Review the game you finished recently.

[Braamer]

Spider-Man 2018

Just finished this one, and overall it is an outstanding game. The story was very engaging, combat was fun, and swinging around the city was glorious. It makes you feel like you are Spider-Man.

+
Graphics - Very attractive and well-done game. The variety of suits is sensational, and most of them look great.
Story- I was vested in this story from the beginning, and it got better and better as the game went on. It think it was better than Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Characters - The characters were well-developed. Playing as Peter as well as Spider-Man was genius. MJ was interesting. Plus, fighting so many of the villains was great.
Combat/Controls - Combat had more variety than the Arkham games, which help. Swinging all over on webs was so much fun. Controls are very well done and intuitive.

-
One a couple of minor gripes:
Side quests - They got a little redundant, especially the Taskmaster stuff. I despised the drone challenge, especially. That's why I dinged the gameplay score.
Playing as alt characters - Completing the MJ and Miles portions was a bit of a let-down, game-play wise, compared to the rest of the game.

Scoring:

graphics : 9
story : 10
atmosphere/mood : 10
gameplay : 8
controls : 10

final score : 9.5/10 (Barely below The Witcher 3, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and Dark Souls for me. Very close to gaming perfection)

 

[Flogger23m]

Spider-Man does look interesting. I understand it is an exclusive deal with Sony which I find interesting. You'd think Marvel would like to license it for all platforms as that would likely net them the most profits. Can't imagine why they decided to license it to a developer that more or less only does Sony games.

 

[WarriorX]

Dawn of War 2

They changed from a RTS with base building to basically an RPG where you control 4 heroes that you level up and get gear for. The strategy part is basically a turn based mini game where you decide where and what to attack or defend. I personally missed the base building from the RTS experience the previous game offered, but I did know before hand what I was getting. For what the game offered I did enjoy it (mostly). After a while it did feel repetitive with the mission design. Most missions could be finished in under 30 minutes which was great because there is zero in mission saving. You usually have a hand full of missions to pick from to help get more gear and items for your heroes and most are optional. As I got to the end I only started playing the missions that progressed the story as my heroes were maxed on levels and gear.

Graphics were good for the age of the game. Voice acting was good with some fun banter between the characters. Story was interesting enough to push through the missions. It has made me more interested in the backstory of the 40k universe.

Overall I did enjoy most of it but I was looking to get it wrapped up toward the end. I think they should have kept the base building and spin off a different game if they wanted to try something different.

 

[M76]

Spider-Man does look interesting. I understand it is an exclusive deal with Sony which I find interesting. You'd think Marvel would like to license it for all platforms as that would likely net them the most profits. Can't imagine why they decided to license it to a developer that more or less only does Sony games.

My problem with Spider man, is that he's probably my least favorite comic book character. I don't know why, that's just how it is. Besides with marvel movies and series coming out left right and center I'm pretty much burned out with this stuff. Just can't be bothered to even lift my head for comic book adaptations anymore.

 

[Kinsaras]

Spider-Man does look interesting. I understand it is an exclusive deal with Sony which I find interesting. You'd think Marvel would like to license it for all platforms as that would likely net them the most profits. Can't imagine why they decided to license it to a developer that more or less only does Sony games.

https://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/09/12/spider-man-ps4-developer-thanks-sony/

Sounds like the game simply wouldn't have existed without Sony.

 

[Eshelmen]

Picked up the early access title Scum a few weeks back and with a ton of work in between and playing Black Ops, I can finally and confidently say that I know enough about this game, and can write my take on it.

As much as I love survival games, I'm almost always craving to play a different one once I get the hang of them. I guess I truly love the entry portion of these type of games when you're really struggling to survive. The content that follows afterwards is what obviously makes us stay to play longer. Ark is a perfect example of having plenty to do at any stage of a surivival game.

After 20 - 30 hours (mostly dicking around) of playing this game online and offline, I've come to conclude that I've already seen and done pretty much everything there is worth seeing or dying to see. Scum right now is just too bare bone to have any real end game motives. Once you get the best gear, you pretty much have nothing else to accomplish.

It's early access, I know. And I wish I picked it up in 6 months to a year from now to see the much needed content they'll have added.

Right now as it stands, it's almost too incomplete to make a full review. But I will say, it's been quite fun running in to players, especially ones whom were in the same situation as myself in the first few hours(figuring out controls, barely any loot,etc). Most people are okay, and won't mess with you if you say hello. Some are absolute dicks and will come at you even you're hundreds of yards away. That's fine.

Hackers have been truly devastating to online servers. It seems every day on the server I play on, someone or myself gets immediately killed, loses their stuff and has to restart over. And this isn't a one time occurrence as hackers usually like to troll the servers for a good hour or so until rolling on to the next. So when you spawn again, you re immediately killed by an invisible player who always knows where you are.
They've added a patch or two to fix this in the last week or so, but not much has changed.

Regardless of the hackers, lag spikes, glitches and almost zero content (other than looting army bases and towns) there isn't much excitement with this game right now, and once you get past the hunger hump it's a piece of cake to survive.

The words "base camp" is larger than the actual camp you can make, in which you use to spawn at if you die. Crafting system needs a lot of work, and there absolutely NEEDS to be more housing additions. A chest box and a real small tent is all there is to make a home right now.

Transportation is an absolute must, as they are non existent. The map is pretty damn big, and everything worth seeing or going to is too spread out and too repetitive to even want to care what's on the other side of the map. I'd personally like to see them add horses as a way of transportation. Not only does this add to the immersion, but it would be truly devastating to see it get mauled by a horde of zombies or a grizzly bear while you're just inside a house looting things.

Yeah there's PVP modes, but eh..

I'll give this game a 5.75 out of 10 as it stands right now. It has a lot of potential - the graphics are absolutely gorgeous, melee combat is quite fun, and the inventory management is a head scratcher but kind of unique, in which I like.

Will review again in 6 months to see if much has changed. Probably won't be playing it too much from here on out until they add a plethora of things.

Scum -

Gameplay - 5
Graphics - 9
Atmosphere - 7
Content - 2

5.75 out of 10

 

[Colonel Sanders]

Finished the three episodes on Ultra Violence. Currently playing through Episode 4 (holy shit is that hard...). Anyways - I have to say I really enjoyed myself. Best feature I never thought I'd appreciate about the game is its MIDI soundtrack. I have a Roland SC-8850 and it just sings on that soundtrack.

Oh, and the gun play is almost perfect. So I take back my "dated mechanics" comment - its gunplay is better than most modern first person shooters, I'd say. All weapons have a purpose and a use. My only dislike of the game is that on the later episodes, ammo is a little sparse at first. Not sure if this was because I used the higher difficulty or what, but it was a little frustrating.

Check out the GZDoom source port with the Brutal Doom mod. Holy crap it's awesome.

 

[Thunderdolt]

My three word PUBG review:

Veni, cucurrit, obii.

 

[M76]

Assassin's Creed Odyssey (2018)

Take in the sights, enjoy the fights...


That tagline pretty much sums up the game. Because if you don't like the sights, or the fights in the game, then you might as well stay away. Why? Because the graphics and visual design is one of the best aspects of the game, and if you can't appreciate that, well then what's the point?
This is a truly beautiful game to behold, so much attention to detail in the locations. And it looks just amazing. What you don't believe me? I have proof. Here, these I screenshots I took in game, these are not doctored in any way, this is how the game actually looks like.





And these aren't even taken in Athens or some other prominent locations, those are amazing too, but there were only a few moments when I actually took the time to stop and take screenshots. And unfortunately photo mode doesn't work during conversations or cutscenes I really wanted to take some screens during some.

So we established that the game has what I can only describe as 10 out of 10 graphics. I mentioned fights. Well you have to enjoy those because you're in for a lot of fights in the game. Again If you don't get the hang of it by level 5-6, better turn back, because the game is just more of the same all the way.

Some so called pro reviewers criticized the game's story and narrative, all I can say to that is that they're ignorant fools. And this is not an ad-hominem I throw around. They demonstrated that they're ignorant and didn't understand basic concepts of the game. At least in the one review I endured to watch.
I also saw others say that they just ran trough it as quickly as they could to rush out the reviews. It seems that's what game journalism has come to on the youtube side at least. The first one out gets the views, who cares about accuracy and quality, right? What is it you're saying, that I'm salty?
Damn right I'm salty, but not because of these youtubers success, but because of what game journalism has become. One half is in a rat race for the limelight. While the other half, the PC bunch (and I don't mean personal computer) is more concerned about politics of the game. Where are the real reviews? In the past it seems to me.

Well if I mentioned politics, I have to discuss the actual politics of the game. Not ancient greek politics, but the undertones the writing staff gave the game. It is about 100% true to what I'd expect from people aligned with the infamous "atheism plus" camp. Yes where atheism meets social justice.
There are basically no strong prominent male characters in the game. They are typically either the reasonable, but can't get anything done weakling. Or the strong but stupid kind. And the writers put so many jests and pokes at believing in gods in the game that it seems out of context.

It was the norm to believe in Zeus in ancient Greece. Why try to rewrite history? Yes we know better know, but they didn't then, so having an atheist remark for everyone that expresses belief seemed out of place to me. And I'm saying that despite considering myself not just an atheist, but an anti theist.
This is the same problem that BFV has, the rewriting of history. About half of the mercenaries in the game are female, and a lot of the regular soldiers and guards too. It is not detrimental to the experience just yet. But it's not settle either. What also bothered me, is that I played as Kassandra, and she was
ready to get into bed with anyone at any time. Ugly, stupid, weak, male, female, didn't matter. And there was even a forced romance where you had no choice but to have a same sex fling whether you wanted it or not. But at the same time, there is no proper love interest in the game, it's almost as if they're the sending a message that strong women don't need men.
But the most ridiculous thing in the game to me is that, you're literally killing people by the thousands, there is all kinds of gore, beheading, impaling, mutlitaion going on, but sex? NO, we can't even show a hint of that, it's only implied with a fade to black.

