wynams

Age of Wonders (PC) veteran ... playing this (or trying to) on console WAY TOO MANY BUGS MULTIPLAYER UNPLAYABLE (CRASHES EVERY TWO TURNS) SINGLE PLAYER CRASHES A LOT I dunno why but the developer released an expansion before stabilizing the base game. AVOID THIS GAME UNLESS YOU LOVE WASTING MONEY

No coop campaign in an action rpg ... what is this 1985? It's like they just threw together a bunch of random mechanics together and called it a game? The tutorial is very weak (you hit touchpad and read a power point). It does a poor job of explaining anything. I bought this on deep sale and still feel ripped off ... need to remember that no developer is every going to do the Warhammer license justice

If I could give a negative score I would. HEY BETHESDA ... YOUR 15 YEAR OLD WORLD ENGINE NEEDS A RE-WRITE OR JUST LICENSE CRYENGINE. THANKS - ex LONGTIME FAN

Pure garbage ... why? - nonexistant evil path - no direct way to increase character attributes, party covers all skills early on and skill checks are a joke - hence you can do everything everywhere without giving a single thought about your chars and their builds (this is a huge letdown imo) ... and you can respec in the middle of the game? Really? - story and NPC actions/reactions contradict each other too often, NPCs feel lifeless (daily routines and interaction between them is much worse than in Skyrim and the Gothics) - too few towns/settlements, not much live in them (he compared it to all the stories/NPC banter unfolding in front of your eyes when visiting a Skyrim settlement) - tactical battles cumbersome because of the low maximum zoom level, but there are no tactics except for some combo abilities anyway (like: one char freezes an opponent, the other hits him for huge damage bonus) - nearly no planning involved in fights, the most you can expect are fights where you have to kill some conjurer first before you can handle the summoned demon, nearly everything else is mindless button mashing and levelgrinding. (dunno what difficulty lvl he was playing at) - party member deaths are not a problem at all as long as at least one party member survives, they just play dead, you know, after all this is an RPG *larpedylarp* - strategic map nearly without meaningful decisions, just another huge grind - the wilderness/rural areas are full of MMO fetch quests and boring treasure hunts (press button to follow marker or sth like that), side quests in general are subpar - lore is presented in a very unimmersive way through sterile codex menus (I remember that being a problem in DA:O too) - game doesn't reward exploration because you just have to get near something interesting to get codex entries and quest triggers fired, after a while you just ignore the noise - side content dialogues are often badly written (sometimes too silly or just uninteresting)

Pure Bioware junk ... - nonexistant evil path (no real choice and consequences) - no direct way to increase character attributes, party covers all skills early on and skill checks are a joke - hence you can do everything everywhere without giving a single thought about your chars and their builds (this is a huge letdown imo) - story and NPC actions/reactions contradict each other too often, NPCs feel lifeless (daily routines and interaction between them is much worse than in Skyrim and the Gothics) - too few towns/settlements, not much live in them (he compared it to all the stories/NPC banter unfolding in front of your eyes when visiting a Skyrim settlement) - tactical battles cumbersome because of the low maximum zoom level, but there are no tactics except for some combo abilities anyway (like: one char freezes an opponent, the other hits him for huge damage bonus) - nearly no planning involved in fights, the most you can expect are fights where you have to kill some conjurer first before you can handle the summoned demon, nearly everything else is mindless button mashing and levelgrinding. (dunno what difficulty lvl he was playing at) - party member deaths are not a problem at all as long as at least one party member survives, they just play dead, you know, after all this is an RPG *larpedylarp* - strategic map nearly without meaningful decisions, just another huge grind - the wilderness/rural areas are full of MMO fetch quests and **** treasure hunts (press button to follow marker or sth like that), side quests in general are subpar (he didn't mention the stronghold and companion quests, maybe they are an exception?) - lore is presented in a very unimmersive way through sterile codex menus (I remember that being a problem in DA:O too) - game doesn't reward exploration because you just have to get near something interesting to get codex entries and quest triggers fired, after a while you just ignore the noise - side content dialogues are often badly written (sometimes too silly or just uninteresting) - the removal of a healing skill tree for mages really kills combat tactics, kind of moot since the game is incredibly easy even on the hardest of difficulty settings - Underpinnings of new world engine still have signs of classic Bioware flaws ... you can jump up mountains in the Hinterlands, but in town .. you have to FAST TRAVEL IN THE SAME ZONE TO GO UP A FLIGHT OF STAIRS

