Full transparency, I usually play these games on the easiest difficulty possible, if they allow it. I'm usually not very fond of gameplay mechanics that leave the outcome of my actions to random chance so I just prefer to stack the odds in my favor so that I could enjoy the story and get an occasional dopamine hit when my character whacks a goblin with a sword. And in most tabletop-inspired RPGs it works and I can have a great time. For a while, such was the case with Neverwinter Nights 2. I was off on a fun fantasy adventure while meeting new companions along the way who all had their distinct quirks and managed to quickly grow on me. But then my quest took me to a dungeon that was infested with enemies that gave my entire party a series of massive debuffs. This prevented me from doing any damage or running away, as everyone was injured and slowed down. I was essentially soft-locked because I didn't have any other recent save games. That's when I decided to stop playing and never tried it again. Sure, I could try restarting the game with a more optimized character build, go in prepared with some debuff-removing potions, and even try saving the game more often. But after facing such a blunder with this game, I never found a good reason to do so, considering how many other great RPGs are coming out pretty much every year, and I can have a much more rewarding experience with those instead. I was initially drawn to NWN 2 because of my positive experience with KOTOR and the Dragon Age series, as well as other computer RPGs such as Planescape Torment or Fallout. But clearly, this game has proven to be much more complex than those other titles, and I'm simply not patient enough to try and figure it out. If you're the kind of player who excels in this type of gameplay then this will probably read like a glowing review to you. But to me, the only highlight was the writing and the overall vibe of the game. Gameplay - not so much.
First of all, if you're having problems with excessive camera shake when boosting or getting hit, then limiting frame rate to 30 FPS will solve the issue. Aside from that little technical blunder, it's a pretty awesome title from a long series of space shooters and space combat sims with a Star Wars logo on them. I'd even say that it's one of the more underrated games in this vein. To me, it never stopped being very easy to pick up and have fun with. Perhaps it isn't the most memorable Star Wars game (which I mostly blame on bland story and the fact that it's set around the events of The Phantom Menace), but I'm sure that younger Star Wars fans who have bigger appreciation for the prequels might still find this highly enjoyable. I definitely recommend to try it out!
I'm a huge fan of classic Need For Speed speed games from pre-Undergound era, so when this title popped into my radar, I was very much intrigued. What sold me on it were the nice-looking screenshots and generally positive ratings from scant few reviews that were posted here on GoG. However, I feel like those reviews are way overselling this game so I felt it necessary to give a more balanced take on it. The visuals are pretty good. Everything looks crisp and colourful, the cars have a decent damage system. The textures and lighting are pretty sharp and vivid too. There aren't any licensed cars here, only facsimiles that are modelled after numerous real-life brands. I didn't care much about the soundtrack either, as it sounds very mid-2000s, but not in a good way. The game does have a decent variety of racing modes but unfortunately, that doesn't save it from the overwhelming sense of boredom. The one thing that a racing game should do well, at the very least, is to make the driving feel fun, but that wasn't the case here at all. The cars feel very stiff because apparently suspension is not a thing that exists according to the developers, and so it feels more like driving a cardboard box. The camera is also completely static even during sharp corners and crashes, so it only adds to the overall dullness of the game. What really annoyed me, though, was the nonsensical save system. I managed to lose my progress twice before I realised that you actually have to go into the save menu and manually create a save file, even though the first thing you do before even starting the game is to create a driver profile. Why doesn't it just autosave your driver profile instead...? Anyway, this is a very bootleg-feeling racer so beware, and don't expect it to be anywhere near the level of quality and polish to merit such a high rating. If you're really dying to play a racing game in this vein, then you're seriously better off emulating NFS: Hot Pursuit 2 from PS2 instead.
