Recent reviews by Dr Bob

Not as robust as other FPS VR games.

The gameplay's scope and variety is not as good as it should be.

Warzone / DMZ performance and stability review

Even with low graphics settings, the game runs at generally unacceptable framerates on a powerful PC.

Crashes are frequent and especially frustrating during DMZ sessions. Crashes can happen at any time during match load-ins, matches in progress, and post-match XP/reward screens.

For a triple-A game being sold at an inflated price, this is unacceptable.

Warzone / DMZ performance and stability review

There is currently no AMD FSR 2.0+ support.

If the devs are serious about making this game play well on a variety of hardware (not just high-end rigs), then they need to add FSR 2.0+ support asap.

My specs / resolution

3440x1440p
AMD Ryzen 3900X
Sapphire Nitro+ 6900 XT
32GB DDR4 RAM @ 3600MHz

Effectively in early access. Lots of work to be done.

If the host disconnects, the entire lobby freezes for a couple of minutes before getting kicked back to the main menu.

It's a terrible experience playing with screeching little gits. Many of whom try to act tough by whispering swear words so that their parents (or carers) can't hear them.

The worst Battlefield experience since Battlefield V.

A confused mess of a game that tries and fails to chase industry trends instead of defining them.

The replacement of Battlefield's traditional class system with hero specialists is nonsensical in a large-scale multiplayer setting. It doesn't work.

The map design is favoured towards ground vehicle gameplay. Infantry gameplay is not balanced well.

"Don't be sad! That's just how it works out sometimes!"

During early access in November, Battlefield 2042 caused several blue screens during my gameplay. It's a low bar to expect a triple-A game in 2021 to not blue screen one's PC. "Ahead of schedule" Battlefield 2042 failed at that.

"Come on! That [should be] easy!"

With a significant drop in player population (down from 100,000+ peak in November 2021 to around 4,000 in February 2022, then even lower to 2,000 in March 2022), the future of this game's post-release support is uncertain.

Battlefield V was abandoned during its live service. It's likely Battlefield 2042 will be as well.

At the end of the day, paying customers lose out.

Battlefield Portal could have been 2042's saving grace but DICE's ineptitude got in the way (see: the recent addition and kneejerk-removal of the official XP-grinding infected mode).

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As someone who has played former greats like Battlefield 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Battlefield 3/4 and Battlefield 1, I feel sad that this beloved series has died such a pathetic death.

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Further watching:
Battlefield 2042 Downgrades
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkeKSlqgFk0

(Review text hidden)

• Satisfying weapons
  
• Uses Vulkan - 90+ FPS on RX 480 8GB / i5 3570K / 16GB RAM / 1920x1200 / Mostly high settings

• Cast of tryhard characters - annoying to listen to
  
• Overall, generally uninteresting story - nothing really special here
  
• Enemies are dumb, getting boring on 'Call me Terror-Billy' difficulty
  
• Enemies seems to aimlock, feels unnatural
  
• Some enemies one hit kill you with some red glowing thing, frustrating
  
• No menu hotkeys (Wolf 1 let you use M for Map)
  
• Melee can't be equipped any more, leads to accidental hatchet throws

Movement mechanics remind me of Crysis. Weird.

I feel bad for the other players who're reporting performance and stability issues. Early adopters always end up being unpaid product testers for these AAA games.

Another mediocre Ubisoft game.

It's really interesting and could help you gain perspective if you've had trouble dealing with intimacy issues after previous one night stands.

There's not much in the way of gameplay - it's purely an interactive visual novel with multiple dialog options and limited interactable objects in a static room. But I found myself playing through this all day just to unlock all of the endings and achievements.

At this price point, it's definitely recommended.

One of the greatest games of all time. A truly immersive experience set in a frightening dystopic world rife with conspiracy and intrigue.

Not many games have managed to achieve or surpass Deus Ex's immersive simulation, not even the sequel or modern titles.

All PC gamers need to play through Deus Ex at least once. I recommend playing without any gameplay altering mods on your first pass so that you experience it in its purest form. However, I do suggest downloading the custom launcher by Kentie to access widescreen resolutions and adjust your FoV: http://kentie.net/article/dxguide/

Strongly recommended - an essential game.

Update 18/11/2016:

The game locks up my entire PC if I try to run it in fullscreen mode. Pressing Alt+Enter during the initial load seems to work around this, but it's still absurd. This action has to be repeated every time I run the game.

The beta patch hasn't resolved intermittent lock-ups during gameplay. This game is unstable and I think it's fair to take this into consideration when reviewing it. If you disagree, please feel free to leave a comment under this review.

Original review:

I really don't want to have to write this about a sequel to one of my favourite games.

Dishonored 2 is a very unstable game. The framerate is very unreliable with massive disparities between the min and max values. This is problematic because unstable FPS can cause motion sickness during gameplay.

Bizarrely, your mouse sensitivity is hooked to your current FPS. You may find it's sluggish one moment then super fast the next. Skyrim had the same problem and there was no way to remove this functionality.

Bethesda are smart; they incentivised digital pre-purchases by offering a day of early access to the game. Naturally, people pre-ordered to take advantage of this, myself being one of them.

Really though, Bethesda's new professional reviews policy should've sent alarm bells ringing in everyone's heads. No outlet is sent a review/early copy of the game until launch day. This means that major issues, like what we're seeing now, can't be identified and revealed to consumers until it's too late. Fortunately we do have a refund system for Steam purchases - I personally can't use it because I bought a cheaper digital copy from GAME.

Dishonored 2 isn't a bad game - it's actually quite well-made and feels like a more accomplished attempt at what the original captured.

As hard as I try to get engrossed in the story and gameplay, the unstable performance means that I can't. And that's a shame.


My PC:

RX 480 8GB Nitro OC / i5 3570K @ 4.2GHz / 16GB DDR3 1866MHz RAM / Windows 7 SP1
1920x1200 / High settings, vsync off, volumetric lighting off

All drivers and software up to date, before anyone asks.