Stellar Stone - Reception

Reception

Reception and critique for the company of Stellar Stone has generally been negative, mainly due to the company's release of Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing, which received unanimously negative reviews from critics, being named "the worst game ever made", "only good as a joke", and "completely broken and blatantly unfinished in nearly every way." It was mainly panned due to its complete lack of collision detection, entirely non-existent AI (as the computer opponent does not move, or otherwise participate in the "race" at all), extremely abnormal physics, and its victory screen—an image of a tri-handled trophy accompanied by the typoed caption "YOU'RE WINNER !". In 2004, Big Rigs was listed by GameSpot as one of the worst games ever made (and the only game to receive their lowest score possible, a 1.0). The GameSpot review of Big Rigs called it "as bad as your mind allows you to comprehend", and the video review contained no narration whatsoever, consisting of in-game footage interspersed with wider shots showing the reviewer staring in disbelief, crying, and beating his head on a desk. GameSpot also awarded it its annual Flat-Out Worst Game award for 2004, with its "trophy" being the three-handled "YOU'RE WINNER" trophy from the game itself. After declaring it the "worst game ever made" in a Games You Should Never Buy, X-Play's Morgan Webb refused to even rate Big Rigs as their scale only went from 1 to 5.

Brad Hicks of SwankWorld felt that releasing the game was an "embarrassment" to them, as well as "the people who produced it." He also quoted their website as saying their goal was to "provide our clients with best of gaming technologies and cut their development expenses, allowing them to concentrate on product rather than on technology hustles of development," countering with how Big Rigs' unfinished state seemed to render that statement null and void. "I don't know what kind of money there were going to lose if they gave the game more development time so they could crank out something of even middling quality," he continued. "People say PC gaming is dead, and games like this are starting to prove that." The game has been consistently listed among the worst video games of all-time by GameSpot, Metacritic, and GameRankings. Despite poor reception, sales for the company have been moderate; Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing sold approximately 20,000 copies, while Gettysburg: Civil War Battles and Ultimate Civil War Battles: Robert E. Lee vs. Ulysses S. Grant, combined, sold over 100,000 copies in the United States.