Скорошни рецензии на IL PALLINO

8/10: Great idea and massive potential, but it isn't there yet. The game feels like it's getting easier to play with the most difficult settings.

Wood for construction, wood for cooking... I wish this game wood give me a gosh darn break!!

However difficult, modifications to Infection Free Zone seem to be coming in good time.

Given the appeal of games like Rebuild 3: Gangs of Deadsville and Judgment: Apoclapyse Survival Simulation, you know ol' Il Pallino just had to try Infection Free Zone. The game starts in the aftermath of a pandemic in which a large amount of people were infected with a disease turned into something similar to zombies and raveged the Earth. The player is challenged to (first scavenge and then) redevelop their starting area for useful buildings. Eventually the infected will discover the player's settlement, and when that time comes, armed squads will need to take the fight to the enemy. Given the current state of the game, the settlement will eventually either be overrun by the infected or will starve to death for a plethora of reasons.

The dreary graphics are a perfect mood-setter.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3211604192

It's also nice how the game even allows for far away zooming to see what potential resources can be found on the map.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3215578817

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3216822126

The only downer about the graphics is that the people all look AI generated, and every gosh dang male has a beard while none of the women are winning any beauty contests.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3215640478

The sounds are all realistic enough. The howls of the infected are frightening enough and the music that plays when hostile elements are threatening a squad or building is ominous enough to motivate the player to get ready for a fight.

The main reason why this category is lumped together, is because of the ability to play anywhere in the world. Isn't it cool that the player can play in a place like Truth or Consequences, New Mexico? Only in theory.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3212523249

In practice, the player better plan on playing in a city where there's enough firearms to scavenge to build all five squads if they're playing on the most difficult setting. Ol' Il Pallino played games set in Atlanta, GA, USA (a default city); Meridian, MS, USA; Rushden, Northants, UK; Gainesville, FL, USA; and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Tyne & Wear, UK. So far the one single default city was the only viable city to play in on account of the number of firearms that can be scavenged. In a major city, buildings potentially containing firearms are common enough, but in smaller cities, the predominate buldings are homes which are merely denoted with a question mark, and are most likely stocked with food and/or ammunition. Playing on the most difficult level (minimum survivalists, minimum resources, and maximum hordes) ol' Il Pallino couldn't amass enough firearms to create five squads in time to defend the community.

Another double-edged sword is that the player doesn't need to renovate an entire building to make use of it. This was perhaps the best idea in the game, but it was ruined by the fact that if the player wants to increase capacity, first they'll need to vacate the building (reclaiming half of the resources in the process) and then repurpose the building. (Either that, or hope that another building of larger size is nearby to repurpose.) Was it that difficult for the developers to make it to where building expansion doesn't involve the waste of resources? Hopefully not!

The imbalanced gameplay caused ol' Il Pallino to quit after Day 36 when the two possibilities were to either get overrun by the infected, or starve. Owing to early access blues, the fields stopped producing grain when the fertilizer ran out. (The fields were growing just fine before fertilizer became an issue.) The event in which livestock is discovered no longer spawns after the current build of the game. (0.24.4.5 Alpha.) Livestock was useful in which it could provide more cooked meals than grain, and even produce fertilizer for the fields to grow even more grain.) Without this, all the player could do to sustain the community was to scavenge canned food. While there was plenty of food to scavenge in the city of Atlanta, the number of infected hordes became so big that ol' Il Pallino had to concentrate all five squads during the night to skirmishing the infected away from the base and sometimes even fighting the infected. During the day, the proverbial Catch-22 was to either send squads to fight the infected looking to hide in buildings, or scavenge for food and risk having to deal with an even larger number of infected for the next night. Using vehicles to run over the infected isn't much of an option in this case due to vehicles having hit points, and squads absolutely needing vehicles at this critical juncture of the game made it impossible to have them repaired at the base.

