Recent reviews by Jordax142

Went into this game expecting a retro-style Metro-like FPS. Got a surrealist history trip of 1986 Czechoslovakia instead, given form by the developer's pristine self-made engine running on Pascal, so that everyone can accurately enjoy how daily life was in 1986s Czechoslovakia.

POSTAL 2, the rightful winner of the 'Best game which got a massive game-changing patch 11 years after its release'.

With all the recent controversy about Hatred hitting Steam and causing some massive outrage by some moral guardians for reasons not even related to the game, I thought that it was about time to take a look at the title which caused a boatload of outrage from the moral guardians a decade ago.

After the modest success of Postal 1, both at gaining a fanbase and receiving media outrage alike, Running with Scissors decided to take a totally different direction than the unhinged and distressing tone of the original game with Postal 2. In a valliant effort to not piss off as many people as possible, RWS decided that Postal 2 should start with the most harmless thing they could think of: Going to the store to buy a carton of milk. Unfortunately, stuff goes rather south in almost every way in Postal 2 in the most hilarious of ways.

To start about Postal 2, the base game is split up into five days, wherin you must perform totally mundane-seeming tasks in the open-world sandbox town of Paradise, Arizonia, such as buying milk from the store, going to your job, and getting people to sign your petition to make whiny people play more videogames, for example. But stuff goes never the easy way in Postal 2. Such as arriving at work, getting called to the office to hear that you are being sacked on the spot as a dozen of outraged people storm the building in a violent protest against videogames. Or what to think of taking a wrong turn while walking around the open-world town ,as I somehow walked straight into the local terrorist base. Two hours and five signs and a bigger killcount than Hot Shots:Part Deux, I walked out with enough weaponry to arm a town at least thrice. Stuff rapidly escalates in Postal 2 like that in the most absurd kind of ways.

While Postal 2 at its core is a very peaceful game. Or at least, the base game can be played though without killing anyone. You can be pretty much the only sane guy in the town as stuff rapidly goes more to hell and people get madder and madder as the days go by. It is more of a game of how long it does take for the player to snap and to play ball sports with the heads of the troublemakers, to say so. The game is as violent as the player. Which still pissed the moral guardians off, as did it piss off many reviewers back in the day giving the game straight zeroes for it.

And boy, does Postal 2 give the player a lot of choices in literally going postal. While in the first day of the game the weapons are pretty on the cookie-cutter and boring side, as the week passes, more and more interesting weapons and ways for harm come up. The player's arsenal range up from the usual FPS stuff like Deagles and M16's with the SPAS-12 threwn in, to the insanely unconventional stuff, such as scissors, napalm launchers, cow heads, chemical rockets and boomerang machetes. Along with the even more unconventional functions of the game, such as being able to use toilets for their real purpose, kicking everything and using catnip to slow time, Postal 2 sets up the scene for interesting sandbox action. Throw in AI getting more on edge as the game progresses and the map being chock-full of secrets rewarding exploration, and you got yourself a sandbox you can entertain yourself with for quite a while.

Included in the game is also the first expansion pack of the game, Apocalypse Weekend. Unfortunately, Apocalypse Weekend isn't in the open-world sandbox style of the base week, and focuses on two more days, where you are railroaded in small 'kill stuff' errands and long levels you have to battle yourself through. The pacing is unfortunately all over the place. The small errands with its maps shouldn't take you longer than 10 minutes each, and they are quite frankly pretty boring. The long levels are really chock-full of enemies to blow to pieces with your varied arsenal, and some of them are long enough to get eventually tiring on the higher difficulties to get through, mostly because of the enemy variance in those levels being stale. Even though Apocalypse Weekend added many weapons to Postal 2, which then have been put in the base game, Apocalypse Weekend shouldn't warrant more than one playthrough.

Luckily enough, Running With Scissors is busy making their second expansion for this game, Paradise Lost, which will go back to the open-world sandbox spread over a week, which is due to come out next Spring. Along with the huge number of stuff they added in last year's patches, including new weapons, Workshop functionality and the official-making of some popular mods, Running With Scissors is still showing their dedication to their flagship title even 12 years after its inital release. Postal 2 might not be an absolute world-beater, but it is sure one of the more unique games to have come out, despite the stigma against it.
[Wait, has it already been eight years since then?]

