Overall, I did enjoy the game even though it seemed to be geared towards a younger audience with the visuals and simplistic story and characters. As far as value goes, you get a lot to do for a budget title.

The storytelling is king in Swansong and players will find a world that is full of complicated politics, a deep lore, relationship juggling that can be overwhelming. Luckily the game does an excellent job of slowly revealing this world to players, but those who are not a fan of slower, adventure games they should look elsewhere. While there isn’t much in the way of the tradiontial vampire violence that some players may be looking for; those that give this a try will find a journey through a world of darkness, intrigue, murder and decisions that can shape the outcome of the narrative leading to multiple endings. While I am still waiting with bated breath, hoping that Bloodlines 2 will see the light of the moon, Vampire the Masquerade – Swansong is a great introduction to the lore of this world, and despite the issues I had with the facial animations I enjoyed my time here.

That aside, what you see is what you get, more walking dead, more split second choices, and dialog (with excellent voice acting as always) This won’t create any new fans of the series or bring anything extremely different to the foray, but it’s still a solid first start to a 3 part miniseries. I do hope the other two episode play out just a little longer than the 90 minutes this lasted, but otherwise, I’m definitely down for the next episodes.

Afro Samurai is heavy on style and aggression, so it stinks that things like the camera get in the way of a game you really want to love. Afro Samurai is a six-hour excursion with plenty of ill-conceived aspects, but katana-wielding destruction is yours for the taking if you can cope with the oversights.

The real star of the presentation, though, is the sound design.

The single player feels much more fleshed out, and Salmon Run is a blast. There are just two many weird setbacks to how the game works. Rotating only two maps per mode, keeping Salmon Run online locked behind events, and of course the online app. Sure Nintendo has promised lots of updates to Splatoon 2, and I believe them, but right now I feel like there are too many barriers for me to enjoy it to its fullest potential.

The visual style is going to be a love or hate affair. I walked away really enjoying the visuals, and would love to see more games with this odd Claymation, obscure style. Yet the gameplay, for better or worse, seems to be almost the exact same. I couldn’t really tell much of a difference between the two other than new backgrounds, new visuals, and new sound and music. I feel like a sequel should usually try to mix things up a bit or do more, but Nidhogg 2 feels like a safe bet. More of the same and just a different look. For newcomers, it’s no worries, for fans, it could be a slight disappointment. It’s still a fun and frantic game, and that quality shines throughout, regardless of walking the same line as the first.

Lunark was a blast from the past for sure, I enjoyed my time with the sci-fi adventure game. As I said Flashback was one of my favorites and playing Lunark I was smiling the whole time thinking back on the fond memories I had as a youth. The more I played the more I really liked Leo and enjoyed seeing his story unfold, while there are issues with checkpoints and controls to get used to at the end of the day Lunark tells a great sci-fi story that fans of the genre will surely enjoy.

After finishing the game, I was brought right back into the world with all my leveled up agents, able to replay any mission I wanted to progress in anything I hadn’t finished. Ultimately I had a great time becoming an agent; I laughed, I shoot a bunch of baddies, and I grew to love the Agents of Mayhem. There is quite a bit of content here and this won’t blow anyone away as far as mission design or open world games goes, but I couldn’t stop smiling, laughing, and playing until it was finished, regardless of its flaws.

This is by no means a bad thing for those who enjoy this solid, albeit tired formula, but I can’t help but ponder when the true revolution for this series will take place.

Of course, fans of the series still need to pick this episode up, and from looking back at the entire season, this is still a decent addiction to an already great series. Just keep in mind, you can’t save everybody, and even if you try, don’t be surprised if someone dies anyway. This is The Walking Dead after all.

Listen, I really liked Ghostwire Tokyo quite a bit; the story of Akito trying to save his sister and KK’s need for revenge made a good pairing. As I said above both men grew over the course of the adventure and ended it differently than they began and that is what I love to see from any story…. growth. The spooky bits here aren’t as intense as Tango is usually known for and that may be due to the FPS nature of the action in the game but nonetheless Ghostwire Tokyo is a game that should be played and since its finally come home to Xbox the barrier of entry is even lower and if you like ghosts and things this one won’t disappoint.

