Recent reviews by Nomcuppycake

As an avid Cozy Gamer, this game immediately pulled me in with both name and design alone. Cooking game where you just drive around at your own pace serving bowls of fruit to people? ♥♥♥♥ yea.

So of course, I have a bit of high expectations and I'd say the game almost met them. I definitely recommend the game to folks (i have NOT tried it on my Steam Deck yet so this review is purely from the scope of PC gameplay) but with a few caveats:

First, if you get extremely motion sick like I do, you will need to play this game in short stints. I'm not entirely sure why this game gets me so bad, but after 2 hours or so i was feeling pretty ill and needed to take a short break. Generally this is a instant Do Not Recommend for me but the story and the gameplay shine through enough that i could fight through. I have a guess it may potentially be FPS related as the characters in the game move rather robotically, so i'll be running with an FPS counter next time i boot the game up. UPDATE: Seems the FPS is running a steady 60-70, so really unsure what causes this.

Second, the gameplay loop in the beginning is VERY basic. From the achievement list and screenshots i can tell there is much much more to be added to the bus, but if you're someone like me who prefers to do everything in an area you can before moving to the next, you'll be stuck serving bowls and smoothies for the first few hours.

With all that being said though, the game is extremely fun and accomplishes what it sets out to do: Give you a little adventure on some islands serving fruit to a bunch of Animal Crossing esque homies while having a small background story about dealing with the loss of a loved one. I actually just very recently lost a colleague i worked closely with for over 8 years and the themes and story of the game really resonated with me there, and i think helped me deal with that passing even in a small way.

Lastly, i did want to include a small list of complaints that I don't think are important enough to take away from the quality of the game (hell, they may even be fixed further in the games length) but wanted to list on the off chance the devs may see this:

1) Fruit storage is a pain. I'm a weirdo who prefers to keep all the fruit ingredients in separate bins, but im quickly discovering that is not feasible and there doesn't seem to be a fruit storage similar to the Flatpack storage you get from a quest. Unsure if this is added later, but it would be a HUGE QOL improvement.

2) Shelves don't seem to have any sort of snapping system in place. I like to keep Jerry cans in the back so i don't need to take as many gas trips, but putting them properly on a shelf is a huge pain. It'd be nice to see a snapping feature for large items like Jerry cans, or perhaps a storage shelf specifically for large stuff like that.

3) The bonus money you get for a recipe somewhat make sense but seem to be unclear, unless I didn't read the tutorial well enough. For example, when 2 ingredients are highlighted i know this means "they go well together" but there are also situations where a single ingredient is highlighted multiple times. My assumption is "this thing gets bonus for being in this type of food" but then what do the multiple colors mean?

4) As with what others have said, the flashback food should be a bit more apparent. I think having a dedicated section of the tutorial unlock when you happen to hit the quest in question would help a bunch. My gut assumption when the food said "Taste" was that i'd eat it, so i never tasted it if i was making it for a customer, lol. Turns out, it doesn't consume the food. This was actually fixed in a recent patch. Thanks for listening devs!!

5) having fruit bins below shelving is practically pointless as you can only get maybe 2 fruit or so in there before they start bouncing out when you chuck em from your backpack.

Honestly, it isn't a poorly made game, and the story is gross (in a good way) but isn't self indulgent like a lot of other games of this kind (think things like Hatred or Postal). It tells a story of a serial killer who is sacrificing people to a god that may or may not exist. It is told in short snippets between puzzles and never puts itself in a scenario where you're ever "rooting", so to speak, for the main character.

However, I just honestly think the puzzles are okay. Maybe it didn't really jive for me, but I found the back and forth between balancing your sus meter, decoding who to abduct, and the mini "quiz" of sorts at the end to be not an entirely satisfying loop. There were situations where I'd figure out who to abduct but then fail the actual little quiz at the end because I missed a small key detail somewhere (note that a limited amount of hours for each puzzle means a little bit of it is left to luck choosing the right box). Obviously a bit of a skill issue in ways, but there were definitely situations where I was seemingly correct but still lost a strike anyway (i.e. in Year 7 you were tasked with finding someone w/ a second job. I was able to choose who i believe was correct, but when I'd make the choice where they live alone, it'd always be wrong even though there were no open sections on the person's schedule when they weren't working that weren't marked "alone".)

I also think for 15 dollars I would like just a little bit more polish around what does exist, because I think the very boxy presentation makes the game feel a bit more like a 2000s era flash game than something released in 2024.

All in all, I don't really think I can recommend this at the price its at, but if you are able to pick it up for a small discount and want a pretty uncomfortable and unforgiving puzzler with themes not often explored in this sort of genre then I'd give it a go.

Was told if I don't buy this Bungie will lay off more employees.

So i want to split this review into two parts: Overall game quality and "fun" quality.

