Recent reviews by Hunter

I've been putting off Ubisoft open-world games for a while now but this has been pretty fun. Stealth has definitely been viable gameplay loop is satisfying, characters are lovable/interesting, story so far has been pretty engaging.

However the game has some really weird MMORPG live-service aspects for a singleplayer game, like an in-game store, getting spammed with random "ubisoft club" rewards as soon as you start playing, among other things. The only online feature I came across which I actually liked were the player photos on the world map. It's easy to ignore the rest and play it as an actual singleplayer game, though.

You can tell from the start that a lot of the world is mass-produced, mainly some sidequests, so as long as you don't bother trying to do everything and burn yourself out the game should be a great experience.

Been playing since launch day on PS4, moved over to PC in 2018. As a big TES fan I wish I could recommend it, but it falls short due to several issues.

Ever since the "One Tamriel" update, Zenimax has failed to address key flaws with gameplay loop and story consistency.
Overworld content is excruciatingly boring due to level-scaling, ditching any sense of progression or challenge.
Because of this, quests have to rely almost solely on narrative in order to keep the player entertained.
Despite this focus on story, a lot of the storylines fall flat due to inconsistencies and occupational hazards of the MMO genre, whether that be their formulaic and predictable nature, well-known allies failing to recognize you, or the (very easily) dispelled illusion of choice.

This unfortunate combination of messy storylines with boring overworld content ends up pushing players away from questing and immersion (which I still believe is where the game is at its best) and into group content as soon as possible. However, there isn't a lot going on there either. The dungeons themselves have neat contained storylines (which everyone skips) but the experience isn't the greatest, mostly because of janky combat and lag. Pair that with the fact that you only really get vendor trash and no unique, thought-out rewards, and normal group content can quickly become disheartening.

All in all, I feel like ESO still just misses the mark. The story is decent (especially Orsinium, Summerset and Clock City) but lacks agency, impact and emotion, falling short of something like SWToR in my opinion. As far as typical MMORPG elements, the rewards and collectibles are bland and lackluster, e.g. mounts, as only a handful out of almost a hundred are obtainable through in-game currency and achievements, everything else is in the crown store. Combat is very janky and classes lack identity nowadays, which can get in the way of immersion.

It's a fun game and an accessible tool for visualizing the basics of vehicle architecture. The devs are awesome too.
Obviously, being a videogame, it has its limits; you're not gonna be dealing with corroded bolts or stripped screw holes, you won't have to worry about overtorquing bolts... et cetera.
But there's definitely a lot to be learned if you're paying attention to what goes where and when.

This is what future open world games should strive to match!
No dumbed-down quest logs and visual marker vomit, no belittling handholding and generic ways to introduce "new" mechanics...
Just you and a general objective presented through the ever-looming Erdtree, paired with amazing world pacing, rewarding exploration and a constant feeling of danger to keep you on your toes. Perfect.

I actually prefer this over the first game, even though I consider LiS 1 the better "game" due to it's mechanics. Before the Storm feels much more grounded and human.

Chloe's storyline, while not as grand, is told just as well. I loved her as a protagonist; she was unpredictable, fun, and her wit was on point. As is inevitable for an archetypical punk teen, Chloe was indeed a bit "cliché", but her character was done so well that I really didn't mind (even though I thought I would hate it).

Rachel, who was the reason I got this game in the first place, is much like Chloe, and they complement each other really well. If you pay attention to their relationship, though, you'll see that she certainly isn't the "perfect DA's daughter" and that her character has way more nuance than meets the eye.

All in all, a beautiful prequel to a beautiful game. Being able to put a real face to Rachel and find out how important she was to Chloe makes playing the first series a much more interesting (and emotional) experience, however I still don't recommend playing this before LiS 1 as it makes certain plot-twists pretty obvious.

Hunter's Call is the real endgame

Best served with mods.
Also you're legally obliged to buy this on at least 3 other platforms. Todd's rules.

Yes

This ♥♥♥♥ clunky as hell, but at least i got it to launch after 3 tries.

If you're just getting into it, keep in mind that this game feels really dated.It's clunky, has lots of bugs, graphics definitely aren't the best and the gameplay in general just feels anachronic.
However, it's safe to say that there's nothing quite like it. There is a whole lot of story, spanning across most time periods of the shows (don't ask how, though) and the gameplay, although clunky, is still very interesting especially once you're running PvE events with other players and fighting off Tac Cubes and Voth dreadnoughts.
As long as you don't buy into all the premium shop noise, there's a lot of careless, nerdy fun to be had.