Recent reviews by Shred

Over 100 hours of play invested at this point.

If you had the same love-hate relationship I did with CMS 2018, it was probably for the annoying method of shopping for parts and storing inventory.

I'm glad to say that the devs have remedied this by making the shopping list infinitely better to use eliminating the need to store way more parts than the game is optimised for.

The mod support is terrific and the drag racing DLC really added a whole new level of engagement and motivation for tuning vehicles.

I do wish there was native wheel support - that seems like a hell of an omission. Pair that with some auto cross or casual race events and you'd have yourself an incredible game - would be a great idea for a DLC but maybe that's something we can look forward to in the next iteration along with some more involved wiring, vacuum lines and all the other clearly non-existent components in cars in this universe

Great 'Dad' game. Relaxing way to pass the time. Just wish there was more to it because you run out of stuff to buy pretty quickly. Also you can tell what most of the cars are imitating but fully licensed vehicles would be nicer,

I stopped playing this and requested a refund after less than an hour. The game continually punishes you for failure to complete player interactions which are poorly explained.

The game consistently fails to communicate things like when you are blocking a scripted event or whether to tap an input or press and hold it. It will instantly punish you early game with zero explanation.

I loved powerwash sim, car mechanic sim 18 and 21 AND car detailing simulator. This however is total trash. The animations are lifeless and lazy and the only way to progress is through learning through failure or reloading your save. This game promises all the right things but the actual gameplay is awful.

Huge disappointment. My only solace is in the fact that Steam has a refund policy in our region.

The jumping and character movement is so inconsistent I'd sooner expect to get a loan back from a heroin addict than trust this game's stupid lack of consistency or predictability with platforming.

This game is the absolute pinnacle of lazy and lousy game development. First of all it crashes for like no reason even after rebuilding a PC that's grossly overkill. But the most egregious of all their sins is the number of jumps that were completely untested especially in the Baba Yago witch cave when performing one of the elaborate puzzle jumps for a collectable (well after defeating the cave Boss).

There are countless ways this could have been solved but here's the problems encountered:
-The character loses all momentum and in the run up to a jump if they're pointing even slightly in the wrong direction. Now this isn't anything you as the player can do to fix on a rotating and moving platform.
-The distance between the jumps here are laughable.
-The setup required to reattempt the series of impossible jumps is way too long and crushingly long
-I have never been so frustrated with a single player game in all my life and I've played many for decades before digital game distribution was a thing

All of the above points are JUST for one puzzle. I rage quite, uninstalled and wrote this review. They should have left Lara in the 90s. This is complete and utter trash.

Oh also, the jumping and navigating (while not as enraging as uncharted) is unbelievably inconsistent. Like there are sometimes you get the distinct feeling that your character is 'FLYING' to make it to a jump that doesn't make sense - and this isn't just for cinematic segments - just regular game-play.

Also the story is barely worth the long ass cut-scenes where the characters (including the protagonist) take way too long to say nothing interesting at all.

I didn't mind the first game in the reboot series but this has put me off - and you can bet SE will never see my money or time on the third one.

I don't think any game has infuriated me as much as this one. It wasn't even a case of it being so hard that it drove me to keep at it. The combat was a snooze -it's the stupid tombs and dumb jumps which are meant to be the relaxing component of this game are outright infuriating. I like the puzzle elements but I despise the untested impossible jumps.

Do not buy. Go get your uncharted fix elsewhere.

If you loved the classic tactical Co-op shooter "SWAT 4" then this is a no brainer.
This is pretty much the same game with more variety and updated graphics.

Finally my days of running a VPN to play swat 4 with friends and tinkering with config files to unlock framerate and modern resolutions are over. Love it.

If you're the kind of person who is on the fence about this, then let me tip the scales. I kept looking at this game and then not buying it. I finally decided to take the plunge and I have no regrets. Relaxing and satisfying. If you enjoy watching power washing videos on youtube; don't think twice. This is totally for you!

It's good mindless fun. The music sucks though. To truly enjoy; play with your favourite metal tracks blaring and the in game music disabled. Recommended. Excellent for when you need to blow of steam. Best enjoyed after watching a John Wick Film.

