Magnethead

This should be bought at 50 cents and no more. It's like 20 minutes of gameplay that is the same or worse than the main game and while it promises some original film nostalgia, it's hardly worth it and isn't even very true to the original content. At 50 cents it doesn't feel terrible to play this expansion but it sure didn't feel good either.

This is a big letdown, to be honest. It should be given away for free and even then I'm not sure it's worth playing. Of course, it is a very short DLC - perhaps 20 minuts on average. The gameplay is the same but worse because there's no real crafting aspect or anything like that and while the DLC pretends to be about content from the original movie, it actually isn't. If you're really that hungry for Alien content, just watch 20 minutes of the film and you've spent your time better. Posted 6 January.

You should play this game if: You are into narrative driven games, you enjoy exploring complex character background in a beautiful, haunting setting. You shouldn't play this game if: You're in it for the gameplay. You enjoy technical challenges to your skill-level, you enjoy building characters in a complex game system or you just don't care about storytelling at all. This is a real gem in the art of narrative game-design where the focus in on the visual and not only the textual which is refreshing to see. Senua's Sacrifice focuses on internal narrative like many indie game titles these days but has a very modern graphic look and powerful soundtrack to support its story about panic, pain and psychosis. The game is around 10 hours long which is perfect length for a game like this that doesn't have sandbox worlds to explore or character creation and levelling to establish an evolving gameplay experience - the mechanics you start out with are more or less the same you end up with. The incredible story and talent of the protagonist are what will carry you through this game and stay with you long after it's done. There really isn't enough good things to say about Senua as a character or indeed about how she's acted. She feels real and intense without losing credibility as a fierce warrior, her mental... issues are credible, unpleasant and sometimes eerie to play through. She's equally easy to sympathise with and admire. The gameplay mechanics in Senua's Sacrifice revolves around simple but solid mechanics shifting from spacial puzzles to melee combat and back many times. The combat, while not amongst the most challenging of its kind, feels natural and flows well. It won't challenge a seasoned Witcher or Dark Souls veteran but it works well enough to not feel stale. The puzzles, as puzzles tend to do, can frustrate you if you missed some minor detail somewhere and get stuck but they're never unreasonable and the game helps you along very nicely if only you listen to all of the helpful (sometimes...) voices at your disposal. However, the narrative is the jewel in this game accompanied by stunning visual arts and a terrific soundtrack. Senua is probably the best female hero-protagonist we've ever seen in gaming so far. She's got a simple, bold ambition - to save the boy she loved - and she travels to Hel to do it. As with many such titles, the game explores her personal history and background along the way and she faces externalised version of inner demons as tends to be the case in such stories, but she does it with tenacity, audacity and without compromise. When you control Senua, she feels vulnerable and powerful at the same time and it's easy to want to help her, not only out of sympathy but because she's inspiring and strong. The Norse/Celtic setting works well enough - the Norse legends are recognisable to a Scandinavian and the world has a credible harsh and desolate feel. All in all, Senua's Sacrifice doesn't try to do anything no one arguably hasn't done before, it just does it more beautifully, with superior acting and visuals. Where many narrative-focused games have drifted away from the film elements to a more minimalist, simplistic aesthetic, Senua's Sacrifice uses all the modern tools of visual storytelling to tell a memorable and inspired story.

Orwell is one of the most interesting games I've played in a while; it's well thought out, the game experience is smooth and natural and the core elements are solid. It's arguably not a game for everyone but it's a fantastic achievement, that should be beyond doubt. So who is it for? I guess that's the core question for an indie, niche production such as this so let's get right to it: Orwell is for the player looking for a contemplative, narrative-driven challenge that you can play on your own time. If you like unravelling a mystery carefully, if you like narrative driven games or if you really like surveying people, then this is definitely for you. Who's it not for? It's not for players looking for explosions, fast-paced action or who don't like to read. You read in this game, quite a lot. It's not like reading a novel but expect reading. In Orwell, you take on the role of an analyst who's trying to unravel a terrorist plot using the governments newest super-surveillance tool, Orwell. The system highlights 'datachunks' in POIs internet activity, chat activity, phone activity, anything really, and it's your job to decide what information is pertinent and what isn't. You build files on suspects while you slowly expand the network of POIs and what you choose to include is what decides the 'system's' attitude towards groups and individuals. Of course, the question soon beckons; should you be doing any of this? As the story moves forward, the player is confronted with many choices and they have real consequences for the story, not merely symbolic ones. Furthermore, while the system highlights important information, some decisions can only be made accurately through the players own memory and deductions from text pieces that at the time perhaps seemed inconsequential. It's a game that rewards the player for keeping up and thinking for themselves.

