REVIEW: Speed Rivals (2025 Video Game) - on PC (Steam)

Review by Jon Donnis

Speed Rivals takes the old slot car idea that so many of us grew up with and turns it into a digital toybox with a lot of charm. It brings that familiar Scalextric feeling back to life on your PC, only with sharper effects and a livelier sense of pace. The result is a racer that knows exactly what it is trying to be, and for the most part it hits the mark.

The strongest part of the game is how it captures that classic slot car rhythm. You only control your speed, so every lap becomes a small battle with the track rather than a test of steering skill. Ease off too late and you pop off the rail. Feather the throttle at the right moment and you glide through the bend with a bit of style. It feels simple, which is exactly the point. Anyone who grew up fiddling with Scalextric pieces on the living room floor will settle in quickly, and the game leans into that feeling with a nostalgic grin.

The short bursts of racing work nicely. You drop in, try to set a clean lap, fail, swear, retry, then nail it. 

The track editor itself deserves a bit of praise since it opens up a whole second layer of play. Building a circuit is good fun, and sharing your tracks online gives the whole thing a sense of community that helps a relatively small game feel much bigger.

The trouble starts when you veer away from the nostalgia. Players who have never touched a slot car in their life might find the lack of steering quite odd. It goes against everything you expect from a racing game, and that first hour can feel quite restricted. The bigger problem, though, is the camera work. None of the options feel fully comfortable. The top down view is the most workable, although you still end up sliding the camera about just to keep your car in sight. First person made me feel a bit queasy, and the other angles make it too hard to judge how fast you should be taking each corner. It gets in the way of the flow, which is a shame because the core loop is otherwise very smooth.

Speed Rivals is a good time if you already have a soft spot for slot car racing. It offers a bright set of tracks, lively time attack challenges, a hefty track editor and a community focus that should help it grow. It is still in early access, so there is room for improvement, especially with the cameras, but there is enough here already to keep fans entertained.

Right now it is a fun, slightly limited racer. A solid 7 out of 10.

Out Now on Steam

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3389390/Speed_Rivals__Build_Race__Share_Tracks/

NEWS: Roswell Gaming Glasses Land with a Sci fi Edge

By Jon Donnis

The new Roswell glasses mark the first team up between GUNNAR and Alienware, and the result feels like something pulled straight from a secret hangar. The style mixes Alienware's familiar futuristic look with GUNNAR's latest lens tech, creating eyewear built for long sessions at a screen. The finish is called Conspiracy Blue, a clear nod to the old stories that surround Roswell, and the frame carries that same sense of mystery.

The design leans into wide lenses that open up the field of view, helped along by a polymer frame shaped with real precision. There is a confident feel to the build, with multi barrel hinges and rubber coated temple tips that hold everything steady once the games begin. The frame also carries the small alien head icon that has become part of Alienware's identity, which ties the whole style back to its inspiration.

GUNNAR has packed the glasses with its patented lens technology, pairing it with G Shield Plus coatings that cut reflections and help keep smudges at bay. The lenses block harmful blue light along with full UV protection, and the enhanced contrast is there to make fast moving games look crisp and immersive. Everything about the presentation leans into the extraterrestrial theme, right down to the custom puffy pouch and the matching microfibre cloth included in the box.

The frame sits in the medium width category. The lens width measures at fifty-eight millimetres, with a sixteen-millimetre nose and a one hundred- and thirty-six-millimetre frame width overall. The temples run to one hundred and thirty-five millimetres, and the glasses themselves weigh just over an ounce.

Roswell is officially licensed by Alienware Gaming, and each pair comes with the pouch, the cleaning cloth and a twelve month warranty. It is a bold bit of kit, aimed squarely at gamers who enjoy a touch of sci fi with their screen time, and it carries just enough style to make the conspiracy feel real.

Check them out at https://gunnar.com/pages/alienware

REVIEW: CarCam (2025 Video Game) - On PC - Steam

Review by Jon Donnis

CarCam arrives on Steam with a simple pitch that taps straight into childhood memory. You take control of a tiny remote-controlled car and see the world through a camera perched on top of it. The idea feels instantly charming. The living room turns into an enormous playground where a table leg becomes a hairpin corner and a cushion becomes a launch ramp. It is a clever viewpoint and it gives the game a distinct personality, helped along by the sight of full sized humans wandering about in the background while you tear around their floor. That little detail adds an odd sense of scale and, in a funny way, makes the whole thing feel more playful. The use of classical music as the soundtrack gives it a quirky edge as well. I suspect the choices are down to royalty free availability, though they work surprisingly well and give the races a slightly whimsical lift.

The problem is that the concept is stronger than the execution at the moment. This is an early access title and you can feel that roughness in nearly every corner. Online activity is thin, so the multiplayer features often sit gathering dust. Free roam should be the mode that lets you kick back and enjoy the setting, yet the constant need to recharge your car gets in the way. Stopping on a pad to refill the battery breaks the flow and feels like an unnecessary chore. 

