Recent reviews by samβo

A fantastic compilation of short but sweet horror titles.
Highest praises to the dev Mike Klubnika, he has distilled industrial horror perfectly into each bite-sized experience, and each game keeps you on-edge with its oppressive atmosphere and relentless sense of dread.

Very highly recommended, even if you aren't a typical horror game enjoyer.

Best experienced via blind playthrough. For those wondering, there are 2 minor jump scares in one of the titles, otherwise the horror is purely atmospheric.

Note: This is a review of the singleplayer story, not Red Dead Online.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is the absolute pinnacle of interactive storytelling and immersive sim. Rockstar have put their heart and soul into creating the ultimate Cowboy simulator, and have shown that their games truly the cream of the crop from the modern triple-A studios.

The story of Arthur Morgan is compelling and touching, following the notorious Van Der Linde gang through the final years of the Wild West. The members of the Van der Linde gang are so full of character, you'll walk through camp and catch them interacting with eachother, saying hello, fighting, arguing - it truly feels like a family. They are all so interesting, you can't help but interact with them after each mission to hear what they have to say about the latest job we completed.

The game systems are so deep you can spend hundreds of hours getting lost in the various adventuring, hunting, gambling, robbing, fishing and bounty hunting activities, alongside other random encounters and townsfolk. The ability to interact with nearly any NPC in the game, in the form of a greeting, snide remark, or just the act of pointing a gun goes a long way to allowing you to suspend your disbelief and be fully immersed in the world.

>Greet "Well howdy mister"
"Get out of here, you moron"
>Antagonise "You watch your manners, I was saying hello"

Red Dead Redemption 2 is truly an excellent modern gaming experience, I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who is passionate about gaming as an artform and wants to experience a truly immersive, interactive Western. It is well deserving of the awards it received in 2018 when it released. It is gaming perfection, and was a pleasure to experience.

The modern gaming landscape has made me extremely cynical. 'Triple-A' titles are churned out by publishers in production-line style fashion, by overworked and underpaid developers who are given impossible deadlines, resulting in releases that are too early, buggy, and of course, filled to the brim with microtransactions, lootboxes and season passes, only to line the pockets of the publisher's major shareholders.

But indie games give me hope. Smaller projects built by a passionate team who are invested in the game they are making, because they love making games, and are looking to impress their audience, not their shareholders.

Assault Android Cactus is a passion project, and it very clearly shows. The visuals, audio and performance are all impeccable. The gameplay is tight, focussed and responsive, and a clear follower of Bushnell's Law - easy to learn, hard to master. And it is a complete experience - no paywalls, microtransactions, lootboxes or other crap. It is pure gaming heaven. My only criticism - no online multiplayer.

It is extremely refreshing to experience a game that is completed to such a high level of polish, by a team of 3 developers in Brisbane, Australia. Witch Beam have since gone on to make the critically acclaimed Unpacking, and it is clear they are truly passionate about the games they make.

Assault Android Cactus is a true diamond in the rough, and I would highly encourage you to pick it up.

I have been a fan of the 40k tabletop game for a long time, and being a fan, you draw certain conclusions when you see the two sides that face each other in Space Hulk. You see the Space Marines clad in their Tactical Dreadnought 'Terminator' armour, facing the endless swarms of the Tyranid Genestealer horde and think it is one of those 'I'm not locked in here with you - you're locked in here with me!' situations. The Terminator's would surely be in for a walk in the park...

After playing Space Hulk, however, you quickly realise this is not the case. It is instead the case of glass cannons vs glass cannons, and in order to enjoy Space Hulk, you need to change your view accordingly. The terminators are heavily armed and armoured, yes, but they are also slow and clunky. The claustrophobic halls of the space hulk are only as wide as a single suit, meaning only the leading unit can engage an oncoming threat. On the other hand, the Genestealers are fast, nimble and numerous, and have evolved specifically to destroy anything in melee - even Terminators.

This is represented in-game via the action point system and how both sides spend them. Genestealer movement in any direction only uses 1 action point, allowing them to close distances fast and their facing-direction to be unimportant. However, Terminators take 1 action point to move forward or turn 90 degrees, meaning it takes 2 action points to just turn on the spot to face a threat coming from behind. It is the careful management and use of your action points, as well as assessment of current threats and whether to stand your ground or make a break for the objective that made playing the Space Marines enjoyable - even if they aren't the invulnerable force they are on the 40k tabletop game.

The Space Marine campaign is pretty uninspired, but as mentioned above, once you realise your units aren't all-powerful and you must be smart and methodical in your actions, it is satisfying to play through and earn unlocks for your units. You'll learn to manage the order your units enter hallways to ensure the most effective ones are leading and trailing, while your apothecary is in the middle looking after your melee units. Eventually you will have an unstoppable force, just like the tabletop - you just need the unlocks and abilities to improve your dice rolls...

Now, much like the Warhammer and Space Hulk licenses it is based on, be aware that the game uses dice-rolls to determine combat outcomes and is heavily RNG-based. It is always frustrating to have your lightning-claw or thunder hammer equipped Terminators fail their attack rolls and die in melee, but that is the luck of the dice. I ended up using them as 'plugs' - putting them into defensive stance and standing in the hallways to prevent the Genestealer advance, as the consequences of a failed attack roll were just too great.

The Genestealer campaign is fun and their gameplay is different to the Terminators, however the real satisfaction comes from doing what the Genestealers did to you in the Space Marine campaign and flooding the map to tear the Terminator squad to shreds.

