Indie developer Big Blue Sky Games has announced its debut title, Merchants of Rosewall, a shopkeeper simulator that takes place in an immersive high-fantasy world. In MoR, players are tasked ??with managing their own cu??stomizable shop while uncovering the secrets of a majestic city in which the game takes place.

Rosewall runs on horsepower, steam power, and a little magic

The high-fantasy world is home to Giants, Orcs, Elves, Corkgnomes, and more, all with their own distinct backgrounds, personalities, and ambitions. But despite the fantasy setting, the Big Blue Sky Games team is using their own real-life experiences to craft the many characters of the world. Players will build, craft, and trade their way through Rosewall while keeping up with sales trades, discovering new recipes, and forging relationships with artisans and specialist??s around the world to grow their empire.

In a recent early look at Merchants of Rosewall, Big Blue Sky Games Game Director Kevin Hovdestad told us a bit about the unique systems and features the shopkeeper simulator has to offer. For example, one of the developers on MoR is a meteorologist. Utilizing his expertise,?? Big Blue Sky Games has built an intricate and realistic weather model in-game that actually impacts resources, product supply, and customer behavior.

Another impressive system of MoR is its asynchronous multiplayer which creates a fully shared online economy. This allows players to cooperate or compete in a free trade market that influences other players' games. This sort of functionality seems very intriguing for a shopkeeper simulator like Merchants of Rosewall, so I'm excited to see how it works in the end.

"“At Big Blue Sky Games, we want to create games that feel easy to pick-up-and-play, with narratives that players haven’t seen considered in other games. With Merchants of Rosewall, we’re challenging stereotypes and conventions in the fantasy genre; we’re inviting players into an imaginative universe that breaks away from cliches and lets players experience real world issues through nuanced storytelling and complex conversations. We are excited for players to get their hands on the game later this year.�?/p>

- Kevin Hovdestad, Game Director at Big Blue Sky Games

Merchants of Rosewall will be released on PC via Steam in the second half of 2024 and can be wishlisted today.

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One of the appeals of Stardew Valley is its chill soundtrack. Accompanying players while they farm crops, talk to neighbors, and go exploring, the musical score is such an integral part of the game that a Festival of Seasons tour was annou??nced last month. However, demand has been so high that ?the developer has added in more dates.

In a recent post ?on the website-formerly-known-as-Twitter, Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has said the global orchestral tour has been expanded, adding new dates and locations.

Looking at the image, we can see additional shows have been added in Toronto, Los Angeles, Melbourne, London, and more. There are also now stops in New Zealand, Paris, Berlin, Manchester, Tokyo, and plenty of others. The tour will begin in Los Angeles on February 16. Tickets go on sale on December 1.

Might want to get yours in quick

The Stardew Valley tour is a celebration of the melodies that have become an iconic part of the farming simulator. The official website describes the upcoming event as an "intimate, immersive live concert featuring fresh arrangements of the m??ost cherished songs from the game's mesmerizing soundtrack."

You?? may, however, need to get a move on if you do want tickets. Some of the m?ajor cities have already sold out, which is most likely what spurred the addition of extra days in these locations.

In other news, there's still no word on when the next major patch for Stardew Valley is inbound. Barone has said that update 1.6 is in development, but it will only be released when it's good and ready. And rightly so. The developer is also working on a new project, which we know next to nothing about other than it's called the Haunted Chocolatier.

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PowerWash Simulator VR will be heading to the Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest 3 on November 2. The developer FuturLab revealed a new trailer for the virtual reality spray-fe??st today.

You'll be able to explore the town of Muckingham like never before with a 360-degree view of the washing action. If you pre-order this experience, you'll get the Cat-Proof gloves as ?an in-game item.

Power washing in VR sounds like a relaxing task

Throughout the town of Muckingham, you'll be able to clean a skate park, play golf with your spray gun, and wash cars in a gara?ge. You can even clean up the mayor's house. How fancy.

The co-op VR experience may be a bit odd, however. The PowerWash Simulator VR release date trailer shows each team member as a floating head with two ?hand??s. It might be strange for those who want to see the bodies of each person in your squad.

What makes VR so entertaining, on the other hand, is the physical interactivity behind your movements in-game. I don’t know about you, but that pulls me into a VR game so much. According to the game’s official Meta listing, we’ll “reach up, get down and lean-in to tackle those pesky hard-to-reach spots.�?/p>

You can also play this game from your chair if you don't want to bend down.

The Meta Quest 3 arrives just before this

The Meta Quest 3 will be arriving on October 10. It has double the graphical processing power and has a 4K+ Infinite Display. The cheapest model has 128GB and costs $499.99, while the 512GB model is $649.99. Hopefully, PowerWash Simulator VR only sinks a small amount of GB of that storage.

Thankfully, PowerWash Simulator VR will ?support the Meta Quest 2 as well. It might not look as ??pretty, however.

