GRANITsalvo

The premise of this game is very interesting. Sadly, I'm not even an hour in and that interest is waning. I'm worried that what I tough was clever may just be pretentious. It is also very difficult to be comfortable with this game: - Movement is only forward and back with the left and right mouse ****'s very restrictive and triggering some sort of agoraphobia. I'm going to assume that it's intended that way for effect, however being in the navy, the confined spaces don't trigger that for me....however not being able to move intuitively does. **** doesn't work. - 15 lines of dialogue in, and I don't feel that the computer gives a what you say. It also uses sentences that are difficult to follow. Like someone that doesn't really want to **** you are not sure what to say that makes sense, but the game hangs because it needs you to type something to move on. Example: Me: Who are you? AI: The room next to you has a comfortable lobby [...waiting a few minutes.....door cant interact.....] Me: are you going to open the door? AI:Thank you for your trust, organism. [door opens] AI: Here it is. The Lobby, in all it's glory. [running out of things to check and stuck in the messy room, so I try to type something] Me: What happened here? AI: There is something that requires your attention. Me: What is it? AI: I mean business. I really can't follow **** feels like I am stuck in a stage play without the script and the other actors are just continuing with their lines to keep the play rolling. - The game highlights "...it's about Empathy, show some", however you are forced into 3 roles for your character : California Hippie (the game said it, not me), Philippine war refugee that moves to California, and Brazilian slum survivor that magically appears in California (literally "Somehow you ended up in California"). I find this insulting. It also hints that many of the responses are scripted. As a side note, I've visited the Philippines and have had a fair amount of interaction with the culture and I still find it arrogant to assume that I could empathize with someone growing-up in the fighting there. I also dont wish to return to California, so any future relations to that will also be difficult to empathize with. All of this shouldn't be here. I think my expectations where too high...I was hoping on an evolution of ELIZA from my MSDOS days blended in with some isolation psychology. So far I am not feeling that level of sophistication. I can't even immerse myself into the environment with out freedom of movement. I will still play it and hope for the best, but (even though I don't feel that my typing is abstract) the AI just seems to ignore me and reads a script. Giving it an average until I can feel engrossed into the world and when the AI feels like an AI. Seriously, it should understand sentences like "Who are you", "why is the door closed", "where is everyone", and "what planet is that?".

15 Hours played. Running an AMD A-10 6800K at 4.7Ghz, 16GB RAM, Radeon R9 280X, SSD, Win7UE. 7/10 summary: While it's not exactly like Fallout 3, I really enjoy some of the changes and that Bethesda did not fall to the dark side with micro-transactions. It's not what I expected, but I am having a lot of fun with it, which is good enough for me. Also, in 15hrs of play I have encountered only one bug, which was during dialogue, but it was solved by walking away and trying again. Oh, and currently GodRays kill my FPS. Things that I liked: + No micro-transactions. + Pip-Boy app (don't have the plastic, but use my phone next to me.) + Improved animations, especially with Dogmeat take-downs. + "Pick and choose" perks let me get to my ideal character quickly. + Each Attribute feels useful. + Gunplay feels better. + Good gun customization and making Gun-nut a useful perk. + Less perks, but they are all useful. + Improved faces and hair. (finally) + Dialogue is not as boring as Skyrim. + Relationships and relationship freedom are not forced down your throat like the Dragon Age games ("Look how progressive we are") and you are not locked down by your choices. (not seen first-hand yet, based on a friend's playthrough) Things that bothered me. - Only 4 dialogue options per step. Yes,No,Sarcasm,Maybe. And you can't see what your character says ahead of time. If it turns out to not be what you wanted....tough. Major step backwards. - While the UI and buttons are streamlined, it still feels worse than before using M+K. Mainly with this 4-way dialogue. - I don't agree with the power armor up front. Yes it felt cool, but now it just sits in the garage because it really eats fusion cores. If I wanted a "heavy" character, I would dislike the battery search. ****'s a fusion core that powers large turbines for 200 years, but powers your suit for 2 hours? - While base building is nice, it seems like a gimmick (almost forced), and wouldn't fit at all when I do a "evil" play-through. IDK, maybe they wont go to sanctuary when I do that play-through. - Weak opening goal....seriously, the gunshot they chose is like a cheap jump-scare in horror games. Is that the best you could do? A cheap tug at human instincts? Side thoughts on the fusion cores: I wonder if there are enough cores in the default world to roleplay a heavy character through an average play-though. I bet not. If someone told me Bethesda almost went to micro transactions with fusion cores as the forerunner, I would believe it. It explains the "giving" of the armor rather than earning, and the short lifespan of the cores. If that happened, it would shoot my score down to a 4/10, as it would kill my immersion on any play-though. Performance: At first I gave a test on Ultra. I averaged 40-60 FPS with some dips to 26FPS when large groups popped-in. After turning off God Rays and scaling back some distances, mainly shadows (biggest impact), I rarely drop below 50FPS. Then again, AMD hasn't released any drivers yet and it was built for NVIDIA gameworks. This could change in the future. I did not unlock the Framerate Cap. Had to open .ini for FOV change and removing mouse acceleration. I am disappointed in the Config screen....missing a ton of options. It's now all Low-Medium-High-Ultra. ==Lessons Learned=== - The 'missing perks' are now magazines scattered about the wastes. I think this is better than generic +5 boosts of previous games. - You can move mods from one weapon to the other without paying the rare resources again: 10mm #1 has a scope and you want it on 10mm #2. Customize 10mm #1 and switch out the scope for ironsights. This makes the scope a 'mod item' in your inventory. Go to 10mm #2 and give it the **** resources needed.

