Recent reviews by [BSB] Box

Played on and off for years, recent updates are amazing. Very immersive , tense and challenging.

Fantastic multi-player strategy game with excellent single player campaign. It builds on the original nicely.

I’ll revisit this review periodically as I learn more and as things are patched.


I've been tracking the development on this game for well over a year now and naturally have been eagerly awaiting Early Access to launch on Steam now for most of the summer. Yesterday that finally happened and I have to say that on the whole I am very pleasantly surprised!

I am a massive fan of survival games, even if I have become a bit fatigued with the constant stream of them over the last five years or so. But nevertheless, when Scum went live yesterday, I managed to get in just over 6 hours of gaming on it, both offline/single player and online with friends. I will say this review is perhaps a little premature in that respect as there’s still so much for me to find out about the game – actually that’s the first thing to note, there is a LOT of content and a lot of game for an Early Access title . Much more than I expected and although there are bugs and issues (Early Access!), there’s actually a lot less than I expected.

Things that have impressed me so far:
- Single player mode/standalone (great way for players to learn and to sandbox)
- Smooth gameplay. The game runs relatively smoothly and very well even on my older system! There is some kind of memory leak bug that leads to FPS drops the longer you play presently but I expect that fixed soon. A quick game restart sorts it out anyway.
- Lots of servers! Official regional servers are great!
- Atmosphere and tone (It perfectly recaptures and represents the old Day Z feel but also adds some humour to it in places)
- Content (Theres lots of loot and weapon and gear)
- Body/Metabolism systems (Theres already a lot of stuff in there in relation to the way your characters body works, but if you’re no into all that you can easily play without paying too much attention to it)
- Map (The map is a good size considering these no vehicles yet – big enough to explore and get space, yet also reasonably spaced to easily find friends and get where you want to be relatively quickly. It also looks lovely!)
- Hand to hand combat is pretty good but does need some further refinement
- Inventory system (very similar to Arma2/Escape from tarkov!)
- AI (enough AI antagonists to keep you on your toes and despite bugs like warping, pathing, not being able to open doors etc. they’re still a genuine threat)
- Crafting (this is where the game excels, survivalists will cream themselves over this!)
- There is a match system in game that I admittedly haven’t used yet but looks good!



Bad things
- There are bugs and glitches, frustrating t times true. If this pisses you off, maybe wait to play till a few versions in.
- A bit early to moan but no instant join on friends for multiplayer an the sever browser system isn’t working very well (at time of writing) as its difficult to find friends.


Overall, this is everything Day Z should have been. Is it too late though? Nah, it’s an amazing game with so much potential. The devs have delivered a game Early Access that already knocks the socks off most rival games in the genre. Its exciting to think of how good this could actually be 6-12 months down the line! So far I’d say its more than worth the money!

I'll start in the obligatory way for all FM players' by telling you that I've been playing the series for years (I'm no newbie - heaven forbid!), since 1994 with CM Italia 93/94, so I immediately know what I'm talking about and know everything there is to know about FM and you should shut up and immediately take notice of everything I say! :D

Truth is I have been playing FM/CM for a long time, buying probably every other release in the series steadily since 1999 as I have always been very satisfied and happy playing most releases for at least two seasons (more sometimes!), as more often than not, SI usually hit the back of the net with their award winning management series.

I was going to give FM18 a miss actually and not buy it after being massively disappointed with FM17 due to all the bugs and just "blurgh" game play and feel. The game felt stale and just didn't feel like it belonged on the same team sheet as it's quality predecessors in the series.

However, because of the December Steam sale and being off work with nothing else to play, I was once more tempted back to my favourite game series of all time and decided to give it a try.

After having a quick read through the Steam reviews whilst downloading and installing, I almost regretted my decision seeing the many negative reviews. Had so many of them not been so irrelevant, discussing older features or just generally unreadable, I may have even stopped in my tracks and asked for a refund. I decided to push on and try for myself.

I'm pleased to report I have been playing pretty much constantly since then I am very confident in saying that this game has put the series back on track after a disappointing predecessor, in my opinion. I strongly feel this game will steal much of my gaming time from now until, probably FM20, when I will probably be ready for some new features and updates!

Football has changed over the last decade or so - it's changed massively even in the last two seasons with these huge transfer fees and player power being so strong now I'd say. It's not just about the weekend match and winning stuff anymore and this is something FM has always struggled to emulate.

Traditionally we all loved the core principals of FM, taking charge of our favourite club, turning around it's fortunes with a mix of solid tactical changes and drills, clearing out the dead wood and buying our own, hand picked stars (often exciting unknown talent from abroad!) and flooding our youth teams with wonderkids and watching them develop over the following seasons.

This is a steadfast formula that FM has followed since, well since CM2 really. Yes, all the new features, match engine tweaks and 2D & 3D graphics are nice and add some new elements to the game play, but as long as the core elements of the game remained the same we've loved the game.

I think over the last couple of releases though FM has felt a bit stale and not been able to fully immerse players in the current football world, despite SI's best efforts to do so, introducing a few new systems and features.

Finally in FM18 these features, such as social networks, player power, dressing room dynamics, enhanced AI behaviors, increased attributes, scouting networks etc. have all started to come together and make FM "feel" like a an immersive simulation of the modern game, and not at the cost of sacrificing the core elements of what we all play the game for. These new elements do present a more challenging and rewarding environment and give you a lot more to thing about and juggle within your careers. I get the impression this game is no longer the scripted game you master after a few "test" careers, learning which are the best players to sign, who are the best coaches to employ etc.

