ShelLuser 最近的评测

So, a brief backstory: one of my favorite Animes of all time is "Ghost in the Shell" (the original material, not the (IMO) lame reboots by Spielberg). The story revolves around a cyborg master hacker called Motoko Kusanagi who is the leader of "Section 9"; a special police unit operating directly from within the government. Kusanagi uses her skills to help unravel the cases she and her team need to solve.

For example... when investigating a hotel to see if a certain person is there Kusanagi easily accessed the hotels network, takes over a security camera to watch a certain floor and when she sees a robot maid who is going to serve drinks she immediately takes over the android.

Why I'm telling you all this you wonder? Simple: because these are some of the things you can literally do within Cyberpunk 2077! Taking control over a network and checking to see who (or what) is "connected", or taking over cameras and then not only using those to get a good overview of your surroundings but also to gain further access. Like overriding a security android and shortcircuiting them...

Surfing the darker side of the Net...

You are "V", a cyborg lowlife who has returned to "Night City" in hopes of making some solid credits ("eddies") here. During a heist things go dramatically wrong and you barely escape with your life. Only to end up backstabbed and left for dead. Fortunately you survive and now it's time to get to the bottom of the things that happened to you.

Awesome atmosphere!

Given my story above it shouldn't come as a surprise that I'm using a female character. And from the moment I fired up the game for the very first time I was mesmerized by the overal atmosphere and options of this game. Because the amount of freedom you have in the way things play out is just awesome! I've actually replayed one level just to see for myself what would have happened if I had done things "differently" and lo and behold: it was very different.

But there's something special about sneaking around an adult club while being armed with only a katana and a pistol and in the beginning making sure not to kill or harm people (I did knock someone unconcious to steal an access pass). Unfortunately I got stuck, I got impatient, I got frustrated and before I knew I sliced up most of the guards and some guests alike because... ♥♥♥♥ happens ;)

This game does so many things right!

For example... even though you can tinker in games like Fallout 3 and Watchdogs I never really bothered with that because it bored me and it also never fully made sense to me. So here I am in a nightclub where my weapons got confiscated yet they allowed me to keep my backpack and the tech stuff in there. It didn't take long before I had a knife on me ;)

But also the feel of actually being a human with cybernetic implants... I need to enter a building and there are people in front. So... I make sure to check them out with my scanner and "tag" them, which allows my cyber systems to keep track of them, which can then help me to either avoid 'm, distract them or take them down.

It's not perfect though...

However, it's also hardly as bad as you may think it could be if you only read the stories about release issues. Trust me: they've turned things 180 degrees around in the mean time, this game is awesome! But also not perfect. For example the main story is somewhat lineair in the beginning and it doesn't allow you to do much apart from the main quest unless you specifically select those activities yourself (you can only have 1 active activity). So even though this game is an open world it may not seem like that when you just get started.

It provides tutorials which can really help you get started with all the basic mechanics, but... I still had to discover myself that you can equip multiple weapons and switch between them. So... small things.

And yes, I once saw someone walk through a table. Easily ignored.


This is an awesome - no nonsense - game. I was actually somewhat surprised to discover that it doesn't bother with censorship; at some point I found myself nekkid back in my apartment. And then it also showcases the awesome freedom: either you go with your real clothes, or you use real armor to protect yourself and then use an "overlay" to make it appear as if your're wearing casual clothing.

But everything makes sense... the tinkering, the cyber upgrades, the way in which you can use your computer / cyber impants to help engage enemies.. Heck, this game is what Watch Dogs should have been in my opinion. Nothing negative about that game from me, it was pretty solid IMO, but I also expected much more.

So yah... an intruiging story, real hacking, an amazing atmosphere... all in all... a really awesome game!

Two thumbs up from me!

I recall buying this game as part of a bundle of some sort but I never got really into it until today. I don't know what I was expecting but surely nothing good. And I was right, "sorta", because this game is frickin' awesome! In a really twisted way :)

Looking for sex in all the wrong places...

