Recent reviews by Cast_Haste

Not as good as the first one.

I like some of the direction and better attention to detail in the sequel, but the execution is lacking. Things move too fast with no build up like in the original. The "Double Date" is too disconnected imo. Youre able to have "sex" after the 1st date which is also rushed and disconnected. I would have liked to see a completely new, fresh cast, instead of the over-use of the same girls as the original and spin-off title.

Its not a bad game, but I feel like this could have been a DLC add-on. Just wasnt quite what I was looking for or expecting having enjoyed the first so much.

Game looked amazing as I expected and the story seemed alright, but had to pass on this one as the first real mission I did, recruit Selene, was unable to be finished due to bugs. Restarted mission twice and even re-verified all game files. No Dice.

Have zero tolerance for this on a AAA game that has been out for going on 2 years now and a quick google search shows apparently this mission has been bugged since day 1 (and Ubisoft even put out a patch to 'fix' this mission, yet still bugged) hahaha. FC2, FC4, FC5 and now New Dawn....All have to roll the dice on if missions will complete. Well thats an instant uninstall for me. Shame I cant refund since I bought it so long ago.

AC7 is a great successor to AC6 in all categories. Thankfully, they learned their lessons from the trash heap that was Assault Horizon. Still think AC5 was the pinnacle of the series, but AC7 is no slouch and PC finally.

You're instantly greeted with fantastic visuals, lighting and textures, with the all so familiar AC feel. However, aside from the stunning visuals and familiar feel, it's far from perfect.

Right out the gate I was greeted with zero 21:9 support. I just cannot fathom that in 2019, a major modern title launching for PC, does not support this out of the box. Port or not. I was pretty sure the PC launch delay was to include such trivial things such as this and unlimited FPS etc. I have other ported games in my library that support 21:9 lol. Regardless it kills the immersion and experience. To add to the breaks in immersion the soundtrack, though good at times, is equally disconnected at times as well, esp during chaotic moments.

The story..as much as it pains me to say, is meh at best. Despite the trailers and hype, total disappointment. Or maybe I just never got over how immersive I found AC5 story to be. It has it moments and all comes together in the last few missions, but I was not invested in it, nor could i connect with any of the characters. If someone asked me what characters are in it, I probably could only remember 2-3 off top of my head...

The rest of the game is fantastic. Plenty of planes to choose from, same engaging playstyle like the rest of the mainline series. I really loved the whole Aircraft Tree with upgrade paths and more importantly the plane upgrade parts system. Sadly you do not have ability to choose squad members planes/loadouts or issue commands in flight like previous titles. Hell, you're hardly in the same squad for more than a few missions, or with same people in same squad, this only added to the disconnect with story.

All-in-all AC7 is a great throwback to older AC titles. It has it flaws and shortcomings but the series basics are all still there and thank god the 'dogfight mode' from AH is gone. I also experienced a lot of FPS drops, which I found odd with a RTX 2080Ti and 9900k. Game also seems locked to 60 FPS. I give it a pass here since it is a console port. But not a pass for the lack of 21:9 support out of the box. Completely unacceptable


Now.. if Namco could only do a AC5 remaster for PC.....

Having played all of the FC games, except FC4, this one is hands down my favorite. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and presence. The whole religious cult thing was kind of cool as well.

The atmosphere is spectacular and immersion on a 34" ultra wide 3440x1440 monitor at max settings is almost breathtaking. Hands down one of the best looking and most immersive games I've played to date. All the combat, movement and vehicle mechanics etc. felt fluid and believable. Tons of things to do and places to explore!

The game does get rinse and repeat-y after a while and you find yourself skipping many of the side missions etc, just to push the main story quests to progress through the controlled regions. Though I did really enjoy Faith's region and her "story".

The crafting system could use some work, as well as friendly AI. Though it is quite hilarious having an explosives expert, preferably a RPG user on the team. They just aimlessly rapid fire rockets at targets regardless of their or others on teams distance to them. Expect a ton of revives/reloads and "you ♥♥♥♥ing idiot" moments hahaha. THe friendly AI definitely needs some more situational awareness and freewill. You pretty much have to manually mark targets you want them to attack, most of the time...