The game employs circumstance, no two clubs are the same and there's a much more dynamic feel to how a season plays out. Don't get me wrong, SI have not perfected this yet and there's still a long way to go, but the whole game feels a lot less robotic than any previous version.

The new Scouting network features are fantastic and really have made the process of identifying, scouting and trying to sign players a lot more how I imagine it would be for clubs. The squad dynamics feature is also very interesting and adds a new layer of complexity to managing and mentoring your squad. It's a nice step forward from the previous versions, where player management just seemed to be players constantly getting pissed off at you if you pressed anything but the correct multi-choice answer. Now player mentalities, personalities and dressing room hierarchy seem to play more of a role help to take the irritation out of this side of the game.

One of the biggest complaints I read about of this game though was the decision to drop the 2D match engine - which I myself thought would be a big deal too, as I only ever really used this view after reluctantly adopting it from the text based game. However, after some slight improvements the 3D match engine quickly grows on you and is just as good for identifying issues with tactics. It's smooth and easy to watch and doesn't feel as rigid as previous versions but there's still huge leaps needed in this area though! Longer term it would be fantastic to see Fifa style graphics and commentary to make you feel more like you're watching Sky Sports, but I'm sure SI are working towards that long term :)

In fact the graphics area still leaves a lot to be desired, with the creating your own manager still looking awkward and unconvincing, but at least it's on the SI radar and is something they are slowly chipping away at and to be fair this is just a novelty feature anyway, and not crucial to the gameplay.

Crucially though, game play is a lot more intuitive though. The game is relatively easy to pick up and play around with now, without too much information overload. The graphical features to try and simplify all the complex attributes and tactical elements help, but it's mostly the development of the advice screens and interface that have helped this.The mountains of information available have been streamlined nicely, again not perfectly, but miles better than before.

For me, this game is the easiest to pick up and play and the most enjoyable since FM13 or FM14. It's more about gameplay and submersion than box ticking, slider pulling and rigid player rituals. Oh, and the new music at the loading and menu screen is a nice touch too!

While the game still has areas to improve in and continue development, this version will keep you occupied until another more polished version is released!

Really pleased with my purchase and enjoying the game!

The single player story mode game GTA 5 itself is fantastic, well polished very in-depth and very entertaining - as you would expect with Rockstar's flagship title. This game takes all the popular and well produced content and ideas from previous versions and manages to inorporate them, as well as all the new ideas and features, very well. It feels familiar but fresh.

HOWEVER, I want to talk about GTA Online, the biggest reason I purchased this game for the PC.

GTA Online is a joke and has continued to be so since PC launch.

At it's core it's a fantastic idea, R* have clearly been taking note of their PC & console fan-base's requests and production of mods, such as MTA. Many features that first crept in years ago with these mods have been polished and introduced to the online game. I'm not saying there isn’t room for improvement, not least in further expansion for and dedicated to PC mods or DLC that fully utilise the potential of the PC.

However all this development, polish and general effort is currently seriously undermined by Rockstar's, frankly laughable commitment to dealing with online cheating and griefing. Within a week or so the first cheaters emerged and it's been a rapid increase ever since.

Make no mistake that the online free-roam mode is just about unplayable now. Every session seems to have these script kiddies running what they believe are just mods - mods that give them the ability to do anything, kill people, teleport around the map and even provide in game money! The latter being the biggest problem!

How do Rockstar seriously expect to sell these Shark cards? Or were they just an afterthought to milk cash for the mugs who buy them?

These hackers are now actively sought out by many "legitimate" players who are perhaps either too sensible or scared to run these third party injectors/mods/hacks/exploits themselves but see no harm in reaping the rewards of others who do! You join any online freeroam lobby at any and you will see a flurry of players asking questions like "any hackers giving out money?" , "somebody spawn me $1million plz" etc.

And why not? Rockstar don’t seem to be taking it seriously. I was actually playing in a lobby in free roam when I was magically teleported to a roof top and shot repeatedly with money. I ended up with around $1.2 million in my game wallet. I immediately jumped through all the hoops that is GTA Online support (they don’t make it easy, so you can see why most people just think "sack it!"). i gave them full details of what happened and how much money was illegitimately provided to me and the account of the guy did it, as well as some screenshot evidence.

I receive a response within 24 hours thanking me for my report but after looking "closely" at my account there was no sign of any illegitimate or hacked money! So it's no wonder people are turning a blind eye to it in game.

This positive reinforcement has also been carried over to Rockstars poor attempts to actually deal with those who are caught cheating. For the few who actually do get caught they get the following escalating "discipline":

- Warnings
- Moved to temporary cheaters pool of gamers (God knows when !)
- A two week suspension
- A month suspension
- Three month suspension

Ridiculous! With such a wish-wash disciplinary policy it's no wonder gamers are not taking this seriously. That combined with the target audience that is by and large going to be casual, young and console (background), its easy to see why this game is just a joke in online mode.

I would recommend the game as a stand alone title but Rockstar have completely disappointed on the Online front as they continue to ♥♥♥♥♥ out of taking real action to protect genuine customers who are playing legitimately customers.