Gothic90

I am a longer time fan of ESO. It, hypothetically can become one of the best MMOs on the market. You are allowed to play the entirety of Tamriel. However, between performance issues and more and more predatory cash shop, I just can't give this game a high score anymore.

This is one of the best games to show how video games are a unique form of art. It allows you to feel whatever way you want without forcing it, yet you'll usually end up in agreement with the creators. Unlike a certain recent game that does complete opposite (check the upload time of this review).

If anything, this "non-game" should be a wake up call to how far removed mainstream critics are from the players. Cinematic experience on rail that is not fun might be okay for media contributor that only needs to go through this thing lightly once, but is that what ordinary players that don't have a philosophy degree want?

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

It's a good expansion. The world stays relevant, people who do not buy it can still play (they arguably get a somewhat short end of the stick due to dungeon reward nerf, but definitely not hit as hard as players of many other MMOs, who can only play irrelevant content after an expansion hits). Mastery may be a bit grindy but opens up layer by layer and I kinda like this design. I never expected much story from MMOs, but HoT's story is not a bad one, certainly much better than Kormir or Trahearne's story. Overall, a lot of good content and good designs. It's not perfect but still a good one. Still, a bit unhappy that WvW gets a pretty short end of the stick.

It is one of the best RPGs recently that I have ever played and fully worth a 10. It's got good open world, great character interaction, a very good family feel (though throwing Triss to the mix can be a bit creepy) on all fronts, and most importantly, great side quests, which reminds me of the days of BG2 or NWN. Its combat is not a strong point but not too shabby, inventory is a bit messy but bearable. Main villain is a bit weak (on both story and combat) but there is no perfect game.

The world of witcher is incredibly intriguing and rich. Monarchs being **** people are out to get others, violence, corruption, etc. I am amazed that such a short game can give me all of that, and I am eager to learn more. Its multiple paths tell the story from different perspectives, and your actions actually have consequences that you would care about during the game, and that is a rare find in recent games, or any games. There are characters that I actually grow to love and care about, which is great. Releasing the Enhanced Edition for free is just CDPR being awesome towards players. The side quests are fun things, unlike some of the "MMO quests" adopted by a certain company. They might be similar but you do feel the difference as each type of monsters need a different means to exterminate. Downsides: combat wise it feels like the PC gains more powerful too quickly and scales out of control, and the actiony combat can be repetitive. Also the game's system requirements are ridiculous and I still sometimes get lags on a PC I bought 3 years after its release. The more save files you have, the longer loading screens you experience - definitely an issue (I have to manually delete saves outside of the game as deleting inside is a chore). Also the game is too short, which gives me a sad face.

First thing to say - very important - this game eats your SSD for breakfast. I am NOT joking. It may or may not be the issue with Denuvo (fifa 15 seems to be fine), but it severely damages your SSD or HDD on PC. Do not get it on PC. Suppress your urge to buy a new console for it however, we don't want to see new games being **** port from console just to drive people out of PCs. One thing to note, get out of Hinterlands. Part of the fault lies with Bioware, as many players would probably fully explore an area before going to the next. Putting many huge maps on another overland map, and put different main quests on different maps may be fantastic for some players but not for others. Inquisition definitely has a lot of technical issues on PC platform. If a PC game plays much better with a controller than Keyboard and mouse, there is something wrong - maybe fighting games could be forgiven, but this is a sequel to lots of games which had better K+M control, which is a problem and very frustrating - actually, even more frustrating than many fighting games port to PC. Companion AI is also a problem and shows Bioware clearly did not think everything through when working with a world in which you can actually jump. AI charging or jumping off the cliff is an often occurance. AI setting is a huge backwards step. Overall these are the negatives of the game which most critical ones tend to focus on. Positives are already covered by critics.

Overall not a bad game but not really spectacular. The main story is nice (and the story makes sense, unlike some recent games) but unfortunately there is no player choice to speak of, in a setting that calls for player choices. It is a very linear story within an open world. Most of the time you don't change anything either. Also there isn't much to play once you've finished your main story other than car races (some are quite clunky), street fighting, and beating karaoke score, and etc.

