psycros

Really promising Gamma World-type game ruined by impossible difficulty and broken controls. Enemies consistently outrange you and are virtually omniscient. They can also shoot characters who have no line of fire to those same enemies. Ally bleeding out? Too bad, the control to heal them is broken. Couldn't even make it to the Ark..what a joke.

Suffers from the same design flaw as nearly every X-Com wannabe including the terrible rebooted X-Com games: enemies get free attack after free attack and usually bonus movement as well. My first battle with other humans consisted of me moving, getting hit by free reaction shots, firing back, getting hit by free return fire, repeat ad infinitum. Even after enemies use full movement they can do this. Couldn't uninstall fast enough.

EVE Online in brief: * Kind of pretty, in a space fantasy Star Wars way. In fact a lot of the ship designs are stolen directly from Star **** idea how CCP hasn't been sued yet. * Completely pay-to-win on a scale that would start a a mass user revolt in other MMOs. You have to check out CCP's store to believe it. The best example is the skill system. To my knowledge EVE is the only game where your skills train passively in real-time, unaffected by what you actually *do* in the game. But you can just go to the in-game market OR the cash shop and buy skill points which are applied instantly (although there are daily limits, I believe). Recently a player spent almost 30,000 USD to become a max skill player virtually overnight. This completely invalidates the ridiculous passive learning system that never made any sense to begin with. The vets who spent YEARS achieving their levels of skill can now be bested by a rich player who joined the game a month ago because he can buy all the skills and (with a few exceptions) the best ships and gear the game has to offer. Part of me considers this poetic justice. Until just a couple years ago the old-timers were basically invincible because the sheer size and time requirements of EVE's skill system insured that you would never catch up with someone who had more than a couple month's head start. Now all you need are deep pockets. However, the reality is that two wrongs don't make a right and the entire skill system needs a complete overhaul just like nearly everything else in the game. * EVE is boring as s**t 90% of the time. Content is dull and uninspired and 95% of the time you're either waiting around for something to happen or for gankers to leave you alone long enough to go find something to do. Tutorials and missions are often confusing and require you to return to an NPC's station in order to complete them even when the only rewards are ISK. Meanwhile you can buy (and eventually learn to sell) from anywhere in a region without docking. * In space you interact with the universe primarily through the overview, a cluttered, unspeakably bad UI that shows you whats in your immediate vicinity. When you're docked you deal with a few different interface elements that are nearly as bad. In fact they've made some significant changes to the UI over the past few years that made it even WORSE, which most of us didn't think was possible. Your first challenge in every situation is fighting through the overly complex, vague and non-intuitive interface. * The only really rewarding times in the game are when you're in a fight that you're not sure you can win but somehow still do. Those experiences are few and far between because EVE is not a balanced game in any way. Players can have infinite reinforcements and NPCs just cheat like mad. Usually you're either OP or hopeless. * CCP is a terrible company. Lots of pixels have been spent journaling the sordid tales of mismanagement, deception and abuse perpetrated by this pack of wannabe space vikings. * The only type of gameplay the developers actively empower is that of the space pirate. Criminals can do literally anything the game allows for including travel to even the most secure locations without fear of reprisal. As long as they don't linger within range of local law enforcement's weapons a criminal is never in danger except from other players, most of whom won't start any trouble with a pirate because that will flag them as killable by the pirate's friends. And the pirates always outnumber the good guys because the game is skewed towards supporting criminals. Also, any corp can declare war on another player corp at almost any time, which means they can freely attack you anywhere. This makes getting any sort of foothold in the game virtually impossible. * The metagame is EVE is legendary, but mostly for reasons other games would consider shameful. Scamming and out-of-game espionage are competently permissible. Botting is common and CCP barely pays lip service to reigning it in. * CCP's non-stop catering to pirates and "gankers" (criminals who only attack those who can't fight back) has turned the game into a stagnant cold war between huge alliances who live in lawless "nullsec" space. In a desperate effort to stir things up the devs recently introduced powerful, aggressive NPCs that will target almost anything and will even destroy actual clones that control starships (i.e. players in their pods). This amounts to an annoying inconvenience for the mega-alliances and an existential threat for the small fry and newbies. Also, you can no longer see who is in a system with you by looking at the chat window..players are no longer shown until they actually post a message, which is a ganker's dream come true. About a year ago CCP was bought out by another company who will hopefully give the old management team the boot and start making EVE Online the game it always had the potential to be.

