The fantasy of living out an alternative life — or a parallel one, for that matter — in digital form has always driven games like The Sims and now, InZOI. I’ve only spent a few hours in a pre-early access version but I’m extremely impressed. InZOI Studios has iterated on a classic genre in a way that feels contemporary and potentially more immersive than the earlier games could ever have been. [Early Access Impressions]

Overall, Police Simulator: Patrol Officers needs a little more time to cook. The concept of being a cop and working your way up the ladder dealing justice is a great one. Better implementation would take Police Simulator: Patrol Officers to the next level, plus a little more spit and polish because it seems like it was not ready to hit the streets yet. All those bugs and jank are a pretty big offense.

#DRIVE Rally delivers on its intentions to be a fun, arcade rally racer. You can quickly get into a race if you are short on time or are just looking for something less demanding than a more realistic rally racer. The game launches on September 25, 2024 on the Steam, Epic, and GOG game stores. [Early Access Provisional Score = 75]

Hopefully, Incuvo will honor their pledge to fix the game and in short order. There are teasing moments of fun that shine through all the current issues with the game. If they ever get fixed, then Bulletstorm could still turn out to be a fun game.

Much like the movies, the Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection takes a couple good ideas and stretches them way out. If you’re a diehard fan, you might have a great time diving into each iteration of Alan Grant’s murder safari. For me, these games were mostly penance. My childhood fixation was used as leverage, cracking open the door to let in this hodgepodge of mediocre slurry. Unless you’re an absolute freak for the Jurassic Park franchise, I can’t in good conscience recommend this collection of games.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum tries to be a respectful homage to Tolkien’s masterpiece. Unfortunately, it’s expressed through buggy, unpolished, and not very interesting or enjoyable gameplay. Gollum is a fascinating and complex character, but makes a poor protagonist for an action game. Only ravenous fans of Tolkien will want to come near this game, and then only if they have a very high tolerance for crashes, bugs, and disappointment.

Overall I would say that Fractured Sanity is a decent concept that needs more polishing, and more detail. It feels unfinished. I definitely felt uneasy at times, but that was more from the frustrating glitches and general rough edges than actual horror. I would say hold off on picking this one up until it’s updated and fully fleshed-out.

The Switch version of Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is awful. It’s not ready to be played right now, because the menu navigation is straight-up broken. The game needs a patch with cursor sensitivity options at the very minimum, but even that fix would still make for a lazy port, that isn’t console ready. The story of Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is captivating, and the throwback point-and-click adventure gameplay will be a treat for some. But the game needs more time and effort to be an enjoyable experience.

I’ve played dozens of survival action games and MMORPGs but Chimeraland rests on one of the lowest rungs of the ladder. It looks primitive, with tons of technical problems. Nothing about its moment-to-moment gameplay hasn’t been done before and much, much better. The big, open world is a land of blocky textures and monsters that aren’t fun to fight. The goofy character creator and pet system can’t redeem Chimeraland. Even they’re not worth the price of admission. And the game is free.

Despite its intriguing, creative premise, playing Of Bird and Cage is a depressing experience. Its humorless, bleak story is coupled with subpar gameplay mechanics and low-quality production values. Whatever thematic chances the game wants to take are undercut by its lackluster presentation. The music alone might be a decent album’s worth of tunes, but it can’t save the pretty terrible game it has to support. It would be hard to recommend Of Bird and Cage to anyone, especially fans of music-based games. Just go listen to your favorite metal band, and make up a story in your head.

When it comes to humor, satire and pretend violence, I have endlessly high tolerance. Art and entertainment should be free to push buttons and push the limits of what’s acceptable. I have far less patience for lazy, sloppy and tired humor that masquerades as edgy, and no patience at all for developers that waste my time with games that barely run. With Postal 3, Running With Scissors blamed it on the Russians. With Postal 4, they have no one to blame but themselves.

Criticisms aside, this was the studio’s first crack at the survival game genre. I can see their talent in making good-looking environments, especially in cities and building interiors. It’s hard trying to do something unfamiliar and I respect them for trying something so different. Dead Man’s Diary feels like a learning step possibly leading to something greater in the future.

