If you don't hear from me much over this week (or for the rest of this month), it's because I'm dedicating my time to playing GNOMES. A new tower defense roguelike hybrid from developer DYSTOPIAN with ever-expanding biomes to battle through.
See you in a week. Nubby's Number Factory is what the developer calls a "plinko-style roguelike" (everything is a roguelike now apparently?) where you drop your ball (Nubby) down a pegboard to rack up increasingly large numbers to stop the sun from exploding.
In need of a new monitor? UPERFECT sent over a review unit of the UPERFECT UMax 24 and I've come away from it thoroughly impressed with it.
After a while in Early Access, Whisker Squadron: Survivor has launched that attempts to blend together the on-rails shooting from Star Fox with a few elements of the bullet heaven survivor-likes popularised by Vampire Survivors.
A road trip RPG that blends in some inventory management and unique turn-based battles that has you fight off everything on the road from tractors to abandoned suitcases, Keep Driving is a charming and clever game worth your time.
Airships: Lost Flotilla is a steampunk themed auto-shooter just released from David Stark, an offshoot of their other game Airships: Conquer the Skies and it's simply great.
Chrysalis from developer Metamorph Games wins top marks for some originality here, and if you're a fan of cute tower defense games that mix in some exploration this is one for you.
Ballionaire from developer newobject and publisher Raw Fury scratches all the right places in my brain, and I want more of it.
Pest Apocalypse from Kikimora Games is out now, a fresh Bullet Heaven blending together the worlds of Vampire Survivors with something like Crazy Taxi and it's thoroughly chaotic.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl from GSC Game World has now been released and after playing it pre-release, I've had a damn fun time with it.
Available now in Early Access, survivor-like bullet heaven Temtem: Swarm is another game entering the crowded but popular genre from developer Crema.
Continuing my quest to play every survivor-like there is, Karate Survivor is the latest I've been kicking and punching through and it's great and surprisingly different to the rest of the crop.
ColdRidge is a tile-based exploration strategy game that puts you in the wild west. As a prospector, you'll pick contracts and venture out to do some exploring.
There seems to be no end to games that will suck away all of my free time and now that Vampire Hunters is out now, it's also going into my regular rotation to blow off some steam.
Don't judge me on this one, but I've been playing with beans for a while in the new release of Bean To Me! from Melonleaf Industries / Very Evil Demons.
While a little on the pricey side, the BenQ beCreatus GR10 USB4 Steam Deck Dock is a worthy addition to your arsenal for both at home and while you're on the go.
Coming from Chaosmonger Studio who created ENCODYA, Clunky Hero, Three Minutes To Eight and other games is a new release with Speedollama.
You may remember Mechanism from their original Deckmate system of attachments for the Steam Deck, but they have since expanded to cover other handhelds and they also now have the Mechanism Gaming Pillow.
NIMRODS: GunCraft Survivor on the surface may look just like yet another survivor-like, but it has captured my total attention in a way not many have been able to. It's just thoroughly great.
One year later, the path in the woods has been well-traveled, the Princess has been slain or saved many times over, and at the end of that path is the Pristine Cut major free update, the expansion on the base game that aims to fill in what's missing and bring the game to a completed state.