Garbage ... who makes an MMO where you cannot trade items with your friends? Bungie I guess ... Play Halo 2 instead. Better MP, story. Also the lore cards in Destiny ... to read them ... get this ... you have to look them up in a browser on your computer/tablet/phone. Why this crap wasn't available in game ... your guess = mine

Thief absolutely is a stinker. Rails gameplay, SMALL MAPS, last gen graphics. DO NOT RECOMMEND. BUY DISHONORED FOR LAST GEN, MUCH MUCH MUCH BETTER GAME

With each new chapter in the Elder Scrolls, it has become increasingly polished at the expense of being watered down. TES V is a polished RPG for the masses. Easy to get in to, yet rather un-rewarding to demanding gamers. There is no choice and consequence outside of picking a side in the civil war or becoming/not becoming a vampire and/or werewolf. The story is passable, but much of the content is based on "radiant" or randomly generated content vs monster type to get item from location. While it is a great way to generate nearly endless content, random will always be a less great option than specific structure and purpose. Many bugs exist in the game. You will lose followers, scripted quest events will bug, however, in a game of this scope ... bugs are just few enough to not be a major pain. Magic is terribly underpowered (that or melee is imba) ... the synergy that exists between smithing, enchanting and alchemy is game-breaking (your player will become a god, even on master). Combat is sloppy ... if you have allies, summoned pets, followers etc ... it is nearly impossible to actively contribute to a fight and not inflict friendly fire damage regardless if you are playing a warrior, mage, thief or hybrid. Most quest items have a weight and cannot be dropped (adding to the frustration of what to loot). Graphics look nice, especially the world at large and weather events. The ragdoll physics are a bit over the top. Animations are average ... I always thought this was not Bethesda's strong suit, but they have improved slightly. Music is the biggest plus for me in this game. I do like the perk/skill system although I find it to be another aspect of imbalance. That's about all I have ... Decent game, wildly popular because it looks nice, caters to the masses, some frustrating bugs (that remain in version 1.7), virtually no choice and consequences for the user, excellent game sound track. This review was based on 400 hours I spent with it. While I did finish both sides of the Dawnguard expansion, I have never had the desire to finish the main story. I have several level 40 characters. THANKS for reading!

One of (if not the best) role-playing experiences on any console. The storytelling is excellent and the character has meaningful choices and consequences (moreso than any recent RPG in memory). In fact, the entire 2nd half of the game is different based on a decision you make around the half-way point. The controls take some getting used to, especially combat. However, I found it more in the vein of easy to learn difficult to master than poorly thought out or alien. The M rating is well deserved, and the mature subjects are dropped in just to show TNA, rather are dispersed in all the right places at the right time as you advance the story. The world is not open world, but there are many more exploration options, side quests, etc. than one typically finds in a Bioware game that is not open world. I really enjoyed this game, and recommended it to a friend who returned it in 3 hours. I suspect this is a game with very little middle ground. According to the user score distribution, that holds up. To me, this really felt like a mature Baldurs Gate done in 3D. Graphics are very well done (textures, color palette, animations). Sound is good, but some of the dialog mixes were under mic'd. Controls for the most part become intuitive pretty quickly. The arena is a great place to hone your skills as you consider playing through on Dark (hardcore) mode. Support companies like CDProjektRed! We need more games like this. I know I, for one, will be pre-ordering cyberpunk for xbox 360 as soon as humanly possible. Well-done CDPR!

Was a big fan of XI. XIV is pretty horribad. The UI/Engine are totally gimped because this was written for the PS3 from the ground up. Lag abounds. Vast (beautiful) zones filled with nothing. Few mobs, no NPCs/Dungeons/POIs. Pre-internet level of account management/subscription management Its pretty, and it ****

Major design problems. Case in point, DEF is defense against ALL attacks: ranged, melee and magic (even MoM treated these as 3 different). Also DEF is multiplicative, so the bigger the stack the higher the DEF. This causes huge problems. UI - There is not nearly enough info readily available, counter intuitive, tiny buttons that are hard to click. Crashing - Gamespot, Shacknews and many other professional review sites are holding back their reviews because the game likes to crash every 10 minutes. Don't take my word or theirs for it, go over to the Elemental support forum (1100 bug reports in less than 6 days since release) $50 for a buggy, shallow, crashy indie game is absurd