🚀 The Persistence : Enhanced | Review | PS5 | 5/10 | "Sucked into a Black Hole" 🚀 @FirespriteGames #IndieGames #GameDev

I found this review hard to write. Jumping into this game with no knowledge; I looked at the cover art - which appeared to represent a horror game  - and leapt at the chance to review it, but within thirty minutes of playing it, I realized it does something that I am really not keen on and I especially don’t enjoy it when horror games, in particular, do it.

Truthfully, If I was playing this game without intending to review it, I would have stopped after forty-five minutes and put it down as ‘just not my cup of tea’. Though I do enjoy occasionally trying out games that I would tend to avoid -  to see whether the game can win me over and possibly change my view - this game sadly didn’t and in fact, further cemented my thoughts.

🌴🗡️ Green Hell | PS4 | Review | 8/10 | "Desperate Enough To Eat a Rotting Snail" 🗡️🌴 @GreenHellGame #IndieGames #GameDev

Green Hell is a survival game set in a jungle at the edge of the Amazon river. You play as Jake Higgins, an anthropologist who is researching the area with his wife, Mia. Mia goes to a nearby tribal village to learn and understand the ways of the indigenous people living there and ends up going missing. You hurtle to the rescue only to be outmatched and easily overpowered, ending up retreating and lost in the forest with very little to help you survive. 

📖 From Gamers Magazine | Issue 1 | Review 📖 @FromGamersMag

As a gamer of a certain age, print magazines formed an important part of growing up for me. From Zzap! 64 and Crash to Nintendo Power and Mean Machines Sega, there weren't many months that I didn't buy (or get my mum to buy) a new mag to read about the vast universe of games I couldn't afford.

So the new trend of print magazines launching via Kickstarter is a welcome one.  I've backed a few myself and it's always great to get an A4 envelope full of gold through the door. From Gamers Magazine  hit its fundraising target in March and is now being delivered to backers. 

🤖 MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries | Xbox Series X | Review | 7.5/10 | "Lock & Load" 🤖 @PiranhaGames #IndieGames #GameDev

My history with mech games seemingly peaked in 1996 with Earthsiege 2. Prior to that, the only ‘big robot’ games I’d played were things like Cyborg Justice and Mazin Saga, I didn’t realise that there was an element of the genre that embraced the slower, weightier and more strategic element of piloting a skyscraper-sized behemoth.

Upon playing Earthsiege 2, I vividly remember thinking that it was the absolute zenith of ‘lifelike’ tactical combat and, even though it was a genre that was not on my radar at all, I was completely hooked and played through the entire campaign multiple times, something I rarely do (even now!).

I also remember playing the original MechWarrior on the SNES and finding it a pale imitation of the shining diamond that was Earthsiege 2, it seemed more arcadey, slick and, to be honest…I was never a fan of Mode 7.

Admittedly, in the quarter of a century since, I’ve rarely returned to the genre and when I have, nothing has captured my imagination in the way that Earthsiege 2 did *wipes away a single tear*.

💾 Lowtek Games | Interview With Alastair Low 💾 @Wallmasterr #IndieGames #GameDev

I first became aware of Lowtek when I covered the Dreamcast version of Flea! Last year for The Mighty Games Freezer. I really enjoyed developer Ally Low’s genial personality and approach to not only the promotion of his game but also the updates of the upcoming title Tapeworm and so wanted to know more about Lowtek and its history. Who better to ask than the brains behind the operation!

⚔️🛡️🌳 Tunic | Xbox | Demo Preview | "I’ve been a sucker for isometric adventures ever since playing Landstalker" ⚔️🛡️🌳 @dicey #IndieGames #GameDev

I’ve been a sucker for isometric adventures ever since playing Landstalker on the Mega Drive back in 1992 (and I’m still holding out for a proper sequel - I miss you, Nigel!) and more recently, Touryst was a generational highlight for me (with a far likelier sequel on the horizon).

☁️ Cloudpunk: City of Ghosts PC Review 9/10 ☁️ @Pixel Hunted @ionlands #IndieGames #GameDev

Cloudpunk has proved to be a marmite game. You play a delivery driver piloting a flying car in a vast dystopian metropolis. With heavy influences from Blade Runner and The Fifth Element, you swoop through a perpetually rainy metropolis, past gigantic neon billboards, and weave through oncoming traffic.

🔥 🏺 Phantom Abyss | PC | Ten Minute Taster | "Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Aaaaaargh!" 🏺🔥 @devolverdigital #GameDev #IndieGames

 

Phantom Abyss is a massive asynchronous multiplayer game that casts players into procedurally-generated temples and tasks them with retrieving the sacred relics hidden within deadly chambers.

🕹️ Capcom Arcade Stadium | Xbox Series X | Review | 8.5/10 | "A Rollicking Retro Ride That Rocks" 🕹️ @CapcomEurope #Capcom

Capcom has released a LOT of gold over the last forty years and this Capcom Arcade Stadium collection of 32 of them brings a wealth of gaming history to modern consoles with an eye to keeping things accessible to players of all skill levels as well as embracing that high-score chasing drive that filled arcades of the era.

⛵️ Man Eater | Nintendo Switch | Ten Minute Taster 🩸🦈@TripwireInt #IndieGames #GameDev

 

In Man Eater you Experience the ultimate power fantasy as the apex predator of the seas - a giant shark! 

