Recent reviews by Tranq

Dead by Shart-light. Skip.

Only played Franchise and Face of the Franchise for a while. This has the same bugs as Madden 21 + a few extras. Didn't finish Face of the Franchise mode because it defaulted my name to "John Madden" directly after I made my character. This happened in 21, except my created dude was named "College Player" until I made it to the NFL.

Oh. Last-gen graphics, too. No noticeable changes in any aspect aside from a slightly-altered UI.

I absolutely love it. I love it like a newborn puppy. You get over the shock and responsibility of owning a pet. There's a little "honeymoon" period where you forgive it for chewing on wires and defecating in your bed for the 6th or 7th time. He's just a cold lil fella. A sweet little messy bean who steals your food. But man, does it irritate me.

This is a rough EA game to play. Not necessarily buggy, but the basic gameplay loop needs some serious tweaking in upcoming patches. The 4 campaigns so far have had their merits and I've enjoyed the variety of enemies to an extent, but there's just so many times I can look at the same (admittedly, well-designed) maps each time per campaign. The prison block feels like you're fighting through an entire prison cell by identical cell, for example. Enemies start resurfacing in later campaigns and they're a welcome sight depending on how well you can collect and play the right cards to kite mobs of angry faceless people in circles, but they re-appear juiced to the gills. There's a constant powercreep to fuel the roguelike experience Ground Shatter's aiming to replicate, but you're only ever as strong as the next few cards you can pull.

I want to like this game more, and I feel that some simple quality-of-life tweaks to the economy would go a long way. The animations are a joy to watch, and there's a certain sense of satisfaction when your accumulated cards all fall into place at once and you rip off a solid 5 or 6 move combo. That being said...forcing me to start over and punch the same three geeks in the same tattoo parlor after a series of bad draws when I've been drawing and upgrading new cards for three campaigns straight without so much as a nod, cash bump or freebie card? Torturous. I get that game design like this is the double-edged nature of the roguelike, but other games are able to start you from a place of power through strong item drops or built-in easy routes that can get you re-energized and ready for another big run. I haven't felt that yet in FiTS.

Still, this was everything I asked for when I first played the demo. I wouldn't have 30 hours of failed runs sunk into this game if I didn't enjoy the gameplay loop. I hope you continue to develop and tweak FiTS into the polished diamond of a deckbuilding roguelike it deserves to be.

Cohen Brothers by way of Ron Howard with a fat slice of Americana pie in the story line and at least two conversations that yanked some good tears out of me. Decent way to spend 90 minutes.

The game feels like listening to "Cover Me Up" by Jason Isbell in an empty house as a 60+ year old man with no wife to talk to and a child that won't answer your calls until...something. But anyway

It's Koi-Koi on the computer. Pretty much a "no frills" game. Disappointing that the DLC for 3 handed play is $5. The timer in multiplayer is a nice touch, but people don't use multiplayer mode too often in this. You're essentially paying $10 for a game that has dozens of free phone app adaptations. My computer's faster than my phone, so I don't really mind. You can play Koi-Koi in virtually every Yakuza installment as a mini-game. The hours I spent playing this helped me mop up prizes in that series.

PROS: Koi-Koi
CONS: $9.99 USD go brrrr
SCORE: Koi-Koi/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwg2Hpf4ta8