The last game you completed, and rating.

Red Dead Redemption 9/10

No idea why i didnt play this when it was released way back when. A great story and the graphics hold up well for a game of it's age. Even if youve played RDR2 (which i had), its still more than worth playing.
 
Sniper Elite 5
7.5/10

Never played a Sniper Elite game before but 5 and the new one are both on Gamepass atm so thought I'd have a craic.

Surprisingly decent game! Was nice to play a game based in WW2 as haven't done for ages and it's always fun killing Nazis no matter how many times you've done it before. Really enjoyed the tactical elements of the game and found it really immersive. The graphics are for the most part really impressive although for some bizarre reason the devs seem to think that AA isn't worth implementing.

Besides the lack of AA, it runs like a dream, the textures are really detailed, fantastic animations, audio and engaging story. Had some of the most impressive looking explosions I've ever seen and the lighting especially with HDR is really impressive. Some of the water effects are really, really impressive too.

Gameplay felt quite old school but in a good way and was really challenging with most of the assists turned off. It actually reminded me a lot of Splinter Cell.

Marked down for some cheesy voice acting, a slight element of unnecessary and historically inaccurate 'modern audience' box ticking and some awkward UI elements.

Looking forward to playing Resistance.
 
FF7 Rebirth - what a ride that was, took me 75h to complete as I did most of the optional things in each region. I liked the game but it had some very annoying moments. Sometimes less is more and I think I had more fun with FF16. I would say for me it's a 8/10 but I can see how much work was done on this game so kudos to the developers.
 
Rebirth - hated it. The open world is tedious Chadley checklists, also a few of the areas are really annoying to traverse. All areas of the game have woeful padding including story sections.

And the mini games, so many mini games and they are all crap apart from Queen's Blood (the card game).

Not worth the time or effort despite how much i enjoyed the combat.

Going to give open world games a miss from now on, Rebirth finally put me off them for good.
 
Aliens: Dark Descent 8.5/10

So I want to start off by saying that I was VERY impressed with this game and it surpassed my expectations entirely. Let me just say that if you are a fan of the Alien films then you simply have to play this game as they absolutely nailed it in terms of tone, atmosphere, music, story...just everything, it's all there. IMO it's the best Alien game (yes, better than Alien Isolation).

Now, the game is HARD and you will be forced to reload A LOT which can sometimes be frustrating. It's the kind of game where your first play through is almost like a warm up because you're learning the mechanics as you go and there's a lot of trial and error. Saying that though, the game is so atmospheric and so fun to play, so immersive, that you really don't care and you just want to keep going to see what happens next. The gameplay is extremely satisfying, especially when you set up for an ambush and see all the aliens get mowed down just as you planned. The devs have very cleverly engineered a gameplay system that constantly keeps you on edge, and implemented a stress system which affects your marines and thus affects you as the player as you can really feel the tension rising as you play through the levels. It's very clever, and pays homage to Aliens in this sense, incorporating lines of dialogue from the film which fit perfectly with what's happening in the game.

I would have given this game a 9.5/10 if it wasn't for one thing and that's the perma death system. Unfortunately, I didn't realise this was a thing until I was about 2/3 through the game and found out that I only had a limited number of days to go until the planet I was crash landed on was nuked and it would be literal game over. At this point I simply didn't have enough days left to finish the game and honestly was a bit gutted. I still pushed on because I was enjoying the game so much and I got to the last but 1 level at which point the game just told me I'd failed and that was it...after 27 hours LOL.

So game over man, game over...but absolutely no way I was going to start the whole game again; I have far too many other games to play. So, I resorted to watching someone else play the final stage and watched the cut scenes and end credits on You Tube. I just wish I had understood the mechanics of the perma death system a bit more when I first started the game so I could have been more strategic and not wasted so many days. The devs have since added an option to disable the perma death but it's only an option when you start a new game and I don't recall being warned or asked if I wanted to disable it so I think they could have done a better job with this and maybe forced the player to choose yes/no rather than burying it as a gameplay option or whatever. Oh well, still an amazing game and I can't recommend it enough.
 
