This is a game that I believe deserves a "Mixed" review but alas Steam does not have that.

• The bikes feel and sound distinct. Riding the RSV4 is completely different from riding the M1000RR.
  
• Some fun tracks you don't normally see in too many games.
  
• Physics is pretty good. Side-to-side transitions feel a bit slow but the rest of it feels great. You can tweak the settings to get it a bit better (this should be made more obvious and/or have better default settings).

• Limited number of tracks and bikes.
  
• The UI is terrible for parts / gear selection. Why not let me select the Brand -> Model -> Colour rather than having a massive two wide list of every single glove in the game? Same for tires. You bought a dozen different front tires, have fun searching for that intermediate tire from an alphabetical list that's two items wide.
  
• Following from above, replacing parts is terrible. If you want to replace your brake pads you need to open the shop, buy new ones, switch to the new pads, then you'll probably want to go sell the old ones. Why not just let me select "Replace" and automatically buy new and sold old?
  
• Parts wear extremely quickly and once they get below 70% their performance falls off a cliff.
  
• The mechanic mini-game (which was a big point of marketing) is tedious. Doubly so when coupled with the bad UI for buying a replacement part and the fact that parts need replacing so frequently.
  
• Difficulty settings make no sense. On intermediate you can't restart an event but you can quit and then relaunch and you can never adjust the AI to your liking. Want to have restart enabled (without quitting the entire event and reselecting it) and race against 100% AI, well too bad because you can't do that in the Career.
  
• No livery editor in a game all about customization is a bit of a letdown
  
• No custom championships. Why do so few games have this feature. Bonus if it supports multiplayer championships.
  
• Price is too high for what you get.

I think RiMS is a great start for Raceward that they can build on in a sequel. Adding a Livery Editor and Custom Championship feature (like in Assetto Corsa) would get the game 90% there. If they added a couple more classes like the below (in addition to the above) they'd have the best bike game by quite some margin:

Lightweight

• Kawasaki Ninja 400
  
• Yamaha R3
  
• KTM RC390

Twins

• Kawasaki Ninja 650
  
• Suzuki SV650
  
• Yamaha R7
  
• Aprilia RS660

Supersport
Not really relevant these days as almost no one sells a supersport bike anymore but having the last gen of 600s (or the 2010 gen when they all essentially stopped being developed) would be cool.

Superbike
Updates of the current roster

Game runs well on custom settings (high with a few things turned down). I'm benchmarking 50+ fps in battles and 30 on the campaign map.
CPU: i7-4790k
GPU: RX 590
RAM: 16 GB

In Warhammer 2 I always found myself starting a new campaign between turns 50 and 100 because it seemed as though a win was inevitable. In Warhammer 3, there is a greater sense of urgency in the campaign and I personally enjoy it. Every ~30 turns there will be an event (chaos rifts) that allows you to engage in 1 of 4 quest battles that you and six of the AI factions must compete for. You must complete all 4 to unlock the final battle and only 1 of these battles can be completed per player per event, thus creating the sense of urgency.

If you just want to paint the map, you can still do that and win, and the chaos rifts could help you in achieving that by allowing you to snipe the enemy factions when they are engaged in the event. But if you just want Mortal Empires from Warhammer 2 you'll be disappointed.

Recommended*

* - you have to be interested in large scale strategy games and be capable of either self teaching or searching for answers

TL;DR - This is a good strategy game that doesn't require you to play the original to enjoy it (in fact you may be better off if you have NOT played the original). Just beware of the devs and fanboys.

Sword of the Stars II is a 4X strategy game with turn-based empire management and fleet movement coupled with visually stunning real-time space combat with ships that you, the player, can design. Now, when I say design, I don't mean you determine the length and silhouette and window placement or any of that. When designing a ship you pick three sections (in game described as a Command [front] Mission [middle] and Engine [back] section). Once you have selected your sections you can place weapons of varying size and modules which provide bonuses like extra crew, increased range, and much more.

