Not much need be said on BG3. This is a master piece, a game that iterates on the talent Larian showed with Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2. The rules of D&D 5E, improved in many ways by Larian for BG3, did remove some of the bad parts of DoS 2 (loot being useless after a couple of level up, over reliance on surface). This is a fantastic game, well worth playing over and over.
Playing BG1 Enhanced Edition in this days and age, after the release of BG3, is tough. The game Real Time With Pause renders every fight chaotic and boring and lacks the tactical and impactful strategical choice offered by Turn based game (as is the paper RPG), the 2nd edition of Dungeons & Dragons hasn't aged well compared to the much better 5th edition. Turns, Rounds, Hours, no cantrips for mage, characters who can't physically put a weapon in their hand, strict weapon proficiency making every character a bore as it can't use more than a very very specific type of weapon, physical projectiles to shoot if you want to use a projectile weapon (good luck using Crossbows with how rare bolts are). Got a magic short sword but you have dagger proficiency? tough luck, wait for a magic dagger to drop. Hopefully you didn't choose one of the archetype where scarcely any magic item exists. And irrelevant that your archer has shot a couple of stacks of fire arrow, all dropped from the same enemy type, next time a stack drop, they won't know what it is. You'll have to either identify them again, or run in a store and pay 100 gp for someone to do it for you... So how do you enjoy this, not so timeless classic in a modern age? Well for one, once you get around all the clutter, and I'd advise at the very least a save editor such as EE Keeper to allow you to workaround some of it (like the proficiency issues or the identify spell), you can get a lot of lore from all this. Discover the characters that made it to the end, and overall re-discover the sword coast. It's not all leisure and pleasure in 2024, but it sure can be played. Now, as to the remaster itself, it's good enough and serviceable. Much improved if you buy Siege of Dragonspear, as not only does it come with a DLC, it also comes with a revised UI that is way more compatible with our time. I'd sum it up saying this is a game you want to play to discover (or re-discover in my case) the classic between 2 BG3 runs.
Yikes, so many reviews with spoilers. This is sad, and unnecessary. The truth is that Cyberpunk 2077 was already a fantastic game. I'd argue 1.0 was perfectible, but 2.0 was as good as anything I'd ever got from CD Projekt. Fantastic story telling, memorable characters and stories to remember. I still remember stories from The Witcher 1, The Witcher 2, the Witcher 3, of course, but also Thronebreaker which was fantastic in its own term. Master in their arts they are, and CP2077 doesn't disappoint. Phantom Liberty however does so many things better. It's some kind of level up. Side stories are more fleshed out, it's grander than CP2077 OG was. It's very much yet a freaking CDPR game. Made me a Witcher fan, made me a CP2020 fan now. I want to read every book, play the RPG, they took CP2020 and improved it, like they did with The Witcher world universe. Maybe you didn't realize, but Cyberpunk is now legend. Like the Witcher is, elevated from the rank of a little known sapphire to the rank of world known diamond. Music, Character, Graphics, thanks for shaking my bones, CDPR. Keep doing what you do best. Thank you, again!
2.0 delivers everything and more. Top notch graphics, top notch Ray Tracing, fantastic story, great skill set and a lot of choices to do in your character development. Was worth waiting for the DLC to play it the first time!
The first thing that struck me when playing is how fantastic that looks. The art is undeniable and it adds a lot to the ambiance. From there, you're greeted with an interesting story which unravels as you play through "Journeys" : bite sized story averaging a few hours each not rushing. The universe is satisfying, and character progression is fast paced so it never get tedious, which is necessary due to the player "restarting from scratch" at each journey. Similarly to Dishonored, of which this game takes quite a lot from (which is to be expected knowing Wolf Eyes Studio shares much of Arkane's DNA due to being funded by Arkane's former executive producers), there are two main sources of progression, and where it gets interesting is that one source is shared accross all characters, whereas the other is not ; it's also fairly easy to get back the gear lost from a previous character, so this "restarting from scratch" is far from being a totally adequate description. With fantastic art, an interesting & unique universe and a great story, it could have been a home run, but the game is unfortunately let down by its combat, which unfortunately constitutes a big part of it. There are literally two way to approach encounters : Stealth or Combat. Stealth is serviceable but with no real way of one shotting enemies unless knocking them down, it gets old real fast. Combat doesn't fare that much better unfortunately. It's fast paced enough, so will usually be chosen as the fastest way to get things done, but the fact it is real time really does it disfavour. Most of the combat skills you acquire needs Action Point, which are hard to get & deplete fast so most of your skills are useless, and you may well finish a journey without using one you acquired. Eventually, it's just aim & shoot, with no real planning. A turn based combat ala Fallout/Wasteland would have gone a long way to improve that while making those skills shine. That being said, it's still a pleasure to play.
