Recent reviews by ApparitioN

If any of my readers know of Ice Road Truckers, then just know that I feel like Hugh Rowland or Alex Deborgorski whilst I traverse the muddy terrains which this game kindly provides me with. The engine sounds are subpar with blocky quantization levels which can be heard when the fps drops - happens a lot! I do love driving the massive Soviet Era trucks, but I feel the 4x4 jeep type vehicles are so damn underpowered that I simply roll my eyes at the thought of driving them through a small puddle on this game.
There is a huge problem with my Logitech G29 steering wheel pedals. I feel that this game is poorly optimised for my steering wheel because when I press the accelerator, the truck keeps the brake on and it looks rather stupid whilst my HUD bobs back and forth to indicate movement. That's the biggest reason that caused me to stop playing this game. If you have a Logitech G29 then I'd recommend to you to sell it, buy a new wheel and live in the present because frankly that steering wheel is bloody old!

Summary: it's a good game but be wary of your steering wheel. If you have a keyboard then I feel sorry for you!

This mod is phenomenal. I love how friendly the players are, my favorite server in particular is the Alpha Salt Factory. I cosplay as a coach driver delivering services across the island and players are willing to sit in my bus and relax. The game runs well with very few crashes, but sadly the playerbase is dwindling which is expected from a game which is as old as it is. I highly recommend it and I hope you enjoy your time as I have!

It's that time of year when we all fling our money at the Steam Summer sale. But my, oh my, this is the best purchase to come out of it.

I have always been a fan of the Need For Speed franchise, with my experience hailing from my Xbox 360; Need for Speed Rivals and Most Wanted. (Prostreet was a dud, I didn't enjoy it much) But when I saw this game, Need for Speed, I thought to myself "Hmm I wonder what this game's about!" So I bought it.

The Positives!
To start off, the cutscenes are beautifully crafted, probably a mix of green screen and real people. The acting in these intervals perfectly captures the language, euphemisms and ideologies of outlaws who break the speed limit for a living; a true masterpiece.

The map is really big, and has lots of events available to the player. You are able to purchase any car from the beginning, so I chose to save up for a Chevy Corvette! (My favourite). In that sense, you aren't limited to a level system to attain cars: you only need REP to gain new upgrade items.

This game has steering wheel support! You don't have to go around installing dodgy controller emulators to use your £300 wheel system -- the game does it for you. That's a HUGE bonus.

The Negatives :(
It's not a critical review without mentioning the various elephants in the room.

I fall through the map floor ALL THE TIME. It's really irritating. Most times I end up losing a race where I had a perfect lead! I have no idea why this happens.

The police AI are, frankly, r*tarded. There is an OUTLAW storyline that forces you to get into police chases, but most times, you have to BEG the police to send reinforcements or roadblocks! To be honest, it's bloody painful to try to be pursued -- you pursue the police so that they pursue you!

The storyline is non-linear, and can make 0 sense in some stages. Spoiler warning;
Your colleague gets taken in by the police, but then you meet them at the pub a few minutes after?
Your female friend is at a drifting spot, but you meet her at the pub a few minutes after?
Do the street racers time-travel? Probably.
And finally, I hate drifting events, but I guess that's personal preference, eh?

Final remarks
Excellent game, 8/10 rating.
That means go buy it RIGHT now!

I will give this game a strong adjective. Awesome. This game is amazingly close to real life, and this is why I love it so much.
This game simulates my "dream job", being a trucker, which one would think these are pretty low standards, but as a vehicle junky, I adore this game. It gives me a chance to unwind after a long day at work, or at school for those who think I am weird.


This is one of the game's strong points, by letting in modders to enhance the game experience; this is due to the ETS2 Multiplayer mod which really allows players to connect with each other.
The modding community also has a lot of supoport from SCS, due to the fact that if a mod looks good, SCS will support the development of the mod. An example of this would be the Eastern Express mod, of which most of my screenshots of the game consist of. One would assume that SCS has helped the development of this mod, but no. It was actually a team of renowned modders in the community who worked together to make this awesome mod.


I have been playing this game since the release, and I can note a difference in the physics due to the more responsive feel of the suspension on the truck, with added sounds. I can also note the intensive damage simulation, which really helps to feel what it is like to drive a truck.


I can say that I have a really good time driving my truck at night, in the rain, or through the fog. It provides a very strong atmosphere to the game as well as additional realism, furthering the notion of "simulator". There have been some down moments due to the AI system, which does not really need a paragraph - they need work on, desparate work. This is due to the way that they act on the motorway. In England, it is illegal to undertake trucks, and this law should be implemented into the game since I always get undertaken on the motorway, and that is the only downside to this game.


Do I need to get the DLCs in order to have a great experience?
If you want a proper simulation experience, there is a requirement to have the DLCs to be compatible with certain modding expansions.

