Recent reviews by IdleMuse

It's basically exactly as advertised. An arcade tank-shooter with all the classic FtP engagement gubbins, daily achievements, trees to work up, premium currency, and so on.

Pros:
- Excellent selection of vehicles, and you get access to a whole bunch right away, rather than having to play with a restricted set of 'free to play' ones.
- Very graphically optimised, play on ultra in 4k with no difficulty.
- Matchmaking seems fine, the tier system for vehicles means you're rarely completely useless.
- Tanks are arcadey-fun to handle, and the controls are not punishingly sim-like.

Cons:
- Secondary turrets do nothing.
- The tree structure of tanks means you're going to be playing with 'low tier' vehicles for a while while slowly working up to more recognisable models.
- Bots used to backfill low-tier matches are... poor... to say the least.
- Tankie culture is very evident in player usernames, clans etc, and although there is no random screaming and racism in party chat as you get in FPS games (so far), don't go in general chat...

Although the tier system does roughly correspond to years (as obviously in real life, tanks got better as the years went on), something it doesn't really seem to have is any kind of historical mode where sides are limited to historically-available models and guns from two opposing sides - instead each battle is a mishmash of vehicles from all over.

So, despite being a life-long Final Fantasy fan I held off on playing this, partly because MMO, partly because it sits after 13 and before 15, both games I'm not convinced by. I was missing out! This is a beautiful game, a classic Final Fantasy story, and hours and hours of enjoyable content.

It can be played as a single-player game, really. But why would you, when the community is so lovely, welcoming. Unlike many MMOs I've played, it makes no sacrifices in other areas to 'support' the MMO concept. It's familiar, for anyone who's played MMOs before, but there are many QoL features that really avoid it feeling like the MMO hurts. For example, the cities are busy with players, even the 'low level areas' aren't deserted. It has so many interesting and interlocking systems.

At time of writing I've played 400 hours, and I've yet to get to the point where the new free trial ends, so, if you have any interest in the world of Final Fantasy (and make no mistake, this IS a FF game with many callbacks, and a classic FF story), you should give it a go.

Yes, it does have a subscription fee after the free trial. Yes, it does have a cash shop. However, there's a 'cheap' subscription which should be fine for most people (limits you to one character per server, which, given you can do every job on the same character, and there are plenty of different servers if you want alts, seems like no restriction at all!), and the game is absolutely NOT pay-to-win - the microtransations are for cosmetics and 'account services' only (world transfer, for example).

I mentioned before you can play every class on the same character, and you should try a couple, each class plays differently, they're very much in the FF tradition of customisation. The character models are lovely, the outfits gorgeous, and the environments breathtaking.

I think this is not only one of the best modern FF games, but also the best modern MMO.

Stellaris has matured extensively over the years it has been in development. It's now a very well-tuned space empire game, with a fair few options and not too many unintuitive oddities. It's pretty much, for me at least, the gold standard 'middle of the road' 4X - complex enough that a game lasts several sessions, not SO complex as to be impenetrable.

It's also a GREAT intro to Paradox grand strat games as a genre.

Paradox Studios grand strategy games span the history of the world in a more-or-less continuous order; at time of writing, I consider the main series to be...

Crusader Kings II (769 - 1453)
Europa Universalis IV (1444 - 1821)
Victoria II (1836 - 1936)
Hearts of Iron III (1936 - 1948)

So Victoria II sits near the end of that progression, covering the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the American Civil War, the growth of Japan (and industrialisation in general), and notably, the First World War (if it happens!). It's a period where huge political shifts occur in the power structure of the world, the first major colonisation pushes are made, and eventually, the scramble for Africa. You can take control of LITERALLY any country and pilot them through this period, building railroads, factories, battleships, and influencing policies, political parties, and social movements. You can grow your country into one of the Great Powers of the world, and establish protectorates, bring other countries into your sphere of influence, and found colonies.

