Recent reviews by Dicedead

I did not expect this game to be this good! It gives the same sense of actually doing something cool, with car physics similar to Rocket League's and weapon mechanics on point, not too demanding nor helping you too much.

Level design is super fun, cleverly utilising the groundwork laid by the physics. Three-starring each level is actually quite tricky, you're quickly forced to delve deeper into the details of the physics. Examples: unlike in Rocket League, you cannot go faster by holding down boost once you reach supersonic. Also, getting hit by a missile can have its perks :)

Since this is a question I've frequently seen on Twitter: this game will make you better at Rocket League essentially as much as training on some aerial control workshop map would, given you try and speedrun your way in each level.

I really hope people find this game as entertaining as I do so it can grow. An obvious welcome addition: level editor + workshop maps, though this needs a strong community first. Another obvious welcome addition: multiplayer in some way: races, battles... Both are quite ambitious though, so I like that the dev is pushing speedrunning first, which is, after all, the natural thing to do in this game. Another fun minigame that could be added is some kinda survival challenge, as in: you're put in an arena where everything wants to destroy your car and you just survive for as long as possible.

Everybody with a sane mind says it, it's not what the players want: the patches are atrocious. Mid to late June, they started buffing guns and reducing hp and armor. The TTK is now ridiculous, barely shorter than a regular FPS; until you can get enough shards to forge yourself a golden armor, you're in the red. Worse: the abilities have been nerfed which annihilates the 'class' aspect of 'class based battle royale'.
It's pretty sad, as Hi Rez started out beautifully, fixing hitboxes, making correct armor / dmg adjustments... The last 2 patches (21st and 31st of July) are steps in the right direction too. I'll consider reinstalling if other patches like these follow up, but for now, I'm not spending any time on an unfinished bloom shooter.

Nevermind the car, the banners and the flags. They're alright I guess.

Sell your Hellfire asap. This explosion is the new deal.

Thumper is the kind of game I come back to for an hour or two every once and a while. The controls are pretty intuitive, so you can jump in and out with ease. It's one of these 'easy to learn, hard to master' games, at least starting level 4, which separates the casual player, who just wants to complete the game, from the dedicated one who's going for that rank S, taking many more risks.

I saw many comments about the rhythm being off tempo. For some reason, there are som off beat sections in the first two levels, but none in the later stages. When it feels off tempo, it's either because of the rhythm itself that's weird - as in unconventional for non musician ears, or, most likely, because of you, playing just slightly inaccurately. The margin of error reduces with time, of course, as the tempo gets faster and faster, and the rhythms more intricate.
For instance, at the start of level 5, the game teaches you a new 'mechanic': some sections you'll have to play perfectly or else you'll lose a life (you have 2 per checkpoint). Except it doesn't say anything on screen. All it shows you is an iron gate and the usual blue dots on your way. You'll almost for sure miss the last part of the rhythm at least on your first try: the iron gate will come and zap you.

That's one aspect I particularly like about the game: it doesn't want to help you. Tbf, if you're not going for max score, the game is pretty easy anyway, and if you're taking the time to endure the fails of perfect turns and sequences, trying to get that S, you don't need much help.

Other than that, the soundtrack is obviously fire. Wish the downloadable additional soundtrack had the alternate versions of the tracks but it's great as it is anyway. The visuals are actually immersive: you get lost in this infinite universe of red, green and yellow. There was this one moment when everything turned green I actually got chills from the visuals alone, and I'm only level 5.

So far so good, but it is missing some key elements.
~No multiplayer nor workshop. Everybody's asking for these two. Make it happen. Custom maps, custom tracks, multiplayer gamemodes (like 1v1 survival with some special powerups that refill with your score, for example).
~No 'endless' mode. Procedurally generated, with selectable stable difficulties or evolutive ones. Every game like this one needs that.
~Customization, because why not.
~Mutators (+ or - speed, blinded/half blinded [thinking of brutal mode in Guitar Hero], no sound...).

I bought the game for $5 or $10, and I don't regret it. 20 euros seems pricey for a single player game, and although the graphics and audio explain the cost, I can definitely see people rebuked by the price.

Thanks for reading!

I've only 40 mins of total playtime by the time I post this review, but I played it fully on a friend's acc and watched jeriicho's playthrough in its entirety. Will try to make it short and free of spoilers.