Why do buildings that have already been built need wood to be repurposed in the first place? The current build of the game requires too much wood. Then there's a stupid tutorial requirement to build a wooden tower. (If the player so chooses to accept this tutorial requirement, they best tear down the tower before the infected do, because the player will have the resources to build a metal tower, which is not only vastly superior to the wooden tower, but also requires less wood.) Wood is also needed for cooking food, and while the player will have little trouble finding tress to chop down if their base is near a park or in a suburban (or rural) area, the best bet for wood is to tear down buildings in urbanized areas. While skyscrapers the player doesn't want to repurpose will contain lots of wood, there's no way at this time to tell players what to salvage from buildings, and the amount of bricks that the player will receive from tearing down and salvaging buildings will overwhelm the base's storage.

Weather is an issue which is good and bad. Sometimes there may be a clear sky with a full moon which causes the infected to hide during the day, but it's also possible for have rain and a dark sky during the day which causes the infected to become active. This last time lead to ol' Il Pallino's downfall because thirty-six straight (in-game) hours had to be spent dealing with the infected, and the ammunition ran out without the ability to spend the day scrounging for more ammunition.

Beyond the playable parts of the map, the scouting of other areas is overly generalistic with the outer areas. One square on the map inferred that there was only research materials, and apart from the number of research materials scrounged being a letdown, more ammunition was scrounged in that expedition.

Constructing ammunition (which the player will absolutely need to do later on in the game) requires building a chemical plant. Why not allow the player to scrounge for chemicals? Certainly an industrial area IRL will have chemicals.... RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT?


Changes to gameplay balance and reception to community feedback (most notably the addition of armor) are both being implemented, so there's not only progress made, but even more to be expected.

I said it once and I'll say it again: I wish this game wood give me a gosh darn break with all of the demands for wood!!

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10/10: I forgot to make this visual novel private when I first purchased it, then all of my Steam friends started sending me messages stating that I'm trysexual and that all of my anime tiddy games were purchased as a ruse to cover up the "fact" that I'm gay. It didn't help that I also went on to purchase Girls! Girls! Girls!?, but life is full of traps! Now I had to go back to tell all of my Steam friends that what I am is called finsexual.


Maybe the world is about to end, because Miel released a visual novel that doesn't have gigantic (and comically) huge breasts. In fact, this visual novel doesn't even have females at all... Just three traps who convincingly look female. Other than that, Otoko Orgy at Maid Boy Manor is pretty much Breeding Village except with traps. And what does the main character make the maids do, domestic duties? Don't be silly!


Otoko Orgy at Maid Boy Manor looks just about like every other visual novel that Miel has maid... Errrr, I mean, made! The traps are very convincing, and ended up breaking the Kawaii-O-Meter when I tried to get a reading. The sounds are all recycled from other visual novels.

Sorry I didn't get any screenshots this time. If anyone wants to look at the traps from this visual novel, there's plenty on the store page. The fans presumably uploaded lots of screenshots, too!


It's pretty much like Breeding Village with three femboys. Whether that's a good thing or not depends on the player's tastes.

Just because every woman from a Cherry Kiss Games visual novel has a gigantic chest doesn't mean that the three characters in Otoko Orgy at Maid Boy Manor have gigantic weenies.


I can't recycle that joke I made about every other Cherry Kiss Games visual novel that I reviewed this this one somehow came out different, so I should probably make an effort to say something different this time. How about... Miel is on to something with this visual novel! I'll scream if someone reminds me of that meme about traps. (Everyone outside of North Sentinel Island has seen it, and everyone is sick of it.)

1/10: Where's the Sugar Mommy? I expected an overweight, middle-aged office lady with flabby breasts. (Or a chest that's as fake as her fake blonde hair.) If a "game" like this is going to be trashy, the main character should be seen (spoiler for NSFW) shooting his DNA all over the woman.


