Recent reviews by Tomcat94

>start a round of hardcore checkpoint with the bros
>AI kills me through a four pixel wide hole in the wall
>scream and swear at how ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ it is
>respawn
>get shot again through both smoke and foilage
>scream
>round ends
>"wow that was trash, I hate this game"
>"another round?"
>"yeah"

As it turns out, yes, we are indeed still here just to suffer.

An 80 hour card game with a pretty cool RPG side quest.

Driving wheels. Flight Sticks. Virtual Reality. As I've grown with VR becoming mainstream, I've realized that VR is more or less a peripheral used to enhance games rather than the "next step" of entertainment. Good driving games are made better with driving wheels, and good flying/space games are made better with flight sticks. Likewise, good games are made better with VR. If Onward was a regular PC game instead of being among the first in the genre to make the jump to VR, it would have been forgotten within weeks of its release, completely eclipsed by other games in the genre, and that's why I can't recommend it. Just because a game is made for VR, doesn't mean it's good.

I clocked hundreds of hours in Dirt Rally, Payday 2, and Skyrim before clocking hundreds more in VR. Those games were carefully crafted and designed to be engaging experiences from their moment-to-moment feedback loops. Onward, in comparison, is a bare bones light mil-sim PvP shooter with little more than the novelty of VR making it relevant. To the game's credit it's cool to make a load out the first time and play around with drones and grenades with friends at first, but once you get to the real "meat and potatoes of the game," the novelty quickly wears off and the game quickly becomes boring.

When it comes to playing the game, your options are:
1) Play against people who have played the game every day since release and will kill you instantly
2) Play against very, very poorly coded AI bots that can't tell when their friends are getting shot next to them but can snipe you from across the map with a pistol
3) Walking simulator mode. Yes, you can play against NO ONE and just roam the map without weapons, and it's an ENTIRE GAME MODE right next to the other options.

Every match is the same. Spawn, fumble with clunky gun mechanics for 2 minutes, then either die or win. There are no bomb defuse modes, no king of the hill, no hostage rescues, no firefight/wave modes, no infection modes, no vehicles, no free for all, no last man standing, no TTT, nothing. We have literal decades of FPS staples to take inspiration from, and yet Downpour chose to make walking simulator mode instead. Overall, the game offers so little compared to other mil-sims that it makes me astounded that people still routinely play this game. I can't help but believe people play out of a lack of choice than any genuine interest.

There's also a matter of the graphics. While I can usually overlook them if the game is good, this game is almost laughably bad. Players have spaghetti noodle legs that flop around as they glide around the map, and their bodies twist and contort to unnatural poses from something as simple as turning around. You'll find solid carpet floating two feet off the ground in a random room. Items littered throughout the maps will have textures that look like a blurry smear. Vehicles are half the size they should be while random props are massive. Nothing has the right relative scale. Particles (i.e. steam from grates in night maps) have no light blending to them, standing out like a sore thumb from everything else. Everything has the same material applied to it, making appear dull and uninteresting in any lighting conditions. The game just doesn't look good at all, and it's not going to look any better in the future due to fitting within the Quest's hardware.

The maps themselves are uninspired too, with most of them consisting of either open fields with buildings sprinkled here and there, or cities with long corridors with waist-high trash everywhere. There's no flow to the maps, no verticality, no landmarks, nothing interesting, everything just feels strewn together. Every map feels like a modder's first map. Night maps are also a total joke, you can tell no one on the team have used actual night vision goggles or understand how your eyes adapt to night conditions because night maps are all completely pitch black throughout the entire match. Night goggles just make it completely pitch black but with a green tint. It makes an already bland and short map list even shorter by making night maps completely unplayable.

Honestly, Onward is a shallow and ugly experience. VR just isn't enough to overlook its many shortcomings.

I only played this game co-op, and even then, it was still miserable from start to finish. Not even co-op made what little good existed in this game outshine the bad. I went in hoping for something similar to the excellent tactical open world stealth gameplay in Metal Gear Solid V with the added bonus of being co-op, but it was nowhere close.

First: The enemy AI absolutely ruins any enjoyment I could have had with this game. In every other stealth game, when the AI searches for you, the AI will check your known last position, and then search the surrounding area before giving up and staying on alert. This opens up ways to approach tactically and allows for at least some margin of error when infiltrating a base, as you can kill whoever saw you and still escape or fall back, disappear, and either fall back to recover or flank from another angle to continue your assault.

In Wildlands, AIs don't search, they straight up pathfind towards your exact location. They take the shortest path between their last position and your current position while climbing over anything and everything in their way. Your exact position is immediately and telepathically known to every AI currently in the world upon detection. This means that if you alert someone on one side of the base, shoot that person, then run around to the other side of the base without being seen by anyone else, the AI will STILL go directly to your new position. Combine that with hitscan enemies that can one-or-two shot you with extreme precision, even through dense foliage, and you have a perfect recipe for frustration.

