McDucky's Reviews / Recommendations

[McDucky]

Hello hello hello. Hello. Hi.
I will post some game recommendations bundled with a bit of critique.
Hopefully this might help you find new games or decide if a game is worth buying

[McDucky]

Hatoful Boyfriend & Holiday Star   
Type: Visual Novel
Genre / Themes: Dating Sim, Nakige, Romance, Sci-fi, Comedy, Horror   
Buy it: (Hatoful Boyfriend on Steam) (Good English translation included) 
(Holiday Star on DLsite) (English Patch avaliable) 
Developer: PigeoNation Inc.

It's a Japanese pigeon dating sim. Not much else to say...   

Spoiler-free Screenshots

Actual spoilers, open only if you've played or have no interest in playing.

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Just kidding. The VN goes surprisingly far ahead of the original joke. The joke being you're a human in a school for birds, trying to find true love.     
This is the point where most people writes a comment about how weird Japan is or how people who play it should be imprisioned.   

I want to make it clear that there is no sexual content and this game was originally made as an april fool's joke that was then expanded into a full set of stories.   
The game would be described as Otome, aka Girl Game since your character is a female going after men, but I found it perfectly enjoyable as a male.
If you can't tolerate the idea of talking animals or more specifically trying to build a relationship with them, this is clearly not for you.   

It starts with a degree of comedy, but slowly shifts into drama with some horror.   
Some endings are funny, some are sad and most of them are confusing.     

It's a very odd VN, not only in the obvious way, but also in that it hides the best things about itself behind a barrier.     
For example, a HUGE chunk of content is only avaliable once you've gotten every ending in the game.   
I will recommend it for being very silly, funny and self-aware, but also for an interesting story with surprisingly complex characters. 

The "gameplay" works like this (if you haven't played a dating sim before): 
1. Pick a character you want to hear the story of
2. When given choices, choose things related to that character (i.e go to the gym if you're dating an athlete)   
3. Read the story
4. Repeat

I won't spoil anything, but I totally didn't expect what this game had in store.

Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star is a fan-disc/sequel. It's not avaliable on Steam, but you can get it on DLsite and install an English translation.
It doesn't have any dating-sim elements and it takes place in an alternate universe.
It's basically more, but better! It clears up some questions I had about the original and continues to surprise and amuse.

My recommendations:
Pay attention to details   
Date all the birds to get all the endings to unlock the final story route (it's great and quite long).       
   
Summary:
Date Birds, laugh, cry.
Not the best Visual Novel by any means, but for being so unique, unexpected and easily dismissed, I recommend it if you are open to try something new. 

[blueflower999]

I have the game on Steam and will play it soon, but would you say the sequel is better or worse than the original?

[McDucky]

I have the game on Steam and will play it soon, but would you say the sequel is better or worse than the original?

Very hard to say. 
I enjoyed it more, but it's really just a continuation.   
Either way, you have to beat the original to get what's happening in the sequel, and playing the sequel spoils the original.

[MagicDual]

Well you know what they say about this community.

[McDucky]

Fistful of Frags   
Type: Multiplayer Game
Genre / Themes: Western, Action, First Person Shooter
Free at: http://store.steampowered.com/app/265630/
Developer: Fistful of Frags Dev Team 

Screenshots

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Fistful of Frags is a very fun shooter made in the Source engine.
You choose a team, a weapon and some stat boosts before you're thrown into the game. 
There are quite a few maps in which you're fighting up to three enemy teams, all well designed both in terms of gameplay and aesthetics. 
There's a wide variety of weapons such as revolvers, shotguns, rifles, bow and arrow, hatchet, knives, dynamite and boots for kicking. 

It's not a complicated game. You get points for killing enemies and they get points for killing you. 
The guns are fun to use and reload very slowly. Running and jumping will greatly decrease your accuracy, making it almost impossible to hit targets. 

Around the maps there are chests of different value. They let you chose one of three weapons and restock after a while. These tend to be targets for enemies, so it's a risky thing getting a weapon from them.   

Whiskey restores your health, but makes it very hard to aim for a while, which means you'll be almost useless against an enemy sneaking up to your drinking place.

Overall it's a fun multiplayer game that runs on most machines.
Best thing is that it's completely free. No DLC or microtransactions.

Pass the whiskey!