This "game" isn't being reviewed in an official capacity, so I'm under no obligation to write anything detailed. The developer didn't make an effort, so what makes them think they deserve an effort from me?


Yawn.


The player almost gets what they pay for. Everything else is a negative.


Watching the main character in My Sugar Mommy is a Futanari (spoiler for NSFW) taking it up the butt from a futa was better than this crap.

9/10: There's some issues, but the developers are great people who are extremely receptive to feedback, and hopefully these issues will be resolved before the day of release. This review can become a perfect "10" with fine-tuning.

Sorry Jimmy Dali, but despite the word Simulator in the title, this isn't a true simulation in the sense of the term, so there's no wandering around a disco first person in a polyester leisure suit, strutting underneath a glittery disco ball like John Travolta, and ingesting insane quantities of cocaine and Ripple.


Does ol' Il Pallino really need to write a review for a game for which he's already reviewed the prologue? The developer wanted an expert opinion, so heck yeah! In case the reader hasn't played the prologue to Disco Simulator, the player spends the day (with an unlimited amount of time) modifying their disco by buying and placing furniture, employee stations, dance floors, decorations, and speakers, then hiring staff for said stations, possibly changing the walls and floors. Once everything is good to go (or if the player runs out of money) the disco opens, and in real time, the player will be doing everything they can to get the disco operating at an optimum level by clicking (and holding) the mouse on various clock icons above whatever employee the player will want to rush to hurry up their job. If the player has not hired any cleaners, security, or maintenance workers, then the player will have to manually click on the icon in question to manually resolve a situation. Once the disco closes, it's back to square one, and the player will have even more money for objects, unlocking various items and features, and hopefully being able to add more stuff to their disco to handle what should be an even larger crowd the next night. When the player satisfies the victory condition for a night club, then the player will have new tasks (and likely be expected to play for even longer) in an attempt to keep building the greatest disco they can.


The graphics are pleasing enough, and it is nice that players have some control over the color of objects. (If only there was more control over walls and floors.)

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3172372206

The sounds are reasonable enough, but the soundtrack is just all wrong. The likable songs don't sound right for a nightclub. (Unless maybe there's a live band performing on a stage.) But none of the songs are danceworthy, which is a total mood killer. The music can be paused, and instead play something more danceworthy in the background. (Like Femme Fatality.)


Currently playing a pre-release copy of Disco Simulator, there have been bugs encountered. One of these bugs makes the day and months opposite of what's on the top of the screen and what's on a patron's pass in the bouncer minigame. This first time ol' Il Pallino failed the minigame, but at least he failed so other players won't have to.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3170697792

Apart from the bouncer minigame, there's also a bartending minigame in which the player has to look up a drink recipe, and select the correct ingredients for bonus money. Sometimes a DJ minigame will spawn if the player has the DJ's booth that involves matching innies and outies together to earn bonus prestige points similar to the bouncer minigame. (Or lose prestige points if the choices are incorrect.) These minigames are a welcome distraction from the whack-a-mole the player will need to do in addressing incidents and rushing the actions of employees.

Ol' Il Pallino had a save file become corrupted while managing the third disco. This issue may have been avoided by not exiting the game in the first place, but while starting over is never fun, at least the campaign progress wasn't corrupted, so ol' Il Pallino merely just has to start on Day 1 at the third disco. This issue has been reported to the developer, so hopefully this issue will have been eliminated in time for the official release.

When it comes to games that entail managing nightclubs, how many such games exist? There's none that ol' Il Pallino can name, so thankfully Disco Simulator not only has the market cornered, but it's also a fun and interesting game regardless.

The one real downer is that walls and floors can only be changed one tile at a time, and if the player should make a mistake, there's no way of refunding the wall or floor. At least with objects, they can be totally refunded, which is good in the vent the player either wishes to upgrade, or simply made a mistake purchasing the item in question. This more or less eliminates the need for traditional save files.