Meet Lara, a young girl armed with a pistol and enough bad-assery to take on a whole horde of attacking zombies. Of course that does take its toll on poor Lara and what better way to relief some stress than, well, you know ;) I laughed so hard when she met a random dude who was completely freaking out about the zombies so Lara goes.. "What if I show you my b00bs?", which of course she immediately does, after you solved a small jiggy puzzle. Once the puzzle is solved get ready to enjoy some animated jiggly which eventually totally stresses out the random dude.

So of Lara goes again, taking on more zombies ;)


I'm really not sure how to describe this game other than completely crazy and plain out awesome at the same time. Not to mention very affordable ;) This is one of those games which almost immediately made me decide to grab all available DLC after having only played for a few moments.

Shoot zombies, follow the story, make choices in your encounters and end up with some interesting adult puzzles.

The drawings are somewhat crude but at the same time also plain out awesome because it fits the whole game atmosphere so darn well. It's actually really well done. And you can expect something of everything in here... Lara exposing herself, pleasuring herself, getting into a tentacle job (or getting forced into one)...

This is one of those games where you also want to make sure to lose the game at times with the right enemies so that you get to enjoy yet another hidden scenery ;)


Why the heck are you still reading this instead of going out there and kill them zombies, as well as Mr. Penisman? ;)

2 thum... maybe just one thumbs up this time, <ahem>. Oh right.. it also has Steam achievements as well as trading cards!

As its name implies Satisfactory is a game in which you build machinery to collect and process all kinds of materials which you can then use to make all kinds of different items. Items which can then be used to unlock the next tier in the game which will more than often have you use those basic items you created to make even more complex items.

Maybe it sounds silly but I love the progression in this game: you literally start with nothing other than your basic tools like the buildgun and resource scanner, and luckily for you FICSIT has even thrown in a courtesy "Xeno zapper" which is basically a cattle prod that can help to kill any hostile animals. Oh, right: FICSIT is the name of the company that has sent you to the planet you're on. Your direct contact is ADA; the Artificial Directory and Assistant and your job at hand is to collect resources and make the items Ficsit requires you to provide them with.

The "buildgun" can be used to place and remove machines and the best part: usage is 1 on 1. Meaning that if you remove a structure then you'll get all its resources back, thus allowing you to use those to build something else (or the same thing but this time maybe in a different location of course). The scanner can be used to, well, scan your surrounding for resources.

Like I said: you literally start with nothing so the first thing to do is to disassemble the pod you arrived in so that you can use its components to make your first building: the HUB. The HUB provides you with a crafting bench, basic storage and basic power and this will also be the center of your operations because here you can unlock the next stages of the game.

Unlike many others this game doesn't use a procedurally generated map, instead everything has been carefully designed from the ground up. And it shows! I've been in areas where I figured that I would never be able to reach certain places yet because I hadn't unlocked foundations, but lo and behold: with a little bit of exploration I soon found a path to that place I needed to go to.

And like I said: it looks gorgeous! Lush green fields, gorgeous beaches, dry and barren deserts... Oh, that's right: don't let the starting areas fool you: it's all the same map but simply starting in a different location. So you can easily start in the green fields and then eventually make your way to the forrests and/or deserts.

Maybe tricky with the replay value....
However, because the map is fully static the games replay value may not be very optimal for some players, because you will always find the same loot in the same places. So once you know about those you can simply go there, pick up your stuff and call it a day.

But at the same time this also shouldn't be too much of an issue because this game is all about factory building: it's not a survival and/or exploration game perse. While there are some survival elements like hostile creates these only appear in specific areas. So as long as you avoid those you'll be just fine.

The whole focus of this game is to build and set up your factory in the most efficient way possible. And sometimes that may require a little math, but don't worry: the search tool (press 'n') can do basic calculations for you. But yeah... if a miner outputs 60 items per minute yet your smelter can only handle 30 items per minute... then I guess you should be able to use 2 smelters with one miner. Stuff like that.

Later on in the game you will also be able to overclock machines, so that you get even more performance out of them. Just be careful because this will also affect power consumption!

