Recent reviews by Skexer

Aside from the fps inconsistencies, the 60-fps lock and micro stutters which the game has already been exhaustively put down for, here’s an unpopular take on the game aside from the performance issues.

It was worth a shot seeing what the unanimous praise is about. While critics are calling Elden Ring the best thing since sliced bread, it’s not my cup of tea.

The story is co-written by fantasy genre giga chad George RR Martin, but it's more ambient and lingers in the background. NPCs deliver some piece meal dialogue and vague quest or loot options. There are no main story threads, production set pieces or cut scenes. It’s an uninvolved secondary aspect.

There are limited pointers or mechanics as far as quest markers or a journal goes, it’s a vast sand box offering (or rather requiring) extensive & exhaustive exploration. Especially with the dead-end difficulty spikes you encounter and turn back from.

Artistically the game has its charm, but the visuals and movement are just average for a big budget action game of this decade. The animations and movement are clunky and stiff, as if the game is rooted in the lineage of years past (suppose this is unsurprising being a direct relative to the Souls games). Compared to the polish, fluidity and visuals in the likes of God of War, Assassin's Creed, the Horizon Games or even the recent PS5 remaster of Demon’s Souls, it’s nothing to write home about.

What you do get from this game is brutal enemy encounters and a need for intense, repeated study of the game’s mechanics and enemies. A dance of dodge, roll, parry and bustling around until you are permitted a brief window of attack and repeat. A die and retry ad-finitum.

I suppose it’s just the kind of game that you either love or dislike. If you are maidenless, enjoy the stacked odds and an overwhelming challenge then it’s surely a well-deserved treat.

Or alternatively if you are a believer in acquired tastes (which I am) it’s this repeated bashing against a wall until you squeak through to temporary victory, that makes it finally ‘click’ for you. I’ll pass on this study of tediously passing the time. Kudos to those who git gud, until they meet the next boss.

Maybe I'll give it another shot when I feel the need for an unscratchable itch.

12 years later it's a classic. Has held up very well as a great game. Solid mechanics and satisfying gameplay. Weapons pack a punch & it's a blast to dismember enemies. Visuals still look good. Horror aspect is there, but on Medium difficulty items are very plentiful. Even Hard is forgiving, many save stations throughout the game. Great sound design deserves a mention too & the seamless UI displayed on the player and weapons themselves is one of a kind.

Suffers from it's age though. Out of the box it has horrible mouse input acceleration/ controls & there is a game breaking impassible door in the 1st chapter. Can be fixed by forcing V-Sync through a 3rd party program for that part in the game & by downloading a popular mouse fixer mod https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/840-dead-space-mouse-fix/
Still works fine at high 100+ frames for the remainder of the game.

It's still a thrill, but could do with a remaster. ~~Find it unlikely though that the EA money making machine would see interest in that. RIP Visceral.~~

Edit: Whoop de do, however unlikely it seemed - what a pleasant surprise.

Pacify is a fun little horror game. It's recommendable, especially because of it's co-op mode.

While it looks a bit bare-bones and feels rough around the edges, it makes up for it with a small price for some rather fun gameplay-

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You are chased around a dark mansion by a possessed demon girl while you search for little dolls, some are 'good' some are 'evil.'

To calm the girl for a moment, you give her one of the 'good' dolls that are found around the house. Along the way you run into some doors that have to be unlocked with keys.

The goal is to burn all of the 'evil' dolls in a boiler room in the basement. As you burn more of the dolls the girls rage & speed increases.

While it can be finished rather quickly, the placement of keys and dolls is randomized so it mixes things up.

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Great, especially if you can grab a friend or two to play and want to get the semi-challenging achievements. Can be played solo as well and there are active public lobbies running.

(You can play solo, up to 4 co-op or compete against other players.)

Yooka-Laylee walks a fine line between a fun and outright annoying experience.
At its core it’s a competent 3D-platformer with heaps of collectibles, fun puzzle solving and little ‘mini-game’ gimmicks sprinkled in. Unfortunately, there are several annoyances here.

