Recent reviews by Virus

GIVE US THE TURTLE

"The ghost will be hunted for the rest of his days."
"I know."

___

Have you ever wanted to play an Assassins Creed game with no Animus ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that pulls you out of the fun, progression which doesn't require mindless grinding so the devs can sell you pay to win boosts, a memorable protagonist and cast, a fantastic OST and the base game + multiplayer mode + all bonus content for less than $130? Then Ghost of Tsushima might be the game for you. I'm not gonna lie, Ghost is not a perfect game. It masks its technical shortcomings with its artistic choices, but when the artistic choices are as good as they are you start to forgive the game for its dated aspects. Ghost of Tsushima instead excels at giving the player the ultimate power fantasy of being a samurai AND a shinobi thanks to the competent writing team which understands that you can in fact have your cake and eat it if you're talented enough to write a scenario where the protagonist's hand is forced.

Pros:

- Ghost is a pretty game. The graphics weren't mindblowing even for its time but it has a great art direction to make up for that.
- Great story with historically accurate enemies who actually speak their own language to add immersion. Jin is the best stealth genre protag since Ezio. Shimura elevated the story. Khotun mopped the floor with pretty much all the AC antagonists.
- Fun combat with progression that feels great. Really opens up after you learn water stance.
- Fantastic OST.
- Optional quest bosses were fun.
- Free coop multiplayer mode is actually good and doesn't feel half-assed.
- Fantastic Nixxes optimization. No drm.

Cons:

- Parkour is a downgrade compared to even modern Assassin's Creed. I understand most of the game is spent in fields but I really want them to improve this for the next one.
- AI is as bad as Assassin's Creed Origins. It was mediocre in 2020 and it's really shown its age since lol. Another improvement for my sequel wishlist.

All in all best Assassins Creed since Black Flag made by devs who want you to be comfortable owning your games.

Mogs Vampire Survivors in every way for free with zero mtx. I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ kneel.

kanya sexo

We deserved a World's Finest sequel to this, not a Borderlands/Avengers butt baby.

As for the game itself:
- Combat isn't as snappy as Arkham City but it's still very enjoyable especially with the new combat upgrades unlocked. It feels too easy at first even on hard but balances itself out after the first few hours. Multi-takedowns are still pretty cheese though.
- A good pc port years later. Better frametimes than Arkham City. Performs well even on low end systems too like my Steam Deck.
- Just a great looking game all around. Mogged Gotham Knights visually somehow despite being 7 years older? Lmfao.
- I have mixed feelings on the batmobile but overall I do like it. It's a lot of fun to drive when you learn how to control it better and even the tank style combat was pretty good. It's the best recreation of TDK trilogy's batmobile in a game and may always be. It was hard to implement I'm sure but I'm glad they decided to do it and make this game stand out further from the two previous entries. I just can't imagine him driving it without killing people and destroying property along the way lol.

So yeah, buy this instead of Suicide Squad.

Pros:

• Addicting combat.
• Well thought out progression system that keeps you from feeling like you wasted your time when you need to start over.
• Art style is sexo.
• Voice acting is sexo.
• OST is also sexo and the prog rock fits Zagreus and the atmosphere perfectly.

Cons:

• HEY WHAT THE ♥♥♥♥ DIONYSUS WHY ARE YOU BUFFING THESEUS? I GIFTED YOU TWICE YOU ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥.

♥♥♥♥ it. Best space game ever made.

So it's not news to anybody that Overwatch Too is a horrible game. If my cheevo history is anything to go by you can tell that I've been playing Overwatch/Too for a long time now - since s3 all the way back in 2016. It's actually one of my most played games of all time - probably only second to Mabinogi - and was one of two games which really brought me back into PC gaming as a whole. Given its significance to me I'd like to give it an actual constructive negative review instead of just leaving another "tf2 better" sh!tpost like everyone else.

