This game does not deserve all the hate it gets.

It deserves solid criticism, sure, but wanting it to be just like Forza is plain ignorance. Every single damn racing game nowadays looks the same, and I'm tired of it. Unbound flipped the bird to all that and made sure to have something that NFS always had above others -- style. The driving effects and the sound sample system are stunning and signal a breath of fresh air amidst all the games nowadays which have their art direction dictated by lifeless suits rather than passionate artists.

The handling is the best we have in modern NFS. You can grip very hard and completely disable Brake 2 Drift if you wish so, or embrace drifting all together, hell, you can even find an in-between if you are feeling adventurous. The burst system is a great addition to the gameplay.

The story is indeed confused about what it wants to say. Trying to paint the racers under a good light is just weird. A few college kids complaining about how the cops are evil for going after them right after pulling 300 KM/H on a public highway and ramming others into traffic is silly, plus all the political discourse it tries to engage with despite being on the fence about all it wants to say. Many parts of the plot are not explained or given much substance, like the game's main villain. To sum it up, the revenge plot is a great idea, but the execution is subpar.

The dialogue tries to be cool and hip with its wording but it just ends up being alienating. Though I don't think it's as bad as the stuff we've seen in The Crew 2/MotorFest and Forza Horizon 4/5 as, at least in here, they try to be expressive to a degree instead of the 1-dimensional puppets we got in those other titles. That said, Rydell is by far the best and most relatable character.

An issue I hope Criterion improves with updates are the content updates. I'm not a fan of live-services and I'm happy with most of what we got in the base game for it's single-player mode, but the multi-player needs some meatier content. The Porsche celebration update is interesting, but we could've received a few more cars. I'm not asking for dozens of cars to be added with each update, but more than 1 would be nice.

All I wish for is that people would realize that, despite it's flaws, Unbound is trying to shake up a genre that's been left in the gutter for over a decade. There are no other arcade racers in the AAA market right now, and the other racing games we do have might as well be cast in the same mold.

please nintendo i beg you on my hands and knees to make a new wave race game so i don't have to play garbage like this in a sad vain attempt to feed the long-empty husk that is my desire to play water racing games. Everything is kusoge and low-budget as fuck (in a shovelwarey sense, not an awesome one), theres money grinding to pad the game out, and the whole thing just feels soulless. At least the 3D effect is decent and the soundtrack is pretty good, so it's not all terrible. "The wave race at home" doesn't even do this justice. It's like the wave race game that the wave race at home has in its own bootleggy home.

The golden age of video games began and ended with the Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device.

So firstly, I obviously didn't play this on the original hardware given the fact that this was really a patented proof of concept that as far as I'm aware never made it to any sort of production model so I used an online simulator to experience the magnificence that is the Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device. You can play it for yourself here

Anyways, what the hell do I actually say here? The core gameplay comes from positioning little planes on the screen and then essentially tuning the CRT beam to move over a plane and then blow it up by moving various dials. There is a bit of a dead-zone on the left and bottommost corners of the screen so it makes some areas impossible to hit (or I just don't know how to move these dials properly), so it's up to you to make sure the game is possible in the first place. Moreover, there's no in-game logic to check on whether or not you are playing correctly, so really the whole game is beholden to the honor system of the player. I guess it works given the fact that it's an "amusement device" and not necessarily a game.

I guess what's more interesting than the game itself is moreso the context behind it as being one of the first instances of using video display technology for recreational entertainment purposes. There has been a reasonable amount of debate on whether or not this counts as a computer video game given the fact that there is no in-game logic and it's moreso just tuning a CRT beam in a fun way. These days there has been a lot of discussion as to what defines a video game and giving examples of acclaimed modern games that challenge the medium, when my homeboy Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. did that shit all the way back in 1947. Truly a revolutionary.

