The beginning of the downfall of Crytek.

I'm one of the few guys who liked the original Crysis despite all its flaws. I still remember the hype when Crytek announced Crysis 2 and how disappointing it was.

Crysis 2 is truly a product of its time and reflects everything wrong with the majority of modern FPS titles.

Everything that made Crysis great - is completely gone:

• Clunky movement and generic gunplay
• No more freedom in approaching different objectives.
• No save slots, only inconsistent checkpoints.
• FPS locked to 60.
• Terrible console FOV which you can change with the console but dying, picking certain objects and cinematics reset it.
• Some video effects like constant glow/bloom/shining completely ruin the atmosphere. At the time, this was some kind of standard in a lot of games and I have always hated it.
• No improvements when it comes to bugs and the terrible AI since the first Crysis. Enemies often stand in one place or multiple enemies stack up in one place. Yet they can see you through walls or when you are clocked?
• Non-stop action like it's a Hollywood big-budget blockbuster.


There are still some things Crytek managed to do right. I liked the "city-jungle" environment and the story is great. Crysis 2 has one of the greatest soundtracks ever composed by my compatriot Borislav Slavov and the genius Hans Zimmer.

Overall, It's hard for me to recommend Crysis 2. If anyone wants to try it - wait for a sale, it gets around 4-5€.

By Sigmar, the Hammer, and the Empire!

Fatshark did an amazing job in creating an immersive, easy-to-learn but hard-to-master intense co-op experience like no other. Vermintide 2 has a high skill ceiling and rewards team play but also elevates personal skills. Supporting each other is essential but a single great player can save the run and clutch the moment. The community is very friendly and welcomes new players. The player base is still active and there is plenty of content!

Sigmar! Bless this review!

First, the publisher Deep Silver decided to make a scummy move and make Metro Exodus an Epic store an exclusive couple of days before release.

After a whole year, we get a broken game with terrible voice actors, and no advanced graphic options, in which the only way to remove blur and get a higher FOV is to tweak a config file.

Despite everything, I still highly recommend Metro Exodus because of the story and the astonishing atmosphere. This time we have a mix of linear sections and open-world levels which is a welcomed addition. There is a big focus on managing resources and weapon customisation on the go, inspired by Crysis. Often you will have to choose between medkits, filters for the gas mask or bullets. The combat itself is challenging and immersive. A lot of improvements were made from 2033 and Last Light. I hope this isn't the last title in the series. Glukhovsky kinda confirmed on his Instagram that the story will continue with other games.

And, as always, I highly recommend everyone to read the books!

Battlefield 4 is arguably the best Battlefield infantry experience you can get!

It had a disastrous launch and it took DICE LA (not the developers) years to polish it out. The movement system is fast and fluid, combined with addictive gunplay. There are some exploits like ZouZou jumping which take some time to practice but can make the difference in most situations. There are tons of HUD customizations and this should be mandatory for all FPS titles but you won't find it outside BF4. I started playing it actively back in 2017 and I have spent 300+ hours playing mainly Operation Lockers 24/7 and other good infantry maps.

From here on, everything goes downhill. Battlefield 4 is FULL of annoying gadgets, grenades, etc. Most of the maps are terrible or made for vehicle combat where a good pilot/tanker can dominate the entire enemy team. Before it was full of terrible admins who would ban every good player because of "cheating". Currently, most good servers with proper rules and weapon/gadget restrictions are offline so It's a lot harder to find a proper server.

Battlefield 4 is also the last "good" Battlefield title. Everything after it has been a shitshow and DICE is trying to attract casual players and forcing political correctness, Swedish style. I'm a fan of the series ever since Bad Company 2 where I spend 1000+ hours. I pre-ordered Battlefield 3 (where a lot of bad changes were implemented like suppression), Battlefield 4 and Battlefield 1 (which I couldn't play for more than 100 hours). After so many disappointments, the whole franchise is dead to me and I couldn't care less for the future titles.

