Steam Reviews

Gaming
415

i’m about a month behind on my youtube music subs, so I decided now might be a good time to catch up and update/write some reviews.

Update #1
I played Yoku’s Island Express on Xbox Game Pass (XGP). I’m using XGP kind of a demo of sorts. I haven’t finished the game, but plan on doing so after I get the game on Steam or GoG. However, I figured I would write a review.

Yoku's Island Express

Gameplay

This game features a mix of platforming and pinball. I knew this going into the game, but I was still amazed at just how well the game integrated the two and made it smooth. The focus is largely on the pinball mechanics and Yoku’s Island Express executes it extremely well. I’m not very adept at pinball, but I was able to pick it up rather easy. You are a happy little dung beetle with a… not really a dung ball but a round ball nevertheless, and you are the new postmaster. The whole postmaster thing is kinda on the back burner from what I’ve played of the game. Yoku’s Island Express uses fruit as a currency to purchase items/upgrades/or other things to help you progress. The amount of fruit you are able to get is pretty substantial given most bumpers drop fruit when you hit them and they will reset after some amount of time and/or going to a different part of the map

Controls

Yoku’s Island Express can be played with both keyboard and controller. The game will transition easy between the two. For the keyboard, it uses the arrow keys and the two shift keys (like pinball has done previously on the PC). For the Xbox controller, it uses the triggers and the left stick. I found that I preferred the controller. Each pinball…lever?.. has one of two colors, blue or yellow that are controlled by different keys or triggers. Some of the levers will have both colors meaning either can be used.

Visuals

As stated above, there are two colors blue and yellow. If you are colorblind, I believe they also offer a mode to help distinguish the two. One thing I noticed that I was rather surprised by is that the resolution change in the menu is instant. I didn’t realize it at first as I was expecting a confirmation box or flicker of the screen. Nope. Instant. Done. That being said, I believe it defaulted to 1080p, and I run 1440p, so I had to switch to “Desktop” resolution. As for in game visuals. They are pretty good. The colors are great, the animations are fluid, and the environment looks amazing.

Audio

I really enjoy the background music. I felt it fit the locations extremely well. However, some places, especially the starting area, you can tell the music is looping and it can get a little old. Mostly in the starting area that because you are spending a fair amount of time there learning the ropes.
As for sounds, I thought they were responsive to the task being performed. Additionally, there are minor background noises that add to the feel of the game. Your little dung beetle also makes noises as he/she gets flung all around the map. The languages used for races are different and fit characters well in my opinion.

Summary

Yoku’s Island Express surprised me with how well it executed its mechanics. I found that I preferred to use the controller over the keyboard, which is great that it has the functionality. I rather enjoyed the world and was generally impressed by the game’s visuals and audio it presented in the game. Overall, I would definitely recommend this game.

I’ll post more as I get them written… if I get them written.

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My review of Prey :slight_smile:
https://steamcommunity.com/id/DontBeSillyWrapYourWilly/recommended/480490/

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I love your Steam name haha

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My second most recent review was for The Longing. It’s a very unique game and i really enjoyed writing about it:

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Valkyria Chronicles

Valkyria Chronicles does some things new and does them pretty well. However, there are a few things that it does not do well that I feel that I cannot get past. I will detail this below if you wish to read further. In general, I think it has good potential and I think some people would really enjoy the game.

Gameplay

Valkyria Chronicles has an interesting approach to combat. It’s somewhat of a tactical third person shooter. You have a number of moves, your units can move a certain distance, and you physically aim to shoot. It is a different approach to gameplay that I think would work well…if it’s executed properly. Unfortunately, I feel this is where the game falls apart. The pathing has noticeable lags where the unit gets caught on seemingly nothing. I have a theory this relates to the direction you are aiming your camera. Also, I feel failing on mission 3 twice is a bit harsh. Your units don’t care if the unit they are aiming at is moving behind a tank or something, they will still shoot at it. And since your units need to reload, this creates problems when you are trying to stop them from destroying something. Additionally, although super tough units early on isn’t a new concept, but it creates problems when you are protecting something and they are able to easily mow you down as you try and reposition so you don’t get blown up by a tank. Cover is designated as only the sandbags, you can’t get into cover behind rocks, trucks, or anything not designated as “cover”. Hitting enemies depends on if your unit can actually see the enemy and the enemy isn’t behind an indestructible part of a wall extending beyond the wall. People would consider these things small potatoes. I get that. They just rub me the wrong way.

