Someday You’ll Return feels like an amalgamation of every loosely-defined action/adventure horror title on Steam. The developers may well have tried to put their own spin on things—the game’s authentically marked, genuinely gorgeous hiking trails and thrilling, psychological, at times gory, grotesque later sections do stand out—but it’s hard to recommend this over any of the dozens of similar titles available on any other platform. Plus, with an asking price of thirty dollars, it’s best to steer clear of this one for now.

I had a great time playing Pax Augusta, and while it’s a niche game for a niche audience, anyone who has fond memories of playing historical city-builders will enjoy this breath of fresh air. A game built with real care and attention in a developer’s spare time, self-taught with YouTube tutorials. The fact the game is half as good as it is an incredible feat of development.

The Outer Worlds is an engaging outer space RPG. As the Stranger, you have the ability to bring change to the Halcyon system. There are many dialogue decisions to make, from persuading a peaceful resolution, to simply going on the attack. Combat may not be the best, but there is a nice array of weapons to choose from. If one only has the Switch, it's still worth playing. But, with the technical issues, it's better to play it on other consoles.

Mineko’s Night Market is a delightful journey that explores childlike storytelling and themes of tradition and friendship in a way that captivates players. Its beautiful style and emphasis on Japanese culture draw you in, but the compelling and varied gameplay makes you stay. Its slow and simple start may be off-putting for some, but if you’re starting a cute little life sim game like this and expecting fast-paced drama, you’re at the wrong market stall.

The Dying World comes to us after a messy early access period, and it shows. The pacing is all over the place, and parts of the narrative feel unfinished. The finished stuff is fantastic, but the rest leaves so much potential left unexplored.

If you liked Immortals, this is basically the same game again, but shorter and with Chinese myths. It’s a shame that a different studio couldn’t, for whatever reason, make its DLC distinct from the base game, but if you want to experience a little bit more of Immortals Fenyx Rising, Myths of the Eastern Realm has you covered. It’s a disappointment, but it’s not a disaster.

The difficulty is the only other thing that may be offputting to some. I'm a play-on-easy mode person for various reasons, but even then, I had to restart several scenarios because it took a few tries to get the resources and military balance correct. There are different difficulty levels but if you are new to the franchise or take a while to get your head around how new units and mechanics work the learning curve may feel steep. However, if you stick it out then you'll find it's all worth it. Also, if it all gets too much just hit up free build mode and explore the new troops, defenses, and mechanics in a far more relaxing environment.

For all my issues with Saints Row, I keep telling myself 'at least it's fun, and the reason people play these games is not for the characters, or the story, or the weak social viewpoint the game puts forward, but the fun'. It's become a mantra. Like a little train going up a mountain: At least it's fun. at least it's fun, at least it's fun. The further I got through the game, the less I felt that was true.

Paleo Pines is a largely successful execution of standard farming sim formulas and brings an interesting new (read: peaceful) interpretation to the monster-tamer genre. Collecting and caring for dinosaurs is the most compelling part of the game, almost to the detriment of other mechanics. As it stands, the game is a little unbalanced and could do with more effort put into the dinosaur-centric mechanics and less reverence placed on tying progression to arbitrary limits on player freedom.

Little Witch Nobeta is not for me, but then I’m not certain who it is for. It is a catastrophic fumbling of the bag with a narrative that makes no sense, combat that feels far too basic, puzzles that don’t even warrant a mention, and a distinctly unappealing target demographic. The only magic I want from Nobeta is a disappearing act.

Eventually, Best Month Ever becomes a largely run-of-the-mill road trip; you know, the sort of trip you don’t mind embarking on, but would be perfectly okay if it has to end prematurely. In other words, it’s not exactly the most thrilling or boring of journeys, but also one that needs frequent pit stops to sustain your interest, if you wish to see the game through to its conclusion. What’s unfortunate is that Best Month Ever also unabashedly pines for several playthroughs, as evident in its myriad endings, but the vehicle it’s run on guzzles your stamina and patience like the least fuel efficient of cars. Unfortunately, I only have the capacity for a single excursion or two; I don’t think I can stay awake as the road trip sluggishly cruises towards its destination.

Aquanox Deep Descent isn’t a bad game. There are just plenty of opportunities for improvement. Piloting the ship throughout Aqua’s underwater world feels great. Honestly, I kind of wish the game had featured more of an open-world to explore, especially with the amount of salvaging and looting you perform throughout the campaign anyways. But that’s not the case, leaving little reason for me to dive back in after playing the game once through. Hopefully, a more robust online community will allow the game to thrive with its multiplayer component, but as it stands, Aquanox Deep Descent will likely be most enjoyed by hungry mech-genre fans who are looking for another ship to pilot. Just don’t forget to bring a towel.

