Recent reviews by Roderick720

This seems like a cool game, but I can't seem to get it to run for long without crashing. I keep getting an UE4 fatal error crash despite my best efforts to find a fix. My hardware specs completely demolish the recommended specs, so it isn't that. I've tried nearly everything, but it just runs like crap before crashing. I am disappointed.

Honestly, I forgot I owned this DLC and don't plan on playing it anytime soon. The base game is mediocre at best and is probably Bethesda's worst mainline game. Realizing this, Bethesda promised 2024 would be a year full of updates to bring the game up to par with their older titles. What we actually got was 2-3 moderately large updates before Bethesda just gave up and cynically added Creation Club paid mod garbage to fill in this husk of a game *for a price*.

This DLC, from what I've seen of it, does nothing to address any of the base game's problems. Starfield has one of the most generically boring sci-fi universes ever. A 5-10 hour DLC about people who worship a space snake does nothing to fix this and was never going to. The Bethesda that made excellent games like Skyrim and Fallout 3 is becoming an evermore distant memory. I say with no exaggeration that I have no hope left for Elder Scrolls 6. As far as I'm concerned, Bethesda set a torch to their goodwill to fans a while ago with Fallout 76 and now they are just stomping on the ashes with Starfield. I truly hope this game never gets a sequel.

And yes, I'm aware how petty this "review" is. I was a diehard Bethesda stan once upon a time. They just continue to disappoint.

Bethesda has decided to try to do paid mods again despite the hate it received when done with Skyrim and Fallout 4. The only reason they got away with such a hated move at all before is that both of those games were complete experiences with fun gameplay loops and great exploration. Starfield is not either of those games. It is a shell of a Bethesda game that has been cynically left hollow with the expectation that modders will fill in the meat. To ask for more money is completely insulting and only serves to show just how far Bethesda has fallen.

Please vote with your wallets, people. Don't buy this mediocre-at-best game. Don't buy the paid mods at all, period. Bethesda can't keep getting away with this.

As it turns out, the real threat to managed democracy wasn't giant bugs or socialist robots. It was Sony and their blatant data collection tactics. Who knew? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Edit: Sony dropped the PSN requirement for this game, but has still left many countries without PSN access out in the cold by not allowing them to purchase and play this game. However, after several months of bad, nerf-filled updates, Arrowhead has finally begun to address fan concerns in a big way with the recent balance updates. I want to recommend this game, but until those countries gain access again I cannot in good faith recommend Helldivers 2.

Konami has actually ruined Master Duel by allowing Tearlaments to come to the game without any sort of proper balancing. I have never had a more miserable ranked experience with this game. I'm running into it every other match at all ranks and it is beyond broken. No meta deck I've encountered before has been this dominating in every way. I do not care if there are ultra-specific decks that run counter to it. Having to build an entire deck just to counter 1 specific meta-deck is a waste of gems, and if I might put my tin foil hat on for one moment, probably by design. You have a good game on your hands here for once, Konami. The banlists have been pretty good up until now. Please listen to the playerbase, nerf Tearlaments, and don't allow another archetype to come to Master Duel again without any sort of balance.

This remaster of Nintendo 64 classic Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is every bit as fun as I remember it being when I was a child, but this time I don't have to use a controller designed for vortigaunts. The gunplay, sound, and music ooze with 90s FPS goodness. The level design stands apart from many other shooters of that time, blending exploration with platforming challenges that give you useful gear to help you get an edge over the memorable cast of enemies and bosses. This game does not hold your hand, either. While not a flawless experience, I can't recommend this game enough to anyone looking for old-school FPS fun.

8.0 / 10 - Great

This game is pretty fun and has a lot of potential for growth. However, the monetization and daily/weekly challenges are atrocious. The battle pass levels at a snail's pace and the amount of free currency you get to buy mobile suits with is a joke. I will be surprised if this game keeps its playerbase if no changes are made to the progression systems. Please Bandai Namco: listen to the players and fix this.

This is actually a good game with clearly a lot of love put into making it a JoJo fan's wet dream, but I cannot recommend it until the awful, awful netcode is fixed for the online.

It is safe to say that Elden Ring is among FromSoft's best games. The Lands Between is perhaps their most fully realized world and the love for Berserk is more apparent than ever. The Soulsborne combat system is perhaps at its best here. Every class build feels rewarding and the ability to just power level before tackling a tough boss makes this FromSoft's most accessible game. The music, while not quite up to the level of Bloodborne, is still very good. Many of the shardbearer bosses and legacy dungeons are among FromSoft’s best designs. The lore and story are delivered better than nearly any FromSoft soulslike game to date, though that is a rather low bar, to be honest. Overall, the choice to go open world was a good one, even if this game did launch with A LOT of technical issues and bugs.

Sadly, the overall experience is marred by several questionable design choices, many of which were made for no reason other than FromSoft tradition. All the cheap beginner's traps, buffered inputs, terrible menus, and general jank the fanboys seem to just ignore in previous games are here. The massive amount of side dungeons and optional bosses, while fun the first few times you encounter them, become tedious over the course of the game due to just how copy-pasted they are. Several optional bosses are quite literally just regular enemies with a bigger health pool. The world itself is still fun to explore, but there should have been fewer side dungeons if they couldn't take the time to make them more varied. The game is also in dire need of a quest log. There are quite a few multi-part quests on offer and the lack of an in-game way of tracking them baffles me.

Some of the issues I've mentioned can be fixed with updates, but many simply won't. I hope that in the future FromSoft can make some good QoL changes for their next soulslike game rather than listen to the screeching fanboys who somehow think a quest log would make this game too easy. There is a lot to like here already, but it is not hard to see the better version of this game that could have been.

7 / 10 - Good

Edit: Now that I have 100% completed Elden Ring, I sadly must admit that the game started to overstay its welcome quite a bit in the last quarter. Bosses are generally less interesting than ones in earlier parts and normal enemies become annoying enough to turn the last few areas into a slog. In particular, the Haligtree and Mountaintops of the Giants are just a chore to explore. It is still a good game overall, but very far from the masterpiece so many say that it is.

Propagation VR is an incredibly well-polished wave-based horror FPS. Short, but sweet (and totally free), you have no reason not to give this a try if you own a VR setup. I would absolutely pay money for a content-rich sequel or expansion to this game if this is the level of quality I can expect from Wanadev Studio's work.

7.5 / 10 - Very Good