Sifu is a memorable game. It is also a hard game that rewards patience and the willingness to perfect yourself. It is not perfect, but it is fair. One of the few negative aspects we encountered is the camera control that in some scenes it is not just a pain in the ass, but it can cost you an entire run. Another thing we would have oved to see is a more detailed character building, where the story is not just a frame for the action. But all these are just minor inconveniences when we look art Sifu as a whole. It does not feel like an indie game, but still, it is not for everyone. You need patience and you need the ability to get over the countless moments when the game frustrates you to the limit of exasperation. It is all part of becoming a kung fu master, a path reserved only for a few.

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.

Dying Light 2 is bigger and better than the first game. It improves on the original in every aspect while keeping the same formula. It’s a grindy game that can take either hundreds of hours to complete, or just a regular open-world action-adventure that you can finish in about 25-30 hours if you’re just interested in the main story. My main quarrel with Dying Light 2 is that it promises so much at the beginning, yet it fails miserably to deliver on that promise. If not for the exceptional combat and parkour mechanics, this might have been just a mediocre title, so this alone redeems it from among the mass of unremarkable triple A titles that are more show than substance.

Reverie Knights Tactics is a solid experience for anyone looking for a tactical battle title with a classic look and plot. There are no major innovations, but all the core systems work well, offering plenty of ways to deal with the combat puzzles at its core. Aurora is a solid protagonist, and the rest of the cast is likable. But everything moves too slowly for the full experience to be fun. During combat, I watched the same animations hundreds of times, more if I wanted to hit all the listed goals. On the world map, I had to move from one non-descript area to another. The developer at 40 Giants Entertainment had good ideas for Reverie Knights Tactics but they needed better implementation to keep me engaged in the long term.

Nobody Saves the World is a fun game, where the story, the quests and every other gameplay element are in the service of the character and evolution system. There are no armours or weapons or potions, it all comes down to the forms that work as classes and mixing their abilities. Sure, it can become a tad repetitive, and the humour has its ups and downs just as the level design, but overall, the experience is a memorable and enjoyable one. Nobody Saves the World has a lot of soul and quite a few flickers of originality, worth to be experienced since it is part of the Game Pass Ultimate catalogue.

Expeditions: Rome knows how to make history exciting and engaging. The tactical engagements offer variety and challenge. Controlling a legion is makes the player feel powerful. Interacting with the likes of Mithridates through dialogue will appeal to history lovers but you don’t have to know the period to enjoy the narrative. I spend 40 hours with the game and plan on going back to try other ideas and other tactical setups. I would have liked to see a little more innovation in the tactical combat and, maybe, more mechanics for the legion side of the game. Expeditions: Rome needs a few hours to get going but once that’s done it has a lot of fun and cool historical moments for its fans.

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.

Sands of Salzaar is a big game that will provide hundreds of hours of entertainment to those who fall in love with it. And there’s a lot to like in this package, from the variety of skills and tactical approaches to the many activities that can bring treasure and fame. It does take time to understand all the core mechanics but once that’s done everything is mostly solid. The developer also has long-term plans to support it with patches and new content. Unfortunately, I need more time to fall in love with this experience. And not because it is lacking in anything but because there’s so much to see. I worry that there’s something I am missing, that I am not using all the available systems. I like that the game believes I will start over, with Legacy points and extra personal experience. That involves a major time investment in Sands of Salzaar that I’m not ready to make yet.

Shadow Tactics: Aiko’s Choice is a good game for a very specific audience. Fans will need to be both interested in character-driven stealth-action sequences and in the universe that the first game in the series has established. Taking down a complex enemy setup with careful planning and timing is challenging and satisfying at the same time.

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.

Lacuna is not very long, but it has really high replay value and it checks the correct boxes of an adventure game. But what makes Lacuna really memorable are the atmosphere and the fact that it focuses on consequences rather than morality. The pixel-art graphics and spot-on soundtrack complement the experience and make from Lacuna an experience that all adventure game fans should experience. The detailed scenario, intelligent story delivery, relatable characters and political intrigue make Lacuna a memorable experience.

Exodus Borealis is a good mix of genres. It creates tensions by asking gamers to constantly balance priorities and work with limited resources. It introduces quite a bit of complexity with its gems and challenges the player to create a solid tower system that will take down enemies and can be easily expanded. I, personally, didn’t love the choice to make monsters only attack targets in the village, rather than the actual towers. But I understand how it helps balance the experience while increasing the danger level. The main ideas of Exodus Borealis are good and it will be interesting to see whether Smug Marmot Studios will expand on them using the Vupfox or if they plan to use new protagonists for their next project.

Faraday Protocol checks the most important checkboxes of the genre: easy to learn mechanics, puzzles that become harder and harder, stylish art style and a few collectibles. Still, you cannot help but wonder why you have the feeling that the game is a bit empty. Despite the AI and your limited interaction with it, most of the time you will feel alone, in a world that is so focused on puzzles that it feels synthetic. If you like puzzle games Faraday Protocol is one you do not want to miss. If you are a newcomer to the genre better start somewhere else and circle back later to this game, when you already have some experience.

Midnight Protocol is one of the best experiences in the newly ascendant hacking simulation category. Its biggest asset is the simple, yet solid set of mechanics and the way success can only be achieved by carefully balancing aggressiveness and planning, with some guessing thrown in for good measure. The narrative also works well, sketching an immersive world while delivering twists and revelations. Plenty of players will have issues with the decision to only control the game using the keyboard. It feels annoying at first but adds to the immersion and it’s relatively easy to learn. The development team at LuGus knows how to blend mechanics and story in cool ways and Midnight Protocol is the kind of hacker-centered experience that no other medium can deliver.