At the end of the day it certainly is more of a historical curiosity than anything, this is like reviewing a museum artifact. You'd definitely have to be a very certain type of person to even know about this thing though, let alone play and review it on a site like this. I've always been a fan of playing old titles to see where things have gone, and you really can't go any farther back than here. It's nice to pay the extremely primitive origins of video games their dues.

ngl playing this right after disaster report was some real tonal whiplash from "man earthquakes are scary and can destroy the status quo that we take for granted" to "EARTHQUAKES ARE AWESOME LETS DRIVE CARS IN EM NATURAL DISASTERS ARE BADASS".

it sure do be more motorstorm, the core gameplay is the same weighty multi-vehicle chaotic nonsense with a late game rubber banding spike you'd expect. this time the festival takes place in totally-not-san-francisco except the twist is the entire city gets hit by several natural disasters that dynamically change the course. Driving through the natural disasters is exactly as thrilling as it sounds but I do think that the core path-finding gameplay of the series gets a bit muddied when the tracks are constantly crumbling around. The mostly urban environments also mean that most of the terrain is flat asphalt rather than the various dirts and muds and snows of the last 3 games. It's certainly flashier, but the actual track designs kinda falter for it. This game also has a story mode which like I can def understand due to the fact that the previous games had zero narrative to em and I'm sure they wanted to flesh out the world but I couldn't vibe with the cutscenes, the writing and artstyle just aren't my thing. It's weird when it calls back to previous motorstorm games as if I am supposed to recognize these random characters that didn't exist in the previous games, but the story does kinda give the whole series some closure, which is honestly kinda cool given this is likely the last main motorstorm game we will ever get.

overall its aight, but pacific rift still is gonna be the GOATorstorm nawsay

Fun lil disaster sim. Def jank and low-budget at times but I feel like it kinda adds to the charm. Theres a good balance of a serious plot with real stakes combined with a few bits of goofiness in dialog choices and cosmetic item pickups. The cutscenes in particular have like the same exact pacing and vocal performances as yakuza cutscenes but with like a quarter of the budget, it's awesome. Apparently the English localization absolutely messes with the characters, though I guess with a game that's already this lowkey goofy it could honestly add to the experience. Def worth at least checking out, though in this day and age if you want a campy goofy over-the-top disaster simulator you would probably be better off playing Disaster Day of Crisis on the wii.

This is the definitive way to play Rez, VR-enabled or otherwise. Rez is already a banger game that pushes the boundaries of the unification of video games and music in a stylish and fun way, so to basically have an HD version of that game with all the bells and whistles that it entails is very cool.

The real upgrade comes from the VR support, as Rez itself is already a rather trippy and immersive game so to have it completely surround your senses feels like an extension of the original vision. Only one minor problem hinders the experience for me: i can't really play this for long periods of time without feeling really bad. Rez is a pretty fast moving rail shooter, and it does spin around pretty frequently at times, so I usually can't play more than one level at a time before calling it quits for the day. Doesn't help that the aiming is most precise with the quick head tracking so you are constantly moving your head around in an already moving environment, it does me in real good.

This game also includes the new Area X mode which is a neat short bonus level that has a ton of the visual upgrades you'd expect from Rez on a modern platform. It's more free-moving though, likely to let the player control the pace in VR to not get super sick, but I still didn't feel that good playing it since turning around basically spins you in place with your head already sideways. blegh.

Overall I legally cannot hate it because it's rez but honestly I think playing this on a nice 4K OLED could be a bit more comfortable and cool than playing in VR.

Awful and essentially unplayable.

Such a shame that Deadly Premonition revisionism is so entrenched that even the creators thought being a technical shambles was “part of the charm” - the 360 original ran perfectly fine and was fantastic because of its ambition & heart despite its budget and technical shortcomings.

This? A cynical 10 frame a second travesty.

Avoid

more PGR baybeeee

I'd honestly put it on-par with the first game as both this and 1 kinda have their own ups and downs. This game does run at 30 FPS rather than 1s 60 and it is a bit apparent for a racing game like this, unfortunately. The overall progression is better paced than the first games mid-game wall, but also can kinda feel a bit boring as you really have to challenge yourself by picking higher difficulties, and kudos don't really matter AS much here than in the first. PGR but more streamlined. The OST is also a lot larger here than in PGR1 but also because of that I felt like the songs didn't stick with me as much as game 1s songs, for better or for worse. Again nothing really significantly better or significantly worse between the two games, just different.

The gameplay is the same extremely solid and fun racing that I expect from this series, everything has just the right amount of weight, and going fast feels really good. The lack of emphasis on kudos earning to complete missions makes this much more of a pure racing game. They bumped the city count from the four games in the first to a staggering eleven this time around, with two bonus cities as DLC. There are also a significantly larger amount of events to go through here, so they really turbo-charged the content here.

