There is a certain type of player who is going to love this game. That person is not me. I’ve not been this disappointed by a Fromsoftware game in a long time. And I’ve played Murakumo: Renegade Mech Pursuit.

Unfortunately, although Hell Let Loose has gone full release, this game is not ready. Using in-game chat is frequently buggy, with it being unclear who can hear who. Getting into the game proved to be very challenging pre-release, and a nightmare during the launch date, with frequent drops, long loading times, and regular crashes and hangs.

I’ve genuinely lost hope in this franchise. With the mix of VC shills, content creators that overhype a garbage product, outlets praising the word vomit stew that the player base eats up every year – at least the ones with deep wallets – and the F2P tactics in a paid game, NBA 2K will more than likely never return to its glory days that I loved. I’m tired of repeating myself and I’m tired of having expectations go below the bar, like it wasn’t low enough. Every single year it’s “a step in the right direction.” No, it’s not. I stopped settling for less and everyone else should too. NBA 2K25 is a basketball game but feels like a grindy RPG with heavy predatory practices at play. An utter disappointment. Save your money and play a better game.

Tempest 4000’s price-tag is wildly unforgivable when you factor in the meager content that you’re getting in return. This is greed at its absolute finest and despite the series’ fame for being colorful and fast-paced, which indeed the game is, there’s just not enough content within to justify its cost. Easy to get into and nostalgic Tempest 4000 may be, but it ultimately becomes bland and uninteresting quite quickly.

Masters of Anima has a decent concept and a worthwhile story, but sadly falls short almost everywhere else. The combat is tedious, often unfair and utterly frustrating. Take into account that outside of light puzzle solving and exploration, this is pretty much all that you’ll be doing. It doesn’t help matters that Masters of Anima rarely evolves as you proceed, making for a game that’s not only annoying, but repetitive too.

There’s nothing new, it bears all the visual marks of its dated version with no fresh lick of paint (pardon the pun), and it’s far too repetitive by standards today.

Artistic expression is what will strike the biggest chord in Strayed Lights. There are lovely moments of beauty to unearth, and you will no doubt find a game ignited with a love for tranquillity and colour. However, empty spaces make Strayed Lights world feel uncomfortably abandoned at times, and the combat is based too heavily on precision and colour matching to engross. Thankfully, Strayed Lights is short, but it runs out of momentum too soon despite some impressive boss encounters and some gorgeous skies. Give it a whirl then, but you won’t feel like Strayed Lights is anything but a shallowly gentle gust that will blow by without the force it needed to stick in the mind.

Despite having some neat ideas across the board, the final execution of Colossus Down just feels a little too awkward and uninspiring. Clunky, repetitive combat and a teenage angst-filled story do little to inspire continued play. There are far better examples of the genre out there, on which your time is better spent.

Madden 23 is a rehash of all the previous Madden‘s in the series. Bits and pieces were taken from those games and labelled as new. Even though FieldSENSE was refurbished I still strongly believe that it gave Madden 23 its shine. What good is that shine however when the game is covered with bugs and laziness? I’m not saying this game had to be perfect. Other sports simulation titles have their own share of problems. What separates Madden from them however is EA decides to mix the old problems with the new ones. Instead of fixing it, they go and do the same thing next year.

Disco Dodgeball Remix has a lot of potential, but is massively held back by its awkward sluggish controls, headache-inducing visuals, poor gameplay mechanics and puddle-deep functionality. There’s no denying that it has heaps of interesting and diverse modes on offer, though, this doesn’t really amount to anything when the core formula constantly fails on almost all fronts.

NBA 2K24 is an overall disappointment compared to not only NBA 2K23 but past NBA titles too. To see how far it’s fallen, all the past great features no longer included, it hurts to see that the only thing that matters is how much VC someone spends on a game. This is the first year that we’ve seen 2K blatantly be VC-heavy and it won’t be the last. Nobody should have to purchase a game that expects you to pay more on top of that. NBA 2K24 is the perfect example for game developers everywhere of what not to do in the gaming industry unless you’re greedy and don’t care about fans.

Switch: Or Die Trying is a game for those who relish a challenge, though oftentimes the challenge comes not through design, but lack of polish. If you are looking for something to scratch that Meat Boy itch, you’ll find some fun here, but be prepared for that to quickly give way to frustration.

The tech art and art direction deserve commendation as Echoes of the End is frequently breathtaking. The gameplay design is similarly breathtaking but in the way that it sucks all the oxygen out of the room.

NBA 2K21 is in the end another basketball simulation game. Nothing here will catch you by surprise and leave you in awe. The biggest thing this game suffers from is the painstaking grind for VC so you can be on par with everyone else, which is not very welcoming to newcomers. It’s an enjoyable game but without any new updates or features it will end up lost in your backlog.

