Tag: Reviews

Train Sim World 6 PS5 Review

Train Sim World 6 on PS5 was sent my way by Dovetail Games, which I always appreciate. Now I know a lot of people haven’t had the chance to play a Train Sim World game and just want to know, is this a good place to start, and don’t care about the rest of my review or what I have to say. So for them, yes, Train Sim World 6 is a great place to start. Feel free to stop reading now and go buy the game.

For the rest of you, let’s get this train moving. Yeah, the game is beautiful. No doubt about that, and I doubt anyone ever thought it wouldn’t be. I live in Scranton, Pennsylvania, home to the Steamtown National Historic Site. A place that has a literal train museum attached to it. I am not claiming to be a train expert, but I have been on a few and seen even more. Walking around some of these trains and listening to them isn’t much different than being at the museum itself. Listening to the trains glide across the tracks or the sound the tracks make as the rails move from one side to the other when tracks are switched is as close as any game has made it to real life as I have ever heard.

Now, all that means nothing if the controls aren’t as good as the visuals and the sounds. Well, truth be told, the controls are the same as they have always been. Your character, while moving around, feels a bit still, but not bad. Aside from that, pressing buttons on the train and starting and stopping it takes quite a bit of getting used to, but the game has a ton of tutorials to get you moving. Hours and hours worth in fact. Don’t worry, you don’t have to play them all; they just have them in case you want to learn more about each individual train. You are free to learn the basics and go from there, which is what most people do.

I wouldn’t be doing my due diligence if I didn’t mention issues other people have reported. Honestly, I didn’t come across these issues, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. There have been reports of some in-game crashes, some assets popping in and out while people are driving the trains on longer lines, and issues with passenger AI at times. I haven’t come across these, so they won’t factor into my score, but they are worth mentioning. I enjoyed the game and will definitely be playing it more. The game is a solid 8/10 for me. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

CloverPit Steam Review

CloverPit was sent to me by the fine people over at Future Friends Games, and I am thankful for that. What I am not grateful for is them sending me what amounts to video game heroin. What I thought was going to be a fun game that allows me to play a little slot machine that cutely cries, “Let’s go gambling!” at the start of each round and requires me to collect virtual money, actually was a sick and demented experiment in dragging myself away from just one more pull of the handle.

See, I truly don’t have a gambling addiction. Every year, I spend around $20 on Eagles or Phillies games across various games throughout both seasons. That is combined, mind you, not each or per game. I have probably spent another $20 on slot machines in my 40 years of life. But this simple game has had me spending hours chasing enough money to prevent my character from falling down this whole, literally crossing my fingers, hoping these damn wheels will stop on diamonds.

When that doesn’t work, I will restart my run, and think the problem was me, I just had the wrong combination of relics to increase my luck or modifiers. Each stage requires you to get enough coins to put in the ATM to save your life; the amount increases each round. Do you pick more spins for more chances at money, or fewer spins for more tickets to buy relics for modifiers? The choice is yours, and if you pick wrong, it may end your run early.

Now, I do need to point out, to be perfectly clear, there is no real gambling involved in this. The game requires no real money outside of the $10 to buy the game. This is by no means anything other than a horror game similar to Blatro and Buckshot Roulette, as they say. Free advice by the way, the game takes place in one room, and it does include a toilet, use it.

The game functions great, looks amazing for what it is, and is a ton of fun. Don’t just take my word for it, over 1800 Steam reviews, and they are very positive. The negative reviews I came across mostly complain that once you find a working strategy, it mostly always works, and that’s honestly a weird complaint. That is how things are supposed to work. The game is a solid 7/10. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Aethermancer Steam Review

Aethermancer is a creature battling rogue-like from Offbrand Games that they were kind enough to send me. I wasn’t really sure how to feel about it at first, since, honestly, there are a million games out there that make you fight creatures nowadays.

Aethermancer has a nice twist, however, since now you do it in runs instead of as one overall quest. Each time, you can purchase upgrades to make future runs easier, as you would expect from this sort of game. Creatures you capture, of course, can be summoned through special means. You can even choose your favorites by talking to a woman in town to make sure they are always available to you.

Your starter is always your starter, and there are four to choose from with different abilities to choose from. Personally, I chose Nixie because she can heal and dish out poison damage. This isn’t a hard niche to fill, however, and if you don’t choose Nixie, you aren’t locked out of these aether options. My friend over at @mrjfeliciano chose Cherufe the fire/earth starter and found a healer pretty quickly. I found a fire/earth combo pretty fast myself, so there is no real disadvantage from who you choose in terms of elements available to you.

The story is solid but basic; you are simply investigating an area between life and death, but I won’t spoil more than that. The important part is how the game functions, and with more than a few hours into the game, I can say I never ran into any weird glitches or frame rate drops playing on my laptop. In a time where companies seem to want to optimize games as little as possible and focus on high-end machines, Aethermancer seems to have done the opposite.

