Keeping your station running isn't easy, especially as more and more needs build up, but doing it over and over can get a bit repetitive. None of this gets in the way of the core gameplay here being very solid and addicting in the way that the best simulation titles are. I had a good time with STATIONflow and if you're into simulation games, I think you will, too. I just wish that a lack of variety and a few less than intuitive gameplay choices didn't keep it from being something truly special.

Before We Leave is a civilization management game that’s relatively stress free, calming, and really charming. Its low-key nature and philosophy make it great for those who feel overwhelmed by the laundry list of responsibilities of 4X-style management and development. The design is sound, the presentation is fantastic and I’m a huge fan of the hex-gridded world map represented as a 3D globe. The individual models of the Peeps and their architecture are so charming, and the soothing soundtrack that plays when running the time at max speed is really nice. There are areas of the game that feel a little rough around the edges but the updates show a commitment by the developer to bring in the right amount of polish that’ll lead it toward greater heights of inventive fun.

Deliver Us The Moon is a short adventure but a memorable one. I like how the story concludes in a manner that leaves loose threads, leaving you to speculate how things might have turned out for everything outside the player character’s sphere of influence. The puzzles are modest and easy and for as much backtracking you end up doing, the journey never felt arduous. And right when I felt like things were getting boring, I was treated to strategically placed views of a hauntingly beautiful lunar surface and a dying, lonely Earth floating off in the distance.

Streets of Rage 4 left me feeling like a ten-year-old kid playing his Genesis again, while still managing to bring modern gameplay and variety to a classic series. There was no way for me to keep my expectations low with this series returning yet Lizardcube still managed to blow those expectations away. I can say without hesitation that this is the pinnacle of a long-dormant series and genre; a game I'm confident I'll be returning to for years to come.

While it might be a surprising translation between genres, Gears Tactics plays like it was meant to be. The game is often quite challenging and instead of the twitch reflexes of a shooter, it demands smart and strategic thinking. It nails the look and feel of Gears and adds some welcome refinements and improvements to the now-standard turn-based formula. Lengthy and populated by familiar and violent Gears of War moments of triumph, Gears Tactics suffers a bit in the areas of story and character and repetitive mission structure. In most ways, however, Gears Tactics is a refreshing and unexpected take on the Gear of War saga.

The new Wastelanders content doesn’t last as long as main campaigns in the previous games. After all, it’s just an update but here’s hoping that Bethesda will build upon it and bring more narrated things to do in post-nuclear Appalachia. And perhaps add some more factions along the way, too. It is just baffling why they didn’t make the game like this in the first place. Bethesda’s backward approach begged the storm of negative critic upon the game, some of which was deserved and some purposely malicious, a common thing in this day and age of toxic social media. Still, Fallout 76 staggers onward like a weary but hopeful vault-dweller, adamant to find its place among hot gaming trends and gather new followers along the way. Wastelanders is clearly a signpost towards better future for Bethesda’s flawed but beautiful sandbox game.

Swordbreaker: Back to the Castle is a bargain-price game, but a low price point cannot balance the scale against the lack of quality that casts a shadow over every moment of playtime. If its combat were better or its storytelling actually existed in some form beyond rudimentary, and if its quests or enemies were interesting, Swordbreaker might be worth a look. The open world RPG space is populated by excellent, well-made and entertaining games, but unfortunately Swordbreaker: Back to the Castle is not one of them.

Chimera Squad is XCOM, despite the colorful shell and slightly less permanent mechanics. The turn-based structure changes for the better with the introduction of individual turns and smaller maps, leading to less overwatch shuffling around maps. However, it loses steam when it comes to mission variety and it literally fails at one of its core areas by way of bugs. Does this stop me from recommending this game, especially at its seemingly budget price point? No, not really. But I can tell you that I am going to wait for a few updates before diving back in, to see which team members I missed and whether or not I can actually hit that 90% shot this time.

