As it stands I finished the game without a lot of desire to repeat the journey to flesh out the many endings (34 in total). Because while there are enjoyable moments, it’s spread across a sparse and long hallway to move through. Ashwalkers has the bones of some good ideas. I’m hoping to see more from this studio as there are unique things to be found here, Nameless XIII just never really hits their mark. There are plenty of walking simulators out there that make you forget what they are. Ashwalkers, unfortunately, is not one of them.

In the end, although The Signifier Director’s Cut has a solid intellectual conceit and an interesting story to tell, I’m just not convinced that a point-and-click puzzle game is the ideal medium for telling it. Despite its improvements, it’s still rough around the edges in lots of little ways. Still, the new release of the game manages to drop more than a few thought bombs for later contemplation, so while The Signifier Director’s Cut lacks in polish and execution, it is worth checking out for fans of the point-and-click genre and brainy games in general.

Returnal is so much more than a rogue-like bullet-hell game. It tells a captivating, mysterious, and oftentimes haunting narrative with gorgeous, unsettling visuals and compelling voice acting. It offers a wide variety of collectibles, health upgrades, and unique features to give you a fresh and varied experience with each cycle, and gives players shortcuts so they can continue to press on with the story rather than have to complete every single biome time and time again.

If you can call being a menace to society a harmless and casual endeavor, Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion will easily bring many smiles to your face. Truly a masterpiece that doesn’t require much thinking to enjoy, all you have to do is pick up your controller and avoid all adult responsibilities by playing as a turnip who is avoiding all adult responsibilities. With the game being released so close to the end of tax season, I would like to think Turnip Boy was intentionally released in April as a joke or perhaps a form of escapism. At the same time, it’s probably also a great reminder to all of us to file our taxes by the end of this month.

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.

Take me out to the ball game and leave me in the nosebleeds. I’m never coming back. MLB The Show 21 is a tremendous homage to a sport so many love. I know the Road to the Show regression will drive people crazy, and the bugs do continue to somewhat hinder my enjoyment. But this is all fixable stuff. What lies underneath is a beautiful simulation of baseball. Isn’t that what we came for?

Battle Axe might be an excellent arcade game, but that’s a flaw as well as a feature. Extended play sessions, like those you find in Infinite Mode, can quickly wear out their welcome. You can only blow apart so many orcs before you start yearning for more. Maybe the gameplay loop doesn’t escape that cabinets and coins territory, but it doesn’t need to. The action that’s available is nothing short of exemplary. Fluid pixel art animation, tight controls, retro music and audio, and an intense challenge all elevate this game beyond ordinary nostalgia. If you’re looking for your next arcade game, you absolutely can’t miss Battle Axe.

Overall, World Splitter is a really great and challenging puzzler that may look easy but will leave you scratching your head more often than not. The unique double map and physics mechanics are some of those things that really make World Splitter stand out. The cute and simplistic style is very aesthetically pleasing and helps keep you from screaming at the top of your lungs when you take one step too many at the very end of a map. Challenge your brain and spatial awareness if you dare.

NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… is the perfect way for fans of Automata to experience the original and for newcomers to engage with the franchise. With updated combat and visuals, Replicant can proudly sit amongst greats in the genre; however, the hypersexualized representation of Kainé remains and deters from an incredible experience.

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.

Overall I’m really enjoying Pac-Man 99. It’s a great pick-up and play title for when you have just a couple of minutes and are looking for something to do. The gameplay is fast-paced, competitive, and surprisingly addicting. If you have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, there’s no reason not to give the game a shot.

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.

Returning to this world, this flavor of frustration and satisfaction, won’t be for everybody. If you’re looking for a portal into an oft-forgotten slice of gaming history, Oddworld: Soulstorm will open that for you. This is an elevated, modernized window into puzzle platformers of the recent past. A little patience and a little perseverance will introduce you to a strange new world.

Stitchy in Tooki Trouble is a lovely introduction to the genre for younger gamers. Although the title lacks challenge for those more experienced, the passion for the product is evident and will communicate with youths. There are a few missed opportunities but it successfully achieves its goal of being an accessible platformer.

Disco Elysium: The Final Cut is everything the 2019 classic was and more. If you’re a fan of the original, you need to double-dip to experience the incredible work this cast of voice actors has put together. If you’ve never heard of Disco Elysium before, I envy you. I wish I could play this again for the first time. Be warned that you may run into a few bugs here and there, but it seems like every other day, ZA/UM is squashing more of them. And if you’re still here reading this review, it’s time to turn the world off and put your dancing shoes on.

