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Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York is the 2020 sequel to 2019’s Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York , and shares a lot of similarities — art styles, gameplay, characters, and music. Even the basic premise remains very similar at the outset, with the main character, Julia, being newly minted as a bloodsucker. As I played through Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York I was certain that I would not be reviewing it. I am just coming off of having reviewed its precedent work, and reviewing the games in such quick order felt a bit like retreading ground. Something changed for me as I neared the end of the game, however. Publisher:  Dear Villagers Developer:  Draw Distance Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released September 10, 2020  on Steam. Beyond the opening embrace, the plot of the game follows Julia Sowinski who has been tasked to investigate a murder under the tutelage of sheriff Qadir al-Asmai. Qadir is not the only returning character for Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York , as many important characters from the first entry make their return as part of this tale.  For all of its similarities to the previous entry , Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York  comes as an obvious improvement in some notable ways. The most pressing change seems to be just how much your choices matter. While it is perhaps not the most reactive game ever made, even the small ways in which you can shape events and the character of Julia are a significant improvement over the previous entry, which saw the player have little to no impact on the player character’s personality or the events of the story. Your choices not only affect the specific outcome or flow of each encounter, but also grant the player traits as the game advances which will affect some of Julia’s automatic dialogue and inform her reaction to the things happening around her. As she comes to terms with the ever-shifting kindred political landscape, she is also coming to terms with herself, learning more about who she is as a protégé , as a lover, and as a person. What hasn’t changed when compared to the first entry, as mentioned earlier, is the game’s art style. This is a double-edged sword for several reasons. First, the consistency does make this feel like a true sequel or sister game to Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York . The artwork and aesthetic remains gorgeous, with those painted portraits and backgrounds remaining a standout feature of the game. However, many assets are reused from the first title, such as a large number of locations and character portraits. With there being a few years between the two titles (in-game, at least), you would expect some change, at least. Hell, even an outfit change would benefit some of the cast. That said, the new portraits and locations fit right in, forming a cohesive work in this regard. The “play” element remains almost entirely the same as the first entry, as well. At night, you can look at the city map and make your way through one or two events of your choosing. These minor events give you an opportunity to flesh out Julia’s character, learn a bit about the world, and meet new and interesting characters. Make your choices in the interaction, see how it plays out, and move onto the next scene until you’re forced into a main story moment. It’s a solid loop, and since you can’t see all of the events in a single playthrough, it adds a bit of replayability to the title that would otherwise be missing due to the lack of impactful choice. There are some things that prevent this title from being a great game, overall. While it is an improvement over its precedent work in terms of choices and their effects, those moments are still quite sparse. Although I can see why they would continue this design philosophy from Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York, what with the player being a simple fledgling in way over her head, it does come across as underwhelming as a visual novel. Even negative encounters would be welcome should you say the wrong thing. Instead, Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York  seems content to let Julia (and by extension the player) float through the game undeterred until the final moments. Should we accept that this is simply a set story with minimal interaction, we must find our joy and meaning in-between the “major” choices. The moments where you get to roleplay really matter. In the face of an uncaring and immutable world, at least you get to be you, game be damned. The final moments of the game flip that idea on its head, however. Should we accept that this is simply a set story with minimal interaction, we must find our joy and meaning in-between the “major” choices. I sincerely take umbrage with the categorization of the two different endings as either “good” or “bad”. It simply betrays everything that the game does in practice. Your decisions throughout guide your character arc and the entire experience within the game, and to boil it down to “good” or “bad” is frankly baffling. This is especially true when you actually view the endings and realize that there is no such distinction. They are just different  endings. They accomplish very different things, and whether or not one might be a bad ending would entirely depend on the player’s motivations or goals. Putting a stamp on one or the other as the “correct” outcome in the closing moments is narrative malpractice — and it doesn't even happen within the game! These are the achievements! This nomenclature speaks to a larger problem across not only visual novels, but gaming as a medium. So often in RPGS or games where the “choices matter” players are looking for the best result, trying to win. What collection of choices gives you the optimal ending, which ones give you the highest reward, or which ones present you with the most content — turning the game and its roleplaying into a series of boxes to check, rather than an experience to be had. By codifying these endings into “good” or “bad”, the developers have all but conceded that there is a right way and a wrong way to play the game. I understand that for many, this is a minor thing in the grand scheme of it all. If it doesn’t change the actual game, what could it possibly matter? For me, it matters a great deal. It reveals the design philosophy of the entire game, and boils it down to a win or lose scenario. I spent every moment up until the ending feeling content with my choices and the path taken, yet I was now forced to reckon with an invisible scoreboard. Every prior moment takes shape as a box to be checked retroactively. Strong moments of writing and characterization wasted.  Verdict The totality of my opinion on Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York  is a bit muddied. Strong writing and characterization, phenomenal art, and appropriately moody music are huge boons for the game. However, its lack of choice and similarity to the previous title, combined with the endings being codified as “good” and “bad”, sour the experience.

We should have learned a lesson about haunted VHS tapes by now. What is Dead Format? Publisher:   Oro Interactive Developer:   Katanalevy Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Q4 2025 Dead Format  is a survival horror game set in 1990s Scotland. The premise is simple: your brother has gone missing after becoming obsessed with a mysterious new VHS format. The player character must piece together and follow his trail through the tapes and uncover why the government wants to ban "Video Ghastlies". The demo starts you out in an apartment, which serves as the hub for this horror romp. Within this space you’ll be able to review clues, watch the VHS tapes you find, and just generally get a breather from the horrors that roam. Using the VHS tapes you come across, you’ll enter disturbing worlds inspired by Silent Era Cinema, Italian Giallo films, 80s Body Horror, Found Footage and more. Our Impressions The atmosphere of Dead Format  is top-notch. The videos have a The   Ring -like quality to them, and the areas each VHS tape generates captures the feel of the videos perfectly. There are only two tapes to play through in the demo, but each is distinct in the threats you face and the aesthetic they adhere to. The graveyard/catacombs area is spooky, shrouded in fog that hides the gothic architecture in a black-and-white chromatic landscape, while the other feature is much more grimy, grotesque, and alien. Sound design in these areas is also excellent, using both ambient noise and creatures to really set that sense of dread.  On the graphical side of things, I think the game looks great, and the shifting aesthetic really impressed me. There were some serious performance hitches throughout that I hope get addressed, though. I ran into some stuttering and outright freezes a few times while playing. Those hitches can sometimes cause inputs to be lost if they directly coincide.  Overall, the game looks phenomenal, and my only regret is that I don’t like the horror genre enough to fully appreciate everything that it’s doing. Dead Format is set to release later this year.