But what about the factions? Well there are 7, the Humans, Hivers (insect like), Tarkasians (reptilian), Morrigi (avian/bird), Liir-Zuul Alliance (Liir are dolphin/whale like while the Zuul are genetically modified slavers that are difficult to define), Suul'ka Horde (Suul'ka are giant telepathic terrors of war that are allied with some more extreme Zuul) and the Loa (Artificially Intelligent race). Most of the factions have a very distinct system of faster than light travel (Morrigi, Tarka and Liir are all very similar with only minor differences) and each race has its own technological advantages and disadvantages.

The Tech Tree is randomly generated each game and most techs require you to perform a "Feasibility Study" during which you spend a few turns determining how likely you will be in achieving a certain tech. This is where alot of the faction specific technological advantages come into play (for example the Morrigi have a better chance of getting high end energy weapon techs than the Tarkasians). This "Feasibility Study" is a very divisive topic, however, I personally enjoy it as it means that you can't start a game and know that you don't have Shield techs despite playing as the Liir (the Liir have the best Shield tech chance, however, this still happened to me). This means that each game has an element of unpredictability that is maintained into the late-game whereas a simple tech tree where you could see all your paths would mean that at turn 1 you could plan your entire game.

Fleet Movement is also a divisive topic as ships cannot be moved unless they are in fleets with a dedicated command ship. I have personally had no issues with this system. You make a fleet and can then right click on a target, decide what to do and then select the desired fleet that is in range. Or, you can right click a fleet, select a desired action and then select a world in range.

Diplomacy, unfortunately, is essentially non-existent. The AI behaves erratically and while it may accept a peace treaty on one turn it may declare war on you the very next turn. I always wanted to rule the galaxy alone anyways but it is still a major eyesore on the game.

Finally, support for the game has, for all intents and purposes, ceased. The developers (which can be/are extremely difficult/stubborn) released a patch in August of 2014, however, there were no patch notes released and any comments on the patch were disregarded by the devs. As a result I cannot confirm or deny any of the findings, however, it is my suspicion that the AI was made more aggressive and everything else remained as it was before. But many people (fanboys?) will say that turn times are shorter and menus come up quicker and their cat came back from the dead after that "non-patch" as the devs deny any patch taking place.

So if you are looking for a grand strategy game with real-time space battles, stunning visuals, a handful of unique races and a learning curve that provides a sense of accomplishment then I recommend you give this game a try. It's come a long way from the opening day launch disaster.

A truly wonderful space based RTS. The 3 races play very differently from one another and the sub-factions are distinct enough to make you change your style depending on whether you're the Loyalists or Rebels.

The game's pace can be easily adjusted in the pregame options to suit your skill and the AI does a good job of building counters to your units (e.g. you build long range, AI builds corvettes). Having said that, the AI has a greater emphasis on the Artifical as opposed to Intelligence as it essentially attempts to win through attrition.

But such AI strategies are to be expected and, in my opinion, lead to some pretty epic battles. Build a starbase on a key chokepoint and station a fleet there to try and hold the line, if you're playing Hard or higher the AI will be charging your line in no time with capital ships, frigates, corvettes, cruisers and even titans.

The game is also extremely moddable. If you can read this review you can mod a good portion of Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. There are also tonnes of mods already created (Halo, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.).

Finally, while the game does not have a campaign I personally feel this is no loss. Honestly ask yourself, "Would I play the campaign more than three times?" Probably not unless there was some meaningful reward (which would be difficult to work into the game). As a result, the omission of a four to eight hour campaign is no big loss.

I could go on and on but I'm worried you'll keep reading when you should just go get the game already!

After playing X-Wing Alliance on and off for years when I found out a member of the X-Wing team was making a space combat game I quickly joined the Early Access and, I'll admit, I was initially not impressed. The controls were sluggish, the characters were hideous by modern standards and the cockpit was worse than in X-Wing Alliance.

But that was then.

Unfortunately now most of those issues still remain. The controls have been semi improved as have the characters but the cockpits are still lackluster. Adding insult to injury is the fact that the development team has been absent for an unsettling amount of time. There have been only a few patches since transitioning from Early Access to Full Product. I am extremely disappointed by the lack of professionalism and quality shown by the folks at Escape Hatch Entertainment.