I thought this game was gonna suck, being completely honest. I had shrugged this game off and lumped it with the middling-quality XBLA titles of its era. Eventually, I decided to give it a shot when it was dirt cheap on Steam, and found it quite enjoyable. It's simple, sure, but it manages to work within its simplicity to keep itself enjoyable throughout, each map introducing its own "gimmick", which keeps even the early maps interesting (I've seen similar games of this type recycle map ideas per difficulty and am glad Dungeon Defenders at least tries to keep each map its own thing). What's most surprising is the fact this game a community-maintained branch with modding support and updated content that is just THERE on steam, as a beta.

Keep an eye on this game, pick it up whenever its cheap, rope some friends into doing the same, and have a blast Defending some Dungeons.

People who know me well enough to know what checks the boxes of a "Scrap-Core" video game will already know I REALLY like Path of Exile. This game lets you try some truly absurd ideas by virtue of its main progression being a massive, class-independent skill tree (With your class choice deciding your starting position on the tree and, later on, a specialized mastery tree). Each standard "Archetype" you would see in other games has more than a couple ways you can specialize them to fit YOU specifically (I myself have built my main character around an INCREDIBLY specific setup that others playing the same starting class would never consider). It's a wonderful to boot up whenever I wanna try something dumb or just chill out.

I so badly want to be able to recommend this game, every fiber of my being wants this game to be good. Unfortunately, BPM has other plans.

The Rhythm/Rougelike is a genre I would champion if there were more than 3 games fitting the description (The same goes for Rhythm/FPS but that genre's only got this and the upcoming Metal: Hellsinger), so I take no joy in saying the BPM is an early beta build of a game disguised as its 1.0 release.

While the core gameplay is fun, everything else around it feels so half-baked it's surprising to learn the game is no longer is early access.

Paratopic is an extremely unique game, for one, the game's runtime is about 30 minutes, with no save system and heavy emphasis on replaying its incredibly short story to catch all the fine details you might have missed your first time. Graphically, Paratopic looks like a PS1-era game, but that isn't to say the game looks "bad"; Paratopic uses modern advancements in lighting and particles, along with its older, low-res look, to create an incredible atmosphere, one packed with little detail and care. The game always has this washed out green or sickly yellow color to it, and the indoor areas have a light smoke cover to them, which blend together to create a hazy, dream-like experience. The unique artstyle, combined with the amazing soundtrack, make the game feel like a lucid nightmare; it feels familiar, but also a complete stranger to you, like you went to the reality next door, where most things still make sense, but you can never escape the feeling that Something Is Terribly Wrong.

On the horror end, I feel worth mentioning that this game features no jumpscares, save for the VERY end.

I plan on doing another playthrough soon and logging more in-depth thoughts on what I think the game "means" sometime soon, but for now, I urge everyone to check the game out for themselves: It is incredibly cheap, incredibly short, and incredibly good.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a game I love to death, and an easy recommend from me, though it isn't without its problems.
MGR oozes personality and style: its combat feels great, the music is amazing, and its story is easily digestible for a casual playthrough and actually comedic. The bossfights are the high point of the game, each of them enjoyable characters and great fights, coupled with a unique fight theme (save for two fights early on, which end up being common enemies you fight later into the game.) Revengeance's problems start to arise when you aren't fighting a boss, however.
The sections between bossfights (read: the majority of the game) feel a bit undercooked, while playing one can feel like there was an entire phase of development dedicated to polishing these areas that was completely skipped over (which, knowing this game's rough development, might have been the case.) That isn't to say MGR isn't an incredibly enjoyable experience, I personally have clocked in ~40 hours across multiple playthroughs, and am still regularly coming back for more, and would easily recommend others give it a shot.

TL;DR Metal Gear Rising is a 10/10 Album and a 6/10 Video Game, pick it up when its on sale and you won't be disappointed.

Gunpoint is a charming Puzzle/Stealth game that does what it sets out to do and nothing more. It presents interesting mechanics, demonstrates them, fleshes them out, and then the game is over. While some may find this a problem, I think it's wonderful that Gunpoint doesn't overstay its welcome, while still being long enough to feel worth it (I've clocked in around 2.5 playthroughs and have 19.4 hours at time of writing.)
Gunpoint is game I can easily recommend to others for a short, enjoyable puzzle experience, though its DLC extras are a bit pricey for what they add.