Crowz (PC) Review

 

Crowz was a Shooter Game, that could best be described as a mix of Battlefield and PUBG. The game could be played in third and first person mode (similar to PUBG, Ring of Elysium, Super People) and featured a Conquest mode, in which players had to capture and hold points (similar to Battlefield or World War 3), and a Battle Royale inspired Extraction mode. The game modes were probably more similar to Battlefield and the gameplay more similar to PUBG.

Crowz had two big flaws. For one, it lacked a clear identity of its own. There wasn't a single unique or truly characteristic element in the game, which you could point out. I don't think every game needs to be entirely unique or bring something new to the genre, but Crowz had a hard time convincing players to prefer it over the competition. If you wanted to play a really good Conquest game, than you could play Battlefield or World War 3. If you wanted to play Battle Royale with gameplay similar to Crowz, you could go for PUBG, H1Z1 or Elysium instead. Crowz also suffered from a lack of content. There were simply less maps and modes in the game than the competition had to offer. This is probably also why Crowz struggled with player numbers. In 2023 I could only find matches on the weekend and only in the 'Blood Zone' mode (the Conquest inspired mode). The shutdown of the game on the 29th of August 2023 therefore seemed nearly inevitable.

The other big flaw of Crowz was probably the Optimization and perhaps the launch state of the game. The game didn't run particularly well for me, even in the lowest settings (especially towards the start of matches), which might also be based on my PC hardware, but I have also heard of many other players, with much stronger PCs complaining about the lack of optimization and performances varying so much between different matches. Crowz didn't help itself by launching in a pretty buggy state. Some users even compared the launch version to the problems Battlefield 2042 had. I do think it launched in a bit better state, but Battlefield offers much more content and has significantly improved over the last 2 years. Crowz in my opinion just couldn't keep up and therefore lost the majority of its playerbase.

 

Result:

Crowz was not a bad game, but it didn't do anything excellent either. I can't point out too many major flaws with the game, but I struggle to identify any real strengths, which could have motivated players to pick this game up. The gameplay in Crowz was fun for a few matches, but after that players were likely to either move on to a completely new game or return to the classics.

 

6.5/10

Texas Hold'em Poker - Pokerist (PS4) Review

 

Texas Hold'em Poker - Pokerist is a free to play Poker game on the Playstation Store. It is one of the most basic Poker games I have ever seen. With 'Prominence Poker' and the Poker part of 'Four Kings Casino and Slots' there are two free Poker Games on the Playstation Store, which have a much better presentation than Pokerist. Both games released years before Pokerist and if we include all the free Poker Games on PC, including some of the better Browser Games, than there are at least dozens of Poker games more worthy of Playing.

Putting the game of Poker itself into a videogame is not very complicated. There aren't many things you could do wrong with such a simple programming task. Therefore the visual presentation and immersion take a key role in every good Poker Videogame. Pokerist is a massive letdown in this aspect.

Pokerist uses an ugly 2D image of a female Poker Dealer and the profile pictures of the participating players. That's it! There is nothing in this game apart from these static 2D images of a Poker game, there isn't even any background music. Why did they release such a simple game in late 2019? Pokerist would have been acceptable as a Browser game in 1999, but even in 2009 it would have been a massive letdown (The mobile version apparently already released in 2010, but the point still stands and why on earth did they port it to the PS4 in 2019???).

The promotional images of the game are trying to trick you into thinking that this would be a three dimensional game, like the much superior Prominence Poker or 'Poker Night at the Inventory'. I wouldn't call this a scam, but it is certainly a bit of shady marketing.

The Poker itself is fine, so there is some fun to be had here, but that is really not an accomplishment. Using a random deck of cards in real-life would give you the same experience, probably a much better one. A game can hardly be broken, if there is barely anything in it.

The one strength of this game is probably its speed. Pokerist is a much faster game than the competition. So if you enjoy Speed Poker, than you may find some enjoyment here. I however would always take a strong presentation over pure game speed at the cost of everything else.

 

Result:

Pokerist can be played without having an abysmal time, but there is no reason to do so, unless you are a Speed Poker Fan. There are much better Poker alternatives available on pretty much every electronic device imaginable.

 

3/10