Recent reviews by Salamander

Tabletop Simulator is a very simple, but effective game. It is, at it's core, a physics sandbox that you can import models into. I've personally mostly used Tabletop Simulator as a cheap and easy way to play Warhammer 40k and Age of Sigmar without having to invest a huge amount of money or play with people I wouldn't be able to in real life. But this is also an invaluable resource to aspiring tabletop game designers like myself for playtesting and game development.

If your D&D, wargaming, or just general board game nights with friends have been cancelled due to the pandemic (which is still going on as of the time of writing this review btw IF UR READING THIS IN THE FUTURE, PLS TELL ME IT'S OVER) this game is an easy purchase, with no caveats or asterisks. It's essentially perfect for what it tries to be.

I bought this game way back when it wasn't free to play. It appears most of the negative reviews are centered around the poor F2P experience. If this is true, feel free to listen to them since this will not come up in this review due to me having never experienced it. This comes from the perspective of someone who's played fighting games at a... very silver tier level for a very long time. I get low gold in the seasonal ranked pretty consistently, which according to the game puts me in the 98.5th percentile of all players. With all that being laid out, let's get into it:

The name of the game is Fantasy Strike, but if that wasn't the name of the game the name of the game would probably be SIMPLICITY. That's the primary feature of this fighting game, simplicity above all else. High/low blocking? gone. There's only left/right blocking to worry about. Characters have very simple kits that can be understood in a myriad of different ways, with very few shenanigans. With the exception of Valerie and Setsuki, who are both the archetypal braindead rushdown big tiddy waifu who 90% of the playerbase takes in their team comps, including myself, because we all like easy wins sometimes.

Every character has very easily understood tools, with enough mechanical interactions with other parts of their kit to actually warrant spending some time in Fantasy Strike's otherwise pretty lackluster training mode. Overall it's a pretty unique take, though I doubt the validity of Sirlin's claims that the skills you learn in Fantasy Strike are perfectly transferable to other fighting games, what with there being no high/low blocking or really any sort of knockdown pressure that isn't a strike/throw mixup.

However, there is one serious blight on this game and that's the online. David Sirlin likes to claim that this game has one of the best netcodes of any fighting game, and maybe I believe him. But netcode this good cannot survive the flood of non-ethernet cord using switch users on dial up who will still ruin the online experience with constant freezes and massive lag spikes MID MATCH. And unlike other Rollback titles like Guilty Gear Strive there is no ping counter, only four bars. Unlike Street Fighter 5 there is no way to search specifically for four bar connections, and there is no way to turn off cross platform play, possibly because doing that on PC would render the game nigh unplayable due to its pitifully low player numbers on Steam. Overall I'd recommend this game, but not as a primary fighting game. This is a fighting game to play when you get temporarily bored or pissed off at the games you take more seriously, and because of that I kind of can't not recommend it due to its asking price of zero dollars and zero cents.

as of recently I have beaten this game on NG+7 (though really my full number of full playthroughs probably looks more like 11 or 13), and can say for certain that it is in my top 3 games of all time. It is, in my view, the culmination of everything the two previous games have been building to. What do I mean by that?

Well, you have Dark Souls 1. Not exactly a trailblazer by any means due to its existence as a spiritual successor to the game Demon's Souls, but it served to refine what Demon's Souls was trying to be. Dark Souls 2 was the weird black sheep of this whole franchise. Seemingly made to see how far the gameplay formula of Dark Souls could be stretched before simply breaking, it was one big giant experiment. One that, in many's eyes, largely failed. Dark Souls 3, then, is the results from the experiment that was Dark Souls 2 being used to create what is essentially a holistically perfect sequel, one that in many regards negates the need to ever revisit the previous entries in the series.

What it learned from Dark Souls 2 is that the gameplay formula found in Dark Souls 1 is already a work of near-unparalleled game design. You don't need to add anything onto the already existing gameplay loop of dodge rolls and resource management. So instead it just gives you more of what made Dark Souls 1 such a masterpiece, while keeping what good ideas were in Dark Souls 2. I can't not wholeheartedly recommend this game, even though I thought for a while the number of references and plot beats from Dark Souls 1 might make the game seem a bit impenetrable, I think it'd be rather unintrusive for a newer fan while still enhancing the experience for veteran players. It goes on sale pretty frequently, and even though Elden Ring comes out very soon I think it's still worth at least one playthrough.

after 80 hours I just hit 30 on my first character, Bardin btw, and feel qualified to give the game a proper review.