Far be it from me to enjoy a game this much, then see very positive reviews on Steam from over 600 people, and disagree. It’s a niche genre to be sure, but for those who enjoy these types of games, and at a $22 price point, the game is as much of a must-buy as a game can be in 2025. 8/10, please enjoy, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Heroes of Magic & Cards Demo Review

The nice people over at First Day Entertainment sent me a copy of the demo for Heroes of Magic & Cards, and I have to say, it plays far better than I expected. I was a bit skeptical of a deck builder based on Poker hands. Despite the success of Balatro, what Heroes of Magic & Cards is attempting to do is a completely separate thing.

This time around, to attack, you use cards to power those attacks. For example, your basic attack is any 2 cards. This is quite simple, but more powerful attacks require more finesse. For example, you eventually can train at a camp to learn an attack to use the combined power of all the cards used to hit all enemies. This can be potent, but you need to have 3 cards in a straight. Having 2,3,4 would hit every enemy for 9 damage. This is nice, but it isn’t always easy to pull off.

Shields work in the same way; in fact, if you have played any card battler, you are familiar with how the game works. What is new is simply how you deal damage, and that alone is enough to make Heroes of Magic & Cards worth watching. I tried a couple of runs, and Elite enemies never disappointed. A spider would hit my cards with webs, disrupting my strategy of holding onto certain cards to use later, and others would hit hard and force me to use healing items I wanted to save for the boss at the end of the run. My first win was actually so close, I had one hit point left.

I obviously won’t be giving a demo a real score, but you will definitely want to keep an eye on this one. I, for one, can not wait to get my hands on the full release. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Deadly Days: Roadtrip Steam Review

Deadly Days: Roadtrip was sent to me by the fine folks at Pixelsplit Games, which is always appreciated. This rougelike has a very basic premise that is simple to get behind. Take your yellow school bus to each level, kill zombies while you collect loot, and gather enough fuel to make it to the next area. Rinse and repeat.

The concept being simple doesn’t mean the game is simple, however, as there are plenty of things that can go wrong. You have a radar that will guide you to where the treasure is, and while most zombies can be killed with one or two shots from most guns, there are plenty of more powerful zombies. My favorite is the football player zombie that charges at you.

The graphics are cute and, as you can imagine, are simple pixel graphics that really set the tone well. The controls are simple; you move the same way you do in most PC games, and the character shoots automatically. You do have the option to use the mouse to click on zombies or items you want to shoot at, specifically. This is a nice touch for when a special zombie or crate shows up and you want to target that first.

Each run gets a bit easier as you collect power-ups in between runs. These are bought with special items and are permanent. These allow for deeper runs and make collecting more items easier. It makes for a satisfying game loop. With a price point of $15, very positive reviews (450 total reviews), it’s hard to argue with this being worth the money. A solid 7/10 early access title. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Trails from the Sky 1st chapter PS5 Review

Trails From The Sky 1st Chapter was sent my way by Gung Ho Entertainment, which is always appreciated. Now I know some people just want to skip to the good stuff how how is the game, is it worth buying? It is a Trails game. If you enjoy the series, feel free to stop reading, spend the money, and just start playing; you won’t be disappointed. If you are on the fence, maybe stick around.

The first thing we need to touch on is the fact that this isn’t some epic reimagining of the original Trails game. It is more along the lines of an update that fixes some old issues and makes it more modern. It also gives many people their first chance to play the Trails games from the very beginning.

The combat itself also takes a lot from Trails Through Daybreak in that you can pretty much swap from real-time and turn-based battles, which many people will appreciate.

Estelle and Joshua are interesting characters, two Bracers who are a bit naive and get caught up in things they really didn’t mean to, and of course, need to save their home. Liberl Kingdom is as beautiful as ever, and if you don’t mind the one main complaint that I have had about all of these games, it is basically the only complaint I ever hear about them.

However, it is still a slog to play at times due to the immense amount of story that you will sit through with no break. Some people love this aspect of the game, but I complain about this and get asked if I am crazy. Other people I say this to, and they agree completely. There is no reason not to buy this 8/10 game if this doesn’t bother you. If it does, it is still worth playing. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Folly of the Wizard Steam Review

Folly of the Wizards is the newest roguelike from Numbskull Games. They tossed me a copy of this one, which is always appreciated. The story is quite simple: you are one of four wizard apprentices attempting to defeat evil, but you aren’t exactly a good wizard. You are simply the apprentice and the wizard who happens to be around. That’s right, this is a comedy.

The game takes place in procedurally created dungeons, so no two runs are ever the same. In fact, besides starting in the same room with a guy who has no issue feeling sorry for you, you don’t really know what you are walking into.

My only real issue with this game is the button layout. While the game looks beautiful, and the sound and music are great, the button layout is atrocious. The jump and dodge buttons being on the trigger just feel awful to me, and with no way to change it, it took a lot of getting used to. In the first few runs, I died before the first boss.

It didn’t take long to get used to it, however, and after that, I was making deep runs consistently and taking out the first few bosses without issue. I mention the controls not because they are somehow impossible to get used to, but because, as of now, they can’t be changed on console. I don’t know if this will ever be an option, but I do know that for some people, this might be a deal breaker.

