So I'll post them, or links to them here. Why not? Comment if I fucked up somewhere or whenever
Will post new reviews I make, and then you can call me an asshat for not liking your favourite games
Full list:
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/7656 ... commended/
Currently counting 44, but one of them is DLC so that doesn't count
Among them:
Xenonauts(Good game)(Real x-com, get it)
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/7656 ... ed/223830/
Spoiler:
Xenonauts. It's greatest strength is that it's X-com. It's greatest weakness is that it's X-com.
If you're an older gamer, played the original X-coms, and just wanted them to get a graphics update and maybe some mods on being able to better organise your units and maybe a few updates, look no further. You've found it.
If you don't know what this "X-com" business is about, both X-com and Xenonauts are tactical and strategic games where you defend earth from an alien invasion through a specialised organisation and squad who deals with the aliens.
You'll respond to the aliens by shooting down the UFOs using regular human fighter aircraft, and then landing a squad of soldiers with just plain old human guns near them to clear out the survivors. After that, you'll begin to research better technology. Laser rifles, faster aircraft to take down the UFOs, armour that protects from the alien weaponry, and so on.
You will meet several different kinds of aliens, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and figure out why they're invading. But most importantly, you're going to stop them. You're going to take all their technology and make it your own, and you will end up with several bases across the world to find, and destroy any intruders who push into your atmosphere.
As for the changes between this and X-com, they are mostly good. You have an airstrike option on alien crash sites so that you don't need to do everything or have them expire when you've been too busy dealing with other sites, though it will provide you with far less rewards than if you send in a squad of soldiers. There are new pieces of equipment, such as the shield. You'll no longer need to micromanage every last clip or laser battery in your arsenal and order the construction of small things like two laser batteries - Just keep track of the ones you bring into combat so you don't run out. There are now more involved air battles, along with air terror sites. And cover, along with range, now actually provides a bonus or penalty to your shots. You don't have to worry about this turning into a chest high wall simulator though, it works out well and you don't have to stay in cover. It's just a suggestion that increases your soldiers' lifespan. There are some others but they are mostly positive. One I'd say is slightly negative is that you can not land on a UFO and blast a hole in the ceiling to enter it as you could in the original X-com, though if you never played that game(And even if you did), you might not even notice that option isn't there.
Mechanics wise, it works out very similar to X-com, with an isometric view and tile based map. I've found some maps had too little vertical space sometimes but often this wasn't a big problem, the controls are pretty good, mainly just using your mouse to command your units. It's turn based, with a world map to place your bases on and do your air battles, and a base overview where you can build out your base by modular rooms.
Interestingly, I've found that the difficulty settings actually changes AI behavior, rather than the lazy way of just giving the AI more armour or damage. I'm not sure if it also gives the aliens more stats or makes it more difficult to get money for the player, but the fact difficulty settings actually improve the AI is something that many AAA games completely fail at.
In the end, it's X-com. It has most of the strengths of X-com, but it also has the flaws of X-com. You may need to restart several times if you're new and you might get discouraged. A random lucky shot could kill off your best soldier and send the nearby rocket launcher guy into a berserk panic state right into your own squad. If you're not used to it, you'll wonder just how long the campaign keeps going and it may turn into a game of 'whack-a-UFO' for you with slow or barely noticable progress. Or you may simply not have a clue what's going on until the aliens are already in a better position than you.
Even then, it's a very good game. I would say it's worth grabbing it at some point if you want to see what the fuss is about, or because you want some more of the X-com from long ago (Without looking at Interceptor or Enforcer for now)
If you're an older gamer, played the original X-coms, and just wanted them to get a graphics update and maybe some mods on being able to better organise your units and maybe a few updates, look no further. You've found it.
If you don't know what this "X-com" business is about, both X-com and Xenonauts are tactical and strategic games where you defend earth from an alien invasion through a specialised organisation and squad who deals with the aliens.
You'll respond to the aliens by shooting down the UFOs using regular human fighter aircraft, and then landing a squad of soldiers with just plain old human guns near them to clear out the survivors. After that, you'll begin to research better technology. Laser rifles, faster aircraft to take down the UFOs, armour that protects from the alien weaponry, and so on.
