Recent reviews by Boneman Jones

I had seen this game described as Warframe meets The Division meets Destiny, and from what I've played of those games it's a pretty accurate description. If you like that style of looter shooter, you'll probably have fun with The First Descendant.

Graphically it's really nice. Looks sharp and nicely detailed. Supports all of the modern niceties like frame gen, DLSS/FSR/XeSS, and raytracing, though I think it leans on the former a bit much. The art style is decent albeit a bit derivative and somewhat inconsistent. Overall it's not bad though, and the scenery/geography of the different zones can make for some fun arenas.

The story is serviceable. I wasn't enthralled by it, but I also enjoyed playing through it and I am interested in seeing where it goes in future updates. I did enjoy the couple of side stories focused on the individual Descendants, and I like the different personalities of the characters.

The grind will be make or break for most people I think. I don't mind grinding in a game that feels good to play, and that's truly what hooked me with TFD. I think the gameplay is very solid and enjoyable. Weapons sound and feel good, blowing enemies away, popping heads off, and ripping armor off of a Colossi are very satisfying.

The elephant in the room is the battle pass and cash shop. Prices are high compared to other entries in the genre, and there don't appear to be ways to acquire cash shop currency without spending money. The armor dye system also requires a premium skin AND single use paints. I think this is straight up bad cash shop design, especially when you consider how generous Warframe is with it's cosmetics. The battle pass is a little light on what you get for it, but there is a free tier. I purchased the BP and I think it's decent, giving you some cash shop currency back, new weapons, and new skins, but I can see how some would conclude the value proposition just isn't there.

Over all, I've been enjoying The First Descendant. It isn't my favorite looter shooter, but I do think it's good and enjoyable to play. I look forward to future content and the upcoming Season 2.

Play it if you're a sucker like me and already have it because you bought the premium edition. Or don't, it's just more Starfield, which is to say it's not very good. $30 for this is criminal.

I've been following this game for years, and I'm a huge enjoyer of the base game, so naturally I was excited to see a new planet DLC and at a reasonable price! Getting right to the point, it's good. Solidly good, assuming you like the game already. For the most part, it's Planet Crafter on a new planet. There are a couple of new additions with the ore crushers and some new resources, but mainly it's the same game, so if you want more, this is for you.

IF you're expecting a completely different experience, you may be disappointed. The map itself is nice. About half the size of the main map, but fairly densely packed, and there is a bit more noticeable change as you terraform the world. The biggest downside I would say is the story feels undercooked. Obviously the base game isn't what I would call a narrative masterpiece, but it's enjoyable nonetheless. In Humble, you get some light lore and worldbuilding messages that give you some hints and explain what's going on in this new landscape, but that's about it. I found the ending a bit underwhelming as well.

Negatives aside, it's a nice DLC, and for $8 I found it to be fairly priced. It's worth noting too that only one person needs to have the DLC to play it in co-op, which is a pro-consumer move I very much appreciate. It's a solid and good DLC, but I do hope if they do another one they push the envelope a little more.

