Recent reviews by Figureight

ribbit ribbit froggy says buy it

I've not played a flight sim since the 90s. I have no idea about the intricacies of flying, and I'm a complete amateur flyer. After following the tutorials and doing lots of flight practice with a jet (and having many failures), I decided to do a long flight to look at Hurricane Genevieve up close (thanks to the live weather system). I managed to find my way back to land, find an airport and land a jet for the first time. The feeling of satisfaction is the most I've got from a game in a very long time. This game definitely takes time to learn, but it feels so rewarding. Also the views are stunning.

Negatives: I wish there were more tutorials with more powerful planes, and covered things in more detail. After giving you the basics you're pretty much on your own, and has lead to some frustrating experiences as things were happening in my plane that I didn't know how to deal with properly. Also it's quite unstable in terms of crashes.

The only thing this game is cooking is my GPU.

Zero frame limiter options. No vsync options. Had to turn it off as my computer was running hotter than I've ever seen it before. All my fans shot up to 100%. Wild.

The game looks really promising and fun and I want to play more but until this glaring issue is resolved it's unplayable.

It's an interesting game concept. The game feels quite linear at least in what we've been shown so far. Gameplay consists of you following some lists of things to do such as checking occupants of the car crash and putting out fires etc. You do this by clicking some dots to complete tasks. Other than you spraying the fire extinguisher and the CPR "mini game", your involvement is really just clicking things. You also have to do these things generally in the order it tells you to, and only one thing can be done at a time even if in real life you could multi-task. You also can't just decide for yourself how you want to go about doing it. Even if there is only one true way to do it in order to pass the level, it would have been nicer to have more freedom on the order of things, and that the list was more of a suggestion of order rather than a definite order. For example from a speedrun perspective it would make sense to me that I call in the current location and put a warning triangle out by my car at the very start whilst I'm already at my car so that it's already done. Instead of having to run back out of the way back to my car to look at the GPS to give my location. Especially considering for a man dealing with a life or death situation helping people, he's an incredibly slow runner.

These small dots you click on also mean you have to be accurate in your clicking. It would be a lot more comfortable if we could use a keyboard function to trigger these, and have a larger hitbox to aim at too.
Some of the actions are really quite tedious too, such as putting people into the recovery position. You have to click on multiple parts of the body and drag with mouse to complete it, instead of just pressing the button to do it. I mean I get why they have it, it just doesn't really translate well into gameplay and feels clunky and slow.

It's also kind of weird when you're doing CPR, whilst this whole time you're trying to get mentally involved in the scene and simulate as if you are dealing with this road traffic accident, but then suddenly once you finish doing CPR the game just stops what it's doing to congratulate you that you beat your high score. It feels like a really strange thing to be happening in the middle of the game in what is supposed to be a scene where you're working against the clock to save people's lives. I'd have thought that sort of thing would fit better at the end of the level.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DELYX5H7ogs

Anyone who has played Car Mechanic Simulator will get an idea of how this plays. Only this time instead of engine building, you're cleaning up dirt, knocking down walls, plastering cavities, fitting in toilet & showers, rewiring plugs, painting walls, tiling bathrooms, and then having a go at interior design.

Earning money is done initially with you working as a freelance cleaner / electrician / plumber / painter / builder getting jobs in to make money, and you then progress to buying your own houses to renovate yourself and sell at auction to a bunch of prospective buyers.

As the game progresses you unlock skills help you build walls faster, paint more wall sections at once, clean places quicker, negotiate better prices at auction and more. You can then as you start buying and selling houses move up the property ladder and get bigger and more intricate houses. There doesn't seem to be much difficulty added to the game though, it's very much casual in it's play style. I've not noticed any unexpected things that you might expect when doing DIY such as items breaking, boilers going wrong, power cuts or water leaks (other than from the radiator if you don't start installing it but don't finish). Would have been nice if we had some things working against us after the initial dirty state of a house, as once you clean up the place seems to stay that way (other than the occasional cobweb appearing).

