Recent reviews by Scaryspikes

This is an early access review after 50 hours of game play.

The best advice I can give you is to set your expectations accordingly and you will have a great time.

There ARE bugs, issues, hiccups, crashes, slowdowns and stutters. There ARE queues for logging in on your friend's server (sometimes). There IS a long wait to reach support.

HOWEVER - for early access, this is a great game. It takes a LOT from Tarkov, and makes it better. And as long as the developers don't get as greedy as devs from Tarkov, they will do better than Tarkov.

For one, it gives players the choice to play PvEvP or PvE. In PvE (Joint Operations) mode, there is no PvP whatsoever. Not even members of the opposing factions can kill you. However, the AI enemies are strong. In some cases, VERY strong. (Read more in my pros and cons below). They scale up quickly, and wear gear that is very capable both offensively and defensively.

One of the areas that this game improves upon Tarkov is environment. While there are stutters and hitches loading areas as you explore them (mostly on the heli), this is an open world. And once you load in for the first time, save those hitches and stutters, you are free to roam anywhere you want (any pay the consequences).

Secondly, you can actually see. The environment is bright and lush, forests and brush everywhere, peppered by small outposts, settlements, villages and a few cities. There's a lot to see, but much of it is repeated, included the 3 starter cities that each faction is located near.

The inventory system also draws parallels to Tarkov but is in dire need of improving over it. Being able to stack items and auto sort them with a button or filters would be infinitely better than the current system of doing everything by hand, which is tedious and NOT fun.

The sound design is also great. The music is nice, though infrequent. The ambient sounds represent a tropical island full of animals and plantlife. The reactions of guards (who can hear you even through walls and floors, at least for now) definitely raise the pulse as you never know what's around the corner, and as they taunt you to come out of hiding.

And I think most importantly to me, the GUNS. Firearms here are exceptionally well represented. They are realistic and true to their form and function in the real world. Many parts (some simplified for the ease of accessibility in a game) work just the way you think they would in real life. Ballistics are accurate. Ammunition is varied and realistic both in its construction, ballistic coefficient, armor penetration capability, weight (grain) and the firearms in which they are compatible or useful. Enemies hit in the head generally go down instantly if your ammunition was chosen correctly for the armour the enemy was wearing (using a 9mm handgun from 100m at an enemy wearing III+ is NOT enough). This is REALLY well done and I can't wait to see more guns, ammo, and accessories in the future.

One concern though is that there seems to be a wide assortment of manufacturers represented here. From Colt, to EOTECH, to Vortex... And while this is great, one wonders if these names and logos are used under license, or not.... Regardless, it adds a level of realism that a gun guy like me can really appreciate, since I own many of the optics and firearms in this game.

Overall it's a very well put together package in terms of early access. While I generally frown upon devs releasing games that customers need to pay to test, I feel like this project has potential. And if that potential, and the generosity of their supports is NOT abused, these developers can take this game to great heights.

At this point I would definitely recommend this game.

So, while it's still fresh and has its super trooper initial shock value, it's amusing and fun, and worth playing. But underneath that, this game is very barebones. Very limited progression and not much to do once you've gone through the general game loop of finding an arbitrary place to go, evacuating all the people or killing all the bugs etc... And then doing it all over again. And again. And again. There's no real content here to keep you going, it's mostly all filler and that's disappointing because the game is really charming and could have been a lot more engaging.

Mix Pokemon, the new Zelda games (on Switch), Ark: Survival Evolved and guns, and you have this. Holy hell. What a mash up. What a really good, stupidly addictive mash up.

If I could summarize my experience in one sentence it would be this:

Baulder's Gate 3 is lovingly crafted with vivid visuals, a splendid soundtrack and genuinely brilliant moment to moment gameplay. And what's best, it was all done without microtransactions.

This is how games should be done. And any developer that tells you that this is an outlier is jealous because they weren't the ones to release it.

What Larian has done here is nothing short of remarkable. If you've played Divinity: Original Sin, or Original Sin II, you'll be right at home here, even though there are noticeably more nods to the D&D world that has obviously inspired this, and their previous games.