Your first problem: keeping things running
Like I said before the progression in this game is really good. At first you have no means of power so.... you'll just have to collect leaves and wood, turn those into biomass (and later on solid biofuel) so that you can power your factory using biomass generators; you already get 2 free of charge courtesy of your HUB, but those are somewhat limited. But later on you'll learn about coal which you can use to create steel but also to fuel coal generators for creating continous power.

This is a big deal in the game because ore nodes never run out. So once you set up a coal generator with coal and water then it will simply continue to run indefinitely, thus allowing you to fully concentrate on other things than power.

Collect resources, build stuff, optimize and expand your factory, build more stuff.... and provide FICSIT with all the things they need, like a good little drone, errr I meant: valued Pioneer.

Like I said before the replay value can be somewhat limited for some players because of the static map, but then again... this game is all about factory building in the first place. And what kind of factory are you going to build? Just placing some machines and connecting those with conveyors, or are you going to make actual buildings to put your machines in?

And don't forget some of the fun side activities like driving around the map, listening to your boombox (which can also help to blow some little pests away), flushing the toilet and of course: enjoying a sip of coffee every once in a while.

Stay productive and get ready to Save the Day!

Two thumbs up: this game is awesome!

Warning: I am reviewing a so called early access game (at the time of writing) => this means that you should always mind the golden rule of EA: you get what you see, don't expect anything beyond that. Also... don't expect all optional (!) future changes to be to your liking either. Enter at your own risk!.

Considering the massive confusion / ignorance regaring EAG sometimes I felt this disclaimer was necessary.

Imagine a large continent in the middle of the ocean, the land of Shell. All the way north lie the Forbidden Lands: a volcano spewing lava into a huge surrounding lava lake which in its turn is surrounded by swamps and demonic lands... vile beasts roam here!

Further south, fortunately separated by a large river, is a lucious area of land covered in grass, huge trees and beaming with wildlife. It is here where we find a tribe of humans who just started their own kingdom: the Kingdom of the Warths. Going even more south we come across the barren lands: a huge desert with a few oases here and there which eventually lead us to the great valley: a sandy pass surrounded by huge mountains. Past the valley is the jungle of the wild. Legend has it that if you manage to cross those lands you'll come across the fabled Elven tribes!

And so it was...

For many years the tribes lived peacefully amongst each other until a new small human outpost learned of the Elven tribes and their treasures... Filled with jealousy the humans amassed an army and invaded the Elven lands, even going as far as to totally decimate the great Elven capital of Ideali! Panicked the elves fled west to their neighboring town of Ilea where they prayed to their gods for wisdom and hope.

As legend has it, the User of the Shell listened to the pleas of the elves, gave them his blessings and protected their people with his divine shielding. When the human army arrived they were completely wiped out. So the humans sent another army... Getting angry over this sheer display of disrespect the great Shell threw several fireballs from the heavens and destroyed this human army. For the next 5 years every time the humans amassed an army anywhere in their lands fireballs would rain down from the sky, totally obliterating these efforts.

When the human king eventually died and his successor stepped up things changed: no more armies were being formed.

But alas, it was already too late... fully convinced that they were the divinely chosen kingdom the elves now sent out a massive army of their own up north which completely destroyed the entire human kingdom of the Warths. Saddened by the fact that neither of his chosen subjects would try to pursue peace the User of the Shell decided to unleash the grey plague! Slowly but steadily the entire land and everything on it was devoured by an unholy and unstoppable grey mass untill nothing was left but the ocean.

.... and two crabs 🎃

Sure, sure... all the above didn't happen as described: tribes do not pray or interact with you, that was just my imagination running wild. But the human settlement expansion, the war, the eventual peace, and my "divine intervention"? That all really happened.

Build a land & populate it!
Either you start with an existing world or you make one of your own... the game provides you with an area to play in where you can use its land scaping tools to raise or lower the land. Draw sand, soil or hills and mountains and of course you can also add life to your land. Once you have some land set up you can then drop seeds to define the biome. Some examples: grass, savanna, mushroom, swamp, jungle... but also fantasy ones like corrupted ("it burns"), infernal, crystal and even candy biomes exist. Add some fertilizer.. or maybe directly plant fruit bushes?

