Recent reviews by lucidity

Already one of my favourite games ever made. I'll update and expand this review once I've played more but I can already say something amazing that this game does to me that I've never experienced with any other game before, although BioWare comes close: I think this game lowkey tricks my mind into thinking the companions and characters are real people, just a little bit!! Let me explain: before this game I've had plenty of favourite characters and memorable moments from other games, but as much as I love Alistair and Morrigan from Dragon Age or Veronica and Valentine from Fallout, they've always remained - very loveable, well written - *characters*. The last game that got *really* close for me was Fallout 4 (specifically with the companions), like I remember saying "wow, these characters feel like real people!". And Dragon Age has *amazing* dialogue and characters. I know when I get around to playing Mass Effect I'll love the characters too!

But Baldurs Gate 3 is in a league of its own, so much so that I find myself feeling with my companions, and feeling for them. I genuinely like my adventuring party - not as characters, but as people. As friends. As lovers. I find myself daydreaming about the conversations I've had and will have with my in-game NPC friends. I find myself genuinely getting attached to them, feeling empathy for them, getting crushes on them!! Cognitively I know they're not sentient, living, breathing, people, of course. But they are written so brilliantly and beautiful that emotionally it doesn't matter.

This game is like an adventure of a lifetime, a journey. And the people you spend that journey with, and bump into along the way, are worthy of getting attached to, even just a little. I wish I had a mate who could hype me up and have my back like Karlach does. I wish I had a friend as kind and noble of heart as Wyll. I wish I had a snarky, cheeky wizard like Gale in my life, or an edgy but loveable gal like Shadowheart. I wish I had someone who would believe in my strength and courage like Lae'zel (and be so dang hot in the process - yes I'm pursuing her and probably Karlach too, if you're curious ;P); I've only just met Halsin but already I can tell he's a good egg. Astarion has... issues, but godsdangit he's a part of the team even if we don't see eye to eye.

The fact that Baldurs Gate 3 can make me feel this attached and bonded with pixels and voice lines is really special, and goes to show the incredible talent of the actors, writers, animators, artists and everyone involved with this brilliant work. This game already holds a very, very special space in my heart, and I'm not even past Act 1! I'm taking my time with this game, like a fine wine best savoured. But I know that when I log on at the end of the day, my party will be there waiting for me.

Note - Comments are disabled purely so I can avoid spoilers, otherwise I would've loved to hear your thoughts. Have fun in Faerun, everyone!

Britain turned into a republic and my game renamed itself "3"

After using Wallpaper Engine for a few months, it started freezing/crashing my PC when not playing games everytime a wallpaper switched over, and also caused insane FPS stutter on Forza Horizon 5, rendering the game unplayable until I either restarted my PC or closed Wallpaper Engine. After uninstalling the engine, the problems have gone away.

It's a shame because some of the wallpapers are interesting and having animated wallpapers is awesome! But I can't use it anymore. Oh well, back to the good old way.

If you're going to buy, keep in mind that the program is buggy, can cause performance issues in games and PC freezing/crashing, and the animated wallpapers can be a drain on performance, but that last one is to be expected.
If you wanna take that chance and spend a few bucks to try out animated wallpapers and community made wallpapers, go ahead, some of them are cool. But it caused major issues for me unfortunately, so I don't recommend it.

I used to play this game years ago and it was so much fun. A realistic take on the Vietnam war from the devs behind Red Orchestra 2 and Rising Storm? Yes please. It was everything it lived up to.

Unfortunately, after playing recently, I can no longer recommend this game. The quality of gameplay has deteriorated, as well as the community. Neither will leave you coming away having had a good time.

First, the community. When this game launched, the community was largely tactical FPS fans who came from RO2/RS. They were more mature, respectful, and just more... pleasant? Now the community is just... terrible. After an hour of playing tonight, many people in the chat were constantly spewing racist, sexist, and transphobic nonsense. It was like they were just trying to be as edgy and nasty as possible while getting themselves riled up over nothing. When a player identified herself as a woman, the chat was vile to her. Sexually harassing her in the chat and calling her every sexist name under the sun. This is what drives female gamers away from the hobby. I know it drives me away. I do not use my mic in any multiplayer games for fear of harassment. An admin even got involved, but not on the side of her. They abused the admin broadcast system to harass her. Now, you could argue "well that may just be an issue with that specific server", but after spending many years playing amongst casual FPS gaming communities (think Call of Duty sorta tier, which this game's community has become akin to), this is the norm, not the exception. It is important to note, that after looking through the settings, I am pretty sure (correct me if I'm wrong) that there IS NO WAY OF turning the chat off. So you're subjected to edgelord ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ whether you like it or not. You will not have positive experiences of camraderie and joy when interacting with the community like you used to in this game. It is just anger and hate.

