Recent reviews by Aldgillis

Phenomenal.

Beam.NG is a simulator marked by consistent improvement over a long period of time. Instead of focusing on the fantastic and unique gameplay, as others have done, I would like to point to the quality of the developers.

Since 2015:

1. Performance has been optimized to make traffic realistically possible, something that was unthinkable at the beginning.
2. Audio has been much improved, one of my main criticisms early-on.
3. Graphics have improved.
4. Previously released vehicles have been completely reworked (something I have not really seen done in other games). In other words, the devs are not only expanding their game through free updates, but are also honing their product over time.

The main features I would suggest implementing are:
1. Scratches, scuffs, and mud decals on cars, similar to what is seen in GTA IV and V.
2. Tire thermals, one large omission on the simulator side of things.
3. Priority to reworking lights on some vehicles to look better at night (like the Barstow). I am assuming this will come with car reworks.
4. Making skid sounds occur in a more realistic manner. Currently, skid sounds are too frequent.

Overall, it has been a pleasure to see how far Beam.NG has come, even with the initial release itself being a significant improvement over Rigs of Rods.

Impressive voxel physics game. Hopefully it gets more mod/workshop support in the future.

I don't really enjoy the timed missions, but it's very fun as a sandbox.

Pretty good base game. I'm writing this review without the expectation that CK3 should have all the DLC content of CK2.

Personal negatives:

- Lack of statistics screen which shows ongoing wars, independent realms, holdings in your demesne, all counties, etc. Not having this seems like a huge oversight.

- Lack of maps modes, such as revolt risk.

- Clunky UI. This is partially due to being used to CK2, but I think CK3's current interface needs work. Why have the character and location search buttons hidden within another button? Why is there no holding income section of the UI?

- Steamlined military in general. Battle screen is simplified and only shows a morale bar and dice rolls. I will not comment on the new levy/men-at-arms mechanics, which I assume may be controversial.

- The way cultures work seems overly gamey. I'm not sure how I feel about culture-based development and traits. Also, why would converting under-developed counties to your culture (which, say, holds many well-developed holdings) potentially limit your culture's development? It works as a game mechanic, but it doesn't make much sense beyond that.

- While I like the direction they've taken for religion in general, there are some glaring oddities. The Iberian Muwalladi "religion" is a very awkward way of showing the multi-cultural characteristics of the peninsula. Including what was, in reality, a cultural trait in game as a religion seems like a very poor choice for a game like Crusader Kings. Also, dividing Sunni Islam into particular theological schools (Ash'ari vs. Maturidi) that would have, historically, not been distinguishable groups to the vast majority of Sunnis is a bad decision, in my opinion. It's absurd for the differences between these branches to be treated as equivalent to Catholicism vs. Apostolic/Oriental Orthodox Christianity.

Positives:

- Graphics, audio, character models, etc. I won't go into this because of how much it has been stated by others.

- The base "roleplaying" gameplay and decisions seem quite good. This appears to be where a lot of the developers' efforts were placed.

- Better counties, religions, and culture groups for many regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa.

Overall, this game is worth it because many issues should be fixed via mods and future DLC releases.

FYI; I have many more CK2 hours off of steam

I appreciate that a part of this series has finally been made available for PC.