Despite the name Disco Simulator and how this game is a management sim rather than a conventional sim game, there doesn't seem to be any discos set in the 1970's... What's up with that?! The 1970's were the golden age of discos. Hasn't the developer ever seen the movie Saturday Night Fever?!


A strong buy. Ol' Il Pallino wanted to say "put on the polyester leisure suit, big ol' disco medallions, fire up the blowdryer, and gulp down a Piña Colada," but do you think ol' Il Pallino would dress up to play a video game? Of course not, but rest assured, ol' Il Pallino could do with a Piña Colada about now.

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9/10: Such an incredibly addictive game should be a perfect "10," but one point had to be deducted because the game is currently incomplete, and the current endgame was reached before every location on the map could be unlocked.


Management/Tycoon games often have a consistent pattern that can be expressed via a flowchart, and News Tower is one such game. Taking over a newspaper in Brooklyn, the player manages their way to an empire with readers and subscribers in the New York metropolitan area (excluding Staten Island and going as far west as Pascataway, New Jersey) by first selecting a spot on the map in which they want to establish new readership, if the player feels they can satisfy objectives with one of the three factions on the map, the player should select one of the factions, and then the player gets to the major part of the game, which is of the building itself in which the player spends a week receiving news from the telegraph, sending reporters to news sites, then sending reports to the typesetter (or first the editor if one is available and the report is sloppy) and finally sending the typeset to the assembler. When Sunday rolls around, hopefully the player has all of the news stories they want to print, and will satisfy all of the objectives for both the area in which they're trying to obtain (hopefully) maximum readership and the faction they're appeasing. If at least one objective is accomplished in an area, then spots on the map unlock, and the player is back to square one, only this time the player will either select a new area on the map to sell newspapers or try to obtain all of the readers in a partially completed location. Special buildings on the map can be unlocked in which the player can spend Influence Points to unlock new objects for employees to receive boosts to their skills, new objects to allow for more newspaper pages, more telegraphing desks, new types of employee stations, increased types of food objects, and discounts for goods and services.


The graphics are simplistic yet aesthetically pleasing, and the brick building the newspaper resides in does a perfect job of giving the player 1930's vibes... Only without jobless people loitering around the building and selling fruits or pencils.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3165347162

The sounds are all pleasing enough, but the only real complaint is that when the player selects types of news stories they wish to receive, the sound isn't loud enough. For some reason, selecting economy news invokes the sound of a cash register instead of a closing bell at a stock exchange. The music on the other hand is the perfect blend of music that is both mood-setting and infectious. It sure took ol' Il Pallino a long time before he muted the music and decided to play the Queensrÿche song Revolution Calling.


The absolute biggest complaint at this point in early access is the elevators. While an elevator is a logical choice for replacing stairs (which all have to be built at an angle in News Tower) doing so will practically ruin a newspaper. After hearing the horror stories on Discord, ol' Il Pallino decided to make an elevator that only goes to three floors specifically to form a chain between the incoming reporters, typesetters, and assemblers. This elevator strategy did the trick, but ultimately felt impractical.

When the newspaper receives stuff in the mail, the player can manually move the items in question to where they need to be, which saves time for the gophers who should normally only be taking stuff to the typesetters and assemblers. (Except for maybe doing the occasional supplying of food or coal.) Starting with page three (insert British joke here) of the newspaper, the printing press is going to be screaming "FEED ME, SEYMOUR" and whatever surplus paper is in the building is going to be going straight to the press, and even if the printing press is already stocked with enough paper to last two weeks and then some more.

News articles and advertisements all have at least one bronze tag, and that tag being the genre classification. Some stories can have an additional tag that's either silver or gold in color, which equates into more readers. Putting two or three articles with an identical tag on the same page will result in even more readers, which can encourage the player to either make specific sections of their paper, or print news stories with the same theme. (Gruesome articles can be found in both entertainment and crime articles.)

