March 2025 General Game Discussion Thread

[ZedClampet]

I'm eyeing up 4TB drives because if I cant have everything I own installed then its not enough. If I had access to fiber then I might think differently.

@BeardyHat Battle Brothers is fantastic but can be quite frustrating. Dont know if you knew but some things arent really communicated outside of some flavour text in the descriptions, like the fact that spears give +20% to hit bonus, and swords 10% so you can make low att bros more workable early on. It also helps to look up a stats ranges spreadsheet for different types of guys to hire, as some cheaper bros are more reliably decent than some expensive backgrounds, although its still RNG within that range. Honestly if you dont want to grind for info I recommend looking up some basic guides, theres quite a lot that works and you dont need to get all the best Bros in the world to do OK, as long as you make them Nimble.

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I finished up with Black Mesa last night. Overall its a great game Id recommend anyone to play, even without any nostalgia for it. The chapters of Zen were a bit mixed but overall positive. Theres a lot of really good ideas in there but for me it needed some editing because it stretches on a bit too long. Some of the puzzles repeated 3 times with slight variation were a little too much, and theres a long sequence on conveyor belts that could have been shorter. Feels like Crowbar Collective wanted to put their own mark on the game and so were understandably loathe to cut out their own ideas. I dont have any experience with that part of the original so maybe some of it isnt all them.

Anyway 9/10 shooter for me overall, even in 2025. I moved straight on to HL2. Blue Shift is not ready yet so I'll wait until theyve finished that mod.

If I remember correctly, and there's only a slight chance of that, it took them years to do Zen and a lot of it is original.

I'm still basically at the beginning. I transferred it over to my C drive due to all the loading screens. I remembered that from the original, but didn't think it would be much in this. I'm ready for my first decent gun. The pea shooter pistol isn't much fun, although, if I remember right, you keep it the whole game.

****

So far I haven't made any real progress in Zombieville USA 3D. I'm dying in the same place every time.

 

[BeardyHat]

I'm eyeing up 4TB drives because if I cant have everything I own installed then its not enough. If I had access to fiber then I might think differently.

@BeardyHat Battle Brothers is fantastic but can be quite frustrating. Dont know if you knew but some things arent really communicated outside of some flavour text in the descriptions, like the fact that spears give +20% to hit bonus, and swords 10% so you can make low att bros more workable early on. It also helps to look up a stats ranges spreadsheet for different types of guys to hire, as some cheaper bros are more reliably decent than some expensive backgrounds, although its still RNG within that range. Honestly if you dont want to grind for info I recommend looking up some basic guides, theres quite a lot that works and you dont need to get all the best Bros in the world to do OK, as long as you make them Nimble.

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I finished up with Black Mesa last night. Overall its a great game Id recommend anyone to play, even without any nostalgia for it. The chapters of Zen were a bit mixed but overall positive. Theres a lot of really good ideas in there but for me it needed some editing because it stretches on a bit too long. Some of the puzzles repeated 3 times with slight variation were a little too much, and theres a long sequence on conveyor belts that could have been shorter. Feels like Crowbar Collective wanted to put their own mark on the game and so were understandably loathe to cut out their own ideas. I dont have any experience with that part of the original so maybe some of it isnt all them.

Anyway 9/10 shooter for me overall, even in 2025. I moved straight on to HL2. Blue Shift is not ready yet so I'll wait until theyve finished that mod.

Actually, that is one thing I do with my desktop/file server: Download as many games as possible on it, simply to have a repository. I have something like a 1.5Tb bandwidth limit, which I can fairly reliably hit when I'm setting up a new machine or I've got a few games I want to install. So I try to keep big things or things I frequently reinstall on my server so I can just pull it down over my network and save myself from Comcast trying to gouge me.

Yeah, I do know the game hides a lot of information from the player. One of the few mods I've got installed for the game is one that shows you recruits actual stats before you recruit them, so you can make better choices, but I think that's about it. I wasn't aware of the modifiers, but it definitely doesn't surprise me. But I've managed to survive decently long with my latest company, though it's now been well over a year since I played, so I couldn't tell you what I was doing.

As for Black Mesa, this is exactly how I felt. I'm far too lazy to go back and look for my posts after finishing it, but I 100% agree that CC was trying to make their fingerprints known and Xen just ends-up being an absolute slog in the latter half. Even the Nihilanth fight got pretty annoying and long. But no, a lot that is not in the original game, save for the factory, but that is significantly shorter, as is Xen in general. In the original game, Xen took me maybe an hour start to finish, but Black Mesa definitely takes more than that, maybe something like 3+ hours? I can't recall exactly.

