Recent reviews by Virus9

Saints Row: Gat out of Hell is the weakest addition to the series. Where 2 had the story, 3 had the polish and 4 had over the top super powers; Gat out of Hell doesn't do any of these well (it has the super powers from 4 but I wasn't a big fan of them in that game either).

The "story" missions are just normal diversions strung together with very little interaction with the characters you are teaming up with. No customisation for Gat or Kinzie, and you don't even get to play the boss (who you might not recognise as the game can't read the format of the save files from SR4). It feels like a demo of what the next SR game could have been (the Saints, unsurprisingly, going to hell).

Overall I'd give it a miss unless you really need another Saints Row fix.

The societies don't add much fun to the game. It feels they add a lot of events and gold sinks that don't really amount to much (having said that, if you get lucky, you can end up with a large amount of stat and trait boosts). Unless you want to play as a demon worshipper, I'd give this a pass.

There are also a few "quality of life" improvements that should have been part of the free patch and not held to ransom behind a DLC pay wall e.g. commanding allies in war and mass prisoner actions.

I was one of the people to can Total War: Rome 2 when it first came out (mosh pit battles at Benny Hill speeds). Rome: Total War was the first Total War game I played and I look back on it with rose tinted glasses. I played many hours on vanilla and many more with the Europa Barbarorum mod. Having said that, while I think no Total War has managed to improve upon the real time battle mechanics, the turn based map mechanics have seen much improvement.

The Emperor Edition is, more or less, where I think the game should have been when it was originally released. Vanilla was enjoyable enough that I don't think I'd go back to play the original Rome, which is most certainly showing its age. However, the vast majority of the time I have played Rome 2 was with mods; specifically Divide et Impera. This mod (with some crazy unit names) aims for historical accuracy that doesn't negatively impact game play. Although it does slow down the battles and might make them feel "sluggish".

In short; I, a Rome veteran, think Rome 2 is a good game that has been turned into gold by the well made mods the community offers. I'd certainly recommend this to my friends.

Edit: With all the negative reviews rolling in Sep 2018, I'd like to add that I don't think the Total War games have ever been "historically accurate" and more of a "historically themed fantasy". If I remember correctly; Rome 1 had flaming pigs, Amazon charioteers from the northern steppes, and the enormous Yubtesb elephants that occasionally spawned in rebel armies.

I have a weakness for all things cyberpunk, but this game suprised me. The world is rather open, with side quests and loot to find. The combat worked well, I didn't find the guns very useful and after getting some cyberupgrades melee seemed to be the way to go. The game took me about 10 hours to complete but I was quite thorough in exploring, the game would probably be a lot shorter if you rushed through the main story.

I have recomended this game to my friends.

I had no problems with playing the game (crahes or bugs) and it quite polished and I tried to like the game. However I could not actually enjoy playing the game itself. The combat is bland, with endless swarms of easy to kill mooks with the bosses being HP walls. While the voice acting was okay, the voices themselves are grating to my ears and the story coversations were quite hammy. The clothing destruction feels more like a gimmick than a gameplay element and that is before I mention the questionable age appearence of some of the characters.

With all this is mind I wouldn't recommend the game to my friends.

Honestly one of the best RPG's I have ever played. Story is pretty forgettable but the gameplay is fantastic. Not content with stabbing large monsters in the foot? This the game for you. Climb the back of a cyclops and stab it in the eye so it can't see and can only swing wildly, or go for a ride on a dragon and flay its wings so it is forced to fight on the ground and can't dive charge you.

Really enjoyed this game. The jungle setting is so well done that I could almost smell the humid air. Some of the crafting feels a bit tedious, the cover system wasn't explianed very well (need to move right up to the cover until your avatar "telegraphs" taking cover, then its just your aim button to "pop out") and there are some strange dreams sequences. Other wise a very soild FPS with light RPG elements.

My advice is to play on the "warrior" difficulty, avoid the health upgrades, and turn off most of the HUD (like the reticule and minimap).

Who says video games can't tell stories as well as books and movies? This is a fantastic example of how good storytelling can be in a video game. A must play.