Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN MARCH 2025?

On Tue, 1 Apr 2025 09:11:32 -0700, Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com>
wrote:

On 4/1/2025 7:39 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>

* Rage 2

>
I was thinking you were being a bit hard on this game, but I looked up
my review on it, and while I finished it, that's about all that was good
I could say about it.  Oh and the driving while still horrible was at
least an improvement over the original Rage.

Heh. My initial write-up was actually a lot worse; I toned it down for
my initial post. ;-)

From a technical standpoint -- both in regards to the actual game
engine and the mechanics-- "Rage 2" isn't all that bad. It's not very
good, but it's a game and it does the expected game stuff. But it
lacks heart and character; it is completely unoriginal in every aspect
and doesn't seem to have any reason to exist except that maybe some
suit felt it might sell. It's this complete lack of inspiration in
every aspect that makes the game so disappointing. There's some skill,
I think, in its design but I don't think any real effort was put into
making this a game anybody really wanted to play. It's this dichotomy
of ability versus effort that made the game feel so terrible.

IMHO, YMMV, and the usual et ceteras.

The original "Rage" was not a good game but at least there seemed to
be some idea of what the game wanted to do and be. It wasn't a very
good idea, and it wasn't well implemented, but it had reason for
existing. From a gameplay perspective, "Rage 2" might edge out its
predecessor ever so slightly (personally, I think the combat in the
first was better, and its smaller world meant a lot less useless
faffing about) but this sequel lacks soul.

On the plus side, "Rage 2" no longer demands you create a Bethesda.net
account, which was originally a requirement. Being able to
double-click the icon and get immediately into the game without going
through a seperate launcher is one good thing the game has going for
it, I suppose.