The post PowerWash Simul?ator VR makes a splash this November appeared first on Destructoid.

Pelican Town is getting more love

After more than seven years, Stardew Valley is still bringing in new players. With its charming and retro look, chill vibe, and host of activities to partake in, it provides a little something different that few popular games these days can offer: a truly unwinding e??xperience. And it was all made by one person.

It's not surprising that it's considered by many to be one of the greatest indie games to come out in recent years. Now, the developer - Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone - has announced what's coming in the 1.6 update. While this next u?pdate will be bringing changes for modders, it's nice to see there's some content coming to the game itself.

//??twitter.com/ConcernedA?pe/status/1681081013538267138

A post on their Twitter page lays out roughly what you can expect in the next major patch. For one thing, there's going to be a new festival (no details about what it'll be, though), some new items, extra dialogue, some secr??ets, and the "???" at the bottom of the list implies there's even ?more in the pipeline.

Fishing is where it's at

I must confess, I've only just started getting into Stardew Valley recently. After just a few hours, it's easy to see why it's such a popular game. Whether it's fishing in the river, diving deep into caves, or tending to crops, what ConcernedApe has done for the indie community is give us a modern take on such classics as Harvest Moon (which Stardew Valley was partly inspired by).

Currently, we don't know when version 1.6 will be rolling out, but hopefully, it'll be soon. Barone is also said to be working on a new project called Haunted Chocolatier, which they've been teasing since 2021. There's no way to tell whether it will be able to top Stardew Valley, but the new game appears to be on pause for a bit while the next update for Stardew is being worked on.

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Measure twice, cut once

I can’t really imagine a future where I can afford to buy a home for myself, let alone one where I could make a living buying up repair jobs and selling them at a higher price. Not that I think I’d want to. But regardless, House Flipper is probably as close as I’m going to get.

Released in 2018, House Flipper had a profound effect on the simulator genre. Not that I think it meant to. However, it hit upon a nice balance of ugly jank and tactile gameplay. It wasn’t the first of its kind, but a combination of its engaging execution of its core concept and ability to connect with audiences made it a success that others hurried to emulate. We still live in a market glutted with job simulators, and while some of them are good in their own right, it’s hard for any of them to stand out.

Nonetheless, after years of being supported by DLC, we’re finally getting House Flipper 2, and Steam Next Fest gives us an opportunity to test drive its demo.

[caption id="attachment_387933" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Just move a bookcase in front of it

House Flipper 2 starts off by stranding you on an island with a dilapidated house on it. Your job is to make it suck less and then sell it. You’ll notice a lot of books lying around that tell you how to work the various systems within the game, and I read exactly none of them. While almost everything has changed in House Flipper 2, it’s all relatively easy to figure out.

Like with renovating the house itself, I’m not exactly sure where to start here. I suppose I’ll just assume you haven’t played House Flipper. The idea is that you’re given a task �?or a series of tasks �?and you need to accomplish them to the best of your abilities. Thi??s involves?? cleaning up garbage, removing stains, cleaning windows, vacuuming up debris, painting walls, laying floors, repairing walls, and general furniture placement.

A lot has changed in the individual mechanics of House Flipper 2. The painting, for example, is n?o longer in vertical strips. Instead, you can outline where you want your paint to go and then just roll your ridiculously oversized paint roller of that area. Trash needs to be bagged instead of just sucked into your body like it’s an evening at KFC. You can spray stains to make them easier to mop up. Nothing that’s going to make your jaw drop, but at least it d??oes some things to differentiate itself from the first game.

[caption id="attachment_387934" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

No one will notice

Unfortunately,?? the demo doesn’t include any of the tactile bits of the original title aside from painting and cleaning windows. Before, when you’d install something like a radiator or sink, you’d have to manually click to screw it into place. Now, every piece of furniture just dr?ops into place.

This may be some?thing that just hasn't made it in the game yet, as things like building walls and picking up garbage have more physicality to them. ??I’d hate to think that these things have been cut since entire simulators have been spun off the simple handyman tasks you’d handle.

For that matter, I don’t really see House Flipper 2 as much of an improvement thus far. It seems just to be a different take on all the same stuff from the original. ?Even the graphics don’t really show much improvement. Early material suggests that decorating and customizing might be the big feature here, and I absolutely couldn’t care less.

In fact, while playing the demo, I ??accidentally sealed up part of a wall that the game wanted me to put windows in. The demolition tool didn’t want to target my new walls. I knocked out the only brick that it would actually let me target and left it. I also accidentally painted over things I shouldn’t have because there’s currently a bug where if you start with your roller outside the designated painting area, it will paint over it anyway. Instead of fixing these things, I just left them. The game still gave me three stars. It will be the new tena??nts�?problem.

