Recent reviews by EricNeoMatrix

Praise the Elden Ring!, and then Praise the Elden Ring!

The gameplay loop blows Halo 4 and 5 out of the water, easily the best Halo since Reach gameplay-wise, but it DESPERATELY needs performance-based XP and playlist customization.

This... is the way the wait ends.

It's pretty good, one of the better multiplayer games on Steam.

It took 13 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ years, and it certainly was worth the wait.

This is a surprisingly divisive game, but honestly I've been having a blast with it and consider it a pretty worthy followup to 2 and Pre-Sequel in almost every way. It's not perfect, but I thought I'd give a fair analysis to counter some of the more negative reviews which focus solely on the story and plot

Pros:
1. Gameplay is HUGELY improved from 2/Pre-Sequel with ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of QOL features (esp. fast travel), way more gun variety, and better enemy level scaling
2. Graphics are noticeably better than 2 or Pre-Sequel, though see Cons for more info
3. Character balance is better overall than the previous games as well, albeit not perfect
4. Has a very large amount of content for the current price

Cons:
1. Performance is kinda all over the place on max settings, although my hardware isn't the best (1080 w/ kraken g12 water cooling, i5 8600k) which may have something to do with it. It rarely dips during combat for me though
2. Story overall is hot garbage (except for the DLC which actually isn't too bad), but the story of the Borderlands series wasn't very good from the start anyway so YMMV on that one
3. Coop games are very laggy at times, though I mostly blame that on the Steam release crowd/coronavirus quarantine stressing the servers
4. YMMV again but I find the character variety and abilities not quite as interesting as Pre-Sequel (except for Moze's mech and Zane's action skills)

I mostly play Borderlands for the fun FPS combat, cool guns, and the coop, which is why it gets a thumbs up from me and I consider it a great Borderlands sequel thanks to the gameplay improvements. If you're really invested into the story or lore though, you're probably not gonna have a good time.

Who would win?

Mammoths and Greek gods
OR
One floppy boi

I came in pretty skeptical even though I got it on sale mostly because of the whole "genre throwback 90s shooter with pixel graphics that was in early access".

Boy do I regret thinking that. It's not just a 90s shooter throwback, it pretty much flat out IS a 90s shooter. I was genuinely blown away by the soundtrack, the utterly stellar scary atmosphere and weapon variety. Also, the level design is legitimately up there with John Romero's in terms of creativity and design. The gameplay speed is fluid and fun right out of the box. There's also plenty of replay value with level select and an Endless Mode.

I do have some minor subjective issues with it. Some of the weapons feel a little "weak" and lack oomph (not all of them by a long shot, but stuff like the Mortar and Crossbow stand out). I also didn't like how there was no creative BFG-esque super weapon to find (allegedly there was one planned, but it was cut). The enemy design is largely great, but some of them look a bit more goofy than scary IMO, which can break some of the atmosphere at times.

Overall it's a fantastic buy, especially if you pick it up on sale. Also there's apparently mod support coming soon for it too, so yeah.

Now I can see why the devs delayed it for almost half a year - It's already a marked improvement over the original that fixes a TON of its more egregious issues (and that's from someone who liked the first game a lot). Pretty similar to "TW Warhammer 2" compared "TW Warhammer 1" in that regard.

Graphics have been beefed up, the faction roster is finally complete, and the campaign mode isn't a total slog anymore. Pretty much the only issue I have with it is the UI changes, which I'm not a fan of. This is pretty much the definitive W40k space game, and I cannot wait to see what they'll add in later.

Also, FOR THE DARK GODS!

It's hard not to love a game where you can blanket whole planets with nuclear weapons, smash worlds together, and build actual Death Stars than can eradicate entire maps in minutes.