Recent reviews by Mauru

Quite the amazing apocalyptic fantasy roadtrip. Great art-direction and the story really sells the doom and gloom. The difficulty is also pretty spot on (hard difficulty is a real nail-biter).

An interesting variant of the 4x genre in a fantasy setting. Unfortunately it feels a bit like the makers could not really decide if they wanted to pull off a rpg or strategy game which leads to a lot of unrealized potential. The single-player games feel very "random" in the sense that its hard to tell if the AI can actually pull off any kind of strategy which was a deal-breaker for me.
Bottom-line: I really tried to like this game, but this is not the fantasy civ I was looking for :-(
Maybe multplayer is fun?

Pillars of Eternity is a throw-back to the golden days of isometric RPGs ala Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate, though it ditches the D&D ruleset and setting for its own fresh universe.
I found the storyline a bit lacking tbh, (not for lack of good writing mind you - it's more like they tried TOO hard) and some components like the shop system and the player-owned keep feel like they could have used an extra-layer of polish, but the realtime-pausable combat system is solid and the variety of availiable classes and skills to develop your party with will make the experience worthy of a second playthrough even after the lengthy campaign reaches its conclusion.

What a superbuggy mess- Graphical glitches asside (still raining in houses after 3 versions, prepare for the "superbloom", poor hardware support) - you essentially get stuck on 2px high bumps in the terrain, on door-frames and pretty much everything else and it happens a LOT.

The game feels as if somebody forgot to generate a collision mesh, let alone test it (you literally get stuck on the first entrance to a house you have to walk into, so there really is no excuse).
One would think after 3 versions and multiple itterations of their engine Crytec would finally know how to at least get basic movement code in singleplayer right. Don't even get me started on the gameplay or AI.

What a disappointment.

While still in beta (yes, they call it gamma, but there are still a lot of rough edges) this is exactly the rts I was waiting for.
The planet mechanics (not necessarily the planet-"smashing" as much as the fact that you are playing on round maps instead of a flat surface) are what make this stand out and the focus on macro-strategy instead of micromanaging individual units and their actives mean that tactical wits > clicks per second.
Matches last somewhere between 30 minutes to an hour so it is "casual"-friendly, though there definately is a learning curve if you don't have any experience with its ancestors (forged alliance, total annihilation).
Highly recommendable, even in its current state.

A real surprise!
This is basically single-player supreme commander with way better unit control, endless replayability ... and in space ... errr ... anyway.

There is no PVP in this game - it is more about seeing how far you can get until you get stomped by the computer. Oh! and it does have multi-player co-op!

The game never really feels unfair, which is a feat in its own right.
There is a learning curve, but highly customizable difficulty settings make things bearable.

Matches can last a long time, but things hardly ever feel repetitive.

Give it a shot (you can probably pick it up for cheap) and let me know if you are up for a match.

This game is pretty much what diablo 3 should have been. Do yourself a favor and start on at least veteran to get the most out of it.

Endless hours "wasted". Hit me up for games.

DOTA2 is a highly accurate port/itteration of the classic Warcraft 3 Mod/Map "Defense of the Ancients".
If that triggers a memory then you can probably jump right back in.

This is arguably the most tactically balanced and nuanced stand-alone-incarnation of this gameplay-style (There are many other games like this).

You get paired with 9 other players to form two teams and matches usually last approximately one hour including setup-time.

The fun of this game is in learning its mechanics and using them in coordination with your team to outwit opponents on a match-making-like ladder.

This means the game's driving force is its competative nature, so be prepared to meet the internet in all its glory.