Recent reviews by Fyxe

DO NOT SLEEP ON THIS. Will update this review after some more game time.
Fantastically good first impression.

A FANTASTIC little narrative game. The pacing is incredible. It really feels like they value your time.

I often don't have enough time to dedicate to a singleplayer story experience, but the way that runs are setup allows me to play one and put it down until I can get back to it.

Highly recommend. The story, characters, voice acing, visuals, sounds, and driving simulations are incredible. Very unique, very unforgettable.

Its fun and cheap. What more do you need.

Quick early access thoughts, not quite a full review.

Its a really neat concept. It seems like the majority of the spent dev time went into building the major systems, which are working to about 90% at the moment of writing. I can see this developing into quite a full featured game, but it will probably take another year or so to achieve that goal. I'd recommend picking it up now as it will probably be the cheapest for a while, and it would help support them to fully create the vision.

A delightful casual game that I enjoy relaxing with. It has plenty of depth and I will be playing it off and on for years. The updates have been fantastic and I look forward to the many ridiculous runs to come.

I want to write a quick review to say one thing that many reviews miss. This game not only has fantastic mod potential, but also has the best in-game mod support that I've ever seen. You can make this a peaceful optimization game where you slowly grow and build, or you can make it an intense fight to the finish line against wave upon wave of Starcraft Zerg. Highly recommend it, this game never gets old.

TL;DR: 9.5/10, I highly recommend this game if you're looking for a slightly ridiculous CO-OP strategic action shooter. I do not recommend if you want something more than the combat->upgrade loop.

Arrowhead Studios is a company that has consistently developed some of the most enjoyable and innovative cooperative titles to date. Starting with the ridiculous Magicka they captured a feeling so often lost in recent big budget releases. They made a game that was focused on fun. I am outrageously happy to report that 14 years later, they've maintained that focus to the nth degree.

Helldivers 2, so far, is an absolute blast. In my 23 hours of playtime I have had the most incredible moments ranging from laughing so hard I can't breathe to clenching so tightly that I've popped out a few diamonds. I can't say this game is for everyone, but the people who do enjoy its flavor have quite a feast on their hands.

Glad you asked. While this game is a fun CO-OP shooter, its quite different from other titles with those same tags. Below I've tried to break down some of the main reasons why.

They've built the game in a way that allows them to tweak any aspect of gameplay on the fly. Players can have their extract time doubled or have access to the most powerful weapons in the game on any given day. Things will always be changing and evolving which will keep the game incredibly fresh throughout its life-cycle. (Including LOTS of planned and in-development content already)
- They also have a battlepass-esque system that never goes away. Granting old and new players the opportunity to unlock items how they see fit.

- You will die a lot.
- You will die from the enemies.
- You will die from your friends.
- You will die from your own hands,
- And you will have an absolute blast doing it.
See, most games death is 100% bad. You lose items, sit out until end of rounds, or are punished in a variety of other ways. Death isn't "good" in Helldivers, but it isn't frustrating like it can be in other titles. You can be redeployed instantly, can pick up all your items, and can even kill enemies as you drop back in. Lives are abundant and almost unlimited. This is wildly underrated because it makes situations like accidental team-killings funny instead of infuriating, which builds onto the overall atmosphere of enjoyment Helldivers has so perfectly crafted.

The game is built for speed. Menus load quickly, games start seamlessly, and the drop in-drop out nature of matchmaking is lightning fast. Its not perfect, but it cuts through some of the annoying practices that have become so commonplace in AAA titles. If you want to play a game, it lets you. Kind of wild that isn't standard today.

Fair, I've been hyping it up constantly but it isn't without issue. However while reading these know that I don't believe these detract substantially from the game.

To be expected for a release that majorly outperformed the studios expectations. While they did work throughout the weekend on launch, there were still major launching and connecting to friend issues. These are mostly all resolved, the main one to fix still is quick match. It is quite annoying to find a random game when it is acting up, and connecting to PS5 friends sometimes takes a few tries.

I have had numerous crashes to desktop. While the game does load fast and you can rejoin friends on the fly, it is still quite annoying at times. Worth noting that I have had much less since the few patches that have been deployed recently, but it is not fully fixed.

Super gamers(tm) may find that the game lacks an "endgame" of sorts. Once you unlock all of the gear there is no additional infinite upgrade system. While normal players will take quite a while to reach this point, if you're playing all day every day, you may wear out faster than they have designed for. After my 23 hours of gameplay I believe that I am maybe ~20% of the way through the content? A nice part about this loop is that the final upgrades you need to unlock require you to accomplish difficult extracts, meaning that its not a mindless unlocking system, you have to be dedicated and make a plan to make it happen.
Quick breakdown of the types of progression:
- Stratagems: One and done unlocks in any order. Completing missions gives you cash to buy them.
- Stratagem Upgrades: Require items from in-missions. If you die you drop them. Requires thought.
- Warbonds: Start fast and slow down, this is akin to a battlepass and how you unlock more weapons. Higher difficulties help you level faster.

