บทวิจารณ์ล่าสุดโดย Hex: Maidenless

Not as refined as Dark Souls 1 in terms of level design but much higher on the style and spectacle.

Dark Souls 1 if you like an expansive Long-term experience, Dark Souls 3 if you're more interested in refinement of Combat and fancier visuals/BANGIN' ♥♥♥♥♥♥ TUNES.

Dark Souls 2 if you don't like good things.

Dark Souls 2: SOTFS if you don't like yourself.

UPDATE: The Fall 2017 Creator's Update of Windows 10 finally fixed the DX9 vram limiter error! However, it should be noted that you may still experience poor performance in Oldrim depending on your Processor. Oldrim was designed and optimized for dual-core processors, and while there are some ini tweaks to make it somewhat better, they don't actually do much. Basically, the less powerful the first two cores of your processor are (such as with the i7-4790k which is what I have, which sacrificed performance in the first two cores to have four equally functional cores), the more oldrim will chug at times, particularly in areas densely packed with NPCs like Whiterun (top of the stairs there kills my framerate.)

Skyrim:SE does not have this problem, as the updated version of the Creation Engine that it runs on is optimized for quad-cores and beyond. This is the primary reason SE runs so much better on more recent systems.

Still, the MAIN reason to switch to SE is now obsolete. If you don't mind framerate drops in certain areas, Oldrim just offers substantially more mod content...and you don't even have to get prodded with the creation club to experience it! Only go for SE if you really really prefer the smoother experience over the excess content...I mean, to be fair, it isn't like Skyrim vanilla isn't already loaded to the bloody brim with content, and the amount of mods ported over grows by the day. In the time since I originally wrote this review, SKSE64 has gone into a beta state, and a lot of the "essential" mods for a good skyrim playthrough are slowly but surely becoming available to those who want the SE stability.

---------

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

I'm going to put this review up as a means to inform on a certain value belonging to this version of the game, and not the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Creation Club nonsense. I do not support that idiotic service in any way shape or form, but if you are one of the two people left in the first world who has not played Skyrim, or you are using a newer built PC, there's an element to the special edition you may want to consider.

I recieved Skyrim: Special Edition for free, as did any previous owners of the original game + all of the DLC.

For those who don't know, Windows 8 and Windows 10 have a critical flaw in regards to Direct X9, which prevent them from utilizing more than a total 4gb of VRAM, regardless of how much you actually have available for use. Guess what the original Skyrim was built atop?

In otherwords, unless you're still using Windows 7, odds are attempting to mod your classical Skyrim is going to be significantly more limiting than you may expect. 4GB of VRAM is just not a lot to go with when many of the most prominant visual mods, expecially things like texture mods, use very high resolution assets, and that 4GB will be stretched extreme thin very, very fast. Unfortunately, the problem with DX9 is hardcoded into the newer varients of Windows itself, and despite many the pleas from the community, Microsoft seems more than happy to completely ignore it and leave it in place. In otherwords, there is no way to remove the limiter, and as such, no way to get around the fact that some older games like Skyrim or DoW1, which run on DX9, will run objectively worse on NEWER computers than they would on older ones.

The only real benefits to SE over the original Skyrim are because of this. SE has been completely converted over into DX11, and as a result, the limiters do not apply. On top of that, the game just runs flat out better, and for what it is worth, SE's graphical improvements over Vanilla are very noticable and quite well done. If you're the kind of person who likes visual mods but don't go deep into the side of things like ENBs, the vanilla world visuals of SE may be more than enough for your tastes. On top of this, SE is also notably more stable than the original, which is to be expected.

Unfortunately, this comes with the caveat that many mods have not been properly ported into SE yet, and also many mods flat out will not function with SE until SKSE64, the SKSE version being created for SE, is complete.

So pick your poison. You can get the original, and be forced to severely limit your modding capabilities due to an obnoxious forced Vram limit coutesy of Microsoft, or you can get the SE, and not have to deal with such problems but have severely limited mod choices until an undisclosed period in the future where SKSE64 becomes available to the public.

The point of this post is to inform people that yes, there is indeed a logical reason for SE to exist. Unless Microsoft pulls their heads out of thier asses and removes the hard-cap on DX9, the more time passes and the further away from 2011 we get, the more and more unrealistic it is going to be to play a properly modded vanilla Skyrim.

But if you DO choose to go with the CE, I would advise two things: Vote with your wallet; go NOWHERE NEAR the Creation Club and it's disgusting practices. Do not even spend the free 100 points they give you to try it out. Tell Bethesda to sod off with their "mini DLC totally not paid mods" nonsense.

