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.

Skate Story ReviewEat the moon The post Skate Story Review appeared first on WellPlayed .

Reviews PC – WellPlayedJan 1

Asus ROG Strix G16 (2025) ReviewSimilar in design to last year, the AMD version of the Asus ROG Strix G16 offers solid gaming performance in a bulky shell.

IGN PC ArticlesDec 31

Review: The Good Old Days Is a Goonies Style Adventure The Good Days is an adventure game with Metroidvania elements about a group of kids desperate to raise a massive amount of cash in a single day by any means possible, only with combat optional. There are also multiple ways to reach that goal and endings as a result. Sound unusual? That’s because Ryoh Tazaki’s Yokogo Systems is behind it. Tazaki also works for Onion Games as a developer on titles like Black Bird, Dandy Dungeon, and Million Onion Hotel . The result is a title that’s unusual, unorthodox, and maybe a little clumsy, but charming nonetheless. When I mentioned The Good Old Days channeling The Goonies , I wasn’t kidding, as the setup for the game is incredibly similar. In the small town of Arostia, a group of kids known as Sean, Bruce, Doc, and Foodie band together as The Noogies and search for treasure. While they get the chance to find it, it’s unfortunately under dire circumstances. Sean’s father disappeared and left a $30,000 debt behind. Bruce, Doc, and Foodie got captured and thrown into underground cells. The loan shark shows up at 10am and wants money by the time night falls. Rather than go to the police, Sean heads into the depths below the city to search for his missing friends and money by any means possible. However, Biff, Chuck, Frank, and their mother heard about Sean’s family’s troubles and hidden inheritance, and they’ll cause trouble for the crew. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRNa5QhXUqM The Good Old Days is a timed adventure. You need to get through the day, finding money by exploring. Maybe you find a lottery ticket? Perhaps you beat foes? There are minigames! You could find the legendary hidden treasure Sean’s family buried down below! This could happen with none or all your friends. You have a lot of options. But it’s also quite deadly, as the underground is filled with bats, rats, ghosts, villainous humans, and environmental hazards. While the bulk of your time will be spent platforming and wandering underground, there will also be points of interest above to visit as you search for cash. Part of the Metroidvania part of The Good Old Days is tied to each of the Noogies’ special abilities, much like how each member of The Goonies had unique traits. Sean is given bombs by the loan shark at the outset of the adventure, which can be used to progress past certain areas, and he’s also fairly average when it comes to moving and jumping. Foodie is slow, but he can headbutt foes and move boxes. Bruce is incredibly fast and has the furthest jump. He can perform an attack that hits above and below him at the same time too, though I didn’t find it as useful as Foodie’s. Meanwhile, Doc has a pretty good vertical leap and can use a radar that shows anything immediately around him. Images via Yokogo Systems There are other items that help along runs. Sean being able to blow up stronger doors is his “thing,” but that can be upgraded. You can get equipment that mitigates some hazards too, like diving gear that removes the threat water poses. These power-ups are maintained through playthroughs when you go with a new game+ run. Given the relatively short length and wealth of endings, it definitely feels like a game to run through at least twice. However, I did notice two downsides. One is that the platforming can feel a little clunky. Nailing some of the jumps is really trying and troublesome, especially before Bruce is rescued. It is absolutely possible to beat a run without Bruce, mind you, but some of the layouts in the underground are frustrating. The other issue is I felt like there could have been more to Doc as a character. All the kids are charming when it comes to the story, and the narrative as a whole is interesting! (Especially since we learn more after each ending.) But since Doc essentially acts as a radar for unseen secrets and is the last character we unlock, I felt like he wasn’t as essential to the adventure. Is he a time-saver? Sure. But since bombs are unlimited and we’re exploring every nook and cranny anyway, I felt like there could have been more to him. Images via Yokogo Systems The Good Old Days captures the same sort of spirit as The Goonies , while also feeling like a unique Metroidvania. There are many ways to approach it and solve Sean’s money problems. All of them can be interesting. Can it get a little clunky? Yes. However, the nature of it and way it encourages replays does mean subsequent runs feel a little more manageable. The Good Old Days is available on the Switch and PC. The post Review: The Good Old Days Is a Goonies Style Adventure appeared first on Siliconera .

