PC Game Reviews

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Our detailed reviews help you make informed decisions about your next PC game purchase. We provide a thorough analysis of gameplay, graphics, story, and more.

Hollow Knight: Silksong ReviewAn unapologetically challenging sequel packed full of sharp platforming, enticing exploration, and nail-biting combat.

IGN PC ArticlesSep 14

Review: Firefly Village Is a Condensed Farming Life Sim Firefly Village is a farming life sim along the lines of Stardew Valley and Story of Seasons , but with the goal of making things much simpler. As in everything is shorter, streamlined, and less involved than others in the genre. While it’s a novel experiment to see how much you can cut back and still leave a satisfying sim behind, it also results in things feeling unbalanced and quality of life features being abandoned in the process. In Firefly Village , we’re a newcomer who moves into town to take up residence in an empty shack with some farmland. Only a handful of folks live in the area and there are only a few screens worth of spaces to explore. Each season lasts only seven days, with a day being four minutes, so it eventually comes down to just handling our 54 plots for crops, handful of animals, and basically five folks living in the area. Upgrades? They’re minimal and involve things like a kitchen and deck. Animals? You probably only end up with six chickens. Your goal is to enjoy effective days that pass quickly and don’t feature a lot of busywork. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk1HCNx1blw It’s interesting. Firefly Village is absolutely every element of a farming life sim distilled down to the most critical parts, so technically a lot of what we’d expect from Story of Seasons or Stardew Valley is here. We can become best friends with the five villagers. There are eventually supplemental activities like cooking, fishing, and mining. We can collect items like scarecrows. There are festivals to celebrate occasions like Halloween. The things we expect are here, and Josh Koenig Games does show we can accomplish the full farming experience in truncated days days and seasons, still accomplishing things. However, a big part of playing Firefly Village makes me realize how much I miss some of the things that naturally come from larger farming life sim games like Stardew Valley or Story of Seasons . There’s the absence of quality of life features. Want to harvest things or do some gathering? You can hold 12 items, and they don’t stack. Want a cow? That will be 5,000g, and it honestly can take quite a bit of time to earn that money. Tools? Aside from your initial farming equipment, you need to wait until they randomly appear in the store and you can stock them. Need to water or gather? Sometimes your character won’t face the right direction you need to perform an action and you need to fiddle around with things. Images via Josh Koenig Games Also, while farming life sims like Story of Seasons and Stardew Valley can have days that sometimes feel long or like we’re “grinding” through a schedule, playing Firefly Village made me realize that time wasn’t wasted. Going through those routines could be calming. I liked waiting around while fishing. Or the deeper connections that came from its socialization that weren’t present with the three-heart-level friendships here. The fact that some things did happen so quickly here made it feel less satisfying when I’d harvest crops, care for animals, or reach a relationship milestone. Yes, there’s no bloat here. But there were times I wish there were to make things feel a bit more fulfilling. I do appreciate that the simplicity in Firefly Village also extends to the appearance. The design is minimalistic, but still incredibly effective. It calls to mind the older Story of Seasons games on, say, the Game Boy or SNES. There’s a charm to it, and I also really appreciated the artistic direction for character portraits that make them feel rustic. I appreciate Firefly Village as an experiment into how much you can cut from a Stardew Valley or Story of Seasons style farming game while presenting a cohesive experience. It is interesting. Succinct too! It looks great as well, with some adept spritework. But at the same time, things go so quickly that I didn’t feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment from taking my time and watching my virtual farm and life blossom over time. It’s a charming way to pass the time, but you might not get as much out of it as one of the more robust, larger games. Firefly Village is available on PCs . The post Review: Firefly Village Is a Condensed Farming Life Sim appeared first on Siliconera .

PC News Category - SiliconeraSep 13

Borderlands 4 Dev Gearbox Asks PC Gamers to Keep Playing for at Least 15 Minutes After They Tweak Settings to See How Performance Has Changed, as Negative Steam Reviews Pile UpBorderlands 4 has launched on Steam to big concurrent player numbers, but the release was marred by complaints about PC performance that have resulted in a ‘mixed’ user review rating on Valve’s platform.

IGN PC ArticlesSep 12

Borderlands 4 ReviewIt’s pronounced “Four-derlands” The post Borderlands 4 Review appeared first on WellPlayed .

