Recent reviews by Uncle Mike

Did you play Animal Crossing, or any of its variations? Do you play Stardew Valley? What about Farmville? If not, why in the heck are you even reading this review? But if you played those games and liked them, you are guaranteed to like this game. At about 50 hours of gameplay, I feel like I'm part-way into the story, and just beginning to explore some of the mechanics like pets, spouses and livestock. Every single mini-game from the titles I mentioned is in this game as well: planting, fishing, crafting (LOTS of crafting), mining, keeping up relationships and, ultimately, dating, marriage and kids. The music is both fun and soothing and varies, so you hear a lot of themes. If you like those other titles you'll like this latest incarnation of farming and relationship sim; no dig @ Stardew Valley, but this is one of the best. I'd say each is many, many hours of fun, but each in their own way.

First stuff; the game client and servers run well. There are TONS of servers and players. You can find one with <30ms ping, no problem. Gameplay is quick to pick up, although fairly undocumented - you'll get no help figuring it out, and there is no "new user experience", per se; you'll have to wiki everything. The textures, object detection and collision seem just fine and better than most. All things being equal - this game is totally worth the price, and you can play it endlessly.

My complaint(s): I've played most games of this type. After about 100-200 hours of gameplay, I'm the first one to suggest that butt-hurt victims of my cross-bow "get gud", in just about any game. I've never gotten to what I consider to be the "end-game", i.e. large bases, heavily-armed players using squad tactics, etc. I've only ever been clubbed in the head repeatedly while naked on a beach, or been able to construct a decent stone or metal base about 10 minutes before a bunch of <insert unintelligible foreign-language>-speaking Zerg show up with explosives, kill me and take about 4 hours worth of resources.

So, the game is suffering from a fate similar to most Battle Royale games, and I've seen it in the battle arena games, too: some people like world-building and some just want to destroy everything. The "goal", of course, is to kill the most enemies, and "all's fair", and so on. But non-veterans may be scared away easily by the difficulty in progressing, due to the scavengers and the naked player-murderers - and that sits just fine with the kids who feel mastery on their server(s) because they keep them away. Eventually, n00bs will stop coming, the gankers will get bored, and the online community will collapse.

But, hey, it's worth 3-4 hours every Friday night - I give it a rating of "Buy Now, Even at Retail Price, Especially If You Like Having Your Skull Crushed a Lot"

Alpha 16: Much Improvement, Some Controversy (I Guess)

I have 600 or so hours in the game. I'm impressed by how much work these guys have done, their commitment to improving the game, and the direction this big release has taken. Less grind because of changes to how the tool/weapon skill works - I don't craft 50 stone axes my first night any more, I can do something useful. But the changes in A16 don't make themselves apparent until you get to around player level 50, in my opinion, maybe day 14. Some thought has gone into streamlining the acquisition of key skill points and making de facto 'skill trees' - if you want to become a miner, it's a bit easier to get that skill to where you can bust the smaller boulders in three strikes, with a steel pickaxe. Same with hunting, crafting skills - still no love for enhanced cooking, though. But the big love goes to the distant view mechanic and overall improvement to graphics and, for me anyway, the same or better performance. I have a Radeon HD7900, not the greatest card, about 4 years old or more, and I get 30FPS on near-Ultra settings. There's still weirdness in the game, like clipping and placement errors, but that's why it's in Alpha, friendo. Report that ♥♥♥♥.

So I say, good job, Fun Pimps. Based on progress so far, I'm optimistic about what going gold will look like.

Paladins is only superficially like any other arena shooter being published today.
Despite what you may read or hear, this game is the evolution of game design and mechanics from Hi-Rez that started with Smite, their highly-popular DOTA competitor. They took League of Legends and, in my opinion, made it different and better. Not everyone agrees, but millions do. And so it is with Paladins.

You have to understand and, to some degree, like math to play Paladins. In that respect, it's more like Hearthstone than any other Blizzard game. From the instant your match selection starts, you have to gauge your opponent(s), figure out who they are choosing and why. Then you have cards and abilities that combine to suit your gameplay style, and enhance that Champion's kit. As a Casual player, the match can be won or lost just by making these decisions, and playing the Champion only adequately. The goal, then, is to find the best loadouts for different situations and become Competitive, as you continually improve your on-the-field gameplay.

Wins and losses are dependent on the objective, like in other games, but that is greatly influenced by the number of points each Champion accrues for performing their role well during the match. When a healer heals more (vs. doing damage or just staying alive), the Ultimate arrives quicker, their enhancement cards are available faster, and the Champion is more powerful - in just the way that suits your playstyle. So if I heal more with Pip, I can invest in the card that makes him run faster. But if I screw my team by being a flanker, contrary to Pip's class, I may have more fun, but I don't add to the team goal.

My point is that, unlike other games, it is not just a situation where you learn how a character does things, then you go do them. It's different, and a lot more complicated, if you want to be competitive. I'm not suggesting that it is better. It is only better in the sense that EVE Online is better than, say, Elite:Dangerous - it's just more complicated, with a higher learning curve, and less emphasis on the environments, lore, etc. that make up a title from a MUCH bigger ($$) publisher.

TL;DR - I prefer Paladins to other arena shooters because I enjoy its MOBA aspects. Your mileage may vary.