Includes RPS, Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Last reviewed: 007 First Light · 5 days ago
I can't get Fish Sticks out of my head. Not the food, but the stray cat with a squished face and stubby legs that I wrangled into my shack in Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel’s new roguelite strategy game, Mewgenics. The shop, the pub, the dentist; no matter where I go, I…
I was, like so many of my 1990s-born peers, a huge Sims girlie. I spent hundreds of hours as a teen and young adult making people I knew, characters from shows I was obsessing over, or original characters I wanted to experiment with, and diligently following their life paths and…
Pivross is a 3D picross game that still needs some work
Anno 1800 could have been any one of a hundred shades of mediocre, and I would have had a much lighter, breezier time talking about it. But whether I end up adding it to my list of perennial must-plays, or retiring it in despair at the whimsical capering of Captain Bumeggs, it’s an undisputed heavyweight, and an experience I’d recommend to anyone.
I like it, but its snickering spirits will only haunt the tortured recesses of my mind for a few short days.
Obviously reminiscent of Gone Home (and there are a couple of nods hidden in there), it manages to feel different enough in its approach to stand apart. And indeed that it packs all the detail into one room is no small feat.
Usually, in the course of gameplay, a game's character becomes an avatar for you. But A Way Out accomplishes something far more subversive and bold. Eventually, for better or for worse, you become an avatar for your character.
It's very charming, a lot of fun, and perhaps most importantly, executes its central conceit with deftness.
From minute to minute its combat systems are the best in the series, and its vehicles handle better than those in previous games as well. Its landscapes are a delight, their details rich and worth exploring, and you get to develop your playstyle and objectives on your own terms. Until something gets in the way.
Rare unquestionably need to apply new meat to these beautiful bones. I've enjoyed the ambience of Sea of Thieves so much that I want it to be something that stays in my life for a long time to come, but, in its current state, I know that is impossible.
If it was better translated and not quite so buggy, Pastry Lovers might have the potential to be a pretty cute little game. However, my key takeaway is that I can go into someone's room at night and ram cake down their throat until they love me, and so this is how I intend to proceed with all my future relationships.
Though I sometimes grew weary of the donkey-work of cables and repairs, I definitely relish the new state of sustained fear Surviving Mars brings to city sims. It means that even small accomplishments feel so much bigger.
It could be a lot better, but I really enjoy playing what it is.
Vermintide 2 might be shameless about its inspiration, but, critically, it recreates it really, really well, at a spectacular scale. I can't speak to whether I'll still be showering the land with rat legs a few months from now, but I fully expect to happily spend the next few weeks, at least, knee-deep in the rodent dead.
Northgard is simple in all the right ways, challenging not because of complexity but complacency – it's harsh, but rarely unfair. Every system clicks together to create tense, satisfying matches where every decision matters.
There we are. A solid, decent picross game, that unquestionably stands in the shadow of Pictopix, the one picross game to rule them all.
It's by no means the best Final Fantasy game there's ever been, especially once it forces you to bid farewell to your easy-going road trip and sit on a literal train for the rest of the story, providing tiny, tantalizing glimpses of other open worlds that might have been if only they'd had another ten years to actually finish the damn thing, but I'll eat my chocobo hat if it isn't the most interesting, experimental and important one the series has ever seen.