Crisol: Theater of Idols trailer

I want to take a second and talk about a game I haven’t seen much buzz about that I think deserves some. I love the vibe I got, feeling close to Lies of P and Resident Evil VIII: Village . I really liked the aesthetic and that it does look fun, which can be rare in survival horror. I’m excited to see more about this game come out. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

How 2 Escape: Lost Submarine PS5 Review

How 2 Escape: Lost Submarine on PS5 is a sort of escape room puzzle meant for 2 people. It was sent my way by the guys and gals over at Just For Games, and I always appreciate that.

Playing this with my girlfriend actually gave me a fun perspective. See, only one person needs a copy of this to play, one person plays from an app on their phone, and the other one from their PS5 ( it is available on Xbox and Steam), and you are both given different info. One can explore the ship and mess with different controls. For example, in the first room, you can look through a periscope to see lighthouses or some controls. The other person can see some menus on how to operate those controls.

The two of you must work together and pass information back and forth to unlock the room and get to the next room. Each room has different controls, items to find, and puzzles to solve. If you are like me, this is fascinating and a lot of fun. If you are like my girlfriend, this is torture, and you demand to know why I am doing this to her and what she did to deserve this.

After a couple of rooms, I was forced to pick a different partner and restart the game. I figured my ex-wife would be a great choice. This turned out to be an even worse choice. It was sort of like doing an escape room with someone who has no desire to escape because eventually someone will open the door for you, or because they know the rest of the class will do all the work.

I then moved on to my third choice. My 19-year-old daughter. This time went much better, I let her take the console and I used the app on my phone. It felt nice and was easy to use. We managed to get through the game fairly well together.

The story is fun and the game functions well, and the app works well even on my phone, which is in dire need of replacement. With a price point of about $13 regardless of where you buy it, calling this a 7/10 game that escape room fans will love is a fair statement. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Announces Ashes of Elrant, the official DLC for Acclaimed ‘Chained Echoes’ (JRPG) (PC/SW/XB/PS) is releasing August 7th

Many of you may recall my coverage of the Chained Echoes PS5 Review, where I told you it was a must-buy RPG of 2022. We are getting the long-awaited DLC Ashes of Elrant on August 7th. Enjoy the trailer below, and don’t wait to pick this one up; it’s sure to be amazing.

Section 13: Online Co-op Comes to Console

If you remember my review of Section 13 PS5 Review, I mentioned that Co-op would be coming soon, and the good news is that it is now here. Check out the details below and give it a shot.

Workplace associates rejoice! Ocean Drive Studio and Kakao Games have launched the highly anticipated co-op mode for Section 13, a fiendishly ferocious twin-stick shooter. 

S2P Corp recognises the importance of positive workplace relationships and wants to support this with a teambuilding exercise! Online co-op will now be available on Xbox and PlayStation, giving employees the chance to survive the horrors below together. As the saying goes, the more, the messier and there’ll be plenty to clean up when the interdimensional forces of evil have had their fun.

Step into the monstrously challenged and health-and-safety unapproved Section 13, grab your lasers, hold onto your health packs and be prepared for death. After all — apart from taxes (*please see last week’s memo on new deductions) — it’s the only certain thing in life, and you’ll get to experience it plenty of times.

If the notion of dying over and over and over does not appeal to you, please see the most recent trailer below. Corporate assures us that it will change your mind: 

So grab a friend and save the world, or at least the only world that matters — your job! Enter the hazardous world of Section 13 today on Xbox, Playstation and Steam and show those monsters who’s boss (it’s Corporate, but you’re a close second).

Tiny Aquarium: Social Fishkeeping Steam Review

Tiny Aquarium: Social Fishkeeping is a small title from Lunheim Studios with a straightforward concept. One, they were nice enough to send me to check out, and I always appreciate that.

The idea is to let you build your own virtual fish tank. You can buy eggs of different qualities, and they hatch into random fish. And don’t worry, while you can separate them into fresh or salt water, you don’t have to. The fish won’t even eat each other. This is a stress-free environment for you and the fish.

My tank, someone reacted to it.

Other people can come and visit your tank and leave little reactions if they enjoy it, and you can do the same for them. It is a nice touch that there are sometimes rewards for doing. You can’t spam the reactions ( you are limited to about 5 a day), but you can view all the tanks you want.

