Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor Xbox Review 6.5/10 "A beautifully realised license frustratingly hampered by technical issues and design choices" 🚂 @dovetailgames #IndieGame #GameDev

I grew up with Thomas the Tank Engine, and now – a full generation down the line – my son has taken up the mantle of enjoying Thomas and his cast of friends making their way around the gentle island of Sodor. 

Developed by Dovetail Games – the folks behind the Train Sim World series of games, they know their way around a caboose! - this is a wonderfully realised world in which the characters are absolutely TV perfect and the voice actor from the show also appears to add class to the game.

There are several modes, with exploration (free roam) mode, and a more mission-centric being the main focus. I was intrigued as to how they would make a game in which you can effectively just go forwards and backwards interesting, especially when the sim element is removed or heavily simplified, but Dovetail Games have really worked some magic here with the chapter stories, voice work, and overall presentation being spot-on.

ROG Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Review By Britt 🎧 @ASUS_ROGUK

It’s the first time I’ve ever said it on the digital pages of this website, but...I’m in love. I’m in love with the ROG Cetra Open Wireless Earbuds. 

I’ve covered a fair few earbuds; in-ear, over-ear, noise-cancelling, wired, wireless, cupped...and all have had their pros, some becoming my go-to for months or even years, but never before have I been so smitten as with these bad boys. 

Designed for gaming, I’ve used them for various reasons, from gaming through to podcasts in work through to ASMR / relaxation ‘tapes’ in bed and even for listening to mixes of my own upcoming album. 

With incredible comfort, battery life, style, and robustness – the only downside that I found was that, being open-ear – they aren’t particularly practical in windy areas (I live by the sea), although they do handle things surprisingly well in areas of general noise such as offices, city streets and the like. As I said. I love them.

Winter Burrow Nintendo Switch 2 Review 8/10 *Cute Creature Crafting Comforts* 🐁🌳@pinecreekgames #IndieGame #GameDev

I had my eye on Winter Burrow for a while, and whilst I’m not naturally drawn to crafting games, the art style and draw of being a little mouse in a snowy forest rebuilding his family home whilst fending off insects and rediscovering his childhood was almost too cute to ignore. The final straw was when I showed my partner and our 4-year old son the trailer to Winter Burrow, and when I looked at them as the snippet ended, they had turned into anime characters with wide, trembling eyes, emitting a collective “aaaaawwww”.

The Precinct Vinyl Soundtrack Review By Britt 💿 #Vinyl #VideoGameVinyl #VGM

I was lucky enough to be in a position to cover The Precinct last year, as I was a huge fan of American Fugitive, the first game from developers Fallen Tree Games. I loved the vibe that it laid out, and that classic top-down, open-world vehicular gameplay brought back to a life a genre that I really didn’t feel had played itself out through its initial run. 

The Precinct is a celebration of ‘80s cop films, placing you in the shoes of a rookie in the police force as opposed to the titular fugitive protagonist of the first game, and as you’d expect from such a setting, the music is a huge part of the experience, setting the scene for the player as it does as you make your way around the rain-slicked streets of Averno City. 

This eleven-track soundtrack release comes from Lost In Cult, a company that know their onions, we here at GF have been fans of them since their inception, with their various books and board games all being of incredible quality thus far, and I believe this is the first record from them that we’ve had the pleasure to cover.

That said – let’s dive into the soundtrack that echoes off the graffiti-covered walls of Averno City!

Turtle Beach Rematch Wireless Controller: Mario Jump 🎮

We recently covered the fantastic Turtle Beach Rematch Wireless: Mario Bricks and now Turtle Beach have released a new Mario Jump variant! Compatible with Nintendo Switch OLED / Lite / 2, the Turtle Beach Rematch: Mario Jump features a C Button for GameChat, mappable quick-action buttons, and built-in motion controls. An officially licensed Nintendo product, this Mario Jump variant has all the features of the Rematch line, including up to 40-hour gaming time on a single charge! 

Power up your play with the Rematch Wireless Gaming Controller, officially licensed for Nintendo Switch™ 2. This controller also works with Nintendo Switch™, Nintendo Switch™ Lite, and Nintendo Switch™ – OLED Model.

