Recent reviews by breadfan

Every time I pick up a dog power-up and my real dog is somewhere around, he gets all riled up because he can't stand those bite sounds and barking.

Still the best top-down arcade racer.
Fun selection of cars, great design of curcuits with many ways to cut.
Low polygon aesthetic, vivid texture work, all make it look good even today.
Jungle tracks as background music is a nice touch. And you can always put in your favorite CD of choice and it'll work.

Once you beat all 3 difficulty modes and learn each track in and out, the 'mirror mode' shakes things up by forcing you to completely rewire you memory and adapt to a mirrored layout of the tracks.

It's fairly short and can be beat in about 2 hrs. Would have been cool if Ignition had a modding support, but alas.

DOS version works right away, but if you want 3Dfx version it will require additional patch/DLL files and some tinkering with config files and wrappers.
Gamepad support can be configured with the help of Steam Input.

UPD. Turns out the music from a disk inserted in CD drive does not work that easily for DOS version.
You have to edit the file 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Ignition\config\dosbox_igni_single.conf' so that the [autoexec] section looks like this:

[autoexec]
@echo off
cls
mount c "./ignition"
mount d D:\ -t cdrom
imgmount e "./ignition/game.ins" -t iso -fs iso
c:
maindos.exe
exit

Where "D:\ -t cdrom" points to a letter "D:" of your real CD drive.

Nice concept, great art and music.
Unfortunately UI and controls constantly get in the way. ARPG genre has come a long way since Diablo 1 and even Diablo 2.
Using one only slot for an active skill is archaic. Using a manually refilled potions bar is archaic.
Using more than 15 hotkeys to manage skills + potions is terrible control scheme for an action game.

Progressing in the game feels somewhat rewarding (mostly due to scarce resources), but I don't think that it's enjoyable enough to justify all the struggle.
Gamepad support might alleviate some of the control issues, but it's a big IF, as it's still not supported at the moment.

I can't fathom why raising a shield to deflect/block a projectile costs mana? Why using a self-healing spell 3rd time in a row permanently lowers your HP?
I think ToK follows mid 90s way of designing games a bit too strictly. Not everything should be copied and pasted without a second thought. Only the best things, as well as unexplored but potentially promising ideas should go into a modern game inspired by those times.

Peak Westwood studios. Supposedly, the last C&C that was built by the original Westwood team and under their own vision (before EA took everything under control).

There's something in Tiberian Sun that defies common sense and any logical efforts to put it into words. It's hard to tell, why is it so good, while it has plenty of flaws.

Something unique about look and feel of the voxel based engine that was mindblowing back in 1999.
Something about colored lighting in use that makes any map look differently depending on the ambience (it's been made b/w 1996 and 1999, of course colored lighting WAS EVERYTHING).
Something about chosen perspective of the camera that makes it feel more strategic, less arcadey and hectic than to say Starcraft.
Something about the sci-fi/post-apocalyptic atmosphere that was quite a change from both fairytale-like space operas and your regular fantasy setting.
Something about a watchtower projector lights seeking infantry in tiberian twilight, the ice cracking under heavy armor units, the infiltration into crash site of a giant alien ship, and devastating ion storms because the Earth now is beyond repair...

Purely from a technical POV Tiberian Sun was quite ambitious. The list of cut and omitted features tells the whole story.
Maybe the sole fact that developers were shooting for the stars (but ultimately didn't quite make it) still shows while you play it, I don't know.

Whatever it is, Tiberian Sun is the coolest C&C of a bunch. And multiplayer is still fun and fresh.
Go play it. But don't forget to learn how to use the freaking waypoints. Only then you'll comprehend the zen of unit management.

Really cool and overlooked strategy from 1996-97.
Even though it looks like a city builder game, it actually has more in common with Dungeon Keeper and Theme Hospital than SimCity.

The game is a great example of social satire/dark humor. The kind of humor that can even rival the most famous Bullfrog titles.
I always get a chuckle out of cockroach unit, that quietly passes by your land property (while doing its nasty things), like the bastard owns the place, lol.
Or the fact that hippies commune only needed to organize protests against enemy factories (because: ECOLOGY, OF COURSE!). Your own residents start complaining about stinky hippies near their houses? BUILD A WALL FOR THEM!

