Is Architect Life a game that can be used by real-life architects? Obviously, many aspects pertaining to an architect’s job are simplified, but the framework is there, and you can build some amazing places. I like the interface and building toolkit, not to mention the visuals are delightful and fit the game’s vibe and atmosphere. I think comparing this to “The Sims” is fair, but here you just focus on the building aspect, and Architect Life excels at it. Unlike games such as House Flipper or The Sims, here you don’t focus on buying/flipping houses or simulating people’s lives inside a home. Instead, Architect Life gives us some insight into how architects work, while allowing home designers to bring their craziest home ideas to life. The building tools are awesome, and the art style is stunning, not to mention you can play the career mode to challenge yourself or just go full-on creative mode for some relaxing builds.

The Blackout Club is one of those games that is sadly not very fun to play if you lack a group of close friends with whom you could play. More so, the player population is currently very low, and the high amount of bugs present, especially visual ones, might deter new player from spending money on a title that has almost amateur-level glitches. Lastly, if you would like the game to look a bit more decent, you're better off buying the PC version. While the graphics may not be all that better, and improvement is an improvement.

The Last Cube is a solid puzzle and platforming mix, with a focus on solid planning and careful execution. I like the pure nature of moving through the levels, constantly trying to keep in mind which face of the cube can interact with what element of the environment. But this is an experience enjoyed in small doses before the drabness of the universe gets to you. The narrative is the weakest part of the game, which would have been overlooked a few years ago. But the genre is getting increasingly crowded. The Last Cube can have good ideas and implementation but it also needed an interesting universe and better presentation to stand out.

WRATH: Aeon of Ruin is part of an already long line of modern first-person shooters that target players' nostalgia for the genre’s classics. The engine is built on Quake tech and both the levels, and the enemies are designed to trigger a nostalgia response. It’s unlikely that fans of more modern FPS experiences will be interested. The big combat moments are tense and get the adrenaline flowing, especially when players remember how long it’s been since they used a soul tether. Unfortunately, WRATH: Aeon of Ruin has too many corridors and relies too much on enemies who teleport in to turn into the classic that it wants to be.

Fading Hearts is certainly a good visual novel game, managing to innovate in the genre by adding some big choices and by allowing characters to be more than just 2D people. The fact that they lie and most of them have fleshed out backgrounds makes you care about them even more.

The game fails to deliver too much in the way of story, and the graphics are a little limited, but the core building and optimization mechanics are captivating and give gamers plenty of interesting ways to tweak the layout of buildings and the paths that characters use.

Overall, Cris Tales is a charming tale, a great JRPG, and a memorable experience, with plenty of replay value. The characters are endearing, while the story is based on the innocence of childhood. It is almost like a time travel experience taking you back to when your parents used to read you bedtime stories. You can feel that the team poured their heart and soul into the game making it a game that will convince everyone willing to try it, even if they usually do not like JRPGs. It has some issues and for some, the visuals might be too colorful or cheerful, but it is an adventure worth playing through.

The graphics style, soundtrack, general direction of the story and the crude and extremely politically unfriendly dialogue makes the game stay true to its intentions. While the controls may not be the best, the story and dialogue stay the same, and if that's what you're in for, then that will just be a minor oversight.

If you like walking simulators and deep stories, this game is right up your alley. The atmosphere and the visual style will engulf you completely, making it feel natural to ponder the philosophical questions raised by your trek through Regis III. But I can’t forget or forgive the deliberately snail like pace and cheap shots meant to extend a 4-hour experience into one that take 8 hours to finish. Despite the short length, the experience would have been much more enjoyable if it wouldn’t have been so diluted.

Keeper's Toll is a good wave-based action survival title that understands what makes the genre attractive. Its biggest asset is the variety delivered by its six heroes and the way players can customize their upgrades, as well as the meta-progression, to try out different playstyles. The ability to redistribute points at any time is a great touch. But the game never finds a unique idea to make it stand out. The narrative is almost non-existent. The art style is decent, and I like the soundtrack, but the title really needs something more to stand out. Keeper's Toll is thoroughly enjoyable, especially once the player finds his favorite character, and will offer tens of hours of fun to anyone who’s in love with this genre.

Space Station Tycoon is a decent construction and management experience that feels somehow incomplete. It’s fun to make money and gather research points, expand the space station, provide power and security, and deal with threats. But there’s limited story to enjoy and man management elements are very limited. Interactions on the solar system level are simple and there’s a hard limit to how much stuff one can attack to the station’s two floors and eight spokes. Space Station Tycoon needed to be more innovative and varied to attract a more diverse fan base.

Titan Souls can be repetitive, difficult and frustrating, but it can also be the kind of video game in which one solid arrow shot can make a player happy for half an hour.

