Recent reviews by Azimuth

-Played this almost a year after release, still experienced a ton of bugs and crashes.
-On top of that, balance is a little all over the place.
-Whilst the resource management system (think mana) seems like it could be interesting (rage vs willpower) it actually ends up being quite limiting. Forced into using a skill purely to dump the opposite resource or use the clunky default attack.
-Lack of variety. Endgame is just the same thing but progressively higher levels. There's only maybe 10ish tilesets and a handful of enemies.
-Game doesn't have many unique items and the majority of the ones it does have aren't all that unique.
+itemisation. I like the fact stat rolls on items have both a minimum and maximum level requirement. Actually feels like you can make progress farming or crafting. The gem system and its integration with crafting is pretty interesting too.

+Nostalgia
+Music
+Switch your mind off fun
+Lots of hours of content
-Netcode/Lag compensation kind of sucks. All inputs are delayed.
-Pointless account sign-up process. Asks you to create an account and pick a username to turn around and assign you a random username without asking. UtterEwe2197160
-Needlessly convoluted install process for each individual game. You need to install via an in-game menu to play each of the campaigns.
-Balance from game to game is all over the place. Legendary difficulty isn't too bad for the most part outside of Reach and Halo 2 where the enemies are far too bullet spongey.

Overall still an enjoyable experience.

Fallout 4 is more of an exploration shooter with minor rpg elements than a pure rpg, because Bethesda have simplified a lot of the mechanics, which has refined some mechanics, like shooting and general gearing, but it has also harmed some mechanics (like the rpg elements) such as the level up/perk system. Some perks are nothing but boring stat boosts and offer nothing new and exciting mechanically, and almost feel mandatory to continue to survive in the world. Eg. Generic weapon type damage increases.

Storywise, the game is lacking, the main story was quite rudimentary, even spawning a myriad of memes about it. That said, some of the side quests, and the general background atmosphere and characters you meet more than make up for the lack of character in the main story. Some of the different 'Vault stories' you read about and experience exploring the various vaults spread across the game world are far more interesting than the main story.

Fallout 4 introduces a few new mechanics to the series, such as crafting/modding weapons and armour and settlement building, both of which are conceptually great, but awkwardly implemented. For example, swapping mods out requires you to craft new mods to replace the original ones rather than just being able to break the weapon down for parts (albeit you can break down weapons into crafting materials with certain perks).

As with all recent Bethesda games the ui and control scheme is horrible on pc, and suffering terribly of consolitis. Speak of which, the game looks relatively dated even on max settings.

Overall though I still enjoyed this game and would recommend it.

tldr;
-Buy if you like exploring and shooting.
-Don't buy if you were expecting a story that didn't seem like it was written by someone on the spectrum.

This game was more of a disappointment to me than I am to my parents.

GTA:Online = Loadscreen simulator 2015. 10/10 would load again.

As a huge fan of the old Infinite Engine games like Baldur's Gate I had hoped for so much *more* from this game. Whilst it did much to modernise the genre, in many areas it failed to live up to the nostalgia.

Graphics - The game kept true to the art style whilst bringing it forwards into the modern era of gaming, the backdrops were breathtakingly beautiful and it played smoothly without any issues.

Sound/Voice Acting - The sound/voice acting wasn't particularly noteworthy, it wasn't terrible yet it wasnt great either, it didn't really stand out much.

Story-telling/narrative - The story was a bit vague and didn't really have much direction during the first act but it quickly picked up during the second act before slowly tapering off towards the end. There weren't any really exciting revelations or twists that made it wow me. The villain, their motivations and relationship to the protagonist were somewhat interesting but it wasn't anything that stood out. Often at times to convey just how filled out the world and backstory was you're presented with a wall of text which probably wasn't necessary and felt like it detracted from the story at times.

