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Recent reviews by Melrick

Showing 1-9 of 9 entries
1 person found this review helpful
14.0 hrs on record
This game had real potential but now very much appears to be abandoned. Which is a shame, because apart from the potential, there's still problems with the game as it is that needs fixing, but will now never get fixed. I really can't recommend buying this game unless the developer surprises everyone by returning to the game.
Posted May 25, 2018.
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1 person found this review helpful
302.7 hrs on record (79.2 hrs at review time)
Probably the biggest addition for this year's FM is the Team Dynamics. It undoubtedly adds realism to the game, but it also more difficulty, sometimes a lot of difficulty. I’ll give you an example of how it can be… troublesome.

You have a guy who has been your main striker, but in time you find a new, better, striker, and now your old striker has been demoted to a backup or rotation player. Sadly, though, he’s not interested in this and insists on starting more games. You ignore him, because he’s no longer good enough to start regularly. But he’s a highly influential player, so now that he’s angry and upset, the rest of the team soon becomes angry and upset with you. So regardless of how well you’re doing in the championship, the whole team has turned against you, and you soon find yourself looking for a new job. So what do you do? You could try selling him, but selling a highly influential player can also upset your team mates. Now you see how difficult it can get. But it does without question add realism to the game, because this is the sort of problem real managers have to face. Whether you think the new Dynamics system is a good thing or not will depend on the individual.

What is definitely bad, though, is the bugs. People tend to complain about problems with each new version of FM, but this year I feel is the buggiest version they’ve released for quite some time. They are patching it, and will no doubt keep patching it, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that I felt I had to stop playing it while they fix quite a number of problems, and I know I’m not the only one that’s had to do that. This is frustrating and annoying, and shouldn’t have happened. But I know I will continue to enjoy it as soon as I can start playing it again.
Posted January 16, 2018.
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2 people found this review helpful
12.4 hrs on record (6.1 hrs at review time)
I’ve never played any of the previous games in this series, so my review is based solely on this game.

If you’re a fan of cricket (and if you’re checking out the game, then I’d assume that’s a given) then it’s fun to pick real players to play in your games. You can also pick young up and coming players, and if they turn out to be good enough, you can watch them progress, hopefully into great players.

Firstly, the UI looks dated. It really could do with an update. There’s relatively limited ways in which you can influence what’s going on during a match, so a lot of it is out of your hands. That in itself isn’t so bad, since that’s basically what happens with Football Manager. Probably the biggest problem I have with the game, though, is lack of information. There’s limited stats available to help you to make informed decisions. For example, there seems to be no way to judge which wicket keeper is better than any other, since there’s no actual wicket keeping stats available, not that I’ve ever found. You can assign trainers to players, but it’s extremely difficult to tell if it’s having any affect. In Football Manager, for instance, you can quite easily see what affect your trainer is having on the player, and whether you’re wasting your time trying to improve that area of the player. You also can’t hire and fire trainers, since they’re nameless and faceless.

The game is fun, but really could be a lot more fun, and only if it undergoes a serious make-over, and it really does need one. If there’s a 2016 version of this game, and it still essentially looks and plays the same, then there’s no way I’d buy it. An updated player database wouldn’t be enough to make me put down the dollars.
Posted July 29, 2015.
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2 people found this review helpful
45.0 hrs on record (14.6 hrs at review time)
Early Access Review
If you’ve played previously games like Game Dev Tycoon or GamersGoMakers then you already know what to expect. If you haven’t, then this puts you as a game developer, starting out in the early 1980’s. You begin small, producing small, simple games, from small, simple premises with appropriately early gaming technology. As time goes on (assuming you don’t go bankrupt) you have the opportunity to expand, by hiring more people, researching new technology and moving into bigger premises.

Visually, Mad Games Tycoon is better looking than those other games. Another area where this differs from the aforementioned games is that with Mad Games Tycoon, you have to manually create each room and place the appropriate furniture in it. Over time, your staff will complain about wanting things, like plants or heating, which you’ll have to place in the room, so you’ll need to make sure you create a room big enough. Not too big, though, because in the early stages, you only have limited space for your rooms.

Eventually, you’ll have the opportunity to produce and distribute your own games instead of going through a publisher, as well as creating MMO’s hosted on your own servers.

This game is still in early access, and while it should be obvious what that means, it’s apparently not obvious to some. Early access means the game is still in active development. So, new features will be added and existing ones may be altered or even removed. You might even find your save games get ruined sometimes, forcing you to start again. The game is NOT a finished product, which is why it’s in early access. You’ll almost certainly run into bugs from time to time, and features that aren’t available or aren’t working as intended. The most important thing to know about early access games is this: are the developers actively working on it? The answer for Mad Games Tycoon is definitely ‘yes’. Updates are regularly being released, which are usually both fix bugs as well as adding new features. This is important, because I’ve seen early access games where the updates concentrate on one but not the other, causing the game to suffer as a result.

