https://www.thegamer.com This is where we give whatever scores the gaming companies tell us to give. Remember, if you agree with our review or preview, it’s unbiased, and if you disagree, even if you haven’t played the game yet, then we’re definitely a bunch of shills. Tue, 30 May 2023 07:00:07 GMT en-US hourly 60 Try as I might, I’ve always had a tough time getting into Street Fighter. The crunchy core fighting mechanics and focused competitive play should have appealed to me, but just never clicked like I’d hoped. Street Fighter 5 didn’t help, which as my entry point into the franchise also doubled as one of the most empty and soulless launches I’ve ever seen. For years, I was hesitant to trust Ryu with my wallet ever again.

]]> Tue, 30 May 2023 07:00:07 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/street-fighter-6-review/ As I round the corner of the dilapidated building I spot the last remaining enemy, a lone caster. Elvis and Diggs are injured, just out of range on the other side of the road, and only sniper-extraordinaire and general badass Jade remains. As ever in Miasma Chronicles, there’s a choice to be made. Do I cross the road and revive a teammate or take a shot at the caster from behind this wall?

]]> Mon, 29 May 2023 16:46:17 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/miasma-chronicles-review-pc/ System Shock is one of the most important games ever released. It put the immersive sim genre on the map, and without it, we’d likely never have had many of today’s all-timers, like Thief, Deus Ex, BioShock, Portal, Dead Space, Dishonored, and Prey.

]]> Mon, 29 May 2023 12:00:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/system-shock-remake-review/ Gollum is a pitiful creature. Not wholly evil but definitely not nice, his fate is cruelly tied to that of the Ring, his dedication to which forces him from Mordor to mountain cave and back again. Possibly the most interesting character in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books, many will immediately associate him with Andy Serkis’ scene-stealing mo-cap performance in Peter Jackson’s trilogy. But it’s high time the creature gets another shot.

]]> Thu, 25 May 2023 08:00:17 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-gollum-review/ Before Telltale hit the jackpot with The Walking Dead, it had Poker Night At The Inventory. Ostensibly a poker game, it was instead more of a stage for its various crossover characters to perform; seeing the Heavy from TF2 bounce off Max from Sam & Max, Strong Bad, and Tycho from the Penny Arcade webcomic was awesome. I’ve always been surprised that, other than a single sequel a few years later, Poker Night At The Inventory didn’t cast a larger shadow.

]]> Wed, 24 May 2023 13:00:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/sunshine-shuffle-review/ Games Workshop has licensed its IP to a wide variety of video games over the past few years, which have served to expand its universe and interpretations of its characters far beyond the tabletop game. It kicked off a little earlier, with Space Marine, a pretty standard third-person action affair akin to a movie tie-in, but soon expanded its horizons with three Total War: Warhammer entries.

]]> Tue, 23 May 2023 15:00:17 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/warhammer-40000-boltgun-review/ Video games don't always have a lot to say. They may have characters that go on epic struggles or a mighty quest of good versus evil, but on the whole, they comment on the world around them far less than cinema does. That's why it's so refreshing to play a game like After Us, and so disappointing that it cannot carry out its vision. A platformer set against the backdrop of a world turned to ruin, it wants to speak up on issues with the modern world but rarely musters an original thought, while using gameplay as little more than thin glue to hold these trite observations together.

]]> Tue, 23 May 2023 15:00:17 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/after-us-review/ Samba De Amigo: Party Central took me back in time, to a simpler place where shaking the controllers around as a cutesy mascot struts their stuff on screen was enough to get by. But it isn’t 2006 anymore, and it doesn’t take long for the basic mechanics to grow old, even after little more than an hour with this rhythm game revival. With its immediately charming characters and stellar selection of songs there is some appeal here, however the simplicity means Party Central doesn’t always rise to the occasion.

]]> Tue, 23 May 2023 14:00:17 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/samba-de-amigo-party-central-preview/ It’s hard to justify Farming Simulator to those who don’t already immediately see the appeal of a game called “Farming Simulator”. When you could be off scrambling around Hyrule, or pulling off heists in Los Santos, why would you want to plough your fields to make sure the wheat is sown in time for the summer?

]]> Tue, 23 May 2023 07:00:19 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/farming-simulator-23-review/ Star Trek Resurgence has an identity problem. It’s a better Star Trek story than it is a Star Trek game, and its most important quality is the fantastic Telltale-esque mechanics. Strangely, it seems to be doing all it can to pretend it's not a narative game at all.

]]> Mon, 22 May 2023 16:00:17 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/star-trek-resurgence-review/ Monster Menu: The Scavenger’s Cookbook opens to a lonely sight. A single adventurer, created by you only moments before, is dying from hunger and thirst. Dauntless, they push on through the mysterious dungeon - the one that was supposed to be an ‘easy outing’. At the end of a tiring journey that has their HP ticking down to single digits thanks to unbearable hunger, they come across a massive carcass. Starving and dehydrated, they eat some of it. Temporarily reinvigorated, it’s not long before they’re then crushed in combat and have to be rescued by some other adventurers, also customised by you. This amuse-bouche of a sequence is effective; it whets the appetite and sets the tone. Monster Menu is not a kind experience. This is a roguelike, not a roguelite, and it expects to be respected as such.

]]> Fri, 19 May 2023 13:00:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/monster-menu-the-scavengers-cookbook-review/ There’s a scene in Fast X that feels like the series is finally looking at itself in the mirror. The agency that once funded our cavalcade of petrolhead power rangers has turned against our heroes, watching their growth from humble street racers to international crime fighters before a Neon Genesis Evangelion-esque board of faceless executives vote to have them wiped off the face of the planet. All because Jason Momoa tried to nuke the Vatican for a laugh.