Overall Mafia Definitive Edition is a solid remaster, that despite its numerous flaws should be experienced by the original gangsters and the new wave of players as well. We can comment about the technical errors, about the holes in the revamped story, and other shortcomings, but all in all, Mafia still proves to be am immersive experience, even after 18 years. This Mafia is not the same as the original, but it is better because you can enjoy it in 2020. The hardcore fans of the original will find a lot to nit-pick. But they can return to the original, to remember how archaic it is, or can they try to beat the game in classic mode, “enjoying” the quirks of the original recipe. Despite the criticism, we have to admit that Hangar 13 managed to take an 18 years old game and make it work in 2020, without crushing its soul.

Adventure Lib takes some great jabs at adventure titles, gameplay tropes, and manages to deliver a short but hilarious experience. Sure, your mileage may vary depending on your sense of humor or passion for repetition, but at least you'll have fun with this quirky indie experience.

Mia and the Dragon Princess is limited even when it comes to the classic full-motion video approach. There are some player choices, the narrative does branch, and it can take some time to put together the best way to get characters to one of the positive endings. Even with the ability to skip scenes, there’s little incentive to play through it for more than 2 or, maybe, 3 times if you really feel a connection to one of the main characters. The biggest problem is the lack of narrative coherence. The villain is just a collection of ticks and tropes and, while I like the central pair, their characterization is also scattershot. FMV experiences can be interesting and engaging, both in terms of story and gameplay. Mia and the Dragon Princess fails to deliver on either of those fronts and would have worked better as a straight-to-streaming movie.

This Means Warp is designed to appeal to players who can get a group of friends together and get them to join in cooperative play. The main mechanics of combat and repairing are easy to understand but as soon as more than one human is involved, everything can quickly devolve into chaotic fun. Time and energy will allow groups to become expertly-drilled crews. The title’s biggest issue is how repetitive the gameplay loop is. This is mitigated when more than one player is involved. But a solo game with computer companions will be frustrating. Get This Means Warp if you have a group of friends who like science fiction and ship-to-ship combat and are ready to get together for some controlled chaos and some laughs.

Giga Wrecker Alt. redefines what it means to make a good platformer riddled with puzzles and obstacles, turning it into a core gameplay element that will keep you busy and second-guessing your choices consistently. If that isn’t enough to convince you, then the fast-paced combat and the unique bosses you will encounter will certainly draw out your inner warrior. The gameplay is addicting, a lot of the mechanics used are new, and even the humor is enough to at least make you chuckle from time to time. Either way, Giga Wrecker Alt. deserves a place in any self-proclaimed puzzle solver’s digital library!

Dead Ink’s core gameplay is built on ideas inspired by the very popular Dark Souls but it is not part of the forgettable recent wave of titles that simply copy them. The vertical layout of the tower is a big twist with major consequences for exploration. Players need to move carefully and pay close attention to ladders and ledges that will lead to new places. Combat is all about careful dodging and strikes delivered at just the right time. The narrative is pretty limited. But I like the feeling of discovery and how the game encourages players to create mental maps and unlock shortcuts. Dead Ink should have tried to tweak the formula it’s working with a little more but it has enough unique elements to keep fans engaged.

The game can be frustrating when it takes 2 hours and 20 reloads to take care of a group of 4 enemies that were blocking access to an objective. Experimentation and observation are engaging initially but it’s hard to remain enthusiastic when just one bad move scuttles a whole plan. This is an issue with the entire stealth-action genre that no title has entirely solved. Despite this Partisans 1941 has good mission design, a nice synergy between characters, and the outside the mission variety that makes it a good recommendation for those who like this style of game and the World War II setting.

The gameplay continues to be chaotic and the team-playing vibes are almost non-existent if you’re not playing together with friends. Portal is pretty much the only solid selling point right now, and unless the new Battlefield urgently receives massive improvements, it could easily turn into one of the biggest disappointments of the year.

Persona 5 is less an action RPG, and rather a well-executed tactical turn-based game. The gameplay is well thought out with complex systems, the design and visual style follows the legacy of the series with some minor changes to keep things fresh, and as per usual the polis of the game is spotless. Yet somewhere along the way the focus shifted too much towards the battle and had a somewhat negative impact on the pacing, the atmosphere and the player engagement in general. Persona 5 is the most repetitive and monotonous iteration released by Atlus so far.

Space Colony: Steam Edition is clearly reaching out from a time way back when video game design used to be more forgiving. It's got a lot of flaws, but it also has a ton of personality, and it offers a pretty solid space colony management experience, albeit one a little on the light side.

I liked my time with Grand Age: Medieval, but after spending a lot of time in the Balkans in my first campaign, I want to see whether there's variety in switching to another region for the start town.

Selfloss is a great concept and has a tremendous atmosphere, that is let down by an unpolished gameplay. It is an indie gem with all the good and the bad, typical for this kind of title. The focus is on the story and the emotions it awakens in the player, while the control and the combat system could have benefited a lot from more careful planning. Overall, it is a game worth experiencing for its soul.

