Recent reviews by Admiral Billy

I used to play the base game's multiplayer. A LOT. But that's mostly fizzled out due to netcode issues and imbalances.

However the single player still remains.

XCOM: EU/EW are both pretty good single player experiences, but pale to XCOM 2, as you might expect from a sequel. Plus both games have their fair share of issues that can be exploited either intentionally or accidentally, so mods are usually what make XCOM XCOM nowadays.

Long War is what most people play when they consider playing the first XCOM nowadays, but that also shares its own problems that have never been fixed due to the developers moving on to XCOM 2 and their own projects outside of XCOM.

Long War Rebalance on the other hand? One of the best strategy game experiences I've ever played, and undoubtably the best version of Xcom, including Long War 1/2, and Xcom 1/2 in their entirety.

The game is no longer about tip-toeing trying to not set off pods; LWR encourages big firefights by chain activating any alien that the aliens see when they activate and after each turn (which makes retreating aliens much more of a threat...), and also gives your troops much more resilience through health and DR so they can take a few hits in most cases. Plus shivs are much more useful early on because of their incredible tanking ability, so you always have a tool you can use to extend fights while minimizing danger to your own flesh and blood troops.

You are encouraged to play faster because the fatigue mechanic gets more severe the longer you're out on a mission, so again, no more tip-toeing from place to place for fear of activating. XCOM gets their own scatter too; any time you activate a pod, any unit with no action points gets a free movement action to reposition, again making it safer to play faster while encouraging the firefights.

The air game has been completely overhauled with the integration of another interceptor overhaul mod and some rebalances, making it much more interesting due to sending out multiple interceptors at the same time in different formations.

With LWR, an issue in both Long War and the original game is completely solved: the reverse difficulty curve. Now the game appropriately starts fairly easy (but still challenging) but actually gets more difficult as you go along, rather than the new tools you get making the game easier as it goes on.

And beyond all of this stuff, the developer of LWR likes to throw out updates every week or two, often with a complete overhaul of a previous mechanic and some significant balance changes. Long War Rebalance is more of its own mod now than just simply a rebalance like the name implies, and it's most certainly the biggest mod that Xcom has to offer.

If you don't own Xcom? Do yourself a favor and beat the base game once or twice then try out LWR. If you do? Go try out LWR immediately, you won't regret it one bit.

Original game is nostalgic, but heavily flawed by its age, bugs, and imbalances.

OpenXcom with rebalance/content mods, on the other hand, is one of the best strategy game experiences you can have, as long as you can overcome the graphics since there's not much you can do beyond applying a filter.

Protip: If you want to launch OpenXcom through steam, install OpenXcom into the steamapps/common/Xcom folder and rename the OXCExtended or OXC exe to "dosbox" just like what's originally there. Now whenever you start X-com through Steam, it'll launch OpenXcom instead! You can even delete a lot of the original junk that's in that folder afterwards, just keep the common, standard, TFTD, UFO, and user folders, as well as dosbox.exe (which is actually OpenXcom heh).

It's an idle game. If you don't like idle games, you won't like this one.

On the other hand, if you *do* like idle games, this is one of the finest ones out there.

Not only is it just generally in-depth with lots of min-max potential if that's your thing, but it's also just plain funny. I mean it's funny in an immature, toilet-humor-y type of way, but if you don't laugh at that type of humor every once in a while, I feel sorry for you.

Oh yeah, and it's free. You may as well give it a shot if you have any potential interest whatsoever.

I give the game a 4G/4G rating.

Is gud, I pinky promise. MANY numbers go up.

s o d a

Well I think it's about time to review this gem.

Terraria is one of the best value-per-dollar games you can buy on steam. Period. Obviously some of the free-to-play games can match that value (because you spend nothing) but the amount of content in this game is just ridiculous!

Ever since 1.0, there have been 3 absolutely game-changing updates, for completely free. The game was already worth it just at 1.0, apart from bugs, but then they litterally quadrupuled or quintupled every aspect of the game. 1.0 got the basics right; satisfying combat, fun exploration, lots of sandboxy things to do, but as I just said, it's sandboxy; there's a lack of an appropriate ending besides "get the most powerful stuff." 1.3 gave us the Moon Lord which is the equivilant of the Ender Dragon from Minecraft; it doesn't end your game after you defeat it but it's something tough even with the gear you get from him, so it feels like a climactic end.

You'll start off small with your copper shortsword, or maybe you build the wooden broadsword to replace it. After many hours you'll have slowly went through the arsenal of weapons and armor the game provides you, from bows to guns to MAGIC, and from simple "take less damage" armor to armor that has really unique effects such as allowing you to reflect damage and draw aggro from enemies for your friends.

On top of the weaponry you have all of the things to do with blockbuilding. There's so many pieces of furnature and different materials you can use to make something that looks amazing, and then you can customize it further by changing shapes with a hammer or recoloring blocks through the paint gun. On top of those cosmetic things you also have the (as of a recent update) fairly extensive wiring system that can allow you to create some pretty cool traps or other mechanisms such as spawning enemies or opening/closing doors.

And on top of THAT you have the massive variety of enemies to fight, some of which will completely obliterate you and you'll enjoy every minute of it. All of the bosses have their unique elements and you'll definitely be surprised the first time a signature move comes out (like the first time that the Corruption boss comes out of the ground).

AND ON TOP OF THAT you have a thriving modding community if the base game doesn't have enough content. Whether you just want more content or complete overhauls, the modding community's got you covered in user-friendly mod managers and easy mod installation.

So basically I'm saying the game's pretty good and you should buy it if you haven't already with how often it goes on 50% and 75% sales.

EDIT: Also you guys should totally nominate this game for the "Test of Time" reward because the game has always been great and it just keeps getting better and it's one of those games that pretty much every person on Steam has enjoyed at one point and returned to it at another when updates come out.

So I heard that you like loot and dungeon crawling. They've got loot and dungeon crawling.

I heard that you like turn-based combat. They've got turn-based combat.

I heard that you liked having the most intense story since every Final Fantasy game ever. They've got the most intense story since every Final fantasy game ever.

I heard you liked having amazing music while dungeon crawling and killing stuff. They have amazing music that plays while dungeon crawling and killing stuff.

I heard that you like graphics. They don't have those, get out now, ty.

You want crude humor like never seen before? You want Twisted Metal combined with Oregon Trail and some good ol' fashioned Rogue? You want voice acting that will fit in with the crude humor like a hot knife into butter?

Look no further, because if you do you'll get Lernie's attention and want to die.

Did I mention that all of this driving is in pursuit of a kick-ass concert? That's one badass way to live your life, even if it results in spontaneous death.

Great game so far, can't wait for more.

Mark Skid/10

Risk is the right word to describe this game. You'll either crash and burn, or get covered in rain. Both lead to death anyways, so yay!

One of my friends was being chased by a zombie hoard. I pinged his phone. He was eaten. 11/10

I had a plane that shot shotgun bursts slowly, with a shot-engine. I crashed into a warship with my flimsy plane. The warship exploded. 11/10