You will meet several different kinds of aliens, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and figure out why they're invading. But most importantly, you're going to stop them. You're going to take all their technology and make it your own, and you will end up with several bases across the world to find, and destroy any intruders who push into your atmosphere.
As for the changes between this and X-com, they are mostly good. You have an airstrike option on alien crash sites so that you don't need to do everything or have them expire when you've been too busy dealing with other sites, though it will provide you with far less rewards than if you send in a squad of soldiers. There are new pieces of equipment, such as the shield. You'll no longer need to micromanage every last clip or laser battery in your arsenal and order the construction of small things like two laser batteries - Just keep track of the ones you bring into combat so you don't run out. There are now more involved air battles, along with air terror sites. And cover, along with range, now actually provides a bonus or penalty to your shots. You don't have to worry about this turning into a chest high wall simulator though, it works out well and you don't have to stay in cover. It's just a suggestion that increases your soldiers' lifespan. There are some others but they are mostly positive. One I'd say is slightly negative is that you can not land on a UFO and blast a hole in the ceiling to enter it as you could in the original X-com, though if you never played that game(And even if you did), you might not even notice that option isn't there.
Mechanics wise, it works out very similar to X-com, with an isometric view and tile based map. I've found some maps had too little vertical space sometimes but often this wasn't a big problem, the controls are pretty good, mainly just using your mouse to command your units. It's turn based, with a world map to place your bases on and do your air battles, and a base overview where you can build out your base by modular rooms.
Interestingly, I've found that the difficulty settings actually changes AI behavior, rather than the lazy way of just giving the AI more armour or damage. I'm not sure if it also gives the aliens more stats or makes it more difficult to get money for the player, but the fact difficulty settings actually improve the AI is something that many AAA games completely fail at.
In the end, it's X-com. It has most of the strengths of X-com, but it also has the flaws of X-com. You may need to restart several times if you're new and you might get discouraged. A random lucky shot could kill off your best soldier and send the nearby rocket launcher guy into a berserk panic state right into your own squad. If you're not used to it, you'll wonder just how long the campaign keeps going and it may turn into a game of 'whack-a-UFO' for you with slow or barely noticable progress. Or you may simply not have a clue what's going on until the aliens are already in a better position than you.
Even then, it's a very good game. I would say it's worth grabbing it at some point if you want to see what the fuss is about, or because you want some more of the X-com from long ago (Without looking at Interceptor or Enforcer for now)
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/7656 ... ed/282070/
Spoiler:
This War of Mine has an interesting take on survival games by putting the player not against zombies, or the wilderniss, but against human nature. You begin with three survivors in a city under siege during a civil war, supplies are running low and they just arrived at an abandonned building. This will be their holdout for the war.
You will then manage their daily lives, making workbenches, chairs, beds, and everything else they need to get through the war. Of course, with supplies low, you need to prioritise. Do you really need a second bed? Maybe that material can best be spend on something else..
At night, you go out to scavenge supplies. You bring one (Only one per night) of your survivors to a location that you hope has supplies you can use. Once there, you can encounter many things. It could be an abandonned building with nothing there. There could be a friendly (But well armed) trader, there could be civilians like you just trying to survive, or you could be shot on sight by the locals. Or there can be any other event... Or nothing. There is plenty of variation to be had.
Personally, I went to a church, unarmed, as I had nothing yet. The priest told me about how the place was robbed, and asked me not to disturb the refugees under the church. So I went on to the ruined building behind the church. Scavenging up supplies, when I notice there's sound outside the door. It's just standing there, so I creep to the door and look through the keyhole. Just then, a man with a pistol turned around and made for the door. I looked for a place to run and hide and set off, just as he opened the door.
"Oh, Hello there. Don't worry, I'm just looking around"
He seemed pretty friendly. So I just went on my way to pick out some more nails and wood for my own business. It went alright this time. But plenty of people are less friendly than this guy.
Combat, which you will at some point get into, is not explained in any way. So you will likely have to take a bit to learn about it, and stock up on bandages as you do so. At the same time, the stealth system is not explained, but easy enough to understand.
