Hudson633

Codemasters has a depressingly poor track-record of leaving these games with the same issues and then starting work on next years title, but they all end up similar, so I wonder what they'redoing all year and if they deserve my money. You have to put in your details before you're allowed to reach the menu, which is a terrible idea if user data is lost (reinstalling the game, or the dreaded savegame corruption that plagued previous titles). There's no mouse input, and even the button layout is awkward, like taking 43 button presses just for a time trial on Abu Dhabi in a Williams. Why is the PC version so expensive when it's a lazy console port that crashes even after the release patches? Since F1 2010 the physics has been problematic, but F1 2018 was fun in being able to counter-steer to save potential spins early, yet F1 2019 goes back to the problem of no-grip spins that can't be recovered. Games are supposed to be interactive and skill-based, where's the fun of watching my car spin until stopping and not being able to do anything about it? I was excited to try the F2 cars, but they just understeer horribly and have weak brakes. I tried an online race, the penalty system is still terrible, like getting a time penalty for "corner cutting" after someone rammed me over a corner. For some reason everyone in my race seemed to lose connection one by one. There's an inbuilt league system, but it has a license mechanic that tracks your attendance percentage and safety rating, which will be useless due to the connection problems and the hopeless penalties. The AI isn't too bad, and singleplayer races are an important part of F1 2019. I'm sure many people like doing short races, yet you can't set the race distance between 5 and 15 laps (no options between 5 laps or 25% race length). Time trials are slightly better than F1 2018 in terms of less stuttering, but there's still the distraction of having "new leaderboard" or "new rival" or "new setup available" text appearing mid-lap while you're trying to concentrate. I tried it with 3 wheels, failing completely to get the DFGT steering degrees set to 360 so it matches the game, but eventually managed to get the G29 working at 360. Logitech is probably to blame for those particular problems, but Codemasters are equally as bad at keeping their end running, with F1 2010 and F1 2013 missing from the Steam store (and probably not working). The Thrustmaster T300 seems to work fine atleast. The thing that really irks me with F1 2019 in particular is the pricing. How many years have the customers had to endure the same issues in these games, cars falling through the track; trouble with settings; program crashes; savegames; penalties; physics; disconnects, and Codemasters keep getting the F1 license and they keep setting the price high. But now they're selling skins... I remember seeing customisation done right in Need for Speed 3 back in 1998 where you could pick the exact hue of your car, and again later in Race07 where SimBin gave you car templates to draw your own car skins you could share. But in F1 2019 where they could have done something groundbreaking there's silly things - like the only choice of a racing suit being blue or green, while others suit colours have a pricetag of £0.99 each. The reason I think skins are appreciated in CS:GO was because they were community-made, with a cut to the community creators, and the skins could be traded if the owner got bored of them. Stickers complemented the skins and gave them personality. Codemasters had implemented paid skins badly in comparison. There's day-1 DLC, microtransactions, and even a pay-to-win style early access version if you paid more money (allowing you to gain valuable experience over the players that went for the cheaper version before the "release day"). It's clear that Codemasters priority is to squeeze as much money as they can out of the F1 license and then start working on the next title, leaving the last one in whatever state they released it in. F1 2019 feels like the cheap experience of a free to play game, yet has a high (underserved) pricetag. Also, the blatant corruption of "critics" being friendly with publishers and being the only ones allowed to review the game even while the customers are playing it before the "release date" has not gone unnoticed. The "release date" is just a meaningless excuse to charge more money to play early, and then not allow genuine reviews by the customers during that period to criticize what turns out to be flawed product during a time of potentially high volume sales. There's an inconvenient number of negative reviews by paying customers for the Codemasters F1 games, and there's a striking discrepancy between the customers average score and the "critics" average scores across them.

So many fundamental FPS features are missing or butchered, things that used to be in older Battlefield games. The remaining experience is warped to chase after COD and CS playerbases (and later, Battle Royale I'm sure). Battlefield has lost its identity, leaving it a broken and awkward mess.

