Before playing this game, I'd heard some good things about it, regarding its representation of mental illness and such. While I was interested in experiencing it myself, as I've always found the subject of psychosis intriguing, I never actually did, until I saw a coworker playing it (extremely slow day at work). Well, after I got home that day, since I already had the game in my library and I also knew it was short, I decided to give it a go.

Well, here I am, a week later, having finished the game, and I feel I can review it now. There might be some minor spoilers ahead, but I don't think they'll tell you that much. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice follows Senua, a Celtic warrior suffering from psychosis who embarks on a quest to retrieve the soul of her lover after a Viking invasion. She sets sail towards Helheim, the Norse realm of the dead, and there, she will face threats both physical and mental, hoping that the darkness within her doesn't consume her before she finishes her quest.

Building up on my comment about threats both physical and mental, I'll say that the gameplay consists of a mix of puzzles and combat. Something I'll say is cool about this game is that it lacks any sort of UI; there's no map (then again, it's a rather linear game), no health bars, nothing; the game doesn't even offer tutorials (and I even discovered some mechanics by accident), although you can check controls in the options menu. I'll say I enjoyed the puzzles in particular; while the combat was decent, I think it was far more interesting trying to search for the correct spot in which to see the runes. And in the later parts of the game, there's some really cool challenges, one of which even makes clever use of controller features in case you're playing with one.

The soundtrack is very good, and the sound design is excellent. Given Senua's nature, you'll spend most of the game hearing the voices in her head, some stronger that others. While it might feel annoying to some, I'll say that at times it felt chilling when those voices went silent; and I'd also add in this point that I liked how they incorporated the player in a sort of fourth-wall breaking way. When you start the game, one of the voices in Senua's head welcomes you as if you were yet another voice. An interesting way to integrate gameplay into the story. And oh, boy, what a story. I already gave a brief description above, and I really can't go into more details than that, as there'd be spoilers galore, but I loved it. Learning about Senua's backstory, and the lenghts she'd go to for her loved one... It was very good.

In terms of graphics, for a 2017 game it holds pretty decently. Then again, I think it got a graphics update in recent years which added features such as ray tracing and the like. The environments you'll explore are also very... Nice? I don't know if I'd use that word here, as there are some pretty creepy places, but they all sort of help enhance the story.

All things considered, I think this is a pretty good game, and one I can recommend. And I'll also say that it's nice that the game includes a short featurette that goes over development details. The team at Ninja Theory made a great effort at incorporating a subject such as psychosis into this game.

Rise of the Rajas was the final expansion for AoEII: HD before the Definitive Edition released, becoming the "main" version of Age of Empires II. This time, it brings the focus to South East Asia. While the "major" civs (Chinese, Korean and Japanese) were already present in the game since the original version (and the Conquerors expansion for the Korean civ), this expansion introduces the Burmese, Khmer, Malay and Vietnamese, which I think are some very interesting additions.

As with all the previous expansions, besides the new civs (and their units), it also has new campaigns, and I'd say probably the best campaigns of all the "new" expansions (always talking about HD specifically, not DE, which severely reworked many of the campaigns). Just like the other two, I can recommend this one as well.

This is the second expansion released for AoEII after its re-release, this time focused on a previously underrepresented region in the franchise, which should be obvious from the title: Africa.

Just like the previous expansion, it brings new civs, units and campaigns, and this time, it even includes voiceovers for the campaigns. Gameplay of those campaigns is also vastly improved from that of the previous expansion, and there doesn't seem to be as much of a focus on levels in which you're limited to a handful of units; this time, there's a bit more basebuilding (which is what I enjoy the most from these games).

This is easily recommended.

The first expansion released for Age of Empires II after its HD re-release, The Forgotten is basically a mod that got upgraded into official content. That's not to say it's bad, mind you. The new civs added with this DLC are all very interesting, and even back as a kid I'd have loved endless expansions for the game, with new civs, units and campaigns.

Still, while I'm recommending this DLC, I'll say that it's a bit disappointing that some of the campaign scenarios have become bugged since the release of the final update for this version of the game. Playing at certain speeds can cause issues, and some scenarios have AI players that act as if they were from a random skirmish map.

Another thing I'd add is that, while I can appreciate the amount of effort that went into designing the campaign maps (seriously, though, some of them are extremely intricate in a great way), I believe the actual gameplay of the campaigns isn't very fun, as half the time you'll be walking from one end of the map to the other, having to take care your units don't get destroyed by random enemy patrols.

