Recent reviews by BookishNerDan

If anything, this is the perfect software to just mess around with trying to get all sorts of crazy puzzles and logic events to work. RPG Maker MV is also surprisingly versatile and flexible allowing you to pull off some fairly complex routines.

But I'd say the best reason to use this (or RPG Maker MZ) is that it's a painless and fun way to learn JavaScript programming. If you've never learned programming before, this is a great place to start to learn the basics, and not just by learning the syntax common to many programming languages, but to think logically and step-by-step through various problems. Programming is, after all, just telling a computer to do things in a certain order (to explain it simply), and this is a way to learn how to do that.

I came across this because of a review I saw on YouTube by Splattercatgaming and it looked intriguing, but I wasn't prepared for how quickly I'd get pulled into the world of this game.

What sells this game for me is the quality of the writing. Playing this game is like being at the table with a master storyteller Dungeon Master. The characters are all interesting with unique motivations, the descriptions of the game's desert, bronze-age, fantasy, apocalyptic setting are stunning, and the music sets an ominous mood.

This prologue is obviously very hand-holdy and exists to teach the basics of what looks like an insanely complex and unforgiving game. And to be honest, games that force me to micro-manage every little detail don't really appeal to me, but there's something about this game that makes me want to spend a lot of time with it and learn what's going on.

Good luck getting a refund. You'll be in queue for hours but since that puts you over the 2 hours Steam limit then you'll probably be out of luck getting a refund.

Honestly, this is starting to feel like a scam. I was only able to play about an hour before multiple crashing issues that reboots my PC. The game is NOT READY for Early Access but the devs are still accepting money then forcing players to sit in a queue for hours so that it's nearly impossible to get a refund.

Is the game really a scam? I dunno, but the state of the servers, the constant crashing, and the lack of real communication from the devs makes it seem like this game probably is a cash grab scam.

Want to be a space ninja? Wish Diablo was actually fun? Like doing parkour at high speed while firing off high-powered, dangerous weaponry?

Warframe has a reputation for being hard on new players, but it really isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be. And while it's true the game doesn't do a good job of explaining things - did you know you can make multiple (unique) blueprints in your foundry at the SAME TIME?!?! - the game's community is fantastic and very helpful. And if you're stuck trying to figure out what to do next, there's always Google.

This isn't rocket science, it's just a Diablo (Path of Exile, Grim Dawn) style, 3rd-person, sci-fi looter-shooter with buttery smooth game play - and I can't praise just how well this game plays; it's a miracle of fun, engaging game play. The guns feel amazing, jumping and parkouring all over the map makes you feel like a super hero, and the combat is fast paced with a ton of different game modes.

Yes the game is free to play, but this is not Genshin Impact or Lost Ark or (shudder) Diablo Immortal. The game can be played totally free without having to spend a dime and there are no pay to win elements in the game. You can also play this game solo, though even when you play with a group at low levels, it's still like you're playing solo since everyone just blasts through the map anyway. So if you're stuck on a boss fight or particular mission, getting a group going is easy and painless.

Warframe is an incredibly fun game with a TON of content. And I mean it's got a TON of content; it's absurd how much you can do in this game. There are huge open world areas, there's fishing, there's Archwing missions which are like arcade-style 3D flying games, and there's a ton more too.

And the game is really good if you're an older gamer like me who just doesn't have a ton of time to game everyday. You can log in, do a few quick missions, then log out. There's not feeling like you have to get a bunch of busy work done if you don't want to do all that. The game respects your time (and your wallet).

Honestly, even though Warframe is a very famous game, I feel like it's still slept on by a lot of gamers. But this game deserves your attention. Warframe is ridiculously fun, like accidentally stay up till 4am because you're having too much fun shooting aliens and jumping around cool spaceships and space stations.

Seriously, check this game out and give it a chance, it's fricken brilliant.

Glad to help out our Ukrainian brothers and sisters in any small way we can.

Better high school simulator than Persona. All you have to do is tell one monster that a monster on other side of the map is talking smack about it and they'll go punch it in the face even though they don't know each other.

I'm almost 50. The last time I played a fighting game was Samurai Shodown 2 at the bowling alley on old SUBASE Pearl Harbor (before the merger), and some Killer Instinct at the local movie theater I worked at after I left the Navy. In other words, I'm old, I'm slow, and I have no experience with modern fighting games.

So why now? What gets some crusty old sailor to buy a lightning-quick anime style fighter that has a reputation for being difficult for even good players to get into?

Honestly, I just thought it looked cool.

But I also heard it was a good entry point for new players.

Now I've heard other games say they're good for new players as a "starting point", only to get into them and find out they actually expect you to have a ton of previous knowledge about the game to really get into. So I was worried that Guilty Gear would be the same, that it would be a baffling learning experience that never felt like it was teaching me how to really play the game.

