Recent reviews by Caped Crusader

If you're curious about meditation and the benefits it can offer, Playne is a wonderful means to take the first step and ideally make it part of your daily routine. The experience is simple, yet very beautiful, and with ease you can tailor the nature and length of the sessions to your personal taste. The developer has been amazing - adding features, improving performance, and quickly fixing any problems that arise.

My nomination for Labor of Love 2019 (plus 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023).

5/5

This is my personal favorite of all the Williams Pinball Volumes for Pinball FX3.

Theatre of Magic features a wonderful design, great bonus modes, smooth flow for the ball, and is always fun to play. Points are handed out liberally by the millions. For tables I wish I could own in real life, this would easily fall into the top 3.

The Champion Pub isn't far behind in quality, with a challenging but logical layout, plus fun mini-games and bonus modes, the highlight being the boxing rounds where you try to KO a puppet fighter with the ball as he spouts cheeky insults.

Of course these packs practically always have a weak link and here that's Safe Cracker. The drain between the flippers is unusually wide, often making balls tough if not impossible to catch, and the break-in bonus mode played using the overhead board is just horrible. The female voice of the security system only makes matters worse, with frequent bizarre moaning, which I guess is supposed to be alluring. (It isn't.)

Theatre of Magic - 5/5
The Champion Pub - 4/5
Safe Cracker - 2/5
Overall - 4/5

Sort of an arcade-style racing challenge game, but you're not really racing, just trying to reach the end of 32 short tracks. Your car can easily be severely damaged if you hit any obstacle, land too hard, or smack into the half baked AI competitors. Most levels can be completed the first time no problem, but some rather tricky ones are sprinkled throughout that just depend on trial and error. Graphics are simple, I'm guessing purchased models for the cars and mountain surroundings. Track decorations/props are very basic, like those in Crossy Road.

I don't want to be too hard on Crash Wheels, it's not a horrible diversion (especially purchased on sale), but it feels like someone experimenting with Unity over the course of a week or two, growing bored, adding rather awful generic hard rock instrumentals, then calling it good and posting it for sale. Can't say that's something I respect. A bit more effort and creativity would have done wonders, even if the scale were kept small.

Main reason you might want to buy Crash Wheels is that you receive a ton of achievements for completing each level. It's from the makers of the Zup! series, so no surprise there. However, the profile backgrounds associated with the game are very drab.

2/5

On the whole, a very solid collection of replica pinball machines from Williams. In terms of the visuals and sound, I like White Water best, but Red & Ted's Road Show is also a great deal of fun - the layout is a bit busy for my taste, but the flow of the board is excellent, the bonus modes exciting, and points are often handed out by the millions. In comparison, White Water just takes a little time to get used to because you need to really knock the ball to reach the ramps and passageways in the back. Hurricane is a weak table that honestly I just find annoying - dull art and an amusement park theme done much better in Zen's Adventure Land. Not quite as bad as Safe Cracker in Vol. 3, but I wish they'd picked something else to take its place.

White Water: 5/5
Red & Ted's Road Show: 4/5
Hurricane: 2/5
DLC Overall: 4/5

After being less than impressed by some of the recent Zup! games, this one has been genuinely fun and for the most part a return to form. However, the difficulty of many of the levels is quite easy, even for this simple puzzle series, and sometimes only has 2-3 points of interactivity. Maybe a quarter of the levels are that way. I do still very much enjoy the intricately designed layouts, and the new reverse gravity blocks are a cool addition, but it seems like I sometimes spend much more time watching a level play out rather than taking part. That said, I'll take slightly too easy over the janky mechanics of the last couple Zups.

If you're looking for easy achievements, you'll certainly be very happy with this sequel. Not a ridiculous amount like the early titles, which is totally fine. I also hope this gets properly verified so that Quiet River can add some more excellent Steam profile backgrounds.

