Recent reviews by ✪ Raghu

I've put a sizeable amount of time in this game now and all I can say is how bad I am compared to the city builder gods that I see online. The more you play this game, the more you get to know how things can be better and the more you understand that this game will take hundreds of hours of playing to understand it fully.
Good Luck if you are thinking of buying this.

Missing out on 2014, Need For Speed is back. However, cooking in the over an entire year still has this title a little half baked. Being an enormous fan favorite franchise, Need for Speed had a lot to live up to in 2015. With an extra year of development under its hood and an anticipating crowd yearning for another lap, EA and Ghost Games’ arcade racer feels a bit incomplete.

When diving into single player, there’s an over abundance of live action cut scenes. Young adults over acting and saying phrases I’m not even sure what many of them mean. I must not be that “racing underground” hip to get it. Over acting and pitiful dialog is only outdone with what seems like an endless fist bumping train. Especially when playing in first person perspective, when the characters are talking right into the screen, fist bumping right through the TV, it gets even harder to ignore the irrelevance of what relevance these characters try to add to a racing game story.

I suppose using real actors for the scenes and plot is one way of getting out of some graphical expenses– which is fine to do if done with good acting. What entertainment can be found within the single player story is quickly swept over. It’s short. A little too short. When single player begins, it runs over 79 events that can be quickly wrapped up in less than a few days of play.

Characters within the story account for separate paths within the campaign. Each story path will eventually lead to a real life racing icon that was actually very interesting and brought better value to what little the single player truly had.
Within the actual single player races AI characters felt under performing and don’t do much to keep the player from winning like they would in Forza titles with their Drivatars. Driving is smooth and handles well especially with the customization options. More on that soon.

Outlaw is a great game mode that mixes up all the racer’s game types and places a cop in the race to stir things up. Police AI works well within Outlaw, and it felt very typical of what could possibly happen in real life rather GTA where the cops become almost unstoppable and don’t abide by in game physics. I know it’s not fair to compare the two, but the point is that physics work incredibly well in Need for Speed.

The garage can only hold up to five cars and the amount of cars to choose from is no where near Gran Turismo or Forza. Collecting cars was not the main focus EA and Ghost Games had in mind. Customization is the key in Need for Speed. And almost everything is customizable. But there are still many cars that cannot be touched in some very basic areas. Changing the hood, rims or wheels of some vehicles is completely locked.

Customization for cars has a nice depth that can be almost completely controlled. It’s likely that most players will finish the entire single player with the same car as I did. As continually putting new upgrades into that car will ultimately lead to it becoming faster than the competition and gaining wins becomes much easier. Exterior car customization is a pretty cool feature. Swapping parts, paint jobs, adding wraps, and surprisingly a lot more to offer is a nice additive.
Driving styles in Need for Speed are also up for customization. Allowing the player to adjust handling, drift, grip, etc., through specific areas of the car means it’s a car with each player’s specific handprint on the wheel.

Need for Speed’s online lacks in so many ways. Racing other players within each server can only be done if they first found within the server and then they accept the race. Crews are also available to drive around the map with friends. But little else besides those. Completely under developed.

Most annoyingly, Need for Speed requires an always online connection. This equates to everyone playing in a massive server and taking away the pause functionality. With always online and no pause, players crashing into my car was an unwelcome experience. What about single player? Yep. It’s also always online as well.

Need for Speed is a gorgeous racer. It looks amazing and sometimes almost too real, and that’s spectacular to experience. Rain effects, lighting and road reflections are definitely on par with current gen standards and possibly a bit further because it all looks so slick. Car performance sounds, like the engine and drifting are also top notch and give off the impression of real vehicles captured and placed right into the game.
Going through the city at night with the backdrop of a magnificent skyline shining through the blackened sky was like a shimmering jewel; an eye popping pleasure to behold. Day time had no shortcomings either as far off as could be seen lied a work of art of graphical expertise.

I wish Need for Speed was more than what EA and Ghost Games delivered. With stunningly beautiful cars, sounds, and backgrounds, awesome customization for controls, paint, and parts it seemed like Ghost Games had a winning hand. However, lackluster AI, an all too short single player with bad actors, an ‘always online’ (even in single player) mentality, not many cars to choose from, and horribly under developed multiplayer modes, giving Need for Speed any recognition for a game that had an extra year of development and out performed by other racers is very hard to do. Oh, and also no pause button.

Was a Really great experience playing this, one of the best games, be sure to check it out.

Death is a great teacher. Failure in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is, as it always has been for this series, the greatest way to learn where you should have gone, what you shouldn't have done, and how you could have done better. Counter-Strike players spend a lot of time learning -- consequently, they are always getting better.

