Crysis Remastered is a strange one. It took me a while to actually start enjoying my journey but the further I got the more I wanted to find out where they were taking the story. They have done a good job on remastering and luckily, I didn’t come across any visual issues. But you can’t overlook that this is still a game from 2007 and the AI is handled poorly with so much randomness that occurs whilst playing.

Rugby 22 is probably the only rugby game out there, so there is little to compete with. That being said you can tell they have put a lot of effort into it and with it being a tough game to simulate to begin with, they have done all the right things. A few things need fleshing out, but once you’ve got your head around it, you will be having lots of fun.

Defenders of Ekron is passable at best. I wont deny that the game shines at its brightest and is at its most exciting when there’s a lot of action on screen, but the moments that lead to that, despite some interesting ideas, often struggle to maintain grip. There’s also a few technical issues and poor design choices to contend with, on top of the game’s play-it-safe story. Fun indeed, but hardly compelling.

If you are a fan of the One-Punch Man anime, it’s a no brainer and you should pick this game up! It’s enjoyable creating your own hero and rising up the hero ranks. However, in the end I did feel a little bit disappointed as it takes a lot of work to rise up the ranks, with way too many side quests needing completing.

Everyone appears to be having fun and that gusto carries some of the weaker moments. This becomes the crux of what makes Bloodshore great, it isn’t aiming for high-minded art but at larger-than-life entertainment with energy and gusto. As long as you, the audience, are game then you will have a blast.

Foreclosed excels with the visuals making this a unique experience I haven’t seen elsewhere, but could have used more work with voice recording and mixing with game audio. Fans of third person shooters or people searching for an interactive fun comic book game will enjoy this artistic title. It’s also a great selection for those who like Max Payne or Deus Ex as described by the developers.

SuperMash to me had a goal in mind, and that goal was to create a variety of games for the player to play out of different types of genres. It executed it’s goal perfectly but even so, I feel that a few more additions to the game itself would make it even better and more entertaining than it already is.

Those Who Remain puts on a passable front, but once we get past that there’s nothing here that’s worth getting worked up over. With a dull story, tedious searching of areas using unresponsive inputs, scares that never really come and some technical hiccups that make it feel like a last gen title, you’re best off looking elsewhere for your pulse racing thrills.

Guts & Glory is a game that’s far too bare for its own good, consisting of little other than a range of challenges across a variety of uninspiring maps. The game’s most defining aspect is that it’s brutally gory, and although it is indeed fun to begin with, repetition swiftly rears its head soon after. Furthermore, performance issues, dated visuals and a lack of content diversity mars this already bland experience.

If you’re looking for a game to start your love affair with tactical turn-based games, Crown Wars: The Black Prince is as good a choice as any thanks to the way healing and upgrades work. Despite a few flaws, I had a great time with Crown Wars: The Black Prince.

It looks utterly gorgeous, has an oddly stirring soundtrack, and the core gameplay loop is simply fun to engage with. Traversing the digital landscapes as they fill in and focus in front of us is a treat, and even though they may look initially daunting in size, there’s a smart logic to how they unfold every time. Each new power up comes along at just the right time (well, mostly) and clocking in at around 8-10 hours it’s not an overly long title to get through. Plus, there’s a genuinely interesting story to weave together throughout, and as noted above it’s well worth going back and hunting any missed logs to get the ‘true’ ending. Some weak combat and fiddly UI are the only real blemishes on an other great title, and I can confidently recommend this as something to check out.

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance nails the charm of the Gelflings and the world of the Dark Crystal, but fails to do anything even remotely new in the Tactics genre. Nevertheless, it’s a simple game that for a small price could be worth picking up for a quick blast of uncomplicated strategy when the strategy craving hits.

