Recent reviews by MizuDG

For Rock & Stone!

Just wanted to say that this is one of the best Sonic games in recent times. There are some minor issues but nothing technical apart from the game being capped at 60fps and definitely nothing game-breaking..

Review for the Badge but if you haven't, give this game a chance. If you're into adventures and exploration, you'll love this now-polished gem. Also, check out the mods for it. Plenty of fun additions.

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Everyone is smurfing, boosting or both at the same time. Toxicity is at an all-time high with trash talking overtaking the quick chat functionality usually after just one goal. I'm thinking of switching back to Crossplay-Enabled matchmaking just to avoid such people, but for the love of God, Psyonix, I don't want to play with all these EGS smurfs. At least give us the option to not want to see someone in the next game post-match. The amount of times I've had people assume they know everything about me, my mother and my playstyle after one kick-off goal 10 seconds into the match and for that toxicity to carry over to the next match is literally 3/4 of my matches in Champ 3. I actually had high hopes one day, when I got on a 12-win streak and my mates seemed to be decent, as well as our opponents. It wasn't like we were stomping, no. They were hard, sweaty, earned wins. Only for some smurf who was literally Gold 2 and his mate who was Champ 2 match us three times in a row. Needless to say, the 'Gold' dominated while his mate was probably checking his car decals out in their net. Every time I reach the Div 3-4 of Champ 3, I end up against some boosters, who also call out "EZ!" after the game's over. At least add restrictions to the party ranks for Ranked play. This is actually unacceptable and no other game that I'm aware of allows you to duo queue with someone who's technically 10+ ranks bellow you (counting splits)

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Rocket League was and still is one of my favorite games that has released over the past decade. Its seemingly simple mechanics and idea are what got me intrigued in the first place and why I've been playing it shortly after it released. The mechanics the community and pro teams 'invented' such as the aerial dribbles, flip resets, ceiling shots, even something like the kick-off, is what made this game stand the test of time and evolve over the course of the past 6 years and developers' intentions, and why I stuck with it, dedicating more than 1300 hours, which only one other game has made me do so far, speaking volumes of Bushnell's Law's (simple to learn but hard to master) effect here. With that said, I'd be hard-pressed to recommend anyone this game in its current state, and why I'm taking a temporary break from it as it stands.

Thanks to the Epic takeover, Psyonix has focused more on the business-side of things and where it once used to be cool to see a new car in the store and even the fabled 'loot crates' were hit or miss, I never felt cheated out of the game. When the game transitioned into being F2P, it was infested with smurfs that ruin the casual and competitive experience alike. I can't help but feel like every 3rd game I have someone that's dominating us on the other team, and since my preferred mode is Doubles, it's not that hard for one person to carry a game alone, as long as he has mastered the mechanics I listed above. I've accepted I'm above average, but not great. I almost reached Grand Champion this season (C3 Div 2) which has been a long-time dream of mine after a few really fortunate nights and disabling cross-play (seriously, console players, you're more toxic than the PC community, I'm sorry. Spamming 'What a save' or 'Nice shot' and hitting forfeit as soon as it's available, makes me question how did you even get to anything post-Gold), I managed to get really excited about finally hitting that this season. My aerials are either really good or full-on flukes, depending on the mood, and my defense is always pretty good, I dare say. I can read and clear 9/10 shots, even ceiling shots and some resets, as would be expected of someone with this many hours. My main issue is my Air Roll button is burned into my muscle memory as X, and I can't get over that. It's my own fault and it's hurting my progress, I know. Still, to get 3 days of nothing but mates who are extremely toxic, childish and not have the option to at least not match with them as soon as the game ends is a sign of the developers essentially calling this game "complete" and doing nothing about it. There's several community-developed tools that also feel like they should be part of the game, but up until a few weeks ago, I hadn't even heard about BakkesMod, and after using it, I'd say that's an essential tool for anyone who wants to get better.

A bit of a F2P rant here, skip if you want:
Since the game moved to EGS, they also forced me to link my account, changed the menu (for the worse, in my opinion) and did basically nothing to support newcomers or advanced players alike. The tutorial and different stages of it are still barebones at best and I'd say I've learned more from watching players like Rizzo, Squishy, and for those of you that remember, Kronovi back in the day. It feels like the game is more focused around being a service than a game now, with something new being added into the shop regularly that's overpriced in comparison to how things used to be ($10 for a car I bought years ago for $3 !? What are you, crazy?). The Rocket Pass is also very limited in what it can offer. The crates that drop from it and their items could seem nice for new players, but getting the same wheels or hats as I used to in 2015 is kind of pushing it, don't you think? Granted, the $10 you spend for the Pass can be earned back as you earn 100 credits every few dozen levels, eventually reaching your money's worth, but I never felt like it did. All the cosmetics were mediocre at best and the only decent thing I can recall is the car that you get at level 70 or so. The levels keep going after 100 but then it's just different colored items that you've already earned by the time you get there. I don't care if the wheels are pink or red. Different colored items are still the same, and as long as they don't look good, I'm not going to equip either. Variety comes from more items, not just different schemes. Speaking of which, the blueprints system is equally absurd. All the chests I used to have were turned into blueprints that I can buy immediately if I want to. The problem is, the only items worth buying are priced at $20's worth of credits. That's how much I paid for the game when it released! Seriously!?

