Recent reviews by or10nsharkfin

Hardcore fans will express their undying love for the first Dark Souls. It's easy to see why - there's a lot that Dark Souls gets right in execution. It's one of those games that many should aspire to be. Dark Souls II was less well-received but I still maintain that it was a decent addition to the series.

Now, among hardcore fans, Dark Souls III looks a bit polarizing. I see a lot of folks who praise its changes in gameplay mechanics, I see others criticizing its overall quality and seemingly lower difficulty.

The thing is, Dark Souls is not a game that's difficult. Dark Souls is a game that's all about improvement and repetition. As you improve, you get better at the game. As you get better, it gets easier. By the time Dark Souls III came out, veteran Dark Souls players have been through the ringer more than a few times to the point where one of them can just dodge-roll through the entire game and still beat it. Hell, a guy even beat all three games plus their DLCs with just a Broken Straight Sword.

The point is, Dark Souls is a game about skill. Levels don't matter. Armor doesn't matter. What matters is how well you're able to use those weapons and abilities at your disposal. They (happily) did away with armor improving to give each equipment set a minimal amount of functionality while giving players leeway to make their characters look however they want - there's a reason Dark Souls III can sometimes be referred to "Fashion Souls" (I think this actually applies to all of the games, but I'm not sure).

It looks intimidating because it's done a good job of fooling you into believing it is. Everything in Dark Souls is absolutely killable. If you die, you're the one that made a mistake. There's probably only one or two situations in the entire game that feels genuinely "cheap" to players, but all in all Dark Souls III is a fair experience that's easy to pick up and learn for anyone new to the series.

Definitely giving it a whole-hearted recommendation.

For those not aware, Negligee is at its core a Hentai visual novel censored for a Steam release. An adult patch can be found and is free to download, easy to install. The file for the adult visualizations can also be easily taken out for the proper censored playthroughs.

Though, let's be honest, we're all here for the porn.

That's okay, though. There's absolutely no shame in admitting it.

You see through the eyes of Hannah, a recently-promoted manager of a lingerie shop named Negligee. For some unknown reason, her previous manager had decided to quit and at the last minute the task of finding a new hire falls on her shoulders. Depending on your choices, you have a total of three options: Charlotte, a college undergrad just starting her secondary schooling, Sophie, a second-year undergrad going to the same school to become a fashion designer, and Jasmin, a dancer at a local strip joint. The visual novel goes day-to-day as Hannah "struggles" to pick the perfect hire, and make friends with these three girls.

The quality of the visuals is impressive, but pretty "generic" as an Anime visual novel -- I mean, not really surprising. I'm speaking as someone whose only VN experience was Nekopara, and that was it. Unfortunately there's no voice work in this game -- English, Japanese, or otherwise. I was slightly disappointed by this (although I hate listening to porn with the sound on, just makes it awkward).

The dialog is the main selling point of a visual novel, I'm assuming, and honestly I enjoyed the dialog a lot more than I feel like I should have.

There really isn't a whole lot to say about the game. It's got some glaring spelling/grammar issues in the text, but the character designs were pretty neat and if you have the adult patch installed, there's a few extra scenes that are pretty neat to watch through.

The game takes place almost entirely inside the lingerie store, though, and as expected there's a lot of underwear involved. With one of the choices, the main cast members are wearing some really nice outfits. This is great for me because seeing a woman in lingerie is literally one of my fetishes.

Seeing a woman period, even...

Anyways! I'm recommending it for anyone who likes Visual Novels, but beyond that I guess it's nice to have something to relieve yourself with every now and then.

The negative reviews found on this page are all based around performance issues and the presence of microtransactions. While it's a scummy business practice to line a single-player experience with "advantages" by purchasing in-game items with real life money, the microtransactions and DLC are entirely optional and are not necessary to have in order to enjoy the game. Support the game, not the DLC/Microtransactions.

