Recent reviews by Hoff Stiles

There's not really much to say about this game that hasn't been said already. It's no wonder that after 10 or so years this game is still being referenced in jokes and images today; this game is the western RPG of an era. Not to say that there aren't flaws with this game, because this game is glitchy no matter what version you play. It's something you'll have to eventually embrace. If somehow you've never played this game, you should give it a chance. Even once you feel like you've played the game, there's an entire treasure trove of mod content to try out that enhances or entirely changes the game.

This game is an MMO, so this review is for the current patch as of writing.

I've spent a lot of time on this game across two different accounts, first as a standard account and then an ironman. My second account has been the one I've played on more and most recently, so most of my experience will be through the lens of an account who cannot trade with other players, so take that with a grain of salt.

Old School Runescape is a fun and relaxing MMO where a majority of your time is spent training up your skills in order to unlock "things" for your account, such as weapons and armor, food, potions, quests, areas, spells and most importantly, bosses.

Training skills is fairly basic, with most skills just requiring you to either use a tool at a specific location (pickaxes on rocks, rods on fish, axes on trees) or processing materials you've gathered/bought (ores at a furnace, fish on fires/ranges). There are a few skills that have specific methods of training, such as thieving, prayer, agility and the combat skills, but in the early game it usually boils down to just going to the place and doing the stuff. As you progress through the game, you become more proficient at your skills and unlock different ways to train skills, such as skilling bosses (Tempoross, Wintertodt, Zalcano), and special areas or minigames (Motherlode Mine, Blast Furnace, Hallowed Sepulchre to name a few) which range from just more efficient or AFK methods of training the skill to completely new mechanics and methods.

Combat in the most bare form is just clicking on the enemy and waiting until a victor emerges. You can heal and use potions during combat, use prayers to increase your prowess or activate special skills such as negating all damage of a certain type, increase your natural healing or protect an extra item upon death, activate special attacks with certain weapons that can deal more damage, restore your stats or lower your opponents stats among other strategies such as safespotting, combo-eating and prayer-flicking. The difficulty of the combat can really be adjusted to how efficient you want to be, with the most seasoned players perfectly flicking their prayers, eating at perfect opportunities and (more notably in PvP) constantly moving about.

Quests are unlike most MMOs of today. You'll be searching hard for two quests that resemble each other as most quests follow their own story. Some quests lead follow a progression, with a finale quest often featuring a difficult boss such as Galvek, Seren and Vanstrom Klause (although technically a sequel to this quest is still in the works), and great rewards such as access to the Gauntlet, Vorkath and Hallowed Sepulchre. The general tone of quests is very inconsistent, with quests like One Small Favour constantly poking fun at itself, while the entire Myreque questline being taken seriously with plot deaths and revelations. In fact, a lot of the humour in this game breaks the 4th wall, making references to real-life people and pop culture all the time. It's probably best not to think too much about it.

The most striking part of OSRS is the art and music, which attempts to mimic the style of 2007-era graphics and MIDI tunes. Sometimes this artstyle gets muddied, especially in brand new areas where you can see a clear improvement in texture and model design, but in general the game sticks to a somewhat consistent style. It is definitely geared towards players who want the retro style experience and appreciate games of the past two decades without the clunky design, and in this regard they've delivered.

OSRS is a player-focused, community driven game, and the developers listen and act upon player feedback. It's something that's been built up over the past 8 years and while I haven't been there for the whole experience, I've had my fair of community experience to know that the people who play and develop the game are passionate about what they do, and I can assuredly say that the game has a bright future ahead. If you're itching for a new MMO and you haven't given OSRS a try, the game has a free-to-play area that will give you a good grasp on the game. After thousands of hours, I'd easily recommend this game.

I really wanted to like the game. The combat seemed appealing, the story was promising and the game has recieved glowing praise from critics and fans. Sadly, the combat felt clunky and sluggish, and the main story felt completely detatched from the core gameplay. There are some interesting mechanics in the game, but each time I tried to play the game, the controls made me feel like I was moving through mud.

game is good

This is a neat strategy/puzzle game hybrid, kind of like a light RTS. If you're a train fanatic or even just slightly interested in them, this game is for you. The rules are fairly simple but the game can become chaotic quickly if you don't manage the board well. That being said, the game can be taken at your own pace with fast forward and pause functions, which making use of both features is essential. The game looks and sounds very nice, but one thing that caught my attention was the fact that the game takes place in notable time periods around the world, specifically around the late 1800s and 1900s. Its a little subtle, but seeing the slow changes over the time periods to the trains and scenery was a nice touch.

Apart from the odd screenshot, I have hardly seen any part of this game before playing. If you are on the edge of buying it, but are unsure if you do want it, make sure that you don't spoil the adventure for yourself. This review will be mostly spoiler free.

Playing this game for the first time almost completely blind was a magical experience. The feeling of exploring the great unknown is something that should never be taken for granted in any game, especially when the core gameplay is centered around exploring and discovering new technology, creatures and environments. Even the smallest of discoveries feel like big achievements. This is compounded by the fact that you explore an entire ocean, something that not a lot of games can boast (and fewer have done well). When it all comes together, the game looks absolutely beautiful.