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The game starts by confronting you with a confusing, maze like ‘hub world’ from which you will travel to all the other ‘worlds’ throughout the game. This was so problematic at launch, that they added signs in an early update- pointing to the different portals to access the other game worlds.

This confusing world design however carries over into the different ‘game worlds’ you will visit. There is a mix of some great content/puzzles and platforming inside the tediously, largely empty game worlds. However there isn’t much direction in how you should progress through the worlds themselves. Which is fine- you can explore them as you wish, but it lacks some focus as you travel from one piece of content to another.

Some parts of the game worlds require moves/ abilities that you don’t earn until later in the game. There is a little in the way of letting you know that this is the case- so expect to backtrack several times. Especially if you wish to make a completionist/ 100% achievement run.

The camera angles and controls are a bit infuriating to start, but it smooths out as you get used to them. It helps to turn on the ‘manual camera’ mode in the settings. There is a ‘fixed-isometric’ camera in a part of the game that actually turns out to be one of the more fun sections.

Since you do gain a lot of different moves by the end of the game and the mouse is less than ideal for controlling the camera, I would advise to grab a controller. (I made the switch from kb/m to controller early in the game).

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- Yooka-Laylee does a lot right in offering up a fun, 3d-platforming collectathon with some pitfalls in between. There's confusing, ‘maze-like’ worlds, some annoying camera angles and some unusual difficulty spikes in some parts of the game (screw you, Kartos mini-game)

Don’t get me wrong- none of these are gamebreaking, just annoying. There is a certain thrill in trying to find every last collectible, just expect to bare with some tediousness. Just barely passes a recommendation for me.

6.5/10

I have rarely felt as relaxed and comfortable as I have with this game. I can hardly describe the peace of mind this game created for me. It's no mistake that the reviews are overwhelmingly positive.

If you're thinking about getting this (good choice) then avoid looking at too many screenshots or gameplay! At the very least, this belongs in your wishlist ;)

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It doesn't just have good gameplay mechanics, because the visuals that it offers are just beautiful.

While it's possible to break it down as being just a simple platformer, that wouldn't be fair. It combines platforming with some neat puzzles and a constantly stunning visual design and musical score.
There are also some collectible achievements, that are fun to get.

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In summary, GRIS is one of those games where it wouldn't be cringeworthy to consider it 'art.' The gameplay, visuals and music form a perfect harmony.

I had taken a break from PC gaming, but am glad this caught my eye to give it another try. The pricetag is certainly worth it, even outside of a sale.

GRIS is a special experience. I can hardly imagine anyone would regret playing this.

Gameplay

None. There is no gameplay in this 'game'

It is a perfect example of style over substance.

This 'game' consists of controlling a boy as he slowly walk through static enviroments. You stop to talk to a character- an old man or interact with an object.

Then the same thing happens each time- you read a few lines of text and/or choose from 2 text options. That's it.
The writing itself is good but the 'story' is just a disconnected collection of texts about pain, suffering, parental abuse.

One positive thing I will say is about the levels/ enviroment, they are quite beautiful.

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Summary

There is no 'game' here. Just some nice artwork. Never play this.

If you get it for 1$ and for the achievements, expect to bore yourself to death for an hour.

Gameplay

The visual style is a similiar to INSIDE, although less detailed.

It's definitely far more 'janky' - the controls and handling of the puzzles/obsacles isn't the best sometimes.

Grabbing a ladder or reaching a platform will often not go as you think and you will die. Argghhh.

Most of the puzzles/ obstacles are fun and easy to figure out.
Checkpoints are very generious and it should take 30-40 min to finish.

If you want to get all the achievements a bit longer. A friend and me made a guide for that purpose. https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1432649940
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Summary

For 1$ you can't really go wrong with this. It's fun & a bit challenging.
Do it for the achievements. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Was looking for a 'I don't feel like playing this singleplayer game right now - let me just play 1 match of MP here' kinda game.

Also, I wanted to try an FPS in a WWII setting. Day Of Infamy turns out to be a great choice.

