Recent reviews by Washed Up Gamer

I shouldn't have to explain. This is undoubtedly one of the best games to have ever been released. A narrative and technical marvel from start to finish.

If you've ever wanted to pick up an RPG game, this is it.

Super Earth stands.

WARNING: YMMV, I'm still in the beginning of the game.

Was initially really turned off by the performance *specifically* during the opening planet and sequence. The framerate is 20-30fps most of the time in the first sequence and while it wasn't unplayable for me, it certainly negatively impacted my first impressions of the game during that sequence. It's a massive shame too, since it's a gorgeous section of the game.

That said, surprisingly, once the game opened up, I immediately started experiencing a significant improvement in performance. I know the same can't be said for some, so again, YMMV.

Other than performance, this is like Fallen Order on steroids and more. So far, it's been a blast of a sequel and I can't wait to play more...though please Respawn...fix the performance.

Real good fun

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Project Winter follows the veins of deceptive social games like Town of Salem and expands on the same idea tremendously, offering up a well of content and depth that encourages extremely creative play. It's such a shame, however, that an ocean as deep as Project Winter is only inhabited by the population of your average household fish tank.

A: Simple, because the game is unplayable for me. For almost two hours I sat as a helpless fly on the wall because the game repeatedly failed to detect my microphone, even after trying recommended fixes on their discord. I eventually resorted to becoming a mute student while friendlier members of the community taught me how the game worked. Moreover, the player population is so low that it took ages for me just to find a suitable open lobby in my region. I'd gladly sink far more hours into this game if I could.

Let's continue...

Everyone gathers basic resources such as wood and stone for warmth and tools at the beginning of the game, but it doesn't take long for the group to separate, spreading out in the woods. This is where the game truly shines. Project Winter's chat is proximity-based, both text and VOIP. This leads to certain moments where you may overhear traitors plotting with each other behind a treeline, or maybe even witness a murder of a fellow survivor. Much like other deception games; paranoia and suspicion play a crucial role in Project Winter. You'd probably find yourself in hot water if the group notices the partner you set out into the woods with has failed to return to camp with you.

Project Winter boasts a steep learning curve as it features and intricate crafting and item combination system. For example, players may find or build walkie-talkies, which allow them to directly contact other players who possess walkie-talkies of the same colour. With the only other option of communication being through proximity voice chat. There are even crates littered across the map that will only unlock for traitors, but will sound a quite audible alarm once opened. In my experience, traitors have often opened these crates for items such as poison or weapons. Knowing a shot ringing out from behind the treeline would raise suspicion, traitors would often dispose of any evidence and flee the scene, rousing even more paranoia within the group.

Sometimes, even if you do end up in a lobby which starts, the game dissolves into madness and confusion. I've joined groups filled with new players twice and both times, nobody knew what to do or say when someone got killed. We ended up with no escape plan, made no progress towards identifying the traitors, and no coordination. Luckily, my earlier experiences were far more pleasant, preventing these incidents from souring my overall perception of what this game is really like.

Project Winter's item combination system adds a wealth of depth to the art of deception. Traitors have the ability to poison food items to assassinate stray survivors. Your trusted buddy that had just handed you a walkie-talkie or valuable supplies may in fact be planning to betray you by separating you from the group, then plant evidence on your body with the intention of framing you as a traitor, gaining the misguided trust of the other survivors. Every game has the potential to unfold in an entirely different way, which sets it apart from its peers, which favour far more simplified mechanics. Project Winter is therefore a welcome addition to its genre.

At this point, you're probably wondering why I barely have any play time down despite the praise that I have for the game. So let's be realistic and talk for a second here.

I have no doubt that Project Winter is a great game with a decent amount of replayability. Its mechanics are intuitive and innovative. I truly have no complaints over the game's content in terms of quality delivered. The issues that mar my interest are technical and social in nature.

As mentioned earlier, my microphone simply failed to work with this game. I understand that the game is early access, and it may have been my fault for not applying the fix correctly, but a bug is a bug nonetheless. Moreover, it seems that this microphone issue isn't common. Most if not all the people I've met playing this game have had no issues whatsoever, but that's why you have the ability to refund games on Steam, so I wouldn't let that stop you from trying out this game.

