Recent reviews by Zebraboy

I am an older (37) player who has been a fan of Dune since a child, being introduced to the world through the Westwood Studios game, Dune II.

I am, primarily, a PvE player in that I play the game for the survival and the story - of which there is a lot. There's a clear love for the lore of Dune in this game and it has been amazingly crafted. Never before in a game have I felt such anxiety at crossing an open expanse of land - seeing the sandworm chasing me down whilst I escape with only mere metres to spare is an insane feeling.

I have never really been one for massive multiplayer games like this, but this game is insanely good. Whilst not perfect, the devs are working hard to balance it. I feel completely immersed in the world of Arrakis and I'm loving the progression, I have joined a guild with some mates - all of whom are infinitely more experienced than I have / were in the beta game before release, so they've just gone miles ahead of me, but they've supported me throughout, which has been amazing. The people I've met in the PvE areas of the game have been nothing but great fun.

The PvP? Not so much. I know I will get 'hate' for saying this, but there is a cohort of people in this game who are crying because Funcom have reduced the PvP areas. Good. The Deep Desert was a 'no go' area for me for a long time, as I was just chased down as a solo player - before getting with my guild - and repeatedly annihilated by groups of eight or more players who were just going around killing solo people for fun. That, to me, is a game ender. The fact that Funcom are addressing this in a positive manner is fantastic, to balance the game towards suiting different people's play styles. I find zero enjoyment in just killing other players 'just because.' Those players, in my eyes, can bugger off to Call of Duty.

If I can offer feedback to the devs, I would say that this game would benefit from MORE PvE with PvP in certain areas - more NPC enemies with more variety to them as, currently, the enemies in this game are a bit of a rinse and repeat kind of affair. More PvE group activities and focus would be amazing, with PvP areas of high risk high reward but localised to certain areas, so those who want that kind of play can get it.

Funcom are going in the right direction with their updates and their removal of full PvP in the Deep Desert. The PvP gang who don't like that they can't just gang up on solo people anymore are finding it a lot harder now they're forced to go against other good PvP players, which I find hilarious. In time, these people will leave the game, and it will be better for it.

Literally, the perfect zombie game.

UPDATED REVIEW SINCE MAJOR GAME UPDATES.

I used to run this on a Ryzen 7 / RTX 2070 Super. I now run on an i9 / RTX 4070.

The optimisation improvements in this game are fantastic, since their first release, I'm hearing from people who haven't since updated their hardware that they are getting much better FPS. I used to rubber band around the place like I was on a bungee cord and my FPS would dip to 1 - 5 at the worst possible moments, I am now pushing 100FPS + regularly on Ultra settings.

The introduction of day / night and weather is brilliant for immersion, but bloody annoying for an old bugger like me who's pushing 40, and that's half the joy of the game - it's a right bugger at times. There's hardly any hand holding in this place and that's fantastic. I do enjoy the slower pace of it compared to other games - I'm not as spritely as I used to be so I can't handle fast paced shooters, this hits the sweet spot of action filled firefights and sneaking around trying not to die.

Since the recent reset, I've really enjoyed getting back into it - the AI have been dialed down a bit on their super sight and abilities, so you can actually get the drop on them now rather than dying suddenly and wondering 'where the flying feck did that shot come from?' - I can actually play this game solo now and only mildly crap my pants rather than just not bother at all.

For an early access game, the devs are really dialled into the community, they're listening and tweaking whilst not bending over backwards. I'm more of a PvE player (again, I'm old, my reactions are shot, so PvP is not for me) and the immersion and difficulty is just spot on, now.

I really look forward to seeing where this game goes.

Fantastic base game with some vast improvements on the original. It is, however, quite basic in its current form and will benefit greatly from updates / mods / DLC in the future, but the potential is there.

Few gripes - the new bus system is a chore, having to place stops and then link them up, with no icon to show where you started the route meaning you have to hunt it down! Also, the base game maps are rather unimaginative and the starting squares are poorly located, meaning you can't really make a realistic city to begin with.

If you play this like CS:1 then you'll end up with huge demand for low density housing constantly - it's all about bringing land value up quickly!

Do you miss the old Rainbow Six or Ghost Recon games before they decided to turn into arcade shooters?

This is for you.

100/10 would smack the living bejeesus out of enemies along to Rick Astley music again.

Quite possibly the best single player level-driven adventure game I've played in freaking YEARS. Great story, amazing voice acting, fantastic graphics, solid game play, purple and orange space llama with floppy hair. What more do you want?

What Frontier managed to do with the Theme Park / Roller Coaster Tycoon genre of games, they've now done with the Zoo Tycoon games.

In depth management, an excellent game mode 'Franchise' where you have to work really damned hard to even get to decent animals, beautiful graphics and animal behaviour, amazing sound design... this game has everything absolutely spot on.

I've spent hours decorating habitats, watching my little animals settling in happily. I've battled against the bank and tried hard to build up 'conservation points' so I could get better animals in my Franchise zoo - where you trade animals online with other players, breed, and work globally to create a franchise of zoos.

You have to look out for diseases, overcrowding, alpha male fights, imbalances with temperature, humidity, plants... the lot. On top of this, the developers have made an educational game where you can learn about the conservation of every animal in the game and, truly, make an immersive and amazing looking zoo right at home.

On launch, this was a highly disappointing game. However, in a rare show of top sportsmanship, the creators took all the feedback on board and just updated and updated the game for bugger all instead of running away with the money. Now? It's an absolute corker.

Dear Lord, the Theme Hospital nostalgia is strong with this one.

The subtle humour is brilliantly done, the hospital radio is fantastic, the sountrack is perfect for the game, the graphics are solid and effortless to look at and don't destroy your PC, the gameplay is solid and easy to learn.

What a game. If you're an old bugger like me, nearing 30, and remember the joys of Theme Hospital, then this game from a bunch of people who worked on TH is perfect for you.

Get it now, seriously. Do it.

I tried this game when it first launched and resolved myself to never touch it again due to the fact that it was pretty damned poor.

However, I have recently had a hankering for some sweet, sweet Elder Scrolls and wanted a new challenge away from Skyrim, so I looked into it and saw that there was a whole host of new content, it had been pretty much renovated from the ground up and that people were rather quite enjoying it. I was looking for some MMORPG to play and didn't really want the cartoony style of WoW and had played the arse out of SWTOR, so I gave this another chance.

Damn, am I glad I did!

The game has so much content, so much to explore, is bloody beautiful and so much fun to play, even just by yourself. Travelling around takes long enough to feel epic but just short enough to get from A to B without getting bored. The amount of quests is unreal and the sheer scale of the places you can go to is fantastic.

I'd highly recommend this to any Elder Scrolls fan, or even anyone who just wants a new MMORPG with a more 'rustic' look to it.