Recent reviews by Lemon

I actually think my GPU could die. At low settings my 3070 Ti is running like being stress-tested using benchmark tool. At high settings its 15 fps and is literally unplayable (which is set by default btw).
This game shouldn't have released so badly optimized.

Campaign - first few hours are fun and quite addicting. But game forces you to play in very specific manner because of fame limit per quest. If you are like me, and you like to explore and complete all star-system - you will quickly reach point where you won't get any fame when finishing quest - only currencies. Fame determine what and how many crew members you can get. That means - you can upgrade your ship quite a lot, plenty of resources to grind and do that. But you are limited by crew size - therefore, you are very limited on what you can actually do with your ship. And right now I am stuck in star-system where I can easily do bounty missions, but I don't get any fame - and I am not able to complete missions where I actually could get fame. I am basically stunlocked because of this "maxiumum fame limit on quest" nonsense. Because of this reason, I am quiting this game - it forces me to play in very specific way which is dull and boring. I will check this game again , sometime in future, so see if fame limit is still a thing or is there some other solution on this matter.

So here I am, sleepless, with 16h playtime in my first session.

Simple and addictive. Easily worth.

3D raytraced Factorio on steroids + Tower Defense.

I will get straight to the point. This is 50/50 recommendation from me. There are moments when game is absolutely stunning, immersive and scary. But overall I am kinda disappointed. And here is why.

1) You have to constantly scan environment for nearby crafting materials and other items. And you have ridiculous x-ray vision with that. You see items through walls, multiple floors, inside hidden rooms. This totally ruins my immersion. At one moment you have some epic of story where you get immersed. But two minutes later you just brainlessly run around map, scan everything and pick up highlighted items. I would accept if this item scanning would show only those objects which are in line of sight, same room, etc. But making items visible through anything is just ridiculous.

2) One of the worst AI I have ever seen. Games 20 years ago had better AI. Let me give you few examples. If enemy detects you - you cannot hide, AI will always go directly towards you. You intuitively look for some hiding spot - other room, corner or bush. But it doesn't matter - AI will know exactly where you are. Same if you play stealthy - if AI looks directly at you - it doesn't matter if you are in bush or open field, it will detect you. I wouldn't even call it AI, there can't be Artificial Intelligence without actual "intelligence" programmed into them.

I also didn't enjoy base building and upgrade system - incredibly trivial. Oh look, companion is not satisfied with comfort - let me just put another plant next to my 10 other plants - ah yes, now its a lot better.

I would recommend this game only when its discounted and for those who are interested in story. I didn't finish game, but I enjoyed story so far. Gets you immersed, especially if you understand Russian audio dialog. Graphics and visuals are beautiful.

This is absolute hidden gem!

If you like Beat Saber, you will totally enjoy this one.

Select "Sunset Neon - Tonight" and prepare to sweat :))

This makes AAA games look like early-access.

Possibly the best survival, exploration and base building game I have played so far.
Immersive. Intuitive. Rewarding. No scripted events, everything happens as you explore and discover. Amount of content is just mind-boggling. As of writing this review, I am 30h+ into the game and have killed just 2 of 5 bosses.
Graphics are simple, textured and pixelated - yet with incredibly beautiful particle effects and lightning.
Everything feels polished, bug-less and complete as finished product.

Game is really addictive, with saying "just one more battle".

Enjoying it a lot! Already 20h+ into campaign (steam haven't tracked it well enough). I am serving northern empire, got 2 castles, 2 caravans, 300k denars with income +2000/daily, 100-men. Not sure if its much for 20h+ in-game time.
I can't compare it to previous game, I am new to Mount & Blade. But I will give my pros and cons about Bannerlord (single player).

- Extremely satisfying battles.
- Combat is good, feels meaty, but on rare cases hits miss where they clearly shouldn't.
- Really good music, specially in battles.
- Skill and progression system - very detailed, and impact and progression feels on each one.
- Economy, trading and gearing system. Will keep your brain working.

- Hideouts
Really, who did implement it? Why only night? And why 8-men limit? And even more so, that those are random men, you cant actually choose them. Its sadly funny to see my medic recruited into hideout battle. I started to skip hideouts whatsoever after 6 hours into game.

- Quests
Very repetitive, little variety, boring and some of them are annoying. For example, trading and family quests I skip completely.

- Peaceful phases
There are almost nothing to do when your kingdom is peaceful with everyone (or maybe I have lack of game knowledge). Its very tempting to start some conflicts and battles on my own, but its too costly. So I basically run around map while its peaceful, get some larger groups of bandits, sometimes hideouts, few quests and just wait for next war. Plus, while you don't own any castles, its not easy to keep influence up at peaceful phases, forced to grind trash bandits groups and hideouts. Of course, when you get first castles, and some useful policies are active, then influence can be obtained passively.

- Saves and RNGsus
You will often need to save game before doing some of game actions, like voting, companion recruiting, battles, quests. Some of game mechanics are very random, you can reload game and get totally different outcome without doing anything else.

- NPCs
Game doesn't feel alive, NPCs are soulless, without meaning. Dialogs are repetitive and without background.

Although, my pros might seem less than cons - game is really worth it. Its something new for me, true Medieval RPG Battle simulator, perfect for someone who loves strategy and rpg games.
But I hope developers keep working on it, fix existing bugs (which I haven't mentioned), add more content and variety to the game, and please rework hideouts.

Now jumping into multiplayer. Possibly will update my review later on.

I remember playing Half-Life as a kid, and I was genuinely scared playing it.
Now, 20 years later, its meh of course.
But Alyx.. its simply Indescribable how immersive and terrifying it is. This is truly best VR game I have played so far.
10/10