Recent reviews by Geese

Brawlhalla (for PC) Review

Some presentation aside, Brawlhalla is an entertaining fighter with fun, punchy combat that just about manages to capture that “one more match” feeling. While it isn't quite as tightly designed as the seminal Super Smash Bros., the large roster, wide range of modes, and a reasonable level of depth help it achieve a similar balance of accessibility and challenge - you can play as casually or as competitively as you like. With pay-to-win nowhere to be seen and exceedingly good online play, this is one free-to-play title that's well worth a try. Brawlhalla may lack the Super Smash Bros. franchise's polish, name recognition, and generous content offerings, but it’s still a worthwhile entry in the platform fighting genre that you can enjoy for free.

And it's better with friends

Portal Review

For all its heady delights, Portal is a short-lived feast and can be reasonably completed in as little as five hours. To help draw things out a bit, Valve has included six advanced chambers, all of which are existing test chambers tweaked to present a tougher challenge. You can also take on challenge maps and attempt to complete the test chambers with the least number of portals, the least steps, or in the least time. Ever since it was originally released more than six months ago, there has been ample time for the online community to produce a bevy of maps that, though varying in quality, are freely available for any test-chamber-hungry portaler to download. Its Orange Box roots mean that Portal also comes equipped with in-game achievements that can serve to extend its longevity. Nevertheless, the odds are that it'll be over a bit too quickly for your liking.

If portal technology is the meat of the game, then GLaDOS is the perfectly paired wine. The omnipresent voice that guides you through the test chambers, GLaDOS initially reveals a dry, almost unintentional sense of humor in the first few test chambers. As you progress, her humor begins to show signs of self-awareness, eventually blossoming into something too hilarious and too well-deployed to spoil here. Suffice it to say, it is one of the chief pleasures of Portal and features some of the best writing in video game history.

Short as it may be, Portal is a fantastic game that should be played by anyone interested in unique, well-crafted gameplay and a witty, whip-smart script. The stand-alone retail release comes with the same price point as the downloadable Steam release, which is about the cost of a night out at the movies. Portal may not last much longer than some feature films, but pound for pound it remains one of the best games on store shelves. This game is still alive!

Plants vs. Zombies: GOTY Edition Review

PopCap in a distribution deal covering the UK, many of PopCap’s games are getting a re-print in a new edition. Plants vs. Zombies has been given such a makeover with game of the year edition discs now circling around your favourite retailers. With the game now being old, is it still relevant and worth your cash?

Some games just seem like they’re going to tickle your fancy before you’ve even played them. PVZ is one such game, with a title that instantly grants you insight into its jovial and humorously ludicrous aspects. The main premise involves you planting various foliage on your front lawn to push back the zombie horde and prevent them from invading your house. You need to utilize various plants that each posses unique abilities ranging from offensive firepower, defensive walls and plants that give you sun energy that is require to plant even more greenery. The Zombies too come in different varieties that give them different abilities, strengths and weaknesses. With only a limited amount of plant types you can take with you to each stage and a vast amount of positions you can place them on your lawn, the strategy comes thick and fast. Overall game still alive

Thanks my homie to gift me masterpiece

ELDEN RING REVIEW

Elden Ring is a masterpiece, having mastered the art of showing without telling. As a result, it is very different from other open-world games I have played such as Skyrim and Far Cry which are story and questline driven. From the get-go, Elden Ring doesn't impose any particular playstyle or route on you. You are completely free to do what you want to from the very start of the game. You can finish the main storyline and beat the final boss or you can explore the entire map without ever seeing the main bosses, it truly is up to you with no outside influence. It is truly refreshing to feel this sense of freedom in choice and exploration in any open world game.

Elden Ring has also mastered the art of sublety. For example, for a game like Skyrim, there are various elements such as the character dialogues, leveling system, various landmarks that I could clearly point to in contributing to the game's success. However, this is not the same with Elden Ring. It's hard to place my finger on one specific thing that makes the game so enjoyable. Many times I've gone in to play this game for half an hour, only to become immersed, losing track of time and playing for hours on end. I belive that it's each of the game's features: its combat system, transportation, landscape, lore, storytelling, etc. that complement each other in a way that none of them are overbearing and at the same time, come together in such a fluid manner that I as the player can't notice it and am drawn into a level of immersion that I haven't felt from any game before.