So social justice undertones aside, the story and the narrative is pretty good. There is no one main story, but multiple story arcs that sometimes cross each others paths during the game. I think it is very unique and a refreshing experience. It feels more realistic than having one big story and lots of small irrelevant sidquests with filler characters.
Here many of the characters that you meet on some side adventure appear later during the main story. And vice versa. One sidequest may lead to another, then another, that turns out to be a part of a whole main story arc. Some of the dialogue is very good as well. Too bad dialogue choices don't mean shit most of the time.
I've tried many times loading a previous save to try different choice options and eventually all roads lead to rome. You have a dialogue choice, but two sentences later the conversation is in the exact same path whichever you chose. The only exception are the choices that are marked with icons.
Where you can choose to kill or at least fight a character directly this is the red icon with swords, and the heart icon which obviously is the "let's fuck" option. And I'm not being inappropriate. Literally that is how much romance is there with these. Oh and there is a recruit option as well for some NPCs.

The people you recruit are put into the pool of people that you can choose as lieutenants on your ship. These add various bonuses depending on the person. But you don't know what will one person bring to the table. Once I recruited a scrawny looking bum in diapers, who turned out to be one of the best lieutenants I had for a very long time.
So yes, you have a ship in the game, which is basically your mobile base of operations. And since the map is about two thirds water, you need a ship to get around. One thing I wish I knew when I started playing the game, is that you can disembark your ship anywhere, you don't have to go into a harbor. I didn't realize this until about lvl 40.
Before then I traveled everywhere by going to the nearest port then took a small row boat, or walked to my actual destination. At first glance the naval battles seemed very generic and not very engaging, but I changed my mind about them later, they're actually not that bad. I liked how the size of the waves actually matter when you're sailing.
And the cat and mouse games you have to play to ram other ships was pretty good too. You have two options dealing with enemy ships either you sink them outright or you board them after disabling them. The first gets you lots of wood and drachme. The latter option gets you items and refills part of your ships health which is a good thing if you have other ships to deal with still.

And since I mentioned resources there is no reason to keep the cat in the bag any longer. Fuck the resource management in the game! And fuck the leveling system too! Yeah they are there to ruin your experience hand in hand. Any one of them on it's own I could've dealt with, but together they're disruptive as hell.
Why? Because this is the most restrictive leveling system I ever saw in any game. Everything is scaled up exponentially between levels, every stat, damage, armor, modifiers, everything. This means that if you encounter an enemy a few levels above you, they'll one hit kill you even on easy. And you almost can't hurt them at all.
But this is not the worst part, and somewhat understandable, this is how the game keeps you from completing quests meant for the endgame early. But the real issue is that you have to upgrade your gear as well after each levelup, to have proper stats. If you don't upgrade your weapons or armor, again you become cannon fodder even for basic enemies.
But the upgrades are prohibitively expensive. And they get more expensive with each level. I could never keep all my gear on par with my level. Usually I only had the resources to upgrade one major or 2-3 smaller items at a time. And if you miss upgrading something for a few levels then you can forget about that item, since it will be so expensive to upgrade that it is out of this world.
As you get closer to lvl 50 which is apparently the highest level in the game, upgrading one item will cost insane amounts. I know some people are fine with farming for resources, I'm not one of those. If I'm doing something in the game I need a narrative purpose for it.
I'm not going to start clearing random forts just for the sake of it. Unless they're the daughters of artemis and attack me without provocation, then I'm going to murder every last one. But that was just one time. I swear every other time I had a mission, where I needed to lower nation power.

That's another interesting mechanic in the game. Each region has a stat called nation power, which represents how strong the current leadership is. You can lower that by killing soldiers in forts, stealing their money, and burning supplies, destroying weapons, and even killing their leader.
If the nation power becomes low enough that triggers a conquest battle, that you can join on the defender or the attacker side. And if you win as the attacker the leadership is replaced. Well actually this is just another mechanic for farming xp and resources in the game. I didn't do these either without good reason.

Then I guess it's time to talk about the elephant in the game. The blatant pushing of micro-transactions. The game keeps nagging you to buy this and that at every corner. And as long as it is only cosmetic stuff, it's not a big issue. But here you'd have to pay to get what I'd consider normal XP and resource gains.
The game is just short changing you by default, but don't worry, ubisoft is here to offer you a pack that gives you 50% more XP for a price of course. As much as the game begs for that, I implore everyone don't give in. I don't want this to be common practice. Where the devs deliberately make a game just a little more grindy than necessary to then offer a remedy to that problem for an extra price.
I paid for the ultimate edition, I demand to have the best possible game already. The game is far from being unplayable as is, but you just feel that the progress is slower than what you expect.

There is one more thing I want to say: If you're the type of player who just wants to run trough main story quests, then this game is not for you. Because that is made impossible by the level system. You have to do the side quests and a lot of them to reach the level necessary for the end game, you can't just do the quests directly connected to the main story lines. It took me 70 hours to finish the main story. I still have many unexplored areas, islands I haven't even visited, and about a dozen untouched sidequests give or take. In order to tie up all main quests you need to be close to lvl50 because you have to defeat level50 enemies to get there.

And good that I mentioned defeating enemies. Because that is one thing I disliked about the game. The mechanics are there for being stealthy, but it's just not worth it. You don't get any XP for achieving things undetected or without killing. But you get all the loot and XP from killing enemies. I have the option to sneak in to camps and just get the objective, but I'm shooting myself in the foot in the process because I could never get enough XP that way to keep leveling up.

One more thing I have to confess. This is the first AC game I played since the very first one, and I never finished that one either, so if there was anything that is nothing new in this game I mentioned, I'm sorry, everything was new to me at least.

I hope I didn't forget anything and mentioned everything I wanted. So here goes the pros and cons, and a third category for things that I consider both a blessing and a curse.

+

• Graphics
• Huge world
• Good fight mechanics
• Kassandra's voice (the acting too)
  
• Unique approach to storytelling
• Some good character moments
• Unexpected depth to the story
• Exploration

-

• Pushing of microtransactions
• Atheism+ undertones
• Leveling system
• No rewards for stealth / pacifist approach
  
• The need to upgrade gear
• Sometimes unbalanced difficulty. Some enemies are really hard to take down, while some others even ones above your level are too easy to defeat
• The game gets easier, as you level up, not harder, the most difficult part for me was around level 8-9, games are supposed to be harder at the end, right? .
  
• I'm a bit confused / underwhelmed about the ending(s)
• Some glitches here and there
• I nominate phobos for the stupidest horse in the greek world award. I mean I want to get on it so I start moving towards him then it starts running away from me?! Or when he gets stuck on a tiny curb? Or wedged between two headstones?
  
• The choice of horse at the beginning of the game is a real good representation of how important your dialogue choices are: Superficial.

*

• Overpower and chain assassination attacks, makes you a virtually unstoppable killing machine, you can kill multiple enemies without effort in an instant.
  
• Endless stream of loot to dismantle, it really takes a lot of time to manage your gear and ship upgrades
• The bow and arrow gets extremely overpowered by mid game.

Scoring card:

graphics/realization: 10/10
story/atmosphere: 8/10
gameplay/controls: 8/10

overall impression: 9/10

Well it's up to everyone to decide for themselves, for me this is game of the year, no doubt about it. What RDR2? From what I saw, that comes nowhere near this. I won't touch it until it becomes available for PC anyway.

 

[WarriorX]

Been on a Dawn of War binge lately and wrapped up with the remaining games after finishing Dawn of War 2

Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War II Chaos Rising
I imported my save from DoW2 and it let me keep my gear and levels for my characters which was neat. Story was fun and the DLC was overall fun as it was basically more of the same of DoW2.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Retribution
Didn't allow importing my save and had a more restricted leveling and gearing for the characters. Far fewer levels and less interesting skills/abilities and far less gear. Gameplay was about the game and story was fun. Overall the game was ok but would have prefered it kept with the same style as the previous games.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III
The game had some missions I had a blast when playing ( seems like they were all Ork missions) and some I hated and wondered how the devs thought they were a good design. They returned base building which was cool but all of the factions you play as are basically copies with a different look. Very similar units types with nothing real unique.

I did enjoy the characters and story. It kept me wanting to continue and loved the Ork missions.

They added 'elites' which are just the same powerful heroes you had from the previous games but only having 3 total, and no leveling or gear to equip. Overall an ok game, took me the longest to play through and basically think it was a forgettable experience.


Overall I enjoyed playing the DoW series and hope they do make a DoW4 at some point and learn from DoW3.

 

[Domingo]

Shadow of the the Tomb Raider

Graphics and sound are easily a 10/10. In fact it might be the best looking game I've ever played. Worth noting, that's on an RTX2080 Ti so your mileage may vary.

The problem is that the game itself isn't very good. There's a lot of platforming, collecting random items, and puzzles, but the controls just don't work quite right. You have to time jumps and swings super early. I just about never make certain leaps on the first try in spite of having played hundreds of similar games. The puzzles are mostly well done, though. No real complaints there.

Combat is almost non-existent. There are maybe 6-7 combat sequences in the entire game, and half of them are canned so that you're stuck using a specific weapon or strategy. The game puts so much focus on offering you 15 different upgradable weapons that you never use. Most of the game actually involves collecting upgrade materials that simply don't matter.

The game's pacing leaves a lot to be desired. The first 30-45 minutes is fantastic. It does a good job of introducing the narrative + gameplay and is super polished and varied. There are maybe 1-2 mid-game sequences that are of similar quality, and the end is well done, too. The problem is that the middle 75% of the game is dull and full of pointless collection and minimal payoff. Unless you're a sucker for making new outfits or powering up guns you won't use, item collection doesn't do much. The skill tree is similarly pointless. There are a few skills that apply to jumping, climbing, swimming, and collecting but the rest are borderline single-use power-ups.

Overall it's a 6/10. The game is an audio/visual masterpiece with a below-average game sandwiched between two exciting sequences.

 

[NoOther]

Overall I enjoyed playing the DoW series and hope they do make a DoW4 at some point and learn from DoW3.

