Where Dungeonmans falls short is in a lack of polish or detail to its various facets. Play is stiff, and the controls aren’t particularly intuitive or easy to master for more skill-heavy characters such as Wizardmans. It almost feels like the design is a part of the joke, but I’m not entirely sure

In essence, In Nightmare is a narrative heavy puzzle game where all too often you must engage in more action heavy scenes in order to progress. That, coupled with frequent sections where you must navigate a room of either a single monster or multiple and avoid detection, caused the game to wear out its welcome sooner than it should have. When it’s just puzzles where you have have all the time in the world to reason out is when the game works best, and I found myself wishing for more of that as the game went on.

Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris is, at best, a passable anime game. It has the bones of a decent action adventure title, and offers a decent retelling of its source material’s story, but it’s mechanically bogged down to the point of tedium and exhaustion. Aside from fans of the series, there aren’t many this game could be recommended to unless they’re looking for a flawed and boring ordeal.

There’s potential here, and a lot of the game’s promise is steeped in maybes and the possibilities that lay behind future updates; right now, Eternal Crusade is an undercooked, bare-bones affair that can, at times, produce a compelling shootout, but on the whole remains a rote and subpar game.

As the sounds and music of the Viking people play in the background, it becomes clear that Frozenheim would have benefited more by just being a city builder and making full use of its source material and inspirations. Rather than delivering an undercooked campaign mode and real-time combat, allowing players to experience life as the Norse fully would have gone a long way; alas, it was not to be, and it might be best to leave this game out in the cold if real-time strategy is what you are seeking.

Asemblance seems to be trying to posit a number of thought-provoking questions to the player, but neither the narrow gameplay nor the convoluted narrative articulates this message effectively, and the result is a diluted experience that is over before it began. Hopefully Nilo Studios has the opportunity to deliver more fulfilling and expansive episodes to the series in the future, but this first outing doesn’t inspire too much confidence.

Right now, 7 Days To Die is an extremely shoddy release on the PS4. Hardcore fans who love crafting and survival games may find a potential time sink here, but I find it hard to recommend this title to anyone else just looking for a game to occupy themselves with during this summer drought. Don’t Starve is available on PS4. Try that one instead.

Song of the Myrne: What Lies Beneath‘s most damning shortfall is probably in length of story. Taking around 3 to 5 hours to complete once you’ve got your bearings, it falls well short of what RPG fans might expect.

Having played through the Campaign, Multiplayer, and the MWZ I have to say I have rarely enjoyed myself. At times I felt the multiplayer was inconsistent, the campaign was a laughable waste of time, and the zombies were missing their usual magic. It was always a question whether Activision could get MW3 to the gold standard in just one short year, unfortunately, the verdict is in and it’s a resounding no.

Playing as the Predator is a wonderful idea, it just deserves a better game around it. Bugs, mediocre first-person gameplay, repetitive missions, an ugly setting, and a reliance on playing with friends mean Predator Hunting Grounds is boring a lot more often than it is enjoyable.

Simulation & farming fans will likely want to skip this title, unless they are dying for something new to play until a notable game in the genre is released.

If you’re all about settlement building then Wasteland Workshop will be right up your alley, but ultimately, these new additions aren’t going to change anyone’s mind who wasn’t already a fan.

J-Stars Victory Vs+ is a game that has the look, but just couldn’t follow through on the execution.

Crystal Rift features some interesting puzzles and may be simple and easy to grasp, but the poor visuals, easily manipulated enemies, limited field of view in standard play, and difficult virtual reality movement means it pales in comparison to the dungeon crawlers of old.

As it stands, it’s very hard - if not impossible - to recommend Alone in the Dark in its current state. Even if you can look beyond the blandness of its design, story, and gameplay, the sheer lack of polish is far too frustrating to warrant spending any money on. It’s a game that, without exaggeration, I had been looking forward to for years. All that’s left now, though, is a sour taste.

Had Triangle Studios only spent a bit longer refining the combat system and laying down some informative collectibles within the game’s world, they could have created a true hero in the battlefield of historical games.

Granting players the freedom to decide how to take on missions and utilize the excellent sniping mechanic however they like is an idea that the Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 series required to improve on the underwhelming first two entries. However, since everything else, from the characters to the open world itself, lack polish, depth, and quality – on top of the game being riddled with technical problems – Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is far more dull and frustrating than it is ever enjoyable.

Currently sold for $4.99 on Steam, the game features 101 levels of increasingly maddening difficulty. Given the somewhat lackluster appearance and feel of the game, it’s a more than fair price point for the sheer number of levels, though it may not be enough for me to recommend the title.

While technically sound and well put-together, it’s little more than a digital comic that doesn’t capture the replay value and engaging emotional tale of the first.

Once the clunky stealth controls of The Consequence are married to the less than cooperative camera, all that’s left is an idea that never seems to come into proper fruition. What does exist is a frustrating experience that had some potential. Unfortunately, it takes more than potential to make something worthwhile.

Extinction has some fine enough ideas, but every aspect of its execution, from the narrative to the combat, feels generic and half-baked.

The only fun in Farming Simulator 17 comes from you, and when you need to actively search for fun in a game, you know you’re not dealing with a good one.

If money were burning a hole in my pocket, I’d sooner spend it on a sewing kit to patch up my pocket than on the few moments of amusement scattered around those minutes.

When it comes down to it, Jet Kave Adventure is by no means a bad game, it’s just a bit of a bland one.

Despite what is a promising combat formula as well as the supporting systems behind it when it comes to skills, crafting, and upgrades, there are also several equally frustrating aspects of it that hold the game back. The hope is that Mundfish is able to fix some of the more glaring issues post-launch, but right now, it feels less like a welcomed revolution and more like a nuclear disaster.

While the story behind the Mandrake Facility staff’s disappearance is engaging enough, the slow pace and technical issues make it a disjointed one to follow.

What you’re left with is an interesting curio, a relic from a bygone era by a talented developer. Whilst it’s clear to see the game’s ambition and the fact that it’s utterly unique, it’s also encumbered by a bizarre control scheme, some experimental storytelling techniques that don’t pull together well, and some cringe-worthy navel-gazing dialogue that disappears up its own bottom.

Unless you are a big fan, The House of the Dead: Remake is not the best way to experience this classic for the first time, and it would have probably been better off dead than revived in this form.