The First Descendant offers a fresh take on the genre, combining elements of successful projects from the past with its own innovations, and could become a worthy competitor to any of its current analogs. Did I like the game - yes, but the game takes time, but given the good start, the developers have every chance of taking their place among the giants.

In short, it's no surprise that Shadow of the Erdtree has received mixed reviews and I've had mixed experiences with it. Shadow of the Erd Tree is a double dose of everything that's good about Elden Ring, plus a dose of FromSoftware isn't-so-great stuff. And 25 hours of play is clearly not enough for me to form an impression of such a contrasting gaming experience. The game is interesting, exciting, but I think that we already need something new.

Galacticare is a very pleasant tycoon that doesn’t force you to pause the game to attend to a million little annoying things. Neither is it a very complex game, where a single mistake might bury your hospital for good and send you to the “Game Over” screen. It is a leisurely, unhurried but enticing overall.

The Final Shape is the best thing that has ever happened to Destiny 2. I can only imagine the Herculean work that went into the expansion, and I’m grateful for all the emotions I’ve received. There are a lot of great additions to talk about: Transcendence, new weapons, new enemies, new mechanics, the Pale Heart zone… To sum it up, Bungie completed the main story in such a way that makes one want to believe in it.

In its current state, Wuthering Waves is a generic open-world gacha with very few interesting and pleasant moments that shine in world exploration and battle system. If you were looking for a game with a deep, engaging narrative, you might want to give WuWa some more time to cook. However, if you were interested in a title that would hold your interest for a few evenings as you explore the world and throw your cast of characters into dynamic combat and various puzzles, then you will feel right at home.

If you prioritize top-notch graphics for full immersion in the game world, you may want to explore other options. However, if you are drawn to the curated exploration experience of a game inspired by the original Half-Life, then Abiotic Factor is worth considering. This game may be controversial, but it offers a unique exploration experience that will appeal to Half-Life fans. [Early Access Provisional Score = 80]

INDIKA is a distinctive and stylish game that does not pull any punches. It asks very interesting questions, but the answer to them depends solely on you.

Announced a few months ago, No Rest for the Wicked is reminiscent of games like Diablo and Hades, and FromSoftware games, and also takes nice things from other series. It's not as cute and fluffy as Ori, but while the tone and atmosphere is significantly darker, you can see some similarities in the highly detailed, "painterly" graphics that I can't compare to any other game. [Early Access Provisional Score = 90]

Sucker for Love: A Date to Die For has it all: horror, horny, humor, wholesome. Conduct a dark ritual and summon your partner to begin this unholy adventure that will keep you invested for a good 5 to 10 hours.

Alone in the Dark (2024) developers decided to run away and jump into the rich Survival Horror genre, without having any trump cards at the ready. That’s exactly what the authors of the new Alone in the Dark decided to do. The mystical plot of evil in the Louisiana swamps quickly turns into a disjointed kaleidoscope, where characters and any semblance of integrity are lost. The game system turned out to be obscenely poor: four types of weapons, five types of enemies, two types of puzzles! This thing can only be recommended to researchers of the genre, and other players do not even need to know about the existence of Alone in the Dark.

Beat Slayer’s gorgeous style drew us into this underground fight club, but the razor-sharp combat systems and constant gameplay updates keep things from feeling overly repetitive. If you ever wondered what an electronica take on Hades would look like, then come kick Deitrich’s ass in Beat Slayer.

Frivolous, farty, and gloriously chaotic but not the best episode of South Park. Snow Day is a mix of ideas all balled up into an action brawler. if you and your friends love South Park then some genuinely inspired moments make this worth taking the time to play.

Dragon's Dogma 2 is a worthy successor to the phenomenal Dark Arisen. Capcom managed to improve the game on every front while preserving the spirit of a classic fantasy RPG adventure set in a living open world.

Clearly, Fool's Theory wanted to create a game that prioritized story, an uncluttered setting, and charismatic characters. And the studio succeeded. True, it is noticeable that they wanted a larger scope, but either there was not enough money or time. Closer to the end, even the animations seem very meager, and the endings seem chaotic. Overall, however, the team has succeeded in what they set out to do. With the success of The Thaumaturge, we can only hope they build on it and create the game of their dreams in their next outing.

