Search Results

Big fan of bingo. While Resident Evil 2  was my introduction to the Resident Evil   series, Resident Evil 4 was certainly the one I spent the most time with and the one I loved the most growing up. Originally released in 2005 to widespread acclaim, RE4  has been among the top listings on multiple ‘Best Game of All Time’ lists. Having played Resident Evil 4 many times on the Gamecube, PS2, and Xbox 360, I was excited for the remake heading in — and perhaps a little nervous. Despite Capcom’s excellent track record as of late, there was a bit of uncertainty in my mind on how well this remake would be handled. I was a fan of the major updates and changes made to Resident Evil 2  in the 2019 remake, but I didn’t want to see such sweeping changes to 4, as it felt like it really only needed some tweaks to nail down. Luckily, I think Capcom succeeded in achieving this. Publisher:  Capcom Developer:  Capcom Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released January 25, 2019 for PS4, Xbox One, and Windows. June 13, 2022 for PS5, and Xbox Series S/X. Resident Evil 4 (2023) is a survival horror game with a heavy emphasis on action and gunplay. In a departure from games one through three, the original RE4 saw the camera shift from a static camera to an over the shoulder view of the player character, and controls were updated for more fluid movement and precise shooting. While it was a somewhat controversial change among series fans at the time, it has been fully embraced by Capcom and mostly so by the fanbase at large. That style of play remains here in the remake.. As Leon S. Kennedy, you are tasked with finding the President’s daughter Ashley in a remote Spanish village. This kidnapping has been orchestrated by the cult Los Iluminados, a parasite-infested, murderous group led by Osmund Saddler, who seeks to infect Ashley with their parasite and control her (and, eventually, the world). Leon travels through multiple locales and solves many puzzles in an effort to save Ashley and put a stop to the Los Illuminados, but surprising twists along the way keep things interesting - despite the basic premise. The design and flow of the game remains extremely similar to the original Resident Evil 4  — go to a new area, fight a bunch of enemies, maybe find a new weapon, solve a puzzle, and move on to repeat again. There are some slight variations here and there, such as solving a puzzle while on a timer or being chased, surviving waves of enemies, and even some escort elements as you lead Ashley around to safety. These basic ideas are mostly kept fresh by the ever shifting circumstances and environments you engage with, but Capcom also does well by adding new surprises as you go, introducing a turret section or a boat ride to keep things fresh. Broadly speaking, not much of the gameplay has changed in a major way when comparing the original 2005 title to Resident Evil 4 (2023) , but there are some minor tweaks that improve the experience. For starters, Ashley has a lot more survivability, meaning you can spend less time babysitting her health bar, and more time delivering her to safe positions. Another major change is the way knives work. If you’ve played the phenomenal Resident Evil 2 (2019) , the breakable knife mechanic from that game has carried over here. Scarcity of knives in the beginning sections means you have to be more particular about their use, judging whether to save them for emergencies or being proactive and using them for your offensive arsenal. There are other minor adjustments, as well — Leon can move and shoot at the same time, there’s a limited crafting system, and quick-time events have been removed from the cutscenes. Despite this, the remake remains surprisingly faithful to the original game, making only minor adjustments for the most part; so, when big changes do show up (or don’t, in the case of some bosses), it becomes much more apparent. It baffles me that Capcom consistently makes such gorgeous titles. That aforementioned faithfulness is perhaps most notably shown in the enemy types and environments. For enemies, all of the classic basic foes (Villagers, Zealots) remain, and the special ‘elite’ types like Garadors and Regenerators are here, as well, revealing themselves exactly as they did in Resident Evil 4 . There are some notable boss exclusions from the base game, like U-3 and one of Salazar’s “hands,” but most of the major bosses are present also.  The environments are stunning and lovingly recreated with modern technology. While there are some more prominent changes later in the game (notably during the island portion of the story), I was almost shocked at just how little was changed in terms of area and building layouts in the early village moments. Anyone who has played the original game is bound to recognize many of the buildings and puzzles. That familiarity makes the changes stand out all the more. Any time there was a new puzzle or fresh cavern to explore, I was ecstatic about the prospect of encountering something new. Resident Evil 4 (2023) still retains its arsenal of handguns, shotguns, rifles, grenades, and rocket launchers. Most of these weapons are upgradeable at the Mysterious Merchant’s shop, so you can keep playing with older weapons if you like the feel of it, or swap to the new ones you come across. Fortunately, there is also a target range you can use to try out the weapons and earn prizes in the form of keychains that increase various stats, such as reload speed, movement speed, or the amount of health recovered by specific items. The weapons all have a unique feel to them and sound great, but it is a bit disappointing that there are so few new tools to play with. Speaking of the sound design, its greatness doesn’t stop at just the guns. Much like the RE2 remake before it, Capcom makes excellent use of ambient sounds and background voices to help create unease and tension. On top of that, every explosion is appropriately bombastic, and each splash of water or hit from an attack is justifiably weighty. Capcom has managed to create the perfect soundscape to this game, concocting a beautiful mix of both terror and excitement. Anyone who has played the original game is bound to recognize many of the buildings and puzzles. That familiarity makes the changes stand out all the more. Any time there was a new puzzle or fresh cavern to explore, I was ecstatic about the prospect of encountering something new. Thankfully, the levity and absurdity of some moments from the original version remains, with Leon feeling fittingly quippy and aloof, while maintaining some of that personality he had shown in Resident Evil 2 (2019). Many of the original one-liners remain, though some have been slightly altered, and new lines are quite common. More ludicrous moments like the high-speed mine cart ride full of enemies wielding guns and dynamite stand pat, keeping that feeling of familiarity close at all times. Even the Merchant, a seemingly random guy willing to provide Leon with an preposterously diverse array of weaponry, remains. The laser trap room is gone, however, so that’s a bit of a bummer. Probably my favorite aspect of the original Resident Evil 4  was the Mercenaries mode, which makes its return here. Mercenaries is a mode where you fend off waves of enemies while trying to boost your score. Score gets increased based on chains of consecutive enemies eliminated, total enemies killed, and time remaining on the clock (if any) when all foes are gone. You can choose up to 8 different characters, each with their own abilities and weaponry. It’s a fun little arcade mode to test out your skills, and there’s a good prize if you get an S rank on every stage. I spent much less time on this version when compared to the original game, however. It just didn’t really click for me in the same way. In truth, there was a hint of disconnectedness through my entire playthrough. I enjoyed my time with the remake thoroughly, and I would much rather play through it again than go back to the GameCube or PS2 versions. But somehow, despite being better in just about every conceivable way, I’ve come away not liking it nearly as much as I loved Resident Evil 4 . That’s a ‘me’ problem, surely. I’ve struggled with decoupling my personal feelings and expectations from a remake before , and I’m sure I will again. I was constantly reminded of what the original was, and what this game was missing or did different. I find it regrettable that most of my time playing, and most of this review, ended up being comparative , rather than thoughts formed in a vacuum. For newer players, I would certainly suggest Resident Evil 4 (2023)  over the original. I just find it unfortunate that a blend of nostalgia and my own expectations have diminished what would have otherwise probably been an incredible affair.   Verdict Resident Evil 4 (2023)  is an excellent game that captures the tone and absurdity of the original RE4 , while breathing fresh air into its systems. Beyond graphical or audio enhancements, this game improves on every bit of the core gameplay when compared to the original. The fast-paced, fun, and fluid gunplay goes well with the exponentially more aggressive enemies, creating an experience that is both tense and action-packed. The phenomenally designed environments and character models are sometimes grotesque and at other times strikingly beautiful, and give an iconic scenario more than their due. Resident Evil 4 (2023)  has a great respect for its source material, but is not afraid to make some changes, and it's all the better for it.  Image Credits: Capcom