Either you wait for life to spawn on its own, or you can add life yourself like flies and frogs to dragons and demons. And of course one of the four races: Humans, Elves, Orcs or Dwarves. Elves like trees, don't like orcs. Orcs don't like humans. Dwarves love ale and us humans? We only have basic needs ;)

About those needs? Maybe add chickens, cows, cats and/or dogs, sheep, foxes or... a monkey? ;)

Of course you can also be more nasty: bears, crocodiles, wolves, snakes and pirhana's are also avaialble (and a lot more!).

Let nature take its course?
Grass spreads, but so does do the "demon lands" (= "corrupted seeds").

Wolves eat sheep, rabbits and cows but will also end up satisfied at some point. Bears and crocodiles also love to snack on any of the races like humans or elves...

Speaking of whom.. races will build settlements, research technology, build houses, form cities, build roads and improvements for said cities. But will also try and explore the land, build new settlements to expand, amass armies, and possibly eventually maybe rage war on other civilizations.

Or... maybe interfere?

While the game is going you can always step in if you so like... bless races to give them a little boost, or maybe spread diseases? Add more wildlife to either help feed your subjects or maybe decimate them. Or just throw in a few disasters of course ;)


This is a fun mixture of SimEarth (= discontinued game), Civilization (but without the control) and of course Total War ;) I like how the game combines modern setups with a good ole fashioned 8-bit like setup: zoom out and eventually you're going to see pixels moving around ;)

I also enjoy the fact that the developers left in easily to notice unfinished features, it seems more is definitely coming but.. at the same time there also seems to be a predefined intended design. Of course, as always with Early Access there are no guarantees.

But yah, there's a reason why I easily put in 5 hours after having just picked up this game ;)

Thanks for reading, I hope this could help you make up your mind a bit.

So first thing to notice about all the negative reviews is that hardly anyone actually refunded their purchase. A second interesting observation is that many people don't seem to enjoy the game because they also have Madden '22: they feel they didn't get enough new features. But if that's the case... then why would you still buy this? After all, in the end all a game publisher is interested in is revenue. And that's exactly what all those nay-sayers are giving them.

And not just that: a version which pays respect to the late John Madden by not only featuring him on the cover of the game, we now also get so called "Madden legacy games" where none other than John Madden himself is coaching the team(s) that are on the field: both a younger version as well as an older version of John are facing each other and if you pay attention to the playbooks that are in use then you are going to notice differences in strategy, especially in comparison to the playbooks used by modern teams.

What I also deeply respect is that EA's standard opening sequence ("EA Sports, it's in the game") is also voiced by none other than John Madden. In my opinion this is quite a big deal because... EA is said to be pretty picky about their intros.

The first thing you're going to notice is that the menu options are much more clear; instead of vague "Exhibition" modes and such we now have clear to the point options such as "Play now", "Ultimate Team", "Franchise", etc. making it really clear what kind of game you're about to start. What I personal also enjoy much better in Madden '23 is that training and practice options are easier to access. Hard to miss "Learn to play", eh? ;)

Of course there's also a roster update: at the time of writing we're in the NFL pre-season for the superbowl and as always the active roster is accessible within Madden '23, meaning that you can (re)play games which are on the official NFL agenda, but also that the teams on the roster have also been updated. After all, players tend to come and go.

You'll also notice that the matches themselves are more optimized. In Madden '22 you could basically walk across the whole field if you kept spamming the "turn around" option enough, that has been changed. In fact, the AI has also gotten an update because I clearly noticed that if I kept repeating a certain move then the AI would be more eager to counter that.

For example: the first time I ♥♥♥♥♥ an attempt to kick the ball and instead passed it the opposing team seemed surprised. But the second time I did this (in a row) they were waiting and went straight for the quarterback. That didn't happen in Madden '22, not like this... and I really enjoy it.