I remember reading about this game in gaming publications back in the early 2000s and I was always intrigued by its premise. Unfortunately, I just didn't have the means to play it since, even at the time, it seemed like a pretty niche title that nobody in my social circle owned or even had a copy of. Now having finally tried it after all those years, I can tell that it could easily become one of my all-time favorites had I played it as a kid. The game has a very immersive, ominous atmosphere that makes my imagination run wild. Sure you can tell that it's old judging by its graphics, but you can't beat that 2D aesthetic that's unique to RTS games from that time. The sprite work is teeming with detail. There are plenty of random corals, air bubbles, and underwater fauna strewn across each map, while every ship and building is rendered in great detail and spiced up with fancy animations. It's just great to look at and the atmosphere is further enhanced with appropriately muffled, underwater sound effects and ambient soundtrack. Gameplay-wise it's not too dissimilar from other RTS of the time, like Starcraft or Command & Conquer. There are some incidental differences when it comes to technology tree and unit balancing or design, but at face value, Submarine Titans plays very similarly to its more famous counterparts, with its base-building, objective-based missions, and three distinct factions to play as. Ergo, if you've ever enjoyed any of those other real-time strategy games that I mentioned, you'll probably have a blast playing this one. The game's one standout feature is its strategic depth. Quite literally, because other than moving your units across a 2D plain, you can also position them vertically at different underwater altitudes, thus providing an additional layer to tactical maneuvers or map traversal. The only thing that I found a bit underwhelming was the story, which is rather minimalistic and lacks any distinct characters like in Starcraft, for example.
Forsaken is one of those games that have been haunting me since childhood. I remember owning it at one point when I was a kid but at the time, I just found it too difficult and confusing so I brushed it off and forgot about it until recently, when I found this remaster. And then I knew, it was time to give it another chance and see if the accumulated skill and experience that I gained over the years will lend itself to a more satisfying adventure. I'm somewhat familiar with this genre, and I suppose you can think of them as SHMUP games translated into a 3D engine because that's definitely how Forsaken feels at times. The only difference is that the level progression is objective-based with plenty of backtracking. Other than that, most of what you'll be doing in this game is blowing up enemy vehicles while dodging bullets. And it's a totally fine premise if you just want to unwind and not think too much about complex storytelling or puzzles. The game controls very smoothly, and the visuals aesthetically look very pleasing. My favorite element is the colorful and dynamic lighting effects that permeate every level. It looks very clean and smooth, and the futuristic setting is probably just something that I have a soft spot for. The combat itself also feels satisfying and fairly challenging. The only thing that, in my opinion, drags this game down is its level design and sometimes obtuse mission objectives. It's pretty easy to get lost in these tight corridors and I sometimes find myself wandering around the areas that I already cleared out in a slim hope that maybe I missed some tiny hidden crevice in the wall that turned out to be the way to progress the level. Now, I'm no level designer, but if it was easier for me to discover secret areas than the actual mission objective, then clearly something went wrong here. Overall, it's a fun but occasionally frustrating game. Probably played best in short bursts rather than long sessions.
Really fun run'n'gun game with very creative visual design and levels that are filled with absurd humor that I love. Pretty inventive for its time with the sniping mechanics and rendering techniques. Even though the running time is short, it's the kind of short where each minute of the game's running time will be filled with creative ideas and lots of explosive action. Each level offers its own unique theme and gimmicks and it helps to make the experience feel consistently fresh and entertaining. Like it says in the title, though, the game is pretty short. No more than 3-4 hours of gameplay if you're good enough and don't get stuck anywhere for too long. Normally I do actually prefer short games that are packed with quality content over the ones that go on for too long and spread themselves too thin. However, in this case, I wouldn't mind if MDK had an extra level or two to leave me completely satiated with the experience. Technically speaking, it does require a bit of messing around to get the game running properly in full HD but luckily, the patches and instructions on how to adjust the resolution and graphics settings are easily accessible. As long as you have a modicum of computer knowledge, you shouldn't have any trouble tweaking the game. What I also appreciated is that the game recognized my Xbox controller without requiring any extra patches, and with just a few minutes of mapping the buttons, I was able to comfortably play this game on my TV.
