... but despite that, mildly entertaining. This is basically advertising for computer component manufacturers, in "game" form. You play as a PC builder, with a limited selection of components to choose from, all based upon info directly from the product vendors. You have a passable selection of motherboards, RAM, and CPUs. A small number of choices for cases and power supplies, a remarkably small number if storage options, and as far as add-in cards go, ONLY video cards (though a decent selection of those). You can expand your selection by DLC... which I think is overpriced, honestly, given what's provided in each. But that just gives you brand-specific addutional items, and no real new functionality. I've been custom-building PCs since I threw away my only pre-fab PC, a Packard Bell Legend, in frustration several decades back. My iwn, and ones I've built for others. I've built, and upgraded, and rebuilt new systems from previously retired parts, countless times. There's a LOT more that goes into building, or updating, a system than this game shows. Allowing for other types of hardware... say, dedicated sound cards, or TV tuner cards, or freakin OPTICAL DRIVES... which may be in market-share decline, especially in laptops, but are still very much a part of most desktop builds... would be a vast improvement. And emulating BIOS setup... with an appropriate BIOS style abd options for the motherboard, CPU, memory, storage, etc, chosen... would be a HUGE step towards changing this from a piece of advertising into an actual "PC building simulator." It's not awful... and can be entertaining. But don't think you can learn how to set up a real PC based upon having played this. Any more than you'd know how to fly a jet from playing a coin-op arcade game like "F15." This is an interactive sales tool, nothing more.
Disclaimer - I got this on Steam right after Steam first opened up, and it was one of my first purchases (apart from Half-Life 2). I also own it on GOG now, and prefer (when given a choice) playing my GOG versions, as Steam isn't as "user friendly" as it was at launch (sometimes being downright "user hostile"). I'd never heard of "Strong Bad" or any of the other characters, but I wanted to try something aside from Half-Life. And it's a game that never failed to make me smile. The characters are ridiculous, intentionally so, and entertaining as a result. The style is less "retro" than it is "minimalistic," but the web-videos it's based upon (which I encountered far more recently) are very much the same. This is NOT a game for you to play when you're feeling "serious" or want a major challenge. It is, however, a great game to play when you're feeling low and need a little entertaining pick-me-up. The overall game-play is going to be familiar to anyone who's played any Telltale Games adventures. A few puzzles in the game are not immediately obvious (using logic) and require some "warped" thinking to resolve. But the overall difficulty level isn't especially high. I recommend it. And yes, I recommend going to Youtube and subscribing to the "Strong bad" channel there as well.
I thought this might be an interesting "what if/how did it happen?" exploration. I LOVE "Plague, Incorporated," for example, which is just that. So, I started digging into it, and even played a copy of it as a "test drive" to decide if I wanted to buy it. Nope. This is, as many other reviewers have stated, pure propaganda, of the worst possible kind. Which is unfortunate, because modeling of the spread of diseases (and how to counter that) is a very valid role for simulation (which Plague Inc does pretty well, apart from your having control of when viruses mutate, which obviously doesn't happen, per-se, in real life!) I wasn't too shocked at the lack of "real-world mechanics" in this game, however, as their "Deep Diving Simulator" is a TERRIBLE, INACCURATE representation of SCUBA diving (in particular, their modeling of buoyancy compensation is almost the direct opposite of reality!) So, I didn't expect this to be a "technically accurate" model of how to manage a viral outbreak. And in that regard, I wasn't surprised. But I was, actually, pretty stunned to see all the most over-the-top, authoritarian responses to this pandemic... most of which have been proven, by their results, to be ineffectual at controlling spread, but VERY effectual at dominating the population!) being treated as the "right courses of action." So, yeah... this isn't a good game. It's a "propaganda piece" masquerading as a game. It's not especially fun, but worse, it's a source of outright anti-science misinformation of the worst possible kind. Which tells us that the developers are either doing so intentionally, or are simply too ill-informed to be writing this sort of game (like someone who's never flow writing a flight sim).
There are plenty of Trek games out there... some good, some not. This one is one of my two favorites. It's not the 1st Trek FPS, but this game captures "being in Star Trek" better than any other game. Here, YOU are in Starfleet! A few reviews here discuss how it's "old" and "shows its age." Not so much. You can tell you're looking at a CGI character, not a real human being... but NO game has ever really breached the "uncanny valley" and given us CGI characters indistinguishable from real people. The game is a masterfully immersive "deep dive" into the TNG-era "Star Trek" universe. You're an ensign (never seen on screen, but always there) on the USS Voyager. Tuvok decides to create a special team... a "Hazard Team"... with special training and equipment, to respond to "extreme situations" the regular crew would find beyond their skills or training. And you're one of the crew assigned to that team. (Other team members include two characters seen on the show, not including Tuvok, and several newly created ones.) The game is set near the end of Voyager's run, shortly before it returned home, but before the series finale. You (especially with the add-on content provided with this package) have the ability to go anywhere (almost) in the ship. For a Trek fan, it's very entertaining to do so, but for others, you can just play the game straight through. It has a "holodeck" where you can basically play "shoot everything" competitive play (against AI or against other real people). And... while this is harder to find these days... it has a lot of "extra content" created. ESPECIALLY if you're a fan of the original Star Trek series... I recommend looking for the "Starbase 11" mod and the "Virtual Dreadnought" mod. (Your best bet to find these, these days, would be with the "Mod db" website, on the page for this game, under "addons." The site that used to host them, "Spacestation K7," is long since closed down, however.)