The game is a decent use of the Warhammer license. Get it on sale for the great customisation (full armour customisation on the Terminators in Skirmish mode, including unique decorations for the Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Ultramarines and Space Wolves) and give the campaign a shot, but the game needed further work from the devs to improve the general quality-of-life (UI clunkiness, for example - the game seems built for a controller instead of KB&M) and ensure the game was a long-lasting hit.

There is a descriptive saying that goes 'as wide as an ocean but as deep as a puddle'. I feel that this description resonates with the modern RPG genre of videogames, especially with the more 'AAA' experiences....

'Our game world is 16 times larger than the last one'
'Every person you can see has their own story and day/night cycle'
'See that mountain, you can go there!'

Modern RPGs inflate their sense of scale and interactivity, especially in their marketing, but, more often than not, ultimately provide a shallow experience that can be tiring to slug through and unexciting to interact with.

Disco Elysium is the polar opposite. It is as wide as a puddle but as deep as an ocean. It takes place across a city block - something incredibly small by today's game standards - but has so much depth and interactivity it feels like a truly living world. The game's unique skill/attribute system allows you to truly play the role you choose - from a gone-clean no-nonsense genius detective, to a gay racist fascist communist hobocop who punches children and antagonises his detective partner (I am not kidding) - all while the voices in your head whisper to you and egg you on...

"This person needs to respect your authority... assert yourself!"
"Sire, perhaps this is all a ruse, perhaps HE is the murderer?"
"Oh man, you could reaaaaaaaally use a cigarette right now"

Disco Elysium is one of - if not THE - best RPGs I have ever experienced. It is a must buy and a must play.
An incredible role playing experience, made for adults and worth your time.

Edit: Using frame-limiting software such as Rivatuner or Nvidia Inspector, or even the launch option fix posted by bsod in the Guides section allows you to limit the framerate and experience the game the way it was meant to be played.

I am grateful to the community for finding these fixes, the game is a great throwback to the classic arena shooter genre, and is a blast now that a workaround for the netcode issues has been found.


Below is my original review:


Without a doubt, a good shooter with twitchy action, awesome weapons and movement, and a great cast of characters, but the deal breaker is the netcode.

The upload rate of the game is tied to its framerate - higher frames means higher bandwidth usage.
This may be fine for people with moderate internet connections, however in Australia where we are currently upgrading our old technology with more old technology, this usage causes freezing and lag a few times a minute. The tutorial was unplayable as I was being rubber-banded around the map, and my multiplayer matches were a frustrating mess as I couldn't hit anything or react during engagements.

This issue MUST be fixed, and I'm sure it will. But it is a massive oversight in a fast-paced shooter where framerate matters, higher performance is better, and you are being punished for having a good pc.

This review will change to positive once the netcode is fixed and upload rate is reduced.

A brilliant Sci-fi FPS adventure, heavily inspired by the System Shocks and Bioshocks before it, and brought to us by the team behind Dark Messiah and the Dishonored's.

Prey feels built for the PC, much unlike Dishonored 2 before it. Arkane Studios dropped the disaster that was idTech5 and built Prey on Cryengine - producing an experience that is very well optimised and plays like a dream. The UI and ingame systems also fully support a mouse and keyboard, which is appreciated.

All appears fine at face value aboard Talos I, as you wake up for your first day on the job. But after your initial assessment goes haywire, nothing is as it seems and you must dive deeper into the station and its mysteries to uncover the past and protect the future.

The atmosphere and gameplay are brilliant, starting you out as a paranoid weakling against the mimics - alien enemies who can turn into inaminate objects and strike from plain sight; and eventually turning you into a psychic warrior, whom the Typhon come to fear. The space setting can really make you feel alone, and the fully realised external environment gives a true sense of scale of the operation running out of Talos I.

Our Mick Gordon provides another excellent game soundtrack - not as visceral as DOOM, but as engaging and suitable for an anxious experience on a lonely space station, where you are always being watched.

A masterstroke in modern adventure-slash-FPS-RPG. No idea why they pulled the name from a 2000's franchise - they should have just called it NEUROSHOCK.

A truly excellent adventure game in the vein of the Telltale `choose your own adventure' games.

The story is an brilliant rollercoaster following a girl coming back to her hometown after having left it for 5 years, and catching up with her best friend, who's since changed entirely given the events that unfolded during their time apart. The characters are deeply developed, and by the end I was fully engrossed in the town of Arcadia Bay and its inhabitants.

The series' hook is the main character's newfound ability to manipulate time, which greatly enhances the game experience by allowing you to experiment with your decisions before locking anything in. It is also used for puzzle and conflict solving, where you would typically save-scum in other games to achieve your desired outcome.

On a deeper level, the timetravel mechanic makes the player consider the ramifications of their timeline manipulation. If you had the choice to fix all your past problems, would you? What if your choice, instead, created even worse problems? Is it your job to fix every mistake you or the people you care about make? Should you have this kind of power? Who are you, to change what nature has put in motion?

I can't see an ad for the game without Crosses by Jose Gonzalez playing in my head, and once again undergoing the rollercoaster of emotions that the game incited in me.

An excellent game, a must-buy and must-play.

A great RPG. Takes steps forward and back for the franchise, but overall a great achievement.

Dialogue is lacking due to the addition of voiced lines, limiting the amount of responses per interaction to 4.
Graphics are great, but the engine is a bit dated and can underperform at times.
Some of the DLC is lacking in story, but the content supplied greatly expands the customisation options for settlements and companions.