“The free prologue of Riot Control Simulator, a unique game that puts you in the boots of a riot control officer, is now available on PC. In Riot Control Simulator: Rookie Day, players take on their first mission and get introduced to the game’s core mechanics. The full version is scheduled to launch on PC in the second half of 2025, with console versions coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2 in 2026…”
At least that is what the press release from Ultimate Games tells me. If you want to give it a go, here is the link to the Steam page. Please enjoy the trailer below and remember, this is purely a work of fiction and not based on a real event. I was also told to note that. Because, sadly, there are some super stupid people in the world. Not us, we are cool, but others, super dumb. Anyways best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Doloc Town, over on Steam, is an amazing life sim from Redsaw Game Studios and Logoi Games. They were nice enough to send me a copy, which I always appreciate.
The game itself is sort of like a post-apocalyptic side-scrolling Stardew Valley or the soon-to-be-released Cattle Country, which makes it unique from both games. You will start out with next to nothing, just what amounts to a tent and some basic supplies to get you started, and from there you have an entire world to explore, crops to plant even go fishing.
You aren’t limited to these staples, however. Go meet the people in town and conquer a vast wilderness, and find your place in the world.
Now, normally at this point, I would feel obligated to point out that the game is still in early access or say the controls need some work. The problem is that I played it with both a mouse and a keyboard, as well as with my Xbox controller, and both play very well. The game also has plenty of content, and I don’t mean for early access. I have played full releases with less content.
The price point for Doloc Town is $14.99, which is more than a fair price. I won’t try to sell you on it as a Stardew Valley killer because it really isn’t the same kind of game. What I will tell you for a game at the same price point, it is equal in quality. Graphically, it looks good, and it is a lot of fun to play, and the controls gave me 0 issues. With over 600 reviews on Steam, it is sitting at very positive reviews, and I honestly hope someday this game makes it over to console. This is a 9/10 experience. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Ratshaker on PS5 was sent to me by Sunscorched Studios, and I have to say, this is an extremely hard game for me to review. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but at the same time, without saying much, how do I explain it without doing so unless I say you shake and squeeze a rat? I do appreciate them sending me this hidden gem.
Don’t get me wrong, you do shake and squeeze a rat. The game starts off with you in a field doing exactly that. This, however, is just the tutorial. Hold R2 and shake your controller, and the rat gets shaken and he screams hilariously. Hold L2, and he gets squeezed. Squeeze him too much and he dies, causing you to lose some progress, no the idea is not to kill the rat.
This whole thing was the tutorial. Shaking the rat fills a meter, and squeezing him allows you to interact with objects like doors or televisions. This will allow you to walk through a series of puzzles and narrative rooms, which, depending on how good you are, can last about 1-2 hours, and end up in a place I was not expecting.
You will notice this review is short even by my standards, and that is because I don’t want to risk giving anything away. The game releases May 28th, 2025, and will cost less than $5 (it costs 2.99 on Steam), and honestly, you really have to check this game out to believe it. For this price point, it’s an 8/10 game. Just pick it up and give it a try.
Welcome back to Monster Friday, and today I bring you an interesting Monster: The Jabberwock. This one is interesting because most people think it has some sort of amazing lore behind it or that it dates back to some ancient period. The fact is, it was just a poem written by Lewis Carroll. It first appeared in his 1987 book Through the Looking Glass, and the first part of the poem he written even before that. In the book, Alice basically calls it pretty and says the poem doesn’t really make any sense beyond that; something was killed.
Since then, people have of course expanded on the creature, for example, most agree it is the cousin of dragons, it can fly, lays eggs, you know, with typical dragon-like behavior.
In a strange twist, however, the Jabberwocky has become quite terrifying in its own right. Being the ancestor of dragons, people have given them all sorts of insane powers, from speed to strength. Some variations are said to be able to speak any known language, which includes the ability to talk to other dragons. Of course, they can supposedly also take human form. Not bad for a creature that didn’t exist until Alice went to Wonderland. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Preserve is a small title with a modest price of about $15, and it is a relaxing puzzle game. You use cards to decide what each hexagon will be, be it a forest, some grassland, a river, or one of many other types of biomes. You do this to create your own ecosystem to score points. Do this well, and you get animal cards that can be used to move animals into your ecosystem. Wild boar will live in your forest, bees in your fields of flowers, or goats in your maintains.
As you score more points, you can extend the amount of land you have to work with, which gives you more cards and more types of biomes to make a more diverse ecosystem, score more points, and unlock new levels and challenges.
You can tell this game was crafted with love by people who cared, and despite some awkward camera angles on rare occasions, the controls and gameplay are beautiful. The music is relaxing, and I never felt frustrated with the game itself. Undoing a tile is simple enough with minimal punishment, and restarting doesn’t feel like a chore anyway. For puzzle fans, or just someone who wants to build nature a bit, the price of admission here is more than fair for this 9/10 puzzle game. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
The concept of the game is quite simple. You are the president of the United States of America. Pick a party, or take a test to see where you fall on the spectrum, and try to keep your people happy. The decisions you make will move you around the political spectrum.
First thing you need to know, the game is satirical in nature. If you try to take it too seriously, you will probably feel like the game is taking a political stance when it really isn’t. Nobody really acts or talks this way. At one point, I was forced to make a decision on an oil spill that my son-in-law was taking the blame for, and none of the options were at all realistic. Half the fun of the game was doing outlandish stuff like trying to nuke Canada while entering a random trade agreement with Sri Lanka and watching China, for some inexplicable reason, decide it was best friends with, I think, it was Ireland. Also, Mexico and Mongolia, for some reason, hated each other.
