บทวิจารณ์ล่าสุดโดย ⍟Tex

More than an action RPG, I would place this game in the roguelite genre with action RPG elements, since we will still have a limited number of lives during the game, at the end of which we will have to start over again.
Furthermore, one aspect that is fundamental for an action RPG, in my opinion, is the equipment, which in this game is limited to the weapon and some objects that we will carry with us and which will influence some aspects of our character.

The biggest similarity with an action RPG is that of the passive tree, which aesthetically will be similar to that of Path of Exile, although obviously much more simplified. The interesting thing is being able to reforge the passive at will, through the use of some objects that we will drop during the games and which we can accumulate over time (they will not be lost after a game over but we will carry them with us in subsequent games).

The aesthetic aspect of the game, which I have seen many people criticize, was what initially attracted me, when I accidentally saw it while my s.o. was looking through her discovery queue. It caught my eye since I found it different from usual, which is a positive to me and it distinguishes it from other similar titles in the indie scene.

The gameplay is fun and quite addictive, perfect for “wasting” some time, perhaps listening to a podcast or some music.

In conclusion I find that the developers are doing a good job making their title unique and peculiar. I recommend this game both to those who love action RPGs and to those who love roguelites.

Even though I was born in the early 90’s, I had never played it before, I only had tried Q3A, Quake Live (the only one I played for maybe a hundred hours when it was still a browser game) and Quake 4 (only played the campaign).

I must say that I truly was missing a masterpiece and a milestone in the history of video games. Perhaps its legacy in the world of FPS is even greater than that of DooM, since it introduced true three-dimensionality and verticality to maps and gameplay.

I played the remastered version by Bethesda, in 1440p, and I must say that the graphics, despite being obviously rudimentary, maintain a certain primordial charm. The style remains timeless, the stained glass windows and the Gothic castle style are beautiful. However, the thing that struck me right away was the beautiful soundtrack, by Nine Inch Nails. The music is perfect and makes the atmosphere truly disturbing, at times almost unnerving, especially thanks to some tracks that include moans and cries of pain. It almost feels like playing a horror title, especially in the initial stages.

Obviously the gameplay is classic FPS arena gameplay, fast and with a great variety of death devices and a fair number of enemies that will be thrown at us right away. As a big fan of Serious Sam I was finally able to grasp some of its tributes and references, such as the Kleer, clearly inspired by the Fiends from Quake, or the Arachnoids, inspired by the Vores, not to mention the weapons, some of which are very similar.

The game is quite short, you can finish the single player campaign in about 5 hours, and this is an advantage for those who have a gargantuan backlog as in my case. Precisely for this reason, and because I'm afraid it might get a little repetitive, I haven't touched on the various expansions that are included. Maybe I'll play those in the future but for now I'm happy with the original campaign.

In conclusion, I am very happy to have finally tackled this timeless classic, I recommend it to everyone and I think that every video game lover should try it at least once in their life.

Another banger by Valve.

For a long time I was wondering if it was worth purchasing a VR headset just to play this game. 3 years to be exact. Finally this summer I decided it was time, and, also thanks to the dirt cheap Quest 2, I eased myself into the VR world.

A friend recommended playing something else first, in order not to spoil the “G.O.A.T.” right away, and so I did. I started with other games, trying to overcome the sickness meanwhile. Luckily I got used pretty fast and I can now play as much vr as I want without feeling any fatigue or sickness.

After a few months I felt the time had come, so I installed Alyx.

I had purposefully avoided watching anything about the game beforehand, in order to prevent spoilers, so I went in totally blind.

For starters I will say: this is not Half Life 3! Nor it wants to be. There is no crowbar and the main character (Alyx) is fully voiced, so it definitely isn't a mainline Half-Life game. Someone defined this game’s genre more like a survival horror than fps. The first Half-Life was scary too back in 1998 and it also set a new standard for its genre, and the same did Alyx in 2020, in my opinion.

That said, in the game we will control Alyx Vance, daughter of Eli Vance, 5 years before the events of Half-Life 2. Eli gets arrested and abducted by the combine and we will have to track him down and rescue him. This will bring us on a journey through the city 17 quarantine zone. All the levels are quite varied and have distinct themes. Graphics are pretty good, some of the prettiest I’ve seen among VR titles. Also every location is really well crafted, with great attention to detail and little secrets scattered around. To be honest, I would have expected nothing less by Valve, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The gameplay includes all the aspects of the first two games: shooting, puzzle solving, physics, of course really well integrated with the VR technology. Interactions with the environment feel mostly natural and intuitive.