The game is still very much playable in its current state, but it’s by no means finished, and nor is it perfect as yet. It would be really good, for example, to have better feedback as to why your game was terrible, or indeed why it was so good. It’s not necessarily easy to work out exactly why your previous game did as well, or as badly, as it did. Hopefully that aspect of the game will get worked on in time to come. I know too many early access games have died or taken forever to do anything, but I’ve seen nothing so far to suggest that this game will be the same; on the contrary, I’m confident that we will indeed see a finished product in time, and a damn good one. But please keep in mind, if you buy a game in early access then you’re paying money for something which may or may not actually get finished, or finished in the way you were expecting. It’s always going to be a gamble, but in this instance, it’s one I was happy to make.
Posted May 25, 2015.
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34 people found this review helpful
34.1 hrs on record (13.7 hrs at review time)
I’m simply going to talk about this game, instead of talking about how it’s a carbon copy another game called “Game Dev Tycoon”. It’s not, but let’s concentrate on the game at hand.

GamersGoMakers (not a great name, I know) is made by a small indie development team, and graphically the game is simple and cartoonish, which is to be pretty expected. The graphics do the job enough, though, because pretty graphics are not the most important thing about management sims, which is basically what this is.

You can start your game from several points through history, but I think you’ll get the most out of it by starting back in 1980. You begin your career as game developer as a one-man/woman team. Over time – with success and no small amount of luck – you’ll expand into larger premises which enable you to open specialist departments, such as a design office, a development office, a sound studio, etc. You’ll have to hire staff to fill the positions, who help you to make your games. Your staff – yourself included – have skill stats, which you can improve by doing training as well as through the act of making games. The higher their stats, the higher their wage, but if you want to be churning out those big AAA games then you’re going to need the best you can find. Don’t be afraid to fire people so you can hire better staff members as they become available.

You can choose from an increasingly wide range of game genres, such as action, adventure, strategy, etc, most of which also expand into other options, such as ‘action, shoot-em-up’. You need to decide where to place your emphasis with the game, such as graphics, game play, AI, sound, etc. For example, shoot-em-up actions don’t require a lot of emphasis on writing, but game play and graphics are very important. At first, you’ll be making games with the wrong emphasis in the wrong areas, but as you gain experience and can hire a producer, you’ll have a better idea of what to do.

After you’ve finished your masterpiece, you release it to the world, where you’ll get your all-important review. You’ll get rated out of 10 for your game play, graphics, writing, etc. The higher the better, of course. But you’ll also get a percentage score out of 100. Anything over probably 70% you can consider you did okay; anything under is a swing and a miss. Lastly, you’ll get some comments on the pro’s and con’s of your game. A few dud games in a row early on in your career can send you bankrupt very quickly. Consequently, the early years are the most difficult and precarious.

As of the current version – which I believe is version 1.1 – there are definitely bugs in the game. But it’s not just bugs that are the problem. It’s not very intuitive or informative in telling you what areas you need to be emphasising and what areas are unimportant, even after you’ve made games in that genre a few times. For a comparison, “Game Dev Tycoon” reveals more and more information on a genre the more times you do it, until you have a very good idea indeed on what you need to do. It not only tells you what’s important, but what’s not important. GamersGoMakers doesn’t make that clear enough in my opinion.

The good thing, though, is that the developers have expressed a desire to release patches and even DLC’s so I’m hopeful that the worst of the problems will get ironed out.

If you’re like me and played “Game Dev Tycoon”, liked it a lot but also found it a little frustrating because of how limited it was, then you’ll like this. If you’ve never played “Game Dev Tycoon” but are interested in the idea of becoming a game developer bigwig then you’ll like this game. It’s not perfect but patches will certainly go some way towards this, and even as it is, I find it a lot of fun and rather addictive!
Posted August 9, 2014.
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165 people found this review helpful
14.8 hrs on record (10.1 hrs at review time)
In 2005, developer Lionhead Studios released “The Movies”, a game that enabled you to build a movie studio from scratch and make movies. It was a great idea, but since then, there’s been precious little that’s attempted to tackle the same subject.

“Showtime!” isn’t on the same level of production as “The Movies” but it does take on the same concept. Where as “The Movies” was all about the pretty graphics, “Showtime!” attempts to do it largely via text. When you build a sound studio, don’t expect to actually see it; likewise, when you release a movie, you won’t be able to watch your masterpiece.

Some people will already be turned off by that, because they think it sounds dull and boring. And probably for some people it will be. But if you’re checking out this game then you’re presumably interested in the concept, and considering there’s pretty much nothing else out there like it, I feel it’s at least worth a look just for that.

You can start your career from any year, back to 1927. As the years pass, technology will progress, which means you’ll need to upgrade your equipment, or risk producing poor quality movies. You have to hire a script writer (or perhaps buy an existing script), hire a director and producer, as well as actors. There are many factors that go into deciding whether you produce a turkey, or a monster global hit.

The game isn’t perfect. It’s a great concept, but it’s limited in scope, although that’s perfectly understandable considering the tiny independent developer. There has also been bugs in the game, sometimes big ones. But the great thing is that the developer is very eager to identify and eliminate the bugs. For example, I reported a game breaking bug, and within 24 hours a new patch was out that fixed it. How many developers, big or small, can honestly say something similar?