The art and imagery of Eclipsium  are certainly evocative, with large grotesque figures and body horror elements abound. The environments are all atmospheric and abstract, and there’s mostly no narrative to speak of. In many ways, I’m not particularly certain this is a horror game at all, as there’s no real sense of urgency or threat to be perceived. Without any enemies, jumpscares, timers, or hazards of any kind, Eclipsium mostly functions as a brisk walk through increasingly interesting and abstract images. I remain a bit bewildered by what I witnessed, unable to fully assign any meaning to the events taking place on the screen. At least it looked cool! Pros Gorgeous pixel art Interesting and evocative imagery Great music Cons High pixelation often leaves environments and objects muddied and hard to discern. Lack of variety in gameplay Other The game has little to no explicit narrative, and all imagery is left for the player to interpret. Publisher:   CRITICAL REFLEX Developer:   Housefire Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released Sept 19, 2025  on Steam.

“Deliver Donut” – Watch as Greenhouse is built “mission text” Mars First Logistics has been on my radar since 2023. Like many gamers, I keep a long wishlist, currently clocking in over 20 games that looked promising, but are either unfinished or hiding behind early-access paywalls. Some of these gambles pay off, as with Baldur’s Gate 3 , while others feel like perpetual cash grabs ( Star Citizen , looking at you). Fortunately, Mars First Logistics  belongs to the Baldur’s Gate 3  camp. It’s one of those rare early-access stories that worked out . Though it’s not a narrative or visual masterpiece, it’s an impressively executed physics-based drone builder and delivery simulator. I’ve spent over 18 hours with the game so far, and while fans of the genre could easily sink a hundred, I’ve played enough to get the gist of it. Publisher:   Shape Shop, Outersloth Developer:   Shape Shop Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released Sep 25, 2025 on Steam. The Process Accept a mission (pickup and delivery). Plan a route to the pickup. Design a vehicle that can carry the item. Test, redesign, test again. Deliver or start over. You have no idea how many times I’ve had to rewrite this list. Early on, your limited budget and part selection force “creative” problem-solving. Like a drunk, realizing his fingers can no longer open cans, but his keys can punch a hole to drink from. I kept trying to build universal vehicles that could handle multiple missions, but soon realized how specific each job is. Do I build a flatbed with guard rails? Add grabbing arms? Maybe a scorpion-like forklift for flexibility? As I did more deliveries, I unlocked more parts. However, it is difficult to fully imagine a new solution at times. Admittedly, that is a personal issue. A large truck bed lets me dump and run, but “realistic” (as much as a simulated Mars can be) terrain and weight quickly complicates that plan. Actuating arms can help lift items or flip your entire rig (you never think you need to flip a rig, till you do). Sometimes a simple bucket makes things worse. The game is forgiving in clever ways: you only need the whole item inside the delivery zone, so partial transport in multiple trips works fine. But the terrain is brutal. Cliffs, dunes, rock fields sometimes all at once, and you’re occasionally on a timer thanks to a giant melting ice cube as cargo. The developer clearly has a familiarity with automation or robotics; as someone with automation experience myself, the toolset feels intuitive. The problems, however, are ridiculous. That’s what makes it fun. At first, it is simple: grab the thing. Then grab the heavy big thing. Then the slippery big thing. Each step makes you question the fundamentals of a solution and soon enough your rebuilding rigs from scratch just to deliver a watering can on the other side of a bumpy hill. Difficulty is far from linear, much like puzzles, it’s how well you grasp the logic. Building and Story You don’t just deliver, you build Mars. Each delivery contributes to constructing facilities as directly building transmitters or monorails. The delivery of a trophy creates a race track; a repair kit spawns a fighting arena. The story and visuals aren’t the selling points, but they serve the tone well. At no point do you have dialog — it is more like dark souls lore, but instead of items, it’s missions. Look at the world and how it changes from your actions. It’s an odd way to tell a story, but interesting. I would recommend watching the above video, to get some idea of how the game feels. The cel-shaded visuals help keep everything clear. Visually, the cel-shaded art style is clean and pleasant. Simple, but effective. The soundtrack stands out most: a blend of lo-fi pop, ambient, and jazzy elevator vibes that kicks in unexpectedly but fits perfectly once you’re cruising over Martian dunes.  It actually reminded me of how ConcernedApe (creator of Stardew Valley ) once said that he made games so people would listen to his music. I wouldn’t be surprised if something similar is true here, too. Verdict Mars First Logistics  is an outstanding entry in the logistics and “walking simulator” genres, elevated by its robust drone customization system. It’s clever, technical, and genuinely rewarding. With a richer story or more distinctive visual flair, it could have been exceptional. As it stands, it’s already a great introduction to robotics and systems thinking, especially for younger players or anyone curious about how creative problem-solving feels when wrapped in red dust and snappy pop. Image Credits: Shape Shop, Outersloth, and William “MrNoSouls” Edmiston Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product.

