The Playstation 4 games introduced a new generation of consoles and signaled Sony’s dominance in the industry. It uses compact discs and a redesigned controller with touch pad functionality.
Swinging around the city of New York as Spider-Man is one of the most joyous experiences on PS4. This game also looks stunning, and is fully compatible with PlayStation 5. Bloodborne drenches Yharnam in a creepy atmosphere, with every corner potentially hiding grotesque beasts and fascinatingly twisted lore.
1. The Last of Us Part II
The Last of Us Part II is Naughty Dog’s swan song for the PlayStation 4. It’s huge and staggeringly detailed, with an expansive post-apocalyptic world where players can explore by foot or stealthy means.
It’s a great showcase for motion capture technology and the graphical fidelity of current consoles. Its story is polarizing, with Joel’s decision in the season finale a particular slap in the face for fans of the first game. The sequel’s narrative is also unwieldy, with flashbacks and varying days and perspectives interrupting the pacing.
Nevertheless, it’s a great story that can be enjoyed by people of all backgrounds. And if the game’s brutal difficulty is too much for some, the next-gen upgrade adds more accessibility options, including the ability to play in a more forgiving mode that allows you to navigate the world by sound, or even zoom in on the screen for easier navigation of complex environments. It also includes granular options that let players decrease enemy aggression or accuracy, as well as expand the number of checkpoints available in long encounters.
2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
There isn’t a lot of room for error when creating the sequel to one of the most critically acclaimed games in gaming history. Nintendo has a lot riding on this game – not just for the millions of Zelda fans out there, but also for the health of a company that has consistently changed gaming with every release.
Breath of the Wild has been praised by everyone from Polygon to IGN to Giant Bomb for its massive open world, beautiful graphics and impressive gameplay. The game is full of clever and touching franchise easter eggs, a robust physics engine, a dynamic weather system, a fire propagation mechanism, temperature and noise mechanics and the ability to traverse Hyrule in almost any way you can imagine.
3. Spider-Man: Miles Morales
When Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and its spinoff games hit the scene in 2011, they made one thing very clear: anyone can be Spider-Man. The idea of an Afro-Latino teenager taking on the mantle of Marvel’s most recognizable character was groundbreaking, especially when it came to addressing issues like police violence and Black Lives Matter.
The game’s gameplay is largely similar to that of the original PS4 version, allowing players to explore New York City as Miles Morales and unlock suits that grant new abilities in both traversal and combat. Miles’s electric powers allow him to perform a variety of takedowns, and his gadgets include a TaskRabbit-like app that allows citizens to report crimes, as well as devices that summon holographic fighter drones and trap enemies in gravity wells.
Like the PC port of Marvel’s Spider-Man released earlier this year, the PlayStation 5 release features immersive haptic feedback and full mouse and keyboard support for customizable control options. The game also boasts support for high-definition displays with ray-traced reflections and shadows.
4. Bloodborne
When Sony’s console launched in 2014, one of the key features it promised was that it would be capable of delivering a rich library of exclusive games. This has certainly been the case, with Sony’s own first-party studios releasing multiple great titles each year and its third-party partners also producing notable titles like Detroit: Become Human and the Nioh series.
The 2015 hit Bloodborne is an example of this – the gothic Victorian setting, lore and gameplay have been critically acclaimed with many gamers begging for a sequel or remake. It’s a challenging game with fiendishly difficult bosses that push players to their limit.
FromSoftware’s take on the Souls franchise is an impressive achievement. Its pacing is much faster than other titles, with combat encouraging players to move around the environment and quickly jab enemies. It’s a game that rewards players for thinking on their feet, but even the best can find it brutally difficult.