Override 2: Super Mech League changes the formula for the story mode from its predecessor in a way that isn’t my favorite. That doesn’t take away from the stunning visuals this 3D brawler gives us. Unfortunately it seems Override 2: Super Mech League was banking on online play and I had a tough time finding opponents. Luckily bot matches can supplement our need to finish sponsor tasks but ultimately the game could use a bit more life.

The Church In The Darkness is a nice change to the contemporary games of today and strives to open the mind of religion and cultism in a top-view, open world environment with stealth mechanics and multi narrative story scripts. Looks great and plays great, albeit not being the longest game ever. It appeals to a different nature and pushes for originality.

With all this negativity going on is there anything nice to say about Tennis World Tour 2? Yes of course, if you like Tennis and you want a challenging gameplay experience then this will be a fine game if you don’t stumble upon difficulty-based weirdness, but there is too much here that’s off-putting to anyone but the most ardent of tennis fans. Tennis World Tour 2 has a bland career mode, dull presentation aspects, unfair matches thanks to difficulty inconsistencies and it’s largely just a safe but lifeless experience. Big Ant Studios served up better aces with their A.O titles, go and play them and forget about this one.

While the idea is novel and decent on paper, God of Rock left us wanting thanks to a tricky learning curve and music that fails to inspire replayability.

WWE 2K Battlegrounds is the WWE’s big release for the year, but it’s taken a new direction after last years effort and is a decent arcade alternative to the previous WWE games. The gameplay is fair and different, but you always expect a decent storyline to play through as well. The comic strip idea is OK but with no voice acting anywhere it just feels a bit weak.

If you’re starving for more Star Wars nourishment in videogame form and you haven’t given Star Wars: Bounty Hunter a whirl, there are far worse games that make use of the Star Wars license. It can be a blast to blast around linear levels with Boba Fett and his jetpack while repelling galactic grunts, but no matter how slick the remaster job is, it cannot hide how old this twenty-plus year old game is, and the frustrations inherent within it are too apparent to ignore. So Bounty Hunter isn’t the worst Star Wars outing and the remaster doesn’t do a bad job, but just like the original game, it might be worthwhile for Star Wars geeks to froth over, but it’s otherwise a despairingly middling affair. So go give Jango and go, but this one doesn’t steal the show and it sorta blows.

The Tunes are back in videogame form, which is great to see however this compilation of sports mini-games falls a bit short for the wacky world in my opinion. I love getting to see and play as some of the Looney Tunes but the sports themselves feel too basic and sometimes even clunky to really want to go back or even introduce it to friends or my kids. Golf was good and tennis was not bad but at a 50% okay rate in terms of fun, it’s a hard recommend to seasoned gamers.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood is a bit of mediocre game in very sparkly packaging. I was drawn to the trailer as the transitions to a werewolf looked stunning and I thought this would really be a good play through to test the Xbox Series X. The transitions in the game are quite cool, from human to lupus is neat and the burst into the Crinos form was great at the start. But after you clear a room of enemies with the powerful form you revert back into your human form like nothing has happened and it all feels a bit flat which is a feeling you carry throughout the game.

Project Starship was fun the first couple times but got boring very quickly. If you’re looking for a game that you can install quickly and 1000g then this is one for you, but I can’t imagine it’s going to capture the attention of anyone for long. Dodging bullets is fun, but you will just find yourself constantly shooting and hoping.

OK K.O.! Let’s Play Heroes is a prime example of licence cash grabbing. It’s not a bad game, but it’s clearly an experience that focuses on fans of the show, inadvertently alienating fans of the game’s genre. There’s no depth and innovation within, leaving players with nothing more than a bog-standard brawler that does very little to excite or excel.

Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris is a waste of both money and time. It’s a shame that Bungie couldn’t use the Infinite Forest themselves to find a timeline in which they had actually crafted a content drop that was as interesting and innovative in practice as it was on paper. Curse of Osiris does house some solid elements, such as decent voice acting and gorgeous design, but that means absolutely nothing when the content itself is meagre and half-baked.