I did really enjoy their ideas in the early parts. The Black Mesa tent being a highlight, as are the HEV zombies and even later the Vortigaunt ghetto was really interesting and felt additive to the overall lore of the Half-Life universe.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

If I remember correctly, and there's only a slight chance of that, it took them years to do Zen and a lot of it is original.

I'm still basically at the beginning. I transferred it over to my C drive due to all the loading screens. I remembered that from the original, but didn't think it would be much in this. I'm ready for my first decent gun. The pea shooter pistol isn't much fun, although, if I remember right, you keep it the whole game.

The pistol stays useful the whole game for popping headcrabs, and the second gun you get is the shotgun, which will still take out some later game enemies pretty well with a couple of headshots. Actually nearly all of the weapons are strong, except for one of the late game weapons that shared ammo with something much better for the later levels.

Actually, that is one thing I do with my desktop/file server: Download as many games as possible on it, simply to have a repository. I have something like a 1.5Tb bandwidth limit, which I can fairly reliably hit when I'm setting up a new machine or I've got a few games I want to install. So I try to keep big things or things I frequently reinstall on my server so I can just pull it down over my network and save myself from Comcast trying to gouge me.

All of our internet is unlimited, its just stuck at 100mbps because theres copper involved in the block wiring. Its only €10 a month though so cant complain.

Yeah, I do know the game hides a lot of information from the player. One of the few mods I've got installed for the game is one that shows you recruits actual stats before you recruit them, so you can make better choices, but I think that's about it. I wasn't aware of the modifiers, but it definitely doesn't surprise me. But I've managed to survive decently long with my latest company, though it's now been well over a year since I played, so I couldn't tell you what I was doing.

I generally start to struggle once all my guys have Raider tier armor. Spent a lot of time playing that game and its not even close to solved for me.

As for Black Mesa, this is exactly how I felt. I'm far too lazy to go back and look for my posts after finishing it, but I 100% agree that CC was trying to make their fingerprints known and Xen just ends-up being an absolute slog in the latter half. Even the Nihilanth fight got pretty annoying and long. But no, a lot that is not in the original game, save for the factory, but that is significantly shorter, as is Xen in general. In the original game, Xen took me maybe an hour start to finish, but Black Mesa definitely takes more than that, maybe something like 3+ hours? I can't recall exactly.

I did really enjoy their ideas in the early parts. The Black Mesa tent being a highlight, as are the HEV zombies and even later the Vortigaunt ghetto was really interesting and felt additive to the overall lore of the Half-Life universe.

Yea the ghetto was interesting, and following the trail of how far the scientists had got, then the switch over to actually they were being studied themselves at the end was a fun idea. Im really happy I managed to fluke the Nihalanth in one go, I didnt find it a particularly well done boss fight, then again my frame of reference for a good boss fight is a From game where you learn the patterns and feel like you are in control of it by the time you beat it. Here I was just sprinting around looking for ammo and armor and looking for glowing stuff to blow up while dodging randomly.

There were a couple of points through the factory where I was frustrated and had to look up a video because I have a pretty low tolerance not knowing what to do in action games. One strength of the game to me is the fact that it doesnt always seem like you should be able to do some things with the physics. As in its not always 100% obvious you are going where the devs intended you to go, ledges or platforms are a bit too thin, jumps look like you can only just make them. the flip side of that is that sometimes its really hard to see what your supposed to do, its a really fine line. At least for me, Im not particularly observant a lot of the time so that might be part of it.

Seemed to me all of the later stuff was good, but just a bit too much. Again part of that might be because I felt like I was getting to the end of the game and it just kept going, shouldnt really complain about getting too much of a good thing, but thats how it felt.

 

[ZedClampet]

The pistol stays useful the whole game for popping headcrabs, and the second gun you get is the shotgun, which will still take out some later game enemies pretty well with a couple of headshots. Actually nearly all of the weapons are strong, except for one of the late game weapons that shared ammo with something much better for the later levels.

So far I've avoided being hit by a headcrab, but that's with the crowbar, which is easier to use. I just let them pounce and hit them out of the air. I seem to remember the pistol was a useful emergency weapon because ammo was so short on other guns.

 

[BeardyHat]

So far I've avoided being hit by a headcrab, but that's with the crowbar, which is easier to use. I just let them pounce and hit them out of the air. I seem to remember the pistol was a useful emergency weapon because ammo was so short on other guns.

