Recent reviews by Swisspike

Where to start.

First, buy the game. It's great. Now I can explain why.

I have watched, as of the first day of issue, every video I can find of the gameplay. This includes Colonel Failure, Britto, Charlie Pryor, and Kanzalone and several others. About 30 hours' worth.

I have only played the game for about 3 hours, but this will increase rapidly over time. I love being retired!!

Game starts in New York City. You get a little seed money from your Uncle Fred, and you get an apartment, and a request to start a new business. This is in story mode. I'll address the sandbox mode here in a bit.

The story mode serves as an extended tutorial, and will last MANY years. Over time, you will get exposed, fairly slowly and with no time pressure to additional concepts and in-game requirements.

The game is great. Buy the game.

This game is a cross between the Sims, and an RPG, and an economic game like Capitalism 2 or C.E.O. There are about 20 different types of stores, and 50+ items you can purchase and stock in your stores. You set the price, store hours, and interior decorations.

Employee management is an entire mini-game. Training, taking care of their needs, assigning work hours, and managing the cost of hours is all a pretty hefty part of Big Ambitions.

Stock management is a MAJOR time sink, at the beginning, and is quite a challenge to get into a routine, to avoid running out of product when your store is open. You're given an old car, which you can upgrade to a much higher capacity panel van. There are various wholesalers to get your product from, as well as appliance stores, an IKEA-like store, and many others.

Personnel agencies, Marketing agencies, and Financial companies are all represented. You can absolutely borrow, and BORROW to set up your businesses. But..and this is useful, you can only borrow so much. Loans have to be paid back, and you can't cheese the borrowing process to overwhelm the game.

Buy this game. The game is great. As of this writing, the game as 100% positive reviews. For a reason. Peace. Out.

I thought I would take awhile before I wrote a review. With about 8 hours in the game, and having gone through a full season, I am pretty comfortable with my knowledge level. That..and I watched every single YouTube video on the game that exists.

OK..let me start by saying that I have played dozens of sports management sims. Several versions of OOTP, several versions of Front Office Football, several versions of Pro Football Strategy.

This game is better than all of them. Read that again.

As of this moment, 97% of all reviewers agree with me. If you have even the SLIGHTEST interest in college football, then this is a MUST purchase.

Where to start....you start by downloading a json file, available in the forums, that create the modern 2022 version of college football. The teams are there, the conferences are there, Alabama still kicks butt, and has a high prestige rating.

For my universe, I started with South Alabama, in the Sun Belt. They are the lowest rated team out of the 126 available. There are two game modes, one to stay with a program, and the other, the one I chose, that will give me a fifty season career, with the ability to change teams. My first year, I went 4-8, and was not offered a better job. Reasonable.

The recruiting of high school and junior college players in this game is ... extraordinary. Every single quality of life, all of the filters, all of the dropdowns are readily available. If you gave me a month, I couldn't develop a better system. You want to see all of the 2-star linebackers available in Oklahoma and Kentucky, ONLY?? Four clicks, in about five seconds.

You want to sort your potential recruits by skill? Done. By how much they love your program? Done. By how competitive your program is, with a realistic chance to sign? Done. My first year, I blasted through the recruiting, and automated it, heavily. I won't make that mistake again. I lost a couple of GOOD players that I probably could have gotten, if I had micro-managed the process.

This game is a manager's dream. You can automate some, none, or all of the game.

The play calling is classic X's and O's. You can call your own plays, save plays to your favorites, or have the AI suggest plays, or simply sim by play, or several other increments...until the next change of possession, or up to and including the entire game.

The statistics generated look thoroughly reasonable. The thorough training cycles are also very well done. You can train up your freshman, or your seniors, or allow the AI to determine which players are the best candidates for the MANY different types of training you can do.

There is NOTHING about this game that I don't like a lot. I have no recommendations for the developer, and this immediately becomes my favorite computer sports game.

I have completely edited my review, and changed my review from negative to positive.

The problem was a game killing bug that didn't allow you to progress, that was introduced into the game back in June, 2022.

