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TheHunter: Call of the Wild’s “Peru Hunting Reserve” DLC PlayStation Review

TheHunter: Call of the Wild’s “Peru Hunting Reserve” DLC was once again sent my way by the fine folks over at Avalanche Studios, which I always appreciate, and I always love working with these guys on The Hunter series. This new DLC brings us to Peru for a whole new place to hunt, and it will set you back about $12. Now, the question that is always asked is, is it worth the money? Well, let’s be honest, 14 new animals in a beautiful and scenic tropical jungle, what can go wrong?

From a gameplay perspective, not much. The place is beautiful, every square inch of it is stunning. Peru quickly became my favorite place to just walk around and take in the sights. But if I get attacked by one more damn jaguar, I am going to hunt them to extinction. ( in the game, not in real life.) These things will attack you if you get too close to them, make no mistake. This is the first time playing this game where I felt like an animal actually hunted me. I can’t prove they do, but the only thing that has done more damage to me than the jaguars in Peru is me driving the quads like an idiot. This is not a complaint; it is amazing.

Also, don’t shoot the capybara. Nothing happens if you do other than make some money; I just like them. Such cute little guys running around, I once got attacked by my mortal enemy, the jaguar, just watching the capys hang out eating. Admittedly, that one was on me.

Even the places you sleep and adventure to are unlike anywhere else in the game. They have such character to them. This DLC is a home run. It is a 9/10 experience that every fan of the game should pick up. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Kynseed Launches for Consoles on 4 August

Today PixelCount Studios has announced that its acclaimed PC life sim sandbox RPG, Kynseed, will launch for PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch on 4 August.

ynseed’s free new Tavern Update is also available to all PC players from today. This community-requested feature allows players to run a tavern of their very own where they’ll serve refreshments, manage stock and hire staff to create a lively social hub and bring NPCs together.

Developed by veterans of the Fable series, in Kynseed players plant a mystical acorn and raise it into a family tree where their choices form the branches. Players will raise a family, farm the land, run a business, and explore a vast world filled with colourful NPCs as its inhabitants age and reveal their secrets. When a character dies, control passes to their children and the adventure continues across generations.

Since launching on PC in December 2022, Kynseed has seen more than 10 major game updates, adding significant new features including:

The Tavern: Serve food and drinks, hire staff and acquire useful perks to create a social hub where all NPCs come together.
A deeper story experience: New tasks and characters, plus a new region and combat level designed to bring gentler story pacing.
Customisation: Unlock hundreds of items through gameplay to customise the interior, exterior and function of farms.
Friends & family builds: Forge closer friendships with NPCs to enlist their aid in building farm structures with additional benefits, or to help with repairs and gaining access to new areas.
Progression Tracking: Comprehensively track progress across all activities, with over 400 challenges available offering money, items and customisation unlocks.
Quality of life updates: General improvements to NPCs, new batch crafting, an instant messaging system for task/event alerts and much more.

Kynseed’s new content will be available for console players at launch, alongside a newly-optimised console UI and controls. A full list of updates can be found here.

Kynseed Features:

A generation-spanning story. Embark upon an epic adventure filled with joy, sorrow, comedy, and tragedy, where choices matter and decisions echo through the generations.
Run a business. Forge tools as a blacksmith, run a store, mix potions as an apothecary, or find other ways to build a fortune.
A world of exploration. The land of Quill is filled with characters, secrets, danger, and dark faery tale creatures to battle.
Farm the land. Grow ingredients for food and potions, work the soil, and set up home for your family.
Develop Relationships. Quill is full of colourful NPCs who will remember your deeds, actions, and pranks.
Find proverbs. Unlock the lore and secrets of this mysterious dark faery tale world.
Gather materials. Forage and farm to craft items, cook recipes or mix cures for a range of bizarre maladies.

“Bringing Kynseed to consoles is a milestone we’ve been working toward for a long time,” said PixelCount Co-Founder Neal Whitehead. “The PC community has been incredible and their feedback has helped us make the land of Quill even richer and more vast than it was at launch just over two years ago. We know that many players want to experience the land of Quill on consoles, and we’ve spent a long time ensuring the console experience feels natural, intuitive and complete.”