The game currently ties you down to the shape of the house you buy, as it offers no abilities to build extensions, basements, attic conversions, garages etc but you can knock down internal walls and change the floorplan yourself to how you want it. Useful if a prospective buyer wants more bedrooms for example so you can change the house to fit their needs. There's lots of items in the game already, and many that have options such as changing colours of kitchen carcasses, worktops and doors, so you can mix and match items.

The doomsday prepper style DLC is an interesting touch too, as it adds certain properties with bunkers hidden underneath them that you can stock up for certain clients who want that sort of thing. But it doesn't really add anything like disasters for you to want to use a bunker. It just adds an extra bunker area in certain houses you can buy.

It's a nice casual game with a creative outlet added to it. I found it very easy to spend a few hours at a time playing this, as it's quite satisfying to start with such a huge mess of a house and clean it all up and turn it into a home.

Edit: Loads of initial bugs have already been fixed hours after release, including the addition of a cursor on the main menu!

For:
+ Parts system overhaul, feels more detailed than previous
+ Lots more cars to play with
+ Highly improved garage
+ Lots of new features to get on with

Against:
- Doesn't feel very optimised. Starter garage I get 60fps, but full specced garage is quite laggy
- Control system overhaul could be jarring for previous CMS players. Quite fumbly.
- Lack of detailed graphics settings & Anti Aliasing.
- No in-game settings (even for audio)
- Quite buggy from launch (but fixes seem to be coming soon)

TL;DR: If you want to jump into a bug-less game, I'd wait a few weeks for updates to come out and see how bugs / optimisation has been improved on.


Detailed:
For anyone who has played the previous iterations of Car Mechanic Simulator, you're going to know the basics of what to expect with this one. This new version does have some interesting new details however like the ability to choose diameter and offset when buying wheels or choosing diameter, profile and width when buying tires. Sadly it wouldn't let me put 20s on a customer's car. It doesn't explain the parameters for which wheels / sizes you can use on a given car, so no idea if you can deviate from the standard size and fit.
You can now change interiors in cars by taking seats out and putting in some different coloured trim. The interior can come damaged and be repaired now, but it's still only a simple repair function much like the "welder" from the previous games. Click the tool, tell it to fix the car and it repairs it for you in one go. And again the welder works just as it did previously. No cutting out and welding bits of bodywork like the promo video would suggest you can do. Another cool addition I like was now you can open doors to the different parts of the workshop (paint shop, testing bay etc) and walk in and roam around them. They are now all part of the same garage and there is no loading times between them.

As far as controls go, the control's system has had an overhaul presumably to accommodate the console versions but in doing so it has put more focus on using the mouse to select all functions, rather than using both keyboard and mouse as you did in the previous CMS. Personally I found this change quite jarring, given that I was very much used to the previous set of controls. You can't hit the number keys to switch between mount and unmounting of parts, you have to right click and change the function that way, which is confusing given that the right mouse was used for removing parts and bolts in the previous game. It's left me accidentally opening up the menu more times than I've spent playing the game properly. Also an interesting point is the menu currently is not controlled by the mouse? Again another sign of it being designed to be usable for consoles, but there is currently a feeling of lack of separation between console and PC version. However the game does now come with an editor for mod creation. Will be interesting to see how much that is utilised by the community in the future.

There are quite a lot of bugs I've noticed (ranging from unfinished tooltips to game-breaking item dupe bugs that can make you infinite money), however I have passed these on to the publishers and they've told me they are working on them. Honestly given their previous track record of updating and fixing issues and adding features in the previous CMS games, I have faith those bugs will be fixed. It's just a shame as some of them are really glaringly obvious and should honestly have been fixed prior to release day.

Graphics wise, well right now there seems to be an issue with me applying changes to graphics settings. It's telling me medium when I am trying to apply ultra, but this might be a visual bug in the menu. I have no real ability to gauge graphics setting changes. The biggest issue for me however is there are no AA options or even just deeper graphical options other than an overall setting of low, medium, high and ultra. Lack of anti-aliasing is a big one for me right now though as this game is in dire need of it.