Overall it's a solid buy game, all strengths accounted, it warrants the full $60 price tag. It definitely has it's flaws, but its pros outweigh the cons and it's a lot of fun. esp co-op with friends. Truly immersive with the right setup.

Mafia 3 was one of those games I thought for the longest I wouldn't like and yet ended up being wrong. I loved Mafia 2 and anxiously awaited any and all news for M3. Finally, an announcement and trailer were released and was left feeling like we have been bamboozled. WTF is this? This is no Mafia lol. Welp, scratch that one off the list of do not buy.

Fast Forward 18 months and M3 pops up in my Humble Bundle Monthly. Sure, why not, I'll give it a go.

Immediately, I fell in love with the presentation and the opening soundtrack(s). I really liked the flash-forward "documentary" style storytelling, something I really enjoyed from BF3. Even more amped up here. Ok, you have my attention. Opening story is good, engaging. Combat and driving mechanics are decent and the opening flow is good. Then a previous character is introduced and I was really invested. Followed by a plot twist I already saw coming, but so far it's good.

That's when things starts to go down hill. You soon realize everything after this point (giving first underboss first district) starts to break down and become a literal rinse and repeat with almost no deviation or dynamic. Enforcer takedowns are the EXACT. SAME. EVERYTIME with zero control over the matter. Leaving the same two options, with only one of them making any economical, yet unrealistic sense. Without question they instantly side with you and will never stab you in the back down the road? Yea, sure. Ok. You spend the rest of the game doing the exact same things over and over to make you cronies happy and progress the ultra predictable story.

The game starts out with amazing potential and dynamic only to fade to what feels like the devs just gave up and threw away any care they had, in favor for a rinse and repeat story mechanic. The flash-forward storytelling stays the same and honestly at this point, is the only thing keeping you around and entertained. You end up caring less about the main character and more about the CIA guy.


Good for a single play through and that's about it. Nice tie-ins from M2 which definitely helped keep M3 from feeling alienated from the series, decent combat and driving mechanics, good atmosphere between the districts and I did like how civilians rush to pay phones everytime you show your ass, but that's it. I still recommend, for reason I just listed above and it's nowehere near as bad or alienated as I presumed.

SPG: Warlords improves a lot on where SPG2 fell flat. If you are a fan of the series, especially SPG2, you'll feel right at home here as Warlords at its core, still plays and feels much like SPG2 with some basic 4X RTS elements thrown into the mix.

One of my biggest gripes with SPG2 was how shallow the game felt overall, with little to do or incentive to explore after the first few hours. Warlords improves upon that formula by offering even more ships, better armed ships (The dreadnaught Formidable allows you to do 30 turret broadsides!), more missions/job boards with varying objectives and the biggest change and theme of the game, the fleet system. This is no Civ by any means. It's basic as basic gets, but it ties into everything smoothly and it works and unlike SPG2 you'll have plenty of tough encounters to actually utilize your ships offensive and defensive powers to test your setups.

Though not all is perfect. LGM is a small studio so expectations should equal such. One of the biggest downsides to Warlords is the Campaign story. To me if felt rushed and unpolished. It was basically doing one mission, then go level up till in a new class of ship which will then unlock the next story mission. rinse and repeat. On top of that the story is just boring and predictable. I couldn't connect with any of the 'characters' and just wanted to be done with it so I could focus on taking over sectors and building massive fleets, which let's be honest that's all you will really care about anyway.

To sum up the Pros and Cons with Warlords;

+More challenging
+More stuff to do
+Fleet/Upgrade/Research system
+Beefier ships
+Improved visuals over SPG2

-No Titans
-Lack of upgrades/customization for Warmasters and their ships
-Forgettable story and cast
-AI too passive

Warlords is a good game and worth the price. If you liked SPG2, but just felt like it needed something more, Warlords is your answer. It is made only better by the hordes of workshop mods.

