VDGMS's Reviews
Avowed isn’t doing anything revolutionary, but it just does everything a little bit better. Avowed is dense, everything has purpose and most importantly, it gives the player freedom to approach the adventure how they want. Avowed is a game that has all the ingredients to be a cult classic and an RPG that people will bring up when discussing Obsidian's best games.
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is a fantastic and addicting narrative sci-fi adventure that does one important thing the first game didn’t, which is offer the player more freedom. The beloved core experience returns with a few new mechanics that added depth to the gameplay, freedom to explore, and a story that over twice as big, but didn’t take any risks or innovate in a way that would have opened the game up to a much broader audience.
The new order is Raiders of The Lost Ark, The Last Crusade, The Great Circle, Temple of Doom, Dial of Destiny and finally, The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull. MachineGames have carefully crafted one of the best Indiana Jones entries of all time featuring nearly four hours of cinema quality cutscenes, on par with Spielbergs masterpieces. The Great Circle transcends the gaming medium. Not only does Indiana Jones and The Great Circle find itself nestled among the greatest in the franchise, but it’s easily our game of the year. There are a few minor imperfection, but nothing that affects the experience in any meaningful way. The Great Circle is a quintessential Indiana Jones experience and when everything is firing on all cylinders, it’s hard not to get swept up in the magic and feel like a kid again.
Balatro’s biggest problem is that it doesn’t have an overarching plot as to why you are playing cards, which doesn’t seem like a requirement for traditional card games, but for a roguelike deck builder, a little story seems like a necessity. The good news is that this is an easy enough deficit to look past due to how addictive and satisfying the gameplay loop is. Developed by only one person, Balatro is about 15 bucks and works around your schedule. If you have 20 minutes, you can play a few hands. If you have a free day and lots to do, Balatro can also ruin that for you. At the end of the year, Balatro might turn out to be the best deck-building game of 2024, but no matter what, it’s definitely going to be the best use 64mb of hard drive space