Category: Techradar

There’s a new best PlayStation VR game in town – Astro Bot: Rescue Mission comes to Sony’s PSVR virtual reality headset, and is the first platform game to not only make the genre fun using the hardware, but also gives Nintendo’s Super Mario a run for its money. Read on to find out more!

Roughly two years on from its launch, the PlayStation VR for the PS4 and PS4 Pro remains the best-selling virtual reality headset on the market. And for good reason – Sony has committed to putting excellent, high-quality games out on the system, and has done so on hardware that puts entry price at just as an important standing as performance.

Afterall, if people can’t afford virtual reality, how will they be able to play the games in the first place? And as the PlayStation VR has proved to be such a mainstream hit, it should come as no surprise that developers have been busy building great games for users to try out. We’re collecting the very best PlayStation VR games right here for your convenience.

To date we’ve seen a lot of the best VR games, including those not originally intended for the Sony console, get reconfigured for the PSVR. On top of that, the PSVR has been getting its own range of exclusive gaming titles. We expect more and more great games will be landing on the platform over the next few months, so keep everything crossed that you can.

Once you’ve picked up a shiny new headset (and hopefully some awesome Move controllers), it can be difficult to pick the best PlayStation VR games out from the increasingly large pile of current titles.

We’re here to help with our recommendations of some of the best PSVR games around at the moment (and the ones we’re most excited about landing soon), and our picks cover a wide range of genres and playing styles. 

We’re always on the lookout for brand new PSVR games, so be sure to keep checking back for our latest picks of what’s new and what’s worth it. We’ll also make sure you know when there’s an upcoming game that looks too good to miss, so you can get your hands on it as soon as it’s been released. 

So whether you want to know what it feels like to be Batman or want to travel to a war-torn alien planet, or even face mortal dread with the most engrossing Resident Evil experience around, there’s something for you in VR.

Here’s a detailed look at the best PlayStation VR games for 2018 (so far).

Developer: Japan Studio

Price: $39.99, £24.99

Does it require Move controllers? No

If you own a PlayStation VR headset (which, if you’re reading this, we’re guessing you probably do) stop what you’re doing, head over to your PS4, and buy Astro Bot: Rescue Mission. If the PlayStation VR was awaiting a killer title, it now unarguably has one. Astro Bot: Rescue Mission isn’t just a great VR platformer, it’s a great platforming game full stop.

Full of the kind of inventiveness we’ve come to only expect from Nintendo’s Mario series, Astro Bot: Rescue Mission plays with the VR format with such wild imagination, it makes other efforts look lazy. Weaving levels all around the player, and using scale to both disarm and delight your expectations, it’s quite unlike anything you’ll have ever played before.

Developer: Vertigo Games

Price: $39.99, £32.99

Does it require Move controllers? No, but recommended

Resident Evil 7 isn’t the only great VR zombie game, as Arizona Sunshine has proved by mixing a bit of humor with a whole lot of zombies. The game throws players into the arid Southwest of the United States, an area overrun with zombies. It’s lonely out there, but there’s hope on the horizon of other humans that haven’t been infected.

Arizona sunshine offers a variety of zombies, some tougher than others, and a host of weapons to help put them down. The campaign can be played in co-op, and there’s also a multiplayer Horde mode. An essential PSVR game for fans of the undead.

• See Arizona Sunshine  at the PlayStation Store

Developer: Schell Games LLC

Price: £19.99, $24.99

Does it require Move controllers?: No, but with so many things you can interact with, the Move controllers will offer a lot of extra freedom.

The fantastic I Expect You to Die will have you feeling like a classy Cold War-era spy, like James Bond as played by Sean Connery or Roger Moore, not Daniel Craig. The game puts you into the role of a special agent tasked with getting yourself out of exceedingly sticky situations, all without moving from your seat.

It makes excellent use of VR, as you can pick up and play with objects all over your environment, whether or not doing so actually helps you complete your objective. 

There are several levels (with the potential of the developer adding more later, as has already been done), and each sets you in a unique environment that plays out much like an escape room. You’re faced with a series of puzzles, and your actions will determine whether you live or die. 

The puzzles are great, and many can be solved multiple ways, lending the game some replayability. This is also a fun one to watch your friends try, as you’ll enjoy the shock on their faces when they encounter traps, such as a cabinet full of hand grenades.

• See I Expect You to Die at the PlayStation Store

Developer: Ployarc

Price: $30, £25

Will it require Move controllers? No

A family-friendly VR adventure, Moss offers the immersion of a virtual reality experience with the fun of a platformer and sense of wonder of a Zelda game. 

Developed by a team made up in part of former Bungie employees, you’ll direct an intrepid, sword-wielding rodent through forests and ruins, guiding her through enemy filled rooms while taking direct control of environmental elements to solve puzzles.

It’s the perfect use of VR from a third-person perspective, giving you dual control over a hero avatar and as an omnipotent influence on her surroundings. It makes great use of perspective too, with a ‘Honey I Shrunk the Kids’ look at a world from a mouse’s scale. Definitely one to play on your PlayStation VR.

• See Moss at the PlayStation Store

Developer: Survios

Price: £19.99, $29.99

Does it require Move controllers?: Yes

Some people might have an impression of VR players slowly sinking into their couch as their virtual body flourishes and their real world body withers away. That couldn’t be further from the truth for players of Sprint Vector. 

This game is like Mario Kart meets Jet Set Radio, as players are thrust into a cartoonish world where they have to race against other players on sci-fi roller blades.

The key to the movement is players swinging their real-world arms back and forth in a running motion. No motion in the real world means no motion in the game. And, to get going fast, you really need to hustle. This game is as much a workout as any game from the Wii generation, so don’t be surprised if you break a sweat and get a bit of cardio in playing Sprint Vector on your PSVR.

But it’s not just a work. It’s also fun, as a goofy announcer keeps everything lighthearted even while racers try sabotaging one another with a handy arsenal of weapons.

• See Sprint Vector at the PlayStation Store

Developer: SUPERHOT Team

Price: £19.99, $24.99

Does it require Move controllers?: Yes, though a non-VR version of the game is also available and truly excellent.

It’s always a delight when a game developer takes a tried-and-true genre and introduces a new gameplay mechanic that flips it on its head. That was the case when SUPERHOT was released, as the first-person shooter was slowed way, way down. 

In the game, time only moves when the player moves, and that can make for some fantastic Matrix-esque moments. All of that gameplay has translated excellently into virtual reality with SUPERHOT VR. 

You’re plopped right into the middle of truly precarious situations, such as standing empty-handed before three enemies with shotguns who have you dead-to-rights, with only your wits and time on your side. 

While the story only takes a couple hours to play through, there’s plenty of replayability in SUPERHOT VR, as you can try to play through different ways, or take on challenge modes. It’s also a great VR party game, as players can swap in and out to show off their moves. Pick it up for your PlayStation VR today.

• See SUPERHOT VR at the PlayStation Store

Developer: Red Storm Entertainment

Price: £39.99, $49.99

Does it require Move controllers?: No – Star Trek: Bridge Crew can actually be played fully outside of VR by those who do not have PSVR or occasionally want to stay in the real world, but the most immersive experience is naturally had in VR.

