Recent reviews by Redmiles

Friend bought this game for me as I thought I wouldn't like it.
Now I really do like it with friends.

The de facto ghost-hunting game.

I AM NOT ENGLISH, NO GARAUNTEE THAT EVERYTHING WILL BE WRITTEN CORRECTLY.

Company of Heroes might be one of those RTS games that has set the status quo of RTS games for at least the mid 2000's and 2010's.

I bought this game in store back in 2006 when it launched for a short while. Played it almost every day, with my Xfire stats combined back in the time I got about 8000+ hours of playtime as of the time of writing this.
I remember fondly to have met quite some people on this game who I played together with a lot of times as well as trying out various mods.

This game gives me nothing more but good memories from the past, and when I play it, it still does!

I really recommend trying this game out for the price it has and I also highly recommend looking into the mods, especially Blitzkrieg Mod. It's still played and just makes the game more interesting.

Oh boy... Where to begin.
The performance of this game is quite ok in general. But once there's a lot of stuff going on it can tank, especially with playing against AI!

The game is just not optimized for current hardware and it shows. It isn't advisable to play on ultra shader settings since it also will use DX10 in that case, an graphics API that this game isn't solidly build on. Stick to DX9 e.g. high shader settings.

The graphics hold out quite well to this day considering the game is from 2006.
The details of the game considering units is also quite impressive considering when it launched, even the eyes on soldiers are animated. The animations in vehicles is great overal as well.

Mods are where the graphics can truly shine like with Europe at War or Blitzkrieg mod and the amount of artillery and overal carnage that can be created in a short time.

The sound design of weapons is a bit weak and dated. But it gets the job done.
The soundtrack of the game is IMO still the best in the series although I haven't listened to what CoH3 has to offer yet.

The gameplay is solid, the UI is intuative in usage and building defences on-map is a breeze. I find it a lot of more accesible to use than CoH2 does in that regard. At least when comparing vanilla to vanilla games.

The gameplay itself is not new, especially now, you just take a bunch of flags to hold down sectors for your own (side) which then will give you an income of three types of resources. Manpower, munitions and fuel. In where the second is for upgrades and the latter for building larger building and vehicles. Manpower is used for almost everything.

You can choose one of three commander trees/doctrines for your own which gives you certain benefits and units to send in the field to play with against the enemy.

The replayability of the game is, in my opinion, high. Countless of things to do on a map in terms of strategy.

Modding of the game is a breeze, especially with Steam now. Installing a mod and starting it rarely requires manually changing things. Do keep in mind to install the mods on the same directory as the base game. Also with Steam. Otherwise it will fail to launch.

The mods that are available are most of the time complete game conversions.
From modern combat to WW1 and in between. Blitzkrieg Mod is still being updated and played a lot. I truly recommend that one.
Europe at War is also quite solid as well.

Anti-Cheat

Can be helpful when massive bots, hacks and scripts are being employed.
For this game, that's not the case.
What it does instead is killing modders.
Killing framerate.
Killing customisability.
Thus, killing a community.

Got a value tip for the devs:
Go apply to EA, you clearly know just as well how to destroy a game.

Let me be very simple. Arma 3 is not only a milsim. The mods and all the content created by the community allow you to make this game to be whatever you want it to be.
Whether it's a great battle simulator, a cheap knock-off of GTA V (although, much better), a WW2 war crimes re-actment or an real-time editor and sandbox. This game has it all. And if it doesn't the modders will probably make it so.

Why buy CoD, Battlefield, GTA or any other game really. This game has it all.


Of course, this game has quite some issues in terms of performance. But that's easily forgetable. This game is most playable at 30 fps or higher and it highly depends on the scenario going on. I play IFA3 on my own servers with 50-120 FPS depending on what's going on. If I replay a D-Day scenario with over 300-400 units, planes, ships, canons and whatnot I can expect 20-30 FPS. That's normal.


Anyhow, feel welcome to join and go do great things. Join a server, make your own, make friends and do crazy ♥♥♥♥ like backflipping tanks with JBU's.