Whether you are speeding through intense races on Mario Kart™ World or breaking new ground on Donkey Kong™ Bananza, this controller keeps up with every move. Thumbsticks with integrated TMR (Tunneling Magnetoresistance) sensor technology offer precision and durability, while built-in motion controls enhance responsiveness. Access GameChat features quickly with the conveniently placed C Button. Enjoy up to 40 hours of wireless play thanks to the rechargeable battery.

With its bold semi-translucent Super Mario™ Jump design, this Rematch wireless controller is built to deliver next level performance, comfort, and control every time.

Purchase Link

Video Game LoFi: Final Fantasy Vinyl Review ⚔️💿 🎶 @MateriaStore #VideoGameVinyl #Vinyl

Curaga Records are back once more! With this, a double LP collection of twenty tracks from the Final Fantasy series of games re-imagined as lo-fi chill-hop songs, all presented in chronological order, taking us on an aural journey spanning Prelude from Final Fantasy II through to Lunar Serenade from the recent Final Fantasy XVI, that’s 1988 to 2023, which is a pretty incredible stretch of time!

As always with Curaga records, the packaging prioritises sleek style over garishness, with simple and bold being the keywords, all the while having imagery that evokes the game series at hand, in this case, the blacks, pinks, purples, and blues matching the mellow dreaminess and focus on hopeful melody that permeates the soundscapes of the Final Fantasy games.

The Cabin Factory PS5 Review 9.5/10 "A beautifully designed bite-sized horror that’s a must play for fans of the genre" 🛖 @ICS_indie #IndieGame #GameDev

As long time readers will know, I’m a (blood) sucker for short horror games. I love settling down and knowing I’ll be watching the credits roll in an hour or two and will get a short blast of unsettling thrills. Combine that with the fact that The Cabin Factory costs less than half a pint of lager, and we are very much onto a winner.

I’m purposely not going into the game that much here as discovering it is where a lot of the fun lies, all you need to know is that this is a first-person 3D horror game in which you play an older lady that begins The Cabin Factory in a lift en route to the huge aeroplane hangar-like room in which she will be performing her job…checking if cabins that roll up on a conveyor belt are haunted or not. There are two buttons marked ‘danger’ and ‘clear’, and if you get eight cabins correct on the trot – you finish the game, it really is that simple.

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?

Britt’s iOS Adventures #1 Dawncaster & Caves of Lore on iOS 📱⚔️ @WanderlostGames #IndieGame #GameDev

Considering how many games I play across the various console platforms (and PC, back in the day), one aspect of gaming that I have been disappointed with over the last ten years or so has been mobile gaming. As much as I like the classics being ported to mobile, I’ve always wanted to discover new single-player games, and to this end – it’s always been difficult to come across handcrafted, enjoyable experiences, having been stung in the past with games that look great, but are hampered by either micro-transactions, endless grinding, multiplayer-focused shash, or have a spark – but are unfinished, abandoned projects.

A few weeks ago, I came across a list of a few games that stood out to me and I thought I’d – again – try to get hips deep into the world of mobile gaming, initially through the medium of two games. Dawncaster, a deck-building ‘cardventure’ developed by the Netherlands-based studio Wanderlost Interactive, and Caves of Lore, an RPG in a more classic vein from solo developer Mike Robins. I have to say, these titles have both been incredible discoveries, and have reinvigorated gaming on a mobile device for me, with Dawncaster taking the place of a game that is fun to both dip in and out of as well as have lengthier session on (my four year old is also a fan, loving the character and card designs), whilst Caves of Lore really connected with me with its pixel visuals, dynamic lighting and classic, open-world sensibilities that fill the game with quests and quirks, very clearly the vision of a single individual, which makes the scope of the game all the more impressive, and the vibe very personal.

Death & Lead SEGA Mega Drive Review 7/10 "The West rises again on Sega’s best machine from the East" 🤠🏇 @Kai_MSX #IndieGame #GameDev #RetroGaming

We here at GF have been big fans of Kai Magazine Software, a Spanish development company that has brought us The Secret of the Four Winds, Life On Mars, and Metal Dragon – amongst others over the years. 