The game is very much everything you've played in a Bethesda game. It truly feels like "Fallout 4 in space" with better combat. I was eagerly awaiting this game, seeing the videos and screenshots and hoping for a different experience than what we had gotten so many times before, but it really is just the same thing. Combat is better, but it follows the same loop as always (that being get the strongest weapon relative to the build you have, shoot everyone, pop a medpack when your HP is low, and then loot.)
Exploration has been improved in some ways, but made drastically worse in others. As an example, you can now explore tons and tons of planets, but the buildings, creatures, and enemies you encounter on these planets are the same small handful of things. I did a few bounty missions to hunt Spacers for the Freestar rangers and all 4 of the planets i visited had the literal EXACT SAME building on them, down to wear the loot was. By the fourth building, i was clearing and looting everything within minutes because i knew exactly where enemies spawned, exactly where the loot i was interested in spawned, etc.
As for the story and NPC interactions, they are exactly what you expect from a Bethesda game: People that feel like animatronic dummies in a theme park experience where the choices you make are very rigid and not very interesting. There are two quest examples (without spoiling too much) I can give here, but if you'd like to avoid spoilers, move to the start of the next paragraph: The first quest is one where a wife who is working on experimental crops to feed people is arguing with her husband who is spending his free time making beer to sell rather than work on this experimental crop. The two story choices you are given here is to either sabotage the husbands beer so people stop buying it, he goes out of business, and he focuses on the wife's stuff. The second choice is to do nothing to the beer (or make a change that does nothing to it) tell him about his wife hiring you. Thats it. There is no logical option of "try and get a grown adult to focus on two things at once", just scorched earth one or the other. The second quest example is one where a group of settlers who are 200 years or so late to a planet (because they used old tech 200 years ago) find a company running a resort there. Your options are Get the Settlers to settle in the resort, literally becoming indentured servants OR Pay 40k(25k w/ hard persuasion) to install a grav drive and they find a new planet OR literally blow up the settlers ship for the company. Why in gods name is there no other option here to just... work it out between them? The characters even mention a possible option of them settling on the other side of the planet, but both parties say "ah that will only work short term!" even though short term is much better than literally exploding a ship or spending a large chunk of change to help these settlers that your character has 0 attachment to (I went with the 25K option since im not one to explode a ship or force people into slavery)

Overall, the game is acceptable. What is here is surprisingly polished in terms of how well it works together for a Bethesda game, and even though the choices are lacking and the character interactions aren't that great, it is still a Bethesda game. It very much feels like taking a trip to Disney World after being there a few times before: You know what to expect. You know you're gonna ride your favorite ride and eat the Mickey Pretzel.

But fun wise, for me it just isn't there. Someone who isn't yet sick of the Bethesda formula would enjoy it, or if you've somehow never played a Bethesda title this one is definitely up there in terms of quality but after having visited Bethesdaland for multiple entries now the same old thing just doesn't have the appeal it used to have.

Also as a last note, everything ship/space related here is painfully ok. You can make some cool ♥♥♥♥ in the builder, but you can't really rotate ship parts well aside from a build in "flip" option, so it makes ship creation feel very on rails. Some parts (like 90% of ship cargo holds) can only be placed horizontally, not vertically, for example. I've honestly had more creative fun in Kingdom Hearts 2 gummi ship builder than Starfield's builder. The combat is also just... ok. Not bad, but ok. If you're an Elite Dangerous vet like I am, you will get bored with Starfield combat quickly.

TL;DR: If you're not yet sick of the Bethesda formula or if you've yet to get your feet wet on a Bethesda game, this is a must buy. However, if you're even slightly bored of the Bethesda game formula, wait until this is on sale or Todd Howard releases the inevitable Starfield GOTYOAY edition that has all the DLC and junk in it.

Very fun game, mix of card battler and take turn combat. I'm unfamiliar with the devs previous XCOM games, so i'm not sure how well this one stacks up, but it has been a really fun ride the entire way through. I did discount it at the beginning a bit because the story and dialogue is extremely cheesy, but once you come to understand "Wait, this is a game based off comic books, which are generally a mix of funny, serious, and extreme cheese" you'll enjoy it much much more story wise.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the depth of the character customization. Some of the suits are.... not good, but your OC character has a pretty wide selection of customization options that allow you to make (within reason) pretty much any arctype of super hero/anti hero you'd like.

If i had to be critical to the game, I would say the previously mentioned customization options do take a bit of time to really start unlocking, but most are gathered through exploring the Abbey (hub zone for the game), which can be done more or less at your own pace. So if you'd like to spend a good chunk of time hyperfocusing exploring for customization, you can.

All in all I'm not disappointed in the game at all and would recommend it if any of the previously mention stuff tickles your fancy. Just be prepared for a whole hell of a lot of cheese and a slightly more difficult game (though the lower difficulties are rather forgiving).

