Recent reviews by DecoFox

My beloved.

DCS for those who are sick of disassembling and reassembling their entire F-14 cockpit replica every time they move apartments.

I tried like hell to get into it. I even stayed cautiously optimistic at the start, despite wincing at the incredibly juvenile dora-the-explorer writing on display. I love the typical Fallout experience, and it's not unusual that those games start slow. I wasn't sure I liked Fallout 4 at first either, but in the end I definitely did. But I gave Starfield hours and hours to get off the ground like that, but I'm sorry to report that it just doesn't happen. There are bright spots here and there: little glimpses of creativity that kept me going as long as I did. It's just enough to keep you hoping that maybe it's all leading somewhere. But in the end, it just doesn't. There's not enough game here to play for fun, and not enough depth to make your own fun. It seems Skyrim and Fallout 4 will remain the standard for those of us with a Bethesda-game itch

I'm always surprised at the things I can dig up worms from

Orangeboy. It's hungry, I don't know what you feed it, and it's upside down.

I recently admonished this game for the massive decrease in quality made to facilitate the console port, which was severe and came contrary to promises made throughout the development cycle and in the preceding months since release. I did so with the knowledge that the associated issues would almost certainly be resolved and said as much, and I'm happy to report that efforts to rectify those problems have been prompt and ongoing. To be clear, FS2020, in its current state, still looks noticeably worse than it did on release day. This is especially apparent in cloud cover and color grading. It no longer looks catastrophically worse, however, and has returned to surpassing X-Plane 12 visually. Had FS2020 released in the state it is in today, I would still have been very impressed, if perhaps not as blown away as I was by the original visuals. While I find the handling of the console release regrettable, I have been impressed with asobo's speed and willingness in correcting the issue, and hold hope that the next full update will return the simulator fully to the stunning look for which it is so well known.

An excellent-playing, if not quite as tightly-written, Ace Combat game. The game's comparatively-limited development resources rear their heads every now and then (don't expect much from cutscenes, beware iffy line delivery, etc), but the resources it did have were exceedingly well focused. The actual game part of the game looks, feels, and plays wonderfully. Project Wingman's flight model is my second favorite counting it alongside the actual ace combat series (just behind AC6), weapon variety is great, aircraft variety is solid, and the latter two categories are better functionally diversified than they are in most actual ace combat games.

Arguably spoilers below, though there's no actual story content here:
I will say, as I suggested in the beginning, that the writing isn't quite my favorite, and I mean that from both a narrative and mission design standpoint. Ace Combat is sappy and melodramatic (this is actually a little milder), but it is very good at setting up its biggest missions and the setpieces that go with them, and then executing them. There's a fair bit less variety in mission execution here, and less flavor to the enemies you fight in both character and vehicle. Suffice to say I kept waiting for the typical Ace Combat escalation, and it never really came, at least on the gameplay end. Similarly, we never really get to know our enemy or our friends as well as you might expect, and, while the typical ace combat twists and themes are present (as well as a few of its own), I think the execution missed a few details on how to get them to land properly. That's easily where my biggest disappointments lie. If you're nihilistically inclined you might like it a little better than I did, but even if I were going to run with the theme exactly as it is, I'd have gotten to the same ending in a slightly different way.

Still, it's worlds more interesting than you can expect from something like Hawx, assault horizon, etc. It'll keep you progressing through the missions, it's got just the right amount of camp, and it's firmly Ace Combat flavored. I had a great time and it was more than worth the price of admission.

tl;dr: Very strong gameplay, slightly weaker design, firmly worth a play.

One word of warning: if VR is important to you, an original Vive isn't going to cut it here. The visuals do not do well in low resolutions. I can't speak for newer headsets and better video cards than mine. Looks great on a monitor though, especially for an indie title.

Bizarrely earnest for EA. Sometimes almost adorable. It reminds me of those Amazon Original sci-fi shows: well meaning, in many ways competent, but also rather visibly amature.

Some of the early reviews described it as built like an "old" game. They mean this very literally. The non-flying segments flash me right back to X-Wing Alliance, and sometimes Wing Commander. Mechanically they work the same (stationary character with clickable scenery that serves as a sort of menu), and the effect is strengthened by visuals that really don't hold up outside the cockpit in VR or otherwise. I have to admit I find it a little cute, but the style certainly hasn't aged well. Between that and the poorly lip-synced, stilted campaign dialogue, you're likely to find yourself craving a can of Surge and a Cyrex processor. It's up to you whether that's a good thing or not. It turned me off at first, but then it started making me warm inside.

So is it worth anything besides nostalgia? Probably not in the campaign, but core gameplay is actually quite solid. Dogfights are fun, fast-paced, and don't often deadlock. System management and shield balancing is actually proactive, and makes up for a lot of the engagement lost to the relatively little flight model nuance that comes part and parcel with Star Wars canon. The multiplayer is solid, and as long as it maintains a userbase and you don't mind a UI that's a little rough around the edges, I can happily recommend it as a current year X-Wing game. But if you didn't grow up with the old games, the things I find cute you will find sloppy. A lot of it is straight up antiquated; there's no way around it.

11/10 most time I've blown since gmod. Sails and lighter-than-air gases when?

Whether or not I reccomend Eagle Flight depends mostly on what you're looking for. If all you want is a VR toy, it's fantastic. It's fairly immersive and the flight mechanics, while not as deep as I'd prefer, are intuitive and satisfying. The relationships between head position, view, and control are natural after only a few minutes, and highlight an aspect of VR I wouldn't have expected to work nearly as well as it does: With the right control scheme, a game can completely change the way you think about locomotion and navigation. Eagle Flight is the first VR experience I've gotten mild vertigo coming out of, as I'd grown to accept that tilting my head should produce a banking turn.

Unfortunately the game underneath isn't nearly as strong as the mechanics it's built on. Eagle Flight strongly resembles something like PilotWings in that respect, or some modern mobile games. It lacks the depth and substance I've come to expect from PC games, and left me particularly disappointed with regard to how much being an eagle specifically plays into things. Hunting and combat are present, but not in any way that resembles how actual birds accomplish such tasks, nor simplified in a manner that enhances gameplay. Combat manifests as a simple projectile shooter with a time limit, with actual gameplay resembling StarFox about as much as any actual eagle behavior. Hunting, similarly, is reduced to a collectathon given challenge only by tight time limits. This represents a lot of wasted potential, especially since the strenghts of the game (control and sensation) would have played very effectively into a more realistic, deeper system, and are somewhat wasted here.

The game plays very nicely, and given the fledgling nature of VR and comparison to other titles, the simplified, somewhat antiquated gameplay is forgivable. On those grounds I will reccomend it, especially if its on sale. That said, this is not a simulator in any respect, nor is the gameplay and progression at all organtic. There is fun to be had, but a finite amount of fun. The game is relatively short, and unless you're a perfectionist who likes hitting the top of scoreboards, you won't find much reason to stick around after the first few hours.