Grimwood Estate review — 8/10. Survival horror that trusts you. No map markers, no hand-holding, just a house that keeps rearranging its own geometry when you stop looking.

Petal & Root — 8/10. Yes, I reviewed the farming sim. Yes, the seasonal soil rotation is a genuinely elegant system. No, I will not be taking questions about my 40-hour save.

Revisited Hollow Depths after patch 1.3 — the posture system finally clicks. What was a stamina tax is now a real conversation between you and the boss. Bumping my score from 7 to 8.

Hot take: Ashen Vale's crafting economy is the real endgame. I've spent more time at the forge ledger than in the final zone, and I regret nothing.

Last Lighthouse — 9/10. Three hours long and it will sit with you for weeks. The keeper's log entries alone are better written than most AAA scripts this year.

Second opinion on Starfall Tactics: the campaign is a 7, the skirmish AI is a 9. If you buy it for multiplayer drafts you're getting the best tactics sandbox of the year.

Chrono Breakers from an RPG player's chair — the lab mode is basically a stat screen for your own hands. 8/10, and my execution is still terrible.

Ashen Vale review — 9/10. The best RPG systems design in years. Every stat matters, every build is viable, and the faction reputation web actually reacts to how you play. 60 hours in and my second character feels like a different game.

Duskrunner — 8/10. A roguelike with an actual character arc. The meta-progression isn't just numbers going up; it's the story quietly reassembling itself run by run.

Terraform Inc — 7/10. Deep, occasionally opaque. The oxygen-debt spiral in the mid-game is brutal but fair. Bring a notepad.