Total Extreme Wrestling 9 PC Review 9/10 “A Wrestledream” 🤼 @TransvaalGF @ArlesGreyDog #IndieGame #GameDev #TEW9

I've always been a huge fan of GM (General Manager) mode, a mode that for some unknown reason comes and goes from WWE games. Luckily, it is currently back in the last few games and I have spent many hours living out my dream of being a wrestling booker. The main criticism these games have is the lack of features, things that have been taken out, or should be have been in from the start. TEW9 doesn't have this problem, it was my first time playing this series and wow! Was my mind blown.

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter Remastered | Xbox Series X Review 6/10 “A blaster from the past” 🌠 @transvaalgf @AspyrMedia

Recently I reviewed Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection, a remaster of two beloved games from the past, games I spent hours and hours playing and share a whole lot of love for. Star Wars: Bounty Hunter on the other hand, I have heard about but never played.

Going in without any nostalgia was going to be interesting as I felt the Battlefront remasters were held up entirely by nostalgia, and so having had no previous experience with it, would Bounty Hunter hold up in 2024 or should it have been left in 2002?

Horror Tales: The Beggar | Xbox Review 8/10 “It’s Morvin Time” 👽 @CarlosGameDev #IndieGame #GameDev #IndieGameDev

Horror tales: The Beggar begins with introducing the titular Beggar a human(ish) creature who has been locked away. Now freed by a helpful robot he claims he will guide you out and help you on your way.

You notice very quickly the world is broken and has been for a very long time, you will find little sign of life, unluckily for the Beggar there is one being that follows him Morvin a product of his own imagination who isn't particularly friendly and will happily attack you on sight, luckily you have powers which are introduced as the game goes on, so you aren't completely helpless when old Morvin turns up, you have the power of telekinesis so not only can you move objects that are in your way, you can also hurl objects at your stalker, which after you have hurled enough objects at him you will get some respite and can continue traversing the fractured world.

Rewind or Die PS5 Review 8/10 “The Good Stuff” 📼 @PuppetCombo @torturestar #IndieGame #GameDev #IndieGameDev #HorrorCommunity

Puppet Combo games have been my jam, I think I have reviewed one of their games every month for the last several months (I have another in the pipeline already, for next month). 

I’ve enjoyed every game, and the last few releases have been some of their most diverse - with Lakeview Cabin Collection being a side scroller and The Glass Staircase being a PS2 zombie horror inspired by classic Italian films. 

Rewind or Die gets back to what I imagine when I think of Puppet Combo - A grubby, dirty slasher-inspired romp with PS1 style graphics mixed with VHS. It’s not only what I think of… it’s what I love.

Lakeview Cabin Collection PS5 Review 8.5/10 “A Love Letter To Classic Horror” 🔪🏚️ #indieGame #IndieGameDev #GameDev

Friday the 13th, Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, all giant staples of the slasher genre. Large, masked angry men on a mission to gut mostly teenagers - but they are happy to brutalise pretty much anyone. 

Whilst watching one of these films we've all thought, ‘what a stupid man, don’t drop your weapon, and then go into the basement blindfolded after just having sex while telling everyone “I’ll be right back’, that's a great way to get killed! 

I would definitely know what to do if a hulking, masked, machete-wielding maniac appeared suddenly in my house, I’m super smart and would not panic, or give into my fear, I would 100 percent survive, and would wipe the floor with those stupid hulking maniacs.

Project 13 PS5 Review 7/10 “Has that plant always been there?” 🪴 @DRYBREAD_games #IndieGame #IndieGameDev #GameDev

I’ve never had an easier time describing a game as I have with Project 13 - you are in an asylum and by ‘an asylum’ I mean ‘one corridor within it’, which you walk down again, and again, and again and again…you get the drift. But, each time something may change and it’s your job to find out what. 

There are 35 anomalies which can range from the obvious to quite subtle, so you have to examine the corridor with a fine-tooth comb. If you spot an anomaly, you have to pull down a lever and start again, simple. 

Except, every time you get it correct a counter raises - get to 13? You've escaped, and are rewarded with freedom, get one wrong and the counter resets back to 0… and you start back over, that’s right, 13 anomalies in a row, or that comb is coming back out! 

The Glass Staircase PS5 Review 7.5/10 “Mind The Step” 🏚️ @PuppetCombo #IndieGame #GameDev

Puppet Combo was a revelation for me in 2023, I loved everything that they put out and had such joy playing them. Stay Out of the House was one of my games of the year, Christmas Massacre was an absolute delight and  it remains one of my favourite games, the talking Christmas tree brings a smile to my face every time I think about it, which - come December - will probably be a lot, but The Glass Staircase doesn't quite hit the highs of these games, it is still worth playing but I didn’t get the warm, dark-bloodstained, fuzzy feeling that the Puppet Combo releases usually produce.

