Recent reviews by SquareWheel

Extremely fun title. The free play mode drops you into a sandbox with all powers, and you can glide, sling, or sprint across a city while causing mayhem. It's the best kind of power fantasy, and one that wouldn't feel anywhere near as fulfilling outside of VR.

Adding DRM to a two year old game. What are they thinking?

Pros: Great movement, good gunplay, many secrets to find. Cons: A distinct lack of knee-high walls to sit behind while health regenerates. No wait that's another pro.

I have to admit I didn't care for the pancake version of this game. The story felt a little pretentious, and I suspect it was written to encourage promotion of the game in spammy ways (eg. repeatedly posting "SUPER. HOT." on message boards).

However, I'm loving this game in VR. The story has been toned down considerably, which I think is for the better, and the gameplay is far more vivid.

It's one thing to avoid moving your character with a keyboard and mouse. It's something else completely to avoid moving your body. Every time you look around to locate enemies or find potential weapons, you're losing a little bit of time. When you hear a sound behind you, you have to decide how to move to either avoid the attack, or take them out first. It adds a tension that simply didn't exist in the pancake version.

I gave the original game a hard time, so I felt obligated to share a more positive experience with this one. Superhot is good in VR.

Game raises some red flags. You're forced to agree to a privacy policy and terms and conditions before entering the menu. The provided links do not work, so you can't even read them before accepting.

Once you make it to the menu, you'll see the game sells in-game currency for real-world money. There's nothing about this listed in the game's description or screenshots, so you won't know until you download and boot the game.

A good story with innovative locomotion, yet held back by clunky controls and poor NPC variety. Was soured early on with some pay-to-win DLC, and is now after nearly a decade receiving a DRM launcher with a baked in storefront. Not only does this completely break Linux support, it's also causing crashing on many Windows installs. This is being billed as a "quality of life" update.

https://v1.steam.hlxgame.cc/games/BioShockInfinite/announcements/detail/3335500006865769805

I've always heard good things about Dark Messiah, but it's really surpassed my expectations.

The combat is fun and rewarding. Melee feels more meaty and methodical than even recent games. There's a lot of use of the environment, like cutting ropes to drop boxes on enemies, or kicking them into spikes. Pits and cliffsides are just another way of dealing with enemies. Spamming the left mouse button is rarely the best way to approach a fight, and I love how rewarding it is to find creative solutions to disposing of enemies.

The story is simple but enjoyable. It doesn't overstay its welcome. It's a tight linear experience rather than an expansive open-world, which I can appreciate once in a while. There's also many secrets to explore which are very rewarding.

It's easy to draw comparisons to Dishonored which Arkane went on to produce. While that game has a greater focus on stealth, allowing the player to approach a situation from many perspectives is a core feature of both games.

Dark Messiah is an older title now and doesn't run perfectly on Windows 10. For some users (including me) there's rare crashes. I applied an x64 patch as well as a few compatibility flags which helped stabilize it. My only complaint now is the lack of borderless fullscreen, but I can cope with that.

It's a fun game and well worth putting a few sessions into. You probably already have it in your Steam library, so give it a try some time!

I've had both high and low opinions of MHW over the years. I've written pages about the steps and missteps of the game in the past, but I'll skip all that here. What I want to say is that with this final major content update, Capcom have given the game a great sendoff.

Fatalis is an excellent boss battle. It feels like the perfect difficulty, without gimmicks or tricks. It can be fought solo or in a group. The custom arena makes for an interesting setting, and the tools are provided to the player to make the quest manageable. Capcom hit it out of the park with this one.

With this update, the much-maligned tenderize mechanic has had its effect duration doubled. While I think this should have been done sooner in Iceborne's life, they got it right eventually. The new Shaver jewel also makes tenderizing faster for light weapons, again letting you focus on the combat itself.

They rebalanced decoration drop rates, reducing the unrelenting grind. Essential jewels are now meldable, making certain classes like bow more viable without early luck.

Finally, mod support has been re-enabled without requiring workarounds. This survived a bugfix patch so I'm assuming this was a decision made and not an error. The game is better with mods so this is a welcome change.

My wishlist of game changes is still long, but Capcom have been taking more steps forward than back. With Iceborne's story complete, I'm now happy to recommend this game.

I would have gladly recommended Rocket League in the early days. It offered skillful gameplay, interesting modes, and a great soundtrack. I bought the game for myself and for others.

Since that time, things have regressed. Psyonix has compromised on their original great design in favour of dark patterns. They've now brought the game to a state where I can no longer recommend it.

The first missteps were small. Those who bought the soundtrack in good faith were disappointed when Psyonix split the OST into two, and then five. This was easy enough to justify; artists should be paid after all.

But it continued. Psyonix embraced gambling mechanics with a crate/key system. Seduce people by giving them "crates", then offer to sell them "keys". It's a pernicious system. People don't want to feel like they're missing out on value, even if it's completely artificial. By instilling a sense of loss - a powerful motivator - they're manipulating players into spending money they otherwise wouldn't.

Not satisfied with these exploitative mechanics, Psyonix then introduced a "Rocket Pass". Adding yet another income stream, this one was designed to have people constantly return to the game to bolster their numbers. In doing so they ruined the previous leveling system, and needed to add dozens of new ranks for the runaway levels of inflation.

Around this point they decided to drop Mac and SteamOS support, despite the core engine changes being minimal over the years.

The original clean visual design has since become loud and gaudy. Hideously animated textures now populate online matches. Goal explosions are often screeching, with each vying more strongly for attention than the last. When everything tries to stand out, nothing does.

Today Rocket League has fully embraced the free-to-play model it's been mimicking for so long. Now you're required to sign up through yet another online service just to get to the main menu. Not happy about it? Sorry, but you've lost access to the game you bought years ago.

Early owners get some digital trinkets to apologize for the $20 they spent. Some DLC cars are included, while others are simply removed indefinitely. Hope you didn't miss your chance to get some of the licensed vehicles.

This is the unfortunate reality of "games as a service". Something that was once a great value can change at a moment's notice. If there's any possibility of money on the table, then players will be squeezed for it and the game suffers as a result.

It's hard not to fall in love with this game. I understand that on its surface it may look like a high school drama-fest, but there is a deeply compelling story in here that you don't want to miss. The character development is the strongest I've seen in an adventure game., while the choices feel impactful in a way that even Telltale couldn't muster.

I need a whole paragraph to talk about the music. Both Life is Strange and LIS:Before the Storm are masterful in their use of music. The twee indie rock, punk metal, and tense ambiance always make the setting feel believable. The music choices are perfection and I wish they would release a separate soundtrack for this game.

To close, I can't recommend it enough. If you've ever felt a sense of loss after reading a book and having to say goodbye to its characters, that is what I felt when putting this game down. I can't think of a stronger recommendation.