It looks, sounds and plays like a game that wasn’t ready to leave the drawing board, much less be released. Claustrophobia will make you feel trapped, for sure. Maybe just not the way the developer intended.

There’re solid game ideas here, and I hope that Serenity Forge’s next title will bring all these elements together. But for now, while Date Night Bowling isn’t rolling complete gutterballs, it’s not bowling any strikes, either.

Whether you think it’s an artsy and legit plot point or a cheap cop out (I tend to lean heavily towards the latter), Retired Men’s Nude Beach Volleyball League has appallingly simple and amazingly unattractive art, horrific control and mechanics, audio that sounds like it was ripped from an Edison cylinder (look it up, kids), and repetitive music. A purposefully crude game made as some sort of meta-comment on “real” games is not even close to being a new idea, and its high-concept absurdism and potential insights about aging are not worth the one to three hours it takes to “play” through to the end.

I can’t imagine anyone so desperate for content that they would find value in this only marginally improved ten-year-old game. Akiba’s Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed is and has always been, awful and no HD remaster will fix its terrible story, lackluster combat, primitive graphics, and creepy tone. Some games are broken or bad in a kind of fun way, but Akiba’s Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed isn’t broken, it’s just bad and decidedly, aggressively not fun at all.

Overall, Tasomachi: Behind the Twilight is a bit of a letdown. I suppose some of that conclusion can be traced back to my own anticipation and misunderstanding of what the game was, but the fact is that objectively, Tasomachi is a simplistic collect-a-thon without a clear motivator to drive the player forward. While the game has a strong base, more could have been done to make it feel more like a game and less of a demo. While the sum of its parts leaves some to be desired, various aspects of Tasomachi: Behind the Twilight show what the developers at Orbital Express are capable of, and that is something I’ll be looking forward to.

I Saw Black Clouds is awful. The story is stupid and confusing. Halfway through the game, you’ll be treated with this bizarre twist completely negating the first half of the story, and then the final half is a rushed mess that ruins anything the first half of the story had built up. The filming is brutally amateurish. I can’t help but think this mess could have been saved by a director who had a better understanding of camera angles, movement and so on. The only redeeming quality is that when you replay the game, you can skip any scenes you’ve previously watched – this will allow you to experience alternative scenes faster. Ultimately, there really is nothing here worth recommending. I Saw Black Clouds so you don’t have to. You’re welcome.

This just annoys the hell out of me because with the original Dark Souls approaching its 10th birthday, there are a lot of gamers out there who only know the game by association. I honestly think it gives people the wrong impression of what the genre can be like, and it cheapens the original masterpiece. Just like how first-person-shooters were called doom-clones before it, we really need a new name for this genre.

Unfortunately, even the different modes, slick visuals and silky-smooth frame rate can’t make up for the fact that World Tennis Tour 2 Complete Edition’s core experience, playing tennis, is a huge let-down. It is extremely disappointing that Big Ant Studios has failed to adequately address the basic gameplay shortcomings that have been around since the first Tennis World Tour back in 2018. As a fan of the sport I badly wanted this game to be better, but Tennis World Tour 2 Complete Edition will make even the most die-hard tennis fanatic want to smash their racquet and head to the dressing room.

On the Nintendo Switch, R.B.I. Baseball 21 strikes out, but swinging at least. There were some moves in the right direction for the franchise, rosters appear to update frequently, and the pitching was still pretty fun. However, a lack of polish, depth, and much more than competitors are providing leave R.B.I. Baseball 21 quite a ways behind. Despite the game having its issues, it could serve as a “pass the time” experience on the couch when the TV is being utilized.

You can assemble a squad of mechas, a coven of mages, an elite military unit, or even a heavily armed pig and duck. You can fight aliens, fish-men, soldiers, pirates, and existential dread. What I mean to say is that I like the ideas in Black Legend, and I applaud the devs for remaining true to their vision. Although, this is an environment with stiff competition, and it wasn’t long before I felt my attention being pulled elsewhere. Black Legend will doubtlessly have its fans, but the magic simply isn’t there.