The gameplay loop itself is boring too. The mission structure is some variant of "go here, shoot this NPC, kidnap this NPC, blow up this structure, hack this" throughout the entire game with several minutes of flying a helicopter between locations in-between. Not only that, but explosive drones trivialize pretty much every: "kill this NPC" or "destroy this object" mission in the game. Just fly it in, blow it up, and you can leave before the AI somehow know to walk directly to your exact location.

Guns and gear all feel effectively the same with little punch to the weapons. A 50 cal should fire a bullet through four buildings and still have enough velocity to at least dent the side of a tank, but in this game it has practically no bullet penetration. It just feels like any old sniper rifle except it does a little more damage. That's what guns in this game feel like: It's all the same, they either shoot a little faster or do a little more damage.

Lastly, the story is incredibly boring compared to even the worst stories in previous Tom Clancy titles. Characters are all one dimensional, one-note archetypes with little to no motivation for their actions beyond either revenge on the cartel or stopping the cartel. Certain events near the end of the game are probably the most nonsensical and contrived twists I've seen in a Tom Clancy game, because it completely goes against and contradicts what shallow puddle of depth the characters had to begin with. Tom Clancy is probably rolling in his grave to think of just how poorly written everything in this game's story is.

All in all, this wasn't worth the time I invested, and while it did give my buddy and I a few solid laughs, overall I wouldn't suggest it to anyone else looking for an open world tactical stealth game. If you're searching for that type of experience, I would suggest other games such as Metal Gear Solid V and ARMA over this one.

505 Games makes bad ports of good games, and don't deserve a single dime of your money. Their ports are always strewn with a litany of issues (especially their Switch ports) and unfortunately, their port of Death Stranding from the PS4 to PC is no different.

While everyone else who played the game on the PS4 gets to remember the beautiful landscapes, entrancing music, tense stealth segments, and satisfying weight management and gameplay mechanics, I'll only ever remember Death Stranding as the game where I trudged through 40 hours of the campaign in short 20 minute bursts between constant crashes only to have the game soft lock at the very end.

Yes, the game soft locked at the very end of the game. Spoilers ahead: After 40 hours of walking, running, and trudging through the wasteland, the prompt to sit down that's supposed to trigger after 2 minutes of walking aimlessly along the beach doesn't activate for me. Amelie never appears, no footprints are on the beach, nothing happens. Nothing. They can't even get two minutes of walking right. What irony. Don't believe me? Here's an unedited THIRTY MINUTE LONG VIDEO of me trying to get Sam to activate the cutscene with no luck. OBVIOUS SPOILERS AHEAD: https://youtu.be/MDfiM4LwMlc

This review will remain negative until 505 fixes this issue. I submitted a ticket with official support weeks ago, but I'd probably have better luck catching a fart in the wind than to have anyone answer me. I'll gladly update my review if they fix this, however, I fully expect 505 to abandon this port the same way they abandoned their other ports. If my review can sway one more person away from giving 505 more money to ruin more games with bad ports in the future, then I'm okay with that.

Again. 505 Games makes bad ports of good games, and don't deserve a single dime of your money. Don't waste your time and pay for broken ports.

UPDATE:

Surprise surprise, here's the official response from 505:

Thank you for contacting 505 Games support.
We apologize for the late reply.
Seems like your save file is corrupted and there is not much we can do to help in this situation.
Could you try to reload the previous chapter and see if you are able to trigger the cutscene, if you are still unable to trigger that cutscene the only thing we can suggest is to try with a new save file with a fresh start and see if the issue persists, we know how frustrating this sounds and we know how it will be to do everything again.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
Please do not hesitate to contact us should you need further assistance.

I already took the steps suggested, and did every troubleshooting step possible on two separate computers, yet the issue remains. The game stays unfixed, so the review stays negative. Don't waste your time, and don't pay for broken ports.

Fishing has become one of my favorite hobbies over the past two years. As a longtime VR enthusiast as well, this game seemed right up my alley. For the small overlap of VR enthusiasts and fishermen like me, here are some points you should know about this game:

