Blumhouse Games’ Crisol: Theater of Idols Now Available

Blumhouse Games has asked me to share that their first-person horror title Crison: Theater of Idols is now available on Xbox, PlayStation 5, and Steam for $17.99. (United States) Some of the key features are:

  • Explore the Cursed Island of Tormentosa: Uncover the chilling history and twisted folklore of Tormentosa, a beautiful but malevolent island. Traverse eerie landscapes, crumbling grand ruins, and labyrinthine streets to peel back the layers of cults and blood sacrifice.   
  • Blood as a Weapon and Curse: Blood is both player’s lifeline and ammunition. Wield this new-found power against terrifying enemies and solve intricate puzzles, but beware: every shot drains health. Choose wisely—survival hinges on the ability to balance life and death.   
  • Manage Powers and Weapons: Upgrading the powers that leverage the lethality of blood allows players to deal more damage, fight for longer and gain bonuses in combat. Navigate myriad weapon options for the right scenario and improve them through coins found while exploring Tormentosa. 
  • A Story Rooted in Horror and History: Hispania’s disturbing fusion of historical events, folklore, and religious undertones creates a uniquely horrifying world. Face off against staggering statues brought to life and unravel a dark narrative that blurs the line between reality and nightmare. 
    • Folklore and religion collide in Hispania, a nightmare version of Spain, where two warring religions tear the place apart.

    Sovereign Syndicate Playstation 5 Review

    Sovereign Syndicate is a Victorian steampunk RPG released by Crimpson Herring Studios, and they were kind enough to send me a copy to check out, which I always appreciate. I am going to handle this review a bit differently, normally I do everything I can to avoid spoilers, but this time, I feel like that isn’t really possible without also failing to describe the game. So what I am going to do is give you my score here and warn you that if you keep reading, I am going to spoil small parts of chapter one. Nothing major, but things you may want to discover on your own. The game, however, is a solid 8/10 and well worth your money.

    The game will start you out as Atticus Daley, a minitour with some memory issues who struggles against voices in his head and a huge drinking issue. You will make a decision about your stats and how you were raised before being woken up after a drunken bender by a stranger. This will lead you to your first series of decisions. You will also discover that you have a substantial bounty on your head.

    Whether these decisions are successful won’t be decided by dice rolls, but by drawing tarot cards combined with your stats. These stats can be improved by what you do in-game. Moving on from here, you can decide to pick up the sword cane you own or leave it. I chose to pick it up because, honestly, I always wanted one in real life.

    After a bit of searching, I ended up underground in an attempt to escape this strange man. I found a uniform I could use to disguise myself from guards, but apparently forcing it on a minitaour was the first but not the last bad decision I would make. This would make a few conversations later somewhat more enjoyable for me, however.

    While I won’t go to indepth about my first chapter play through, suffice it to say the strange man was only too happy to let me wander off because I ended up right back with him. Turns out he has a job for me, and my options are work for him, or he will collect the bounty on my head, and he doesn’t really care which it is. I also discovered centaurs are real in Sovereign Syndicate, and they are racist as hell towards minotaurs. The story is amazing, and the characters are absolutely a joy to get to know. The world just feels like a real place. My only real complaint about the game is that the major and minor arcana system is barely explained. Basically, Major Arcana are used to unlock dialogue options and the like, while Minor Arcana take the place or tradional dice rolls. If you need a 15 to succeed at something and your stat is a 5, you need to draw a 10. People unfamiliar with such a system are left rather confused, and I don’t feel the game explains this well enough. The game, however, is a must-buy. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

    Adaptory Steam Review

    Adaptory recently hit early access on Steam, and Stormcloak Games was nice enough to send me a copy to check out. Anyone familiar with Oxygen Not Included will instantly know how this game is played. You crash land on a planet and must survive by building basic things and researching new technology. This will include things like power plants for coal and solar, growing food, producing oxygen, and even beds.

    First thing you need to know is hit the ground running, so to speak. The pause function is your friend and abuse it. Making good decisions can take time at first, and since everything is built using dirt, ladders need to be made to get to new dirt where you dig, and putting ladders matters. My first run was plagued by me just randomly digging and putting stuff in places, and by day 6, everyone was dead.