Faeria is a free to play digital collectible card game with strategic elements from board games and its own unique blend of it all. The market is full of F2P collectible card games right now, so the question is: why invest in or even try Faeria? I'll try and give as nuanced answers as I can in this review. So, when is Faeria that one game you're looking for? - If you play or played Hearthstone and you're frustrated with the 'dumbing' down of the game and you miss elements of strategy like the game used to have. When should you try Faeria out? - If you like collectible card games like Magic the Gathering, Hearthstone, Gwent, whatever and/or you like board games and strategy - if so, then this is something unique on the market that you absolutely should check out! The game has the usual features; buying packs, playing draft to get packs, a ladder to climb, deck creation and fun with trying different combos and colors. The option to grind every card in the set or simply buy them all. A lot of its features will be familiar to players of similar games (like Hearthstone) but Faeria's ideas take it to the next level. Every turn a player plays cards from his hand, he pays with Mana (calle Faeria but works the same way)- like we're used to - but then they also build the board with lands. These lands allow the player to play cards of different colors (like Magic the Gathering) but at the same time they create the board on which you play. It's a truly brilliant concept that adds strategic choices to every round and adds a whole bunch of interesting scenarios to consider. Right now, the meta is really balanced. There's aggro, there's different kinds of control, there's actually a bit of everything. No one deck is clearly better than others and very few ideas are completely unviable. The art in Faeria is the best I've seen so far, perhaps only matched by Elder Scrolls. Of course, that's all very subjective but that's my opinion. The board interaction is still very 'board-gamey' but they've continually made it more and more responsive and animated with time. I can't really say how the game pans out economically because I've had a full set since forever. The game gives you a lot of gold simply to play but your decks can hold three cards of each so arguably there are more cards to get per set. My instinct is that it's less expensive than Magic the Gathering and Hearthstone but I can't honestly be sure. If that aspect is important to you, I suggest you find specific posts describing this aspect of Faeria. But bottom line is: if you like strategy and card games at all, you should check it out. You don't need to invest any money to check out the mechanics, just give it a chance and see what you like!

SRHK is the best written game in the series so far; unfortunately, the mechanics and balance aren't as solid. I recommend this game because of the storyline, the feel of the Shadowrun universe, not for its ability to challenge a turn-based strategy enthusiast. The story is altogether well done; several layers, good NPCs, enough space to define your own character through dialogues and actions. It takes it time, offers background information if you're interested, and if you paid attention to what's been said, it even has a real influence on the ending of the game. That part of the game is a clear 10/10. The problem is the game mechanics balance; new (or altered) mechanics fail and the game ends up being a roflstomp fest for the player as it nears the end (or it should at least). Some newly introduced mechanics, like the bionic arm that throws all grenades back at the attacker, are completely unbalanced and much too strong. The devs attempted to make decking/the matrix more stealthy too, and while that is an admirable idea, I don't think they succeeded. The player runs between sniffers and if you get caught by one, the trick is to take it down fast. It means you can almost completely bypass decking skills and still succeed in the Matrix which is a bit of a shame. I'm not sure how the Matrix should be represented visually or how it should work through game mechanics but I'm pretty sure this wasn't the answer. Matrix program summoning still doesn't really matter and there still isn't the feel that you're actually hacking anything - it still feels mostly like a mini-game that is eerily similar to a simplified version of regular combat. The most predominant problems is, however, that the AI seems broken at times. It handles melee combat units terribly - the enemy units often simply move around between cover and never attack anything, and if you get a melee unit close to one of the AI units, they often spend their entire turn just running around, never attacking anything either. Actually, as you near the end of the game, the AI will surprisingly often spend its turn doing absolutely nothing. Needless to say, that makes winning a combat encounter relatively easy. One feature that worked (and I'm not completely sure it's new but I think it is) is that you can now choose to enter turn-based combat mode if you see an enemy on screen, even if combat isn't initialized. This allows you to move into position and plan your attack if you have the element of surprise. That's a nice feature that I'd like to see used more in the future. In the end, this game isn't bad. It's got nice ambiance, good storytelling and great characters. You just can't have a top quality game if your basic mechanics don't function.

Pillars of Eternity helps bring back the group-based, tactical RPG as we knew it in the glory days of Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights and similar games. It does so unapologetically and accurately while also bringing enough new ideas to the table to make the game more than pure nostalgia for nostalgia's sake. The underlying story and fantasy world are meticulously crafted, innovative and well written. Overall, the game is hugely successful though there still are minor issues that could be improved. PoE doesn't rely on the old D&D rules, they have their own, new RPG rule set that does use classes, spells, resting and the typical party roles we're used to (tank, healer, crowd control, damage) but otherwise has its own ideas of stat-interaction and a few new class ideas. The overall concepts will be recognizable to seasoned RPG veterans while still presenting new challenges to adapt to. The story is a major selling point of PoE. The writing is solid, the story deep and the character (especially the eight NPCs) are very well crafted. There's a great deal of freedom in regards to how you approach different quests and even characters in the game, you have almost unconstrained freedom to murder and pillage almost any character in the game, if you so choose, for example. A criticism here could be that perhaps the story doesn't escalate tension particularly well so that when the game ends, it doesn't feel so much like a strong climax as simply a steady unraveling of an intricate plot. The game behaves mostly like the final fight is a formality and the actually interesting question isn't if you win, but what you do after you win. This can make the game seem slightly less memorable than perhaps it should be. Arguably, there are some issues with balance that should be addressed too. Between DPS and non-DPS classes, the game becomes very fixed in its roles. Tanks find it hard dealing meaningful damage but retain the ability to tie down enemies through the game's 'engagement' system. This system simply means that if you run away from a character engaging you, that character damages you for free - however since tanks don't do meaningful damage, the AI could actually just run right past them with great advantage. It doesn't do that, luckily, but this lopsidedness arguably makes the game system feel a bit artificial at times. The spell system could also use a bit of rebalancing, certain spells serve no clear purpose in the game as you don't really have the time or the situations where they need to be cast. In most situations, dealing damage outweighs more complicated options. This said, the system actually works really well, it has genuinely intuitive ideas and I hope they continue to work on it. All in all, PoE is a successful RPG game and follows Divinity Original Sin in reviving this wonderful genre. The crowd-funding concept definitely worked in this instance. I hope Obsidian stick to this project and release a sequel soon, they needs only address a few issues that exist still in PoE and build on the promising world behind the game.