Character development is enthralling, with rich backstories for characters you actually care about. You'll form meaningful connections with characters you meet, your decisions can change their disposition towards you, and even foster a relationship over a longer period of time. And you'll be ecstatic or heartbroken if and when good or bad things happen to them.

The visuals and score work in concert to produce vibrant, memorable scenes rich with detail and nuance. The colors are vibrant without being too saturated, and the overall tone is colorful but mature in nature. The music can be incredibly subtle sometimes, yet still profound enough to help you understand the location or situation you may find yourself in.

There are a number of classes and builds to try, none of which will hold your hand - but all of which will reward you for your persistence and patience. There are sub classes and many different types of weapons and armors which you can wear to help you on your adventure.

Player choice is not a figment of your imagination - choices you make have long reaching consequences, both good and bad. And, can wildly vary the outcome of various situations and the story at large. Characters react realistically to your choices and their behavior towards you can change in an instant if you do something they don't like.

While I have not finished the game, I can tell you that it is incredibly easy to get lost into going down a certain path you never thought you'd find yourself in. These "Black Rabbit Holes" (theoretically speaking, not literally) are everywhere and can seriously derail your adventure in both good and bad ways if you're not laser focused on going to do a particular thing without wandering off too far off the beaten path. If you're like me and easily get distracted off the main quest in a game, you'll actually be rewarded (most of the time) for letting your curiosity get the best of you and coming back to what you were doing later.

I am pleasantly surprised in a way - that this game is as deep, complex and yet enjoyable as it is, but also not that surprised given that Larian has had a streak of genius in their previous games, and it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect something similar in BG3.

If you love RPGs, D&D, or both - you owe it to yourself to try this game. At the very least it will support a developer who is in a minority among the money hungry corporate conglomerate scum bags that make AAA games these days - in that they produce solid, well made, well thought out, engaging, enjoyable and full experiences for your money without microtransactions to milk you for all you're worth. So even if by some miracle you don't fully enjoy the game, at least you'll be supporting the notion of respecting gamers while making good games.

100 Hour Review

Before I summarize the things I like and don't like, consider this. A game, this, or any other, is going to be good or bad depending a lot on your own expectations. If you expect a space sim, please turn back now as you will be bitterly disappointed. However, if you are looking for a masterpiece Bethesda RPG experience, you have found it.

GRAPHICS
The graphics in Starfield can be beautiful or grotesque depending on how you look at it. Art design in general is superb, the colour palette is somewhat muted, though not so much so that it becomes bleak and unnatural. Texture work in general is fantastic, in most places. Planets are great from afar for example, while up close they are essentially hollow 3D JPEGS. Attention to detail is quite high, and the visual presentation in the UI and UX is pleasing, though lacking substance. CAS and FSR 2.0 are available but do little to mitigate the game's graphically unoptimized state. At time of writing, Bethesda has announced DLSS 2/3 coming to 3k/4k series nVidia cards soon.

SOUND
The sound design is spectacular. From the score to the sound effects, the soundtrack really thrusts you in to a huge, mysterious and at times eerie universe where peril is hiding around every corner. The score itself is incredibly well done with sound queues changing based on what's happening, leading to more than one change in blood pressure on a given mission. Sounds of firearms is also VERY detailed, with things like shell casings clearly being heard, but not being overbearing - adding to a great deal of immersion.