Star Trek: Bridge Crew puts Star Trek fans right where they’ve always wanted to be: on the bridge of a Federation starship, or even in the captain’s seat. But it doesn’t put you there alone. 

This is actually a multiplayer, cross-platform game. Players on PSVR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive can all play together, and as we’ve said, even non-VR players can join in.

Each player has a role to play, specifically Captain, Helm, Tactical or Engineer. A crew of four can take on the story mission of finding a new home world for the Vulcan population, or procedurally generated missions can offer endless playability.  

If you want to explore space with a few friends but can’t wait for Elon Musk to make it happen, Star Trek: Bridge Crew is a great alternative. As a bonus, the game is often on sale, so you may not have to pay full price.

• See Star Trek: Bridge Crew at the PlayStation Store

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios

Price: £49.99, $49.99

Does it require Move controllers? No. DualShock controllers give a more comfortable, familiar control system for what’s quite a complex game, but Move motion controllers let you swing a sword, and there’s no arguing that that’s not cool.

You’ve played Skyrim, right? The benchmark for open world gaming for so long, it’s been hard to ignore, a cultural phenomenon of sorts. The RPG has now been reworked for Sony’s PSVR headset, and, while not perfect, it’s well worth experiencing.

There’s nothing quite like the scale of Skyrim in VR, with 100s of hours of RPG gaming letting you explore a huge map filled with secrets, quests and dragons to fell. Whether standing at the foot of a mountain or going toe-to-toe with a troll, the presence VR adds to the world is superb. Even if you’ve played through the game multiple times, it’s still something quite special to actually be standing in Solitude, or climbing the steps of Bleak Falls Barrow with your own two feet.

However, while the world remains superb, the transition to VR hasn’t been perfect. Move-controller sword swinging feels clumsy, menu navigation is a chore, locomotion can be tricky to master and many visual compromises have been made to meet the demands of VR visuals. For anyone that’s played a more recent remaster of Skyrim, it’ll feel a bit more rough and ready than you’re used to.

Leave your expectations at the door though, and it’s a unique return to Bethesda’s still-excellent core game, with some new bells and whistles thrown in.

• See The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim at the PlayStation Store

Developer: Polyphony Digital

Price: £44.99, $69.99

Does it require Move controllers? No, but getting a racing wheel elevates the experience.

It’s the daddy of racing sims, so it’s fitting that Gran Turismo Sport, the franchise’s first foray on the PS4, should embrace that most immersive of console peripherals – the PlayStation VR headset.

You’ll get in the cockpit of a huge selection of beautifully realised vehicles, each modelled exactly as they appear in real life, before taking them out onto the circuit for head-to-head races.

A side-helping to the brilliant main Gran Turismo Sport game, the VR mode has still been obviously meticulously crafted, with a discreet in-game HUD, useful mirrors and some fine-stitched racing gloves sitting over your digital hands. It makes an already drool-worthy racer extra tempting, and is a must-have for PSVR owners. 

• See Gran Turismo Sport at the PlayStation Store

Developer: SIEA/Impulse Gear

Price: £49.99, $49.99 / £74.99, $79.99 with PS VR Aim

Does it require Move controllers? No, but it’s better with the PS VR Aim add-on.

Like sci-fi? Love shooters? Laugh in the face of super-gross giant space spiders? Then PlayStation VR’s Farpoint is for you. 

The PSVR exclusive sees you shooting your way through alien environments in glorious VR, and makes use of Sony’s new gun controller to let you realistically aim at your extra-terrestrial foes. You can dodge and duck behind cover to avoid incoming fire, and while the game follows a fairly linear path, you’re free to explore the levels at your leisure. Despite giving you free control over the movement of your character, Farpoint somehow manages to avoid the motion sickness issues that have plagued similar titles.

We had a blast with Farpoint. Though short at six-or-so hours of single player story mode to complete, its multiplayer mode gives it some extra replayability, as does the pinpoint-accuracy of its visceral gunplay. For more on the game, read our Farpoint verdict here.

• See Farpoint at the PlayStation Store

Developer: Capcom
Price: $60/£50
Does it require Move controllers? No.

Resident Evil 7 is a bit of an anomaly on this list: the next entry in the long-running horror series takes the experience into first person for the first time, but, more impressively, can be played in its 18 hour entirety in VR. 

This means that the game is one of the longest PlayStation VR experiences available right now, but you’ll need a lot of courage to make it through the game this way, since by all accounts Resident Evil 7 is one scary game – especially in virtual reality. 

However, if you’re able to stomach the scares you’ll be rewarded with one of the finest horror games of this generation, and a true return to form for the Resident Evil series.  

• See Resident Evil 7 at the PlayStation Store

Developer: Criterion / DICE
Price: Free (if you own Battlefront)
Does it require Move controllers? No.

It may only last 20 minutes, but what a fantastic third of an hour it is. Star Wars Battlefront’s X-Wing VR mission, even as an extended tech demo, is a perfect example of what VR is capable of. Putting you right in the cockpit of a lovingly modelled X-Wing fighter, it transports you directly into a key element of the Star Wars universe.

Handling like a dream as you dart between asteroids and take on a fleet of Tie Fighters, and you’ll get all the feels when John Williams’ iconic score begins to swell. Put this near the top of your shortlist for the best PlayStation VR games.

• See Star Wars: Battlefront at the PlayStation Store

Developer: Tarsier Studios

Price: $19.99/£15.99

Does it require Move controllers? No.

Statik, by Little Nightmare developers Tarsier Studios, is one of the cleverest VR games out there. 

It sounds simple enough. Each level sees you play as a research participant who wakes up with their hands trapped inside various different contraptions. 

Each button on the controller seems to do something on the device, but it’s never really clear what. You’ll have to experiment with trial and error to escape from each of these contraptions, and the puzzles get fiendishly difficult. 

But what’s really impressive is how the game plays into the constraints of the PlayStation VR when used with a DualShock controller. It’s camera isn’t good at tracking over large distances, so the game has you sitting in a chair. The fact that you’re using a controller makes you feel as though your hands really are trapped inside a box, even if you can move your hands freely in the real world. 

Statik is a game that’s great at showing off the simpler pleasures of VR, and it’s easy to get completely absorbed in its puzzles. 

• See Statik at the PlayStation Store

Developer: Monstars + Enhance Games
Price: $30/£25
Does it require Move controllers? No.

Who’d have guessed that a 15 year old Dreamcast game would turn out to be one of the killer apps for Sony’s PlayStation VR headset? The second time that the classic shooter has been updated, Rez Infinite adds VR head tracking into the mix, putting you at the center of its Tron-like wireframe soundscapes.

It’s always been a game that lets you “get in the zone”, but with VR head tracking, Rez Infinite becomes almost hypnotic. With an ace, pulsing trance soundtrack that builds to a thumping crescendo as you shoot down polygonal enemies, you find yourself fully immersed in the futuristic landscape as it zips past your floating avatar.

