Recent reviews by Goose

With triple-A games being where they currently are at, it's nice to see a game that actually seems like it was a passion project and qualities weren't sacrificed for deadlines and profit margins. It should speak miles on how well Baldur's Gate 3 pushed big studios when they feel threatened by this this game.

The story of the game is amazing but I feel like it's true potential is hidden within the numerous intriguing, intertwined and brilliant side stories. Even in Act 1 there are the tea house, Kagha's quest, Sazza and the blacksmiths blueprints, just to name a few and most of these quests intertwine themselves to other quests later in the game or even with the main plot. It reminds me of Fallout New Vegas in a way, where quests were interlinked and how completing them would help you in some ways down the line. Not just by the monetary or item rewards you get but by forging alliances and making contacts you were able to give yourself alternative options or just make some battles easier by having members of a faction on your side. Baldur's Gate 3 feels very much like a spiritual successor to the Fallout New Vegas way of complex storytelling. However when getting to specifics, it kind of feels like the writers were running out of steam in act 3 and wanted to re-capture that open world 'do what you want' charm the early-access players, including myself, fell in love with. However that doesn't mean the third act is bad, it's difficult to keep a streak of amazing writing going forever.

The game looks amazing. I didn't play it on the most modern hardware so I had to lower the settings quite a lot, yet the characters looked beautiful and the scenery was stunning. Faerûn has never looked or sounded better. However, despite the characters looking and sounding amazing, the party you get does feel a bit one sided in the sense that D&D lore is filled with amazing playable races, so it's a shame most of the main cast is either human or elvish, with Karlach and Minthara being the only stand outs in that department. It would've been nice to see a dwarven companion or a gnome party member but that's more of a nit pick than anything.

The gameplay feels good and well thought out. As a long time fan of D&D, Baldur's Gate 3 feels like a way to play a campaign on your own. Swinging a sword as a fighter or barbarian feels satisfying and you can feel the destructive power of every fireball you sling despite both of them being only one input. It's amazing how well Larian managed to show the power of these characters, especially from a tactical overview perspective. Larian also made some changes to how some mechanics work and most of these changes are very enjoyable and I've even implemented them in my own D&D games, however some of them do feel like they could've either used some more thought or they should've just used the original 5th edition ruling. One of these being how you have no ability to dispel magic beyond counter spell. However, this is mostly personal bias through thinking "Ah, I could've easily solved that problem with dispel magic if it was in the game". The main difference, in my opinion, between the gameplay of BG3 and D&D 5e is that your spell list is far more limited in the videogame. I know it's near impossible to adapt every spell with how many supplementary books there are but even the basic ones from the players handbook would've been nice.

Despite all the good Larian have done to bring this game to where it is, the character creation leaves much to be desired. It's options are very limited, especially with races like the dragonborn that were added later in development and weren't in the early access. For body types most you can pick from is, skinny masculine, buff masculine, skinny feminine and buff feminine and some races don't even get those options. For dwarves and dragonborn you only get to pick between feminine and masculine. Every body in the game will look like one of these options. The same goes for face shapes, sizes, and minor modifications. There are no sliders to adjust like in the Fallout games, just 10 or so options for you to pick from. Hairstyles have more options but far less compared to other games with a character creator. This limited selection in character creation, I assume, was done to remove clipping in clothing and other wearable equipment, however this limitation doesn't work when it's still very apparent to anyone who chose to play a tiefling. Options in character creation in games that mean to immerse the player are vital. If I don't like the choice I had to make because it was close enough but not exact to what I envisioned my character looking like I find it very distracting and so it's hard to immerse myself into the game. I wouldn't complain about it but it's already been done so many times. Games like Dragon's Dogma and Saints Row have had character creators that allow the player to make exactly what the want their character to be.

In conclusion, Baldur's Gate 3 is truly unique at this time. If you're looking for more like it, I'd recommend Fallout 1 & 2 or the Pathfinder games. The game is also a great way to dip your toes into Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. Just remember, if you do decide to find a play group to play after playing BG3, don't expect the table top to be exact to the videogame :).

Cyberpunk 2077 is an annoying game for me to write a review for. I love it's characters, story, music, sound design and visuals but it's being dragged down by shooting and melee combat that's been done better by games from 2015 and "rpg" mechanics. I'm not even going to talk about the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that was the launch, and in some sense, the current state of the game but most bugs I encountered were currently purely visual. They definitely were distracting and immersion breaking but they didn't stop me from progressing through the game.

Night City in the game is a beautifully ugly spectacle that is beautiful to look at from a distance, however, beyond the markers for side quests on your map the city feels empty. Gangs don't claim territory, nomads don't race through the badlands, NCPD doesn't raid scav hideouts and so on. Everything happens because V kickstarts it by talking to the quest giver. Night City is not an actual living city, it's a playpen for the player, or more specifically, V. The game doesn't make attempts to make V the vessel for the player, the player plays V, not their own character. Sure, you can choose between gangbanger V who for some reason gets very little relevant lines to their background, nomad V who was clearly the developers favourite considering that this background gets a fully fleshed out starter quest compared to the two walking cutscenes, and corporate V, the one that makes the least sense.

