Recent reviews by Stargazer

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Absolutely Worth the Wait

STALKER 2 is everything I hoped for and more. It’s been optimized really well, and I actually get better performance here than in a lot of other games. I did run into a small issue with the game crashing while loading shaders, but once that was sorted out, I was good to go. And wow, once I started playing, I was hooked.

It’s clear the developers poured their hearts into this game. They've faced challenges that would make most of us buckle, and yet, they delivered something amazing. I honestly think they deserve Game of the Year for the sheer dedication and hard work they’ve put in.

How I feel about the game:

• Gameplay: 8/10
I haven’t fully explored everything yet, so I’m holding off on a final verdict, but so far, it’s engaging. If the endgame stays fresh and doesn’t fall into repetition, this score could easily go up.

• Graphics: 9/10
Visually, this game is gorgeous. The environments are stunning, and I really appreciate how well it’s optimized to run smoothly on most systems. That said, the character animations could use a bit more polish—they move a little stiffly at times, which can break immersion.

• Sound Design: 9/10
The sound in STALKER 2 is phenomenal. The ambient noises, distant explosions, and unsettling wildlife sounds all contribute to a genuinely eerie atmosphere. The voice acting is solid, but some characters could use a bit more depth to their lines.

• Story: 8/10
The story is definitely compelling, with plenty of twists and a good sense of mystery. It does a great job pulling you in, though at times, the pacing feels a little uneven. Some parts could be fleshed out more, but it’s still a great narrative overall.

• Exploration: 9/10
Exploring the Zone is one of the best parts of the game. The world feels alive and dangerous, and there’s always something new to discover, whether it’s a hidden anomaly, a new faction, or just an eerie location that tells its own story. It’s the kind of world you want to get lost in.

• Performance: 8/10
Performance is pretty solid. It does stutter now and then, especially in more packed areas or when loading certain sections, but it’s nothing game-breaking. Overall, it runs way better than I expected for a game this complex.

I am a big fan of sci fi, so I get excited when I hear about a open world sci fi game.
Tried launching it... okay, no big deal that it keeps crashing and stuttering, maybe I need to play it after I upgrade my pc.
I upgrade my pc and put the graphics on the lowest setting. Still stuttering and glitching. Turns out the game is just poorly optimized and I have to download a bunch of mods to even get the game to work when I can play much better games with ease.

It's one of my favorite board games. Each faction is unique and fun to play as and against.

The game itself follows this rule- each faction gains points differently. You need to fight, strategize, and play your cards right to get to 30 points before anyone else does to win. The game gets more complex depending on who you are or who you are facing against. The game is up to four players.

If you are interested in the factions, I will summarize them.

•Marquise the cat: You start off spread out and are immediately challenged by everyone on the field. You must build (for points) and recruit to defend the buildings to win. Oh! And you can attack people several times if you save bird cards. Also... Cats.

•Eyrie Dynasty: The Birds had enough and will conquer the land. Follow doctrines every turn or you have to replace your leader and lose points, and continue to build bases and burn things down. High risk- high reward.

•Woodland Alliance: The revolution has begun! Make everyone hate you as you spread your revolutionary words in areas that makes people have to give you cards if they even dare step foot on your doorstep. Get influence, pity, and revolt for points. Just know you cant outnumber most factions- but you can always spread them thin.

•The Vagabond: Everyone is playing a board game, you are playing a TTRPG. Work with other players and quest for points. Each vagabond is unique (including the Vagabond DLC) that offer a fun way of playing.

(RIVERFOLK EXPANSION)

•The Lizard Cult: Create cults, turn animals into lizards, and burn things down! The Lizards are similar to the woodland alliance to the extent of their reliance on influence but they dont need people invading their spaces to get a ton of cards. Craft the cards and influence the infidels for points!

•The Riverfolk Company: War is a business venture, and business is good. You can adjust prices for services other players can use and you use that money to conquer areas for more financial gain (and points!). Just watch out, when you get close to 30 points, most people stop buying from you!

(UNDERWORLD EXPANSION)

•The Corvid Conspiracy: The Crows Knows. One of my personally favorite factions. Set traps, plot, scheme, and pray that the AI or the person you are playing doesnt use up all their cards to reveal your plots. You get points for revealing plots, which can be Bombs, and destroy everything except your units. Raids: If they destroy it, your units spawn around that area; extortion: Get more cards from other players; snares: Make them stay put in that area (Super effective against the vagabond).

•The Underground Dutchy: The underworlders shall rise! Create an aristocratic government and attack everyone as you send your soldiers out from the underground secret base you have. Hiring lords, building, and fighting gives you points. In my opinion, this is the most brutal faction to go against if no one targets them and bullies them from growing into a powerhouse.

(MARAUDER EXPANSION)

•Lord of the Hundreds: We're the rats. Im da big rat dat makes all of da rules. Control an army that pillages and creates disorder for points. Lose your leader? Replace them with another one. Each turn King Rat's mood changes and it effects how he plays. Play aggressively and steal, pillage, and make the rats reign supreme!

•The Keepers in Iron: American Honeybadger. Instead of being aggressive like the rats you will push people back and fortify your camps as you accept doctrines that influence how many times you can move, attack, and receive relics (like the dynasty but you dont lose points if you dont use them). Collect relics for points and defend to win.

34 tracks for $5.99. The music is excellent. I mainly got it to support the developers.

I feel so mixed about this game that I flipped a coin to decide whether to recommend it.
The game is half-baked and was just thrown into its 1.0 release and left for another project. It can still be fun if you are in the mood for it.
It's really easy to get 100% for the achievements.

I like Crows.

A great remastered of a great classic that I wished I could have played when it came out. Im still trying to 100% the game but I think I got a good grasp of what I like and dislike about the game:
Pros:
•Great time management simulator. Not too stressful like other games ive played.
•The game has great style and music.
•It teaches you new mechanics overtime instead of dumping it on you
•Fun combat mechanics with reasonable elemental exploitation
•Runs extremely well (at least for me)

Cons:
•At one point, all those animations you can't skip and unnecessary pauses start slowing things down, especially in the Tartarus area.
•Did you get the soundtrack? I'm sorry. You have an app that loads the music. You don't have it in mp3 format unless you want to rip it out with some software.
•The music may be repetitive (not a big con, but a negative that started haunting me 40+ hours in)
• Because the game teaches you, new mechanics, slowly over time, you may get frustrated with not having certain things unlocked until much later (like remembering the persona abilities you ignored).
•The game is a bit too bright- but you can fix that easily by tweaking it in the settings.

This is a great classic that is finally getting a 1.0. Is it perfect? No, but it sure is fun. It's more fun with friends, but be my guest if you want to try it solo.

I used the product and found out that it was my Hard drives that were the problem. Not just one- 3/4.
This is my first bench marking software but I am glad I got this one. Just had to google a few things, such as what "threads" are.

The game is rough. The animations, especially the shovel, are very clunky and break the immersion. To give an example: When using the shovel, you have to manually move the mouse to pick things up, which means the shovel clips in through the ground, and if you are not precise, you will miss your object. When you use the shovel, you are stuck in that animation.
I was expecting so much more from this game, but I couldn't even get that far into it without feeling... just disappointed. Maybe they will update the game and make it great. But for now, upon release- It is not worth it, even with the sale.