Viewfinder. Very clever mechanics and a so-so story with a perplexing ending. Seemed more like a few hours playable demo of a great game engine with nothing to really tie it together other than the last timed puzzles being a reflection of previous puzzles. Road 96. Unique in the way there's some fun and downright hilarious gameplay, brought back down with a bump with some rather sombre scenes.
Atomic Heart (and DLC): 7 to 10/10 This is a game that ever since I saw this video... ...piqued my interest. I delayed playing it as it was one of the first games to announce support for RTX, and I didn't want to play it until I could enjoy it at MAXIMUM GRAFFIX (now I know that RTX is only a little bit nicer at best, and shouldn't stop you playing a game). The Atomic Heart universe is set in 1955, in an alternative timeline where the USSR discovered an extremely advanced material just before WWII, which allowed them to make a quantum leap in technology development. I was expecting a quite serious game with a depressing storyline that only Slavic developers seem to deliver. What I got was an absolutely mental experience that made no sense and I loved every minute of it. Fantastic graphics, beautifully crafted characters and enemies, satisfying gameplay. And the boss battles are inspired and fun (though definitely had me shouting angrily from time to time). There are some weird janky moments, but given how good everything else is, I have no problem overlooking them; hence why I can't just give it an overall single score. The music is great too, ranging from opera to hardcore house: in fact, the latter gave my subwoofer its first proper workout and was making things in my room shake! The DLCs, of which there are currently three available with a fourth planned, further tweak things for the better. The second DLC has a mixed/negative rating on Steam, but that's because it goes a bit off the rails: in my opinion was fun enough to play through whilst fitting in to this weird and unique universe. This is premium Slavjank. If you like games such as Bioshock and the Metro series, and are willing to roll with some very weird story arcs, this is definitely something you should play. And I'm looking forward to playing the sequel, which was recently announced:
Dead Space 4 The Callisto Protocol (and Final Transmission DLC): 7.9/10 You play as Isaac Clarke Jacob Lee, a cargo pilot making runs to Black Iron prison on Callisto in the 24th century. Anyway, your last run before you retire goes absolutely fine and the credits roll as you accept your last pay check. Nah, only kidding. Things go tits up and before long you're fighting Necromorphs virus infected humans. What makes this different from Dead Space is the focus is more on melee combat than just shooting your way out of trouble. Though you also have a gravity glove... I have to say, this is one pretty game, and the good news is that the non-raytraced graphics hold up just as well (I know this as the game appeared to have a bug that would turn raytracing off from time to time when booting the game). The likeness of the voice actors is captured in amazing detail, and the story makes sense. Sound is also on point, with great voice acting and ambient noises keeping you on edge. Gameplay is fun but does get repetitive after a while: dodge the enemy's telegraphed attacks, then smash the poo out of them until enough bits have fallen off for them to die. Downsides? The game is quite short, and there's not much variety of enemies. Combat, while repetitive, can still pull out the odd WTF moment, and on the hardest difficulties, that hurts. Also, the game relies on autosaves, and some of them are a bit too far apart for my liking. And the main game's final boss fight pulls a VERY bull**** move that although I managed to beat it, irked me immensely. As a result, the game could've been great (i.e. getting 8/10 or above) but can't quite cross the line from "good". At the end of the day, I enjoyed this game and it delivered what I was expecting: great graphics; gory violence; being just the right amount of scary; and a trashy sci fi story. If you like the Dead Space series, playing this is a no-brainer. I hope there's a sequel, but the DLC wraps up the story to a sufficient extent. Also, once again I'm very special:
Control (Ultimate Edition): 6.5/10 Another game that I was aware of but hadn't specifically looked into, the main reason I had this on my list is due to that fancy smancy raytracing, of which this was one of the first games to implement as an option. Unfortunately for me, it turned out that current raytracing hardware and drivers had stability issues and would crash consistently after a while (enough for me to have to restart my PC through the Ctrl-Alt-Tab menu). In the end, I turned it off and it was still pretty enough: I'll be honest, in most games I've played, I wouldn't be able to tell you if raytracing is enabled or not unless I'm looking at comparison videos. The story is...strange in a way only Sam Lake can deliver. Rather than give you an introduction, you're thrust into the middle of an ongoing crisis at the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC). The FBC is involved with monitoring the Astral Plane (basically where the human consciousness goes during dreaming - I think?) and its effects on the real world. If you want something that is clear and easy to understand, this ain't it. Gameplay is good enough, with you gaining more abilities and weapons during. Before long, you'll be levitating around and throwing whatever's nearby to dispatch enemies. Unfortunately, before long, it becomes very samey, though there are some really cool set pieces. The acting is also great, but has that Alan Wake weirdness about it. I think whether or not you'll like this game depends on if you liked BOTH Quantum Break and Alan Wake. Personally, I didn't really like Alan Wake as it wasn't a game style I got on with - that's not to say I think it's a bad game, just that I didn't appreciate it. However, I absolutely loved Quantum Break so that carried me through. I almost gave up playing the game to move onto something else, but decided to stick it to the end, as well as doing the Alan Wake DLC (but gave up on The Foundation). I would compare this to Tenet: is it clever, or is it just some weird ramblings of a madman trying to give the impression of deeper thought? I was somewhat disappointed at the ending as it was somewhat abrupt and didn't explain anything. So, in all, not a bad game as such, but I think it's for a more niche audience. I don't think you're losing much by not playing this one. Let me put it this way: I won't bother to play any sequel unless I have nothing else on the backlog to clear. Now, for the love that all is holy, PLEASE will someone make a good sequel to Quantum Break?!