A group of us are fishing

Another nice touch, if not a bit unethical, is the ability to get a group together to go fishing. This seems to increase your odds of catching more rare fish to toss in your tank. (Don’t do this in real life)

/ So what are my thoughts? The game costs $5 and has the option to just sit on the bottom of your screen while you do work, or you can focus on it when you have some time to kill. The graphics are cute, and it functions very well. I wish I didn’t have to spend so much in-game money just upgrading my tank to keep more fish, or that it was easier to get the decorations I want, but the game is great for what it is meant to be, an easy 9/10 must buy for this genre. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Maximum Football PS5 Review

Maximum Football on PS5 is a free-to-play football game from Maximum Entertainment, but as always with my full disclosures, they did toss me this a bit early and with a few freebies tossed in so I can dive in and really check out the customization. So if you are one of the people who played the Scranton Dragon Fire, you are welcome. I am horrible at this game, but my team looks damn good I think.

Honestly, the gameplay is solid, I would say don’t come in here expecting Madden, but I don’t know if that is a compliment or not. Running feels nice, and while I may be the world’s worst QB ( Dak Prescott during the playoffs excluded, Go Eagles!) the game does play well.

There are a lot of small things I love about this game. While they take a great pro football approach, there are some arcade aspects to it. For example, I haven’t played a game where someone hasn’t gotten hurt, and the game always tells me exactly what it was and how long they are out. Big hits also look vicious without looking cartoonish.

My only real issue is that, for a game with a ton of custom options and that is made to customize everything, basically everything is locked. I know they need to make money, and not everything requires real money to unlock, but damn even with a headstart I had to make a lot of choices.

All this being said, if you want to play football and don’t want to spend $60 on Madden, this is a 7/10 experience. There is no reason this should not be in your rotation if you enjoy sports. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

LumenTale: Memories of Trey Demo

LumenTale Memories of Trey is an upcoming monster-collecting RPG from Team 17 and Beehive Studios . They tossed me this demo to check out, and it is a demo from the early build, so this definitely is not a full review by any means. More a collection of thoughts on something they were nice enough to let me check out.

The story is rather interesting. For a long time, the world was peaceful. This peaceful emperor died, as often happens, a civil war broke out. There was a huge war until a very dedicated portion of the old king’s military decided to defend the people who lived in fear; this brought a new peace.

Who cares about that? We are here to catch monsters, in this world known as Animon. With 140 known types and 13 different elements, there are plenty of options to choose from, and with duels and 4×4 battles to choose from, there will be a ton of strategy to work on.

Before you get to all that, however, you will have to slog through an opening stealth section with a girl trying to find some fruit. I promise this is legitimately necessary for the story. It just wasn’t fun. The pacing in the early game feels pretty off to me. It isn’t bad or uninteresting, mind you, it’s just slow.

The designs for the Animon are as cute as you would hope in the early game, with some of them becoming creepy or more aggressive-looking as you would expect later on. The game looks great and plays fairly well.

My only other real issue is that the demo isn’t exactly optimized. My laptop heats up something fierce while playing, despite the fact that I am on relatively low settings and am well beyond what I would need to play the game. All that being said, the full release shows a lot of promise. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Borderlands 4 story trailer

After the lackluster story of Borderlands 3 , am I excited for 4? The game looks fun. But I gotta admit Randy Pitchford’s comments about the real Borderlands fans being willing to pay $80, like many gamers in our very harsh American economy, rightfully pissed me off. It’s going to be a long time if I even decide to pick up BL4 but from everything I’ve seen, the game basically looks like business as usual for the series. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Silent Hill F trailer

So I gushed over Resident Evil 9 reveal trailer but there was another trailer at 2025’s State of Play that really hit me. I’d never gotten into Silent Hill but I loved the lore, imagery, and music. F looks a fresh take on the classic franchise. The graphics and atmosphere look great and my curiosity is piqued at the story. I’m incredibly excited to experience a new entry in this beloved series. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Drug Dealer Simulator 2: Casino DLC

Many of you saw my review earlier for Drug Dealer Simulator PS5 review and I know many of you play Drug Dealer Simulator 2 over on PC, so exciting news today sees the release of the Casino DLC so check out the trailer below and hop on over and check it out if you haven’t already and remember in co-op, only the host needs to own the DLC.