Lastly, if you've enjoyed this or any of the other Zup! games, I highly recommend the Qop series. In fact, I've come to enjoy the Qop games slightly more.

I'm quite impressed by the overall style and polish of Pinball FX3, and you can have a very decent amount of fun with the free version, which includes two tables - one a replica of a real pinball machine made by Williams with a fishing theme, the other a playful fantasy table about two children fighting an evil wizard. Of course the makers' hope is that you'll purchase some of the many DLCs. I'd say their pricing is very reasonable, essentially equating to $2-$3 a piece, though in most cases you'll have to buy them in a pack of 2-4 tables for $6-$10. One excellent feature: You can try any of the DLC machines before you buy. Your play during a demo is limited to a mere 90 seconds, so I wish that were a bit longer, but it's still plenty of time to gauge whether you like a table or not.

The DLCs are somewhat of a mixed bag, in large part because of the heavy bias towards fantasy machines licensed from Marvel comics and Star Wars, both owned by Disney. I'm not sure why they need over 20 tables for Star Wars alone, but if you're a fan of the films and animated series, you'll likely be very happy with the variety. I personally prefer the real pinball replicas over the fantasy ones, so I hope they're able to create more of those in partnership with Williams and also ideally bring some other major pinball makers into the fold. Additionally, there are some fantasy tables based on films produced by Universal (Back to the Future, Jaws, ET), but they're universally bad, using voice performers who sound nothing like their original actors and poorly adapted music. I love Jaws and the DLC machine here is a fail from top to bottom. Same goes for Back to the Future. On the plus side, the machines for Portal, American Dad, and Family Guy very authentically capture their sources and have proper voice work, even Patrick Stewart (maybe just samples from American Dad episodes he was in).

The graphics are excellent, very crisp at 4K on a large screen, and it's clear that a lot of care went into the modeling, textures, and lighting of the machines. In general the ball physics and responsiveness of the paddles I'd say work well, but that can vary quite a bit from table to table. I've read on the forum that they've been experimenting with refinements in those areas, so perhaps that'll improve with time and if they apply those changes more widely.

Growing up I always enjoyed playing pinball when out with friends and, while perhaps not flawless, Pinball FX3 is a wonderful way to experience that again in the comfort of home.

Gameplay: 4/5
Graphics: 5/5
Sound: 4/5
DLC: 3/5
Overall: 4/5

I like interactive fiction, I also don't mind if a game's plot is on a rail, so long as the characters are interesting and the story is well told. Telltale's Game of Thrones pretends to be about player choice, but really only offers very minor alternate moments. It's a tree with no branches.

For example, in Episode 1 you're tasked with making preparations for your isolated stronghold to be visited by your family's worst enemy and a cruel little bastard representing the new warden of the North. You can try to be gracious and accommodating, or make preparations for a preemptive attack and siege. Each approach includes layered decisions about how far to go in that direction. This in itself creates great tension, your counselors saying you're either making your family look weak at the start of a negotiation or agitating for a bloodbath your side can't possibly win. In the end, all the planning means nothing and the events play out exactly the same, the only difference being that part of the dialogue takes place in the courtyard or entirely inside the great hall.

Now many games with plot choices take a similar approach, where variations are small, such as saving one of two characters, then they become a companion for the rest story. Playing this I was very much reminded of Dragon Age 2 where it's also impossible to avoid the key events. However, there you're at least front and center for the most important action. Here you're constantly reminded how far removed you are from the bigger picture. In relation to the canon of the HBO TV series and George RR Martin's books, you're simply an NPC, providing at best texture, with only brief glimpses of the more important conflicts and scheming happening beyond your control.

