Recent reviews by Alex Coldt

If I could refund this game I would. I've tried to give it a chance, but there's no point. It's fundamentally flawed. Every time you log in you have to re-download massive parts of the game, yes, entirely re-download it, all because someone decided the game would be too big on the hard drive otherwise. This results in abysmal loading times and semi regular crashes, and this far along there's still no option to just download and install the data to run it off my hard drive like a normal ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game. I had a 4tb NVME SSD set aside for FS 2024 so I could give it all the room in the world to spread its wings and fly, and then this. This is an abomination. This has been a colossal waste of money, on both mine and Microsoft's part.

It's difficult to even remember this game's disappointing launch. In the years since it's evolved in a true work of art. The melancholic malaise of Night City bleeds out of the screen. The world is stunningly believable and oh so poignant. The wealthy use the people as pawns in their games, bleed them dry with rampant consumerism, and subject their very bodies to planned obsolescence. You're at best a pawn in their games, and at worst a bug under their finely tailored shoes. What will you make of yourself in this capitalist hellscape? Will you burn out or fade away? Clock's ticking, choom.

It's good.

Oh, you like the new Excelsior? You want the new Excelsior? $100 please.

Cryptic thinks it's Chris Roberts now.

This game had microtransactions? I literally never noticed, XD

Gameplay's solid, progression is good. The story's kinda bland but serviceable. Seriously, devs listen to me, if I'm going to try and replace an "illegitimate" ruler I need to know their economic policy, and have a choice to not replace them. I still have no idea what the bread prices are like under Queen Regent Disa's rule, and that's important to know for my decision making.

I will also say, the sorcerer master quest is so absolutely ridiculous I completed the master quests for 4 other classes trying to finish it. This isn't a complaint. This is me saying that it's worth it, cause now I get to drop the sky on my enemies, and it's basically an I win button for everything but the biggest of the big bads. I cackle maniacally every time I used the spell. I'm calling it Meteor Storm. I don't care what the spell's name actually is.

I'm halfway through new game plus right now, I blasted through the story the first time around, so far not much has changed, but some has. I can get into places I definitely wouldn't have been able to the first time through.

Final verdict? A solid game, probably worth the money especially with new game+. The story's not great but the actually gameplay well makes up for that. 8/10

It's all fun and games until the Paladin hits your friend with your other friend, and then tosses a candelabra at your face hard enough to knock you into another dimension.

So, at first this game annoyed me. AC4 and AC4A were the last Armored Core games that I played, and this one feels a bit.. not like them. The Cores are slower to respond to my inputs, and I had to relearn all of my reflexes, and the difficult boss fight forced me to learn or broke me until I did. I haven't played a game that challenged me this much in a long, long time. Failure is the norm, and that makes the victories all the sweeter. Proof of my improvement came from New Game+ where bosses that taxed me and forced me to adjust and rebuild my core again and again until I found the right combo of parts to overpower them came to fall in a single attempt with my preferred more generalist build. This game has made me a better gamer.

The new expansion adds some wonderful customization, and with workshop mods I can basically make my colonists whatever I want. I can start off making a peaceful farm, and then eventually devolve into ending the world in a thermonuclear apocalypse! What's not to love?

So, a couple nights ago I was just doing a random ass side quest, a high level side quest that I was doing after I completed the main story, I could have complete it before the main story but I didn't cause I had to unlock it with some weird things. At the end of it, one of the characters drops one line, and gives my character a look particular look, the combination of which is INCREDIBLY EMOTIONALLY SIGNIFICANT and you'd only know that AFTER the main quest that I'd already beaten, and it hit me immediately and I started bawling. I'd tell you the significance of it, but I'd be spoiling an incredibly good plot. The writing in this game is simply astonishing. This random ass side quest made my cry.

The most relaxing gaming experience I've ever had.