Recent reviews by Ashyrae

"Rungs torn from the ladder / Can't reach the tumor
One god, one market / one truth, one consumer"

♥♥♥♥ Sony.

Like others, I remember the launch of 2077 to be a cluster♥♥♥♥ based around a great story, atmosphere, and music.

Phantom Liberty takes the cluster♥♥♥♥ out of the equation. Now that the game's fixed (and the distractions of countless bugs have vanished), we're treated to the full weight of the story (and meaningful, consequential choices that were previously rather rare in 2077's RPG "feel").

To summarize the expansion's story: Bond intrigue, Kingsman's twinge of absurdity, tonality not unlike The Matrix, John Wick's frenetic fights, and greater deliberation on the past life of your eternal companion, Johnny Silverhand - all wrapped up in a neat package. Certain paths also allow for greater expansion on Night City's gangs (particularly, the Voodoo Boys, the Scavengers, and 6th Street), as well as the NCPD, MaxTac, and their interactions with Dogtown's BARGHEST gang. It neatly meshes with and permeates the main story, allowing you to experience new and fitting dialogue throughout the course of the main story, starting about a third of the way into Act 2 - and can even result in a new ending.

It's difficult to stress enough that Cyberpunk 2077 version 2.0, along with Phantom Liberty, delivers on many of the promises & depth that CDPR originally promised with the original release of the game. It's a damn shame we had to wait three years (and by no means is this an absolution of that), but props to them for un-♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ their mistakes and trying to fulfill as much of the creative vision they originally intended.

My only regret is that they cut out a major part of the previous story leak in 2022 - that of revenge on Hanako Arasaka after The Devil ending. I was *really* looking forward to that, and am sad to see it was axed. Though, it's a worthy sacrifice for the final product, I think.

TL;DR - recommended highly.

Mechiro: C4-621 Dies Twice

Cyberpunk 2077, Version 2.0, delivers on a good 87.5% of the promises CDPR made with the reveal trailers of the game back in 2018. For those living under a rock, that's an INCREDIBLY significant improvement from what was arguably one of the worst game launches of all-time after a seven year wait, along with a developer admission that they "were unable to realize the full vision of the game".

It's been ten years since the first teaser dropped in 2013, and three years since the game released; "so what's changed?"

- Significant reduction in bugs (haven't encountered anything gamebreaking at all; rarely, minor issues)
- Performance increases across the board (at minimum, max, and everything in-between)
- Complete skill tree overhaul (including the removal of the crafting tree)
- Player combat ability overhaul (including healing items and grenades, now tied to the Tech tree)
- Enemy AI overhaul (including police rework)
- Vehicle handling improvements across the board
- Vehicle combat (including police chases/blockades, as well as gang and corporation conflicts)
- More story choices and weight with the addition of Phantom Liberty (affecting the main story)
- Cyberware overhaul including deeper specializations and configuration, along with scaling capacity
- Recurring / "radiant" quests like airdrops and Autofixer gigs

Couple this with brilliant storywriting, character performances, incredible setting & art direction, and a fantastic soundtrack - and you have one of 2023's best RPGs to-date. All this runs on the REDEngine, allowing for characters to really *connect* with you, with complex motivations, thoughts, and personalities (unlike a certain Bethesda/Zenimax release as of recently).

If you've never played, or dropped the game back in 2020 after its cluster♥♥♥♥ of a release, consider giving it a shot.

____

I originally reviewed this game 53 hours in, starting just before Update 1.5 - you can read the initial review in the comments.

Dear God above, it's finally here.

Disclaimer: I have spent a little over two thousand hours between various Steam accounts on the DARK SOULS series. You will see comparisons in this review to FROMSOFTWARE's previous games. Invasions are not mentioned beyond this disclaimer, given the majority of players will not participate in them due to the nature of Elden Ring making solo players un-invadeable without opt-in. The lack of transparency around invasion matchmaking once again will make invaders rather unhappy, once Bandai Namco begins multiplayer balancing. (edited as of Patch 1.07; near/far invasion explanation in the patch notes is the best transparency we've ever gotten, thanks Bandai).

I must admit the prospect of a FROMSOFTWARE RPG set in an open world daunted me a bit. After the rather disastrous dev cycles of the Souls games resulting in iconic but incomplete worlds, I feared this would be much of the same. Cue the pandemic and resulting delays, and I expected the worst. Luckily, these fears were ultimately cast aside by what is most likely the best iteration that FROM can produce on their RPGs going forward.