Gameplay Mechanics/Combat - This is probably the most disappointing aspect of the game. The game feels like it's more of a stealth crpg because they limited the experience gained from combat to just the first few initial run ins with each foe type and kept the overall experience gained from combat to a very minimal amount, along with the plethora of items that dropped from enemies being utterly useless, it often felt like the better choice was to sneak/avoid enemy encounters which just slows down the pace of the game. Avoiding combat entirely was also made more desirable by the fact that you were heavily penalised for trying to escape combat or run around or disengage with an enemy during combat which often resulted in the character dying quicker than had you just stayed in place and tried to (but likely fail to do so anyway) tank it.

Spell casting also felt more burdensome and tiring than in the older IE titles because of the resting mechanics of the game whereby you had to carry supplies to rest and were limited to only carry a certain amount of supplies with you, so if you ran out of supplies you were forced to return to a store to purchase more or not rest and not be able to heal, or restore spells for combat.

Itemisation - The difference between a normal, un-enchanted item and a unique item felt lacking. The difference in damage was minimal, I played as a barbarian and would do 80s with normal items and as high as 96 using a unique item of the same type. Another problem with the itemisation is that so many items gave boosts to player stats, but conflicting stat boosts (ie. gloves that give +1 might and boots that give +2 might) would be nullified meant that gearing most slots felt like a waste of time and forced players down the route of jack of all trades, master of none.

Overall I would rate this game as a 6/10, or in terms of similarities to the old IE games it has the combat of Planescape Torment with the story of Icewind Dale, it tries to relive the nostalgia but focuses on the wrong aspects of what made them great games.

Baldur's Gate II:EE is the combined pack of Shadows of Amn+Throne of Bhaal which continue and conclude the story of Gorion's ward and their ascension into Godhood. BGII is arguably one of the best roleplaying games of all time with an incredibly deep, intricately woven and dark story that plays host to one of the best game villains and a plethora of tangential side missions, stories and npcs that make the world of Faerun come to life.

Shadows of Amn's story begins shortly after the events of the original Baldur's Gate, the opening cinematic and cutscene opens with your character being the unwilling constituent in the antagonist's demented BDSM fantasies. Little is revealed initially other than his name, Irenicus and he has shown some interest in you, or more specifically your heritage. His experiments are quickly interrupted by a besieging rival guild and in the ensuing chaos you are able to escape and you begin your journey in pursuit of Irenicus and his ilk to seek out your revenge.

Your adventure will see you travel the city of coin, Athkatla and the surrounding countryside of Amn as you pursue Irenicus down the Sword Coast. Throughout your travels you'll slowly learn the motivations and misdeeds that drive Irenicus and your interactions with him reveal the true nature of your lineage. Irenicus is a solid and well written antagonist although he isn't as insidious or devious as Sarevok.

Defeating Irenicus will throw you into Throne of Bhaal which is the culmination of the Bhaalspawn saga which pits you against the other most powerful Bhaalspawn in a Highlander-esque showdown to become the reincarnation of Bhaal himself. 'There can be only one..'

The gameplay is essentially unchanged from the first Baldur's Gate, at least at its core, it's still very tactical realtime combat with the ability to pause. Overall though the 'meta' is very different with [arcane] spellcasters being very strong in BGII due to the increased level cap and access to higher level spells and the abundance of powerful items, where as BGI was much easier as a warrior. Generally though the combat feels more enjoyable with a wider array of tools at your disposal and a greater array of vastly differing enemies to fight makes many battles feel varied and memorable. The further you push through the story of SoA and into ToB the more action oriented the game and combat will become as enemies get tougher and your character grows stronger. The increase in action will help accomodate for the weaker story in ToB. Overall though the combat is still very slow comparatively with any Arpg as it is designed to take some level of strategy and meticulous planning to succeed in BGII.

Graphically the Baldur's Gate series is timelessly beautiful because of the development decision to use painted 2d backdrops. The spell effects still look amazing and vary greatly between spells. The character models on the otherhand have not aged well and look very bland, pixelated and blurry but is a minor grievance in the grand scheme of things.

