Basketball Classics Xbox Review

Basketball Classics is a retro basketball game sent my way by a company that I honestly never expected to work with, not because they are some huge AAA company or anything like that. Acclaim was simply big when I was a kid, and it went out of business for a long time and came back last year, and I played a lot of their games as a kid. So, to sit with my girlfriend and play a retro basketball game with my 9-year-old daughter, and my girlfriend was sent to me by Acclaim, was simply one of those moments in life that seemed surreal to me.

So right out the gate, I have to say, if you are looking for some amazing, graphically impressive game or an alternative to modern games, this is not the game for you. There are no high-definition graphics, in-depth movements, or any of that sort of thing going on. We are going back to the old days of holding A button to jump and a timed release to shoot, B button to pass, and Y to switch characters here. That is essentially all the controls.

There are a few options to choose from when it comes to the game, such as the type of court, CPU difficulty, and quarter length. Just like the old days, Acclaim has really gone hard on recreating that retro feel with Baseketball Classics. They even have all-star teams for most years you can pick teams for, which there are a lot of years.

Truth be told, if you love retro sports games, this is a 9/10 title. It has everything you could want, A story mode to unlock things in, classic graphics, and easy controls. More teams than you could ever need, couch co-op. Everything you could possibly need to relive your childhood. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Cozy Alpine tycoon game Above The Snow launches April 23rd

Above The Snow is a cozy, story-driven tycoon set in the ruthless beauty of the 1960s Alps. Build and customize your dream mountain lodge in striking mid-century modern style, then step outside and take control of the mountain itself. Plan dangerous trails, manage gear, read shifting weather, and rescue stranded alpinists while catering to a diverse cast of guests, each with their own demands, personalities, and breaking points. Every choice shapes your crew, your reputation, and who makes it off the mountain. With 20+ hours of narrative, dynamic systems, and authentic Alpine vehicles, the pressure never stops. Fame grows, competition tightens, and storms loom closer with every passing day. Whether you thrive under pressure or switch to Creative Mode to build without limits, Above The Snow invites you to build, manage, and thrive in the coldest winter of your life.

“Above The Snow is a unique mix of quasi-cozy hot cocoa-sipping relaxing resort simulator with frosty survival management strategy where you must make high-stakes life or death decisions,” said Michał Wasiak, Founder and Studio Director at Above The Desk. “There’s plenty of interpersonal drama in this tale of friendship and business management, and we want players to feel fully immersed in our true-to-life rendition of the 1960s Alps, complete with real world furniture and outerwear from brands like Cortazu, Fjordfiesta, and Heywood-Wakefield. We can’t wait to take you to our virtual summit above the snow!”

Above The Snow features:

  • Alpine Hospitality Simulator: Build and manage your lodge in the heart of the Alps, customize interiors, expand facilities, and cater to daring guests with bold tastes and big personalities.
  • Story-Rich Shelter Life: Dive into 20+ hours of narrative-driven gameplay featuring a colorful cast of crew members, each with unique backstories, strengths, and quirks. 
  • Trailblazing Management: Map out custom trails through icy peaks and scenic vistas, adjust for guest skill levels, upgrade hazards, and rescue anyone who gets in over their skis.
  • Dynamic Alpine Economy: Attract thrill-seekers and casual tourists alike with smart decor choices, expanded services, and a morale system that rewards good hospitality.
  • Creative & Endless Modes: Prefer more relaxed play? Unlock Endless Winter or Creative Mode to build your dream resort without the story pressure. Bonus: import your own custom decor!
  • Vehicles & Logistics: Use land and air vehicles inspired by real Alpine equipment to transport guests, supplies, and complete vital trail tasks, just keep an eye on the weather.

Winner – Best PC City-Building Game – NYX Game Awards: Season 2 (2025)
Nomination – Best Narrative Indie Game Award – Taipei Game Show (2026) 
Nomination – Best Polish Indie Game – Poznań Game Arena (2025)

Trash Goblin PlayStation 5 Review

Trash Goblin was sent my way by Spilt Milk Studios, which I always appreciate. The name has a super simple premise: you are a goblin that owns a small store. You will discover, clean, and fix up little trinkets to sell to some of the weirdest clients you will ever come across.

