Recipe: Take awesome game from 2003 which had funny handling, but was amazing, blend with the good elements of 2007 game, add neat polish and modern graphics with better handling and modern cars, serve - just amazing.

Having discovered this series a few years ago and wishing I hadn't missed out as a kid, I sunk many hours into the originals on an emulator and enjoyed them immensely, but graphical glitches and the ice handling made me miffed, I thought this game would never come back, but here it is, and it is a work of art - neat touches to the user experience like the smooth menu animation, the music from the old games remade to be like new and bringing that old charm, the characters in the parking area giving a nice lively touch, the map in its new graphical quality, just awesome considering this is still early access. The perk system is an interesting addition as well in how content, upgrades, cars etc. are unlocked, and while there are some bits around unlocking cars etc. that could be done better, I feel it really adds a good difference

There are some things to fix and still to complete of course, the story only lets you go through about 1/3 of it so far, some of the cars are using older models, the cursor on controller for moving around menu's is clunky, some bits around the AI could use a little tweaking along with minor text mistakes / glitches, but otherwise the game feels like a full release, and runs so smooth which is not what you'd expect from a early access release, it feels like the full game, just with things not complete yet content-wise.

Overall, this and Nightrunners have made me once again excited for racing games and the genre and to play again for the first time in a long while, which is great to see and Genki have done a great job in coming back, especially with what they say is just a revival, brinding the old game into the new world, and not really a brand new slate, exciting times ahead.

Edit: Full Release now and the game is wonderful, the perk system has been expanded to be even more interesting, more story, more cars, more rivals, loads of QoL changes since the early days of Early Access and a lot of variation in the game experience where you can choose if you have the skill tree unlocked in stages, or in full, engine / oil temp and tyre wear even outside of battles for more money, loads of new aero parts as well, nice little things like the option to equip the "auras" from other bosses or fast travel between parking areas after you unlock the perks, wonderful game and I hope they just build on it as most of my feedback would be "even more of x, expand on y", there's no DLC nonsense, no overpromises, its all pretty damn good

Purely recommending (I really wish Steam had a "mixed" rating) because the raids, battles and everything else connected is amazing, dungeons feel engaging, raids are fun, areas look great and fun to go through and from a play perspective, by and large this expansion delivers some really nice updates, where this is content you will get to play again and again, so it still feels worth

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HOWEVER.......
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The story is beyond dreadful, awful pacing (10 fetch and talk to Wuk Lamat... boy does that happen wayyy too often than it should quests followed by a mad rush of stuff all at once, then repeat), expac massively dominated by a single character who is not written well and does not develop properly despite what the quests and story tell you, npc's who magically arrive and solve every situation and laud how great this side character is, who seems to be strong beyond belief even though they were asking you for mentorship 5 minutes ago (and no, you do not get to mentor properly, you get to watch on as things happen in the background or you are made to just sit there and wait while others get involved), previous characters not involved, having events happen in the background or not shown properly poor Erenville and Krile or turned into empty husks that simply nod along yet again as to how amazing the side character is, even in one section where you think you get some breathing room, the side character comes back to "save the day" and epouse how there is nothing in the world but the power of friendship and happiness (completely throwing ideas of "there will be dark and miserable moments and things will be tragic sometimes, but happiness and caring for others is how you resolve and dig yourself out of those moments to rise above it" from the previous expac into the toilet), as if you are playing a story written for 7 year olds (almost feels like they took the Kingdom Hearts writing team and told them to turn up the happy factor by 11)

Speaking of previous expansions, of course we don't get a vacation like it was almost touted as, and yet again the story has a world ending disaster, despite Yoshi-P saying they don't want to lean on that constantly, and the silly power of friendship theme means you have to deal with nonsense from Wuk Lamat saying "oh this person can get better, I'll try" with Sphene (and that horrendously directed voiced line from the poor VA who clearly should have been told to get much more energy into the delivery and give it another go, but VA direction is clearly in a poor state overall anyways for this expac) despite the fact said person wants to kill everyone for their designs, it would be like trying to throw a positive spin on Thordan in a crucial moment) and it all culminates with our character finally getting their battle and showing exactly why they were brought along and delivering a key battle to save....oh no wait, Wuk of course arrives with the power of friendship unasked and while you've toiled all battle, she somehow has skills beyond you and is positioned as if she is saving you like Hydaelyn, completely ruining it, and really highlighting how badly written Wuk's character is

No one is saying we can't have an expac / story where we aren't the central focus and its more so about helping someone and mentoring them, but this is so poorly written that this other character feels like they never actually develop, and are shoved in every second to further the annoyance.

The rest of the quests have you either tailgating people for the 10th time, fetching something at a slow pace, or suddenly rushing to do 12 things, so even without that character, clearly something didn't go right, and at the end of it all, the story almost feels like it should end with a quote like "there was supposed to be this really key character in this story and a main theme that really includes them, what was the character called....the fighter of glow? No, that doesn't seem right...." to highlight just how much this expac forgets that your character exists and has been really key for 5 expansions running.

To summarise, buy for the repeating content and the battles, the fighting and the new environment and graphics update, and try and pretend the story doesn't exist.

Insanely good Sonic game, plays like an adventure 3 - won't detail too much of the story to avoid spoilers, but the platforming is awesome, the controls feel good along with the new range of moves available to sonic (and things like the homing attack not being bound to jump for once....), and the minibosses (guardians) are insane, at moments it feels like I am playing shadow of the colossus or something and fighting this massive thing that is in effect only a "small" part of the gameplay, can highly recommend!

Only one piece of feedback for SEGA - please fix the pop-in, or gives a control for it as even on high graphics settings certain higher platforms take ages to spawn and show up, which just makes it look weird....