Aris Arcanum is one of those games that’s not going to be for everyone. It’s designed to offer a new take on roguelikes, and its innovative spellcrafting system, along with the beautiful world they make, is quite engaging and exhilarating at times. However, it’s not without flaws. The character movement takes some getting used to, and the game itself is quite short. And then there’s the AI-asset usage, which could be misunderstood or not appreciated by some players. However, once you get past the mishaps, you will see that Aris Arcanum is a competent rogue-like, albeit one that’s more suitable for people that enjoy a slower-paced game. It’s one of those games that, if you offer enough time, you’ll become engulfed with fun moments, and every boss/enemy you defeat feels very fulfilling.

Green Hell is a console port that unfortunately does not manage to rival its PC counterpart. What can accomplish is to stand out from the relentless wave of survival games, as a title with personality, with both perks and flaws. The gameplay manages to keep its edge, but the challenges are even more frustrating because of the technical issues. If you are in your element when facing impossible odds, Green Hell is right up your alley. The abuse on players is relentless and creates an almost Stockholm syndrome-like experience. All the survival enthusiasts will keep coming back for more and more punishment.

The Gunk is a game that does a decent job of offering ideas that other titles have explored in better ways. The gameplay is fun at first barely evolves. The story, especially the interactions between Becks and Rani, is decent but has nothing especially memorable to offer. The game has everything it needs for some cool cooperative play moments but does not offer those mechanics.

The Reckoning DLC for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare offers a decent experience. While not all of the maps manage to live up to expectations, those that do offer a great time and are certainly going to keep fans busy until Black Ops 3 rolls out in November.

Paper Trail is an indie game with plenty of soul that mixes successfully the narrative and gameplay parts into an immersive experience. While the story is interesting enough, what will keep you most invested in the game is figuring out how to fold and slide in order to solve the puzzles. There are some aspects that could use fixing like the repeating soundtrack and maybe a more precise hint system, overall, Paper Trails is a fascinating journey in a modern fairy tale, worthy of the attention of puzzle fans.

Trigon: Space Story does not add much to the formula that FTL pioneered. When that title launched its mechanics and ideas felt fresh, with the pressure of the constantly chasing fleet adding tension and urgency to the gameplay. But for a new game to have the same impact it needs to introduce at least one big new idea and then make sure it integrates well with the rest. Battles do deliver tense moments and I love the tension that developers as players evaluate whether it’s a good idea to flee or whether a victory is still achievable, with some losses. I also appreciate the depth of possibilities offered by the sector map. Trigon: Space Story has good core mechanics but never does anything interesting with them for anyone who has played FTL.

The biggest asset and problem that the game has is its difficulty level, because it does create that feeling of challenge that every good rogue-like needs and can produce moments of small but enchanting triumph, but it also tends to limit access to the story a little too much.

Deck 'Em! succeeds at offering a solitaire take on a boxing-driven card game. The blocking mechanic is just complex enough to create tension and force some tough decisions, without asking players to understand a deep system with a lot of action verbs. Taking on the unnamed champ is pretty hard and the betting only adds stakes to each round. The big problem is that there’s not enough of it to keep anyone engaged in the long term. All the mechanics are clear after a few matches and after beating the champion a few times there’s no incentive to keep playing, other than maybe accumulating more money than a friend. Deck 'Em! needs to have more of everything and I think the developers at Frosty Pop should take its solid core and see how it can be expanded into a bigger experience because it has the potential to be a leader in the very popular deck builder genre.

Volume has a carefully considered set of mechanics and it will certainly appeal to those who love stealth action and are interested in completing each of the levels as quickly as possible, moving smoothly and without having to get saved by the checkpoints.

Creo God Simulator’s mix of city building and god powers is an intriguing one but the game struggles to make either of them interesting in the long run. The Creostrider is limited to lightning and rain when the campaign starts, and the willpower costs associated with upgrades are very high. The economic simulation works but doesn’t feature any innovative elements. Players who are willing to push past the early game will find extra complexity as they have to juggle more buildings and decide what resources to prioritize. Creo God Simulator needs more mechanics and an extra game speed but it offers a relaxed experience for players who are ready to smite down villagers once in a while.

I don't feel that Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 is a major upgrade over the previous title, but the presentation got up a notch or two, and so are the graphics. While I love the sandbox and semi-open world aspects, I think the implementation feels artificial and ruins the immersion more often than not. Sniper Ghost Warrior Contract 2 doesn't bring too many new things to the table, so it more of a safe rather than an evolutionary sequel. The sniping experience feels satisfying enough to keep you entertained for the entire campaign, and the way the maps are designed leaves room for different tactics. I think this a solid entry in the Sniper Ghost Warrior Contract series, but it's nothing revolutionary.

Tharsis offers some interesting mechanics, a story with little innovation but plenty of space for the player to create his narrative, and a lot of replayability, but all of that comes at a price: the difficulty level that can make players abandon the title before they see everything it has to offer.

Retribution is definitely worth playing and if you heavily invested in the game, you'll most likely find some enjoyment revisiting the Galactic Civilizations universe, just don't expect too many great things, and certainly nothing revolutionary.

