Recent reviews by SpiderMax

Just overall great video game. Great story, great writing, great voice acting and great gameplay. Swinging is just super fun, I barely used fast-travel at all. Combat stays inteteresting as you level up and start unlocking new abilities. Many of the abilities can be combined in interesting ways that are not always very obvious, so experimenting is encouraged and rewarding. I played on the second hardest difficulty and found it challenging, but nicely balanced.
The DLC introduces new challenges aside from a new story. These new challenges are good on paper, but tend to get rather frustrating. Often you are just overwhelmed by a cheer endless amount of enemies and some of the new abilities of these new enemies are just a pain to deal with. For example, the DLC introduces minigun armed fat-guys (I dont know how to call them. Maybe brutes?). One of their minigun attacks is just about impossible to dodge with the dodge button. Instead, you need to jump, but when you are being swarmed by enemies and the spideysense tells you to dodge, it is often impossible to tell that it was a minigun attack which you can't dodge. Then there are new jet-pack guys which block your abilities and are armed with shields on top of that.
Now add Screwball's photobombs on top of that and you have a recipe for rage. The key is to stay out of thick groups of enemies and look for separated individuals to thin out the overall amount of enemies.
Also, if I hear the word "Maggia" just one more time, I will lose it...

If you like Spider-Man, this game is a no-brainer. If you liked the Arkham games, you will probably like this one too as it is clearly inspired by them in some aspects. To me, there should be no reason not to play this game. The story has a nicely tied up ending, so if you dont gun for the achievements, you can skip the DLCs imo. The base game is perfectly balanced and should provide a great experience.

GTA IV was and still is the best GTA to this day. From its more grounded story to its darker themes and less over-the-top ridiculousness especially when compared to GTA V.
To keep the game on storefronts, Rockstar had to patch out a few songs off the radio with Vladiostok being hit the hardest and just one song remaining on the roster. Missing songs were replaced by new additions though. Additionally, online mode was patched out, which is unfortunate, especially since it was a lot of fun back in the day. The achievements for the online mode were cut as well, now that they are unachievable (Did anyone ever get the achievement for killing a Rockstar employee on the game?).
At launch GTA IV on PC was notorious for its bad performance. Nowadays it is hard to judge, but on my modern PC it ran fine, with just one instance of the FPS dropping to 40 that I remember. Games for Windows Live has obviously been removed, but the game requires a Rockstar Social Club account now. Aside from that, I had maybe three crashes to desktop in my almost 60 hours to 100% on GTA IV.
Other things I want to mention are that cars still drive “different” and the weird physics with curb stones. Car suspensions are incredibly soft, making the vehicles feel heavy as a result. Personally, I always enjoyed driving in this game, but I can see many people having their problems with it. Curb stones on the other hand tend to annoy the crap out of me, especially on motorcycles. It is not rare for Niko to get stuck on curb stones when trying to drive on a sidewalk. Depending on the angle this can either send you flying upwards, or make you slide along it as if you were grinding against a wall.
Also, should you increase the vehicle density in the graphics options, you will notice the NPC pedestrians behaving strangely in certain areas with the bridge connecting Broker and Algonquin being the most frequent of places you will notice this. Cars will drive in their lane before randomly switching lanes, driving into other cars, blocking the player or just straight up driving into the wall. Also, NPCs will just park at the tollbooth and not drive through the gate unless you push them from behind. This often leads them to step out of their cars and attacking you, or you accidently drive a little to far, gaining a wanted star. I still played with max vehicle density just because the crowded feel of Liberty City was much worth the few incidents on the bridge.
A huge fun factor in GTA IV are its physics. I wonder why they dialled back the physics in V by so much, but it is a real shame. Cars get smashed into unrecognizable potatos, Niko stumbles when he lands after a high drop and water looks better than its 5 year newer successor. Opponents crawl to safety when downed and can stumble when shot. Ragdoll effects are not necessary more realistic, but they look fitting for a game and it is fun, which is most important.



DLC

After writing this review I also finished the two DLCs, The Lost And Damned as well as The Ballad Of Gay Tony.
TLAD is pretty much just okay, with nothing standing out too much. The only real thing to note here is that Rockstar must have written many of the characters extra insufferable and annoying on purpose. Really, the club leader Billy and his side kick Brian are the most annoying, illogical characters in any videogame (slight exaggeration), even though that is part of what drives the story forward for Johnny, the protagonist of the DLC.
TBOGT however is one of the best parts of GTA. The game is a little crazier than the main game and the first DLC, featuring many missions where you fight off huge waves of enemies with machine guns, explosive shotguns, bombs, tanks and more. It marked a beginning for where GTA was headed with GTA V, though to be fair, the original 3D trilogy was just as over-the-top with many missions. A personal annoyance of mine is the introduction of mission ratings after each mission. These might add replay value for people that like to perfect their scores, but for me, it almost always leaves me with a feeling of “insufficientness” when I don’t get the perfect score. On top of that, seeing a big scoreboard pop up after a cutscene is an immersion breaker I could live without.

There are no heroes in war. A story about a rescue mission gone wrong and not knowing when to stop.

pretty junky and not much to do. one of those cheap racing games which might have a passionate dev behind it, but there is nothing special to talk about.

