Recente recensies door Chabs

Worth it at a discount.

Storymode is pure CoD galore. It's an action packed, carefully crafted, 6 to 8 hours ride.
There's nothing groundbreaking, it's just dumb old "fun", with a few hard-hitting set-pieces. The story is obviously your typical America World Police, but hey that's CoD, what do you expect.

The multiplayer, as of when this was posted (28/11/2023), is still live and alive. No issue finding people to play with (Europe region).
You might have some trouble finding people for some game modes, but the rest is ok.

As a whole, the game runs well and looks great doing it.
One pain point is the sheer size of the beast, which is frankly unjustifiable... Note that you can uninstall some of it's components (Multiplayer, Story or Coop).

It seems a bit silly to leave a review for something that's so obviously an all-time GOAT, but this game was so fundamental to my appreciation for video games that I just had to.
Cheers to a game from a time when passion prevailed over pure economic interests.

Just like the old days, but HD.

It's hard for me to come up with any negative criticism of this remaster.
It's smooth, captures the original exceptionally well, and is just plain old fun!

I don't know how I used to grind the crap out of it with a keyboard back in the day, but I strongly advise you use a controller!

Starfield has the makings of a great game, but remains utterly mediocre.

Like Ubisoft, which has slowly but surely turned its games into some kind of formulaic slop, Bethesda has done the same, and lost whatever goodwill it had in the process.

Their past games were rich, genre-defining and a fountain of entertainment. They had their flaws, sure, but they stood well enough on their own. Mods only enhanced the basic offering.
Then came Skyrim, a good game but one that took a number of narrative shortcuts and step backs in the process. Then Fallout 4, which took even MORE shortcuts but kept the environmental storytelling and exploration strong. And finally... Starfield, the subject of this review.

It's got most good things: a credible backdrop, the foundations of a story, superb assets... In short, a pretty solid universe, as wide as an ocean.

But this universe is as deep as a puddle. Once you get to the heart of the matter, you start to realize how superficial the whole thing is. The writing in this game, the centerpiece of any RPG, is abysmal.
The main story is some doo-doo level narration. Uninspired, lacklustre, slop.
Environmental storytelling? Some set-pieces here and there, for a few stories, but the game hinges on procedural generation that just voids this notion almost completely. The game world had frankly no business being that big either, making exploration an unrewarding chore.

Now look, I know what you might be saying... "You don't recommend it, yet you spent 200+ hours playing it. Can't be that bad?".
And that's true, it's not that bad. The shooting is kind of alright, albeit very watered down. Weapons and arms never felt heavier tho. Ships look hot, and are somewhat fun to design. Some missions, albeit a very small minority, were a blast.

This review is built atop my expectations, my utter disappointment and years of experience playing Bethesda games and other RPGs.
The game is pretty easy to get lost in. When you pick it up, you could spend hours playing. They designed it pretty well.
But it's also a glaring symptom of an industry far more concerned with profit margins than creating a quality product. It's nearly all hype building, marketing gimmicks and taking advantage of years of your trust to make a quick buck.

Long story short: No, I do not recommend Starfield.

A staple of VR.
Can be a bit janky at times, but has a solid foundation.

Only thing that I don't really like about it is its dated source engine looks, and it's pretty lackluster storyline. Level design can sometimes be cool, but is overall uninspired. Still worth playing.

A VR game combining Boneworks and Alyx's best aspects would be a match made in heaven.

Fun gameplay with a decent-ish amount of variety, but with a number of dated and/or frustrating (even for the time) mechanics.

There's a number of things I really dislike about the game, but inventory management and traversal take the cake.
There's a ton of items to pick up, a lot maybe very useless but it's not rare not to know whether they are or not. Your carry weight is greatly restrictive too...
And to top it off, fast travel can be a bit of a chore if you don't have the right items. You'll be running around for the most part, with LIMITED STAMINA, and have to set up fast travel points if you want to help speed up your future travels. But you get limited items to set up travel points. I do appreciate the DIY approach, but it can get very infuriating...

