Category: First Impression

Back when I reviewed Euro Truck Simulator 2, Chezni commented that people “pay money to participate in a simulated experience of a profession that others describe as living in a ‘prison on wheels.'”  What better way to improve on the contemplative experience of Euro Truck Simulator than to drive enormous, ancient trucks in the middle of a Russian spring through roads which are 90% mud (and 10% river).  Welcome to Spintires: Mudrunner.

To be perfectly clear: if the above didn’t sound fun to you, you will not enjoy this game.  Even if it did sound like fun, you may not enjoy this game.  There is no plot and there is no real motivation for you to continue playing.  It’s just a sandbox filled with “bring this from point A to point B.”  And yet, it’s so exquisitely detailed and challenging that it’s fun.  Maybe I’m going soft now that I’ve trimmed my library so much, but this is just one of those games that’s fun to zone out to with podcasts in the background.  One amusing perk of this sort of game is learning how to control a truck trailer.  That doesn’t sound like it would be immediately useful, but I was helping my parents move a car the other weekend and was the only person in my family that knew how to back the trailer up to unload the car.  I may have looked at this game just so I could tell that story.  That being said, I don’t think I can recommend paying full price – wait for a Steam sale to get this Tier One game.

Steam link

For those of you who have been playing video games for a while, you may remember a trilogy from the mid-1990s called Descent.  If you don’t, Chezni did a first impression of them a while back which I recommend you read – though I am a sci-fi fan, so they are definite Tier One entries for me.  They have also been re-listed on Steam for your enjoyment!  Even better, there was a Kickstarter for a reboot of the series a few years ago, and Descent: Underground should be out next year.  This is not an impression of that game.

Now, you may ask yourself: why did I just talk about Descent for an entire paragraph if this isn’t about Descent: Underground?  Well, a year after the Descent Kickstarter, there was a Kickstarter for Overload.  Also a 6DOF shooter.  Also in the same style as Descent.  With similar assets (down to the reticles, weapons, and enemy light placement) and gameplay.  To the point that its difficult to understand how both of these were allowed to exist from an copyright standpoint.  It’s as if the publisher got all the names, the developers got all the assets, and they shared all the mechanics.

In any event, Overload is a fun game (with VR support, no less) for those of you who enjoyed Descent but wished there was a modern version.  A solid Tier One entry in my book, and I look forward to Descent: Underground next year.

Steam link

One of the first games I reviewed on PICD was Golden Krone Hotel.  I put it into Tier Two, because I figured that there would be far too many roguelikes ending up on my Tier One list.  This proved not to be the case.  Many roguelikes were terrible, and many others were just nondescript or uninteresting – I found myself constantly thinking back to Golden Krone Hotel.  Later, I was looking for it in my Steam Library, and was astonished to find I had put it into Tier Two.  After revisiting it, it proved to be just as fun as I had remembered.  It has been released from Early Access and just got its “Last Update” – I look forward to beating it (someday).

Steam link

No, not that one.  And no, not the other seven or eight.  This King’s Quest is a reboot/continuation/prequel of the classic King’s Quest games in an updated graphical style.  I was told that all of the textures are based on oil paintings which were scanned and applied to the game – it works, though not as grandly as I had hoped.  If you haven’t heard of King’s Quest, you probably aren’t a fan of point-and-click adventure games and can feel safe skipping this one.  If you have, I need to preface this with the information that I haven’t actually played the originals – they’re on my list, but I’ll first need to get them working in Windows 10.

Continue reading “King’s Quest” →

Let me be clear: I went into Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition thinking I could just knock a quick game off my list, sure I wasn’t going to be particularly interested in it.  It looked like a vaguely Mexican-themed Smash Brothers ripoff.  What I got was a fun and (mostly) intuitive game about a man named Juan who gets killed by an evil skeleton on Dia de los Muertos, but is given a second chance by a mystical luchador mask.  I look forward to playing far more of this – here’s to hoping the initial glow doesn’t wear thin.  Tier One.

Steam link

This is a difficult game to get screenshots of, since it’s a roguelike rhythm game.  You crawl through a dungeon to the rhythm of your own heartbeat, matched to the beat of the song (awesome songs, and apparently you can add your own as well).  It took me a little bit to “get”, but as far as roguelike gimmicks go, this one is amazing.  Tier One.

Steam link