Thats it, that’s the game. It is just a cute, cozy shop game. Sound like your kind of game? Keep reading. If you already hate it, keep reading anyway. First thing is first, you will need to use a chisel to free the trinket from what seems to be a clay prison. After this comes the next mini game of cleaning it with a sponge. Some customers don’t care if it is clean, but honestly, you always get a cash bonus if it is clean, so as your mother said, always clean your room. I mean trinkets.

If you are still with me and interested, now is the time to sell them to the random people who come looking for trinkets. They may want something specific, like a certain lamp. They also may be vague, like hey, I just want a container. If you don’t have the item, it is possible to just send them away so someone new shows up, and if it is a story person, you can get them to come back, so don’t worry about that.

Now is the time for me to tell you the truth that many reviewers won’t. I did not enjoy playing this game. It was 100% a me thing, by the way, the characters are cute and charming. Graphically, it is nice, and it even has a wonderful price point of only $20. It sits at 5 stars on the PlayStation Store at the time I write this, and Very Positive on Steam. It is an 8/10 title that simply wasn’t for me. If you like cozy games, this is worth checking out. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Grind Survivors PlayStation 5 Review

Grind Survivors was sent my way by Assemble Entertainment, a company that has been great to work with in the past. This time around, they sent me their new Rogue Survivor game that has a nice twist to it. Rather than the usual fight until you die, unlock things, and move along, you will also collect weapons. You can then either recycle these weapons to collect ashes that can then improve other weapons or combine weapons to create stronger weapons.

There is no shortage of weapon types either. While initially you only have a couple, such as dual machine guns, a pistol, and a shotgun, as you beat more difficult runs, you get a Tesla rifle that shoots electricity and buzz saws. Multiple characters to choose from will also increase the strategies available to you, as each one has its own special ability.

The first level and difficulty last 10 minutes, with every one after that usually lasting about 20 minutes. Each biome also has an endless mode to truly test your skill and build on. This brings me to my biggest complaint about the game. When you start, you can only choose the burnt forest biome. Until you beat this at level 5, you can move on to the others. Each time you move up, you are basically stuck repeatedly running through the new difficulty level, upgrading a legendary weapon to beat it, as your old weapon is essentially outdated already. This really throws off your flow.

I honestly can’t pick a favorite game of this genre right now, between this and Devil Jam. PlayStation 5 Review: Fans of the genre are eating well right now. At $15, this 8/10 should not be missed. This game will test your skills in the best way possible, and the replay value is absolutely there. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Overthrown PlayStation 5 Review

Overthrown has finally hit full release and come to PlayStation 5. Maximum Entertainment was nice enough to set me up with a copy to play, which is always appreciated. The game itself allows you to play as a king ruling and building his kingdom from scratch in a very hands-on way, literally.

The game starts out with you picking up your crown, then placing your town center. This is where your citizens will emerge from every so often. When you build things like farms or sawmills, they will just go to work if you have someone unemployed. If you want, you can also just pick up the nearest person and throw them at the building and make them work there. Where you place your building does and does not matter, because if you are unhappy with its placement, you can just pick it up and put it somewhere new later and rearrange the town as you see fit. So while buildings do need to be in certain places, for example, a place that uses fruit being nowhere near fruit is useless, you can always move it later if need be.

Picking stuff up isn’t limited to buildings. Feel free to toss a tree into your sawmill and help the production cycle along if you want. You can chop it down if you want as well.

This kind of leads me to my only issue with the game: it gets quite repetitive fast, and the challenge just isn’t there. While the game is fun, and if you aren’t looking for a huge challenge, that is fine. The only real risk of death doesn’t come for probably 10-12 hours when the raids start, except for the occasional monster picking off a villager. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however, and this admittedly could be simply because the combat is very well done and fun to use. As you make your way through the tech tree, you will discover a ton of weapons, from swords to spears.

