Recent reviews by TarinBosh

Stardew Valley is the ambitious and beautiful product of one Eric Barone. AKA "ConcernedApe," a singular developer who quit his job, focused all of his time, effort and finances into producing one game.
Stardew Valley released 8 years ago, and it redefined the casual farming simulation genre. A genre which had been largely dominated by Natsune and other Japanese developers. Where Harvest Moon left a puddle, Stardew Valley left an ocean. The depth of mechanics, the customization of character, the roleplaying elements, the exploratory elements, the combat systems... all so well developed and the brainchild of one single person. Eric kicked tf out of the titans of a genre with one single entry that he put his life into.
8 years of console adaptations, and endless localization work (This wasn't done by just him btw, at this point he got a whole team to help him out}
8 years of free expansions and content updates
8 years of gross and useless toddlers that wear hats and turn into doves.
8 years of realizing Krobus was the real Penny all along.
8 years later I have a junimo tattoo.

If you don't know, now you know. If you've never played, play. If your significant other wants you to play with them, join them. You can't go wrong.

I can tell you everyone's favorite gift off the top of my head (vanilla only)
I'll also tell you that with a lot of wood, oak resin and tenacity, Hops are the absolute monster profit crops of the game.
I love you Eric, thank you for creating what you've created. I accept that you aren't looking to continue creating large content updates for Stardew. I very much look forward to experiencing your future projects.

I still come back to this game from time to time. I really enjoy being able to obtain and grow w33d that I'm familiar with and have personally consumed. It's also really cool that I can breed my own strains and create new plants with traits unseen on the market. (Not that it's a good trait even)

I really enjoy the casual aspect of the game. It feels like if a mobile game got really developed and had a ton of options built into it. The manual care of the plants does get phased out by having workers, but IMO all new games start with you hand watering and trimming reggie. This is very mobile game casual. Eventually you'll expand and hire new workers and take on more properties and expenses. At that point, the "micro" of manual care is out the window and the "macro" of economy comes in.
Finances are very difficult in this game without having a comprehensive knowledge on how to generate profit over cost immediately. Unless you are playing the first scenario, failing to maintain a positive balance will result in a very quick wipe. It is not immediately intuitive on what you need to do, but after practice and a few new games, you'll get the hang of it. My philosophy is saving before any new expansion or loan.
I love being able to breed strains that knock tf out of the competition by being very specifically favorable by the clientele at the location of sale. Average Joes suck down that GDP and SLH breed. $26 a gram. Incredible.

Don't like the manipulation and espionage. Don't like the conversation system and the VERY IMPORTANT gameplay rewards that are locked behind the endless dialogs. It's a surface deep system that has deep impact on gameplay. From expanding your strain library without cost, to drastically changing legality at the congressional level, dialog shmoozing and information gathering plays a huge role. I have played through every single dirt discovery, and at this point I can gather dirt for an entire city and change the law over night. I didn't think it was clever the first time or the 50th time. It's a bad system. It also means that if you want to roleplay a person who doesn't blackmail or manipulate others, you'll have major gameplay rewards removed from access to you.

I do love this game overall though, as I said; I still come back to it from time to time. I still really do enjoy the gameplay despite the over-powered and monotonous dialog system.
Give it a try if you like smokin'
Or if you like Low-Fi HipHop Beats to Chill/Study to. The whole playlist is vibey and fireee

Best played on a joy-stick! Or probably a gamepad. Now that I think of it, I should try that.
Anyway, it controls terribly with just mouse and keys, so I would say to either git gud or play with the bindings until you have a sort of competent setting! I was using WASD and the arrow keys for all my controls. True '90s fashion.

I loved this game as a kid. My dad really liked playing this game with his joystick controller. I was and still am really bad at it. I used the CD-ROM in my walkman and I could listen to the soundtrack by doing that. Sick F***king soundtrack. I still sometimes tune into that weirdly menacing German alt metal. Makes my job kinda fun sometimes to tune into it and think that I'm a space-fighter pilot trying to destroy... bad AI? Evil robots? WTF is this game even about?

You can name the guide-bot. Name it "Bob" like my brother and I did when we were 8.