Reviews PC – WellPlayedSep 11

Borderlands 4 Review

IGN PC ArticlesSep 11

Review: Pastel Parade Wants to Be a Cutesy Rhythm Heaven Nintendo’s Rhythm Heaven series involves a collection of masterpiece games that perfectly blend Tsunku compositions with tons of memorable minigames that typically only require a single button to play. Pastel Parade Project is very obviously trying to mimic that with its short adventure Pastel Parade , which involves a handful of stages with a few colorful minigames that involve minimal inputs in time with brief tracks. The problem is that the game is so uneven and limited that even if you’re looking for absolutely anything to fill the space between now and Rhythm Heaven Groove in 2026, you’ll be disappointed. Rather than acting like Rhythm Heaven games and offering a list of minigames to go through, Pastel Parade plops its handful of stages into a loosely told adventure about a high school band. Nagisa is reading a book about a local mystery when a new exchange student named Amane interrupts her. Amane convinces her to go to a cafe with her, which leads to her meeting classmates named Kohaku and Morn when subbing in for volleyball practice. The quartet soon decides to form a band, and that leads to them eventually traveling to different places and exploring various mysteries. It makes very little sense. But since the goal is to find an excuse to go to a handful of different maps to play through a few types of stages, I get it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brf2gn55shU The issue with Pastel Parade is while the art direction, design, and sometimes even controls can feel like a Rhythm Heaven game, the actual execution just does not hold up for some of these minigames. Given how many of them repeat throughout the handful of worlds and the fact it will probably only take someone under two hours to beat it the first time, maybe less, it makes those failings stand out. When it keeps it extremely simple, it is at its best, but even then timing issues can muck things up. For example, the fishing, fizzy water spraying, and submarine pedaling are all generally solid. This is because each one features clear visuals that work alongside the audio cute patterns for their games, while typically avoiding the trap of involving so many inputs that the background song becomes indiscernible due to sound effects from prompts. There can be a call and return type of pattern or following the leader situations along the lines of Rhythm Heaven games staples like Double Date, Flipper-Flop, or Monkey Watch. Of course, the Pastel Parade minigames aren’t as memorable and don’t sound as good as any of those examples. But the spirit seems similar, which helps. But then there are Pastel Parade stages where the input timings are so awkward, imprecise, convoluted, or even frantically paced that it all falls apart. While the volleyball one is good when it first appears, the return of it means inputs come so fast that you can’t even hear the music properly for audio triggers. There is one involving playing hopscotch in the rain that is okay for the hopping parts, but falls apart when you need to hold the umbrella to keep a car from spraying water from a puddle on you. The actual band segment is the worst offender. It involves playing certain guitar riffs at a certain pace when various visual cues appear. The tutorial involves going through the multi-input “sun” rift, the multi-input “moon” one, the multi-input bridge, and then a fourth that can appear between the sun and moon segments. But when the song begins, the transition between periods moves so quickly that hearing the actual background track becomes impossible. Images via Pastel Parade Project Another point is it would help if the actual original songs in Pastel Parade were really good, catchy, and memorable, but they aren’t compared to tracks in Rhythm Heaven games. The music fades into the background, due to it being often overshadowed. Which is a shame! Sometimes it can sound cute and pleasant, and it definitely is designed to fit the identity. I just can’t honestly remember any of them, meanwhile Rhythm Heaven Fever ’s Tambourine and Air Rally live rent-free in my head to this day. Pastel Parade is such a hit-and-miss game. It’s clear Pastel Parade Project wanted to make a game along the lines of Rhythm Heaven and the aesthetics are there, but there are so many moments and minigames that prove it just doesn’t get some of the biggest takeaways. The repetition, execution of some challenges, and way the actual music doesn’t seem to matter means that, while it looks cute, it never compares to Nintendo’s series. Pastel Parade is available on PCs . The post Review: Pastel Parade Wants to Be a Cutesy Rhythm Heaven appeared first on Siliconera .

PC News Category - SiliconeraSep 10

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants ReviewIndiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants can be whipped through in a single afternoon but features several puzzles that are even better than those in The Great Circle itself.