Simple, non-confusing graphics, tight controls, and good beats make this a fun bullet-hell. I particularly enjoy the varied parts changing the attack styles as well as having a dynamic soundtrack that changes with the parts: Guns=Drum track, Body=Lead Track, Engine=Bass Track. The flaw is that most lives play out the same way (if I'm not trying for a specific unlock): after 2 minutes I have nothing to fight except for 5+ battleships.....I speculate that the enemy spawns are on a queue with a value equal to difficulty and the queue opening up as your score progresses, but I always end up between 10k and 15k points with no aircraft and sometimes an airship. The game starts with aircraft but if I kill them all first, by the 3,000pt range, 3 battleships spawn but no aircraft. If I can take out a frigate I can get 2 aircraft to spawn, but that wont get my multiplier up to open the queue. The trick is to rush for some frigates early and ignore the small aircraft, try to kill an odd number to keep them spawning fairly well. Try to take out the first battleship while keeping frigate dead, then you should be able to have fun with the air battles. So yeah, it's fun as hell for the first 2 minutes. If you want a life to last longer you have to plan ahead. Thus, I took points away. I wanted more freedom in it. I don't like being forced to take on 3 battleships at once to spawn more aircraft (not all builds are ideal for this). I enjoy the heated air-to-air fighting. I even tested this and just did aerobatics dodging the battleships at 11k **** aircraft for 5 minutes, blimp wouldn't spawn either. Kill a frigate, 2 aircraft spawn.

A very good casual SHUMP. The graphics are great, the configuration options highlight what I love about Japanese games; missing a few key resolutions, but up to 4k scale, full button rebinding, and an audio config menu that puts US games to shame. All localized to English. I said casual, because it is trying to be more cinematic and therefore more forgiving since the focus is moved more away from bullethell and more towards the storyline that they seem to have put a good effort into. It's a SHUMP for couch play and those that are just getting into the genre. Good music (nothing really memorable,though), manga cutscenes that can be skipped, and good subtitled voiceacting make this an enjoyable game. $14 is a great price, and on sale, it is a steal.

First Impression: It's difficult not to compare this to Metal Warriors for SNES, but that was the experience that I was looking for when buying this game. I feel it was a step back mechanically from SNES. Mainly the button mapping. It's great that you want a retro feel and you allow button mapping, but we've had 6 button controllers since the **** don't need to bind melee with shoot. I would also like to have a seperate hold button for my fire arc rather than holding down my shoot button to do that, forcing me to time my jumps and movements with my gun's rate of fire. This makes me feel like I have less control of my mech. Movement of this game is very slow. You are walking everywhere. Yes, Mechs are slow, but every game usually adds something to help out. I am not always boosting up, can't I boost forward in the air (like the SNES)? Or something like the 'skates' from Heavy gear? I have 8 more buttons on the 360 pad. That won't happen, though, because the levels are very small and faster movement would reveal that. These problems could actually be ignored if the story were less boring. But it's a Japanese game, and that's clear with the ****'s all about the score. Overall, it's good. $6 is a fair price. It was worth skipping a Starbucks coffee. + It hits the retro feel without being cheesy about it. + Good character design. + decent weapon variety (6) - Sloooooow movement (not sluggish) - Music is alright, but nothing that I will be whistling on my way to work. - 6 actions tied to 4 buttons. - One mech, no customizing - Single Player If you are looking at this game and haven't played Metal Warriors, I also suggest finding a copy of that.

First Impression: Steam Version (less than 5 hours in) As a casual SHUMPer and **** for Japanese Indie games, this game is near the top of my import list. +Good Music +Great graphics that don't confuse me when playing +It's fully translated in English (Rare for Japanese Indies) +Great controller binding with explanations and demonstrations of mechanics on the same page. +Spot-on handling +Full manual for explaining all the entertwined mechanics. -Limited (but growing) list of resolutions (Common with Japanese Imports) R360R:A has really beaten me up and I am terrible at it, but it can't be blamed on the game. I just can't wrap my head around the mechanics yet. Because of that it is a challenge rather than a discouragement. Very fun.