]]> Wed, 17 May 2023 16:00:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/fast-x-review/ Theme park simulators have been an integral part of my gaming life ever since I was introduced to RollerCoaster Tycoon by the babysitter as a kid. Older classics have undeniable charm and depth, and the newer, more glamorous simulators like Planet Coaster are unbelievable in how minutely you can customise your creations. Park Beyond makes a conscious effort to stand out from the park sims of yore while learning from what made them so compelling. The preview build I played was restricted to a few tutorial levels and a sandbox, but those alone got the game’s message across.

]]> Tue, 16 May 2023 15:00:17 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/park-beyond-preview-2023/ I can’t tell if I’m getting old, but the allure of fancy gaming chairs has been lost on me in recent years. There’s something to be said about how my personality has shifted from radical aesthetics to increased practicality. Basically, I want a chair that is comfortable and doesn’t give me a backache after sitting on it for several hours. I want to be able to buckle down and get to work, and get up for the occasional stretch knowing I won’t immediately collapse into a heap. To mark their anniversary this year, I was able to take one of Flexispot's latest desk chair offerings for a spin.

]]> Tue, 16 May 2023 13:25:51 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/flexispot-bs11-pro-review/ When I played Humanity’s demo in February after it shadow-dropped during a State of Play stream, I was confused as to what point the game was trying to make. Its reveal trailer said only that it was a tale of ‘hope’, ‘conflict’, ‘chaos’, and ‘order’. It seemed to imply that this physics platformer had a larger narrative, but I was concerned about how effectively this could be expressed without feeling hamfisted. Unfortunately, my fears were very much founded – but that doesn’t make for a bad game.

]]> Mon, 15 May 2023 16:01:17 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/humanity-review/ These days, Lego is playing by the book more than ever. You buy a set that's designed to be the Death Star or The Shire or the Infinity Gauntlet, you follow the instructions, and at the end you get exactly what you asked for. Lego 2K Drive is a strange beast in this world. It feels a little bit like the devs have poured all three of these pre-made kits into a box, tossed out the instructions, and started building from scratch. What we have here is a game that is full of charm, a little bit chaotic, but ultimately doesn't know what it wants to be.

]]> Mon, 15 May 2023 15:31:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/lego-2k-drive-review/ Princess Zelda has constructed a series of solemn memorials across Hyrule after the defeat of Calamity Ganon. These stone slabs hold only a single sentence and a solitary flower atop the cobblestone. While insignificant, stumbling across these monuments on your journey is a reminder of all that’s been lost, and what Link and company are still fighting for.

]]> Thu, 11 May 2023 12:00:36 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/the-legend-of-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-review/ Afterimage is a sprawling 2D Metroidvania that, at times, feels like it goes on forever in all directions. The problem is that it's almost impossible to know which of those directions you should be headed.

]]> Wed, 10 May 2023 17:00:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/afterimage-review/ Two minutes after launching Peridot, I knew it was something special. The game wastes no time in hatching your first dot, and no sooner had I laid eyes on my adorable little cuddle bug - a sparkly, cheetah-printed creature I named Shoosh - than I started sending pictures of it to all my friends. Peridot’s adorable interactive creatures are the culmination of all of Niantic’s AR work on Pokemon GO, but with a focus on Tamagotchi-style pet maintenance and social media engagement. The built-in photo mode and GIF creator make it incredibly easy to take fun pictures with your dot and share them with the world, so Twitter is already full of free marketing for the game. I could easily see Peridot taking off and becoming a phenomenon this summer, but as it stands the game is a little too confusing, and way too expensive, to be a breakout hit the way Pokemon Go was in 2016.

]]> Tue, 09 May 2023 20:31:50 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/peridot-review/ During the first moments of Warframe’s The New War, Ballas severs the Lotus’ hand and impales the main character, leaving them adrift in the endless Void. At the same time, in another plane of existence, that severed hand arrives just as the Drifter is going to be executed.

]]> Mon, 08 May 2023 15:00:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/warframe-the-duviri-paradox-review/ As I walk through the luscious halls of Herta Space Station, my attention is diverted to a roundtable with a faint glimmer upon it, emanating from a small computer. I quickly sprint over and interact with it, only for the game to suddenly describe how my character feels anxious and is compelled to act. Instead of saving the world of springing into action like a typical hero, I use this cute little monitor to schedule a meeting.

]]> Mon, 08 May 2023 14:30:13 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/honkai-star-rail-review/ Some people expect reviews to be objective and unbiased, as if the reviewer is little more than a robot programmed to scientifically assess the quality of a game. AI-generated game reviews may be on the horizon, God help us, but in the meantime the best I can do is be honest about my biases as a critic reviewing the woefully underdeveloped Redfall.

]]> Wed, 03 May 2023 19:59:34 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/redfall-review/ Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is caught between two worlds. On one hand, it tells an intimate, well-crafted story of low yet meaningful stakes that pulls you into Cal's reality and provides an antidote for the much bigger, much more reckless and aimless Star Wars stories Disney has been leaning on. On the other, it tries to rebel against this by offering up an open world to lose yourself in. For some, it will be a perfect compromise, but this identity crisis, several performance issues, and far too many niggling annoyances leave the game short of greatness, and not even the extended grasp of the Force can pull it closer.

]]> Tue, 02 May 2023 13:11:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/star-wars-jedi-survivor-review/ Isolation can push us to do things we never would have dreamed of doing before. It changes our outlook on life, and lets us hyper-focus on all our past mistakes. As a result, our personality and behaviour often changes, sometimes pushing us to drastic measures. Would you ever consider casting a forbidden spell to summon and make a pact with a behemoth? Well, you haven’t met Fortuna yet.