As for the game itself, for newcomers it's best to start with free to build/solo mode with no AI to fight against. Simply to get a hang of the basics and what Constructor has to offer over its full length. Even this solo mode alone can take hours to figure out and beat.
Despite the looks it's not an easy game. Versus mode is a constant uphill battle. First you struggle to satisfy your own residents, then you struggle to deal with all the nasty dirty tricks that your opponent eventually starts to throw at you. AND THEN sooner or later you have to capture or destroy your enemy property. This is like 3 layers of different activities on top of each other, it all requires some portion of your attention.

The classic Constructor (not the remakes) have 4 types of maps: forest, aquedact (just a river and some bridges across), concrete city (a soviet inspired blocky city, I guess?), and (as a final testament to your management genious) a jungle. Each map has its own restriction on AI difficulty and number of opponents.
But there's a cheat code that grants access to all maps on EASY, so one can enjoy different tilesets w/o becoming a pro.

Can be easily recommended to any strategy fan. Not for the faint-hearted, though, as it is decently hard and requires patience to learn on made mistakes.

Never had a chance to play it back at the time, turned out it's a pretty cool mini-strategy game.

The main strategic screen is a space quadrant which consists of stars interconnected with hyperspace tunnels.
Each star system can be either a mine, fortress or a colony (its all in the manual).
Mine produces resources (to build new starships), fortress is a fortified system that requires effort for other ships to pass by, and colony lets you populate your ships with new crew members.

All of it comes together in a pretty fun and quick strategy game of management and decision making. What to make of this node, should I fortify it or produce more resources? Should I build an expensive ship or should I make myriads of cheaper ones? Should I quickly expand my empire and stretch myself thin or is it better to keep it at minimal and focus on density?
The mainbase, i.e. mothership that produces new ships, can also be moved to a next node if needed, even at a risk of exposing the base and high cost of not producing anything while the transfer happens.
Some systems conceal Precursor artifacts that could be discovered. They provide different kinds of boost to the ship that found one. The rush for finding artifacts is a cool part of it all.

The melee combat mode is pretty basic if you compare it to subsequent SC entries, but still kind of doing the job. It can be completely automated by AI assistant.
There's different kind of scenarios to choose from. From compact sized quadrants, to fully expanded ones with plenty of room for all possible strategies.

What I personally think of SC1 is that original devs should have taken this type of gameplay and then improve and expand upon it, instead of going the route of full adventure mode like they did with Star Control 2. Which takes me to the next part of the review.

In the end, RECOMMENDED, even if just out of curiosity for the origins.


This is the one where SC fan community placed their bets. The most popular and beloved one. It was part of my childhood, as well as for many others. But playing it now feels pretty rough, clumsy and even boring.

There's no strategy elements now, it's all been cut in favor of a plot, negotiations with other races, etc. I mean it's all pretty cool on paper, but once you get your hands on the controls, you can't help but feel all the unnecessary bloat that comes with this type of gameplay.

First of all, I hate that you need to manually fly and maneuver your ship to each planet, to each star system, to each wormhole when it comes to hyperspace jumps. I'm quickly getting tired of resource gathering mini-game you have to go through on each planet.
Second, lots of grinding, IMO.
Third, lots of flying around looking for solution, things to do, things to chase.

I would certainly get it if these arcade elements would have some merit to it, some sort of fun factor that really makes, let's say, an 8-bit mario game so fun to just move and jump around. But the movement in SC2 is so basic and has that awkward inertia that it simply is not fun to do. It's not a game, it's a mechanical traversal from A to B, a downtime, and that's kinda it.

In the end, CANNOT RECOMMEND. Sadly, it aged like milk and feels like a game for storyfags only.

So here's the deal: Star Control is moving into SC2 direction as far as it can be seen from numerous blog posts for the new Free Stars game (official successor to SC series). And I'm not a fan of that.

One dream Star Control game for me would be to have an elaborated dynamic strategy game that involves base building and resource management much like in SC1, and a combat mode with roster of ships and the precision of SC3. All in the aesthetics of mid-late 90's art direction: dark and low-key color palette, skeumorphic UI that doesn't affraid of real world materials, no cartoony characters.
Lol, some things are too much to ask.

Easy to learn, hard to put down.

