Recent reviews by Dead_Moose

[Edit] It would appear that my initial review was too optimistic; though it is now outdated, I shall leave it here for posterity.

Following 1) The horrific pricing of the Shadows of Change DLC, and CA's disappointing response, 2) A chronic lack of patches for egregious and longstanding bugs and 3) A mix of misguided reworks and gross inattention to core gameplay mechanics, e.g. sieges and AI, I can no longer recommend this game for purchase. Perhaps in the future I may revert my review to a positive one, but I cannot recommend the game in its current state. CA will have to work very hard to regain my trust and goodwill-trust that was gradually built up over the past half a decade, and has subsequently been eroded at an astonishing pace.

[Original Review]
Now that Immortal Empires has released, I think this game now deserves a positive review. Although there are bound to be many bugs and crashes in this beta, I am having infinitely more fun now than I was with the abysmal Realms of Chaos campaign (whose existence should be ignored).

With the improved alliance mechanics (having Hellstorm Rocket Batteries with Tyrion is a blast), the introduction of item fusing, and a significantly expanded and reworked map, Immortal Empires is a great upgrade over Mortal Empires already. Sea lanes are a greatly appreciated mechanic too, since it did feel strange not being able to circumnavigate a supposedly spherical world.

This is without mentioning all the new factions (and indeed the factions which have received reworks) which I am very excited to try. Having said this, with these new factions comes imbalance, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see many tweaks to the game's armies and economies over the coming months.

After the massive disappointment I felt at the game's release, I now have renewed confidence that Warhammer III will be as grand an ending to a superb trilogy as it ought to be.

Mad Max is an action-adventure video game developed by Avalanche Studios. It offers a unique gameplay experience, but it is not flawless.

Pros:
1. The game itself looks very good graphically. It also runs smoothly on many PC setups, so don't be surprised if you can run this game at 60fps smoothly. The draw distance is also rather impressive (you can see certain structures across the map)

2. The in game world is quite large, and each region differs from the others, aesthetically. It takes a fair amount of time to drive from one side to the other.

3. The car combat, coupled with a very volatile physics engine, is very enjoyable. You can also upgrade your vehicle in various ways, like improving the suspension, engine and ramming capability. The weapons available to you, like a harpoon, sniper rifle and "thunderpoon" can also be upgraded as the game progresses. Seeing the enemy cars explode is glorious, and the amount of ways in which you can dispatch them is very nice indeed.

4. The characters in the game are, in my opinion, memorable, and each has their own view on the post apocalyptic world. The lore is also respectable; history relics, collected from scavenging locations, allow you to have a glimpse at the past.

5. Death runs, which are essentially races, are also enjoyable. There are three different "modes" and you are rewarded for clocking in a good time.

6. A major part of the game involves destroying camps. These camps could contain oil pumps, storage camps, or could simply house a horde of enemies. These camps are all unique, and are generally quite fun to dismantle.

Cons:
1. Certain resources are way too abundant. At the Stronghold of each region, you can build a fuel tank, which, if visited, replenishes all of your fuel. Even though there is a twenty minute cooldown, because there are 4 Strongholds, you can fast travel to one every five minutes to restock.

The same applies to ammunition, water and health. This somehwat detracts from the feeling that you are struggling to survive in the Wasteland, and I feel the benefits need to be toned down significantly.


2. I have previously talked about the camps. There is, however, another type; Top Dog Camps. Here, your objective is to reach the "Top Dog", the leader of the camp, and kill him. Although there is nothing inherently wrong with this-in fact, it starts off as rather fun-all of the Top Dogs are the same, and use the same weapon.

Even though each one has a "weakness" such as shivs or the shotgun, it is still easy to kill them regardless of which weapon you use. This makes it easy to learn when to dodge and strike them. It would be nice if each Top Dog utilised a different weapon-maybe one uses a heavy weapon, while another uses a ranged one.

3. Another issue arises when you look at the upgrade system for Max. The premise will be familiar to you-as you progress, you gear gets better. But, once you are "Maxed" out (See what I did there?) your character is, quite frankly, unstoppable. As there is no difficultly setting, if you want to have a challenge during fighting, then you will want to use the gear you get near the start of the game.

Personally, I feel like they could have gave the improved gear different benefits, other than making you a killing machine-maybe increasing your sprint speed, or something other than reducing the damage you take by X%, or increasing melee damage by X%.

4. Mad Max offers you many ways in which to collect things. For instance, you will need to collect Stronghold parts, for things like fuel tanks or maggot farms. Also, there are scavenging locations, in which you can find scrap (the currency of the game) or a history relic.

The thing is, there are about 200 of these places. As you can imagine, going to each scavenging location and looting it becomes extremely repetitive, especially since they are all very similar. Although going to these places is not compulsory, you have to in order to 100% the game. Some even contain Stronghold Project Parts, which create very useful resources in the Stronghold, as mentioned.

If you do not enjoy games which require a LOT of looting, raiding a ridiculous amount of locations, then this game may not be for you.

Overall, though, I would recommend Mad Max, but only consider buying it when it is on offer. The car combat is very fun, and it looks amazing, but it becomes very repetitve towards the end. The abundance of resources is also rather annoying, but the sheer wealth of potential upgrades is staggering.

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is an open world game where you play as Talion, a ranger of Gondor. Here are my pros and cons for the game.
(TL;DR at the bottom of the review)

Pros:

1. The Nemesis system, implemented into the game, is amazing! There are several captains in both zones, as well as 5 warcheifs per sector. Each Uruk captain/warcheif has their own set of Strengths and Weaknesses, which helps the game stay interesting and fun. For example, an Orc could be immune to combat finishers and stealth, but can be damaged by ranged atttacks.

2. In terms of graphics, the game looks brilliant, even on medium/high settings!

3. Shadow strike is a great feature. It allows you to teleport to an Uruk, hitting them with either a lethal or non lethal attack. Eventually, you can use SS to instantly mount the beasts of Mordor.

4. The artifacts and main story provide a reasonable amount of lore, making the situation seen a lot more feasible.

Cons:

1. At this moment in time, the DLCs are mostly not worth buying. Some give you somewhat overpowered runes , such as making one of the legendary powers available straight away. Some add special warbands to the game, which are usually easy to defeat. However, the Lord Of The Hunt DLC provides an enjoyable, albeit short experience.

2. There are some minor issues with the game, such as "An herb you are looking for is nearby" and various other glitches. This does not alter the game much, as most of the details are so incredibly good!

3. The final boss fight, without spoiling much, is based around quicktime events....that is quite annoying.

Conclusion/TL;DR:

ME:SOM is a very enjoyable game! The nemesis system is exclellent, while the various artefacts/ithildin provide some extra entertainment if the storyline is completed.