Recent reviews by Volasaurus

I need to start this review with a bit of clarification: I genuinely think some of what was improved was great. Smoother framerates, better AI, better mouse and keyboard controls, better resolutions. And frankly some of multiplayer matches I did play were pretty solid compared to the OG release. (I'm sorry, the OG multiplayer has not been stable for a LONG time, even with great setups. You're lying to yourself through rose tinted glasses.)

HOWEVER

The game is *hecking enormous* for how little was actually improved. The controller UX is just generally bad, and when doing remote play Splitscreen (the primary reason I bought this), you can't have one player be kb+m and one player be controller. You both have to use a controller, which is just asinine. That might not even be a Classic Collection issue, but I wish I had known going into it. (Or please just add support to play the campaigns through regular multiplayer means? Is that too much to ask while we're re-releasing these?)

On top of that, there's weird stuttering in multiplayer, the game refuses to open while I'm streaming, the audio is either missing or pitched down in many places, cutscenes are either cut short or missing entirely, and it feels like some of the music is missing? Hero Assault is buggy as heck.

4/10, I might repurchase and change this review if the product is proven to have improved.

Where to start? This game truly touched me.

I was originally sold on the inspiration from Undertale and Night in the Woods, but as I got further into the story, it became clear that Mondealy is more than the sum of its parts. Yes, it elicits elements and flavors of Undertale, Stardew Valley, Night in the Woods, Oneshot, and several other games, but there's a unique flavor here that I think really starts to shine around Chapter 7 or 8.

I won't spoil the plot, but the character art is INCREDIBLE. The designs are all so good, from Corsic to Riley, Michael and Rufus, Froga and Hass. Every single character is unique, memorable, and distinct. Personalities clearly shine through, thoughts and feelings are so well conveyed. Character portraits shift to reflect plot changes, little physics interactions make the world feel like every footstep has meaning and impact, parallax so good that it makes you feel like you could step into the monitor and get lost in the world before you.

As someone who is LGBT and neurodivergent, this game made me feel seen. It took very serious real world scenarios and packaged them in a nearly universally accessible package. Character interactions had real and lasting consequences, and I felt like the entire world was tangible. I received this product for free for the purposes of reviewing and streaming it, but I would've paid full price for it many times over if I had known it would be this good. I fully intend to play through it more and search for the other endings <3

This game made me feel dread, joy, sadness, anger, and regret, and all in enjoyable and immersive ways. It's not often that a game makes me weep the way that a novel or film can, but when it does, it matters. And Mondealy matters.

11/10.

As it currently stands, I love this game. I think it's amazing, all of the features make it my favorite Marvel game of all time, but until performance issues are addressed (things like the notorious memory leak and launcher performance issues) officially in a patch, I cannot recommend this game for purchase.

Full disclosure, I've had this game preordered since its announcement, I really REALLY want to be able to positively review it, because it's so good on paper. I just want it to be able to run smoothly.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
GPU: RTX 3070
RAM: 64 GB Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro
Motherboard: B550 Chipset

I played a tiny bit, seemed alright.

There are humans. You destroy them. It's a good time, 9/10, would destroy humanity again.

P.S. The final fight isn't particularly well telegraphed, but if you find yourself REALLY struggling on a mission, leave and buy some upgrades. The lack of telegraphing took the score down 1 point.

If this is a vision of things to come in XCOM 3's mechanics and tactics, I'd like more, please!

The characters are compelling, the fan service is great (no I won't spoil it for you), and the new abilities are fantastic.

This is a standalone expansion for XCOM 2, but it's also more than that. Making Overwatch into a cone, for example, adds so much more depth to encounters. Nonlethal kills are a nice touch, forcing the player to weigh the benefits of live captures versus kills (though this IS XCOM, kills are inevitable and still encouraged sometimes). Admittedly, it becomes less of an active choice once you have the entire squad outfitted with Tranq Rounds.

I'm not honestly a fan of the Field Teams system, thought that could've been fleshed out a bit more, because as it stands, it's kind of a fire and forget thing.

Let me preface this by saying, yes, I'm extremely biased. The original Doom was the very first game I ever played sitting on my dad's lap in 1992. This will always be a special franchise to me, and something about it is innately essential to my being.