The idea is semi-okay, well, good, in fact: it tries to emulate a real P&P D&D experience with your party going all over the map, creating its own story. There are very good designs in this expansion such as skill checks, looting and etc. Unfortunately the execution is total The overland map just loads so slowly that it becomes very annoying to fight any kind of enemies. The economics of this game is also totally broken.

Due to length constraint, I'll just talk about a few non-ending problems I have with ME3. I still don't think EC writes a good ending, because Bioware tries to use the ending purely to make a point about human vs machines, rather than make an ending to a story. Problems are here. 1) Horrible controls. 5 conflicting functions bound to the same space bar. Especially frustrating in multiplayer. 2) A large number of boring fetch quests as side quests, with unhelpful quest entries that have no progress indications. 3) The so called return of RPG elements. Turns out to be looking for upgrades scattered everywhere. I am okay with both ME1's loot and ME2's lack of RPG elements, but this is garbage. 4) Stereotypes, stereotypes everywhere. Suddenly there are stereotypical stereotypical weak and annoying Asian, and a football jock and etc. To appeal to the masses? Seriously? 5) A lot of miscellaneous things that I would find quite repulsive. Like they purposely put them there just to disgust people. Other than that ME3 is fine. Parts of the story are still good. Some characters are still good, but not as much fun as the other two games in the series.

I believe for any kind of content, you either have quantity (example: Skyrim), or you have quality (example: The Witcher 2). Preferably both, but you are screwed if you have neither. FNV is a good shot at attaining both, but unfortunately, Honest Heart has neither. It is incredibly short; it has the illusion of a wasteland to explore but unrelated caves are so insignificant that you have no reason to explore them. Story has one character that is supposed to be significant, but he is rather bland other than the fact that he can recite bible. Overall, a very unimpressive DLC.

I used to rate this game a 3 roughly a year and a half ago, now I want to rate this game again at a higher score. Don't get me wrong; it absolutely deserves a 3 when it first came out. Game was insanely buggy and unstable, has awful performance issues and the design team was ****. Well, was. At least they are learning things. New PvE dungeons are not bad and casual PvP has always been like that. It is at least stable now. The cosmetic cash shop is well designed and really caters to the Kotor fantasy of the players. Quite unfortunately it is built on a F2P system that is not quite pay to win, but very annoying. The major problem of this game now is that its updates are very, very, very slow. You'll likely get through all content of a patch quickly if you are playing anywhere near regularly, and the next patch won't get there in like forever.

Lonesome road is a different DLC; I wouldn't call it good or bad, and I don't know what to write when reviewing it. I do, however want to say one thing; do not buy this DLC alone. At this point if anyone gets FNV it should most probably be the ultimate version, and I still feel it's worth playing with the other three addons.

Dead Money is actually not a bad DLC. The atmosphere is especially well done. It is close to a survival horror in terms of feeling, that there is only one way out and that way is filled with traps and other dangers. However, the problem of this DLC is that without a walkthrough, going through this DLC is very frustrating especially in the last maze. Dead Money is something that I would recommend doing with a walkthrough on the first play through; I don't usually recommend that. I wonder if designing a new skill (search awareness) that highlights traps and speakers is a good idea; because while it becomes less frustrating, it also reduces the sense of victory after completing the last maze.

Skyrim, imo, is highly overrated. It is by no means a bad game. It offers tons of content. I played 100+ hours into it. It got a huge open world, interesting lore and background, and all the things you can do. But the quality of the massive amount of content is not very high. In most questlines, other than civil war and maybe Daedra quests, you don't have meaningful choices. Maybe if you count DLCs, then Dawnguard would count as well. For example, you can never fight against thieves' guild; the best you can do is to avoid that quest. The skill system also encourages grinding, which is boring. Its DLCs, imo, are also overpriced. Moddability on the other hand is a very important part of this game, and that is why I still give it a 7.

