Recent reviews by Cayden!

DISCLAIMER:
Yes, we are all aware the Denuvo and Epic Games stuff is bad and nobody is really a fan of it. This is a review of the GAME, not the software involved with it. If you have problems with those that's totally fine, but I have had 0 issue in terms of performance or anything relating to that. I will talk about it further in the review at least a little. With that being said, let's move on to the game itself!

This is very obviously a bit of nostalgia pandering but also a brand new adventure in 2D style which is something we haven't seen in quite a while, and I am all for that. The game is vibrant and plenty original, and does it's job in being what it was advertised to be. It is plenty worth admitting that I didn't entirely expect too much from this game considering how little promotion it got and what little time there was between announce and launch, but I am pleasantly surprised with what we're getting here.

The physics are faithful and enjoyable, although I think it's a touch slow for a classic Sonic game. That being said it doesn't take away from the enjoyment. The level design in this game is also really great and you'll be spending plenty upwards of 2-3 minutes on most levels past Bridge Island first playthrough if you take your time and that's good for the playtime & value. The bosses are also interesting and fun, and the special stages are a fantastic new style that I really found myself enjoying, even if they can be a tad difficult to find the solution sometimes. The bonus stages are fun too!

I find the chaos emerald powers a little lackluster, they're a very unique concept and I don't think they take away from the core value of the game, but I find myself avoiding them and not really paying them extra mind for most of the game, and it could've been completely fine without them. They're a neat feature though and I'm sure at least one person out there got more enjoyment out of them than I do. Would maybe like to see them expanded upon in a future entry and made easier to use.

GAMEPLAY
☐ Outstanding
☒ Great
☐ Good
☐ Meh
☐ Poor
☐ Awful

GRAPHICS
☐ Absolutely breathtaking
☒ Beautiful
☐ Smooth
☐ Mediocre
☐ Ugly
☐ Oh god my eyes

SOUNDTRACK
☐ Eargasm levels
☒ Fantastic
☐ Decent
☐ Ehh
☐ Kinda sucky
☐ My ears are literally bleeding help

STORY
☐ Heart-wrenching/tear jerkingly good
☒ Touching/Good
☐ Mildly interesting
☐ Not really there
☐ Exists but is bad
☐ Literal dumpster fire

BUGS
☐ Next to none
☒ A few, hardly noticable
☐ More than a few, minor inconvenience
☐ Lots, intervenes with the enjoyment of the game
☐ Borderline unplayable
☐ A bug exploiter's dream

VALUE
☐ Definitely worth it
☐ In the gray area in between full-price and on sale
☒ On a sale
☐ Only if you really, REALLY want it
☐ No

A FILTHY CASUAL'S OPINION (FINAL RATING)
☐ 10
☐ 9
☒ 8
☐ 7
☐ 6
☐ 5
☐ 4
☐ 3
☐ 2
☐ 1

FINAL THOUGHTS
I do really enjoy this game and find it very charming! While i think both Mania and S3&K are far better entries than this, that's not to say that Superstars is by any means a bad game. I must disclaim that I am yet to finish the story mode but so far find it really fun, and I doubt my opinion will change positively or negatively much by the time it's finished. I probably will find myself coming back and playing this game plenty in the near future.

All in all, it's been a pretty good year for Sonic fans like myself and I do really think this game is great in and of itself and it's nice to see it release. While yes, I must admit again that the Denuvo and Epic Games things are not fun, some of the claims made relating to it are a bit much and while it's not good to have them, it's not like you have to have the EG Launcher installed to play this, nor has Denuvo's software caused me any performance problems. Again, I wanted to review the game here, not the associated software that comes along with it, and the installs that do come along with it didn't take away from the value at all because I've dealt with both of them before in Mania and in other Epic Games titles.

Sonic Superstars, when it is all said and done, is a plenty good game and I genuinely recommend it, especially if you like other 2D Sonic titles. Is it worth a 60 dollar price tag? Probably not, but if this goes on sale in the near future I would definitely say grab it if you don't have problems with Denuvo or EG. I can't comment on the value of price since I received the game as a gift from a friend, but I still enjoyed the experience a lot and I imagine you definitely can too. My final verdict: Definitely give it a try!

