Recent reviews by The Very Sexy Caterpillar

Short, but beautifully polished. Clean, minimalistic UI, fairly straightforward puzzles, coupled with a stunning ambient soundtrack that is added to as you click makes the game a real joy to play. Takes cues from Minesweeper but there are enough additional gameplay elements that you shouldn't be concerned that you're just paying for something that comes free with Windows.

The video game equivalent of thoughful meditation.

(Genuine) 10/10. Best puzzle game I've played on Steam so far.

I have a friend with whom I raced in an F1 2013 League some time ago. When somebody suggested Assetto Corsa to the league, he refused to consider it, and backed up this point by copying a whole page of bugfixes from the most recent update.

More fool him.

Kunos have done a utterly fantastic job on this game at the time of writing - that is, towards the end of the Alpha Phase. Not only that, but they've involved the community in their decisions, looked for feedback from those who play - In fact, I'd go so far as to say you should buy the game simply to help support the developer. But then you'd be missing out on the point; you'd be buying one of the best PC Racing Simulators out there today.

-Overall
This is an Early Access Review, but in saying that, the game is close to flawless. The graphics are stunning. Each car is modelled perfectly. The tracks are all laser scanned. The feel of each car is individual. The force feedback for those with wheels, is immersive. In game sounds are gorgeous. The AI are being constantly improved, and they already far outstrip those in any of the other racing games I play. Possibly the largest asset, though, is the large and very active community, who are a source of advice, feedback, and, of course, an inexhausible supply of mods, which really make the content feel more complete.
Overall, it's a wonderful Sim. There is not a car that's not easy to drive, within your limits - but when you begin to push, when you begin to look for the tenths through every corner, when you place the car on the ragged edge, brushing the barriers, feeling the back start to come loose, you will make mistakes. Of course. But that just makes success more intoxicating.

-Content
Probably the major con when considering the game. Though each car is beautifully crafted and offers limitless opportunity for driving, there are only a small selection in the base game. There are also only a small number of different tracks, and sadly, a lot of the classics are missing at the moment. Kunos is a small developer, of course, so this is inevitable, but it means that Project Cars is a better choice for variety (Or buying a PS4 and GT5). That said, if you don't mind doing some modding, then there are an ever increasing selection of quality cars on Assetto's forums, or on RaceDepartment. There are few times I enjoy myself as much as when taking my DAMS GP2 car around the Monaco Street Circuit, and at those points everything except the apps are modded.
In short, a lack of variety, but this is remedied by the mods. Plenty of content there for anybody.

-Realism
This is an important factor for a Simulator, and boy, Assetto does it well. Everything is totally customisable. EVERYTHING. The setup options are fantastically complex, with handy tooltips for those of us without a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, and the wonderful thing is that changing every variable will make the car feel, and handle slightly differently. The game measures time increments of 1/250 seconds, so you can see those changes on the clock to, and it's very satisying to gain a tenth on the straight by increasing the tyre pressure slightly and getting an improved Vmax as a result.
You can customise the grip levels on track - there are a number of preset options in terms of the amount of rubber laid down at the beginning of the session, and the grip will increase as you lap the track, with a racing line corresponding to the average line taken becoming visible as the session progresses.
You can really feel the car changing through the session - it takes a significant amount of time for tyres and brakes to get up to operating temperatures on the faster cars, but there's a massive improvement when you do - and tyre wear is realistically handled, and something that you really don't want to be on the recieving end of.
There's more as well, I promise, but I do need to move onto other sections of the review :')

-Singleplayer
There are a number of different options to spend time on, each of which is devoted to a different discipline.
The practice mode is for getting to know a track, or a car, and just putting in some laps, helping tune setups, changing wheel settings, or just generally screwing around.
The Drift mode does what it says on the tin. You drift. Not much more to it than that. Extra points for combining drifts, and drifting for longer, or harder. Fun, but a novelty.
The Race mode allows you to pit any cars against each other, and it offers you a lot of flexibilty in terms of the race weekend - qualifying? Practice? Session lengths? You choose.
The Hotlap mode is for when you're really getting serious. Boost that ambient temperature, boost the track grip, take a nice fast car, and set a faster time than your friends.
Lots of modes for lots of variety, lots of things to do, but in the end you're more likely to end up playing Multiplayer.