Sandbox games are not known for having a strong story, or rely on extensive research to be able to begin to understand. The story of Subnautica is an exception however. The game manages to tell a compelling story through the usage of abandoned PDAs and through scanning, which feels organic within the game and never feels forced. Through this, the player can piece together stories to understand the overarching plot. While the story is a big driving point in the game, it isn't shoved down your throat, so you can explore to your heart's content knowing that you won't be missing out on other parts of the game.

There are still a number of intrusive and immersion-breaking bugs that plague the game and can be potentially frustrating. Notably, sometimes walls seem to be a "suggestion" to some of the larger inhabitants of the planet, and you may often see them phase right through walls. Occasionally you can also see smaller fish do this as well, but the worst is if something you made decides to clip out of bounds. Nothing feels worse than spending time painstakingly gathering materials to build something only to lose it to the ocean floor. With that said though, don't let that deter you from playing the game - the grief it may lead to is still worth the experience the game offers.

If you've been looking for a sandbox fix in a while, a story driven game, or just need a new and somewhat relaxed experience, I would highly recommend this game.

After completing (yes, 100% complete, without mods, without easy mode), I can definitively say this is one of the most drastic difficulty increase in a game I've ever seen. If A Hat in Time is a fun, accessible and easy to pick up platformer for everyone, Seal the Deal (specifically Death Wish) is a challenging tougher-than-nails update. For someone that loves a challenge and frequently plays difficult games for that sweet adrenaline rush, this update is everything I've ever dreamed for. The game pushes its own well-refined mechanics and your own skill and patience to the limit with almost every challenge under the sun including timed, no-hit, puzzle and some completely new levels. You'll need to know the game inside and out to be able to beat it, but the game presents itself fairly, explaining some more obscure mandatory mechanics such as ice-hopping and pause buffering through the hints. And even if you find the challenges too difficult and just want to cash in on some sweet rewards, you can pay a small in-game fee to lower the difficulty slightly. The update really does have everything going for it.

Oh, I suppose the Arctic Cruise was also in this update as well. While the Death Wish mode did overshadow the content provided in the "Seal" portion of the Seal the Deal update, it goes without saying that the Arctic Cruise chapter is a great addition to the lineup of Acts in the game, and considering that there is only 4 Acts (Act 5 doesn't count) in the game, more content is always appreciated. Without going into too much detail, the Act is very charming with new voice-acting, art, level design and mechanics implemented to spice up the gameplay without ruining the platforming aspect that defines the game so well. The first two Act are designed intelligently to help the player become accustomed to the layout of the ship, then putting their knowledge to the test with a challenge in Act 2. Act 3 is a bit of a departure from this format of the level being designed around the ship, but does so in a way that spices out the gameplay without sacrificing too much of the previous levels. Overall the Act does seem a bit short, but what is there is something more memorable in terms of the overall level design than all the other Acts.

Although I did pick the DLC up for free when it dropped, it adds so much content for a $5 update, and is definitely worth the purchase if you're looking for more from the game.

This is a fresh take of the Monster Hunter franchise that I know some people have been begging for, now available for the PC. In terms of barebone mechanics, it's very similar to all the previous titles, with mounting still returning from MH4U. A lot of new and user-friendly features were added with a huge amount of options at your disposal, making this instalment feel like anyone from fresh hunters to veterans can pick up and enjoy. The cast of new monsters, while I was initially disappointed with when they were revealed, definitely feel like a part of the core Monster Hunter series. On top of that, returning monsters like Rathian are improved having better telegraphs and smooth animations. This in combination with the seamless world full of life and color make gathering and exploring actually fun for once. The game can become very CPU and GPU intensive, but I have rarely had any issues with stutter using an Intel Core i7-7700HQ and Nvidia GTX 1060. I haven't had much online play so far, but the few times I have the hunting has been smooth and without disconnects.

Payday 2 has always had a weird relationship with its playerbase, being a bit distant with them, doing some shady stuff in the past (especially the huge lineup of DLC, which is slowly becoming more and more optional with free alternatives to some weapons and weapon classes which actually stand up to the meta), but overall, and especially recently the developers have established that they do listen to us and our feedback about the game and what we want to see come out of it, as well as come up with plenty of insane ideas of their own to spice up a game that came out three years ago (and the game is still getting updated!?).

To put it in short, Payday 2 is the successor to Payday: The Heist, expanding upon stealth mechanics, having a fairly in-depth weapon, skill and mask customisation to prolong gameplay and (as of writing) about 45 unique heists and a couple of reduxes with slightly different objectives/maps, as well as 2600 total levels across 25 prestiges or "infamies". It's kind of like the Left 4 Dead of bank robberies, but instead of basing around moving from point A to B it involves doing specific tasks such as holding out in a specific area, retrieving loot, killing targets or moving to point B. It also has lots of mods, as long as you can bother finding them, which can greatly enhance your experience with the game, fill out some features you wanted or just push the boundaries of stupid on the game.

A difficult, yet beatable and fun bullet-hellish game. If you think it looks a lot like Hyper Light Drifter, that's because it plays pretty much the same, except the entire game is made up of boss battles. The game almost requires a controller as it does have twin stick shooting in it, so don't go in there expecting to beat it with a mouse and keyboard (even though there is support for it). Again it is difficult, but difficult like Super Meat Boy where if you keep on at a stage you'll eventually get it, but you'll never get by with luck as each boss has multiple stages including a final stage that usually requires you to dodge a barrage of attacks before you can beat them.