Recent reviews by Grim

Hands down one of the best games ever made.

It proves that the heavy handed 'rule of cool' style of media from the 80's and 90's can and will thrive in the modern age if it is allowed to be put forward without moderation.

Weirdly captivating considering the visuals, and gets better and better with every patch. I'll be sad when my cycle of maxing achievements with every new update comes to an end. 10/10.

Starship Troopers, in one of its many iterations, appears in my top 10 lists for damn near everything. Books, Films, TTRPG, and Miniatures... I've been a huge fan of this universe for as long as I can remember.

All that's been missing for all of these years is a video game that can do the material justice.

I hesitate to say that this is in my top 10 RTS games of all time, that's something I'd have to spend some serious time thinking over... But it's pretty close. With continued updates, the implementation of a horde/skirmish mode, I could see it. Though, to be perfectly honest, the theme alone gets me hyped up far more than any other generic sci-fi title that may have flashier graphics, a cleaner UI, or tighter controls.

So far, I've done about 7 campaign missions and I've been very impressed by the variety, considering the whole 'desert planet' thing. The pacing has also been great, leading you into greater challenges with a wider variety of tools at your disposal. I'm a fan of the music and presentation, and for the cost, I think it's a very solid game overall. I think the animations could do with some cleaning up, but so far, that's my only real complaint.

So far I've encountered countless bugs, but none of the detrimental digital kind.

I can't wait to play more!

I'm new to Fromsoft games, aside from a very short dabble in DS1 a long time ago, and I'm having an excellent time with this. I'm really not the target audience as I generally dislike the constant-attempt loop that these titles offer, but so far, the varied game play and excellent design has gotten me right into it.

I've never found DS that appealing because of the aforementioned play style, but mainly, I always hated the way the combat looked. Light attack spam and rolling just always looked silly and incredibly boring to me. What sold me on trying this game was when I heard reviewers say that they naturally found themselves using all of their moveset, not only because it felt good but also because it was effective. They were right. The combat feels amazing.

I'm glad I went for it. So far it's a fantastic experience with 0 technical issues on my hardware.

I consider this review 'mixed' rather than a yes or no to recommend right now.

As of now, this game is extremely poorly optimised and is arguably not fit for release. With my processor (i5 12600k) I was instructed to create a script file so that the game would utilise my hardware correctly. Why this is a blog post and not a hotfix is beyond me.

That being said, this fix got rid of a lot of the issues I had with frame drop and stuttering. Before this, even cutscenes were unbearably stuttery, while gameplay was mostly fine. That being said, the performance is still inexcusably poor considering what hardware I have.

Update: Now playing the main campaign as Chaos Undivided and there are still severe frame drops on parts of the map which can make playing pretty frustrating at times.

I've had no issues with alt-tab or anything. Not experienced any major bugs, just a few minor annoyances. Such as: When you hover over new Daemon parts to equip, they give false stat penalties. Hovering over a piece you already have equipped will show you stat penalties you'd incur if you were to equip it. Frustrating and makes no sense, but overall minor.

Gameplay is good so far. I love the new diplomacy as it actually makes it worth considering. The prologue was great. New units and factions seem fun. I like the new feel and aesthetic for the most part, too... But there is plenty that will need to be adjusted over time. I have no idea why when you're in chaos realms the light effects bloom and make the game unreadable. Selecting your units makes their unit borders glow like a radioactive neon, and in some cases actually makes it impossible to see what you have selected without looking at the unit portrait (which also blooms and overexposes when selected).

The tutorials and call outs are also often VERY wrong, sometimes absolute lies. I imagine new players would be tearing their hair out with this. You get instructed to make certain moves in the prologue that will actually put you in a bad position. "They will come to us, let's fight defensively!" Followed by the enemy sitting and waiting for you, meaning your defensive formation you built pre-battle is now entirely wrong and will need to be adjusted during battle.

I can also see some issues with the map being a bit too small. It seems like almost 70-80%+ of battles are going to be settlement battles instead of over open ground like they used to be when fighting for un-walled settlements. It's okay if you like them, but it's a shame to see tight corridor fighting become the majority of battles compared to the vast expanses we saw in the previous titles. It can be frustrating to get a lot of cool cavalry in your roster only to see mostly tight corridors in settlements where they cannot shine and often go very underutilised.

I can see a lot of potential in this game, and from what I've seen, my experience could have been far worse. I remain optimistic and very much look forward to many updates and patches to come.

I didn't expect to like this, but the great reviews and the very cheap sale price made me go for it.

I guess it plays a bit like a Diablo style game, like others have said, especially when you're low level in those games. In that regard it reminds me of the first tiny bit of Path of Exile and Titan Quest. Mostly where you're too weak to tank and so instead of standing on the spot and getting beat up, you have to constantly move and dodge while also finding gaps to deal damage.

The combat and aesthetic actually reminds me more of Don't Starve than Diablo, as you spend basically ALL of that game playing in this way. The lack of a spammable heal function also reminds me of Don't Starve, it really makes you play more carefully instead of hoarding and casting constant heals like in some Diablo style games.

It has great music, graphics, aesthetic, and the game is pretty well fleshed out for such a cheap title. Lots of room to level up, do quests, and obtain gear.

Sure, it's pretty simple, but it's captivating and fun... I've absolutely paid more for worse games.

A win in my book.

Update:

After completing the game, I stand by the review. It can be a tad samey, but the introduction of new spells and mobs keeps it somewhat fresh. Not to mention, doing every side quest or cave is optional, so really, it's as samey as you want it to be.

