Recent reviews by SpaceGeek

I played Hazeron for years as an MMO and I am glad to see Haxus finally got a single-player Steam release complete. Definitely not for everyone, Shores of Hazeron is the lifelong dream of its developer Haxus, to create a galaxy-scale first-person survival game out of an early 1990's freeware CAD program. It is truly amazing what has come from such humble beginnings and the potential of the game mechanics are almost endless - no other game comes close to touching the possibilities available in this game.

Start out as a naked caveman creature on a wild and untouched planet, craft weapons, supplies and gear in first-person with your own hands. Start a village, bring others of your kind in from the cold and grow into a city then expand to gain control of the entire planet. Push into space to exploit the exotic materials present in your solar system and begin exploring wormholes to nearby star systems to access even more rarefied elements. Design your starship using the built-in CAD design software or import models from other applications: the size, shape and proportion of the their decks, bays and components determine their stats. The game simulates the morale of your potentially millions of citizens, their needs, desires and movements. Empire economics are fine-grained and can be tweaked down to the scale of individual workers and their workshops. City layout is critical for success and expansion. Monitor space because as your civilization grows your transmissions penetrate deeper into space and may attract attention. Wage war in space, on the ground and in person using weapons whose stats are determined by the design and quality of their constituent components. It is possible to trace the origin of the fabric used to design an officer's uniform as well as the tools used to build it by examining them considerately.

Caveats include the fact that the game engine is built upon what was until recently an MMO crafted from an ancient CAD design program. The lack of anything resembling modern graphics is readily apparent and game performance suffers due to its parochial design which leverages hardware CPU cores reminiscent of old i386 programming, which describes the perspective of its creator perfectly. Game and UI icons are literally designed with Windows 3.1 pixel count and file size limits in mind and wouldn't be out of place on the 90's desktop. If you can look past the comically low movement FPS, inherent lag spikes and early 1990's graphics, discovering, exploring and exploiting the game features and mechanics available to players is surprisingly fun and addictive. Unfortunately, Haxus himself has some shall we say, "alternative" views on politics, conspiracy theories, reproduction and sexuality which unfortunately made their way into the game when it was an MMO and are still present in this iteration if you know where to look. I will leave it to players to find these tidbits. I highly recommend casual players stay away from the official Hazeron forums if they wish to avoid its toxicity and politics of its developer and ultra-fans. I look forward immensely to the inevitable SsethTzeentach review to lay these idiosyncrasies bare for the world to see.

A fun, amusing and utterly bewildering piece of gaming history, I recommend all mature fans of survival craft and space sims give the Shores of Hazeron experience a try but encourage you to set your expectations as low as possible and take everything in this game and review with an asteroid-sized grain of salt.

This is the true DF experience for modern gaming, updated with a full UI and easier than ever to dive into. For those who have been with the game for a while, don't worry it's not watered down or altered for a broader audience in the slightest. Coming at this from the perspective of someone who purchased multiple copies for friends and family, let me provide a few caveats. For those who do not speak The Deep Magic, DF is slightly behind some other games that were inspired by it in terms of how players interact with their dorfs.

Widescreen support needs work.
The UI attempts to zoom and stretch to fit larger monitors but breaks horribly. Trade and zone menus in particular are unusable in this state. I run a 4K monitor and I thought at first that much of the zone functionality was removed until I noticed the 3 pixels of text on the right side of the screen. I changed to a lower resolution and put the game in windowed mode and sure enough, the UI came back. This could use a patch and I'm sure it will be fixed in the future. Until then, run in windowed.

Tutorials help but also don't explain game mechanics.
The game includes popup walkthroughs for doing most in-game functions but also don't explain why they work the way they do. Easy example: Efficient supply of drink requires a well and the game does not explain how to build one or even that it exists as an option. I ended up explaining a lot of what is effectively hidden in the game menus to friends and family who had not played DF before. Including this in the tutorials would help many who are new to the game. Additionally, the tutorial popups tend to block some other menus especially when dealing with the widescreen issues described above.

That's it! I highly recommend this game to anyone who loves builder games and anyone who has played DF before. While I will miss watching The Matrix Code of OG DF, this iteration is what will keep new generations of gamers coming back for decades to come.

Having much promise as a space-themed multiplayer physics sandbox game, Space Engineers ultimately suffers from the fact that it is simply unplayable in multiplayer. Lag and the associated game engine weirdness that goes along with it, makes it impossible to play with more than a tiny handful of players under optimal conditions. Stable, high-speed internet in the same country is required. Hosting on anything other than a dedicated server cripples game performance. In the end, Space Engineers is a solid game when played in offline single-player but since the tech tree and build times can be so realistic most will end up playing in creative mode, building epic multipurpose ships with all the comforts of home that will ultimately never be used. Below is an accurate example of an attempt at playing multiplayer:

>Join popular, well-maintained server. Only 1 mod.
>Uses server management mod.
>Announces when debris cleanup occurs.
>Counts down to debris cleanup.
>Announces old build cleanup/wipes.
>Counts down to wipes.
>Play for a few hours making my way to the ideal asteroid with every resource.
>Notice the server counting down to a restart from 5 minutes.
>At 1 minute mark server announces that unless you have a build with more than 25 blocks that were not salvaged and contains a medical bay, refinery, assembler, gravity generator and is powered, you will be wiped and respawned.
>Server restarts and isn't seen again.

