Recent reviews by Nicolai Malthus

This is very easily a top contender for Game of the Year 2024, for it's amazing freedom of movement across a massive landscape of floating islands: combining double-jump boots with a grappling hook and gravity-defying hoverboard is an absolute delight. The robust perks system unlocks some incredible abilities - including reloading your held weapon by grinding your hoverboard against walls, or turning your jump boots explosive to drive enemies back. There's an incredible amount of fun to be had, and combining all of your abilities in a perfect flow state never gets old. The shooting is top notch as well; incredibly responsive and has a decent variety of weapons + unlocks. Here's hoping the developer adds future areas, enemies, and activities after an incredibly successful launch.

Mass Effect 1 & 2 are all time sci-fi RPG classics, and some of the greatest games ever made. Mass Effect 3, from the opening 2 hours, and especially in it's finale, is a narrative mess that throws all of your choices and decisions from the previous two games out the window for an embarrassing trainwreck of melodramatic emotional manipulation and a visual mess. Just imagine an ending to the trilogy in your own head rather than play Mass Effect 3.

Red Faction Guerrilla is a game that has an interesting destruction gimmick and very little else going for it - eventually growing boring and tired. A sad relic of the Xbox 360/PS3 open-world era that is better living in the nostalgic part of your mind than revisited.

(Note: I completed this game in Steam Offline Mode and earned the majority of the achievements)

This is a much better superhero game about a bunch of misfit supercrooks forced to work together than Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. It's a better Telltale-style game than the Telltale games because it has functioning combat. It's a much more interesting and entertaining take on the Guardians of the Galaxy characters than the Marvel Studios movies. Everything about this Guardians of the Galaxy game is better than what you would compare it to, and even while it's not amazing, and the combat gets to be a repetitive bore in the final quarter of the game, it's still a breathe of fresh air with some of my favorite sci-vistas in a long time. Great emotional character arcs as well. Well worth it.

I really wanted to like this and had very high hopes, but two months after release, and there's literally nothing left to justify playing this for more than a week or so. An incredibly disappointing effort with fans left totally in the dark on Season Pass roadmap and post-launch support. Most of all, I feel bad for the AEW locker room and Tony Khan.

Apparently Kenny Omega was involved with development, and he has the best looking model as well as the most custom attires. Incredibly frustrating.

The level of customization is above and beyond incredible, especially now in 2023. The work this community is doing to keep this game alive is hugely inspiring and makes me excited to play the Fire Promoter DLC, as well as experiment with all the other modes in the game. The SUDA51 Fighting Road Beyond DLC was admittedly a letdown, but the NJPW story mode is top-notch. I would love a custom story builder as a future DLC.

This absolutely whips, especially for the price point. A fun little, grounded, top-down tactical shooter focused on lesser-known Cold War conflicts. Can't wait to see more from this developer.

This is a true masterwork of the artform. The sense of adventure and wonder, the raw joy of stomping around poking unknowns with a stick - it's raw freedom to explore and simply be amazed by the wonders of the world you stumble upon. What's even more magical is how this game incorporates the larger societal discourse into an actual game mechanic. For example:

You hear a rumor about a critical item through the internet grapevine, you google it for a quick guide, and then you set off on an incredible adventure that takes you to far reaches beyond anyone's imagination. Amazing sights, incredible challenge, and a sense of danger and intrigue that kicks your adrenaline into high gear. Retrieving it and returning to your home base safely, you feel like you truly accomplished something, a small part towards a larger goal, and endured an incredible adventure - all in about 45-50 minutes of gameplay.

This is an incredible achievement, and transcends the Soulslike genre into something far more inspiring. Absolutely jump in now, because this game is a wild ride worth getting in early on.

A rather challenging but in-depth overview of the legendary game of kings. Really smart how the develop incorporated a campaign with resource mechanics into the game, centered around improving the player's skill. Honestly, a rather impressive effort.