Recent reviews by A T L A S

Great relaxing game and now I'm an expert in finding ♥♥♥♥♥

As someone who doesn't ever play mystery/puzzle games, this was a first for me and man, what an incredible introduction to the genre it was. The soundtrack and gameplay are sublime - as a detective aboard the Obra Dinn you are completely immersed in learning the fate of every single crew member and passenger not because the game forces you to, but because you want to. The story is told non-chronologically, so you have to parse together the complete timeline of events using your powers of deduction and the game does little to no hand-holding so you jump in pretty much blind, which is a great thing because it adds to the satisfaction you feel when solving a particularly tricky fate. The difficulty and complexity of the scenarios scale up as you progress but the game does a great job of easing you into it. The art style certainly isn't for everyone but I personally loved it (especially the matrix-style freeze-frame gun scenes).

All told, a brilliant game for making the player feel like a giga-brain detective with a beautifully crafted soundtrack, art and gameplay. I'd definitely recommend you pick this game up and go in with an open mind. Well done Lucas Pope.

You'll be hard pressed to find a game as detailed and nuanced as GTA V. I've played since June 2017, so I can't attest to how the game has changed over the years. However, from the time I've spent, I can say that GTA V is most definitely a worthwhile purchase whether it's on sale or not. I've spent the vast majority of time in Online, so that's what this review will be focussed on.

• Insane levels of customisation, be it cars, planes or your character. You could change the windows/wheels/interior of a car, have endless clothing combinations together with mask/hair/tattoo/accessory options.
  
• Wide variety of weapons, from RPGs and Miniguns to Broken Bottles and Flashlights.
  
• EVERY WEEK R* has in-game sales for basically anything you can own, making it more affordable for newer players.
  
• The range of activities/missions you can do in freeroam is again endless. Not only that, you have access to a number of maps for TDMs, races, and R* own special game modes.
  
• Players are able to own businesses both passive and active, helping to boost daily income. Plus, who doesn't want to be a car-exporting druglord?
  
• And of course the detail... not just the scenery of Los Santos and Blaine County, but also NPC actions and speech, which are pretty darn realistic.
  
• DLC. R* is still regularly introducing a lot of new content in the form of large updates a few times a year, which is quite respectable considering the fact that the game has been out for several years now. Also, all DLC is free *cough*EA*cough*

• Of course the major problem GTA Online has is the rampant modding/hacking, which not only screws with others' gameplay but risks them getting banned for spending illegitimate funds. Unfortunately, there's no way to stop these modders apart from reporting, but there are ways to minimise the risks of having modders in your lobby.
  
• Griefing. With all the weaponised vehicles in the game, it's not difficult for some to destroy important sale missions or just repeatedly kill newer players. My advice to avoiding griefers if you're new is to find an organised crew where members will readily escort or provide backup.
  
• Shark Cards. Although it's true R* has recently been getting greedy with Shark Card sales by pricing new vehicles pretty highly which encourages one to buy some GTA$, it's completely do-able through grinding which doesn't take long if you do the right thing efficiently; although that may not be everyone's thing.
  
• Because of R* using a peer-to-peer connection instead of having a dedicated server, some, like me, who have not so great internet connections will find that dropping out of a session can happen fairly often. Not much you can do to get around this, but if you have a good internet connection, dropping from a session will likely be very rare.
  
• Loading times. Can be lenthy depending on your connection speed, but you can speed it up by entering Story Mode first before joining on someone in your friendslist to get online.

All in all, GTA V does have it's flaws but there are ways to minimise said flaws. Besides, in my opinion, all the things that make the game great still outweigh the problems that plague it. Pick it up on a sale if you're still unsure. If GTA Online doesn't suit you, the singleplayer is still worth getting the game for.