PC News Category - SiliconeraDec 30

Review: CorgiSpace Is a PICO-8 Game Celebration If you’ve never heard of it, PICO-8 is a virtual machine and “console” that runs on PCs and some homebrew devices, allowing people to make and share fun, free little game “cartridges.” ( Celeste Classic 2 is a game for the platform, as an example.) With CorgiSpace, we’re seeing Adam Saltsman celebrate what is possible within the limitations of the system in a UFO 50 style collection. While not as robust as the Mossmouth compilation, it’s inventive and well worth the $5 price of admission. Upon starting CorgiSpace for the first time, we’re presented with a number of wrapped, mystery cartridges with no explanation just like in UFO 50 . Each of the 13 offers a different approach and plays with the possibilities of certain genres. Puzzles? There are tons of them. Action games that may feel like platformers, Metroidvanias, or even RPGs? Yup. There are even titles with strategic elements. Will you like all 13 of the games? Maybe not. I found there’s a higher barrier to entry for some of them than in Mossmouth’s collection due to technical limitations. But I’d wager at least half of what’s here will click with most people, which isn’t bad considering what an amazing value it is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaH_5CDT7Vo Now, before I get into specific game recommendations and assessments, there’s one issue with CorgiSpace that is persistent among all games in this PICO-8 collection. That is the lack of explanation. There is no insight or explanation provided when headed into pretty much every game, though in some cases it is a bit obvious ( Bandit Accountancy and Dust Bunny are perfect examples). If you head into a menu while in a game, you can see “controls,” but it’s mainly suggesting what cross and confirm buttons are and not offering an exact tutorial. I think a little explainer before heading into a game would have made a world of difference for some of the games. Considering other helpful and insightful information can appear on those pages, such as commentary from Saltsman that unlocks after playing a game once, I feel like there could have been room. Now, in terms of the collection in general, I feel like CorgiSpace excels when presenting a player with PICO-8 approaches to puzzle games. Like Kuiper Cargo is an incredible cargo delivery and package arranging puzzle that involves strategically picking upgrades so you can deliver more cargo and be a better delivery person. I loved it. Sebastian’s Quest is this fantastic approach to sokobon where you’re pushing gems to ensure the pug can eat certain things to eventually get to a point at which delicious cheese can be consumed. Mole Mole is another sokobon, but it also feels Bomberman -like due to needing to use bombs to clear walls and dirt to reach staircases. (But without blowing up the mole or stairs to the next level!) Dust Bunny involves cleaning up and removing all dust in small mazes, while also being very aware of the fact that white buffs will stick to the rabbit and keep you from getting every speck of dirt in certain spots. Dino Sort , while short, is one of my favorites in that it’s a logic puzzle where you must meet every dinosaur’s specific conditions in a small space to progress to the next level. Every CorgiSpace puzzle game I’ve played is varying degrees of fun, and sometimes even great in the case of Kuiper Cargo, Dino Sort, and Sebastian’s Quest . I’d also say some of the action games with puzzle elements come out of this looking pretty good, though they falter due to the fact that there is no explanation as to what you’re doing. Vampire vs Pope Army features this hilarious premise where we are a vampire trying to wipe out every pope. You need to approach attacks in the right order, as sunlight can damage you, popes’ holiness “spheres” zap health, and you’ll need to grab badges that increase your health as you traverse the area. But because there are no explanations about what hurts you or how to approach things, it gets frustrating. Cave of Cards is similar in that you’re trying to get three-of-a-kind of spades, diamonds, hearts, and swords while chipping away at blockades around you. But there’s no explanation as to what any of those matches do or the point of it. Again, spending at least 15 minutes with it helps you work it out, but I do wish there’d been a little more explanation. Especially when I’d suddenly die to an unknown enemy. (It often was a mushroom. Even if it looks like a solid wall, if it’s mushroom-shaped I think it could still attack.) Once we get into the action games, then things start feeling a little less solid. There are some standouts here, to be clear. Skeleton Gelatin feels like a 2D Metroidvania with a slime that makes goo bubbles that help you get around things and solve puzzles. It’s thoughtful, easy to work things out, and makes you think. Rat Dreams is sort of an action-RPG-like game where it feels like traversing a dungeon filled with enemies. But since it relies on dodge rolls, it really takes getting used to in order to work out how to deal with enemies, survive, and succeed. Prince of Prussia is very cool once you figure out how to handle the 2D, stealth, nazi assassination game. However, since there’s no tutorial or explanation, it took me about 15 minutes to figure out how to even carry out an assassination and attack. (Jumping is also very frustrating there, since it involves using a dodge motion and many gaps involve spike-filled pits.) Bandit Accountancy sort of feels “there,” since you’re only swiftly sorting colored gems. While Derbis might appeal to some Astrosmash fans, the grappling hook element and difficulty figuring out what to shoot and how to grab left me so frustrated that I never played it after my initial 30 minute test. However, with the wealth of games there it does make it okay if a PICO-8 game in CorgiSpace doesn’t click with you. (I seriously didn’t like Derbis !) I think it’s also worth checking the ones you don’t think you’d like. There are sometimes hidden secrets in their menus. For example, in the Bandit Accountancy menu, I found Snake clones like one called Weasel with a cute, white, long weasel moving around an enclosed space to grow hearts, gradually getting bigger as it did. Given how little it costs and how much you get, I feel like it’s worth taking a chance on the CorgiSpace PICO-8 game collection. The 13+ games there are pretty diverse. I do think the puzzle games are the real stars, though a few action titles can feel pretty special too. It would have been great if there had been better tutorials for some of the experiences. Still, I feel it’s worth a try. CorgiSpace is available on PCs now. The post Review: CorgiSpace Is a PICO-8 Game Celebration appeared first on Siliconera .

