Recent reviews by Rangcom

Initial Thoughts - Will be updated upon completion

So far, I have completed the tutorial and a good bit of the first main planet. This is a marked improvement from the first game in just about every way. I'm having a ton of fun and am already getting sucked into the story and exploration.


Beautiful Graphics: The game looks stunning.

Decent Performance: After the launch of the Spacer's Choice edition of the first game, I was concerned about performance issues. Thankfully, this game runs great for the most part. I'm running an i9-12900k, 4070ti, and 64GB DDR5 RAM. With those specs, I have all settings on 4K Ultra (DLSS on Balanced, Frame Generation on Auto, and Hardware Raytracing Activated) and it's holding up well.

Branching Paths & Meaningful Builds: This takes me back to old-school RPGs that understood a single character shouldn't be able to do everything. There seems to be real value in all builds, with multiple ways to complete quests. Jack-of-all-trades characters will struggle, as the skill checks for many interactions are quite high and require investment into a deliberate build, not just adding points to "whatever is lowest." Skill checks are in nearly every NPC interaction and lead to some great results.

Improved Combat: A significant improvement from the original. It feels more difficult, strategic, and varied.

Engaging Companions: While I'm not saying they're the best ever (for me, the Mass Effect trilogy still holds that crown), the followers I've picked up so far have been interesting, engaging, and a far cry better than those in the first game.


Clunky Interface: The UI leaves a lot to be desired, especially the inventory and journal screens. It really needs some love or a good mod to improve it.

Graphical Pop-in: After loading into a new area, there's a lag of 1-3 seconds where the scene is still generating after the loading screen disappears. This results in a lot of terrain popping in, which is pretty jarring and pulls me out of the immersion.

Inconsistent Writing: While the main story beats and most side quests are well written, some of the childish, "trying too hard to be funny" script lines we saw in Avowed are still present. It's not nearly as bad, but it still makes me cringe a bit when I see one of those options in my dialogue menu. Overall, though, the writing has been solid.

I'm not sure if there's a Day 1 patch planned, but it would be welcome. There are still some easy-to-spot bugs and glitches. Here are a few I've run into:

In the tutorial, I shot a robot repairing a wall, and it just... disappeared. Not in a "vaporized" way, but in a "developer console disable" kind of way.

The receptionist in the first settlement's clinic has a voice line where the audio fades in late.

On loading screens, the font for the "tips" doesn't match the rest of the UI. The text is also misaligned, cutting off more than half the tip.

Like I said at the start, I'm really enjoying my time with this game. With a few comprehensive patches and a UI overhaul, this game is exactly what I was hoping it would be. The environment, exploration, and deliberate character development will likely have me replaying this one quite a few times.

Great EA title so far. Excited to see how the rest of the development goes.

I'm currently about 50% through Borderlands 4, and it has been an absolute blast. This is everything I wanted from a new installment in the series. The humor is on point, the new characters are great, and the gameplay loop is as addicting as ever.

The gunplay feels incredible, and I'm loving the sheer variety of weapons. The new parts system is a brilliant addition, taking the "bazillion guns" concept to a new level. Every drop feels unique, and it's genuinely exciting to see what combination of parts you'll get next. The change from a series of connected maps to a truly open world is also an excellent change, with the new world bosses and events helping to vary the gameplay and keep things fresh.

My one small gripe is with the specific activities where you have to carry an item to a drop-off point. Being forced to walk on foot with no way to use your vehicle or abilities can definitely pull you out of the action. While the rewards are great, I often find myself skipping these missions just to avoid breaking the flow of the game.

A lot of folks are talking about performance issues, and while I understand that can be frustrating, I've been extremely lucky. My specs are an I9-12900K, RTX 4070TI, and 64GB DDR5. I followed the performance guidelines that Gearbox provided and then tweaked the settings upwards from there. I have had zero crashes and no noticeable frame drops during play. I'm consistently averaging between 90-100 fps, and it's been an incredibly smooth experience.

If you're a fan of the series, this is a must-buy. The grind for new loot is as fun as it gets, and the core gameplay is second to none. I can't wait to see what the rest of the game has in store!

Played this game on launch for PS5 and happy that I am able to replay it now on my PC. Those that enjoyed the game play of the previous game will likely really enjoy this. Some of the original challenges remain but have been updated, plus other new mechanics keep things fresh. The sense of discovery I had when playing through the previous game definitely carried over. The environments, in my opinion, are much more varied than the prior game which leads to some interesting and fun options as it pertains to travel. From a performance perspective, I haven't noticed any issues personally. Though it should be stated that I am not actively monitoring the FPS during play. I have all settings maxed out and have not had an issue through my first 5 hours. Specs I7 12900k, 4070 TI, and 32 gb ddr5. I do know that some folks are experiencing issues with UI resolution and frame drops, I haven't noticed this on my end. My one gripe, which I'm sure I could fix in a config file somewhere is that even on the smallest option, the ui scale is a bit too large. Other than that, it's a great game.

