Recent reviews by Prozac

So day 1, 3 hours of gameplay.
First impressions - yeah buggy I will admit it with all the others but that is why it is Early Access so I am going to overlook bugs even though some are funny.
So lets discuss lore a bit. Bratislava here is.... I am not sure if historically accurate in all senses but mostly apart from minor things. Yeah I know I know it is very difficult to remember everything correctly. Plus the real pain of putting the city into a game is... challenging (tried it myself) and this game is the only one which managed to get it mostly accurately.
Story wise - yeah you can compare it to GTA with one huge exception. What GTA in the west is considered a dark comedy, in Bratislava it is considered a documentary. So far what I have seen is historically accurate (with of course creative liberties) but yeah that is how things were (and probably soon will be) here. For that 100% and big thumbs up!
Few notes, I love how you make statements but despite me being a Slovak guy you could translate them to English (and give extra context not sure how many non Slovaks know about murders and violent attacks on reporters, weapons stealing, blackmail, drowning people in acid etc...)
Also there are (sadly many) more dark stories to tell from Slovakia, but that will require a way more ambitious project than this.
For a Slovakian game studio nicely done! I am looking forward to see where the story goes.

Slava Ukrajini! Heroiam Slava!

2 hours and I got all achievements you be the judge if the game is worth the price. That is for the short explanation.

Longer one follows:
So this is not a brothel simulator, devs obviously mistake a lapdancing bar with a brothel. And there is a huge difference.

Had to get the obvious out of the way.
In general this game is a missed opportunity to have an amazing tycoon/simulator game. The game is you manage 4 lapdacing tables where you manage what girls do. That is done by icons on the bottom and each table has to have the right icon assigned. On the top there is a percent bar and you need to keep sure the bar is as close to 100% as possible to get your money. And thats it. Major part of the game.
Now between that you can assign girls "fetishes" if you want to call it that (I dont) which means they will perform certain activities automatically. You can assign how much money you want to get paid if client is happy. Each client has three if the interests and you can assign each girl three when you have enough hearts. Also on level 3 you can undress them (tbf nothing special).
Now you might be wondering what to do with the money? Well you can unlock galleries. And the galleries are the pretty pictures you see here. And I think that is everything this game has.

And it is a huge missed opportunity this game. Imagine making it in something like the car mechanic simulator series or house flipper. Be a proper brothel "manager" your own Andrew Tate (hate the guy btw).
So how would I make the game?

We start with a shabby brothel on the perifery with one girl. A place what used to be a hotel but is now in disrepair. And you know clients call you arrange times for them. Get money. Use it to pay your girl, start renovating second room, go get another girl (in a city where you could visit some places like shantytown, college dorms, or put up an ad online - you could do it in free roam choose a girl you like make her an offer and she could say yes or no).
Now slowly you build it up. Have the entire first floor ready start working on second floor (while managing girls) but second floor is special it is going to be for cam girls. Mange their equipment, get strong internet, hire security both IT and physical.
Well suddenly a special event the first girl got knocked up during a session. What you do? Throw her out. Life is tough. Or send her to hospital. Then another girl got STD what do you do?
Phase three of the game comes along. Girls are feeling underpaid because you take 80% of their salary what do you do? Get drugs! Here is some weed! Fancy a shot of H? Crack? Or raise their salary?
Oh no one girl overdosed on a live cam show and people called police and ambulance to your place what do you do?

Such a missed opportunity this game. I will give it a like because I remember some bad starts to great series. First car mechanic simulator was painful after the campaign you got two unrelated random parts broken. Second was better, now the game is rather decent.
I take this as a first in the series. And I hope my constructive criticism will result in a better number 2!

PS: If you need someone "creative" in your team tell me I will do it because I have some real life experience with this "industry".

