Recent reviews by alorxico

This may not be the OG Looter-Shooter, but it is the gold standard.

The game is one of a kind, beyond the dragon's hoard level of loot you can find and farm. It presents you with a host of amazing (and flawed) characters you grow to care about and whose fight you can really get behind. Handsome Jack truly is a villain you can love to hate, hate to love or fully support as the story progresses, and the motivation for his actions makes you stop and question what is going on in the game's universe that THIS was the only solution.

Yes, there are times the games makes it VERY clear you need to get friends because this was never meant to be a single player game. Enemies and bosses love to materialize out of no where and kick you butt to next Tuesday and "helper" characters don't seem to understand that when your ability to resurrect is based on getting the killing shot them killing all the enemies in the area is a bad idea, but with the right guns and perks, you can prove the game wrong and push ahead. There are challenges on top of challenges that will keep you coming back after the credits roll, the DLC adds to the game's universe and the character's stories and, more importantly, the game's loot!

My only complaint is with the last DLC released for the game, which tied it to Borderlands 3. First, the way they slammed characters from the various Borderlands "expanded universe" together felt awkward and the story they provided deserved SO MUCH MORE than the 3.5 hours devoted to is. It should have been its own game.

Addicting but frustrating, Dungeon of the Endless reminds me of Age of Empires (back when it was good) minus the 'you can build your own troops when the others die' aspect of the game.

At the start of your game, you choose up to two Heroes whose main job is to explore a randomly generated dungeon until they find the exit. Once said exit is found, you assign one Hero to carry the Crystal (a power source for your former ship) to the exit while under the assault of an infinite wave of enemies.

During your quest to find the exit, though, you have been given Dust, which let's you power a limited number of rooms to keep enemies from spawning in them ala Minecraft (It's dark, therefore monsters appear here when ever they feel like it) and the option of building ONE Resource Generator (Sciene, Industry or Food) in some of the rooms. Food lets you level up your Heroes, heal your Heroes and recruit new Heroes; Science let's you discover new technologies that make surviving the Mad Dash to the exit easier; and Industry lets you build said resource generators and various butt-saving technologies. These three resources increase every time you open a door to a new room.

Now, for those of us whose gaming mentality can best be described as "kill everything that is not one of my allies and don't leave until it's all dead" Dungeon of the Endless is going to kick your butt to next Tuesday. The whole point of this game is to make a clear, straight path between point A and point B and running like HECK! (Yes, I am censoring myself because the little Steam Hearts annoy me) The more doors you open, the more danger you put your Heores in. Yes, there can be rewards for exploring EVERY room on a floor, but every new room that cannot be lit has the chance of spawning baddies, and the higher the floor the more powerful the baddies are.

Still, if you like resource management, strategy and defence games, Dungeons of the Endless will be great for you. If you tend to Rage Quit when something does not go your way, you will absolutely HATE this game. Still, the concept is unique enough that I have to recommend it.

Oh, and for some reason, the creative team named the difficulty levels for the game "Very Easy" and "Easy." I think this is freaking brilliant, because when you die two rooms into the first level on "Easy" every molecule in your body that has been conditioned since Duck Hunt to know that "Easy" means there is no way your can lose unless your controller is dying will demand you keep playing just to prove that 'no, you don't stink at playing video games, yes, you ARE as good a gamer as you know you are, and yes, the game is stupid! and you can beat it with your eyes closed.' Two thumbs up for the psych-out!

THE SHORTY VERSION: Unless you are playing against the AI or with a group of friends who just want to have fun, this is not a good game to play. Avoid it at all costs.

THE LONG VERSION: DOTA 2 is team-based "capture the flag" game. The object is for your team of five players to destroy the other team's "Ancient" (a large structure in the center of their starting zone). There are only a set few ways to get to the other team's Ancient, called Lanes, which ensures that at some point you will be shooting at someone else trying to get to your Ancient as you make your way to theirs. To ensure the fights are "interesting," each character has a unique set of skills that give them an edge, such as freezing your opponent or draining their energy (which prevents them from using their powers). A vendor exists on each map who will sell you items to boost your stats and how quickly you can regain your energy and there are special monsters who, upon defeat, will fight the other side for you.

Yes, it's like Blizzard's "Heroes of the Storm.

Though it sounds entertaining (and it can be), the game has a very toxic fan-base that has boiled character selection and improvment down to a science. Just as World of Warcraft players once had "Class Guides" that told new players exactly which items to equip and what talents to take to deal the most damage (before Blizzard removed the Talent Trees to stop this), DOTA 2 veterans know exactly which items to buy or powers to take for the five or six most powerful characters in the game, and they will curse out new players for not adhering to these guides and "costing" them a win. Additionally, the only way to level up your character is to kill AI generated minions or other players, and some veterans of the game are notorious for "kill stealing" to level up quickly to gain an edge.

Another issue gamers face is skill level. Casual players who just want to have fun will find it difficult to find other casual players, despite there being a setting on "matchmaking" that is supposed to help with it, and will inevitably be thrown into a game with serious or "professional" gamers. If the matching system is being charitable, these serious gamers will be evenly distributed on both teams; every other time, they will be placed on the opposite side and the match will last 5 minutes. These players are notorious for dropping out of games within 30 seconds of the game starting if they see their team has not progessings as they "should."

