ROBOCOP: ROGUE CITY (Teyon, 2023)

(****+ / *****): Would've been enough getting to hear Peter Weller as Robo again but that this imperfect, glitchy, buggy, repetitive, and at times maddening game (much like Robo himself: love the slowness and clunk of his movements) was so much damn fun is a bonus miracle in itself. Personality - even with stilted, copy-paste (I loved counting how many different iterations of Ulysses Washington and the Archives guy were roaming the Detroit streets - at least nine each by my latest count) NPC voice acting - and Verhovian satire and gore abounded. Is this a "great" game? Not in the slightest - but it's one of the most fun I've played in ages, rough edges, imperfections and all. In Pickles we trust.

Robocop and Pickles pick out a video

STRAY (BlueTwelve Studio, 2022)

(****+ / *****): Easily the most fascinating cyberpunk dystopia brought to game-life in recent memory (at least since DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION and yes, I'm including CYBERPUNK 2077 here), each small and contained section a vast, deep world unto itself, a unique beating heart throughout. Other than wishing it were longer (not a bad thing) and for a bit more variety in gameplay, STRAY is nothing short of a (n ever-so-slightly) flawed work of game-making genius. Not only are my heartstrings well and duly tugged, but I learned a new word: Hopepunk; meow.