The Witcher 1 has not aged well in some aspects. Things like combat and graphics are janky sometimes and do need some serious getting used to. That being said, the story overall is very well written, with many nuances and interesting characters - even if some of the villains are a little bit "cliche". There are many small details woven into the world and narrative that make it seem very natural, like NPCs having a daily routine around the city(ies). As CDPRs first game, the Witcher is extremely impressive, considering how little budget and experience these guys had at the time. In that regard it is impressive how much of their vision they managed to do so well. Make no mistake, The Witcher 1 shows its age and needs some getting used to. But it will be worth it.
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is among my favourite games in recent memory. I should preface that I played the round-combat based version of the game, not real-time with pause. Just my personal preference and one of the reasons I never got warm with the first game. Anyways, POE2 does many things right. There are many choices along the story that will affect how people and factions react to you. That being said, it is very much an Obsidian RPG, so if you have played Fallout New Vegas or Tyranny you know the drill with how factions work. Music is beautiful and I am glad I purchased the official soundtrack as well. Graphics are very decent overall, with some really cool looking locations. Dialogue is fully voiced, but you do recognize some of the voice again and again for different NPCs :) But there are also a few things that need to mentioned in a negative way. First of all, there are still a good number of bugs. Some abilities do not work all the time, characters can get stuck on friendly team members, loosing all their movement points running into them instead of following the indicated route around them. Friendly NPCs cannot walk through each other, so combat is tight spaces is very annoying. Secondly, ship combat is developed through a text based minigame. This is really cool in theory, but the problem is that you very quickly find a pattern that works for and and after that you will never ever deviate from that tactic, because it works every single time. Enemies have the same attack and movement patterns each time, which makes it predictable. These encounter can be skipped by initiating a boarding manouver, if you don't like it. Thirdly, the difficulty curve felt off. At the beginning battles were challenging and tactical and I had to use all of my teammembers and abilities in conjunction with each other. At the end however, I could one-hit anything. So overall, a fantastic fantasy game with deep roots in the genre of dungeon and dragons inspired games.
Star Wars Republic Commando is my favourite Star Wars game of all time - but that does not mean it is perfect - not by a long shot. Pros: - Excellent soundtrack, which is a mixture of original Star Wars music composed by John Williams as well as a few tracks by Jesse Harlin. These are specifically composed for Republic Commando and feature Mandalorian war chants to create an excellent mix. Really good stuff! - The length of the game. Some people might see this as a con, but I think it is good that the game is not longer than it is. The credits will roll after around 6 to 8 hours and based on the fact that a lot of mission objectives are extremely similar and sometimes tedious, it is a good thing they are not drawn out any longer. - The game allows the player to command his sqaud to perform certain tactical manouvers, like taking a sniper or grenade position or attack one target specifically. It is one of the aspects that works very well, but could be developed even further, if ever a sequel was to be released. Cons: - This game came out in 2003 and the age is visible. - Mission objectives are often very similar and boring (pressing E on a panel) - no coop mode. This game practically screams for a coop mode where each of the 4 squad members could be controlled by a player. Sadly this is not the case. - From a technical standpoint, it can be tricky to get this game running on modern systems without issues. There are mods that do that, look them up. All in all a great game (my favourite, as I mentioned before), but if there ever will be a sequel, there are so many things that could be improved
Battlefront II is a very competent Star Wars shooter allowing players to visit all major locations and iconic battles and fight it out for each faction in the Star Wars film universe. Since sounds and music are directly taken from official material, there are few other games who manage to capture a true Star Wars feeling quite like this one. Another huge selling point are the countless mods out there, that add new maps, modes, heroes and much more to the game. Unfotunately this game also has not aged very well in a few aspects, mainly the graphics and the somewhat janky engine. Another missed opportunity in my eyes is the campaign mode, which is not all that interesting and galactic conquest could have been so much more. Still, for the price its being offered, its still very fun to jump back into a classic.
Let's get this out of the way: Hellblade is a stunning experience in terms of story, graphics, music, atmoshphere and presenation. Obviously a lot of thought and work went into this and Hellblade is an experience I would recommend readily. Even the puzzles are really well done in my eyes. The one aspect where this game falls short is in its combat. It is not interesting at all. You have two kinds of attacks, a block and dodge and that is about it. Enemies are slow and can be parried or evaded with ease most of the time. This is pretty basic and forgettable and does, luckily, not overstay its welcome. That being said, as a whole I wholeheartedly recommend Hellblade. It is one hell of a haunting and disturbing, but at the same time beautiful experience.
Wasteland 3 gets a lot of things right. That ranges from voice acting and the writing of many of the characters you encounter in the Wasteland to the tactial battles. However there are issues with animations, textures not loading all of the time or not being able to conserve AP for the next turn when certain abilities have been cancelled just before, resulting in a "Invalid Target" message. I have not encountered any major bugs though, which is very good. Yes, I am not finished with the game, but after 30 hours I feel confident to recommend this game. Also, as a PSA: When clicking the little "info"-icon in the upper right hand part of the screen during battles, you can then hover over enemies (and friendlies) and get info on status effects. Using the arrow keys you can cycle through them if there are several.
I love New Vegas because it is an extremely well done role-playing game on so many levels with great characters, progression, quests and locations. At the same time I absolutely hate how much of a technical mess it can be, even after installing some of the essential stability and bug fixing mods. Especially endless loading screens happen far too often.
BioShock Infinte is my personal favourite in the BioShock series. I enjoy the story and world building in this game immensly. Columbia as a city is hauntingly beautiful, but creepy and dark at the same time. The narrative is complex and unites aspects of pseudo-science with multiple parallel universes. Additionally I am a huge fan of the gameplay, weapons and shooting are much more refined compared to the previos games and combining them with different vigors (this game's version of Plasmids) feels very good and offers a few distinct ways of dealing with encounters. It should be pointed out though, that the game is mostly linear. In rare cases you can choose a few different ways that lead to the same place ultimately and the exploration in the levels in ptentially even more limited than in BioShock 1 and 2. Graphically the game does not hold up quite as well, in terms of the detail of smaller 3D objects around the levels, but the lighting is still phenomenal today. Additionally I greatly enjoyed the Burial at Sea Episodes and its ties to the first BioShock game. Btw: In case you get microstuttering, try disabling the GOG ingame overlay, that fixed it for me and I could still unlock achievements and everything.
Saints Row 2 is a great experience with interesting, over-the-top characters and missions and a solid open world to explore. The PC performance is atrocious however, it barely manages 30 fps and crashed regularly for me.
