Power Chord enters a very crowded genre, where simple competency is no longer enough to guarantee an audience. The title’s mechanics are good and fun and the metal theme is used well. But all its core ideas are safe and there’s no significant innovation in the card battles or the rogue structure. For players who love this type of game, the experience will be fine, as long as they are willing to put in the grinding time required to get the better cards and the extra characters. But I wanted Power Chord to be weirder and more innovative to build on the positive reaction it initially creates.

Tennis Manager 2024 is a decent sports simulation experience that’s designed to appeal to gamers who already love tennis. They will appreciate the attention to detail evident in the extensive game plan options and in the match simulation. The title does not feature real-world names (mods can solve this issue) and the business side of the sim is pretty simple. Players who want a break from a long career can try out the new Fantasy Court mode, which allows them to put together their own tournaments. It’s a good way to fill a bracket with superstars and simply have fun on the court. Tennis Manager 2024 doesn’t have a great presentation and some of its mechanics are obscure but it delivers a decent tennis simulation for fans who want to win a Grand Slam of their own.

The Forgotten City would have been a good game, if the developers would have remained in the lane of adventure games. The action scenes are more of a miss, since the whole game was built on the idea of observing and solving puzzles. Although you have other means at your disposal, the strongest suit of The Forgotten City remains its slower gameplay focused on problem solving. For a small group of people, putting together The Forgotten City is no small feat, and they deserve the praise.

Dealer’s Life 2 is a niche game that’s best enjoyed in short sessions over a longer time frame. The haggling mechanics balances revealed info and hunches well and the special events add some needed variety. But after around one week of in-game time, I start to get annoyed at the randomness of the objects and the very rare items I lack the money to try and get. The game makes no attempt to reflect on the predatory elements of the pawnshop culture (newspaper articles could provide a decent outlet), although it lightly satirizes the many television shows based on it. The developers at Abyte Entertainment have a solid lock on their favorite game formula but Dealer’s Life 2 needs more variety to keep players engaged for a long time.

Artifice: War Tactics should be commended for taking some classic turn-based tactics ideas and trying to find a way to make new then again. Because enemies rely on overwatch strikes to take players down and because levels are relatively small, it often feels like combat is a puzzle with limited solutions. The game wisely offers an undo action, available as long as the player’s hero has not taken damage. Unfortunately, the presentation and story aren’t good enough to keep gamers engaged. Artifice: War Tactics will appeal to fans of the tactics genre who are looking for an experience that challenges conventions, even if it does not fully deliver on its potential.

SuperPower 3 is a massive game that will require time and patience from anyone who wants to understand all the mechanics and try out all the scenarios. But there are no grand strategy games set during modern times that allow a player to choose Brazil and try to become a nuclear-powered Southern Hemisphere hegemon and other outlandish ideas. The experience does need to do more to explain its concepts to new players and to make info clearer. The developers at GolemLabs have emphasized the potential for modding and plan for post-launch support. SuperPower 3 is a good choice if you want to see how much better than a real-world leader you can steer the destiny of a modern nation.

A Void Hope has a good narrative hook, deviating just enough from the real world to keep players interested. The platforming and puzzle elements are well-designed, with a focus on giving players tools to make progress rather than delivering complex and difficult challenges. Unfortunately, the mechanics do not evolve significantly, and the repetition is not engaging enough. The underdeveloped combat does not help and can be frustrating. A Void Hope is a good indie project that needs more variety to keep players immersed.

Bleak Sword DX is dedicated to anyone who wants a Dark Souls-like experience in 2D, delivered in small chunks, with good mechanics, hard difficulty, and a grimdark setting and presentation. Fights are very quick, which means it’s easy to play a few in a session just to decompress, without the pressure to make progress or explore some complicated narrative thread. The two new modes added to the game's PC version are good, offering a challenge to anyone who manages to complete the full campaign. But I still believe that any modern video game that emphasizes combat should offer the options to draw in more than just dedicated genre fans. Bleak Sword DX impresses with its minimalist, bite-sized combat but all its other elements could be improved.

