Ulasan terkini oleh IL PALLINO

10/10: Slightly different mechanics from This Grand Life, but so much better even after being more complex with the ability to control an entire household. This version of the game also expands into life sim territory.

Normally altering the dynamic of a predecessor game and taking away at least one beloved feature makes things worse, but strangely, This Grand Life 2 is an improvement in the series. The same ol' "select a city and earn one's way up to riches still applies." What doesn't apply is that the player can start out at any age (but should have at least one adult in the household despite ol' Il Pallino doing alright starting out at the age of fifteen and balancing high school and work), turn-based mechanics changed to real time, and with a household of multiple people of different ages, and the ability in any occupation to be one's own boss.

It's just like the predecessor, except that the map of the city feels more pleasant to look at than before. The game still otherwise the same ol' looking at the map of the city the player choose to play in and the many information screens that the player will need to look at to either perform actions and review information.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3262779246

The sounds are all basic and too unremarkable for words. (i.e. Not good enough to praise, yet not bad enough to criticize.) The music consists of a wide array of genres which may or may not set the mood, but all make for great tunes.


With the dynamic including a life sim element, this may or may not be of interest to the player. Having a detailed family (and with more than just the spouse being able to earn money) makes for an interesting game, more people doesn't make managing multiple people any more difficult with the ability to auto-assign tasks to people so that the player can focus on whichever player they want for whatever reason. (Or just let the game auto-play everybody through a month.)

Another radical alteration to the This Grand Life dynamic, is that the game has gone from turn-based to real time. As much charm as the predecessor game had being turn-based, one nice thing about being able to play in real time, is that actions no longer have to be carried out to completion, and the player can feel free to cancel an action if the player deems it any advantage to cut something short to tend to a need. Of course, with the way households with multiple people are now possible, the game pretty much had no choice but to be in real time.

The ability to pick up either positive or negative conditions may or may not be interesting to the player. This feature teaches the player the importance of balance in one's life so as to not overdo it with exercising and to do a variety of things in one's spare time. Working leads to burnout which requires that the player to spend money on a vacation every so often to avoid even more negative consequences. The player will also do good to go to the hospital every so often for a dental checkup because tooth cavities can happen, and with no other way of decreasing the percentage of a cavity forming.

Unlike a lot of other games, This Grand Life 2 rewards the player for going above and beyond filling meters for entertainment and interest-related needs by providing points that the player can spend on altering a character's interests. But the potential interest changes may or may not align with what the player has in mind for their character. (Especially for an occupation-related trait.) The player will find a teenager's traits changing with age. (Sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way, and this could throw a ratchet in the grand scheme of what the player has in mind.)

Most of the locations on the map are now obscured, and the player will need to spend time searching for new places to live, work, go to school, shop, and parks to frequent if the player enjoys the outdoors. This radically different feature may or may not bode well for people who played the predecessor game.


TGL1: Cities have unique events with the ability to celebrate New Year's Eve downtown, Octoberfest in Berlin, and throw shrimp on the barbie in Sydney.
TGL2: Cities have different maps and different difficulty levels. Players may appreciate the fact that there's more than just "white places" to play in this time.

TGL1: The player has a choice of avatars to select for themselves that never changes, and for any reason.
TGL2: Salons now exist, so the player can go change their avatar if they so choose. (Or just simply go for a makeover to satisfy creativity and hope they get the special perk associated with makeovers.)

TGL1: Not every career could lead to self-employment.
TGL2: Every career can possibly lead to self-employment.

TGL1: Employees only have one skill related to their occupation, nothing more.
TGL2: Employees come in all sorts of varieties. A single player with sufficient experience as a cashier, bookkeeper, and/or janitor can run a lemonade stand by themselves. (Or any other simple business.) A complex business like a restaurant requires eight different types of staff members, and the player will do well to have at least two of the required skills and hire five other employees.

TGL1: The value of stock prices are all affected by several factors.
TGL2: The value of stock prices can be affected by many different financial and field-specific factors. (These field-specific factors can also influence the performances of businesses on the local level.) On top of which, a company can have varying levels of financial stability and leadership which has an impact on what direction the stock price may go in.

TG1L: Had meters for needs to drink alcohol, smoke, or shop if the player was addicted to any of these vices. (Which could be eliminated through rehab "courses.")
TGL2: Did away with smoking, but the player may or may not have needs to drink alcohol or go shopping. If one of the nineteen preferences reaches the level of Love, then a need bar will spawn. If the player goes above and beyond filling the need bar for a preference like they do with Fun, then the player will earn happiness points, and if these preferences are encountered at a job, this proves the point that if a person finds their dream job, they will never have to work a day in their life.


Tell me, tell me. How to be (how to be) a MILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIONAIRE!

