Recent reviews by Death Diamond

Leave it to the madmen at Valve to make a half-hour tech demo that will have me chuckling like a laughing hyena at four in the morning. It really makes me want the next Portal game to be set in the '70s. Alas, a man can only dream.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl has been the game I have been eagerly waiting to play for many years now. After getting cancelled all the way back in the ripe year of 2012, and despite two Ukrainian conflicts since 2014, as well as the worldwide pandemic layered on top of it all, somehow, by some divine miracle of The Zone, the game finally sits in my Steam Library -- downloaded, installed, and played.
I am going to keep this review as quick and concise as possible from this point forward. However, to get straight to the point – is the game ‘fun?’

Absolutely!
If you (and your PC) can handle a few bugs, glitches, and optimisation issues.

1. The atmosphere is fantastic, which to me is a major staple of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. Everything from the visuals to the ambient sounds and background dialogue perfectly brings the zone to life and makes me want to spend hours simply walking and exploring the gritty and sombre Chornobyl Zone.
   
2. The graphics are among the best I have seen from a recent game! The foliage and lighting especially really make this game feel cutting-edge in terms of fidelity, really making use of Unreal Engine 5’s technology in some pretty awesome ways.
   
3. Gunplay is very good, though not perfect which I will get to later. Although I am glad they did not streamline or get rid of the leaning feature from the previous games.
   
4. Hardcore gameplay that feels very reminiscent of the previous games in the series. I was anxious before release that some aspects of the game would be dulled down or, as I said earlier, streamlined for a newer audience. Thankfully, I am happy to say that the difficult and hardcore nature of surviving in The Zone has not been lost here, and it truly feels like a worthy successor to the previous S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games.
   
5. The music is FANTASTIC! And I am not just talking about the non-diegetic music, although it is very good too. I am mainly referring to the radio songs that play ambiently throughout towns, camps, etc. The developers themselves have also uploaded a few videos that just play songs from the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. radio, which I have been listening to for a while even before this game’s release (although I cannot understand anything they are saying, but Ukrainian sounds nice in my ear holes).
   
6. The story continues to maintain what makes The Zone, and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series as a whole, so unique. While I am not very far into the main storyline, I have completed several side missions throughout my time playing thus far, and it continues to maintain the same level of character, grittiness, and brutality that The Zone offers. From getting scammed by Bandits, to helping out a fellow Loner retrieve his friend’s body from a field of anomalies. A lot of games struggle to keep me invested when it comes to completing side quests, however, with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. it feels natural enough to the point where it just feels part of the job! Just an average day in The Zone.

1. Bugs and glitches are fairly common at the moment, although if you are a longtime fan of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series then you likely already have a strong tolerance for such things. I thankfully have not encountered anything entirely game breaking or major crashes throughout my time playing, although I have experienced a few soft-locks here and there.
   
2. Weapon and gear degradation and repair costs are a little overkill at the moment. While I do like the idea of having to keep my equipment maintained in the harsh conditions of the zone, I feel like both my weapons and outfits wear out way too quickly. Then the upkeep to keep everything repaired is far too high. Even after one quick expedition into The Zone, I’ll have to pay at least 5000 coupons on average just to keep even one piece of my equipment from breaking entirely. The problem only exacerbates itself when you add upgrades on top of that, which costs more coupons, and makes the repair costs significantly higher.
   
3. A-Life 2.0 is quite lacklustre at the moment, although it does still currently exist in a limited capacity. For those who are uninitiated, A-Life is a system originated from the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. trilogy that allows enemies to fight each other, conquer territory, change relations, etc. This means that no matter what the player is doing, the people and politics of The Zone constantly shifting and changing in real time, even without you having any involvement. And if you do decide to get involved, you have the opportunity to gain good relations with certain factions, all without any mission popups or quest markers, very ‘au naturel!’ With the current implementation, enemies really only spawn about a couple hundred metres away to get into a firefight with each other, and not much else. However, I was able to become friendly with The Loner’s after helping an outgunned duo take out a gang of bandits, getting better discounts and sell prices with the faction! Thankfully, the developers have acknowledged this system is not currently working as intended and is working on a proper fix soon.

