Space Engineers is right what it says on the store page. It's a sandbox game about engineering, construction, exploration and survival in space and on planets. A game defined by creativity.
The game is developed and published by Keen Software House and their motto: "Need to create" is a foundation of their game.


Need to create

Everything in Space Engineers requires you to be creative and requires you to literally make your own solutions to the problems you will encounter and I love it. Space Engineers has become one of my favourite games, I'd probably even call it my favourite game as of writing this review.

Like many creative survival games it has no story. However, what it lacks in story it makes up for in player capability. The possibilities in Space Engineers are near-endless. (More on that later.) Aside from that, I'm sure you could also find a way to roleplay with people as a way to create a more story-centred game. E.g. a 'crashed ship' scenario where 3 players build up from nothing but a crashed ship like TheXPGamers' Group Survival Series .

The point I'm trying to make is that if you think you're creative and you like building or designing, you'll find your way in Space Engineers like a fish takes to water.


Building

Space Engineer's building mechanics are that akin of Minecraft with less boundaries. Every place-able object is found in your build menu. You can add them to your hotbar and place as many as you'd like and in whatever orientation you see fit! You will need to have the necessary components in your inventory to place the object. Not all, but at least one of the first required component.
Most objects can be placed in two sizes: Large grid or Small grid variant. To explain this plainly: Small grid blocks are smaller variants of large grid blocks, however, not all large grid blocks have a small grid variant.
A large grid battery is 15,6 m³ in volume while a small grid battery is 2,25 m³ in volume.
A large grid battery is 2,5x2,5x2,5 m³, a small grid battery is 1,5x1x1,5 m³.

Building doesn't end when you've placed the objects, Space Engineers has the mechanic of welding your placed objects. When placing down a large grid armour block you don't place it down fully built, you place down the frame of the block. You then have to have the components necessary for its completion in your inventory. Simply weld the block with your welder while having the required components in your inventory and it will be completed.

I am deeply in love with the building in Space Engineers. When building a base, a space station, a space ship, a rover, you name it.. you are in control. You place every block at the orientations you want and where you want. You get to design and control the intricate workings of everything. The failure or success of your creation rests in your hands and only yours!
Aside from the solid objects that Space Engineers features you also have the mechanical blocks: Rotors, hinges and pistons!

Design folding landing gear for your spaceship or make a crane that connects to your base, create custom turrets that you can control- I am not exaggerating when I believe the options in Space Engineers are near endless. Don't even get me started at what some people are capable of doing with scripts, actual C# coding in the game that control these mechanical blocks on a next level.

I have owned Space Engineers since 2017 and KSH's motto of "Need to create" is what keeps me coming back whenever I have had enough of Space Engineers for a bit.


Enough talk, opinions!

Space Engineers is a wonderful game for creative people. The longer I stay in this community the more I am fascinated not only by own creativity but by the creativity of others. The game has kept me here for 1000 hours as of writing this and I look forward to many more.
I don't really play multiplayer and other than that I am a pretty vanilla player. The only mods I run are UI enhancements and something vanilla-like, for example the radio spectroscopy mod.

The learning curve for this game is honestly whatever you want it to be. If you want to get into this game and immediately try all the hard things there are many tutorials out there, if you'd rather learn it yourself from experience then that's fine too. I personally recommend a bit of both. Just be creative and you'll make it- it sounds a little extra but I cannot stress how much I think creativity is important for Space Engineers.

Updates are regular with paid-DLC coming alongside the update most of the time. I do want to shed some light on the DLC since some people have a twisted view of them. The Space Engineers DLC are purely cosmetic with no player benefit other than dopamine for the buyer. The DLC help fund the game and help provide the non-DLC-buying community with updates. All features of an update are free for the community without a paywall and do not need a DLC to be enjoyed. Let me reference the last DLC (as of writing) Warfare 2. Warfare 2 brought cosmetic items like:

• A cosmetic variation of the ion thruster block.
  
• A cosmetic variation of the reactor block.
  