The social aspect is Project Winter's main problem, and may even be its downfall. There is a massive division between players. I've met a small handful of high-level people who I assume are this game's loyal fans, but most of the others I've met have been low level players. Rarely do I ever see someone join the lobby with a rank that fills this gap between levels. From my standpoint, I believe that though there is an active and loyal fanbase behind this wonderful game, its newer players aren't being engaged enough to continue playing. This game is most active in the US region, which usually has at least one or two games running when I check on it. The bottom line is that Project Winter, for the social deception game that it is, simply lacks the playerbase and popularity to provide a consistent experience. I simply don't have the patience or time to attentively sit in the lobby browser waiting for a joinable game to appear.

Do not let technical difficulties scare you. You can always refund games, remember that.

Project Winter delivers everything it advertises without a doubt. I'd recommend it to anyone with friends who already own the game, or anyone who intends to purchase the game along with at least 6 other friends. Otherwise, the player population is simply too low for games to be found on a regular basis. I truly wish this weren't the case.

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Super Seducer is a real special one. As a person who has seen footage of the more self-aware second game (yes, there are two), my opinion of its first, far less satirical predecessor has undoubtedly been tainted. Furthermore, due to how the "game" actually lacks substantial gameplay, I am more obliged to consider this a visual novel with live action sections instead. Note that due to a combination of the aforementioned factors, I feel that I must deviate from my standard format of reviewing and instead opt for a far shorter and direct structure instead.

Instead of using the traditional scoring system out of 10, I suggest those who are impatient to just skip to the conclusion section to see what I think of Super Seducer. However, given that this review is merely a short read, I'd implore you to give what I've written a skim so that you can make a more well-informed decision.

Super Seducer initially markets itself to be the hard work of a self-proclaimed "seduction guru". Without casting any shade on the name, all I can say that it is what it is, and what you perceive it to be will depend on, (sadly, but truly), but socially capable you are as a person. The overall goal of super seducer is simple: talk to the girls like a normal human being would to pass the level, and excel by being able to choose the one (or more) out of the four dialogue options provided which would show engagement or initiation in a conversation. Personally, however, I was more interested in the ridiculous choices you were given and how they would subsequently be acted out by the live action cast.

Out of the four options you're provided, there will always be one or two awfully weird and hilarious choices available. Those two options quickly became my source of entertainment for the duration of my playthrough. Seeing the scenario acted out competently was also a pleasant bonus to the experience, but I doubt any of the weird jokey options would have been as funny as they were without some good acting, so they did well on that part. Aside from this, the "correct" options which invoked a positive response were always quite boring and plain for me, so needless to say, it was more than easy to end each chapter with a perfect rating, because I am a normal human being capable of interaction.

Sadly, the novelty and surprise of the joke options wore out quickly for me, but I suppose this was because I had already seen some footage of said options already. That said, if you haven't seen anything that this game has to offer yet, I would highly recommend giving it a shot as a gag, since Super Seducer is cheap anyway, though according to what I've seen, I would see if I could get my hands on the second one instead, since the jokes in that one seem far more fleshed out.

To anyone who knows anything about this game already, I honestly wouldn't bother considering this as anything but a gag gift for your mate. However, if you really know nothing about Super Seducer, or have heard nothing about it, I could imagine this being a pleasant surprise for you.

Hey, not bad

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From Italian indie developer studio Runeheads comes Conglomerate 451, a cyberpunk-themed dungeon crawler currently in Early Access at the time of writing this review. Having first read about this game from an article published on the internet, I decided that I would pick this one up for a review to ease the long wait I had for Cyberpunk 2077, back before it was announced.

In its current state, Conglomerate 451 has one of the strongest introductions to gameplay I've seen in non-mainstream indie dungeon crawlers to date. The project is admirably ambitious and you're throw headfirst into a sprawling skill tree that looks impactful, meaningful and fitting to the game's overall theme. It's just a real shame that much of the luxuries I hoped the game would have already had have still not risen to fruition yet. I did not expect this game to be as grueling and punishing as Darkest Dungeon either, which it most certainly is (to a certain extent).

The player begins with three operators which cannot be visually customised. They're also all bald. These operatives, though they can be cloned, will always begin from level 1 and will stay dead if they die. A part of me wishes they'd grant some variation and randomisation to these clones when successful dungeon crawlers like Darkest Dungeon grant characters with quirks and specialties, which makes each of them unique, whereas in Conglomerate 451, losing a character is little more than losing the exact same guy that you're immediately going to the lab to clone again, except with overall better base stats. They are the same three roles that are necessary for the player to traverse the map, so after some experimentation I found that any attempted creativity with my roster resulted in immediate failure of the mission without proper grinding. Moreover, I had half expected to be able to customise my operators to a certain degree, so I ended up being quite disappointed in this regard.