1. Odd and downright strange control options. For some reason I am unable to properly bind all of the four quickslots to separate keys within the game itself. The way it is designed currently is very ‘console-fied’ to where you ‘tap’ to use the first quick slot, and then hold the same button for at least two seconds to use the second one. Same for slots three and four respectively. This is very off-putting coming from the original trilogy and is especially inconvenient when frantically trying to bandage myself in a firefight.
   
2. Missing control options that are completely absent from the keybind settings menu. The flashlight seems to be the most obvious example of this, which is bound to middle mouse button by default. Possibly the worst offenders of this issue are with the mouse movement options, with the inability to turn off mouse acceleration, mouse smoothing, or aim assist. While I understand some people do enjoy these options by default, for me personally I find it really neuters the overall responsiveness of mouse and keyboard play in my experience.
   
3. Sitting by the campfire feels very clunky at the moment, since you cannot use your PDA or check your inventory while doing so. In the original trilogy all you had to do was crouch next to the fire, which felt a lot simpler and more natural.
   
4. Optimisation is a big problem at the moment. I meet just slightly above the recommended specifications for the game with an RTX 3080 instead of the listed RTX 3070ti, with everything else listed being the exact same as said on the store page. Despite running at the recommended settings as stated here, with the ‘High Preset’ at 1440p and DLSS on performance mode, my frames per second can just barely claw into the high 40s low 50s on average. It often dips much lower in crowded areas and settlements with much more hitching and stuttering. Using Nvidia’s DLSS frame-generation does bring me up above 60 FPS, however, the latency becomes atrocious, with a heavy delay between me pressing a key, moving my mouse, or really doing anything in general. This is the largest of all the points because it really is my one major criticism of the game thus far. While I love the game despite it, the lack of optimisation is hard to tolerate at times.

As a long time S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fan, I have had a very good time with the game. It maintains the identity of the series without watering down what made the original trilogy so great. Even for newer fans of the series, I think there are some fantastic and memorable times to be had here. But, it might be worth waiting for a few patches, hotfixes, and optimisation improvements first if you have a low tolerance.

Dear god... I think I am an official Team Fortress 2 player now!

Blasting through contracts, covered in the blood and gore of my enemies. And while I have gotten decently good at the game since I first started, I have come to realise what the true magic of Team Fortress really is... the players, the community!

In other player versus player games, like Call of Duty or Battlefield, running and gunning through your enemies is about the extent of your interactions while in the game. In TF2, however, there is no better feeling than having the entire server, RED and BLU teams, forming a massive conga-line and going back and forth between both bases with the briefcases! Or partying in the enemies in your own base, doing the Kazotsky while people just randomly explode themselves around you! Or chilling on a random balcony having a few beers with the enemy team!

These moments, whether it is laughing hysterically at a hilarious death, or dancing the round away, made it all click for me as to why this game is so popular, and how it is has stood the test of time since its release nearly twenty years ago! While sure, being good with your team and winning the round is part of it, but at the end of the day, it turns out that the real Team Fortress 2 is -- dare I say it... the friends we made along the way(?).

I have begun to really enjoy my time with Team Fortress 2! I still get my butt handed to me in most matches by the sweats, but every once in a while I get to really come into my own, dominate the enemy, and steal the win for my team. The new Steam Game Recording feature also really helps me to analyse my gameplay and learn what I did right and wrong without much hassle, and humbly brag about my best moments to my friends.

Despite this, I doubt I can drag any of my friends to squad up with me. While I am getting used to the fast and sweaty gameplay, the preconceived notions of it definitely seem to steer them away, similarly to how I felt before diving into my Team Fortress Journey. And I think that is the main problem of this game, it is that initial intimidation that comes with such a high skill ceiling, ruled by the long time veterans that have been playing since day one. While sure, getting owned on your first time playing is obviously to be expected for the average Joe Shmoe, most people simply do not have the time or energy to put towards pushing past that beginner's stage. In that respect, the only answer I have for newcomers to Team Fortress 2 is to simply not take it seriously.

While I do like to play well, I generally do not like to take the game too seriously. However, that does lead to some pretty comedic moments when the enemy team becomes overly salty in the text chat. With that said, my philosophy for this game remains the same for any other, I'm just going to play to have fun. Thankfully, the combination of unique gameplay, characters/classes, as well as the hilarious, and sometimes wholesome community, really make this experience work sticking around for.

I hope to update this review again at 100+ hours if there is anything else I can think to add.