Is it hard to drive a truck?
It takes a lot of practice - once you get the hang of the size of the truck, it is easy to just start long trips whenever you want.

How large is the Vanilla (Unmodded) map?
I will put it into perspective for you. In order to get from Poznan to London, it will take you 5 hours in one session.

How big is the Eastern Express map mod?
It is bloody huge. It takes roughly 10 hours in one sitting to get from уфа to London, also it teaches you how to read cyrillic in case you need to read a road sign!

What is your favourite truck?
My preferred truck would be a Volvo Globetrotter XL. This is due to the included retardation system, and calming engine sound.

This game helps people learn about the world in a different way; in driving. I would totally recommend the game to anyone who likes a game for its simplicity rather than graphics. The only disapointment would be the AI.

Just Cause 1 was undoubtedly one of the best foundations for a succesful storyline, trilogy to be precise. It gave a simple development of the Agency characters which is then later advanced in future games, which was a very good judgement on The Studio's behalf. However, in JC3, the whole concept of The Agency is abandoned, since Rico is dropped off at his supposed home nation and joins forces with the local Guerilla fighters, but we will talk about his nationality later on.


I really did enjoy the gang aspect of the Just Cause Franchise, JC2 had a good selection, but it was only limited to gangs vs government rather than the Gang vs Gang aspect, which was unfortunately missed out and undeveloped - Razak says that "If you cross me, I will kill you" or something like that, surely if you were driving a Roaches car into the Ular Boys Stronghold, it would say "Your cover was blown", geez, I should have written more in the JC2 review now that I think about it... I loved the fact that in JC1, conflicting Gangs like the Riojas and The Montanos would start to fight in the streets because they saw each other, but the uncalledfor attacks by the other gangs when you are driving a school bus at 30mph are not really helpful...


The Gang AI is quite clever, they kind of adapt to your actions, but nothing like MGSV:TPP, when they overdo that AI aspect slightly too much. The Government forces are quite odd because you can hear them shouting "Stop right there, Citizen!" when, yet again, you are going 30mph in a school bus! In effect, the AI could have been more well done.


Since this is a Just Cause title, you would expect the graphics to outperform any other competing game in the market at that time. And so it did. The graphics were absolutely insane - the sunsets can be absolutely phenomenal and the sea, oh wow! Summing up, JC titles will always grab that no.1 spot for "the insane graphics award".


This is where JC1 kind of fell down. The driving did not feel as realistic as it should be, but that mistake was rectified in JC2. The grapple gun was a weak invention, but deep down, the main motif in the JC saga is the evolution of the grappling device, and that is supposed to sybolise some deep s**t.


The best part of JC1 is, by far, the soundtrack. I always loved, and still love, listening to the Hispanic Music everytime you completed a mission, however, the music does get a little excessive when you get in a helicopter and, this is an XBOX 360 example, press RT on the controller, suddenly some inspiring music starts to play and you end up crashign down to the ground because it caught you off guard. Yep, That's JC1 for you. But in JC2, that mistake was rectified so that the music doesn't bombard you every second, actually, it is quite a rarity to encounter music during a playthrough, it only happens when you float through the air with your parachute deployed for 10 minutes or so. To conclude for this section, I would say that the soundtrack was well composed, but the timing could have been an improvement.


--This whole section is about the storyline of JC and its routes, if you do not wish to read this, please disregard and head straight to conclusions-- (It is marked as a spoiler)

So as you may recall, I spoke about Rico Rodriguez's identity in one of the previous sections - I say that "he is dropped off at his HOME COUNTRY - which is supposed to be Medici, surely - it is NOT Medici! It was stated that apparently, Rico is from San Espirito, but that is entirely debatable since JC is not know to be a "Story Rich" franchise. Maybe the producers decided to rename San Espirito and make it better, which explains the Provincial settings which requires a liberation aspect, which has been omnipresent since JC1. I'm not sure if it is stated in JC2's PDA information for Rico, but I am pretty sure it says that his birthplace is San Espirito, or maybe it says -unknown-. But really, to make a whole new Hispanic or Italian island defeats the purpose of the real place - SAN ESPIRITO .


From my experiences with this game, I can say that it is really enjoyable and is a great introduction to the JC franchise, but really, buying JC3 due to the graphical upgrade really undermines the real purpose of the Grapple Hook evolution theory shown in the franchise, as modern players will seek out a pretty game - they will never share the experience that you will have when people ask you, remember that mission when you Burnt an entire weed field? - that person who bought JC3 will say, what mission, I only liberate provinces in JC3. You look at them and say, wow, this is the true definition of an idiot. Trust me, it feels so good when you find an idiot like that IRL (Shoutout to my 'end franchise joiners' out there!)

