First game of 2024 under my belt.
Mia works as bar staff where during the course of her shift she meets a mysterious woman who brings a great deal of danger into her world.
A short fmv game that relies on the player going back to try for different paths to fill in some gaps in the story.
It feels a little like they’re going for big trouble in little China meets the Goonies in terms of vibes. However with a clearly small budget they have to cut a lot of corners and perhaps they should have ditched the treasure hunting/fantastical aspect and had a more straightforward action narrative as the fight sequences are the highlight of this fmv game.
It’s quite camp and has some funny one liners but it’s hard to recommend this unless you’re a dedicated fmv fan and even then I’d say look for it in a sale as there’s not much on offer for your money.
It’s a fun night in but I doubt it’ll last long in the memory after.

Another inoffensive gamepass offering. You play a young woman who has gone back to a place from a childhood summer in order to take care of a familial estate that has been left behind.
This plays as a point and click game where you solve puzzles whilst moving about the estate to advance the narrative and dust off the cobwebs from the memories left behind.
The watercolour artwork that makes up the game is the real standout as the puzzles aren’t anything that are taxing in any real way. The story is the main driver of this game and it honestly feels a bit derivative like I’ve played narratives like this before (young woman goes to place she’s hasn’t been in a while to figure out life). Maybe I’ve become jaded with these kind of indie games. The story at least doesn’t outstay its welcome. Bah humbug!

Please play Lost in Play instead on steam.

You play as Rania a newcomer to Nivalis and new employee of cloudpunk. You spend the entire game making deliveries and engaging in brief conversations with a variety of citizens. These conversations illuminate much of the dystopia that has befallen Nivalis.
The delivery company you work for isn’t exactly on the up and up and works with some unscrupulous clients. At certain points you can make choices that affect differing outcomes as the story plays out.
The story is something of a slow burn and takes a while to get going as you complete a lot of deliveries around the city.
Nivalis is vast but mostly empty and I wish there had been more on offer outside the main path instead of a time consuming collectathon as a substitute for a decent sidequest. The story as mentioned took a while to get going and then it came to end rather abruptly once you’d started to get to know people.
The driving is mostly fine but can be clunky with upgrades being a necessity. The computer controlled drivers on the other hand will just smash into you particularly when you load into a new area which is annoying as you eventually have to pay for repairs when you take too much damage.
Worth a punt if you like cyberpunk noir type stories.

In Forspoken you play as Frey a young woman dragged from her home on Earth to the fantastical realm of Athia. In the process you find yourself attached to a magical talking vambrace and also in possession of powers that soon draw the attentions of the other powerful beings of this world.
The game has left me utterly frustrated at its wasted potential. This open world action rpg is very thin on meaningful content. Yet it has a very fluid and beautiful combat/traversal mechanics. The story is very basic and by the numbers so quickly you start to get bored of the whole affair but the design of its main bosses (tantas) are very unique and pleasing to behold. The open world environment is ridiculously wide and beautiful but are barren landscapes that again start to bore you as you move through them to another meaningless and optional map marker that grants either a piece of armor with minimal combat effects/xp/stat upgrades. Side quests are few and far between and completely forgettable it’s all just set dressing. You get the most out of this game sticking to the main path which has you take down the once beloved protectors of Athia; the Tantas. These were powerful women who prior to the events of the game succumbed to a blight that ate away at their minds and (much of the world) until they became twisted versions of themselves.
I honestly cannot recommend anyone play this game (unless it’s at a heavy price discount and you mainline it) it feels like a mostly empty and generic experience which is a shame as the mechanics are sound. Ugh.

I was completely engaged in the story of Resurgence but unfortunately as the game went on I couldn’t ignore the technical mess that it is. There is a near constant stuttering between transitions and in moments of action. I had one crash but was genuinely surprised there wasn’t more. I did have one bug where a character had been firing a phaser then stopped and put the weapon back in their holster but the phaser was still firing which carried on into a cutscene with this big beam of yellow and accompanying phaser sound as people in the scene walked through it which at first was hilarious but the scene went on for a while and became obnoxious as the sound was drowning out what the characters in the scene were saying.
This game was made by ex Telltale devs and it shows both for good and bad. It depends on how much you like Trek and how much jank you can stomach as to if you should play this game or not. Such a shame because there’s something really fun underneath the mess.

An inventive puzzle game where you reach the end of a series of levels by manipulating the environment with a photograph.
The amount of times I swore in wonder at what was being achieved with this mechanic was far too much to recall.
There’s a nice steady difficulty curve to this game and it doesn’t outstay it’s welcome only taking several hours to complete (including the optional bonus levels).
I was genuinely getting portal vibes from the game but unfortunately I don’t think the narrative is anywhere near as engaging.
This is a must play for lovers of puzzle games.

