Recent reviews by xankofa

Some of the most fun I've had with a video game in a long time, particularly when it comes to playing alongside friends. Exploration, crafting, base building and dungeon clearing is tremendously satisfying, and I find myself constantly in awe of the new stuff my friends and I have been discovering together these past 32 hours.

While I understand people's gripes about it being online-only, I've found the convenience of having a persistent, shared world that myself or my friends can load into at will to work on things, without having to worry about hosting a server somewhere ourselves, a huge positive. I agree with the general sentiment that having an offline option makes sense too, though, just isn't a deal breaker for me personally.

Is it perfect? No. But I dare say, for my friends and I, it's damn near close to it. I'm excited to see what future patches bring, and I think this will be a game my friends and I will be putting hundreds more hours of play time into.

Cyan's still got it; Firmament is a return to form by the masters of the graphic adventure puzzle game. Firmament is a fresh departure from a lot of Cyan's previous work, with a decidedly very different type of storytelling experience, but the soul and spirit of those games is undeniably very much alive and well here. The puzzles were satisfying to solve, and I found the story compelling right up until the last scene, with an ending I didn't see coming.

Effective, stable and minimal; the best tool I've found to help limit/stabilize framerate and monitor GPU sensors or resources. Does what it says with no bloat, and the emphasis the developer puts on data privacy is appreciated. Highly recommend.

If you're a fan of the classic SimTower game, you'll feel right at home with Project Highrise. You'll have no trouble getting lost for hours in the delightful music and engrossing gameplay.

A lovely game with a beautiful story, inspired by tribesmen's legends of Alaska.

Life is Strange is quite simply a masterpiece. I've been an avid fan of the Adventure genre ever since I was a kid, starting with Monkey Island and Loom on my old PC. Telltale has done a fantastic job of rekindling the juices of the genre, and DONTNOD's entry is worthy of sitting right alongside them. It's the most fun I've had with an adventure game in years.

The story is genuinely compelling, the characters and plot development are top notch, and the voice acting is fantastic. The only bug I encountered was after the credits on Chapter 1 rolled, when Square's servers couldn't get me community stats for my choices breakdown - no big whoop.

I really can't recommend this game enough. You won't regret buying this one.

Alan Wake is the video game embodiment of the B horror genre. Awful acting? Check. Laughable plot? Check. Low production values? At times (though the final quarter of the game is pretty impressive.) In spite of all this, or perhaps because of it, the game is a surprisingly charming gem for the genre.

My only real complaint with the game is how the designers chose to constantly revoke your stockpile of weapons at every turn, instead of taking the time to balance progression properly. At each act, and sometimes more often that that, you're stripped of all the weapons, ammo, and upgrades you've acquired and have to start fresh. Not a deal breaker, but lazy from a design standpoint, and annoying after 6 episodes. All in all though this isn't a big deal, and doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the game.

A real indie gem, the game centers around adorable little 2D protagonist Gomez. After inadvertently splintering the universe and dooming all existence to oblivion, he is bestowed a mystical Fez and the power to traverse three dimensions.

The amount of love and attention to detail that went into this game is immediately apparent. It will take all of your will power not to spend hours aimlessly spinning the camera's perspective and taking in the world, music and characters of Fez.

This isn't Sim City with boats.

Pretty entertaining turn-based strategy game. Lots of micromanagement and space pew pew = good times.