Recent reviews by Tupan

(ignore play time, finished on Game Pass)

Hellblade is an entertaining game. I enjoyed learning about Senua during her journey, the game had interesting mechanics / puzzles / combat, it was a pretty decent story. The whispers, the camera perspectives, I liked those design choices. There were a couple moments where I got frustrated, for the same reason: inability to know you're supposed to fail a combat. Disregarding those brief moments, Senua is already someone I look forward to see more of.

A pretty good game for the story, the rpg aspects of background choices, the decisions you're constantly making in plenty of dialogue and key moments, and seeing the setting develop -- characters be born, grow, marry, die, be replaced by their children, all in the span of the same story.

The weak points: Not really super replayable, personally. And the soundtrack is lackluster, forgettable.

A good game to get if you're into visual novels with a lot of mystery (Zero Escape, Ace Attorney, Somnium) or heavy-story games with choices (Disco Elysium, Tellyale).

Signalis is an incredible game. While it is a horror game, it's not one that leaves you *terrified* but instead leaves you *horrified*. This is to say that it's not a game that invokes traditional fear (although you may be left frantic as you deal with enemies) but instead aims at feelings of existential dread and despair. "Atmosphere" is the strongest key point, as you're absorbed into the setting eager to learn more and make sense of the breadcrumbs and the bits and pieces that are clearly not right or luring you to learn more.

This is an incredible experience which I would strongly recommend.

A game so beautiful it keeps you stunned from the get-go and keeps surprising you as it grows and breathes more life. Video games can be an art form, and Gris is a short but memorable example of games as art.

Stellaris is a crazy good game. It somehow manages to take almost every single scifi trope you can think of and throws it together in a single game, and it works. Star Wars, Star Trek, Dune, Space Odyssey, Ender's Game, StarCraft, so on -- you can see parts of all those stories and more mesh together as the galaxy's alien empires emerge, expand, negotiate, war, and perish. The empire you nurture from your homeplanet and across the stars can go in a dizzying amount of trajectories -- it's all up to your choices.

If you like Scifi stories, strategy games, or anything to do with aliens and/or civilization management, you'll absolutely love this game.


As a note: while the base game is playable and provides a pretty decent amount of content on its own, there's a reason for all that DLC: they're not just holding bonus and fun content, but also balance improvements/overhauls. While you can skip on stuff like story packs and species packs, the bigger DLC is generally pretty important to acquire. The good news is this is only necessary if you intend on playing single player: on a multiplayer lobby, only one person needs to own DLC.

I didn't play the Definitive Edition to its fullest to comment on everything, this is a review only on the base game and first expansion.

That said, there's a reason Age of Empires 2 was incredibly popular. It's a great strategy game, a pillar to the genre. It plays nice, it has great mechanics, lots of depth to strategy, the music and graphics were both great, the campaigns were compelling, the historical/educational aspect was also really cool (creative freedom considered). It's hard to find any flaws in AoE2 unless its simply not your style of game.

Worth it to anyone seeking RTS or strategy games in general.

Tabletop Simulator has some base games you're never gonna play and a whole bunch of mods which is what you're actually going to use. Features wise, the simulator plays well. You can have tons of fun with it, it has allowed me to play board games I ordinarily might never have played. The only downside is the wait time loading heavier games, and some internet lag sometimes when playing online multiplayer. If you have good internet and like board games and have friends, it's a staple choice.

Slay the Spire is an excellent game if you like either roguelikes, deck builder card games, or both. And if you've never tried either of those before, it's not a bad place to start with.

This is not a game with a focus on story, the music is pretty forgettable, the setting is simply fine -- really the only aspect this game tries hard on is the gameplay. But on that, it delivers in spades: the game plays very fun, with trial and error as you get used to the challenges of the spire, deaths being necessary to slowly learn the ropes of strategy to survive longer the next run, as well as unlock stronger abilities over time as your characters level up. Because it's a card game, there's a level of luck involved: sometimes it's what defines if you win or lose. It's not all unfair though as you learn how to control luck toward your favor.

Another big advantage of Slay the Spire is that its an easy game to pick up, and relatively casual until you yourself decide to pull up your sleeves in order to achieve longer lasting runs and potentially win the game -- a feat that is remarkably difficult to actually accomplish unless you have a strong plan from the moment you hit "start run" and through every step along the way, and even then it's not a guarantee you'll win.

It's definitely a game worth trying out.

Age of Mythology is my favorite "Age of" game. It holds a very special place in my heart as one of the first offline games I've played / have a memory of, as early as roughly 5 years old. It is what has made me love strategy games, become interested in greek/egyptian/norse mythology enough to make me read the educational historical/fictional tidbits and fall in love with those aesthetics, and brought me close to games in general (such as the rest of "Age of" games).

For this reason I'm too biased to judge this game on merit of how well balanced the game is, or to objectively assess things like the gameplay. Everytime I log back into this game I am flooded once again with nostalgia, and it feels as fun as the day I first played it. Every now and then, I still quote myself the dramatic lines from Gargarensis as he gave out his villain monologues. It's an experience deeply engraved in my soul, and will forever be.

Hades is the game that has made me like the roguelike genre. It's an absolutely gorgeous-looking game, the soundtrack is incredible at getting you hyped, relaxed or emotional when needed, the combat and gameplay loop is continously fun and addictive, the characters are charming and memorable, the slowly-unfolding story is touching and relatable, each run is surprising with new content that makes you feel as though the game is not just a product but actually a live, breathing story...

I could go on and on, but it can all be said in few words: the amount of care and love put into making Hades is enormous and it shows. I cannot think of a single flaw, lacking or lukewarm aspect of this game. This is easily one of the best games of the genre and easily a game of the year, if not one of the best, most fun, most well-made games of all time, and definitely one of my favorites across the board.