Recent reviews by Hat8

Victoria 3 has a good soundtrack, but it really needs more variety. There was alot of different types of music around the world between 1836 and 1936.

Regardless, this is free with Expansion Pass and available in the game files or Youtube. Buying this by itself makes no sense.

This is the only expansion that is a must-have for Victoria 3 as it adds foreign investment and power blocs to the game.

Foreign investment is a must for this game. Without this feature one has absolutely no say over the production of their subjects. Even worse, subjects will build very little due to a complete lack of construction sectors and be dead weight by the late game. With this DLC one can build in their subject’s provinces using their own construction sectors and private sector construction. This also adds depth to the game as keeping a subject loyal requires ownership of their economy and investing in subjects without creating industries that undercut one's own economy can be challenge. Foreign investment also makes economic imperialism possible with the help of the power bloc system.

Power blocs are also a necessary addition to the game as they are effectively Paradox giving the subject system needed depth. Power blocs can choose from a variety of boosts that help with colonisation, economic Imperialism, agriculture, industry and a other things. Being a member of a power bloc is the first step to becoming a subject and through foreign investment a member of a power bloc can be forced to become a subject. Power blocs do a really good job at representing stuff like the unification of Germany through the Zollverein customs union, American economic Imperialism in Latin America and British becoming the largest empire in history through protectorates.

Without this expansion Victoria 3 has missing mechanics and alot less depth. This is Paradox locking key mechanics behind DLC, but it is what it is.

Day & night cycles and more cultures having their clothing represented on the politics & population screens is nice.

This is free with the Expansion Pass so just consider that when buying the game as a whole.

Alexis de Tocqueville is the starting agitator for France with the radical ideology and almost always immediately sets up a movement to become a republic. This movement starts with overwhelming support, but France starts with a ruling landed interest group that would immediately react with a counter revolution with the support of the military. France games are a very careful balancing game and he makes that much harder.

Clemenceau appears as a leader of the Intelligentsia in the 1870s and he has the radical ideology. He starts with traits that make him extremely popular and help him live for a long time. By this point in the game he can either be a powerful voice for revolution or a source of stability for a liberal status quo.

Jules Brunet appears in the Japanese Shogunate as an agitator for the Shogunate interest group with the authoritarian ideology. He will oppose rights for women and any democracy. He is not particularly useful as a general, but makes the game more interesting by being a strange guy in a strange land.

This DLC is more than just the White House. It also gives American railroads, farms, plantations, oil rigs and cities their own unique sprites. The wild west towns are especially interesting as they disappear and become normal cities as time progresses.

It would be nice if the US got more monuments like Mt Rushmore and Empire State Building , but this is still a nice free addition to the game.

With this installed you can zoom into the map and see trains moving between your cities. The number of trains moving around depends how developed your rail network is. Listen closely and you can hear lots of different train noises. A very necessary free DLC.

Command and Conquer Renegade is an all time classic. An RTS where you and your pals are the units playing an FPS. Everybody talked about wanting this and they actually did it and it actually worked (and still works pretty well)

Unfortunately, this is not a remaster or remake, but just the game from 2002 as it was. WestWood Online closed in 2003 and Gamespy closed in 2013 so there is no official multiplayer support for the game. Multiplayer is still possible, but it is just far more annoying to get going as it requires third party software that demands alot more trust between people. The game has a singleplayer campaign, but this is a game that is played for the multiplayer so do not bother even starting this up just for that.

The original Red Orchestra is completely different from its sequel. It has animations, atmosphere and gameplay that all come together to push players to play more careful and use teamwork instead of run around as though game were a random team death match game.

The game is much slower. It has slower animations that are more detailed and weapons have a much smaller field of view. This makes it so that aiming means committing to being vulnerable and firing a commitment to being defenseless for a long time. It has darker maps with more screen shake, smoke and miserable weather like storms that force one to take shelter, stay down and stay near others. More importantly though is that it has longer respawns that demand players walk to the front instead of spawn right into the action. This sunk cost encourages people to be more cautious and not just run & gun as though they were playing a modern Call of Duty game.

Both the Red Orchestra games are good, but this one is just better at being as "realistic" as you can be with a videogame without being silly about it. The only real issue with this game is finding people to play with who have decent pings.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 has the same gameplay as the first game, but with alot more rides and a better UI for stuff like paths.

Pretty much a must-play for anybody who has played through the first Roller Coaster Tycoon.

You get 5 maps that all have alot of open space, forests and mines. The achievements of Tropico 5 can be achieved while in Sandbox mode so these maps can be used for achievement hunting.

It was nice of the developers to give this out for free.