Recent reviews by Stiff

He smelled that girl
on the summer air
The Bear, the Bear
And the Maiden Fair


As one of nine potential rulers in the GoT universe, the Reigns style of game allows you to swipe left or right over decisions that can be made regarding the ruling of your kingdom, and praying hard that your chosen decision doesn't end your rule prematurely. This quite frankly, will happen a lot. Just like the series!

These decisions influence the four companies underpinning the kingdom's functioning, which are the Church, Military, People and Treasury. Each decison causes the meters to rise or fall, and should they drain or maximize, you'll meet your doom. Just to add to the anxiety, you don't get to know how the decision will influence the meters until you make it, so memory is key for this game.

With 300+ cards to discover, it offers a broad range of scenarios to playthrough, as long as your clever enough to further yourself through the game and survive. It does take a little bit to understand, especially if you've never played a Reigns game before, but once you've understood the mechanics and start to see common themes and cards appear, its easy to get hooked. I made the mistake of roleplaying for a few hours, before realizing that you really had to pay attention to what each of the factions required, and not your chosen character.

The soundtrack alone is also a beauty. Way too much nostalgia.

Recommended!

Changing this to not Recommended until they allow people to purchase each episode separately, and fix their writing. So let down by how its developing and how the company is handling its audience

Life Is Strange 2
Emotional, Atmospheric and Slightly Political?

The second installment of Life Is Strange begins strongly by encompassing the gorgeous visuals, soundtrack and playful dialogue which bring back that nostaligia from the first season for its familiar hardcore fans. While the newly introduced characters are somewhat limited as it being only the first episode, they regardless capture that loveable awkwardness which helps foster the beginning of an emotional connection to them. While I am generally skeptical of new stories with new characters, particularly due to how connected most of us were to Chloe and Max's story, it has been refreshing to get closure and welcome a new narrative.

While I enjoyed this game, it does fall short of what the first series brought us. And while it is the first episode, it feels like too much of a filler - as opposed to Max and Chloe's story which really sucked us into getting emotionally invested so soon.

Cons

• Politics- While I really wanted to love this game, this first episode feels as though its almost pushing an agenda. We can understand the need to to tackle certain hardships, but the political undertones are so predictable that they leave a sour feeling with me. The racist acts that the game is trying to showcase don't entirely mesh well with the scene, they feel forced and a little over the top (such as the old redneck at the gas station). Subtle, systematic discrimination would have been a little more interesting to play with, but all these over the top events make it feel as though theres an agenda (Just my feeling, don't crucify me)
  
  
• So far, the choices feel pretty linear. The first installation was less predicatble, in that although certain things were always going to happen no matter what you picked, you didn't feel like that was the case. In this episode, I feel like no matter what choice I make will only effect my character relationships, but to the point where I can easily fix them if need be. Permanent consequences is something I look forward to in the next episodes. Theres also certain areas where choices that could impact the story could be made, but the developers have kinda just forced you to follow their own narrative, such as not being able to keep the phone or having to go to Mexico. That's all fine, but it blue-balls you into thinking you have the choice to decide and then takes the option away.
  
  
• Bit Buggy - Graphics spazzed out a few times and the audio buffered a lot towards the end. Had a few others tell me the same. So eughck.

Overall, its a nice new installment, but considering how large of an impact the first game made, this story still has to prove itself. I hope that they've dialled down the political dramatics in the next few episodes now that the story has been set, but I'm somewhat doubtful. Worth the play, but not sure it's going to overtake its counter-part.

Couldn't sustain a good enough relationship with our desired partner...

Fk'd our fish instead.

10/10

Speak with your body, not with your lips


For a 0.49c game, I wasn't expecting a huge deal in terms of enjoyment but I was pleasantly surprised. A friend had already recommended it and I had a bit of small change not going anywhere, so it proved to be a good steal.

Whatchu Get

Despite being quite short, Flix and Chill comes with a good amount of content in each of the five awkward dates you run through. Through a series of choices, you can get laid like the cassanova you wish you could be, or more realistically end the date looking like a sad fool. The achievements are also easy to obtain at a minimum of 3 playthroughs, and have their own quirky impacts on each of the stories.

The only mild irritation is the prolonged opening scenes. It can feel quite slow especially if you're on your second playthrough. The main menu itself takes a while before it allows you to play, so once a playthrough is over, its just annoying. A restart button or a skip text button would be a nice tweak but its generally just a nitpick.

The minigames were a little tedious and the while the music was nice, the sound level could use some tweaking but overall the style is clean with good writing. For a dollar full price, you get your monies worth.

Good time killer while other crap downloads.

Don't trust the hipster

"Imagine Worms but with Tanks"

I found Shellshock Live after watching the Derp Crew screw around for a bit, and since then have found it sliiiightly difficult to let go of myself. It plays tribute to a lot of the older flash games, but remains current due to the one-man dev constantly updating the game with additional content that challenges hardcore and new players alike. The graphics are simple but bright and compelling, and the game offers hours of gameplay whether alone or with a group of friends.

