Recent reviews by AMRAAM Enjoyer

Microsoft continues to milk money from the player-base of a game that failed to live up to promises and uses the same rinse and repeat "kumbaya happy go lucky fun time festival" crap with them releasing "new" cars from previous games in a drip feed manner. It is getting really old to not have the time to grind these events because of work, then have to pay 20,000,000cr to buy a C class car off the auction house because Microsh1t doesn't want people to...idk...actually enjoy the game and have a healthy life outside of it.

Its with a heavy heart that I leave a "Not Recommended" for this game and here is why:

-The car designer is fantastic, however the controls and limitations of the engine frequently get in the way of a vision I have

-The engine designer is great but does also possess limitations and uses arbitrary values for things like cam profile witch is difficult to visualize when it is portrayed on a scale of 1-100 rather than the actual profile of the cam lobe. And I understand that this is meant to be more of a tycoon game rather than an engine building sim, but that leads to my next point.

-The campaign in this game is one of the most indecipherable messes I have ever had the misfortune of putting my hands on. The UI is INCREDIBLY clunky and does not do a very good job of communicating of where things are and the correct process for actually putting a design into production.

-Piggybacking off of that, the biggest issue I have is trying to figure out if something will sell well. You can tick all of the boxes for desirability, affordability, and availability; but sometimes they just...don't sell??? For instance, I designed a 1951 sedan, and the engineering would be complete in 1954. All signs showed that it would be a hot seller, saying that I would be making roughly 11M a year, then when everything was done I was making -6M a year...HOW...I wish I could tell you, because the game does such a poor job of telling you WHY that is the case.

These things being said, a lot of the issue may come down to me not fully understanding the system that Camshaft Software has implemented...but is that really my own fault? The engineering aspect is easy enough to understand, but when it comes to actually playing the tycoon portion of the game, you are essentially buried in a mound of nearly indecipherable graphs.

I love this game and will continue to play it for the car designer and cross-play with porting my cars to BeamNG. But the tycoon portion has sucked so much of my life away with absolutely no concept of understanding being grasped by my brain, I just cannot recommend this game for the "Tycoon" part of it.

Haven't been able to play a lot due to the server population issues making it impossible to login...

HOWEVER; this is one of the single most enjoyable experiences I have ever had with a newly released title. Now if everyone can just cool their jets and allow the devs to fix the issues, I have no doubt that this game will be one of the best gaming experiences of 2024 hands down.

{{{EDIT}}} Server issues are fixed and the devs are actively fixing a lot of issues multiple times a week. Fantastic experience. {{{EDIT}}}

Dead or Alive, you're coming with me.

Honestly, this game is such a breath of fresh air. It doesn't do anything particularly groundbreaking for a single player FPS. However, what it does do is create such a wonderful and lovingly crafted atmosphere that you really feel like you ARE Robocop. The game also does a fantastic job of tackling the psychological perspective of Alex Murphy/Robocop and allows you to choose whether you are Alex Murphy reborn, OCP Property (I.E. Robocop), or a mix of both. The game is just outright amazing. Buy at your earliest convenience.

10/10

Married my daughter, making my son that I had with her also my grandson. 1066/1066

Within the first day of buying this game, i played it for 19 hours straight....That's all you need to know.

War Thunder is a wet dream for those obsessed with Aircraft, Tanks, and to a lesser extent Warships. There's well over 1500 vehicles in the game of varying nations. The United States, Nazi/West/East Germany, USSR/Russian Federation, United Kingdom and Commonwealth, Empire of Japan/Post-War Japan, Kingdom of Italy/Post-War Italy, Peoples Republic of China/Republic of China, and France are all playable nations with a respectable collection of vehicles.

However, I will say that the game does have its faults. Gaijin is fairly out of touch with its playerbase and what they actually want from the game. Although each new update does have its far share of new and interesting vehicles. (The last update just brought the MiG-23 and F-5A, F-5C, and F-5E.)

