Recent reviews by TrueKam

I'm not far into Expedition 33 yet, but man, it's ticking all the right boxes: compelling story, good graphics, intriguing environment, and interesting characters. So far, I understand the hype and the game and its developers deserve all the accolades they've earned.

As someone who enjoys Breakout clones, this is a fun little game to go through. I've completed all levels while taking no damage in less than two hours, and even that time is a bit inflated. I started on my SteamDeck, but switched to my desktop to use the mouse for finer control only to find out the save game didn't transfer through the Steam cloud and I had to redo about half the game.

It's a pretty good interpretation of the Breakout gameplay. There are fun powerups to help get through levels, different types of blocks that take multiple hits in some cases, and the addition of things like moving obstacles and even moving breakable blocks is unique across the games that I've played at least. Also the art is nice and the story is ... simple yet detailed enough to explain what's going on.

I can only see two downsides to this title:
1. It's short, so wait for a sale or bundle to contain the game if you're worried about the price.
2. Due to the content, it won't see wide-scale adoption.

Stardew Valley is one of those games that I just keep coming back to no matter how hard I try to put it down. Every time I come back, I'll get absorbed in the game for a couple months playing nothing else then slowly trail off until I get my life back. Then, after a while, I'll hear of a new patch and think "Hey, that sounds like a neat addition." and the cycle will start all over again.

It's definitely a good game to play with the family. My wife and I like the option to play with other family as well, while being able to just play with the two of us if nobody is available. The game doesn't care and you can keep playing on the same save file.

Elden Ring follows much of the same formula as the rest of From Software's recent titles. Kill things to get souls/runes, spend them to level up or buy materials and weapon upgrades, repeat until you can defeat a boss blocking your path. If you die, you can recover your lost runes unless you die again without getting them back. Sounds simple, right?

Elden Ring is often brutal but never unfair. Every enemy in the game can be learned and countered and you can always leave to become stronger before coming back again. This game is far more open for exploration than previous Dark Souls games, so you can get yourself into situations where you aren't really prepared for the difficulty of the local area, but you have the option of simply warping to any previous areas via your map so you're never trapped in this game. All in all, the features make for a refined experience in the Lands Between.

At around 300 hours, I've completed playthroughs for each of the endings in the game and gotten all the other achievements. Additionally, I've played through the game in multiplayer with a friend. While the game itself will be the same game after game, enemies will grow stronger between playthroughs and you can change your stats and try new strategies to keep things interesting.

This review is written by someone who has enjoyed the Serious Sam experience since The First Encounter released in 2001. I love a good run through the HD remakes when I get the chance and several of my friends will play through the game in co-op when we all have the urge. But I just don't think this particular installment is ready for primetime.

This entry in the Serious Sam catalog is a mere 5 levels and they are really more of a side quest for the events in Serious Sam 4. This would probably have been a better product if it were a $5 to $10 DLC instead. It feels similar in content and style to Jewel of the Nile for Serious Sam 3: BFE. As such, this follow the same newer art style as 3 and 4 as opposed to TFE and TSE. (Let's just continue to pretend that Serious Sam 2 never happened, shall we?) All of this adds up to a game that I feel was a little bit overpriced, though you get a discount if you own Serious Sam 4, as long as that deal doesn't expire. But that's not necessarily enough to warrant a "Not Recommended" review from me.

The performance in the latter half of the game was unacceptable for me. As mentioned, there are 5 levels in this game. The first three played as you would expect, but the performance was horrible for the fourth and fifth levels. The game was constantly stuttering. Some modern games are plagued by micro-stutters due to the modern paradigm of "load in only what you need and only when you need it" causing constant loads to happen in the background. I can accept that to a point, but as an experiment, after multiple battles, I just sat idle. To test. The game wouldn't play for more than ten seconds or so before a "freeze" of up to an entire second. Sounds would continue to play in these periods if I were shooting or if enemies were attacking, but no movement, animations, or music would be playing at all. The computer I play on isn't terrible (AMD 8-core 3.9GHz, 32GB RAM, RTX2070 Super, game installed on a SSD separate from the OS SSD) and I don't have any problems with other games, which is why I'm so critical of the performance here. The experience went from a "Recommended with caveats" to an incredibly unenjoyable experience that I can't recommend in the game's current state.

I'm always a fan of Serious Sam games. They're hectic and irreverent with enough action to keep those of us who grew up with fast-paced shooters like Ultimate Doom happy. But at the current time (Patch 1.03c), I recommend sitting this particular one out. I'd be happy to try again if there are any patches that mention fixing issues that sound like these, but for now, I'll head back to TFE and TSE.

I played through the early access content (which ended immediately after spoiler-free boss) and I was thoroughly impressed. Between the abilities, the art style, and the gameplay, I felt like this would be a worth successor to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I've always been a huge fan of SotN and it's been nearly impossible to find another game that lives up to the standard set there. I haven't gotten back to the new content after the game hit its full release and added in, what I believe to be, the remainder of the game, but I intend to soon and will update my review when I get to it.

The game is good for a fun romp through Hell killing demons along the way. If you're a fan of Doom in general, give it a go. But it's not "all great all the time."

I feel like the game has moved on from Doom 2016 in a not so goo way in some areas. It feels like the team tried to make it more "arcade-y" and you have things like extra lives and too many statuses to keep track of. You have your shoulder-mounted flamethrower, your blood punch, your grenades, your chainsaw, your remaining jumps and dashes, and your ammo counts to keep track of. There are times during play that things just feel too hectic. I used to enjoy my Nightmare runs through the classic Dooms and even a few levels in Doom 2016, but I just can't seem to keep up with anything above easy any more. Sure, call me lame, but I just don't enjoy some of the on the fly "inventory" management that seems to be required any more.

Don't let all that detract you from buying, playing, and enjoying the game. Just know what you're getting into this time first.

I purchased Cube World while it was still in the alpha phase, and I lamented at the lack of updates that we all saw for a couple years there. But now it's back, and it's on Steam. It's still difficult and grindy, and the early game is unforgiving. But aside from all that, it's a pretty solid open world pseudo-roguelike that is a blast to play with a couple friends.

It's a rails shooter with ladies and lewdness. Need more incentive? Well, I can't offer any more. =)

Skyrim is one of those games that you should play at some point. Is the Special Edition worth the cost? If you don't own the "classic" edition with the official DLC packs, then yes. If you own the classic edition and play with a lot of mods, then probably not. Certain combinations of mods in the original game will allow it to look as good as, or even better than, the Special Edition.

All in all though, it's a great game and it deserves to be experienced.