Recent reviews by Amanda Reena

A very fun and easy game that you can play to escape from the harsh reality of life (and even other games), as this is intended for children after all. It's honestly very short and not much to it; however, the infinite replay value due to workshop integration of user content and flexibility in how the levels/quests can be beaten is immeasurable. Scribblenauts is a point/click and typing game, with 2D platforming and puzzle elements to them, so not the usual open world sandbox RPG nor competitive shooter battle royale nor story driven walking simulator that is trending. There's not much of a story and explaining it here would spoil everything, so you can just play it yourself or watch/read it online idk. If you're very creative and/or have too much time on your hands, you'll enjoy creating all sorts of "objects" for yourself and others to enjoy. Definitely recommend getting this game during a sale or even at full price as it's very cheap! I do think the system requirements for a vector based graphical game to be too steep, but this is a mid console port.

After just the tutorial and first 2 chapters (and the prologue), I'm already freaking pissed off playing another game this year. While the graphics, soundtrack, and plot are very fleshed out, I sadly cannot say the same for the platforming, combat, level design, and the PC port itself. You have to be extremely precise and self-aware of your surroundings, or else you'll easily fail and have to start over from dying too much or by awkwardly having to gain momentum again. There's a lot of inconsistency of where you can jump to, grab a ledge, perform unique parkour moves, which objects can be interacted with, and even where to go; this is with the hint system by the way. Most of the time it's quite obvious and easy of where you have to travel and what you gotta do, but sometimes it's not and that seriously kills the flow. Sure, I may be heavily inexperienced and suck at the game, but don't blame me when their hint system sometimes shows visual cues of where to go, and then other times points to a general direction with none.

Not sure what DICE was thinking by mixing platforming with combat, and in a way that makes it annoying to deal with when often you have to run away and quickly make life-or-death decisions (or risk restarting). Faith is clearly not meant to be a combat oriented character because she easily dies from just a few hits from the guards/cops, and while there is slow motion, disarm, and some basic fighting moves, they're half assed to probably encourage players to avoid enemies over confrontation. In more darker areas, I can barely see anything and I often die because I made a wrong step or I seemingly didn't time my jumps properly. There's no flashlight, candle, torch, etc to allow me to see better nor is there a way to hold on to a ledge if I accidentally fall off like it is in many other platformers. Often times I expect to automatically grab a pipe or a ledge, but then Faith seems to not even grab it and then I fall to my death. Then I seem to literally get stuck in a lot of places, and have to spam buttons to get out smh.

Let's not forget the biggest problems of Mirror's Edge, which would be the performance and stability, due to DICE's incompetence along with Unreal Engine sucking. They used a software implementation of PhysX and although it was brand new at the time, still their fault for causing the game to severely lag regardless of hardware and for crashing/freezing to randomly occur throughout the story. I was able to mitigate most of the performance impact by deleting most of the PhysX files included, which somehow forces the game to use what my Nvidia drivers have. For AMD and Intel users y'all are out of luck, and have to disable PhysX completely or it'll run on your CPU which will be even worse than default Nvidia users. I think if you disable PhysX, you can also get rid of almost all freezing and crashing, but there is a few parts of the game that it still happens regardless, so props to DICE for being as bad at coding as Bethesda. Apparently there's DLC in the form of parkour maps, only exclusive to console (PS3/Xbox 360) and Origin users.

If you want to play beyond 60fps and/or enable extra graphical effects associated with UE3, you have to manually edit TdEngine hidden in some obscure location where your save file is, and even then it seems to revert changes made. I tried to force it to read-only and as a result, I couldn't even start Mirror's Edge because it would instantly crash to desktop upon trying to launch it from Steam. I resolved it by deleting some file called BaseEngine, hidden somewhere deep in the game files where you installed it, and then verifying game cache. I got no idea why TdEngine reverted the changes I made in the first place and something tells me I gotta do it again. For anyone wanting to force the game to use their Nvidia GPU's PhysX files instead of the game's, go to the directory where the PhysX files are located, and delete all except for PhysXExtensions.dll (yes, even delete that PhysX folder). I haven't done time trial and the game so far makes me not interested in revisiting these levels to collect optional delivery bags.

