Recent reviews by Xada

I remember when this game was hyped up as the "Oblivion killer." Lol.
In retrospect we can all see the major flaws in Oblivion itself as it has become a bit of a meme itself but believe me when I say this game is a whole other level of missing features, jank, crude and under-developed. Even downright broken at times!

But, is it enjoyable? Well, surprisingly yes-- but with some caveats.

If you're looking for a innovative game with a good story, narrative and immersion... Two Worlds is DEFINITELY NOT for you.
However, if you're looking for a straight up videogame with camp gallore which is often unintentionally hilarious and enjoy grindy leveling in a ARPG with an open world to waste some hours whilst enjoying a interesting soundtrack? Sure!

The voice acting is absolutely terrible and needs a special mention in and of itself.
You'd swear the game was written as a comedy. It's actually kind of amazing how bad some of this is even for the time, I laughed out loud so many times at how awkward dialogue can be. The expressions on the hero's face during dialogue choices only adds to this experience.

The Steam version of this has been my second playthrough, I tried retail back in the day and rushed through it quite a bit, missing tons of content-- pretty much half the game.
I came back to it figuring I'd give it a fair shake and was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed leveling up and made some personal little goals to tick before finishing the game:
To get to level 100 if possible, fully explore as many locations as I could locate, and to clear at least roughly 80% or so of the mobs since they do not seem to respawn.
I managed all of these and it was actually a pretty fun experience this way.

If you want a basic ARPG and enjoy hack and slash grind, definitely grab this one on sale. It'll keep you entertained for a while if you really go through the content.

Wonderful, helpful little tool.

I find this tool is especially great paired with things like emulation (ie RetroArch) or older games that'll never receive things like DLSS/FSR or their frame generating equivalents.
It feels really nice to use Lossless Scaling to get that extra frame output on these things-- doubly useful on games where FPS is tied to game logic thus pushing past 60 is not an option or ill advised. Great solution for this perdicament!

Furthermore this is especially useful if you are playing something newer on older hardware and want to squeeze out a bit more FPS without resorting to all kinds of hassle from official brands of downscalers.

Can't recommend this enough!

Earth Defense Force series is a bit of a crazy thing to assess...
The entire thing is incredibly tongue in cheek, cheezy as all hell and best not to be taken seriously. If you love the Japanese fare of campiness, this game will have you grinning a lot from the absurdity of the absolutely hammy and over the top voice acting, silly designs and even bizarre weaponry.

EDF as a whole is a series that works best with friends in my opinion. If you don't have good pals to dedicate hours of bug-stomping fun with, don't even bother. You'll likely be disappointed.

As for EDF 4.1 itself...
The thing about EDF is each game (aside from some outliers, ie. Iron Rain, World Brothers) is a remake of the same core formula. This effectively moves focus to the newer game with each release and often leaves the elder game feeling outdated or obsolete compared to the newer variant.

This is glaringly evident with 4.1. Is it a bad game? Not at all, infact it's a very fun game, especially with friends. But just about everything 4.1 does, EDF 5 does the same-- just better, and more accessible.

My biggest personal gripe is some of the missions in EDF 4.1 make you hit a wall where you find yourself grinding for more armor drops from enemies (effectively health) or weapons (which also drop from enemies.) This isn't an issue in and of itself... Until you realize every class does not share armor pool, thus you need to spend 3 times as long leveling up each class' health individually... Only to still struggle against future missions and repeat the process again.
This often feels like a chore running the same missions just to get your, say, Fencer up to the level of your Air Raider.
This was not the case in EDF5 where they share armor bonuses (a portion anyhow) across classes, heralding back to what I meant about the formula improving as the games go on.

The mass of DLC does not do this game any favors, especially in wake of it's successor being way easier to get into... And there's no bundle with the DLC either so you will wrack up a good amount of money if you REALLY want to grab everything...Which isn't even worth it really. Only the two mission DLCs are worth it, but be prepared to have your ass kicked due to them pretty much all being challenges harder than anything in the base game, often requiring specific approach/tactics or weaponry to assess properly (which kind of took some of the fun out of the EDF experience for me, locking me into a specific play-style I did not enjoy for some missions...)