Frustration Island: Refund Edition

I remember enjoying Dead Island when it was released back in 2011. I have beaten it 3 times CO-OP with different people and we enjoyed it. But playing it now brings only frustration.

The so-called "Definitive Edition" is worse than the original and you can't buy the original:

• The original had many bugs but this one has even more
• Removed some weapon mods
• Strip-down gore
• Broken physics
• Removed nudity
• Uglier graphics & runs poorly

Act I is okay, even fun. It's better to just roll the credits after the end of it and never come back. Anything beyond that is not only a waste of time, it'll actively ruin whatever enjoyment you've had with the game up to that point. Act II almost immediately becomes glitchy, stupidly unbalanced and incredibly frustrating. Endless swarms of respawning zombies. Some of them can one-shot you by throwing knives like it's a CoD game. Mobs of zombies will constantly clip through walls and floors. Don't get me started on the gunplay - it's atrocious.

The story is as generic as it can get. The characters look and talk like shit. Quests are boring and repetitive, go from point A to point B, return to point A and repeat.

Bioshock just ticks all the boxes. Right from the beginning, it becomes obvious that the people that worked on it are very talented.

Bioshock starts with one of the single most incredible openings in the FPS genre if not video games in general. Fantastic level design and art style inspired heavily by Beaux Arts and Art Deco. You discover and start to understand the story and the lore by exploring Rapture. Even different corpses on the ground tell their own story. Every element around the city is full of details, character and charm from vending machines to the Splicers (the main enemy type), giving you an insight into the events that led them to where they are. The atmosphere is phenomenal and unique.

Gameplay and the shooting are addictive, just like old-school shooters. The fights with the Big Daddies can be tense and brutal until the later levels where you already have enough equipment to deal with them quickly.

Most of the negative reviews are because of the remastered version. I don't know if they patched it or I'm simply playing a different version from the others but I haven't encountered any bugs/glitches. The game never crashed and I was able to run it at a stable 200 FPS. The only "complain" I have is the lack of graphics options but It's not that big of a deal.

So now, would you kindly buy Bioshock?

I never had the chance to play Republic Commando when I was a child but loved the trailers. So the nostalgia factor doesn't have an effect on me. I'm expecting to get a lot of hate but I don't really understand why is there such a big praise for this game.

I will begin with the cons: bad AI even on the hardest difficulty (squad mates doing damage to you, getting on your way and even enemies just standing and doing nothing), nothing special about the gameplay - enemies are bullet sponges, the shooting is dull, weapons don't feel impactful (except the shotgun) but melee does the most damage. The game doesn't support widescreen resolutions and has terrible mouse acceleration but thanks to the modding community there are fixes. There is no lore, the campaign is just 3 linear and repetitive missions. Just as it gets interesting - the game ends.

However, there are still some pros - great OST, the game is actually quite challenging even on normal difficulty, cheesy dialogues, the HUD is very well made, and this is so far the only Star Wars game from a soldier's perspective and not from force-sensitive characters.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey is a typical Ubisoft product and a perfect example of what's going wrong in the gaming industry for years now.
I've never liked the AC franchise, even back in 2007. The only reason why I bought Odyssey is because of the historical period and the lack of games which have in it. A lot of people like to point out how much content it offers but in truth is quantity over quality, in an old Ubisoft fashion.

A question, that is often asked when it comes to historically inspired games, is how historically accurate it is.
Although the world is true to history (more about it below), there are a lot of historical inaccuracies for gameplay's sake like Sparta magically having a big navy and Athens can magically hold its own in all these open land battles. For some reason, both armies don't know anything about strategies, doctrines or even combat formations. Big conquest battles are chaotic 1v1 fights. A lot of the weapons look too big and I don't understand why? It doesn't even make the look "cooler" or "more epic". The majority of Greeks look like modern Arabs from North Africa.

