Stellaris is an aesthetically beautiful and rich in storytelling, and I'm fully enamoured to it.
I'm all for developers to look for ways to reenvision the classics - look at how incredible Tetris 99 is in breathing new life into a puzzle classic that's over 30 years old. What I have no tolerance for is games that only do the most superficial thing to spin a classic as a "new game." History 2048's "history" adds nothing to 2048, so right down to the title, this game is a false promise and a poorly executed mess.
The Caligula Effect progresses at a fast enough clip that, for the second time over, I haven't wanted to put it down.
Dead or Alive 6 is amazing. It’s the best looking fighting game out there, bar none, and has a combat system that is both instantly accessible for newcomers, without feeling condescending, and yet also offering plenty of depth and complexity for experienced fans.
Meow Motors has its issues, but overall, it gets away with it all. It's a bright, colourful, charming and cheap little kart racer that kids can enjoy, and people who never seem to tire of kart racers will have a compulsive need to buy and mess around with.
If you can get a group together, then Hell Warders is a lot of fun that you won’t soon forget. The action is tight, the challenges is robust, and the setting is impeccable. For single player tower defence, there are better options
Massira comes across as a immature project. Not "immature" in the sense of being juvenile - it's actually achingly sincere and I wish it didn't deserve criticism, but "immature" in the sense that the developer clearly lacked the confidence to create something outside of standard gameplay tropes, and those tropes really let Massira down in the end.
Unfortunately, presentation does matter, and I found it far too hard to care about anything going on in this game precisely because, for the most part, Magic Scroll Tactics looks like a game where the developer just forgot to replace all the in-development placeholder art with the proper visual elements. Coupled with a narrative that's quite unforgivable for a JRPG, and it's a game that deserves a sequel that can properly realise its ambitions.
Once you get over the initial hump with Tangledeep, you’re looking at a game that you can play over the long term. If nothing else, it’s lovely to know that there are some developers out there that understand what Rogue when creating their “roguelikes.”
Sadly, Alvastia Chronicles is yet another conceptual failure and broken mess of a game.
Modern Combat: Blackout isn't a great game by any stretch of the imagination, but it's playable enough, and it's the only military shooter of its kind currently available on the Nintendo Switch.
Tokyo School Life is a sweet and charming story of warmth and good characterisation... and an earnest and genuine attempt to highlight everything that is great about Japan.
A shockingly cliché and poorly-constructed narrative, combined with a sense of monotony that sets in far too quickly, does let this game down though. It’s best played in very short bursts, with big breaks in-between sessions.
Ultimately I simply didn’t get what I wanted - or expected - from Metro Exodus.
For those who do understand their 4X genre, however, At The Gates will come across as a breath of fresh air. It's a ground-up rethink on how the genre can work, and what the 4X might look like as applied to the many cultures and civilizations out there that didn't have the imperialist intent that most 4X titles assume. For that, it's one of the most interesting strategy games I've played in years.
Intense, creative from start to finish, and paced beautifully, The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince is yet another feather in the NIS cap. This developer/ publisher understands the Grimm aesthetic and structure better than anyone else out there.
Song of Memories does have an excellent combat system and lite JRPG mechanics. It also has its moments where it's genuinely amusing, and the contrast between the monster story and the fan service-rich romance is... eclectic. It's a difficult game to really pin down, but for those that can let the oddity of it all wash over them, it can also be an surprisingly difficult game to put down.
Thea: The Awakening is good. Very, very good, and where something like Civilization is hard to play in short bursts, Thea is an ideal title for train trips and the like. I have no idea how the team has handled the sequel (currently in Early Access on Steam), but with this first one, there is a superb foundation here for what could become one truly special franchise.
Steins;Gate Elite is not only the perfect visual novel improved, but it's also a shining example of what the top tier of visual novels should look like.
For those who have played and loved any of the tabletop games over the years that have been based on Lovecraft’s mythos – the tabletop miniatures game that Cthulhu Tactics itself is based on, for example, or Arkham Horror, or the legendary Call of Cthulhu pen-and-paper RPG, Cthulhu Tactics does a remarkable job of capturing that same aesthetic and sense of overwhelming challenge. This game is well and truly worth a look.