I'd say this game is for die-hards and completionists only. Will you have fun? Probably. Will you have more fun in EDF5 though? Yeah. Grab it only on sale if you really want to experience all of them.

Duke Nukem Forever.
I remember the hype back in the day, followed by the pure disdain from both official publications and players abroad.
Being that I was a huge fan of the original I was offput by the reception in such a way as to avoid playing it...until recently.

What a weird situation I find myself in with this game. First of all, I can completely see why people were so disappointed. A lot of stuff IN the game did bother me as well, but overall this was a...surprisingly pleasant playthrough. Go figure.

Maybe it is the hiddeous state of modern AAA titles that have made this game age in reverse by comparison but overall I really didn't find it all that bad.

Now, is it a decent enough successor to Duke 3D itself? In most ways, well... yes.

First the good:
*The gameplay itself does feel balanced around Duke's original combat, minus the era-appropriate regenerating health which felt...weird, but works decent enough.
*Soundtrack felt good and it was nice to hear a few homages to the original.
*Some of the jokes legitimately had me laughing and did remind me of giggling like a little gremlin when I was small as I played DN3D.
*Just seeing Duke again in any capacity after the original and that weird Manhattan game (excluding console titles which are a wild ride of their own..!)
*Level design feels true to Duke's world. Loved this! I really felt like I was back in the Duke setting.
*Interactivity doesn't disappoint in a good chunk of areas.
*Shooting legitimately feels good!
*Alien and gun redesigns stay truthful enough to the original whilst enhancing them for a new gen.

Now the bad:
*Interactivity... Yes I listed it as a positive but you can see how these elements of the game often feel like they took away from the overall game experience, and where a lot of budget was spent when it should have been alocated elswhere!
*Boss fights feel extremely gimmicky and too specific like many console era shooters of this era which is a bit of a insult to a Duke fan like myself considering he was a stalwart in the PC space...
*Color palette could be more colorful in general. Often the game was too grey...
*Duke's night vision-glasses. Yes, this needs a specific mention, it hurts to look at and sounds awful when it's on. Awful idea.
*Friendly NPC characters are often more annoying than they are funny. Dylan in the OG campaign was a great example of jokes that'd fall flat every time.

My final point brings me on to my main problem with DNF: The handling of the humor...and Duke himself.

The humor in this game is often too on the nose and overshadows the atmosphere completely. The writers and producers clearly saw Duke as a comedy, full-stop. What was once treated like a side-joke or brief one-line mention from duke is now overblown, in your face and often integrated so deeply into the game itself as to make it an overtly comedic experience, robbing any investment you have in the world as it all feels overshadowed by zaniness and Duke's bizarre apathy.
...Which brings me onto my single BIGGEST issue with the game, and modern handling of Duke in general:

Duke Nukem back in the day was seen as a 80s over-the-top action hero. He was smart, he was handsome and he always knew how to put the bad guys in their place. He was certainly b-movie shlocky conceptually, but never to the point of overshadowing his purpose in the story.
Back in the day when you played Duke's game you wanted to be Duke because he was so cool.

In DNF however? He is basically a blockheaded 'himbo' who giggles at other's expense, acts like a complete ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and can switch his feelings on a dime just to fit the story, or be a complete moron just because the writers wanted to make a extremely unfunny joke.
This makes you laugh at Duke by comparison, not treat him seriously whatsoever, nor can you even remotely relate to him enough to want to be him. He is the ass-end of a joke a lot of the time.

At times it feels as though the devs just looked up whatever dumb scenario jokes people were talking about online and just shoved it into the game...

All the bad aside, and as much as Duke's behavior baffles and makes me roll my eyes however, this game was not NEARLY as bad as I had been led to believe. Regardless of the poor handling, execution and bad characterization of one of my FPS heroes, I'd consider DNF still well worth a play for anyone who has interest in the series.

Duke Nukem Forever is in a lot of ways what Doom3 was to Doom2, albeit maybe not as polished as Doom3.

