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My Friendly Neighborhood pays a fitting homage to classic and modern Resident Evil titles with a polished, well-paced experience and plenty of creativity on display. The solid voice acting, coupled with a believable setting, strategic combat, and some fun puzzles result in an extremely memorable survival horror experience that doesn't always deliver on the scares.
Testament: Order of High Human is an ambitious RPG that tries to do a lot but doesn't succeed fully in any particular aspect. Its world, characters, and storytelling are engaging to follow, but the sluggish combat and lack of polish keep it from reaching its full potential.
Crime O'Clock is a fun hidden object game with an engaging time-traveling twist. The ability to visit different ticks in a timeline is well-realized, and the attention to detail in each level is quite impressive. It's bogged down by frequent mini-games that feel tacked on, and excessive dialogue that hurt the pacing by inducing boredom.
AEW: Fight Forever is a return to the glory days of arcade wrestling games, and is a lot of fun. With a surprisingly engaging story mode, deep customization, and plenty of game modes to try out, this is the AEW gaming package you've been waiting. Unfortunately, it doesn't reach its full potential because of sluggish controls, often unresponsive inputs, and mixed presentation.
With a great visual setting, well written and memorable townspeople to interact with Fall of Porcupine tries to do something new. However a few crucial omissions keep the game from being great - with no manual save, and the lack of ability to skip puzzles in a casual game like this severely ruin the experience. Add in a lackluster ending, the game has a lot of good but equally bad aspects.
Trepang2 has some of the best gunplay since the original F.E.A.R, with devastating destruction routinely on display. It often eclipses its inspiration during combat encounters, but almost every other aspect doesn't reach the same heights. With the inclusion of an unnecessary HUB area, cheap horror elements, and a predictable plot, Trepang2 is worth it for its thoroughly enjoyable gunplay, but not much else.
With average horror elements that have their moments and a somewhat interesting story that unfolds as you descend into a rabbit hole of madness, Layers of Fear does enough to keep players engaged, but not enough to push the series forward in a meaningful way.
Killer Frequency is a fun title that you should get if you are really into puzzles, enjoy the 80's atmosphere, or enjoy games with multiple endings. With a decent cast of characters, the game is one you don't want to change stations on.
Planet of Lana is a lovely puzzle platformer with a lot of heart. The lead characters, Lana and Mui are meaningfully integrated into each puzzle, and their journey across different regions of a beautiful world is equally touching and compelling. The puzzles lack the creative punch you'd see in similar titles and don't fully leverage the setting, but the strong presentation depicting the resilience of nature rejecting an alien invasion is breathtaking.
Ravenlok is a charming fairytale voxel adventure game that features a decent variety of enemies and puzzles. Despite the lackluster storyline, it's a fairly short game that's worth playing with its simple combat mechanics easily accessible for everyone. Although Ravenlok might not appeal to players that prefer a challenge, this simple simple action-adventure title will certainly eat up your afternoon.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a fantastic sequel that improves upon basically every aspect of the original. Its excellent cast of characters, improved combat, expanded world design, and plot tie into one of the most satisfying Star Wars experiences we've ever had only held back by performance issues on every platform.
Coffee Talk Episode 2 is a relaxing, and absorbing title with an engaging gameplay loop, memorable characters, and excellent writing. It's a great game to play when you to unwind, and immerse yourself in a cozy well realized world with a cast of characters that will stay with you after you've finished your cup of hot brew.
Decieve Inc is a game I really wanted to like, but it comes into the camp of either love at first sight or a game you buy and forget and play with friends once in a while. My time with the game was enjoyable when it worked, but long matchmaking times, uneven and perplexing gunplay and unexplainable lag marred the enjoyment for me.
Resident Evil 4 Remake comfortably sits atop every other release this year with its excellent action, memorable characters, ridiculous replayability, and insane one-liners. RE Engine continues to look phenomenal, and Leon and Ashley have never been better. The remake does a brilliant job of becoming a modern example of improving upon perfection.
9 Year of Shadows is a challenging but rewarding metroidvania with some lovely pixel art, an intriguing story, excellent soundtrack, and an exciting armor system based on Greek mythos. Navigating the map can be a bit tedious, and some of the combat encounters fall into a repetitive cycle, but if you're looking for a unique metroidvania with a lot of style, 9 Years of Shadows gets a lot right.
Dredge is the perfect blend of Lovecraftian, mystery, and adventure in a role-playing game. Its greatest strength lies in the perfect harmony of its gameplay, visual, and audio elements.
Storyteller is a fantastic puzzle game full of charming characters, and excellent humor, presented on a beautiful interface. Its intuitive controls, dynamic gameplay, and open-ended levels make it accessible, exciting, and appropriately challenging. Its absorbing take on classical stories is hilarious, and you develop a personal attachment to each tale as you progress through its multiple thematically designed chapters.
Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is a forgotten title that is getting a second chance at life by coming to the West for the first time in 15 years. The title offers a classic survival horror experience that few modern-day games are able to deliver and with improved visuals paired with quality of life changes, it is easily the best Fatal Frame entry you can play on consoles currently.
Wo Lang Fallen Dynasty is a challenging action RPG that stands out with its excellent deflection based combat, and tense morale system. It forces you to perfect its core mechanics and offers a rewarding experience with a lot of freedom in traversal and exploration. The uneven presentation and subpar PC port keep it from being perfect, but it's a worthy addition to Team Ninja's action RPG catalog.
I had a fantastic time with Like a Dragon: Ishin, and it’s a worthy addition to the Yakuza series lineup. Like other modern Yakuza titles, this release is filled to the brim with enjoyable content, memorable characters, and an addictive combat system with tons of variety. The character work is fantastic, and the series’ invaluable skill to switch between serious and hilarious tones is present here as well, with some of the best moments in the franchise.