Recent reviews by Al Chemist

theBlu is basically a tech demo for VR. A window into the future of VR for CGI movies like Avatar. It doesn't have any replay value but it is good to have in library as a quick introduction to VR for friends since its short, uncomplicated and has a 'wow effect.

Great game to test your hardware. Needs workshop though..

Still the best military shooter in the market. The mod servers have enough variations (specially vietnam mods) to keep players from getting bored.

Finally decided to write a review for this game as it's on sale. The developer deserves all the praises he can get.

AAA quality game under 300 mb. Reminds of good ol' days of PC gaming when hardcore coders not artists / modders used to make games.

Yes its true that 'reinventing the wheel' is waste of resources. But it doesn't mean to forcefully fit the same wheel on every cart/car regardless of its purpose and size. When game are made from scratch with less reliance on generic ready made engines or recycled tools and more under the hood coding, they require less resources and run blazingly fast even on old hardware.

And that is the first thing you will notice with Banished. You can feel the engine underneath while playing. It feels like you just need to press a hidden button to see everything in code Matrix style. It reminds me of the days playing Quake 3 Arena. Very raw yet very crispy.

Banished is developed by a lone coder so it doesn't have detailed tutorials, introductory videos and all other sorts of babysitting that gamers of today have gotten used to. But for someone like me that just adds to its appeal of truly open ended sandbox game. The difficulty I had to stop letting my village starved to death was the best part of the game. And I think that is how the game should be played. Stop reading guides and experiment on your own. Because that is what the game is all about. There is no specific objectives in the game. How city building games should be. The way they are meant to be played.

Having said that, the game doesn't have a huge scope like that of Total War or Civilization games. So without multiplayer, it's not a game that you can keep on playing forever. So don't rush it. Enjoy the game and try different things.

This game will appeal to you if you are a gamer who likes to explore, experiment, decorate and set your own objectives. But if you are someone who likes hand holding, being told what to do while following scripted sequences one after another with specific objectives to accomplish than look elsewhere.

Highly recommended!

Game has trading cards and a funny developer. What else do you need from a cheap indie game?

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in
AOE gamer through the years...

Well, I haven't touched it for long time but since it has been chosen for Holiday Sales community choice, I thought I may share my views. Even though I don't remember things clearly.

But what I do remember is why I uninstalled it after playing it for a while. And that reason I do remember clearly.

I tried to like it, but I just couldn't get pass the interface. It has console written all over it. Not bad if you are used to consoles. But for pure PC gamers like me who haven't touched consoles since the Atari and Sega days, the awkward and simplistic interface is hard to ignore.

The other thing I didn't like is the limited customization. I spent as much time customizing my cars as playing 'em if not more. So the very limited customization was a let down.

Having said that, I will still recommend it specially when its on sale. Because there aren't that many NFS games on Steam and this one is probably the best among them. (Shift and Unleashed shouldn't have NFS on their title).

If you want to know my taste for comparison, NFS: Most Wanted (2005) is all time favorite NFS game (since NFS 2). And original Driver is my all time favorite driving game overall.

One of the few games that I bought when It came out and payed full price for the dlcs as well.

Its a fun city building game with humor. It is pleasant to look at and you can almost build your city the way you like. Being on tropical island is refreshing.

You are basically a standard Latino dictator (parody of Castro) who has to build up his Island into a prosperous city amidst the Cold war. You can choose to make your government more communist oriented or capitalist. In doing so you get the support from one of the Super powers. Similarly, you get various benefits or disadvantages in your international relations depending on how you run your island.

Farming, industry, tourism, education, transport are some of the many aspects of the economy you'll have to manage in order to keep your islanders fed and happy.

This is only a single player game though. The only thing you can do is upload your city in sort of high scores fashion where other folks can check it out. But for some reason I had trouble doing so.

If you can get it cheap (on sale) then you can easily enjoy it for couple of days at least. Even if you get Tropico 5 when it comes out, some of the content will stay unique as in Tropico 3 like the radio broadcaster/ commentator and music etc.