Recent reviews by Mac Dank

I preordered the Ultimate edition of Borderlands 4 like a loyal customer (only for it to go on sale a couple months later), and so I didn't spend the $30 alone. $30 for this is outrageous, and especially how it released. I beat the main story in one sitting... maybe a few hours. To put that in perspective, "Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragons Keep" released as DLC for BL2 (and even as stand alone game) for $10, and it offered so much more and was of much higher quality. I own BL2 GOTY, and even then still bought the stand alone game just to replay it for achievements as I love BL2. I am not even a third of the way thru that, and I already have 15 hours in it alone... for $10!

The one positive I have is I did like some of the "zombie" enemies, and I got one good chuckle out of the whole thing. Story was meh... over before it led to anything really special. There was a lot of opportunity hear squandered. The final boss underwhelming.

I was quite disappointed that the new "shared progression" update (free, btw) did not include specializations as they are all tied to the character itself. When playing this DLC, I had to restart a couple times because enemies wouldn't populate in certain parts to where you had to clear enemies to move on, but they wouldn't show. And I am kind of ticked that I wanted to start playing as C4SH starting fresh. I started a new "level 1" C4SH (as there are a couple levels you can choose from 1, 13, and something else. Well, when I start a new "level 1" character, I actually start at level 4... something about starting off with a few levels already just REALLY irks me, and so I hope that is a bug that gets fixed. I like the gameplay, but I like the grind and to know that I built a character up from scratch is something I get enjoyment from which I am being robbed of. At this point, I don't even want to play C4SH for that same reason and without shared specialization xp is just another slap to my face.

What happened, Gearbox? I no longer have a blind trust for you. If Borderlands 5 ever does release, it saddens me to say but I WILL defininitely wait until a deep discount if I choose to even purchase at all. I can definitely wait as I wasn't motivated to see BL4 all the way thru as soon as I got a couple hours into it. Borderlands 2 was your magnum opus... I have such fond memories and it will forever hold a special place in my heart. Everything else now just seems half assed. The passion is gone. The respect for the fans is gone, and the price alone for this reflects/ supports that. . Adios.

TLDR: if you enjoyed Dead Island 1, pick this up without hesitation. I can recommend at full price. If you haven't played and Dead Islands but like zombie games, you can't go wrong getting this on a sale. Dambuster deserves the compensation for their excellent game here.

I've had this in my library for quite a while, but I slept on it. I decided this weekend to finally play it., and I'm happy to report that I am very pleasantly surprised. I played the previous DI 1 (haven't played Riptide) and I quite enjoyed it til Dying Light became my favorite zombie game of all time (DL1 still is). But I will say, I have always dug what Dead Island was going for. In my mind, Dead Island is a light hearted zombie apocalypse cheesy story while maintaining a creepy and sometimes scary atmosphere that's easy to jump in and jump out.

This game, even going thru the development hell for years, Dambuster Studios deserves a standing ovation for what they have done with this game. The combat is excellent, the atmosphere is excellent, the humor is on point (for me at least... I am surprised with that one because I have felt developers try hard to be funny but turn out to be cringe), and I'm not done with the story (maybe a quarter into it), but so far so good with what I would expect a Dead Island story to be (not much to begin with).

The game is a vibe, with the start up music that plays from the beginning to the menu while you can view the current character you are playing. I wouldn't mind just sitting in and listening to the song... I will find it and put it in my play list. Usually it is hard for me to focus on one game as I will get bored easily and move on (kinda like I did with Dying Light: The Beast even though that isn't a bad game). This game, I will sink some hours into and finish before anything else because I am having a great time playing it and the combat/ quests/ dialogue/ crazy characters are keeping me entertained. I have heard that Dead Light 3 is currently in development by Dambuster Studios (to be released in Q2 or so 2028), and so I am happy to hear that because I will surely pick it up at full price if it is of the same quality. Salute to you guys.

Now, back to HelL-A

The day the free DLC came out, I got Grandpa laid. The opening to the DLC picks up right where the main game finishes, and it was the perfect opening. *Chef's kiss. I may or may not go ahead and finish this DLC soon, but I may wait for achievements. I would like to get the soundtrack.

Long live Grandpa High on Retro... I look forward to GHOR 2.