I still have a playlist on Spotify for Sim City: 2000.
And that game was special to me. It was the first city builder in a long line of city building games that I have grown up with, and learned to cherish.
But alas, as Sims 3 turned to Sims 4, and Maxis dissolved into EA, all competence was lost in the Sim City franchise. RIP Maxis

It's 2015 and you hear there's this start-up game dev who's just released this new title;
"Bro, it's the Sim City we never got!" My brother said, as he pulled up the store page on steam. My eyes lit up. He was right.
Cities Skylines is the best version of Sim City that I've ever played. Rich with mechanics, rich with environment, rich with realistic gameplay... Cities Skylines set the new definition of what a city building simulation should be. And it is amazing, quirky, and difficult to learn. I love it.
It's been almost 10 years since release, and nothing has the same charm or replayability. *Chefs Kiss*

I'll start this review by saying that IN GENERAL, I've enjoyed myself while playing absolutely vanilla without any mods or DLC. I was very skeptical with the other reviews this game received, as it seems like everyone is either a purist towards the franchise, or going in blind and not enjoying themselves.

A couple of accurate points that many other reviews included; This game does get repetitive. There isn't a ton of variation on mission types, and if you don't enjoy it the first time, you'll likely uninstall the game after the 10th time. It is repetitive and it does feel very samey after awhile. I don't mind. I enjoy familiarity and who cares if i'm defending the same base again: I still get to smash robots against eachother.
The 'mech customization isn't the level that people expected. I played Mechwarrior 2 back in '98. The only other game I played in the franchise was the turn-based "Battletech" which released in... 2018? 2017? Those two games in the franchise that I played had tons more load-out options, hard-point options, gear and weapon options... It seems almost like Mechwarrior 5 suffered from the same problem that Age Of Empires 4 had; the features that most people loved ended up getting dumbed down in order to appeal to a larger audience. Which, HOT TAKE, you have franchise fans for a reason... never alienate them.

Mechwarrior isn't for everyone, and the tactics/strategies are going to be very foreign for new players. I believe the mechanics and combat systems are easy enough to learn, and there's a lot to be enjoyed. But for new players to the game; watch a few youtube guides or let's plays before you commit to buying. This is not COD, this takes a player who is willing to be patient and to learn in order to enjoy this game.

Highlights; simplified 'mech loadouts are welcoming to new players.
This game is beautiful; several times during my gameplay it felt like I was in a painting. The environments are gorgeous.
Easy to learn the mechanics and the base game's campaign does a good job of introducing the game world and the mechanics that you will use.

Cons; The game can feel repetitive.
The AI can do some dumb stuff sometimes, (Either lance-mates getting nuked because they solo rushed an enemy group 80+ tons outclassed. Or enemy AI not acting like they value their own life.)

I would highly recommend the YAML mod, "Yet Another Mechlab" adds all the deep customization that a lot of the player-base for MW4 expected. The mod creator also made a ton of other improvement mods, customization mods, new weapons, old weapons from previous games, and all that!
I really appreciate YAML, and the options it gives me for both 'mech load-outs and overall quality of life improvements such as built in patches and bug-fixes.
IF YOU ARE NEW TO MECHWARRIOR, COMPLETE THE BASE-GAME CAMPAIGN BEFORE INSTALLING YAML. YAML is primarily for veterans of the franchise, and I'm pretty sure it was made because of the drastic difference between MW5 and MW4. Having never played MW4, I'd say YAML lets me do the things I would expect to be able to do from Battletech, the turn-based version of this franchise. I believe YAML is nearly an essential mod to add to the game if you plan on playing more than just the vanilla campaign.

All in all, I would recommend this game to those who enjoy a more tactical and challenging experience from the shooter genre. Fans of the mecha genre should already know this franchise well... it's over 20 years old. The Battletech franchise is unique to itself. It's gameplay and complexity isn't quite like anything else on the market.

Solid and simple city builder! Takes a few games to get used to balance, but very rewarding and enjoyable

It's an awesome game to grab your friends and play. Choose between running into a bank guns blazing, or steaking it out and quietly moving in.

Really cool features are included like a specilization feature that lets you choose perks to help you progress easier through the levels. And mask customization is the coolest thing I've seen yet, as you can design, paint and wear your mask into any heist you go on.

Payday 2 is prone to glitches and crashes, and it's not 100% smooth in mechanics, but it sure is fun!