There’s not enough to Blade Strangers to recommend it unreservedly, especially with a sparse playable roster and a lack of game modes, but the fighting is undoubtedly solid and enjoyable in bursts. It doesn’t have legs, but it does what it sets out to do, and does it surprisingly well.

While this review of Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition has been largely positive, I have to say that the biggest problem I have with it is the price — $60 for a remastered game is a bit steep, especially when it’s fairly bare-bones in terms of content. Also, considering that the original release didn’t sell well, it seems like a bad idea to charge that much. The steep price of entry will likely keep curious players away when the correct thing to do is entice them in with the best possible version for a great deal. It’s certainly a fantastic shooter, but I’d recommend waiting to catch it on sale.

While it may not have reached perfection yet, the Atelier series is getting close. Each new title offers a substantive change to the core mechanics, so vets will encounter something new and new players can easily jump in. I seem to say this in every review but it remains true—this is good as JRPG design gets, and I can’t wait to see what the developers have in store next.

The game is gorgeous, authentic, highly detailed, and rife with potential to grow into something much bigger.

Wild Hearts S is a welcome and surprisingly capable port of what I always considered to be a truly fantastic and criminally underappreciated title when it launched a few years ago. EA may have dropped support for Wilds Hearts in a hurry, but I’d absolutely love if Omega Force continued to forge ahead with this IP independently. Azuma ain’t gonna save itself, after all, and it’s far too charming a world to leave to its own devices.

It's delightful to look at and even more delightful to explore. If Ubisoft wants to restore some goodwill with core audiences again, releasing lovely little titles like this is a step in the right direction.

Far and away, Legacy of Kain: Defiance's most heinous offense is the way it shamelessly doles out its own sloppy seconds, thirds, and fourths in place of actually creating tasks and challenges that would be interesting or engaging.

Overall, Dreii is an elegant, yet maddeningly difficult block-balancer.

Road To Ballhalla is a delight. It rises above its inspirations to bring a new musical sensibility to the action puzzle genre. While some levels can be frustrating or even punishing, it never feels unfair — clearly a huge amount of thought has gone into balancing the difficulty, and anyone who brings a steady hand and a good amount of patience will find one of the most wonderfully kinetic puzzlers around.

Distrust is pretty top-notch stuff. It’s the sign of intelligent and well-considered mechanics that something as inherently repetitive as Distrust never once felt tedious to me. Russian publisher Alawar previously gave us last year’s Beholder, a similarly high-concept little gem from their home country. This makes them two-for-two on Steam releases, and I can’t wait to see what other fascinating indies they bring us from their side of the world.

Overall, Graceful Explosion Machine is an amusing rainbow of geometric bombast, suffering slightly from repetitive gameplay. However, it hits the spot for those who want to turn off their brains, enjoy some colorful chaos and rack up a huge combo, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.

The Council: Episode 1, The Mad Ones is a treasure thanks to a great story that’s well-told, some of the highest Interactive Movie production values I’ve seen, and a skill and experience system that serves to make it even deeper and more replayable than it already was. And the cliffhanger ending? It’s so compelling that I can’t wait for the next chapter to arrive.

While I’m intrigued by the promise of the relationship between Clementine and AJ, these first two episodes of The Final Season don’t honestly stand out in any other way. The climax of this season is yet to come, though — I can’t wait to see if Skybound (TWD creator Robert Kirkman’s company, who just promised to finish the series) will deliver on what could be a final rollercoaster of emotions. Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel for this series, and for Clementine as well.

Episode 4 just doesn’t offer the thrills or compelling mysteries of the previous episodes because it’s all about the setup for Episode 5, but the developers have earned enough goodwill to trust that this is all building to something truly memorable.

I had good times with it, and I’m convinced that with better controllers and a tweaked upgrade system, my son and I would eventually be able to find greater success. Crytpicle is close to being a must-play, and even as it stands, it’s worth a look.

X-Morph gives the player ample time and information to strategize, and zipping around in the spaceship offers a level of real-time agency uncommon in tower defense games. It feels odd to say, but I’m glad the aliens conquered Earth.

For me, We. The Revolution redefined what a history game could be. The story was rich with depth and empathy for the people who lived during the Reign of Terror, and the developer’s passion could easily be felt — so much so, in fact, that I was moved to play France’s national anthem numerous times in honor of this terrible period brought to life in such a wonderful way.

Candleman (even with the extra levels added) is still a fairly short experience, but the length felt comfortable and it didn’t overstay its welcome. The storybook narrative style is perfect for the heartwarming tale that this game tells (no spoilers!) and it would be a great experience for a family to enjoy. Recommended!

As a fan of character-driven stories and making choices in games, Yes, Your Grace stood out as one of the best I’d played in a long time — even after the credits rolled, I still felt regret over some decisions and joy for others. The creators did a fantastic job weaving their interconnected stories together and deliver more emotion and intrigue than most triple-A studios manage. I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time to come.

A terrific execution of a merely okay idea is still a lot further than most developers get, however, and the VR implementation heightens the immersion factor just enough to make The Persistence worth checking out. Those with a headset will find The Persistence a considerably more refined product than the average VR title, but anyone who intends on playing it flat may find it a bit too routine.

Arcade Spirits put me in the shoes of a character that faces many of the same struggles I have in my own life… but it also let me escape into a world where arcades are social places for gamers, full of friends and romantic interests. It’s an odd mix of fantastical elements and certainly no real life friend group would have that many attractive singles in it, but all in all, it’s an entertaining, heartwarming title that I think many will enjoy.

Evan’s Remains is a beautiful, cleverly designed experience with themes that stretch far beyond its premise of a girl on a mission in uncharted territory. Spending time with it made me ponder the nature of gameplay and of how storytelling is used in games in a way few others have.

There’s a lot to like about Shiren. There are plenty of places to explore, there are intricate puzzle rooms that provide extra challenge, and the loot flows freely and generously. I’m just not sure I’ll get back to a place mentally where I’ll see Shiren’s travels through to the end — I became weary of the repeating gameplay loop much earlier than I thought I would.

It’s not overstating the case to say that overall, Dying Light has aged like fine wine. There aren’t many parkour-focused games to begin with, and and of those, the ones containing zombies are even more scarce. So, Dying Light is still a unique experience and I’m glad to report that it still holds up. It may have gotten a bit lost in the shuffle when it first debuted, but there’s no better time to play it than now.

It’s bizarre, to say the least, and I can only assume it works better on PC (I played on Switch). I also experienced a few framerate dips, though they never detracted from the overall experience. However, those issues don’t get in the way of telling a simple, effective story of survival in a harsh country. Its politics might be a bit too idealistic and simplified for my taste, but I have yet to see another interactive experience tackle these themes more directly than this. It may be based on hitchhiking, but this is definitely a trip worth taking.

Grotto can be best recommended to those who can look past simple, repetitive gameplay in service of a thick and emotional story. All others should look elsewhere.

I greatly enjoyed my time with Heavenly Bodies and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys these types of physics-oriented titles – It’s a wisely-tuned spaceborne experience that does exactly what it wants to do and does it well. Mission accomplished.

Despite its shortcomings, I ended up liking Lost Eidolons. It’s an indie title that aspires to be a big budget epic, whose worst qualities are more than compensated for by a strong story and inventive — sometimes brilliant — gameplay mechanics. As the old saying goes: don’t judge a game by its characters’ lifeless, blank stares.