Recent reviews by Alpha2749

Pocket Idler: Fishing Pond is about as descriptive a name as you can get.

It is in fact an idler game. You can click an 'Auto' button and the game will play itself, only requiring you to purchase upgrades.

Not a bad little short idle game. There aren't many mechanics, just a couple purchasable upgrades, cosmetics, and some minigames.

If you like little idle games, give it a shot.

Overall, I would recommend shapez 2.

I don't think you need to have played the first one to enjoy this one, and in my opinion this one seems a lot more streamlined and satisfying than the first one.

Something about adding the third dimension has made it all that much more satisfying.

I was sceptical after seeing some of the early reviews about the game. But having played a little bit of it. It captures the metro vibe perfectly.

Sure, some things are lacking, and some things feel early-gen VR. But overall a great atmosphere and interactivity.

A serious major con I have:

Controllers vibrate when in position to grab stuff from your 'player body'. Such as the med-pistol and regular pistol.
In concept, this is great for accessibility, instead of trying multiple times to grab and failing because you don't hit the right trigger location, you know with certainty when you are about to grab it.

However, with the positions of these triggers, when I'm just walking or turning, I normally have my hands down by my sides, which means those trigger points keep getting triggered when I'm just walking, turning, or looking around. This results in my controllers vibrating constantly as I'm playing, which really ruins the immersion, and honestly gets very annoying very quick.

A quick fix for this would be either turning off the controller vibration for those grab points, or maybe relocating them slightly higher. Maybe adding a timeout for when the controller vibrates and a player doesn't grab anything until the next vibration. Or maybe adding an option for the controller to only vibrate when the grab button is pressed, to let you know if you've grabbed the intended equipment or not.

Otherwise, I am quite enjoying the game, and I don't think it deserves as much negativity as it is getting. Yes, it isn't the next Half Life Alyx, but I think it isn't a bad game in its own right.

tldr; Really nice game dealing with very important themes such as unions, tigers, industrial action, and buttons. Also a lot of pretzels around. All in all, good game.

Game is good.

Sony messed up with forcing account linking, and not allowing people in some regions to sign up without owning a (new) playstation console.

UPDATE: Sony has now backtracked their decision. I have updated my review accordingly

UPDATE 2: It seems sony has delisted the game in all regions where you can't make a PSN account (even after rolling back PSN requirement) I have changed my review to negative again.

In its current state, I would not recommend this game. But it's worth keeping an eye on in the future.

The game does have potential, and the core idea is solid, but right now it feels like a hastily thrown together jumble of somewhat connected subsystems. It tries so hard to be like Escape From Tarkov (EFT), but falls far short in every regard (Yes, even the PvE mode).

My first experience with trying to get into the game is sitting in queue to a server, which is perfectly understandable for a popular, hyped title at launch. After finally loading in, however, I was instantly hit by very strong rubber-banding every several steps, even though I was on servers in my region (and didn't seem to have high ping, although I am not sure if there is a way to check). I decided to push on and give it a good shot, so I flew out to one of the starting accessible landing zones, and went towards the closest gunfire. This is where I came across the primary letdown of the game, the gunfights. These are just not fun with the constant rubber-banding. I would peek to start shooting at someone, and then suddenly be teleported back behind cover. Moreso, even hitting headshots on enemies with no helmet, they just keep running, shooting, and shouting, until dropping several seconds later. I am unsure if this is due to the health system in the game, and head hitpoints being too high, or if this is due to the servers, or lag. Either way, this just makes the gunplay frustrating, and unfun.

The UI and UX also needs a lot of work, as it is a big part of why it feels so clunky right now. I can't be sure but it does seem like some pre-made inventory system plugin from the marketplace. You will often see your screen filled up with many UI widgets of open containers and backpacks and rigs when trying to loot someone.

Visually the game does look quite nice, if your computer can handle it. It's build on Unreal engine, and seems to make use of Lumen for global illumination, which results in some ghosting, and noise in contrasting areas, such as the sun coming into a building. I'm fairly sure they are also using nanite to push in so much foilage and geometry into the game, however the game still suffers heavily on the performance front.

Combine all this with the fact that the game crashes quite frequently, and a crash means you lose everything that you had on you, I personally did not find this game enjoyable.

In conclusion, If you're looking for an alternative to EFT, just play singleplayer through something like SPT, There are also ways to play with friends if you would like... If you're completely new to this genre, while I am hesitant to recommend spending money on Tarkov, especially with recent news. In my opinion it is just a better game, even if there are issues with the lead devs.

Pick it up and give it a shot with a group of friends!

Interesting... so this is a 900 megabyte download.
Almost 10 times as much as the '(not a) game jam'edition. but yet there is still no game...

Maybe I'm the one in the wrong dimension...

Hope it's not a virus. Or a glitch. Those can really mess everything up...

While DEATH STRANDING has been a very controversial game, I personally really enjoyed the experienced. Don't let my hours fool you, I have 110 hours on the base game, and a further 17 on the Directors cut (as of writing this review).

This game creates an atmosphere unlike any other, with the environment design, ambience, and general feel. The sound design is magnificent, and you really do become immersed in this foreign world.

The thing I most love about this game is the storytelling, you're thrown into this 'uncanny' world, where it looks, and feels, like ours, but is not really anything like ours. We have the people, and the nature to keep us grounded in reality, but so many things that are so foreign to us are just a part of daily life in this world.

While it is easy to say 'oh, walking sim, why would I want to play that', I would have to disagree.
Yes, the gameplay is monotonous, but it has enough variety to keep you in the world. Seeing the sights, coming across other players' constructions, shouting into the void and hearing a response, all evokes an emotion of 'I'm alone, but I'm not alone'. At the very least, the gameplay does keep you entertained while you think, either about the story, or just something completely off-topic, and I think that is kind of the point.

I've seen a lot of criticism of the storytelling, and how confusing or disorganised it is. While yes, it is confusing at first, you do slowly become more and more aware of the world surrounding you, and are able to actually understand what is going on. I think the best way to experience it is not to look anything up, but just keep playing. A lot of things are left ambiguous early on, on purpose.

Overall, if you want to really enjoy this game be prepared to sink some time in, and enjoy the stunning visuals, and this foreign world.

Over 3 hours of music for a fantastic game. It's got everything, funk, rock, electro, house, and of course even a jingle for the body mall.
Michael Wyckoff, you absolute legend. Thank you for the fantastic music to accompany a fantastic experience <3