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.

Windforge sounded like an intriguing game when I first heard about it. An explorable game with a system similar to Terraria, but in the sky? Sounds fun! In reality, you are treated with a game that is its own worst enemy, preventing you from enjoying it through numerous technical issues and strange design choices. Which is a shame. I really wanted to build something with it.

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged is a reasonably adequate racing game for beginners. Visually, it sets itself apart from many of its competitors. However, its floaty physics system, unappealing slow speeds, almost non-existent racetrack offerings, and awkward keyboard control scheme make it impossible to recommend in its current state.

I’ve got a soft spot for super-low-budget titles like this, almost always the product of passion and heart, but there’s no escaping that Supposedly Wonderful Future is an inconsistent experience that, while containing some successful moments, has too many that are dull or drag. It's clear that there are a lot of interesting ideas at work, but they aren’t packaged into an experience that functions well enough or as a cohesive whole.

It is commendable the rate at which the developers have been able to craft these individual stories. Considering the widely branching narratives (that seems no less complex here) there's always been a feeling that The Dark Pictures was handled by the B team, while the A team developed the standalone titles. The Devil in Me has the feeling of a C team development (or D team, if the VR titles have their own?). There's enough mistakes to make the whole thing feel like a freshman effort mistakenly placed at the end of a quadrilogy. The story and the setting deserved better than to be absolutely trounced by the poor quality parts, but given how quickly the developers iterate and respond to feedback there's plenty of hope moving forward. As the bookend to their first season of this experiment, though, they left plenty to be desired.

Overall, Asterigos: Curse of the Stars is a passable quality experience that excels when it leans into its Monster Hunter/Dauntless-esque multiphase boss fights, interspersed with more solitary bouts of exploration and subsequent discovery. Had the developers leaned further into this hypothetically simplified formula, while offsetting it with the existing rich and dense progression system, Asterigos could have proved its mettle as a more-than-worthy contender in the market. However, its poor control responsiveness, its often-needlessly ham-fisted approach to forcing linearity where it's not needed, and its debatable narrative quality, also collectively hold it back from reaching its full potential.

Immortal Planet is fine in just about every sense of the word. It does most things decently well, but never does anything exceptionally. It has a few interesting ideas, but it’s got enough drawbacks to even them out. I respect the ideas and what I’m sure were the goals of the project by a small development team, but it’s only been a few hours since I stopped playing and I’m already over it. I don’t regret my time with the game, but I don’t feel the need to hop back in and don’t really have any stand-out moments to look back on. The game may be called immortal, but the experience proves to be anything but.

Arelite Core is obviously born out of a great love of 16bit JRPGs and a lot of heart has gone into its creation. The first thing budding game designers are taught, however, is to imagine a game they’d love to play but doesn’t exist and think about reasons why that game doesn’t exist. This sets them up to design games that no one has played and to attack as yet unsolved challenges. I feel like I’ve played Arelite Core before. I feel like I’ve played myriad versions of Arelite Core before. Therefore, although I can appreciate the love and effort that went into creating it, I cannot recommend that you pick it up over the fantastic classics of the 16bit era already available on various platforms.

There's simply too much luck and not enough player influence to get a whole lot out of it.

TOHU isn’t the best point-and-click out there. The confusing story and tedious puzzle solving leave a lot to be desired. Point-and-click adventure games of this style live in a weird place today. This one seems to take inspiration from Humongous Games’ portfolio and it is just too hard to live up to the nostalgia of playing games like Pajama Sam as a child. The art and interactions in that game are unforgettable and the story was fun and educational. TOHU starts going down this path and succeeds in some of that world building and light-hearted story telling, but it barely even scratches the surface compared to what already exists.

The Golf Club has the potential to be so much more than it is. In my opinion it came out of early access too early, because the full game still feels very beta-y.

