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The Alters is a truly addicting management sim. It has the perfect amount of resources to monitor — enough to be a challenge, but not enough to be impossible. Players have to balance assigning Alters, managing resources to create critical items like radiation filters, talking to the Alters and the corporate overlords, exploring the planet’s surface, and trying to do the right thing. It's one of the best games I've played this year.
Zelda, Mega Man, and Metroid are just a few names to which Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo pays homage. And while living up to those greats is grueling work, somehow, Pipistrello makes it look easy. It’s wonderfully designed, perfectly paced, and filled with secrets and side attractions that are well worth its lengthy runtime.
WWE 2K25 is an excellent entry in the series and a great addition to the wrestling genre at large. It’s not merely an update, and definitely not a mere roster refresh. 2K has ensured that the formula has been revised and tweaked across the board from last year’s offering to provide a deeper experience that is a must-play if you are a WWE fan.
Reflecting on my time with Blades of Fire, I’m left feeling conflicted. Its forging and weapon degradation systems are engaging, improving upon the most annoying feature in recent Zelda games. The combat also makes a decent first impression, and only improves as you obtain new weapons. In theory, the game had everything going for it. In reality, though, it simply left me wanting to play other, better games instead. Its characters, world, and story are generic at best and uninteresting clones at worst. The more I played, the more disappointed I became.
Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade is a visually striking and mechanically competent roguelike that doesn’t quite break new ground. The anime art is strong, the action is satisfying, and the parry system adds some welcome depth, but the lack of true weapon diversity and limited character interactions hold it back. If you’re looking for something to play after finishing Hades for the umpteenth time, Yasha is a fine distraction. But much like a forged copy of a legendary blade, it’s sharp, stylish — and ultimately a little hollow.
For those seeking a unique entry point into TTRPGs, The Horror at Highrook is a satisfying starting course. It has issues that derail the fun, ranging from poor inventory management and lackluster leveling mechanics to the lack of any real hint system. It’s also a fairly linear affair, with little replayability (something at odds with its tabletop roots). Still, if you can embrace the flaws, there’s a fun little adventure waiting for you.
I respect Subcult Joint’s ambition, and there’s definite heart and energy behind Cookie Cutter. But passion doesn’t always result in captivating gameplay, and at a time when great Metroidvanias are everywhere, the bar for quality is only getting higher. Next to the cream of the crop, Cookie Cutter feels like a rebellious copy more than a true breakout.
Bionic Bay is an often impressive, often frustrating experience. It nails the look and feel of grade-A games like Limbo and Inside, but fails to hold up once you start to scrutinize its puzzle-platformer label. There’s a worthwhile game to enjoy here—one with responsive controls, satisfying action, and a visual polish that puts other games to shame. Unfortunately, the puzzles are lackluster, with too many ideas that come and go with little development or follow-through. If you come into Bionic Bay expecting the next Portal, you’ll be sorely disappointed. Come in expecting a solid platformer with occasional frustrations, however, and you’ll fare far better.
South of Midnight’s plot never felt boring, holding my attention from start to finish. It’s a short experience that only took me eight hours to complete, yet one that I'll remember for much longer. If you have any interest at all in the game, please check it out, especially if you have a Game Pass subscription. It’s a tale unlike most action adventures, and it knows how to tug on your heartstrings.
In some ways, I feel like Rebirth of Souls was packaged neatly but ultimately rushed. The online PvP mode is cool, and it's fun to see how characters stack up against each other, but many people will clamor for a ranking mode, as all that’s here currently is casual play. I do find myself enjoying this fighting experience despite knowing it can evolve to higher combat heights. The cast is incredible for a first outing, and if Bandai Namco does greenlight a sequel, these characters will be more finely tuned and hopefully can duke it out in stage-destroying experiences. If you love Bleach, you’ll definitely find the right character for your enjoyment, and that is more reason to play it.
Scarlet Hollow is currently an incomplete masterpiece. I devoured the existing episodes twice, and I hope to play through them one more time with a different combination of traits before Episode 5’s release. The game told me early on that I can’t save everyone, but damn it if I didn't want to try. I truly cannot wait to play the fifth episode of Scarlet Hollow and return to this town.
In the end, what is The First Berserker: Khazan? It’s a deeply rewarding and engaging experience, if challenging a boss 50 times in a row sounds fun to you. The story is a huge miss, the characters are boring, and the setting is all of the drab of Dark Souls with none of the wonder, but the peaks here are incredible, and if you can endure the journey, Khazan is an awesome, awesome experience.
Finding Frankie is not a perfect package, with some genuine execution whiffs. The story is just sort of there, the implications are relatively shallow, and the gameplay loop is repetitive. Taken as just a horror game, Finding Frankie would probably rub folks the wrong way. But as an exhilarating parkour game, with genuine tension as your pursuer gets right behind you, it’s a blast.
KARMA: The Dark World is a love letter to David Lynch. While its framing narrative is a little too straightforward, its dream sequences craft nightmarish spaces that linger in the player’s imagination. KARMA won’t be for everybody, but neither are its inspirations. I hope to replay the game soon, revisiting the textual and puzzle box collectibles for additional hints at the future story that Pollard Studio seemingly wants to tell.
Rarely do I play a video game where I think there’s a little something for almost everyone. Promise Mascot Agency is a delightful video game that would be good for anyone who likes management or town-builder sims, who’s remotely into Japan or Japanese culture, who loves heartwarming characters, who enjoys driving in video games, who likes deck-building but doesn’t want that to be the whole thing, or who prides themself as a completionist. I loved the world of Promise Mascot Agency, and I look forward to any excuse I get to visit Kaso-Machi and see all my friends again.
Your House is a competent mystery game that suffers from its own ambition. Its central reading mechanic adds flavor to the experience, and it offers a decent variety of puzzles to keep players engaged. However, the narrative lacks bite, and the difficulty will be a turn-off for some. If you don’t mind a “just okay” story and are open to some wonky solutions, Your House offers some unique puzzle thrills. But just don’t expect a revelatory experience.
Destino Indomable is good but has some notable flaws. With a slightly longer story and more weight to your decisions, this could have been a must-play visual novel. The telenovela concept is great, and I hope to see more in the future. But for now, this is one show you're likely not to pick up.
Part cozy game, part comedy, part poignant self-reflection, Wanderstop proves even the most well-trodden genre can bear creative fruit. Its gameplay errs on the side of simplicity, and elements of the story—particularly the side cast and the ending—left me hungrily wanting more. Still, the soul of Wanderstop shines through, resulting in a narrative experience that is one of a kind.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is best enjoyed as a kind of Renaissance Faire rather than a 15th-century simulator. The game is at its best when it gives players freedom to explore. Sadly, the main quest has too many pain points where player autonomy is stripped, in favor of a trope-heavy narrative that feels ripped from a 2004 comedy sketch. Its best moments are rare, but when they do land, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II rivals the feeling of playing Red Dead Redemption or Oblivion for the first time.
Playing inkle's games for the past 10 years makes me realize that I am a fan not just of their games, but of them as creators. When you engage with new content from a familiar artist, you start to sense their fingerprints. Knowing inkle’s style made me all the more delighted by change-ups and familiar methods. While Expelled! is slower and clunkier than Overboard!, it’s also richer and deeper. Now, I have to stop writing this review, because I'd really like to get back to playing it.