The game covers eras from the interwar period to the middle of the cold war with Aircraft, and until the modern day with Tanks. Naval, being the newest branch of the game added, has only recently added battleships.

Other than that, be prepared for a grind. Having at least one premium vehicle is almost necessary to make it through a tree. However, it is worth it in my opinion as the game has, and always will be free to play.

Hope to see you on the battlefield or in the skies!

[[[EDIT]]] Until Gaijin fix the economy and stop acting like they know exactly whats good for the game while simultaneously not playtesting any of their changes, this review will remain negative. There is no excuse for the crap the they have pulled over the past couple of years, and while I still love the game deeply, the management needs to take a good hard look in the mirror before I will ever hope back onto the travesty that this game has become. [[[EDIT]]]

[[[EDIT PT.2]]] Gaijin has shown immense support towards the playerbase and actually listened to our grief. So for now I am going to change this review back to positive. RP changes, economy changes, ect. [[[EDIT PT.2]]]

Honestly, this is a horror game that feels more like a party game because of the sheer enjoyment it gives playing with friends. Of course, if you want a true horror experience, playing by yourself is also terrifying. For $14 you cant beat it. 10/10 and it will only get better.

Insurgency: Sandstorm is a hardcore FPS that places you in the Middle East in a conflict between terrorists insurgents and The United States of America and its NATO allies an unnamed security force. It is a very punishing game that does not work like your average Call of Duty or Battlefield. No, this game is a lot more akin to the likes of Day of Infamy as well as the Red Orchestra and Rising Storm series.

Now, unlike Day of Infamy (Which New World Interactive also developed) this game has a fairly large playerbase. The best part is that it retains all of Day of Infamy's hardcore aspects. This makes for a very intense gameplay experience that will test the player in their ability to keep calm in a combat enviroment. I find no issues when looking for a match at any time of day, whether it is 3 AM or the middle of the afternoon. This applies for ALL gamemodes. Speaking of which...



Currently there are 5 gamemodes in Insurgency.

1. Co-op
   
2. Hardcore Co-op
   
3. Versus
   
4. Competitive
   
5. Frenzy

The Co-op gamemodes are essentially laid out so you and your team sweep through a map point by point clearing out enemies and objectives from the insurgents. Then once you reach the last objective there is always a MASSIVE battle between you and the insurgents trying to storm your position.

Versus and Competitive are relatively the same with the exception that Competitive will give you a rank after 10 rounds. The ranking system in similar to Rainbow 6: Siege to my knowledge. However, I don't really play that mode so I am by no means an expert.

Frenzy is a super fun mode that is very similar to Left 4 Dead/Insurgency Co-op hybrid. I say this because the insurgents only have knives and molotovs and come at you in swarms. However there are also special types of insurgents that have abilities like teleporting and being able to soak up tons of damage.

On the up side, you have more than enough variety of weapons to take on the insurgents.



Every weapon in the game has unique aspects based on its real life counterpart. And the best part is that damage and penetration characteristics are based on the round the weapon fires and length of the barrel, not some arbitrary number assigned to that specific gun.