Putting it all together. Compile: Main 2  is a strategic, area control card game and the standalone expansion to Compile: Main 1 . As a standalone expansion it can be played in conjunction with the original Compile: Main 1,  or played on its own. In some ways, calling it an “expansion” feels unkind, as Main 2  is just as robust of a package as the original, featuring 12 unique protocols and decks, each with six cards. This makes it just as complete as playing Main 1  on its own. Product:   Compile: Main 2 Designer: Michael Yang Publisher:   Synapses Games , Luma Imports Price: $24.99 Age:  14+ The ruleset is exactly the same between Main 1 and Main 2 , so if you’re already familiar with the concept and gameplay loop of the original, don’t expect any changes in that regard. Each of the two players will select three Protocols each to work with, which are then played into “command lines” or lanes. These protocols each have their own unique identity, such as “Luck” utilizing a sort of luck-based approach to play and “Chaos” that implements chaotic card management, drawing and rearranging. Once the value of a line is 10 or more and that value is more than your opponent’s value on the same line, you must compile them. Compiling deletes all cards on that line for both you and your opponent, placing them into the trash. The player who compiled flips the associated protocol card, generating new effects. The first player to flip all 3 of their protocol cards to the “compiled” side wins. All things considered, the ruleset and main flow of the game are both quite simple, with very little to keep track of on that side of the equation. Where Compile: Main 2  really shines is in the ways the card effects themselves interact to create these constantly evolving board states that can change the way players approach each turn and every game. This was true of Main 1 , as well, but I find this newer entry to be a bit more balanced overall with a greater distribution of powerful effects that allow for player experimentation without engendering a feeling of being pigeonholed into particular strategies or protocols. While it is true that not every protocol synergizes well with other protocols (or even within its own deck), the open nature of play allows for unique and experimental strategies in every new game. Synergy is not entirely necessary when you can simply combine multiple powerful effects to achieve the same goals, even if those effects don’t compound or compliment each other in obvious, natural ways. Furthermore, as each game will only run you about 20 minutes to play, you can really throw caution to the wind to try new approaches. You’ll never feel punished in an existential sense for messing around and trying out a new combination. If something didn’t work as well as you intended, you still got the opportunity to play a fun game for a little bit of time, and you can just move on and try again. There’s no hours-long investment to see your strategies come to fruition — you play the cards and things are done. These cards are amazing to hold and behold. I do want to take the time to speak about (and compliment) the actual “product” itself, not just the game quality. Compile: Main 2  comes in a small, black box, and only contains a single piece of paper for its ruleset. The compact nature of the box, along with its gold accents and design that is reminiscent of computer hardware, holds a simple beauty. The box is nothing compared to the cards, though. I wish I had a way to gush about these cards for more than a few lines. They feel phenomenal to hold in your hand — there’s a nice texture to them that you rarely see in card games, and they seem to be made of sturdy stock. There is also a light foil effect on each, with some accents around the command lines and names that highlight the individual areas of the card in a really cool way. I won’t pretend to know the specifics of how card making happens, or how different foil effects change the quality of a card, but none of my cards have come warped or deteriorating in any way — something I wish was also true of my collections across other media franchises. There is one additional aspect of these cards that took my breath away when I first saw it — the artwork. The cards within each deck themselves look extremely simple, with basic shapes and colors that don’t seem to mean or depict anything in particular. However, when examined closely, we can see that each is a piece of a larger whole, a part of a mosaic that ultimately makes up the whole image on the “compiled” side of the protocol cards. These full works on the protocol cards are stunning, and the texture and light foil effects on each only serve to accentuate that. Looking at and holding these cards is just such a wonderful feeling. I want to keep them around even when I’m not playing. Verdict Ultimately, it’s hard to argue against Compile: Main 2  as a product or as a game. The packaging and presentation is great, the game is a lot of fun and it can be played by all skill levels, and it is a low-investment game. Being able to mix and match these cards with Main 1  is simply a bonus at this point. This is a full game, worthy of its own praise and play, and one I highly recommend. Disclosure: We received a free copy of this title from the publisher.

2025 was a year full of great games — hidden gem indies, AAA experiences, and everything in between. For our part, we played over new 200 titles this year as a collective group, though not all of them made it for review. While there's no such thing as a definitive list, the staff here at JetsonPlaysGames did our best to come together and make a list of our 10 best titles that came out this year. This list is not ordered, and there's no math behind it — just our best gut feelings. Consume Me In our review  for Consume Me , we said it was endlessly creative, touching, gorgeous, and certainly worthy of the pre-release praise it had garnered — a statement we stand by today. Consume Me  is 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 left us feeling simultaneously certain in its meaning and perplexed by our own understanding or interpretation of it. Image Credit: Hexecutable and Roger and Roger   is a gut-punch. The type of game that is both inventive mechanically and emotionally moving. It is stylish, sometimes cute, and often devastating. At only about an hour long, and Roger is a quick play, but it will likely stick with you forever. Image Credit: Kodansha Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter  is a phenomenal blend of Sci-Fi, fantasy, and anime aesthetics that manages to balance the expressive and silly nature of the visuals with the oft serious and somber subject matter of the story. With a thriving world to explore, nuanced and interesting characters, and exciting, deep combat, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter  is sure to be regarded as a classic for years to come. Image Credit: Nihon Falcom Dispatch Dispatch  makes for an excellent watch, and seeing the events play out over several weeks as a community only heightened the anticipation and excitement for each subsequent episode. Featuring gorgeous visuals and tight, natural writing, Dispatch lands as one of the year's best experiences, even if the humor does veer on the side of vulgar and juvenile. Image Credit: AdHoc Studio Discounty In Discounty , building up your supermarket and ironing out inefficiencies is just as satisfying as ringing your products up manually. Despite some narrative loose ends and obvious areas in need of improvement, it remains an enticing, laid-back affair. Image Credit: PQube Monster Hunter Wilds Monster Hunter Wilds  starts slow but is worth the wait. Bombastic battles and diverse equipment ensure you’re always either working on something or enjoying the ride when you play. Wilds retains many of the quirks and systems that the series has been known for over the last two decades, but this is the most accessible the series has ever been. While many of the series’ edges have been sanded off, it still remains a rewarding experience, overall. Image Credit: Capcom Herald: The Interactive Period Drama — Complete Edition The final two books in Herald: The Interactive Period Drama – Complete Edition  stay the course and deliver upon the promising narrative laid out when the first two books were released in 2017. While the lack of clear and distinct agency or choice may throw some overboard, the design serves the broader narrative and drives home many of the underlying themes, crafting a powerful tale about agency and oppression. Image Credit: Wispfire Split Fiction Split Fiction is a winding speedway of gameplay concepts and modes, shunting players between 2D platformers and pinball machines as they navigate the worlds within the characters’ minds. While the story is predictable, there’s always something new around the corner to keep your mind off of it. Image Credit: Electronic Arts Blue Prince One part puzzle game and one part roguelite, Blue Prince   is a beacon of creativity and mystery. Masterful use of space, color, and the video game medium itself have concocted a beautiful blend of storytelling and puzzle solving. In many respects, Blue Prince is a collaborative effort between the game and its players, with each run feeling unique by handing the players the keys to the manor Image Credit: Raw Fury Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist As a follow-up to Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights , Ender Magnolia  improves upon its predecessor in nearly every way. Its freeform, deep combat is open to player experimentation, keeping each and every moment spent navigating its labyrinthine map fascinating. Image Credit: Binary Haze Interactive The entire team at JetsonPlaysGames wishes to extend each and every one of our readers a heartfelt "Thank You." 2025 was a great year for games, and our top ten reflects that well, but we couldn't do this without your support. We'll see you in the new year — let's hope it's a better one!

