So you want to hear a review, eh? Well you are in luck because this one will be a lengthy one for sure!

Borderlands 2 is probably one of the most beloved games ever created and with a good reason. Insane amount of loot, great classes to choose from, decent skills, a beautiful art style and tons of creative scenarios will makes sure that you have a great time on Pandora. This was my sixth playthrough, and I was pretty excited to experience this whole package again, and while I found some things that annoyed me, overall, this is still a stellar game to play.

I enjoyed the chaotic writing, the jokes and the overall insane amount of content and creativity that went into creating absurd side missions and jokes. What I did not like is the fact that with this amount of side content, you need to choose after some hours in what you want to do. You focus on the side quests or do the story missions, because the story is very tight, and if you stop to do some side stuff between missions, it can quickly lose it's momentum. On the other hand, if you do not level yourself up, the game can really make you suffer, as your level will be way lower than what you need to catch up with the story.

The other bigger negative aspect is the gun variety, as the game sometimes does not offer loot that is satisfying, instead it throws in a bunch of shield and grenades as a filler. The weapons themselves are cool but they are lacking creativity even with the elemental stuff (Borderlands 3 improved this).

The writing can be hit-or-miss but it is mostly enjoyable and I found most of the jokes still funny, even though some were brutally dated even for it's own time. Characters from the previous entry provide very good dialogue though, so even if you do not vibe with the game, you will probably appreciate how well the writers implemented the previous cast into the game.

As for the new characters, I like almost all of them except for Salvador. He is fine, I just do not like his playstyle with the dual wielding. Axton and Gaige are probably my favorite, but I really like Maya and Zero as well. I weirdly never played with Krieg before. I recommend Axton and Gaige for solo plays and after getting familiar with the game, any class is okay to start with. Axton's turret can be a lifesaver, and Gaige's robot can tank everything for you if you use it right, so they both can be insanely OP.

And what about the DLCs? Well...


Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty:

A very decent new zone with lots of sand and a pirate theme. I really love Shade and his design, as he was obviously inspired by the character of Johnny Depp from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The bosses are okay and the overall DLC is very creative with the pirate stuff, I just wish the later missions weren't so boring, as the game tries to pan out them in order to make the experience longer (looking at you Herbert). Overall, fun DLC that is a little bit annoying in the end.

Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage:

Insanely fun DLC with Torgue's over the top performance that makes up for all of the things this DLC lacks. I do not want to spoil anything from it, because it has some very good writing, so you just better check this one out.

Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt:

The Big Game Hunt is the most hated one from the bunch and I can see why, even I hated parts from it and found some designs questionable but I liked what this one is going for with the old fashioned adventure movie vibe and the main bad guy. It is quite short, you can have some fun with it but you can skip it.

Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep:

The star of the show, the DLC that everyone loves for how creative it is with it's fantasy setting. To be honest, I loved this one too but I found the writing of Tina a bit too much for me. I did not like some parts of the campaign because of this, as it made me realize that I liked her way more in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, as her sadness and grief were portrayed much better there. Overall, this one is the best of them all, and I highly recommend checking it out.

You are Empty is one of those games that always has intrigued me. Hell, old easterm europe PC Games have always been interesting to me.

It's a FPS set in the old Stallingrad era with an ambiguous story to tell. It really pays homeage to the Half Life series, specially Half Life 2. The inspiration is clear. The level design is linear, no word is said outside cutscenes or key moments in the game. Though, there are notes you can read that can help you progress through the game and also give a glimpse of the overall story this game has to tell.

Talking about the level design, is surprisingly good. As I said, taking inspiration from Half Life 2 structure they did a great job not making it just a flat linear grandious setpiece, but giving a lot of live to the shooting encounter. There is a lot of backtracking and this is the moment I felt a sprint button was needed. But the levels never got boring for me.

For what I can understand in the story: The Sovier Union is going to a secret war. So they are using people to be artificially superior physically with the power of strange circular metal device implantlented device in their back. Reminds me a lot of what the concept of "Übermensch" or Superman. Specially considering the era.

The gameplay is weird. It's not "Eurojank" but it will probably be something that you are not use to. The main character run like he's in space, really slow. Not to mention there's no sprint key. Yes, you can't sprint or run faster. The levels are linear though, so it comes across as a decent balance.

The weapons are nice, they are based on real life guns like the MouserC96 and PPSh-41 (also being one of the best in the game). The shooting itself feels oddly basic, there isn't any kind of recoil or extra feed that makes you believe those guns are powerful.