Everyone had seen Jurassic Park, but not everyone knew about Trespasser. Probably because PC gaming wasn't too popular in 1998, which is very unfortunate for this product. The game takes you through an interactive version of Jurassic Park situated on Site B(the island where the dinosaurs were raised.) It's a long journey, full of atmosphere, as there are weathered buildings, half completed or just in disrepair, and broken machines along the way. The game even has its own voice over for the character of John Hammond, whom paints the player a picture of what the island was like when it was operational, since it's now abandoned. I first played it when it was eight I think, but I only figured out how to play it properly when I tried it again at age 20. It is old, but it has decent physics, is moderately challenging, and is a beautifully crafted world, with amazing animal AI for the time, and to top it off the voice work of Richard Attenborough. You start off stranded and unarmed, shooting your way from one end of the island to the other. There's so much to take in along the way, that before you know you're playing a game and not experiencing a work of art, it's already over. I was entertained all the way though, and never played it for the sake of just trying to complete it. Not only is it brilliant, it's the definition of a "hidden gem." I'm glad I was one of the seemingly few that got to play it.

Mildly enjoyable, but annoyingly it's quite user-unfriendly and infested with awkward features and little bugs. I imagine what an older game could have been in the same genre, and this grew up from that genre and sprouted hideous defects. I'm being harsh because it really annoys me when a developer ruins a product by leaving it rough around the edges, but this is honesty and not spite. At least I'm having fun on the popular DayZ mod with it, so all is forgiven.

I didn't think very highly of the Arma 2 engine, due to it being quite user-unfriendly and buggy. I wasn't interested in the content of this mod, only in getting DayZ mod going. For the price I wouldn't have bought it otherwise, although I am happy with DayZ and do recommend it for that reason, at least until DayZ goes standalone.

Hearing good things about this, I tried it in 2010 without having the nostalgic sense around it. I enjoyed it, the learning curve was interesting and I wanted to know how good I could get at it. Some great features stood out, I even played it with a friend on LAN for awhile. But it being so dated, and lacking modern user-friendly polish that so many devlopment teams easily manage nowdays, it regretfully doesn't stand up to modern games. I would give this one a miss, unless you love RTS turn based games or lost your original disks, since it's cheap.

It makes me happy to see great originals re-made for the high quality that gaming has now settled in, so I don't mind supporting such things if they aren't free patches. Playing Serious Sam in HD is engaging and fun, without being even slightly mentally exhaustive as many games are after a couple of hours. If you like first person shooters, and are willing to try a totally arcade world of amusing gameplay, then pick this up in a sale. If you played the original, this does it justice, and will make for a fantastic replay.

I love this, because I love singleplayer experience gameplay, that allows you to roam around with whatever equipment you want. There's a good mix of freedom, side missions, and storyline missions that you have to complete to progress. You can always go backwards, hunt for things, sell your treasures, buy weapons and ammo, until the endgame. The endgame itself is long, and took me totally by surprise at how epic it turned out to be. I was completely satisfied with it, seeing how such a modest game could unmask itself as being so brilliant. I wish I'd played it sooner, and had higher expectations with it, or I might never have tried it out. If you enjoy this and want a multiplayer version, I think DayZ mod is quite similar.

Singleplayer is a pointless shoot-em-up with objectives, winning or losing depending on the difficulty. Multiplayer is a pointless try-shoot-em-up with objectives, winning or losing depends on which team has the most talent or communication. The whole point of the game, I think, is the gritty experience of getting stuck into a trench with a deadly rifle, daring to pop your head up to get into the fight. Shooting can be brutal, constant deaths, or finding a good spot and getting several kills. I once got into a bayonet scuffle with a player in a room, my heart was pounding when I saw him storm in. It was one-on-one, I don't remember who killed who in the end, I just remember that my hands were shaking, and I loved it. Tank combat mixing with infantry is done well here, worth it if it's on sale and you enjoy experience gameplay, this is definitely not arcade fun. Mare Nostrum and Darkest Hour mods are worth a look at for this game.