10/10 graphics, 10/10 voice acting, music, atmosphere, acting and 10/10 story.. Facial animations are superb (except when Tommy dies, he pulls the weirdest faces, but whatever).
Achievements are very doable if you dont mind checking a map online, but while clearing the map I noticed there were many places in the city that were beautifully detailed, but never featured in the story.
My only gripe with Mafia is that the controls are a bit clunky in hairy situations like when you get flanked by policemen or other gangsters. Opponents do much damage and it is difficult to quickly turn towards unexpected goons and reliable finish them off. Keeping your distance and approaching fights cautiously usually brought better results than going for risky strats.
Driving on simulation feels challenging and rewarding when you just about pull a drift on skinnier tires than modern motorcycles. The infamous race is back of course, but I finished it first try on normal difficulty, so I am not sure if they improved car driving in the remake or if they just made the race easier. I have yet to try the classic difficulty, so maybe I will get to suffer like people did back in 2002; we will see.

Edit: So, I finished the game on classic and the race was not as bad as I thought, but definitely harder on classic than on normal. Still, not impossible. It took me two tries I think. However, the mission "Election Campaign" and "Death of Art" were proper challenges and will take you multiple atempts.

Overall, a solid 9.5/10

Always fun with friends. Super chaotic and random. Prepare to shout more than you ever expected.
Includes special rules like switching hands with another player when you play a 7 and such which make the game much more interesting than the basic rules everyone played as a child.

Great game overall, even if it is on the shorter side. (Game took me around 4-5 hours to leisurely complete and 1h45min doing a speedrun.)


You play as a cat and the goal is to find a way out of a dystopian city inhabited by robots. Rather than having an open world, the game is structured in a classic way that you finish a level and move on to the next one after that with the occasional side quest on the way and collectibles in each chapter. There are two levels that feature a small open world section each, but I wouldnt call the game open world as I have seen others do.

For those that wonder how a story could look like in a game where you play as a cat: You might be positively surprised by its potential to make you feel real emotions. 😀 The nameless feline protagonist is accompanied by a little drone B-12, powered by an AI which helps with translating the robot citizens of the city and hacking the occasional door (Don’t worry, there is no annoying hacking minigame). There are several characters, many you will quickly grow fond of. Their animations and facial expressions shown on displays for faces give each of them a distinct character. Whether it is the annoyed store owner that cleans the floor of the road in front of his store or worker that waits for his coworker who drunkenly passed out in a nearby bar, you might have caused some of their issues, but you sympathize with them.

Each level features multiple puzzles which are not too difficult but don’t solve themselves either. Some solutions are more obvious than others, but they could be a bit harder overall imo. Gameplay is rather basic, which does not hinder the entertainment factor. Think of it as a chill game to relax to, or maybe introduce it to a non-gamer friend who might be intimidated by games with more complex mechanics. Still, there are a few tense moments where you are chased and one level in particular was rather creepy. Otherwise Stray is a wholesome game that can be enjoyed by most people.

The PC port seems to be good from what I can tell. It does not require the latest hardware, but still looks great. Personally, I played it on a RTX3070 graphics card and a Ryzen 3900x CPU, which is way overkill for this game, even on the highest settings. I had zero crashes and only noticed one point in the game where it stuttered when I picked up a certain item. The rest of the game ran with a solid framerate.

The achievements are not too grindy but require a bit of effort. Personally, I like easy achievements, that still force you to do things that you would otherwise maybe skip, such as scratching on a couch or carpet in each level or doing silly cat things which I do not want to spoil. One achievement has you trying to complete the entire game within two hours which was surprisingly easy once you played the levels one or two times, looking for collectibles. I am not a fan of grindy achievements such as do X 5000 times, which are not featured in Stray, fortunately.

Coming into the game, the hype was real. At the time of release, social media has been flooded with Stray content, but it lives up to the craze. I am happy to say that my high expectations have been surpassed. Stray is a fresh and fun addition to any gaming catalogue that stands out among the shooters, battle royals and action adventures.

Put on headphones, dim the lights, turn up the volume, rip and tear until it is done.

Fun little game. Currently, there are only three levels with multiple stages, but the gameplay is kind of addicting. There are several items and weapon types, some more useful than the others. Defintely worth the money, especially since the game just came into early access and will likely receive updates.

Nice Story, riesige Welt und spaßige Kämpfe mit einem relativ umfangreichem Levelsystem. Die Hauptquestreihe kann in etwa 60 Stunden beendet werden und daneben gibt es eine Menge an größeren und kleineren Nebenquests, wovon die meisten sehr Abwechslungsreich sind.

Nach Kämpfen bekommt man oft neue Rüstungen oder Waffen gedropt. Diese Items werden einem zuhauf zugeworfen und es reicht, wenn man sich alle fünf Level vielleicht mal seine Ausrüstung ansieht. Es gibt auch ein simples, gutes Transmogsystem, mit dem man das Aussehen der Ausrüstung separat vom Item einstellen kann. Man muss also nicht wie der größte Depp aussehen, wenn man die besten Stats haben will.

Die Story bei Assassin's Creed war noch nie wirklich realistisch, aber in Odyssey trifft man so einiges Mythologisches Wesen. Der Fantasy-Faktor ist deutlich spürbar (und das ist auch gut so). Oft trifft man auch große Persönlichkeiten der griechischen Antike, wie den Philosophen Sokrates ("Ich weiß nur das ich nichts weiß."), Perikles, den Vater der Demokratie, oder den Historiker Herodotos. Für interessierte Lohnt es sich auch mal Nebencharaktere zu Googlen. Ich war überrascht, als ich erfuhr, dass eine Frau der man in einer Nebenquest hilft, ihren Sohn bei den Olympischen Spielen zu sehen wirklich gelebt hatte (Stichwort Kallipatira).

Das einzige, was teils auf die Nerven ging, ist das Kopfgeldsystem bei dem man des öfteren mal von Passanten angegriffen wird, weil diese auf das Kopfgeld aus sind.