Recent reviews by Tasso

Im going to keep this review very short, as its a Forza game after all.

I bought this game 5 hours before it was delisted from steam and definitely do not regret it. Although the map is pretty bland compared to Mexico found in FH5.... You are in the UK after all with the only weather being present for 80% of my time with this game is +10C damp weather with light rain :(

Overall the game is definitely not as engaging as FH5 due to the lack of Accolades and other engaging features. However I still enjoyed the overall experience with still a lot left for me to do even after sinking 40 hours into it this past month.

On a higher note the Lego expansion and Fortune Island are both absolutely fantastic and enjoyed them far more than the base game. They take place in their own unique playspace far away from the dreary, rain-soaked monotony of the UK, where the skies are perpetually gray, and the air feels like it’s been infused with lukewarm tea. Imagine escaping to a place where the sun actually remembers to shine, where vibrant landscapes burst with color, and the weather doesn’t feel like a damp towel draped over your soul. Somewhere with energy, life, and a sense of adventure, not just endless hedgerows. Because honestly, life’s too short to spend it dodging puddles and pretending beans on toast is a culinary masterpiece.

Leaving a review for the steam awards badge. PSA GAME BLOWS.

Sloppy gameplay, blurry TAA to the MAX graphics, and a 1080P HUD in 2024. Next move on plz.

Overall, I felt pretty satisfied after my 70-hour journey through both the base game and the Valhalla DLC. However, it’s far from perfect, so here’s a breakdown of what I enjoyed and what I didn’t.


The combat, unfortunately, feels crunchy / stiff and its very hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong. The FOV is so tight that you have your companion constantly yelling at you that there are enemies behind you. You know something is wrong when the game is designed to tell you where the enemies are. Even on higher difficulties, accessibility features like yellow circles (indicating parryable attacks) and red circles (unparryable attacks) appear, breaking immersion by treating the player as if they need constant cues.

Late-game optional bosses especially reveal the flaws in combat, turning fights into repetitive pattern-memorizing battles against massive HP bars, which becomes boring very fast. In the latter half, even the weapon kit feels less impactful, with basic attacks feeling as ineffective as throwing paper feathers and heavy attacks failing to make a real dent. Altogether, these issues result in a lackluster combat experience.
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The Nine Realms have been expanded extensively, and while they feel unique compared to the 2018 entry, they also carry a sense of familiarity, which I liked. The art direction is top quality, but the visuals feel limited by last-gen technology. There’s no ray tracing, everything is done through pre calculated lighting, cube maps for reflections, and basic SSR for water and matte surfaces. Texture quality is decent but could be higher.

The biggest saving grace here is the excellent HDR support especially on a 4K OLED display, the moment you turn it on the picture comes to life. I originally had this off and the game looked very 2015 like. However the moment you turn it on, it takes it to the next level. When you look at the bright crackling fire in Kratos house in snowy night, the bright elements of the fire present themselves perfectly in contrast to the deep blacks in the darkest areas of the environment, it absolutely looks fantastic and almost impossible to fully describe unless you view this game on a OLED display with HDR enabled.
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Performance-wise, there’s little to critique. The game runs almost flawlessly, with quick shader pre-caching, no shader compilation stuttering, and smooth frame times. On my RTX 4080 / i9-10900K setup, I maintained well above 100 FPS, often between 130–180 FPS on my 4K OLED display, using DLSS Quality with frame generation. Performance is practically perfect and I congratulate the small team from Jetpack Interactive who ported this game over to PC. They have even managed to patch most of the smaller issues the port had at launch.


The story is well done and completes the saga started in God of War 2018. It’s the main element that kept me invested, with only some issues with pacing in the first half. The latter part of the story picks up, holding your attention until the end. Playing as Atreus in this game was also a nice change, and I really liked his move set. The side quests, however, were mid-tier at best, often feeling like a list of chore-like tasks. The collectables for 100% completion also felt repetitive near the end the same lore, puzzles and chests quickly became tedious. The world design for certain realms is also frustrating at best when revisiting these locations for 100% completion. Traversing them is very annoying as you are severely limited by where you can go, there is one fixed linear path you must follow and any sort of deviation will be met with a invisible wall. Also having to back track to fast travel is crazy annoying when you have just walked and climbed for over 5 minutes trying to open a chest you might have missed. Adding a fast travel option from anywhere would alleviate some of my complaints.


Valhalla mode, the roguelite DLC added almost a year later, isn’t perfect but was enjoyable. I liked the experience and kind of wish the next God of War entry would return to ancient Greece. However, the mode is quite short, just when you start getting some impactful and cool upgrades, the run is over. Furthermore there are frequent interruptions for story purposes also pull you out of your runs, which is frustrating for a roguelite. At times, it didn’t feel like a true roguelite experience.
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While I enjoyed my time with God of War: Ragnarok, it wasn’t the perfect game I’d hoped for. I went in with high expectations after hearing the praise from console players, but I was a bit let down by the flawed combat and the game’s overall “safe” approach. It didn’t really evolve from the 2018 release, which I enjoyed more for its freshness. This game felt more like a large DLC for God of War 2018 rather than a true evolution of the series.

