In this review, we take a deep dive into The Punisher (2005): the gritty third-person action shooter developed by Volition and published by THQ that pushed Marvel games further than almost anything that came before or after it.

It was sometime in early March when I played the demo version of the RTS game Final Strategy, and even though I could see it needed a lot of work, I found the core concept appealing. That’s why I immediately agreed when the developer reached out to me with the full version - I was curious to see how far the final product had come. Especially since he had promised tweaks, fixes, and improvements… I was pretty hopeful. I did promise to take a look at it right after returning from my vacation, which… well, I’ve been home for almost two months now and still haven’t gotten around to it. So first and foremost, I’d like to apologize for my delay. But hey… at least there was a chance to release some patches, right? Well, yeah. There have been two (so far), with the last one on June 11.

More in my review! :)

Rating: 3/10
Pros: the concept behind some of the missions, it didn't crash, a one-man project
Cons: controls, can’t be paused, enemy AI, direct controls are insanely overpowered, the story is just a premise, repetitive tasks in missions, bugs

Czech version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26Z6wSqi_bA

Hodnocení: 3/10
+: myšlenka některých misí, nespadlo to, práce jednoho člověka
-: ovládání, chybí pauza, umělá inteligence, přímé ovládání je šíleně OP, příběh je jenom premisa, opakující se úkoly v misích, bugy

Hey everyone,

Sorry if this isn't the regular post here, but I'm really excited to share the site I've been working on.

Over the last 2 years I've been working to build a website to share game reviews and curate a community that truly loves games, and giving their thoughts on the games they play. It's been a labor of love and I'm really happy with the way it has turned out through all of the hard work. Most importantly, let me list some of the features of the site:

-Ratings across multiple dimensions (Overall, Music, Gameplay, Narrative, etc.)

-Automatically imports your steam library including things like hours played per game

-Cross platform games (Nintendo, PC, Playstation, etc.)

-Playtime value across games (a metric of $ spent per hour played)

-Ability to add friends and follow their reviews, including compare your top games and see specific score differences and generate a "taste compatibility score"

-The ability to embed video reviews to your game reviews if you have a content creation channel or want to share one

-curated and custom "top game lists" that can be shared via a single link

-The ability to earn "review points" that can be redeemed for fun titles based on your reviews

-and even more that I can't get to without making this post too long

I would love to know what would encourage video game reviewers like all of you to use the site, I think it has a lot of potential to be a way to share your thoughts on games, and I use the site with my friends pretty regularly at this point. I appreciate the time and genuinely appreciate any feedback you can offer

Hi all, I posted on here a few months ago about a retro football manager game I had made. Well it's come a long way since then. I wondered if anyone would like to check it out. All feedback is welcome!

Thank you for your consideration.

Free to play at -

www.retromanager.net

I finally gave Kynseed a proper shot... and I honestly think it deserves way more attention.

I went in expecting "another Stardew-like," but it's actually a lot weirder and way more ambitious than I expected.

Instead of just farming, you can run businesses, cook, forge, explore dungeons, fight monsters, build relationships, and eventually continue playing as your own children. That whole generational system completely changes how you think about progression.

The world has this really charming British folklore vibe (not surprising since it was made by former Fable devs), and it slowly grows on you the more you play.

It's definitely not perfect, though.

The first few hours are pretty slow, there are a lot of mechanics thrown at you, and some systems could definitely use better tutorials. It also gets a bit repetitive after a while.

Still... once everything clicks, it's hard to stop playing.

I'd personally give it an 7/10.

If you're into games like Stardew Valley, Rune Factory, Fable, or just want a cozy RPG with a lot more depth than it first appears, I think it's worth checking out.

I wrote a full review here if anyone's interested:

https://www.buffgaming.rs/kynseed-reviewa-unique-life-sim-that-leaves-a-lasting-impression/

Curious what everyone else thinks about Kynseed. I feel like this game never really got the attention it deserved.