So far from just beating Episode 1, I can already tell this isn't a game I'll really enjoy playing. I keep getting stutters/lag spikes every few minutes, even though my hardware exponentially exceeds (no hyperbole) the minimum requirements. Yes, I know disabling enhanced graphics - which made little difference in visuals, and not setting FSAA to 8x will remove the lag, but I shouldn't have to do that. Ignoring the performance issues aside, I don't like how repetitive and predictable the gameplay is; it's your typical platforming collectathon beat-em-up game with some RPG and racing elements. I'm not against any of those genres, it's just that I've been playing such games for a long time. The camera is really terrible and allowing the player to move it is a lie as you can barely do that, so why even bother with that option?

Controls while racing or flying are absolutely atrocious, although such levels are still fun to play because I don't have to deal with beat-em-up and platforming. I can clearly tell this game was designed with co-op in mind as many feats are pretty much impossible or way harder with just 1 player and the AI partner(s) sucks. I do enjoy being able to switch between different characters and having unique abilities, and even the enemies straight up ignoring me depending on who I play as (R2-D2 or Anakin Skywalker boy). While the collectibles and obtaining True Jedi status per level are optional, ignoring those pretty much make the game too boring and easy since you can never really die. Sure, you can run out of health and lose some studs as a consequence, yet you're just gonna always respawn with full health.

Most of the characters aren't that great in combat, which The Complete Saga relies heavily upon, and while it's cool that some areas and collectibles are only accessible in Free Play mode with different characters, I feel like that's just artificial filler to extend the time spent. There were some times I had to consult a walkthrough guide because this game doesn't give enough hints, and that's just horrible game design; if I get stuck not due to my lack of skill, then you've failed as a game developer - absolute shame on LucasArts and TT Games! I'm willing to keep an open mind despite my negative opinions, so if I change my mind from later episodes, I'll update this to be more positive. Do note that mouse isn't supported and keyboard is ass, so go with using a gamepad, preferrably Xbox/Xinput; also it's stuck to 60hz/fps...

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Ok so, now that I've beaten the prequel trilogy in story and free play mode, along with the bonus levels associated with the episodes, I can give a more updated review. I was wrong about this game being as mediocre as I assumed it to be, as I just wasn't that skilled nor experienced before and I'm sorry for being wrong. Free Play mode allows you to obtain many minikits, True Jedi status, and the red bricks that otherwise can't or are harder in Story mode. Acquiring minikits allows you to use more ships/hovercrafts that can be played in Free Play mode, while red bricks unlock extra abilities that make the game way more enjoyable. Combat and platforming aren't so bad anymore, and collecting studs and red bricks are hell of a lot easier. A lot of the newer ships you unlock later on via Story mode or by collecting minikits does make racing/flying much more tolerable, so I was also wrong there.

I still can't recommend this game to anybody because The Skywalker Saga exists, which is objectively the superior remake except for those that don't like the open world aspect. You actually can get the game to go above 60HZ/fps, but you need to install some mod/plug-in and then it'll work; otherwise, the highest you can go is like 90HZ/fps. I think for anyone that wants to buy The Complete Saga, please just enjoy the story mode without worrying about having to collect or do anything that's entirely optional. Wait until you've actually gotten bored to then pursue Free Play mode to do everything else, that way it won't be as torturing. For anyone that wants to apply more anti-aliasing due to the limitations of FSAA or other graphical effects, you'll need to use Nvidia Profile Inspector instead of Nvidia Control Panel; for AMD and Intel users, you're either out of luck or have to do extra tinkering.

Honestly, I don't like how Life Is Strange gets quite repetitive with the predictable formula of exploring a new area, talking to people to gather key information, doing fetch quests or solving puzzles, and repeat. I do enjoy the indie soundtrack and I wish that DontNod or Square Enix would release an OST as a free or even a cheap paid DLC. It's also quite odd that while the game released in January 2015, they decided to have the game occur in October 2013, as if that was when they probably started development. The constant swearing and highschool millennial slang does sort of get on my nerves, since it gives off the impression that they're trying too hard to make it relatable to teenagers.

