Recent reviews by cleantowels

I have played Horizon Zero Dawn on both PS4 and PC, and Forbidden West on PS5 for a few hundred hours combined across all systems. HFW fixes and improves upon every single flaw, problem, nitpick and issue I had the original HZD and delivers an absolutely solid sequel in almost every possible way minus a few personal caveats and gripes.

If you loved Horizon Zero Dawn, you will enjoy your time with Forbidden West. Absolutely a solid game 9/10 and 100% up there with the best open world action-RPGs.


I have an AMD 5800X3D w/ a 7900XT (AMD Adrenaline 23.40.19.01 drivers at the time of this review) and 32GB of DDR4-3200 G-Skill RAM. This game plays at absolute max settings with zero issues at all at both 1440p, and also at full native 4K without so much as missing a beat. Average FPS from the intro mission is 80-100FPS with effectively no stutter, lag, hitching, or massive frame-time drops/spikes. Nixxes Software did an absolutely solid port of HFW to PC and it shows.

For a launch day release this performance blows the PS5 away and is damn near perfect. If you can push the quality, the visuals exceed the PS5.


Without going into any spoilers or specifics, Forbidden West does a lot of things well and my gripes are by no means a slight against the game as a whole. This is going to be subjective to everyone and is mainly my own two cents. For the things HFW does excellent; it extends and continues the story of HFW, grows the lore of the world, has fantastic character interactions and growth. Lots of awesome cinematic moments and action sequences that really do well, and ofc really leaves you anxious to know more about the world and what is to come.

However, I feel like it falls off towards the third act of the game with the introduction of certain characters. Both in regards to the how/what/why of the certain secrets/motivations that are revealed for the overall plot and the characters(s) of the game. Certain characters feel underutilized or shoved off to the side, other characters feel extremely shallow or trope-y to the point of being very cheesy or don't feel as fleshed out enough.

Also certain plot elements feel like they were resolved too quickly or were hand-waved away for the sake of other aspects of the story. I don't know if this is good, bad or questionable.

With the way the game ended, in retrospect I am not sure if I like what is coming. It feels like it could go massively epic for Horizon 3, or if this potentially has the 'game trilogy problem' and we're walking into a into a Mass Effect 3 landmine.

If HZD was Mass Effect 1, this feels like Mass Effect 2 with all the good and bad. I am just hoping that Guerrilla has the ability to pull off the magic with Horizon 3.

• Animations are absolutely a night and day difference compared to HZD. EVERYTHING is better. No more stiff staring at you NPC conversations like Mass Effect or Dragon Age. People are animated and have detailed body language and facial expressions.
  
• Voice acting is even better.
  
• Menu options are AMAZING.
  
• Mouse and Keyboard controls are fantastic and sharp. I haven't used a Dualsense on PC, but the Xbox controller feels 'okay'. It could be my controller so YMMV.\
  
• The skill system is massively improved and has a lot more variety of options for play-style and utilization of the various in-game mechanics like stealth, traps, melee, ranged, and other aspects. If you have a particular play-style they found a way to accommodate unique skills and abilities to lean into that.
  
• Combat is massively improved both in the machine/human AI and how deadly they can be. The harder difficulties do not ♥♥♥♥ around at all.
  
  
  
  Armor
  
  The armor system is massively much improved over HZD. Whereas in the last game you just speedrun to the Shield-Weaver armor and call it day. HFW now has actual armor options that cater to certain play-styles with perks and benefits to augment those play-styles to wonderful effect. Similar to that of the weapons, there are multiple variations of armor you can choose from that are styled on the factions within the game.
  
  As you find better quality, the armor has better stats, more slots for adding in weaves, better perks, while also letting Aloy have massive drip. The best part is that you can transmog any armor piece and chose the visuals you want while maintaining the armor choice you need/desire. And the cherry ontop is you can choose from a multitude of color pallete options for each faction's armor.
  
  
• 6 faction styles of armor
  
• Armor options per 'faction' ranges across quality
  
• Between 5-11 different armor variations per faction for rough total of ~50 armor choices total
  
  
  
  Weapons
  
  Similar to changes made to Armor in HFW, the weapon system has had a massive overhaul. Unlike HZD where you had a simple upgrade path in weapon choices where 'new rarity weapon == better' and that new weapon had better damage, an additional weave slot, additional ammo options in addition to what you had before; HFW now adds multiple variants of a particular weapon type across all its possible qualities with those variations now having have unique stylized differing perks, effects, slots, damage, and ammo types.
  