ER's world, while not seamless (lifts in particular as well as the Roundtable Hold), *is* complete - and there is direction to it. Yet, open-world dungeons, mines, catacombs, and more concrete story progression are all freely accessible while working between other bits of content. This allows for an approach to Elden Ring that even newer players can agree is far more consistent with the value that Dark Souls attempted to teach - if you struggle, just head somewhere else and come back stronger.

The world expands in every direction, and every time you find a new area the game has expanded in a new direction each time. North, south, east, west, in the sky, beneath the earth - it's all in there. The freedom to explore along with upgrade materials and bosses providing constant incentive to explore in new directions is simply wondrous, compared to the linearity pointed out in Dark Souls 3 in particular.

The Ash of War system allows for incredible build flexibility simply unparalleled by the predecessor infusion and upgrade systems in previous titles. They may also be transferred with a weapon they are slotted into in order to trade them to another player, unlocking the Ash of War for them to later duplicate and place on *even more* weapons. Unfortunately, this is gated by a limited number of Lost Ashes of War (the item required to duplicate an Ash of War at Smith Hewg), but nothing NG+ doesn't fix.

Boss encounters are plentiful and, per FROMSOFT charm, difficult but not unreasonably so - and with 12 years between Demon's Souls' original release and Elden Ring, quite a bit of time to iterate upon making them fresh and interesting. There are no Capra Demon-esque arenas in this game, much to our relief.. but there are many, many bosses that have AoE attacks also inflicting contact damage in addition to status buildup, something the previous games did not do. I'm curious as to why this change was made - perhaps they felt status encounters were too weak?..

Arguably, there are only three things the single player experience could really improve upon (bar a change to upgrade materials themselves):

1. A legend key for the Map, *or* teaching about the Map Marker system instead of hiding it in a menu at the bottom of the screen.

Identifying certain points of interest that you cannot hover over, such as mines, can be difficult. In addition, discovering a mine will *remove* its already-unclear indicator from the map if you pass too near to it, making it difficult to return to it without external assistance (such as map screenshots from other players) if you hadn't rested at its Site of Grace. This makes it significantly more tedious to find the mines which, gated behind their bosses, have Bell-Bearings that hold unlocks for infinite upgrade materials purchasable for runes. If you want to experiment with weapon choices, or pivot to a new build mid-game, this becomes... difficult without the appropriate Bell-Bearings.

2. More greatly emphasizing nighttime re-exploration and adding a Midnight time-of-day.

Time is divided into several sections in this game - Early Day, Noon, Late Day, and Night (with weather variations). However, Night has no divisions within its duration - causing deaths during Night to advance to the next time of day, Early Day, and making it a proper pain in the ass to continue nighttime exploration. There are several nighttime-exclusive bosses and having to essentially go through two loading screens between attempts (one post-death, one to pass time to Nightfall again) is *extraordinarily frustrating*.

3. Quitting the obsession with boss duos composed of previous encounters in a *certain region* of the game. (Thanks, Caelid.)

These do not necessarily mean two of the *same* enemy (most of the time it is double of similarly appearing enemies with different movesets, or two completely different enemies), but there are several boss duo fights which lack the grandeur, charm, and frankly the fun factor of previous gank bosses.

To take examples from previous FROMSOFTWARE games:

In Dark Souls, Ornstein and Smough are universally loved for the character they provide even if the boss fight itself (waiting for bosses to lock themselves in an animation isolating them in a corner while you whack the other) is lacking. Dark Souls 2 was called out for usage of what amounted to monster closets of previous encounters, including bosses, being thrown at you. Sister Friede and Father Ariandel in Dark Souls 3 were rightfully criticized for reinforcing that a gank boss could "only" be another Ornstein and Smough.

But, in the Ringed City DLC for Dark Souls 3, FROM produced a near-perfection of the double boss formula - the Demon Prince fight from Dark Souls 3. A large arena where you can kite the melee boss around while the other boss acts as an area hazard you can occasionally run in on and punish, *while still kiting the main boss*, was wonderful - along with distinct changes between which of the two bosses is acting in that role.

Elden Ring, however, seems to have forgotten this lesson. Double bosses are almost universally a poor experience given the pairings of wide sweep arcs with constant gap closers from the other bosses - or, worse, persistent ranged projectiles from behind said wide sweep arcs in small arenas. This is disappointing and aggravating, but *certainly* not unplayable (as the bosses themselves are well designed on their own).