All in all, the game simply does not work as a stand alone title. This leaves one disconnected from the events of the story. Given how the story is structured, the developer should have waited releasing the game as a complete package with all three parts included.

If blood is thicker than water, Bloody Bunny: The Game still wouldn’t be able to fill up the shallow end. It’s repetitive, uninteresting, and littered with bugs. The framerate does stay consistent, but if anything, that just works to highlight how awful everything else is. It’s never a good sign when you feel as if you’ve seen all that a game has to offer within the training stage. It’s even worse when the credits start to roll, and you realize that you did actually see everything the game has to offer in that training stage. Bloody hell, Bloody Bunny…

It took me around three hours to complete Silver Chains, and if you’re looking for a distraction for an evening you could do worse – but you could also do so, so much better.

For Cyberpunk 2077 to be an outstanding game, one of two things needed to happen. Descoping of large portions of the game, and a structure more akin to an action RPG. A tighter focus akin to Rise of the Tomb Raider or even Prey could have allowed for more depth to the narrative experience. OR, alternatively, they could have leaned way further into the RPG elements of the game. Spend more time balancing and incentivizing the various half baked systems like Netrunning, and offer far more flexibility in how V can be role played. Of course, such a move would come at the expense of the high production value narrative CD Projekt Red wanted to create. As it turns out, even 8 years of development couldn’t make both – or either – of those outcomes happen. So is this a good game? Yes, sometimes, but only if they manage to sufficiently patch it.

Maybe the writing is good? The voice acting? The visuals? Nope. Remothered: Broken Porcelain looks awkward, the writing is weak and the voice acting… actually the some of the voice acting is alright. So, at least it has one redeeming quality, otherwise, this one is a hard pass.

If there’s one positive about this game, it’s the puzzles. While they’re not on the caliber of, say, AI: The Somnium Files (which has a vaguely similar premise) or the Zero Escape series, some of the puzzles are interesting, if relatively easy. None of them gave me any trouble outside of finding the right item elsewhere in the level or avoiding getting killed in the meantime, but they offered a brief moment where I could pretend that they’d put that modicum of effort into the other aspects of game design. If you absolutely have to pick up this game, do yourself a favor and play Detective mode. You’ll get through it three times as fast and can move onto something worth your time.

The graphics look good for a budget title. From far away environments look especially good. But the music is definitely where Tamarin shines brightest. The score was done by Rare veteran composer David Wise and employs everything from military action music, to synthwave, to jungle beats. A lot of tracks are very memorable, and I was always happy when something extra powerful kicked in for combat sections. I really hope Tamarin’s issues are addressed with patches. It’s possible, as the game was constantly pushed back from its original release date. But right now it’s almost unplayable, because of its camera pulling. It’s not possible to recommend Tamarin for anything other than the music at present.

What I will say is that you can see the passion that went into this project. The environments are well-designed and it’s clear that the developers had a lot of love for the genre. It’s a game made for survival horror fans, but sadly isn’t one I can see many survival horror fans loving. It’s a mildly effective throwback, but somehow manages to feel more dated than games that were made decades ago, and that’s not a comfortable spot to be sitting in.

I made a little space shooter once, I coded it and drew in the graphics pixel by pixel using MS Paint. Everything about the game was derivative, and had been done better elsewhere. But I felt incredibly accomplished. I even wrote a little MIDI track to serve as background music. I bring this up because I could never in a million years make a game as good as Pangeon. I couldn’t create one level, let alone 8. But I’m not here to compare Pangeon to the best thing I could create. I’m not even here to compare Pangeon to other games that try for similar things. Ultimately, I’m here to compare Pangeon to the best version of itself, and figure out if it’s reached its full potential. And it hasn’t, not even as a diversion.