And yes I know this is nitpicking, but I don't care; I do very much despise how you can't just roam around Arcadia Bay once you've unlocked new areas. Maybe it's because I enjoy the sense of freedom given to me in franchises like Grand Theft Auto, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, The Legend of Zelda, and Batman Arkham. You can't do basic crap like you can in those franchises like jumping, crouching, strafing, blocking, etc., and being able to go faster ranges from simply walking faster to a light job depending on the area. Still, the graphics are timeless with the painted textures and cartoony lighting, although the shadows and reflections come off as being too pixelated.

How come I can't review episodes 2 and 3, yet I can review episodes 4 and 5 (along with 1)? Oh well, just wanted to mention how it's cool that the journal/diary acts as the menus, and the highschool doodling artstyle is used for UI elements. Aside from the story mode, you can also replay the episodes in collectible mode, where you can take optional photos that you might've missed before albeit any decisions you make don't impact the plot. Optional photos either are hidden in plain sight or you have to fulfill certain conditions before they can be taken; the photos/gallery section of your journal does give vague hints as to what/where the photos may be.

I like how you can skip dialogue that you've already been through when you rewind, which saves a lot of time and frankly it's boring to hear the exact speeches many times. Due to implementation of PhysX, Life Is Strange isn't exactly optimized for non-Nvidia GPUs and even for Nvidia, you're still gonna get some lag even if yours exceeds the recommended requirements (I have a GTX 1050 3GB, game recommends GTX 260). I suggest to just lower or disable FXAA entirely in-game, and to opt for FXAA from Nvidia Control Panel, Radeon Settings, or Intel Command Centre. You really don't need more than 4x MSAA and do you really need to turn off vsync for such a slow paced game?

The first "new" game that I've played since mid 2022 (being Skyrim SE), as in something that I haven't played before in my Steam library, instead of re-playing something I've already done. Life Is Strange is basically an interactive movie, where the story comes first and gameplay is second; however, it's nice to play such casual games from time to time. Sadly though, only the first episode is available for free, with the other 4 episodes needing to be bought, which I highly recommend y'all to do so through the season bundle during a sale. Unfortunately, I also can't really review this game in-depth like others because that would spoil the story, which would defeat the purpose of playing.

All I can write is that this game has an excellent story with enough puzzles, obstacles, and choices that will make you remember this for years to come. Much like the TellTale games, what you do may impact the story later on, although unlike those you almost don't have to deal with any QTEs. There is the time rewind mechanic, the main "gimmick" of Life Is Strange, where you can go back and change the outcomes of specific events and even your own decisions. Although some of the cooler feats are only achievable during cutscenes or specific parts of the story, it's still cool to be able to redo things to see how events would've played out had you done things another way.

You'll meet many different unique characters with well fleshed-out backgrounds, and explore iconic locations throughout the small town of Arcadia Bay over the course of an in-game week. Let's just say that when the plot allows for it, you can travel to different realities and even further back then what was assumed to be impossible. Life Is Strange is actually quite easy, save for a few parts due to memorization and/or areas being too freaking dark, so casual gamers rejoice because you don't need to git gud. At least for Windows and maybe Linux, it's better off to just have a Nvidia GPU as PhysX is not only embedded, it's also absolutely required for this game to work or it'll simply crash.

As much as I admire Skyrim for its vast improvements over Oblivion in graphics, exploration, UI, melee combat, level scaling, AI behaviour, and level design, Bethesda took many steps backwards. The RPG mechanics are heavily nerfed, with the removal of major/minor skills, class types, attributes, and even many skills and spells are gone. Why the ♥♥♥♥ did they think it was an amazing idea to remove mysticism, unarmed, armory, and custom spells? Magicka in general is heavily nerfed and while the more powerful spells are worth using (and elemental spells have new effects), it's so watered down that you'll have to wait until mid to end game for it to be OP.

They replaced the Mages and Fighters Guilds with College of Winterhold and The Companions, which I have mixed opinions about. Similar to Oblivion, you have to constantly grind your skills to git gud, and although it's nowhere as problematic back then, you still face enemies who are either too piss easy or too unforgivingly hard. I do like the concept of dual wielding weapons and/or spells, but the character moves like a freaking tank when entering in combat. I don't know if it's my keyboard or if it's the game, but some of my keys can decide to glitch out and not work. The menus despite being a great overhaul, can be confusing to navigate in the midst of battle, which hot keys only slightly mitigate.