BLUF: Not even worth the $0.67 I spent on this.

This game is about what seems to be a young Ukrainian guy living life through the beginning of the war. You just walk from point A to point B. That's it. I was thinking since it had what looked to be retro style graphics and a Eastern European vibe w/ a dash of horror elements, for less than a dollar how could I go wrong? Well, I went wrong.

First time I have taken the effort to down vote a game and leave a review on top of that. Even for the 83% off ($0.67), I still would not recommend. It is a horrible walking simulator, it's boring, and it's buggy. I did not enjoy any of it for what I have played. I only kept playing to get the achievements. I have played on the Steam Deck. I saved in a section when I was in a car, and I accidentally flipped the car so I was stuck. I exit the game and reloaded and my car was now level, so I could continue. I got to the "backroom" portion, paused the game, and I accidentally loaded back to the car, which now every time I load, I fall through the map. So I imagine I will have to start all over (losing a whole 30-40ish minutes) of progress. Yes, I will finish what I started. Would I refund this game? No... keep the change. But I say again to the rest of you: stay away.

Easy to pick up and play. Shooting feels good. It can get a little repetitive, but it's fine. I have put in 12 hours over the first weekend I had it, which is rare for me to do with any game. I think this will be one title that I will 100%. Also, when there was a vocalization about how we gamers wanted an offline mode, it didn't take anytime for the dev to implement that. Imagine that. So, I guess a slow clap for the devs is in order.

Bought this to send a message to the dev's and publisher:
PLEASE make Days Gone 2.
Days Gone was the first game in so many years that I played exclusively from beginning to end. That was on PS4 when it first released. As soon as it released on Steam, I bought again, and I have played exclusively till I finished again. Sometime after this update, I will finish again for new game plus/ survivor achievement. Hell, I may try to beat on permadeath... we'll see. I love this game/ world they created... one of the best, if not the best, post apocalyptic games created in terms of tone and atmosphere.

I have only played less than an hour, but I will say it runs great on the Steam Deck though it doesn't have official controller support just yet (I see it's part of the road map). The vibes, the music, the graphics, the art style, the humor, the interactivity with game objects, etc... I can see there is something special here. When I could customize my eyelids in how open they wore (or closed, I should say), I had a chuckle.

I will wait for official controller support till I pick up again, but I do see myself putting in quite a good bit of time in this world. I do not regret and in fact happy to support this title for early access.

I had a lot of fun with this game... I purchased the Premium Founder's Pack and I bought glemium a few times for the skins and to support the game. To get the sudden announcement that they were shutting down the servers out of no where and not allow for any kind of match making beyond on their servers/ unlocking all skins/ characters/ etc... all such a huge disappointment probably made at levels above devs. There was SOOOO much potential with all the IP's they could have added to the fighter roster. This just shows what greed and piss poor management will do, and WB is gonna feel it through customers they have already screwed. You're not gonna burn me again, and I will spread the good word.

09FEB2025:

I played this game when it originally came out on the PS3; one of the few games I "platinumed", meaning I 100% completed all the Trophies on Playstation, so I spent a significant time playing the game and put many hours into it. It was such a fun experience. I bought it on Steam thinking that maybe one day I would play it again.

Fast forward to about three days ago (06FEB2025), and I saw that this game just got an update which gave it Steam Achievements. I thought "what the hell" and downloaded it to my Steam Deck to pick up and play when I got the scratch. In those three days, I have been sucked back into the game, getting almost 20 hours of game play already. The game is just plain fun, it holds up well, and works great on the Steam Deck. The quality of the voice audio at times seems low quality, but other than that, I have been having a blast. The shooting feels good, the game play is fun, and it can be addictive finding the collectibles for the achievements as they also give you XP to level up your skills.

I found myself clearing most all side activities and collectibles on the first Island before even starting the story missions. So now, missions are a breeze and fun (you can change the difficulty at any point; it does not affect achievements).

All and all, I'm going to "100%" this game again on Steam, I am having a great time doing it, then I will move on to Far Cry 4 to do the same. Adding Steam Achievements to these classic games are one of the VERY FEW (if only) W's coming out of Ubisoft right now. Whoever made this call deserves a raise. Lunch is on me. GG...

Constantly crashing. Will change once fixed.