Análises recentes de GIB CHECHENS

I have it on very good authority that the bugs don't fly.

Can't hate on free trains.

I've never been so excited to hit the stop-line within 8cm, of a four-car EMU at a fictional station on a fictional railroad.

I've never flipped out so hard when I overshoot the next station by 3.2 meters and end up behind schedule.

I've never been so endeared to a little train sim so quickly. Conductor mode absolutely smacks. It's a game for every type of railfan. It's got scenarios for every skill level, a neat little signalling system to learn. It's so clear there is so much love pumped into this game it's easily worth the money.

Not perfect by any stretch, but a bunch of the negative reviews seem to miss the point.

Rule The Waves is an incredible game, it always has been.
RTW III is the culmination of years of labour on the part of a very small team and it shows.
There is no better naval simulator of the dreadnought era out there.
The game loop is addictive, it's authentic, it's fun. It creates incredible narratives and its highly modifiable.
Back in the RTW and RTW II days I poured countless hours into creating a long form After Action Report (AAR) Narrative story of the Imperial Ottoman Navy (modded), RTW has all the little missing feature. 1890 start date is incredible. This is one of the few games where failure is fun. My first ever game as Spain, I was booted out, cashiered by the government because a war didn't go as well as it should've. Trying to design warships that fit a role but are also economical, and might last more than five years, what an exciting challenge!

The new features, AI wars and officers, divisional control are all huge steps in the right direction. I can't wait to sink in 20 hours to bring glory to the sPainish Navy,
Fantastic, little more can be said, there is nothing better than ruling the waves from the bridge of a dreadnought you designed yourself, built domestically (or in a foreign yard) with a captain you handpicked, leading a battle-line of warships you designed, built, or even captured engaging an enemy fleet which will pose a serious threat to you. Sure, you facilitated this war, sure, you egged on those creepy leuitenants to blow up that enemy ship in port, sure, you had to break a few eggs, but now is your moment, steaming at 22knots, displacing 20,000 tons, and slinging 12 inch shells at targets kilometers away. It's a high like nothing else. Sure, the visuals are spartan, but your imagination fills in the blanks, the burning hulk of the enemy battleship on the horizon, like a faraway candle, pounded to bits as the sun sets and twighlight turns to night.


--This is also an excellent teaching tool, and the staff at NWS are very helpful. It's an excellent way to show students how much fuel range and coal capacity determined arms at the turn of the 20th century, how to show students what it meant to have a world beating navy, and why it was so critical for Great Powers to pour insane amounts of capital into their metal beasts.

It's BattleTech!
Ever since I powered up a mech for the first time in MW 3, the Battletech universe has always been a pleasant side hobby, from the tabletop wargame to the MMO (I've even been lucky enough to use the 4D mechwarrior arcade game)! This game fits into that corpus and expands it in a nearly perfect combination, and it makes the fiscal operation of a mechwarrior detachement an exciting adventure! Between turning Lyan pilots into chunky marina sauce by way of PPC you have to actually maintain the pilots, machines, and company's dropship. This is all fantastic, with wonderful little roleplay elements that bring the whole thing together. In a similar vein to XCOM, you even have a memorial wall for fallen mechwarriors, and over time they really do develop character. This, coupled with the excellent tactical wargaming at Battletech's core makes for an excellent game. Just like in the TTWG you have to manage heat, use your location to your advantage, and properly juggle initiative to your best advantage.

Pros:
-A faithful recreation of the table-top wargame with little missing.
-An excellent campaign mode that leaves the player dreaming of a BT Grand Strategy game
-A solid campaign that fits right into the BT universe, and pretty authentically depicts the scale of the mechs themselves. Repairs are measured in weeks, and potentially months.
-Nails the scale of the BT universe, and is an excellent introduction to it for any player, especially with its excellent informational tooltips on everything from PPCs to the Federated Suns.
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Cons:
-It would be nice if the voiceovers included all in battle messages, or all entries, especially because some of the voice acting is great!
-The DLCs are more expensive than they're worth (except FP), and there was a lot of room for growth.
-This game deserved more time to develop, and we know the dev wanted to expand the timeline and map, but had publisher pushback (Clans, more Inner Sphere stuff, mannnnn)
Sometimes battles can feel a bit same-y
-Can't field infantry or armor, and there is no infantry depicted.

