Recent reviews by FixateDCraB

12+ hours of soothing Seagull sounds. When the video ends you get to hold G and press T every once in a while. 10/10

1. Graphics (ue 4, surfaces/textures look detailed even on low, impressive particle effects)
   Performance is great: 80+ minimum, 100+ avg fps on "the grandpa": gtx 670 jetstream 2 gb vram, 8 Gb DDR3 @ 2133 Mhz, 3770k /w turbo cause i'm lazy, WD Black HDD. Settings: 1080p, 100% scale,
   Draw distance : Max, AA: Max, AA type: FXAA, Textures: Medium, Shadows: Low, Rest: off/Low
   
2. Netcode: no lag, precise shots @ 70-90 ms ping, good dedicated servers, good net analysis: here
   
3. Sound design: Good sound effects mostly laser based. Good positional audio. Mental soundtrack with composers from DooM/Killer Instinct, Saints Row, Mass Effect and others. Mandatory link cause it's that good: OST
   
4. Gameplay: Fresh/Entirely new mix of UT, Tribes, Team fortress 2 and OW, with an emphasis on gunplay, teamwork and individual skill. No hard disables or stuns . No hard counters for classes . Can't out-heal damage.
   Healing pods are a deathtrap for inexperienced players. Healing breaks while in combat .
   
5. Balanced classes ( 9 total + 1 announced for q4 2017 ) each with unique traversal skills
   
   
6. Map design: contains reimaginings of morpheus/DM-Morpheus (Trench), facing worlds/CTF-Face (Vertigo) + others (10 total / 9 unique + 1 night version + 1 announced for q4 2017 ).
   Each map has 1 or more no gravity zones where aiming in 3d is required. Map flow is nice. Map knowledge is rewarded with health pickups, fast traversal and sight lines.
   
7. Weapon skins/ character costumes look cool and detailed
   
8. In game party system
   
9. Discord Voip works nicely. Clear audio no delay.
   
10. Options. Healthy options menu.
    
11. Caring Dev Team. Game launched in a good state (bug/glitch free, good performance) yet there have been 2 patches almost 1 per week since launch with detailed patch notes posted beforehand and a youtube video explaining the contents of the patch.

1. No bots/ offline play
   
2. Lore only on portrait descriptions (need way more than that). Characters need to have more personality.
   
3. No Ranked mode {Edit: Announced on 01/09/2017 ! }
   
4. No dynamic Assault-type maps. Watch the 2nd wave of hating and who copied who buck- passing commence once/ if they get announced. Xtra lul points if you've been a Blizz fan for decades and have watched this.
   
5. Uninteresting loot types (footprints and stickers to an extent). Opening packs that contain any of those feels bad.
   
6. Only way to gain lootboxes without paying with $ is by leveling up. Xp scaling stops at lvl 25 but xp gain still feels slow.
   
7. Uses the same antiquated lootbox system as in Overwatch. Works in OW because the game is massively popular.
   Even so got retweaked recently.
   Way better to use the Heroes of the Storm system if lootboxes are to stay; That is, in game currency can be used to reroll the contents of the box with each reroll costing more than the previous. Max 3 rerolls per box.
   
8. Only way to earn in game currency is through item duplicates . No quest system. No match rewards. {21/09/2017 edit: Daily credit reward on login added}
   
9. Artstyle and map environment variety could do with more work.

Want a shooter as fast and vertical as Tribes, as explosive and adrenaline fueled as Unreal Tournament (the best ones: UTC, UT2k4) with classes that are reminiscent of TF2 (assassin-scout/ battle med- demo/ titan-soldier, etc) but still manage to feel fresh and with gunplay and traversal that widely differs between classes and takes time to master ? Welcome home.

More interested in in-game progression with cosmetics, rankings, etc ? Give it time.

