Review the game you finished recently.

[WarriorX]

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

More or less the same stuff as the previous games. Some fun locations and missions but nothing that really made it seem like a 3rd game in the new Wolfenstein games. If you played the previous ones, you would probably like this.

 

[lopoetve]

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

More or less the same stuff as the previous games. Some fun locations and missions but nothing that really made it seem like a 3rd game in the new Wolfenstein games. If you played the previous ones, you would probably like this.

I very much enjoyed the new ones. Ram all but the old blood last year - but they do blur together. And new colossus (that one had the submarine right?) didn’t move the needle. It was just … good. Solid. Fun.

 

[jbltecnicspro]

Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. I finished the Human campaign and since the Orcs campaign is more or less a carbon copy, I'll post my thoughts.

If you don't want to read the entire thing, scroll all the way down to the TLDR at the end.

First off, if you've never played this game then you're going to be in for a real treat... I do mean that somewhat sarcastically.

Control/Interface:
This is perhaps the biggest hurdle to enjoying the game. If you've ever played any RTS game this side of Age Of Empires, you're going to be in for a culture shock. There is no right-click. Right click does not perform any actions other than to position your window around to a location on the map. If you want your unit to move, you must select him with the left-click, select "Move" and then point your unit where you want him to move. There is a keyboard shortcut thankfully, but you have to hit the "M" key every time you want your units to move. How about harvesting gold from a gold mine or wood from trees? That's the "Harvest" command. What about attacking? That's the "Attack" command... And so forth and so on. The interface is very tedious and clunky and you have to micromanage everything to a "tee". Oh - and you can only select units in groups up to four. Yeah - four. AND you have to first hit the CTRL key before doing it. You don't just click and drag. Again - if you've ever played another RTS that's been made in the last two decades, it's going to be difficult to unlearn.

Also, you cannot just build buildings wherever you please. Oh no - why would you assume that? No, you have to build your buildings adjacent to a road. If you run out of roads, you have to go to your Town Hall and then expand your roads one tile at a time. Roads cost 100 gold for each tile. Yes, this means that unlike Warcraft 2, you cannot just build a town hall near a gold mine and then have your peons/peasants go to town. You will only have one town hall at any given time. Inevitably you will unload a gold mine and destroy it, and need to gather gold from another mine on the map. So unless you decide to destroy your town hall and build another one nearby (And honestly - I never tried this so I don't even know if it'll work), you have to send your peaons/peasants across the map to gather gold, and it will take a long time.

Scenario Design
There are three different types of scenarios in Warcraft:

1. Build a base and an army and go destroy the enemy
2. Take a set of soldiers into a dungeon to rescue/destroy a target
3. Take a set of soldiers and destroy the enemy

That's it. None of the scenarios are too difficult in their own right, and that's mostly because once you figure out what the developer intended you to do, you can just do it and steamroll your opponent. Most games are going to consist of getting as many archers/spear throwers as possible, upgrading their shots and armor, and inching them toward the enemy and slowly steamrolling them; one unit and building at a time. Just watch out for the catapults. They are incredibly cheap, come from nowhere (the computer can see you before you can see them - how convenient) and can kill a unit in a single shot for most units. Yep - that means if you have five archers blasting away, a single catapult can wipe them all out. I hate catapults.

For the games where you DONT do the above, just get a bunch of conjurers/warlocks, and then summon their most powerful units (Water elemental for the humans, demons for the orcs) and send them into enemy territory and watch the enemy implode. No joke - I ended the human campaign level having only harvested 400 wood and 24,000 gold. That's because the game started me out with all the wood I needed to build two farms, a blacksmith and a tower (for conjurers). And at the end of that game I had nine conjurers - whose sole job was to just summon the water elementals so that I had enough to defend my base and then I could send out groups of four to go attack the enemy bases. Broken much?

You can also play custom scenarios ala Warcraft 2. Where it's just you and the computer. This game mode is extremely problematic though. But first... Let me describe how Warcraft 2 does this. You and the computer opponents all start out on a map with nothing but a peon. You must build a base and build a military to eventually go and conquer your foe. Each player has an equal shot and beating the other. It's up to you and your ability to manage resources and your strategy in choosing a build order that ultimately determines your outcome.

Warcraft Orcs and Humans doesn't do any of that. Unlike Warcraft 2, the computer does NOT start out with nothing. The computer is already established with its own base and military units. YOU start out with nothing though. So don't be surprised that within five minutes of play (literally five minutes) the computer comes and wipes out your peasants with a catapult. What. The. F---!! Needless to say, I gave up on playing the Custom Scenario mode. I do think that the PVP multiplayer mode can offer a good game though. Unfortunately it doesn't support native IP/LAN multiplayer. And I don't have any old machines with serial ports to give it a go. I assume that THIS is the way to play if you want to have a good time with the game in a custom scenario.

Graphics:
It's old DOS graphics. 256 colors, 320x240 pixels. Need I say more? It has a great art style and lots of character. Graphics are fine. If you have an objection to the graphics because of how old it is then I don't know what the hell to tell you. It was made in 1994 - what do you expect?

Sound/Music:
Music is excellent. You have a few options:

1. General MIDI - this was composed on a Roland SC-55. So SC-55 or similar should render the music as intended
2. Sound Blaster - The FM implementation of this music is great actually.
3. Gravis Ultrasound - I don't have a card so I cannot verify its quality. I assume that it's basically a soundfound rendering the GM soundtrack
4. Adlib Gold - again don't have a sound card so I have no idea

The Mac version of the game actually sports CD Audio. Not sure why the DOS version didn't get that luxury (since both versions are on the same damn CD!). It's a recording of the GM soundtrack played back by an SC-55. And in one of the tracks you can actually hear the sound module bottom out as it runs out of polyphony! Kind of funny to hear, honestly. Why they didn't just re-record the music using an SC-88 in SC-55 mode is beyond me though. The SC-88 and SC-55 were both used to perform the CD soundtrack for Warcraft 2; so they would have had one available at the time of recording the CD audio for Warcraft... So there's a little bit of music geeking out for you.

Sound effects are fine and so are the voices. HOWEVER - you will notice that the same voice clips are used for every. Single. Unit. Yeah - it gets old. Later games would have different voice actors and voices for the different units. But alas - Warcraft does not.

TLDR
Do I recommend the game? Not... Really. I enjoyed it because it was my first full Warcraft game, and so for me it was a trip down memory lane. If you're curious to know the roots of Warcraft, and RTS games in general, then I would say go ahead and get it on GOG when it's on sale. If you're just looking for a good classic RTS though, definitely give this one a pass. In a video retrospective series, Noah Caldwell-Gervais says it perfectly: "Warcraft is a rough draft of what's to come. All the ideas are there, but it's not quite formed" - or something like that. He's absolutely right. You can tell there's a good game buried underneath the execution. But it's very much a rough-draft of what was to come with Warcraft 2. At the very least you'll understand why so many reviewers praised Warcraft 2 when it first came out.

 

[Flogger23m]

Resident Evil 4 Remake

Another Resident Evil remake, and this one is quite the satisfying experience. So far I've played a number of the recent Resident Evil games starting with 7, and have played all the new releases since. All have a similar core gameplay yet differ in some ways. RE4 Remake takes a more action oriented approach compared to the outright horror/survival aspect of RE7, or mixed puzzle/horror/survival aspects of RE2/3 Remake. If you are expecting a scary horror game you might be disappointed in RE4, as I did not find it scary at all. Only two or three short sequences were scary. The rest of the game has a horror aesthetic yet never really tries to scare the player. Instead this is an action game, with a horror back drop that includes just a few hair raising sections. Most of your obstacles are shot or kicked away.


Protagonist Leon Kennedy, a fairly generic and oddly stoic action guy.

The gameplay loop is similar to previous entries in the series and will be familiar if you played action adventure or "survival" games over the past few 10-15 years. Ammunition is a bit sparse, but generally on the normal setting there is ample ammunition to get you through most fights. Finding ammunition, healing items and an inventory menu that allows for combing items is how you increase your character's lethality. There is also a merchant which you can purchase weapons and accessories from. Managing your inventory and gradually upgrading your weapons is something you will spend a fair amount of time doing. As mentioned, ammunition is plentiful enough that you don't constantly run out however you may have to switch weapons as you gradually expend ammo and craft or find different types. You can't just pick a single weapon and use it throughout the game. There is where the basic "survival" mechanics come into play, as you may need some basic planning to save better types of grenades/ammo for certain enemies. I will also say there is a decent number of weapons in the game, more than I anticipated which was certainly nice.


Most weapons get a number of upgrades, although at times the amount of upgrades can be a bit unnecessarily stretched out and nonsensical.

