Recent reviews by Eld

Absolutely incredible depth. Very easy to learn yet infinite complexities when you go looking for them. Games are fast, the player base is polite, and matchmaking seems very good bar the occasional smurf.

I came at this with extreme scepticism as someone who doesn't like auto battlers in general, and it turned me into an immediate convert. I love how even at the highest MMRs people seem to have entirely different playstyles and ways of thinking about the game, which makes matches a delight to watch no matter the level. Cannot recommend it enough honestly, a phenomenal game.

Absolutely delightful game, despite being early in its development. There's a little jank, a couple of issues and I wish the act of flying the ships was a little more involved and interesting (in line with say, sea of thieves who despite other flaws has really really nailed the act of co-op sailing) but oh boy is it a great time.

Exploring, building and flying around with a friend is a rare treat and the grappling hook is best in class, pratfalls included. Improved on its predecessor in every way.

A game that just does so many things right - at heart it is simple. It does not propose to break new ground or wow you with the most insane tech or graphics - instead every single decision and direction seems to have been done solely in the service of "What's the most fun" or "What'll make us laugh when we play".

So much of it comes down to clever decisions making simple actions 'juicy'. Whether it's a breeze on the spaceship so your cloak can billow dramatically, to the in game tooltips, the fantastic sfx design and the musical stingers whenever you get fired out of your spaceship to go shoot bugs. The silly, over-the-top voicelines when you keep firing your weapon.

Look, TL;DR - it's a really good game that finally dares to just be 'a game' and 'be fun'.
Small dev-team too, deserves the support.

Book of Travels is an entirely unique experience, and one I didn't know I needed until I started wandering the beautiful, serene and strange landscapes of the Braided Shore with a friend, exploring caverns, waiting for trains, getting wet in the rain and drying our clothes over a campfire and a cup of tea at night.

It is strange, it is quiet, it is beautiful and captivating and I encourage anyone who's ever daydreamed of being in a ghibli movie, or who always loved the journeying parts of the lord of the rings the most, to give this a try. Whether you love it or hate it I think the experience will stick with you for a long time.

I applaud the developers for making something this special. It is special to me too.

I really want to recommend this game, cause I enjoy a lot of it and they are clearly working hard to fix many of the issues with game design and UX. However, I've had so many technical issues from alpha, through beta, and persistent through a year of release. If you have a specific type of processor you're just boned I guess. The game uses the lowest detail level/LOD model always and never streams in the proper asset - leading to extreme graphical glitches, walls with holes in them, weapons and enemies that look like mishappen cubes, and missing textures.

Changing the graphics setting, even just OPENING the menu leads to a loss of 2-3 FPS, these lost fps stack and remain lost until a full reboot. Just opening and closing the menu repeatedly can drop you to 1-2 fps and eventually crash the game. Don't have time to do that? Just change the resolution and back again and it will go directly to 0 fps or crash.

I've started 6 separate bug reports for these issues, and left comments on many others who have suffered the same. Most have been "acknowledged", one is one of the most viewed and reported issues on the forum - for 12 months these issues have been present, 100% reproducible and yet untouched.

I waited for a full year after release to write this review and I'll gladly rescind it if things change, but without a single word, and ZERO improvement to such a critical issue after a full year, I must protest.

It's been a decade, but now it is here - and it is everything it should be.
Played nine hours straight upon release, lost five forts in that time.
My new fort is called The Strategy of Goats and it thrives.

10/10 GOAT.

I wanted to love this so bad, the original Mafia was one of my favourite games and blew me away with its rich story, open world and most of all the IMMERSION. You could visit shops and cafés, drive taxis, take the bus or ride the trams and trains around the city, feel like a part of bustlin' 1930's america. Couple all this with an incredible soundtrack and it was heaven. It's a Lost heaven.

Just about everything I listed above, save for the story, is gone.
There is NO public transportation in the game, no enterable buildings or interactive gas stations and weapon shops. Almost all side missions and even TAXI DRIVING is removed from the game. The soundtrack is gone, the soft-body car destruction and interactivity, which at the time was groundbreaking tech, is completely gone. Everything that made the game immersive and incredible has been systematically removed and as such I cannot recommend it.

If you need further information I should also point out that it is a rather poor port, what was originally a PC game has been ported to a console engine and then back again - and suffers from awful controls, a terrible melee system and overbearing mouse smoothing that cannot be turned off. You cannot bind controls to secondary mouse buttons, and several commands can't be rebound at all. You can't strafe.

The only good thing I can say of the game is that the story is intact and wonderful as ever, and it looks very pretty.
If only they'd left some immersion in there :(

A fun idea and decent systems marred by atrocious balance, terrible level design and a million loops designed only to tease Pay2Win dollars out of even the tiniest and most miniscule aspect of the game. Add to this a developer that repeatedly insults its players, hasn't fixed a single bug or exploit in five years and you find a fun game that I'd nevertheless never recommend to a single soul.

Horrible devs.

A roguelike Dungeon Keeper, with some Dwarf Fortress DNA mixed in. Lacking in complexity compared to the dwarf-related wonder, Keeper RL is charming, addictive and thoroughly enjoyable. More features and complexity is added, and let's be honest- DF can at times be way too complex and obsessive.

Wholeheartedly recommend!

A phenomenal game that manages to improve on its predecessors in almost every way, while making huge improvements to the UI and design elements that were previously needlessly obtuse and hard to grasp. While I strongly disagree with the tendency to lock key features and improvements behind a myriad of DLC's, EU4 remains the best point of entry to this amazing series.