I’ve either played or seen others play a handful of business management simulator games—Supermarket Simulator, Waterpark Simulator, TCG Card Shop Simulator just to name a few. This genre can be a lot of fun and easy to lose track of time in, but admittedly, I find that enjoyment rather fleeting. The gameplay mechanics and concepts might differ from game to game, but most tend to feel like a recycled (pun intended) version of one another. I found writing this review to be difficult because most things I could mention are straightforward with not much to dive into.

However, Recycling Center Simulator does have some gems that I enjoy. It is a business management simulator taking place in, you guessed it, a recycling center. Developed by Balas Games and published by PlayWay S.A., it released back on October 2nd, 2024. As the owner of a new recycling center, you are responsible for making sure all operations run smoothly. To do this, you must collect and sort through recyclable materials, recycle those materials into other products, sell those products through contracts and of course, order your NPC workers to do the work for you. So, grab onto those pallet jacks as we discuss Recycling Center Simulator!

The Story & First Steps: A Dumpster Dive Into Gameplay

Typically, I start my reviews talking about the story or lore. However, like most simulator games, there’s really no story here. You are an owner of a recycling center and you must make money. Done. There are some questions I have that could involve a story, but I don’t think they will be getting answered.

Why are so many businesses in this town shutting down and seemingly abandoned? Why do some of the locations have storage crates with massive gold bars in them? What’s with the slight monopoly of who owns these shutting down businesses? Why is our recycling center outside and not in a building, as I would imagine most are? Why are we sleeping in a small shipping container above our office in our outside recycling center? How come there’s seemingly no non-recyclable materials that are just garbage? With the lack of dialogue or lore pieces, these questions will never get answered.

Story aside, the game drops you immediately into a tutorial. Your first steps will include building your first machine, negotiating your first scrap deal and going to the location to pick up the left behind scraps. Everything so far is pretty simple. The machines can be picked up and moved with ease. Negotiating a scrap deal lets you bargain for better deals (or for better sales in contracts which is later). I particularly enjoyed picking up the scrap, filling my trash bags and then making trick shots from a distance into the back of the truck.

Following this was the first of many, what I would call, minigames which is sorting the trash you just picked up. After starting the sorting machine, the items will flow down a conveyor belt. You must sort them into the correct bins. Each type of recyclable material is color coded, such as gray for metal or green for glass, but the bins will light up as you pick up the pieces. You can also perform a combo while sorting, which will give you bonus scrap.

After you are done sorting, you can then grab the sorted waste boxes below and feed them into the correct machines—which are also color coded. You can then start the actual recycling process which will give you products, such as pressed papers or sawdust. These will need to be placed in the storage area in order to be sold first, which might require a pallet and the pallet jack. This part was also fun, but I’ll talk more about this later.

After this, the tutorial walks you through some computer elements, such as the marketplace and contracts. These are the main two ways to earn profit in this game. The marketplace is for selling smaller quantities, good for a quick buck if needed. Contracts require more products, but will pay a lot more and build your reputation level if delivered on time. You can also buy new machines, equipment such as a lockpick or crowbar, expand your factory’s size, take out a bank loan and of course, hire workers to do the work for you. The tutorial shortly ends after hiring your first worker, informing you to go to sleep to refresh the contracts and scrap deals. You will then be on your own to build your recycling center as you best see fit!

The Gameplay: A Simulator with Minigames

Personally, I think the best aspect of Recycling Center Simulator are the minigames. Sorting the scraps into bins is mindless entertainment that has a slight “challenge” in getting combos or scraps building up on the belt. Lock-picking cash registers or doors at scrap sites is a nice addition to earn some extra money or scraps. Even maneuvering the pallet jack feels like a small minigame on its own because of the slight change in controls. None of these are super challenging or take up much time. However, it is the little things like this that make Recycling Center Simulator feel unique from other business management simulators. It’s the small additions like this that entertain me and bring me joy.