Shoppe Keep is a management game that delivers depth, innovative gameplay, and decent functionality. The problem, however, is that it doesn’t come without a fair share of issues; lengthy loading screens, poor UI, and wonky controls. This would have been a much better game had the developers spent more time optimizing and fine-tuning it for console.

Sadly, whilst Dolmen is a game that may have been well suited 10 or 15 years ago, with a ton of souls-likes already out there such as The Surge, Hellpoint, Mortal Shell, Nioh, and so on, there is a lot to achieve if you want to make it as a memorable experience in the action RPG genre, and Dolmen doesn’t stand up there with the cream of the crop already available.

Even though I love indie horror, this was a bit too broken to appreciate properly.

The Path of Motus is not going to blow you away, but if you’ve ever endured the matters of its sensitive subject material, I highly recommend that you consider diving in. The gameplay itself is nicely paced and presents a gradual challenge that will test your morality, as well as your platforming and puzzle solving skills. Unfortunately, however, its short length and its basic visuals hold it back to some degree.

Some great ideas are hobbled by awkward execution in Winter Ember. For every bright spark there are a handful of quirks and issues that are just too prevalent to overlook. It’s just a shame that the parts don’t form a cohesive whole, and instead we’re left with a game that is stuck in the shadows of the greats.

If you enjoy the very hard ‘old school’ style of platformer, you might find something to like with Trophy. For me though, it just went to show how far we’ve come in gaming, with too many quirks and annoyances we’ve long moved past rearing their unwelcome heads again. There are better ‘modern-retro’ games out there to play.

In short bursts there is fun to be had with Rightfully, Beary Arms, and once we nab a few permanent upgrades some of the issues are less pronounced. But we simply didn’t find it all that engaging enough to want to repeatedly play and progress, with one-note combat and occasionally cheap deaths.

Gigantosaurus The Game is a very friendly and easy going title which will provide hours distraction for young children and fun the whole family. It is not too difficult to play and there is a good balance of puzzles, collectable items, races and cut scene animations to keep everyone amused and entertained. It is likely to lose its appeal once the kids reach a certain level of maturity, but it is definitely recommended for families with younger children that need a good diversion and older family members who can jump in and out to help if anyone gets stuck.

If you were looking for the next big open-world racing game juggernaut, you’ll be sorely disappointed by Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown. The dinginess of its Hong Kong setting leaves a lot to be desired, the racing events are uninspired even though the showrooms and the close-knit racing can be satisfying. Much of Solar Crown feels like a throwback to racing games at the start of the eighth generation, rather than a current force on current-gen hardware. Thus, Solar Crown doesn’t do much that’s wrong or egregious, it’s just uninspired and dull for the most part, and lacking in charisma or a sense of excitement. Such a blow for Test Drive Unlimited‘s return, but Solar Crown races with the reliability of a Porsche with a punctured set of wheels.

Fade to Silence offers quite an accessible survival adventure that knows exactly when to push your buttons. The game’s seemingly interesting world is full of possibilities and dangers of equal measure, ensuring that there’s always some event to take on throughout. The drawback, however, is that of its lack of polish and mechanical depth, together with its awkward combat. Shame really, with more time in the oven, this could have been a big hit.

Hired Gun is a game that punches above its weight in that it tries to take on too many things at once and struggles under the sheer weight of the number of ideas it introduces. In many ways it is better than its AAA peers because of its audacity, in other ways it is an example of a game that needed a few features cut.

If you like a challenge, you will certainly find your fill here, but the best types of hard games put the failures on you. Here, too often it feels as though your failure was as random as the level design / item placement / enemies / everything else. Fun in short bursts, but not one to spend hour after hour, trying to perfect.

If the absence of Left 4 Dead 3 has you itching for something alike, Earthfall will just about do the trick. It’s a shame that the game doesn’t do much to innovate, and repetition will indeed sink in once you’ve plugged in a few hours, but with that said, the core structure and its gameplay loop is compelling enough to justify a recommendation. Basic it may well be, but it’s fairly action-packed and exciting nevertheless.

