Recent reviews by ustaritz

Shapez but very much better in all ways.
The only big difference one might find a downgrade is the fact that building is limited to platforms. In order to cut down on mega belts going across the whole map, building is instead done within platforms that are linked with space belts. This creates a different challenge where processing units must be designed within the space of one or multiple platforms, each platform's inputs and outputs being limited to up to 3x4 lanes.
In the end this probably improves performance a fair bit and actually encourages building smart. Blueprints are free to create and spawn allowing you to quickly design and repeat processing units. The allotment of platforms and space belts is also very generous and you will not run out of them.
You can now also build up to three floors high giving much more options and an alternative to space belts for long range transfer is a basic implementation of automatic trains similar to Factorio.
Overall the progression is a bit more gamey and engaging and the interface work is very good. Everything is easy to read, statistics are clearly displayed and the tutorial handbook provides enough information making it easier to understand and optimize designs while monitoring their effectiveness.

If you like those games this is fun. It's entirely physics based and almost looks too good for it's own sake so on underpowered systems you might have some problems otherwise it's good.
My only criticism would be that the interface could use a rework.
Arcade is time limited levels and is presented as the primary gamemode however it doesn't award much credits for upgrades and cosmetics. Additionally, failing on the later levels can easily bankrupt you because of the buy-in and low return. These later challenge levels can be quite hard without some of the upgrades that you can't really afford.
It should be redesigned so "Zen" mode is the primary, which is the same levels but without time limit. These allow you to bag more profits. Arcade as secondary.
The new machine that integrates slots and dice rolls doesn't make it obvious how you are meant to use the different mechanics as it lacks a tutorial.
Otherwise this game activates the monkey brain and that's all it needs to do.

I'm sure they made a boatload of money with TSW as there hasn't been any sort of significant progress in this genre as far as technology goes. But on i's own the TSW series is a failed concept that needs to stop and be replaced by something that actually works. Unreal Engine is not the right engine for this and TSW4 is the most stuttery experience out of all of them even with higher end hardware. The maps look bare and no different than the ones we've had for the past 20 years in legacy sims like Trainz or MTS besides 3D trees and some more buildings i guess. TSW4 in the context of the series just has a slightly different driving interface otherwise.

It looks and runs decently and for cheap this isn't a bad game but there are some severe issues with the design of this game that need to be addressed if the series can ever be good again.

Driving is okay, very NFS like as expected but it still needs to be improved a lot. There's no such thing in there as 4 wheel drifting, most cars are extremely stiff with the way they go from grip to drift situations and you'll often feel like you don't actually have much control over whats happening and getting any amount of fine control over the car and pointing it where you want is difficult when you consider this is an arcade game. Horizon despite being based on a semi-sim title is stil easier to learn and has a higher skill ceiling than this or Heat. It's hard to explain but i think grip cars are a big problem and balancing drift and grip builds to race equally in the same events is a problem.
The Default mode of play should be grip driving with cars having higher and lower points of slippage like any other game. Currently NFS feels like all cars have rear wheel steering only where you only really control the rear of the car and grip cars become unusable if you go past the point of slipping. Drft cars are designed to come into and out of drifts easily but grip cars just sort of get stuck in it because you just don't have any control over the front. It's very unpleasant to drive and feels less efficient while requiring more work to pull off. It's supposed to be the opposite.

This is something you can get used to and better at for sure. The main problem for me is the content of the single player. Unbound rehearses the Heat formula of day and night racing.
In Heat you would make money during the day in sanctioned racing with no police and at night you would bank experience points to progress the tech tree for new upgrades and car unlocks.
In Unbound you only get money day and night and the police is always there. That's better in my opinion and XP is never lost and is just a general driver level number. Money is used however for everything, including buying into races, upgrading the garage for new upgrades and buying cars and parts.
This economy is busted however. You seemingly never get anywhere before late into the game. The only cars you'll use are given to you and are not the ones you want. The ones you want you have to pay for but the money reward for racing just barely covers the buy-ins, garage upgrades already. And then at the end of the week you have massive buy-in that is mandatory on top of a required car. It feels like you're just chasing the objective instead of going for any sort of player expression with the choice of car. Visual parts will be the last thing you ever consider purchasing, it is literally a waste of time.
This economy wouldn't feel so grindy if the game didn't press you for these weekend buy-ins for one, but the grind wouldn't be so annoying if the game actually had more events to go into. A NFS game shouldn't be so repetitive for the first ten hours while only letting you use the cars you're given.
I think a solid multiplier should be applied to money rewards when banked under high heat levels.