Really a shame, love KSP1, was really looking forward to "the next gen" version. Unfortunately the devs have been radio silent since the last "patch" in June, which is the longest hiatus yet. It certainly feels abandoned. I hope someone turns this around....

This game has it's hooks in me. It is certainly a slow burn that took a bit of time to get off the ground (no pun intended) but here I am, 80 hours in, feeling like I barely scratched the surface. This is your standard Bethesda Game Studios Experience with a space setting. It is true to the formula that makes me love Fallout and The Elder Scrolls. This game is not perfect, it has flaws. But even through those flaws, I am having a great time with it.

The scope of this game is massive, and it is a bit of a double-edged sword that made some waves pre-full release on the steam forums, and subreddit. In my opinion, this game should not be treated as I treated Skyrim in terms of exploration. After getting control of my character, instead of exploring the entirety of the planet I started on, I followed the main story. For about 4 quests, at that point it started hooking me.

The game isn't perfect:
- AI is a bit janky
- Performance improvements would be nice (55 - 70 FPS) RTX4070ti @ 2k Ultra
- Ground Vehicles would also help, especially around the procedurally generated content
- Typical Bethesda Bugs and jank that will eventually be patched out
- Procedural generated content, if treated as the primary game loop (ie. go to system, fully explore 1 planet, move to next, fully explore, etc) gets boring super quick.

On the plus side:
- I am postively overwhelmed with the amount of things to do (Main Story, Faction Quests, Bounties, Side Activies, further exploration)
- Ship building is robust and awesome (just wish we could customize interiors a bit more)
- Mod community is already really active with over 500 mods in the first 5 days of early access
- It has the DNA of a typical Bethesda RPG all over it.

Overall I can see myself sinking thousands of hours into this game and if you are a fan of BSG games, I recommend giving it a shot. 8/10

Review in Progress:
Thus far I am enjoying Elden Ring. I didn't play the original dark souls games, but if this continues to draw me in as much as it has I will certainly go back and play the trilogy. The world is beautiful and has some amazing views that I often find myself stopping and staring at. The world has secrets hidden throughout and I am having a blast just running around and exploring. I haven't even progressed the main story past the first area yet and I feel no rush to.

I will admit that I was a bit nervous about jumping in to a true "Soulsbourne" experience with the high learning curve the games tend to have and the inability to scale difficulty but I have been pleasantly surprised. While I certainly have been getting my ass handed to me, going in with the expectation of that happening has made the game more enjoyable. With each level, each fight, I feel myself slowly learning how to take down each enemy and just as I start to feel a bit of confidence in my abilities, boom, I immediately get humbled. It is an emotional roller coaster in all the best ways.

Now that's not to say that the game (especially on PC) is without it's flaws, mainly with the Optimization. While I personally have had no crashes, I have heard of some other folks running into issues of that nature. There is a frame drop issue, I haven't seen a huge drop like some are reporting (or that Cohh experienced earlier today) but the ones that are there are noticeable and a bit annoying. It is far from unplayable though.

My early recommendation is this:
If you can deal with some frame drops, particularly in the open world without getting super upset, give it a shot. If you will rage if you see a frame drop, probably should hold off until they work on the optimization a bit.

I am enjoying my time with this game so far. The main story of the game was more akin to a tutorial of all of the systems as opposed to an actual campaign mode. Chaos Theory seems to be the actual campaign mode (That was in the first game at least). I did notice that there are quite a few complaints regarding dinos locked behind DLC, objectively this is true. The Deluxe Version of the game did indeed come with 5 additional species, there are still ample species to fill your parks without the ones in that pack. People acting like they locked the T-Rex and Raptor behind a paywall. Game does have some graphical bugs which I come to expect at launch but other than that I haven't experienced any game breaking issues. A few things I dislike with all of my heart, the added micromanagement of fueling your generators and overabundance of tedium that comes with dealing with sick/injured dinos is annoying. Also the sabotage system needs to go. With that said majority of my time has been enjoyed and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface. Excited to see how Frontier updates this game moving forward.

Having a great time so far. Mouse acceleration issues aren't as bad as many make it sound. Well worth $60 for this remaster and all the DLC

The game isn't perfect. The game isn't majorly groundbreaking. However this game has a beautiful open world with a ton of fun stuff to do. Most of the characters are compelling and I instantly connected with many of them. The map at the start was overwhelming with new activities to complete and I gained a ton of satisfaction slowly chipping them off of my map. There are a handful of annoyances. These include graphical glitches, missing QoL features, clipping issues, loot stuck in the ground, some NPC's have canned dialog that repeats over and over again. These issues are not prevalent all the time. Many of the negative reviews are upset that the game has bugs or that it is not perfectly optimized for their system. Others are upset because they thought that the game would break the mold. Whenever you have a huge release like this, people rate the game as a Zero with no context. This game is a solid 8 in it's current state. Once the bugs are worked out and some QoL features are added, it will be a solid 9. Don't listen to the trolls. Get the game