If there is a piece of good news here, I feel confident that Asobo will continue to resolve these issues, and, given enough time, we'll end up with a Microsoft Flight Simulator that is as stable as 2020 was and benefits from all the additional technical improvements. We're not there now though, and now is when folks have spent their money on this product. The '2024' title feels premature; this game needed another 6-12 months of development and testing. It's apparent that it's simply not ready and much more work is required before it is. Flight simmers now have to decide if they want to go back to 2020, like many have, or be the beta testers for 2024 and accept that it'll take time before things are better.
Raw Fury puts truckers into space in Star Trucker, but is it really about the open "road" or is it about micro-managing power systems?
However, while F1 24 marks significant progress, it's not without its shortcomings. Persistent issues such as the lack of finesse in AI behavior and complexities in currency management detract slightly from the overall enjoyment. Moreover, support for enthusiast hardware remains inconsistent, and certain features like the absence of custom team entry in co-op career mode may disappoint some players. Despite these drawbacks, F1 24 remains a compelling choice for fans of the franchise, offering a thrilling and immersive racing experience worthy of consideration. F1 24 proves to be a worthwhile addition to the series, albeit with room for further refinement in future iterations.
If you're looking for a deep, well-rounded driving simulator with a career mode, then Taxi Life is going to fall short on all accounts. There are a variety of similar titles available that do everything that Taxi Life offers and do so much more competently. Taxi Life can look pretty at times, but it's a big ask to overlook its many bugs and short-comings. Driving a taxi around a city isn't the most interesting idea to begin with, so Taxi Life needed to get all the details right, and unfortunately it doesn't come close to doing so.
Expeditions: A MudRunner Game is an interesting iteration on Saber Interactive's earlier off-road simulation titles that brings some new features while keeping the core challenge familiar to fans of the series. There is a lot of content available, though much of it inevitably boils down the main concept of having to deal with hard environments. Most of this works reasonably well, but some of the new additions feel a bit light and not as fully fleshed out as I'd like them to be. Overall, it is an enjoyable experience, but only the hardcore fans of the series are likely to make it through the hundreds of hours spent climbing over rocks and sinking into pits of mud.
EA Sports WRC lets you experience the rush of racing through the world's rally tracks one crest, hairpin, and sheer drop-off at a time.
After six years of waiting for the next iteration of Forza Motorsport, Turn 10 Studios delivers a solid offering, packed with hundreds of cars, upgrades, and tuning options, all bundled in a gorgeous presentation package. Not outstanding, but good support for racing hardware means that the experience on track is exactly what Forza fans have been waiting for.
F1 23 is an improvement over last year's iteration, but not nearly as impactful of an upgrade. Here's hoping that the F1 series can continue to build on its successes and take a page out of Red Bull's recent Formula 1 dominance: incremental updates are more valuable than wholesale changes.
F1 22 is still worthy of picking up if you don't own a VR headset, if only to experience the new car designs, new circuits, updated team rosters, and re-mastered sounds. Outside these flashy new features, the core of the game is unchanged from previous versions, for better or worse. As with many other EA annual titles, I wish more time was spent improving the guts of the series, particularly the AI behavior, instead of adding social features such as F1 Live, but the new VR implementation gives me hope. One can dream, right? Now excuse me, I'm due for another front wing replacement. Elbows out in turn 1, drivers!
Farming Simulator 22 shines the most when it is enjoyed with friends and expanded via mods. Giants Software has made this process easy by implementing add-ons directly into the game, allowing everyone regardless of platform to extend and prolong their farming enjoyment. If you're able to find a way to make a profit, or at least enjoy the struggle to get there, then Farming Simulator 22 should easily find a spot at the top of your game library.
Twisted Pixel Games and Oculus have created a wonderfully immersive and polished VR experience with Defector.