Recent reviews by DetCord12B

I should preface that I picked this up when it initially launched and immediately refunded it. I've since purchased it again, obviously.

If you're looking for a WWII Tank Sim and are tired of waiting for Tank Squad or playing older Graviteam titles (Steel Fury) then this is the game/DLC for you. Spearhead has such absurd levels of ballistic modeling that accurately recreates various projectile damage, pen, spall/frag, and OvPE, the kind you rarely if ever see outside of professional military simulators like VBS, ORB, or Steel Beasts. So much so, at least in my opinion, that it puts what BI does to shame in this regard.

The only major downside is that it comes with that knarly jank that BI and OFP/ArmA is so well known for, engine related that is. That said, if you can get past and or at the very least deal with it, then you'll get your money's worth for sure.

StuG's Together, Strong.

As a guy that plays a lot of sims like DCS and the IL-2: GB series, this is an absolute blast.

At this point it's obvious that Starfield will never be redeemable as it's problems are as much pragmatic as they are conceptual and no amount of patching, DLC, or modding will ever fix it.

The atmosphere is lifeless, traversal in Starfield is unengaging, and encounters and exploration are reduced to menu choices rather than interactive experiences of past titles. Bethesda chose to strip away the best parts of its formula for Starfield, for whatever reason, and it utterly suffers for it.

It also isn't an RPG in any true sense of the word, not really. Your actions have no consequences and this is completely detrimental to immersion and a sense of being where you are and doing what you are doing. Your actions ultimately don't matter whatsoever, be it large or small scale, so what's the point of traveling anywhere and doing anything.

What a complete and utter waste of a premise.

I spent the first five hours of my in-game time looking for large rocks to build a campfire. I accidentally slipped down an embankment and into a camp only to be knocked out by a cannibal with a large rock. I awoke to find myself tied to a stake with a massive mutant towering over me, wearing a golden mask, and holding a huge running outboard boat motor. He looked at me and then proceeded to shove it in my face, prop first.

Excellent. A least I found that rock.

A consistently broken, haphazardly patched, buggy mess. Steer very well clear.

The Good:

• Global scale.

• Dynamic events.

• Ability to build a navy from scratch.

• Interesting ship design aspect if not highly limited for certain nations.

The Bad and Ugly:

• Weirdly partitioned map.

• The AI can't properly design a ship to save it's life.

• Easily one of the top-five worst GUI's I've ever seen in a game (strategy) like this. It's truly atrocious.

• The AI can't form proper Task Forces or delineate its assets in a cognitive manner while still engaging in doomstacking.

• Minor AI nations ally themselves with powers half a world away. Latvia making an alliance with a Republican China makes total sense. Ya know, for reasons...

• AI nations, after having been thoroughly defeated and depleted, will still seek to make war upon yourself and the AI even if their economies are on the verge of collapse and their fleets being nonexistent. Ya know, for reasons...

• The visuals have taken a complete dump. The AA has been reduced to nothing and the shadows are now so pixelated that you can actually count the tri's and vert's related to model casting. The ridiculously awful LOD decay is so bad that it now looks like someone crushed beer cans and tossed it on top of your ship in place of the guns.

The list goes on, it really does. Every patch breaks existing features or introduces new issues. During the previous Beta, the developers broke the maneuvering component of the ships. Instead of fixing it, restoring it to the previous build, they removed manual steering completely and shifted the steering from the rudder to the CoG. Which means they now maneuver from the center of the ship as opposed to the rudder, just like magic. This is why you'll see wacked out, weird, and unbelievable turns and the like from a variety of vessels.

Every patch, and I mean every single one, breaks previous gameplay components, aspects, and or features. This raises serious questions as to who is in charge and WTF they're doing. Following GL's acquisition by Stillfront, a much lambasted and hated super-consumer of studios, I have absolutely no faith this game will ever be ready for a proper release. It's also probably readily evident that it was pushed into a RC well before it should've been.

After waiting almost a decade I can't believe I'm posting a negative review, but I am.

The Good:

• World Map.
• Visuals, self explanatory.
• Mounts actually have the feeling of riding a horse now.
• Combat while a little janky and off-putting is far better than that of Warband. It simply takes a little getting accustomed to.

The Bad and Ugly:

• Rinse and repeat gameplay as in the previous title.

• Everything about the world is utterly lifeless. There is almost no interactivity with said world, and there is a complete lack of immersiveness in the setting, characters, locations, quests etc.

• It also features yet another holdover from Warband in its completely linear game-play design of conquest, being that its the sole focus. Now, I like crushing my neighbors as much as the next monarch, but it needs systems in place to not only enable diplomatic and economic approaches but to encourage them.

• Running a kingdom/government is not an easy task. It's a juggling act given a huge variety of facets and the game should convey that. Yet here its a complete afterthought just as it was in Warband. Diplomacy and economics are barebones and the policies while a nice inclusion are nothing more than a spreadsheet and feel either unimportant or tacked on for the sake of.