The thing to understand about Hearthstone is that it's a very, very casual game. The existence of a pro circuit should not be taken as an indication of a skill-demanding gameplay but as as an expression of its wide-ranging popularity and its suitability for streaming. It's most accurately compared to a game like Texas Hold'em Poker in the sense that it requires skill to play accurately, but in a lot of scenarios skill won't matter tremendously due to huge variance. This doesn't make Hearthstone a bad game, just a very casual game. My main objections are: 1. The direction the game is taking - towards less diverse, simpler gameplay and deck-building. Steadily heading deeper into mediocrity. 2. How extremely greedy the game is and that's where a new player needs to pay attention. If you want all the cards in Hearthstone, an average estimate of around 600$ is by no means exaggerated. If you want the cards for the current Standard format, you can maybe cut it down to around 450$. That's extreme and your expenses won't end there, you should expect something like 50$ a year at least from that point on. Now, you don't need all cards but if you want to have a few decent decks, you're probably still looking at 150-200$. Hearthstone is suited for people who'd like a very casual card-game to have a bit of fun with and for whom money isn't really an object. If you liked Magic the Gathering or strategical games in general, you'd be better off looking at games like Faeria or Hex or something like that (or Magic the Gathering Online if a clunky interface doesn't bother you). In the end, Hearthstone remains a mediocre game because of its insistent pandering to the absolutely lowest denominator and its terrible greed, but the game isn't bad as such. The interface is smooth, some ideas are fun and there have been interesting decks in the meta at times (just too rarely). In the end, however, the game aims for and accurately hits mediocrity.

This game is as good as the hype and the rating, which is rare. It's huge, it's well written, it's beautiful, the combat is intuitive and hard to master, the acting, the design, everything comes together. It's a rare gem, it really is. If you're looking for a large RPG to really emerge yourself in, this is the best you'll see around. I've played computer games since the 80s and this joins a pantheon of a handful truly stellar games like Civilization I, Thief The Dark Project, Europa Universalis, Baldur's Gate that stand out as true masterpieces of the industry. The only less than brilliant thing in the game is the Skellige area which isn't as astoundingly fantastic as Velen and Novigrad (they are so ridiculously well made with such an attention to detail and life that it's genuinely mind-blowing) but it's still very good. One of the impressive thing is the story-telling, which has become standard in the witcher games but should never be taken for granted anyway. Arguably, we'll never see the level they reached in Witcher I simply because the game is more mainstream now than back then, but the structuring of the narrative is impressive and the choices made and how they affect the final outcome make sense and feel smooth. The only word of caution is that some choices made regarding the romantic outcomes are made very early and are irreversible so if you care a lot about that aspect, I recommend finding a short post about it that doesn't spoil too much before you play the game too far. The choices regarding Ciri's story are just splendid, she comes alive as a complex and loveable character which is really, really hard to achieve for a character that isn't the main protagonist. The main story in general is fantastic as usual, subtle details for the enthusiast, solid telling for the main stream gamer. You can easily spend 250 hours on this game and still have places unexplored. You won't be bored either, it won't feel like they're trying to copy/paste scenarios to stretch the runtime, the game has insane value. Witcher III is a really impressive feat as is the entire franchise series - arguably the best franchise series ever made in gaming. Well done CD Project Red, please never stop being you (I'm looking at you Bethesda).

Turn-based RPG games have had a terrific revival this last year, not least spearheaded by this marvellous title from Larian. I played Divinity II a few years ago, which was a small budget but fairly decent title also from Larian, so it really is no surprise that they managed something quite remarkable with a stronger, crowd-funded budget. I hope they keep this level for the next release as well! The game revolves around dual protagonists with one optional companion each, so a group of 2 - 4. The RPG system is kinda new but easily recognizable by seasoned veterans of the genre. There's a lot of fun to be had with the way elements interact and a lot of interesting choices to be made in the levelling system. Mastering the game takes thought and experience but playing the game is easy and intuitive in itself. The story is fun, nothing THAT special narratively, but the true quality is in the telling. Humorous, colourful, varied and sometimes outright dark, it comes together nicely in the end. Lots of little details to explore and combat is very rarely repetitive. It revolves a lot around the four elements and how they interact mixed with some crowd-controlling abilities, buffs and debuffs from other lines (do NOT ignore these if you play on a difficult setting!). The only problem I encountered was that I often mess around with different classes and ideas on a difficult setting while I learn the game mechanics well enough to create my exact party concept. In this game, there is a bit of a lull early on in the game with a lot of story-driven gameplay which can be a bit tedious to replay seven times before you get the party balance right. Apart from that, this game is just quite simply excellent. If you're into RPG games at all, you should definitely check out this title.