With an insane sense of speed and spot on head-tracking enemy targeting, it’s easy to completely lose track of reality whilst playing Rez Infinite, and it’ll be hard to stop yourself dancing along to the grooves your shots produce. Packing in all the additional content of the earlier HD re-release of Rez, it’s still a relatively short VR experience at just around an hour long. 

But, like a good album, it’s something you’ll want to dive into again and again. Just be careful that you don’t do a “Jeff Bridges in Tron” and find yourself so hooked that you’ll never want to leave.

• See Rez Infinite at the PlayStation Store

Developer: Rocksteady Studios
Price: $20/£16
Does it require Move controllers? Yes.

Batman: Arkham VR is probably the best introduction to PlayStation VR as a platform. While there isn’t a ton of gameplay in the traditional sense, it’s an amazing visual showcase that demonstrates the power of the platform. 

The opening sequence of the game draws you into in by leading you from the top floor of Wayne Manor down to the basement wherein you suit up as the Batman for the first time. 

What you’re paying for here are the vistas and the incredible level of immersion as you solve crimes throughout Gotham and come face-to-horrifying-face with Batman’s greatest adversaries. 

There’s few things scarier than looking the Joker in his beady bright green eyes or standing mere inches away from Killer Croc, and Batman: Arkham VR is one of the only experiences in the world that offer just that.

• See Batman: Arkham VR at the PlayStation Store

Developer: London Studio
Price: $40/£30
Does it require Move controllers? Yes.

There’s a vast majority of gamers out there who are going to get PlayStation VR Worlds without ever heading to the store to pick it up. Sony’s decision to include it in the PlayStation VR Launch Day Bundle was, in many ways, one of the most brilliant decisions the company made with its VR headset. On the disc you’ll find a number of short, self-contained experiences that demo polished game ideas that could one day be expanded into full titles. The standout titles include Danger Ball, The London Heist and Scavengers Odyssey, but the remaining games – Ocean Descent and VR Luge – aren’t all that bad, either. 

There’s a reason Sony picked PlayStation VR Worlds to be packaged with every Launch Day bundle – it’s probably the best title to use to ease friends and family into virtual reality, rather than tossing them into the deep-end with a game like Thumper. The demos here can be a bit overwhelming at times – I’m looking in your direction, VR Luge – but if they’re feeling the motion sickness you can always bring them back to something like Danger Ball or Ocean Descent to get them back on their feet.

• See PlayStation VR Worlds at the PlayStation Store

Developer: Rebellion
Price: $50/£50
Does it require Move controllers? No.

Chances are, the original Battlezone might have passed you by if you’re under 40 – Atari’s 1980 arcade game doesn’t quite hold the same iconic status as Pong. However, it’s generally considered to be the very first VR game, which is why British developer Rebellion bought the rights from Atari so that it could remake it for modern VR headsets. 

The result is one of the best VR experiences we’ve had to date. The gameplay is fun (think a futuristic take on World of Tanks), but it’s the striking-but-simple graphics that are the key to the overall enjoyment. There’s two main modes here – offline campaign and online multiplayer. While we didn’t have time to try it with a bunch of buddies online, the offline campaign mode feels pretty well fleshed out. There’s quite a number of tanks to pick from and unlock and while gameplay can err on the repetitive side, it’s enough to lock you in for a few hours at a time.

While a lot of VR games try to go as realistic as possible, Battlezone’s Tron-like game world is incredibly absorbing, and better yet it’s one of the few titles on the platform you’ll be able to enjoy alongside your friends thanks to the game’s inclusion of co-operative play.

• See Battlezone at the PlayStation Store

Developer: Sony
Price: Free
Does it require Move controllers? No.

Even the coldest of hearts will be melted by The Playroom. The game’s cast is comprised of little robots who are tossed into peculiar, fun and even Mario-esque situations for your amusement. If I’m being totally honest, the whole game looks and plays like a Mario Party game and is perfect for larger crowds. 

In one mini-game, the player with the VR headset is a monster, while four players using a TV and DualShock 4 controllers try to avoid the debris he throws at them. In another, one player wearing the headset is tasked with sucking up ghosts from a haunted house while players outside of virtual reality locate the spectres and shout directions on where to shoot. There are also toybox demos where you just look into a miniature house and observe the droids as they go to the gym, go swimming, watch TV and so forth. 

But honestly the best part of Sony’s The Playroom VR is its price – it’s free to download, which makes it one of the best bargains anywhere on the PlayStation Store.

• See The Playroom VR at the PlayStation Store

Developer: kokoromi
Price: $30
Does it require Move controllers? No.

SUPERHYPERCUBE is a legitimately fun game, like not “by VR’s standards” fun, but real honest fun. The goal here is to rotate blocks to get them to fit through an opening of a certain size and shape. Sneak the piece through and you’re rewarded with another block that will then create the next puzzle a bit harder. If you can’t, the blocks that can’t fit through the opening jettison off your cube and you start from square one. 

Where SUPERHYPERCUBE went right is that it didn’t try to do anything complex – like Tetris, Candy Crush and Breakout! the idea here is simple: don’t mess up. But the simple idea is enhanced by the perspective provided by VR – by allowing you to look at your floating cube from every angle you appreciate the times you solve the puzzle and simply laugh when it doesn’t work out. 

The only things SUPERHYPERCUBE is missing are a killer soundtrack and a few more modes to pad out the solve-it-or-start-over gameplay. A mode where you start with a cube comprised of 40 blocks or shaped like various mundane objects would’ve gone a long way to making it feel like a more complete, robust experience. Still, all that aside, it’s worth picking up.

• See SUPERHYPERCUBE at the PlayStation Store

Developer: Uber Entertainment
Price: $20/£15
Does it require Move controllers? Yes.

If you’ve been looking for PlayStation VR’s sleeper hit, Wayward Sky is it. An isometric puzzle game that’s aimed at younger gamers, Wayward Sky has you solving puzzles to reunite a young female pilot with her father. At times heartfelt and funny, other times heart-achingly sad, Wayward Sky is a rather emotional journey. 

Setting emotions aside for a minute, the game may not do the best of jobs leveraging virtual reality’s new perspective, but the few times it does – usually when operating a piece of machinery – are effective at making you feel more immersed.

That said, it can be tough to tell who the game is targeting. While kids would make the most sense given the game’s lighter atmosphere and sometimes overly simple puzzle mechanics, Sony doesn’t recommend children under the age of 12 use its virtual reality headset. So unless you’re willing to fly in the face of Sony’s warning – or embark on the journey yourself while a little one watches along on the TV – you might need to skip past this patch of sky. 

• See Wayward Sky at the PlayStation Store

Developer: Steel Crate Games
Price: $15/£12
Does it require Move controllers? No.

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes doesn’t sound like much fun on paper. While one person puts on a headset to look at an overly detailed bomb in a nondescript room, the other player uses the TV screen to read a dense direction manual on how which wires to cut and buttons to push to make sure you get to the next level. But underneath its seemingly boring exterior lies a tremendously fun exercise in teamwork, communication and sometimes sheer dumb luck as you make last-minute decisions to stop a bomb from going off.  