Zoria: Age of Shattering is a product of love and passion from Tiny Trinket Games. The game features a deep narrative, complex tactical combat, base building, and so much more. However, the lack of QoL-features brings it down: the highs are exhilarating, but the lows can feel a bit too draining.

TimeMelters is a unique mix of Tower Defense and third-person action-adventure, offering a time-traveling experience like no other.

Helldivers 2 is an exciting adventure for a group of friends who have long dreamed of immersing themselves in cooperative action and spending time together. Arrowhead Game Studios and Sony worked together to surprise the community, create a very high-quality game and open a portal to an incredibly fun universe.

Despite being in early access, Enshrouded shows incredible promise, and while it would be easy to write off the game as a Valheim clone, it's actually much more than that. The game has a noticeable difficulty spike, but it disappears as soon as someone joins you. The world of Embervale is simply breathtaking and perfectly combines hyperrealism and whimsical fantasy. Even the most dangerous parts of the game are pleasing to the eye, and the game itself is simply incredible. [Early Access Provisional Score = 80]

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown's game world is interesting, and the combo-based combat feels like a mad cross between DMC and the Ori series. The game is absolutely worth the time to explore its huge map, and will provide us with interesting characters, in a reboot of the game series and a great introduction to 2024.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora: Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is an amazing game that masterfully creates a world that is as fun to look at as it is to navigate quickly. Ubisoft Massive has painstakingly brought the Pandoras to life, ensuring that both casual and avid movie fans will appreciate the sights. And while the game is sometimes able to hold its own against the films, its success is partially negated by the all-too-familiar Ubisoft formula peeking out from under its beautiful exterior and a less-than-interesting or innovative story.

Remnant II: The Awakened King offers a significant amount of new content and improvements to the base game, and new areas, items and NPCs provide players with a fresh and exciting experience, but unfortunately does not fix existing problems. The increased trait cap and new archetype add reasonable depth to character development and offer new playstyles to explore that can be enjoyed for dozens of hours, but doesn't have a huge story aspect to it. What about monsters? They added a few elites and that’s quite enough. But they added just... one of the usual monsters. If you play for the world and bosses then this addition you will like it, but if for the sake of the plot then you may be a little disappointed.

As a reviewer, I cannot handwave this experience away even if Owlcat Games is a studio well-known for their strong post-launch support, yet rating the game on what I’ve actually played through would also be unfair to its final build. This is why this review comes out unscored with an update to follow once I had enough time and a chance to test some of the pricklier parts of the game that were problematic in the early version to compare the performance. Once done, this section will be dedicated the overall technical state of the game and the final thoughts.

The game surprises with simple graphics, which are even drawn in a cartoon style, which is very pleasing to the eye. The music that we can listen to in the background, either during the title screen of the game or during the gameplay itself, is also very good.

The gameplay of Gangs of Sherwood unfortunately resembles a constant cycle of a fight for a minute, explore the location, fight for a minute and a half, and so forth. Then players move on to the next one, and then the level is complete. Luckily, the level art is simply stunning which removes some of the monotonous pain. With the possibilities of selecting your own gameplay for the characters, and because there is enough variability in the game, it is a tolerable, if somewhat lackluster game at the moment especially in terms of combat and its attractiveness. Still, however, Gangs of Sherwood is definitely worth your attention or to keep an eye on over time, especially have someone to play with.

Doomsday Paradise is a charming dating sim that's full of wired and chaotic ideas. Lots of imaginative writing and unique characters, but not one that will keep you out late.

Little Goody Two Shoes is a bewitching scary fairy tale about the most secret desires of our heroine Elise and the price that is required to fulfill them. It sets out to teach players and Elise a lesson, but everyone is free to decide for themselves what that lesson is.

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - The Lord of Nothing is an interesting addition to the game. While the story is focused on a separate cast of characters from one of the previous DLCs, the main game also gets a number of additional Archetypes and feats as well as an incredible boss fight that will test your builds and gear to the limit.

It's still the same For The King, which only pretended to have changed, but lied, and therefore will continue to humiliate players - cruelly breaking them off, leading them through endless dungeons with a bunch of rooms without a single store, playing on emotions, taking away hope and generating unique situations in each playthrough. This is why we, masochists, love her.