A mix of combat, platforming and puzzle solving, Pepper Grinder is a cute indie game that will last a few hours, more if you want to collect everything. Once you get a feel for the controls, when levels flow, is when Pepper Grinder is at its best as you leap from one dig to the next.

Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator was as advertised; a cozy gardening game, but I found the tasks quite repetitive and wished there was more variety of things to do. I am hopeful that the developers will add some additional content, possibly some more flower varieties as well. More than anything else, I hope they fix the messy inventory system. Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator is like a seedling in a greenhouse. It has all the parts to make something beautiful and is just waiting for the right gardener to come along and spend some time with it.

I’ll be honest, I initially wasn’t expecting much from Killer Queen Black with my first impressions after getting through the tutorial, but once I started to really understand how each class is integral in their own way, you realize there’s a surprisingly amount of strategy needed to succeed. I’m not sure if it could hit eSports levels of competition, but it certainly did impress me overall once you start to really understand its gameplay and depth, constantly having to adapt on the fly. Games like Killer Queen Black will only be relevant as long as there is a large community playing it, so thankfully it has landed on Xbox Game Pass, removing much of the barrier to giving it a chance. There aren’t many games that allow you to win by riding a snail over a finish line, but this surely is one of them.

FUEL is a very cool world that’s been designed nicely with some great weather effects although lacks some depth in the gameplay to really draw you in like I really wanted.

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord feels excellent in most cases, like whacking someone off their horse with a spear, or getting that perfect hit on an enemy in battles. The map is far more varied from the first game and they improved on a lot of mechanics in this sequel as well. Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord was shallow in some ways, and sometimes has annoyingly hidden game mechanics, but kept me coming back for how unique it felt from its freedom of choice.

Riftstar Raiders is a fairly solid entry into a usually forgotten genre in our modern world of gaming. It offers up solid, if not a little loose feeling, gameplay with tons of replay value and an adjustable level of challenge for gamers of all types. Its greatest victory is in the gear crafting system. Never before has an arcade style starship shooter felt this involved and this personal. Each ship that you make is truly you own as if you were the one sitting in that cockpit making those decisions.

As I reflect on all the time I spent playing this game for this review, I can't say I didn’t enjoy my curse-filled time with Odium, on the contrary, its addictive feel roped me in, but those that get frustrated easily will want to look elsewhere. If there was a mode that offered more checkpoints I would have gladly stuck with it longer and possibly beaten all it, but as it stands, this was a little too Odium to the HARDcore for me.

Train Valley: Console Edition was oddly addictive once I learned all of its intricacies and mechanics that wasn’t taught well from the beginning. Sure there’s not much substance under the surface other than delivering color coded trains to their respective stations, and the first hour or so will be frustrating, but it eventually clicks and become quite entertaining to make intricate track layouts and having trains narrowly miss one another as they pass by one another. Choo choo choose Train Valley: Console Edition if you want an addictive locomotive puzzler, albeit with some initial awkward controls.

Overall, WRC Generations is a well-put-together farewell game for everyone new or enthusiast of the series who've been there since the beginning. It may have some issues but they can hopefully be patched out in the future. WRC Generations may not have many major changes to the series, but it still is a good game nonetheless.

Full of puns, Cavity Busters certainly borrows heavily from The Binding of Isaac and Enter the Gungeon, yet does enough to make it stand out amongst others in the crowded genre. It’s chaotic, frantic, gross, and I enjoyed every minute of it once I was able to get over the learning curve and adjusting to the frenzied gameplay.

While graphics in games like this don’t generally matter, the voxel aesthetic works for its premise and silliness, but the real standout is the commentary by the announcers. Seriously, more than a few times I laughed out loud and the hilarity never got old. Unless you care about the online Last Bot Standing mode I’d question its longevity and the $26.99 CAD asking price. That said, Clone Drone in the Danger Zone will make you laugh on a number of occasions and can be fun to simply jump in for a few matches here and there.

Farming is hard work and takes time, and it’s no different here. You’re going to have to put in the hours to have a large, successful and profitable farm, but if you’re willing to do so, you’ll enjoy all that there is to do in Pure Farming 2018 that the competition simply doesn’t offer. If mod support and multiplayer are included in the hopeful sequel, there will be some serious farm sim competition in the genre.

At the end of the day, Immortals of Aveum is a good game, and a nice first effort from Ascendant Studios. It’s fast, it’s challenging, and it’s decently long. There are some things that keep it from being great, though, and they kept me from loving it overall. I’m glad I played this one, however, and had been looking forward to it ever since I saw its name on a release schedule and Googled it to find out what the hell it was.

iO is a great example of relying on a simple premise and fun gameplay over lavish visuals and an engaging narrative. Obviously there’s a niche market for platforming games like this, especially for those that love to challenge themselves, but given the number of rushed titles and influx of mediocre indie games on the market, iO really surprised me and taught me once again to not judge a game by its looks, but by its interesting mechanics and gameplay instead.