Having completed this game several times now, both playing with a full player created party, solo and then picking up npcs along the way the game offers a lot of replayability whether it be from the particular challenges and different strategies required of each class during fights with certain enemies and bosses or from the story arcs and commentary provided by the npcs you choose. This is a thinking man's game so if you're looking for a game with which to turn your brain off and have some mindless fun you may wish to reconsider. Those looking for a challenge and a riveting story this is the game for you. On a personal note, this is one of my favourite games of all time and I recommend it wholeheartedly, especially to those that enjoy a good rpg.

One word to describe Far Cry 3? Bland.

Protagonists - bland, uninteresting and absurd.
Story - bland.
Antagonist - Vaas was semi interesting albeit anti-climatic. His boss, not so much.
Crafting - bland and forced. It feels like it was an unnecessary layer.
Weapons - bland.
Combat - bland, favours stealth and melee for additional xp which draws out the game needlessly.
Setting - bland and uninspired, every location feels the same and a jungle island isn't exactly new for the franchise.
Graphics - Decent enough, few clipping issues though with climbing animations and models floating above the ground.
Side missions - bland, uninspired, boring, repetitive, go here free this tower ->identifies surrounding area. Free stronghold -> new fast travel and spawn. Wanted Dead go here, kill this guy with a knife. Path of the hunter go here, hunt this animal using this weapon. Mind numbing.

Uplay was surprisingly not too troublesome other than the initial launch. Still I would not recommend wasting your time on this game, it was like pulling teeth.

Deathtrap is a tower defense-Arpg hybrid from the developers of The Amazing Adventures of Van Helsing. The closest comparison that can be drawn to it from other games in the tower defense genre would be Dungeon Defenders. Although the character progression and abilities are more fleshed out and force players to make decisions that uniquely define their characters role more than DD does. There are 3 classes, the mercenary, the sorceress and the marksman, each have a different playstyle and trap base type that they favour with a multitude of abilities to choose from as they level up. The mercenary for example is good at playing the role of melee tank and favours mechanical traps (both floor and tower types).

The trap base types are Mechanical Floor, Mystical Floor, Mechanical Tower, Mystical Tower and Summoning, each with 5 traps for a total of 25 different types of traps. Unlike Dungeon Defenders you're limited to where you can place each trap type by predefined trap locations which can somewhat limit the amount of potential builds for each map. There are four main enemy archetypes as well of which, different towers will either be super effective, neutril or ineffective against which forces players to use multiple types of towers and traps to prevent enemies reaching their gate (core).

Overall I find the game to be quite and enjoyable and it has a lot of depth to it with 13 campaign maps which have 4 increasing difficulty tiers which unlock as you progress to maintain the challenge as your character levels. Once the 13 campaign maps have been completed on the first tier 5 additional scenario maps unlock as well. Scenario mode which is similar to the campaign but instead has added challenges that the player can choose from to increase the difficulty as they see fit and increase the xp, loot and gold they receive at the end of the mission. Finally there is also the endless mode which is basically survival with ever increasingly stronger enemies thrown at the player until eventually they are defeated.

Well worth the price of admission.

Dying light is the combined love child of everything you wanted Dead Island to be and the Farcry series. It has free running and parkour similar to Mirror's Edge but with an actual game built around it. The combat and free running mechanics though are probably the most interesting part of the game, and have good progression along the skill tree, unlocking many new abilities, increasing your characters stamina and power.

The story has you play Kyle Crane, a freelance agent working for the GRE sent into the quarantine zone to identify a target and retrieve some intel but things go wrong and you become infected. Inevitably things begin to spiral out of control from that point and even though you try to play the hero everyone around you dies. The story is somewhat cliche and bland to a point, but the atmosphere and some of the side missions and characters you meet will more than make up for it. Overall the game has around 40 hours of content including random encounters, side missions, the campaign and hidden zones and areas.

Dying Light also plays host to many different types of enemies of which the truly tough and scary enemies only make an appearance at night and they will initially be far too much for you to handle but gradually as you level venturing out at night will become less of a harrowing experience.

I definitely recommend checking this game out when you get the chance.