And finally... Madden '23 will notice if you already own Madden '22 and if it detects as much it'll pick up all your preferences and appy them automatically for you. The game even welcomes you back :)

However.... of course you need to keep in mind that if you follow releases of sports games then obviously the developers aren't going to release a completely different game every single season because... why take the risks? At best they will add improvements, bugfixes and general cosmetic updates but in the end you should expect to play the same kind of game you did before.

This is really nothing new... Somewhat offtopic but: 10 years ago I bought myself wrestling games, and guess what? Most of the changes ... were roster updates, and at best a few new storylines. But that was roughly it. Same thing happened with F1 games... a new roster and at best some new circuits got added.

So if you already own Madden '22 then I strongly suggest that you look up some YouTube videos which demonstrate the gameplay on PC, and then make up your mind if that's what you'd might enjoy. I know I do but... yeah.

If you're new to the Madden franchise and you're interested in picking up a sports game about American Football then this is a very solid title to grab. It can teach you the game of American football, you can customize just about everything, you can set up games the way you want them to be and of course... the commentary. I love the commentary in this game, it's so dynamic. Commentators in this game can actually notice and comment on mistakes which you might be making. Remember me mentioning wrestling games above? Yah, their commentating doesn't even come close to this!

However, if you already have Madden '22 then you need to keep in mind that while you'll be getting a new game, it will also have plenty of overlap. Generally speaking you'll be getting more of the same, but updated, optimized and with the legendary John Madden added to the game as well.

Yes, it's true: there are features which are available on gaming consoles (XBox & Playstation) but which are not included in the PC version. The reason for that - as far as I can tell - has everything to do with control. Gaming consoles use controllers which can detect pretty much any kind of movement and that kind of control is just not necessarily a thing on PC. After all: some players swear by using their keyboard & mouse, others use things like a Steam controller (myself included) whereas others rely on controllers from other brands. Heck, some even use the XBox or DualShock gaming controllers.

But this also means that it's pretty much impossible for EA to rely on the same kind of game control which the consoles provide. And someting tells me that gamers will probably get even more upset should EA decide to provide these features on PC anyway, but only if you're going to buy a specific controller in addition to the game to make it all work.

Each to their own but I'd rather focus myself on the stuff which IS included with the game; even on PC there's plenty of new stuff to find. I may be a casual gamer, fair enough, but I definitely notice changes in behavior where the AI is concerned in comparison to Madden '22.

In the end all I care about is one thing: am I having fun with the game? Guess what? I do. TOUCHDOWN!!!!

So the funny thing is that I discovered this game thanks to the Steam pointshop! The developer provides several very cute looking backgrounds for both your profile and your mini-profile, and I collected many of those without stopping to wonder what game it was from. When I finally learned about it I obviously had to get myself the whole collection!

Not just a regular puzzlegame

There are quite a few anime / hentai puzzlegames on Steam and yet this one still manages to be special in its own right. You need to solve puzzles by rotating blocks in the right place. Sounds simple enough, but the fun thing is that the picture you're trying to restore is actually moving. It's not that hard to solve, sure, but even so it can become quite tricky.

What I really appreciate about this title is that it isn't "just" a bunch of catgirls who are only shown either naked or while in "specific positions". Instead you get a nice variety of pictures ranging from casual to plain out cute and of course we also get some adult stuff ;) And I really appreciate that. Bear in mind: erotics doesn't necessarily imply nudity, you know... and I think the developer definitely realized that part.

My only gripe about the game is that some pictures show the same girl with the exactly same facial expression; it's a plain copy/paste. It's not a major issue, but once you start noticing then it can become a bit awkward. But eh... here I am "complaining" about minor issues in a game that's not even E 2,-! So yah :)


Highly recommended. Seriously, even if you're not into adult puzzle games then I still think you could enjoy this title because the majority of it consists of fun, cute and somewhat daring pictures yet without immediately overdoing it. Of course, now it's time to grab the free R18 patch ;)

But yeah, a very good game for a very fair price. Highly recommended!

So a bit of context.. I grew up with the Spiderman comics, loved those. Never cared much for the real movies from the last century but the Spiderman animation series was a huge hit with me, just like X-Men. Also loved the cross overs they did.

