Recent reviews by Source

Epic RPG-- Night City is one of the most well-realized environments, and the considerable updates to combat, stability and more make this a must-play.

First half of the game was fairly excellent. The environment played well to the lighting and gameplay mechanics. As the game went on, it was more prescriptive on where I went and how I played. For example, several stealth sections were strung together in a row-- this really killled the flow of the game and didn't align with my first impression at all.

Finally, I hit a boss that I didn't have enough ammo to take on, and there was no way to seemingly fix my situation without loading a significantly earlier save. I tried to get through, as I finished the previous two games and have enjoyed the series. Shame! Great game in MANY aspects-- just some prescriptive design that held it back.

I'd love to recommend this game. The graphical style, overall content, what I've heard the next chapters in the game are like all looks incredible. I played the demo and knew I fell in love, particularly during October-- perfect vibe.

Unfortunately the difficulty spike at the first major boss has me ready to uninstall. I've tried him six times, all with different decks, different approaches. I can't get past him, and after dying I'm reset to the beginning of that map. So frustrating-- and unfortunately I don't have time to replay it over and over.

Such a shame! As the game looks promising otherwise. Regretting I spent the money.

Love Arkane's design language both visually and mechanically.

Highly inventive and original, I couldn't stop playing!

I love the Souls games. I love From Software. I love Sekiro. About 20 hours in and it just keeps crashing at a boss. Updated drivers, reinstalled, keeps crashing no matter what I troubleshoot.

I suppose I'll try again after new drivers are released or a patch comes through. How disappointing.

I just wrapped up Prey. I thought it was fantastic.

While I have never played through the System Shock games I am a big fan of the Bioshock series and this scratched that itch quite well.

Exploring Talos I was a joy. The enemies required different bits of strategy to take down, and managing resources genuinely led me to play differently at some points of the game to be conservative with ammo, health, etc. Not enough to be frustrating, but enough to keep it tense. Again, the design of Talos I was great: the aesthetics, hidden passages, generally things hidden behind things: it was fun! Nice job, Arkane.

Dirt Rally ditches the gimmicks and focuses on a hard core rally experience.

The difficulty can be daunting at times, as the courses that stretch the genuinely beautiful scenery can be really hairy to navigate. I'm playing with a G27 wheel and it makes for a fantatic experience that forces me to put in what I get out. If I didn't listen to my navigator when he said "Right 1" and I go in too hot, I pay the price.

Car damage really does impact your pace and a surprising number of repair variables are present from suspension to radiators to gear box. The car handling feels right and the phyiscs are spot on. It looks great and here's the most important part: when you stay focused and put a solid run in on a course, there is a genuine sense of reward.

My biggest gripe is the menu system. I haven't looked at enough reviews to see if others largely agree, so maybe its just me, but I don't like the layout or how I choose championships, multiplayer or otherwise. Additionally, multiplayer seems to be relegated to just rally cross, which isn't my cup of tea. I miss multiplayer traditional rally time attacks. Again, maybe they are in there, but I can't find it! Strange.

That said, Dirt Rally is the real deal rally experience.

Highly Recommended.

The Banner Saga is an inventive stratgy RPG wrapped in a particularly dark fiction.

The Banner Saga sucked me in with its art direction and strategy elements that I found really interesting even if they didn't always work out for me 100% of the time. Battles with the enemy in a more traditional strategy format are separated by sometimes lengthy stretches where you make difficult leadership decisions for your group as they grow weary or contested with each other. These are all text-driven, as is most of the narrative as you travel from one village to the next pushing the story along. I don't know that I always felt confident that the way I was leveling characters or assigning equipment was going to serve me best in battle, or that because of this confusion I was getting the most out of the strategy battle sections.

I think this is sometimes the point of The Banner Saga, though. Nothing is for sure. Nothing is easy. What you and your band are going through is disastrous and the enemy is always looming, never a clear answer as to where you are going next or what you will encounter. The Banner Saga is dark and utilizes left of center mechanics, but I really apprecaite what Stoic was going for here and overall really enjoyed this title.

Recommended.

Alien: Isolation comes across as a project that had a very clear direction from the start. The Alien franchise has been mis-treated but Creative Assembly "gets it" and their focus paid off for the player.

What you get with Alien: Isolation are beautifully crafted 70's sci-fi environments, a single antagonist alien that really does terrify and gameplay mechanics that really do serve to both stay consistent to the franchise elements and help the player survive. I understand what the developer was going for with the save system (no quick save, just terminals you have to find) and the alien behavior can be more predictable in certain situations, but this is splitting hairs on an overall excellent title.

I was engaged with the story and sincerely hope Creative Assembly have the opportunity to do similar titles in the future.

Highly recommended!

Soma is a fantastic experience. The story is dark and thought-provoking, but rarely do I get sucked into a narrative like I did this one.

The enemies in the game can be frustrating, and despite my machine being capable (GTX780) I did encounter frame rate issues regardless of what I did in settings.

Those are the only real negatives for me. I play a lot of single player campaigns through different genres, and the environments and story-telling from Soma have stuck with me the most in recent memory. I think it's amazing what Frictional Games did on their budget and it comes across as a passion project that will have similar impact on anyone that puts time into this title.

Highly recommended!