Recent reviews by kdodds

Did you like Skyrim? Original Oblivion? Then it's definitely worth it.

HOWEVER, it's important to note that, as of this writing, it's running under a modified Gamebryo engine with UE5 acting as the renderer. That this has caused all manner of performance issues should not surprise anyone. Currently, there's no way to know if any of that will be fixed moving forward.

So why am I recommending it? If you know what you're getting into, you should make your own choice as I made mine. I've barely scratched the surface at 17 hours. But, I already know that, even if they fix nothing, I'll be putting a few hundred hours into this.

One of the better stories and storytelling action adventures to come along in a while. It's a more casual game, though combat can be rough for some not accustomed to it, I guess. The originality of the IP is stellar, the acting superb. But...

I can't stand the word "unoptimized". But, in the case of South of Midnight, it fits and then some. This is one of the worst performing releases I've experienced in recent memory. I'm running it on a clean (nothing backgrounded) machine, i9 13900, 4090, 64GB DDR5. It's impossible to run this game at 4K at all. It's impossible to run it on Ultra at all. This is with DLSS (performance) enabled! I'm running it at 1920x1080, no motion blur, everything else very high, just to get reasonable (60fps) performance. Forget VSync, because I'm 240Hz.

If you can stomach dumping your rig down to crap (imo) graphics, though, it's worth it for the stories alone.

Update, after fixing and finishing:
At the time of this writing, the nVidia newer drivers for the 4090 were being reported as iffy, so I had not downloaded them. Once I did, the most egregious technical issues were resolved. I'm still getting frame drops and some stuttering, but totally playable. Worse is the screen tear which is mostly present during cut scenes, thankfully.

This is the best story-telling AA released this year so far, and should probably rank as one of the best of all time. The story, environments, characters are very rich, very deep, and beautifully told. As art, it's amazing. As a game, it's a generic AA platformer. But it's so great at what it is great at that you won't care. This is also one of very, very few computer games with a black-centric protagonist, story, world, etc.

All-in-all, this game is very highly recommendable and you should pick it up.

PoE universe, otherwise plays, unsurprisingly, a lot like a cross between Outer Worlds and Skyrim. They outdid themselves with controller mapping. Probably one of the best uses of controller I've played. The game, for me, is highly recommendable. But, subjectivity being what it is, ymmv. Check out my other game reviews, see if we agree, before taking this as a recommendation.

I'm only slightly over 7 hours in, but this game is probably the sleeper of the year for me. It's a solid Action Adventure with (so far) an excellent story and world building, which, for me, is mostly why I'm playing Adventure titles. I put it on my Wishlist a while back because it looked something like the Supernatural TV series that has never made into a game. I'm not disappointed. It has a feel mostly like a game conversion of the TV series Supernatural and Ghost Whisperer, but set in 17th century America. It's a UE game so it does have some issues frying lower end systems. Be aware and lower setting to keep heat down. It hard locked my 1660TI machine on default settings. It even makes my 4090 crank the fans, which no other game really does. So, optimization could improve. But otherwise, it's a very solid game worth picking up for the Action Adventure fan.

Steam reviews have become pointless point farming tools. I'll keep this short. The DLC is excellent, it has as much or more content than prior large DLC like Dragonborn or Far Harbor. Stories are good. And, while I have not yet finished, I'm roughly 40 hours in and there is still plenty of content to explore. If you enjoy the game, you should enjoy the DLC.

After this weekend, and about 50-60 hours in, I've completed the MQ and have a few more side quests and some mission board stuff back in TSS to take care of, then it's on to actually exploring the planet and the system. That's coming up on an easy 80-100 hours of additional playable content. Worth every penny and then some.

Having now finished the DLC 100% at about 85 hours, I can reemphasize that the DLC is actually on par with other major BGS releases for other IPs. There are new creatures, new enemies, new factions, new weapons, new gear, plenty of new questing (the Ueda's story tied into two separate quests is my favorite), and some very interesting world building. This is probably my second favorite BGS DLC after Far Harbor.

