PlayStation 4 has enjoyed a pretty solid year so far, with the first six months of the year ushering in a slew of top-notch first and third-party offerings alike. Yes, there’s been some colossal disappointments (The Order: 1886, we’re looking at you, matey), but overall, Sony’s latest telly box has received some meaty additions to its ever-expanding games library that you can’t afford to miss out on. Consumers obviously agree too, as they’ve been flocking to PS4 since 2015 kicked off resulting in the system surpassing another sales milestone, further extending the system’s lead over Xbox One. Even with Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End’s delay, we remain optimistic.
With E3 over and summer now in full swing, PSU decided to look back over the first half of the year and pick six games that we feel are absolutely essential to any PS4 gamer’s collection. Here’s six games you need to pick up…
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Resident Evil HD Remaster
Remasters don’t come much better than Capcom’s brilliant HD facelift of the GameCube remake, which hit PS4 and PS3 back in January. Not only is it significant as this is the first time a non-Nintendo console has received the survival horror classic, but the game itself truly stands the test of time. Packing in gorgeous pre-rendered backdrops and enhanced character models (which looked great on GameCube even after 13 years), Resident Evil is the quintessential manifestation of old-school horror, and delivers epic thrills and chills as you battle gruesomely detailed zombies and mutants inside one of gaming’s most iconic locations. The puzzles aren’t half bad either, and show up the latter Resi games for the pre-school head-scratchers that they are. Get your thinking caps, folks, and experience one of gaming’s all-time classics.
Dying Light
Zombies have become the gaming industry’s ubiquitous canon fodder over the past decade or so, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t have fun with the undead. Indeed, Dying Light is the perfect example of injecting some much-needed fun into the zombie genre, fusing high-octane combat with excellent parkour navigation. Not only that, but the game also takes a leaf out of Left 4 Dead’s book by pitting gamers against a diverse range of undead foes, from the regular, shambling Hordes of Hades to more advanced reanimated corpses that require plenty of tactical gear shifts on your part.
Bloodborne
From Software’s gothic dungeon crawler remains one of the most highly-rated PS4 games released to date, let alone this year. For many, Bloodborne is the definitive PS4-exclusive, and it’s not hard to see why. Aside from making fine use of the PS4’s ample graphical muscle, which offers some highly atmospheric, gothic-inspired locations, Bloodborne’s gameplay taps into its spiritual predecessor Dark Souls, offering slick, challenging combat punctuated by epic boss battles and superb storytelling. Things are more fast-paced this time around though, and on the whole Bloodborne is more inviting for newcomers than the likes of Demon’s Souls, making it an ideal starting point for those who haven’t delved into the brutal mind of creator Hidetaka Miyazaki.
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Mortal Kombat X
NetherRealm’s 2011 reboot of fighting’s goriest series was a massive hit, and so a follow-up was always inevitable. Sure, it took four years to arrive, but Mortal Kombat X was worth the wait to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Scorpion and Lui-Kang, break a few limbs and perhaps eviscerate an opponent or two. Yep, Mortal Kombat X is everything a fan could want: bone-crunching, satisfying combat, heaps of gore, devilishly rewarding fatalities, and heaps of unique characters. Apart from being bloody good fun to play—no pun intended—Mortal Kombat X also packs a prodigious amount of content, which is pretty much unheard of in the fighting game genre; you’ll be plugging away at this game for weeks to unlock everything, and then there’s the multiplayer to keep you busy beyond that.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
CD Projekt RED’s open-world fantasy epic is probably one of the most essential games you’ll pick up for some time on any format, let alone in 2015 for PS4. To be honest, you already know this was going to be a cracking game, and you probably already have it in your collection; but just in case, let us extol The Witcher 3’s virtues just in case you’ve been living under a rock. Not only is this stunning-looking fantasy-RPG one of the biggest games ever—with a world that completely eclipses the size of Skyrim’s—but packs in an utterly massive gaming experience, spanning a compelling storyline complemented by dozens of side quests. All in all, if you want to get everything out of The Witcher 3, then expect to spend over 200 hours on the game.
Batman: Arkham Knight
The Dark Knight’s latest (and apparently, final) outing from Rocksteady is an absolute corker—but were you expecting anything less? Once again, fans of the comic book legend are treated to a sumptuous and sprawling open-world Gotham City to explore, as Bats swoops about from rooftops, duffing up legions of bad guys and solving crimes the only way he knows how: with a bag of swanky gadgets. Aside from looking the Bees Knees on PS4, Arkham Knight introduces plenty of new tricks, including the iconic Batmobile, plus a compelling storyline that is right up there with anything else Rocksteady has produced in recent years with the series. If Arkham Asylum reinvigorated the superhero video genre, then Arkham Knight has defined it.