Under all the questionable choices, cut content and overall lack of value, Dead or Alive 6 is still a decent fighter. That said, many of the problems are hard to look past, and it feels like a bare-bones effort given the amount of recycled content on display. With an inferior roster, dull stage design and the hard reset on purchased content from anyone who was crazy enough to buy into the exorbitant amounts of DLC released during DOA 5‘s lifespan, it’s hard to recommend Dead or Alive 6 as it currently stands.

Pixel Heroes has playful writing and art, but there isn’t enough here to warrant sticking around for more than a few hours of retro-themed dalliance.

All I can think about is its similarity to FF7, and how stale and unoriginal the whole experience is. This game is such a rip-off of Square's FF7 that I can't believe Sony hasn't been taken to court for copyright infringement.

Pop-Up Pilgrims has a lot to like — cute and varied character design, appropriately festive music, colorful, animated visuals that overflow with sakura blossoms. However, I simply couldn’t look past the struggles I had with the gameplay. Due to the clunky, headset-guided controls and taxing physical requirements, Pop-Up Pilgrims would probably be a better experience without VR.

For a title on Switch, it’s great — do a run or two while waiting in line for the bus or commuting on a subway and then set it down. On console or PC, I’m not sure it would be worth the pricetag.

Plunder-by-panic and slippery experience points are intriguing, but these innovations fall flat without solid, bug-free foundations to support them.

I have no doubt that the developers of Rad Rodgers meant their work to be a loving tribute to 16-bit platformers, and as long as the game restricts itself to fast action, it’s a perfectly fine experience. The puzzles and item hunting just don’t work, though, and those designs shouldn’t have made it through testing. Rad Rogers never rises to the level of the games it’s aping, which renders it inessential, because what’s the point of an homage that’s not even as good as its inspiration?

There are tons of games out there that play fine, but Atomicrops offers little to make it a memorable, worthwhile experience amidst so much stiff competition on the Switch. I’m guessing that with another year and a few content updates, Atomicrops will be a fantastic little actioner, but in its current state it comes across like an Early Access release that’s hit the eShop too soon.

Tron: Evolution has too much going for it to write it off as another inspiration-free paycheck game, but I can't help but feel that if the developers had had another six months and perhaps a little more freedom to stray from the film's narrative, the end result would have been much better.

After having gone through as much of the content as I could without teammates, my take on Raiders of the Broken Planet is that it’s a great B-tier action title shoehorned into an episodic games-as-service model that absolutely does not fit. If it was a standard single-player or couch co-op effort, episodic or not, I’d have no problem recommending it to folks who don’t mind rough edges wrapped in style and character. However, I’ve got serious reservations that this project could have ever worked, and these concerns seem founded since no one’s playing. Broken Planet is a great property with a lot of potential, but it’s in desperate need of a structure that makes more sense.

It feels that the experience is always a small step away from becoming something more stimulating. It has the right ideas, but as a turn-based game, Conqueror 940 AD fails to add the addictive element. After too short a time it becomes predictable and rote, and the player is left with the feeling that the entire game was a wait loop of choices without any truly challenging or dramatic moments.

In its current state, Destiny feels unfinished and unfocused, but I imagine that things will be looking quite different in a year's time.

I’ve seen articles mentioning that Gorogoa was created by a single man over a number of years, and it’s clearly a monumental labor of love. I want to respect that and I appreciate the amount of work that must’ve gone into this title… I honestly can’t even imagine. That said, as someone coming to this project knowing nothing about it beforehand, I found the Swiss-watch mechanics and detailed illustrations to be impressive, but the experience fell short in all other aspects. I’d love to view an edited Let’s Play of all the sequences being solved in order, but I have a tough time recommending it as something to play.

It's inherited all the original game's problems—a major feat, since it's developed by a whole new company—and lost some of its charm in the process.

A bit of a disaster...Why? It's a half-assed, crudely cobbled-together product prone to crashing, lockups (and as of press time) absolutely non-functional multiplayer.

With a better upgrade/weapons system and slightly nerfed bosses, Let Them Come would be a fine experience — the kind of quick diversion players could drop into for a few minutes of alien slaughter here and there. Unfortunately, at some point in development the decision was made to prioritize challenge and droning repetition over playability, and the result is a title that can only be enjoyed by players who like spending time with games that hate them.

It's still worth it to see what it brings to the genre, but don't expect to finish it without significant financial investment.

To be perfectly blunt, XCOM 2 is a pretty bad experience right now, and the best advice I can give is simple: wait for upcoming patches to fix things before buying. There's a much better game hidden somewhere beneath the performance issues and gameplay flaws, and it's a shame.

Without marrying any substantial content or meaningful context to the visuals, this is the type of depth-free cheap titillation that we need to move past if we're ever to break away from the stereotypical gutter that society at large perceives current videogames to be in.

Adding insult to all of this injury, it just lacks any flair that could set it apart from the competition. The combat is fine if somewhat uninspired, the writing and presentation frequently fall flat, and when it comes to chewing through hordes of enemies, there are plenty of competing titles on the market that offer a more compelling experience — the obvious comparisons are Earth Defense Force and Helldivers 2, and even something bug-adjacent like Exoprimal stands out more. Sadly, as things stand I can’t recommend this to anyone except the most hardcore fans of the IP.

All of the elements that make up a decent survival horror game are on display here. The monsters, the violence, the simplistic, action-oriented storytelling... They're just so shoddily rendered and assembled that all they add up to is a mediocre experience.

For players who click with these characters, Oxenfree offers between four and six hours of walking around and listening to them hash out issues in their lives. I congratulate the developers on the quality and production of the dialogue, but as a whole, Oxenfree is a weightless slip of a game that left no lasting impressions.

Sadly, my drive to persist was sapped by a series of glitches in one section that led me to replay the same should-have-been-easy bit over and over again. That was bad enough, but combined with the poor controls, lack of engaging gameplay, an inability to manually save and infrequent checkpoints, every session was a slog. Writing a negative review for Spirit of the North is tough because on paper, it seems like something I’d fall in love with. That said, it’s just not a good experience — my appreciation for its non-violent content and environmental themes can’t carry its many shortcomings.

When it works and the quests follow a natural flow, Summer in Mara can be wonderful. At its best moments, I found it to be relaxing and effortlessly charming. Sadly, the horrendous backtracking, time-wasting filler content and frustrating resource management make it less of a vacation and more of a job.

Sadly, while I enjoyed coming back to Raiders, checking out the new character and playing through the new levels once, my original assessment still stands — the multiplayer/replay premise of the game doesn’t make a lot of sense, and I can’t help but feel that the IP would be better served by recycling the assets into a different project. People who’ve put the time in, know what to expect and want more content will get it with Hades Betrayal, but it’s tough to recommend it to anyone.

The characters are there—now someone just needs to figure out how to create some gameplay that makes the experience fun and not a chore.

From Dust is an interesting, original and creative project... unfortunately, it never capitalizes on its promise thanks to too many technical problems and a feeling of unpolished awkwardness. More frustrating and tedious than uplifting and deific, I'd love to see a revamped installment with the kinks ironed out. As it stands, I was all too ready to leave the islands behind and head back to the mainland at the first opportunity.

Unfortunately, F.E.A.R. 3 is a prime example of a game that can't decide what it wants to be. In trying to be an intense horror campaign and an intricate co-op/multiplayer experience at the same time, it winds up being neither and pleasing no one. I see some good ideas in the story and multiplayer modes, but a distinct lack of focus brings it all down.