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ne0 said:
Aliens: Dark Descent 8.5/10

So I want to start off by saying that I was VERY impressed with this game and it surpassed my expectations entirely. Let me just say that if you are a fan of the Alien films then you simply have to play this game as they absolutely nailed it in terms of tone, atmosphere, music, story...just everything, it's all there. IMO it's the best Alien game (yes, better than Alien Isolation).

Now, the game is HARD and you will be forced to reload A LOT which can sometimes be frustrating. It's the kind of game where your first play through is almost like a warm up because you're learning the mechanics as you go and there's a lot of trial and error. Saying that though, the game is so atmospheric and so fun to play, so immersive, that you really don't care and you just want to keep going to see what happens next. The gameplay is extremely satisfying, especially when you set up for an ambush and see all the aliens get mowed down just as you planned. The devs have very cleverly engineered a gameplay system that constantly keeps you on edge, and implemented a stress system which affects your marines and thus affects you as the player as you can really feel the tension rising as you play through the levels. It's very clever, and pays homage to Aliens in this sense, incorporating lines of dialogue from the film which fit perfectly with what's happening in the game.

I would have given this game a 9.5/10 if it wasn't for one thing and that's the perma death system. Unfortunately, I didn't realise this was a thing until I was about 2/3 through the game and found out that I only had a limited number of days to go until the planet I was crash landed on was nuked and it would be literal game over. At this point I simply didn't have enough days left to finish the game and honestly was a bit gutted. I still pushed on because I was enjoying the game so much and I got to the last but 1 level at which point the game just told me I'd failed and that was it...after 27 hours LOL.

So game over man, game over...but absolutely no way I was going to start the whole game again; I have far too many other games to play. So, I resorted to watching someone else play the final stage and watched the cut scenes and end credits on You Tube. I just wish I had understood the mechanics of the perma death system a bit more when I first started the game so I could have been more strategic and not wasted so many days. The devs have since added an option to disable the perma death but it's only an option when you start a new game and I don't recall being warned or asked if I wanted to disable it so I think they could have done a better job with this and maybe forced the player to choose yes/no rather than burying it as a gameplay option or whatever. Oh well, still an amazing game and I can't recommend it enough.
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Thanks for the review, this sounds right up my street, added to the wishlist and will look for it in the sales.
 
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Stalker 2

I think I went into this with some serious nostalgia rose-tinted glasses because at first the bugs, glitches and jankiness didn't really bother me too much but the most glaring issue for throughout the game for me was the spawning system and A.I (or lack of) and by the time I almost was at the end I was already fed up of it and only pushing forward to get it finished. A shame as it should have been so much better. This was realeased way too early, needed at least another 6 months in development and testing.

If you can pick it up cheap it's worth a punt but overall, a disappointment.

6/10
 
Balatro.

10/10 when you consider its an indie title made by one dude, an 8.5/10 otherwise.

100% was a bit frustrating since you need to beat the hardest difficulty with every Joker at least one time, and many of the Jokers are downright horrible so you need to not only have a run capable of winning while carrying deadweight, but also be lucky enough to actually have them show up.

I'm not sure I'll boot it back up again, but its a fantastic game and deserves all the praise it has gotten.
 
Bluebozzy said:
Balatro.

10/10 when you consider its an indie title made by one dude, an 8.5/10 otherwise.

100% was a bit frustrating since you need to beat the hardest difficulty with every Joker at least one time, and many of the Jokers are downright horrible so you need to not only have a run capable of winning while carrying deadweight, but also be lucky enough to actually have them show up.

I'm not sure I'll boot it back up again, but its a fantastic game and deserves all the praise it has gotten.
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This game alone is justification to buy a Steam Deck. :p
 
Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus.

I give it 8/10. Don't like the deadzone on the analog controls (basically need to have the stick at 100% to move), but d-pad controls are fine. Boss fights were meh, nothing as good as Nine Sols.
 
Ghost of Tsushima

A bit repetitive, but I enjoyed the story, combat and Jin was very likeable. Didn't bother much with the side quests though.

I expected it to be a bit better overall, but I had fun for ~25 hours.