Unfortunately, beyond that, the gameplay is rather mundane. Gather scrap, recycle scrap, sell scrap, repeat, day after day. You set the goals yourself—either personally or through contracts. Sure, as you raise your reputation level, new gameplay elements are unlocked for you. However, none of the ones I’ve experienced ever felt all that game-changing. Unlocking better machines did allow me to create new products and make better profits, but the core elements were still the same. Expanding my factory allowed for a lot more machines, more conveyor belt placements and more storage, but it was really just more or less the same as before—only bigger.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that the game lacks a real wow factor. Sure, being the owner of a recycling center probably isn’t the most exciting profession. However, I shouldn’t have the most fun in playing the short minigames and creating lives and backstories for my NPC workers. (The two workers in the picture below were identical twin brothers, Roch and Bradley Anderson, who had a quarrel over who could sort trash faster.)

I want to quickly mention that the controls in this game are pretty straight forward. None of the mechanics or processes felt overly complicated and made perfect sense. Simulator games rarely complicate things, and this one sticks to that formula.

The Graphics & Audio: Could be Better, Could be Worse

The graphics in this game are fine. From what I’ve seen, simulator games never have the best graphics but none of them are ever so bad its hard to look at. Though I can’t say I’ve ever seen recycling machines, they all looked pretty realistic to me. Workers look kind of dead and lifeless, but that’s part of the simulator charm. I really appreciated the color coordination for the different recyclable types as it made the game 10x easier. Same could be said for the way scrap would glow at a location, making picking it up a breeze. I also really enjoyed the detail of the recycling bins filling up under the sorting machine. It’s a really nice touch that gives this simulator a great touch of realism—even though no matter how full a box got, there never seemed to be any overfilling or spilling.

The sounds in the game all feel super realistic. The wheels on the pallet jack sounded like actual wheels. The different noises that played when you picked up different types of recyclable materials felt fitting. The machines were super loud, vibrated my headphones, and despite my headache, all sounded true to real life.

If anything, it is the background ambience that doesn’t work. There is no actual music. Instead, two generic noises, birds for morning, crickets for night, play on a very short loop. The game does allow you to lower the ambient sounds to get rid of them, but I’m still a tad bit disappointed it isn’t something better. The title screen plays a rather catchy song. Why can’t the actual game itself?

Overall, the graphics and audio are just okay. Though there are some great touches in both, they tend to once again, feel the same as any other simulator.

The Wishes: Potential to Recycle the Game

In this section, I’m just going to include a few paragraphs on my personal wishes that might improve the game. I wasn’t entirely sure where to put these in the above sections, so I will make them as individual paragraphs here. I won’t mention things I can not see happening at all, such as adding a whole story to the game, and will try to stick with things that could. Obviously, I’m not an expert by any means. These are just my own opinions.

To start with, I think at some point in the day, the workers should all go home. The clock stops at 21:00 (9:00 PM). Everything is dark, flashlight is out and yet all my workers are still standing around. Though I appreciate their staunch loyalty to me and my business, it does not feel realistic at all.

Though I enjoy the minigames, there isn’t any incentive to try and get better at them. You can let the sorting machine’s conveyor belt fill up with scrap with no detriment to the sorting process. It would be nice if there was a slight uptick in challenge. Scrap could fall to the ground, causing the player or worker to pause, pick it up and try again, wasting just a few extra minutes in the day. Failed lockpicking could break the lock. The crates could sometimes be empty.

I think there could also be an uptick in other aspects to increase the realism. The endless supply of pallets could instead require you to order more after using so many, with the potential of reusing them as they tend to disappear after completing a contract. The recycling boxes could also follow this same concept, as they just appear after the sorting process is finished. Maybe simply adding some just plain un-recyclable garbage would ring more true to reality. Adding smaller mechanics like this would add to the realism, something that simulator games tend to strive for.

Finally, and probably most importantly, why is there no multiplayer? This is coming from me—someone who always prefers playing single player. The best moments in simulator games tend to be ones shared when you’re goofing around with your friends. Being the owner of this recycling center is a lonely experience, surrounded by the lifeless NPC workers. Perhaps all our business needs is a friend to panic as they sort through the endless supply of scrap we feed into the machine or be the target for our full trash bag trick shots.

The Conclusion: Simulators, A Dime a Dozen

I’m not really sure what Balas Games has in store for Recycling Center Simulator, if anything. The last major update was in March of 2025, with no roadmap of future updates in sight. I suppose it is very possible that they have moved on to new projects and will not be returning with updates anytime soon. If this is the end, then Recycling Center Simulator is just that—a business management simulator that’s like any of the others. Despite the few positive elements, I never felt that wow factor, something that made me think “hey…this one is better.” Maybe I’m just biased. Simulator games were never my cup of tea.

