Recent reviews by scruball

First Civilization game ever, and I played them all, that really disapointed me. Usually a Civ type of game would make me feel satisfaction, even when I loose, but not this one. It feels like a mobile game at best. Very limited in scope, gameplay and everything. It doesn't feel even remotelly historical. It feels like throwing dice, with no deeper strategy or mechanics. I am very tempted to refund the game.

Update: Since this still isn't available to the purchasers outside of PSN supported countries, changing my review back to negative.
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Update: Since Sony reversed it's decision, I now give the game a positive review, for the developer only. Too much trust has been lost to easily trust Sony any time soon.
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Due to changing the way the login for this game works, months after it's release, a move that I perceive as hostile to the consumer, I will not be buying any Sony products in the future. Not PS games, not earbuds, not even AA batteries.

With almost 2000 games in my Steam library alone, from now on, Sony published games are banned from purchase by myself.

Too bad, as I was enjoying the game, but with this move all the fun was sucked out of it, with a move that completely ruined any good will or trust that was still left with Sony trademark.

Very disapointed and I will vote with my wallet. I urge you to do the same to signal that these kind of anti-consumer practices, by any company or trademark, will not fly with us as customers.

If you enjoyed such games of yore as "Neverwinter Nights" and "Baldur's gate", this is for you.

I am now addicted to this game. Though it needs some more spit and polish here and there, it is so good.

The gameplay and overall feel Is so much as the first "Neverwinter Nights" and the locations are akin to the first Baldur's gate.

A wonderful quirk are the special multi-choice, skill check events that are presented from the pages of a "choose your own adventure" game-book.

The game on top has the Kingdom management element, which at times turns into race with time and introduces a wonderful dynamic and feel of urgency. Either by deciding between multiple choices, assigning advisers to deal with events or projects, by constructing buildings and sometimes even picking up the sword yourself to deal with threats you progress and expand your kingdom. Of course it includes a healthy dose of diplomacy, spying and moral choices. there is also romance.

The game is just wonderful - it makes me happy, as few games have, and huge part of it is nostalgia for the old Bioware, Black Isle and Obsidian titles.

Mafia 3 is broken bad.

The story seems to be great, though gameplay feels very repetitive.

The problem is on a R9 290X, i3-4130 and 16 GB RAM the game runs at 27 FPS avg. (post FPS unlock patch) on highest settings and at 37 FPS avg. on Lowest. In a firefight I lag and die.

At times the game be on Highest or Lowest settings dips below 15 FPS and is frustrating to almost the point of being straight out unplayable.

Awful experience.

Is this game good? - Yes.

Is it worth it? - It depends.

Are you gonna enjoy it? - It's complicated.

In my initial review, I did not recommend this game. I was somewhat wrong. If you are aware of what you are getting yourself into with Paradox games and you are into it, if you played Hearts of iron games before, this will be the best experience you had yet.

For others that do not know what they get themselves into with Hearts of Iron game, this might be a good place to start, however keep in mind, this will not be easy and you WILL be sinking a lot of your free time to figure it out. In the end, depending if you are into that it will be a very rewarding experience. However if you don't have the time to learn the game, you will not have the best experience.

In my initial review I was frustrated at how with a seemingly superior force I was unable to conquer enemy territory and instead I was conquered with ease.

This is because there is a lot of happening behind the scenes. There is a lot game mechanics that are not transparent and have to be learned. Things about terrain, things about troops, things that are not obvious.

On top of that on launch there were many bugs and quirks to the game.

Saying that Hearts of Iron IV has a steep learning curve is a gross understatement, but believe it or not it is (arguably) far better than previous titles in the series.

So keeping in mind all of this, how come that I recommend this game?

Because underneath it all it is a great, deep, satisfying, highly rewarding game, but a hard game. Depending on what you like - you might hate it, or you might be extremely happy with it.

This is unbelievably fun! Always been wondering - "I got 15 minutes before I head out and I wanna play. What should I play? 15 minutes is just not enough".

Guild of Dungeoneering is your answer. For quick gaming satisfaction, sarcastically cartoony graphics, humorous music - fun all around.

Ridiculous game in the very best sense.

My initial review was negative for reasons that the game did not deliver on its promise to be a platform for a Dungeon Master to build custom adventures. In that regard the game felt abandoned mid development. There was so much missing in terms of tools and content in comparison, for example to Neverwinter Nights, that it was disappointing.

Few other things created a bad impression as well - of being unfinished and unpolished. Fonts at places look atrocious.

All in all it seamed that the game did not deserve the money I payed for.

But my opinion changed and all thanks to the wonderful Campaign. it's simply good storytelling. It is enough to redeem my dissatisfaction and make the purchase worth it. In fact i am now quite happy with having this game. It was enthralling and I had such a good time.

Hopefully with patches and added content this might become a decent build platform too.

17 December 2014: I would not recommend Civilization: Beyond Earth yet, but that might change in the future. See below for details.

In short: The game as a whole seems LESS than the sum of its parts.

Similar to Civilization V when it came out - Beyond Earth for now is not a good gaming experience. With time Civ V was patched and extended and became one of my favorites. I hope the same will come true for Beyond Earth.

But what exactly is the problem with the game? For me it's two things.

First of all the different pieces of otherwise very good mechanics don't exactly come together because of the lacking lore of the game. The story, the different philosophies of the factions and personalities of their leaders and the overall world setting are far from complete, deep or anything but basic. And when inevitably compared to its spiritual predecessor - Alpha Centauri which had epic lore, Beyond Earth seems pretty poor...for now.

As a result the game does not escalate in scope, something that Alpha Centauri did quite well.

The second problem is the "Technoabble" used in Beyond Earth. The naming of technologies, build options etc. is "clever", but really not clear in it intent and purpose. That kind of ruins the atmosphere. It makes you feel at times that you don't know what you are doing and prevents you from clearly setting your goals in game. Going through several replays of the game you will eventually figure it out, but IMHO it should be more universal and less clever to be more enjoyable.

I'm hopeful that beyond Earth will grow with time to be much better.