I shall name thee the Scotty Kilmer Simulator after one of my favorite youtube mechanics.
So... let me start off by what is different from 2018 version
-You have to manage fluids in power steering, windshield washer, coolant and breaks
-Electric cars
-Drag strip
-Tuning which is way better than the "star" system in the old one which had no impact
-Body tuning (including stuff like police lights, spoilers)
-Loot boxes (I think they were in 2018 too tho but they are massively improved giving you important stuff like maps, XP or credits)
-More in depth repair of parts and body panels if you have the tools for it
-New buildings now you own or rent an entire area instead of a shop (but you could have made "the alley" for parking somewhere behind so I dont have to drive there also other things like drag strip and junk yard could have been across the road or next to the compound)
-Stuck screws
-Car electrics (in a limited way)
Other than that it is pretty similar to 2018 (I mean duh it is a Scotty Kilmer Simulator you cannot revolutionize bolts). If you enjoyed previous iterations you will enjoy this a little bit more because you get more to do and you can push the envelope by trying to reach the maximum speed on the drag strip (I got as of time of writing this review 514 km/h).
One big negative I will point out to the devs are the tuning missions which start to appear if you progress in story enough. Now. I realize it is auto generated not to story missions. But one order I got was:
a. Refill windshield washer fluid
b. Increase performance between 14-20%
Now I dont know about anywhere else but if you go a car repair shop to get windshield washer fluid refilled (I dont know who needs that but that is another thing) you dont come to it like yeah refill the fluid oh and by the way also increase my power (which is neatly and infuriatingly hidden in other tasks).
Overall the game has improved to some level not too much but compared to other companies the difference is there and it is important that you see progress. I would give it an 8/10 if the compound was better like having the drag strip on one side, parking alleys at the back, race track on the other side and across the street the junkyard and a combination of auction/car dealership. But otherwise 7/10.

Now a few words for the devs if they are reading. Food for thought. When it comes to the compound idea how about adding something like a car parts store? So you actually have to think ahead (call it a hard mode) and manage your spare parts better. That adds a layer of realism. Add even harder stuck bolts where you need to use flame. Also the compound area improvement would be great.

So I bought this game for 120€... played over 20 hours and can land most of the time without crashing.
Time for a review.

I will start with the pros and cons
Pros - graphics. I cant speak words that would actually describe the beauty. Flying through storm clouds in an airliner, or looking for your house in a prop airplane (there is a good chance you will find it but it will look nothing like your house) the game is a real eye candy.
Checklists (this adds a whole new fun to the game finding all the switches and make sure they are flipped properly, fortunately I can only find a pre takeoff checklist with engine start and such but that may just be my settings)
UI - very simple but that may be a downside because you have no clue where to look for a specific setting
Scenarios and challenges. Yes because landing at LAX is easy, landing in Swiss Alps is not so easy.
AI Copilot - problems with tasks? Dont want to bother with tower communication? Need someone to fly the plane while you take a break and autopilot doesnt work? I gave him a nickname MCAS but more about that later.

Cons - bugs. None are game breaking (my first spawn was with my cockpit stuck in the thingy that passengers use to board) but some can get annoying.
Installation - yep at first it is like a 500MB package which you think is oh nice. Then you start the game after work and 115GB of patches... yikes.
UI - It took me an hour to find where to enable more aircraft which are a part of the standard bundle (I didnt bother to ask uncle google tho)
AI Copilot - (I will call it MCAS for reference) does tend to overspeed and overstress the plane and cause your game to end. Great for menial tasks like checklists or ATC if you cannot be bothered but for flying MCAS needs supervision.

So now to talk a bit about it. As every time you learn something you crash a lot. Practice makes perfect. Me after a few crashes I decided to just enjoy the scenery, hopped in an A320Neo in Split airport, triggered MCAS and said "Fly me to Norway". After a 5 star start MCAS decided to make a left turn to head north and crashed into the closest mountain. Not a good start for poor old MCAS. I decided that I will have a go and was like lets try the Cordileras (Andes) in South America. Start from Lima and fly me to La Paz. This time I took control, flew up to cruising speed and gave MCAS the control. It decided to overspeed and wobble from side to side. Before I switched to cockpit and took control I ended up destroyed from stress.
Well OK MCAS makes some rookie mistakes, so it is now my main ATC communicator.
So... enough about trusted AI copilot. Time to talk about the real autopilot. From FSX I was quite familiar with both Boeing and Airbus autopilot systems and would you know it? Airbus works perfectly but Boeing has a mind of its own (if this was the implementation of MCAS dear Microsoft job done superbly! works just like in real life).
Knobs and buttons - compared to FSX a lot more knobs and buttons work (not all and some did work on FSX which dont work on FS2020) but I really have to check physics on how they work later (by that I mean take a lot of fuel on the right and little fuel to the left, disable crossfeed and see if I loose an engine, this didnt work in FSX).
Planes - I may have another bug but all I get is standard livery for everything, the models are spectacular tough. Selection is very decent but compared to FSX you dont get a glider, helicopter or a fighter jet (at least at the time of this review - didnt check mods)
Activities - Job done well here you get a lot of landing challenges on very interesting airports. Try Lukla or Madeira with a decent crosswind. Or Gibraltar. It looks easy but... it is not.
Tutorials - I admit I have not checked this out partially because I have a few thousand hours on FSX and I only fly on highest realism.
Updates - As of November 2020 the game is being updated constantly with new features. Most recent one was Japan.