As you've probably figured out, this isn't just a dating sim. Your first 5 to 7 hour playthrough will have you stuck to your seat, especially when everything starts collapsing and crashing. The 'strictly' dating sim part of it can seem quite dull, maybe boring as you don't have that many choices to make, or hilarious if you take it lightly. Depends of you really. The... rest is undeniably breathtaking. Before your second playthrough/watching someone's stream, I would recommend reading or watching videos about the hidden purpose of the game. This would help you enjoying the script a lot better, even if you'll eventually get most the references to the later stages of the story and fourth wall breaks. You can change your playing experience everytime you play, in many different ways. The game basically tells you how during your first playthrough.

Some might regard this as another anime visual novel, which I believe is true to a certain extent, but the game offers so much more.. for literally 0 euros. I'd say download it, if it goes well, good for you, if it's bad, you've only wasted a couple hours.

PS: I've actually never 'played' a visual novel before except for Late Shift - another great game, not as enjoyable though. Someone might've told me about Yandere Simulator, but that's all I know about it: its name.

PS2: Read everything. Including the poems. Very, very closely.

PS3: Ehehe.

Engare is a wonderful 2D and 3D drawing tool. The game/puzzle side of it introduces you to all the mechanics and combinations you should know before becoming the artist yourself. Even the soundtrack is pretty litty.

The only downside is that you cannot use colors at all. I reckon it would mess up 3D modelling. Very forgivable, though.

In short, this is a dirt cheap pretty sweet movie that you can watch whatever way you like.

Now for the long version.
First of, in case you were wondering: yes, this game is very interactive, about 80% of the important decisions are yours to make, and there are a lot - about 60 per playthrough. What is a bit of a bummer, though, is that some decisions just waste your time as the game will oblige you to do that particular thing anyway, despite all your efforts. Also, that's still 20% of critical action you cannot choose for. I suppose it would have made the game way too complex and detailled if you could decide every single thing so I guess that's fine after all.

Secondly, the story. Now, I don't want to spoil you, but there are many events that -seemingly- happen out of nowhere. Matt, the main character, is a maths student, unless I got everything wrong, and the whole movie is based around mathematics. Random variables are thrown every now and then, often resulting in complete plot twists, making it rather intricate. I personally like that, as you are confronted to many situations you'll have to find a way to safely get out from, but you're usually still in control of what's happening to Matt.

Thirdly, the characters - still an important point of the game/movie. Tbh, the only one that is truly developped is Matt, as, obviously, you decide much of his personnality, and you can make him a bipolar, a coward, a badass, anything you want. You have to know some choices will deceive you and make him say stuff you didn't necessarily want him to let out, nothing major though, I hope. The others are pretty cliche but are still able to make you feel hatred, compassion, etc. to a certain extent. Decent I guess.

Before continuing with less important subjects, I want to talk about my experience so far, after 2 hours and a half of playing. As I've already said - I think? -, I've completed the game twice: first one was 'sit and enjoy', just honestly and abruptly played it. I did not get an excellent ending, I fear. Not the worst one out of the 7, but most likely not in top 3 either. Got to meet most the characters though. It essentially became sort of a romance in which Matt is trying to save the beautiful princess, ended pretty badly - not exactly like you would expect tho. It was all in context, not too bad on the story side, a good run I would say. Second game, I wanted to just tell the police, be the coward of the century, see what happens. Different events happened, but it all summed up in this one thing again: save Zelda. And although I try to make things go another way, I'm lead to pretty much the same ending as the first time but in a different context and a little twist - still counted as the same ending though. The story was trash, all the info I patiently collected in the first run was thrown at my face anyway, the love connection between Matt and the other protagonist had no fundament - but I can't complain at all, that's pretty much what I wanted to happen; took choices, have to endure the consequences. The game made me understand it's not gonna be how I want it to be, you can't outsmart it, or I guess you can but it's quite difficult.

However, I see now how things could have gone differently. Taking risks I didn't dare to take, making a certain deal instead of rejecting it, trusting a person instead of trusting myself, etc. And this is where the narrative genius of this movie/game lies: you want to see "what if? What happens if I don't do that? What are the other endings?"
I'll play this game again, very soon. Will keep you updated how it goes.