The pace of the game is slow, there isn’t a whole lot of depth to be found anywhere in Paradise Lost, and it’s not without its frame rate drops and bugs either. Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly some diamonds to be found in the rough here, but they’re few and far between. What Paradise Lost does deliver on is a minimally interactive experience as more of a walking simulator than an alternate history first-player adventure game. And it does look and sound exactly as you’d expect if you were to find yourself as a 12-year-old boy, trapped in a desolate Nazi bunker. Overall there’s just a lot of potential left untapped and that’s really its biggest problem.

SaGa Frontier Remastered is a nostalgic trip back to the 90s that encapsulates the best and worst of retro JRPG design. There’s a ton of fun to be had here, but don’t be afraid to pull up a walkthrough if you’re stuck–and it is very easy to get stuck.

Overall, this game may lack the polish to make it a hallmark VR experience, but it excels where it matters most: blasting demons. Playing Doom 3 in VR is a real hoot.

Cozy Grove is an adorable little time-waster, but depending on your play style, the level of commitment this game requires might not work for you. The core gameplay loop is fun for the most part but after playing for a couple of days every task feels the same as the last, making the whole experience fairly repetitive. The game offers a cute and relaxing experience for the right player and for anyone with an interest in life sim games like Animal Crossing or the Sims, I definitely recommend it. However, if you aren’t already a fan of this genre, Cozy Grove likely won’t change your opinion on it.

If you can look past all of the issues plaguing Arkham Horror: Mother’s Embrace, there are certainly worse games to spend a weekend with. Especially if you’re a fan of Lovecraftian horror, but steer clear of it if you’re somebody that asks of your 2021 gaming experiences to at least feel like you’re playing something made in the past fifteen years. Granted, I’ll be curious to see if this receives a sequel, as I do believe this series could become a sleeper hit. Stay tuned.

Even though Clea 2 is very challenging, it is not impossible to beat nor is it scary enough to act as nightmare fuel. A great continuation for those who are looking for more of Clea, the sequel does not have a story that could stand on its own. However, it rightfully belongs in the horror genre with its heavy and tense atmosphere and clever use of sounds in a dark setting. Even though the plot isn’t memorable, Clea 2 is a quiet thrill that can be mastered and replayed over and over again.

I still commend the studio for its bravery and innovation. Before Your Eyes is unique enough to try out if you are interested. It’s just that although the game is backed by many wonderful talents, it lacked that little “umph” to turn it into something truly memorable.

It Takes Two is a dazzling adventure filled with more mechanics than you can shake a stick at. Working together throughout the mesmerizing set of levels is compelling and full of hearty chuckles, but sadly the story falls short of that bar with inconsistent tone and a lack of perceptible character growth along the way. It’s still well worth your time and energy, just don’t expect to be as emotionally invested in the journey as you might have been with Hazelight’s past work.

What we have here are two stories told with mixed results. The grim, gorgeous sci-fi saga fell flat for me. I couldn’t get invested in this last leg of the human race turning to tribalism and violence in the face of adversity. I’m pretty bored with ‘special soldier saves the day’ stories. But the loot cycle was a different matter. This tale of frustration, anticipation, determination, and joy was immediately compelling. I dug into the mechanical guts early and easily. The combat is varied, breathless, and brutal. The character progression is a decent mix of stats and skills, there’s a ton of customization to mess around with, and the difficulty scaling is perfectly fluid. I can tolerate a lot of nonsense in exchange for a good gameplay loop. But if you’re hoping for a package as good as the prize, you might be disappointed. So long as you’re prepared to dig a little for that glittering pearl, there’s a ton of fun to be had with Outriders.

Monster Hunter Rise is everything I had hoped it would be, and more. It’s welcoming to beginners while still retaining that deep core experience that longtime players know and love. It’s challenging, but never in ways that feel unfair or cruel. And the attention to the details that are meant to keep one smiling is something you don’t see too often. Every inch of Rise plays like it’s the culmination of the series’ best ideas. Subsequently, I’m enormously excited to continue my journey in discovering what else Capcom has crammed into the game. I’m 20 hours in, and I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. So, excuse me, my next hunt awaits.

Overall, the visual upgrade to 4K and the power of the PS5 take this already great game and add an extra level of immersion to it. Everything that is great in the PS4 version of the game is here, just better and faster. With the haptic feedback only possible with the DualSense, you’ll feel not only more in touch with it, but also more control in the game. Short of an entire remake to take full advantage of the new consoles this is the premium way to play Tony Hawk 1 + 2. While the overall differences between the PS4 and PS5 may be subtle, once you play the PS5 version you won’t want to go back to the other one.

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.

So I turned off my Switch and booted up my PC. I started a new game of Battle Brothers on that. And you know what? It’s as good as it ever was. A truly superlative strategy game made better with mods. I could not recommend Battle Brothers enough, but do yourself a favor and avoid the Nintendo Switch version. You’ll avoid one tragic end to meet a much more satisfactory one.