However, I don’t want this review to seem like a critique on the simulator game genre as a whole. They can be a lot of fun with the right elements and the right people to play with! If you’re an avid fan of simulators, then this game certainly keeps up with the rest of them! If you’re like me though, the entertainment is fleeting and might only last a weekend at best. Even if you do manage to reach a point where everything is automated by workers, with upgraded machines churning out profits and robots flying all over the place, I might still wonder if the time spent was really worth it in the end.

Thank you for reading and please remember to recycle!

The Prince of Persia takes another venture into the world of 2D action games. Compared to last year’s Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, which was a Metroidvania, The Rogue Prince of Persia is an action roguelite developed by Evil Empire. This team previously worked on another 2D action roguelite, Dead Cells. They aren’t the main developers, but they took the reins after Dead Cells launched to work on updates and DLC expansions. From this background, Evil Empire seemed to be a perfect fit for a movement-based 2D action roguelite.

Moving Through the Sands

Similar to Dead Cells and other roguelites, your progression is mainly based on how far you get and what you find in a run. Repeat deaths are very likely when starting out in a roguelite. With every death, you come back stronger along with more resources to help yourself for future runs. This perfectly applies to The Rogue Prince of Persia. These can range from weapon unlocks or experience points you can spend to upgrade the Prince’s abilities. Although you are not exactly making your character and attacks stronger, you are acquiring different options for combat and sustainability. Along with that, you’ll also encounter medallions in which they provide passive buffs to the Prince. I found them to be somewhat lackluster unless they were a Legendary tier medallion.

The combat is incredibly easy to understand and get into. The real meat of this game comes from its advanced movement mechanics. From wall running to vaulting over enemies, this game is heavily designed around the Prince’s movement. Once you get used to both combat and movement, you’ll end up reaching the end of stages pretty quickly. Movement is also important for boss fights as the arenas where you fight them change significantly. Adapt to those changes, and you’ll have a much better time fighting these bosses. 

Story In Gameplay

With comparisons to other roguelite, I would attribute a lot from the Hades games. Similarly, every time the protagonist dies, they are resurrected back to the main hub area. In these hub areas, there are multiple characters who you can talk to. Normally, they’ll have something different to say to the protagonist after every death/completed run. The Rogue Prince of Persia follows this similarly to the Hades games, but not to the same impact. After some point, the characters end up repeating dialogue in a short span of deaths/runs. Even the characters who you find or the interactable event locations in stages don’t have a lot to say. Although I haven’t seen every bit of dialogue from every character, the few runs that I have completed didn’t really change much, aside from the few characters in the Prince’s camp.

Along with engaging in this game’s world and story, there’s the Mind Map. The Mind Map is a great resource for those who want to know more about the world and characters, but it also somewhat serves as a quest list. Throughout runs, you’ll encounter scenarios with characters that may involve returning to them in a future run. In some cases, you’ll have to bring a specific item that’ll take up your tool slot. It leaves you with less combat options, but in a way, you are progressing more through the game by completing these quests. These help unlock new companions for the main hub area or unlock stages for future runs.

Closing Thoughts

The Rogue Prince of Persia is a solid 2D action roguelite. It excels in its movement mechanics making for great platforming sections combined with satisfying combat. Much of what I have said that I didn’t feel too strongly about the game were smaller aspects such as the medallions and the limited dialogue variety. Regardless of these small gripes, I would say this a great roguelite to pick up and sink some time into. The Rogue Prince of Persia is currently retailing at $29.99 USD and it is available on Steam, Ubisoft Connect, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and a future release this year on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.

The real-time strategy genre has long been at home in the PC ecosystem; a keyboard and mouse allow you to easily position units and issue commands in a way that is significantly more difficult on a gamepad. This isn’t to say a few brave developers haven’t tried to make RTS work on console, such as Milky Tea Studios with their alt-history project Grit and Valor – 1949.

Similar to the Wolfenstein series, the game presents a different version of the Second World War in which technology has progressed far beyond where it was in real life; battles are now fought with pilots in mechs as opposed to standard infantry soldiers. It’s not the most original concept (there’s plenty of WWII media that tries to put its own spin on the conflict) but the steampunk aesthetic presents as charming nonetheless.

