Recent reviews by bona

This game is so good I bought on the PS5 and on Steam just to pay twice !

Short but scary, a nice quick nostalgia hit ! A bit too short and the ending was a bit confusing, but other than that, worth the price.

Just finished Half-Life: Blue Shift, and I really enjoyed it! This time, you play as Barney Calhoun, the security guard who became a fan favorite in Half-Life 2, and it’s great to see more of his character and backstory. The game feels like a nice little character exploration—showing how resourceful and capable Barney is, even without being part of some big, mysterious plan like Gordon or Shephard. There’s no G-Man constantly looming over him, which makes Barney’s actions feel a lot more grounded and personal.

The gameplay sticks to the classic Half-Life formula, which is still a lot of fun. You’ve got tight corridors, puzzles, and just enough action to keep things exciting. That said, the game is much shorter than the other Half-Life entries. I didn’t mind too much, though—it felt more like a focused side story than a full-blown adventure, and it works well for what it is.

If you’re a fan of the series, Blue Shift is definitely worth playing, especially if you liked Barney in Half-Life 2. It’s a shorter experience, but it does a good job of deepening his character and giving him his moment to shine.

I just wrapped up Half-Life: Opposing Force, and I have to say, it’s a solid expansion. Playing as Adrian Shephard gave a new angle on the Black Mesa disaster, and I really enjoyed seeing everything from the perspective of the military. The story kept me hooked, especially with how involved the G-Man is. He’s always there, watching and nudging things along, which made it feel like Shephard’s role was way more important than just being another soldier.

One of the biggest surprises was realizing that the Black Ops aren’t even on the same side as the military. The whole nuclear bomb subplot really ramps up the stakes. At first, I thought it was just aliens and scientists versus the military, but nope—there’s way more going on. It gave the game a more chaotic and unpredictable feel.

The new weapons and enemies are great additions. I especially liked using the barnacle as a grappling hook—it’s weird but in the best way possible. The squad mechanics were a nice touch too, though the AI isn’t the best. The companions weren’t all that helpful most of the time, so it was usually easier to just handle things myself.

If you’re a Half-Life fan, I’d definitely recommend giving this a go. It’s a nice way to revisit Black Mesa with a fresh perspective, and the twists in the story make it worth playing through.

A Worthy Remake of the Original Half-Life

Black Mesa is everything a remake should be: a respectful reimagining that captures the essence of the original while elevating it with modern technology and design.

If you're new to the Half-Life series, I highly recommend playing the original game first. The quirky charm of the old GoldSrc engine has a distinct personality that’s worth experiencing. Despite its age, the original Half-Life holds up surprisingly well, offering a glimpse into the groundbreaking mechanics and storytelling that revolutionized gaming.

Afterward, dive into Black Mesa. It’s the perfect companion to the original—a beautifully reimagined version that aligns with how your nostalgia-soaked memory perceives the game. With enhanced visuals, refined level design, and a more immersive take on Xen, Black Mesa feels like a love letter to fans of the original.

One of the most impressive aspects of both the original and Black Mesa is the masterful level design and pacing. The seamless transitions between moments of action, exploration, and storytelling are so well-executed, it’s hard to believe the original game was created in 1998. It’s astonishing how the developers of Half-Life achieved such a perfect balance of gameplay and atmosphere—something that many modern developers, despite all the advances in technology, still struggle to replicate. Black Mesa brings this brilliance to life with modern polish, proving that great design truly stands the test of time.

Whether you're reliving your first trip through the Black Mesa Research Facility or experiencing it for the first time, this remake is a must-play. It honors the legacy of Half-Life while making it accessible and exhilarating for today’s players.

Developing a game is a monumental task; doing so amid the challenges of war is even more commendable. Kudos to the GSC team for their dedication. In my initial hour with "Stalker 2," the game presents an engaging and visually impressive experience. However, performance issues are evident. Despite utilizing high-end hardware—a Ryzen 9 7950X3D CPU and an RTX 4090 GPU—the game struggles to maintain consistent frame rates. Even with frame generation enabled, achieving 120 FPS is challenging, with frequent drops to 80 FPS. Disabling frame generation results in frame rates around 40 FPS at 1440p resolution, which is unexpected for such a setup. This raises concerns about the game's optimization, especially for players with mid-range or lower-end PCs. Given these performance issues, I plan to pause my playthrough and await future updates, similar to my approach with "Cyberpunk 2077."

Additionally, certain gameplay elements detract from the overall experience. On higher difficulty settings, enemies exhibit excessive durability, requiring an unrealistic amount of ammunition to defeat. This design choice disrupts immersion and can lead to frustration. For instance, even unarmored human enemies can take 10 or more rifle rounds in the stomach, and two or more in the head to go down.

Furthermore, the game's environments, while atmospheric, often lack depth in exploration and are sparsely populated with loot. This scarcity diminishes the incentive to thoroughly explore locations, as the rewards often do not justify the effort. These aspects, combined with the performance issues, suggest that "Stalker 2" could benefit from further refinement to fully realize its potential.

Go play it ! I've worked on it hehe

We beat sony !

EDIT: Sony just restricted sale of the game to countries that can't have PSN accounts

The game physics is really weak, it is a pain to configure the force feedback, couldn't even detect my Moza R9, doesn't support simhub, well it is quite underwhelming

If you buy FC/FIFA you are the problem.

EA is complacent, they don't care anymore, every "new" game is just the same game with the same full price for nothing or some gimmick new feature that either makes the game worse or just changes something that didn't need changing.

It is just a way to reset all FUT teams so these insane people spend more money to buy the best players to get handicapped and destroyed by much weaker teams, the funny thing is, the game is not even pay to win.

Don't waste your money, this is an insult to the consumer. My time is basically all from offline with mods, and I bought it on a sale of 50% off.