Now, I have said some horribly negative things about the game's player base, but I would like to now says some nice things about it. In regards to the game, as far as "lane games" go, DOTA 2 is easy to learn and addictively fun PROVIDED you can find good players to play with. Valve is also very good at maintaining the game, adding content and hosting events. In regards to the players, there are some diamonds in the rough out there; veteran players who are polite, helpful and really don't care if they win or lose. Additionally, Valve has been ... good (not great, but what can you expect when you have millions of people playing a game) in investigating reports of hate speech and verbal abuse.

One of the best tips I can give to new players and casual players is this: be aware of when you are logging into the game. Here on the East Coast, I have greater odds of finding nice players during the week BEFORE 5pm. After 5 and on the weekends, I am more likely to be partnered with some truly horrible people. In the end, though, I cannot recommend DOTA 2 unless you have tough skin.

I heard some great things about this game and it was highly recommended to me by various friends, some because they know I love Roman history and others because they know I like games with sword fights, but I have to say I am disappointed in Ryse: Son of Rome.

First, it relies heavily on quick-time events. You can simply beat enemies with the attack button, but if you want to heal or gain extra experience, you have to "execute" enemies, which means pressing certain buttons when the controler shakes and the enemies flash different colors. Problem is, if you are trying not to die, as I was during the first 20 minutes of playing, you can miss these sublte cues to perform the special moves. This is compounded by a camera problem, which I will elaborate on in a moment, that prevents you from seeing all the enemies currently queing up to slice parts of your bottom off with their sharp, point swords.

Second, the controls cannot be re-assigned. This applies to the controler, which I used, and the key board. Now, this might not seem like a problem at first, but when you have died a third time because your Roman General is staring blankly at the sky when you are trying to get him to look ahead of him, you start hating the control system. Camera movement is also very sticky and will jump randomly from turning slowly and dramatically to suddenly spinning out of control. This is not helped by the fact that the camera insists on centering on your soldier's derriere, only zooming out when he is being attacked and only allowing you to see exactly what is infront of him when he is fighting.

Third, the graphics are horrid. While my graphics card is not top of the line, it is still a decent card and it can run games like Fallout 4 and Skyrim at High or Ultra settings. With Ryse, however, I had to drop to Low graphics and it was still grainy, pixelated and blurry.

I struggled with the controls and fought them more than I fought in the game, and despite being on the lowest difficulty setting (as I have never played this sort of game before) I died multiple times. I am not happy with this game and I regret buying it. Now, I am sure there will be players who will suggest I give it more time; 24 minutes is hardly enough time to adjust to the "unique" way the game does things, but I do not agree. A game that was once hailed as the best game for a new generation of consol games should allow players to adjust the controls to fit their play style and should not prevent the player from seeing the entire fight of battle.

My person review is this: Please, avoid this game. Do not buy it, even if it is on sale for only a few dollars. It is not worth it.

The program claims to support Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition games and on the very basic level it does. Provided YOU have every single manual and every single source book, you can create a 4th edtion game and build 4th edition characters. If you don't have these now out of print and difficult to find books, none of the DLC for Fantasy Grounds will help you. All of the D&D material is for 5th edition, because that is the only edition for which they have a license.

Now, I would normally not be upset about this. Wizards of the Coast is notorious for making their previous products obsolete to ensure their current ones are sold like hotcakes, just look at Magic the Gathering (5 months after a collection is completed a new one is released and a year after that neither are deemed "playable" by serious gamers), so I understand that the developers might not be able to get the license for a gaming system the creators want to fade into ancient history.

My problem is that NO WHERE on their Steam Store page or main website does it say that the DLC items are not compatible with older verson of the systems their program supports. I spent several hours searching and eventually found one after utilitizing Google Search and it was an archived post on their Forum Boards about others having a simliar issue with creating 3.5 games. The Steam Store does, however, celebrates the fact that the company received permission to create 5th Edition data packs, but does not clarify that the data packs are ONLY for 5th.

I bought the game to help run my 4th Edition D&D game. I returned it when I realized it couldn't.

UPDATE 11 - 13-2015

As a resource-management / society building game, Gnomoria covers all the basics. Basic tools, basic foods, basic livestock, basic weapons, basic combat. It does basic very well. What innovations it has that sets it apart and above some of the other games of its genre is how it presents itself.

As a small collective of 6 Gnomes settling the hilly (or flat) wilds of Gnomoria, you are allowed to destroy and build as you please. The ground can be dug up and used to build homes or sifted to find rare metals to make weapons or gems to make jewelry. Cotten can be grown in farm plots to make bandages, bags or armour or the fields can be used to grow food. How your Gnomes live and work is up to you.

Initially, you are left to yourself, but eventually you will have to deal with Goblins, skeletons and other beasts bent on your destruction. Build up your defensives and research new tools, like guns and steam-engines, to protect your Gnomes.