I would say this game is the biggest joke in the MMO realm, except a joke has to be funny, and EVE isn't funny. Or exciting. Or rewarding. Or engrossing. Its a con job by perhaps the worst developer in the industry. If you wonder why EVE **** as incredibly hard as it does just do a little research on CCP of Iceland. You'll figure out very quickly why this game has the highest user churn in the industry. They have been caught doing everything from fixing the game for their buddies (because the devs actively PLAY THE GAME) to hiring people to post positive reviews. This game would give cancer TO cancer because the people who make the game are toxic wannabe techno-vikings. Don't fall for the F2P nonsense, either - like everything else in the marketing hype its complete lie. The real shame is that the basic gameplay of EVE would be appealing to a lot of gamers if competent, honest developers were in charge of it.

So intriguing, yet so very flawed. DD boils the dungeon crawler down to its absolute essentials, but adds a "stress" mechanic that turns perfectly functional characters into useless drooling nutters. You can salvage them by spending tons of hard-won gold while they sit out dungeon runs **** you MUST go into another dungeon as soon as you complete your last expedition. There's no "wait in town" ability - for some reason you're forced to be a masochist throwing yourself into the RNG meatgrinder non-stop. There's also no camping in the dungeon without a firewood item, of which you can carry precisely ONE. No healing between fights except by consuming **** the game will happily tell you that you're starving 2 seconds after you just ate. Did I mention that some character classes won't join a party if certain other classes are present? But you MUST have a full party to "embark" on your next series of utterly random dice rolls, so you'll probably end up high and dry, unable to progress because you can't a healer or a tank. Grindy, punishing, repetitive and crippled by inexplicable design flaws - not recommended.

This game exemplifies EVERYTHING that's wrong with game design today. Game-crippling bugs that have been reported for nearly six months have gone totally unaddressed. The most telling example? The in-game bug reporting tool limits you to 18 characters for the title of the bug report. How's that for irony? This MOO has all the depth of a typical phone game. I guess they were too busying preparing not one but TWO launch day DLCs, one of which puts an entire playable race behind a paywall. Doubly hilarious, that race is really just a reskinned version of the humans. Just play MOO2, possibly with some good mods.

About five minutes at a stretch was all I could take of the clunky, zero-context UI and non-optimized console port performance. The PC version of NMS is every bit the over-hyped mess you've heard about. As for content and gameplay, you'd get more satisfaction from Garry's Mod. Not even close to ready for release. This is pretty typical of small developers, unfortunately..particularly Scandinavian ones. Hard to believe it took four years considering it offers less than any other first-person, high-res sandbox - even those in early access. Not even worth pirating IMO.

I won't bother repeating what others have said better than I could myself, but its official - Bethesda isn't even trying anymore. This company is now 100% dependent upon unpaid developers known as "modders" to save their bacon. They should just start releasing a "build your own adventure" kit every other year with import-export tools included and a cash shop for official content. We would probably get more polished and rewarding adventures than FO4, and you could have Fallout games that weren't R-rated again!