MotoGP 20 is quite similar in structure to Codemasters’ F1 games, but it’s a more coherent and exciting experience. Be prepared to put in a lot of work to tune the bike to get best out of it and perform well on the track. That’s the simple recipe for success, no slacking is allowed at any point! After all, you have better chances of winning when starting from a pole position instead of back of the grid, so all those laps you spent on free practices will pay off. Despite some presentation issues and the lack of true motive to race other modes outside the career, MotoGP 20’s tight gameplay keeps things consistently interesting and turns it into an addictive and rewarding racing simulation that no virtual speed freak should be without.

Hot Garbage is a nice add-on to a great game but I would have liked to see it improve on the base game rather than double down on its faults. The humor, visuals, and exploration are still just as funny, beautiful and engaging as they are in the main game. I originally reviewed the game on PS4, and in order to review the DLC on Xbox One I had to replay most of the game again. And I still had a great time doing it. While it’s brought down by an increased focus on combat, some control issues, and a lackluster antagonist, Hot Garbage is simply a lot of fun. If you enjoyed Journey to the Savage Planet, Hot Garbage is more of the same brand of journeying and savagery.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps doesn’t try to recreate the magic that made the first game so special, instead it embraces it. With its absorbing soundtrack, meticulously crafted world, and all-around gameplay improvements, Moon Studios has miraculously given us a worthy sequel to the marvelous series.

Lydia is a tough game to recommend to everyone because, as a video game, it is too short and has only a minimal amount of gameplay. However, if you're looking for a thought-provoking experience that will stay with you even after you have finished the game, I can confidently say that Lydia is a very strong candidate for you.

The Longing is one of those video games that dares you to see it through. Guiding a barely mobile creature who can’t be bothered to pick up the pace a little seems so nonsensical and completely antithetical to fun but if you’re the kind of person that likes to find their own unique brand of fun in video games - like following the rules of the road in Grand Theft Auto - then The Longing is bound to trigger some sort of positive electrical charge. And because much of the game can be accomplished while you’re away, it’s the kind of game you can have going on in the background as you sit through the latest Zoom meeting. Given the uniqueness and special circumstances of reviewing The Longing, Darkstation does not give it a score.

If Operencia: The Stolen Sun was really a 28-years old game, I probably wouldn’t bother with it anymore. As much as I love old games, sometimes modern comforts are just nice to have. Operencia plays with old-school expectations but turns them into a meaningful experience where a modest budget is mostly turned into the game’s favor. Some further playtesting would have perhaps solved sudden difficulty spikes more efficiently than constantly loading a save until you succeed. However, if you are interested in dungeon crawlers in the first place, you are probably prepared to take in some extra punches along the way.

Exit the Gungeon is much smaller game and is more focused on platforming action that disregards much of what made Enter the Gungeon so excellent. It is still a fun game, but one that I doubt many people will play to completion.

Sure, it might be starting to show its age a little in places, but Saints Row IV is still a great way to cut loose and enjoy the fun that unbridled chaos and a childish sense of humor can bring. And the extra content you get in the Re-Elected edition that just released on the Nintendo Switch means you can enjoy it for even longer as you play through everything Deep Silver threw at the swan song of the main Saints Row series.

Shinsekai could have been a true classic if it were more willing to embrace what makes it unique and shed some aspects which feel like they're here because someone wanted to check something off a list. Still, even what's here is a beautifully controlling platformer with a unique and haunting atmosphere. Shinsekai is worth taking a dive for, even if it could have been more.

Separation is an apt title to illuminate its central problem. The adventure beckons you to experience a desolate world, utilize a VR headset, tingle your sensory stimuli in a way you can almost touch, and engage with a narrative tackling uncomfortable emotions. But, despite this magical potential, all of the accumulated shortcomings reveal the integral quality it sorely lacks: authentic connection.

In the end, I think that an FMV game should offer more variety in locations and interactivity than The Complex. A one-location drama doesn’t necessarily carry through consecutive playthroughs all that well in this media. When you are skipping through scenes, you only begin to pay attention to iffy special effects and some extras who really look a bit out of place. The Complex has a well-written story, some witty dialogue, and a likable cast, but the lack of true branching for most of its running time dilutes its appeal beyond a few playthroughs. In the hunt for all the endings, you will most likely grow feeling indifferent to everything the story tries to say.