I hope they return to the base building from the first DoW, but I doubt it. Or they could go in an entirely different direction and actually make a turn based combat game that mimics the tabletop. Perhaps do something in the vein of Kill Team.

 

[Flogger23m]

Far Cry 5 - Lost on Mars

Started out okay until I got to a Clutch Nixon side quest. The controls don't work. Either Ubisoft are lairs when they say WASD controls the wing suit or it flat out does not work. Shame, it worked in the base game. Cannot exit activity and the load times are extremely long to reset it, only to be unable to do anything. Therefore progression is not possible and the game cannot be completed as of this time.

0/10

Some people at Ubisoft should be in prison for this. Its time we start regulating the video game industry. Hundreds of these conartist video game designers should have been in prison years ago. Maybe then we'd get decent games again.

I suppose after the criminally negligent of release Ghost Recon Wildlands Ubisoft will do anything as no one is holding them accountable. Whoever signed off on Wildlands should have been anally raped in prison multiple times by now.

 

[M76]

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (2017)

If I start by saying that I very much hope that the team that put this together is not responsible in any way shape or form for TLOU2, then you already have a very clear notion on what I think about this game.

It's not an appallingly bad game, far from it. But it is not even worth comparing to TLOU as it is in a far different league.

Let's start by dismantling the gameplay. What would be an appropriate description? I know: BLATANT RIPOFF. With all caps. They are not even trying to hide that they are copying Rise of The Tomb Raider almost to the letter. To a point where even some of the criticism I had for that are present in it. For example making jumps that are seemingly impossible, but your leap is always as big as the situation demands.
The game mechanics are carbon copied, jumping, climbing, shooting, and running, and a few puzzles to solve. Even the collecting of artifacts. Except here it is completely pointless, as it doesn't give anything to the lore, the items are not interesting in any way, or hold any secrets. The only reason to collect them is to get the attached achievement, or trophy as they are called on PS.

The only difference in gameplay is having an AI controlled partner. But that changes less than you might think. It doesn't stop the game from being exactly like Tomb Raider. I cannot re-iterate enough that it is not a superficial resemblance, if they replaced the main character's skin with Lara Croft it would be Tomb Raider. Even the villains could easily be trinity. Hell they are: A pack of mercs lead by random superstitious bad guy.
Talking about the AI partner, the only significant part she plays in the game is the god awful cringe inducing woke dialogue, they spew all the time, but especially during cutscenes.

The story is really vague and uninteresting. I had zero investment in the personal gripes of the characters, which the entire story seemed to revolve around. The most laughable part were the stereotypical indian accents. But the main villain sometimes forgot that he should speak in an indian accent. That is bad voice acting right there. Even Claudia Black who voices the main character who I was a fan of since farscape delivers such a bland performance that every damned dialogue was torture to my senses.

The agenda and motivations of the characters changes more often than the weather. "We're friends, now we're sworn enemies, yay we're friends again" Baah, my head wanted to explode. The characters have no character whatsoever, they do and act completely arbitrarily as the piss poor writing demands.

It's not a bad game technically, but that is little consolation.

+

• OK-ish graphics
• Exact same gameplay as Tomb Raider

-

• Piss poor story and writing
• Characters have no convictions, their attitude is ever changing
  
• Awful dialogue and voice acting
• Blatant copy of Rise of the Tomb Raider
• Mediocre level design
• 7 hours to finish without rushing
• male = bad / female = good (as I think of it, there was not a single female character on the bad side, plus the only male on the "good" side is painted in the worst possible light as well)

Scoring card:

graphics/realization: 7/10
story/atmosphere: 2/10
gameplay/controls: 6/10

overall impression: 5/10

Meh...At least it was short and I didn't waste much time on it, just money.

 

[psy81]

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (2017)

Scoring card:

graphics/realization: 7/10
story/atmosphere: 2/10
gameplay/controls: 6/10

overall impression: 5/10

Meh...At least it was short and I didn't waste much time on it, just money.

A bit harsh but I agree with your assessment. Without Nathan Drake the game comes across as a Tomb Raider game with characters I don't care about. Graphics deserved a better score. I'd say its a 7/10.

 

[M76]

A bit harsh but I agree with your assessment. Without Nathan Drake the game comes across as a Tomb Raider game with characters I don't care about. Graphics deserved a better score. I'd say its a 7/10.

After playing Horizon Zero Dawn and AC:Odyssey, or even Shadow of the Tomb Raider, I don't think the graphics is particularly exceptional, so 7/10 is perfectly reasonable, now that you made me think about it more, I'd rather lower that score, not raise it.

 

[Denpepe]

I just finished Spiderman on the PS4

Pro's
-Getting around the city spidey style is fun
-Combat is decent enough, but some could find the game too easy, it was pretty smooth for me at medium which is fine by me
-There is a lot to do
-The graphics are good
-Voice acting is good
-Story is decent enough given that it plays out in a known universe
-The game runs smooth

Spoiler

The prison break changes the city and makes it dangerous

Cons
-While there is a lot to do, there is a lot of repetition involved.
-Mandatory stealth missions I'm not a fan of those
-Boss fights were kind of meh, had more trouble with the first one then the later ones
-One could say it feels a bit like a reskinned Batman game
-While I could get to most places without too much trouble, the controls during travel are a bit all over the place and you can end up somewhere you did not expect or want which can make timed missions a bit of a drag (moving past corners while stuck to a building is something I can't seem to do correctly it seems)

All in all I liked the game, one of the better ones I played this year and imo a solid 8/10

 

[Flogger23m]

Final Fantasy XV

Redoing this review as I found a fix for the game stopping CTDs. It won't prevent all of them, but stops the consistent ones that prevent story progression. Turn off the Nvidia graphic options.

The story of this game is a mess. Most of the important details are not explained. Most of the story info comes from a stand alone movie. The movie itself was watchable but had some bad forced dialogue and devolved into an incomprehensible CGI explosion fest in the end. But this is where you get at least half of the story in FFXV so it is mandatory to watch as far as I am concerned.

The story in the game largely ignores the important aspects and appears to have many holes in it. The characters themselves barely react to the world and the situations that occur around them. Life changing events will happen, and then moments later your band of friends will act like high school children on their first road trip trying to take pictures, ride giant birds or find their favorite food. The world around you appears to be oblivious to the struggle of two different kingdoms, one of which is actively fighting to conquer yours. Despite being a Prince few people recognize you, and the enemy frequently lets you off with no strings attached for some odd reason. You'd think they'd be able to find your party and their vehicle with easy and apprehend them. Towards the end of the story it devolves into pure gibberish about gods, king-gods, and other stuff that you just need to turn your brain off for. Don't play the game for the story.

Gameplay wise the game displays the worst possible implementation of an open world while the later portion turns into a corridor slasher, also in the worst way possible. It is amazing that they tried both approaches and failed so badly at both. The open world has a lot of fetch quests with little diolgue, no story context, and long travel times. Fast traveling is present but the locations you can fast travel to and from are a pain to get to and often costs money. This makes traveling around the map a pain. The corridor sections are linear with only a single pathway and occasionally a room to go into to pick up an item. Enemies spawn from the floor typically. Pretty lame.

You spent a lot of time in your car, which practically drives itself. You can only accelerate or stop. You can't freely turn your vehicle around. There is a QTE for a u-turn but that is it. You can't drive off road or anything. The worst, most restrictive driving mechanics I've ever seen. There are some upgrades for it but I never bothered. The car has no character and spending time running/loading back to the mechanic isn't worth the time.

Most locations in the world are barren and empty. I elected to spend an extra 30 minutes driving around roads I skipped initially. Pretty much empty roads, a few buildings with nothing to see. Graphics are poor so it wasn't even interesting to go sight seeing.

Combat is utter garbage. More or less button mashing. Like many fighting games the controls don't work well at all. There are options to hang on ledges but it rarely works. Controller prompts reference buttons that don't exist on an Xbox 360 controller. Occasionally the game bugs out and starts referencing keyboard/mouse controls. Enemy bosses can occasionally kill you in two hits while it may take 100+ hits to take them down. They can often hit you, and then finish you off before you can even recover. The worst instance was a boss fight which started after a cutscene. Under a second later my character was on the ground and knocked out. The boss one shot killed me before I could even press a button. The controls, combos & awkward boss damage/HP must be broken and the developers must know because you have to spam potions & recovery items. They must have realized at the last minute that bosses one shot killing you immediately after a cutscene ends would prevent progression in the game so as a last minute "fix" they just spam the player with potions.

Graphics are garbage. Textures are utter trash, almost PS2 era like in many places. That is with the 4K textures as well. Horrific stutters. View screen shots below. Performance for the poor graphic quality is unacceptable. Save system only works sometimes. If you are in a cave, or near an enemy you can't save. Makes it a pain because the occasionally game crashes meaning you have to re-do 30 minute sections all over. From a technical standpoint this game is a complete mess.

The DLC is the same. One is a horrible corridor shooter which ends with a boss sequence that is literally the player holding down the shoot button for 5 minutes. Another is an 80s style action movie "I need more power!" and you spam the attack button. The other is a retread of the main game.

The end of the story progresses a bit, but you're immediately back to people not caring about the world around them. More broken boss fights, poor CGI god/king/super god fights that are of little relevance. Overall there is nothing redeeming about the game. The story is absent minded, the gameplay bad, and the technical aspects are horrible.

5/10

 

[TheCommander]

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (2017)

View attachment 124503

If I start by saying that I very much hope that the team that put this together is not responsible in any way shape or form for TLOU2, then you already have a very clear notion on what I think about this game.

It's not an appallingly bad game, far from it. But it is not even worth comparing to TLOU as it is in a far different league.