I won't speak much about the turn-based combat because frankly, a lot of Conglomerate 451's mechanics for its actual combat is quite standard and not exactly much to talk about. I must admit that I personally don't play dungeon crawlers that often, but while I can definitely say that I have played better, and more fun games that use turn-based combat and innovate upon pre-existing cookie-cutter mechanics, I definitely cannot say that I did not enjoy the combat in this game. The graphics powered by the Unreal Engine make this game good-looking overall which gives the developers a lot of leeway for satisfying displays and animations to facilitate my enjoyment of the game.

The hacking minigame is the best I've ever seen, in any game to be honest. It's not tedious at all like the ones you see in Warframe, nor do they serve as a roadblock for player progression. Rather, they are an optional task in a terminal which the player finds in the map. Essentially, the player must find the current prompt listed on the right hand side within a rapidly scrolling wall of text on the left. It may seem overwhelming and confusing at first, but once completed, the player is given the option of a few rewards such as unlocking all doors on the next floor (which confused me at first...why not the first one i.e. the one I'm on right now?), or granting you extra rewards when you pass the level.

In its current state, however, this is where the game hits a massive roadblock and rather disappointed me. Firstly, the more complex branches of skill tree are so insurmountably difficult to access because it requires such a tedious amount of grinding the same levels over and over again, the game feels like a more boring version of Diablo at launch wherein people would spend hours repeating the same story mission, except with far less action. I soon found it nearly impossible for me to get anywhere on the skill tree without carefully grinding my way through base-level enemies which I could easily one-shot. This leads me on to my second point: there are skills which are clearly imbalanced. The soldier class has a rocket launcher that deals an incredibly high amount of damage. So much damage, in fact, that it renders the sniper class' "deadly shot" skill a gimmick that in itself deals far less damage anyway. There is also such a sudden spike in difficulty between the second and third mission that I had to take multiple runs of the first two missions just to get my characters even close to skilled enough to compete. I feel as though a dialing down on the difficulty on the first two levels would do the game far more good in the long run.

Lastly, the map design is filled with a copious amount of vast and empty space that I wish they had used. There are also idle NPCs sitting or standing around that you can't currently interact with at all, but I'd imagine Runehead is planning to develop these a bit more.

It's clear that there are some games that don't truly understand the depths of 'cyberpunk' style. Conglomerate 451 appears to land in between Sci-Fi and true 'cyberpunk'. The menu is oddly (traditional, tommorowland-like) Sci-Fi, or even kind of similar to Star Citizen. However, the streets are a gritty, neon-lit basin that the genre has become a staple for the genre.

This division in style, although is meant to separate the upper class--the player, from the lower class--the soldiers you send to do the conglomerate's dirty work, kind of falls flat in my opinion because of how much the overall style changes from what *should* be armoured up mech suits and visible cybernetics (like Deus Ex) into neon jumpsuits. Hopefully the team plans on addressing this in a later release.

The visuals are great and deliver the standard package one would expect from the unreal engine, especially on the streets. However, this leads to a point I would like to address: a division between the game's complexity and the game's visual fidelity. The unreal engine is normally seen in FPS games, or TPS games where the player is afforded more freedom of movement. As it stands, this makes the game, at times, play like an animated slideshow because of how restricted the players' movements are. Though I would have preferred a more simplistic, but more heavily stylised map design in favour of a barebones cyberpunk one, though it *does* look quite nice, I must admit.

Conglomerate 451 is a cut above average in quality when compared to many other tile-based dungeon crawlers out there. This game doesn't seem like a desperate cash grab and is even more so not an indie game attempting to catapult credibility off of the use of Unreal Engine. Though fresh, the novelty which sets Conglomerate 451 apart from its peers is quickly washed away by sharp difficulty spikes, tedium and inherent design flaws.

That said, I believe that Runehead still deserves credit for the recent headway, pushing out newer, much-needed content which the game, in its current Early Access state, needs to take a positive turn. I vouch.

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Overcooked! 2 offers a unique arcade-like couch coop experience, adding innovative twists here and there to the age-old, screen-sharing fun when you'd invite your friends back from school to play videogames.

A colourful blend between a fun challenge, terrible food puns and adorable art style--Overcooked! 2 certainly serves up a succulent dish of friendly fun. Sadly, like a game of Monopoly, it just isn't fun when you're the only one playing.