What comes together to create the full package is very underwhelming but wrestling fans will get a kick out of some of the references made from fight to fight as they beat their way across Beatdown City. Non-wrestling fans will find very little to enjoy in the characters and story but may find the experimental combat innovative.

If you’re even able to find a copy of Cooking Mama: Cookstar, you should probably reconsider where you’re spending your money. I know there’s a fanbase for the series that are vehemently wishing that the game will be good and that the bizarre story behind its release is all just an unlucky set of circumstances. But the fact of the matter is, Cookstar has nuked the kitchen and left us standing among a snowfall of ash and burnt Chicken Tikka Masala. I hate to say it, but the series may be cooked.

RBI Baseball 20 is rough. I said it before, but I’ll repeat it – this is the worst baseball game I’ve ever played. Fielding and hitting both fail to capture any of the enjoyment you’d typically get from either video game baseball, or the real thing, and the animations and character models are shockingly bad for a game released in 2020. The pitching mechanics are decent, but that’s about all that’s on tap with RBI Baseball 20. The fireworks that go off during the home run derby are cool, so it’s got that, I guess?

I dislike giving such a harsh review to an indie because I know how important reviews are. I know people worked hard with little money on this game, and I respect their labor and efforts. However, I can’t in good conscience recommend this game to anyone I know, and I think it needed, not only more time in translation but considerably more time in development to flesh out nearly the entire game. The only reason I finished this game is that I’m writing this review, and it’s not a long or hard game to finish. Femida tackles a few interesting subjects, but fails on its execution in nearly all regards. The Revolution couldn’t fix everything.

If you’re someone who can get lost in a repetitive task, then I will say you may find yourself falling into a trance, an almost zen-like state. But maybe do so on PC if you have one available to you. I could not get into Barents Sea on the tiny screen with its muddy and bare world. And I would advise if Switch is your only way to play it, maybe find another ocean to travel.

Forget this game. Move along, and pretend you never heard of Decay of Logos. It tries so hard to be something that it simply isn’t, and it leaves players with a frustrating mess of mechanics that have been done so much better elsewhere. There really isn’t any reason for someone to pick this up. If you’re craving a big, open-world to explore, literally any open-world game will be better than this. If you’re looking for a difficult, combat-based action game, literally any combat-based action game will be better than this. Some of the sound design is actually decent, and I’ve heard worse soundtracks before, but there is no reason you should be playing this game. Get out while you can.

No matter how well you do, you’ll never pull away from the pack. It’s the cheapest of AI solutions and undermines any sense of accomplishment. There’s no escape from it either, as the game does not support multiplayer. So it’s AI racing or nothing. Nothing is the better choice.

Monster Jam Steel Titans lacks the depth of a sim and the fun of an arcade racer. What we’re left with is a good concept, marred by a lack of fun. Realistic monster truck physics are unique to be sure. But what’s here is just so bland, and unfun that the end result will provide about as much playtime as a demo would.

I will be very interested to look at WWE 2K20 a year from now, after some massive updates, and featuring all modes. It’ll probably have the same ugly graphics, but let’s hope that this is a wake-up call to 2K games that they need to release a polished product. Some of us still like having our games on disc when we buy them.

The reason why Zombieland was popular was because it was quirky, the characters were charming, and it was hilariously meta (I’m looking at you, Bill Murray). The makers of Road Trip try to recapture that glory but they seemed to have missed the part about how the characters made that movie. Much like how the phrase ‘Nut up or shut up’ was already tired by the end of the first movie, Road Trip is tired even as it boots up. So much so that most of the dialogue given to Tallahassee is that phrase that has been worn out for a full decade. Luckily, Double Tap itself was much better than its game counterpart. Based on historical examples, this isn’t the first time nor will it be the last time we can make that statement.

At its surface, Stranded Sails: Explorers of the Cursed Islands looks like an adorable and endearing addition to this genre, and though I so badly wanted to love it, I’d have difficulty recommending it to almost anyone other than young children. There is certainly a place in the gaming world for peaceful, low-pressure exploration and farming games, but unfortunately, I’m not convinced that Stranded Sails is one that belongs. The minute-to-minute gameplay is just not stimulating enough, the quests and actions are fairly mindless, and overall, there just isn’t enough reason to pick it up time and time again.

