Recent reviews by Crazed Java

Steam still needs a "meh" rating. I give it a thumbs up but think of it like 51% positive.
A lot of good ideas don't quite blend well. At first I thought having everything on the map, including combat, was a nice twist to the usual card battler tropes but when you find yourself surrounded and you only draw movement cards it quickly gets frustrating. Or you're on one of the many time limit missions and you keep drawing combat cards when you really need a dash.
Got repetitive quickly and there is no "flow". One of the things I love about my favorite battler is that combat "flows" as you progress and even when things don't go your way you can get a decent enough build. Here it feels very disjointed, possibly because of the combined battle/move mechanic.

A good solid entry, not quite what I was expecting. Story mode is very much on rails but enjoyable. Kind of wears out its welcome before the 3rd act though. All the same it was fun. Very accessible fighter with great character designs. Sure, some people are going to complain about certain ones but I think most any fighting game veteran should easily be able to find a handful of characters they enjoy and who cares if Anre sucks?
Don't really care for the multiplayer aspect, I know that is what some people come for. This game puts a LOT of effort into multiplayer with not much for you to do beyond story and arcade mode if you're an introverted isolated misanthrope like me. Worth it on sale but not sure I'd bother paying full price if you're not an online player.
Fair to say it is underrated as a fighter though.

It's Halo, on PC. It holds up in 2025. So far only messed around with Reach and classic Halo but they did a great job on it. If you like shooters, like having a decent story that still lets you play the game, and a protagonist with a backstory that actually explains why you are such a badass this is the shooter for you.
Even at full price it is a hell of a bargain.

I played Halo: Reach back on XBox, always had a special place in my heart. A shame the next 343 game was such a letdown but Halo: Reach was one of the few non-Master Chief centric games that delivered. Replaying it now they did a great job bringing it to PC. Wish I hadn't waited so long to get it.
Halo 2 is still my favorite but Reach might be a close second. It's one of those rare shooters that does good bringing both story and gameplay elements together.

I bought this on a DEEP discount. So much potential here but gets old very fast.
Only 3 warbands, 2 of which are very meh and the only decent one is your standard generic knights dressed up in Warhammer gloss. Also, in the most bizarre design decision I've seen if you want to play with a different warband you have to lose your savegame and progress. You can only play with one at a time!
At least it understands roguelike elements letting you keep your progress but resets the map if you die. I'd be ok with that but beyond the initial training mission your future progress is incredibly slow. It assumes the player will do one more mission for yet another meager reward but it quickly becomes not worth it as the units you earn are also incredibly weak.
Also, be prepared for frustration if you (naturally) choose the human units as they are mostly close combat but by the 3rd mission you'll face enemies who explode on death and it's impossible to kill them all at range since you'll have maybe one group of archers. Wouldn't be so bad if death meant you had to revive your units and the resources to do so are almost impossible to get. It's not an impossible game by any means but an uphill slog that rewards you by giving you another hill to slog up.

I wanted to like this game so much. I'm yet another Skies of Arcadia fan and loved the trailer. Waited for a 50% discount so I'd have that much less expectations.
After nearly 2 hours I had spent more time wandering around an empty town or flying in empty spaces. 2 fights, with 1 of those being a boss encounter. Combat is somehow both boring and frustrating at the same time. I easily spent 75% of the time playing doing nothing.
There is so much potential here but the combat system is terrible. A lot of things that sound good but don't quite work. Writing is good but I came here for a game and it does feel more like I'm in a visual novel that eventually decides to be nice and let me play a game in between cut scenes. Leans heavily into the worst JRPG tropes.
I ignored negative reviews just convinced based on the concept and trailers this MUST be good but it turned out to just be tedium that I paid for.

Even for $2 I went ahead and refunded. The dice plus card mechanic sounds good on paper and with a game only being 3 rounds long you'd think it would be a nice distraction, especially with being able to see miniatures "come to life".
In fact it's rather tedious and the rules are obtuse even for a Warhammer game. It couldn't just use normal dice rolls?
After my second match I felt myself just wanting to be done with it by round 2 but I was winning so stuck it out. Still, it just takes so long and there is much more reliance on RNG than tactics which means wins feel hollow and losses are frustrating.

Most "simulator" games don't really do their professions justice. As an actual superhero I can say this is a perfect recreation of my day. It is so hard trying to balance my paycheck with my hero duties and it seems like I can barely even take a break going to the bathroom.
If you want to see what it's like to be a superhero try this game out. If you like it maybe becoming a superhero is for you as well.

Remember when games were fun? Remember when you didn't have to pay $100 to not get a lobotomized version of a game? Remember when games would let you play them instead of watching cutscenes and lectures?

Fumes remembers. Fumes is your friend. It's not a high fidelity snoozefest that will grind your RAM so hard your fan starts screaming. It's a low-poly fast paced balls to the wall blastfest that makes sure you always have something to do but never bothers you with stuff you don't want. Also, those balls are made of nitrous oxide.

I am not that far into the game and if something hit now that frustrated me enough to put the game down I wouldn't even care. It's well worth the money just to be able to hop in, right where you left off, and go back to driving fast and shooting stuff.

I've realized I just don't like card battlers. Too many limitations, too many artificial barriers pretending to be "challenge". This is one of the few that gets it right and I love it.
While the randomness can kill a run for the most part once you get the mechanics you can do well with the randomness varying your challenge and maybe your approach.
What I love more than anything is the flow of combat once you explore a map and start to accumulate cards and advantages. Unlike most card battlers I feel like if I manage my cards well outside of combat and make smart choices in combat I do well and defeat is usually my fault more often than not. I like that so much better than games that limit you to 3 action points and throw 6 enemies at you. It never feels stupid challenging unless you make poor choices or take on reckless risks.