With all this, you are tasked with making your group survive the war. Or at least as long as you can. It can be easy, challenging, or at times nearly impossible. But that's war, and neither the government nor the rebel forces will help you there - You're not their problem.
And once you've gone through the game, you can ask yourself if you really did win. Did you end up stealing from old people to let them starve? Did you rob a priest for fuel? Shanked a doctor for a bandage? You can ask yourself what winning really means in war. And if just surviving is all you should try to do.
You will then manage their daily lives, making workbenches, chairs, beds, and everything else they need to get through the war. Of course, with supplies low, you need to prioritise. Do you really need a second bed? Maybe that material can best be spend on something else..
At night, you go out to scavenge supplies. You bring one (Only one per night) of your survivors to a location that you hope has supplies you can use. Once there, you can encounter many things. It could be an abandonned building with nothing there. There could be a friendly (But well armed) trader, there could be civilians like you just trying to survive, or you could be shot on sight by the locals. Or there can be any other event... Or nothing. There is plenty of variation to be had.
Personally, I went to a church, unarmed, as I had nothing yet. The priest told me about how the place was robbed, and asked me not to disturb the refugees under the church. So I went on to the ruined building behind the church. Scavenging up supplies, when I notice there's sound outside the door. It's just standing there, so I creep to the door and look through the keyhole. Just then, a man with a pistol turned around and made for the door. I looked for a place to run and hide and set off, just as he opened the door.
"Oh, Hello there. Don't worry, I'm just looking around"
He seemed pretty friendly. So I just went on my way to pick out some more nails and wood for my own business. It went alright this time. But plenty of people are less friendly than this guy.
Combat, which you will at some point get into, is not explained in any way. So you will likely have to take a bit to learn about it, and stock up on bandages as you do so. At the same time, the stealth system is not explained, but easy enough to understand.
With all this, you are tasked with making your group survive the war. Or at least as long as you can. It can be easy, challenging, or at times nearly impossible. But that's war, and neither the government nor the rebel forces will help you there - You're not their problem.
And once you've gone through the game, you can ask yourself if you really did win. Did you end up stealing from old people to let them starve? Did you rob a priest for fuel? Shanked a doctor for a bandage? You can ask yourself what winning really means in war. And if just surviving is all you should try to do.
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/7656 ... ded/17100/
Spoiler:
Children of the Nile is the more modern version of the old citybuilders like Pharaoh And Zeus, allowing you to build a city in ancient Egypt. Some of the more modern things are, aside from the obvious graphics being different, that you no longer need to worry about intersections sending your supply and maintenance people entirely the wrong direction. You can now actually focus on building a city, rather than having to puzzle out the most efficient way to place buildings without them collapsing, catching fire, and starving because the food vendor doesn't show up there.
Citizens in your city are in a class society. From top to bottom, they are the pharaoh. That is you, and your family. You have a palace, and your family goes out to collect any sort of material, be it luxury goods or a humble pot to store things in. You are the state. All food belonging to the city also belongs to you, but you will always have a nice supply of food stored away in your palace. Pharaoh gets first pick, and a percentage of all food farmed in taxes.
Just below you are the nobles, who live in large houses and get their income from the farmers under them, and in order to support a large farming population, you will need nobles to guide them.
Under the nobles are the educated elite. Priests, scribes, overseers, and commanders of the military. They have similar demands as nobles in terms of luxuries, but they are paid by the government for their services. Only the sons of nobles and luxury shopkeepers qualify for education. These are the doctors, the administration, and the tax collectors. Because nobles will try to dodge paying taxes, a scribe can catalogue how many fields have been sown so that you know exactly how much belongs to Pharaoh.
Under them still, the middle class. Entertainers and shopkeepers. These earn their bread through their services and the goods they sell. Simple, but neccesary for society to function.
Below them, the peasantry. Farmers and servants. The farmers work the land and earn enough food to last until next harvest in doing so, and the servants do the shopping for nobles and collect resources for luxury shopkeepers - So they don't have to mingle with the common folk.