The way it's all designed, with gameplay and narration interspersed with relevant background videos exploring the importance of the things you’ve just uncovered, further serves to make the entire experience meaningful and endearing.

Vietnam '65 is an interesting video game, but it is unlikely that it will manage to gain a huge audience in its current form, because it is working with a setting that's not particularly attractive and because it makes logistics more important than actual combat.

Although it may seem short, the game is packed with engaging action and enough content to justify its price. Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time is a must-play title for fans of the cartoons, and it should be picked up by those looking for an action game too, even if they are not familiar with one of the most famous ninjas ever to grace recent pop culture.

Tower Dominion is not the most complex tower defense game out there, nor the prettiest or with the flashiest graphics. Instead, it takes a more basic style and approach when it comes to the genre. Yet what you have here is not only very fun to go through, it’s all presented in a very addicting and fun package. The game does an excellent job at keeping you glued to the screen, and each level doesn’t overstay its welcome. The fact that you have lots of stuff to unlock offers incredible replay value, especially with the 30 heroes you can find, the blueprints you unlock and so on. If you’re looking for a game to play in-between those intense online shooters/battle royales, or if you love the tower defense genre, I think Tower Dominion is a very good option. It’s one of those games you come back to rather often, trying to unlock new buildings and experiment with heroes.

Traverser is an intriguing game. While it doesn't do that many great things with its gravity glove, it makes up for it with the clever story, novel premise, and the emphasis on sneaking around. However, some ambiguous moments and the presence of a few awkward boss fights weigh it down.

When you finish Warmind, and it’s not going to take long, you won’t get the impression that you’ve achieved anything special. The strikes, the raid, and all the rest do play a role, but it’s just not enough. We can only hope that Bungie will have learned the lessons of the first Destiny and give us the things that we desire, and not just what they planned a long time ago.

WonderCat Adventures is a clever side-scrolling platformer that uses its simple controls in a great way. Level design is quite good for the most part of the 55 stages, but as mentioned above, during the latter parts of the game, it does force players to engage in a lot of trial-and-error. Even so, you're in for a pretty sweet experience controlling the alien feline.

I did not love the experience of playing this Subliminal title. The game is too focused on backtracking through the various areas to complete quests and side activities. Button City is, probably, a good game for younger players who might not have engaged with the genres it replicates in the arcade. Play it with a kid if you are a parent and tell them there are better versions of everything they see here out there to try and master. But the developers are good at creating a game world that draws evokes nostalgia. Their characters are fun and whimsical, although they do need more depth. Button City is a limited video game but, if the studio focuses on its strengths, it can surely create a world where the gameplay and the world are better synchronized.

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is a solid effort but falls short compared to other Capcom remasters. The fans of the original will feel nostalgic revisiting Willamette Parkview Mall, but younger players will feel a lot of frustration. The game looks like a modern production but feels and plays like a game from a time with plenty technical limitations that do not apply any longer. It is challenging and mostly rewarding but lacks the finesse of modern games.

The highlight is the way the game can transition from stealth to full combat in small places very quickly, with the firefights often won by the smallest of margins.

Lucky Hunter’s gameplay is built around a unique idea. Players do not directly control combat but will make crucial choices, about pieces as well as artifacts and visited nodes, that will shape their deck and influence how many battles they will win. Luck plays a big role but when a run truly comes together it is incredible to watch the damage numbers go up. The presentation and universe are decent but do not stand out. I would have also liked the cost of new armies to be lower. But Lucky Hunter is easy to pick up and play and it only takes one great run for players to become addicted to its core loop.

Dead Island 2 is a poster boy for mindless fun. It is a gore fest that does not take itself seriously or the topic of zombie apocalypse. It’s mainly a relaxing stroll down the sunny streets of Beverly Hills littered with undead corpses. It has no ambition to revolutionize the genre or to be memorable. It’s safe to say that this is a game that you’ll enjoy for 10-15 hours, and, just like a good popcorn movie, you will probably forget soon after. If the developers respect their promise of fixing the most annoying bugs with the day-0 patch. Without it the game remains a playable, but very messy experience.

The Waylanders is to be commended for the way it takes Celtic mythology and extracts cool moments and conflicts. It’s a great jumping-off point to learn more about the Tuatha De Danann and the stories of pre-Christianity Ireland. It also tries to innovate party-driven RPG combat by focusing on formations and their advantages. Unfortunately, engaging with the game world and its mechanics is not fun enough. Most combat encounters feel interchangeable, companions do not have much personality, there’s a lot of walking around. Working the camera never feels good, especially in tight quarters during battles. The Waylanders also needs major tweaks to its difficulty if it wants to attract more than a very niche audience.

Monarchy has good mechanics and a decent presentation. The world feels generic and pretty empty but there’s a decent challenge in managing resources while expanding the player hold. But the game does not try to differentiate itself from other experiences in the laid-back side-scrolling strategy space. It takes too long to expand and exploring the woods is simply not exciting most of the time. The cost associated with the bigger upgrades is too high. Monarchy needs a unique gameplay idea or some big twist to make up for its otherwise familiar mechanics.