In the mean time we've had several Spiderman movies from Marvell but unfortunately I also couldn't care less about any of those. I don't hate 'm or something but... I don't recognize my experiences from the comics in those movies.

This game on the other hand is brilliant. Because it can truly give you the experience which you want... For example, the game images on this product page all show Spidey with the large spider logo. Guess what? That's not for me either and so... I play with Spidey just like he looks in the comics. And in the few hours that I played I've already unlocked several other suits as well, but now I'm getting ahead of myself.

The story is fun, Spidey has been active for 8 years and finally gets a break where he gets to help out the local police. This leads to encounters with several of his usual foes. As mentioned earlier I never enjoyed the action movies but I was very much impressed and convinced then Spidey faced the Kingpin, aka Wilson Fisk.

Gameplay
The gameplay is comparable to some of the other open world games out there... you play in an open world (New York (obviously)) and each of its districts needs to be unlocked. Not unlocked as in gaining access, but rather allowing you to access all the collectibles and random activities within that district. You can collect backpacks hidden throughout the city, make a picture of well known landmarks and of course help out as soon as there's a crime being committed.

Travelling between places? Obviously you websling yourself around ;) Later in the game you'll also have the option to fast travel which can be fun due to the silly cutscenes but to be honest I never bothered with this myself; it's too much fun to websling.

Small annoyances
This game is really close to perfect, but it's not fully there. For example, some encounters in the main storyline can end up with quicktime events which can be a little annoying sometimes, especially when something doesn't go your way. And while the random crimes which you can stop are pretty fun you will eventually recognize plenty of repetitiveness. For example stopping a car always ends with Spidey using his web shooters to stop it.

And why doesn't it count for stopping a crime when I managed to force a group to stop breaking in yet failed to capture all of them?

But as said... these were small annoyances for me at best. I noticed, but never minded.

I started playing, 8 hours later I figured that I should head to bed ;)

If you're a fan of Spiderman then I don't see why you wouldn't enjoy this game. The story is easy to get into, the controls are well done and yeah... webslinging in New York? I'm a fan!

So I hop back into the game after having not played for a while and I wasn't even aware this DLC had come out. Having grabbed myself the Premium edition of Forza I guess I got this DLC for "free"; and despite my negative review I still most definitely recommend Forza Horizons as a game: the game itself truly is that good.

But this crap?

Awesome visuals & atmosphere

When it comes to the atmosphere and overall experience this DLC manages to deliver. "Sorta". You're introduced to a real-life Hot Wheels track and they even try to make it believable how cars can actually race here. The visuals, the sounds and then that crazy jet pilot? Yeah, that was a really good introduction. I missed out on the eventual challenge like "finish in 3rd place" or "complete the race in x:xx time", but whatever...

However, things quickly fell apart for me after that.

Inconsistent gameplay that even goes against the spirit of Horizons itself!

So after the introduction you're given a "Hot Wheels car" which is basically a low-tiered nothing-special offroad car. And then you're told that driving these new tracks requires a certain skill and thus you need to qualify for your license. So if you'd please drive over the Hotwheel tracks for your initial training? Errr, whatever happened to the need to be qualified in order to drive over these tracks?


Because the car they give you is kinda poor I figured I'd grab one of my own. I sorta liked the idea of zipping over these tracks in my own car.

Nope!

All the cars I worked so hard to obtain and unlock are now neatly locked away again and you won't be able to use them here. Before you can do that you'll need to unlock them all over again.

WHAT. THE. ..... ?!!

Whoever thought this was a good idea? So what they're saying is... I can be trusted to drive my McLaren or Zonda (which shouldn't even be on the public road!) and take these cars all across Mexico, but I can't drive them on a dedicated - reserved - area which is only accessible to race drivers?

Talk about lazy developers! Instead of taking away our toys, why not try to persuade us with new toys which we may want to earn? Although not really my style I do think the open wheel racecar (with the triangle nose) looks kinda nice. And I might have tried to go for it were it not for this sheer disappointing experience.

