Sometimes it feels like you can’t open Steam without seeing a new roguelike deckbuilder for sale. Don’t get me wrong: I love the genre, but it gets a bit stale after a while. That’s why a game like Shroom and Gloom feels so fresh.

There are generations upon generations of Trek fans. The point is, there's a lot of us, in every demographic, every class, every single place in every nation. And we've got money to spend if you've got the wares. Well, someone told Le Creuset, and I'm fearful my wallet will never recover.

Let's Talk Tiktok. You know it's not irrelevant. You know you're on there scrolling. And there's nothing wrong with that, so come join us as we talk about it.

The most chilling thing for me watching Death of The Pastor’s Wife isn’t that it happened, it’s that it didn’t surprise me one bit.

The one thing from the playthrough that really stood out was that voice made a lot of difference. At one point when the kids were being swamped by monsters, someone yelled “it’s because they can hear you!” “I’m sorry, I’m just scared!” was the reply “Be scared quietly!” That should be the game’s tagline.

A Brand New review of Brand New Day.

Screenshot: Marsupilami 2: Salsa Palombia Before I played this game, I had no idea what a marsupilami was. I thought it was a novel character created by developer Ocellus Studio for their Donkey Kong Country-like Marsupilami: Hoobadventure, and that Marsupilami 2: Salsa Palombia was just its follow-up. It turns out, in fact, this is a character that has been long established. Which, honestly, is a bit how my Moomin knowledge was before I played Winter’s Warmth. I guess if it’

Look at that guy. This little Onion just wants to do one thing, and that’s boil cabbage and make soup. (Is that two things? Or is it one process? This idle game is a cute (if somewhat spastic) desktop companion Onion that does nothing but make soup, spasmodically dance, and feed hungry travellers.

Screenshot: PixArk I’ve never played PixArk before now, but I have played Ark. And while I know it has a cult following and established fanbase, I never saw the appeal. I wrote a review for Ark back when it hit 1.0 and the entire game felt waterlogged. Bloated and cumbersome, like something that is overcomplicated and literally slow because of how badly optimized it was. But I have to admit that premise is compelling, and I love me some open world sandbox games with breadcrum

Screenshot: Debate and Switch Recently, I had the chance to test out a couple of Jackbox party games from the upcoming Jackbox Party Pack 12, which is releasing in October this year. For this preview, I sat down (digitally) with some Jackbox crew and a few of my peers to play a match each of “Debate and Switch” and “Hyperface.” First off, I have to get this out of the way: “Debate and Switch” is itself, a bit of a bait and switch. See: “debate and switch” is an established TV

Screenshot: Blood Dungeon I’m not a huge fan of the survivors style autoshooter/bullet heaven games. Before Blood Dungeon, I probably had the most fun playing Deep Rock Galactic Survivors–and that was just as much because of the theme as the gameplay. Blood Dungeon takes the survivors-type formula and adds a genre twist: sidescrolling. On its face it doesn’t seem a significant swap from top-down to sidescroller, but it completely reinvigorates the genre. In fact, Blood Dungeo

The Halloween season just seems to be coming earlier and earlier with every passing year and honestly you won't hear me complaining. That was certainly the vibe for everyone at the Hocus Pocus panel at this year's Fan Expo when the packed crowd asked the panel of Thora Birch, Omri Katz, Vinessa Shaw, and Jason Marsden what they though of the Summerween phenomena and if they were all spookygirlies. "Well I think we kinda started it." they responded as the crowd cheered their a

Halloween panel @ Fan Expo Chicago 2026. John Carpenter, Nick Castle, PJ Soles, Dean Cundey, Tommy Lee Wallace. Photo: Julian Ramirez Halloween season is nearly upon us and what better way to usher it in than with a Halloween panel featuring John Carpenter, Nick Castle, P.J. Soles, Tommy Lee Wallace, and Dean Cundey! The cast and crew of the original, ground breaking horror film got together for a fun panel at Fan Expo's main hall, delighting the crowd with the best tidbits

All photos by Marielle Bokor & Julian Ramirez Fan Expo Chicago 2026 has come and gone, and while we're still missing the fun and freedom of being in our fandoms with other fans, and more than a little exhausted, we've got lots of great memories to hold onto until next year. And? Some great cosplay photos. You guys killed it, and we're glad we got the chance to meet and photograph all of your hard work.

But one weird thing - despite having Keith David, John Carpenter, and Kurt Russell on the list of celeb guests, there was no The Thing panel. For horror fans (and movie fans in general) this was pretty glaring. It's not like Fan Expo hates a reunion. We had almost the entire cast of The Boys and The Goonies AND The Hobbits, so ...what gives?

So why is this getting released now? Nostalgia, surely. But also because Aspyr parent company Embracer now owns the rights thanks to their acquisition of Middle-earth Enterprises in 2022. That means there’s a possibility that more WB Lord of the Rings games will be rereleased by Aspyr, so this could be the first of many.

I haven’t played a sidescrolling beat ‘em up meets roguelike since Absolum. And while that has to be a peak example of the genre, I can certainly learn to love again with Anomaly President. Released in Early Access a couple of weeks ago, I knew right away that Anomaly President had the potential to be something great.

Time for Fan Expo. Oh Dear God. Don't worry though, we've got your back.

Starting out as a prototype in the Big Mode Game Jam in 2023, Backpack Boy has had a multi-year journey to make its way to 1.0. The first commercial game of developer Chuck & Niles Games, Backpack Boy isn’t going to redefine the sidescrolling puzzle genre, but it’s a charming game that does a whole lot of things right.