Grit and Valor is a roguelite, asking players to progress through multiple boards with randomized nodes, culminating in a boss fight. Nodes will offer combat encounters, text-based decisions, and shops where you can purchase upgrades. The ability to choose your route is appreciated; you’ll be able to evaluate whether your team can realistically clear the area, or if a run should be dedicated strictly to gathering resources.

When you’re inevitably forced into combat, the skirmishes take place on square-shaped maps, often littered with cover, high ground, and additional objectives. Despite having a grid-based layout, all units still move in real-time, so you’ll need to make decisions quickly. Thankfully, the developers implemented the ability to pause the entire battle, letting you breathe and issue orders with a bit more comfort. It’s a shrewd balancing choice, almost certainly made to accommodate the console audience.

Effectiveness in the field is governed by the rock-paper-scissors of Grit and Valor’s mech types: ballistics trump flamethrowers, fire beats explosives, and grenades dominate bullets. It’s immediately easy to wrap your head around, and units will actually autoattack when enemies enter their range. Gameplay is largely relegated to just deciding where mechs should move, though the real depth comes from your unit customization.

Pilots selection proves to be rather disappointing. Each possesses a unique ability, but they fail to make an impact. None of them present any interesting ideas (AOE attacks, deployable mines, etc) so I often forgot about them. The only abilities that I routinely used were for healing, but that was more out of necessity than a genuine desire to interact with the game’s mechanics.

Modules are both more mentally stimulating and effective in battle. As you clear missions, you’ll acquire scrap. You can use this currency to craft modules within the Mech Yard, which will provide boosts to stats like damage, health, and armor among others. Eventually you’ll unlock the ability to fuse lower-level modules and replace them with better options. Furthermore, if your mech surpasses certain power thresholds, you can overclock it, fitting it with additional perks.

Each run you embark on will also shower you with randomized enhancements following an enemy wave. It’s a great way to experiment building your mechs in different ways, or double down on stats already buffed by your modules. Seeing your units excel in specific areas can make you feel like a tactical genius, and enemy scaling is appropriate such that the game never feels too easy nor excessively punishing. Of course, enhancements leave you as soon as the run ends, so you’re going to need a bit of luck to grab your favorites consistently.

Grit and Valor is an admirable effort for the underserved, if incredibly niche, console RTS market. Unit customization and teambuilding grabbed my attention more than the moment-to-moment action itself, though some diehards may chalk that up to traditional genre conventions. If you’re a fan of the roguelite formula and willing to dabble in alternate gameplay types, this is certainly worth a look.

If you’ve followed KEMCO’s steady stream of retro-leaning RPGs, Astral Takers will feel like a warm cup of déjà vu. Developed by VANGUARD and published by KEMCO, the game launched on July 31, 2025 across PC (Steam), PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and mobile, promising an adventure built around a summoning system, bite-sized quests, and a classic top-down presentation.

Simple and enjoyable

You play as Revyse, a young summoner apprenticed to Master Volgrim, whose path crosses with Aurora, an amnesiac girl tied to mysteries bigger than either of them. It’s a familiar hook, lost memories, hidden powers etc. But it provides enough propulsion for a road-trip party JRPG with frequent story interludes and town stops. The official materials lean into the “shape your fate with the power of summoning” angle, which frames most systems you’ll engage with for 20–30 hours depending on your appetite for side quests.

Astral Takers keeps its progression linear. You move from region to region, hit a dungeon, watch a scene, and pick up a few optional errands before continuing. That linearity is a double-edged sword: it keeps the friction low and the story moving, but it also limits the sense of discovery. While the summoning twist gives party management a gentle rhythm, exploration and dialogue don’t always keep pace, sometimes dragging between highlights.

So faithful to classics that it feels like a re-release

Astral Takers’ calling card is its summoning. You recruit and fight alongside “astrals” which are summoned heroes that slot into your party flow much like traditional companions. In practice, this means turn-based battles that are easy to parse, where the tactical interest comes from timing skills, swapping astrals to cover weaknesses, and pulling off simple synergy chains. The combat loop as straightforward and approachable rather than systems-dense. In other words, it’s comfort food for fans of SNES/PS1-era design. If you’re craving a crunchy build meta or radical innovations, this isn’t that.

