Recent reviews by machina22

Superb. Recently played through all of the franchise and some of the games that were inspired by it (The Surge series, Salt & Sanctuary, Blasphemous, Lords of the Fallen, and Bloodborne on PS4) and I have to say that out of all of them this is comfortably the best. Easily one of the best games of the decade too. Can't wait for the next one.

As a racing game? Not great, not bad. As a GRID game? So, so disappointing. GRID has been my favourite racing series since the first one in 2008, and I vaguely remember enjoying TOCA as a kid too.

What did I love most about it? The damage system. That is, damage modelling (visuals), damage physics (the impact on gameplay from damage), the epic variety when it came to crashes, attempting to find a way through the inevitable pile up at the first corner, and the needing to weave in and out of vehicles littering the race track as you reach the later stages. Sadly almost none of that is a feature of this reboot, to a baffling extent really.

There is damage modelling. That's the one thing that's carried over effectively. Vehicles look good when they're battered up, bits and pieces fly off if you get hit/hit someone in the right way, from bumpers to the bonnet.

Unfortunately none of that matters, because the damage physics just aren't there. You have to >seriously< smash your car up to even get so much as a puncture, and I've yet to see a terminal crash in my 6+ hours of gameplay. In the original, if you go head first into a wall at 80mph it'll almost always result in terminal damage, and if it doesn't it will at the very least result in crippling damage (which itself could be a fun part of the gameplay, because limping around trying to hold onto your position was quite fun). In the reboot? Ha! It's as if you merely tapped the barrier. You just carry on as if nothing ever happened.

That means crashes lack meaning. Those later stage races where car wreckages litter the track and you have to dodge them? Not here, ever. And the first corner pile up? Meaningless - no one takes any impactful damage even on max settings, so you quickly get back up to speed.

And that's before even mentioning the limited track and vehicle count (almost par for the course nowadays).

GRID strode a fun line between Destruction Derby, DiRT, and rivals like NFS. Now it just feels like a bland clone; no personality, limited thrills, limited content.

Codies was my favourite racing dev for the longest time, but they've been disappointing since 2011. The GRID series and Codies continue their long, slow decline with yet another perfectly serviceable but always perfectly bland, content-limited racer. Worth a buy if you like the odd racer here and there AND it's on sale, otherwise skip it.

Tough to say whether I'd recommend it or not. On balance I've said yes just because it's now so cheap. Back when it first released I would've said not worth it.

The first 10+ hours are really good, but after that it quickly falls into the Ubisoft-esque open world trap of repeating the same core set of quests that are marked on a map in order to advance. So you complete one set of quests relating to the location you're in, which opens up a new one, where you then have to repeat those same quests just in a slightly different location.

Pros:
+ Looks quite good and captures much of the spirit of the franchise
+ All of the gameplay systems are well polished
+ Nicely balanced in terms of difficulty
+ Really good fun for 10-15 hours

Cons:
+ The open world is very samey
+ Repetition of quest types makes the game a total grind after 15 or so hours

I'm surprised by how much I've enjoyed this game. I don't actually like the Dark Souls series, so seeing everyone say it was Souls-like (to put it politely) almost put me off. I'm glad it didn't.

+ Neat futuristic, sci-fi setting
+ Looks great and runs even better
+ Addictive, weighty gameplay
+ A good challenge without being too difficult
+ I like the upgrade systems
+ Limb-focused combat is cool
+ The risk/reward nature or staying away from base for too long, and feeling very isolated and at risk when venturing away from it for the first few times on each level
+ Can progress at your own pace, and there's always the fall-back option of grinding slightly better stats or gear if you're struggling with an area (usually a boss)

= Levels can feel quite maze-like at first and it's possible to get lost, but you gradually memorise them
= The bosses aren't the highlight I was hoping/expecting them to be after hearing all the Souls comparisons

- It does become repetitive towards the end for two key reasons: 1) enemy variety is quite limited, and 2) you have to revisit one of the levels (and you do so not once but twice)
- Dis-incentivised to trying out new weapons (you level up your gear class so once you commit to a certain class of gear you're unlikely to ever try out the alternatives in that playthrough)
- Sometimes you may get stuck not knowing where to go or what to do next. I ended up clearing levels entirely of enemies a couple of times, trying to work out what to do next, before resorting to a guide that told me exactly where I needed to go

So I'd definitely recommend it, but ironically probably not to Souls fans, who seem as likely to rip into this as being inferior as they are to say they enjoy it because of the similarities. It stands really well in its own right and I'm glad I decided to give it a shot.