Enemy variety is decent enough, with more basic enemies that easily go down, faster, and more durable types to regenerating types and finally bosses. Generally, some new stronger enemy types are introduced as either bosses or mini boss sections which are frequent enough to keep the game from becoming tedious. Map variety can be considered a positive. There are underground labs, an old castle, run down villages, caves and other places that again keep the game fresh as you move between chapters. There is apparently a dynamic difficulty, although it was not very apparent to me. Apparently, this makes enemies more aggressive and may change how much ammo is found, but I found it to be fairly seamless and natural. I did not experience sections that became exceptionally hard or easy. I am assuming that was the intention, and if so, I have to say they did a good job of delivering an experience that did not shift too drastically.


Environments are varied, with good art direction.

The story can best be described as well acted, well executed, but not very intelligent and lacking depth. Again, think of this as a more brainless action movie in video game form. I certainly think it could have been better. It lacked explanation to what happened after Resident Evil 2 and 3. The main character Leon, who was also a main character in RE2, did not get much backstory or development. This is a common level of sophistication for video game narratives, but I still would have liked something better. It certainly is enough to push the game along but could have been much more than that.


There is absolutely nothing suspicious about this evil lair on this secluded island that somehow operates without government intervention.

Technically RE4 is polished. I ran into few bugs or performance issues. One of the smoother experiences overall for a more recent PC game release. Well done, Capcom. Graphically the game looks nice. Lighting, shadows, and smoke looks nice. Fire even looks decent in motion. Character animations and detail looks better than average. Textures on map props and objects are good, but some things like map prop notes or other written material are often too blurry to read. Facial hair and NPC clothing looks detailed. Overall, I would say it looks good, but does not achieve excellence. It is what you would expect from a big budget game but doesn't really push graphical boundaries. Voice acting, ambient sounds and whatnot are good.


Graphics are generally good, and the game runs well.

To summarize, this is a fairly solid game. It is an action game first and foremost, with some ammunition and healing supply management required. You will go traverse a number of differing areas with a respectable cache of weapons and take out a number of "scary" enemies. It looks nice and plays well, with the story taking a back seat.

8 / 10

 

[WarriorX]

STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order™

What an enjoyable game this was for me. Every level as beautiful to look at. I found myself just admiring the environments and level design. Combined with great sound design. Ambient sounds like fauna, machinery sounds, Stormtropper chatter, TIE Fighters flying in the background just made the scenes even better.

The story was also a good one that I found interesting to follow. It had some good moments of tension. The characters were enjoyable and became more likeable as time went on.

The combat was good as well and fairly challenging. The game is a souls-like, even a heavy emphasis on dodging and blocking so you don't get killed too quick. The light saber combat is fun and rewarding once start timing your attacks well instead of just spamming the attack button. There were some large battles with a boss type enemy that felt fun to play. Attacks are mostly telegraphed when they are going to be done so you can react. For me, there was enough variety to keep things fun.

To go with the combat, there was a lot of exploration of the levels and puzzles. Exploring the levels, you would find lore bits, secrets that had cosmetic unlocks or extra power for your character. The puzzles were fun and challenging.

Overall this was a fun experience and I look forward to playing the next game at some point (hoping its mostly fixed by then).

 

[Furious_Styles]

STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order™

What an enjoyable game this was for me. Every level as beautiful to look at. I found myself just admiring the environments and level design. Combined with great sound design. Ambient sounds like fauna, machinery sounds, Stormtropper chatter, TIE Fighters flying in the background just made the scenes even better.

The story was also a good one that I found interesting to follow. It had some good moments of tension. The characters were enjoyable and became more likeable as time went on.

The combat was good as well and fairly challenging. The game is a souls-like, even a heavy emphasis on dodging and blocking so you don't get killed too quick. The light saber combat is fun and rewarding once start timing your attacks well instead of just spamming the attack button. There were some large battles with a boss type enemy that felt fun to play. Attacks are mostly telegraphed when they are going to be done so you can react. For me, there was enough variety to keep things fun.

To go with the combat, there was a lot of exploration of the levels and puzzles. Exploring the levels, you would find lore bits, secrets that had cosmetic unlocks or extra power for your character. The puzzles were fun and challenging.

Overall this was a fun experience and I look forward to playing the next game at some point (hoping its mostly fixed by then).

I pretty much agree with you but boy do I think they needed several more months to get the game in better shape. Or if that wasn't in the cards I think they easily could have cut some stuff and released it later if they wanted to. There were just so many big releases this year I'm sure that made things difficult.

Edit: Oops goofed and thought you were reviewing Jedi Survivor.

 

[WarriorX]

I pretty much agree with you but boy do I think they needed several more months to get the game in better shape. Or if that wasn't in the cards I think they easily could have cut some stuff and released it later if they wanted to. There were just so many big releases this year I'm sure that made things difficult.

Edit: Oops goofed and thought you were reviewing Jedi Survivor.

Heh its all good. I want to play Jedi Survivor as I really like the characters they have established but will pick it up when its cheaper and hopefully is patched in a better state (or I have a PC that can power through any performance issues).

 

[Furious_Styles]

Heh its all good. I want to play Jedi Survivor as I really like the characters they have established but will pick it up when its cheaper and hopefully is patched in a better state (or I have a PC that can power through any performance issues).

You would be able to play it now, you have a very similar PC to mine. Still could use some patches though. You can also always sub to EA play pro for $15/mo. That's what I did.

 

[lopoetve]

Music is excellent. You have a few options:

1. General MIDI - this was composed on a Roland SC-55. So SC-55 or similar should render the music as intended
2. Sound Blaster - The FM implementation of this music is great actually.
3. Gravis Ultrasound - I don't have a card so I cannot verify its quality. I assume that it's basically a soundfound rendering the GM soundtrack
4. Adlib Gold - again don't have a sound card so I have no idea

How did I know this would be you...

 

[lopoetve]

Demon Souls Remake (PS5): A-/B+ (we're RIGHT on the edge).

I'll admit that this game surprised me - both in how well it HAS held up, and in how much the sheer cognitive dissonance of playing the remake in 2022 caused for me (more on that a bit later).

February of this year I fired up Bloodborne. I wasn't expecting to play a Fromsoft game; I knew about them, I knew they were hard, and I wasn't looking for a challenge. I just didn't look at the game ~box~ before sticking the disc into my resurrected PS4 (4+ years of being in a storage box, and I apparently got Bloodborne with other games on sale at some point), and I didn't watch the opening scroll while I was futzing on my phone. My mistake... or my luck, I should say... I got my ass kicked, of course, but somehow I couldn't put it down. I kept exploring, and almost by accident, I platinumed the game. My wife wondered where I went for 2 months. I promptly bought a PS5, because I wanted to play the original, and digging out my old PS3 for it wasn't going to happen in my new man cave.

And so I did. 2 months - just like Bloodborne, it took me two months. And it was worth it. But at the same time, there has been a niggling sense of "something isn't quite right with this game" for the majority of that time - and I think I finally figured it out.

The Good:

The game is drop dead gorgeous, of course. Some of the best detail, best animations (mostly), and well done area and enemy design out there. It's stunning how well Bluepoint put this together, and I absolutely applaud them for the work done on the graphics. I wandered around the Nexus for an hour my first night as I was wrapping up - it was just too ~pretty~ not to. The characters. The way they move. The enemy attacks... All if it is perfectly done.

In truth, the sound design is almost better in some ways than the graphics are. While we expect a launch title for a new console, especially one as powerful as the PS5 to look good, I don't expect precision on sound - especially not for a remake that had a sound palate before. But the sound in this game is so insanely detailed that I think it's missed at times. Walking through Flamelurker's lair, I could hear individual footsteps on dirt, gravel, the metal ring, and then a piece of wood... in a row... and each was different. It wasn't a general "this area is metal" and "this is dirt" - each step matched what I landed on. It's that attention to detail that makes me happy - Bluepoint cared about what they were doing, and the Fromsoft guys (from what I've seen of the original) certainly did too. That's me geeking out, of course, but it matters for the immersion.

QOL improvements. These matter. Sodden ring for the PBWT stuff in 5 (ugh). The shortcut to Allant (ugh). Multi-roll (UGH). Not having to upgrade every weapon (seriously?) for the trophy. Send to storage (jesus christ the lost items over the years...). All of these little things make it much more approachable - while still keeping the core of the game that was alive. I'm impressed. Light touches.

The music - the story - the feel. It's almost perfect for what I wanted and what I expected.

Bosses. Yeah, they're not hard (maneater aside). But they're creative (again, maneater aside). I liked that they thought outside of the box on them - sure, I'd have liked Dragon God to be a section rather than an archdemon, and arguably the same for Storm King - but this was the first, and they were creative. The levels ARE the boss in this game.



The Bad:

Lets be honest here - while Bluepoint made it gorgeous, they also... lost something. I read about how many folks loved Latria for the atmosphere in the original. It's dark. It's creepy. It's... kinda pretty? :-|... I didn't get it. The atmosphere of the original (I watched a let's play) was lost, somewhat, in the changes they made. It felt like an old cathedral - but ~not~ like a prison where everyone had lost all hope, sinking slowly into the miasma of the waters below. I did finally start to get that later on in NG+ cycles, but... the first view of it as a newcomer isn't the same as it appears to have been. 3-2 and on were better - but they were still pretty. This was an evil kingdom - Malificent's home - more than a prison of evil on a swamp with a mega creepy heart. It just didn't work as well with that much detail, and with that much ... everything. Too polished, almost. At least for me.

