Apartment No. 129 Xbox Review

Apartment No 129 on Xbox is another game sent to me by Axyos Games, you may remember I recently covered Ebola Village from them. They are quickly becoming one of my favorite publishers to work with because everything they send me seems to fall into the same B-game horror level, and I mean this as a compliment.

The story here is that you play as Emir, a man who creates content on haunted places, and you have found the holy grail, so to speak. Apartment no 129, a place where something so messed up, so demented, has occurred that the government has locked it off. The location has been forgotten, even hidden to the point that people speak of it as a legend. Thankfully, your brother knows a guy that lived in the building. The coward won’t go with you, but you are convinced to check it out.

The first thing to know about this game is if you are sensitive, emotionally, I mean, don’t play this game. A lot of games come with that sort of warning, and it is a marketing gimmick or a legal thing. This one is a valid warning. The game is quite creepy as you use your flashlight, which does require batteries every so often, to find your way through this dark and dilapidated apartment building.

Finding news articles and hidden writings is also important to progressing the story; doing so also means that once safe places may not be anymore. I don’t want to say too much about the story because doing so will spoil a lot of things, as the story isn’t exactly long and can be finished in a few hours.

The gameplay is honestly where this game suffers. It isn’t truly bad; it is simply unpolished. Enemies at times seem to be super spongy while dealing a ton of damage, and surviving certain encounters felt more like luck than skill. At launch, the game also had a ton of glitches, some of which were even game-breaking towards the end. I didn’t run into any, but I am told this also may have just been luck on my end. While the story is fantastic, the gameplay does leave a lot to be desired. This 4/10 experience is probably best left to wait for a sale, though I have read that the PC version doesn’t suffer from these technical issues. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

PS5 AND PC Exclusive ‘Genigods: Nezha’ Revealed in WORLD FIRST Gameplay Video

Genigods: Nezha is a premium, pay upfront, hardcore action role-playing game set against the chaotic backdrop of ancient Chinese genesis mythology. You are the Spirit Pearl—the very first spark of life forged by Nüwa, the Goddess of Life, from the essence of earth, water, and fire. 

In this epic journey, you will evolve from a celestial artifact into the first human, a woman crafted from water and clay, before eventually being reborn as the legendary Nezha. Your journey is shared by legendary heroes: Yi, the sun-feller, and Yu, the flood-tamer. Beside you also dwells the Heart of Sacred Water—Nüwa’s sentient gift that grows with you, serving as your vital companion to solve ancient puzzles, conquer the toughest trials and learn the dark truth behind this new world.

Genigods Lab’s 100-person team previously made the critically and commercially acclaimed My Hero Academia mobile game published by Sony Crunchyroll. The team also developed the popular Condor Heroes series for mobile platforms, which recently surpassed over 10 million downloads worldwide. 

“Our mission is to ignite the epic celestial battles of Chinese mythology. In Genigods: Nezha, every skill you cast, every choice you make, writes a new line in an ancient epic—forged in your image,” explained Erdi Yao, co-founder and Head of Creative & Design at Genigods Lab. “Players will wield the heart of creation, soar between realms, awaken the three-headed and eight-armed form, and step onto the primordial battlefield to mend the shattered heavens. This is not about hearing a story; it is about etching your name into its very fabric,” he added.

For a full feature breakdown of this exciting new story-driven adventure, please see below: 

  • Celestial Combat
    Experience the dynamic scale of Chinese mythic warfare, where battle flows seamlessly between Heaven and Earth. Switch seamlessly between ground and aerial combat utilising dual stances, awaken temporary mythic abilities to perform devastating combos and mid-air strikes, and combine treasures discovered in the game world to create unique skills.
  • Colossal Gods and the Sun Tree
    Built with Unreal Engine 5 and optimized for Playstation, Genigods: Nezha delivers a one-of-a-kind Chinese-style colossal adventure: climb ancient gods towering like mountains and fight by traversing the contours of their bodies. With the help of the giant Kuafu, scale the Sun Tree that bridges mortal and celestial realms, then draw your bow to extinguish The Nine Suns and end the scorching catastrophe.
  • Water Philosophy & Jeet Kune Do Mechanics
    Genigods: Nezha’s combat is inspired by Bruce Lee’s iconic ‘Be Water’ philosophy through the Divine Water within Nezha. Her techniques adapt the essence of Jeet Kune Do. Condense water into a piercing One-Inch Flash for armor-breaking blows, or unleash water all at once, as a sweeping Dragon’s Kick to tackle crowds of enemies at once. This system encourages players to master a defensive, reactive style of combat— and requires perfect timing to parry and counter with the adaptable precision of water itself.