Other, more objective factors of Elden Ring are equally as impressive--it's hard to believe this is a $60 game. The map is massive, far bigger than I could've ever imagined, with more content packed into it than any other world game I've played before. I have not had a single moment where I've felt the map felt desolate or empty, there was always something to see and explore. The combat system is rich, balanced, and rewards each playstyle. The difficulty of the game is refreshing and I feel that I'm being challenged to improve and innovate as I play the game instead of relying on old hacks. The subtle details, such as changes in behavior over time of day or cross-NPC interactions add a layer of immersion that makes the world feel alive. It is also a very polished product: while games today are released with game-breaking bugs and issues, I haven't encountered a single bug in Elden Ring even given its massive map aside from minor visual glitches. It is truly astounding how much that adds to the immersion of the game.

Overall, I feel that Elden Ring is an amazing game. While it isn't perfect by any means, in fact, the imperfections of the game give me something to look forward to for what will be the sequel to this, it will be hard to find a game from the last decade that is as immersive as this. I am truly impressed by From Software's work and I look forward to their next game. Elden Ring will inspire the next generation's set of games and I hope to see what comes from this. I've thoroughly enjoyed playing Elden Ring and I hope to see you too enjoy it.

Neon Abyss Review

Basically the level progression of a roguelite, with mostly passive pickups (most weapons have one active ability where you pay something and get something in return). Killing bosses lets you upgrade a tree to get unlocks for future runs (this includes items, tinted rocks, secret rooms, characters).

I love the gunplay, most weapons feel amazing, even the not so good ones, and I like that it doesn't have any ammo system.

Jumping feels a little stiff, but I'm sure that just takes getting used to.

Enemies have good patterns and feel challenging enough, bosses look and feel amazing to beat. If anything it just feels like there isn't that much diversity (I think there are different enemies in later floors, but still).

After 1h of time played (3 runs I think), the best recommendation I can give is buy it if you're into roguelites, isaac, gungeon, etc, or wait for a good sale if you're not into these games. I don't see it dethroning either Isaac or Gungeon, but it's been fun nonetheless and I actually want to try out the other characters and complete my upgrade tree.

Wallpaper Engine review

Wallpaper Engine is an early access application on Steam that enables you to create, display, and share customer static and animated wallpapers.

I stumbled upon Wallpaper Engine while browsing the top sellers on Steam. The app was listed there next to games, and that got me interested as it takes quite a bit of sales to be featured there.

First of all, Wallpaper Engine is not free. It is available for $3.99 as an early access title. The application works really well for early access software, and all core functionality is already there.

The app ships with wallpapers, and support for the Steam workshop. There you find thousands of wallpapers created by users of the app. The majority of those are free, while some are available for a price.

And Overall the software is largely considered the best wallpaper program you can buy and here is why: You can bring your desktop wallpapers alive with real-time graphics, videos, applications, or websites. Wallpaper Engine lets you use animated screensavers while you are away from your computer.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Review

Death is a great teacher. Failure in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is, as it always has been for this series, the greatest way to learn where you should have gone, what you shouldn't have done, and how you could have done better. Counter-Strike players spend a lot of time learning -- consequently, they are always getting better.

Growth is an important factor in Global Offensive, especially if you're coming into Counter-Strike fresh or after a sabbatical. This is an extremely hardcore, skill-based first-person shooter, and it forces you to think differently than other modern shooters. If you’re a Call of Duty player, you’re going to need to change your play style to succeed here. Counter-Strike also tries developing into something new here as well, despite doing little to push itself beyond what it’s always done best.