Even then, I recommend the DLC. The new civs are all nice to have, and despite my issues with the campaigns, I still enjoyed going through them. More or less.

Age of Empires II is, without a doubt, one of the greatest RTS games out there. When I was a kid, it was probably the first strategy game I ever played, and the one game that gave me a big interest in medieval history, to the point that even my first online handle was inspired by it.

At this point, I presume everybody who's been PC gaming for a while is familiar with Age of Empires II, but in case you're not, I'll try to briefly talk about it here. As I said above, it's one of the great Real Time Strategy games, with a focus on the medieval period. This "retired" version was the first version to release on Steam, as Age of Empires II: HD Edition. It brought visual updates in terms of higher resolution options, as well as new updates until the release of the Definitive Edition. Personally, while I greatly enjoy the DE, I do have a special place in my heart for this version, as it's the closest to the original version of the game I played as a kid.

Gameplay, if you're familiar with the genre, is relatively simple, though hard to master. You usually start out with a Town Center, a few villagers, and from there you need to gather resources, build your base, raise an army, and fight your opponents, although you can also establish alliances. There are different paths to victory in skirmish scenarios, from conquest, to stuff like building (and defending) a Wonder, or capturing relics. Beyond that, there's several different gamemodes with their own set of rules, like Regicide, or Wonder Defense. Anyway, lots of options for playing against the CPU or other players.

For a player like me, though, the main "meat" of the game lies in the singleplayer campaign, and this game has plenty of them, even more so with the expansions. The base game includes the five original campaigns, as well as the ones from the Conquerors expansion; these campaigns, while not 100% historically accurate, provide a great starting point to start learning about medieval history and famous people from that time.

Something I'd forgotten to mention above is that the game offers plenty of civilizations, and not just limited to those from the Old World. With the Conquerors expansion for the original game (included in the base version here), it even had Mesoamerican civs, and further expansion for this version of the game added more African and South East Asian civs.

In terms of graphics, it looks pretty good; the enhancements for this version were great to bring it to modern systems, while staying extremely faithful to the original. While I appreciate the DE's more detailed models, I'll always prefer the look of this one over it. As for sound design, well, it's good; there's some good music, great narration for the base campaigns (in the DLCs, I'd say it's a 50/50), and each civ gets its own voicelines for units.

Personally, I'll always recommend this game, as I'm a big fan of Age of Empires II.

Having played this game since 2022, after the recent Reality Reboot update I feel it's finally time for me to quit. With that, I'm not saying the game is bad (I did, after all, get over 10,000 hours on it, most of it idle, though), nor that the new update itself is bad. However, it made me realize I wasn't truly enjoying the game anymore, rather just going through the motions, having reached the endgame before the update. With the prospect of having to "restart", and I put that in quotation marks because I didn't actually lose progress, I came to the conclusion that the game was no longer for me. At any rate, let's get to a proper review now.

Cell to Singularity is an idle game. If you're unfamiliar with the term, it's a genre of games in which you basically watch numbers grow, like Cookie Clicker, to mention one of the most famous examples. The main gameplay loop is that you start by clicking and earning resources that way, which you then use to buy generators, which generate resources on their own. As you unlock better generators and upgrades, you generate more and more resources, and the "objective" of the game is basically to unlock everything.

This game's "flavor", to give it a name, is that of evolution, as you start with Earth, early life, and work your way up through all of evolution, including the human species, and even further than that. On top of that, there's three extra modes: the Mesozoic Valley, which is all about the dinosaurs; Beyond, in which you deal with celestial bodies; and finally, Explore, which is a rotation of different themed events. At the end of the day, it's all just flavor text for the same basic gameplay loop, but I'll give this game props for being semi-educational, as each generator, upgrade and achievement includes a brief description with some interesting fact or trivia about it.

I don't think there's much more for me to say about this game, even given my extended playtime. Graphics are pretty simple, and it makes sense, since it's also a mobile game (there's microtransactions, too, but they aren't really needed to progress), but it looks good and stylized. The soundtrack is also nice, although given its idle nature, you'll eventually end up turning it off.

Do I recommend it? Maybe, if you want some background game to check between proper gaming sessions.

Ah, Terraria. This game definitely feels special.