7.5/10
 
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ne0 said:
Aliens: Dark Descent 8.5/10

So I want to start off by saying that I was VERY impressed with this game and it surpassed my expectations entirely. Let me just say that if you are a fan of the Alien films then you simply have to play this game as they absolutely nailed it in terms of tone, atmosphere, music, story...just everything, it's all there. IMO it's the best Alien game (yes, better than Alien Isolation).

Now, the game is HARD and you will be forced to reload A LOT which can sometimes be frustrating. It's the kind of game where your first play through is almost like a warm up because you're learning the mechanics as you go and there's a lot of trial and error. Saying that though, the game is so atmospheric and so fun to play, so immersive, that you really don't care and you just want to keep going to see what happens next. The gameplay is extremely satisfying, especially when you set up for an ambush and see all the aliens get mowed down just as you planned. The devs have very cleverly engineered a gameplay system that constantly keeps you on edge, and implemented a stress system which affects your marines and thus affects you as the player as you can really feel the tension rising as you play through the levels. It's very clever, and pays homage to Aliens in this sense, incorporating lines of dialogue from the film which fit perfectly with what's happening in the game.

I would have given this game a 9.5/10 if it wasn't for one thing and that's the perma death system. Unfortunately, I didn't realise this was a thing until I was about 2/3 through the game and found out that I only had a limited number of days to go until the planet I was crash landed on was nuked and it would be literal game over. At this point I simply didn't have enough days left to finish the game and honestly was a bit gutted. I still pushed on because I was enjoying the game so much and I got to the last but 1 level at which point the game just told me I'd failed and that was it...after 27 hours LOL.

So game over man, game over...but absolutely no way I was going to start the whole game again; I have far too many other games to play. So, I resorted to watching someone else play the final stage and watched the cut scenes and end credits on You Tube. I just wish I had understood the mechanics of the perma death system a bit more when I first started the game so I could have been more strategic and not wasted so many days. The devs have since added an option to disable the perma death but it's only an option when you start a new game and I don't recall being warned or asked if I wanted to disable it so I think they could have done a better job with this and maybe forced the player to choose yes/no rather than burying it as a gameplay option or whatever. Oh well, still an amazing game and I can't recommend it enough.
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I've added to my wishlist based on this. I'm sure I've heard of this game being praised and I do love the alien universe, but I think the thing that has put me off the most is that I want it to be turn based for some reason... Maybe because it would certainly play better on the deck, which brings me to the question, how is it with a controller?
 
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Finished Citizen Sleeper 2 earlier. I really like the world and atmosphere of this and the first CS game, although I think this one made me realise that the gameplay loop is maybe suited more to shorter, more focused campaigns. There's a lot of intra-system travel in this one, and with all its requisite management of fuel and supplies it got a bit thin by the end. Still enjoyed it and liked the world building. Really good to see indie games doing something fun and innovative llke this. Would definitely play another installment, though I'd hope the dev doesn't get tempted to pad it out even further if one is forthcoming. 7.5/10, I think.
 
DisrupTor75 said:
Stalker 2

I think I went into this with some serious nostalgia rose-tinted glasses because at first the bugs, glitches and jankiness didn't really bother me too much but the most glaring issue for throughout the game for me was the spawning system and A.I (or lack of) and by the time I almost was at the end I was already fed up of it and only pushing forward to get it finished. A shame as it should have been so much better. This was realeased way too early, needed at least another 6 months in development and testing.

If you can pick it up cheap it's worth a punt but overall, a disappointment.

6/10
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yeh, that killed it for me. Didnt play it for long, but got very quickly fed up of random enemies spawning right next to me and getting attacked out of nowhere.

Not fun in the slightest.
 
mountaincow said:
I've added to my wishlist based on this. I'm sure I've heard of this game being praised and I do love the alien universe, but I think the thing that has put me off the most is that I want it to be turn based for some reason... Maybe because it would certainly play better on the deck, which brings me to the question, how is it with a controller?
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No idea, I used keyboard and mouse but I reckon you wouldn't have any issues.

As for turn based; the game simply wouldn't be the same if it was because it's all about tension and how you manage things under pressure. The game does have a system where you can slow everything down just by hitting the space bar so that really helps when reacting to attacks and it gives you a bit more time to think.
 
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