Sir Ian Livingstone, games industry legend and Chairman of PixelCount Studios, added: “The ambition of Kynseed has always been to offer players a level of freedom and legacy-building rarely seen in sandbox RPGs. From deep crafting to exploration to mastering the combat system to farming to running a blacksmith shop, or simply watching your family grow, Kynseed has it all in a wonderfully whimsical way! We are delighted that PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch players will finally get to plant their own family trees on 4th August.”

Kynseed will launch for PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X|S/Xbox One and Nintendo Switch on 4 August and is available to pre-order now for £19.99/$24.99/€24.99.

The Gate Must Stand Steam Review

The Gate Must Stand is a new tower defense game sent my way by Yogscast Games and Gamersky Games, both of which are always great to work with. The concept here is very simple: hack and slash your way through demons that are attacking your gate. Doing so will gain you experience and coins, which can be used to hire all sorts of help from the tavern, from different types of mages to guys with huge shields to distract enemies, and so much more.

Occasionally, you will be offered missions, such as guiding a transport to the gate, dealing a certain amount of magic damage, repairing the gate, or even keeping the gate at full health for a certain amount of time. These will reward you in various ways, such as increasing the level of your minions, giving you money or even just giving you free minions. These minions can then be placed on the map at key places to help you fight the enemies or combined with the same type to increase or promote them. For example, two level 1 fire mages to make a level 2 fire mage. Now, if the levels don’t match, they can still be combined to increase the level of the minion, which is nice. Once they reach level ten, they transform into an ultimate form.

Relics have all sorts of uses and will help you in all manner of ways, from increasing your speed or attack power to increasing stacks of bleed on enemies. These usually come from beating mini bosses or bosses throughout the run.

At the $10 price point, the game offers plenty of replay value and is quite fun. While the game is far from perfect, I really don’t have anything to complain about, except that it just isn’t as much fun as it could be. They really seemed to make the game harder than it needed to be simply to increase the time it takes to play it, rather than just making the game longer or adding more to the game to unlock. This will never sit well with me. The game is still a 7/10 experience and worth picking up. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent PlayStation 5 Review

Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent was sent my way by the fine folks over at New Tales, which I always appreciate. The game is the newest dungeon crawler on the console, and the first time console players get to explore the world of Terrinoth, from the Heroes of Terrinoth board game.

The full campaign plays out through 4 chapters, split into sections, each with its own theme. As you play, you will gather 8 players, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. They, of course, fall along the usual classes you would hope for, even if they aren’t named as such. For example, Aurta slings spells, Cedwin is an archer, and Kharaz will be smacking enemies with a shield bash and spitting fireballs like a dragon hybrid should.

It is hard to get into the story without spoiling things, but because it all ties in together as you go from place to place, suffice it to say it is very well put together. What starts as what should be a quick mission to get a stone back quickly leads to fighting things that shouldn’t even exist.

The real question with these games is always, how is the battle system, and lately also how does it compare to Baldur’s Gate 2. Honestly, if you are looking for your next 100+ hour experience exploring every nook and cranny of the world, rolling dice D&D style, this isn’t it. Each chapter plays out on a map, exploring and fighting battles, and in between, you can level up your characters, level abilities, switch them out, and buy and equip items.

Now, if you are looking for something to play for about 30-40 hours, where each mission is broken down into about an hour to an hour and a half, with a similar but easier to play ( but not easier to win) battle system, this is the game you are looking for. This is not, nor is it meant to be, the next Baldur’s Gate, but it is an amazing alternative that I think many will prefer. It is a 9/10 title that is worth picking up. My only real issue is the multiplayer; without friends to play with, I couldn’t find anyone to play with. With that in mind, best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

My Time at Evershine – New Stunning Trailer Revealed Following Summer Game Fest

I will admit I am a little late getting this one out. Steamfest is quite busy, as you can imagine. My daughter and I have always loved the My Time series by Panthea Games, so any new information is always appreciated by us. The trailer is beautiful, and sets up what appears to be the biggest and most adventurous title in the series. Enjoy the trailer below, and be sure to wishlist it on your platform of choice, as it is coming to Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox, and Steam sometime in 2027. (Stores currently available are provided as a courtesy; no compensation is provided to Savior Gaming by doing so)

Bellwright PlayStation 5 Review

Bellwright was sent my way by Snail Games USA, and I greatly appreciate it. I have been looking forward to this game hitting consoles for a very long time now, it seems. The release itself has been somewhat mixed, if I am being honest. I will start with the bad because the bad is quite annoying, but there have been a few patches since I was sent the game the day it released, and having played it most days since then, I can say many of these issues have gotten much better.