Corridor crawlers are not From's strong point. Boletaria is great. Stonefang is good. Prison of hope... is rough, because ~corridors block weapons~. And so much is a corridor there. Shrine is fine - and then you hit 5, which is both corridors at times (with no guard rails!), and infinite falls. I'm glad that they seem to have ditched this going forward - I actually don't mind the swamp (it's not FUN, mind you, but it's appropriately disgusting and not hard with the right setup).

World Tendency. Is fine. Generally. My ~only~ "uh, that's kinda dumb" was how hard it is to go PWCT, vs going PBCT. Especially when you add-in online trophies. And dragging a world black to kill the phantom and primeval demon doesn't get you back to full PWWT from my math - which means another run through. That's a bit much.

Online Trophies. Seriously. Some of us YOU don't want to play online. I have no idea how I got my PVP kill in Old Monk - there was SO MUCH lag that he went from "somehow I'm clipping through him" to "he dead" in... heck if I know. We were warping around the throne room like two 5 year-olds hyped up on adderall and caffeine. That's not fun for me, certainly - but it's also not fun for whoever I had to play and I killed. I'm in a rural area. Nothing I can do about it. But tis done. PVE works better, even co-op.



The ... weird:

So here's the thing that got me. This game is gorgeous. It's a next generation game in every possible form. We talk about the graphics, the speed, the 60FPS (or 4k) look. The sound. All of that. But... at it's heart, that is all wrapped around a game from 2009 - almost 15 years oldnow. The AI is jank at times (*cough* maneater *cough*). Some enemies are just a grindfest (tower knight phantom) of trading blows and durability. Some enemy placement is kinda brutal (red phantom satsuki - if you don't have the graverobber ring handy, you're ~screwed~). Most of all though, the combat is ~old~ and is no longer the strongest thing about the game... This is all warring with the feel that you're playing a game that could come out ~today~ and be amazing.

I applaud Bluepoint for holding that true to the original. It plays ~like~ the original in so many ways, but when you wrap it in SUCH a shiny coat of paint... if you've been playing more modern games, your brain struggles to think "15 years old, here's what you can do." Before picking up my PS5 I started on OG Dark Souls - and I had no issue making the transition in combat. But in the remake of Demon Souls, part of me kept thinking "modern game, modern feel, you should be able to do charge in like Bloodborne or like Elden Ring" when you really couldn't - the system wasn't designed for that, it was designed for much simpler times, with simpler AI and simpler combat that relied much more on reaction and shields than timing and aggression. But it doesn't feel like it should be that way - it feels like you should be able to do more, because in games that look like this, you CAN do more.

This does not make the game bad. This does not make Bluepoint bad. It means that for at least some of us, there's a major cognitive dissonance that we have to fight to play this - because our guts and reactions in the lizard brain are saying this highly stressful, dangerous moment should be handled ~differently~ than it expects us to. I believe that many of the complaints around "this game is bad" or "this game isn't what I expected" come from this, as anyone new to Demon Souls is easily tricked into forgetting, at least in that primal part of your brain, that this is actually a 15 year old game in a hot new body.

In the end, it's an excellent game - but part of me wonders what would happen if we ever got a reimagining of it, rather than a remake. Something that dragged the weirdly janky parts (maneater again, flamelurker wandering into a wall for the entire fight, Phantoms and Allant not reacting to death/poison cloud, enemy AI with more options) into the same ~idea~, but not a 1-1 mapping of what was there before. That's a game I'd also love to play. A new retelling of this story, rather than the coat of paint, as good as that touch-up is. I loved Demon Souls - I'd also love Demon Souls reimagined.

 

[WarriorX]

STAR WARS™ - The Force Unleashed™ Ultimate Sith Edition

After beating Jedi Fallen Order, wanted to continue with some more Star Wars games.

Force Unleashed is a product of its time. 2008/2009 was the peak where we had game play elements like QTEs and this game has plenty. It is one of the things I dislike most about the game because you will be attacking and suddenly it pops up a Quick Time Event prompt and you hit the wrong key.

I liked the environments and the characters, even though we didn't spend that much time with them to really build them up. My main issues with the game was the gameplay (QTEs) and controls. I did play mouse/keyboard so maybe the game is more controller friendly. Some of the boss fights were plain horrible to do because it changes your camera perspective and made controlling your character more difficult. I get it was probably a visual effect reason because it did look cool.

Overall, the game was ok at best. There were some cool moments but was happy to have reached the end. Had the game had better controls using my preferred method to play, probably would have had a much better time. While an even older game, I preferred Jedi Academy combat to this one.

 

[Domingo]

Remnant 2 (PC)

Remnant 2 is essentially more "Dark Souls with guns," which is what the original game was often nicknamed. If you liked the original game (grab it if you've never played it), you'll probably enjoy this one, too.
The plot is mostly non-existent, but you probably won't care. You're basically going from world to world shooting enemies and killing challenging bosses. Along the way you'll fine items, new guns, new powers, and even new character class abilities to aid you on your journey.

You have a short gun (pistol or SMG), long gun (rifle or shotgun), and a melee weapon of some sort. I played the original game with a pretty heavy focus on melee, but that doesn't work very well in Remnant 2. They are way too many flying and distant enemies to rely on it for any length of time. I mostly only used it when my weapons were too slow to reload and enemies were closing in. Melee does pretty solid damage on a few bosses, but it's full-on worthless against far, far more. All your gear can get powered up via items you'll find plus "scrap," which works as currency. I found myself never having much extra scrap, so I upgraded my gear and barely did much else.

What differentiates Remnant 2 from the original, at least beyond the graphics and technical advancements, is how dense the early sections are. Hidden rooms, bosses, items, character classes, etc. are everywhere. If you take the time to look around, there's a LOT to see and do. The later areas become more linear, which is a bit disappointing. I don't think it would be wrong to say the last 1/3 of the game feels a little phoned in to be honest. It's not bad, there's just not much to it. Mostly linear levels leading to bosses.

The game features procedurally generated levels, like the original, but in a slightly more limited capacity. The game essentially dishes out a random number of sub-levels for each world. They might be there for you (via a glowing doorway), or they might not. You'll have to option to play through somewhere between 2-5 per world. The catch to this is that if you're unlucky with which levels you get, you might miss out on some fun levels and good items. The overall length is roughly the same (15-25 hours per pass) as the first game, depending on how much you explore.

Things are a bit more challenging compared to the original game. I found the most of the levels to be fairly easy, but the bosses can be really tough. Maybe a little too much so at times. It occasionally feels like certain boss fights were designed with certain classes or even multi-player in mind. They're all winnable, but some can be unbalanced and frustrating. In a few cases, it's like the developers wanted to cover your screen with random garbage so it's tough to find the right course of action. The final boss stands as one of the most annoying fights I can recall, and that's even compared vs. ALL of the Fromsoft bosses. It's both hard and a "cheap" fight where you often can't see what's going on. Others (including some close to the end) are trivially easy. It's worth mentioning that one boss, the Labyrinth cube, is both maddening and genius at the same time. I hated fighting it, but it really was clever.

Overall, I think it's a good game that should appeal to fans of the Souls games, fans of 3rd person shooters, or even just fans of exploration and tough challenges. I'm not sure it's better than the original game overall, but it's better in some ways. While the original game felt like they squeezed everything out of it but their budget was limited, this one feels a little rushed in places. Especially the later portions of the game, which just aren't particularly good. The developer is known for supporting their games, so hopefully some of my issues can be fixed or alleviated over time.

As of right now, I'd give it a solid B-

 

[WarriorX]

Assassin's Creed Origins

As Assassin's Creed games go, this was a solid entry for the most part. My favorite part of this were the locations and time period. Really enjoyed seeing Egypt and getting to explore the surrounding areas. The game's graphics still hold up well for the environments. The DLCs added to this and it was fun to explore, but did get repetitive after a while.

The story is decent, with some likeable characters. The character you play the most is likeable and has a story that you can believe in. I do feel that for a game about the Origins of the Assassins, it didn't really start to show until the end and in the DLC. The other character you play as is also a likeable character but you is only played in a few missions. The other characters are ok. The 'villains' are ok but due to the sheer number of them, don't have a chance to really build out their story. I didn't feel as attached to these character as I did in past games but the last few moments of the main campaign hit the feels when the music kicked in. I enjoyed the music through the game.

Combat is good with a good mix of weapons. However it also can be the source of frustration as there is a large emphasis on dodging due to lots of shield breaking attacks being used against you. Also some attacks when you do get hit, do an insane amount of damage and sometimes you can't recovery out of the hits and die in a few swings. Game uses level based stats and if you are a little under leveled, the game difficulty is much harder. I ended up doing more side quests than I cared to do so I maintained the correct level.