Of course for the sake of simplicity and in order to avoid over-burdening first time players, some aspects of the game are dialed down in comparison to the older titles. The game is slower in general, combats are easier and there are fewer enemies and guns (even though they are all enjoyable). Understandably, Valve wanted to create an enjoyable first VR game for those who are new to the technology, and I personally don’t see anything wrong with that.

Indeed, the experience is really immersive. Since the game opens, with a strider walking the streets while we watch it from the balcony of our house, I felt sucked into the atmosphere of City 17, with the constant guerrilla warfare between the Combine and the Resistance reminding me somewhat of the partisans fighting the nazis during WWII.

Seeing all of that from an up close and personal perspective for the first time was a unique feeling for me. It might be obvious but VR lets you get immersed in the games much more than a flat monitor. Also, 16 years have passed since the release of Half-Life 2, and the graphical improvements are apparent. I multiple times found myself getting close to the enemy corpses, picking them up or moving them around in order to observe them and appreciate the level of detail and care they were made with. Combine are big, especially the chargers, with their heavy armor, and they feel really imposing.
There is a more survival horror oriented section in the game, when you meet “Jeff”, which was pretty intense especially when you end up locked in the elevator with them and also brought up some memories of other titles (for example the berserker section in the first Gears of War) or some Alien movie vibes.

About the plot, I don’t want to spoil more than I already wrote, so I’ll just say I liked it and it was on the same level of the other mainline games (if we want to consider this a spin-off), both writing and storytelling wise.

Sound has the same level of detail and polish as the rest of the game, being able to convey every necessary gameplay hint (spacial sound is a must for VR). Thankfully all the classic sound effects are there, and I felt right at home with the health stations (unfortunately no HEV suit and no HEV chargers are in the game).

Music, on the other hand, alongside the classic HL2’s “Hazardous Environments”, offers some high-impact tracks, perfect to convey the various emotions and situations we find during the playthrough.

I played this game with a Quest 2 and a pretty beefy PC: 5800X3D and 6950 XT. I was able to play with everything maxed and even though I didn’t check my framerate often, I never felt the need to decrease my graphics settings since everything was really smooth. Funnily enough every time I launched Alyx, I got a pop-up message in the main menu warning me that with my setup I might have gotten sub-par performance with those settings. It wasn’t the case, after all.

In conclusion, I really loved this experience. I know some people expected a more “Half-Lifey” title and were turned off by the slow pace of the game, but I personally think this, being somewhat a spin-off, doesn’t necessarily need to be in line with the mainline titles. I enjoyed it for what it is, and I will surely try out the HL2 VR mod eventually, and decide whether I prefer that over Alyx. But even if that was the case, I’d still firmly recommend this one.
Hopefully VR will get more accessible in the future so that a wider audience can adopt it and the medium can keep evolving and we can have some more new gems like this one.

Vampire Survivors and Halls of Torment had a beautiful baby! 🐥

Oh boy, what a game… I just completed the main quest and most of the side activities (90% completed at the moment, in about 55 hours played) and I must say, this game totally blew me away.

I don't consider myself a huge H. P. fan, I read all the books (some of them multiple times) and saw a couple of the movies, but I'm not by any means an expert in the H. P. lore, so please forgive me if I make any mistakes regarding that topic.

At first I was skeptic, especially before launch. When I saw that the game received praise I got it myself, played a little bit, but it didn't click. I probably wasn't in the right state of mind to experience it, being in a period of frequent hardware upgrades, where I was focusing much more on testing game performance, graphics, system temperatures and benching in general, and much less on gaming itself (little side note, since I switched from Nvidia to AMD, I began focusing much more on enjoying gaming again. Maybe it's unrelated but whatever).
Anyways, I left it sit for the better part of this year, before picking it up again. And this time, something was different. The game just caught me with its atmosphere and in a few hours I was locked in.

Playing Hogwarts Legacy felt like reading a new chapter (or better, a prequel / spin off) of the H. P. saga. It has everything you can expect from that.

The game takes place roughly a century before the events of the books, and that was a good choice in my opinion, in order to prevent any disruption of the canon story.

The main story, in my opinion, is not worthy of an award, but it's still pretty well crafted, and in line with the books’ style. It’s captivating enough to make you push through just to know what comes next. The characters are well written and some of them are a clear reference to the H. P. ones. What really makes it shine are the side quests / activities, because of course Hogwarts is first and foremost a school, and so alongside our heroic deeds we will also have to do “mundane” tasks, such as attending various magic lessons, developing side characters relationships or even just exploring the school and its surroundings. Those side quests integrate really well into the story and really make you feel inside a living breathing castle, full of people, really adding a ton of immersion.

Nothing feels rushed, the attention to detail is paramount, and that makes exploring a very fun activity. The castle especially is filled to the brim of secrets, which you will be incentivised to discover by the side quests. And that's good because Hogwarts is gorgeous. Every room, corner, every hall, staircase, and garden are really a work of art, and you could miss much of that if it wasn't for those fetching quests / side activities.
Everything is full with visual lore and really resembles the books / movies experience, up to the smallest details.