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5/10: The change of scenery, added variety, different mechanics, and the fact that bag sizes are no longer an issue are all appreciated. Maybe multiplayer games are interesting, but for some odd reason, playing solo feels like a far step down from the predecessor. The score is subject to change, and dependent on updates. The game plays well on computers that do not meet the minimum requirements.


Ol' Il Pallino is dumbfounded that the sequel to Drug Dealer Simulator fell so flat compared to it's predecessor. Starting out in a tropical archipelago of a Spanish speaking nation that somehow isn't Republica de Tropico, the player makes their money mostly by, surprise surprise, slingin' dope! (Picking amber rocks on the beach can also be done for money, but that doesn't pay the bills.) Tasks are given to the player, and when the player completes these tasks, they unlock new tasks, which ultimately leads to unlocking new locations on the map and unlocking more expensive forms of narcotics to sell. Instead of cops, thugs are the real worry, and going through their turf requires either buying them off, fighting them off, or gaining enough rep to scare them off.


The graphics are all correct for a tropical paradise in a developing nation. Just a shame that ol' Il Pallino finds himself unable to upload pre-release screenshots. (They keep failing for some odd reason. But the store page has enough screenshots for the player to make a judgment.) The waves of the sea look nice, and it is nice that the player can pick out a character for themselves to be. The main thing that stands out about the graphics, is the humorous effect of building sellers disappearing in a cloud of marijuana leaves whenever the player purchases a building. (You'd think that the seller would disappear in a cloud of smoke!)

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3271660891

The sounds are all realistic enough, and the into music of hardcore rap beats with a Latin influence reminiscent of an early Cypress Hill song is the perfect mood setter.


The absolute greatest feature in Drug Dealer Simulator 2 is that bag sizes are no longer an issue when trying to sort a customer's product. Being forced to accept 1/2/3/5/10/etc. gram bags in order to get a customer's product together and then distribute multiple bags to said customer is a thing of the past. While it's not known at this time just exactly how many grams a regular sized bag can hold, the player now only has to designate how many grams of a narcotic they want to put inside of a bag, and then give only one single bag to that customer... However, there may be some cheapskate players who hate the fact that bags are now tangible items that are finite in quantity and need to be purchased in order to keep slingin'.

The game is different enough to call itself a sequel. Is that a good thing? Maybe, maybe not. Something feels off to ol' Il Pallino. Maybe it's because there's at least one other drug dealing sim out there to compare Drug Dealer Simulator 2 to? Maybe it's because the game has the setting of something other than a dingy ghetto? Maybe it's because the laws are considerably more lax? Who knows at this point.

Multiplayer is now an option that exists in Drug Dealer Simulator 2, which is something that some players is bound to enjoy. Granted, ol' Il Pallino would rather avoid other toxic players and play his own dang game, but whatever players think of multiplayer is purely a matter of personal taste.

The tutorial is lacking in some parts, and most notably in the concept of parkour. Rather than the game forcing the player to run straight at the gate at the beginning with the space bar held down, ol' Il Pallino found a way around the gate that didn't involve using parkour, which was good for awhile, until ol' Il Pallino realized that he needed to properly perform parkour elsewhere in the game, which is then when he had to look around through the keys to find the (definable) key to use to activate parkour.

Variety is good, and it does seem more interesting and more dignifying to pick amber rocks off of a beach than it is to poke through dumpsters like in the first game to see if anything interesting is inside. Given the relatively low value of amber rocks, the player shouldn't be looking to make money off of selling the rocks to the beach merchant. (Unless maybe an achievement is added for doing so.)

The quest system is helpful in giving the player direction as to where to go and what to do next. This is much more helpful compared to the predecessor game in which a friend of ol' Il Pallino had problems locating a merchant in the first game.

The ability to travel using various forms of transportation is a welcome addition. Apart from time warps via bus stop, each island has a ferry as a safer means of travel, and land vehicles of various types and boats also exist. Given how time is an issue with dope deals, speed is the next best thing to being there.


Honestly, the city that the first game is set in would have made a better setting for a sequel. (Especially since there's a mass transit tram that's visible, along with skyscrapers in the far distance.) If the player enjoys tropical settings, wants to have fighting apart of their gaming experience, or just really needs to play multiplayer game, then there's some value in Drug Dealer Simulator 2. But for some odd reason, ol' Il Pallino just doesn't feel the same sort of excitement that the predecessor game had. Still, it's early days, and given the sort of improvements that the predecessor game experienced (which was already an amazing game to start) there's a good chance that Drug Dealer Simulator 2 will improve into a more enjoyable and exciting game in the future.

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Author's note: Spaceport Trading Company is currently incomplete. The information provided in this review (along with the TL;DR score) is expected to change over time.


5/10: The time trial mode of play adds purpose to playing, but the price tag is heavy for a casual indie game. (And an incomplete game at that.)