If you enjoy puzzles games and have a like-minded friend, then We Were Here Together should definitely be looked at. I figured that since I reviewed the previous game with a friend, I would try this one with a different one to see if I had the same result in communication breakdowns. Sad to say, the results were almost identical, even with a completely different friend this time around. When frustration sets in and things don’t make sense, I promise you, you’re going to end up blaming your co-op partner, regardless if it’s their fault or not. We Were Here Together will give a cooperative adventure unlike any other, but it will surely put your friendship to the test, one that I almost failed, again.

Despite my sounding somewhat negative, 20XX is actually a very good game built upon a solid and well tested foundation. Most of my grievances come from a personal place made of emotion and lack of experience with the source material. Still, there is the part of me that struggles to see a need for games that intentionally limit themselves to a set of old rules that no longer exist. 20XX is a game, more than most, with a clear audience in mind and flaunts that with no shame.

MOTHERGUNSHIP is a crazy frantic bullet hell FPS, a first of its kind experience for me. Crafting weapons and seeing how they perform is fun, even if it’s trial and error. I wish that there was more upgrades in relation to leveling up, but even so, I enjoyed my time with it. Boss fights are what kept me going from ship to ship and the humorous writing along the way helped balance the experience. It may be a little shallow aside from its shooting mechanics, but sometimes you just need to turn your brain off and shoot an onslaught of robots to relax.

I had high hopes for Unusual Findings. The concept, graphics and overall aesthetic really captured my attention when I first saw the trailer and I was excited to play it. It has a promising premise, but the convoluted puzzles just didn’t keep me invested or engaged as I had hoped. I consider myself to be quite smart and good at puzzles, but at times I felt dumb playing this. If you are not good at critical thinking games, you will have a tough time with this. However, the witty writing and pure throwback to my youth with the music, clothes, décor, and pop culture references has to pull on my heart a bit. Unusual Findings may not be perfect, but any fan of the genre or 80's should take a trip to Southplanes and see where the story takes them.

NBA 2K22 is probably best entry that the series has seen in many years. On the court everything flows exactly as it should with many improvements from last year. Unfortunately, microtransactions are still rampant everywhere in the game, and to be able to compete online with your created character or in MyTeam you're almost forced to spend money if you actually want to be competitive. If you have skipped the series in the last year or two, it may be time to take a look now. It is not best of all time, but it has taken a very big step in the right by listening suggestions from its players.

Dust & Neon could be a worthwhile try for twin-stick shooter fans, or even rogue-lite fans to some extent, but it can become repetitive and somewhat easy. Dust & Neon will be enjoyable for a short amount of time, but it won't provide endless hours of gameplay.

Limbic Entertainment has done a great job overall, and Tropico 6 is a fantastic addition to the strategy genre. With the amount of content in the “Missions” mode alone, I feel it's well worthwhile to try it out if you're a fan of the genre. Some gamers may thrive in a game that literally gives you every option you could ever think of in addition to a ton of quests and challenges to keep you on your toes. Although I didn't care too much for Multiplayer, I thoroughly enjoyed the core campaign 'missions' and really enjoyed learning how the entire game works through the tutorial chapters.

Overall for the price you can't go wrong with this title, especially if you are a fan of the series.

For $10 it’s a great diversion from your regular go-to titles if you simply want a break from the norm. While Grim Legends 2 wasn’t very challenging overall, save for a sliding puzzle or two, it doesn’t wear out its welcome. Even though it’s a sequel, it’s still a great title to jump into if you’re new to the genre and looking for a relaxing HOG puzzle game, even if it doesn’t necessarily add anything new.

Robocop: Rogue City offers an ever-changing storyline based off your character's choices while paying homage to the amazing source material found decades ago on the silver screen. While not a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination, neither was the Robocop movie trilogy and it has become an icon of film, so why not this game? This is when I realized that I needed this game to be imperfect to be a perfect representation and Teyon delivered that in spades. If you're a fan of the classic Robocop and would love a chance to dive into a story that links movies 2 and 3 perfectly and have it been cannon, then you owe it to yourself to pick up Robocop: Rogue City, or else there could be.... trouble.

Overall, the game does not having a long lasting appeal to the casual gamer. Its fun in the beginning but it quickly gets repetitive with the drama scenes, dialogue and basic fighting.

The story is told in a very tongue in cheek way and the writing is quite clever. There were even a few twists towards the end that I really didn’t see coming. A short run time of about three hours depending on your skill level, Dandy and Randy DX was quick and didn’t overstay its welcome. It’s a very low-cost game if you are into quick achievement hunting as well which is always a nice bonus.

There is clearly a lot of love and attention to detail involved here. I think if you are a fan of craft beer, if brewing interests you, or you are into simulation style games, you should check out Brewmaster to see if its flavour profile matches with your tastes.

Darksiders, when it was released, became the definitive example of a sleeper hit, and like the Phoenix that arises from the ashes, Darksiders III has been resurrected in a fashion that lays the ground work for a tremendous conclusion to the series should we get Darksiders IV and the final chapter of the horsemen and the apocalypse. If you're a fan of hack and slash adventure games with an incredible story, then this should be on your list of must have games to purchase.