Far Cry 2 may be a tough sell to a generation of gamers who grew up with the subsequent games in the series. Primarily due to some design decisions that I think were poorly thought out or left unpolished - things such as the relentlessly pursuing enemies whenever you pass by a guard post, or the malaria sickness that you constantly have to manage throughout the game. But speaking as someone who played them all, I still hold this game in very high regard as one of the most interesting entries in the series. The most praiseworthy element of this game is just how much thought went into the design of what is arguably a very immersive experience. If you're the type of gamer who is absolutely sick of current-day Ubisoft game design, where the world map is always covered in a carpet of pointless tasks that are somehow supposed to qualify as meaningful content, then you may be pleased with the fact that Far Cry 2 came out before this homogenized style of open world games became the modern standard. The game features a very minimalistic HUD and the only map screen that you'll see here is the actual map that your character pulls in front of his face whenever you want to get your bearings. This really allows you to stay connected with the game world and similar to games like Morrowind, it lends itself to the sense of immersion when you actually have to use your wits to figure out where you need to go. There are also plenty of other, gameplay gimmicks here that also enhance the sense of immersion, such as jamming weapons, healing animations, buddy system, dynamic weather, and really impressive-looking fire physics. And of course, the incredibly atmospheric and inherently hostile African setting. It is a sandbox game in the truest sense of the word that offers little hand-holding and prioritizes freedom of exploration and tough survival gameplay. Just be prepared for the fact that it may require a bit more patience than your typical modern shooter.
So this is basically Vydija's cave from Succubus repurposed as a cheaply made, unfinished, and extremely brief VR demo. If you're tempted by the prospect of an erotic VR game where you can get your rocks off with the star of Succubus, turn around and get yourself a subscription to Naughty America instead. You'll get better bang for your buck that way, trust me. This game lacks the basic configuration options that any VR game should have, the controls and physics are wonky at best, and there are literal placeholder Unreal Engine cubes scattered around the map which are standing in for assets that weren't even completed before the game was shipped. That's how much effort was put into this thing. But okay, who cares about that when the main attraction that you came here for is all the hot spicy sex, right? Well, not really. Like I said, this game is incredibly cheaply made so the first interaction that I had involved me grabbing some rotting flesh dildo and awkwardly clipping it through Vydija's ass and it was about as arousing as mashing a piece of Plasticine against a picture of a cow. And the puzzles that I had to complete to get to that point were super basic and boring, and you can't even get any fun out of VR interactions because those suck too. Honestly, I'm not against the idea of erotic VR games but if you want that kind of experience on your headset, there are far, FAR better options available out there. I saw that this was banned from Steam but for what reason, I'm not exactly sure. The kind of content that's available here is pretty underwhelming compared to what you could already experience in the main Succubus game so if you thought that you needed to see what kind of sick stuff they've put into this game to get it banned, don't bother because it's nothing that you haven't seen before. I'd sooner believe that it was banned because it's a barely functional and unfinished asset flip.
Yep, it's been 20 years and I can still sit around all day and play Q3DM17 with bots on repeat.
Criticizing things such as humor in a game like this is kind of a tricky thing because it can so easily come off as some sort of a personal insult towards developers or other players who actually liked it so let's just say that I wasn't vibing with certain ideas and that the way they were executed somewhat diminished an overall fun and introspective story. It's an equal parts somber, cute, funny, and creepy game with a charming fairy tale flavor to it, told from the perspective of an innocent and naive child. I can absolutely appreciate darker undertones where the main character is oblivious to what's happening around her, even though you as an audience member can clearly see what's really going on and it can be a bit heartbreaking at times. And those parts of this game are great because I feel like it's an interesting look at how differently we view the world as kids versus the more depressing reality that we only start paying attention to as adults. This is the kind of stuff that you seldom see in video games. But then the experience is sometimes punctuated by weird attempts at crude humor that just feel out of place and create this tonal whiplash that just kinda spoils the overall experience. And look, I'm not gonna sit here and act like an indignant parent and wag my finger at you for laughing at kids taking drugs or whatever. I just think that there's a place for jokes like that where I could laugh at them, but this game ain't it. As far as gameplay goes, well, there's not much to talk about but that's okay. It's a linear adventure where the gameplay is simple and accessible, which means that literally, anyone can pick it up without immediately panicking when they press the wrong button. And for the kind of story that's being told here it works perfectly fine, plus it doesn't overstay its welcome by ending in about 2-3 hours, tops. Overall, I'd recommend it but be prepared that there may be some off-putting things to be found here.