I recommend looking into Zeus mode as it allows you to do scenarios/stories dynamically with friends. There are great mods that enhance the experience and IMO if it weren't for Zeus mode this game would probably have died off long ago.

I AM NOT ENGLISH, NO GARAUNTEE THAT EVERYTHING WILL BE WRITTEN CORRECTLY.


Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-F Gaming with no manual overclocks
CPU: Intel i7-8700K with no manual overclocks
RAM: DDR4 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX at 2666Mhz (Designed speed and timings)
GPU: ASUS ROG STRIX GTX1080 with no manual overclocks
Storage: Windows on a Samsung M.2 960EVO 250GB, game on a Western Digital Black 4TB
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
The whole system ran under 60 degrees celcius whilst playing the game.

Okay, KCD in short is an unique gem that stands out of the other 'medieval' themed games.
KCD is set in Southern Bohemia during the early 1400's. It contains no over-the-top fantasy related elements such as dragons, unicorns, special races or anything of the sort.
KCD can be quite hardware demanding at times and feels somewhat bouncy ball when it comes to optimalization, mostly regarding what's seen on screen. Warhorse studios did improve the performance during updates though.
Dialogue and the story feel believable. Though some animations and parts of the game are somewhat flawed such as glitches or bugs. But those are extremely rare in my experience.

This being Warhose Studios's first game, I'd say they could never have done it better. A good, solid game without any shady moneygrabbing practices, although be it that some of the DLC's is somewhat pricey', that we sadly see becoming more and more normal in games.

KCD also was the last push for me to actually get back into the whole art of combat, something I had been into as a child years ago by visiting countless of so called 'living museums', and has been one of the recent causes for me to practice H.E.M.A. as a sport now.

The performance of the game, as stated earlier, can be somewhat like a bouncy ball.
During the day with clear weather in the fields the performance is quite great, I usually hit more than 60fps with everything set to very high at the least.
During bad weather you may see a small performance drop.
Entering the city of 'Rattay' can give quite a performace drop when looking down the streets.
During the night in cities the performance can drop due to the use of many fires thus lighting entities. Though, this was worse in previous versions. Warhose Studios has improved the performance on this part significantly.
As some stated, this game can crash. I had it once or twice.

The graphics of the game look amazing!
The forests in the game look the most convincing and realistic. More so than any game I ever played. Just taking a strol in the game can be quite relaxing when doing this in the forests.
The textures of the game look amazing too, very high in detail.

Now the less good part of the game is that textures pop-ins are quite often in the game, especially when visiting places far away or starting a new dialogue with an NPC. Now if this is a problem with the game or the engine, I am not sure.
The other part is that sometimes, but rarely, objects tend to fade away in long distances.

Now some unrealistic parts are shown too... Sparks during sword fighting when swords hit each other. I am sorry, that just doesn't happen every time...
Along with a few other things like this.

One thing I do not like is that everytime you hit your opponent's armor or sword is that you get metal sparks. This can happen, but it doesn't always happen. For me it really looks odd to see.

The music of the game is just rock solid. It fits well with the situation you're in at the moment that certain tracks play.
The ambient sound is convincing for the area you're in.
And combined with the graphics and the sound of nature, walking through forests has never been so amazing.

The design in the game, in graphical context, is pretty well done too. The buildings in the game look really like it's all build in the medieval times. Low roofs that petrude from the walls on rural building to protect the walls themselves from rain for instance.
The houses of people all are pretty well furnished, not over the top but not like piss poor either. Only the buildings that are of noble ownership, or from the church contain glass for instance. The way they let light through also make them look crude, nothing from todays quality.
Chapels and churches are well decorated, with pretty floor tiles and/or paintings from several holy figures.
The castles are realisticly shaped and logically too. No stray stares that would render the walls virtually useless.
Villages/cities all seem to be logically build. Coal burners normally are located near water, same for tanneries and bath houses.

The game, at least for me, really can feel very religious at moments. Especialy 'A women's lot' DLC struck me full of sadness when I had the bad ending for Johanka. Video to the bad ending
I couldn't accept it and did it all again for the good ending.
At other moments the game can feel very hostile to you. But sadly, this fades away as you've progressed very far in the game, whilst wearing strong armor.
The overal aura of the game convinces that this all takes place in medieval Europe.
The people you talk to and get to know for me felt like they matter and it breaks me to see them leave or die for one reason or another.

