You'd expect a game with this kind of play time to be a narrative experience pumped out of a game jam, but there's little-to-no reason to add this brawler to the growing list of multiplayer options. And while a lot of OutRage: Fight Fest's faults don't necessarily rest at the feet of the developers, they'll certainly feel the effects. This is a multiplayer-only game, and unless you have a large group of friends to sync up with, the lack of a community has a distinctly negative effect on the gameplay experience. All the music, flashy lights, and simple but recognizable art can only take it so far. Any potential favor earned by foregoing monetization was burned before its day showed up on the calendar. There's a possibility, however slight, that a turnaround happens. Again, the foundation remains solid enough, but built on top of it is a Lincoln Log cabin for an audience of a handful.

Apartment Story is two ideas mixed together, and one of them works really well while the other drags the experience down quite severely. I can't help but imagine that the core concepts of an interactive home invasion that asks the player to make choices and deal with the consequences couldn't have made for an enjoyable and tense experience if it weren't for the confusingly repetitive and out-of-place sim elements that necessitate walking and waiting in-between everything interesting. At the end of the day, the good parts don't quite seem worth the bad, and it's difficult to recommend the title when technical issues are also holding things back.

In Enter the Gungeon, each run felt distinct because you would find different weapons from the game's huge arsenal. In Out of Time, however, your abilities are locked to the gear you bring with you before heading into each mission, so there is no real room to be surprised on each run. That said, there is some fun to be had customizing your equipment and build in between runs. However, even here, it feels like you need to invest a tremendous amount of time into grinding to get better equipment. Ultimately, the game just feels boring and repetitive, and while there's some fun to be had playing it with a group of buddies, you would probably be better off with a more engaging co-op game.

Magalan, while not always the prettiest to look at (the game isn't much of a looker) is so large and varied that it pulls off the hard-sell on mixing so many different themes into one. Whether it’s the lush forests, the arid deserts, or even the frozen mountains peaks and old world ruins, Elex is a game that I play for the exploration. I kill, I loot, I explore and I'll pick up quests along the way that I pretend I care about. But mostly I'm just aiming for that next big reward until something in the story happens that interests me. If you're someone like me who loves exploring open worlds, you'd be hard pressed to pass Elex up. But if you're looking for the sharpest looking, smoothest playing, go-to because you're finally bored of The Witcher 3, this one may not be for you.

Inquisitor: Martyr is a fun horde killer with a fair amount of variety to boot; also with the promise of more races to come and live events, it’s a good investment for any 40k fan who wants some bang for their buck.

In truth, Weedcraft Inc is an enjoyable business management game with some creative ideas as well as decent writing and a thoroughly fitting musical score. If you’ve always wanted to dabble at running a Cannabusiness, it’s a must buy.

A lot of what happened was very predictable; it felt like the game was tricking you into thinking your choices meant something, when really, you weren’t doing anything at all.

Genesis Alpha One, at its best, is an engaging resource-management sim that gives a good approximation of what I imagine running a ship out in the middle of space would be. However, the first-person perspective seems to have shifted the design towards a combat-oriented game with resource management elements, and unfortunately that is not where the game’s strengths lie. If you can get on board with the lacklustre gunplay, there’s some fun to be had organising your ship and crew, but the combat elements seem at odds with the slow pace of the rest of the game.

Folks, City of Gangsters is a very well thought out and developed game. It's very detailed and quite comprehensive and to the point that most everything you could think of when thinking about booze running crooks is there. The developers definitely did the work and research necessary to show what prohibition was like back in the 1920s. Throw in a good measure of fun along with your bottle of moon shine and you will have hours of fun, just like I did some twenty-odd years ago with the Railroad Tycoon games that I loved so much. Don't drink too much of that white lightning because the cops could be pounding on your door next. Just make sure they are on the take like the cops in City of Gangsters are and you should be OK!

There aren’t really any new added gameplay features or modes that I could discern, which is a bit of a shame, but the game on the whole has actually aged very well. Also the lack of new features is more forgivable when you see how low the price tag is (considering most remasters generally charge full retail price). So if you never managed to play this destructive jewel back in the day, or if you are feeling somewhat nostalgic and traded in your copy years back, I would certainly recommend a revisit to the Red Planet.

Winds of Magic is decent, but I feel like it unfortunately represents a step away from what makes the Vermintide series truly special.