Talking about heat, police is just annoying. EA and Criterion especially should probably just lean into the Burnout formula heavily with these chases and turn them into takedown rampages or something. Because in this game you'll constantly be dodging police because they interrupt your drive in between events and chases are just a nuisance. Also high pressure just pushes you to go home instead of playing since it doesn't even give you anything tangible as a reward. Chases are not interesting either. It's an even more ridiculous level of rubber banding than racing and doesn't involve much tactical driving most of the time.
I think a much better and actual fun system would be to turn chases into singular events. Say after each race or a number of races a chase is initiate and you have a specific point to reach like the edge of the map or a garage, and you need to make it there alive. Ad takedown cameras like Burnout 3, and figure out a good AI director that will balance aggression depending on your heat and car properly. Then remove police from the open world. It's just a pest at this point.

If you want to know about the value of this game as far as story and mechanics go there are plenty of reviews out there already for the Director's Cut on PS5/PS4 so i won't go over that.
As far as the port goes, i get something like 180 frames with max graphics and DLSS Frame Gen on Quality with a 4070.

Something that i worried about was keyboard and mouse controls and i can say that this works very well. The game probably plays and flows a little better on controllers however when i played through the game on consoles i found that slow camera controls made crowd control harder in some situations, and in general, makes looking around the scenes more annoying. Archery equally benefits from mouse control as this is not a huge part of your damage output it is an important tool for discretion and controlling ranged threats.

This is always a problem with games that involve sneaking past patrols or looking for loot in rooms, or just to look at the scenery which in this game is very pretty.
The controls on KBM are customisable to a good extent, it feels good to play and my alternate keyboard format was supported out of the box which is a tall order for too many games these days. So unless i run into freak bugs and problems throughout the later parts of the game this is a great port and Nixxes knocked it out the park.

If the reviews are mixed this isn't down to the merits of the game itself it is all about PSN. If you don't care for multiplayer which is entirely separate from single player and although worth a try is not a significant part of the game as a package, you shouldn't care about PSN it is not a requirement for offline play.

I think overall the game is quite good, especially at this price. It's a very hands on game much like Gold Rush where from beginning to end you will be doing a lot of work by yourself throughout most of the progression. However you can automate all of the process until going to the traders to make your money.
It can require some small baby sitting sometimes to avoid odd issues mostly caused by the physics system in some way. I have not had much issues at all in this late stage of development.

I won't go into the details of how the game is played you can understand that quite quickly browsing the guides and videos on here. I will focus more on the few things that do bother me.

First is inventory. The game is designed to be highly interactive and less gamey, therefore you can only carry one tool or object at one time, dropping it off and picking it up off the floor or shelf every time. Same for resources. I like that as it encourages being tidy and organized it's part of these things that make the game more immersive. There are some things that i feel could change though.
Absence of tool belt is intentional design but i think the player could use a single slot for big tools and maybe one for smaller tools. Allowing to carry the builders hammer, or the pickaxe while carrying some kind of building block or driving or pulling the cart. The small tool slot could carry something like the magnifying glass while carrying spanners to do a maintenance run. This is about streamlining some of the processes in a way that doesn't break the design of the game.
This ties in to an addition that could expand some of the games mechanics being a character "upgrade" shop. A sling for carrying a big tool on your back, the tool belt for holding a small tool.
Some kind of resource pouch to carry multiple nuggets could be useful too. It could work like a regular bucket you fill and empty by hand but can be hidden and pulled out with a key. Ideal for cleaning up a spill or measuring precise weight before dumping it into a crucible. Not for carrying large quantities it would probably be limited to 100u or a number of nuggets. Other upgrades are possible of course like boots for running or jumping and whatever.