  This is for Every. Single. Weapon. Class.
  
  
• 9 unique classes of weapons.
  
• The total number of weapons per class ranges from 7 to 22 different choices for a grand total of roughly 50 unique weapons in game.
  
• Weapons have some unique flavor text and the variants are typically designed with specific ammo types in mind that can be useful in SOME situations.
  
  
  
  
  The Annoying
  
  Most of everything I mentioned is good in principal and to a certain degree how its implemented in game for increasing weapon/armor options and leaning into augmenting the ability have a lot more play styles for the game; however in my opinion, it feels very much like it needed polishing and refinement.
  
  Unlike in HZD where you could immediate trash any lesser quality armor and weapons you ran across as the better quality items ones were direct upgrades to the lower quality options; in HFW you have the option to upgrade every single weapon and armor piece in the game at every quality level.
  
  
• Upgrades improve weapon/armor stats, unlock unique perks, add additional weave slots, improve better damage/resistances, etc at the cost of shards and machine parts.
  
• Expect anywhere from 3-5 upgrade levels per weapon or armor piece.
  
• The number of upgrade levels a piece of weapon/armor can get roughly depends on its quality. With increasing upgrade costs per level AND the better quality weapons/armor having massively increased costs and requirements of hard to get machine parts.
  
  
  So when put it all together, you have approx ~50 different armor and weapon options with 3-5 upgrade levels per item at sharply increasing upgrades per level and item quality. Which on the face doesn't sound bad; however the problem that makes it worse is that certain machine part drops are not guaranteed to drop every time and requires farming those machines ad nauseam. Which at harder difficulty levels becomes extremely more difficult due to modifiers that come into effect with regards to health and damage.
  
  Even if you were to just scope this to the Rare and Legendary weapons/armor; there is still an absurd amount of farming for shards and rare/unique machine parts if you want to upgrade all those pieces of gear to their best possible level. And when you are on Hard/Very-Hard/Ultra-Hard dealing with the improved combat; you need every piece of end-game gear at maximum to survive. Trust me I did this on PS5 and it took FOREVER.
  
  It's an okay system, but I feel like it could be improved to streamline weapon and ammo usage selection/utilization better, while minimizing the grindy-farming.

- You can pet the dog.
- You can have sex with everyone in your party.
- Your party make up effectively makes you an anime harem protagonist.
- Amazing attention to detail for level design, mechanics, sound design, game play and dialogue.
- absolutely hilarious ability to cheese and think outside the box your way around every situation.
- No micro-transactions
- No online requirement.
- No ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ excuses.


But most importantly...
- Your character can wear a cowboy hat.

This is one of the greatest RPGs of our generation and with a quality that is unmatched. This is how AAA content and game delivery is supposed to be done.

Game of the Year 2023. Larian you did it again.

The Dead Space (2023) remake is how a rebuild or remaster of a game should be done and used as an example for other games that wish remake older generation games, but keep the same original experience but improve it in every way possible.

Coming from someone who played the original Dead Space multiple times across many NG+ runs. This version is an improvement to the original in every way possible. The original Dead Space from 2008 is one of my all-time favorite horror science fiction games of all time and they some how made it better AND didn't compromise what the original game pulled off.


- This game is absolutely beautiful. The folks at Motive captured the style of the horror, mood and visual aesthetics of the Ishimura and made it look far better than I ever remembered. The usage of modern techniques of shadows, lighting, and fog within the ship are AMAZING. The ship is DARK, spooky and you can barely see ♥♥♥♥ in the game. The times when the quarantine biohazard alerts go off and the room immediately drops into near pitch black with orange hazard lights barely lighting up the room makes encounters SO MUCH MORE panic worthy. The updated textures and models for not only characters, but levels as well truly encapsulate the scope and 'Alien' vibe of the game.

- A+ effort on the sound design. It’s a 2023 improvement across the board for everything. Weapons, characters, monsters, the ship, all sound exactly like I remember but with that much more fidelity and punch. Playing this on a 4K TV with a banging'5.1 system is an experience all its own. I would say you may want to tweak the balance levels to pull the music levels down a bit so character dialogue and other effects are more at the forefront; but that is more a personal preference than anything.