Overall, I did enjoy my time in this one. However its not as memorable as past entries, imo.

 

[Flogger23m]

Atomic Heart
In a space of bloated action/shooter games, Atomic Heart is a nice return to something more manageable that focuses more on fun and crafted level design over running around aimlessly for hours. But there are a number of shortcomings and less than ideal design choices that standout of an otherwise enjoyable game.

Gameplay is fun and combines most modern single player shooter gameplay loops. You obtain weapons which you can gradually upgrade, craft ammunition, and upgrade powers/abilities of the character. If you take time and explore every possible area you will generally not have much of an issue finding ammunition or upgrades which is a relief. Up front enemies may feel a little bit bullet spongy, something I despise in games, but that fades away fairly quickly. Ammunition initially is hard to come by but eventually I started having more ammunition than I could use. At times I feel like too much time is spent looking at an upgrade screen although Atomic Heart realizes this shortcoming and implemented some convenient solutions. You can always respec your character without penalty, and while you have limited storage inventory points are frequent and appear to be unlimited. This decrease the time wasted trying to manage inventories, something they is almost always a boring chore in most games.


You will use a combination of powers and weapons to take down foes.

Weapon types and powers are sufficiently varied. Your arsenal can be upgraded to better fit different gameplay styles, as can your powers. One shortcoming is you can only have two powers equipped at once. It is easy to swap at a commonly found inventory station them but I felt like this was an unnecessary limitation that hindered gameplay variety. In practice I only used three powers through most of the game, although I did not find it to be problematic. The combat and enemies are generally fun to fight against with the variety of tools at your disposal. The exceptions are the bosses which don't really have any unique tactics and are bullet sponges. The typical combat encounter is typically fun, at least underground. The typical boss fight is poorly done.


Story missions take place underground which is where the game shines.

The game takes places in two areas. Locked off underground laboratories for story missions and the surface which serves as an area to travel to and from story missions and additional side missions. The underground levels are generally well done and have a unique artistic design to separate the various levels from each other. These areas are mostly linear in terms of navigation. One problem is backtracking is typically not possible, and areas can be locked off. There is often little reason to go back but sometimes it can be annoying if there was something else you needed to grab or wanted to see/read. I believe this has to do with technical reasons as the game runs smooth, and limiting playable areas may have been a performance saving measure.

The side content is mainly centered around smaller Testing Grounds. These are essentially puzzle sections which remind me a bit of Portal. They ranged from a bit tricky to easy, and typically don't have any combat. I found these to be entertaining and enjoyable. They will reward you with weapon upgrade parts and are worth doing.


Boss fights were not well designed. Easy and essentially bullet sponge fights.

Aside from story missions and Testing Grounds you can freely roam around the surface although this is a weak part of Atomic Heart. Enemies seemingly respawn and you seldom get a chance to just explore without constant robots spawning to kill you. You can drive a car around but it is a bit clunky. There is not a whole lot to see on the surface. While I actually prefer that Atomic Heart isn't filled with dozens of stupid things, I still feel like the surface areas could have been designed better. Driving around it a pain, respawning enemies gets old, and many areas are blocked off. The explorable area appears to be bigger than it actually is. This isn't bad, but the way the map works makes you think there is more to see than there is. Thankfully most of the time is spent underground in story missions or Testing Grounds.


The underground story missions have unique looking laboratories which help prevent Atomic Heart from looking stale.

Which brings me to another problem in Atomic Heart. The map design is essentially useless. It does not properly disclose what area is playable and what is not. You cannot set way points. The icons make almost no sense. Sometimes my player would not appear on the map. It was almost useless. I would not even use it to navigate to story objectives. The game is easy enough to navigate, but the world map is so poorly designed. For a simple feature I am not sure what went wrong.


A lot of lore is told through computer terminals.

The story is generally enjoyable. I can best describe it as a Soviet version of Bioshock and Wolfenstein. Replace the extreme libertarian utopia that is Rapture with an extreme Soviet worship, where the USSR is the most sophisticated and scientifically advanced country on Earth and you have Atomic Heart. The story itself may appear to be a bit dumber initially but there are some twists partway through. The game generally critiques the Soviets and blindly trusting your superiors/country. The lore will gradually expand upon what is going on and by the end of the game I feel like the story ended up being richer and more rounded that I had thought.

The shortcoming of the story is the protagonist, especially earlier in the game. He is too detached, intentionally acts without regard to anything and comes off as an absolute idiot. Eventually this is explained both through lore read on computers throughout the world as well as directly through dialogue. I still feel like they could have toned down his initial idiocy because early on he is almost unbearably stupid.


The protagonist's dialogue is outright annoying early on.


The audio is decent. I enjoyed the sound track as there were several catchy tunes. More so than most games. Voice acting is well done. Sound effects are well done.

Graphically the game looks good. I wouldn't call it great, but it looks good enough. The underground areas generally look nice. Lighting looks good although not great. Textures and 3D models look good but again, not as detailed as some other modern games. I think effects like lightning bolts and explosions could have been better. Reflections and the like are also not the most impressive. This isn't a bad looking game, but I was a bit underwhelmed with the released product. Performance is very good with almost no stutters. High frame rates. This is a UE4 game, and I believe the reason it locks off sections of the level as you progress is to prevent stuttering by having a smaller playable space at any one time. While annoying, it may have been the right call if the result was a smooth-running game.

There were almost no bugs for me. Great job Mundfish.


Graphically the game looks nice, but could have been better.

In summary:

• Fun gameplay in most areas.
• Poorly designed boss fights.
• Interesting level design that is focused.
• Fun story missions.
• Lackluster surface area/over world.
• Decent although not great graphics.
• Stable game, smooth, no stuttering, practically bug free.
• Interesting world and story.
• Protagonist that can be fairly annoying.

Overall I would say I enjoyed Atomic Heart. For a single player action shooter I found it to be fairly enjoyable, stable, and interesting. But it had a number of shortcomings but nothing that absolutely ruins the experience.

8 / 10

 

[M76]

Jagged Alliance 3

It's been a long wait, many lesser men or women have given up on this sequel ever being made. But here we are and it's all been worth it. I don't know what else I can say up front about this game apart from that it exceeds all expectation in more than one way and it is a must have for everyone who likes tactical turn based games. Yes, indeed we are back to being turn based after the spinoff to quasi real time combat with Back In Action. I was one of the few, who actually liked that real time with pause style, but it can't hold a candle to the real deal.

The game was developed by a lesser known, or to me completely unknown studio Haemimont Games from Eastern Europe, Bulgaria to be precise, so I was uncertain about the game apriori to purchase. Let's say I had 50% faith, that it won't completely suck balls. But they did a good, even great job. Jagged Alliance 3 is a true spiritual successor to the classics. And the answer to the fifty million dollar question: Did it go woke? No, it did not, it does not hold back on stereotypes and "isms" it even takes jabs at political correctness. The biggest sin of the game that they added a trigger warning for the intellectually challenged, that the game contains stereotypes and it is not to be taken dead seriously. No sane person needs to be told this, but we all know how unhinged some game journalists have become. So I really can't fault them for adding this for normal people unnecessary disclaimer.

Jagged Alliance Crash Course



But I digress, the game has all the classic characters from the old games, and they are still as crazy as ever: Steroid, Fox, MD, Grunty, Fidel and so on. If these names mean nothing to you, then I'm afraid we need to begin with a crash course for you noob. In Jagged Alliance you act as a manager of mercenaries, and you are given the task of liberating a third world country from some evil militia. This time around we are in Africa, in the imaginary country of Gran Chien. Previous games were set in Arulco an imaginary South American country, and there are some references to that in game. So you serve as a commander of a mercenary group. You have complete autonomy to hire mercs from the funds available to you through a very 90s looking web site. Choosing your initial team is not to be taken lightly, because the wrong composition can seriously hinder you. I'll give some pointers on this later. After you have your initial team you arrive in a small island to meet the client and then the liberation of Gran Chien commences.

The start of the game being on a small island is no accident, this serves as a quasi tutorial area for the game, but don't expect any hand holding. The most you get are tooltips about the basic functions, which you should be familiar with if you ever played a turn based tactical game before. The game has a massive learning curve, before you figure out what to do and what not to do, this makes your first time feel that much harder. So the best thing to do is to think of your first campaign as a trial run, and when after 15-20 hours you are confident enough that you have a grasp on the game then just start over and do things right this time.

The map of the game is divided into sectors, and you must fight over the control of each one. But don't think for a moment that capturing an area means it is permanently yours, as enemies regularly send out patrols and attack squads and will try to retake key locations. Loosing control over barren land is no bother, but loosing ports hinders travel, and loosing cities means loosing benefits provided by the city, like workshops or hospitals, or workers. So in lieu of permanently stationing mercs in key locations which would be a waste of resources you can use your time, or rather some merc's time to train local militias. But since time is literally money in the game you must choose wisely where you raise militias and where is it a waste of time.

