Recent reviews by stewedyeti

Haven't played the campaign yet, but the multiplayer "beta" sure has been a gas! I'm not sure how much of it is nostalgia -- Halo:CE through Reach was a big part of my gaming life back in the day and I had lost interest when more shooters started evolving and this series didn't. Since this is F2P, I decided it was a good opportunity to dip my toes back in the Halo waters and I'm quite happy that I did. The rock solid mechanics and addicting gameplay is still here, but the outdated things (like no aiming down sight, which shouldn't have been a thing even years ago) have been tossed aside. It's a good thing.

If the lovechild of the Torah and Myst had a baby with the offspring of The Matrix and Portal, you'd get The Talos Principle. If that sounds awesome to you (and it should), I urge you to purchase this game.

This game will always be a classic because it once offended all of the right people in the right way. On that level, I can recommend it; however, for fellow Mac gamers, you should know that RWS has been lacking on bringing our version as up-to-date as the Linux version (not to mention the Windows version). It makes very little sense, and I really hope they get on that soon.

It's hard to dislike the combination of high explosives, gravity, and sheep. You can even make a catapult that flings a box with cannons stuck to each side and a bomb in the center, then use that abomination to destroy a serene pasture filled with sheep, guys that aren't even trying to attack you, and lovely little windmills. Hell, one can even create a machine composed entirely of pistons and still kill quite a lot of stuff. The world is your unholy little oyster.

I look forward to sticking around to see the progress the devs will make because I bet it'll be something special.

Ah, Borderlands 2. What could I possibly say about this game that hasn't been said already?

It's pure magic with things every type of gamer can love. You like shooting? No problem. You like explosions? Of course you ♥♥♥♥♥♥' do, so luckily there are plenty of them. That barely begins to scratch the surface of this new classic.

The setting in which the series takes place -- Pandora (and, in the case of TPS, Pandora's moon Elpis) -- is a vast, open-world that's full of secrets, creatures, a colorful population of residents, and -- perhaps most importantly -- that sweet, sweet loot. There are so many things to do that it can almost be overwhelming, but the hilarious dialogue and the ridiculous characters that provide the missions prevent it all from feeling like a chore. Instead, it feels like one of those wonderful dreams that piss you off when they're interrupted by waking up.

You'll laugh. You'll die. You'll be glad you had nothing in your eye to distract you from the wild and wonderful world of Pandora.

Get a grip, eat your lunch, etc. Just buy this game.

Not much to say that hasn't already been said, so just do yourself a favor and click that play or add to cart button. It's also a good idea to get Brave New World as it makes an already solid game a must-play.

My complaints? Well, with Brave New World's overhauled diplomacy system, there are some things I wish they would give the player more information about. When I piss off the AI, it would be nice to know exactly why rather than the vague "you own lands/wonders/pant-suits they covet" info you get in the tooltip. This becomes a more annoying issue when people start randomly denouncing you, the only information you get being "X has denounced you!". Yeah, I know they did. I was there.

Another complaint I have is the oft-terrible war AI, which to me always just seems to boil down to having more ranged heavy units than the other civ, and if you're an era ahead (or at least several techs more advanced) there's even less of a challenge because trebuchets and swords just don't hold up to cannons and muskets. It's quite possible that this is just because I'm playing on a wuss difficulty, though, so it's not a huge deal.

Perhaps I'm just being greedy--especially considering how fantastic this game already is--but I'd love to see them go even deeper into the diplomacy and the interaction between civs. Making a "declaration of friendship" is great and all, but I have yet to understand what that even means aside from being something that will potentially piss off a different civ (again one of those things you get no information about). Civs will ask you on a constant basis to go to war against someone they have an arbitrary grudge against, but will never ever ever become brothers-in-arms if you're the one asking them. This is also the case if you ask them for monetary/resource assistance. Assistance from the AI civs only comes with a generous helping of strategic resources or sexual favors, sometimes even both.

Ah, but I digress. Just buy the game and kiss your nights goodbye. It's more fun than whatever else you think you had to do.

Is it possible for a game to be any better than Portal 2? Of course. Anything is possible while Nintendo still makes Zelda games; but if we all pretend that series doesn't exist: This is as good as it gets.

Portal 2 represents all that can be great in a video game. It's legitimately funny, brilliantly scripted, features impeccable voice acting, its gameplay mechanics are rock solid, it presents a fair challenge, and its replay value is about as close to infinite as I think a game can be (especially with the addition of the Perpetual Testing Initiative); but the most important trait of all is that Portal 2 is just incredibly fun--and isn't that what's most important?

(In the interest of full disclosure: The 17.7 hours of play time at the time of this writing is only the amount I've played this game on Steam. I have had much more experience with the game on Xbox 360 like the terrible console peasant I am.)