Recent reviews by Flashbaxx

DLC track modules continue to be the most underutilized content in the game. There's no AI support for player-created tracks, so you'll never get to race these track pieces in single player. And you'll rarely see it online; even if you do see a half-decent custom track appear in the vote, you'll still need the lobby to agree to it. The most you'll ever get use out of this content is in time trials for player-created tracks.

I'll admit, I'm no good at fighting games. Despite that, I had to pick this one up, because there is a lot of personality behind it. My favorite feature has to be the dynamic music: the stage music gets 'remixed' to match the theme of whatever character is currently in control of the match (i.e. the cow gets rock/western vibes, the dragon has heavy metal, the alpaca gets quirky chiptunes, etc).

A bit smaller than I'd anticipated. It's kind of a light offroad / heavy scout, not too great for hauling (only 1 cargo slot in the bed), but decent with fuel and repair add-ons. Consider it an alternative to the TUZ 16 Actaeon, TUZ 108 Warthog or Tatra 805.

Great speed, handling and boost, it's a very competitive car that's great on any track.

Interesting additions for the Hot Wheels Unleashed collection, both are fun to drive, but they're certainly not on a competitive level like any smaller, quicker cars.

HW Armored Truck is big, boxy, and very plain looking. It looks like it'd handle horribly, but it's not actually all that bad. It comes with a ton of boost to make up for the lack of agility. Plus, its flat sides would make a great canvas for the livery editor.

Baja Bone Shaker is the big off-roader variant of the fan favorite Bone Shaker. Its low on speed and high on handling, so it may be a good pick for beginners getting into the game.

(Received as part of the Ultimate Edition pre-order bonus)

Get these if you're looking to complete your Hot Wheels car collection. If you're looking to compete online, I can't recommend either car.

Shark Bite is the car form of the classic Hot Wheels shark playsets. It has respectable stats, albeit on a large, front-heavy frame. It also boasts an animated jaw that chomps faster as the car speeds up, adding some visual flair, but it can also create unexpected results in collisions.

Tomb Up's maximum speed, acceleration and handling stats, coupled with being a low profile car, look very tempting for competition. But boost is an absolute necessity at high level play, and its boost pool is just so pitifully small, it's practically nonexistent. It's still decent enough for beginners playing singleplayer on Easy, though.

(Received as part of the Ultimate Edition pre-order bonus)

More than half a year in, Hot Wheels Unleashed fails to remain interesting. It's novel for all of a short while, but the experience never changes. The gameplay is uninspired. The choice to monetize a paid game with battle passes is disgusting. Livery sharing remains bugged. And track creation falls short when you can only play your own tracks in time trials. Heck, they added monster trucks, which should've been a breath of fresh air, only for them to handle identically to the regular cars but arguably worse. This whole game has been left out and gotten stale.

Older review:

Hot Wheels Unleashed is an amazing game, but...
The visuals are outstanding, showing off the littlest of details like plastic seams and fingerprints. There's a great variety of cars straight from launch, going beyond Hot Wheels' originals to include car manufacturers and pop culture icons. The gameplay feels great, with handling comparable to Need For Speed or Burnout. The track editor is an incredibly powerful tool awaiting creative minds, and so is the livery editor. Milestone has delivered an excellent racing game worthy of the Hot Wheels name.

Why, then, can I not recommend this game?
Despite it's great presentation, there are several glaring issues and questionable design decisions that drag down the rest of this product, souring it's taste. I sincerely hope many of these can be weeded out over time; if they do get addressed in the future, I will be eager to amend my review.

