Recent reviews by A Magician Named Gob

A challenging but fair game that reminds one of Ninja Gaiden. Fair warning: While it does have both 8-bit and 16-bit styles, it takes a good chunk of time to even get to the 16-bit stuff. I'd say about an hour or an hour 1/2. Don't go expecting seeing that part of the game within the first half-hour like I did.

The Messenger plays great. Responsive controls make being a ninja play like silk. You won't have much trouble doing what you want to do, unless you panic. Some parts require near perfect timing, so it's nice that they made sure it controls as good as it does.

The Messenger doesn't take itself too seriously. While the plot is more on the serious side, conversations you'll have with the shopkeeper and even bosses are packed with at least smirk-worthy lines. If you've played Shovel Knight, then you'll have an understanding on what kind of humor to expect.

Honestly, it's the best 2D "throwback" game I've played since Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, which wasn't that long ago, but still.

You can choose whatever picture you wanna do first, but I suggest starting with the smiley face. It's a nice way to ease into the systems of Coloring Pixels. Oh, sure. You can tackle something bigger, but you'll be lost in a sea of squares and numbers with a storm of seemingly endless colors. The calming music won't save you. You'll be sweating bullets as you fumble around the grid, clutching your mouse tight, with only the hope of finishing the picture as your savior. You can obvioulsy just quit the game if it gets to you, but you'll be marked as a disgrace. A failure that will stick and stink on you for the remainder of your mortal years, family and friends shunning you something fierce.

Think this is a simple game? YOU'RE SIMPLE MINDED. You better get that logic out of your head and dig for a deeper mindset, or Coloring Pixels will destroy what you believe is your soul. It's not your soul. Your soul was snatched and claimed by the program once you started it. The only way to recover it is to bask in the war between man and colors.
"But Dark Souls is way harder and-..." SHUT UP, MAGGOT! DARK SOULS IS LIKE WEARING DIAPERS WITH TRAINING WHEELS COMPARED TO THIS. THERE AIN'T NO BONFIRES HERE TO SAVE YOU, ONLY COMPLETING EACH PICTURE YOU BEGAN. I apologize for yelling, I love you, but we both know this is a dangerous task many men take on, but few return from.

Have you ever seen red or blue or even green accidentally go into a square meant for a different color? You'll hate yourself. Even when you correct it, you'll always feel doubt. Do I really know what I got into? Am I actually good enough to color pixels? How will I afford comfort in life ever again? Good questions for a terrible person, but just correct it and complete the image and you'll still be better than mid-picture come-back-and-finish-it-later quitters.

You ask "Has anyone ever completed every image with no mistakes, and no quits?" Nothing has been confirmed. Maybe occasional rumblings, but the history books on this subject remain barren. Could you be the one? Could you tackle this impossible goal? Are you the one they spoke of when video games were invented? Hit that download button and find out. Just be ready for the very possible hardships that await. The hardships of Coloring Pixels.

If you wanted a spiritual sequel to "Papers, Please", then this is what you're looking for. Same premise. Check IDs and other things for mistakes, earn enough money to get by in life, face unique guests with choices, etc. Unlike PP, you can actually move your character around small areas like your living space and the inside of clubs, but it's pretty linear. Also unlike PP, you can spend money on upgrades for your living space (that you can see), and you can also buy new clothes.

I can't stress enough how much this feels like "Papers, Please." So, if you enjoyed that game at all, then you'll enjoy "Not Tonight."

GLORY TO AR-...nevermind.

Tired of WWE games? This is your best alternative. Sure, it may not look near as flashy, but FPWW is not a title to sleep on if you're a wrestling fan.

= ROSTER =
One of the great things about this game is that the community gives it much of its life, meaning it has Workshop support, and there's a ton of content available for download. You can find almost anyone you can think of. WWE? Covered. NJPW? Covered. WCW? Covered. ECW? F'n covered. RoH, NOAH, All Japan, CZW, Progress, NWA, TNA, IMPACT WRESTLING, even UFC...they exsist in the workshop. Not only are there a ton of wrestlers, but a lot of them actually look like they were put in the game by the devs. That's the upside of less detailed 2D models over 3D.