Ghost of Yōtei 9/10 Glad i didnt wait for the pc version i loved how they intergrated the ps5 controller made the game fun. Some of the scenes in this game scream old style films with the stand offs and bar scenes Combat is imo so much better than the 1st. The choice of weapons is a little rock paper scissors based but still fun. Its been a challenge to complete on the harder settings but glad i did. The world like the last one is just stunning and full of character, the side missions have been as much fun as the main ones and the nods to the orginal game where really nice turning Jin into a warrior of legends. The main story is a women on the path of revenge... but is that the right path.. i got to say some of the plot i could predict but then other parts where nice suprises. Over all id recomend the game, i love the setting which helps a ton and i prefer 3rd person over 1st person when gaming. I hope like the previous game we get a dlc pack as id love to see more. Although not sure where they could go..
In a follow up to the last game which I completed in 2013 I have completed TLOU part 2 only 12 years later I waited for it to come on PS5 then after playing the first one again on PC I decided I wanted to wait for the remastered PC version for Part 2, I'm a patient man Still a great game, this ones mechanics art and music were much better, story was decent too, just a bit self indulgent, felt there were areas put in for character/story build that could have been cut out for a cut scene etc rather than wasting my precious time, they were a bit of a chore, but that aside the game was great, the music really making the game, building tension etc, great stuff. Definately worth a play through, now to watch the second season of the TV show finally
Impulse got Bannerlord having been excited for its release over 5 years ago now apparently! Accidentally been the only thing I've done since getting it, absolutely loving it. Edit: Wrong thread but ah well
Balatro! Finally! Well, more accurately, I beat ante 8 which is the point of the game, after which it goes into Endlesss mode all the way up to ante 39, whereupon it breaks and you cannot possibly win as the computer has run out of floating points - which is kind of astounding. Because of this, I now know what NaN (not a number) and eNaN or Nanexp is. Which is a number so large and theoretical as far as the machine is concerned that reality collapses in upon itself, the world ends and we all exist as gases, with no positive or negative charge. I know this is true because someone did it and updated Wikipedia. I'm not going to attempt level 39 unless it happens as a by-product of unlocking the rest of the deck, which I am going to attempt. I like that it has this endgame with the unlocks as it will keep me going in short bursts, especially if the silicon brain is apparently capable of losing to us meat-sticks (well, a very small percentage of us, I would imagine). This excuse it gives about NaN is a bit like it taking its silicon ball and going home. Thinking about it, if my Nan was not a NaN, then that makes her not a Not a Number, so if she wasn’t not a number, doesn’t that make her just a number, which Patrick McGoohan was quite vehemently opposed to the idea of? Tell you what though - someone should challenge this machine to a game. "You want floating points?! I'll give you floating points!" /waffle. And I'm actually sober.
