Recent reviews by Charged Dreamer

There's very little reason to recommend this game over much improved newer entries. It's pretty short and not fun, there are ton of bugs with the A.I and stealth mechanics are simply broken. The story is forgettable and the game just simply ends with unsatisfactory ending. The graphics look dated for a 2010 game. There are really ♥♥♥♥♥♥ missions where you play as a Delta Force guy with an assault rifle. It's just a poor man's Call of Duty. For an indie game it's not terrible but not a good one either, they made an attempt. I got my moneys worth of game for $1 but there's no way I'd recommend this game unless you've got 4 hours to waste on this s***!

Gotta appreciate Bethesda for taking bold risks by reinventing the franchise. They switched to 3D graphics in open world setting and real-time combat, with choice to play in first as well third person view, replacing the 2D isometric graphics and turn-based combat featured in earlier games.

Although there are minor references to Fallout 1 and 2, you don't have to play either game before. Fallout 3 lets you create your own character with stats and attributes that were also featured in the previous games. The game also lets you recruit a companion including a dog or you could also choose to play solo. There's lots of ways you can complete side quests and a couple of main quests with multiple game endings. Ultimately your actions determine how characters treat you and there's a karma system for eg. every time you decide to do good deed like helping people adds positive karma while being a bad boy nets you negative karma. Playing as an evil person and excessive stealing will make everyone hate you and ultimately a bad ending. Either way the choice is left to you!

There's a very large open world to explore with hundreds of locations, tons of details and environmental storytelling, special unmarked quests, unique encounters with npcs and monsters. FO3 also features nice selection of vintage music from the 40s and 50s via in-game radio. Music score by Inon Zur is incredible and adds to the atmosphere even today. The plot is really good imho even though not approved and appreciated by purists and die hard fans of the origianl games and New Vegas.

Fallout 3 is plagued with tons of bugs and compatibility issues on Windows 10/11. Installing community mods, patches and fixes is recommended for a stable performance and stability. The game can also freeze or crash to desktop very often for no reason and your player character can get stuck into environment preventing you from playing unless you reload a previous save or use noclip console command. Like other Bethesda games you can download tons of mods to enhance gameplay and graphics to your liking. There's even a mod which can make the game less ugly by removing green/brown tint.

Despite being one of my favorite games of all time I'll say Fallout 3 is an ugly game. Gameplay and graphics to a degree are oudated. Some of the textures, character models and animations can look downright hideous. Lots of game assets, npc models and even entire areas are reused multiple times which can ruin some of the immersion but then again it's a 2008 game with a very large open world. Also expect a ton of loading screen every time you enter/exit a building/floor/town which is also common with all past and future games using Gamebryo/Creation Engine.

Even with it's problems there aren't many games as ambitious and big in scope as Fallout 3. The Game of the Year Edition includes 5 expansions and adds at least 15-20 hours of extra gameplay and story. If you decide to complete the whole game you can easily expect 80 - 100 hours of content depending on your pace. Easily one of the most enjoyable gaves I've ever played. Would surely revisit if they decide to remaster the game!

Even having played the first game it took me a little while to get into Fallout 2. The UI is very rough and if it wasn't enough one of the most tedious and annoying thing was how lengthy the tutorial really is. It took me about 3-4 hours just to be able to finish the Temple of Trials.

The first couple of hours were incredibly boring and left a bad impression over the overall experience. If you stick with it the game really gets good. The quests and writing were all good with lots of non linear options. The game oozes atmosphere. You feel like this world has been through hell, but is slowly healing. The music is good as well.

Both FO1 and FO2 are very different from the newer entries from Bethesda. There's a lot more of black humor and satirical storytelling. FO2 also comes from a time before many of the Quality-of-Life features we have today. The in-game journal isn't going to be comprehensive and spell everything out for you, so you have to keep track and remember what the NPCs mention in dialogue, or take notes.

The combat in the first two games is atrocious, it's turn based and it's so goddemn slow and repetitive even in the fastest setting and companion AI is braindead (I've lost count of how many times Marcus accidentally obliterated me or another companion with his minigun). I had to stop playing because of it and watch the rest of the game lore series on Youtube because I really love the world of Fallout so much.

