Recent reviews by trip

Is pretty fun

Unfathomably, Blizzard have managed to take one of the most exciting new IP's of the last decade and literally not only destroy the IP but the reputation of the studio.

Undeniably, OW2 is worse than OW1 in every sense. This game should be used as a case study for literally everything that is wrong with the modern games industry. Shameful, predatory monetisation that prays on FOMO rather than creating a game that is FUN first and foremost.

The epitome of free to play garbage. A short term cash injection for longterm damage to Overwatch and Blizzard. Truly baffling.

At the time of writing, this game has 9% positive reviews and I feel like that is generous.

Runescape is the most updated game of all time and previously held the record for the most popular MMORPG. It holds the record for most unique pieces of music in a game. Ever heard of Sea Shanty 2?

In my opinion, Runescape and Runescape 3 are *the* MMORPG's - these games are the definition of the RPG part of MMORPG.

Easy controls, easy to understand but has some real complex mechanics if you are willing to put in the time and effort.

In Runescape, your character is a blank slate that can take on anything the world throws at you, including different combat styles. Unlike other MMO's where you are pigeon-holed in to a specific role like mage, range, melee, tank, etc - Runescape has no such limitations. Every account can utilise a variety of combat styles.

Runescape has the best questing system of any MMO, with quest dialogue consisting of typical British humour, slapstick comedy and storylines spanning two decades. NPC's have real importance and finally seeing the end of a quest line after 15 years is a massive payoff and is unlike anything else I've ever felt in a game. Questing system's in other MMO's can be boiled down to one just one of the twenty three available skills to train in Runescape - you know the one where an NPC tells you to go kill X amount of monster because they are threatening the village? In Runescape that is not questing, that is the Slayer skill.

With skills like Magic, Farming, Slayer, Construction, Agility, Thieving, Runecrafting, Prayer, Herblore, Fishing and more you will never be bored - especially if you love a grindy game, because boy-howdy is Runescape grindy. In my opinion, that adds more value to the game; everything you do whether you login for 1 hour or 8 hours has some form of impact on your character and progression - you will always be striving to hit the next goal.

With skilling, quests, achievement diaries, clue scrolls, minigames, raids, solo bosses, ironman accounts and so much more, any given day in the world of Gielinor can and will be different. Coupled with a free-to-play component and a generous monthly membership fee if you enjoy the game, there is no reason not to try Runescape.

OldSchool Runescape features no micro-transactions unlike Runescape 3 - grind for gp and those rare items or the skill requirements for high-level quests that unlock new areas and new training methods and it will all feel like you have actually achieved something in-game.

OldSchool Runescape averages 80,000 - 130,000 concurrent players per day meanwhile Runescape 3 averages just 20,000 - 50,000 concurrent players per day. Impressive numbers for a game that has been around for so long.

On top of all of this, OldSchool Runescape has the single best video game wiki out there. It has 20+ years of information, data, stats, drop tables, skill calculators, quest guides and literally any obscure thing you could ever think of. There is absolutely not a more comprehensive video game wiki out there.

Don't let my play hours fool you, I have been playing Runescape Classic, Runescape 2, Runescape 3 and OldSchool Runescape for 20 years. Any game that can pull me back time and time again, no matter how long I spend away from it, must be a good game in my book.

There is no better time to jump in to Gielinor with a new skill just around the corner!

If you are new, I would recommend checking out this video for a great basic overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNfAQKGFcVY

Never thought i'd be writing a positive endorsement for Battlefield 2042, but here we are. Game is vastly improved from launch, gunplay feels great and class-based combat is returning before the end of this month which will surely give an even more classic Battlefield feel. Classes, their role on the battlefield and loadouts will mean something again.

100% more enjoyable than MW2. Good game now.

Quite simply the best value for money in gaming right now.

Review changed to negative.

I have been playing Runescape in some form, on and off for 20 years. Jagex and their venture capitalist owners have drained all of the player goodwill in recent years due to increasingly terrible anti-consumer updates.

