Recent reviews by Captain Robbie

Is this going to be the only game you need to justify the purchase of a headset? Though it's a must buy if you have a headset. Is it still the single best VR game after four years? Yes. No where else will you find a world that looks this good, performs this well, and is this expansive while being designed to be beginner friendly. Valve has still got it, and if you play this game you will find yourself with the same itch for Half-Life 3 that you felt after Episode 2.

Most incredible VR space flight I've experienced. People feel free to correct me and make suggestions but the feeling piloting the A-Wing was just incredible with a joystick. Tracking my opponent in a dogfight with my gaze, really puts into perspective how big a disadvantage the imperials have in terms of visibility. That feeling of being one with my ship is something I've never felt anywhere else.

I haven't played the multiplayer since the update mentioned in other reviews so I can't attest to how playable it is in modern time, still worth it just for the story mode.

So I've been playing this game since before it was on Steam. The love I have for this game is unparalleled with so many positive memories. It has one of the best combat systems with a huge amount of variety and your attacks have incredible weight to them with the Source engine physics being used to great affect. The armor breaking system was an excuse for fanservice but also made you feel like an absolute badass. When you take out the boss in slow motion with half your armor destroyed and hanging off of you. My friends and I never reached max level, we were happy to take our time, absorb the story, replay missions, etc etc. Since then they've added so much content and so many characters it's mind blowing.

So why am I giving it a negative review? Because it's not really that game anymore. With the Rise update they removed difficulty settings and all the various customization that made the game so fun. Everything seems focused on getting you to max level as soon as possible rushing you through the content... in a typical mmo where it is a slog until you reach max level this could easily be seen as a good thing... but it isn't. This was a game where the gameplay was immediately fun and stayed fun no matter what point you were in progression, now it isn't.

The enemies in the game no longer present any challenge. Rather than having to stop and drink health potions to get the most out of them they now apply instantly. Enemies don't seem to be able to knock you around as much. As a consequence you no longer have a reason to engage with the deeper combat system you may as well button mash and you'll fly through the game. The simple act of reducing the difficulty in several ways making all the mechanics turn to mush and nothingness.

Sex appeal was always there, after all one of the best things worth spending money on in the game was underwear because the default underwear looked silly under many of the armors in the game. However the appeal was balanced, some male characters would wear less than female characters and the way an armor set looked on each character would generally fit that characters aesthetic and play style... Now there's no real effort towards believability. Just tons of girls wearing barely any clothing. Before it was a go to example of sex appeal being naturally integrated in an unbiased way but now it's mostly cringy waifu bait like everything else.

The meditation system used to generate AP (used to purchase skills) passively all the time. It was a great way to convince players to come back after a long time away. They could come back and buy a few new skills. It was changed to generate AP only when online encouraging the servers to be filled needlessly with people idling.

This game had so much going for it and honestly a few simple changes could bring it back to how it once was but with a far more massive cast but it's evident those changes will never happen and the game is doomed to die after being stripped of everything that once made it great.

Think Factorio minus the factory design and with way more emphasis on killing and defending against aliens.

Development team heavily censored the game after release. They specifically don't allow rolling back to an update which includes the complete version of the game I paid for originally. A consumer does not expect nor should they that their games will be intentionally damaged years after launch. A refund is owed to anyone who purchased this game prior to it being censored.

This was the weirdest Wii Sports I ever played.

No time for sleep. The Factory Must Grow.

Played on Valve Index

This is a first impression rather than a full review.

This is the sort of game that isn't really for me but as you can see, I'm recommending it. Top down racers are perhaps my least favorite genre of video game and while VR improves the experience tremendously making it feel more like playing with remote control cars than ever before I still feel that way. You can play it as a kart racer but the short tracks and somewhat standard items will leave you wanting more.

However, this game oozes quality and charm. You can tell it has a limited budget but the graphics are extremely appealing despite being optimized exceptionally well for VR. That is one of the games other major boons, it feels made for VR despite having full support for non-VR users. I've played quite a few Racing games with VR support but none of them felt as seamless as this one, the interface for all the menus is made exceptionally for VR and with multiple means of doing it, you can select your car with a touch screen or you can grab a remote and poke the up and down buttons on it to change vehicles in the garage... or instead of poking it with your other hand you can press the A and B buttons on the Index Controller.

That is one of the best things about this game. It has so many options. You can play top down, third-person, or first person, with multiple views for each. Then there's the controls, just including what I could access with the Index controllers I had the option to play it with traditional stick input, a virtual steering wheel (which by the way felt very good in first person), a virtual RC car controller (This was the worst one as there's no real world spring pulling you back to the center of the turning. The Haptics which work so well for the wheel aren't quite up to the task.), then they have tilt controls, and pointer controls. Apart from those last two switching between controls is quick and intuitive making experimentation fun and easy.

They have numerous party modes so you have plenty of stuff to mess around with if you start getting tired of racing.

As a smart move for a smaller title, they allow you to play single player while in matchmaking. Not just some bare bones mode but the full game, you can complete cups and upgrade your car while waiting for someone else to jump on at 4 in the morning.

The two main downsides for me are the genre and the music. The music isn't bad by any stretch but it doesn't stand out, it reminds me of a third party Wii game with very standard and safe themes.

Overall, this feels like a hidden gem in need of more attention.

A shadow of the original, that is barely functional due to Games for Windows Live. I loved the first game but this feels like the transition from Resident Evil 4 to 5, except the online coop component is basically impossible to get working in current year. Hopefully these missteps were corrected in 3 but I don't expect they were.