The real star of the show here is the online support. Shoutouts to insignia for bringing the online functions of this game back up, because I genuinely can't imagine playing this without them. Everything is tracked in their own individual leaderboards, and the kudos system quantifying your driving skill means that throughout the entire game you are constantly being shown your skill relative to the rest of the world, and that plus the general small size of the insignia community means that it's extremely motivating to try things again to get better scores and rise up on the leaderboards. Whereas the kudos are a bit downplayed in the singleplayer progression, they are the crux of the multiplayer, which is awesome. The online racing itself is incredibly full-featured as well, as you can drive any track using any class of car with your friends, and it's fun as all hell. The netcode is honestly really great, as I have mostly played with people from Europe whereas I am in California with little to no issues at all, and the lobby system has tons of QOL to it that a lot of other racing games even today don't even have.

Overall it's the same great gameplay of PGR but with a crapton of content presented in a different, fresh way. Probably one of the best racing games on the system (i still haven't played forza 1), and an ABSOLUTE must-own if you are an insignia user or plan to be one.

(oh yeah geometry wars is such a sick bonus minigame to hide in here too, can't forget about that either)

Came into this expecting a mid game with immaculate vibes and that's exactly what I got.

The visuals here are peak PS3 in both an artistic and technical sense. The environmental design is on point with each area in both the real and faery world being an absolute treat to look at. The whole folktale aesthetic they have going is super interesting and they do it great justice. It's one of those games that makes me say "man, PS3 graphics really are all that we need". The game is certainly a feast for the eyes and really hard carry the game.

Unfortunately those vibes are coupled with some real snoozepilled game design choices. Firstly, the game has the DMC4 problem where you gotta go through pretty much all the areas and fight all the bosses twice to kind of pad the game out, and unlike DMC where the stylish combat can kinda mitigate that blatant padding, this games combat isn't nearly as interesting. The combat boils down to essentially collecting the various enemies in the game to use as different attacks for each face button. Each attack has its own elemental attribute and effectiveness so it's all about making a good loadout to suit your playstyle. It's a neat concept that could give a lot of customization and user flexibility with the combat, but I found in my playthrough that it's extremely hard to chain together different attacks on different buttons in a satisfying manner. I played basically as if each button was its own distinct attack for its own distinct scenario rather than having them all be tools for one big combo playstyle. Each attack can also be levelled up by grinding, but like man this game is already padded out as is I wasn't in any mood to do that kind of thing. Lastly, absorbing characters is done by doing goofy sixaxis gyro nonsense, and while I am a huge advocate for that kinda nonsense, it does make encounters with multiple enemies a disaster because you are almost guaranteed to get hit by another enemy while you are shaking the controller like a mfer trying to fill a gauge as fast as you can. The combat just wasn't doin it for me, which combined with the whole two playthrough shenanigans meant the game felt like a drag to play. Maybe there are cool combos you can do with chaining guys effectively though and its just a skill/knowledge issue on my part though.

The plot is interesting though, it's a pretty simple and kinda predictable lil mystery case, though the last 2 chapters definitely lost me a little bit in terms of what was going on and what actually meant what. The characters were certainly fun to see interact with one another, shoutouts to the absolute chad legend that is Keats. Every cutscene that mfer is doing some kinda jojo pose, he has all the charisma in the world inside of him.

overall, yeah. I'm glad that I finally got around to playing this after seeing it pop up on my radar a few years back. If you are like me and enjoy vibes in games this is absolutely worth taking a look at, but the gameplay and length doesn't really do this much favors in my book. Even though it wasn't the most mindblowing I do wish sony would give this a bit more love. I don't even think this game was referenced in playstation all stars battle royale and that game was in the same generation as this. It also seems like a hefty amount of passion and budget went into this as well so it's a waste for sony to drop it like a rock so quickly. The game's not even available on the hellspace that is the PS3 PSN store and it's also not on the PS now streaming platform, and this game definitely deserves better than that. It may be mid, but it's charmingly mid, and that is absolutely my kind of video game.

neat, but probably should have been free instead of 5 bucks ngl. It do only be 5 levels long and already requires an (at the time) expensive peripheral buy-in, not to mention a second player to play with as this is a mandatory co-op title. It kinda sets the groundwork that would go on to become the PS move expansion on LBP2, but it's still just a demo. It would have been cool if at the very least you could transfer the costumes from this game to the main series or something, but nop. It's still a solidly designed LBP expansion with some interesting level ideas for co-op asymmetrical platforming, so I don't dislike it, it's more the fact this was a bespoke release on the PSN store instead of LBP DLC that is strange. A very confusing release, indeed.