Terrorize the coastal waterways. 

Tear swimmers and divers limb from limb, give the humans a reason to fear you!

🤖 VOLTA X | NINTENDO SWITCH | Gameplay | "V.A.T.S In Mechs With Animals" 🤖 @VoltaXGame #IndieGames #GameDev

Volta-X - Nintendo Switch Years ago, Earth was jeopardized by a Kaiju invasion. Faced with insurmountable odds, our best-known scientists and world leaders floundered and it seemed everything was lost. That is until the mysterious Dr V revealed his new technology - the Voltas.

Thanks to the Voltas and their pilots, our victory over the alien threat was swift and decisive. After overcoming the Kaiju, these formidable robots provided the foundation for the most popular sport in the world – Volta battling!

🏚️ Creaks | Review | Xbox Series X | 9/10 | "Characterful Presentation Perfectly Fused with Classic Puzzle Gameplay" 🏚️ @Amanita_Design #IndieGames #GameDev

Machinarium is such a wonderful, wonderful game. From the soundtrack to the oddly powerful, wordless tale that unravels for the player, it’s a game that won me over with all of the above combined with a gorgeous hand-drawn art style combined with a perfectly pitched, idiosyncratic soundtrack.

Over the last decade, I have transitioned from PC gaming to pretty much pure console gaming, and so almost a decade of the work of Amanita Design has completely passed me by due to their PC exclusive nature. It was only whilst half-drunk one night - and trying to buy the Machinarium soundtrack on vinyl - that I discovered that they had released a game called Creaks that was available on Xbox…and so our love affair resumed.

🥋 Within the Blade (WTB) | "Retro Focused Ninja Fighter Lining Up For Console Assault" 🥋 @RatalaikaGames #IndieGames #GameDev

Indie publisher, Ratalaika Games, along with developer Ametist Studio, is pleased to announce the digital release date of Within the Blade (WTB) coming on PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch on July 16th.

🦆🦢 Mighty Goose | Review | Nintendo Switch | 7/10 | "Side-scrolling shooters, man. I have a complicated relationship with the genre" 🦆🦢 @rilemtwit @BlastmodeGames #IndieGames #GameDev

Side-scrolling shooters, man. I have a complicated relationship with the genre ever since I first played Green Beret on my mate's Commodore 64 around 1988. I still have something approaching PTSD from Super Probotector on the SNES (incidentally, I have played it recently and I'm still awful at it 30 years later). I can still remember the cheat and the theme music from Midnight Resistance on the Amiga.

Mighty Goose was offered to me with a comparison to Metal Slug. Given that was mainly a Neo Geo franchise, I've got less experience with it outside of the arcades, meaning my memories are typically of big, bright sprites rather than the constant dying I probably did. And this game owes a debt to all of the games above (except maybe Probotector, as I actually completed this without crying).

🚀 Space Engineers | PC | Gameplay | "Hardspace Meets Satisfactory Meets No Man's Sky Meets Minecraft Meets Mass Effect!" 🚀 @SpaceEngineersG #IndieGames #GameDev

Space Engineers is a sandbox game about engineering, construction, exploration and survival in space and on planets. 

Players build space ships, space stations, planetary outposts of various sizes and uses, pilot ships and travel through space to explore planets and gather resources to survive.

🥋 Kung Fu Jesus | PC | Gameplay | "Kung Fu Krazy!" 🥋 @kungfujesusgame #GameDev #IndieGames

Join Kung Fu Jesus on a psychedelic, genre-busting beat 'em up set in a madcap world where organized crime, alternate dimensions, and hardcore martial arts converge. From the seedy underworld to the spiritual plane and beyond – nothing is as it seems in Kung Fu Jesus!

🕵️‍♂️ Lacuna | A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure | PC | Gameplay 🕵️‍♂️ @digitales_games #IndieGames #GameDev

Lacuna. A murder. A hack. A bombing. All it takes to plunge the solar system into war – unless you do something about it. Help CDI agent Neil Conrad make a string of increasingly difficult decisions in this modern dialogue-driven adventure set in a gorgeous 2D sci-fi noir universe.

🧛‍♀️🩸🗡️ Bloodrayne 1 & 2 : Terminal Cut | PC | Gameplay | "Cut Cut Jiggle Feed" 🧛‍♀️🩸🗡️ @playziggurat #IndieGames #GameDev

Bloodrayne 1 and 2 Terminal Cut is enhanced and updated for modern systems, this is the definitive edition of the action-horror game that unleashed the red-headed dhampir on the world.

🎙️ EPOS B20 Microphone | GF Recommended | "The Yeti Hunter" 🎙️ @eposaudiogaming

‘The EPOS B20 four-pattern USB streaming microphone is a high quality, digital plug-and-play microphone that will elevate your game. Volume, gain, mute, and pickup pattern dials are built into the microphone together with a headphone jack for real-time monitoring.

🎧👂 Gioteck TX70 Wireless Headset Review | GF Recommended | "A comfortable, robust and chunky-sounding headset at a competitive price" 🎧👂 @GioteckArmy #GamingHeadset

Having covered- and been impressed by – the Gioteck TX50 a few months back, I was looking forward to reviewing this new, wireless headset from Gioteck.

Featuring similar design points to the TX50, whilst this version is superior in some respects, you’ll really feel the benefits more as a PlayStation or PC user, although the TX70 does cater for all modern systems.