What does sell the game in my opinion is it's oppressive atmosphere. Gray skies , abandoned cities, the posters scattered through the city, the architecture, radio propaganda. Everything adds to the experience. The soundtrack is also nice, they are only present in some action scenes and it fits decent enough. Most of the game is silent.
There are cutscenes after you finish a chapter, they don't tell you directly what is happening through exposition. In fact, is very vague and worse if you don't understand much Russian, only for the details. An english dub is present to accomodate people overseas like me. And god it is awful.
English isn't my first language, so it was a hard time listening to these dudes talking a nonsense script in a strange accent. But I won't be harsh with the dub, since it was probably made by a pair of friends with a very limited budget.

Technical wise is uninmpressive, but not a disaster. It lacks dynamic lighting, and some components that games were starting to use. One thing I can say is that they really, really wanted to emphatize on the physics of the objects. Specially at the start of the game.
I've been playing this game with a fairly old PC, from 2013 to be exact running Windows 10. Not what could consider "High-end" or anything. But the game never gave me any technical related problems outside of crashing when I either quit the game or wait to much on the menu.

The best way to play it in my opinion is the build from abandonware: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/you-are-empty-f1j. It includes a couple of patches and removes the infamous Starforce DRM. That set DRM can screw your PC badly, so don't try installing it if you have a physical copy or something.

There is also a 16:9 that fixes the cutscenes and the UI elements. You can find it at https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/You_Are_Empty

So, in short. It's a decent time, lasting about 4 hours to complete. Ain't awful by any means but it's nothing impressive outside of the atmosphere and cutscenes.

As the name suggests, a real classic.

Deathmatch Classic is as simple as it gets. Start it up, connect and go shoot people.

The game is a mod from Half-Life in which the original Quake multiplayer has been refined with shinier textures, enhanced models and lightening.

The game play is fast-paced, you re-spawn instantly and the carnage only end when the time is up. I had so much fun with this game and it is still one of the best, yet the simplest online First Person Shooters that I played today.

There are a lot of different weapons scattered around the map like shotguns, machine guns and rocket launchers. Ammo is plenty and while rushing through the stage, you can always find more. The rocket launcher is a little overpowered sometimes, but it does require some skill to land a rocket at the right time between someone’s eyes, so in that perspective, it is well balanced.

The graphics are the same as Quake, but a lot more shinier and more detailed. Not that I cared that much, this is one of those games that would play just as well in 8-bit (as a matter of speech), but the solid frame rate and smooth transition makes this game beautiful in its own way.

The sound design in Death Match Classic is straightforward and uses the same format as Half-Life. It is just as good and when blowing people up with a rocket, the satisfying explosion lets you know you blasted someone’s ass to the moon.

When talking controls, this is the best aspect of the game. Because it is so simple, it plays so fluently that I have the feeling like I am in total control. Aiming is spot on, moving is fast and responsive and changing weapons easy. It is one of the best and most responsive control schemes I have ever experienced to this day. Maybe this is just a weird feeling or something, but still.

There are some matches in which other players are just so good at the game that I don’t know what is happening around me because everything is going so fast, but most times, I just join the fun and enjoy chasing the bastard that just killed me in my previous spawn.

Deathmatch Classic is, in my opinion, one of the fairest shooters out there. What I mean by this, is that everyone, including noobs like me, has a solid chance on wrecking some kills. There are many online shooters in which I just did not stand a chance, but with this game, I always have a fair amount of kills, motivating me to keep playing.

Overall, I really liked Death Match Classic, despite its simplicity. It is one of those games that does not feature all that extra hassle of gaining levels, upgrading stuff, ranking boards, loot boxes etc. It is a blast from the good old days that gives you a break and brings back the definition of Death Match games.

I would surely recommend this little gem to everyone.

Like everyone else, I too miss 2016-era Pokemon Go. My fondest memory was being at Disneyland in 2016 and everyone boarding the Jungle Cruise, phone in hand, because a Gyarados spawned on the ride, with employees even joining in and giving hints. Truly one of the more whimsical moments in video game history.

The game nowadays? It's Capital F Fine. It's one of those cases where I can see the appeal but it's just Not For Me. I finally have a phone powerful enough to run this game pretty decently and I live in a metropolitan area with lots of PokeStops, but that also means I've also reached the part of the game where Niantic is shaking me down for real money to upgrade my inventory space.