Of course, you don't have to just stick to real wrestlers. Hell, you can download video game characters, comic book characters, movie characters, TV characters, anime characters, whatever you want. You want a bear? You got it. Wrestle a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bear. You want a guy that's just a floating head? Done. A human hot-dog? Sure, why not? Make your game with who you want.

You can even make or download refs.

= GAMEPLAY =

Fire Pro is all about timing. If you input your move after a lock-up before the opponent, you'll do your move. If not, then they get to do a move. However, you also have to build-up to stronger moves, so don't expect to be hitting Canadian Destroyers right as the match begins. You start with some light attacks, then medium, then strong. If you try a strong move in the early match, it'll most likely get reversed.

As you can tell, Fire Pro uses an isometric camera angle. It may seem odd a first, but you'll get used to it fairly quickly. One quirk with the angle is that you can only do corner grapples in the left and right corners. However, you can still climb any corner for diving moves, including top and bottom. Don't ask me why they couldn't have opponent top and bottom sprites but that's just how the devs did things. Still, it's not that big of a deal.

The submissions are something I'm still not sure how I feel about. If you lock-in a submission hold, one of two things happens. The more common thing is the move is applied, and the ref asks the opponent if they give up, and then the move broken after a few seconds. The second thing is when the move is applied, the ref will immediately call for the bell, and the hold applier wins. Basically, if he asks "give up?" even once, you know you didn't win. This eliminates any drama involving submissions. They either give-up immediately or don't and continue on. There's no in-between.

= MATCH TYPES =

Aside from your standard expected match types, there's crazy stuff like Barbed-Wire matches, where the ropes are replaced by barbed-wire, which also explode when irish-whipped into them. There are also tables covered in barbed-wire in each corner of the ring. If that's not insane enough, after a set amount of time, explosions are set-off all around the ring, causing every single person in the ring to get downed.

How about a Landmine match, where there's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ landmines on the outside of the ring?

Oh, there's also UFC and Boxing matches, too. Yes, inside of a pro wrestling game.
The UFC fights come complete with an octagon cage, too. As for the boxing, you're limited to strikes and strike grapples. I admit, it looks odd when locking-up in a boxing match, but it only does it for light grapples. Any attempt and medium and strong grapples will result in the competitors resting on each other.

= MISSION MODE =
Play a few missions first, as they serve as tutorials. There are a bunch of missions to complete one-by-one, like "Complete a match with a 50% or better audience rating" or "win the match with a high-flying move." There's no real purpose to this mode, other than to learn the basics and challenge yourself for fun.

= FUTURE CONTENT =

There is DLC on the way that will bring official NJPW wrestlers and arenas, along with a career mode. There's another piece of DLC coming that will allow you to run your own promotion like GM Mode in past WWE games.

= FINAL THOUGHTS =

Fire Pro, as mentioned in the beginning, is a great alternative for the tired 2K games, though both are still different enough that you might feel like playing one over the other one day, and then vice-versa. If you've been playing nothing but 2K series, this will be a nice change of pace for you.

The fact this game currently has only a "Mostly Positive" rating is a shame that borders on being a crime.

First off, it runs great. Not sure what the deal is with other people's setups, but it runs flawlessly (60fps) on a 390 with a 8320 at 1080p on mostly max settings. (Shadows are turned down to medium, but I do that with every game.)

That out of the way, Yakuza 0 is OVERFLOWING with content. I don't remember the last game I've played that seem to just keep on giving and giving and giving. 0 starts out slow for the first few hours. You might even wonder why people seem to love this series, thinking it might be a little overrated. Nah, man. Just keep playing. Thankfully, the story and acting is good and interesting enough to keep your interest until it opens up more.

Once it does, hoo boy, the content just floods in. Aside from the well-written story, there's a ton of side-content to do at your own leisure. Part of the side-content? Mini-games! Some of these include, but not limited to...