I honestly feel that there's really not much point to reviews at this point. When users jump hate wagons to intentionally downgrade a game, reviews are silly. I recommended on the forums multiple times that no one should allow themselves to be told what they like. Yet, users seem to actually WANT to be told what they do and don't like. That's my preface explanation as to why this review will be so short and blatantly subjective.

Starfield simply is the best game I have ever played, and I've been playing since the late 70s. You know the stuff they're lauding BG3 for? The complex quest paths with multiple resolutions? The reappearance of bit characters in later game stages? The recognition of player achievement and actions? Yeah, it's all in here. Truly, this is the game of and for a lifetime. With 66.6 (yes, really) hours in, I can honestly say that I've just barely started. Those 2k+ hours I have in Fallout 4? Those are multiple playthroughs. Starfield, I can easily see a single playthrough clocking quadruple digits. It's that deep and meaty. Anyone who's working off the "miles wide, inch deep" Skyrim meme is absolutely and unequivocally not playing the same game. Tiny little side quests lead to full blown, multi-stage adventures that, just when you think they've ended, leave you pleasantly surprised when you re-encounter the principle parties later and they tell you what happened to them afterward. I am in awe.

I am just going to clarify here that almost all technical issues some people are having are cause by two things: playing with hardware that is under spec or overtaxing lower end hardware. My experience is playing on a 13900KF, 4090FE, 64GB DDR5, nVME system. If you're playing on a 30xx gen machine, expect console level performance. Yes, the XBX is a 3060TI equivalent. So, a machine of that era should expect no more than 30fps with upscaling to 4K. If you're under that, expect a bit less.

A year on, still playing, 500+ hours in, Shattered Space is amazing as well.

It's a good game. Typical, top down, isometric, tactical RPG. There's nothing really revolutionary here. The story is okay so far, but I'm not seeing any justification for the drooling media praise. If you liked Divinity: Original Sin 1 & 2, then this is a no-brainer, it's the next step in the progressive improvement of that game type. It is, essentially, however, a very similar game. Tack on the Forgotten Realms for D&D fans. It's D:OS 3 with asset swapping. It's not bad in the least. It's a good game, maybe even a very good game, but it's not the best thing since sliced bread and doesn't really offer anything new and revolutionary. The writing is passable to very good. The romance is ridiculous. Every NPC companion is flexible to accommodate your character's gender, which is a kind of cheap way of handling things. But, I guess necessary because, despite the class service provided for unique plays of each class, there's very little replayability in this long (if you don't rush through and really play it like a PnP) story. Working through the first act, having down most of it in EA, is already a bit of a slog. So, no, I can't imagine playing more than once unless it's years later.

Hysterical. I can't stop laughing while playing. If you like Rick and Morty and easier FPS games, you definitely need to pick this up.

Typical From Software "Souls-like". Niche market game that is definitely not for everyone. The "difficulty", like all other titles, is artificial and intended to punish the player. Especially the player who isn't familiar with the dev's idea of "how things should work" from prior titles. The "community" around these games is also incredibly toxic and misogynistic. While it is a more than decent "Souls-like", I can't recommend it to the general gamer. In other words, this is not the "Skyrim killer" many said it would be. If you're considering it because of Skyrim (open world fantasy RPG) and Skyrim is your jam, I'd say reconsider.

Excellent game. Not exactly the skills/stats type of RPG for min/maxers, but for actual roleplaying, it's up there. The only problem is that it's strongly story driven. There's not much reward for go it your own way free form exploration. Still, as an action adveture, it's a very solid and very enjoyable game with tons of stuff to do and plenty of meat to sink your teeth into. I would not, however, expect to be able to get multiple play throughs out of Hogwart's. There's just not enough diversiity in character development or story to warrant a second go. Luckily, there is enough here to get at least a couple hundred hours of gaming.