Recent reviews by Smiley

can't stop playing, send help

Meow? Meow meow. MEOW!

Short but sweet (though 100%-ing it will take a while), this is one of those games where the experience quantifies worth rather than playtime.

This one manages to be accessible enough that I can recommend it to everyone, but still has a tall skill ceiling when it comes to score and perfecting levels. That means you can comfortably reach the ending by your choice: tryharding for the gold score on every level, relaxing and doing the basics for bronze rank, or anything in between.

The soundtrack is kick-ass (play with headphones), the autorunner-esque gameplay is nice, the graphical style is nice and just right, and it runs super-smooth with zero loading time for levels. (Played on an SSD, but the entire game is <1GB -- your PC should cache most if it about one level in anyway)

Oh, and it's not locked to an arbitrary framerate but your display's Hz. if you got a high refresh rate monitor, it looks and feels even better.

An extremely-polished arena shooter with tight mechanics, smooth controls, and awesome netcode. Weapons are great and varied, maps are gorgeous and well-balanced and it's just plain fun to jump into. The game is extremely optimised to the point that I don't even know how Unreal Engine 3/UDK can provide this smooth experience.

The game's population is sadly pretty small, but you can mostly always find a game. And of course that's something that can only be solved by adding more players, and the free edition is a fantastic option, with zero actual gameplay restrictions apart from (very fast, XP-based) map unlocks and zero micro-transactions.

A short, 3-8 minute experience that I shouldn't spoil for you. Just play it.

(No jumpscares or anything like that)

An entirely new story in Rapture, completely separate from BioShock 1 & 2. Basically a new standalone game.

It's a lot closer to the roots of BioShock than 2 was, and feels more like another story than fan-fiction or a forced sequel. (As 2 felt) If you disliked the story of BioShock 2 and loved BioShock 1, you're going to love this one too.

Very, very, very recommended.

Unlike anything that I've ever played, including the Stanley Parable. Something that can't, and shouldn't, be explained plainly -- just try it out for yourself. Takes about 90 minutes.

What they say about this game is all true.

It starts off as your typical squad-based TPS with typical bad guys, and starts to go south real fast. The story is woven nicely into the game, and it doesn't seem like much until it picks up the pace.

The game begins with a run-of-the-mill "rescue mission", and turns into a question of morality, war, and deciding between bad and worse. And the end-result is horrible.

To quote a part of the game:
-"There's always another way!"
-"No. Sometimes there isn't."

Highly recommend it.

The only bad things I have to say about this game is:

1. It does not support anti-aliasing in any way. I had to use a SMAA injector. (Forced FXAA is downright terrible)
   
2. The last two chapters have two fights which are really, really badly designed:
   
   1. One is near the yacht and it contains three, poorly-structured horde attacks with no checkpoint in between. I died maybe 10 times there.
      
   2. The other is the "final fight", (chapter "The Bridge") and it contains a part where you cannot continue unless you do things in one way, as there will be too many enemies and a constant stream of bullets behind cover. You need to take down enemies in-order before continuing or else the game will overlap two hordes. Died less times but still plenty.

This is the prime example of true arcade games. It's PAC-MAN layered on top of a frantic high-speed reflex game where planning and quick reactions are key. EXTREMELY recommended.

Just don't play it for a couple hours straight or your brain will turn to mush.

Highly recommend it. One of the most creative & fun games I've ever played. It has a fantastic soundtrack, great gameplay, it's hard as hell and I just can't get enough.

Buy it!