And I dare say lazy because the cut scenes have been trimmed down as well. Where you would see figures actually interacting with each other you now only get to see some small figures in the distance while you listen to them talking.

My main issue here though: Forza Horizons - per definition - is all about doing what you want to do. But this poor excuse for a DLC actually tries to force our hands and make us do stuff. Right after that "training" you're forced to pick a next challenge and if you want to change to something else you'll have to go through menus and such to change things.

Whatever happened to casually going somewhere to see if it appeals to you?

Negative effect on the base game too!

If only it was just the DLC, but nope... The base game also suffers from issues because what used to be rather smooth transitions have now turned into tedious long loading times. Sometimes you can even end up looking at a black screen with music playing and nothing seems to happen. My computer can easily run Forza Horizons but now it's actually having issues coping here and there.

And I already pinpointed this experience to this specific DLC because after this horrible experience I decided I didn't want to bother with this mess anymore, so I disabled the DLC in the game properties. Lo and behold... things speeded up again for me. Great experience indeed, not.


This DLC has some serious issues. The fact that the developers think it's a good idea to lock away all your cars and force you to unlock them all over again is in my opinion beyond stupid, from my point of view this is simply a classic example of lazy developers who couldn't bother to come up with new contents (cars and rewards?) in order to persuade us into playing, so instead they took away the toys we already had. Yech...

It even doesn't make any sense from a storyline perspective... here you have drivers who are qualified to drive their supercars over the public road, but you don't trust them on a private track that's only accessible to drivers?

In addition the DLC also has a negative effect on the base game. Lots of delays, long loading times, which all went away for me the moment I disabled & removed the DLC within the game properties. Now, in all fairness I'm convinced that these problems will be addressed and fixed eventually.

But that still doesn't excuse the piss poor gameplay experience.

I really cannot recommend this DLC, most definitely not to those who may be wondering if they should buy this individually. Don't... it just gets you some new eyecandy (which, once again, does look amazing at first, that part is true) but the shinyness will soon wear off and get replaced by sheer frustration that you basically have to start all over again.

After I booked out of there and back into Mexico I actually started having some fun with dirt roads and did a few dirt races. The thing is... I don't even really like dirt races, yet despite that I had a lot more fun than with this Hot Wheels mess.

I for one am not surprised at all that Mexico looks crowded with people as always while the Hot Wheels tracks look nearly deserted. Gee, I wonder how that happened.... <sighs>

Take some of the realistic aspects of Gran Turismo (5), mix those with the arcade approach of Forza Horizons (4 or 5) and then mix that with some of absurdness found in Burnout Paradise and you'll get a good idea what Grid Legends is all about!

I played with all of the titles I mentioned above and while you will not get any "this being better than that" comments from me I do want to state that Grid Legends deserves its place amongst those other titles because it manages to add something which the others don't have... a very entertaining mixture between simulated and arcade gameplay.

For example, the way the AI can make mistakes or worse: completely break down or crash is something you don't see happening in those other titles, not like this. But there's more... what about hitting the curbs too hard and then ending up with your 2 wheels in the air? With a little luck you'll be able to correct yourself, but if you're not careful then this can have some serious results.

Another important difference is that races don't always have to be clean, and if there are collissions then things can get really heated up. First the collisions appear a lot more realistic to me, cars can literally spin out of control or get into bigger accidents. But better yet: other AI drivers can actually become mad at you and thus turn into a nemesis; a driver who is out to get you. Meaning that if you approach them they can even move out of their line to try and block you, or worse... Tick someone off hard enough then this rivalry could even carry onto other races too.

The story is simple... team Seneca has a problem because the co-driver for their star, Yume Tanaka, turns out to be a complete doofus who can't even keep their car on the road. So that's where you come in: once you managed to get the attention of the Seneca scout you'll soon be part of the team.

You will unlock extra contents as you complete challenges such as making sure finish above a certain position, and you'll also earn credits for doing so. These credits can then be used to buy upgrades or new cars.

But wait! There's more!