PC News Category - SiliconeraDec 28

Review: Death Howl Can Test Your Resolve Games like Slay the Spire and Into the Breach involve careful plotting, deck-building, tactical awareness, and patience to succeed, and Death Howl is the latest new title to follow in their footsteps. The Outer Zone often references both types of genres, as well as soulslikes, when discussing its strategic affair. It’s an absolutely gorgeous game with some situations that can prove truly taxing. It can be a challenge! But some of the situations can prove quite daunting. I’d say in a good way, as it makes you think while surrounding you with an appropriate atmosphere. Ro’s son is dead. However, the warrior won’t accept that. She is determined to do whatever it takes to retrieve Olvi, even if that means braving the dangers of the Spirit World. So she undertakes a ritual to traverse unknown areas and face opponents in the hopes of reuniting with him. It’s a dangerous path, one that involves fighting and taking Death Howls from fallen foes into Ro’s self. By wandering through realms, facing spirits, opening up nodes on skill trees to get Spirit Cards and abilities, grinding past spirit fights to get Death Howls and crafting materials, getting totems for boosts, and unlocking fast-travel via Sacred Groves, you can build better decks of cards with actions and attacks and come closer to Ro’s goals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7J4c7mzP2M While some roguelike games and strategy titles like this feature picking nodes on a map, Ro actually wanders through various realms in the Spirit World. Once you happen upon a Spirit, you choose the starting position on the grid from the initial row. You then get five cards from your deck dealt to you, with each one featuring a certain energy cost to them. Ro herself also has 20 health. Your goal will be to defeat the spirit you face, using different attacks and abilities to retaliate. Attacks may also have effects like poison or push, and actions might involve sprinting a certain distance to go further than usual or adding armor. You can have 20 cards in a deck, I will warn you that Death Howl isn’t for everyone for a number of reasons, even though it is excellent example of things happening in the deckbuilding and tactical genres. The references to soulslike refer to the ambiance and difficulty. Even some standard enemies are really challenging, until you’ve faced them a few times and realized what their gimmick and range is. Speaking of which, RNG itself can be brutal and result in moments when you won’t have much of a chance. Which is a whole thing in standard roguelikes, but becomes extra punishing here. This means there’s a lot of grinding necessary to become strong enough to actually survive. At times, it might even feel a bit unbalanced. Images via The Outer Zone Especially since Death Howl falls into the soulslike trap of often not explaining things to the degree necessary. This is very much a game where I felt like I learned by doing. If you aren’t familiar with titles like Into the Breach, Lost in Fantaland , and Slay the Spire , then Death Howl will confound you. It fill feature icons like skulls, drops of blood, shields, spirals, and plus signs next to cards and assume you know what that means. Enemy stats aren’t well explained. There’s nothing wrong with having a game where you need to work things out on your own, but it’s another thing to be aware of when it’s already quite challenging. However, because there is grinding in Death Howl and quite a few side quests, it doesn’t feel truly impossible. If you keep pushing forward and experimenting with which path you take through a realm, things might go better. I found sometimes I’d find a solution to get past an encounter that was troubling me or get the crafting materials I needed. Images via The Outer Zone I also feel like, considering how fantastic the story is, it is worth weathering the storms you’ll face when aiding Ro on her journey. It’s a dark, sad tale that also incorporates lore as she encounters different individuals. It’s a haunting tale about grief, beautifully executed with its spritework and punctuated with battles that feel like they test your limits. It all comes together so well. The struggle in Death Howl is real, both in terms of its story and challenge. It’s meaningful and haunting. While it can mean going through quite a bit of grinding and dealing with major foes and a bit of unfair RNG, it is a battle worth fighting. Death Howl is available for PCs. The post Review: Death Howl Can Test Your Resolve appeared first on Siliconera .

