Recent reviews by [JC]Westenra

A brilliant sequel to a brilliant game. As far as immersive sims in a story-driven setting go it's pinnacle product. Eidos Montreal clearly put the spoils and lessons of their first game's success to good use to deliver an even more refined super spy adventure.

People complaining that it's too short / half a product probably never explored off the beaten path, as the main hub (Prague) is chock full of cleverly disguised side-content. I will concede, however, that the ending does feel like the lead-in to a third game that will likely never come. This is mostly due to poor sales, which isn't the game's fault. People don't know what's good for them.

However, what we did get is a complete "middle chapter" adventure through and through, with everything that made part one great and then some.

My only nitpick would be that some of the achievements are broken; for instance, it's impossible to engage the final boss, even using his secret kill-switch, without setting off an alarm, rendering the stealth achievement unattainable.

9/10. Elias Toufexis pads his considerable portfolio.

You know the expression, "rose-tinted nostalgia"? "Raptor" invented that. One of those games you loved as a kid but when you come back to it as an adult you realize how much it sucks. This was my introduction to "bullet-hell" titles like Raiden II and Tyrian. The music is fantastic. So are the destructible environments. There is an in-game economy that allows you to upgrade / downgrade your kit between missions, which was pretty novel.

All of it utterly annihilated by a broken save system. Good luck picking up where you left off. And don't even get me started on the unfair difficulty. Controlling your ship is like dragging your mouse cursor through molasses. You can't fix bad game design. You can forgive it, considering the state of hardware at the time, but you can't fix it.

Just rip the soundtrack and move along.

I don't usually review open-world games until I have a sizable number of hours in them, but MAN this one is just so boring I can't continue any longer.

Which is a shame, because it is my favorite looking Fallout game ever. The Appalachian setting is gorgeous, the trees and landscapes filled with vegetation and the lush colors of fall. I like the idea that the world has begun to heal, or that I am exploring a region less ravaged by nuclear winter. So points to Bethesda for finally pushing the series forward in that regard. The character design, dialogue and voice acting is also spot on. They finally nailed the shooting.

But beyond the main quest of pursuing the Overseer I couldn't care less about any of the side stuff. So I beelined the story but was quickly told I couldn't progress until I had reached level 20. This was around level 5. Leveling takes ages, and when you do level you are reminded of the game's confusing and poorly explained experience system. After 16 hours I couldn't explain it to you if I tried. It's some kind of redundant deck-building layout that acknowledges the familiar SPECIAL components of the Fallout universe but much less straightforward or intuitive as the previous games, requiring you to indulge in a degree of RNG (like opening a pack of baseball cards,) which does NOT belong in an RPG.

It also takes too long to get from place to place and ambushes or encounters with enemy factions aren't particularly interesting. The world-building is intriguing but I never cared about anything happening in the game-world. The "events" are tedious and distracting after you've already beaten them once. Mine for coal? Craft a camera to photograph landmarks? Stop adding a million things to do and concentrate of a focused narrative, Or, make it all late-game stuff instead of overwhelming new players. When I have to make the conscious choice to avoid content I don't care about I feel like the developers are punishing me for not having ADHD.

While the hand-illustrated over-world map is commendable, the lack of a local-area map for interiors is not. One step forward, two steps back.

Oh, and unless you are interested in showing off your weird IKEA hoarding fetish the CAMP system will have no use to you other than to repair, craft and "tinker", but I only ever seemed to have a weight limit capable of carrying the absolute necessities for survival. Little to no crafting material, just food, guns, and meds. I don't want to play Fallout with friends, much less strangers, so the multiplayer feels forced. I respect them for trying something new, but Fallout will always be a single-player experience for me.

I don't play a lot of remakes other than what Nightdive releases but what I do play is a lot of Dead Space so I can attest that this remake is overall chef's kiss / 10

Beautiful graphics, expanded lore, references to the sequels, side-missions, loads of collectibles and upgrades, streamlined UI and lots of QoL improvements across the board. Some of the new story beats are genuinely chilling. An AI director that spawns enemies in your path means you have to constantly be on the move. TK feels great and is easy to use. The turret sections have been completely removed and redesigned. Anti-gravity sections now use the DS2/DS3 system. There's even a hidden ending! Nearly every aspect of the iconic title feels over-polished and quite simply "better". I can't emphasize enough that they really upped the creep factor this time around. Dr. Mercer is a force of nature. Necromorphs now have "layers" of guts that can be blown off with a unique physics system; using the Force Gun can skin a monster with one shot, so that you are effectively fighting a walking skeleton. It's a very unsettling visual to say the least.

My only complaints would be that I was unsatisfied with some of the decisions they made regarding certain puzzles and story sequences. Some are now much better, some are worse. Hardcore fans will know what I'm talking about. Also, the new difficulties are vastly different to the original. I played on "hard" because I only ever played on "zealot" in the other games.

