I like the idea of creating a title that feels like a less complicated version of Civilization, but it seems easy to create a game that dumbs things down too much. It was hard for me to get immersed in ruling my kingdom in Conqueror 940 AD since the gameplay was so barebones. At times, it almost felt like I was feeling out a spreadsheet rather than ruling a kingdom. It's possible to take something like Crusader Kings 3 and make it more accessible for a general audience, but Conquerer 940 AD's buttons and toggles don't make for an exciting game of political intrigue.

Crime O’Clock feels like wasted potential. As a hidden object game, it has the foundations of something decent, with its lively scenes and impressive worldbuilding offering up just enough pixel-clicking for fans of the genre to get a few cheap thrills out of it. But instead of leaning any further into its time-bending angle and becoming a truly impressive puzzler, it’s happy to sit and throw a few naff minigames at you, hoping it’s enough to distract from the severe lack of any actual substance.

This is not the penultimate chapter in Destiny's decade-long story anyone wanted, but even without everything weighing on its shoulders, Lightfall still disappoints.

Its visuals can be striking, but that's about all I can remember about my time with it. At this point, I've played plenty of Soulslikes. The ones that I did enjoy tried to play around with the formula in some way. But Shattered doesn't reinvent the wheel or even try to gussy it up. It's just a so-so Soulslike that tries to stand out by having the same aesthetic as The Corpse Bride. And that's simply not enough.

Harmony: Fall of the Reverie is too connected to its core concept of steering the future based on fate and factions, and this idea means players must abandon both the choice and the narrative in this choice-based narrative game. It's not exactly a formula for success. Despite some interesting designs and a potentially compelling tale at its heart, there's nothing harmonious about Harmony.

Giant mech battles are nothing new to the gaming scene. Unfortunately, also not new is that the genre has few examples of quality mech-battling gameplay. Override 2: Super Mech League recently added its name to the fray, bringing hectic arena combat to PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch. Although fun at times, it’s ultimately hard to recommend this particular arena fighter over other fighting games that are also available right now, unless you REALLY like mechs. After saving the planet from an intergalactic threat, giant mechs battle it out in arenas for the pleasure of the people they saved. These giant robots - controlled by a human pilot - vary in size and stature, ranging in everything from beefy and strong to smaller and elusive. You’re the newbie on the mech-fighting circuit, seeking to make a name for yourself as you rise through the ranks and gain influence and rewards in various Mech Leagues. via Modus Override 2’s career campaign has everything you need to experience the game’s various game modes. 1v1, 2v2, 4v4 free-for-all… even a King of the Hill mode is available to you as you duke it out as one of the game’s 20 different robots. Each mech has a handful of different moves while having a special Ultimate ability available to them once their special meter bar is full. Of course, just because your Ultimate is ready, it doesn’t mean an automatic hit. Therein lies part of the game’s frustrations: the controls. Related: Hitman 3 Review - Slick, Stylish, Smooth I never expect a mech game to have the tightest of controls. They are giant mechanical robots, after all. However, I feel like Override 2: Super Mech League just isn’t sure what kind of game it’s trying to be. I’d love to say that this game feels like a legitimate, heavy-geared robot fighting game, but it just doesn’t. There are times when controlling your robot feels great - like you’re behind the wheel, levers, or whatever it is that you use to control a giant mech. Then, there are times when the hand-to-hand combat - which rewards combo attacks - is fun and exciting. But there’s never a good mix of the two mechanics. Often, this results in you attempting to make some sort of offensive attack, but the wonkiness of the robot’s controls causing your robot to veer off in the wrong direction. As such, there is a lot of button-mashing that takes place, which really doesn’t work well from a strategy standpoint. via Modus Battles also include weapons that randomly drop around the arena, such as laser blasters and giant melee weapons. Weapons are limited-use items that eventually disappear. That said, some of the melee weapons well outstay their welcome. I have won multiple matches from trapping my opponent in a loop of being hit with my melee weapon, with them being unable to escape. For some reason, the weapon’s limited usage is greatly extended, allowing me to take full advantage. It’s an incredibly cheap way to win, and an even worse way to lose (speaking from experience). Not a great mechanic for any fighting game to have. This extends into the game’s online multiplayer component, which features the same game modes that are available offline. Online matches can be fun and more challenging than single-player mode, but actually connecting to an online match can take a very long time, that is if you’re even able to connect. There just aren’t enough players playing the game, leaving much to be desired in terms of replayability. https://youtu.be/cIWzzAzmUxU The main selling point of Override 2: Super Mech League is its playable robots. If you’re a fan of kaiju or large-scale mech battles, you’ll likely enjoy this game. This is especially true with the game’s DLC character of Ultraman. Override 2 offers plenty of fun characters to play as in the base game, but Ultraman shines as one of the most enjoyable characters to play as. It’s a shame that Ultraman is locked behind a paywall (in the form of coming with the Deluxe Edition of the game), as he should really be a major selling point for the game. Ultimately, your Override 2: Super Mech League experience will boil down to one simple factor: if you’re playing the game for its take on giant mecha/kaiju arena combat, you’re probably going to enjoy Override 2. Unfortunately, with its control woes and small online player base, Override 2: Super Mech League just doesn’t really have anything else to offer for fans of the fighting genre in general.