I have been enamored with the Trails series ever since I played Trails in the Sky a few years ago, and I went on to binge the entire series back to back finishing with Trails of Cold Steel IV. This series is very near and dear to me. While not technically, mechanically, or graphically impressive, the masterful world building has created an absolutely enthralling world for the numerous characters and narrative threads to exist in. The lifeblood of the Trails series are the characters, and their impact on the world and each other as the story progresses. Falcom does not deviate from these core strengths in Trails into Reverie. This game serves as a massive epilogue for the entire series thus far, but primarily for Trails from Zero/to Azure and Trails of Cold Steel I through IV.
I wholeheartedly recommend this series and this game, but with one massive caveat specifically aimed at people who have not played a Legend of Heroes game before.
Imagine this scenario for a moment. You just saw an amazing film, and you're talking to your friend about it. They say it sounds interesting and plan to watch it tonight. The next day they come back to you and say they didn't like it because they had no idea what was going on, weren't attached to any of the characters, and weren't invested in the plot. When you ask them about a particular plot point, they have no idea what you're talking about, because it turns out they fast forwarded to the last fifteen minutes of the film and only watched that. Bewildered at this silliness, you tell them they have to watch the entire film.
Playing Trails into Reverie without having played the games before it is like starting a movie 90% of the way in. This is not an entry point into the series by any stretch of the imagination, so without any doubt whatsoever I do not recommend you buy this game if you are unfamiliar with the series.
If you've only played Trails of Cold Steel I-IV, you will likely get some enjoyment from this title, though you will find yourself occasionally lost and not knowing what's going on.
If you've only played Trails of Cold Steel I-IV and Trails from Zero/Trails to Azure, you will enjoy this game but will still miss a few references to past Trails games and certain events and characters won't have as much of an impact on you. If you are one of these people I highly recommend you play through Trails in the Sky FC, SC, and 3rd or at the very least watch a story recap (though I highly recommend playing them).
If you've played every Trails game before this, then you probably already know you're buying this game and don't need my recommendation, but you will greatly enjoy it.

Baldur's Gate 3 is a rare once in a decade game and you owe it to yourself to play through at least once.
The extreme level of care Larian put into crafting this game is evident every step of the way. From the writing to the character interractions, the roleplaying freedom, the combat, the build variety; everything in this game is dripping with passion. The small number of issues, bugs, and problems the game has are so minor that they're vastly overshadowed by the quality of content and richness of the world.

It's an achievement in it's own right for a turn based classically styled CRPG to assert itself to the front of gaming discourse in an environment dominated by open world first/third person RPGs. Yet what Baldur's Gate lacks in sheer scope, it more than makes up for in it's dense, hand crafted world filled with rich and meaningful experiences. Some games can be described as theme parks, where the player is on rails and rides through to see everything. Baldur's Gate 3 is the opposite of this. You can, and will walk right past content you never knew was there, content that only a small number of people will take the time to figure out, yet they put it in the game anyways. This game greatly rewards inquisitive players who pay attention to environmental storytelling and learn the various interactions between their actions and the world. The game treats it's player intelligently, not holding their hand every step of the way, but by gently nudging them to quests and secrets through clues and gripping storytelling. The world building here is top notch, it's hard to truly put into words just how impressed I am with the way the world is presented and how you're able to interact with it.

The character interactions and dialogue system elevate player choice and consequence to a new level. Only a single character in this entire game is unkillable, and yet even in this one case there are lore reasons for it. You can kill every single one of your companions if you choose. You can wipe out the entire world if you truly want to. But the characters, even background characters and NPCs, are so well written I genuinely care about how my actions influence them. Through the simply beautiful voice acting, to every single conversation being fully voiced and motion capped, the game is dripping with immersion. NPCs interact with the world and their dialogue can and will change with your actions and influence.

The combat will feel familiar to anyone who's played Divinity: Original Sin 1 and 2, and may be slightly overwhelming to new players at first, but at it's core is a fantastic interpretation of the D&D 5th Edition ruleset. Take your time, learn the systems, and think about how you want to build your character. Some builds are useless, some are broken, some are just plain hilarious but Larian allows them all the same. It's up to the player to figure out, but the combat is rewarding to players who play smart, use their environment to their advantage, and create a build that synergises their gear, stats, feats, perks, and spells. Don't let the fact that it's turn based put you off, the combat still feels fresh and exciting.

As far as bugs go they are mostly small bugs that only go so far as momentarily immersion hurting. Very occasionally you may get an off line of dialogue from a character that feels out of place, or a small visual bug or artifact. I had a handful of crashes in the later portions of the game, but we've had several patches and hotfixes since then that appear to have addressed the issue. In all honesty the small number of issues this game had on launch is impressive considering not only the insane level of player choice present here, but the fact that so much of this game can be played in whatever order the player wishes. I truly cannot point out a part of this game I would call "bad".

