I have been playing video games for a heap of years now…(I’m getting so old). I can honestly say the most important change I have seen to this hobby I love, is the arrival of legit, top tier Indie Developers. They are brave, ingenious, and creative. They tread where big developers are too scared too, and offer such a massive array of experiences.
Exo One is the perfect example of this. Unique, beautiful, fun, and relaxing.
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Gamers looking for a sedate game that they can just tootle about should steer clear of Pepper Grinder: It is a game that definitely couldn’t be described as sedate…
Pepper Grinder is a non-stop, frenetic 2D platformer/puzzler/explorer where you control Pepper, a young girl who washes up on a sandy beach after a shipwreck, finding her grinder (powerful drilling device) is missing and so is her treasure!
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Gerard Campbell caught up with the team behind Black Salt Games.
A young development studio based in Christchurch, New Zealand, making waves with its debut game, Dredge.
Two years in the making, and coming from fledgling game development studio Black Salt Games, comprising the talents of Joel, Nadia, Mikey and Alex.
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Startup Company Console Edition brings a successful business sim to consoles after a strong outing on Steam. Danish devlopers Hovgaard Games have obviously laboured over this title with love.
Starting from the ground level with minimal investment, the aim is to manage your business empire “to the moon”. Interestingly the simulation is heavily geared towards the Social Media / Online Sales platforms we are familiar with.
On paper this game should be right up my alley, should be.
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Deliver Us Mars has come out of the blue for me. I had no idea of its existence and have to say the same about its prequel, Deliver Us The Moon.
But now after playing Deliver Us Mars, I have an interest in going back to investigate the prequel.
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In Wavetale, you play as Sigrid.
A young girl who lives on an island above a submerged city of Strandville that lies in an island archipelago.
Wavetale was first released on Google Stadia in 2021 but has now made its way to PC, and is predominately platforming with a smattering of combat.
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Somerville, the debut release from Jumpship. A new independent studio out of Surrey in the UK co-founded by Dino Patti of Playdead (Limbo and Inside) fame.
And this history is very evident within Somerville. Is it to the same calibre of Inside and Limbo? Not quite, but there is still enjoyment to be had here.
Although I have already mentioned Limbo and Inside as comparisons for Somerville, I think the best way to describe it is Cloverfield meets Another World.
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Real Time Strategy (RTS) titles like Iron Harvest on Console are a rare beast.
And even rarer is a Console RTS that has a control and user interface (UI) system, which isn’t a finger twisting nightmare on a controller. But it can be done.
Halo Wars and Sudden Strike 4 have nailed the UI in an RTS for Console gamers, and Iron Harvest…almost did.
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The management sim genre is one that has been around for as long as I can remember but I can’t say I’ve ever played one set in the realms of Hell that tasks you with making hell a better version of itself (is that even possible?)
That’s the idea behind Hell Architect, a management sim from Polish developer Woodland Games where you’re tasked as Hell Manager who is in charge of, well, developing the nine rings of Hell and making it a place Lucifer himself would be proud of.
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Guest writer Nina has taken a trip into this cyber-punk Indie game and has some thoughts to share.
After seeing the Foreclosed trailer at E3 this year, the indie cyberpunk shooter immediately went on my radar. I love the cyberpunk genre, and aside from a few exceptions, there aren’t a lot of games that truly do the genre justice. I will admit though, Foreclosed had my hopes up.
So when I was given the opportunity to review it, I was excited as hell.
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Here at the Cottage we are big fans of XCOM. So the prospect of a new bite sized turn-based tactical game of that ilk on my Xbox Series S was certainly appealing.
Fort Triumph doesn’t manage to hit the quality or depth that our beloved XCOM does, but there is fun to be had for the tactically minded gamer.
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