Alone in the Dark tempts you with some great ideas but inevitably provides no substance. Couple that with less than stellar gameplay and a hunger to tell a better story, I left Derceto Manor feeling unimpressed, frustrated, and ultimately dejected by the sum of its parts.

Winter Survival is a tedious, repetitive, boring, and shallow survival game. Although there are some good ideas, they're ultimately wasted on the lack of investment the game provides. The story mode is the only thing that may make this game worthwhile for some. [Early Access Provisional Score = 50]

Nightingale is both fun and frustrating in different intervals. It has interesting base building mechanics and beautifully-crafted Realms, but it's held back by a stale gameplay loop and some unfortunate quality-of-life issues. [Early Access Provisional Score = 65]

Instead of a "gritty pirate game," Skull and Bones is a looter shooter on the high seas that keeps stepping on its own toes. I hope future seasons will transform it into a game that's good for more than novelty ship battles.

For being in early access, Enshrouded is already phenomenal. What I like most about Enshrouded is it cleverly creates a satisfying gameplay loop out of bouncing players between building and questing, it features a beautiful blend of hand-combed survival crafting tropes and RPG mechanics, and the open world is a massive playground riddled with Shrouds, secrets, and scenic views. Especially with friends, you'll enjoy your time and find what you're looking for in Enshrouded. [Early Access Score = 90]

Palworld offers everything you'd expect, and so much more. From incredible boss fights to satisfying community building, there's something for everyone. [Early Access Provisional Score = 85]

Modern Warfare 3 sets what seems to be the final chapter in the MW series. But with a short campaign, a lot of the payoff feels unfulfilled. However, the open-world design does freshen up the formula that's showing its age. Be prepared to spend little time getting through the narrative. [Campaign Review Score = 60]

Not a bad first try for an indie studio. However, the game lacks originality and quickly becomes a repetitive slog.

Unimpressive build variety, strange and tedious resource collecting, and the lack of meaningful and fun progression make Wizard with a Gun a disappointment. Ultimately, Wizard with a Gun has a really great concept and some great ideas, but it fumbles the execution.

Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty makes some improvements, but it fails to live up to its own lofty promises.

If you're searching for a game to play with friends, Remnant 2 can provide an entertaining experience, but you should consider other options if you want a game to play alone. Although the graphics and storyline may not be awe-inspiring, the dynamic generation feature turns Remnant 2 into a game you and your friends can enjoy for an extended period, resulting in one of the most replayable games of the year. Still, I was disappointed with the long-awaited sequel due to frustrating character mechanics, outdated visuals, and lack of a compelling story to connect with.

Redfall is an initially compelling game, but once it bears its teeth the sheer lack of quality propped up by unfinished ideas is abundantly clear.

With a story that's as empty and meandering as its gameplay, The Last Worker is an ugly, tedious slog that I'm glad to be done with.

Regardless of the strong art direction, voice acting, and dialogue, Romancelvania can't overcome its failings in most other aspects regarding gameplay.

Gungrave GORE is one of the worst of 2022. It's functional, but supremely awful the whole way through.

I really wanted to like Floodland. The colony management/city-building sim from Vile Monarch and Ravenscourt seemed right up my alley. With post-apocalyptic themes centered on climate change and humanity’s struggle to survive on a harsh world, it was too good to pass up. Then, I played it, and part of me started wondering if this was still an Early Access game. True, there were interesting mechanics and familiar concepts. However, there were also confusing moments, unclear information, and an odd lack of a pure sandbox mode.

The arena combat features in Dying Light 2: Bloody Ties are refreshing for a time. Unfortunately, the clunkiness and tediousness from the base game remains. Worse, there's a litany of crashes, and a game-breaking bug that can cause issues with your save.

There are some good ideas in play here, but Food Truck Simulator gets many of its basic elements wrong to the point where the game becomes a repetitive pain to play.

Built out of bad ideas and awful design implementation, Tower Princess is better off unrescued.

Regrettably, Saints Row does suffer from annoying bugs, glitches, and crashes. In fact, I had to restart the game as soon as I created my character when the menu stopped being functional. There were also some moments when getting inside a vehicle would place the camera inside the textures. Moreover, there were a handful of missions that led to crashes — in a couple of instances, I even had to restart my PC. There was no other recourse but to restart the mission from scratch instead of the checkpoint. Will the frustrations continue to mount? We’ll see. For now, I’ll continue to play more to see the campaign through to its conclusion.

Clunky combat, boring progression, threadbare plot, unrewarding exploration, and a laughably bad healing mechanic. All of these lead to a soulless Souls-like that is Dolmen.

Tape: Unveil the Memories has compelling elements, but they're overshadowed by some truly bad mechanics and dull monster encounters.

Although it has enjoyable movement and a solid story, Aztech Forgotten Gods feels like a shell of a game that's been stitched together.

Blackwind has the right incredients for an engaging and challenging game, but the lack of proper difficulty balance and camera frustrations prevent it from hitting the right marks.

All in all, I can say that I still enjoyed the variety and challenges presented by these enemies. [Review in Progress]

Unfinished, buggy, and broken, Icarus should not have released at this stage. With mind-numbing repetition and baffling design decisions, it's a survival game that's more frustrating than challenging.

New World feels like a modern MMORPG. It looks beautiful, the combat is fluid, and there's plenty to keep you engaged. The island feels alive with warring factions and hostile enemies. And the fighting is very fun. You'll never be short of tasks to complete, but sometimes the narrative will leave you feeling uninspired. It needs a little more emotion injected into it. [Early Access Provisional Score = 80]

Buggy, broken, and boring, Away: The Survival Series is awful all around.