tldr videogame curation
melbourne, australia

Genre: Adventure

Seemingly simple, but absolutely delightful and just as dense as it needs to be. Lead a group of adorable creatures through beautiful landscapes amongst its charming visuals and super chill soundtrack. The controls are simple, and the gameplay is engaging, making it perfect for a lazy - dare I say cosy - Sunday.

It’s another survival horror MMO set in a post-apocalyptic world infested with monstrous creatures! Once Human has something, though - the world is wonderfully creative and its crafting and base-building are intuitive and satisfying. Great visuals and an atmospheric setting, but it feels typically grindy and repetitive over time. Definitely worth checking out for fans of the genre.

SCHiM is a unique puzzler where you navigate exclusively on shadows while solving puzzles. Its minimalist design and core mechanics are fresh, progressing creatively. It’s a delightful and refreshing take - and at times has quite poignant moments - but it’s hard to not feel like it peaks quite early, despite it’s short playtime.

DROS is a puzzle-platformer blending exploration with relatively light challenge. You’ll control two characters with unique abilities, each with strengths and weaknesses. The art style is charming, but the gameplay can feel repetitive - it’s engaging up front, but may lack depth for some people. Casually, it’s a light and satisfying experience though.

HoYo’s latest gacha has all the tropes and systems you’d expect, this time in a retrofuture urban setting and excelling in presentation, fast-paced combat and quality-of-life improvements. The combat is fluid, satisfying and addictive (albeit never particularly challenging), the story isn’t the deepest but has its moments (even if the pacing could use some work), and the whole thing has great visual design, sound design and music. Smaller than Genshin, its minor flaws are easy to overlook if you’re willing to ignore or accept the predatory gacha foundation.

The First Descendant is an almost aggressively pedestrian looter shooter - neither exceptional nor terrible. It combines ideas well but is held back by shameless drive toward microtransactions and apparent lack of identity: part Destiny, part Warframe, lots of fanservice. While the visuals and cooperative systems are strong, its gunplay and movement feel pretty average, and overall inconsistent quality and monetisation model won’t appeal to everyone. Worth a quick go if you wanna turn your brain off for a while.

Please don’t. Rumours started last week about an Elden Ring TV show or film adaptation, and George R. R. Martin has added fuel to the fire in his ‘not a blog’.

Oh, and about those rumors you may have heard about a feature film or television series based on ELDEN RING… I have nothing to say. Not a word, nope, not a thing, I know nothing, you never heard a peep from me, mum mum mum.   What rumor?

As much as I’d love to see this done well, I think it’s more likely it won’t be… if it even can.

Every now and then a game comes along with a narrow but succinct concept, so confident and well-executed that it immediately, effortlessly captures your attention til the credits roll. Arctic Eggs could have just been a silly little browser game (especially considering it was born of a gamejam), but pairing its singular mechanic with an unbelievably cool art style, interesting world and genuinely hilarious writing was a masterstroke that makes it something else entirely. It feels ridiculous to write so glowingly about a short egg-flipping game, but it’s a testament to how refreshing games with small scopes and a solid vision can be.

This sequel to the genre-defining Exit 8 is far more straight-forward (literally). It’s the same kind of spot-the-difference loop, but said differences are way more obvious - sometimes in an impressive way, but mostly in a disappointingly unchallenging way. It’s still cool, but the mystique isn’t really here, and overall isn’t quite as compelling.

Ever wondered what Wordle would be like if it was a dark, absurd and funny dungeon-crawler? Look no further! What a strange little game. Evokes a tonne of nostalgia, but capitalises on modern game sensibilities. Great music, excellent voice acting (and a crazy amount thereof!) and chock-full of charm. Won’t be for everyone just by virtue of being so different, but absolute worth checking out.