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For a game running on Source Engine- the maps looks gorgeous, the look and sound of the soldiers and weapons, all top notch.

I play this mostly for Co-Op. The AI is smart and it takes team work and different classes to complete the objectives.
There are quite a few maps to play across battle sites in Italy, France and Germany. Typically you have to capture certain points destroy a fuel tank or anti-air gun while slowly moving through the map.


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There is a realistic approach here as there are no hitmarkers in the game, and death comes quick. Respawns are not instant and requires teammates to capture or 'regroup' at an objective so you can spawn in. So teamworks happens naturally

This is far more realistic than EA's Battlefield 1 or the new 5 could ever be, mostly you'll be relying on slow firing, bolt action rifles and you will die from just 1 body shot.

The multi-player can sometimes be a bit of a camp fest but the maps and guns are all balanced well. The game isn't as competitve as to you getting destroyed as a newbie but getting a feel for the weapons and maps helps.


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Great WWII FPS game. Feels realistic but fun and teamwork happens naturally.
Great value, especially if you got this in that recent humble bundle.

I never finished The Evil Within 1 when I started it some years ago. Now I'll have to re-evaluate and give it another try- because I enjoyed this one so much.

I felt like going the extra mile and getting all the achievements for this one. It is a fair challenge but actually not too difficult.

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This game is semi-open world. Most chapters you are in a 'hub', a few are more linear like the previous game. Mostly, you can backtrack and move back to the previous levels.

These open world hubs have a 1-2 side missions each but they’re no filler, instead they give more context and let you scavenge more.
Usually I dread long open world slogs- but the hubs are thankfully small, and the game doesn't suffer from it.

Combat is like the first, but less clunky. The notion is the same as the first game: fairly limited resources. Stealth is the preferred route and quite satisfying.

Nothing like swinging an axe and decapitating a possessed zombie, before dissapearing back into the bushes.
Or zapping a group of enemies with an electric bolt so they hit the floor, allowing you to curb stomp each of their pathetic faces with your boot.

Yeah it's fun.

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I would describe this as a mashup of (yes) the Last of Us on PlayStation and Alan Wake.

You scavenge for resources, and upgrade your weapons at a bench. While the combat is measured to watching your resources- and thinking a bit about your approach.
This is a horror game yes, but it rates far less scary or brutal than say - Resident Evil 7. A bit more tense than Alan Wake though. It's really more of a 'surivival horror'.

The story holds it's own, it offers some interesting boss enemies and is compelling enough to keep you playing. Overal, the level and enemy designs are all just flawless.

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A thrilling survival horror and a sequel- that can be played without knowledge of the previous game. It is fairly challenging but satisfying to play.

A friend recommended this to me after they saw the screenshots- telling me it looks similiar to Inside and Little Nightmares.

I got it during the sale. 11$ seemed expensive at first- but if it was as good as those other games it would be fair.

So after finishing it and getting all the achievements too- I can say I'm satisfied.

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It consists of 3d platforming and solving simple puzzles- it is often dark so you have to light up your candle and the ones you find in the level. The candle only burns for 10 seconds and you get 10 lives per level.

None of the levels or puzzles are frustrating or overly difficult- the 10 seconds of burn time you get is more than enough in all levels. I also never ran out of the 10 lives it gives you per level. The checkpoints are plenty and forgiving.

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I got all the achievements by finding the candles in every level- they are all findable without a guide for them or any of the puzzles. There are 12 chapters and about 5 levels each. Game is finishable in +-5 hours or longer if you search for all the candles.
After finishing the game there are 'speedrun / level time' achievements to beat for every level- also very managable.

The story is minimal and secondary to the actual gameplay- there are only short cutscenes between some of the levels and every chapter.

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This is a nice little gem. 'Candleman' - although a silly name is an enjoyable 3d puzzle platformer.

It would be safe to say that it's close to the platforming of Super Mario 64. Although more relaxed and less challenging. You can play this problem free with either mouse/keyboard or controller.