What makes this game worse than say Telltale's Back to the Future or Jurassic Park, both being extremely linear, is that the focus in Game of Thrones is on interactive dialogues. Perhaps 80% of the gameplay is talking, then 10% for QTEs and 10% for very restricted exploration (sometimes all you do is walk forward). If character interaction is where the greatest focus is, there should be some value and entertainment from doing that. If the writers feel that my plan of having a siege should lead to catastrophe, then respect the choice and show that play out. If that means my particular story ends with either Episode 1 or 2, out of a possible 6, that's perfectly fine. Replayability is supposed to be the point of these. I'd also say the possibility for abrupt, dire endings is one of the defining traits of the whole Song of Ice and Fire saga, so why not embrace that?

The technical details: Graphics are basically run of the mill for a Telltale game, impressive for their mobile-friendly scale here and there, but frequently have odd glitches when it comes to character positioning and movement. Locations are often reused with only small adjustments and most you can't explore. The music and sound effects aren't memorable, though each episode uses the rousing TV series theme for the opening titles, which are recreated quite nicely using the game's 3D engine. The voice cast plays their roles very well, I would say the best part of the whole experience and does make up for the peculiar character animations. However, Peter Dinklage as Tyrion is the only one of the TV show's actors who seems to care about subtlety and humor.

On the whole Telltale's Game of Thrones is just deeply unsatisfying and I'd say lacks the effort and care put into their best titles. I'm especially disappointed because I'd be one who'd very much enjoy an interactive story where the emphasis is on dialogue and how you handle relationships, making and breaking alliances, engaging in palace intrigue, if they have a meaningful impact. That's entirely missing here. Instead, I imagine fans of the HBO series and books are simply supposed to be content to occasionally rub shoulders with important characters, obliquely observe major events like the Red Wedding, while the central "original" story of house Forrester repeats the same broad strokes of the Starks and their fall from grace. No matter what you do, you're always on the outside looking in at those who wield power, and whatever choices you make will bring only death and tears.

Gameplay: 1/5
Story: 2/5
Graphics: 3/5
Sound: 4/5
Overall: 2/5

The only winning move is not to play.

An interesting narrative experiment, but also a very mixed bag that tries too many different gameplay modes and does pretty much none of them particularly well, Blues and Bullets was supposed to be a grand noir mystery told over 5 episodes. Unfortunately, only 2 episodes have been produced and the project now seems long abandoned. This review is based on Episode 1 only.

You play as famed Prohibition-era lawman, Eliot Ness (voiced by Geralt from The Witcher series), whose fictional failure to solve a series of child kidnappings led him to abandon his career and become owner/operator of a small downtown diner, mastering the art of making pies. A new case comes his way, which the episode's prologue seems to make abundantly clear is connected to the original child kidnappings, these having a twisted ritualistic angle. The story is set in an alternate timeline, but the precise differences compared to real history are murky. The way the plot progresses is scattered and bizarre, like the team came up with a list of set pieces and then crudely forced the story to follow the list in order. Most troubling is the lack of urgency. Little kids are being kept in a cave dungeon, apparently tortured and killed by a masked psychopath wearing animal horns, but Ness and his sidekick are content to investigate at a leisure pace. In fairness, within the context of the story, Ness doesn't know the terrible details of what the kids are experiencing, but we are shown that in the game's interactive prologue where a young girl attempts escape.

The graphics are at times very impressive, especially the lighting and the minimal use of color. However, for every camera angle that's gorgeous, there's at least an equal number that are thoroughly amateur. Blocky low res textures are used for objects that have extreme close ups, while unimportant props are excessively detailed. Also strange, carpets and certain clothing have very precise fur-like enhancement, giving them depth and detail that's unusual even in very recent games. Movement animations are rigid, like something made in 2005, yet they seem to have done proper motion capture for a pack of dogs that briefly appear.

Despite there being many conversations, the voices are rarely in sync with the characters' lips. In some cases the characters are talking with their faces shown clearly, but their lips don't move at all. The worst error I noticed: At the conclusion of a very dramatic scene near the end of the episode, Mr. Ness spoke a line clearly voiced by the woman he was talking to, ruining what little drama there was. Yes, they assigned a line of dialogue to the wrong character in a vital conversation and never fixed it.