While some news stories (especially in the beginning) may be just as simple as assigning a reporter to a beat and having them come back with the story, quite a few news stories can have complex patterns, and these stories can consist of specific routes to take to get the full story. Such stories will consist of more tags, and quite possibly consist of multiple genre (bronze) tags to make article assembly a more interesting dilemma.

Along with the possibility of the above, it's possible to edit out parts of stories, which will result in sacrificing at least one positive tag, but the player will do good to delete such parts from the final article in order to get rid of a negative tag, and especially if the player has a requirement from a patron that week not to print articles with certain negative tags. (While it's true that real life newspapers are full of biases, propaganda, and lies, only a few such news pieces in News Tower are flagged as such.)

Another thing to make getting news stories interesting, is that they may require bribery, and may even require taking risks. What kinds of risks? A reporter could possibly get injured and be unable to work. The newspaper can be hit with lawsuits which requires hiring an Attorney to resolve. (Or pay a fine per every non-resolved lawsuit at the end of the week.) Some stories might draw the attention of the Mafia, who will send thugs with baseball bats to attack the paper. Some stories might require bribery in order to obtain, but some stories can even attract the attention of the police, who will issue fines if a reporter is discovered. There's also even the chance of a reporter outraging the public, which will mean protesters blocking the building interest. While lawsuits, mafioso, and protesters are easy enough to deal with, there's nothing the player can do to mitigate a chance of getting injured or fined by the police.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3164169690


STOP THE PRESSES, NEWS TOWER ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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9/10: The initial build of the game ended a little too abruptly, but the missions are all thoughtful, and each investigation is unique and deeply personal.


Finally, a sim game ol' Il Pallino can love the heck out of that doesn't involve cars, law enforcement, or crime! As if the title Plane Accident isn't a dead giveaway as to what the game entails, what isn't obvious, is that the player drives a truck to the vicinity of a plane crash, grabs their belongings, uses a drone to provide a map, walk to the scene of the crash, secure the crash scene by placing markers which causes the tape to magically spawn around the perimeter. Next the player has to search for clues, and place markers next to all of these clues. (And using the drone to help with locating the clues, although some of the markers on the map will be red herrings unrelated to the crash.) Finally the onsite investigation ends with photographing the crash and some of the scattered parts, and then making a phone call to a professional to transport the pieces to an investigation hangar where the player does things like send parts off to other professionals for extra analysis, send and receive e-mails, make phone calls, investigate documents, piece together the plane, run test on the plane for ice, explosives, and integrity. In most cases, the player will also need to listen to black box data, and sometimes even do some more in-depth investigation. Once all of the clues are pieced together on a whiteboard, the player will then need to determine the official cause of the accident, and then read about what became of everyone involved after the accident before their next assignment.


The graphics aren't the best but are certainly far from the worst. The only real complaints were that ol' Il Pallino had to turn his graphics up to the max on his laptop to better see the desert mission. (Which originally caused him to miss one of the pieces of evidence.) A crash in an arctic environment made it difficult to find the airplane due to the snow and the difficulty in establishing boundaries as to exactly where to go.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3162358389

The sounds are all perfect, and that also includes the music which was a perfect mood-setter.


Anyone who plays Plane Accident to start out with will need to pace themselves, because there's only a handful of missions to start with, and the end game is going to come quite abruptly for anyone who's liable to be hooked on playing.

While it probably gets repetitive to do nothing to investigate crashes, the crashes themselves are all unique (along with the people who either directly or indirectly involved) and provide a unique sort of story in itself as to what happened and what became of the people involved afterwards.


While the Positives and Negatives may have been lacking in this review, that's only because the variety within the mechanics of the game is lacking. (And was pretty much covered in the Overview.) If airplanes and investigations are the player's cup of tea, then Plane Accident is just the sort of game for the player.

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10/10: Grinding and save scumming have never been so much fun.