Tangle Tower is a very excellent presentation of a very short game. It feels like a mobile game, and has a very short play time of 5 hours, with no incentive to replay. If this was a $5 game it would be a lot easier to recommend, but as it stands, Tangle Tower can’t justify it’s $20 price point.

The Sinking City on Nintendo Switch is extremely rough around the edges. I understand the lack of hand-holding when examining clues and evidence, but the fact of the matter is the game is so terrible in nearly every other aspect, that I wanted my hand to be held to get through it quicker! The Sinking City is the type of game that will appeal only to the most hardcore of H.P. Lovecraft, or noir fiction fans. Everyone else will be left wondering how so much could go so wrong in what really is an excellent idea for a game. Like the visions haunting Charles Reed, I’ll be seeing this one in my nightmares for quite some time.

A game about the clashing forces of heaven and hell deserves to be far more interesting, if not in gameplay, then at least in story. Devil’s Hunt fails to deliver on both fronts. It does have a neat take on the afterlife — Lucifer is essentially a shady businessman who outsources his dirty work, and the angels wear suits and conduct their operations from a pristine office tower – but these ideas are lost in the banality of everything else surrounding them. This is not a hunt worth embarking on.

Zombie Driver is bad. In almost every conceivable way. It never really hits the mark on anything it attempts, leaving the player with a frustrating mess of interchangeable missions, a map that’s a chore to navigate, sluggish controls, and a story that you’ll forget before you hit the X button to close the software. You’d probably have more fun in a real zombie apocalypse.

While there’s definitely promise in the concept of Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot, the shiny visuals don’t make up for the lack of content and subpar execution. It’s a decent showpiece for the PSVR, but at this point in the platform’s lifecycle something with more meat is the expectation.

I understand the interest in placing a game like this on the market, but it just seems too rushed and not really necessary. The game comes off like a bit of a cash grab for the market, and priced at $40, it just seems to be too little for the price tag. It’s ambitious, I’ll give it that, but one year of Early Access really should have ironed out some of these bugs.

For Swag and Sorcery barely qualifies as a game. I don’t know what it is, an elaborate practical joke, shovelware cash grab, or experiment gone wrong. I urge gamers to stay away from it, don’t go down the same dark hole I did. And I implore its developers, all developers really, to learn from these mistakes. This is the exact lack of interaction that makes games bad. This is the recipe for failure, and in the future, it should be used as a road map of precisely what not to do in game design.

If you’re looking for a challenge, you might find Technosphere Reload is worth your time – however, in its current state, I just can’t recommend it.

Not only are the ideas of both the narrative and combat experiences not well executed, but the game seems to struggle with an identity crisis. It appears the developers were trying so hard to make environmental interaction a top priority that they forgot to pay attention to the other aspects of the game. Had they delved deeper into Richard’s story with a longer game, and slapped some much-needed polish on the graphics, voice acting and combat, this could’ve been a completely different and exponentially more enjoyable experience. That’s not to say it’s all bad however as they nailed the tone of the game, the soundtrack is great and the object manipulation is pretty satisfying.

Ultimately, Left Alive was such an awful experience that I wouldn’t recommend purchasing it for its full $60 price or even half that. Throughout my time with the game, I thought about how money someone should spend to buy this game and I eventually decided on an amount: No more than three dollars.

Necro Mutex wants to be an old-school shooter but it fails to capture the elements of what made those games special and fun. It throws plenty of gore and carnage in your face without ever stopping to consider why. This tactic may satisfy those seeking a cheap thrill, but it didn’t work for me. And when there are already so many classics old-school shooters available, there’s really no reason to bother with Necro Mutex.

This just feels like a frustrating cash grab. I take no joy in being so harsh on this game, as I’m sure many of the people who worked on it did their best in what clearly little time they were given – and hey, game development is hard – but they, and LEGO’s target audience, deserve better than this. If you’re looking for a better LEGO game to get into, check out the recent DC Super-Villains, or the re-release of the Harry Potter games.