Warlords series offer a very simple and addictive gameplay loop. It's not as deep in all the possible strategies as Master of Magic. It's not as varied and balanced out as Heroes of M&M either. And yet, once you grasp the basics, clear a couple of maps, level up your heroes a bit and transfer them to next missions - then there's no stoping to that. The system used in Warlords is simple and elegant.

It's fun to conquer more and more castles on the map, upgrade them for defenses and more gold income, purchase units and put them onto production line, figure out the bottlenecks on the map and manage your war supplies accordingly (by using 'vectoring' across different cities). Occassionally you visit dungeons, caves, temples, etc. that give your heroes additional edge in the upcoming battles (like buffs, artifacts, resources or even new recruits).

The battles themselves do not waste your time, because they all happen in auto mode.
It may become a rejecting factor to some, but to me it effectively removes the friction of innumerous tactical battles you have to go through on each and every map.
By trivializing tactical aspect, the game becomes more of a strategy with no fat added. Now the focus is figuring out the strategic/choke points on the map, managing the supply chains of produced units, decide where to make the city which produce units and where to make them a fortified point that's hard to overthrow, and in general managing the logistics of your best units so that they can hold the front line and keep the enemy off your key cities.

Much like in MoM all units are traveling in stacks, each stack may have several combat bonuses applied to it. Once your units or heroes gather enough EXP points they are promoted to ranks and levels.
For regular non-hero units it means they can throw more dice while calculating each battle encounter, each rank acquired give them much more chances to win.
For hero units the more levels they gain the more valuable they become: they receive new abilities that affect the stack, as well as new spells to cast; eventually leading to a path for building an OP stack that could effortlessly iron out anything on the map.

The visuals and animation quality were outdated even by 1997-'98 standards when it was released, but the attractiveness of it is obviously deeply entrenched in nostalgia (of people who were playing PC games back at the time).
Music is also pure 90s style MIDI bliss. The Steam version is Darklords Rising expansion of the game and unfortunately doesn't include music from original WL3. You can add it manually if you want to change the musical accompaniment after a while. I wish it was simply a toggle ON/OFF in the options menu.

One big downside, if you compare WL3 to WL2, though, is that in WL2 you can control a variety of units across different factions/races. There were no restrictions about that. While in WL3 you have to stick to your faction creatures/units only, and then the mercenaries that might join you for some coins (the chance depends on your heroes 'reknown' stat).
IMO, it results in a handicapped variety. By the end of each campaign you can't help but feel that recruiting the same types of units over and over again is getting stale. I think the ability to recruit any type of unit in WL2 was really cool, you get to play with all the best unit types across all the factions available on the map. Wish it was the same in WL3.
I think it's one and only big fat minus to WL3, if you compare two games side by side.

In busy times, Warlords is probably one of the ultimate desktop games, one that never leaves HDD. This type of games is always kept by the side and played whenever there is spare time.
The entry barrier to pick it up & play several turns is low enough that you almost never feel like you need to be truly invested/dedicated to it or being overwhelmed by the complexity of its systems. Less is more.

There's some amazing, beautiful looking isometric tech behind the Brigador. Unfortunately it is marred by the half-baked game structure. It seems like the game progression was simply an afterthought for the devs.

On one hand you have a tight combat loop implemented, beautiful looking maps spruced up with colored lighting, and a very interesting set of different units and hardware at your disposal.
On the other hand, you see a bunch of unrelated missions, and mechs that you get to play simply by going through those missions one by one.
There's no sense of progression, no continuity of the world created. What is there now is more like a really impressive tech demo than a complete videogame that you can enjoy from start to finish.

Be it more like a simple ARPG of some sort, where you traverse across different interconnected maps in varied bioms (like jungle, lost ruins, wilderness, city, you name it), and where you can upgrade your mechs and their arsenal with some sort of earned upgrades - it would have been a completely different story.

It doesn't really need to be complex, or have a stats system, it can still be just an action game. It simply needs a coherent believable world to travel through and a progression system that lets the player acquire new tech.

A 'Breath of the Wild' moment for 'Boku no Natsuyasumi' games!

It's liberating when you're free to go anywhere, explore at your own pace, do your tasks as you see fit and in any order you like. Whether seeking new fishing spots or gathering collectibles on top of the roofs, it's all up to you. You can spend the whole in-game day doing these smaller things and no one would stop and handhold you to a next story related goal.
Climbing is also in. Anything you see can be climbed on.

