If you’re looking for a jump-out action packed horror game, The Town of Light is not for you. But I urge you to open your mind and consider it a separate learning experience.

Despite owing a lot to Hotline Miami in terms of sight and sound, Party Hard is almost the antithesis of its most obvious influence. On a personal note, it's actually more reminiscent of How to be a Complete Bastard, a similar (and ancient) game involving house parties and a destructive protagonist.

With some very serious polishing, tweaking, and rebalancing, I think this game could have been quite enjoyable. As it stands, it's a waste of time, far too frustrating, and absolutely not worth $49.99.

Although the game copies-and-pastes track sections into one another to make-up its large track roster, it's still 45 original tracks at the end of the day which will keep you guessing upcoming turns instead of memorizing them.

To put it bluntly, Seasons After Fall is "pleasant." A world with a great feeling experience that tends to knock you out of it when moving around. As much as I appreciate a game as relaxed as this, that relaxation never quite became true enjoyment.

The combat, too, can get a little confusing when a bunch of characters are on-screen. You'll end up hitting the wrong foe, which then allows your intended target to get some free hits on you. The abundance of techniques doesn't add much, either, as the basic punch and kick combos do fine against everyone. I know this isn't meant to be specifically a beat-'em-up, but the gameplay feels a little basic.

It may be the worst of the Ouendan/Elite Beat games, but it's still an Ouendan/Elite Beat game, and as such, it has the potential to be a lot of fun.

It's a game that prioritizes emotion above all else, and it does so wonderfully. But as the boy at the heart of this tale learns, emotions are tough to understand, and thus NERO is tough to understand. You'll just know that you felt something, and that sensation alone is worth the journey.

Sea of Solitude stands out as heartfelt, almost painfully sincere, so much so that I hesitated to actually put a score on this review at all. It felt almost crass to do so, like being allowed to read a relative's diary, only to give it a thumbs-up or -down. Though engaging gameplay and meaningful messaging aren't mutually exclusive in games, Sea of Solitude is squarely one of a growing number of titles that challenges the notion that "fun and entertainment" should be a game's main priority in every case.

A neat little package. It knows what it wants to do and it does most of it well enough, but it might not excite people who don't share the same nostalgia for the specific childhood experience described within it.

Dead Souls sits in a strange middle zone, stuck somewhere between the past Yakuza series games and the tired zombie sandbox genre. While fans will surely enjoy seeing series stars in this zombie apocalypse setting, they could miss some of the classic Yakuza pacing and gameplay.

Clocking in at four hours or so, it doesn't overstay its welcome. I can also see jumping back into Adr1ft every so often to freak myself out again, or show it off to friends. So long as you have a stomach for it, this is one of the first "must-have" games for VR. [VR Tested]

Van Helsing III feels much more like an expansion of the second iteration than a game all on its own. It's nice to have a solid end to the story, but it's baffling that so many features were removed from the previous games for this finale.

If stripping VR is what Playful Corp needs to do to reach a bigger audience so be it, but a version with optional VR would have been ideal.

Given the opportunity to dare, Forspoken chooses to play it incredibly safe, with muddled pacing and strict adherence to both narrative and gameplay tropes holding it back from reaching its groundbreaking potential. Regardless, its dazzling visuals, charismatic leads, memorable boss battles, and energetic and varied combat will reward the more patient player with a solid, spellbinding adventure… And, for everybody else, there are magical cats.

Dragon Fantasy Book 1 is a bit of a drag. I like the main characters well enough, but I'm not particularly interested in the glibly presented story or world, and some of the retro JRPG systems are super aggravating or simply mind-numbing.

Time on Frog Island probably isn’t going to set the indie scene on fire, but it is a pretty worthwhile jaunt with charming characters, a beautifully rendered world, and a level of freedom designed to reward the curious among us. Just keep in mind that, despite its approachable appearance, its minimalist design may result in a lot of wasted time spent scouring this island trying to figure out what the heck you’re supposed to do next.

If ambiguity and self-directed discovery are aspects of games you appreciate when they exist, and can handle one where you'll spend most of your time not doing anything, you're the audience RymdResa is looking for.

With all of the efforts to resurrect this once dead and buried series I hope there's a chance to wrap it all up with Strife.

But despite its lack of any real innovation or complexity, Nail'd succeeds in being one of the most approachable and entertaining racers of the year.

While RPG Maker Fes is not the best at what it does, it certainly is very capable in doing a lot despite of its disadvantages. It also serves as a learning tool to give users interested in game design. There is great potential for user-created content in RPG Maker Fes, but similar to many user-driven games, the quality of the games are entirely at the hands of the community.

Arc Rise Fantasia is the perfect RPG to play "between" RPGs. Something to pick up before the next big AAA experience hits and scratch an itch that one gets during the genre's common dry periods.

It's clear that the team can carry on without Roiland, and I'd like to see them tackle the old-school FPS genre again with all the tricks they've learned along the way.

The Adventures of Tintin may not be a fantastic game, but as licensed games go it's far more than decent. The different modes and variety in gameplay do not always reach the same level of quality, but the majority of it is a lot of fun to play for kids and adults alike.

As a farming simulation, Summer in Mara falls short, but dang if its sunny world and characters aren't pleasant to be around.

It's disgusting that a game in this forsaken a state is asking for a single thin dime, let alone sixty bucks. Even if it was free I wouldn't recommend it.

The Gex Trilogy masterfully maintains the charm, '90s humor, and fun gameplay from the original games. This remaster feels polished with minimal to no bugs, and the added features only benefit the original gameplay. However, some of the original trilogy’s woes make this a niche title that will likely only appeal to retro gamers or those who’ve fallen into a pit of nostalgia.

NIS delivers the weird yet again with Penny-Punching Princess, a fun little arcade romp that just escapes the danger of staleness. Stretched a little too thin but a lot of people are going to be enjoying this one with a price drop.