>Try a new server with about 10 mods.
>Fast download, no lag, no physics lag.
>feelsgoodman.mpeg
>Fly to Mars, locate a deep, out of the way canyon with ice.
>Start building a base in the side of the canyon.
>Notice drills arent breaking anything, no surface deformation.
>Notice the "Connections Issues" warning in the corner of the screen that is always there during multiplayer.
>Decide to check the error list just in case there's some new weirdness.
>"No direct connection to game."
>Never seen an error that allows you to be in game with no connection.
>Server is never seen again.

Time wasted: One Saturday.

After being a part of this game community since before release, it is obvious that a multiplayer physics sandbox is impossible using current implementations of lobby-based multiplayer. The concept is cool and the mechanics behind construction are solid but in the end all this coolness is moot since it is impossible to experience any of it with other people.

Don't give Keen any money until they fix the multiplayer issues or admit that Space Engineers is not the game they advertised.

The game grabbed me immediately with the visual quality and cinematic feel. The high-quality storytelling that Cyan is known for is apparent from the first moment. It is amazing how much content Cyan has managed to pack into a single locale such that you think you've seen all there is to see only to have more revealed to you, all of it right there in front of you but not immediately apparent. Connecting all the dots is a big part of Obduction, from the puzzles, the main story, the lore, the characters and how it all interacts. Every object and every location plays a part in the Obduction story and the first playthrough really makes you feel like youve discovered something. An integral part of most Cyan games is what I like to call 'digital archaeology' and Obduction embodies this better than even Myst/Riven. The sense of discovery and revelation is something that cannot be equaled in any other game. The visual and audio quality is superb. I will definitely be returning to Obduction.

• "The fallout series needs more dialog options!"
  "Its presented in a dialog wheel! Mass Effect ripoff! 0/10!!!!!"
  
  
• "Man, jetpacks are awesome!"
  "What?! A jetpack?! Ironman Sellout Simulator 2015! Failure of the century!!!!!
  
  
• "Bethesda characters don't feel developed enough."
  "Too much focus on character story arcs! SUCH AN ABORTION!!!!
  
  
• "Fallout is just gray on brown on gray."
  "This _____ isn't rusted enough! Can you say 'nuclear holocaust', Bethesda?!"
  
  
• "Bethesda games always use the same voice actors!"
  "WTF? I don't recognize this voice actor, what ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!"
  
  
• "Fallout needs more star power!"
  "Garrus? Jack? Ashley? Roland? Tuvok? Bra'tac? LYNDA ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ CARTER?!
  
  
• "No really. Fallout voice acting isnt diverse enough!"
  "130+ voice actors? I recognized 3 of them, ♥♥♥♥ game!!!
  
  
• "Fallout is just an overhyped FPS!"
  "Optional freeform construction and resource management that isn't required to progress the plot? HOARDING MINIGAME FOR THE FAIL!!!"
  
  
• "Fallout always seems to end when the main story arc is over!"
  "Continuing open world after the main arc? Bethesda takes fans too literally!!!"
  
  
• "Fallout is copy pasted Elder Scrolls!"
  "Unique visual style with more fidelity and detail than any other Bethesda game? You didn't fool us with your distractions! I recognize that dirt texture!!!"
  
  
• "Bethesda uses the same engine all the time!"
  "God rays? 4k? 64 bit? Physics? Non-scripted vehicles? Way to sell out to the PC fanboys, Bethesda!"
  
  
• "This game looks like ♥♥♥♥!"
  "This game looks great! Now I have to drop ten grand on a god-tier PC just to play it! Thanks for nothing, Bethesda!"
  
  
• "Wow this game looks great! Its literally the most beautiful game Bethesda has ever made!"
  "Not photo-real. 0/10!"
  
  
• "I wish Fallout had no loading screens like GTA 5!"
  " Five second loading screens! What ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!"
  
  
• "Bethesda games always have invisible walls!"
  "San Andreas is an island in the middle of the sea! GENIUS!"[/list]
  
  Sure wish I wasn't such a pleb for liking this game. WHICH HIVEMIND BANDWAGON DO I CHOOSE?! If only I had bought Black Ops 3 instead!

Imagine a fusion of Rust, 7 Days To Die and The Forest set on Isla Nublar (Jurassic Park) with next-gen graphics and a leveling system. Combine that with tamable dinosaurs and a realistic visual style similar to Avatar and you have ARK.

This game is intense and fast-paced. The first time playing and I guarantee your blood pressure will be elevated - between the paranoia of going near the dense jungle and the constant threat of dehydration, snapping an ankle while climbing a hill or becoming some creature's dinner, the game keeps you on your toes. Sprinting through the jungle while swinging your head side to side looking for a pack of raptors hunting you while nursing a wound, starving to death and desperately trying to assemble a makeshift shiv makes you feel what its like to be the prey in a world full of predators... and that's without dealing with your fellow humans.

The game is pre-alpha and nearly all of the negative reviews are about issues that players are warned about up front, namely low framerates and poor optimization. If you ignore the whining and go into the game aware of the fact that a game of this quality at the current stage of development likely wouldn't be playable on anything but the specific demo machine the game code was compiled on, the fact that the game runs at all is impressive.

In short: ignore the kiddies whining about known issues, know what pre-alpha means and buy this game.