What Half-Life is to first person shooters, I believe Race07 is to racers. It's a mild, simple racing simulator, that's not too hard and not too easy. It doesn't bank on ridiculous features to entertain, and it has no codemasters style permanent color scheme. It's not the most user friendly(menus, settings, and pitstops), and does take awhile to get used to(handling and all). But racing with a wheel, for those that enjoy racing, is engaging enough to play race after race of. AI can be challenging when you're on 95% difficulty, however they are hopeless at overtaking, and will unintentionally ram you if you slow down.

I used to love playing GRID with my keyboard, the drifting and racing was cool, with plenty of different cars and race types to enjoy. But then I tried it with a gamepad, and racing wheel... I noticed that there's a permanent driving assist that keeps you on the racing line, making it very hard to make mistakes. With a pad or wheel this is frustrating because the road is inconsistent, you get used to a certain amount of required steering, but as soon as you deviate from the racing line everything changes. It doesn't matter what car or track you're on then, the permanent assists make this as arcade as you can get. Don't mistake this for a simulator, everything about it is fake, even AI crashes are scripted, if you're behind then they slow down, if you're ahead then they speed up. GRID is still some fun, but head to proper simulators if you want a fair challenge.

GTA singleplayer gameplayer never fails to entertain me, at least not until I've done everything possible in the game about three times over. GTA IV holds true to that, except with a disappointing end game where you're still limited for monetary income even after the storyline. No army to fight against, no endless wallet, and sadly it's a console port which definitely shows. The multiplayer can be difficult to get working, but a playerbase exists and offers some cheap laughs. Windows Live is a noteworthy problem, but not a gamebreaker.

With so many gamemodes and physics tools, this sandbox game is excellent value for money at the price. Roleplay servers are popular, things like cops and robbers, Half-Life 2 roleplay, and build mode servers. If it's on sale, pick it up, but keep in mind that the gameplay you get out is completely reliant on what you put in. This isn't a guided experience, this is creativity, and improvisationally based stuff.

Fantastic infantry/cavalry/artillery/naval programming, I thoroughly enjoyed the grand campaign multiple times, and playing custom battles on both land and sea. Sadly the enemy AI appears quite basic, either you can run rings round them, or they relentlessly attack. The game is plagued by small bugs and glitches left in, since they weren't completely gamebreaking. But it's heartbreaking that so many weren't fixed, making this a flawed experience. The worst one is a memory leak, reducing frame rates massively, very frustrating. Sometimes I'd rather play Imperial War instead.

A very dated game, running on 800x600 with a basic mission system, and empty multiplayer. I appreciated it for its very in-depth environment, realistic bullet physics, and menu music. Among its features, live penguins, killer fish, endless map areas, underwater weapons, AI vehicles and teammates. Rescuing hostages, and blowing stuff up, from any angle with any weapon. It's a shame nowdays that nearly all singleplayer experiences are about campaigns with one approach and limited weapon types in new games.

Easy mode is relaxed and enjoyable, but only gameplay on harder difficulties will show the fine balancing between class roles, weapons, and enemy types. Multiplayer on 6 player servers is satisfying when you have teammates that know what they're doing, and try teamwork when things are going wrong. Although it's every man for himself when the final boss arrives! Larger servers with 15+ players are absolutely hilarious, and everyone who has the game should try one out. Overall a noteworthy experience, with character levels offering the player something to work on in the long run that kept me interested after I tried everything out. It has a massive following, and rightly so at such a reasonable price.

Try your aim with a longbow, or get into the scuffle chopping heads and capturing map objectives. This is first person melee combat done well, with a small but consistent playerbase. It's unique mods likes this which make any Source engine game even more worth buying(buy a source engine game and you can play this free mod).

The solid multiplayer experience is very rawly balanced between the 3 species, dumbed down by the very fast pace of movement speed and high attack damage. You'll need quick reaction times to survive, if you can find anyone online to play with. The 3 singleplayer campaigns each have a unique attitude, yet share similar themes of loneliness and menace. It's a challenging game with an undertone of dread, best not play it with the lights off. Back in 1999 it felt very unique to me, I still feel like it holds something specific that no other game has matched, and play it still sometimes.