With good reason, Re-Legion is getting missed reviews in the Steam Marketplace. RTS fans are disappointed because the concept seemed so new! An RTS that focuses on conversion rather than building factories or buildings to convert armies. It’s a really cool idea, but the implementation was not there. It’s upsetting, really. Everyone who picks it up really wants to like it because the vision of the developers is very clear. They clearly have a love and understanding of what they are going for, but they may not have had the right team in place to make it happen for them.

In addition to the lack of direction, Vane’s controls are floaty and often unresponsive, which makes puzzles and general navigation that much more frustrating. Collision detection is also relatively wonky at times, which is especially challenging in a game where all of the puzzles involve pushing something from one spot to another, or landing on a small piece of metal. The only bit of solace or reward that comes from operating these forklift controls is the severely underused smooth synthwave soundtrack.

Regardless of the format, Gungrave VR doesn’t really offer any major reason to try it. It just exists, although even that is up for debate considering how little content is actually available. It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it affair, the type of game I’ll forget I even reviewed a few months from now and should serve as more of a warning for the upcoming Gungrave GORE than a precursor. This gun belongs back in the grave.

Even beyond this bizarre hurdle, the whole game is designed to impede you. The money you earn can't be spent on anything useful. The experience you gain never leads to you getting stronger. The battle mechanics make every fight as slow as possible. Even clicking on chests and items comes with a short delay. YIIK frustrates me so badly I feel like I personally offended the creators at a party or something, and this game is their revenge.

Fallout 76 is a confused product that blows it on so many levels. 76 represents a critical misunderstanding about what makes the Fallout franchise special, and sacrifices all those pieces to shoehorn in a half baked and barely functional online system. While I applaud taking a chance on a crazy idea, Fallout 76 would undoubtedly have been a better and more engaging experience as a traditional open world RPG. As it stands, this is a broken, unfun, and repetitive title that I can’t recommend. And that hurts me to say.

Corpse Party: Book of Shadows is, quite frankly, unremarkable. It’s not atrocious enough for me to say that I hated it. I didn’t hate it. If you’re a hardcore fan of visual novels, you might not hate it. However, I certainly wouldn’t recommend that you seek it out.

I enjoy the idea, the concept, it’s all right on the money. I can’t stand the final product though. They had the near perfect game and they let it slip away. You may still find this game fun! You could enjoy it despite the flaws, take it at face value. There are people excited for this game, and I urge them to play it. Even if I didn’t like it at all on a technical level I wouldn’t bar someone from it. I would caution those who play. I had a horrible experience, the game was unstable, so I warn you. Otherwise, enjoy yourself. It’s not awful to like the local brands.

For three hours of entertainment, I’m not sure The Midnight Sanctuary is worth the $9.99. However, it does present an increasingly entertaining story with surrealist visuals, so if that sounds like something you’d like, it might be worth checking out. For me, slogging through 3-D models that could have been traditional visual novel artwork for a story that only kicked into gear in the last thirty minutes just wasn’t how I wanted to spend my day. Still, that ending though, right?

While every game will always have things that could be improved, The Conjuring House needs to improve dramatically to become the game that it’s promising with its trailers. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to say whether Rym Games will be able to pull together enough patches going forward to really make The Conjuring House livable.

Blind takes a novel VR concept and does nothing interesting with it. There is little here that you won’t be able to find in better alternatives of the genre, even if we’re only talking about other VR titles. If Blind was shorter and had less aggravating puzzles, it may be worth a try out of curiosity alone. But when a game is this testing of a player’s patience, it’s very hard to recommend.

Overall, there’s not a lot here for me to even criticize. The motion controls are a bit sloppy, the dialogue needs work and the amount of actual content is pretty laughable. On top of that, you’d be hard-pressed to get through this game without feeling gross or guilty. Yet, I still have to salute Xseed’s commitment to their physics engines and character models. Whatever else the game lacks, Asuka still moves and reacts at the level you expect from any Senran Kagura title.

