Recent reviews by Charger1968

Another shining example of how videogames can be art. The gameplay loop, while it seems boring on paper, is actually very engaging and tightly designed with minimal frustration; serving as a backdrop for an incredible multi-layered story with themes involving perseverance in a dying world, our relationship with death, the emotional struggles of being a father, and ultimately human connections

It's certainly not without its flaws. Whether on purpose or on accident, the line delivery on average ranges from tone-deaf and slightly subtractive (from the experience) at worst to passable at best with a few edge cases of exceptionally good voice acting. This problem is sometimes exacerbated by the often questionable dialogue from some characters, but in general, the game knows when it needs to take itself seriously.

Overall, Death Stranding is a beautiful game containing an emotional story with *many* twists and turns and gameplay that's fun enough to warrant coming back for the post-game. Highly recommend.
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It truly does pain me to give one of my favorite FPS games growing up and one of my favorite multiplayer FPS games in general a thumbs down, but all 343 had to do was not mess this up and while the port itself performs perfectly, 343 made a bunch of unnecessary changes that do way more harm than good.

• Progression
  One of Halo Reach's most liked and defining features it's credit-based armor unlock system where players would earn credits from various gamemode (campaign, matchmaking, and firefight.) which would contribute to their level and leave them with a currency they could spend on almost whatever armor piece they wanted (provided they met the necessary level requirement to purchase it).
  343i have done away with this system in favor of a more common "Battle Pass" type leveling and unlock system wherein by leveling up you get a redundant "Season Point" to spend on Season unlocks. This is redundant because you can't unlock anything but what's next on the season unlock list. You can't skip unlocks you're never going to use and you are forced into a horribly linear progression system that leaves everyone looking the same for a very long time (DIRECTLY contrary to how it was on Xbox)
  And if that weren't bad enough, the placements of the unlocks is laughably bad. You unlock the Recon helmet at level 3 but get the variants for it at ~74. It's ridiculous.
  Their supposed reason for ditching the perfectly fine credit-based system was that it was "designed for the Xbox's hardware and ecosystem" which is just a load of bull.
  
  
• The User Interface
  By God this user interface is one of the worst I've seen in gaming. It's ugly, slow, and very clearly designed with a controller in mind. Sometimes UI elements just don't work or get in the way.
  On top of this 343 removed the ability to see other players' Spartans in lobbies in favor of some retarded "Career" page where you instead see their Name, Nameplate, Emblem, Avatar (one of many preset images from various Halo games), and some stats.
  It's small but something as simple as viewing other players' Spartans can really help the enjoyment of the game and (used to) let players enjoy the sheer level of prestige associated with some armor unlocks (i.e Inclimate Weather and the Haunted Pilot helmet) which is almost non-existent with the new progression system.
  
  
• Matchmaking and anti-social design
  The current matchmaking system requires you to choose one or more "batches" of playlists. Meaning instead of being able to search for, say, Headhunter then you HAVE to select the "Asset Denial" batch wherein you also have a chance of getting Oddball and other gamemode that fall under that category. Want to play Team Slayer and not Team Slayer DMR? Well that's just too bad, roll the dice and hope you get lucky (which you wont because Postums on twitter admitted that non-DMR start gamemodes are weighted lower than DMR starts )
  And on top of all that you are also forced to select what size you want the game to be (1v1, 2v2, 4v4, 8 Player FFA, 8v8, 12 Player FFA(Just Infection) ) with no option to select multiple.
  And again, if that weren't bad enough then for some ungodly reason 343 though it'd be a good idea to completely DISBAND LOBBIES after EVERY game which serves only to inflate matchmaking time by a considerable amount and hurts the social aspect of Reach.
  And yet again if that weren't bad enough 343 implemented a barely functional idle detection that cancels your matchmaking when it detects even ONE idle player in your party. Couple this with the already long matchmaking times and you're gonna get players who will be waiting absurdly long times just to play the game.
  
  
• DMR Starts
  This is the deal breaker for me. Playing BTB (8v8 or Big Team Battle) is such a chore now because everyone starts with what is essentially a power weapon. 3 shots to pop shields and one more to the head to kill, can blow up Warthogs in under 30 shots, can be used reliably across the entire distance of many maps, etc. Starting everyone with this gun completely kills the weapon sandbox, makes vehicles (besides the Wraith, Scorpion, and Gauss Warthog) a death sentence, and promotes camping and not making use of the maps' layout. Map control has always been a huge part of Halo but what reason is there to control the map when everyone already has a gun that both teams should be fighting for? Most maps spawn barely more than 2 (1 for each team) and that's for a good reason. Because it's POWERFUL and (when put in the right hands) can really turn the tide of a fight. If everyone has the DMR now then there's no reason to pick up a Plasma Pistol, no reason to grab a Needler/Needle Rifle, no reason to get on Machine Gun Turrets, no reason to use any armor ability besides Sprint, no reason to do anything other than camp near your spawn pop a couple shots take cover when you get it and repeat until game ends. It utterly shatters the core of Halo's gameplay loop turning it into generic cover shooter crap. Halo Reach on PC will be many people's first experience with Halo and I sincerely don't want it to be this, This is NOT Halo
  
