Recent reviews by LaPalida

They're doing their part. Are you? Join the Mobile Infantry and save the world. Service guarantees citizenship.

Caveat emptor: The game is still kind of a buggy mess (pun not intended) with many crashes and glitches (infinite grenades, getting stuck in the ground, getting killed by invisible entities, getting stuck in aim mode etc.) and despite it installing a rootkit anti-cheat I have already witnessed firsthand multiple instances of and read about people cheating in this game. It is definitely fun but you may get frustrated for wasting your evening doing a 40 min mission only to get crashed out of the game with no ability to rejoin the session and therefore not getting any rewards for that mission.

Edit: I'm glad they reversed their decision for a PSN account requirement. Would have been a pity to ruin such a fun game.

It is well known that sequels are usually worse than the original. This is one of those rare exceptions. This game is by far the best of the series. It has what Fallout 3+ is missing. A soul. Don't get me wrong, I love the Fallout games and the universe. I just think that this one has a spark that the others are missing. Being part of the Spartan team is like being part of the family. You care for all the characters.

They really did an amazing job of story telling. If you want to be immersed this is a worthy world to spend a few hours of your life in. Sure like all games it has some bugs but how many games don't? I savored this world. I tried to get all the lore that it offered out of it and it never felt like a chore. All conversations were tied into the world and not random. You could even spend some time just standing on the running train watching the world pass you buy and just enjoy that while listening to the music on the radio.

So many little details (small things like you smoking/drinking, playing the guitar, just listening to people talk or snatching random conversations on the radio that later even tied into the DLC) contributed to creating a wonderful immersive atmosphere.

I wholly recommend that you play it in the original language. I know that for me it was extra enjoyable since I understand what was being said but the voice acting is so much better so do yourself a favour and don't go for the terrible English dubbing.

Click 'Watch Tutorial' -> An error has occurred in the script on this page.... and that's pretty much how I would describe this game: full of errors and mystery meat UI navigation. I had to watch the tutorial on YouTube after searching for it in a browser. It was probably the most annoying tutorial I've seen with the apparently such an awful Irish accent that it made my Irish friend's ears bleed.

To add a friend... you'd think you would be able to find them by typing their name into a search box... no no no. Too easy. You need to go into the arena, find them in the lobby and click on the shield??? to friend them.

To join a game... you have to get past the repetitive error dialogue that informs you of a 'duplicate player'???

When playing the game, random de-syncing and crashing. The naturally takes over after you leave making some questionable choices.

Logging into your Asmodee or is it Age of Wonder account??? (Pick a name already!) means that everything you type into the input fields (user name and password) is assumed to be in error.

At least closing the game and restarting it took no more than a few seconds.

It's awesome! Valve has broken the mould again. I've tried other VR games and none of them lived up to this. This is a full fledged game in the Half-Life Universe not a demo like many other VR games seem to feel. I don't mind some of the retconning they've done as it was fairly slight and it served to make the world richer and more interesting. The world and the tech felt so real. I got some transference for a little while when I looked at my own hands irl. Felt weird!

If you're not one to feel ill when playing VR then use continuous movement as it is much more immersive imo. However if you can't bear it then this isn't a problem as the mechanics are so good that it is never jarring to be teleporting around instead. I can't recommend quick turning enough. Initially I had it on a low setting and that made me feel dizzy and ill however when I adjusted it to turn quicker the feeling was gone.

I certainly hope that make the next Half-Life game in VR as the game ending seems to heavily imply this possibility. Looking forward to it!

👍

One of the best team games out there and even though the learning curve is rather steep many people are out there to help you learn but like anywhere else you get people ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ at you for basically being a newbie.

I loved the first NS and this one just outdid it. Unfortunately not many people play it. Servers are usually either empty or full yet I still manage to get on a server without a problem or too long a wait. There used to be hundreds of people playing this game though. It makes me sad because I think this game has a good community and is very polished.

In the wake of what seems to be endless hordes of zombie games I saw what seemed like a cool little platformer called Deadlight. There aren't many platform zombie games (that I know of) so this is already unique in it's own right but what captured me from the start about this game is it's gritty visual style.

I'm not a big fan of the platform genre but the zombie apocalypse setting convinced me to give this a try. There are a few interesting features about this game that I particularly enjoyed. I liked how Randall, the main character, was always in one dimension while at the same time the game gave the impression of depth through such devices as the zombies coming out of the background. A lot of the stark atmosphere of the game came from the relatively spartan graphics and the simple interactions with the environment. It was easy to learn new actions and distinguish Randal from the enemies or other things in the game except during the few times where the visual background cues were way too subtle making it hard to see where you were supposed to jump and it took a few tries to figure out where to go next.

The complaints that I have about this game boil down to mainly the voice acting which destroyed the illusion somewhat, buggy interaction glitches and the simplistic story. In the cut scenes it always felt like the characters, other than Randall, were talking in a void. Perhaps the voice actors were given a script to read without knowing what was actually happening in the current scene but it felt terribly overacted. In particular the Rat's voice was so much lower than Randall's that it was nearly impossible to hear and understand what he was saying half of the time. All this made the game feel unpolished.

As for bugs I would say that at times the character wouldn't respond to the commands that you issued him. I'm not sure if that had to do with my timing or the lag between the controller and game but it was incredibly frustrating. At one point it got so bad that I began questioning my sanity. Having to redo a scene multiple times in a row and subsequently dying in the same way over and over again caused me to swear and argue with my computer to prove to it that I did indeed press the correct button at the correct time. I started to wonder if this is what people mean when they say that videogames cause violence. I certainly felt the rising of a murderous rage within me.

Can't say I am a big fan of the axe combat either. It felt extremely inexact and was very difficult to get Randall to finish off the zombie enemies on the ground. He just wouldn't respond to finish them off and continue hacking at the air space above their bodies. The controls could have been made much better and in return the game would have been that much more enjoyable.

Overall I would give this game a 60/100. The story is rather simplistic even though it had a couple of original elements. Many things in the game made absolutely no sense like the Rat and his nonsensical motivations, for example. It's still playable but just barely.

On a side note: I tried to get all the achievements (except Nightmare Mode) in the game and found out that the game doesn't record one particular secret until I found all the other secrets first. I had to redo that scene 3 times before it recognized my achievement in the end unlocking 3 achievements in a row.

Another wonderful entry from Telltale Games. This game feels like an interactive graphic novel more than a game but that is part of it's charm. It's stylish and beautiful to look at with a very engaging story. Voice acting is spot on as is the atmosphere and the film noir feeling. You care for the characters who are very well fleshed out. In some ways this game reminds me of the Gabriel Knight series. It has that same mysterious mood with magic and some romance thrown in.

I think my main qualm with this game (and the Walking Dead) is the amount of time you get to make a decision in some instances during dialogue options. I don't even have time to read or hear what is being said when the time to make a decision runs out. Is that really necessary to make the 'decision mechanic' work? Seems more irritating than anything really.

I think of it as a blend of "Fallout" and "Syndicate Wars". As always a great dystopic atmosphere and a very fitting soundtrack. I just wish that it was longer with more content. I wasn't even able to max out any ability on my character and the ending felt almost like there will be something right after. I guess here is hoping for more content :). Makes me wish that I could come up with a fun story and make my own addition. Maybe one day!

This game is a a bit of a mindfu(k...