PC News Category - SiliconeraDec 25

Death Howl review – A soulslike deckbuilder that turns sorrow into strategy An open-world, soulslike deckbuilder sounds like a mishmash of genres that just shouldn’t work. But somehow, developer The Outer Zone has masterfully stitched them all together into something remarkably cohesive—a harrowing, punishing, and visually striking game about grief and survival called Death Howl . The game hit digital shelves on Dec. 9, and its premise is simple: You play as Ro, a woman who enters the spirit realm to save her son Olvi from the clutches of death. But the other side of the veil isn’t all that friendly to outsiders, and Ro must fight her way through dangerous spirits who aim to cut her search short and send her back to the world of the living empty-handed. Using mana and a deck of cards, you battle these spirits, moving Ro around a gridded battlefield. Each battlefield looks a little different, consisting of a set of tiles arranged in unique layouts with various environmental objects that can either help or hinder you in the fight. The foes you face vary greatly in design and combat style: floating crow heads that attack from a distance, infected molars that cause fissures at your feet (yes, you read that right), and jellyfish that can kill you with a single touch. Yeah, did I mention how dangerous the spirit world is? And that's why we don't skip dental cleanings. Screenshot by Destructoid Throughout your journey around the spirit world, you'll travel five different “realms." In every realm, you craft cards with items and Death Howls (or spirits) left over from the entities you defeat. Each realm has its own set of cards that vary in effects, giving you the chance to rebuild your deck with an entirely new playstyle for each region you visit. The Realm of Hostile Plains, for example, has an archetype based around movement. Certain cards in this realm increase the number of tiles you can move at one time, while other cards reduce their cost the more tiles you’ve traveled that turn. There are over 160 total cards in the game, and with the various playstyles they offer, gameplay never feels stale. Though you’re not limited to using only cards from the realm you’re in, cards from other regions cost more mana to play. And because you only have five or six mana per turn, and most cards cost between one to three mana, you’ll likely be swapping cards out every time you change realms. This isn’t a big problem if you choose to focus on one realm at a time. But the game is open-world, and realms can become more difficult as you progress through them, so you may find yourself fast-traveling from one to another to train up. This then leads to you having to change out your deck every time you do so, which can be quite time-consuming. At the heart of each realm lies a powerful boss, or Great Spirit. In boss fights, you'll find fun and unique mechanics that challenge everything you've learned from the realm thus far, but getting to them won’t be easy. Don't forget— Death Howl is a true soulslike experience, and any good soulslike boasts a difficulty level that's not for the faint of heart. Through limited health, frequent enemy encounters, and close-quarters combat, gameplay can be quite unforgiving, and you'll have to consider your every move. But whenever I lost a fight, I felt as though victory was within reach, and I was always eager to jump back into the fray and try again. Like other soulslikes, Death Howl has a checkpoint system that allows you to restore health but respawns every foe you've defeated up until that point. As mentioned earlier, foes drop Death Howls that can craft cards or be put towards Teardrops that unlock new skills. Die in combat, though, and all your hard-earned Death Howls will be dropped at the location of your demise, and you'll have to return to the scene of the crime to pick them back up. If combat proves too difficult for you, or you can't progress past certain encounters, you can choose to grind easier encounters, stock up on Death Howls, and then use them to unlock better cards and more skills that will assist you in your next fight. Spend Teardrops to unlock skills in each region's skill tree. Screenshot by Destructoid These skills can be unlocked in each region's skill tree. Though they're all separate from one another, there's quite a bit of overlap between realms. Some skills allow you to charge an ultimate ability, which varies in effect depending on the realm. In one realm, for example, your ultimate increases the damage you deal in a turn, while in another, it deals damage to all enemies in a row. In between combat encounters, you’ll navigate the various spirit realms and their harrowing landscapes. Death Howl 's environmental design is simultaneously creepy and breathtakingly atmospheric, with giant forests filled with poisonous mushrooms, corpse-filled crevasses, and ghouls of Ro’s regrets. Visually, the spirit world may seem straightforward at first glance—but make no mistake: it’s full of secrets, and those who pay close attention to their surroundings will be rewarded with hidden maps and extra resources. You'll also meet non-hostile characters who will assist you on your journey if you first solve their problems. These side quests add a layer of intrigue to the worldbuilding and help the spirit realm feel truly alive. The spirit world is full of creepy characters. Some hostile, some not so much. Screenshot by Destructoid I played Death Howl on both my gaming laptop and my Steam Deck, and it ran excellently on both—though, I’ll admit, there were times when I couldn’t properly select cards or menu navigation was wonky, and I’d have to switch back to my mouse or touch screen to bypass the issue. These problems were few and far between, and they by no means disrupted my overall positive experience with the game. All in all, Death Howl is a fantastic representation of both the deckbuilding and soulslike genres. The gameplay will teach you a few lessons, but the experience will be well worth your patience. The post Death Howl review – A soulslike deckbuilder that turns sorrow into strategy appeared first on Destructoid .