[caption id="attachment_387935" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Good enough

If you’re just looking for a slice of House Flipper 2, the demo certainly gives you that. However, if you’re looking for a peek at potentially new gameplay, that’s not here. Some things are different, but I’d hesitate to call them new. Right now, I’m not even sure why I should? pick thi??s up over the first game.

However, this is a demo. House Flipper 2 has a release window of 2023, so c?ertain things might n??ot be implemented. We’re also not getting any kind of look at the story or sandbox modes here. So, while the demo might be kind of underwhelming, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it offers nothing new. We’ll just have to wait for the renovations to finish.

The post House Flipper 2 shows off its renovations in its dem??o appeared first on Destructoid.

It's the little details that make the difference

The Sims 4's ongoing support from both its fans and developers speaks to the behemoth of the simulation genre that it is. Just when we thought the game offered anything players could possibly dream of, they turn around and offer even more possibilities -- which is exactly what Maxis is doing with the release of two mini-DLCs, also known as kits. The Simtimates Collection Kit and the Bathroom Clutter Kit are releasing on January 19 for PC and Mac?, as well as Xbox and PlayStat??ion consoles.

The former includes upgrades to the usual set of pajamas that Sims wear, and the collection "will help any Sim look bold, flirty, & charming in the bedroom with lacey bodysuits, a variety of underwear styles & playful boxer prints." Now your Sim can lounge around in style, and of course, the new looks can invite some more spice into your game if you're?? into that kind of thing.

//twitter.com/TheSims/status/1615380171607126016

The Bathroom Clutter Kit takes a turn into the messy -- this kit allows players to customize their clutter, and scatter various knick-knacks around their bathrooms. The items range from Grandma's dentures to makeup palettes, so you'll be able to create a lived-in space for anybody in your Sims household.

Both of these kits were teased in the "It's All Relative" Roadmap for The Sims 4 posted on January 12, 2023, which also announced that the game will receive "one big update" and an expansion pack on top of the two new kits. In addition, there will also be more support for extended family systems in the game, which will also tie back into the big expansion that's coming this year, according to the Roadmap post. Looks like this is only the beginning of the exciting things the Maxis team has in store, and considering The Sims 4 is now free-to-play, it's an excellent time to jum??p in and ??join the fun.

The post The Sims 4 is getting some spicy, messy mini-DLC appeared first on Destructoid.

The beloved simulator series marks a significant milestone

FIFA, Call of Duty, yet another rerelease of Skyrim �?there are plenty of games out there that get new versions like clockwork, making them some of the staples of the gaming industry. One series with less sex appeal, but certainly a dedicated cult following, is Microsoft's Flight Simulator. While these games' releases are somewhat quiet in the grand scheme of the gaming industry, the first entry in the series was released all the way back in 1982, and there have been a total of fifteen Flight Simulator titles? since. That has to make it one of the longest-running game series ever.

The most recent Flight Simulator came out in 2020, and was met with nearly unanimously glowing reviews. It even claimed the spot as the third best game of its release year, just after Half-Life: Alyx and Hades. The game was praised especially for its visual style, smooth controls, and ?accessibility options.

Microsoft released a statement this morning that "10 million pilots have enjoyed the beauty, awe, and wonder of the world available in Microsoft Flight Simulator across Windows/PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Xbox console." The post doesn't specify whether this number is in refierence to the series' most recent release or an all-time cumulative number, but I have to assume it's the la??tter. Regardless, that still makes the franchise a huge success, and it's clearly beloved by aviation enthusiasts everywhere.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QY7qXUZqoo

The post also shared other impressive stats breaking down the ser??ies' rich history by numbers:

• 500 million flights
• 40 billion miles flown
• Equivalent of 10 million trips around the Earth
• Equivalent of 200 round trips from the Earth to the Sun

November 11 of this year was actually the 40th anniversary of the series, and to celebrate, Microsoft released a special anniversary edition of the 2020 Flight Simulator game. That edition including a whole host of?? new historical aircraft and airports, as well as new missions for players to partake in.

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A decade later, the fire still burns

Little Inferno is a name you might not have heard in quite a while. The indie project about burning things for fun and profit is back in 2022, with the Little Inferno Ho Ho Ho Holiday Expansion.

Arriving on November 18, Little Inferno i?s ringing in the festive season with plenty of kindling. Nutcrackers, reindeer, jelly beans, and more are all ripe for the flame??.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3DWkqFyqhw

It's a pretty sizeable expansion, with an entirely new story and a new character. Plenty of holiday products await your flame, ??and there are over 50 new combos to discover. Or you can just get the infinitely burning Yule Log and have yourself a relaxing, coz?y night by the TV light.

All I want for Christmas is fuel

Little Inferno first lit a spark back in 2012, becoming a bit of a sensation in an ever-growing indie scene. Developer Tomorrow Corporation has gone on to make some fun puzzle games, like Human Resource Machine and 7 Billion Humans.