If you have a Kinect already, Rise of Nightmares should be in your library. It's a devilishly fun game that showcases the power of the Kinect and allows you to punch the undead in the face.

Despite its age, Melty Blood is a deep and engrossing fighter with a lot to offer. Whether it’ll have a lasting place in this ever shifting anime fighters market is unclear but I’m glad to see it finally released in the States all the same.

Two Tribes has done an awesome job with this fun platformer, not dumbing it down for a younger audience, however developing a cute, appealing, and fun addition to anyone’s DS platformer collection.

SBK X Superbike World Championship is overall just a pretty average game. Yes, it will appeal to the diehard fans of these types of games, and I am sure they will sink quite a few hours into it. The problem lies again with what I said about spreading out their game modes.

The action is about as tight as in World at War, but the hub town kills the momentum. In exchange, though, you get demonic Nazis and fun retro-scifi weapons. If you can't get enough FPS action, and can't wait for Modern Warfare 2, this is worth twelve hours of your life.

Overall the game is quite well done. While not overly a horror game, the soundtrack and some of the moments between chapters did give off a creepy vibe. For a fiver, anyone who likes puzzles will probably get a kick out of it. However, I assume anyone with the ability to play ROMs on original hardware would get a way cooler experience playing NEScape!

Overall, this game offers a solid RPG experience despite its flaws it also has many things going for it, and makes a nice addition to the PS2s massive RPG collection.

NBA 2K23 is a fantastic package that is marred by a heavy reliance on microtransactions. Unless a player is going to spend hours and hours grinding out The City, the only way to find a modicum of success is to open your wallet and buy the virtual currency to boost your players and teams.

SBK X Superbike World Championship is overall just a pretty average game. Yes, it will appeal to the diehard fans of these types of games, and I am sure they will sink quite a few hours into it. The problem lies again with what I said about spreading out their game modes.

Ravenswatch is a lot of fun to play, I unlocked all of the playable characters and played with each and had a good time with all of them. The randomly generated nature of each level is nice but the truth of the matter is this game is very short. And while I recommend that players play multiplayer, the game does offer the option to play single-player but it’s hard as balls. I am sure some of you who love these brutal difficulty games will enjoy, but for those of us who have yet to ascend that difficulty mountain, dis tew much. All that being said though, I like Ravenswatch quite a bit. While my time with it is short, it was still a pretty enjoyable experience.

Tri Breaker isn’t a bad game at all, in fact I found myself having some fun with it; despite me not being a fan of the vibe. There are some nice things along the way like various power-ups, and even boss fights which take away from the mundanity of block-breaking. Levels are all pretty varied which is nice, but that story is… well I mean its there. If you are a fan of the franchise, then I am sure you are invested and this will no doubt be a high point for you; but for me, the guy who just came in… this ain’t it story-wise. But if you are looking for a retro style block breaking game, this one might tickle your fancy, as it is pretty fun to play.

At the end of the day, I still enjoyed my time with House of Ashes. It is the best story so far in the series and even with the issues I had with both the glitches and gameplay, this was a decent time overall. If you have played the series this far, you know what you’re getting into. If you want to give this one a shot to see what The Dark Pictures is all about, you can’t be this one’s story and premise. Just keep in mind, there will be some really strange bugs that come along with it.

Silent Hill f is a solid entry in the series even if it bucks all the reason to be a Silent Hill game. I still feel like this would have been a great original title. The combat is its biggest weakness and the chasm of fun between the real world and the Shrine Realm really drives that home. I am glad Silent Hill is back, but I do wish they had made the combat a bit more fun and interesting.

With a huge lineup of real players, unique and intuitive game play mechanics, and a solid multi-player component (even if it remains offline) The BIGS is more than worth the price of admission.

A solid, deep game it gets a lot of things right and is such an improvement over its predecessor it is an ideal pick for gamers looking to try the series - and a must have for gamers disillusioned with the last iteration's meager graphical effort.

For under $20 you simply won’t find a better game to spruce up your dusty PS2 and if you aren’t careful you may end up having some serious fun.