Recent reviews by Carsmaniac

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I adore this game, but it's not for everyone. If you like this sort of game, you'll love ETS 2 & ATS. If you don't you'll hate them and think they're dull as anything. The developers are fantastic, the quality of the DLCs and free updates just keeps getting better and better, the gameplay is more or less as good as it could be, the community is great, mod support is fantastic and (experimental) VR support is the cherry on top.

If you don't like boring simulators don't buy this game. If you do, you've probably already bought it.

I adore this game, but it's not for everyone. If you like this sort of game, you'll love ETS 2 & ATS. If you don't you'll hate them and think they're dull as anything. The developers are fantastic, the quality of the DLCs and free updates just keeps getting better and better, the gameplay is more or less as good as it could be, the community is great, mod support is fantastic and (experimental) VR support is the cherry on top.

If you don't like boring simulators don't buy this game. If you do, you've probably already bought it.

A nice little first-person parkour game. The game is a little janky - the controls were a bit frustrating at first and the writer is evidently not a native English speaker, but overall it was a good experience. Once you get the hang of swinging and flying from place to place, it's a lot of fun. The story was nice, and the length was just right, with more content available if you want to go back and play faster, or find the collectables.

This game is fantastic. It's a spiritual successor and a love letter to Uplink, and if you have the slightest interest in computers and hacking, it's a must-play. The systems are super satisfying once you get your head around them, the stories were all engrossing (the ending of the DLC was just... GAH SO GOOD), and the music is great.

Get it, it's good. Praise Clock.exe

Wow, this is the most "game" a game has been in a long time, you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't pick up Yakuza 0.

Since I've only ever been a PC gamer, Y0 is the first Yakuza game I've ever been able to play, and now I wholeheartedly understand the passion its fans have had, and the excitement around its PC release. At its core it's a brawler set in 1980s Japan, centring around two protagonists and acting as the prequel to a decade-and-a-half-long series. But if you describe it like that, you miss out on all the best parts. The story is great, the gameplay is... I don't know, as it's the only brawler I've ever played (though it feels pretty good), but the real value is in the side stuff. The substories are fantastic, there's a metric ton of things to do and minigames to play, the writing is great, the music is... mmm yes, Kamurocho and Sotenbori are gorgeous and engrossing, and the sheer amount of content you get for just $20 is unbelievable. If it wasn't for a few specific gripes, this is the first AAA game (or non-indie game at least) I would actually consider 100%ing, ever.

As a PC version of a console exclusive, coming from a Japanese developer, I was really worried about the quality of the port, but I reckon it's one of the best I've played. The game runs great and features all of the fiddly settings you expect with a decent PC game, like borderless windowed mode and proper 21:9 support, so I've got no complaints there. As the game was built around a PS4 controller initially, the keyboard + mouse controls are a little wonky (real yakuza use a gamepad), but are fine for playing through the whole game. With a bit of key remapping to make things feel more comfortable, I didn't run into any issues, save for three specific areas: camera control (which you can mostly ignore, thankfully), a certain story mission involving taxis, and that awful disco minigame. Karaoke was unplayable at launch, but now it's perfectly fine. I actually found it easiest to mute the sound as the timing seems a little off, but maybe that's just me.

My only gripes come with a few of the side activities, and if it weren't for those I'd happily invest a hundred or so hours 100%ing everything and have an absolute blast doing it. The catfighting minigame is BS, the disco minigame is a nightmare (especially the dance battle), the classic arcade games are infuriating, and there's no way I'm learning, grinding and mastering mahjong and half a dozen gambling games for the sake of completion points.

TL;DR: Yakuza 0? That's rad!

7 Days to Die is one game in a sea of identical open world zombie-survival-build-and-craft-em-up games that were incessantly popular a few years ago. The gameplay is repetitive and awfully slow, and even after over 5 years the optimisation is really not good. Probably not worth considering this game unless you've been following its development and are already committed to it, in which case you won't be reading reviews anyway.

Elite Dangerous, what an interesting game. This is the dog's bollocks of space sim games right now. Ship to ship combat, a fully simulated trading economy, and a massive (and rewarding) exploration system make up the bulk of the gameplay, and every one of them is excellent. Throw in missions, space politics and engineering, and you have a game you can easily spend thousands of hours in.

Unfortunately, you'll need to spend those thousands of hours if you want to "see everything". ED is a bit different to other games in that it isn't entirely linear - you don't have to work through all of the ships to fly the biggest and best. Rather, with a couple of days' play, you can get to pretty much any point in the game that you want to. A decent combat ship ready to start claiming bounties? A space taxi to show tourists a good time? A fully stocked exploration ship to fly to the other side of the galaxy? A flying brick ready for extreme space trucking? Whatever you want to do, you can make a beeline for it and get there relatively quickly. If you want the best of anything, though, this game will become a grind. I don't think this is a bad idea, as the core gameplay is engaging enough that I never get bored, but if you want to put 30 hours into a game and be done with it, this isn't the game for you. In a way, this game is an MMO in disguise.

ED is also frequently called one of the best VR games available right now, and I find it hard to disagree. If you drop a couple hundred on a headset and a cheap HOSAS/HOTAS setup, this game becomes something completely different. When I play ED, I'm not playing a space game, or grinding out some reputation levels, or anything else. I'm sitting in a cockpit, flying a ship, and having a whale of a time. This game is really immersive and engrossing, and it single-handedly gave me my "VR legs" as I was focused on eking out just a little more play time each session.

I think the best way to work out if you'll like this game or not is to watch UpIsNotJump's review of it. If you're like me and were super excited by the end of it, buy this game. If not, you'll probably be better suited with other games.

Elite Dangerous is not for everyone, but if you like it, you'll love it.

This is a must-have VR utility. Spending hours in Elite Dangerous VR is pretty great, but when you add in a window with Youtube or an iTunes control window, it's just perfect. OVRdrop does a really simple thing, and does it well. It's a little finnicky to get set up with just mouse & keyboard (I've heard it's more intuitive with VR controllers) but after the first day or so I never had the touch the controls again, it just works. This program is the equivalent of getting a second monitor for your PC. When pancake-gaming, you can use it to watch a video, read a wiki page, or whatever else. With OVRdrop, you get the same experience in VR.

If you play VR games with any kind of regularity, this is a must-buy. Easily worth the full price, and even better on a discount!

It's not perfect, but all the SteamVR games I've tried work great in my WMR headset. Defo pick up one of the supported headsets if you want to play Rift/Vive games without breaking the bank