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.

I can give it a point or two for the educational value, but as something that is supposed to be fun the interactive sequences are only mildly entertaining and the episodes themselves will have your eyelids getting heavy in no time flat.

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.

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.

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]

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.

After the head changing, talking teeth, back and forth repetitive scenes, Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink ends as a disappointing couple hours of play.

Some people will get a real kick out of this one and there is some fun to be had from the frenetic slaughter of massive amounts of enemies in co-op mode, but all the fun is leeched out of it in just a few missions.

The largest drawback to Monochroma was the repetition and simplicity of the game which makes it very boring to play. - See more at: http://cogconnected.com/review/monochroma-review/#sthash.ZHxCjDCL.dpuf

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.

Combine technical faults, repetitive gameplay, and characters so idiotic and unlikable you’d wish the game’s enemies would rip their spines out, and you’ve got a title that is a chore to play through.

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.

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.

The unbalanced multiplayer, uninspiring music and repetitive gameplay are just a few of the more significant issues that dragged the entire experience down. Sadly, Extreme Exorcism is going straight to the graveyard for me.

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.

Rise & Shine is a great looking game that elicits a few chuckles and grins, but doesn’t have the gameplay chops to stand up to the big names in the genre.

It’s a disappointment to see something squander such potential.

This is the best version of a very bad, fatally flawed product.

#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]

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.

It’s dull, repetitive, and just doesn’t offer the replayability of other rogue-likes.

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.

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.

Unfortunately tedious, unimaginative missions and too much emphasis on the poorly presented combat system drags the rest of the game down. With serious technical issues afflicting the game, it would seem that Risen 2 performs better on its home turf, the PC.

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

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.

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.

Cross of the Dutchman just doesn’t feel finished. If the combat gets tightened up and the stealth gets reworked or removed, my opinion of this game would dramatically improve.

It might have been a different story if the environments had more interactivity, but they’re mostly sterile and void of any real drama. You just walk through them until you’re expected to solve a puzzle.

Overall, the decent story, characters and narration made the game satisfactory, as did the simple controls, but the lack of gameplay, underwhelming graphics, slow movement and lag impacted the enjoyability of The Descendant greatly. I’m torn between wanting to see if the game gets better in the other four episodes, and leaving my playing time where it is.

While this could have been an incredible new entry in its genre, Zheros falls flat with its bare facsimile of a story, its bland gameplay, and monotonous level design.

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.

It doesn't look bad and it doesn't sound too bad either but it is way too repetitive. I play games for fun and the score reflects the fact I just didn't find Silent Hill: Book of Memories all that fun to play.

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.

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.

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.

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.

There are plenty of little issues that add up to turn a junk pile into a landfill. Predictable dodge patterns, no checkpoints, visual alignment that’s harmful to gameplay, no ambient sound effects, the list really does go on forever.

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.

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.

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.

Not a single element in this game stands out as remarkable or even remotely average. Flight Combat fans have a choice, they can download War Thunder for free and enjoy it, or they can buy Vector Thrust and despise it. Easiest. Decision. Ever.

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.

This clay could have used some more time in the kiln, that’s for sure.

Pulse is a victim of the Kickstarter craze. It had a unique idea and successful campaign, but failed to go anywhere meaningful from a gameplay standpoint. The music and visual style are redeeming factors, but the short length and uninspired mechanics (not to mention the brain scrambling acid trip sections) make Pulse an experience that feels unfinished and one I can’t honestly recommend.

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.

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.

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.

In short, Syndrome is disappointing. Your level of disappointment will depend on how many horror games you have played as the games Syndrome borrows from are all substantially better.

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.

Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded is a rehash of the 1987 original. While it has been updated in some ways, the interface and content are firmly rooted in the 80’s.

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.

Is Red Game Without A Great Name the worst game I’ve played this year? No, that still belongs to Calvino Noir. Is it one of the worst? Absolutely. Don’t buy it. Don’t rent it. Don’t look at it. Don’t allow it to enter your thoughts. Avoid this game like I avoid social situations.

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.

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.

Ultimately this is a bland experience with a runtime less than some actually scary horror films. At $15.99, there just is no way I can recommend this. It almost feels like it is more suited to a VR demo, than an actual game. Save your money and rent a good horror movie, those at least come with a few scares.

I’ve gone through some of the most mediocre of shooters in my time, and yet, Calvino Noir often had me baffled by just how mindless it truly is to play.