Overcooked! 2 focuses on testing how well you and your team cooperate with each other. Gameplay consists of orders rapidly being placed, which the team must complete and serve up to earn points which accumulate into a rating out of three stars. When the whistle blows, you and your friends will be scrambling to meet order after order by preparing meals--mincing the beef; chopping fish; mixing aforementioned ingredients with flour into a mixing bowl... Whilst teams which function together too slowly will find themselves failing orders, overzealous teams will, on the flipside, fight against becoming overburdened as the food overcooks or equipment breaks.

The time-sensitive mechanics of the game gives weight to each player's actions and the game's creatively-designed levels prevent simple routine and muscle memory from diluting the difficulty of the levels. One mistake after the other my sous chefs and I found ourselves in hilarity amidst a nightmare of problems we couldn't even hope to solve in time. These moments, I find, are unique in games such as Overcooked! 2, whilst I would have been expected to be frustrated at minor screw-ups and mission failures with other more serious games; the inherent lighthearted music and art of Overcooked! 2 just makes you feel happier overall. It's a difficult phenomenon to explain, but it's one which can surely be felt. After all, comedic tension is rare in all forms of media nowadays, from videogames to films. I certainly did not expect Overcooked! 2 to be so hilarious and so entertaining.

However, the game is certainly not without flaw. Whilst I understand the rationale behind the decision to allow players to instantaneously throw ingredients at maximum power, without any middle ground as to how far the ingredient should be thrown. Personally, I enjoyed the additional lighthearted chaos that throwing items everywhere could wreak, though I'd imagine the lack of additional control over the palyer's character could cause some frustration among those more competitive than myself. Furthermore, the detected area of activation for some in-game items can be deceptively long yet deceptively short at the same time. Overcooked! 2's arcade-y and intentionally forgiving controls sometimes end up fighting with the player, as instead of dropping it through a shaft for the next player in the team to pick up, I found myself placing the bowl onto the nearby boxes and tables next to me instead--something which grew nervously frustrating at times, to the point where I would have lost my mind, had it not been for the game's soothing ukelele-based soundtrack.

My initial impression of Overcooked! 2 on the PC was soured by the game's single-player. It slowed some things down, giving the sole player two chefs which they could alternate between, straining my multitasking capabilities. Though it seemed slightly innovative and interesting, it completely failed to captivate me with its charm like it did the second I hopped into a party with my friends. I can't blame the developers for trying to at least make it work for singleplayer, though; unlike how many other couch-multiplayer games out there which can't even be played in singleplayer. Thus, the effort is still there and I believe the developers should be commended for at least giving players the option to play alone, in a game marketed and designed entirely for couch-coop multiplayer with friends.

Lastly, need I mention that the game is quite a great port and works very well with the keyboard despite being designed with the controller in mind? Great work across the board!

Overcooked! 2 is a simplistic port from the console, and evidently was designed with a controller in mind. I didn't expect any fancy graphics or shading like I do from triple-A titles, and even so I was impressed by how nicely Overcooked! 2 manages to pull of its art style. The game doesn't look like anything much and that's a good thing. Those of you out there with the simplest of laptops should find running this game a breeze thanks to its minimalistic and cartoonish approach, much like its predecessor. The game looks great enough, without bells and whistles that overcomplicate its accessibility.

Finally, there's that great, glorious lighthearted and fun soundtrack that numbs the frustration and anger. The mixers may be broken, the customers may be getting feisty with their orders, the kitchen may even be on fire as well; but the genius with the ukelele strums away and everyone just laughs the troubles away. Overcooked! 2 provides no shortage of these moments of juxtaposed havoc and serenity, leading to a very enjoyable experience for the whole party.

Overcooked! 2 is simply the cutest party game I've ever played, combining simplicity with the complexity of teamwork, this game will test you and your friends. It's just a shame that it, like all other party games, doesn't really shine as a singleplayer game. But then again, why would you be getting it if you're the only one?

Overcooked! 2 offers hours of fun for a reasonable price-tag, and is a must-have if you already have a group of friends who are planning to purchase, or have already purchased it.

+Low system requirements
+Reasonable price
+Great fun with friends
+Lighthearted and tongue-in-cheek design and atmosphere
+Many levels
+Great soundtrack

-Singleplayer is a bit boring, but that's expected
-Only truly shines if you manage to convince your friends to buy it with you

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Capcom's Monster Hunter franchise has made its re-appearance into the Western market with flying colours with Monster Hunter: World. Everything from MHW's core mechanics to its sound design is nothing short of triple-A quality.

