Recent reviews by DobbyX

It has rate-based aiming and the coincidence rangefinders work.

FIN, TANK!

Like Squad, but faster-paced and much smaller-scale. The visuals are fantastic and the gunplay is superb. I enjoy the game enough to want to play it and encourage people to play it. There are both excellent co-op and PvP modes, all fun in different ways. The atmosphere portrayed is simply stunning.

However, I simply wish it were better optimised. I've only been able to get it running smoothly a few times, which seemingly broke upon updates. On reasonably decent hardware, it was a real chore to try and eliminate microstutters, having to experiment with graphical settings and tweaks. After taking a break and returning, I found that the stuttering was back, and the previous settings were no longer effective. This issue doesn't seem to affect everyone, so YMMV.

I'd happily give it lots more time, if I happened to find it running smoothly.

The VR aspect of this game is a novelty and reasonably fun until you realise the game is not actually good.

Most of the content is arbitrarily locked and although you can customise your ship loadouts, you're forced to unlock the weapons for them, not to mention the ship classes. Thus in the campaign mode (once unlocked) you are unable to build carriers or battleships until your user account reaches the requisite level.

The game itself is frustratingly buggy - upon loading a campaign whole fleets have disappeared, battles stop working after playing one and the save and exit feature appears to do nothing and you're forced to close the game in order to return to the menu.

The 3D models of ships are fixed for each class - there is no differentiation between nations or any hint of any actual ship classes. There really isn't any depth to the game, which isn't necessarily a bad thing for a casual game but the repeated bugs and content-locking thinned my patience far more quickly than I would have liked.

Unfortunately, I identify as an attack helicopter.

I was able to learn and actually understand far more about orbital mechanics by playing this game obsessively for 2 weeks than doing an astrophysics course for a year at university.

This was originally a neat little rocket building and exploding simulator that attracted a couple of hours' worth amusement before being returned to the "may play again later" shelf. After many updates, it has grown into an immensely satisfying personal sandbox space programme simulator.

The first time I landed a Kerbal safely on the Mun was a historic moment, and very emotional... until moments later when I wondered how Jebediah would possibly get back. Swiftly, a rescue mission was devised. Hours were spent meticulously over-engineering an overly capable craft, until I realised I felt quite hungry. I couldn't decide what to eat, when I noticed the name of the planet Mars equivalent. Seeing it as almost divine inspiration, I went out and got a Duna kebab. Very satisfied with the food the game chose for me, I spent the next few hours trying to fly the monstrosity that could only barely be called a "return vehicle" without: 1) exploding on launch. 2) tipping over and exploding whilst landing. After many reverts and quickloads, it was finally successful. A celebratory viewing of Apollo 13 ensued, followed with feverish design work on the next, more ambitious project. And then it was 6am.

The game is far too addictive.

I now wish I had studied aero engineering instead.

There is a full solar system to obtain science on explore, with lots of ways to do it. Contraptions which can only be described as "adorably ridiculous" yet surprisingly effective may be constructed to your heart's content. As with many other sandbox games, you provide your own amusement - set yourself ridiculous tasks and restrictions, be efficient or over-engineer the ♥♥♥♥ out of everything such that the Littoral Combat Ship looks like a very sound and practical design.

With or without mods (of which there are many), you can build almost anything from planes and land vehicles to giant flying space horses and bananas.

Official multiplayer support in the future was announced a while ago, and there is currently a multiplayer mod that allows you to build space stations or conduct joint missions with friends and partner agencies.

It is still currently in development, with more and more features being added with each major update. Even in its current state, I would be more than happy to pay double its current full price based on how much enjoyment I have gotten out of it.

TL;DR: Spectacular failures, decided what I should have to eat one day and now I regret my key life decisions. Would buy again.

Detect unknown airborne track.

Don't bother to VID track.

FIRE SM-2s!

Kill track.

You killed an Airbus A300 and replicated Iran Air Flight 655.

♥♥♥♥...