I did not expect Black Myth: Wukong to be this good. It has exceeded all expectations and is a strong contender for Game of the Year 2024. When it was first revealed in 2020, many, including myself, thought it looked too good to be true—a hyper-detailed, visually stunning game with interesting combat from a unknown random @$$ studio in China. But now, in 2024, the game has released, and it has completely SHATTERED my expectations.

From the stellar combat to the insanely hyper-realistic world, Black Myth: Wukong is a visual masterpiece. The game fully utilizes Unreal Engine 5’s cutting-edge technologies, including Nanite, Lumen, and Niagra, along with path-traced global illumination, reflections, water caustics, and much more aided by the NVIDIA branch of the engine. This is the first game I can genuinely consider next gen and has maximized the use of Unreal Engine 5, and the results are nothing short of breathtaking.

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The game’s progression systems are rich and engaging, constantly drawing you into its world and encouraging exploration to uncover secrets that aid your journey. With 90 bosses, each with unique movesets, the game offers a variety of challenges that keep the gameplay fresh and exciting. Some bosses push the difficulty to the extreme, rivaling and even surpassing the challenge found in most Souls-like games.

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Combat in the game is super responsive, fluid, gorgeous to look at and the camera ACTUALLY FUNCTIONS. The abilities you unlock are very satisfying to use, and the skill trees provide meaningful upgrades that encourages build diversity. The armor system is well thought-out, incorporating set bonuses for collecting full sets, which adds another of complexity and build diversity.

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I completed the game in just over 40 hours, and by the end, I was completely blown away. Returning to get the true ending and facing Erlang was a monumental experience. The difficulty, the intricacies of the moveset, the visuals—everything culminated in a final battle that was nothing short of cinematic brilliance. The game has easily solidified itself as one of my favorite games in the past couple years.

Bungie's leadership team have performed a massive RUGPULL to both the COMMUNITY who have been playing their games for years and their most DEDICATED staff. After producing one of the best expansions this game has seen and getting both interal and external praise for their hard work and stellar reviews they got DUPED.

Little did we know Bungie's leadership was planning one of the biggest RUGPULL // SCAMS in gaming history.
They fooled Sony into buying their sinking ship of a Company for 3.6B$ in 2022 by over-promising fake future projections on multiple incubation projects that NO ONE ASKED FOR. Whilst simultaneously pulling resources away from Destiny 2 their ONLY SOURCE OF ACTUAL CASH-FLOW. CEO was having a field day, laughing as he FOOLED Sony into buying the studio for 3,600,000,000$ whilst cashing out BIG TIME. However such greed has huge consequences. In just 2 years Bungie has laid off 40% of the staff and cancelled ALL of their projects except Marathon (WHO THE ACTUAL FK ASKED FOR THIS) and Destiny 2.

However Internal leaks now showing that Destiny 2 is NO LONGER getting annual expansions. The THING THAT actually gets people back into the game, or any sort of substance-full content. Bungie promised a bright future for Destiny 2 even after the final shape concluded and the return for most of the removed content. HOWEVER all that is lost.

WHAT THE ACTUAL FKKK is this half A$$ed dlc. Scripting bug after scripting bugs. Had to reload UI / relog at least 10 times now, and one of the quests Hold the Line has a completely hardlock. It has a scripting issue which does not fix itself after a complete game reboot or when abandoning the quest. LIKE HELLO since when did the quality of ESO DLC drop soo ♥♥♥♥ hard...

Game looks and runs like my ass after Taco bell.

The combat is Jank, the graphics are dull and it has endless micro transactions.

Oh and the character animations + lip sync IS LAUGHABLY BAD.

Shadow of Erdtree does excel in some areas. The absolutely gorgeous new environment is breathtaking. The music perfectly complements the visuals, and the new areas are incredibly interesting to explore, with a map full of secrets and discoveries. These elements are done exceptionally well.


It is 2024, and Elden Ring originally released in 2022, selling over 20 million copies and netting the studio over $1 billion in profits. Yet, we are stuck with a terrible and anti-consumer 60 FPS lock and a barebones PC port. The game exhibits severe DX12 stutters and freezes during gameplay with no fix in sight. It is permanently locked to 60 FPS with horrendous frame pacing. The forced chromatic aberration not only looks hideous but also makes many players, including myself, nauseous. The lack of upscaling and frame generation solutions is unacceptable given the fundamentally flawed technical aspects of this product.