GAMEPLAY
Moment to moment gameplay can feel a little subdued, as there are great distances to cover (even within a city) to get somewhere. However, the excellent fast travel system allows you to very quickly get to where you're going, provided you're not in combat or otherwise pre-occupied. Movement feels natural and fluid, without feeling floaty and fake. Gunplay feels punchy, but I would have appreciated a little more realism with respect to the calibers used. Some just don't make any sense at all, and not because we're hundreds of years in the future. The guns generally handle quite well and feel pretty powerful, even the pistols. The sound design does help a lot in this department. However, the general well made combat experience can be marred by things like stupid AI and the feeling of shooting at a bullet sponge with arbitrarily long TTK. Ship flight is passable but not ideal. Even larger ships are pretty easy to fling around, lacking the sense of mass they would represent realistically. The method of using your mouse as a yoke also doesn't agree with me completely, as there should have been choices in terms of how you want to pilot your ship. I feel this is one area that could use a little bit of polish. Conversations and relationships are impactful, and often times you'll be left questioning your choices based on how they affect you or characters you have taken a legitimate interest in. Twists and turns in the story can sometimes have heart wrenching consequences and make you want to save scum to see if an alternate path could be found. Being made to care so much about characters and the story is one thing that I don't believe I have ever felt more than in Starfield. Building ships is awesome, and even though there are somewhat limited variations and options, and despite the builder being quite restrictive sometimes, I have felt that ship building was almost like another game altogether, in that I have literally spent about half the time playing this game in the ship builder. It's WILDLY addictive, and for someone who's creative, like me, is a near infinite time sink to come up with bigger, badder and better designs.

WISH LIST
I would like to see the gun play improved by adding more types of firearms, making the calibers a little more realistic, and improving the power of guns or decreasing the armor of enemies to make things like headshots a "one shot one kill" affair, instead of having to hit the same person over and over in the head just to scrape off another 3% HP off of them. I understand that this is an RPG, and that stats are the reason why this happens. But a nice in between would be better than shooting an entire magazine into someone who then ultimately shrugs it off and keeps walking like nothing happened.

Ship flight can definitely be improved. Larger ships should feel exponentially more heavy and unwieldy, and ship combat can be improved by adding various other control methods and allowing for a more fluid and diverse flying experience.

Adding additional modules for ship building and making the ship builder more practical and less restrictive would be great too. This isn't a huge priority given some of the other things that need fixing, but a nice to have that I am sure many would appreciate.

I'd LOVE to see CO-OP!!

CONCLUSION
Overall, I think the game is an imperfect masterpiece. It does all the right things to make you feel a certain way and care about why you're doing what you're doing. That is not easy to do, and Bethesda seems to be very good at doing it.

What's more, there is a finished single player game here which is fairly well polished (minus the bugs which I will call 'Bethesda Charm') that is FREE of MICROTRANSACTIONS and not run as a GAME AS A SERVICE. In a world flooded with this crap from greedy corporate conglomerate developers and publishers, this is SUCH A BREATH OF FRESH AIR.

THANK YOU Bethesda, for turning the corner and offering a game like this for us to enjoy. It is exactly why I will continue to support this game with future paid DLC if given the option.

If it's not blatantly obvious already, I highly recommend this game. And if I could offer one more piece of advice.... Don't rush into NG+ - as absolutely AWESOME as it is (and the transition is EXTREMELY well done here, almost seamless), take your time, enjoy yourself, and only cross over when you think you're ready.

I will make this quick. I can't recommend this game. The visceral, bloody, desperate and seat of your pants feeling in JA2 is NOT here. First, some positives.

POSITIVES
- The laptop. It's here, and it's awesome. Looks like 2001, and that's not far off from the 1999 laptop we all know and love from JA2. It has its own new style, while still looking old and pushing that nostalgia button for me. Very cool.
- Returning mercs. Some of my favourites are here. Reaper, Shadow and Ivan are all represented, as are some of the others we all remember from 1999 (well, the old people anyway, myself included).
- The music. The music has a very punchy, cinematic feel and closely resembles that of JA2, while still feeling original. Great work here.

However, this game is not all smiles and sunshine, and unfortunately, there are many, MANY negatives that outweigh the fantastic positives above, and do no justice to the game many of us still play today. I know I might just be holding on to the past here, but bear with me, and read on.

NEGATIVES
- The graphical style does NOT fit this IP. JA is meant to be serious, mature, bloody, violent, grotesque and visceral. The visuals here do not portray this motif for me. The colours are bright, vivid and saturated - and that is NOT the kind of environment the game this one aspires to be has in store for players. The blood is bright red, almost pinkish, the mercs look like cartoon characters, and the weapon models look low res and muted. I don't understand the need to make this game look like a cartoon. And I hope it isn't to appeal to as many hardware specs as possible, because frankly many other games run extremely well optimized while still looking incredible (Doom Eternal is a great example of this.)