Back in 2016, you could argue that Overwatch was a cultural phenomenon. Not only did it incite tons of nostalgia for Pixar even from non-gamers with its similar art direction, but it was also the first high quality, big budget, objective and class-based shooter since TF2 in 2007 and you would see its characters literally everywhere much like the latter. It won GOTY and became an instant hit that generated more interest, discussion and fan content than even the biggest releases in recent years. People genuinely fell in love with this game and how every character felt like a power fantasy. "If everyone is overpowered, then nobody is" is the way the balance has been described and it just worked. As the seasons went on it became less of a case of every character being overpowered, and more like every character was gradually being neutered and tweaked while other heroes would become incredibly overtuned or or got released in a genuinely overpowered state compared to all the other neutered heroes. Blizzard continued to try and chase the competitive scene and boxed the game into rigid parameters to try and balance it as much as possible while ruining balance in other areas in the process, despite the fact that the game's characters were already too varied in their abilities and were intended to feel overpowered to begin with. It's not a game like CoD where every character has the same limitations and only vary depending on what guns they have. Overwatch characters differ by health pools and hitbox sizes and mobility options and even whether or not they actually ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ die when they go below their health pool (looking at D.Va, or any player with a Mercy on their team.) There are way too many ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ variables to properly balance a game like that as an esport, just straight up. Blizzard should have focused on making it play like it did around launch, with a focus on a game which feels fun and characters that feel powerful regardless of its competitive potential. This was ultimately the thing that started killing Overwatch, but Overwatch Too was the nail in its coffin. People complained about lootboxes but they were actually pretty consumer friendly compared to battlepasses. You bought them for cosmetics, and that's all you would get as well as currency to purchase other cosmetics making lootboxes even less necessary for earning them. Getting all the skins you wanted in the game was just a matter of putting in the time to get them, and you could easily get a legendary skin in Overwatch just from playing the game normally over several months or getting lucky from a lootbox. Leveling up to get a lootbox was super easy too especially with the group exp bonus and I frequently got rare and legendary drops in them. Now characters are locked behind a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ battlepass along with the rest of the cosmetics in the game, every aspect of it is designed to make you open your wallet. I'm pretty confident that the team itself doesn't even want this to happen, and they just stay perpetually pressed with the orders they receive from higher ups.

And then of course you have the PVE situation. The straw that broke the camel's back. PVE was the only thing that justified Overwatch getting a sequel since the original kind of felt like a beta where all the characters are just thrown together on teams regardless of alliance - the lore was never expanded into the modern day with Overwatch facing Talon and finding out what actually happens after Winston's transmission. That's why everyone was so hyped about this game... and then not only did they cancel all of the cool, development time-worthy skill tree features from it, but they released it as content that would pass for free seasonal events in the past as a $15 purchase. It is an absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insult to the players of this game. I can't describe it as anything but betrayal. Most players were also really pissed because this PVE content was justification for not supporting the current Overwatch at the time in a massive content drought that lasted years. All of that neglect now feels like it was for nothing.

I have not played it since the pve announcement. I only played a bit of it because one of my friends for whatever reason still plays this game. I tried it to see if anything improved since I last played and supports actually feel worse than the last time I did. I said this review would be constructive, so despite all the damage that's been done to this game, these are my recommendations for how to fix it:

• Stop balancing the game for esports/comp players. Overwatch League is dead and they're literally paying teams to quit (lol.) Go back to the balancing philosophy of early Overwatch.
• Completely remove the battlepass. Go back to the lootbox system exactly as it was. Now that the game is free you can actually justify the lootboxes being paid.
• Release all current and future pve content as free, permanent content.
• Rename the game to "Overwatch", because that's all it is.

Until Blizzard does these things they will never even start to build back all the good faith they lost and will probably never get back from their former community and this game will remain a dead IP with its reputation in ruins. They never will, so Overwatch will remain dead. RIP.

"2011 was such a different time"

Yeah, it was a better time.