The Tyrant of the horror genre still rules with an iron fist Content Warning: Images and descriptions of gore and violence I was still a child the first time I ever watched or played a horror game, completely unaware of what I was getting into. I remember sitting on the floor at a friend’s house, watching the screen as a man in blue trudged through the sewers, when suddenly, a giant alligator burst onto the scene. As Leon ran for his life on-screen, my friend and I were screaming the whole way. No game had ever made me feel terror like that before. We spent the rest of the day playing Resident Evil 2 (1998) , and I was so distraught when I finally had to go home. Once we got back home, I begged  my sister to get me that game. Eventually, she did. Big sis pulled through, bringing home a copy of Resident Evil 2: DualShock Version . Not really knowing what I was doing, I played it on “Arrange Game”. How cool is an unlimited gatling gun or infinite SMG? Despite these powerful tools, I was still so scared of everything I was seeing and hearing. I could not play the game in the dark, or even alone. Those squelching sounds of the zombies and the lickers’ tongues haunted my dreams for some time. Eventually, I beat the game and fell in love with the Resident Evil Franchise. Publisher:  Capcom Developer:  Capcom Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released January 25, 2019 for PS4, Xbox One, and Windows. June 13, 2022 for PS5, and Xbox Series S/X. Enter Resident Evil2 (2019) , a remake of the previously mentioned, legendary game of the same name. While remaining fully within the same survival horror genre, this newer take on the classic now features an over-the-shoulder third-person camera, like the camera angles featured in many other modern Resident Evil games and popularized by Resident Evil 4 . Modernized controls, camera angles, and completely revamped graphics make the idea of a remake an enticing prospect, and Resident Evil 2 (2019) delivers all of that and more. The core of the game remains the same: A story split across 2 scenarios and stories (Claire and Leon), where you must navigate through the winding and intricate levels of a police station, sewer, and underground lab. While trying to make your escape and survive the night, you’ll come across zombies and other horrors, solve puzzles, and frequently rearrange your inventory to make the necessary space in your pack to continue through the areas. There are differences, however, in how these function from the original game. The story itself has been slightly modified, and much of it is told through beautiful cutscenes that really showcase the great character and environmental design put in place here. The Scenario A/B function of the game is less impactful in the remake than the original game, but you’ll still see different enemy and item placements and get a different final boss. The game is also visually much darker than the original, with your characters navigating dark hallways and rooms with only a flashlight or minimal lighting to keep the enemies hidden. Puzzles in the remake are actually puzzles, rather than simple key item repositories. There are a few concessions to modern game design principles, however. Items now appear on your map if you see them, and the map will automatically update to let you know if a room has been cleaned out. Navigating the halls of the station and other areas is seamless - no loading screens whatsoever. And finally, saves are now infinite, whereas in the original game they were limited to how many ink ribbons you had on your person. Visually stunning and appropriately dark, the game knows just when to show it's hand. Another big difference is the inclusion of Mr. X as a persistent threat in the first run of the game. He is somehow one of my favorite and least favorite mechanics at the same time. He is just so tenacious. The threat of this hulking mass wandering the halls and punching you in the face at any given time really ramps up the urgency of every action. And you’ll hear his big boots coming from a mile away. It always keeps the tension high, even if you can just enter a safe room to avoid him in many situations. Without playing the game, you would assume that the increased character control and better gunplay would serve to make the game less scary than its predecessor, but I am here to tell you that is flatly untrue. While you are more capable as a player, so too are the enemies. They move faster, travel in bigger packs, and are in more tightly enclosed areas then the original game. On top of that, the graphics are so damn good – making the gore and decay present here truly repulsive sometimes. Some moments in the game are absolutely brutal to witness. All of this is tried together by the excellent sound design all throughout the game. As you wander in the dark, you’ll hear noises of your enemies in the distance. Shuffling of the walking zombies, or glass shattering, or various other disgusting sounds permeate the halls. Sometimes it’s a fake-out, and at others - a warning. Those sounds really keep you on your toes – I felt insanely paranoid throughout much of my runtime. The sounds are appropriately disgusting when needed, but I think it’s so well done in other areas, too. Things like clanking of metal bars, or aluminum cans, or how your gun rings out when you fire it are expertly crafted, and if you have a good sound system or pair of headphones, you’ll be wowed by just how great everything sounds. The voice acting is perhaps the only thing that is uneven in the sound department. Some of the performances are stellar here, while others remain a bit flat. Nothing ever reaches outright bad acting, but it’s not the strongest feature. This is a bit of a disappointment, because the story and presentation are truly excellent, overall. It serves as a great re-telling of a classic story but does enough to make itself stand out from the original material. I found myself engaged throughout the entire experience, and there were more than a few surprises, even for someone familiar with the source material. It may not have been pretty, but we made it through the experience. Something that makes this game difficult for me to review is just it’s inherent nature as a horror game. It is with great shame that I admit this game scared the ever-living-hell out of me - basically from start to finish. Every enemy I can’t see but can hear drives me into paranoia. Each time Mr. X walks through a doorway, I start spiraling into a panic. It can be hard for me to focus on the details as I play the game, because I am just so flustered. I’m just trying to survive. Despite that constant state of fear, I loved this game. Or maybe it’s because of that fear that I appreciate the craftsmanship on display here. That is the point of a horror game, after all, isn’t it? I know my general state of panic was horrifying in the moment, but when I look back on each memorable set-piece, or fight, or scene, I can’t help but think to myself damn, that was cool . Verdict Resident Evil is a franchise that exemplifies horror, and Resident Evil 2 (2019)  goes even beyond that. It is, quite simply, the finest horror game I have ever played. From the exciting story to the frightening creatures on display, this game shines brightly in the dark. It’s a game that makes you consider your options constantly and puts you on the spot to face your fears at every turn. Best of all, it’s so damn fun to play. If you are interested in Resident Evil as a franchise, or even just horror games as a whole, you owe it to yourself to play this masterpiece. Image Credits: Capcom and Taylor Rioux