First, there has been an issue with saves, which, while I have never lost data, is easily fixed; it is annoying. Basically, the game flags the autosave file as having an issue whenever you pick anything up or use an item, and your system gives you an error message to close out. If you save your game manually, shut the game down, and reopen it, the issue disappears at least for a while. While the first few days this happened a lot, an update seems to have fixed this, as I have not had the issue the last couple of days.

My next issue is graphical; while the game mostly looks great, I have seen some weird things happen. People sawing wood well above where the wood is, people walking around without complete bodies that then suddenly return, which is completely cosmetic. If you see a bandit like this, you can still stab him in the chest.

The pathfinding also is not great for NPCs; I have had my townspeople get stuck on trees they could easily just walk around, for example. They don’t need constant supervision by any means, but occasionally you may have to help them out.

Let’s move on to the good, because I don’t want people to think I hate this game. It is quite the opposite; I actually love this game. I have played a few games like this, and this is the best. You can build almost anywhere on the map as long as you aren’t too close to a town, and once you start, you aren’t limited to where you started. The game encourages you to recruit a lot of people and build in a lot of places. You can even build new roads and send people out with carts to move things back and forth, with one person acting as a sort of merchant and others acting as guards. If you want to build a main settlement and a few others that do nothing but chop wood, mine rocks and copper, or hunt, and then have people that simply deliver those goods to your settlement to be processed and sold, you can.

The difficulty is also fully customizable from the in-game menu, so if you find you hate dealing with bandits and just want to build an epic city, feel free to turn off raids and make bandits hang out where they live. Want to turn the world into a war zone? Crank those things up if you want.

The story itself is quite simple: you return to your home in the Lowlands to find out the meaning of a sigil found on the body of your murdered uncle. This takes place years after some sort of war or rebellion, which you will quickly find out more about, so I won’t ruin it for you. Truthfully, I don’t know a ton about the story anyway. I spent my first 20 hours building and researching things, and doing missions for local people to make a town trust me. Why, you may ask? I wanted a pet cat, a warhammer, and to build a town hall as fast as I could. I have a cat and a warhammer.

Before this gets longer, the issues do take away from some of the enjoyment, but the game is still great. My only other complaint is that the game didn’t launch on console with multiplayer, but much of the balance is still designed for it. Now this is easily circumvented with a few townspeople, and it is coming with a future update. The game is a 7/10 title, which, with a couple of updates, will improve even more. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

One Fenix Down Steam Demo

One Fenix Down recently had a demo as part of Steamfest, and I decided to check it out. The game started out as just something someone who loves RPGs started making, and it eventually turned into far more, now under the umbrella of a studio called Regalcraft Games.

Game told me not to fight this guy, so I did. Maybe don’t do that.

The game is a classic old-school turn-based RPG, through and through. From the graphics to the audio, everything about this feels ripped out of the 90s. Playing with a controller is basically mandatory. The game will tell you to use one when you boot it up, and I didn’t argue. The game demo doesn’t even feature voice-overs, and to my knowledge, there are no plans to add them; the game is better for this.

In true 90s fashion, I can’t pronounce this dudes name.

The combat feels great, sitting at my computer playing it, ironically sipping a monster, wishing I got more sleep last night, reminded me of the days I was up, swearing to my mother I was looking for a save point while I tried to grind out one more level, while I was right next to one. She honestly didn’t know what they looked like.

I don’t know how the full game will turn out, but the Steam page boasts about having over 40 hours of gameplay and over 14 playable characters, and considering the demo had 5 playable characters, 4 with unique skills and abilities, I believe it. Full disclosure, the 5th may have as well, but the goal is to NOT use him in combat, so I didn’t. He did have weapons and such equipped, so he is capable of battle. If the demo is any indication of what’s to come, I look forward to the planned September release date. As you know, I don’t give demos a score, but this one is worth trying. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Dragon’s Brew Steam Demo

Dragons Brew is one of the many demos I have been asked to check out recently. This one is from Isolated Games Publishing and Radic Creative. The concept is very simple but quite new to me. You run a little board game and cafe shop. The demo lets you run 2 game days and will show you how to do much of what the game has to offer, from buying supplies, making coffee, and baking goods to buying new games.