And:

The Creation Club currently forces you to download 2GB worth of data; essentially all of the mods that are currently available on it. If you do not buy literally every single mod on the platform, that 2GB is dead weight on your hard drive, and unless Bethesda swallows their pride and axes the service for the failure that it is, that number is only going to go up. Fortunately, there is a certain mod on a certain prominant modding site which will replace all of the files forcefully downloaded by the Creation Club with negligable alternatives, saving you precious space. I'd advise wholeheartedly that you consider picking it up.

As of now I recommend the game. Will write a full review if I wind up actually buying it.

Main problem that needs to be addressed is the server problems. Some people (Like myself) are having no or next to no issues, while other people are incapable of playing the game at all. It seems to be tied to the NAT system and where the player is located on the globe.

Server issues also bring up some other weirdnesses with the game, such as the fact that if a player leaves the game or disconnects they're replaced with a full health bot which can be a severe disadvantage to the person they were fighting against, especially if that person was low on health (The AI in this game is actually quite good, and can play the classes better than most players in a lot of cases).


If you have a chance to play it I'd recommend giving it a try for yourself. Some criticisms have merit (relating to lack of content and connectivity issues), though I'd recommend disregarding any complaint about the game lacking depth, character imbalance, etc. The game is overall very well balanced, but has an EXTREMELY high skill ceiling, and the overwhelming majority of people you see complaining about those aspects are bad players who don't wish to put the effort in to learn how to play beyond the basic level.

Though that skill cieling's existance can itself be another thing to consider. If you're not someone willing to put in the time to learn the game's ins-and-outs, you'd do better to ignore it. Look at this like you would a fighting game, not a brawler like War of the Roses. You're going to have to learn all your potential opponents and how to counter-act them with your own personal choice. If you aren't willing to do that, sooner or later you'll hit a wall where those who were will simply always be able to beat you no matter what you do.

Right now the game is a solid 7/10 for me personally. With more content and issues fixed, I can easily see it becoming a 9/10. The whole of the game's launch content is also not available right now (No campaign, 3 classes missing), so that's another thing to consider.

Multiplayer not tested as of yet, due to lack of MMX-loving friends. *sadface*

Though it lacks the refinement of the old Megaman X games as of now, 20XX is probably the best successor to the MMX franchise out there...and given that the actual franchise went out on some lackluster titles and appears to be stuck with the rest of Megaman in some sort of indefinite Capcom limbo, that's about all we can ask for right now.

20XX can be best described as a mixture of Megaman X4 and Rogue Legacy, certainly fulfilling the criteria to be marked as a "Rogue-lite". You have your pick between two characters: Nina and Ace, whom are themselves mirrors of X and Zero respectively and their base playstyle is pretty much identical to how X and Zero functioned in X4; Nina has the traditional "X" Buster, and Ace emulates Zero's Z-Saber via some sort of arm-mounted-laser-buzzsaw, which somehow defies logic and slashes like a sword. I must reiterate that it is clear the gameplay they were trying to emulate in this was that of Megaman X4, which they almost completely and totally nailed. Personally, X4 was my favorite of the X series, but if for some reason you didn't care for it, that's something to consider.

You start out with dash capabilities ala all the X games going forward from X2. Each session begins with you inside of the "Ark", a hub paying homage to the pre-Sigma boss rush rooms of yesteryear. From the Ark, you can swap between Nina or Ace, spend Soul Nuts (Explained Later), or enter into a run of the game with each teleporter sending you to a different difficulty setting, with the higher teleporters leading to special leaderboard runs like daily challenges you can only attempt once per day. Choose your character, pick a teleporter, and the game itself begins proper.

The game, as mentioned earlier, is a Rogue-lite. You progress through procedurally generated Megaman X style platforming levels, fending off numerous enemies and manuvering around enviromental hazards. Throughout the level, you'll find scattered crates and which will contain either health or energy pickups, or power-ups, along with chests that are guarenteed to contain a power-up usually waiting behind gauntlets of enviromental hazards you have to manuver in-and-out of to claim your prize. The level design is not entirely linear, but only in one tileset will you potentially find yourself "confused." The golden rule in everywhere but the Skytemple is simply "go right", which will eventually always lead you to the end. The Skytemple breaks this rule by having sections that require you to traverse intricate vertical jumping challenges which may send you in either direction before eventually letting out on a higher, right-most platform, so until you've memorized all the potential tiles, it is the only one where you may find yourself actually "lost" in. Occasionally, beyond the first stage, you will also come across halfway-point enemy gauntlet rooms that will offer you a core power-up if you can complete the rush whilst adhering to specified limitations (No dashing, no powers, only powers, etc), along with traders who will offer you powerups of all varieties in exchange for Nuts (again, explained later). On top of all this, defeating the stage boss within a certain amount of time (a number of minutes increasing slightly with each stage you pass) will gain you a bonus chest, so in the end the game simultaniously encourages and rewards exploration and skillful manuvering, but punishes too much lollygagging within a single stage.

