Recent reviews by atomicWAR

Only a few hours in so far but in short this game is simply amazing. It feels more like an Indiana Jones movie than the anything movie released after the Last Crusade.

First the bad. There are some bugs and issues...HDR and frame gen don't play nice (broken/no fps increase if both are on) unless you download the two lastest DLLs from Nvidia and toss them in you game folder. Even then though you crash frame gen if you alt tab out of the game and have to reboot. It runs fairly well across a lot of RTX/AMD equivalent cards as long as you do not have full ray-tracing/path tracing on while still looking pretty dang good. However it requires a lot of VRAM (8GB@1080P, 12GB@1440P and even 16GB if at 4K require neutered settings).

Full ray-tracing looks amazing but requires some serious horse power. In my case a 7950X3D using a RTX 4090 @ 4K max setting with full ray tracing DLSS set to DLAA with frame gen for 75-90 FPS. DLSS quality is needed if you want to bust the 100FPS mark but for me isn't worth the loss in visual quality in things like grass or moss.

Anyways anyone who wants to play a game where you really feel like your in Indy's shoes with: a good story, enjoy's stealth, puzzles, occasional gun play and a really fun whip. This game is for you. I might wait a little bit for a another patch or two for those less adventurous PC gamers who don't want to deal with birthing pains any new game these days tends to have...but beyond that I can't recommend this game enough.

I'll be frank, in my opinion the Horizon series is the best ARPG since the Legend Zelda series dropped. I know that is a bold claim but it is not one I make lightly. That is why I got this on PS5 and now PC. I really can't speak highly enough about this game. The story is amazing and the graphics while not flawless are seriously impressive.

Everything rendered in great detail, rich in color, with good lighting, hair physics etc...you can even see a light peach fuzz on Aloy's (and others) face, love it or hate it. I know some roast Aloy's looks as ugly but personally I think she is cute, be it in a bit goofy and nerdish way. She isn't a super model that much is for certain. Aloy is more like the smart girl from next door. Though it helps I always like an attractive red head who is tough and smart even if she has some light peach fuzz....AND it is nice to see everyday people as the heroes. Not every character in a game needs to be a perfect ten as I in fact prefer things be more in line with real life as I find that more immersive and realistic.

Now the graphics do have some abnormalities but most aren't that big of an issue. Honestly the most annoying issue for me usually shows up in cut scenes with faces/hair back-lit by lighter out of focus backgrounds where the filter's blur effect breaks down. Things go from hazy to clear near hair, faces and sometimes even character models in these lighter areas. It basically creates a distracting halo effect I could do without. Unfortunately you can even see it in game-play at times. Sadly this was also present in Horizon Zero Dawn (HZD) as well so I suspect it's an issue with the Decima engine used for both games.

Beyond that one glaring issue everything else feels/looks very next gen and leaves me without any big complaints. Yes they should have added ray-tracing (path tracing would have been even better, want more of that in all games)...the water physics could have been better but these are all small critiques that are common in many modern games which is exactly why I would file them away as extremely minor and barely worth mentioning category.

The controls are good and I'd argue a bit more polished compared to the first game. I'd also say going with a fully open world feels better for the most part but I would have been more than fine with the semi-open world like HZD employed. Both titles like most modern ARPG/RPG/MMO titles, did suffer from some fetch quest fatigue though it wasn't nearly as bad as some of the more recent titles to drop.

Long story short if you enjoy a good ARPG, this is the game for you. If you do not, move along there is nothing to see here for you.

Great action RPG for co-op. It has solid game-play and fight mechanics with decent armor/ability leveling. While some complain of the world being empty...the setting is mostly desert and sand which is a key part of the gameplay (ie sand surfing and monsters emerging from the sand to ambush you) so what did people expect beyond what they got?

When you look around there is plenty of areas to explore be it caves, abandoned castles/villages, or temples via four main maps. Is it a blockbuster 10 out of 10? Hardly but as co-op it is a solid 7 out of 10 while single player is say a 6-6.5 out of 10.

Returned with due haste. Its a steaming pile of doo.

Edited review after cooling off below...

I wanted to love this game as did my wife. The bug slaying felt nice but the controls are trash, completely un-intuitive and the up down left up (or what ever the requested combo for deployment) was just the straw that broke the camels back. This completely ruins the feel and flow of the game. Great idea for a game but until they fix the controls, PC keyboard and mouse in particular, I have no love for this game.

