Alexander Thomas
Windbound is a beautiful, relaxing experience that uses its survival mechanics not to force tension, but encourage you to keep moving forward.
Project CARS 3 suffers from a bit of an identity crisis in what it brings to the player, blending racing sim gameplay and arcade racer mechanics.
For those who find puzzle games interesting but the point-and-click genre a little dull, this is a fantastic middle ground that you will happily get lost in.
The Innsmouth Case is a beautifully written, delightfully dark, and truly excellent experience on a rainy day.
West of Dead offers a satisfying blend of tactics and rogue-like gameplay that I didn’t expect. Levels offer plenty of options for how you want to approach a situation, the gunplay is fast and precise, and the execution of creating a wild west style shoot out is perfect. The game is dripping with personality and Ron Perlman delivers each word with purpose and meaning. Every aspect of gameplay and aesthetic is tailored to telling the story of Mason in a way that feels natural and unique. It’s a blast to play over and over again despite issues with the geometry interfering with aiming and dodging not quite feeling as useful as it ought to.
Project Warlock is the little obliterating shooter that could. Someone so inspired by classic games took their love of the genre and created a fantastic monument to the source material while still offering its own identity.
After all these years, BioShock: The Collection has easily stood the test of time, and bringing it to the Switch seven years after the launch of BioShock Infinite gives new gamers a chance to experience an iconic and groundbreaking series that will remind people to be polite and always preface a request with the simple phrase “Would you kindly?”
Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath gives you exactly what you want out of an expansion pack: new characters, a new story, new gameplay features, and it throws in a couple of new skins for Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Frost. As a package deal, if you loved Mortal Kombat 11, then Aftermath is an absolute must. It embodies what any expansion or DLC should always do: it adds and enhances the game without diluting or changing the original image. Aftermath adds fresh life (and blood) to the game and revitalizes that urge to hear the iconic words: Finish Him!
In an era of remakes and remasters, bringing a new entry to a long dormant series is a bold and difficult thing to do. Streets of Rage 4 adds modern stylings to its classic aesthetic and gameplay to create a modern mash-up that is hard to put down.
Dread Nautical has a fantastic minimalistic art style with a classic polygon feature that adds to that retro feeling.