Halo: The Master Chief Collection
I’ve played all the various Halos since ~2002, and have 3000+ hours on MCC. Despite all that, I can’t recommend it. Here’s why:
The Good
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The ports of the games are reasonably solid. The games look great in 4k. Several longstanding H1 graphics bugs have been fixed. MCC is now the best-looking versions of any of the legacy Halos.
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There is online co-op for all games - something that H1 & H2C historically lacked. However, H2 co-op can be very buggy. The others work well.
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The achievements are varied, mostly fun, with some good challenging achievements also.
– Real player with 3946.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best FPS Classic Games.
Worth A Buy. HOWEVER…
This is one of the best value purchases you would ever find. MCC is a steal even with no discount.
For 40$ you get 5 masterpieces… and Halo 4.
…MCC is packed with content. So if you’re wondering if it’s worth a buy, the answer is a resounding yes.
That said, as per 343i’s MO, this release has many hiccups that hold it back from being definitively great.
These issues are inconsequential to some, but I’ll list some of them and why I think they matter.
I was dreaming of the entire Halo franchise coming to PC ever since I played CE. Till finally MCC’s PC port was announced in 2019.
– Real player with 442.3 hrs in game
DOOM Eternal
Although it plays and is mechanically less like classic DOOM than DOOM 2016, the feeling of speed and power you get from mastering the combat makes it FEEL like you’re playing classic DOOM. In classic DOOM, you’re whizzing around arenas, dodging, weaving, circle strafing and prioritising targets. This game recreates that feeling well. After Eternal, 2016 feels rather sluggish and Eternal has also made me very critical of 2016. Which is why I prefer Eternal to 2016 any day.
For example in Eternal, You are actively encouraged to stay in the fight and never run away at all times, in order to get health, ammo, armor, you need to take from your enemies. You need to be in there otherwise you die. Whereas in 2016, when you have no ammo or armor, you need to run away from everything to a tiny corner of the map, defenceless, pick up a huge stockpile and run back in which really kills the flow of combat. In classic DOOM this worked because it wasn’t an arena shooter, you were faster moving and so doing this didn’t really slow you down or take you out of the fight - you could get back in there as quickly as you left. But in 2016, doing this is slow because your movement speed in comparison to classic DOOM is extremely slow - but you have to do that because grounded pickups are your main resource. This is dangerous, especially on Nightmare difficulty where running away can just get you killed easily. In Eternal, the way you get resources is different as armor and ammo come from attacking the enemies themselves instead of having to break up the fight and run away. Not only that, but you can dash and grapple yourself to fly around the arena which emulates the speed of the original much better than 2016.
– Real player with 290.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best FPS Gore Games.
In an age when most game devs have become lazy, id Software is back to show us DOOM remains a behemoth which has stood the test of time amongst the biggest games of this medium.
The game may look hard or even annoying for new players but don’t be discouraged to play it. Each challenge is designed very carefully to teach players something. Each battle is crafted with a look of thinking and every one of them have a unique point.
DOOM Eternal forces you to play well. Between the games which have a high skill ceiling like DMC or fighting games, DOOM Eternal is designed celeverly to push new players into the “fun zone” and actually DOOM Etartal is much easier than many games to begin the process of getting good. After a while of playing this game, although you know there is room for improvement but definitely you feel like a pro player and this feel is amazing.
– Real player with 199.9 hrs in game
DOOM
DOOM (2016) is a first person shooter developed by Bethesda and ID Software, meant to pay homage to the original series of Doom games from the 90s, which it does so incredibly well.
Gameplay
The gameplay in this game is incredibly fluid, all the guns have impact too them. That with the amazing enemy variety and fantastic soundtract by Mick Gordon all together make the gameplay feel extremely fun! The atmosphere of both the UAC and Hell are spectacular.
The game introduces a new mechanic called “Glory Kills” basically demons that are staggered can be killed in spectacular fashion, that as well as the challenges, collectibles and secrets through out the levels will have you searching all over for the hidden levels from the original DOOM, this and the large amount of levels combined leads up to atleast 11-14 hours of gameplay. The levels in DOOM are great in the fact that most of them aren’t linear, unlike most FPS games.
– Real player with 99.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best FPS Gore Games.
I’m Too Young To Die
Early concept arts from 2012 showed areas such as a museum, a library and the streets; all indicated this would be the remake of Hell On Earth. It all made sense considering Doom 3 was the remake of the very first episode. Then there was silence till 2015 when - during the summertime - Bethesda showcased the gameplay of the 4th episode. It was great: gory, fast-paced, had great graphics as well as numerous executions.