Bowling, Karaoke, Disco Dancing, Battling Cages, Casino games, Pool, etc. (I'll leave the rest out for you to discover on your own.)

Then there's side-stories. There's 100 of these total. They're comprised of meeting characters with their own stories, and you usually help them with something. Infiltrate a cult to get a daughter back to her mother, or stop a girl from selling her underwear to perverts. There's so much!

Run your own business! Manage staff and security, fight off troublemakers, all while making bank!

Fight people and make money (which also acts as experience) doing it! Spend money on upgrading your character, or spend it on restaurants, entertainment, lucky vending machines, whatever! Money is important in Yakuza 0, so make as much as possible!

Seriously, I can't gush enough about how much this game offers. If that doesn't appeal to you, you can still just stick through the main story, which is already a great experience alone.

* PROS *
+ Immersive exploration. Planets, space stations, freighters, trading outposts, settlements, crashed ships, alien monoliths, underwater, etc. There's always something to find, even things just out in the open.

+ A lot to work towards. There are many upgrades and new items to chase.

+ Beautiful graphics (most of the time). There are plenty of amazing visuals that you can capture with photo mode.

+ Play in first-person or third-person, with switching on the fly.

+ Play online or offline, with the former allowing either friends or randoms to be in your "universe." Don't like that? Turn it off and be truly alone. However, even with it on, I still haven't run into anyone else, as this is a huge game.

* NEAUTRALS*
| Mysterious and somewhat subtle story. I have no issue with it, but others might need something more straight-forward.

| UI can't decide if it's PC or console friendly. There's some unnecessary steps in UI navigation, and also lacks hotkeys for certain actions. For example, if you want to change character perspective, you MUST use a slightly clunky sub-menu. There's no option to just hotkey it, which is pretty dumb. Even if you play on a controller, the game still has a cursor to move around, which is always an odd choice for controllers.

| Base building. While it is indeed an option to build your own base, I find it pointless. You're meant to be on the move, jumping to new solar systems. Putting in time and work into a base when I know I'm going to abandon it soon after doesn't appeal to me. However, I know this is a big selling point to others, and building stuff with friends could be quite fun.

| Mixed performance. This game still needs some performance polish, and you can just look through the game's reddit or if you're brave enough, the Steam forums and get an idea. There are those with lower-end hardware that can run the game super well, and those with higher-end on the struggling side.

| Some graphical options that require a game restart.

| The very first time you start the game, the "loading shaders" screen takes forever and a day. I'd suggest a bathroom break, or make food, or play a full game of Monopoly. This is a one-time deal, thankfully. The rest of the startups won't be anywhere near as long.

* CONS *
- Ugly pop-in with dithering.

- Sometimes while in space, planet outlines can clip through other objects in the area, such as spaceships. Really immersion breaking.

- Dogfighting is awful. Even if you can track your enemy with no issue, each enemy will just fly straight at you while spinning like a maniac. Then they come around and do it again until they're dead.

- Sentinels can be too aggressive. You can try to escape and kill as many as you want, but they won't stop chasing you until you're dead, and that's that.

* FINAL THOUGHTS *
While it does have some rough edges, NMS is a game to play for sci-fi, exploration, and crafting enthusiasts. The story won't set your world on fire, and there's not much combat (unless you make trouble or do bounty hunts), but the space stage has been well set. You'll find hours slip by as you work towards whatever goal you or the game has made.

Didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I have. CSD!2!! is a fantastic game to play when you're in the mood to play something, but don't want to invest a bunch on time in.

Build up your restaurant's reputation. You'll start with a very basic and somewhat gross looking restaurant with basic foods, but the more you play, the more you'll level-up and stars you'll gain. As you complete days, you'll be rewarded with various items to customize the look of your restaurant, featuring walls, floors, tables, booths, decorations, etc. However, you won't just cook at your restaurant only. There's a whole slew of different restaurants to take jobs in, which will give you more ways to earn cash and rewards.

