Последние обзоры His Imperial Bodgeness

Easily the most bang for your buck on Steam - any board game you can think of has been modded in, and any board game you can imagine can be created using the tools the game gives you. A great time and an invaluable resource for groups playing at a distance!

This was my first MMO, and my most-played game ever - it practically became a daily ritual during the pandemic. Despite my hundreds upon hundreds of hours, I still feel under-equipped to review ESO purely because of the sheer breadth and depth of the thing: MMO's are social experiences at heart and you come to understand that there are too many reasons people play for you to realistically dip a toe in every pool.

For me it was nostalgia for ES games, and if that's what you're looking for this game delivers: more so than any other MMO I've seen the environments and single-player zone questing is pristine and evokes the feeling of exploration I got playing the old single-player titles. It's indescribably cool to walk through locations you've only heard about in other games. Not every quest is going to be a winner, but most zones have interesting storylines and a distinct personality, and for once the main quest doesn't sink the rest of the game. All your favourite NPC guilds are here and offer their own content, and the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild receive their own DLC zones, quests and skill lines that really stand out!

If there is a criticism on this point it is that the DLC zones that were added later are of an embarrassingly higher standard compared to the base game zones, which feel like a relic of the flawed game I heard about long before I started playing. Every DLC zone is superb, but some regions of Tamriel disappoint - base game Valenwood and Elsweyr spring to mind. These areas simply aren't as visually rich (with the cities in particular feeling a little threadbare) and are hamstrung by having to tie the main thread of their zone quests to the overarching main quest of combating Molag Bal. This is fine the first few times but gets tiresome. NPC traders are also largely useless as you will be buying everything you need from other players.

There is a weird suspension of your standards when you play an MMO. Simultaneously sharing a space with so many people means all immersion is instantly cast out of the window, and you have to accept weaker combat and questing mechanics compared to other genres as a baseline. In my experience, combat was...fine. I mainly played magicka sorcerer and do not really engage with high-level PVE or PVP so all I can really say about raids/Cyrodiil is that they were fun :) (On the other hand the PvE/PvP mix of the Imperial City zones lingers in my memory as a great time, even if I spent most of it dodging the attentions of higher-level players). One thing I can commend ESO for is that the mini-PVP modes are great fun whatever your level, and were what finally tempted me to try PVP proper.

Other than that, I have to gush about the area of ESO I poured most of my hours into, the true endgame of ESO that is... player housing. The housing and decoration system is simply the best in any MMO I have ever seen, and every time someone challenges this view I am reminded of how far ahead it is compared to its competition. Every cultural style you see throughout the game is available for crafting or purchase, and someone in the player guilds will be happy to sell it to you - there are countless articles of artwork, daedric sacraments, vfx and environmental effects, programmable NPCs, curios, clutter, plants, whatever - and every type of house you can imagine to stuff them in. I promise that this is not a joke, housing at its most ambitious and baroque requires the kind of funds that only an endgame toon can continuously spile from their money tree. Again this preys on nostalgia, as the many housing mods of Skyrim show just how much players loved their in-game housing. Even without addons (which improve combat and housing design significantly and are a requirement for high-level trading) the design interface shines and gives you staggering freedom to create whatever you like from the assets given. I was routinely blown away by the creativity of a housing contest entry, which 'Tamriel Homes' opened my eyes to. Most of the premium currency (Crown) content sold by Zenimax is housing and furniture packs, which is added at an intimidating rate.

Driving all endgame content are the player guilds and their traders - this might differ less from other MMO's but offers entertainment and depth in itself in ESO's simulated economy, and I spent many hours wheeling and dealing. Now after so many years, the overwhelming morass of content at all levels of the game could keep you going forever but little of it feels like a chore. The game is regularly updated and spiced up with events, including a relatively recent new levelling system.

My one major gripe is that Crown Crates (ie loot boxes) hold a lot of decent cosmetics and furniture and are a very expensive lottery - they are almost never worth your time, even if you trade for them with the base gold currency.

ESO+, while basically required to play the game due to the limitless crafting ingredient storage and double housing capacity it grants you, is very generous in its premium currency stipend and gives you access to all previous DLC instantly. There is no need to buy any DLC packs bar the new expansions, which are added to ESO+ once the next expansion comes out anyway - I realise that this is probably not good enough for most people but given the mountain of other content it was for me and I was happy to wait. I managed to play spending nothing more than the admission price plus monthly membership (and couple of crown bundle indulgences) - a trader of decent proficiency and turnover is able to trade in-game gold for premium currency at a decent volume, although currently I see that in-game inflation has made the rates scarier.

Whether your pull is the lore, PVP, raids, trading, housing (or fishing - I'm ashamed to admit I stuck with this all the way to Master Angler), I can only recommend ESO. While it's not perfect, even for an MMO, I can guarantee there will be something here for you.

A competent and chaotic entry to the clutch of squad-based objective-focused games that popped up after Verdun (which I thoroughly enjoyed at the time). The main focus is still on your individual squads and the abilities of your squad leader, who can act as a spawn point and mark enemy lines to guide your Commander's artillery, but the main star of the show is the Campaign mode which allows you to act out the entire Vietnam War map by map until you're breaking down the gates of Saigon. It's utter chaos with napalm bombing runs and piloted choppers thrown into the mix, and life is cheap as you desperately scramble around the varied maps - Chu Chi and Firebase Georgina are classics. On top of this there are plenty of new weapons, maps and factions to occupy your attention that mark this out as more than just a Vietnam skin on a familiar genre. It's a great time, and I still have 'go home GI' ringing in my ears.

