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Preamble: I played the game to completion on a Series X using headphones, exploring a couple of chapters per day over the course of three days. As with all my reviews, this is based on my personal experience with the game, and is entirely subjective. Review: 'I can't believe this is all realtime'. I actually said that out loud several times during the...

A Micro Review™ Intro: A Micro Review™ is a small, bite-sized chunk of opinion for games which might not otherwise get any coverage at all. This could be due to length, quality, obscurity or simply a lack of things to embellish upon. Review: A relatively small, relatively short, relatively unmemorable Metroidvania which does nothing original or particularly well, Bounty...

Intro: Outrun. Chase HQ. Powerdrift. Turbocharge. If these names mean anything to you, then you'll know what to expect in this retro-inspired racer: Striped roads, scrolling horizons, 2D scaling sprites for trackside objects and a synth-wave soundtrack to drive along to at ridiculous speeds. 80's Overdrive has all of that, but it doesn't have the thing those...

Intro: A Micro Review™ is a small, bite-sized chunk of opinion for games which might not otherwise get any coverage at all. This could be due to length, quality, obscurity or simply a lack of things to embellish upon. Review: A simple, cheap £5 Game Maker Studio game distributed by Xitilon. Ostensibly a hack n Slash, you follow a linear top down map, chopping things up...

Intro: Whatever you are, you're alive. Sentient. A free mind, tearing your physical body from the biomechanical heap you have grown from. Nothing makes sense. Your being alive doesn't make sense. The sounds and sights don't make sense. The room doesn't make sense. Rising from the floor, you take in the alien landscape before you: A building...

Intro: In your mind's eye, you're five moves ahead of The Dungeon. It's been a grueling trek through this particular floor, and - as always - you're one false move from oblivion. Having played the scenario through in your head multiple times, you slide forwards across the tiles. The monsters...

Intro: Wow, we’re becoming spoilt for choice when it comes to top-down shooters on Xbox One! Never has it been a better time to be a fan of the twin-stick niche, and now is as good a time as ever to check out the reviews before you buy; is Livelock more Neon Chrome, or Action News Heroes? Let’s dive in… Review: Set in a world where human minds...

Intro: If there’s one thing which Awesome Games Studio are good at, it’s creating excellent experiences beyond their indie label. Back on the now dead platform which was the Xbox Live Indie Game Marketplace on the Xbox 360, the studio released an episodic series titled “Oozi: Earth Adventures”. It...

IMPORTANT NOTE: This review covers the remastered BioShock Collection as a whole. That's all three (as of 2022) games. Intro: It’s hard to imagine the Xbox 360 before 2K’s BioShock. Like Bethesda with Oblivion before it, BioShock was a landmark release which went on to define the seventh console...

IMPORTANT NOTE: This review covers the remastered BioShock Collection as a whole. That's all three (as of 2022) games. Intro: It’s hard to imagine the Xbox 360 before 2K’s BioShock. Like Bethesda with Oblivion before it, BioShock was a landmark release which went on to define the seventh console...

IMPORTANT NOTE: This review covers the remastered BioShock Collection as a whole. That's all three (as of 2022) games. Intro: It’s hard to imagine the Xbox 360 before 2K’s BioShock. Like Bethesda with Oblivion before it, BioShock was a landmark release which went on to define the seventh console...

Intro: Sometimes, you don’t want something original. Sometimes you just want a good, old fashioned experience which excels at what it does. A few flashes of genius, sure, but you’re here for the core experience. Take horror films for example: You can watch Ringu or Ju-on for...

Intro: Once in a while, you don’t need aggressive AI opponents and automatic weapons to provide tense, rewarding gameplay. Time trials have been around almost as long as video games themselves, pitting the player against the clock in a heart pounding race to the finish. Modern examples of how it’s done right...

Intro: My first experience with Breach & Clear was on the Android platform. A squad based tactical shooter presented from an isometric perspective, feeling similar to a stripped down Xcom, it had you storming buildings and alleyways across a selection of urban locales. Playing as a SWAT team...

Intro: Ah, here we are again. It’s a world gone mad, where people of the near future get their kicks by watching other people kill each other on live TV. Is it The Running Man? Is it Smash TV? No, it’s Action News Heroes! Maybe with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura on board, this wouldn’t be the throwaway crapfest it is. Hey, at least it would have...

Intro: I’m going to pretend for a moment that no one has heard of Tetris, a Russian puzzle game created by Alexey Pajitnov. Contrary to popular belief, Tetris appeared on more than twenty systems – including an arcade machine – before hitting Nintendo’s Game Boy in 1989 and becoming a global phenomenon,...

Intro: Way back when, there was an old Public Domain title on the Amiga, simply called “Tanks”. It preceded the concept of Worms, but with only one weapon: The tank cannon. Destructible scenery and multiplayer across random 2D maps was really good fun – Then Team 17 took the concept and made it their own. Review: Cannon Brawl attempts to...

Intro: Dungeon Punks. It’s a terrible name. Not just because it’s so bland and unmemorable, but because it’s misleading in every regard. It brings to mind platforming rogue-likes that Orange Pixel or Ravenous Games might make for your mobile device. It certainly doesn’t bring to mind...

Intro: Hand drawn graphics have charm; there’s no doubt about it. Some games purport to be 8 bit or 16 bit experiences, but it takes a far more nuanced approach than chunky or pixelated sprites and filtered, lo-res backgrounds to nail the true feel of the golden age of home computer gaming. There’s the audio of course, but...

Intro: Every year or so sees the release of another fun-but-basic MX vs ATV game. In 2016 we saw a slightly stealthy re-release of the Xbox 360 game from the year before: You race motocross bikes and all terrain vehicles against each other for a few laps through dirt, sand and mud, pulling off stunts over the...

Intro: Insomniac games partnered with GameStop’s then new publishing arm to bring us something with a distinctive Indie flavour: Song of the Deep, a somewhat by-the-numbers metroidvania which takes place entirely underwater. Review: Living with her seafaring father, Merryn – a young...

Intro: The smell brings you around. Salty, fresh; a hint of palm. The fine, soft sand is warm against your back, and you lay there for a moment, trying to think. It’s a struggle to remember why – or how – you came here. Slowly, you become aware of the gentle sound of water lapping against the shore. It’s touch is far from...

Intro: There’s been something of a trend over the last few years: AAA developers leaving the roost and banding together to do something new, away from the constraints of a huge team and publisher pressure. With titles from other devs such as Fire in the Flood and Dangerous Golf being born under similar circumstances, two things about this current...

Intro: Milkstone Studios made a name for themselves back in the XBLIG scene on the Xbox 360, with their own quirky takes on games which were popular on other platforms. From The Binding of Isaac influenced Sushi Castle to Slender-a-like White Noise, what Milkstone have always lacked in originality, they make up for with some of the...

Intro Tight, birds-eye shooters have a special place in my heart. From the hours of co-op fun that my brother and I put into Super Smash TV on the C64 and Sega Master System, through the hidden gem of PS1 splatter-fest Loaded, and on to my repeated plays of literal poo-fest The Binding of Isaac, it's fair to say I get a lot...