I had so looked forward to finally playing this title, I had put it off until I had the time to really get immersed. And I started out with an abundance of enthusiasm that lasted through the character creation and prologue. After about five hours of game time, however, it started creeping up on me. Where was the Fallout feeling, where was the desire to play on? I tried messing with the graphics (to solve the mysterious problem of the game being horribly overbright to look at), I considered a new character, starting over and taking it more slowly. I yanked the difficulty to Survival so I would feel that I was in danger at least. Everything. In the end I tried to push on, to go out and just explore, to feel the world itself. Then after a few hours more it struck me. the plain, horrible truth of it: Fallout 4 is a mediocre game. Plain and simple, I never thought I would say that out loud but it's the truth. The graphics are mediocre, the scenery is nice but skin textures stretch awkwardly across poorly animated actors. The voice acting is bad, the story offers no immersion and doesn't spark any desire to explore or interact. I tried to ignore all that and set out on one of the classic exploration tours that I loved in the former Fallout games. Just going into the wasteland, feeling that specific tingling that comes with exploring a dead world where anything (often times something terrible) is waiting around the corner. I went from house to house, explored, looted. Found dead people but they meant nothing. The town had no feeling, just random houses with a surprising abundance of loot. At that time it hit me for real, I shouldn't have bought this game. I had thrown money out the window. I was now at the mercy of the modding community, I pray they'll save this train wreck. I don't know how or why, but I hope they find a way. So be warned, if you liked Fallout 3 and/or New Vegas (Fallout 2 is extremely different so I won't include that as a comparison) , you'll very likely not like this game. It seems haphazardly put together, devoid of charm and personality. It's such a shame... really is.

SO **** TERRIBLE! SO FRUSTRATING! The thing about Xcom is that the mechanics themselves are fantastic, they really are. The turn based squad strategy is fun, the overall research/building strategy is fine. The problem lies only in two elements: 1. Difficulty settings. 2. Random Number Generators. Let it be said, if you're fairly casual with strategy and you play this game casually on "normal" setting, the game is absolutely fine. No problems there. This review is not for you then, just ignore. That's just not for me. If you're very serious about strategy, you'll almost certainly find "Normal" difficulty too easy and "Classic" fitting in general (at least if you're only planning one playthrough). Sounds great, right? Could have been except for one thing: the variance on Classic. Everything is a roll of the dice, which is fine, but the variance is insane. You can do everything right and still lose the game in one brief moment of bad luck. I'll illustrate the problem with this one scenario that actually took place for me: Turn 1. Your squad arrives in the woods. You move them into defensive positions just in case you're being charged right off the bat. They're all in cover, they're all in Overwatch (guarding). Three aliens attack, the squad takes down the first one. The second one uses a skill that automatically deals 1 damage, it hits one guy. *BREAK* Let me here say that one damage is nothing, it really is nothing. So, the guy who got hit with the whopping 1 damage rolls a dice and panics. He panics by turning to his right and trying to execute his friend standing right next to him because... well, who knows. It's the standard panic reaction in this game. He rolls another dice and misses from point blank range. Just can't hit. Well, fine you think, but alas. Behind him is a seasoned veteran, a captain who has seen many battles. He rolls a dice too, he also panics. Now, he has taken 0 damage, he has merely seen one dude take one damage. Well, he handles panic in the same way and decides to execute one of his friends. He chooses your best solider (and medic) and nails her right in the back of the head with a critical hit, killing her instantly. End turn one. Turn 2. Bring up menu, quit game. Things like this just happen, they just do. You can restart the mission whenever they do, but it wears you out. Or it did with me. Worst thing is, they could fix everything wrong with this game so easily. 1. rebalance panic. 2. remove critical hits. Just those two things would limit the variance to a degree where the game would feel hard but fair. It's really all they needed to do and then the game would probably be a 10.

This is a worthy expansion that adds enough to be justified and doesn't dissolve into a series of mage on mage high level battles with spell thrusts and boring time stops. The story is cool and even though a major part of the game is a strange, unattached quest line in an entirely different location, it's also a fine story in itself. If you liked the original game, you'll almost certainly also like this.

I never actually played the original release of Icewind Dale, somehow, back in the day so this was a very positive surprise for me. This is old school tactical RPG in the style of Baldur's Gate except it's more about the setting, the mood and a harsher, less intrigant story. All these aspects come together really well, though, and the experience is more than just nostalgia. Revisiting the old AD&D 2nd Edition is all nostalgia, though, but a few improvements here and there offer a bit more variety and depth than just the old school. If anything negative is to be said, perhaps the game is slightly too linear at times. A bit more exploration would have offered an even stronger feeling of being out in the desolate wilderness which is a feeling the game otherwise very successfully creates through it's music and artwork. For me it's a perfect casual game to play in a window while watching a stream or something like that. If you like RPGs and enjoy managing skills, tactics and customizing your finely tuned party, this is for you. I definitely recommend this game.

This game is brave and it's refreshing to the franchise, finally something that reboots the original alien concept. The good: There is the right feel of loneliness at times, the constant stress of being hunted, sometimes the intrigue of exploration. Ripley works well as a character, most others do too. The Alien itself is very interesting for a long time (until you learn how it thinks, even though it also learns how you think sometimes) and it's nice that you really get to explore the space station. The visuals are terrific with all the old school, Alien style tech and industrial feel of everything. That carries the game a long way. The story, the background, all of that is excellent. This game could well have been a clear ten if not for a very few things: Only two things wrong, really. One is that the game is a bit too linear. You lack the tool for door x, you know you'll come back to door x once you get that tool. Sometimes you can explore other areas and you'll be rewarded with loot (important for survival) but most of the time you follow a path. Sometimes takes a bit out of the exploration. Two is that the game over-extends slightly near the end. It should have stopped a bit before it does. One or two too many twists and turns and in the end you just want to get it over with which is a shame but doesn't severely damage the overall impression of having played an excellent game.

