Recent reviews by Cyneric

Huge fan of the original games and wanted to love this one. Unfortunately this title is held back by poor optimisation, a terrible progression system, repetitive travel / lack of a-life system, and a disappointing narrative. Have not been able to will myself to finish it after 50 hours.

I tried very hard to enjoy Lords of the Fallen, incredibly hard. However the game seems almost intentionally designed to be frustrating and painful, much more so than other entries in the souls-like genre.

While the first few areas are good, overwhelming enemy density, poor enemy variety, irritating traps, and poor difficulty scaling make the last few areas a chore to complete.

Purchased this game at 50% off, however I regret purchasing it at any less than 80% off

Continued development decisions to overbalance the game and take away fun options for players absolutely baffles me in the context of a PvE experience. The devs, according to their own justification with the recent breaker incendiary nerf, base their decisions on the popularity of different weapons, meaning the most fun options will be brought down for the crime of being used. The game continues to deteriorate and will do until the devs focus on fun over balance, in again, a PvE game.

TL;DR: Skip all cutscenes in the campaign, and there's a really good game underneath.

While I can understand many people being upset regarding the plot of HW3's main campaign (it's admittedly terrible), there is some genuinely wonderful gameplay underneath.

War Games is some of the most fun I've had in an RTS in a very long time, with incredible replayability and dynamic gameplay. With more factions, maps and other content coming, I think it's the primary selling point for the game.

Skirmish mode is fun, if limited in scope right now, and the gameplay of the campaign is good even if the framing around it isn't.

Pick it up on sale, play Wargames, have fun.

As a huge fan of the first game with some ~500 hours on it across PC and console, I was hugely anticipating the release of the sequel.

Suffice to say I was disappointed.

Without talking too much about the performance (shocking on release), the game-play and overall format of the game is the mildest improvement over the first game, while the story is significantly worse.

The world is far too large for the tiny variety of enemies. Within the first 2 hours of playing the game, you'll have fought all basic enemies (Harpies, goblins, saurians, humans, wolves) and within 10 hours you'll have fought all world bosses outside of a few unique ones. For a game that took me some 50 hours to beat aiming for about 80-90% completion, this is pitifully repetitive. Not all games can have Elden Ring levels of content, but this is just disappointing.

The narrative of the first game was simple, campy and straightforward. It was ridiculous, and often hard to tell whether it was taking itself sincerely or not. Dragon's Dogma 2 takes itself very seriously while telling a ridiculous story, with a narrative that meanders, completely abandons several characters, and is full of plot holes.

The fight with the Dragon, the peak of the first game and one of my most memorable experiences in gaming, is a complete let down in the sequel. Nobody in the game's world seems to care whatsoever that the dragon has come, and so why should I care at all? The overall vibe of the final confrontation of the Dragon is 'lets get this over with because we have to' (said almost word-for-word by the dragon) with none of the lead up or gravitas the first game had. The secret ending only serves to constantly reinforce how pointless the story of the game is.

While I enjoyed the first ~30 hours of playing the game, I spent the last 20 hours being disappointing and waiting for it to be over, and I can't in good faith recommend a game like that to anyone with a $110 AUD pricetag.

The Launch of Immortal Empires is the most ambitious project that I've ever seen in the strategy genre. The combination of content from three separate games into one final product is frankly incredible, and I've had a glitch-free incredible experience in 100 hours so far. I can see myself easily putting hundreds of more hours into this product with the ridiculous amount of replay value on offer. It's a hard sell having to buy three separate games for IE, especially once DLC becomes involved, but for me at least it has been well worth it (still buy on sale).

Absolutely great to have a VR game that is a finished, polished product that's a great experience. Incredibly immersive and atmospheric, and it feels amazing just to make your way through the game world. Gunplay is satisfying and responsive, with reasonably good sound effects.

This game is an absolute must-buy for any Stalker or Metro fans, and is one of the few AAA-feeling game experiences you can get for VR at the moment.

Great game. Improved massively since the beta. Feels like AoE2 for a new generation

Unfinished. Unpolished. Hollow and shallow. Such a huge shame after Warband was such a fantastic game. The battles are improved, but nothing else that surrounds the battles and gives them meaning matters. Not worth playing in its current state, maybe never.

If you own VR. This game is a must play