Recent reviews by Morbid Chef

Me and my mates held back for 1½ years before taking chances with Darktide, given it's poor reception on launch and a fairly long time after that. I find Darktide pretty good in it's current state. While the game lacks some of the 'oomph' that it's sibling Vermintide 2 has, it can stand on it's own two legs. Overall a solid 4 player co-op with some ways to go. Dev cycle seems slow though, so getting 'there' is bound to take it's time...

Environments look fantastic, which is easy to forget at times, with people being constantly on the move and focused on the goals instead of sight seeing after all. Sound design and music are as good as one expects them to be, no complaints on the voice actings side either. Huge props to the fella who did the cartoon villain voice, it's a riot.
Haven't had any persistent performance issues. An odd crash here or there, friends encountering a few disconnects and crashes as well. Nothing too serious. Although, I can bid farewell to raytracing, which somehow simultaneously can have high, >100 FPS (with FSR 3.1) but translates into noticeably sluggish gameplay experience in this game for some reason. Unlike Vermintide 2, this game worked out of the box with Proton, which was a very pleasant surprise.

The classes seem varied enough (having tested 3/4 by the time of writing), and are suitable for their tasks. The game tends to lacks explanations on how do some things work, so you're bound to look things up in retroactively or alternatively, relying on the good ol' "emperor protects" and just winging it. Weaponry is a mixed bag, because there's inevitable overlap especially with the ranged options. Melee options do their job fine though, and doesn't stray from the tried-and-true VT2 formula... Except by having chainblades and chainaxes!
While it's relatively minor and not relevant in the grand scope of things, some of the arenas feel silly. Everything needs constant repair, confirmations through pressing a button, holding our ground until the same needs to be done at some other location. It's good to have variation instead of just felling hordes in one place, but at times RNG makes it feel nothing more than being an errand runner... Not sure how to fix this. I don't blame to the devs for trying to solve an age old problem of having variety, and by forcing players to move instead of just hunkering down at same locations. Could it be better, or am I just bellyaching over silly things?

Overall, it's a recommendation from me, but you might wait for sales to be on the safe side. It's a safe buy when it's -50%, which it just happens to be at the time of writing.

The game itself deserves a recommendation. While some mechanics and design choices are somewhat half-baked or even outdated, the game has solid writing, amazing graphics, sound and meticulously crafted world with it's innumerable details. It's packed to the brim with atmosphere. The open world and side content was my favorite game play-wise, as story missions tend to funnel the player into very strict boundaries on how to achieve whatever needs to be done. No experience with Red Dead Online.

The real beef which I wish to address is with the mandatory "Rockstar social" always online component - and the account tied to it. Please, I'm just trying to enjoy an asocial single player experience! Anyhow, this software tumor nearly prevented me from playing this game that I had paid for.

I can't verify some details as Rockstar never explained what happened, but in essence, they had my Steam account linked to an Rockstar social account, that was supposedly registered to my defunct email address - which had been gone for years. It shouldn't have been possible as RDR2 was my first Rockstar game since GTA 3, and that wasn't always online. Steam refund window was already closed, so I had to climb obstacles and jump through flaming hoops to get my steam account unlinked and then relinked to my current email address.
This whole ordeal took days overall, and was a stark reminder of always online single player requirement being cancer - and I refuse to buy any of it's ilk from now on, even if such games could rival RDR2 in quality. The few service outages, which also prevented me from playing this game were the cherry on top of this decision.

TL;DR: Game good, always online bad, make your own educated decisions.

Solid build engine shooter.

I'm somewhat late into Riichi City, but my current initial impressions are pretty good. Not sure how bad things were during the initial launch - other than from random comments what I came across - but it seems alright for now, even with the rough patches here and there (none directly related to the gameplay, fortunately). Those botched first impressions might contribute to a smaller playerbase than what might've been, but then again, what can you do.

It's fair to say that RC is an "MJS clone", being a mahjong client with gacha elements, but it does some things better than it's "predecessor". Gameplay feels snappier and transitions between scenes feels faster overall (say, from agari to scoring etc). So far, seen no characters who take forever to list their yaku, and there's been no excessively long win animations for instance. This might be subject to change, we'll see. I find the romaji versions of yaku names a plus, something which MJS still hasn't achieved, and thank god the 'mascot characters' aren't a an earsore unlike that effin cat.
Can't say much of the gacha side of things.

As for minute details of the mahjong rules used in ranked, rinshan pao is a somewhat peculiar choice, but I've no problems with it. Instant kandora reveal is alright as well, same as EMA ruleset uses. Otherwise, rules are in line with other platforms. Personally, I could've even taken atamahane, but alas, world is not fair.