The digital version comes shortly following the release of the physical version. Nature is one of the most highly-anticipated board games of the year, and rightfully so. With vibrant artwork and dynamic gameplay, we had a great time playing it this year at Gen Con. We also got the chance to test out the digital version at the time and came away intrigued. Developed in tandem with the tabletop version, Nature (digital version) will feature all of the elements of the tabletop version right way at release, with additional modules also available at launch. The announcement trailer is a solid representation of what you're getting. What is Nature ? In Nature , players lead their species through a shifting ecosystem where food is scarce and predators lurk. Using card-based strategy, you adapt your species to survive. The game's modular design allows expansions to be added and combined, creating a fresh ecosystem every time you play. Nature  offers a full campaign, custom challenges, online matchmaking, and local multiplayer. On top of that, it has two expansions launching day one: Flight , where you find freedom and safety by taking to the skies, and Jurassic , where ferocious predators and colossal dinosaurs roam the land. “We're thrilled to bring the dynamic, vibrant world of Nature alive in Steam,” said Scott Rencher, President of NorthStar Digital Games. “This is our Grail Project.  Our team has poured our Evolution experience and four years of relentless testing and tweaking into this adaptation, and we can't wait for players to feel the thrill of trying to keep their species alive in this ever-changing ecosystem.” Key Features Adapt to Survive:  Grow your population in a world where resources are limited and danger is never far away. Each game of Nature unfolds in a vibrant ecosystem where species compete to survive. Carnivores stalk their prey while herbivores scramble for every morsel of food.  Evolve your Species:  Give your species the tools to survive by evolving powerful new traits. Develop the Fast trait to outrun predators, or add Nesting to boost your population growth. With traits that combine and synergize, you can create unique combinations and strategies. Two Modules at Launch:  Mix different modules, with each introducing a new theme and new rules. Flight features new ways to find food and the ability to soar away to safety, while Jurassic brings out massive predators vying for dominance.  Evolution Legacy:  From the designer of the award-winning Evolution , Nature is easier for new players to learn but rewards strategists with complex, emergent gameplay. Nature releases November 5, 2025 on Steam for PC and Mac at a price of $12.99.

Chopped Liver. Strange Scaffold has been on a monumental run over the last few years, releasing great games at a flurry that is difficult to even fathom. With some personal favorites such as I Am Your Beast  and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown  under their belt, I was excited to finally get my hands on the serial-killer simulator Life Eater . Publisher:  Strange Scaffold, Frosty Pop Developer:  Strange Scaffold Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released Apr 16, 2024 on Steam. That premise is no joke, by the way. The entire concept of Life Eater is that your character hears the call of a malevolent god named Zimforth who tasks Ralph to commit increasingly specific murders. If you fail to complete the task, or mess up the more ritualistic aspects of it, Zimforth will destroy the world. How true that threat is falls under player interpretation, of course. Before you can complete your ritual sacrifice, you must first learn about your target. Zimforth’s criteria change each year, forcing you to find the specific person you are meant to kill through their daily activities. If you need to sacrifice a person who works two jobs, you’ll have to stalk a pool of targets before uncovering which one makes a bit extra on the side. Once you learn enough about a target, you can begin the ritual to “water the flower”. Once that sacrificial menu is pulled up, you’re greeted with an assortment of memory tests that force you to complete pointed tasks based upon your victim’s attributes. For example, you could be given the directive to destroy their liver if they are under 40 years old, or destroy their intestines instead if they are 40 or older. It is an interesting premise that is, unfortunately, marred by its execution. Stalking your victims amounts to very little beyond clicking blank spaces until a differently colored block appears, giving you your answer or additional information. The type of information required for each victim also remains the same: Age, hair color, are they regularly armed, how long do they sleep, do they live alone, do they have kids, and do they commute to work. All of this is readily communicated in the uncovered spaces, so you’ll fall into a simple routine of gathering that information before chopping away at the task at hand. If you fail to get the right person or mess up the ritual, the game simply starts you back at the top of the yearly chapter. As your god calls upon you, you must obey. Of course, there is something to be said about Life Eater  making such a grisly task so routine. Everything that you do in service of this god feels detached — mechanically and narratively. The gameplay is little more than clicking through a series of simple menus until you’ve done enough to advance. There’s no difficult strategy or reasoning required, as the time limits are very lenient and your options for uncovering that information are extremely straightforward. As it stands, you can basically use the second discovery option for 90% of the game, using the third only for extremely difficult tasks and using the suspicion blockers to avoid gaining too much notice. From the story perspective, you simply get the call from on-high and begin your work, without any real thought put into examining whether or not Zimforth is real or truly has the power to bring about the end days. At least at first. It is a boon that Life Eater  doesn’t shy away from the content of its story, almost normalizing the grisly murders the main character undertakes. Without diving too deeply into the extremely concise story beats, there comes a moment for Ralph to examine if what believes to be true is actually true, but you’re not going to get clear answers on that.  It is a boon that Life Eater doesn’t shy away from the content of its story, almost normalizing the grisly murders the main character undertakes. In fact, you don’t get much of anything from the story at all. Life Eater  is extremely short, with only 10 main story puzzles, none of which seem to be even tangentially connected. Between these puzzles you get some glimpses into the characters, but even those scenes barely last more than a minute or two. Thankfully, the acting, music, and artwork are superb, so there’s a ton of emotion packed into those brief glimpses. However, the gameplay is not varied enough or interesting enough to really make up for the dearth of narrative content within the title. In many respects, the entirety of Life Eater  comes across as a collection of underdeveloped good ideas, each inches away from being something truly gripping. The story doesn’t go far enough with putting you in the killer’s shoes or confronting the depraved nature of the sacrificial endeavors you’re taking part in, and the “stalking” gameplay isn’t quite varied enough to remain interesting or entertaining beyond a few short moments. Had it even fully fleshed out one of these things, I think we’d be talking about this game in a much different way. Verdict Life Eater  is a game with great promise. It has a unique and horrific premise that sees you as a serial killer fulfilling the wishes of some demonic god through ritual sacrifice, but never manages to live up to that promise through its gameplay or story elements. In many ways I wish they would have leaned harder into everything from the main character's motivations, to the “stalking” mechanics of the gameplay. A collection of underutilized ideas that gets buried under the monotony of it all.