Helldivers 2 has a bright future ahead of it. The core gameplay and action is well designed and fun on its own. They've already showcased content in-development, and with its massive success I am confident they will keep the pace as much as they can. It values your time and money, being not too grindy and includes consumer friendly monetization practices. Overall you will be hard pressed to find a more polished release this year. For me, it's an instant classic already, but in a year? You won't be able to find a better ongoing game.

Level 28, I've now unlocked most of the Strategems but only about 1/8th of the upgrades. The game is still a blast and new planets have been unlocked by the community liberating a sector. Helldive difficulty (currently the hardest) is fun, and I hope they bring back the higher difficulties somehow. Its quite impressive how different the planets feel. The diverse terrain and flora can dramatically change how battles play out.

Level 50, the current level cap. I've unlocked all Strategems and about 2/3 of the upgrades. I've unlocked 90% of both battlepasses and prioritized weapons. The game is incredible, and I have currently hit the upper limit on content so I am taking a break for a little while. They finally got the servers under control so hopefully they can focus on the next content push. Once a month updates is exciting but also sounds like a lot of work. Can't wait to see how they do it!

Battle pass 2 release. New guns are very fun, but also quite unique. I have unlocked all strategem upgrades as well as the new mech. Slowly working my way through the battle passes extra content. They've added flyers to the game in a fun in-universe way and the unique missions to setup termicide was awesome. I really hope they keep up the interesting content, it must be quite difficult on their end.

As an off again on again Tekken fan I was only semi excited for 8's release, but as more and more features were presented I realized just what a beast this game actually is. Every aspect of this game was designed by people who love the franchise, and it absolutely shows.

Fighting games can certainly feel like "more of the same" when the next iteration drops, but every part of T8 has changed (at least slightly) and after some time with the beta and now full game, I can confidently say it has changed for the better.

The loading is insanely fast, the graphics and flare are top quality, even the story this time around was a blast. However, the one defining set of features that make Tekken 8 the BEST fighting game out there are its practice tools.

My god, to say they went above and beyond is not doing it justice. The practice mode bot is super customizable, there's wiff punishing training, followup training, combo trainings for each character, ghost fighting, and oh my god it just keeps going! These features are doing massive work, helping newer (or even older and just not as good players like myself) learn how to play Tekken to its fullest potential.

The one specific training tool that needs a callout is Replays. You can watch your recent matches sure, but you can also PAUSE AND HAVE IT TELL YOU WHAT YOU COULD HAVE DONE BETTER. And as if that wasn't the coolest thing yet, you can then TAKE CONTROL of EITHER CHARACTER and play out the next 10 seconds! I cannot stress enough just how cool and USEFUL this is when learning.

So yes, absolutely recommend, even if you're not a Tekken fan. Even if you hate online there's a full campaign, full arcade campaign, 32 character battles, arcade mode, ghost fight mode, etc etc. I don't know what the future holds for Tekken 8, but I am excited and confident that it will be bright.


EDIT:
88 Hours (Post Tekken Shop Launch)
Current state, I am Vanquiser on my main and working on getting the entire roster to Warrior. Still having a great time. Every now and then I get smacked by someone not rank adjusted yet, but much less so than on release. However that's not the topic I'm amending this review for. That topic is the Tekken Shop. I have 2 things to say, and then I'm out.

1st) It's predatory. Yes because you get leftover coins, but ALSO because it was never mentioned in the leadup to the release of the game. It was purposefully left out content that evaded major reviewers and has made its way back in when it could be downplayed between major updates. I want the game to be successful, I want them to offer microtransactions if they believe its best for the game, but I do not want them to be dishonest about their practices. If I could change my review to meh, I would.

2nd) Not only is the shop abysmally small, the costumes are all full-body. This feels like such a wasted opportunity. We're headed back into T7 where we will seemingly receive no other smaller customization options, but ONLY full body changes. Thankfully there's already a lot of options, but they are missing a golden opportunity to expand on already implemented features.

EDIT:
161 hours (post battlepass + eddy launch)
Man, rough time. Still loving the game, got garyu with eddy and almost there with steve. The battlepass is just awful, its nice that it pays for itself and its quite cheap, but damn did they not care about it in the slightest. Hopefully this was just a test run for more interesting content in season 2. EVO is a few days away and we're getting the next character reveal alongside a huge balance patch. Hope to see some good changes.

EDIT:
232 hours (release of battlepass 2 + lidia)
Battlepass 2 is better, but more importantly the game state overall has become much more balanced. The design team has made some incredible choices. This is the best state that tekken has ever been in, hands down. I can't wait to see what the future holds. Chipotle free content is pretty funny.

Quick review to say that this game is great. Each soldier can do simple tasks, and combined make the most interesting and strategic warfare game on the market. This is an MMO with no subscription, no character you have to progress. Just hop on, find the front or a group of soldiers looking to make a difference, and have a blast.

A great strategy FPS. Teamwork is required and the pacing is SLOW, but very rewarding once you understand the flow.

It's faster than Arma but slower than Squad. Besides team and squad text chat, there are no other non-voice ways to communicate, a mic is almost a requirement to play.

It's very graphically intensive. My dev machine can only run it at ~60fps.