Hurt Me Plenty
Story-wise we are back where Doom 3 began. On Mars all hell breaks loose after an experiment conducted by UAC employees goes horribly wrong. But did it really go wrong or the aim was to unleash these foul beasts on mankind? It is our job to put a stop to all this and find all the answers. Interestingly, there is no “zero” level now which showed the base in its peaceful state back in Doom 3. We are thrown right in the middle of it; in fact, our protagonist wakes up from a long sleep only to find himself in shackles. He breaks free, kills a couple of zombies, picks up a pistol then his dark green marine armour soon after and proceeds to the nearest exit.
– Real player with 70.0 hrs in game
Far Cry 3 - Blood Dragon
grant bought me this game for my 3rd birthday and i just recently learned to type so thank grant for the game goodnight
– Real player with 13.4 hrs in game
better then the actual far cry 3
(gottem)
– Real player with 11.1 hrs in game
QUAKE II
A review for this game is long overdue… I’ll try to keep it short and sweet.
Quake II is without a doubt one of the greatest FPS games ever created. It was ahead of its time in so many ways when it was released in 1997 and almost 20 years later it’s still a great looking game and fun as hell to play.
This game, along with duke3d, was basically my teenage years (I know, I know, biased review, eh?). Between 1998-2001 I’d say I spent 80% of my gaming time on Quake 2. I was there for the q2_test.exe release, before the deathmatch maps (Q2DM1-8) were released, before player models had viewable weapons (this was created by the modding community), and when LMCTF (the original/first CTF game mode also created by the community) was released. Quake 2 was THE game and you couldn’t escape it; it was everywhere and for good reason too!
– Real player with 461.6 hrs in game
Warning: This review will contain d**k sucking and circlejerking. Proceed with caution
Quake 2 is my favorite shooter. I love (almost) everything about it. From the opening level to the final boss there is always something that I appreciate and love every time I play.
Progression is something that is important to me, a feeling of a changing world as your move through the game. Quake 2 is easily in a whole different world with this. Every “Unit” of the game is spearated into a hub world and connecting levels that you go through to complete a variety of objectives. As you continue through the hub world and complete the various objectives, the hub level changes. The best example is in the power plant Unit at the the half way point of the game. As you turn off the coolant for the reactor and turn on the pumps for the toxic waste the actual Reactor Factory you go through falls apart as you run quickly to the exit. It is honestly one of the most sastifying feelings knowing that you are literally changing the world as you go through it. The hub structure of the game does more than just provide a look into your progression, it also serves to make the world feel huge and expansive. From the mission briefing screen before you are put into the Unit until the exit button at the end of the unit it all feels like one huge level. Sure, there are loading screens throughout it but they are so small and come at predictable and understandable times that it makes everything feel seamless.
– Real player with 74.4 hrs in game
Swarmlake
This is a very frustrating game. Within 20 minutes of buying the game, I had achieved a high score of over 2,300, and I had learned a couple of techniques which allow me to survive the chaos for quite some time. But after achieving the 2,300 score, it feels like the game isn’t giving me correct scores any more. I’m surviving for even longer now than I did before. I’m finding more of the red/pink explosive bombs which clear nearby enemies. I regularly double back and circle around at ground level to pick up all the green shards to increase my score. And yet after a game lasting a few minutes, the game claims I have only scored “234” or “512”. Absolutely nowhere near the scores I was getting earlier.
– Real player with 39.4 hrs in game
UPDATE: 12/30/2018 THE JUMPENING
Shotgun blast?! Pfffft what shotgun blast?! If you were using that ol' thing for anything other than jumping I pity you. Seems Dom realized that and now there’s a jump button and the shotgun blast has been removed completely. You no longer have to aim at the ground or the pink bubbles to jump off them and your shots no longer richochet off the ground. This is much better, game seems to be much faster as far as the swarms spawn rate and it feels you get rewarded for riskier tactics. You could get pretty far in the past by just strafing diagonally and mainintaining as much vertical velocity as possible. Now the Triangle pyramid enemies that fly in straight lines spawn in these massive vertical towers so that tactic doesn’t seem to work too well any more.
– Real player with 12.5 hrs in game
Ultimate Doom
Doom the game, that like the main character, is just too angry to die, living on in a constant stream of re-releases, wrapping those age old wads in newer shinier packaging now with controller support and customization.