Author's note: In accordance with the Coalition of Butt-Hurt Snowflakes, this author is required to state that this review invokes the stereotype of aspies having a high tolerance for repetition. Anyone who does not like hearing stereotypes of people with Asperger's should stop reading. Besides, ol' Il Pallino is a huge aspie and laughs at himself for it all of the time!


It took three playthroughs and nearly ninety hours of playing to reach the end of Chapter One on the most difficult setting in Judgment: Apocalypse Survival Simulation, but ol' Il Pallino managed to find the time to write a review. Creatures from Hell walk the Earth, and it's up to the player to manage a survivalist community in the woods to research technologies, study the occult, perform basic community functions to keep everyone alive all while forging a team of warriors to help beat back the menace that plagues the Earth in a real time strategy. Sometimes the player will need to assemble a party to travel outside of the community to secure supplies, rescue the occasional survivor, attack the occasional roaming band of monsters, or even go to a story required location that spawns on the map.


The graphics are simplistic, but the dark aesthetic helps set the mood of a world overrun by creatures from Hell.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3092373021

The sounds are alright, but are a letdown by the fact that arquebuses do not sound enough like their real life counterpart, and the game presumably has all firearms sounding the exact same. The music is a rare mixture of good and mood-setting, although there may be the occasional player who will want to mute the music and play the theme song to Raiders of the Living Dead.


The player better have Asperger's as bad as ol' Il Pallino to tolerate the grind, because players will be doing more "grinding" than a million rusty gears. And let's not forget about save scumming, because players will likely be repeating scavenging missions either because they messed up in trying to gather supplies while trying to avoid a fight, or the player unlocked the Double Scavenge ability, and will keep repeating a scavenging mission until the game finally rewards the player with double the amount of supplies.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3105076799

The requirements for creating an infirmary (at least on Tough level) are unreasonable, and the player is likely to have at least one highly injured community member before they even get their first unit of required Wool needed to begin construction. (If the player is doing things the right way, they will have acquired the supplies via scavenging well before the creation of a sheep farm.)

The whole concept of Judgment: Apocalypse Survival Simulation is good, and has a missing element compared to Rebuild 3: Gangs of Deadsville. (Namely a bigger budget and bigger development team.) The story was amazingly more detailed compared the usual story that's in any sort of management sim, and it is nice to have stuff spawn on the map for the sake of making the player have to investigate what's out in the open world.

Speaking of the open world, the idea being able to build outposts outside of the community is nice, and allows for the creation/gathering of extra supplies in addition to have a way for the player to move lesser-helpful community members out of the community so they can do their farming and quarrying elsewhere.

The concept of a Footprint is good, and the player will need to make an effort to lower the footprint so that monsters will not attack the community quite so often. The Footprint will be increased by the creation of buildings the player obviously needs in order for the player to build work stations to get stuff done, and the Footprint will even increase by 0.03 for every tree chopped down, but it all adds to the non-combat tactical side of how to build a sustainable community that can beat back the forces of Hell.

The experience system is also quite interesting. While people will earn XP for what they do in combat (scoring a successful hit is good enough to earn even 1 XP) there's also XP to be earned in doing jobs around the community, so the player will do well for themselves to assign priorities to assignments for everyone in the community so as to make sure the right person is farming, studying, crafting, conducting rituals, or whatever. There's also training yards that can be constructed for warrior classes of community members to earn XP on between missions in the event said warriors cannot earn XP through doing manual labor. This also creates a dilemma as to if the player wants to tune a community member to strive towards being a worker or a fighter, and since a character can possibly go on to be both with the types of skills that can be leveled-up, a community member can become perfectly versatile.

The large number of classes and traits makes community members extra unique, but it is possible for community members to have contradictory traits, which is always annoying. (And often the sign of a poorly-constructed game.) Given that there's only one "correct" party to start with in Tough mode, the player better download an auto-clicker, because they will need to do A LOT of re-rolling until they get the desired starting community of three people.