The Good:
• Odyssey's world is the best recreation of Ancient Greece that you will find anywhere! This is the main reason why I have spent so many hours. Ubisoft included so many small details that truly make the world-historical accurate. The best example is probably coloured statues. The world is filled with recreations of real monuments and buildings. It is huge and diverse with plenty of content in it. The game also has a database function where you can visit and learn all about the Greek world.

• The inclusion of mythical creatures is done very well and doesn't break the immersion. They are all in remote __cpLocations, can be missed and don't affect the overall story. A fun addition.

• A wide variety of gear. Most of it is historically accurate but some of it is inspired by Greek myths and Greek heroes. For example the Agamemnon or Achilles armours.

• I liked the idea behind the Cult of Kosmos controlling both sides in the war for their purposes.

The Bad and the Ugly:
• The story is weird. But you never really care about any of the characters or feel connected to them.

• Far from being a true RPG! None of your choices matter or have any consequences except when it comes to your family members - kill them or spare them. That's it! You don't even have a role to play. People consider you a demigod. No classes. You can be a good assassin, hunter and warrior at the same time.

• Arcade mechanics and gameplay with little to no challenge. The AI is terrible. Enemies are often blind and deaf. They won't even alarm others when they find bodies. There is no fall damage! You can jump from wherever you want and won't die. You eagle can spot and mark everything even if it's underground. How about being ambushed by 2-5 damage sponge mercenaries? Very good idea, right?

• Most NPC look the same and the characters are very poorly animated in cutscenes. Far from AAA quality for 60€. The emotional reactions and facial motions are simply terrible.

• I'm not against representing females more in different media but how exactly does constantly killing women, some of which look like males, help?

• Odyssey is poorly optimized and people have been complaining since launch. Texture popping, crashes and stuttering are common even on a high-end PC.

• Ubisofts greed got bigger with every patch. Increasing the level cap (twice already, almost doubling it from 50 -> 70 -> 99) and lowering resource gain from in-game mechanics with every update is just to be explained with them trying to force you either into a needless, unnecessary grind that is frustrating or into spending money on their helix credits and in-game boosters. This, considering we are talking about a full-prized single-player game is just infuriating and outrageous.

• Don't bother with the DLCs! Uninspired, mediocre and more of the same. Not worth the 40€ (!!!).

Conclusion:
Not a game I will ever replay. Recommend only when on sale because of the world and the amount of content it offers even though it's repetitive.

Dishonored is the true spiritual successor of the Thief franchise (even though it has a different focus) and one of the greatest immersive sims ever made.

As an immersive sim, Dishonored offers you large levels to explore on your own, with open goals that you can solve your way rather than being told what to do. The story is nothing special - you are betrayed by the royal spymaster, helped out of prison by a group of loyalists and then sent on a revenge trip against the traitors. There are two ways you can complete every level - lethal and non-lethal. The amount of people you kill determines your chaos level, giving you a more optimistic or more pessimistic ending, which increases the replay value.

I love the art style of Dishonored. The level design is excellent and the game world is very well crafted. The overall design and aesthetic are very appealing. Not a real surprise since my compatriot Viktor Antonov worked on it - the same art director who build City 17 from Half-life. Antonov is renowned for creating compelling fictional worlds that combine beauty with striking realism. Visually Dishonored looks like a painting in motion. There aren't high-resolution textures or special visual effects but it's still highly immersive and runs more than adequately.

As for the gameplay - the combat is so immensely satisfying. My only problem with Dishonored is how easy it is even on the so-called highest difficulty.

Overall, there is no reason not to recommend Dishonored. It's often overlooked even tho it has overwhelmingly positive reviews and during sales, it gets dirt cheap. I highly recommend the DLC too.

When CDPR announced a new Witcher game, I was disappointed to find out it was a card game. I simply hate card games! However, after reading a couple of reviews and watching gameplay, it turned out to not be a typical card game so I decided to once again support CDPR.

No regrets! The art style is phenomenal. The gameplay - is addictive and fun to learn. A lot of the Gwent fans criticize it for being too easy but that's certainly not true for people new to this genre. I beat the game on the medium difficulty but I have to admit - I read a lot of guides. Liked the idea of the puzzles.

