Wow! As someone who came late to the XCOM franchise, I never knew what I was missing. XCOM2 is a tactical and strategic gold-mine that players of either genre will love. The game is split into two parts: a strategic portion -- where you manage an alien ship and fly around the globe to gather resources and expand your resistance network -- and a tactical portion involving turn-based combat. Ship management involves building various rooms that grant bonuses and upgrades to your forces, which are then utilized on missions. The missions themselves include sabotage, VIP rescues, theft, and defense objectives in various settings (cityscapes, suburbs, wilderness locations). But where XCOM2 really shines is its tactical combat and customization. There are a variety of enemies with their own strengths, weaknesses and attack patterns to keep encounters fresh. Four soldier classes are available, along with two skill paths for each class, and you can even learn skills from other classes once you build the appropriate upgrade. Numerous items and armor allow for further customization of your forces, so you can approach missions in multiple ways. And if that isn't enough, you can also customize your soldiers' aesthetics (face, hair, skin, clothes, armor color). This is a nice touch that truly lets you make your XCOM squad your own. So with all that said, why do I call this game "almost perfect"? While the story is engaging, the ending is semi-infuriating. Without going into any spoilers, it raises some important plot questions that aren't addressed and teases a potential future game. This is a tactic I've seen before, and it greatly aggravates me. Good stories should have a beginning, a middle, and an end, not a beginning followed by an endless middle that keeps trying to milk $ from the franchise. XCOM2 is still a wonderful game that fans should add to their library, but do so knowing you'll be subjected to a shameless marketing ploy at journey's end. Or should I say 'middle'
Cute, puzzle-solving indie game with some obvious "Wizard of Oz" vibes. The character and background art are nicely done, and the music (mainly jazz and R&B) fits the game well. The overall game is a bit short, especially if you speed-run and don't bother searching for the hidden shrines. There are multiple endings, so there's some replay value -- but once you've solved all the puzzles, there isn't much challenge in additional playthroughs. Nevertheless, I'd still recommend this game for its adorable characters, jazzy soundtrack, and simple to moderate brain ticklers.
Nelly Cootalot is a delightful, charming, whimsical point-and-click adventure that proves great games don't necessarily require a million dollar budget, hordes of developers, or high-end graphics to enjoy. If you're partial to witty humor, adorable puns, and a desire to escape the existential dread of the world for a few hours, hoist the mizzenmast and set sail with Nelly.
I've played most of the Trails games, and with the exception of Trails in the Sky - The Third, I've enjoyed them immensely. This extends to Trails of Cold Steel 3, which continues Falcom's streak of delivering great JRPGs with immersive stories, a full cast of well-developed characters, and solid gameplay mechanics. Oh, and let's not forget the music. As with previous titles, ToCS 3 has a rockin' soundtrack, with more great songs than you can shake a stick at. I'm continually amazed that after so many games the composer(s) are still able to provide such an outstanding score. Few games, though, are perfect, and ToCS 3 has some minor bumps. While none of these will meaningfully detract from your enjoyment of the game, they are still worth mentioning. First, the bonding events that have you trek through campus dungeon are pretty lame. While most bonding events focus on the completion of unique tasks and/or provide insight into a character's background, the dungeon quests are little more than a ho-hum jaunt through an area you've see far too many times throughout the game. These can be especially grating when you just completed one of the obligatory campus dungeon quests or have one scheduled for later the same day. -The overall story, while captivating most of the time, got a little convoluted at the end. This may get worked out in the next game, so I'll postpone my final judgment until then. Bottom line, though: if you love the Trails universe, you can't go wrong with this game.
Note: This review is only of the base game. I've been a fan of the Battletech/Mechwarrior franchise for decades and have enjoyed most of the games. This enjoyment extends to MechWarrior 5, but, as the title of this review says, it could have been a more joyous experience. First, the positives: -Stomping around in giant battle machines and reducing cities to rubble will always be fun, and MW5 provides this experience. -The planets you visit are varied and the terrain rarely feels repetitive. -Graphics are nice. Everything from fiery explosions to collapsing buildings look great. -Battle music is top-notch, and you'll especially enjoy it if you like guitar-heavy riffs. Now for the drawbacks. There aren't many, but they're significant enough to keep the overall game from reaching its full potential. -The main story is light and uninspiring. This is doubly unfortunate because the Battletech universe has such a rich, deep well of lore to draw from. In a similar vein, the "high reward quests" should have offered more substantive narratives and mission objectives. Instead, they're essentially regular missions dressed up with a few extra paragraphs of background text. To me, these just felt like missed opportunities. -As the game progresses, lower-tonnage mechs become progressively useless, and on higher reputation levels, your only hope of completing missions is using mechs upward of 90 tons. At that point, you've essentially relegated much of your mech collection to cold storage and your selection of tactics devolves into basic slug fests. Don't get me wrong -- those can be fun, but the ability to use light and medium mechs to outflank your opponent would have opened a broader array of strategies, and strategy was always at Battletech's heart. Nevertheless, while the game may have some drawbacks, it's still a blast to play, and if you're a big fan of Battletech and MW, this is one title you don't want to miss.