Performance wise, in the initial tutorial where you're allowed to roam around a fully specced out garage and are shown all the features, I did notice it dipping below 60fps at some points. It's probably going to give new players a bad taste, as the first thing you see is a laggy garage. The small garage once you start playing though for me hasn't had any performance problems (4770K, GTX1070, 16GB Ram). However from what I can tell so far when it comes to loading times, I think there has been a slight improvement, but so far being only able to test loading between the garage and the test track, it's still substantial but it does honestly feel a bit quicker. I will note that after the first initial load of those places, loading into those places again does feel quicker next time around. So in that respect I will say it has been improved.

Overall I am still recommending this game because as mentioned I feel the bugs and issues it currently has will be improved on and fixed, but I will add that currently despite being excited for it's future I am not 100% happy with it yet. It's not as well optimised in game as before, even if loading times have been somewhat improved. However the additions of new features and improvements on the older features has still left me with some things to do in the game for now, as performance hasn't been too bad for me personally.

Beautiful looking game. Very portal esque in how it plays, and somewhat how it looks too. Has a nice backstory, and the narration is well done. It's a very high quality piece of work.
The one trailing thing for me however, is it really could do with more of a challenge to it. It's not as difficult or as puzzling as I'd like it to be, but was still enjoyable to play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRgOrySsWQ0

Firstly, this might be new to Steam, but it's an old game (First made 2007). I definitely don't feel it's dated THAT much though. It's not at the levels of ETS2 / ATS in terms of graphics or immersiveness, but there is still a lot of game here.

The city you drive on is a fictional Russian city, so whilst it offers modes to drive with US laws, EU laws, Australian laws and Russian laws, the city still looks and feels completely Russian or at least Eastern European. Australian laws offers the ability to drive on the left but again, this city still feels Russian and feels designed for driving on the right. I'd recommend EU or Russian law driving.

The game is playable with keyboard but you're not getting the full effect until you use a wheel like the G27. It has clutch control and H shifter control, so becomes a lot more intuitive using it this way. It apparently can work with controllers but I can't get mine to work. I've seen videos of it working though but can't speak on that.

Career mode does have some things to do, all based around the idea of testing you on driving manouvers and experiencing different situations in driving, but looking through what's on offer I can't help but think there should be more things to do. .

Graphics and performance wise, it's really not that bad. You can tell that gameplay is placed first before graphics but it's definitely not terrible to look at. Uses a lot of higher res textures, and lighting is pretty good. Performance is actually great running GTX670 and 4770K. Definitely seems optimized for modern machines despite it's age.

Overall I think this is a great game. I'm an experienced driver but I still enjoy it purely because it's a change from the norm in terms of car driving games as it doesn't have a focus on racing. It can be somewhat therapeutic driving around, just like in the same way you'd enjoy a game like Euro Truck Sim.

I launch into my first ever game. I arrive in a trench with a bolt action rifle and a gas mask. I notice a look out post just up ahead. I set up shop, aim down my sights and look into the wastelands beyond me. I see nobody. Then suddenly the sound of a small metal object flies up next to me with an abrupt stop. I look down to my right. My comrade is laying on the floor lifeless beside me. I panic. I take aim and look back into No Man's Land; I can't see anyone. Time passes; I am still alive. I decide this is it I must make a move. I find a nearby ladder and start climbing up over the edge of my trench. I'm still alive. This is amazing, I feel not only invincible but invisible. I run as fast as I can towards the enemy trench when suddenly I stop. I look down; I am stuck, my trousers are tied up in a mess of barbed wire. I try to move forward out of it but it is of no use. A brief small winding noise flies towards me, a bullet gets lodged in my head. I have died, my corpse stuck in a mess of barbed wire, my helmet a few feet away.

I respawn and return to my previous post. I take aim and look out and there he is. A head just peering over a sandbag on the edge of the enemy trench. I hold my breath, aim the gun straight at his head and pull the trigger. I've never felt so excited and rewarded for getting a single kill in my life. I stop to celebrate for a brief moment, pumping my fist in the air, only to return my eyes to the screen and see I've been killed again. Damn this game is good.

Most of the time is spent playing a mini game where you select a truck and click on an icon on a map of someone who is broken down.

The bit that would be vaguely interesting takes up a tiny bit of the time and it's really easily solvable.

Massive let down of a game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3T-v2zAwYk