Recent reviews by praxis

Rusty's Retirement is a fun pixel farming idler where you set up cute little robots to farm all the cool happiness chemicals directly into your brain. This is the game I play on my second monitor when I am bored in the game I'm playing on my main monitor.

This is the best videogame I have played in decades. I feel like I curled up with a great book for 281 hours while binge-watching an epic series, all while playing a game that felt challenging but also super rewarding. The storytelling is amazing! There is actual character development, and things don't always go the way you expect they will when you start off.

Things you experience in the first act come back around way later (in my case over 100 hours later) and your choices MATTER. Playing this at the same time as a lot of my friends (and activity feed) was especially fun because everyone had a totally different experience, which means that there is solid replay value here. {I am already planning my next-- and the next after that -- playthrough!)

It's not 100% perfect, the UI and particularly inventory and party management systems could be less cumbersome (and if Larian doesn't take care of that, I am sure the modding community will) but it is damn close! With years in early access, the first act has clearly been tested much more than what follows, and there are some buggy experiences. But, wow, what experiences they are! This game is so dense in Act 3 that it almost is a little overwhelming.

Baldur's Gate 3 IS the most polished game I've played in ages, and for once I don't feel like I bought half a game and will be buying the rest of the game later, one dlc at a time.

I've spent over 10 days playing my original farmer on my phone. I can't wait for the new patch to add even more things so I can get sucked back in all over again.

I don't know how I've never reviewed The Elder Scrolls Online before, probably because I'm always just playing it instead! It's not perfect, but it's a really fun MMORPG and a good Elder Scrolls game. There is new content 4x a year and an active community in PVE and PVP both. Crafting, housing, the economy, questing, theorycrafting, trials (raids) and dungeons are all engaging and high-quality.

I have 18 max level characters (on my primary account) and my "main" has over 200 *DAYS* of playtime. It's probably the single game I've gotten the most value out of ever.

Quality writing, great voice acting, and wry dark humor make this RPG-meets-shooter stand out.

The story is a lot of fun and bosses spew loot in an oh-so-satisfying way. There are literally infinite guns and items, and the flavor text alone makes many worth checking out. Well-written characters, pop culture references that have (mostly) aged well, a distinctive art style, great music, and superb co-op action make what would otherwise be typical RPG-style fetch quests feel like they're worth doing (and repeating) over and over. And it's laugh-out-loud funny.

Basically this game is well over half a decade old and it's still fun to play.

Short, free, and a lot of fun. I enjoyed the storyline and seeing the characters was just like hanging out with some old friends again. I thought it was cool that they tied in the story from Tales from the Borderlands (so be aware this dlc has some major spoilers if you haven't played Telltale's game yet).

The main story is longer than the Headhunter DLC packs, but not quite as long as Tiny Tina's DLC. The story felt like a good length though and it was a blast checking with on our gang on Pandora to see what's been happening there during the last few years. Basically this DLC offers more of the typical Borderlands 2 experience — still a lot of guns and fetch quests — but fetch quests feel much more satisfying when accompanied by snappy dialogue and well-written characters that you actually care about. Add that to some great co-op play and this freebie makes for a fun evening of gaming.

The only downside is having to re-farm all your gear at level 80 and re-run Digistruct peak (OP levels go to 10 now). Or maybe this is an up-side because now you will have something to do in the months waiting for Borderlands 3. Well-played, Gearbox! Thanks for the free stuff!

Farm Frenzy: Hurricane Season is the latest in the Farm Frenzy games. For the unitiated, the series involves multitasking your way through a series of goals in a cute little farm setting. From keeping food growing for flocks of chickens, to harvesting eggs, to processing farm products using various machinery you build each level, and selling your finished goods for cash, this game might sound adorable and casual but it definitely gets challenging trying to beat the gold level time as you play.

Farm Frenzy Hurricane Season follows the formula of the earlier titles in the series, with more colorful graphics and a little storyline of sorts where the player is tasked with rebuilding the farm after a hurricane has struck.

I've been playing the Farm Frenzy series on my tablet for years and it's nice to see them on Steam for people who prefer to keep their gaming on one platform, who don't have access to games on mobile devices, or just enjoy playing their games on larger screens. It's an especially great game for children, as it's easy to learn the basics and the graphics and music are really cute, but it's definitely challenging enough to keep adults interested.

I really wish that the 15 in-game achievements were also Steam achievements. I think that would add value to the title, especially for achievement hunters.

Note: A copy of this game was provided for review purposes.

It's like if Jane Austen made Faerie Solitaire.

Set during the Regency era in the UK, you play solitaire through a romance story set in sumptuous manors in the English countryside. The solitaire is solid, and there are lots of obstacles and power-ups to keep the game fresh as you progress through the story. Winning hands earns you cash as you progress through the game, allowing you to decorate your manor for a fancy ball. Each of the items you purchase can be used to remove cards, speed up wild card appearance, etc. With a hard and easy mode and lots of twists to the standard solitaire game, Regency Solitaire is pretty challenging and hard to stop playing.

The art is pretty and fits the setting well, but I wish the game supported higher resolutions.

Basically, if you enjoyed Faerie Solitaire, this offers a very similar experience with a very different theme.

I'm honestly not sure how I can review this game without it turning into a gushy love letter to one of the most entertaining and fun games I've come across, so I won't even try to avoid that.

Dear Kitty Powers' Matchmaker,

You are the campiest game I have ever played, and you are simply fabulous. I love you not only for your adorable looks, but also for your sparkling personality. Often, you can be a bit cheesy, but you always know how to make me laugh.

I enjoy the completely nonverbal but totally understandable communication that my clients make, and I love your innuendos and your swingy little music. Sometimes you remind me a little of Cook, Serve, Delicious, in that you are a very well-balanced, innovative, and challenging game in the guise of a loungey little casual game. But don't be jealous, honey, because you are definitely an original.

I love that you look at a player less for their reflexes and more for their memory and attention to detail. I really like when you encourage my competitive side and make me want to be the very best (out of all my Steam friends). I also think it's really sweet that you've helped me to get love blossoming amongst my friends (who are cool enough to play this game).

I really enjoy your progressive nature, and the way that you make me work to unlock new perks and goals as I play. You keep adding new and fresh things into our relationship, and that just makes the fun last longer.

Kitty, you and I have spent several nights with each other, and every time I just don't want the evening to end and for us to part ways. Sometimes this makes mornings very difficult, but that's ok because I enjoy every moment of our time spent together.

Basically, Kitty, I am simply crazy about you!

Love,

Praxis

Part visual novel, part travel guide, in Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~ you are a young male tourist visiting Japan and the two dudes you met on the internet that said you could stay with them in Tokyo end up being two gorgeous girls. In between sightseeing, there are opportunities for flirting, and also awkwardly walking in on the girls in various states of undress.

Where this visual novel fails is in the novel part. The characterization is super shallow, and so much of the "dialogue" is in the form of long pauses indicated by elipses or spelled-out awkward noises. There isn't much here in the way of choices or decisions, other than to pick the part of the city you visit for a few of the days, which determines which of the lucky young ladies you end up with. And a lack of Steam achievements makes it not even worth playing through again to see the parts of the city you missed (and end up, presumably, with the other girl).

It wasn't a total loss, there was some sort of interesting information about Tokyo (and Kyoto) in there, but you can find that — and probably also pictures of cute anime girls showing their panties — for free online without the tedious dialogue and mouse-clicking (or tweaking the auto message speed) so you might as well keep your $10.