*Overall, Elden Ring is a strong 8, perhaps deserved 9/10.*

I wouldn't have binged the game as hard as I did out the gates if it wasn't deserving - but there are issues with FROM's formula that are recurrent from their previous titles which *must* be addressed at some point. They do not greatly detract from the game, but you will find yourself thinking about them.

Dark Souls III - the latest and last in the Dark Souls franchise, and oh boy is it worth it.

Dark Souls III, compared to its predecessors, is a fast-paced third person RPG revolving around one goal - to defeat the Lords of Cinder and return them to Firelink Shrine, in the name of Linking the First Flame. While lacking a "polished" tutorial, Dark Souls III is designed so that you learn through two things - fighting and dying. Be it to a common Hollow or to a machete-wielding giant, death is the greatest teacher in this game. So, prepare to die - a lot.

While more linear than the first two games, Dark Souls III makes up for this with a fleshed-out story; provided you seek it out. The game won't hold your hand during your adventure, so it will not do so for the story - beyond what cutscenes and dialogue there are. The majority of the game's lore can be found through item descriptions and various NPC questlines (some better designed than others).

Combat is probably at its best in the series - with the introduction of Weapon Arts, new life has been given to weapons otherwise defined by their moveset. Some may be pleased to know that Poise is no longer the juggernaut it once was, and only applies in PvP. Instead, Hyper Armor frames - which provide an immunity to stagger during some heavier weapon attacks - have replaced the standard "poise-to-win" meta that drove the original Dark Souls.

My only complaints - the removal of the Blue Eye Orb, password summons beyond maximum area level range, and the gutting of Covenants.

Removing the Blue Eye Orb was a bad decision on From Software's part. Rather than the original intention of the Blades of the Darkmoon and Blue Sentinels Covenants - to appear in the worlds of invaders as avengers - these two "protector" covenants have been reduced to automatically summoned phantoms to kill invaders. This only occurs if the Host has the Way of Blue Covenant equipped. This has made the grind severely more reliant on the connection to a Host, and is not on-demand vengeance for an invader who has killed a host.

Password summons, while good for uninterrupted co-op, have derailed the PvP scene at any Soul Level lower than 145. Gank squads consisting of a host and over-leveled phantoms are commonplace. Despite the downscaling applied to phantoms, it is not enough to give a solo invader the upper hand in PvP. This feature should have been restricted to summoning players only within the level range of the current area (as non-passworded summons function).

Rewards for completing the grinds (and they are grinds) for the various Invader covenants are lackluster at best, and some Covenants are either quickly replaced (Blue Sentinels with Blades of the Darkmoon) or share turn-in items with covenant-less invaders (Dark Spirits as opposed to Rosaria's Fingers). There is only a single co-op covenant - Warriors of Sunlight - and the other covenant that can participate in co-op is made up of wildcard players called Mound-Makers - those equally willing and able to kill you as well as help you to the boss. Altogether, Covenants are worth it for completionists, but those just wishing to finish the game can safely ignore them.

I'd give the base game an 8/10. If you can get past the initial lack of explanation, try new things, and read descriptions, Dark Souls III is a game for you.

As for the DLCs - they are incredibly worth it, offering access to PvP Arenas (unlocked through a drop in Ashes of Ariandel or by completing a NPC questline in the Ringed City), new weapons, and delivering a solid finish to the Dark Souls series' story as a whole. Don't buy the Ringed City on its own - Ashes of Ariandel's story is vital to understanding the Ringed City.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance!...

Awful name aside, MGR is a pleasantly surprising lightning-ninja-dueling simulator - err, well, more of a hack'n'slash, but you get the point, ha! - and an alternative to the stealth-spy gameplay of the MGS series, courtesy of PlatinumGames.

You play as Raiden - "Yeah yeah, the femboy protagonist of MGS2, right?", you'd say. Well, I'd agree with you, but MGR's Raiden is much more of a badass. Being able to suplex a Metal Gear will do that to you. Raiden got the Gray Fox treatment this time around - he's the new Cyborg Ninja!

You're capable of performing various slashing, cutting, flesh-rending attacks and combos that are immensely satisfying to do - along with a special feature called Blade Mode. This allows you to effectively target where you swing and put you into a "bullet time" state until you run out of Fuel Electrolytes (a resource effectively equal to a charge bar).

Now, that sounds pretty average. If you wanted combos, you'd just play Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter games, right?

And then come the boss battles.

While many of the story characters are not particularly memorable, the boss battles are all distinct and unique - each possessing a particular fighting style and attitude. Along with their own amazing music tracks. (Did I mention I like the music?) Besides, who doesn't want to fight a U.S. Senator who jacked himself up with the Metal Gear equivalent of super-steroids?