Separate from them all are government workers. They fit somewhere between the middle class and peasantry, and are paid generously by Pharaoh's bread. They are the brickmakers, the construction workers for bigger buildings(Small buildings like a servant's shack are made by the servants themselves), and anything else government wants from a papyrus maker up to the military.
If at any time your system fails and the people are without food, they will leave their jobs to scavenge for it. Dates, pomegranades, fish and so on are plentiful, so you need not fear you'll ruin your city and have a ghost town.
The game starts slow every map, as you have 10 bricks(Enough for one baker, brickmakers huts don't need bricks), and only one educated person in your city at the start. So you will want to build a school and several brickmakers more to ensure you can keep growing. Before you know it, you've spend several hours building. There is no immigration either, from what I can find. You start the map with 200-300 citizens living in huts, scavenging off the land. After that, children will be your main population growth. This becomes an issue when you want a big military, as military men don't get married - They live in their barracks-tent with two other men.
Some things that are bad, there are a lot of shrines out there that will take a bit to figure out which goes where and which are popular - If you even have room for them. Sometimes your citizens or a merchant may get stuck on a corner, and sometimes you may find your labourers can't figure out which limestone block they want to pull, and manage to fail to move any of them.
In the end, it's still a pretty and somewhat relaxing game where you can spend hours getting your city just right, and then decide to change it up again because you have a new idea. Cosmetic things like gardens, plazas and trees are free to place too, so you can make it look good without having to worry about your workers spending ages watering the plants and not farming.
Worth grabbing it if you like citybuilding, it's good at what it does
Citizens in your city are in a class society. From top to bottom, they are the pharaoh. That is you, and your family. You have a palace, and your family goes out to collect any sort of material, be it luxury goods or a humble pot to store things in. You are the state. All food belonging to the city also belongs to you, but you will always have a nice supply of food stored away in your palace. Pharaoh gets first pick, and a percentage of all food farmed in taxes.
Just below you are the nobles, who live in large houses and get their income from the farmers under them, and in order to support a large farming population, you will need nobles to guide them.
Under the nobles are the educated elite. Priests, scribes, overseers, and commanders of the military. They have similar demands as nobles in terms of luxuries, but they are paid by the government for their services. Only the sons of nobles and luxury shopkeepers qualify for education. These are the doctors, the administration, and the tax collectors. Because nobles will try to dodge paying taxes, a scribe can catalogue how many fields have been sown so that you know exactly how much belongs to Pharaoh.
Under them still, the middle class. Entertainers and shopkeepers. These earn their bread through their services and the goods they sell. Simple, but neccesary for society to function.
Below them, the peasantry. Farmers and servants. The farmers work the land and earn enough food to last until next harvest in doing so, and the servants do the shopping for nobles and collect resources for luxury shopkeepers - So they don't have to mingle with the common folk.
Separate from them all are government workers. They fit somewhere between the middle class and peasantry, and are paid generously by Pharaoh's bread. They are the brickmakers, the construction workers for bigger buildings(Small buildings like a servant's shack are made by the servants themselves), and anything else government wants from a papyrus maker up to the military.
If at any time your system fails and the people are without food, they will leave their jobs to scavenge for it. Dates, pomegranades, fish and so on are plentiful, so you need not fear you'll ruin your city and have a ghost town.
The game starts slow every map, as you have 10 bricks(Enough for one baker, brickmakers huts don't need bricks), and only one educated person in your city at the start. So you will want to build a school and several brickmakers more to ensure you can keep growing. Before you know it, you've spend several hours building. There is no immigration either, from what I can find. You start the map with 200-300 citizens living in huts, scavenging off the land. After that, children will be your main population growth. This becomes an issue when you want a big military, as military men don't get married - They live in their barracks-tent with two other men.
Some things that are bad, there are a lot of shrines out there that will take a bit to figure out which goes where and which are popular - If you even have room for them. Sometimes your citizens or a merchant may get stuck on a corner, and sometimes you may find your labourers can't figure out which limestone block they want to pull, and manage to fail to move any of them.
In the end, it's still a pretty and somewhat relaxing game where you can spend hours getting your city just right, and then decide to change it up again because you have a new idea. Cosmetic things like gardens, plazas and trees are free to place too, so you can make it look good without having to worry about your workers spending ages watering the plants and not farming.