I do think Valve and by extension Crowbar Collective, does ammo management pretty well.

I felt like I was constantly switching around and using what I had ammo for in any given scenario. In guess I did tend to have a lot of shotgun ammo, even though I was using it a lot, but still.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

So far I've avoided being hit by a headcrab, but that's with the crowbar, which is easier to use. I just let them pounce and hit them out of the air. I seem to remember the pistol was a useful emergency weapon because ammo was so short on other guns.

Youre way sharper with a crow bar than me, I found out pretty early that if I tried to whack them then Id get at least one hit back. Headcrab zombies are a little easier as their swings are pretty telegraphed when theyre alone. Flairs are good too like you said earlier.

I explored a fair bit, found an early shotgun and I think magnum in non critical path areas. Switching up the guns when they were getting a bit low I didnt have many occasions when I was out of ammo until I got to Lamda Core near the end of the non Xen part. Might be they tweaked the ammo drops to make it a bit better.

 

[Colif]

So looking at Steamdb, can we go backwards 10 years?

Ubisofts best games were all released 10 to 15 years ago - https://steamdb.info/tech/Launcher/Ubisoft/?sort=rating_desc
Electronic Arts seems to be older still, though some new ones sprinkled in - https://steamdb.info/publisher/Electronic+Arts/?sort=rating_desc
Microsoft haven't used them long enough to have an opinion - https://steamdb.info/publisher/Microsoft+Game+Studios/?sort=rating_desc
same goes for Blizzard, its mostly all DLC for overwatch since they used Battlenet until recently.
Sony have a better track record but still nothing really good in two years - https://steamdb.info/publisher/PlayStation+Publishing+LLC/
Amazingly, no Nintendo (not really surprised)

I am sure I missed a few.

 

[ZedClampet]

So looking at Steamdb, can we go backwards 10 years?

Ubisofts best games were all released 10 to 15 years ago - https://steamdb.info/tech/Launcher/Ubisoft/?sort=rating_desc
Electronic Arts seems to be older still, though some new ones sprinkled in - https://steamdb.info/publisher/Electronic+Arts/?sort=rating_desc
Microsoft haven't used them long enough to have an opinion - https://steamdb.info/publisher/Microsoft+Game+Studios/?sort=rating_desc
same goes for Blizzard, its mostly all DLC for overwatch since they used Battlenet until recently.
Sony have a better track record but still nothing really good in two years - https://steamdb.info/publisher/PlayStation+Publishing+LLC/
Amazingly, no Nintendo (not really surprised)

I am sure I missed a few.

How do you score a 33.7 on Tetris?

I do think AAA developers have gotten worse, but I also think players have gotten progressively angrier.

 

[ZedClampet]

Youre way sharper with a crow bar than me, I found out pretty early that if I tried to whack them then Id get at least one hit back. Headcrab zombies are a little easier as their swings are pretty telegraphed when theyre alone. Flairs are good too like you said earlier.

It's possible that I'm taking a small amount of damage and just not noticing it. I'm really not tracking my health. I mostly just look at it when I find healing. Do those things that suck you up to the ceiling always do damage? I take a lot of rides on those.

 

[Pifanjr]

So looking at Steamdb, can we go backwards 10 years?

Ubisofts best games were all released 10 to 15 years ago - https://steamdb.info/tech/Launcher/Ubisoft/?sort=rating_desc
Electronic Arts seems to be older still, though some new ones sprinkled in - https://steamdb.info/publisher/Electronic+Arts/?sort=rating_desc
Microsoft haven't used them long enough to have an opinion - https://steamdb.info/publisher/Microsoft+Game+Studios/?sort=rating_desc
same goes for Blizzard, its mostly all DLC for overwatch since they used Battlenet until recently.
Sony have a better track record but still nothing really good in two years - https://steamdb.info/publisher/PlayStation+Publishing+LLC/
Amazingly, no Nintendo (not really surprised)

I am sure I missed a few.

Why would you want to go back to when those games were more expensive? The games still exist, they're just cheaper now, as is the hardware to run it on max settings.

 

[BeardyHat]

How do you score a 33.7 on Tetris?

I do think AAA developers have gotten worse, but I also think players have gotten progressively angrier.

AAA Publishers have gotten lazier since the population of people who game has grown. The average person will funnel any old slop into their gullets as long as it has pretty graphics, so Publishers can rake in the dough while making mediocre, at best, games..

