Reviews by Aitor C.

BATTLETECH Season Pass
 – 

Good for the new maps, not so good for the content

Battletech without DLCs, ie "vanilla", has around 90% of the overall content you are going to get WITH dlcs. So instead of going straight away for the Mercenary bundle, get the vanilla game, and if you enjoy it, get the season pass

They have some flashpoints for your career mode that are rather interesting, but their difficulty is not well balanced. Some of them require you to use smaller mechs against hard foes. By the time you get qualified pilots and some hope to win, you don't need the rewards they give you. Still, these flashpoints are worthy for their story (if you are a fan of Battletech lore)

The ECM mechs are not as useful as they seem. One of the first skills of a pilot disables them entirely, and also you cannot fight and stay hidden reliably at the same time. They have their uses, but not essential to me. Also, I could not gather enough parts to build one in my career mode.

More maps is always a good thing. No complains here.

So, to sum up. Get the season pass, or separated dlcs, if you want to experience the lore of the flashpoints. Even if the risk / reward is suboptimal

by Aitor C., Spain - Nov 20th 2020

Surviving Mars
 – 

Perfect at the beginning, but loses some grip at the end

This is a game ideally suited for space exploration enthusiasts. The management, scarcity of resources, and first stages of colonization are really inmersive at the beginning of the game, when you only control automated drones and machines. It really feels like taking your first steps on the red planet. Being able to not to depend on Earth's supplies feels important, and there's some fun in getting there.

After that, there's an important stage when you are ready to accept colonists, and they must survive (there's a defeat condition if they die, but only for your first batch of colonists) It's the only event that always happens in every game, and fortunately it's rather short. Some people don't like having a game over condition that seems very easy to trigger.

Then your proceed to the middle game, where you can bring more and more colonists, and create a complicated base trying to include all the buildings, services, etc... The vanilla game has problems getting your colonists to automatically pick the most adequate job, or move to a dome that has enough living space for them instead of living in the streets. I recommend to patch it with an appropiated mod that you can download from Steam Workshop. It feels necessary to me.

Then, there are many different ending events, and all of them being very saucy. Some of them test your ability to mass produce and react to random events. And this is where the vanilla game without DLCs ends. These ending events are rather long, so no complain from me here

Sadly, once they are done, the game stales quite a bit. You can challenge yourself to build more and more domes, but there's little motivation to do so. The Green Planet DLC gives you something to do at this stage to keep your interest in the game, but I felt it wasn't as satisfying as I thought. Even if you complete the terraformation of Mars, there are still many areas in which the grass wouldn't grow until you have played the game for many hours AFTER you have done everything you can do. It's like staining Mars with splotches of green grass.

Lastly, not a complain, but once you have colonists, the game starts to look similar to Cities Skylines, although you have to manage where you want them to work. So instead of managing a big city, you are micromanaging a smaller one, whilst keeping in check many subsystems so your population doesn't die

The in-game radio is great, although it gets repetitive after many hours of playing

by Aitor C., Spain - Nov 20th 2020

XCOM 2
 – 

Great game, but it will make you tilt really bad

The story doesn't follow the conclusion of XCOM 1, and creates a what-if scenario in which your base was raided, and you were captured. From there onwards, the game forces you to fight against all odds to recover the Earth for humanity.

Graphics wise, it's similar to XCOM 1, but the overall quality has improved a bit. On the other hand, the requirements have rised significantly. Average PCs should sacrifice optional effects in order to gain fluidity. Long turns with many opponents playing on screen will take a lot of time if the FPS drop very low.

Regarding gameplay, it's exactly as any other XCOM (or similar) game. However, applying the Long War mod makes this game unique. You really feel you are leading a rebellion against aliens, with all the drawbacks included, such as fighting against superior numbers. The strategic layer changes from the usual XCOM to a whole new way of playing. Liberating regions from alien control is really tough, but it feels as a real reward.

Personally, I think it isn't worthy playing this game without this mod. It was developed along with the game, since the mod creators participated in the development of the vanilla game. It makes things more reasonable at the beginning of the game, giving you advantages, such as more men, better equipment, and more ways to play. But it will crush you in the long term if you don't adapt to its infiltration and liberation mechanics.

The RNG in this game is fair, from the point of view of being random, but the consequences are so unbalanced that you have to aim for big chances of wining. Failure has serious penalties. Afterall, aliens can be cloned, but your men (and women) cannot

by Aitor C., - May 25th 2019

PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS
 – 

The game that brought battle royale to the mainstream games

As the title says, it isn't the game that "invented" battle royale, but it is the game that made it popular. Since then, many others have copied the mechanics, but aside of Fortnite, no other has nailed it.

First, a warning, the learning curve of PUBG is super steep. Many players from the first days have left, leaving behind the pros (and cheaters, but there aren't that many, really) It can be super frustrating for a newcomer. This could lead to an even more reduced playerbase, in which the average skill level is even higher. Be aware of this before buying it.

Also, since lootboxed stopped beind added to the game (which you could sell in Steam market for a decent prize the first two week for each new box), it's very hard to recover it's price in steam wallet funds. Not impossible but, it will take a long time.

PUBG always had a poor performance optimization, but it's playable with average modern computers. Also, playing on very low settings isn't that bad, since having less distractions on screen allows you to spot enemies more easily.

On the other hand, what this game does very satisfying is placing bullets on target. It's hard, guns have a significant bullet drop, and more often than not, being able to spot, aim and shoot in less than a second is the difference between living or going back to the menu. But if you manage to kill a player, you feel that you have achieved something. It isn't just a random kill like in other shooters.

Lastly, in my opinion, the monetization of selling skins doesn't belong to a pay to play game. Devs are being greedy with this, but it's optional so... Sadly we won't go back to the days of selling lootboxes to make some money. I totally could deal with monetization that way.

by Aitor C., - May 25th 2019

Buy with confidence!
MacGameStore / WinGameStore is an authorized retailer of digital products through relations with 1000+ publishers & developers. No gray-market worries here!
Doing business for decades
Originally began by shipping games in the 90s. Much has changed over the decades, and getting games into the hands of Mac & PC gamers is still our focus!
Ways to pay
Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American ExpressApplePayPayPal