I was gifted this game in 2013 by a friend of mine, a friend who expected me to have as many hours of enjoyment with it as he did back then. And while I haven't even come close to the amount of playtime he had even back then (if I recall correctly, he was at around 4000 hours already), I still had a lot of fun with this game.

I'm writing this review now, after over 10 years having the game, since I've finally, properly finished it. And yes, while at first Terraria might look just like a 2D sandbox game (I even thought it looked like 2D Minecraft when I first saw the game), it's much more than that. When starting the game, after creating your character and your world, you're thrown into it without much of an idea about what to do. There's a guide who'll give you helpful tips, the most important as you start being that you need shelter. And from there, it begins.

Gameplay starts simple: you'll have a few tools with which to chop wood, mine for resources, eventually getting a sword to fight monsters. You'll create a humble house, start crafting better equipment, and start exploring. As you go, you'll meet new NPCs who might join you in your base if you build them a proper home. However, you'll also attract the attention of certain powerful creatures. And that's where the main gameplay loop lies: the progression. You'll fight a boss, get access to new, more powerful items, fight another boss, and so on and so forth. Along the way, there might be invasions, events in which you have to defend your base and so on. As you explore, you'll find new enemies, and as you kill the bosses, more dangerous creatures will appear. Honestly, the game has loads of content.

Graphically speaking, well, it has a simple 2D style, but it's still a beautiful game. While the market might feel saturated these days with 2D pixel style games, this one was one of the pioneers, and its simplistic style keeps the main draw of the game front and center: the gameplay. Even then, there's a lot variety in terms of areas you'll explore, equipment and NPCs you'll find, both in terms of allies and enemies; if anything, I'd say the 2D style made the art team behind this game go out of their way to give loads of variety. The soundtrack is also excellent, with specific tracks for each event and biome you might encounter, including some for biome variations as well.

Honestly, I think it's a great game, and the previous two paragraphs, I think don't do it justice. While I don't want this review to go longer, in fear of reaching the character limit, I'll say this; at the moment I'm writing this review, I've had nearly 12 years with the game. I lost my first save when my laptop's HDD failed back in the day, but when I got a new one, I went back to the game, to start again from scratch. I didn't even touch Hardmode until last year, as I was too afraid of the harder enemies and bosses, but since I did it, I've been playing the game daily until the moment of writing this review. On October 17th, 2025, I beat the game for the first time. A bit of a spoiler, yes, the game has an ending, but one that I think is worth mentioning because of the following, which is a comment I made on a thread about finished games:

375 hours I have with my character. 375 hours of fear, sweat, anxiety. But also 375 hours of discovery, of wonder and amazement. I'd be lying if I said I didn't get emotional when I finally beat the final boss for the first time and the credits started rolling. It's been one hell of a journey.

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So, with that paragraph above, if it's not enough of a recommendation, what would be? You should definitely get this game, especially given how cheap it is. It has a dedicated dev team behind, who haven't stopped making updates since the game released. It's always one "final update", and personally, I hope this game keeps getting a final update for as long as I live. I love it that much.

This is the soundtrack for Polygoneer, a game I played and reviewed several years ago. It's a decent bunch of electro tracks with some decent lenght that are honestly very good, so I can easily recommend it. Interestingly enough, though, this soundtrack works like old soundtrack DLCs, in that it downloads straight into the game's installation folder, rather than showing up on Steam's soundtrack library; because of that, I assume you must own the base game in order to buy the soundtrack.

Apparently you need to play at least 5 minutes before you can actually review a game, which is interesting, considering that's almost double the amount of gameplay time this game has to offer. Now, I don't wanna sound too harsh, it is an interesting experience, but it's simply that. A couple lines of narrated text, basically talking about life and death, and that's it.

Pretty minimalistic graphics, too, as it consists of a black screen with a white light that grows bigger and bigger as the narration progresses. Is it a bad experience? I don't think so, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it. Times like these make me wish for a neutral option when recommend games.

Another free entry in the Cats and Seek series, and by this point, I definitely feel like there's nothing new I could say in the review regarding gameplay. You get a large picture, and you're tasked to find over 100 cats hidden there, plus a few extra secrets.

I've enjoyed all previous entries, and this one was no different. The options from all previous games are there: you can select a soundtrack, change the colour palette, your cursor, there's a photo mode which you can then paint yourself, and it now also has a mode to create drawings with stamps. One change it brought, however, is that speedrun mode no longer requires you to find all cats, only 50 (the remaining cats will be missing from the image).

I recommend it.