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As it seems to be tradition with Civ games, they need an expansion or two to start being really good, and Rising Tide proves it for Beyond Earth. To begin with it, it adds a new gameplay mechanic in the form of floating cities, which can be founded on the sea, and can then freely move. It's a nice addition, although limited in some aspects: to move a floating city, you need to spend production, meaning that's turns lost without producing something more useful; add on to this that floating cities don't expand their borders through culture, meaning their only way to get new tiles is by moving or purchasing them.

Another addition is the new personality traits system, and the Diplomatic Capital currency, all part of a revamped diplomacy system, as the original game had a system similar to V. With this new system, you can upgrade and get new unique abilities for your leader, which makes the game a bit more dynamic. The agreements you can sign with other leaders have also changed; instead of "give me X resource for Y gold", you can now sign spend diplomatic capital for stuff like extra production or science, depending on which traits the other leaders have.

There's also artifacts to collect now; by using your explorers, you can unearth artifacts and then research them in order to unlock several bonuses, including new buildings and wonders! Speaking of buildings, there's also a whole bunch of new buildings and wonders, some of them exclusive to aquatic cities, and there's now hybrid units, as the affinity system was reworked to allow hybrid affinities; basically, you get new synergy bonuses between affinities. Finally, there's four new leaders to play as, which adds a bit more variety to the game, although the flaws of the original can still be felt.

All in all, a worty upgrade to the base game, which I can recommend more easily.

This DLC adds a bunch of new custom maps to the game, each with their own unique quirks; for example, one of the maps has a frozen wasteland on the north and desert on the south. They basically act like any other random map, as you can set specific biome types and such, but with their own scripts they still give you results like the one I mentioned above. I liked the maps, so I recommend it for some extra variety in gameplay.

As a big fan of Civ V, I must say that when I first heard of Beyond Earth all those years ago, I was really interested in it. A Civ game in space? Sign me up! However, when I actually played it, I found the game to be somewhat disappointed. Now, before I delve deeper into this review, let me point out that only recently did I go back to the game, and played it with the DLC, so some of the details I mention here might be part of the DLC, and not in the base game.

To start with, what's the best part of Civ? Well, the civilizations, at least for me. It's nice to pick a specific civilization with its own leaders and abilities, and in this, this game falls short. Rather than having a Unique Ability, and two Unique Items (buildings, units, improvements) like Civ V had, in this game, the only difference between civs is the unique ability. This ends up causing all civs to feel very samey; there's no real differences as you progress through the game.

And that brings me to the next point: progression. While in traditional Civ games there's a clear progression from the Ancient Era all the way to a Future Era, in this game you are already in the future, and there's no real advancement to speak of. Sure, there's a tech tree, or web, in this case, but it lacks that feel of technological advancement than the main games have. This also ties into the victory conditions, which, other than Domination and Time, all need you to research specific techs, then build a wonder, and then spend a lot more turns doing a repetitive action, or just straight up waiting. There's no Culture or Diplomatic Victory; it's all different flavours of a Science Victory.

Despite these flaws, the gameplay remains pretty similar to that of Civ V, and so I enjoyed it. The alien environments are really good, and having alien creatures instead of barbarians is also nice. I must admit I was a bit of a fool by attacking aliens on sight; turns out they remain peaceful towards your units if you don't attack them, so it becomes a calculation of cost vs benefit, as attacking the aliens can provide science bonuses and such. A new gameplay mechanic present in this game is the quest system. Basically, you'll get specific objectives as you play, and can make decisions to affect the outcome of quests, which basically give you one of two benefits.

Another new mechanic is the affinity system. On paper, it sounds good; kinda like the ideologies in Civ V, there's three main affinities: Harmony, Purity and Supremacy. Each affinity unlocks specific unit upgrades, but at the end of the day, there's no disadvantage on trying to get all affinities to max, especially when each affinity unlocks a victory condition.

All in all, Beyond Earth is a somewhat disappointing game, but not one I wouldn't recommend, as I still had a fun time with it.

I learned about this game because of the news of its imminent shutdown, and decided to give it a go for the easy perfection. And now, I must say, what a way to fumble an interesting premise and cool looking world. Sure, on the surface it's yet another "alien virus infects mankind, some people have immunity and fight back", but the aesthetics of the crystallized enemies, and the short intro I played let me wishing for more.