Let's start by dismantling the gameplay. What would be an appropriate description? I know: BLATANT RIPOFF. With all caps. They are not even trying to hide that they are copying Rise of The Tomb Raider almost to the letter. To a point where even some of the criticism I had for that are present in it. For example making jumps that are seemingly impossible, but your leap is always as big as the situation demands.
The game mechanics are carbon copied, jumping, climbing, shooting, and running, and a few puzzles to solve. Even the collecting of artifacts. Except here it is completely pointless, as it doesn't give anything to the lore, the items are not interesting in any way, or hold any secrets. The only reason to collect them is to get the attached achievement, or trophy as they are called on PS.

The only difference in gameplay is having an AI controlled partner. But that changes less than you might think. It doesn't stop the game from being exactly like Tomb Raider. I cannot re-iterate enough that it is not a superficial resemblance, if they replaced the main character's skin with Lara Croft it would be Tomb Raider. Even the villains could easily be trinity. Hell they are: A pack of mercs lead by random superstitious bad guy.
Talking about the AI partner, the only significant part she plays in the game is the god awful cringe inducing woke dialogue, they spew all the time, but especially during cutscenes.

The story is really vague and uninteresting. I had zero investment in the personal gripes of the characters, which the entire story seemed to revolve around. The most laughable part were the stereotypical indian accents. But the main villain sometimes forgot that he should speak in an indian accent. That is bad voice acting right there. Even Claudia Black who voices the main character who I was a fan of since farscape delivers such a bland performance that every damned dialogue was torture to my senses.

The agenda and motivations of the characters changes more often than the weather. "We're friends, now we're sworn enemies, yay we're friends again" Baah, my head wanted to explode. The characters have no character whatsoever, they do and act completely arbitrarily as the piss poor writing demands.

It's not a bad game technically, but that is little consolation.

+

• OK-ish graphics
• Exact same gameplay as Tomb Raider

-

• Piss poor story and writing
• Characters have no convictions, their attitude is ever changing
  
• Awful dialogue and voice acting
• Blatant copy of Rise of the Tomb Raider
• Mediocre level design
• 7 hours to finish without rushing
• male = bad / female = good (as I think of it, there was not a single female character on the bad side, plus the only male on the "good" side is painted in the worst possible light as well)

Scoring card:

graphics/realization: 7/10
story/atmosphere: 2/10
gameplay/controls: 6/10

overall impression: 5/10

Meh...At least it was short and I didn't waste much time on it, just money.

I felt the same way about the story. Social justice warriors seem to write bad stories. But ya, just a bad game in general.

 

[oldmanbal]

Final Fantasy XV

Essentially a giant fetch quest from start to finish. Run here, drive here for up to 3 minutes at a time. Minimal story development. Garbage UI that makes no sense and wasn't designed for humans. Weapons disappear from inventory. Do items get destroyed? Do they magically disappear? Who knows. Game never explained. Pointless activities to artificially lengthen the game. Want to go to an objective? Drive 3 minutes, then run 6 minutes. Then have the time of day change to night. Then spawn monsters that are 30 levels higher than you in your path. Game expects you to run back another 6 minutes, watch a painfully slow sleeping sequence that lasts another 3 or so minutes, and then run back. Combat is utter garbage. More or less button mashing. Like many fighting games the controls don't work. There are options to hang on ledges but it never works. Controller prompts reference buttons that don't exist on an Xbox 360 controller. I believe the prompts may be entirely wrong. Graphics are garbage. Textures are utter trash, almost PS2 era like in many places. That is with the 4K textures as well. Game stutters more than a retard. Horrid performance considering how ugly the graphics are. Save system only works sometimes. If you are in a cave, or near an enemy you can't save. Makes it a pain because the game crashes meaning you have to re-do 30 minute sections over and over.

If you want to experience FF XV, drive a car. Go to a gas station. Get out of the car and run around aimlessly for 10 minutes. Pick up trash on the ground, run it to a garbage can 6 minutes away. Run back to the car, then drive home and pat yourself on the back.

Because this game can't be completed I give it a 0/10.

Had the lazy ass developers finished the game I'd give it a solid 5/10 for being an utter bore.

Movie sucked to.

I didn't have the same experience you did with the game. It's amazing how different 2 people on 2 different computer configurations can walk away from a game. I didn't care for the anything car related however, felt like an excuse to have a big empty map.

 

[M76]

I felt the same way about the story. Social justice warriors seem to write bad stories. But ya, just a bad game in general.

It seems we have to start to look at the writers twitter accounts before buying games nowadays to see if it's worth buying or not.

 

[Flogger23m]

I didn't have the same experience you did with the game. It's amazing how different 2 people on 2 different computer configurations can walk away from a game. I didn't care for the anything car related however, felt like an excuse to have a big empty map.

Yeah, the game had a lot of technical issues for me. I will update the review later as I found a fix for (most) of the CTDs. Disable all nvidia hairworks and similar nvidia graphic options. I played through a cave area four times because there was no checkpoint saves, put around 15-20 mins each time before it crashed and had to start over. Disabling those options allowed me to progress. But I had dozens of other technical issues. A good example is that, occasionally, the controller prompt would change to the keyboard/mouse prompt even if I wasn't touching either. And would stay that way unless you restart the game. Stuttering would also occasionally get very bad. As in, .7-1 second long stutters. A few instances where it might have even been longer than that. 1 second pause, 2 seconds gameplay, rinse repeat until the encounter was over. Restarting would fix it.

The graphics were bad, fine. I can deal with that. But the performance for the graphics was astonishing. These screen shots are at max settings, 1440P, 4K textures, no nvidia options. Absolutely horrible and still many low resolution textures all over.

Edit: Redid the FFXV review now that I finished the game after turning off the Nvidia graphic options which stop the game stopping CTDs.

Final Fantasy XV

Redoing this review as I found a fix for the game stopping CTDs. It won't prevent all of them, but stops the consistent ones that prevent story progression. Turn off the Nvidia graphic options.

The story of this game is a mess. Most of the important details are not explained. Most of the story info comes from a stand alone movie. The movie itself was watchable but had some bad forced dialogue and devolved into an incomprehensible CGI explosion fest in the end. But this is where you get at least half of the story in FFXV so it is mandatory to watch as far as I am concerned.

The story in the game largely ignores the important aspects and appears to have many holes in it. The characters themselves barely react to the world and the situations that occur around them. Life changing events will happen, and then moments later your band of friends will act like high school children on their first road trip trying to take pictures, ride giant birds or find their favorite food. The world around you appears to be oblivious to the struggle of two different kingdoms, one of which is actively fighting to conquer yours. Despite being a Prince few people recognize you, and the enemy frequently lets you off with no strings attached for some odd reason. You'd think they'd be able to find your party and their vehicle with easy and apprehend them. Towards the end of the story it devolves into pure gibberish about gods, king-gods, and other stuff that you just need to turn your brain off for. Don't play the game for the story.

Gameplay wise the game displays the worst possible implementation of an open world while the later portion turns into a corridor slasher, also in the worst way possible. It is amazing that they tried both approaches and failed so badly at both. The open world has a lot of fetch quests with little diolgue, no story context, and long travel times. Fast traveling is present but the locations you can fast travel to and from are a pain to get to and often costs money. This makes traveling around the map a pain. The corridor sections are linear with only a single pathway and occasionally a room to go into to pick up an item. Enemies spawn from the floor typically. Pretty lame.

You spent a lot of time in your car, which practically drives itself. You can only accelerate or stop. You can't freely turn your vehicle around. There is a QTE for a u-turn but that is it. You can't drive off road or anything. The worst, most restrictive driving mechanics I've ever seen. There are some upgrades for it but I never bothered. The car has no character and spending time running/loading back to the mechanic isn't worth the time.

Most locations in the world are barren and empty. I elected to spend an extra 30 minutes driving around roads I skipped initially. Pretty much empty roads, a few buildings with nothing to see. Graphics are poor so it wasn't even interesting to go sight seeing.

Combat is utter garbage. More or less button mashing. Like many fighting games the controls don't work well at all. There are options to hang on ledges but it rarely works. Controller prompts reference buttons that don't exist on an Xbox 360 controller. Occasionally the game bugs out and starts referencing keyboard/mouse controls. Enemy bosses can occasionally kill you in two hits while it may take 100+ hits to take them down. They can often hit you, and then finish you off before you can even recover. The worst instance was a boss fight which started after a cutscene. Under a second later my character was on the ground and knocked out. The boss one shot killed me before I could even press a button. The controls, combos & awkward boss damage/HP must be broken and the developers must know because you have to spam potions & recovery items. They must have realized at the last minute that bosses one shot killing you immediately after a cutscene ends would prevent progression in the game so as a last minute "fix" they just spam the player with potions.

Graphics are garbage. Textures are utter trash, almost PS2 era like in many places. That is with the 4K textures as well. Horrific stutters. View screen shots below. Performance for the poor graphic quality is unacceptable. Save system only works sometimes. If you are in a cave, or near an enemy you can't save. Makes it a pain because the occasionally game crashes meaning you have to re-do 30 minute sections all over. From a technical standpoint this game is a complete mess.

The DLC is the same. One is a horrible corridor shooter which ends with a boss sequence that is literally the player holding down the shoot button for 5 minutes. Another is an 80s style action movie "I need more power!" and you spam the attack button. The other is a retread of the main game.

The end of the story progresses a bit, but you're immediately back to people not caring about the world around them. More broken boss fights, poor CGI god/king/super god fights that are of little relevance. Overall there is nothing redeeming about the game. The story is absent minded, the gameplay bad, and the technical aspects are horrible.

5/10








Looks more like something from 2010.

At its best, the game still looks pretty bad.


Interestingly people thought JC4's graphics were bad (they certainly look to be a downgrade from JC3) but I don't recall people complaining about FFXV.

 

[Flogger23m]

Super Smash Bros Ultimate

And yet another dud. This game shouldn't have been released in its current state as the controls are incomplete and the online, the part of the game you'd want to play, is a laggy mess. For some inexplicable reason half the controls do not work online. I am one of the fools who spent $48 on a Pro Controller. I assume when you play online all of the controls are not available unless you buy one of their special GameCube controllers.