Marooners isn’t anywhere near as exciting as a party game should be. Despite some well detailed maps and a few innovative game types, the overall package just doesn’t cut it. I have no doubt that this will please the younger audience, but there are better party games available on Xbox One that offer much more fun and longevity.

Fall of Light doesn’t quite live up to its inspirational material, but even so, this is well worth your time and attention if you’re a fan of the core “Dark Souls” formula. There’s heaps of weapon, enemy and environmental variation across the board, all of which is tethered to an interesting world that’s full of lore and mystery. Camera annoyances to the side, Fall of Light is one that fans of the genre will thoroughly enjoy.

At Sundown sports a tense and interesting hide and seek-like style of play through the use of its cleverly implemented light and shadow stealth system. However, despite its fairly healthy variation across its weaponry, its modes, and its maps, it all falls victim to repetition a lot sooner than expected. It doesn’t help matters that, even on launch day, its online component seems painfully devoid of popularity.

Liftoff: Drone Racing is bringing simulation drone racing to consoles without missing a beat. While Liftoff: Drone Racing has been tough for me to wrap my head around control-wise I still had fun. With more time I know the first place finishes would start rolling in but even as noob to both virtual and real life drone flying, I had a good time and I’d imagine enthusiasts and general sim racing fans would as well.

To sum up Bluey: The Videogame would be to say that a dad had a fun time playing this game with his kids. It may have been a short experience for us totaling up to a few hours for the story and all collectibles, but they certainly had a good time. Our main feedback comes down to the length and nitpicky details like repeated dialog and camera controls when playing with multiple people. Overall I can recommend this game for families of young kids (or fans of the show I suppose) that want to get together around their Xbox together for a few hours.

As a TMNT fan I am drawn to all content about this tubular foursome, especially the games! TMNT Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants was no exception. Considering I’ve not played the arcade cabinet for this game before I was very excited. It did give me an evening of fun as it felt like I was right there in the arcade hanging out but unfortunately the experience was short lived. While yes, there are leaderboards to entice replay-ability, they weren’t enough to keep me coming back to the game. So, if you are looking for a quick turtles experience (especially if you have some local buddies to play with), Wrath of the Mutants may be what you are looking for.

Defiance 2050 has all the markings that you would expect to find in a game of this type. There’s an interesting story to soak up, heaps of weaponry and enemy variations to enjoy, a large sprawling map to traverse, and decent gameplay mechanics. The drawback, however, is that it looks very dated and comes with far too many technical issues. If this truly wants to survive, the game’s performance needs to be much better.

Overall and whilst MX vs ATVs arrival on current-gen consoles was always one we were going to expect, it’s shocking to see it arrive in such a poor state. With glitches galore and a real lack of polish all around, what has long been an exciting series release has this time turned into something that feels like a rushed release that would have really benefitted from utilizing the extra power of current generation consoles to push out something spectacular rather than another general churned out release. Unfortunately, this isn’t one I want to recommend.

Gungrave G.O.R.E is a clever-dumb game that finds ways to turn mindless shooting into an alternative character action model. Sadly, it is brought down by trying to be too smart and muddying its objectives. When it sticks to what makes it enjoyable, it excels.

Think of the Children’s main drawback is that it utterly lacks any form of balance as far as its difficulty is concerned. The problem this creates is that when playing solo, you’re required to fulfill seemingly impossible objectives through large quantities of frustrating multitasking. The game does indeed shine much brighter with other players helping out, but not quite enough to justify an easy recommendation.

I am pleasantly surprised coming out of G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout after playing through the 17 story missions multiple times. Once you gather the controls it’s a simple game with decent visuals and audio that can entertain you for hours. I wish the game offered more than local co-op only but those with friends should be able to enjoy it together cooperatively and competitively.

