Nicola Ardron's Reviews
Tannenberg offers an authentic World War 1 experience of the conflict waged on the Eastern Front. It features excellent attention to detail in the map design, character uniforms and weaponry, but the dogged commitment to historical accuracy means its appeal is limited to a very small niche of player.
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town takes a while to reveal its charms. The pace may put players not familiar with the rhythm of farming and relationship sims off, but for those invested they will be treated to a lovely, relaxing slice of idyllic rural life.
Farmer's Dynasty could have some appeal with a blend of RPG, farming and life simulations, but it is a woefully optimised piece of software with frame rates that judder to a halt after thirty minutes of play.
Summer in Mara is farming and crafting sim with a lovely message around sustainability. It features some beautiful Ghibli-esque visuals and strong character writing, but ultimately descends into endless, over-lapping fetch quests with a lack of direction that make it more of a chore than the relaxing experience it promises.
House Flipper is a simulation game where you purchase and do up houses to sell for profit to do it all over again. It is mindless and monotonous, but there is catharsis in cleaning things up and returning them to some semblance of order.
Beyond Blue is an overtly educational game that has a message worth sharing. The experience is pleasant enough, but other games manage to convey the majesty and beauty of the ocean more elegantly.
Project Warlock is a real delight; impeccably put together, looks fantastic, and feels great to play. Some niggles over high difficulty at the beginning and a clunky radial menu but retro fans will be delighted.
The Outer Worlds on Switch is a good port of a great game. Some of the graphical fidelity is lost, but a strong art direction and excellent writing make this version worth picking up
Atomicrops is an action-packed rogue-like farming simulator crossed with a frenetic twin-stick shooter. It is filled with good humour and some interesting systems, but the perma-death feels a little out of sorts with the idea of growing things.
911 Operator Deluxe Edition comes packed with content. It suffers from fiddly controls, which hamper your success rate, but the audio work is good, and there is tonnes of detail to pore over.