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is the most unique and interesting take on the horde survival shooter (ala Left 4 Dead and Payday 2) out on the market right now and has some of the best first person melee combat in all of gaming history. The sound design and animation work in harmony to make every swing of an axe feel just that more satisfying as you hear the crunch of bone and the tear of flesh. This is compounded by the fact that for most of the game you'll be fighting either the Skaven or the forces of Nurgle, two of the most disgusting and for lack of a better term 'fleshy' adversaries in the entire Old World.

This extra satisfying melee combat is important, because unlike Left 4 Dead or Payday 2, this game is obviously medieval fantasy, and ranged combat is the exception and not the rule. This gives Vermintide 2 an inherent uniqueness among the genre, as no other horde survival shooter has this little... well, shooting in it. And it does this perfectly.

Another unique aspect of this game is its characters. You play as one member of the Ubersreik Five: Markus Kruber, Bardin Goreksson, Kerillean, Victor Saltzpyre, and Sienna Ferguson. Each character has 3-4 Careers, which're like classes. I say 3-4 because the final DLC for this game is going to be the final 4th Career for each character. As of writing this we have 3 of the 5 final Careers, which are Grail Knight for Kruber, Outcast Engineer for Bardin, and Sister of the Thorn for Kerillean with Saltzpyre being set to get his 4th Career probably sometime soon. After that it'll just be Sienna left to get her 4th, and then Fatshark will probably commit fully to working on Darktide, which is gonna be essentially Vermintide set in 40k.

With that in mind, I think if you are thinking about getting this game, do it and play it now, because idk how much longer this game has in it. It's maintained a stable population for years, though because of how old the game is most of the game's population is found within Champion and Legendary difficulty. Though, the two difficulties below Champion are so easy that you'll probably stop getting downed, let alone dying, pretty much immediately after you get a hang of the game. I don't think the game's population will die off once Sienna's Career comes out, and even when Darktide comes out I think because of the game's unique gameplay and iconic setting it'll maintain a smaller, dedicated playerbase but the game will no doubt have a massive dip in concurrent players from it, at which point it may end up being downright impossible to find a full team for Recruit and Veteran difficulty missions. Sadly in our modern era games have a shelf life, and Vermintide 2 is quickly approaching its own expiration date, so if you're on the fence about playing the game I recommend at least trying it out. Worst case scenario you can just refund it, but I doubt you'll need to because it's a truly incredible masterpiece of a game.

TL;DR it's an excellent game, though you may not want to wait because it's a multiplayer-only game that's quickly reaching its final update and afterward will go into maintenance mode as Fatshark work on their next game.

I don't think I've seen a game with more potential. A game with such a strong core gameplay loop deserves to be surrounded with the most polished peripheral material within the scope of the studio making it. This, however, is not what was given to us.

It's undeniable that this game was released too early, and all three of the people I regularly squad with have said that this game feels like a very well made early access title. There are strange glitches with the lighting engine, causing some characters to have changes in hair color or skin tone depending on the lighting. There's a recurring bug where icons on the map just won't show up until you close it and pull it back up and the framerate has a tendency to go down like the stock market during quarantine.

So why, after I said all that, am I still recommending it? Well, it's a recommendation with a caveat. This game, if you are willing to look past the lack of polish and quality of life features, is something amazing. You'll find that it has a stunning accessibility which almost betrays the full depth and complexity it has to offer. The three gamemodes each utilize the masterfully crafted map in differing ways and each round feels just different enough to have you starting the queue over and over again.

Not everybody will be able to look past the bugs and glitches, not everybody will be patient enough to really sink their teeth into the game but for those who CAN, I would wholeheartedly recommend trying it. It's not like you're losing anything, it IS free after all.