With the raft of great horror titles out there already, there’s very little to recommend checking out Yuoni over most of them. The slow paced hide and seek gameplay lacks tension, risk, or any real consequence, and while the visuals can prove quite creepy at times, for the most part this is all too forgettable.

This is just disappointing from all angles. Boring combat in both gun feel and enemy AI, lifeless open worlds that actively discourage exploration, and hero powers that are flat out rubbish to use make not for the fun co-op shooter we were hoping for. A massive miss for Xbox, Arkane, and Game Pass.

Dynasty Warriors 9 is a platter full of mess. Take your pick; delayed rendering, lack of rendering, jittery camera, framerate drops, poor animation, dated visuals, bad voice acting, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The biggest shame is that this game reeks of potential, potential that’s never fully realized due to all of its faults and shoddy design choices.

Gods Remastered is a mixed bag of pros and cons. Whilst the game’s structure and its pace has maintained its quality quite well over the last two and a half decades, the game’s combat and its handling remains far removed from acceptable standards. Still, one has to appreciate the work that’s gone into the remastered aspects here. It’s just a shame that much of the game’s charm is weighed down by its dated functionality.

While the Contra name is renowned, especially amongst older gamers, this modern take on the franchise is simply not fit for that legacy. With dull, repetitive combat, bland and uninspiring visuals and some out of touch design decisions, I’d recommend any one looking for some fun arcade action to look elsewhere.

This is an arcade-perfect port that is fast, flashy and furious. Sadly, this also has no extra frills and struggles to justify an afternoon of play.

As one of the few exclusively next-gen games for the Series consoles, Bright Memory is a bit of mixed bag. It runs excellently, with super smooth frame rates and crisp, 4K visuals and some lovely looking (if slightly over-done) effect’s work. The combat is fast and satisfying, and the extra powers can make the whole presentation look like Doom X Crysis on some kind of strong drugs. That it is so short, the character models look decidedly 00’s arcade era, and some bug and glitches rear their heads means it’s not the must play new title it could have been though. Here’s hoping the full fat Bright Memory: Infinite can use this test bed to launch a truly kick ass, next-gen shooter.

It was a struggle to play this game for multiple reasons. It’s weird story and awkward gameplay just haven’t aged anywhere near well enough to hold up. If you’ve always been curious, and didn’t live in Japan in 2004, then you might find some worth here; but somehow I doubt the wait will have been worth it.

It’s a mostly enjoyable, creepy experience marred only slightly by an annoyingly relentless, yet easy to escape enemy. I did find myself wishing for more however.

Despite some of the glaring issues, MX vs ATV All Out houses a great deal of content. There’s no denying that it’s lacking in performance and optimization, but the weak execution is almost alleviated by its vast and various offerings. MX vs ATV All Out is one patch away from glory, but until that happens, it’s missing out on a lot of its potential.

Atomic Heist is a good game, but it would have benefited from some extra care and attention to its design. The lack of interesting and detailed environments pulls this game shy of greatness, especially considering the implementation of random generation. Still, the game manages to hold its own ground through its tense gameplay, heavy replay value and diverse pool of pick-ups and power-ups.

Demolish and Build may have its issues, but the game can be enjoyed on many different levels. Fun and creativity can be found in this title, and it’s good to see some more simulators of this calibre to come to Xbox.

Hide and Seek doesn’t do enough to stand out alongside its predecessor, nor does it attempt to build upon the franchise outside of its plot movements. Despite the game’s various locations, the absence of depth and the lack of evolving functionality only opens the door to repetition. That said, the game’s performance and its core structure remains well set, offering bite-sized fun that will no doubt please fans of the series, far above all else.