But something about the discoverability and mystery of Little Inferno still feels all its own. While it's made it to new consoles in the time since its debut, seeing a new DLC? drop for it this many years later is pretty exciting.

So if you want to ring in the new year with a little fuel and a little fire, Little Inferno is back with more reasons to celebrate the season. It's up for wishlisting on Steam, Epic, and GOG, and is headed to Nintendo Switch, iOS, and A?ndroid s?ometime soon.

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Forgive me, father

You’re rolling the dice whenever you pick up a game with “Simulator�?in the title. Is this going to be an attempt at accurately translating something into a video game, or is it going to abandon all reason and present some sort of unhinged parody? Priest Simulator is definitely in the latter category, but rather than just havin?g some wacky controls that make the whole performance absurd, it ??goes a few steps further, into a storm drain, and gets washed out to sea.

You technically get up to some priest business in Priest Simulator. One could also argue that you even play as a priest??. Maybe my knowledge of priestly happenings is skewed in some way, but if you asked me what ?a priest does, my answer would be: not this.

Priest Simulator (Steam Early Access)
Developer: Asmodev
Publisher: Ultimate Games
Released: October 6, 2022
MSRP: $19.99

You play the game as a wooden vampire demon named Orlok, who is hell-bent on internet fame. During an attempt at collecting footage, he and his girlfriend are shot from the depths of Hell into Poland, where a Muppet-like parson immediately performs an exorcism on him to try and please his own parishioners. Orlok, too humiliated to return to Hell without his vampire powers, decides to do absolutely anything anyone says in the hopes that he’ll eventually have his power restored. He begi??ns posing as a priest, as that seems to get him the respect he so thirstily desires.

Priest Simulator may sound absolutely ridiculous?, and that’s because it is. However, while the narrative seems almost like a stream-of-consciousness trainwreck, it manages to be surprisingly insightful. You may expect it to be a heavy satire of organized religion, and it very much is, but it goes beyond that. Despite the wooden appearance of most of the game’s characters, ??its sense of humor leans into the “are we not all wretched?�?sort of observation.

The antagonists, the Shatonists, are a bunch of jerks who are up to no good, but the parish are hardly paragons thems?elves. Really, the opposing groups seem to be two sides of the same coin. They seem to be competing more for popularity than any sort of morality. If anything, the Shatonists are more overtly aggressive, while the Christians are underhanded.

[embed]//youtu.be/qO3UPw2SGvk[/embed]

Father Nosferatu

Meanwhile, Orlok is only helping the Christians because they give him more adulation, and the Shatonists are lead by his girlfriend’s ex, Diabolina. It’s even pointed out to Orlok that people are taking advantage of his naivety, which he’s unable to se??e due to his own hubris. That’s not to? say that every character demonstrates these human flaws, but I’m not sure that’s really the focus.

You also should not take from this that the narrative is confidently done. Priest Simulator is in early access, and while it’s a more rounded experience than I anticipated going in, one of the rough spots is in its storytelling. The dialogue is often extremely choppy, and some of it even seems missin??g. At times, it feels like a joke is only half developed because the game is in such a rush to get through. In short, the cutscenes feel like they need to be touched up, and hopefully, they will be.

Speaking of cutscenes, you can enjoy them subbed or dubbed. You can have Polish voices with English subtitles or there is full English audio (mostly, there’s some spottiness with the translation in Early Access.) Either way is kind of hilarious and seems to be done by the same voice actors. The actor who does Orlok is particularly consisten??t with both languages, though it does sound like they’re going to ruin their voice. It sounds like they have an entire cat stuck in their throat.

Are you there, God? It’s me, Orlok

On the other hand, a lot of the systems in the game are in a surprisingly developed state. Priest Simulator is something of an open-world ga?me, presenting a small playground to explore. You level up your character by spreading Christianism across the town. Play for long enough, and you’ll go to various houses to perform exorcisms, take confessions, and possibly give sermons. You can also upgrade bot?h the church itself and your own weapons.

Th?ere’s actually a decent amount of content in the Early Access. The? game can be completed from beginning to end, but much of it still seems to be in a placeholder state. Almost everything intended is there in some way or another, but the further you go into the experience, the more things feel sketched out. Some mechanics aren’t well explained, others just don’t fit together quite right.

If anything, I feel like some of the activities need to be fleshed out more. It’s a bit too easy to grind your way to a better church, and the character-building system doesn’t seem to be anywhere near its final state.? Some of it feels like the fluff you’d find in many open-world games, which doesn’t jive all that well well with the bizarre premise. Much of this could just be stand-ins for where more creative gameplay will eventually be placed, but more meat will be needed for all the skeletons lying around.