One Line to Venus. The bridge of the Aphid was quiet. I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced anything quite like it. A room full of people, but the only sounds to be heard were the low hum of the engine and the occasional click of the keyboard by our navigator. After months of maneuvering, the momentum in the race for Senate control had turned against us. Captain Valence, the darling of the Jovian system, had us on the back foot. While we scraped for influence, Valence had tightened his hold on Jupiter. He was practically royalty there, and his gravity was pulling the rest of the system into his orbit. Staring at the tactical pad in front of me, I could see my reflection. God, I look tired. Product:   Zenith Designer: Grégory Grard, Mathieu Roussel Publisher:   PlayPunk, Gém Klub Kft., Luma Imports Price: $39.99 Age: 12+ Valence’s gravitas on Jupiter forced me to rethink our approach. Rather than gain control over a single planet, we’ve worked to spread ourselves out across all of the contested planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter — making in-roads with local populations and leaders. It hasn’t necessarily been easy, either. Doing so has stretched our resources thin. Valence knew it, too. He hadn’t just sat on his throne — he’d been surgical, calculated in his deployment of agents, running disruptive efforts against us and hindering our channels of communication and commerce across the system. Now, the Aphid  was running on fumes, with our reserves low on credits, and even lower on zenithium. If we didn't refuel soon, we wouldn't just lose the election — we’d be drifting dead in the void. It all came down to this, a single line thrown out to the councilors of Venus. We only needed one to bite. I looked over the crew and saw that they were tired, too. My mind turned to the nights the animod Khan and I spent down on Mercury, the days drifting on earth with Sam, and all of our collective efforts on Mars; it would all be for naught if we couldn’t secure Venus before Valence finalized his dealings on Jupiter.  Before I got lost too deeply into my own thoughts, a voice rang out. “Captain Einin, receiving communication from agents Hiroshi and Ilda on the surface!” “Patch them through, Lieutenant.” I stood up, instinctively straightening my uniform. I’d read once that posture carries through the voice — that if you want to command respect, you have to act like the other person is in the room. But it wasn't just for Hiroshi. It was also for the crew. They had sacrificed time with their families, sleep, and sanity. They needed to see a Captain, a real leader. I could only pray the call had good news. "Captain," the static crackled, followed by a breathless voice. "Agent Hiroshi reporting. We… we’ve secured an audience with Councilor Aevis at the capital." I held my breath. "And?" "She’s pledged, Captain." Hiroshi’s professional tone cracked, letting a laugh slip through.  "She’s backing you at the next session. She also wanted to convey that she appreciates the… 'mutual support.'" A wry smile began to crawl across my face. Waves of relief washed over everyone in the room. We were still in it. With Venus secured, the math worked. We held the inner system. Even without Jupiter, I had the votes to seize the majority. Provided Valence doesn’t get to it before us. “Great work, Hiroshi,” I said, trying to keep my demeanor calm and professional, “secure transport back to the Aphid  for agent Ilda and yourself. We’re breaking orbit within the hour. Out.” The communication was now closed, but another call remained to be made. “Lieutenant, put out an open message to all members of the senate.” "Ready, Captain. What’s the message?" I took a deep breath, trying desperately to calm the nerves that sent shivers through me. “I am calling for a session to be held so we may vote on the next Senate Majority Leader.” The silence that followed felt like an eternity. A silence that threatened to swallow me whole should it not be broken. The crew watched the main screen, waiting for the central AI to acknowledge the claim. “CONFIRMED. SESSION WILL BE HELD ON 11/15/2487 AT 12:00 UNIVERSAL TIME.” The bridge stayed silent for one heartbeat more, and then erupted. Cheers, whistles, and laughter filled the air. I looked around at them — my navigator wiping his eyes, my comms officer giggling into her headset. Calmly, I adjusted my cuffs, looking toward the viewport and the distant stars. My thoughts drifted to the empty bunks, the agents we lost to get here. The tech we bled to build. I looked down at our navigator. "Well then. Let’s make our way to the Curia." As the engines of the Aphid  roared to life, propelled by the last of our reserves and a renewed hope, I made a vow to those we left behind. For them, I’m going to do some good. Verdict In Zenith , players  will struggle to gain Influence on 5 planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter. A strategy game with engine building elements, Zenith  will see players manage resources, calculate where to best place their pieces, and ponder how best to interfere with their opponent’s plans. Each game takes 25-35 minutes but will keep you engaged the entire way though thanks to high player interactivity and a large number of moving parts. It also sports great board presence and immaculate artwork. It’s a great time, all around.   Disclosure: We received a free copy of this title from the publisher.

UNBEATABLE has its fair share of problems. Performance woes (such as hitching) that hinder the gameplay experience during songs and poorly implemented scene transitions are chief among them. However, if you stick all the way through it, you might just come out a bit better for it. In some ways, this game feels like a personal attack. Some of the more difficult tracks are not my style, the story is meandering and unfocused, and it frequently forces me to confront my own real-world failings.  Publisher: Playstack Developer: D-CELL GAMES Platform: Played on PC and Steam Deck Availability: Released December 12, 2025 on PS4/5, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, Windows PC, Nintendo Switch. It sounds hyperbolic — and maybe it is — but I’m writing this in the moment. In the glow immediately after finishing the game so I don’t lose my thoughts on the here and now. I want to put how I feel down rather than how I think because there will always be more time to think about UNBEATABLE, but I’ll never get to feel these first feelings again.  And I’m feeling distinctly mixed. Down. Unsure. And that’s less about the quality  of the game and more about its qualities . UNBEATABLE is a rollercoaster ride — there’s no doubt about that. The game oscillates between highs and lows, taking long, hard looks at nothing before shunting you into the coolest set-pieces a rhythm game has ever conceived, only to then jump into seemingly unrelated story beats. You’re never really on solid ground. I’m never there, either.  I see myself in Beat, the main character. She’s a bit listless and unfocused. Always jumping to the next thing, but never taking the time to resolve the issues or work of the moment — something the story shares with us. But Beat has other problems, too. She’s not good at talking about her feelings. She’s not good at people. She’s got some regrets, and they’re my regrets also. I suppose our biggest failing is how reticent we are to own up to our mistakes. Are they mistakes? Sometimes it feels like we do it on purpose. The artwork of UNBEATABLE is gorgeous and the variety of gameplay mechanics keeps things interesting. There are some specific moments in the story that prodded me in ways I was not expecting. Events from Beat’s story that are so reminiscent of my own that it hurt me to see them play out. But ultimately I don’t really think UNBEATABLE is Beat’s story at all. It's Quaver’s. And Clef’s. And it’s about everybody else around Beat who supports her, who gives her grace, who listens, plays with her, and loves her. It’s about the people who do that for us.  Through every mistake in my life I’ve been fortunate enough to have people there to pick me up. I know  that, of course, but I suppose there are moments where my head is up my own ass just enough to think I can go it alone. But I’ve never been alone. Not really, anyway.  The totality of the messaging in UNBEATBLE does come out a bit saccharine. Themes about love, support, and forgiveness are pervasive. Yet, at least for the moment, I can’t help but feel that sweetness myself. The feeling that, if I simply accept the love and care thrown my way, we really can band together and become unbeatable.