Microstransation are a stain on the video game industry and Jagex's greed precedes them. Runescape introduced Microtransactions in the form of GAMBLING years ago and Jagex have doubled down on this for years to the complete detriment of the game. The integrity of gaining a 99 in a skill is completely gone - that is what most of the playerbase aspired to achieve, 99 in each skill. Jagex have made it so completely simple to max skills, there is no satisfaction. They have added FOUR double XP events per year in a bid to sell even more microtransactions. Players can even level up skills by simply opening their wallet.

Year on year record profits couldn't contain the their greed as Jagex continued to engorge themselves like a pig.

Now, they have introduced the 'Hero Pass' which is quite possibly the single worst Battle Pass I have ever seen in a video game.

Now you can pay a monthly membership fee, a battle pass, gambling keys as well as cosmetic outfits and overrides (all of these outside of the membership completely negate certain aspects of the game and downright devalue players decades of achievements and grinds).

Avoid Runescape 3 at all costs. Don't even download it. Play OldSchool Runescape instead. However Jagex will probably get their tight-fisted claws around that when RS3 fails.

Andrew, Paul and Ian Gower should never have sold Jagex. They are the only player in this MMO-Niche and they are eating their self alive through greed.

Runescape, the game that has struggled to get in to the public eye in the last 5-10 years has certainly made a negative splash this week by landing on many major PC Gaming news websites for all the wrong reasons. The Hero Pass is the straw that broke the MTX camels back.

https://www.gamesradar.com/give-them-hell-beaten-down-by-microtransactions-mmo-community-revolts-after-predatory-battle-pass-pushes-them-too-far/

https://www.pcgamer.com/runescape-developer-firefights-desperately-as-new-battle-pass-leads-to-open-revolt-and-review-bombing-theyve-gone-too-far-down-the-rabbit-hole/

https://primagames.com/news/we-are-not-done-jagex-runescape-players-hero-pass-update

Originally posted by author:

SCS Software will be donating 100% of its Pink Ribbon Charity Pack proceeds to reputable Breast Cancer research and awareness charities, starting with the charities listed below.

Euro Truck Simulator 2 is a game that has provided me with an endless amount of fun and relaxation, quite frankly, from a genre I didn't really care about before playing the game for the first time.

For the price of this and the fact that 100% of proceeds are going to charities, and those charities are listed in the description of this store listing, this is worth it.

Most, if not all of our lives have been touched by cancer in one way or another and I think this is a fantastic move by SCS and much respect has to be given to them. This is not something they had to do, especially when they are making £0 profit from this DLC.

If you like the game or just want to support charity; you should pick this up.

Please head over to AndrewsBase to check out the full review. Unfortunately, I had to manage my word count on the Steam Review and each paragraph may not flow as I originally intended: http://andrewsbase.com/2019/05/03/torchlight-review-a-lethargic-arpg-experience-that-does-not-hold-up-nearly-a-decade-after-launch/

orchlight is an Action-RPG in the same vein as all of your genre defining favourites like Diablo, Path of Exile, Titan Quest and Grim Dawn that released a decade ago and was a huge hit on the old Xbox Live Arcade. Runic Games ceased trading in 2017 and have since rebirthed under the Echtra Games label with Diablo and Torchlight co-creator Max Schaefer at the helm and are currently developing Torchlight Frontiers. I thought now would be a good time to venture in to the world of Torchlight.


If you have ever played a ARPG like Blizzard’s ever-popular Diablo series, you will know exactly what Torchlight is and what it offers. If not, Torchlight is an isometric, mouse-controlled Action-RPG where you must slay every shuffling enemy that presents itself while utilizing a unique set of abilities, weapons and armour while hording every darn piece of loot that emanates from every corpse.