Edengate is essentially an interactive visual novel. Which would be fine, except...there's no novel here. Or any semblance of a story, for that matter. You spend your time wandering around different areas of a deserted city, alternately chasing a ghost-boy and touching objects to receive flashbacks/memories. I thought these were intended to flesh-out the story and provide clues to the "mystery" you're trying to unravel, but they never coalesce into a meaningful narrative. Whether the developers/writers were being purposefully obtuse, or if they just didn't have the necessary skills to craft a decent story, this game was solidly disappointing. The only reason it managed to garner one star with me is the fact it's mercifully short (90 min to 2 hours for a single playthrough). I can't imagine the confusing, ultimately pointless slog this would have been were it any longer.
Witcher 3 takes everything fans of the series love and amps it up to 11. Main story and characters are engaging -- even the secondary quests and contracts are well-crafted and deeply layered. You're often presented with moral quandaries, some of which can be quite gut-wrenching. The open world is excellent, with plenty of diverse locales to explore. I've spent close to 200 hours and still haven't searched every location. Combat mechanics are smooth and give you plenty of options as to how you want to play. Do you want to focus on sword techniques? Enhance your potions? Bombs? Signs (magic)? And let's not forget Gwent! The card-based mini-game is a blast that puts dice-poker to shame. Lastly, I should also mention the DLC's (Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine), which are part of the complete edition. Far from simple add-ons, these could be stand-alone games in their own right. Whether you're a long-time fan of the Witcher or a newcomer to the series, this game will not disappoint.
OMG! Battletech!!!! As someone who played the old table-top game from the early 90's, I almost fell out of my chair with excitement and teary-eyed nostalgia when I saw this bad-boy. While I haven't played any of the expansions/dlc, I had a blast with the standard game. No complaints as far as bugs or stability was concerned, though I do have a relatively new computer and purchased the game a couple years after release, thus getting a copy where any major issues would have been ironed-out. My only regret is that the game doesn't let you command more than a lance of mechs. This was an issue with the table-top version (the complex rules and intense record-keeping making massive, large-scale mech battles cumbersome and unwieldy). At the time, I always thought a computer would lend itself well to the the aforementioned record-keeping process, so I was a bit surprised the current digital incarnation keeps engagements relatively small. Not sure if this was a technical issue or just a choice by the developers to keep rounds/scenarios from getting too long. maybe in a future release. PS - If Harebrained Schemes could do some sort of Battlespace expansion or include aerospace fighters, my heart would just melt...
Was impressed with season 1 and had high hopes for season 2 -- and was not disappointed. Good story and character development continue with the sequel. There are a ton more renders, a host of mini-games (new and old), and plenty more laugh-out-loud moments (there's a special "Dungeons & Dragons" spoof sequence in the game that literally had me laughing until I cried). The quality of this series so far cannot be understated, especially when I discovered the entire thing is being developed by one...single...guy! Talk about a dynamo! Dr. PinkCake has put together a couple of games that easily outshine many of those with fully-staffed development teams. Keep up the stellar work, Dr. PinkCake!
Having never played an adult visual novel before, I bought this game on a whim while it was on sale, thinking it would be some raunchy, low-production, joke-of-a-game that would provide me with some cheap laughs. Boy, was I ever wrong! The story is engaging, the characters are developed, there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, and the renders are high-quality. Even if you removed the adult content, there's still an interesting story with plenty of intriguing hooks, themes, and plotlines to keep one's interest. I also didn't expect a game like this to have so much great music. There's a large list of tracks with everything from rock and techno to acoustic guitar pieces that do an excellent job of setting the game's various scenes. You can even queue up your favorite songs in-game and on the main menu. To sum up, I was pleasently surprised and purchased season 2 as soon as I finished.