Disappointing. Big fan of Codies racers ordinarily - GRID was my favourite racing game for most of the last generation and I've owned every entry in the DiRT and GRID series since Colin McRae: Dirt. Unfortunately they seem to have dropped the ball here.

+ The racing gameplay is fun.
+ Enjoyed the weather effects and their impact on gameplay.
+ Solid soundtrack.

= Menu presentation is nice I suppose.
= Graphics - neither amazing nor bad, just decent.
= No Gymkhana or drift events. Personally wasn't a big fan of it anyway tho the odd event here and there did add a bit of variety to past titles.
= Management elements. Meh.

- Modes have been removed but nothing has been added to take their place, so the game feels hollow/lacking.
- What is there is pretty bare bones, especially the X rally and Landrush stuff (the only two modes involving other cars on the track).
- X rally tracks in particular are tiny and therefore quickly become repetitive and boring, even in their complete varients
- Even the rest of the game feels limited in terms of locations/stages. After a couple of hours you start to think 'hmm, this feels familiar', by the time I got to 4 1/2 I was sick to death of the repetitiveness. I have never felt this way about a mainline DiRT game before, not even DiRT Rally which was up-front about its lack of content and the reasons for it.
- On top of that a couple of tracks are simply lifted straight out of DiRT Rally... That's just lazy.

This is without a doubt the worst of the mainline DiRT games for its time - even the lacklustre experiment that was DiRT ShowDown gives it a run for its money.

Atmospheric, haunting, mysterious... this game is just sublime. Exactly what I was hoping for from PlayDead after Limbo.

They nailed it again. Was first introduced to the N series with N+ on XBLA last generation. This is exactly what a sequel should be - way more content, superb level design, a nice graphical (or to be more precise, more colourful) upgrade, a much more extensive soundtrack, but the perfectly tight and addictive platforming gameplay untouched.

It also manages to be as challenging as N+ but, thanks to there being so many more levels, the difficulty curve is much more even and you shouldn't find yourself locked out of levels (with N+ I found a good third of the levels were permanently inaccessible to me because I hit and brick wall of difficulty and just couldn't unlock them; that's much less of a problem here).

High recommended for anyone who likes a tough platformer.

Not only is it ugly, and not only does it sound horrendous, but it's also, somehow, a buggy mess. Awful.

Has an absolutely beautiful art style, and very deep and original first person platforming gameplay. Definitely worth buying in a sale - this is one of the previous generation's most underrated gems.

So far it's been superb. Only played it for 4 hours at the time of writing this review, but wanted to add my feedback so far to the user review score. Will update if anything goes drastically wrong in the future, but I doubt it will. Haven't been this impressed with a game for quite a while.

Looks great even on medium settings. I technically just miss the 'Minimum Requirements' for the game but it runs just fine anyway on medium; high is a bit too much for my rig (I get too much screen-tearing for my liking). If you miss the Minimum Reqs for the game but really want to give it a shot I'd recommend trying anyway - you might get lucky like me, and you can always refund it if your rig really can't run it.

This game has all of the trappings of those older Rollercoaster Tycoon games that made them so compelling - from financial management, to all of the quirky shops and rides, plenty of customisation options for your rollercoasters and park design, etc. etc. etc.

Finally a truly worthy spiritual successor to those games!

This is to Rollercoaster Tycoon what Cities: Skylines was to The Sims and then some.