• A cosmetic variation of the rocket launcher block.
  
• A cosmetic variation of the battery block.

All the mentioned blocks are purely cosmetic variations with no player benefit, they provide no advantage to any purchaser.
If you don't want to buy a DLC for some cosmetic blocks, fine by me, but they're definitely not milking us for money with DLC. There is no advantage, what else would be the incentive to buy them other than for support and cosmetics?

That aside...

Do you think you have the creativity to hop into the frontier and make your creativity into something solid? I think you should get Space Engineers. I fully endorse this game and I wish its developers a good time developing this game. You have my support.

Be creative, people!

Wallpaper Engine is a clever application that allows you to be far more creative with the wallpapers you use on your desktop or laptop.
I was recommended this application by my good friend PigeonMan and I must say I am not disappointed with my purchase.

Wallpaper Engine does so much compared to its price and it's honestly amazing I had to pay so little for something so great. Personally I don't have many 'complex' wallpapers and just import static images from my PC instead, but still Wallpaper Engine has no problem switching between static images and the few complex wallpapers I do use. Furthermore I have noticed no performance drops or issues since I let Wallpaper Engine run on my PC, which is another great reason to get it.

Wallpaper Engine's main use is very simple and quick to understand, it's just as easy as displaying a folder full of pictures to your desktop background via your Windows settings.
It has a built in folder system, so you can sort wallpapers in the application and add those folders to a playlist. Those playlists are fully customizable with settings like:

• When to change your wallpaper: When logging in, On a Timer, Time of day or never.
  
• In what order to change wallpapers: Random or Sorted.
  
• Changing when animated wallpapers change. (When the loop/video ends or just on one of the above.)

You must be wondering "Do I have to adjust these settings every time I log in?", no you silly goose!
Playlists and their settings can be saved under a name, all these settings can be saved under a profile which can be loaded in with a click.

I feel bad not listing the severe amount of functions this application has.
So here's a list of some functions Wallpaper Engine gives you:

• The option of having different wallpapers per monitor.
  
• The option of having different playlists with wallpapers per monitor.
  
• The ability to switch around saved wallpapers, playlists and profiles with a click.
  
• The option of cloning or stretching wallpapers on all your monitors which you can group together!
  
• The option of changing wallpaper settings like scheme colours, alignment and position on the fly.
  
• The option of changing animated wallpaper settings like volume, playback rate and other colour options.
  Did I mention wallpapers allow integrated audio that will play once it's loaded onto your screen?
  Not to mention the performance rules you can set for them! One example is that you can make it so when another application is focused to: 1. Keep the wallpaper running, 2. Mute the sound it makes, 3. Pause the wallpaper per monitor or 4. Pause all animated wallpapers.
  This is just one of the rules you can set, otherwise you can also make a custom rule for specific applications! You can be very specific for when you want an animated wallpaper to run.
  
• The option of editing wallpapers with its built-in, complicated, editor.
  I still need to get the hang of the editor, but right now I have no real urge to edit wallpapers. Maybe in the future I'll get good with the editor but for now I only have massive respect to anyone who dare touch the editor.
  
• The option to browse the Steam workshop and download thousands of wallpapers that suit your style.

To add to the things Wallpaper Engine does well, it has a great supportive community.
I recently encountered a bug that made it so Wallpaper Engine would crash, apparently this was a rare case. "Wonky" to quote Tim Eulitz.
Not only was I assisted within minutes of asking for help but that help came in the form of one of the developers Tim Eulitz.
With his help I was able to provide him with all necessary info needed on the bug and it was fixed in mere hours in hotfix 1.4.173!
I provided Tim with all necessary info at around ~0:45 AM and a fix was up at ~2 PM.
I'm truly in amazed with how well I was treated and how quickly the bug was addressed by Tim.

So what are you still doing here? Do you want good looking and possibly animated wallpapers? Get Wallpaper Engine!
It's cheap, extremely functional and easy to use plus the community is always ready to help you out if you're in trouble.
It's basically a crime not owning Wallpaper Engine!