No one’s running this whole thing

I eventually decided to put Priest Simulator aside, as I felt like I got the gist of what the developer is going for, but felt that it would be better experienced when it got closer to their vision. There’s a lot h??ere, and I’d rather see the final portrait than just the sketch. The most important takeaway, however, is that I’m definitely interested in circling back to it after its full release. What’s present already is bordering on brilliant, and if it gets the touchup it needs in some areas, it’ll be fantastic.

According to the developer, they plan on having Priest Simulator in an Early Access state for about four to eight months, which seems like a reasonable amount of time to buff it to per??fection. Whether you deci??de to look into it now or wait for its full release, the unique vision and sharp humor are good reasons to keep it on your radar.

_{[This scoreless review is based on an Early Access build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Early Access Review: Priest Simulator appeared first on Destructoid.

You'll be able to build homes from scratch in the sequel

For as many granular simulation games as we get these days, it's not that common to see a full-on numbered sequel. But 2018's House Flipper broke through with three million copies sold across PC and consoles, and that was enough for House Flipper 2 to get the gre??en light. Here's our first look at game??play, including a noticeably less "basic" art style.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOQCo2rLpdU

I liked the original game for what it was, though I ended up craving a more complete experience with a bigger scope. Cleaning up nasty homes and renovating them is a concept that pretty much sells itself in the simulation space, so I'm happy to see the developers at Frozen District try again, presumably with more run??way this time.

The big change: on top of the retu??rning Story mode, there's going to be a Sandbox mode in which you can "build homes from scratch" rather than just shore up existing ones.

"We’ve put a lot of heart and story into House Flipper 2, polishing our trusty tools, focusing on player creativity, and adding mysteries to uncover," said lead producer Jakub Bujas in a press statement. "We think returning fans and brand new players alike will enjoy relaxing, creating, and explo??ring the community of ??Pinnacove."

With the widespread warm reception to PowerWash Simulator recently, I feel like more people are giving these sorts of games a chance. And as much as some publishers take a shotgun approach to figuring out the next big sim subject matter (with plenty of duds in the process), among thos??e games that d??o resonate, the quality bar seems to be rising.

If I'm being honest, I'd play a simple "home-cleaning simulator" �?it's oddly relaxing! �?but havi??ng a well-rounded renovation and home-building loop will go a long way.

House Flipper 2 is coming to Steam sometime in 2023, and PlayStation and?? Xbox versions are also p??lanned.

The post House Flipper 2 looks like a big step up appeared first on Destructoid.

A flood of cozy simulators in the wake of Stardew's success

It feels like with every new batch of gaming news streams we get, they’re accompanied by memes about whichever game genre dominates the announcements and updates. Over the summer, there was an endless stream of dark space marine shooters, and after the news streams that rolled through this week, it seems there’s a new genre taking over the industry for the next few months: farming simulators.

Ooblets, I Am Future, Dreamlight Valley, Potion Permit, Bear and Breakfast, Witchbrook, My Time at Portia, Wytchwood, Homestead Arcana, Little Witch in the Woods, Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life �?the list of upcoming or newly released farming/community sims never-ending these days. This is excellent news for me, considering it’s one of my favorite genres ever, and you can bet your b??ottom dollar I’m playing as many of them as I can.

Why was Stardew so popular?

While farming/community sims have been around for a long, long time, I think we can accredit a lot of their recent resurgence to the success of one stellar indie game: Stardew Valley. It’s one of those games that’s simple enough to pick up and start playing regardless of your skill level and even regardless of where you are in any given save file, yet still complex enough for players to challenge themselves and min-max the crap out of i??t if they want to.

The controls are simple and you can run it on anything, which means it’s available (as well as affordably priced) on every conceivable platform. The game has fostered a rich modding community, who enjoy putting a fr??esh spin on the gameplay, story, characters, aesthetics, and so on.

Plus, it’s the passion project of a single developer, and has all of the charm and care you might expect from someone who truly loves what they’re making. All of these elements came together to not just create an unforgettable game, but a full-on cultural phenomenon that swept through the industry and made Stardew one of the most beloved and successful ??indie ?games of all time.

Cause and effect

If my hypothesis is correct, that means that now over six years after its release, we are seeing Stardew Valley’s influence ripple through the industry �?hence the wave of cozy farming/community simulators. Of course, we have to give credit where it’s due to series like Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons for paving the way for this once niche genre to break further into the mainstream, but I truly believe Stardew is what pushed it over the edge due to its universal appeal a?nd subsequent popularity.

So now we h?ave a wave of all kinds of games that are puttin?g their own spin on the classic farming/community sim formula, which is a ton of fun to see. Just like shooters or RPGs take the mechanical motifs of their genre and try to do something no one has quite seen before down to the most minute level, simulators are seeing the same level of impassioned scrutiny.

Video games are still ??an incredibly young medium compared to film, television, literature, or even their older cousin, tabletop games. As someone who has studied patterns and whole movements that form in media, I can’t express how cool it is to see ?developers explore the intricacies of a newer genre and create something new.

