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Video Games
Recompile — Coded With Limits
Recompile doesn’t give it’s best elements enough time to shine. Backtracking is a staple of metroidvania that feels fun with its own twist here. Combat takes a backseat as its unsatisfying or can be completely avoided. The lore is what…
Evolution: Climate warms up on Nintendo Switch
I’ve been a fan of North Star Games’ Evolution games for a few years now, and Evolution: Climate was the first game I played upon introduction to my current, most prolific gaming group. Our reviewer Sara found Evolution to be a success on…
Islanders: Console Edition – Sea rocks
Building interactions are key to high scores and a long game. Each building has a base score that can be modified by placing it near certain other buildings. Mansions like to be near city centres, whilst a shaman hut wants to be near…
Necrobarista: Final Pour — Noir Coffee
The original iteration of Necrobarista of introduced me to the Terminal Cafe, where I met a host of interesting folks. Set in a magical Melbourne, this cafe has great coffee — and its patrons aren’t necessarily on the plane of the living.…
Balance training and spinning to bring glory to Flaustria in surreal strategy title Astronaut: The…
Lead the Flaustrian Space Race, carefully monitoring and managing your astronaut's stats, appeasing the five high priests, spinning the wheels of propaganda in your favour and all while trying to meet deadlines. Astronaut: The Best is a…
Blightbound – An Action RPG that doesn’t pull its punches
New characters can be rescued from the blight if you can find them within a level and then escape successfully after completing your mission. You can find them back at the camp and fall into one of three camps — Warriors, Assassins and…
Sam & Max: This Time it’s Virtual – Virtual Insanity
Whilst the content may not be the strongest on offer the humour and writing is; and it’s what will keep fans of the dynamic duo playing to the bitter end.
How Hollow Knight’s difficulty tells a story
Difficulty is a constant source of contention in gaming. Some want easier access to the content of a game, others want an exhilarating challenge. However, the structure of many games and their narratives suggest that the experience cannot…
The Ascent — Cyberpunk Inspired Series X Showcase
The Ascent looks and runs amazingly well on the Series X, it’s smooth and whilst the load times are few and far between they are pretty snappy.
Welcome to Hell [Let Loose]
Hell Let Loose is a unique first-person shooter that prioritizes teamwork and communication to such an extent that you begin to feel like a small soldier on a real-time strategy battlefield. A first-person shooter that prioritizes…
Night Book — Book a night off
Night Book was filmed entirely during lockdown, with the actors not actually doing any scenes in person. In terms of developing an FMV game, this is really quite an impressive challenge to undertake, and I have a lot of respect for Wales…
Omno Brings You Closer To The Light
Omno's lush landscapes make traversal of its various biomes a wonder to behold. Journey with Omno as you make your way towards the Light.
Boyfriend Dungeon — Swords & Therapy
Boyfriend Dungeon is a weirdly wonderful game — wonderful character design, quirky dates, a solid soundtrack.
Ragnarock — Valhalla’va Ride
You are a Viking at the helm of a longboat, commanding your crew with music instead of commands. Their rowing is ever paced by how hard you rock. You barrel down seemingly endless fjords, banging out tunes with your hammers. This is…
Revisiting Broken Lines, a squad-based tactics game
In “We-go” tactics games, turns are removed altogether and the player and enemies move simultaneously. Broken Lines is the most recent iteration of this style and a darn good implementation of it too. Instead of turns, the gameplay in…
Metavaxx — Vaccine Overdrive
Metavaxx, from French developer duo PUNKCAKE Délicieux, melds together classic Minesweeper tactics with shooters in a quest to create the most effective vaccine.
Death’s Door — Tiny Crow, Big Homages
Death’s Door showcases a best-of in the action-adventure genre. As a crow reaper I faced challenges that never felt insurmountable. A ghastly manor tried keeping me away from its basement. I mazed my way through a temple in ruin. A climb to…
Behind the Frame Is Art Come to Life
Behind the Frame was quite a new experience for me. Often when I hear the words interactive fiction or story-rich I tend to check out immediately; Which is to say I’m not a fan. Yet something drew me to this particular offering from Silver…
Imagine Earth dreams of a better Utopia
For anyone who follows my writing, you would be forgiven for thinking that Imagine Earth should be right up my street. Attractive, clever and rammed with content, this global-scale economic and environmental strategy simulator tasks players…
Get Packed is another couch co-op about moving, but slightly more intense
You probably know that we play a lot of couch co-ops in our household. With a family of five people who love games, we spend quite a lot of time playing video games together and one of our favorite things to do is play couch co-op ones.…