Top PlayStation 4 Games 2023

Call of Duty: Vanguard uses the last days of WWII to present a promising single-player campaign that ultimately feels half-baked in execution. Thankfully, developer Sledgehammer Games ensures online modes include enough refreshing ideas to keep them from coming off as just another yearly coat of new paint.

Yakuza spinoff Judgment returns with the detective-focused sequel Lost Judgment, which is out now on the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S / X.

Blasting through the bright and cheery 1950s world of Destroy All Humans! is a simple but satisfying kind of fun, and there’s a lot to be said for that. Just like the original, this remaster’s comedy is a little hit or miss but its attitude is in full force all the way through thanks to some overpowered alien abilities that let you mow down the puny human resistance like an overlord.

In Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, you play as Trigger, an ace pilot in the Osean military in the year 2019. You happen to do something bad enough that you’re thrown into a remote, Potemkin-village-style jail / penal colony. You’re stuck there with Avril, a crack mechanic who just happened to be flying a jet she built in restricted airspace when a war broke out between Osea and Erusia.

Essentially, the series is A Big Deal, but despite its gaming friendly scenario – a post-apocalyptic future where mutants, bandits, and marauders terrorise survivors, and where wanderer Kenshiro employs a deadly martial art known as ‘Hokuto Shinken’ to protect the weak – and multiple attempts over the past three decades, it’s never really translated into a great game.

Nostalgia is enough to mitigate Call of Duty: WWII’s weak story and bland characters, but only barely. Multiplayer’s better than it has been, though.

Flashback to the halcyon days of the PlayStation 2: if you were into both JRPGs and anime, chances were that you were also into Bandai Namco’s

Dead Rising 4 is filled with over-the-top, creative zombie killing, but the story is formulaic and the open world doesn’t invite exploration.

Final fantasy XV has solid open-world exploration, enjoyable action, and plenty of content, but it's packaged together with awkward gameplay decisions and a mess of a story.

Transformers: Devastation plays it safe when compared with other Platinum Games titles. It borrows and streamlines gameplay mechanics from other games, but makes the experience satisfying nonetheless.