Quick run-down of TEW a day after i finished it on Survival mode. Solo nightime only playthrough with headphones on.
Max settings with fxaa, unlocked framerate (via unlocked console at 1st, via .ini edit later due to console unlock messing with achievements), black bars intact to preserve intended presentation.

Pros

1) Atmospheric and diverse levels with map design that rewards exploration.

2) Combat system similar to RE4 with a fully "modern camera" and nerfed melee. The coup-de-grace move
in this game is burning downed enemies that requires matchsticks to perform. Burn area has a small aoe
so if any enemies are very close to the downed foe they will catch on fire as well. While there is no roll or dodge the sprint mechanic is as effective and once fully upgraded it allows you to easily manoeuvre arround most enemy types, repositioning between attacks, baiting foes into attacking you, forming bee-lines and toying with the ai. Guns feel good even at stock levels even though some of them feel a bit overnerfed at vanilla as a means to add to the intensity (vanilla pistol shoots outside of reticle at 5m or less sometimes even when sitting still) . Gun reloads are RE4 levels of sexy.

3) Resources are limited yet you will always have what you need at your disposal. The game encourages both exploration and carefull observation of your surroundings. Using environmental traps and shooting enemies at certain body parts so that they either lose their balance and end up dying from environmental hazards or become susceptible to burning is pretty much mandatory.

4) Boss encounters are well orchestraded and usually pit you against an intimidating enemy in a pretty small space and require constant manoeuvres in close encounters until you either figure out some sort of environmental puzzle, or manage to down your foe with your arsenal.

5) The game looks good. Nothing jaw-dropping but it absolutely manages to capture the feel and look of the environments.Textures look organic and nothing feels out of place. There are certain scenes that are incredibly moody and brooding.

6) Key bosses are tied nicely into the game's story with their backgrounds explaining their vulnerabilities and appearance.

7) Replayable. The game has a NG+ mode, 2 harder unlockable difficulties, 2 types of collectibles, unlockable weapons that are rewarded once finishing the game and an upgrade system that requires more than one playthrough to max out everything. Also the achievement list is pretty great encouraging you to do various playthroughs (no upgrades, 1 hit kill mode, etc).

8) Stealth mechanic adds flexibility to how you can approach many encounters.


Cons

1) Cringeworthy voice over performances. Not as bad as "Barry" and "Jill Sandwitch" but close. Most of the time vo prevented me from taking any of the characters seriously and the dialogue was comically bad at times. Think a couple notches better than Godfrey Ho's Ninja films. Cheezy vo is great given the right context. In a game that appears serious and menacing however, it detracts from the atmosphere and breaks immersion making the player feel at ease with what would've otherwise been an incredibly unpleasant situation.

2) The game has almost zero build-up. Even though earlier chapters are slower paced and require a more stealthy approach since you don't have many weapons or upgrades, it still does nothing with character progression. Even if you take your time and read personal notes in order to get a better grasp at understanding who your character is what his background is and what his motives are, what you see on screen is just a guy with a gun. Not likeable or unlikeable, no personality traits or quirks just plain and uninteresting. There is no display of emotion and even when events that are beyond reason occur, the character seems completely disconected from what's going on arround him even if the answer is pretty easy to guess.
The game flows well and the action is pretty much non-stop, however there is no real incentive to push forward. Since character performances are wooden and all characters felt like stock material it's really hard to feel anything for anyone. Even the player death segments, while very gory, failed to evoke any emotional response. In that regard 2013's Tomb Raider, a game which had some horror undertones but was very far away from being labeled as horror, had death segments which felt way more gruesome and disturbing.

3) Unconvincing bad guy. As with every other character in the game the archvillain didn't make me feel anything. His origins and build up as a character are explained in detail, in contrast to those of the protagonist yet i didn't feel either compassion or hate for him, nor was i intimidated by him. In a way he was just a regular villain (but a very fun bossfight) with a Tetsuo-Shima level of power.

