Recent reviews by Dr White

Corn Kidz 64 is a love letter to both an era of gaming and an era of person - and I want MORE!

The game has an incredibly tight control scheme and a engaging gameplay loop that blends perfectly with its funny exploration of the genre and tropes of the games its inspired by.
Its clearly a labour of love by its creator and that level of care and focus really shows throughout the short but corn-syrup-sweet experience.

There are some nail-biting moments where precision platforming can be hindered by a camera perhaps too faithful to its inspirational fore-bearers (or as I call them 'Drunk Lakitu moments), but those moments are far and few between.
The late game will test your platforming skills but if you grew up with the likes of Spyro and Crash, you'll find yourself right at home with little issue beating the game in one or two sittings.

The art style is one of the games greatest strengths - rather than chasing the PSX style a lot of retro-games are currently pursuing, Corn Kidz 64 lives up to its name in its commitment to the softer style of graphics seen on the Nintendo 64.
The option of various faux-CRT filters help sell this style but it also comes options to scrap that entirely, going for 1080p with AA options if you not a fan of chunky pixels and scan lines.

I love the design of main characters, as they hearken back to an age of teens wearing all black getup's with far too many belts, sipping weird energy drinks and blasting Linkin Park tracks through tinny flip-phone speakers [Read: My childhood].
Meanwhile, the designs of the enemy roster are clear and readable while still having a lot of personality.

The use of tracker music for the OST is a fantastic touch and is very faithful to the era of cartridge-based game its trying to emulate - However, I will concede that the theme of main level (Wolloh's Hollow) makes use of a LOT of cowbell as its primary instrument which personally got slightly grating during my second play-through.

In conclusion: I HIGHLY recommend you pick it up and give it a shot! You wont regret it! I want more and you will too.

Ghostware. Ghostware, Ghostware, Ghostware...
Right out of the gate let me say - I HIGHLY recommend this game if you, like myself, wasted childhood summers exploring empty TFC or UT99 maps offline.

The game is both a well crafted horror experience and a love letter to a genre that is, tragically, dead.

The movement is buttery smooth and a blast to play with once you know it, while the weapon roster has that unique-but-weird feeling that the later UT games had.

You've read this far down? Go grab it. What are you waiting for?

A thrilling fever dream adventure that goes from Dear Ester to Cruelty squad in the space of an hour. Totally recommend.

VR Homeworld resource collector sim. 10/10 would fall into a black hole again.

Having completed a play-through and returned to earth, I think I'm in a good position to reflect on the game now.

For what it is, and what is currently accessible - Above earth is a wonderful subnautica-style survival game with an apocalyptic twist mixed in with a little bit of The Martian. Is it worth the price its currently at? Eh, if you're willing to stick with it, yes.

First of all - let me address one of the biggest issues with the game: The first hours are ROUGH, with your initial station segment heavily damaged and repair resources exceptionally scarce. Several of my first characters died as I either wasted resources and I ended up having to cheat to get this first segment repaired before I really got stuck into the game. Honestly, I'd personally recommend having a 'repaired initial module' as a difficulty option that's on by default in the lower difficulty.

Secondly - This early access version is (predictably) incredibly rough around the edges: The interface is all a single font, some interactions are awkward (Why can't I turn on module power from the terminal?), some mechanics are poorly explained (Looking at you, station overview menu) and the rate of consumption for resources are, in my opinion, far too high. That being said, There is certainly a strangely rewarding feeling when you successfully make progress, like getting your first solar panel repaired.

Locating what item in space gives what resources is a big hurdle for early gameplay, and can easily result in your death as you waste resources inefficiently salvaging the debris field surrounding your station. As rule of thumb - Go for containers and loose tanks first, and NEVER salvage without a tool.

Now for a short series of quick fire reflections - Why would you ever build a sleeping harness when you've got a relatively intact sleeping pod in your starting cabin?
Why do flashlights use space-AA batteries while everything else uses rechargeable interchangeable tool batteries?
Why can I make several types of weapon before discovering the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ taser-toaster drones that lurk in the deeper sections of the station ?

However - Once you've gotten a more solid footing, the game becomes a remarkably competent time management sim; Little things such as brewing a coffee became part of my routine as I drifted through the station performing my daily tasks before venturing out to spend my days water on salvaging new materials. It's a strangely rewarding experience at that point.

In conclusion, I am looking forward to what else this game has to offer in the time to come, and I'm happy with what I've played for so far. Just lighten up that first hour or two...

What can I say about Delta V? Its like a mixed bowl of caffeine and sleeping tablets; a slow, calming mining sim with some heartpounding peaks of excitement. Do I recommend it? Hell yes. Is it for everyone? eeeh, no.