To learn more about Genigods: Nezha, please visit the official Steam and Epic Games Store product pages. GeniGods Lab also invites everyone to Genigods: Nezha’s official Discord channel, where you can get insights and updates on the game’s ongoing development and features.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

So you know Dark Souls, Elden Ring, and Bloodborne but do you know of FromSoftware’s (arguably) most challenging masterpiece of them all? After almost a year playing on and off, I do.

Sekiro tells the story of Wolf, a shinobi in ancient Japan tasked with protecting his lord, Kumo, a young boy plagued with a great and terrible curse. Dragon’s Blood- immortality. They’re are forces that want eternal life and will go to any length for it. After losing his arm and his lord to a rival, Wolf is resurrected and granted a special prosthetic from a mysterious sculptor that can be fitted with deadly and useful attachments. With his new arm, Wolf must embark on a epic quest to save his lord and stop this curse…

Is Sekiro a Soulsborne game- one of gaming’s hottest debates. Honestly, I’m torn but ultimately believe it qualifies. Sekiro is easily the hardest of the group I’ve played. It requires intense focus, creativity, patience, and Jedi fast reflexes. I’ve gotten my ass kicked and pulverized harder in my 60+ hours in Sekiro than I did my 100+ hours in dark souls 2 and multiple playthroughs of bloodborne but after it was all done, I felt true accomplishment I’ve rarely gotten in gaming. The game flows incredibly well and can be extremely challenging without ever really feeling like bullshit (I’m looking at you Souls 1 and 2). Swordplay is fast, responsive and thrilling. Stealth is smooth and easy. The platforming has a few rocky moments but mostly is solid overall and adds alot of depth to combat and exploration. Visually, the game is utterly breathtaking with stunning color and environments. The bosses are memorable, especially Genichiro, The Guardian Ape, and Ishinn the Sword Saint; Ishinn is hands down one of my favorite final bosses.

In the end, I think Sekiro beats Bloodborne as my favorite Fromsoftware game and like Bloodborne, I consider it a masterpiece. Like all the games in the category, it won’t be for all. Especially, and I cannot stress this enough, if you aren’t good at parrying- I don’t recommend this game if you aren’t a parry god or able to learn. If you are, then you’re in for a divine treat. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Conquest Tactics: Realm of Sin Steam Review

Conquest Tactics: Realm of Sin is another title by Thousand Generation Games that they were kind enough to send me recently. This one is a bit different, however. This is a dark fantasy roguelike where you will be conquering tiles and fighting your enemy to essentially deal damage to the enemy flag to win battles.

Unlike most games like this, where the story takes a back seat to the gameplay, Conquest Tactics has sort of flipped this on its head. The battles are fun, make no mistake. There is quite a bit of strategy involved. Do you use your more defense-oriented people to expand and protect your area, or recall them and attack? Is it time to risk losing ground to win the battle? These are all choices you have to make for yourself at any given time. These, however, pale in comparison to the most important choice of all as you make your way through the game.

The world is in chaos, a great darkness is taking over, and in true video game fashion, it is up to you to stop this from occurring. While you have the power to end this, you also have the power to simply encourage it to happen. What kind of person do you choose to be? A hero for the world, or the villain of all villains? There is no wrong answer, only what is in your heart, or I guess lack of one, you evil bastard you.