One part of the game that bothers me most actually is the building process and really the shopping process.
Each item you need for building is individually picked up from the shelf, purchased and then loaded in the truck or cart or whatever you're doing. This includes carrying your money. Building larger infrastructure in the mid/late game becomes too much busywork in my opinion because of this process. Building itself is rather simple.
There's a number of things i think could be done to improve this and make it less overwhelming so the player can focus on the fun part of the game.

Firstly, i think rich players should be able to pay premiums for delivery without resorting to modded shops.
Maybe the player could buy a contract from a shopkeeper with a daily cost allowing him to take a catalog home, or browse one at the shop. Making a purchase and getting it delivered at a dig site on a delivery pad you purchase as furniture. This could also be tied to a specific quest or a type of reputation with a trader, or based on tokens instead of cash. Rich players shouldn't have to make numerous round trips to shops when building big mines. This is mostly a problem with pipes, conveyors and foundations which you may need a lot of.
Another issue that pops up with this process is pre-planning. If you have so many trips to do and the purchase process is tedious, not being able to pre-plan your builds in a convenient way is a problem. Some new tools could help with that.
A catalog. Purchased at each store with the name of the store and location as a reminder, purchasable at each individual shops. Allows the player to browse items and check where they are available, check prices and the purpose of each item.
A shopping list that could work in conjunction or merged in the catalog, allowing the player to make a list of purchases with cost breakdown.

The other part of planning is designing. A tool for planning where things go would go a long way. Something like a hammer and stakes for measuring lengths for pipes and belts or area surfaces. A spray paint marker or a tool that drops flags, models or whatever to mark spots for other items like drills. This would work well with the shopping list, allowing players to know right away how much they need to order and not end up short requiring extra trips, or overflowing with items that can't be store conveniently or sold off.

Only 5 hours hours in with two named bosses beaten i can say that at this point the game is fantastic.
It sounds disrespectful to call this a carbon copy of several FromSoft games bundled together but it really is what this is and for the most part in a good way. The way it plays is staggeringly similar to Dark Souls, Bloodborne mostly. Down to even it's interface and typical quirks like your "counselor" NPC moving around the hub. Playing and mastering this game requires almost no adaptation to anyone who's played FS games besides Elden Ring as it doesn't have a jump button.
However this isn't merely a clone, it's gameplay does feature different options to character building.
You will be familiar to the level up screen and the detailed stats area of the game with skill affinities and whatever. Where the game's mechanics become unique is in the weapons and skills area. Weapons are unique loot pickups composed of a blade element and a handle. The blade being the upgradeable part dictating damage baseline and type, while the handle alters it's skill affinity and moveset with the affinity being tuneable as well with the right resource. Both having their own active ability/ temp buff you can activate. While mats are purchaseable or for some limited in quantity, the ability to swap blade and handle at the weaponsmith or bonfire is unlimited, allowing you to try combinations at will.
Your left arm doesn't carry a shield but a mechanical arm. This is the Sekiro legacy in sorts as these arms provide an extra combat ability most very similar to Sekiro's, such as a flamethrower, acid bomb, the umbrella shield and even a trap dispenser. These come with their own upgrade mats and expanded abilities.
The character itself along with base stat upgrading has a tech tree where mats are spent increasing your general ability with each node carrying two slots for choosing a passive upgrade. This creates on top of the stats focus a more mechanic oriented focus to character build with survivability options or offensive options centered on blade or arm use etc etc.

In terms of combat the game is what you'd expect. It has Bloodborne's health recovery on hit, but Dark Souls's estus flasks. It doesn't have shield and parrying windows but Sekiro's guard and deflect. Although the deflecting is a little harder as it can't be spammed. Deflections neglect chip damage and eventually cause enemies to stun for a fatal blow or break the weapon. There is dodging with iframes and red attacks that can't be guarded or iframed but can be avoided.

Much like Bloodborne/DS the game is a linear adventure in levels with locked gates and ladders and traps that veterans won't feel lost in. It has it's own charm and lots of things to like about it's design and setting.