In online you're limited to only a fraction of the moves available in the N64 version. This makes fighting very difficult and too limited to those who purchased what is likely the pay to win GameCube controller. You're more or less left with only tackling, a strong punch move which leaves you vulnerable, a secondary attack which is useless for most characters and only one of the up/down attacks. The moderate speed/damage attacks simply don't work. This was a staple for knocking opponents down. Want to hit someone who is up in the air like in the N64 version? Too bad, you can't.

Online itself is laggy. We're talking about constant pausing in certain matches. Mario Kart does not have this problem. I am not sure what is wrong here.

The menu is a clusterfuck, hard and slow to navigate. Unlocking characters is a complete pain in the ass.

3/10

Too bad paid journalists gave this game praise because Nintendo should be offering refunds, pull the product from the market and should be including the Gamecube controller for free for with the $60 game as an apology when they bring it back after finishing development. Or maybe discontinue said Gamecube controllers and refund everyone who purchased one as well.

The video game industry drooping this low and such a fast rate is astonishing. It is long past time these companies are held criminally liable via lemon laws. People should be in prison over this. Stay away from this game.

The only thing I don't regret is I bought this turd used, so no new money went to the criminals at Nintendo. No wonder why so many people were dumping it day one on ebay. Obviously pay to win with a barely functional online component = no point in owning the game.

 

[horrorshow]

^^ It has an 8.6 USER rating on Metacritic....

So 3/10 sounds a little far-fetched.

 

[Flogger23m]

^^ It has an 8.6 USER rating on Metacritic....

So 3/10 sounds a little far-fetched.

Considering the main mode (online) is practically worthless it is well deserved. 2-3 seconds of pauses, 2 seconds of gameplay, then another 2-3 seconds of pauses is unacceptable in a fast paced game. When you don't get the constant pausing the controls outright don't work online. It is literally the worst online experience in any game I've ever had that didn't outright disconnect. The high reviews just show how much Nintendo pays off the reviewers. Mario Kart & Pokemon work fine online as well, so it certainly is a problem with the game and not the console itself.

 

[horrorshow]

The high reviews just show how much Nintendo pays off the reviewers.

Like I said, that 8.6 score is USER reviews. Not the review site rating.

So almost 3000 people took the time to write at least a couple words and rate it etc....

Maybe you're having a funky networking issue?

 

[Flogger23m]

Like I said, that 8.6 score is USER reviews. Not the review site rating.

So almost 3000 people took the time to write at least a couple words and rate it etc....

Maybe you're having a funky networking issue?

Most people will sadly just parrot what they read. Also companies have abused the user review section in the past. I wouldn't put it past Nintendo to do such a thing. Can it be a network issue? I suppose so but I'm going to say it likely isn't. If other Switch games or PC games can play online fine I can't see why it out be a network issue on my end.

Edit: To illustrate my point:
https://www.polygon.com/2018/12/11/18136617/super-smash-bros-ultimate-online-issues-multiplayer

https://www.vg247.com/2018/12/11/smash-bros-ultimate-online-play-mess/

"The game is unplayable due to technical problems, but it is still a masterpiece because Nintendo paid us" - Polygon.

Exactly why you shouldn't put much faith into reviewers or metacritic for AAA games. Clearly Nintendo is paying them off.

 

[ChoGGi]

Mad Max

It's that good?

 

[harmattan]

Assassin's Creed Odyssey (2018)

View attachment 116750

Take in the sights, enjoy the fights...


That tagline pretty much sums up the game. Because if you don't like the sights, or the fights in the game, then you might as well stay away. Why? Because the graphics and visual design is one of the best aspects of the game, and if you can't appreciate that, well then what's the point?
This is a truly beautiful game to behold, so much attention to detail in the locations. And it looks just amazing. What you don't believe me? I have proof. Here, these I screenshots I took in game, these are not doctored in any way, this is how the game actually looks like.

View attachment 116777
View attachment 116778 View attachment 116779
View attachment 116780 View attachment 116781

And these aren't even taken in Athens or some other prominent locations, those are amazing too, but there were only a few moments when I actually took the time to stop and take screenshots. And unfortunately photo mode doesn't work during conversations or cutscenes I really wanted to take some screens during some.

So we established that the game has what I can only describe as 10 out of 10 graphics. I mentioned fights. Well you have to enjoy those because you're in for a lot of fights in the game. Again If you don't get the hang of it by level 5-6, better turn back, because the game is just more of the same all the way.

Some so called pro reviewers criticized the game's story and narrative, all I can say to that is that they're ignorant fools. And this is not an ad-hominem I throw around. They demonstrated that they're ignorant and didn't understand basic concepts of the game. At least in the one review I endured to watch.
I also saw others say that they just ran trough it as quickly as they could to rush out the reviews. It seems that's what game journalism has come to on the youtube side at least. The first one out gets the views, who cares about accuracy and quality, right? What is it you're saying, that I'm salty?
Damn right I'm salty, but not because of these youtubers success, but because of what game journalism has become. One half is in a rat race for the limelight. While the other half, the PC bunch (and I don't mean personal computer) is more concerned about politics of the game. Where are the real reviews? In the past it seems to me.

Well if I mentioned politics, I have to discuss the actual politics of the game. Not ancient greek politics, but the undertones the writing staff gave the game. It is about 100% true to what I'd expect from people aligned with the infamous "atheism plus" camp. Yes where atheism meets social justice.
There are basically no strong prominent male characters in the game. They are typically either the reasonable, but can't get anything done weakling. Or the strong but stupid kind. And the writers put so many jests and pokes at believing in gods in the game that it seems out of context.

It was the norm to believe in Zeus in ancient Greece. Why try to rewrite history? Yes we know better know, but they didn't then, so having an atheist remark for everyone that expresses belief seemed out of place to me. And I'm saying that despite considering myself not just an atheist, but an anti theist.
This is the same problem that BFV has, the rewriting of history. About half of the mercenaries in the game are female, and a lot of the regular soldiers and guards too. It is not detrimental to the experience just yet. But it's not settle either. What also bothered me, is that I played as Kassandra, and she was
ready to get into bed with anyone at any time. Ugly, stupid, weak, male, female, didn't matter. And there was even a forced romance where you had no choice but to have a same sex fling whether you wanted it or not. But at the same time, there is no proper love interest in the game, it's almost as if they're the sending a message that strong women don't need men.
But the most ridiculous thing in the game to me is that, you're literally killing people by the thousands, there is all kinds of gore, beheading, impaling, mutlitaion going on, but sex? NO, we can't even show a hint of that, it's only implied with a fade to black.

So social justice undertones aside, the story and the narrative is pretty good. There is no one main story, but multiple story arcs that sometimes cross each others paths during the game. I think it is very unique and a refreshing experience. It feels more realistic than having one big story and lots of small irrelevant sidquests with filler characters.
Here many of the characters that you meet on some side adventure appear later during the main story. And vice versa. One sidequest may lead to another, then another, that turns out to be a part of a whole main story arc. Some of the dialogue is very good as well. Too bad dialogue choices don't mean shit most of the time.
I've tried many times loading a previous save to try different choice options and eventually all roads lead to rome. You have a dialogue choice, but two sentences later the conversation is in the exact same path whichever you chose. The only exception are the choices that are marked with icons.
Where you can choose to kill or at least fight a character directly this is the red icon with swords, and the heart icon which obviously is the "let's fuck" option. And I'm not being inappropriate. Literally that is how much romance is there with these. Oh and there is a recruit option as well for some NPCs.

The people you recruit are put into the pool of people that you can choose as lieutenants on your ship. These add various bonuses depending on the person. But you don't know what will one person bring to the table. Once I recruited a scrawny looking bum in diapers, who turned out to be one of the best lieutenants I had for a very long time.
So yes, you have a ship in the game, which is basically your mobile base of operations. And since the map is about two thirds water, you need a ship to get around. One thing I wish I knew when I started playing the game, is that you can disembark your ship anywhere, you don't have to go into a harbor. I didn't realize this until about lvl 40.
Before then I traveled everywhere by going to the nearest port then took a small row boat, or walked to my actual destination. At first glance the naval battles seemed very generic and not very engaging, but I changed my mind about them later, they're actually not that bad. I liked how the size of the waves actually matter when you're sailing.
And the cat and mouse games you have to play to ram other ships was pretty good too. You have two options dealing with enemy ships either you sink them outright or you board them after disabling them. The first gets you lots of wood and drachme. The latter option gets you items and refills part of your ships health which is a good thing if you have other ships to deal with still.

And since I mentioned resources there is no reason to keep the cat in the bag any longer. Fuck the resource management in the game! And fuck the leveling system too! Yeah they are there to ruin your experience hand in hand. Any one of them on it's own I could've dealt with, but together they're disruptive as hell.
Why? Because this is the most restrictive leveling system I ever saw in any game. Everything is scaled up exponentially between levels, every stat, damage, armor, modifiers, everything. This means that if you encounter an enemy a few levels above you, they'll one hit kill you even on easy. And you almost can't hurt them at all.
But this is not the worst part, and somewhat understandable, this is how the game keeps you from completing quests meant for the endgame early. But the real issue is that you have to upgrade your gear as well after each levelup, to have proper stats. If you don't upgrade your weapons or armor, again you become cannon fodder even for basic enemies.
But the upgrades are prohibitively expensive. And they get more expensive with each level. I could never keep all my gear on par with my level. Usually I only had the resources to upgrade one major or 2-3 smaller items at a time. And if you miss upgrading something for a few levels then you can forget about that item, since it will be so expensive to upgrade that it is out of this world.
As you get closer to lvl 50 which is apparently the highest level in the game, upgrading one item will cost insane amounts. I know some people are fine with farming for resources, I'm not one of those. If I'm doing something in the game I need a narrative purpose for it.
I'm not going to start clearing random forts just for the sake of it. Unless they're the daughters of artemis and attack me without provocation, then I'm going to murder every last one. But that was just one time. I swear every other time I had a mission, where I needed to lower nation power.