Death and Taxes PS5 Review 8/10 “Only two things in life are certain” 💀📝 @PlaceholderGW #IndieGame #GameDev

Have you ever been envious of the Grim Reapers job? walking around with a big scythe, getting to meet a lot of interesting - before taking their souls? sounds like a great job! Sadly, just like most jobs in the modern age it’s now a desk job with lots of bureaucracy - and no big scythes.

Star Wars: Battlefront Collection | Xbox Series X Review | 4/10 “Turned To The Dark Side” 💩 #StarWars

There are two things I have a deep hatred for that are part of a lot of childhoods, and they are E.T, and Wookiees. Now, I won’t go into why I hate Mr Extra Terrestrial, but Wookiees are related directly with Battlefront 2, as a kid I loved these games, my friend and I played them for hours and hours - they are highlights of my childhood, but one memory sticks out and that's the time - whilst fighting a particularly tough battle - it came down to 10 vs 8, our team finally had the lead after replaying this missions several times, and victory was finally in sight! I had a fool-proof plan to win… get in a ship and take the enemy down from the skies. As I made my run to the ship, a Wookiee ran from the other side, entered the ship, and then flew it straight into the landing bay door destroying not just himself and the ship but also my hopes and dreams. As I stood in the landing bay filled with hate and disappointment, the enemy overturned the deficit and won. That moment changed me, I became a different person… I was now... a Wookiee hater.

Loretta Xbox Series X Review 8/10 “Spiralling Down” ☠️🍶 @yabutuzoff #IndieGame #GameDev

Set in 1947, you control Loretta - a housewife who has murdered her husband, having finally had enough of his drinking, gambling, cheating ways - and decided to take matters into her own hands.

The game opens with a detective investigating his disappearance, he has come to question Loretta and have a look around the farm and it is here where we gain control of the titular character.

Early on you are presented with the choices that will shape her fate, I made the decision to try and poison the detective and… well… let’s just say it ‘didn’t go well’.

Throughout your time with this game you will get the chance to make important decisions such as should you higher your kill count or resist your murderous temptations and see if you can break free, and escape your current predicament.

Persona 3 Reload PS5 Review 9.5/10 “A Kind of Magic” 🏫🎒 @Atlus_West #Persona3

Persona 3 was my first experience with the Persona franchise, I remember picking it up on release day, I had no idea what to expect but it was a JRPG - so it didn’t matter, for I consumed anything in that genre. What followed after playing it was a deep love, I thought it was awesome, stylish, cool, and featured a story that to me - at sixteen - felt very adult, tackling some deep issues through the lens of youth, and it resonated with me.

Then, eleven years later Persona 5 was released and it became one of my favourite gaming experiences ever, it is a top 3 game for me and I will gush about it any time I can. So, when this remake was announced I was beyond excited, it was going to be Persona 3 with the Persona 5 coat of paint - how could it not be awesome?

Cannibal Abduction Xbox Series X 7/10 “Leatherface Upstairs, Having a Quick 40 Winks” 🏠 @selewidev @transvaalgf #IndieGame #GameDev

In Cannibal Abduction, you play as Henry - a man who has borrowed his father’s car and is looking to spend time away from his parents; let his hair down, drive the open roads etc. and all was looking good until the engine blows and he is stuck in the middle of absolutely nowhere. 

His luck picks up when a very friendly man offers to take him back to his house and fix the car. Henry agrees, and off to the house they go. Whilst the man fixes the car, he notices tools in Henry’s car and asks about them, he learns that Henry has carpentry experience and asks if he could do him a favour and fix his wife's wardrobe upstairs. It’s a fair deal - he fixes the car, Henry fixes the wardrobe.

Now, on the one hand it was nice of Henry to help, but personally I have a rule in life - if a house looks like Leatherface may be upstairs having a quick 40 winks, I refuse to enter and run as fast as I can in any direction to get as far away as I possibly can. 

I understand that Henry would have to explain to his dad what had happened to the car, but I think that any truly loving father can understand that dodging a possibly cannibalistic family is more important than his nice car. Sadly for Henry, he doesn't live by my rules and well, spoiler alert! He gets chased by a cabbalistic madman.

Alisa: Developer’s Cut PS5 Review 8.5/10 “Made in Heaven” 🏚️ @TransVaalGF @CasperCroes #IndieGame #GameDev

When I watched the trailer for Alisa: Developer's Cut, I thought, “ah, this game definitely has an early Resident Evil vibe”, then as the trailer was coming to an end there is a shot-for-shot remake of the first time you see a zombie in the original Resident Evil, so that absolutely confirmed my thoughts.