Now last and least, the execution, and by that I mean:
-The realisation. Nice and well thought camera angles; didn't catch anything too artsy but it maintained things tight - not a movie critique though so...
-The acting. Not too shabby either. I'm not an expert but I feel most actors here are doing their job excellently.
-The music. The chillz bro.
-The technical side of things. I had 2 crashes during the second playthrough. Nothing too crazy, had to restart 5 mins before the event, still frustrating though. Apart from that, the montage isn't always perfect: you can clearly see most of the cuts, but I guess that with all the consequences possible, this is acceptable.

In conclusion, this is by no means perfect. Just like Matt, the devs have created not the perfect work of art, but what felt like the right thing for them. They've questionned how one's consciousness and subconsciousness work in pair to get to a solution: a word, an action - that is, if you play the game spontaneously. Trying to get the best ending isn't bad either, in fact, you'll get to realize that a- you can't master everything, especially others' thoughts b- you gotta deal with it and do your best juggling between everyone. Now, I say that, but I have no idea what that good ending is, so, again, will keep you updated.
To wrap things up, I strongly encourage you to play this game yourself. I mean, cmon, it's less than 15 euros for 8 to 9 hours of replayability. I get that this is not everyone's type of game, yes, I'm talking to you, CoD fan - says the Rocket League gold 3 lmao - as there's no proper action by the player, no QTEs or stuff like that, but this is definitely a great movie.

Maserati anyone?

UPDATE: Just finished the game for a third game. I'm part of the Kool Klan bois, got the best ending. It was mostly a tale of trust, logical and all, although there were some annoying seemingly unimportant choices that were critical after all. Do they emulate the level of trust needed in a relationship? Maybe between 2 algorithms or animals but not between 2 humans. Guess it would be too easy if the game would give you room for error. You can reset a chapter anytime you want anyway.
I realize now that I've been incredibly stupid at a particular moment where I picked the wrong choice twice - didn't quite understand what was going on. That alone changed my fate: wrong choice -> 1 bad ending. Good choice -> 1 okay ending, and the best one among the 7. Shows how critical decisions, especially in the late game, are.
So yeah, nothing much to add. Perhaps one bad point is that the game crashed twice again, so I had to replay the third chapter twice. Worked fine afterwards.

Burnout is one of my main childhood PS2 racing series, along with Need For Speed, Gran Turismo, Test Drive (loved TD Unlimited), (the also excellent) Midnight Club ... Played 3: Takedown, Revenge, Dominator and Crash. Needless to say I was a big fan. I still have some nostalgic moments when I remember my races against my cousin in B3. It was pretty much a ritual for us. In fact, Burnout is a great series, but again, that was back when EA produced great games, before it turns into E...S. Big ups to Criterion games for their decade of successful Burnout games.

Back to the topic. Paradise is focused on pure driving and racing. It is a very chilled down sandbox which you can stop playing for a year then come back to like nothing happened, as there's no story, only a ton of 'events' (120). You can take part of most of them any moment you like, just get to a red light, press two buttons and go. The more events you win, the higher graded your driver's licence, the more cars you'll obtain and, obviously, the harder the events get.
Aside from those, the singleplayer game offers you superjumps, shortcuts to discover, billboards to crash, rides to collect, landmarks to find and most importantly, 'showtimes' and 'Road Rules'.
Showtimes are crashing moments. You just throw your vehicle into a bunch of other vehicles and make the biggest chaos possible.
Road Rules are divided in two parts. In Time Road Rules, beat the set record of time taken to run through some route to become the Time Road Ruler. Same thing in Showtime Road Rules, except this time it's about creating chaos rather than racing. If you get both Time Road Ruler and Showtime Road Ruler titles for a same route, you become Road Ruler of this route.
There's an online daily version of Road Rules. I honestly forgot weither you're in competition against all the players or only your friends.
The online multiplayer is basically a free roaming permanent deathmatch in which long timers have a clear advantage against beginners as they can bring in their super powered cars.

The overall gameplay is easy, very arcade, unlike Revenge which I remember was pretty hard most times. The graphics are okay, actually good to very good for a 2008 game. No bugs, crashes or any other sort of technical difficulties experienced, which is something that not many games can claim to have. Even MGSV:TPP has super long loading screens. What's that? MGSV is on a whole other level? Yeah, but I have to talk about it in every single review I make so this was its mention. (That game's so damn awesome.)