]]> Thu, 27 Apr 2023 15:00:18 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/the-cosmic-wheel-sisterhood-preview-interview/ In my most recent Age of Wonders 4 campaign, what started out as a peaceful era of expansion and harmony turned quickly into a bloodbath when Dafal Dea, the snide toad ruler from across the sea, insulted my attempts to be friends with the numerous city-states around us. You see, I’d been eyeing up his land for some time now, as it would secure me a foothold on the other continent. It’s shocking how easily the bloodlust takes you in a game like this.

]]> Thu, 27 Apr 2023 13:00:14 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/age-of-wonders-4-review/ I walked down the sandy capitalist dunes of Santa Monica Pier in Dead Island 2 for a solid hour and not a single dude tried to sell me his mixtape. A few zombies tried to tear my guts out and were met with a polite dismemberment, but otherwise Dambuster Studio’s rendition of the City of Angels is arguably more peaceful than the real thing. The apocalypse slowed traffic to a standstill and you can actually walk everywhere, albeit with the threat of imminent death looming overhead. No changes there then.

]]> Wed, 26 Apr 2023 20:31:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/dead-island-2-review/ Humanity is a very unsettling game. The premise of the puzzler is simple - you must create a path from the start of a stage capable of reaching the end, employing techniques like jumping, climbing, and swimming, while also flicking switches to manipulate pathways and find new routes to avoid potential dangers. Problem is that you're not controlling something inanimate like a ball, or a single loveable character who pops right back onto the screen if you accidentally make them fall off the edge, but a herd of mindless humans who will tumble off the edges of buildings lifelessly at your command. But then, maybe that's less of a problem and more of the point.

]]> Wed, 26 Apr 2023 16:00:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/humanity-preview/ Cassette Beasts is a game made for me. First of all, I love Pokemon (totally unique, right?), which Cassette Beasts lovingly riffs off. Secondly, I’ve been asking for a return to 2D Pokemon games for ages. Thirdly, I grew up on the mythical Wirral peninsula, which the game’s region New Wirral is clearly named after thanks to the developers’ similar heritage. There’s more connections, but all you need to know is that this is a game made for me.

]]> Wed, 26 Apr 2023 15:00:14 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/cassette-beasts-review-the-most-innovative-pokemon-like-in-years/ The stories parents tell their children differ across the globe, and some are as old as words themselves. From the boogeyman to Hansel and Gretel, these stories change and evolve over time, sometimes becoming dark and twisted. Bramble: The Mountain King captures the unsettling feeling of a story whispered in your ear. It’s ethereal, haunting, and once or twice, I said “Oh my god” out loud. Under my breath, of course, in case there were any monsters listening from underneath my bed.

]]> Wed, 26 Apr 2023 13:00:20 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/bramble-the-mountain-king-review/ It’s understandable that Stranded: Alien Dawn has been compared to Rimworld. Most colony simulators, in one way or another, are compared to Rimworld. You crash-land on an alien planet with nothing but your wrecked ship and a few measly supplies - rations, medicine, maybe a weapon or two, and then you need to lead your small group of survivors to self-sustainability and survival.

]]> Tue, 25 Apr 2023 16:30:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/stranded-alien-dawn-review/ Miasma Chronicles is both incredibly familiar and entirely unique in its execution. The tactical RPG adventure is set in a post-apocalyptic world that feels simultaneously held together and torn apart by a unique substance known as the Miasma.

]]> Mon, 24 Apr 2023 17:30:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/miasma-chronicles-preview/ Horizon Forbidden West was a much bigger journey for Aloy than Zero Dawn, and to see her grow alongside friends close to her, both new and old, gave us so many more reasons to care. While Burning Shores might not make huge leaps and strides beyond the base game, it does give us a deeper and more significant look into Aloy as a person, and concludes in what I consider a new high point for the series.

]]> Thu, 20 Apr 2023 17:01:21 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/horizon-forbidden-west-burning-shores-review/ I never thought I’d be shouting at my monitor for an elephant to get off a button, but then I didn’t know what to expect from Pastagames’ KarmaZoo. It’s a quirky pixel platformer with two to ten players working together to complete a set of levels called a loop. Each player starts as a little blob that can jump and sing, but completing levels together earns you karma points to purchase better avatars and abilities.

]]> Thu, 20 Apr 2023 15:00:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/karmazoo-preview/ The first Coffee Talk launched to overwhelmingly positive reception from players, with many praising its charming fantasy characters, beautiful pixel-shaded art and soothing music. With a January 2020 launch date, it was an unexpectedly perfect game to pass a few hours while isolating in the early days of the pandemic. I remember how as the first inklings of loneliness started kicking in, I drew my curtains and got lost in the world of Coffee Talk. I brewed coffees and teas for my customers, learning about their lives in the process. I talked through their problems with them. It felt like an escape.

]]> Wed, 19 Apr 2023 14:00:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/coffee-talk-episode-2-hibiscus-butterfly-review/ Advance Wars is a perfect fit for the Nintendo Switch, and it’s hard to believe it has taken the series this long to make the jump. Obviously it couldn’t have predicted Russia invading Ukraine, but even without that context the franchise has been on ice for decades.

]]> Wed, 19 Apr 2023 13:00:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/advance-wars-1-2-re-boot-camp-review/ It’s amazing how quickly The Mageseeker pulls you in. Before you finish the prologue, you’ll have all the skills you need to unleash brutal combos with your chains, gracefully dance around your enemies’ attacks, and steal their magic to fling back at them. No matter how many hundreds of monsters and mageseekers I killed, I never tired of using those simple combat skills you’re taught in the first five minutes. There are ways in which The Mageseeker doesn’t quite reach its full potential, but after spending 15 hours waging bloody war against mystical fascists, my only real complaint is that it left me wanting more.

