Recent reviews by Sylvia

Balatro is a game that I have bought on two different platforms, put time into on every control scheme available for, started to learn LUA so I can create mods for the game, and has made me absolutely love a game in a genre I tend to disagree with.

Balatro is not like other roguelikes in the sense that each failure genuinely feels like a failure for the player to predict an upcoming challenge, or choose the correct Jokers for a situation, or entirely misreading a situation. It offers tons of replayability, lots of decks that are even customizable within the gameplay loop, and opportunities for the player to learn entirely new play styles and techniques on the fly. When you first start you will feel like you are fumbling around, but within your first few hours you will start to really click with the game and it likely will become an addiction you can't help but give in to.

Despite my Steam play time only showing roughly 5-6 hours at the time of writing, I initially bought Balatro on iPhone and put in hours upon hours while having down time at work, from the date of release until the very end of October I played at minimum 1-3 hours on iPhone. I then bought the game for my Steam Deck/PC and proceeded to put another 5-6 hours into it, only having taken a break because I have been busy playing other games with my partner.

Balatro is an absolute 10/10, a masterpiece in the indie space and worth every penny. I've bought it 3 times over, and will likely buy it more times to make friends enjoy it as much as I have!

Unfortunately the game was left unfinished and in its current state has many issues. I have to run the game without Vsync to avoid sub-40 frame rates and stuttering, which leads to all sorts of glitches in scripted sequences and such. I was able to finish the main story, but did not feel like going back to complete any of the side content which is unfortunate as that is often where the best of LEGO games are experienced. It definitely feels like it was rushed out of the door to meet a release window, and wouldn't you know that's exactly what happened. Forced to release early to be paired with the release of one of the movies in the trilogy, with plans to finish it later through DLC, which never released. If you're an absolute mega fan of The Hobbit movies, it may be worth it on a deep sale. For those like me who prefer the book version of the story and were just looking for a fun prequel to Lego: Lord of the Rings, definitely skip this and just play LOTR instead.

Phasmophobia is a fantastic game to test your own ability to get over personal fears as well as minor jump scares. Whether you're a fan of classic horror tropes or modern ones you'll find something here to like unless you absolutely cannot stand horror. The game can feel unfair when first starting but quickly becomes one of the best tests of your own knowledge of the games mechanics once you start to learn how each of the ghosts behave. There's tons of difficulty options and even the ability to fully customize the game to your preferred playstyle, plus tons of potential for challenges that are self enforced on top of the daily and weekly ones that will keep you coming back for more. I haven't played public lobbies yet myself but solo and lobbies with friends are phenomenal, and I've heard good things about the public lobby community in this game. This is one of the few games where I can safely say I enjoy being hunted and scared even in VR!

Subnautica is one of the most unique and terrifying experiences I've ever had. I've played small bits of it in VR, and the remainder of my time (15 hours at the time of writing this review) in flat mode due to how terrifying the game is in VR. I've only made it maybe 1/3 of the way through the content of the story, and still feel like there's hundreds of things for me to explore before the story is finished. Definitely a game worth buying, even for people with thalassophobia. It should be relatively easy to run on lower end systems, and though it still suffers minor stuttering on higher end systems when surfacing the performance is top notch everywhere else. If you're a fan of survival and/or horror, this is a must have.

Simply one of the best third person shooters and narratives in gaming of all time.

I love this game. I REALLY love this game. It is the perfect follow up to Doom 2016 in every single way, and is cemented as one of my favorite games of all time. ID Software did a fantastic job and I commend every single person who worked on it. Why am I reviewing it negatively and saying I don't recommend it? Because of Bethesda's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

It is ridiculous that in this day and age you can spend full price on a AAA game, have good faith that it's going to be a good game, and actually enjoy it for months after it's release only for it to no longer work for you because of it's reliance on a Ring-0 Anti-Cheat. That doesn't matter to you? it should. No anti-cheat should ever be able to have such low level access to your system, let alone for a game that is primarily single player.

If you bought this game, I suggest asking for a refund ASAP. If you haven't bought this game and are considering it, don't. Not until they remove this repulsive software from the game.

