Ultimately this “remaster” feels pointless, but due to the glaring issues this release has I’m not interested in playing further. I was going to hook up my 360 to compare to the original console release as well but I’m not very much interested in making my short time spent with this remaster feel worse. If this is the only way one can play Sacred 2 it may be worth it, but for people like myself who have any other option this is still a pass nearly 4 months later. Oof.

Inferno could have been a solid title if Supetrick put any sort of effort into actually improving the original game’s formula, but it instead comically doubles down on every single aspect that made it a chore to play, except now you have to pay an entry fee (which doesn’t mean microtransactions are gone, by the way). Inferno is a weird amalgamation of the first Let it Die and Deathverse, attempting to merge them into a PvPvE experience that ends up being for nobody. Maybe it’s time we simply Let it Die.

33 Immortals isn’t a finished product as of now but what the team has launched with is quite a bit of fun if you can get a room to work together. The lack of any sort of voice communication really handcuffs the MMO-type raid setting that the developers at Thunder Lotus is going for. What the game does have though is a killer hand-drawn art style, a fun and addicting gameplay loop and the benefit of being the only game of its type right now. I hope this recipe is one that sees 33 Immortals make it to the 1.0 finish line and beyond. [Early Access Provisional Score = 80]

What happened here? Well the original game wasn’t great, so Aspyr definitely had their work cut out for them. You can only polish a turd so much. The new visuals are nice, the content is cool, but playing the game is just a painful exercise in frustration. It is never fun. I was constantly thinking about turning it off. I had to force myself to finish the first level when I started playing. This game is just not fun, and it should be. How they managed to take the easiest layup in gaming, making Jedi fun to play, and completely airballed it. I would skip this one entirely.

This game is a hot mess in space. I don’t even know what is redeeming about it, I guess that its Star Trek but even that isnt enough; and I am a HUGE Trekkie.

I really feel like Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire had the potential to be a charming and engaging RPG, but it falls short in many areas which keeps it from getting airborne. The clunky controls, repetitive gameplay and numerous tech issues make it a really frustrating experience rather than an enjoyable one. Don’t be tricked by the fantastic ‘Studio Ghibli’ visuals because sadly its all smoke and mirrors with this one; the visual design just isn’t enough to save this game.

While not for everyone, Abiotic Factor is a fun, new addition to the survival games space. Drawing a lot of inspiration from the more science nature of Half-Life, is something that I think a lot of people will appreciate. There are some bugs here and I don’t appreciate the lackluster controller options, but if you are looking for something new in the survival genre, then Abiotic Factor might be for you. It is currently in early access with no firm date for 1.0 which means it can go through some changes but for now; its pretty fun to play. [Early Access Provisional Score = 70]

This pains me to say this but I cannot recommend Star Trek Legends on Steam in its current state. Issues with missing progress is the real killer for me, with so many games and not enough time I can’t keep replaying sections. The version on Apple Arcade is much better and if you are able and love Star Trek players should try that version. Maybe after a few patches the developer, Emerald City Games can get the Steam version on the right track so that more fans can go boldly where no one has gone before.

I wanted to love this game, especially when I heard that Matt and Trey wanted this as an avenue to have a sort of metaverse with the show. So, events can happen in the show on one night and the next it picking up in the game. The premise is very cool, but sadly this game ain’t it. Its going to take a lot of patches and things to get this up to snuff, which is sad because it does some neat things. The different cards in game that work as powers for one, players can choose one ‘bullshit’ card to use which is some uber power like making someone vampires, or giving super strength. All of it with the vibe that these are still kids playing outside. Sadly, it’s all just wasted in its current state, I really hope the developers can turn this around because I want to go on down to South Park and meet some friends of mine.

On the surface it appears to have little to do with the original, but the story does reveal some threads The bad thing is the combat and levels just feel so frustrating and difficult that most players will never even get to see any of it. This game didn’t make me feel like a “killing machine” with its clunky combat and constant difficulty spikes. I don’t know who this one is for, I just know it isn’t me.

Quantum Error feels like a game the team had passion about. There are good ideas here wrapped in a package that is executed poorly on all fronts. It doesn’t help that the developers decided to enrage fanboy wars on Twitter leading up to the release of the game. It put it in a spotlight the game wasn’t built to take. The price tag also hurts as this is a full-priced game in a budget game build. I could be a lot more forgiving if the sticker price was around $30, but at $60 I cannot recommend anyone lay down the funds for this one. It is disappointing in almost every aspect.

I think most of us of a certain age has seen the movie Heat, robbing banks man; paper chasing. Well, the video game Payday is a lot like that movie, in its players take on various heists of money, diamonds, and more dangerous things. If they prepare correctly these crimes can go off without a hitch and so much as a roach being stepped on. However, in my experience in Payday things devolve into shootouts with the cops, exchanging hostages for more time oh and like a week of not being able to play due to the servers not working.

The very worst offense of it all is that normally, when a game is bad, I would have to suffer through it once and get to move on. In the case of Loop8, it forced me to experience the same exact terrible content over and over again by its very design, breeding a sense of resentment towards a game I haven’t felt in a very long time.

Crime Boss Rockay City deserved better, from the inexcusable number of bugs and glitches that players will come across while played the games narrative or the multiplayer missions to the just laughable performances of some actors who I used to hold in such high regard. In a different timeline this game would have just leaned 100% into the jank and made this a successful parody. But instead, it falls flat by trying to tell a serious story about an ambitious crime boss who wanted more, a story as old as time and one that’s been told a million times better before.

As for right now though I cannot recommend this to anyone when better games trying to for the same things are readily accessible, cheaper, and more successful at doing being a 3D platformer.