While the expansion is large and gorgeous, it lacks any sort of guidance. A simple journal page, like in Baldur’s Gate, would go a long way. Being able to track your objectives and points of interest is essential for modern games. Many quests are difficult to access and permanently fail if you progress too far into the story. Some of these quests include permanent allies for the final boss fight, requiring a guide to avoid missing them. This is a major failing from the developers, making exploration frustrating as you aren't always sure if you've missed something fundamental.

The boss design in Shadow of Erdtree is some of the worst I have ever seen in a FromSoft game. The quality here is shockingly low, especially compared to the stellar bosses from the base game. They have taken everything people hated (undodgeable AOE spam attacks that fill the entire screen) and made it worse. Most of the DLC's difficulty is manageable despite the unfair spam, but the final boss is unsalvageable without major balance tuning. I simply put the controller down and refuse to sink more time into this failed experiment of a boss. It is not just hard; it is unfair. Dodging 8 unique attacks in a row for you to only get a a split-second damage window is not fun. Being spammed with AOE attacks that drop your FPS to single digits even on a high end system is beyond jank. The game sometimes glitches, causing the boss to perform its major super attack at the start continuously, making prepping or summoning impossible requiring a game reboot to proceed.


The significant lack of effort in the technical state of the game, the terrible boss design (especially the final boss), and the lack of narrative guidance with easily missed quests make me wonder if FromSoft will ever improve from their archaic mindsets. Shadow of Erdtree brings a lot to the table, but the cons greatly outweigh the pros. It's an easy thumbs down from me.

The gameplay in Horizon Forbidden West is absolutely fantastic, I would even say its flawless. Aloy is given a fresh set of movement abilities with this second entry into the Horizon franchise. These include gliding, diving underwater, flying, swimming underwater with a mount and much more. Improved features, like the new ways to heal, trap placement, and a diverse selection of weapons add depth to the gameplay. The addition of new damage elements like purgewate, plasma, adhesive and acid as well as the new weapon types heightens the intensity, offering thrilling and engaging battles. The combat stands out as some of the most thrilling and action-packed fun you can have (especially in the Ultra Hard difficulty preset). Mastering the machines weaknesses and dealing some crisp huge damage combos is extremely satisfying. The game is a challenge on this difficulty, but it’s the way I highly recommend playing it, its absolutely fantastic.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3233747338


The graphics in Horizon Forbidden West are breathtaking, with a lush and highly detailed world that dwarfs most current open world games found on the market. The expansive map features diverse and distinctive locations to explore. Included are huge and vast mountainous areas, lush and highly details tropical locations, wide and turbulent deserts to the volcanic areas of burning shores, this game has it all. Guerrilla games did an absolutely good job of creating a world that you want to explore and spend a lot of time in.

The PC port was done by Nixxes and often runs very smooth on high end systems. However, it is not perfect by any means. I played this game on a RTX 4080 and 10900K system. For the most part the game averaged 90 – 110 FPS at 4K Max DLSS quality FG OFF. The base game often runs well, however the DLC area of burning shores is poorly optimized especially in the main city of fleets end. The CPU is absolutely hammered, and framerate and frame times drop hard, with terrible 30+MS frame times which you can feel even on a VRR display. Something I would like to see improved in the future. Furthermore, as seen with previous Nixxes ports with lower – mid tier hardware especially 8GB or less VRAM cards the game is almost unplayable. As they program their ports in a way to not respect the VRAM budget of your card causing huge frame time fluctuations requiring a game reboot. I personally played this on a RTX 4080 with no issues, however I did see the game consuming upwards of 14GB of video memory.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3232254563


The one thing forbidden west does worse versus the first entry, Horizon Zero Dawn is the story telling and character development. A core element for many players is a well written story with interesting characters. Horizon Forbidden West does a satisfactory job at telling a decent story, however it falls short often feeling very generic and safe. On top of that the character development is seriously lacking, you don’t really develop a sense of attachment to any of the characters in the game. Most side content characters are very forgettable. They also made most men in this game sound feminine and most females sounding masculine, however a proper and realistic blend is always favorable versus pushing the agenda towards the latter. Ultimately the characters and story in this game fall very short from what most players would consider good or even satisfactory and is a huge negative point for such a well put together game.

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Overall, Horizon Forbidden West has been a fantastic and very satisfying experience. The game took me a little over 100 hours to fully 100% complete on New Game + Ultra Hard difficulty, with all the achievements unlocked (something Rytox can NEVER pull off). The gameplay is so dang good, and I recommend anyone playing this to set the game to very hard on their first playthrough then blast it to ultra hard on the second run. Although the story and characters do fall flat, the fantastic game world, graphics and fantastic gameplay / combat well makes up for its shortfalls. If I would rate horizon forbidden west it would easily get a 9 / 10. I really hope Guerilla games can perfect their craft with their next entry and give us a story to remember.