The original Doom team started before Id even existed working on making Super Mario Bros 3 work on a PC. The controls were impressive for the game, so mirroring them with the graphics onto a PC was quite the feat. Footage was uploaded by John Romero to celebrate Commander Keens 25th anniversary. From the description Romero says, Nintendo was impressed with the team developing the working clone for PC. Nintendo as history notes didnt want any of their proprietary games running on non Nintendo hardware. So the bad news is no Super Mario for PC and the better news is that we got Commander Keen out of it which then led to the creation of Id the creators of…. DOOM (insert dramatic explosion)
– Real player with 54.6 hrs in game
A classic fps with endless ways of playing it
– Real player with 38.2 hrs in game
Unreal Gold
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etYFb8eLVYs&feature=youtu.be
Intro
Unreal Gold is the definitive first-person shooter and sadly overlooked by other lesser FPS games of 1998 as well as other genre defining classics. This game stands heads and shoulders above all other shooters with a believeable and intriguing world, easily some of the best design in gaming history, incredible sound design with a killer soundtrack and some seriously fantastic visuals that more than hold up 20 years later.
– Real player with 137.1 hrs in game
–Story–
[Unreal]
As Prisoner #849 of the Vortex Rikers ship, your shuttle makes an emergency crash landing on a mysterious planet of Napali, from there on you must then escape the damaged shuttle with all your crew dead and venture off to find your escape route out from the planet fighting hordes of interesting, aggressive, funny, but horrific creatures such as the Brutes, Mantas, Gasbags, enormous giant Titans, and Alien Mercanaries. But most importantly the deadly ferocious Skaarge: a capital alien race seeking complete control over Napali’s resources and claiming it for their own ideal purpose as their planet with its innocent 4-armed inhabitants called the Nali, using them as slaves for their corrupted tasks. The Nali fear the skaarge and the terrors of Napali but they seek and pray for their savior where ever they may be to save them from their control from the skaarge and the threats of Napali to bring them hope and haven to their race, who is you (duh). As an ally to the Nali people they’ll aid you in any way possible providing ammo, items, secret routes, and sanity from whatever that was left that they had in their home planet that is now the Hell’s Sanctuary. Progressing through the vast beautiful world of Napali you’ll encounter many fascinating yet horrific locations such as ancient sky temples, abandoned vandalized villages, other crashed humanoid piloted ships, and finally finding the Skaarge Mothership in order to find and destroy the “Source” and ending the Skaarge race once and for all making your escape from Napali with a low fueled but reliable escape pod and float seemingly in space hoping for someone to rescue you to safety..
– Real player with 88.8 hrs in game
Lovely Planet 2: April Skies
Pretty good follow up to Lovely Planet 1. There were a few problems at launch but the dev has got those issues fixed now.
It is easier but its still just as fun. My only complaint is that there isn’t as much baddie variety. Homing baddies, random bullets, and blue baddies have been replaced with a love angel that quickly homes onto you and tries to smooch you. While the new baddie is a great replacement for random bullets, it still feels a bit lacking without homing baddies. I think they may have been removed because is harder to parry because hit boxes are very tight, even without considering how massive they were in Lovely Planet 1.
– Real player with 69.7 hrs in game
**TL;DR Very good Speedrun FPS game. Easier/smoother skill curve. Faster paced than the original but overall has easier level design. Music and sound effects are great.
Competing on the leaderboards require running diagonally for a speed boost which can be awkward but adds another layer of skill.
Length depends on how much you want to replay levels for better times. Without that, expect anywhere from 2-8 hours.
Highly recommended.**
Video coming soon hopefully. Not to bring attention to myself. Playing LP2 made me want to make a few videos. That hasn’t happened in years, so I’m running with it.
– Real player with 34.7 hrs in game
Lovely Planet
So nearing the amount of in game time that equates to 10 actual rotations of the Earth (228.6 hours at the time of this review), I feel as though I have a proper understanding of this game, and my input will be valued.
Short version: This game is superb. You’d have to be an absolute fool to neglect this purchase.
Long version: My roommate suggested me this game after learning that I was looking for games to speedrun. I purchased it, fired it up, and not a moment later, fell in love with it. That kind of love you feel that just warms your whole body. My initial reaction was, “Wow, this soundtrack is incredible! And these graphics! It’s so simple, yet so capturing and quirky!”
– Real player with 256.1 hrs in game
The world is kind of a heavy place lately, and it’s become hard to escape and find that moment of peace we all could really use. Everywhere we look for entertainment or relaxation reminds us of the discord and disorder seen more and more through images of violence and confrontation. Where do you turn when you want to get away from the realities of the world we’re being reminded of every day?
Of course everyone enjoys the challenge and hyperactive action of first person shooters but as some of us grow older we tire of their melodramatic, heavy handed, and needlessly intense nature. Could it be possible to have that same action in a more refined, artistic, and abstract style? Lovely Planet is exactly the kind of shooter to bring us this sort of peace so needed in an entertainment industry fueled by glorified aggression.
– Real player with 29.3 hrs in game