COMBAT:
If you're smart, if you're efficient, and if you know how to open up a gore pinata with your chainsaw (You have a functioning C key, don't you?), you will EXCEL at ripping and tearing your way through Hell's hordes. Ammo is significantly more sparse, so you have to have your wits about you, and make sure that every choice you make is deliberate. You WILL be punished if you fail to bear the entire battlefield in mind as you dash and unleash your inner Slayer.


LEVELS:
If DOOM 2016 was full of Romero style levels, Doom Eternal is full of Petersen style levels. What this means to folks who are complete and total Doom geeks: As mentioned earlier, there is significantly less ammo in each level, so you have to plan your movements carefully. Secrets are generally in plain sight, but how to acquire them and the paths you take will be well hidden in some cases.

PROGRESSION:
Doom Eternal is all about rewarding the player for doing well at the mechanics that you'll already be doing. Killing things a lot? Get some upgrade points. Finding secrets? Get some upgrade points. Finishing optional content? GET SOME UPGRADE POINTS. You gain new abilities and new weapons as quickly as you've just begun to master the last thing you got.

MUSIC:
Mick Gordon has once again proven that the Slayer is so badass that reality itself has formed a chorus to revel in your righteous carnage.

BATTLEMODE:
Playing as demons is super satisfying. I'm not great at playing Slayer, but I've been having a blast with it regardless. This review was written in the first week of the game's release, so I'm not going to harp on balance issues until we've seen a balance pass go live. I will update this review as necessary.

9.5/10 (because perfect scores don't exist in the real world).

Hey, the game's not great with randoms, but it's awesome with a regular group. I enjoyed it quite a bit when I was younger.

Fired it up recently, and ran into the low framerate issue everyone was talking about. After some digging, I discovered that if you update your local Python installation to any version newer than 2.7.10, it should run at 60+ again.

https://www (dot) python (dot) org/downloads/release/python-2717/ In case the URL gets censored: Python 2.7.17. I don't think that's even the latest version anymore, but that was the version I got it to work with.

Happy Haunting, everyone! <3 ~7.5/10

A wonderful addition to the modern entries in one of the oldest contiguous video game franchises. I found the game as enjoyable as the rest (the Old Blood is still the best entry in the series by far).

Pros:
+Everything you expect from the last two titles and more.
+Dual-wield virtually any gun in the game within reason? Check.
+Destructible dynamic cover? Check.
+Brutal and satisfying executions? Check.

Flavor-biased Pros (you might or might not enjoy these as much as I did):
The game is gratuitously violent in wonderful ways. While Wolfenstein sort of started out as BJ Blazcowiz being this universe's version of Captain America, it has evolved into a gory Tarantinoesque endeavor, akin to "Kill Bill" or "Inglourious Basterds".

Cons:
-The UI leaves something to be desired, and there are many times where the minimalist approach was detrimental to the experience as a whole.
-I don't know if I'm just losing my hearing or if enemies genuinely don't make that much noise until they're right on top of you, But a 6 foot-something Nazi in heavy infantry armor should make a hell of a lot more noise and be less sneaky. Just saying.
-The final boss is a little underwhelming (but the Epilogue is totally worth it).

My review is based on my play through on "Call Me Terror-Billy" and I have yet to try the DLC yet, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. 4/5 Blood Splatters.

This game is a wonderful installment of Star Control. If you're looking for a new game featuring the Ur-Quan, Spathi, Syreen, and VUX, that's not what this game is. However, if you're drooling over planet landing, alien fighting, ship-exploding, asteroid-bouncing goodness that is faithful to the SOUL of Star Control while bringing fresh and exciting new depth to the series, this is ABSOLUTELY the game for you.

It's important to note that this game takes place in the Star Control Multiverse, within which all of the individual Star Control universes reside. The combat is great once you get used to the new nuances.

Some advice: I seem to perform best when I set up my fleet with a designated scavenger who collects as many pickups as it can before dying, so that the rest of the fleet can benefit from MASSIVE fleet buffs. I'm pretty good at using the Mu'kay Grasper and the Greegrox Swarm, so I tend to fill my fleet with those.

BUT WAIT: THERE'S MORE!

Do you wanna build custom ships? (Yes.)
Do you want to build custom BUILDINGS?! (Yes.)
DO YOU WANT TO BUILD AN ENTIRELY NEW GALAXY TO PLAY IN?!? (YES!)

You can do all of these things, because the game and lore is built to support this. Gorgeous game, wonderful flavor.

Don't forget to *enjoy the sauce*.