Initially I was unsure about this instalment in the series; the complete action combat and only having control of the main character left me unsure of how I would get on with the game.
I don’t know what has precipitated this action of late but the resurgence of demos, in particular giving prospective punters the first few hours/chapters of a game is a great idea. The FF16 demo was amazing as it gave me the first few hours of that game and let me have a feel for what the rest of the game would be like. Needless to say I was hooked and immediately proceeded to get the full game and carry over my save off the back of completing the demo.
Almost 70 hours later and I can say it’s definitely one of the highlights of the year for me and coming so soon after TOTK that’s quite the feat. The story and characters were very compelling with some great voicework to match. The influence of Game of Thrones could be keenly felt with the ever shifting seats of power and completely brutal antagonists.
The combat is extremely fun, flashy and ott. The amount of particle effects going off when chaining all sorts of special moves is very vibrant.
The real standout of the game is the Eikon/Summons boss fights. Each one more bombastic and intense than the previous one. I was in awe of them all and couldn’t quite believe what I was witnessing.
The only downsides for me were some of the sidequests were hit and miss and apart from monster hunts a lot of the enemies scattered around the world were very basic and not that challenging. Also there’s no real variety in weapons and armor just a straight path in terms upgrading said equipment.
The only variety comes from which Eikon/Summons abilities you decide to level up and assign for use in combat missions. That said you can freely reset and respec your skill points assigned to these upgrades so trying new abilities is not really a hassle.
I highly recommend this game and by all means give the demo a go to judge for yourself.

Lamplight City. I wanted to love it, there’s a charm to having good, fully voice acted lines in a point and click game. For a time I was reminded of Hobs Barrow (another fully voiced point and click) and how that was excellent at setting the scene and creating a real sense of place. Lamplight City with its alternate Victorian era steampunk America manages to also do so but the main detective story in particular the cases aren’t quite as interesting.
The main setup of your characters inner voice (which I won’t spoil) works well for the genre. This allows for engaging and at times funny dialogue as you click about the environments.
The issue I have is how investigative threads can be dropped by saying or doing the wrong thing which isn’t telegraphed to the player that this is happening which leads to suspects not being allowed to be investigated and frustrated outcomes where you either accuse someone innocent or choosing the option of declaring the case unsolvable. I ended up having to declare one of the cases unsolvable but overall got the main suspect in the end. However it’s possible to mess up and make each case unsolvable and get bad endings which seems like a waste of the players time.
In short I liked the setting, atmosphere and characters but was not fully engaged by the cases and main story unfortunately.

Onto another sequel. This one also another worthy follow up. Both this and tears of the kingdom feel that exploration deserves to be rewarded mostly with customisations. Which in both cases has diminishing returns if you’re not that into them or you’ve got your fit already sorted.
I digress, this is expectedly a bombastic triple A experience with fun combat and traversal mechanics. I still don’t quite understand the need to have the souls thing in this game as much as I like the combat it doesn’t feel precise/solid enough to support it. The different combat stances however were a welcome change and getting to wield a blaster and a lightsaber in one stance and a twin saber in another made enemy encounters a blast to go through (pardon the pun).
The story very confidently builds on what occurred in fallen order and has some really emotional highs and lows that I obviously won’t spoil here. If you liked the first you’ll get a kick out of it for sure.
The negative is however worth mentioning here. Unfortunately this game is still buggy in places. Some had me laughing while others ruined certain story moments.
A triumphant defeat of a boss turned comical when in the cutscene as they were struck the death blow they started to stutter and teleport between 2 positions and then violently so as their body lay on the floor after the cutscene.
Another when two characters kiss they completely missed while one was snogging the others nose and one was kissing the air under the others chin.
Also after defeating another character as their body lay on the floor the fight with them started again and I had to fight them and beat them again all the while their body was still on the floor!
I also had two crashes but the main thing is you never know when or where it’s going to happen and it can ruin your experience at times.
Overall I enjoyed the game underneath the mess and hopefully more stable builds will come.

Tears of the Kingdom is quite the achievement as a follow up to BotW. Taking everything that made the first game great and expanding upon it.
I sank a ridiculous amount of time into it (235 hours according to my switch) and for good reason; it has such a compelling atmosphere no matter where you explore up above/ground level or in the depths there’s always something pulling you on to see what’s around the corner or over the hill. It’s genuinely reinvigorated my love for the promise of what open worlds can do/be. Another compelling aspect was the story which I didn’t really engage with in BotW but in this I genuinely was gripped as each piece was revealed to me and actually had me tearful (of the kingdom) at parts.
The only negatives I have are not really worth mentioning as they are nitpicks more than anything and never marred my experience. I really hated leaving that world behind but I’m so happy it existed. This is a must play.

The follow up to Four Last Things, this point and click is very much in that same vein with its absurdist Pythonesque humour. It’s very short but if you dig this kind of funny (which I very much do) then you’re in for a good time. My only sticking point is the puzzles which like a lot of old school point and clicks can seem rather obtuse and require you to really think outside of the box (or try everything with everything sometimes) to get a solution. This can lead to some frustrations but tbh the short run time and gags will offset most of it.
I recommend it for point and click fans, people with a great sense of humour and a bit of patience.