In conclusion, it's a guilty pleasure of mine to hop on and play a few rounds every day, but I feel burned out after grinding the Rocket Pass this season and these past few days. Toxicity levels are at an all-time high in this game. And if that's the case for mid-high level Champ, then I can only imagine how much worse it is bellow. Game is free, so anyone's welcome to try it and if you like it, good for you. I certainly still like it, but at this point, I'm more disappointed in the community and how the developers are handling the game. The whole 'games as a service' business plan that came into the spotlight several years ago is hurting every game that tries to follow it. This one included. If you're in it for long-term casual play, you aren't safe either. High-level smurfs are everywhere, probably because they're as angry as me after losing a few games and 'relaxing' by getting some easy wins. I wish I could give it a neutral review, but as it is, solely for the lack of proper support from the developers, the sometimes incredible, but mostly salty toxic community and the F2P model they've taken, I'll have to leave a thumbs down on this one. That's not even mentioning how every few games, at least one or two players have packet loss and the server would randomly start and sometimes won't stop lagging for everyone. I won't stop playing, but that's only because, like I said, it's a guilty pleasure of mine and the simple idea, yet complex framework this whole 'sport' is based on has me trapped for good. Still though, very disappointed with what it's turned into and judging by the other reviews, it's people who genuinely like the game and haven't noticed or don't mind the issues.

Only barely an hour in, Vergil feels and plays amazing! A definite improvement over his DMC3 and 4 cameos, with the most expanded arsenal of weapons and moves he's had in the series so far, this DLC is an absolute steal at $5 (+$2 for his battle themes from old games and the We Shall Never Surrender HR Remix). I recommend it to any long-time fan or newcomer to the series who enjoyed playing as either of the other characters and is looking to add a few more hours (or a few dozen) of quality and stylish gameplay!

P.S. - Keep a lookout for NexusMods' DMC5 section for updates to your old mods. This update broke a lot of the old ones (Vergil's Sin DT to DMC4 DT, DMC4 BP Stage, to name a few). Also, to those of you who complain about the lack of RT, Turbo mode and LDK, we already have all those in the form of mods. There's a Ray-tracing shader preset, Turbo mode's been unlocked pretty much since last year and Legendary Dark Knights adds in tons of enemies and is lots of fun to mess around in. There's also DMC5 StriVe Versus and others that consoles won't be getting ever, so chill and stop bashing on the game and happy Devil Hunting :)

While the game itself is gorgeous with the updated visuals and I don't mind the '95 AI pathfinding, all the extra features such as Skirmish, the custom Jukebox, hotkeys, modern gameplay additions and such are great, it is rather inexcusable to have the fps tank from 500 to 20, starting from the 2nd mission of the Nod campaign. I noticed some stuttering in the Allied campaign's mission with Tanya where you have to blow up the bridges too. As it is, I'd say get it for nostalgia, but be wary of playing MP or Skirmishes until we get a patch. I saw in some other reviews I'm not the only one getting this and I have a high-spec rig and the game running off an SSD

Makes DOOM 2016 look like a tech demo in comparison. Will update my review when I complete the game and play a bit of the PVP. So far, absolutely worth it!

Edit: Really wanna update this soon but for now, Autumn Challenge

Black Mesa is a re-imagining of Half-Life. Not a Remaster! While this does mean that the developers made some changes (and sweet Gman, are there many), they reinvigorate one of the best shooters of all time into a fresh experience, the likes of which will likely never be this anticipated and well-received after such a long development again, with the obvious exception of Half-Life 3 (one can dream).

What started as a fan project to remake Half-Life into the Source engine has since become one of the best shooter experiences on the PC, much like the original Half-Life back in the day, and that's not because of the property it's based on. Black Mesa does so much right that it's hard to call any complains one may have with it anything but nitpicks. There really isn't anything bad to say about this. I guess the Multiplayer is rather barebones in comparison and it wasn't their focus on making it anything different from what was offered back then, from what I've played at least.

Massive props to the composer Joel Nielsen! Especially the Xen tracks. From the moment you enter this world, you're immediately sucked in and the music builds up over these last few chapters into an epic crescendo, which you'll hum in your head or out loud weeks or maybe even months after you've completed the game. And speaking of Xen...

Was it worth the wait? Absolutely. What felt like a nuisance and a complete departure from the core game back in the day, and to this day still, was transformed into a world that looks and feels alive, with haunting atmosphere and countless places to stop and take pictures at. There are new enemies, puzzles, platforming that feels good. The literal climb to the final boss was a bit tedious on the Hard difficulty with the new design, but it's all part of the fun dying a few times, learning from your mistakes. Other than that, the game as a whole puts other developers/publishers to shame with their take on putting old games with slightly touched graphics and unlocked framerates up for 60€. Black Mesa is having none of that.
"Let's release the game for 18€ and a workshop to allow the modding community, which we ourselves are a part of, to contribute and add more stuff in!"

I am used to writing in-depth reviews, with structure, cohesion, an overall idea of where I want to go and points that I come across that take me there. But this is truly one that, much like the game itself, takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions and leaves you breathless by the time you get off it.

If you're a fan of FPS or shooters in general, get this game.
If you're a fan of Half-Life and want to relive the Resonance Cascade, get this game.
If you're thinking of getting into the Half-Life universe, then what are you waiting for?
Get. This. Game.

An instant classic that needs way more attention and care, similar to what has happened with the AoE franchise. Hoping for a Definitive remaster!