]]> Wed, 19 Apr 2023 02:58:28 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/the-mageseeker-review/ As much as I love games with evocative narratives, moreish gameplay, or challenges that push me to the point of frustration, sometimes I just want something a little more mellow. A game that’s so laid back that you can pick it up and play whenever the feeling takes you without worrying about where you were or what you were doing.

]]> Tue, 18 Apr 2023 17:30:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/townseek-wasd-preview/ The Library of Babel is a stealth platformer inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’ story of the same name. In short, the story discusses ideas of the infinite, and the paradoxical nature of life. The developers, Tanuki Game Studio, cite Apocalypse Now and a manga named Pluto as major inspirations as well. Unfortunately, despite drawing on so many sources – or perhaps because of it – The Library of Babel doesn’t seem inspired at all.

]]> Mon, 17 Apr 2023 17:00:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/the-library-of-babel-review/ I have a complicated relationship with Star Wars. Thankfully, mine doesn’t involve harassing actors or fancying Jar Jar Binks, but it does mean watching everything in the series even though I know most aren’t very good. For every great bit of Star Wars media like the original trilogy, Revenge of the Sith, The Last Jedi, and The Mandalorian, there are stinkers like The Rise of Skywalker, The Book of Boba Fett, and Attack of the Clones.

]]> Fri, 14 Apr 2023 12:10:14 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/star-wars-jedi-survivor-preview/ You’re busy exploring a cave, minding your own business and mining away before three energetic god-like beings pluck you from the underground to fight in a war against the invading Piglins. I didn’t sign up for this, but it’s at least something to do while the pork chops cook. The signature creativity Minecraft players are known for is why they picked you—you have the imagination needed to lead this new world to victory. It’s a shame then that Minecraft Legends doesn’t let you do much with it.

]]> Fri, 14 Apr 2023 07:00:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/minecraft-legends-review/ Whenever you go to gaming conventions, there’s generally that one game that is always packed with people waiting to play it. You either have to get to that booth as soon as the doors open, or stand there camping out in the queue like it’s Splash Mountain. At WASD this year, that game was Paper Trail.

]]> Thu, 13 Apr 2023 17:54:37 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/paper-trail-preview-wasd/ I went into Tron: Identity with a lot of patience. I adore the original Tron movie and often forgotten game sequel Tron 2.0, so while I wasn’t as fond of Legacy, I have a lot of time for spinoffs like Uprising and even the likes of the janky Tron Evolution.

]]> Tue, 11 Apr 2023 17:00:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/tron-identity-review/ When it comes to goblins, what do you normally think of? The bad guys? Creepy little green men who attack the heroic warriors? Goblin Stone shirks these stereotypes by putting these goofy green guys in the role of the heroes, as once valiant adventurers become the baddies. You’ll find yourself leading a little troupe of adorable, large-nosed goblins to victory as they attempt to save their nearly-extinct species from certain doom.

]]> Mon, 10 Apr 2023 16:30:14 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/goblin-stone-preview-wasd/ Metroidvanias are the backbone of the indie space. At PAX East last month, PID Games successfully made the argument why the genre has a spine strong enough to support the medium.

]]> Sat, 08 Apr 2023 17:30:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/vernal-edge-elypse-plug-in-digital-metroidvanias/ On paper, Curse of the Sea Rats has everything I love in a Metroidvania. It looks stunning, has a huge world to explore, and plenty of upgrades to experiment with. In the right light, it even manages to resemble something of a compelling game as I spend ages exploring a mixture of gorgeous caves and tombs.

]]> Fri, 07 Apr 2023 14:30:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/curse-of-the-sea-rats-review/ Any game trying to position itself as ‘The Next Danganronpa’, like Process of Elimination, is going to have an uphill battle. Between its iconic cast, inventive murders to solve, and an incredible debate mechanic to tie it all together, few games have come close to doing what Danganronpa managed. Since marathoning the entire series during lockdown, I’ve felt a Monokuma-shaped void in my soul, desperate for another grizzly murder to solve.

]]> Fri, 07 Apr 2023 13:00:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/process-of-elimination-review/ Trinity Fusion is the latest title to bring the multiverse to gaming. Unlike in MultiVersus, though, it's not an excuse to bring characters from different IP together and make 'em fight. Instead, as in Everything Everywhere All At Once, this roguelite from Angry Mob Games stars multiple versions of the same character working together to make their way through hostile worlds.

]]> Thu, 06 Apr 2023 19:00:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/trinity-fusion-roguelite-metroidvania-multiverse/ I planted a garden last year and, while it wasn't the most successful horticultural venture in history, I managed to grow a ton of jalapenos. More jalapenos than I was able to eat over the course of the summer, as evidenced by the massive bottle of green hot sauce still sitting in my fridge.

]]> Thu, 06 Apr 2023 17:30:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/homestead-arcana-magic-farming-sim/ Kabaret immediately caught my interest when I heard it was created by a Malaysian studio and based on Southeast Asian myths. I was born and raised in Singapore, a close cultural cousin to Malaysia – while our countries are now distinctly different, we share similar histories and folklore. The premise of Kabaret sounded simple – you are a monster, serving tea to other monsters. You play minigames, and learn about the monsters around you. But from the game’s opening, I knew there was much more waiting beneath the surface of this dark fantasy visual novel. Some mild spoilers ahead.

]]> Thu, 06 Apr 2023 15:00:14 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/kabaret-review-spilling-tea-with-monsters/ Brutal, visceral, aggressive. Like a hype-man, Bandai Namco wants to make the right first impression with Tekken 8. But questions remain for longtime fans of the series, who adore the pomp and grandeur of its characters and story arcs, and get a kick from its irresistible mix of majestic backdrops – all that King of Iron Fist and Mishima stuff – and anarchic silliness (yes, we’re looking at you Kuma, Panda, Gon, etc).