This one game, with its incredible scope, is really many different games in one; playing America (initially a slave state) will be a largely different experience to playing, say, China, which will yet again be different to playing a tiny country like Panama. I've had most fun playing the 'middle' states, like Persia, Japan, and Australia (after devolving it from the British Empire). While it's hard to rock the boat at the top of the great powers list, I've also had fun playing France, making major in-roads into the nascent Germany, and conquering Switzerland. Alliances can bring about amusing consequences (like, in my France game, Equadorian Sardinia??), and national decisions can create large diversions from history.

All this aside, bear in mind this is a Paradox strategy game. Which means, if you haven't played one before, be prepared for a LONG game, with potentially a lot of waiting. Colonisation, a really key part of the game for great powers, isn't possible until over 20 hours in, at least. The menus are many, and the choices opaque. I highly recommend watching a Let's Play for this game before you attempt it. Once you've learnt to play it, however, it's a very rewarding experience.

It's not for everyone, but if you like long, deep Grand Strategy games, give a try.

Civilization V is a sprawling game of strategic management of an empire. It's deep, can be difficult, and you get a real sense of building something, creating something, with each game. A particular strength, I feel, is in the balance between different paths to victory; it's equally legitimate to build a huge army and try to conquer all as to focus on a small group of cities and become a cultural, or diplomatic, or religious world power. Constructing the UN can be a good choice in the late game, or you could work on your space program; the game rarely punishes you for making decisions like that.

What it can punish you for is pissing other players off, or neglecting to research one particular branch of technology AT ALL. The AI can be aggressive, and you can just lose if you don't manage your relationships with the AI well.

One thing that may put people off Civ is that it can feel like you're running on autopilot a lot of the time, and games DO take a long time to complete. For people who dislike this, I'd definitely recommend taking a more militaristic approach, as this largely solves the 'I do nothing with my turn' problem.

Overall, a classic grand strategy game.

Ubisoft could really use a long talk with Bethesda. Far Cry 3 is a game which straddles genres; half First-person Shooter, half RPG experience. And it's obvious which it is descended from. The developers have done a great job making an open-world game, with detailed settings, beautiful models, and engaging but rewarding progression-based gameplay. What they have lacked is and understanding about WHICH bits of the game people (people like me) will find fun; the populated areas are woefully dull, the skill progression is uninteresting and too short and simple, the lack of multiple options in terms of quests, missions, factions, are all RPG elements that are missing from this RPG. Still a great laugh though, very fun, very beautiful.

If you needed another recommendation in order to go buy Skyrim, here's one: The Elder Scrolls series of games are the best fantasy roleplaying games on the market. Period. The free-form nature of play, the deep and fleshed-out lore, the top-tier graphics, Skyrim is a fitting continuation of the Elder Scrolls legacy. It's a game you can sink more hours than would seem possible into.

Cities in Motion is a unique strategy game. On the surface it seems like a pretty standard business management sim, where for many in the genre, the business you are managing is rather simple, strategically: choose which animals for your zoo, which rollercoasters to buy, which employees to hire or fire, these choices don't make much of a difference overall. Not so for Cities in Motion: the route management section of the game is deep and involving; combining bus and tram routes to minimise traffic in trouble areas is an example of the meat and vegetables of a game which delivers challenges outside the economic norm for the genre.

It also helps that the graphics are gorgeous, the interface is, for the most part, slick and easy to use, and the play experience is restful and calm, without being boring in pacing. The city layouts are challenging and diverse.

On the downside, it could use some balance tweaks (particularly in the DLC), but these are easily obtainable online.

Liked Portal? Mirror's Edge is another in the genre of First-Person Platformers. Although it has some rudimentary 'combat', this is more than made up for by interactive indepth environments, and beautiful ones at that. Somewhat short, and with a plot that could do with some work, but definitely a franchise to watch.

A genuinely new puzzle game, can be mind-bendingly frustrating at times. In a good way. Not a kind of while-away-the-time casual puzzler, more a brain-stretcher, but I certainly enjoyed the fact that it wasn't just another of the endless tile-based or bejewelled clones. Very high production value as well, and I like the fact that each specific challenge can be completed, or it can be completed _well_. If you want to progress quickly, you can, and then you can go back and spend time making each solution as efficient as possible; rather than just being done=done.