World Racing 2 basically is the German take on the classic Need For Speed games. This re-release comes with xbox controller support and has removed all the car branding which is understandable considering car license issues and we wouldn´t have this game otherwise. As for the game itself, like the classic NFS games WR2 is an arcade racer at heart. The car handling is very grippy but cars don´t behave as convincing as in NFS. However the visuals, though aged, still hold up very well and the tracks and cars look beautiful as ever. A big difference compared to NFS is that because tracks generally are longer and more complex here in WR2 and the roads are not as wide as in NFS makes this game a lot harder and you need to set expectation accordingly. So if you have problems beating NFS then WR2 can frustrate you to no end. Still, I´m very happy WR2 landed on GOG and for the price you can´t go wrong.
SWGP2 is a great little isometric racer like there were so many on the Commodore Amiga and Super Nintendo. The game is structured like the earlier Gran Turismo games and also draws a lot of inspiration from SEGA Rally. Gameplay is quite good, not too hard and not too easy at the same time, although I only have a couple of hours into this game yet so I've no idea if it will be challenging in the long run. The soundtrack is fitting for this type of game, although nothing I would listen to outside of the game but makes for good ringtones for your phone. However, not that I dislike how SWGP2 looks but despite of the limited graphics this game cooks my pc and is especially taxing on the GPU, though CPU usage is quite high as well. Granted my pc is a bit long in the tooth but on the other hand I can play much more impressive AAA racers where my pc doesn't skip a beat (Dirt Rally 2 for instance). It seems using v-sync and badly optimized shaders play a big part of it, because turning these setting off cut temps and usage in half. Off course this caused screentearing to be unbearable but I got around that by injecting DXVK into the game and setting a hard 60 fps cap with RTSS. Then there is still some stuttering here and there but these are caused by the camera movement/zooming and needs optimization of the developers part.
As I'm getting older my gaming tastes are changing as I hardly play AAA action games of the last 15 years or so like I used to. Playing hyped genres like twitch or boomer shooters give me the same level of enjoyement as watching someone else streaming a playthrough on the internet. So I'm now playing point and click adventures of old I neglected decades ago. Just finished playing Beyond a Steel Sky for example. That brings me to Cyberia, a sci-fi railshooter with puzzles, as I think this game has more in common with traditional P&C adventures than most P&C purists are willing to admit. I decided on digging up my cd-rom copy for reasons described in the title, replay it and write a review for it. Altough labeled as a railshooter, Cyberia actually has three gameplay elements: Walking sections where you have to navigate through places, dodge enemies and do some light shooting, Action sequences, either a shooting gallery like a turret level or railshooting flying levels. And puzzles, where you need to use your glasses to defuse bombs, open locks, hack mainframes, etc. This is what I like about Cyberia as it sets it apart from most railshooters of that period as here the game is much more diverse. Still because of the nature of these games Cyberia can be frustratingly hard and obtuse at times which leads to a lot of trial and error. Probably deliberate or the game would have been too short. The reason I wanted to replay it was because I remembered a flying scene that was almost dreamlike. And yes, that part, while lowres, still held up, the flight to Siberia with incredible doppler sound effects is still an amazing tour de force. I do not recommend a joystick but just mouse and keyboard, also read the manual so you know all the keyboard commands (F1, F2, F3, F and L are important!). To end this, I have to say that the game at €10,- is overpriced and can't recommend it unless it's €5,- or lower.
In short Rebel Galaxy is essentially Privateer or Freelancer with a capital ship with movement restrictions in the 2D plane. Visually it looks like a well polished AAA game and really plays nice with a controller from the couch. The soundseffects are generally great too and as for the music it has some licensed modern country rock songs and while a good soundtrack overall the lack of different songs made me turn it off after a couple of hours. Double Damage did a good job designing the spacecraft, at least the larger ships look interesting as I never got a good look of the smaller fighter sized craft. Visiting space stations is very reminiscent of Privateer. It has all the amenities as ship and part dealers, commodities, bar, mission board, etc. It's lacking in the variety department though, it has a couple of dozen solar systems but there is nothing to differentiate between any of them, they look and play all the same. As for things to do, you have the main story line, which is not only very short, lengthened by the fact you need better equipment every time you progress, the story is also a bit generic, it's not bad but let's just say it won't win any prizes for it. Other than that the only thing you can do is the missions on the mission board. That's because trading isn't really an option, as these huge ships you fly have tiny cargo holds and space stations don't have a lot in stock. The other option is piracy but that just swaps fighting militia for pirates instead. And that is a bit of the crux with Rebel Galaxy that it is a bit too streamlined, there is no crew management, no real variety of locations, people and factions that matter and lacks any depth of tactical game play like carrying fighter aircraft for example. Still, I had a good time playing it for the first couple of hours, after that boredom crept up.