Though well-balanced and well-coded, there are some things missing. For example:

1.) If your livestock gets hurt, you cannot heal them and if all your livestock die, you must establish a trade route with a neighboring kingdom to buy new livestock
2.) Livestock is also the only reliable way to get meat and leather, as there is no hunting of wildlife in the game.
3.) The only way your population can grow is through Gnomads, who will only come to your city if material worth of your city is high enough to merit a migration.
4.) Determining what job your new Gnome is best suited to perform requires you to scroll through their entire talent list.
5.) Distant kingdoms only exist as text on a menu screen and visiting diplomats don't do anything but wander around (and in my case, get killed by bears)
6.) Trying to do anything more complicated than "All units kill this thing" makes the game look at you funny.

But, these are minor considering the price and the over-all feel of the game. For $8, it is a decent but basic game. The creator hopes to have the game released as "complete" by the end of the year and raise the price to $14.99 and in that case I would ask for, at the barest minimum, the option to bred your Gnomes to increase the population and a way to heal my livestock after a goblin raider has tried to carve its buttocks off.

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Originl Post

FAIR WARNING!!!!

As of October 6th, 2015, the creator has removed the game's development plan from the website. He is only focusing on optimizing the game as it is right now, fixing bugs, and on improving mod-support. He is NOT going to add any new features or content. New content MAY be added after the game is released, which he is hoping to do by the end of the year, at which time the price will go up to $14.99, but he has said the best place to find new content is from the community.

The game is fun, I will not deny it, it is both challenging and creative, but it is not complete. It is missing content and the creator seems content letting the community finish his game for him. Now, maybe he has a job and this is just his hobby or he realized his original plan was just too ambitious for him to do alone; maybe he has a good reason to turn the reigns over to the community. But as someone who cannot create mods and whose computer automatically deletes them because of some security setting I don't know how to disable, being told I finish the game myself using mods is like being told to write the ending of the book I am reading.

Again, this is all the game you are going to get. So, if you have been wanting it, get it for the reduced price. As it is, this game is NOT worth $14.99

A bunch of my coworkers rave about this game to no end, so I decided to hop on and try it. Good thing it is Free to Play or I would be asking for my money back.

Though there is the option to play the game solo, this is not a first person game; this is an shooter MMO set in space. If you want to play alone, the game lets you but does not scale down the difficulty. In one mission, where I was supposed to prevent an artifact from being destroyed, I found myself up against 30 baddies with lasers and grenades while all I had was a rifle and a pistol with no ammo. Needless to say, I died alot and the game was oh-so happy to keep track of just how often that was.

You are given a limited number of chances to "revive", the games fancy word for "respawn", but it does not have the decency other games have to moves you AWAY from the mob of baddies that just killed you. Instead, it drops you right in the middle of them, only giving YOU control AFTER it is done with the respawn animation but allowing the baddies to fill you with bullets as soon as the animation starts. Once your designated respawns have been used, you cannot continue playing the game. You can BUY respawns, however, for Platinum but that is currency you have to buy with real money, you don't EARN it.

The controls are a bit wonky; moving the mouse moves the camera all the time and the direct your character is running about 45% of the time. You only start with a rifle and a pistol, though ammo for all the different weapon types drop from baddies and can be found in chests. The baddies, however, can use what every type of weapon they want and have no problem shooting you when you are behind cover. They also can stun lock you just by hitting you with the butt of their gun, which leave you open to attacks that can take away all of your shield or half your health before you get a chance to run.

If you want more weapons, you have to buy them with Platinum and I'm not 100% certain you actually buy them; I think you buy the designs to build them should you find the parts later on. X is the defaut "do the thing I need you to do" button, but the promt to do said thing either doesn't appear or appears in the smallest font the game can access. I died several times because I was suppsed to access or hack or interface or something with a console and it would not let me until I stood exactly where it wanted me to stand, and by then all the baddies had respawned and knocked me down to 2 HP.

There is also a foundry, the game's crafting system, but you don't have any designs available to you at the start of the game that uses the materials you find in the starting missions. You get "mods" that boost your health, melee damage, gun damage, etc, you for some reason you are only allowed to equip mods that have the same number as your level and once you do you can't equip one that, when added to the values of your other mods, is over your level.

For example. You are allowed one "free" mod, which is actually a power of your suit. At level 3 I was allowed to equip a mod that increased my health by 40%. At level 6, I thought I could instal another power mod so I could stop dying, but I was stopped by an annoying little buzz sound as my level bar flashed. The new power was for level 6, but if I wanted to use it I had to remove the level 3 mod and instal it by itself. I could, however, install another level 3 mod, but when I tried that I got buzzed again because it I could not have two mods of the same type (ie two health mods) active at the same time.

I know I am going to be told "If you play with others then you won't have these problems. Why don't you play with others?" Answer: because I want to know what my character can do BEFORE jumping into a random matchup, so as to try and avoid the ineffitable "OMG you are so bad at this! Stop playing, you're ruining this for the rest of us" you usually run into in MMOs. Also, if the game is MEANT to be an MMO, I don't think they should give the player the option of playing solo, because then you get players like me who think "Hey, I can play abit by myself so when my friend come online to play I will be a better teammate" becoming upset and writing bad reviews.