Recent reviews by Fimbul

I bought this on a whim and got ready to work my craft, doing subnetting, bugtracking, all level support, port forwarding and cable management, maybe to improve somewhere on the way. However this game is as shallow as shallow can be. Basically all it is, is comitting to a customer (which in reality would be ever changing), buying hardware (which these days, would be a long term committment with up- and downsides and a storm of license agreements, depending on the manufacturer) and doing manual cabling. All this has to offer is making wires look pretty, which is usually not the reality. All the challenges I mentioned are simply ignored. The customer servers display networks and masks that do not translate to actual subnetting. All you do to add new servers is to take the network address and increment 2 to 254, even if the subnet says otherwise. What is realistic are the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ text mappings and the lingering sense of confusion they cause.

Endless Legend is my favorit 4X game beside the Civ series. It's biggest strength is it's variety: It has lots of different ressources, anomalies, biomes and what not. The playable races have distinctive mechanics, each plays a totally different way. You can annex many different minor races to gain special units and boni. Units are costumizable and upgradable in the likes of a RPG equipment system, so they can fulfill different roles. There are heros (with skilltrees and loadout) that can manage your settlements or lead an army. The technology progression is non-linear. There's a plethora of quests that can be triggered and give you goals beyond simple building and conquering. Seasons play a big role as the planet tumbles into an ice age as the game proceedes. Last but not least this game is absolutely beautiful, probalby the best art direction in any 4X game.

Now quickly for some quasi contras: The combat system is unusual and a little weird; not bad, but it takes some time to get used to it. If you expand a lot the settlement management can become somewhat of a chore, but that's not unique in this genre... and if you hate that, the game features a race that is limited to it's starting settlement.

The base game has already a good amount of content, but the following is added via payed DLC:
- three unique and interesting playable races
- an espionage system
- a second technology system that depends on a ressource that can only be harvested in the winter season
- marine warfare
- epic units
- more quests and loadout

Gameplay is a mix of isometric exploration and bone hard boss fights. The exploration part is unobstructive and not very eventful but the bosses aka Jøtun will melt your face! Throughout the game the protagonist will comment on several characters and places from norse mythology in genuine icelandic (subtitled) and manages to stay suprisingly true to the literature at that. I know my way around norse mythology and I'm certainly not used to having it so accurately portrayed in popular media. So if you like vikings and their weird believes, check this out! A little short, but I think the price was fair for the 8 hours I had with it.

This is possibly the most beautiful Jump'n'Run / Metroidvania ever and an instant favorite of mine. The game features a breath takingly beautiful, semi open world and skills that mainly give you more freedom and mobility. The controlls work so fluently and precise, it feels like a ballet, matching the enchanting soundtrack. It's difficult to say anythin about the story without spoilers, but it starts out on a sad note. So in addition to the moderatly difficult gameplay, it's not exactly a kids game, even though it might look like one. If I regret anything about buying this game, it's that I didn't pay full price! Moon Studios has won a fan in me and I'll be closely watching their output in the future. I hope they'll be expanding on the world of Ori and the Blind Forest.

Simple mechanics that require timing and flexibility - that's a sure shot in game design. Ronin is often set against Gunpoint for their similarity in visuals and mechanics, but in it's ultimate aim on a bloodbath - with stealth only being a means to it - it remind me more of Hotline Miami. In a mixture like that, who'd have thought that turn-based combat fits it like a glove? It's short but challenging: After beating the game you unlock New Game Plus, where it becomes clear that the base game was only a tutorial. If you like to start a level over and over to get your choreography of blood and death just right, then this is for you!

I backed this game on Kickstarter out of a whim and didn't expect much, but was pleasantly surprised when I finally tried it out. What surprised me most was how well the NPCs are written, most of them are some kind of crazy and convincingly at that. Gameplaywise it's Deus Ex 2D - almost every area has several ways to get through and invites to explore. Depending on how you choose your skills and augments, this game may become a shooter, brawler or stealth game, but its focus lies on story so don't expect unending action. The amount of content seemed just enough to not get stale, took me about 20h for a thorough playthrough.
The game was quite bug ridden (including a game breaking savegame bug) but the worst of them were fixed recently, so maybe give it a second chance, I certainly didn't regret a second.

I'm not even a DOTA player but this documentary was very entertaining. It focuses on the people, not the game and when it shows the actual matches it manages to be hugely exciting, even to someone like me who isn't really interested in competitive gaming.