]]> Thu, 06 Apr 2023 12:10:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/tekken-8-hands-on-preview/ Minecraft Legends brings me so close to reliving my glory days of obliterating the carefully crafted bases of my enemies (read: friends and family) in old-school strategy games like Command & Conquer Red Alert. Except this time, everything is made of cute little blocks and I’m up against my own children.

]]> Thu, 06 Apr 2023 08:22:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/minecraft-legends-preview-pc/ Shows like PAX East can be pretty overwhelming. Every inch of the expo floor is filled with new and exciting games fighting to grab your attention with giant displays and flashy demos. After a few days of touring publisher booths and blitzing my way through countless ten minute teasers, it all started blending together. I love games more than almost anyone I know, but there’s only so many roguelike deckbuilders one man can play in a single weekend. From time to time I find myself searching for something unique, something no one else has seen, and this year I found a little booth where everyone was playing a game with their eyes closed.

]]> Wed, 05 Apr 2023 22:56:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/project-dark-is-six-games-you-can-play-with-your-eyes-closed/ Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion was a Zelda-like top-down action-adventure that combined Link's legendary adventuring and a quirky millennial sense of humor in a cute world made up of anthropomorphic food. In the upcoming sequel, the root vegetable you love to root for is back to take on another flavor of crime in a whole new genre.

]]> Wed, 05 Apr 2023 19:00:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/turnip-boy-robs-a-bank-commits-tax-evasion-sequel/ Vice NDRCVR — pronounced "Undercover" despite the vowel-free stylization — is a game about hacking databases in a retro futurist version of the 1980s. Like Miami Vice meets Hackers with gameplay that should feel familiar to anyone who has played games like Hypnospace Outlaw, Stories Untold, or Telling Lies. It imagines a world where the internet, as we know it, was already in widespread use in the Reagan era. It also imagines the kinds of crimes hackers might commit online and how a hacker cop might stop them.

]]> Wed, 05 Apr 2023 17:30:21 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/vice-ndrcvr-1980s-hacker/ I’ve been waiting a long, long time for a game like Everspace 2. Ever since the first time I plugged in a flight stick to play X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, I’ve dreamt of a game that gave me the freedom to explore space and dogfight across the cosmos. I’ve tried countless space sims over the years, from Elite Dangerous to Rebel Galaxy to Eve Online, but they tend to be overly involved, intimidating, and strangely preoccupied with intergalactic commodity trading. What I want is the expanse of space and the freedom to explore it, but without losing the approachable, action focused gameplay that makes games like Star Wars: Squadrons so exciting. Everspace 2 tries to strike a balance between space sim and arcade shooter, and though its systems might be considered shallow by fans of the genre, it's exactly the game I've been waiting for.

]]> Wed, 05 Apr 2023 15:30:51 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/everspace-2-review/ It feels weird to finally have Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp in my hands. The remakes of two classic Game Boy Advance strategy games were originally set to launch last year, but were pushed back to an unknown time (now known to be April 20, 2023) following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. One of the first enemies you face is a fairly obvious parody of Vladimir Putin whose ultimate ability allows him to cover the battlefield with a blanket of immovable snow, so it’s hard to blame Nintendo.

]]> Wed, 05 Apr 2023 13:00:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/advance-wars-remaster-remake-preview/ And breathe. The Mario movie is fine. Maybe it's good, even. While we talk a big game about the curse of video game adaptations being broken by Castlevania (or was it Detective Pikachu? Or Sonic the Hedgehog? Maybe Arcane? Perhaps it was The Last of Us...), the fact is whenever a video game is lined up for the Hollywood treatment, we hold our breaths a little. But The Super Mario Bros. Movie delivers a cosy, bouncy adventure through the Mushroom Kingdom that knows when to pelt the audience with references great and small, and when to let the characters speak for themselves.

]]> Tue, 04 Apr 2023 19:00:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/super-mario-bros-movie-review/ After my first play session with Meet Your Maker I thought it might be an early game of the year contender. The gameplay feels good, the atmosphere is brooding and awesome, and the idea of endless FPS levels that feel like Kazio hacks of Doom 3 crossed with Doom (2016) is something I never knew I needed. Hell, the whole thing can even be played with a friend. I try to resist knee-jerk praise as extreme as that, and the longer I played, the more I was reminded why I push down those feelings. As I sunk hours into Meet Your Maker, my enthusiasm diminished until I was left just wishing there was more.

]]> Tue, 04 Apr 2023 16:00:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/meet-your-maker-review/ I climb up the basin of a dry lake, the water completely emptied out by vampire magic. I’m on my way to some distant quest marker when I’m stopped in my tracks by the sound of two men arguing. They’re standing on the roof of a lakehouse not ten yards away, and I’m sure if I try to slide back down into the lake bed they’ll spot me. This leaves me with only a couple of options: I can use my stealth ability to sneak past them, or I can take them out with my sniper rifle in the hope they’re holding something valuable I can loot.

]]> Sun, 02 Apr 2023 20:40:14 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/redfall-preview/ At PAX East, THQ Nordic took a page from the Kojima playbook with a playable teaser for Pieces Interactive’s upcoming Alone in the Dark. The brief seven minute look is a prologue for the upcoming horror game which features returning character Grace, a young girl exploring a small section of Derceto Manor, the setting for the rest of the game.

]]> Sat, 01 Apr 2023 16:00:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/alone-in-the-dark-playable-teaser-grace/ Hi everyone, and happy April Fool’s Day. This is not a review. Sometimes people get confused about that, so on this day of foolishness, I’m going to break it down for you all. You can tell if something is a review on TheGamer because the image at the top will say ‘REVIEW’ in big capital letters, it’s posted to the review section of the site, and has a scorecard at the bottom. But then, people normally don’t seem to have an issue identifying what is a review, but rather in identifying what is not.