As far as interface, gameplay go, this is how the game should've been from day one - the improvements are almost immediately noticeable. Unfortunately character generation suffers from a very limited variety of **** fact the Director's Cut actually has *fewer* visual options than the original release. There's also has far too much 80's "Road Warrior" influence. Does it really make sense that the "good guys" would mostly be sporting throwback "future punk" looks? As for the other aspects of art and design, its more than passable. Same goes for sound effects although the default volumes were much too high on my system. Strangely, the background voice acting (such as what you hear on the comms in Highpool) is much better than what's provided for the primary characters like Vargas. I was also somewhat disheartened that like nearly every game released these days, this one features R-rated language and adult situations to match its violence. We can turn off the blood in most violent games but not the fouler bits of dialogue, nor can we disable some of the less savory story elements. These days there really aren't any deep and "teen-friendly" games beyond a few JRPGs, and that's sad. The shortcomings I've mentioned are relatively minor and while sometimes inexplicable (like fewer chargen options) their not at all game-breaking. But there IS a major problem, and its due to one of the most common mistakes in game design: a completely broken difficulty setting. On the lowest difficulty you're basically in tutorial mode - everything is a cakewalk. Notch it up one setting higher (the de facto default) and you're going precisely nowhere. You'll be outgunned, outnumbered and outmaneuvered from the moment you set foot in the **** not in the, "this is a nice challenge" way, but more the "you've got to be kidding me" way. You'll be getting slaughtered by everything that shows its face - in a game with permadeath. The difficulty jump from level one to level two is so radical that you'll think you've installed a survival mod. Field Medic and Surgeon skills are NOT optional on level 2 - and don't even think about trying a higher difficulty. Perception is also highly recommended for avoiding random encounters, which are often even harder than the regular ones. I don't regret Kickstarting this game simply because its a much-neglected genre that has oodles of creative potential and a grand pedigree That said, I'm pretty disappointed by industry veterans committing such a newbie design mistake. Until the badly scaled difficulty levels of Wasteland 2 are fixed you should spend your time and money elsewhere unless you enjoy a casual, R-rated "choose your own adventure" experience on the lowest setting. One other thing I've taken away from this experience: I probably won't be doing any more Kickstarters because each one I've contributed to has been a major letdown in some respect.

**** 2 starts out with the enticing possibility that it really is a modern answer to MOO/MOO 2. It doesn't take very long to discover this isn't quite the case. The AI isn't just ultra-aggressive but also cheats more than just about any game in recent memory. Forget about winning - its impossible to even keep pace with the computer. And that's on the "easy" setting. Many aspects of the UI are vague and difficult to figure out as well as lacking polish and even the most basic of "smart" features. There are all sorts of side missions that recruited NPCs offer but they require playing an annoying turn-based tactical game ala Front Mission or **** at least you have a chance of beating them if you're careful. That's about the only victory you can hope to see in **** 2 past the first couple of random encounters with space crystals or pirates. Even the galaxy maps aren't very friendly. If you have multiple fleets around a star its sometimes impossible to click on one of them because they display in the exact same position. There are a fair number of rough edges all round. Want to start a game with a custom race? That's a crashin'. Actually winning a space battle in hands-on mode (i.e. non-auto combat)? That's a crashin' more often than not. All that having been said, this is still an impressive effort from a small indie developer. The game probably just needs a bigger team and about another six months in the oven. The devotion to the 4X perfection of MOO2 is hugely appreciated and I have hopes that **** 2 will be made playable in the near future. Right now its a bit of a mess. Sidenote: there's some bathroom language in at least one NPC dialog which seems totally out of place in a game like this (and most games, if I'm honest).

