This latest roundup of recent DLC drops brings together the subterranean charm of Lil Gator Game: In the Dark on PlayStation 5 and the franchise-heavy spectacle of Zen Studios’ Bethesda Pinball pack for Pinball FX across PS5 and VR. One doubles down on warmth and accessibility, refining an already endearing adventure with new traversal twists, while the other leans into layered systems and fan service to reframe iconic game worlds through steel balls and flippers. Together, they offer a snapshot of DLC at two very different ends of the spectrum: comfortingly iterative on the one hand, and mechanically ambitious – sometimes to a fault – on the other. Continue reading “DLC roundup: Lil Gator Game, Pinball FX & Pinball FX VR”
Category: New
Crisol: Theater of Idols review (PS5)
From the moment Crisol: Theater of Idols opens its creaking gates on PlayStation 5, it announces itself as something different from the usual survival horror fare – a hybrid of methodical exploration and first-person action that wears its inspirations proudly but adds its own, sometimes blunt, identity. Developed by Vermila Studios and published by Blumhouse Games, this Spanish-rooted journey into the cursed isle of Tormentosa doesn’t just borrow from classics; it fuses familiar mechanics with a uniquely baroque aesthetic that makes it impossible to ignore. Continue reading “Crisol: Theater of Idols review (PS5)”
Developer interview: No Stone Unturned
Gareth Owens – a onetime film-and-TV writer who cut his teeth with studios from Aardman to Pinewood before founding Wise Monkey Entertainment – has spent the last few years turning a lifelong love of British whodunits and absurdist comedy into something delightfully strange: No Stone Unturned, a comedy‑noir detective RPG game that casts an amnesiac squirrel, Detective Cox, as its hard‑boiled protagonist and stitches together murder mysteries, bespoke mini‑games, and theatrical puppetry‑inflected performance into a single, mischievous package. The game wears its influences proudly – Columbo and Jonathan Creek meet surreal animal farce – but it’s also unmistakably Owens’: part escape‑room puzzle design, part cinematic storytelling, and all pointed, playful weirdness aimed at making players laugh while they peel back a much larger mystery beneath the village’s quaint surface. Continue reading “Developer interview: No Stone Unturned”
High of Life 2 review (PS5)
From the moment High on Life 2 kicks off, Squanch Games’ sequel makes it abundantly clear that it wants to be bigger, weirder, and more audacious than its predecessor, doubling down on the franchise’s trademark absurdity while trying to knit its off-kilter humor into a more varied game structure. The narrative premise – returning you to the role of a celebrity bounty hunter dragged back into intergalactic chaos to save someone close to you – sets the stage for a road trip through some of the most bizarre backdrops in recent shooter memory. Story beats are punctuated by parodies of nerd culture and unexpected twists that keep the tone unpredictable, and while the script isn’t uniformly sharp – leaning at times on broader jokes rather than clever wit – it does an admirable job expanding the universe without merely rehashing its foundations. Continue reading “High of Life 2 review (PS5)”
MindsEye review (PS5)
MindsEye’s a great example of believing in something and going for a second chance. When it landed back in June, it became shorthand for how not to launch a AAA action-adventure. Ambition hung heavy over its dusty near-future desert city of Redrock – a place where rogue AI, corporate greed, and fractured memories promised a techno-thriller on par with the big cinematic adventures of the genre – but the reality that greeted players was far more prosaic and, frankly, broken. Build A Rocket Boy, a studio helmed by industry veterans, looked as if it had delivered a triple-A spectacle on paper, yet what slipped out the door was a product beset by stuttering performance, glitchy AI, and missions that felt lifted from a decade-old template. Critical and player sentiment was deeply negative in the weeks after release…
Press Play Media 