- The interactions are bland, weak and uninspired. Especially the gun play. It doesn't FEEL like it did in JA2 when someone gets shot. This should be accurately and realistically represented. Headshots from high powered firearms don't kill instantly? We have downed states now? Wtf is this? These are FIREARMS spewing hot lead into the bones, muscle and sinew of human beings, oversized fleshbags that would otherwise be torn to pieces by bullets, shrapnel and the like. Meanwhile buddy can take a shot in the head and shrug it off like it's a bad headache? Come on. Remember the decapitations and exploding heads we had in JA2 when a guy took a .338 Lapua Magnum to the face? Where the hell is that?

- Animations are lackluster. In line with the above, I feel that the animations are very lackluster, weak and don't properly reflect the impact of various scenes, such as being shot, for example, or being blown back by an explosion. The animations, instead of feeling fluid, heavy, and accurate are instead floaty, and look like a bad action movie. The forces on the human body are not accurately represented, and that's unfortunate, because they are in JA2.

- The TBS strategy lair is copy and paste. This is NOT XCOM! I hate this. Companies making games with the XCOM movement, combat and cover model, because it was good in XCOM. It's NOT good here. This game doesn't need that. If you did what we had in JA2, that would have been enough and probably less work.

- Visual fidelity. The visual fidelity is laughable for a 2023 game. And hey, I know visuals aren't everything - we sure as hell didn't have a great visual fidelity in JA2, but it was still a great game. Zooming in on mercs and the environment was instrumental in revealing just how low poly everything is. Low quality textures and many aspects of the environment copy and pasted. Some aspects of this would have been okay in 1999, but not today.

- The guns. As a firearms enthusiast, this is what I was looking forward to the most. And I was so bitterly disappointed not just in the lack of a solid arsenal here, but with the naming convention too. We had a massive arsenal in JA2, and realistic images and names for hundreds of firearms. Why not here? Why do literally ALL the mercs have either a "Hi Power", "Double Barrel", "Peacemaker" or "AK-47"? In fact, the AK is the only one that actually kept the original name of the firearm (well, that would be Kalishnakov, but that's besides the point.) Obviously even in that limited selection of firearms, anyone who knew anything about them could tell you what they looked like, and yet, the names didn't reflect that. In fact, the only thing positive about the firearms is that the ammo was somewhat realistic in the way it was depicted.

Overall, I am so extremely disappointed with this game. Having watched the trailers, videos and seen the screenshots, I was so optimistic that it was going to be done right this time. At this point I have lost all faith that we will EVER get a faithful recreation of our beloved JA2. To be honest, if all this was was just an upscaled version of EXACTLY that game, I'd have been happy. That tells you just how little you actually had to change to make people happy. I am going to be requesting a refund.

I honestly cannot recommend JA3. It's not worthy of my time, nor the time of any real, devoted JA2 fan, and certainly not worth the name JA3.

Before purchasing, I heard the following:

- This game is a little aged, but looks and sounds great.
- The physics in this sim are incredible.
- There's plenty of mod support.
- The racing feel is accurate and many settings can be configured.

And while, for people who have not had technical issues with the game, this might be great... It was NOT the case for me.

The game is an incomplete, buggy train wreck. When you purchase a product, be it a game, or anything else, you should have at least a very basic expectation that THAT product will work. It should NOT be up to the user to spend hours trying to figure out how to MAKE it work, troubleshoot and dive into forums to figure out why it won't work. And spend ALL that time doing just that, and not actually enjoying what they paid money for.

It pisses me off when companies have the balls to release a product and take money from people, but can't e bothered to ensure that product is sound in workmanship.

For all the great things this sim has the potential for, it did not even start for me, and for that reason I can't even begin to think about recommending it to anyone, for any reason. If you want a great sim that's cost effective, has VERY LITTLE DLC and plenty of mod support, get Assetto Corsa.

UPDATED REVIEW (Initial review below)

Okay. So...

