👍🚗💨 Hitchhiker | Review | XBOX SERIES X | 6.5/10 | "A Slightly Surreal Trip With Some Bumps in The Road" @MadAboutPandas 👍🚗💨 @Hitchhiker_Game #IndieGames #GameDev

Hitchhiker is a great premise; you are a mysterious passenger trying to piece together your past through surreal journeys with a mix of drivers. The enclosed space meaning that puzzles must be inventive to be interesting and the idea of working out your history and motives from rolling conversations that come from possibly unreliable narrators is a solid start.

Unfortunately, Hitchhiker unravels slightly around the halfway mark, meaning that the last ninety minutes or so don’t stand up to the initial intrigue that propels the game forwards.

🔫 Narrative FPS Puzzler Claire De Lune Has 3 New Gameplay Trailers 🔫 @TacticStudios #IndieGames #GameDev

Announced in 2015, narrative FPS puzzler Claire de Lune has received not one, but three new Gameplay trailers!

With gameplay totalling more than 20 minutes, players get a glimpse at what Claire de Lune has to offer on its very own proprietary engine.

🏘️ Before We Leave | PC | Ten Minute Taster | "Those Pesky Elevators!" 🏘️ @BalancingMonkey #GameDev #IndieGames

 

Before We Leave is a non-violent city building game set in a cosy corner of the universe. Nurture your Peeps and their surroundings while rebuilding and rediscovering civilisation. Settle new lands and planets while avoiding hungry Space Whales.

💥 XIII Remastered | Review | PS5 | 3/10 | "A Very Unlucky Number" 💥

XIII was a game I had never played but it has always been on my radar. It’s a game I that I could see a screenshot of and instantly identify but never dipped my toes in, so when I saw it recently on sale, I thought - after 18 years, let’s finally give it a try and I picked up the remastered version.

Well, I was hoping for an action-packed, highly stylistic thrill ride… That is not what I got. This remastered version just feels soulless. It has a real emptiness and everything about it feels hollow. 

🏔️ Insurmountable | PC | Gameplay | Ten minute Taster | "Beware The Herb Goats!" 🏔️ @Insurmountgame #GameDev #IndieGames

Insurmountable sees you confront various terrains as a lonely mountaineer and endure the countless dangers of climbing!

Many tough decisions await you in a risky environment.

Make your way up and down the mountain, overcoming insurmountable heights!

🤖 Orbital Bullet | PC | Gameplay | Ten minute Taster | "Run Circles Round Those Robots!" 🤖 @SmokeStab #GameDev #IndieGames

 

Orbital Bullet is a fast-paced 360° action-platformer with rogue-lite elements, where all actions take place in a circular pattern.

Fight your way through a variety of procedural planets and use body modifications, crafting and heavy weaponry. Kill. Die. Modify.

🎲 Ashwalkers: A Survival Journey | PC | Ten Minute Taster | "A Mysterious Point & Click Adventure" 🎲 @DearVillagers #IndieGames #GameDev

Ashwalkers is a survival journey through a harsh world without rules or judgement. 

Only your choices matter in the face of moral dilemmas. 

Manage your party, food & equipment in this non-linear narrative survival sim with 34 possible endings.

🤖 Terminator: Resistance Enhanced | PS5 | Review | 7/10 | "Saviour of humanity or just another game to be terminated?" 🤖 @Reef_Games #GameDev #IndieGames

I really love the Terminator franchise and by that I mean I really love the first two films, the rest of the franchise consists of a lot of lows but those first two films are such highs. This game sums up the franchise well, as it has great highs and low lows.

⚔️ Interplay Rereleases Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance On Consoles - "Play the original classic on your favourite current-gen systems" ⚔️

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🐺 Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood | PC | Review | 7/10 | "All This Began To Add Up Into A Good Time"🐺 @DevespressoG @PixelHunted #IndieGames #GameDev

When I get to hell they’re going to be playing electro-swing. If you haven’t had the pleasure, this is a music genre that dropped right out of the devil’s arsehole: an unholy jazz-era pastiche of big beats and brass primarily enjoyed by twats with overly groomed moustaches, waistcoats and top hats. I would rather have needles jammed into my spine.

Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood opens with electro-swing. Its heroine is the lead singer in a band called *sigh* Foxtrot Bop (they all have terrible names like this) and we meet them on their way to their make or break gig. This is, to say the least, not a promising beginning. My tolerance levels for this garbage are measured in seconds rather than hours and I strongly considered tapping out right then and there.