Despite these misgivings though, I had a fairly enjoyable time with Terminator: Resistance. Sure, its mechanics, looks and technical aspects all feel as though the last 10 years of progression in gaming didn’t happen, but as a straight shooting FPS it does a passable job of entertaining. The campaign over stays it’s welcome, but along the way there are some quite likeable characters that make the journey more bearable. It would have been nice to have the death bringing army of machines feel more of a genuine threat rather than a pop up gallery; if the tension in that early scene could’ve been maintained we might have had something quite special on our hands here. As it is, we have a pretty bog standard shooter that feels a decade too late to the party.

Tennis World Tour 2: Complete Edition is a great next gen version of the original with crisper visuals, vastly superior load times and more things for the player to do. The MOCAP work could be a little better and perhaps some work is needed on the card system (or just scrap it altogether). Tennis World Tour 2 is one of the better tennis games I have played in a while, but it still needs a little work to take Top Spin’s crown.

Dull Grey brings an oppressive vision of the future to our screens, with an initially simple-seeming choice system having some hidden depth the more we read into things. It won’t last more than an evening, but the tale and atmosphere make this worth checking out at least once.

Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn is a bland and repetitive brawler that tries too hard in the comedy department. Some good ideas are scattered throughout and the art is great, but it’s too little to really prop up the game. Short enough to get through in a couple of hours, however, the lack of co-op and the dull structure leaves a lot to be desired. Big Deez set out to rewrite history, but some things are best left alone.

The game is described as a feel good RPG, but in truth, and due to the sheer number of poorly implemented mechanics, it’s more like an RPG that looks good, but feels terrible. The combat is all over the place, the pacing is questionable at best, and the core ‘buddy-up’ system just fails to excite. It doesn’t help matters that its random generation is puddle deep, making it overly repetitive as a result. Pass this by.

Sephirothic Stories is an outdated RPG, and a poorly developed one at that. The gameplay itself is far too basic, with very little innovation in place to give it any distinction or character throughout. I can say the same about its low-quality visual and audio design, which is further hindered by its constant asset recycling. Overall, and at best, this is nothing more than a substandard adventure that’s crammed with needless microtransactions.

The title – Ultimate Racing 2D – sadly belies the actual experience on offer here. While there’s an impressive number of vehicles and tracks, the actual racing part feels flat, uninspiring and, quite frankly, boring. Multiplayer could be good for a laugh, but even that will wear thin before long. Racing fans may be able to eke out some more enjoyment, but for others just looking for a fun little run around you’re best off steering clear of this title.

Saga of Sins is an action platformer with some nostalgic tones of some of the old Disney platformers on the 16-bit consoles. The sinister vibe of the story is amplified but the interesting stained glass window graphics. The gameplay is alright but nothing too memorable apart from some tricky boss fights. The voice acting although commendable needed some work and the accents and tone used kill the game’s vibe at times.

Too slight to be seriously considered a Ja-copy of Jalopy, Road to Guandong has some adorable visual-novel moments that focus on family. It’s just a shame, then, that the road trip sections to reach them are so lifeless.

I’ve tried to see the good in The Dead Tree of Ranchiuna, but it just does everything in such a boring, bland, obtuse fashion that I cannot recommend anyone bother wasting their time with it. Outside of some passable music the game is just tedious and dull, and somehow even worse than the developers previous efforts. Avoid at all costs.

Bow to Blood certainly offers a unique experience, but its transfer from VR to traditional console hasn’t transitioned well enough at all. The game is sluggish across most aspects of play; from its basic movement and maneuverability, right the way up to its combat functionality. Furthermore, and despite some commendable features, there isn’t much depth present, ultimately making for a fairly repetitive journey that fails to maintain its allure.

Trenga Unlimited is hardly a bad game, but it’s also not exactly an exciting one either. Passable mobile-style fun for ten minutes at a time, as a console release it wears out its welcome very quickly, and won’t have you eager to get back on the big screen to keep playing.