Power-ups will improve your character for the entire duration of your run in various ways. They include things like increased health or energy, new weapons to replace your default, or things that provide entirely extra functionality. They also come in two flavors: normal and "core", with core powerups usually giving a fancier effect, and visually replacing a piece of your armor in homage to the old upgrade capsules of the MMX franchise. On top of that, each time you successfully complete a stage and down a boss, you are given the choice of either absorbing that boss's main power, binding it one of a couple of extra, otherwise unused keys/buttons, or picking between a randomized upgrade or a batch of Nuts. The various flavors of power-ups become more and more mandatory as you progress further into a run, which means that ignoring exploration in favor of rushing the boss room can potentially result in you being extremely underpowered in the later stages.

So I've explained what makes the gameplay itself properly rogue-lite, but what is it that brings in the comparison to Rogue Legacy? What is the carry over that makes playthroughs beyond the first appropriately interesting? Well, that comes in the form of previously mentioned Nuts and Soul Nuts. Nuts are the game's currency, dropping randomly from enemies and crates. Within a run, Nuts can be spent either on randomly located vending machines which will disperse either health or energy depending on the machine type, along with a power-up related to said resource if you cram enough Nuts into a machine to make it explode (Max health up if you blow up a health machine, for example.), along with Traders who will offer power-ups in exchange for large amounts of Nuts, along with one option usually heavily "on sale" for cheap, so even if you are low on Nuts you can usually walk away from a trader having gained something. The amount of nuts you get will vary based on power-ups you obtain and just random luck, and all of them are lost upon death...with one exception.

Throughout runs, you will come across the occasional enemy that glows with a blue hue, sporting increased health and damage than its normal counterpart. Kill these, and they will leave behind glowing blue Soul Nuts, usually in batches of 1 to 4. Soul Nuts do not appear in your Nut count during the run, but instead are carried with you back to the Ark upon death. Back in the Ark, there is a Trader on the westmost side whom will allow you to spend Soul Nuts to unlock new power-ups that will then be able to drop in future runs, or, if you have already unlocked all the power-ups/want a bit of an advantage on your next run, you can instead spend them on his upper selection of lesser power ups that will then carry with you into your next run. Anything you freshly unlock will also be given to you for free on your next run, provided you do not exit out of the game prior to it. Do note that you cannot bring any of these "starting boons" into the difficulties above Normal.

When it comes to pros and cons, I can happily say that as least in my experience, there are very few cons and none of them really outweigh the pros. The main gripes I have mostly have to do with art design of all things. Keep in mind that all of this is subject to change, both due to the game being in Early Access and also because of updates in general as I very easily see these developers continuing to support the game beyond leaving Early Access (Provided it is adequately successful, which it ENTIRELY deserves). Unfortunately, I'm running out of space for this review, so I can't really list those in the detail I would like to.

The long and short of it: If you are a fan of the Megaman X games, especially X4, buy this immediately. It captures the core gameplay of X4 *almost* perfectly, and is well supported by its developers. This is probably the closest we'll get to a proper MMX successor, unless Capcom pulls their head out of their ass in regards to the Megaman Franchise, and most would probably agree that isn't likely to happen any time soon. 20XX is the best MMX game I've played in years, even though it isn't actually MMX. It's cheap (especially on sale), extremely fun, and is all but guarenteed to please any old grizzled MMX fan.

Give it a try. Odds are, you won't regret it.

Do you like Killing Floor?
Do you like stereotypically british people rambling about Dosh for hours on end while fighting endless waves of clone zombies of varying shapes and sizes?
Do you like gratuitous amounts of gore covering every facet of your being and the world around you?

But...

Do you wish that the stereotyping of the british could be applied to MORE people from all around the world?
Do you wish there was more variation of weapons between the perks?
Does it totally break YUR IMMURSHUN that corpses and blood splots disappear between rounds?
Do you just wish that Killing Floor didn't look like it was made on an ancient engine?

Then Killing Floor 2 is for you!

Only in Killing Floor 2 will you experience the glory of a Scottish Not-Quite-Sean-Connery Reverend killing clone zombies with a medical shotgun while a Japanese Man rambles nearby about how he deserves to be poor because he has not killed enough of the demons to regain his honor yet.