Carving a new path

So fo?r example, most of these games are going to have mechanics like farming, mining, fishing, cooking, crafting, befriending townspeople, etc., but the combination in how these mechanics are implemented and influence each other will always be unique. Each game will have different economic and social systems for the player to intera??ct with that will lead to different outcomes.

It’s like how a lot of games like BioShock, Mass Effect, and Dishonored, for example, have some kind of magic mechanic to supplement weapons that we know and recognize, like guns, daggers, etc. While we’re familiar with the motif of magic supplementing familiar weapons, each game that implements its own kind of magic will use that magic slightly differently �???what the magic can do will be different, the cost of that magic will be different (usually utilizing some kind of mana system, which can also have an infinite number of variations), and so on. There are a lot of layers here.

My point is, we have enough farming simulators now that by nature of a saturated (and nearly oversaturated) market, developers are forced to think creatively when it comes to using the mechanics in the toolbox of their genre ?to create as engaging of an experience as possible.

Then we get games like Cult of the Lamb or Ooblets, which combine community simulation with an action roguelike and farming simulation with Pokémon-style animal companion battling, respectively. Like storytelling, the key to making fresh and exciting games is finding new ways to com?bine and im?plement elements we already love.

It’s one thing to study that phenomenon in retrospect, but it’s an??other to see it happen in real time. Regardless of what some people say, I think this is a very, very exciting time for games �?especially farming simulators.

The post How Stardew Valley ushered in the f??arming sim renaissance appeared first on Destructoid.

Take this job and shove it

It finally happened. I’ve been broken. I do my best to play through each game that comes for me as thoroughly as possible, but I just can’t do it for Food Truck Simulator. Which is a shame because I really liked Gas Station Simulator. I like what Drago Entertainment is doing by trying to build a shared simulator universe. I appreciat??e their vision. Goofy simulators also have a solid space in?? my heart.

But Food Truck Simulator is undercooked. I hate to pull out one of those puns that normally go in the closing paragraph of a review, but its biggest problems are all related to not just a lack of polish but a dearth of care. Considering this was, weirdly enough, one of my most anticipated games of this year, the disappointment is all mine.

Food Truck Simulator (PC)
Developer: DRAGO Entertainment
Publisher: Movie Games S.A.
Released: September 14, 2022
MSRP: $19.99

While the name makes the subject matter clear, what you really need to know about Food Truck Simulator is that it’s wonderfully hands-on. It’s not just about managing a business but also?? about doing the dirty work; buying ingredients, driving to spots, doling out food. In fact, the management aspects are very su??btle, clearing the way to perfect your cooking craft.

The actual cooking is pretty fun. There are four types of food that you sling from your truck window: burgers, fries, pizza, and sushi. They each have their own ingredients, with a few crossing over, and they all have their own methods of cooking. Food Truck Simulator is at its best when i??t allows you to focus on multi-tasking, juggling multiple orders, an??d trying to get them out as quickly and accurately as possible. It also manages to get a nice balance of detailed mechanics and fun flow.

Then on t?op of it, it heaps a number of? complications. While that’s to be expected, the problem is that none of them are as fine-tuned as the cooking.

[embed]//youtu.be/16benf8ysxY[/embed]

Mustard and mayo on fries

For starters, you have to get through the multitude of tutorials, which is a horrible drag. The story starts off with you picking up your late father’s dream of being some cool food truck guy. I guess it’s a bonding thing, but it’s a bit late for that. You start picking up the pieces, but then someone literally sets you on fire. So you pick up the pieces again, then you learn how to make pizza, then you learn how to make sushi, then I guess you can do those things on your own. It’s made worse because Food Truck Simulator keeps pushing this really tenuous story about bonding with your dad. The main character’s voice sounds like someone?? is intentionally doing an impression of the most boring person they can imagine.

You might notice some major issues before the tutorial even ends. The press notes I got indicate a day one patch, but some of these are problems I saw in the demo months ago, so I’m not sure what faith I have. The performance is terrible. I’ve got a modestly beefy setup, but driving around the city gave me a lot of stuttering, which seems to be a problem with its level of detail streaming. ?But then the framerate also tanked whenever I spread pizza sauce, and yo??u’ve got me there. It’s not the most advanced marinara physics I’ve ever seen, so what’s bogging things down is beyond my meager knowledge of game design.

The bugs were what caused me to struggle early on. Before I even finished the tutorial, I got this bug where I cut up a chili pepper, and the pieces of it disappeared. Fine, I could just cut another, except no I couldn’t. It still registered something on the cutting board, so it completely prevented me fr??om completing any more orders. So, I reloaded the most recent save, and it started me off with the objective to buy all the supplies for my next job. The problem is: I had all those ingredients already filling up a lot of space in my truck.

