Recent reviews by Brovahkiin

New neurodivergent obsession acquired

Since 2 is full of lies and doesn't actually simulate a city at all, this remains the best city sim on Earth

I want to rate this game positively, However:
- general performance is very poor on a 3080ti
- Graphics settings return to default on every boot.
- Alt Tab Makes the game hibernate instead of continuing to run in the background and sometimes just crashes outright. Even when it doesn't crash, this is a big QoL no-no.
- The game likes to freeze for about 8 seconds at random times, sometimes crashing instead of recovering.
- The game frequently Alt Tabs itself, even when running in Full Screen.
- The game sometimes boots to the wrong monitor and requires a restart to correct itself.

Those are the most pressing issues. I can't rate the game positively until it feels finished.

Good, but could be better.

I'm coming to this game as a long time fan of Ace Combat, like many others. As such, I inevitably came here with colored expectations.
Despite that disadvantage, Project Wingman largely met or exceeded those expectations.
In terms of general air combat, fighting anything that isn't a bloated-HP boss feels great. All the aircraft (apart from the NG+ shenanigans) feel authentically weighty, and missiles and guns perform closer to their real-world counterparts than they do in AC. Dogfighting against a normal enemy honestly feels better here than it does in AC7 about 90% of the time. And of course, you do a lot of dogfighting, so that's a major point in this game's favor.

But nothing is truly perfect. Everything has *some* flaws. In Project Wingman, my perceived flaws are all in the principal design of the boss fights.
I'll try not to belabor a point, and I don't aim to spoil anything, but I derive no satisfaction from a bullet-sponge. Once I have proven that I can dodge three kinds of bullet-hell hazards at once, needing to do it thirty more times *PURELY* because the boss has an utterly infeasible resistance to munitions shatters the appealing aura of authenticity that I praised in the previous paragraph. I would also offer some criticism for the prototype aircraft that, in the hands of enemies, pull turns that would literally collapse their pilot's spines and explode every capillary below the neck. Once again, anything that damages the games sense of authenticity or shatters my suspension of disbelief worsens my impression of the game.

TL/DR: I think this game kicks ass in everything that isn't a boss fight with a health bar.

CDPR just can't help themselves. They completely break the game with every patch. This is a disgusting level of incompetence. Every single update, patch or hotfix results in a file corruption.
I'm not your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tester, CDPR.

I'm wrestling with mixed feelings. I really wish I could select something other than "Thumbs Up" or "Thumbs Down"

This is a good game and I'm sure many a modern From Software fan and series newcomer will like it in this simplified state, but I can't deny my disappointment.

I like the updated attack controls that make all 4 weapons accessible at once and I like the update to how energy requirements for weapons work. Generally speaking I like the story and it's branches, and most of the non-player ally characters get good arcs, as well as a few adversaries.
AC VS AC fights are as good as I'm used to, and they're where the game shines most. On the flipside, any boss that isn't an AC is really hard to enjoy, because many of them employ some methods of attack or movement options that are designed to catch you off guard and force multiple retries. I like that in some games but I take exception with that design decision being transplanted into AC purely to make it feel more like a different From Software game to make its fans more comfortable. I'd prefer for both games to be unique and separate rather than to have elements transplanted like this. I'd rather see both games capitalize fully on their own mechanics and tools.

The customization options available to the player have been cut down pretty drastically, and all flexibility was removed from the tuning system in favor of linear progression. We've lost a few types of parts with no real replacements being offered, and the total number of parts even with NG++ bonuses is less than I expected.
These factors combine to make an Armored Core game that feels much more limited than it should be. The sandbox feels too narrow and shallow, especially in PVP.
I'm glad it's back, and it's better than nothing, but "better than nothing" isn't a compliment.
AC is defined by the breadth and depth of its customization, so seeing it reduced at all from its past peak was always going to disappoint me. I came to terms with that, but too much has been stripped away this time, in the name of accessibility.

I miss radar units and the radar display, I miss extensions, I miss having weapons bays and shoulder weapons at the same time, I miss hi-lasers, overed weapons, melee on right arms, back mounted autoguns and autocannons. I miss sniper rifles and back mounted sniper cannons, and FCS units that permit for truly long-range engagement.
So many things that I previously had a lot of fun making builds around in past gens are simply no longer present, with no real replacements on offer. And that feeling doesn't end with the customization, it extends to the gameplay as well. Now more than ever before, enemies and bosses have an "intended approach" mindset to their design that makes them feel more like Souls bosses in a way that intrudes on the players ability to find their own personal approach to each problem. Too many enemies and bosses just have a single "right answer*, when there should be innumerable ways to reliably take them down, like in previous entries.
The music remains a sore point. I'm glad they still have Kota, but they only credited him, not freQuency as a band. I think that's why it lacks flavor.

Most of the bosses, both aesthetically and in terms of gameplay feel at-odds with the design of the game and it's core systems. AC has always been at its best when fights are fast and ferocious. Not these slow, pattern-memorization slogs. The last bosses are markedly better in this regard than the early game bosses. The Final Bosses of all 3 stories are especially refreshing.

As far as basic gameplay, it feels like a slight regression. AC's gameplay starts with the garage, and the scope of a players control over their AC feels insufficient. There are too few parts to choose from, even counting the secrets. Tuning feels insubstantial as well, and I'm really missing the presence of Stabilizers
The movement feels more stilted and restrictive than even 5. It's less about speed and more about freedom. Boosting and QB maneuvers feel much less significant for defense and evasion than they used to. I don't think AC is a game that benefits from this sort of design, and it feels purpose-built to appease people who've never played any generation of AC. I feel that the skill ceiling has been lowered significantly to appease Souls fans. As someone who's been with AC for effectively it's entire life, I can't pretend I'm not disappointed.

From 1 to 2 we got expanded weapon options and better controls.
2 to 3 gave us better energy mechanics, better camera control and a higher overall skill ceiling.
3 to 3.5 was a perfection of all that came before.
3.5 to 4 was an evolution on par with the leap in hardware. Fast, hard, demanding.
4 to 5 represents a loss of real inspiration, the franchise was tired and that's why it was shelved. Trends of the time replaced tried and true quality design.

And now, 5 to 6.
I can't pretend that it's all bad. Melee feels better and more impactful, vertical movement is better than 5, more guns have secondary functions, charge weapons are fun, and Coral weapons especially are a welcome addition.
That said, I find myself sorely missing several part and weapon types from the 4th and 5th gens, and movement in 6 can't touch 4 and For Answer.

If anything, I hope this generation can improve with a followup game, just like 4 did with For Answer and 5 did with Verdict Day. If they restore the part variety and expand on the movement system, this could easily become the best AC in my eyes.

I want to like it, but the matchmaking system is a mess and I just can't get past the issues it's caused for me.

I got sick of having to wait 15 minutes to even enter a match, and upon finally getting there, finding I've been put against an impossible skill wall.

And now the game erased my weapon mastery progress. I give up.

The gameplay is great, the controls are smooth, the loot system is honesty incredible. I felt burned recently by Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, and this cured my itch for a good long-term loot game.

Or at least that's what I thought as month ago. This game has become a bug addled mess, and Worldslayer is straight garbage. I can't believe they screwed this up so badly.

Takes some getting used to, and make sure to enable ultra low latency inputs in the Nvidia control panel if you encounter input lag like I did. The game is fun once you actually get going, It feels like Fallout 76 at first but it cleans up.

All of the weapons feel weak and unsatisfying, and removing the awful screen shake also removed all weapon recoil, making them feel even worse.