Recent reviews by Boarcult

oh me, oh my, this game absolutely knocks it out of the park so hard, I have to leave a short review so I can get back to playing it

Late review as Bannerlord is already out and I have owned this for years beforehand, but Warband is a great game with great mods. It is probably my favorite game of all time but that will be surpassed if Bannerlord gets fully finished and gets as many mods as Warband does. Most of my time is probably in Native Warband (or Diplomacy mod as that is just QoL changes and doesn't do anything drastic to Native) and Viking Conquest DLC. However, the mods for this game are insane and a lot of people spend more time there than in the base game.
The base game could be described as a "historically authentic RPG." It's not historically accurate as Calradia is not real and neither are its kingdoms, but there is no magic, all the kingdoms are inspired by IRL cultures (Khergit = Mongols, Nords = Scandinavia etc.), and the combat and gear are authentic (reasonably within the time this game was made) to different medieval peoples while still giving each faction their own unique identity and fighting style as this is still a game so it makes sense to have some factions excel where others fall behind.
Viking Conquest leans more into historical accuracy as it focuses on real cultures, religions and kingdoms in the late 800s after the Great Heathen Army invaded Northern Britain and formed the Danelaw. You have Angles, Saxons, Norse, Gaels, Frisians, and Britons. The factions fight more similar and are armed more similar than in Native as the scope of the DLC is the British Isles, Southern Scandinavia and Frisia. The heavy differences lie in culture, religion, etc. This one is really immersive and makes up for its lack of variety with how much it makes me feel involved in the storm of war and politics following the establishment of the Danelaw.
I have spent most of my time in what comes with the game, but in terms of mods, there are many spotlights: Prophecy of Pendor, Perisno, Game of Thrones mods, Lord of the Rings mods, a Warhammer mod, a Star Wars mod, Sengoku Jidai Japan mod (Gekokujo), Napoleonic Wars singleplayer (L'Aigle), 1500s Southeast Asia (Suvarnabhumi Mahayuth), 1930s-40s (The Red Wars), and many more. I have not played a lot but I enjoy The Last Days of the Third Age as I am a big Tolkien fan and have enjoyed many hours of Elvish archery, Orc hordes, and Dwarvish steel. Needless to say, it is my favorite mod and I recommend it after you get used to basic M&B mechanics from Native.
So, I recommend Mount & Blade: Warband. Even if you have Bannerlord or if Bannerlord has this amount of mods in the future, you should still go back and try Warband, janky and bare-bones graphics as it may be.

Beat it once on Hard on PS4 and just beat it again on Survival II on PC. I recommend Hard as if you pick Survival a lot of your time will be spent on the bike travelling from objective to objective and even with bike driving as good as this game, it can get tedious.
I know "it gets good _____ hours in" is usually Stockholm Syndrome in video game form but I really would say that giving this game some time is rewarding as the narrative eventually does take off and the missions and characters become really good. The horde fights are a big selling point but I enjoy fighting human enemies and the mutated Freaks as well.
This is one of my favorite games and it holds a special place in my heart. I admit I am biased: I think bikes and zombies are cool, even with the overabundance of zombies in media. This game gives me a bike, ties a good amount of my progression to it, and makes the "zombies", "infected", Freaks, (any other name) much more interesting, especially as you learn more about them from missions and exploring the research and refugee camps. So, if you love bikes and zombies, I'd definitely recommend this. If you don't? Well, a lot of this game is your bike and zombies, but I still think the characters, factions and the Oregon wilderness will still be enough to draw you in. So, I recommend Days Gone on all fronts. It's a very good game (in my top 10 favorites) and it was ported over from PS4 to PC well. Here's to hoping for an eventual Bloodborne PC port as that is probably the best PS4 game and deserves to be ported with the other big-names from the console.

On any other day I wouldn't recommend it since most of the features that make it a complete game are behind a MASSIVE paywall, but right now and for over a week after, the game and all its DLC are on Humble Bundle for $20 dollars. You get to put how much of it goes to charity, Paradox, and Humble. You redeem the code on Steam and get to have everything here in your library. So, great deal, and you can do great things with it. Easily makes this highly in-depth, grand strategy game Recommended.

As a massive Halo fan who switched to PC and left behind the Xbox life, I heavily approve of this port. I think it was done a lot better than some of the hardcore fans give it credit for. It took a game with many features that were designed for console, and ported them all MOSTLY successfully to PC, save for a few issues with things like the grenade launcher's second function, and the odd placement of a 2x zoom key. Simply put, at the moment, it is Halo: Reach only, which is a great start. It also has an MLG v7 playlist for those who were turned away by the addition of Sprint and Bloom to Reach.
While this doesn't make me un-recommend the game, I do have to put out a notice for a sour change though. This game has a Battle Pass-esque progression feature. The Pro? It's completely free, but that's something that should be expected from every developer. The issues? It creates a linear form of progression in which everyone gets the same pieces of equipment in the same order. While the OG Reach progression system of using credits to buy equipment was very grindy, it allowed the freedom to skip over gear you didn't want, while others who wanted that gear, could buy it instead. It was hard to earn credits, but you always had the freedom to save for the gear that YOU wanted. This linear progression fills up your gear with all kinds of helmets and attachments to those helmets that you probably never wanted in the first place. You don't even get a chest piece until the second level of tiers.
While I have a huge issue with the progression system, I still heavily recommend the game. It shows 343 potentially turning over a new leaf and starting to really listen to feedback. I'm grateful for what we have, and I recommend you buy this right away. But don't be afraid to complain a little bit. Constructively. It's not "ungrateful" to propose new ideas and solutions to problems, no matter what some people tell you. It's a good thing, and it improves both the developer and the community if we all listen.

The only game where Vikings can raid America, Ghandi can drop the A-Bomb, Montezuma can assist Jerusalem with a donated bomber to fight off the Chinese, and France and Rome become communist buddies.