All of the things I said below are true. However, I decided to give the game a second chance and really give it a chance. And honestly, I'm changing my recommendation.

I would recommend this game, but with some caveats.

First of all, I stand by what I said in that I feel that the graphics (both in game and the UI) could definitely stand to see a refresher. It's not everything, but having some eye candy never hurt anyone.

However, the simulation aspect is absolutely phenomenal. I am pleasantly surprised with the variety of content available, and as unfortunate as it is that everything has a price, it shouldn't be surprising given that you can actually test drive anything you want, anytime.

If you're just looking to scratch an itch with a particular car, you don't need to commit to buy one in order to just try driving it, which is very good,m and something I applaud the devs for.

As mentioned previously, the sounds are what make this game unbelievable. And even though I'm still waiting for my sim rig and wheel to get here, and playing on a peasant game pad (for now) the sounds did a great job giving me slight cues about my back end slipping out from under me, a feel for how close the guy is behind me breathing down my neck, or just how stupidly fast my car is moving through time and space with the various engine sounds peaking at max revs.

It really is a good experience, and one that I think everyone should try. I do understand the business model, and despite being someone who would rather pay up front for everything and then never have to worry, there are many other sims that work on such a model, including aircraft and train sims to name a couple categories where I've seen the same business model before. Couple that with the ability to test drive whatever you want, I think it's quite fair.

Overall it's a great experience, and I'm looking forward to trying it with my gear when it all arrives.

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There's only one reason that I wouldn't recommend this game. It's free to play.

And you'd think that this would be great because it's more accessible and more people can try it out. And, while that is true, seeing a "Buy Now!" sticker on just about EVERYTHING shy of a few cars and circuits all the time really takes you out of the experience.

I do realize it's a racer, but I think the UI could use with a little work, and the game could look a little better. The driving itself from what I've experienced feels pretty good and responsive, but that varies drastically between types of vehicles. The shining success here is the sound. The effects, engine notes, and music are all pretty nice.

Overall, it was a fun 20 minutes, but that's all I got out of it, and do not feel like buying anything from the a la carte menu on offer.

NEW REVIEW (Read tech issue and old review below):

This game is pretty great in a vacuum. However when compared against some of its predecessors, it lacks a little.

Let's start with the good.

The visuals are breathtakingly beautiful. While I wish that ray tracing was available throughout the whole game, not just Forzavista, I understand why this was omitted but still wish it was an option for people with better hardware, especially since DLSS is an option. Visuals are crisp, bright, colourful and vivid.

Sound quality is also phenomenal, with engine sounds and sound FX done incredibly well. The characteristics of various vehicles with various upgrades are widely different depending on the vehicle and upgrades it has fitted, and even where it's being driven.

The sound track is one of the best to date, though a lot of it has been reused from FH4. While not completely a bad thing, it would have been nice to see more original tunes in this one. It would have also been nice to hear more local voice over (not the cringy type) given the setting of Mexico, as I feel like a TON of the British VO was carried over from FH4. Not that British accents aren't cool or anything, but given the setting it's quite unlikely that you'll have most people speaking in an accent like that. About the VO though - while some of it makes sense and is appropriate given the situation, most of it is VERY over acted and can be cringeworthy at times. I wish we weren't being spoken to by the voice actors as if we were children, and that the strict scripts were more natural sounding and flowing, then feeling like they are just being coldly read into a mic and then put into the game.

The physics and handling characteristics of the vehicles themselves are varied and fun. Some cars do feel a lot weightier and heavier to handle than other much more nimble vehicles. This is further improved by the opportunity to modify vehicles with a decent selection of mods.

Now for the bad.

There are a LOT of issues with this game and MANY people are not able to play it as a result. While Playground games did respond to me previous negative review (which I appreciate) it is absurd how many issues and bugs STILL plague this game. Be forewarned if you are going to purchase that you may have more problems than in some other games, and be ready to deal with them, or don't buy it (or play it on Xbox, which runs better imo.)

