Recent reviews by StaleRamen

Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons. This game really touches your heart in many different ways. Before I dive into the specifics of the game, I'll go over the generalities. I'll have a more in-depth review of the ending for the people that have actually completed the game with analysis, themes, meanings, etc.

Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons is a story based puzzle game. The basic story revolves around two sons and their journey to help their father who has been struck with an illness. The brothers are forced to solve some puzzles guaranteed to make you think and help many different characters along the way. In this short 2-4 hour adventure, the game still managed to make me feel a genuine concern for each and every character introduced along the way. Not many games can really do that.

The controls are challenging, to say the least. Depending on whether you use a controller or the keyboard, the left joystick and left trigger control the older brother while the right stick and right trigger control the younger brother. Likewise, on the keyboard, WASD will control one of the brothers and the arrow keys will control another, the space bar and ctrl button taking place of the triggers. Despite these being the only controls in the game for movement and action, I found myself constantly confusing myself on which of the brothers I was controlling. This wasn't really a frustration, but it did allow for some amusing points in the game where both brothers would be running into a wall. As for the gameplay, the game pits you against puzzles throughout your adventure. The puzzle difficulty increases as the game progresses, but I wouldn't say that there were any puzzles that will keep you stuck in the game for more than 2 minutes. Many puzzles require the two brothers to use teamwork, leading to some rewarding moments upon completing a puzzle.

The graphics fit into the games core design and mood very well. Running on the unreal engine, the game runs very smooth and I encountered no significant FPS drops during the game. From being high up in the mountains to running across glacier ice caps, the game looked beautiful throughout. The game won't blow you away compared to games running on the more powerful engines of Battlefield and Crysis, but Brothers does its job very well. The music in this game is also top notch. The music definitely sets the mood and makes the player feel a certain way. Flawless execution there.

Even though I find many positives to say for the game, I feel that this kind of game wouldn't be fit for everyone. Although it may seem appealing to many people from reviews and video clips, this game is suited towards a more mature audience. If you are a type of person to play games seeking pure entertainment and wants the game to give you more than you put into it, I recommend you not buy it. I also think that the $15 pricing is a bit too steep. I really wanted to play this game for a while, and I only purchased it after it went on sale for $1.50. If you are willing to pay $15 for a 2-4 hour game, then by all means, do so. I do feel that the developers deserve that much, but the game doesn't give you $15 of content. Instead, it gives you a memorable gaming experience with many things to remember and think back on. This is the type of game that people will complete and spend a lot of time thinking about what just happened. What this game lacks in content it makes up for in memorability.

Final Rating: 9/10 (missing 1 point from length of actual game)

There will be many people that complete the game and do not see it as I do. However, the ending is a lot more dense then what you actually play through. If you put yourself in the shoes of the younger brother, the game does feel a lot more harder to bear. Your older brother just died. Throughout the whole game, you and your older brother were inseparable. If you went too far off, you would stop and you would call your older brother over. If your older brother went too far off, he would stop and call you over. If there was something that you couldn't do, you could do it with the help of your older brother. Your flaws in strength and inability to swim are gone with the help of your brother. If you couldn't reach something, your brother was there to boost you up. You became perfect. Unstoppable. With your brother by your side, nothing could go wrong. But now, he's dead.

You aren't immortal. Your flaws are back. If something goes wrong, you don't have your older brother to turn to. Not only that, you have to dig a grave for your brother and then bury him with your own hands. If you didn't think about this during your first playthrough, I suggest you replay that portion of the game and think about this. Upon burying your brother, you are taken back to your hometown. But you aren't taken back right away. You fly over the glaciers, through the mountains, past the castle. You are shown all the places that you have been to be able to get the medicine to heal your father. Getting through all these places would not have been possible without your older brother. When you arrive back to your hometown, you come across water. You can't swim, how are you going to get across? Normally, you would press the action button for the younger brother and grab onto the older brother. But this time, you press the action button of the older brother. Your brother's voice echos through your head as you swim for the first time across the lake. You come across a switch that you're too weak to pull. Again, you press the action button for the older brother and manage to pull the switch down. You come across a ledge you can't reach. Once again, you make it up while pressing the action button for the older brother. Using the action button for the older brother makes it seem that you are borrowing the strength of the older brother to do things that you normally couldn't. Keeping his older brother in mind, the younger brother is able to do things he would normally be unable to do in order to complete both of their goals: saving their father. The final cutscene shows the father crying over the older brother's grave, but the younger brother stands in silent mourning. The younger brother knows that even thought his older brother is gone, his voice will be with him and empower him to continue to push himself to do things beyond his own power.

Throughout the whole game, the younger brother is seen to have a close connection with the mother. The opening cutscene shows him mourning over his mother's death, midway through the game, the younger brother has a dream about his mother, and at the end of the game, he gets a vision of his mother who influences him to swim across the water. The older brother is seen to have a close connection with the father. After the initial opening cutscene, the older brother comes to the younger brother and asks for help to get their father to the doctor. Midway through the game, the older brother has a flashback to him and the father fishing. At then end of the game, those close connections are gone. It can be implied that the older brother-mother and the younger brother-father weren't as close as younger-mother older-father. At the end of the game, the older brother is with the mother and the father is with the younger brother. With that, both bonds can become stronger.

Great game. If did not manage to see these connections on your first play through, I suggest going through the ending once more.

Steam Sale
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The current reviews may be "mixed", but that label should be ignored. At the launch of this title, there were many problems, inconsistent server connections at the forefront of these problems. This forced many people, including myself, to play the MyCareer Mode without VC (using the traditional "skill points) and did not allow access to the MyPark or MyTeam. It was this problem that led to the many negative reviews that you will see if you are thinking about purchasing this game.

If you are still thinking about purchasing, now would be a great time. The servers are now up and running, and I haven't encountered too many problems (Aside from the occasional long time it takes to connect to a MyTeam game). Go ahead and pick this game up if the only thing stopping you is the reviews. Most negative reviews were made on launch day, and have not been updated by the people who made the reviews.

Graphics: 10/10 Game looks great. Feels extremely fresh on the new engine

Gameplay: 8.5/10 New engine, feels like the old 2k. Only problem is that the same problems that afflicted the previous titles still exist in the game's mechanics.

Controls: 9/10 I've used the Keyboard controls as well as the Controller controls. Being that this game is originally made for consoles, this game is easier to control on a controller. The PC controls aren't bad, but it can be hard to use with the default controls and may require some rebinding. The PC controls are usually changed slightly on each yearly release, so I would definitely recommend getting a controller if you don't already have one.

Music: 6.5/10 the NBA 2k series is known for having a memorable soundtrack in each installment. However, I have to say that the music in this game falls short of its predecessors. Although some decent songs can be found in the soundtrack, most are either not well known or are songs that have already fallen out of the mainstream scope in music.

Modes: 9.5/10 NBA 2k15 offers a wide variety of modes, from the dense MyCareer mode to the huge MyGM mode. There are a ton of things to do in this game and can help keep you busy. The only thing I dislike is the fact that a 2k account is required to play this game to its full potential (ie. have access to all the game modes, VC, etc.) Not signing into or making a 2k account takes VC out of the game and is replaced with skill points. It also removes the MyTeam mode and the MyPark mode. It can be kind of a hassle, but making a 2k account is a must if you want to experience the game to its full potential.

NBA 2k15 is definitely the best 2k title to date offered on Steam. Despite some problems at launch, NBA 2k15 is a blast and a great buy for basketball fans. I'm looking to quickly expand on my 40 hours of gametime. I hope all of you guys enjoy the game as much as I do!