As a final note I'd also like to say the entire experience offered in the DLC (The Doctor Who Cloned Me) felt more like OG-Duke than the original campaign and I just wish this focus had been used throughout the original.

Give it a shot if you can ignore the negatives and want to see Duke again. You'll likely get some enjoyment out of it, especially nowdays...

Astonishingly good game, and Sony miraculously listened to the community backlash. I'm actually shocked.

I can fully endorse this game as it is an incredible experience with friends, way above board for what you'd expect out of a smaller sub-studio. The shooting feels good, effects are gorgeous, the gameplay is challenging and there's plenty of weapons and call-in support skills to make use of.

It is good to finally see a corporate entity listen to their community for once in this day and age.

THE ONLY GOOD BUG IS A DEAD BUG (just like orks)

Alpha Prime.
I never even heard of this game back when it was released or being worked on-- went completely under my radar I guess...
Remember Unreal2 and Doom3? Well this game is like a combination of those, only it thinks it's also as innovative as something like Doom3 when the hype train was real... In reality it's actually the worst parts of both of those games. Yes, the worst parts of Unreal2-- that should tell you exactly what's in store here. Dang.

Having heard the game was really short (roughly 4-5 hours if even that...) I opted to play it on Hard. Ahhhh, mistake.
The game is so infuriatingly unbalanced on hard I restarted on Normal. This...improved the game a little but could not save it from it's overwhelming multitude of issues. I will opt to list the positives and negatives as follows:

Positive:

*At times it felt like a cheezy b-movie, the likes which you'd find running late night on the good ol' "Sci-Fi Channel" back in the day. Y'know, the kind that often featured former porn actors trying to make a break into budget movie scene.

*Aesthetic in some areas felt pretty decent. Not exactly a BAD looking game in the interior areas.

*Graphics were competent for the time. It even had some cutting edge features as I understand it.

*Lighting felt kind of nifty here and there.

*Firefights would look cool from a purely visual standpoint.

*AI earlier on seemed smart and could outmaneuver me.

*Basketball court and physics basketball. Shoot the hoops.

*Weapon sounds are...decent enough. Shotgun sounded kind of cool I guess.



Negatives:

*The story is nonsensical, it really feels like they just came up with the story on the spot. Stuff just happens and the pacing is some of the worst I've EVER seen in a FPS. One moment you're in one area during a cutscene then suddenly it's 8 hours later or something and you're immediately in a different area with NO pacing between whatsoever.
This part actually had me laugh out loud a few times, cos' crap just HAPPENS out of nowhere.
Ends on a hilariously bad cliffhanger to no one's surprise. Sure it made me laugh, but for all the wrong reasons.

*Guns and shooting have very little feedback and everything feels...'off' and weak.

*The voice acting is HORRENDOUS. Like, worse than bad. It was like nails on chalkboard with how utterly boring and out of character everyone sounded. Big bad grizzled military dude also sounds like some whiny teenager.
I can love me some hammy voice work but this was just irritating to listen to and had me rolling my eyes every single cutscene.

*Best character (and best voiced character, mind you, ironically) gets killed off-screen. Thanks game.

*Final boss is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ joke, lmao

*AI was impressive until I noticed it was all very specific nodes or scripted sequences or something as later on NPCs would get stuck on eachother while running up stairs and even face the wall as I entered a room along with countless other issues.
The game fools you into thinking it's AI is something like F.E.A.R. when it's just jank as all hell in every way.

*Some of the worst vehicle controls in a FPS I've ever experienced. This segment was misery.

*I could not successfully shoot a hoop, but the basketball landed on my head and killed me instantly.

*Enemies have split-second reaction time and often pin-point accuracy. The second you peak out from cover they're already shooting AND hitting you-- it's stupid.

*Why does EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER in this game have a massive ass? No really, what the hell? I actually found it hilariously distracting in cutscenes so maybe this is actually a positive. Damn.

*I pulled a vent cover off and it killed me instantly at one point because it's physics bugged out. Nice.


