Recent reviews by suntanna

Having discovered this after the Astride early access debacle, Ranch of Rivershine is absolutely fantastic. It's everything I've wanted in a horse game. Training, competing, farming, the core gameplay loop is all set and it's fun. The bugs aren't rough enough to ruin the gameplay experience. Can't wait to see how this improves post-early access!

While this is presented as a "pre-alpha" early access release, saying that it's early access or pre-alpha is generous. It's not worth $25, and as a Kickstarter backer I'm feeling honestly ripped off.

The Good:
-the movement is good given that no mo-cap has been used.

The Meh:
-the horse creator tool works, but the whiskers are seriously weird looking and the horses always have weird lighting
-the controls take some getting used to, but once you have the hang of them they're fine (although I couldn't figure out how to back up, and there's no tutorial on how to do anything in this). Not all of the controls work at all times, such as the inability to jump unless you're on a specific spot on the course, but that (I assume) is going to change.

The Bad:
-no tutorial at all, no information about key mapping in the settings, nothing.
-the video presented for the Kickstarter had WAY MORE TO IT than this EA 'game', and way more to it than the current game trailers. If you're expecting EA like the ones in the DemoFests, keep moving.
-Given that this EA is 6 months late (not a surprise, game development rarely meets deadlines, especially indie) I expected at least a rider demo. I expected at LEAST as much as what was in the Kickstarter video.
-there was music in the Kickstarter trailer (and at the time THREE published tracks); they've released several parts of the soundtrack since, but there is absolutely no sound in this EA. No ambient sound, no soundtrack, just mutely riding around the jumping ring or dressage ring.
-The core gameplay loop can't be demo'd presently. It was advertised on the kickstarter as being able to train and show your horses, plus purchase and renovate your barn, and have a storyline to it too. None of that is part of the EA experience. This feels like pure play test, and honestly shouldn't be on sale at all at this stage. No one should be paying for the privilege of play testing a game. It should be available for free currently, and then a real EA one should be made available at the $25 price point.

This feels like the team has grossly over promised what they're capable of doing with their current team and timeline. I had a lot of confidence in the team with the Kickstarter updates I was receiving. Now I'm having No Man Sky deja vu.

ETA: I was given a full refund of my kickstarter backing from Raidho.

A beautiful, cathartic, and sometimes painful story that begs the question: what do we want to do with our lives, and how do we want to be remembered in death?
The mechanics are simple and satisfying, albeit there are times when the game can be a tad repetitive. The story is excellent and completely worth playing.

I love the 2 hours I was able to play of this game. It crashed several times the first time I opened it, which I blamed on a driver needing updating. But this is the second time I'm trying to play and it crashes before world generation can happen.

Go play Equilinox instead. It's slower paced and no combat, but at least it doesn't crash.

Wingspan is an awesome board game and I love that there is a PC version. That said, the tutorial is...not great. If you haven't played the board game, this might be a bit difficult to grasp what all you're supposed to be doing. I also find that the cards in hand are very sensitive, making it sometimes easy to click on the wrong card. But that all aside, it's a fantastic and extremely educational game!

Awesome 4x game. I love the fact that there is so much to do. The quests mean that even when I'm losing a family multiplayer session, I'm still having a ton of fun. There is a LOT to learn to play it well, especially if you've never played a 4x game before, but it's well worth learning.

Extremely chill, casual and enjoyable game with tons of replay-ability. It's slow paced and honestly I love that I can forget to pause it, walk away to grab a snack, and come back to find new random mutations. As someone who suffers from serious bouts of brain fog, this is one of my go-to games to play during flares. Highly recommend it!