The big update comes with a handful of new content. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only one of this year's biggest surprises, but also one of this year's best titles . That quality has borne itself out in sales, as well, with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 having now sold over 5 million copies across all platforms. Sandfall Interactive, the developers behind the title, have been quiet over the last few months, but such a resounding success deserves a bit of noise, doesn't it? Well, according to Sandfall Interactive's own press release , Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is set to receive a big update as a "thank you" to its players for their continued support. The new content will include: A new, playable environment, taking the characters of Expedition 33 to a brand-new location with new enemy encounters and surprises to discover. Challenging, new boss battles for late-game players to overcome. New costumes for each member of the Expedition, giving even more customization options for players throughout their adventure. New text and UI game localizations into Czech, Ukrainian, Latin American Spanish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Thai, and Indonesian, bringing the total number of supported languages to 19. And more to come… We'll have to wait a bit to see what the "more to come" part of that message entails, but the additions listed here are great for those of us who would love to spend more time in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 's beautifully crafted world. No release date has been given, but Sandfall Interactive did express some words of gratitude, saying the following: "We spent years working on our dream project, and to know it has resonated with fans around the world in such a powerful way is both wonderful and overwhelming. Now we’re really looking forward to bringing you more of what we're working on! For those who come after. Thank you." About Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 In our review called Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 a breathtakingly beautiful examination of death, grief, loss, and love. Citing its obvious deep respect and reverence for the cultures, people, and video games that came before it. Clair Obscur  strikes the balance between pastiche and derivative work.

The latest content will be out for free on October 23, 2025. Frosthaven , the follow-up to 2021's strategy RPG Gloomhaven, will see the release of its first major content update later this month. This latest update, titled Awakening Protocol , comes with a huge amount of new features and content, including new playable characters. Awakening Protocol 's new content: The Unfettered Storyline: Confront the machine uprising, driven by a mysterious and formidable leader. 3 New Playable Heroes: Unlock 3 powerful new heroes and reshape the battlefield with bold new strategies. 5 New Bosses: Battle mechanical and unknown horrors, equipped with challenging abilities. 18+ More Quests: Explore new areas and confront dangerous threats. 1 New Building: Expand your settlement’s capabilities with the Town Hall. 8 Building Upgrades:  Enhance and build up Frosthaven even further. 40+ New Items: Discover many new tools, weapons, and gear. Challenges: Tackle unique objectives that offer additional risk and reward. Job Postings: Complete new side quests from the Town Hall and increase your party’s capabilities. This all new storyline sees the player explore the great facility of an ancient civilization that fell into ruin millennia ago. The Unfettered, forged for service and abandoned to rust, now rise with vengeance, driven by an enigmatic leader and a relentless plan. We've had a ton of fun with Frosthaven early access thus far here at JetsonPlaysGames, so additional content and storylines to work though sounds like a great addition to an already great time. One of my largest personal complaints was the lack of playable characters, which can force some awkward decisions for full groups of players. Three additional characters to choose from alleviates that quite a bit, offering more party composition variety so players don't feel as forced into one role or another. What is Frosthaven ? Frosthaven is a dark fantasy strategy RPG, and is the story of a small outpost far to the north of the capital city of White Oak. Set in the same world as the 2021 title Gloomhaven, the people of Frosthaven must contend with harsh weather and ferocious foes in order to survive. Developed by Snapshot Games Inc., Frosthaven  (digital version) attempts to convert the complex mechanics and deep world of the tabletop version into a video game format. In our preview for Frosthaven 's early access, Taylor Rioux said " I came away quite impressed with the depth and breadth of what is available to the player within Frosthaven . For an early access title, there are a large number of scenarios and events to engage in, as well as deep, complex mechanics to contend with. It’s too early to speak much on the overarching narrative, but early impressions are strong here, too, as the game is deftly written in the cutscenes and events throughout. If you have played the tabletop version, you’re getting more of the same, but this is a strong recommendation for anyone who enjoys tactical RPGs or tabletop RPGs at home." Image Credits: Snapshot Games Inc .