Three months after 11/11/11 I tried to play Skyrim. I won't repeat the shameful memories of those early days we all know so well. Just over three years later I wanted to give it another shot. I endeavored to mod Oblivion's half-baked successor into playability, to try and achieve an experience on par with Oblivion (or better yet Fallout New Vegas). I'm sorry to report that all the modding in the world can't save this game - well, at least not when its done by a non-programmer like myself. Skyrim simply cannot escape its dumbed down, form-over-function console roots. The hopelessly poor voice acting, ugly Havok engine and tendency to crash at the drop of a **** all still there, waiting to disappoint you profoundly. Considering that each TES title since Daggerfall has been more about pushing the limits of console graphics rather than PC gameplay, I don't even want to think what the next installment will be like. Now we're hearing sickening rumors that the next Fallout may be an MMO. If that comes to pass then any hope for Bethesda's redemption is probably dead. Skyrim was successful for one simple reason: gamers are desperate for *anything* with some actual depth, even if its only the depth of a kiddie pool complete with all the bodily excretions you'd expect. I don't know if its even possible but I would love to see a team of master modders put together a big package of various Skyrim mods that create as much immersion and quality gameplay as possible. I would like to think that with enough talent and hard work this game could be salvaged. As I struggled for well over a hundred of hours of fighting mods and the game's shortcomings I kept seeing little hints of promise glimmering beneath the dull veneer of simplistic gameplay, buggy mechanics and utterly generic story. I wish someone could make Skyrim the game it was hyped as being.

The fact this game could have easily been done on a PSX3 (maybe even the PSX2) says a lot for its lack of tactical depth or content. The fact that its got far too many bugs (I sure *hope* their bugs) for a turn-based game says even more. From what I know of the original, this is at most "XCOM Lite" with five-year old graphics. It feels rushed and I'm afraid that much of the game was held back as DLC - the next few weeks will surely tell. But the single biggest problem is the AI. Even on "easy" its no cakewalk, because the bugs are present regardless of difficulty level. These flaws give the AI ridiculous advantages, such as being able to target you when you can't target it back. I've lost count of the times a squad member was hit by multiple foes and when my turn came to fire I was greeted with "no targets available" - and the enemy hadn't moved an inch. Sometimes enemy grenades come through closed doors, which you can't see or shoot through. I've watched aliens move a full turn, shoot and wound one of my guys, then move another full turn and finish him off. The Floaters are particularly awful with their ability to jet-jump across half the level. Take away it cheats and the AI is still reasonably smart, but that seems due mostly to its omniscient knowledge of the battlefield. All the enemies are pre-placed at mission start, and don't move until you stumble upon them. You won't see them before they see you because there's no "sneak" ability in this remake. Even "overwatch" is a tactically kind of pointless because enemies can see everything at all times. In fact, there's virtually no tactical abilities to speak of beyond minor defense and offense buffs that would be more at home in World of Warcraft than XCOM. Even certain gear has been rendered pointless, like frag grenades, which only rob you of valuable salvage and do no more damage to most enemies than a weapon crit. You can only carry one anyway. Your characters have an incredibly limited gear loadout..I didn't play the original XCOM but surely you could have more than one offensive grenade, or a grenade AND some extra armor? There are also various oddities that have an ironic comedy value, like the random audio warnings your troops bellow out. "Their moving to flank!" as the enemy digs in, or "their pulling back" as the enemy rushes towards you - you'll laugh, you'll sigh, you'll reload your game. A lot. And that's another sore point because each time you load a game it takes a little longer than the time before, maxing out for me at around 50 seconds on a fast AMD system with an SSD and 8gb of RAM. The camera in multi-level structures seems to fight you much of the time, constantly jumping between levels for no apparent reason. I've also heard about issues with armor being removed from troops who've just returned to active duty after recovering from wounds. Most of the character dialog is 80's cartoon quality, although sometimes is rises above. The descriptions of the technologies you're researching are actually fairly believable near-future jargon: geeks shouldn't feel compelled to nitpick. I was disappointed in the complete lack of air battle renders, however, since every mission shows them repeatedly. Its also funny to land in Africa and be surrounded by American-looking cars and sort-of-English writing. A bit more variety in models and levels would have been a major immersion builder: I've seen five different environments in two dozen missions. Its not all bad news, though. XCOM succeeds in atmosphere - you can cut the tension with a laser cannon (esp. when you know how easily your people can die). There's real potential in this game, but it needs bugs squashed, more set dressing and a little more depth and a AI rebalancing. I'd definitely wait for the first major patch, which could well fix a lot of what's wrong with this title.