Whilst their games have had some pros and cons, the one thing that stands out about this development house for me, and keeps me extremely interested in their upcoming releases, is that they have an uncanny ability to hone in on game genres that felt under-realised on Sega’s best* home console system, as well as having the ability to make the audio shine. 

There are a handful of developer/publishers that release titles for the Mega Drive – and I genuinely adore them all – but Kai Magazine Software seems to have a little niche in that the games they create aren’t the typical sort that you’d find on the MD, and in doing so, have that frisson that brings the system alive.

G’AIM’E Plug & Play Time Crisis Light Gun System Review By Britt "A new light gun bundle for Modern TVs!" 🔫 @MyGAIME

It’s always a pleasure when tech that has fallen by the wayside gets a new lease of life, and light gun games certainly fall into that category.

A couple of years ago, I covered the fantastic Sinden light Gun, but it did require some setup and also relied on the owner’s library of games, as opposed to coming pre-packaged with anything.

The G’AIM’E light gun ‘aims’ to remedy this, and after a successful Kickstarter raised over 800k, they now have various packages available, timed in with celebrating thirty years of that classic arcade light gun shooter, Time Crisis.

Trust GXT 498P Forta Gaming Headset For PS5 ¬ Review By Britt 🎧 @TrustGaming #GXTrust

Trust have released a line of headsets licensed for PS5 in a range of colours (Nova Pink, Midnight Black, white, and Starlight Blue) that are available now!

We were sent the Nova Pink edition, which is a bright and vibrant colour that is definitely more a hot pink than baby pink. Well packaged and easy to set up, the Forta headset has a detachable mic arm and a universal 3.5mm cable that is soft, braided (thank the lord, much more practical than some stiff, plasticky cables I’ve encountered in the past), and also detachable - much preferred to hard-wired cables that can get yanked and require full unit replacements in such situations. I always find it comforting to know that cables can be replaced with my accessories, should the worst happen.

Gear Club Unlimited 3 Nintendo Switch 2 Review 6.5/10 "a fun, if slightly bland racing game"🛻🔥🔥 @Nacon @EdenGames #IndieGame #GameDev

I’m not familiar with the Gear Club Unlimited series, but after playing a few duff Switch racers recently (I look at YOU Fast & Furious) I had a hankering for a solid arcade racer, and so Eden Games’ Gear Club Unlimited 3 very much appealed, and whilst the fundamentals and moment-to-moment driving are fun with a few positive quirks, the package as a whole feels like a missed opportunity, although huge kudos up front for not trying make this a ‘hip’ game with needless bad language and cringe-inducing dialogue, ensuring that this can be enjoyed by racing fans of all ages.

Beginning with your character winning a race against his mentor and bagging a spot in the France-based racing series that make up the rest of the game, you choose your initial car from a small selection (although you can unlock 40 cars in the game) and begin your winning streak. I went with an Abarth as my wife drives a Fiat 500, so I was flying the family flag – which turned out to be a good choice for the highway sections of the game which I’ll go into later.

Let’s Journey Nintendo Switch 2 Review 5/10 "Not as idle as you’d think" 🎒 @PotionPlayer #IndieGame #GameDev

A couple of weeks ago I fancied something a little straightforward and was offered the opportunity to cover Let’s Journey. Originally released on PC in 2020, it has now found its way to the console market. 

Whilst it has its moments, due to it not being a true idle experience – requiring player interaction to proceed – it ties you to the game, and unfortunately, whilst there is a lot of content here, the lack of variety creeps in pretty quickly, and it starts to feel more of a time sink than a fun time to be had.

Carmageddon Rogue Shift PS5 Review 7.5/10 *Almost thirty years on, the Eagle revs again!* 🛻☠️ @playcarmageddon #IndieGame #GameDev

I’m very familiar with the Carmageddon franchise, the original was something incredibly unique in both its gameplay and style back upon its initial release in 1997, and the follow ups (Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now (1998), Carmageddon TDR (2000), and Carmageddon: Reincarnation (2015) tried to modernise the experience visually whilst retaining the same mechanics as the original, which didn’t set the gaming world alight, although those early games still had their fans. 