The world of Vampire: The Masquerade is a deeply interesting one. Set within a sort of mixed contemporary and gothic universe, it’s full of political intrigue, world-building, interpersonal relationships, and intrapersonal exploration. The world and its systems force players to contend with not only their humanity (or lack thereof), but also with the pressures of maintaining appearances, as maintaining The Masquerade is of utmost importance to your own safety and that of vampire society at large. And yet, after having played  Bloodlines , trying my hand at the tabletop game, and even starting this title twice before, it has never quite managed to grab me. I’ve never really been able to grasp or remember the differences between clans like the Toreador or Tremere. I’ve never fully understood or engaged with the political system of its society, and I’ve certainly never found myself to be able to contend with all of the names and history of its individuals. However, after starting Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York for the third time, I’ve found myself enraptured by its presence — able to honestly and earnestly engage with the world and its trappings in ways I had never been able to previously. Publisher: Dear Villagers Developer:   Draw Distance Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability:  Released on December 11, 2019 for Windows PC (Steam), January 23, 2020 for Linux, macOS, March 24, 2020 for Nintendo Switch, March 25, 2020 for PlayStation 4, and April 15, 2020 for Xbox One. Part of that likely lies with my own evolving preferences and tolerances over the years. Visual novels are not technically a new genre for me, but I haven’t ever really been able to enjoy them in a broad sense until the last few years. There’s also the absolutely stunning artwork, filled with enticing character portraits and gorgeous, shifting backgrounds. In service of that visual novel format, the characterization for the entities you encounter throughout the story are enthralling. As Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York is a visual novel, and I am not being tasked with engaging with difficult to interpret mechanical systems. I don’t need to know the ins and outs of the world to craft a meaningful or precise background. While having some familiarity with the world may make the experience a little more smooth, it’s definitely not necessary. This is thanks to the player character starting out as a fledgling themselves, unfamiliar with the vampire society they have been unwittingly thrust into, and assisted by the game’s solid in-game encyclopedia. There’s also the absolutely stunning artwork, filled with enticing character portraits and gorgeous, shifting backgrounds. In service of that visual novel format, the characterization for the entities you encounter throughout the story are enthralling For new players, there are bound to be any number of unfamiliar terms thrown out in a given conversation. Those terms are, thankfully, not exposited upon within the dialogue themselves as Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York  opts for a more natural writing style, rather than an expository one. When new terminology appears it is bolded in the text, and it shows up in the encyclopedia where the player can read about it in more detail, if they so choose. At first I found myself stopping to look up the terms every single instance they popped up, which kills the conversational flow a little bit. As I played a bit more, however, I got more comfortable with finishing up a scene or conversation before then going into the terminology section to read a bit more. If you forget how and where the terms were used, there is also a conversation log you can use to refresh yourself on prior events. This can be useful for guiding your decision-making throughout the game. Your newly assigned vampiric guardian, Sophie, often does a great job of keying you into how people act, or what proper vampire etiquette may be, so having those logs is a great reminder to keep you on the right track for forming relationships and navigating the visual novel’s dialogue trees. Names, clan dispositions, and everything in-between is kept within the log — it's a powerful tool when used appropriately. But what does it mean to use something well in a game like this? Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York is breathtaking in its presentation. For most visual novels, making the “correct” choices leads to alternative story paths or different endings and romances, but that’s not strictly the case in Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York.  That isn’t to say the choices don’t “matter”. Your main choices stem from choosing what quests you undertake and with whom you spent the nights, but within each of these events exists at minimum several explicit player decisions that shape how those characters view the player character, and sometimes alter the outcomes of those self-contained events. What they don’t  do is alter the overarching story events or ending in any meaningful way. In some ways, the freedom of choice in the “side” content can feel a bit misleading when you’re railroaded into events you have no say in, but I actually think it perfectly gels with the events of the game and world at-large. At its core, Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York  is a story of powerlessness. The opening moments of the game showcase that very well, but if you pay attention, you’ll see that the main character is way out of their depth all the way through. Every single vampire you meet is more powerful than you and most are also more cunning. Each has more connections and soft power, able to leverage their understanding of the masquerade and the coteries in ways a fledgling like you just fundamentally cannot. Most of the people you encounter are using you and the only way to advance is to let them use you in a way that is also beneficial to your goals. So when that ending does come around and your agency is stripped away, it feels natural. It’s the only way this could have ever played out. You never had a full hand of cards, and you’re at the table with sharks. Your only option was to go all-in, but it should be no surprise to any of us that the chips don’t fall your way. Verdict Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York  is an absolutely gorgeous title, with mesmerizing, painterly artwork that showcases the viciousness and beauty held within the World of Darkness. Smart characterization and moody atmosphere color the experience in positive ways, as well. Some may not love the way the ending comes so abruptly, but this is a violent and uncaring world. I’m just here for the ride. Image Credits: Dear Villagers and Draw Distance

Onto the Next One. Next of Kin: Fidelity  is the second of three Next of Kin titles by Spelkväll Games — the follow-up to 2024’s Next of Kin.  Marketed as an emotional journey of a man haunted by his past, it’s the type of game that I love to cover most — a short indie experience with a heavy narrative focus. Loss, trauma, and grief are not uncommon subjects for games to touch upon, and while exploration of these subject matters is certainly welcome in games, I always find it a bit more interesting to look for what’s revealed between the margins. What does a game say about the other stuff it touches upon, even accidentally? What can we find beyond the grief, beyond the trauma, and beyond the text? How does the way we play, and what we can (or cannot) do affect the experience? There’s always something a little nerve-wracking about taking a game like Next of Kin: Fidelity  at face value. People pour their hearts into the work — what if I just don’t understand it? What if I just don’t like it? Unfortunately, at least one of those is true. Publisher: Spelkväll Games Developer:   Spelkväll Games Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability:  Released on September 18, 2025 for Windows PC (Steam, Epic Games, GOG), PS4/5, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, and Nintendo Switch. But maybe I’ve gotten ahead of myself there. Let’s talk about the game as it is, not as it is intended to be. Next of Kin: Fidelity  is an pixel-art adventure game set across two distinct eras, following the lead character Bjorn throughout both. We get to explore both how he lives now and how he got there, reliving his childhood memories and exploring his dreams all while Bjorn the adult tries to go on dates and navigate daily life.  