The car list. The majority (if not all) of the cars here are re-used from FH4, as is the soundtrack as mentioned earlier. While I can understand that there's a plateau and somewhat of a "diminishing return" that one may hit when including so many cars in a game, it would have been nice to see some more originality here.

The progression system is vast and open, but VERY overwhelming. At the beginning things are not too bad, and the world starts to open up to you as you complete events. However the deeper you go the more things you have thrown at you, to the point where the map is so literred with things to do that you don't even know where to start.

The voiceover as I mentioned before is absolutely CRINGEWORTHY. It's way over-acted and doesn't seem natural or something you'd expect anyone to say given the circumstances. It feels fake, and takes away from the enjoyment of the game.

The customization is somewhat limited when not taking into account the livery creator. There should be more choice when it comes to physically changing the way your car looks, including more options for body parts of the vehicle, wide kits, more rims, skirts, bumpers, hoods, roofs, spoilers and accessories. For a game that encourages so much interaction with others, you'd think this would be the perfect way to show off your unique, one of a kind custom built ride to others.

Final word:

Aside from a lack of innovation, the rampant technical issues and some of the negatives I've mentioned in this review, the game is a TON of fun to play, especially with friends. If you haven't played FH yet, I would definitely recommend it - but I would start at one of the earlier iterations (3 was great) first. If you don't have that luxury, this one's just fine if you want the latest and greatest, so to speak. But keep in mind that many of the assets were re-used from FH4, so if you have that game and you're on the fence about FH5, especially if you don't have anyone to play with in FH5, you might be better to scratch your itch with FH4 instead and wait for a more innovative installment or the new Forza Motorsport coming later this year.

TECHNICAL ISSUE (SOLVED):
So, as I mentioned in my older review, found below... When the game works, it's brilliant.

I WAS able to fix a hardware issue that caused the game to crash. GREAT! I was able to start enjoying the game again, and having a good time.

Not too long after that, I started experiencing SERIOUS frame rate issues. I mean, very serious. To the point where the game was unplayable. It RAN, but running and being playable are two different things,

I looked online to sort out the issue, and many of the fixes suggested did not work for me.

This includes:

Restarting the game
Restarting steam
Restarting your PC
Upgrading or Downgrading the GPU driver
Ensuring Windows was up to date
Uninstalling and reinstalling the game.
And many more.

One thing that I found that did help a LITTLE was reverting to a previous driver, though I found later that this was temporary and didn't actually fix the problem. I then tried running the game without Vsync, and that helped a little. And then tried running it in windowed mode which helped a LOT. In fact this just about fixed the problem for me. Though, unfortunately, the game didn't take up the whole screen anymore and so was not really enjoyable for me.

I read another article online that blamed the Xbox One controller, and so I wanted to test this as well. The article stated that it COULD be caused by a bad or intermittent connection via Bluetooth between the controller and the PC. I tested this, and left my controller OFF when I started the game. I drove around using JUST my keyboard and the stuttering and massive frame drop issue was GONE! I even tried this in full screen mode, and it worked!

I then wanted to test if turning the controller on later would work, and that has worked too. Starting the game using just keyboard and mouse, and only switching to the controller when driving seemed to keep the issue from re-occurring as well.

I did also move the bluetooth antenna on my PC connected to my motherboard a little closer and out of the way of obstacles, and unsure whether this had any effect or not. Changing batteries is also something I did, and again, not sure if that had any effect.

OLD REVIEW:
If the game works, IF it works, it's a masterpiece of a game. Despite the fact that there are a tn of recycled assets and cars from FH4, it's still a great experience.

But the problem is, it doesn't work. It crashes CONSTANTLY, has issues with login making it so that you can't log in, and thus you can't even play. There are likely work arounds to these issues. But who the hell wants to buy a game just so they can sit researching things for hours on end, and not be guaranteed to find the fix they need to make this game work.

This game is completely unplayable for me for these reasons. And I have a beast of a system. Until playground fixes these problems, I will not be playing again, nor recommending that anyone does. If you have an XBOX, you can play on XBOX. But I wouldn't buy a console just for this game, nor would I recommend anyone to waste their time trying to fix the PC version.

Request your refund and move on.