However, and despite the rich content for a Burnout, it still is lacking in some way.
Maybe it is because of the map, that isn't small, but not yet big enough. It's the size of the southern half of GTAV Los Santos or the half of NFS Carbon's map - another great frickin EA game, easily my favorite NFS. On top of that, all the races only have 8 possible destinations, so the last part of every race usually feels repetitive.
Maybe it is because of the removal some really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crazy but fun game modes and mechanics that were in previous Burnout games, mostly In Revenge, my favorite of the series, where you could, for example, throw cars at the face of your opponents.
Maybe it is because of the too easy gameplay. The cars were way more unrealistically uncontrollable in Crash and Dominator, but it was so much fun anyway. The tactical aspect of showtime crashing from Crash wasn't present either. I remember I had to plan and time every movement in that game.
Maybe it is because of the lack of career. I'm not asking for a story, only some kind of progression like we had in Revenge and Dominator, with multiple event objectives, etc.
Finally, maybe it is because of the multiplayer which is just... well, destroying your opponents. Sure, that's cool, but this ain't GTA4 (wink wink, the good ol times).

In conclusion, Paradise is an open world minimized mixture of everything previous and future Burnouts had and will have gotten. The Road Rules mode is, imo, its main strength. I cannot recommend this game for 20$, so I'd say grab it when it's on sale: the racing, destroying, crashing, repeat is woth a few bucks.

Peace!

Best. Puzzle game. Ever. Should we even restrict it to its rank of "puzzle game"?
Play Portal and read the transition comic before playing this game though.

People say Undertale makes you feel 'things', well, Portal is an emotive-lift.
I'll slow clap at your face in disappointment if you don't press that green button up there in the next 10 seconds.
Peace.

UPDATE BELOW

Firstly, I want to say that I played Far Cry 4 (console) before Far Cry 3, so I might be biased on some points, and I'll probably compare the two a lot.

I'll just start with the cons so they're out of the way. I'll try to put them in descending order of importance.
The graphics. Yes, I know, the game was released in 2012, but you can find a lot of older better looking games, including Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed II. I'm trying to enjoy Rook Island as much as Kyrat - which by the way I instantly fell in love with - but I simply can't, even on very high ('ultra') quality.
The stealth. You just can't get past your enemies unnoticed, and it's very hard to conquer an outpost undetected (unless you boringly snipe 'em, duh), even with many special takedowns and other 'Skills' demanding moves. Good thing they fixed this issue in the FC4 where the stealth's pretty enjoyable: I would hunt the bastards with my trusty bow.
The environment. I feel the world's lacking infrastructures, or maybe I just got too used to Kyrat's random houses, bridges, huts, guard posts, etc. everywhere. Also, and again, this is my personal opinion, I'm not feeling this setting in a tropical island, as it's kinda cliché. Glad they changed that.

