Recent reviews by M4-Y4

Loving this demo! Combat feels hefty, juggling the different mechanics is fun. The parry system and animations are very satisfying. I do wish the individual melee attacks did more damage on a bosses health bar, tbth I'd almost suggest making the health bar longer just so it looks more satisfying.

This game feels more like first person Sekiro than a Souls-like. I for one am glad to see a bit of that influence. I wouldn't mind a bit more of a curve on boss difficulty though. Love what that first boss is doing but it's a tiring fight to repeat, especially at the start of the game.

Performance on my rig was okay, game looks gorgeous for what it's showing.

I'll probably buy this on full release!

Calling Outer Wilds a video game feels so limiting. It doesn't communicate the wonder and finality of the experience. I played this years ago. I think about it all the time. I wish I could play it and Echoes of the Eye again, but I probably never will. Sometimes that's just how it is. Play it.

I can stop playing at any time!

Seriously though, this game encourages teamwork like no other. It is basically always worth it to go out of your way to make sure everyone finishes their task.

The gunplay feels incredible (it's a Bungie game, not surprising). Similarly the score and sound design is visceral and raw. Aesthetically it's a breath of fresh air. At first I worried the art style would bug me but it really grew on me in the end.

Extremely smooth and well optimized game.

Only real issues I have is that there's some glitchiness with the med bot, sometimes it will get stuck in the scenery. Otherwise you have to make sure you're getting your comms put through the right audio channel. For some reason it was patching through other peoples comms through a different audio device. There's a guide on the bungie website for how to fix it though.

Sucks that the game isn't supported on Linux. Would be great on Deck and also as someone wanting to switch away from Windows, these limitations are really annoying to work around. I hope they reconsider this lack of support in the future.

Finally it would be nice if the team composition for matchmaking was more balanced. Some teams get two medics, others get none. It's a bit of a downside to solo queuing that basically penalizes you for choosing anything other than Triage if you wanna guarantee a shot at surviving.

AI voices. Poorly optimized.

I've never been in such a toxic relationship with a game that I downloaded cheats to make it bareable (not easy mind you). It's beautiful. The OST moves me to tears at times. It's so cruel. It's everything you would ever want from a sequel. I hate it. I love it.

Nightreign is kind of like Elden Ring Blood Dragon, but based on an actually good game.
Strip away the worldbuilding, add in a bunch of mechanics new and old from across From Software's works, and you get Nightreign.

A little janky, but mechanically satisfying, and honestly? It's just a lot of fun. It feels fast, dynamic, and yeah it's not what I had in mind going in (I went in COMPLETELY blind, so imagine my confusion) but I can see myself playing this wayyyy too much.

Finally I'm also really happy to see From Software out of their comfort zone, and experimenting with something quite unique. I'm excited as always to see what they learn from this project and where they take it going forwards.

I was a Patreon backer for this game for awhile, and bought the game on Steam immediately on release.

What is there to say about Hardcoded? For this lil hyper romantic sex freak of a trans woman, it's a breath of fresh air. The game presents us with a world where transphobia is muted, inconsequential, background noise. There's an escapism to it in that sense. It explores identity through the prism of HC, the games titular character, who deals with her own struggles with identity. She may be trans, but it's her robot body that marks her as different from the rest of the cast. Her struggles are relatable but still fresh, without feeling like I'm having my own trauma thrown in my face.

Hardcoded is a game that emphasizes consent and agency, in sexual and non-sexual contexts. You are never forced to do anything, you make your own choices, and face the consequences for them.

It's a game that explores kinks that I've only otherwise found in occult discord servers and the works of very specific artists. Hardcoded brings those kinks to the forefront for new publics to explore in a healthy consensual way.

Hardcoded is a sex game, but it's also an identity exploration and defining simulator. Your HC will never be the same as my HC, either in appearance or in actions.

Trans women, lose yourself in this game and the gentle horny euphoria it procures. Non-Trans women are welcome too, on condition that you reserve judgement, open your hearts and your minds to a portrayal of the transfem experience you will so little see in mainstream media. This is a vulnerable project. It is a solo project on behalf of th dev. It is a community project. Show it the respect and patience it deserves, and enjoy it <3

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Truly, having finished the PROMISE ending ( and then hardlocking myelf out of the secret ending like a chump and giving up to watch it on youtube ) I have to say this game has left me speechless and breathless and yearning for more.

I would recommend this game for newcomers to the survival horror genre. There are ways to pace yourself and plenty room to breath in safe rooms, as well as a variety of accessibility options that ensure no matter your level of skill or your stomach for scares, you can get through this game at whatever pace you need.

A full playthrough took me about 13 hours on my first try as an experienced survival horror game player who did her best to read every note and explore every room I could find.

For the most satisfying and appropriate non-secret ending, in my opinion PROMISE I recommend: healing only when you really need to, Elster can take a surprising amount of damage before dying. Finding a good balance between killing and running past enemies is going to be important. Taking your time to explore everything and be thorough.

My thoughts about the endings PROMISE and ARTEFACT go like this: The dilemma is between two opposing choices. Whether these lesbians should die for the sins of the world that treated them as disposable, dying sacrificially to put an end to the nightmare that their torment created. Or should they instead literally dance while the world around them succumbs to eldritch horrors that their cruel societies led to.

In a sense, the first choice is the expected trope of much media that portrays lesbian romance. Their love is forbidden, and it ends in tragedy as a result. The second is a nihilistic rejection of that trope, one that screams a meaty "Let's go lesbians" as the characters dance on our graves. I'm here for it.

My first time playing a game like this and it's really good, and accessible to newbies.