The Riftbreaker is a very impressive mix of genre : Action RPG, tower defense, base building and survival game. All this delivered with stunning and modern isometric graphics. Ray traced shadow and ambient occlusion, stunning colours. It's all there, to the exception of HDR ... which is a shame, but arguably, still a rare thing on PC. For the game itself, it has a great pace, gives you quite the freedom while offering you a campaign, and the game loop is fantastic. Exploration, discovery, research, and a lot of mobs to fight. It's quite literally a frankenstein of Diablo, Total Annihilation, and They are Billions, and it's fantastic and it is on GoG. It's actually everywhere, which is a rare thing that deserves praise. Xbox, PS5, Xbox Game Pass, Steam, EGS, and obviously, the best of it all, GoG. It even has a demo !!! in 2021, a demo. This simply highlights the total confidence the developers have in their product, and I'd say they have every rights to. It's not THE perfect game, the story and protagonist are forgetable (though not bad by any stretch, just nothing to lose sleep over), the game could use a better way than hints to explain you some of its complex mechanics, and some mechanics could be improved. But I honestly have total confidence all of this will be ironed out. What I have now is a game with very few bugs, a finished product at launch, and hours that morph to minutes when I start playing.
Vampyr is a good example of 7/10 game. It's definitely enjoyable, and while playing the game, you regularly spend a good time, but the systems unfortunately gets old and repetitive as you understand what they do. Vampyr is divided in two distinct part : citizens area, where you speak, speak, investigate, speak more, and investigate. It's fully voiced over and there is a real enjoyment in getting to know everyone, at least for the first couple of areas (there are 4 citizens area). The goal is the same for each of those areas : get to know everyone, but that's where the system starts showing weakness. You get to know everyone there but nothing happens. You get investigations from them but they reward very little, and they often revolve around the same idea anyway (get there, kill stuff, find something, come back). The reward is poor because the game revolves around one idea : you are rewarded from "embracing citizens" which gives you XP. Talking to them and investigate helps acquiring hints that improve how much you know them and improve said reward. But the whole point is to breed them so they give you more XP, while tying the good endings to you not eating anyone. The second part of the game is travel between citizen areas. They are fight infested areas you simply travel back and forth from, with no fast travel. The combat is agreeable and enjoyable. It's no Dark Souls, but it does the job well enough, and there is not enough XP to get all the skills, so you are encouraged to make builds. You get a bit of XP from these fights, but unless you feed on citizens, you are always underlevelled, which makes the combat more difficult (funnier too imo). The problem with that bit is simply that it gets very repititive. Boss fights are decently made. Long story short ? Nothing is perfect in that game, it's not a 5 stars game for sure, but it sure is enjoyable, it's well made, A for effort.
I remember reading reviews of this game and wishing it. Then, it got added to Origin Access and it was the perfect opportunity to try it. The first hour or two, it was pretty underwhelming. Acting was very good, but the gameplay could be summarized by uninspired stealth and beautiful setting. Luckily, I kept going past this, and what I found was a truly unique game in a truly unique setting with a strong story telling. It's all children and older teen there, and their story is both dark and beautiful. It's a true story of brotherhood, and the main protagonists grow on you quickly. It never becomes perfect, as few games ever do, and the game can rely on unique mechanics as much as it can rely on boring ones, but the developers managed to get the rythm just right so it never gets too repetitive. Your skillset enriches itself as the game goes on, and whereas your option are severely limited in the first few hours, they are plentiful by the end. It never ceases to be a story game though, in the sense that the gameplay compliments the story rather than the opposite. If you don't fancy the story, the gameplay has little chance to grow on you. It is, for all story lovers, a masterpiece. A must have. If it's not your thing though, if you skip cutscenes and ignore dialogues, this is probably not for you.
I bought Thronebreaker knowing I liked Gwent enough to play a game about Gwent, but also knowing I'm not a card game's addict. But to be entirely honest, I played Thronebreaker because it was a CDPR game, and the great studio behind my favourite games deserved, no matter what, my money. It took me some time before I decided to launch the game, simply because, like any other modern gamers, my game library is a bit overflowing, and oddly enough, I tend to procrastinate the games I know I'll like a lot. Wait for the right time, the right mindset, etc. It took less than 10 minutes to get back all those feelings The Witcher serie gave me. Fantastic music, superb ambiance and a setting which, despite being Fantasy, looked more real that most games. From there, just keep going. The story guides you, the storytelling is great, your choices are dark and difficult, and the game describes it the best way it could each time you're making one : "You've chosen one evil over another one". And I don't think anything could summarize it better than that. It's a human tale, first and foremost, a tale of mistakes and evil, a tale of war and companionship. A grey tale. Like before in the Witcher games, nothing is black or white, none of your choice are good and more often than not, you choose what feels like the lesser evil to you, never knowing if that choice was indeed the lesser evil, and often regretting it as you find out about its consequence. Gwent wise, the game has a smart way to use Gwent to make everything feels fresh. Most battles are only one round (2 rounds may have been too much), there are some smart and fun puzzle, you unlock themed cards as you go. It feels good playing Gwent this way. If there was only one little flaw I could list, it would be the fact your tactical choices matter little. You can't lose a battle (well, you can but you just restart the battle), so some of those choices between fight and flee are often redundant.