Personally, I think this game could've worked very well as a singleplayer game focusing on the premise. The use of hero shooter mechanics could've worked well, having access to an ultimate and that stuff, but at the end of the day, trend chasing doomed this game.

This DLC for Age of Mythology: Extended Edition is bad. There's no other way around it. Now, it'd be unfair to say I didn't find anything good about the DLC; personally, I liked the addition of a Chinese civilization with its own deities and mechanics. The Garden, a building unique to the Chinese, allows them to get resources that might be otherwise limited, and that's a cool addition. And some of the god powers are fun. No, my problem lies elsewhere: the campaign.

SImply put, the Tale of the Dragon campaign is terrible. Some of the cutscenes are bad, at some points you have no idea why you're doing what you're doing, or who your enemy is, and the scenarios themselves are, for the most part, terrible. In the first scenario, you have to build a dam, which is basically sending your workers to some rocks near a river. All the time, the AI sends waves of enemies to attack you. Another scenario has you start in the middle of a deep jungle, about to be attacked by an overwhelming force; in fact, the guides I found recommend basically abandoning said fortress and spending a lot of time hidden in a deep corner of the map. And the final scenario has you climb a mountain, with triggers at certain points that spawn a whole bunch of enemies to attack your base. Not only that, the AI is broken as well. In that final scenario, there was another enemy AI right next to my base, which could be considered a threat... If it had bothered to attack at all.

From all this, it seems pretty clear the devs in charge of this expansion didn't put a lot of work into it, and personally, I can't really recommend it unless you want to get all the achievements, or don't want to be missing content for the multiplayer mode. Otherwise... It's not good.

Age of Mythology is a spin-off of the Age of Empires franchise, focusing on mythological creatures and deities, in contrast to the more realistic approach of the main games. In this game, you can control one of four different civilizations, five if you have the DLC, and each civilization has its own major and minor gods to further diversify gameplay.

The four base civilizations are the Greek, Norse, Egyptian and Atlantean civilizations. The last one was added to the original game with the Titans expansion, though only with this Extended Edition was I able to try them out, as I never got the expansion for the original game. As I said above, beyond picking a civilization, you also get to pick a major god; think of this as a sub-civilization with its own bonuses and such. Besides that, gameplay remains mostly similar to what you'd expect from an Age of Empires game: you need to build your economy, train troops, advance ages and such. However, one of the key differences is that when advancing ages, you get to pick one of two minor deities; this feels like a precursor to Age of Empires III age-up mechanic, as each minor god offers specific bonuses. There's also god powers, one for each age, that can aid you in battle or in regards to your economy.

The game has several singleplayer campaigns; while it originally launched with a single one, the Fall of the Trident campaign, this Extended Edition includes the ones that were added later on through expansions, which are the Golden Gift campaign, and New Atlantis. The first campaign is rather extensive, featuring over 30 scenarios, and taking you through all major civs. It also makes use of cutscenes (rendered in-engine), which add a more cinematic feel compared to earlier games in the franchise. Personally, I enjoyed them all, though there's a few minor bugs here and there.

Beyond the campaign, you can play skirmish against the AI or online with other players. There's a couple of different game modes, from Supremacy, which is basically a traditional skirmish, to Deathmatch (starts with high resources and the map revealed), and even Treaty mode, which adds a timer where you can't attack, so you can build up your economy first. There's also a scenario editor so you can make up your own maps either for skirmish, or for a custom campaign.

Now, talking about the graphics, well, it has some enhancements as an "Extended Edition" compared to the original game, but it's still an early 2000s game at its core; don't expect anything ultra realistic, but at least compared to Age of Empires II, units and buildings are no longer simple sprites, but actual 3D models. The soundtrack is very nice, and each civilization gets its own theme that plays at the start of a match.

All in all, it was nice revisiting this classic from my childhood/teenage years after so long. I can recommend it, although with Retold in the horizon, you might want to wait for that one.

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster is a nicely crafted upgrade for a classic Star Wars FPS, which makes it playable on modern systems right out of the box, without needing DOSBOX and the like. The story follows Kyle Katarn, a mercenary working for the Rebel Alliance in their fight against the Empire.

As Kyle, you're tasked with uncovering the secrets behind the Empire's newest secret project, the Dark Troopers. This mission will take you across several different planets, and you might even end up seeing a few familiar faces along the way. Of course, being an FPS from the 90s, the story is told only through a handful of cutscenes between levels, and mission briefings. Even then, it's pretty good (although no longer canon to the main Star Wars continuity, since Rogue One overwrites some events from this game).