The game is a solid, 7/10 experience that is worth checking out. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando PlayStation 5 Review

John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando is one of those games that looked interesting, but I won’t lie to you, I did not have high hopes for it. It is also worth noting that Dark Horse Comics did a 3-issue limited run of comics called Toxic Commando Rise of the Sludge God that works as a prequel to this game, which you don’t need to read to understand this game at all. I, in fact, never heard of it until I was doing some research on this. Also, huge shout-out to Saber Interactive for setting me up with a pair of codes so me and @torstenvblog could check this out together.

Now, if you have ever played a game like Left 4 Dead or World War Z you know the idea of how the game is played. You and a group of friends fight through a massive number of enemies with a loadout of guns you choose beforehand and try to survive. If you are smart, you won’t head right for the objectives; you will hit the spots to pick up things like spare parts, which can be used to unlock special boxes or fix up weapons that can only be compared to the finales of Left 4 Dead.

Speaking of Left 4 Dead, this comparison is bound to be made; the special enemies here are quite similar in some ways and vastly different in others. I don’t want to get into spoiler territory by describing each one of them. Part of the fun of both games for me was having no real knowledge of them and running into these things at random. I will say there is no equivalent to The Witch, a lady crying until you get close, that you can sneak by, but if you startle her, she attacks you. Everything else is pretty well represented in some way.

The real question is how it plays, and the answer is far better than I expected. The controls are tight, with guns feeling powerful. I never counted how many there are, but there is a trophy for killing at least 1 enemy with 19 different primary and secondary guns ( which I went out of my way to get), and each gun feels different. Better, there is a nice mix of SMGs, shotguns, and assault rifles, but sadly, only one Sniper Rifle.

The superpowers for classes are also a nice addition to the formula, however. I really enjoyed playing as a healer because at later levels, the healing circle also damaged zombies. The thing is, each class functions differently depending on how you set it up. Your drone can do vastly different things over time, which gives you plenty of reason to experiment. Better yet, with Sabers’ history of driving games the cars have never felt better. Most of them have a wench attached to them for tearing down doors and such, but in true Snowrunner style they can also be used to get you out of mud while traversing the decently sized maps.

Now I could keep going on about this game, but I feel like you get the idea. This is probably the best game like this we have had in a long time, and as someone who still plays Left 4 Dead to this day, I am going to say something very unpopular. This is better. It is a 9/10 experience, and if you don’t let nostalgia for the past and rose-tinted glasses get in the way, you will see that this is all the fun of those games from the past, in a beautiful new era, with some nice perks. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Star Wanderer DX PlayStation 5 Review

Star Wanderer DX was recently released on PlayStation 5, and Leoful was nice enough to send me a copy to check out, which is always appreciated. Star Wanderer is an old-fashioned open-world space sim. You will be doing the typical things here: dog fights, trading, mining, and buying some new ships as you do freelance work. Don’t work the very originally named Mr. Anderson will walk you though everything.

The game looks pretty good for its $20 price point. I have no real complaints here, and the game, while short, maybe about 10 hours of story, is voice-acted. If you are looking for something to simply sit down and play on a budget, this game isn’t bad, as long as you realize this isn’t a AAA title. This isn’t the next Elite Dangerous on console, it won’t scratch that No Man’s Sky Itch.

The good news is, this game never claimed it would. The mining feels nice, it is quick and easy to get into, just shoot space rocks and collect minerals. The combat is what I like to call fast and dirty. Just you and enemy ships shooting at each other until someone dies. Trading is also quite simple, but low sell high. You can do this by mining minerals or even smuggling, and yes, you may have to outrun the police to do so.

Now the game is far from perfect or even great. Much of the galaxy feels empty, and jumping from system to system is by flying to special gateways, which feels like a chore when you really just want to get from one place to another. I truly feel like we have outgrown this mechanic by about a decade. Let me just use a galaxy map to jump to where I want to go. Also, with all these stations floating around I would think there would be more people for me to talk to and interact with.

While the game isn’t bad for $20, it also isn’t great. I have a hard time recommending this one with games like No Man’s Sky out there, but at the same time, if you need a change, I can’t say this one isn’t enjoyable. There is fun to be had in this 6/10 title. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Going Medieval Steam Review

Going Medieval is what I can only describe as the ultimate town castle management simulator. You will start with basically nothing, and if you play your cards right, you will end up with a fully functional medieval city and castle. Huge shout-out to Mythwright for setting me up with a copy of this one as it enters 1.0.

