August 2023 Update

Next update (works only on profile page)

Activated: 01/2021

STAR WARS Battlefront II (Q4 2017) ⭐️⭐⭐⭐☆

Beaten after: 32 months

FPS Multiplayer
12h | 0 of 43 (0%)

⇱ Click to show summary⇲

The good 👍
- Good map design
- Good weapon balance and feel

The bad 👎
- Initial monetization model was awful
- Can take a bit to find players, as it's an old multiplayer game

Conclusion:

It was fine to grab it for free on Epic to try, but I would not buy it myself. But I'm also not a competitive multiplayer player. There is a room to upgrade abilities of the characters we like, and learn how to use them effectively. Characters are leveled up per class (e.g. both imperium and republic assault unit will update at the same time) and NPCs like Yoda or Luke are upgraded individually. Which makes it easy to boost general characters, and then focus on a few NPCs we want to play. It is a bit grindy but gives "something to do" except for replaying levels infinitely and boost ranks. Weapons are good, level design is interesting.

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Details

📘 Story ☐ Bare-bone ☑ Average ☐ Good

Single player acts as a tutorial. The story shows how the imperial elite squad sees how corrupt and wrong the imperium is, and decides to help the republic. It's as generic and predictable as it goes. There is a DLC, but it's really short and as predictable and generic as the main story.

🪄 Abilities ☑ Basics (walk, jump etc.) ☐ Magic / powers ☐ Advanced combat	Playing levels up the hero and skill points, that can be used to unlock or upgrade abilities. We can have 2 or 3 equipped at the same time. They are either passives (slower stamina drain, more health etc.) or active (change how default abilities work).
🎮 Controls ☐ Clunky and stiff ☑ Adequate ☐ Fluid and enjoyable	Basic controls. There is no parkour or platforming. Just run around and try to kill enemies.
📇 Inventory and menus ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Over complicated	There is no real inventory, we set up everything before the match per class. Game menu allows to only follow our score, and pick non-basic class to play if we have enough points gathered.
🥊 Combat 🏹 ☐ Boring and generic ☐ Average ☑ Good ☐ Great	The combat is good, but it heavily depends on our squad. Obviously, as for the multiplayer game. Sometimes games are more equal and more fun, and sometimes there is some pro player with high level Jedi on the other side, that will mow through our team in no time. But in general, classes feel balanced, and none are grossly OP and abused.

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☑ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☑ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☐ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☑ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☐ Average ☑ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☐ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☑ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☐ Basic graphic settings ☑ Advanced graphic settings ☑ Adjustable HUD ☑ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☐ No map ☐ Basic ☐ Detailed ☑ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details: Mtx were removed from game after initial fiasco, but peremium currency stayed. And does nothing.

Activated: 07/2023

Quest Hunter (Q1 2019) ⭐️⭐⭐☆☆

Beaten after: 1 month

Action-adventure
16.5h | 60 of 74 (81%)

⇱ Click to show summary⇲

The good 👍
- Bugfree?
- Works well for couch co-op. Loot is picked up individually

The bad 👎
- Combat is stiff and uninteresting
- NPC dialogue box can have bright background, and text is also bright.. which doesn't increase readability
- Puzzles are more like annoying roadblock than challenge
- Dungeons are really repetitive and have one or two floors
- There are no choices, all replies always end in the same result

Conclusion:

I went to the game Store page to check tags, and saw the promo vid. First 3 (co-op, exploration, character customization) are true. The rest of this movie is bogus. Or more like just mentioning such thing is in the game, but digging up chest with random junk is not revolutionary. Good to beat with a kid, but I would not have high expectations for like adult co-op.

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Details

📘 Story ☑ Bare-bone ☐ Average ☐ Good

Someone stole the sun and our ship crashed on the island. And it's on us to save the world and find the source of light and happiness. Plot is basically "go to this person and ask them for help. Do something for them, so they can build a house or a boat, so you can progress".

🔄 Gameplay loop ☐ Boring ☑ Average ☐ Good	Go to location pick up some junk to complete fetch quest, kill enemies on the way. There are some random encounters on the overmap that can be ignored by leaving the encounter map. We collect quite a lot of crafting materials, that are (like usual) just a fodder. The only useful upgrade is backpack capacity. We find better weapons and armor by beating the next levels, not by crafting.
🪄 Abilities ☐ Basics (walk, jump etc.) ☑ Magic / powers ☐ Advanced combat	There is only one attack type (smash the button type). It's also possible to use shield, but not parry or dodge. And shield is quite useless in general, stamina runs fast, and then we're back to button smash. There are few abilities (lightning, meteor, freeze, energy shield, power strike) on a timer. Most of them are really average, but freeze is a must. Especially early in the game. Enemies don't have smart strategies to attack us, they just hit really hard. So being able to freeze anyone and then beat them senseless is the only viable strategy. While things like lightning or meteor don't deal a lot of damage, but work well to clear a path from trees and stones. Can equip up to 3 abilities at a time. They are unlocked with levels and need to be upgraded with gems found as drops.
🎮 Controls ☐ Clunky and stiff ☑ Adequate ☐ Fluid and enjoyable	As generic as it can get. Control with stick or WSAD, pick attack with buttons and quick inventory slots (health items) with cross.
📇 Inventory and menus ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Over complicated	I kept mixing up buttons to start the mini map and to enter the inventory. Menus are made for game pads. Inventory is clear and easy to use, and weapons or armor have only one stat, so it was not hard to make it clear which piece is best on comparison. Rest of items are just junk that is not really worth attention, we need it only for rare upgrades. So it kind of just stay there. Journal look overcomplicated with how little plot is in this game.
🥊 Combat 🏹 ☑ Boring and generic ☐ Average ☐ Good ☐ Great	Like I said in the abilities part. Combat is brainless and smashing. The only thing that enemies can do is chase us when we get in their detection range. They have one attack and always behave the same way. Even bosses are just overgrown base enemies. Later on it's actually better to equip run ability (yes running is ability on the timer) and run past all enemies, as it's waste of time to kill them.

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☑ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☑ Can run on potato ☐ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☑ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☐ Average ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☑ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☑ Resolution, volume only ☐ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☐ No map ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details: - Enemy sounds are awfull. One enemy sounds like devs went to record pigeon coo. - Textures are blurry

Friend sent me a teary message that rabbit died with a link to a facebook fanpage. I get a bit confused, as she did not have the facebook page for her rabbit, so I did not know if it’s yet another scam. Turned out she was sad as some “famous” rabbit from the internet died. “The only rabbit that could play basketball” she said. I went to yt to look for it, and saw video of IMO rather poor Ameraca God Talent performance of guy trying to make the rabbit do stuff, and rabbit just didn’t. If you compare it to what people training dogs or cats can achieve…

And then (following yt rabbit hole) I went to videos that show dog agility competition, and that is a good content. Speed, grace, trust to the person who trains them. Not a rabbit that can’t understand what to do next. Rats are more intelligent, and can be as much cuddly as rabbits are.