Very fun game. Barring launch title issues, I can definitely see this game lasting a while if the devs keep putting their time and energy into it, which it seems like they will. Game plays like a nice hectic mix of Gears of War with Destiny style loot, a crafting system that is pretty robust (you can essentially make any armor or weapon you want, within reason), and fast paced abilities like Warframe.

The skill tree is decently fleshed out, and though it isn't anywhere near something like Path of Exile, there are at least 3 "core" builds for each of the four classes, along with you being able to spec into multiple "trees".

My only main complaint so far is there does not seem to be any visual customization ala something like WoW Transmog, though the ability to craft most any ability onto a piece of armor at least means you can try and farm for that specific piece with the base stats you want.

I also think the users saying the story is hot garbage are also just the people holding "B" through every cutscene. The story isn't amazing, but it is pretty standard shooter fare, so I don't think it is quite fair to have "average story" as a negative point to the game when shooters have never really had amazing storyline. The story kept me engaged enough to want to know what happens at the end, even if the payoff wasn't as great as I wish it was.

All in all, great game. Definitely worth the asking price, especially if you get it for 10-20% off on various non-grey market key sites or if you own an Xbox, it is also available (as of writing this review) on GamePass there.

Finding words to describe this "game" is very difficult. The gut response for a lot of people is "30 dollars? For a guided meditation program?" but let me tell you why I believe this software is worth the 30$ asking price.

I've always been curious about meditation, and have attempted it quite a lot for the last few years. The main thing I struggle with is trying to "clear my mind", especially as a person who suffers from ADHD and Anxiety. However, within my first session of SoundSelf, I left the 15 minute experience more relaxed than I have been in months (especially considering the current pandemic!) and i've only gotten more relaxed with each session as I've gotten better at everything. The software does a very good job at explaining how everything works, but also quickly releases you to do your own thing shortly before the session begins.

Now I cannot speak for how well the program works without VR, but I can confidently say that having the headset on and giving yourself your own "headspace", especially if you live in a smaller apartment like I do, definitely helps the experience.

If I did have to make one complaint, I will say that the game is currently experiencing issues regarding getting sound to work through SOME wireless headsets. However, not only have I found a workaround for this that is very easy to do (and I will put this below), but the developers are currently working on a fix and are VERY active within their discord to discuss issues. They are obviously very dedicated to this project so I have no doubt the software will not only improve with age, but with have any issues ironed out pretty quickly.

All in all, I recommend this software if you're looking for something to help you relax, especially during these extremely stressful times. Plus, for a VR software, 30 dollars really isn't all that high. I've definitely purchased other VR experiences that are not only less enjoyable but less helpful to my overall mental health for 30+ dollars.

Audio fix details:
1) In the SteamVR settings, set your audio device to "headset" if you're using a headset with onboard audio devices OR a wired audio device plugged into the 3.5 mm jack on your PC
2) Turn "audio mirroring" on and set the mirror to your preferred headset of choice
3) Start the game. You should now be working fine, and you can change the microphone via the arrows on the screen to your preferred microphone (you may also use the HTC VIVE microphone, but I found it slightly unreliable for this experience.)

A solid action rpg dungeon crawler. With the rotating leagues and their special mechanics (3 month long sprints where GGG introduces new mechanics, buffs/nerfs, and sometimes entire system overhauls), the game is constantly fresh.

The only real downside is the game is extremely complicated, and very unforgiving if you mess up your character, as the "respec" system in this game takes the form of a rare currency, though you do get ~15-20 free point refunds. If you have the time to learn its intricacies though, it is extremely rewarding!

Another small note for leagues: Each League can be VERY different in terms of quality, so taking multi-month breaks is pretty common. However, this is both a pro and a con, as the breaks generally stop myself from getting too burned out, but also mean the game isn't very fun for a bit.

Overall, I'd give the game a solid recommendation, but just expect to follow a build for your first few characters!

Coming from someone who personally hates visual novels, this game is absolutely phenomenal. Although it seems some of the twists can be figured out early , even when you think you know the answer the build up to that answer is really what makes the game great. Even the first case (don't worry, no spoilers here) threw me for a loop and I think really set up the rest of the game. The design of the game as well, which is extremely important to a visual novel, is beatufilly designed. The graphics themselves arent super amazing in a "state of the art" kind of way, but they way it is drawn and designed really brings a unique feel to the game and some cutscenes really just keep your grey matter spinning. Definitely worth 30$, and even moreso if you can get it on a sale.

Don't look up anything about this game. Just buy it. ITs 5$. Its a few hours long or so and throws you for a loop a few times. It isn't amazing, but its a pretty hilarious experience for 5 bucks. Better than a burger at McDonalds and causes way less bowel movements.