TheMG42

More of a meme than a game at this point. Tons of suspicions around this game's legitimacy.

A perfectly satisfactory, if unremarkable arcade racing game that kind of reminds me of the old SEGA Rally games. Vehicle roster feels a bit smaller in scope compared other games in the genre. Art direction is fine; the snow levels were my favourite.

Pretty much just a walking simulator type game. Has some great art direction and an eerie atmosphere. Story was alright. English voice acting wasn't too great, but I suspect that English isn't the voice actors' native language. Overall rating: Hazy

If "Man of Medan" was any indication, there is "Little Hope" that this game will be any good.

A great effort by an indie dev to create a Skyrim-esque, open-world exploration game. The gameplay loop of being a travelling painter where you get commissioned for painting various scenes around Eastshade was an interesting idea. It's a good, chill, exploration game with zero combat mechanics; just painting and exploration in the form of main quests and side quests. Game does have some technical issues around frame rate drops and stuttering. Game only crashed on me once, but stuttered/hitched significantly at least two other times. Characters could be seen A-posing and suffering from glitchy animations like walking into walls or walking around at odd angles. Draw distance on close up objects like trees was pretty noticeable. Voice acting was kind of uneven. Overall rating: Good/Great

The game has some pretty good pixel art and a story that unfolds well enough, but was over a bit too quickly for me. Has some puzzle solving elements that are fairly accessible. Lots of backtracking/exploration to find key items. Kind of straddles the line between Hazy and Good/Great.

A decent puzzle, adventure game that really nails a dark and eerie atmosphere, despite that it's not really a scary game. The abandoned town hub area, at night, with fog everywhere almost gives off a "Silent Hill" vibe. Short game, coming at around 2 to 3 hours of play time. Good voice acting and the story kept me hooked all the way through. Rating: Good/Great

Left Alone? Good advice.

An interesting story about dealing with Psychosis, told through the lens of a deep sea dive under an ice shelf. The atmosphere is dark, creepy and all around unsettling. Good music and voice acting. Story became more and more enrapturing than I ever expected. Load times are a bit too long and having to toggle the "Invert Y-axis" function on and off each time I loaded the game was a minor annoyance. Navigation becomes a bit annoying when the squid ROV's pathfinding fucks up, leaving you both figuratively and literally in the dark. Overall rating: Between Hazy and Good/Great

The premise of designing the game around Norwegian mythology was interesting. Some beautiful, mountainous regions in some of the later sections of the game. Mostly a dark forest walking simulator, even though it was clearly trying to invoke something deeper than that. No combat mechanics, but enemy encounters were almost a non-factor. Voice acting was not that great and cutscenes felt weirdly paced and framed. A lot of areas felt unnecessarily dark and lost some of the levels' atmosphere. Ending was kind of upsetting and perhaps one of the few memorable moments in the game. Frame rate can lag at times, loading screens are a bit too long for my liking and I got 2 crashes to dashboard playing this on Vanilla Xbox One. Overall rating: Doubt.

Highlight of the game was definitely the world they've created within the game. A really unique, colourful, beautiful alien world that shows off the games art direction. Main campaign felt kind of threadbare; was done in just under 7 hours and that was with me getting stuck/dying on a few platforming and puzzle sections. Exploration is really fun when the game opens up via the double jump and grappling hook upgrades. Simple and effective core gameplay loop. Post campaign content is mainly just collectible and crafting related, but with no real way of tracking their objectives via a map or nav icons. There's a good game here, overall, but I don't think this one's for me. Overall rating: Hazy.

Definitely Games as a Service, so this WILL die. Feels like yet another third-person, cover-based, looter shooter.

Went for a magic and guns build. A decent, fantasy RPG title with a 12-15 hour story that got stretched out to a 30-35 hour game. Fairly easy to pick up and play for some one who isn't all that familiar with these types of RPGs. Kind of reminds me of the early Dragon Age games, so I get where the comparison to "OG Bioware" come from when describing Greedfall. Kind of straddles the line between Hazy and Good/Great.

Basically if Deus Ex or Bladerunner were reimagined as a 2D, pixel art, side scroller. Art Direction is great; it really captures that dystopian cyberpunk aesthetic. Combat is kinda 'meh'. Guns don't feel all that powerful and basic enemies take more than a few shots to go down. Hand-to-hand combat is very simplistic and kind of repetitive. Overall size and scope of the game is quite good. The story kind of lost me at certain parts. Overall, I'd give this game a rating of Good/Great.

I can absolutely recommend playing Stories Untold for it’s strong overall creative direction that involves telling a great, thrilling story while presenting it in well designed, genuine retro environments. This sort of game is highly unlikely to have any mass appeal, but at a fairly low cost and a short playtime of maybe 3-4 hours long, it’s still worth a try. You might end up like me and be pleasantly surprised by this game. I'd give this game a rating of Fantastic.