I significantly prefer the changes made to the story progression, characters, and the narrative changes. The narrative and gameplay progression within is expanded in a few ways that I feel is beneficial to the story at large and helps connect to Dead Space 2 in a stronger way. Obviously the big one is Isaac being able to speak to the other NPCs. As the story progresses this works to engage you more to the story, characters, and the mystery of what happened to the Ishimura and the horrors therein. Because of the inclusion of new NPCs and slight narrative changes, the gameplay/level progression differs slightly from the OG game, but in a way that stays very true to the core essence of Dead Space (2008) while at the same time giving it more depth and personality.

There are new NPCs present in the game, others are the same as we remember, others are tweaked a bit to accommodate the changes in the story/narrative/progression. However, their inclusion and changes in and to the game are not disruptive or hampering the story telling of DS. Their inclusions feel like natural extensions of the story and are not ham-fisted in at all.

- There is inclusion of minor story side-quests that Isaac can do for more story is good stuff and helps connect more to DS2.
- More text and audio logs from more crew of the Ishimura


I would say that the level designs of Dead Space (2023) are a strong match to the original Dead Space (2008); but improved in every way. The levels are more expansive, have more 'personality' to them, benefitted by the improvements in visual fidelity and development tools. Some levels are tweaked for the better with slight changes to layout to accommodate story or gameplay changes (IE: the inclusion of Dead Space 2 zero-g flight), others are brand new due to the story changes but still work and look fantastic.


- Inclusion of 'Dead Space 2' Zero-G flight is a massive welcome addition. Any original Dead Space (2008) gameplay areas, boss encounters, or sequences that had the original mag-boot-jumping-man sequences are entirely gone and replaced with massively better variant in the 2023 remake.
- The god-awful asteroid defense sequence of the original is gone and replaced entirely with a better version that is less rage inducing and extremely well done and makes sense to do so within the narrative changes of the game.
- Inclusion of the security clearance mechanic to allow you to backtrack more through and around the ship to scrounge for resources is a nice touch and a welcome addition.
- Weapon Upgrade Node Trees are entirely redone and way better. Weapons get better and special upgrades; all node slots are an improvement to the weapon. No more wasted spots.
- The game controls and plays exactly like I remember the original Dead Space (2008) played. I played with both an Xbox and PS5 controller and had zero issues. Controls felt tight and responsive.

- My system is a 5800X3D, 32GB of DDR4 3200 RAM with a 7900XT as of this review. I ran the game at 1440p Ultrawide at Maximum settings with very little issues. Even at max settings at was almost constantly above 60FPS in most areas, others would push into the 80-90s. Flipping on FSR 2.0 Quality mode and Dynamic resolution at times to see how that performed would improve those numbers. Given that it JUST RELEASED and drivers and game patching is to come down the line; expect even better tightening up of performance. Outside of weird green/purple shader lighting issues which come up randomly which is probably more a driver issue than anything, I had no major graphic issues, bugs or problems with very good and very strong high FPS performance across my entire playthrough.

Summary

- 10/10 REMAKE. If you own the original Dead Space (2008) and love the original, buy this and you will be massively impressed and enjoy yourself.
- If you have never played Dead Space. BUY THIS.

This is how remake should be done. Massive applause and kudos to the folks at Motive for knocking this outa of the park.

This is probably one of THE best indie games out since Minecraft. It is innovative and highly addictive to play once you get going. It is also by far one of my most favorite games to play because of its simple premise: Attempt to build and fly rockets into space and land on other planets.

Despite the label of "Early Access" Kerbal Space Program is by far one of the most "complete" and able games you can get as an Early Access choice.

If you like games that force you to think in order to accomplish a goal, then this is for you. That the game not so much "forces" you to utilize real world aeronautical effects and maneuvers to properly get your ships where you want them to go speaks volumes to the quality that goes into the development of KSP from the guys at Squad. If you are adventurous, the dozens of astoundingly popular and very high quality mods available greatly expand the capabilities of what can be done in KSP in a realistic approach to current and future space flight.

The Career mode allows people to easily approach the game from a beginner's standpoint and slowly gain experience launching into orbit as you gather science in order to further develop new and improved rocket parts on the tech tree.

If you just want to play around and watch the explosions of rockets in the pad or test out designs, then the Sandbox works great.