I just picked up FNV ultimate on summer sale, and my my, what a great game. I always liked Obsidian games; despite being buggy and having other issues, they are known for their great story and characters. However, in my opinion, FNV surpassed a lot of Obsidian games in that department. Simply put, FNV offers both quantity and quality. The quantity of high quality content in the game is unbelieveable. My first character has gone over 60 hours in the game, and is nowhere near done. Still quest lines are of very high quality. Most games are either shorter (like Witcher 2) or much of the content are of lower quality (Skyrim), I have never seen a game that offers both quantity and quality like this. Also, the difficult choices in this game can almost make games like Dragon Age Origins pale in comparison. Characters are of high quality as well. Downside is that it is a buggy game. However, I heard it is not much more buggy than Fallout 3. The combat also feels clunky if you are accustomed to games like CoD or at least Skyrim; but once I get used to this RPG/Shooter hybrid system I feel the combat is okay. Overall a great game that I feel deserves a 10. Surely it's got problems, but for such great quantity of high quality content, it deserves it. A note on bugs: install MMUE/NVEC. That takes care of a lot of bugs; secondly, if there's a loading loop-loop-loop, start a new game and load a save.

Am I the only one who thinks old world blues is not the best DLC in FNV? Surely, scifi-campy the appliances, the stealth suit and such are quite funny, but there are a few points that I have gripe with OWB. 1) The main quest is very short. 3 tech to Mobius, then back to base. It lacks the multiple solutions aspect of FNV; only there is two not-so-big choices about whether to kill something or not. Both the main game and Dead Money have more options in the questline. 2) While the appliances are funny, getting all the upgrades are boring fetch quests. Worse, that the ending almost guilt trips the player to do those side quests, saying that I was 'rushing things', explicitly. 3) The rewards don't feel fitting. Three mega powerful perks for a neither long, nor very rewarding, nor difficult main quest? That is a bit too much. At least for Elijah's LAER and the CoS sniper rifle you need to look for them, but that is also pretty much about it. Look for them. Not someone like Kangaxx or Firekraag guarding them. It's still not bad, the characters (appliances, the 6 robots) and the ending slide are quite well done. But I don't think it deserves such a high score.

Among all three (four if you count Drakensang) diablo-ish games, Diablo III, supposedly the 'original title', has to place 3rd or 4th overall. You can argue Drakensang is the worst of the four because of its insane pay to win cash grab, but Diablo 3 is not better by a lot. The only advantage Diablo III has over TL2 and PoE are: 1) Diablo III has better graphics than TL2 2) Diablo III has better physics effect than PoE and that's it. TL2 and PoE does better in almost, if not all grounds, and they are much cheaper games.

This DLC is a great conclusion to Mass Effect 3. At first I was always wary of DLCs whose price is over $10 because LotSB set the bar of what a $10 DLC should look like, but Citadel really offered a ton of content, unlike that $15 piece of crap called Omega (did not buy, did not play, heard it was crap). Yes I understand, story this, combat that, but Citadel really offered what Bioware has been missing all along, the living, breathing atmosphere all in the party and interactions with the squad. While it doesn't restore my trust to Bioware (I still won't pre-order DA3) or change my mind about ME3 as a whole (I still think it's crap, not just the ending), it is good when standing alone, and it can make me forget a little bit of their antics.

It's a game that tries to cater to everyone, but in the end is satisfying to no one. Yes combat fluidity is improved, but making it an action game with wild swings of greatsword, and that one where you can't even use the top down camera? That takes too much away from the tactical, group based combat experience. In fact, there are mods to DAO like Nightmare+ and Combat Tweaks on dragon age nexus that resolves the drawbacks of DAO's combat system, without taking away the core experience. Also, while it ventured into the area of action based combat, there is hardly anything it can offer to compete with real action games, there's no rolling or even jumping. You do it right, or you don't do it at all. The characters are also rather bland characters. Many are minor characters of Origins with one dimensional personalities. Which is fine, but when they become major characters of DA2, you have to add more dimensions, and by that I don't mean Isabela's boob size. This is the game that marks the beginning of Bioware's downfall. It is no longer a game; it is a formulated product. Bioware thinks writing + combat = game, which is definitely not true.

