Code Violet (PlayStation, £39.99)
Barely a few weeks into 2026, we might already have the year’s dumbest game. How dumb is it? Let’s just say that, instead of being called ‘Hard Mode’, the most difficult of its difficulty settings goes under the name ‘SexySaurus Rex’.
Though, to be fair to Code Violet, ‘SexySaurus Rex’ does capture what it’s about.
First, there is the ‘Sexy’ – or what is a particularly clueless 13-year-old boy’s idea of sexy. The game’s camera follows its protagonist – a shapely young woman known as Violet – around from behind, always at waist height. One of its main features seems to be dressing her up in ever more racy costumes.
Do you think I’m sexy? One of the main features of Code Violet appears to be the option to dress our heroine (Violet) up in various racy outfits.
Then there is the ‘Saurus Rex’. Violet wakes up in a futuristic science base, where dinosaurs are running amok. It’s something to do with experiments, genetics, cloning… who cares? The story is so derivative and clumsily told that you’ll soon stop paying attention.
What makes all this surprising is that Code Violet is also the first PlayStation-exclusive game of 2026. Normally, that status is a mark of quality, reserved for games that might make people buy Sony’s console ahead of any of its competitors. Other PlayStation exclusives include Spider-Man, God Of War and The Last Of Us.
In that company, however, Code Violet is merely exclusively awful. Were its gameplay any good, then it might be possible to overlook everything else – yes, even the dirty-minded dress-up – but it’s not.
He’s behind you: We follow Violet’s progress…mostly close-up, and at waist level
SexySaurus Rex: The biggest threat to dinos in Code Violet is not an asteroid, but glitches
This is 1990s-style survival horror with added glitches and bugs. I lost count of how many times the dinos got stuck in the scenery and were left swatting ineffectually at the air. Terrifying? Not so much.
Or perhaps it is. I’m certainly scared to see 2026 start with such a game. At least, for all our sakes, it’s contained to just the one console.