Here, necromorphs now take an absolute pounding to put down while your weapons seem to have very little damage output until they are properly upgraded. I frequently found myself emptying entire clips (and then some) into a single monster. Those little leech things that latch onto you are more annoying than ever, same with the baby zombies. But at least the flamethrower has been buffed and the fire effects in this game are stunning, probably the best I've seen since Alien Isolation.

For some reason, female necromorphs now have a powerful ranged attack. Huh?

What else. Oh, I don't know if it's my graphics settings or what but the new holograms look awful. Not just the animated recordings but Isaac's HUD as well, they look over-pixelated and software rendered, and I didn't appreciate having to drag my left hand all the way across the keyboard to the arrow keys to navigate it.

There is a bug with certain quest-progression objects such as keys not spawning. This happened to me once on my first playthrough, forcing me to restart from the beginning because I was only using a single save file, and lost 5 hours of progress (but it's fine because on my second try I found a lot of stuff I missed the first time through) so I recommend doing a fresh save for each chapter.

Oh, and kind of off topic, but: I've had this game wishlisted since early last year and could have sworn the listed price was $34.99. I remember this because that is a strange price for a game. Then suddenly the price disappeared up until around launch time and suddenly it was $60. Tricky tricky EA, but I noticed, even if no one else did. Shame on you!

I love everything Dead Space. I've seen all the movies and even read one of the terrible novelizations. I am one of the few people who disliked the sequel's linearity and removal of the map system. My most played game in the series is Dead Space 3, it's a great title and I will die on that hill. Now if someone would port Severed to PC I'd be set.

9 out of 10. It's the Spiderman 2 of remakes: worth twice the price of admission.

Finally, unisex bathrooms in space!

This is one of those games that is so shockingly good that as an FPS aficionado you are amazed you'd never heard of it before, so you end up playing it for nine hours straight.

...Until you hit the first boss, the skill ceiling skyrockets and your enjoyment plummets. You die without touching its health bar because it has really vague hit-boxes so getting close enough to strike is suicide (you have wands but they are ***), you have to start all over losing most of your weapons and experience, and you suddenly realize you are playing another grind-fest disguised as a dungeon crawler.

I also couldn't figure out the save-system for the life of me: there is one on every floor that I assumed meant I could save my progress, turn the game off and go run an errand, but when I booted the game back up to continue it dropped me back on the first floor(?)

I suppose the closest comparison would be Heavy Bullets, another BS shooter with a procedural-generated feel (all the rooms are cells that get rearranged like a slide puzzle each run.) The jumping mechanic is also floaty and super inaccurate; there are several areas where precision leaping is required to access secrets and it's a total crap-shoot whether you a) barely make the jump, b) almost make the jump but fall off the lip even though you did everything right, or c) don't jump in time and fall off the starting ledge like a total putz.

Can't in good conscience recommend a game with such a harsh and obvious difficulty spike at the first boss. Honest question: are we about done with bosses in first person shooters? This isn't 1995. Give me an arena with a swarm of enemies from all sides, or better yet, a quick-time event. I mean, all games are is just mashing buttons anyway.

Score: 9 out of 10
-1 point for each unfair death
Final score: - 7 out of 10

Go play Delver instead. A nice, gentle difficulty curve and, like, one boss. At the end. Where he belongs.

Moraonic

Imagine being a grown adult and giving a product a negative review because you had to confirm your identity.

I want to like this game, I really do, but the lack of a sprint-jump function means you can't make an integral leap in the very first level in order to complete a side objective. Now, side stuff is disabled on the lowest difficulty, meaning you can technically progress without finding all the collectibles but the lowest difficulty is far too easy to be enjoyable.

Since the game is fairly obscure there are next to no "let's play" videos on the web, and nearly all of them skip the side stuff, so it took me forever to find one that covered the issue I was having. In the video the dude practically launches himself across the gap and I cannot for the life of me figure out how he did it other than conclude it's because it was an earlier build of the game, and sprinting was later removed without thought of how it would affect the ability to 100% the game.

Since there is no way to save your progress during a level it means I had to replay the whole thing over and over to get back to that spot and try to figure out what I was doing wrong. It doesn't help that the music in the first mission is terrible and completely breaks the immersion.

I'm sure there's a way to crack open an .ini file in the game's system folder and adjust some numbers to give myself the ability to run and jump without cancelling all my momentum, but I bought a game, not a hobby. Which is a shame because the art style on display and storytelling delivery here is a real treat, the actual shooting is a lot of fun and rewards precision skill and accuracy which is always welcome in an FPS.

No help in the forums, so I'm hoping maybe a negative review will get the attention of the developers, though I'm not going to hold my breath as the game appears to be abandoned.

The best pro-union propaganda ever made.

But seriously, it's a great shooter. One of the better of our generation. If you think that's hyperbole, play it for an hour and try not to be won over by its charm.

It's also a spiritual successor to that old Monolith shooter, "Shogo: Mobile Armor Division", except unlike that game it actually feels finished and not half-baked.

The campaign segues between on-foot and in-mech sections, often with a hectic boss fight at the end of each level. Gunplay is crisp, fluid and satisfying; all the weapons are animated beautifully and feel nice and Sci-Fi without going overboard, though I feel they all look a little "samey". You have a recharging cloak that lasts about three seconds and is so superfluous I forgot I had it most of the time, but hey, it's there!