That's another interesting mechanic in the game. Each region has a stat called nation power, which represents how strong the current leadership is. You can lower that by killing soldiers in forts, stealing their money, and burning supplies, destroying weapons, and even killing their leader.
If the nation power becomes low enough that triggers a conquest battle, that you can join on the defender or the attacker side. And if you win as the attacker the leadership is replaced. Well actually this is just another mechanic for farming xp and resources in the game. I didn't do these either without good reason.

Then I guess it's time to talk about the elephant in the game. The blatant pushing of micro-transactions. The game keeps nagging you to buy this and that at every corner. And as long as it is only cosmetic stuff, it's not a big issue. But here you'd have to pay to get what I'd consider normal XP and resource gains.
The game is just short changing you by default, but don't worry, ubisoft is here to offer you a pack that gives you 50% more XP for a price of course. As much as the game begs for that, I implore everyone don't give in. I don't want this to be common practice. Where the devs deliberately make a game just a little more grindy than necessary to then offer a remedy to that problem for an extra price.
I paid for the ultimate edition, I demand to have the best possible game already. The game is far from being unplayable as is, but you just feel that the progress is slower than what you expect.

There is one more thing I want to say: If you're the type of player who just wants to run trough main story quests, then this game is not for you. Because that is made impossible by the level system. You have to do the side quests and a lot of them to reach the level necessary for the end game, you can't just do the quests directly connected to the main story lines. It took me 70 hours to finish the main story. I still have many unexplored areas, islands I haven't even visited, and about a dozen untouched sidequests give or take. In order to tie up all main quests you need to be close to lvl50 because you have to defeat level50 enemies to get there.

And good that I mentioned defeating enemies. Because that is one thing I disliked about the game. The mechanics are there for being stealthy, but it's just not worth it. You don't get any XP for achieving things undetected or without killing. But you get all the loot and XP from killing enemies. I have the option to sneak in to camps and just get the objective, but I'm shooting myself in the foot in the process because I could never get enough XP that way to keep leveling up.

One more thing I have to confess. This is the first AC game I played since the very first one, and I never finished that one either, so if there was anything that is nothing new in this game I mentioned, I'm sorry, everything was new to me at least.

I hope I didn't forget anything and mentioned everything I wanted. So here goes the pros and cons, and a third category for things that I consider both a blessing and a curse.

+

• Graphics
• Huge world
• Good fight mechanics
• Kassandra's voice (the acting too)
  
• Unique approach to storytelling
• Some good character moments
• Unexpected depth to the story
• Exploration

-

• Pushing of microtransactions
• Atheism+ undertones
• Leveling system
• No rewards for stealth / pacifist approach
  
• The need to upgrade gear
• Sometimes unbalanced difficulty. Some enemies are really hard to take down, while some others even ones above your level are too easy to defeat
• The game gets easier, as you level up, not harder, the most difficult part for me was around level 8-9, games are supposed to be harder at the end, right? .
  
• I'm a bit confused / underwhelmed about the ending(s)
• Some glitches here and there
• I nominate phobos for the stupidest horse in the greek world award. I mean I want to get on it so I start moving towards him then it starts running away from me?! Or when he gets stuck on a tiny curb? Or wedged between two headstones?
  
• The choice of horse at the beginning of the game is a real good representation of how important your dialogue choices are: Superficial.

*

• Overpower and chain assassination attacks, makes you a virtually unstoppable killing machine, you can kill multiple enemies without effort in an instant.
  
• Endless stream of loot to dismantle, it really takes a lot of time to manage your gear and ship upgrades
• The bow and arrow gets extremely overpowered by mid game.

Scoring card:

graphics/realization: 10/10
story/atmosphere: 8/10
gameplay/controls: 8/10

overall impression: 9/10

Well it's up to everyone to decide for themselves, for me this is game of the year, no doubt about it. What RDR2? From what I saw, that comes nowhere near this. I won't touch it until it becomes available for PC anyway.

Thanks for the great write up. You hit the mark, in my view, in your conclusion that despite its flaws AC:O is an amazing game. It's so huge, so well written and done on so many levels I really think it deserves GoY.

I'm don't feel as strongly as you that the social issues were pushed that far to the prog left (at least not as far as a game like Mass Effect Andromeda), they were pretty subtle, and there were definitely as many strong male characters in the game as female. It's a really good example of not going overboard while making the game accessible to both guys and girls. As for the religious aspects, AC diverged from maintaining historical realism long ago. The AC series is more about getting a flavor of history and atmosphere in my view.

Agreed the leveling system really needs to go. It really breaks the immersion.

And yes, by Zeus, the voice actor who played Kassandra did an exceptional job. The Alexios actor is good, but she just hits the mark again and again.

 

[M76]

Detroit Become Human (2018)

If you have a working formula, why change it? Said the director at Quantic Dreams. Except they have a formula that none really likes, but rather tolerates for the sake of their stories.

So we are at an impasse, the gameplay is lifted almost unchanged from Beyond, there is no sign of improvement at all. Which is a shame, I'd have hoped that they hired some actual game designers who can create an actual game this time, but sadly no. This is an interactive movie at best, with the occasional QTE action sequences between fully cinematic ones.

There is just no part of the game that you could define as a fully interactive videogame by the classical sense. Even during parts where you get control of a character, you're not in full control, not really. There are always invisible walls, or even moving invisible walls to restrict your options. Which is not really acceptable by 2018 standards. I tolerated it in Heavy Rain in 2010, I tolerated it in Beyond: Two Souls in 2013, but this time I have to be harsh in my judgement.

The game tries to win the player over by the story and narrative, and it does win points with that, many points. It is not as brutally negative as Beyond, but still has many ups and downs.



So let's get into the story, shall we? As much as you can without having any spoilers. The game is set in the early-mid 21st century, in 2038 to be exact. A time when Androids have became everyday household items, and have replaced almost fifty percent of humans in day to day jobs. Maintenance, accounting, shop clerks, and such.

The story of course builds on the ever popular notion of AI software becoming self-aware. And it needs quite a bit of suspension of disbelief to make the events plausible. It was dancing on a razor's edge for me, as most of what is in the public opinion about AI is based on misconceptions, and this game uses some of those misconceptions as fact. Which was hard to gloss over at times.

The game is again played from multiple perspectives. Three to be precise. It's hard to say which of the three main characters is the real protagonist of the game. Heck you could even argue that they are all villains instead.

The first one is a housekeeper android model, called Kara, who was just returned to the owner after a major memory wipe and maintenance. Who turns out to be an abusive single father with drug and alcohol issues. With a young daughter, who lives in constant fear, and seems to know more than what she lets on.

The second main character is a caregiver owned by a disabled wealthy artist. Who gets into a no-win situation with the estranged son of the artist, who comes begging for handouts to his father regularly.

I'm not revealing too big of a secret by saying that these two androids will become outlaws very soon after the start of the game. We follow them trough their struggles to become independent of their human masters, each on their own way. Which is a very different way for them both.



The third character is also an android, who is assigned to the appointed detective to investigate deviant behaviour in androids. Deviant being the codeword for showing signs of self awareness, of defiance. Their relationship is problematic to say the least. The appointed detective, Hank seems to give zero ducks about the case, or his job as a detective in it's entirety. And also seems to hate androids for some reason.

Of course the path of these characters will intersect during the story in classical Quantic Dream fashion. Well at least if they survive till the end. Which is up to the player.

That takes us right into the gameplay. What makes Detroit tick? Choices, choices, and more choices. Everything in the game is a choice. What object you examine, what do you say to NPCs, what solution you find to a given problem, how well you do on QTE encounters. All lead to specific story branches, that can have serious consequences, either immediately, or often much later in the story. Which is basically the same as Beyond, except there nobody really noticed it, because it was all seamless and unadvertised.

Well Quantic, has learned from that mistake, and now every branch in the story is represented in a tree structure that is shown to you after each chapter of the game. To drill it in: "Hey fool, look at all the things you didn't even notice" And I'm not being negative here, it is necessary, because players are often stoopid. Unfortunately it takes some of the immersion away, so I wished there was a game mode, where the story branches were not readily visible, or only shown after the whole story had played out.

Above is the chart for one short level.

The game even suggests that you should play it without altering anything retroactively on the first playtrough. But there is just too much temptation to go back sometimes. I did it once, too. Well, not once, actually. Multiple times, but to change just one thing, which bothered me very much. I had to try five, or six times before figuring out how to avoid the undesired outcome. Turns out it was triggered by something that I did a few chapters prior.

Which is a problem, because if you go back to change something multiple chapters ago, you have to replay every intermediate chapter again, even if those were completely unrelated and unaffected by your change, and you do everything the exact same way in them again. Further compounded by the fact that you cannot skip conversations or cutscenes, even on the nth try. This was especially annoying when I was trying different paths, after I already finished the game once.

About that, both in the case of Beyond and Heavy Rain, after it played out I had no interest in going back to events mid game to change something, I was glad they were over. In this game however, I've been trying different solutions for different outcomes for hours after finishing the game. That is a testament to this story being superior to both previous games, and me having much more vested interest in the fate of characters, not just playable characters. As your choices affect many NPCs as well.



Let's talk graphics. The characters look really, really beautiful, Quantic has successfully crossed the uncanny valley. Sometimes it is really hard to tell, that you see characters rendered by the game engine and not real people. The animations are perfect, almost too perfect. I've been admiring some of the characters idle animations for minutes.

The online screenshots and videos really don't do justice to how good the people look in the game. The environments on the other hand are a curious mixed bag. Some look jaw dropping, almost photo-realistic. About 90% look OK, and a few look really bad, like they are remnants from some early PS3 game. Well I'm probably not far off from the truth there, as this game most likely started development for PS3.

There is only one question left to answer. Are they people? The game portrays almost all humans to be completely indifferent to androids. Which bugged me, because we all know that we can get emotionally attached even to basic household items. Or is it just me, who feels bad after breaking a plate or mug? So I think it is only natural that people would get even more attached to androids who look and act like people.

Let's see the yays and nays...