Thank you all for reading this mini essay - enjoy your time on JC1!

The Just Cause franchise was the reason for my entrance into the gaming world. When I first bought my Xbox 360, I saw that Just Cause 2 came with it; I was intrigued. So, little AraChN1DZzz Unsp0K3N decided to get that, and boy, did he love it to death! He spent over 2 years completing that game on every difficutly. Once he was done, he thought, "Wow, I should get JC1!"

But we will talk about JC1 in another review, thank you summer sale.


Just Cause 2 was a follow-up from the initial development of the character "Rico Rodriguez" from Just Cause 1, voice acting by Robin Atkin Downes . In fact, the two games have very similar endings. Baby Panay is supposed to be portrayed as some grotesque man who would kill his own father just to get the "Presidential" role of Panau (This isn't a spoiler, you are told this during the opening scene of JC2).


In JC2, the graphics are a really big letdown. The scenery of the game is heavily painted, but that may be because of the huge map size, but if you are to compare the graphics to Battlefield, you will see that JC2 didn't really try hard enough in terms of the Graphical side of the battle. Also, you see that the creators basically copied and pasted the "spinny trees" and even buildings just to make the game look big, which really shouldn't be an option. However, I must say that looking out into the distance at some opposite islands really calms the feeling of the game. The physics of JC2 always keep you on the edge of your seat. The unrealistic yet amusing stunt jump always adds the feeling to the game that you are, in fact, playing a destructive game rather than one where you "look...out into the distance" and enjoy the view, you can do that when you complete the game, [reach 100% completion, impossible, right?] The grapple hook in JC2 was majorly upgraded from the usless grapple gun given to you in JC1, which is what the game is all about, the evolution of the grapple hook, as we see in JC3, with the infinite tethering and the wingsuit.


Being a very experienced player, I know what it is like to have ♥♥♥♥♥♥ AI in a game, especially in JC2. At times, the AI is completely messed up - if you were to drive on the road in Panau City, the civillian AI would run away screaming "Hey, he got a gun!", which really doesn't make sense. Also, when I decide to inspect a Wilforce Trekstar [Panau Police] I see the passenger soldier standing up, waving his damn hands in the air like his favourite song has come on, on the propaganda news channel! One more criticism is that the usage of the military plane was never really implemented. I get Level 6 Heats, but only UH-33 Chippewas come, rather than a SI-47 Lepoard, which would really spice things up.

To summarise, I would say that this game has its ups and downs. To be honest though, the map size was waaay out of its time, but that is what you can expect from pure perfection, except the copying and pasting. But really, this game is magnificent and if you can look past the Graphical exterior, then I know that you will have fun with this game.

I have tried to write a review for this game many times. Each time I look back on those reviews, I feel that they just don't do the game justice. I know that not many people read my reviews in fact none, but I feel that this game is too weird to be classed as bad.

I neither recommend nor hate this game for one simple reason. We all have our good days and bad days, and when we lapse in concentration for whatever reason, we target the game as a scapegoat. It happens to the best of us - even when you are at fault, or if you get outplayed by an enemy because you couldn't aim 1 millimetre more, you blame it on the game. At times, I wonder why I put all this time into this damned game, but it's simple:

CS:GO is a drug

I quote:

Originally posted by a scientific study:

"Video gaming [both] online and offline show traits similar to drug addiction."

There are days when I need to play CS:GO in order to rank up, but then I get given a bunch of rétárds as my teammates (I don't Solo Queue anymore, but that is what used to happen to me), and when you lose the game, you feel low and fμcked over by the ranking system. So what do you do? BLAME THE GAME You could easily stop playing this stupid game and get on with your life, but you choose to play continually, even after the ranking system fμcks you over.
This game is deliberately designed to be fμcked up, and sh|t on purpose, any other game company with a brain would realise the scale at which they are fμcking up.

But now I've come to respect how bad it is. I probably won't stop playing this game for a long time, even though I already know that this matchmaking rank that I'm going at won't help me at all in my life. I have the CS:GO addiction, and it will take a lot to take CS away from me.

I started off at the bottom, a fresh Silver 1; I started out in Year 9, and in almost 4 years, I have progressed to Gold Nova Master, soon MG1. If you think that you will always be stuck in Silver 1, then play at Silver Elite and challenge yourself. The hidden point system called "ELO" will let you rank up quicker. That's how people instantly get Gold Nova and Master Guardian. I play for experience, rather than a rank. If I started off at Master Guardian, I'd be back in Silver where I belonged within a matter of days. I bear no hatred towards those "boosted kids" except when I encounter them , but once you are at the level of Gold Nova Master, you have to play with Master Guardian 1s in order to get enough Elo. You need Prime Matchmaking as well, if you want to succeed since every rank is peppered with hackers if you don't have Prime.