So, before I could buy more, I had to empty what I had in the truck just so I could rebuy everything. That’s a huge pain already, but then I couldn’t figure out how to rem??ove stuff. You can go to your inventory, but the option to throw stuff away isn’t there. No, instead, you have to buy it, go to the store, and only through the store’s menu can you remove items.

Just give me something crawling with parasites

I have a massive tolerance for bugs. I’ve played some rickety games. Food Truck Simulator just couldn’t find a wa??y to make it worthwhile to go beyon?d.

Part of the issue is that the economy drove me nuts. You’ll always have to juggle the food? you sell. Each spot has two? preferences, so if you go to the nightclub, you’re serving burgers and fries, but if you go to the port, it’s pizza and fries. That’s a good idea because it’s hard to keep a stock of all those prepared ingredients, especially since there’s no opportunity for prep cooking. However, ingredients go bad, and they go bad very quickly.

It’s almost better to just focu??s on one location since it’s easier to keep a fresh stock of those ingredients. There’s a limited amount of storage space in your truck, to begin with, so rotating through all the food types is needlessly difficult. If you do dare to juggle what you serve, get ready to throw out a lot of food, and as I’ve already established, throwing out food is not very intuitive.

Hold on, I need to ge??t something off my chest. How does soy sauce spoil, but mayonnaise doesn’t?

Spoiled soy sauce

The economy is so screwed up. You can do side-jobs, and one of them is at a gas station. Completing th?ese jobs will unlock fast-travel points throughout the city. However, usi?ng these requires you to pay, and that can cost upwards of $100. Do you know how much money you make at these side jobs? It’s not much more than $100, so why the hell would I spend that on fast travel? Even making money feeding the masses doesn’t make it worthwhile.

You also have to gas up your truck, which you can do with a jerry can in your garage or from a pump at a gas station. I initially thought that it would be cheaper to do it in your garage since it takes longer and is slightly more complicated, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Meanwhile, you can order ingredients on your computer, and if you go to pick them up quickly enough, you get a discount. If you just drive to the store, not only do you not get a discount for some reason, but each store only specializes in a specific stock.? I??t doesn’t make sense.

It's a felony to tease the order box

The most heartbreaking part of Food Truck Simulator is that the core gameplay is solid-ish, but the foundation they put it on is built out of Saltines. I feel like I could stick my finger into every orifice of the game and come up with a different disease each time. It’s rot??ten.

A lot of it could be fixed. Some of it might be fixed with the day one patch, and I even considered delaying this review to see if things improved. However, I stumbled across so many ??issues that I can’t fathom a patch bringing it up to snuff. During my gameplay, I found myself thinking of possible DLC that adds Mexican cuisine and pastries. By the time I finally had enough and walked away, the only thing I wanted was a playable experience. Th??is chicken is still pink in the middle.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Food Truck Simulator appeared first on Destructoid.

Do you think it has sommelier-m assist?

Train simulators, farming simulators, even goat simulators �?here I was thinking we had exhausted all of the best simulator ideas. Well, Broken Arms Games is here to prove us wrong with their wine-making sim, Hundred Days, which is free on the Epic Games Store until next week.

The game is described as a "tycoon game with a narrative twist," and has three different game modes so players can personalize their wine-making experience to their preferences. For beginning players all the way up to experts, Hundred Days gives players complete control over their own winery �?fro?m which vines to grow to choosing which yeast and bacteria to add for the fermentation process to deciding on the bottling details.

Every choice you make along the way will determine the quality and quantity of wine that you end up producing, making Hundred Days the perfect choice for any prospective winery owners. There's even a couple of different DLCs you can purchase, like the Napa Valley expansion that allows players to "explore a new American wine region," and the Grape Lab expansion that allows players to "crea??te and produce [their] favorite grape variety."

On top of the in-depth simulation mechanics, I also just love Hundred Days' art style. It's kind of cartoony and saturated with color, and I have to admit that seeing those deep purples does get me in the mood for a wine-making experience. Finally I will be able to live the glamorous Napa Valley fantasy that was instilled in me as a child after watching the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap. I don't think the game allows you ??to play as a sexy Dennis ??Quaid who rides horses all day, but here's hoping that's the next expansion pack.

Hundred Days will be free to download from the Epic Games Store, along with a bundle for battle royale shooter Realm Royale Reforged, until September 15.

The post Wine-making sim Hundred Days is free on the Epic Games Stor?e appeared first on Destructoid.

A game I'll be flocking to for years to come

Before I even started playing Cult of the Lamb, I knew I w?as going to love it. First off, we've got the cute art style going on, so that box was ticked immediately. Plus the conceit of a simulato?r about running your own cult is hilarious and fresh in its own way.

I think us roguelike and simulator fans can agree that both genres are having something of a renaissance right now, and Cult of the Lamb manages to hit ?every note in perfect harmony. Now maybe it's the antidepressants talking, but playing through it has been some of the most fun I've had with a game all year.

