Recent reviews by Link4750

I got Spirit City in a deal from Humble Bundle and overall I'd say that this is a good productivity game. Finding the different spirits and customization options are plentiful, and if you really try then you'd likely unlock all the spirits before you're lvl40. I enjoy that you have quite a few music, ambiance, and sound choices, but there are a few things I'd like to note as well.
If you are on a long session of work, it's likely you will notice some tracks in a playlist repeat. I wish there was a way to select multiple playlists at once, but this could be avoided by using the in-game YouTube web browser and just make your own playlist.

Overall, my hours using this probably says enough. If you're looking for a chill productivity game, this is a pretty solid choice. Mind you, I got it on sale, and I don't think I would have paid the asking price.

Like many first day purchasers, this game (and Backyard series as a whole) has been a big part of my childhood. Unlike most of this game's fans though, I am not typically a sports-enjoyer, yet I still believe this classic is appropriate for all players regardless of your opinion of sports.

The characters all have unique and memorable quirks that actually resulted in me remembering a majority of the cast as well as what they were good at doing:

For instance:
Angela: Pitching
Pete: Running
Vicki: Fielding
Achmed: Hitting
Pablo: Yes

Despite the kids' stats being on a scale of 1 to 4 baseballs, one being "Don't even think about it" and four being "Naturally the best there is", it feels like it is more like a general guide rather than a numeric value assigned to the kids. For instance, Vicki and Pete are both rated at 4 for their Running, but I feel Pete is way faster than Vicki. There is a lot of nuance to the actual stats, as well as pitching and hitting mechanics (every kid has something they are good, bad, okay, and everything in between at.

For $10 ($9 for the grand launching) I'd say this is a great experience for new and old players, and it allows the new publisher and holder of the rights of the series, Playground Productions, to gauge how to handle the series in the future, not to mention support them for future projects! It is practically a miracle this was released on Steam officially, so make sure to show the ones responsible a little love!

Additionally, I wanted to add a couple...

- While in game, press the Space Bar to get the in-game pause menu to adjust some settings (which are limited, but nice to tweak a little) such as changing the display size.

- If you are expecting any special accommodations for 16:9 or 16:10, or wider boi screens, I'm sorry to say that likely won't happen, as this project is not built from source code. Reverse engineering the game back to a usable coding language, like C, would be a VERY extensive process that is not likely to be financially viable for the studios.


NOW GO PLAY SOME BASEBALL IN THE BACKYARD

A classic tower-defense game with RPG elements. Many players, myself included, originally experienced this gem on consoles, playing on Xbox Live Arcade or PSN. While true that newer games in the series have been released, the original holds up exceptionally well. To many fans, the original game here on PC is the peak Dungeon Defenders experience.


To get the most out of this game, I managed to reunite with old friends and we got this on Steam to relive the magic. If nostalgia was a physical substance it would be a liquid, as we were straight doused and drenched in it when we started it up for the first time in about 7 years. It felt almost as if we never left our hometowns after growing up and moving all over the country to pursue education and work.


Dungeon Defenders, again, is a tower-defense game at its core. What is unique about it would be the different characters you can play as. If you are coming from console, you'll be pleasantly surprised to see that there are more than the four main characters on the PC version! Excluding the slightly different in stats opposite-sex versions of each of the main four, there are an additional four new characters: Barbarian, Jester, Series EV, & Summoner. Granted, much like the other unique content in the game, it is all paid DLC, but every once in a while there is a mass-sale bundle for the base game and ALL DLC, so I would definitely recommend that.
Anyway, the characters are basically on a spectrum between more tower-focused or DPS-focused. This means, for instance, the Huntress and Monk (who have no physical towers, only traps that inflict statuses or damage and have access to weapons that can output greater DPS) could not reasonably be expected to solo the game (I will not say impossible though), but would be an amazing source of DPS/Support when paired with a character with physical towers that can block chokepoints (such as the Apprentice and Squire). Add in the DLC characters who also all have different unique abilities, and you can mix and match a great deal of possible defenses. Some maps also support up to six players at one time, where the standard is usually four!