These are the weapons currently available

SMGs

• AKS-74u
  
• MP5A2
  
• MP5A5
  
• MP7
  
• Uzi

Shotguns

• M870
  
• TOZ-194

Assault Rifles

• AK-74
  
• AKM
  
• Alpha AK
  
• G36K
  
• Mk 18 CQBR
  
• M4A1
  
• M16A2
  
• M16A4
  
• L85A2
  
• G3A3
  
• QBZ-03
  
• VHS-2

Battle Rifles

• SKS
  
• MK 14 EBR
  
• Dragunov SVD
  
• FN FAL
  
• M24
  
• Mk 17 Mod 0 SCAR-H
  
• M91/30 Mosin-Nagant

LMGs

• M249 SAW
  
• PKM
  
• MG3
  
• M240B

Anti-Material Rifles

• M82A1 CQ
  
• M99

Handguns

• Makarov PM
  
• M1911
  
• M45A1
  
• L106A1
  
• M9
  
• Tariq
  
• Browning Hi-Power
  
• Glock 17 PF940

Rocket Launchers

• AT4
  
• RPG-7
  
• Panzerfaust 3
  
• M3 MAAWS

Throwables

• M83 Smoke Grenade
  
• M67 Fragmentation Grenade
  
• F1 Fragmentation Grenade
  
• AN-M14 Incendiary Grenade
  
• M84 Flash Grenade
  
• TM-62 Anti-Vehicle Mine
  
• C4 Plastic Explosives
  
• IED
  
• Molotov Cocktail

As you can see there is quite the selection of weapons here. AND THEY ARE GOING TO ADD MORE!!! I have shot a few of these weapons before in real life and I honestly think this is as realistic as it gets sound wise without actually being there. The sound design is just beautifully done.


The last thing that I will touch on is player customization. There are two degrees of this, your actual character and his/her loadout. Before I lay that aspect out I would like to point out that the insurgents do not have any females on their team to simulate the reality that most terrorist combatants are male.

Loadout Customization

The game splits each team up into classes that are designed for specific roles. Each class will have its own weapons and gear representative of its intended purpose.

Class Types and Purpose

• Commander-Call in support (A-10, AH-64 Apache, Artillery, Chemical Weapons, etc.)
  
• Observer-Provide the Commander with a radio to call in support
  
• Rifleman-Run of the mill grunt, nothing special here
  
• Breacher-Uses Shotguns and SMGs for CQC
  
• Gunner-Uses LMGs to provide fire support
  
• Demolitions-Uses Rocket Launchers, Grenade Launchers, and High Explosive Ordinance
  
• Advisor-Uses Weapons that are uncommon on the battlefield in real life (Alpha AK, MK 14 EBR, SKS, etc.)
  
• Marksman-Utilizes battle rifles that now have the ability to mount a 7x scope and bipod as well as the anti-materal rifles

Everyone also has the ability to get different sized ammo carriers (increasing the amount of magazines you can carry) as well as different armor to protect you from enemy fire and limited explosive resistance.

Character Customization

When it comes to your character, well, you actually have 2. One for the security forces, and one for insurgents. You can customize everything about your characters gear. The security customization is a little more fun because of the presence of real life camouflages implemented by real world militaries. The insurgents pretty much just get different kinds of shirts and pants to make up for the lack of camouflage. However, you can make your insurgent wear a black track suit with white stripes and become a Cheeki Breeki Boi, so props to the dev team for making that a thing.



Overall, Insurgency: Sandstorm takes everything that the last game did and improves upon it. There are issues that presented themselves at launch such as being relatively unoptimized. However, those issues have for the most part been remedied. As long as you have a medium end PC you will be able to run the game no problem. NWI also continuously updates the game and are VERY attentive to the community. They actually listen to us and are constantly coming out with new patches to fix issues that the community has found.

With all of that said, stop scrolling through the reviews and keep telling yourself that you're "thinking about it". JUST BUY THE F*CKING GAME ALREADY!!!

My literal only complaint with the game is that its optimization is sub-par. Currently I have a GTX 2070 8GB and even on Medium-High settings I will get massive framerate drops. Normally this wouldn't be an issue as I could always just dial back the graphics. However, the two main reasons I bought the game were for its drastically improved flight models over FSX and its MUCH better graphics. However, it leaves a lot to be desired when my only advantage for spending 60 dollars was improved flight models. On top of this I don't have access to the LOADS of addon aircraft that FSX has. This is obviously because the game is so new, but still I feel a little short changed.

For now, I am going to give it a thumbs down simply because of the optimization issues. But as soon as the game becomes a better running platform I will quickly change that.

Edit: Reflections are a ♥♥♥♥♥ and should not be enabled unless you have a god tier PC. Awesome flight sim!