What is Spec Ops: The Line in a nutshell? Imagine 'The Last of Us" but set in a military shooter context... and perhaps not quite as brilliant. The characters are not all that deep nor easy to get attached to. Perhaps however, this is a saving grace as the emotions and journey that Captain Walker (the protagonist) and his two squad mates; Lugo and Adams endure brings out some very real themes of remorse and dread.
It's somewhat ironic really; the makers of Spec Ops: The line have given us some very mixed signals where the game entices you to play quite aggressively to overcome all your foes and yet has a strange way of making you feel evil no matter what choice you make. There are not a great deal of choices to make in this game but the few you do make will haunt you every time the game yanks you out of the action for a cinematic to tell you the next chunk or bite of story.
This for me is where this game is weakest. The game play has you playing through what for the most part is a very solid third person shooter and then slaps you in the face with realities and horrors contrary to the fantasy and glory of shooter campaigns like Wolfenstein (the recent one), COD and Battlefield.
While it can be argued that it is, as many shooters, a shooting gallery leading you to play through to the next cinematic, it is indeed unique as it will challenge you and strive to make you feel something real. About 5 hours in I thought; "Yeah it's nice to have a story in my mindless shooter, but I probably won't remember this one." Having completed it now (3 hours of game play later) I can certainly say the ending gave context to the game which now has burned its story firmly in my memory.
Now enough on the touchy feelie ♥♥♥♥! Let's talk about the game-play:
The controls overall or are quite straight forward but the cover mechanics leave a lot to be desired. While it is nice to have a game which allows you to break free of cover easily, sometimes this can work out badly for you when needing to lock into cover elsewhere when getting flanked from multiple directions. It is useful though when a grenade lands close by and you need to move to another cover point -which happens A LOT! This is probably because too many contextual actions are assigned to the A button (playing on an Xbox-One controller).
The guns feel great and each feels unique and appropriate for various engagements as well as play styles. You will quickly find your favorites and gravitate towards them. Personally I liked the M417 Semiautomatic Rifle and the Scar-H with under-slug grenade launcher but the pistols are great too. The game does give you some jizz time with grenade launchers and turrets but not even close to enough time with the RPG or the AA-12 which are incredibly powerful but only available for the arse-end of the game.
The AI is not overly punishing in that they won't rush you constantly. They will put you down very quickly if you keep your head out for a few shots too many. Also they love to throw grenades. Most of the time I died because they would flush me out with a 'nade and there'd be nowhere safe for me to run. You quickly learn to target the lobbers first. I played this game on the highest available difficulty of the three available before first play-through. I suspect the additional difficulty which unlocks at the end is meaninglessly hard like the 'Veteran' difficulty in COD campaigns. The hardest initial challenge level is a sweet spot. There were sections which I had to replay up to 8 times before I'd make the checkpoint. Thankfully this was due to needing to learn the best tactic and angle of attack as well as strategically allocated my resources -specifically grenades. Of which there are frags, stickies and flash-bang. While the friendly AI are not completely useless sometimes they rush ahead of you which can help you take ground in 'push through' segments but can often lead to them both becoming incapacitated and put pressure on you to get to them before they bleed out. But they shoot, can target long range and flash-bang enemies for you at various times and thankfully don't need much input to be of use to the player overall .
Having been released mid-year in 2012 the graphics won't blow you away but they're certainly not outdated enough to be a distraction or break the immersion. I played it with a Razer 7.1 True surround headset and loved having the volume up. The sound is not incredible but it is great although sometimes squad mate chatter can be hard to decipher from enemy chatter as most of your bullet fodder will be American Soldiers. The sound track isn't one you'll never forget, but it does the job to set the mood for all the chaos.
I won't comment on the multiplayer as I never tried it but from what I hear it's just more of the same in online shooters with nothing new being brought to the table.
The only technical difficulty I had (and this can be a serious deal breaker if you're not 'cluey' enough to 'google' fixes for things) was that there was no sound during cinematics. Thankfully I found a downloadable fix courtesy of the steam community. Aside from that, there were no glitches or grievances with terrible game or level design although I did crash to the desktop once. But no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fake difficulty -it's all genuinely challenging and rewards bold decisive maneuvers but punishes the weak willed.
Overall I have to say that this game certainly had its hooks in me even if it was constantly trying to make me feel like a warmongering bastard for all the blood shed it forces you into. This is not one of those games you MUST play but it is one which I would recommend if you're after an 8 hour linear shooter and don't mind having how you feel about military shooters challenged with some thoughtful story telling and complex emotions -even if the game is a little too self-aware with some unnecessary and presumptuous comments in loading screens after dying.
If I had to score it I'd say 8.8 out of 10.

In an era where shooters and 'Open world' games are becoming increasing popular Far Cry 3 took the gaming community by storm -and I still highly recommend it. If you liked Far Cry 3, you're going to love this reboot of Tomb Raider. While there appears to quite a few things to do in the world, they never seem to be out of your way to do them -and most importantly they don't feel like chores.

Visually on highest settings this game is absolutely breathtaking -it's everything you'd expect asthetically from a AAA title. It's setting is immersive and refreshing, it lacks that linear sense of moving from area to area. The levels just seem to flow.