Levels that start off easy – usually with two or three puzzles to solve and a few minutes to solve them – have a tendency to escalate quickly. Part of the game’s charm is that whenever you start feeling good about your skills as either a decoder or disarmer, something else comes up that ruins your day. In that way it’s fun trying to stay calm under pressure and getting a laugh when it all, inevitably, blows up in your face.

• See Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes at the PlayStation Store

Developer: Drool
Price: $20/£16
Does it require Move controllers? No.

Never have the words “Rhythm Hell” been a more apt description for a game. Thumper pushes you by sending wave after wave of obstacles your way that require button combinations set to a certain beat. If the flashing lightshow isn’t enough, the game’s aesthetics and boss battles are like something set out of Dante’s Inferno: hellish visages of what life in the afterlife might look like for all the naughtiest gamers. 

While the music in Thumper is never totally recognizable, it’s instantly catchy causing you to bob your head to the beat and curse loudly when the game sets aside all care for your emotions and just throws everything and the kitchen sink at you all at once.

Thumper is, admittedly, a bit on the intense side visually – so it’s probably not the best thing to show off to mom and dad or little ones. But if you’ve gone through Rez Infinite and you’re looking for a musically inspired hellscape, Thumper should be the next game on your list.

• See Thumper at the PlayStation Store

Developer: Supermassive Games
Price: $20/£15
Does it require Move controllers? Yes.

One of our favorite aspects of PlayStation VR is just how many different genres of games it has. DriveClub in VR will satiate racing game fans’ need for speed, while GNOG will put fans of puzzle games face-to-face with a dozens of colorful enigmas to solve. 

Unlike either of those, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood joins Resident Evil 7 in being one of PlayStation VR’s first forays into the horror genre, one that straps you into a carnival-esque rollercoaster and sends you hurtling through of funhouse of horrors. 

While the controls are fairly limited – basically shoot anything and everything that moves – the real “fun” to be had in Rush of Blood comes from tumbling from one jump scare to the next with a deathgrip on both the controller and your bladder. 

Trust me kids, nothing is scarier than almost peeing your pants in a room full of your friends.

• See Until Dawn: Rush of Blood at the PlayStation Store

Developer: Double Fine Productions
Price: $20/£15
Does it require Move controllers? No.

If you’re looking for a laugh while play testing your new PSVR, check out Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin, a game written by the weird, twisted mind of Tim Schafer. While we’ve always loved the stuff Schafer has done, Rhombus of Ruin takes his writing to a new dimension. (Get it? Fine. We’re not funny.) 

What you’ll find here behind the clever jokes and Schafer’s lovably strange humor is a straightforward puzzle game that can be played in just over an hour. The puzzles aren’t exactly mind melting, and the experience might be a bit too short for the price of entry, but if you can’t wait another minute for Psychonauts 2 or want a more laid-back experience while you’re still learning the ropes of virtual reality, this is a trip to the inner psyche worth taking.

• See Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin at the PlayStation Store

Developer: Sony London Studio

Release window: 2018

Will it require Move controllers? Yes.

After rocking the PlayStation VR launch with VR Worlds and its standout cockney-shooting gallery mode The Heist, Sony London Studio is following it up with a full-length dive into London’s underworld.

In Blood and Truth you’ll play as a former special forces operative exploring the murky world of London’s criminal elite on a mission to save his family. Taking its cues from big-budget action movies, it wants to make you feel like the hero of your own film.

From the demo we’ve seen so far, Sony London Studio again nails its VR gunplay, but it’s the little details that look set to make the game shine. As good looking as any game that’s yet hit the PlayStation VR headset, Sony London Studio offers an intuitive world where partaking action movie tropes (like shooting at the feet of a tight-lipped informant unwilling to spill the beans), are rewarded just as you’d expect them to be. If you’ve got a PSVR headset, we think it should be top of your wishlist.

• See Blood and Truth at the PlayStation site

Developer: Owlchemy Labs

Release window: 2018

Will it require Move controllers? Most likely.

Fans of Job Simulator have a new game to look forward to in Vacation Simulator. It’s looking to be more of the same humor, paired with quirky gameplay as you try your best to participate in a vacation.

We don’t have many details on the game yet, other than a brief look at it here, and that it should release in 2018 on multiple VR platforms. As long as Owlchemy Labs keeps doing their thing, we have no doubt Vacation Simulator will be a fun little romp in VR.

• See Vacation Simulator here

Developer: Bandai Namco Studio / Project Aces

Release window: 2018

Will it require Move controllers? Likely not.

Being in a cockpit is one of the most natural settings for VR, and Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown drops players in the cockpits of a fighter jet for some extreme dog-fighting. The Ace Combat series has had a fairly consistent track record of coming out with compelling dog-fighting games, and the upcoming title will hopefully prove that little has changed.

It’s unclear just how much gameplay will actually be in VR, as Ace Combat 7 won’t be a strictly-VR game. But, a package that comes with a complete game and offers a special VR mode on top is a good package in our eyes. Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is slated for release in 2018 on PlayStation VR.

• See Ace Combat 7 at the PlayStation site

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4K-hungry gamers looking for the most powerful console ever made have have been keen to pick up Xbox One X bundles since release. Prices have been quite high if you’re not sure where to look though. That’s where we come in as our dedicated team of Deal Hunters cut through the chaff to bring you only the very best Xbox One X deals every day, and especially when Black Friday rolls into town.

In this article you’ll find a comparison chart with the lowest prices on where to buy the 4K HDR Xbox One X console from a wide range of the best retailers. After the comparison chart we’ve put together a collection of the latest bundles in the States and UK. These Xbox One X bundles will save you money over buying the items separately. There’s not always a massive choice (especially in the US), but we’re all set to pounce on any new Xbox One X deals when they come online, so feel free to bookmark us if nothing takes your fancy today.

If you’re after information on the latest Australian deals, head over to our Australian page.

The best Xbox One X prices

US Xbox One X bundles are really stepping things up now after a quiet few months. there’s never been a better time to buy actually as you’re getting genuine discounts and free content for the first time in ages.

What is the Xbox One X price?

You might want to sit down for this one. The Xbox One X costs $499 in the US. UK gamers can expect to get their currency converters in a twist again, as you’re paying £449 instead of the direct conversion of around £390. Naturally, these prices don’t include any games, unless a retailer is feeling generous.

Why should I buy an Xbox One X?

Just to be clear, this is not what you’d call a ‘next-gen’ console. Instead it’s a powerful upgrade over the current Xbox One lineup. To simplify things, it’s akin to Sony’s PS4 Pro. Both consoles are aimed at gamers with a 4K HDR TV who want the best graphical performance possible on their favored console. There will be modest performance boosts on non-4K TVs too, but you’re kind of missing the point without a 4K HDR TV.

As things stand the Xbox One X will play all Xbox One games and we’re not expecting to see any games released exclusively for the Xbox One X (or so we’ve been told), so there’s certainly no reason to throw away your Xbox One S yet.

The Xbox One X is the most powerful console ever made though, even outshining some of the specs of the PS4 Pro. But given the huge asking price, you’d hope as much. The Xbox One X is making bold claims about true native 4K gaming though with its upcoming titles and if you have a 4K TV with High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology, the Xbox One X is ready to seriously impress with the likes of Forza Motorsport 7, Metro: Exodus and Anthem set to be true jaw-droppers in the graphics department.