Go look through the comments in the forums, and you can see players SCREAMING for a fix, for MONTHS.

Nothing...cut and paste responses, while the positive reviews slowly dropped down into the lower 40's, as a percentage.

The game, when it worked, was unique and excellent. With the most recent patches, I believe that the game is pack on track, and will continue to progress.

Much needed quality of life features are now included, such as a pause button, while you can give orders to your planes and ships.

I look forward to getting back into the game. As of this date, the game is better than the reviews.

OK. I played Capitalism 2 and Capitalism Lab until my fingers went numb. They are some of my most favorite games of all time.

This is better. Buy this game. This game is brilliant.

Why? I hardly know where to start.

First, the graphics are much better. This alone is enough.

Let's talk about the gameplay. Over 75 products, capitalism had 60, total.

Capitalism had cars, that required three items. Not at all complex or difficult to make.

Automobiles here? VASTLY more interesting and complicated production chains..and even more so with electronics. At least 8 to 10 separate production chains for the finished product.

Factories and other spaces are no longer constrained to just nine squares...now? I have much more per individual building, and can set up very large stores.

I started the first scenario, played about ten months, and am already using the following products: Won an auction for a timber cutting facility (AUCTIONS!!!!). This gave me wood, which I used in an adjacent factory for dining room furniture, and chairs. Just takes wood. Also with the wood, I am producing a butt load of paper for my diapers (sorry..heh heh), as well as toilet paper (sorry again..heh heh) This is perhaps the easiest production chain to get going.

I won a second auction for silica, and am making cat litter. Hmmm...got a theme going here. I also won a third auction for a gold mine, and with the silica making glass, I am producing and selling gold watches.

For ALL of these products, I am careful to analyze the "brand" contribution to the overall value. Gold watches are more sensitive to brand than many other products, so I am spending a higher percentage to get my brand awareness rating a little higher.

ALL of my products are slightly cheaper than the local products selling of the same type. I want a higher market share.

I just realized that I did not default my products to "internal sale", when I saw two of my competitors paying me wholesale for my products, then competing in the city directly against me. Oops. This is fixed, and they can suck on their empty stores.

I just set up my first research facility, to improve the technology of my products. Gotta be careful, as I know that I can research myself into bankruptcy. Again, I have looked to see which of my products can most benefit from a higher technology value.

To any fan of the original Capitalism series, this is an absolute no brainer. I am geeking out over how terrific the presentation is. MANY quality of life features that I would have love to have had in Capitalism are here now. I am on this game like a duck on a Junebug..and it's only May.

Also...after ten months in my first attempt, I am getting smoked by the competition, partly because I was too cautious to ramp up my products. Also..the seaports importing goods have EIGHT products they're importing, not the three of Capitalism 2. It will be more difficult to set up a monopoly on a specific product.

Also..I have not been fast enough to micro the selling prices, to squeeze out every last dollar. I will do that, going forward. At the first of each month, I will rotate through all my products, and adjust product pricing and brand awareness spending (marketing, essentially), as I feel the need.

GREAT game...no bugs at all, and works quite well to this point.

OK. Where to start.

I have had this game for a couple of years. It wasn't real fleshed out, and I struggled getting good cars designed.

I recently came back to this, and have enjoyed it immensely.

Designing a niche car, with the perfect combination of chassis, engine, and gearbox is very gratifying..and even more so when you look at the leader boards, and see that your "Fleur" is seventh all time in sales, out of 134 total vehicles.

A strong recommend on this game. The learning curve isn't too bad, and the car graphics are excellent.

OK..don't look at my hours played. I have watched every single video online that exists, spoken to the excellent developer at length, and just finished the ten separate excellent tutorials.

If you are like me, and have an interest in cycling, then this is a true no-brainer.

The level of detail and strategy in this game is exceptional.

I have several hundred Steam games, including many different racing games. This game is as good, or better, than Motorsport Manager, and that is, for me, very high praise indeed.

The career mode starts you with a poor team in the amateur division, and you progress from there. Each month of a nine month long season, you can scout one player, to put on your "shortlist." Similar to football (soccer). There are many different types and styles of riders, with their own strengths and weaknesses.