While the game is simplistic to learn, mastering it is far from, I still haven’t truly managed to do it myself. With a new twist on having a command stage and your troops being more like game pieces on a board that twist and attack in directions, and the story being the main selling point, I highly encourage people to check this one out. It is a 9/10 experience for me. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Deep Fringe Steam Review

Every so often, a game is sent to me and is described as a “deep tactical” or occasionally brutal, and my brain says, ” well let me be the judge of that. After all, I have been reviewing games for about a decade, and I have been gaming for over 30 years. From Demon Souls to the days of Ninja Turtles on NES, I have played them all. So when Thousand Generation Games offered me Deep Fringe, I jumped at the chance.

This is, as I said, a tactical game first and foremost. It has a steampunk feel to it, but most importantly, two different views are easy to switch between, and you will do well to do so. One will give you a good view of all your troops, the other the environment. You must take advantage of the environment, or you will lose. Small things, from simply pushing enemies from ledges to give you tactical advantages, to more major things, such as dropping rocks from the ceilings to crush more powerful foes, will make or break battles. I lost entire battles when I missed such oppotunities but finding them made those same fights a cake walk.

Each unit also has its own abilities and weaknesses, and you have to know what those are to succeed. Another interesting aspect is that you are given missions before each fight, and there are opportunities at times during battles to take on extra things. You may have to choose to save a third party or continue with the mission as you were ordered. This may help or hinder you; this is for you to decide. The only advice I will give is that many times, a good military leader needs to be heartless and carry on with the mission, but sometimes orders need to be ignored. You need to know which is which, and those decisions aren’t always simple.

So is this game truly deep tactics? Well, it definitely put my skills to the test. It won’t be for everyone, but it is fair and challenging, and I am far from being done playing it. It is an 8/10 experience. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Ebola Village Playstation 5 Review

Ebola Village was recently released on PlayStation 5, and Axyos Games was nice enough to send me a copy. It’s worth noting that for the purpose of this review, it was developed by Indie Games Studios, which is actually just a Russian guy named Victor.

Now on to my probably very unpopular opinion on Ebola Village. Let me start off by saying the game has a reputation as being a Resident Evil rip-off, and I won’t lie, the similarities are there. Let’s call a spade a spade, as they say. If you watch any zombie movie made before Resident Evil games were made, did Resident Evil rip them off, or did they pay homage? Is the zombie genre just retelling similar stories because placing them in the real world simply lends itself to having things in common? This is a discussion worth having.

You will start out in a run down busted up apartment in Russia as Maria. You will leave to find your mother in a new town, I won’t disrespect the russian language by trying to spell these town names. There are some puzzles to solve in this apartment, and you will quickly notice the inventory is very Resident Evil-like. Hey, I said the similarities were there. You will soon drive your car and run out of gas, stumble on a police car, and encounter your first zombie. Ok, I reiterate I said the similatires were there, you can stop rolling your eyes now.

Yes, I will stop talking about the story now. You will solve puzzles, shoot zombies, and make your way through a basic and predictable story. Let’s talk about the gameplay. It’s janky as hell. You can tell it is a port from PC, and you are supposed to be shooting these guns with a mouse; it works, but it’s janky.

Here is the thing most reviews won’t tell you. The game is fun. Shooting and stabbing zombies will see pieces fly off, to the point I’ve had zombies that basically just had skulls left, trying to eat me.

Is this game good? No, not really. It is a 5/10. Some of it functions badly, but what it lacks in function, it makes up for in just being fun. This is the gaming version of a B-movie on Tubi or the Syfy channel. You aren’t signing up for a good movie; you are signing up for a ridiculous one that’s fun. Is it worth $20? For some of you, yes; for most of you, no. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Roguematch : The Extraplanar Invasion Playstation 5 Review

StarStruck Games was kind enough to send me a copy of Roguematch: The Extraplanar Invasion on PlayStation 5, and I have to admit I am normally not a fan of these puzzle-matching games, but I am known to dabble here and there. But we all know how I feel about rogue-likes and RPGs, so when I had the chance to check out one that filled all those boxes, of course, I wanted to try it.