When it comes to gameplay, things all over the place. Most of the time you just walk very slowly around a location either going to another room, talking to the people you find, or looking for hot spots to investigate, which have hovering icons you really can't miss. There is one crime scene where you gather clues and piece them together to understand what happened. I did enjoy that, but the clue spots are so obvious it never felt like a real challenge. There are a few gunfights using cover, but once you clear out the enemies immediately in front of you the game automatically moves you to the next way point, basically like Sega's House of the Dead. In two fight scenes there are simple QTEs where you have to hit WASD keys as they're shown on screen, cribbed from Telltale and lacking any thrills.

As negative this review may sound, I didn't hate Blues and Bullets. Instead I'd say it's the definition of mediocrity. If the story were more compelling and the characters felt more human, I'd likely be inclined to overlook at least some of the problems. The gameplay modes, while not being original or well implemented, aren't broken, just half baked. This was an indie team trying to deliver a Telltale-like series, including having character decisions that would impact later events and subsequent episodes. On its own, I'd say that's commendable. However, I can't ignore the corners they clearly cut and very odd choices made like threatening young children with mutilation and having a lead character who apparently has let that continue for a decade or more so he can instead bake desserts.

Gameplay: 3/5
Story: 2/5
Graphics: 3/5
Sound: 2/5
DLC: 2/5
Overall: 2/5

My original inclination was to give this an overall score of 3, but seeing as they sold a Season Pass for the full run of 5 episodes and only delivered 2, offering no refunds to the people who paid for that, this is a solid thumbs down and I don't recommend buying it even at a discount.

Another excellent remaster of a classic Lucasarts adventure. Now, as said in the developer commentary, they tried to really amp up the features they experimented on with the first game, Secret of Monkey Island. In most ways I think that's great, there's many more locations to visit and the artwork is amazing, both the original and HD versions. The music is also a highlight, maybe the best of adventure games from the MIDI era. The voice work of the special edition is top notch, reuniting I believe all of the key cast members, and the new recording of the music has wonderful flavor.

However, I feel like some of the dialogue puzzles, if you can really call them that, are rather annoying, in particular the occasions where you have to exhaust a ton of wrong choices to reveal the one that ultimately lets you continue. Thankfully those are rare, but I would say they're also a poor substitute for the insult sword fighting of the first game. The solutions to object puzzles can be out of left field. Sometimes they're funny, but other times just flat out bizarre. The story also seems rushed in the final act.

The max resolution appears limited to 1080p, but looks fine on a 4K screen.

Monkey Island 2 is certainly worth playing and I would say made by one of the finest teams to ever create point and click adventures. I just feel as though there's some portions of the gameplay that could've been refined better.

For context, I'd personally rank Curse of Monkey Island, Full Throttle, and Day of the Tentacle slightly higher, and say it's roughly on par with Indiana Jones: The Fate of Atlantis and Sam & Max: Hit the Road.

Gameplay: 3/5
Story: 4/5
Graphics: 5/5
Sound: 5/5
Extras: 4/5
Overall: 4/5

I've been a fan of Clue since I was very young. Played it a lot with my family growing up and to his day I absolutely adore the 1985 film. This PC version of the board game was quite decent, even excellent in ways - before. In recent patches glaring bugs have been introduced, the last patch coming something like 6 months ago that broke far more than it improved. Now I discover they've recently released a new version - not a patch, a whole new Clue game with (relatively speaking) pricey DLCs. I like and support devs that stand by their work and care about giving their customers a quality product. I used to think that Marmalade was a fantastic indie dev, but that is absolutely no longer the case. I ask that you please not buy this version, their new Clue, or any other title by them unless they fix what they broke, or roll back to an earlier, better build. Show your customers and Clue fans a modicum of respect PLEASE. This kind of scummy behavior in game making and publishing must stop.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3034498034
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3016674764