This game is an absolute joyride and while it definitely isn't perfect; you should sleep in peace knowing that Capcom actually understands how a $60 game should be made. This is one for the history books.

I'll only be addressing the gameplay section since it's the only part where I feel as though quality has any dipping.

Monster Hunter: World remains faithful to the franchise as it focuses on the thrill of the hunt, making tweaks to keep the game's mechanics both fresh yet strikingly familiar to returning players. For new players, the game's well-paced campaign ensures that first-time hunters do not fall behind the learning curve.

Monster Hunter: World shatters the norm by giving each of its weapon sets entirely different and unique mechanics, which, coupled with near-perfect balancing, allows all weapons to be effective and viable. Players are given a plethora of weapon choices from the get-go as well, allowing them to explore the playstyle which suits them the most. As such, the core combat mechanics of MHW, though deceptively may seem very similar to games such as Dark Souls, actually finds similarities with a slew of other games such as Devil May Cry.

In the five-course-meal of a game, however, the combat itself is just the dessert. Monster Hunter: World brings the thrill of the hunt to a new level with sprawling maps and biomes--each with their own fitting wildlife. Expect to trek through sludge, toxic gases, or cross gaps swinging along a vine as you track your target with the help of your scoutflies, passing other monsters along the way as you follow the food chain up. The game feels exactly as advertised, with your surroundings dynamically changing with the fight and monsters interacting with each other: a true spectacle to behold. Only hunters who successfully track down their target and make full use of their items and skills can take down a monster after 20-to-30 minutes of fighting, having to track it back to its nest where it retreats upon realising it is no longer the king of the jungle.

The condiments to this delicious meal are the way Capcom designed MHW's gearing system. Hunting gear is forged using materials gained from skinning kills, meaning the more you kill, the better chance you'll have at taking down the next biggest thing in the jungle. There are just enough required materials to make the grind for the materials needed for the upgrades a challenge, without making it feel like a painful, boring grind such as with cases like Diablo 3 where a player could spend hours accomplishing nothing. Instead, MHW ensures that the player makes steady, but slow progress with the eventual promise of good loot, as opposed to the blind gamble of most grind-for-gear, dungeon crawlers currently in the gaming industry.

Overall, Monster Hunter: World proves that despite having a rough couple of years, Capcom still has its touch and is a breath of fresh air. Despite it being a port, the game runs without much worry, though I would still recommend a beefier setup (follow the game's recommended system specs, perhaps) to get the most enjoyment out of it.


Alas, nothing is perfect, and we finally have to address the game's shortcomings, which come in the form of its highly unstable servers and confusing multiplayer design choices. Make no mistake, Monster Hunter: World is absolutely not an MMO, but rather, a very well-balanced multiplayer experience which does not intrude with the player's experience, unlike how Dark Souls' instantly makes the game a cakewalk. Instead, the issues like in Capcom's decision to make connecting to multiplayer both frustratingly difficult and infuriatingly unstable. Not only do online sessions drop out quite often, the game confusingly requires players to put down everything they've already set in motion in order to connect to an Online Session. I find it frustrating to always be shown the error message notifying that I no longer have the ability to send out SOS flares to call for aid so other players in the session can help when I'm about to get knocked around until the next time I visit the hub world--ostensibly entailing that I'll have to completely drop the hunt if I hope to get any hunting companions.

Please, Capcom, the game is damn near perfect. Fix the servers and everything will be well on its way to being flawless.

Overall, the game is a stunning visual and mechanical masterpiece. Monster Hunter: World boasts a game of legendary quality truly worth every cent and more of your precious money. Yes, it's expensive, but for $60 you get an incredibly crafted world with detailed animations and design, and a living, breathing jungle filled with bigger and bigger monsters to hunt and kill as you climb your way up the food chain to become an apex predator yourself.

I have never recommended a game in a Steam review more than this. Happy hunting.

• Excellent Gameplay
  
• Industry-leading Visuals
  
• Stellar Sound-design
  
• Incredibly detailed worlds to explore
  
• Banging Orchestral Soundtrack
  
• Rewarding fights

• High price tag
  
• Multiplayer doesn't always work
  
• Fights can be time-consuming
  
• High system requirements
  
  
  Feel free to check out my other reviews if you found this one helpful!