Anyway, latching onto big beasts and bashing their skulls in is really fun, but I find it to be a tedious experience in between fights. Hopefully #2 will learn a few lessons.

I jumped into DMC5 because the reviews all praise the game, and the screen grabs + videos looked appealing enough. But man, this game really isn't for me...

I tried real hard to like it, but quite frankly, the gameplay loop, the story, the characters actively tried to pull me out of it.

First, the gameplay loop. It's pretty much a mashathon. Nothing wrong with that, plenty of fun games do the same. But honestly, DMC5 felt flat to me, monotonous, uninspired. There's a bunch of moves, different characters, but I never quite felt entertained by it all. No style, no substance in my view.
The maps are also really boring-looking. Like, the setting's cool: a post-apocalyptic London lookalike. But gosh they managed to turn that into the most boring of maps.

Second, the story. All I gotta say is, some Japanese games hit, and some just don't. I get that this is a fifth entry of a franchise spanning years and uhhh... They really just drop you in like it's a direct sequel. I couldn't connect with any of it. The flow's messed up, no build up or anything. You're basically going from one linear map to the next, and there's cut scenes in-between of cool over-exaggerated action shots, but they just don't hit. And look, I played Yakuza, I've seen some crazy ♥♥♥♥, but at least Yakuza hits HARD.

Lastly, the characters. This one goes hand in hand with the "story" portion I mentioned above. There's just no redeeming quality in my view. It's either you like edgy over-the-top caricatures of human beings, or you don't. And I don't.
Honestly, I don't like anyone here, especially that woman with the fakest of southern accents I've ever heard. Why bother? I swear, if she just used her normal voice, she could've been more likeable. But even then, the writing remains trash.
All characters are like a sort of caricature of what they're supposed to symbolize.

Now look, the game looks great (despite the color filter being a bit doodoo IMO), plays great with no performance hitches, and the gameplay is more or less sound.
Ultimately, there is a solid-ish foundation. It wouldn't be the success it seems to be otherwise. But it just doesn't vibe with me at all. So that's why I did not recommend it. If you're unsure whether or not this is for you, I urge you to watch more gameplay videos, get a more critical opinion from people who rated it badly and see why.

Coming from Vampire Survivors (VS), I can't help but compare these two games.

If you don't know about VS, I should probably start by saying that these games belong to a re-surging genre: bullet hell games. They're meant to be non-stop fast-paced shoot 'em up action, the kind where your screen ends up overflowing with sprites and effects.
These games used to be no-brainers, but these latest iterations require a bit more thought as more depth was added through leveling and upgrade trees.

Halls of Torment (HoT) is very similar to VS: You are roaming in an infinite map, having to fend off near endless waves of enemies for a strictly set amount of time. The longer you survive, the harder it gets, but the more powerful you get.

How you survive however is different. Unlike VS, moving and aiming are two separate actions, which drastically changes the gameplay.
Leveling primarely upgrades your stats, and items are less present. If you've played VS, you know the wealth of options there are... But more may be on the way for HoT as it currently is in Early Access.

HoT also seems to have a more "mature" theme, looking more like early Diablo. It's very dark and gloomy. But it feels a bit lacking compared to VS.
Again, HoT is in Early Access, so these are things that stand to be improved over time.

For now, the game may not be as addictive as VS, it may not have all its bells and whistles, but it is perfectly functional and enjoyable.

I've been getting into these immersive mystery walking simulators lately, and I gotta say Oxenfree hits the spot quite well!

One thing that immediately makes this game stand out is its solid voice acting.
For a game that's centred around listening and talking, this could've very easily been a deal-breaker.

If you like these kinds of games, go for it.

I saw a couple reviews mention how it's like a flash game from the olden days. And that comparison is very apt.
It's got that distinct style those games used to have, like they were running on a very tight resource budget so all assets (UI, textures and so on) had to be simplified to the max.

Beyond that, I don't know... The game just doesn't really trigger my fun receptors as much as other games of this type do.
It's too bare-bones for my taste.

I still appreciate it for what it is tho. It's functional, it's got some amount of depth. But my brain's so accustomed to bells and whistles that I just can't vibe with Brotato very much.