If I want to describe GW2 with one sentence, I would say: "an MMO that gets most of what it intends to do right." There are three separate worlds of the game, sPvP, WvW and PvE. sPvP features flat progression: there's build differences, but there is no vertical gear difference (you can choose different gear but it's always about trade-offs). This is imo the most important feature of GW style PvP. Newcomers shouldn't have an unfair disadvantage of having worse gear than old players. Also good players shouldn't need an artificial faceroll advantage over lesser players. sPvP should be skill based instead of gear based. Classes can build into different roles and adds more variety to PvP. WvW may seem like a zergfest, but mindless zerg will seldomly win you games. Supply control, being responsive to opponent movements and strategies are all important. Three faction is also a good thing to bring back from DAoC. While two factions can't artificially ally, when your server claims more land, there is indeed a higher chance of being attacked from both sides. The only problem I have with WvW is that some servers have heavy Asian/Russian/Oceanic population and they have different time schedule, and their rating often under/over estimate their strength. Hopefully Anet can release an Asian server to alleviate this problem. I also wish there would be more focus on open field battle rather than base offense/defense. The PvE world is, unfortunately, not that awesome, and quite a few issues needs to be fixed. Exploration reminds me of Skyrim and is a pretty good part of the PvE world; The reward system is quite nice, coin/karma segregation design is elegant: it discourages annoyances such as gold farmers (they'll have to farm a lot harder than usual), but is not so frustrating to normal players. However, a few problems: dynamic events could be a little more friendly towards solo players; right now some events take too long for solos or 2-3 players and may become an issue once the heat from release is over and newbie zones become less populated. The PvE world, especially the personal storyline, is also quite buggy unfortunately. Some dungeons are also too hard, especially Ascalonian Catacombs; it seems to have an unreasonable difficulty. Trade post was not so good for the first week. Though I heard it's a conspiracy theory to discourage gold farmers, and in that case it's not good but understandable. Overall the PvE world isn't on a smooth release. I also happen to not like the dungeon reward system that rewards you more for going to a same dungeon over and over again than going to all dungeons. Overall it is a good MMO and a pretty smooth launch, and since it doesn't have a subscription fee, I can play at any time I want and don't feel "I have to play tonight, or it's not worth my subscription". Cash shop items are also not unfair towards free players. Problems of the PvE world needs to be patched, and hope Anet adds some more varieties to PvP. Other than that, the game is pretty damn good and I have been playing it almost non-stop.

It's a day-1-DLC that costs $7, and in order to avoid the cost, you need to pre-order 3 months in advance. Which basically means "buy this game blind, or we charge you extra." Horrible business practice, horrible. DLC content is also underwhelming.

So, first of all, the $10 price tag is too expensive. I'll admit it though--I did not play it; I watched it on youtube, so I can't really comment on the puzzles part, which seems rather frustrating on youtube. Anyways. It feels way too much like Bioware's another attempt at justifying the ending of the game instead of any good content and turns out to be a tryhard attempt. It, again, tries to establith "synthetics vs orgaincs" as the central conflict by saying "synthetics vs organics is the central conflict", which at the end of the day is not effective.

It does try to save, or salvage the ending and tries its best, but completely fixing the ending is simply impossible: that will require a full overhaul and at least some parts will have conflict with the ME3 game. So unfortunately after their best effort, ME3's ending is still mediocre, as reflected in this score. My recommendations: 1) if you have ME3 and are still playing it, why not? It's free anyways. They didn't make it worse; 2) However, they didn't make it good enough for me to actively recommend those who have left ME3 and are unsure of whether or not they should play to pick up ME3 againl 3) I also would not actively recommend others to buy ME3 now, but if you want it, now I'd say go for it. I won't oppose it like before EC came out. 4) I still would not recommend pre-ordering Bioware products in the future, no matter the pre-order bonuses. Wait until both critic and user scores are out.

It does try to save the ending and tries its best, but completely fixing the ending is simply impossible: that will require a full overhaul and at least some parts will have conflict with the ME3 game. So unfortunately after their best effort, ME3's ending is still mediocre, as reflected in this score.

A solid 6 in my eyes, *slightly* above average. Combat is fun and worth studying for many other game developers. It became too easy down the road, but fortunately, moddability somewhat saved it.