I have a soft spot for card games, especially those with a unique twist. The twist with this one is that the entire game is played as a single-player CCG on a 3x3 grid: as you wander throughout the overworld battling eager opponents for booster packs you try and build a deck that can reliably combo 3 adjacent cards depending on which way they face on the grid, based on linking the direction arrows each card has at its edges (when 2 arrows face each other you have your link). Your cards have different effects when combo'd, and there are 8 different sets to collect, giving you enough of a card pool to make surprisingly deep strategies. Once you start adding rotation and movement mechanics, games get out of control very quickly. My favourite part is that clogging up your opponents board so that they have no legal moves is a legitimate win condition, and disabling a key card that gums up their plans is hilarious.

It has a surprising amount of content too for a small indie game (and a mobile title) which is all well-constructed, as it demands your decks be. I haven't reached the end yet, with only 3 of the 8 legendary cards collected before I can face the Card Gods, but I can tell I am going to like it. CCN is absolutely worth your time, especially for the pittance they charge for it - and if you like card games with unique board mechanics, take a look at Kards or Faeria.

It's almost impossible to call a game 'perfect' - that game would have to completely expand on its' mechanics to the full limit of their potential, and do so flawlessly - but Superflight is perfect. It only really has one mechanic and that simplicity is its' strength. All you do is fly, and the velocity and agility of it is exhilarating, helped along by some very weird map generation that gives you ample chance for air show tricks and swoops that build your highscore. It can be as zen or infuriating as you like.

I remember when Rage came out in 2011, was given mild praise, and promptly faded from memory. After finishing it I really can't work out why - I had so much fun with it. If you mix Mad Max with Borderlands (especially the pseudo cell-shaded aesthetic that keeps the game looking fresh after all this time, although you should expect pretty awful texture pop-in) and fold in a villain that may as well be the Combine from HL2, you end up with Rage. Thankfully the gunplay is better than any of those titles, and the famously realistic and unpredictable Rage AI reactions (where bullet impacts send enemies sprawling, and melee AI uses terrain to move erratically) made most fights a treat - and forced you to use your entire arsenal of weapons and gadgets to survive. Speaking of which, the quirky combat gadgets and minigames give Rage it's own personality, much like Borderlands. The whole thing feels strangely like an indie open-world game: while you do have an overworld, you aren't encouraged to explore it beyond the scope of story missions (a story which itself feels rather small and linear), and the ride is over within 15 hours or so.

A final word about the level design, which is excellent - Dead City is one of the best horror levels I've ever played. Amongst a sea of post-apocalypse games, Rage stands out. Heartily recommended.

If the name doesn't give it away, this is a narrative/mystery game about state surveillance, told on the device screens of those being surveilled, as you race to find a masked bomber before they strike again. It is perfect, perfect in what its sets out to achieve. I'm glad the devs had the confidence to leave a subtle, and very human, trail of breadcrumbs and trust the player to make sense of it all before the reveal. Food for thought about bias and corrupted intentions, while still managing to be a gripping mystery throughout.

I really rather enjoyed Gone Home, and this next near-future sci-fi title from Fullbright feels very much like an expansion on the original ideas of GH. Expect environmental storytelling, heavy atmosphere and great voice acting - all of this combines to weave the intriguing mystery of an orbital station and its crew of (missing) humans and AI, and all in a natural way. In my eyes, it's the perfect marriage of narrative, story, exploration, and setting.

Wow, what a mesmerizing, sobering trek through American folklore - and a deep one too, at 32hrs. It's really too ambitious a subject, especially for an indie game to tell, and if I have any criticisms it's that some of the mechanics do creak under the strain of trying to fill a game world that spans the entire country (and there's far too much walking). The framerate does get choppy at times, and the whistling minigame is awful. Luckily it's saved by exquisite stories, shared by 16 varied raconteurs around the campfire, plucked out of different times and States. At the beginning of the game, you are cursed to wander the land and gather its stories, and these colourful characters have the best yarns of all.

These stories, slowly drawn out of people as they grow to like and trust you, are at the core of this game, balancing an intimate human encounter against an overhanging theme. The writing in these, along with the smaller tales you pick up on your travels, is well crafted - a mercy in a game with this much text to read. Those smaller tales really deserve a shout out for the way the game lets them evolve over time; you might crack up a crowd with a joke in Miami, and as it spreads, you might show up in El Paso and be told someone else's outrageous and exaggerated version of the same gag. The game tries to hold up a mirror to early American history and after a while you start to see the reflection, to immerse yourself in those lifestyles. Probably the most American game ever made. With a bit more polish, it could have been a classic narrative game.

You're Han Solo as a fox, with the fighting skills of Batman but none of his brains. You are also the hero of a charming children's-book story about a rebel movement, and make the choices that split the rest of the story. Those 2 facts combine to make a game where you screw up and learn from those screw-ups, slowly piecing together enough to make the perfect play in your last tilt at the Empire. It sounds very dramatic, but it's really very cute, and very satisfying. Please, sink an evening into this choose-your-own-adventure game and you won't regret it.