My oldest has started asking about getting a Switch, since his neighbor buddy has one. Looking at eBay, I can get a used one for anywhere between $100-$200, depending on the model, which ain't bad. But boy can I not justify the prices of those games. Even the popular ones like Zelda and Mario are about $40 used and of course, he'd want stuff we already own on PC, like Subnautica and Minecraft.

I might just have to be that parent who buys their kids the cheap knockoffs and get them the cheap retro handhelds I like instead.

 

[Johnway]

doesn't time fly, Asscreed valhalla i've clocked just over 80 hours and we're still no closer to beating the base game. I think we're over the halfway mark beating england, but we still have a few areas to go and some targets to gank.

We still haven't gone into DLC or season pass content. So far, for a base game there is surprisingly a hell of a lot of content as its not just england you will be spending your time, you can go to norway, vinland, the isle of skye and also the norse asgard realms as well.


More on Ramp 2024, So we've finally finished the Moon Curse cavern. The best of the bunch was Black Mountain Research centre, a map filled with plenty of GZdoom features and new monsters and weapons, plenty of doom cute and a bit of humor thrown in as well. Honorable mentions include Dream den, which for the most is a pretty ordinary map but it does have a few flashes of brilliance at the end when you go to the dream realm.

 

[Colif]

I do think AAA developers have gotten worse, but I also think players have gotten progressively angrier.

Perhaps the later is in response to the former. If the games were better, gamers wouldn't be as angry.

Why would you want to go back to when those games were more expensive? The games still exist, they're just cheaper now, as is the hardware to run it on max settings.

That is a fair reply, but it makes me concerned about future as eventually all the good games from the past won't work on modern hardware. It isn't an answer I like...

AAA Publishers have gotten lazier since the population of people who game has grown. The average person will funnel any old slop into their gullets as long as it has pretty graphics, so Publishers can rake in the dough while making mediocre, at best, games..

That is also an answer I don't like... it might be accurate but I still don't have to like it. They spend huge amounts of money making the worlds incredible to look at and then often times don't give you enough to do in the worlds to make people play more than a few weeks.

The one part of the game that is guaranteed to work from launch is the ingame shops. Those graphics don't come cheap after all.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

It's possible that I'm taking a small amount of damage and just not noticing it. I'm really not tracking my health. I mostly just look at it when I find healing. Do those things that suck you up to the ceiling always do damage? I take a lot of rides on those.

The barnacles only damage you when you get all the way to the top or if you fall far enough.

 

[ZedClampet]

The barnacles only damage you when you get all the way to the top or if you fall far enough.

I tried shooting them, but it didn't have any effect on them.

 

[Pifanjr]

That is a fair reply, but it makes me concerned about future as eventually all the good games from the past won't work on modern hardware. It isn't an answer I like...

So far emulation is keeping up pretty well. The main problem is making sure the software stays available.

I tried shooting them, but it didn't have any effect on them.

I'm pretty sure you can kill them, but they're quite sturdy.

 

[BeardyHat]

I tried shooting them, but it didn't have any effect on them.

Takes about 5 shots from the pistol to kill them, 1+ from the shotgun depending on range.

You can also give them random stuff to eat. Trick a zombie into walking into one or a headcrab into jumping directly into the line.

They'll also pick up explosive barrels, so it works to set it alight as they're pulling it up.

So far emulation is keeping up pretty well. The main problem is making sure the software stays available.

As well, most of the stuff worth playing is still working, thankfully. Granted, much of this is due to the dedication of modders, but speaking of...

I've been playing Need for Speed Underground 2. Thanks to said modders, it works great on modem systems, with widescreen support, increased texture resolution, new cars, etc, etc. Currently playing on Deck, so there's a few things I haven't got working (such as additional cars) because it requires a separate installer I wasn't motivated to figure out.

But boy does it take me back to being a 20-something with an interest in cars in the early 2000s. Still feels good to play and modding the car out is good fun, plus the ability to tune it to your preference.

It does make me think about how I'm still into cars, but my tastes have changed in the last 20 years. No longer do I care about having a fast car, been there, done that. Still fun seeing the cars of my youth though.

 

[Colif]

In the distant fog of the past, the NFS title I liked the most was Porsche Unleashed. Shame that never got a remake since it had every porsche made up until that time.
I say fog as its what graphics were like in 1997

Admittedly it was before game just became about cop chases.
And they never remake it now as you won cars, you didn't have to pay for all of them...

On second thoughts, lets not remake it now... it would be all DLC. I just live with the fact best NFS was released 30 years ago.