    I would like to say runs 2 through 5 went better, but I can be a slow learner. The game does give you a tutorial, but some of it is a bit vague, I feel. For example, while it won’t let you build over an empty space, you can accidentally dig under objects and take them offline. Some things are very much trial and error. I am fine with this; however, I spent hours playing Rim World just building things, trying to figure out what wouldn’t get me killed.

    Adaptory falls into the same category; in fact, most of the complaints in the reviews on Steam are that it is just like Oxygen Not Included. I don’t see this as a bad thing. How many games are there similar to Super Mario or Final Fantasy? A game doesn’t have to be brand new to be fun or even good. Stardew Valley is just like the old Harvest Moon games, and people, myself included, love that game. Adaptory isn’t for everyone, and it needs some work to be the heavy hitterthat Oxygen Not Included, or Rimworld is. At $20, it may not be for everyone, but there is fun to be had in this 7/10 title, and I do look forward to seeing it grow. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

    Talk to Me

    You ever play Bloody Mary as kid? You and your friends ever fiddle around with a Ouija Board or dare each other into a haunted house? This movie asks those questions in honestly, the most real playout I can picture. Sometimes we hate to admit it, but we were all dumbass kids once.

    Mia is a average teenage girl- plenty of friends, a guy she likes, and she loves to hang out them as normal teens tend to do. During a basement party, one of her friends pulls out what looks a marble hand. Legend has it, if you hold the hand and ask it to “talk to me”, you can become a vessel for the dead-or worse. The game should only last 10 seconds, before the vessel needs to break contact or else you may not come back. Mia, during a game, sees her recently deceased mom and finds herself obsessed with the game. What’s the worst that can happen?

    So there’s a scene where everything goes horribly wrong and it genuinely made Savior and I flinch. It’s raw, it’s intense and goddamn it stayed with me after. The movie has a simple premise and follows through, never really trying to be more than it is. The movie does well at capturing nostalgic teen angst and vibes- a lot of times I felt like I was there with them. Unfortunately, the characters, while feeling like authentic jackass teenagers, are also the worst part. No one in this movie is likable in a very realistic way. There is no hero and I can’t say I felt bad for anyone involved. Otherwise, it is a damn solid solid horror movie worth checking out. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

    Nosferatu (2024)

    So for the start of 2026, we got ANOTHER remake of Dracula. Why am I mentioning this in my review of the highly acclaimed Nosferatu remake? Well, in lot of ways, Nosferatu was the first mainstream adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel-so much of it follows the plot beat for beat. My money though, I always found Count Orlok more frightening and more terrifying than Dracula. I was incredibly pumped to see what Robert Eggers brought to the gothic vampire tale.

    Thomas and Ellen Hutter are young newlyweds that are madly in love and excited to start their lives. Thomas is presented with a business deal that can set them up for a bright future, but must journey to he far off land of Transylvania to meet the wealthy Count Orlok at his castle to seal the deal. Leaving Ellen in the care of good friends, he sets off on the perilous, horrifying journey that fills him with unspeakable dread. Ellen is plagued with terrible nightmares of the Count, who unbeknownst to her, is coming for her as death and hysteria grips their lives. Can the fiendish Count be stopped?

    Nosferatu is absolutely stunning to behold. Eggers made damn sure you feel like you’re watching a gothic fairytale play out. Bill Skarsgard’s transformation is nothing short of incredible; I wish we got to see more of his design because Orlok’s look is both beautiful and haunting. The cast is fantastic and bring Eggers’s passion to the movie. While I enjoyed it, I will say the movie is very slow burn. It’s over 2 hours and you do feel it. This also isn’t a movie full of action and gory kills, but instead drama and intense atmosphere. Also, the movie is very dark- literally. Thankfully my place is a basement with very little outside light, because I can see this being a hard watch unless you’re watching this movie in total darkness. My last complaint is the ending feels very disappointing, very anticlimactic given the stakes and scale of Orlok’s reign of terror. In the end, I did enjoy Nosferatu and if you can see in 4k or in theater, I highly recommend jumping on it. While it wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, it’s undeniably a beautiful horror film made by talented, passionate people I do recommend checking out on a dark, cold, winter’s night. May the gaming god’s keep Orlok away.

    Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown | New Gameplay Mechanics Deep Dive Trailer

    In this latest video, developer GameXcite breaks down the game’s building and management layer, focusing on the reconstruction of the U.S.S. Voyager. The trailer highlights how ship rebuilding, internal management, and customization options directly influence gameplay styles and narrative paths, with player decisions shaping the course of the story.

    Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown is developed by gameXcite and published by Daedalic Entertainment. The full game will be released on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox X|S and Nintendo Switch 2 on February 18.

    More information about the game is available at:

    https://www.stvatu.com/

    ABOUT STAR TREK: VOYAGER – ACROSS THE UNKNOWN

    Set the U.S.S. Voyager and deep in the unexplored reaches of the Delta Quadrant aboard, Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown invites players to relive—and redefine—the legendary starship’s journey back to earth. The game blends exploration, ship & resource management, roguelite elements, and meaningful choices. Experience crew dynamics and a fresh take on a beloved sci-fi universe – with what-if scenarios that open up new possibilities.

    Player decisions shape both the fate of the crew and the configuration of the U.S.S. Voyager itself. With each playthrough, the ship becomes a different version of itself—reengineered and reimagined based on the path taken through the quadrant and the command decisions made along the way.

    In Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown, players take command of the U.S.S. Voyager as it traverses 12 vast sectors of the Delta Quadrant. Along the way, they’ll manage systems and crew, engage in diplomacy, navigate difficult moral decisions, and face the unknown. Familiar faces return, but their fates may differ—reshaped by the captain on the bridge.

    Encounter: The Lost Cards Steam Review

    Encounter: The Lost Cards was sent to me by Encounter GG, which I always appreciate, and going into this, I knew nothing about it beyond this trailer, and I will say no $10 card game needs to have a song that goes this hard.

    Seriously, the song is great, and perfectly describes how the game is played and what it is about. The game is all about managing your inventory, using your AP in the best way possible to kill enemies, defending yourself, and winning battles. The gameplay is as simplistic as it gets. Mastering it is a different matter completely.

    The game starts out with a tutorial explaining everything you need to know to get you started, but it does leave a bit out. Knowing what these Minor tarot cards even do is a bit of an oversight in my opinion. As best I can tell, they help determine what sort of things you will come across in your run as you attempt to find specific Major cards for your charactors over all goal. This changes depending on whose perspective the game’s story is being told from, which I found to be amazing. I love the story and the direction it is taking.

    The biggest issue I had with the game is that there are huge, sudden difficulty spikes. One moment, you are doing just fine, and the next, you are suddenly faced with what seems like an insurmountable battle. And sin and being honorable play a very large part in the game, but often you are faced with choices that seem to force you to sin, with only two options, both leading to sin, and the payoff being sin for a lesser reward or sin for a bigger reward.

    The game does have a comedic tone that I enjoyed, and while some of the characters had a sexy tone, it wasn’t over the top. For the price, I found the game enjoyable and it is a solid 7/10 experience. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

    Escape From Ever After Playstation 5 Review

    Escape From Ever After was sent to me by Hypetrain Digital, and I always appreciate it, and honestly, they are one of those companies you have probably heard of, even if you don’t realize it. This time, they hit us with a Paper Mario-style RPG that wears its homage right on its sleeve, and doesn’t even try to hide its love for the game it imitates.

    You play as Flynt Buckler, Hero, Adventurer, Dragon Slayer. On your most recent attempt to slay the vile Tinder, your arch nemesis, you discover his layer is now home to Ever After Incs corperate office, and Tinder is now in prison and a shadow of his former self. So what is a dragon slayer and his new not-so-good buddy dragon to do? Get a job, of course.

    What follows are hours of traveling through storybooks to meet characters like the Big Bad Wolf, which is apparently just a stage name, and combat that includes all the features you love, such as timed attacks and defenses, holding buttons until the perfect time, etc. Solving puzzles, finding ink to upgrade skills, and Sun Stones to buy powerful trinkets. The leveling system is the same: gather 100 experience and pick between HP, MP, or points to equip more skills/trinkets.

    Don’t make any mistake, this is not a complete rip-off of Paper Mario. The gameplay may be the same, but this isn’t an easy game. It has different difficulty settings, and playing on hard will test your abilities in a way Paper Mario never did. There is also an optional tower that you will have to fight from level 1 to level 100 in one go, with no ability to heal except for items you bring with you. The rewards are great, but it is not an easy trip.

