Recent reviews by TheJonVincent

I watched from a distance as people I love…friends…family…lost themselves to this drug.

B, they called it”You gotta get you some of that B…” they’d rasp, smelling of Cheetos and room temperature Mountain Dew. Husks…twitching drooling husks is what they became. Shadows of their former selves.

Well, being the coward and follower that I am, rather than pull them from their addiction and brush them off, I joined them. What can one taste hurt, I thought to myself as I slumped in front of my computer and hit play?

Then I blinked and 4 hours went by. This game is too much. It’s scary how fast time passes when it’s on. I didn’t sleep well that night and thought about it much of the next day. I can’t afford this sort of addiction right now. I’ll come back to it when I don’t have bills to pay.

I guess there are worse ways to screw up your life. Thumbs up.

Review in Progress

I love the world. The gameplay. It's immersive. But I'm also putting it down for awhile. A-Life is broken, the enemy spawn system sucks and I don't want my first experience with this game--that I've been waiting a decade for--to be broken. So I'll wait for the patches and, depending on how the patches impact the game, I'll update my review. For now, I'm leaving it positive, but i suggest waiting to buy this until they patch it a few times.

This review is about the game itself. Not the PSN requirements. Enough has been said about that. I want to give the developers—and this game—the recognition they deserve, free of muddy waters.

Ghost of Tsushima is a masterpiece. I’ve previously played it on PS5. It’s a master class in confident game design. They trust the player without holding their hand around every single corner. Minimalist UI. An open world map free of clutter and bloat. There’s no obnoxious compass and marker or glowing line screaming at you to get to the next dopamine hit.

The game is patient. It allows the story, the world, and—in turn—the player to breathe.

This is such a nice change of pace from the Ubisoft open worlds—the AC games—where the map is just littered with markers. Where you can’t take two steps without the game screaming in your face to check out the next shiny object. Here, they want you to explore and discover.

Aside from that, the combat is great. It feels visceral. There’s a lot to master; from the various stances, to standoffs, to different offensive and defensive weapons and tools. The side quests are engaging. And the main story has held my attention as well (I never beat it on PS5, so I’m excited to see how it resolves). There’s also excellent voice work throughout.

The only negative I have experienced is some stuttering and micro freezing. It’s weird because I’m on a 4090 and a 13th gen i9. I ended up restarting the pc last night and that seems to have cleared it up (for now), but we will see.

Anyway, highly recommended, especially if you’re looking for something different in the open world landscape.

The Bad

It’s poorly optimized. If you’re running a mid tier rig you’re going to have to play with the settings to get it running smoothly and from my understanding, it looks pretty rough on low settings.

Crashes. Yes, it’s EA. But be aware, if you crash outside of base, you lose all of your loot and gear except for what’s in your secure case. Just an FYI.

Not a large variety of loot. You’ll mostly be looting food and drinks.

The Good

Graphics. It’s gorgeous. I’m playing on a 4090, cranked to max settings, and am getting 150 to 180 fps consistently aside from an occasional stutter. UE5 has made for some S tier eye candy.

Immersion. The persistent open world, the detail, the lush jungle goes a long way towards immersing you in the atmosphere. I enjoy mil sims like ARMA where your trekking long distances and taking in the environment between fire fights. This is a dream game if you’re into that. Calling in choppers. Looting buildings. The sound design. It’s really great.

The community. This is hit and miss for many. I was playing with a squad of 3 for 5 hours and didn’t meet a single troll. Everyone was helping everyone else. Showing them where objectives are. Joking around. It was one of the most wholesome shooter experiences I’ve ever taken part in. Of course, YMMV. Maybe I just got lucky. But that was my experience.

In the end, a lot of this is going to depend on your rig. It’s a very demanding and poorly optimized game. I’m sure it’ll get better with patches, but who knows. Only 30% of the game is completed, so I’m excited to see where it goes. Personally, I’ve had a great time and wholly recommend it if your expectations are in check and you have the appropriate hardware.

Let’s start with the obvious.

Are there micro transactions? Yes. However, aside from the tent cosmetics, all the stuff can be earned in game. Yes, it’s still scummy and shouldn’t exist, but there are some misconceptions surrounding it. I don’t fault anyone for giving a negative review. I am giving it a positive because, despite the MTX, the game is a blast. A rare open world rpg that trusts the player to think and make their own adventure. And I haven’t been this sucked into a game since BG3.

In terms of performance, I’ve heard it varies dramatically depending on your rig. For me, I’m playing on a 4090 with a 13th gen i9 with RT on and no DLSS needed. I’m getting well above 100fps. I am in the vast minority in terms of hardware, however and YMMV.

The game itself, from my 5 hours, is masterful. An improvement over the first in pretty much every way. From the way the story is delivered, to the combat, to the handcrafted open world and the enemy encounters.

Hiring and switching out pawns is fun, sending them back to their owners with gifts is a cool little touch that makes you feel attached to other players despite it being a single player game. The pawns add a depth to the game and you’re always looking for the ideal party set up to compliment your build. As a sword and shield build, having a caster on my team that heals me has been life saving.

I really like the music and voice acting as well (the lip syncing is the stuff of nightmares, however—very stiff animations that never match up with the words).

Overall, I highly recommend this game. Definitely consider your specs and do some research if you’re playing on a mid or lower tier rig.

Welcome to waiting room simulator. I'll happily change this to a positive when the servers are sorted and im actually allowed to play. Them still selling this thing when, by their own admission, they don't have server capacity, says it all.

This game is remarkably good. The gameplay loop is addictive: grind for materials, build your base, capture pals to work said base and/or be your companion as you venture out into the wilds. Build more bases. Capture stronger pals. Find hidden treasure chests. Explore dungeons. What's here, in early access, is very impressive. Well worth the asking price and then some.

An AVN made me ugly cry. Didn't have that on the 2024 bingo card. Highly recommend. This isn't just a great AVN (which are few and far between), it's a great game and really well done piece of storytelling.

Well, this is it for me. They took, what was, an incredibly fun little game and went full mobile. You NEVER go full mobile. The 2.0 update is absolute trash. Tabs everywhere, crowded menus, it's just chaos. The sound is really bad too. And the matches themselves just feel pathetic. This whole thing just feels pathetic (a pathetic grab for that mobile cash). Maybe it looks better on a smart phone? Don't know. Won't know. I don't play mobile games, i play my games on a curved, 34 inch Samsung and this looks like absolute trash. Good luck. We had a good run.

I've played for 450 hours...I guess I should review this game. Maybe you're reading this and you're wondering if you should pick it up...wondering if, perhaps, it's right for you. Well, that depends.

On what? you might ask.

Well, how much were you bullied in school? Have you ever worked in customer service (preferably retail during black friday or christmas)? If your answers are "A lot" and "Yes" then this just might be your next game. Prepare to get yelled at for not clutching a 1 v 5 after your team mates leave you alone on site so they can all go roam and get themselves killed less than 30 secs into the match. Prepare to have your mom's good name besmirched for daring to drone in and play strategically while they rush in like a bunch of mountain dew infused Roblox vets. Prepare to have your team screaming in your ear "Clutch or die" as you frantically try to squeak out that game winning 1 v 1 because...again...they've all gotten themselves killed.

Yes, purchase this game and all that and more can be yours. Who knows, after 450 hours, you might find you even start enjoying the game.