This game is complicated for me to actually recommend but in the end, I do. First I think I need to lay down my track record with this series.
I've played all the games extensively with the exception of the strategy game, and I've played various other Bethesda titles such as Skyrim and Oblivion.
So, as someone who's an experienced fan of the series... I wouldn't recommend this game if you're a hardcore Fallout die-hard. Fallout 3 wasn't a very great game, it didn't have a lot of moral complexity and the decisions were very surface level and didn't make much of a difference. Fallout 4 has that exact same problem turned to 11. Throughout my 200+ hours of playtime I never felt like I actually made any sort of meaningful impact on the world around me. The RPG mechanics are about as dumbed down as they get. Not only are Traits gone (again) but now all leveling has been replaced with a simple perks chart. In essence, no Fallout 4 character is BAD at anything. Only varying levels of good at various things. Despite all of that, I would still overall recommend this game to the wider gaming audience. Fallout 4 has some genuine improvements over the series predecessors. Fallout 3 and New Vegas were known for their incredibly ♥♥♥♥♥♥ gunplay. Bullets felt like they... appeared at the tip of the barrel of your guns like they were magic wands shooting fireballs rather than actual guns, in Fallout 3 specifically you couldn't even aim down the sights of your weapon. In comparison, Fallout 4 has amazing gunplay, rivaling some of the best examples in the industry. The guns feel like actual firearms and not nerf guns, they have some amazing sound design that really tickles my fancy. The melee weapons feel far better to use, as you hear bones crack and machines crumple under the weight of your rocket-propelled heat coil wrapped railroad spike aluminum baseball bat. The graphics are also rather impressive. There's a good deal of environmental storytelling. Fallout 3 and New Vegas all looked very... dead. You really get the sense that this is the Commonwealth hundreds of years after the bombs fell. Life is coming back to the world. Grass is growing, there's more wildlife that aren't just mutated abominations. And most of all the game has ACTUAL ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ COLORS. Everything isn't just concrete grey with a green tint like in Fallout 3 or... b r o w n like in NV. There's greens, blues, reds, whites, blacks, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥... muddy yellows, it's by far graphically the best Fallout game by a long shot and the intense levels of customization alone give ample reason to enjoy it. In essence, Fallout 4 isn't a great RPG. It's not a great immersive storytelling experience, it's not a great sandbox. However, what it is... is fun. It's so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fun. Really, really, really fun. I believe that games don't have to just be fun. They can be stories, they can be introspective, they can make you think about reality as a whole. Just look at games like Pathologic or the original two Fallout games. If you're looking for a traditional sort of RPG experience then look elsewhere but if your one goal is to just sit down, have fun, do a bit of light roleplaying, and making the bad men turn into raider giblets, then this is going to be a game you will love. For everyone else, at least it has tiddy mods.

I love this game, I genuinely do. It's the best game in the Saints Row franchise by far but let's go down this point by point.


STORY: storywise this is easily the best in the series. You got three gangs like usual: the Ronin, The Brotherhood and the Sons of Samadei all with incredibly unique and conflicting goals and attributes (unlike in Saints Row 3 where all the gangs just joined forces midway through) and these gangs have taken over where the Saints left off after the attempted assassination on your life at the end of Saints Row 1. You are effectively starting off fresh, you wake up in the Stilwater Correctional Facility located on an offshore island. The younger brother of one of your old gang members intentionally got himself arrested and sent to jail to meet you and break you out. you fight your way through the island and get to shore with only a few bucks in your pocket and a handgun. You reunite with fan favorite character Johnny ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Gat! Ahhh, I love this guy. Anyway, you reunite with him and hire three lieutenants: Pierce, Shaundi and Carlos all but one of will end up becoming recurring characters in future games aaand you're off to take back your city and murder your way back to the top and oh boy, do you murder your way there. I really love this story and the gangs are what make it come to life. you got the rebellious heavy metal Brotherhood and the stoner tribal warriors of the Sons of Samadei and then you got the samurai ninjas Ronin in yellow and black jumpsuits who use katanas and ride motorcycles. I... hm, guess the creative team watchd too much Tarantino flicks while making the Yakuza. Overall an amazing story with nearly no flaws, hilarious and subtle writing and actually interesting characters. A must-buy for anyone seeking a story of revenge and gangster thrills.