4) No sense of dread and spine-tingling tension. While the game has well crafted intense encounters it didn't deliver that heart-pounding borderline paranoia inducing experience that i was looking for.
The main culprit for this is the disconnection from the characters. The enemy designs while really well made looked familiar and their behaviour patterns were clear and very predictable, demoting what would've otherwise been a terrifying moment to a simple action segment.

5) Uninvolving story. I am certainly not one for pulling plot twists out of the blue for the sake of having a plot twist and i appreciate it when a game or a film has a predictable but well crafted story even if that is as simple as 1-2-3. The story in this however was uninvolving and that is truly a shame as there are elements within it that could've been emphasized upon adding emotion and attempting to immerse the player in the protagonist's struggle. The plot as is, felt like just an excuse for the action to take place.


Neutral

1) Visually visceral yet not frightening. The game's terror is the equivalent of SAW,House of 1000 corpses, Texas chainsaw massacre, etc.The game delivers gore with the subtlety of a Cannibal Corpse album so if films with disfigured bad guys, tons of gore, decayed, rotten environments and flesh sculpture get you then this will get you as well. If you are familiar with that kind of horror and it's something that you enjoy being exposed to then you'll feel right at home. If you seek for a deeper, more psychological and disturbed kind of terror however, then i'm afraid this won't do it for you.

2) Game feels like a horror anthology with a mix of bosses that either appeared in a RE game before in some form or are very conceptually familiar in modern horror.

All in all if you want a horror-themed action game with tight resource management, active/manual/engaging combat system that encourages observation and experimentation and diverse, atmospheric levels that reward exploration and allow you to approach encounters in either stealth or head-on or a combination of these two, then you'll have a blast with this title.

If you are looking for a game that will make you feel uneasy, terrified, out of breath and will put you at the edge of your seat and if gore horror does nothing for you then you'd better look elsewhere.

Quick-and-dirty opinions on the main campaign right after finishing it on the highest difficulty. Played the game during nightime only with headphones on, pitch black room, solo. Played through it in two long sittings. I'll play the rest of the content and update accordingly.

Pros

1) Incredible atmosphere

2) Stunning sound design and visuals faithfull to the source material; manage to capture the film's essence down to the core. That is due to both the impeccable art design and the astonishing gfx.

3) Tech is not only impressive but scales incredibly well on low-end machines. Managed to run the game at a respectable 40+ fps on a laptop with a gt740m, i7-3630qm, 4gb ram with most settings maxed at native res. Played through the game on my main system (gtx670 jetstream 2gb vram, 3770k, 8 gb ram @ 2133 mhz) with everything maxed out at 80+ fps at all times. The game felt very fluid while looking breathtaking.

4) Gameplay offers freedom to tackle encounters as you see fit; you can stealth and try to distract opponents, try to "muscle" your way through certain points, fight back or flee .

5) Crafting and salvaging materials manages to cement that sense of gameplay freedom allthewhile separating this title
from standard gameplay conventions found in the genre.

6) While the alien is undoubtably the main attraction, all the other hazards that you have to face manage to be
equally menacing and disturbing for their own reasons without them feeling "tacked-on" or out of place.

7) The game manages to be very intense without relying on scripted events or jumpscares.

8) Another triumph, in my book at least, was how the game made me undergo the same transformation that Ripley's character went through in the original film. From feeling terrorized and helpless to feeling empowered and determined while maintaining the predator-prey relationship all the way through. Even when i had all the right tools at my disposal due to my exploring and frugal use of equipment, i was always on my toes and facing danger always felt like playing with fire.

9) While the Alien certainly felt like it had a certain bias towards me it did not ignore other stimuli
and responded accordingly in different situations making the eco-system in the Sevastopol believable.

10) The dynamic environment adds tons to the game's thick, opressive and suffocating atmosphere with visual and aural feedback accompanying your each and every move. Unwanted noise is created with your every step; doors and vents open automatically from a believable distance. A distance that would make sense for use under normal circumstances becomes a liability and a trap under the conditions that you have to face. Your surroundings are always a factor and may prove to be either an ally or a foe. This dynamism adds perpective and manages to offer full body awareness, immersing me completely in the protaginist's role.