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.

Aside from some cheap laughs and managing to somehow become an internet cultural phenomenon, this goat game offers up little in terms of any substance. Instead you get a glitch, buggy shallow experience you will ditch in a matter of days.

Although Bedlam has quite a few areas to improve on, what makes the game bearable is the story.

As much as I love playing a good RTS game, this isn't one of them. Too many things hold it back from being enjoyable and standing out in a crowd.

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.

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

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.

Warhammer 40k: Eternal Crusade is a missed opportunity and a game that sadly has too many issues to ever completely work out.

It’s not entertaining, nor is it memorable for any good reason. It’s simply frustrating, annoying, problematic and painful to play. Skip it, and spend your money on something much more deserving of it than Manual Samuel is.

The controls are sluggish and impractical while the majority of the visuals could use some more oomph too. At the end of the day, if you are not a DIE HARD (caps for emphasis) fan of retro type games, I think you’d best stay away from this title as the negatives outweigh the positives.

I realize this is what’s considered a budget title at $39.99, but regardless of this fact I felt like one would not get much for their hard earned, and spent, dollars here. Give this one a pass unless you are the most addicted of scope junkies or if you enjoyed the first game.

Please, for those who are interested, I implore you to take them up on that offer and make sure this game is right for you before you make a purchase.

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.

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 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.

As much as it was an enjoyable exercise in nostalgia, compared to the standards set by today’s games Flashback falls short. The bottom line is this game borders on being technically flawed. Story doesn’t make up for this or the shortcomings of elementary gameplay.

Performing and landing tricks are difficult and messy due to the constraints and method of “charging” your moves before executing them. To make matters worse, it’s plagued with a faulty respawn mechanic that puts you into an infinite loop of crashes and bails. While visually the game isn’t too shabby, it all becomes meaningless when snowboarding becomes such a burden.

Merely chewing gum for the brain. It is a frantic mind numbing twin-stick action shooter that is relentless at times. There is a story to be had but it takes a back seat to the twin-stick shooter chaos.

Overall, its a competent strategy game that is bogged down by its immature humor and annoyances.

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.

It’s a tedious game that this title may have been served best as a cheaper iOS game for those boring bus rides to and from work.

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.

You might dig the groovy aesthetic for a short while but inevitably you’ll walk away either bored or frustrated.

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.

This Spider-Man entry feels rushed, remains largely unchanged from previous Beenox Spider-Man games and the new web slinging mechanic zapped the fun out of arguably the most enjoyable things about Spider-Man games.

At the end of the day Dollar Dash just didn’t grab me like it could have. Sure, a minor amount of fun might be had in a party situation with friends, but the lack of depth and overall madness that each match turns into won’t keep you playing for long.

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.

Homefront: The Revolution has more problems than I can list, including some illogical design decisions I couldn’t wrap my head around. But it truly executes on some of the good ideas it presents, and redeems itself in its latter half to an extent.

Overall, the fact that the Prototype Biohazard Bundle is so poorly named and that it was snuck on to the market without so much as an acknowledgement it was there should be all the warning you need. But allow me to reiterate the obvious; they didn’t bother to graphically update an outdated game nor did they try to clean up the messy controls.

Driving at insane speeds on a wise cracking sentient motorcycle should be gaming nirvana, but the writing, mechanics, and design of Lococycle are subpar. It’s not worth the price of admission, and is one of the Xbox One’s weaker launch titles.

Fundamentally, it is flawed with poor design and weak content. Colonial Marines feels dated, and fails to capture any essence of what an Alien game should be. Though Aliens: Colonial Marines has been crafted with the fans in mind, it just needed a stronger approach in its design, accompanied by some serious polish.

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.

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.

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

I hated Line of Defense Tactics: Tactical Advantage, so its price tag of twenty five dollars is almost as baffling as the game’s quality itself.

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.

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.

With issues regarding the AI, graphical glitches, and a high difficulty, I just don’t see myself alien raging again anytime soon.

Gravity Falls: Legend Of The Gnome Gemulets is a beautiful platformer that accurately recreates the look and feel of the TV show it’s based on. Unfortunately, the game is so short, and so lacking in variety, that it feels unfinished.

While the humour seems to be the centre of the game, Zenith has some major fundamental flaws that make it less fun to play and all the more frustrating. If you like the story, the writing and the humour, it might be worth your time. If you need fluid controls and care about the combat and game mechanics, then absolutely not.

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.