Recent reviews by Rushyo

Requires always online DRM, then they just shut down the servers one day.

I mean, it's not playable right now, so hard to recommend it. Might be playable later, who knows! So glad it's a "live service"!

If only Microsoft were aware their Azure servers were constantly going down with MSFS and could've possible foreseen this... and if only Azure's main marketing point was that it could scale to meet demand... if only!

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Update 16th Dec 2024:

Still unplayable. Only managed to complete a single flight without a CTD. No such issues with MSFS 2020.

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Update 9th March 2025:

Still unplayable, even after they've released SU1. 3 months of crash fixes and they still haven't gotten around to mine. Every other program works fine and half the components in the PC have been swapped out since. Passes all stress tests. Just this stupid game doesn't work.

Was expecting a Fights in Tight Spaces-like tactical puzzle experience and got a really neat story, fun characters, and a cat. And a Fights In Tight Spaces-like tactical puzzle experience.

Eco is an enjoyable experience with friends. I can't comment on single player or public multiplayer servers particularly; but with friends it's a nice world-building experience.

While the public multiplayer game focuses heavily on politics and trade, a private lobby game offers a much more relaxed experience with players cooperatively working towards their own goals with an eye on the wider objective. I'd like to see a more long-term objective (maybe something involving surviving occasional ongoing disasters rather than one definitive event) that would allow for a permanent server. The devs have said a new objective is on the roadmap, so fingers crossed.

Fundamentally the game focuses on building sustainable settlements with somewhat grindy but relaxing gameplay that benefits hugely from cooperation. It has the usual survival flow of hunting, crafting, mining, etc but the inability of a single player to do everything leads to a more memorable and enjoyable experience as you naturally specialise in different roles.

I'm looking forward to the new Adobes in Update 11 to deal with the game's early Hewn Logs obsession. I'm also kinda looking forward to the marketplace; I've been wondering for a while how the game would sustain itself after so many years from its initial funding - a simple cosmetic store seems a safe move in the right direction.

Sky: Children of the Light is a beautiful free game with a big heart. It embodies the sense of emotional journey that I can most accurately describe as akin to a Studio Ghibli film.

It's a game best gone in to cold, wearing your best headphones, seclude from the world for hours, armed with a warm beverage and maybe even a crackling fire.

There's something truly special to be had even if you forego the 'MMO' parts of this game entirely, and you will genuinely enjoy yourself for no money. I've always had a soft spot for Flower and, really, I've encountered a dearth of games that could really capture that same feeling. It makes sense that it would be rekindled by thatgamecompany.

I held off reviewing Kerbal Space Program 2 because ultimately whether it was worth the price came down to whether Take Two Interactive/Private Division actually delivered on the promised game instead of abandoning it in Early Access.

For what it is KSP 2 in its current (probably, final) state is inferior to KSP 1 in almost every significant way. I had given it a lot of slack 'early on' because I saw KSP 2 as a fresh, new platform that needed time and effort to catch up with KSP 1's feature set.

It's become clear now that there was no corporate appetite to take that approach at all. KSP 2 is basically just KSP 1 under the hood, wobbly rockets and all, not the fresh platform that would have facilitated the new features promised. It feels like nobody involved in the project above engineering level has the faintest clue what KSP 1 and how a sequel to it should have been made, yet it's obviously been crushed by management and publisher interference.

There's still some good experiences to be had with KSP 2, but it's not a full price game which is what Take Two/Private Division sold it as before pulling the rug. It's simply not competitive with KSP 1 which, with mods, will offer a better experience all around, so save your cash and pick that up for much less.

And let's never buy a Take Two Early Access game again.

It's the standard VR runtime - it does what it needs to and is partly responsible for keeping VR from just being stuck in walled gardens so, nice one. R8 8/8.

What a brilliant little game. A novel concept implemented with smart mechanics, polished and pretty with an understated graphical style and careful directorship reminiscent of some of the more beloved adventure games of yesteryear.

Similar to Portal in the sense of hitting it right out of the park first time with a new mechanic and world.

Also you can pet the cat.

The quintessential American naval carrier multi-role attack fighter, the F/A18C Hornet is an easy recommendation as a first DCS DLC and is many pilot's 'default' option. High simulation fidelity combined with wide mission capability, digital assistance, and the ability to use just about every weapon system in the US Navy arsenal makes this a great all-rounder for someone looking to get to DCS 'proper' or just fill out their roster with something more flexible than their current specialist platform. Works best combined with the Supercarrier DLC, although it also supports carriers without the DLC and can be used from 'shore' aerodromes as well. The Hornet has received updates steadily since release and is much more capable than it was originally, meaning at this point it is extremely well-endowed with a range of features and systems.

Book of Hours is hard to place. Described officially as a 'digital board game', it's somewhere between a management game, RPG, and/or a puzzle game. As with its predecessor, Cultist Simulator, the main focus is on the process of discovery, learning how to master the games many magical and mundane systems. Unlike Cultist Simulator, however, BoH is not an extremely difficult game. In fact, quite the opposite. I'm not yet sure if it's even possible to fail, after 27 hours of play. Given how long the game sessions are though, the capacity to save and load is welcome.

Instead of a race to gain power before Fascination or Dread take you, BoH is underpinned by a vast tapestry of rooms, skills, elements, liquids, materials, woods, teas, crumpets, instruments, assistants, shrines, desks, Dogs, Cats, and, of course, books, and many more facets, all interlinked in initially opaque ways.

At first everything seems impossibly complex and daunting, but the tutorial of the game does a good job setting you up for some degree of early success. There's a small learning hump, but nothing compared to the initial release of Cultist Simulator. I mentioned this game is part RPG. While your character does gain skills (and very many of them!) true progress in the game comes from gaining an understanding of the many, many tools at your disposal throughout the library and the town. You play as a librarian and as your understanding grows so does the librarians. If you cease to study the various facets of the game properly, the librarian's growth slows. As you gain a greater understanding, so to does the librarian's increase. It's a nice method that really makes you feel like a lonely soul alone with their books, gaining knowledge and through it power. The process of unlearning old ways of doing things to alchemically experiment with new approaches is at the heart of Book of Hours, and 27 hours in I'm still constantly discovering new ways to use the tools in the game to create new recipes in new ways to accomplish new goals.

The nature of the game is one of 'just one more day', with so many tasks to be completed, yet sometimes I have spent in-game days simply experimenting with the options available. There are minimal time-pressures, none terminal, which gives Book of Hours a driven yet relaxing pace that can be played in binge sessions or dropped in to at will. You can neglect the tasks you don't want to pursue in favour of the ones you are most enamoured with at any given moment, or you can try to optimise all your activities in to the day. The game doesn't punish you for either, so a session is really what you make of it. Even moving books and ingredients around is a highly constructive activity if you don't fancy doing anything taxing.

The game's graphics are easily teased from the screenshots on the Steam page, so I won't patronise you with my opinion, but I will note that the music is excellent and a cut above even the excellent music of Cultist Simulator. The game runs well for me with no hiccups.

The potential for DLC for BoH is endless and I look forward to seeing what Weather Factory come up with. But even more so, I look forward to the rest of my play session. There's so many things to be discovered and mastered that I have barely touched the surface of.