    This brings me to my only real complaint about the game. The economy is rough. There never seems to be enough money to buy healing items, and the cost of healing isn’t cheap either. This doesn’t take away from the joy I found in the game; it is honestly one of the best games I have played all year, and I have played a lot of them already. This is a 9/10 experience that is probably the first must-buy RPG of the year. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

    Dwarves: Glory, Death and Loot Steam Review

    Dwarves: Glory, Death, and Loot was sent to me by Sidekick Publishing and is a mix of RPG, roguelike, and Autobattler, and honestly sounds like it wouldn’t work. Picking a few dwarves, loading them with weapons, then watching them fight just doesn’t sound like fun. Doing this over and over again to unlock new things until you lose and starting over again didn’t sound too appealing to me.

    I will be 100% honest here: this game won’t be for everyone. What I described is basically the gameplay loop in a nutshell. The battles get harder, you recruit more dwarves, some are better than others, and there are multiple difficulty levels. There are also plenty of things to unlock and jobs to unlock as you go.

    There is also a weapon forging system where you can combine weapons into new weapons, sometimes it is random, but if you know what weapons to combine, you will get certain things, and yes, there is a book of recipes for you to unlock. The game is far deeper than you realize at a glance. Now you can get away with ignoring this, but it does make the game far harder than it needs to be.

    Picking which battles to get involved in is important as well. Do you want the extra money and experience? Do you want the safe win? This is entirely up to you, and some enemies are even easier to beat based on your equipment. Maybe that goblin with the magic just isn’t worth the risk with your dwarf loadout. Do you want extra healers at the cost of DPS? These are all valid strategies.

    For me these is an 8/10 experience that I very much enjoyed and will be playing more of. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

    The Bearer & The Last Flame Now Available for Pre-order on PlayStation 5

    Meridiem is pleased to announce that The Bearer & The Last Flame is now available for pre-order on PlayStation 5. The game will also be available on Steam and in physical format, with two editions available on March 6, 2026, for PlayStation 5. Developed by Dark Reaper Studio, The Bearer & The Last Flame is an epic action-adventure dark fantasy game, created by a single developer, inspired by classic Soulslike titles that will immerse you in a world ravaged by death.

    Meridiem has been responsible for the design and creation of these physical editions: The Bearer & The Last Flame – Standard Edition for PlayStation 5 which includes the PlayStation 5 game and The Bearer & The Last Flame – The Knight’s Edition, which includes, in addition to the PS5 game, a game guide and a special sleeve. 

    In the far reaches of the extinct land of men, darkness has ravaged every sign of life. The lost souls of bloodthirsty warriors seek rest in the underworld, where demons of the abyss, the darkest creatures, and soulless sorcerers dwell. Darkness looms over the land, and only faint traces of light remain. There is no solace for life,  yet in the high mountains of Selender, a glimmer of hope has emerged.

    A living soul has received its charge. Carry the last flame, illuminate the lands of night, and return the fearsome creatures back into the abyss.

    Features:

    • Relive the essence of classic Soulslike games: experience strategic combat in a world full of mysteries and a deep story told through the environment and the enigmatic characters you encounter on your journey.
    • Choose from various characters: forge your destiny in this unforgettable adventure. Select your hero from different characters originating from unique worlds.
    • Challenging difficulty: master a combat system where every strike matters. Face demanding enemies with mechanics that reward precision, strategy, and constant learning.
    • Variety of enemies across different environments: confront a vast range of unique creatures, night beasts, demons, and soulless undead, each designed to exploit your weaknesses.
    • Memorable enemies and bosses: prepare for epic battles against terrifying creatures and colossal guardians. Each encounter is a unique challenge filled with tension and reward.
    • Choose your fighting style: customize your strategy with an arsenal of over 200 unique weapons. Master melee combat, ranged attacks, or the arcane power of magic.
    • Explore the vast landscapes of Hyperborea: traverse dungeons, caves, and castles in an epic medieval fantasy adventure.

    The game will feature an original soundtrack composed by Francisco Arroyo, bringing a fresh and distinctive musical style to the experience.

    The Bearer & The Last Flame will be released in physical format in two editions for PlayStation 5 and digitally for PlayStation 5 and Steam on 6 March 2026.