Less content, less interesting, crippled by bizarre design decisions and bugs. Rico London feels like a weak test run for its precursor rather than a fully fledged sequel.

Kursk had some promise, aiming to be part adventure and part documentary of a real world tragedy. What we got though is a boring spy story mixed with tedious exploration and puzzles, staffed with a crew that would make Pinocchio feel like a real boy. You’d be much better off reading or watching any of the other media out there documenting this real world event.

It’s hard to write about, and recommend, a game that has so little content and so little going on. It’s probably one of the more poorly made titles Ratalika have published, but by the same token it wasn’t the worst hour of my life either. The silver lining is – as always – at least it’s an easy 1000G.

Fans of visual novels might get an hour or so of enjoyment out of Autumn’s Journey but I’d like to have seen more choices factored in to give the tale some variety. I found myself getting bored pretty quickly with the story on offer. As it is, an easy 1000g is most likely the best reason to get this.

Sadly, Mini Madness utterly squanders any sort of promise it may have had with dull driving icing the cake of boring track design, terrible music, and shoddy UI and modes. Even those looking for a simple racer to last an evening will likely turn this off after only a handful of races.

I’m a pretty patient guy when it comes to trying out new gaming experiences, but Drizzlepath: Déjà vu is just simply not very interesting at all. A walking sim without any of the intrigue or interesting tales and scenarios, even achievement hunters might want to think twice about adding this to their list.

I cannot possibly imagine who at Nickelodeon looked at this and thought ‘Yes, that’s the kind of quality we want representing our brand’. While some track layouts are okay and character models passable, everything else here feels half-baked, lazy or downright awful. Terrible handling, poor audio, and the range of characters and their lack of characterization, collectively make a mockery of the franchises.

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.

Crimson Keep is a disgusting mess. It’s a game in which progress is measured by luck and chance rather than skill and strategy, simply due to its horrendously developed framework. The combat is all over the place, the looting is almost completely unnecessary, and the level-up system is practically useless. It doesn’t help that the game is chock-full of cheap deaths, most of which are born through lazy ideas, technical flaws, and poor execution.

The Last Scape feels more like a test piece or showcase of some technology that has a basic attempt at adding in some sort of gameplay via hoops thrown in to get you to explore the land. The graphics are OK, but nothing to brag about; the technology it is based on is more interesting than this game. If there is more to The Last Scape and I missed it, then it’s way too cryptic and far too uninteresting to bother trying to discover.

Back in 1995, survival horror games were much deeper, better refined, and a lot more engaging than this. Furthermore, they were vastly interesting and, more importantly, scary. Back in 1995 is the polar opposite. The game falls flat on all fronts, from its underdeveloped mechanics, right through to its awful overall presentation. It’s the worst throwback I’ve ever played, worse than even Outbreak: The New Nightmare, and that’s saying something.

Hollow is such an ironically befitting title. This game is empty, dull, and devoid of any quality on any level. Further to that, the game is chock-full of bugs, lazy design choices, and technical drawbacks. Whilst not broken to the point of being unplayable, it’s certainly broken to the point of being a lot more frustrating than it’s worth. It’s truly a hot mess. If you’re looking for a solid space horror, stick to Dead Space or Alien Isolation.

Truth be told, Blue Angels is a direct port of a mobile game and plays as such.

Blood Waves is bloody awful. The entire game confines its players to a single room, and then expects them to be content with killing the same bland enemies, over and over again. There’s some variation to be found in the game’s pool of weapons, traps, and upgrades, but these generic additions lack depth and excitement. It doesn’t help that the game handles very poorly and very awkwardly throughout. It’s a cheap, repetitive, frustrating cash grab.

With this many clumsy design decisions it is a miracle this game made it past pre-production. I will never look down on anyone that endorses playtesting again.

I came away from Hardcube severely disappointed; there are far better examples of games (Marble Blast Ultra, Road to Ballhalla) that involve rolling a ball around a course, and outside of some easy G’s I’d struggle to recommend this to anyone.

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.

I try to see the good in all things, but Delta Squad puts that ethos to the test. It is at least 4 player co-op, so you can share the tedium with others and even poorly done, a top down shooter still has trace elements of fun – though ‘trace’ here is being extremely generous.

Super Hyperactive Ninja may have been a decent game if its stodgy controls, poor collision detection and its shower of cheap deaths didn’t dramatically hold the game back. There’s nothing wrong with a game that wants to seriously challenge its players, but when that challenge comes solely from its poor development and baffling design choices, it’s far too hard to overlook, or more importantly, enjoy.

The whole thing has a whiff of Steam Early Access about it, which is not what I’d expect from a full game release on the Xbox store. And it’s brown. Like, really brown.

I genuinely feel for the team that worked on this – it is a licensed product that is much loved in the UK. It is hard to please people engaged with any franchise. But I don’t think I am being precious when I say this game is abysmal in everything but the narrative.

Mad Games Tycoon is, quite simply, a poor attempt at the sim genre. Boring, cluttered UI makes it’s hard to see what’s going on, there’s no real sense of achievement or progression and my nightmares will be scored by that abysmal soundtrack for the rest of time.

The biggest challenge you’ll face here is trying to overcome its horrendous presentation. There’s a complete lack of distinction between the game’s foreground and its background, leading to heaps of cheap deaths as a result. What’s worse, there’s almost no depth and variation within. Instead, the game makes a nasty habit of constantly recycling its few dull ideas, over and over, throughout the entirety of play. Heed my advice, avoid.

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.

Spy Racers is competently made but such an uninspired slog through a dire spin off. Soulless and saddening.

I appreciate that the devs/publishers have a steam bundle called ‘Deadly Bakery’ that just about justifies this game’s existence. Utterly woeful at every turn, and best avoided.

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.

Armored Freedom is a waste of time, effort, money and HDD space. The sheer lack of gameplay depth, originality and innovation, grouped with the game’s clear focus on chance rather than skill, makes for an utterly underwhelming and overly frustrating experience. There isn’t a single aspect of Armored Freedom that I can commend. It’s a cheap cash grab, and nothing more.