Torchlight offers the choice of three classes which can be boiled down to their basics; a melee focused Destroyer, a magic wielding Alchemist and the range-oriented Vanquisher, with each offering their own unique class abilities and playstyles. For this particular review I was an all-powerful magic casting Alchemist named Azrael who focused on conjuring an array of spells to dispose of the ungodly inhabitants of a mysterious mine.

The game instantly hit me with an incredibly bland and uninspired story that I had very little interest from the get-go and that interest very quickly waned. Set in the town of Torchlight, the local mine is laden with a all-magical substance named Ember that holds power beyond all imagination and corrupts the very bones of those that dare harvest it. It is this exact substance that is empowering a never-ending spawn of creatures and demons that are serving as protection for their master who is encased at the bottom of the mine. As interesting as this sounds, it all falls completely flat with utterly laughable voice acting and miniscule story bites that are strewn thinly throughout the campaign.

Every piece of dialogue is served either via a loading screen with one to two paragraphs of text or a small text box during gameplay, this is further confirmed when the story culminated in a singular sentence of a NPC mumbling thank you for your help, before quickly leaving.

So you’ve picked your class and decided on whether to bring along a dog or a cat as a companion and pack mule that you forcibly stack full of items and send to the games only town to sell and return with your hard-earned cash. This reduces the amount of trips needed to remove junk from your inventory as your fluffy compatriot has the same inventory size as your chosen hero. Not content with being a sentient item wheelbarrow, Mittens or Spot will fight by your side recklessly and constantly flee as their health drains from enemy attacks. However it is possible to buff your furry friend by teaching them spells from spell scrolls or feeding them fish in a bid to transform them in to some gelatinous blob or spider, whatever your preference.

The town of Torchlight is the only hub in the game and is the only location outside of the mine. Exciting, I know. The town is not vast but it had everything I needed to keep my adventure going and is where I picked up all of my very similar quests before delving back in to the depths below. The sub quests are handed out by lifeless Townie’s and are the exact same every time. I got bored with the robot-bard that asked me to hunt mini-bosses, which were only higher tiered enemies, or the mage tasking me with collecting the corrupting substance Ember – no thanks, I am attempting to put a halt to the corruption that is spilling out from these glowing rocks, not infect everyone!

Speaking of NPC’s, the dank, dark and depressing town of Torchlight acts as a hub to sell items, enhance gear, gamble and make use of the shared stash. I actively avoided leaving the mine unless it was to scoop up side-quests with each tier using the same, tired dialogue or to buy health and mana potions. Like a demanding boss I drove my poor doggo to exhaustion as I made full use of the return to town option, selling all of my junk as I forced myself to go from floor to floor, fighting very comparable foes at every corner.


Combat feels incredibly satisfying, something which I regard highly in the ARPG space – if it feels good to smash through thousands of enemies for a undetermined number of hours, then that is a positive in my book. In Torchlight mulching enemies with a staff, axe or sword feels powerful and weighted while magical spells are entrancing and have nice looking elemental effects, even a decade on.

This is coupled with one of the best in genre soundtracks as Torchlight is packed to the brim with eery, guitar-strumming goodness. It reminded me of previous Diablo titles and rightly so as it is composed by Matt Uelmen of Diablo fame.

Tying combat together is an uninspiring levelling system that leaves a lot to be desired. Each class has three separate skill trees all with their own unlockable physical and passive skills as well as a generic place a point in to strength, dexterity, magic or defense system. Every level up provided me with a skill point while generating fame by fighting mini-bosses let me place a stat point in to one of the three skill trees that each class had access to. For example, on my Alchemist I had the choice to venture down the dark path of necromancy, the strength of a battle wizard or to be more traditional and make use of magical spells. Each skill can be levelled up 10 times increasing its potency, damage and a manner of other relevant stats.

The actual act of placing points in to each skill was a drag and added to the lethargy I was feeling towards Torchlight. Something so simple as allowing me to build my character in the way that I want should not be gated off by an arbitrary levelling system. I wanted to max out a skill that boosted my magic stat and I was constantly forced to either not use that skill point and save it for later, until I reached the games desired character level, or place that point in a different skill, where I would be unable to recover it as there is no option to respec. I felt I wasn’t in control of my character build and I was being railroaded down certain tracks that the developer had predetermined.