Where can I buy an Xbox One X?

Most of the usual big name retailers are stocking the Xbox One X. Prices this close to launch are all very similar for now, but as we move forwards, we’ll start to see stores chipping away at the price to try to get an edge over the competition. 

Keep an eye on the highlighted Xbox One X bundles above and our comparison chart, which we’ll keep up to date on the latest prices for the Xbox One X on its own. So feel free to bookmark us and check in again soon to see if we’ve found the deal that’s right for you. Fingers crossed the bundles get better soon, especially in the US where we’re not seeing massive software discounts so far.

What is the Xbox One X release date?

It’s here now! The Xbox One X came out on November 7 2017. That was a worldwide release date too.

Will there be Xbox One X deals are Christmas?

Unlike the first Xbox One X’s first Christmas, we do expect there to be some deals this year. The 4K console was seemingly too new to discount last year, but Microsoft will be keen to catch up the the PS4 Pro this year and we’re hoping for some decent discounts in what has been a slow year for deals in all honesty. In all likelihood, the PS4 Pro prices and bundles are still going to be much cheaper.

What if I don’t care about 4K or want to save money?

The standard Xbox One S is a fantastic games console and you’ll easily be able to get one with a few games for around $250/£250 or less. There are cheap deals all year round on our Xbox One deals and PS4 prices, deals and bundles pages.

Only kidding. I want 4K HDR in my face right now.

4K TVs with HDR are nowhere near as expensive as you’d think. The prices have come down much faster than the original HD TVs, so you can get a decent model for a low price. Hell we’ve seen some nice ones for less than the price of the Xbox One X itself (what a ridiculous world we live in). For the best of the best, take a look at our best TV article. We’ve also rounded up the best cheap 4K TV deals too in the UK, and also a collection of US TV deals.

How big is the hard drive in the Xbox One X?

For now, the only option available is the 1TB option, that’s 1000GB of storage. There are no official plans for larger versions, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see these come along in 2018. 

With some 4K-friendly update patches to games coming in at over 100GB, we certainly wouldn’t hold out for a cheaper 500GB Xbox One X, as it’d be a bit pointless to be honest. 

We think gamers are going to fill up the 1TB Xbox One pretty soon. Thankfully the Xbox One X is compatible with external hard drives using USB 3.0. So if you need some extra storage, check out our list of the best external hard drives.

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It’s been almost 12 years since Kingdom Hearts 2 was released, but the demand for Kingdom Hearts 3 has not faltered. In that 12 years we may have gone through one and a half new console generations (and played many spin off titles) but the mainline Kingdom Hearts story has remained in the back of our minds. 

Thankfully the highly-anticipated Kingdom Hearts 3 was confirmed by Square Enix in 2013 with an official announcement.

Following the official announcement, Square Enix remained pretty tight-lipped about any further details regarding Kingdom Heart 3. Then at E3 2014 we got a teaser trailer and some tantalizing details, followed by even more news and a gameplay trailer at E3 2015. 

But it was E3 2018 when the real juicy details emerged, showing some of the Disney characters Sora, Donald and Goofy will be encountering, alongside an official release date. 

We’ve summarised all the news, rumors and juicy details about Kingdom Hearts 3 right here for you – so get comfy.

[Update: Kingdom Hearts 3 will see Sora and pals returning to 100 Acre Wood.] 

• We got hands on time with Kingdom Hearts 3’s Toy Box level – here’s what we thought

Cut to the chase

• What is it? The long-anticipated third mainline title in Square Enix’s action roleplaying crossover series, Kingdom Hearts.
• When can I play it? January 29, 2019
• What can I play it on? PS4 and Xbox One

Trailers

The most recent Kingdom Hearts 3 trailer sees Sora and friends returning to 100 Acre Wood to help Winnie the Pooh. The trailer was revealed at X02018.

Here’s a closer look at the world of Tangled.

At Tokyo Game Show, Square Enix revealed the Big Hero 6 world. 

Two trailers from E3 2018 confirmed that Frozen, Wreck-It-Ralph, and Pirates of the Caribbean are new worlds in the game. 

We also got a four minutes long trailer Disney’s D23 Expo in Japan. The gameplay video gives fans a look at the brand new Monsters Inc World, starring Boo, Mike and Sully. 

D23 is the place for Kingdom Hearts trailers, as prior to the Japan event we were treated to another trailer announcing a brand new Toy Story world. 

Not long before this at E3 2017 we got the chance to see another gameplay trailer which showed off footage from the game’s Hercules level. 

The second most recent trailer for the game was released at JumpFesta in 2016. The trailer gave an insight into how the game’s combat will work as well as a glimpse at special abilities and the impact the game’s environment will have on fighting.

Prior to this there was another and much more full trailer released at E3 in 2015. In this gameplay trailer fans got a look at what appears to be a new location –  the exterior of Rapunzel’s tower from the film Tangled.

A much shorter trailer was revealed at E3 in 2014, setting the stage for the game’s main story. 

And of course we can’t forget the announcement trailer from all the way back in 2013. There have been lots of trailer haven’t there?

Kingdom Hearts 3 release date

Square Enix has now confirmed that Kingdom Hearts 3 will launch on January 29 2019.

Kingdom Hearts 3 news and features

A closer look at Hercules characters

Twitter user YonkouProductions shared a screenshot of the next V-Jump issue which shows off the Hercules characters we can expect to see in Kingdom Hearts 3 (via Comic Book). We already knew we would be returning to Hercules and Mount Olympus in the latest addition to the Kingdom Hearts franchise, however the screenshot reveals we will also be meeting Meg, Pegasus, Hades and Meg on the journey.

You can check out the tweet below:

Story

Kingdom Hearts 3 will see players once more take up the role of Sora as he travels with his closest friends Donald and Goofy across a variety of world themed around and populated by a host of famous Disney and Final Fantasy characters. 

Game director Tetsuya Nomura has confirmed that the game’s story will start straight after the ending of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.

This means that the game will follow our trio in their pursuit of the Seven Guardians of Light to prepare for their final showdown against Master Xehanort. All the while, King Mickey and Riku will continue their hunt for the remaining Keyblade wielders.

Does all of this sound like complete gobbledygook to you? Not to worry, if you’d like to catch up on all of the essential story you can do so on PlayStation 4 by playing Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 Remix and Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue.

Not sure you’ve got the time for playing through all of that? Then you could watch the below summary of the franchise timeline created by Game Trailers. It’s still almost an hour long but it’ll do the job. 

New visuals

Kingdom Hearts 3 will adopt a slightly visual style to previous games in the franchise, aiming for more of a brush-like look than photo realism. In an interview with Famitsu (via Kotaku) Tetsuya Nomura was very open about the decision to take a new visual approach, stating that this new direction was an attempt to “Express Disney’s 2D brushwork in 3D.” 

Nomura said this was a look they’d wanted since the first game but “At the time, the [PlayStation 2] didn’t have the processing power to allow us to freely adjust the lighting.” 