If you like tactical wargames, it's worth it. If you're a Battletech fan of any stripe this is a must-buy. If you're new to Battletech this is an excellent entry point. There is nothing quite like ordering a DFA and watching your 45 ton battlemech crash down legs first to obliterate a Jenner, miss, fall down itself after breaking its own leg, and then hear the pilot scream as the Jenner fills the cockpit with laserfire. 10/10 don't fight space At&T.

The situation with CSLA is complex, and at this point suffering from meta-effects. Specifically certain youtubers blowing the issues out of proportion, especially as many have already been solved thanks to some hefty day 1 patches. However, that does not necessarily mean this product is "good". Personally I would recommend it an ARMA hobbyist with no trouble thanks to the absolutely incredible Grabeta terrain on its own. This offering suffered from a major failure by Bohemia to properly market it and manage expectations, especially right after such an excellent and massive offering as SOG. That being said, there is clear evidence that the CSLA devs did not always properly respond to tester's critiques and concerns last year, to the extend that as late as September 2021 there were assets from OFP ported in. Devs responded with rolling smiley face emojis. This is not the professionalism that I would expect from a developer, and does not match the standard set by the GM devs, or the SOG devs. Since then however, and especially since launch, their response has been much more in line with a group that got in over their heads and are trying to solve the problems as best they can. Much like GM they've also hinted at continuing content additions over time, so purchasing CSLA will likely pan out to more content in the future. Considering the lower price-point CSLA is totally worth it, especially on sale. While I can imagine some people will never get on board I genuinely hope they do, as between GM, SOG, and CSLA we are getting the best version of ARMA to date.

Pros:
Grabeta. Grabeta Grabeta Grabreta. It feels like a modern South Zagoria, especially in the fog and rain. It alone is worth $15. We don't properly compensate the people that put an insane amount of time making stuff this gorgeous in this community in general. However, it's big and beefy, so make sure you have a relatively modern card to run with it.
CSLA Faction is an interesting addition and meshes well with GM content. Some CSLA vehicles are up to ARMA III par, including the T-72, even though there are minor errors in the models as pointed out by RedEffect.
-Implementation of body dragging
-Implementation of a GM style of Flags and vehicle numbering/customization. This was player requested and a fantastic tool to increase re-playability and make any vehicle generic and reusable in any scenario. SOG does not have this feature.
- Every vehicle has a different little turret/chassis symbol in 1st person.
- Most vehicles with the exception of armor have detailed interiors. Some are fantastic, like the LAV.
- More firing positions for more play-ability and authenticity. You can even fire RPGs turned out. 10/10.

Meh:
The single player missions are hit or miss. Personally I enjoyed the ones that didn't murder my frame-rate
-Uniform textures are generally meh across the board.
-Certain vehicle textures and functionalities do not meat the GM or SOG bar. For example, the SOG BTR-40 is superior in almost everyway to the one included in CSLA. HOWEVER, the one in CSLA is actually playable in 1st person because the put the vision slits low enough to see through, unlike the SOG version. So really it's a trade-off on that one. Use CSLA BTR-40s for players, SOG ones for AI maybe?

