Recent reviews by Autrizzm

Spacechem captures the spirit of computing in a puzzle game “about chemistry” where there’s always a more efficient solution with just a little more tweaking.

This game gives you two waldos (basically, threads) per reactor that execute commands to produce an output. Headache-inducingly, these threads have to physically manipulate molecules and atoms in the reactor without collisions, making for very awkward machinery. You then combine reactors and iterate to optimize your solution, either until you get a passing grade or until you satisfy your own ambition. This freedom is brilliant; you aren't creating the game's one solution to a puzzle, you're creating your own, which can be refined as much or at little as you want.

It was one of the first serious puzzle games I ever played and it’s still one of the best. It took me 100 hours (with a decade of procrastination in the middle) to finally close this brain-buster out. Despite all the other games I’ve played since, Spacechem will always have a place in my mind.

Spacechem is also the first major ‘Zach-like’, all of which are very interesting computing games that play somewhat like this. They’re also playable, if you dare.

Does everything a small expension for Deus Ex: HR could do. Great art, more great combat, and a newfound focus on stealth. Solid reccomendation.

The original nuclear war simulator. Stylish. Always a lighthearted laugh.

The old Introversion games made those boys boat money for a reason, even if the game is pretty simple by modern standards.

My personal favorite twin-stick wave (ha) shooter. Beautiful and the time slowdown mechanic is a joy to use. RIP to the creator.

Fluid WASD + mouse controls, great graphics, fun chiptune soundtrack, and refined gameplay... this twin stick shooter basically does everything right. Even the menus are nice.

This solid and stylish cyberpunk immersive sim is my personal benchmark for immersive sims.

Human Revolution revived the Deus Ex series for a time. It may not be as thematically coherent as the original, but the modernization and polish are both very welcome. It’s a blast to play and it’s definitely more thematically coherent than the sequel.

This venerated immersive sim is in the cyberpunk / gaming canon for a reason. Despite its age, it defines the foundations of the modern immersive sim.

Back when I was an RPS-devouring indie game hipster, I kept hearing about Deus Ex. "Every time someone mentions Deus Ex, somone reinstalls it!" I think people cultishly overpraise it to signal how much taste they have, but the game is something special. Warren Spector's work on this and System Shock laid the foudnations for immersive sims like Prey, Dishonored, and of course the new Deus Ex games. Despite being dated, Deus Ex 1 is still pretty fun today.

You might be wondering what makes Deus Ex different from the other ugly, clunky transitional 3D games from its era. I think two things stand out. The first is the cyberpunk world it presents: a William Gibson-y world where high-tech low-life thugs run rampant, <Jensen> corporations have more power than the government </Jensen>, and every conspiracy that isn't true is just a cover for the conspiracies that are. Illuminati? Check. New World Order? Check. aliens ? Check. The second thing is how good of an immersive sim it is. Being a good immersive sim is all about giving the player cool options to prod the game's interlocking systems with. Sneaking past enemies and fighting them are both valid options; Deus Ex has the basic stealth/combat hybrid stuff down. But you have more choices than that. You can distract enemies. You can trick them into fighting someone else. You can scrounge around for intel and plow through with that. You can stack boxes to cheekily skip areas. You can trick enemies into walking into mines. You can even start (and win) a massive brawl in HQ if you're careful enough. Freedom is nice.

In terms of the technical side of things, GMDX and Revision are the two major mod packs. I recommend GMDX for new players, since it's very comprehensive and focuses on keeping the original vision of the game intact. If you're going back through history to play this game and see why it made waves, that's what you probably want. If you want a shinier Deus Ex there's always Human Revolution!

The legendary team-based shooter the world played before Overwatch was Overwatch.

Thematically, the game is hilarious — if you haven’t seen them, go watch all the Meet the Team videos now. Once upon a time we anxiously waited for the final few to be released and they’re all great. Then there’s more videos and some comics. TF2 does an amazing job of making fun of companies and manly dudes.

Mechanically, although TF2 was once a young game that even sustained a competitive scene, it now suffers from a huge bot problem. Although the player count still speaks volumes, and it’s probably still a good game to chill in, I feel it’s now a hard game to take more seriously. Not just because of the bots, but because of the silly cosmetics and unlocks that make the normal server more of a party experience and less of a competitive one (even ignoring reduced respawn times and increased player counts).

I still have a soft spot for this game, but I honestly wonder if it still even works. It's nice being able to play your own music, it's just that most people don't have .mp3s any more. Now that I've started DJing a little bit I finally have some files again -- looking forward to spinning this up.