Gang Beasts is a competitive brawler in a Human: Fall Flat skin. Nothing more, nothing less. The physics-based play doesn’t always suit the multiplayer concept, and as such, the whole ordeal comes across quite tedious and frustrating. Whilst I’ve no doubt that it will find an initial following, I do doubt its ability to maintain a fan base due to its lack of variation. You’ll certainly have some laughs here, but you’ll mostly be laughing at it, not with it.

City of Brass remains visually pleasing throughout and houses some interesting ideas, such as the perk system and the shops. However, tools to make the experience even easier just showcases how fairly dull the actual gameplay is. The lack of a polished structure only leads to unnecessary cheap deaths, which when grouped with the enemy’s substandard AI, emphasizes how frustrating and boring this adventure can be.

There’s moments of beauty to be found in the parallel stories here, but much of that is lost in the midst of its abundance of heavy-handed sorrow. It doesn’t help that The First Tree is far too basic for its own good. Whilst the game’s several worlds seem diverse and interesting at first glance, the lack of any padding makes for a very empty experience, one that, despite its few highs, ultimately succumbs to its many lows.

Shikhondo – Soul Eater’s drawback sits not with its steep cost nor its lack of content diversity, but with its lack of gameplay variation. The game’s main mode takes little over ninety minutes to complete, whereas its additional modes are served merely as segments taken from that offering. This game may look great, sound good and perform well, but its lack of basic evolution massively hinders enjoyment.

Releasing a PC game on console can work great, but some concessions have to be made for the differing audiences and control schemes. The core gameplay loop is more than capable of holding interest and has been put to great effect in recent games, but here, every opportunity is wasted. If you enjoy obscure interfaces, slow fiddly combat, and dated visuals, then please, fill your boots.

The gameplay lacks finesse and refinement, serving up frustration in place of fluidity. Tennis is a game of endurance, precision and energy, three elements that AO International Tennis fails to deliver. With that in mind, its abundance of content means very little.

Popular games get liberally borrowed from all the time, yet Smash Bros. seems to have avoided this somehow. Brawlout takes on this challenge, but its lack of modes, iffy character balance and poor online offerings, all fail to inspire that same spark that Mario and friends have mastered so well. The basic gameplay is OK, but without the same love, spectacle and reverence to lean on, it all falls flat.

I Hate Running Backwards’ deep pool of characters, weaponry, power-ups and unlocks will no doubt capture the attention of fans of the genre. Its procedural generated content ensures that subsequent runs, for the most part, remain fresh and engaging. It’s a shame, however, that most of this is almost completely undermined by its repetitive foundation, steep difficulty curve and lack of evolving gameplay functionality.

One Piece: World Gofer would have been a much more befitting title to put to this dull adventure. I’ll credit the game for its gorgeously detailed world, but this splendor is merely superficial. Most of your time spent here will consist of taking on generic missions, picking up fetch quests, and constantly battling against the game’s few boring enemy variants. The end result makes for a repetitive slog that fails miserably to excite on almost all fronts.

Cyber Protocol is an alright puzzle game, but doesn’t really extend to be anything beyond that. It carries some levels that will keep you busy for a while, but the constant trial and error will soon wear you out and you’ll get bored of it easily. The retro graphics and 80’s synth music creates a great atmosphere, but content wise it’s empty.

Those looking to Session to fill a Skate­-shaped hole in their gaming life are likely to be sorely disappointed. It is not an easy game to learn, but more importantly, it’s also not a fun one either. Some better tutorials or alternate control options might have saved the game a little, but as it is I just can’t find any reason to recommend this to anyone outside of truly dedicated skaters willing to put the grind in.

Overall, Train Station Renovation hits all the marks that it aims for, but sadly those marks weren’t set very high. It is a lonely, solitary experience that just isn’t very fun. As with all reviews this is just one man’s opinion. Personally it does nothing for me. I don’t dislike it but the whole premise of Train Station Renovation I find to be uninteresting. Achievement hunters can easily pad their Gamerscore. Other than that I just don’t see repeated playthroughs of this game.

Megaton Rainfall is one of those games that clearly houses a great deal of potential, but sadly fails to meet it on almost all fronts. Credit needs to be given to the one-man developer for the sheer amount of ambition here, that much has to be said. However, the end result, despite its environmental diversity and its clever mechanics, makes for game that’s short, sloppy, visually bland and ultimately uninteresting.

While the open-world transition was a welcomed concept it wasn’t utilized to the best of its ability. YouTubers Life 2 is exactly what it is. A YouTuber simulator. A constant grind to fame. Day in and day out it’s the same thing only a different trend than yesterday. It’s the smaller things that give this game life while the major elements such as the story end up lacking in the end.