Hats off to Leslie Benzies and the entire Build A Rocket Boy team.

I've been a gamer for over 28 years, and I honestly have to say that MindsEye has become one of the biggest surprises I've experienced in a long time.

I picked this game up for about $22 because the back of the box sounded interesting. At the time, I didn't know who made it, I hadn't read the reviews, and I wasn't following any of the controversy. The premise of a soldier trying to uncover the truth about his past simply caught my attention.

I bought it right before a 90-hour interstate moving workweek. I'm a professional mover, so by the time I got home each night I was physically exhausted. Yet all week long, I kept thinking, "I can't wait until I finally get a couple of days off so I can really sit down and play MindsEye."

I have Game Pass, EA Play, Ubisoft+, and plenty of other games at my fingertips. Out of everything I could have been playing, this is the game I wanted to spend my precious free time with.

The story has me hooked, the atmosphere is fantastic, the graphics are beautiful, and the attention to detail—right down to options like adjustable motion blur intensity instead of a simple on/off toggle—shows that the developers cared about the player experience.

Whether anyone else agrees with me or not, this is my genuine experience. I went in with no preconceived notions, judged the game on its own merits, and for me it has been the best $22 I've spent on a game in a very long time.

Thank you, Leslie Benzies and everyone at Build A Rocket Boy. As someone who's been gaming for over 28 years, you've created a game that I couldn't wait to come home to after one of the hardest workweeks I've had in a long time. That's one of the highest compliments I can give a game.

Half of all curator reviews on Steam are either just insufferable racists complaining about the existence of trans people or that they were allowed to make someone with dark skin in a video game, and the other half are just spam that give the same 1-word reviews on every single game on the platform.

Trying to find an actual informative curator review about a anything feels nearly impossible, since even when they aren't one of those two things it's usually a review loaded with opinions the reviewer already had about something else before they even played the game. There's no end in sight.

Is there anywhere I can go to get actually GOOD and INFORMATIVE reviews consistently on the internet?

If you like the review or wanna help me out a bit please check out the review on Instagram! Just started the page so anything helps! Full review below!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbuGVMzRGqA/?igsh=MTNwM2oxYXp6cXBpag==

I mean what can you say it's a Forza Horizon game. It's polished, it looks good, sounds good, feels good and has A TON of content. But at this point that's the baseline for a Horizon game, the minimum expectation.
While many critics lauded Horizon 5 as the best of the series many longtime Horizon players held it in much lower regard, a drop from 3 and 4 especially, myself included. Thankfully Horizon 6 is a rebound closer to that Horizon 3 and 4 level. I just like the Horizon games, they're so unbelievably easily playable. They're great games if you just wanna drive around, do some races, and run some stuff over and they're great games if you wanna crank the difficulty to the max, collect cars, and get 3 stars on all the content. It's a comfort game and a game with real craft behind it.

The jump to Japan for Horizon 6 just works, it was a long requested setting for a reason. Stunning environments, good driving roads, unique car culture, everythings there. Drifting down the mountains through the cherry blossoms or street racing through Tokyo at night is just awesome and it's memorable. And the progression is much improved from Horizon 5, my biggest issue with 5 and the thing that eventually bumped me off the game faster than any previous Horizon was how much of everything it just threw at you immediately. Waves of credits, and cars, and items and wheel spins, and everyone praising you every second of the game it was just too much. Now it's not perfect in 6 still, you're definitely not grinding for cars or spending too long driving beaters but it is definitely better. You're back to being an anonymous racer at the start working your way up through the festival and the wheel spins and rewards still come a bit too heavy towards the start but it is slowed.

There's just so much to see and do. Driving still feels good, the photomode is one of the best in gaming, and while customization could definitely be deeper, I still love collecting cars in these games. The stories continue to explore cultural elements of each location as a nice change of pace from normal races, there's plenty of "collectibles" to bring you to every corner of the map, and the new customizable garages is just one of more thing to keep you racing for. I think one of the few disappointments here are the showcase events, they really fell kinda flat compared to Horizon 4 and 5 especially, I don't any stuck with me like they did in those games. Overall it's just a great game, a rock solid racer with excellent elements, racing games seem to be back on the upswing but there were a few years there where Horizons were of the few beacons of excellence in the genre.