While we are discussing character builds, Torchlight is utterly bereft of any stat screen, to my unmitigated bemusement. A video game which is centred around gathering loot and becoming increasingly more powerful to strike down tougher foes doesn’t give me the tools to truly get down to the nitty-gritty of min-maxing my character or even at times figuring out which weapon is better suited to my build. You will not find health on hit, armour block percentages, damage numbers, minion damage, mana per second, magic find, thorns or anything that you would expect to see.

There was a surprising upswing in difficulty towards the end, a difficulty that was not present in the previous 95% of the game as I minced my way through hordes of corrupted enemies monotonously. Average enemies, mini-bosses, full on story related bosses and everything in-between were no match for my build and then I hit floor 31. Oh how naive and unprepared I was as my first brush here seen me get pushed aside like a crisp packet in the wind as the previously laughably easy enemies melted their way through my armour and build in seconds. Taunting me as they paraded my corpse to their overlords.


SCORE: 1.5/5

If you would like to check out my full Risk of Rain 2 review as well as all of my other written content, please head over to http://andrewsbase.com/2019/04/26/risk-of-rain-2-early-access-review/. Thank you, every view and comment of discussion helps. I have tried my best to ensure this Steam review is coherent and flows well as different sections on AndrewsBase are broken up with images - If some paragraphs seems like they have been forced or pushed in, this may be why.. Now, on to the review!

2013's Risk of Rain was a delightful 2D roguelike that grabbed the PC community by storm with its tight controls and addicting gameplay. Fast forward to March 2019 and indie outfit Hopoo Games launched Risk of Rain 2 in to Early Access and has not vacated the Steam top sellers list yet.

This isn't any old sequel though, Hopoo Games have transformed everything that Risk of Rain was from a 2D to 3D environment with stunning visuals and the same frantic, addictive gameplay loop. Seeing the transformation from a 2D pixel-art style to a vibrant, colourful and popping 3D environment is one of the most exciting directions I have seen a developer take a follow-up to a PC hit. It would have been easy to sit on the success of Risk of Rain and create another great 2D roguelike, but Hopoo Games have come up trumps and their risks have paid off dividends.

Risk of Rain 2 can be played as a solo experience or in co-operative multiplayer with friends or via the built-in matchmaking system, where each player has the opportunity to play as one of several unlockable characters that all possess their own flair, abilities and playstyles. If you enjoy playing as a ranged hero in a MMO and love mobility then the Huntress might just be for you, or perhaps you are really in to Warframe and nothing gets you all hot and bothered like slicing enemies with swords in melee combat - then check out the Mercenary. Personally my favourite is the Commando who is the only playable character when the game is first booted, I am partial to his dash ability that let me quickly maneuver in and out of danger.

Diving in to one of  the three pre-set difficulties on offer, you and your co-operative buddies will set out plowing through hordes of constantly spawning enemies, bombing, shooting and slicing your way through hundreds of flying wisps, teleporting imps, exploding jellyfish and scurrying beetles before you notice the slow, trickling increase of difficulty as time passes. As you all start to worry if the randomly generated items you have been gathering are going to see you through, the difficulty slowly ticks in to 'HAHAHAHAHA' territory as a seemingly infinite amount of enemies surround you and your squad, frantically battling through to find the teleporter to the next area.

Like most other roguelikes being lucky with loot drops on each run is part of the game and different pieces of loot will drastically alter your playstyle. In Risk of Rain 2 disposing of enemies earns a currency that can be spent opening chests, item stations or shrines of chance where they will throw out random items from upon their ivory tower as you scamper to gobble them up. Currency can also be used to power up stationary sentry turrets that aid in battle and will gradually generate that sweet, sweet currency as they devour the incoming horde. Any money that hasn't been used before activating the teleporter after killing the area boss will be converted in to experience points, levelling up the character for this particular run and making them more powerful.

