Great Circle is a fun action adventure title, with a decent story, some nice exploration and, more importantly, Indiana Jones the focal point and very much in the driver’s seat. However, this is certainly not without its problems, and between janky combat, truly woeful AI and some hit or miss level design, Great Circle is a fun but flawed adventure that feels very reminiscent of those old movie videogame tie-ins we used to get back in the old days.
Symphonia is a pretty straightforward precision platformer. Its short length is really the only big drawback here as the rest of the game is an absolute delight to play through. The orchestral soundtrack is excellent, the visuals look great, and the levels designed in such a meticulous and imaginative way that you’ll find yourself having heaps of fun with this – even in the challenging sections where you’ll die repeatedly.
The world is a bleak, inhospitable wasteland, full of miserable people requiring you to traverse a miserable landscape in search of more miserable people within a miserably optimized game. And within all this misery, is a surprisingly moreish and eye-wateringly brutal first person shooter.
Infinity Nikki is a blast to play. It’s a super chill dress-up game with nice platforming and a compelling enough story to stick with for the long-haul. The combat is super basic and honestly, the worst part of the game. As far as Gachas go though, Infinity Nikki is a ton of fun. Sure, there are some issues with its core gameplay loop, and some annoyances here and there, but what’s here is enjoyable enough to make for a solid recommendation.
Spirit Mancer is definitely a blast to play though but it's not without its problems. The game is undoubtedly a bit unbalanced given how easily the mechanics can be exploited, while rewards for combat feel disappointingly sparse compared to searching for chests and using the Adventure Guild. Balancing issues aside, if you're after a simple, challenging and enjoyable hack'n'slash, Spirit Mancer is a lot of fun and well worth your time.
Pretty aesthetics aside, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a boring sludge of grey. It's not awful enough to poke fun at for its broken mechanics like Star Wars: Outlaws, but similarly, it's nowhere near good enough to compete with the best Bioware have put out. Veilguard is a complete nothingburger; an indifferent shrug of a fantasy epic that fails to live up to what's come before, and destined to be thrown into the veil, reduced to a passing whisper of what could have been.
While We Wait Here is an interesting indie game and despite its short length, plays with some bold ideas. For its cheap price, this one is definitely worth a few hours’ playtime, but it never quite does enough with its ideas to make for a wholly satisfying experience.
Ubisoft have marketed Star Wars: Outlaws as a AAAA experience. And I whole heartedly agree. It absolutely is… if AAAA stands for Absolutely Atrocious And Abysmal.
Suicide Squad has zero redeeming features. It's a game that tries to be edgy and fails. It tries to be fun but fails. And above all else, it tries to appeal to a wide audience and appeals to nobody. This is a lazy, poorly written mess that deserves to be treated the same way Batman is in this game - like disposable trash that's thrown out after a monologue about how bad it is.
Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown is a great Metroidvania. It’s very easy to get addicted to exploring every nook and cranny of this world, and it helps that the visuals are gorgeously rendered too. It’s certainly no Hollow Knight or Castlevania, but Lost Crown is a solid, highly enjoyable game with a harmonious balance of combat, puzzles and exploration.
For a walking simulator, you’d think that Starward Industries would have at least nailed down the walking. Instead, it’s arguably one of the worst parts of The Invincible. Walking sims can be great if they have an interesting story (which this one does, in fairness) but with such laborious, sluggish mechanics to accompany that, this is way more of a chore to get through than it should be.
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and when it comes to Lies of P, this game pays homage to Dark Souls and Demon’s Souls beautifully. It’s not going to win any contests for originality, but the original content here is certainly worth of remembrance. The puppet aesthetic is excellent, the story engaging, and the sheer amount of customization, alongside some memorable boss fights, makes this one of the best Souls-like games outside FromSoft’s catalogue.
If ever there was a game that embodies the term wasted potential, Atlas Fallen is it. There’s some nice ideas in here, but none of them are executed all that well. They’re muddled with a myriad of disappointing and poor elements that just do not work. Atlas has well and truly fallen here but at least it’s not as bad as Forspoken. Which, I guess, is one saving grace.
Overall though, there’s plenty to like with Illusion Island. This is a fun, vibrant platformer that feels designed to be played in multiplayer with your friends or family. While it’s not going to blow anyone away, this is well worth checking out all the same.
Dave the Diver is a delightfully delicious game packed full of charm. It’s a title that doubles up as both an adventure sim and a restaurant tycoon, and harmoniously blends both beats together to create one of the best symphonies of 2023. This is an an absolute must-play.
Oxenfree II doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it also doesn’t really spin in a way that makes you feel the momentum of a good story or gameplay mechanics you can sink your teeth into. This is an underwhelming sequel with lackluster characters and a profound lack of anything substantial to help this stand out like the original did.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty isn’t a bad game per-se and fans of Dark Souls-esque combat should find enough to whet the appetite. Once you get the hang of the Critical-counters and playing aggressively, Wo Long isn’t too much of a challenge though, which is perhaps a bit of a disappointment. The gameplay is very much going to be a make-or-break affair for many people.
Octopath Traveler II manages to bring everything together in the end, and the 50+ hours you’ll spend getting through the main missions certainly won’t feel wasted. Whether this will be crowned best RPG at year’s end is debatable, but it’s a damn good game all the same and well worth playing.
With over 300 tracks to play, plenty of unlockables and some excellent Easter eggs along the way, Final Fantasy fans will be in their element here. It’s not perfect, and a few hang-ups like the repetitive backgrounds hold this back from being a perfect rhythm game, but there’s no denying this is an absolute blast to play through.
Atomic Heart could have been a great game. All the pieces are here to form a beautiful picture but it feels like these have been run through a blender, set on fire and then Sellotaped together to form a grotesque Frankenstein’s monster. Almost every facet of this game is underwhelming or broken in some way; if you’re expecting the next Bioshock you’re going to be very disappointed. This is closer to We Happy Few or Duke Nukem Forever. What a shame.