Recent reviews by Tala

This weekend I had the pleasure of visiting Kaso-Machi, a small island town off the coast of Japan.
Unfortunately due to an accident many years ago followed by a curse and mayoral mismanagement the town has fallen on hard times but it seems that it's all changing thanks to a new business in town: Promise Mascot Agency!
I would often see their (supposedly dead, exiled ex-yakuza) manager driving/boating/gliding around in his souped-up indestructible kei truck on his way to clean up the town both figuratively (by helping support the reintroduction of local business) and literally (by firing his sentient finger mascot assistant like a rocket at piles of rubbish and other detritus). At some of the opening events supported by these strange-but-endearing mascots I could even sense his guiding hand throwing his support their way if they ever got into trouble.

With plenty to see and do and a strange mystery hanging over the town, if you're a fan of the bizarre and enjoy exploration I highly recommend you visit Kaso-Machi yourself!
Trip report: 5/5

The finest VR game containing a cat trombone that I think I've ever played.

Very enjoyable arcade space shooter with style!

Music, visuals and voice acting are very good, gameplay is fun and suitable for a short burst of just one mission or to try and get through a complete run.
Unlockable upgrades and different routes give variety to runs although there is some repetition of the early stages in order to get to the branching path each time.

I played through it all on a Steam Deck OLED where it runs perfectly and is a great fit for the handheld.
Some of it was in offline mode so I'd say overall it took me 6 hours for all the achievements.

If you're a fan of arcadey shooters such as Starfox or Afterburner then check it out!

There's nothing quite like the little dopamine hit when everything clicks into place and you solve a puzzle you've been stuck on for a while.

The addition of a scooter makes this 11/10.

A fun co-op miner-shooter where you play as one of [up to] 4 space-Dwarves sent to exploit liberate the precious minerals from the caves of Hoxxes, taking out some of the local biota in the process.
It's entirely possible to play solo - you get a little robot buddy to help you out, and the 4 job classes are all capable in their own right - but the game is at it's best when you work together in multiplayer. Don't worry if you don't have any other friends to play with though, there is a very good and helpful player community at every level even when matchmaking with randoms, coupled with a context-sensitive ping system to help with communication if you don't want to type/use voice chat.
Difficulty can be changed by choosing different hazard levels, from a fun romp through the caves with your mates doing a little mining to a terrifying escape dash through a swarm-filled lava-spewing hellhole chasm, desperately trying to get to the extraction drop pod before you get overrun.
This, along with the diverse biomes and procedurally-generated maps means that whilst you may have similar objectives each dive you do will play out differently - although I do wish there was a little bit more variety in some of the enemy types. Still, the devs are very active and the game is constantly being updated and content added, so there's still opportunity in the future.

If you enjoy co-op, mining, shooting bugs and collecting a variety of hats and facial hair types then this may be the game for you!
Rock & Stone!

One of the greatest games of all time.