One of the best expansions for an MMO I've ever been a part of. It's PACKED with content like;

Patch 3.0-3.55

-3 new classes with full immersive stories for each class
-18 new dungeons
-12 new raid floors (2 difficulty modes)
-3 new 24 man raids
-4 new sets of main endgame gear to progress through (i170, i200, i230 and i260) not counting subsequent gear
-140 new Main Scenario Quests, complete with new primals, duties and fully voice acted cut scenes etc.
-200 new progression dungeon floors (Palace of the Dead) with 2 new weapon gearing options (i235 and i255) to use outside the instance.

That's just the main standouts of Heavensward, with lots of smaller content packed in between. I've been around MMO's for a good chunk of my life now and never seen one with as much content as SE packed into Heavensward. Stormblood comes out in June and I won’t hesitate to purchase it.

As much as I anticipated this games release once it was announced, it has turned into a huge disappointment. I was hoping this would be a new game, but let’s be honest, it’s just a reskinned ETS2. If you were to take an alpha state ETS2 full conversion mod of the US(California), add a few new features, take away all the trucks but 2, forget to rescale the game for the sheer size of the US, and add overly aggressive police, then you have American Truck Simulator.
All BS aside, it’s not ALL bad;

Pros
+ Feels more like being in civilization
+ More realistic than ETS2
+ More options to park trailers
+ New places to deliver to aside from just industrial outskirts like ETS2
+ Well optimized for Ultra settings @ 4K resolution

Cons
- Horrible scaling (most of western Europe can fit in 1/3 of the US, yet takes only 5 mins to drive from Barstow to Sacramento vs that same mileage in ETS2 taking 30-45 mins) *this has been fixed in a re-scale of the game*
- Same 7-year-old ETS2 engine, which is already well outdated to begin with.
- Same ETS2 UI, Sounds, Physics, Graphics
- Overly aggressive police (can be turned off).
- No real changes or innovations over ETS2, despite ATS being far newer.
- Weak day 1 release content (to be expected).
-Abysmally slow development. It's been almost 2 years and we got 1 state and 1 new truck.


Granted I understand this is a brand new game, so content will be lacking vs a game that has been built and refined for 4 years, but come on, seriously? A few cities? 2 trucks? Same exact engine that ETS2 was on? Couldn’t even at least change the UI to somewhat make it feel like a new game? I cannot recommend this game in its current state. ATS is a perfect example on how “DLC” has ruined the industry, allowing developers to give you only 30% of a game, then make up for it later with “DLC” instead of just spending the time to make the full game first.
Save your money and get ETS2 instead. ATS might be worth a revisit 1-2 years down the line after 5-6 more DLC are released to finish the game, plus tons of content patches (which I do give props to SCS on actually), but not right now. ETS2 offers far more game for your money. This is a joke.


**September 2017 UPDATE**

Game still earns my NOT RECOMMENDED rating. Since launch, not much has changed or has been added. They did do a re-scale the game, which took 6 months of that time. However, since then, they have been talking about New Mexico as the next state, but now 7+ months since announcement, no NM. All states from Arizona onward will be paid DLC creating a bleak upfront cost of well over $500 which you are forced into if you actually want to drive around. Not to mention the 2064 completion year at the current development rate. This is a bit steep for an indie title, esp. compared to an ETS2 with only a $70 current as of writing this upfront price tag (Game+DLC).

As far as the game itself goes, they HAVE added various QoL improvements since launch, but nothing that major and nothing the community was really asking for. They added Arizona as a free state (last and only free state) and 1 new truck from an already existing manufacturer. They don’t seem to be being enough to secure licenses for other manufactures like Freightliner, MACK, International and Volvo etc, which is odd seeing they already have a license with Volvo in ETS. It just seems more and more SCS bit off more than they could chew and were over ambitious in their attempt at ATS.



** September 2018 UPDATE**

Still "NOT RECOMMENDED". It's been a whole year since I last updated this and low and behold, still nothing new to add. They finally did add New Mexico, which was just as barren and lifeless as I remember it in person. SO, a paid DLC to drive though nothingness, basically. Still no new trucks, no new anything. A few QoL updates pushed over from ETS 2 that's about it.

