Recent reviews by Murai

I would die and also kill for Rusty

I think I'm gonna have to disagree with all the people saying that Kiwami 2 is the best Yakuza game. My ranking so far is:

1 - Yakuza 0
2 - Kiwami 2
3 - Kiwami

Now, there are plenty of things I like about this game. The pretty new graphics, the extra interactivity with the world. The combat is also pretty satisfying too. But I just have too many issues with the game to be able to consider it the top of the list. While they took some steps forwards with the new engine, they also took steps back in some really weird ways. Random NPCs don't talk anymore for some reason? They just stay silent until you either run into them or scare them after a street fight. The world was more vibrant and interactable, but also more dead.
The voice acting in general in this game felt kinda bald. They *only* bothered to do voice acting for the cut scenes, and not when you're in the world, which is weird because they did in the old games.
Speaking of the cut scenes, this was another really weird step back. While the game while you're actually playing it looks significantly more pretty than it did in the old engine, somehow the cut scenes specifically look worse. There use to be a lot more fancy lighting and post processing and pretty animation going. It took me a really long time to realise that they *weren't* pre-rendered. But somehow the cut scenes in Kiwami 2 just look like a downgrade. As well as that, I wonder if like, the old people behind the facial animations just died or something. People's faces just don't move as naturally.
There's also the ragdoll physics. They are, at best, amusing, but I felt it didn't add any value to the game, and was often pretty janky. I preferred the older games without ragdolls, personally. They just felt weightless and unnatural most of the time.
And finally, the plot. Out of the three Yakuza games on Steam, this was definitely the worst. It just felt messy compared to 0 and Kiwami. Especially the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ending. God, it was such a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. It's like Scotty from the Prank Patrol snuck up behind me and shoved his hands directly into my ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ while screaming about how hard I just got pranked. Also the romance between Kiryu and Sayama is just kinda off. Like, Yumi died *only a year ago*, and there's also uhhh a pretty big age gap between them which just makes it more weird.
Also MOST IMPORTANTLY, they ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up Kiryu's face. I don't know quite what's up but there's some weird uncanny valley ♥♥♥♥ going on. It's like he doesn't look quite human. Something's wrong with his eyes and his mouth. He just looks different. When I look at Kiryu the other Yakuza games I think "Now that is one sexy, chiseled man." Now? God. I can't believe they ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up the face of god. Kiryu deserves better.
NOW WITH ALL THAT OUT OF THE WAY, what did I actually like? Of course, the improvements to the graphics. The extra physics and interactivity with the world is also cool. I had a lot of fun throwing people through shop windows, even if it made me feel kinda bad for the shop owners. The gameplay is also really solid. The difficulty curve feels pretty good, and not completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ broken like it was in Kiwami. I do kinda miss the multiple fighting styles from 0 and Kiwami, but it was fun enough to keep things interesting through the main story (though the parry system straight up doesn't work 90% of the time).
Overall, good game. I did enjoy it, but it really surprises me that so many people hold it in higher regard than 0. Maybe I have a bit of bias since that was my first Yakuza game, but the more I think about it, the more certain I feel that it really is the better of the two.

A love letter to the old Wipeout games for the PSX, BallisticNG is is incredibly fun, addictive, and skilful. In my opinion, the best and most faithful anti-gravity racing game on Steam.

I just picked this up on the sale and man am I upset that they never made any follow-up episodes. This is a really fun game with some cool mechanics as well as an art style I think looks pretty awesome, but apparently Ritual Entertainment got bought out by some casual games company which resulted in this getting killed off.

Vehicular Police Brutality: The Game™

10/10 best squirrel waifu

At first I was slightly concerned that this was a free to play game. I had the idea that because it was a free to play game that it would be really hard on the newbies to get them to pay real money for upgrades. I've never been more wrong in my life! This game is an amazing creation. In just a matter of a couple of hours I had already enough credits to purchase a new mech. Many people still just use the starting mech and it the game is still perfectly balanced. The gameplay is fast-paced and hectic. Never before have I got the feeling of being in a big-ass robot of death and awesomeness. The mechs themselves are very well designed and fun to drive. However, like all games it isn't perfect. I'm a little nitpicky but that's just me. Deal with it. So first of all, you can pay real money to unlock weapons and upgrades quicker. This is a very little thing but even unlocking these without paying doesn't take that long either. Secondly, the cockpit view inside the mech does not match what the mech actually looks like. On the actual models they don't have windows at all. But this game is still a beta so It may be changed in the future. This is a game with vey few flaws and you should get it. It's free so anyone can get it. In conclusion, THIS GAME IS AWESOME GET IT ITS FREE AND AWESOME ALSO DID I MENTION IT'S AWESOME OMG I LUV THIS GAME!!! (Well at least I managed to keep it pretty civilised until the end)

A while back I bought the original mini motors game on IOS. I found it to be a pretty decent racer. i got some money for christmas to use one steam and one of the games i bought was Mini Motor Racing EVO. I thought the developers would have at least added some fresh new content. however, all I got was two new tracks, two cars and that's it. nothing has changed since the IOS version at all. It seems like they just got the original game and copied and pasted it on PC. Y'all should just get the IOS version and save money instead.