Postal 4: No Regerts is a game that just couldn’t catch my attention even as someone who like dumb dirty humor and outlandish gameplay ideas. Its biggest failure is simply not being interesting and having decent jokes or at least more gameplay sections like the cat part. I know it tries to have some political commentary in here, but honestly it always falls flat.
Mothergunship: Forge is a decent VR shooting gallery on its own, however, I expected so much more after the stellar original version. The content here isn’t very deep, and it relies too heavily on unlocking a couple new weapons or modifiers as new content. These unlocks are great, but when you can easily beat the game on your second run, you don’t really need a majority of the unlocks.
At the end of the day, XEL is a game that is competent, has some good ideas, and enough gameplay elements to keep you playing. The sound design is well done and I do enjoy the simplistic art direction and its bright, popping color pallet. Unfortunately, it’s a game that just needed more time in the oven to hammer out the bugs and glitches that really hold this back. There are some good ideas here, but the annoyances almost outweighed what it does do well.
Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course is a fantastic addition to the Cuphead package that offers more of everything you loved about the game. Unfortunately, the only downfall really is how short it feels, and the unbalance of the solo and co-op difficulty.
Way of the Hunter is one of the best hunting simulators, not labelled as a simulator, that I have ever played. Once you move past (or just simply ignore) the story missions that can drag down the experience, you get to a hunting game that offers the right kind of ease and complexity. While there are some annoyances with movement, pop-ins, and strange perks, you have a beautiful game that offers co-op and two full maps with their own types of animals to hunt for. If you’re a hunting game fan, I recommend this one.
Madden NFL ’23 is one of those years that if you skipped it, you wouldn’t really be missing anything. The additions to the Face of the Franchise mode aren’t significant enough to drop last year’s iteration and start again here, and that goes for any of the modes. The one big feature, FieldSENSE, didn’t live up to the hype, and even if it isn’t a setback, it didn’t improve upon the main things that annoy me.
PGA Tour 2K23 is unfortunately just another iteration and not the evolution I was hoping it would be. Most of the changes to MyCareer seem to be a step back or even sideways, to where I was hoping it would go. The addition of extra pros and courses is fantastic, but still seems lacking compared to 2K’s other sports games. There is still a ton of growth to be had for this golf series, but if you still have 2K21, there isn’t really a need to upgrade unless you really want to play as a professional player and not just your career player.
At its heart, Scorn is a puzzle game with a clear design and structure that knew exactly what it wants to achieve and in that aspect it achieved it perfectly. It’s not a game that will please everyone, but these are the type of art games I enjoy. The weaving of the art design and puzzles is so cohesive that I could truly believe these could be part of some living alien world. Combat does drag the experience down quite a bit from the controls to the enemies, but if you’re looking for a macabre puzzle game, there aren’t many games that do it this well.
Session: Skate Sim is one of the most rage inducing games I have ever played, and not because I didn’t want to try and learn to get better. It simply felt like overcomplication just for the sake of it. The inputs make sense, what they show on the trick sheet make sense, but it just doesn’t translate into the game.
Choo-Choo Charles is a hard one to review since everything but Charles is lacking that polish in design, animation, and certain mechanics. However, it is still done well enough to stay engaging to get you to the fun moments. There aren’t any performance issues or glitches I ran into either. With its bad character models and some silly side missions, Choo-Choo Charles is simultaneously silly and scary. At one point you’ll be collecting pickles, and the next you’ll be in a heart pounding fight with a demon train engine with spider legs.
Dust & Neon is a well-made roguelite with some satisfying combat that is only let down by its lack of level variety and movement capabilities. It hits all the boxes of a roguelite that is well-made, it just doesn’t quite do enough to stand out from the pack for me. We are at a point in the genre where we have so many hits that I just wasn’t wowed by a run of the mill twin-stick shooter. I do think this IP has more potential if it could expand some gameplay ideas, more mission structures, and different weapon types, like at least dynamite or a shock grenade.
Scars Above impressed me and it left me satisfied in the end. I’m glad it didn’t just try to be Returnal or a straight roguelite, and instead had its own unique ideas on how to take on bosses and puzzles. There are some flaws here, but I think that is due mostly to a smaller team and it being an AA game.
Peak Blinders: The King’s Ransom gave me a few brief moments that made me smile with happiness, being within that world and its characters. Although, much of that is only because of the things that are ripped right from the show. Unfortunately, it’s every where else that it fails. The boring general gameplay and the one note gunplay wasn’t fun, and it left me with a sour taste, even during the ceremony joining the Peaky Blinders and getting my hat.
Clash: Artifacts of Chaos is one of those games that doesn’t come along often. It definitely won’t be for everybody, but it’s so unique with its world, designs, and gameplay focus, while also offering a truly great narrative experience that I would recommend to anyone. If you love melee focused combat, and enjoy a strange world that will keep you in awe in each level, I can’t recommend Clash: Artifacts of Chaos enough. Just don’t be put off by its bit of learning curve, because once it clicks, it feels so good whooping on enemies.
Dredge is a fantastic game that offers some laid back exploration, but enough depth and tense moments to not become boring in its simplistic at times design. The slow build of horror is perfectly balanced as you start to uncover the truth about what is going on, and who this ominous collector is. There were times I was taken aback as a revelation happened, and I understood certain characters. If you’re looking for something easy to sink your teeth in and like horror, but not jumpscare or gory horror, I highly recommend Dredge.
Unfortunately, Redemption Reapers did not live up to the expectations of a cool genre twist from Binary Haze I was expecting. Instead, I feel like I received a fairly by the book SRPG with a couple of decent ideas, but ultimately feels rushed. The team dynamic is a cool strategy addition, but the balancing of everything else and lack of features like not being able to zoom out the battlefield, make this feel rushed. At $50 I would expect more, and while there is a lengthy campaign, it still feels lacking.
Farming Simulator 23 was clearly made for mobile in mind for the good, but mostly bad. While I can accept cut backs in complex physics and streamlined processes to make playing on a phone easier, removing a ton of the customization and economy options I don’t feel is worth that trade.
Dave the Diver, needless to say, was an absolutely delightful surprise that I would recommend to just about anyone. It offers so much variety in gameplay ideas that there is something here for everyone. I’d love to express everything I absolute loved about the game, but what impressed me so much was not knowing all the things this game offered, and I wouldn’t want to strip you of that. This may have not been the mindless fishing exploration game I was expecting, but it became so much more than I even initially wanted.
I Expect You To Die 3: Cog in the Machine really hammers home just how great this series is and that there is still so much they can do with the formula. It’s the third game in and not a single aspect feels repetitive, stale, or tedious. Schell Games continues to push themselves and the series forward with great new ideas, more demanding puzzles, and better visuals.
Party Animals is a really fun time to play, whether online with others, or sitting with some friends and family on some good, old-fashioned local multiplayer. This truly feels like a next step up from previous silly physics-based brawlers, even if it does have its own bits of frustrations. However, I think if you don’t try to take it seriously, and are in it for some lighthearted fun, Party Animals can easily be in your rotation of fun party games.