Animations and the subtle nuances of Lara's movements during cutscenes and particularly during real-time control are some of the best I've ever seen. This includes simple things like the way she looks around in a new area, taken by awe at the view or even how she places her hand along a wall as she walks next to it. Even her hair looks quite convincing as it moves in the wind and to her own movements.

Gameplay seems to flow cinematically even when in sections which feature no quicktime events or contextual stick wiggling (for you controller users). The music swells in all the right places and gives you a sense of anticipation as well as effectively colouring the mood when you step into ancient ruins. Combat feels solid and rewarding. Kills feel empowering and deaths are brutal.

As far as voice acting and story goes Lara seems to shine out from the other characters -but not to a degree which breaks the atmosphere. You scramble to cover when you see enemies ahead and overhear them exchanging dialogue -while this dialogue seems to lack the typical tongue in cheek of most NPC exchanges, this would be out of place for Tomb Raider as it has a fairly serious feel.

You really do feel like Indiana Jones in the temple of doom. The game seems to have struck a perfect balance between giving you adrenaline fuelled moments and leading you through a mysterious new tombs of discovery.

I'm only about 4 hours in at this stage but it's one of the few games where after the first launch I didn't want to stop playing. Because completeing objectives in this game are a joy more than a chore, I can see this being one of the few games I can bother getting 100% completed.

Being a 3rd person shooter it handles well with a controller and seems to feel quite natural -I havn't used keyboard and mouse so I don't know how those controls handle, but everything I've experienced so far leads me to believe it is an excellent portfor the PC.

Tomb Raider is a standard setter for triple A titles and spells exciting things for big budget games to come. It certainly won't disappoint.

I waited until the early access phase had ended and until the game was in full release. I have to say; this is by far the most polished and refined zombie survival sandbox experience I've ever had. The only limitations I belive it had was its budget; things such as amazing graphics -not that they're bad -I'm just used to high end AAA titles which boast amazing visuals. Knowing that the budget wasn't massive; Undead labs have reached for something quite ambitious. Have they pulled it off? I belive they have. This game is immersive and has enough variety between missions and sidemissions for it not to feel like a 'grinding' or 'mechanical' use of your time but an meaningful and deeply engaging experience.

The great thing about it is you get the hoard fighting feel of L4D2 without the sense that you're just passing through but actually warding off hoards to defend yourself or your home. And when people die -espcially characters you put a good deal of time into; well it's meaningful; not in a tear to the eye way the Walking Dead boasts but in a way which means something to you because you played through the experience of the game, trained that character, equpped them, knew their skills and hobbies, had seen them interact with others and that's why it sucks when they die -not just because the narrative told you it was sad but because of the time you invested in that character. Thankfully the permadeath system does not halt your gaming experience but reverts you to alternate characters within your home base. Every decision you make and even to an extent, the WAY you carry out that decision (eg: reckless driving, putting things off too long or even friendly fire) can really make a difference to how the characters in the game react to you and the situation. Ammo is fairly rare and weapons arn't that common themselves, so you have to really mean it when you choose to draw your weapon instead of using melee combat -which makes the guns feel so much more desirable and your persona far more secure when you use them. Thankfully they're not too rare so if you miss a shot or decide to shoot a zombie that you'll fell bad.

It isn't a complete sandbox like DayZ, there are missions and randomly generated side missions which keep coming so while you're free to prioritize hunting ammo or supplies you'll never have a sense of aimlessness.

There is an element of stratergy invovled with SOD when it comes to upgrading and deligating resources for differrent things; do you want to prioritize defences around the perimiter of your homebase? Or is putting resources into a family dining arrangement to avoid discord within the walls of your base more important to you? There are many other decisions you can make with the investment of your resources which will directly impact on the readiness of your characters, weapons and vehicles when they are called upon.

It's a pretty slow start and will initially require some more patience than the opening segments of most games but by the time you're 2 hours in you won't want to stop playing. It's managed to even pull me away from the latest release in my favourite game frachise ever within a month of it's release -the game I built this high end machine to play. And yet I find myself perfectly content lobbing off zombie's heads, or jumping in a car and running over zombies hordes at a time.

SOD is an immersive, meaningful and addictive gaming experience which gives back so much more than what you pay for it by the gaming industry's standards today. Having said that I'm the kind of gamer who will persevere with what others consider to be punishing and sometimes repetitive games which demand persistence and patience such as Metro 2033, Far Cry 2 and the original Assasin's Creed. All things considered (including the liklely budget for the developers) I can not fault State of Decay. Personally; I'd give it a 10/10.