Starting off in an intense space sequence, we quickly learn this is a dream — one that Bjorn has had before. As Bjorn wakes up to his blaring alarm, he realizes he’s late for a date and rushes to meet a woman he doesn’t even know. From here, the game darts back and forth between a series of dream sequences, memories, and contemporary scenes in order to give you a clearer picture into Bjorn’s mentality. However, I find it odd that we’ve landed on making this into an adventure video game in the first place.  I understand that seems harsh — there are millions of visual novels and story-driven games out there — but Next of Kin: Fidelity  doesn’t use the medium in any way that couldn’t also be served as a novella, short story, or kinetic novel. There are a large number of very basic grievances I have with playing this title in any capacity, especially when we eliminate the story from consideration. I think much of it boils down to the fact that not only do you not really do anything engaging, but also that the imagery on-screen does not convey anything interesting. I understand that seems harsh — there are millions of visual novels and story-driven games out there — but Next of Kin: Fidelity doesn’t use the medium in any way that couldn’t also be served as a novella, short story, or kinetic novel. The first hour or so is especially rough, in this regard. There are no immediate narrative hooks, and it is further distracted by multiple asides in the forms of dream or memories. The dialogue and overarching text is quite bland, as well. You can interact with many objects and NPCs throughout the game, but much of what we get is just the main character, Bjorn, telling you that he doesn’t care about the thing you’re looking at, or doesn’t have pressing action to take. The interactability is wasted. The text for these situations is also repeated — no unique identifiers or wording regarding that examination per object. Additionally, the art is disjointed, with objects and figures seeming to have distractingly variable levels of quality. At one point there is a toy ship model on the screen that just looks like it was ripped out of an entirely different game. Objects have varying levels of “pixelation” to them, with some objects appearing low poly and others smoothed out. Asset reuse is rampant, with trees and boulders haphazardly and frequently copy-pasted next to one another. The buildings are all plain, and much of the scenery is repetitive. Assets frequently clip through one another as well, such as when a character is walking through a small passage or between objects. If that weren't enough, the environs and area layouts themselves are quite dull. There’s no real sense that anything here was placed deliberately, with those cloned objects seeming to fill space rather than tell a story. Embarrassingly, there was a cave early on that actually put me to sleep, as every inch looks exactly the same, with a single set of rock tiles replicated over and over. The cave is not even that long — it’s just a stretch of time where nothing is happening visually with no music. The lack of sound effects is also quite glaring, save Bjorn’s footsteps.  Most of the game is structured this way — uninspired areas with no sense of purpose or identity. Next of Kin: Fidelity  is marred by technical inadequacies, as well. I’ve been met with overlapping text and clipping multiple times. Navigating menus is a huge pain because there is a significant delay, and you can't cycle through options quickly as the game simply will not register your inputs if you put them in too fast.  Of course, Next of Kin: Fidelity  is built around its story, so how much can any of these matter? Quite a lot, actually. Especially when you combine all of it together. As a single entity, maybe the lack of cohesion in art style would be more forgivable, but if every part of the game is lacking except for the story, I inevitably circle back to my initial question: why is this an adventure game ? The rampant asset reuse combined with frequent visual glitches makes for a bad experience. Frankly, the story is effective. It offers an exploration of Bjorn’s grief that is interesting enough to keep you going, taking a look at what that grief does to a person, how we live with it, and so on. It also takes a smaller look at subjects like abuse and sexism, and how those things might affect the lives of people around us. However, the scenery and gameplay take away from what is being presented. There’s a real lack of humanity and cohesiveness to the presentation element of the game. I understand that it has been developed with combined sets of free assets, and that it is building on a prior title, but everything in this world that isn’t the text feels like an afterthought. If this story was one that was vital for the author to get out, I fear it may have been better served as a written work in whole. On the page, there’s an opportunity to offload some of that visual work to the reader, to let the mind take the reader to places the art team cannot. Video games are such a unique medium for many reasons. Interactivity may be the single most important, but it is a mistake to dismiss the value of other elements when creating a game world. The way your trees look or even how they are placed can shape a player’s perception of the setting, the music you play at integral scenes can set or enhance the mood of any given moment, and even the color palette or lighting used can dramatically alter meaning. There’s no limit to the stories you can shape with the tools at your disposal, so for a game to be so bereft of it all is disheartening. Games excel at telling stories in-between the lines, but for Next of Kin: Fidelity , the margins are blank. Verdict Next of Kin: Fidelity  has a story to tell, but holds no mechanism of delivering it in an interesting way. It’s a shame that the environments and assets used are not up to the task of creating something that serves the game better, as the story can hold up as something worthwhile on its own. Image Credits: Spelkväll Games Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product.

CONTENT WARNING : Consume Me is a semi-autobiographical game that depicts dieting, disordered eating, and fatphobia. As such, this review will touch on those topics. I've been there, you know? Looking into the mirror at my own reflection, seeing the man staring back at me and being unhappy. So sure that what I looked like, and who I was would never be enough. Sometimes, those thoughts would start out small, a slight imperfection reflected on the glass that could be easy to fix. But that’s never the end of it. I would think, “oh, if I just lost a few pounds I’d be happy with myself”, but when I would get there I couldn’t help but feel like I should be doing more. Just cut a few more calories, work out a little longer, stay up a bit later to get everything done. It’s never enough. So, when Jenny’s mother chastises Jenny for her weight in the opening moments of Consume Me , I felt my own shame returning — a feeling that was cemented when Jenny finds herself in front of her own mirror and berates herself in turn. Publisher: Hexecutable Developer:   Hexecutable Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability:  Releasing on September 25, 2025 for Windows PC (Steam). Consume Me is a semi-autobiographical life-sim RPG that explores one girl’s struggles with disordered eating, love, societal pressures, and shame. Jenny — the lead in this little tale — comes from a Chinese-American household, often butting heads with her strict (perhaps overbearing) mother, and must learn to navigate her day-to-day by balancing academics, relationships, dieting, and household chores. Despite these difficult and serious topics, Consume Me  frames all of it within the game as silly, simple, and charming mini-games.  