Recent reviews by Josh in Space

Like so many others, ever since Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled was released years ago on consoles, I've always wanted it to be released on PC and after 6 years of absolutely hopeless dreaming, this came along instead.

This game scratches that kart riding itch that brings forth the 3-boost drifts and speed reserve system where you'll be racing at mach speeds as long as you can maintain it! The immediate Workshop support is extremely welcoming to see and the sheer amount of mods be it characters or tracks of this early access launch is incredible.
I never would have thought that I'd be racing as an Oblivion guard against Nemesis from Resident Evil on the CS 1.6 de_dust2 map. I've barely played this and I'm already looking forward at what else is yet to come from the devs.

Over the years I've experienced extreme burn out with procedurally generated open world crafting survival games yet playing through Abiotic Factor, I can't get enough of it. The main points for me would be its old school presentation of a 90's game, the hand crafted underground research facility setting, going through the process of unravelling its story, and how crafting doesn't involve base building needing 1 million wood.

It's not even a complete game at the time of writing this and I'd still recommend this.

A visual treat when compared to the 1998 original with the leap to an upgraded Source engine. Some area layouts have been altered to varying degrees (looking at you "On a Rail") with Xen being a major personal highlight. That said while Xen has changed dramatically through gameplay and visuals, I feel the Interloper chapter drags on a bit too long with a couple of tiring fights that felt like "turret sections" with a certain gun.

All in all, I recommend this regardless if you've played the original and definitely can recommend this over the official remaster of Half-Life Source.

A refreshing open world game full of well curated zones and vistas that through the wanderlust of the player, it greatly rewards exploration. Boss fights have been ramped up in the chaos department but have been matched for the player through the expansion of weapon augments and now with the easier path to respecing, changing playstyles and builds is highly encouraged.

The game where co-operative gameplay is really just "how long will it take for the first level to be completed?".

The beautifully chaotic mayhem of the first game in 2D has transitioned gracefully over to 3D in this sequel.

Risk of Rain 2 offers the chance for you to play as some of the returning cast alongside new faces, in new maps littered with a fresh batch of items to wreak havoc upon the local wildlife that's out there to kill you. Get to the teleporter and escape or die trying. Repeat!

With 1.0, this game has expanded greatly with a larger character roster, more items & location, and now even has a definitive start and end! Highly recommend picking this up (even if you're only going to play it solo too).

A lot of heart and soul (and effort!) was put in to this game and even after 4 years post-release, this game is still getting updates.

Play solo or with friends to manage a farm and be one with the community. Can be as chill as you make it to be. Min-max your daily income or simply don't, it's all down to how you want to play.

For when you need to reach out to someone about your problems or to help someone get through theirs, this game will do it. It may not solve them completely and I don't think it's the point but every little bit helps.

It's a space flight simulator first and foremost and if you're not okay with learning how to pilot a spaceship this may not be for you.

I have enjoyed what little time I've played compared to others and still continue to enjoy Elite Dangerous. Space looks great in this game and what tops it off for me is the sound design. Kudos to the sound team as it's just a joy to hear everything happening inside your ship whether in combat or trucking to that stop way too far in space; hell even sitting idle in a station listening to the ambient radio chatter, and the other ships coming and going is a treat.

Gameplay-wise it has a heavy goal-oriented focus. Even beginning in the starter system (that's blocked off to everyone who has already left the area) it doesn't even tell you what to do, literally leaving you to go do whatever you feel like. I myself knew what I was getting in to with this game which was fine for me but if you're more of a gamer who prefers a story to guide you, well you're not going to find it here. Piloting ships will take time to get used to if you've never played any flight simulator (that included me) and the default bindings may not be to your liking which I highly recommend you take time to look over, alter, and practice; feel free to search for other commanders bindings as a starting point.

As for getting the (at the time of making this review) only DLC expansion Horizons, most will recommend getting the base game and the DLC together as it's "the other half of the game." I agree with this statement but take a spin of the base game first to see if it's something you'd enjoy before diving in to Horizons or just get the Commander Deluxe edition when on sale to get both at a good price.


Well the Horizons DLC has now been folded down with the base game so there's no need for the above statement!


I recommend Elite Dangerous for what it offers, that being a space flight simulator. You'll either love it or hate it.

Started back in 2013 and am still going today. What started off as a barebones third person shooter has now evolved in to a faster paced version of its former self, and is still growing to this day.

Firstly to get it out of the way, Warframe is a game of grinding:

• Obtain the blueprint for a specific piece of gear.
  
• Repeat various missions over and over until you get the required materials and/or parts.
  
• Craft gear at the foundry and wait for the timer to finish which for weapons / Warframes can take anywhere between 12hours to 72hours. Minor things can take as little as 1 minute.
  
• Find a new piece of gear you'd like to try out and repeat this process.

The grind is a necessary part of this Free-To-Play model but the greatest thing is that the grind is only as big as you make it. You can grind from over the span of many months to as little as a day or two. That's the beauty of this game, you progress at your own pace. However if you ever feel like you need to speed things up, there's always the option to skip crafting times and/or buy gear outright with the "Platinum" premium currency. The charm of this game is slowly gaining power over time while watching that growth but not everyone has the time to do so.

Now the game has certainly evolved from its 2013 release with each planet you come across boasting its own design and atmosphere ranging from the lush forests of Earth, the barren frosted lands of Europa, all the way to the pristine Void. To navigate through the environments comes the movement system which had a revamp back in 2015 where you'll find yourself using the "Bullet Jump" to propel yourself in a direction of your choosing whilst combining it with a slide, roll, wall hop or all of them; soon enough you'll be bouncing around maps and clearing missions in no time. Feel like taking the fight to the vast ocean of space? Strap on some space wings in the form of Archwing and race through asteroid bases and the tight corridors of space stations.

There's a wide variety of mission types, enemies, bosses, and an ever growing arsenal to experience and so many more tidbits to come over the years that I can't recommend this game enough. It'll only take your time, hard drive space, and possibly bandwidth depending on where you live...