- The vast majority of cars can only be unlocked through loot boxes (labelled as "Blind Boxes"). Cars come in rarities, and can be duplicates. There are no microtransactions, but the amount of grinding to earn loot boxes post-campaign makes it seem as though designed for them. It may take hundreds, or even thousands, of boxes just to obtain one copy of every car, and it can take about 10 races just to earn enough to get one.
+ The introduction of Racing Seasons alleviates a good chunk of the coin grinding.
- Some cars can be sent tumbling from a bump that other cars take without issue.
- A massive difficulty spike between Easy and Normal difficulties. On easy, AI are complete pushovers. Bump up to Normal, and they immediately exhibit very aggressive rubber-banding.
+ Difficulty options have been tweaked for a smoother transition.
- There is no incentive to play against higher difficulty AI; Easy and Extreme have identical payouts.
- Time Trial goals in campaign are exempt from difficulty selection. Some of these may wall off inexperienced players' progression.
- There is no AI support for user-made tracks; they may only be played in Multiplayer and Time Trials. This severely hinders the single-player experience.
- A complete lack of search functionality for user-made content. You can only view the most recent dozen-or-so tracks/liveries that were uploaded for a car. Possibly an oversight, considering creations can be given tags.
+ A popular sort, as well as tag filters, have finally been added
- The livery editor lacks useful tools such, as grouping.
- You cannot equip a livery you have made directly. You must first upload it, then download your own work.
- User-made tracks can be made impossible for certain cars: The special car used for track validation features a very large boost capacity that many cars lack. It's possible to make a jump that requires this large amount of boost to make, rendering vehicles without such capacity unable to clear.
- User-made tracks are pulled at random in public multiplayer lobbies to be voted on. With no curation, there are many poorly designed tracks, and even those that suffer the previous point.

An amazing sequel to Spintires/MudRunner, now featuring a whole slew of new trucks, cargo, and objectives.

For those unfamiliar with the series, SnowRunner is a slow-paced off-road trucking game. It rewards preparedness and good judgement of what obstacles your vehicles can handle, as you deliver heavy cargo over a variety of rough terrains. And even when you do make a mistake, lodging a truck deep in the mud or toppling it off a cliff, there's still fun to be had in sending in a recovery vehicle to winch it out.

If you are coming from Spintires or MudRunner, SnowRunner has taken long strides to become a bigger and better game. This time around, each and every locale features a wide range of objectives that will keep you occupied for many hours. The new snowy terrains add brand new challenges in the form of ice. Customization of your fleet of vehicles has been expanded, with both functional upgrades and newly added cosmetics.

How about the DLC? On top of new maps and trucks, the year 1 pass also further expanded upon the game's mechanics, with new features including thin ice, cargo crafting, forklifts, and more. I've yet to finish this challenging new content myself, but I am already eagerly awaiting for what future content has in store.

Excuse my lack of playtime at the time of this review. This is actually my second purchase of the game (on sale during the Autumn Sale 2020). I've actually clocked more than 70 hours on the Nintendo Switch port as of this review (incredible port, btw).

HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed is primarily a multiplayer co-op FPS that tasks the players with defending multiple objectives from enemies from all directions. Players can build automated traps and turrets to assist them, as well, adding a small touch of tower defense. Not only can you team up with others online, but also friends and family right beside you, thanks to split-screen support, a feature absent from too many games these days.

One of the things this game nails is it's small-scale point of view. You play as an action figure, the enemies are made up of other various toys, and all of the venues take place within everyday locations that are interesting to explore from a small perspective. I am personally a fan of the toy aesthetic, having loved games like Army Men, Twisted Metal: Small Brawl, and LittleBigPlanet.

The developers, Digital Cybercherries, are also very considerate of the fans they've made. The small crew is frequently on Discord, and they're open to all kinds of suggestions and feedback. A survival mode and AI players are among the features on the way that were highly requested by fans of the game.

Overall, HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed is a wonderful game to experience with friends, with solid gameplay and a theme that recaptures the childhood memories of toys.

At first glance, Terraria looks like a 2D Minecraft clone, with notable features like random world generation, terraforming, crafting elements, and monsters that go bump in the night. However, the amount of content packed into this platformer makes Minecraft look tiny.