We Are Football is an intriguing attempt to offer another take on the football management genre. The game has a very good match presentation and some solid club-focused mechanics but I am not sure that this is enough to make it a contender. The developers really need to get at least one major league full license (the Bundesliga is probably the most accessible) to draw fans in. An editor that is both faster and easier to use just to engage with names would also help. The football management space needs more options and more innovation. The developers clearly try to focus on the match and the squad interactions while also offering more club-based features for those who want it. I liked the time I spent with We Are Football but it’s unlikely that I will use it to play a ten-year-long Liverpool campaign anytime soon.

Darksiders II remains a fantastic action RPG experience with a distinctive dark fantasy feel. It offers a rich, multi-layered gameplay experience with a unique protagonist, beautiful art direction, and a mix of combat and puzzle-solving mechanics that will keep you engaged for hours. The Deathinitive Edition, while not perfect, is still worth playing, especially for those who missed it the first time around or want to relive the adventure with a bit of extra polish and added content. With its discounted price and bundled DLC, it’s a great way to experience Death’s journey, even if the road isn’t entirely smooth.

The locations and the puzzles of Rubble Without a Cause also feel a little uninspired and fail to match the exuberance of the previous modern adventures of Graham.

The outstanding art style is complemented by an audio part, building an atmosphere that invites you to explore and get lost in the game world. The apparently simple gameplay can be misleading and even a small mistake can cost you dearly. If you are not put off by the lack of action or combat, you will enjoy this game for an afternoon or two.

fault – StP – Lightkravte feels more like a side story that happens before the first two fault games rather than a full-fledged prequel. Revisiting the fault universe just to tell the story of an unremarkable boy who desperately wants to be a painted feels a bit forced, but it’s probably a decent waiting room for those who can’t wait to play the sequel to fault – milestone games coming later this year (or when it's ready). Do I recommend Lighkravte to those who didn’t play the first two fault – milestone games? Absolutely not. I suspect you’ll have a much more enjoyable experience playing those games first because you’ll better understand the setting and some of the characters would be more relatable. Lightkravte is not interesting enough as a side story, but it’s certainly an important piece of the puzzle in the fault universe.

Red Solstice 2 is a game that requires at least another friend to deliver a decent experience. The strategic and tactical layers work, from a purely mechanical point of view, but everything is too focused on repetitive actions to keep the game fun when playing solo. The limited immersion does not help. Gamers who can get together a group of four people and manages to coordinate sessions will have a very different experience. Four humans who work together to deal with the hordes of monsters, especially on the higher difficulties, can create impressive heroic moments. Red Solstice 2 shows the limits of a solid set of gameplay mechanics but also reveals the excitement that only cooperative play can generate.

Days of Doom is a competent combination of rogue-lite elements and turn and tile-driven combat. Battles are tense, especially when bigger and boss enemies arrive, and require players to carefully think about their character’s abilities and positioning...Unfortunately, there’s limited innovation to be found in the engagements and they tend to become repetitive. The grind required to get Renown for upgrades doesn’t help the experience. Days of Doom is a game for to fans of tactics and rogue-lite ideas that want a classic approach for both and don’t mind that the narrative isn’t very engaging.

Mothmen 1966 is the first of three interactive adventures called Pixel Pulps, and it certainly makes me want to check out the other two whenever they’ll be out. The writing is good, the characters are decently fleshed out, and the sound adds to tension. Although the soundtrack is a mixed bag, it's by no means bad. If you’re looking for a short sci-fi story with some horror elements and good writing, Mothmen 1966 is more than serviceable. Even though some choices lead to different outcomes, these are too minor to warrant another second playthrough, unless you want to know every bit of lore.

The quality of the overall experience is impacted by the limited appeal of the presentation. Combat can also become repetitive, with the dice system somewhat restrictive later on. Curious Expedition 2 is a good run-based title that will show-off the series to a wider section of gamers than the original, allowing them to go on complex resource-constrained adventures.

The story is there just to make you mildly interested in the game, which is kind of disappointing. Such an interesting world truly deserves much more exposition and deeper characterization of the cast, but if you’re looking for these traits in Ghostwire: Tokyo, you’re not going to find them. What you’ll find though is an interesting eerie world and lots of Western-like gunplay where you’ll be using your fingers to spit out psychic abilities rather than bullets, and that’s perfectly fine.

Tandem: A Tale of Shadows is a good game for anyone looking for hours of well-designed puzzles in some interesting locations. I appreciated how it organically expands the ways the two characters interact with the world. I liked the puzzle design, especially when it emphasizes how important it is for Emma to create paths for Fenton. But the game needs much more than good mechanics to stand out. The story never manages to become truly engaging. The triumphant pose that Emma strikes when the pair solves a room quickly becomes grating. The presentation fails to add much to the game. Tandem: A Tale of Shadows shows the Monochrome Paris has ideas and the ability to execute but they need to work on how they package them to capture a bigger fan base.

