Recent reviews by Aya

One year after release, Darktide manages to dethrone SoulCalibur VI as best Warhammer 40,000 game

Placeholder text due to steam awards

Suletta did nothing wrong

2023-07-31 EDIT: I heard the ending to G-Witch is "up to interpretation" as per Bandai Namco. My take? Whoever greenlit that statement seems probably needs to rethink their priorities.

I'm sure we've seen our fair share of games trying to bring back the classic arena shooter to modern PC gaming, from Quake Champions fading to obscurity to the entirety of the Unreal franchise being erased from Epic Games' portfolio. Rather than retread familiar ground, Daev Team decided to take a left turn and have a story-based singleplayer game carry these familiar mechanics and level design.

Since this is meant to be invocative of 90s arena shooters, Ghostware is a game-within-a-game story where you died in the real world and are brought back from the dead with little memory of who you were in life, forced to fight against other undead spirits in a deserted multiplayer FPS by The Wizard, a stereotypical fat nerd reminiscing about the glory days (in his point of view) of multiplayer FPS where you've probably fond memories of spawning in as a free kill and getting ganked before you could even reach a weapon spawn with nothing to defend yourself with beyond a wimpy pea shooter.

As someone who has grown up with more than my fair share of ZDAEMON and Zandronum with a bit of UT2004 sprinkled on in my childhood, I was able to get into the setting of the game and while I do like how the lore tidbits are collected through URLs viewed through a totally-not-Netscape browser, it does get a little difficult and confusing to follow the game's backstory due to 90s web design being what it is.

For the better portion of the game, Ghostware can best be described as a stripped-down UT99 with fewer weapons, along with the addition of activated abilities that you can unlock as the story progresses. I personally don't mind how those abilities are implemented, though later ones that you unlock are definitely overpowered to the point where it'll be difficult to justify using whatever the upcoming Episode 2 has in store when you can just heal yourself willy-nilly during the more story-focused levels. I can say with full confidence that this game's definitely not for everyone but players who grew up with the old-school deathmatch games will likely be a fan of what Ghostware has in store

Being a game invocative of 90s multiplayer FPS, I can't help but think that progressing through the story or collecting certain pieces of lore should unlock levels and player models to use in the Instant Action mode. So far, the only things you get for that are the abilities you use in the Story Mode. One other nitpick I have is relating to a late game spoiler but personally, I think there should be a drastic change in artstyle in 03_CTF3 due to that map taking place in the real world. Sure, I get that the low-fidelity visuals are part of the game-within-a-game setting, though I think there should be a lot more in the way of visual distinction between the game world and touching (in-game) grass

Overall, this is definitely not a game for most people but I think this is definitely something to keep your eyes open for if you've grown up with the likes of Unreal Tournament and/or Quake 3 Arena.

While this game's definitely within "wait for a sale" territory considering that the singleplayer-only Legendary Edition exists for this game, I think it's still worth getting ME3 2012 for the multiplayer. However, DLC is handled by the EA client which will probably lead to complications that'll likely end with EA's support staff revoking your Steam copy and replacing it with an EA App version of the game.

Played through the first part of the game, and while fairly simplistic, I can say with full confidence that the game certainly has better level design than half the Classic Doom community. Bringing Touhou's danmaku to a first person perspective is certainly an interesting -- and fun idea from what I've seen of it, though my main complaints are the relatively large file size (i presumably that's due to the soundtrack being wavelengths rather than MIDIs), player projectile collision, and pricing.

It's definitely a "wait for a sale" type of game since it feels more like a novelty more than anything but when you can catch it at a 40% discount or lower, you'll get your money's worth.

With Sgt_Mark_IV being perfectly okay with Brutal Doom code being used in other mods, I'm kinda hoping we get something of a player/monster rebalancing that incorporates some of his work

After putting more time into the game, I'm still not impressed with the Steam Community's uncanny ability to burn bridges with Gundam game developers, and with GBO2 nowhere to be seen, I'm confident to say that this is the last bridge for them to burn.

We all know that consoles have better options for Gundam games than PC, so please don't compare Gundam Evolution to things we will never have. Similarly to my SD Gundam Battle Alliance review, I think the best way to approach Gundam Evolution is to look at it with a lens of whether or not Gundam Evolution is a good enough experience for people who only have PC as their available gaming platform. And honestly, it's one of the better F2P shooter's i've played (closed beta test playtime included).

I think it should be noted that most of my playtime was with the DOM Trooper and RGM-79 GM and while there's no denying that players will pick their main in a hero shooter, I think the daily challenge system does a decent job at encouraging players to try out different mobile suits, possibly forcing them out of their comfort zones of "what mobile suits net me the most kills".