Growth is an important factor in Global Offensive, especially if you're coming into Counter-Strike fresh or after a sabbatical. This is an extremely hardcore, skill-based first-person shooter, and it forces you to think differently than other modern shooters. If you’re a Call of Duty player, you’re going to need to change your play style to succeed here. Counter-Strike also tries developing into something new here as well, despite doing little to push itself beyond what it’s always done best. Global Offensive modifies old maps to keep veterans on their toes, and introduces official new modes that encourage different play styles for the first time in almost 15 years.

For the uninitiated, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a small-scale, team-based first-person shooter with permanent death. When a counter-terrorist kills a terrorist planting explosives in a classic Defusal match, or a CT escort swallows a sniper round in Hostage Rescue, the victim is dead for good and doesn't respawn until the next round. As such, players on both sides must exercise skill and care. The bomb objective, meanwhile, gives everyone a purpose. Of course matches end when everyone on a team is dead, but a clever and coordinated terrorist team will give the CTs the slip, plant their bomb, and protect the bomb site. Between rounds, everyone spends earned cash on better gear and guns, and the cycle continues.

Pieces of the Counter-Strike formula are dated at this point, but the superb heart and soul of Global Offensive is timeless. Teams are small, guns are lethal, and rounds are short. There's an addictive just-one-more-round quality to it, because there's a constant desire to do better than last time, to earn a satisfying kill, or to win in a new way. Call of Duty and Battlefield vets will wonder why they can't sprint to escape enemy fire or look down the iron sights to improve aim; Counter-Strike players will feel like they walked into their redecorated home. Certain map redesigns will catch hardcore fans off guard, but the changes are for the best -- the underpass choke point in de_dust, for instance, has a new escape route.

Even in the face of genre evolution, Global Offensive doesn’t care to adapt. CSGO is so dedicated to Counter-Strike's aging ideals despite market and trend changes that it brute-forces its way to success. Part of what makes it such an engaging competitive game is that killing in Global Offensive requires a wholly different skill set than other shooters. Everyone is limited to what they have and can see, with little room for character modification or on-the-fly advantages. Running and gunning is a useless play style, even if you've bought a helmet and kevlar that round, to the point that someone standing still is more likely to score the kill. Walking, crouching, or standing are your best bets to reduce the inaccurate spray of machine-gun fire.

Consequently, killing in Global Offensive feels good. There's a sickening sensation to dropping someone dead because you know they're not coming back. It's also satisfying knowing you used limited resources to play smarter than your victim. If players aren't watching corners, providing covering fire, or using smoke grenades and flashbangs, they're more likely to take a headshot from a more delicate and patient triggerman. The desire to experience that distinct feeling is a strong motivator to keep playing, even when you're getting steamrolled by an obviously better team.

If you've played Counter-Strike before, Global Offensive probably sounds a whole lot like Counter-Strike. Like Counter-Strike: Source before it, Global Offensive exists simply to modernize the look of the classic competitive shooter, while doing little to disrupt the core form and function. At the same time, it does enough to color outside the lines of tradition to justify your time and effort.

Fire is one of the most interesting new combat variables. Molotov cocktails and incendiary grenades either roast groups of guys or force them in another direction. Flames are a useful distraction or scare tactic, too. They're particularly useful during Demolition matches, which focus the fight at a single bomb site rather than giving terrorists two to pick between. The new and modified maps in this mode aren't as big as classic Counter-Strike arenas – entire sections have been cut off to direct teams toward a central location – but their thoughtful design is as intricate as ever. The Lake map is a standout -- there's a wide open yet densely populated yard around the bomb site, which is inside a sizable lakeside home with plenty of vantage points and hiding spots. To separate Demolition from Defusal, players can't buy between rounds. Instead, it takes a cue from the other new mode, Arms Race, in which each kill unlocks another weapon instantly. The better you do, the more you have to switch up the way you play, and because Demolition is so fast you'll need to be quick on your feet.

Unlike other game types, Arms Race allows for respawns. It's the most chaotic and care-free mode in Global Offensive, with players throwing caution to the wind for the sake of climbing the kill ladder as quickly as possible. It's a shame there are only two maps in Arms Race -- a problem that will more likely persist on consoles than PC.

Global Offensive is definitely a Counter-Strike sequel -- it looks and feels familiar, with minor tweaks here and there to help balance old issues and surprise longtime players. This is a demanding, skill-based multiplayer game that's as satisfying now as it ever was, but it's for a specific kind of player. If you're not willing to learn to play different than you're used to, look elsewhere. Otherwise, this is a top-tier tactics game that will probably share the long-tailed legacy of its predecessors.