Met an exceeded my expectations, then slapped me in the face with a forgettable 'zombie-ish' part, but apologized with a very simple and bad-ass ending. Forgiven. Not much to say that previews don't say. Super Metroid style future-ninja action platformer. Almost every boss is exciting, all power-ups are useful, and they don't overdo it with collectables. Near perfect. Marked down because I would like more enemy variety, and color-coded shields were uninspired. [also, what are zombies doing in my future-ninja game!]

Having never played it on the 3DS, my only comparison is to the venerable C:SotN. My love of that game being the only reason this one caught my eye. Am I happy with my purchase? Yes. Is it like C:SotN? Kinda. Controls: The combat is snappy; I block when I want to and I attack when I want to with no lag. Movement on the other hand...well, I can only describe as 'assisted'. There is no lag, but turns and movements (not combat rolls) start almost with momentum, jumps are strangely high/far, and if you don't quite reach a platform visually, the game corrects and counts you as grabbing a ledge. Less of bad programming and more of "Assisted Platforming". Yes, that is what I will call it. Combat: Fighting is fun. Especially the fist boss, the night watchman. It pulls heavily from it's parent C:LoS's movesets and includes timed blocks and unblockable moves. They add in the 'hearts' and secondary weapons of previous games, but it seems like there may not be many options and you are limited to 5 of each. At least they are very powerful and not linked to up+attack. I would complain about the random uninterruptible animations that let enemies move through your strikes, but I think it is that way because a veteran brawler could march right through combats if all strikes had effect. You get used to it. What you don't get used to is the vibration. Near constant rumble (all on high) for everything including footsteps sometimes. You are only safe during loading screens. If I were of opposite gender or had a custom controller this may be more enjoyable, but I just turn it off. Music/Sound: Nothing noteworthy. The sounds are not "HD" so do not fade well or have too much variety as they were limited by the Gameboy hardware. The music sounds nice and is very dramatic, but is also missing at times and none of it is memorable. Nothing like old Konami titles (which used to be their best features!) . Gameplay: Exploration is limited but the 'metroidvania' feel is still there. . .Just missing some of the spirit, and that came from level design and map planning. Shadow Complex got this right (and I would love to see that on steam) but others don't: Just like a Feng Shui house needs 'circulation', so does a great metroidvania map in order to not feel linear. Areas that interconnect. So far the layout of this game is in chapters and in a line very similar to C:LoS. So, some of the soul is lost. [A notable feature though is typing notes on the map! A feature that I have been wanting for a great deal of time. Very happy to see this in a game.] So, It's linear then, right? A bit, but you get a good sense of freedom from one simple **** don't have to fight. Sure, the camera suggests that you stay and fight, but you can easily just run past and continue exploring. Well done. Final Thoughts: For the Metroid/Castlevania Enthusiasts, this is not a "Great" game. But it is fun and worth your time, in my opinion.

Jet Set Pong Smash Bros. Online options are skimpy. Video options are also slim. It's 2D so I don't expect much, but resolution options would be great, thanks. Forced to use a 1360x768 TV and the game seems to scale it at 1920x1080 (guessing) which looks a bit blurry. On the positive side, the controls are responsive. It feels like any failure to win is my fault. The music is fantastic. And with the option of local co-op, I am having a fun time with my buddies. Fun. A FUN game. Paid full price, no regrets. Could not play Online to test the netcode, but it is the first day of Steam release so......maybe in a week. It looks like there is screen real-estate for more characters. Looking forward to that. Full keybinding. Playing with a USB SNES pad.

A solid third-person-shooter mixed with hack/slash. Graphics are good, Lore is accurate [minus the inquisitor being the same size as a space marine] , and controls feel good. . .really good. This is brought together with great sounds, making you 'feel' like an instrument of the Emperors wrath. I also really enjoy hearing the different sound for the remaining bolts in the magazine, giving an audio cue of your remaining rounds without having to look. It does have its flaws, though. For starters, I am disappointed by the lack of graphic options. It always looks great, but I want the warm feeling of controlling the options. Also, the combat is not very deep, making the game feel repeatative at times. You could argue that it being a "hallway shooter" with limited freedom is a flaw, but it's still fairly standard practice in shooters. It does feel cramped at times, though. And limiting SPOILERS; while I felt the final battle had an anti-climatic end.....I really couldn't suggest something better without breaking lore/tabletop rules. Also throw in good steamworks multiplayer and horde co-op that still has a surprising amount of players for 2014. If you like sci-fi shooters, you can't really go wrong with this. It goes on sale occasionally on steam, so you can wait for the seasons if $30 is too much. If you are a fan of the Warhammer 40k universe you should already have this game.

