I love the idea of In My Shadow. It has a somewhat intriguing storyline and unique gameplay that show a lot of potential. Bella is not the deepest of main characters, but I did find myself drawn into her story initially. I also really did like the idea of moving objects to solves puzzles found in the shadows. It is an enjoyable game to play, but I just wish there was more to it than what we received.

Perhaps one of Kaiserpunk‘s biggest issues is that it tries to do too much.

The Invincible is ultimately a sub-par experience. While it delivers flashes of quality in its cast and its attention to some details, the narrative is ultimately weighed down too much.

Since this DLC is also priced at $14.99, it makes that all a hard pill to swallow. While Voice of the People is very lacking, it does, however, set up new things for Victoria 3 that hopefully can be taken full advantage of later in the game’s cycle.

When it’s at its best, Detective Pikachu Returns delivers the charm and cuteness that have always been hallmarks of the Pokemon franchise. However, all too frequently it fails to reach those heights thanks to shallow gameplay, a bloated story, and repetitive missions that feel lackluster, no matter what age demographic they are targeting.

Trinity Trigger had so much promise. It had great talent associated with it. It looked like it could be a fun and grand adventure. But everything just fell flat on its face. From the story to just about every gameplay mechanic felt more tedious than enjoyable. More mechanics that felt added to try to make it more fun or be more involved instead got in the way of any enjoyment I felt like I could’ve had during my playthrough. Even if you could look past all of its faults, the dumb-as-rocks companion AI will find a way to ruin that for you. The only saving Trinity Trigger I could think of is if you play the entire game and all the extra content in co-op, what feels like its intended playstyle. And even then, I’d wait to get this game until online co-op is added sometime in the future.

While Wuthering Waves delivers some strong story moments and fun gameplay within its interesting world, it has a lot of problems.

DK Island + Emerald Rush get old quickly and don’t feel like sizeable additions to the experience to carry that price tag. Only the most diehard fans looking to reexperience a handful of levels will really get much out of it.

Gigantic: Rampage Edition is a valiant effort, and it is always great to see fans of a series or game get to revisit it. However, there’s fear that what it offers is far too little to entice many players who aren’t fans.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is a love letter to a flawed character that shares some flaws of its own. The care and love of Tolkien lore are quite obvious, but it doesn’t always mesh well with the disappointing mechanics and less-than-stellar gameplay.

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar is a remaster that does an excellent job supporting its great features but is severely held back by its several dated elements.

So, while Shuyan Saga delivers a fairly fulfilling narrative that allows the player a reasonable amount of control in crafting their version of Shuyan, the active elements of the game hold it back from being a truly enjoyable experience.

The Order of Giants had a chance to do something fun with one of the most interesting aspects of The Great Circle‘s story, but it missed the mark. The DLC was fun as an excuse to play more of MachineGames’s excellent game. But it quickly began to feel like a mish-mash of ideas that were left on the cutting room floor.

This means the only reason for someone to play the DLC is that they want an excuse to shoot more bad guys in Far Cry 6, but it struggles to deliver that with its small enemy count and lack of player choice in encounters. It isn’t like the game’s previous DLCs or the base game, where players have enough room in the world to take different approaches or experiment with their gear. It is effectively a shooting gallery with pretty colors for players to watch out for, and I don’t think that will be enough to motivate most players to check it out. 

I could see the vision of Hello Neighbor 2. The premise was promising, and the puzzles offered some fun, but the game is very unpolished. Between the frequent crashes, visual and AI bugs, and no reason to sneak around whatsoever, I really can’t recommend this game as it currently stands, even if you are a fan of this series.

Gargoyles Remastered isn’t really worth the time unless you’re a hardcore fan of old platformers or a veteran of the original game desiring to revisit a favorite.

Destiny Rising is a game I wish I could like. I love a great space opera, and the core of that is here. Good controls and meaningful progression lay a promising foundation. Sadly, little else about playing the game does anything to draw you back in.

It is hard to discern just who South Park: Snow Day! is for. Diehard South Park fans will not get much out of its lackluster references and lack of new ideas for the franchise. Meanwhile, those who care more about playing a fun game won’t find the mechanical complexity that can be found in previous franchise RPGs.

Music Racer Ultimate is all flash and no fun. For a music game, the music is okay, but the game itself is not satisfying to play. The rewards aren’t rewarding, the levels are aggravating, and the menus and layout are confusing. This port needed way more time in the oven to ensure that its trip to Xbox would actually feel right at home, not a mobile game that feels like it’s just on a bigger screen.

Ultimately Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water ends up being a boring slog more often than a tense horror experience. The remaster will likely be welcomed by fans of the series, especially those that never had a Wii U to check out the original. However, any future Fatal Frame titles will have to evolve to feel at home in modern times.

It is a shame that Serious Sam 4 is not able to live up to the series’ legacy. While the franchise has never been associated with particularly groundbreaking or polished titles it has previously been able to offer enjoyable experiences with its own identity and fun gameplay. Serious Sam 4 is too bogged down by questionable design and poor presentation to manage that, and instead feels like a title quickly thrown together with an overnight script than a cohesive product.

The bursts of fun are weighed down by a small pool of visually bland and overly similar maps, a lack of any meaningful progression, clunky gunplay, and some serious balancing issues. For fans looking for a new game to blend FPS and RTS gameplay, Eximius: Seize the Frontline has some fun to offer. But for fans of just one of those genres, the mix will likely detract too much to be enjoyable.

After numerous hours bouncing between fun, if repetitive combat, and annoying characters occupying a forgettable story, Zenless Zone Zero falls well short of what it needs to be.

While Loop8: Summer of Gods is a JRPG that has an interesting concept and some genuinely good features, the game is unfortunately bogged down with poor optimizations, questionable gameplay decisions, and a very painful combat system.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III recycles old ideas in a stale package that is a downright slog for most of the experience. It commits the ultimate sin of being boring, and it does not bode well for the future of a franchise that, for the last 20 years, has been the pinnacle of popular FPS games.

My biggest issue with the Crysis Remaster Trilogy is that it only feels halfway remastered. Nothing was updated to modern standards except for the visuals, and that is a huge problem. Remasters like the Spyro and Tony Hawk ones work so well because the gameplay is smoothed out and plays like a modern game. Unfortunately, that oversight (or failure, if they really did try to update it from the originals) makes it impossible to recommend the beautiful-looking collection to anyone other than hardcore fans of the original games. I really wanted to enjoy these games that were so positively talked about when I was younger, but sadly they didn’t come anywhere close to living up to the hype with this remaster attempt.

I commend the game for trying something totally new in the realm of puzzle games. In a sea of match-three and click-and-find puzzle games, Trenga Unlimited does something I have never seen before. And it’s not that it fails, by any means. On the contrary, the puzzle concept itself is excellent. It’s just an unpolished and unbalanced game. I can’t keep incentivized to play it because the story mode has no incentives, and the survival mode is far too difficult. A game using this same concept but with some polish and apt difficulty curve could be great.

When all is said and done, Cobra Kai: Card Fighter delivers what could’ve been a fun karate-themed diversion, but instead it bogs it down with tedious grinding gameplay that serves no purpose but to deprive the player of what simple enjoyment the games basic mechanics might have offered.