Recent reviews by Certified Flex-Offender

CS2 is not a free game. Every time I queue Premiere, I pay for it by losing yet another bit of my dwindling sanity.

Stockholm Syndrome just keeps me coming back. Or maybe I'm into masochism. Who knows at this point?

Skins are cool though (y)

This has to be one of the best titles I've played in the past 5 years. Helldivers 2 has excellent mechanics, the gameplay is top tier, developers who clearly care about their work, and the overall experience is definitely a GOAT contender.

T̶h̶a̶t̶ s̶a̶i̶d̶, t̶h̶i̶s̶ c̶u̶r̶r̶e̶n̶t̶ P̶S̶N̶ a̶c̶c̶o̶u̶n̶t̶ d̶e̶b̶a̶c̶l̶e̶ i̶s̶ f̶o̶r̶c̶i̶n̶g̶ m̶e̶ t̶o̶ l̶e̶a̶v̶e̶ a̶ n̶e̶g̶a̶t̶i̶v̶e̶ r̶e̶v̶i̶e̶w̶. F̶i̶r̶s̶t̶ b̶i̶g̶ i̶s̶s̶u̶e̶ -̶ t̶h̶e̶ g̶a̶m̶e̶ h̶a̶s̶ b̶e̶e̶n̶ s̶o̶l̶d̶ f̶o̶r̶ m̶o̶n̶t̶h̶s̶ w̶o̶r̶l̶d̶-̶w̶i̶d̶e̶, i̶n̶c̶l̶u̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ i̶n̶ r̶e̶g̶i̶o̶n̶s̶ w̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ P̶S̶N̶ i̶s̶ n̶o̶t̶ s̶u̶p̶p̶o̶r̶t̶e̶d̶. T̶h̶i̶s̶ i̶s̶ p̶u̶t̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ p̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶ i̶n̶ t̶h̶o̶s̶e̶ r̶e̶g̶i̶o̶n̶s̶ i̶n̶t̶o̶ a̶ t̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ p̶o̶s̶i̶t̶i̶o̶n̶, w̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ t̶h̶e̶y̶ e̶i̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ g̶e̶t̶ s̶t̶u̶c̶k̶ w̶i̶t̶h̶ a̶ g̶a̶m̶e̶ t̶h̶e̶y̶ c̶a̶n̶'t̶ p̶l̶a̶y̶, o̶r̶ f̶a̶c̶e̶ a̶ b̶a̶n̶ f̶o̶r̶ c̶r̶e̶a̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ a̶ f̶r̶a̶u̶d̶u̶l̶e̶n̶t̶ P̶S̶N̶ a̶c̶c̶o̶u̶n̶t̶. T̶h̶e̶ o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ i̶s̶ t̶h̶a̶t̶ S̶o̶n̶y̶ a̶n̶d̶ D̶a̶t̶a̶ B̶r̶e̶a̶c̶h̶e̶s̶ g̶o̶ h̶a̶n̶d̶-̶i̶n̶-̶h̶a̶n̶d̶ l̶i̶k̶e̶ B̶o̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ a̶n̶d̶ c̶o̶s̶t̶-̶c̶u̶t̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ (̶a̶m̶o̶n̶g̶ o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ d̶u̶b̶i̶o̶u̶s̶ a̶c̶t̶i̶v̶i̶t̶i̶e̶s̶)̶.

In light of Sony backing down on forced PSN linking, it's an absolute pleasure to edit this review and bring it to positive, where the team at Arrowhead deserves to have it.

See you on the front lines, Helldivers!

It's the old-school X-Wing vs TIE-Fighter fun, but with graphics & gameplay improvements that you would expect for a 2020 title.

A worth successor to X-Wing Alliance. 10/10, and considering it's an EA title, that's saying something.

Only complaint would be the rubberbanding that happens in some multiplayer matches. Annoying in deep space, but when you're fighting in an asteroid belt or around a station, it can get frustrating.

This is an incredibly simple game, and kind of dumb, but also hilariously fun at the same time due to the social aspect.

Best $5 i've spent this month

I feel like I'm back in 2010, kicking covenant ass and staying up late on a school night. Except with M+KB, not some BS gamepad.

10/10 would buy again and again.

Though Aim Assist for gamepad users in PVP could use either a nerf, or a seperate matchmaking a la GTAV. It's p much a headshot magnet.

Up until about 2 weeks ago, I would have had positive things to say for GTA. The SP campaign is fun, there's cool easter eggs, and despite godawful loading times, a terrible p2p design, and hackers galore due to a fairly shoddy anti-cheat (zeroing your bank accounts and seizing all your ammunition), Online was still a pretty fun way to spend an evening with your buds.

However, in light of this OpenIV debacle, which struck me as a poorly thought-out attempt to fix the hacker issue, and the massive banwave on the 25th which resulted in a lot of unmerited bans, suspensions, and account resets (myself included in the latter, despite having never modded my install and having bought over 16M in shark cards), it is painfully obvious that the team behind this game has management that would make Pierre Beaudoin look good in comparison.

TL;DR buy the game for it's singleplayer if anything - you can sink countless hours into it and still find new stuff. Online mode is an absolute trainwreck, and it now appears that Rockstar will ban you for landing in the same lobby as an active hacker - as such, definitely make sure you don't pay full retail if you do buy it for multiplayer, and be ready to get destroyed by teleporting and aimbotting godmode hackers...

Honestly, This game is in a league of its own. North of 4000 hours in, and I'm far from being tired of it, which is quite the achievement.

You could call it a "space MMO", but lumping it in with other MMO's is a disservice, quite frankly. What makes me say this?

Well, lets start off like this: Space is big. Huge. Mindbogglingly vast. You have all of this entire star cluster (and a second one) to explore. Conquer. Do whatever you want, literally; you can build stuff, blow stuff up, explore, scam, trade on markets, heck, make a T-Rex your mascot and go around spamming memes if you want.

Market PVP? Check. Industrial PVP? Check. Good old-fashioned ship-to-ship combat using missiles, lasers, antimatter blasters, and artillery cannons? CHECK!!!

And the fact that it's all single shard means that whatever you do affects everyone. None of that instanced BS in parallel realms that you find with other MMO's - If you go out and blow up someone's space station, you could legitimately throw the balance of power off between the ingame player coalitions in that region, if not on a larger scale. The story is entirely player-driven, and you can interfere with developer-driven-events if you so choose - for example, the leader of one of the NPC Empires was chosen by a player tournament, and at the ceremony, other players were noted for their support/opposition of the proceedings, and all of this is now official lore.

And, of course, the hundreds upon hundreds of possible ships. You like fast small ships with missiles that fly like X-Wings? Check. Big lumbering battleships that tank for days, and have slow-tracking turrets that will obliterate something when they hit? Check. Something in-between? Guaranteed it's there.

The F2P model does lock out capital ships, and advanced hulls (cloaky ships, interdictors, covert ops). But having played with a restricted character as well, I can safely say that you don't really need those either, as the meta is currently focused around cruisers and destroyers (read: fast kitey doctrines), and generally trends towards making the most out of the least expensive possible hulls. There are exceptions, but those are used by niche groups that don't generally take on newbies.

Recommendation: Play it. It's free to try out(!!!), you can do 95% of the ingame content as a free player, and once you get the hang of it, upgrade to a subscription if you want to try those 5% things! The game can be quite unforgiving of mistakes, and is a very tough nut compared to most other games, but I can safely say it's worth the time, and likely one of the easiest games to get sucked into if you have a love of science fiction.

TL;DR

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Awesome

Do it