Recent reviews by Squirrel Tolerance

I wish I didn't ignore this DLC for so long! I'm typically not the biggest supercross fan, but these tracks are all very visually distinct and fun to ride. The addition of joker lanes makes them much more interesting to race, as well. One of the best DLCs for the game (alongside the Reflex and Throwback track packs).

Least fun mini golf game I've ever played. I do not understand the hype behind this one. Every time I play it I am left with the same feeling that it is just a worse version of Tower Unite mini golf. I gave it another chance recently and wanted to pick up a few of its achievements, but it just isn't fun enough to continue.

I'd honestly rather play ToonTown mini golf.

Hi-Fi Rush is designed so well that I found myself "trusting" it. Here's why:

1. It never locks you out of backtracking to get something if you've gone too far (though backtracking is very rarely necessary). Every time I thought I messed up, I found a way back that was clearly intentionally placed "just in case".

2. It makes the main route clear so that you know what side routes to check out before progressing. I hate when other games block you from the side routes when you proceed with the main routes, even though you had no way of knowing which one would actually progress the story.

3. Nothing ever feels unfair. I played on hard and there were definite difficulties, but every time I messed up it was definitively my fault.

4. The game's performance was never a concern or something that got in the way. The game runs perfectly. I played at 4K on a 6600XT without any upscaling needed.

5. Every bit of the level design and visual/auditory ques feel intentional. Every aspect of the game does its part to make sure you're having a good experience. This level of polish is incredibly rare.

Hi-Fi Rush is every bit as good as you've been led to believe. I had it in my library for awhile and finally decided to give it a try. The only breaks I took were for controller charging. It's about as close to perfect as a video game can get.

Despite the reviews I have read and watched, I found this game to actually be quite good. The physics feel great, the tracks are the best in the series, the free-ride areas are massive and fun to explore, the first-person camera is PERFECT (I cannot go back to third person after trying it), and the tuning system is much less of a mess than it was in the past. Additionally, the career is quite substantial and enjoyable to play through.

The only really, really glaring flaw this game has is its absolutely abysmal AI racers. I am not amazing at MX games, just somewhat decent, but on the hardest difficulty, "G.O.A.T", I finished every race in the career (yes, even the 450 races) on a 125 bike just to handicap myself and still placed 1st on my first try on almost every race (there were only 2-3 exceptions throughout the entire MX career). On your home track, the AI literally all ride up to the same point and just stop moving completely by the second lap, almost every time. They don't even try to get unstuck - they just sit there, parked.

Overall, it's a fun game in its current state. I've played every game in the series apart from Supercross/Encore, and I believe this to be the second best (with the first being Reflex by a large margin). I did not play the game before v1.19, so I was not around to experience the shoddy launch physics and crashes, but as of now the game is quite worthwhile (especially on a $20 sale).

Update: As of the December 2024 update, the physics now feel close to perfect. Additionally, many DLCs have come out adding very substantial content to the game (including free updates adding weather effects and additional customization). The only remaining flaws are the terribly slow AI and physics inconsistencies if not using a 60 FPS cap. Highly recommended.

Absolutely fantastic at delivering an aura of horror without the use of cheap jump-scare tactics. Make sure to play through the DLC levels, as well, as the last one in particular is critical to the story (the end of the DLC has a greater impact on the story than the end of the base game). A must-play, especially if you can catch it on a sale.

If you have an older PC or run Linux (this has issues running on newer Windows systems), do yourself a favor and play through the story of this. It's full of the best brand of stupid, mindless humor. This is an important part of Steam history and came from the mind of one of the people most responsible for LittleBigPlanet. Best hour and a half of my life.

By far the best arcade-style motocross game ever made. It has classes of vehicles absent from future titles (trophy trucks, buggies), super memorable omnicross tracks, massive free ride areas to waste hours in, excellent controls and physics not paralleled by any other game in the series (or even the genre), and a challenging but rewarding campaign. The online even still works and has a decently active player base! I still enjoy the newer games, but none have come close to touching Reflex. I probably put 500+ hours into this game on Xbox as a kid before I got it on Steam.

Bonus points: runs perfectly on Linux through Proton, online included.

Important note for users of Index controllers: Ever since the update adding support for non-Index controllers, this game seems to default to full finger tracking being disabled (maybe this is because it sees I'm using a Vive as my HMD?). If using Index controllers, make sure you go to settings and enable hand mode!

This game works much better than I thought it could given the lackluster finger tracking with the Index controllers. The soundtrack isn't exactly what I was looking for (I prefer metal to rock), but there are still some good songs in here. In terms of gameplay, this feels like a natural evolution of Guitar Hero, which is exactly what I wanted it to be.

My only gameplay-related criticism so far is the way the guitar flops around if you move your hands in certain ways. I always find myself progressively missing more notes the further into a song I go because the guitar keeps moving, and intentionally repositioning it mid-song makes me miss even more notes. The way it moves seems rather unpredictable.

For Linux+Proton users: The game used to have major bugs that often rendered it unplayable, but it now seems to function perfectly well! Not sure about vanilla Proton, but I can confirm it works great with GE-Proton8-31.

Removing story-critical content that has been in a game for more than four years because you suddenly decided it was offensive is simply put: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dumb. The toggle to disable it if you didn't personally like it was a good solution, but censoring your own product and reducing the enjoyability of the game for everyone else was not a good move.

I highly recommend avoiding this game.

A game with a chat limiter enabled by default and a player base full of role-playing children who randomly quit games less than a minute in. Can -almost- be fun with friends, but just about anything can be fun with friends.