The real star of the show is, of course, the movement. You can double-jump right out the gate, wall-run, grapple, hurdle up ledges, etc. and generally feel like Usain Bolt with an assault rifle.

The story isn't too long or too short and every mission is an absolute banger. You'll experience an interplanetary D-Day assault against a corporate superpower, fight your way through the scariest factory ever, then BAM, the game turns into Back to the Future because what story isn't improved by the introduction of time travel? You acquire a device that essentially lets you jump forward and backward through time and whoever designed this mission deserves a big raise because it pushes the narrative from a 7 to a 10.

BT is one of the most likable sidekicks ever written and acted. It's like Alyx from Half-Life 2 without the constant cringe. On the topic of HL2: remember how at the end of that game you got a BFG weapon that turned it into a total power fantasy? There is something like that here but I won't spoil it. The writing is also top-notch, I actually felt like I was participating in a planetary campaign with seasoned military veterans.

The villains (there are quite a few) are deliciously evil, I like to be talked down to and cajoled by opponents who clearly have more experience than me as I fight my way to the top, it makes the payback all the more satisfying. Most of the enemy soldiers speak in European accents which also tickles me; it's nice to be a whitebread American sticking it to the boys across the pond in the age of CoD where everyone and their mother is mustache-twirling Middle Eastern. One of the bosses is literally Schwarzenegger in power armor, and combatants frequently refer to you as "the suspect" during firefights which I like because it's like I get to kill a couple hundred Derek Chauvins.

Multiplayer varies between team deathmatch and a nifty PVE mode where you and your team hold out against waves of hostile Titans. I actually spent a few hours online which is a recommendation in and of itself because I typically avoid competitive play at all costs.

Game also runs like an absolute dream, and is a prime example of the proper way to dispense PC optimization.

So yeah, 9/10 from me. I already owned the game on Origin and bought it a second time-- at full price-- for the Steam achievements, and really just to reward Frank Zampella and Respawn for this little treasure.

My favorite Crysis game next to Crysis 2.

I finally got a computer that can run the games without making me feel poor so I figured I'd revisit this classic. Yes, I have a physical copy of the game buried in a box in my garage but excavating would be a whole thing, it takes ages to install off CDs and the game is frequently on sale for $5.

If you are reading this review then chances are you already know what "Crysis" is all about, since you scrolled all the way through the store page to get here. But if you don't, here's the gist: Crysis is a first-person shooter where you play an American special-forces soldier who is part of an elite unit that wears super armor that gives them super-human abilities. Sometime in the near future the North Korean military storms and occupies a south Pacific island in contested waters. You are airdropped onto the island to rescue a group of scientists who are being held hostage. It gets messy.

There are aliens.

"Crysis" is best known, however, for pushing the envelope on GRAPHICS. This was the kind of game you spent money on a new setup JUST to show it off. My PC at the time was below specs so I had to jump through all kinds of hoops to get it playable AND not looking like Dark Forces. The campaign was decent (I enjoyed it, attitudes may vary) but the massive shift of pacing in the last quarter of the game left a bad taste in many people's mouths. But this isn't a review of that game.

Anyway, remember at the end when your squad-mate "Psycho" showed you the alien specimen he captured? The specimen that almost doomed the entire U.S.S. Constitution? "Warhead" is the story of how Psycho came to acquire it. If you are a fan of Sci-Fi action games, tactical shooters or still waters running deep, you really can't go wrong here.

The voice acting is superb and the narrative reminiscent of one of the better Summer Blockbusters, if a little over-serious. There are some new weapons, like machine pistol, electromagnetic frags and a grenade launcher that takes hilariously long to reload.

"Warhead" takes to heart nearly every complaint players had about its father, doubling down on action but always leaving a side gate unlocked or a roof unguarded for the stealth-pacifist weirdos among you. The game is short, clocking in at six or so hours, but so do 10 steak dinners, and every level is memorable in some way. There is no filler.

My biggest gripe is a design choice when it comes to difficulty settings. I want to play on the "Delta" (highest) setting but it removes your ability to modify iron-sights, which is stupid. Also, on anything higher than "Normal" you cannot drive and fire your vehicle's turret at the same time (you have to switch seat to the gunner position and hope you don't careen off a cliff or into a fuel silo).

This is standalone, you don't need to own or even have played Crysis to understand what's going on, though you will appreciate Warhead more if you are familiar with the base game (which has an excellent remaster on Epic Store.) Sadly, it doesn't seem that Warhead will ever receive the same treatment. It looks and runs fine on an affordable gaming rig and some of its vistas-- which it cleverly makes certain you don't miss-- are still quite impressive, my favorite being a spot at the beginning when you crest a hill to be greeted by a blinding sunrise over a bay where a North Korean battleship is getting sunk by fighter jets. I only had one crash in the last level when my GPU overheated, but that's my fault because I had too many other apps running and kept alt-tabbing out and Warhead was getting jealous.