After all the love I have for the many first person shooters I have been playing across the years, I wanted to finally bite the bullet and play the legendary Team Fortress 2, something i have been putting off for a long while due to its extremely competitive reputation.

As much as I want to like this game for all its charm and characters, the gameplay for me is just way too sweaty to get into in 2024. A noob like myself going up against seasoned veterans who have been playing since 2007 is going to stand pretty much zero chance (and getting oneshot from across the map in the most obscure crevice possible does not give me the confidence to learn).

The kills I got and objectives I captured were definitely satisfying, and the teamwork based gameplay feels super solid too, each class building off each other like satisfying Lego bricks. I could absolutely see myself getting into the game with a more casual crowd, but at the moment I do not see how this could be accessible to anyone other than long-time Team Fortress or Counter Strike veterans.

I am still giving this game a thumbs up because it is a good game, a very good one in fact! It is just with such a huge barrier for entry created by an ocean of sweat, I am unsure how long it will take for me to start *actually* enjoying the game for what it is.

I have been waiting to demo this game for a long while and knew I would not be disappointed! I am super hyped for the full game, and may have to be a rare "day one purchase" for me!

As a fan of both Manhunt, Condemned: Criminal Origins, and David Szymanski's grand repertoire of other games, this scratches several itches all at once! Combat is snappy, brutal, fun, and satisfying! This is definitely the highlight of the game for me thus far.

While I am not a voice actor, to my uninitiated ear I think the voice-work is pretty good! The butchers' gravelly muttering and name calling feel very fitting for the gritty themes the game presents. It also feels fairly realistic and not too over-the-top for the scenario, which kind of adds a weird (but good) layer of "discomforting realism" to the whole situation, despite it not being a "realistic game" per say.

The enemy AI seems very interesting too. I was surprised when I encountered my first enemy that he did not make a straight line to end me, but rather waited to see how I would attack first. This was honestly quite refreshing, and adds a much needed layer of unpredictability to the butchers! I am hoping the AI will maintain this unpredictability throughout the course of the game, and spice things up here and there later on!

Furthermore, I love the overall themes, style, and atmosphere here! The only other game I have seen something similar be replicated is with Manhunt all the way back in 2003. I am hoping we can get more games that can replicate this same grungy, "high impact" style in the near future!

I will be eagerly following the development up until release! This is a type of game that I have always secretly wanted to be made at some point, but was too afraid to admit it until now.

Thanks David! Excellent work as per usual!

Easier than Halo 2 on Legendary difficulty.

After completing the standard missions, you can now play the DLC missions in Commander Mode. They also renamed "Practice Mode" to "Quick Play," a much more accurate name. Alongside that, there are plenty of performance improvements, with more to come in the near future.

To dispel the misinformation with many of the reviews here:
YOU CAN PLAY THIS DLC IN SINGLEPLAYER.

Select “practice” mode. Yes, I know the name is misleading, but it is the same game. You can unlock achievements, cosmetics, and everything you can do normally, just without the officer mental health system, and also there is a restart button (shocking I know).

For a mere $14 AUD, this DLC I think lives up to expectations. The maps are fun, unique, and immersive, and the hurricane theme absolutely adds to the gritty aesthetic of the base game. I do wish the hurricane theme was explored more within the gameplay elements of the game. Aside from the aesthetic and a few story beats it is really nothing more than just set dressing. Although that set dressing does look phenomenal! Also, in multiplayer only the host needs to own the DLC for everyone to play it, which is already a *major* thumbs up from me!

The three new maps are great too, not too big or small either. All of them look fantastic with the usual amount of painstaking detail applied here. There are a few cracks in the visuals I feel, however. The East side of the Narcos map for example just looks a bit *off* with that sky box for some reason. That said, it is still my favourite map of the DLC and absolutely deserving of the Home Invasion heading.

The new achievements however were an absolute *pain* to get. Some of them are difficult but fair challenges, such as Beat Cop: Complete ‘Narcos’ using only lethal pistols but without using grenades or launchers.
Others have some questionable wording like Hidden and Dangerous: Restrain all civilians in ‘Lawmaker’ without neutralizing any suspects. It is basically asking you to reach an S grade on the map.

