Recent reviews by FloodFetter

I played for 43 hours and things were mostly fine. Occasionally it would crash, but not a huge problem. Starting today, I can no longer play without the game crashing. Completely un-playable now.

Revised: I figured out the game was crashing because I was on an ultrawide monitor (3440x1440). It works on a 2560x1440 screen. I'm leaving the negative review, because it should be stable in either case.

This made me very nauseous after a very short time playing. The appearance isn't really impressive either.

Early impressions after 15+ hours, game is good.

I have had no crashes or graphics performance issues as others have complained of.
My system is i9-10850k with EVGA 3080.
I am able to achieve 60FPS on the highest quality settings with HDR at 1440p.

In areas that are stormy (mist in the air, etc) frame rate may drop to 45FPS for a fraction of a second, but this has been a non-issue for me. Quite literally it sits at 60FPS 99.999% of the time.

---One big complaint, there is no official support for ultrawide resolution. I am really not happy about this. I think it is inexcusable.

Sweet graphics, tight controls, challenging and rewarding. Solid weapons and bloody chunks of flesh everywhere. One of the best platformers I've played in many years. The game forces you to get better...play on, and you will. Like all great platformers, Valfaris beckons you to come back from death and try again.

One letdown for me...the soundtrack is sub-par. Old-school platformers had much better soundtracks than this. Where they hit on graphics, the soundtrack is a bust.

Worst game ever. GG Steam.

Definitely a top 10 all-time game. Even as the graphics age, the game remains an artistic masterpiece.

I've played a lot of baseball in my life and I've played a lot of video games. I've also played this game a lot. Trust me, the longer you play it, the more you discover it really is just trash. Never ending pop-ups to the catcher...so many other things just as improbable and every bit as irritating.

So, for SMB2, the devs claim to have addressed some of the issues like the ridiculous number of pop-ups to the catcher, but they add PROCs that include player injuries? Neither is desirable as an actual feature of the game. It's like replacing one thing with something that is equivalent, but then for SMB2 they want $30.

Okay, apparently the devs need some clarity, so listen and get this straight. Your game essentially fills the role of an arcade baseball game. It has some sim elements that actually add to the game, but basically just seasons and some elements of team development. SMB1 the team development is a horrible grind. I should get SMB2 for free after SMB1 garbage. Your game fills the arcade baseball genre roll, and the only reason it has enjoyed any success is because there simply lacks a decent game to fill it's place.

The devs want a somewhat realisitic physics-based experience, realisitic baseball, horrible interface, attempt to add in too many sim elements...ultimately the game is junk. I've felt this way and essentially hated the game the entire time I've played it. I'm writing a review now because I hear what they claim to have improved in the new version and there is no way in hell it's worth $30.

Devs either need to learn more about baseball or more about how to make an enjoyable game that doesn't try to [awkardly] fit in multiple genres. My assumption, you sat the bench in little league and cried on the way home like the stupid animations in this game. How in the hell can you have pitchers throwing 100+mph and think it's reasonable to have crying animation? Do you know how annoying that ♥♥♥♥ is? I imagine you all were bullied by small children when you were 18 years old.

I'll buy SMB2 in a bundle and they get their 50 cent cut, otherwise no.

Northgard is a very pleasant and enjoyable game. A bit of Sid Meier's Civ and Banished meshed together, set in a Norse mythology atmosphere of sorts.

There is room for improvement, but with 50 hours of playtime under my belt, I would say that I still have quite a bit of work to master the strengths of each clan and how to successfully win in each possible way.

From the outset, it seems that Wisdom and Trade victories are a bit "overpowered" (perhaps a bit unbalanced). I can't say this with certainty until I have more hours played. Depending on the clan you choose, there are different approaches. To truly evaluate the game, many playthroughs are necessary.

Despite this, it is my impression that there is a slight lack of balance, and possibly a lack of depth. This will not likely deter you from playing many hours, and I believe improvements will be coming along nicely while in early access.

One point to mention; I would hope to see a more gradual transition going into and out of winter. It isn't a terrible issue, but one that I would prefer to be improved upon.

Tl;dr
Great game, particularly while still in early access. Pleasant graphics, relaxing game, can be easy or reasonably challenging in single-player. I have not tried multiplayer yet. I see potential for very many hours of play.

It's been more than three years since I last played Endless Space. Seeing that it's on sale this weekend makes me remember how much I really wanted to like this game. You hear people say that a lot about games...no ♥♥♥♥, eh? Bought it, of course you want to like it.

Skip the blah and straight to the TLDR summary;

Endless Space is boring and disappointing. Though somewhat challenging, it's dull and doesn't do enough to hold my interest. End result...to live up to the challenge, I'd be doing so only for the achievements or just out of complete hardheadedness. There are plenty of better games to play, and most of us have friends and/or family that deserve more of our time than this.

Artillerists is like a really bad, unbalanced version of the old boardgame Battleship, which has been re-created as a video game quite a few times and much better than this.

This is a complete guessing game, at least to the extent that I have played it. You can earn money to spend in an upgrade shop (the Artillery, where you buy "abilities"), but you have to grind out guessing games to earn the money.

Whereas this is obviously a Battleship style game (obvious even before you purchase the game), what you don't know ahead of time is how unbalanced it is. By the third mission of the main campaign, you have 2 mortars in a 6x6 grid. The mortars take up one block each, so you can only take 2 hits and then you lose. The AI has more than 6 blocks of units in a 6x6 grid, and the game gives you no idea how many the AI has at the beginning of each mission. I haven't made it past the third mission of the main campaign (as of this review) because this is just a pitiful waste of my time when I could be watching paint dry instead.

The AI also has "abilities" to hit multiple blocks, whereas you are stuck with grinding to buy lesser abilities early in the game, and they are really expensive and underpowered, particularly when the AI has some ♥♥♥♥ that can hit like 5 blocks at once as well as at least one airstrike (which hits 2 blocks) by this third mission.

You can use radar and airstrike abilities if you have purchased them at this point, but they are very expensive. When I say expensive I mean you will grind out clicking on grids trying to win missions in order to gain money. There are side-missions in which you can gain money, but the clicking and guessing is just horribly boring. In the game Battleship it's essentially the same, except you know what you're up against (the same units as you have, and there is a little more fun to the minimal planning and some strategy involved even though it amounts to guessing).

This is just a poorly thought out game. Nobody likes an unbalanced guessing-game. There are people that pop up with irritating dialog as well, which just makes it even more annoying because that makes more clicks to grind out.

Count this as an extremely negative review. HUGE thumbs down!