At the start of 2025, I started a podcast called Little Victories, with the sole purpose of interviewing game developers about their experiences working on games. Initially galvanized by an interview I had in 2024 with Roosa Jokiaho, who worked as a Cinematic Artist on Forspoken, this conversation led me to reach a logical but equally important conclusion. Every one of us likes to be listened to, to be engaged in deep conversation about what we have learned from our work, and to share it with others to positively impact them. Taking the plunge, I sent a direct message to Alex Kanaris-Sotiriou, creator of Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island, who I had briefly interacted with on social media and eventually became my first guest. As soon as he accepted, I knew the ball was rolling. There is always a nerve-racking feeling to create a tangible, real idea from a nebulous concept in our minds, but also a feeling of excitement that accompanies it. Looking back, it feels like everything that I had been working towards as a gaming journalist was finally taking on a purpose. After commissioning a graphic identity from a close friend of mine and having a talented piano player musicalize the introduction to the tune of The Legend of Zelda when opening a chest, the stage was set. Set in a friendly, conversational tone, every interview revolves around a set of questions that I was intrigued by playing these developers’ brilliant games: the elevating music, subdued narrative beats, big gameplay elements. What took me by surprise was the life lessons that sprouted from these chats. I wanted to take the time to ponder the seven lessons that I have learned while chatting with all of these brilliant developers who took the time to answer my questions diligently and reflect upon their work. Work Smarter, Not Harder Alex Kanaris-Sotiriou is a veteran of the gaming industry, having formerly worked at Sony Cambridge with the likes of Killzone and Ghosthunter. In 2017, Alex jumped ship from Sony and created his own independent studio, Polygon Treehouse.  A multitalented creative director, Alex created Roki in 2020 and subsequently Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island in late 2024. In my interview with him talking about the intricacies of Mythwrecked, there were abundant morsels of wisdom. It all essentially boiled down to working smarter, not harder. Mythwrecked is an isometric collect-a-thon set on an uncharted island in the Greek peninsula. As Alex, a British backpacker, you are tasked with helping the Greek gods — who have seemingly lost their memories — to regain them and remember who they are. Embodying a brilliant message to not overwork oneself, there are many forward-thinking design choices that make this lesson shine. As Alex mentions in our interview , the representation of the Greek gods at the time they were created was all about personifying the preoccupations people had at the time: Poseidon is worried about climate change, Ares is a trigger-happy manchild, and Hermes is riddled with anxiety. In life and in game development, sometimes we overcomplicate how we go about things without even thinking of the simple route. While I am sure this laissez-faire approach does not work in everyone’s case, Alex’s conversation is full of incredible reminders to take the clever route when starting a new project. Not everything needs to be as complex as we first envision it in our minds. Hey, he's trying. Image Credits: Whitethorn Games Be More Vulnerable Harold Halibut is a video game about a janitor by the name of Harold who does not quite fit into the world he was born into. Living in an underwater spaceship stranded on a far-off planet, where everyone appears to be happy with their place in life, our protagonist seems anything but. In Harold Halibut, seasoned narrative designer and writer Danny Wadeson deftly pours his heart out via a series of uniquely transcendental conversations. Society is a harsh place, but through this charming sci-fi adventure, we are reminded of how important it is to be vulnerable. Finding a friend in Weeoo, an alien fish who becomes friends with Harold, they embark on the ride of a lifetime. Uniting two lifeforms to help their predicament with a honed sense of humor and wit, the literally handcrafted set pieces evoke a holistic sense of wonder that hammers home the lesson that I am glad to have learned that day. Harold Halibut was the first game that I ever reviewed and gave a 10 out of 10 thanks to its multidisciplinary showcase of creatives to deliver one of the most heartfelt stories in the modern era of gaming.  There are moments in our day-to-day lives that we can become arrogant, maybe even aggressive, to the people who we frequent. Whether it is attributed to unresolved personal issues, constant friction at work, or simply having a bad day, staying in touch with our emotions is of utmost importance. Being more vulnerable is not just to talk openly about what we feel but to take responsibility when actions we have committed have hurt others. Finding our place in the world is not selfish, but so is making sure our emotional journey uplifts others. After all, no one lives in a vacuum. Celebrate Diversity Life Is Strange: Double Exposure finally brings back Max Caulfield, a beloved protagonist since she was first introduced in the iconic first entry in the series. Along the way, many other new characters during her tenure as an Artist in Residence at Caledon University cozy up to our now older Max. Some of them are on the LGBTQ+ spectrum and are quite realistically represented, with no one feeling like a token character for the developers at Deck Nine Games to take a victory lap. In my conversation with Staff Writer Aysha U. Farah, she attributes this to a basic reason: they hired gay and trans writers. While the Life Is Strange franchise has always celebrated diversity, such as with Max and Chloe alluding to having a lesbian relationship by the end of Life Is Strange  if the player so chooses to do so, Double Exposure elevates that status. Bisexual, gay, and trans characters are all in Max’s sphere, allowing for her to explore her sexuality and satisfy her curiosity. Max engages in thoughtful conversations with people from all kinds of backgrounds, and these diversified topics let the player learn more about other people’s ways of living respectfully. Diversity makes us stronger not only because it makes us learn about the many walks of life out there, but also because we learn about others’ struggles to find their identity in the process. Being comfortable in one’s own skin is something that we should all strive for, and for the rest of us to support each other in the process. Image Credits: Square Enix Find Inspiration It is easy to fall into a slump considering how repetitive our lives can become. This is where art comes into play to save us from ourselves. Promise Mascot Agency is a wacky take on an ex-yakuza's exile from the Japanese mafia, with the only way to be accepted back into the fold being by rebuilding the eponymous mascot agency back to its feet. Wrangling real-life mascots akin to Chiitan, this ridiculous premise that balances political issues with personal stakes is an endlessly funny and cathartic experience. Carrying it all in the background is the soundtrack by Alpha Chrome Yayo and Ryo Koike, two abundantly talented composers that mix Tokyo City Pop and older Japanese arrangements to spectacular success.  In a sincere conversation with Alpha Chrome Yayo, I was able to ask how he was capable of creating these songs and staying constantly inspired, especially while working on such a comprehensive album. In his friendly answer, he goes on to express how you need to keep moving not to get stuck in a rut. Sometimes literally, at others figuratively. Finding inspiration is a key element to create, be it by listening to a new song, playing an obscure indie game, or watching a long-forgotten movie.  There are gray days that we cannot wait to be over. While not as drastic as changing jobs or moving across the country, giving new media a try can thoroughly change your perspective. Inspiration might prove elusive, but it’s at least a step in the right direction. Image credits: Kaizen Game Works Smell the Roses As I write this at the end of the year, I am still grappling with the fact that 2025 is over, and time waits for no one. What did I accomplish? Was it enough? Will I ever stop burning the roof of my mouth with a hot slice of pizza? These questions plague my thoughts often, but there was one video game that was a breath of fresh air: Wanderstop. Arguably carrying one of the most important, yet simple, messages of our times: take the time to smell the roses.  Wanderstop, described as a video game “about change and tea,” tells the story of Alta, a renowned warrior in a fictional fantasy land who has pushed herself over the edge. Unable to wield her sword due to physical and mental exhaustion, she finds a tea shop called Wanderstop after collapsing in her search for answers. With the help of Boro, the gentle giant that manages said shop, she learns to brew tea, reminisce about her life, and slow down, as much as it pains her to do nothing . Talking with Jenny Windom , the Communications Director of Ivy Road Games, she confesses that while it was reaffirming to see so many people connecting with Wanderstop, it also revealed an ugly truth: that a lot of us are suffering from burnout and need a break. So this is what I tell you, dear reader: take that day off, learn to say no to new tasks before you are done with the ones you are working on, and focus more on your loved ones. They will thank you. We all deserve a break, now and then. Believe in Your Work Quartet is a retro turn-based JRPG that tells the story of eight characters in a troubled world engulfed in war. You have probably heard this premise before, but trust me when I say it has not been presented like this. Made by the studio Something Classic, Quartet shines thanks to its commitment to authenticity in its grounded narrative and creatively composed soundtrack. Evoking the highs of Final Fantasy VI and similar to Octopath Traveler in its character approach, you would think that this video game, seven years in the making, was always as confident as the final product. But as my conversation with composer Tyler Mire proved, finding Quartet’s  voice was not easy — until it was. Character sprites, arcs, and personalities took time to develop. From their origin stories to how they would interact with each other, their backgrounds ended up informing the player and the world around them. This makes Quartet a highly enjoyable adventure not only due to the stakes raised with every new development, but also because of how different personalities clash and gel as they go along. Tyler mentions Quartet found its essence by iteration and extended conversations with its tight-knit development team. Ultimately, what they found would connect with players — and it did — was believing in their creation and delivering a special adventure worthy of being among the greats. Image Credits: Something Classic Games LLC Ask for Help The subtitle speaks for itself. Asking for help is not easy. It never is. This is heart-wrenchingly portrayed in LUTO, a first-person horror game. Dealing with topics of generational trauma, depression, and suicide, LUTO, or grief in Spanish, is a story that, while harkening back to Kojima’s P.T., creates its own story with a distinct audiovisual background. Protagonist Sam is reliving his everyday life, unable to break the loop when it seems he was simply packing to leave the house. Creative Director Borja Corvo confided in me the ins and outs of the development process, hoping players would be moved by the narrative to ask for help if they ever felt similarly to what was shown on screen. The power of storytelling is not only to make you empathize with the character’s plight but also to hopefully spur you into action when needed. As LUTO progresses, you can see that the protagonist must defy the voice in his head to be free from the shackles of his mind. And just like him, sometimes we must ask for help to break away from toxic patterns that have followed us during our lifetime. Image Credits: Broken Bird Games Learning from each one of these video game developers — who I am sure took more than a little courage to dedicate their lives to such creative endeavors — was a delight. If you are reading this, thank you for taking the time to speak with me. To the ones who reached the end of this piece, I invite you to share any life lesson that a game this year, or any year, has left a mark on you. Because after all, being moved by a work of art is nothing short of a little victory. The concept of Little Victories is not simply to banally celebrate every win without acknowledging the effort that was put behind it, but to actually recognize that every day, without fail, we wake up and we choose life. A gesture of kindness, sharing a meal with a loved one, a long-winded conversation where you lost track of time — there are many examples I can think of that should be celebrated. Life is difficult as it is, so we must not make it harder by being obstinate. There is nothing wrong with celebrating a small win. I, in fact, encourage it. And, as the lessons that I learned by chatting with each of these luminaries can attest to show, they are worthy of praise. Thanks for reading.

