F29 Retaliator
An oldie, for sure, but if you like this kind of game, definitely worth playing through.
It doesn’t have the immersiveness of contemporaries like F19 Stealth Fighter, but the dogfighting is good fun.
The entire campaign can be played through in a day, so don’t expect enormous replay value from this one.
– Real player with 10.1 hrs in game
Death Rally (Classic)
If you haven’t tried Death Rally Classic, you do not know what you are missing. I originally owned this game on a cd before getting the system I have now. I will add this warning. This game won’t play on the El Capitan of Mac Os X software, the closest it comes is Yosemite.
The game runs a lot smoother than it ever did on my Cd and it’s great to relive a classic. Plus there’s an added bonus for all you Duke Nukem fans. He’s one of the selectable drivers in this game and comes with his classic “Hail to the king, baby” lines when he comes in first.
– Real player with 60.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Classic Racing Games.
Haven’t played this for damn near twenty years, so it was a pleasant surprise to find it on Steam; for free no less! Iirc, my parent’s crap Gateway had this as demoware, so I could only play a few rounds. Even so, I enjoyed the occasional break from Full Tilt.
Reading through the first several negative reviews, it’s clear a lot of players didn’t didn’t get past the learning curve. This is a game from the 90’s, so go ahead and set the bar accordingly. Here are a few tips to help you enjoy this little morsel from the past:
– Real player with 57.0 hrs in game
Carmageddon 2: Carpocalypse Now
Intro
Loved this game for ages, but the flaws are evident and have really stopped me from enjoying it as much lately. It’s unique and you’re not going to get a similar experience from many other games. If it weren’t for the gameplay flaws,
this game would be my second favourite Carmageddon, but they’re just too big to miss.
The Great:
++Destruction looks amazing. It’s as good as Max Damage.
++Base gameplay is so much fun. Like the first game, except improved in every single way (except where it didn’t)
– Real player with 94.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Classic Racing Games.
This game is the most epically entertaining way to waste your readily rather spent hours of a short life. What makes this game good then:
- Still pretty nice damage physics. Seriously. Game is nearly two decades old yet has dynamic deformation of cars, no premodeled damage. You can even split vehicles in half, at any angle..and yet even keep driving depending on how you got split. It’s also cool how your driving is handicapped by getting damage. If your engine takes damage, car accelerates slower. If powertrain takes damage, your car will start braking randomly inadvertently. If your wheels get damage, they’ll wobble and make your car lean constantly to the given side when driving and steering will become harder. If suspension takes damage, your car will steer randomly on it’s own.
– Real player with 47.9 hrs in game
Carmageddon Max Pack
Carmageddon is an amazing, unique game and one of my all-time favourites. For that alone, I have to recommend it. That being said, the version being offered here is frankly quite terrible.
You get to choose between software mode and 3dfx mode. Software mode is visually outdated even by 1997 standards, so most people will play the 3dfx version. Both options run in DOSBox - and while I think there are good DOSBox ports out there, this is not one of them. The menus and cinematics tend to be completely broken. With some config modifications, you can get the 3dfx version to run in a decent resolution (and without stretching) and improve the terrible sprite pop-in, but I’ve been unable to fix the framerate in any way - and it is awful. These are “only” technical issues, but they’re serious enough that I can’t honestly recommend playing this specific version of the game.
– Real player with 48.5 hrs in game
Intro
The original Carmageddon is nothing short of a blast to play. However, the Steam port is absolute dogshit. The game only runs with DOSBox and if you choose to play with NGlide, no matter the resolution or graphical detail, you will
not be getting a solid 60fps with drops down to even 20fps regularly. I have a GTX1060 and an i5 4460 and it doesn’t matter. It runs like trash. I would only recommend this on Steam if you don’t mind very low framerates or don’t
care about using DOSBox. It’s unfortunate that Stainless hasn’t decided to update the compatibility because if they did I could easily wholeheartedly recommend this fantastic game.
– Real player with 36.0 hrs in game
FlatOut 2™
Best game I discovered by accident on PS2 back in 2006.
– Real player with 14.0 hrs in game
best fighting game
– Real player with 12.3 hrs in game
Extreme-G 2
This is a game that requires patience in learning its quirks, the sometimes wonky bike physics and controls, but rewards you immensely if you persevere. And this is coming from someone who plays using a keyboard and is fundamentally bad at racing games.
There are a few bugs here and there (nothing game-breaking: just don’t decline a save when you’re offered one, or the game might stop offering), and I should elaborate on the wonkiness. The bikes are very fond of turning sideways or even backwards upon collision with a badly shaped wall or other bikes. Sometimes you might grind along a wall no problem, and sometimes you might snag on something and get turned around. The controls for left and right like reversing themselves at this point, as well as the gas pedal just kinda breaking, but you learn to deal with this very quickly (hint: it’s good to let go of all buttons briefly and then try moving again).
– Real player with 15.9 hrs in game
For the 2.50€ I paid for it is probably worth it. Mind that the controller support is still the worst of any steam games that I own and took some digging through the forums to find an acceptable solution. Not a decent one, but an acceptable one.
Well, I suppose that on the plus side the game actually works with decent frame rates and the WHOLE soundtrack catalogue from XG1 - 3 and both N64 and PC versions of the soundtrack is present. The soundtrack alone may justify the price tag.