PC Archives – DestructoidDec 23

Review: Little Corners Feels Like Playing With Colorforms There are a lot of decoration applications that sort of fall into the cozy game category, even though they are light on the actual mechanical elements. Little Corners is one of those. There are some interactive elements and opportunities to combine stickers for certain reactions. However, it’s largely an opportunity to relax and set up scenes without too many extra features like a zoom or snap-to element. Playing with Little Corners is essentially like playing with the reusable Colorforms sticker sets. Now, when I say that Little Corners feels like Colorforms, it’s almost the exact same experience. There are eight scenes you can visit, which are the Adventurer’s Tavern, Alchemist’s Tower, Astronomer’s Study, Cottage Kitchen, Overgrown Ruins, Pirate’s Cabin, Samurai’s Residence, and Viking’s Hall. When you get to a place, it is a blank slate with a isometric view of two walls in the room and the floor space. You get a handful of “sheets” that appear on the left side of the screen that highlight some stickers you can use. (These can be flipped.) You then drag and drop the into place in order to set the scene to your liking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQYUUfjn5Ho Now, there are some interactive elements here, but there aren’t too many. As I mentioned, some quality of life elements aren’t there. Certain elements like doors or things that would go over ovens or pots won’t snap into place. You custom arrange everything. There’s also no way to zoom in on elements or to resize the stickers you’re placing. Everything shows up and goes in as-is. You can engage in some layering, based on when you place things. But go in knowing the actual arranging can be a bit rudimentary and doesn’t involve the kind of sticker experimentation like in a game such as Sticky Business . It’s pleasant, but you’re working in set confines with defined sizes and color palettes. I do appreciate that there are some set elements and surprises, however. You can get different display options for things like fireplaces or shelving units. Areas can be covered by doors or opened. But the most pleasant occasions involve combining two stickers and being treated to an entirely new one. For example, layering up the broom and witch hat stickers in the Cottage Kitchen, perhaps by hanging the hat on the end of the broomstick, nets you a black cat sticker. It’s a pleasant opportunity. Images via Meteor Pixel Another element that may be a hit or miss for you with Little Corners is that I found it features a lot of… well… brown. Many, many shades of brown. And gray. I wish it was a little more bright and colorful at times, and I found it surprising that Overgrown Ruins ended up being basically the “brightest” area in my experience. This means some elements can blend together a little, and other stickers and decorations might not stand out as much. So while I referenced Colorforms a lot when talking about Little Corners , this sticker room decoration game isn’t nearly as colorful and vibrant as most of those sets were. Little Corners is like an opportunity to return to the times of playing with Colorforms and sticker books to decorate a room. There aren’t customization features, in terms of things like resizing or recoloring. There aren’t tons of interactions. But it is very relaxing to go through the eight different areas and arrange things to your liking. And when you do happen upon a special combination of stickers to unlock something, it can feel pretty special. I just wish there was a little bit more to it. Little Corners is available for PCs via Steam and itch.io . The post Review: Little Corners Feels Like Playing With Colorforms appeared first on Siliconera .