Worth grabbing it if you like citybuilding, it's good at what it does
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/7656 ... ed/337220/
Spoiler:
Guild Commander is a game with an interesting concept, that sadly falls flat in the execution. While I will insist that the concept is pretty good and can work to become a very good game, full of interesting interactions, intrigue, and many enjoyable hours, this is not the game that will do justice to the concept of managing an adventurer's guild.
While the graphics are pretty good looking, and I am a sucker for isometric stuff that also manages to look pretty decent, there are a few too many problems with this game to make it worth spending time, money, and effort on. To continue on with graphics, your entire gameplay area is your guild hall. No, you can not build the building itself, you only have the rooms there which you can fill up in different, but still pre-determined ways. Characters do not move around in your guild either, they merely teleport to their destination. You can not zoom out to see your entire guild hall at once, and to find anyone in it is a pain due to how close the camera is. This is less about being a guild commander, and more about being the guy who rents a pre-made guild house and then just waits for something to happen.
In short, there is no interaction.
You can send out your adventurers to other regions, but at no point are you shown any of this. You do not even have a map of the place, and the explanation on how to do things has basically shown you the entire game. There is only so long that you can look at a building in which nothing changes before you become bored, and while the vaguely humourous adventurer names and tooltips help you dull the monotony of not doing anything, they do not solve the problem.
I was reminded of Progressquest, the game about waiting. Except in this game your adventurers do not even level up. Aside from their equipment, nothing about them changes.
The list of things that could have gone so much better just goes on and on. Equipment is useless, especially if you consider making some yourself. You have no control over your adventurers aside from sending them out once or twice a month, and even that takes 3 or more clicks if you want to send them to some place that can actually use them. Adventurer's stats recover both too fast and too slow, depending on the situation, and it overall just lacks gameplay.
This is more of a waiting game, or perhaps an interactive screensaver, which requires that you keep clicking it or it will give you a gameover.
Interesting concept, but sadly it is all just squandered potential. Guild Commander is not something I would recommend to anyone. Not to people who are fans of strategy, nor to simulation fans, and most certainly not to anyone who wants to build or be creative. This game does not offer that - though I am still not sure what it *does* offer.
While the graphics are pretty good looking, and I am a sucker for isometric stuff that also manages to look pretty decent, there are a few too many problems with this game to make it worth spending time, money, and effort on. To continue on with graphics, your entire gameplay area is your guild hall. No, you can not build the building itself, you only have the rooms there which you can fill up in different, but still pre-determined ways. Characters do not move around in your guild either, they merely teleport to their destination. You can not zoom out to see your entire guild hall at once, and to find anyone in it is a pain due to how close the camera is. This is less about being a guild commander, and more about being the guy who rents a pre-made guild house and then just waits for something to happen.
In short, there is no interaction.
You can send out your adventurers to other regions, but at no point are you shown any of this. You do not even have a map of the place, and the explanation on how to do things has basically shown you the entire game. There is only so long that you can look at a building in which nothing changes before you become bored, and while the vaguely humourous adventurer names and tooltips help you dull the monotony of not doing anything, they do not solve the problem.
I was reminded of Progressquest, the game about waiting. Except in this game your adventurers do not even level up. Aside from their equipment, nothing about them changes.
The list of things that could have gone so much better just goes on and on. Equipment is useless, especially if you consider making some yourself. You have no control over your adventurers aside from sending them out once or twice a month, and even that takes 3 or more clicks if you want to send them to some place that can actually use them. Adventurer's stats recover both too fast and too slow, depending on the situation, and it overall just lacks gameplay.
This is more of a waiting game, or perhaps an interactive screensaver, which requires that you keep clicking it or it will give you a gameover.
Interesting concept, but sadly it is all just squandered potential. Guild Commander is not something I would recommend to anyone. Not to people who are fans of strategy, nor to simulation fans, and most certainly not to anyone who wants to build or be creative. This game does not offer that - though I am still not sure what it *does* offer.
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/onlycorrectopinion
Also, recommend me stuff to review