+

• Great story with countless branches
• Really makes you think
• Perfect animations
• Character models are immaculate
• Great replay value
• Multiple outcomes, or multiple routes to the same outcome
• The fate of almost all main characters is in your hands
• HDR + 4K

-

• Some environments look really bad
• No real freedom, your movement is almost always completely restricted
• The fate of almost all main characters depend upon your ability to do QTEs
• Conversation choices are not clear, the result of some choices are the opposite of what was expected
• I figured out the main twist in the story, almost at the start of the game. It was all too obvious in the first few chapters.
• It is always the twist that is responsible for the most glaring plotholes
• Some framedrops here and there, and it even crashed once on a PS4 Pro
• Pre-rendered cutscenes are HD only.

Scoring:

graphics/realization: 9/10
story/atmosphere: 10/10
gameplay/controls: 3/10

overall impression: 6/10

I said I'll be harsh. I feel the game deserved at least an 8, but no, I'm not tolerating this type of restrictive gameplay any longer.

If you liked their previous games, you won't be disappointed. But if you're new to them, and gameplay is important to you, then skip it. This game is about the narrative, nothing else.

 

[Flogger23m]

Hitman 2

Waited a while to talk about this one because of the bugs. Was hoping they would get sorted out but it never seems to have happened, and they should certainly be counted for any review.

Gameplay wise the game can be fairly fun. There aren't very many missions but each mission offers enough opportunities to place at least twice. Even after spending an hour or more on a map I'd find new areas on the second try. Compared to the previous game using a firearm is actually practical (it was dead weight in the previous one) which is a nice change. You can reasonably use it occasionally now.

Finding some of the more interesting execution opportunities is a bit mixed though. A lot of the times you won't find them until you play through the mission at once. You can always go to the mission menu to find opportunities, but it feels a bit like cheating. While not a huge issue I wish they could have somehow made finding the interesting opportunities more organic when it came to finding them.

There are some quirks with the game mechanics and a lot of the actions don't feel very well developed, but overall it was nothing to really hurt the experience. Occasionally enemies can detect you even if you're behind a pillar fully concealed. Quick save often because this is a decent enough remedy for the occasional minor issue.

The big problem with this game is the stability. Constant crashing is something that has not yet been fixed. You'll find yourself quick saving more than you'd like out of necessity. Nothing is more frustrating than redoing 30 minutes of gameplay because the game crashed. The Mumbai mission in particular has a well noted CTD around the unfinished hotel on all platforms. But random crashing is present throughout the game. Crashing at startup has been an issue over the past two months. There are two semi decent solutions to this:

- In the graphics settings, alternate between "Override Memory Safegaurds" Yes / No. Sometimes the game will fail to launch and switching the setting will fix it.

- In the game play once the game loads, turn off picture in picture.

This will allow you to load the game in most instances and CTDs will be less common. However it won't prevent all of them. I still received CTDs and some of them prevent me from loading to the main menu again. I again get CTDs during loading, and changing the "Override Memory Safegaurds" hasn't been a fix yet. Numerous patches for Nvidia have come and gone, and nothing has helped. This is clearly a game issue and not a driver issue as illustrated by certain CTDs being on all platforms.

Graphically the game is dated, but holds up good enough. Likewise for the story. It does not go much of anywhere but this game is more about the gameplay and a sandbox like experience so don't expect a strong narrative.

But the stability problems are not something that can be ignored.

6/10

Fix the CTD issues and this game is a solid 8/10.

 

[Burticus]

Hitman 2

But the stability problems are not something that can be ignored.

6/10

Fix the CTD issues and this game is a solid 8/10.

Thanks for the honest review and warnings. What GPU & CPU are you using?

 

[Comixbooks]

Grim Dawn Ashes of Malmouth 9/10

Best Action RPG at the moment the crucible DLC is never ending you get the good loot from that game.

 

[Comixbooks]

Ghost Recon Wildlands

Awesome Game 9/10

Worth every second including the Predator match is a must.

 

[Flogger23m]

Thanks for the honest review and warnings. What GPU & CPU are you using?

CPU - Ryzen 2700X
GPU - RTX 2070

RTX cards had some additional problems but those RTX specific issues (graphical issues) are fixed. I'm not sure if the CTDs are more pronounced on the RTX cards though. But I started playing this game with a GTX 1070 and there were certainly repeatable crashes (Mumbai mission as mentioned earlier). I did a bit more fumbling around with it. It looks like alternating between "Override Memory Safegaurds" Yes, No and then back to Yes without exiting the graphics setting menu may fix it. Until the next crash, which case rinse and repeat. Currently I am trying to load back into the game after that worked but I am having no luck today. Pretty frustrating because the game can be pretty fun.

 

[Flogger23m]

Ace Combat 7 Skies Unknown

Finished the campaign and dabbled in the multiplayer for a few hours. One of the better games I've played these past few years but not perfect. This is the series first proper game to come to PC so I'll comment on that right away. As a port from a Japanese developer, it is certainly a good one although not 100% flawless. The game runs great, looks great, and I am enjoying what must be 80-90 frame rates. The main issue is there is not ultra wide screen support as of now, but I believe it will be patched in. Otherwise it will run at 2560x1440. I've heard there is no mouse support in the menu, but the design is one of the best in recent AAA games as it is a simple list design so using the arrow keys / controller is flawless. And you'll be using a controller anyways due to the genre.

Stability wise I received one crash, which may be an issue for Steam itself. Opening Shift + Tab may result in a "Fatal Crash" error. Avoid doing this and you will be fine. This has happened in other Steam games recently so again, I believe this may be a Steam issue and not the game but avoid using it. Otherwise, 100% flawless stability. Other AAA developers need to take note.

Graphically the game looks great. There isn't much to compare it to in the first place but everything looks modern and up to date. Compared to DCS world the plane 3D models are not as detailed, but when you pay $60-80 per plane I expect that. Unless to plan at pausing the game to look at wheel struts it isn't an issue. Building/tree draw distance could be a little further as there is some semi noticeable pop in. Considering how well the game runs I'd love to see an option to enable a further draw distance. But lighting, explosions, water all look nice for a flight game.

Gameplay returns to the series roots. This is both good and bad. On one hand it is a massive improvement of the turd known as Assault Horizon and still provides fun and solid gameplay. On the other I hand I wish they added a bit more depth to the gameplay. Any depth should be pulled from aviation / weapon employment. I would have enjoyed more realistic weapon profiles, missile intercept courses and whatnot but I suppose that would be a turn off for your typical gamer. You get standard missiles, up to 80-130 of them, and a special weapon of your choice. Each mission tasks you with taking out dozens of targets. Don't expect a simulator because it isn't. Flight is easy enough but still feels like you're flying, unlike garbage flight models found in games like Battlefield.

Mission design is a big definer of the experience in this type of game. Overall the missions are a mixed bag here. It feels like a mix between Ace Combat 4 & 5. The former having a hands off approach while the latter had too many scripted sequences. AC7 finds a decent middle ground here. There are a number of larger scale missions in which you can choose what enemy complex/location to attack. You'll often run out of time or even ammo in some of the bigger missions adding some replability. If you decided to take out fighters, the next time you play you can load weapons and go after a large naval fleet. But there are still a couple of those missions with partially scripted sequences, which hide enemies and gradually spawn them in. These in general aren't as fun because you're limited and the story bits are uninteresting to replay. Overall most of the missions are fun and provide some interesting targets, although I wish there were some more unique bases to dismantle. Mission wise there are clearly references to previous games which in some instances felt a bit too forced in trying to stroke nostalgic feelings which resulted in them simply not having the impact they did in the other games when the ideas were fresh.

Story wise I have to say the game was very Japanese. It was all over the place and made little sense. If you like games like Final Fantasy, you'll probably like this. The diolgue in this game has similar to Ace Combat 5, meaning cringe worthy, annoying and necessary. I was hoping for more stoic, mission only diolgue in the gameplay similar to Ace Combat 4. If you're okay with average video game diolgue this won't be too much of a bother. I didn't expect Mass Effect, but I was hoping the series would move more into that direction. As it stands, it is a step back from 2001's AC4 and lock step with 2004's AC5. The background story itself muddles the established lore in ways I didn't enjoy. Instead of detailing or expanding, it went off in different directions with little explanation. Character actions didn't make very much sense either. And some of the characters were utterly pointless. Overall it didn't build into anything meaningful and jumped around too much. It was both too present (in gameplay) and too sparse (in cut scenes). AC4 told a simple but nice story of viewing your enemy from a neutral perspective. AC7 does nothing like that.

When it comes to sounds the music is again top notch. The series is known for a good BGM and AC7 delivers. Sounds are also well done. Perhaps the cannons are a bit too soft, but outside of that it is good. Voice acting is fine but again, cheesy diolgue doesn't help.

In typical Ace Combat fashion you have to unlock planes and special weapons. AC7 introduces an aircraft tree which I find annoying. In previous games better aircraft unlocked after each mission, but you could jump between any as long as you had the money. In AC7 if you want to get an advanced American plane, such as an F-22, you'll have to unlock a bunch of American or western planes first. You can freely switch between trees at any time though. The upgrade tree really adds nothing but forcing you to buy a plane you may not want. A run through the campaign will only result in maybe 1/3 rd of the planes being unlocked, again similar to previous games. The bright side is it all comes naturally, progress through the missions and you get more money. No detouring, grinding or other crap that infests most games these days.

Multiplayer is not the focus of this game, but it manages to be somewhat fun although not very ambitious. The unlock tree mirrors that of the campaign, as do the mechanics. Essentially the game boils down to constantly turning and spamming missiles. There is some element of skill but I find it too basic. The aircraft should have had realistic payloads (8-10 missiles) and different missile mechanics to add a level of strategy to the game. At the same time it is still somewhat fun. Getting a kill is hard but at least that makes it rewarding. Game modes are TDM and DM. The game also comes with a mission selector (after you finish the campaign), free flight, a cut scene viewer, aircraft viewer and whatnot.