A perfect example of where Platforming should go. And it's so massive ****, it will easily fill the time until the new Smash Bros. with plenty of enjoyment. The level design is genius. Never has it felt repetitive. Even the simple soccer game is great for hours of fun. The controls are snappy and movements are very fluid. Difficulty is perfect. Easy enough for my son to have fun, yet still difficult enough to for my completionist tastes. Sounds are varied, music is bright and beautiful. The level "Castle Rock" filled me with so much joy I had to play it 3 times. This game is polished and near perfect. Near perfect because I still view the gamepad as a gimmick, even though it fits nicely with this game. It's ranked "10" due to extra credit: I can use my old non-plus wiimotes for multiplayer. I am not forced to shell out $40 for new controllers! Bonus! I no longer feel regretful of my WiiU purchase.

While I never owned an Amiga, I have always loved Shoot 'em Up games. The game videos tell everything. This game is well made. The campaign is varied (but haven't finished it yet), the enemies are fun, the controls are sharp (both keyboard and controller), and aside from the nifty graphics filters is a simple no-frills game. But that simplicity is the basis of it's charm. Not the best that I've ever played, but definitely the number one option from steam.

This game feels at home on the PC. Rather than a guess of optimal settings it actually tests your setup through all modes to give the fastest settings. I'm running this at 60 FPS steady on an underpowered AMD A8, no PCI card, at 1360x768. (Obviously the lowest settings, but I felt happy that the game tried to help me out.). It also did not automatically assume that I was using an xbox controller nor was it confused by 2 non-xbox controllers (unlike street fighter 4). The gameplay is tight and it was easy to be **** into the game without distracting flaws. There is a lot of polish on this game. The training mode is fantastic for learning curves. Not just move lists, but limb highlights and visual cues to aid in memorizing, button history, and hit info. There are unlockables but they dont go crazy by having you unlock each character bio and character gallery (Lazy unlockables). There is nothing missing in this game. The franchise is saved. Oh, and there is a tremendous amount of blood and gore. I gave it a nine because I have some personal gripes with character design. DD cups on fighter girls just doesn't do it for me. Super size breasts? meh. Muscular women? Perfectly fine. Put them ****'s disturbing. Note: I can say nothing about online multiplayer, since I am outside the country right now and I can't even get a stable skype connection with friends. But I will say that it doesn't have GFWL; which an auto-win.

7/10 because they could have tried a lot harder when porting this game. But I played the hell out of it when I had a 360. And I will play it again now. It took effort to get it running under windows 7.

It's sad to have seen this series become jealous of Call of Duty. The controls are obviously trying to mimic CoD. Stealth is out of the option since enemies appear when you pass certain points, and can see you through walls. And you rifles are more accurate is you do not aim. Seriously, step away from a wall, and fire from the hip, check your spread. Now do it while aiming. Sad. This game hits rock bottom when you realize that there is only one mission that is recognizable as Las Vegas. The rest are Generic House, Generic Building, Comcast Advertisment, etc. I had to pause and look up who the final boss was, because I had had a WTF moment when I got to the end.

An over-the-top arcade helicopter action game that loves foul language. I was not optimistic. Then I had control of the helicopter. This game is fun. It caters to the roll-in blow stuff up badass hero that my inner child loves. And it does it far better than a well known major franchise. *cough* Ace combat AH. Especially with rail shooting. God, I hate rail modes. They are nothing more than novelty. But I don't mind them in this game. Hell, even one of them was fun. I think it's because they are used to accomplish a part of the story, and then that's it, they bring you back to the cocpit. (the correct spelling is blocked by profanity filters. ha ha.) I chose to use an xbox 360 controller for this game. I had some issues with keeping the targeting reticule on small troops. But, and this I wish more games did, the mouse was not disabled by using the controller. I just moved my hand to mouse targeting to get those hard to reach places, and moved back to the controller. No effort, no pausing. I would like a profanity filter option. I like the foul language, but I also have children under 10, so I can't let them play or play it myself while they are around. I also have not finished the game, so I can't say anything about re playability or end game pacing. Overall, not the best game, but great when my mind is shot from work and I want simple thrills.

A Labyrinth that does a great job of making you feel totally lost. The only way to succeed is to think about patterns, try anything, and think about yourself and what you are doing. Above all, do not panic. It's a very odd feeling to play this game. The best association that I can make is to a Navy port visit [or foreign travel in general]; stuck in a new country with odd customs and language. The only way to get anything you want is to reflect on what you know, what you think you know, and what you perceive. This is also the same reason that someone could absolutely hate this game. I know this. Every port visit, there are three groups of people; 1) Those that stay on the ship and ignore everything 2) Those that seek the Hard Rock Cafe and drink their time away until they feel like they are in a familiar place 3) And those that interact with the country and come back to the ship with all the cool stories and gifts. Think about this. Know what you are getting into. 9/10 because I would like controller support.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]