Now, for the gameplay. I'm not sure if there's been subtle gameplay tweaks - adjusting of spawn points, cover, minor mechanics, etc, but this game does not play like it used to. I think a large part of that is that there are people who have memorised the maps and camp every little corner of the map, sniping you and leaving you with no idea where you died from. The play experience of my one or two hour session tonight consisted of:
1. Spawn
2. Advance towards the point, being equal measure tactical but also trying to run to avoid sniper fire
3. Get sniped anyway out of nowhere
4. Repeat, and become frustrated
Now, those who remember how Rising Storm 2 used to play know that it was always a very human-wave based game. You would have more deaths than kills. You would sometimes have to sacrifice yourself for the team. But it was still enjoyable. There was enough combat and kills and tactical play to be fun. That was okay. Not everyone's cup of tea but fun for me.

Now, it feels like that dial has been cranked to the extreme. Regardless if you're playing attackers or defenders, it felt frustrating and futile. Try to get toward the point. Die from someone who's behind your lines camping in the perfect spot. I (foolishly) bought my girlfriend the game, thinking she might enjoy it. As a new player, she did NOT have fun. While I was able to get a few kills and understand some things about the game, on account of me having played it years ago: she did not. If you're a new player to this game, you will not have fun .

I could go on and say more, but honestly, I'm over it. I just feel like "blegh". Now I'm going to relax with some Elder Scrolls. Don't buy this game.

Disappointing. They managed to take one of my favourite historical time periods, and make an utterly underwhelming game - a game set in a period filled with so much wonder, yet containing so little wonder itself.

I love previous Paradox products - I've got over 1000 hours in eu4, hundreds in ck2, stellaris, hoi4 and vicky 2, and I was suuuper excited for this game. Everything looked good on paper too - I read all the dev blogs and watched gameplay and I was hyped. Yet once I got my hands on the game itself it was just... Boring. Bland. Basic. I played 10 hours, gave up, and started a new stellaris campaign, which I've been playing since then instead.

The thing is, it's not a terrible game. If this game were Paradox's debut title; if I hadn't come to expect the level of quality from the likes of eu4 and ck2, I probably would have found it alright. Maybe not amazing, but pretty decent. But compared to everything else Paradox has put out, it's just so... meh. I expected so much more...

I'll come back to this game after months of development time - Paradox has had a history with terrible launches in the past, after all. Games like hoi4 and stellaris received loads of negative feedback on release, and have taken many months of development and improvement to get to where they are today. Imperator will likely be the same, and perhaps in a year or two from now, it will be one of my favourite Paradox games. But as it stands at the moment, it is not worth a buy. Wait a while, see how things pan out, and maybe buy it then.

Wow. Truely amazing. If you are considering buying this - a word of warning. This is most certainly NOT a game. It's an experience. Sounds cheesy, but true. It's an experience which at times will be wonderful and awesome, and at others, extremely dark. It truely is a rollercoaster. It's horrible, yet it's amazing.

Thank-you DONTNOD. Thank-you.

[EDIT 21 April]
It's been a few months now. Still a memorable and lasting experience. Go for it.

Yes. Brilliant game, wonderful atmosphere, enjoyable gameplay, awesome value. I could go into it more, but if you aren't familiar with Bethesda games, you ought to pick one up (Skyrim!!) and experience it for yourself.

Comical but short, Rock of Ages is an fun little game filled with humorous jokes and scenes about various historical characters and time periods. It won't take you long to complete (it took me roughly six hours in total playtime, some of that just mucking around), however the way in which it combines traditional tower defence elements with intense rock-rolling action leads to a fresh and unique gaming experience.

So, should you buy it?
Hard to say. While you don't get much 'bang for your buck' in terms of hours compared to other games, it's nevertheless a unique experience - you'll have to make your own mind up on this one :P

"I VILL DRINK FROM YOUR SKULL!!"

An open world MMOFPS with glorious battles and pew pew lasers. This game is extremely fun with friends, however not quite as fun if you're playing alone. I'd highly suggest gathering some friends and downloading PlanetSide 2; it's free, and it's awesome.

So, should you get it?
If you're interested, just download it already. LAZORZZ!!!!111!!!two!!11

[EDIT 4/10/15]
I haven't played this game for a while (since before Columbus Nova took over), so this may be a little out of date. Still worth a download, although I imagine it's not as popular as it once was.

[EDIT #2]
Have played it since the last edit. My original review stands.