A brief synopsis, first... you're an archaologist exploring a recently discovered chamber near a mining site. You fall into a deep hole... too deep to crawl out without assistance. Your fellow diggers go to find a rope... and you decide to explore the cave you've fallen into. While in there, you discover that this is the entrance to an ancient Mezo-American civilization which had involvement with extraterrestrial life with very advanced technology. And you discover two pieces of this... a "control glove" and a "ball." The entire game involves using this ball... which you can "call" and you can "thrust" using the glove... to clear obstacles, solve puzzles, and so forth. It's nigh-on-indestructable and far more powerful than you're initially led to believe. And it is your ONLY tool. This game has some elements in common with "Portal," which also gives you only one tool, and requires you to discover ways to us that in combination with your environment to proceed. In effect, both games are "puzzle games." This is NOT a "fast paced shooter" by any stretch of the imagination. It requires you to study, observe, and think. That's why I'm so fond of it... I LOVE games that immerse me into a new situation and make me think my way out of them, without it feeling TOO "artificial." Yeah, the ball itself is not really consistent with reality, but once you accept what it is... everything else makes sense, and you can think your way out of any situation you find yourself in.
This game is pretty and fun, but isn't a "simulator." Just like the arcade "flight sims" "F-15 Strike Eagle" isn't the same as "X-Plane v11." Others have pointed out major issues with realism in this game. The "timer instead of air consumption model" is especially bad. But that's not, to me, the worst issue, believe it or not. That might well be based upon a "design decision" to make the game more arcade-like and less realistic. No, the bigger issue, to me, is that the game utterly fails to approximately accurately model the actual means of controlling ascent or descent. This game is TERRIBLE in that regard. As an experienced SCUBA diver myself, I find this odd. I mean, the mechanism to control ascent and descent isn't THAT hard to understand, much less to model mathematically. You have extra weights on a belt (or in pouches) to help you stay under... they provide a constant gravitationally-based force downwards. You have a BCD (inflatable vest hooked up to your tank, with auxiliary mouth inflation usually present) which you fill with air, or release air from, to make you more or less bouyant (producing an upwards force) The air compresses with depth along a well-understood curve, and expands as you rise, so as you rise, bouyancy increases (requiring release of air from the BCD), and as you descend, bouyancy decreases (requiring air to be added to the BCD) if you don't want to drop like a stone or rise like a bubble. The "add air/release air from the BCD" and "emergency drop the weights!" functions are not, mathematically, at all complicated. So why no one can ever actually model them reasonably accurately in a game... is just bizarre. This is a fun game, but don't come away from it thinking you know ANYTHING about how diving actually works. Treat it as a game... don't imagine, for an instant, that it's actually a SIMULATOR.
I bought Planescape Torment before the "enhanced edition" came out, and it came with an MP3 version of the soundtrack. And now, with the "enhanced edition," this is no longer free (though you still have it if you bought the original release). But this new package is NOT the same as what was in the original. 1) The original release came with a 38-track soundtrack, without metadata included in the files (and a separate cover art image) The final track, the "end credits," was in 128kbps bitrate... acceptable but not great. The remaining files were in 192kbps bitrate, which is better, but still not "audiophile quality." 2) The new release comes with a 37-track mp3 soundtrack (omitting the "end credits" likely because they don't exist at any bitrate above 128, which would sound horrible next to the new recordings). Every file is 320kbps... which is true "audiophile" quality sound. Compare the two side-by-side on a high-end sound system and you can hear the difference very clearly. 3) The new release also comes with a lossless FLAC version (with the same 37 tracks, an no "end credits"). These are variable bit-rate, ranging from a low of 683kbps (for "The Corpse Bar") to a high of 942kbps, for "Nordom Theme." That's RIDICULOUSLY high quality sound... studio master recording level (very few playback systems can really reproduce these levels of sound quality, frankly). So, if you buy this, you'll be getting the equivalent of a studio-level recording, versus the earlier "low DVD end" recording. It's the same music... from the same original studio masters. But it sounds a LOT better in this recording. But, as I said, you also lose a single track. There's one other difference. The original 192 MP3 lacked cover art in the file metadata. The new versions have cover art (at 1000x1000) in the files... and the new cover art says "Enhanced Edition" with a different graphic (the 192 MP3 had the original "face of the hero in blue" as its cover art)