Final words well... is the game worth 120€? No.... Get the standard edition and get it on a sale. My score would be 75% of 100%. Game is fantastic, but some features need fixing like autopilot for Boeing (surprise Airbus works like a treat if you have a good flight plan also Cessna), MCAS needs adding at least 20 points of IQ, and I would really like to see more official planes (Namely B737, A380, A350 and maybe some Sukhoi or Bombardier).

If you are reading Microsoft an idea as food for thought - your weekly activities are cool but consider this - a career of a pilot. You start as a crop duster somewhere in Oregon, then move to a local airline fly local flights and move up to fly an A320 between JFK and LHR. That would be another point in my book.

A surprising game, easy to learn and quite fun. Here are some pros and cons:

Pros:
It is easy
You get subscribers far more easily than IRL (also making money of youtube)
It is fun for a while
There is a decent replay value

Cons
Gameplay gets repetitive after a while (but it doesnt feel like a grind)
Game is buggy (seriously? I would not mention it if it was a new game but some basics dont work like assigning PCs to collaborators which is quite critical to the game!!!!)

So as every game you start with the basics and move yourself up the ladder. You have to manage your hunger, sleep, money, youtube channel, networks, collaborators, social life and social networks. It doesnt get thrown at once at you so dont worry (respect for this the learning curve is done well).
Your ultimate goal is to be the number one youtuber and have the house in space. It took me 17 hours of gameplay to get there.
Protip - get the game on a sale and use only one collaborator because more are redundant since bugs prevent you from assigning a specific PC to a specific collaborator before a job.

Dear developers ONE more dialogue window when assigning a job to a collaborator would make the game much easier and efficient. I could have made four videos at once.

Ooof first thing first. This is not a game! Be warned.
It is a simulation of air and naval combat operations in modern environment with as much realism as possible so any balance be damned. I have played about 20 hours so far and barely got over the tutorials.
Worth the money? Hell yes even if you play nothing you get the most comprehensive database of intelligence data about military technology you can find on steam. And for this database alone the price is right.
Then you get the simulation with an excellent map of the entire planet. Height, depth... you name it. Nothing super impressive (compared to Microsoft flight simulator) but keep it in mind because it is very important, and serves the simulation purposes extremely well. Because it limits your angle of view, range of your radar (which also means hiding it from prying electronic monitoring by the way).
UI you get a standard tactical map (it can be upgraded to 3D but you need tacview). As UI is concerned well. It takes a LOT of learning I did not master it fully yet. Considering complexity and number of possible actions. Each menu has a submenu and another submenu.... real inception. But it allows you to play in a level of detail unseen by me before (one example for all you can make custom loadouts of your planes and then select which weapons to use).
If you dont feel like playing and micromanaging everything there are missions. Sadly missions are at the moment too complex for me to give any reasonable review. I only organized a refuel, no CAP yet (yes the simulation is difficult, so is Kerbal Space Program until you understand what you are doing).
Finally let me mention the editor. Put the database of equipment on steroids. You get every known (OSINT gathered) military installation in the planet, with appropriate assets assigned to it.
Example. As you may (or may not) know Moscow has an array of SAM sites protecting it from attack. Want to try and sneak a B2 bomber? Good luck. You can give it a try (and fail) to your hearts content.
Want to see who would win a total air/naval war between Brazil and Argentina in 1986? This is the simulation for it.

