This is it. This is the one.

The itch that Cowboy Life Simulator scratches is one that I've had for such a long time.

Ranch Sim came close, but this is absolutely what I've been waiting for.

Can't wait to see what the devs have planned moving forward.

It's not going to be for everyone. It's difficult (clearly FROM heard everyone who said ER was too easy), it doesn't hold your hand, and you're forced to make quick decisions on the fly.

RNGesus is hard at work, and there have been a couple of runs where I've been absolutely shafted.

But hell is it fun. Every single run I've done with friends has been incredible, and every run (bar one) with randoms has been great as well. In fact, I put down the 3rd and 4th Nightlords with randoms.

The ping system, if you use it and pay attention, works. Provided you don't have John Eldenring in your match, I've found the matchmaking seems to work quite well.

The biggest problem I have: matchmaking seems to be scuffed if more than one person in the queue is doing a remembrance. I queued for about 20 mins with nothing, paused my remembrance and got an instant match.

Aside from that, for me, I'm having a great time, and loving what I've played so far. Very much looking forward to pumping a lot more time into this one.

PS - don't sleep on Guardian, he is best boy.

Got surrounded by a mob of roos at a cattle station, 2 big reds and 3 greys. Short on 303 ammo, whipped out the trusty shotgun. Put all 5 down, only to have a king brown roll up and bite me on the arse. Bang, shot him, inject a quick anti venom, finish mustering cattle. Fly back to the pub, play darts against Nev, and wait for all this to blow over.

A genuinely fun experience. Feels like home. Looking forward to seeing what Ayrtech come up with next.

- Drop onto an ugly planet. A bug planet.
- Brothers and Sisters in arms drop in to assist.
- Hug.
- Shoot, blast and punch through hordes of Nids.
- Extract.
- Hug.
- Do it all over again.

Aside from the disconnects and gear loss that comes with it, MADFINGER have got a pretty solid framework here.

Super detailed world, AI is hit and miss but that's to be expected in early access. No real issues on a 4080 graphically. Odd bit of rubber banding, but I'm enjoying it regardless. Hopefully they'll add some form of fix for the disconnects, mate and I both lost some pretty good gear from runs.

Looking forward to seeing the game and community grow.

Got half an hour before work, surely can fit a game in...

Australian servers are live. Would you like to know more?

Yes thanks, bro!

I'm not going to lie. When the game got announced, as a Batman nut, I was very excited. As time went by, and more details came out, I started having reservations. Decided I had to give it a shot either way, and very glad I did.

Does it have issues? Sure. My rig isn't poor by any means (3070), and I had moments where I dipped below 60FPS. But they were mostly during city traversal moreso than actual combat/story.

The story was enjoyable, and especially so playing with a mate. All of the characters were different enough in their playstyles, and I enjoyed playing around with all of the different abilities (Red Hood every ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ day though).

Had the odd moment during co-op when the controls janked out a bit. I couldn't summon Hood's turret during co-op play in the last case file, and I had some issues with him just shooting the wall rather than an enemy. Jumping down from heights to try and get a better angle on takedowns was also a bit rough, usually launched you forward rather than straight down, but aside from that, no complaints.

If you're looking for an Arkham game, go and play the Arkham games. This is Gotham Knights, and it does a great job of being it's own game. I'm looking forward to DLC Case Files if they're announced, and the tower gauntlet coming soon. I also wouldn't say no to a sequel if WB decide to go down that path.

If you're still hesitating, go ahead and wait for a sale, but I'm not unhappy at all with the price of admission.

'You can't stop crime. That's what you never understood. I'm controlling it. You want to rule them by fear, but what do you do with the ones who aren't afraid of you? I'm doing what you won't. I'm taking them out.' - Jason Todd, Under The Red Hood

Are you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ serious EA? Valve, give me back my money.

UPDATE: 16 months later, lets review:

- Cheaters ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rampant
- Black screen after almost every match
- Optimisation and matchmaking are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

But at least they fixed the hit rego, right?