Games featuring space travel are pretty cool, and Spaceport Trading Company is only a slight exception. With the campaign currently a work of progress, the player can either just pointlessly fly around the universe (or just a single galaxy if they prefer) or take on a time trial in which the player has to make as much money in a one year period as possible. The time trial seems a bit pointless in the sense that there's no rewards for making a certain amount of money or earning achievements. While it may be overly pessimistic to describe anything as pointless, there is a fun factor (and potential for improvement) in Spaceport Trading Company, and the chill experience is nice until the player gets burnt out.


The graphics are basic but do have a nice aesthetic to them. For the most part the player will be looking at three things: A top-down view of the map of the star system where the player is currently traveling through.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3259196790

The next thing the player will be looking at quite a bit, are the jobs that the player can take for heads of whatever faction is most prominent on a planet.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3259196816

And lets not forget about the planets themselves. Most planets have tangible graphics upon the player landing on them, while some places (most notably an asteroid belt called Far Point) are just merely scenes of open space.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3259196837

The sounds are all basic, and the electronic ambient music does sound nice while also being a perfect mood setter.


The player either gets casual strategy games, or they don't. While Spaceport Trading Company isn't going to be kicking the player's butt like FTL: Faster Than Light, players may or may not enjoy Spaceport Trading Company without campaign mode. For ol' Il Pallino, there's enjoyment, but the burnout is inevitable.

Spaceport Trading Company has great ideas, and who knows how many more are bound to come! Ideas for things like gadgets to add to one's spaceships made for an interesting experience, while the extra ships capable of intersystem travel adds an extra interesting element to the game. (Don't expect to raise enough credits in time trial mode to afford such a ship, and especially when such ships are only available in Far Point.)

The idea of adding jobs to survey planets in one of three ways is interesting, as is the idea of appeasing prominent people who will provide bonuses to the player as they progress through the game.


Incomplete, but the developer has made a good faith effort to improve the game, and with excellent communication, this proves that Spaceport Trading Company is not at all being abandoned. If the player likes the concept of the game and can wait for the best to be yet to come, the player is encouraged to buy Spaceport Trading Company to help out the developers, and let them know that they have an audience.

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7/10: Indie gold casual management turn-based sim. This game must lose all of it's charm after all of the achievements are earned, but it's pretty dang addictive for $3.99 USD.


Following a revolution, the fictional nation of Okinawa (which is nothing like the island owned by Japan) gets taken over by one of four types of socialist parties. Each party has their own ideals and ambitions, but all of which are socialist. What can go wrong? Most of the neighboring states do not appreciate the government of Okinawa, the standard of living is low, and the discontent tends to rise pretty quickly. Matters are also not helped by the fact that there's not enough housing and electricity to go around, and the military needs strengthening one way or another. Sometimes the player will need to meet with members of their cabinet, all of whom are anime girls, and a visual novel-esque scene appears, and the right choices in dialogue can lead to either a good or bad ending before the ruling party's ambition is accomplished.


The graphics to Socialism Simulator are basic yet aesthetically pleasing. For the most part, the player will either be looking at what to purchase for the nation and the map of the neighboring countries. The Easter cards that the player earns for choosing whatever option help to provide some extra graphics.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3229309775
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3229309917

The drama scenes with the other advisors all consists of stock pictures with a filter applied.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3229309956

While the music doesn't set the mood of the game, the music is pleasing to listen to... Though you would think that the developers would have used some patriotic-sounding music to help set the mood for the player as a world leader.


The achievements that Socialism Simulator has is good enough to encourage replaying, but the player may be replaying more than what they care for if they unlock one of the endings with a cabinet member. This can be particularly frustrating if the player is trying to achieve a victory condition with one of the more difficult political parties.

As for cabinet members, players can avoid having the game end via a drama route with one of the cabinet members by having that member removed. This is an excellent mechanic that helps the player achieve a specific victory.

For better or worse, war is simplistic and in many case, the player can conquer a nation in a single turn. This punishes players for having too strong of a military, because if the player can win a war without conquering the other nation, then the player still gets their ability to claim more spoils. (Choices are given for money, agricultural machinery, or enemy weapons.)

The Easter cards are a nice touch to help dress up the background, and the player doesn't have to keep any of the Easter cards in the background if they don't wanna. (Although the card with what looks similar to an Su-57 Felon is pretty nice.)

Despite the name Socialism Simulator nobody said anything about equal pay for equal work. Of course, owing to real life socialist governments, the socialist government in this game doesn't have to have a centralized economy, because even having a market economy in Okinawa (all while billing the nation as socialist) is entirely possible.

Victory for every single party is the same: It is achieved by researching the final technological advancement in the party tech tree. At least the developers added some variety to the game by making all of the benefits associated with each upgrade different for each party, thus proving that variety is the spice of life.


"Anyone who doesn't regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains."

-Vladimir Putin.

"Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy."

-Mao Tse Tung.

"Communism is like one big phone company."

-Lenny Bruce.

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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 ♥♥♥. 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 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 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 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 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 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 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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