Recent reviews by dawgear

I love this game. Fatshark did an amazing job with (eventually) creating an immersive, complex, and intense co-op game that thrills like few can. Whether you are mowing through slave rats like a dynamo of carnage or struggling to the last man in a doomed final stand, Vermintide has a chaotic charm that rewards the teamplayer and yet elevates personal skill. Supporting each other is absolutely essential, but the way a seasoned player snipes a special pinning an ally while dodging a boss and cleaving through the horde can only be taught by actually seeing it happen. When you clutch the moment and save the run, there is nothing as satisfying (or appreciated) in all of gamedom! I can hardly think of a game that unites poetic form and heart-pounding function quite like this.

However, it wasn't always like this. For the first 6 months or so after launch, this game was full of questionable design choices, delayed features, and more bugs than the underside of your fridge. It was unbalanced, aimless, and often frustrating when some core mechanic suddenly stopped working. Even afterward, the progression felt insanely grindy (I didn't reach a decent powerlevel until 300 hours in) and very stingy with decent loot like red weapons and cosmetics. The improving gameplay was so good and tasty though that I didn't really care, and it was practically the only game I played for 9 glorious months. Yet even manna tastes stale after a while, so I put it on the back burner with every intention to retake the mantle when the next major content dropped.

That brings us here. Fatshark always had a tenuous relationship with their community after such a rough start, but bad communication and slow updates have nothing on what is happening now. The Winds of Magic DLC is poorly thought out and lacking in content with only one new map (the first and only regular mission of the year), a handful of unpolished enemies, a pointless leaderboard, and 120 separate matchmaking queues for 120 chunks of preexisting content remixed with different colors and less replayability (that also ignores all the gear and leveling you earned for yet another painful grind). That is just the expansion though, and the patch that came with it is honestly worse; instead of just disappointing us, it resets all the progress Fatshark has made since the beginning. Crashes and glitches have returned with a vengeance, painstakingly balanced classes and skills have been completely turned over and left in shambles, and even the core mechanics they honed so well have been trashed in the name of new stagger thresholds that don't even work properly after two freaking betas. It is every bit as broken as the opening week, and the work they had put in perfecting their mindblowing, one-of-a-kind combat system over 18 months is now gone.

Maybe they will eventually re-rebalance all the classes, skills, and weapons, and plug up all the holes flooding their game with more bugs than rats, but I doubt this mess will be cleaned up any faster than it was before. What I don't understand is, why? Even if they had some -evidently incoherent- vision for their massive redesigns, why did they foist it upon an established and overall satisfied community that told them from the word go that these changes were for the worst? It's like tearing out the guts of CSGO and dumping in half-baked Call of Duty gunplay and expecting their dedicated player base to just swallow it. I'm invested in this game, Fatshark. I preordered it in 2017, bought all the DLC, upgraded to the collectors edition, gifted multiple copies to friends, defended it on forums, and did all I could to ensure this unique experience would not die on the vine. This senseless killing and misguided focus is just too much to bear, for me and many others who saw VM's potential realized and then unceremoniously smashed. Go ahead and buy Vermintide 2 now, but you may find it hard to find matches in the coming months if Fatshark can't figure out where they went insane. I will revise this review if they ever find their way again.



TLDR: Look how they massacred their own boy! D:

Sekiro differs from other Fromsoft games in the details of combat, but their wonderful world-building and challenging fights are as present as ever. Activision's main contributions seem to be plentiful tutorials (don't skip these) and laughable localization, so stick with the Japanese voiceover. Combat might actually be easier if you aren't a Souls veteran; I spent the first 10 hours sucking hard before my mind adapted to parrying over dodging. Just know that dodging and jumping only have i-frames against certain attacks, failing a parry will still block all damage, and holding block reduces your posture bar much faster than running around like a giant chicken. If you want an easier beginning, be sure to pick up the top ability in the third level of the shinobi tree (health after deathblows) and the first level 'Mikiri Counter' ability (easy punish against many otherwise terrible attacks). None of the prosthetic attachments are needed, but all can be useful depending on your playstyle - the shurikens were my personal favorite for closing distance and safely maintaining pressure, while firecrackers can trivialize powerful enemies with stunlocks and debuffs. The main downside to Sekiro compared to the Souls series is the lack of different builds and ways to play, mostly limited to the tools and arts you focus on, thus making subsequent playthoughs feel samey. However, if you are fine with being limited to roleplaying the world's most badass ninja, this game offers 30 to 50 hours of Fromsoft's bread and butter; a sense of pride and accomplishment, bought with the blood of your foes instead of premium currency.

Less of a game, more of an experience. Loved exploring it when it first came out, and now everyone can lose themselves in a existentially subsumed city! Why not dive into the belly of the beast?

A beautiful jaunt through colorful hinterlands and heights, with fairly intuitive puzzles and a brilliant string soundtrack. Only two flaws; no map of any sort, and a short runtime of ~5 hours. If you are looking for a dreamy experience to whittle away the afternoon and sooth the soul, 'Seasons After Fall' is hard to beat! Good for all ages.

I thought this game was cool before it won an award.

Valiant Hearts may not be the most innovative game, but Ubisoft makes up for it in spades with a unique artstyle, strong atmosphere, and hard-hitting story based on actual letters from WW1.

Gameplay is mostly puzzle-based, nothing too hard but expect to get stuck every now and then. Most mechanics are introduced by the second chapter (out of four), making the latter half alittle repetitive. However, the real meat of this game lies in the world it paints, a vision into the lives affected by the outbreak of war in 1914. It's an underexplored field few games tread, and Valiant Hearts does a superb job detailing our modern history to people unfamiliar with 'The Great War'.

Both uplifting and sorrowful, the story (while fairly simple) is an emotional rollercoaster tapping into the morally grey nature of the raging conflict between the Allied Powers and the Second Reich along the western front. Even so, I felt some of the side characters, like Anna the Nurse or Baron Von Antagonist, would have benefited from alittle more expositional depth.

Overall, Valiant Hearts is a faithful and colorful look into the past packaged into a decent game, a special experience for those interested in the most dramatic turning point in Western culture since 1648, and an honest bargin even at full retail $15. This is one game I'm actually hoping has DLC!

*Word of Caution to Parents: While the artstyle may suggest this is kid-friendly, Valiant Hearts' story pulls few punches and does not disguise it's subject matter. I would suggest not letting your children play this until you are comfortable with them watching 'Saving Private Ryan'. C'est la vie.

If you are willing to forgive Dark Souls of its poor port from consoles, this game can be an absolute BLAST to play! The deep combat, the feeling of creating a warrior unique to you, the brilliant world design, the satisfying challenge the enemies relish in giving, even the cryptic storyline all draw you in like few other games can. The only drawback this virtual epic has is it's sub-par port . If you don't have an xbox controller, or the patience to deal with windows live, then get one and show Lord Gwyn what you're made of!

This is the definitive hat wearing simulator of our time. When future generations ask us where we turned to for virtual suits and dresses, we will proudly point out of our nursing homes at this marvel of early 21st century technology and declare, with one voice, "Stout Shako for 2 Refined!" And they will weep with delirious joy!