An important disclaimer I am only touching the surface, I assume there are dozens of features I dont know about (yet). But like back in the day Janes Fleet Command this is a product for experts which is being sold to end users.
Learning curve goes around the moon and back. It is not fun (except when it is), but the gratification of winning a mission after hours of trying to figure stuff out (by that I mean identifying hostiles) brings gratification on a level Wargame Red Dragon or War Thunder could never bring.
If you are into arcade games where balancing is important (WT, World of whatever, Hearts of Iron, Wargame) this is not a product for you. If you like stuff like Cold Waters, Janes Fleet Command... you will LOVE this.

PS: If you are interested in the game but you want to see how a real person plays (or gets lost in) it (Sorry Kushan Gaming you are good but you made the game) look up on youtube Wolfpack345 he just started (as of Sept. 2020)

Cant come to terms with the game. The learning curve is to the moon you get pushed out of the training server and dont score a single hit in 10 games. It ends up being frustrating. I know the game has a huge fan base but simply it is not for me because I refuse to pay to win or spends hundreds of hours of grinding to get what I want.

Disclaimer: Reviewing early access with limited features.
This game is dangerous because it makes communism fun. How to describe this game? Imagine a combination of Transport Fever and Tropico (with a very unique touch), with very heavy emphasis on infrastructure. City building features are very realistic you would have to go to East Europe to more run down areas for such realism. Not all features are implemented here (yet) so (for now) you have to manage peoples housing, food, drinking, sports, shopping, entertainment, healthcare, electricity, fire safety and work (of course that may include transportation to work).
Along side that you need your industry. You have various options for development, you can choose one (but dont otherwise you will be frustrated with economy) or multiple. This includes Agriculture, Construction, Chemical industry, raw ore processing etc. You have a nice resource tree. If you miss a resource you can always import it.
And then we get to infrastructure. You have to manage a lot... good planning makes all the difference between a chaotic mess and a fun profitable nation. Allow me to explain on my favorite production line for Steel. First you need to find a good location for mines, coal and iron. Build the mines and using conveyor belts (my favorite) transport the ore to a processing plant (and both Iron and Coal have separate cycles). Then you realize you messed up because your processing plants cant keep up and you need to build a storage in between. Of course you dont have to use conveyor belts, you can use trucks, trains, ships, or a cable car. If you use vehicles you have to set up routes for them. So you have the Iron ore and Coal processed now you need to deliver it (yes dont forget another storage) to the Steel mill. And from there you can load it onto a train and either send it to the car manufacturer or to the border.
Speaking of borders lets talk a bit about economy in this game. You get two currencies. Rubles and Dollars. Only way to make money is to send something to a border checkpoint and sell it. If you sell it to a friendly east bloc country you get Rubles, if you send it to a NATO country you get dollars. Electricity is also a commodity.
Speaking of electricity. You also have to manage power grids, high voltage, medium voltage and low voltage. And make sure you have a transfer station within reach of buildings otherwise your buildings will not work.
Now a bit about vehicles, some buildings have optional vehicles (however optional means with no vehicles they are extremely ineffective). You can buy vehicles either using Rubles from East Bloc or by dollars from the West. Vehicles are historically accurate from what I can say. And with decent variety (which is growing) so I will be vague in this area.
Did I miss anything? Oh yes. I recommend the game. I am looking forward to new features.
Dear developers dont you dare change the resources in mines to finite... the game would turn into a nightmare. And multiplayer might be nice

Time to toss my two cents into the debate. I was a fan when the game got released, because it got some very unjustified controversy. Now two years later, corona lockdown, new PC, 50 inch 4K monitor. Time to play.
And it is every bit as gorgeous, fun, with many optional side activities, humor, and many other things.
Most importantly it is a game done right unlike some other franchises gone bad by other developers (looking at you EA and Bethesda).
I love how the characters are created, my favorite are Faith Seed, Hurk Drubman Sr. (we seriously need more politicians like that, no matter the country) and your pet bear Cheeseburger (yes you can have a bear companion and he is awesome).
When it comes to gameplay you can either go silent but deadly (my favorite approach, max scope sniper rifle with silencer, or bow) or guns blazing (with Cheeseburger or Hurk Drubman Jr).
Map is gorgeous (is Montana really like that?) made I believe the right size for this. Not too big not too little, considering you dont get a jet like in Just Cause).