This review will be taking into account all performance issues running on a 1440p Monitor on the latest GTX 1070 Graphics Card, as well.

As having been a Deus Ex fan since the original, I was excited to hear that the 2011 Human Revolution would be receiving a sequel starring everyone's favorite badass covert-ops augmented super-agent Adam Jensen - the man with a gravelly voice and friggin' swords for arms. Mankind Divided picks up two years after Human Revolution. Adam Jensen is re-introduced into a world that hates Augs, the people who decided to go through with physical cybernetic augmentations to their bodies. It's caused a massive rift between the two very differernt societies and Prague is the epicenter for what could be a new flashpoint. It's up to Adam Jesnsen and his bio-mechanical enhancements to uncover the conspiracy and take out the bad guys. Collateral Damage notwithstanding.

There have been some serious gameplay improvements from Human Revolution, but Mankind Divided essentially plays almost the same as its predecessor. Its gunplay feels a lot better as ADS is now set to the Right Mouse Button rather than the Middle -- which is now, by default, reserved for a toggled augment of your choosing. The cover system has actually been slightly improved with the addition of more dynamic movement while in cover. Once you get in cover and look around you can press Space to either move to a different spot or to entirely new cover altogether. Adam can now grab onto ledges more fluidly, as well. Overall, while it still plays the same, it feels so much better.

This, I think, is a good thing. I really dislike when a game series drastically changes its own mechanics for the sake of being "fresh and new." Veterans from Human Revolution will feel right at home while it still feels fresh and new all the same.

The Augments are definitely a lot better, as well. You have all of the same as you could get in Human Revolution plus some additional "hidden" augmentations that are unlocked after a story sequence early on in the game. These bring an entirely different feel to the game and are very welcome additions.

Now, I can't talk about this game without mentioning the performance - lest I be crucified by the vindictive hands of the internet. I run this game on an i5-4690k overclocked to 4.0 GHz, 16GB DDR3 Memory @ 2400 Hz, and an MSI Gaming X GeForce GTX 1070 8G. I'm well past the recommended specifications of the game and yet I do suffer some performance issues at 1440p. My framerates flucutate anywhere between 40 to 70, but after turning a few settings down I maintain anywhere between 50 to 80 depending on where I am in the game world. The game obviously needs to have an optimization patch, and it needs it sooner rather than later.

However, performance has not impacted my ability to play the game -- although despite my 17+ hour running time I'm not very far, yet -- as of completing this review, I'd completed what I would consider the "First Chapter" of the game's story and had just barely begun the next. I am playing on its highest default difficult, "Give Me Deus Ex." So far, I'm having a hell of a time with it. There's a lot to explore and uncover, and a lot of options to get around to your objectives.

I feel that this time around, Eidos Montreal finally got it right by bringing us as close to a modern Deus Ex experience as they can. It will never surpass the original game, and nobody should ever think that it would, but it's definitely very high up there for me.

EDIT: I've gone a little bit further in the story and can confirm that just about every section so far can be done either through brute-force combat, covert stealth, or a mish-mash of both. On the highest difficulty it makes for a very tense experience. So far I've not run into what might be considered a "boss fight" through fighting like in Human Revolution. I've also just reached the first major branch in the story and am eager to see what the consequences of it are.

EDIT EDIT: I have fully completed the game plus its side missions on Give Me Deus Ex Difficulty. I can confirm that the ending is definitely extremely disappointing and looks to set up the game for future sequels and DLCs. It feels like this was only the "first chapter" of a much larger plot that the developers seemingly wanted to do.

The whole game can be completed within 20 hours, shorter if done at a lower difficulty. However, the game itself was very well paced despite the ending. It was an extremely enjoyable experience overall.

i5-4690k OC'd to 4.0 GHz
16GB Memory, 2400 Hz
MSI Gaming X GeForce GTX 1070 8G


With what little I've played of it, I was able to land on two separate planets and docked at a station. My experience so far pretty much confirms what the general consensus has been -- that this game was overhyped as hell, and does not meet any of the lofty expectations we'd placed on it.