Knight Crawlers had the good idea of mixing ragdoll physics with a set of classic action game mechanics. And it is fun, for the first few hours, to learn how enemies move and then find the best way to use the environment and the knight’s attacks to eliminate them. The entire experience is solid given that it was created by one developer. But there’s no narrative hook linked to the mechanics and both the levels and the combat situation can become repetitive. The presentation also doesn’t impress. Knight Crawlers will satisfy action fans that like the idea of adding traps and physics to classic combat but could have done more with its unique combination of ideas.

Farm Manager 2022 is a fascinating title that has just one problem: it doesn’t necessarily play well with consoles. I’m not talking about graphics or gameplay but about the controlling system, as this genre makes more sense on a PC where the mouse input is much more natural. But at the end of the day, Farm Manager is, as I said, not only a major upgrade over its predecessor but also a great way to see what the life of a farmer is all about. And since you end up learning a lot by simply playing it, no matter if we’re talking about crops, animals, logistics, or machinery, Farm Manager 22 is definitely worth trying out.

Destroy All Humans! 2: Reprobed remains a good example about how a remake should look and feel. Although part of the PS2 era, the game has aged well, and it remains largely entertaining. The new elements do not feel out of place, but they also do not overhaul the game experience. If you loved the original, the remaster will be a pleasant stroll down memory lane. If you are a newcomer, I recommend starting with the remaster of the first game to understand the story and fully appreciate the evolution of the gameplay.

20 Minutes Till Dawn is an interesting action combat with a rogue-lite structure. The narrative elements are minimal, the presentation doesn’t impress but makes the combat easy to read, but the core gameplay loop is very satisfying. The variety of heroines also gives players a range of play styles, which get further boosted when mixing and matching level upgrades in new ways. The core gameplay loop is familiar and the game doesn’t innovate in big ways. I enjoyed the game most in short sessions, playing two or three runs at a time, enough to unlock new options and see what strategies I can build around them. 20 Minutes Till Dawn is satisfying for fans of the genre but I hope its creators take more risks with a potential sequel.

Waterborne can offer hours of new excitement for those who loved the original Tropico 5, but most gamers are better off picking the title up when it goes on sale and then deciding how they feel about it before exploring the idea of extra content.

The Red Solstice offers a solid combination of mechanics and some impressive battle moments and can be a title that cooperative enthusiasts with solid friend lists will embrace in the long run.

Among the Sleep is a horror experience that’s more interested in delivering on its premise of exploring traumatic events from the perspective of a two-year old than in shocking you with gore or employing jump scares in order to get a cheap reaction out of you, which is good.

Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered is the definitive edition of a seminal platformer, and my personal favorite from this series. Seeing this game’s new HD graphics, refined controls and great camera update made me very happy, because this is the best way to play an amazing classic. It’s also great that they added photo mode, alternative skins and lost levels from the original. As a complete package, Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered is worth considering for everyone who enjoys 3D platformers or who played the originals. Newcomers to the series will find some elements like platforming or swimming to be a tad difficult. Then again, the game is backed by an amazing story and exceptional lore, so it’s worth enduring those mishaps.

Master of Magic is an interesting remake of an old game that defined a genre. It’s clear that the development team loves the original and wanted to keep as much of it unchanged as possible. But the result feels old and might struggle to attract the attention of players who have not enjoyed the 1994 title. I grew up playing a ton of Heroes of Might & Magic, so I had a clear reference point for the mechanics and pace. For newcomers, the entire experience can be a little slow and somewhat bewildering. But for those who have a history with strategy and RPG mixes, Master of Magic will deliver well-executed classic ideas and tens of hours of spell-enhanced fun.