Gameplay wise, it hasn't changed from the original. As I said earlier, it's a FPS, so you'll spend most of your time shooting. There's a nice variety of weapons, some packing quite a nasty punch: from a regular blaster pistol, to a mortar launcher and even a missile launcher. Enemy variety is good for a game from this era, as you'll be facing Stormtroopers, Imperial Officers, a handful of alien species, and the Dark Troopers. And there's also some puzzle solving and key collecting, as it was common for games from the 90s.

Graphically, the improvement is noticeable. It still looks like a game from the 90s, mind you, but in higher definition, so it's not all pixelated. And the remastered cutscenes look very nice. The audio seems to have been upgraded as well, and there's the addition of subtitles; at least I don't remember the original having them, so that's a plus.

Overall, I enjoyed this game. I did realize how little I remembered from the original, despite having played it only 6 years ago. I basically didn't remember anything from the second half of hte game, besides the final boss. Anyway, I recommend it.

Having just finished a playthrough on Ultra Hard New Game+, earning the last few achievements I was missing, I feel now is the time to write a review for this game. And, as it usually happens after I finished a game that got me so involved, I find it hard to start the review.

So, Horizon Zero Dawn. The first PlayStation first-party game to ever release on PC. Back when it was first announced, I was beyond excited, it was a dream come true, not just because of this game, but because of potential future Sony releases on PC. However, we aren't talking about that here, we're talking about HZD. So I bought it when it was available, started it up when it released... And ended up abandoning it for years, until last year, when I finally got back to it, and it finally "clicked".

First things first, let's talk story and lore. The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic Earth, where humanity has regressed to a more tribal civilization, after some unknown catastrophe devastated cities and left beast-like machines roaming the Earth. You play as Aloy, a young girl from the Nora tribe, who has been an outcast her entire life; even then, she's allowed to win back her place in the tribe by taking part of the Proving, but, of course... Things happen, and Aloy gets thrown in the middle of a conflict that could bring down not only her tribe, but all of civilization itself. On top of that, Aloy is searching for answers about her past. The story is very good, but I must say where the game really shines is with the lore; although saying more about it would spoil the fun of discovering it as you progress to the game.

As for gameplay, it's an open world game, with the typical stuff you'd expect from such a game. Main quests, side quests, collectibles, upgrades and so on and so forth. The first time I tried playing the game, it didn't quite click with me because I wasn't using the full extent of what the game offers, and thus, the combat felt somewhat frustrating (I was only ever using the default bow). There's actually a decent variety of weapons to use, and even for bows there's actually three main variants: one focused on what I'd call "general" damage, one for elemental effects, and a more specialized one for specific situations. On top of the bows, you can get a bomb slingshot, set traps, tie machines down, plus a couple more weapons both from the main game and the DLC. You can also use stealth for certain encounters, and there's a wide variety of potions that can aid you in combat.

Enemy variety is pretty good. It's mostly machines, with some humans here and there, but you'll mostly fight machines. Another part of the combat I didn't quite get at first was how to deal with machines; not just which weapons to use, but how to exploit their weaknesses. For example, some machines might have fuel canisters on them; you can set them off with a fire weapon to cause an explosion dealing area damage, stuff like that. Other machines might be able to detect you while you're hiding, until you destroy their sensors, leaving them blind; well, not really blind, as they can still see you, but they can't find you as easily if they lose sight of you.

I enjoyed exploring in this game; the world they've crafted is beautiful. There are some headscratching parts (like going from snowy mountains to a hot desert), but I chalk that up to games being games; making the trek from one region to the other more realistic would mean a lot of pointless travelling, so distances are shortened. Anyway, the game has some really beautiful locations, even more so the DLC region, which has a volcano looming in the background.

Speaking of the DLC, I enjoyed it as much as the main game, although I gotta say, I'm not sure if I'll ever go through it in NG+. It's certainly way more challenging than the base game, with some new machines that can deal quite some damage. Its story connects with that of the main game, and you can even get some more info about a certain character through the DLC.

Which brings me to the characters: I liked most of them, except one whom I particularly despise for what he caused; I'm not going to talk further than that as it'd be spoilers, but I'm sure you'll know which character I'm talking about after you get through the game. Anyway, going back at it, the game has a diverse cast of characters; each tribe has its own customs that you learn throughout the story. The dialogue, I found very good, and some of Aloy's interactions with certain characters were really funny.