Don't get it wrong, I don't hate nor dislike this game, but because of the countless bugs I keep encountering - even more than New Vegas and Oblivion, this is a hard pass for casual players. If you have to use mods and/or the developer console to bypass the issues this game has, then why even release it? I could forgive Bethesda back in 2011 when Skyrim was brand new, but this is a 2016 remaster that should've had these problems removed or fixed. At least all of the DLC is bundled together with the base game, and you have quick access to mods in-game. So long as you disable some graphical settings like SSR and lens flare while lowering others like shadows and god rays, you're fine.

I still disagree with most Skyrim haters that this game is too easy and simplified; it very still much is an RPG and depending on the gameplay settings and your playstyle can be difficult at times. The dragon shouts are implemented in a way that's balanced so while OP aren't broken in that sense. I'm still playing through Skyrim and nowhere near finished, so I will be updating this review and maybe even changing it to positive kind later on. Just take your time and do whatever you feel like, there's no rush to save the world. I do heavily recommend people with a PC as weak or weaker than Core 2 Quad/Phenom II x4, GTX 560/HD 6850, 4GB SDRAM, and Windows XP to not play.

UPDATE: Since playing more of Skyrim, I'd have to say that unfortunately my negative opinions about the game still stands and I find the game even worse than before. I keep encountering even more annoying bugs, some of which keep coming back and piss me off, such as me being overencumbered even when my weight limit isn't reached or constantly hearing a thumping sound. Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood are a far cry from what they were in Oblivion, and although they're shorter and the radiant quests make up for the quantity, the quality of the stories and quests of those factions are pathetic.

Enchanting is a freaking joke as I've written down in the comments below, but to summarize, you have to wait until end game for it to actually be good. The enchanted effects you add to your gear is far worse than the effects from stuff you disenchant, and you're limited to at most 2 effects per item. All of the schools of magicka with exception of maybe alteration are all heavily nerfed and nothing like it was in past TES games. I think maybe Bethesda thought focusing on and encouraging people to use dragon shouts which are superior in every way except the cooldowns was smart but frankly it's not.

The only redeeming parts of Skyrim that I didn't mention before are the DLC: Hearthfire, Dawnguard, and Dragonborn. Hearthfire is basically like The Sims where you can build and customize your own homes, along with adopting and raising children. Dawnguard is Skyrim's Knights of the Nine and is far better than the Oblivion counterpart, bringing a lot of new content along with an excellent questline, and implementation of being a vampire lord. I never liked being a vampire in Oblivion nor base Skyrim, so being a vampire lord more than makes up for it. Dragonborn I haven't played it yet except visit the island of Solstheim; from what others told me it's kind of like what Shivering Isles was in Oblivion.

What really disappoints me besides what is already mentioned is the failed immersion of the world of Skyrim itself. Everything I do feels like it all went for nothing as NPCs barely acknowledge what I do and I don't get any benefits nor consequences for completing questlines. The NPCs while are able to do a variety of more complex tasks, they're nerfed heavily in dialogue, navmesh, and combat. In Oblivion the NPC's felt more realistic and alive by engaging in intelligent dynamic dialogue along with being far better fighters. I think once I'm done with the main and Dragonborn questlines, I'm done.

A typical remaster cash grab with almost no effort made and even the same bugs from the original carry over. The only main differences are achievements, some art gallery to view BTS content (not the boyband, sorry), and inclusion of NG+. At least this is free and included with the original BioShock (and vice versa) so you won't have to buy separately. Unless you really love on rails baby shooters with gimmicks, please stay the hell away from this game or only buy it when it gets dirt cheap.

I have very little interest in top down pixel based shooters that are extremely difficult because I never grew up with games like these. If you did, you'll definitley enjoy this, but I won't and I don't find dying 20 times to clear a single level as fun.

I don't know what I like or disliked because I never played this game and used SAM to unlock the achievements due to my OCD lol. This is a port of an older Valve game that is basically Counter Strike and Team Fortress combined, with a WW2 theme to it. Only buy this if you're obsessed with shooters or you're getting the Valve Complete Pack, which goes on a generous discount of 20 dollars during the holiday sales (90% off)!