I encountered a large magnitude of items from a warbanner that automatically dispenses as I level up, creating a bubble that boosted the stats of all players contained within, a primordial cube that sucks in all nearby enemies as they helplessly struggle against a tsunami of area of effect attacks to a humble feather that adds additional jumps to your maneuverability arsenal. Not every item has a chance to spawn on a run as they are locked and can be unlocked by completing in-game achievements which provides an incentive to play out of your comfort zone or try different tactics in a bid to unlock exciting new items that will surely boost survival chances.

Sadly, loot in co-operative multiplayer is not instanced so it is possible to spend hard-earned currency opening a large chest for a not-so-co-operative chum to dash, blink or lunge in and scoop up the item you paid for, even if it doesn't necessarily help with their build, playstyle or character of choice.  This left me with a overwhelming feeling of frustration and reminded why I would sooner play loot based games with friends than over matchmaking, which is a real shame as Risk of Rain 2 has the potential to be a fantastic multiplayer game for years to come. Even if the loot was instanced for 10-15 seconds or if the game made it possible for me to mark loot as not needed, this would go a huge way in alleviating this problem.

Risk of Rain 2 offers a third way to enjoy the game's content in the form of a daily run under the Prismatic Trials moniker which features an identical game world for every player partaking in a run, giving equal chance to everyone.  These are timed runs and the top 10% will be gifted in-game rewards. Although, it is not yet known what these rewards will be. I found myself ransacking my way through a Prismatic Trial more than once as it offered a fun challenge that was different enough from the rest of the game to keep me interested for more than one playthrough.

There are many secrets hidden within Risk of Rain 2 that made me wonder what else I have missed. After accidentally falling from a cliff edge and out of the map boundaries, I discovered a small alcove etched in to the side of a mountain and by carefully landing on a miniscule ledge I uncovered a small, dimly lit cavern that rewarded me with a in-game achievement that then allowed a specific item the chance to spawn in any future runs. Likewise, there is a random chance of a blue portal spawning upon defeating an area boss, a blue-glowing area with a otherworldly shopkeeper lie in wait on the other side. I hope there is more to explore and discover as I continue playing.


Risk of Rain 2 is an excitingly fresh take on the roguelike genre and is quite simply one of the best games released in 2019 so far, despite still being in early access. Reasonably, that leads me to believe far more content is coming including Artifacts, which are mentioned at the game menu, which are game modifiers that can be found in the world.

The gameplay loop of discovery, overcoming a variety of enemies with a ever-increasing difficulty while scavenging for loot, discovering healing or offensive drones and taking down bosses instantly hooked me and got me in to that one more run loop. The random nature of the huge swathe of spawnable items constantly alters the playing field and allows for some neat tactical changes on the fly.

I am in love with the vibrant art style and sci-fi soundtrack that any 1950's classic sci-fi movie would be proud of.  Sadly, Risk of Rain 2 is devoid of any overall profile progression.  It would have been nice to see a total amount of enemies killed, damage done, items gathered, money spent and a number of other useless stats.  I am a sucker for stats and it would be great to show that off to my co-op buddies.

Risk of Rain 2 is not without its issues as loot ninjas swoop in to take non-instanced loot that others have spent in-game currency on as well as difficulties locating the end-of-area teleporter which was half spawning inside rocks or structures or in near-impossible to see locations - running around for 20-30 minutes solely searching for a teleporter is not fun. Luckily, this happened so few times that it never turned me off from launching another run.

SCORE: 4.5/5

Please check out the full review of Totally Accurate Battle Simulator as well as my other written content at AndrewsBase: http://andrewsbase.com/2019/04/19/a-first-look-at-totally-accurate-battle-simulator/
Have you ever read Sun Tzu's The Art of War and wanted to implement your very own tactical masterclass in a bid to outwit and humiliate your opponents by your sheer military prowess? Well, you can't do that here.

