Roadwarden Nintendo Switch 2 Review 5.5/10 "A beautiful tale crushed by performance issues" 🗺️ @MoralAnxiety #IndieGame #GameDev

I actually received Roadwarden for review last year, but had an issue when playing on my Switch, whereby the game would judder along as if it was constantly buffering – I made contact with the relevant party to inquire if this was a known issue that would be patched shortly etc. – as it made the game unplayable - and received no response, so it fell off my radar. 

It was only upon installing games on our new Switch 2 that I spotted Roadwarden and wondered if it would run more smoothly on this new console, it is after all, a text-based adventure – hardly a genre that needs a technical powerhouse! And yet…problems remain, which is a real shame as the game has so much potential.

Disco Simulator PS5 Review 7.5/10 "Can people please stop spewing on the dance floor?" 🕺🪩💃 @GamesIncubator #IndieGame #GameDev

As someone who has a partner that grew up on The Sims games, I quite fancied the idea of settling down of an evening and spending a few sessions with Disco Simulator, a game in which you run your own nightclub (I do really feel that this should have been called Nightclub Simulator, by the way, but it looks like that name was already taken). 

The game begins with a brisk tutorial that lays out the setting, you begin each scenario with certain goals in mind – reaching a certain amount of cash, hitting certain metrics etc. – and from there, you pretty much get free reign of how to run your club, from naming it through to shaking cocktails, unclogging toilets, checking tickets for entry, and ensuring that the power stays on – or will you delegate all this nonsense to your ever-growing team of staff?

Crisol: Theatre of Idols PS5 Review 8.5/10 “A Bloody Good Start for Vermila Studio” 🪆🩸 @CrisolGame @VermilaStudios #IndieGame #GameDev

When viewing the trailer for Crisol: Theatre of Idols it was immediately obvious where a lot of inspiration had come from it. looked like a mix of Bioshock and Resident Evil, which are two of my favourite game series, so I was very excited to see whether it could live up to its lofty inspirations, or would it be a pale imitation? 

Especially as this is the first game by the studio. I think they hit it out of the park, a slam dunk, a hole in one.. and that's all the sports metaphors I know. For a first outing I think it’s fantastic. Crisol knows what it wants to achieve, it is a love letter to the horror games that inspired it, and whilst it may not reinvent the horror game wheel, it has wonderful art design and a cool new mechanic that makes the game a delight to play.