Jesse Norris's Reviews
With a bland, uninteresting, and predictable story, repetitive and awful feeling combat, poor enemy variety, and the maddening decision to have no save system mixed with constant freezes and crashes this game simply is not worth your time.
Overrogue’s value will depend entirely on the price, which I simply don’t know before launch. There are far better options on the Xbox platform, especially those on Game Pass like Slay the Spire and Monster Train (just to name a couple). Great music and decent graphics can’t save what is otherwise a bloated and unbalanced mess of a title.
Eternal Hope is a beautiful, great-sounding disappointment. Even at its low price, it’s hard to recommend. With a playtime of no more than two hours and seemingly no replay value there are far better options out there for your time and money, but not many that look so danged pretty.
MADiSON is a psychological horror game without any psychological horror. It has jump scares galore, and at least on PC, it’s a completely broken mess for me before launch. I’d advise taking a wait-and-see approach for both PC and Console due to all of these issues. Priced at $35.99 US it’s a steep cost for something that isn’t very good even when it’s working. If you love yourself a good horror game I’d give this one a little time post-launch, and take a look at it eventually on a deep sale.
Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition is an eventually great game. It requires a ton of patience to see through, so even though it’s on Game Pass you need to make sure you’re willing to commit that much time because boy does it both start slow and make some head-scratching decisions when it comes to the map and exploration. If you can hold on for a solid 10 or 15 hours though you’ll end up finishing up one of the best 2nd halves of a game in the past generation.
House Flipper is really fun and it’s a great addition to Game Pass. It’s an Xbox Play anywhere title and available on both console and PC. The UI works best on the latter but the game is still a hell of a relaxing time on the former. Grab your bucket and mop, start vacuuming up every roach you can see, and you’ll be building the home of your dreams in no time.
Ms. Chalice and the new weaponry and charms are an excellent addition to what was already a stellar package and you can even complete all of it on the simple mode for once! Everyone should at least see if not play this expansion, it is truly wonderful
Outriders: Worldslayer is a solid 8 or so hour expansion that adds a seemingly long and quite enjoyable endgame grind to what was already a solid title. With the base game on Game Pass, it is worth giving that a shot and if you like it just know that this expansion is available, and it’s damned good. It takes everything the main campaign has and dials it up to eleven in a brilliantly dumb-fun kinda way.
Whether you’re looking for a fascinating trip through history or one hell of an action RPG there are few games out there better than this one.
AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES nirvanA Initiative is one of my favorite games to release this year. With a mixture of wit, humor, and above all else heart it is something no one should miss. Whether a fan of the Visual Novel genre or not this game is a damn near perfect follow-up to the original.
Rather nice graphics and great music are massively let down by unbalanced and poor gameplay, along with a paint-by-number, creepy as hell story. Technically I might have been interested in what this dev can do in the future, but God damn man. This game is gross.
The now par foThe good news is that you can enjoy the hell out of this game without spending a penny, but if you’re either prone to MTX-it is or really care about PVP it wildly throws off the endgame balance. For me, though this is a title I will be playing for a very long time while I wait for the next mainline entry in the series to hit. It is a great game, and with some love, care, and lack of greed it could become the best mobile title ever made.
It can get a bit samey towards the end, once you’ve seen all the tricks it has up its sleeve. Those tricks though are fantastic, and the control scheme behind it feels great. Few games have ever had as satisfying a gameplay loop for me, and if you have any type of decent gaming PC then this one is well worth a download
Silt is a rather short, basic to control game. The story was intriguing from the start, and if you can look past how bland and unfun it is to play at times it might be worth checking out. For me though a nice art style and possibly interesting story simply isn’t enough to overcome how poor feeling and frustrating I found everything else.
AI: The Somnium Files is a fantastic game. Visual novels normally aren’t my thing, but I quickly found myself engrossed in the mystery. It has one of the best scripts I can remember in a game, and truly stellar voice acting. While this one is on Game Pass if it sounds at all interesting to you then I implore that you check it out. “Shadows!” “Threat, silhouette, A-set!”
Floppy Knights is a fun game that is really close to being a great one. Its major flaw for me is how long everything takes. From mission length to waiting on enemy turns, and the slow loading of the menu system it can be a drag. If you’re able to get passed all that though there is a clever deck builder here, with real challenge, great writing, solid music, and it’s available at launch on Xbox Game Pass.
Dolmen wants to put its mark in the Action RPG genre with a potentially intriguing Space/Horror tale that never really goes to space, and isn’t at all scary. It never feels good to play, broke on me constantly, and was an ugly maze of bland/blocky corridors. Retailing for $39.99 at launch I can’t in good conscious recommend this over almost any other game in the genre.
Evil Dead: The Game is pretty damned fun. For how long I’m not sure, but at $39.99 retail at launch, I think it's well worth the price if you have anyone to play with. Even solo I love playing as the demon and terrorizing at least 2 and sometimes 4 versions of Bruce Campbell. Post-launch support will help this title sink or swim in the long run, but at launch, this Deadite by Daylight is a damned good time.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is a really good 6 hour game stretched to be nearly three times as long. If you find yourself loving it early-on then it might just hold up for you. Sadly I was done by then and had to force myself to go any further despite loving the story, writing, and characters. The gameplay eventually becomes something close to good, and it’s really damned pretty. For either $14.99 or a download on Xbox Game Pass it’s not the worst way to spend your time and money, but I can’t help but feel like the developers and Rabbit & Bear Studios bit off a little more than this game could chew.
I was shocked by how incredible this game feels to play. Paired with a solid story, great music, and surprising depth it’s an easy recommendation on Game Pass or for its $20 price tag at launch. Whether you’re looking for a balls to the wall thrill ride or something that feels great and is chill to play you can customize the difficulty how you see fit. If anything you’ve read about here sounds interesting then you should check this fantastic game out.