The eponymous DLC introduces the Neptune racing complex, with five tracks and ten career events. A new team is also added (Buran) with its own distinctive racing style, together with a few liveries for all teams (of which some are already unlocked). More importantly, the update also brings many long-awaited and much-needed fixes, balancing and features.

The most prominent and shiny content would be the Neptune environment. It's a little misleading as the tracks are actually in space (with the planet in the background), which opens up the possibility of some very amazing skips and track design, featuring some of the lowest track-to-empty-space ratios yet. It also means that ships no longer crash into a killplane immediately when they veer off a jump, allowing pilots to sightsee at their leisure or unlock a new game mode . The orchestral music is also a welcome change from the intense beats of the previous tracks, and gives the feeling that an epic space battle is happening somewhere off-camera. However, two of the tracks (Escape Velocity and Red Giant) feature rotating objects that intersect the track at regular intervals, which means you are very likely to crash into them if they happen to be blocking your racing line. This introduces an element of chance that I personally dislike, as a lap can be very easily ruined if you don't manoeuvre around them in time.

The second shiny piece of content would be the Russian-Chinese team, Buran. It boasts a high top speed, decent boost and actual durability, but sacrifices some acceleration and recharge speed. In practice, this means that going Faster Than Ever is more difficult as the ships cannot maintain as much speed through corners. While the team is not top-tier competitive-wise, it has found limited success on a handful of tracks.

What isn't as shiny, but is arguably the most important part of the update, are the bug fixes and optimisations. The most well-known example is the timer, which is absolutely a critical part of any racing game. It ran slower as framerates got higher, which resulted in some impossibly low lap times (either by throwing all the eye-candy away for maximum FPS, or having a high-end machine). Now the timer is accurate and with the leaderboard wipe, lap records are legitimate again. The code has also been optimised (startup is near-instant, performance has increased) and the AI has two additional difficulty levels, Rookie and Veteran. The visual overhaul is a net positive as well, although it may take some getting used to. The long-promised two-player local splitscreen is also finally supported. Note that bug fixes and optimisations are NOT part of the DLC, everyone who has the base game will get these.

This update has been a long time coming, but it shows that the developers are still committed to the game (and the upcoming DLC further illustrates the point). They are also very receptive to user feedback, especially on the Discord channel. The additional content is well worth the price, and improves on an already amazing and well-made AG racing game.

The eponymous DLC introduces the Neptune racing complex, with five tracks and ten career events. A new team is also added (Buran) with its own distinctive racing style, together with a few liveries for all teams (of which some are already unlocked). More importantly, the update also brings many long-awaited and much-needed fixes, balancing and features. The most prominent and shiny content would be the Neptune environment. It's a little misleading as the tracks are actually in space (with the planet in the background), which opens up the possibility of some very amazing skips and track design, featuring some of the lowest track-to-empty-space ratios yet. It also means that ships no longer crash into a killplane immediately when they veer off a jump, allowing pilots to sightsee at their leisure [spoiler] or unlock a new game mode [/spoiler]. The orchestral music is also a welcome change from the intense beats of the previous tracks, and gives the feeling that an epic space battle is happening somewhere off-camera. However, two of the tracks (Escape Velocity and Red Giant) feature rotating objects that intersect the track at regular intervals, which means you are very likely to crash into them if they happen to be blocking your racing line. This introduces an element of chance that I personally dislike, as a lap can be very easily ruined if you don't manoeuvre around them in time. The second shiny piece of content would be the Russian-Chinese team, Buran. It boasts a high top speed, decent boost and actual durability, but sacrifices some acceleration and recharge speed. In practice, this means that going Faster Than Ever is more difficult as the ships cannot maintain as much speed through corners. While the team is not top-tier competitive-wise, it has found limited success on a handful of tracks. What isn't as shiny, but is arguably the most important part of the update, are the bug fixes and optimisations. The most well-known example is the timer, which is absolutely a critical part of any racing game. It ran slower as framerates got higher, which resulted in some impossibly low lap times (either by throwing all the eye-candy away for maximum FPS, or having a high-end machine). Now the timer is accurate and with the leaderboard wipe, lap records are legitimate again. The code has also been optimised (startup is near-instant, performance has increased) and the AI has two additional difficulty levels, Rookie and Veteran. The visual overhaul is a net positive as well, although it may take some getting used to. The long-promised two-player local splitscreen is also finally supported. Note that bug fixes and optimisations are [b] NOT [/b] part of the DLC, everyone who has the base game will get these. This update has been a long time coming, but it shows that the developers are still committed to the game (and the upcoming DLC further illustrates the point). They are also very receptive to user feedback, especially on the Discord channel. The additional content is well worth the price, and improves on an already amazing and well-made AG racing game.