Recent reviews by Feral

I've enjoyed adventures, RPG's isometric and otherwise for a long time, from MUDs through to Myst and Fallout from 1 through to 4 and Baldur's gate is absolutely no exception with both it's forebears.

When I heard the series was receiving a sequel, I immediately perked up with both interest and concern - let's face it, we've had enough reasons to be disappointed with sequels the last decade.

I read whatever I could find, reviewed the footage available and honestly found myself pretty impressed - sure there was the odd bug or issue but considering the state of it and being in development still even early builds held a lot of promise.

Finally pulling the trigger it immediately impressed - the character creation is deep enough to bring satisfaction, the classes varied to provide options for multiple playthroughs and tweaks during gameplay (once available, which isn't too long) and all I know is I felt pulled right back to the 90's again and the entertainment, draw and interest the previous titles gave.

The music is fantastic, voice acting sublime and that's without the personalities and unique characters on show - it's incredibly easy to find yourself pulled in so many directions that the main plot gets almost forgotten and that's without the encounters or events you can find yourself walking into or finding.

If you're in any doubt - take the plunge and brace yourself for an enticing storyline, believable characters, a ton of exploring and more rich gameplay and entertainment than you can shake a Tiefling at.

I keep thinking I'll put Factorio down - but after beating it on vanilla, then with some mods....then a *lot* more mods....I keep coming back.

There's something about it, regardless of if you're tackling it solo or with a few friends that makes it a rewarding and fun experience, especially when you're working on small tasks that work towards a greater goal.

Always with a new way of doing things, or scale to work towards, different mods that add everything from automated rail layers up to enhanced Spidertrons and whole new refining trees to work up/down making the simple complex or complex simple.

If you like Minecraft's Tekkit and Feed the beast Factories and/or intricacies with tubes, pipes and conveyors all over the place, this'll tickle that itch and then some.

This is an underrated but also sadly under-developed game. The base mechanics for what could be an outstanding simulation and/or suvival experience.

I've on/off played this since it was first available and to be fair, its come a long way since it first set foot on mars, moving along nicely from unlimited, creative-mode style play to "proper" survival levels.

However- the learning curve is pretty steep at first and until you become familiar with it, it's menu system, mechanics and control style it can be a challenge.

Thankfully you get enough resources and time to easily be able to get self-sufficient, but I can almost guarantee your average person will come at least passingly close to courting disaster before learning what's what.

Once that's done though? It's glorious. It's beautiful and has enough complexity in it to start to engage the more depth-seeking players out there that feel there isn't enough to keep them interested in other games. Heck, it's almost a mini-factorio to a certain degree, but just falls short.

Sadly development moves at sub-glacial speeds and there are long, long waits between any real milestones and performance is still pretty poor considering how long the game has been released.

Effectively Minecraft in Space thus far, the game is still entertaining. Multiplayer makes this highly enjoyable (though there are some issues for some players who experience horrific Lag when Mining, for example). Irrespective, this can be worked round and not everyone suffers from it.

Everything is simple, with all building blocks having clearly defined components you'll need, Mining is easy and everything is a matter of time and effort as opposed to needing an in-depth knowledge of anything. Artificial gravity, turrets and more make a PvP-style experience all possible with weaponry available to engage in Astronaut-on-Astronaut fighting if needs be.

In keeping with the Minecraft comment, building small, large and station-sized ships or building is easily achievable. If you can commit the patience you can build up just about anything, with doors and rotational motors allowing you to even put moving parts in place. Already there are a swathe of amazing designs out there that players have put together, from creatively put together mining and processing plants that can devour whole asteroids, to replicas of Battlestar Galactica and Imperial Star Destroyers and Warhammer 40,000 ships.

Granted this isn't yet a "finished" product, but that aside it's still a great deal of fun. You can import and export your designs and have them tossed into someone else's server with little effort, play creative or use the "survival" mode. Some of the discussions on the forums have seen rise to a lot of great suggestions for Mods and enhancements when such things are possible. It's a great game with greater potential but even as-is, it's got the strength to continue to be a rewarding and entertaining experience.