Creatures of Ava definitely has a lot of heart. There’s a vision here and evidently a lot of passion, but for me falls short with its uninspired gameplay and lack of polish. Despite a promising concept of evolving creatures in a dynamic world, the execution mostly feels clunky and repetitive. It’s great to look at though, and if you’re in need of a cosy game, it’s worth checking out.

[Early Access] Go-Go Town! offers a charming blend of Animal Crossing style town-building and management sim, wrapped in vibrant visuals. It’s light-hearted and engaging but, needs a bit more time in the oven: quests and progression are a bit repetitive, but this may change as the game develops. A good casual pick but don’t expect much complexity.

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.

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.

An intriguing clicker game with an immediately captivating, minimalist aesthetic and subtly unsettling story. Number-goes-up satisfaction is at the forefront, but there are definite nods to factory automation, which rewards optimisation. Love the sound design, music, and unique take on the genre - but wish it leant harder into automation.

Suika Game but with pool input and physics. It’s a cool little idea, certainly executed very well and fairly priced. You likely won’t get tonnes of playtime out of it, but it’s fun. Imagine it would be cool on mobile or handheld.

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.

It’s a cool game. I’m more than fine with its 6-7hr duration. The graphics are some of, if not the most impressive I’ve seen to date. The music, cinematics and performances are all fantastic. But… if it hadn’t been in development for five years, I would have said that something here doesn’t feel right, as if it was rushed out. The combat is cinematic and visceral, but not particularly rewarding and sometimes clunky. The puzzles are far less compelling than those of its predecessor. The story isn’t bad - it’s """fine""" - but ultimately feels unnecessary, which given the impact of the first game, is a little sad.

Apart from the obvious gacha repulsion, the major things stopping me from enjoying Genshin were laborious movement and unsatisfying combat. Wuthering Waves attempts to remedies these, with almost over-the-top traversal abilities, and more impactful (albeit still button-mashy) combat. That said, even ignoring how unashamedly they’re ripping Genshin, I still struggle to get properly into it. Several hours in, it feels like 90% of that has been spamming ‘advance dialog’, the VO is hilariously flat, and the story isn’t particularly compelling. Ultimately, if you’re into the genre, it’s worth checking out - and even if you’re not, it’s a fun braindead way to spend some time before the F2P grind becomes too harsh.