Sony’s ongoing commitment to indie titles, mixed in with a willingness to go multi-format by some of the more prominent names out there, has ensured we’ve seen a pretty healthy crossover in terms of PC titles coming to PS4 this generation, but we’d still like to see more! So, we’ve used the collective noggins of PSU writers John-Paul Jones, Aaron Varshney and Neil Bolt to select the PC games they would most like to see come to PS4. From fast-paced, twitchy shooters to slipping on Arsene Wenger’s impossible jacket, here’s the 11 games they narrowed it down to.
John-Paul Jones’ Picks
Blues & Bullets
If the clue in the title wasn’t strong enough then let’s make it clear; Blues and Bullets is absolutely drowning in neo-noir chic. If you’ve watched Sin City or, god forbid, The Spirit, you’ll have a good idea of what to expect from an aesthetic point of view; namely lots of monochromatic filter combined with carefully chosen streaks of red to create a visually striking canvas.
Dig beneath its arresting veneer and lenience on historical figures such as Elliot Ness and Al Capone however, and a great yarn clearly influenced by the Telltale Games School of Episodic Adventure swiftly emerges to rival the genre’s best. With the already proven success of Tales from the Borderlands, The Walking Dead and more recently, Life is Strange on Sony’s system, it’s clear that Blues & Bullets would find a great home on PS4.
Marvel Heroes 2015
The free-to-play lovechild of comics titan Marvel and developed by much of the original talent who worked on the seminal Diablo II, Marvel Heroes is one of the most entertaining action RPG’s to pop along in sometime. In addition to boasting a very generous free-to-play model, a veritable bottomless well of missions and story content, masses of character customisation, co-op play and a constantly updated roster of new Marvel heroes and villains to both play with and against (Jessica Jones has recently joined the cast), it’s fair to say that Marvel Heroes 2015 would be a grand fit for PS4.
Certainly, with the overwhelming global popularity of the Marvel property, the acceptance of the free-to-play model by PS4 folks (Warframe being one such example) and the generally entertaining nature of hack and slash RPG’s, a PS4-bound Marvel Heroes 2015 is pretty much the biggest no-brainer since Katie Hopkins.
Renowned Explorers: International Society
Much like the assorted treasure that players uncover in Renowned Explorers: International Society, so too is the game itself both a surprising and welcome discovery. A turn-based tactical adventure that really wouldn’t look out of place as a tabletop board game, Renowned Explorers is a title which is supremely easy to like with its deft and entertainingly light-hearted take on exploration all the while packing a metric ton of replay value into the bargain. So whether you’re off finding lost forgotten Celtic artefacts in the Scottish Highlands, delving deep into ancient Egyptian tombs, or scaling the heady heights of Shangri-La, it’s clear that Renowned Explorers has a lot to offer.
Indeed, if the positive reception of Armello is any indication, PS4 players are well up for a bit of board game esque action and in that field, Renowned Explorers is among the best you can get your grubby paws on right now. It also happens to be the only game where you can defeat the enemy in a confrontation by literally cussing them into submission. Top stuff.
Verdun
As a setting, the first world war has been given pretty short thrift when it comes to representation in media these days. Whether that’s because the conflict wasn’t as geographically expansive as its successor or down to the fact that much of it centred around trench warfare and was thusly deemed to be not quite so ‘glamorous’ are arguable points, but none of that has put off developers M2H and Blackmill from fashioning an absolutely stellar multiplayer only shooter out of the era in Verdun. Boasting furious FPS thrills and squad based tactics in equal measure, Verdun might be a multiplayer-only shooter but don’t hold that against it – Verdun’s awe-inspiring commitment to such a crucial event of our past combined with some finely honed FPS and strategy gameplay beats, all help to forge an experience that would be right at home on PS4.
In fact, so encompassing is Verdun’s commitment to history that over the Christmas period, players could recreate the historic Christmas Truce of 1914; playing footie with friends and enemies alike, building snowmen and posting Christmas cards to their former foes. Every day that PS4 owners don’t have Verdun on their system, is just another day that they’re missing out.
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Neil Bolt’s Picks
XCOM 2
XCOM (X-COM for the purists) has often been among the highlights of my long history with games, and I don’t much care for strategy. From excitedly playing UFO: Enemy Unknown and Terror From The Deep in my early years of PC gaming discovery, to the more recent reboot of the series, XCOM: Enemy Unknown and its whopping expansion Enemy Within on both PS3 and PC, I’ve fought the alien menace time and again, and lost a fair few good men and women in the process. The upgraded Enemy Within version of XCOM is in an ever-revolving top three games of the last generation, I played more hours of that mercilessly tough, turn-based strategy goodness in 2014 than all the PS4 games out that year combined. You can imagine I was just the tiniest bit devastated to learn developers Firaxis had made this year’s bigger, better, tougher XCOM 2 a PC exclusive. Having heard how much it has evolved since Enemy Within, I’m not surprised it is. That doesn’t mean it won’t ever come to PS4 though, it just might take a while.