I enjoyed my time with Sand Land, despite its many flaws. The vehicle gameplay feels great, and it’s the main pull for me – I didn’t mind that the side quests were pointless and the open world samey, because I had an incredibly powerful tank that could blow up small groups of enemies in two seconds. But if you’re hoping that this game will be the best adaptation of Toriyama’s manga series, you’re out of luck. I’d just watch the anime instead.

In attempting to emulate the cinematic aesthetic of many narrative-driven triple-A games, Deliver Us Mars lost a lot of what made Deliver Us The Moon work. Instead of a charming indie, we’re left with a disappointing wannabe. There’s an interesting story in here that’s able to shine through the dust occasionally, alongside some gorgeous vistas and wonderful sci-fi imagery, but if we get a third entry in the series, I hope it returns to its roots instead of trying to be something it’s not. Bigger isn’t always better.

If you're feeling the need to have your concept of reality stretched a bit, then spending some time in this world should stimulate the same parts of your brain as a designer drug. But in the end, Wattam feels like a bunch of toys playing themselves rather than a cohesive game.

Tails: The Backbone Preludes is a beautiful game with an intriguing plot and some absolutely fantastic puzzle mechanics, but it does itself the disservice of playing second fiddle to its predecessor. It’s too brief and leaves too much unsaid to feel like a game in its own right. It’s as though it aimed too low and decided to settle for being a teaser or demo that’s made to tempt players to jump into the full story of Backbone, rather than take on a role of a fully-fledged game in its own right.

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 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.

They say form is temporary, class is permanent. And there is a baseline class to Top Spin, a great-feeling tennis game underneath any of the other complaints. But it's in very poor form, making unforced errors, double-faulting, and missing volleys. It's hard to recommend Top Spin 2K25 when there are so many simple features missing and a sour-tasting battle pass, but it's hard not to recommend Top Spin 2K25 when it's the best rally to rally tennis game I've ever played.

A Plague Tale: Requiem is relentless in its depiction of misery. It imparts the troubling message that no matter how hard we try, we can’t change the future, and trying to do so only invites more pain and suffering than willingly submitting to our eventual demise. A series about two children losing their innocence and being corrupted by the evils of the world is one I welcome, but not when it teaches us to give up instead of fighting for a future all our own. The world may seem hopeless right now, but if we give in to the despair we’re choosing doom, and I’d rather go down slinging.

It's not at all that Henry Halfhead is bad. It's good enough fun for the two hour runtime it offers. But it feels like the sort of game you'd play for 15 minutes, say 'wow, this will never get old!' and then 45 minutes later you're kind of thinking maybe you were wrong. If it committed more to being silly than to reminding you how fun silliness is by taking it away, then it would get old a lot slower, and would likely sustain itself for said two hours. Unfortunately, like Henry himself, it gets old a bit too fast to leave much of an impression.

Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia is a good enough first step if the end goal is to revitalize and reintroduce the Bakugan franchise to a new generation. Would the exact same game still work if the Bakugan name weren’t attached to it? I’d lean towards no. There are a lot of great ideas in Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia, but ultimately, none of them really hit the mark - at least in terms of what I was expecting from my first-look at the game.

Cradle Games at least tried to make something that was somewhat original in its tone and presentation, which is commendable. It doesn't do anything truly awful, and there are some unique features that aren't present in a lot of these titles. Plus, this has now made me desperately want a split-screen co-op Dark Souls game. Beyond that, Hellpoint is simply another Soulslike that might be an alright diversion if you can't wait for Elden Ring to finally materialize but is otherwise forgettable.

It's creative, but it's also a bit of a mess. Lego 2K Drive mixes Forza Horizon and Mario Kart together, but it's not as good as either of them, and doesn't bring much new to the table either. There are building blocks here for Lego to use for future IP-less games, but this doesn't quite put them all together in a way that will interest anyone who isn’t still in primary school.

This is a competent survival game, adding nothing to a formula long since perfected by games like Subnautica, games that it falls far short of. It relies on the pull of Tolkien to keep players pushing through, otherwise it would be all too easy to give up on your mission and do something else, anything but mining. There are moments of magic, like when your team of dwarves begin to sing, deep harmonies echoing off the cavernous walls. But these moments are too few and far between, and the lore can only take you so far. As a space to hang out with fantasy-minded friends, Return to Moria is a nice jaunt. I just wish there was something more to do than swing this damn pickaxe at another damn wall.

It's not especially original, and at this point seeing any piece of media where someone quits their job, magically overcomes all their debt, and runs off to write poetry in the woods is something worthy of eye rolls and tongue clicks. It doesn't help that the game controls like a hapless man in his late twenties who can barely muster the energy to move his spinely legs.

It's a shame that The Callisto Protocol is so uninteresting at its core. Though it looks gorgeous on the surface, a dozen hours of nothing special can have a clarifying effect. Like a monstrous two-headed enemy banging Jacob's head into the ground until it collapses, the game's tedium forces you to reckon with the fact that there just isn't much once the facade splatters away.

You’ll probably get something out of Spy x Anya if you’re a massive fan of the show, but even if you're fairly enthusiastic about it like myself, you’ll find it lacking. It’s extremely faithful to the show in both humor and aesthetic, but it requires a prohibitively high tolerance for repetitiveness. There’s fun to be had, but it’s locked behind hours of taking photos, lackluster conversations, and repetitive busywork. It’s nowhere near the quality of a must-play title for a Spy x Family fan, and you can probably get as much satisfaction from rewatching the show.

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.

Tasomachi: Behind The Twilight doesn't have anything that would make it worth playing over any of the much better 3D platformers available right now. Hopefully, the developer releases the soundtrack online so I can listen to these tunes without having to perform any more menial tasks for fog-ridden feline folk.

Thanks to uneven difficulty, grating writing, and a general lack of polish in every other area, its appeal is only skin-deep, and quickly outstayed its welcome.

The most unique thing that Clive ‘N’ Wrench has going for it is its focus on speed and its wider pool of moves, which doesn’t feel like a defining feature. How much that bothers you is going to depend on what you go into Clive ‘N’ Wrench expecting. If you’re hoping that it’s going to revolutionise or build upon the collect-a-thon platforming genre, you’re going to be disappointed. If you’re just looking for a simple, nostalgic adventure that calls back to the platforming days of old, then you’ll Clive ‘N’ Wrench might be worth grabbing a backpack for, but its dated design makes it a tough recommendation for anyone other than the genre diehards.

Pine feels like an early proof of concept that misses the mark in all the key components that should otherwise keep players engaged.

I didn’t hate Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leaague, but that’s only because it’s hard to feel anything too strongly about a game like this. This might be the most rinse and repeat a game of this stature has ever rinsed and repeated, and the fact it delivers good interpretations (though not Arkham accurate) of established characters is its only saving grace. With each new bundle of content likely to be low on narrative and chock full of the same missions (probably with a new name that play exactly the same way), it feels like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is only going to get worse from here.