Recent reviews by KernelPanic42

After having played through the DLC and sitting at around 90-95% content cleared, this DLC left me with kind of a mixed feeling.

The Shadow Lands look amazing with great variety in terms of landscapes, the new main bosses are for the most part amazing fights, there are cool new weapons and (some) nice armor additions, the legacy dungeons were pretty much on par with the main game and very enjoyable and there is so, so much lore packed into the DLC providing context and insights into what happens during the DLC but also what happened during the main games story.

But at the same time, there have been some design and release-related decisions made with the game, that somewhat hurt the experience.

Number 1 offender: the Scadutree fragments. I don't know why someone thought that linking strength progression to exploration would be a great experiment to try out in the one and only DLC that Elden Ring is stated to get but it certainly didn't solve the (over-) leveling issue.
For me personally, as I tend to explore quite systematically anyway, finding fragments was not really an issue (only missing 2 fragments to reach 20 at this point and never looked up fragment locations). So where most people complained that fights felt too hard, it often felt the other way in my run. And as apparently you don't have to collect the fragments again on NG+ runs of the DLC, there will be no further strength adjustments, so this apparently is only relevant on the first clear of the DLC.

Number 2: Empty spaces. FromSoft somehow managed to create a game world for the DLC that is at the same time massive and diverse with its size but also feels strikingly empty. You have various areas in the game that seemingly only exist to house one item, one dungeon entrance, one smaller boss or one quest related encounter. Aside from that, these areas are literally empty space. This was especially striking because this feeling never occured to me during the main game and made me wonder if the DLC would have needed more time for polish or would have overall been better off, if they'd rather added new areas to the main game instead of completly separating the DLC.

Number 3: Itemization. While the game has a great selection of weapons added to the pool (and a handful of armors), the majority of items you will find in the DLC are crafting resources and upgrade materials. I don't know why but somehow the DLC made me (negatively) notice how much focus was put into rewarding resources instead of weapons or cool armors. You are getting thrown at with upgrade materials of all levels in basically all locations. There must be nearly as many new crafting recipe books as in the main game, all just adding one or two new crafting options each. Bell bearings hidden in pots to add purchaseable materials to your vendor and just so many new crafting materials overall, it's nearly overwhelming. For me personally, getting rewarded with these things when you actually expect some cool weapon or amor definitly became a letdown at some point.

Number 4: Quest progression. The NPC quests this time start pretty much in your face at various sites of grace throughout the land. There is less than a hand full of NPCs that are more "hidden" and off the road. All quests pretty much end with a choice between two outcomes which will result in one reward or another. I don't think it is possible to completly fail a quest and not get any reward. While this might be considered a positive thing, imho it reduces the depth of an already very limited system.
What negatively adds into this is that there is one story-related location that when getting (more or less) close to it, will automatically forward all NPC quests into the next "act". The game doesn't really warn you about this and if you explore too far into the North, you might skip many relevant NPC interactions without realizing.

Number 5: Marketing. I don't know what the idea was behind giving so many content creators early access and head starts into the game before launch as I can't remember this being the case for when the base game launched. It certainly was not necessary for this DLC to be an automatic success. I don't know if people find it enjoyable if a game is about to launch and the moment the launch timer reaches zero, all hell breaks loose with "complete guide" here, "boss walkthrough" there, "all secret items in location X" and what not. I'd personally rather see an embargo on this stuff where there are no such things for at least one week after launch to let people experience a game that clearly focuses on exploration and discovery by themselves for a bit but I guess internet access for everyone also has to come with some downsides.

Conclusion: So while the DLC is overall a great experience you don't want to miss, if you enjoyed the main game, it comes with several design decisions that imho were not necessary or might have better been solved differently. I personally had hoped for a little less size and a bit more of everything else to make this a worthy final content update for an already amazing game.

Unfortunately, as it stands, it remains bellow (its quite high) expectations.

Not (yet) recommended.

The developers didn't do themselves much of a favor to release the game this early, despite feedback duing betas and public tests.

While the game has its very own style in terms of aesthetics (depending on personal taste, this can be good or bad), it still feels rather unfinished. Controls feel clunky, POIs in the generated gameworld feel somewhat out of place and often aren't much more than little eye catchers. Enemy AI could need some improvements as well, as they get stuck on terrain quite easily.

Overall, for me personally, given that Enshrouded felt so much more polished, this game is more like your average survival game. While the setting feels somewhat unique and the portal mechanics might be first of its kind in this genre, everything else about this game feels very average and sadly underwhelming.

If you didn't play any survival games in recent time, you might want to give it a shot, especially if you are more on the grind-preferring side. If you already have stuff on your gaming plate, you might want to consider skipping this one. At least for now.

It finally happened: Nothing beats Chuck Norris!

First things first, if you expect MonteCrypto to be a normal game, leave it be, it probably won't be for you. MonteCrypto is best to be considered a bit of a meta game. Something that is meant to be played outside of the usual constraints of a game.
Clues can be found on Github, parts on Twitter. Clues and solutions are in the game files which you have to extract or take apart by other means. Sometimes you literally have to break the game and it is meant to be played that way.

If you look for something with a guided story, something that is focused on logic puzzles, something you can play alone on an otherwise boring evening and also looks visually appealing: THIS is not what you want to play. Try the Witness maybe, a great game I'd totally recommend.

MonteCrypto is more of a purpose bound experiment with a 10k bounty on a first come first serve basis. It's best played in a group of like-minded people (check Game Detectives if you look for one). There is some kind of story frame around the whole experience but you have to explore to find all the little bits and pieces. In the end it will come down to one person getting the bitcoin. Most people will leave at that point, some will stay and try to figure out the story. Others will try on their own for the challenge.

Is it worth the ~1-2 USD? Idk. If some of the above sounded appealing, then it will very likely be. Otherwise, there are plenty of good puzzlers out there.

Regarding the people calling it a scam, I doubt it. It's certainly not mining bitcoin in the background as many of the scam shoutouts suggest. There is no network traffic that would match a mining client and without constant network communication, you can't be mining.

One tip to those of you still trying to run the maze legitimately... The game expects you to cheat, so don't feel bad for it.

If you like turn-based fantasy RPGs and enjoy exploring the world with a friend, this game is for you.

Aside from playing it solo, I played it twice more with a friend and didn't get bored a single minute.

Dialogs in the Enhanced Edition are fully voiced which massively adds to the atmosphere. The game overall got extended in different aspects which for a free update is a more then welcome addition.

Biggest recommendation, especially if you like to coop.