The Games Machine

The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante is an interactive novel in which interaction is reduced to the bare bone, allowing us only to turn the pages of the book and choose our next moves from a list of options. So it should not be evaluated as a game but as a story. And from this point of view it is a brilliant tale, which manages to capture attention from the very first pages, making us suffer for the unfortunate protagonist. Like all products of this kind, however, after the first intense run you will only want to see the multiple endings, skipping most of the rest of the story.

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Cyanide & Happiness: Freakpocalypse is a game made for C&H's fans, rather than point&click lovers, and it's okay. The game's mechanics act as a stimulus, prompting the player to talk to all the characters and examine every single part of the setting, enjoying the surreal dialogues and absurd descriptions that dot the game. I don't know if everybody can appreciate it, but if you like dark humor and you're not afraid of BDSM teachers, bullies and delusional weirdos, this is a point&click adventure that may fit your lovely taste.

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Curious Expedition 2 is a fun roguelike that quickly turns out to be a matryoshka of unpredictable adventures. It's a nice tribute to the adventure novel à la Jules Verne, and one that knows how to reward its players. It doesn't dare as much as I would have liked narratively, but there's still plenty of fun to be had.

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Into the Radius is an ambitious STALKER-like VR game, so deep in its sci-fi survival features that it feels like a real "Roadside Picnic Simulator". The development team is very small and, in technical terms, the experience is very far from perfect, but also capable of immersing you in a scary and iper-realistic Zone.

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The Climb 2 remains too unbalanced in muscle activity to really perform the task of the only fitness game in VR. If that's your purpose, it must necessarily go hand in hand with other "sports" virtual reality experiences, including the well-researched FitXR and VRWorkout.

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Is there the perfect "Zeldalike"? Rogue Heroes would be the perfect example, as immediate in the first few minutes as it is complex and deep if you decide to try to complete it 100%, with a top-down perspective view made of pixel art and a story that leads us to travel in a world as varied as it is hostile. Although it does not achieve the excellence of its mentor, it stands out for interesting gameplay choices such as village management and an approach oriented to the open world experience. To play secret after secret alone, or in ramshackle runs with friends despite the repetitiveness of some sections and some graphic uncertainty.

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Curse of the Dead Gods is a roguelike hack'n'slash with fast-paced action, and an immediate but also very deep combat system.

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Bravely Default 2 is a classic JRPG that certainly doesn't reinvent the wheel, but its intriguing combat system and the customization offered by the many classes available can make it interesting for fans of the genre.

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Tokuro Fujiwara strikes again by taking Ghosts 'n Goblins back to its roots. As difficult as it gets and as inventive as it gets, this is a return in style for Arthur fans.

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Capcom Arcade Stadium provides a generous bunch of golden-age arcade titles (with a little too much Street-Fighterism), paired with a vast assortment of options and gorgeous presentation.

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Surviving, nowadays, is hard. It's DAMN hard. So it's good to find a survival game like The Wild Eight that does not enjoy punishing the player without reason. I still don't know if this softer approach is an attempt to offset some design issues (like the combat, or the clunky inventory) or if it was meant to be like this since the beginning. Anyway, The Wild Wight feels like a survival game approachable even by players that usually don't like survival games so much, and at the end of the day this feels like good news.

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A third chapter that sticks to its predecessor in every possible way. While Revenants does not lack interesting aspects, it also painfully shows its low budget nature. In particular, confusing combat and poorly delivered story are its most significant flaws.

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Destruction AllStars is, above all, fun and enjoyable mayhem, supported by a very polished technical aspect and an undeniably cool stylistical approach. The choice to launch it as part of the Plus Collection will certainly give it a huge boost in terms of playerbase – certainly more than its 80,99€ launch price would have attracted otherwise – but, as usual, these kinds of games are a matter of endurance. And for how long Destruction AllStars manages to keep its audience engaged remains to be seen.

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Main Assembly offers many powerful tools to the most creative users with which to indulge themselves in building robots, as long as they have the patience to learn how the game works through a good dose of "trial & error" given the meager tutorial.

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We might define Encodya as a casual adventure. Although it doesn't add anything new to the genre and it's very easy to complete, we can't deny that Chaosmonger was brave enough to bring back to life an almost forgotten gameplay, with a good and compelling story. The dark atmosphere of the dystopian world clashes with the innocence of the little protagonist in a game whose lack of complexity could turn out to be a winning move, hooking new players to a genre that has been experiencing a crisis for many years now.

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Speed Limit is a kaleidoscope of pixels, bullets and ever-changing gameplay. It's very short and not that deep mechanically, but speed runners and nostalgic people will love it because it's an intense challenge and an inspired love letter to the 80s/90s.

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Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury is an explosive pack. 3D World returns with an improved pace, while retaining the stellar gameplay that characterized it when it first launched, and of course being still as hilarious as it was back then. Bowser's Fury takes the lesson a step further, creating a small and dense open world that will put you to the test with a sense of urgency unlike any other Super Mario game. The result, needless to say, is pure, unadulterated joy.

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Little Nightmares II is based on the relationship between Six and Mono, both from a narrative and a gameplay perspective, and there will be heart-pounding situations where you will come to wonder how much you are willing to push yourself to get both children safe from this spiral of pure terror. If you enjoyed the original game, this new chapter is another little gem worth buying.

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Persona 5 Strikers is a good action role-playing game, but an imperfectly polished combat system and the absence of some of the series' core elements make it a must-buy only for fans of the Phantom Thieves.

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On PS5, The Nioh Collection offers the refined gameplay that allowed Nioh 1 & 2 to distinguish themselves within the soulslike genre, but with the added perks of 4K resolution, 120 fps and quick loading times. The DualSense's haptic feedback also reacts to some of our inputs, but the feeling is that more could have been done. Nevertheless, the Nioh Collection is an excellent package for anyone who wants to experience Team Ninja's take on the genre.

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