PC News Category - SiliconeraDec 21

Free Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time DLC to Appear Around Christmas 2025 Level-5 shared a second trailer and updated release window for “ The Sinister Broker Bazario’s Schemes ,” which will be the first major DLC released for Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time . The update will come out around December 25, 2025 (Christmas), and it will be for free for anyone who owns a copy of the game . The trailer is almost three minutes long. It provides more information on how the DLC will work in Fantasy Life i , as well as the plot behind it. You’re transported to Snoozaland, with your character reverted to Level 1. The game will play like a combination of an open world and roguelike, so you’ll have to collect new weapons and stuff from treasure chests around the island. Beating Snoozaland will let you take back fancy items for free to the main game. Each new attempt to beat Snoozaland will be different, adding replay value. You can watch the second trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zUiaq36_xk The end of the trailer teases yet another piece of DLC. You’ll be able to fight against the powerful Primordial Dragon. More information about this will come out later. Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is a sequel to Fantasy Life , and it came out in May 2025. It’s a role-playing life simulation game, and players have to switch between fourteen different jobs to complete tasks. Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is available on the Switch, Switch 2, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Windows PC. You can read our review of it here . The post Free Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time DLC to Appear Around Christmas 2025 appeared first on Siliconera .

PC News Category - SiliconeraDec 19

Octopath Traveler 0 ReviewOctopath Traveler 0 asks you to stick with a 100-hour journey, and it rewards you with an experience only lengthy RPGs can pull off.

