Recent reviews by JAC-MAT-HAG

Great open world action game that has rightfully got more recognition recently. Unlike so many open world games, Mad Max remains fun and engaging during its entire duration and (despite the setting) never feels empty. Definitely worth checking out if you are interested in Mad Max or just looking for a solid, if a bit easy, action game.

PROS:
- Great fighting system that is very similar to Shadow of Mordor
- Unique car combat
- Game takes around 10 hours to complete, with plenty more to do afterward (likely around 50 hours of content)
- Great visuals and art style
- Serviceable story
- Solid performance and settings

CONS:
- Game feels too easy, would have benefited from variable difficulty

The original 3 Spyro games are classics that are so consistent there is still no consensus on which is the best. The Reignited Trilogy makes playing these games much more accessible on modern day PC's. Though this remaster is not perfect, for anyone looking to play Spyro, this is a great option.

PROS:
- Great gameplay when using a controller
- Solid level and enemy design, if a bit easy
- Great visuals and soundtrack
- Great performance
- Takes around ~10 hours to 100% each of the three games

CONS:
- Personally, I find parts of the third game to not be as fun (particularly all the mini games)
- The new visuals do lose some of the charm in the original art style, particularly in the colors

Just like the other Forza Horizon 5 DLC, Rally Adventure, this DLC feels a little underwhelming. The map itself is the highlight, but there is very little real content to populate it. There is just one set of missions, a handful of races, and a few cars. Only consider getting this if you have exhausted all other content from the base game.

PROS:
- Unique setting and variety compared to the base game
- Some fun new ideas

CONS:
- Gameplay on the tracks does not feel great, with frequent crashes
- Short, taking ~5 hours to complete
- Very overpriced, look for it on sale for ~$10

Like a lot of Horizon expansions, Rally Adventure is somewhat underwhelming. While there are highlights, the shortage of content is a problem. Simply put, for a third of the price of the main game, this expansion does not offer anywhere near a third of the content.

PROS:
- The rally aspect is actually implemented decently, even if there are other games that do it better
- Some fun new cars

CONS:
- Very short, taking ~4 hours to complete
- Map is very small, meaning many routes re-use large sections of the map
- Very overpriced, look for it on sale for ~$10

Forza Horizon 5 is a great time, but it never quite justifies its existence. When compared with Forza Horizon 4, the list of changes / additions doesn't go much longer than the location. Though this is disappointing, any game like Forza Horizon 4 is a good one.

PROS:
- Great "arcade-simulation" driving gameplay
- Decent amount of content, taking ~35 hours to complete all main races, stories, and stunts
- More than 800 cars if cars from DLC and additions since release are included
- Solid visuals and performance

CONS:
- Doesn't really add anything compared to the previous games
- Sometimes the amount of DLC can be a little predatory
- Not much of a story, feels more lifeless than any other entry

Solid expansion to a great game. While I do think the base campaign is more balanced, Amid Evil - The Black Labyrinth is a great time for classic FPS fans.

PROS:
- Great weapons, both old and new
- Really solid levels, often surpassing the original game
- Fantastic visuals and performance
- Challenging difficulty

CONS:
- Enemies are not all that interesting
- Not enough ammo for my taste

It's somewhat remarkable how terrible this "remaster" is. There have been very accessible versions of both classic Battlefront games available on Steam for many years, with fully functional multiplayer and campaigns. Somehow, Aspyr managed to add close to nothing to these games while introducing a huge amount of bugs that were not present in the originals. It is honestly baffling how these games are somehow worse than they were 20+ years ago. Do yourself a favor and stay far away from this version and purchase the originals. Aspyr clearly could not be bothered to put any effort into this.

PROS:
- Has a decent amount of content with a few bonus maps that were previously not available (by default)
- Adds a few quality of life features like Steam achievements

CONS:
- Garbage net code and servers, multiplayer is a dumpster fire
- Super lazy remaster, with AI upscaling used on textures and custscenes, even when original high resolution sources are available
- Gameplay feels slightly off, especially in Battlefront 1
- Way too many bugs, many the game did not even launch with
- Insultingly overpriced
- Game is missing several cutscenes
- No mod support, with inconsistent behavior for past mods

Star Wars: Dark Forces is a great, but not perfect retro FPS. This remaster does a solid job of making it easy to experience, with updated visuals to run on modern machines. It does, however, have an outrageous asking price. For $30 you could purchase remastered versions of Doom, Doom II, Shadow Warrior, and Blood. All of which are arguably better games than Dark Forces. Nevertheless, if you can stomach the asking price, Dark Forces Remastered is a mostly great time.

PROS:
- Great gameplay with unique weapons, enemies, and levels
- Fun story mostly set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back with many fan favorite characters
- Solid performance, especially at 144 Hz
- Remaster does a good job of updating the visuals while keeping the original art design

CONS:
- Pretty short, taking around 4 - 5 hours to complete
- Way too expensive, should be half the asking price
- There are some annoying sections, primarily due to the mines and turrets

The original clicker game, still perhaps the most enjoyable. While there are certainly more complex clicker games out there now, Cookie Clicker separates itself with its charm, originality, and progression. While it can be soul crushing to 100%, Cookie Clicker has a lot of fun to offer.

PROS:
- Unique gameplay progression with 4 unique main stages
- Fun art style
- Very accessible with a fair amount of complexity
- Great soundtrack from C418
- Lacks micro-transactions

CONS:
- There is a free version that can be run through a browser
- Perhaps a tad too grindy at the end
- Some light graphical errors at times

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, beneath the terrible performance issues and crashes, is a solid (if not quite great) game with a lot of potential. Nevertheless, it is absolutely crippled by an abysmal launch that will forever stain its image. I am part of the minority of players who had stable performance during the bulk of my main playthrough (RTX 2070, i9-9900K) and was ready to give a recommendation based on that experience. Unfortunately, after I completed the base game, I am now getting constant crashes completely preventing me from exploring and getting 100%. I cannot even play the game long enough for it to save my progress with 10+ crashes in 30 minutes. Unless this game has a serious overhaul, do not waste your money or time on it. The company behind this game was unquestionably aware of these issues and made a decision to sell it anyways.

PROS:
- Solid story building on the first game
- Improved gameplay and enemy variety
- Decent content (if you could actually play it), taking around ~15 hours to play the main story
- Decent graphics and animations
- Great soundtrack

CONS:
- Constant crashes that make the game completely unplayable
- Terrible performance issues
- Not as much location variety as the first game
- Terrible value at $70
- Gameplay can be repetitive at times
- Requires EA's god-awful launcher and a profile