Pirates Outlaws is very well put together game that relies too much on luck. It can be just as satisfying as it can be frustrating. You never really feel in control and even the best laid plans can be brought hurling down by the randomness that governs every game mechanic. If you are not discouraged by the unpredictable odds, you will discover plenty of content for an indie title that can keep you entertained for long hours. On the other hand, if you feel the need to be in control all the time, Pirates Outlaws will not be your cup of tea.

Defragmented is a clever mix of varied RPG mechanics and hectic action-oriented shooting. While the camera needs a bit of work to use properly, you can still enjoy the great visuals and the stellar soundtrack.

Spellbound Survivors is derivative and simple. The main mechanics are fine, although there’s little here that other titles in the genre don’t do better. The Legend Bar idea is interesting but the array of offered options is too small and all of them feel overpowered. The soundtrack is pretty good but there’s no narrative setup to engage with. It could be a nice experience for someone engaging with this type of gameplay for the first time. But it doesn’t do enough to differentiate itself from the biggest player in the genre. Spellbound Survivors has plenty of characters and upgrades to unlock but limited mechanical variety to enjoy.

Disciples: Liberation brings some interesting new ideas to the series, but that doesn’t mean they’re all good. I didn’t like the fact that the game forces you to choose between the bad guy and the very bad guy by making choices that many times don’t make sense. In the end, Liberation is saved by the incredibly well-done tactical combat system that provide a lot of fun, especially when you find that combo that wipes out almost all enemies on the map in just one turn. Although it’s not really what I expected, I believe Disciples: Liberation is worth playing and definitely warrants a sequel.

Lost Words: Beyond the Page is a great story with minimalistic gameplay. It feels that through the entire game the developers focused mainly on the diary, Estoria being more of an afterthought. Still, overall, the magic is there and the game is worth a playthrough especially by young adults. There are some original and innovative ideas in the game, but in the end, is a very casual experience. Those who love a good story will love Lost Words: Beyond the Page. But those who are looking for deep gameplay, have nothing to see here.

Without a doubt, Firefighting Simulator - The Squad is the kind of game that will keep you busy even if the life of a firefighter doesn’t necessarily appeal to you. This is because, above all, Firefighting Simulator - The Squad is a co-op game that needs proper teamwork to complete the more challenging mission, no matter if we’re talking about AI or human players. However, after playing the game for nearly a week, I feel like Firefighting Simulator - The Squad leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to the firefighting experience. For instance, the missions should be further expanding with more incidents that a typical firefighter would have to deal with, including here chemical spills, car accidents, and airplane crashes. This would make the game feel less repetitive, while also adding another challenging factor to the overall experience.

Ashwalkers has a few good ideas that it executes well. The problem is that the development team wants to make the game seem to be more than it actually is. If everything moved faster and with clearer decisions then it would be worth an extended time investment. As it stands after a first completed expedition I had no desire to try another. The characters stay the same and the management element never adds new twists. The end screen for each playthrough shows quite a few possible conclusions to work towards but the world never feels interesting enough to try and get them all. Unless you truly love slow, moody stories and choice-focused titles avoid Ashwalkers unless updates deliver a tighter, faster version of the experience.

Wavetale remains a hidden indie jewel that could have benefited from more QA before being released on console, even though that would have certainly involved pouring more resources into a game that was initially launched on Google Stadia. For starters, fixing the music issues and the freezes would be mandatory in order to prevent discouraging people from trying it. For what is worth, Wavetale does a single thing well and that's the sliding mechanic, which is probably the only true selling point of the game. From the beginning to end, surfing the waves remains the main charm of Wavetale. It is a remarkable first effort, and one can only hope that it is enough to make people notice Wavetale and grant the developers the chance to make a sequel building upon the existing formula.

Sword of the Necromancer is a game that will scratch a very particular itch for fans of rogue-lite experiences that feature more narrative than the genre is known for. The gameplay mechanics deliver one cool idea, the monster resurrection, but fail to make full use of it, especially when players need to deal with bosses or the more capable enemies of later levels. I wanted the game to give me more reasons to use the monsters I revived, to understand them, to build strategies around the ones I chose to carry around. The development team clearly understands how important is to ground players into a narrative. But they need to make sure that there’s deeper integration between the world and the gameplay to create a successful rogue-lite. Right now Sword of the Necromancer is like one of its monsters, intriguing at first but quickly dropped when it no longer seems useful.

Even if the developers made great strides from 2018, they still don’t have enough time to fix all of the existing problems. And that’s too bad because, above all else, Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 is really fun to play. If you can ignore some of the minor issues I laid out, I’m sure that any football fan will be more than happy to give it a go.

At the end of the day, NHL 22 just feels like a transition to a kind of gameplay that would eventually feel even more real, probably not this year but in the upcoming releases. It’s still fun to play, and the graphics are clearly the best improvement on new-gen consoles, but otherwise, those who want to get the game on old-gen wouldn’t necessarily notice a massive refresh.