Visually, the game looks stunning. I noticed some details here and there, but that was probably because I played it in medium settings. In higher settings it'd probably look even better. The soundtrack is also very good.

I definitely recommend this game, it certainly became one of my favourite "new" franchises, and I can't wait to play Forbidden West next.

PAC-MAN 256 is an interesting twist on the classic PAC-MAN formula, and if you've ever gamed in the last 40+ years, you should at least know what PAC-MAN is about, so I'll just explain the "twist". Instead of having a bunch of similar mazes that you advance through by eating all pellets while avoiding the ghosts, in this game, the maze never ends, and you must always move forward, as the "glitch" advances through the maze. This Advancing Wall of Doom is a references to the 256th level glitch in the original Pac-Man, and if the glitch reaches you, it's game over.

Of course, the classic elements of Pac-Man are still there: there's pellets to eat, ghosts to avoid, fruit to eat, and power pellets. Oh, there's also several new power-ups that can help you deal with the ghosts: from lasers, to bombs, and even an aura that turns ghosts into cherries for you to eat. These power-ups can be upgraded by collecting coins as you play, although you can only have three power-ups show up per run.

As for the ghosts, there's several types, although not quite like in classic Pac-Man. While some are easy to avoid (the light blue ghost goes around in circle, the orange ghost always heads to the bottom of the screen), some might prove more challenging, such as the pink ghost or the glitchy one.

The main goal of the game, besides getting away from the glitch as I said above, is getting points, to get to the top of that scoreboard. You get points by eating pellets, getting combos, killing ghosts... If you manage to eat 256 pellets in a row, you trigger a special bonus that destroys all ghosts on screen giving you bonus points as well. There's also a local multiplayer mode that can be played with up to four players.

All in all, this is a fun, casual game that anyone can enjoy, so I recommend it.

Not sure if I should give this game the thumbs up or the thumbs down, so I'll probably decide as I finish typing this review. Anyway, what's Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing? Well, it seems to be Sega's response to Nintendo's Mario Kart, a party racing games featuring popular and obscure characters from Sega's catalog (mostly Sonic the Hedgehog characters). As someone who's never played a Mario Kart game due to a serious lack of a Nintendo console (but not of "Nintendos", as I've owned some non-Nintendo consoles), I don't have much experience with these types of games, and I can't compare the two.

The gameplay is decent, though I found it extremely janky at times. While there is a sort of tutorial when you first start the game (although you can skip it), it seems to skim over some details. I was, for example, very frustrated when I couldn't get a boost at the start of races, while my opponents could. It turns out you need to time your boost right in order to get it, and this depends on which character you're using, with some needing the full countdown to activate the boost (also, some characters' boost is pretty insignificant, to the point it basically makes no difference whether you get it right or not). Beyond this mechanic, the game also makes great use of drifting mechanics: when taking corners, you can start a drift to generate boost in order to get a lead. There's also items you can get during the races to either aid you or harm your enemies.

The character selection is pretty big; there's 20 different characters, and the same goes for track selection, with 24 tracks to choose from. Still, most of the characters and tracks are locked at first, and you can unlock by spending "Sega Miles" (no, not Miles "Tails" Prower, just regular miles) on the in-game shop. You can also unlock several new music tracks that you can choose from while playing.

When it comes to game modes, it offers both singleplayer and multiplayer (split screen) modes. In SP, you have Grand Prix, Single Race, Time Trials and Missions. Grand Prix mode has you race through four different tracks, earning points depending on how you finish, at the end of all tracks, the racer with more points wins. Single Race is just what the name implies, you can pick any track and set the number of laps, items and such. Time Trial has you compete against the staff time (and then your own) to set new track records. Finally, Mission mode has 64 different missions to complete, going from simple races, to stuff like boss fights. As for MP, I didn't mess around with it that much, as it only offers split screen (no online play), but from what I saw, there's a few more gamemodes, like one for collecting the Chaos Emeralds, and one for fighting between cars.

On the graphics side, it hasn't aged very well. It is a colourful game, I'll say that, but I noticed several graphical glitches at some points. As for sound, the track selection is very nice, so I have no issues there.

All in all, I think I've made my decision. While I found it an extremely janky port at first, I ended up enjoying my time with this game, to the point I went ahead and completed all the in-game challenges despite the game not having Steam achievements. So I guess I recommend it.