The far most infuriating achievement however is Meldonin: Complete all ‘Dorms’ main objectives in five minutes. This was the most frustrating achievement to get as a solo player. Despite completing a run perfectly in nearly every aspect, there would almost always be one civilian that the AI teammates refused to arrest, or I would get one tapped right at the end of the mission.

My general philosophy when it comes to achievements is that they are supposed to be fun to complete, allowing players to engage in a new playstyle that is challenging but fair enough to be fun. For a solo player like myself, the Melodin achievement was neither fun nor fair. The map itself is very good though!

Aside from the maps with the DLC were some free additions too, like cosmetic items and three new guns, which are all very solid! The main big change however was the upgrade to Unreal Engine 5, which I have to say seems to be running well at least on my end. Although, I have noticed significant stuttering on Narcos, which thankfully was mitigated mostly with DLSS Frame Generation, however, this solution will not work for everyone. I will link my guide to enabling DLSS Frame Generation below if you have an RTX series GPU but before the 4000 series.

Going back to Unreal Engine 5, I hope the developers will utilise the technology that UE5 provides, such as lumen for global illumination, reflections, etc. There was already an experimental mod uploaded to Nexus that allows a small peak into what this might look like, and while the cracks are obvious, there are many areas that look absolutely *stunning* with lumen technology (also the way that flashlights bounce around the room is super immersive). All of this is to say that I hope that the developers will consider adding lumen in some capacity. I have no idea if it is possible given the maps were designed for baked Unreal Engine 4 lighting, but if the possibility is there to explore, I would at least hope to hear some word about it from the developers.

Anyway, that is enough rambling for now. Should you get the Home Invasion DLC? Yes, absolutely! For this price, I think it is everything a DLC needs to be.

Guide to enable DLSS Frame Generation on older RTX GPUs (should help significantly with performance issues):
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3295863485

The game's motto "the dark side of cozy" is a phrase that resonates with me on a personal level. As a long-time fan of the Blade Runner series and other cyberpunk media, I have found most of this genre’s atmosphere, soundtracks, and visuals to be so relaxing and tranquil. However, this has caused some existential struggle within me, because despite loving the odd "coziness" these worlds emanate, they are inherently dystopian futures, the worst possible outcome for humanity. Yet, somehow, falling to sleep to the ambience of the neon-soaked streets is the only thing that will allow me to sleep these days.

Dystopika is the embodiment of everything I have written above. It is relaxing, cozy, dark, and ambient. The anxiety and pressures of life seem to melt away even for just a few minutes. Constructing the darkest, most miserable, dystopian city my mind can conjure, with every meticulous detail correctly positioned and placed, is enough to pull me out of a bad mindset and feel some sense of odd *validation*. It is as if the game is saying, in all its umbral windy whispers "Yes, that feeling is misery. Weighty. Chronic. Misery. Let it wash away in the rain and run down the gutters. This is *home*.”

I am still not sure why I find cyberpunk cities so appealing. Maybe it is the neon lights, the sound of the rain, or the urban ambience, but to finally have a game that is just purely the cozy side of cyberpunk, with no goals, no management, it feels validating. It is the perfect way to unwind after a long day, or when getting ready for bed. My only complaint is I cannot walk the streets in the first-person perspective and experience my cities at the most gritty and personal level possible. However, with the roadmap outlining a plethora of future content and the promise of mod support, I am dying to see what else this game has to offer.

Thank you, developer Matt, for creating this game!

Mind blowing gameplay.

It is crazy that this original version of Battlefront 2 with a few mods installed can look and run better than the new re-release while having a significantly lower file size. Modders who work for free once again outdo the efforts of an established business and studio.

I have been an avid fan of the Slender Man series ever since I was young. It is a point in time within the internet horror space that is so nostalgic for me, and the very nature of the Slender Man himself is still iconic to this day. I originally bought this game in 2013 when it first came out and played through it multiple times.

I have to say that now with the enhanced graphics and new levels, it is the definitive Slender game. The scares definitely hold up, though the new extra-level 'nightmare' added with the latest update leaves more to be desired. It feels a little too basic and uninteresting but adds some context to the overall story. That aside there is plenty of potential for what is next! The graphics are amazing, the story is unsettling, and the levels are terrifying. I hope this can bring the Slender Man mythos back to the forefront!

With new chapters, multiplayer, and community modding on its way, I think now is the perfect time to relive the horrors ten years later!