Daniil Shepard
Все публикации
Fashion Verdict on a Sewing Simulator: Dressmaker Review
Before we begin this review, let's set aside all jokes about the project's "girly nature." Because the profession of a fashion designer is not exclusively female. Among the famous brand founders and fashion gurus, there are a huge number of men. So there's nothing shameful about grown men playing a "girly game" - and Dressmaker deserves it, believe me!
WARDOGS military tactical shooter review: spoiled impressions
A few weeks ago, we already shared our opinion after the playtests of WARDOGS - a large-scale military tactical shooter. We liked it, but we couldn't imagine how successful the game would become. And after a hundred hours of gameplay, after its early access release, we noticed many interesting things that were missed in the tests. This time, you can expect a more detailed and thorough analysis.
Bodycam tactical shooter review: a gimmick wrapped in realism
Games that strive for extreme realism often face one problem: they are interesting to watch, but not always enjoyable to play. Developers complicate controls, limit visibility, and deliberately make familiar actions inconvenient to bring the experience closer to reality. Bodycam avoids this; its realism is built around the image from a body camera, shaking, a limited field of view, and photorealistic environments. However, behind the unusual presentation lies a familiar genre formula with characteristic live-service problems.
Star Wars Zero Company Review: The Main Heir to XCOM
Former XCOM developers return to turn-based tactics in the Star Wars universe. Star Wars Zero Company forces you to choose your squad for the task, combine abilities, and decide which operations to sacrifice. We examine how successful this campaign turned out to be and whether it's worth putting up with technical issues for it.
Low-Budget Repairs Review: Cheap, Crooked, but with Soul, We Repair Panel Buildings
There's a whole genre of simulators where players are invited to become ordinary workers. A salesperson, a driver, a cleaner, a mechanic, or a handyman. Some developers try to meticulously recreate the profession with all its nuances. Others reduce everything to absurdity, and Low-Budget Repairs falls into the latter category.
Catching Fish with Friends. How to Fish "Friendslop" Review
Grandfathers used to say that fish were caught with dynamite: throw a charge into the water, wait for the explosion, and collect the floating catch. Similar stories are shown in movies and cartoons: a hero spends hours unsuccessfully wielding a fishing rod, but as soon as he picks up a weapon, a school of fish immediately rises to the surface. These "incredible stories" formed the basis of the indie game How to Fish. Here, it's not enough to catch fish with a rod - you need to subdue them with a knife, firearms, or even bare hands.
The Same "Spider-Man," Just With Claws: What's Wrong With Marvel's Wolverine
Marvel's Wolverine hasn't been released yet, but a substantial list of complaints has already formed around Insomniac Games' title. And in this case, it's not about the traditional dissatisfaction with Sony: prices, policies promoting certain narratives, and the abandonment of physical discs. Questions arise directly about Wolverine himself - about what the developers chose to show in trailers, promotional videos, and previews.
Developers were right: WARDOGS playtest impressions
The ARMA series has a strange tradition: within its huge military sandbox, modes are regularly born that eventually outgrow the original game. DayZ, PUBG, and an entire genre of battle royales once grew out of modifications and user scenarios. Later, classic mass warfare modes also migrated to their own projects. Now it's the turn of "King of the Hill" - one of the most popular ARMA 3 modes, whose formula has received its own development in the form of WARDOGS.
Iron Nest Artillery Simulator Review: It's Not a War Crime If You Had Fun
One of the military truths states: it's not the weapon or equipment that matters, but the person operating them. The outcome of a battle, the results of a war, and whether they return alive depend on their actions. Iron Nest: Heavy Turret Simulator offers a chance to test this in practice - by taking control of a giant walking artillery installation and assuming the role of an operator on whom the entire battery's operation depends.
Elden Ring met "Tarkov" - and something went wrong. Mistfall Hunter Review
In recent years, many extraction games have entered the market. However, truly mass-market projects in the genre are almost non-existent. After the release of Marathon, the genre's potential seems exhausted. The idea of cloning "Tarkov" has long ceased to work. Developers have to find their own formula for success, experimenting with mechanics and other genres. Mistfall Hunter is one example of such hybridization.
How to Build a Pirate Paradise and Lose it to Soup: Corsair Cove Review
Pirate-themed games are plentiful, but what about pirate strategy games? You might have to go back 40 years to Sid Meier's Pirates! to find the last decent game in this genre. Although even that was more of an RPG than a strategy game. And Corsair Cove fills this long-forgotten niche.
Why GTA VI Won't Be a Revolution: Analyzing the Situation Within Rockstar Games, Patent Mechanics, and More
GTA VI hasn't been released yet, but it has already become a dream game. The wish list is so huge that a separate game could be made based on it. We analyze what Rockstar might show in GTA VI, what technologies are behind the upcoming game, how multiplayer could become more important than the single-player campaign, and why expecting it to set a new industry standard is a mistake.
