Another "tried it because it was on Game Pass" game. Not really for me. Pretty generic and repetitive gameplay-wise. I'm sure it'd be way more fun with friends.

Categorically "not for me" and I knew this going in, but wanted to try it out as it was on Game Pass.

Died twice in the first 15 minutes and got sent straight back to the beginning. I don't have the patience for this. Abandoned with my tail between my legs.

Moderately amusing party game but making each round the same game was a really silly design choice. Each round should be a new game type as it gets suuuper boring once you've on round 7 or 8 of the same damn thing.

Short and sweet little visual novel. Wasn't compelled to seek out all the endings but I liked what I saw all the same.

Certainly has its clunky mechanics but I really dug the art style and overall vibe. Solid 3-star indie.

A moderately amusing assemblage of moral dilemmas, though the genuinely provocative earlier questions eventually give way to increasingly silly/meta diversions which aren't quite as noodle-baking.

The narration is really good. The visuals are ugly AF on the Deck though.

Sadly this is one of Wales Interactive's weaker FMV games. There are a few decent performances and the production values are decent enough but it's so dull almost from start to finish. The languid pacing even for a 90 minute game and lack of an interesting payoff made me happy to move on after a single playthrough.

Also this needed more Richard Brake - he had about 3 minutes of screen time :(

Gave this a try as it was "free" on Game Pass. The shooting mechanics are actually pretty good but this is just so generic and forgettable.

An easy to play, relaxing VN but a little bit underwhelmed. It felt a bit bloated out with the RPG asides and didn't quite hit the emotion I was hoping for. It looked really nice and the voice acting was great, though.

Man what a letdown. The art is awesome and it has a certain nostalgic appeal but the combat is so boring and there's SO much talking. Played about 90 minutes and decided I couldn't stomach another 30-40 hours of this.

Fort Solis looks pretty and has solid voice acting but, even at just 3 hours in length, it's a real drag. The excruciatingly slow walking speed feels like a lazy attempt to pad out the game length and the actual mechanics are pretty dull. Shame as I was hype for this.

Definitely the worst Yakuza game I've played so far but still pretty good? The gameplay feels super dated and the story is... whatever, but I still found myself swept up in the melodramatic thrall of it all.

[DID NOT COMPLETE]

I gave this about 2.5 hours but it's just so soulless and boring. The dialogue sucks, the opening is way too slow and combat-devoid, the open world has no character.

On the plus side the protagonist is... fine and the traversal is sporadically fun. Easy to see why this flopped.

2023

Nice game. Gorgeous art style and loved the music/sound design. Actually kinda wish there was a bit more to the cooking mechanics and it wasn't over so fast, but a good time for sure.

It looks nice and Cara Gee gives a great performance as Drummer, but the gameplay is super simplistic even for Telltale standards, and the story didn't grip me much within this incredibly short 50-minute-or-so episode.

My advice would be to wait until they're all out if they're all gonna be this short.