GAMEPLAY: I imagine this is why most of you are here. Is the gameplay as good as other Gangster Sims like GTA? Yes, and then some. The gunplay feels uniquely onpoint for the series and of 3rd person adventure games as a whole. The guns have very beefy noises to them and that causes each one of them to feel different. Along with firerate, recoil and animation playing a part in this too. All the guns feel unique. The cars is where the gameplay starts to lag behind. Maybe it's because I'm using keyboard and mouse but driving always felt a little bit awkward and like your car would take a lot of damage when it wasn't your fault because the civilian AI decided to take a left turn on a right and slammed on the gas causing the car to zoom into oncoming traffic. The civilian AI is indeed dumb as rocks and will do the dumbest things for no real reason especially on the road. If you want deep and convincing Civvie AI just play GTA, this is not the place for you. Civvies in this game are little more than living meatshields. The expansiveness of the world is unfathomable for the series with it easily being the biggest open world in the franchise with the most stuff to do in it with liquor stores, restaurants, car dealerships, garages and the fact that if a car gets destroyed or if you leave it out in the street it won't be back in your garage. You HAVE to store cars in your garage in order to keep them and be able to spawn them later. It sounds small but this goes a long way to making the game a far more immersive experience and ends up making you way more protective of that Superiore you spent 70k on only to have it ripped away from you when a civilian decided to use their car as a battering ram (not mad btw). Overall, best in the series and a major draw to the game.

PERFORMANCE: oof, this is gonna be a tough one. This is not a great PC port. Saints Row 2 was originally on Xbox 360 and PS3 until it was ported to steam a few years back. This PC port isn't... great, there's a lot of jankiness in the cutscenes where stuff like phones and weapons hover just out of the person holding them's hand. Crashes happen not often enough to ruin the experience but it is something to keep in the back of your mind. Save often. Not to mention heavy framedrops. Overall, not great and needs improvement.

CUSTOMIZATION: This game, the one true thing it definitively has over any other openworld game is the level of customization. You can customize every section of your character's face, you can customize their eyes, you can customize their body. Wanna have a dude who has tits? GO AHEAD! Wanna be the most muscle-bound woman to ever live? GO FOR IT! The sky's the limit when you don't give a ♥♥♥♥! Overall, amazing. Not best in the series but amazing.

TL;DR overall Saints Row 2 is an amazing experience you need to play and one I will be playing after I publish this and continue playing for god knows how long, until I reach 100% completion I assume. It has amazing levels of player freedom, awesome gameplay and unforgettable Quentin Tarantino-like story. P L A Y T H I S G A M E PLEASE.

If I had to describe this game in one word, I would say "crazy". If I had to describe it in more than one word, you'd get this review. The game takes place not in stilwater, not a different city, or even in the REAL Steelport, it takes place in a simulation, and you where put there by the best villain in the franchise's history, Zinyak, he's a witty poetic alien monster who seeks to conquer your world, and to stop you from stopping him from stopping us from stopping him, he doesn't kill you, but puts you in the matr-- I mean simulation so he can perform what any true Bond villain would do, he puts you in the simulation to BREAK YOU, and than he blows up the world... good job kinda painting yourself into a corner with sequels there Volition... greeaaat. but the game plays like any other game except it's faster paced and has powers, UNLIMITED POOOWAAAAAH basically completely overhauling the gameplay except for the gunplay, which is relatively the same... sadly these superpowers make driving useless as you will get super speed before you even get to the second act, almost like the guy who programmed the superpowers took a DUMP on the car guy's desk who put so much effort into the new cars and car customization features!!


the witty writing makes a welcome return from Saints Row 2 unlike the humor from Saints Row 3 which was baically focused on https://youtu.be/rlBIjSFbHEM?t=11s (I'm so sorry) most of the humor coming from Zinyak and your character working off of him. And the DLC is mediocre, I suggest getting the game of the year edition which is only afew dollars more than SR4 Vanilla

So you start off with a great custimization after that you name your guy and your off and then you expierence a great game with a great overworld and great weeeelll greatness its simply amazing theres no words to describe how awesome this is for a free to play game now it may seem I'm sucking up to this game but it has its issues at times it lags extremely and some of the models look kinda weird and off and the lack of freedom in the game is terrible but you can't help but to put aside or atleast ignore all those problems and enjoy the game for what it is

ok so I have not played the game yet but it looks like a Spore midevil edition which is awesome I love Spore so what is basically a Spore minecraft mesh looking game is amazing I haveto have it and its FREE $0 for what looks like an extremely positive game so I will update whence I play it but so far I think it looks amazing