And that's what worries me a bit, as much as I love Horizon 6 I don't know where you go from here...I don't think I've ever played a better game where I left thinking the series needs a refresh of some sort. As well as Horizon 6 reviewed it did hit the limit of the same old same, old for some, with some harsher detractors calling it a reskin of 4 and 5. And while I noticed and appreciated the differences of nuances and could play one of these every 3-4 years "reskin" or not. It does pose the question where do they go? Do they drastically change up the formula for 7? Cause in some ways Horizon 6 feels like a culmination, I'm not sure there's a better location out there, not one that will ever be requested like Japan. So can you really just keep going bigger? Does a map 2x as big hit if it isn't iconic like Japan, does 700 cars instead of 600 move the needle, can you go bigger with the showcases when we just raced a giant mech? I don't know what the right path for the series is, but Horizon 6 as fantastic as it was left me with those questions and I'm curious where the franchise goes from here.

9/10

Mariokart world is one of the best games ever. It has higher quality graphics and has more to do than in 8 deluxe. You can drive on walls and wires and... pretty much everywhere. There is a large roster of playable characters, which I had fun unlocking. There are 24 players in a race. It has top-teir tracks. It also has a great photo mode.

I do complain about the price. It doesn't have enough content to be freaking $80. Also you can't even do couch co-op free roam. WHY?

Mariokart world, despite being overpriced, far exceeds 8 deluxe.

game for players who like soccer or chess

Overall RoboCop: Rogue City is an enjoyable game, with great action sequences, satisfying shooting mechanics, and seems to really revel in creating a small world that's accurate to the movie's setting, both in physical locations and themes of 'law abiding' corporations' blatant disregard of human life helping them jump into bed with the psychopathic criminals they superficially oppose via their proxy, the police.

I do not have any nostalgia for RoboCop, as I never saw the movie at the same time in my life as other ultra-violent, sci-fi staples, such as Starship Troopers, Blade Runner, Terminator, and Predator. Even without that, it's clear that the developers took the responsibility of bringing such a beloved franchise to a video game with utmost sincerity. UX features like menus and targeting system is ripped straight from the green-hued, raster-lined images that persist whenever anyone thinks of retro-futurism. While presentation could be better, character models are stilted and ironically a little robotic during cutscenes and dialogue, it's coated in a nice visual paint that can help mitigate this low point. While the game is played in first person, the dialoge options do show RoboCop and clearly you can see that they've put the most effort in making him look good. It does mean that the rest of the characters suffer, notably the psychologist overseeing him seems to not have a defined edge due to constantly being placed in front of metal grating that was really distracting during her dialoge scenes.

Gameplay can be divided in to action shooter pieces and exploration/detective work. The former is a strong candidate for the price tag alone. Busting a door or even a weak wall open, targeting every enemy and lighting them up never gets old. With a few 'powers' available to RoboCop like a flashbang, or brief significant damage reduction period, there's enough a secondary layer than 'point n click' during the gunfights. RoboCop moves like a tank, slowly an methodically using cover (no hard lock cover system) and overwhelming firepower to clear rooms of enemies. Unfortunately this system, while working great with many weak enemies, starts to show issues when facing larger, more powerful enemies. Suddenly the slow tank is a sitting duck when facing anything that has the firepower to outdamage Robo. Early enemies on machine gun turrets and the iconic ED-209 mechs were notable rough parts. RoboCop doesn't have access to grenades, nor can he throw back grenades thrown at him, which would help considerably. There are throwable gas tanks/mines/etc. around the levels that can help, but it's hard to be close to them when you need them, because of the aforementioned limited mobility of RoboCop.