I expected so much from the story with it being a Warhammer game. Usually, you are drowning in lore and story but with 40,000: Space Wolf, you barely get your feet wet. Every menu in the game feels so slow and sticky. I know it originated from a mobile game but the menu and story needed way more work for a console version. The gameplay is actually alright, the card mechanic mixed with X-COM style combat is quite interesting. But with dumb NPC’s, respawning enemies and losing a turn just to turn your guy around there are just a few too many bad decisions for me.

Aniquilation is a twin-stick shooter that seems to have forgotten it is a twin-stick shooter, or that putting so much mayhem on the screen at once doesn’t always equal fun. Shooting seems to be the attack I am using the least and although the game looks pretty enough it’s not really a joy to play for me.

Trollhunters: Defenders of Arcadia is a game that knows it audience and caters to it. It stays true to the story and delivers an okay yet shorter experience that I’m sure kids and fans of the show will enjoy.

Dakar 18 is held back from greatness due to a number of issues. Chief among these problems tend to revolve around the game’s poor handling and its over-the-top damage system. However, if you can overlook the game’s awkward foundation and forgive the overbearing co-driver, there’s a beautiful vast world to soak up, with no shortage of diverse content to take for a spin. Just don’t expect to be wowed.

Make no mistake about it, Battle for the Grid is a cheaply developed cash grab that will sorely disappoint those fooled by its admittedly exciting promotional run. The game’s dull campaign takes little more than twenty minutes to complete, and once you’re done there, you’ll be waiting equally as long to find an online match. Whilst local play is indeed an option, I cant at all recommend it due to its shamefully weak, boring, and unbalanced gameplay.

Elea’s opening episode serves as an interactive trip into a fractured, nonsensical story, in which consistency seems to be almost completely absent. While this alone wouldn’t be a bad thing if the storytelling was better produced, the main drawback is that barely any of the game’s aspects come together well at all. Despite its impressive visuals, the end result makes for a very awkward and bland experience.

Revenant Dogma looks and plays as though it’s been spat out of RPG Maker 2000. There’s very little depth within, and any depth that it does offer is usually puddle deep. The game may well be accessible and house a decent soundtrack, but in the midst of its near complete lack of innovation and originality, that’s hardly a selling point. Furthermore, Revenant Dogma is free on iOS and Android. Go there to avoid suffering a loss.

Fans of Swery will no doubt lap this up, quirks and all, but I just could not get on with the game at all. Every time I thought I had finally turned a corner with it some other nonsense turned up that put me right back at square one. Overloaded with poorly implemented decent ideas, this is a one for truly dedicated players only.

Xuan Yuan Sword: The Gate of Firmament is bait without a hook. Everything from the visuals to the several elements of play remains shoddy and poorly presented throughout. The story is interesting to begin with, but even this is let down in the long run by crappy localisation. It certainly doesn’t help that the game is riddled with bugs, wonky animation, and a general lack of polish.

Doodle God: Crime City just isn’t challenging enough nor interesting enough to recommend. There’s no doubt whatsoever that Doodleheads will find enjoyment here, but if you’re on the lookout for a compelling puzzle experience that innovates and excites, you’re not going to find those qualities in this game.

The Grand Tour Game sports a unique content delivery system, but it’s one that goes in and against the game’s favor. That being said, this all means very little in the face of its undefined framework. Whilst the game does a good job of representing the show’s stylish character and imitating its format in fun ways, it predictably falls short where it really matters. This is, at very best, a mixed bag of pros and cons.

There is some heart in this simple third-person RPG, but with terrible gameplay, infuriating controls, insane difficulty spikes, enemy spam, and repetitive mission design, only the most determined players will find it.

Extinction lacks refinement and complexity, that much goes without saying. However, for those that seek a non-stop action-packed hack-and-slash adventure, there’s a lot to look forward to within. It may be repetitive in the long run, but there’s no denying that Extinction offers a decent story, empowering gameplay and enough content to merit a recommendation.