Now I have told you what the game is, let me tell you what the game isn’t. This isn’t a game for someone who just wants to hop in and build a simple village and ignore all the options to customize their playthrough. There are enough options that I have not messed with them all. There are things like how many villagers you start with, the season you start in, how often you get attacked, and much more. Going Medieval did not skimp out on these options.

Building a city also has its own challenges because each of the four seasons has its own challenges. For example, any resources not under a roof will spoil faster. In the summer, this happens even faster, even if they are under a roof. There is a simple fix for this; you can just put them underground with any number of buildings. See, you can build or do things very easily with layers. Don’t worry, the game has a very well-done tutorial explaining all of this.

Graphically, the game is cute, I wouldn’t call it, pun intended, game-changing. I enjoy them and find the music relaxing, but people who think graphics are the most important aspect of a game may find it disappointing. The game, however, functions extremely well. This brings me to my biggest warning about this game. This is very much a game where, if you pay attention to your villagers ( they come with little stories) and allow yourself to exist within your little world, take the time to learn the game, you will have a lot of fun. But if you simply want to quickly build a castle, you will be disappointed. If you don’t plan your food right, make sure you have defenses you will lose your village. But seeing them start to strive after struggling is a true joy. Small bugs aside, this is a 7/10 experience. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

iRacing Arcade Steam Review

iRacing Arcade is the newest racing game from iRacing. You may have seen my review or played their most recent NASCAR 25 game. Well, they were nice enough to send me iRacing Arcade to check out as well.

Now I know some of you love to have your racing games to be very in-depth simulators, and when it comes to gameplay, this isn’t it. sure there is some of it, and you will be building your own team. The game also pretty much has everything you would want from an iRacing game, with global leaderboards and online races. The game also has real licensed tracks. This game comes from a company that I feel has mastered the art of making racing games.

The gameplay itself, however, as the name implies, is much more of an arcade game. This doesn’t mean it is easier or somehow lacking in strategy. While it is super approachable, the controls are essentially a gas and a brake when you don’t count steering. You won’t have to worry about anything else, like shifting. If you can handle that, you can play this game.

Graphically, the game looks great even on my at-best mid-range laptop. I ran this thing on max settings with no slowdowns. I love that the cars essentially looked like mini versions of their real-life selves. I understand this won’t appeal to everyone, but for me it just worked.

Now on to what didn’t work for me. It would have been nice to have some sort of customization options besides for my avatar you don’t really see. Let me at least paint my car however I want. Also, the controls, while simple, which I liked, could have been a little more responsive in my opinion. None of this was a deal breaker, but they were small things that would have made the game more enjoyable. All in all, the game was an 8/10, which, for its price point, is a great game for racing fans. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Valor of Man Steam Review

Valor of Man was sent to me by Numskull Games, which I always appreciate. Valor of Man is a turn-based RPG with a roguelite twist. The game starts simple enough: build a party from one of up to about 12 classes, the usual suspects. You know, warriors, wizards, and the like. Then move along on a journey of branching paths and choose to rest, fight, or maybe a mystery activity. This goes on until you beat a boss or die. Then it all starts over again.

The real question with so many games like this out there is whether this one is different enough or fun enough to be worth your money and time. The short answer is yes, I think so. Valor of Man reminds me of those old-fashioned tabletop games where part of the fun was finding weird ways to beat the system, and it is all because of the reaction system. A lot of games have this, don’t think I am trying to pass it off as new. But the way it is done is nice.

There is no real guess work involve, you know if you do X, then Y will happen. Your job is to decide if it is worth triggering it, when to do it, and if you can avoid it.

The game does have its faults; for example, the game is quite easy even at greater difficulties. Some of the abilities and mechanics are great, but also aren’t exactly intuitive if you haven’t played games like this before. None of this iss game changing bad, but it is something to be aware of if you are brand new or are looking for a challenge. The game is still a solid 7/10 experience that I suggest fans of the genre check out. I had a blast with it. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.