Leaving a thumbs up because the lore and setting kept me engaged enough to consider putting over 50 hours into the game. There's tons of quests, adventures and things to explore. The music is great and the characters are fairly well voice acted. I was never able to finish the game and give up because the gameplay is too old and clunky for my taste. A.I is "functional". The graphics and level layout especially in in-door environments like caves really turned me off. I wouldn't recommend it unless you really like old-school games.

I really wished I liked this game as I've heard nothing but universal praise for TES Oblivion. I never had any trouble enjoying both Fallout 3 and New Vegas (with mods) despite similar issues. I've spent a ton of time trying to mod the game to my liking but sadly nothing really worked so I gave up half way through. I'd say watch some gameplay videos off Youtube to see if it's your alley otherwise just play Skyrim Special Edition or ESO instead!

fun mobile game if you're bored, not much to talk about. It's fun and addictive. Fallout Shelter is a resource management sim with Fallout SPECIAL rpg stats for characters. There's also a little bit of exploration and fighting which unlocks new missions, items, themes to your vault. Best part; you can play offline! It's free-to-play so expect a ton of grind, microtransactions which can be purchased to speed up things and buy random loot (card packs, lunch boxes). It's no live service. The game hasn't been updated with new features since the release on Steam so don't expect any new updates with fresh content.

Doom 3 includes both versions of the game so you're free to either play the original 2004 version or the updated BGF Edition. Huge shout-out to Bethesda for doing the right thing and supporting video game preservation in Doom 3.

The moment you start playing it's pretty evident from the start that it would be a very different experience compared to the classic Doom games from the 90s and the newer 2016 reboot. The atmosphere is dark, creepy and tense. Enemies lurk behind dense shadows, jump down out of ceiling vents, and crawl through mangled pipelines in every room, always keeping you to the edge of the seat. Environments look really cool and there's lot of detail and care put in art direction especially in the later stages of the game.

It is important to manage your ammo and not go guns blazing because enemies don't drop any ammo. The game features multiple locked safe chests with ammo and armor protection instead of regenerating health. You are encouraged to look out for health stations like in Half Life 2.

The graphics have not aged very well imo. The lighting still holds up very well, some textures like surfaces and walls look fine but monsters and demons look very ugly for 2023 game standards. Thankfully there are ton of graphical mods available from different authors. There are plenty of weapons to choose from you can have multiple of them as you collect in your journey instead of just two. The chainsaw can rip and tear apart anything incase you run out of all ammo.

My biggest complain about Doom 3 is it's level design. It's a very fun game for the most part but most of the levels feel all the same until you move to the very end. It's very cramped and dark, Most of the game takes place in tightly spaced corridors. I had to take a few breaks as the gameplay loop started becoming a bit tiring. Boss fights were quite rare and make up for only 5% of my total playtime which is a bit disappointing. Resurrection of Evil and Lost Mission expansions are fun and do not overstay it's welcome.

I love stealth games but this is easily one of the most boring and repetitive games I've played this year. The environments are suitably bleak and the grainy filtered look of the game takes some getting used to. Most of the game takes place in darkened areas but Manhunt is overall immensely shallow. One of the biggest selling points of Manhunt is it's sadistic and gruesome violence. You can bash skulls of your enemies using weapons like crowbar, axes or baseball bats, cut their throat open with glass object, rip and tear open bodies using chainsaw and so on.

Once the novelty of the gratuitous violence wears off, it's very easy to get bored. Fighting involves either sneaking up behind people and executing them, or just clicking the mouse buttons and moving around a bit until one of you runs out of health. Hand to hand combat is very clunky and unbalanced. Gun combat later on is not very good either.

After playing nearly 4 hours I've noticed there is very little story. You'll go several levels without really knowing anything new or anything at all. I hardly got to know anything about the main character other than he was to be sent for death punishment for committing some crime. There is very little voice acting too.

Game occasionally got stuck on the black screen, and crashed to the desktop. Tweaking Windows compatibility settings, turning on legacy features, and installing multiple patches finally worked to some extent. It's mildly infuriating to see zero official support from Rockstar Games. Avoid Manhunt unless you care a bit for nostalgia.

This game is more like a 4/10 for me.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a classic. I grew up playing this game and I highly recommended it if you're into old-school/boomer shooters. The devs incorporated and mashed several different genres and themes to create a very unique experience. Some levels feature pure action while others include elements of horror as well as sci-fi. There are also a couple of stealth sections. Every level has a different look and feel to it and you won't find yourself in the same environment twice and that's saying something. There are tons of enemy variety throughout the campaign and lots of different guns at your disposal.