On the presentation front, Astral Takers aims for clean pixel-adjacent 2D/HD visuals with expressive portraits and bright spell effects. It’s not a showpiece, but it is crisp and readable across platforms, with light touches (summon animations, scene framing) adding charm. The PlayStation 5 version hit me with a familiar feeling. Nostalgia, cheerful, and easy on the eyes, with no obvious performance snags.

My Conclusion

Astral Takers feels like a deliberate “comfort JRPG” perfect for those 1-3 hour sessions to kill some time. A low-stress, linear romp with a likable party, dependable turn-based fights, and a summoning wrinkle that keeps encounters from going stale. It rarely overreaches and, as a result, rarely dazzles. If you grew up on 16-/32-bit RPGs and want something you can chip away at in short sessions on a weeknight or commute, this scratches that itch. If you’re hunting for bold narrative swings, open-ended builds, or modern design risks (think branching jobs, tactical grid depth, or roguelite-adjacent experimentation), you’ll likely bounce off its safe choices.

I am not exactly ready for Out and About. I don’t think Walking Simulator should be a mark for shame, especially when your game has many different features and mechanics. However, if all those mechanics make me sleepy, we need to reevaluate the situation.

Developed and published by Yaldi Games, Out and About is a cosy 3D foraging adventure with cooking mechanics.

There is only so much walking around and looking at plants within an interface that makes you want to rip your hair out that you can take. Out and About never took off in any direction worth feeling excited for. It is all talking to lifeless characters or interacting with or cooking random items found in the game.

Out and About for some WEED

The idea at play, in Out and About, is exploring and foraging. As a young adult on an escape from zombie concrete life, you walk around a large forest and a little village, talking to people, gathering and noting down new species of plants, and eventually cooking them for one reason or another.

Most NPCs in Out and about are interactable, but talk in a very dull and suggestive set of dialogues that more often than not feel off.

As for the foraging part, it is insufferably boring. You find with small amounts of knowledge on plants. You use that knowledge to look at and detect different types of plants on the floor. Every time you find something new, it is added to your catalogue.

Rinse and Repeat, the game is complete.

The UI for most things in this game is very annoying. Not hard to control. Just annoying.

The Foraging System

Foraging in games should never feel like homework. At its best, it’s about discovery, pacing, and the thrill of uncovering something new. Whether that means stumbling across a rare resource, making a split-second choice, or pushing deeper into the unknown. 

What it should not be is sitting in front of a UI screen, squinting at nearly identical plants, and clicking through until the right answer appears. Systems like that don’t reward curiosity or risk; they just drain energy and attention.

When foraging is done right, it feels fast, intuitive, and layered with surprise. Games like survival sims or RPGs use foraging not only to feed crafting loops but also to create those tiny, exciting moments where your heart races after spotting something rare in the corner of your eye. 

That’s the standard: make it quick and satisfying, or make it engaging with a sense of mystery and reward.

In Out and About, the foraging system misses both marks. 

Instead of pulling players into a lively world of interaction, it reduces exploration to repetition. 

Walking around, cataloguing dull plant assets, and dragging them into menus isn’t a system; it’s a chore. Foraging shouldn’t lull players to sleep. It should spark wonder.

Out and About with a Thought

Out and About feels like a game with good intentions buried under lifeless execution. It wants to be a relaxing escape, a place where you wander, forage, and connect with a slower pace of life. But instead of delivering that meditative calm, it slips into monotony. Every mechanic. 

Whether walking, talking, or cooking, it leans toward dragging things out rather than giving players reasons to lean in.

The real tragedy is that the ingredients are all here: a beautiful setting, a core loop about exploration, and the promise of meaningful interaction. But nothing connects. Characters don’t inspire, foraging doesn’t excite, and the world feels more like a backdrop than a place worth inhabiting.

Walking simulators and slice-of-life adventures don’t need to be high-octane thrill rides to succeed. They just need to keep players curious and invested, moment to moment. 

Out and About never finds that spark. 

What should have been a thoughtful, cosy trek instead feels like wandering in circles, waiting for something interesting to happen. In the end, Out and About isn’t offensively bad. It’s just painfully dull. And in gaming, dull is the hardest sin to forgive.