Absolutely a worthy follow-up to the amazing reboot of the old style dungeon crawler that was Grimrock I. A few new elements, some new functions with alchemy and optional use of guns. They've made it work both in dungeons and outside which is really cool. The square-walking fighting system has been enhanced a bit so that it isn't just enough to sidestep and hit over and over anymore. Some monsters will jump behind you, some will hit to the side if you sidestep them to their sword-arm side. Little things like that. Still, the main objective remains the same: don't ever get surrounded. Only negative point at all is that a few of the puzzles sometimes seem a bit too far out, so to speak. And they can be a bit annoying more than clever but it's very rare. Usually, you can work the solution out from clues and all together the balance between too difficult and difficult enough is accurately struck. The game ending seems to lead to the next game in the series and so it can feel a bit unfinished, perhaps. The final boss fight comes a bit out of nowhere, it feels, but it's actually a good boss fight. It's tough, sure, but it's not just about learning all the mechanics from replaying it 100 times, it's actually just about fighting well. So all in all, a very nice game. Into RPG? Buy it, simple as that.

Man... this game. You play it and it's kinda fun at first and it's called "Prepare to Die" so you're ok with dying. At least you think you are. Then you meet the Taurus Demon and it keeps killing you even though you feel like you should be able to do the technique, it's not that hard, and a few times you get close but no cigar. You make one mistake and you're a spot of entrails and blood on stone. In the end you get frustrated and you mess up on the way back to the demon, before you can reclaim all the souls you were carrying, and you lose 14000 souls which is a lot to you because you're a complete noob. And you get angry, you shut the game down and you hate life. And yet, an hour later you're back, you face the demon again and this time you get it. It dissolves and you feel like a hero. For about a minute until you run onto a bridge and a Wyvern roasts you from above with no warning at all and for no apparent reason. You realize that the game is never going to play fair. On the way back you see a comment left by a player that you should use ranged weapons. Surely he doesn't want you to fight that fire-breathing hellhound with wings?! You look it up online and find out you should shoot the wyvern's tail while hiding below the bridge. You do and you get a cool sword, an awesome one. And now the Hollow fear you, they fall before you like sheep to the slaughter and you can now face up to the big lump of armor in the cellar who wields something that looks like it's the petrified bone **** chicken and you kill the damn thing and he drops a very cool ring. Now you can move fast while in armor and now you want to see more. You want to fight more. Sure, you're still a noob but you get it now, you want to be more, to practice your parry and riposte, your movements, your strikes. Welcome to Dark Souls. (Edit: The game itself is a clear 10 but the port to PC is so poor it has to be a 9. If you want to play it on PC, you need to look up DSFix and if you want to use keyboard/mouse also DSMfix in the newest versions. This game needs work and patience to run on a PC but the game itself is worth it once it does)

This game is ambitious beyond reason but also hugely successful in its execution. It really brings to life the world of James Ellroy to an extent I didn't think we could see in a game, at least not yet. The plot is intricate, the characters are cruel but nuanced, the city itself is alive. The ending is excellent. It holds no punches and it makes no excuses - it is the thinking man's GTA (which is how we also explain the less daunting sales figures) and if you want to piece every part of the plot together, you'd better pay attention. If you find this appealing, this game is bound to be something very special for you, otherwise you shouldn't bother. The good: Just driving through LA (which you will do a lot of) is astounding in itself. For a long time, the game suffered from poor graphics performance and fairly weak visuals but with the DX11 version now running perfectly, the game is absolutely great to look at. And that's really important when so much of the game is the ambiance, the visual details, the feel of driving through 40s LA. The gameplay is original and the storyline is fascinating. Your fellow characters have real depth and so does your primary protagonist and the city itself. The world is dirty, corrupt, greedy, harsh, sad, all the things the world of Ellroy needs to be and it pulls no punches. There are no heroes here but that doesn't mean they're all villains either. The content is very large for a linear, story-driven game. Lots of cases, lots of societal aspects covered and unapologetically unfolded before us, lots of nasty little secrets to uncover. If you ever felt drawn to the world of true noire detectives, this is for you. The bad: Very little, obviously, since I give it a 10. A few times, the game mechanic used during suspect interviews can feel a little arbitrary - that what you expect something to mean isn't what is actually meant by accusing a certain person of something at a specific time. Sometimes the game and the player will misunderstand each other which will lead to the player quitting and replaying a segment and feeling annoyed because he expected a different outcome from an action than the game presented and the player had no way of anticipating this. It isn't always exactly clear what the consequences will be from selecting a specific dialogue but most of the time it works. The facial animation can still seem slightly outdated (or very) but you can recognize the actors and the acting itself is top notch. Do not buy this game if you're looking for a new GTA, do not buy if you don't like stories and want action. But if you like stories, noire literature/film, Ellroy, just trying something a bit new to gaming, you HAVE to play this game. Very rewarding, extremely well done. This game was cared for down to its smallest detail, I hope we see more like this.

The idea of this game is good and the mechanics are fun. And yet, I just stop playing it after a while because something is missing. The good: The art style is great, the base game mechanics are fun and easy to use. The bad: it does end up being you versus puzzle setups. You see a situation and have to match your skills in the right way to solve the puzzle. That's fine but not very immersive in itself and sometimes end up being more of a roadblock in your way than something you like to do. In the end what the game misses is stealth, ironically. Yes, there are elements of that but a lot of the time it's more similar to puzzle solving than anything else. The game is actually a puzzle game and not a stealth assassination game.

Well, last I reviewed this game, I gave it a 9. Unfortunately things have changed for me since then. The game has fun mechanics and the tanks really feel like they should much of the time. However, you reach the top tiers and it just grinds to a halt. It takes forever to get the next tank and several of the high tier models you need to play through are annoying. That may well mean that you need to spend fifty hours of gameplay working a tank you hate just to get to the next one and that's not ok. You can pay your way out of it but on high tiers that easily means paying 50€ if not more to convert the XP you need. For one tank. When I drive my favourite tanks, I have fun, but getting on with the game from there isn't something I have the time or money to actually bother doing.