All in all this game is just frustrating, boring, and criminally short. This is one that I cannot recommend at all-- not even on sale. It's a total slog to get through and what small amounts of "so bad it's good" moments it has are far outweighed by just how much of a chore it feels to play at times.
I snacked on some cheese at some point while playing this game-- that cheese had a lot more density, enjoyability and depth of flavor than anything in this game.

Not even worth the $4.99, let alone the $0.99 when on sale some times.
$0.49 lowest sale price? Maybe if you like bad videogames and enjoy pain and find boredom fun sure.

First of all, Terminators are my favorite thing in 40K so this game is cool as hell to me. Stomp stomp stomp!
As for the game itself, it is comparable to Left 4 Dead 2 albeit you are slower and I'd even argue gameplay directly hinges on cooperation much more-so than the likes of L4D2.

The game is sort of a indie love letter to 40K so you cannot expect it to be as polished as big budget titles. However, what they have been able to pull off considering is something of an impressive feat all it's own. I will opt to list the positives and negatives to give an idea of what one might find here.

==The good:
*AMAZING atmosphere. This game constantly surprises me with just how beautifully gothic it looks and it REALLY captures the feeling of being in the 40K 'verse perfectly. The set-pieces are stunning to look at and even on lower settings the game does great things with the lighting engine. Having beat the game and played many missions several times I always still find myself admiring just how detailed stuff is here. Effects also help here, thus:
*Graphical fidelity. Some may disagree here but I feel the graphics themselves (especially in this enhanced variant) really 'jive' well and the design team knew how to make things work visually to hook into gameplay-- you just have to be paying attention.
*Gameplay. Again, some may find this sparse but I personally LOVE the slower, more methodical gameplay of this game. Whereas a lot of shooters will have you blazing around at high speeds, this one instead requires you to pay close attention to your surroundings, work closely with your team mates and tackle objectives carefully. Going off on your own is generally a death sentence-- and that's a good thing. Voice communication with friends will be vital unless you know your buds playstyle really well.
*Class system and weapons. This game has quite a few combos for you to experiment with, and a lot of them are quite fun-- but they will need upgrading via the game's rewards system-- which I do have mixed thoughts on even if mostly positive.

==The bad:
*The story. For some hardcore 40K fans (I admit I am not hardcore or anything, so...) there are some cool nuggets of lore here and there but to the more casual 40K fan or someone who doesn't even know 40K at all the story is pretty basic and pretty usual Terminator work. Personally I don't mind this because it is basically "A day in the life of a Terminator" and I really like that concept. I could see this deterring some however.
*Overall game length. This game is relatively short, especially if your friends are really organized and know what they're doing, you could easily blaze through the entire game in a weekend. The flipside to this is re-play value is definitely a thing here and I love replaying many of the missions.
*Lack of mod support. Personal gripe, as this has become kind of common with a lot of games. You can add subtle stuff like skins or sounds but that's about all. Missed opportunity considering the core gameplay is so nice here.
*Singleplayer. Bots are terrible and will often be useless, get stuck or all manner of silly behavior. It isn't good-- this is designed to be a multiplayer game first and foremost... But who would want to play a L4D2-alike solo? This might just be me but I find the idea odd and kind of going against the grain of the game's design to begin with-- this is a multiplayer game first and foremost, do not be mistaken.
*Rewards system. Although overall I love what they have done to reward repeated gameplay, sometimes the progress can feel incredibly slow, especially if you plan to level up individual classes as they all have to start from scratch. I wouldn't mind except for the game being relatively short so your route to upgrading is always going to be replaying missions. I don't consider this one a huge gripe though as it just comes with the territory; a minor complaint.

In conclusion, this game does what it sets out to do and what it does, it does well. However, do not expect this game to reinvent the wheel gameplay-wise-- it is a bit minimalist but that is all it needs to be and I adore it for what it is. If you have a 2 or 3 friends who are also interested and don't mind the slower pace, you're probably going to have a blast.