Despite the above scenario occurring, this is a very fun, moderately realistic game where you spend hours watching NTDS symbols move towards each other, sometimes very slowly, and the highest time compression is not very large. However, some scenarios will have you playing for hours in normal time as you desperately try to intercept all Granit "Shipwreck" missiles before they cripple your battlegroup. There really hasn't been an accessible and polished game since to replace this.

Most systems have simplified characteristics; the game's primary focus appears to revolve around carrier operations and the Aegis combat system partnered with the SM-2 missile. Oh, the SM-2. What a wonderful bit of kit. Kills planes, missiles, even ships. A pathetic little gunboat is shooting down all your Harpoons? No problem, send an SM-2 to do the job. All your Tomahawk anti-ship missiles going for the oil tanker next to the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ huge Russian battlegroup? No problem! Semi-active radar homing means no more missiles straying off course and killing neutrals. More than one missile coming at you? No problem! The long range and SPY-1 lets you shoot at multiple targets simultaneously.

Graphics are very dated, it is an old game, but as you spend most of the time looking at tracks on a map, it doesn't really matter. There are graphical issues nowadays, which can be mostly solved by installing a 3Dfx Voodoo glide wrapper such as nGlide.

You have no idea how fun this game is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxZ9fElMatY

I had to buy this game again in order to review it. My hours played does not include the older Steam version that isn't sold anymore.

This is hands down my favourite game of all time. Therefore I am actually going to take time writing this review.

Ridiculously deep, engaging gameplay that can allow for 250+ hours for a single large game - a game filled with desperate struggles against merciless and highly adaptable AI in long late-night/early morning sessions. A very nice physics engine allows for some interesting RTS battles with completely customised ships bristling with esoteric weaponry - from the humble red laser to giant space revolvers that shoot asteroids that glass planets.

With a quasi-randomised tech tree system and 6 different races that each play completely differently, it is easy to spend thousands of hours on this game and still not experience everything it has to offer. Multiplayer is just as good - coordinate with a friend or compete against them in 4X/RTT combined gameplay. If you thought multiplayer games of Sins of a Solar Empire or Civ were long, this game is somewhat longer, but rewards you with deep satisfaction during and after play.

Overall it is similar to the Master of Orion series of games if you remember those, but also feels akin to Total War with the RTT combined with turn-based strategy, and the depth of control available during battles. Most of the time you are trying to expand, tech up and survive in a turn-based 4X type strategic map.

However, if one of your ships encounters something hostile, you are given the option to fight manually; this is often very rewarding, you are able to visually assess the ships, including tech level and weaponry, and to also destroy them with extreme prejudice (or not if you prefer). The RTT game engine allows polygon targeting, allowing you to aim shots at precise parts of their ships - snipe off their turrets or shoot out their engines so their inertia causes them to crash into a planet. The level of detail simulated allows for incredibly fun and often unpredictable fights. This is not like Sins, where ships have simple health bars and succumb after a set number of hits; exactly what and where you hit things is of great importance - hit a tanker in the fuel tanks hard enough and be rewarded with a satisfying secondary explosion, sometimes disintegrating the ship and everything small within a large radius.

Visually, it is quite dated now, something that they tried to fix in the sequel, which is somewhat buggy and sometimes broken. However, this original is very well polished, and I would highly recommend this gem of a game to anyone with half a brain and some patience.

If you do end up enjoying it as much as I have, the sequel may be worth trying, but be prepared for a general feeling of lack of completeness that is absent in this original. I wouldn't fault the devs too much for that, Paradox wanted them to release at an incomplete point and it was do-or-die for the studio. It has come a long way since release but the devs aimed a bit too high and fell short. This does not mean it is terrible, much fun is to be had, with a lot of new things to be tried - if you have the patience and an SSD to cope with the *occasional* CTD - (occasional is a relative term).

TL;DR: this is a very good and underrated game, buy it (it is also cheap), play it. Don't buy the second one if you are new to the series unless you are a masochist with too much money.

I spent 35 hours on this game in one sitting.

I wish I had never played this game.

So I could play it again and it would be new.