Recent reviews by Vaenos

This game recently came out of Early Access as of this writing, so it basically functions as a demo. It clocks in at about 30 minutes, with a New Game+ option.

This game feels like a blend of Doom, Dark Souls and a bit of Devil May Cry. The gunplay and use of skills make for great battle mechanics that allow you to string together combos that you will be rated on. Movement is pretty smooth while on the ground, however, jumping can get a bit awkward. The graphics(and even the main character) are pretty reminiscent of the Tomb Raider reboot from 2013. There are two boss fights that are fairly challenging and fun to fight, I myself really liked the first one.

Unfortunately, at this time, you can't rebind keys, so you are stuck with what the game gives you.
The HUD is a tad messy and I couldn't tell if some of the bars were supposed to be health bars or radar prompts.

While playing it, I enjoyed the gameplay and the mechanics of it. Once I finished it, and started the New Game+ I still am enjoying it. However, some of the issues listed above could be a problem for others, notably the messy HUD, makes me give it a No at this time. Though there is lots of potential for the future and I look forward to seeing what happens next.

The gameplay of this game can get hectic when it comes to managing enemies, but it is incredibly fun to run around levels as a samurai, deflecting bullets and slicing enemies up. I really enjoyed the time travel mechanic and even the replay at the end of each room that shows you what you did. The story is short, sweet and interesting and there is a great amount of replay value to keep speedrunners entertained.

Over the life of the game lots of issues have been addressed and improved upon, I have amended some of my prior points to reflect this. More of the collection has been released since I've written this review. This mostly pertains to Reach

Reach

On the plus side, we finally get to play Halo on Mouse and Keyboard. It looks amazing visually and it really gets your nostalgia going. Entering old maps from wayback when is amazing especially when muscle memory kicks in and you suddenly remember power weapon spawns on a game that's nearly a decade old that you haven't touched in ages. Some mechanics are still pretty solid, you will still feel that shot of adrenaline from tracking an enemy and getting off that assassination animation! Mod support is also an exciting avenue I can't wait to see what the community mess around with.

If you've played Titanfall 2, the menu system is similar to that allowing you to check and uncheck playlists you want to play and be placed within.

Now that we got the niceties out the way, let's BURY THE GAME/STUDIO

This is 343's second Master Chief Collection, and also the second Master Chief Collection I've purchased, and it seems that they learned nothing from the last time they remade the franchise and thus provided a very terrible port. There are major netcode issues both in campaign and in MP. There are sound issues that occur once your gun is fired where everything because a cacophony of staticy mess. You can go into your audio settings to change the playback(a trick that worked for me when playing Prototype... a PS2 port mind you). But even that doesn't completely get rid of the issue. *These sound issues have been addressed and more in line with what you can expect*

The spawns in MP are unbalanced and unfair, your enemy will more often than not spawn directly behind you after you get a kill on them. Or be spawned in the middle of a firefight or with an enemy running directly towards you. In Objective games, there is an 80% chance that you will be spawned at the enemies goal for an easy stop. (Spawns are still bad unfortunately)

Possibly due to the poor netcode and constant stuttering, the hitboxes are inconsistent, with precision weapons headshots being registered as bodyshots and not registering kills. This is especially evident in game modes with no shields like Team Snipers or SWAT. And in game modes with shield, it overcompensates even the infamous "shield pop" that Bungie had placed in the original. (there are still some hit registration issues, but not as bad as before)

The control scheme and default controls aren't great but you can easily rebind the keys. However, for some reason there is no toggle to crouch and you can't crouch while in motion. You have to completely stand still before you can crouch. *default control scheme is still bad, so make sure you're changing your bindings before playing, but there's more freedom in what you can change than during release*

There is no map voting, so you won't be able to veto any of the unpopular maps of old. Also no theater mode which was also a request in the first rendition of MCC. (still no map voting unfortunately)

They decided to get rid of the credit system of the original game in favor of the "Battle/Season Pass" that makes all unlocks linear, disallowing you to choose what armor pieces you want as you want them like in the original. Making customization, one of the pillars of the original Reach, bland and uninteresting.

While it is very exciting to get to play Halo, and Halo Reach specifically(my favorite) on PC, this port is simply in a poor state. What they left in from Bungie is great, but for whatever reason they attempted to make unnecessary changes that just seem out of touch. Wait for updates before making a purchase. *There's still some minor issues, but it is currently at a very enjoyable state despite these persistent flaws*

This game scratches the itch left by Harvest Moon, one of my favorite series from back in the day. Starting out, its a crop management game which may not be your everyone's cup of tea. It holds the same amount of charm as Harvest Moon, adding in a mix of base building and a bit of combat. The NPCs around town have a bit more maturity to their backstories than you can expect from Harvest Moon. And there's even an "evil" corporation that you can choose to topple (or ally with).

I recommend this game wholeheartedly, but I'd also advise people to play through Year 1 twice. Example, get to Winter (the toughest season to earn money) and learn how to strategize. Once you truly get a feel of the crop cycles, I'm sure you'll love it.

Unfortunately, the game's FPS only ranges from 3-15. No matter what I do from updating drivers to lowering resolution, it doesn't move. Game is unplayable in it's current state.

I gave the free trial of this a shot because I'd had my eye on it for awhile. Stunning graphically and gameplay is seamless from free-roam and into missions. The HUD for missions can be intrusive at times as they pop up so it can get distracting. Enemies seem to be able to see you through walls and there are some clipping issues, such as walking through some surfaces, but unable to shoot through them. Controls for vehicles are bad, as is the usual with Ubisoft games. But it is definitely a game you can have fun with.

As evidenced by my profile pic, I'm a major fan of Batman. But, I go into prequels with much trepidation and to make matters worse, it was being developed by a different studio.
Batman has always seems difficult to master, I completely understand that, even more difficult when you're trying to build a prequel from someone else's idea(in this case we're talking the other Arkham games). The game mechanics were solid and their new combat additions were especially great and very empowering.
However the game is pretty short in my opinion and a few of the "sidequests" were a bit mundane and somewhat felt more like filler to make up for time. And the story, though it had it's bright spots in its cinematography, had poor pacing, too often was I excited to be heading off to tackle a main mission for them to set up a roadblock.
All in all, though enjoyable for the combat and action, the story was very bland and lackluster, making this one the weakest in the Arkham franchise.