  
• Aim Assist and Bullet Magnetism on contollers
  The aim assist on controllers is so aggressive that it should be illegal. I've played for a while on mouse and keyboard was performing well within my skill and experience with first person shooters.
  I read a lot of complaints online about how overpowered the aim assist is and just kind of ignored it until I read something along the lines of "You are literally putting yourself at a disadvantage by not playing with a controller".
  At that point I had to try it out and sure enough, it was like the game was playing for me.
  There have been many many times where the only reason I knew someone was near was because the aim assist was already correcting for their movement despite having no line of sight.
  Their reason for not tampering with the aim assist was that it would make crossplay with Xbox impossible.
  Personally, I don't give a damn about crossplay so the fact that we have to suffer because 343 wants us to play together is stupid. Plus, at the moment, there isn't even any crossplay with Xbox so what gives?

When it was announced that Reach was being added to the MCC and the MCC was coming to Steam I tried to hold my excitement in the event they messed it up to save myself from feeling disappointed.
I am disappointed, to say the least.
While it may not be possible to revamp the progression system or make significant changes to the UI, the LEAST they could do right now is remove the DMR start from BTB.
As for the progression system, I will always advocate for switching back to a credit-bases system. What you guys could do is give out the amount of credits it would have costed to unlock the customization players have already unlocked through the Season Rank.
Overall, the port itself is great and it performs like a PC game should but all these unnecessary changes begun to add up and I just can't recommend this unless you just plan on playing Campaign, Firefight, and Custom Games.

Easily one of FromSoft's best games. Sekiro's combat is immensely satisfying and responsive, the world is fun to explore, and the characters are interesting.
My only complaint is that the game is too short!

Low price
Takes up minimal resources
Countless wallpapers to chose from
Playlists
Audio visualizer wallpapers

Wallpaper Engine is absolutely essential and offers a deep level of desktop customization that Rainmeter could never touch on
Using the both in tandem really opens up deep customization options to really personalize your desktop
Words cannot describe how much I love Wallpaper Engine

I'll split this review into 2 parts to reflect the conflicting identities of this game.
Let me start off by saying that SCVI is incredibly fun and I definitely recommend it.

This game is stupid amounts of fun

• Good character variety
  Characters range from a fencer, to a girl with split personalities fighting with a bladed hula-hoop, to a sorcerer who fights with magic weapons for the sake of humanity
  
• Lots of characters
  20 characters in the base game and 4(?) more coming as DLC
  
• Powerful characters
  Everyone in this game hits like a truck and can be very powerful if you know how to use them
  
• Interesting maps
  A bunch of cool stages ranging from docks, to a desert, to a big cavern, etc.
  
• Lots of offline/singleplayer content
  
• In-depth Character Creator (Called "Create a Soul")
  
• Great graphics
  
• Ring outs
  If you knock your opponent out of the map it's an instant kill called a "Ring Out"
  
• Designated block button
  This is actually pretty big since it almost completely kills the whole "but I was blocking!" thing
  
• Flashy supers
  Pressing all 3 attack buttons at the same time (or whatever macro you set it to) it unleashes a super attack called a "Critical Edge"
  
• Guard stamina
  so your friend can't just block everything all the time

If you vibe with any number of these and aren't really looking for a serious fighter then I strongly recommend this game.

Now for the second half....
This game is confused. It tries to combine casual elements/mechanics with a competitive genre and the result isn't great.

• Balance is terrible
  Characters like Nightmare and Talim are blatantly overpowered
  Astaroth can kill in 4 hits if you aren't careful
  Lots of vertical attacks STILL have some left/right tracking making sidestepping a huge risk despite it being what your'e supposed to do against vertical attacks
  
  
• Broken and nonsensical comeback mechanic
  Imagine getting REWARDED for LOSING in a figthing game because that's exactly what happens
  Comeback mechanics, in any form, should not be in a fighting game. If you are bad then you deserve to lose.
  Since games are played "first to 3" rounds, if you lose 2 rounds you get 1 free bar of meter (out of 2) which can be used for your super (Critical Edge) or your "Soul Charge"
  Soul Charge is something that everyone has and it buffs your weapon, increases chip damage (though you cannot die of chip damage), alters hit properties of some attacks, and even gives you access to new attacks entirely.
  This very same comeback mechanic can even work AGAINST as an anti-comeback mechanic.
  
  Imagine your'e fighting someone and he beats you 2 rounds in a row. The score is 2-0 and you now have 2 bars of meter (one from over the course of the rounds and one from losing the second)
  You use one meter on a Soul Charge and beat him one round. Cool.
  It's 2-1 and you decide to use your second meter on another Soul Charge and win that second round. Nice.
  Score is now 2-2 but wait, he just lost 2 rounds and now has a full bar of meter while you have none.
  