Time is money



Yes, time is money, because your mercs don't have just one hiring fee, they cost money every day. Some only a few hundred, but many of the elites and veterans can cost thousands / day. So this makes hiring the right team even harder. It's one thing to pay the first week of salary, but will you be able to retain them at the end of the week? You need income, and outside of the initial funds you get there are four ways to get more. The most obvious is capturing and holding diamond mines, but don't think having achieved that you can lean back, as mines can and will run dry and decrease output over time, plus the loyalty of the nearest settlement also affects how much funds you gain from them.

The second method of gaining money is ambushing enemy diamond shipments, whose paths are conveniently shown on the map. This is probably the easiest way to get money quick, you just put your mercs in the path of the shipment and wait until they meet. Most shipments have relatively weak escorts.

The third method is loot, sometimes you can find hidden stashes of valuables, or even random soldiers can have valuables on them occasionally. As long as the valuables are regular diamonds or gems, this is no problem. But sometimes you come across artifacts and items of national heritage, which presents a moral dilemma: Do you hand them over to the legit government, or do you cash them in like some tomb raider. This can affect the outcome of the game.

And finally the fourth and least reliable way of getting funds is doing side missions given by NPCs. This is unreliable because not many missions give high cash rewards and you can never know what to expect. Plus side missions usually involve a lot of investigation and wild goose chases, so you don't really do them for the money, but for fun and out of curiosity.

Choosing mercs



The composition of your team is vital, but there are some things that are wildly different from previous JA games. Having a medic used to be essential. That is no longer the case here, you can get away with having one merc with 50 MED skill possibly even less, because that is enough to bandage fallen mercs and prevent them from dying. And healing injuries are not that important as they do not affect any stat outside of HP. And they will self heal slowly when resting.

I'd say the single most important thing to have in your squad is at least one merc with high mechanical MEC skill. As this determines your ability to maintain equipment, to hack computers, even lockpicking, and allows you to install mods on weapons. Without the ability of repairing equipment your squad is all but useless.

The second best thing to have is an explosives expert, as they can disarm traps and detect landmines without actually stepping on them. Plus lobbing a grenade into a group of enemies can often turn the tide when you are badly outnumbered.

The rest is personal preference, I'd add a merc with high leadership as this speeds up training of militias, but this is not that essential. Besides the classic characters there are a few new ones as well to choose from. Apart from stats another important factor is personality, all mercs have unique lines in conversations with NPCs the game would be replayable for this reason alone, if there weren't a ton of other reasons already. Convresations are not animated, but fully voiced, and the voice acting is really great, even down to the war cries of random combatants.

Personality can also affect how some mercs work together, for example some constantly nag each other, which is fun, but others might ask for more money if you hired someone they dislike. Or straight up refuse to work for you while you have someone on the payroll.

The neat thing about the game is that mercs can train each other as well. Of course this takes time, but you are often faced with downtime, while your mechanic is repairing your equipment, or one merc is resting because they are too tired to go on, or during training of militias. This is prime opportunity to put your other mercs on training tasks. One with higher skill can train others who have less of that skill. The speed of training is determined by the leadership skill and the skill difference. Sometimes you can gain 3-4 points in just one session. Mercs also gain skill by experience, but that is at a snail's pace compared to training.

They can also level up from time to time, this is when they can gain perks, but higher level perks are skill locked. For example a perk might require the merc to have 90 Strength. So if you want a merc to have a specific specialization you can train them upfront to have the necessary skill level by the time they level up.

All in all there are so many variables that it can seem overwhelming at first, but this is what gives their management depth.

One new feature of the game is the ability to make one custom merc, for a one time fee. The good thing is that this merc will be free of additional costs, and that you can freely choose their starting skills. The con is that they have absolutely no personality.
In the beginning it is best to stick to one squad with 4 or 5 soldiers, but later in the game you will be able to have 3-4 squads.

The Combat



The encounters in tactical view start by deploying your mercs in the entry area of the section, which is determined by available intel (intel can reveal alternative deployment areas or the location of enemies and vantage points) and the direction of your approach. Sometimes it is best to retreat and try attacking from another side if the scenery is not ideal from one direction. Until the enemy detects you you can freely move around in real time, turn based combat only engages once the enemy is alerted to your presence. You can do stealth kills without engaging combat if you are careful and have high enough sneak skill, and also strong enough to one hit enemies. You can even achieve double stealth kills by timing a melee attack perfectly in sync with a silenced ranged attack. The possibilities of this game are almost limitless.

Once turn based combat engages it becomes basically XCOM, but with one key difference. You don't have a set amount of moves, you can move 10 times with one soldier as long as they don't run out of AP. Plus some buffs and perks allow a certain free move range, which allows you to reposition without using AP. The range of free move can vary wildly depending on skill and other factors, for example equipping some weapons completely remove the free move ability of mercs.

Your attacks can vary depending on weapon type, but the common factor is that you can choose how much time you take aiming including for melee weapons. A more aimed attack has a higher chance of hit, a less aimed one has lower chance. For example you have 8 AP left, do you make two poorly aimed attacks for 4 AP each, or do you take a chance on one fully aimed one for 7AP? Choose wisely.

Thankfully there is no chance for the dreaded 99% miss here, for the simple reason that the game does not tell you your hit chances. You have to make a judgement call each time, and this way it rarely feels like you are being cheated. Note, that I said rarely, because occasionally you still get something like a merc shooting off into the void when an enemy is 3 steps in front of them, but still nowhere near as annoying as XCOM can be at times.

The range of weapons especially the starting weapons is very limited, so you have to get used to marching right up in the face of enemies before you can effectively engage them in combat. Later when you get weapons with more range it becomes somewhat easier, but you still feel like waging medieval warfare rather than modern combat with how close you have to be to enemies. It takes some getting used to.

Graphics and quality



The game is not riddled with bugs, but not completely free of them either. I did encounter a few CTDs in what is now close to 100 hours of playing it. And saving / loading sometimes moved enemies or my men by one square, which was enough to block their ability to attack, and was quite annoying. I also consider it a bug that sometimes the game wouldn't revert to real time movement when I finished off a group of enemies, so I annoyingly had to search for one last hiding enemy one turn at a time. But at least I did not encounter any frequent or game breaking issues.

The graphics is great, it almost looks good enough for street level, despite being a tactical game. The environment is fully destructible, including cover and buildings, so soldiers can fall to their death if the floor collapses under them, and loot can be destroyed too. Apart from flora there is some fauna too, albeit I only seen hyenas and aligators. The former are weak, but can be dangerous if a bunch of them swarm you, but aligators are boss level enemies, they are almost indestructible and if they get close they don't just one hit almost any merc, they have a reaction attack to any action you take. It's really not worth fighting them.

But by far the best part of the graphics is the environmental effects, fog really feels cold and mysterious, and when it is sizzling hot it looks like it. I have not seen any other game convey humidity and scorching heat so well with atmospheric effects alone.

Performance is good most of the time, but occasionally the game will produce extreme lag on the satellite view, when in effect the whole screen freezes for seconds until it finds itself again. In tactical view you can also get FPS drops when there are very many active enemies.

The Cons

Since no game is without its faults, no matter how much I praised the game so far I have to mention the negative parts too. And the single biggest failing of the game is that it has no in-game shop. No, I have not gone crazy, unfortunately nowadays when you mention shop people immediately associate to a cash shop where you can buy inventory slots and "time savers" for real money. No, I mean an actual in-game shop where you can buy in-game items, for in game cash.

Because as it stands the only way you can get new or any equipment in the game is by looting, which is fine for your first squad, as you get better equipment consistently as stronger enemies appear. But when you want to hire a second squad mid game, they come with the same starter kit: pea shooter and underwear basically. And loot drops are RNG based, so not all enemies drop all their equipment. You can go for multiple encounters without a single ammo or weapon drop, so your second and third squads will always struggle with weapons not worth anything against enemies that the game is throwing at you at that stage. Even if have the foresight to leave breadcrumbs scattered around the map with your first squad which you have no way of anticipating on your first campaign, ammo will still be a struggle. You always end up having the wrong weapons that you have no ammo for. While hoarding hundreds of the ammo types that you have no weapon for.

The game also has some unavoidable trigger points that are designed to make you fail, which would be fine, if they weren't so set in stone. Make it hard, but let me win still if I can. There is nothing worse than a forced failure. It is cheap. If I can anticipate trouble let me get ahead of it. Unfortunately you can't here, you have to go along with the pre-planned events. Because some NPCs are made invulnerable they even refuse to aggro before their time.

The story goes out of it way to telegraph the story twist as early as humanly possible, I don't know if it can even be called a twist. If it was a red herring instead then it would've made sense to make it so obvious.