(Rising Storm is natually included with this review)

Most people here probably have played a FPS before, but ask yourself the following question:

'' Have I ever played a FPS wherein war wasn't glorified in an ''America saves the world'' story?''
'' Have I ever played a FPS where war is as hellish as it can be as it was in reality?''

The answer would be for most of you no, and this is where Red Orchesta 2 / Rising Storm comes in.
Forget the modern FPS cliche shooters wherein you suck on your thumb behind a wall after getting hit and get strawberry jam to indicate that you are hurt and need to cry against a wall for a few seconds before jumping back into the fight with your laser-accuracy guns if you just press the button to aim down your sight. If you play with this mindset, Red Orchesta 2 / Rising Storm will personally kick your nads through your nose before calling you a massive wimp.

RO2 / RS doesn't mess around with getting serious. Not if, but when you get hit with a bullet, you will either be dead after tumbling over the floor, bleed a lot and patch yourself up with a bandage if you happened to be lucky and having dragged yourself to a safe position without getting turned into Swiss Cheese by more bullets. You get two bandages, but you will probably be dead before you get the chance to apply a second, as getting shot in a place will mean that the next hit there will probably be fatal. No bandages left, or you got shot and didn't topple over instantly? Have fun bleeding out while your soldier splurts out his last sounds in a performance which could have easily fit into Band of Brothers or The Pacific or Saving Private Ryan or other movies reminding you of the harsh reality of war. Have I mentioned yet that war is hell?
This game makes artillery incredebly terrifying, as in ''Oh lord, don't let me die so horribly''. It is not like in normal FPS'es where you just slump over or get ragdolled into a silly way, you will end up into a muliated bunch of flesh or just into red mist. And given how long the arty can last, it is incredebly tense all the while.

Continuing with the setting, it is World War II. RO2 finds place in Russia, the area around Stalingrad of course, as it is the decisive Battle of Stalingrad. Whereas Rising Storm takes place in the Pacific, as the Americans came closer and closer towards Japan. Most of the maps are thus as close to what it was in reality, with famous locales being also as close as they were. A quick batch of examples are Pavlov's House, Grain Elevator and Stalingrad Station for RO2, and Peleliu Airport and Saipan from Rising Storm. Thereby comes that there is a distinct variety in the maps, as none of the maps feel the same.

There are maps which take place in a small ruined city block, prompting for some heavy short-range combat, maps where it is pure trench warfare, maps wherein the attacking team has to fight itself up an enemy stronghold, such as the Grain Elevator and Iwo Jima. Maps can be relatively small-scale with close combat, or they can be large, kilometres long battlefields, where a team needs to push the other all the way back. Every map is accomedated for 64 players though. The larger maps, in RO2, also have tanks (and armed personnel carriers being released shortly), which are a whole new beast to tame for players. Controlling one has to be done in a crew, and taking one down is not an easy task. They are one of the uniquer parts of the multiplayer experience, as not everyone gets to take one out. There are specific classes who are effective against them, like the Anti-Tank Soldier (carries an Semi-auto rifle with a caliber to literally gib other players), and the Engineer (Can drop extremely heavy explosives used to destroy tanks or certain obstacles hindering their team.)