If you enjoy FS games for their pure gameplay this is great, it's got it's own thing going on but you won't feel lost at all in it. It comes down to if you want more of the same, or something truly different like Nioh or whatever. If you need a strong fantasy setting and lore to dig into maybe not. This games has good characters and setting by any means it's just not a game built upon years of established lore with deep subtexts but even then if you enjoy a blend of story and good gameplay this is great. Easily the best of them all.

It's a very in depth and unique take on the genre. While it is a modern city building game it is much more about resource and infrastructure than something like Cities Skylines or Sim City and if that's what you are looking for this isn't really it. Picture this as more of a blend of Tropico, Transport Fever, Factorio.

The game about urban planning is indeed a game about planning and being successful at it requires a rethink of how you play these types of games and a lot of this is due to the very jank and rigid building system. However the jankiness isn't entirely unjustified or requiring an entire fix. I do think some hitboxes could be tightened such as making pipes and belts able to colliding with building hitboxes. But this isn't a game about cramming blocks and industries next to each other for maximum space use. This is very much about planning ahead (which is possible) before committing. An industrial core is built with it's satellites in mind which includes a road access, buses, conveyor belts and other industrial plants. Same goes with the city part where the distance people can walk to is a consideration when designing your community. Not the amount of blocks you can stack next to each other with no regards for pedestrians, trees and utilities.

The process of making all this work really requires checking out information beforehand with guides or videos because everything takes time and patience in this game. Or spending some time in a sandbox world learning how to plan production and services and watching it work before attempting it with a real economy as that can take quite some time and leaves little room for bad spending. You can't really kill off your population and fail instantly like in Tropico or Rimworld but everything that you need to import to build and supply your population needs to be paid and without guidance you will go broke before you actually know it.

Here's an idea of how this goes.
Buy yourself construction offices and equipment which requires no workers and build a small city core around a bus stop and basic services with a few apartment blocks. Using resources imported from the border with trucks. The people moving in be working the industry that you need to build, to be able to build. Unlike a city builder, this game expects you to get the materials and workforce to build anything rather than spending all your cash into plopping things down instantly.

Your industrial core will be a complex web of connections between rocks and gravel making, coal mining, brick making plant, wood processing, concrete and cement plants feeding into the prefab blocks plant. Add in asphalt making which requires oil etc. etc. Step by step you will eventually be able to build anything almost for free and export excess to turn some profit. You still can import your food and goods but you will eventually be making it all yourself up to car or electronics manufacture and nuclear plants. You can become the richest and most prosperous communist micro-nation but you need to read a guide beforehand seriously.

I think one good way to learn this game is play with infinite money, but rely entirely on your own construction industry. This removes the risk of being broke in the long run and import anything you need as long as you can't get it yourself. Gradually designing your industrial expansion and putting into practice. The subtitle of the game is Workers And Resources and that's what it's about, getting them where they need to be.

It has some good points and tries to be authentic and for that i can't give it a thumbs down honestly however it does have some issues that need work.
As far as content, the weirder part of this game is that it comes with now 6 locations. This is nice but comes with only two planes. Key West and Faroe being small airports, and Warsaw and Keflavik being international, they are somewhat redundant respectively to each other. I'm guessing the work on these locations was done long before work on more plaens and system could be completed before release. So you get more locations than you really need but two planes ( 738 and 320neo) which are also interchangeable with each other with only minor difference in their operation. Really the game at it's asking price should come with half as many maps, but at least two more aircrafts. Something like a CRJ and a wide body like a 777, 787 or 350. Something small like a 208 would also be welcome. These would also introduce more variety like ULD handling or pure cargo ops. This is all content with their respective systems which in the end is probably just coming later. I just think it needs to be pointed out that the order of priority was a bit wrong.

As far as the gameplay itself there is further work that needs to be done on optimisation and polish of course. I have not had much problems with crashing or game breaking bug however i feel like my specs should net better performance or lower workload in general when considering airports are mostly empty locations and there's little actual simullation going on the game world. Otherwise the game looks decent enough.
For polishing there's a bit of everything that needs it.