Game of Thrones - The Ice Dragon is a good closing chapter for the first season of the video game, managing to deliver some satisfying final moments for the main protagonists and to confound the expectations of players to some extent.

#IDARB is a fun experience when it comes to local co-op play, offering enough wacky elements to keep its general premise as interesting as possible. Unfortunately, control issues, poor online matches, and a few other problems keep it from really impressing.

Nom Nom Galaxy is an interesting hybrid, although the variety of experiences might mean that a lot of players will have to fail a lot before they discover exactly how to approach the problem of soup production and shipping.

The Holy Gosh Darn is a great adventure game, especially for those who love irreverent humor. It has its flaws, especially when it comes to the precision of the control, but it is darn fun to play around with time manipulation and see Cassy become more and more aggravated with the folks around her who have no clue about what is going on. On the downside, having to travel back in time so much and the piling up of secondary tasks can become a bit overwhelming. It will take a long couple of hours before you get your bearings, and even then, it will feel like you have a lot to do. But when did that stop any true adventurer?

WRC Generations is unfortunately a game that leaves a lot to be desired, and in many ways, this will disappoint quite a lot of fans of the franchise out there. While it does come with intriguing improvements, such as the addition of hybrid cars, it fails to impress in the areas that you’d expect it to shine, such as the graphics. The DualSense integration feels nice, but this should no longer be something to praise a game for given it’s already 2022 and the PlayStation 5 has been around for a while. Should you buy WRC Generations? This depends on your expectations. If you’re a WRC fan like I am, you’ll probably end up having some fun with it, but otherwise, you’ll notice every little shortcoming from the moment you fire it up the first time.

Combat Mission: Red Thunder is a complex strategy game that comes to Steam with two expansions and a community that will probably take full advantage of the modding capabilities of the Workshop. The campaigns and the scenarios capture the complexity of late World War II battles and showcase the different approaches of the Russian and German forces. But this remains an older game, which is reflected in its presentation and some of its historical assumptions. The Combat Mission gameplay system is relatively easy to learn and offers plenty of tactical freedom. Red Thunder will appeal to fans who like Eastern Front World War II action and want to craft complex battleplans.

Wales Interactive clearly has great ideas, but Soul Axiom shows that the company needs to focus a little more on execution to make sure that they unlock their true potential for the public.

Schrodinger’s Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark is a good puzzle platformer that manages to innovate and deliver a hilarious time. There are some issues, however, that weigh it down, from the slight platforming quirks, to the camera or some visual elements. Even so, if you're a fan, you can certainly have a great time with it.

Arsène Lupin – Once a Thief" is a decent but flawed adventure. Its premise of experiencing the world both through the eyes of Lupin and the detective chasing him is engaging, and some puzzles are genuinely enjoyable. However, the deduction mechanics feel cumbersome, and the trial-and-error approach prevents the game from reaching its full potential. Those who appreciate a good mystery and strong character-driven storytelling may find it worthwhile, but players expecting an innovative or fast-paced experience should temper their expectations. Despite its imperfections, the game may still serve as an inviting gateway to Maurice Leblanc’s original stories and, hopefully, will warrant future iterations and further glimpses of some of the most famous gentlemen thieves’ lives.

Dungeons 2 is nowhere near the level I wanted it to be. It would have been nice to see an evolution of the dungeon management genre that takes things to the level of complexity of city-builders like Pharaoh or Zeus...Instead, the title is a low complexity strategy game with some real-time strategy mechanics, providing a fun experience if you’re looking for something that could be described as a modern day Dungeon Keeper.

Darksiders III brings the best from the previous games as the story is good, the world is diverse, and the design is detailed. Unfortunately, its emphasis on difficulty doesn’t match with the promise of controlling Fury, a powerful rider of the Apocalypse. If you have to avoid even the lowliest enemies because they do so much damage, how can you ever bring about the end of the world?

Po and the rest of the cast might be interesting initially, but those who love the genre in itself probably already have access to a Wii U and Super Smash Bros, with its larger cast and more polished core mechanics.

Time Master is one entry in a crowded genre that manages to stand out thanks to its unique mechanics. The fact that the game has a demo makes it easy for anyone to play it and see how they like the time manipulation concept. I, for one, appreciate the way players need to think about two timelines and coordinate their actions to move through levels as quickly as possible. The problem is that the unique time mechanic is the only thing about the title that really stands out. The narrative and characters are just sketches, with nothing to make them interesting. The presentation is almost the definition of average. Time Master is part of a big group of games that have one cool unique idea to show off but its developers at MorpheusZ need to deliver more to make their next title really stand out.

Silicon City will be interesting to any fan of the city-building genre that loves the classics but feels more modern titles never captured their magic. The inspiration is classic Sim City but with an extra layer of attention for citizens, their needs, and how quickly they can turn on a mayor who doesn’t build carefully, invest in public services, and invests money to keep them happy. The Classic game mode features a decent advancement system, although money fails to be a challenge pretty quickly. I appreciate the many ways the game offers information to reveal options for how cities can be improved. Silicon City has strong execution and a solid retro vibe, although I wanted the game to do more with its citizens and their interactions.