The new PlayStation 4 hardware, however, is much more capable and Nomura said it’s possible to get “a real feeling of evolution by just making the standard graphics into HD.” Nomura admitted that it’s a fairly “drastic change” but added that he sees it as “a rich evolution of everything we’ve shown you up to now.”

Gameplay

It looks like the action RPG gameplay won’t change too much from previous titles in the franchise, most likely drawing from and improving on that of Kingdom Hearts 2 and perhaps integrating particularly successful elements from the handheld titles. 

It’s been confirmed, though, that Sora will be much more mobile in combat, able to wall run, jump on enemies, and largely take greater advantage of the game’s much larger environments. 

Back in 2013, Nomura said that the combat in Kingdom Hearts 3 will be “pretty frantic”, with NPCs able to join in the three-person party fights as well as “more intricate” enemy AI. 

A couple of interesting new combat features that have been confirmed include Attraction Flow and Keyblade Transformations. 

Attraction Flow attacks are new super moves that will apparently be triggered under certain though unconfirmed battle conditions. These powerful moves based on the Flowmotion moves from Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance are inspired by some of the biggest rides at the Disney theme parks such as the Teacups, Pirate Ship and Thunder Mountain Railroad. 

Keyblade Transformations are fairly self explanatory and will allow Sora’s Keyblade weapons to transform in battle with different effects. 

According to Nomura, Keyblade Transformations will only be unlocked when all missions from one of the game’s worlds are unlocked, with each individual world offering its own unique transformation. 

For example, it was spotted by KH Insider that an Olympus Keyblade was able to cast Zeus’ lightning as well as transform into a Pegasus-drawn chariot. 

New worlds

Disney’s been busy in the years since Kingdom Hearts 2 was first released so as you’d expect, there are going to be a few new worlds to play in. 

Thus far the Kingdom of Corona from Tangled, an as yet untitled world from Big Hero 6, Mount Olympus from Hercules, Twilight Town Mysterious Tower, Toy Story, Frozen, Pirates of the Caribbean and Monsters inc. worlds have been confirmed as new additions. 

In a recent interview with Famitsu, Nomura lessened the excitement of a brand new Toy Story world slightly by revealing that there will be fewer Disney worlds in this game than in Kingdom Hearts 2.

Kingdom Hearts 2 had 12 worlds in total and thus far we have seven worlds confirmed for the third game. With Nomura stating that all of the worlds that will feature in the game will be revealed before its release we can expect a few more to be revealed over the next year. How many of these will be brand new worlds and how many will be repeats from previous games is unclear.

At the very least, Nomura has promised that even though there will be fewer worlds, they’ll be much more dense. We have to admit, not every Kingdom Hearts world holds an equal place in our own hearts so we’ll happily take quality over quantity. 

Though Disney has also acquired Marvel and LucasFilm, it’s unlikely their franchises will appear in Kingdom Hearts due to a variety of other license agreement barriers, with Nomura cautioning that “the other associated companies under Disney [are] not something that is as simple as us consulting with Disney Interactive. So, unfortunately, the lineup is kind of considered as different.”

Another playable character?

A report in Official PlayStation UK (scanned by KHInsider) suggests that Kingdom Hearts 3 may feature a playable Riku alongside Sora.

“The latest game in the Disney-meets-Final-Fantasy mash up series is split between two perspectives of best buds Sora and Riku. You will meet a host of new characters whose help you’ll need to stop the evil Master Xehanort from bringing about another Keyblade war. Familiar faces and places return, but there are new worlds to visit inspired by Toy Story, Fantasia and Tangled.”

These aren’t details that have been confirmed by Square Enix about the game yet, so we’re sticking them strictly in the rumor category for now. It could very well be that the information has been mixed up with the similarly named Kingdom Hearts 3D, released on PS4 in 2016. This game had a playable Riku as well as a Fantasia-themed world. 

It may be, however, that the information is accurate. Game director, Nomura, did tell IGN in July 2017 that the team was considering putting another playable character into the game. He just didn’t state that it was Riku. 

Regardless, we’re hoping to see some more Kingdom Hearts 3 information (perhaps even a release date) at the D23 in Japan, taking place in February 2018.

Nintendo Switch?

In a recent interview Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda told Nikkei (via MyNintendo) that the company is focusing on bringing more of its current and future titles to Nintendo’s new console, the Nintendo Switch. 

Though Matsuda makes no direct reference to bringing Kingdom Hearts 3 to the Switch, it does suggest that if such a move is feasible and the hardware limitations aren’t too great, Square Enix will make it happen. 

• These are the best PS4 games you can play right now 

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The long-awaited option to attach a keyboard and mouse and use them with your Xbox One console is coming next week for gamers in the Insider Program, Microsoft has confirmed. A total of seven games will support the peripherals on November 14, including Fortnite and Warframe, with another seven apparently following soon after.

Bomber Crew, Deep Rock Galactic, Strange Brigade, Vermintide 2, War Thunder and X-Morph Defense are the other titles getting support straight away. Children of Morta, DayZ, Minion Master, Moonlighter, Vigor, Warface, and Wargroove will be next in line.

“When the update launches next week, all developers will have the tools they need to create tailored mouse and keyboard experiences for their games as they see fit to ensure a fair and fun experience for fans,” says Microsoft. In multiplayer games, players should get matched against other players with a keyboard and mouse attached for fairness.

Designed for Xbox

Microsoft is also launching a special Designed for Xbox program to promote mice and keyboards made specifically for the Xbox One S and Xbox One X consoles. Razer is leading the charge and says it will have some hardware to share at CES 2019 in January, though no doubt more companies will join the party over time.

“[Designed for Xbox peripherals] are created for living room or desktop scenarios, come equipped with a dedicated Xbox key, and support the new Xbox Dynamic Lighting feature – enabling immersive in-game lighting effects,” explains Microsoft.

Exactly when the full keyboard and mouse support will roll out to everyone remains to be seen, but it should be very soon. After that it’s down to developers to include support for the extra devices in their games, so if you want that little bit of additional control over your racing or your shooting or your flying, you can take advantage.

• Xbox All Access: everything you need to know

Via The Verge

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The Nintendo Switch came racing out of the stables at full pelt thanks to one killer launch title – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. One of the games of the generation, it looks as if Nintendo is quickly looking to capitalise on its success with a follow up title.

Nintendo’s Japanese website states that the developer is looking to staff up for a new 3D Legend of Zelda title. Two jobs listed include one looking for a 3D computer graphics designer, and another on the hunt for a level designer.

To be based at Nintendo Kyoto HQ, each candidate would be required to work on terrain design, concept art, dungeon and level layouts, enemy AI and more.

Majora’s maker?

The news of a new Zelda game shouldn’t come as a surprise – a key franchise for Nintendo, piggybacking off the success of Breath of the Wild is a no brainer, while the company has previously stated that development of new Zelda titles begins almost immediately after the previous title is wrapped up.

But what form will this latest offering take? While some fans are clamouring for a return to the top-down Zelda style of old, it’s more likely to be a title that will borrow from the superb foundation laid down by the Switch’s must-have adventure. After all, a game of that scope would have taken considerable resources, and it gives Nintendo an opportunity to expand on what worked less well in its previous title.

