Recent reviews by Raptor-1

A free-to-play kart racer with tight controls, a solid soundtrack, and a nice variety of racers and tracks. Playing through the seasonal content is fun, and daily and weekly events keep you more than busy. There could be more features for the online aspect, and the ranked mode becomes extremely grindy.

Speaking as a game's founder, I have had no trouble unlocking every racer; however, new players will need to wait for specific character events to come around or spend money (which I don't suggest, unless you really want a specific racer).

There is a fair amount of FOMO of keeping up with all of the the events and ranked mode leaderboard; however, that can all be completely ignored by playing the Private Track and Local Freeplay modes. This is something that is often ignored in user reviews, but if all you're interested in is having fun racing with your friends, you can do so while having access to every racer. There is plenty to enjoy here without spending a dime.

After 14 years of development, Black Mesa is now finally considered by the devs as "complete". The love and attention to detail that Crowbar Collective brought to bringing Gordan Freeman's first outing to the same standards one can expect by Valve, is absolutely stunning. Although I would still suggest new players play the original game before playing Back Mesa, I wholeheartedly would recommend playing this afterward - only to appreciate how great this game stands as a true remaster.

Hello Games should be commended as having one of the best comebacks with their game "No Man's Sky." No one would argue that the state of the game at launch was far less than was initially promised, but over time and many FREE updates, the game is as good as it was promised if not better.

"Elite Dangerous" is a game that will not appeal to everyone. The game is very grindy, requires a lot of reading outside the game to play properly, and leaves most enjoyment up to the player to make for himself or herself. However, if you're looking for an immersive space game that makes you feel like you are piloting a real spaceship, "Elite Dangerous" is the best game on the market.

Not only does this game require significant time investment, but it can also require a high monetary investment if you are looking to get the best experience. Althoguh it can be enjoyed on small monitor with K+B or a controller, to truly appreciate the scope and detail this game offers, you will want to invest in a good HOTAS control setup , as well as a VR headset or the largest monitor you can buy with a headtracking device, such as TrackIR.

In many ways, "Elite Dangerous" is less of a game and more of a space-simulation experience, but for anyone that has ever dreamed of flying the stars, you would be hard pressed to find a game that does it better.

12/4/24 UPDATE: The game has changed significantly since my last review, and now features on-foot gameplay that was introduced in the paid Odyssey update. Although this arguably had a terrible launch, FDev has done significant work to improve stability and performance of the game since the launch. The fact that the game has now been out for 10 years, and the upcoming Colonization update was just announced, truly shows that the developers are treating this game as a "Labor of Love."

I am only a few hours into this game and I already feel like I have seen and experienced more than most games have to offer in their entirety. On top of delivering a totally immersive gaming world for you to explore and do basically anything you want, the land of Skyrim is so massive that seeing everything will easily take a couple hundred hours - and that doesn't take into acoount additional content from an already-very active modding community. Skyrim is the gaming epitome of the term: "Bang for you buck!" If you are a fan of the Elder Scrolls series, RPG fantasy genre or video games at all, you must play this game.

WARNING: Do not play if you have a full-time job, a family, or any friends at all. Exposure to Skyrim for even a couple of hours may lead to extreme levels of addiction.

[UPDATE 11/25/16] After 25 years of gaming, this 5-year-old game still remains one of my favorites of all time, and is the pinnacle of Bethesda's game library.

Are you like me and every day wish for the zombie apocalypse just for the excuse of blowing away hordes of zombies to bring some excitement to your candidly boring life? Well, until that happens - and it WILL happen - look no further of honing your zombie slaying skills then Left 4 Dead 2! When judgment day comes, people will be looking for those who know how to handle themselves against the undead and proficient with such weapons as fire axes and auto shotties. Don’t you want to be a hero!?