Having played this for a bit I can safely say this is what FEAR 2 should have been. Nails the gameplay and atmosphere. In some ways the action even beats the original FEAR which I kinda consider to be a gold standard in action shooters.

Story is well.....I have absolutely no idea what's going on. All I know is I must kill.

I really genuinely love the attention to detail. I always wanted an RPG set in this time period with a realistic setting, and man did Warhorse Studios deliver. The game looks incredible, walking or riding across the world is an absolute joy. Play it long enough and you really start to feel like you've been cast back in time, it is that good. Even the story is really really good, and you feel like you're getting to know real people.

Gameplay mechanics on the other hand....well. You do have to bathe, wash your clothes, remember to eat and maintain your stuff. It sounds like a lot but it's relatively easy to stay on top of, it's not like some survival games where you have to eat every 10 minutes or you die and your clothes turn to rags in a day. I'm not a huge fan of busywork, but it's not too bad, and it does add to the immersion.

Combat is probably what divides opinions the most. It's hard. You really do have to practice or the enemies will kill you. You are not in Skyrim anymore...this is real life.
You have to spend time with the combat system, actually make use of combat tutorials and trainers and try your best not to get frustrated........this on top of the fact that there are no free quicksaves, you need an in-game item for every single one. Quicksaves are precious and the combat can be difficult. However, once you get the hang of it, it's incredibly satisfying.

Basically. If you want an experience that is challenging, immersive and actually historically accurate......here it is. Nothing else like it exists.

If you want to be the badass in every game and don't like the idea of busywork mechanics and spending time to learn stuff, you might want to think it over.

It basically looks exactly how I would imagine stepping inside the internet would look like.....over 20 years ago.

It gives me a strange sense of nostalgia wandering through this world. This place never existed but yet it feels so familiar.

Lots of old timey nostalgia in a strange dream like world. It's a game I didn't even know I wanted until it found me through steam discovery queue.

This game really is a product of love and it shows. Everything about the characters and the world just feels right, like they absolutely nailed the setting. The story is really entertaining and funny too.

Gameplay on the other hand is hit and miss. There's plenty of good sidequests, regular on foot combat is mostly standard hack and slash with some unique elements and it's fine and gets the job done....you even get some vehicle combat thrown in.
I do dislike the RTS segments though. I get what they were going for and it's a good idea on paper, just not necessarily super well executed.....those bits can become frustrating at higher difficulty levels.

All that said, even with the annoying RTS segments and maybe not the most exciting combat mechanics in the universe it's still totally worth it just to experience the world and story. If you like heavy metal music and ever wondered what living in an album cover might be like, wonder no more and give this game a shot.

I've been playing this game on and off, hopping in occasionally.

I'm a flight sim guy at heart, but sometimes you just kinda wanna listen to some music and play something more arcadey. This game is very good for that. Controls are super fluent and some of the bigger battles feel and look epic.

It's a very good flight sim. If you're into this sort of thing you should definitely try it.

Some of my most genuinely exciting gaming moments have come from this sim. Whether that's chasing after an enemy plane in a sharp turn flying right at the edge of the envelope whole cockpit shaking and rattling.....or trying to keep your bomber going for just a little longer to reach friendly lines for a bailout or a ditch.....shutting down an engine, feathering the prop and hoping number two lasts just a few more minutes.

It really is a cool experience. Looks very nice too. There is some learning you have to do, but IL-2 is not nearly as intimidating as DCS for example. Joystick with some kind of throttle control is recommended at minimum, as with most flight sims.....HOTAS with rudder control would be best.

Short, but damn did it make me feel nostalgic in so many different ways. I love these types of games and I want to see more.

Nowadays you might be wondering if there are any reasons to pick up FSX after the release of FS2020. I'm going to say yes. The graphics might be rough and some elements feel a bit janky, but there's still fun to be had here. I've had the boxed edition pretty much since release and I have some payware planes that makes it worth coming back for me, but there's still something for new players too.

One thing that's (at least at the moment) missing from FS2020 are missions. FSX has a fairly large list of fully voice acted missions, some acting as entertaining tutorials, and I still have fun flying them today. They're about as close as you're gonna get to a story mode in a flight simulator. There's also years worth of high quality payware that you can often find at a discount nowadays.

If you want to try civilian flight sims on the cheap, try FSX. If you're new to simming the story missions might be just what you need to get started.

Joystick recommended but an Xbox gamepad will do fine.

What can I say. I'm late to Halo. I never played the originals when they first came out, and for the longest time I was sure I was never going to. Not only were the original releases showing their age, but anything past Halo 2 was simply not available. I have now finished Halo 1, Halo 2 and Halo: Reach and I am so glad these classic games have finally been remastered and released on PC.

You get a lot of good polished games for a relatively low price, what's not to like. Halo is practically legendary at this point and you get to try the classic multiplayer modes as well.

I really love that you can toggle between remastered and classic graphics on the fly. While I don't necessarily want to play the games the way they originally looked like on a modern computer, the ability to at least take a look makes the games feel like interactive museums while you play.