The gameplay is very basic: match the gems, which are colored by elements. Green is wind, red is fire, and so on and so forth. As you match these, you collect them to cast spells, and if you do this next to enemies, you damage them. You can also just move into enemies to damage them with your base attack, but doing this allows them to do the same to you, so be careful. It has its uses, but it is safer to use elements.

Certain areas will require you to step on switches or activate crystals, or simply defeat every enemy to move on to the next room. Some of these rooms have items to collect that work as spells. Some marked doors lead to a floor boss as you attempt to get to the bottom of the pyramid. You can attempt to speed run the boss; it is a viable strategy or you can find items and level up.

Leveling up allows you to strengthen an element

The story is pretty straightforward, but it’s nice. Three friends attempt to investigate a temple and discover that only one at a time may enter. The wizard goes in first, trying to find a magic tomb, and gets lost. The paladin rushes in to save him once the shield comes down, and also gets lost. And now you control the final member on the rescue attempt. Once you find them, you will be able to control them on later attempts, with each character, of course, having different abilities and play styles. During the rescue attempt, you will discover more about this temple, but I won’t spoil this for you.

This is going to be a very niche title; fans of games like this will enjoy this 7/10 title, but I don’t see it bringing new fans into the fold. At $20, it has a nice amount of replay value, is free of any glitches or problems, and looks nice. Don’t expect it to wow you, but it will entertain you for a few hours. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Bladesong Steam Review

Bladesong is an interesting title sent to me by the fine folks at Mythwright. I always appreciate it. The game hails itself as the ultimate sword-making game, but we will get to that.

The game starts out by letting you make some choices about your character, such as what kind of person you were in your village. I won’t spoil the story details, but these choices do matter a bit. They make certain things easier and change small things. Nothing that will make you want to pick certain things over another in terms of how you play long term, but enough that you might want to check them out.

The real bread and butter here is the sword making. The tutorial starts by teaching you how to make a sword, and you will be making the entire sword. You will start with what is essentially a block of metal, and you will flatten it, shape it, sharpen it, add a handle, and a pummel. Bassically if you have to do it to make a sword, it is here.

Admittedly, they do make it easier and quicker because it is a gam,e and it has to be fun. But when they say it is the ultimate sword-making game, they mean it. You will be upgrading your forge, learning new skills, taking on customers, making custom pieces, or simply sharpening blades for people.

As the game progesses you will be making more intricate pieces, and if you are wondering if you can name them, you absolutely can. All of this means nothing if it is hard to do these things, and I am happy to say they nailed the controls. From shaping blades to damn near a needle point ( thankfully, undoing this is also easy; it’s a game, not a simulator) to making a curved blade is all done quite simply with easy-to-use sliders and such. The whole game is very user-friendly. I would like to see more variety of weapons as early access moves on, but the sheer number of swords is impressive. For a $20 game, this is an 8/10 experience that I can easily recommend. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

DWARVES: Glory, Death and Loot – Launches on 1.0 from Sidekick Publishing

Following its popular Steam early access period (with over 130,000 units sold and ‘Very Positive’ from 1,735 reviews) Dwarves is taking the leap into 1.0 like that one dwarf in that battle that one time who didn’t want to tell the elf. Available on PC (Steam), Switch and mobile (iOS and Android), the platform expansion brings the infectious dwarven mayhem to handhelds and pocket devices for exciting pick-up-and-go action.

“Four years of development and beards that grew longer with every iteration. This game was born from sleepless nights, wild ideas, and amazing community feedback. It’s an homage to dwarves, chaos, and the sheer joy of letting things escalate.” says Rafael Weilharter, owner and Solo-Developer at Hamma Studios.

To celebrate the 1.0 release and platform expansion, Sidekick Publishing has launched a brand-new trailer born from a spontaneous and very fitting collaboration.

