Recent reviews by Nuggus

Cool concept for a survival game. Base building is a blast the first few times. Story is cool if you are a fan of Dune movies, series, or books.

While the game has a massive world and cool story, not enough to keep me playing long term. Combat variation is still mechanically boring. I'm not going to login every 21-28 days to farm batteries for my base and loot to pay taxes.

Cool RPG with regular updates.

The spice must flow ... for a little while ... but let my water be taken by Shai-Hulud.

I'm playing after the 2026 framework update. Received a key free from a friend. I'm 8 hours in at the time of this review.

I don't really know what it is about this game that makes it so special. Maybe it's because it's an early access PC exclusive? Maybe it's because of the massive (DayZ / Arma size?) Vietnam map? Maybe it's the combat realism? Apply the tourniquet, apply the bandage, take the pain pills. If you fall, make sure you have a splint for each leg. Maybe your squad mate forgot combat armor, and you need to perform surgery on their comatose lifeless body. It's an interesting and very realistic combat mechanism.

Maybe it's the ability to play solo, or with a group of friends? My first few missions were filled with random players in the same faction completing the same tutorial missions. It made the interactions unique and gameplay immediately entertaining. (Hold Z to talk)

I started playing with my full combat armor loadout, and lost it all within my first few missions. This had me hesitant to attempt missions with my full loadout. I started performing missions with limited gear, looting bodies for AK ammo and parts. I had a random player run up to me after an intense firefight and ask "Bruh, where the F$%^ is your helmet?". Of course I had a helmet buried in my locker, but after losing two I was afraid to lose a third.

I was surprised by the uniquely crafted missions. With the given grid coordinates, photos of structures, and unique mission objectives, each mission feels like it's own adventure. Chopper into a nearby LZ, and follow your waypoints into battle. Loot hidden weapons crates behind a keycard accessible door, or maybe find a safe requiring a passcode to unlock. Place a tracker on a fallen soldier's body, or simply raid and kill enemies at a specific location. Hussle back to the LZ with full inventory and extract back to HQ to sell, horde, reload empty magazines, or upgrade weapons.

First person combat feels like the early days of Ghost Recon, before the franchise moved toward it's advanced warfighter 3rd person perspective. Weapon attachments have a significant impact on gunplay and I enjoy picking up an enemy rifle just to check for pristine parts I can harvest.

(2026 Update) AI feels exciting and causes a little panic when they start pushing through plant life that actually moves and sways toward your location, all while yelling obscenities. This requires a bit of strategy when engaging larger groups of enemies. A crossfire will almost certainly end in coma or death. I had an enemy open a door unexpectedly and place a single shot in the perfect center of my combat armor vest before losing his life. My character, unharmed, was unable to breathe temporarily. The combat armor took the perfectly placed round, but my stamina remained stunned for a minute.

The three initial Traders/Vendors supply better loot (medical, armor, weapons / attachments) as you progress through their individual missions (tasks). Landing Zones expand along with your mission progression. Enemies appear to have different loot and gear which makes an enemy with full combat gear significantly more difficult to kill. I've yet to unlock two additional traders/vendors. Missions reward you with expensive combat armor, supplies, and large sums of cash.

Loot is interesting. Snake wine? Fetches $250 at a trader!? Expensive phones, laptops, and other gadgets can also be traded for a good amount of cash.

I'm excited to see what the more dangerous radiation zones hold as I progress. I imagine the difficulty is increased, and specific armor (masks) and medical gear (radiation) will be needed to enter these areas.

All of this functionality is available in the PVE game mode for leveling up and building your locker inventory of cash, guns, attachments, and combat armor. I see random players often working together and friendly fire is disabled.

Swap over to the PvEvP servers for a bigger challenge. Where every potential player you encounter can turn into an adrenaline filled firefight to the death. Winner takes home the loot.

Factions are important, but only for playing in squads with friends. Otherwise, factions only impact the base location on the map. Gear / Loot / and Missions are going to be identical between the factions. With only the initial mission locations being near the faction base headquarters.

With the 2026 framework update, I never experience a loss of frames. I'm running the game in 1440p with 144fps consistently, and the game has never crashed or needed a restart at the time of this review.

Writing this review at 2064 hours. This game defines the survival genre. Good luck.

FOR DEMOCRACY!

A lot of PVE grind here. Hundreds of hours of content. Has to run in windowed mode to support enhanced resolutions with my aging 2060 card. Video Settings > Window > Auto > Then [] maximize window.

blow ♥♥♥♥ up

One of the best co-op shooters of all time. Buy it cheap, and enjoy it with your friends. I started playing years ago. Later, I returned to the Wildlands with my LvL'd up Tier Operator play it with my son!

Full grind ... never paid a dime ... hundreds of hours ... fun for a couple hours a week, you'll get all the unlocks, and build your hero into whatever you want. Get creative on your build ... tech powers with acrobatic super jumps and guns are kinda cool. It's neat that they added builds for those that don't want to be supergeeks.

The best Nascar game in 20 years. One of the best racing games available right now. Rivals allows you to get aggressive and set a tone for your career. Take it seriously and elevate to hard difficulty and expert assists for a real racing experience.

So far so good. I put 12 hours in the last two weeks on my SteamDeck, and I'll be coming back to this title frequently. It's got a lot of replay value, and the RPG elements are just enough to keep you playing. I'm leveling up the devastator assault rifle and the grenade launcher. It's a lot of fun to play solo, bought another copy for my kid to play co-op.