Here's what right with this game: * It doesn't crash. * Most of the voice acting is OK, but not without issues (see below). * It runs pretty well with everything maxed on a system that was considered high-end two years ago. Here's what's wrong with this game: * Everything from plot to mechanical design to you-name-it is a derivative mish-mash of Half-Life II and Bioshock, with a dash of FEAR, Assassin's Creed and even Oblivion tossed in for bad measure. Its painfully hacked together and non-cohesive, like the devs were fighting over which game world they most wanted to copy. Ironically, there are a few legitimately creative strokes tossed in, but their mostly lost in the noise. The backstory is almost painfully contorted to explain the bizarre mix. NOTE: I have only gotten through (I believe) about half of the game so maybe - just maybe - it makes a little more sense later **** I doubt it. * The graphics are about four years out of date. The male faces are hideous, hopefully due to a limitation of the Unreal engine and not artistic intent. Tim Burton wouldn't make men this unattractive, or women this identical. Even the dogs are ugly. * Music, visual design, most of the characterization and plot elements make for a brooding, dark and depressing atmosphere. Seriously, does every game need to go down this road? I know its supposed to be a region gripped by plague, dark mysticism and a totalitarian conspiracy, but..sheesh, enough already! Not every setting needs to be an Orwellian zombie apocalypse. (Yes, Dishonored has zombies. Sigh.) * The voice acting is decent and better than most Bethesda titles, but the R-rated swearing seems out of place in this steampunk world. It definitely hurts immersion. * If you're going to sell a game as having multiple playstyles, then by the Nine you best deliver. Dishonored fails utterly in this regard. Killing is supposed to be optional, but good luck with that effort. First off, there is no way to disable an opponent in combat except by using sleep bolts in your crossbow. Once you've lost the element of surprise you can't choke out a person or dog (yes, I did this to a dog one time but it never gave me the option again). You play the royal bodyguard, one of the best fighters in the land, and you don't know how to knock a guy out? Hell, you've got a flintlock with a huge club-like butt - that's what it was designed for. You can carry ten sleep bolts and there are only a handful scattered through the missions I've played - and some are fairly hard to reach if you didn't put everything into movement powers. You can buy sleep bolts between missions and some missions have vendors who will sell them at an exorbitant fee, but if you rely on them for non-lethal takedowns you will run out eventually. BTW, you can upgrade your carrying capacity for normal bolts to 20. Normal bolts do damage and are an easy button for killing at range, superior to your useless pistol in nearly every situation. In fact, on the hardest difficulty the game presents no real challenge if you simply kill everything you see. But that's the real kicker with Dishonored: the game makes murder a cinch and then punishes you for killing. The city gets nastier and the game ending will get "darker" as your body count grows. I might add that anyone who dies during combat with you, be it from falling off a bridge or friendly fire from other NPCS, counts as one of your kills. I'm pretty certain even the dogs count as your kills. * You only see your progress stats when a mission ends (i.e. body count, runes found, etc). * There are some technical problems, at least on my system. The savegame routine is horribly botched and provides no way to identify saves other than which mission and level their from. Worse, it seems that old autosaves are never really deleted and pollute the list when you're trying to load a game. Trying to figure out which save is the one you need is a horrible sort of mini-game and hearkens back to the worst of Bethesda's sloppy programming (although Bethsoft may have nothing to do with the actual game design or coding). Sometimes character voices sound like their coming from the environment Corvo is in rather than the one they actually occupy. You'll be standing just outside the door to a tunnel and the NPC's voice will have no echo, as if he were right beside you. This makes for some confusing positional audio, making the bogus stealth gameplay even more of a joke. To sum it up, this is a game that promises beauty, originality and multiple playstyles and delivers none of those things. Its a pretty stable console port of a mediocre game with confused, misleading design. I'd skip it or at least wait for some serious patches before giving it a go. And another thing: its very obvious there's paid reviewing going on with Dishonored. Don't think we don't notice, Bethesda.