The best game of its type, no doubt about it. It runs smoothly, the combat feels fast, challenging and engaging. You can really work at customizing your character and then feel the effects of it in combat. You really feel like you made this character, you build the machine behind the big numbers and bloody mayhem - that's the most important part of RPG games and people seem to forget that. Not here. Of course, this isn't the sort of RPG that draws you in with an amazing story, it's dungeon crawling, click and kill and that's fine. TLII never pretends to be anything else. It's driven by its mechanics and they're flawless. Excellent game.

This is a step up from the good but not quite polished Shadow Run Returns. The story is better, the gameplay feels more balanced and the atmosphere of Berlin is well done. I like the darkness of the story and the feel of being a shadowrunner and not a traditional hero, it's excellent. In the end, the game mechanics don't offer enough variation as the story proceeds, I think, to make the game epic but it's very very good. If you played Shadowrun, you'll likely like this game a lot and if you're into RPG and punk sci-fi, you should look this up.

Well... this is frustrating. Let that be the headline for this review. I played Thief back in the day and I still recall trembling with glee as I saw its cover and realized that someone had really made the game I always dreamed they would. And it was everything I hoped for and then some. I've played them all since then and even though Thief III started to lean towards the dull precipice of console gaming, I still enjoyed a lot of it and preordered this reboot. I shouldn't have and I'm never paying for something they haven't made yet again. Ok so: Good things: The graphics capture the atmosphere really well. Certain parts of the city feel exactly like I imagine old London or something felt and that' very cool. Bad things: And that's why this is so bloody frustrating. They had the tools, they'd made the setup for this game and then they dropped it on the floor. The story is weak and not particularly engaging. Garret isn't his old self and a bit too emo. The level design is far from inspiring and you're mostly dragged along a linear course with no planning and few options. Moving the character around feels a bit clumsy and ancient which was fine in 99 but not so much now. Worst of all though: the sound is utterly messed up. You can't tell where voices come from and that's just not ok in a stealth game. It breaks immersion and makes it really hard to navigate the darkness in a stealthy way. In the end we needed more missions, more planning, less moving back and forth over the same (admittedly fairly gorgeous) cityscape. We needed a protagonist with a cynical story and his good old sarcastic approach to everything and one that felt like you were moving around a master thief and not a clunky dude from 99. This game was a big let-down. It wasn't all bad, it's playable, but it had SO much potential and could so easily have been a lot more. Frustrating.

This game is a source of continued frustration. I periodically install it and then remember why I never play it and uninstall it two hours later. The game has so much potential, great ideas, nice naval battle addition and the whole idea of playing the gun line battles in the Total War engine is excellent. However, it all falls apart due to the controls of the game. Moving your gun lines around is just too tricky and illogical for the game to feel like anything but a struggle against the engine itself rather than against the enemy. Many areas of the maps don't allow for lines to be deployed evenly there and if you try, you get very strange formations with your soldiers often pointing in the wrong way or just taking forever to get into formation. At other times they'll just take the most ridiculous route to get into your new formation in your new location. Finally, sometimes they just bug out and either wander off the map completely or do nothing. The game compensates for this by making the AI ridiculously easy to beat. I've had many battles where I never felt like I was in control and that my plans came together and yet I'm rewarded with a heroic victory time and again. And this is on Very Hard difficulty, mind you. Darthmod helps a bit with some of the most annoying errors but not nearly enough. In the end, this game could have been excellent but just ends up being very annoying.

This game is absolutely fine as a dungeon crawler - it works really well, is balanced well and the combat is fun. It's far superior to Diablo III in almost all regards. The story may never reach epic heights nor will the gameplay stun you with its intricacies but it does what it does well.

This is among the finest examples of computer game story telling there is. It draws you in, builds you up and tears you down as you follow the fascinating tale of Lee and Clementine as they fight for survival in the early days following the apocalypse. Clementine works brilliantly as a type of moral mirror for Lee and has the player constantly question the merits and implications of choices made. The story is thrilling, the conclusion epic and the characters are well made, well expanded and also well concluded. The atmosphere of the game is truly stunning, both visually and audibly, and the interaction with the game feels natural and intuitive. This is a must play game if you're into story telling at all.

Season Two is still good, let that be stated immediately. However, it's very far from the brilliance of Season One. Clem works well as a protagonist and it's fun to help shape her and mold her as a child. However, the dynamic narrative that worked so well between Lee and Clem in the first season is lacking and never mad up for. The basic flaw of the season is the lack of purpose. You don't have a major goal really at any time, you don't feel like there's a natural flow and so all the little events, personal drama, human loss and so on end up feeling rushed and haphazard. The other characters are either unbelievable or just never fully developed before they disappear and this is in stark contrast to Season 1. The strength of Season 2 is still the same - great general mood, easy and intuitive interaction with the story and a strong lead character. It's definitely worth playing but not nearly as good as the first.

I'm another one not getting the hype. Sure, the graphics look good (even though that impression is created more through the use of trickery than actually beautiful textures but that's fine with me) and the setting is very interesting, but you never get to explore any of it. You move through a linear series of shooting scenes against poor AI using a clumsy feeling protagonist. The game is most interesting when you aren't shooting at things and that's a problem for a shooter. The story promises real depth but then abandons all that for shooting and drama, it never reaches real depth. If you're a fan of shooters, the action here will likely bore you and feel too easy, if you're a fan of sandbox environments and fascinating settings, you'll be frustrated by how you're not allowed to actually explore anything yourself and if you're a fan of adventure game story-telling, all the useless shooting will probably ruin the experience for you.