11) Voice over is spot on and true to the spirit of the source material.

12) Map design is incredible with complex levels strewn with shortcuts that can be accessed straightaway or
by the use of upgraded tools that you find through the game. The "metroidvania" aspect of unlocking certain
segments with upgrades is present and you are free to revisit areas, within narrative constraints, disregarding your main objective if you choose to.

13) Exploration comes at a price. You can either focus on the main objective and do the barely minimum to advance or
choose to snoop arround searching for info or materials/equipment at the cost of putting yourself at an even greater risk.

14) The excellent design choice for your character to not be invulnerable while interacting with terminals or even when saving the game gives this constant sense of tension and dread.

Cons

1) Epilogue (ch 18) feels too conventional and in contrast to what the rest of the game manages to achieve.

2) Shadow aliasing adds "noise" to otherwise immaculately crafted visuals.

3) Cutscenes, while very detailed felt choppy.

4) Lipsync is off. Not hilariously bad but noticeable.

Neutral

The game is lengthy. Chapters 15-18 felt like the equivalent of an "extended director's cut" film.

All in all, best Alien game i've played. Undoubtedly one of the best in the Alien(s) franchise and certainly one of the GOTY for me.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=102487709

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLP9mbCuhJc

CoD: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

90 fps lock
Looks a tad better than blops 2 yet plays significantly worse (stutter/choppy on latest nvidia drivers, gtx 670, 3770K @ 3.9 Ghz, 8 GB DDR3 Ram @ 2133 Mhz)
Maps are absolute garbage (debris everywhere, inexplicably complex and ratmaze-like structure with numerous camping spots. Also disproportionately big )
No ping indicator anywhere. No numbers, no bars, nada.

At its current state i'd advise anyone to get blops2 over this if he is interested in cod.
It is by far superior.

One of the reasons i bought a 360.

Is this game worth it? Do you even have to ask?

Alan wake is a TPS that focuses on character, story and atmosphere in order to captivate the player's attention.

And that it manages to do with flying colours.

Taking inspiration from the works of Stephen King and shows like Twin Peaks, Sam Lake and the rest of the masterful team @ Remedy manage to weave a supernatural tale of insanity, loss, light and darkness in which a writer, Alan Wake, who suffers from writers block decides to take a vacation on the idyllic little town of Bright Falls with his wife, when things spiral out of control.

Horror and atmosphere are built mainly through the characters in this game in a very similar fashion to Storm of the Century, with supernatural events just setting the overall stage for the mood.

As far as the actual gameplay is concerned this is a TPS that's based arround enemy evasion and use of your surroundings and equipment in the best possible way to dispose of enemies while spending as less ammo as possible.

Another high note is the game's soundtrack that ranges from moody, liquor steeped and pain drenched tracks to NWOBHM-style metal anthems.

The PC version is vastly superior to its 360 counterpart with the game looking incredible and lighting/shadows in particular stealing the show. The only low point i could find in that department was that the textures looked muddy and dated at times.

Highly recommended to anyone that values story telling and atmosphere (and everyone else as well :P) !!!

A game with much controversy surrounding its release due to both the stylistic change and the developer's confrontational and punk-like attitude.

The result, while not being the pinnacle of hack and slash/spectacle fighters that one of its predecessors was (DMC3), still comes off as very enjoyable and even addictive at times.

Starting with the bad, the fighitng system has been simplified from past releases. Gone are the variety of styles and in their place two new types of weapons are available by holding down each of the triggers. Each weapon type has in turn two sub weapons that behave differently.