The core concept, while unoriginal, is at least interesting, and it's backed up by a broadly well-realized world. Sadly, the whole thing is scuppered by the absolutely comical AI, which single-handedly removes all tension from the game and transforms it from moody sci-fi horror into disappointing nonsense, frustrating and unintentionally hilarious in equal measures.

Freaky Awesome gets updated regularly, and so I’m hopeful that the developers will take feedback into consideration. That being said, my suggestion for a better player experience would be to keep the mutation system but balance them so that there are equal advantages and disadvantages in them all. This could be done to great effect when dealing with a set of enemies that complement each mutation’s abilities in different ways. My second recommendation is to guarantee more item drops, perhaps one chest item per floor. This would encourage exploration while giving you a fighting chance against some of the really difficult bosses. I think Freaky Awesome has potential to be a fun and unique dungeon crawling rogue-lite experience, but as of now, it doesn’t quite hit the mark.

It's satisfying to completely destroy each area, but only until the formulaic gameplay begins to wear itself thin. However, the little things Infectonator 3: Apocalypse does for humor's sake land nicely and I found myself laughing at some of the intentionally silly art and dialogue. Overall, it's a game that's fun in bursts and would probably appeal more to somebody who knows this sort of thing is their cup of tea.

For now, however, Sacred Citadel is only recommended for fans of the franchise or genre. There is fun to be had here but only in small bursts, so it's hard to recommend the $15 investment. With a disappointing combat system and ineffectual character progression, the game falls short of its potential.

Maybe Cris Tales has an audience among very small children but in almost every case you’d be better off digging up an old copy of Chrono Trigger. That said, this is Dreams Uncorporated’s first game, and while I'd hardly call Cris Tales a good game, it shows considerable promise in visual flair if nothing else. I’ll be curious to see where they go from here.

I want the readers to take this score with a grain of salt. I went with what I thought was fair without letting my complete lack of fun butcher the score. It's functional, and I can see how those who have run out of challenges would love to run through this gambit. But it's just not for me. It's not fun for me at all, not due to poor design but due to there being only so much I can take before I throw in the towel. Tormentor X Punisher, you win. You brought out the anger in me. Now please, get off my computer.

It's a horror game that isn't scary, an adventure game that isn't exciting, and a narrative-driven game that feels more like a glorified tech demo. There's nothing bad to be found here, but nothing worth writing home over either.

It’s not a badly put together game, but it does commit one major cardinal sin: it’s just kinda boring.

Although Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is lovely to look at, and the core game mechanics work well, it is the repetition and the stale dialogue that quickly diminished any fun I was having with the game.

Farming World has some value as an educational tool for young teenagers interested in farming, but as a game it lacks the personality and depth required to actually make it fun.

The instances where Coast Guard works well can be fun, just not fun enough to justify the mediocrity or frustration of the rest of the game.

There are plenty of other games out there with more interesting puzzles and a more mature storyline. If your kids have a particular penchant for pests though, this might be a decent game to play with them.

With attractive graphics and a well-produced soundtrack, Beyond Space does its best to feel AAA, but once the game gets going it all starts to fall apart at the seams. When the game backs off and lets you blast things, it's a fun diversion, but it's let down by the woeful storyline, and the simple fact that there are many other games out there that do it better.

Maybe you need to be a lot more into cars than I am to get something out of CMS2014. Objectively though, it just doesn’t seem like a whole lot of fun.

Overall then, Manipulated is only worth the small amount of money it costs if you’re willing to play through a couple of hours of puzzles for a slight twist and the small amount of payoff which comes from it. The puzzles aren’t particularly tricky, and the platforming and combat is completely unnecessary.

In the end, it’s just some weird design decisions and the abstract nature of a surrealist game mixed with the obtuse nature of classic adventure games that let Between Me and the Night down. There is certainly some promise here, but it’s just far too frustrating to play, and the lack of a mid-level save is crazy in a modern game.

BeatBlasters III is short lived, but even in that small amount of time, the action became a bit repetitive. There's not much of a sense of progression other than moving forward through the barely explained story.