They keep posting about Oregon, mainly to keep people interested. I'm sure it will be another NM dev cycle. At Least they are getting out of the wasteland Southwest and into more scenic states like Oregon and Washington, so that's a plus. ATS still a missed opportunity. They either need to stop development on ETS 2 and focus solely on their new IP ATS, or just stop all development on ATS and let it die, focusing solely on ETS 2. Pick one! A small studio trying to develop 2 IP's is not good or fair for either game.


Still recommend ETS2 over this.




**September 2019 UPDATE**

This is my 3rd and final review update for this game. As of now there has been enough added content and QoL updates to warrant a 'RECOMMENDED' rating for my review. In the past year since my last update almost 3 states have been added. Oregon and Washington with Utah only weeks away. Oregon/Washington have been the best addition to this game thus far and they really fleshed both states out to how I remember them in person. A much needed addition to the barren, lifeless and boring Southwest.

The fact that we're now what, 3 years in and STILL no new trucks outside of community mods is quite sad and almost keeps my 'NOT RECOMMEND' rating. However, with all the recent QoL updates that really added even more depth and simulation to the game and the gorgeous Washington and Oregon additions, I can overlook the trucks enough.

Aside from the truck selection issue, I would safely say this game is about equal to ETS 2 and in some cases, surpasses it. At Least in terms of immersion and realism.

Another upfront issue with this game is cost. I still think they should have released states as regional DLC packs vs releasing them individually for 1$0-$15. It's fine if you’ve been here since the beginning and bought them as they came out. 10-15 here and there is no issue. However someone coming in new has a pretty steep upfront cost to experience the game as they should. This is especially disheartening as they had more eastern states and you have to buy X states in order to reach your destination/goal. Not sure how many more states or states in total they wish to include over time, but it can very well end up like another Train Simulator type of pricing.

Overall this is a good game, esp for $20 and a state or two to start. Many miles of fun. Pick it up on a 75% off sale and get all the states and add-ons. I prefer this to ETS2 honestly. Also, make sure you take advantage of the mod workshop. Lots of mods in there that add ridiculous levels of immersion to the game. Far more than you can get out of the box with the base game Good job!

I didn't want to do a review of this so soon, but I had the torrent of this and logged a good 20 or so hours into it before it went on sale on Steam, so I think that is enough to have a good enough idea and experience to do one.

First off the presentation of GAS is very well done. The introduction, the personalization and the way everything flows is very refreshing. The racing scene is pretty deep with various disciplines to choose from, though you will eventually have to do every one of them to get into the GRID series.

The visuals are absolutely spectacular, especially for a game that only came out for PC and last gen consoles. GAS really shows off the best the EGO 3 engine has to offer and what's is capable of, even if it was built and made for 360/PS3.

The AI is much improved over GRID 2 and the "hard" difficulties are actually a challenge for once. Codemasters said this was wheel to wheel racing and that it is.

Before I dwell deeper into the review, here is a breakdown of the pros and cons IMO;

+Graphics/Visuals
+Sound
+Presentation
+Multiple Disciplines
+Teammate


-Forced Drifting
-Upgrade System
-Teammate (yes both a pro and a con)
-Lack of detailed in-car cockpit view
-Forced to play all disciplines
-Some disciplines not as well done as others
-Lacking car selection
-Team Offers


One of the stand out negatives you will be faced with, is the fact you are forced to play all disciplines and some of those disciplines are clearly inferior to others. Open Wheel, Street and Touring are very well done and thought out. However Tuner and Endurance is a joke. Tuner would of been great, if it wasn't the one buzz kill and sole aspect that completely ruins the discipline and that is drifting. Drifting in this game, as most other games that incorporate it are utter trash and more work than it needs to be. Codemasters stated that GAS was "bringing racing and the series back to its roots". However, drifting is not grass roots racing, nor is it really racing at all. It is an extreme niche and is more of an art form then racing, and should of either been taken out completely or been an optional DLC add-on like Drag Racing is. I liked Drifting, 10 years ago when it was a fad....