As for the gameplay itself, I feel like there's very little to be said about it. Gunplay and movement feels pretty nice, and I think the best way to judge a fast-paced PVP arena-like FPS is how satisfying the in-game rocket launcher feels. Suffice to say, it's one of the better ones i've seen, not including those found in id Software games that aren't Doom 2016. The GM's Beam Spray Gun also feels about as good as I remember from the closed beta test, though I'll probably have to give the RX-78-2 another chance some time, especially since I don't remember really liking how the beam rifle handled compared to other hitscans I've seen in my years of playing video games. To those who played the closed beta, Gundam Barbatos isn't nearly as annoying as I recall. In fact, I've yet to see it take an MVP award.

As for what I don't like about Evolution, I do agree that there does need to be the opportunity for players to join ongoing matches (esp. since a disconnect can put you in a permanent disadvantage), and I do agree that Casual queues can do without the quitting penalty (or at the very least, be much less penalizing than regular matches). Most importantly, I think the game's monetization could do some working on. Specifically, I think there should be the option to have multiple editions of the game, so as to allow players to unlock mobile suits independently from the in-game currency systems. Hell, I'd be willing to shell out $30 Canadian to buy the melee Zaku and sit on whatever unlock tokens I have in preparation for future updates.

But yeah, I have ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ in terms of hero shooter experience, but I can say that this is definitely one of the better PVP shooters you can play for free, and if you give a ♥♥♥♥ about the Mobile Suit Gundam IP, it's actually the best Gundam game available for those who only have the home computer as their gaming platform. At the very least, GEVO's certainly more balanced than other games I've stumbled upon.

Service ain't the only thing being terminated, but also what little remains of PlatinumGames' faith in PC gaming. I still think Nippon Ichi Software is to blame regarding why Platinum (and nearly every Japanese game developer for that matter) is as superstitious about PC gaming as they are.

Okay, I was hoping to get a better feel of this game before writing a review but due to the Steam Community's uncanny ability to burn bridges with game developers working on the Mobile Suit Gundam IP, I guess I oughta give my early impressions on the game, because from what I've played so far, it is not bad enough to warrant telling Artdink to go ♥♥♥♥ themselves. Yes, it's pretty rough on the edges, but I found the game to have some pretty solid foundations.

Let's get this out of the way first and foremost: consoles will always have better options for Gundam games, but if your only gaming platform is the home computer, it's probably pointless to compare SD Gundam Battle Alliance against games that will never see the light of day on PC. On another note, it's apparent to me that the more recent efforts with the Gundam brandname seems more focused on PVP titles even on consoles thanks to Gundam Evolution, the Extreme VS series, and Gundam Battle Operation 2 (Gundam Breaker 3 is six years old now, just an FYI). Anyways, my thoughts on the game.

Probably the two biggest issues I have with the game right now are the story, and the camera. Story because it's utterly forgettable, though I think the concept of having breaks in history is a good way to justify having mobile suits appearing in timelines where they don't belong is a neat concept, though I feel like the execution could've been a lot better. Camera is workable in most cases, though I kinda feel that certain areas in the game can make the camera controls detrimental for you (biggest example i've seen so far involve narrow canyons)

What I DO like about the game is that the basic core mechanics are understandable enough that you can get a decent feel of how most things work, the only time where I felt confused with how things work is the GR symbol on your HUD which never seems to be explained in-game. The game does feel like it takes a while to acquire mobile suits that are more fun to play with and I think the game becomes more a lot more enjoyable once you figure out how to pace yourself. Okay, I've also been half playing this game half writing this review and one gripe I have above the previous "two biggest gripes I have" is that acquiring the Gouf takes a lot more time than I was hoping it'd take, especially considering the technological leap from the Zaku to Gouf. Another minor annoyance I have is that there isn't much point in picking companions other than Gundam pilots, since the non-Gundam mobile suits feel a bit ineffectual unless player-controlled

Regarding the game's graphical options, I don't think i'm the most qualified person to talk about this considering that this is a cross-gen/Switch release on consoles, considering my "bragging rights" build as in, I got an RTX 3070 out of frustration towards not getting an RX 6800 during AMD's paper launch. That said, I think more advanced graphical options would be welcome for higher-end users, along with people wanting to squeeze out every bit of performance out of a low-end system. Namely, I think this game would benefit from having a resolution scaling option to help satisfy people on both ends of the PC hardware spectrum, though also being able to choose your resolution would be nice too.