Speaking of which, the class system. It is pretty much a system of one common class and the specialists and team leaders.
Most people have to play Rifleman, and as this is the Second World War, there are no full-auto rifles for everyone, so the majority has to do with a classic Bolt-Action rifle and two grenades, and maybe a pistol if you earned one. Don't fret over not getting something flashy; The Bolt-Action rifles, such as the Moisin-Nagant M1897 and the Arisaka Type 38 are frightenly accurate at long range once you get used to bullet drop, and they are strong enough to drop almost everyone with a well placed shot in a vital part. The specialist roster gets made up by Elite Riflemen, using Semi-auto's. Assault gets the SMG's from that time, as assault rifles as most FPS'es have didn't exist then, except for the rare German MkB42. Weapons that fire faster are nowhere as close with accuracy as Bolt-Actions after a few shots though. Then there are more specialists, like the Machine Gunner, which need something to lean their massive machine gun on, but are in the hands of a good player the backbone of the team. And as last, the Sniper, which has a limit of two per team, (take that TF2 servers) and should be in the back most of the time.
Rising Storm has a few exclusive classes for that theater of war, such as the US-exclusive Flamethrower, which does exactly what it says, and has fairly realistic physics, such as fire bouncing off walls and the damn thing actually having a dangerous range, which makes it a horrible experience to die against due to the really agonising death screams this game offers.
The Japanese get the Light Mortar Class, which is basically a Grenade Launcher class, which is incredebly deadly, but also very slow with firing, and should stick towards the back.
Lastly, we have the team leading classes, the Squad Leaders and the Commander.
The Squad Leaders are pretty much the captains of their part of the team, and basically act as an living mobile spawn point too if they kicked the bucket, but not the SL. It beats walking to the battle for a minute or so. That does not mean the SL should just hide all the time, he pretty much needs to get as close as possible to the battle and lead his squad.
They also have to set artillery marks for the Commander to be of as much use as possible too.
The Commander is basically the Team Captain, and should coordinate his team accordingly.
Stay in contact with the team as much as possible, communicate with the SLs as much as possible, and make good use of calling in recon and artillery. They can stay all the way in the back, but it is overall better to be near your team on the points. Artillery is a vital tool in attacking and defending, so don't let your team down by doing literally nothing.
Don't take it until you have read up on it and you think you can do it when nobody is taking the job.

This all sums up in an incredebly tense FPS, with a heavy dose in teamwork which I miss in other FPS'es.
Holding the other army off a vital point in the defense with your team, or going into the attack with a full team of 32 others gives a rush not too many other multiplayer games can achieve on such a scale. Seeing everything going as planned as a team is something which is pure joy. Although that doesn't happen every round, there is generally a good dose of teamwork. Add to it that this game is really immersive, and you have one of the best multiplayer FPS games of the last five years.

I now realize that I have maybe made this review a bit too long (It is about twice, or thrice as long as my Fallout: New Vegas review now I look at it.) , but hopefully I have informed whoever is reading this well on Red Orchesta 2 / Rising Storm.
Don't let the doomsayers saying that the game is dead to your head, it is still active, with a constant 2000 players at the moment of writing, which is not even one of the peak hours.

Furthermore, the developers are still fully supporting this game, and there are still new maps, weapons and even vehicles coming. There is also a Vietnam mod, In Country, coming out for it eventually. So stay tuned for more, and have fun!

Where do I even begin with saying that this is a really stonking great game.
Let's just start with some history: Fallout New Vegas is the Fallout 3 that should have been. At least, most of the elements that make their appearance in New Vegas were actually of the original Fallout 3, which was canceled when it was almost finished by Bethesda so they could make their own 3, which wasn't as amazing as it could be in several factors, and fell quite short of its numbered predecessors, to say the least. Fallout New Vegas is pretty much more of a Fallout 3 than the actual Bethesda Fallout 3 was, so calling it Fallout 3.5 isn't doing it any justice whatsoever.
Plus, Fallout 3 runs quite badly on the PC partly due to GFWL and apparently is even more crash-happy, so there is that.

On to the actual game, it is incredebly enormous in size.
I bet that you easily will sink upwards of 50 hours in it at least.
If you just take your time and explore like me, expect well over a hundered of hours of gameplay on your first run. The game world feels huge, with way more than enough places to discover. Also, it has a gigantic list of quests, so yeah, this game is going to give you some real bang for your bucks. Evenmoreso with the Ultimate Edition, which covers every piece of Expansion Pack/ DLC with it, which ups the game length very reasonably, and brings enough stuff to the table to make it worthwhile. Not only do you get to go to entirely different locations which will feel entirely different to the Mojave Wasteland, but they all bring enough new in-stuff to the table which is also useable outside the Expansion Pack arenas.

Have I mentioned yet that this game has a gigantic amount of weapons?
Seriously, I cannot remember another game that has such a gigantic and varied arsenal of weapons to use. True, it is partially due to the Expansion Packs bringing a part of it to the table, but even without it is bigger than Fallout 3, and with the expansion packs, it absolutely makes Fallout 3 looks like a dwarf if you compare the two. The only thing Fallout 3 has weaponwise what New Vegas doesn't is the Rock-It Launcher, but that is about the only thing.

Even if it isn't graphically amazing and it is made on an extremely rickety engine, GameBryo, which really should be replaced next-gen and is still a bit glitchy, it is still really acceptable, and hey, graphics aren't the most important things in a game.