Dead Space (2023): 11/10 I bought this a while ago but was waiting to own an RTX card. So, off I went... I'm a big fan of the original Dead Space, which in my opinion, still holds up today, and is in my category of "you're not a gamer unless you've played it". I remember originally playing it on my 30" Dell 3007WFP-HC attached to a GTX 8800, and getting incredible framerates. I also remember being absolutely terrified during the first few missions and having to take a breather every now and again (though Alien Isolation would educate me what a truly scary game was a few years later). I'm also glad I decided to play The Callisto Protocol beforehand as this remake knocks it out of the water. This is a complete do-over of the original. The only comparison I can make is that of Black Mesa to the original Half-Life, and for those of you that have played Black Mesa, you'll know that this is the highest praise. EVERYTHING has been lovingly taken apart and put back together for the better. The graphics are utterly fantastic and the monsters are much more disturbing. Now, a monster will visibly lose flesh as you shoot it, whittling an arm or leg down to the bone, or spilling intestines. Even the "flesh corrupted" scenery is wonderfully horrible to look at. The story has been tweaked and the more memorable encounters have mostly been completely remade to give players of he original a new experience. Isaac now has a few lines, which fits far more with his personality in the sequels. You can now travel freely between unlocked sections, and because of this, there are secondary missions introduced to encourage you to do so. And to make sure you don't get too comfortable, an enemy, or two, or more(!) will randomly emerge to keep you on your toes. It took me a little over 21 hours, but I was playing it on Hard (not the hardest, which is an iron man mode) and also taking my time over it, enjoying the sick and twisted sights on offer. After completing this, I toyed with the idea of playing the sequels, but there are vague rumours that these may be remade too. We'll see. I may even replay this game at some point, so I can see the unlockable extra ending, although I've already watched it on the YouTubes). This game is currently 85% off, bringing it down to £7.50 for the normal edition, which is all you need. BUY IT NOW. ----------------------------------------
Homeworld 3: 6/10 (Homeworld nerds) 6.5/10 (everyone else) The first two Homeworld games are very dear to me and I've done some background reading over the years into their lore. Homewrold 3 may very well be what Homeworld 2 was supposed to be: unfortunately, this means the it looks as though Homeworld 2 ended up being a better game because of it. The ball was dropped here, and the game should've been given more love. The story is a bit weird in that it's not really in-line with the prequels. The focus is more on Imogen S'Jet, a descendent of the original pilot from the first two games. There's a new baddie in town, murdering people across the galaxy in the billions, and Imogen's been tasked with finding out what the baddie is and how to stop them. However, it's all a bit underdeveloped. The game is also SHORT. I imagine someone playing on normal would clear it in 8 hours or less. There is a single player PvE type mode, but after a single game, I was done. Gameplay is similar to Homeworld 2, but feels a bit worse, and sometimes keeping your ships under control feels like herding cats. The difficulty is a bit hit and miss. I played it on "Hard" and had to restart the campaign to be in a better position to take on a mid-game level: however, after this level, it was plain sailing. Not like Homeworld 2, which ramped up and up (excepting the last mission). Graphically, the game looks nice enough. There are some lovely effects: the one that springs immediately to mind is low power ballistics bouncing off capital ship armour. However, the destruction of ships could probably have been done a bit better Ultimately, it is still a nice enough looking game, and there are plenty worse games out there. I don't think anyone will be actively annoyed that they have sunk a few hours into this. Try to pick it up for a fiver or less. ----------------------------------------
Mechwarrior 5 Clans Wolves of Tukayyid DLC: 7/10 (Battletech nerds) 6/10 (everyone else) I wanted a new game to play, and even though I have a large backlog, I decided to buy this the weekend it was released as I love me a bit of robo-violence. The good It's moar MechWarrior. If that's your thing. Some of the missions are also very intense and feel nicely chaotic. The not so good Unfortunately, this is a weak follow up to the Flash Storm DLC. Whereas Flash Storm added cool new things and fantastic levels, this one is not as good as the base game. Generic missions, a lazily recycled boss or two, and a somewhat disappointing end mission. I really hope the next DLC is better. Oh well, I still enjoyed playing the game and don't regret buying it. ----------------------------------------
Just picked this up. Wont lie not a fan of horror or jump scares but i did play all 3 of the OG games. This the 1st steam sale in a while ive got a fair few deals. As for homeworld 3 id heard horror stories of how bad it was ive probaly got 1000 of hrs in the 1st two. It was a game me and my old man played on lan. I got the CE edition when they remade it. Every so often i see hm3 CE for cheap and tempted to get it for the ships
Well, that counts me out then, since I've never played the original and it's very unlikely that I will play the remaster/remake
@Pete J - nice words, dude. Good reviews What's your take on Clair? I'm going to give her another chance. Got Mechwarrior and Dead Space on Game Pass as well, so will have a pop at those once The Ascent has lost its grasp. EDIT: @Gunsmith - I picked up Ace Combat Skies Unknown as well! £4!
@Pete J I agree about Dead Space. It gave me enough feels about the old game that I loved and yet had evolved enough to feel like a new game at the same time. Loved it. E: I think the best chance of 2 being remade is if EA sell the IP TBH
Cyberpunk. Really really enjoyed it. It's definitely replayable, but if you play up until you're level 60 there's very little you can't do. I'd replay it if i wanted to try a specific type of build, but if you're just enjoying the pew pew and the environment, once is enough.