The controls do not help either. Being locked to keyboard input makes the handling far more awkward than it should be, particularly for a game that asks for precision and quick reactions. Races can feel confusing as a result, partly because it is not always clear where you are meant to go and partly because the camera perspective demands crisp steering that simply is not there yet. Even the menus feel bare, with very few settings to tweak, which reinforces the sense that the game has not reached its full shape.

CarCam has the heart of a delightful idea. The joy of seeing a familiar room blown up to epic scale is real and the tiny-camera perspective is genuinely fun. It just needs far more refinement to match that promise. Right now it feels like a concept rather than a finished experience. For me it is a pass at this stage, though I would not rule out returning in a year if the developers keep chipping away at the rough edges. The potential is there, it simply needs time to find its polish.

Out Now on Steam

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3760600/CarCam/

REVIEW: Top Shot Pool (2025 Video Game) on PS5

Review by Jon Donnis

Top Shot Pool arrives on the PlayStation 5 with a confident stride, promising a slick blend of realism and old school arcade charm. At first glance it feels as though it might just pull it off. The presentation is tidy, the room around the table has a warm buzz to it, and there is something oddly relaxing about those small touches in the background, like people sat chatting while you line up a tricky shot. The table itself looks sharp, the balls carry a nice shine, and the physics behave well enough to give you that faint snap of satisfaction when a clean pot rolls exactly as expected.

There is a sense that the game wants to be both a faithful recreation of 8 ball and an accessible pick up and play time sink. For a moment it manages that. Shots come off the cue smoothly, and the feel of a controlled clearance is genuinely pleasant. The adaptive AI can offer a surprising bit of tension too. One frame it plays with a steady hand, the next it suddenly transforms into a national champion, before drifting back into baffling mistakes that leave you scratching your head. It keeps matches unpredictable, although not always for the right reasons.

The longer you spend with it, the more the cracks show. The absence of a top down view is a real problem. Pool games live or die on clarity and angle reading, so the lack of such a basic option makes certain shots far more irritating than they should be. Shift the camera manually and you may even find scenery or overhead lights blocking your entire view. It feels like a fundamental oversight, especially when it happens mid frame and forces you to jostle the camera until the game lets you see what you are actually doing.

The controls never quite settle either. Instead of fading into the background, they keep reminding you that they are there, which is the opposite of what you want when trying to sink a precise long pot. It adds a faint sense of clumsiness to everything. Then there is the awkward truth that even at £5.49 it still feels a touch poor value. There are free pool games out there that look better, feel cleaner, and offer more refined handling.

Top Shot Pool has a decent atmosphere and the physics provide occasional flashes of quality, yet it stops short of bringing anything fresh or memorable to the table. Once the initial shine wears off, you are left with a serviceable but forgettable experience.

I score Top Shot Pool a disappointing 4 out of 10.

Out Now

https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/EP6197-PPSA34294_00-0827241841181397

REVIEW: Syberia - Remastered (2025 Video Game) - on Playstation 5

Review by Jon Donnis

Syberia Remastered arrives with a clear intention. It wants to let players experience Benoît Sokal's world with a modern polish while keeping the bones of the 2002 classic untouched. The result is a curious mix. It looks far better, it moves a little more smoothly, yet it still carries the quirks and charm of the original adventure. That will delight long time fans, although newcomers might find themselves wondering why some parts feel locked in a different era.

The visual overhaul is the star of the show. The updated graphics give the clockpunk world a crisp, almost storybook quality, and the reworked cutscenes sit nicely on a widescreen setup. The new camera movement adds a touch of fluidity that the original simply could not offer. There is something oddly comforting about stepping back into this world, meeting its eccentric cast, and settling into the slow burn of Kate Walker's journey from a New York lawyer on a routine job to a traveller chasing the dream of Hans Voralberg. Oscar shines again as a loyal companion, and the addition of a few fresh puzzles helps give returning players something extra to chew on.

The trouble begins once the game asks you to move around for any length of time. In 2002 this slower pace felt acceptable. In 2025 it borders on irritating. A run button would have softened things, especially when backtracking becomes part of the rhythm. The gameplay itself shows its age. It is functional and still has charm, but it sits at odds with the modern sheen of the visuals. The music is another weak point, sitting in the background without ever adding much atmosphere.

Syberia Remastered is a tricky one to judge. The essence of the original remains intact and the visual upgrade is impressive, yet the lack of deeper changes holds it back. It feels like a thoughtful preservation project rather than a bold reimagining. Fans of the first release will feel right at home. New players may wonder why the experience has not been rebuilt for today's expectations.

A classic returns with a cleaner face, though not quite a new soul. A generous 7 out of 10.

Out Now - https://amzn.to/4al6mVn