Story's pretty great too. It all starts off getting capped in the face by someone looking like Bugsy Siegel, if he wasn't shot in the face (yet) and wasn't living in a post-apocaliptic Nevada/ Las Vegas, you wake up a week later and decide to pay this gentleman a visit, where ever he might even be, to have a very stern talk with him. What's more, is that there are multiple big factions duking it out for power over the Mojave and New Vegas, and it is all your choice who's gonna come out on top, by what means necessary... Or you just decide to take it all for yourself. Voice Acting is pretty well too mostly. Just don't expect the nameless NPC's to say something amazing.

Darn, hear me rambling about this game, and I've probably haven't even covered a small part of it! In short, this is a quality game, the Ultimate Edition is where you should go for, and it is really dirt cheap during event sales (like 5 bucks in the Summer Sale) , and you really should pick it up, for a game of this calibre it is practically theft.

It probably doesn't trump or is as good as the legendary first Deus Ex, as nothing ever will, but Human Revolution is seriously one of the best games from the last two years.
The voice acting is literally superb, and puts many other recent games to the losers corner on that aspect. However, it isn't as cheesy as the first Deus Ex, which is in my opinion kind of a downside, as that was also one of the greatest charms of the game.
But anyway, the story is really good, it also puts recent games bowing their heads to it, and yet again it is no match to the first Deus Ex. Still, the story is really damn good, with many twists, locations and loads of characters and backstory items to find in the game.
Also, that many things have actually consequences later on is very interesting, as it can change many things around, prompting to play through the game more than once.
Now, onto the gameplay, I can say again that nothing will ever triumph over the original, but Human Revolution does a damn good job in modernising the gameplay in an actually good way. The covering system works kinda well, and as Human Revolution greatly promotes stealth gameplay, it is really fine on that front for avoiding the enemies.
Going with a textbook frontal assault works too, as you can have many vastly different weapons at your disposal, which are almost all upgradeable throughout the game.
Also, takedowns are really sastifying to do, althrough they can get a bit tedious after a while.
Another mostly rambled on point are the boss battles, how they are unavoidable and all, but really, you just gotta gear up for that, much like bossfights in Metal Gear Solid.
Through I must admit that they aren't all that memorable as in Deus Ex 1999 and in MGS.
Also, this game is long, especially for this gaming generation.
Great music has always be a staple of the series, and Human Revolution is no stranger to that, as the music is worthy of the series.
In short, get this game already, it may not be the perfect follow-up to its legendary predecessor from 1999 (We don't mention Invisible War, that wasn't worthy of the name) , but it does one hell of a job introducing this generation to the series.

A really fine addition to the Hitman series, and one of the best stealth games of the year.
What most people forget is that it is a lot different than it's predecessor Blood Money.
It is a whole lot different, getting a disguise now doesn't mean you can do whatever you want, others with the same outfit will recognise you if standing in their field of view long enough, thus having you taking things a lot cautionous, and making it a lot harder.
What is also an improvement in the series, is that the gunplay feels much better than in the earlier games. Firefights are more intense now, and the AI is also smart enough to find cover. compared to the former games, where they piled up on each other in the open.
The game also looks gorgeous, even on Medium settings, and is well optimised.
The voice acting has also made a massive step forward, there is loads of it in every level, and the levels feel certainly more living with lots of conversations between NPCs.
What also gives this game more replay value than the others in the series, is the brilliant addition of the leaderboards and contract modes, wherein you keep trying to get a highest possible score on the levels or player-made contracts. In short, get this game.

This game shows why blowing ♥♥♥♥ up in different ways is really, really satsifying.
Panau is a incredebly big place, with many places where you can blow sh- I mean, 'sabotage' the goverment by blowing up daily needs for the folk. Also. everything that is not a building can explode, even if you fall from your bike while driving through a grass patch, and the thing rolls against a little wooden pole, you can bet that your bike will go blamo and the pole too. Furthermore, shenigans with grappling hooks, it is sadistically satsifying to make enemies fly off a building. Also includes B-grade Voice Acting, which is pretty funny.
One of the only gripes is that this game is really damn big, and that the non-DLC weapons are a bit boring, but DLC on sale really helps making the game even more fun.
Overall, buy this game, I just know you love to blow ♥♥♥♥ up.