In terms of freedom to explore the dev team was clearly inspired by BotW. In terms of visual style and overall level of polish it is closer to Wind Waker. The visuals are not as detailed as previous Natsuyasumi games, which had hand-drawn 2D backgrounds, but all the interactivity of the world and freedom of exploration easily makes up for it.

One of the main gameplay features, that separates Natsu-mon from the crowd, is that this is one those games where every day you spend in this world is tied to the in-game calendar. You are living your day from 7am to 10pm, and once it's over it's over. It was your day and that's how you decided to live it.
You have about 11 hours of daylight activity which can be spend on exploring the island to its fullest and then about 4 hours in the evening when you'll be restricted and won't be able to stray too far from the guest house where you pass a summer.

Some may not like that you have to keep in mind that your hours are finite, and there's only so much you can do during the day. But that's part of the game's design and the story, as you're spending a last month of summer in these places.
Think Pikmin where you have to take care of gathering fruits, battling enemies and discover new locations all in a timely manner. You have to plan and prioritize. It's not that stressful in Natsu-mon though, because it generally goes in a much more relaxed pace. But still, you have a clock ticking away with every route you take and every small activity that might get you sidetracked.

And pretty much every day is a busy day here: be it some events popping up at different locations that you can attend, trying to catch rare bugs/fish and donating to a museum, investigating a local Edo period castle, climbing on some high spots in town or taking a hiking route into the mountains. Every day is filled with something new and exciting for a 10 year old boy.

All in all, not only can I recommend Natsu-mon to every Boku no Natsuyasumi fan out there, but I can finally recommend it to pretty much anyone who just likes chill and cozy games with the emphasis on exploration and collecting. And surprisingly this game can even be thought provoking at some times.

Millennium Kitchen outdid themselves this time around, effectively pulling themselves out of this niche genre. They made something that still carries these inherently unique qualities of the series and at the same time appeals to a much broader audience this time.

In short: brilliant game. If you liked Breath of the Wild, Wind Waker, Pikmin, Psychonauts - get this game, it's worth it.

Disclaimer: this review is mostly about original Z Steel Soldiers and how remake is such a disservice to the original game. My playtime reflected here is for original Z:SS.

Z Steel Soldiers is cool and fast strategy game. Made by Bitmap Bros it came out in 2001, a true successor to the first Z. Easy to pick up & play. No meddling, no bull♥♥♥♥, no complex mechanics. Just pure fast decision making and resource management.

It's fun to combine different types of units trying to come up with clever and effective way to crack enemy defences. There are lots of new units this time around, including naval and air units.
It's good old fun in skirmish mode against AI with different flavours, and it gets even more unpredicatable and fun with live players.

What makes the single player campaign worth it, though, is that now Z have a storyline. Yes, why not! And it's actually a hilarious satire on regional war conflicts and TV media around it. It's served by a series of comics styled cutscenes between episodes and some additional audio briefings between the missions.
Don't miss out because you thought that Z doesn't really need a plot! Previously robots were fighting each other for no good reason! But it actually makes a lot of sense now when you follow this political and war strife between MegaCom Corporation (red) and TransGlobals (blue). Sounds somewhat familiar, right?

Last but not least, the art style. The main reason why I prefer the original over this... "updated" version. And also why I'm giving this remake a thumbs down review.
I just can't stand the terrible job they did with visuals in the new version. Every texture is covered with some sort of darkish/brownish filter. New models are ugly. You can't clearly see ♥♥♥♥ on a battlefield, it's a mess. Such an amateur job, I'm just buffled.

It's a crime doubly so, because original has very pleasing style with a simplistic 3D graphics, some added reflections and particle effects to spruce things up. I think it aged incredibly well thanks to outstanding work of artists and their art direction. And it's no surprise because Bitmap Bros are well regarded for their distinct visual style across all of their 2D games (Chaos Engine, Z1, etc.). This time it's fully in 3D and it looks great.

It's a pitty that both Z1 and Z2 were commercially re-released as such inferior and broken versions.
With Z1 being ported over and over again leading to a broken AI of units, which renders it absolutely unplayable even on a basic gameplay level.
And Z2 that was turned into completely unrecognizable visual mess.

So! Forget it. Take your original CDs out and have some real fun instead.