An important aspect of this game that really entices me is the ability to upgrade everything. As you progress through 100 levels, tanks can be upgraded with new skills or parts, and new weapons can be unlocked. These weapons which are constantly being introduced can also be upgraded further to cause a outrageous amount of damage. Furthermore, the in-game store also offers a chance to purchase speciality themed weapons with "gears" that are earned throughout game-play. There are no micro-transactions which make this game stand out even further. Once you've brought the game, you own everything, which means people with a rich daddy can't get an advantage over you this way.

There are currently 8 game-modes available which respective challenges to keep people active on the servers. The aiming system is consistent and easy to get the grasp of, but new players can dive into the campaign levels to help level their tanks quicker and understand the mechanics before diving into multiplayer if they so choose.

Like all games, theres always going to be a group of party-poopers that tend to ruin the game for you. However due to such a large playerbase, you're likely going to meet some pretty rad players too, and you'll be able find more chill groups to play with. The in-game mute button also helps cease the cancer that might be pestering the current game, but you can use it as a tool to identify players before you allow them into your lobby for the next game. Rage-quitters and "Ruler" cheaters are always going to exist, so it would be nice in the future for more penalties to exist to combat this issue. Overall though, you're going to make friends whether you like it or not, because most people are pretty chill.


Shellshock Live is constantly changing for the better. Theres always new content, a great xp system, and overall fun people play with. I got it super cheap, but I'd be happy to pay a little more for the amount of fun I've gotten out of it.
Send Godrays Pls

>It's free
>The girls are cute
> Practically everything else


The thing that really turned me off this VN was the lack of effort put into the English translation. The story itself was already fairly generic, but had the writing been fleshed out a bit more before releasing, I could understand the glowing reviews it had somehow snatched up. I had only briefly skimmed the reviews before downloading it for myself, and I went with the assumption that there'd be a little more atmosphere and tension given that its a halloween theme, but that was a mild disappointment.

A huge part of a VN's essence stems from its ability to captivate a reader with engaging visuals and music, to which Trick or Treat didn't deliver. The background work felt lazy at times, and given that there was only art for two of the characters, it would have been nice for a few different facial expressions or movements. The music was overall okay, but didn't really add anything to the experience.

Since its free, its not a complete waste of time for those who are pretty hardcore about VNs. I'd recommend it as a good cure for really desperate boredom, but not if you're after something with a bit more impact. Perhaps later works might have more promise, but this VN was mediocre at best.

If you've got a spare 10 minutes, it's a pretty cute visual novel. The translations aren't the greatest, but the "Surprise" at the end makes up for it big time :') Easy achievements, and amusing experience.

Max, the crusher of spiders!
Or smasher.
Such a serious question :^)

Take a literal dump on society.

I feel like Seinfeld's soup nazi.

"No soup for you"

10/10

Edit: Episode Two is out. And I'm still in love. Hella Recommended

All re-aboard the feels train!

With only one episode out, this prequel met my general expectations. I was initially concerned with the new voice actors and writers given that I have a somewhat clingy attitude towards the things I love oh so much. But Deck Nine scored with the same beautiful soundtrack, slightly cringey but relatable characters, and the breath-taking art style that crafts Arcadia Bay.

Despite lacking the time travel feature that Max had equipped, we are introduced to a "back talk" mode which is essentially Chloe's way of getting what she wants, as expected of the rebellious teen she is. The new feature is a little amusing, but that's probably all the praise I can give it as it gets old pretty fast. At times, the insults feel quite forced/scripted, or are just trying waaay too hard to be witty which lost a few love points. The whole risk/reward of picking the correct responses were a little too easy as well. But who knows what the next episodes will hold?

The photography feature in the first LiS is also replaced to graffiting to further fit Chloe's character which is a nice addition, you can pick a few pretty neato quotes to plaster all over town and for achievement hoarders it's a quick way to 100%.

It was clear in the first LiS that Rachel played an extremely important role in Chloe's life, and this makes Before the Storm all the more enticing since its provides us with this backstory. Plus, aaaaalll the ♥♥♥♥ <3 With Max in Seattle and her neglect to keep in touch, we are drawn in by Chloe's underlying grief and need for human connection. This, combined with the revelations of David making his way in on the family hits so close to home that it is almost impossible not to get emotional. The roleplay with Steph and Mikey was also a really fun touch.

Overall, if you liked the previous game, you should probably get your hands on this. It's not going to rip your soul to shreds like Max's story did (for now) but its a really good start to the series. Unfortunately, throwing money at the screen will not bring episode 2 out quicker, so now that saddest part is a hella long wait.

10/10 would abandon Nathan again

I really dig this ^-^

Beautifully scripted and powerful, Sisyphus Reborn portrays the harsh nature of struggling to live in a meaningless world. Despite being roughly fifteen minutes long, its narrative of the meaning of life and the choices that can be made will leave you stuck contemplating your own existential dilemma.

This has made me embarassingly emotional, and I will gladly do it again :3