Probably the most standout thing with Ace Combat 7 though is that it places a pure emphasis on fun and enjoyment. There are unlockings of planes, yes, but they come naturally by playing the game normally. You don't have to spend 20 minutes doing a boring activity to progress, such as slaughtering 150 crocodiles in Assassins Creed Origins. You're either playing the game or watching a cutscene. This made the experience so much more enjoyable than most the games I've played in recent years. So while not perfect, the game doesn't let up providing entertainment - the point of video games.

8.5 / 10

If the mess of a story was better it would certainly be over a 9 in my eyes. Reduce the number of missions with some of those annoying sections and it would be close to a 10.

 

[WarriorX]

Dishonored 2


Graphics: Graphics looked pleasant with a focus on aesthetics and details. Distance areas looked nice and the various steampunk gadgets and gizmos looked nice up close. NPCs looked decent but have room for improvement. Performance seemed ok with no real issues running at 1440p.

Sound: Enjoyable soundtrack that fits the mood. NPC audio was great. NPCs have a good amount of dialog with various NPCs providing various clues and information to help how to approach a mission. NPCs also have some banter and small talk between them, giving a reason to just sit around listening to guards. Such as how a guard was wanting to get off shift to get back home to beat a servant, more reasons to not feel bad when you assassinate said guard

Gameplay: If you played the first game, you pretty much know what to expect. Its been a few years since playing the first game but noticed very few differences. My first playthrough was played as Corvo, and his powers felt similar so I couldn't tell what was new as its been a while since playing the first. You can stealth/non lethal pretty much the entire game or go full on assassin/ rambo mode if you want. Your actions has some effect on what happens which is neat.

Story and level design: Varied enough to keep me interested. Loved exploring the levels and learning the lore by reading the various journals and audio logs you find. Enjoyable story and nice callbacks to the first game.

Controls: Controls are ok and get the job done. No real complaint.

AI: Good for what it needs to be. Stealth games all have the same restrictions such as predictable vision cones/hearing because without them stealth game play would not really work. AI will seek you out if you are partially detected, searching the area and even under tables which was a nice surprise. They will evetually stop looking and basically forget there was any disturbance, which again is typically with stealth games.

Big time fan of the first game, the sequel continued what I loved about the first. Overall I really the 18 hours that it took for me to get through a play through.



Dishonored: Death of the Outsider

Continued with this game shortly after beating the other. Very similar game play but in a different setting, story and playable character. Nothing wrong with that though. Game references the previous game so its recommended to play it before this. Story is was enjoyable with various lore to find to read and listen to. Shorter then the sequel at first playthrough taking 11 hours. Overall enjoyed the game and hope for a continuation at some point.

 

[biggles]

Sonic Adventure DX for PC.

Having already played this one years ago on Dreamcast I knew what to expect. Make sure to download the fan made mods to fix the graphics as the stock game is missing lots of cool visual effects from the original.

Graphics are old school but good. Art style holds up well, cartoonish. Blurry textures.

Gameplay is excellent for Sonic, Tails, Knuckles. Above average for the other characters. Lots of camera issues. Plenty of variety of gameplay between characters, and playing levels with different goals.

Sound and music is great but subjective. Voice acting is cheesy to the point of being great (think old Resident Evil games).

Unlockables include a bunch of Game Gear games. Too bad they didn't give Genesis versions, but it is just copying what the Gamecube version did years ago.

Game is cheap and runs on a potato. If you are a Sonic fan definitely check this one out. 9/10.

 

[scojer]

The Evil Within 2

Graphics: 8/10 Using a modified version of id Tech they crafted a very unique world. The characters look great and the environments have excellent detail, especially the first act with the artist.
Sound: 10/10 I played using headphones, and the sound design pulls you in.

Gameplay: 10/10 - I'm a huge fan of the original The Evil WIthin, and I feel like this one tops it. What was tedious in the first one isn't in this one, and opening the world up rather than a straight linear path makes it more enjoyable.

Story: At first, I was hesitant of the story, the way they tied the protagonist from the first game into this one, but, as the game played on, it became a power struggle across three acts, each antagonist with their own goal for "the core." The story became more believable and I enjoyed how it all played out.

If you haven't played part 2, get it, play it.

 

[Flogger23m]

Ace Combat 6 Fires of Liberation


Finished this after playing Ace Combat 7 and this is my first time playing through it despite being over a decade old. Considering that, I'll start with the graphics. They look fairly good for a console game from 2007, but it is hard to tell as I am running a 1440P monitor. This makes everything look fairly blurry. Explosions look great and send off lots of debris, plane 3D models look good and the terrian looks decent enough given it is a console game. The frame rate is certainly problematic though. While 30 frame rates is fairly standard for console games it felt like watching a video playing at half speed in some cases. I'm not sure if the frame rates dropped below 30 but it wouldn't shock me. I know it is a console, but the performance left some to be desired. At least for me, it felt like a hindrance to the otherwise smooth gameplay.

The gameplay itself was excellent. It takes your typical flight shooter mechanics from previous Ace Combat games and applies it to a much larger scale. The flight model and weapon dynamics are largely the same, simplistic and what you'd expect. Where the game differs and becomes a unique experience is the scope of the missions. You feel like you're fighting in a war, rather than fighting a war entirely by yourself. This is something most other games in the genre (even if all around 10+ years old) didn't quite capture. Your friendly units are more than just names that pop up in radio messages, they're tank units, fighter squadrons or bomber squadrons that you need to work with.

Missions typically break down into multiple operations, such as providing escort to bombers or providing CAS for ground units. If you're not paying attention some of these operations can fail if you don't provide support in time. At the start of each mission you choose which operation to partake in initially. In some missions you cannot complete all operations, as the one or two you selected initially will receive mission updates. This allows for some good replayability. A number of missions can be played twice and deliver a very different experience. For example, one mission depending on your operations of choice allows you to capture an airfield which can be used for re-arming mid game. The other will revolve around destroying off shore and on shore oil rigs/facilities.

The sheer scale of the missions can also be a drawback. The targetting system could use some work as often you will lock onto targets that aren't directly in front of you. This wasn't a problem in any other Ace Combat, and the problem is amplified due to the massive amount of targets in this game. It isn't game breaking, but occasionally can be a pain. Other downsides to the gameplay are minor but include your wingman somehow flying in front of you when in a turning fight. This results in them taking your missile shot. They won't die but you'll wonder how they got in front of you momentarily, and where your missiles went until you hear him mention that he's been hit. Very awkward as he flies close to you. You can order him to attack targets but I never felt the need for it, but perhaps that would have made this occur less frequently. It happens maybe once a mission if that and isn't much of a deal since you get 120 missiles + special weapons and all maps have a return line or airfield to rearm at.

The story reeks of missed opportunities. A number of the cut scenes are outright cheesy, some of the actions a bit awkward and it never develops into much interesting. The two main perspectives it shows could have been developed into something much better had they put the effort into it. The good news is the cut scenes are largely detached from the gameplay, so it isn't being rubbed in your face.

The plane list isn't that big for a flight shooter, with only around 18 planes. But most of the iconic modern planes are there with the exception of a few, most notably the MIG-29 series. It won't affect gameplay much as they more or less all play the same but I wish there were more.

Overall the game was very stable, missions were well done and you felt like you were partaking in large scale operations. This added some freshness to a genre that was otherwise starting to feel like it wasn't making many changes. A fun game that is worth playing despite its age.

8.5 / 10



Resident Evil 2 (2019)

A remake of an older game (which I never played) I think this one holds up fairly well. Graphically the game is up to modern standards and runs pretty well. Occasionally the frame rate can get some stutters but it goes away quickly. Characters, textures and lighting is well done. Crashing is a problem. It seems to occur randomly, either in gameplay or cutscenes. Overall I didn't have to back track much but it was more common than it should have been.

The gameplay is fairly solid, although has some shortcomings. Early in the game direction is very unclear. For around four hours (about half the game) your objective marker does not change even though you get a least a dozen tasks. This causes some confusion as you're not sure where to go, what you're doing or if you're doing the right thing. Eventually you stumble forward and as you play the game more you start to figure out that simply moving around will progress you. Up front I wish there was more direction as I didn't want to run around wasting ammo revisting places, but it gets better the more you progress.

Gameplay is more focused on finding things and puzzle solving than being scary. I actually liked this. Compared to RE7, which I found pretty scary, this game didn't produce any scares for myself. A few times a new enemy would show up and would startle me, but that was a few seconds out of a 10 hour experience. The game does have a horror/survival feel though that fits the theme. The game also leans more towards action than RE7, but again, it is more about managing resources, finding things and being smart with ammo usage. I found this to be a good mix between being atmospheric, fun, and not making the player feel entirely helpless. The core gameplay requires some back tracking as the map design is open but not stupidly large which is a breath of fresh air. Not linear, but not copy/paste sequences like open world games of today. In turn I found this fun because it gave enough freedom but didn't start feeling too repetitive and aimless.

What I was not a huge fan of is to get the "true" ending, or a more coherent blend of the actions between the two protagonists you had to play the game twice. Essentially there are four versions of the campaign. Two contradict each other, but are about 80% the same. I felt the differences were big enough to warrant a playthrough with each character. But having to play the game a 3rd time wasn't appealing to me. There are larger differences between the "Second Run" campaign versions and an extra 10 minute ending sequence which can be watched via Youtube. I wish you were able to play the "Second Run" for the other character after completing the campaign only once.

Combat was fun overall, although some boss fights were tedious as they required very specific timing which could be a pain due to the controls, sluggishness of your character, and save point. Notably, regular enemies cannot chase you from the room they spawn in. That kills a lot of the potential to make the game feel scary. See zombies? If you can, run to another section of the map. They won't follow you. On one hand the game would have required to give you a lot more ammo if they could follow you which would have made the game feel too actiony. Perhaps a better balance of respawning enemies, their ability to chase you, and your ability to block them off would have been better.

Overall, I found the game to but fun despite some flaws. It certainly reminds me of how older games used to be before they became soulless copy/paste open world time sinks.

8/10