But I gave it a chance. I played the tutorials and I was surprised to find out that I was, in fact, actually learning how to play this insane game. And even though I am old and slow and have the finger dexterity of a two sticks of partially melted butter, I found myself getting better.

Then I went online and actually won a few matches.

And that's when it really hooked me. This game took an ancient relic of an arthritic scarecrow nailed to a 2by4 and showed me that even I could learn and practice at getting better.

I've always loved fighting games but have always been intimidated by them. As beautiful as these games are with the flashy moves and gorgeous backgrounds and rocking soundtracks, I never felt like I could learn to play one well enough to actually beat another human being in an online match. But I did.

And I want to do more and get better.

This game rocks. I don't know anything about the previous GG games (I hear they're pretty insane) but this game has got me back into fighting games late in life and I can't wait to learn more and get better and maybe even one day watch EVO and actually know what the heck is going on.

So, yeah. I HIGHLY recommend this game, even for salty old seafarers with stiff fingers and who are only a few years away from drawing a social security check.

"You say this war has taken a heavy toll, sahib. But what awaits us? Are you certain the Almighty will give Khiva to us? What if we are chasing a mirage into the very heart of the desert?"

"15. So shall he sprinkle many nations: the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see: and that which they had not heard shall they consider."

Always wanted to play this game but was intimidated by how complicated it looked and didn't want to drop a bunch of money on (yet another) game I won't play for more than a few hours. However, thanks to a free-play weekend I decided to try out the base game and, well, I got hooked.

One thing that helped me get into this game was, first, just jumping in and playing without any idea what I was doing. Basically I had to just tell myself that letting myself fail at the game is OK because I'll still be learning how things work. By not trying to "win" the game on my first play-thru I was able to just sort of relax and see what the game had to offer. And by setting everything to easy and following the (very limited) tutorial tips, I was able to at least get a feel for the game, and I really liked what I saw.

I then found a great YouTube video series that talks about how to play the game; in fact it was 2 different content creators: Stefan Annon, and also ColorsFade Gaming. Stefan is the most highly recommended and easiest to watch in short videos, but ColorsFade Gaming shows you a full playthrough without editing and jumping ahead and he talks through his decision making process in a way that helps you understand why things are done in a certain way. Both are excellent and both have flaws, but for different reasons and so together they make for one fantastic tutorial.

And this is the point I'm at now (~21 hours in): I'm learning how to manage planets and pops efficiently and soon I'll start learning how to conquer and enslave my galactic neighbors with brute military force.

What keeps me going is that this game is the closest I've come to something of a Star Trek simulator (in fact there's even a Star Trek total conversion mod for this game that I'll eventually check out once I'm better at the game). I can manage my own Federation and build a fleet of science and exploration ships, or a Klingon Empire and go full battle navy, or I can rule my pops with an iron fist like the Cardassians, or go full Ferrengi and build up a galactic trade network and conquer via capitalism. The possibilities seem endless so this has pretty much become the perfect game for someone like me who is a total sci-fi nerd.

Don't let the low-res graphics fool you, this is an insanely deep fishing sim that could probably keep you occupied for years.

Though this is developed by just one person, Ben Lewis, Intergalactic Fishing is so well thought out and implemented that I doubt a huge AAA studio with 400 people could design this game any better. The interface is simple and intuitive, such as how you can always figure out what lake to go to next without having to dig around in menus, the music is absolutely beautiful - seriously, I could listen to this Twin Peaks-ish soundtrack all day long, and the fishing mechanic is simple to learn but always fun to do. Finally, the writing is fantastic; there is a lot of humor in the dialogue, as well as some very poignant moments too, such as when an NPC wants you to catch them a fish to remind them of their childhood.


But the insane amount of depth to this game is what really surprised me. With hundreds of thousands of lakes, each with their own unique ecology that can be explored and fished, numerous quests and side quests, a wide variety of upgrades for your BOAT and your rod, as well as many different modules that you can install to perform specialized tasks. Most interesting is the lure designer which allows you to build custom lures so you can target any of the hundreds of thousands (perhaps even millions) of fish in the game. The lure creator is a fun mini-game that is surprisingly deep but also very simple to learn and reminds me of a combination between inventory Tetris and Minecraft.

There is also a wonderfully simple and easy to follow 4 part YouTube series the developer put together to help you quickly learn the game, and the developer also seems highly responsive to requests and comments on the Steam forums, not to mention he comes across as very professional, friendly, and down-to-earth - I would guess he's probably a fisherman in real life, too.

I've played my fair share of indie, one-person games, but Intergalactic Fishing is something special, not only because it is fun, deep, and has near endless gameplay, but because the developer is one of those rare people that can do more than simply write computer code for a game: they are an artist who has created a real hidden-gem of a masterpiece. I'd keep your eyes on this developer because this is someone who is a major talent and they deserve all the praise and recognition in the world.

If you want a super-chill fishing sim that has near endless depth, this is THE game to buy.