously branching paths, and your friends are all shouting at you to pick their preferred option before the timer runs out. That’s also true for the spur-of-the-moment action sequences: some of The Quarry‘s most exciting (if not particularly frightening) sequences involve the split-second choices between, say, hiding under the stairs or climbing out the window. One of my characters lost their life because I couldn’t bring myself to, quite literally, pull the trigger at a key moment.

BOO

The Quarry is the perfect party game.

If you like laughing and occasionally screaming at a B-horror movie with a group of friends, this is where you need to be. The acting is very good. The (too tidy) storyline is logical and satisfying. The spooky bits are less spooky than they might have been, but on occasion they do offer some surprises. Most of all, the very nature of the game, which encourages you to gather with a group of friends and shout at the TV, is exactly the type of thing for a fun Saturday evening.

I will never not say yes to a video game that sees the sheriff from Scream hamming it up as an overzealous camp administrator, or one in which a beloved character can get unexpectedly sliced to pieces because of a misguided dialogue choice. The Quarry will make you laugh, and it will occasionally make you scream. It may be a bit too slick for my liking, but I’m happy that the Until Dawn spirit lives on.

***
Final score: 8/10 haunted VHS tapes.

Visit the official website for The Quarry here.

The post The Quarry (PS5) Review: Saturday the 14th appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

WHAT IS IT?

Underwater Limbo.

IS IT GOOD?

It’s ooky, spooky, and positively dripping with atmosphere.

WHO SHOULD PLAY IT?

Thalassophobes.

UNDER THE SEA

Silt is the debut title from UK developer Spiral Circus, a micro indie studio with dreams of “bringing surreal art to life in games“. As debuts go, Silt is quite good, if derivative – a 2D puzzle-adventure title so heavily influenced by indie sensation Limbo it might as well be called Limbo 2.0.

While mimicking Limbo‘s black-and-white aesthetic and spooky puzzle vibe, what elevates Silt above other Limbo clones is its hand-drawn environments which, combined with more traditional video game animation, gives it the feel of a picture book come to life. If you’ve ever wanted to play an Edward Gorey video game, Silt is where it’s at.

BLACK WATER

The player-protagonist of Silt is a scuba diver with an unusual ability. At any time, they can extend a light beam – almost a tentacle – out of their body, and temporarily “possess” any one of the dozen species of sea creatures swimming about the murky depths. Most creatures – there are fish, eels, jellyfish, and other, stranger things – have a unique ability that can be exploited to solve environmental puzzles. A piranha-like fish with sharp teeth can chomp through objects, for example. Another creature, a glowing fish, can illuminate dark areas. It’s a neat mechanic, it works well, and it’s just begging for a Silt 2 with more than twelve species to work with.

Silt is a game in which every puzzle is a death trap, and every puzzle failure is a death. Typically, you’ll encounter an environmental hazard, or some type of hostile creature, which must be maneuvered around using the “possessable” creatures nearby. That piranha fish might cut into a chain holding up a large and deadly boulder, or a speedy “Arrowfish” can zip past a foe to search for alternate routes. Unfortunately, given that Silt is largely built around trial-and-error puzzle solving, this also means you spend an inordinate amount of time replaying the same sequences over and over, watching your lil diver buddy die over and over as you attempt different strategies.

Some of this is okay (and very Limbo like), but a lot of the puzzles are needlessly repetitive. For example, you might have to sneak past five of the same type of enemy. Annoyingly, once you’ve figured out mechanically what you need to do, the game then forces you to repeat that same “solution” five times in a row, for all five enemies. Given that a lot of puzzles require multiple steps – swim here, possess this enemy, swim there, possess that enemy – you wind up spending an inordinate amount of time doing repetitive tasks that just serve to pad time onto a relatively short game. It also doesn’t help that, in a throwback to older puzzle games, certain solutions require that you travel between multiple screens. There’s nothing quite so frustrating as aimlessly wandering between screens until you find a creature that you think might help – only to find out you picked the wrong one.

WATCHER IN THE WATER

Silt‘s saving grace is its aesthetic. It really is one of the loveliest 2D video games I’ve ever played, and, some annoying puzzles aside, it’s quite satisfying to navigate its four-chapter adventure. The gloomy black-and-white environments evoke a feeling of helplessness and loneliness, perhaps not quite so well as Limbo but in certain ways scarier, thanks to the underwater setting. The “boss fights”, which are basically large set-piece puzzles, are a highlight: the giant black-on-grey monsters that bar your progress can be legitimately terrifying.

Combined with a Journey-like approach to storytelling, in which details are spare but backgrounds and enigmatic cutscenes help colour in details, Silt is quite the enjoyable lil indie puzzler. At CAD $19.99, it’s also very reasonably priced. If you’re a fan of spooky underwater movies like Jaws or The Abyss, or if you like the Limbo style of gloomy horror puzzles, Silt is definitely worth checking out. Hold your breath. Ignore that creeping feeling on the back of your neck. Don’t look down.

***
Final score: 8/10 zombie worms.

Visit the official website for Silt here.

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