Way too grindy but for some (especially this author) the grind is still great fun.

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10/10: If the player never played the original board game, they're going to feel as clueless as a camel on the North Pole if they're trying to satisfy all of the objectives. (My apologies to Rebuild 3: Gangs of Deadsville.) Once the player figures out the difficulty curve, the game feels a lot more fun and pretty cool.


The second board gamer in a row reviewed by ol' Il Pallino. Coincidence? Absolutely! While this author enjoys board games (while not having played the physical versions of Ticket to Ride and Flash Point: Fire Rescue) fact in the matter is that this author is waiting on two either games to become playable before reviewing. (The other two games currently being in early access.) In case the reader has never played Flash Point: Fire Rescue, The player commands a team of firefighters in one of three levels while they, you guessed it, fight fires and rescue people trapped in the building that always burns, even when there's no fire inside of the building. After every firefighter is done with their turn, embers appear out of nowhere (often in places in which there's no fire) and bring upon smoke which can be easily extinguished for minimal action points. If the location in which the embers land already contains smoke, then the square becomes the scene of a full-blown fire which takes even more action points to totally extinguish. And if a full-blown fire should already be in the square in which the embers land, then there's an explosion which causes fire to spread to nearby squares and possibly do structural damage. With enough structural damage, the game ends.


The graphics are pleasing enough, and the look of the firefighters with their animations of putting out fires and rescuing people are nice. (Instead of just going with mere still pictures of playing tokens on a playing board.)

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3086859331

The sounds are all realistic enough, but the biggest complaint is the loop of Swing music that plays in the background. While the music may have been alright for a game set in the late-1920's or early-1930's, the music is a better fit for a mafia-themed game.


Firefighting is something ol' Il Pallino has had a lifelong fascination for, which the reader may also attract other players as well. Just be sure to see if there's a playthrough video or guide somewhere, because it took ol' Il Pallino four hours to figure out the difficulty curve. Before that time, ol' Il Pallino was having reactions similar to the Angry Video Game Nerd and momentarily raging before blaming the rage on the rules. (And eventually on his own n00b-ness after coming to conclusion that his logic was flawed in how to deploy the firefighters.)

The animation of a firefighter flying in the air whenever they spray a fire that's on the square in which they're standing on is fun, but serious players may be annoyed at the whimsical nature.

The biggest complaint is the animation of opening a door which features a firefighter kicking it open. (And somehow kicking it closed whenever they wish to close a door.) Hasn't the developer ever seen the movie Backdraft?! Opening a door in a burning building as a huge no-no, and introduces a rush of oxygen into the room, which causes the fire to spread even more. That's why firefigthers are always portrayed as chopping down doors with an ax chop-by-chop!


Respect firefighters. All gave some, some gave all.

(Or else you might find your house on fire!)

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7/10: Just because ol' Il Pallino was heavily drawn into Ticket to Ride after first playing doesn't mean that it's a perfect game, because there's fremium board games that can be played against other Steam users. And seriously, a $34.99 USD DLC?! And why aren't there any achievements?!!


Ever heard of the board game Ticket to Ride? Ol' Il Pallino never had until recently, and was immediately addicted as a result. In case the player doesn't know, Ticket to Ride features multiple players starting with two tickets containing the names of two cities the player should most likely connect to each other by trains of their colors. (The player will have to pay a penalty at the end if they do not have the cities in question connected.) How to connect cities? Players draw cards containing various colored rail cars, and then there's locomotives that are wild cards. Once the player has enough rail cars of the correct color (or a combination of locomotives) the player places those cards on the line and points are scored depending on the length of the route between the two points connected. If the player is feeling ambitious (or lucky enough with a large number of cities connected) the player can draw 1-3 more tickets and hopefully will score enough points. Once less than three locomotives are held, the final turn begins, and points are tallied with the player taking bonuses or penalties dependent on their tickets, and a bonus for any player who managed to make a transcontinental railroad. of their own color.