So I've been a pretty big fan of the F1 games for a while. I was a bit skeptic when EA bought Codemasters last year, and didn't end up buying 2021 anyways since I wanted to get other things that year.
This year, however, a friend of mine offered to buy it for me, and I figured I'd give it a shot since pals of mine play it and I want to try the co-op feature.
I'm not very much of a fan of the handling of the cars, the rear end really feels like it's on ice. There is definitely a significant downgrade on the realism of the cars handling since 2020, and it's far less forgiving. There was a lot of stigma from the drivers from 2019 backwards of how driving the cars on medium TC was a lot like what it was IRL. The devs understood this and fixed it, and the handling was much improved for 2020. Now, the cars don't even handle on medium TC now like they did on no TC in 2020. But full TC feels like too much, so I end up stuck in no mans land on which mode I want. It's not enjoyable.
There was also a lot of issues with wheel compatibility, which made me have to update my drivers for the wheel (Thrustmaster TMX,) something I have never had to do for any game ever. Not a very major problem though, although a lot of people have reportedly had issues with this. Not sure.
And I know they're not the main focus of the game, but the supercars don't even feel like actual cars. It's laughable. Must've been an afterthought or something.
Also Co-op career is extremely buggy, or something. I'll have to get back to that, I haven't tried it yet. Will edit the review upon diagnosis.

GAMEPLAY
☐ Outstanding
☐ Great
☒ Good
☐ Meh
☐ Poor
☐ Awful

GRAPHICS
☐ Absolutely breathtaking
☒ Beautiful
☐ Smooth
☐ Mediocre
☐ Ugly
☐ Oh god my eyes

SOUNDTRACK
☐ Eargasm levels
☒ Fantastic
☐ Decent
☐ Ehh
☐ Kinda sucky
☐ My ears are literally bleeding help

STORY
☐ Heart-wrenching/tear jerkingly good
☐ Touching
☐ Mildly interesting
☒ Not really there
☐ Exists but is bad
☐ Literal dumpster fire

BUGS (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
☐ Next to none
☐ A few, hardly noticable
☒ More than a few, minor inconvenience
☐ Lots, intervenes with the enjoyment of the game
☐ Borderline unplayable
☐ A bug exploiter's dream

VALUE
☐ Definitely worth it
☒ On a sale
☐ Only if you really, REALLY want it
☐ No

FINAL RATING
☐ 10
☐ 9
☐ 8
☐ 7
☒ 6.5 (CURRENT RATING, POST UPDATES)
☐ 6
☒ 5 (ORIGINAL RATING)
☐ 4
☐ 3
☐ 2
☐ 1

ADDENDUM: Updates have arrived! Honestly, made a lot of good changes. I still think the game is similar rated to before, but you can check above to see what I changed. Driving system is a lot better and I appreciate the differences. If there was a way to be halfway between recommending and not, I would totally do that.
It's still not a bad game, and if you're just looking to drive it's fun. Still though, F1 2020 is the best installment in the series.
Overall, it's solid. Certainly you can enjoy it, despite some dumb features and a few bugs here and there. 6.5, as I put above.

Yo, if you read this far, good for you. I appreciate when people enjoy the stupid things I put on the internet.
Cheers,
-Casual.

So, this is Sonic Generations, obviously. Bit of an old game, and I haven't done a proper review on it.

I had previously owned this game on the Xbox 360, and said Xbox shat the bed. And, I hadn't played the game in multiple years, so I figured I'd give it a go again now that I'm older and understand how games work better.

I must say, even nearly 10 years later, it's still quite a fun experience. The gameplay still feels sharp and the graphics, are, well, alright, but definitely not the worst ever. The story is, well, a bit lackluster, if I'm honest. Not too much substance, but at least you can relatively understand it. Just the whole spectacle of the 20th anniversary is pretty neat in and of itself. Getting to go through a bunch of old stages is quite a treat, from Genesis, to Dreamcast, to even a couple of the new (at the time) stages. Going back to the gameplay a bit more in depth, it's definitely the peak of the boost formula, being much more polished than the previous 2, Unleashed and Colors. The 2D gameplay is pretty neat as well, although I think it could be a little better. Still, it's quite good.