Heroland excels in the visuals department, but unfortunately falls flat in its story delivery and gameplay engagement. It's the video game equivalent of visiting a theme park just to get cute Instagram pictures, but deciding not to go on any of the boring rides. Which, in today's day and age, might be someone's cup of tea. Unfortunately, it's not mine.

For older fans wanting a hit of nostalgia, plenty of these games don’t hold up to revisits almost 25 years later. With none of the usual gubbins we’ve come to expect from retro anthologies, all you’re getting out of Early Days Collection is having your rose-tinted glasses stamped on. Lacking in games, lacking in upgrades, and lacking in content, this feels more like a slightly heftier update for Nintendo Switch Online than a full ode to Yu-Gi-Oh!’s golden era.

While My Hero One's Justice 2 definitely "went beyond" the foundation My Hero One's Justice laid down two years ago, the developers certainly still have a ways to go before they figure out a video game formula that can be classified as "plus ultra!"

A perfectly fun experience with some replay value, but even in writing this review, I have reached level 33 of the Dun-Djinn with a level-capped Blood Drinker Railermaster and it already feels too repetitive to keep my interest for long. I suppose I could level new characters, but the drive for that is diminished knowing there is not much to do once that journey is complete.

Every group of friends will have their favorite games in the Jackbox Naughty Pack, like all the other Jackbox packs. We probably won’t go back to Let Me Finish, but Fakin’ It and Dirty Drawful both got lots of belly laughs. Some of the people in our group were meeting for the first time, and nothing bonds new friends together quite like having to justify why you picked a trumpet emoji when Fakin’ It asks about your sex life. The game will go over well with some folks, and I did enjoy my time with it, but if you’re friends with people who already find ways to make every Jackbox pack into a ‘naughty’ pack, then being forced to do so may sometimes feel a little constricting.

If you're looking for a psychological thriller to sink your teeth into, you could definitely do worse than Twin Mirror, but it's honestly only worth checking out if you're strapped for choices.

With the sheer number of excellent shooters available this year, it’s difficult to recommend Black Ops 7. It’s undeniably a highly replayable game tailored for fans, but that’s not what this franchise needs. Turning the campaign into another dumping ground of camo challenges and meta grinds really shows the current priorities of Activision. Zombies is the last bastion of innovation left, yet I fear it’s not enough to keep players around. The creativity that once made Call of Duty an industry trailblazer has long been forgotten.

No Place for Bravery surprised me in many ways. When I first started, I was ready for a gory festival of combat with a good story to go along with it. What I got was a beautiful, dark narrative that pushed me to reach the end credits far more than the promise of combat would have. The things I loved most are things I can’t talk about in this review for fear of spoiling the experience - No Place for Bravery feels fantastic to play, and Glitch Factory has created a story that will stick with me for years.

I imagine there are some big fans of the Blacksad stories that will get more out of this game than I did. But for everyone else, it'll only remind you how sad it is that we'll never get a sequel to Telltale's The Wolf Among Us.

I don't hate The Falconeer. I don't even think it's a particularly terrible game. There are great ideas here, and in the aesthetic department, it's a resounding success. However, it just needs more. It needs more polish, more reason to keep playing, and more reliable controls to navigate its interesting setting in. I would love to revisit this world at some point, and I hope that the dev can find a way to keep me more engaged next time.

If you enjoyed the first Red Solstice game, then perhaps this will be a satisfying sequel that continues the saga. But unless you got a bunch of buddies who are all itching to furiously click mutated aliens to death, you'll probably have a better time loading up another game of XCOM than trying to survive in the Martian wasteland of Red Solstice 2.

The gameplay is nothing special, and it isn't particularly trying to be. It exists as a framework to tell a story, and plenty of games have excelled with that mindset. But all it has to say is that pollution is bad and it's all your fault. It doesn't inspire change, it doesn't shock, it doesn't even highlight the plight of the animals we share this world with, becoming too wrapped up in casual visual metaphor than with showcasing the harsh reality of what we have done to this world. The bees are dying, but so is my patience.

I do truly wish I could call this a diamond in the rough or some classic in the making, but that’s just not the case. Aragami 2 is fine and while I am likely to revisit it one day, I wouldn’t say you need to rush out and play it right now.

Bee Simulator is a surprisingly fun game, but makes too many odd design choices throughout the short experience. Repetitive missions, over-simplistic gameplay, and an overall lack of depth hold the game back from becoming something great.

Pokémon Café Mix may not be the most challenging Pokémon game to ever grace your console, but its cheerful and addicting nature is a nice addition to the fighting franchise that's sure to make you smile.

Switchback VR is a steady rail shooter that offers decent variety and an interesting tour through some old levels, but never tries to earn The Dark Pictures name. The choices don’t matter, the Curator is just a creepy Where’s Wally?, and the stakes or even setup for rescuing characters was lost on me. However, it’s reliably spooky, action-packed, and has the best designed villain in the series. It’s a rail shooter obsessed with its own past, so it makes sense that it’s two steps forward and one step back.