The core mining loop is a deceptively addictive, with a simple hook and a wide range of tools to mix up how you achieve it. Personally, I've had the most fun sticking two automated microwave turrets on my ship and just scooping up whatever they break down. Unfortunately, this loop can begin to feel grindy, especially early on. Pick the wrong gear and some 'dives' will actually end up costing you more than you make, unless you happen to make a big score...

Speaking of big scores; The salvage system, while clearly still in its infancy, is easily the fastest way to make money and, strangely, one of the most exciting - Simply stun a pirate or ask a salvage team for directions to a wreck and make off with the big money. I just wish the system was a little more fleshed out; maybe with your ships mechanics being able to give the wrecks a look over to see if they're even worth hauling back?

Pirates. Man, F*ck pirates.

Combat in the game mostly boils down to locking relative velocity with your target and trying to 'circle strafe' around them to keep out their line of fire while you wail on them. Trouble is, they are trying to do the same. Whoever gets the drop on who tends to win as microwaves disable ships and mass driver damage straight up DELETES engines, so you're as good as disabled if you take a hit.

This basically means you should just flee from combat when possible, as theres little value in 'winning' a fight when all it scores you is 75K for the pirates bounty and -50k for your ship repairs.

Theres some fun builds you can make however - The Eagle mining vessel can make for a pretty decent battleship if you put autotargeting turrets on the sides and use your main engine to keep your broadside facing the target. Just remember that ringroids dont care about combat and will still hurt like hell if you drift into them.

The game has tiny hints of a larger plot, with a dialog system that could easily be used to include a deeper tale of mining mysteries and stellar intrigues. At the moment, however, it simply functions as a proxy to alert you to things; for example, what resource that habitat wants to buy or how much of a raise your new crew mate wants because he's a punk than doesn't think I'll just fire him the second we get back to station.

There are skeletons of a quest system, clues to a larger narrative in the solar system, and teases of something out there, waiting in the darkness - but, so far, nothing's there. At least, I've not come across it yet...

The music is also fantastic - perfectly fitting with theme. I'm half tempted to buy the OST just to add it to my study and programming playlists. Thats all there is to say.

And now for the part where I spitball ideas into the void that is steam reviews.
1. More combat-centric upgrade options. Faraday cages, armour plates, drive signature sensors. Make being a bounty hunter cool!
2. Better salvage mechanics. Right now, going in for salvage boils down to piloting into one of two ships designs that can carry the manipulator arm and hoping you run into a salvage ship who'll point you to a wreck. The aforementioned drive sensors could help with this.
3. Player-initiated dialog! At the moment you have to park your ship near an NPC's and wait for them to strike up a conversation, if they ever do. The player should be able to contact these ships directly, ask them for directions, gossip, ect. Hell, this could even extend to the players crew. I want to know how my pilots music career is going, or how my geologists feeling about this dive. Just little flavour things like that.
4. A key to hold open excavators! Having to hold enter for several minutes at a time while haul drones struggle to get ore into my hungry ships maw is tedious. It would be nice to be able to, say, double-tap it and have it stay open until I press it again.

An exceptional upgrade to the original Jamestown! Polished sound and art, squashed bugs and new gameplay features make this an all around straight improvement! The Pirate moon plotline was a blast and I'd honestly love to see more tall tales expansions in the future.

There is something personally heartwarming about playing this game - the original is what inspired me to get into games development myself as a teen and 8 years on, as I play this in between lectures, I find myself enjoying the game anew.

Thank you, Final Form.

Black Mesa is honestly in my mind a Valve quality product. To say its what Half Life source should have been is an offensive - this goes way above and beyond the bar set by that expectation.

The ways the team have blended classical map design with new engine features in a way thats believable is astounding.

Not to mention the complete remastering of xen, which is well on its way to fix some of the worst parts of one of the greatest games ever.

Valve - Hire these guys!

A solid follow up to the first part, sprinkled with improvments. Although I somewhat miss the cover-based shooting, I find the freedom of motion afforded by the new platformer style fits right in with ARIDs newfound personal freedom.

Its clear they improved the engine quite a bit; even simple things like jumping feel a lot smoother and less janky now, while visually its quite a treat for a game its size.

The plot twists are a little expectable, unlike the first games which almost came out of nowhere. However, this is forgivable as the cast of characters are uniquely enjoyable in a strange way. It also puts across mutliple philosophical points, as opposed to the first games core one of 'rules'.

...Oh and it features a robomonk in a one-finger-death-punch style fighting minigame. 10/10 wpuld buy again.

Hello, timepolice? Yeah, I think 2004 leaking again. Yes. Thats right. No no - its fine. I'll hold.



Welcome back, old friend.