Recent reviews by Mark Langdahl

First while I've chosen to recommend the game it is definitely a recommendation with some limitations. I love the world, the humour and I find the game loop very satisfying. However the game world is filled with sticky corners, invisible walls etc. that take you out of the experience and just leaves you frustrated.

I have tried and failed to get the game to actually launch. It has worked previously. So I don't know if the problem is with any drivers, incompatible software or maybe my recent CPU upgrade. But it launches, starts the 2K logo video and then exits without any error messages. Sometimes it doesn't even get to the logo.

[Edit] I managed to finally get the game to work. I went to this folder: Documents\My Games\Borderlands 3\Saved\Config

Inside that folder was a folder called WindowsNoEditor. I deleted this and then the game finally started.

While the problem is now solved for me I'll keep my judgement of not recommending the game. The video I found telling me the solution to this problem is more than a year old. So this problem has existed for more than a year and Gearbox still haven't found it in themselves to fix it... I guess we shouldn't be surprised after the Alien: Colonial Marines fiasco....

I love this game. I love the simplicity of the mechanics. It's not exactly rocket science. You control where you go and the game does the shooting for you. But it is really satisfying. I also love the fact that you get a full-fledged game for just €5 (used to be 3 during early access) that rocks the socks of most €60 titles when it comes to value. I have many full price titles that I have less than 10 hours in while in Vampire Survivors I am at the time of writing at 135 hours. It is a bit repetitive. But I actually find that to be just fine. My only small gripe is that the game in the busiest places can slow to a crawl even on my Ryzen 9 5950x if I play with damage numbers on. So I've turned them off.

I have a massive game collection with around 6000 games across different platforms. And yet this free2play game is the one that I spend the most of my game time in. (I have played for thousands of hours. But I generally do so in the client downloaded from DE's website. So that is why I only have 18 hours registered at the time of writing) So considering this game is actively keeping me from playing other games how come?

The first thing that comes to mind is that Warframe is a power fantasy and it just makes me feel cool when doing cool stuff in game. Second it is a free 2 play game which is done right. I have started a second account where I get the platinum (the premium currency) exclusively by trading ingame items for it. And not only is it very possible. I actually find it to be the most enjoyable way to play to a degree where my first account where I do spend money is now the one I spend the least time in and sort of consider secondary. Third I love the fact that I can sort of play however casual I want since the game is apart from Conclave (the most dysfunctional part of it bar none. It is VERY hard to get a match going) is strictly PVE. So if you come for PVP you WILL be disappointed. If you come for PVE this game is for you. Fourth the game has an awesome story and has an awesome amount of lore.

The game is certainly not without its faults though. The new player experience is somewhat rough. The first couple of hours are reasonably bread crumbed. But the game leaves you to pick your own path WAY too early and with way too little help. So this is a game where you will need preferably another player to guide you on the journey or alternatively to look up some tutorial on youtube. iFlynn has an awesome one that is at least somewhat recent. And while not exactly the most crashprone game I have played it does definitely crash from time to time and connection issues are rampant and you will probably end up getting thrown out of a mission from time to time and having host disconnects even more often. And having played for around four years with it as my main game there are some bugs that still crop up mainly when it comes to the UI that also popped up when I started.

So to sum up Warframe has an awesome hook with really great gameplay but some quite hard to grasp game systems that are very poorly explained in game. So I would definitely suggest you try it. And if you do find the gameplay intrigueing but find it a bit hard to figure out the mechanics then don't be afraid to ask for help. People are generally very friendly and willing to help newcomers.

I gotta admit that I have never really had any fascination with the Halo series compared to other FPS games. I find it somewhat generic. But the Master Chief Collection is a great deal no matter how you slice it. 5 games for less than the price of one of them when they originally came out. The remaster is not spectacular. But it works pretty flawlessly on my system. And even if I find them a bit generic I can't deny that the quality of both level design and game lore is pretty good. And considering the games were created for different generations of XBox and with a controller in mind being able to play all of them with a mouse and keyboard is a definite win.

The mechanics of the game are not too bad for a free to play game. But this is a mobile port to its fault. Basically the "features" that would be considered necessary for a mobile port in this PC version makes it very difficult to play the game. Mostly this has to do with mouse tracking. I can't count the number of times I have wanted to select a settler only to have the game level him up instead. And considering that you benefit quite a lot from waiting to level up until you have equipped an endurance boosting piece of clothing this is really annoying. You would think that having pinpoint mouse precision in a PC port would be a given. But no, not in this POS lazy port. Furthermore I have even tried to have it corrupt a save game when at a point the game crashed and when I tried to reload the game it just crashed again every time. Considering the time requirement to get anywhere (without paying out that is) that is a large amount of time going to waste basically because Bethesda don't do quality control.

Theme wise this is probably my favourite MMO ever. It is a theme that has only ever been explored sporadically in games and even less in MMOs. The implementation is sort of lacking in certain places. But that is not really my main issue. The main issue, and this seems to be a thing dogging pretty much everything Funcom have released to this day with The Longest Journey being a possible exception is general instability. I can't count how many times I have had the game crash on me. Often in situation where my character has died in the proces because I was close to an enemy when it crashed. I have spent quite a lot of hours in the game and most of it has been pretty enjoyable when it has worked. But the crashes are just way to frequent that I can recommend it to anyone without the patience of a saint.

Midnight Club 2 was never really an excelent racer. And these days there are plenty of better ways to spend your time. However the note about the game not supporting Windows 7 or Vista (basically anything past XP) just means you won't get any help from Rockstar getting it to work on newer systems. I have been playing it on both Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 10 with only small problems. The small problems basically consist of hitching during gameplay. Sometimes the games basically just locks up for a quarter of a second or something like that. For a racer that is pretty bad as it completely ruins the sensation of speed. I think you can probably find way better ways of spending your time racing on pc. Even if you are just into casual racing (as this is a very casual racer).

You might think looking at the graphics this is just your cutesy game about farming and that there is no real depth here. I think the game should come with a warning though. It is basically the closest thing gaming comes to crack cocaine. If you've got the time for it you'll get an awesome experience turning your little farm from a dump into a financial gold mine. A lot of the activities seem a bit naff. But you'll be surprised at how addictive fishing or mining can get.

Still the best Civilization game at least up until number 5. I haven't played Civ VI yet as I am a cheap ass who won't buy until it gets a sale. There are a couple of reason for this one being the best. One is that I find it a lot more accessible than Civilization V. There is less clutter and when it comes to the controls the square based map is just better suited for the numpad... And controlling with the mouse is a hassle. The second and to me far more important one is that Civilization V especially in the late games draws to an absolute stand still with the opponents taking their turns. I like big games on big maps with marathon length. In Civ 5 every computer turn takes 1-2 minutes meaning that an endgame of 100 turns (which is a conservative estimate) takes upwards of 3 hours of me doing absolutely nothing but waiting. In Civ 4 the computer turns on my system never takes more than 10 seconds meaning I spend a lot more time playing and a lot less waiting. I have heard Civ players telling me basically I'm too impatient. But if I can actually go make a cup of coffee between every turn in the late game I'm not playing a game. I'm drinking coffee with the game as sort of a distraction.