Recent reviews by stylo

BUY ULTIMATE EDITION BEFORE IT'S DELISTED DEC 2024

Not a good arcade racing game or sim (lol). As a way to take enthusiast cars, make them beautiful, and take pictures of them against stunning backdrops, it's brilliant. Beautiful graphics and optimized really well for my hardware as well. Photo mode is amazing. The variety of vehicles is crazy: everyone from JDM people to rally fans to GT3 to supercars to Dakar buggies to pickup bros will feel at home. Impressive level of tuning, cosmetic customizations are generally really good (could use more variety of aftermarket parts besides rims). Tons of personality and really good pacing for how the sidequests are metered out, the game unlocks are never too far ahead of your progress. The game anticipates almost every nitpick and provides an in-game solution - extremely polished. An amazingly feel-good type of game that just exudes joy, with no fail states, just pure goofing around. The only real knock on it is that head-to-head online connectivity is terrible, so the online PvP challenges are basically uncompleteable. But at this stage, who cares really.

actually makes me laugh :)

Gut it out through the twee intro and find yourself introduced to a cold universe of boundless horror, dead-eyed science, the ruins of the past, and so, so many ways to die. Oh, and you get to play detective. And the space physics feels very authentic. And you'll feel very alone, until you're not. One of the Games Of All Time Of 2019.

peak dumb guy game

first playthrough: 11 hours
golden pot: 34 hours
current PB: 7m14s

game of the year

TL;DR Everybody should play ZeroRanger. Tell all your friends to play ZeroRanger

I would definitely recommend this to beginners to the shoot-'em-up genre ("shmups/STGs")- not because it's easy (it's not, although it's pretty generous with continues and extends) but because it's very well made, beautiful production values, and will introduce you to many game mechanics inspired by other classic STGs. Many shmups dispense with narrative and visual 'beauty' to enhance arcade gameplay and legibility of objects on the screen, but ZeroRanger mostly succeeds at doing both. If you're into retro games, you'll love the art style and gameplay. If you're just into fast-paced action, this has that. Tons of anime references that aren't obvious. Most of the bosses & attacks are references to other STG. You can tell a lot of inspiration is taken from Evangelion, Radiant Silvergun, R-Type, Luftrausers, etc. A lot of thought put into how all these different ideas will work in the context of a single game. Definitely worth working towards a 1CC.

It takes a while to reach the end of this particular cow chase, but eventually you reach the point that you're satisfied you "get" the gameplay loop, and at that point you can drop the game forever. To Hades' credit, it refreshes its welcome longer than the typical randomly-generated-dungeons crawler with some inventive longer-form mechanics (persistent weapon unlocks, relationships unlocking more lore and dialogue, aesthetic changes to the Palace, beautiful art, deepening family drama etc) but like all dungeon-crawlers, you eventually reach the point that you get it, and you loathe the idea of doing another run to unlock one more thing. or not! depends how much you like the genre. I think of this as essentially a very fancy Skinner box dressed up as art, but that makes it better than most roguelikes which are very ugly Skinner boxes dressed up as nothing.

FYI, the "true ending" is not what you think when you begin the game. Once you've done what it asks you to do 10 times, you can get the "true ending". That requires more patience than I had at the time. Like a carnival game milks you of money in promise of a big prize, Hades milks you of your time, which when you think about it is the one true currency you have in life. It might also give you RSI in your hands.

Worth a play anyway just to experience.

Are there any other options for cricket video games? Not really.
Can you have a lot of fun with this game? Yes, if you don't mind:
1. Putting 1-10 hours into learning the Classic Pro controls via Youtube
2. Tuning your gameplay settings (sliders) for max realism. Takes some experimenting and Youtube.

- AI Run Rate is a very important one - try 20 for Test matches, 40 for ODIs, 40-50 for T20. This cures the 'over-aggressive AI' problem. (Edit: As of June 2022 you should probably leave this at 40-50 for all formats)
- Tightening up the input timing for batting makes the game more challenging, but also increases immersion as your player moves exactly when you do. If you play unrealistic cricket shots, they will get you out.
- Pace Bowling/Spin Bowling Visual Speed at 70-80 is very important for having the ball arrive at the crease at a realistic time. The defaults are way too slow and make timing unnecessarily hard.
- Resolution scaling allows for smooth gameplay even on lower-spec systems.
- Decent set of community creation tools and players have created a lot of the actual teams, stadiums etc which are must-downloads.

Older reviews mention many bugs which have since been fixed. There are still some problems (e.g. AI fielding is bush league, can't effectively field as a bowler, poor commentary, unfinished feeling cutscenes/training/etc) but the core gameplay is quite compelling for fans of the sport. Bowling is especially good with the right settings. Hoping the game continues to improve.

EDIT: In June 2022 they have continually patched the AI fielding and the on-field product has definitely improved. Sliders are also closer to 'correct' by default.

Despite being an F2P multiplayer shooter, this is the most Halo-feeling game since Halo 2. There's a lot of maps that are taken from Reach or Unreal, but with the heightened movement speed and lowered time to kill, this feels like a true heir to the old-school arena shooters. No it doesn't have bhopping, but with the portal mechanics, there's a real potential depth and skill ceiling to master. It feels like they took Halo's inspiration and learned the lessons of modern shooters like Titanfall, Apex Legends, even Fortnite (compare portal mechanic to building mechanic - escape tools that are also offensive weapons). What you have is a game where aim really really matters, but so does teamplay, craftiness, positioning/movement, and the classic team FPS skills.

Weapon design feels like the opposite of modern Halo philosophy where they've made the powerful guns weaker over time for 'balance'. These weapons all feel extremely strong (with few exceptions). The weapon sandbox feels like Halo CE - limited, but each weapon having its purpose. Weapons include:
- a three-shot-kill DMR (cf. Halo CE pistol)
- Scoped AR (cf. Halo 4)
- Spartan Laser clone
- Battle Rifle (cf. Halo 4)
- Baseball bat (sort of a Gravity Hammer clone)
- VERY powerful shotgun (even moreso than Halo CE)
- Plasma gun (cf. Quake 3 Arena)
- Sniper (fires fast, similar to Halo CE)

I wouldn't try to grind matchmaking but that's just me. Splitgate has pretty much every custom game I remember from classic Halo 2/3 days, some even from Call of Duty ("One in the Chamber"). And you have the classic Halo "How the hell did I just die!?" laugh out loud moments, except plus portals.

I played 5 hours of custom games with friends tonight, first time touching the game. I haven't done that since Halo 2. I even bought the battle pass to support the devs. If they iron out the bugs and up the polish, this could be a modern classic. If you can get a gang of friends together to all play this game, highly recommend.

If you try the game out, use this referral code for free splitcoin: Z8FBYG

Kentucky Route Zero is absolutely brimming with ideas: about art, industrial capitalism, social decay, the South, death, the ties that bind us, and more. This is the most big-brained that games have ever gotten, and as far as that tired old debate "are games art," all I can say is: this is what art is supposed to do. Make you think, really think.

Don't play it if you don't like to think. Play it with a loved one, and talk about it.