Every aspect of these daily tasks has been gamified, and often in exceedingly clever ways. Meals involve placing Tetris-like pieces on a plate, with special target areas for placement that keep Jenny full. Of course, managing your “bites” count is its own concern, with some foods costing more to use than others. Reading involves trying to keep Jenny’s eyes focused on the material by rapidly clicking as her head swings wildly from point to point. Aerobics involves dragging Jenny’s body into awkward positions within a tight time limit, stretching and contorting her entire being to fit into place. It’s all intensely fun and impossibly charming — an insidious reflection of the very real problems that the material represents. That block puzzle lunch is just counting calories, and combined with working out to put yourself in a calorie deficit, it is reminiscent of disordered eating and exercise habits. Additionally, the inability to focus on the reading material calls back to the attention disorders that many people struggle with. By formulating these difficult areas of conversation as fun and engaging activities, Consume me makes it all too easy to fall into those unhealthy lifestyle habits. Staying up late each night through coffee or force of will is easy enough, and it’s the only way you’ll ever manage to mark off all your tasks. Jenny’s relief after each activity masking the underlying self-esteem issues that plague her. Her smile is a lie she tells herself to make the suffering worth it. Consume me is so charming and expressive, it feels impossible not to fall in love. I was smiling too. The resource management was engaging enough that I found myself min-maxing every activity, burning the candle at both ends just long enough to find myself in a nice bath at 3 A.M. so I could recharge for the next day. With each completed task, Jenny’s absurd expressions uplifted my spirits, driving me deeper into the obsession of getting everything “just right.” Every week within the game brings on its own challenges, but I made sure I met them all. Every task and side task done, maxing out my skills as best as I could, making sure I had enough money for the next week — I was a whirlwind of productivity and efficiency. I was myself consumed by the idea of checking every box. I could spend my energy and happiness to extend my daily free time, then I would use my guts (hunger) to recharge that energy again, which I could then use to help recharge happiness and guts, and so on. Every daily activity was a balancing act in service of achieving a higher purpose. I could read the books I needed, write those essays, call the boyfriend, or do it all in one night if I managed my time appropriately. As the game progressed, however, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Jenny. Or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say I was ashamed of what I was putting her through. Much like it was with me, nothing Jenny ever did was enough. Dietary restrictions get tighter, the workload gets heavier, and relationships begin to strain under the weight of Jenny’s compulsive adherence to perfection. My adherence to it. In a moment of my own weakness I considered doing less. How could I give Jenny the better life I so desired for myself at this age? There’s more to life than slavishly praying at the altar of efficiency. There has to be, right? Could I do what was necessary to progress and simply let the rest slide by? Would that help her? I may never know the answer to that question. I  couldn’t do it.  I was nearing the end, so why should I change now? I’m close to having everything I want. How could I give Jenny the better life I so desired for myself at this age? There’s more to life than slavishly praying at the altar of efficiency. There has to be, right? You’re never close, actually. Close is relative. For every goal you approach, another rises in its wake. The shadow it casts is itself a demon of desire, inching ever forward in pursuit, never giving you enough time to just breathe . So I just held my breath, instead. I should have known better, of course. Life isn’t a game you can win. I’m not sure Consume Me  is, either. Its description says it has “over 13 possible endings: most of them bad!” What each of those endings entails might be beside the point. Endings aren’t the story — they’re merely the punctuation. The story of Jenny was the one I built in-between the margins. The one where I sacrificed her happiness over and over to win against a rival, or make the desired weight. The one where I crammed coffee, energy drinks, and protein bars to keep the nights rolling. I’m still writing my own story, and as each chapter of my life ends and new pages are turned, nothing feels more certain than a “bad ending”. But why would I care about that, really? It's too late now to worry about the bridges I burned when I was a kid, or the paths not taken. I can’t really bring myself to be concerned about where those choices put me, eventually . I simply find it much more pressing to ask myself if I’m living well now . Not strictly in a health or wealth sense, but in more of a “am I happy” sense. Have I told enough people that I love them? Have I done that often enough? Am I a good husband, son, or father? What can I do right now to turn the answers to those questions into a “yes”? The aches that pain me are not those of regret, but rather inaction. Am I doing enough? Am I enough? For my own part, I made Jenny feel those aches, too. Verdict Consume Me  is endlessly creative, touching, and gorgeous — certainly worthy of the pre-release praise it has garnered. It’s a true jewel in the crown of video games that manages to perfectly marry the gameplay with the narrative. Every inch of this work of art feels personal in a way that has left me feeling simultaneously certain in its meaning and perplexed by my own understanding or interpretation of it. Image Credits: Hexecutable Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product.

Casting Shadows When Elden Ring first released in 2022, it cast such a large shadow that it basically became an inescapable part of online discourse – whether you played it or not. That shadow didn’t just cover every game that came out around the same time (sorry, Horizon), but it also extended to FromSoftware’s games themselves – past and future. In many ways a departure from their previous games, Elden Ring might raise questions about the direction FromSoftware games might take, and to some, they might wonder if anything else could live up to Elden Ring. With the release of Shadow of the Erdtree , I’d say we end up with more long-term questions than answers (both in-game and in reference to FromSoftware' s direction itself), but it stands as a monumental experience. A massive, winding world, with great fights, music, exploration, and mystique, Shadow of the Erdtree follows what I would consider a general FromSoftware thread - the DLC is high quality content, it is harder than the base game experience, and it does not answer most of the mysteries of the base game. Instead, Shadow of the Erdtree focuses on one major aspect, and creates many new questions in its wake. Publisher: Bandai Namco Developer:  FromSoftware Platform:  Played on PS5 Availability:  Released June 20, 2024 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X Kindly Miquella atop a familiar steed. Where Shadow of the Erdtree differs from other FromSoftware DLC is in mainly in two specific ways – Extremely long and vast by their DLC standards, and the character progression being not as directly tied to the main game. For the first point, it took me somewhere between 30-40 hours. Unfortunately, I did not