Apart from story mode you can also follow up on your own career in "Career mode"; this allows you to participate in a wide variety of race types and events. From the classic laps on a circuit, a "point to point" race on a larger track right down to time trials and even demolition derbies!

Ever wondered what could happen if you were to combine trucks with open wheel racing cars and then maybe also add some GT racing cars to that mix? Well, Grid Legends can help you find out ;)

Although really entertaining this game does have some issues. For example I've experienced a few sporadic "crashes to desktop" ("CTD") which I cannot explain. But there are also little things... during story mode I manage to score one victory after the other and yet the story keeps pounding over how hard things are for the team and how bad things are going. Making me wonder... "excuse me?", I'm writing up victories and somehow this doesn't affect the team?

Speaking of which... things also get a little weird when you start playing with your own team in career mode because one moment you're part of Seneca, the other it's suddenly your own team which prevails.

Small things for sure (apart from the sporadic crashes) but weird nonetheless.

If you're into racegames then this is most definitely something to consider. A huge selection of cars, a large variety of circuits, tracks and areas to race through and you'll find tons of action here.

Ever been in a race where you see your car literally falling apart piece by piece? Yah, that's another thing which you can experience in Grid Legends.

Two thumbs up from me!

Substance 3D Designer is all about using a "procedural environment" which allows you to assemble a "generator" which in its turn can create textures and/or materials for you to use in other environments. For example anything you create in Substance Designer can be used one on one within Substance Painter. But at the same time it's also quite easy to export texture settings and then import those into other environments such as, for example, my personal favorite of ZBrush.

Nodes

The whole program evolves around the use of nodes: basic blocks which perform one specific task. For example there's a node called "shape" which, as you might guess, can generate a specific shape (square, cirlce, rectangle, etc.). Then we have another node called "Grunge map 002" which is a so called noise generator: it generates a somewhat random(ish) pattern. If you then add a "blend" node to your project you can then combine the outputs of both nodes and by doing so generating a new image.

It sounds extremely simplistic and that's because it basically is. But nonetheless it's because of that why this is such an extremely powerful environment because this methodology allows you to control every single step you take and to re-adjust your projects, even if they're already fully done. It is that somewhat insane level of control which makes this such an amazing piece of software to work with.

Don't worry, nothing excessive, but there are small differences between this version and the one you'd rent from the Adobe website. The most obvious one being that you won't be able to use a "Send to..." option to add the results of your project into the Substance Painter program. But honestly, that shouldn't be too much of an issue if you know your way around Windows' file explorer.

(And for other environments as well!)

Simply because it is extremely easy to add your projects to your Substance Painter setup, even with the absence of the "Send to..." feature. However, Substance Designer goes way beyond this, and I'm not even talking about game design but rather simple 3D graphics design on a hobby based level (sorta ;)).

For example.... One of my tools of trade is ZBrush, it's my all time favorite 3D "editor" and there's little which it can't do. I can even use ZBrush to design so called 'paint strokes' which I can then use within that same ZBrush to actually paint or texture 3D objects. And yet I still favor the use of Substance Designer for all that. Because although ZBrush is extremely powerful software it doesn't have the depth which Designer provides when it comes to creating textures. When using Designer I can even add randomizers to my project in order to create somewhat unpredictable results. That's a level of detail which ZBrush simply doesn't provide, not out of the box anyway.

So yah, even despite it's somewhat specific functionality I am convinced that this program is a must have for any 3D artist that wants to get more out of their setup.

I am well aware that I may sound like a sales drone right now but so be it... I can highly recommend this software. For starters: you're working with a generally recognized standard when it comes to computer graphics. Second, and just as important, you'll get a perpetual license which means that you can continue to use this software for as long as you'd like.

Despite the fact that I'm still learning the basics of working with Substance Designer I can honestly state that even in the few hours that I've worked with "Painter" and "Designer" both programs have already left their mark on my 3D setup. And with 'Designer' in specific: there's a huge difference between trying to draw a texture design by yourself, or to use an environment such as Designer in order to actually design your textures from the ground up (no pun intended).

This is highly recommended for fellow 3D artists!