The operations page of the tablet can be buggy, and will sometimes skip to steps for no reason while the general operation can be a bit rigid. Like not being able to connect stairs or catering before other steps. Having to connect the GPU before anything when most airports will only use it for long layovers or if requested.

Bag handling is quite awkward because of how you need to grab things and put them down while the bag is still colliding with other things and you can't rotate them in hand. It's like handling stuff in Garry's Mod with the grav gun. Instead you should be grabbing stuff and holding them in your hand like it's in your inventory, and then designating where it goes precisely by clicking on a surface, like building something in valheim for instance. Allowing you to make things orderly without needing a large open space to move around without knocking everything over. Additionally, A remote control for the closest loading belt would go a long way making it easier to operate them instead of letting bags pile on the floor or jam into the the cargo hold. This is more of a problem as a solo player as you can't stop and start the belt without access to the buttons on the vehicle.
Also, the belts for spawning bags should let you pick which ones you want when there's multiple departures. Allowing you prepare trucks for later or just pick what you actually need at that moment.

The marshaling has this strange tendency to break where the aircraft will refuse to stop in a timely manner and creep forwards for several seconds.

Pushback works but it becomes very hard to push when you get into tighter angles. I understand the physics at work there but there's moments where it becomes impossible to go forward into a turn when really you should be able to. I think the truck is just underpowered.

The walkaround phase also needs a rework. It is not specified in the tutorial what constitutes "unexpected events" that you need to lookout for. They are (realistically) quite rare, but so rare that you quickly get the impression that there is actually nothing to do when there is. I've had one door unlatched, and one time, someone left their ear protection sitting on a landing gear. All four of them in fact. The game lacks a sort of ingame operation manual you can read on the fly which i think is really missing. This manual if it existed could list all the kinds of anomalies to lookout for so people know they actually exist and what constitutes an issue. Like foreign objects near or in the engines, unlatched doors, broken lightbulbs or covers that were left on sensors.

If this manual existed and these issues spawned more often this part of the game which is essential in real life would become more interesting, and the whole "hold click on thing to clear objective" part should be dropped altogether. Having to awkwardly find the trigger and hold fire on a blinking part of the plane really just distracts from the actual act of checking the plane for problems. You should be looking at things in detail at your own pace and then let the game decide if you did good instead of mindlessly clicking on things and missing the actual problem.

Some of the scenarios are badly timed, leaving you with either too much to do at once or gaps of over 20 minutes with nothing to do.

Addictive gameplay with nice visuals and soundtrack.
Similarly to The Invisible Hand, Stonks is an arcade take on stocks that allows you to long and short stocks to make money, spend it on property and cars. However it is imo better executed in ways than Invisible Hand. The game happens strictly within the oldschool computer monitor and there is no interruption inbetween days and weeks. Time scale flows much quicker in the game but the indexes only tick each day. Depending on how much pausing or forwarding you do a year of gameplay time can be up to an hour real time that goes by real quick as you find yourself chasing numbers hard.
Stonks becomes more interesting over time as you can start a company, or become CEO or a board member of an existing company if you manage to hold a large enough share of stocks in it. As well as dividends being a factor, holding stock in certain companies award healthy monthly pay. Buying a better house, and a car will increase your comfort allowing you to maintain better health at work. Property you don't live in awards rent.
Random events influence markets and social events also happen that do not require much involvement from you most of the time if are not interested. However bar crawls and pachinko sessions will increase your relationship with the characters you come across. Each of these characters operating positions at the various companies in the game world.
Company management which for now is fairly basic but is a cool feature that allows you finally do something about the relationships you built with random NPCs over time. Company management is more or less about balancing budget, expanding departments and placing skilled friends and hires in managerial positions to get better results from your marketing campaigns, product launches and developments, driving your stock and your company forwards.
As time goes and your wealth increases the general average values of the initial and additional stocks goes up meaning while you can be extremely wealthy you are still far from being able to easily take everything over and finish the game. There is still plenty to add to the game to expand on all of these mechanics but in it's current early state it is already a lot of fun.