Mycopunk is one of those games that I am happy to report, while it wasn’t largly on my radar, it is now. It’s a fun co-op game that gets fairly intense when it wants to, but still allows you and your friends to take it all in and have a chuckle along the way. Everything about this game is zany, wacky, and most importantly, fun. It seems like there is more work to be done; I imagine most games like this land firmly in that square, but for what is there, you can expect a lot of good times along the way.
Somebody once told me that sometimes it makes you feel better if something is irredeemably bad, rather than frustratingly lacking, because with the first one you can just walk away and say Yaeah, they did something bad. With games like Gear Club Unlimited 3, I see the ideas; they are there, bubbling right under the surface. As an arcade racer that feels like my childhood, you have NO FLIPPING IDEA how much I wanted to love this game, how much every good intention hurt when every poor design choice cropped up. This is what they meant when all you can do is dwell on what could have been, because clearly they have something in there.
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 doesn’t do anything to reinvent the wheel. It is a throwback boomer shooter that you have most likely seen before. Not every game needs to do that, though, and being a competent homage is still an impressive feat to pull off. That is too simple, though, because it isn’t just competent; it’s in top form. You want to keep playing it; keep taking down everything that stands in your way. Boltgun 2 is an addictive loop of death, carnage, and rebirth.
Dragon’s Dogma II: Dark Arisen is more of the same, but that isn’t really a bad thing in this case. If you were getting bored by everything else on offer, you can explore a brand new area and unravel a new mystery that adds at least 20 hours to the game. The new area adds a welcome change to the locale, and the developers did an impressive job filling it with elements that make it feel unique. I also loved how it uses this new terrain, filled with far less dead space than the main game. On top of that, you get a new series of challenges that are constantly respawning, making for easy-to-access battles that never fail to thrill. If you enjoy the main game, you will enjoy this, of this much I am certain.
Dragon’s Dogma II takes after the Arisen and grabs onto you early and keeps you moving forward even without much direction. Getting into scrapes and climbing a dragon for the head stabs remain fun long after you dive deeper and deeper into the world around you. Giant creatures make for great pin cushions, and every second the citizens around you face death and destruction, putting purpose on your quest, even if at times it feels like the narrative is disjointed. I would have liked the pawns to act a little bit smarter; that might be my biggest complaint, but the social aspects associated with them, however light, make the world feel a little smaller in the process. There is no shame in sinking the hours you undoubtedly will into this.
Well, talking about certain things, I like to use the word stupid. Not in a bad way; sometimes you want to just have some stupid, uninhibited fun. Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival is just that, stupid fun. It’s campy, it’s over the top, and it’s off its rocker, but it doesn’t have a moment in it where I wasn’t enjoying myself or what I needed to do to progress. The story could have used more focus on our protagonist, given that he needed to anchor the whole experience, and there are definitely gripes with gameplay to be made. As a B-movie horror adaptation. It absolutely gets the job done to become endearing despite its faults, and possibly because of them.
With Cloudpunk, IONLANDS introduced us to a cyberpunk city just trying to get by. Unlike other cyberpunk titles, the emphasis was on the people stuck in this reality just trying to get by and build a better, brighter future. Nivalis Nights expands on that concept in some of the best ways. By shifting the focus to a business owner, you get to be part of the street-level economy in ways you don’t often get to participate. Building your own engaging and rewarding experience, though sometimes too engaging. The city is a character in its own right, bigger than you expect and with more life than you needed it to have. As a player, Nivalis can frequently have the issue of you getting lost in it; as a game, you probably don’t even care.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer, at the very core of its experience, has a solid racing game. Driving the limited vehicle selection is fun, and most of the tracks are well designed with enough personality to get you through. Then you put this roguelike loop on top of the experience, and everything goes haywire. A run can be perfect for 3 hours, then you veer into a wall on one course, and all that progress is undone. This also makes the technical gripes I have all the more pronounced because there are moments you crash for, like, no reason, or one bad attempt to slipstream ends in a forfeit. It’s an interesting idea, but to quote Game Dev Tycoon, Racing and Roguelike are not a good combo, and it hurts the whole thing overall.
Bandai Namco, you beautiful, beautiful people, you did it. You nailed Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, creating one of the most compelling war games that I have played through. This is coming from somebody who wasn’t a big fan of the last one either. The narrative is engaging and compelling, even when playing out with six different players in the middle of explosions and absolute chaos. And that gameplay? Engaging, whether you have been playing these games your entire life or are looking to try one for the first time. This is a big, bold Mission Accomplished.
I’m not really sure what I was expecting or hoping for in Lawn Mowing Simulator 2, if I am being honest. Was I looking for something to take my mind off of life? If so, yeah, the game works for that. Jump in, power up my mower, and trim some grass to 3.50″. It is an easy sim to jump into, with a lot to learn that doesn’t feel punishing in the long run. If you are not familiar with the subject of the game, you can pick this up, get in, and get started without much to hold you back. Some tasks can be frustrating and time-consuming, so buckle in. I do think the best aspects of the experience outweigh anything else, though, so this is a business worth building.
