Recent reviews by Umbasa

One of my favorite mini-sims. Within 5 minutes you think, "...This is it?" and then six hours later you're still playing, discovering new little Easter eggs and funny references to the real life game industry. The off-brand "Intendro Whoops" (Nintendo Wii) made me laugh out loud.

100%-ed (achievements) within 10 hours, which included a lot of resetting just for fun.

I've never played something with so much humor that remained laser-focused on its scope and goal. For a light, casual mobile sim, 10/10.

(I actually have time in this offline, which is not measured.)

Fun strategy RPG somewhat comparable to Crusader Kings, except exclusively set in ancient China.

Works great on Steam Deck; no issues. Better with a Bluetooth mouse than trackpads, in my opinion.

While the game doesn't have Steam achievements, it DOES have built-in achievements (under Play Records in the menu).

Generally, yes, I recommend this software. It has some great features (especially for construction of comic books) and is mostly easy to understand -- although they do some quirky things, like the menu layout of the very top bar.

However, I've had quite a few issues with both of my Huion tablets; Medibang doesn't really seem to play nice with either model (H610 Pro V2 and HS64), even though they're relatively popular and the drivers are up-to-date. For some reason it will randomly get stuck on full pressure and won't reset until I close and reopen the project, and sometimes I'll even need to reboot the program entirely. Also, mysteriously, it will randomly decide the brush should "bleed" when the pen first makes contact with the tablet, as if one left a pen tip in place on paper for about thirty seconds; this will also come and go without reason. I don't have any of these issues at all with Krita or Corel Painter. Oh well.

I've basically had a 6.5/10 experience with this software. When it works, it's great; it's just a matter of getting used to its particular quirks and workflow, which aren't a problem in and of themselves. Just be aware that this app seems to have issues with some Huion art tablets. (I dunno, maybe others have had better experiences with theirs.) It has just enough problems that it makes me not want to boot it up for daily use, which kinda stinks because I love the features and workflow of the app.

Works perfectly on the Steam Deck (so far). Seems like a nice traditional JRPG with a thick coat of Valkyria Chronicles paint.

I'll update my review as I put in more time.

Holy crap this is way more fun than it should be. I've been on a Lego kick lately, and after putting like 15 hours into the Skywalker Saga (which itself is actually very good), I think I like this one better. Sure, Skywalker Saga objectively improved everything in almost every way, but somehow the Complete Saga ends up being greater than the sum of its parts -- and ultimately more fun overall.

This game is a shining example of how the competition for modern titles is not other modern titles: it's OLDER titles that are still somehow better.

Would strongly recommend.

PSA: To get this working on the Steam Deck, simply install Proton GE and it should boot up just fine. Well, for a while.

Fantastic game...but the port is no longer stable (or it wasn't for me, anyway). It functioned beautifully for a couple hours, but as I moved on to explore the open world it began to freeze and then crash. Over 45 minutes it crashed three times, and I decided I wasn't about to get 50 hours in and suddenly be unable to continue.

This really sucks because it is a genuinely fun game with graphics and mechanics that hold up perfectly in 2023.

If you have the means, try the 360 port (which is backwards compatible on the XBox One and XBox Series S|X), or even the PS3 port. Yeah, it's not as pretty, but it's far more stable and still 100% playable.

TL;DR: Excellent game, inferior and kinda crappy port with bugs that can make it impossible to finish.

Just Cause 1 is like Michael Bay's take on Far Cry, with most of the same mechanics intact: Liberate settlements, participate in races, collect all the things. It's a lot of fun for about 5 hours, and then the remaining 15 (to 100% the map) becomes extremely repetitive. This can be a good or bad thing -- and I enjoy long, mindless grinds in games, so to me it was a very good thing.

Kinda.

Sorta.

The main problem is the version itself. The PC port of Just Cause is taken from the original XBox version (not XBox 360). This is an inferior version with subdued graphics and compromises (the UI is muted and plain, graphics are toned down, and I'm pretty sure some of the building layouts were greatly simplified). If you watch video of the XBox 360 version alongside this, it looks absolutely beautiful for its considerable age, and far better than the PC port. In fact, the only thing this port has over any of the others is improved framerate, which doesn't particularly have any gameplay impact whatsoever.

The worst problem, however, are the bugs. They are incessant! The most prevalent is scripted dialog for missions that will randomly decide not to play, and it's a crapshoot on whether or not the game will let you continue with the mission. This ultimately (and permanently) broke the game for me, resulting in the VERY LAST MISSION becoming impossible to complete. (As a side note -- and this is just personal observation and estimation -- it feels like this game spawns far more enemies that generally do more damage than in the 360 version, which very nearly breaks some of the missions if you do them as intended. It's not a difficulty issue; it's a balance issue, and a bad one.)

Just after rage-uninstalling the game after the above event, I proceeded (like the fool I am) to start the 360 version on XBox, and holy cow, the difference is night-and-day. It felt so much more alive, complete, beautiful...and stable. I proceeded to finish the story in one day and platinum the game in about 19 hours, and it was a solid 8/10 rampage of brain damage and explosions that definitely fed that hunger for a Far Cry experience.

Do yourself a favor: If you have the means, try the XBox 360 version for the "true" Just Cause experience. Yeah, it's 30 fps, but it's beautiful, bombastic, and not nearly as broken.

48 achievements in 18 minutes. Not even kidding.

(Note: This game works perfectly on the Steam Deck. You do have to use the software keyboard for text entry once to my knowledge, but otherwise it functions as if it were adapted for the Deck.)

While it's not as open or large-scale as its distant cousin ArmA, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is actually (in my opinion) far more accessible -- the gateway to milsims. While its story is merely "good," the gameplay itself shines with its long-distance combat and strong (if simplified) tactical teamwork.

Basically, OF:DR takes most of the features in bigger milsims such as ArmA 3 and simplifies them, yet they remain intact and don't require hours of study or YouTube guides. A set of friends can easily just hop in and start simulating a military unit within minutes. (Servers are no longer active, of course, but direct connection is still available.)

The game is replayable, especially on higher difficulties and with numerous side objectives for each mission. There are many approaches to any mission that result in faster completion times, more streamlined accomplishment of objectives, or even hidden vehicles or weapons tucked away in parts of the map.

I've seen mention of bugs, but I can't remember encountering any besides random crashes when screwing with display settings from a third party app.

Perhaps its one shortcoming -- and, in my opinion, the only shortcoming -- is that the full map is never available in any one given mission. Instead, segments of the island are available in open world sandbox form (though they are still very, very large). It would have been nice to have an open-ended multiplayer sandbox mode with no missions or objectives.

Even at its full $9.99 price, OF:DR is more than worth purchase, and will provide dozens of hours of fun (especially you're a nerd like me and my friends, who did crazy self-imposed challenges like pistols only on the hardest difficulty).

Eventually, one will want to graduate to the more complex and in-depth ArmA 3.

For similar older/cheaper titles, try Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis (alternatively titled ArmA: Cold War Assault; they're the same game).

(Note: Ignore the sequel, Operation Flashpoint: Red River; it is not only one of the worst games I've ever played, it's also possibly the single worst port of a title in existence.)

I just spent 4 hours with a cheat mod, painting the entire map my color and auto-resolving every single battle -- and still had a ton of fun. If the cheat mod applied to this score I'd have to give it 62,885,943,017 out of 10.