What you can do is plop down two wooly mammoths and have them fight to the death across an ancient medieval battleground versus 500 farmers. If that sounds intriguing, Landfall's Totally Accurate Battle Simulator might be for you.

Landfall, the development studio behind the chaotic physics platformer Clustertruck, Stick Fight: The Game and the skill based party game Square Brawl have released arguably their most sought-after title yet. Totally Accurate Battle Simulator has been in a playable and testing state from 2016 and has only recently released on Steam under the Early Access banner where it has taken the top-selling charts by storm.

In a game that prides itself on silly physics fun there is a surprising amount of depth and interesting mechanics to keep Totally Accurate Battle Simulator fun and engaging for several hours.

Featuring a single player campaign that spans several historical era's including Medieval and Viking, you will be launched head first in to an array of interesting and funny battle scenarios.  Picture the scene: 75 halflings stand angrily on the opposite side of a miniscule brick bridge and it is your job to conquer the land for your own.  Using your limited resources, as each level imposes a monetary spending limit to provide a challenge, how will you overcome this fearsome foe?  Maybe you will create a halfling army of your own, perhaps you will take advantage of the king who is shadowed by a militarised set of priests with the sole purpose of healing him or maybe you will opt for the scarecrow that launches birds in a fit of rage at the unsuspecting enemies.  Whatever you chose; overcome, divide and conquer!

Fear not, this package wouldn't be complete without a sandbox mode - I took advantage of the currently limited campaign, which will feature new maps, units and levels in the future, to learn the ropes and grasp the extreme nuances of Totally Accurate Battle Simulator. I have never been one for silly physics-based games like Goat Simulator, but as someone who enjoys strategy titles and watching a cavalcade of spaghetti-legged NPC's mindlessly beat the life out of each other while screaming incoherent, but admittedly hilarious noises from every orifice - I had a unaldulterated amount of fun setting up impossible scenarios and witnessing how they played out.

Using the limited amount of units currently available, although Landfall has stated more are in the works and will be released for free in future updates, as well as introducing a unit creator - which I am way to excited for, I played around in the sandbox mode for more time than I would have liked to admit. Placing 400 clubbers on either side of the battlefield and hitting the start button to watch my CPU chug in a glorious physics mesh of googly-eyed combatants is unlike anything I have witnessed in gaming. Pitting Zeus and his ranged lightning bolts against a mammoth or snake archers and just sitting back and witnessing the utter mess I had created emitted a childlike sense of fun that I have not had the joy of feeling for years. As a kid did you ever have wrestling figures or toys and make up scenarios or use your incredible imagination to design a over-the-top battle in your mind, using real world objects around you like otherworldly objects?  This is my experience in Totally Accurate Battle Simulator.

The camera controls are a little wonky at the moment and can be hard to control but this is something that will more than likely be refined during the Early Access period. However, there is a slow motion mode out of the gate and it is nothing short of stupendous - watching a wheelbarrow unit rush around the battlefield attempting to crush the heinous blue team or bodies flying, legs akimbo after being graciously smacked in the face by a catapult in slow motion had me in real fits of laughter like no other game has evoked in me.

I had one instance where the battle appeared to be over but I could hear muffled screeches to the tune of HURRDADURR and after further investigation discovered one of wheelbarrow units was buried under a pile of one hunrderd plus corpses, writhing around attempting to brainlessly escape being buried alive like some sort of over-the-top wrestling match in a bid to throw tomatoes at his enemies.

I have been thoroughly enjoying my time with Totally Accurate Battle Simulator and it's stupidly chaotic physics based fun and nonsensical battle cries kept me entertained for hours.  I am extremely excited to dive in to the unit creator when it launches, which I hope comes complete with Steam Workshop integration to allow for a supermarket of unlimited units to subscribe to. It would also be great to see more detailed maps rather than the many open battlefields that are in the current build; lets see some indoor, close quarters combat or huge, sprawling Total War like maps.