Recent reviews by Jorsh

I played this game at launch and bounced off pretty hard. And I've come back now after the Lane update to try again, and after 20 hours, I can't say they've fixed the problems. I just spent a couple of hours trying mods to manage the quest log and quest firing experience, limit fast travel and force engagement with the cruising system, but after several hours of work, I find myself with no more reason to engage with this game then I had two years ago.

The game is just structurally and narratively a mess. Is there exploration? Sort of, but because very place you go is gated behind a loading screen or fast travel, it just feels disconnected. There's not the same since of place or exploration that Oblivion or Skyrim had, and the pacing of quests is absurd. Within the first hour of this game you will have so many quests dumped on you, with no context and no sense of why anything is worth doing, the sense of discovering my character's role in the world through gameplay is non-existent.

The shame is this is the best movement and combat have felt in a Bethesda game. The gunplay is great, and if the AI weren't so sorry it would be quite engaging just to go gunslinging here. After forty plus hours in two attempts, I'm giving up. Sorry Starfield.

It was so good while it lasted. I want 100 more locations to clean up. Crazy powerful leaf blowers, leaf vacuums, leaf hurricanes. If they made a $60 game that was just this for 50 hours like Power Wash Simulator I'm there in a heartbeat.

The leaf physics for blowing are spot on. I just need a little bit more crunchy leaf noises and its perfect.

I enjoyed this game for the first 8 or so hours I played of it. It is telling a neat little story and has some interesting exploration elements, but eventually the pace became too slow, and the actions required of you to advance the story became too repetitive. Go to place A, gather X, bring X to person Y, make Z, take Z back to A and solve simple puzzle, then enjoy this simply written graphic novel.

For me there was never enough decision space opened up in the game. If there was a choice it was, do I advanced the main quest, or a villager/side quest, but the things you're doing are the same in either case. Fun enough but not enough depth or complexity to keep the game interesting for the lengths of the entire story (which from what I can tell might be 15-20 hours based on the pace so far).

I would still recommend it to cozy game fans, but it did not scratch the farming sim itch I had when I picked it up.

I enjoyed this experience. The honing of the single skill you learn felt impossible at first, but by the time I reached the end I walked up and nailed the final shot with no doubt at all. The accepting/granting of wishes or not had me genuinely reflecting on what we should and should not impose on others when we seek to change the world for ourselves, and came to the realization that its explicit in my beliefs that pain and suffering cannot be eradicated without removing purpose. For its size, length and cost it really punched above its weight, I'm glad I played it.

Its the greatest game of all time.

Is it a TV show with a really simple game masquerading as a resurrected Tell Tale adventure? Yes.

Did I laugh out loud at least once in every episode, cry at least once, become aroused and added the soundtrack to my rotation, also yes.

This game was fantastic and I only wish there was more of it.

Finally I'm free. I got the demo, and even though the first came became an unholy obsession for me when I found it two years ago, against my better judgement I let myself get pulled into this one. It totally derailed every other game I was playing. Hades who? Yotei? Hardly knowtei. I was compelled to play this until I finished. I play solo, and it took about 35 hours to do all the missions. I listened to every podcast in my backlog, two audio books and a Chicago Bears football game while working on it. And now its over and I am free! At least until the next DLC pulls me back in.

If you like this sort of game, then this is a perfect encapsulation of it. It ran great on my steam deck and PC, plays great with mouse+keyboard and with a controller. 10/10, glad its over.

I've played 200 hours of this game and bought all the DLCs and I don't think I have even begun to understand what it is, other than great.

The golf is great. The progression isn't too bad, they could be less stingy with the currency. But I'm halfway through the first season and 20 hours in and I've moved my pro from 65 rating to 82 and feel like I'm progressing regularly.

Its exactly scratching the itch I wanted it to.

It's not good... yet. I have played one very slow game with Augustus over the course of 12 hours or so and it was fine. Lots of new and interesting things to do, but the Modern Age isn't done cooking, and the Exploration Age goes on for way to long. It's clear there will be another age added at some point, as you get legacy points to carry over from modern even though the game is ending.

As long as that content comes quickly I'll forgive the lackluster ending of the first campaign after a full day of play, building a cultural wonder in 7 turns, watching the cutscene for the wonder, then a still painting. No score comparison, no replay, just gg and back to the menu.

Edit after another two games. It is good, but still needs a lot of work. Don't rush to jump in until the next DLCs are out.