The Settlers: New Allies has a good core loop that, unfortunately, lacks a solid connection with the series' history. There’s too much military action and not enough focus on delivering products to citizens. The land-claiming concept is interesting but under-used. Ubisoft could have used the same gameplay and another name and players might be more interested. But the game does not do enough to differentiate itself from better experiences in the genre. The Settlers: New Allies wants to tweak a classic formula but never finds the best way to do that.

The Farm 51 has created an atmospheric and challenging game that mixes plenty of inspirations in a cool new way. More variety in terms of locations and more options for combat would have made Chernobylite an instant classic.

Not only does it respect the huge legacy but it also brings the franchise to the present day. It offers a lot of content and, while it's generally enjoyable, there are some sequences that might leave players frustrated.

Transmogrify is a simple-to-understand puzzle platformer with an interesting core idea. There are a lot of possibilities centered on the transformation mechanic and some cool Eureka moments linked to the puzzles. The title’s creators have worked hard to create levels that steadily add complexity and require just enough brain power to solve. Considering how much potential the transmogrification process has, the game is very tame in its overall approach. The janitor and Grace also fail to become interesting as a pair, which makes it harder to move forward for someone who does not love platforming. Transmogrify’s unique idea is good enough to be used in more interesting ways and I hope the team at Odyssey is exploring them for a future game that would offer higher narrative stakes and expand the world.

Goosebumps: Terror in Little Creek is not a long game, it will take you anywhere from 3-5 hours or so, depending on how you play. It’s fun to play, it encourages puzzle solving and exploration. It will require you to focus on stealth as you tackle some of the enemies, and those parts of the game can be quite engaging and fun. Despite being short, I think it manages to tell its story very well, without boring you too much. Yes, the visuals could be better, but as a package, I think Goosebumps: Terror in Little Creek is well worth a shot. The story is great, it’s engaging, and it’s not too long for its own good. The game doesn’t take itself too seriously, it has funny moments, but also some interesting horror content as well. It’s still suitable for kids, while delivering a story that adults will like, too. Especially if you’re a fan of the 90’s horror movies or the Goosebumps books, of course.

Overall, Strayed Lights is an enjoyable experience as long as you’re not expecting another challenging soulslike game. The eerie atmosphere, gorgeous visuals and outstanding soundtrack make it stand out from the plethora of action-adventure games. Its only fault is that character progression and combat are too simple, so the gameplay can quickly become repetitive. Despite having built a beautiful world, there’s really no exploration incentive and most of the landscapes are empty and devoid of life.

Slow Down, Bull is a delightful casual experience about dealing with stress and learning to cope with a desire for perfection. Even so, it can get quite frustrating as progress through its campaign and the controls take a bit of time to get used to, both while using a mouse and keyboard configuration or a controller. The lack of 1080p resolution support is also a bit of a disappointment.

With all its evident flaws, Graveyard Keeper Last Journey Edition is dangerously captivating. It is a shame that the developers did not spend more time making sure that the technical issues presented by the new content are ironed out. Fortunately, everything seems to be fixable by patches, that hopefully will soon be released. With its morbid humor, geeky puns and quirky characters, spiderweb likes mechanics and character arcs, this game managed to grow and stand on its own. There are still moments when it succumbs to grind but snaps out and makes you push forward. With plenty of content and just the right amount of challenge it makes it really hard to put down the controller.

Bear With Me - The Complete Collection is one of those titles that you'll either love or hate, depending if you're a fan of the Point and Click or noir genres. The Complete Collection doesn't actually bring anything new to the table besides having all episodes made available from a single main menu, which is only a bonus if you're a fan of the series. All in all, it is a game series that will definitely feel memorable, even if it doesn't appeal to such a wide audience like other genres.

The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales relies on an intriguing concept, and for the most part is quite enjoyable. The adventure sequences are immersive and motivate you to push forward and discover more. The game becomes even more remarkable if we take into account that it has been developed by a team of four people. However, I believe that instead of investing effort in building the combat system, the studio’s time could have been better used to polish the story. Nevertheless, The Boolkwaker: Thief of Tales is a solid adventure that will most certainly keep you engaged from start to finish.

Bygone Dreams is an interesting project from Bygone Dreams and a very exciting romp in the fantasy action-adventure genre. The RPG elements feel undercooked at times, and the game could use a map, along with other quality of life features. But don’t let that push you away. The combat is great, and the music, as well as boss fights are standouts, at least for me. Sure, it feels like a budget game at first, but as you progress, you’ll find yourself enjoying the gameplay mechanics, visual style and bosses. It might seem like a weird game at first, but Bygone Dreams slowly unveils a creative, beautiful soulslike experience in a fantasy setting. Plus, you even have some time trials and no-damage boss challenges to prove your might, so even if you beat the game, there are reasons to continue playing.