Then a tornado whisks Scarlet Hood off to an Oz-like fantasy land and, save for a few unpleasant tootly moments on the repetitive soundtrack, the awful electro-swing band plot is abandoned. 

📘 Bitmap Books – Game Boy: The Box Art Collection | Book Review By Britt | "an extremely tasty tome" 📘 @bitmap_books #RetroGaming #GameBoy

I’ve heard nothing but good things about Bitmap Books’ prior releases and so was keen to get hips deep in this, their most recent project. The book definitely lived up to the weighty expectations and really feels of a high quality throughout its almost 400-page heft.

🐗 Cryofall | 29.04.21 | 1.0 Release| PC | Ten Minute Taster | "Beware The MIGHTY Boar!" 🐗 @AtomicTorch #GameDev #IndieGames

 

From the Stone Age to the Future: Build your Sci-Fi-Colony with hundreds of players in CryoFall.

🪔 The Official Release Date for Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World is May 28th 2021 🪔 #IndieGames #GameDev

The official release for Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World for the Western retail release for both physical and digital Nintendo Switch and PS4 versions will be on May 28th 2021 for North America, Europe and Australia!

The retail editions for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 will be available for €39.99 / $39.99 / £34.99 and include the original Monster World IV exclusively.

🖌️ Tools Up | Nintendo Switch | Ten Minute Taster | "Don't Cry Over Spilt Paint" 🖌️ @AllinGamesPub #IndieGames #GameDev

In Tools Up home renovation has never been so much fun! It is hard, messy work. But you don’t have to work alone in this crazy couch co-op! Join up to three friends, sit down (or not) and start a wild renovation party!

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Tools-Up--1689878.html#Overview

🔎 The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark | Nintendo Switch | Review | 8/10 | "More Top-Notch, Spooky, Point n Click Shenanigans" 🔎 @spookydoorway #GameDev #IndieGames

I reviewed the original Darkside Detective back in 2017 (https://www.gamesfreezer.co.uk/2017/10/review-darkside-detective-welcome-to.html) and found it a really fun and funny experience. 

This sequel continues in very much the same vein, if you were a fan of the original, this is a smooth and high-quality continuation but the way in which the story begins and progresses, you’d need to be aware of the events of the first game to really understand what’s going on and get full enjoyment out of the experience.

🚀 Doc Cosmos : The Saga Begins | Ten Minute Taster | "The Doc Rocks!" 🚀 @BitmapSoft #IndieGames #GameDev #GameBoy

 

Doc Cosmos for your #gameboy Colour is available to preorder now!

https://doccosmos.com

🥋 Samurai Shodown | 7.5/10 | Xbox Series X | "A Solid, if Familiar Bout" 🥋 #BrittsBriefBulletinPart3

Originally released in 2019 on PS4 and Xbox One, the newest incarnation of the long-running Samurai Shodown series (known as Samurai Spirits in Japan) continues the 2D one-on-one weapon-based fighting style that it’s known for.

All the usual and expected modes are here - story, versus, arcade and the like as well as sixteen characters to initially choose from with others featured as paid DLC.
Whilst the game plays well and loading times are swift, it doesn’t offer anything new and feels like a bit of a stepping stone in the series as opposed to a milestone. One that will please its fan base without winning many newcomers over, I’d imagine.

Samurai Shodown is a solid fighter with satisfying combat, responsive controls and rewarding wins but it feels too familiar to really stand out, Haohmaru’s journey for perfection continues.

❄ Protocol | Review | Xbox Series X | 6.5/10 | "A Test of Patience That I Failed" ❄ #BrittsBriefBulletinPart2

Protocol on XBOX Series X is a first-person comedic adventure that casts you in the role of a recently divorced special operative that has been assigned by no one less than the President to complete a gauntlet known as ‘The Protocol’ in the Arctic Circle.

🔥 Sturmfront: The Mutant War | Review | Nintendo Switch | 7/10 | "Metal, Mutants and Many Bullets" 🔥 #BrittsBriefBulletinPart1

If you are a fan of metal music and twin-stick shooters then look no further as Sturmfront: The Mutant War has you covered!

🗻 Mundaun | Xbox Series X | 9.5/10 | "Black and White, Yet Solid Gold" 🗻 @MundaunGame #IndieGames #GameDev

I make no excuses for how much I enjoyed this game. 

An eerily beautiful, slow-burning folkloric horror set in the Swiss Alps, the town of the title is brought to stark life through monochromatic pencilwork, presenting a well-told tale that doesn’t let the gameplay slide, a rarity in this genre that will remain with me for a long time. 

It’s a good game, it is.