For anyone still tinkering with Cities; Skylines five years into the game’s release, Sunset Harbor includes a well-made suit of new buildings, commerce options, and aesthetic possibilities. For any city builder who wants to clog the arterial waterways with industry and streak the skies with activity, this new expansion is full of potential for fun.

Freedom Finger is best enjoyed when stripped of the jokes that beat themselves over the player’s heads. An annoying cast of characters that just can’t seem to shut up and bad political jokes that are tired before they fall flat get in the way of what makes this particular shmup really cook. The soundtrack is fantastic on its own but the way the levels and enemies engage with the different songs is really unique and offers its own special challenges that more than pick up the slack left behind what amounts to be a less pointed version of MAD Magazine’s style of humor.

All in all, Resident Evil 3 goes on to prove that the traditional Resident Evil formula, only souped-up to meet today’s needs, works better than, excuse me for saying this out loud, the first-person flatness that was introduced in Resident Evil 7 or brainless shooting action of super-overvalued Resident Evil 4 that took the illustrious series entirely in the wrong direction, only to be redeemed by these excellent remakes.

Be it presentation, length, variety, or simple gameplay polish, Half-Life: Alyx is one that beats its peers cleanly. If you aren’t yet interested in virtual reality or you have not yet taken the plunge, then I would strongly recommend that you consider investing in the technology to play this game. It’s the closest thing to a killer app that VR is going to get any time soon. The format still has its shortcomings and likely always will, but with Half-Life: Alyx, it’s very close to realizing its full potential. If you think back to the first time that you visualized what VR would look like and feel like, then you probably envisioned something very similar to what Half-Life: Alyx has to offer. It’s immersive, exciting, terrifying, and exhilarating – everything that you would hope for a virtually reality game to be.

TT Isle of Man Ride on the Edge 2 is a big improvement over the previous game. KT Racing really went a mile to make it better in all fronts instead of giving a nominal upgrade and slapping a new number to the title. The driving physics feel good (and more forgiving), the sense of scope is much bigger with added racing locations, the presentation is professional and the revamped career mode has a terrific amount of content. If you want instant rewards from your racing game, however, this one is not for you as it takes a long-time engagement to be competitive. The game is certainly tough but it doesn’t take away from the fact that TT Isle of Man 2 stands among the best adaptations of riding a motorcycle in video games. Maybe in the next iteration we get more personality through more profound customization.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered feels like a series of contradictions. It’s a remake of a popular online shooter without the “popular online” part. Its gameplay is aggressive, defensive, fragile, and bombastic all at the same time, constantly pushing you forward but requiring you to hang back. Its story values twists and turns over characters or any sort of sensibility, making the twists and turns lack any sort of value. If you’re coming to Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered simply to revisit a fondly remembered campaign updated for 2020’s visual standards, then Beenox has delivered in spades. But it’s a hard sell for anyone new to the series.

Final Fantasy VII Remake is an enigmatic thing, a product born out of nostalgia but reimagined and redesigned to take advantage of technology and hardware that could capture the grandeur of this particularly beloved adventure. If you’ve played the original before, don’t go in thinking you’ll know exactly what’s going to happen because the story takes a good number of unexpected left turns. These changes are mostly fine but I’m curious to see what sort of tweaks will be made to the larger story in light of some of the more dramatic changes--with special regards to a final boss that screams, “Well, we just couldn’t help ourselves!” Final Fantasy VII Remake is a fresh take on a familiar story, expanded with a larger scope that just wasn’t possible twenty-three years ago.

Although the lack of clarity with the UI and interface takes my opinion down a notch, overall, I really enjoyed my time with Murder by Numbers. The combination of a detective game and picross really works. I hope that this is the start of a beautiful friendship.

While poor performance often makes the repetition more of a chore than it needs to be, a truly interesting world, game design that understands its gameplay is repetitive and regularly finds new contexts for its loop, and fantastic atmosphere still kept me having a great time with Disaster Report 4. There were times when the game made me groan, but there was no point in its campaign where I didn't want to see what was coming next. Its a game I know I'll remember.