Let it die. I’ve never been a particularly nostalgic person, at least not for artistic mediums and media types. While I’ve been prone to longing for, or at the very least appreciating, specific design philosophies that have largely gone the way of the dodo, I don’t have any specific desire to house or make use of old technology. The classic systems and technology I grew up on, such as SNES and VHS players, don’t hold any power over me insofar as I largely see them as simple delivery systems for the actual art — video games and film, respectively. Katanalevy’s Dead Format  explicitly hearkens back to the time of VHS, taking place in the 1990’s. The player character is searching for their missing brother, rummaging through his apartment to find a new format and series of films (referred to as “Video Ghastlies”) which must then be played in order to open doors to the worlds shown in said films for the player to explore. While the titular “dead format” works as the mechanism for the delivering these worlds, I find that the reverence and nostalgia is targeted less toward the technology, and more for the types of art they were able to produce.  Publisher: Oro Interactive Developer: Katanalevy Platform: Played on PC Availability: Released December 10, 2025 on Windows PC. Older formats were, in many ways, much more constricting. Artists are ultimately bound by the current tech when creating a film or video game, such as films being exclusively black and white before the color technology was invented. But those bounds also served as guidelines. Rather than the whole universe of creativity being open to the director or creator, the films would necessarily have to work within that technological context; low resolutions, 4:3 aspect ratio, and even limited color all serve to influence the ways in which people made their works. It would change the way in which shots were framed, lit, or even played.  These creative choices are where Dead Format  lays its flowers. It pays very little reverence to the actual technology itself — something that I find is all too frequently done by modern retro enthusiasts — and instead focuses on the art itself. The video vignettes that you find throughout the short runtime are all reminiscent of the period they are emulating, using similar shot styles and visual effects one might find in a real work from the period. There’s a care taken in the fake movies that I truly respect, with the fake films even going so far as to use period appropriate color palettes, costuming, and contrasting. An underrated element to this is just how much adding something like tracking lines and CRT blurriness serves to solidify the eerie atmosphere of those “video ghastlies.” Dead Format is phenomenally atmospheric. Once a video has been placed in the player and viewed, the apartment door will unlock and allow the player to walk through the world depicted in the video. Similar to the videos, the levels are also appropriately representative of the film styles they emulate. The first level, a silent film setting, is rendered in black and white, the 80’s horror flick has high contrast and has a bit of a noisy or fuzzy image.  This is such a great concept in my mind, and it is executed excellently overall from a visual perspective, but falls flat on the gameplay front on the back half of the game, especially. At some point, an entity that can kill you in only a few hits begins to stalk you through your travels. It's a very similar concept to the excellent Alien: Isolation: there’s an unkillable monster hunting you, so you must hide and outmaneuver them to complete your objectives. While the tension is welcome in some respects, I find you spend too much time simply sitting and hiding. There’s an element of stealth you can rely on, where if you’re quiet enough you may be able to avoid the stalker in a few instances, but the primary method of avoidance are these little alcoves where your character is invincible and undetectable. As a product of the way the game’s save system works, you really don’t want to die, lest you be set back a long way. This leads to most of the final hours being spent sitting and waiting for the monster to pass so you can walk down the hallway, or enter the next room. The video vignettes that you find throughout the short runtime are all reminiscent of the period they are emulating, using similar shot styles and visual effects one might find in a real work from the period. The back half of the game is frankly joyless because of this. Because there are so few ways to mitigate or avoid these scenarios, and because there are specific set areas the stalker appears at, there’s no real tension in the way that there is in a game like Alien: Isolation . There’s no second guessing or panic — once she appears, you know you must return to the alcove and wait. This does detract from your opportunity to appreciate the settings as well. While they are few in number, these levels are clearly crafted with care and love, but it’s hard to appreciate any of that when staring at the bottom of a table. It ’s hard to overstate just how much this singular (but pervasive) aspect brings the rest of the game down. I do understand what they were going for by introducing a stalking element to Dead Format , but the implementation of it steers into ‘boring’ territory. Verdict Dead Format  is host to excellent ideas. The “haunted VHS” concept of opening up new worlds to explore sounds genuinely exciting in theory. To add to this, Katanalevy has a masterful grasp on the aesthetics of the past, using the constraints of VHS and film to create a genuinely unsettling atmosphere, but the poorly implemented stalker mechanic drags the experience down. Image Credits: Oro Interactive Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

Got any sheep? The first escape room I ever found myself in remains one of my core memories. My wife and I had just started dating, and I was hoping to introduce her to some good friends of mine. I knew that she was a fan of the setting that the local escape room was based upon, and as I was interested and willing to try out some new experiences, I figured it would be a great way to get all of us interacting. What I found was not just a great way to commingle, but a fully immersive investigative experience. One in which each person was invested in working together to not only solve the obtuse riddles of the room, but also to assist one another and lift each other person up in the process. I suppose that’s the beauty of an escape room. Each person is able to work to their strengths, solving puzzles in an open format by cooperating with one another. The tangible aspect of it is no doubt a huge part of that — each turn of a key or new door opened creates a real sense of success. In this respect, EXIT: The Game – Adventures on Catan  does an excellent job of simulating a more curated escape room experience. Product:   EXIT: The Game – Adventures on Catan Designer: Inka Brand, Markus Brand Publisher:  Thames & KOSMOS Price: $ 19.95 Age: 10+ As stated earlier, escape rooms excel at creating an immersive atmosphere to the action you find yourself in. That is a tall task for a such a small box to emulate, but EXIT: The Game – Adventures on Catan attempts to do so by providing you narrative hooks in writing and giving clues and elements that are representative of the simulated setting, such as resource tokens and tiles that are drawn straight from CATAN . This isn’t as effective as being in a room wholly dedicated to your immersion, but if you let yourself roleplay, you may find it works well enough to remain engaging. In order to avoid spoilers, I am not going to discuss the specifics of the puzzles or contents of the box, but the puzzles here did surprise me in terms of their difficulty. The clues provided are  adequate for solving each task, and the actual act and experience of doing so goes extremely smoothly. There aren't any elements of unwanted or undue friction. Instead, what you get is a series of tests meant to challenge the group and inspire everyone to work together, crafting a delightful and rewarding scenario that always sparks joy when you find success.  There is a bit of a caveat here in the sense that the game is explicitly marketed as a beginner EXIT  title, with the age rating starting at 10 years old. I frankly would not expect a group of ten-year-olds to be able to complete an EXIT: The Game – Adventures on Catan scenario, though that doesn’t mean no 10 year old would be able to participate. That said, the game works its setting into the process wonderfully. Resources are gained whenever you solve a puzzle, generating a number equal to the number token placed on the resource board tiles, evoking the mechanics of the CATAN game itself. Then, resources are traded to gain new clues for further puzzle solving. It creates this great flow of mechanics where something is always being gained and lost as the game progresses. ...the game works its setting into the process wonderfully. Resources are gained whenever you solve a puzzle, generating a number equal to the number token placed on the resource board tiles, evoking the mechanics of the CATAN game itself. One aspect that EXIT: The Game – Adventures on Catan  does have over traditional Escape rooms is the inherent destructibility of the materials. While in a normal escape room you would take care not to damage the objects in a room out of fear and respect for the owners, here it is key to success. Parts are destroyed in the reveal process or as part of a puzzle solution, markings are made on the objects themselves and so on. It allows for solutions or processes that a normal escape room wouldn’t allow for. When all 10 puzzles are finally solved, the game is won. Interestingly, though this was done with an entirely separate group, I couldn’t help but remember the elation and excitement I felt at my first escape room experience. There’s something so affecting about getting a group together to collaborate and conquer something of this nature. EXIT: The Game – Adventures on Catan  elicits that same feeling when done properly, and that’s a thing of beauty. Verdict EXIT: The Game – Adventures on Catan  is an excellent take on the escape room format for home play. Utilizing the setting of CATAN  to great effect, this game is full of difficult but rewarding puzzles that will keep the group engaged the entire time. Image Credits: KOSMOS Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