Summary

+

• characters, voiceovers, one-liners
• Really nice graphics with excellent atmospheric effects
• Varied map and terrain
• Destructible environment
• Gripping and exciting tactical engagements
• A non completionist playthrough takes 60 hours to complete
• Massive replayabilty
• Untouched by political correctness

-

• No in game shop combined with RNG based loot drops
• Steep learning curve during which all you can rely on is trial and error
• Predetermined turning points in the campaign
• Telegraphed story twist

Conclusion

This is easily GOTY for me so far. And Starfield has to exceed all expectations to dethrone it. BG3? There is no way it is better than this I'm confident in that even without playing it.

 

[KickAssCop]

Uncharted 4 on PC. Dope af/10.

 

[WarriorX]

Doom Eternal

More or less just more of DOOM 2016. Fun environments, great weapon loadout, clean gunplay and just endless demon hordes to slay. Great sounds and a headbanging OST round it out.

The DLCs, were not as enjoyable. Far to many times I had frustrating combat encounters in the DLCs. The DLCs also felt rushed, lot of reskinned combat encounters, and nothing really new in terms of weapons.

DOOM 2016 was a nice reboot, DOOM Eternal kept to the same formula with some extra movement puzzles. Overall I had a fun time in the main campaign...can just forget about the DLCs for my next playthrough...

 

[Flogger23m]

Dead Island 2 ​

Zombie shooters, slashers, and survival games are plentiful. It is hard to standout in such a crowd. Dead Island 2 does set itself above most similar games not by innovation or sophistication, but rather strong execution. The game itself is simple but just about everything in it is done in a way that feels, plays, and looks enjoyable. This game is not very ambitious in its goals, but what it does feature is done in a way that makes the game enjoyable.

Dead Island 2 (DI2) features a mixture of melee combat, zombie slashing, shooting, scavenging, and environmental and hazard take downs. The setting is simple, there is a zombie outbreak in Los Angeles, and you must escape. At the start you can choose between a few different characters which have different play styles and abilities, although I do not think they matter that much. Some people may be disappointed by this, although I don't mind and actually consider this to be a good thing. Staring at menus for hours upon hours and not being able to organically do something in a game because it is locked out from certain characters is often more of a pain and seldom offers any enjoyment to a game. As you progress through the game your character will get new abilities, some of which include new take down moves or passive abilities. This gives some leeway to build a character to your play style yet it isn't necessary. I largely ignored new abilities and focused on actually playing the game. I focused on killing zombies, the actual fun part of a zombie game. Other developers please take note - playing the game is where the fun comes from, not menus.


Zombie dismemberment and damaging is detailed.

You will start out with melee weapons and gradually obtain firearms. The zombie slaying is quite satisfying. There are a few different types of environmental hazards and ammunition types. Water/electricity, fire, and acid. Nothing we have not already seen in prior games. Although the affects these have on the zombies themselves are quite a lot more visually satisfying than most games. If a zombie walks through dripping acid their flesh will melt away, resulting in something that actually startled me the first few times I saw this. Explosions that aren't close enough to dismember a zombie can still blow off chunks of excess flesh. The dismembering via melee weapons or firearms is also accurately localized. Slicing a zombie in a particular part of the limb will result in a fairly accurate location based damage. The weapons are fun (when leveled), and the guns handle and sound fairly good for a zombie game.


Ammo types include incendiary rounds.

Zombies themselves come in a few varieties, all of which will be familiar had you played a zombie game in the last 15 or so years. They are not very intelligent (but zombies never are) and seldom if ever chase you up roofs. This can make it easy to escape zombies although DI2 prioritizes playing your own way and experimenting more than fighting teleporting super enemies that spawn right next to you, Assassin's Creed Odyssey style. Some may be disappointed with this, but I was not.

There are plentiful safe locations, which are nice as they give the player an opportunity to get more ammo, fabricate necessities and go back out. This allows the player to actually experiment a bit with different weapon modifications, revisit areas and kill more zombies using different abilities or weapon types. And this is how more games should be; the player should not be punished for playing the game. The downside of going back and having fun killing zombies in new ways is slim. The problem of obtaining ammunition can get tedious at times though. Crafting parts are typically plentiful, but the most useful ones that are required for ammunition are scarcer. And this represents one of the biggest shortcomings of DI2. You often spend too much time trying to craft, buy, or buy crafting parts for ammo. It was not that much of an issue, but it got tedious by the time the game was wrapping up.


You can mix environmental hazards, ammo, and melee weapons and more to create powerful traps.

Upgrading weapons can be a bit tedious as well. DI2 does have a level system which I feel serves no real purpose. Your weapons magically become weaker, and upgrading them or buying new versions of the same weapons can be excessively costly. It does generally work overall but it was unnecessary. There are rare versions of weapons that may be slightly more powerful, but generally around the halfway point your weapons will not change in functionality. Which means you will replace/upgrade your weapon with something identical, just a higher number value. The game would have been more fun without such a dated leveling system.

As I said in the introduction DI2 is not very ambitious. It does not attempt to recreate a giant map or miniaturized Los Angeles. Instead, it features multiple small maps taking part in different locations of the city. You can typically run through these maps in a few minutes, although they tend to be detailed. Many buildings are extremely detailed inside, and missions can last anywhere between 15-40 minutes. Practically all locations are used in some form so there is no wasted space. I preferred this because the playable areas felt life like yet I didn't have to spend half the game running around an empty area. You will visit upscale neighborhoods, underground subways, beaches, and stores. I felt like there was sufficient variety. I prefer games with more depth rather than raw map size, and I think DI2 is a good example of how you can make a game enjoyable despite having a smaller playable space.


The overall look and feel of Los Angles appears to be spot on.

The narrative is not that good. There is a zombie outbreak. You need to escape. The tone of my chosen character was silly and not very serious. There is an abundance of side characters, although you don't spend much with most of them and I doubt anyone who plays DI2 will care about any of them. It is worth noting that each playable character has different lines. My character was a Latina and said some specific lines that a non-Latino would not say, it was very specific to this character. Although the overall story itself will not change.


Plenty of places are enter-able. Maps are small, but have a decent amount of depth.

Voice acting is well done. Sounds like gun fire, explosions, and the like sound good. The sound track was nothing memorable. Overall, nothing abnormally bad, but nothing truly stellar with the audio.

Another disappointment with DI2 is the limited environmental destruction. Zombie destruction is great and I wish that extended to the very detailed building/housing interiors. You can destroy windows and a small handful of props, but that is about it. Seeing how the maps are small and how much damage detail the zombies have I wish this would have been applied to environment at the local level. Blowing off sections of wall, more detailed furniture destruction and the like.


Environmental destruction is limited.

From a technical perspective DI2 is also not very ambitious, yet still looks amazing and runs well. DI2 is quite the opposite of Dying Light 2 in every way. This has static lighting, no dynamic day/night cycle. There is practically zero stuttering, which is impressive for a modern game. Especially an Unreal Engine 4 game. Frame rates are very high, around 100 or more without DLSS. Textures are very high resolution. Objects, inferiors, exteriors, walls, signs, props are all textured in high detail. The lighting itself looks very photo realistic. Interior and exterior lighting looks great, although again is static. Flash light shadow/reflections are not as dynamic as more modern lighting techniques. The sky box also appears to be static, which is the one aspect I find of DI2 to be notable dated. Zombies and zombie destruction looks amazing. Zombie gore and blood splatter looks very realistic and quite amazing seeing how it can splatter almost anywhere. Reflections look amazing. Sparks and gun fire looks great. Night time lighting looks good and dark. DI2 does not use the latest technology, but it shows how you can design a game around older technologies with excellent results. Given how this game looks it is quite amazing with how well it runs. This is one of if not the best optimized AAA game I have played over the past two years.


Lighting and blood splatter from zombies can look photo realistic in some areas.

Dead Island 2 will take around 24 hours to finish (story and side quests), and another 4-6 hours if you complete all the side requests (finding loot, mostly pointless).

In summary:

• Gameplay designed around player choice and experimenting.
• Small but detailed maps.
• Excellent zombie destruction.
• Amazing graphics, although it uses older more static lighting methods.
• Amazing performance, practically zero stuttering.
• Enjoyable core gameplay.
• Tedious weapon leveling and scavenging for ammunition.
• Not very ambitious, nothing groundbreaking.
• Bland story.

7.8 / 10

 

[WarriorX]

A Plague Tale: Innocence

The setting and environments were interesting to see and explore, which highlighted the nice graphics the game has. However the game is fairly linear so exploring is limited.

The story had some good moments and the characters, including the voice acting helped keep me engaged. The combat, was mostly fine but there were some sections that did bring some frustration. Some of the combat and stealth sections had little room for error and sometimes would require some trial and error to find the best way to beat them. These sections weren't too frequent so that helped reduce how annoying they were.

The game also has minimal hand holding with icons and telling you were to go. Instead using some visual clues and dialog to help guide you where you need to go, which I liked about this game.

The game probably would have benefited with a more open level design so you could fully explore this setting but I can understand this decision. Overall I enjoyed what the game provided, despite some of the faults.

