Lucky Girl Syndrome. I originally intended to get real creative with my K-pop Idol Stories review. I had this idea of recreating my favourite girl group NewJeans and documenting the process, but after a few hours with this PS5 tycoon title I realised it didn’t really have the…
The little game that could. Denshattack is exactly the sort of bold, unique, over-the-top nonsense that was rife in the PS2, Dreamcast era, and I love it for that alone. This silly arcade action title revels in its bonkers premise and frenetic style, and it's impossible not to…
Just a good laugh (and fright). At first glance, Escape the Backrooms is just a cheap cash-grab to capitalise on the success of Kane Parson’s Backrooms movie. That’s certainly what I thought when I picked it up for a tenner on the PS Store. The graphics aren’t the best, the…
We might have been heroes. If you were there on day one of the PS4 generation, you probably bought Killzone Shadow Fall and Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag with the system. I also snagged Need for Speed Rivals and a PS Camera at the midnight pickup from GAME, then jogged back to…
Time's on your side. The worst thing about The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is its name, so we're off to a pretty positive start. Square Enix's latest HD-2D jaunt is an action RPG, with its overall structure resembling classic The Legend of Zelda and Mana games.…
Embrace the jank. Gothic 1 Remake is an almost slavish reproduction of the original 2001 release developed by Piranha Bytes, an Eastern European open world RPG that was ahead of its time, notoriously hardcore, and seriously janky. Remade for a new era by Alkimia Interactive and…
Anything but a hollow experience. Over a decade since Yacht Club Games made its mark on the indie scene with Shovel Knight, the studio is finally back with its next big nod to retro games, Mina the Hollower. Instead of going the 2D platformer route again, Mina the Hollower lives…
The game's Bond, James Bond. James Bond is undoubtedly one of the most famous names in all of fiction, which is a pretty funny thing to be able to say for a secret agent. With a multitude of books, movies, games, magazines, and countless items of merchandise, the character, and…
The Abyss stares back. In response to an aggressive post-release patching schedule from dev Pearl Abyss, we’re giving Crimson Desert a second shake. With the game transformed from its 19th March release date, we felt it was important to revisit the title and provide an updated…
Ridley Carpenter's The Alien. Taking the Supermassive formula and applying it to a mash-up of Ridley Scott’s Alien and John Carpenter’s The Thing was exactly why I was intrigued to check out Directive 8020. I’m a huge fan of both films, and the idea of having to decide whether…
Perfect world. The irritatingly named Neverness to Everness – which I’ll refer to as just NTE for the purposes of my own sanity from this point onwards – has launched into a crowded genre on the PS5. Ever since Genshin Impact exploded during the pandemic, there have been several…
Keep running up that hill. Hades 2 continues developer Supergiant Games' reign of isometric action dominance, which began with Bastion back in 2011 and was firmly cemented by Transistor in 2014. Building on the foundations of 2020's excellent original Hades, the sequel to that…
See that star? Don't go there. Starfield is a very different proposition compared to the many Elder Scrolls and Fallout games Bethesda has made in the past: it’s a space RPG where the worst thing about it is space. Instead of a single open world to explore, there are…
A catchy number. It doesn’t happen very often, but occasionally a game comes around that’s tailor made for me. People of Note, a musical RPG from indie outfit Iridium Studios, is that kinda release. This one fuses Final Fantasy with K-Pop Demon Hunters, delivering a distinctly…
In another life. The Life Is Strange series comes to its supposed end with Life Is Strange: Reunion, a quasi-sequel to the 2015 original, and a full-on sequel to 2024’s Life Is Strange: Double Exposure. However, its commitment to either of those prior games is a little…