Greak: Memories of Azur despite its strong points in the end fells short due to the flaws od the concept on which is based. The collaboration between the siblings is the worst part of the game, due to the severely lacking AI and the control system chosen by the developers. If you can get past that, you will find a charming game, that visually is a masterpiece. The puzzles and platforming elements may not be revolutionary, but they work well enough. The atmosphere of the game is undeniable, but it is affected by the combat that often feels unbalanced. If it would have given the option for couch or online co-op Greak: Memories of Azur would have been a true gem.

Transient Extended Edition is a great concept, but the implementation is flawed on every level. The art style is stunning, but the graphical engine can’t keep the pace. The game world is truly different, but there is not too much to do in it. The puzzles are too simple and feel like a filler so you wouldn’t call the game just a walking simulator. Also, this new edition does not make the game more user friendly. Yes, some of the previous issues have been fixed, but there are plenty of new ones. Even with the new ending, Transient remains a mystery that will make you wonder what exactly happened – if you are curious or masochistic enough to brave through the countless crashes.

So at the end of the day, it’s hard to call Farming Simulator 22 a perfect game. It could be, and I’m pretty sure the mods will once again improve this great franchise in a way that Giants Software should study closely and keep in mind before the next version is launched. Yes, it’s just a matter of time until modders end up delivering this must-have polishing, but of course, this isn’t the right way to go for such a popular franchise.

Riders Republic is an action-packed game that’s not only exciting to play but also very fun to discover, pretty much because depending on the route you choose, everything feels new and fresh even if you’re not playing it for the first time.

Punk Wars offers a very classic take on the turn-based strategy space. The four corporations have personality and their own deranged charm but there’s not enough here to make the setting truly compelling. The tactical combat is solid but favors the defensive so much that battles never feel exciting, with too little space to execute complex plans. There’s pleasure in methodically moving forward, expanding the base slowly, putting more units in the field, chocking the adversary, gaining a tech edge that helps with the final assault. But the developers at Strategy Forge need to be a little more adventurous with their mechanics if they want to make Punk Wars an actually exciting game to play.

If you never liked the larger-than-life humor of the series, the often dry and dark jokes, or you grew up watching South Park there is nothing here for you. Sam and Max Save the World Remastered is a reminder of a different era, and what was in your face 15 years ago, not will feel outdated or childish. Still the remaster offers a very warm and cozy trip back to the golden age of point and click adventure games.

Sam and Max Beyond Space and Time Remastered targets the same audience as the Save the World Remaster. The same developers, the same recipe, the same heroes and references. So, there was little chance for things to go off-track. Still, Sam and Max Beyond Space and Time Remastered is a precious lesson in how a remaster should be put together. Without altering too much the original content, the developers managed to make the game feel relevant and modern. Just as the previous remaster, this one is mandatory for the nostalgic and the point and click fans.

The writing is at its best when a situation escalates from relatively believable situations into absurdity and satire. But there are just as many moments when the results of player choices feel forced or when the game is trying too hard to draw from the real world. SuperPAC clearly understands how to make politics into solid game mechanics, they just need to better calibrate the tone of their world.

Heavenly Bodies is not your average cup of coffee, not even for indie games. It has a very specific audience it set its target on and delivers on its promise of challenging players through the control system. Visually and atmosphere wise it is clearly inspired by the classic, realistic sci-fi movies. The game itself is pretty short, but due to the control scheme, you will spend quite a lot of time even on the simplest tasks. Heavenly Bodies is not for everyone, but those who enjoy this kind of games will have a blast with it.

Wolfstride is an obvious labor of love that manages to be much more than the sum of its gameplay and presentation parts. The mecha battles and management would have offered a very solid loop on their own. The game could have easily been a mostly narrative-driven game with a relatively small number of repetitive mini-games. The combination of both creates an emotionally charged adventure that immerses the player, makes him care about relationships, and drops in cool mechs engagements. Think of it as heavily inspired by Cowboy Bebop but with more mech brawls.

A Little Golf Journey is a solid little puzzle experience that needs a little more narrative or immersion to keep players interested. The puzzle element works well, especially given the assists available to prevent frustration. I liked the mechanics best when I focused on doing as well as possible on two or three holes in one sitting, before giving my brain some space to think about other ideas to try out in the future. The developer understands what makes a physics-driven puzzle experience work for players. But they need to find more ways to draw gamers into the worlds they create. A Little Golf Journey is a great snack of a video game that is just a little too happy to push players to replay holes.

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.

Hammerting is a good example of how solid individual mechanics sometimes fail to offer more than the sum of their parts in terms of gameplay. The development team has put together an interesting dwarf clan simulation and management title. It has even created an engaging if derivative universe for the player to interact with. But playing Hammerting often feels like a chore. Make sure that you check all characters to remember their stats and best use in the colony. Deal with all the supply chain issues. Then maybe dig a little deeper to see what the mountain throws at you. Warpzone needs to streamline its gameplay formula a little while increasing the immersion factor to make its future titles more attractive.

Grotto is an interesting experience that might lose many of its players around halfway through the first play-through. The idea of telling a small number of characters what to do, from the small to the big questions, is an intriguing one. The universe that the developers create is intriguing. I like the way the game moves towards a deeper plot and begins to show the player something deeper than the first few interactions. But everything is too repetitive, and the core narrative needs more variety. I truly wanted to be as careful as possible for each interaction, getting just the right constellation for a supplicant’s needs. But I found myself losing patience at times and simply moving as fast as possible to get to new story bits. Grotto has a solid core concept that never delivers on its promise but I still think that everyone who picks it up should play through it once to see what it has to offer.