Gameplay wise, you got a solid base that you see in every RPG. E.g. inventory management, players stats and buffs, items that enhance said stats and buffs be it temporary or permanent.
What KCD does differently though is that for instance armor/clothing is layered that means wearing a breast plate can be combined with mail armor and/or a gambeson.
Armor in KCD also works as it should. When wearing plate armor you basically become a tank when being hit it basically negates all damage in 99% of the time.
Potions are hand crafted, although later you can make it automated. Making them manually can be tedious and time consuming.
One of my favourite abilities is to haggle, something you rarely see.
During fasttravel you have to wait till your character gets on the endpoint, during the trip you sometimes get events you can do or ignore. Them being advantageous or disadvantageous.

The combat is 'Okay'. It is rock solid, but it can sometimes be wonky. Especially on consoles I have heard.
With the mouse it can sometimes be hard too to get the correct strike angle but I guess that muscle memory and practice helps. I had a lot of difficulty in the beginning, but not so much any more now.
Combat is believeable. No excessive blood or instant kills on the chest while the enemy is wearing armor.
Special combos sometimes look wonky because it, rarely, happens that your character and the NPC clip through each other. It is a game after all.

-An easier way to practice combat or just fight for as long as you want. Owning 'From the Ashes' DLC will make you able to do this if you get a barracks. But having an option in the basegame would be awesome.
-Polearms! You can carry them in your inventory but not use them in combat during regular play.
-More DLC and stories, KCD is already full of story and lore. But I love to have more. Games are like movies for me. And I rather play a good like KCD than watching TV.
Now we have the modding tools so I hope and believe in the fullest that community is able to make a lot of good scenario's and stories that add well on the game.


Warhorse Studios has given birth to an amazing game with its up's and downsides during the years of development. Seeing a company not bending the knee to SJW's when receiving critique is what more developers should consider.
Warhorse Studios has hit the nail right on the head when making this as their first game. Well done!

I wish I could write more. But I hit my limit. :(

Abandoned. Simple as that.

I remember playing this game like 10-12 years ago at home where I borrowed the game on CD from a cousin.
Had tons of fun, both in multiplayer and the singleplayer.

Then finally bough the game a few years after in a retail store. CD game became bad and stopped working so bought it on Steam and soon Gamespy stopped. Now the game is reforged and still fun to play and to my opinion the best in the series.

Even played promo games on the internet, you know that archer game that contained ads of Stronghold 2?

The game still brings back a lot of good memories.


I'd say, buy it. It's worth the price and to anyone who has played the original Stronhold 2 on CD: Buy it, it hasn't changed gameplay wise.

Play OpenSpades instead. It's free and just as how the game was way back then.

This game has good memes and references. Really made me a laugh a lot.

Needs MOAR nudity and lewdness though if you ask me~

This review is based on my own experiences, don't let this review make you think that you will have the same experience as I have with this product! I simply made this review to try to be helpful in making your decision whether you'd like to buy this product or not.

I bought the Steam Link together with the Steam Controller on the 5th of june 2016 and I received them both at once on the 11th of June 2016 in the Netherlands.

I bought these two products while it had 30% off.
Overall, the Steam Link for its price isn't a bad product at all. If you want to have the comfort of gaming on the couch in FullHD with 60 frames a second you can do that with this product*.
*Depending on your connection e.g. wired/wireless, game and hardware experiences may vary.

Once I received the Steam Link I opened it up. The first thing you'll see is the Steam Link itself. It's a small, rectangular box with about the size and probably double the weight of an external hard drive. The Steam Link comes with 3 USB 2.0 ports, 1 100Mbit Ethernet port, an DC power input, HDMI output and build-in Wi-Fi (802.11ac) and Bluetooth 4.0.