With that, here are my final ratings of the different categories of the game:

GAMEPLAY
☐ Outstanding
☒ Great
☐ Good
☐ Meh
☐ Poor
☐ Awful

GRAPHICS
☐ Absolutely breathtaking
☐ Beautiful
☒ Smooth
☐ Mediocre
☐ Ugly
☐ Oh god my eyes

SOUNDTRACK
☐ Eargasm levels
☒ Fantastic
☐ Decent
☐ Ehh
☐ Kinda sucky
☐ My ears are literally bleeding help

STORY
☐ Heart-wrenching/tear jerkingly good
☐ Touching
☐ Mildly interesting
☒ Not really there/Neutral ground
☐ Exists but is bad
☐ Literal dumpster fire

In my personal opinion, Generations still holds up to the standard of what is a good game to this day. It did what it set out to be, a celebration of all that came before. And did a pretty damn great job, at that. It may not be the best, like SA2, or S3&K, or any of the other games that are considered to be up there at the top, but it still will definitely put a smile on your face.

If you still want to get this game despite it's age, I highly recommend! Chances are you'll get some fun times out of it. Since it's so old, maybe wait for a sale, it tends to go for pretty cheap. But, if you want to pay the full price, then by all means go ahead. It will probably be worth your hard earned dollar.

So. Ori and the Will of the Wisps. My god, what a game.

To start. This game is a metro-vania style platformer, with many, many areas to explore. The graphics are overall the best of any game I've ever played, the gameplay itself is solid and great, the soundtrack is eargasm levels.

You run, jump and zip around finding new abilities. I won't spoil any of the actual game's story for obvious reasons, but good lord, it's heart wrenching. It twists and turns in so many ways for the good or the worse of the characters in it.

So, without any extra talking let's get onto the actual ratings.

GAMEPLAY
☒ Outstanding
☐ Great
☐ Good
☐ Meh
☐ Poor
☐ Awful

GRAPHICS
☒ Absolutely breathtaking
☐ Beautiful
☐ Smooth
☐ Mediocre
☐ Ugly
☐ Oh god my eyes

SOUNDTRACK
☒ Eargasm levels
☐ Fantastic
☐ Decent
☐ Ehh
☐ Kinda sucky
☐ My ears are literally bleeding help

STORY
☒ Heart-wrenching/tear jerkingly good
☐ Touching
☐ Mildly interesting
☐ Not really there
☐ Exists but is bad
☐ Literal dumpster fire

Overall, this is, by MILES the absolute best game I've ever played. I may be overrating it here or there a little, but I don't care. EVERYTHING about it is absolutely fantastic in every way. It absolutely blew my mind.

If you like metro-vania style games or platformers, BUY IT. It is absolutely 100% worth the $30 price tag. I cannot stress enough how brilliant this entire thing is. I love it with all my heart, and chances are you will too.

ETS2 is a great game for those of you who want nothing but to drive in a realistic trucking/driving environment. You'll start off doing jobs where you are given a trailer and a truck for one job, and just have to drive to the destination. Eventually, you can get a loan from the bank and buy yourself a truck, and start going around the countries doing jobs. You can eventually buy other trucks and hire employees, which will make money for you without you having to do anything.

You can also get a ton of mods, (I personally use ETS2MP, a hugely popular Multiplayer mod; go try it out!) which can improve your truck customization, gameplay, and even add Cars you can drive.

This is a great game for when you're in the mood to drive, but I probably would suggest waiting for a sale or something, as that's what I did.

7.8/10, Pretty great game to play. -Rifle

Alright, I haven't done a review in a while now, so stick with me here.

Automation, god this game. It's the ultimate car customization based game. You can basically make whatever car you want, from whatever year, whatever engine (as long as it fits in the car) and so much more. You can even currently start your own car company and rise to the top of the brand table. There's endless combinations in this game, have fun exploring them. Hell, with the newest update, you can export the cars you make and DRIVE THEM on Beam.NG Drive! (One of my other personal Favorites)

[Do keep in mind that Automation is currently an Early Access Game, so there will be new features added, and bugs will be fixed.]

I completely recommend this game 100% to anybody who's even remotely into cars. If you're gonna get it, i also suggest reading some tutorials on it.

9/10, Perfect for any car enthusiast. -Rifle