Cons:
-Lack of voice acted Czechs and Slovaks. This is a big one for me, especially as previous installments have had Czech voice support.
-ARMA II era reskins. These models have been modified! They are not simply ports on their own, but that isn't enough to justify their inclusion especially when some of them are so poor or seem untouched (specifically some editor components like the log barricades).
-Sound design. Generally poor to medicre. No comparison with GM or SOG. Vanilla sounds are used on some weapons. However, the fact that vanilla sounds are considered "poor," emphasizes how high the standard has come, and thats thanks in part to mods and especially the higher priced GM and SOG.
- Frame dropping. Optimization is already happening and I have already seen improvements, however, certain vehicles seem to cause frame-drops and some things are clearly un-optimized.
- Some textures (especially the bottoms of certain vehicles) were not retouched and look like they came straight from ARMA II. Other models do not meet the standard set by GM. Put the GM SKOT and the CSLA SKOT side by side and look at the suspension. That being said the CSLA SKOT version is a totally different variant of the GM one, which is fantastic that we're getting sob variants of equipment as niche as the SKOT.

Ultimately CSLA is a mixed bag, and an ugly duckling next to GM and SOG, but you can tell the devs love their subject and their chosen era. CSLA also makes significant and useful additions, beyond just Grabeta. It is fantastic to finally have a semi-official T-72 to stand next to the RHS versions [which themselves are all modernization]. Finally, there are clear signs of progress, future content and optimization. I don't love CSLA, I don't hate CSLA. I like CSLA in spite of its faults and think for anyone who plays a fair amount of ARMA, it is worth the asking price.

Gabreta Gabreta Gabreta

Suzerain is a shock hit, and possibly the best political role-playing game I've ever come across.

Considering how simple the actual gameplay is, the depth is incredible. I appreciate that the devs decided to make an entire fantasy world to fit their little, wonderful game, and the depth they went to is intense. Accordingly, they blended many historical characters and regimes into this wonderful and authentic world. Your choices seriously matter, and no, you can't just make a utopia or dystopia the way you want to, you can't just will the country into the direction you want, not without serious sacrifices and potentially concessions. Sure you might manage to backstab them later, but nothing is a given. The only detailed negative review here seems to have fallen into the above trap. According to the devs there are about 26 distinct endings, and I certainly believe it. Since each playthrough can take around 14 hours thats incredible value for money, even if you're only aiming to run through a few different endings.

Some people complained about the Dev's political ideology effecting the game, and as some one who is fairly opinionated to the Left, and with degrees in History (M.A.) and Political science (B.A.) I just don't see it. I have a few very minor historical or practical quibbles, but they can all be easily handwaved thanks to the fantasy's setting. You can approach this pseudo Peronist regime anyway you want, and if you do it in a reasonable, information based approach you can make things work.

My first run, a Third Party Demsoc attempt led to my government nearly collapsing, the resignation of my cabinet, the death of close friends, and my resignation at the will of my wife. I barely kept the country stable, and was only a one term president. It isn't every day you come across a game that gives you a "lose" state after 14 hours of play, and not only did this game do that, it made perfect sense, and I still felt a certain degree of accomplishment. Sordland remained independent, and I avoided a potentially disasterous war, and anyways, people ended up buying my memoir in record numbers...

My second run was intended to be a neutral sort of status-qou run, but it turned into a surprise Maleynivist (Communist) run which ended in a strong economy, trade with most of my neighbors, and a strong welfare state! Plus no one tossed themselves off a bridge this time!

Suzerain is almost a capable enough to be used as a teaching tool about the constraints of leadership, and compromised political situations, imperialism, and authoritarianism.

How many games give you such an incredible narrative?!

Brothers and Sisters of Sordland,
Unite!

Contact is a blast. At first I was a little worried considering the change in themes/concepts, but I have been very pleasantly surprised at the result. Contact is so good I'd love to see more. Really I just want more ARMA III.

The only issue is the frame rate. It's worse than usual, but then again, this is ARMA, I don't think Ive ever played it at a steady 60FPS

Oh, and Livonia is easily one of the best terrains yet created for ARMA, it's gorgeous.

A fantastic little train sim that in many ways puts both Train Simulator and Trainz to shame. Thanks to easy to use editing tools, an excellent aesthetic, and simple train driving operations this game proves that simplicity is a virtue. Considering this was designed by a single individual is pretty mindblowing. My main hope is that it continues to be a development priority and that the selection of rolling stock and locomotives increases.