It is up to you to determine how you wish to construct your team...do you want speedy time trial'ers that do poorly in the mountains, or do want all goats that are terrible on the flats.

Driver skills range from one to twelve, and you can earn up to three specialties..giving three level one skills (hills, flats, downhills, etc.), or one or two superpowers. In a perfect world, you would create your team with synergies in mind, to complement each other's racing styles and needs. You cannot realistically win a team event with just one, strong rider.

The game itself is polished, and remarkably thorough for a one person development team. HEY KILLROB!!! I find this game more thorough in how it treats racing than PCM....who has a massive development team, and keeps churning out the same game year after year, overlooking the most basic and fundamental flaws in the gameplay.

I would rate this game as excellent, already, and it will almost certainly be improved over time.

Each season, 43 different courses are semi-randomly generated, and each course is completely unique, within certain parameters. The Archana tracks might be hilly or mountainous, and within that subset, a new course is done each year. Similar to the Tour De France..that never uses the exact route twice.

For those of you that are concerned about the staying power of this game...look again at my hours played. You will see that I play this game a lot (even though it is just 1.1 hours currently...these are my solid plans).

Sound is great, music is great, and the color palette used is bright and cheerful.

Just a great game overall...and sure to be one of my Steam favorites out of well over 300 games.

Purchased ... and refunded.

Let me start by saying that I am a Grognard...I played the Carrier! boardgame by Southard, and just about ever Avalon Hill/SPI/Compass/Victory Point and other board game manufacturers that are out there.

I had very high hopes for this one, but refunded after 41 minutes.

It is a mobile port, with a terrible, TERRIBLE problem of not accepting left mouse clicks, freezing, and stuttering. I gave up, during the first tutorial. I started this several times, and thought I was messing up. Nope....the interface beat me as bad as the Japanese beat up on Pearl Harbor.

There are better games for me to spend my money on. A BIG no to this one.

The game has been out eleven days, and I have 110 hours in. Do you think I might like it? Heh heh heh.

I've been playing railroad sims, on the PC, since the original Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon. You cannot name one rail sim game that I haven't played. Well...A-Train, but the reviews sucked.

The original Railroad Tycoon game had a hard limit of 32 trains. I would just be getting going, and pretty much be done.

In this game, which I have named "National", I started in Boston, and haven't yet made it out of Massachusetts...heading southwest, towards New York City.

I have 468 individual trains, across 48 separate lines. One main line, and four spur lines running fast trains, and 43 tram feeders, in to the main lines.

Prices are set per trip, or per kilometer (sorry, no miles here..but a KM is 0.61 miles, deal with it) or a combination of the two.

Save up money, spend it wisely, expand, rinse, repeat.

The world is your gameplay area, down to street level. Yep. I guarantee you that you can zoom into the street where you live. I did..and it's a relatively new community, and it has my street, right on the lake. I build a tram system for my city, and turned a nice profit!

Anyway, I will finish my rail line to New York City, then head southwest to Philly, then to Baltimore, then to DC, then somewhere west.

I fully expect to have several thousand trains running, in one MASSIVE coast to coast rail operation.

The problem I have had, over the last 100 or so hours, is that I am learning the game, and figuring out more efficient and cool way of doing things. Not that the learning curve is high..it isn't.

There is some complexity in how you determine route spacing...the distance between individual trains on your line. Too close, and the second runs empty. Not enough trains, and passengers get angry at waiting. They also get angry if you try to rip them off...and the price you charge is very critical.

I have a ton of suggestions and tips in the discussion board, as do many other players. The developer Carlos is a one man band, and is very active in the discussions. Kudos to him, he is a damned fine programmer.

How do I know this? My 468 train, 48 line railroad empire runs perfectly. No stuttering, no glitches, no graphics tearing, NOTHING. At 60x speed. Yep. I can turn on turbo mode, and watch the money role in, and no issues at all.