Personally, we’d love to see something like the N64 curio Majora’s Mask here – it too followed the intense and lauded release of a major 3D Zelda game (the N64’s Ocarina of Time) and reused assets and systems in wildly inventive, dark new ways for the series. We’d be surprised to not see something similar happen here.

• Best Nintendo Switch games: adventures to tide you over until Zelda returns

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Best TVs for Gaming Buying Guide: Welcome to TechRadar’s round-up of the best 4K TVs for PS4 and Xbox you can buy for any budget in 2018. 

Let’s be honest: the more quality time spend on your Xbox One X or PS4 Pro, the more important it is to do it with a quality monitor. Sure, you can hook up your gaming console to any old 720p or 1080p monitor, but any gamer worth their salt will know that a 4K TV makes all the difference.

When the current generation of Xbox and PlayStation consoles first launched, the HD-ready machines had all they needed to show off your games in their best light. Fast forward to 2018, when mid-cycle hardware upgrades have given us consoles capable of outputting both 4K resolution and High Dynamic Range (HDR) for all your video and gaming needs.

While this is all brilliant news for the quality of our gaming experiences, it puts ever more pressure on your TV to match it the output from your gaming machine. A console can have all the power in the world, but it’s not of much use if it’s attached to a TV that can’t harness that enhanced power.

Unlocking your console’s potential

So what exactly does a TV need to be able to do these days to unlock your full gaming potential? Let’s start with arguably the most basic requirement: 4K.

Resolution revolution: The Xbox One S outputs all of its games in 4K, achieved via surprisingly good built-in upscaling. 

The PS4 Pro outputs games in 4K too, using a mix of upscaling and in-game enhancement. The Xbox One X, meanwhile, has been designed with enough power to drive more games than ever before with native, game engine-integrated 4K support. Yes, you can still get non-4K Xbox One and PS4 consoles, and the Nintendo Switch isn’t interested in 4K either. And yes, non-4K games will have to be upscaled by a 4K TV, so won’t be totally ‘pure’. However, upscaling is remarkably good on the best 4K TVs now, and can be done without adding significant delay to the time it takes a TV to render pictures.

4K resolution can be transformative, especially on big screens. And basically 4K is just the way everything is going now (both in the gaming and video worlds), so not being set up for it with your new TV just doesn’t make sense.

Change your range: Sitting right alongside 4K in today’s video world is high dynamic range (HDR) technology. This delivers pictures with a much wider light range than the standard dynamic range pictures we’ve been living with for decades in a bid to get the pictures we’re seeing on our screens looking closer to the way our eyes see the real world.

The Xbox One S supports HDR on some of its games, and via some of its streaming apps. The same situation applies for both the PS4 and PS4 Pro, and naturally the Xbox One X will deliver HDR too. Most people would say that HDR done well delivers more impact than 4K, especially on small screens. 

The only problem is that HDR puts a lot of pressure on a TV, since it demands both much more brightness than SDR, and better contrast so that the extra brightness and deeper blacks can potentially share the screen simultaneously. In fact, HDR done badly can look worse than SDR done decently well; something to think about if you’re considering buying a very cheap TV.

Let there be light! One of the most important elements of a good HDR performance is brightness. Many movies and games target 1000 nits or so for their brightest elements, so if you have a TV less bright than that it won’t unlock HDR’s full potential. Especially in a video game environment, where graphics can be more stark in contrast terms than ‘real life’ tends to be.

It’s perfectly possible for TVs to deliver great HDR pictures without reaching 1000 nits and more of brightness. This is particularly true with OLED screens, for instance. But the darker a screen, the harder its processing is going to have to work to try and figure out how to resolve picture information in HDR areas above its capabilities.

Lag? Lame! If you’re a really serious gamer – especially when it comes to reaction-based online games – you need to care about input lag: The time it takes for a particular TV to render image data received at its inputs. Obviously you’re looking for low numbers if you don’t want to be shot in the face by an opponent your TV hasn’t even shown yet!

Again, manufacturers don’t tend to provide input lag figures in their provided specifications. However, we generally measure input lag on the TVs we test. Also, I’ve provided the input lag measurements for all of our recommended TVs.

Roger that – over and out: Sound design has always played an integral part in a great gaming experience. It’s getting taken to another level these days, though, with the arrival of surround sound gaming. In fact, the Xbox One S and Xbox One X consoles even support Dolby Atmos: Dolby’s most advanced sound system yet, which introduces a height channel and ‘object based’ precision to the soundstage.

With impressively good timing, LG is about to roll out support for Dolby Atmos over HDMI to its 2017 OLED TVs (some of which ship with integrated sound bars) any moment now. Also, while integrated Atmos support isn’t found elsewhere yet, this year has seen a surge in TVs featuring really powerful sound systems. So unless you’re thinking of investing in an external sound system, it will certainly pay you to have sound as well as picture quality in mind when you buy your gaming TV.

Things to pay attention to are whether speakers are facing forwards (as this will almost always give you a more direct, clean sound); rated power output; whether there’s a dedicated bass speaker (often found on a TV’s rear); built-in soundbars; and the number of individual speakers used.

Our pick of the best gaming TVs

OK, now that the essential buying advice done and you’re an AV expert, let’s now pick out our selection of the best gaming TVs you can currently buy, taking in a combination of price and sheer quality.

This high-end 65-inch Samsung set has a number of unique gaming-friendly advantages. For starters, unique screen filters mean that pictures are almost completely unaffected by ambient light. And trust us: being able to game in daylight and enjoy pictures that look as intense, bright and contrast rich as they do in a dark room is nothing short of a revelation. The set resolves 4K resolutions majestically too, while its heavy duty build quality enables it to produce a fairly potent and distortion-free audio performance (despite its having seemingly no visible speakers). If all that wasn’t exciting enough, the QN65Q9FN blows out the competition with an exceptionally low 12ms of input lag when using its Game mode. That said, the QN65Q9FN can suffer with some gentle light clouding issues during very high contrast HDR sequences, and it’s also, alas, painfully expensive. 

Read the review: Samsung Q9FN QLED TV

While the LG E8 OLED doesn’t have nearly as much HDR-friendly brightness as the Samsung Q9FN range, it’s stunning when it comes to the other end of the brightness story, delivering gorgeously rich, deep black colours completely free of the sort of clouding issues that LCD TVs suffer with. Also, while OLED can’t yet go as measurably bright as LCD, the way the darkest pixel in an OLED picture can sit right next to the brightest with no contamination between the two gives the OLED55E8’s pictures a lovely luminous quality that’s particularly effective during dark game settings.

Gamers, meanwhile, will be delighted to hear that unlike its previous two predecessors, the OLED E8 no longer dims the picture down heavily when running in its low-latency HDR Game mode. It also supports 120fps gaming at HD resolutions, full 4:4:4 PC colour, and a superbly low input lag figure of under 20ms.  

Read the review: LG E8 OLED

Sony’s XE9305 range is unique in the LCD TV world for using two light guide plates. This essentially gives it twice as much control over how much light reaches different parts of the screen as you get with other edge-lit LCD TVs.

As a result, the 55-inch 55XE9305 – XBR-55X930E in the US – can put ferociously bright HDR highlights (up to 1400 nits and more) on the screen alongside deep blacks more effectively than any other edge LCD to date.