The Steam Link comes with a flatband Ethernet cable, a HDMI cable, a, well designed, power block and four power plugs that can be removed and attached. The plug are:
- Type C CEE 7/16 (Europlug)[upload.wikimedia.org]
- Type G BS 1363[upload.wikimedia.org]
- Type I AS 3112[www.internationalconfig.com]
- Type A[a-bike.co.uk]
ALL PLUGS DO NOT HAVE GROUND PINS! Keep in mind that these images do not represent the actual plugs that come with the Steam Link. I couldn't find any images on the internet.
- All plugs that actually come with the package.[i.redd.it]

The set up was quite easy, mostly because I've watched unboxing and setup video's on the internet, plus my own experience with setting up hardware and peripheral devices.
To set it up you need to plug in the mains, plug in the HDMI cable from the Steam Link to the TV and plug in an Ethernet cable that is attached to the same network as your host computer. Keep in mind that the Steam Link gets an IP address just as a normal computer would get. And yes, it's also possible to configure an static IP address. Also, be sure that your Steam Link is in the same network segment as your host computer. This means that they should be in the same subnet and that the network should not be divided by a router.

After I have set up everything and plugged the power plug into the mains the Steam Link turned on by itself. I changed the channel of the TV to the right input and saw that the Steam Link was starting up and installing its most current build. After this I could choose a language. Right after doing so the Steam Link showed its own menu. From here I was able to change desired settings. I've changed the streaming settings to give the best image quality as possible. After that I added my Steam Link to the PC by entering a four digit pin-code into Steam onto the host computer.

Now everything has been set up and I was able to stream my games from my PC to the Steam Link.

Hardware/software this has been tested with:
Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-F Gaming
CPU: Intel i7-8700K
RAM: DDR4 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666Mhz
GPU: ASUS ROG STRIX GTX1080
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, Dutch (Version 1709, during tests)
Network: Cabled. Full 1Gbit connection. (Yes I know that the Steam Link only has 100Mbit)
The whole system has adequate cooling and no components exceed 60 dagrees centigrade.

The overall video-quality of the stream is great (In my experience)! It was just like I was watching a FullHD TV program or that I was actually behind my own computer screen. Yes, I even attached my PC directly to the TV and yet again, no difference noticed.

Games I tried on the Link so far:
Alien: Isolation
Audiosurf
Broforce
Europa Universalis IV
Grand Theft Auto V
Monaco
Mount & Blade: Warband
R.U.S.E.
Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad / Rising Storm
Rise of Nations: Extended Edition
Running With Rifles
Slime Rancher
Sniper Elite III
Super Hexagon
Terraria
The Witcher 3
Viscera Cleanup Detail
Wolfenstein (2009)
Wolfenstein: The New Order
MORE TO COME!

I've extensively tested some games. Here's a summary of what I experienced:

Besides gaming the Steam Link can be used to watch videos on YouTube just like a Chrome Cast, listen to your music within Steam and much, much more. This device enables you to get all the functions of your PC to another screen without having to move the PC itself.

Pros:
- Any controller possible to connect to it. If you have bought VirtualHere you can also connect other kind of input devices like old very old controllers/joysticks.
- Makes you able to play your games anywhere in the house without needing to move the PC or get a HDMI, USB and other cables all the way through your house.
- Lower power usage.
- Build-in dedicated decoder for your streams.
- Great for multimedia purposes.
- Being able to control your whole PC when you minimise Steam Big Picture mode.
- True FullHD at 60 frames per second.
- Easy to set up.
- Accepts multiple inputs via xinput. (If the game supports it)

cons
- Visual artefacts/compression when a lot of traffic goes through the same cable.
- Not suitable for all games.
- Sometimes makes a game slower than that it would be on the PC itself.
- Wireless can be slow with low quality. (If 2.4GHz is used)
- If Steam crashes, you need to go back the host and start it again.

Well, yes and no.
Yes, I do recommend it if you'd like to experience your games from the couch instead of your desk. And yes, also if you want to play with multiple people at home like on a console.
But no, I do not recommend this if your PC isn't beefy enough to properly encode the stream whilst playing a game at the same time. E.g. GTA V, Witcher 3 and Wolfenstein: The New Order


I hope this review has provided you with enough information. But keep in mind, this review is my own personal experience.