Most importantly - Thronebreaker gives the fans of the books even more depth to the Witcher lore, particularly events and characters. For the hours you get, it's worth the price. It was also very satisfying to finish all the achievements.

Before playing Metro 2033 or Last Light, I highly recommend reading the books. You won't regret it!

As for the games - other developers need to take notes. It's just a phenomenal-looking game. The atmosphere is immersive and engaging. From the lighting and sound effects to the models of the mutants and all the factions (except the female characters which for some reason look bad). I also recommend changing the audio to Russian.

The shooting is satisfying and challenging especially on "Ranger Hardcore" difficulty. The game has a system where with certain actions you earn or lose moral points which determine the ending. Some of the mechanics I haven't seen in any other game. The watch in the game is synchronized with your PC. When taking damage, your gas mask starts to crack and break. Rain, blood or mud will often cover your mask and block your vision so you can simply wipe it.

It's just amazing what a small Ukrainian studio managed to create. Most of the complaints about the Metro series are that they are too linear. Well, they are made linearly on purpose to tell a story.

Crysis is a special game for me.

This is the first game I ever bought and I still keep the physical copy. It was the reason why I met my best friend from childhood who sadly passed away in 2017. The game was known for having great graphics and a "But can it run Crysis" meme but I always thought it to be underrated.

Graphics aside, Crysis has a lot of bugs and atrocious AI.

On a positive note:

• Not many games give you this freedom of tackling the objectives the way you want.
• Crysis doesn't hold your hands. You can go gun blazing, snipe everyone from a distance, sneak pass or stealthy take down everyone.
• Back in 2007, the option to customise your guns on the go was innovative.
• The story is good. There are some missions where you can drive a tank and a V-TOL and it's a great change of pace.

Overall, I highly recommend getting Crysis outside of testing your PC.

Singularity is probably the best overlooked and under-appreciated FPS title. I'm sure the team that worked on it was quite talented and had great ideas but was pressured at the end by the big publisher and couldn't finish it the way they wanted to. You can find a lot of inspiration from Bioshock and Half-life plus some original ideas. The atmosphere and aesthetics are very well done. I liked the story - unique and intriguing. It would be great for a miniseries or even a book.

The graphics are good, nothing too fancy. The gunplay is quite generic, nothing new, nothing special. The final chapters feel rushed. The team was running out of time and financing.

A complete lack of confidence!

Shadow Warrior 2 tries to be a fast-paced dumb fun FPS but it ends up being a painfully unfunny cringe-fest. You start the game and... rabbit sex. I'm not even joking.

Every good game wants you to play a certain way. They push you into their systems and with every new challenge, you become a better player.

But what does Shadow Warrior 2 want from the player? Judging by the fast movement speed, being able to constantly dash and double jump, It's trying to be a fast and chaotic old-school shooter. Why are there skills and experience points? Why is there sprinting? Why are there so many long and painful to watch cinematics with cringe "humour"? Why are there abilities/powers? Why can you aim down the sights? Why does it take so long to reload weapons? Why is there a hub area?

Those gameplay components separately are fine but why did the devs decide it's a good idea to jam every possible design choice? They just threw every possible system from the FPS genre because they didn't want to scare away new players.

Some people might tell me to ignore these parts of the gameplay but I'm already ignoring the whole story, cinematics, and "humour". How many parts of the game do I need to ignore to enjoy it? To make matters worse:
• The weapons also barely have any impact.
• The difficulty options mainly change how much bullet sponges are the enemies so there is no real challenge.
• The levels are procedurally generated but still manage to be boring and repetitive.

It's obvious Flying Wild Hog lacked any confidence and didn't have a clear vision of what they wanted Shadow Warrior 2 to be. The "humour" is loud and irritating to compensate for that and during cinematics, there is a constantly flashing "Press any key to skip". I might only recommend getting Shadow Warrior 2 only if it's on sale and because of the co-op mode.