Recent reviews by Ed, Edd, and E.D.

I was prepared for disappointment with this new version of Pinball FX, so I can at least say it met my expectations. What was a pretty fun, if expensive, series of pinball games has become even more expensive, lifeless, and has apparently sold its soul in the name of pure profits.

Look, I understand, pinball is expensive to make, especially for a niche audience. You might not be able to afford giving players tables for free based on what they bought in previous titles. I also get the meh-fest that was Zen Pinball Party on mobile, where many tables just don't really have a long lasting impression on you and the controls can be troublesome. But there is a line you don't cross, at least with me. The moment you add a premium currency to the game, on top of your existing money-sink, AND have a subscription pass that can only with bought with funny money that doesn't even unlock all tables for play, that goes far enough to cross that line twice over.

It doesn't help that the one sample table I got to play is just absolute garbage - visually, it all blends together way too much, the theme of the table is one of the most basic themes one could suggest, and the controls... Oh, My God, It's a special kind of bad when I can routinely hit certain shots one moment but the very next the game just decides its not your day - this has happened twice in the span of 15 minutes of play, where shots I could make accidentally over and over suddenly refuse to be made when it counts, blowing two otherwise flawless runs of their respective missions.

I hate saying this, but this is by far the worst game in the series. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

Definitely enjoyed this one - this is another one of those games where playing together adds to the experience far more than playing alone. The isolated oceans of Raft, though daunting, definitely encourage you to keep pressing onward.

IF YOU ARE PLAYING ON THE STEAM DECK, however, note that your game's stability may vary wildly. My Partner's deck has had worse performance but has behaved more than mine, which runs better but has crashed and force restarted Steam OS' Gaming mode several times while playing, undoing up to 10 minutes of progress and removing recently collected items each time (mitigated if you are not hosting a multiplayer game but still...) This, even though both systems are using identical game and performance settings across the board.

Unstable, unreliable, unforgiving (at first), but alright with friends - your mileage may vary. I have had to restart the game several times and my Steam Deck at least once due to a server forgetting my place and save data, and making me fear that I lost my save… and for a second it actually did lose it, but a full reboot fixed that issue. I would recommend this game only if you have friends who would want to play and if you’re all willing to figure out the game, both in how to play and how to deal with the technical issues that can crop up (even with personal servers).

There's a lot of things to like and not to like about Project Wingman.

On one hand, the Game itself looks and plays great, The missions are a lot of fun, It's very satisfying to be zipping around and nailing targets back to back, and if you're an Ace Combat fan [particularly of Shattered Skies] there are quite a few call backs and homages within the game itself. Though the mission structure is less score/time based, The variety of missions available more than make up for it. Like its contemporary, it supports flight sticks, though they need to be manually configured. Unlike its Contemporary, it also supports Virtual Reality Headsets across all modes, and even accepts the TrackIR accessory for head tracking without VR. The music is alright, if a little uninspired, but since you'll typically be focused on the waves and waves of fighters and ground targets, you probably won't pay it much mind.

HOWEVER, For every nice thing they have taken from its inspiration's DNA, they've had to have taken one thing that [for me] drives me nuts. Missions can take a good while, even the first few missions of Project Wingman can take 20-30 minutes each, and practically every mission is multi-segmented. Usually that point wouldn't be a problem but when there are Zero Checkpoints (Come on, even Ace Combat gave us that decency starting from the 5th game), Boss fights consisting of multiple aircraft who take far more hits and are unreasonably manoeuvrable making missions drag on even longer, when you typically have run down of all your special weaponry [and if you're not a good shot, most of your missiles], AND you have no return line to retreat to to recover and recharge [WHAT?!] I feel a bit justified in saying even on the lower difficulties you could find yourself struggling.

Ultimately, however, I can't find myself disliking the game enough to not recommend it. It's still very much a solid title, and anyone who likes Ace Combat or its ilk will find something to enjoy in Project Wingman.

Yes. SO MUCH YES. For a reboot/remake/whatever-the-hell-you-call-it, this has to be one of my favourite modern day games to come out in some time. The visuals, the gameplay, the length, and (Especially) the music all feel just right. Put it this way: before this, I thought I would never enjoy any sort of FPS whose name didn't start with M and rhymed with "pet droid time", and this game basically flipped that ideology on its head. Even at full price (which was what I paid for it on PS4 back in the day (yeah,I have two copies...)), I still felt like I got my money's worth out of it, and at the price it's at now, I'd strongly suggest giving it a try if you haven't already.

Now let's just hope that Doom Eternal, when/if it comes out, can hold true to this game's good intentions.