The overall story is very enjoyable, good and well told, yet it suffers from what I like to call "Bethesda Roleplaying", where the game is listed and marketed as a roleplaying game where you can do what you want but when you're playing the game the options are closer to do you want to make a melee character or a ranged one? Or do you want to sneak or be loud? These are not real questions. Games that actually do these things well include ones like Fallout 1,2 and New Vegas, Arcanum, Pathfinder: Kingmaker, and more recently, Baldur's Gate 3. These are games that let you actually choose how you play your character. You can make a diplomat who only fights monsters or in self defense or a brash psychopath who kills without thought. In Cyberpunk, you can decide if you want to choke someone to unconsciousness or if you want to snap their neck, but only when V decides it's killing time and not a moment before. You can't become hostile towards certain characters because they're too vital to the story and if you can, it's when the game decides so and not a moment before. Saying an angry option toward a character might change some lines or the quest rewards but it will never change the story beyond maybe locking you from further quests that character might have had, and even this is mainly restricted to the romance storylines. A better way would've been that maybe because you pissed someone off, instead of just telling you to ♥♥♥♥ off and continuing as per script, maybe they would've changed how they continue. Instead of helping you the character sells you out or something.

Gameplay wise, it really reminds me of Borderlands. I dislike this side of RPG mechanics in most games, especially first person shooters. Weapons don't feel responsive and good to use even if they have good visual and sound design if it takes me half of my ammunition to kill someone. They've tuned down the RPG side of the combat down a lot with the 2.0 patch by removing the Destiny like power score from weapons so now if you want, it's totally viable to run through the game with the first pistol you get but it makes the rest of the combat feel like it's in this weird limbo where despite your weapons being like a standard shooter, the enemies tank shots like their inner organs are made from kevlar. I get that lorewise, most people have a sort of built in bullet resistance through armour installed underneath the skin but, in my mind, gameplay shouldn't be sacrificed in favour of lore accuracy, especially for something that can just be explained with "yeah that guy just didn't have it installed."

In conclusion, I'd say the game is fine if you want a Fallout 4, Skyrim, Starfield type mid shooter disguised as a roleplaying game, sure go for it, maybe wait for a sale if you're tight on money. But if you're like me and wanted an immersive, roleplay heavy experience that made you feel like the character you made lives in Night City rather than Night City is built around your character, look elsewhere. Maybe check out one of the games I mentioned before :).

An enjoyable, emotional, engrossing story. Definitely worth picking up.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ this game is good. I played the entire campaign in around 3ish hours on the difficulty the game is set as standard. Loved every second. It's mechanics are awesome, movement is smooth and reminds me if they took off the training wheels from Titanfall and so is shooting. Kicking enemies is the most satisfying thing since Payday 2 stealth. There's this amazing Watchdogs type "focus" ability that lets you slow down time to dodge bullets, hit those awesome shots and do quick movement maneuvers. After the campaign there are a ton of arena battles with challenges or you could try your hand at speed running or getting high scores in the levels. Absolute recommend.

I don't think they understand what remaster means. They added some lighting effects that make the game look better sometimes but most of the time it just looks like the original mafia 2. I would just say go and buy the original but since 2k love money to much you can't buy it. Oh and almost forgot, somehow they added so many bugs. Most of them are visual but some do affect gameplay so beware.

If you want to play the original game buy this on sale or get a game key.

It's like if Xcom was about dangerous priests who worship the machine fought against space ancient egyptian terminators.

Also your shots cant miss

10/10

Let me start this of by saying I absolutely hate boring middles grinding. Also let me say I'm not that far in the game. I have killed one boss twice (the deer) and I'm currently gathering enough copper and tin to make enough bronze to make some gear for future bosses.
The start of the game is kind of confusing, but you will pick up the things you need to do semi quickly if you have played pretty much any survival game before. So you make some tools and maybe find a house to squat in or build your own and take on the first boss. This took me around 5-8 hours.
After this you can make a pickaxe and start mining copper and tin in the black forest. This is where the grind starts if you didn't build a huge base before this and just setteled in a small shack. Allthough I hate grinding this does not bother me because the copper and tin mining is easy enough once you make a cart and your carryweight isn't that restrictive.
This is actually the first game I have been waiting for all day to be able to play and with the hours I've put in the game I would definitely recommend.

Bows have no range.

9/10

The best game ever made

I ready silenced pistol
I take aim
I shoot target
Bullet goes through his head
The fella does not die
Silent assassin ruined

10/10 can dress up as a flamingo-man in the Miami level and by doing some challenges you can start as a blue flamingo-man in all the levels.

You have a car and a dog what more do you need?