The achievements are a slog. I won't be getting 100% in this game, simply because you have to complete it quite a lot of times with varying difficulty modifiers. That's my only real complaint considering this game was so cheap.

All in all, a worthy purchase.

I've been playing Worms games for years, all the way back to the original. With a good enough sale, I'll usually pick up some of the newer titles for a bit of nostalgia fuelled fun.

In this case, it was pretty much an immediate refund request. I run two monitors and this game made my 2nd monitor blank for some reason. When running Windowed mode (No borderless option, of course) the game was open as a program on my left monitor but projected onto the right. I could control neither...

After enough of a nightmare trying to return the game options to default, I searched for some solutions and found none.

Refunded. I'll stick to the classics.

I've been a fan of the Spyro series since it first came out and I have played the first and second game pretty much every year since they released. When I heard that there was a remaster incoming, I was torn. The games were some of my favourites, and I was concerned that a remaster would change them beyond recognition. Especially mechanically.

After playing through this collection, overall, I'm pretty happy with it. I'd say it comes highly recommended for both fans of the original and newcomers thanks to the game play alone.

However, there were some minor changes to feel and design that I felt a bit weird about. Perhaps it's not worth mentioning because I'm certain that even a player of the OG games wouldn't be familiar enough with them to notice. It's only because I've played them so much that I think I noticed the minor nuances.

I do wish that they'd kept it a bit more in line with the original aesthetically... Some of the redesigns I feel are a lot less charming than the originals were. That being said, I can't grouse about it too much because I still have access to the originals. Best to keep in mind that this is an addition to a collection and not a replacement.

The music is a weird one... I love the original OST's and regularly listen to them. Stewart Copeland is a genius. I find his music really fills you with the right sort of feel to match the designs of the level. His OST designs are akin to Jeremy Soule to me(Not quite, but relatively), mostly in their potency and how they add to the game. They really get my imagination fired up and compliment the world's they're part of. I was VERY happy that you can switch between the original and the remastered music, especially because I found the new music to be lacking.

I felt like I could tell that it wasn't Stewart that had remastered it. It was just different. Not at all like the remastered CnC music where we now get 2 excellent renditions, I feel like the OG in this case is just superior. I'm aware this is probably my bias due to my exposure and love for the original though.

Spyro 1 is a masterpiece of a game. It's a must for gamers of all stripes in my opinion. I'm not even much of a fan of this style of game, but this one is just absolutely killer. Spyro 2 is also great, but started down a path in the wrong direction in my opinion. This is where we started getting some frustrating challenges and weird characters in the mix. I much preferred the 'solo' nature of the original.

Spyro 3 is an abomination. I hate it. It has some cool ideas, but MAN, is it tedious. I just really don't enjoy it. Feels like a bad parody of Spyro 1 & 2. This is no fault of the remaster, the original was awful too...

All in all, a worthy collection and one I enjoyed a lot. It has a lot of content which means you'll absolutely get your money's worth.

I picked this up on a whim after seeking something similar to the original DOOM experience. Man, does it deliver. I'll admit to being quite put off when I first started playing. The starter area is miserable. The combat doesn't feel great with the starting weapons and everything looks absolutely awful. I even got that familiar pang of "god, why did I buy this."

Stick with it, I promise.

After the first level, things really started to pick up and I had an absolute blast. The level designs were awesome, very reminiscent of DOOM/Duke 3D. Complete with hidden areas and nonsensical layouts that provide brilliant kill-zones.

The weapons sound and feel great, and there's a great array of available choices. The inclusion of a level-up and upgrade system is very welcome, only giving more reason to explore beyond 'more ammo'. This game will have you trying to access every wall just like the classics did.


The bosses are great fun. The different environments are brilliantly implemented. Just when you get used to a biome, you're through it and thrust into another alien arena. Seeing the new enemy types is very exciting because you have to figure out what they do and how best to handle them. Keeps the gameplay very fresh throughout.

Even if this game wasn't as cheap as it was when on sale, massive recommend. Considering it's as cheap as it is fairly regularly? It's a must for any game library.

One of the unexpected classics of the Xbox 360. I replayed this remaster from beginning to end recently. I had been wanting to do it for a while, but the original release was unplayable for me. This edition fixed most things and allowed me to finally play it again, which was appreciated.

I did have one small issue with an entire quest area not appearing, but verifying game files fixed that.

The graphics are fairly good, the story was fine, the gameplay is excellent, and the music... Well, I actually don't recall any, so I guess that's that.

The game really shines concerning the destruction engine. Not only was it ahead of its time with it, it's not really come about again since. Sure, there has been some signs, some great ones like some Battlefield titles, but you'd think it'd become a staple feature. That's how good it is. I want it in every game, practically. Although, I suppose after some play time, it becomes evident why it isn't. Difficulty of creation aside, it creates one of the jankiest environments imaginable. If you've played this game and you haven't witnessed some impossible physics glitch, well, you're lying. It's a common sight for cars to decide they hate the bridge they're on and bounce around like a cat on a hot plate...

All in all the experience is a great one. I assure you that you'll have moments of frustration with random deaths and failed quests, but the overall experience generally makes up for it. I'd say stick with it, and for some of the more prominent problem areas you can actually find solutions on Google. There's a quest where you're supposed to save people, but one keeps dying randomly. The trick is to go there first, save them, and then do the rest. If you don't go there first, you're just giving the game more time for the RNG to decide to end your run. VERY annoying if unaware.

Highly recommend, it's a classic, and a masterclass in fun demolition in games. Plus, sledgehammering storm troopers into the cosmos is awesome.