There is DEFINITELY a learning curve. Once you get past the tutorial chapter, you better learn to parry quickly, or you'll be torn up into bite-sized bits of Gekko food. The bosses also seem to be out of order in terms of difficulty (I had a much harder time with Blade Wolf than Monsoon, for instance). I'd recommend playing on Very Hard (or Revengeance difficulty if you're a glutton for punishment and millisecond-interval timing).

My only gripes with the game are the awful keyboard controls (it's a console port, so that's to be expected) and the various but small glitches throughout the game. If you run into, say, Sundowner infinitely running into a wall, or being thrown into an invisible clock tower, just restart the game and it'll never happen again.

You receive the two story DLCs when you buy the Steam version of the game (Jetstream Sam and Blade Wolf's stories), as well as various cyborg suits that can provide an advantage should you acquire them. Free DLC included in the base game for the same price as the original console version? I'll take that.

Overall, I had a lot of fun playing MGR. But once you've defeated the very last boss on Revengeance difficulty, there's not much else to do aside from collecting left hands.

Also, please use a controller. Don't mangle your hands playing with a keyboard like I did.

omigosh guiz i just game up with a new undurrtaeel oh see-

*gets slapped*

Right, sorry.

Undertale is a very well known RPG created by Toby Fox. You might know him as the Earthbound Halloween Hack Guy (Radiation), or the "Megalovania Dude" for Homestuck. What you have to know is that he's actually an annoying white dog capable of creating a surprisingly deep RPG.

Undertale's premise is simple - you're a human, who traveled up the side of Mount Ebott in the year 20XX. You fell into the mountain through a hole, and now you're stuck in the underground - which is populated by various types of monsters. It's up to you to choose whether to slaughter these terrifying creatures to carve a way out, befriend them to have aid in escaping and returning to the surface, or find your own way to traverse and return from Mt. Ebott.

Without spoiling the game - the personalities you'll meet are each distinct and loveable (given, representing popular tropes), but their fate is in your hands.

The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic - while much of the music has the same leitmotif, each track has a particular feel to it that the others do not - whether a feeling of saving the world or hell incarnate. Even if you don't like the game, it's hard not to get addicted to the music.

And now.. the fandom.

It's a mixed bag. While there are good aspects about the Undertale fandom, there's always the cancerous side (R34 and "Sonic OC Syndrome"). There are, however, interesting AUs (meaning alternate universes) that are community-created, and a new perspective on the story once you've finished the game can be refreshing. And remixes/covers of the Undertale soundtrack are fine in my book. Some very talented artists are also lurking about in the Undertale community.

If you like RPGs with great music, moral choices, and the occasional comic relief - buy Undertale. The replay value alone is worth it.

Through thick and thin, I don't think I've stopped playing this game since 2011, even during the first period after 1.1.2 when Red had his kid and we thought no more updates were coming.

How wrong we were.

Game's still getting updates in the present day (tomorrow as of the time of writing, actually!), lots of content, official modding support in the form of TModLoader (which has its own Steam store entry nowadays), in addition to maps, textures, and sounds customization support in the base game via the Steam Workshop.

If you want a sandbox primarily focused around equipment progression, but possessing an incredible number of building mechanics, *actual* wiring mechanics (yes, you can make logic gates in this game), and a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of playstyles, this game is absolutely for you.

Also, Scott Lloyd Shelley (aka Resonance Array) made this game's iconic soundtrack, and it's so beloved that you've probably heard it somewhere at least once long, long before you ever stumbled upon this Steam page.

A product that has maintained *over 97% positive reviews over all time, for over a decade* deserves at least a look. Give it a whirl. I got it free from a friend and wish I could pay him more than the $10 he spent to get me Terraria. After all, how many other games can suck thousands of hours away and have you not regret a single second?

Ah, TF2. It's been a long ride.

Started playing the game in 2012, shortly before the Pyromania update - spent most of my time on community servers and never used quickplay for anything. Demoman and Pyro quickly became my favorite classes, though I enjoy almost all of them. (Soldiers can go die in a fire.) The hit registration can get on your nerves sometimes, what with lag compensation almost always giving high-latency players an advantage, but the sheer randomness that can occur in any TF2 session more than makes up for it.

I can't speak to competitive as I've never wanted to touch it - it offers me nothing I cannot already receive in the community servers aside from an imaginary "rank". I prefer friends over salty "teammates". Though it should go without saying:

RIP Quick Play.

tl;dr go with community servers and you'll have fun