For the uninitiated, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a small-scale, team-based first-person shooter with permanent death. When a counter-terrorist kills a terrorist planting explosives in a classic Defusal match, or a CT escort swallows a sniper round in Hostage Rescue, the victim is dead for good and doesn't respawn until the next round. As such, players on both sides must exercise skill and care. The bomb objective, meanwhile, gives everyone a purpose. Of course matches end when everyone on a team is dead, but a clever and coordinated terrorist team will give the CTs the slip, plant their bomb, and protect the bomb site. Between rounds, everyone spends earned cash on better gear and guns, and the cycle continues.

Pieces of the Counter-Strike formula are dated at this point, but the superb heart and soul of Global Offensive is timeless. Teams are small, guns are lethal, and rounds are short. There's an addictive just-one-more-round quality to it, because there's a constant desire to do better than last time, to earn a satisfying kill, or to win in a new way. Call of Duty and Battlefield vets will wonder why they can't sprint to escape enemy fire or look down the iron sights to improve aim; Counter-Strike players will feel like they walked into their redecorated home. Certain map redesigns will catch hardcore fans off guard, but the changes are for the best -- the underpass choke point in de_dust, for instance, has a new escape route.

Even in the face of genre evolution, Global Offensive doesn’t care to adapt. CSGO is so dedicated to Counter-Strike's aging ideals despite market and trend changes that it brute-forces its way to success. Part of what makes it such an engaging competitive game is that killing in Global Offensive requires a wholly different skill set than other shooters. Everyone is limited to what they have and can see, with little room for character modification or on-the-fly advantages. Running and gunning is a useless play style, even if you've bought a helmet and kevlar that round, to the point that someone standing still is more likely to score the kill. Walking, crouching, or standing are your best bets to reduce the inaccurate spray of machine-gun fire.

Hades Review

The first time I beat the final boss in Hades, I felt an enormous sense of relief. I'd been fighting to see this ending for hours (months, technically, if you count my time in early access), and in roguelikes, it feels better than usual to see an ending. But while I was definitely a little too proud of putting together a set of abilities and perks that shredded the boss after they wrecked me just a few tries ago, that wasn't why I felt tears welling up. I'd gotten so caught up in the story of my character, Zagreus, and the heroes, villains, and gods that had helped him get here that I was elated to have finally gotten him to the end of his journey. What sets Hades apart isn't just that it's a great roguelike with the kind of repeatable depth that makes it engrossing to play for hours, but also how it uses its structure to tell an ongoing story about family, secrets, and resolution.

That Hades' narrative is so entwined with its combat is nothing new for the developers at Supergiant Games, who've established themselves as masters of putting your actions in sync with the stories they tell. In a roguelike such as Hades, it means playing as Zagreus, a god of rebirth. Tired of living under his father Hades' thumb and seeking answers about where he comes from, he sets out to escape to the world of the living, battling various undead monsters, living creatures, and mythological figures on his way out.

Your godliness justifies the endless runs through the depths of the underworld, since dying and coming back to life is par for the course in Greek myth. One of the best parts of Hades, in fact, is returning to the House of Hades time and again after you die. It's not just a pit stop on the way to the next run--it's the centerpiece Hades hinges on. There, figures such as Achilles, Hypnos, and Nyx console you after your deaths, praise you for making progress, and confide in you about one another. You chat with them, undertake side quests, and exchange gifts to deepen your relationships. Eventually, they become vital allies on your quest, even if they're not in the thick of combat with you.

These interactions, as much as the precise combat, are the reason I kept coming back to Hades; while I was skeptical about how the roguelike structure would meld with Supergiant Games' focus on characters and stories, they've written and voiced reams of dialogue and lore, and almost all of it is delivered with vigor and is intriguing enough to pore over between your treks through hell.

When you finally decide to take another stab at escaping, runs are broken up into a few different worlds, each made up of several randomly ordered chambers. Hades' combat builds on Bastion's tight, isometric fights and infuses them with the endlessly repeatable appeal of random buffs, modifiers, random enemy layouts, currencies, and progression that slowly turn the seemingly impossible task of reaching the surface into something manageable.