This ends up being a fairly good game. It sticks to game mechanics that are simple but work, the graphics are quite ok and the story line is decent. It's not exactly Skyrim or The Witcher but if you're looking for a 3rd person fantasy game, you'll likely enjoy this. The drop system is that of Diablo which is frustrating as it's very random indeed but the skill system is good. The dragon combat is perhaps a bit too arcade-like but I had a bit of fun with it. The first area is better than the second, I felt, but it's nice to see a smaller production like this still managing to reach decent graphical heights. Worth a play for sure but not quite the top of the charts.

The issue with Far Cry 2 is that it's marketed incorrectly. They sell it as a shooter and so people think they should run around and engage enemies whenever they see them. If you try to do that in Far Cry 2, you'll die - first in the game, then of boredom. It's a realistic, stealth based shooter and that's how it should be treated. Imagine that you're actually running around in Africa trying to survive and you'll do better. You avoid combat unless you need not to or have a great advantage, if you are discovered by a multitude of enemies, you wreak havoc and run for your life. You infiltrate during the night, not the daytime. You don't drive around on the road near checkpoints in a country at war. You kill without mercy and you get better at it as the game goes on. Not through XP and levels, but just by improving. That's an amazing experience in itself. If you think carefully, stealth around a bit and plan your approach, there's literally no game ever made that'll reward you like this one will. You can choose to go in hard with granades and LMGs, or snipe from a hill top or sneak up close and take them down one at a time (or not take them down and just do what you came for). You'll pull off amazing infiltrations and assassinations, you'll experience an enemy truly scared of you and you play a story that transcends any attempted in a shooter before. Based on Conrad's great novel "The Heart of Darkness" (like Apocalypse Now is), you'll get an interesting and raw approach to Africa and the wars that ravage the continent. This game actually has something to say and it knows how to say it. It is, however, not a sandbox, casual fun shooter and it was a mistake to market it as such. A word of advice, put the game on top difficulty. The AI seems broken on the lower ones and the game doesn't become too hard on the hardest one. Just as long as you remember that if you're outnumbered five to one and they know where you are, you're not going to win. At least not always.

There's some promise to this but on PC the controls are too annoying to be playable. It's also not scary at all, not sure who really found this scary. The challenge is turning your big, clumsy protagonist in the right direction in time, nothing more. The game is way too linear and the encounters are too predictable. It could probably have been good but it ends up being a much worse copy of Doom3.

This game succeeds because it captures the spirit of Shadowrun. The balance isn't quite there and sometimes the gameplay feels slightly limited, but it feels like Shadowrun and that's very important. It also succeeds in making an environment to create Shadowrun adventures easily and is a very promising start to something that was probably published in something like a beta state.

This is kind of like visiting the old Eye of the Beholder games which I thought wouldn't work because of the static feel of the playing style. However, I was wrong. It's still fun, great fun. The game itself has a few flaws and the ending is fairly weak and abrupt but overall, this is nostalgia when it works!

Still a great game just like the original but a few flaws prevents it from reaching the same astronomic heights. If you're focused and into strategy, you'll find the second half of the game too easy. By the end, only the boss fights are hard (they are hard, though) and the rest can feel a bit like a grind. You can create some fun tactics and setups but the AI just doesn't seem to be able to match them by the end. The story is still great and the humor is right up there with it. Overall, should be played but it's not as flawless as the first.

Fantastic game and a must-play for any fan of Heroes of Might & Magic. The humor is great, the challenge is decent and the game mechanic feels smooth and balanced. You can create your own strategic concepts or just go with large armies and good gear depending on the difficulty and your own desire. There's nothing bad to say about this little gem, really, so just play it.

In short: awwww man, they broke it. Frustrating game because it has so much potential. The graphics feel smooth and the mechanics are better than ever but they removed all planning, thinking and stealth (actual stealth - welcome to cover-based running). You still have different approaches but you can't plan any of them and often have to choose one at random because the consequences are unclear. In one mission you can choose to disguise yourself as an electrician or try to sneak in around the back but you have no way of knowing what the difference is so you choose randomly. You can't bring your own weapons or gear either, so the game comes up with the most stupid excuses to place sniper rifles and other useful things on site for you to find. It doesn't make sense. The world feels alive and each character has their own story, which is cool, but in the end your role is merely that of a spectator and not a protagonist. You're there to watch in awe how cool the world looks, not to play in it. Such a shame - great potential, awful execution.

By far (and I mean far) the best football game for PC. It's slightly difficult to customize your controls and certain teams and players don't have real life names but don't let that stop you - if you actually want to play a football game that feels alive, unpredictable and dynamic, there's nowhere else to go. The AI plays well without doing typical FIFA scripted goals and it feels as if each player on the field is constantly thinking for themselves which leads to the interesting point that the AI also makes mistakes. Not scripted mistakes, just mistakes because two of its players misunderstood each other. It makes the game feel alive. Because the AI is so good and alive, the game only really works well on the hardest difficulty. Attempts at reducing the AI make the game feel strange. So, learn the mechanics on a low level, then play a single player career on the highest and then you'll master it in time.