Postal 4 is a game that should be avoided. I can see now why some console makers did not want this travesty on their machines. This game is not fun or entertaining at all. Some of the voice work is decent and I laughed maybe twice in my entire playthrough, but on the whole it is embarrassing at best and offensive at worst. This is not a game that succeeds in its offensiveness and instead feels worse because when they attempt to be edgy it comes across as desperate.

I can’t recommend Digimon World: Next Order and honestly I have begun to question why I liked it as a kid. I am sure it had to do with the later cool evolutions that happen but there are better games and even anime’s that showcase this better than having suffered through this game. While seeing some of the old faces brought back some nostalgia in the end it was just that, and the game was just a chore to play… literally.

Wanted: Dead is a mess of a game with hints of excellence strewn about. I wanted to love it a lot more than I did. Instead the game kept making me frustrated at every turn. There have been a million examples of how to make a challenging game without making it frustrating. Wanted: Dead is the epitome of the latter. It simply uses lazy tropes instead of clever game play to create its difficulty. The end result is a game that has some great ideas, but will not interest most players. I expect most to quit before finishing the first boss.

Having only a handful of enjoyable minigames means players will end up playing the ones they dislike more, and the horribly paced board game component makes the journey getting to those minigames feel like a slog and then to not have GARFIELD VOICED IS JUS- let me calm down. Even at the ‘value’ price of $39.99 this feels overpriced, if you are a huge Garfield fan wait for a deep sale before picking this one up.

Crossfire: Legion does a great job of evoking great memories playing better games in the RTS genre. It does very little if anything to innovate and leans heavily on the tracks that many other games have laid before it. But what hurts it most of all is the fact that there is NO A.I. matchmaking, which means that if players want to play the game, they must use the multiplayer option which seems to be on its way to being abandoned at this point. So that leaves players to repeat a lackluster campaign filled with generic characters (whom they utilized some top tier talent such as Ashly Burch who is wasted here) and cliché plots. Crossfire: X was my first introduction to the world of Crossfire and as you can read in my review it was a terrible first impression. And now with Legion being the mess that it is I think I may not give Crossfire a third chance to disappoint me.

So yeah… Somerville kind of sucks. The best parts of the game are when it focuses on the alien invasion aspect. The worst parts are everything else. Honestly, skip this game. It actually makes me worried for what Playdead has coming next because they have said they want to do more than just 2D games too and if they play anything like Somerville I’ll probably skip it.

By the way, the first half of this game is the anime portion. The second half is locked behind finishing the first half and is a new story made for the game where you create your own character and level up and is probably more like the game I thought I was getting. I have heard this second half is decent but I’m not going to slog through this mess to unlock it while listening to the two characters repeat the same lines over and over and over again. I could turn off the voices but that means I turn it off even for the story beats which defeats the point entirely. An update that unlocks that second mode automatically would maybe get me to rethink my score but what this is now, I wouldn’t even tell fans of the show to play it.

Disney’s Dreamlight Village is not going to be for everyone, in fact a lot of people who may not realize that the game is a F2P experience may be upset upon paying for the founder’s pack. Yes, the game will constantly give the players tasks, and almost any action just as simple as talking to a character will provide progress. But there is nothing in the way of an endgame, the experience is not going to change, the whole of this game is living your best life in the Valley, making friends and cooking with Mickey. Sure, there is a narrative, but it is very light and not necessary as the chill nature of the game is a pleasure in and of itself to play. The classic Disney music ranging from movie themes to the ole “M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E, MICKY MOUSE…” song that I know we all heard as a kid everything about the game just puts you in a good place. [Early Access Provisional Score = 75]

If you’re here to find out if the collection is worth $30 all I have to say to you is that it is a bundle of roms in a half decent emulator wrapped up in an uninteresting package. If you have ever emulated anything on a PC, you’ve likely had a similar experience and this game offers very little more than that outside of a rewind feature and you can decide if that is worth $30 to you.

Glam’s is a game that is hard to recommend. Players and fans of twitch platformers can most certainly find some challenge here but in the precise jumping and puzzle solving of each level. The problem is, I feel like because of the control scheme and the way it feels, it makes it even more difficult to get into. Still, people looking for that challenge and having patience can find something here. Anyone who gets frustrated easily or does not like the sound of a trial-and-error style game should avoid this one.

Like most RPG’s Jax will not save the world alone, Elex 2 does offer some companions to take along on the journey. Only one at a time can accompany the player but because the AI is so laughably bad in this game, they really only serve a purpose as a ‘meat shield’. Honestly, my companions were getting dropped more than they were hitting enemies in almost every instance. It was about this time that I really began to wonder what people were talking about when they praised the original game so much. Maybe it is that much better than this one, but Elex 2 is pretty bad. Worse than that I personally didn’t find it fun, no disrespect to those that love it. As I said at the outset, I don’t mind ‘janky’ games, but Elex 2 was just ‘bridge too far’ for me.

Babylon’s Fall is not an awful game, its just not a very good one and while I would never tell anyone what to do with their money, I will strongly suggest you avoid this one as it’s fate will surely be the same as the tower for which its named.

I struggled for days to get the game to run correctly on my Series X, and even then, once I could play I had to contend with glitching through the environments and fighting with the static camera which made seeing some enemies off screen impossible. Not to mention the aforementioned lack of any real goals or objectives that are posted for players to follow. There were times where I wondered around killing hordes of Raknos, just leveling up because I couldn’t figure out where to go next. Again, these are all odd design choices, and I really think there was budget cuts or something that stopped these developers from being able to properly finish this title. Sadly, as it is, I can’t really recommend this to anyone because whatever little good it may do, the bad outweighs it by quite a bit.