Combat is quick and reactive, letting you chain attacks into dashes, dashes into special moves, and so on as you learn how to whittle enemy shields, avoid traps, and work over bosses. Each of the six weapons you can equip pushes you to play differently, and weapon-specific modifiers nudge you towards using different parts of your toolset; you might be comfortable poking enemies from afar with the Varatha spear, for example, but with a boon from Daedalus that triples the damage of your dash attack, you're going to want to close the distance and juke constantly. That, and how buffs interact in myriad surprising and effective ways, means I'm still not tired of making these runs, dozens of hours later. In more crowded fights, the Switch's smaller screen makes text and combat readability an issue, as these chambers are large enough to lose details (and runs). Other than that, though, combat is an outstanding mix of random variables and consistent action.

The Binding of Isaac Review

It's creepy, blasphemous, and obsessed with poo. Despite all that, good luck walking away from The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. This remake of the scatological 2012 original from developer Edmund McMillen (best known for Super Meat Boy) doubles down on the dementia with even more surreal power-ups and bizarre enemies. I still don't know exactly what I've been playing for the last six or seven hours non-stop, but I know that I liked it and that I want to go back for more.

Actually, Rebirth is easy to categorize on the surface. The game is a basic roguelike, with tips of the hat to the frenzied combat in Robotron. The feel is decidedly old-school in that the top-down maps are randomly generated and you have to plow through the entire game in one sitting (so don't die, or you're going right back to the beginning). If you've ever played a classic arcade game, you know the drill. You run around constantly, shoot everything that moves, and grab power-ups. Repeat through each level until you kill the end boss or die and start all over again a little bit older and little bit wiser.

But that stock description sells the game short. From here, things get strange. Really strange. Instead of the usual warrior elf or whatever, you play a little boy named Isaac. Sound kind of sweet? It isn't. Isaac is on the run from his mother, who has some kind of prophecy/mental meltdown in the stick-figure opening cinematic and tries to kill her son on the orders of God. Apparently, taking away the kid's Game Boy and toys isn't enough for old Jehovah, who insists on mom doing the Abraham thing and sacrificing her son to prove her love. Just before mom bursts into Isaac's bedroom with a butcher knife, though, he escapes down a hatchway into a creepy basement, and the game is on.

So if you've spent time in a cult or have any sort of mother issues, you might want to close your eyes during the intro video. And maybe later on, too. Finishing each level earns the questionable reward of a new cinematic, which always features some horrific nightmare like other kids pooping on Isaac, his mother constantly kicking him away, him falling to his death, and someone handing him a gift box filled with (what else?) poop. The game also continually ventures back into strange Christian references. Isaac seems pulled between good and evil. At times, the game veers toward the Satanic, with various demonic options and power-ups. At other times, it shows an internal struggle as Isaac takes on various doppelganger foes representing deadly sins like sloth and envy. The game always goes out of its way to be unique and maybe make you think that it has a deeper message, even when it almost certainly doesn't.

MudRunner Review

Games are great because they let you do anything or be anyone. You can be Aloy, an adventurous warrior adept at killing robotic animals in a far-flung future. You can explore entire planets and travel through a vast galaxy in No Man’s Sky. In Everything, you can be, well, anything. In Spintires: Mudrunner, your goal is to move logs around a particularly muddy patch of land.

That’s perhaps a little unfair of us, though. This is an impressive off-road simulation title that, while on the surface may appear dull as dishwater, is surprisingly compelling. As we said, the basic objective in the main game is to traverse treacherous terrain in heavy duty vehicles, delivering timber from A to B. It sounds like a simple enough task, but there are a number of factors working against you.

One of them is the brilliant physics simulation at the heart of Mudrunner. The trucks are slow, heavy things with a convincing weight and realistic suspension that reacts as you’d expect to the conditions at hand. Equally, the mud and water react dynamically to your vehicle as you drive. Deep tracks are carved in the muck as you push through, your tires clogging with earth and slipping in the increasingly poor conditions. Water displaces realistically and washes the mud from your wheels. Rivers have currents that can force you off course or tip you over if you’re not careful.