This doesn't mean that this is a Fisher-Price, nursing school fighter. The game still requires skillful and deliberate actions in order to be able to deliver a standing ovation worthy, class A demon spanking. It's just that, in what i guess was, an attempt to trim some of the franchise's fat the devs cut off some of the meat as well and this in turn hurt both the gameplay factor and the overall longevity of the title.

Another drawback is that there is no visual indicator for the targeting system so focusing on different opponents and prioritizing your targets feels more clunky.

Finally the point system feels off as it awards more points the more enemies you hit in one blow or the more hits you deliver in a short ammount of time rather than handsomely rewarding precise actions like countering hits. This in turn makes combat feel more spammy and offense-based rather than the "taunting", bursty type of combat in previous DMCs.

From the above you'd guess that i don't like DmC?

Well you couldn't be more wrong.

First of all the level design in this and level variety in particular is one of the best of the series so far, with levels like Lilith's Club, and the News Network stealing the show.

I really liked the punk/pop/street culture based style of the visuals as well.

The fighting while simplified as mentioned above is still very satisfying and fun to play and the angel/demon based mechanics, aside from a cool nod to Dante's duality as a character, are well implemented allowing you to pull off every move imaginable on the fly.

Opting for including platforming rather than puzzles that slow down the pacing was a solid decision on the dev's part imo. It just keeps the game flowing better.

The game's story bears strong similarities to J.Carpenter's "They Live". Personally i found it enjoyable yet nothing groundbreaking given that it's a concept that i was already familiar with through said film.

Character performances are solid as well with Mundus's standing out for me.
The only sour note in that department was that Dante's one liners come off as forced and "wooden" at times.

I also liked the soundtrack as well but i realize that given the niche of the genre (Electro/Industrial) it won't be for everybody.

On the technical side of things QLOC have done a terrific job making this game look spectacular while mainting very high fps and motion fluidity on max settings, resulting in this being one of the best uses of UE3 to date imo.

Overall, a very fun to play H&S title, excellent for newcomers to the genre as well as those that want to rekindle their interest in spectacle fighters.

Recommended.

Uncharted meets the Batman Arkham titles minus the melee combat system.

Now i ,being a fan of both the aforementioned franchises, found the game to be extremely fun to play and very hard to put down.

I was awestruck with the setpieces and the incredible attention to detail in the environments. Also neat little touches of realism here and there like Lara touching the walls to maintain her balance, her feeling uncomfortable trying to get through a tight space etc.

The combat in this is pretty much your standard TPS fare with a twist: instead of a cover button there is an evade one and most encounters are against enemies that will try to pin you down while their allies get up close trying to finish you off.

Taking into account the fact that cover can be set on fire/ blown/shot off the combat system forces you to be on the move for the most part, constantly evading shots and going from cover to cover.

The other half of TR involves exploration and some puzzle solving. The puzzles in this are very easy to figure out but due to their physics-based nature you may have to restart a couple of times to nail down the execution.

By exploring you will find some collectibles that will offer further insight on the island and its inhabitants as well as some personal notes from your crew members that add context. Gathering said collectibles and completing sets rewards you with +xp to spend on unlocking skills that make Lara a more profficient adventurer and combatant.

The other drop type in TR is salvage which you can use to upgrade your weapons.

Finding gun parts from time to time will allow you to spend salvage on a gun in order to unlock some modifications for it.

What i really liked about the collectibles in this game is the fact that you get to examine these artifacts up close by twisting the camera and you'll even get to spot little details in an attempt to get some more clues on their origin, etc.

Hunting Animals is also another way for you to get +xp and salvage. Killing way too many animals in one specific area however will remove all +xp +slvg rewards forcing you to change your hunting grounds.

The story is nothing groundbreaking but it's interesting enough to make you want to keep progressing, although i feel that the support characters could've been given a bit more personality and character. They feel way too much like the Scooby Bunch at times.

Finally the PC version is of the highest quality, as i've come to expect from Nixxes with tons of options and jaw-dropping visuals.

All in all highly recommended.