Recent reviews by DV8ing1

Let's get the fact that yes this game did stink at release out of the way. Done. This title has seen so many improvements over the last couple years that it has truly become what the advertising at launch painted it to be and more.

The game has had so many new features and gameplay improvements added that I'm actually surprised they haven't charged for some of the huge additions. We can now build bases, own a massive freighter, command several smaller ships, play with ground vehicles, all while continuing to explore the strange and vast universe. The variety of options has been meek in the past but there have been consistent content updates that have continued to add variety and choice. The game is very much worth the asking price as of this review and it seems they have further plans to improve the game further.

There very much is a game here now compared to launch, with actual content to explore. Get this if you enjoy space settings and true freedom to explore.

Some things I hope are improved in the future to make a good game even better;
-Much much higher terrain manipulation save data. As of now you can only manipulate so much terrain before the earliest changes are reverted. I'd like this to be much larger and maybe even permanent when determined to be near your base.
-Variety in biomes, flora and fauna. It's already pretty good but more will always be appreciated
-The UI could use a general overhaul. There are quite a few inconsistencies across different menus with what button does what.
-Definitely need more actual threats aside from storms and hazardous environments.
-Optimization of base building mechanic. The way the engine handles base pieces seems incredibly unoptimized. Mega bases that are fairly simple geometrically drop the framerate at an unreasonable rate (imo). 1080ti, 4790k should be able to handle a lot more than what we see.

I have no doubt some of the above will be addressed with further patches as it looks like the team is continuing work to make this game even better. Even if they are not addressed, the price of admission is totally fair for what we have NOW.

This isn't a game. Its a learning and practice tool and a fantastic one at that.

The amount of DLC available now really allows a person to learn or jam along with some of their favorite songs.

I can't really say too much other than it does what it says on the tin. You plug in your guitar and set up your latency settings as low as they can go then have a blast! This CAN turn you from a complete beginner into a proper beginner on its own but you will need to look at outside sources for a better understanding of core techniques and ideas. This can teach you some of the technical stuff but only lightly touches on most of the fundamentals.

Rock on!

Online Shark Cards have ruined this series. No longer do we see amazing story driven DLC that was actually worth the price of admission. Instead we get piecemeal dlc that amounts to a new toy you get to play with for about an hour before being bored with it and throwing it away with the rest of the toys. Now that doesn't sound too bad if it weren't for the hours of grinding required (or buying a real money Shark Card!).

They've also just recently as of this review, done their best to remove a large part of the single player modding capability by sending legal (unwarranted) threats to the modders themselves. It's another case of a big rich bully knowing they can't win in a court of law but doing it anyway knowing that there is no benefit for the modder to fight and lose money/time in the process.

Don't support these cash grab companies that have fallen so far from the pedestal they once stood upon.
Shame on you Take Two. Choke on your money.

If you liked Dishonored, you should really enjoy this one. Technical hurdles aside (was perfectly playable for me and is much improved with the 1.2 patch not even a week after launch), its a fantastic stealth action game. I play very methodical and enjoy trial and error type stealth. This game caters very much to that playstyle with quicksaves and a multitude of options at any given time.

Whether you enjoy rushing through and killing everything in sight, methodically eliminating everyone, or simply bypassing enemies, there is a playstyle that works for you. There is a lot of replayability here if you want it. Playing as Emily vs Corvo allows for differing powers which can greatly affect the options you have. You can also choose to play without taking any powers should you choose.

The side quests aren't quite as involved this time around from the first and seem to exist solely to help you out on the current mission but the eliminations (particularly non-lethal approaches) themselves are quite interesting and varied.

The game rewards exploration more often than not. The level design is superb with a couple real standout levels. I ended up spending over 4 hours on most of the 9 levels checking out every nook and cranny I could. There are so many different approaches to most areas that it really does feel like a proper sandbox where your creativity can pave the way.

It's truly a sad day when technical issues mar such a great game but that's how it goes these days on pc. I'd personally recommend the game to anyone that enjoys stealth games and exploring for loot. I don't know if I could recommend full price for a person that just want to shoot their way through without exploring however as the length might become an issue.

This is a RAMdisk utility. There are plenty of other free alternatives that do essentially the same thing. So why should someone pay for this?

1. Performance (this goes for a RAMdisk setup in general)
Let me start this section by saying that NO it will NOT improve your framerates or anything like that. No this improves something that everyone hates... Load times. Sure 5 seconds of loading with your current setup isn't too bad right? Well what if you now only had to wait less than a second? Now you are completely immersed without any break in the action. How annoying are those pauses and hitches in open world games? Most of the time those hitches are due to the game reading from slow HDDs and SSDs. Did I just call SSD's slow? Compared to a RAMdisk, they are. Typically an SSD won't read files faster than 550MB/s. Most RAM setups can be read from at around 8000MB/s! Thats like 15x the speed. 15 second load screen? 1 second now. Texture streaming is a real issue in some open world games and while more VRAM on a better GPU is your best bet, this type of software is easily the second best option. My hitches in Batman Arkham City are all but gone now and Shadow of Mordor doesn't hate my 2GB VRAM graphics cards as much now.