Another problem with the current build is that some technologies aren’t linked to the year of movie development. For example, you can use CGI in your movies right from 1927. Likewise, if you wish to purchase an existing script, one category you can chose from – again, right from the start – is video game adaptions. The developer is aware of these limitations, though, and is apparently keen to try and find ways to address these concerns, once all the bugs have been squashed.

I do think it’s worth buying this game, because of the concept and because the developer is very eagerly continuing to work on it. However, I only recommend it if you understand that the game is essentially text based and that you’re okay with that. You should be because it's actually rather addictive!

UPDATE: Those technologies that were wrongly available right from the start have already been fixed, so now no long will you be able to use CGI nor buy a script based on a video game in the 1920's. And the bugs are rapidly getting ironed out, and I can't applaud the developer enough for his diligence.
Posted May 27, 2014. Last edited June 2, 2014.
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2 people found this review helpful
3.4 hrs on record
I'll give this game a thumbs up but it strongly depends on where your interests lie. I really wish Steam had a “Maybe” option! If you don't have a real interest in politics then I can't really imagine a person would get much out of this game. There's no pretty graphics, no fancy animations, no wars to declare or nations to conquer and nothing to research. It's purely about you trying to win the next election by enacting polices or adjusting existing ones. I’m just not quite convinced an accurate balance is there, though.

For example, in one play through I eliminated crime and pollution yet still managed to somehow loose the first election in a landslide. The correlation and effects between one thing and another doesn’t always seem truly accurate to me.

On the surface it seems a very simple game, but it’s actually very complex, with an undoubted learning curve. Just whether that complexity would be enough to interest many people and to keep them coming back to the game is open to question. If you’re fascinated by politics, though, then this is definitely the game for you.
Posted February 21, 2014.
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12 people found this review helpful
17.1 hrs on record (12.4 hrs at review time)
“Banished” is a city builder, pure and simple. There’s no zombies, wizards, dragons or roving bands of raiders to fight off. You start the game with a group of people that have been exiled from elsewhere and your task is to build a medieval-style community from scratch. There are no buildings to unlock, since they’re all available to build from the start as long as you have the available resources. There’s nothing to research. You just need to build things.

But don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s very simple; it’s not. There’s a balance you need to keep: grow your population too quickly and they run out of food and starve to death. Don’t build your population enough, though, and there’s not enough people left to take over the jobs of those dying of old age or accidents. Don’t have enough firewood stockpiled and they could freeze to death come winter.

It’s a simple game that can be quite complex. If you’re unsure whether to buy it or not, though, then if the above sounds boring then it’s unlikely to be your kind of game. If it sounds intriguing then I think you’ll enjoy it. One thing to keep in mind is that this is a one man developer, so what he’s been able to achieve is pretty remarkable. Personally, I haven’t encountered any crashes or obvious bugs.

Update: One mistake many new players seem to be making is to play their first game on 'hard' mode. I very strongly recommend starting on 'easy' or perhaps 'medium' the first time. This will enable you to get to learn the game better, so that when you've built up enough experience you'll have the confidence and knowledge to tackle the game on hard mode. Playing your first game on hard mode is an extremely steep learning experience, and all but guarantees starvation for your poor unsuspecting people. Leave that until you have more experience.
Posted February 19, 2014. Last edited February 21, 2014.
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No one has rated this review as helpful yet
37.1 hrs on record (20.4 hrs at review time)
Game Dev Tycoon is a strategy game that starts with you and a computer in your garage at the dawn of computer games. Your purpose is to create games, release them and make money. Sounds simple, but it’s not, especially in the early days. Bankruptcy is looming ever large over you in the beginning, ready to strike you down! But if you can stave off bankruptcy then can eventually expand by moving out of your garage into your own office, where you can start to hire people to help you. Become even more successful and you’ll be able to expand even more, even to the point of creating a research department as well as a technology department.

There’s all sorts of things you need to research to improve your games, as well as improving the skills of your staff. If you don’t keep up with the research then your games will suffer and people won’t buy them, and you won’t make money.

What you shouldn’t expect with this game is fancy graphics nor a visual representation of the games you’re creating. The graphics are simple and the games are statistics only. This doesn’t take anything away from the game, though, since it’s very addictive. I found it a bit like the Civilization curse of ‘just one more turn’; in this case, it’s ‘just one more game’.

There’s plenty of little changes and additions that could be made to this game to make it an even better experience, and I’m sure the developers know all about them. The game is being updated so some of them might be included in future patches. If not then they’ll likely make their way to ‘Game Dev Tycoon 2’ (hopefully), and I for one would buy it without hesitation. This is just a small indie game developer, who, for all I know, might well be one person at a computer in their garage! If you have any interest in gaming (and who here isn’t?) then I’d strongly recommend you give it a go.
Posted January 3, 2014.
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Showing 1-9 of 9 entries