Worth the double dip, even if its total ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that I have to do that to begin with.

Pros:
• Wirebug attacks and skill swaps add depth to combat by allowing you play weapons in brand new ways without limiting you to one play style during a fight. For example, hammer now has a counter ability as a wirebug attack and great sword has a repositioning skill using a wirebug to pull you backwards. These new skills allow you to play these weapons more aggressively without needing the player to be as proactive in their decision making. Skill swaps on the other hand allow you to change wirebug skillsets during a fight allowing you to maximize your effectiveness depending on the situation. For example, aerial glaive is now completely viable for DPS and combos nicely with Diving Wyvern. You can also do a lot of damage with the awakened kinsect ability using the new grounded powdered kinsect playstyle. You had to choose one or the other before skill swapping, but now you're afforded the flexibility to play both depending on the situation.
• Wirebugs feel like a complete upgrade over the clutch claw in Worldborne. With effort, you can get over any obstacle on the map and explore any area. It feels more like the level of freedom you get in a game like Breath of the Wild versus the older gen Monster Hunter games. That said, I really hope they're a Rise-only addition or only return for underwater combat/as sparse great wirebug spots.
• Cute and memorable NPCs for the most part, with no annoying handlers present.
• Sunbreak brings a lot of 4th gen monsters back and manages to be an even larger expansion than Iceborne with a much cooler box monster that gives a better fight.
• The palamute is a fantastic, game changing upgrade over the raider ride system from Worldborne. If anything from Rise stays, it really should be the pups.
• Music is on point as always.
• Talisman grinding was preferable to decoration grinding, and I also enjoy the qurios augmentation grind more than the guiding lands.
• Layered armor creation in Rise is far superior to any previous game. You also get layered weapons in Rise for matching your set and giving those crappy weapons with good designs the love they deserve.
• Shader compiling in a port made well before the "13 ways to end lousy ports" video. Hats off to Capcom for being one of the only AAA devs making good day 1 PC ports in this day and age. RE Engine is fantastic.

Cons:
• Base game feels light compared to previous entries, and it doesn't have the most interesting roster. The fact that base Rise launched incomplete really hurt the experience. You can blame covid but I really hope this never happens again.
• Reaching the next monster post-game in both Rise and Sunbreak is way too grindy. Iceborne's model of beating the special assignment monsters to unlock the next post-game monster was a lot better.
• No crossplay and crossprogression when this was already something asked for in Worldborne. Come on son. Get it right next time Capcom.
• Ultimately, it feels like an arcade-y, portable version of World which is a fantastic game mind you, this isn't a knock on Rise. However, it simply doesn't feel like a new generation of Monster Hunter and calling it "Monster Hunter 6/7/etc." or 6th gen is disingenuous. It distinctly feels like "Monster Hunter World: Portable" which I'll go into the points below. For example, it does get difficult in the endgame but for the most part the fights never feel as hard as postgame Iceborne. Monster attack hitboxes feel nerfed sometimes laughably bad. Some of the monsters' AI simply can't compete with the increased mobility of the hunter and this difficulty gap makes it feel like the experience was optimized for a smaller screen.
• Wyvern riding is a cool gimmick at first, but I really want mounting to return for 6th gen. Riding is overpowered and makes it feel like even more arcade-y.
• For all the flak scoutflies got, monster locations being revealed at the start of a hunt is a straight downgrade from that system and makes it feel like even more of a portable entry. My dream system would be monster track searching without the scoutflies, but I know Capcom will never do that sadly. Anything would be better than Rise's system however so please revert this Capcom.
• No Poogie. Also ♥♥♥♥♥♥ Almudron gets a variant in Sunbreak but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ nothing for best boy Goss Harag? Wtf Capcom

I definitely do recommend this game even without the Sunbreak expansion, but just know that you're getting half the experience without it. Both can be picked up on sale for the price of a single AAA game combined or cheaper, so just do yourself a favor and get both if you know you like Monster Hunter.