The game shows real promise, as it lets you simulate a nation's destiny and navigate the geopolitical inferno. The diplomatic options are also quite sophisticated. The simulation closely resembles SuperPower 2. That said, despite its genuine potential, I stopped playing fairly quickly. Why? Three reasons: 1) The main one : hideous fonts that require a magnifying glass on your screen to read! And no matter my settings tweaks, nothing helped. It's tedious over time and kills your enthusiasm. 2) A cluttered interface : you wade through it to find the right icon or tab to confirm the action you're after. Combined with the tiny font sizes, it's borderline torture. 3) Poor optimization : my graphics card starts heating up seriously after just a few minutes, even though the rendering is nowhere near a powerful 3D action game. I tried lowering the options and enabling VSync, but nothing worked. In summary : the program is promising, but these three issues are deal-breakers for now.
While often overshadowed by *Blood & Wine* due to its smaller territorial expansion (the northeast of the original map), *Hearts of Stone* offers a highly original adventure and introduces a truly enigmatic character, Gaunter O’Dimm, whom players will come to know—and even fear. The storyline is a masterful work of art, both profound and emotionally gripping. This isn’t an ordinary quest; it’s a multifaceted struggle, including a battle of emotions. Action is present in this DLC but takes a backseat, with some quests demanding genuine emotional investment from the player. For Geralt, the goal isn’t to change *the* world but to transform *one* world—that of the tormented Olgierd von Everec. While *Hearts of Stone* isn’t strictly necessary to continue Geralt’s adventures (it can be played before, but preferably after, the main story), skipping it would be a shame. Its narrative quality surpasses even the base game’s, and it holds a special surprise for fans of the earlier games. 😉
Pros : Lots of cars with several iconic liveries from the 60s to the 90s Truly different rallies, not just copy & paste ones The freeroam option to play at your own pace The sounds of cars, captivating... Small details that bring life to the roads and surroundings (watch out for pedestrians) Synthwave musics (the 80s in force!) Cons : Handling, very complicated to find the right setup Some residual texture bugs A camera view closer to the ground would be appreciated No Monte-Carlo? Conclusion : A very pleasant rally game, quick to learn even if the driving is quite tricky despite the gameplay options.
I had this game a long time ago and unfortunately when I changed my computer, I lost it. It's a very classic RPG but very well done too, with all the limitations of the time of course (in terms of technique and gameplay). By playing this game, we find the pleasures of the old-fashioned game: lots of exploration and combat. Of course, this game dates from 1998 but it retains a very nice, rather cartoonish atmosphere. We even get attached to the characters who each have a quality and a flaw to balance the adventure. Everything is not perfect: there are some fairly complicated passages, especially since the screen does not display the area correctly (a problem with screen resolution?); enemies are not very intelligent and rush at you as soon as they see you; there are many back and forths to unlock a new area; the 360 ° view is sometimes difficult to manage. Fortunately, we always want to go further in history, and the music is very well made, totally in the tone of medieval fantasy. The game is sufficiently varied and although linear, makes you want to progress. Too bad there are these flaws otherwise it would be really perfect.
Those who liked the atmosphere of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. will enormously like Metro 2033. But beware, it is only the atmosphere because the game is very different in its terms of mechanics (it's more a FPS than a typical survival and absolutely not an open world). And those who know and more, have read the novels of Dmitry Glukhovsky, they will appreciate the result here : very nervous and faithful to his post-apocalyptic novels. So : PROS : * The atmosphere! * Tremendous non-stop action thanks to a very solid storyline * The Redux version offers very good graphics and FX (even in 2016) * Since the beginning, you feel yourself as a small and fragile human being * Very immersive sounds CONS : * Hard, very hard, very very hard... * You follow the track : that's not an open world, so don't hope to explore the sceneries * The controls aren't always very optimal, boring especially when you encounter a bug in the scene * That's a 'die and retry' game, so if you abhor to do again two, three or even ten times the same difficult passage, avoid this game
The game is an excellent example that can ruin a great atmosphere by poor gameplay and crippling defects. Indeed, the start of the game is superb and the music very good. You are immediately immersed in an atmosphere worthy of the best classic horror films. Unfortunately it degrades after a few minutes. The controls do not always respond optimally. The character animations as enemies are frankly limited. But the worst thing for me is the terrible difficulty comes from the fact that the enemies fall on you without knowing exactly from where! This is what makes the game frustrating. Moreover, we do not know exactly what to do and with whom. It's a mess because the potential was really huge.
In very simple appearance, complex game mechanics appear gradually. We quickly learn to identify some of the pitfalls but also we stay unaware of the danger in the most simple errors (eg wrong date) while we look for a more devious error. The game is very successful at this stage of development and it's hard to stop.