"That Door is about to come down...LIKE THE WAAALLS OF JERICHO!"

---------------------

Killing Floor 2 is basically the exact same game as Killing Floor 1 if everything was better in every possible way. It feels and plays almost identically, and the only changes are positives. The new system causes projectiles and the such to be treated like actual projectiles; no hitscanning to be seen here. You can head-shot a ZED from between another ZED's legs, or take out a Stalker mid-flip, just as they promised. The gameplay is more fluid, from reloading to weapon swapping to tossing a grenade, it all feels very fine and lacks all the clunkiness of the first game.
Optimization is very solid and the options menu has all the things you'd expect from a PC-centric title. On a rather dated formerly-high-end rig (five years old now) I get a solid 60 in more situations during gameplay on high settings, only dropping slightly when swarms of living zed fill the screen. For a game as pretty as KF2 you'd expect a bit steeper requirements, but it runs solidly.

Players of the Perks will be happy to find that the new incarnations* of their old favorites have been retuned to do their job more efficiently and in more interesting ways. This is particularly true of my personal favorite, the Field-Medic, who has seen improvements both to healing-darts, now starts with a "medic variant" pistol, and as the match goes on can obtain the Medic SMG from the previous game, a Medic Shotgun and a Medic Assault Rifle, or some combination of the three. The Perk system itself is also improved, rewarding leveling up with more suitable blanket bonuses and giving you the choice of picking one from a pair of two traits every five levels to customize your loadout a bit more beyond just which guns you like to use. All and all, there's a good amount of room for some nifty playstylings.
*Note that in Early Access not all the Perks are added in yet. As of this review, the Berserker, Commando, Support and Field-Medic are the only 4 in the game. They have stated that as they tune balance they will add the other Perks in plus new ones, eventually adding up to a planned 10. Will update as more are added.

Individual visual customization is improved as well, and the difference isn't even visual anymore. Each character now has it's own set of voice acting, along with various skins and the option to further add an accessory to them, which itself has skins as well. While you will invariably run into characters who look the same by nature of the characters being unique looking individually, there is less of a sense of "clone-yness" as you can still make your variation a bit more your own.
The Voice Acting itself is also very well done, though rather stereotypical (if you even see that as a negative) with the Japanese man continually spouting goofy samurai-esk phrases or the Black American man acting like he's a banger from New York despite the fact the in-game description claims he's from Atlanta. The characters also interact well with one another. regularly yelling out various things to the rest of the team or reacting to one thing another said (including a rather humorous jab at the first game where if a character comments that they're low on funds after the buy period, one character will tell them to "PLEASE shut up about dosh...").

Oh, the currency is Dosh now, by the way. It isn't even British Pounds, they literally replaced the Pounds Sign with a D. Gotta love Tripwire.

I could go further into detail about things like how Difficulty has been retuned around an entirely new philosophy to remove the "bullet-spongey" nature of the old game at higher levels, but that's arbitrary in the grand scheme of things. All and all, the most that really needs to be said about KF2 is that it is a true sequel; the same, but improved in every way. If you're a fan of Killing Floor, get Killing Floor 2. You will not be disappointed. The only reason to wait at this point is if you simply don't want to play while the game lacks some of the more oddball perks.

It's been some time since I played this game, but I surprisingly remember it rather well...and well, I suppose I can't really recommend it, based on memory.

I'll be frank. I got AYIM as a single piece of one of Steam's first Indie Bundles. I played and completed it only on virtue of crossing it off my list of "Steam Games that I actually beat." It was interesting...at first. By the end of it however, it became more frustrating than fun.

First off, the game is very short, and I remember completing it very quickly. Steam clocks my total play time at two hours total, and I have a tendency to leave a game open when I go away from my computer, so some of that time was more than likely not even spent playing the game. It was short enough that I remember thinking that I would have been irritated had I not gotten it as part of a bundle...but at the same time, I probably would not have gotten it period in any other case.

The game would best be described as a surreal puzzle platformer. It is built entirely around the gimmick that you have the ability to rotate the the level 90° left or right at any given time. Initially, it is a rather fun gimmick, but as the game drags on, it ultimately doesn't introduce anything new. Aside from that one concept, everything else is derivative of ever other platformer ever; booster jumps, disappearing platforms, time puzzles, etc. If you're a hardcore Platformer, than this probably wouldn't bother you, but to me, it got very, very old.

