Cyberpunk 2077 has had a rocky start. No denying it. Patches have come and gone. So have disappointments. I can't speak for how it was earlier, only how it is now. And brother, it's good! THE GOOD: - Combat: Fun, fast paced, chaotic. All of that and more. There are so many options on how to approach combat in Cyberpunk. Hacking, stealth, shooting, all play a part. It's easy to switch between the different aspects. - Dialogue/Story: Absolutely magnificent. CDPR have really put a lot of effort into this. From the various fixers to V to random citizens of Night City. The chrome auto-translator from a different language into something you can understand (in my case, English) is sublime work. It really brings the whole experience up another level. - Weapons: From swords to monowires to powerful rifles and handguns. So many different weapons to choose from, all with their different perks and special abilites. Options are good and I feel there's plenty of them to pick from. - Hacking: Not to everyone's liking but I found it quite enjoyable. Also an easy way to earn money once you put some points into it. It can help out in combat or before combat. Thinning the ranks before engaging or turning hardware (turrets, mines, etc.) to your side. - Jobs/Gigs: There's always something to do. Always something to collect. Always somewhere to explore. You'll never lack for things to do. THE BAD: There are certain issues that creep up every now and then that need to be addressed. By no means game-breaking but certainly annoying in their own right. - Unarmed combat: Occasionally it will just stop working. When you press a button to punch, the hands just come up and down. Reload fixes it, but it's still annoying. - Driving: It's finicky at best. Cars feel like they're driving on soap. - Certain interactable buttons not working or doors not opening. Again, reload fixes it. Still annoying. I had a fun time in this game. A solid 8/10 experience. Recommended buy.
... simulation of the average day of an Australian. I jest. This game is actually really solid. Controls are crisp and easy to learn. Combat is fun and can be deadly if you don't watch your back. There's massive amounts of stuff to do. Everything from racing to upgrading strongholds to clearing out some subterranean dwellings all over the map. Story is kinda so so but it's Mad Max so it's sort of half expected. Absolutely worth a buy. You won't regret it.
I've played the original X-Com games on my very first computer, a 386 33 MHz. I enjoyed kicking alien butt but also get it kicked in return oh so many times before I figured out what I was doing wrong. Then came Terror from the Deep and that was a whole other ball game. The remastered versions of XCOM are nothing short of brilliant. Having clocked in over 1000hrs in the original and some 600 hrs combined in the remastered versions, I have never before enjoyed a game of tactical strategy such as these. XCOM2 is difficult but fair. There's always going to be that one shot that makes or breaks a certain situation. That's just how XCOM is. With the add-on of War of the Chosen it adds another random element in the mix. Powerful alien commanders that will do everything in their power to stop you. Killing them is worth it for the weapons alone. Shen's Last Gift and Alien Rulers add both utility, an extra character and a multitude of weapons you can get. A few extra areas with their own set of challenges too. Gameplay is simple and easy to get into. Upgrades levels the playing field and are pretty decent. Graphics are pretty good and music is immersive. Best part? Game is moddable. Don't like the way a certain weapon behaves? Change it. Want more enemies per mission? Change that too. Think weapon mods are a joke? Improve them. There's absolutely no right or wrong. Play the game the way YOU want. That's XCOM's greatest strength and I cannot recommend it enough. It's a great game for absolutely no money at all that will bring you hours upon hours of entertainment. 10/10.
When I first heard about a remake to Master of Orion, I was stoked! I loved the original games (not the third. That one we don't talk about. Ever.) and I can't tell how many hundreds of hours I spent in them. Master of Orion 2, especially. Then I saw you could pre-order a new Master of Orion and I saw that it was in Early Access and you could help shape how the new game could be. An interesting prospect for sure, I thought. I bought it, tried it and that's when things started getting weird. At first, the game was rather interesting. It was fairly balanced but it could do with more polish. Missiles were rather overpowered and you could make mincemeat of anything you came across. That was adjusted down to a more manageable level. No longer was it a race to whomever built the largest ship and filled it with missiles won. Development phases came and went and changes were implemented. At first, the Devs were kind of active and wanted feedback, then it all suddenly stopped. The more the game changed, the less fun it became to play. Feedback is seemingly ignored. The more you go over the game, the more you see what a polished turd it really is. The tech tree is a cramped thing of horror. They basically took the Civilization tree and tried adding all the tech Master of Orion has to offer, just packed it in there, and left it as is. Then changed tech around that makes no sense (Mauler Devices in Planetoid Construction? Really?). You have ship computers switched around in the tech tree. A stronger, more powerful one is researched earlier than a less powerful one. Same thing with hull plating. This whole game is filled with small things that should've been fixed easily a long time ago. This is not a worthy remake of Master of Orion. It's a ... hell, I don' t know. It's SOMETHING. Certainly not Master of Orion, in any case. You want the full Master of Orion experience? Play the first or second game. Stay far, FAR away from this one.
Pros: - Voice acting for the various contacts and mercenaries. The Pseudo-Swedish one of them has is brilliant. - Graphics are pretty good. - Ships feel different depending on which one you pilot. - Plenty of stuff to do. I cleared out a whole bunch of missions only to find loads more to do. - Music is great! Reminds me a lot of the intro to Sons of Anarchy. Cons: - You're stuck on the horisontal plane. This is mind boggling to me. So much space all around and you can only move on the X-axis. - Camera. I've yet to find a way to change how far/near I want to see my ship. Right now, it's all up in my face and it makes it hard to see stuff all around. - Combat difficulty can be either punishingly hard or laughable easy. there's really no curve to it. It has me scratching my head when I encounter the same enemies in the same space after dying, only to find out that they're much less of a threat this time around. - Ship combat is, well, boring. It's dumbed down and I attribute this to you being stuck on the horisontal plane. It could easily have been so much better. I can only hope this will be added later to the game. All in all, it's a pretty decent game. It's easy to get into, has great controller support and pretty decent gameplay. It's not without its flaws but if you can overlook them the gameplay will suck you in and keep you occupied for hours to come. There's nothing like a smuggling run of cola (yes, some systems/stations have banned cola. The nerve!) and earn bucket loads of credits. Final score: 7/10. It's good but it can be so much better. Time will tell what the devs have in store for us. If anything, pick it up for the great music.