-Multiplayer
It's a mixed bag, this. The multiplayer itself is excellent. You can choose any selection of cars, and any track (Including modded ones, which is really nice), and go out. The connections are reliable, the lag is minimal, and if you have friends you enjoy racing with, who are of a similar speed, then it can get fantastically competetive. You can apply the same level of customisation to this as you can to single player - all of the variables are controlled by the server host, but the key is that they're all controllable.
That all said, actually setting up a dedicated server is tricky. There are a lot of processes that you need to run through, including port forwarding, and then running the server is heavy on bandwidth and also PC resources.
That aside, it's wonderful fun, and when leagues start to run, then I'm sure a whole new aspect will really kick off. (Speaking of leagues, sign up here if you're interested: wtwr.enjin.com)

-Conclusion
There's not really a whole lot more to say. I know Kunos have got some more stuff coming - not because I'm an insider, because they're open and forthcoming, with Forums and Social Media that are in regular use. I know that the first non-alpha release will be coming soon. I know also that it's expensive - indeed, I waited until it was 50% off before buying it. If I went back now, though, given what I know, I'd gladly pay full price for it. It's brilliant. Utterly brilliant. And if you don't have it, you're missing out.

Traditionally, games are played either for enjoyment, or for relaxation. Suffice to say, Super Hexagon is not a traditional game. Usually, games give you a break. The two things that Super Hexagon will give you are repetitive strain injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

This was bought for me on sale by a friend, and the gauntlet was thrown down - I had to beat his scores. So I did, and once it was done, I felt pretty good, for about 10 seconds. I then realised that there was a new entry that I had to beat on the leaderboard - my own.
It's that sort of game. You keep on coming back to it, just to try and gain that extra second, and in doing so, fry the few brain cells that playing it last time left you.

A very good, very cheap, very addictive game. If you have a particularly strong resistance to headaches.

After having clocked up a fair old number of hours, I think that I've reached the point that I can write a reasonable and considered review, but before launching into it, I'd like to make the point that I've never played F1 2012. As such, I can't make a comparison, and a feeling that has been concurrent amongst many previous reviews, that it's not worth the purchase if you have the last iteration, is one that I can't make a comment on. Now onto the review.

First of all, I've enjoyed pretty much every single of the 370 hours (at the time of writing) that I've played. That's quite an achievement - even the ultimate in open world RPGs, Skyrim, has only got 280 hours on my account. And that's across three playthroughs. There are negatives - of course there are, what game doesn't have them? But they are on the whole overshadowed by the numerous pros.

Singleplayer
I got my wheel at the same time as the game, and it took me quite some time to readjust. Thus, Singleplayer played a large part in my experience of the game - and it's pretty good. The Career, I'll be honest, is uninspiring - just five seasons around the same 19 tracks against all the same drivers in all the same cars - but when you consider that this is an F1 game, that's not surprising. I'm still only up to Spa in Season 1 - that's Race 11, I believe, after having some difficulty with Corrupt Save Files, and I'm not really eating up the miles in the same way as I used to.
Admittedly, to begin with, it's addictive - intoxicating, to an extent. Especially with a wheel, it's a very engaging game, and once you begin fiddling with the strategy, and the setups, even with a very average AI, it's great. I managed to clock the equivalent of a full 100% season before I started tiring of it.
And then after that, Codemasters have done a very decent job of fleshing it out with some excellent stand-alone features. There's the stock standard Time Trial, and Time Attack (For which you are awarded medals based on how fast you go), in addition to the Scenario Mode feature, which is good fun - placing you in a range of - you guessed it - scenarios, and then assigning you a score based on your performance. Throughout all this are the leaderboards, which is a nice touch, especially when competing with friends (I'm in a battle around Brands Hatch currently), and the only slightly saddening touch is that there are some people out there who aren't racing honestly, and ruining the very top of the leaderboard.
All in all, the singleplayer section is initially exciting, but this fades with time. Nevertheless, it was worth the £8 I payed on Amazon all by itself.