Where this game falls apart is that the controls are horrible. Many times, I would hit a button to enter one menu and end up somewhere else entirely. Trying to do anything on the map was sort of like playing chess with a pigeon; even when I could do it sometimes, the game seemed to do whatever it wanted anyway.
Graphically, it was cute, though I enjoyed watching cardboard cutouts of people walk in and out of my office like they were on serious business. I still laugh when a random door opens that looks like a wall opens in the Oval Office, and some guy in a suit bounces into my office to tell me he has horrible news, and all that happened was some minor event like my wife is mad at me for working late.
Scoring the game kinda hurts too, because as much fun as I had with the game, I also felt endless frustration with it. The game is a 5/10 experience that, with some updates to the controls, would easily make it much better. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Utopia Must Fall is an early access title from Pixeljam that they were kind enough to send me as their newest update hit, which is full of all sorts of good stuff. Full disclosure, I had never heard of or played the game until this update, and honestly, I wish I had.
One of my earliest memories as a kid was playing games on an old Intelevision with my dad, like Missile Command. One where you tried to protect this sort of city from destruction by shooting missiles at incoming objects. This is important because Utopia Must Fall will see you protecting the last city of humanity from aliens by shooting them with a giant machine gun and laser turrets, etc. It also uses what’s called a V99 Engine to make vector graphics that give it that very old school look and feel while letting it control in a very modern way.
Each day, you get new upgrades for your city that you can pick. Maybe you will give yourself more nukes, which can be used to kill large groups but are limited in supply, or maybe you will choose to get a higher firing rate. I always like to get a couple of laser auto cannons that will help kill aliens for me. There is no wrong answer. I have tried many combinations, and it truly comes down to your playstyle and how aggressive you choose to be. It is possible to build your city in such a way that your shields take care of much of the work. I don’t necessarily agree with trying this route because if you don’t do it right it will end your run very quickly, but it can be done.
Now, as always, I do rate these games based on how they function, their price point, and what they are attempting to do. That being said, I will give this game a 9/10 but with an *. The game costs about $7 and is worth every penny of it. I am having a blast with it and love the game; its Steam review reflects that as well. However, if you don’t like games like this, you aren’t going to enjoy it. This won’t be the game that brings you around. If you do, however, or if you look at it and think it might be fun. It is a must-buy. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Revenge of the Savage Planet, which you can check out on Game Pass, was sent to me by the fine folks over at Racoon Logic Studios. It’s the type of game I can’t even begin to explain adequately. It’s a platformer, a shooter, and some building involved. It has a wild sense of humor. You are going to die, and you probably won’t even care.
The game starts off explaining how you are an employee being sent to a new planet to colonize it. You will have all the support of the company that you can possibly need, and when you arrive in Nue Florida, it will already be ready to go. You can hit the ground running. You are promptly fired when you arrive.
Don’t worry, you can keep the stuff that’s there; turns out shipping it all back is considered way too expensive. It is now you against the world. Well, multiple worlds. Search everywhere, as there is a lot for you to find. You can use your trusty scanner to discover facts about things, like how pieces of your destroyed ship would still be functional if they were attached to your ship.
I had a ton of fun with this game, although it can be a bit repetitive by yourself. That is where the co-op comes in, both online and split screen. This game is fun alone, but much more fun with a friend. Graphically, the game is beautiful, and it controls nicely. I don’t have any real complaints about t/his game, and with it being free on Game Pass, it is well worth checking out this 8/10 title. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Indie publisher Silver Lining Interactive is thrilled to announce that the physical edition of Cattle Country, the cosy Wild West life-sim, is riding into town on July 11, 2025, for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch!
Developed by Castle Pixel and digitally published by Playtonic Friends, Cattle Country invites players to settle down on the pixel prairies as a budding pioneer. Build your ranch, raise cattle, befriend townsfolk, and soak in the slow, satisfying rhythm of frontier life, with a few surprises along the way. Whether you’re crafting, farming, or just watching the sunset after a hard day’s work, there’s no shortage of down-home charm.
The Cattle Country physical edition for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch is available to pre-order now from the Silver Lining Interactive store page here. Don’t miss your chance to grab a copy and start the coziest cowboy adventure of the summer!
About Cattle Country
Here is a taste of some of the wild adventures awaiting you as you become part of this small community of settlers, and part of a story that’s as old as these hills. Welcome to Cattle Country.
Ranchin’ and Handcraftin’ – Work the land, raise cattle, and build your dream homestead from sunup to sundown under the wide-open skies.
Swappin’ Stories – Meet the townsfolk, lend a hand, and earn your place among these big-hearted neighbours.
Beware of Bandits – Not all folks are friendly in Cattle Country. Keep your guard up and protect what’s yours from bandits and cattle rustlers!
Rodeos to Romance – Forge deep bonds or fall in love with one of 18 romanceable characters. Life’s richer when shared.
Buried Treasure – Brave the mines in search of riches, rare metals, and secrets left behind by outlaws.
Trackin’ Game – Hunt, explore, or just take in the wild. Critters big and small roam the land, and are waiting to be discovered.
Don’t delay! Get ready to add Cattle Country to your cozy physical PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch collection today! Pre-order now from Silver Lining Direct.
This is a weird one; we don’t normally cover tabletop games. Not because none of us play them, of course, I have been known to play some D&D myself. However, when I got an email about a tabletop card game about a console wars game, I knew I had to toss it out there in case anyone was interested in it. There is also a how-to-play video, and a link at the bottom where you can buy it. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Savior Gaming 