 

[neogunhero]

Gamed a ton this weekend, the most I have in a while. This is probably the first weekend so far this year where we had no big plans or major obligations to do. Just relaxed at home pretty much the entire weekend and gamed a ton.

I first started with The Coin Game. There are a few gamemodes, but the one I played the most was Survival mode. The main gist of it is that you are a kid who just wants to play arcade games and make a ton of money while doing it. You have to work odd jobs to earn money, such as delivering pizza, babysitting robot children, cleaning shopping carts in the grocery store parking lot, and more, to earn money so you can play arcade games. With the tickets you get from the arcade, you can get prizes which you can either have on display or you can sell it for cash.

I found that the gameplay loop was quite fun and it had me hooked for 7 hours over the weekend. There are apparently over 50+ kinds of games, and I believe it. I found everything from claw machines, coin pushers, carnival style games, and more. One machine that I was doing great on is the one where you have to shoot your coin into a tiny slot as it spins, and the smallest slot gives you a huge jackpot. I found a trick, there is a certain mark on the textured wall behind the spinning platform, where if you time it right and drop you coin as the jackpot slot hits that mark, you can usually get the jackpot. I grinded this game for a long time and made a ton of tickets off it. Another one is a dart throwing game where you pop balloons. I found that I'm really good at it, and the prizes it lets you choose can be pretty valuable to sell.

After 7 hours, I really started to think about what is the endgame here? I can save up to buy a golf cart and a van, but as far as I know, there is no housing to get, no real endgame at all. You're just meant to survive off junk food so your health and energy don't reach 0, you make money to buy certain things but there isn't much to buy, the whole point is to keep making money so you can play all the arcade games. There are sandbox modes where you can play the games with no limitations, but in survival mode, there is just the added mechanics of food and money. So after 7 hours, I decided to move on. It was fun while it lasted, but if all I'm meant to do is to play the arcade games, then I want to find something more substantial.

A game more substantial did come across me eventually. I've been seeing so much about this game Schedule I across social media and Steam. It peaked yesterday at over 400k concurrent players. It's basically like that game Drug Dealer Simulator, but seeming better in many ways. The game just came out in Early Access, and from the 2 hours that I've played so far, it seems exactly like DDS with a few more features, but this is just the starting point. With the success and explosion in popularity, the solo dev surely has tons of motivation to make some awesome updates for this game.

In the first two hours I already got into the flow of growing weed, bagging it and selling it. I made a decent amount of money and was able to buy a skateboard. It's very useful for moving around the city or escaping police. Between 9pm-5am there is a curfew where police will arrest you for being outside, but you also make a bonus for dealing during the curfew. I had four customers during curfew, finished with all of them, and as I was making my way back home police started to chase me. I hopped on the skateboard and took off, barely escaping. It doesn't sound like much but it was very tense as it happened lol.

This game has a very similar gameplay loop as Coin Game, but with more goals to reach and a better structure overall. Both games have hints of immersive sim elements, as you are free to complete objectives in any way you'd like, or go on and do your own stuff. Schedule I especially so, it oddly feels a lot like the original Deus Ex in many regards. I really enjoy simulation games like this and I'm happy that I found one with a good gameplay loop. I'll be playing much more of this, maybe not any more of Coin Game.

 

[BeardyHat]

In the distant fog of the past, the NFS title I liked the most was Porsche Unleashed. Shame that never got a remake since it had every porsche made up until that time.
I say fog as its what graphics were like in 1997

Admittedly it was before game just became about cop chases.
And they never remake it now as you won cars, you didn't have to pay for all of them...

On second thoughts, lets not remake it now... it would be all DLC. I just live with the fact best NFS was released 30 years ago.

1995 Porsche 911 - $5.99
2023 Porsche Boxster - $13.99
1985 Livery - $3.99

Yup, you nailed it.

That said, that game still looks nice to me. Dated, obviously, but certainly not hideous.

 

[neogunhero]

I just live with the fact best NFS was released 30 years ago.

NFS is a weird series to me. Some entries are all time classics while others are too ambitious for their own good. When I was younger I absolutely loved Underground 2, Most Wanted, and Hot Pursuit 2010. Most Wanted especially, that is the best NFS game in my opinion. Then there were some weird titles in between. Does anyone remember NFS The Run? The only new feature of the game was the ability to run around on foot, they liked it so much that they titled the game after it I guess. Actually, I wouldn't call it an ability, since it only ever happened in certain missions. I remember playing that when it first came out and just being so bored with it. I really dislike the Fast and Furious movies, and The Run was basically NFS's take on Fast and Furious. The story was the most cliche generic story you could think of for a racing action game.