The controls are quite intuitive on a mouse and keyboard, and while a controller option is not available in the demo, it does seem that it may be coming. The really important thing is that the demo functions very well; I never had any graphical issues, and the only two issues I really had are easily fixed. One occasionally, when I made coffee, it would simply disappear rather than going to my inventory. Also, something telling you there is a map would have been nice intead of randomly finding it in the menu would have been nice.

There are also plenty of things to work toward in the game as you improve your store, new games, recipes, and furniture. The full game is expected to release sometime in quarter 4 of 2026, so check out the demo. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Dino-Ducks Mayhem Steam Review

Dino-Ducks Mayhem was sent my way by Duckosaurs Games which I always appreciate. Dino- Ducks Mayhem is a Twin Stick shooter with bullet heaven type gameplay, and honestly has an interesting concept. You pick one of two ducks, with more to unlock later, and two ducklings to help you out. You can unlock more of these later as well. You then traverse the map killing enemies, collecting coins to buy things from a truck that occasionally shows up, collecting shards to upgrade them at a forge that also shows up occasionally and fighting mini bosses or jailers to free ducklings.

Now the artwork is honestly very nice, and it is truly the standout thing here. Each duck looks interesting and different, this goes for the ducklings as well. The weapons are also pretty nice and feels like they matter. the ability to create new weapons based on the ones you pick up or to collect things like rocks or bottle caps to combine with your weapons at the forge to create bigger and better weapons and upgrade their levels is a nice touch as well. It is great to see how they truly feel stronger.

The game does have some issues whether you play with a mouse and keyboard or an Xbox controller. The game itself absolutely plays better on a controller, but the menus function better with a mouse. This makes it hard to just sit back and play the game when the menu becomes hard to navigate with a controller. It isn’t that the game is hard to play with Mouse and Keyboard, its just better with a controller.

The early part of the game is also very slow paced, this isn’t good or bad, this is for you to decide on. I rather enjoyed the slow walk up to being surrounded by enemies myself, but I know some people won’t like this. This game however makes it work.

All in all Dino-Ducks Mayhem isn’t a bad game, there are just better games in the genre, some are cheaper even. I have a hard time recommending a game that still needs work at a $15 price point when other games exist that do it better. It is a 6/10 title that only fans of ducks should buy. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Solarpunk PlayStation 5 Review

Solarpunk is a relaxed survival game made by just two people and sent my way by Rokaplay. I would be lying if I said this one wasn’t on my radar for a while. Everyone who follows Savior Gaming knows I am a sucker for a good survival game, and Solarpunk ticks all my boxes. I can relax, craft stuff, fly an airship, build a house as small or big as I want, and just all around do whatever I feel like doing in my own time. The question is, does it live up to my expectations?

Well, if you don’t feel like reading this entire thing, feel free to go and spend the $23 and buy it; you have my blessing. If you want to know more, keep reading. Starting out, you are tasked with the usual: collect some rocks and sticks, build some basic equipment, chop down some trees, collect some berries, we all know the drill. You will quickly be researching new things, however. This is very intuitive. It is as simple as using the research table and bringing what it asks for, such as wood or glass, depending on what you want to research.

I won’t bore you with the minor details; if you’ve played one survival game, you know how it all works. Where Solarpunk shines is that you can bring friends to do all this and build insane structures while checking out other islands. In between this, you can build things like solar panels and things to water or mine minerals for you. All of this starts to unlock pretty fast as well; these aren’t late-game items you need to grind for.

Now I know I make the game sound damn near perfect, and well, there are a few complaints I have. If you are playing alone, things will take a bit of time and get a bit repetitive. You will need to chop down and replant a lot of trees to build things, for example, and it feels like more so than most survival games. The same goes for most resources. Watering things before you unlock sprinklers is also a chore since you will need to refill your watering can quite often. This wouldn’t be so bad, but you will need things like watermelons to trade and berries to eat, as well as cotton for building, and all this takes some time. The game is definitely better with friends.

None of this makes the game not worth playing. I loved playing the game and will be playing it more, but it is worth mentioning. It is an 8/10 title. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.