I cannot in good conscious pay for this title directly or recommend this game being purchased by others outright (g@me p@ss at best for me). I would say this of all Mundfish games until someone does the right thing and leaves their neighbor alone... SMH, sad as I heard this is a great game.

So I purchased this hoping I could transfer saves/achievements as some players had luck doing so but I was only able to get my saves to transfer after reformatting them. That said I do have a couple hundred hours in via game pass (level 273) and have a few things to say about the game. For those calling it Skyrim in space, I'd say while it has the Bethesda feel (using an their old engine for the game, rest sequences basically being the same and the fact you have quests). Starfield is it's own thing and thus for me that's where the similarities end.

While I love the game their are a few glaring short comings. First is performance. At launch it was trash and even now with all the latest patches adding DLSS 3 support the game still can't run without hitching every so many seconds/distance traveled which was why I returned it. It doesn't matter how fast your NVMe drive is this will be an issue and as far as I can tell the issue is WIDE spread. The worlds are barren and the few places you have some exploration 'spawned in'...after a few worlds you realize how few permutations they made for the planets.

BUT if your a fan of RPGs, especially Bethesda games, you should really enjoy this game despite it's short comings. Combat is solid and surprisingly unclunky for Bethesda. There are a lot of quests and new game plus actually changes some of the missions, people you meet extra so it really adds another layer to the game play. Even if the characters/companions are a bit judgmental. If you want to pirate/misbehave... I have yet to find a crew mate who doesn't get upset at you.

End of the day Star field is a solid game imho. I'd score it 7 out of 10 for those who haven't played many Bethesda RPGs and for those who have, I give it an 8 out of 10. Its not a masterpiece, but it certainly worth the play through!

There is something left to be desired in regards to performance but the game itself is the closest a dev has come to making a masterpiece in regards to Harry Potter's legacy in a video game. No game has brought the wizarding world to life better, more accurately and vividly than Hogwarts Legacy. I can't wait for a sequel. Not to say I didn't have some complaints. My two big complaints are Quidditch should have been included in the game even if it had only been a singular mission/game. And my second complaint is their should have been much larger caves/caverns to explore. I was underwhelmed in that regard as most caves were shallow and went basically no where. But other than those two minor critiques I can't recommend this game enough.

Jedi Survivor is a great game so far but the performance has been the issue. I played it pre and post day three patch. Pre-day-three patch things were rough...ALL those complaints you've heard online are/were completely valid. Pre-patch with epic settings with fsr quality at 4K I was ranging from 60-85 fps on the high end and 20-40fps on the low which was a frankly stuttery mess anywhere you couldn't hold that 60+fps. Not to say frame time delivery was great in the 60+fps areas, it was still stuttery due to hangs. Things were just tolerable is all, or enough so I could just level myself in one of the mostly smooth areas hoping a patch would come and fix things...

Then came the day three patch and it was like night had become day. I roared into the 100-140+fps range and stayed there. The game became very smooth for the most part visually. Though there are still some bad frame times on various occasions but they are only visually noticeable near cut scenes for the most part. This is more inline what I was hoping for at launch. Its not a stellar optimization job yet but a near doubling of fps while smoothing things out was welcome first step in such a short time frame. With a little more polish this game could well become a masterpiece but for now it can still be a pile of stink for a lot of users. I am running a very high end rig with a 7950X (soon to be X3D) 64GB of ram with a fast nvme drive and RTX 4090 so while I encourage you to buy this game you need to temper your expectations in regards to performance. It is fully playable now for me after being a complete mess prior to being patched but some users are still having issues so be warned.

This is tough. I want to give the game thumbs up with no hesitation...BUT there are some issue. It crashes, is poorly optimized and pushes even the most high end hardware to the hilt when cranking your setting. THAT said when everything is running ok which does happen enough to enjoy the games things are pretty great. While grappling and climbing can be clunky, combat feels mostly smooth and fluid like the Batman games of past. If you get this game know you'll have tech issues/bugs and it is taxing on hardware but if you have solid hardware and love a good co-op fighter...look no further

The best action RPG shooter of this generation. Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game you can truly get lost in for hours at a time just exploring the terrain without even touching a mission. Between hunting, fishing and local mythos/secrets there is so much to do before you even touch the story line you'll truly get your money out of this game. If you enjoy in-depth, picturesque open world games you should love RDR2!