 

[BeardyHat]

NFS is a weird series to me. Some entries are all time classics while others are too ambitious for their own good. When I was younger I absolutely loved Underground 2, Most Wanted, and Hot Pursuit 2010. Most Wanted especially, that is the best NFS game in my opinion. Then there were some weird titles in between. Does anyone remember NFS The Run? The only new feature of the game was the ability to run around on foot, they liked it so much that they titled the game after it I guess. Actually, I wouldn't call it an ability, since it only ever happened in certain missions. I remember playing that when it first came out and just being so bored with it. I really dislike the Fast and Furious movies, and The Run was basically NFS's take on Fast and Furious. The story was the most cliche generic story you could think of for a racing action game.

Definitely hit and miss. I played demos of the first two games quite a bit, got big into both Underground games and since then, I've periodically tried the series and found it really boring and uninspired.

I thought it was due to it feeling more like an arcade game, but I'm certain that's not it, given only in recent years I've discovered I absolute love Outrun and Outrun 2/2006, which are arcade through and through.

Probably more due to the fact that they became the Call of Duty of racing games, releasing one every year.

 

[ZedClampet]

Takes about 5 shots from the pistol to kill them, 1+ from the shotgun depending on range.

I must have stopped at 4 shots because I was worried about my ammo. They don't seem big enough to survive 4 shots.

They'll also pick up explosive barrels, so it works to set it alight as they're pulling it up.

Yeah, I've already been feeding them anything nearby, but sometimes there isn't anything.

In the distant fog of the past, the NFS title I liked the most was Porsche Unleashed. Shame that never got a remake since it had every porsche made up until that time.
I say fog as its what graphics were like in 1997

You really ought to try a Forza Horizon game. Every time you talk about old racing games that you liked, it sounds like you are describing a Horizon game. They have tons of Porsches, too, that come free with the game, and there is a $29.99 DLC, the car pass, which includes very nearly every other car available (this is a sore point for players because they've recently released a couple of DLC with cars not in the car pass)

It's an open world with all sorts of activities that don't involve racing on tracks, and every week they create a free "battle pass" of new activities to complete if you are interested. Of course, there is also plenty of track racing.

It can be played in offline single-player, or you can join servers with other players just driving around the map. I used to switch to a police car and chase people around and try to crash them.

There are all sorts of things like ramps (with challenges), treasure hunts, drifting courses, timed races where you have to make your own off-road short cuts, etc. You can buy houses (these just act as fast travel points and places where you can work on your cars).

You can create your own tracks and easily play tens of thousands of crazy tracks made by the community.

The only thing I can think of off the top of my head that it doesn't have that some people want are police chases.

There are also two DLC with new maps, like one devoted to rally racing and the other one is a pretty crazy Hot Wheels map (not quite as crazy as TrackMania can get).

Forza Horizon 5 is the only one available now, and it will be taken off the market in another year, but they keep the servers up even when they take a game off the market (which happens because of licensing deals with car manufacturers).

Unfortunately, 5 is still full price ($59.99). I'm not sure what they charge for it when it goes on sale.

 

[ZedClampet]

Definitely hit and miss. I played demos of the first two games quite a bit, got big into both Underground games and since then, I've periodically tried the series and found it really boring and uninspired.

I thought it was due to it feeling more like an arcade game, but I'm certain that's not it, given only in recent years I've discovered I absolute love Outrun and Outrun 2/2006, which are arcade through and through.

Probably more due to the fact that they became the Call of Duty of racing games, releasing one every year.

It's even more arcade now than it used to be. It's practically on rails, and feels like a waste of time to play. You just hit the gas and steer (just barely) and hit your nitro right before the finish line.

 

[Colif]

How the cars handled in Porsche Unleashed (PU) was different per car, so it actually tried to replicate how the cars handled. So naturally I buy the next NFS expecting similar and they drive like ships.

Reason being PU was made by a completely different team of devs compared to the remainder of series. It was last game made by the original creators of the franchise who I found out via video below went on the make Test Drive series.

It tried to tell the history of Porsche by letting you drive all the cars as your career progresses. It was fun... Over 95 cars though many were variations. Lots of crap old cars but they were useful at start. Since game starts you just after WW2.

If I had known NFS had new dev team I may have understood why they never made anything like it again.