There is a huge list of food and drink to make. From simple things like Corn Dogs, Nachos, Pretzels, Coffee, to more complex dishes like Sushi, Fancy Ramen, Pizza, Burgers, etc. As you may have guessed, the more ingredients that go into making a certain dish, the longer it'll take, and the more chance of messing-up an order. Don't worry, you can choose to practice making any dish or drink without any penalty via the food catalog.

There are holding stations for certain foods. Those foods can be made in bulk via the holding station, and sit there until they're all gone or go bad. This makes orders easier to handle, as you can just hand them the order without having to wait for cook time. However, there are foods that NEED to be made cooked-to-order, so they aren't too much of a crutch. You can also made side-dishes for the holding stations which will make the customers more patient, giving you more time to cook their orders before they start getting flustered.

Then there's rush hours, which happen at Lunch and Dinner time. As you might have guessed, this is when you'll get the most customers and orders at once. Just keep your cool, and you'll pull-through. If this sounds too chaotic for you, then the game does offer a "Zen Mode", which does away with rush hours. You can also turn off customer patience in Zen, allowing you to not worry about being timed at all. Zen mode does have a drawback, however. You can only obtain bronze medals at the end of the day, but it won't completely stop you from enjoying the game.

One last point: There are a variety of ways to control the game. You can use nothing but key presses, the mouse, keys and the mouse, or a controller. You can really play however you want.

If any of this sounds fun, give it a go. There's a great deal of content here to get through, and it always feels good to finish a perfect day.

I've had enough. This game, in short, is a buggy piece of ♥♥♥♥. Yes, I have over 200 hours logged, as the matches themselves aren't terrible, and I do enjoy making things in the creation suite, but I can finally say that this game can go straight to hell. It WILL NOT reliably save anything, anymore. For the first 6 months, it saved everything just fine. Now? It's like a 20% chance that it will save anything successfully.

Made a new attire? Let me select "Accept" and save...ok, it didn't exit out like it should. Let me try again. Nope, same thing. Maybe it's just a weird bug, but it actually saved? Nope. All that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ work for nothing. Thanks.

Time for a new arena. Ok, arena made. Now to put it into a custom show. Show made. So far, so good. Go to setup a match, select the arena, and I see the arena thumbnail...but I can't actually select it. It's dimmed out and completely unselectable. What the ♥♥♥♥? Fine. Go back into the show creator and maybe overwite a different show? NOW THE ARENA IS COMPLETELY GONE.

How about downloading some updated attires off Community Creations?
[CONTENT IS DAMAGED]
Ok, how and why is it damaged? What black magic did the user cast on their content that made it damaged in the first place? Sometimes it'll claim it's damaged, but download it anyway. Then you're simply out of luck if you want to download further content, because it'll claim EVERYTHING is damaged until you delete the original damaged content. This requires going into the Deletion Utility and sifting through some of the slowest loading menus where everything is shown one-by-one. I'd rather watch a collection of Great Khali matches.

Oh, not to mention all the crashes. Technical-wise, it's just a terrible game. Truly an insult delivered by 2K and Yukes.

Just get Fire Pro Wrestling World.

After the first hour, I was simply continuing on just to end the game. Pretty water does not make for a good game. Everything else about this is bland and boring. Avoid at all costs.

A great stealth/tactical title with large open areas, and with many ways to eliminate your enemies. The story is convoluted as hell, but as is tradition with Metal Gear games. Even if you don't quite understand what's happening, the gameplay alone is enough to satisfy those who like to plan their attacks, or attempt to Rambo it up. It also has one of the best and most intense openings to a video game I've ever experienced.

While the last few hours feel like somewhat of a rush job, and with a supposed full chapter missing on the cutting room floor, The Phantom Pain will bring you hours of tactical freedom. Previous experience with other Metal Gear titles is recommended, though not mandatory. Mainly so you can catch references and callbacks.

It's also well-optimized!