Some other notable negatives to touch on is the team mate mechanic. Though the presentation and potential is there, the execution is not. Not sure what the point of them really are, as more often than not, they suck and almost always bring your team rating down. They give you the option to assign various driving mechanics to them while racing like HOLD, PUSH and ATTACK, but I’ve found that none of the settings really matter and even on PUSH and ATTACK setting they still more often than not, drop back in the pack. I hope they expand more on this in later titles and have more customization for the player to fine tune teammate(s).

The last thing I want to mention are the team offers and upgrades. Team offers are somewhat pointless as the only differences between them are the level of tuning you can do, XP you can earn and simple pre-installed upgrades already applied to the team cars. Why offer any type of "upgrade" mechanic if the player has no control over them, other than to take them off? Better teams have more upgrades pre-installed, but it's a roll of the dice on which ones you get and it seems to be based on what difficulty you had set the previous championship. i.e. you have better team offers and pre-installed upgrades the higher you set the difficulty, which this alone is counter-productive. I always tend to set my racing games to the hardest they can be, but I am not everyone.


All in all though this is a great game. By no means is this a racing simulator, but I would rank it up with Shift and Shift 2 as not a full on sim, but not a full on arcade racer either. Though at least with Shift 2 you have an upgrade system lol.

Stunning visuals and sound will leave you wanting more. Plenty of real world tracks and rendered cities to race in with a mediocre amount of cars, but good enough selection, though some choice as to what cars we race in would been better.


In the end I give this a 7 /10

Absolutely superb driving simulator. There is a reason so many people play this and back the developers. I've played it for countless hours via torrent before it went on sale and it is one of those games I always come back to.

Plenty of trucks to choose from, though starting out you are limited in funds/trucks, but overtime as you level and build your business you are able to expand your business, hire drivers, buy and upgrade trucks, upgrade and buy accessories (like GPS). The driving style is very laid back and you can either follow the rules of the road or go full throttle and risk it all (sometimes there is a sick thrill in rolling down the road at 110mph with a 55 ton load!).

The attention to detail is ridiculous and almost every patch sees an update to something. They have worked feverishly on improving all the truck sounds by going back and visiting each truck in real life, loading it down with 30 tons of sand and placing microphones all over the truck inside and out to capture the authentic and most accurate sounds possible. This type of detail is what keeps me coming back and helps the game be a simulator. Graphics wise the engine is a tad dated for modern standards, but I hear they are still improving it as well. Everything down to rumble strips in the road is pinpoint accurate and you just can't put this game down the first 10 hours or so.

The game play does get repetitive once you reach level 12-16 once your trucks engine etc is fully upgraded and most accessories are unlocked, but with each patch something is enhanced or improved so I always boot it up to check out the new content in each patch. One of my biggest gripes was going to each city all felt the same, some things are different, but most of the cities feel one and the same. Another thing I disliked was the damage model. Though there is no exterior damage per say, your tires, transmission, chassis and engine etc do take damage from collisions and natural damage over time from wear etc. The problem with this system IMO, is there should be more realism. A 300hp Truck should not be able to pull a 50t load with ease and not at a cost. There should be simulated transmission slippage, overheating issues, flat tires and other nuances of mechanical wears that we experience in real life. the most that happens in ETS2, is once your engine gets to a certain damage %, it will turn off randomly while driving and once your transmissions gets a certain % of damage it will not go into higher gears and make a grinding sound when shifting. Other than that no performance loss etc.

Here are some of the pros and cons:

+Leveling system
+Ability to hire drivers
+Ability to buy garages/expand business
+Truck performance and visual upgrades
+Amazingly accurate sounds
+Good driving physics
+Amazingly detailed and accurate cabin interior
+Steady stream of updates and enhancements

-Cities all look the same (for most part)
-Dated game engine
-Damage Model/physics



All in all this is a fabulous driving simulator for countless hours of laid back jolly fun. They are working on a new title (American Truck Simulator) that is supposed to improve on this already stellar journey and improve many of the cons I listed and enhance the pros as well. Can't want for ATS!!!!