I ended my time with Realms of Ruin feeling like it was a game stuck between two genres. It has the combat rules, unit counts, and sluggish movement of a pure tactics game, set on a map scaled for an RTS, but it also forgot to bring either tactics or strategy in a meaningful way. In some respect it feels like a strategy game from before they were "figured out" in the 90s. It's a game of rock paper scissors, where each player knows what the other is throwing, and has but a single counter to it. There just isn't enough there, and for a game that is asking a premium price, I think the bar is much more visible, if not higher. And this is without taking into account the other, better, Warhammer strategy games already on the market. Just like its full title, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar - Realms of Ruin is a tad exhausting, a bit confusing, and could benefit from losing about 60% off the top.

Despite these minor criticisms, the game is brilliant. Having played it both with friends and alone, it is obvious that this game is -supposed- to be played with friends. When playing alone, it feels a bit repetitive, but when you add two friends screaming commands in your ear and a third one laughing manically as he plots your demise, this game is pure candy. If you enjoy playing this kind of game with friends, you will love Dungeonland. If you are a friendless loner, however, you might want to give it a miss.

This type of game is one from a bygone era, and although The Way does its best to bring it back from the past, there are just too many problems to make it a good modern game.

It’s a game which you’ll enjoy clicking around in for a few hours, although when it comes to the story, you might be left with more questions than answers. You won’t get much satisfaction from solving the puzzles, but the look and general feel of the game might be worth your attention, particularly if you’re a fan of surrealism. It’s certainly not for everyone, but there is certainly an audience out there for Small Radios Big Televisions.

Alone in the Dark is surprising. It doesn't have the budget to fight the big boys, but through sheer care it manages to punch above its weight. Its biggest detractors reside in its combat, and its biggest strength are just about everywhere else. It's clear to me that the entire production understood the assignment. Even with its missteps the combat design has valuable ideas. The audio and visual designs are a delight. The acting is probably its greatest strength. The writing, led by Soma's Mikael Hedberg, brought lessons learned from both his previous involvements and the legacy of the series to make a more refined story. He also showed, through a nuanced understanding, that Lovecraft's world extends so far beyond tentacles and old-Gods named Cthulhu. It's far from perfect, but it exists, at the bare minimum, as a great starting point for a revitalization of a series that has fallen from influential to forgotten.

Even if it was an absolute perfect train sim title, none of the Train Simulator games are going to appeal to everyone. In fact, they probably still won’t appeal to the majority of gamers. That’s OK though, because these games are meant for the people that love the genre, and it wouldn’t be fair to judge them as something they’re not.

If you’re looking for a simple strategy game for your young one or a distraction from your daily life that doesn’t require your full attention, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics is the game for you but just ensure you watch the show first. If you were looking for a complex, intricate turn-based strategy RPG with a lot of nuance, story and character development, your money is better spent elsewhere.

As a longtime Killing Floor fan, I was beyond excited at the initial announcement of a new entry. I was more than happy to speak briefly with Tripwire developers at PAX East about what they were most excited for with this newest release. Even with a rough start during the public testing period, the developers' commitment to transparency was laudable, and helped reaffirm the much-needed goodwill. However, the final product simply does not meet either the ideal or minimal standards expected of a Killing Floor game. While this may change over the coming months and years, it is difficult, if not impossible, to recommend this game as it currently stands.

While it does have some issues presenting the backstory itself; feeling a bit more like an experiment than a complete game, the moment-to-moment of exploration is unique and unforgettable. Hopefully this will soon get VR support considering it looks perfect for the platform.

With the old style platform gameplay, 2D pixellated graphics and some cool retro 8-bit style music (thrown in with some other cool looping tunes), Platformines feels like it should have been released decades ago. But the game is definitely a huge amount of fun to play.

In the end, no, this isn’t going to be a game that anyone is probably going to rip out 100 hours of, but it’s a lovely little game for killing a few evenings or a weekend.

Recipe for Disaster presents what, on paper, is a great premise for any management game, but ultimately stays true to its own name, being a disastrous mess of a game concealed by a superficial coat of visually-engaging paint, that makes one want to drown oneself in a pot of overcooked stew.

That said, it’s still Saints Row, and there’s still a ton of fun to be had up front before the activities start repeating themselves.

When you die – and you will, a lot – the frustration is not because you weren’t expecting it, but because you know you can do better.

The issues with This is the Police 2 mostly boil down to pacing. The cutscenes are so long that you can forget that you're playing a game at all, and they serve to space out the moments of gameplay a bit too far, creating a disjointed feeling between the other aspects of the game. Trimming down the dialogue and letting players have more interaction in each cutscene could have gone a long way toward tightening up the pacing while keeping the world and character building just as strong.

Oozi: Earth Adventure looks like it is a simple casual game, and it is, particularly on the easier levels. It is one of those games that you waltz though, with little frustration.

Ultimately Oscura’s light is, I think, destined to fade into the darkness of forgotten platformers.