IGN PC ArticlesSep 9

Lost Soul Aside Review

IGN PC ArticlesSep 8

Review: Whisper of the House Builds on the Unpacking Idea Unpacking led to the release of many independent, cozy games that felt like the wanted to clone that magic, soothing, room organizing formula that stuck with people. Some of them were very obvious rip-offs. Others tried to tell similar sorts of stories, but with different themes . While Whisper of the House , an indie game from GD Studio, does also involving moving and unlocking rooms in the same vein as Unpacking , it’s also incredibly strong with its own, compelling identity and different sort of organizational experience. Whisper of the House starts with our avatar moving to Whisper Town to become its newest housekeeper. Our goal is to offer our services to assist individuals as they maintain their homes. That could mean helping them move into new places, assisting when someone else moves in, helping a new business get organized and established, and even just cleaning up. As we do, we gain access to money or opportunities to explore the city to find things for our own customizable spaces. At the same time, this is a living, breathing community. Things we discover and investigate could end up changing others’ stories or leading to the discovery of potentially dark secrets or anomalies. So while it is generally pleasant, relaxed, and cozy, there’s an edge if you keep probing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzTkTi_1oOE Whisper of the House assignments tend to start in the same way. You’ll get a letter asking you to assist with a task in a person’s home or business. This could involve totally unpacking a place and arranging it or tidying up. In some cases, some items or furniture may already be placed, but you can likely rearrange, adjust, and interact with it. You might notice odd “noise,” in the form of black lines or animations suggesting an anomaly. Constantly poking at them can lead to the discovery of new areas and interactions, which can then lead to additional missions. While this is a cozy game, some of these can be dark and even suggest some horror elements, so keep that in mind when playing. It’s generally very relaxing and fun, but it can have an edge! Placing things is pretty simple, which is great. However, you can’t really pick what and when comes out of your assistant robot that supplies furniture and pieces of people’s lives. They automatically come out in a predetermined order. You might also need to actually place it, then check it out, to see the description to better understand what it is and where it may be best to place it. A circular gauge on the robot’s screen lets you know how much is left to unpack in a space, but the nature of that means it might not feel 100% exact when a ton of pieces need to be set up. Items can be rotated, for proper positioning, and I appreciated that there is a separate button to help with layering to ensure things fall in what I feel are the right spots. Image via GD Studio Another thing that helps Whisper of the House stand out is the pixel art. This is a gorgeous game. It’s incredibly detailed. From the zoomed out cityscape showing Whisper Town to each scene we visit and organize, it’s all so intricate. You can really pinpoint what everything is, no matter how small, and there are these little extras to enhance things like variants on some objects or different looks if they’re placed on a wall or on a shelf. Add to that the animations for some, and it’s just lovely. But what really makes Whisper of the House special are the extra interactions. We can trigger responses with certain items in places. At first, I thought this was fun! Cool! There’s a little animation that plays, and I get an achievement for that. Except once I got to the alchemist home, I suddenly realized that when I was returning pages to a notebook, I was actually getting access to recipes! And when I started exploring around that space more, I started to find the ingredients for the cauldron to actually create things. And it isn’t in just that space. Once I started to get further in the game, I’d either take more time to play around or revisit and spend more time in spaces I already decorated and unlocked, and then realize there were other secret interactions. This is a game that constantly rewards you for taking your time and exploring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUrkqgXksFQ I absolutely loved Whisper of the House and the way in which I felt like I connected to characters and experiences while organizing. While it isn’t telling stories in the same way as Unpacking , it is a similar sort of game that builds on that kind of concept. I do wish that some of the mystery and organizational elements perhaps had been handled a bit differently. Especially if the design decisions kept me from easily discovering or accomplishing something. But Whisper of the House is a truly lovely experience in the same vein as Unpacking , but adds its own unique flourishes. Whisper of the House is available on the PC via Steam . The post Review: Whisper of the House Builds on the Unpacking Idea appeared first on Siliconera .

PC News Category - SiliconeraSep 8

Chinese Players Use Steam Reviews to Complain About Hollow Knight: Silksong Translation, Team Cherry Promises ImprovementsDespite a healthy 'Mostly Positive' review score on Steam and a concurrent user count high enough to make a AAA game blush with envy, Hollow Knight: Silksong's Chinese players are seemingly less impressed by the highly-anticipated sequel.

IGN PC ArticlesSep 8