2. Simplicity
Most other RAMdisk utilities require a lot of work from the end user (that's you!). Manually moving files, sometimes requiring restarts, making sure you update the physical files after you 'save' your game etc. This utility saves you a lot of time and hassle over most of the competition. I personally haven't used a lot of the options but I have dabbled in 3 or so. All felt like a major pain in the butt to setup, especially if you wanted to switch titles/programs fairly frequently.

This program has a very simple user interface that automatically detects which steam games you have installed. So long as you have enough RAM, it can be as easy as flipping the games toggle and then the main programs 'on' switch. It will transfer all the files over to the RAM. "What about your save files?", you ask. Well this utility doesn't move your files over to ram... it copies them. It also copies in real time BACK to the hard drive or solid state drive the files originate from. This means no worries about a power outage or strange crash ruining the original files or your saves.

Should you lack the amount of RAM required to completely copy over your games/applications, you can use the 'less RAM' option. Simply click the little configuration icon next to the games/applications and select the option. Now you have complete control over what does and what doesn't get put into the RAMdisk. Often programs and games will have extra language files, cutscenes, audio and such that don't benefit from being on a RAMdisk. So you are free to select the meat of a game and have only those items transferred over. This does have limits though and I'd still recommend at the very least, 8GB of RAM in your system. The more you have the more options you have. Older games don't require as much space but also don't benefit as much. Newer games are huge and can definitely benefit from 32GB or even more if possible. That said its not useless with less RAM, just less useful.

Want to add a non-steam application or game? It's really as easy as dragging over the shortcut from that program/game into the 'apps' tab of the program. Dimmdrive will automatically figure out where the program files are and add it to the list. You can still use all the normal features like 'less RAM' with these additions.


3. It's not done yet - No this isn't a negative. Tim the developer has been awesome and constantly updating the program with new features, better user interface options and other tweaks both minor and major. Its fully functional and as far as I have experienced, bug free as of this writing. Tim is a pretty awesome guy that provides pretty fast support and is very active with the community. Have an idea that might improve this utility? Mention it and it may very well end up in a future build.

This software isn't for everyone but anyone with 8GB of RAM or more can likely see some decent performance gains in programs and games should they take the time to set it up. The more RAM you have the simpler things get. If you have enough RAM to plop an entire game on the RAMdisk, do it. One minor note though is that not all games will benefit. This sort of thing benefits open world and games with long loading times the most. Anything that accesses the HDD/SSD a lot will benefit. This also includes software like video editors! Imagine working on a video in RAW format (HUGE files!) and being able to scrub the timeline and having near instant feedback. Well with a RAMdisk you can so long as you have enough RAM. Really at the end of the day this is basically a super fast SSD that you can move files to temporarily. Wherever you think an SSD might help, this should as well.

Very functional and simple software designed with us gamers in mind. Time is money and this software saves me a lot of time setting up a RAMdisk solution.

Highly Recommend

Incredibly hard. This platformer is straight from the depths of whatever dark place you believe in. This is both a pro and con of this game however. The absurd difficulty in the later stages means you get an incredible sense of achievement when you finally ace it. I would recommend this to anyone willing to push their platforming skills to the max.

You will die many many many times and you'll love it.

While buggy on the pc, this game has its merits. Has a pretty decent story and fun acrobatic platforming. Controls can be frustrating but its generally user error. Next-Gen graphics mode will crash the game at times no matter what but it can easily be disabled and reenabled after the "sticking" point.

It's also fairly short at about 6 hours first time through (not collecting all the collectibles) but it does have a timetrial mode that may keep you entertained a while longer. There are 3 different tiers of collectibles to find in every level so that too can add some replay value to the game.

Graphics are dated but still quite nice and sound is only in stereo but is of good quality. Worth a play if its gotten cheap :)

Overall I'd rate it a 7.5/10

Very simple and easy to understand top down strategy game. A fair amount of the game is randomized so it always feels fresh. I went into this game for steams summer achievement but found I was still playing it long after the achievement had popped. Quite addicting and very unique in its style and gameplay.

You atart off in a zombie apocolypse and are a commander controlling mercernaries. You pick a place on the map to try and rescue civilians while killing zombies. At first you don't start with much (just a rescue helicopter) but eventually you get demolitions mercs, barricades, mines, infrantry, snipers, artillery and even some super weapons to help you destroy all the zombies on a map. I could go on about how deep the game can get but just give it a try for yourself if you have a few dollars to spare.

While the game was marred with problems in tits original release, most of the serious problems have been addressed in this version. This is a great third person action RPG experience and anyone that liked older games like the gothic series and maybe even the elderscroll series should try it.

Playing as a melee character is very challenging and some ranged abilities are a must. Thats what makes this so amazing. You don't select a class and build on it, you have full access to any skill in the game and are free to preogress your character any way you want.

I really enjoyed the experience and had a blast in the included expansion.

You ever just want to blow ♥♥♥♥ up? Take 10 minutes after a long commute to get some revenge? Well this game is perfect! Whether you want to play for 10 minutes or 10 hours you will always have something to blow up and/or something new to find.

Word to the completionist out there, there are over 2000 collectibles and gameplay is repetitive for longer sessions. Take it easy, take it slow and this game will keep you coming back!