Controls

The controls appear designed for controller play instead of mouse and keyboard. The keybinds are, in my opinion, rather odd for the defaults. The good news is you can rebind them. However, I don’t know if they really felt that responsive. I think that has to do with the movement issues in the game.

Visuals

In mission visuals are pretty good. The information presented on the screen is generally helpful and relatively easy to understand, and they generally tell you about the UI and do a good job with it. However, I had issues with the cutscenes. Specifically, the cutscenes would lag and it is extremely noticeable. On initial startup, the game attempted to set the framerate to 37 FPS. What the hell kind of framerate is that? The only thing I can think of is that it is half my monitor’s refresh rate. The only other option is desktop refresh rate, so the options are extremely limited. I sincerely hope that the issue is because I have a 75hz panel instead of a more normal number. As for the art style, I think it’s pretty good as well. For the cutscenes they have opted for a drawn appearance. I think it fits well. In missions, they drop the drawn appearance for a more animated look. I think this approach is fine.

Sound

The voice acting was pretty decent for Valkyria Chronicles. Additionally, the music works well. I don’t really have a lot to say about the sound specifically, which is a good thing to be honest.

Story

Don’t worry, no spoilers. I only got to mission 3. The reason why I want to talk about this is that this is, combined with some of the gameplay stuff, what caused me to decide to quit the game (and spend about 3 minutes attempting to do so without Alt+F4). The story just…didn’t jive with me. I wasn’t really invested in the story. It also doesn’t help that some stuff isn’t easily skippable. I think this is particularly subjective, and I think other people would be more interested in this game’s story.

Summary

To be honest, I was kinda disappointed by this game. I wasn’t sure what to expect and I felt the game didn’t deliver for me. I thought the premise for the core gameplay mechanics fresh and interesting but, unfortunately, I found some potentially minor issues in the gameplay that just rubbed me the wrong way. The visuals didn’t seem to play well with my setup, but I’m not sure of the cause of the issues. But the deal breaker is that combined with the gameplay stuff, I just didn’t feel invested in the story. Ultimately, I think other people would enjoy this game, I just don’t know if it’s for me.

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A couple of thoughts I’d like to put forth on this. While its true that sandbags alone provides a place for your soldiers to crouch behind, line of sight is what matters about whether you can get hit or not. Using your own tank as cover for your infantry to pass through reaction fire is important, as is using buildings and walls on the battlefield. If the enemy doesn’t have line of sight on you they can’t shoot you, so there’s plenty of full cover available.

While I agree that there’s some times some strange level geometry you can be hindered by I never found myself stuck on anything. I’ve also found myself trying to fire around a corner or barrier that looked completely clear only for my soldier to just empty their clip into a mostly invisible wall. It’s a bit annoying but it is pretty consistent with it so it’s something you soon figure out how to deal with. The cross-hair also shows an indicator if you have a line of fire or not.

Many times I’ve felt the game could really do with an undo action, many tactics RPGs lets you feel out movement and reset if you don’t like the outcome. But then most such games gives you full information about the battlefield. Valkyria chronicles does not and getting to scout things out would change the games fundamentals. But it is rather annoying when you thought for sure you’d reach cover but fall a few steps short.

The story is very slow and I’m not too greatly a fan of the style in which it is delivered, though I feel the first game was worse in this regard. In between missions you just sit around and watch either an elaborate visual novel or a pretty stilted anime. The story really does pick up, though it never ceases to be stupid.

Not sure what your framerate issues is but it does sounds like Vsync failing to reach 75 and locking itself to half, as it’s supposed to. As is unfortunately the case with most Japanese console games they’re not always perfectly ported to PC so I can see why it might run into an issue with unexpected things like a 75Hz monitor. Try to maybe turn off vsync and set “target fps” to 90?

