Recent reviews by bawlz

Three chapters in and i'm already doing better than I did in '08. Can't wait to see how I'll f**k everything up! Loved part one and two, and tbh, I was still pretty young when AIM was all the rage; this game hit home a lot harder for me than the others. Why do I do this to myself? Because I'm married with kids, and even the worst parts of youth that I never was part of seems like a wonderful trip down memory lane!

EDIT: None of us deserve Mat. Kid's a f***ing legend and a saint.

Very short casual game. Not very much instruction is given, nor is needed to play it; has puzzle and exploration elements, but they are very easy to figure out. Wonderful visuals and soundtrack. Not much replayability, but I truly enjoyed the game experience. 100% in about 3 hours. Manual saves don't seem to work at all, the game just reloads to the last automatic checkpoint.

Always played original Skyrim because it had more mods available and honestly a crummy PC would still play the game well on low graphics. But having not played it in a few years, and finally having a PC robust enough to handle the graphics, it really is a stunning enhancement to the game, and totally made it seem like a new experience. As always, Elder Scrolls games are certainly large enough to never play the same way twice, some of the dungeons and missions get a little repetitive. Still this game has always been a masterpiece and I refuse to play that piece of crap ESO any longer.

I did get the Special Edition for free from having owned the Dragonborn version of the original game in my steam library. 9/10, never gets old.

One of my all-time favorite strategy games. Incredibly challenging, as is par the course for Paradox games. Amazingly granular in gameplay mechanics, it does take a lot of investment to master control of your systems and stragtegically expand your empire. Over two years later, the developers are still cranking out new and improved content for this game. Its very easy to waste countless hours with this game. Incredibly fun to play with other people too.

Update: the developers really seem to listen to feedback from their users as their latest updates really enhance the playability and keep the game constantly evolving

I absolutely LOVE this game; so much that I have bought it again just to play on my PS4. This is my go-to "chillax" game. It is beautiful in its minimalism, both in terms of graphics and gameplay. The worlds change every 24 hours which keep it fresh, so there's no memorizing flight paths or anything (outside of a single day), and the portal worlds shuffle too. Different modes give it the right amount of challenge or relaxation, depending on your mood. The steam workshop offers some really nice "worlds" to fly in too. Light-weight, it will run on pretty much any pc I have played it on. Even has a VR mode for extra atmosphere.

Don't get me wrong, this game was fun for a bit, but it clearly feels like an expansion, at best. Having about the same amount of replay value (maybe less) as its predecessors, the story is just about as ludicrous as a Saint's Row game always is, but even the story admits that the plot is very loosely tied together and a stretch altogether. It's basically a Metalocalypse-themed SRIV, only you get to play as Kinzie or Johnny Gat; the powers/missions/challenges/bosses/weapons are all pretty much the same, with minor hellish modifications. Got it on sale, and it has the cheap thrills of achievements & trading cards, so again, I'm not knocking the game... I just can't recommend it to others in all honesty. SR3 was the best in my opinion, but I would even recommend SRIV over Gat out of Hell: SRIV had a longer gameplay, and more of a story with characters to follow so I found it much more entertaining. 4/10

Big fan of the whole Sparkle series, scooped this one up with a coupon. Takes about an hour to beat the whole game if you've played Sparkle before--I ended up leaving the game running another hour to harvest the bonus trading cards. It's minimalist on the details and gameplay, but very relaxing for the eyes and ears. This installment does not have the option to customize the evolution of your sparkle's DNA like in Evo and Genisis. 6.5/10

This is truly an incredible sequel to what is one of the best simulators on Steam! This program feels more like sophisticated simulation software than an actual game in functionality, but it's incredibly user-friendly and easy to use; I use this game as a very effective visual aid for tutoring, as well as a time killer. The developers certainly don't skimp on their research, as frequent updates reflect some of the most current events in astronomy: there was a simulation of the New Horizons encounter with Pluto as the real deal was making headlines! Explorative tutorials are informative without spewing a bunch of numbers and facts all at once; yet they provide links for further enrichment, as well as pure number-crunching horsepower for those who are curious and want to tweak the gritty details and properties that bind the universe together. It's Early Access right now, but their bugs at this point are few and very far between. Updates are very frequent, and more often than not they include newly added features and simulations.

The dynamic graphics for complex events such as climate patterns and planetary collisions are getting better and more refined with each update. This program offers an incredible amount of functionality, is visually appealing, and accompanied with a beautifully ambiant soundtrack. I've never been so relaxed breaking gravity and then playing billiards with all of the planets!

This title completely blows its predecessor out of the water! I would highly reccommend for all those casual gamers and science fans out there. More people need to get this title - it has limitless potential for a Steam Workshop feature. For what you get, the game is set at a remarkably reasonable price - definitely worth scooping this one up!

I initially gave this game an unfavorable view, but felt this was unfair because I was 'stuck' at a certain point in the game. I was finally able to overcome my obstacle, and stick with the game until the end (or one of the endings, rather).

This game certainly has its appeal, but not without some drawbacks:

~The game is dated: and I'm not just referring to the graphics. I'll be honest, the biggest headache with this title (and similarly with its prequel) was compatibility issues with Windows 10. I had to wait a few months until another update fixed what the last update broke.
~There's still a few bugs: or at least my copy had em. I was pretty into the story up until the ending, which felt very anticlimactic because it would skip over all of the dialog that was between my choices; it left me with only a very fuzzy idea of how the story ends.
~It has many RPG features that were pretty advanced for its time like item upgrades and breakdown/creation; however the combat style was very clunky, and turn-based feeling, almost like FFX was. It can also get pretty repetitive with the game pausing with every new enemy that enters your line of sight.
~The quest info from your journal entries were sometimes pretty vague, which took me much longer to find out where I needed to go, or objectives I needed to accomplish. Nothing the Internet couldn't fix with no shortage of walkthrough guides, but nonetheless made the game more tedious than fun
~The added achievements are really the only thing that gave the game any replay value. The story was good, but even going back and finishing with the alternate ending seems pretty empty, knowing all the twists and turns that ultimately lie ahead

If you're a Star Wars fan, I would definitely pick this one up for a bargain price, or in a bundle. It's no Skyrim, so exercise patience while playing. 5/10

I was really excited about this game when I first heard of it, but was ultimately deterred from purchasing it because I heard some less-than-excellent feedback about it initially, so I waited for it to go on sale in a Square Enix humble bundle before picking it up. I love story-rich games, but I was pretty unimpressed by this game; I will give it that the concept is a pretty good idea for a game, but I felt the gameplay was way too linear, and it eventually became confusing to the point that my interest in the story quickly faded. It's not horrible, but it did not strike me in any way as memorable, and the only part of owning this game that I am satisfied with is that I only spent about a quarter on it, which went to charity anyway. 4/10 ~ if you are interested, I definitely would NOT pay full price for this one.