No need to hold the door open. Up or Down?  is a game of highs and lows. It features stunning art and pedigree design from Kramer and Kiesling, yet the gameplay feels surprisingly on-rails. A simple card game that functions as a hand-builder where the basic aim is to make lines of ascending or descending cards to formulate hands that score based upon length of the hand and color of the cards therein. The specific version I received was the one I got at GenCon 2025, but I’ve been struggling to put into words why this game hasn’t particularly landed for me, despite being a recurring game played at friendly occasions. Product:  Up or Down? Designers: Michael Kiesling, Wolfgang Kramer Publisher:   ABACUSSPIELE, Capstone Games, HOT Games Price: $ 10 Age: 8+ Let’s start with some gameplay mechanics. The baseline gameplay flow is quite simple. First, you start by dealing three cards to each player and arranging six revealed cards from the deck into a circle, ordered low to high, around the remaining deck of cards (exact number varies based upon number of players). The remaining deck is then into two central draw piles inside the ring: one face up and one face down. From here, players take turns placing a card from their hand into the appropriate space in the circle, taking an adjacent card to the one just placed. That card is then added to one of your columns of cards, of which you can have three, in either ascending or descending order. When all cards have been drawn from the deck, players calculate score totals based upon the number of cards in their discard pile (1 point each), and the makeup of their columns of cards. For the card columns, score is calculated by multiplying the total number of cards in the line of cards by the count of the single most common color in that line. The player with the highest total wins. I am aware the column is ordered incorrectly per the rules. Fundamentally, there’s not much going on in this game. There’s really only one strategy you can use — start with the highest or lowest numbered card you can get and go from there, targeting similar colors as much as possible. The strategy aspect is extremely limiting, as there is no true way to interact with other players at the table, and your fortunes are primarily decided by lady luck rather than any particular masterstroke of genius on your end. This makes the entire experience a bit detached, with you and your cohorts playing simultaneous solitaire rather than engaging in a collaborative or competitive experience. All collections are open to view by the table, so I suppose there is the idea that you could work to deny other players cards that would assist them. This would really only serve to play spoiler for one or two other players, leaving you with a weak collection overall and setting up another player for the win. Despite these mechanical shortfalls, I find it works well as a friendly, party-style card game. Without any difficult decisions to make and boasting a very clear turn structure, even beginner level board game players can jump in easily, and paying close attention is rarely necessary. On top of this, the version we obtained is beautiful. The card stock is really solid and feels great in your hands, plus the art is stunning, despite the mundane subject matter.  Verdict Ultimately, Up or Down?   lands at strictly party fare for me. It’s easy to get into, and feels good in your hands, but its distinct lack of true strategic elements or player-to-player interactivity prevents it from being a true staple.  Image Credits: Taylor Rioux Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

As I gaze upon the artwork of Hollow Knight: Silksong , I can’t help but marvel at the beauty and craftsmanship of it. Unique and interesting creatures, gorgeous backgrounds, and fluid animations all create this atmosphere of a downtrodden, exploited world. But for me, there is more to a game than how it looks. Art is in the experience. How the act of playing the game makes you think and feel, how it relates to the world beyond. Through play and engagement, some meaning can be conferred. Publisher:   Team Cherry Developer:   Team Cherry Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released September 4, 2025  on PS4/5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. For Hollow Knight: Silksong ’s part, it has without question elicited emotions within me. Fear, excitement, elation, joy — these are some of the emotions one would expect when playing a game like Hollow Knight: Silksong . Yet no such feeling has arisen; instead, I have almost exclusively felt boredom. Every run back to a boss, every platforming challenge, and every repeated trek through a zone became tiresome. If you take a path not meant to be seen at a specific point in time, you simply come to a dead-end with no way to intuit or understand what is missing or must be done — you are only rebuffed and cursed to wander elsewhere. And so the journey continues as you meander through new and equally complex and hazardous zones until a new tool or ability allows you to go back to your prior dead ends for continued exploration.  This is typical for the genre of course, and does present itself as an accumulation of effort or accomplishment to be celebrated. The journey through the world is perilous, perhaps even more so than fighting any single boss Hollow Knight: Silksong throws at you. Yet there is very little fanfare when you do beat a boss, opening the way to the next zone. Seldom did I feel elated or joyful when my foe burst into silk. Instead, I mostly felt relief that the segment was done with, and hoped that the next area would be less aimless. I was never granted such relief. As the game progresses, zones get more intricate and the backtracking becomes even more frequent, and moments in-game start to blur. There never really feels to be a moment to reflect on events as you are playing, save the minor reprieve of a wayward bench.  Beyond the backtracking, the ways in which the systems interact often leads to minor frustrations. Losing to a boss or field enemy means not only the possibility of losing your rosaries, but the loss of any other resources spent, such as shell shards to repair your tools. Shell shards are replenishable, but it is not a quick process to do so. Hollow Knight: Silksong gives you a plethora of tools to make use of that alter the gameplay flow in interesting or inventive ways. Tools that lay traps or give you ranged options, tools that make your attacks stronger or let them inflict status upon an enemy — the tools are abundant and useful. Yet the resource related friction here means you have to be very careful with their use, and disincentivizes experimentation and play in a game that is ripe with opportunity to do so. In a best case scenario, you consistently have enough shell shards to use your tools on the bosses and mini-bosses without having to grind out shards for repair, but to do so means you must never use them outside of those arenas, relying only on a single basic attack and a small selection of silk skills to carry you through dozens of hours of already monotonous gameplay. Over time, those minor frustrations coalesce into major grievances with how my time is being spent, products of a severe lack of balance in the experience of playing the game. Hollow Knight: Silksong is an astonishingly beautiful game in motion and all other aspects. There’s a sort of religiosity required to play this game to completion. Opposed to the elaborate pomp and ceremony associated with many religious practices today, playing Hollow Knight: Silksong  is more akin to self-flagellation. To inflict upon oneself pain and suffering over and over in order to bring oneself closer to God. Here, it is to suffer the repetition and failures and boredom of the act of playing so that one may say that the task has been completed and that some insight has been gained or purpose gleaned from the endeavor. In this respect, I seem to have fallen to the role of the sinner. I feel as if I have been unwillingly flogged, gaining no such wisdom for the trouble, and instead punished for some unknowable crime. Rather than gaining an appreciation of the game through the effort, I have inherited an aversion. The likening to religiosity is no mistake. Many NPCs throughout Hollow Knight: Silksong  are pious to the point of absurdity, making their way through lava caverns and poison swamps to ascend to the holy Citadel, only to be further pressed upon by those in the position to do so. Shopkeepers strewn about to extort their faith, enemies looking for their next victim, and a god whose silk controls their very thoughts — the world they live in is unkind. And yet they continue to pray.  