What we have here is a game that manages to capture its theme beautifully but then crashes under the weight of its own monotonous gameplay.

Hardcore highscore enthusiasts will possibly enjoy the multiple challenges on offer for each stage, and if you’ve a very strong capacity for patience and forgiveness, there’s enough content included to keep you going for a while. That said, there’s just far too much frustration involved here for it to be considered fun on a casual level, and a vast amount of irritating issues, both technical and by design, further holding the whole thing back.

Zeroptian Invasion wears its inspirations on its sleeve, but never really attempts to stand out as anything other than a clone. Still, for those of you specifically looking for a Space Invaders-like affair, you cant at all go wrong here, just don’t expect much originality.

Waking has almost convinced me that I’m not very good at reviewing games, because it is so difficult to convey what it’s about and how it plays. I’ve taken more time than I normally would thinking about this game and how I was going to explain and grade it. It’s definitely an unenviable, uncomfortable position that I find myself in because indie developers live or die by reviews. In the end I had to ask myself if I enjoyed playing it and the answer is that it wasn’t exactly fun, but it wasn’t exactly bad either because I got what Jason Oda was trying to do. The reality is though, if a developer creates a game meant to be personable, that’s a hard thing to nail down. It will only impact head-on with a sliver of players, and those on either side will like or dislike to varying degrees.

Blood Bowl III has nothing here to recommend it for newcomers or veterans of the board game when there is a more complete package available in its predecessor.

There is still a spark of what made Industria intriguing in some of the settings and lore we can find, but the package as a whole just misses the mark for me. It is technically average at best, with slow, plodding, and uninteresting gunplay and a story that feels like a step backwards from the original in almost every regard.

A loving rendition of Mike Mignola’s world, with excellent voice work (RIP Lance Reddick), but sadly Web of Wyrd is still not the Hellboy game I was hoping for. The score I provided is due to some debilitating bugs and I’d be happy to revisit if this were ever to get a major overhaul.

Time Carnage seems much better suited for VR platforms. Though, nevertheless, even with that support in mind, I dare say that the novelty would be almost instantly chased away by the game’s repetitive structure and its sheer lack of evolving gameplay. The game’s arcade mode and challenge mode offers some fleeting fun, but before that, you’ll need to hit the tiresome campaign to unlock needed features.

While the premise is decent enough, Trenches falls at every hurdle in trying to make a game worth recommending.

Generation Zero sports many of the components that you would expect to see in an open world shooter with online play. Whilst entertaining in short doses, and fairly interesting when it wants to be, the whole ordeal has a tendency of being massively undermined by its poor design choices and its several technical issues. Indeed, it’s a serviceable loot shooter at its core, but the developer really should have held the game to a much higher standard.

For fans of South Park what we have here can be considered a filler experience. For those itching for a new South Park title this will suffice but just don’t expect this installment to be a worthy replacement for Stick of Truth 2. South Park: Snow Day! is a short and enjoyable experience to be played with another South Park fan. The shift in genre still allows the show to keep its trademark humor while welcoming chaotic multiplayer fun but it’s also that shift that provided repetitive combat and short replayability. At only $30 some might find it a worthwhile pick-up, but it’s more likely you’ll be looking forward to the sun shining elsewhere.

Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash lacks spirit and depth and is just Hollow overall. Just because the franchise is popular doesn’t mean fans will mindlessly love the game. Its combat and mechanics are interesting, almost touching the soul, but that flame is quickly snuffed out with poor graphics resembling a mobile game, and a lazy attempt as a arena fighter. Astonishingly, this game has a price tag of up to $100.

Given that STAR WARS: Battlefront Classic Collection is literally a port of the original games it’s surprising that it was botched this badly. Regardless of what price amount it came out to be, it shouldn’t be sold in this condition. It feels like a cash grab and a slap in the face to long-time fans of the series. The title needs to be hidden in a galaxy far, far away.