What I will commend the game for doing is providing a vast sandbox for us to explore and discover, but beyond that there are very few redeeming factors.

Performance is spotty, at best, but luckily my experience wasn't hampered by huge framerate drops. I was able to run the game. While in game, however, I ran into mouse-aiming issues where my mouse would lock up and my camera would swing around on its own, sometimes erratically. This seems to happen whenever the game loads up new assets, and it happens often.

Beyond all of that, though, even for the first two hours of the game No Man's Sky commits the fatal sin of just being extremely boring. Exploration is the biggest draw to this game, but unfortunately there isn't a whole lot of variation. Randomly generated planetary bodies is an amazing feature to have in theory, but there needs to be more substance to the game beyond just exploration. At least Elite: Dangerous presented more options.

I'm currently requesting a refund. I can only recommend this game if it goes on sale. I cannot find anything in the game that justifies a $60 price tag, and we as gamers should be ashamed for buying into the pre-release hype pumped into the game.

Technical issues aside, this is a very solid entry into the XCOM series, but let's go ahead and talk about the performance: This, really, is unacceptable. Thankfully, XCOM is not necessary a game where performance can make or break your overall experience, but it is still ridiculous that even though I'm running last year's mid-range specifications (i5-4690k, not overclocked, GTX 970) I'm still seeing constant frame rate drops during gameplay, cutscenes, and even in the menus and Geoscape mode. I average somewhere around 45 across the board, 60 during standard gameplay and combat; 30 in cutscenes and loading screens, and I'm lucky to get 50 when viewing the Avenger carrier.

However, with that being said this is still a very good game. Running through the second-lowest difficulty I was able to easily make my way through the campaign and complete it, with moderate losses and a fair share of failed missions. (I played it all night on Friday, all through the day on Saturday, and didn't go to bed until I'd completed the final mission. It was 4:30 Sunday morning when I'd finally done so)

Replay value for this game is amazing. Every decision you make can make or break your playthrough. On its highest difficulty levels, XCOM is as unforgiving as its classic grandfather. I foresee many different playthroughs with this game.

I would give this game my recommendation, but if you're wary of it based on its current performance issues than I don't blame you for wanting to wait a little while longer. Just know that, technical issues aside, this is still a very solid entry in the XCOM series, a worthy follow-up to the Enemy Unknown reboot in 2012.

There were exactly six dogs.

Temmie doesn't count.

This...I really don't know what to say.

I guess I can start by saying that, despite its lack of dedicated servers, CoD: Advanced Warfare has finally done something great with the series -- and after the disaster that was Infinity Ward's abhorrent Ghosts debacle (Seriously, their PR management was just bloody abysmal) it was time that Call of Duty got a much-needed facelift. While CoD: Advanced Warfare isn't exactly changing the wheel, here, it's still doing enough to make it probably the best entry into the series since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Let's start this review off by saying that the standard CoD multiplayer formula hasn't changed. The progression system is still intact. It's still very fast-paced. Weapons are still basically railguns with little recoil. If you're tired of the same formula, it makes sense and you'll probably be turned away from this game due to the fact that, well, it hasn't really changed.

Advanced Warfare, however, changes things up by introducing more mobility. It makes it feel like an entirely different type of game, now -- while still retaining the basic and fundamental CoD formula.

In its default matchmaking playlists, every player has an Exo Suit, which gives them the ability to double-jump using boosters, boost while in the air to change their trajectory, or even boost on the ground to give themselve a bigger advantage in avoiding oncoming fire. The only thing it's missing is the ability to run along walls -- Yes, comparisons to Titanfall will be made because it may seem, at first, that the movement system is entirely based off of the parkour-like Titanfall infantry, but there are enough differences to where it just feels like it belongs in a Call of Duty game while still being a very welcome feature.

