Reignbreaker from developer Studio Fizbin and publisher Thunderful Publishing is a solid rogue-lite experience that brings a good story, wonderful gameplay progression, and motivating rewards to the table. While it stumbles with common enemy and level design, it has far more positives than negatives with what it delivers in its gameplay.
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Knights in Tight Spaces from developer Ground Shatter and Raw Fury is an exceptional game that shows how well a turn-based card game can be when given a thick amount of strategy from good gameplay design and a branching story to help push it all along. While it isn’t perfect, it’s still a bar set for future games in this genre.
PGA Tour 2K25 from developer HB Studios and 2K Games is probably one of the best entries to the franchise in the last three years. It brings better gameplay, gorgeous graphics, and just enough modes to keep the game consistently interesting as you play. It is one of the better sports games to arrive in the last year.
Overall, the gameplay was far more together, understandable, and executable than it has been in the past. The action was led by story, upping the ante with tremendously lovely, yet terrifying monsters, and together everything felt far more cohesive than I remember with the series’ previous games.
While the game does deliver fun, frustration, and challenge, it also brings a lot of characters, music, and personality with it. Familiar faces loom in the character selection screen, as you can play a variety of different pilots and ships in the game. Each brings their way of fighting, while also bringing their collectibles to gobble up while you take down baddies.
Anyway, long story short, the game seems solidly patched now on PC. No doubt you will run into a few things that I haven’t yet, but it is now up to snuff when compared to its PlayStation counterpart. As of right now, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is one of the most beautiful games I have had the pleasure of playing on the PC since I delved into this world a few years ago. Hopefully, it gets better as updates roll in.
Synduality: Echo of Ada from developer Game Studio Inc. has the potential to be bigger and better than it currently is with the initial release. As it stands now, the gameplay is a bit bland with battles, the exploration needs to create more motivation to give players more meaningful substance, and bigger story pieces that could help players connect with the gameplay. Given time, this game could be outstanding.
Laika: Aged Through Blood from developer Brainwash Gang is a wonderful and refreshing Nintendo Switch experience. It lends a brutal narrative that leads gameplay filled with strategy and challenges. While not everyone will take to the controls, which are an important part of the experience, the challenges and strategy will keep the frustration at bay.
Taito Milestones 3 from ININ Games represents Taito arcade classics well. While it’s nothing more than a collection of Arcade Archives games, it still is nice to have more bang for your buck all in one place. I wish there was more history added to each game, just giving them more context and beef, but the price doesn’t warrant that type of Atari 50 effort. It’s still a solid collection.
Clone Drone in the Hyperdome from developer Doborog Games is a fun VR experience. It brings some wonderful sword-swinging action and compelling enemies that are a blast to go up against.
Batman: Arkham Shadow from developer Camouflaj is a superb game that honors the Arkham series name. While the world in this game is smaller and more linear than a typical Arkham adventure, the Meta Quest VR version excels in story, execution, and feel.
Ballionaire from developer newobject and publisher Raw Fury is a masterpiece of fast and fun entertainment. It hits all the intriguing and addictive notes with its scoring and strategy while keeping it light and funny to tone down any potential frustration.
Snow Bros. Wonderland from Tatsujin is one fun holiday experience. It’s a good co-op 3D platformer that hits the right notes on variety, mechanics, level design, and writing.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes from developer Simogo and publisher Annapurna Interactive is still a strange and wonderous direction for Simogo’s post-Sayonara Wild Hearts success. The game still features a beautiful mixture of thick narrative and difficult puzzles that ask a lot of the player but deliver an equal amount of satisfaction by the end. While this won’t be every gamer’s cup of tea, it still delivers a variety of good moments that will keep those interested occupied for a while. It’s a challenging game that doesn’t pull its punches.
Police Simulator: Patrol Officers from developer Aesir Interactive is a good game that delivers an accurate, though sometimes dull experience as a police officer. While the game could be a bit more exciting in some areas, the biggest issue with the gameplay is the hardware running it. The Nintendo Switch’s limitations in memory, graphics capabilities, and controls hamper what is otherwise a good game.
The Nintendo Switch release of Stray from BlueTwelve Studio features the same great gameplay and challenging puzzles that were featured on prior console releases. While the Switch certainly takes a hit with its graphical limitations and far from comfortable controls, it is still a blast to play Stray at the end of the day.
While it is a short and hilarious retelling of Aloy’s adventures, the overall gameplay is repetitive in its level structure but still is very much a LEGO adventure at its core. A younger gaming audience might appreciate this more than an older one.
The release improves and tweaks elements of gameplay while maintaining the core structure that made the original release great. Add in a creative visual comprise between old and new school with a gorgeous soundtrack underneath, and you have yourself one of the better remakes in 2024.
Ultimately, it’s a stupid fun action game driven by gore, a well-acted story, and a thick amount of creativity that looks better and acts better than it did back in 2011.