Recent reviews by Pak

Wow!! I am an old time fan of X-Wing, Tie-Fighter, X-Wing vs Tie Fighter, X-Wing Alliance games… and this is finally it. A game with the same gameplay feeling, but with absolutely AMAZING graphics and sounds. Literally incredible graphics. What an experience. Must be played with joystick for real enjoyment. Thanks to this game, I now REALLY want to purchase a VR set.

A childhood dream come true. Age of Empires II has probably been my favourite game ever, full stop. I have been playing it on and off for 20 years.
I was very disappointed with the 2013 HD edition because it was simply a resolution change, no new graphics, although I am glad that it reinvigorated the community and led to two expansions.
Now in 2019, we finally get the true thing. Definitive Edition is all we ever wanted. Completely redone graphics, while beautifully keeping completely faithful to the original, beautiful re-recorded music, where we can still clearly recognise the originals, new campaigns, new voices, improvements in gameplay, better map editor, better hotkey editor, etc. In summary this brings a classic up to standard to compete with modern games. I predict this will be a true gaming hit for new generations.

This is a software which I wouldn't have believed could have even existed until I saw it for myself. I find it incredible: A three dimensional model of the universe, on which I can navigate freely at any speed I want, is beautifully rendered in my computer for my viewing pleasure, up to its very last galaxy, stellar cluster, nebula, star, black hole, planet, moon, asteroid or comet. Both known ones (taken from catalogues) and unknown ones (generated procedurally by the software in as scientific a manner as possible). You can seamlessly fly from the rings of Saturn to the Andromeda galaxy, with no loading screens or cuts, watching the entire voyage at whichever speed you choose.

Bearing in mind that my computer is a tablet without even having a dedicated GPU (Surface Pro 4) I honestly find it astounding that I can run Space Engine so smoothly at a 1920 resolution. Absolutely incredible. The quality of the software optimization for performance is impressive.

I have been using this software since near its launch some years ago and I am so happy to see it here on Steam, as a paid product, so that everyone is encouraged to support its development.

My highlight for this new Steam version 0.99 is that it includes a Tutorial: I never imagined that a TUTORIAL for a SOFTWARE could leave me with slightly wet eyes.... I have to say that just for this tutorial, the price of this new version was totally worth it. I had never seen a tutorial so well thought out, entertaining, and at the same time incredibly instructive. I literally learned science from the tutorial. I am so thankful to the developers for creating it, as the capabilities of the software are even better than I had known these past years when I had kind of figured things out by myself. I really think that the tutorial makes a HUGE difference to the experience. Without it, you have to guess what things are, what the possibilities are, etc. Now with the tutorial I can really squeeze all the juice out of it. I can enjoy the software EVEN more: for instance, I had no idea about some keyboard shortcuts, the real meaning of the camera modes, ability to zoom telescopically, and the completeness and usefulness of the universe map, the system explorer, the star finder .... truly amazing.

Congratulations to the developers and all the scientists/artists/etc who collaborated on this. I look forward to improved flight modes, and who knows what games people can build on this platform (and tutorials for it!). I also know the developer is interested in doing stellar and even universe evolution, so that we can REALLY travel through time (right now time is mostly limited to orbits as far as I can tell) which would make this a truly four dimensional model: really hoping that dream might one day come true. It sure looks a gargantuan effort.... but so did the current version.