But the controller support is bad, euphemistically speaking. There is no controller support in the menus, so no relaxed gaming on your TV. To get my XBone controller working, I had to set all executables to “run as admin”, then select the controller in the pre-game menu (which I have to start around 3 times on win 10 to actually start the game), then navigate to bike selection, press space bar and config my controller buttons. Shoulder Triggers are not being recognized. It’s a hassle that reeks of a lazy port. Like, every N64 emulator does this better and the only reason this version may continue to exist is stable framerates.
– Real player with 12.2 hrs in game
Gunboat
BE AWARE! FOR GAMING VETERANS ONLY. This thing is not for newbies. There is no modern graphic technologies and other useless bullshit you are waiting for. Start The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Deep Purple, Creedence Clearwater Revival and welcome to the Jungle !!!
– Real player with 5.2 hrs in game
‘Mistah Kurtz - he dead’
It’s time to go back up the river. It’s time for one more mission. It’s time for Gunboat
Games need more switches. There are power switches for the engines. You can feel the boat come to life. Each gun has its own safety. Cruising through villages with the safety off has a threatening weight to it. Theres even a spotlight. Nothing is passive. You are Gunboat
Operating the entire PBR by yourself is easily mapped Z to M. From a 180 view in the cabin to the bow, main and aft guns, quickly jumping from one position to the next lets you become the too old for this **** captain to the kid manning the .50 cal passing around a picture of his new baby back home. Theres blocky beauty and danger around every bend all under a gorgeous and memory saving black sky. Become the forefront of naval superiority. Become Gunboat
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game
FlatOut
One of my top favorite vehicular combat racing games, and for damn good reasons. Also, one of the first games I ever remember playing, back when this came and I was 8 years old.
Pros:
-
Graphics have aged well. Sure, there’s no realtime shadows or reflections, etc..but still all in all not terrible graphics for 2004.
-
Great sound design. Crash sounds, both obstacle and car collision, are good and really add to the satisfaction of impacts. And the cars' engine sounds are really roaring and crisp.
– Real player with 136.3 hrs in game
A lot of people seem to be writing nostalgia reviews (to the point where “nostalgia” is not only the main theme, but also the only noun present in the whole review). So here’s a newcomer’s take for a change.
Flatout is many things, but firstly and foremostly it’s a racing game. You buy a car, you race AI opponents, get money to buy upgrades, or better cars. Complimenting that you have various ridiculous - but apparently quite iconic - events, which range from demolition derby to a variant of darts where you crash your car into a solid obstacle at speed to hurl yourself through the windshield and onto a gigantic net which serves as the dartboard.
– Real player with 57.3 hrs in game
Need for Speed™ Hot Pursuit Remastered
HIT CHARACTER LIMIT, VIEW THE COMMENTS FOR ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE GAME
This was an interesting review to write. On one hand, it’s an extremely fun game to sink a lot of time into. On the other hand, it’s basically a re-release of a game, not a remaster. The game itself when it was released in 2010 was really fun. I really enjoyed it (although I’m still not a huge fan of the very heavy steering that the game supplies) for its really fun gamemodes online, good graphics, great car list, and the really good tactical nature of most of the online stuff. It’s also immensely satisfying when you do get a really good run through a series of corners at top speed and shaving off that extra fraction of a second when grinding for good times on all the single player events. Likewise, it’s also hugely satisfying to release that perfectly timed spike strip to catch one of your enemies off guard, allowing for your teammates to move in to take them out of the game.
– Real player with 295.6 hrs in game
For reference, I bought the 2010 “Limited Edition” version of this game’s original release for PS3 pretty much as soon as it was available. I played through all of its DLCs, too. Is this remaster a faithful recreation of everything from that version of the game? Pretty much, yeah.
I understand that a few cars were removed for the remaster. However, from what I’ve read online, the Carbon Motors E7 was removed because Carbon Motors no longer exists as a company, and the two Mercedes SLR McLarens(Mercedes McLaren 722 Edition and Mercedes McLaren Sterling Moss) due to Mercedes selling off their stake in McLaren starting back in 2009 and not completing until 2011(after the original NFS:HP 2010 release).
– Real player with 89.4 hrs in game
Hard Truck Apocalypse / Ex Machina
There are a lot of games on Steam, but once in a while, you browse the catalogue and discover a little gem hiding somewhere in the deep ends of the underated section. Ex Machina is one of those games, but let me start off by saying that this game certainly isn’t for everyone, it’s genre is considered to be a very acquired taste, but I would say it’s worth the buy anyway just for the sake of trying it. I didn’t expect it to be anything amazing given it’s lack of popularity, but I was wrong, this game is truly brilliant.
– Real player with 96.5 hrs in game
The Crossout single-player predecessor, Hard Truck Apocalypse (original name Ex Machina fits it even better) was somewhat quite intense when it first hit the shelves. The gameplay (similar to the golden classic of the Russian game development, the Vangers) was quite addictive, with all that driving in the wastes of the post-apocalyptic open world, shooting bandits, upgrading your car, delivering some post quests and convoying caravans… Driving, driving and then some more driving and fighting with your car. There was also an intriguing sci-fi story plot, with some twists and various ways to go through the game (two starting quest lines, non-linear solutions in every big chained mission in every game area, and two endings, with two different boss fights and outcomes).
– Real player with 75.8 hrs in game