Fallout 4 is a hard game for me to enjoy. It's not exactly a bad game, but it's not what I would go into expecting Fallout 4 to be. This game has the least amount of play time out of any Bethesda game I have ever purchased, and that includes Fallout 76. I will say this: If you want to play Fallout 4 plan on investing a LOT of time into modding the problems away, and expect some of those problems to never truly go away.

Alright, so for a bit of context I'm about to turn 25 years old and have been playing the Devil May Cry franchise since the first game came out. I've loved almost every entry into the franchise, and to some extent enjoyed even those that I didn't exactly love. Devil May Cry 4 was the only one that I didn't find enjoyment in my first time trying to play it, although that may change now that I am more familiar with how Nero plays.

To say Devil May Cry 5 is an excellent game would be an understatement. It is truly a return to formula after a reboot that was critically panned, although it did have some successes of its' own. It also brings more to the table than the last entry in the non-reboot series, DMC4, in just it's base form. DMC4 was highly lacking in story and weapon variety. DMC5 fixes this with a major variety, giving options for almost every single play style throughout the game, although not all on one character as some may have liked to see.

This entry also makes heavy references to its prior entries, specifically the first and third which are the two most revelled games in the franchise by the general community. This can come off a little fan-servicey at times, and I would say in general the game uses fan-service quite liberally, but it never became a point that bothered me and instead was an especially cool treat for someone who has loved this series for so long.

Visually, the game is astounding. I need to be clear that I have an extremely overpowered rig for this game as I run a Ryzen 2600X and Vega 56, and never once heard the fan on my Vega ramp up which means it must not have been utilized much at all on all max settings outside of motion blur being turned off. The game runs absolutely beautifully, some people reporting frame rates in the hundreds. I lock my frame rate to 60, as that is all my monitor can display, but never once saw a hint of slowdown throughout the entire game.

Stability is also across the board fantastic on my rig. I never experienced any control lockups that I have seen mentions of on Reddit, and I never had a single crash in my 10 hour playthrough on the Devil Hunter difficulty.

Although for me personally this is only my third favorite entry in the franchise, I could see it easily becoming someone's favorite or second favorite if they are newer to DMC or are not as fond for the first entry as I am. It is a game that will bring me most likely hundreds of hours of entertainment once the Bloody Palace update is out, and easily dozens before then. I would highly recommend the standard edition of the game, and the deluxe edition seems to come with some bonuses that some may be interested in. One thing I do NOT recommend is buying the microtransactions, as the game is fine without those being there. I'm sad to see they were even made an option, but the game is more than generous enough with red, blue, and gold orbs throughout.

Devil May Cry HD Collection is the debut of the entire original Devil May Cry Trilogy on PC. As a whole, the package is extremely nice to have if not overpriced for the quality control that has gone into it. I have been able to complete the original Devil May Cry with little to no issue, have not tried Devil May Cry 2, and have had numerous crashes and freezes with Devil May Cry 3 which has lead to me not yet being able to complete it.

If you want to buy this package, please be aware there are several issues with the package which can be discovered by looking on YouTube. Some examples are lesser lighting in DMC3 than on the original PS2, certain graphical effects missing from areas of the original as well as the sequels, sound effects being off-tone from the original (not something I personally noticed until watching a video, but it stands out now that I have noticed it.)

If you are wanting to buy this package simply for nostalgia and to re-play the first, I can whole-heartedly recommend the package. If you want to play the entire original trilogy, I would recommend buying it on the original PS2, or finding other ways to play the game. I personally will be resorting to buying an original PS2 to play the trilogy as intended, because the constant crashing and missing effects has started to become a bother to me, especially in the third game.

Overall this package is not worth the price, but if you were to buy it during a discount it is not bad. This is coming from someone who has loved the franchise as a whole since they were a child who probably shouldn't have been playing the games, so take heed. I'm rating this positive because it's a way to legally obtain the games in the modern day and still support the publisher, but I do not feel this product is one that the average consumer should buy due to the several technical issues with it.