I have experienced no issues with lag or odd frame rate problems on my 60Hz monitor.

If you didn’t enjoy the game play as it stands at the 3rd mission then I don’t know if further missions will change your mind much. Though if you did enjoy the game play but got hung up on the many little oddities, I would perhaps recommend giving it another shot another day.

I like the game quite a lot.

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Well I tried out The Flame in the Flood. Unfortunately, it is a game that I find has some serious flaws that create unnecessary difficulty.

The Bad:

I wasn’t particularly enthused by the music and sound effects. They honestly have a “Mute Dog” option. I didn’t realize why until I was partway into the game and the dog was barking at literally nothing. Or dandelions that I already had 20 of and were, to my knowledge, mostly useless. I guess the AI didn’t realize I had already picked everything up. The Dog also, to my knowledge, only warns you of enemies… well kinda, usually it’s too late by the time he sounds off.

A lot of the things to craft require items that require items. You get more of them as you go along, but some require doing “quests” that usually can’t be completed until much further along because you don’t get enough the materials you need.

The Ugly:

Boat handling sucks bad. I understand the idea is to have you progress forward, but if you accidentally leave an island, well fuck you, you can’t get back because you push off forward.

Predators. You know, I am okay with there being a boar here, a wolf there that you have to deal with. Not with one on every. single. fricking. island. past area 1. I ran into 3 wolves consecutively. Unless you know a wolf is there, you’re basically screwed because scaring them off doesn’t give yourself enough time to set up a trap. I shouldn’t need to set up a trap on every island. Oh yeah, and you can’t set up a trap near a fire, which is ONLY place that you would have enough time to set anything up after the predator (specifically a wolf) is alerted because it keeps it at bay.

Cure all or not at all. You can get multiple wounds per “battle”. But you can only cure all of at least the same wound at once, too bad if you have enough supplies for only one.

.

Needless to say it pissed me off and can go down into fuck you to hell land.

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Yeah i got bored with it after a few hours as well. Couldnt put my finger on what exactly didint work for me but as a whole game is not very enjoyable.

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I’m just glad that I was able to test it on XGP so I didn’t really spend any money on it.

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Few thoughts about Deep Sky Derelicts.

https://steamcommunity.com/id/DontBeSillyWrapYourWilly/recommended/698640/

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Having an appropriately balanced game is probably the difficulty that a lot of such games run into. I have not personally spent any time on it, because typically I tend to avoid turn-based games nowadays.

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That’s the thing here, i dont. I really like both turnbased combat and deck building aspects and this one ha s both of these things though ultimately cant force myself to like it much. :frowning: And that makes me a sad sloth.

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hugs :heart:

Doth suck when you feel like something will be yay! and then it’s nay. >> Sorry, mein sloth.

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Few words about Project Warlock , game i’ve recently finished and really enjoyed.

https://steamcommunity.com/id/DontBeSillyWrapYourWilly/recommended/893680/

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I have been pretty busy lately, but took a little bit of a break, ate a snack and posted a review and am now heading back into work:

I have reviewed a few others lately too, I will just post a few games that I thought were really quite excellent games for people to try out:

If everything goes according to plan, my next review will be on this funky little exploration/platforming game:

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@YQMaoski Mao, exactly wut was in that snack? peers I needs me some of that same energy.

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I find that a good decadent peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat bread does wonders for me. The sugars from the fruit jelly/preserves coming through for an immediate supply of energy, and then the carbs from the bread slowly kicking in after, with the final push coming from the peanut butter. I always always always use a nice thick layer of PB and J on the inside… So easy to make, delicious, and keeps me going, and going, and going… :smiley:

Edit: (I actually like the King’s Singers acapella cover better than the original)

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I knew we were friends for a reason. - bread exists for peanut butter and jam to maximize their potential for deliciousness and general bounce bounce mood.

Good acapella! squee Trains. :heart:

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I wrote a review for Hellblade : Senua’s Sacrifice which is not going to win me any new friends i bet.

https://steamcommunity.com/id/DontBeSillyWrapYourWilly/recommended/414340/

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Nice review. Personally I liked the combat but didn’t bother to finish the game because of the puzzles.

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