Perhaps this is where my lived experience comes into play more than any other facet of the interpretation of Hollow Knight: Silksong . I already have an intense aversion to religiosity, and playing something that evokes such imagery and feeling through both its story and gameplay necessarily gives rise to memories of Sundays spent sleeping in pews, of being forced to do something or be somewhere I did not want to be.  It is true that I was not “forced” to play Hollow Knight: Silksong . There was no gun to my head, my feet were not held to a fire, and eternal damnation was not on the table if I didn’t finish it. But I did feel obligated, in some respect. The start of the game didn’t feel particularly offensive to me in any way. With exacting and immaculate level design, varied approaches to combat and exploration being viable, and tight controls, Hollow Knight: Silksong  is a true feat of engineering. Everything just works. And in those early hours, when everything felt new, each new dead-end felt a little more intriguing. Easy enough to put a pin on it and come back later, I would think. As the game rolled on, and those pins and alleyways began to pile up, I just got tired of it. There was nothing keeping me here save the desire to say I had done so. That didn’t feel healthy, so I put it down just a few days after release, close enough to the end that I could just finish it at any time. ...playing Hollow Knight: Silksong is more akin to self-flagellation. To inflict upon oneself pain and suffering over and over in order to bring oneself closer to God. Yet the months passed and still Hollow Knight: Silksong would continue to pop into my thoughts. Generally not in a positive sense, but it was there all the same. I felt a tinge of shame that I had not brought myself to complete it. I felt apart from the overarching conversation surrounding the game. I felt like I didn’t have a voice because technically  I had not beaten it, despite being there at the end. In order to relieve myself of that shame, I had to pick up Hollow Knight: Silksong  once more, though I did throw out any ideas of completing act 3. This was in itself an absurd adherence to traditional norms and customs surrounding video game participation (especially in the critical space). The irony of this is not lost on me. I was hoping — praying — that completing the game would grant me more insight, bestow upon me some truth that I had missed. That by going through its entirety, the time I spent doing so would be deemed worthy. It didn’t take long to roll credits on Hollow Knight: Silksong  this time around. Just a short walk and a few attempts is all I needed. No meaning had been gleaned, no value for the time and effort had become apparent — I felt just as bored as I had all those months ago. That is where my pilgrimage ended. It’s hard to say that my faith in the game was broken as I was never one praying at the altar for it, but I am a bit let down by it all. Verdict Hollow Knight: Silksong is undoubtedly a beautiful game. Gorgeous artwork in the character sprites and the backgrounds breathes life into the world, music both haunting and melancholic permeates the air. More than any other positive aspect, Hollow Knight: Silksong  seems to be a feat of technical prowess, a true masterwork of engineering where all the pieces work exactly as intended. Despite this, it remains one of the most tedious and boring games I have played in a very long time. It is a true shame those perfectly functioning systems don’t work together better to create a more rewarding experience. Image Credits: Team Cherry

Timeless cool I saw Terminator 2: Judgment Day  at far too young an age. I’m pretty sure we taped it from what was probably its first Australian TV airing back when I was about six years old and I instantly became obsessed. I begged my mum to get me a real leather jacket that we miraculously found in kids-size at a second-hand shop, which she did, and for probably about a year I would never want to leave the house without wearing both it and the pair of officially licensed Terminator 2  sunglasses I ended up getting also. For the past few months I’ve actually been living back down in that same house I grew up and first saw Terminator 2  in, and earlier this week I actually rediscovered those very sunglasses.  Yeah, they're real. I guess I’ve been in a bit of a rose-tinted nostalgia hole lately; somewhat mythologizing my past while ignoring the actual reality of it, which happens to be exactly where Terminator 2D: NO FATE  positions itself, funnily enough. Publisher: Reef Entertainment Developer: Bitmap Bureau Platform: Played on PC and Steam Deck Availability: Released December 12, 2025 on PS4/5, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, Windows PC, Nintendo Switch. The games marketing copy posits that ‘the guiding principle of its development was to make the kind of game that could’ve come out alongside the movie’, which of course entirely ignores the fact that there was a glut of official T2  video games  released back then. Given that the central conceit of the Terminator  franchise is revisiting the past in order to deliver a brighter today, I can’t help but admire the hell out of how holistically the developers and publisher have presented this throughline. Terminator 2D: NO FATE plays like a highlights package of every memorable side-scrolling action game of the early 90s. Each level features a timer that ticks down towards a game over, and every object you smash and every enemy you defeat adds points to your score. A full run from start to finish will only take you around 40 minutes, but it encourages you to push for higher scores, quicker times, and to try higher difficulties. After finishing the game once you unlock the ability to make narrative choices in a couple of instances on subsequent runs which unlocks some branching levels that give different endings.  From the very idea of making the game itself, permeating all the way through its design, and then out the other end to the way it’s being marketed, Terminator 2D: NO FATE delightfully toys with the notion of changing history and our collective senses of rose-tinted nostalgia. What’s most impressive about Terminator 2D: NO FATE  though is how cleverly every one of its iconic scenes have been translated into different game design frameworks from the era and how smoothly they all weave together. The future war segments glimpsed in the film's opening have you playing as adult John Connor in a straight riff on Contra , complete with cartoonish gun power pickups. Sarah Connor’s assaults on Cyberdyne facilities meanwhile are more platforming focused in the style of Acclaim’s many licensed productions of the day. The motorbike and truck chase through the Los Angeles river hilariously becomes a direct riff on the infamous jetbike levels from Battletoads , though far less infuriating and mercifully shorter. Terminator 2D: NO FATE delightfully toys with the notion of changing history and our collective senses of rose-tinted nostalgia. Best of all though is how the ‘I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle’ scene has been adapted. You’re given control of the titular Terminator itself as it arrives through the time portal to 1995. Unarmed and completely nude, you melee brawl your way into and through the biker bar in a style reminiscent of Golden Axe.  As a bunch of dudes with pocket knives and pool cues can’t reasonably harm a hulking death-robot, any hits incurred instead knock 5 seconds off the countdown timer. I laughed with delight as the Dwight Yoakam song from the film scene played upon entering the bar, too, then absolutely cackled with glee when I smashed the jukebox found in the level and the music switched to George Thorogood’s ‘Bad to the Bone’. Not chiptune interpreted covers either, the actual licensed songs. The fact that each sticks out so much from the rest of Terminator 2D: NO FATE ’s   wonderfully authentic early 90s video game score made the gag land all the better. The level culminates with a boss fight against the shotgun-wielding “I can’t let you take the man’s wheels, son” bartender, and beginning-to-end it’s one of my favorite game sequences of the year hands-down. Terminator 2D: NO FATE lends its own twists to the events of the classic film. Every inch of Terminator 2D: NO FATE  is drenched in this degree of love and reverence both for its source material as well as for arcade and console games of the early 90s, and every bit of this is communicated wonderfully through play. The fact that they clearly couldn't get Schwarzenegger’s likeness rights is a small shame, but the game just presents so splendidly & feels so damn good to play from start to finish that it doesn't matter. Every subsequent run I took through it was inspired by my enthusiasm to relish in the pleasure of it all once again as much as it was to unlock anything new or chase higher scores. All that said, though, $30USD feels steep for a game of its scale as beautiful and brilliant as I feel the game is. I’m also swinging back and forth on feeling outraged at the $60USD price tag for the physical edition and laughing at how authentic to the game's entire concept making that choice for a retail release is. Verdict Terminator 2D: NO FATE is a masterclass in film-to-video game adaptation. It also feels like something a frighteningly clever machine would devise in order to push every single one of my ‘childhood delight’ buttons. It’s easily one of my favorite games of the year and I’d argue one of the best licensed games ever on top of that. Maybe just keep your eyes peeled for any discount on it. Image Credits: Jam Walker, Reef Entertainment, and Bitmap Bureau. Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.