 

[Flogger23m]

Homeworld Deserts of Kharak

A prequel to the excellent Homeworld series. It does not live up to the name. I can't talk too much about it because the game simply is incomplete and I cannot experience more than the first few hours of "gameplay". The issues:

- Illegible text.
- Low resolution cut scenes that look 640x480.
- Terrible default control mapping.
- Cannot remap controls without opening a .txt file, even then it is limited.
- Micro stuttering.
- You cannot zoom out enough to properly command units.
- Click on units is extremely inaccurate. I'm not sure how previous Homeworld games were so intuitive yet this can require 3-5 clicks to select a single unit properly.
- Horrible phone based GUI. Nothing is persistent, and you need to click 3-4 times to access basic commands. They are also not legibly discerned from each other (example, red for attack, green for non-attack functions).
- They forgot to put resources in mission 2, so you cannot progress in the campaign normally without mods.
- RTS games require setting waypoints, typically a line with an arrow point in the direction you want a unit to go. In this it is a damn circle with no direction indicator. Your unit can go north, south, or west when you want it to go east.
- A single button press has around 3-4 random functions. So if select your capital ships a number of randomized sub menus will pop up. Want to build something? Too bad, it decided you're moving with an attack waypoint.
- Some unit types accidentally shoot through sand dunes.
- Some unit types simply don't work, at all. There might be a railgun function but it won't work. The NPC unit just sits there as if the function was never added.

Edit: Gave this another chance, re-configuring controls. It still has issues but re-loading checkpoints fixes some issues like resource collection, being stuck in a cutscene, or the camera auto scrolling to the side of the screen. I suggest you save frequently. When you get a game stopping bug it can often be fixed by restarting although these are annoying and can set you back a lot of progress. Examples would be a mid-mission objective update, which during gameplay would randomly trigger a second time and result in my game being locked in the cinematic view unable to access the menu or use any commands. Entering task manager and forcing the program to shut down is the fix, but not exactly one you want in a game.

Controls just aren't fully able to be fixed in my experience. Clicking with your mouse to move a unit may automatically imitative another command. Example, trying to launch a probe may result in said unit executing a turret deployment command. This happened around a dozen or more times, often twice in a row. Clicking on the carrier with your mouse also always automatically initiates a launch fighter command. This just makes commanding units too much of a pain as you often spend 30 seconds cancelling commands, and then re-issuing them.

Despite the bad controls and bugs that may require reloading or forcing a shut down of the program the game is okay. I enjoyed launching fighter strikes but unit differentiation and specialization was not as good as it was in precious entries. Some of the maps are very limiting in terms of what can be done for strategy, including areas blocking your carrier which more or less locks you into a very specific path. Resource management is annoying in that there are two resource types which doesn't benefit gameplay in anyway.

Controls are a mess, it has bugs, and other issues. But you can play it but it is just nowhere near as good as the previous entry.

5 / 10

 

[KickAssCop]

Motorfest. 8/10. Some great racing ideas. Only let down with omgrafix and 60 fps lock. But game is very enjoyable arcade racer and can’t believe it is a sequel to Crew abomination games.

Plays best on keyboard .

 

[lopoetve]

Homeworld Deserts of Kharak

A prequel to the excellent Homeworld series. It does not live up to the name. I can't talk too much about it because the game simply is incomplete and I cannot experience more than the first few hours of "gameplay". The issues:

- Illegible text.
- Low resolution cut scenes that look 640x480.
- Terrible default control mapping.
- Cannot remap controls without opening a .txt file, even then it is limited.
- Micro stuttering.
- You cannot zoom out enough to properly command units.
- Click on units is extremely inaccurate. I'm not sure how previous Homeworld games were so intuitive yet this can require 3-5 clicks to select a single unit properly.
- Horrible phone based GUI. Nothing is persistent, and you need to click 3-4 times to access basic commands. They are also not legibly discerned from each other (example, red for attack, green for non-attack functions).
- They forgot to put resources in mission 2, so you cannot progress in the campaign normally without mods.
- RTS games require setting waypoints, typically a line with an arrow point in the direction you want a unit to go. In this it is a damn circle with no direction indicator. Your unit can go north, south, or west when you want it to go east.
- A single button press has around 3-4 random functions. So if select your capital ships a number of randomized sub menus will pop up. Want to build something? Too bad, it decided you're moving with an attack waypoint.
- Some unit types accidentally shoot through sand dunes.
- Some unit types simply don't work, at all. There might be a railgun function but it won't work. The NPC unit just sits there as if the function was never added.


To me it seems like some dirt bags stole the Homeworld IP and then ass raped it. The result was Deserts of Kharak, an utterly broken and unplayable game. Easily one of the worst "games" I've ever experience in my entire life.

0 / 10

Maybe they'll finish the game next decade... until then this is one of the worst "games" I've had the displeasure of using.

I'm curious - what were you playing it on? I'm working through this right now - most of the way done - and have none of these issues. This sounds like it's running in the wrong resolution...

 

[KickAssCop]

RE4 DLC. Solid DLC for 10 caps / 10.

 

[Flogger23m]

I'm curious - what were you playing it on? I'm working through this right now - most of the way done - and have none of these issues. This sounds like it's running in the wrong resolution...

Edit: Gave this another chance, re-configuring controls. It still has issues but re-loading checkpoints fixes some issues like resource collection, being stuck in a cutscene, or the camera auto scrolling to the side of the screen. I suggest you save frequently. When you get a game stopping bug it can often be fixed by restarting although these are annoying and can set you back a lot of progress. Examples would be a mid-mission objective update, which during gameplay would randomly trigger a second time and result in my game being locked in the cinematic view unable to access the menu or use any commands. Entering task manager and forcing the program to shut down is the fix, but not exactly one you want in a game.

Controls just aren't fully able to be fixed in my experience. Clicking with your mouse to move a unit may automatically imitative another command. Example, trying to launch a probe may result in said unit executing a turret deployment command. This happened around a dozen or more times, often twice in a row. Clicking on the carrier with your mouse also always automatically initiates a launch fighter command. This just makes commanding units too much of a pain as you often spend 30 seconds cancelling commands, and then re-issuing them.

Despite the bad controls and bugs that may require reloading or forcing a shut down of the program the game is okay. I enjoyed launching fighter strikes but unit differentiation and specialization was not as good as it was in precious entries. Some of the maps are very limiting in terms of what can be done for strategy, including areas blocking your carrier which more or less locks you into a very specific path. Resource management is annoying in that there are two resource types which doesn't benefit gameplay in anyway.

Controls are a mess, it has bugs, and other issues. But you can play it but it is just nowhere near as good as the previous entry.

 

[KickAssCop]

Finished Cyberjunk Phantom Liberty. Handed over the choom causing all sorts of trouble / 10.

 

[lopoetve]

Edit: Gave this another chance, re-configuring controls. It still has issues but re-loading checkpoints fixes some issues like resource collection, being stuck in a cutscene, or the camera auto scrolling to the side of the screen. I suggest you save frequently. When you get a game stopping bug it can often be fixed by restarting although these are annoying and can set you back a lot of progress. Examples would be a mid-mission objective update, which during gameplay would randomly trigger a second time and result in my game being locked in the cinematic view unable to access the menu or use any commands. Entering task manager and forcing the program to shut down is the fix, but not exactly one you want in a game.

Controls just aren't fully able to be fixed in my experience. Clicking with your mouse to move a unit may automatically imitative another command. Example, trying to launch a probe may result in said unit executing a turret deployment command. This happened around a dozen or more times, often twice in a row. Clicking on the carrier with your mouse also always automatically initiates a launch fighter command. This just makes commanding units too much of a pain as you often spend 30 seconds cancelling commands, and then re-issuing them.

Despite the bad controls and bugs that may require reloading or forcing a shut down of the program the game is okay. I enjoyed launching fighter strikes but unit differentiation and specialization was not as good as it was in precious entries. Some of the maps are very limiting in terms of what can be done for strategy, including areas blocking your carrier which more or less locks you into a very specific path. Resource management is annoying in that there are two resource types which doesn't benefit gameplay in anyway.

Controls are a mess, it has bugs, and other issues. But you can play it but it is just nowhere near as good as the previous entry.

This is really weird - I'm almost at the end and literally haven't hit a single one of these bugs. It runs perfectly on both systems I've tried (3960X/6800XT, 10900k/3090). Never had a lockup or anything odd happen at all.

 

[Flogger23m]

This is really weird - I'm almost at the end and literally haven't hit a single one of these bugs. It runs perfectly on both systems I've tried (3960X/6800XT, 10900k/3090). Never had a lockup or anything odd happen at all.

I get constant and frequent stutters. I finished the game, replayed some missions. Went from one of the worst games I've ever played to playable but very flawed. Thankfully there is a manual save option, because I learned that quitting the game will fix things like trigger bugs. I suggest saving every few minutes.

 

[lopoetve]

I get constant and frequent stutters. I finished the game, replayed some missions. Went from one of the worst games I've ever played to playable but very flawed. Thankfully there is a manual save option, because I learned that quitting the game will fix things like trigger bugs. I suggest saving every few minutes.