This newest entry - developed by 34Big Things, the minds behind the Redout series – takes things in a different direction, and whilst I can imagine it will annoy purists, whilst there are still issues, this feels like the right approach for the series at the moment, making it a more focused, linear experience as opposed to the sprawling, slightly clunky vibes of the more recent entries.

Set in 2050, the world is... well, it’s completely buggered, quite frankly. Set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland – natch – your character enters the ‘Carmageddon’ in a bid to win their freedom. The narrative is handled by graphic novel-esque cutscenes and adds to the larger-than-life feel of the whole setup and are brisk in their approach to allow players to get a quick understanding of the basic premise before getting into the meat of the game proper, the violent racing.

Taxi Chaos 2 Xbox Series X Review 7.5/10 *A sequel that steps up to the plate* 🚖🚕 @currentgamers #IndieGame #GameDev

I covered the original Taxi Chaos back in 2021, and whilst the fundamental mechanics and visuals were top-notch; the grating music, irritating voice acting, and repetition of the gameplay loop in such a flat, bland world was pretty wearing, and I awarded it 5/10 at the time. Whilst this sequel doesn’t solve all of those issues, in terms of enjoyment and polish, it’s a far better game, and a worthy sequel to the niche genre of arcade-led taxi driving action.

Beginning with much more of a story than the original – not that a story is particularly what you expect from this genre – you are Vinnie, an old school taxi driver plying his trade in a bit of a junkheap through a futuristic city wherein AI-driven ‘Taxibots’ are taking over from the classic cabbies. 

Determined to prove that humans can do a better job, Vinnie takes it upon himself to pick up the customers scattered throughout the city and surrounding areas, leaping over obstacles, swerving around hazards, taking myriad shortcuts, destroying – or avoiding! – said Taxibots and ensuring his passengers get safely to their destination.

Gulikit – TT MAX Controller Review By Britt 🎮 @GuliKitDesign

A few short months ago, we covered the Gulikit Elves 2 Pro Controller, an awesome controller with a retro Sega Saturn vibe tied to modern requirements and sensibilities. Today, I’m taking a look at the TT MAX Controller, which Gulikit state is the world’s fastest wireless controller – quite the claim!

As with the previous Gulikit controllers that I’ve covered, the packaging and delivery were faultless, with the box containing:

• 1 x GuliKit TT Max Controller (with pre-installed TMR Joysticks and 4-way/8-way D-pad)
• 1 x Form-fit Plastic Carrying Case
• 1 x HyperLink 2 Wireless Adapter (2.4G dongle)
• 1 x Extra D-pad Set (Interchangeable, often called "Saturn style" or different shape)
• 1 x Extra Stick Cap Kit (Different height options, exclusive to the Max model)
• 1 x Back Button Set (4 metal back buttons)
• 1 x Xbox-style Button Cap Kit (For ABXY layout swapping)
• 1 x Tension Adjustment Tool
• 1 x Charging Cable (USB-C)

The Jackbox Party Pack 11 Available on Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch 🎉

The pack is back! The Jackbox Party Pack 11 transports your game night with 5 new mind-bending party games. Battle monsters with team-based trivia, sleuth through social clues, destroy wholesome jokes, create the kookiest of cookies, and noise-make your way through endless timelines of fun! The Jackbox Party Pack 11 will retail for $29.99.

The Jackbox Party Pack 11 catapults you and your crew into the best timeline of party game pandemonium. Whether you’re a trivia titan, a joke mastermind, or the resident undercover detective of your friend group, there’s something for everyone in this pack. No extra controllers needed - players simply join the game and play using phones, tablets or computers!

Wreckreation XBox Series X Review 5.5/10 *Burned Out?* 🛻💥 @ArcadeDriving #IndieGame #GameDev

It’s hard to write this review as Wreckreation is clearly a labour of love from some core developers behind the much-loved Burnout franchise, and you can feel where the game could be at. 

Admittedly my personal preferences lay back when Burnout was a more linear experience – I was never taken with the open-world Burnout Paradise - but there are moments in Wreckreation in which great ideas and choices shine through, yet they always seem to either be shot down by heavier duty issues, or design choices that appear to be opposing forces during development.