More arcade than gritty hardship, with mildly enjoyable gameplay that sadly doesn't bring anything new to the table. The singleplayer is worth a playthrough, the online experience is too average, if not below average, to draw me in and keep me playing. I'd rather play AVP Gold, or AVP2.

The interactivity is very primitive, falling short of my low expectations. I'd much rather scribble in MSPaint while listening to my music, or watch the WMP visualizer. Rockband/Guitar Hero are miles ahead of Audiosurf in terms of design, playability, and fun.

The moderately destructible environment is a fun gimmick in both singleplayer and multiplayer, making BC2 a noteworthy experience. The singleplayer campaign is good enough for multiple playthroughs, multiplayer can draw you in with the relationship between infantry and ground vehicle combat. Chopper maps are quite messy, as you're either being shot at by, waiting in line for, or hiding from one. I forgive the chopper mess thanks to the weaponized UAV. With half the maximum players of BF2, low weapon damage, and no prone, this is a very arcade experience.

Definately an improvement on Battlestations Midway in several aspects, yet the two are different experiences. Pacific is more arcade than serious, as planes re-arm in the air rather than return to base. That Midway magic is gone, where you knew if you missed your torpedo then you had wasted a plane trip. If you want an easy to enjoy game, Pacific has the quality. If you want intense moments and punishing situations then stick with Midway. Keep in mind that this is very much like a console port, in terms of quality and depth.

A disappointment for Command & Conquer fans, as EA steers the CnC franchise into the mainstream arcade area to pickup new customers. The game looks pretty, the cutscenes are true to the series, but for gameplay and every other aspect, I'll stick with older titles.

For a title that had massive boots to fill, it sits proudly ontop of the original. The basic gameplay is faithfully recreated with no new quirks or features weighing it down. The game itself fits well into the beautifully designed Source engine. There's nothing new apart from the graphic overhaul, and that's all the fans surely wanted. Well done Valve.

Definitely an improvement on Battlestations Midway in several aspects, yet the two are different experiences. Pacific is more arcade than serious, as planes re-arm in the air rather than return to base. That Midway magic is gone, where you knew if you missed your torpedo then you had wasted a plane trip. If you want an easy to enjoy game, Pacific has the quality. If you want intense moments and punishing situations then stick with Midway. I'd give it a 7/10 if there were better games in the genre.

A beacon of online gaming, that despite being a dated title, so many players come back to it because of the well defined game mechanic. There's no great depth of content, just a simple yet enjoyable platform for team deathmatch, with map objectives thrown in. Years ago I spent at least 1,000 enjoyable hours playing it.

Something I had dreamed of being able to play before it was released, being able to apply my CS skills in a singleplayer campaign! Sadly the new weapon and player models along with new sounds make it feel like a separate title. Without the CS context, it's a basic run and shoot experience, a dull version of Blue Shift or Opposing Force with no puzzles. Although having no outstanding qualities, It does manage to entertain as the campaign reaches a climatic end.

It's harsh when you're moving toward a map objective, knowing the enemy is waiting around any corner, when 2 shots will probably kill you. It's intense gameplay, softened by the perfect models, textures, and sounds of all the weapons you use. A lot of care and attention went into this mod, and it shows.

Much like CS:S this is a faithful recreation of a HL1 mod, redesigned with the care and attention to detail it deserved. Valve didn't keep the British army in, but the core gameplay is the same. It's tense, although not very exciting. You get killed easily, respawn quickly, and never give up attacking.

Brilliant atmosphere, you feel the tension of the impending nuclear war as the timer counts to the next DEFCON level, moving your units in to destroy as much of the opposing continent as you can. Then you reach DEFCON 1 and watch the nukes you launched heading to kill millions, while the grim background music plays. It's too simple though, ships and planes move and shoot each other clumbsily on a small map for about 10 minutes while nukes fly overhead, gets boring fast.