I strongly advise against using fast travel, especially at the beginning and while in the school, because again you’re most likely going to miss some stuff.

The gameplay is fine, an action adventure game with a bit of “souls like” combats (not really, combats are pretty easy once you understand how to time correctly stuff, and there are many visual indicators to help). What really makes it shine is the variety of spells and the potential of combining / chaining them in order to deal more powerful attacks. Of course all the spells are lore correct, including the three unforgivable curses. About those curses, you can in fact decide whether you want to learn / use them or not, and they have some weight on the story: if you choose to get them you can feel the impact of these decisions. The story arc about them is also one of the better written ones, in my opinion, with some really intense moments.

The “Adventure” part of the gameplay, as I mentioned before, is for the most part exploration and puzzles. These aren't particularly difficult in general, even though some of them had me thinking a bit in order to solve them.

About graphics, the game is gorgeous. Performance on the other hand is not the best and ray tracing is still pretty bugged. I could leave only reflections on, otherwise I had some really ugly glitches. You'll need a pretty beefy PC in order to run the game at max details, but it's going to look amazing even on lower presets. Also remember to always take your time and tweak the options in order to get the best look / performance balance.

Sound is ok, the various locations themes are nice, even if a bit repetitive after a while. Overall though, it gets the job done.

Now for some minor stuff I didn't really enjoy:

The camera movement angle is limited, you can't fully look up or down. Maybe it's a console / controller thing, but it would've been nice to get the full 360° freedom of camera movement, in order to better explore / appreciate the beauty of Hogwarts also in its verticality.
Changing appearance doesn’t stick, if you switch the piece of gear, the appearance will also change to the new piece of gear aesthetic and you’ll have to re-apply your cosmetic choice every time.
Clunky inventory management in general, space is very limited, especially at the beginning, and I found myself having to destroy stuff multiple times in order to make space for the new items.
Bestiary management is also pretty clunky, once again not something really necessary so it wasn't a big deal.
No quidditch (coming in a later DLC?)
The game has everything you can expect from an H. P. book / movie, except for romance. Could have used some, in my opinion.

All in all I have no major complaints, this game is in my 2023 top 5. It's probably the best H. P. universe game that's ever been made and it will be awesome for any Potter fan and also really great for anyone else. Recommended!

Pretty good co-op experience, played it twice and I loved it. The dlc was also pretty solid. I never touched pvp so I can't speak about that, but I would say the game is worth purchasing just for the co-op, especially when on sale.

Also, save JD, he's got some moves...

https://youtu.be/DgKoRzYj9lI?si=ijTrEmSHc3L0ThQI

Still one of my favorites, so ahead of its time. Do yourself a favor and don't go anywhere near the "definitive" editions...

Another great take on liminal spaces and backrooms! This game will test your observation skills, while often being eerie and disturbing (some anomalies can even kill you). Recommended!

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 and 3 are the reason me and my friends picked up skateboarding back then. Admittedly, I was a much better THPS player than I was a skateboarder irl. In particular, I spent countless hours on THPS2, not so many on 3, that's why I'm not as good at combos as someone who mastered the revert technique. Nonetheless I was really sad when I saw that this remake was an Epic exclusive. But finally, after 3 long years, it came to Steam and with a good discount on top.

The maps are pretty faithful to the originals, while the mechanics include more modern techs, like the revert I mentioned before, thus the game suits well both for old players like me and new ones. Unfortunately the Philadelphia map doesn't include the Joe Blow graffiti like it was in the original THPS2 (I'm particulary tied to that one), but that's irrelevant.

It took me a few hours to get used to the new physics, but all in all they are pretty similar to the classic ones, with the skater feeling fast and agile. After the adjusting phase, it was a joy chaining tricks together in the various maps, as it was in the classic titles.

Unfortunately this game is an Activision title, and it shows. For example, at the moment I played the game some achievements were broken because after an update it wasn't possible anymore to upload custom parks. That wasn't a huge deal for me but it might be for some, also considering that I don't play multiplayer but some may want to. It also sounds like Activision isn't particularly active in fixing the game and they might end up abandoning it anytime soon.

A positive side is that everything there is in the in-game shop is purchaseable through the in-game currency.

All in all I loved this remake, looking forward to 3 + 4!

This game makes you feel like Neo in the Matrix, or like Max Payne. Super immersive, I found myself on the ground many times trying to dodge bullets. If you own a VR, it's a must.
I found an easy way to uncensor the removed bits and still get the achievements and the hours counted, if you're interested just leave a comment on my profile.