What irks me is the community consistently says its EA. Sorry, but that's a tired excuse for a game in development as long as this one. Bugs, glitches, stability issues, yes. Completely missing components that should've been story-boarded, designed and implemented years ago, not so much.

Bannerlord EA or not, is suffering from the same simplistic game-play design as its predecessor. Hopefully they'll add some depth to it and one can only wish that they'll add substance to these components which should not only be rewarding but difficult as well.

First time playing AB.

This is the definitive combined arms maneuver warfare game, at least from my perspective as a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. While it is true that Iraq and Afghanistan are asymmetric or COIN battlefields, I have participated in large scale training operations at NTC and elsewhere meant to depict conventional warfare and without a doubt, assuredly, Armored Brigade gets pretty much everything right.

Features an almost absurd level of detail with regards to kinetic munitions and their associated ballistics (armor penetration) for anti-tank rounds, ATGM's, small-arms, etc. Coupled with fairly intricate suppression mechanics, unit morale, artillery, CAS (fixed and rotary-wing), a Line of Sight system that actually works, and what looks to be a completely moddable game (bring on the WWII mods!) I can't help but recommend this title to anyone interested in operational level wargames, both to veterans of the genre and newbies alike.

What needs adding or improving:

• Multiplayer
  
• Unit resupply
  
• UI streamlining
  
• AI can be exploited at times

I'd write a more lengthy review but the game crashes and corrupts your saves so often that it's somewhat difficult to gauge it on its merits. However, as a longtime fan of the series I'll give it a go.

Pros

• Nice soundtrack.

Cons

• LoS issues abound.
• Awful micro-stutters and lag.
• Abysmal AI for both your own forces and the enemy.
• Washed out color palette makes everything dull and lifeless.
• The GUI is a mess and feels like a huge step backwards from the older titles.
• Crashes quite a lot. Corrupts your campaign saves when it does. And it does a lot.
• Ugly and dated visuals - Low-res textures everywhere you look, non-functioning or very poor implementation of AA as rough jaggies cover everything, and it can be quite difficult to tell what's what due to the fugly engine renders.

For a game that was in development for almost a decade it boggles the mind how stunningly bad The Bloody First is. I find it hard to believe that they didn't know it was a bug riddled mess prior to launch. Which means they did and released anyway.

Save your money, get Last Stand Arnhem or CC3: Iron Cross Edition from the Matrix site.

I just picked this up on a whim and I'm completely addicted.

I've never had an even remote interest in farming but this game has piqued my curiosity with regards to the process and everything about it. Hell, I'm searching real farming on YT, looking at and download hundreds of mods, watching community videos, you name it.

The game itself is not easy and that's what makes it so much fun. Juggling funds, purchases, equipment, land, the bank, you name it is absolutely enthralling. Everything counts for something and that something you just bought might be the end of your farm and business. Or it might be the savior.

1.) That said, I'd love the ability to add a custom logo to my vehicle/truck doors. I understand this would be somewhat hard to implement with regards to all the assets available, however, plopping it on the 2014 default truck door shouldn't be that big a deal in the grand-scheme-of-things.

2.) For the love of (your deity), please, please add Nvidia Ansel support. It would make screenshot capture so much easier and would render stellar results with regards to community interaction.

A hellaciously intense tactical shooter with unforgiving realism with a well thought out strategic and planning layer. It feels very much akin to RO2, Squad and other titles in the genre.

EA & GAMEPLAY ISSUES:

• A few of the maps while fairly expansive feel somewhat funnel like at times. This removes the tactical decision making progress in certain instances.

• Some serious issues with sound ranging and dynamics at the moment. Median to even distant shots have a tendency to ring out like they're right next you which can often lead you to divert your focus where you shouldn't.

• While movement and employing your weapon feel and react quite well there are animation fluidity issues as well as keys not serving dual functions; like going prone or crouched and then being able to press space to immediately stand up. Hopefully this will be implemented down the road.

• There are some terrain problems that can and do restrict movement, especially when navigating a trench system. Sometimes you can't climb out, this can mean you'll be stuck there when the next frag plops down in front of you, an enemy squads assaults your position, or being forced to retrace your steps to get out.

WHAT NEEDS FIXING ASAP:

• I'm sure there are a lot of bugs to quash and features to add. However, the one issue most pressing (IMHO) is the awful AA/anti-aliasing in the game at the moment. Due to the engagement ranges 50m+, HLL quickly diludes into a pixel hunt where what you're shooting at might be an enemy combatant, it might be a friendly, it might even be tree stump. Point being, it can be very difficult to tell what you're shooting at times.

PERFORMANCE:

• This is entirely subjective, really. But for me it's stellar. Averaging 90FPS on a 1440p monitor at 144Hz with the settings on Epic.

SYSTEM BASICS:

i7 9700K OC'd to 5.0GHz
16GB RAM
GTX 1080Ti