Multiplayer
The Multiplayer aspect of the game is the one that I now live for, and play pretty much exclusively. It's also very contrevsial.
I suppose I should probably start by adressing the really major problem, and that is the strength and consistency of the connections. I race in a competetive league (link at the bottom), yet each race, of the 12-16 player grid, around 2-6 players lose connection - even those with a strong internet service. This is irritating, but it doesn't happen all that often, and it's easy enough to work around on a small scale.
Now onto the praise. It's great. I mean really great. True, in terms of variety, it's not fantastic. You can only do races. But again, that's what F1 is about - racing. So no complaints there. But if you can find friends who play - or better, make friends out of like minded players - and you have some way of communicating with them during the race (e.g. Teamspeak, Evolve or Skype), then it's fantasic, more so if you're equally matched, because you can really relate. I won't delve into all the good things about multiplayer gaming, but it's a wonderful escape from reality.
Quite possibly the best thing about the Multiplayer is the number of Racing Leagues out there. While the quick race lobbies are usually scarcely populated, and frequented by intentionally dangerous drivers, the community aspect of a small league is very attractive, and it means that you can race regularly against player of a similar ability to you in an attempt to improve. Again, I won't wax eloquent about the merits of Race Leagues - but they are fantastic fun.

Classics
I'll be honest, the Classics section does feel like somewhat of an afterthought. There are a small selection of cars, with a slightly less small collection of Legendary drivers, which you can race as, but it's definitely not a game in it's own right - there is no career, the addition tracks are beautifully done but there are only four of them (two without the DLC), and though the cars look and sound gorgeous, the small selection and obvious performance gap means that it's hard to have a really decent race. A novelty, but a nice one, and it serves to refresh your enthusiasm for the game occasionally by doing away with the repetition that is running round a track like China 50-odd times.

As a Sim
If you're looking for a Sim, then sorry, you're in completly the wrong place. Though harsh, F1 2013 falls probably half way between Grid 2 (Ultra Arcade) and Race 07 (Total Sim). The tyre wear feels scripted. There are limited setup options, and most of them don't really make a difference to the way the car feels, or drives. Even without any assists, with a soft suspension you can absolutely floor the throttle mid way through a corner, and be on your way without any drama, even around a low grip circuit like Hungaroring. It's not a sim. It doesn't feel even remotely feel like one, and if a Sim is what you want, then go buy Assetto Corsa or Race 07. That said, it's good for a casual gamer looking for an experience that's more Simmy than normal.

The AI
One of my few major complaints about the game, the AI are average at best, and for a premium title that suggests an Intel i7 is the way to go, average disappoints me. They're overly aggressive, and yet they struggle to overtake. They are also poor at defending - you can dive it up the inside of pretty much any corner in the calender, and they'll leave you room. On the lower difficulty levels, they're little more than fodder, though admittedly, it takes some time to get up to speed.
However.
Similarly to F1, overtaking isn't a massive aspect. It's more about flawless consistency and excellent pace - and in those category, the AI shine. There are few enough races that I notice the AI in gravel traps or barriers (Monaco being the one exception), and even after 370 hours, in the Sauber, I'm only just fast enough to win on Expert (level 4 out of 5). So while not engaging in terms of their racecraft, they do what they're meant to, and the do it well, and it doesn't spoil the game in the same way that the first half of this section suggests it might.

Noticable Absences

-Free Practice Sessions 1 and 2. It only allows you an hour per race before qualifying to do setup and R&D work.
-Formation Lap
-Cool Down Lap
-In race settings. You can't adjust, for instance, you're diff while on track, and even Brakes and Fuel only have three settings.
-Variety of in game clips. Even if you win a world championship, you only get to see your typical 'I've one a race' fistpump shot.

Conclusion
Buy it.



It's a very good game. It's solid all the way through, enjoyable to the core, and if you put the time in, rewarding. You will see yourself improve. Trust me on this. If you're a fan of racing games, it's a must. If you're a fan of F1, it's a must. If you're a fan of both, I don't know why you even bothered coming here and reading this. But even if you're not, it's still fun, and it's the best way I've found (Except for reading) of passing two hours. Best of luck in your racing endeavours.

After having completed the single player mode once, and clocking up 17 hours on the game, I can say that it's a really nice puzzle game, and worth the money.
Though it didn't take that long to complete, it's refreshing in it's approach to puzzles (I haven't played Portal 1, so it's my first time) and it takes some time just to adjust to the ways in which you think.
Great fun and I'm looking forward to getting started on the multiplayer campaign.