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Critter Café is a visually charming cosy game ranging from play that is casual to heavily engaging. While the world is not full of excitement or depth it has moments of charm through its environmental puzzles and the unique designs of its critters.
With its stunning hand-drawn, graphite visuals and meditative tram driving gameplay, Short Trip is the respite we all need from the chaos of our current zeitgeist. If only it offered a deeper experience to fully escape into.
When Indiana Jones and the Great Circle plays to its strengths it's a captivating adventure led by Troy Baker's exceptional performances, but sadly some design choices bog it down and stop it from being a generational treasure.
This definitive version of a charming, inventive throwback to peak Sakaguchi might still feel like a game best suited to an iPad, but it works well enough that it's absolutely worth a look-in for PS1-era Final Fantasy fans who've been unable to play it thus far.
Never traditionally fun, needlessly painful, and almost always breaking down, I love S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2: Heart of Chornobyl. Despite its many issues, I doubt any other shooter in 2024 could match it on atmosphere, vibes, or ambition.
With a fresh and varied campaign and the fantastic omni-movement system, Black Ops 6 is another solid entry in the juggernaut franchise that refuses to go gentle into that good night
Lego Horizon Adventures will find an audience in its target demographic of young kids wanting something easy to pick up and play. But a short campaign and a lack of originality hurts the finished product for everyone else.
Blackheart is a satisfying mix of magic shooting, passive-aggressive family dynamics, and intense fight sequences that will keep you dying and respawning for more.
An initially wonderful return to Max Caufield comes entirely undone with competing narrative priorities and nonsensical attempts to build Life is Strange into a cinematic franchise. Despite the game's stunning animation work and sincere queer writing, Double Exposure is an overexposed mess.
Bokeh Game Studio's debut horror title is a game entirely out of time with its genre contemporaries and all the more wild, compelling, and beautiful for it. Satisfying combat and a generational eye for tone and design collide in the year's strangest beast.
Although the formula is bordering over-familiar at this point, it's been long enough between entries that this return to the Mario & Luigi series is incredibly welcome. It manages to feel fresh enough with interesting new wrinkles that play on this new world and story's overall themes, and its obsession with fraternal bonds results in probably my favourite take on the Bros. to date.
Whether or not you think it needed to happen, Nixxes and Guerrilla Games' effort to refresh Horizon Zero Dawn in its sequel's image is an incredibly successful one. It makes the original version look like a first draft by comparison, and while it won't convince anyone who disliked Zero Dawn on a fundamental level, $15 for the upgrade should be an easy sell for diehards.
Ubisoft still can't land on any compelling identity for XDefiant, but it remains a genuinely exhilarating F2P shooter I wish was more active.
With some gameplay mechanics that ultimately work against the experience, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead doesn't manage to capture the tension that the world promises.
Botworld Odyssey is an open-world creature-collecting RPG that is perfect for those who want to experience real-time interactive fights in a cozy and light-hearted atmosphere with a fun story.
Fear the Spotlight masterfully captures the look and feel of a classic PS1 horror title while leveraging modern concepts and gameplay features to produce an atmospheric and nostalgic experience that every lover of horror should enjoy.
Sonic X Shadow Generations once again proves that while Sonic may be timeless, Shadow just squeaks ahead in understanding the assignment a little better – offering a revisited revamp that is easy to enjoy for fans and fence sitters alike.
With some light visual touchups, Adol continues to dominate his PS2 era. The new sea air is good for his crimson hair, but the breadth of exploration can occasionally feel as broad as the Suez Canal.
With Neva, Nomada Studio continues to display an unmatched level of craft as they create yet another visually striking and evocative fantasy world. But in bending it to fit new systems and more direct storytelling, Neva struggles to define itself beyond raw beauty and uneven, all too familiar thematic ground.
Until Dawn remains a fantastic horror experience that should find a whole new audience to appreciate it, but with no upgrade, this remake is an expensive sell for returning players.