Turok 1! I remember playing this game as a small thing on my Nintendo 64. Great times.
This remaster really does it justice, it is everything you'd want in a oldschool FPS.
The atmosphere is great and often times surreal, be that intentional or not-- I LOVE the vibes the levels give off even if they are at times simple. They just look so strange and cool! I remember being so mesmerized by stuff like the otherwordly 'special stages' as a kid and they have certainly not lost their appeal.
Music is extremely fitting, even if at times a bit basic, but a few stand-outs with that really weird and cool synth-guitar blaring are perfect for getting your blood pumping while slaughtering dinosaurs, evil soldiers and all manner of strange alien creatures.
The gunplay here is EXCELLENT. Although it may pale in comparison to the game's sequel in retrospect, all the guns here feel really good to use, are impactful and have good feedback. The addition of over-the-top death animations for enemies only makes it feel all the better to frag the NPCs away.

My only complaint is that levels at some points can be overly square and basic, especially towards the latter game... But they are still fun to play which is all that ultimately matters!

This game also has what I think are some of the greatest human enemy death-sounds I've ever heard in a game. They need a mention by themselves because they are so insanely memorably and campy-- which just fits this game perfectly.

If you are looking for an oldschool FPS in the truest sense, look no further. Grab this one immediately and enjoy the thrilling CARNAGE.

So...Sonic 4, the true bastard child of the series among most's eyes.
Gotta say, I couldn't agree more.

Sonic controls like crap, the special stages are designed in a way that don't accomodate for the frustrating zones that precede them.
The music (though I thought most wasn't really, terrible) is rather lackluster and the boss battles are just downright frustrating more than enjoyable-- therein is my entire problem with this game: It's a frustrating MESS. Usually Sonic games at the VERY least teach you through your failures... But this game at times feels like pure trial and error and it makes you wonder if the designers even tested this thing before it was released.

Usually even when a Sonic game is bad I at least try to finish it..but this one? I find myself really wincing whenever I consider coming back to it. The game is COMPLETELY broken in the gameplay department and I feel I am just wasting my time trying to learn it's quirks... It just isn't -fun-.
When I found out the final boss of Episode 1 was literally just a repeat of all bosses mashed together in a gauntlet I couldn't really bring myself to keep playing once I lost ALL my lives. It was just exhausting after a while and did not feel rewarding whatsoever...

What an absolute disaster-- really disappointing.

Sonic Colors; I had gone into this game expecting to be disappointed after hearing lots of negative things about it.
Instead what I found was a very interesting take on modern Sonic. One I enjoyed greatly for the most part.

Given time the release on Steam seems heavily patched and most of the bugs (not ALL mind) seem to be patched out. I only ran into a really bad bug once that caused sonic to clip through the map in an odd slope and fall, setting me back to my checkpoint... but I could never replicate it so I guess this was a fluke.

Gameplay wise the game shines in my opinion. Your sense of speed is definitely there and favors memorizing the levels to max out the rank and collectibles. Atop this though you have some really innovative design choices in the aliens which can give Sonic a cool powerup. These can be used in a variety of ways but I enjoyed most of them a lot. Some really cool ideas here that ALSO work quite well in the level design department. Big thumbs up.

I gotta make a comment about music: You get the original soundtrack here as well as the remixed soundtrack. Both are nice but most will probably dig the remixed variant more overall-- it definitely has more polish. The vast bulk of music here really fits the series and enhances the levels in a neat way. I found myself really resonating with a lot of the tracks and it brought back some memories of classic sonic at times.

The weakest point here has to be the story but I imagine this won't really be the attraction for any but the most diehard sonic fans. It is very servicable even if a bit more on the silly side. The overtly goofy moment did have me grinning though, nothing is exactly out of place. Characters act as you expect them to which can only be a good thing. Just don't expect any real plot twists or anything this time around.

The only overt complain I really have is more of a personal gripe about maxing out certain missions. Most missions are okay and it is more of a memorization game with the level layout and all that, providing a good challenge... However a few can be all over the place, or have such a specific route of success that they can get frustrating countless restarts later-- but this isn't exclusive to this game and I found Sonic Adventure a lot more cruel in this regard and I enjoyed that game a lot as well.

Overall if you're a Sonic fan I highly recommend this one and it wouldn't even be bad as a starting point for some. Just bear in mind it isn't like the classics and does take a few liberties with the formula... But I personally see this as a good thing.