The aesthetics were legitimately nice, but they were overshadowed by the red brought to my eyes by the gameplay. The music was nice, but a song’s repetition grows irksome after returning to a stage after each one of a multitude of deaths. The bad of the game is bad enough to darken the good of the game, which is a shame to those who truly did excellent work. Those who worked on the pixel art, on the aesthetics, or on the music, hats off to you. You did great work. I wish the game I played was of the same caliber.

It delivers what it promises – a depressingly-realistic simulation of utterly boring inter-urban train transportation.

The Path of Motus is pretty to look at and has some good ideas, but it fails in its execution throughout, its story too simplistic for adults, and its gameplay too difficult for children.

The most frustrating thing about Earthfall is that it squanders its potential at every turn. From subpar graphics and gameplay mechanics to a story that’s been told a thousand times before, and a complete lack of game variety this alien shooter could have been a lot more fun.

Sniper Rust VR’s formula may work on the mobile free-to-play market, but as a VR title, it doesn’t take advantage of the medium in a way that justifies its existence. Anyone who has handled a sniper rifle in virtual reality will know that sniping should feel fun and rewarding, not like the chore as it is presented here. Unless you’re looking for a lesson in how not to design a VR shooter, steer clear of Sniper Rust VR.

Lego The Incredibles simply does not meet up to the expectations its predecessors have set. With a roster that lets us down, overpowered heroes, a near lack of puzzle mechanics, a small world, and a ton of repetitive tasks, there is nothing super about this game.

I understand that release windows are a big thing that helps boost sales maximizes exposure. I’m sure that’s the reasoning behind Tennis World Tour’s release in this state because I can’t think of any other reason a developer would willingly release such a debacle.

I was about to launch into another broken situation here, but I’m sure you get the point. The point is this: although there’s a very competent core loop and entertaining resource management sim somewhere within State of Decay 2, it’s really, really, broken. Unacceptably so. It frustrated me mightily to see a flash of a game I wanted to play, only to be immediately reminded that it’s not ready for release.

FARHOME seems to suffer from an identity crisis. It tries to do something radically different with each mission, but doesn’t stick with one idea long enough to generate anything of interest. If the present is any indication, then FARHOME has a long way to go if it wants to compete in the VR shooter market. There are many issues to be addressed, with the biggest one being a lack of originality in the content. At this point in time, one is better off replaying the games that FARHOME borrows from.

Even for die-hard fans, there’s very little here worthy of checking out. The experience is so mindless and generic that you could easily replace the protagonist Specimen #139 with a human and not notice a difference. This VR shooter runs just shy of two hours, and even that felt too long. The days of bad movie tie-ins are not over, and unfortunately, Crisis on the Planet of the Apes is proof of that.

After the polish and fun of Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, it’s hard to believe this company let such a barely baked like Bravo Team out the door.

Double Kick Heroes is a friend to all manner of gamer, headbanger or not. It’s wonderful tracks, post-apocalyptic backdrop, and various features boost the fun factor well beyond your typical rhythm experience. While I don’t consider the IP to be anything groundbreaking, Headbang Club clearly has an audience in mind. I’d say they’ve managed to cater to that audience and then some. [Early Access Review]

While Symmetry has an appealing art style, and an intriguing story, it doesn’t have the gameplay to hold attention.

There’s far too much wrong here for me to recommend The Deer God. Maybe the devs will continue developing and turn this into an excellent game at some point. The pieces are all there. It just needs more time and effort to unlock its full potential.

Rescues and level subgoals add a lot of additional meat and challenge, but this is a very simple shmup. There is no interesting key gameplay mechanic, no waves of bullet hell, no fast speeds, and no interesting setting. In a world where Bug Princess is 13 years old, Ikaruga is 16 years old, and 1942 is 33 years old, there is absolutely no reason to play a shmup so basic.