]]> Sat, 01 Apr 2023 14:31:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/all-the-things-that-arent-reviews/ One downside of building a career around playing video games is that I'm no longer easily impressed by anything. Playing and critiquing as many games as I do will make you a bit cold and clinical about them. It's hard to get swept away when it feels like every game is made using the same old market-tested formula and every developer is an exploited worker. The same thing happened to movies when I was a camera operator, perhaps for my next gig I'll become an ice cream taster or professional dog petter and ruin all the other fun things in my life.

]]> Fri, 31 Mar 2023 14:09:28 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/hot-wheels-rift-rally-review/ GrimGrimoire OnceMore is a remaster of VanillaWare’s GrimGrimoire, which released all the way back in 2007 for the PS2. It follows Lillet Blan, named after a French wine, a new student at the wizarding school Tower of Silver Star. After her first few days, where she learns the ins and outs of summoning creatures and using them in battles, she’s confronted with a dark conspiracy and thrown into a Groundhog Day-style time loop. What ensues is an intriguing adventure that has Lillet solving mysteries and endeavoring not only to take down the great evil but to do so without letting a single one of her friends or teachers die in the process.

]]> Fri, 31 Mar 2023 13:00:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/grimgrimoire-oncemore-review/ In Do Not Feed The Monkeys 2099, you are tasked with… not feeding the monkeys.

]]> Thu, 30 Mar 2023 18:00:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/do-not-feed-the-monkeys-2099-research-management-her-story/ We are on the cusp of a generational divide in the roguelike deckbuilder genre. I pitched this topic to my friend Ted and he said "that's way too specific for a TED Talk'' and also "please stop asking me to get you your own TED Talk." Ted's hilarious.

]]> Thu, 30 Mar 2023 17:27:17 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/the-next-generation-of-deckbuilders-is-already-here/ “You are a part of this place,” refugee spacefarer Peake tells you early in Citizen Sleeper’s third and final DLC, Purge. And, for the first time, I feel it. My Sleeper has always felt like an interloper, an external force trying its best to fix The Eye for the people I care about. But now that Peake, who has been here for less time than I, points out that I’m a part of this ecosystem, I realise they’re right.

]]> Thu, 30 Mar 2023 16:01:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/citizen-sleeper-purge-review-the-end/ Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is mixing the 40K universe with the boomer shooter for a game that is as accessible in its gameplay as it is inaccessible (for this 40K novice, at least) in its Proper Noun-studded story. I’ve never played any Warhammer games, but after 20 minutes hands-on with Boltgun at PAX East, I’m excited to make this my first exception.

]]> Thu, 30 Mar 2023 14:30:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/warhammer-40000-boltgun-boomer-shooter-dusk-doom/ I’ve been working at Jüngle for as long as I can remember. At first the work was dull, but I quickly got into it. Moving boxes from storage to delivery tubes sure sounds boring, but when you’ve got to assess it for damage, check it’s the right size and weight, if it’s seasonal, and if it’s expired, there’s a bit more complexity to it. I’m not just Josef Jüngle’s lapdog playing fetch with people’s orders, I’m labelling and delivering like only a skilled labourer can, and I get top ‘J’ rank every shift, I’ll have you know.

]]> Thu, 30 Mar 2023 13:00:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/the-last-worker-review-the-revolution-will-be-mechanised/ It’s really easy to over-explain Endless Dungeon. Amplitude's spiritual successor to its first game, Dungeon of the Endless, is an unholy mashup of genres, including roguelike, tower defense, and twin-stick shooter. It’s a class-based, tactical, top-down, co-op, real-time, horde-based, action dungeon crawler, and a few other things I’m probably forgetting. But describing it as a collection of familiar systems and mechanics would betray how simple and compelling the core gameplay loop actually is.

]]> Wed, 29 Mar 2023 14:00:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/endless-dungeon-preview/ Street Fighter 2 needs no introduction. It revolutionized a genre, establishing the basics that most fighting games still follow to this day. It helped Capcom become the household name that the company is today, and its impact on the extinct arcade scene, which focused on high scores instead of face-to-face battles, was life-changing for a significant part of the gaming industry.

]]> Wed, 29 Mar 2023 14:00:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/like-a-hurricane-an-unofficial-oral-history-of-street-fighter-2-book-review/ Deceive Inc. is a cartoony multiplayer stealth FPS where you play as a spy tasked with stealing a case locked in a vault. You have access to state-of-the-art gadgets, can holographically disguise yourself as anybody on the map, and of course, have loads of cool weapons. Your job is to disable security terminals, capture the objective, and extract your target from the location. Just another day at the Spy Office.

]]> Tue, 28 Mar 2023 17:16:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/deceive-inc-review/ Getting ready for my first big bank heist, the voice of Chains in Payday tells me that I should mask up to hide my identity before this job. Michael Madsen, playing a coked-out crime boss replies sounding like he’s about to fall asleep, “No way, masks are for pussies.” Hold for applause…

]]> Tue, 28 Mar 2023 15:00:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/crime-boss-rockay-city-review/ I’m a fussy bugger when it comes to wireless headsets. I’ve always preferred convenience to excess, and thus my sick gamer space is filled with relatively bland products that serve their purpose without the distracting allure of RGB lighting and other cool ideas. The Corsair HS55 Wireless Core Headset strikes a worthwhile balance though, offering a cheap, varied, and surprisingly impressive audio experience that plays nicely with a number of devices.

]]> Tue, 28 Mar 2023 13:16:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/corsair-hs55-wireless-core-headset-review/ Hell of an Office is a speedrun-focused first-person platformer that takes the aesthetic of id Software's Doom reboots, combines it with the gameplay of Neon White, and turbocharges it with urgency through "the floor is lava" rules that force you to make it to the finish line before magma is lapping at your ankles.