Wall World 2 does an excellent job on improving various mechanics from its predecessor. What you get here is a very fun roguelike experience that’s engaging, and which doesn’t feel repetitive. That’s something a lot of games in the genre tend to have a problem with, but Wall World 2 manages to get past that. Yes, there are some issues with long-term variation and content depth, but the overall gameplay is incredibly rewarding. Once you start playing Wall World 2, it’s very hard to put down. You always want to enter more caverns, find great stuff and grab those relics, when you can find them. Yes, there were a couple of freezes and problems with pacing, but overall, Wall World 2 is very good, an excellent and creative game which I will gladly come back to over and over again for one more run.

Normally, I’d say that Dawn of Ragnarok is just more Assassin’s Creed, but in a different environment and with different enemies. However, I do believe it’s time for Ubisoft to get rid of the Assassin’s Creed naming scheme from everything related to Eivor’s Viking saga. I think this is just piggybacking on the Assassin’s Creed franchise without bringing anything new into the mix. Despite all of that, Assassin’s Creed fans will find Dawn of Ragnarok an enjoyable experience. There are plenty of new activities and the main story is decent for the most part. The new powers look more impressive on paper rather than in-game, but props to Ubisoft for trying. My advice is to play this like a brand-new game rather than an Assassin’s Creed expansion, although it will be hard to get past the series’ dull grind mechanics, which are quite present in Dawn of Ragnarok too.

Hacker's Memory is more about gameplay and artwork rather than graphics, so if you've watched the anime you'll find it pleasing to the eye (I know I did). What I did not like is having to listen to the same tune every time I fight a random encounter, and since Hacker's Memory requires a little bit of grinding that could become annoying.

The levels are quite varied and imaginative, but the credit system is very punishing, although certainly attractive for those looking for a tough time.

Valkyria Chronicles is an interesting title that certainly takes some of the core ideas of the Japanese role-playing game genre and twists them in innovative ways, but the whole package has not managed to fully capture my attention.

The Ascent is far from perfect. It has so many issues that normally I would not give it a second look. Despite all the issues and the fact that the gameplay is pretty basic, the story completely forgettable and it lacks any depth, I had fun with it and once I started playing it I was lost to the rest of the world. It is more a twin stick shooter adorned tackily with superfluous RPG elements. It is raw, unrefined and basic, but the atmosphere and the overall experience recommends The Ascent as a game that is worth a shot after a few patches and a serious discount.

Gunborg: Dark Matters is in many ways a fun game not only for those who have already fallen in love with platformers but also for those who are new to this genre. In many, it’s a fun yet extremely challenging side scroller whose only shortcoming appears to be the very short story and the weird control system that takes some time to get used to. However, Gunborg is the kind of game that more or less grows on you as you give it more time. You may not be too impressed at first if you’re already a diehard platformer gamer but the more you play it, the more you discover its exciting side.

Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet can become boring quite fast due to its repetitive encounters and unevenly paced story, something that could have been easily avoided. The good news is SAO fans will find it a breath of fresh air, since Fatal Bullet plays and feels different than the previous games.

Arcana of Paradise – The Tower might not be the best roguelike deckbuilder out there, but I have to commend the developers for taking the risks and adding their own twists to the formula. Even if some of these innovations don’t seem to fit the genre, at least it’s a breath of fresh air from the traditional roguelike deckbuilding recipe. Overall, this is a decent game that needs a bit more variation when it comes to cards and enemies. Character progression is another aspect that needs more work too because right now it’s quite uninteresting.

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia ends the trilogy on a higher note, managing to add a few new things and improvements over the last two installments. Unfortunately, it still falls of short of really impressing fans. The exploration is still a bit stiff, the combat is clunky while the timed sections are a pain to get through.

Haunted House is a very challenging roguelite game, that needs a lot of patience, not just for the gameplay mechanics, but also to stomach the bugs and start all over again if needed. It is a great upgrade over the original game, that emphasizes stealth and a tactical approach, but can feel grindy. If you are looking for a game to entertain you for Halloween or for a roguelite that will test your mettle, Haunted House is a great choice. But if you do not have the patience to try over and over again, many times not because of your fault, you will only experience frustration.