As you work your way toward the new level cap of 25 and power level of 330-335 (depending on mods), there’s a decent amount of new content to experience. Sure, Mercury’s small and the strikes are a letdown, but between the world building, new gear, and gameplay features such as new Crucible maps and Raid Lairs, there’s a fair amount of fun to be had in Curse of Osiris.

With a game that constantly breaks, unstable controls, a pointless map, flat story, and repetitive rock music riffs for audio, Road Rage might incite rage in the gamer, but for all the wrong reasons. This is a game best reserved for feeling like you need to empty your digital wallet and have no other options.

Nightmare Boy had the potential to be a quirky and fun take on the Metroidvania platform, but it squanders that potential by falling flat in nearly all the fundamental components of what makes those types of games fun to play in the first place.

In the end, Path Out accomplishes what it set out to do. The problem is that it ends up feeling too shallow and disjointed to be emotionally resonant.

There’s only one thing I can say; Empyre: Lords of the Sea Gates is not a finished product. It’s not even close. Things are hollow, broken, and un-freakin-readable. I love the premise for this game, but that’s the only affection I can have for it. So, so badly, I wanted this to be a fun experience, yet it’s anything but. In every aspect of the phrase, this game lacks the depth it needs to be called an RPG. The final rating can only reflect what’s presented, and that’s not much.

Vindicta would’ve been a decent title had it launched a year sooner, before the release of superior shooters such as Robo Recall and Raw Data.

I came in cautiously optimistic, and I left bruised, battered, and brain-dead. Loose controls, bad graphics, and a painful narrative add up to a lousy time. If you’ve already bought into the Senko no Ronde franchise, you’ll probably find something to like here. No others need apply.

Contrary to its name, Original Journey is far from an original adventure, offering little to motivate players to see its campaign through. If not for the sake of this review, I would have thrown in the towel long ago. Unless you’re really keen on checking out some hand-drawn art, steer clear of Original Journey.

There’s someone out there who may enjoy Doctor Kvorak’s manic style, and if so, they may find a game with decent puzzle design. Even that person though, will have to brave the game’s difficult control scheme, and finicky physics. Doctor Kvorak picked some good influences, but doesn’t come close to matching their quality.

A fractured, short, unrewarding experience that needs to figure out what it is before it says anything more.

The real kicker here is that Air Missions: HIND features some incredibly detailed helicopter models – almost full simulation quality – and initially looks like it has bags of potential. Sadly, it doesn’t even come close to realizing it.

Syberia 3 feels unfinished. It is buggy and rough in almost every way. It fails to be immersive in spite of some honestly impressive world building simply because it offers too many distractions. All of this is extremely disappointing, because I really want to play more of it but I can’t force myself to finish it in its current state.

The fact that there are some­ interesting mechanics trapped beneath the monotonous grind called Vroom makes it all the more disappointing. Poisoft has shown the ability to create fun portable experiences in the past, but all of the trappings that would normally keep players coming back are missing here. With little to offer other than some unintentionally hilarious dialogue exchanges, Vroom in the Night Sky is best avoided on the Switch eShop.

Frank Rising provides a much-needed conclusion to Dead Rising 4, but it’s also a completely unacceptable cash grab.

Anoxemia’s intended atmosphere is one of horror, yet I mostly felt annoyed. I wasn’t afraid or juiced up with adrenaline, I was just frustrated. If you’re looking for the wonder or the terror of the deep, you may want to look elsewhere.

A poorly-done Tomb Raider clone that lacks everything good about that series. Awful combat and stealth mechanics, a boring dead world, and mindless co-op puzzles await all who purchase this. Do yourself a favor and purchase either of the new Tomb Raider games for less than you’d be paying if you bought Troll and I. I’m still shocked they’re trying to charge the exorbitant amount that they are for this buggy, unimpressive adventure.

If Ghost Blade had a classic, well-established pedigree I could understand picking this one up. If you’re in that extremely small niche that enjoys this sort of game, you’ll love it. Anyone less than absolutely hard-core should steer clear.

There was a real opportunity for DYING: Reborn to shine on virtual reality, but the end result feels like a cruel joke.