The story is just okay imo and sometimes it can feel a bit corny, like a bad Hollywood movie, but that's part of it's charm. The voice acting is nothing special and the cutscenes were alright and fits the theme and tone of the game. Some of the bosses look ridiculous. The game runs on some old Quake engine and the graphics have aged considerably. Environments look a little rough especially the outdoor scenery but it's expected given it's age. I just wished if the devs had tone-downed supernatural elements a bit. Combat is generally awesome with a few minor hiccups from time to time and bugs. The game also crashed 3 times on my roughly 8 hour playthrough (might have something to do with Windows 10 but not sure). As for the music there aren't any songs or a cool theme song but I guess it's alright if you're just going to have some fun.

RTCW is still an old-school game at heart and so yes, it can be quite difficult during the later stages of the game. Many of the mini bosses with flamethrowers and mini-gun will instantly crush you to death. Even regular soldiers and Nazi zombies get pinpoint accuracy in killing you and headshots also get less accurate for some reason as you progress further. Make sure to quick save often!

Overall RTCW is still great today and doesn't overstay it's welcome during it's 6-8 hour campaign. It's not for everyone, if you're expecting it to play like a modern FPS like Wolfenstein 2014 or Doom 2016 reboot then you're going to be left disappointed. It also requires community fixes and patches to run properly on modern hardware with 19:6 widescreen support at high resolution.

Hope to see a fan-made remake of this game in RTX Remix with path-tracing features!

Syberia II starts out immediately where the original ended. If you are unfamiliar with the first game, there is a short recap outlining the events surrounding Kate Walker and her struggle to deal with her professional life as well as passion for adventure. The plot is not as interesting as it was in the first game, as it mainly concentrates on the relationship between Kate and Hans, leaving behind the mystery and family-centric story from the first game.

If you didn't find the first game interesting then Syberia II definitely wont change your mind. Technically the game looks very similar to the first game with no notable enhancements to visuals or gameplay. There are a lot more cinematic cutscenes and music this time which is a welcome addition.

I have a little mixed feelings about the story and didn't like the shift in narrative this time. It's more of a fantasy story now with an enchanting setting. The focus now shifts from Kate giving up on her original goal of completing a business deal to aiding Hans in achieving his dream of reaching the mysterious Island of Syberia which has been an obsession of his for decades.

Some puzzles are very confusing and vague, specially the last part. Making you hit invisible walls way to any times. Again stops being great when you have to resort to a guide. There’s a lot of backtracking and the main character moves slow. The issue with the camera is awful and annoying. The Oscar-robot character continues being a selfish, self-centered coward jerk (Maybe that was the devs intention). I just can’t stand the fellow. Nevertheless the ending was very satisfying and emotional.

Get Syberia II if you like old-school adventure games. Avoid if you're looking for Telltale style game with smooth flow and less puzzles.

Got Syberia I and II for free during one of the promotions. The story follows Kate Walker, an American lawyer tasked with overseeing the major sale of a dying automaton factory and her subsequent journey across Europe and Russia to find the brother of the recently deceased owner.

The best part of the game I really liked was the world building and art design. The environment looks like something out of an adventure novel. Syberia offers a very surreal story and setting. The voice acting is also pretty good, the dialogue feels very natural something I was not expecting at all.

Unfortunately it comes with all the problems I have with the old school point-and-click adventure games. There's a ton of backtracking, annoying characters and filler side quests that add very little value to the overall plot. And as a result at times it may feel like you are just playing through a filler. The puzzles are all stupid easy, or stupidly difficult. It's easy to get stuck especially towards the later half of the game and I had to use a walkthrough in-order to move on to the next game asap before rage quitting. The camera also sucks at times. The game also lacks a map, quick travel, means to run faster, and the puzzles weren't very exciting.

Overall, the plot and the mystery were compelling enough to make me want to keep playing. I felt connected to the main character and cared about the story. Get the 2 part bundle on a sale (usually a dollar or two). This game is not for everyone and if you're expecting a Telltale style game then you're probably in for a disappointment. This is a very old school style of adventure game.