- The game has lots of fish to catch, lots of ways to fish, and lots of lures. The base game has plenty of variety even before you get into the DLC.
- Fish are almost too easy to catch. You'll get a bite almost every time you cast. I know it's not easy to find a balance between waiting too long for a bite and keeping players interested with more active fish. Realistic mode only removes some mechanics, but I'd prefer the realistic mode to have a slightly longer wait between bites.
- Some real-life fishing techniques don't translate to the game, mainly things like casting near rocks or shady tree overhangs. For those who don't know, fish like to hang out there in real life, but in the game they're just randomly distributed in the water.
- Yes, you can play UFSVR in both VR and desktop modes in case you're too tired to play VR but still want to play a fishing game.
- UFSVR players cannot play with owners of the non-vr UFS game who own the VR DLC. Not a big deal honestly because:
- Multiplayer is a joke. Other players are just a colored capsule with their steam profile above them. Can't see the fish they catch (except via a text box in front of you), can't see what rod they use, no voice chat, nothing. Don't expect a good multiplayer experience.
- The VR implementation isn't the best, but far from the worst. It's at least enjoyable in VR. I'd prefer a way to completely hide the UI until I want to see it but some elements are permanently visible even on "realistic" mode. You can at least reel in the fish with your actual hand motions, but sadly it's difficult to reel with motion controls to match the game's reeling styles. Using the trigger to reel automatically is a lot more reliable for certain reeling styles.
- The game is CPU-bound. My CPU would constantly peak at 99% usage on all cores while playing before I upgraded. Keep in mind, you may hit a lot of reprojection if you're using an older CPU.

Overall, it's not the worst VR port, and better than not fishing at all. It's not Sega Bass Fishing, but it'll at least scratch that fishing game itch until something better comes along. It's not worth full price, but it's definitely worth it when it's on sale.

Ten years ago, my best friend and I spent countless hours in our high school's common area playing ping pong together. We graduated, went to college, moved to opposite ends of the continent, and lived our adult lives for years until we happened to reconnect again this year.

Now, ten years later, we can play ping pong together from several states away with him on the Quest and me on the Vive. We talk about everything while volleying back and forth, from catching up and talking about our new lives to reminiscing on our old memories. It really feels like not a single day passed since we graduated together.

Thank you. Thank you for making me feel young again.

Let me preface this by saying that the game itself is sub-par. Had I not had so many issues with configuring the game, I probably would have shrugged it off and wouldn't have reviewed it to begin with, but if you're interested in this game you deserve to know that the PC version is miserable. While I'm at it, I'm going to write down my issues with the game itself and why it's not worth your time in 2020.

I don't understand what it is about indie horror developers and the idea that they don't need basic graphics settings, audio settings, multiple save slots, or options to change the controls. Maybe obtuse controls that make it easy to get flustered and unable to fend for yourself while excessively loud audio blasts your ears is an artistic choice to add to the scare factor, but it's unacceptable for PC games today. Not to mention how easy it is to make a bad save and end up forcing yourself to start a new game. Knowing you can end up with a bad save that forces you into restarting the game isn't scary, it's just poor design. No option to run the game in windowed mode and no resolution options only adds to the frustration. I have a multi-monitor setup and want to be able to play the game on one monitor and scroll through a walkthrough in another monitor if I need to. What's more is that I have a fairly large monitor sitting close to me, so it's hard for me to see everything in my field of view. The lack of graphics, audio, save slots, and control options stop this game from being fun to play, but the experience itself isn't that great either.

Now for the game itself: It's frustratingly difficult, even on normal. This is coming from someone who loves to play difficult games of all genres, too. The survival aspects of it such as eating and sleeping are way too demanding, and the nebulous "mental state" also plays a huge part in what ending you get. To get the "good" ending you basically have to memorize every nook and cranny of the game and never slip up a single time, all while only having one and only one save file to try and reach that ending. It's very easy to screw up and put yourself in a position where you can't finish the game due to some decisions you made early on, which then requires you to start a new game. There were a few times where I ended up slipping past enemies and getting through an area with plenty of resources to spare which felt good, but the inevitable frustration ahead would end up souring the mood. By the end of the game I just felt exhausted, and glad it was over instead of feeling like I overcame a challenge.

Overall, the game isn't worth your time. If you happen to find it in a bundle for a dollar or less, it might be worth trying it out for an hour or two to get the feel for it, but it starts out strong and really only goes downhill from there. I would honestly say you'd be better off watching a playthrough of the game on Youtube than actually playing it. At least that way, you can change the window size and sound volume.

Angry boomer stops nuclear armageddon after running out of white Monster energy drinks.

Rogue Warrior is literally "Navy Seals Copypasta: The Game" and it's hilarious. This is one of those games you'd pick up from the video rental store in 2009 (when those still existed), crack open some beers with a bud, pass the controller back and forth, and just laugh at the "so bad it's good" ridiculousness of the whole experience.

It's not perfect. Some users (myself included) experience microstuttering which you can only fix by disabling all of your USB slots on your PC. It's also only two hours long. At a regular price of $4.99 and a usual discount to $1.49, I think two hours is appropriate when it's on sale. You can't go to the theater to see the latest Steven Seagal movie (or even rent one from Redbox) for that price.

If you want a hilarious "so bad it's good" knockoff of Modern Warfare, this is your ticket. Lawnmower and AC/DC cassettes sold separately.