The other major...aspect(?) of the game would be it's art style. It is very styalized and surreal, as if you're playing some kind of modern painting in an art museum. It really is a love it or hate it kind of thing. I can't say it bothered me, but I can also say that it didn't particularly add to the game in any way for me either. There's only one level I recall that actually made really good use of the strangeness of the theme. It begins with you getting bit by a giant snake...and well, everything goes from there. I won't spoil it for anyone who intends to play because well, it was the only level that I can say I really really enjoyed.

All and all, I can't recommend the game overall. To me, the gimmick fell flat rather fast and it turned into a tedious "Ugh, how much longer do I have of this crap?" in the long run. However, if you're a fan of surreal art or gimmick platformers, there may be something here for you. Even then though, I'd at least make sure there was a deep discount going.

Alan Wake is an interesting little piece. For a horror game, it's not particularly horrifying. For a shooter, it's not particularly innovative. Yet, in spite of these things, it's still quite entertaining.

The game's primary focus is the rather bizarre story and how it is told. I'd best describe it as a video game version of a Steven King Miniseries...and frankly I think the game would too. The entire game is told from the perspective, or rather, narrative of the titular Alan Wake, a very popular horror novalist with some deep rooted issues and typical famous-person life problems. When I say narrative, I mean it quiet literally; the story is told to you mostly through novel-style narration; as if what is happening is all just a book that Wake is in the proccess of writing. He regularly cites Steven King as his favorite author, and compares much of the darkness and chaos around him to the happenings of King's books.

Again, a Video Game Steven King Miniseries. Not only is the theme accurate, but every segment of the game begins and ends as if it were a new episode of a television broadcast, even going so far as to include "Previously, on Alan Wake" followed by replaying things that you quite literally just went through. The game's commitment to style is...admirable?

Either way, it works in my opinion. Don't take "Steven King Miniseries" as a criticism; that theme is much of what makes Alan Wake entertaining in spite of being relatively poor as far as "horror" goes. The game does good to leave out all of of "King's Tropes." No blood-sucking christians, one-dimensional bullies or ham-fisted political contexts to be found here, just otherworldly weirdness and a poor, hapless sap stuck in the middle of it all.

I found myself very much enjoying Alan Wake, even though it didn't give me the spookenings that I was initially hoping for, aside from a couple of "oh ♥♥♥♥ oh god what do I do" moments until you realize that whatever you are afraid of is rather easily dispatched with a flashlight and a shotgun.

If you aren't interested in story, don't play Alan Wake. There are far better horror games to spook your socks off to. If I were to have another criticism, it would be that the controls do suffer a wee bit from Consolitus. If you're the kind to use a gamepad in a shooter, you won't have any problems and I'd recommend it. If you're a K&M purist like me however, it WILL take some getting used to, though once you pick up on it you shouldn't have any problems.

All and all, as a story I highly recommend Alan Wake. It's just surreal and intriguing enough to keep you playing, and the action can be fun, if not rather derivative.

I was walking along with my friend on the beach, and we came across a giant talking clam reciting poetry about how much it sucks to be a clam and not in the ocean. It asked us to throw it into the ocean, but we disagreed on if that was the right
course of action.

After an arguement that consisted entirely of ocean and clam puns, we played Rock Paper Scissors to resolve the debate.

10/10 GOTYAY - IGNspot

Trine is one of those little gems that you overlook for the longest time, only to finally give it a whirl and kick yourself repeatedly for waiting. I don't think I've been so gleefully surprised by a single game as I have by this one in a long time, if ever.

The game is a true old fashion puzzle-platformer where the player controls 3 characters; a Wizard who can create platforms and boxes for mana, a Thief who can swing about and attack with a bow, and a Knight who bests his allies at combat. While you only control one at a time, you can switch between the 3 at will using 1-2-3 respectively, and you'll need to do so constantly to overcome the challenges the game throws at you.

If you're a fan of platformers, you should have this game already. If not, get it immediately or at least the next time it's on sale. You won't be disappointed.

Dragon Age: Origins to date, remains one of the greatest single player RPGs ever made. The characters are remarkable, with each having their own opinions and personalities, and the world itself feels genuine. The story has been told before; Big evil threatens the world, a lonely band of heroes ride to stop it, but Origins manages to keep it feeling fresh through the whole thing.

Some of the DLC is of questionable worth, ultimately you'll only really want it if you're a hardcore fan, and the expansion was relative rubbish, though it did advance the story in an interesting fashion if you find yourself enjoying Origins enough.

Want to see what Bioware was capable of before they started selling out? Play this, and the RPG community will cry with you. Also, avoid the sequal like the plague.