  
• Ring outs
  I praised them earlier in the review because I think for a casual fighting game this makes things really interesting. However, from a competitive standpoint it severely hurts the game since it reduces the amount of skill needed to actually get to high ranks.
  Some characters even have throws that instantly Ring Out if you are close enough to the edge.
  The stages don't do much to help this either because most stages are incredibly small and some characters can actually ring out from the midpoint of some stages.
  
  
• Critical Edge
  Apart from completely disrupting the flow of the match, they also have little to no startup frames, meaning you can mash your A+B+K macro when getting pressured and you'll probably land it and take out almost half of their health (provided they aren't playing someone like Taki or Talim who are just too ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fast).
  There's no skill involved and it's just free damage with almost no downside, no combo memorization, no practice required, no amount of input execution or anything.
  Sure you could combo into them but combos into CE's are barely anything more than launch, A, A, CE and some characters can't even do that.
  Now keep in mind that while some might say "this is a good anti-pressure tool so it's necessary" there also exists Guard Impacts
  Guard Impacts are parries that every character has and to do one you press Forward and Block at the same time (6G in it's proper notation)
  There are even attacks in the game with built-in Guard Impacts so having Critical Edge's as an anti-pressure tool is unecessary.
  
  
• Custom Characters in Ranked
  I, personally, have not experienced much problems with this (mostly because people that actually make characters aren't very good at the game since they spent more time in CaS than Online or Training) but a lot of people do complain about this and I can see why.
  Knowing how to punish a certain characters moves can change if they are a different size.
  Some people have even managed to use cheat engine to make an accessory cover their entire character, rendering their moves invisible. (I haven't run into any of those at all yet, but I have seen screenshots and videos)
  
  
  Closing Thoughts
  Overall this game is incredibly fun and I highly recommend it.
  Right now the online is really laggy and it's very hard to get a consistantly good connection with someone. (this might just be on my end, though I've noticed other people are having the same issue.)
  If you're a casual player or looking to get into 3D fighters, this is a great place to start and much fun will be had.
  If you're a competitive player who can turn off your brain for a while and enjoy some mindless beat 'em up gameplay then good on you. I was able to turn my brain off up until ~7.5kRP.
  It's honestly a shame that this game works against itself as a competitive fighter since there IS depth.
  Every character has enough depth and uniqueness to them that you'd want to invest time in training to learn them better.
  The game even has detailed guides on each character that goes over their strengths, weaknesses, gimmicks, situational moves, etc.
  So close.
  
  

SKIN STATUS:
[] NOT COLD
[X] COLD

One of the greatest games nobody should have to experience.
I thought I could handle whatever this game could throw at me. I thought I was already emotionally jaded enough to not let ♥♥♥♥ like this get to me.
I. WAS. WRONG.
I am not joking when I say take the game's warning/disclaimer very seriously
This game ruined me and im not the same person after playing.

This game took everything New Vegas did right and threw it out the window in pursuit of money
the only improvment is the gun play but when everything else is lackluster and bland it really doesnt matter
Bethesda also thinks they can get away with paid mods which is sad because I doubt Bethesda will change after all this

Absolver is a short, open-ended martial arts fighting game with an emphasis on PvP encounters
Personally this is one of, if not, the greatest multiplayer game I've ever played

• Seamless co-op/pvp
  
• Complex deck building that makes sense
  
• There is no "most powerful deck" so all decks are viable
  
• The combat is fluid and moves flow really well with each other
  
• Lots of customization options
  
• The world and atmosphere are amazing
  
• Lots of hidden lore told through item descriptions a la Dark Souls
  
• The way you learn moves is genius
  
• There's a reasonable degree of difficulty and a somewhat high skill cap
  
• Players can make a join schools to learn or teach one of the 4 styles
  
• The devs are definitely making steps in the right direction seeing as the first 3 updates of the game were made to fix server stability

• First and foremost, navigating the world has been the single most frustrating thing so far.
  The interconnected world seems cool at first but in practice it ended up feeling more maze-like and anything else. Most interconnected paths made little sense and just added to the confusion.
  
  
• The one and only map in the game doesn't accurately portray your location and doesn't make much sense.
  
  
• The soundtrack is very uninvolved, forgettable, and has a horrible jump in volume whenever it does decide to play which is usually in a boss fight or a fight with a Marked One
  
  
• Depending on your style your defensive options are limited when going against certain decks
  What I mean is if you are playing Stagger you are going to have a tough time using Stagger's defensive options against a deck that utilizes quick attacks in rapid succession
  Windfall struggles against horizontal attack decks
  Forsaken can be beat by any deck as long as the opponent knows how and when to feint
  and Kahlt wont do any good against decks with hard hitting moves or break moves
  
  
• The PvE content is very short. It took me 12 hours to beat it and most of that time was doing Combat Trials (PvP). This isnt a major problem though since the game is based on PvP/Co-op and it becomes less of a problem later because they do plan on adding more PvE content

Absolver is amazing and im very glad the game lived up to the hype. Sloclap has done an amazing job delivering a truly unique fighting game to the table. I'll admit I was very skeptical at first since ambitious indie titles like this seem to become massive failure but Absolver was able to fulfill that ambition and it did it well.

Finally! A DLC that adds GOOD zombies maps!