It shouldn’t be, however, letting this get in the way will make you miss out on what is a great all around game. Unlike most roguelikes, there isn’t a huge time sink per run; you can make it through a dungeon in probably 5 minutes or so, meaning each run can be quick and entertaining when you just want something to fill some time. It is a solid 8/10 experience. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Trailer Park Tycoon: Raccoon Ranch Steam Review

Trailer Park Tycoon: Racoon Ranch was sent my way by the folks over at S-Grade Games, and I am, of course, grateful for the chance to check it out. The game itself is quite simply a store simulator.

This one has a bit of a twist to it, however. Instead of buying things from an app, you play as a raccoon that creates things all on their own. For example, you start out turning apples into apple juice. You do this by watering a tree that grows apples, then turning the apples into juice. You then sell this in your store, which you can customise however you choose.

The game itself is quite easy to manage and control, with numerous animals to interact with and engage in conversation. There is also a shooting mini-game that I was not a fan of. It felt out of place, and the controls for it just didn’t feel right at all to me.

That is really my only complaint about the controls, which is surprising for a game of this price point (just under $12). Other areas of the game have some small issues, but many of them are being taken care of as we speak. In fact, some I had were taken care of before I could even write this review. For example, an early issue I had with the mini-game for the cash register staying above my head is just gone now. Show management could still use some work, for example, when you open and close your store, it’s completely up to you and is nice, but even with employees, there seems to be no way to close your store automatically and send employees home when product runs out.

The game is still solid for its price point and is sitting at very positive reviews with 59 reviews in. It is a 7/10 experience that will improve even more as the game is worked on. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Frostpunk 2 PS5 Review

Frostpunk 2 on PS5 was sent my way by the fine folks over at 11 Bit Studios, and I have to say, it is greatly appreciated. As a huge fan of the first Frostpunk, getting the chance to play this before release was a special treat.

Fans of the original will already know how it plays out, and it does continue the story of the first game. Now that you have saved your people, you are old, and the torch, so to speak, must be passed on. Things aren’t going great 30 years after the “great storm,” but your people are alive. Now it is up to someone else to expand the resources and keep the people alive.

The campaign consists of 5 chapters, which basically act as a tutorial for the real challenge of Frostpunk 2, which is the Utopia Builder. The game will even tell you when you try to play that it recommends playing the story first.

The actual gameplay is a bit different from the first one. For example, you no longer build individual buildings; you build districts, such as for housing or food, etc. At first, I didn’t like this, but after an hour or two, I realized this really freed me up to bite into the political and law systems.

These new systems take center stage in a lot of areas; for example, you can now pass entire edicts to change how your people behave or how they work. It will also improve your standing with the different factions within the game. Don’t ignore these factions, or you will find yourself out of a job and lose the game. Even one being too upset with you can have devastating consequences.

Another great piece of advice that it took me longer to notice than I would like to admit: if you think you have enough of anything, produce more of it. While you could get away with producing slightly more than was needed in the past, this won’t fly here. One snowstorm can ruin the entire run when it brings your economy to a crashing halt.

The one thing to touch on is how the game functions. Well, at first I was actually disappointed, there were some issues with the controls and cut scenes that made the game awful to play. These issues were sorted out well before release, however. This actually doesn’t surrpise me because 11 Bit Studios has always been solid about fixing issues. Frostpunk 2 is on my list of games I will be playing for a long time to come. 8/10, and well worth the wait. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Formula Legends PS5 Review

Formula Legends on PS5 was sent my way by 3DClouds, which is always appreciated. There are a couple of things you need to know going into this game and going into this review, for starters, while I enjoy racing games occasionally, I am not what you would call a huge fan. I am also certainly not a fan of watching racing. I know enough about the sport, but it just isn’t my thing.

You should also be aware that this is not an officially licensed game, so it does not feature real racers or tracks. None of this prevents the enjoyment of the game, mind you, but for some people, this matters. What matters to me, however, is how the cars look and feel. They look great, by the way, graphics are not something I can complain about here.

The rain soaks everything, just like life

The sound is also pretty spot on; the cars sound powerful regardless of the era you play in. Cars from the 1960s sound powerful and vintage, while cars from the modern era roar down the track, much like they do on TV. I do wish they sounded better when they hit things like dirt and walls, probably because I hit them so much.

This brings me to my biggest issue with the game. The controls don’t always feel like an F1 car. Some aspects nail it. If you are at a stop and just put the pedal to the metal, you are going to spin the car out. Don’t stomp the brakes because you will lock them up and lose control. The issue is that it doesn’t seem consistent; some turns you can ease into just fine, but other turns, this doesn’t work, not because the turns are vastly different or you are moving at a different speed, the car just suddenly handles differently.

This also happens with accidents. Small bumps into or from other cars seem to create an odd stick where you can’t remove yourself for a brief instant. This also happens with walls, where a small bump will send you from well into first place into dead last with no recovery.

The game is still fun, and these flaws really do only come down to more of a “skill issue.” The game is far from easy. It is a 7/10 experience that I will probably continue to play when I am bored. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.