So yeah, I think this game is above serviceable for people who only have a PC as their main gaming platform, especially when you consider that we're basically hemorrhaging developers working on the Mobile Suit Gundam brandname.

From the creators of one of the worst 40K video games since the downfall of Toy HeadQuarters, Inc. comes possibly the best 40K game I've played since Dawn of War II: Retribution... At least until Darktide comes out, hopefully. I know I've said that Sanctus Reach was one of the better turn-based 40K games and we all know how much praise Mechanicus got, but I've found the Matt Ward simulator to actually be a lot more enjoyable.

As far as gameplay is concerned, I think the best way to describe it would be "XCOM but better", in that the way you move and shoot is heavily derived from Firaxis' XCOM games. As for the "but better" part, here's where I think the game improves on XCOM's formula:

• No RNG outside crititcal hit mechanics. However, this will mean that weapons will suffer from damage falloff, and units can still be damaged through cover.
  
• Weapons and abilities use action points, rather than ending your unit's turn outright. Only action that unconditionally ends a turn is overwatch.
  
• And speaking of overwatch, it seems as if the dev team had found the long lost "vision cone" STC
  
• Stun mechanic and melee executions allow you to maintain a sense of momentum, and getting those extra action points from performing an execution to me feels extremely rewarding. You're often playing at a disadvantage, and you're expected to stun and execute to help even the odds, or risk getting chipped away from a barrage of ranged attacks
  
• The environment is also a weapon. Yes, I know that XCOM has flammable objects that you can throw a grenade at, and Daemonhunters also has that. However, there are also some shootable hazards in the form of plasma batteries, and there's the occasional pillar that you can shoulder check to knock over.
  
• Critical hit system allows the player to inflict a debilitation of their choosing upon successful roll.

However, I'll admit that while enjoyable, the game isn't really perfect. There are some bugs relating to how knockback is handled, and you can sometimes have an enemy occupy the same tile as one of your units. This is actually game-breaking to the point where you will be forced to reload an earlier save, since you cannot target those enemies with melee or ranged attacks.

Another thing that I can agree with regarding some of the negative reviews I saw is that the Grey Knights that you can sometimes get as mission rewards can sometimes have unfavourable specializations, which can be annoying to work around especially if he needs to sub in for a wounded unit of a similar role. Another thing that kinda gets me is that the game seems heavily biased towards melee combat since that's usually the most productive way to disable ranged combatants, and it doesn't help that they seem to crit a lot more often than ranged weapons (I've personally never seen a ranged crit in the hours i put into the game). This can sometimes lead to some rather headscratching builds such as the ranged class being spec'd into being a melee skirmisher rather than using any of the two-handed ranged weapons with more damage output.

And while it's fun to talk about the combat in the game, one thing that bothers me in the planetary view is that it's not really clear on how to gain extra prognosticars outside building them, a limited resource that allows you to deduct corruption on a targeted planet, since you won't be able to complete every mission that spawns on the map screen. This leaves me to believe that you only get an extremely finite number of times to use this resource throughout an entire playthrough, which can lead to the player forgetting that they even have this resource at all.

Finally, this is more of a personal nitpick of mine but after progressing a certain point in the early game, I can't help but think that there aren't nearly enough pillars for you to shoulder tackle and drop on your enemies. I think having more of these would be a nice to have in missions the game deems to be of a lower threat level, especially if you're being introduced to stronger enemies and the game

Because we've all talked ourselves into thinking that Japan no longer hates PC gaming, I think Metal Gear Rising and NieR Automata developer should be a reminder that they still hate our ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ guts, and the only reason they even give their half-hearted attempts at PC ports is because Steam's just way too big to ignore. However, if one or more of their games are allowed to fail, then they'll just use those games as excuses to only make games for consoles. This has been the case since 2013 with Nippon Ichi Software's failure of ClaDun X2, and with PlatinumGames focusing on games that'd only release on consoles moving on from 2017's NieR Automata, Sol Cresta and Babylon's Fall feel like a retreading of familiar territory, and I don't mean that in a good way.

Basically, NIS' game back in August 2012 set the benchmark that most Japanese game developers follow even to this day, and PlatinumGames is no exception to this, since the failure of this game and Babylon's Fall will be their excuse to only make games for consoles. They expected their PC install base to like an admittedly barebones shmup along with a live service game that failed to drum up enough players to be profitable, and our punishment for failing to live up to the dev team's expectations is that they won't ever make PC games ever again. The most we can do moving forward is to remember that the need to "buy x so y can be on PC" is here to stay, though I fear that we've already lost too much in terms of Japanese PC support.