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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge feels like it's designed from an Ninja Turtles arcade beat 'em up template, which strips it of creativity and originality and makes it feel predictable and familiar. But the fluid combat continually sucks me back in, even though that also suffers from combat designs that should've been left in the past.
Mario Strikers: Battle League presents a shockingly deep take on Soccer held up by some incredibly charming and expressive character animations. Sadly there's not much to see outside of the core loop, and can quickly wear out its welcome as things start to feel too repetitive.
The Quarry is a tense horror adventure with incredibly likable characters and some effective scares. The central mystery is fun to figure out, and the game doesn't take itself too seriously. While there are a few hiccups, you can either work around them or ignore them as they're not so major as to detract from the overall experience. This is Supermassive's best work yet.
Gas Station Simulator feels like a weird game to want to play, but you want to play it. Like most simulators, the tasks at hand are menial and repetitive, but it's generally a fun game to keep progressing through. The upgrades and tools are well placed to keep you from feeling like you're dealing with too much busy work, and the humor the game injects keeps things lighthearted. Although, if we could just get rid of Dennis, I wouldn't complain.
Winter Ember is good, but could be better. The voice acting and script made me extremely disinteresting in the story, and combat is just so extremely dull. It doesn't help either when the soundtrack overheard in all areas of the game is equally as basic. These three things made the game lose a bit of its charm, but that's all mended together thankfully by the enjoyable stealth mechanics and moment-to-moment gameplay. As a pure stealth experience, this game fast became a highly enjoyable experience overall, and one that I'd recommend if you can get past its big issues.
I hope that the future of Purrasic Jark is bright, and not filled with escapees mauling my guests like those "other" dinosaur theme parks. My experience with Dinosaur Island has been very relaxing, at times downright funny, and not too overwhelming. A lot of sim games, and especially some sim games in the same genre, like to over complicate things. Let's Build a Zoo: Dinosaur Island is just the right combination of giving you enough to manage without making things hectic. I had an absolutely wonderful time over the long weekend enjoying every aspect of this charming title, and I look forward to playing some more.
Card Shark is unlike any game you've played before. As a card game where you don't actually play cards, learning and executing various methods of cheating is a ton of fun. The historical setting contributes to the conspiracy central to the story, while adding its own colorful cast of enjoyable characters in the gorgeous setting of 18th century France.
With its incredible gameplay loop, Hardspace: Shipbreaker is as unique as it is addictive. A handful of minor bugs do little to hold back what is an incredibly immersive and rewarding experience.
Rifftrax: The Game is a fantastic way to bring your funny friends together to riff on infamously-bad movies. With over 2000 groan-worthy tracks, and more on the way, it should make for some genuinely funny moments at your next party. Just be prepared to type as the Write a Riff is the best way to play.
Even five entries in, Sniper Elite 5 manages to deliver on the core gameplay sniping loop while managing to provide us with a handful of new features to keep things fresh. There are a few bugs to hammer out, and some movement systems are underbaked, but fans and newcomers alike will find a lot to like here.
Soundfall has an interesting premise, but it falls short of realizing its potential. Nothing in the game is overtly bad, but this isn't a game I'll come back to or probably even think about all that much. Soundfall is a let-down, missing just enough beats to throw off its own groove.
Despite my minor complaints, Salt and Sacrifice is an insanely fun Souls-like featuring brutal challenges, great level designs, beautiful hand drawn graphics, interesting enemies and boss fights, cool gear to find and upgrade, a fun leveling system, and one of the most enjoyable co-op experiences I've had in quite a while. The fact that this game was designed by so few people and is of such high quality for a relatively low MSRP of $19.99 is nothing short of astounding. While not perfect, Salt and Sacrifice kept me entertained for well over 20 hours and made me excited for the next entry in this incredible series.
Cities: VR delivers a vignette version of the Cities: Skylines experience. The controls take a brief moment to get used to, but the hardware limitations of the Quest 2 are harder to overcome. That said, the experience is here, even if it's in a much-slimmed and slightly blander version of the broader experience. While there are some crucial features missing, what is here is a fun slice of the core gameplay loop, and that's impressive for a self-contained package.
This is the way I want to play tower defense from now on. The Last Friend isn't a challenging first attempt at combining tower defense and beat 'em up, nor good at telling a quality story, but it has fantastic mechanics. Weak difficulty aside, each world brought imaginative enemies and bosses and surprises that made it worth seeing what came next.
Monster Energy Supercross 5 is what you would expect of another entry in the Monster Energy Supercross series. With a lot of the series mainstays as well as some newer features, players have a plethora of options to choose from. I just wish it was more welcoming for newer players.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong is a fantastic, yet very messy game. It lacks some desperately needed polish and refining, but the core is so fun and engaging you can put the problems to the side for a time. They'll rear their head pretty frequently, but pushing past them is well worth the rewards.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising packs a ton of fun into a small package. The combat has surprising depth, even if the game starts out unbearably slow, and the few areas you explore are fun to revisit and discover all the nooks and crannies. The town building aspect fits perfectly into the gameplay loop, and makes for an addicting experience.
All in all Gloomhaven is still the game people either know and love, or the game that will welcome those looking for a dungeon crawler with open arms. Why then choose the digital version? Well there are many reasons to choose the digital version but I suppose some of the main reasons include ease of access and ease of use, and lest we forget an intuitively easy to use interface Gloomhaven the digital version is welcoming and makes getting together with friends or playing it alone easier. These reasons alone are the biggest reason to dip your toes into the Gloomhaven pool and go for a swim. Gloomhaven's staying power is unprecedented and the digital version further cements that and ultimately paves the way for future games.
Teardown tears down the fabric of what a demolition physics game can be, yet replaces that with too many restrictions. All your fun will come from the creativity of your imagination, but that satisfaction falls apart when you're limited by the tools the game has to offer. It's such a shame when this game can offer so much more.
Godfall is a godlike load of fun to play. I am a firm believer in giving games a second chance and this one is no exception. Gameplay is smooth and uncomplicated, as is really the rest of it, making it easier to get into, and it's oh-so-satisfying.