This time round the invaders have won, and XCOM is an underground rebel force, fighting to free mankind from the alien oppression. It’s set many years after the events of Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2 basically states your mission in that game was unsuccessful (it’s almost like the game has come back to punish you one more time) and there’s a whole lot of fancy new tech and enemy types to get your head round. I’m frankly terrified of XCOM 2. Terrified it will be better than anything else this year, terrified that I’ll lose many months of my social life to it. Simply put, I’m looking forward to fulfilling that terror. It’d just be nice to know when I can do so on PS4 as well.
Undertale
Yes, I have indeed come here with my pretentious hipster choice that people have gone doolally for, or nearly had an aneurysm over anyone suggesting they like it, let alone love it. An RPG you can play as a pacifist, that, despite being labelled ‘casual hipster bull’’’ due to some of its content, is actually a pretty hardcore bullet hell game too.
Personally, I just want to see this unique, offbeat love letter to Earthbound come to consoles, regardless of hype/hate. One of PS4’s strongest features is that it has a rich, diverse catalogue of games of all shapes and sizes. Whatever you think of Undertale, it would be a shame not to have it available to more people. A final note. Undertale’s soundtrack is a thing of rare beauty.
Football Manager
PES has sustained my console footballing dreams for many years. Even when it was absolute guff, it was still better than most of what that Sky Sports Simulator did most years. The itch it never quite scratches is full-blown in-depth club management. Once upon a time in the days of PS One and PS2, we had LMA Manager to placate us. It was pretty good, but there’s no denying the overlord of footy management is Football Manager.
Surely now is as good a time as any to get the long-running PC series on consoles (a pared-down version has appeared on PSP and Vita). It doesn’t even have to be the full Football Manager either. The current edition on PC features a simplified version of the game that would be far easier to adapt for a controller. Come on SEGA, convince Sports Interactive to share the love!
Aaron Varshney’s Picks
Unreal Tournament
It’s been almost ten years since Unreal Tournament 3 was released on consoles and the next UT is well on its way on the PC, keeping in touch with its frantically fast-paced twitch shooter roots. UT3 did not sell very well on consoles because it was much slower-paced, and it required mods to be created on the PC first before they were brought to consoles,but bringing this new iteration to PS4 could be a lot different.
With the new Unreal Tournament, the game is 100 percent free and created by the community with Epic Games building the foundation. Having such a huge development base you can guarantee that this will be the best UT yet. If you like your twitch-based Arena Shooters, then UT is at the top of its game.
Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae
Spectacle fighters are something that Japanese developers relish making, with Platinum Games (Bayonetta) being the most well-known to date to make spectacular games in the genre.
Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae is a seemingly run-of-the-mill spectacle fighter, and atypically terrible story-driven ‘school girl with a sword’ slasher, but what sets it apart from the other games is that it cuts out the rubbish and gets straight to the point, the battles! The animation of the protagonist is sublime and the moves you can execute are totally ridiculous, including the famous “kill them all but leave them standing” moment when you sheath your sword, then enemies drop to the floor. Good old Japanese funny tradition that just works brilliantly here.
BattleBlock Theater
Many might remember that cutesy indie title a few years back that played a lot like a cartoony version of SEGA’s classic Golden Axe. It was called Castle Crashers, and it swept the multiplayer world by storm, but the next game by its creators Behemoth; BattleBlock Theater, never made it across to PlayStation. With Behemoth’s fourth game already in the works, this might not ever happen but BattleBlock Theater took Castle Crashers to the next level in terms of outrageously silly fun, so this would be a game for PS4 owners to really look forward to.
Instead of a Golden Axe-style hack n’ slash, this time it’s a platformer, with a built-in level editor that makes things even more fun and ridiculous. There is a story mode too, but having a local four player deathmatch just makes things that much better. If you want to really know how bonkers this game is, I’ll let the Steam trailer speak for me.
Recettear: An Item Shop Tale
Capitalism Ho! You heard me, I want to buy your items for super cheap and sell them at a price that rips everyone off, have the biggest shop, and then own the richest empire in the world, ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!
Sorry got a little carried away there. This cute title is about a little girl that has her father run away from the debt collectors only to let his dear daughter, Recette, pick up the debt and try to pay it off. You’re mentored by a fairy, Tear, who forces you to pay back, weekly, a set amount of money. To do this you are told to set up a shop and sell your items otherwise you’ll be left homeless.
The best thing about this game is its charming and hilarious script. Not only that but the way you get to rip people off and then force adventurers to do your dirty work is so brilliantly handled that whoever thought of this game is a genius. The game is very light in terms of strategy and RPG elements, but it more than makes up for it with every character’s witty comments.