Not a Word About Pokemon! Palworld 1.0 Review
It came as a shock to everyone how a game from industry newcomers, with no budget and a single idea, managed to become the second most played game on Steam of all time. And believing in its full release was even harder - the studio's previous games remained in early access forever. But this project's audience turned out to be so vast that version 1.0 was able to boost the project's online presence again and show what fans had been waiting for two years.
What Real Corsairs Were Like: Debunking the Myths of the Golden Age of Piracy
The image of pirates today is often perceived through the prism of adventure: black flags, treasures, and a free life outside the rules. 18th-century corsairs have become as romanticized and popular an image in mass culture as the Italian mafia, spies, and superheroes. Pirates became anti-heroes like Robin Hood, but the real history of these ruthless sailors was much darker and sadder.
What is MECCHA CHAMELEON: a 7 million player dummy or a new word in multiplayer?
It would seem like just another indie project that would be forgotten after a couple of days. However, the attention of bloggers turned another "friendslop" into a successful product with millions in sales. That's why we tried to figure out what the game is, what its charm is, and why the hype around it is not worth your time - even the short amount of time it can hold you.
10 Demos from the "Games Are To Be" Festival on Steam - A Selection of the Most Popular
Strange experiments, timid debuts, promising indies, and projects that would be better kept behind closed doors - all of this is part of the ongoing "Games Are To Be" festival on Steam. In this selection, we'll discuss games that deserve attention, captivate with their ideas, as well as those that leave a terrible aftertaste - because what would a festival be without them!
Died of cringe. Why the fun shooter about Killer Bean is drowning in routine
Projects about Killer Bean have always been one-man creations. And after two successful films, the franchise's author, Jeff Lew, decided to release a full-fledged game - Killer Bean. What came of it, why we almost shared Bean's fate and barely recovered from the cringe - read in this review.
Xbox gave up, PlayStation is at a dead end. What have the console wars turned into?
The argument about whose console is better has finally lost its meaning. Hardware no longer matters, exclusives are released everywhere, and Microsoft and Sony are looking for ways to retain their audience in the era of subscriptions. We explain how the classic model of console wars died, what the phenomenon of Nintendo's steadfastness is, and why the main battle of the industry has now unfolded around players' rights to already purchased games.
Joyfully Sinking! My Impressions of Subnautica 2
Initially, I expected that in Subnautica 2, I would be a constant victim of sea monkeys stealing my tools, which would lead me to give up and write a negative review. But after a comprehensive study, the game revealed itself as a full-fledged adventure on a huge map, with a large set of mechanics and complete freedom of action.
Not Just GoldenEye: 5 Great James Bond Games That Are Not Embarrassing
It is generally believed that in the James Bond game series, there is the great GoldenEye 007, and everything else is just mediocre licensed projects. There is some truth to this: Agent 007 rarely had stable releases. However, among dozens of attempts to transfer the adventures of the British spy to monitors, there were those that deserve attention no less than the classics from Rare studio. We talk about five James Bond games that are definitely not embarrassing.
Success won't save you: why studios close after hits
Until recently, the connection between a game's success and a studio's stability seemed obvious. Failure led to budget cuts and layoffs. A successful release was considered the best protection for the team. If a project found an audience, strengthened the company's reputation, and brought good feedback, it was perceived as proof of the studio's necessity. But in recent years, this logic has failed.
From 49 to 500 rubles: 10 cheap Steam games that are more engaging than AAA hits
Steam's low-price segment has long since stopped being a "shelf for experiments" where games are bought out of curiosity and forgotten after ten minutes. It is here that projects regularly appear that can quickly explain their idea, do not require powerful hardware, and are well suited to short sessions. In such cases, the price becomes not the main argument, but a pleasant bonus to the fact that the game already knows how to hold your attention.
No Entry for the Poor: A Selection of the Most Expensive Games on Steam
Sometimes you scroll through Steam and catch yourself thinking something simple - if only you were rich and could buy any games without a second thought. Then curiosity kicks in: if you are going to splurge, do it properly. So what is the most expensive game in the store, and how much do they actually ask for it? We are about to tell you.
A Marathon of \"Tarkov Clones\": Testing 5 Extraction Shooters in 2026
Developers of extraction shooters regularly hold playtests where they try to impress players with yet another reworking of the genre formula. Some manage to find common ground with the audience, while others run into problems - be it unstable servers, broken pacing, a crooked economy, or other features that directly affect the gameplay experience. Today we are sharing our impressions from testing five projects and trying to understand what prospects they have.
Highguard Failure: How to Lose 90% of the Audience in Two Days After Announcement
Highguard was the final announcement of The Game Awards 2025, but instead of popularity, the game is rapidly dying. 90% of the audience left within two days - this looks like a new record! But who promoted it and why, and why did the "shadow drop" bet fall apart? How did a single marketing move turn a launch into a death sentence? We investigate in our new feature.