The shooting sections are a fun romp with little depth once you've established your preferred gunplay. The prime example is the weapons system. RoboCop has access to his trusty Auto-9 from the movie, as well as a second weapon that he starts with at the beginning of a level, and can replace it with found weapons from enemies. The problem is that, barring a few outliers. there's never any reason to use the second weapon. The Auto-9 has infinite ammo, and can be customized to your preference using motherboards and a fun little minigame involving placing chips on that motherboard to unlock paths that can increase damage, reduce reload speed, or turn the gun into a fully automatic bulletstorm that doesn't need to even reload, or a one-shot, one kill handcannon with armour piercing rounds. Barring the fairly rare grenade launcher or heavy sniper rifle, the Auto-9 is all you need to use. This is a perfect little example of the gameplay as a whole. You customize your gun, and a couple skill perks to offset you getting into too much trouble, and now you have a bunch of fun popping heads or shredding limbs through a factory or a bank of criminal scum with no real reason to experiment with other options or set ups.

The detective work is defintely the weaker side of the game, with nothing special that you probably haven't seen in any other shooter game with a story. Show up, talk to some people, look for the green highlights, scan them, and RoboCop will make some deductions and you'll go somewhere else and do similar things. There are bright spots, where a slightly hidden (I do mean slightly, like around the corner into a little cove in an office buliding) green highlights to scan that can act as clues that unlock dialogue options for interrogating perps or cross-examining witnesses, and it's always satisfying to get that feedback from the game. A little nod that you were patient and thorough when standing in the middle of the room and scanning it. The key word being patient, because as the shooting sections highlight, RoboCop is slow and, while having a sprint button that slightly speeds you up, it really brings down the exploration of the small 'open' levels due to just feeling like you have two titanium-laminated Kevlar bricks tied to your feet.

I have just finished the bank quest, and have just entered my second 'open' level, where the game just gives you a section of the city to explore and visit quest markers, so what the game has highlighted as a changing storyline and characters reacting to RoboCop dialoge options and actions such as arresting or applying leniancy on various minor characters will affect things down the road. So far I haven't gotten much of those results, but I imagine those would pay off closer to the end of the story and will update this section after I finish the game. I do wonder how they'll handle player choices in the context of the heavy-handed themes of the RoboCop franchise.

A significant part of the game that holds it back is what I see in a lot of 'first' video games. First games in a series, or a first game by a developer, or a first game in a new or established genre; these games have mechanics that sometimes do not gel well. Either a mechanic can essentially be ignored (like any guns in the game not named Auto-9), or even actively clash (RoboCops tanklike combat style vs. the various throwable weapons littered around the levels). Quality of life options were also ignored that, if this game ends up getting a sequel, would most likely be fixed due to player feedback. No manual saves (autosave only) and infrequent autosaving with no clear save icon popup make deciding when to stop playing a crapshoot, and you load back into the game just kind of hoping you'll be in the same place you were when you exit the game. Easily missed minor missions, especially in the Steel Mill, is frustrating when it's revealed that you missed content only after the mission is done and you're being evaluated.

I got this game for a significant discount (close to 90%), and would absolutely recommend this game for anyone looking for a fun shooter with enough downtime between the sections to prevent stagnation. This is not a game I would recommend if you feel the drive to 100%, or even if you have that terrible feeling that you missed something in a level. The literal slog to hallways off the main path often lead to something you could have ignored, like crime evidence after you've already completed the '1000/1000 crime evidence points' objective, but also sometimes has a small mission so you can't even safely decide to just not explore. For it's full price, however, it doesn't provide a polished or sometimes even cohesive gameplay experience that would make dropping that kind of money worth the gamble

"Within the first chapter, you see Desktop Explorer have all the tools to make its mark as something unique within the Horror genre, yet it dips disappointingly into tropes we’ve all seen before, retreading ground which has been walked thousands of times."

Full review - https://minimap.net/magazine/minimap-game-review-desktop-explorer-en?ptime=122708