Dynasty Warriors 3: Complete Edition Remastered (that really is a mouthful of a title) is the best version of a remaster. It barely needed the update, but the improved graphics and framerate are welcome touches. Even without those, though, I’m on board; this is one of the best Dynasty Warriors experiences out there. This is the one that helps you understand how such a simple premise can demand one more stage, over and over again, until you look at the clock and you realize it’s been three days. Yeah, it’s seriously that freaking good.
When Silent Hill: Townfall was being showcased, my biggest fear was that it might be a passive horror game where the player has no autonomy to defend themselves. After playing it, I have done almost a 180 on that. I loved the atmospheric horror moments, sneaking and avoiding, attempting to distract them, and moving around them. The combat could have bolstered this and made you feel that stagnation in an unchanging experience, but it was almost entirely underwhelming. Any moment where it became clear I would need to was met with a long, exasperated sigh. Why that hurt is that the game built such an inviting world of horror that I was ready to embrace wholeheartedly.
Marvel’s Wolverine had these moments that I absolutely loved, and these others that frustrated the hell out of me. There are design choices in here; I would point straight at the QTEs when saying this, which felt pointless. The game evokes a period in gaming that I at least fondly remember, but for a modern game, it just doesn’t completely work. Throughout my entire playthrough, I kept thinking of another Insomniac game, Sunset Overdrive. I love that game. Is it perfect? No. Is it even them at their best? No? What it is, though, is Insomniac’s unique brand of crazy. There is nothing genuinely special or memorable here. There are moments where the game justifies itself, but even then, it lacks that spark you expect, and it’s a shame.
Nighthawks has some pretty noticeable stumbles. The story hits dead ends way too often and can often feel like you are solving another case to figure out how to move on to the next portion. Similarly, progressing states is a mystery unto itself that can take a pretty hefty amount of time to start pushing forward. Where the game succeeds, it does so with enough force to propel past its faults. The RPG, while not necessarily deep, is very rewarding, and the open-ended structure leaves loads of room to explore. The narrative is phenomenal, with an engaging cast of characters that never fails to delight. More than anything else, though, this is the closest to a creature of the night I have truly felt in a long time, living out my VTM and True Blood dreams, and that is really saying something.
Do you want me as the driver on the next train you get on? No, you most certainly do not! Am I a better driver than I was when I started Train Sim World 7? Yes, but in a formal debate you would have a hard time grounding that claim. None of that matters, though. Turn the knob to forward, put the brake in release, crank the throttle for speed, then sit back and watch the world that drifts by your window, beautiful, majestic, and calming. I’m still not fully sure how many issues I encountered were technical or me just not playing very well, but I put up with them because it was worth it. For that feeling of freedom you are afforded, I would do anything.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword upgrades the franchise from the previous era, making for a much more technically challenging game. Instead of fighting fixed camera angles, you are fighting fast enemies with move sets that require precision to overcome. This could easily feel like anything or everything else on the market, but instead, thanks to a clever skill tree of robust abilities, you get a vast amount of tools that require timing to master. It is enough that you can choose which ones to emphasize practicing if others aren’t working out the way you need them to. This elevates the title’s combat from simple hack-and-slash to something creative and enjoyable.
Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is more of the same, on a base level, but that’s not a bad thing. The cycle of dungeons and sales, with minor reflection on capitalism, worked then and continues to work well. The improvements to this, as evidenced by the jump from the Pixelsprite of the first game to the 3D animation, also feel meaningful. A good early access campaign can mean all the difference for a roguelike as it grows with its audience, and clearly the time was not squandered. If you want a game all about making money, this is well worth your money.
The painful part is I really wanted to love The Blood of Dawnwalker, not have this lukewarm emotion towards it. The best aspects of the game are so unique compared to everything else out there and, with enough commitment, are very fun to play. It’s the other side of that coin that muddies the water. That great combat has to contend with technical hiccups, and those are the only things where maybe I would feel differently. Progression is the best example of how great Ideas just keep having minor directional choices hold them back profusely. There is a series here; developer Rebel Wolves has a great concept here that works when it works but doesn’t when it doesn’t.
Tell you what, I loved my time in Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, even when I was running for my life from instakill. This is everything an adventure should be; it pays homage to games I grew up on to craft an experience that felt shiny and new. More than any of that, it opens up the universe for more experiences than just keeping rats at bay and throwing rocks at people’s heads.
I wanted so badly to enjoy Starsand Island. I have been waiting for this release for a while. It’s just hard to recommend the game in the state it is in now. I feel worse, given it’s a small team taking big swings. Potentially you will have a different experience; clearly, people have progressed past where my game came to an end. Even before that, though, Starsand Island was underbaked and not ready for primetime in the slightest.