If you're reading this and don't know what Star Control 2 is, stop reading now and buy it here or get one of its source ports (e.g. Ur-Quan Masters). So what's so good about Starcom Nexus? Well, it's a top down 2D space exploration game with some rpg mechanics, great music and epic story. The writing of the events and dialogues is pretty good and funny at times all this combined results in a chill gameplay experience which you can't put down until finished. I didn't have any issues playing so either I'm lucky or they've patched them out by now. In any case I don't think you're getting a shelf filler when buying this game and I can only hope GOG gets Starcom: Unknown Space as well.
Despite this game's age, sub-par combat, poor excuse for a story and general lack of originallity fun can be had with Just Cause. Like it says on the tin, Just Cause is an openworld game similar to GTA except it's more focussed on combat and causing general mayhem and has less side things to do although it still has things like races and submissions. What I personally liked the most was exploring the locations while enjoying the music, which is still the best from the JC games I've played. At times it just feels like you're on a holiday in some latin American country and at those times the game is at it's best.
Before I start the review I have a confession to make, I have a fondness for science-fiction. Escpecially when it tries something new or at least unique enough. Think of movies like Solaris, Stalker, Zardoz, Beyond the Black Rainbow and games like Anachranox, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Vangers, Omikron are good examples of this and the A.I.M. series of games also fall into this category. In this game you play as a mechmind (Artificial Intelligence Machine hence the name) with the shape of a football and the only NPC interaction is with other mechminds and mainframe computers, so there are no humans or aliens, which is already a bit weird. The means of getting around and get stuff done is by having your mechmind piloting a ship/hovercraft for roaming around the planet. Over time the mechminds have formed groups which battle each other over control of the various buildings which effectively controls territory, recources, production and economy. This means if you played games like Elite, Privateer or Hard Truck Apocalypse you know what you're in for. You get quests from the planets mainframe computer, combat enemies, trade, buy upgrades and new ships. Also you can collect mechminds you've slain in combat and convert them to help your cause and create a clan of your own. Coming back to NPC interaction is that without having any external guidance the mechminds have a rather limited view of the world and act a little like naïve children, which I found rather charming. Because this a mid 2000'ish eastern European game it is known for it's jankyness. While this is true, I only had to perform like 10 minute compatibility surgery on this game for it to work more or less flawlessly, though admittedly this is over 5 years ago and I don't remember exactly what I had to do, but in general look up the PCgamingWiki page and look on the game forums gog and steam for clues.
Recently I got back into playing Everspace after playing it a few years back as I wanted to know why I quitted because I was a long way in and I have somewhat of a weakness for the spacesim genre. First impressions of Everspace are very good, good graphics, sound and music and initially gameplay seems fine untill... First let me tell you that Everspace is a Roguelike. What this means is that you play, die, play, die, play, die... etc. you get the idea. In between you can spend the credits you earned on upgrading your stats and ship stats which is an extensive tree so theorethically you should be better equipped to deal with your next playthrough. However you start out so pathetically weak even a few upgrades don't mean squat and even more so for a long time you start out with the same peashooters every time, so it depends a lot on luck if you get better stuff. What also doesn't help is you have a very limited sensor range, while you can spot enemies far away, you can only detect loot if you are like 20 meters away or so. Then there is the biggest annoyance, at least for me, is that your ship is so mindnumbingly slow. So you're always hitting on the afterburners to at least go a little faster but if you then happen to be bounced by enemies appearing out of nowhere you're as good as dead as the afterburners drain of the same energy source as the weapons. Perhaps I could forgive all this if progress, and my ship, was at least a lot quicker but you need to spend at least 40+ hours to get halfway. Too bad I got completely exhausted after playing through the same slog after 12 hours or so during my latest playthrough and I'm not lusting for more. So if you see videos and screenshots of Everspace and you think, yeah that looks cool and I want to play that, buy Subdivision Infinity or Rebel Galaxy Outlaw instead.