Some may claim Baldur's Gate 3 is an anomaly. That it was a flash of lightning that won't strike twice in the same spot, with no bearing on the video game industry as a whole. Some have said that this game sets expectations too high of other developers and shouldn't be considered "the new standard" for immersive role playing games.
And I couldn't disagree more.
Baldur's Gate 3 isn't special or magic. It's a game made with the exact same tools that every other developer has access to. It's made with intelligent and immersive design choices that ultimately coincide to create a game that is far greater than the sum of it's parts. Design choices that any other developer out there could choose as well. It genuinely shows just how good games can be when they're made by a team overflowing with passion and care for the world they want to create. This game is worth every cent of the $60 price tag.

Dyson Sphere Program checks all the boxes for a successful Factorio style automation game, and does an excellent job of setting itself apart from the pack. All of the traditional elements are here, conveyor systems, assemblers, component stacking to create higher tier components. However, the multi-layer building possibilities make for some stunning layouts, or messes of spaghetti, but it's entirely player choice how they want their factories to look. Beyond that, you have a miniature galaxy at your disposal to harvest resources and set up supply lines between worlds.

The progression in Dyson Sphere feels very fluid and meaningful. New components and modules become relevant as soon as you research them and challenge you to reconsider your layout and re-prioritize resource allocation. As you research new upgrades for your mech suit, you'll be able to travel into space and utilize resources from other planets in your system. Further on this expands to other systems with their own planets with rare resources that can used to replace entire manufactured components. Recipes will occasionally have multiple combinations of ingredients that accommodate these rare resources, allowing you to create components much faster. In the late game it can become difficult to remember which planets and factories you have made to create a certain resource or component, but the game does give you the ability to name planets and has menus that show your operations on other worlds, something I should make better use of.

Dyson Sphere Program has nice looking graphics and reasonable system requirements. The art style, while not especially groundbreaking, is coherent and fits the atmosphere nicely. There is also customization for your mech suit allowing you to create your own designs, though I will admit, the editor was a bit over my head and is basically a cut-down 3D modeler. I found myself more interested in building my factory than what I looked like, but this is personal preference. There is a gallery of player made suits you can download online as well if you're not inclined to make your own. Over all the customization and aesthetics of Dyson Sphere are very nice.

The negatives of Dyson Sphere Program are honestly few and far between, and very minor. There are some localization issues with the English tutorial narrator and text prompts, but nothing bad enough that you won't understand what's being talked about. If you stop playing for several days and come back, it can be a bit daunting to remember where everything is or what you were doing, but this is true of any automation sim. I have experienced a handful of crashes and memory leaks after playing for several hours at a time, so save often, but no bugs or issues I would consider game breaking.

This is over-all a fantastic addition to your game collection and is one of the most polished and feature-complete Early Access titles out there. Definitely worth buying at the incredibly reasonable price of $20 and is a no-brainer, especially if you catch it on sale.

Now if you'll excuse me, it's been a while since I constructed a Dyson Sphere, and writing this review has given me the itch to play again.