]]> Mon, 27 Mar 2023 16:45:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/hell-of-an-office-preview/ Outcast 2 - A New Beginning is a sequel to a game that came out in 1999 and it absolutely feels like it.

]]> Mon, 27 Mar 2023 16:30:17 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/outcast-2-pax-east-preview/ With Wargroove 2, Chucklefish and Robotality are bringing the 2019 turn-based tactics game back for a second outing. The indie title was on the show floor at this year's PAX East with a demo showing off a series' first: a new roguelike mode called Conquest.

]]> Sat, 25 Mar 2023 23:35:14 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/wargroove-2-preview/ On the PAX East show floor, 30XX is tucked away along the edge of the exhibition hall, manned by just a few people. The booth may be small, but the roguelike - which draws heavily from the look and feel of Mega Man X - is set to get a big update with an emphasis on community creativity in the near future.

]]> Sat, 25 Mar 2023 22:30:14 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/30xx-maker-mode-preview/ Solve our riddle: it is unoriginal but unique. It feels old but looks new. We've played it before, but it's not yet released. What is it? We found the answer after experiencing Daedalic Entertainment's Gollum. It’s a bizarre blend of modern-day graphical fidelity with old-school design decisions, while the story, though new, is saturated with established lore.

]]> Thu, 23 Mar 2023 16:45:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/lord-of-the-rings-gollum-preview/ Everywhere is a game that desperately tries to be everything. It’s not the crypto fever dream earlier reports would have you believe, a point creative director Leslie Benzies is very eager to stress as we tour the studio and catch a glimpse at its ambitious production. But even with this denial of its more sinister intentions, the metaversal scope and high budgets of this unfettered live-service experiment is equal parts impressive and baffling. It invites us into an ever-changing world that can host multiple games’ worth of content, live concerts, huge tournaments, and a suite of creative tools that over the years players can use to eventually take ownership of a digital landscape to rival even Fortnite or Roblox.

]]> Thu, 23 Mar 2023 14:01:12 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/everywhere-preview/ There are some ideas so obvious that when you eventually stumble across them, you can hardly believe nobody has tried such a thing before. Lego 2K Drive takes the eternal appeal of building your own eccentric creations and combines the results with a fun and surprisingly robust open world racer. It’s a game with tons of potential for user-generated hijinks and crossovers that welcome every single license under the sun into its burning rubber arms.

]]> Thu, 23 Mar 2023 13:00:55 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/lego-2k-drive-preview/ Who doesn’t love a good fishing mini-game? There’s something therapeutic about jumping between different bodies of water to catch fish in press-A style games, all to fill out your aquatic encyclopedia. Maybe it's a little too therapeutic. Maybe it needs to be a little more unsettling. That’s the idea behind Dredge by Black Salt Games.

]]> Thu, 23 Mar 2023 13:00:14 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/dredge-review/ Some of the best stories are ones where we already know the ending before we begin. We know Romeo & Juliet die at the end, we know Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother, and we know the princess breaks the prince’s frog curse with a wet, sloppy kiss. The important part is how it happens. We want to experience the journey, how each event unfolds, what drives these characters, and what leads to these conclusions, and that’s exactly what Storyteller is all about.

]]> Wed, 22 Mar 2023 16:00:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/storyteller-review/ Have a Nice Death proves that a collection of great ideas do not make a great game. It plays like the greatest hits of every popular roguelike and 2D action-platformer of the past decade. It has the precision combat and boss complexity of Hollow Knight, the progression and weapon variety of Dead Cells, the evolving narrative of Hades, and even some of the surprises that make The Binding of Isaac endlessly replayable. Yet somehow, Have a Nice Death can’t manage to be greater than, or even as good as, the sum of its parts. For all of the great ideas it borrows, it doesn't have many new ones of its own.

]]> Wed, 22 Mar 2023 14:00:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/have-a-nice-death-review/ WWE 2K23 almost took me back to the glory days of Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain on PS2. It sheds much of its simulator baggage to provide a hard-hitting brawler that is all about rhythmic combos and timely reversals, always making sure it’s easy to pick up and play even for those who don’t know their Roman Reigns from their Roddy Piper. It just works, and that’s something I haven’t been able to say about a wrestling game for the better part of a decade.

]]> Tue, 21 Mar 2023 16:23:40 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/wwe-2k23-review/ When Dead Island 2 was re-revealed, I didn’t let myself get too excited. I was curious to find out how the long journey would end, but with a decade of restarted developments between different teams, I was worried that Dead Island 2 was going to end up as messy as a zombie on the receiving end of a sledgehammer.

]]> Mon, 20 Mar 2023 13:30:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/dead-island-2-preview/ Gaming chairs often get a bad rap. They’ve long been associated with teenage bedrooms, poor build quality, and garish extras nobody actually needs or asks for, all sold at a higher price merely because they stuck “gaming” on the box somewhere.

]]> Fri, 17 Mar 2023 22:30:14 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/vertagear-pl4800-gaming-chair-review/ Adventure games seem to be going through a bit of a resurgence at the moment, with the indie scene blossoming with gripping new stories filled with engaging puzzles to wrap your brain around. Sometimes these are very traditional offerings, harkening back to the nostalgic days of verb walls and inventories, and sometimes, risks are taken and the genre is given an experimental shakeup.

]]> Fri, 17 Mar 2023 16:16:14 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/delete-after-reading-review/ After the success of Resident Evil 2 Remake, the directors said they weren't interested in remaking Resident Evil 4 because it was already a masterpiece. As someone who rates the original among my all-time favorites, I find that absurd. As exceptional and important as Resident Evil 4 is, it has plenty of flaws as well.

