Recent reviews by mallow

A solid space RPG, but nothing exceptional. I enjoyed the atmosphere and character of the game a lot, and think the franchise has a lot of potential. The scope of it left me wanting a little more, though.

+ Story
+ Characters
+ Attitude and Humor
+ Art Style and Looks

- Worlds are quite small
- Quite short. I expected there to be a second act, but the game just kinda ended.
- Somewhat buggy
- Combat wasn't my cup of tea

Regardless whether you've played the original Myst in the past, this version of it is fun. The are some issues, but overall I had a good, nostalgic experience.

Pros:
- Myst optimized for modern hardware. If you haven't played it before, you should. This game was revolutionary when it came out.
- The original videos were used (really couldn't have it any other way)
- You can still play the game as a point-and-click experience (albeit with a transition animation between frames)

Cons:
- I really dislike the day/night cycle and the fact it can't be disabled. It ruins the ambience for me, because a lot of scenes in the game were originally designed for a certain type of lighting. Having a flashlight just feels wrong. To be fair to this remaster, that was already an issue in the original realMyst.
- The controls feel clunky. I really wish we could've had a "true" point-and-click experience without slow transitions. I'm not a fan of playing in free-roam mode, but that's a personal preference, so YMMV.
- A UI choice in Rime (the bonus age added in the original realMyst) makes the only real puzzle a pain to solve. I don't understand why the controls were changed.

All in all, if you haven't played Myst before, this is the version I'd recommend. If you're a hardcore OG Myst fan, you might prefer Myst: ME in stead of realMyst, but the graphics are definitely a bit dated.

I had some previous (limited) experience playing guitar, but this game really makes me want to play regularly.

Positive Points:
+ Progressive learning, with automatic tailoring to your skill level
+ Clean and mostly intuitive interface
+ Large assorment of guitar tones that match the tones used in whatever song you're playing
+ Few to no latency issues after fiddling with the settings a bit
+ Large song library with a variety of genres (mostly varieties of rock, to everyone's big surprise)
+ Many additional songs available as DLC (small note: Considering that this game cost me a little more than the price of two albums and the featured artists have to be payed royalties, the 60 or so included songs more than justify the overall price in my opinion. The additional DLC gives the publisher incentive to add more content along the road, increasing the chances of more songs you like being added)
+ Lots of fun arcade-style guitar minigames, such as a game where playing the displayed chord fires your ship's weapons at the ship attacking you)
+ Built-in tuner that actually works and is fast to use
+ Loads and loads of rewarding fun. Play a game and acquire guitar skills at the same time

Negative points:
- Requires expensive proprietary cable (mine cost as much as the game itself)
- Volume control can be a bit off, sometime you can't hear yourself properly
- Any other sound device on the same bus will mess up your guitar signal to the point of it being unplayable. If you're using a USB sound card or headphones, you could very well have the same issues I had.
- Some fiddling around required to get the latency figured out

Although this game has its issues, most revolve around the hardware used. Once everything is set up properly, you shouldn't have any more issues. This is a very enjoyable game, and I can definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to pick up a bit of guitar skills and learn the riffs to some of your favorite songs. After around a month of playing (30h game time), I predict I won't hit the skill ceiling of this game for at least another 300-400 hours.

Don't buy this game. Games for Windows Live won't even let me start it, just says it needs to update and then crashes.

Update: I got past the GFWL hurdle, and this game is now quite fun. None of the DLC can be purchased though, which is a pity. There are a lot of nice rally cars in the game, but some of my all time favorites are locked away in the DLC. If you can get it to work, the game is fun, but GFWL is a big steaming heap of crap.