I do expect at some point that my humongously massive vastly overbuilt empire (at some point!!) might run a little slower on my computer, and that would be fine as well. I wouldn't expect ten thousand trains, with EACH passenger modeled would run like butta, in any event.

Just go buy the damned game. It's the best sim out there. How good is it? I bought Dyson Sphere Generator the same day, and haven't hardly played it, and IT'S an excellent game.

I have had this game for a couple of weeks. I love this game.

I have played 49 matches, and I am keeping very detailed statistics on the results. I am winning 55% of all the matches, under the most difficult AI.

My scoring average is very close to 80 points, with the AI getting, on average, about 67 points.

There is enough strategy here to make each game unique, and entertaining. I have yet to use the same cards twice, given the 170 different birds.

I normally play between 8 and 12 birds, and the possible combinations MUST be in the billions.

Each match starts with a bonus card..two are displayed, one is chosen. This will DIRECTLY affect the starting cards you take..you want to get a good start at earning the end of game bonuses. For this reason, the starting bonus card will force you to go a certain direction. It may be that you need all big birds..likely wetlands birds. The wetlands birds, normally, will result in a large number of bird cards in your hand. This in turn would mean focusing on food production to be a secondary priority, with just enough egg production needed to place the birds.

There are an enormous number of synergies and inter-relationships between cards. After 49 matches, I don't feel that I have even scratched the surface of the available combos.

This is a GREAT game, and highly recommended.

This is an early review. At review time, I have about 2 hours of gameplay, and about 25 hours of watching YouTube video.

I have sufficient knowledge to give a good review..so bear with me.

First, I am a life-long golfer, and first played in 1974. I am also a lifelong PC and X-Box golfer, having played just about every golf game ever made, from PGA Tour golf for my Pentium 1, up to all the Links series golf games, all the Tiger Woods, and especially every game that ever sported a golf course designer.

Sid Meier (Civilization, Colonization) had a game called Sim Golf, back in the day. It was brilliant, and I put HUNDREDS of hours designing course after course. This game is clearly a spiritual successor to Sim Golf. But better.

How is it better? OK...

First, the actual layers of the course, the greens, fairways, sandtraps, various types of roughs, can be told to over-write the underlying terrain, or to leave it alone. If you like the size of your green, but want to "paint" a sandtrap that leaves your green alone, you can do that. If you want to shave off a too-large green, and replace it with a sand trap, simply tell the terrain tool to over-write the green. Simple, intuitive, and done with a single click.

So...designing the physical hole is a start. What about if it is on the side of a hill? Get rid of the hill, raise the surrounding terrain, work around the hill, or use one of the special tools to have the ball bounce off the hill. Endless possibilities here.

You start with a clubhouse, and three holes. As you gain money, you can increase your clubhouse size over time, and this opens up the ability to produce more holes. From 3 to 6, then 9, and so on, up to 18. There are nine sections of the map you can unlock and purchase. Each section has sufficient room to produce 3-6 holes, so your 18 hole course has plenty of room. Heck. I could probably produce three full courses on the available map space.

This gives you plenty of room to place the ancillary techs of your course..driving range, putting green, etc. Planning is the key. You probably don't want to crown holes close to your clubhouse. You want the support structures, and some decoration to "rank up" your beauty score.

Your 200 golfers are persistent, and will golf over and over. If your course isn't improving, they they're not upgrading their memberships. If they don't upgrade their memberships, you ain't upgrading your clubhouse. If you aren't upgrading your clubhouse, you aren't going to be allowed to product more holes. SO.....not only do you need more holes, you need to continue to upgrade the holes you already have. It isn't a matter of create, and go onto the next one.

I suspect that the end game will be hard. My first game, I am on hole 5, and a severe thunderstorm decided I was done for a bit..but I will fire it back up here directly.

Buy this game. I am an old-time strategy gamer, with several hundred games in my account. Take a look at the games on my list, and you will see that I like deep, complex games. This is deep, but not complex. I have found it to be fun, refreshing, and accessible. Today is day one of release. Note the hours played, over time, and you will see that I like this game, A LOT.

Day one purchase for me, and I simply cannot recommend the game highly enough.