IGN PC ArticlesDec 19

Review: News Tower Offers a Satisfying Newspaper Management Loop In games where we manage a business, organization, or city, there’s always a consistent gameplay loop. We set up a situation. We let that run for a bit and hope for success. Depending on how that goes, we respond. In the best case scenarios, it’s setting a path for consistent expansion before maintaining stable success. But it can also be just as engrossing if things aren’t going as expected and we need to triage. News Tower, Sparrow Night’s newspaper management simulation, offers a near-perfect gameplay and feedback loop that encourages constant investments. The general premise is very simple. You’re living in New York in 1929. You get the chance to create and manage a newspaper inherited from your deceased father, deciding the direction you take and your sphere of coverage. (Yes, this means you could go moral or sensational.) This means maintaining and organizing your building and newsroom, as well as determining your sphere of coverage, revenue sources, factions you support, and range of distribution. If you do well you won’t only survive, but also best competing newspapers Empire Observer and Jersey Beacon. (Doing that nets you Lowrise and Highrise building and game modes with new challenges.) Basically, you get the opportunity to cover topics that would come up between 1930-1939 based on actual events. Maintain your office, find stories, prepare a weekly paper, see the response, invest in your office and employees, use what you learned to fine tune stories for next week, and keep learning, reporting, and hopefully succeeding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEya-_8sxsI General News Tower progression is divided into two parts. One involves building layout and management. You can purchase floors, place staircases, a generator, and lights, set up a research section with things like telegraphing stations and reporter desks, a text area with assembly tables and typesetting desks, and setting up a printer with input and output modules, belts, and a printer page module. There are also elements to help increase comfort, divisions, and efficiency, like a bathroom, pneumatic tubes, elevators instead of stairs, comfort elements, and walls to further set up divisions. But there’s a lot of getting things set up, then hiring people to manage them. Now, this part is incredibly enjoyable, but it also is an element that I found I didn’t engage with as often as I did the actual newspaper management. Setting up a building to ensure everything flows together, there’s efficient movement between stations, and people can get around matters! I did find I’d need to tweak and adjust things, especially as the paper and building grew. But that actual setup part doesn’t seem to come up as frequently as other management elements. Image via Sparrow Night Which may be for the best! There are a lot of management elements in News Tower , such as keeping an eye on staff, making decisions about news coverage, trying to improve circulation, balance faction requests, and deal with malicious attempts to hamper your success. When we start a game, we can hire reporters who focus on crime, the economy, entertainment, politics, society, sports, and world news. We invest in people to improve them, but also need to take care when sending journalists on assignments as they could end up injured. You wait for ideas to come in on the telegraph. When a story possibly comes up, you need to go through different parts and assign a person to work it. Skill points can dictate how fast progress goes. The number of printer page presses you have determine how many stories you can do, with one page having room for three stories. The meat of it comes from assigning stories, having staff move things from one section to another, and prepare to put out your Sunday papers. Though, from what I’ve seen, a little extra micromanagement to ensure priority stories are staff’s main focus and manually moving some elements along is better than leaving folks to their own devices. I mentioned earlier that you can decide how you cover things. News Tower lets you choose between lies and the truth. You can be practical and honest, or try and lean toward clickbait sorts of situations. These elements can affect popularity and public response. (As can things like pricing.) It also determines whether you’ll catch the attention of different factions. Which plays into the hazards that can come up in News Tower . Issues like smells from a bathroom or sound could be a problem, requiring acoustic panels, walls, and sinks. The printing press is a mechanical monster that’s hot, noisy, and generally unpleasant, so building layouts need to take that into account to ensure people are comfortable enough to actually work. Because if people aren’t happy, they won’t perform. Factions might be unhappy with your coverage choices. (You know, reporting the truth.) This could lead to members of the military or criminal organizations coming in with threats or bribes. Spies can come in to damage equipment. It feels like there’s never enough money, which means taking out loans. Images via Sparrow Night Given how much is happening at once, that News Tower works so well is a testament to Sparrow Night’s work. However, I found that can make it especially noticeable when something doesn’t work exactly right or is a little unbalanced. The UI is a bit cluttered and sometimes isn’t as intuitive as you’d expect for all the information coming in at any time. I got used to it, but it’s a bit to take in when you start. Also, while moral and quality decisions come up, I felt like the simulation didn’t go far enough to reward or penalize these kinds of actions and decisions. While going bankrupt is a threat and there are rivals, it’s pretty easy to work out how to get ad opportunities and the other papers aren’t a genuine threat. Which meant after about 10 to 15 hours or when you are in your second or third run, it might not feel as thrilling. (But even then, it taking that long to start feeling “routine” is pretty good!) I encountered an array of bugs as well, but found the issues with staff intelligence and minor problems seem to be covered in Sparrow Night’s patches , so I’m pretty sure they’ll be squashed in the next few weeks and months. News Tower is a satisfying business management simulation that involves optimizing offices and reporting procedures to ensure success. It feels like there’s are opportunities to keep investing and growing. It can even be so satisfying that it stays compelling for hours. There are some minor issues and sometimes it might feel a bit too easy or routine when you get used to things, but I still very much recommend it. News Tower is available on PCs, and there is a demo on Steam . The post Review: News Tower Offers a Satisfying Newspaper Management Loop appeared first on Siliconera .

PC News Category - SiliconeraDec 18