take down specific times, as I did not initially plan to write a review on the experience. There was talk about the DLC map being about the size of Limgrave (the starting point in base Elden Ring), but this is clearly larger, more intricate, and frankly, more interesting. So much of the new map feels more intentionally built than the base game. The side areas feel less samey and repetitive, and the bosses are more unique in form and function. Gone are the days of cat statue repeats, or Godrick clones. We don’t have to walk down the same copy-pasted mineshafts any longer. Individual areas and dungeons have so many paths into and out of them, it can be easy to miss an area here or there if you aren’t keeping track. The Shadow Keep was especially exciting to me. I came in through a back door and found no less than 4 exits to this legacy dungeon before I spun back around to take down the boss. It seemed as if every time I ran through the area, I found a new item I missed, or room I didn’t see. The excellence of The Shadow Keep, then, makes some of the other aspects of the DLC exploration so disappointing. Too many of the winding paths, or caves, or dungeons end up providing nothing of substance. So many of the cool hideaways give you a low-end smithing stone (which you can just buy) or a weak spirit ash (which you will likely never use). It can feel a bit like entitlement to complain – Shadow of the Erdtree gives many weapons (including new types), spells (also new types), and ashes of war – but having so much space dedicated to literal junk is just plain disappointing. The dark and eerie Land of Shadow offers much to see and experience. The second major departure, character progression, adds a bit of an interesting twist on how you power up in the DLC. While your levels are still very important for things like, health, FP, stamina, and equipment/spell requirements, additional levels are noticeably less impactful than the Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes on your Damage, Damage reduction, and spirit ash strength. These new collectibles directly scale your damage and damage reduction the more you find – no leveling necessary. For many, these will be integral in beating some of the harder bosses. If you start to struggle, this is a great place to start for a quick boost. It also ties in nicely with he exploration loop. As these items are scattered throughout the Shadow Lands, venturing out and exploring becomes integral to the experience. These upgrades do not transfer to the main game, so there’s a bit of a disconnect there, but you’ll still get a decent number of runes to spend on levels or items. Shadow of the Erdtree excels in every way that Elden Ring proper does; the DLC has great boss fights (especially remembrance bosses), extraordinary freedom in build and weapon variety, and great music. For my money, I’d say the DLC is just flat out a better product than the main game in key areas as well. My previous complaints of ER notwithstanding, Shadow of the Erdtree feels more deliberate in its construction from top to bottom. They used what worked well in the base game to craft something that plays to the game’s strengths and either discards or minimizes its weaknesses. The NPCs, for instance, are more important or interesting that what you’d generally find in the base game, and have branching questlines. A plethora of unique spells, Ashes of War, and weapons await for you to try. Regrettably, some of the faults of ER do still fester. Weapon and spell balance is way out of whack in both PvE and PvP, with many options just being flat out better than other tools in their class by a significant margin. Some of the spells are so weak (or so powerful in a few cases), you must wonder if they’re all just bugged in some way. Major bosses with great lore relevance get no introductory scene or dialogue. And the DLC continues the FromSoftware tradition of barely including a story, and what is there creates more questions than answers. I know that the way FromSoftware presents their stories is already fairly polarizing – I myself am somewhere on the fence with it, in general. For those that don’t know, these games do  have a story, but not really a narrative. At least, not in a traditional sense. You get an opening scene that vaguely states what you are supposed to do, and in some games, they might explicitly tell you why you should be doing these things. Then, for the rest of the game, 98% of relevant world or plot information is tucked away in item descriptions. While a vast majority of the text lends itself to worldbuilding (flavorful descriptions that describe events that happened in the past or the way specific factions or people felt about an event), some of these descriptions are vital to understand the events you are currently going through. For many, the hunt for information is the best part of the ‘Souls” games. People spend weeks, months, and years hunting down every item and secret in the game. Gathering the texts and rearranging them on their corkboard like a detective uncovering a deep-state secret is not only fun, but it is the point  of the experience. Often the conclusions people reach are not explicitly stated in game– requiring leaps in logic or guesswork to make the pieces fit. For me, while I do enjoy that part of it quite a bit, I would absolutely appreciate a little more clarity as the game progresses. I should not need to reach and endgame area to learn why Steve, the second boss, is here trying to kill me (he’s recently been divorced by Tim, Final Bossman, and now they’re having a property rights squabble – you just happen to be walking down the wrong side of the street). You'll face foes both fearsome and strange here in the Land of Shadow Shadow of the Erdtree not only follows this, but I feel there is less clarity on why you need to be here at all until you’re reaching the end of the DLC, where, surprisingly, things are neatly laid out for you. And while the why does eventually get some semblance of clarity, the how  is only briefly referenced, and the DLC creates 10 mysteries for every answer it provided for the main game. If you came in here looking for anything other than what one guy, specifically, might have been up to from Elden Ring, you’re kind of out of luck. If that all sounds a bit daunting, the community has a number of youtubers or redditors who can cleanly lay out what everyone has found thus far. For what it's worth, I played through the DLC with a level 200+ character, and used multiple different weapons and styles as part of the experience. Once I finished the DLC, I brought these new toys with me to the base game on NG+2. Some of the new goodies absolutely trivialize the main game, and going back the enemies might seem almost docile. I fully recommend you play through the DLC for the first time as an endcap to your adventure. Verdict Shadow of the Erdtree serves as a monumental achievement in FromSoftware’s library. I firmly believe that the combination of exploration, music, boss fights, art direction, freedom of exploration, weapon and armor variety and any number of other successes have coalesced to create FromSoftware’s best DLC to date. A tight, fun, and ultimately moving experience that I would put in the upper echelon of their work, period. While the game might hold on to some controversial aspects of Elden Ring’s initial design, the DLC elevates, improves, or contextualizes so much of what has come before, it’s hard to say this is anything else than a masterwork. For every fault or flaw I might come up with, a million bright spots wash over them like a blinding light. At times serene, and at other moments haunting, Shadow of the Erdtree is here to sweep you off your feet - dead or alive. Marginally harder than the base game, you might run into some hard walls if you are not prepared. However, if you finished the main game and all of the side content there, you shouldn't find yourself struggling too much. Image Credits: Bandai Namco and FromSoftware