There are many forms of loot in the game that can boost your characters' stats, along with leveling up as well. Think Borderlands-amounts of loot, where you will filter through a lot of junk and invest level-up points to spec your character in the way you want. For the memes, I made an Apprentice to focus solely on his Mana Bomb ability, which does a giant AOE damage burst, as a quick "EMERGENCY!! KILL EVERYTHING!!" button. Even the junk loot has a use though! If you simply leave it on the ground as you start the next wave, all of it will auto-sell and split evenly among the players, so not technically "worthless"! This is not the same with Mana (the currency of the game to build and buy things), as any left on the ground will disappear.

The DLC also adds a new difficulty: Nightmare. This is a great new challenge, that includes the new enemies from the Lost Ethernia Crystal Shards DLCs. But as I will discuss soon, this is not the hardest difficulty!


If you are going to play this game, it is without a doubt in your best interest to opt into the Redux; a total conversion mod made by the community and officially supported through Steam. To opt-in, right-click on Dungeon Defenders in your library >> Properties >> Betas tab >> change "None" to "Redux: DD1 Official"
The Redux mod adds an incredible amount of free content, including an even more difficult Ascension mode (A big step up from Nightmare difficulty), new game modes, weapon/gear qualities, enemies, and honestly too much for me to type all out, so I'll leave a link to a page that lists everything right here[dungeondefenders.fandom.com].

I will reiterate, if you have this game, there is little to no reason to not use the Redux mod.



Okay, there is something one should know about getting into the game. Upon seeing the character and enemy textures, they look fairly awful. My friends and I wrote it off as "It's an old game" at first, but I never remembered the textures being THAT bad. Upon searching around, it turns out that a past update broke the VRAM usage of the game; it is massively under-capped. The only way to fix this is to go into the config files and change it manually.
I did this to up my VRAM to 2GB, which immediately fixed the blurry textures:
Go to your Steam directory and navigate into Dungeon Defenders config folder (looks like "~\Steam\steamapps\common\Dungeon Defenders\UDKGame\Config") and look for "UDKEngine.ini". You can open this file with Notepad or any text editor of choice, use CTRL-F (search function) and search "TextureStreaming", which should
bring you to a list of commands where the first entry is "PoolSize", and the last three are "PoolSizeLow"/"Medium"/"High").

Change your values to this:
PoolSize=512
...
PoolSizeLow=512
PoolSizeMedium=1024
PoolSizeHigh=2048

There are even more tweaks one can do within the config files, but this is the main essential change! Fair warning, do not use more VRAM than what your graphics cards can handle, obviously. These values are all in MB, so if you want to use more or less VRAM, just make sure to use values based on powers of 2 (i.e. 2^2, 2^3, 2^4, etc.); for 4GB VRAM, double the value 2048 -> 4096


This is probably the best Dungeon Defenders game to get into/revisit with old friends or even solo. The Redux mod adds a lot of new content even without DLC. However, additional DLC content that was not present on the console versions makes this the definitive original Dungeon Defenders experience. Sale Bundles come up every once and a while, so grab that for the most bang for your buck!


If you care about Steam achievements, you need to connect to the Ranked mode instead of Open mode. If you do not plan to use the Steam Workshop, or at least not yet, play in Ranked; you can setup private sessions/invite-only sessions.
If you want to use Steam Workshop, use Open mode. If you started in Ranked but later want to do something in Open, you can export your characters to Open, but not Open to Ranked. Just something to keep in mind before you get leveled!

Happy Defending!

This is one of those games that has a pratically unlimited amount of replay value. With the amount of different civilizations you can choose to play as and their unique abilities and units, it all really depends on you choose to play.

Are you going to take over the world with the might of your armies?
Are you going to influence all to wear your blue jeans and listen to your pop music through the awesome power of your culture?
Will you conquer the mysteries of nature and achieve victory through scientific mastery?
Will you triumph over your foes in the art of diplomacy?

.... Or will scumbag Gandhi beat you to it?

All jokes aside, this game is definitely worth getting, even if you aren't a huge~ turn-based strategy player, because you can still taste victory without being a mastermind of strategy. Heck, I'm not a big strategy-based player myself, but it still probably has improved my ability to strategize.
The DLC, Gods and Kings & Brave New World, also add huge game mechanics that vastly improve the original game, but it's still fun with or without DLC. I would still recommend getting DLC if possible though.

I will warn you that when you play with friends, it's hard to trust them... even the strongest of friendships have fallen. You can't trust anyone... or at least, not fully.
10/10
Would let my friends use me as a crutch again