I get constant and frequent stutters. I finished the game, replayed some missions. Went from one of the worst games I've ever played to playable but very flawed. Thankfully there is a manual save option, because I learned that quitting the game will fix things like trigger bugs. I suggest saving every few minutes.

Random thought - you on a Hybrid CPU (12th/13th gen?)

 

[Flogger23m]

Random thought - you on a Hybrid CPU (12th/13th gen?)

Ryzen 5700X. RTX 4070, Win 10, 32GB DRAM, installed on an NVM-e SSD.

 

[lopoetve]

Ryzen 5700X. RTX 4070, Win 10, 32GB DRAM, installed on an NVM-e SSD.

Weird. Just did 2 missions - one on my threadripper, another on my 10980XE - neither had issues. The only other thing you have I don't is a 4000 series - I'm on 3k /Big Navi

 

[Armenius]

Just want to point out that EOS was added to Deserts of Kharak at the end of August, which is known to cause all kinds of issues.

 

[KickAssCop]

Ass Creed Mirage. 9/10. Absolutely fantastic game.

 

[ChrisUlrich]

God of War Ragnarok: 100/10
Game is damn near perfect

Remnants 2: 8/10
Lots of fun. Challenging, great graphics, lots of run via coop.

Cyberpunk 9/10.
I enjoyed the story very much. Graphics are 10/10. 4K 100-130fps with path tracing is a real treat.

Sekiro. 8/10.
Game is very hard but also very easy. You die a million times but you are always fairly close to the spot you died (if you play the game right).

Final Fantasy XVI. 9/10
I absolutely loved this game. I know it doesn't get a lot of praise but I don't understand why. It has one of the most epic scenes i've seen in a video game in a very long time. I really, really enjoyed this game. I enjoy the combat system (it's not perfect but it's enjoyable). Quick travel eliminates a lot of stupid down time. The 1 knock is due to the constant stupid quests in between major story quests. You walk back and forth talking with people and it's just... annoying.

 

[KickAssCop]

God of War Ragnarok: 100/10
Game is damn near perfect

Remnants 2: 8/10
Lots of fun. Challenging, great graphics, lots of run via coop.

Cyberpunk 9/10.
I enjoyed the story very much. Graphics are 10/10. 4K 100-130fps with path tracing is a real treat.

Sekiro. 8/10.
Game is very hard but also very easy. You die a million times but you are always fairly close to the spot you died (if you play the game right).

Final Fantasy XVI. 9/10
I absolutely loved this game. I know it doesn't get a lot of praise but I don't understand why. It has one of the most epic scenes i've seen in a video game in a very long time. I really, really enjoyed this game. I enjoy the combat system (it's not perfect but it's enjoyable). Quick travel eliminates a lot of stupid down time. The 1 knock is due to the constant stupid quests in between major story quests. You walk back and forth talking with people and it's just... annoying.

How are you getting 100-130 fps with path tracing? Settings?

 

[ChrisUlrich]

How are you getting 100-130 fps with path tracing? Settings?

Ultra settings + Path Tracing

DLSS 3.0!

Frame Generation is sick.

 

[KickAssCop]

Ultra settings + Path Tracing

DLSS 3.0!

Frame Generation is sick.

My bench says 84 fps. Game is definitely not hitting 100-130 unless you count indoor areas or something.

 

[ChrisUlrich]

My bench says 84 fps. Game is definitely not hitting 100-130 unless you count indoor areas or something.

So it's more like 95-120fps. Definitely more than 84.

I just started Phantom Liberty and I don't think I hit 89fps once.

 

[KickAssCop]

Care to run the bench?

 

[Flogger23m]

Armored Core 6 Fires of Rubicon

I've longed for a good vehicle-based shooter with a good single player campaign. These have essentially disappeared since around 2010, with the only good game since being Ace Combat 7, itself being a step back from some previous entries. I was cautiously optimistic about Armored Core 6 (AC6). After finally playing it, I am still left longing for a good vehicle-based shooter.

There is a lot to like about Armored Core 6, but there are also many shortcomings. I am a bit disappointed that so many gamers and reviewers seem to gloss over the very big shortcomings. At its core, AC6 is based around building a combat mech and taking it on missions. You will spend a lot of time figuring out which build works for you, although I found it to be a bit limiting. Early on it is essentially trial and error when it comes to finding weapons that work well. At the time I played it some weapons were clearly inferior and just made missions tedious until I figured out a good alternative. If you do die you can rebuild your mech at resume from the last checkpoint which is nice, although any parts you did not purchase or sold will be unavailable unless you quit the mission and restart from scratch. This is a problem early on as you may sell some weapons to purchase something that looks great on paper but is awful for the next mission. This adds a bit of tedium and repetition, which I will mention more later.


Graphically this game isn't good. At least it runs well.

That being said, there are many different build styles you can go for and players can build something that works with their play style. This is certainly nice, although by the time you finally figure out a good build and can afford all the parts the campaign is over. The good news is there is more story missions; there are three endings which require three campaign runs which are required to access all missions. The problem is once again repetition. Your second campaign run is essentially the same, with only a handful of different missions. Your third campaign run has more alternative missions, but by this point you may have played some missions three or four times. Putting it simply it gets repetitive, a single longer campaign would have been much better. The combat itself is fun and a number of weapons are satisfying to use, but not so great mission design and repeating the same missions’ multiple times really holds it back.


This mission is set up as a large operation, but ends up being simple. Dodge laser. Shoot a few pieces of equipment. Climb. Spam shoot button. It felt so underwhelming for such a big target.

The missions themselves are often basic. Some can be completed in a few minutes, although bigger operations last longer. The problem is the mission design. Enemy mechs are competent and seldom get caught on the environment and will certainly pose a challenge. That isn't a problem, but the overall mission design is. There are typically very few units. AI is not that sophisticated, nor are mission objectives. You may attack a massive compound and find the lack of activity to standout. The few missions with friendly units essentially have zip around and act useless. Missions are often broken up into sections with loading screens, or spawn enemies in waves. Some missions just spawn you 15 seconds away from an enemy mini boss. It does not feel like there is a big war going on. I look at previous games like Ace Combat 6 which featured large scale missions with dozens of units fighting each other, multiple sub operations to take mid mission, and sprawling complexes with many targets that don't simply spawn in after a cutscene. Armored Core 6 feels dead and bare in comparison.


A hard fight with a boss/enemy you will never care about.

There are also issues with map boundaries, such as invisible out of bounds areas. These are shown with red lines as you get close but they are too restrictive and in places where one would think you could move/fight in. Often you will slam up against these invisible barriers during a fight which is frustrating. Other map areas are too small and basic combat maneuvering results in you smacking up against walls. Many areas, including boss fights, needed to be opened up further as this is a fast paced mech game where you essentially fly around very quickly. Other quirks exist, like massive warships existing merely as quick to kill targets. They have turrets that fight back but a few shots of your weakest weapons at the control tower will send these warships exploding. They are no more difficult to destroy than basic units like helicopters. I would assume massive warships would be more difficult to destroy and bring some capability to the battlefield, but in Armored Core they are simply targets with no apparent utility over a basic helicopter.


Map boundaries, right in the way of the objective. You would think the mountain on the right would make for a shoot shooting position.

The story is basic and almost not present. There are characters but there is little reason to care about them or their motives. Often you will have a show down with a reoccurring character which the game presents as some definitive moment. But the only interaction with them may have been maybe a dozen generic lines previously. This makes the short boss fight missions anticlimactic. It is also hard to care about any of the three endings. Going through the entire game three times almost feels not worth your time as you tune out and just speed through some of the repeated missions. The endings themselves have different missions, although the story and 20 second end game cutscenes are forgettable. A good story could have made subsequent playthroughs much more enjoyable, especially when pitted against characters.


Tough fight. It only took replaying the game twice to get here.

The lore building is not very good either. There will be no mechs, super weapons, bosses, places, or things that will stick in your mind years later. It is all kind of generic.

Graphically it looks dated. Nothing looks great, although it runs well and gets the job done. Better graphics certainly would have been nice. I do like the art design. Sounds are okay. Musical score is there but you won't really notice it. It ran good with the exception of ray tracing, which caused a crash. This seems to have been a problem. Disable ray tracing as it only works in the mech configuration area and not in missions anyways. I saw an NPC get stuck temporarily once. Otherwise, it worked flawlessly.

In summary:

• Fun combat.
• Tedious repetition of missions to gain access to all missions/story endings.
• At times tedious mech customization.
• Good variety of build styles.
• Empty story.
• Bad to underwhelming mission design.
• Mission based, which is superior to open world.
• Dated graphics.

I can't say I expected much but I had hoped for better. It works, it scratches that vehicle shooter itch but I still hope something better comes out.

6.8 / 10

 

[M76]

I finally finished Starfield, and I'm too lazy to cop the text here, so you have to click on the link.

TLDR: It is much better than I expected, but also can't escape the typical Bethesda quirks. 8/10