All posts by Vic B'Stard

Project CARS 2: exclusive preview

I’ve spent the last week playing a PC preview build of the upcoming Project CARS 2 racing sim.

2015’s Project CARS is a proper racing simulator. It was built by racing enthusiasts for racing enthusiasts. The result was a technically superb racing game with an unforgiving learning curve that alienated much of its potential audience.

With Project CARS 2, the developer, Slightly Mad Studios, seeks to refine the experience, improving accessibility and increasing the level of immersion with extra weather and environmental effects. Continue reading Project CARS 2: exclusive preview

Get Even PS4 review

I’ve been wondering around wearing a Get Even t-shirt since E3 2014. Whilst there in LA, a few chaps from The Farm 51 explained the 3D scanning technology employed by their upcoming game, Get Even.

I’ve often wondered whatever happened to that game.

I was quite surprised to see the game mentioned in a press release and jumped at the chance to take a look at a game that I really didn’t think would see the light of day.

Get Even is a psychological thriller set in an old asylum. It’s also a puzzle game, a stealth game, an action game and a horror game. Continue reading Get Even PS4 review

Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood PC review

Since 2013, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn has allowed fans of the veteran RPG series to journey together across the land of Eorzea.

The game is a retooling of the original Final Fantasy XIV massively multiplayer online game, which shuttered in 2012 due to lacklustre gameplay. A Realm Reborn relaunched the game with a new engine and a new story set five years after the cataclysm the ended the original iteration. Continue reading Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood PC review

Hunting Simulator PS4 review

I’d be lying if I said that I’d never fired a rifle before. I have, but I’ve never had the desire to shoot a living creature. I gassed a mouse, once, with lighter fuel – by accident – as a horrible kid, but I’d never dream of killing an animal now.

I eat meat, though. But if you told me I had to kill it myself, I’d be lining up with the iron-deficient vegetarians in an instant. What a hypocrite, you say. And you’d be right—I am a guilty carnivore.

Killing things in a game is another matter. My digital body count probably numbers in the millions by now. If it moves in a game and I can do it, I’ll probably kill it. Continue reading Hunting Simulator PS4 review

Micro Machines World Series review

Who didn’t spend hours as a kid driving toy cars across the lounge, along the coffee table, through the kitchen, over the dog and up the stairs? In the early nineties, the fledgling Codemasters bought tabletop racing to life with their Micro Machines game. The top down racer featured toy vehicles and circuits across breakfast tables, backyards and other domestic locations.

It was a massive hit, spawning four sequels (ignoring the running spin-off, Micro Maniacs) finishing up with Micro Machines V4 in 2007. Since then the series’ publisher, Codemasters, has become synonymous with development racing games. The F1, Dirt and Grid racing games are all from the Codemasters stable.

After a decade’s absence, Micro Machines are back with Micro Machines World Series. Continue reading Micro Machines World Series review

Steep goes EXTREME!

Ubisoft’s Steep continues the emerging tradition of offering DLC that gets increasingly bonkers.

Recently, the already none too serious Forza Horizons 3 added a batshit mad, but totally awesome Hot Wheels-inspired island to the game. Players are invited to break the laws of physics in improbable, tricked-out rides with the ability to loop the loop around an equally improbable track made up of those very familiar orange plastic segments. Continue reading Steep goes EXTREME!