]]> Fri, 17 Mar 2023 07:00:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/resident-evil-4-review/ Destiny 2’s Lightfall expansion is the biggest expectation versus reality letdown since Cyberpunk 2077, and much like Cyberpunk, I've struggled to judge it on its own merits, rather than against the marketing cycle that severely over-promised and under-delivered. As the game’s annual expansion, I also have to weigh Lightfall against last year's exceptional The Witch Queen, which set a new bar for storytelling in Destiny, and raised expectations for Lightfall as a consequence. But I want to be fair, to block out the context and just examine it for what it is, rather than what it should have been. Yet no matter how much grace I afford it, Lightfall still falls short.

]]> Wed, 15 Mar 2023 01:24:07 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/destiny-2-lightfall-review/ I left my hands-on session of The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR with the title of the only person who punched a boss to death, and I’m still undecided if that’s an impressive accomplishment or an embarrassing failure. You’re not meant to do this. You’re supposed to punch enemies back and then carry on unloading your magazine into them, but I panicked and kept slamming my fist into their face. If it works, it’s not stupid.

]]> Mon, 13 Mar 2023 15:30:14 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/the-dark-pictures-switchback-vr-preview/ When I was a kid, I used to get sleep paralysis about giant flying books flapping at me. They wouldn’t stop unless I was under the covers and holding my breath. For some reason, that was terrifying–big books flipping through their pages with the threat of maybe sending a light breeze my way. Regardless, there’s something uncomfortable now about seeing big books flying in the air. So, when I got to try out The Elder Scrolls Online’s newer dungeons, I quietly kept that to myself as we destroyed a whole bunch of them, while the devs later asked if I was okay with spiders. You know, the slightly more normal fear.

]]> Mon, 13 Mar 2023 14:30:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/elder-scrolls-online-scribes-of-fate-preview/ Would you kill someone because they might try to kill you? That’s the question I found myself asking in Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo. My friend had just died mysteriously, her body cold behind me. I’d recently learned about curses and become a curse bearer, and here comes this mysterious guy trying to convince me to give him my curse stone. I think not. Yes, I know this probably sounds awfully confusing right now.

]]> Wed, 08 Mar 2023 15:00:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/paranormasight-the-seven-mysteries-of-honjo-review/ Exploring an abandoned island that’s riddled with ghoulies and ghosties sounds pretty exciting. You’re armed with a special camera or torch that is capable of deflecting and defeating the different spooks you encounter, all while you hunt down answers to your forgotten past. Different character perspectives interlink, threading together to weave the answer to the mystery surrounding the Rogetsu Festival that happened ten years prior. But I couldn’t enjoy any of that because of how slow and clunky Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is.

]]> Wed, 08 Mar 2023 13:00:14 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/fatal-frame-mask-of-the-lunar-eclipse-review/ ‘So bad it’s good’ is a pretty charged phrase. It implies that a piece of entertainment, no matter how dreadful or painful it is to engage with, can still leave a positive impression on you. Goat Simulator is a mess of physics and stupid humour, but it’s still a fun time. The CD-i Legend of Zelda games are memetic gold for their shoddy animation work. Sonic ‘06 has a certain undeniable charm. There are facets to these games that make them shine despite the dullness of the overall product. Little Witch Nobeta has no such facet.

]]> Fri, 03 Mar 2023 17:40:14 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/little-witch-nobeta-review/ Returning to a single PC monitor always feels like a significant downgrade. I use two monitors for my PC, and my work is noticeably more productive because I can multitask far more efficiently. The problem comes when I have to travel for work and I’m stuck with my laptop, begrudgingly having to alt-tab between the things I need on a much smaller screen.

]]> Fri, 03 Mar 2023 17:00:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/duex-plus-portable-laptop-monitor-review/ For one reason or another, the Age of Wonders series somehow passed me by. I’m not sure whether I simply didn’t pay it enough attention or no one felt the need to say “Hey, Ryan, this fantasy 4X game with grid-based combat is everything you like” but after playing Age of Wonders 4, it’s clear that I’ve been missing out.

]]> Thu, 02 Mar 2023 17:00:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/age-of-wonders-4-preview/ Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is Nioh in everything but name. The only major difference is the deflecting mechanic that makes it feel like a clunkier Sekiro. Derivative doesn’t even begin to cut it, but the sharp blade of my sword does, so I press on. After ripping my way through a few foot soldiers and a pissed-off demon tiger, I encounter the first boss, a hulking pushover that’s obviously hiding a second phase. Lo and behold, when he ‘dies’, a cutscene plays and he turns into a giant, demonic monster. I whittle his health down until I can use my divine beast to finally step out of the prologue and into the wider world, only he destroys my beast in a second cutscene, sending me back to square one. I just described the opening of Wo Long, but the exact same thing happens in the first Nioh.

]]> Thu, 02 Mar 2023 11:00:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/wo-long-fallen-dynasty-review/ I was fighting a multi-coloured butterfly in a swamp, firing off shotgun blasts that were actually scatter-shot bubbles, whittling down its health in a reluctant battle against beauty. Eventually, it started to sweat and dance around the arena with an empty boss bar—I’d won, but there was more. I had to whip out my lasso and circle it, all the while it fired panic-stricken pellets of its own in a frantic last-ditch effort. Then suddenly I was on the boss’ back, and we were fighting side-by-side.

]]> Wed, 01 Mar 2023 11:00:16 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/patch-quest-review-pc-steam-deck/ This preview is based on playing a bespoke version of Final Fantasy 16 made for media to experience, and the contents may differ from the final version.

]]> Tue, 28 Feb 2023 14:00:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/final-fantasy-16-preview/ Scars Above begins with a strange object, dubbed the Metahedron, appearing in space above the Earth. Our heroine Kate, is one fourth of the crew (one that seems way too small) dispatched to investigate what the Metahedron's whole deal is.

]]> Tue, 28 Feb 2023 08:05:15 GMT https://www.thegamer.com/scars-above-review/