Jesse Norris's Reviews
I have enjoyed some action-adventure horror games out there. Limited ammo and health reserves can be a great tool for upping the tension and a great story helps make it worth seeing things through. Scorn has none of that. It is bland, boring, plays poorly, and excels in no areas.
I have been unable to find out the final price of this title. If it’s under $10 and you have someone to play with it might be worth checking out, though you’ll most likely finish every level in a single night. From the gameplay to the graphics and the lack of variety, there is nothing here that even reaches the level of being mediocre.
Featuring little in the ways of improvements with only the base resolution and framerate changing, and lots in the ways of game-breaking bugs, it’s impossible to recommend this $30 broken mess of a game at launch. Once things are patched up and hopefully working better it might be some couch co-op fun, though only on a deep sale. Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance II’s “remaster” is a major disappointment.
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.
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.
Embr is a good game, on PC. The console port for Xbox, even on a Series X, isn’t up to snuff. I would keep an eye on this though in case it ever gets a performance-enhancing patch, as the core gameplay loop can be seriously fun. It’s a shame that it is launching in this state on Xbox, but if you have even a mediocre PC and a few friends then you’ll have a good time.
Until they fix the level 14 achievement, don’t buy this one for a quick 1000 achievement score fix, which is what this series is about. Keep an eye on the user reviews and once it’s fixed this is another mind-numbingly boring $10 Aery game. You know what you’re getting, and it isn’t very good, but at least it’s short.
ACL Pro Cornhole is overpriced, and a miserable slog to play against the computer. The physics behind your shots never feels consistent, it looks terrible, and even in couch co-op, this is simply one I cannot recommend.
TopSpin 2K25 is a massive disappointment. Feeling more like beta software, with a lack of modes, players, and fun. I cannot recommend this one at the egregious $70 price point.
Hellboy Web of Wyrd has good ideas and flawed execution. It’s not a looker, becomes repetitive to play after 15 minutes, and has one of the least satisfying rogue-like setups I can remember. If you love the character the story is interesting, but slogging through the title to see it is a tough thing to recommend.
At launch, I cannot recommend The Lamplighters League on Xbox. It runs terribly, while looking ugly, and is a broken and buggy mess. Once this game is patched up and fixed though, it’s a gem. Great gameplay, a deep meta-game, intriguing story, and one of the best videogame soundtracks I’ve ever heard will be there waiting for you (and hopefully still in Game Pass).
Atomic Heart is a good game, but this DLC is an unsatisfying follow-up to that story. It removes the surprising depth of both the characters and gameplay and replaces it with a linear mess that rarely resembles the far superior original title.
Zombie Derby: Pixel Survival is one of the better Time to Money to 1000g games I’ve played. It’s not offensively bad, nor will it take up much of your time or money.
For $6 the ratio of time to earning all 17 achievements isn’t bad at all, and while it’s not fun per se it isn’t the pure torture that some recent titles I’ve reviewed have been.
It plays ok, looks decent, and is an easy 1000 gamerscore for a couple of bucks.
I came into Forspoken unsure of what I would find. Its initial teasers promised a gorgeous magical world full of incredible sites. Instead, we’ve been given something boring, that runs terribly and has a story full of overused tropes. The combat fares no better, and it’s retailing for $70 at launch. Do yourself a favor and only sate your curiosities once this game is on a deep sale.
Intrepid Izzy takes aim at both those nostalgic for games of 30 years ago and a younger crowd. It’s not that long and no part of it is truly terrible. If you’re in the mood for a light and easy action platformer, then this one might be up your alley.
Blind Fate shows potential for this rather new dev team. They nailed multiple parts of what it takes to be great, with the writing being solid and the voice acting being fantastic. It looks good but feels terrible to play, only getting to almost decent after many hours. It can feel wildly unfair but there is still just enough there that it may be worth checking out if you can find it at a decent price. It may not be the best Samurai game, but it’s got spirit.
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.
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.