Colours also look superbly rich and vibrant thanks to Sony’s Triluminos processing, and no brands handle motion as slickly as Sony. You can sometimes see traces of light ‘blocking’ around stand-out HDR objects, but for the most part the 55XE9305’s pictures are blisteringly bright gaming nirvana.

The only niggle is the 55XE9305’s input lag figure of around 38ms. This is slightly higher than we’d ideally see, and occasionally momentarily slips to 52ms.

Read the full review: Sony XBR-X930E / KD-XE93 Series

Everyone loves a high-end TV. LG’s latest OLED, Samsung’s spectacularly bright QLED and Sony’s phenomenal LED-LCDs are applauded year round for their amazing performance, picture technologies and technical prowess. 

Too bad these aren’t the TVs most people buy. 

If you’re looking for a mid-range TV that has all the chops to play games in 4K HDR without skimping on the visuals, check out the Samsung NU8000 Series. It may not be as bright as some of the competition on this page, but give its HDR+ mode a chance, and you’d be surprised at what this underdog can do.

Read the full review: Samsung NU8000

Panasonic’s latest LCD TV might not be as bright as most of its rivals, but it does have a rather cool trick up its sleeve: new digitally enhanced backlight technology that adjusts the angle of each pixel to reduce the usual light clouding problems associated with LCD technology. This gives you dark gaming scenes more uniformity, making it easier to remain immersed in the action.

The 50EX750 also stands out from the crowd for gaming with its outstanding 10ms of input lag when using its gaming mode. Frustratingly you actually get comfortably the best picture quality from the 50EX750 if you use its Dynamic picture preset – but you could always stick with Dynamic for most of your gaming and only switch to Game when you’re playing something where reaction times are really important.

While the OLED55B7 lacks the ultra-glamorous design and built-in soundbar of the LG OLED55E7 higher up this list, remarkably it delivers almost exactly the same high level of contrast-rich picture quality for a whole lot less.

Input lag remains equally strong at just 21ms too, and while it’s important to stress again that OLED’s 740 nits of peak brightness limits the impact of its HDR pictures in some ways, its ability to place deep black colours just a pixel away.

Read the review: LG OLED B7 

One of our final recommendations for a gaming TV is another big one. This gives us the chance to raise one final issue about gaming on today’s consoles and PCs compared with previous generations: that you really have to think big if you’re going to get anything like the ultimate gaming experience.

This is partly because you need a relatively large screen to get the most from 4K resolutions, but also because the main TV brands are increasingly only building truly HDR-friendly colour, contrast and brightness performances into their relatively large – and, alas, expensive – TVs.

Even a 55-inch Sony model struggles for brightness a little in its bid to make 4K HDR pictures relatively affordable. However, it does a great job with colours within that brightness limitation thanks to Sony’s Triluminos processing engine, while its black level performance is outstanding for such an affordable and edge-lit LCD model. It also only suffers with 21ms of input lag on average – though oddly, lag occasionally slips to around 50ms for a frame or two.

The 65PUS7601 boasts arguably the single most aggressively game-friendly feature on this list, in the shape of its Ambilight system. Ambilight uses LED lights ranged along the TV’s rear left, right and top edges to throw out coloured lights that can be continually matched in terms of shade, intensity and even location to the colours in the picture you’re watching; the result is greatly enhanced connection with what you’re watching, something that’s especially useful where gaming is concerned. The Ambilight system even features a dedicated gaming mode, designed to react faster than normal to changes in your game graphics. The 65PUS7601 also provides generally strong (for its reasonably low price) 4K and HDR picture quality, and you can get input lag down to only around 30ms if you’re careful how you set it up. The set even features a dedicated HDR game mode that adjusts the HDR processing to suit the relatively stark and precise look of game graphics versus ‘natural’ video.

A little more buying advice for the road…

If you want to learn more about shopping for gaming TVs, we’ve added a bit more info below. Read on to level up your AV knowledge skill!

Bits and B.O.B.s: Connected to the HDR point, you might want to think about your gaming TV’s bit depth. The best HDR experience requires a 10-bit screen able to support 1024 values of each RGB colour – otherwise you will get an inferior colour performance, including, possibly, colour striping where you should see subtle blends. Most premium HDR TVs these days are 10-bit, but it’s far from a given at the relatively affordable end of the TV market.

The Xbox One S and PS4 consoles automatically assess the bit-depth of your TV and select the optimum HDR video output accordingly. The Xbox One S even provides a description of your TV’s capabilities under 4K TV Details in its Advanced Video Settings menu. The Xbox One X will presumably do the same.

To be clear, it’s entirely possible for an 8-bit TV to deliver a good HDR colour performance if they have a strong video processing engine. But 10-bit panels certainly have an immediate advantage.

One other point to add here is that some TVs – including high-end Samsung models – actually support 12-bit colour management/processing, even though their panels are only natively 10-bit. The Xbox One S and presumably Xbox One X both provide Colour Depth boxes in their Video Fidelity settings that let you select the maximum bit performance for your particular TV.

Colour purity: Another advanced setting but important thing to consider for the ultimate gaming visuals is chroma subsampling.

This video compression term refers to a TV’s colour purity, and is usually written in such terms as 4:4:4 and 4:2:0. These numbers reveal how many pixels colour is sampled from in the top and bottom rows for every two rows of four pixels. So with 4:2:0, for instance, colour is being sampled from two pixels in the top row and no pixels in the bottom row.

From this it follows that the bigger the numbers are, the purer the colour performance will be, as there’s less ‘guesstimating’ of what colours should look like. The problem is, full 4:4:4 colour support requires a lot of extra image data, and so cannot be handled by the HDMI connections or processing of all TVs.

In truth, the differences in picture quality between 4:4:4 and 4:2:2 and even 4:2:0 aren’t usually enormous. They can be more pronounced with gaming graphics than video, though, so it’s worth trying to check what a TV you’re thinking of buying can support – even though it’s not information regularly carried in TV spec lists. The latest consoles are pretty good at detecting the optimum chroma subsampling a TV can support, automatically adjusting their outputs according.

It’s something that can cause annoying ‘handshaking’ issues with some TVs, though, so both the Xbox One S and PS4 Pro now provide subsampling ‘limiter’ options in their video output menus (‘Enable 4:2:2’ on the Xbox One S, and 2160 YUV4:2:0 on the PS4 Pro). 

Frame rate handling: Now that the Xbox One X is almost here and promising native 4K resolution games running at 60 frames a second, make sure that whatever TV you buy has the latest specification HDMI sockets. If it doesn’t have at least one HDMI socket built to the v2.0a specification, it won’t be able to receive 4K resolution at anything higher than 30 frames a second.

Fortunately far more of this year’s 4K TVs do feature HDMI 2.0a sockets than in previous years, but it’s still something that’s worth double checking – especially if you’re buying a particularly cheap TV.

The new HDMI 2.1 standard will no doubt become the benchmark for high-end gaming in time, but we’re yet to see it really rolled out across commercially-available sets.

• Black Friday TV deals 2018: is now the best time to buy?

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