With these splintering narratives I wanted to come back to Church several times to to see what the varying outcomes would be. However, I started to see behind the curtain, and apart from the central four characters, the other NPCs have little impact.

I love the style and overall concept of Creature in the Well, but after its initial statement, it just didn’t have much to say. With more detail, a few more ideas and a bit more depth, it would be a must-play. Although it doesn’t get where it needs to go, it’s a great start from Flight School Studio that’s got me excited to see how they up their game next time around.

Overall SimplePlanes is a very solid engineering title. With its learning curve and freedom in building, both new and experienced players can enjoy the process of building. With its physics engine, it’s also an engaging vehicle simulator with exploration, racing, and combat accessible within a a few clicks.

Though there’s a surprisingly large field of competitors on the platform, Rolling Gunner ends up as the best scrolling shooter available on the Switch. While it clearly embraces the traditions of its arcade-oriented predecessors, Koizumi’s work serves as both as a solid introduction to the genre as well as a satisfying deep-dive for veterans.

The first half of War Tech Fighters is a light, silly ‘blow everything up and look cool’ sort of thing, but the second half is weighed down by developers who apparently felt the need to offer a ‘real challenge’ that wasn’t necessary or welcome.

When played the way the developers intended, Dark Pictures: Man of Medan is a one-of-a-kind triumph, and a shared horror experience unlike anything ever produced. It’s extremely presumptuous to ask players to buy two copies to get the full effect, but I can’t deny that it’s absolutely worth the time and expense for those who do. Dark Pictures: Man of Medan is a true evolution of the interactive movie genre, and horror fans owe it to themselves to climb aboard.

If EA wanted to do something revolutionary with the series, it would have offered Madden NFL 20 as a roster and feature update to Madden NFL 19. Not because there isn’t an enjoyable, playable game here, but because Madden NFL 20 is just more of the same when the series should be making strides toward true greatness.

In the end, I love what Octopath Traveler is trying to do with its shieldbreaking and its eight-way narrative, but it’s probably better suited to the Switch than the PC. It feels like a title that needs to be played in short bursts, as is fitting for Nintendo’s portable platform. Perhaps I wouldn’t be as frustrated with its quirks if I walked away from time to time and did something else — I will go back and complete the quest, but for now, I just need a break.

I am thoroughly disappointed with She Sees Red. It’s an irrelevant, irritating adventure that is unlikely to please even serious fans of the FMV genre.

The ending is too abrupt and I would have loved to spend more time with the cast, but I’d much rather a game leave me wanting more instead of dragging on and wearing me out hours before credits roll. The World Next Door is a compact little gem that introduces a style and concepts I’d love to see more of. This feels like just the start of something bigger, and I hope the developers get the chance to keep building on their world.

Outer Wilds is rife with breathtaking sights and sounds, and at the very least, no one could accuse it of being unambitious. Mobius Digital may be a small team but, almost paradoxically, they achieve a remarkable sense of scope by keeping things modest. However, their work suffers from the glacial pace of progress and a hands-off approach to storytelling. My biggest issues – a lack of combat, direction, or material rewards – are obviously deliberate, bold choices on the part of the devs, and I commend Mobius for them while also chiding the cold, inscrutable product that resulted. I admire Outer Wilds, but I don’t love it.

Night Call has the potential, setting, characters and plot to be an epic noir detective title, but instead of capitalizing on it, the developers feel like they’re too in love with the taxi driver premise to let the best aspects shine through. Instead of using my cunning to find a killer, I spent more time worrying about money and hearing the same conversations over and over. What started as a journey of intrigue and secrets quickly became underwhelming repetition.

While the base game punched above its weight to deliver a satisfying and varied journey, this is weak, watery content that only holds the slightest hint of what endeared me to it in the first place.

Endlessly replayable with great multiplayer, fantastic combat, and a movement system that should be the envy and inspiration of every developer, Sairento is an absolute must-play for anyone who can handle the action. Hopefully the developers are already at work on the promised sequel, because the only thing Sairento left me wanting is more.