There's so much wrong with this game that sucks the fun and immersion straight out of it. It's not worth a long thought out essay of a review so I'm just dumping bullet points.
Planets, moons, ships, and space in general are quite nice to look at. Landscapes are pretty and there are quite a few really nice looking vistas
Ship building is fun (albeit a bit clunky, and doesn't allow you to see ship interiors and door/ladder placement while building) and offers a good amount of design freedom
Lore is generally interesting
Overall "NASApunk" design aesthetic is very nice
=Ship combat is very basic but gets the job done
=Gunplay is the best Bethesda has ever done, but pales in comparison to modern shooters
=Hub cities are decent albeit uninspired
=Middle part of the game ~20-40 hours in feels the best, but early and late game are lackluster
=Weapon/space suit modding does it's job but is fairly basic
=Food offers decent buffs but is largely unnecessary
-Immersion is painfully bad
-Relentless loading screens and cutscenes, they're not long but they are frequent
-The overworld from previous Bethesda games has been replaced with a map menu, leaving fast travel as the only real way to navigate the galaxy
-Procedurally generated content becomes mindnumbingly boring and stale after seeing each point of interest a few times
-Procedural content is copy pasted onto planets all the way down to clutter placement inside buildings
-Forced to spend several minutes walking to your destination on proc gen planets, no vehicles
-Vendors carry very little money forcing you to sit and wait for them to restock several times to empty your inventory
-First ~20 hours are extremely bland and boring
-Last ~20 hours are extremely bland and boring
-Outpost building serves no real purpose
-Ship building barely serves a purpose
-For a game set in space you spend very little time in space
-Scanning planets, scanning plants and animals, scanning resources and harvesting them serve little purpose
-Necessary abilities are gated behind the skill tree (using jetpacks, flying certain ship classes, crew size, persuasion)
-Perk tree is bland and mostly offers things like " 10% damage with X weapon type"
-Most background traits are superficial and don't meaningfully add to the game
-The "grounded" space exploration game for some reason has Skyrim dragon shouts repurposed as space magic
-Main story is underwhelming and uninspired
-Game feels sanitized and very PG. No gore, limited swearing, clothing is all unisex, adult themes are never explored. "Evil" faction feels like Saturday morning cartoon villains. How this game got an M rating is beyond me
---Writing is abysmal and not believable. Characters and NPCs do things that no sane person would ever do
---There are no evil-aligned companions
---You basically cannot do an evil/pirate/scoundrel playthrough
---Over half of all NPCs are protected NPCs and cannot be killed
---Barely qualifies as an open world game since you can only jump from instance to instance through fast travel
---Barely qualifies as a role playing game since most quests are effectively on rails, and the only real roleplay opportunities are created in your head

There's fun to be hand buried under heaps of bad design decisions and woefully outdated game mechanics.
There's more but I'm tired and disappointed. Grab Starfield for $15 on sale a year from now or on Gamepass, but please don't spend $70 on this game. I need a drink.

Positives
-Scratches the same itch as Subnautica with a good amount of gameplay similarities.
-Decently interesting lore bits scattered about.
-Feels really good to see your progress as the planet transforms around you.
-Progression and unlocks are paced very well for most of the game.
-Exploration is really fun and happens organically as you need different resources.
-Runs well (early and mid-game) and looks very nice.
-Extremely chill game to play while watching shows or listening to podcasts.

Negatives
-Doesn't have the story depth of Subnautica or similar games.
-A bit rough around the edges. Some strange hitboxes, resources being unobtainable because they're two inches underwater, janky map boundaries.
-Late-game performance drops considerably (dropped settings from Max >Ultra>Very High) [i7 4770k OC 4.3Ghz/RTX 2070/16GB RAM]
-How to progress is not always explicitly told to the player.

All in all this is a really fun game, and the negatives are pretty minor for an Early Access title. There is a complete game here, and there is even a demo to try if you're not sure about getting it. Lots of fun to be had. ~40 hours for a full playthrough. Looks like more will be added in the future and I'm definitely looking forward to it.

If being a badass space ninja and cutting a wave of enemies in half with a repurposed mining laser sounds fun to you, have a go at it. It is grindy and there isn't nearly enough lore to satisfy my thirsts, but the gunplay and weapon variety is fantastic. Insanely good fun. There are also no pay to win mechanics, since you can trade cash shop currency in game.

Not a particularly deep or innovative game, but it's good fun. Goes on sale every so often for $2.99 and is definitely worth picking up for that price. It is repetitive, but it's funny. The modifiers jazz it up enough to keep it interesting in short bursts. Hades is hilarious. I didn't find myself playing this into the wee hours of the morning, but it's one of those games that are perfect for jumping into with a couple of friends for an hour or two.