Now, over the last few years I’ve played so many ‘We wish we were still in the late ‘90s, playing Resident Evil, when tank controls and fixed camera angles were all the rage and will never ever be replaced’ that it really at this point should be a category on Steam, so many games have tried to capture survival horrors past - with varying degrees of success - and I found that the more of them I played, the more the nostalgia wore off.

Nostalgia can only take you so far and underneath these games you needed to capture the past but also bring your own flavour, as well. With these thoughts in mind, I was understandably elated when that was exactly what Alisa did. Yes, it very much wears its Resident Evil one influence on its heart, but it adds enough interesting twists to feel fresh.

WWE2K24 PS5 Review 8/10 “Time to play the Game” 🤼‍♂️

Yearly wrestling games - and yearly games in general - have always had a ‘one step forward, two steps back’ problem. In years’ past, match types and modes would be added in just to be removed in the next instalment, so this year’s edition has rolled around, and I was very eager to see if we were still heading forward… or if we were about to take an unfortunate step back.

Well, it may not be a huge stride forward but I’m pleased to say the WWE2K series is moving forward. Now, if you looked at the gameplay it will feel very similar to last years’ game aside from a couple of small tweaks such as super finishers and the ever-popular ability to throw weapons being added, but largely it remains the same and as DDP would say, “it's not a bad thing, it's a good thing”. The base gameplay is good, the lighting and character models are great, some gimmicks are outdated - but that's going to happen with how much wrestlers change in a year. The matches and combat have been a highlight since 2K22, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. 

Persona 5 Tactica Nintendo Switch Review 8.5/10 “Let me in your heart again” 👦👧 @Atlus_West #Persona5 @TransvaalGF

I have a very strong attachment to Persona 5, it was released at a time that I would comfortably describe as one of the worst periods of my life. Everything had fallen apart, and for a while, everything seemed a bit hopeless.

Luckily, I have been a huge fan of Persona and the Megami Tensei series as a whole since the PlayStation 2 era, so, just as everything seemed bleak - enter Persona 5, a game I had pre-ordered the special edition for, and it made me feel good. I spent 128 hours playing it with nothing but joy in my heart, it was the thing I needed - it wasn't just a distraction, it really felt like an old friend, and the story and the cast of characters really resonated with me, so every time this universe gets expanded, I’m always hopeful that special feeling will still be there.

The Kindeman Remedy PC 6/10 “Shock and awe, or shock and bore?” 💉 @_Troglobytes_ #IndieGame #GameDev

“The most blasphemous, diabolical and insane management game ever created!” – a quote taken directly from the trailer of The Kindeman Remedy, and the main reason I wanted to play this game, now granted I’m not sure how blasphemous or diabolical other management games are, so I was just going to have to take their word for it. That said, it’s an interesting hook, and I was dying to see just how insane this game was.

Transvaal’s 2023 Games Of The Year List 📅🏅 #GOTY #goty2023

The legend of Games Freezer that is Transvaal gets to grips with a list of 5 wonderful video games that crossed his path in 2023. 

Our man loves himself some JRPG shenanigans topped off with some mainstream and indie horror scares...

Fate/Samurai Remnant PS5 Review 8/10 “There can be only one” ⚔️ @FateSR_Official @TransvaalGF #IndieGame #GameDev

Fate/Samurai Remnant  is set in Japan during the Edo period (1600s), you play as protagonist Miyamoto Iori, a young Ronin who spends his time helping his town doing odd jobs in any way he can, but suddenly his life gets turned upside down. No, he doesn’t get in trouble and have to move to Bel Air, he is instead chosen to take part in the ‘Waxing Moon Ritual’, whereby seven fighters compete to the death, with the winning fighter getting to have a wish granted.

Christmas Massacre PS5 Review 8/10 “Bad Santa” 🎅 🔪 @PuppetCombo #GameDev #IndieGame @transvaalgf

Puppet Combo has been a revelation this year, Stay Out of the House and Night at the Gates of Hell have been real highlights of 2023, which is saying something when taking into account how great 2023 has been for gaming.

Seeing that Christmas Massacre had been ported to the PS5 was a nice, early Christmas present, one filled with screams, horror and a very eager, bloodthirsty Christmas tree.

Anthology of Fear Xbox Series X Review 4/10 “Five Minutes on YouTube” 🏥 @AnthologyofFear #IndieGame #GameDev

Walking down corridors and having something shout “boo!” is great, but they do wear thin after a while, and as much as I love horror, I definitely need a break from the horror walking simulator genre. Well, after playing Layers of the Fear a couple of months ago, I booted up Anthology of Fear put on my walking shoes and headed down the creepy corridors.