Now let's list the pros in ascending order.
The story (no spoil). It's not MGSV nor Uncharted - the ones with even numbers, please, alright? - but it's not as redundant and predictible as FC4's, oh, not at all. I wonder what happened to the scenarists, seems like they fired them to hire more animators. Not complaining tho. Back to the topic: yeah, sure, it's not high class, and there are 'some characters' you don't really want to see die so soon ('Hey, you said no spoilers'; that's right, never trust no spoil tags, lads) but it does have some twists and turns, and in fact, it is largely helped by its characters which I'll talk about below.
The overall Far Cry gameplay. The towers and outposts, always been a fan of them. However, they don't hold a candle up to their cousins in FC4, where the outposts get a lot bigger than just 2 or 3 houses and the towers trickier - let's just forget about the chopper, okay? Just enjoy the parkour to the top, damn it. The side quests do feel a bit repetitive, especially the knife assassinations which are just annoying as stealthing them is really hard, most times. Again, good thing they changed that in 4.
The atmosphere. The music score, the lighting, the animals, everything is set to keep your senses awake at all times to force you into that mood or 'hunt or be hunted'. I have no problem with that but I still prefer FC4's relaxing moments, you know, hunting pigs with your shotgun while calming arpeggio chords play in the background.
The weapons. Nowhere as diverse and crazy as in FC4, nor customizable as in TC Ghost Rec Wildlands or MGSV, but good enough so every player can get what they want. The Specials are pretty wicked - I was so happy when I got my good ol Shredder from FC4 back fitted with a suppressor for even more awesomeness.
The combat. As much as the stealth's a failure, the combat's a success. It was designed to make us, players, feel badass. Maybe too badass, too OP? But I like that. Just waiting for an enemy to pop out to unleash a rrrrrap salvo at him really feels like 'winning', as Jason (the guy you'll control) says. Will come back to this point in a little bit.
The animals - that I forgot, somehow, and had to add afterward to this review. On land, they're just pure gold. Try this: head for a region rich in goats. You'll always find some dogs or even a tiger guarding the area or hunting and then, you'll get your goats. This always got me at first, then I got used to just sniping 'em from a distance. The sea and air animals are lacking in number, which is something they have corrected, and how, in FC4, where you simply cannot swim without having a fish eat your leg or go up a mountain without an annoying eagle bite your face every now and then. Did I just talk about FC4 being a relaxed, chill-down game? Oh. Well then...
The missions. They don't feel repetitive as FC4's at all. Don't know if it was intentional, but it seems they were put in groups of overall tasks: cave exploring, sniping, rescuing,... Like, you get three missions in a row of the same type, in ascending difficulty. I'm personally up for that.
The characters. I'll try my best not spoiling too much, so I'll only talk about the main protagonist and main antagonist of each game.
I barely remember anything from Sabal and Anita from FC4. Good thing we had (Noore,) Ajay and Pagan and Ajay's mom who had interesting backgrouds and personnalities.
Let's start with Jason for FC3. I'm gonna say it right now, minor spoiler ahead: his personnality evolves as you progress. He gets to a point where he feeds off of murder. You can feel that during combat, he starts to like to kill. That will have... consequences. You'll come to a point where you'll either hate him or love him - shame the game doesn't let you decide how things should go at all. Ajay, in the other hand, remains a cold blooded guy, and that is also something you can somewhat feel in combat, as he trembles less, has a smoother breath... For me, that's one genius move by the devs, adapting the playstyle to the mentality. Gotta admit I prefer Ajay even though Jason is a funnier guy.
Vaas... Vaas is next level. His voice acting is t o p notch. So innocent yet so savage. Pagan is the exact opposite. Calm yet so menacing. I vote for Vaas on this one. Won't say more.*

So, is this game worth it?
Well, if you're still reading, that means you're still sceptical.
Just like any game, it isn't perfect. It has some major throwbacks. The missions are fun tho, and if you don't rush the game too much, you'll surely enjoy it. I think what I did, story-wise, in close to 20 hours could have been done in 5, and the game actually encourages you, at least at the start, to go that fast, but really, I think you should take your time, just like in any other game.

Little note on Far Cry 5, because why not. I just hope it'll take the missions and characters of FC3, only the.. dog off of FC Primal - yes, thanks, that'll be enough - and everything else from FC4 while still adding its own flavor. I am honestly doubtful that it'll be a mind-blowing game, but it'll surely be a great one. Unlike Assassin's Creed Origins which promises to be absolute awesomness, but that's a whole other serie.

Thanks for reading, peace!

*My favorite antagonist will forever be GLaDOS tho. Vaas well deserved his second place.

UPDATE: After finishing the game.
Okay, the story went... better, I suppose. Almost got a heart attack at a point. There's a very innovative section of gameplay you'll surely enjoy as a breath of fresh air. Can't talk more, don't want to spoil you, this time. However, the ending just didn't cut it for me. It's passable, I guess, but I hoped for something less sudden. Well, the game does prepare you a little bit but it's comparable to a randomly thrown anticlimactic ending bridge (very heavy generally instrumental part) in a metal song.
The missions, however got even more interesting, and I got to meet a powerful new ally and to know more about Hoyt - including his face. I like how Hoyt is Vaas' boss yet the main antagonist remains the latter, as Jason wants to defeat Hoyt because of his anger alone, unlike Vaas whose death he lusted for savage revenge.

I'll just leave here 3 of my favorite quotes from the game:
-"BLITZKRIEG!!!".
-"Did I ever tell you the definition of insanity?".
-"Press Q: Bet Life".