PS4 game review

Grab your tackle box and find yourself a nice spot at the lake in The Fisherman – Fishing Planet, the latest from the team at Fishing Planet LLC.

The Fisherman is an immensely deep and detailed online multiplayer fishing simulator game where players will seek out various species of fish across multiple countries and locations. Boasting life-like fish AI, realistic aero/hydrodynamics and over 110 different fish species in game, The Fisherman is certainly a leap forward for fishing sims. Players will have the chance to customise every part of their fishing kit, including but not limited to: rods, reels, leading lines, floats, hooks and even equipment bags. With so much variety and choice it can be a bit daunting at first for new players but the tutorial system is very detailed and spread out very effectively. Fishing is affected by multiple different conditions, just like real life, including time of day, weather and bait used so players will need to plan out each expedition depending on what they wish to try and catch.

On a standard PS4, The Fisherman visually looks good but has the usual sim game rigidity in certain secondary aspects like level elements away from the waterline but the details in the fishing itself are fantastic. Fish and fishing equipment are highly detailed and branded with different stats or visual flair so you can customise your character and load-out however you prefer. Equipment is also modelled to be as close to their real world counterparts as possible, meaning that rods, reels and fishing lines can break if used incorrectly or if too much tension is applied.

Being an always online game means that players can obviously play with friends but it also means that the game is constantly being populated with other players from around the world. This can help hint towards better fishing spots and adds to the sense of community around this title, which appears to be nice and strong. Fishing challenges and competitions are available to compete in online and bring with them some nice friendly rivalry and competition for players from all over the world.

Regardless of whether you are a casual fishing enthusiast or a die hard fan of the sport, The Fisherman – Fishing Planet has a lot to offer with the added benefit of not needing to wake up early in the morning.

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Mat Panek, Chief Reporter
Retromancer – Collector, repairer & fan of retro games & tech. Atari to Amiga, Nintendo to Sega! LD, Zip, Beta and a proud dad! One half of the TiredParents on Twitch.

Follow Mat on Twitter and Twitch

Disclosure: The Fisherman – Fishing Planet [PS4 PS Store code] was kindly provided by Homerun PR for this review.

Reboot sequence initiated. Initialising. Launching review of Observation, the newest title from the crew of No Code Studios for the Playstation 4.

Observation is a Sci-Fi thriller adventure game with some puzzle elements thrown into the mix, set on the space station of the same name. The player controls the space station’s, Systems, Administration and Maintenance Operating System or “SAM” for short. After rebooting, SAM notices the crew missing and finds the space station drifting, orbiting Saturn instead of earth, after an unknown anomaly occurred. Players will have to recognize and carry out voice instructions from the initial survivor Dr. Emma Fisher as she attempts to restore power and figure out exactly what happened to the station. Starting off by following the progress of Dr.Fisher by using the on board surveillance system and using it to connect and interact with other parts of the station. The player is eventually allowed to use either the on board systems or one of the small spherical probes on and around the station.

Observation does a great job of putting the player in the circuits of a cold AI that really changes the way you think about the whole situation at hand. If a voice print doesn’t match up will you accept it? If it does match but you don’t want to accept the command will you? From the offset there is something very strange going on and being put into an AI’s perspective changes the dynamics in a really unique way. SAM doesn’t feel like some omnipotent being the way HAL 9000 seems in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” he feels innocent and rooted far more in current technology. Observation is very methodical, camera controls are realistically slow and on board systems have a sort of clunky, outdated feel to them that even the crew’s logs complain about but this never feels like a hindrance.

The style of Observation is what really makes it stand out though, it strikes a balance between modern and slightly futuristic in all respects. The space station feels lived in with the daily life of the crew being visible but the Observation is still very clean and sterile meaning any overt deviation from order is jarring and strange. Camera effects and lighting play a major role, external station cameras are low resolution and fuzzy adding some great atmosphere while interior cameras are cleaner but still feel dated. There is always something eerie about the silence and isolation of space and the team at No Code have certainly got that feeling down to a science.

Observation is a fantastic Sci-Fi thriller that leaves the player with more questions than answers but definitely in a good way. A fresh take on a well worn genre with lots of little secrets and stories to discover. There are so many more good things to say about Observation but not without spoiling the mystery and charm players would experience by playing it themselves.

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Mat Panek, Chief Games Reviewer
Retromancer – Collector, repairer & fan of retro games & tech. Atari to Amiga, Nintendo to Sega! LD, Zip, Beta and a proud dad! One half of the TiredParents on Twitch.

Follow Mat on Twitter and Twitch

Disclosure: Observation [PS4 code] was kindly provided by Power Up PR for this review.