A short but fun three hour game, if a bit overpriced. Coming from the first game, I'm surprised that the developers decided to go for a different genre this time [the first game was a standard 3D platformer]. If you like the idea of point-and-click puzzle games, you'll most likely enjoy this. I'd wait for a sale though.

Hard to recommend, sadly. Even if you have a sizable audio library to work around the issue of having no YouTube music integration, like I do, It's hard to take this as a rhythm game. The auto-generated charts, which borrows its magic from the audiosurf games, regularly feel like they are mismatched to the song when playing. While that was excusable in the surf games due to the plethora of modes and having to make as many songs as possible work in as many modes as possible, in shield, you only have a regular mode and an excercise mode, and the chart generation engine seems to have not been modified to take this into account. That's before we get into the unfortunate difficulty spikes in elite mode that make it very difficult to hit notes (who thought that having two reds so close together timewise and far enough spacewise one is always off the HMD's FOV was a good idea to have in the generator?)

It is a great way to exercise, I will give the game that, and it is very fun when it comes to letting loose and going for artistic points rather than technical points, but unfortunately there really isn't too much to like if you're a serious rhythm game fan, even less so if you have very few albums or songs downloaded.

Great presentation and sound design but little to hold onto after it's done and as soon as it really gets you hooked, it's over. Puzzles were unique in design but simple to move past and the story, which should be a big driving force, leaves little impact until, once again, the very end. While there are two separate endings, the game plays exactly the same right up until that one and only decision meaning there is very little replay value. There's not even anything else beyond being able to play with the game's interactive soundtrack, compounding my issues with the game's style over substance. I'd consider waiting for a sale if you want to give it a try. The asking price is just too much for an hour's worth of play and (I'm guessing) 2 minutes of replay value (At time of review, I haven't seen the alternate ending) not even an alternate ending [just smart enough to avoid the fool's trap the first time around] that for me, is visually impressive but toothless in design.

(Note: Played using Windows Mixed Reality Headset Via SteamVR - Your mileage with Real HTC Vive Hardware may vary)
TL:DR - This tech demo, showcasing CAOTS [Controller Assisted, On the spot] movement is not perfect, but works far better than it has any right to.

Full thoughts: It might not be something that you think about, but being able to move around a world freely without having to teleport everywhere does add a certain je ne sais qui that makes this demo stick out on my mind as one of the more memorable experieces in my short time in VR so far. There are a couple of hitches here and there (most likely due to my hardware and its limitations rather than the game itself: I sometimes walk in the wrong direction (usually about 45 to 60 degrees off my true walking motion), since MR seems to incorrectly guess where my hands are), but other than that, it was insane being able to walk, run and climb whereever I wanted to go. I would love to see something like this implemented in the future, as VR inches its way closer to a more immersive experience. I'll share some more of my thoughts later on a YouTube video, after I spend more time exploring how this game works. It's an interesting experience worth trying.

NOTE: I would highly recommend playing the previous entries to the Zero Escape Series (999 and Virtue's Last Reward OR Zero Escape: The Nonary Games [which has both]) In release order, to get the best experience out of Zero Time Dllemma.
TL:DR: Might not look or be as well rounded as the other two games in the series but still a good series finale.

Full opinion: While I still liked Zero Time Dilemma, it felt less put together than the other two, and two major reasons for that are that the game jumps from the Visual Novel format of the previous two games to cutscenes and cinematics, and that many of the major plot twists, though not the biggest ones, were hinted at too much, lessening their impact when they were supposed to hit. As for the cinematics, you'd think it'd be a step up from the traditional portrait-text-occasional-CG affair, and while it is used rather interestingly in the game, the animations [which are stiff, unnatural and very limited (You never see characters start/stop running, interacting with the environment without a cutaway, get killed off on-screen, etc.)] and the visual presentation of the game brings it down significantly. If it wasn't trying to compensate for the Nintendo 3DS, which was what this game was also released onto [As well as the PSVita and the PS4], it probably would've hit a lot harder with the attempt of a more realistic presentation.

That being said, it is still very much Zero Escape, with all the puzzles, plot twists and everything being (mostly) consistent with the other games. The story itself is enjoyable for the most part, even though there are a few points that I feel could use a bit of polish. The rooms' puzzles are more difficult at points than previous installments, however, to the point where I have a notebook filled with tiny pages of notes for rooms and the info certain scenes contained. When it comes to game-critical password entry screens, info can be hidden almost anywhere. By the time you get to the near-end of the game with only a few endings left to go, you'll still be asking too many more questions than is necessary [in my opinion at least]. The gameplay itself is solid though, and the story managed to surprise me several times. It might not be the best way for a series to end, but it's still a good send-off in my opinion.