I played Refunct on a day when I was falling apart from an overload of the chaos and hate in America, and retreating just for a few minutes into this serene, danger-free experience removed from news feeds, shouting politicians and burgeoning hate was much-needed balm for the soul. I heartily recommend it to anyone who is in need of same.

Atelier Lulua is more than a case of ‘Gust has done it again’, although that’s obviously true. It’s a great game with a brilliantly-told story full of great twists. More than that, though, it’s notable because it takes the chance to question an element at the very heart of the genre — why is combat so central to the experience? Is it a necessary part of the story being told, or does it wind up limiting the kind of adventure that developers can to craft? There’s no clear answer here, but the fact that the question is being asked in such an interesting way deserves a huge amount of respect.

Frustrating puppet mechanics aside, Shadow Fencer Theatre is enjoyable for an afternoon thanks to its unique premise and visual novelty, but after putting my time in, I’ll forget it exists until the next time I have friends over.

It offers some good ideas and fabulous artwork, but without fine-tuning those ideas and mollifying the overly-difficult ending, I finally understand why it got lost in the shuffle this year.

Putting my issues aside, the idea of participating in a full-fledged Hamlet universe works astonishingly well in Elsinore, and in contemporary society where classic literature is losing popularity, making such content accessible to a new audience is admirable, and I can only appreciate the ambition to revive Shakespeare through my favorite medium. Elsinore might be tedious at times, but I suppose that only enhances its status as a modern and authentic take on Hamlet.

While I was probably the furthest thing from the intended audience before starting this review, I had an absolute blast with Kill la Kill: IF, and I could almost be considered a convert at this point. It probably doesn’t have much chance as a serious, tournament-worthy fighter and the supporting content is thin, but if this title can win me over, it’s well worth any fighting game fan’s time.

Despite the warts and jankiness in Metal Wolf Chaos HD, allowances have to be made for its age, but as a lifelong FROM fan, I’m thrilled to finally play this painfully conspicuous gap in their Western releases. Mech-heads will find it a rough novelty and Souls fans will get a shock to their systems, but for a certain segment of players, Metal Wolf Chaos HD is a great snapshot of where FROM Software was fifteen years ago.

Vambrace: Cold Soul is a confused title that apparently wants to deliver a rich story and hard choices, but due to strange systems, exploitable mechanics and weightless characters, none of it feels consequential in any way.

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.

Astrologaster’s uniqueness makes it a joy to play, and I would recommend it to those who appreciate period pieces, narrative-heavy games and those interested in strange pieces of historically-inspired work.

While Youngblood is a far more interesting idea than the ‘prequel with zombies‘ approach taken by The Old Blood, it still doesn’t have the “WOW” factor that makes the main entries so memorable, and the severe downgrade in protagonists doesn’t help. So while Wolfenstein: Youngblood is disappointing, it’s also just kinda there. At least it wasn’t so bad that it impacted my desire to play the next main entry in this series…

The production values are impeccable and it runs perfectly on the PS4 Pro/PSVR — if there was more meat to it, I’d call Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot one of the most enjoyable VR cockpit games around, but with such a paucity of content, it doesn’t justify even a budget pricetag.

As a piece of work that encapsulates a specific time, place and mindset, 198X is totally on-target and resonated with me strongly. As a piece of work judged on its own merits, it feels more like a tone poem or a proof-of-concept than a fully-developed experience. The story’s an unfinished sketch, the gameplay is too brief, and I’m not sure the content would make any kind of impression on someone who didn’t grow up in the ‘80s. It’s a hell of a start, but this team has much further to go.

As it stands, They Are Billions on PS4 is a title whose strong RTS fundamentals and brilliant premise are undercut by the complete failure to respect someone’s time or offer any reason to keep coming back once the novelty of the first few hours has worn off.