“We wanted to celebrate Rafael’s incredible work and vision with a trailer befitting of pure dwarven energy, so a Scottish accent was a must,” says Jasmin Oestreicher, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Sidekick Publishing. “Having met Ravs from the Yogscast at TwitchCon last year, Melvin [Melvin Frank, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Sidekick Publishing] and I reached out via Discord and he was on board instantly. It’s a great example of why we value direct, authentic relationships with creators who share the same spirit we do.”

On porting the game to handhelds and mobile Sebastian Tobler, Co-Founder and General Manager at ATEO says “Our core challenge was fitting the scale of a chaotic dwarven raid onto a handheld screen. We delved into the depths with Rafael, digging all the way to Moria to forge a Switch and mobile experience that captures the true essence of the game.”

In Dwarves, players build a fully customisable army from ten unique dwarf classes that eat rocks for breakfast. Take your cohort of tanks, assassins, mages and more on in a familiar roguelike loop to conquer orcs, great foes and dragons in auto-battling carnage that will have beardlings such as ‘Simon’ chomping at the bit to get back in the action with full meta progression. With millions of army and loadout compositions possible, strategy and loot are everything. Gather gear, muster the troops and master the loop for glory, for death, for loot!

Dwarves: Glory, Death and Loot follows hot on the heels of Sidekick Publishing’s first published title, Deadly Days: Roadtrip which launched into early access in September 2025.

Main Game Features:

Auto-battler – give those thumbs a rest and watch the chaos unfold

💎Roguelike meta progression – permanent upgrades keep you coming back for “just one more run” and endless loot

👑 Fully customisable armies – customise your beardlings to your heart’s content 

✏️ Hand-drawn pixel art – from solo developer, Rafael Weilharterm marvel in the beautiful hand-drawn characters and world design

28 Years Later

It’s no secret I went insane when I found out this long awaited awaited sequel was actually coming. It was my most anticipated movie of of 2025 even. In a year of surprises like Sinners and Fantastic 4: First Steps , I was sure Years was going to be a legendary following to a masterful trilogy…

28 Years have passed since the Rage virus has run rampant through the UK and neighboring areas. Spike and his family live in a small island off the mainland, separated by a natural bridge only accessible between tides. On his twelfth birthday, Spike and his dad must partake in his right of passage and go hunting for supplies on the mainland full of starved infected who are evolving and the madmen who thrive against them. Spike and his father narrowly escape their trip, but Spike must risk another trip in search of the only Dr who can help his ailing mother. How far can the boy go for love?

28 Days Later was noting sort of a masterpiece. 28 Weeks Later fell off a bit by the end, but was still a pretty damn good sequel. 28 Years is one of the most conflicting movies I’ve seen in recent memory. I genuinely love and hate this movie, and honestly can’t debate you either way.

This movie has an incredible cast. Alfie Williams, steals the show as Spike; I can see him going very far in the future. Everyone brings their A game. Visually the movie is gorgeous. The color pops naturally, no bullshit filters. Th scenery is breathtaking. I liked that there is some inspiration from Day of the Dead in that this story is genuinely an epic and a point is how the infected are naturally evolving over time. The story at it’s core is fantastic and full of heart I haven’t experienced since the first time I played the original The Last of Us ; I did get teary eyed at the end.

Danny Boyle, who directed the the first movie, wanted to be different this time around. Unfortunately not all those choices worked. This movie hits you with a lot quickly. There are jarring cutaways that reminded me think of House of 1000 Corpses . Most of the kills are filmed in a way that reminded me of a Call of Duty kill-cam. The blood is comically over the top at points. The music choices can be rattling as hell. The pacing feels rushed in the first half hour. There’s a lot of plot threads that feel useless, including the opening, that serve the follow up films more. The ending, while good for a laugh and some blood, is pure sequel bait which admittedly I’m both excited for but also irritated with. I really can’t argue if you tell me the ending pissed you off.

In the end, even writing this review, I’m totally conflicted on this movie. I loved things about it but absolutely hated others. It is wildly unique from it’s predecessors and delivers a hell of an experience- whether it’s to your liking or not. I absolutely think it should be watched but just know you may not get what you expected. May the gaming gods bring you glory.