The graphics are aesthetically pleasing enough but for the most part, the only thing the player will be looking at, is the game board and an animation of a train whenever both cities listed on a ticket are connected.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3084541757
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3084541691

The sounds are all basic but pleasing. The music isn't the best soundtrack ever, but at least it sets the mood, which is more than can be said about a lot of soundtracks for Steam games.


It's the board game Ticket to Ride, duh! If that's a good or bad thing purely depends on the player's tastes. (Ol' Il Pallino does enjoy the logical nature of Ticket to Ride, even if luck is a factor, and Murphy's Law is likely to be invoked.)

Ticket to Ride can be played online and against other players... Big deal, right? Almost every board game on Steam is like that, and including at least two of such games that are fremium!

Ol' Il Pallino never liked Steam games in which the player is required to get an account at a third party to unlock the full potential of the game, and Ticket to Ride requires a Bubble account if the player wants to pick their own player name and play private games against other friends who have an account at Bubble. (Along with playing public games against other users who were also duped into registering with Bubble.)

The main thing that bothers ol' Il Pallino about Ticket to Ride is the price of the Round The World Ticket DLC... I mean, this has to be the most expensive DLC ever made, and even when you include the price of some season pass DLC's.


If Ticket to Ride sounds like your kinda game, then go ahead and get addicted! Don't bother waiting for a sale. The discount is only 10%... Unless maybe you're as Scottish as ol' Il Pallino!

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Author's note: Although prologues are obviously free, this review is flagged as being received for free since the developer sent out Disco Simulator: Prologue through Curator Connect.


8/10: The prologue is good enough to sell players onto the game and offers a good amount of playing time, only one point had to be deducted because saves aren't possible and a second point was deducted for the incorrect name. This prologue is superior to another nightclub management game and Arcade Tycoon in every way.


First off, the game really should have been called Disco Tycoon, but whatever. Disco Simulator: Prologue proved to be quite addictive, as the player spends the calm of between shifts trying to figure out what to buy and where to place it in their nightclub. When the player is ready, the game skips to the 6:00 PM (1800) opening, and the player tries to observe the needs of the patrons, all the while trying to keep the nightclub operating smoothly by addressing issues and speeding up the actions of doormen and bartenders. Every so often a bartending mini-game will appear allowing the player to earn extra points by selecting the correct ingredients for a random cocktail.


The graphics are pleasing enough, and it is nice that players have some control over the color of objects. (If only there was more control over walls and floors.)

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3079072753

The sounds are reasonable enough, but the soundtrack is just all wrong. The likable songs don't sound right for a nightclub. (Unless maybe there's a live band performing on a stage.) But none of the songs are danceworthy, which is a total mood killer.


The game is set in 2002, which can be good if the player doesn't want to hear Disco music, but fact in the matter is that the 1970's are the golden age of Disco, so while the player won't have to endure music from the likes of KC and the Sunshine Band or The Silver Convention, ol' Il Pallino says "a disco isn't a disco without white polyester leisure suits, glittery disco balls on the ceiling, giant disco medallions, giant afros, bottles of Ripple, and cocaine"!

Disco Simulator: Prologue does allow the player to play for a decent amount of time, except that saves aren't possible, and unless the player has a lot of free time, it isn't reasonable to assume that the player will be able to complete the prologue in a single setting. Is the player supposed to leave their computer on all night? Leave their computer plugged in during a thunderstorm? Totally skip on sleep?

The concept of DJ events is a nice mechanic, and for a price (and purchase of a DJ station) the player can pay a DJ to perform at a certain night, and there are benefits in the form of more ticket sales, higher ticket prices, and in turn, more money for the player.


The prologue is enough to sell the player onto the main game. (Whenever it will be released.) The replay value would be higher if only it was possible to save games at this time.

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