If you enjoy Bethesda Game Studios' games, and more importantly love exploration and space, I think you should prepare to experience your new obsession with Starfield. I'm looking forward to spending more time with it, and seeing how it improves over time on both Steam Deck and Xbox Series X. [Review in Progress]

In its current state, ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist in Steam Early Access feels more like a lengthy demo. What I’ve played is amazing and it absolutely shines on the Steam Deck OLED right from day one. I cannot wait to play more of it and see how it evolves through updates in the early access period. If you enjoyed Ender Lilies, ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist is essential already as long as you’re ok with the content included in the early access version so far. [Early Access Review]

Forgive Me Father 2 even in its early access state right now, is gorgeous and fun to play. Just keep in mind that this is still early access and there isn’t a full game here. If that’s ok with you, jump in. Forgive Me Father 2 looks gorgeous, sounds amazing, and feels brilliant to play. It also fixed whatever I disliked in the first game. This is definitely shaping up to be special, but needs more time. I’ll be covering it more as it gets closer to its full release.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is an easy game of the year contender so far. While I still need a bit of time to test the online when cross play is available from launch day, the gameplay is sublime and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 looks and sounds superb across the board. Having played it on PS5 and Steam Deck with cross progression, I don’t recommend playing it on Valve’s handheld right now. It gets an easy recommendation on PS5 though. I will be updating this with a full score once I’ve gotten enough time with the multiplayer and some patches. [Impressions]

I need more time to see it through, but Black Myth: Wukong is an impressive action RPG with fantastic music, great visuals, and one I want to replay on console after Steam Deck. It is surprisingly playable on Valve's handheld already, and I imagine things will only improve with updates and once both Valve and Game Science optimize it for the hardware. I'm curious to see how the PS5 version feels when I get access to it.

So far, Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail is the summer vacation we all needed after a busy release season. At least I needed a break after putting in tons of time into Trails through Daybreak, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, and still playing Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree. Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail looks great on Steam Deck and Xbox, it sounds incredible, and I can’t wait to see where things go later on. I just hope we get more voiced dialog added.

I'd certainly recommend any Fire Emblem fan at least give Fire Emblem Heroes a shot. You might not end up sticking with it, but I bet you'll have at least a little fun with it even if you do bail out at some point. It might not be the game that some hoped for, but it at least shows that Nintendo has what it takes to make a relatively faithful, enjoyable free-to-play game out of one of their long-running franchises.

The visuals are absolutely captivating, and are an excellent inexpensive way to showcase just how beautiful games could be on the new iPad. However, as a game, Dead Trigger just falls flat in terms of implementation offering the same dull freemium-based experience that we've seen before.

Dungeon Defenders iOS is a deep, sometimes entertaining game… but the controls are a core, critical, nasty flaw that I don't think can be "fixed" or addressed in any meaningful way.

It's just all disappointing because Zodiac's such a gorgeous game. And the interface in combat is super-slick. And the Zodiac system is really cool to play with. But what Zodiac: Orcanon Odyssey fails to do is to make the player want to keep playing it. It fails to capitalize on the strengths it has, preferring to draw itself out into a boring trudge rewards you with too few bright spots over far too long of a playing time.

Disney Speedstorm in its current state on Nintendo Switch is a great kart racer held back by confusing in-game monetization. I’ve enjoyed playing Disney Speedstorm online with friends and randoms on both platforms, but Gameloft needs to do a better job with how unlocks and progression works for those unfamiliar with free to play mobile games. There’s a lot of potential here and there’s definitely fun to be had even in the early access release, but I was hoping for more. [Early Access Provisional Score = 70]

For seven bucks you could purchase a handful of objects that instill the same sense of simple, gleeful play that The Amazing Spider-Man evokes at its very best, without any of the baggage. Like a an action figure. Or a jumping-jack.

MST3K version is pretty entertaining. The game, however, is not.

It's disappointing that finding and collecting items is really all there is to do in 1000: Find 'Em All! though, as the game world is rich and detailed and screaming for further interaction.

And that's what Tempo is: pointless. It aspires only for pointlessness and reaches those shallow goals.

For all its tapdancing there just isn't anything interesting going on here.

Curse of the Sea Rats has a nice presentation and I like the multiplayer support, a rare sight in a game like this. Unfortunately, the dreadful controls knock this game on its tail before it even gets up to speed. Slow, fussy, and prone to losing out to animation priorities, the very act of moving your character around and attacking feels unpleasant. Even if you stick with it long enough to get used to all of that, the game that awaits you is a decidedly average entry into its genre. Let this one sink with the ship.

A great idea for a game that ultimately is ruined by frustrating controls and gameplay which is too easy to get bored of.

All of these systems combined make for a game that's unfriendly to the point of being opposed to the player, when it could have been so much more fun if turned down the heat a bit.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is marginally better than the previous game in many ways, and I'd dare say we are approaching the quality of the early console open world Spider-Man games in most respects, which is a delight for just a fiver. At the same time, there are a variety of things included in this game that not only do not benefit the end user but actively sabotage the entire experience of trying to enjoy the game.

Skull and Bones is a hard game to recommend at full price, but I do recommend checking out the free trial. I enjoy naval combat and open world Ubisoft games, and Skull and Bones with all its updates so far is good, but it has potential to be better. If you do plan on playing Skull and Bones on Steam Deck, keep in mind that it is an online only experience. I will likely grab it on console to also play there with cross progression. [Impressions]

Guardian Cross has little beyond the illustrious name of it's developer going for it.

This game has gorgeous art and an awesome soundtrack. I love the whole setting and theme, too. I’m sorry to say that those are the only nice things I have to say about Orangeblood. The story is barely there and not all that interesting when it decides to pop up. The dialogue is dreadful. In terms of mechanics, the game is all over the place. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a gun early on that will carry you through the whole game. If you’re unlucky, you’ll be spending a lot of time banging your head against the wall. The game can be cleared in under ten hours, but I’d be surprised if many people feel like it’s worth giving it even that much time. Nice to look at and listen to, but a game needs a lot more than that to get by.

As a fan of this series, I've gotten used to being disappointed in recent years. Still, I expected better from Ratchet & Clank: Before the Nexus.

There are far better titles than this one, some even published by Gameloft itself.

Here goes: It’s not great. It’s packed with all the free-to-play nonsense you all hate, the gameplay is pretty bland, and nothing you do seems to matter in any way.

You can have a great concept, nice visuals, and plenty of novelty, but it’s all for naught if the game doesn’t feel good to play. Unfortunately, SkateBIRD has a lot of issues in that regard. The physics lack weight, which I can forgive to an extent because they are birds. The ridiculous camera is harder to get past. Anytime you’re near pretty much any object, the camera has a tendency to start going haywire, making it hard to point yourself in the direction you want to go and really easy to fall off of raised surfaces. Your birdie boarder also falls off its board at the drop of a hat, and between that and the camera you can end up in some very frustrating situations. All of the charm in the world isn’t enough to save this one.

While there are a few positives to it, such as nicer graphics, speedier play, the fever mechanic, and the idea of a time-based endless mode, it's ultimately an inferior game to its already-questionable predecessor.