This is a fairly difficult game to review. The vanilla version of the game falls short for silly reasons while the modded version (Darth Mod is a true hero of our times) is awesome - easily one of the best strategy games made recently. So, in order to give the game a thorough review I'm going to look at what they did well, what they did (horribly) wrong and how the mod fixes it. What they did well: The AI is vastly improved especially on a strategy level. The AI now forms lasting alliances and looks to expand in a sensible way. It also builds armies quite well and tries to retain a useful balance of its forces (unlike previous TW-games where you could easily meet a full stack of archers because the AI thought it was a great unit and hey... you can't get enough **** thing, right?). The economic system is much harder now and you can support fewer full stack armies which is great as it forces you to think more on how best to deploy your resources. It also means that you can't abuse the blitz-krieg concept which just won the game in previous TW games. You don't have enough armies to simply overwhelm any enemy in a year anymore and once you do, he has enough to defend against it. You have to build good armies, keep them alive and choose your battles carefully. Winning large battles quite literally determines the fate of empires. What they did wrong: Unfortunately, none of the good things mentioned above matter because of what they did wrong. On hard level and above, the computer cheats violently. It respawns full stack armies and earns bundles of money from nothing. Of course, that makes the game fairly difficult (and annoying) but more importantly, it removes all of those strategic elements the game got right. Winning on the filed means nothing now, no strategic value because he just spawns a new army. Only taking cities matters now. Blockading ports or otherwise hurting the AI through economy means nothing, he gets money for free. Diplomacy is useless because everyone automatically hates you now and they all have endless armies. Basically, this ruins the game. In the pure vanilla version this is no more than a 4/10 game. GO MOD! But luckily, the modding community comes to our aid. Darth Mod fixes all of those annoying points and even improves on the good ones (it's also easy to install). The AI is better on the field (you can actually lose now if you do something silly) and the world seems coherent and punishing. If you choose the wrong allies, you'll be in trouble, if you leave yourself exposed against a non-friendly neighbor, you'll be attacked, but at the same time you need to check the most rapidly expanding AIs or you'll find yourself in the world of Rob Stark: defeated without ever losing a battle. To win effectively on Hard level you have to use all aspects of the game; economy, diplomacy and tactics. Then it suddenly becomes a 10/10 game. However, since I can't give the game a top grade for work they didn't do themselves, I'll leave the rating on 7.

Generally a really well done, fun game but it cannot match the supreme experience of Far Cry 2 - though that in itself is no shame. The combat works well, the new takedown mechanisms add to the stealth options but in the end the AI is too blind for stealth to truly work and reach the same heights as in Far Cry 2. Stealth is most fun in the beginning before you realize just how close and visible you need to get to get caught. Once you realize that, you tend to stop trying. I recommend Ziggy's mod for an improved challenge and gameplay experience but the vanilla is also an enjoyable ride if you like it easy. The game starts off at its strongest point and then slowly slides. The first island is great fun and both exploring and fighting is just addicting. However, as you get all your skills, weapons and move on to the second island, it starts to slide slightly and by the end it's all routine. The story also falls short, unfortunately, and by the end it straight up stumbles. The ending, whichever you choose, is awful. That said, the awesome graphics and fun game mechanics make this a great game overall and it should be played by any FPS fan. The best shooter made since its prequel.

This is a hard game to review and it must be done in two parts. Part I you infiltrate a North Korean island and it takes this seriously. You choose if you want to sneak, fight or combine your way through but if you fight and don't choose your fights, you'll have issues with ammo and having to work with inferior weapons. If you choose to stealth through, you'll have your nano-suit to help you but you don't want to make a mistake. If you observe, think and plan, you can either sneak around or plan quick, silent strikes on even large groups of enemies. Only a few, scripted combat scenes ruins this first half. This half is 9 or 10 10. Second half comes after the essence of the plot is fully revealed and then the game somehow becomes a poorly made, arcade shooter. No skill, no thinking, just moving the mouse and clicking. It's awfully boring. This par is 2/10. All in all, they had something good going but decided to ruin it because they felt like they needed to show off some more graphics.

Usually, I'm suspicious when everyone starts giving a game grades below 4 but this time it's fairly accurate. I assume that if you're looking at Dragon Age II, you've already played Dragon Age: Origins so that's my angle in this review. Two things characterized Origins and I'll compare those to DAII. Tactical gameplay: Almost doesn't exist anymore which is surprising because seemingly the skills are much the same for the different classes but the combat is so fast and damage based (and the removal of friendly fire on all difficulty setting except Nightmare) that the game doesn't feel tactical and complicated at all. Instead you just end up running your own character around right-clicking everything. Combat is a lot less interesting and much more repetitive. The great thing in Origins was building the party, preparing the tactic and executing it. Forget about all that here and just send the tank forward and start AOEing on him. Story and Character depth: Not even close to Origins. The story in Origins might have been slightly stereotypical but it had depth of character. Not here. Perhaps the idea behind the more fast paced combat was to focus more on the story-telling but it fails miserably. They're hurrying emotional moments, killing off characters you've just met with violins going crazy in the background. It feels like it was written by Stephany Meyer rather than anyone on the Bioware staff of old. Dialogue seems forced and trite and lines are overloaded with information they try to squeeze into way to few lines and too little time. People will literally say things like "Just because you make captain in the first year of service doesn't mean that you can bla bla bla". They want the silver tattooed elf (not actually tattoos but never mind) to blow your mind just by his cool stance leaning on a wall and sounding tough. You spend too much time talking to people who should have been a part of Vampire Diaries. All in all, this game fails on all levels except the immediate, graphical impression. Reused areas (to the extent where it gets embarrassing), weak story line and dialogue and shallow gameplay. If you liked Origins, you're likely to hate this.