Then come the negatives, which are in most part somewhat minor in the grand scheme of things and will likely be ironed out in the long run. Translation is generally fine, but there are still some untranslated elements here and there. UI is serviceable, but the menus can get confusing - and for some reason I struggle to find a back button from some of these menus. Fetching rewards from several separete submenus can get kinda tedious. Connectivity is a worry, I constantly get 1-2/3 'bars' even with a stable fiber connection, but thankfully, I haven't encountered any connection losses yet.

Statements about cheaters are just some sore losers venting their frustations, riichi mahjong is a variance heavy game and no matter the platform, ridiculous things happen. Trust me, I'm an expert masochist who's been at this silly game for 12 years (on and off).

On a more preference side of things, it's somewhat sad that RC is just another waifu gacha game. World could've used an alternative option with much more muted visuals with, multilingual interface with less drab looks than what, say, Tenhou provides, but it's understandable that anime booba brings in money (and possibly players). It is what it is.

As closing words, Riichi City is a perfectly viable option to become frustrated at riichi mahjong. Steam client was a very good choice from the devs and is much appreciated. Things will surely be polished as time goes on. Hope the community can keep growing.

An overall improvement over Yakuza 3, especially in regards to combat, with new characters to play as. For better or for worse, it's more Yakuza - doing familiar side activities in Kamurocho, engaging in various substories in between bouts of crime drama. A true and tried formula.

I really can't add anything that other positive reviews have already said, so I'll leave it at this: for me, it's likely the game that won't be surpassed by any other. While this stance is pretty desolate, I'm truely happy that I got to experience this game. You should experience it as well.

It's a decent riichi mahjong client for offline play. As other reviewers have already stated, multiplayer is pretty much deserted unless you bring your own crew. It could use a bit more more tweaks and options, such as being able to enable the wall, dealer noten pass and such, but overall it works as intended. Not all mahjong clients need anime visuals.

Everything that EA does, I try to avoid like the plague, but Command & Conquer... It took a lot of positive reviews to convince me otherwise. In the end, I have to admit, it's a damn good remaster.

Great fun once you get into the groove, which the fantastic OST helps, but overall ... time is not a kind mistress. Pathfinding is absolutely atrocious and cause of much blood pressure fluctuations. I also didn't remember how ruthless and unfair some of the missions are, especially when it comes to Tiberian Dawn.

But that's how a remaster should be. It didn't try to reinvent the wheel, it just made it look, sound and operate better on modern hardware. If you ever had a thing for these games back in the "good days", do yourself a favor and buy a copy.

This entry should be a nobrainer if you like the Yakuza storyline. However, this being a faithful remaster, it does pose a different kind of experience to the more modern experience that was present in Yakuza 0, Kiwami 1 & 2. While I haven't played 4 & 5 as of writing this review, I have the suspicion that 3 is the low point of the series overall. Even with that said, it's worth playing if you're into these games.

My main gripe is definitely the combat - enemies are way too efficient when it comes to blocking (and dodging, in some cases). The combat itself isn't all that varied, but in a true Yakuza fashion, heat actions and comboing enemies to oblivion (when they don't parry everything) feels satisfying as it should. I found the story to be serviceable, but not the most memorable around. Activities and substories are good fun overall.

Overall, it's definitely a product of it's time, just like a true remasters are - but with fresh paint on top. All the issues can be circumvented in a way or another. You can learn to accept, maybe even love the game's flaws as they are.
... Except the hostess maker minigame, which boring AF. If you're not doing a completionist run, avoid it. The rewards and the gameplay loop are trash.

Some time down the line, HLL will eventually alienate some of it's playerbase. Strictly as shooter, the gunplay is somewhat bare bones and devs give no guarantees on what's to become - whether they'll be going towards more realism or keep the current weightless arcadey combat is anyone's guess, because they don't seem to be willing to share their vision on what the game will become. Regardless, if they do changes, players who like status quo will be angry, and if they don't do changes, players like me will finally have enough.

Devs also seem to prioritize having more features instead of fewer but better polished features - some major grievances are left unresolved for months. Yet naughty symbols in uniforms are hotfixed into the oblivion the moment those are noticed.

Overall, HLL is like being blueballed. It keeps showing promise and keeps you invested, but waiting never seems to pay off. The longer you tag along, the more pain you'll have to endure. Which is a crying shame, since HLL could be so good.

It's still work in progress, so I might revisit this review later. Although, considering that they've dropped any mentions of "realism" from the game descriptions, and that they're trying to push for a full release later this year, I have to curb my expectations.