This game also introduces loot drops to the series. Supply Drops will give you various items with which you can customize your in-game avatar -- and it is varied, as you can completely customize your operator, choosing from default faces, gender, even the uniform from head to toe. Call of Duty, for the first time ever, has finally allowed us to personalize the game -- albeit with some obvious limitations. However, the limited character customization is not the only thing that comes with the loot drops -- you also have variants of existing weapons. While it's not done fully in the style of Borderlands, the game gives you weapon variants with more advantages and disadvantages with their stats and functionality. Like, for example, I have an AK-12 as part of my default loadout that has increased damage but lower accuracy when compared to the default weapon; it also looks slightly different with a model change.

I won't really bother with an in-depth look at Single Player. It's the same affair -- and besides, not a whole lot of people actually care. It's unfortunate to say, but it's the reality of Call of Duty. Hell, when I finished installing the whole game the first thing I did was hop into the multiplayer.

On the technical side of things, Advanced Warfare is nothing to scoff at. This game is true next-gen (if you choose to believe that). While PC gamers have been blessed with a wide variety of fantastic-looking games, this game can finally add itself into that lineup. It, while still having the same Call of Duty feeling we've had for the past several years, has upped its texture resolution, and increased fidelity on modern systems. In single-player, cutscenes are essentially pre-rendered and highly realistic, while the gameplay itself is modeled, visually, to look like one massive cutscene, by itself.

The game is fluid and seamless for both KB + M as well as a Windows Gamepad (if that's what you want to go for). Both playstyles are more than viable, no matter how blasphemous that might be for the "PC Gaming Master Race."

All of these put together makes Advanced Warfare probably one of the better FPS experiences in recent memory, though really all that means is that I haven't exactly played a lot of great shooters in the past two years. I have no trouble giving this time an honest reccomendation for everyone who isn't exactly tired of Call of Duty, and is interested in trying its newest iteration out.

Just going to say, I'm only an hour or so into the game and already I'm starting to get an old-school vipe. This game really makes me harken back to the olden days of computer RPGs where everything was gloriously complicated with little to no hand-holding, no convoluted tutorials on how to do menial tasks in a video game...Divinity: Original Sin is the successor to just about all classic cRPGs of the late 90s. It stands up on its own next to games like Baldur's Gate II, Planescape: Torment, and Fallout II. Larian did their best to create an enriching and engrossing experience and came out on top with this absolute gem of an RPG.

That's enough of me stroking the developers' egos. What did I find wrong with this game? Honestly, very little, and I try my best to find flaws in just about all games I play no matter how much I might enjoy them. My complaints about D:OS are very nit-picky. It's good that they decided to go through Early Access for a while, because from what I've played through there are very little bugs and issues that might cripple the game.

Not unexpected from an Alpha for it to be unfinished and extremely buggy, but what's currently being provided in RUST is definitely enjoyable and intense with the same feeling you get when running into other players in games like DayZ -- not knowing if whether or not they're friendly or they intend to feed you raw meat and watch you die of poison.

Can't wait to see what they can pull off in future updates to the game. Looking forward to them. :)

I could make this as detailed as I want, but considering I've only had, like, less than half of an hour to play it, I'm just gonna go ahead and state what I've learned about this game over my short period of time of playing it.

It's Medieval II: Total War, without the real-time battles. It's also got an EXTREMELY intricate and detailed political and feudal system that could be used in whatever Song of Ice and Fire video game that would have the potential to be released -- and yes, Crusader Kings II has that type of personality. You can marry as a king, then go off on a romp and sleep with every lady in the kingdom to have illegitimate children. Your wife could then leave you, raise an army, and kill the ever-living ♥♥♥♥ out of you if you're not prepared. Your brother can turn against you in the middle of a massive campaign, leaving you alone and surrounded. Your allies can stab you in the back. It's a grand strategy game that has every risk to every action imaginable -- and good God, is it addicting.

I can't recommend this game enough if you don't already have it. The Complete Package was worth the money spent on it.