Part of the worry with having a game with so many different elements is that the player could start to feel overwhelmed �?the base-building sim, the punchy roguelike gameplay, the fishing, Knucklebones,?? and all of the side quests could start to feel like a lot after a while, but they never did.

Instead, each element fed back into the core gameplay really nicely, like bringing characters items to unlock the different cloaks that gave ?you power-ups in combat, or powering up your followers to get greater rewards when you sacrifice them. What's more, I found that having so many different types of activities always kept things fresh while still keeping me moving towards to ultimate goal.

Hades' lasting impact

Hades has been an undeniable influence on games over the past few years, especially when it comes to the roguelike genre. The hub world in the Underworld felt so alive, because between each run you could come back and decorate, see what's up with your favorite characters, and see things gradually change over time through the story. Your cult in Cult of the Lamb feels even more alive, in my opinion.

While Cult of the Lamb's combat isn't quite as complex as Hades', it instead thro?ws its weight behind the simulation side of things. Using the "crusades" as a means of gathering materials to then return to the main action of the cult �?where you'd often have to put out metaphorical fires that ignited while you were gone �?is a genius design choice.

With the different weapon and curse types, there was enough variety to keep things fresh. As much as I love Hades, I also tend to be a creature of habit, which means I stick with the one or two weapons I really ??like in the post-game and just run with those.

I prefer faster weapons like daggers and swords, but I appreciated that the game made me try the axes and hammers, because that's not something I would have gone out of my way to play with if I had the choice. It made me slow down and? change my combat style, and it's cool that a simple change like limited weapon?? choice could open up that half of the game in a whole new way.

Focus on fundamentals

I think what it comes down to for me is that you can feel how much the idea of fun was at the center of Cult of the Lamb's development. There was never a moment in my whole playthrough where I was over what I was doing, and wanted to get back to what wa??s next. I woul??d finish one of my crusades, or catching fish to feed my followers, or earning some extra coins in Knucklebones, and then I would be excited to get to do whatever was next, every time.

That to me is what makes for a perfect gameplay loop �?constant immersi??on because I'm not only enjoying what I'm doing in the moment, but because I also have something to look forward to.

I'm an "out of sight out of mind" kind of person, so it was literally like I was constantly re-falling in love with every aspect of the game when I remembered it existed. That feels silly to admit, but it speaks to the game's ability to scratch some kind of primal, child-like itch in my brain. That's ??good game design for you.

Cult of the Lamb isn't a game that's going to revolutionize the games industry, but it will stand out as one of ??the greats in its respective genres, and can hold its own with the best releases of 2022. It's one of those games th?at I'll be reaching for to replay every few years, and I look forward to trying a new build next time around.

The post Cult of the Lamb has a perfect gameplay loop appeared first on Destructoid.

Choo choo!

I don’t tend to play games for escapism. The whole “escape from the world’s problems by going to a fantasy world�?doesn’t work for my brain. Finding a game that actually gets me to relax is difficult. Even some games that are intended to be relaxing seem to have the opposite effect on me. What I’ve found that works are games that don’t allow me to think about anything else, such as Doom Eternal, management games, and simulators like Densha De Go 64.

I actually picked up Densha De Go 64 because I love the N64 and saw the game’s special controller. I knew I needed it. What I didn’t realize at ??the time was that the sound of the rail joints and the shouts of oncoming signals were the perfect mix? to get me to vegetate on the couch.

Toot like you mean it

Densha De Go started in arcades in 1996. The games are simulators of real Japanese rail routes. If your first thought is of the strict rules and timetables that conductors must adhere to in the real worl??d, they’re replicated here. You not only need to obey rail signs and arrive as close to the scheduled time as possible, but you’re also expected to come to a complete? stop at the appropriate spot on the station platform. Don’t worry. There is some space for error as screwing up merely takes from an allotted number of points you start with.

The rules are numerous and complicated. Sometimes there’s a speed limit, while other times if you’ve been going too fast, it will abruptly ask you to cut your speed, so you don’t hit the train in front of you. Every so often, you have to toot your horn to let bridges know you’re going under them and tunnels know you’re sliding in. It’s quite a lot when you start out, and it’s maybe a good idea to ha??ve a reference nearby, especially if you’re not fluent in Japanese.

The goal is to make it to the end of each route with some of your points intact. You lose points for being late,?? overshooting your stopping point, or not tooting when you’re supposed to. You gain points for doing all that really well, including tooting. If you manage to make it to the end with points remaining, you get a star on that route. Good job! If you lose all your points, you either start the leg of the route you failed over or get bumped ahead to the next station.

Lap candy

It’s challenging for more reasons than one. If Densha De Go 64 tells you that you need to slow down, it usually means do it right now. If you were speeding, you r??arely have enough time to cut the throttle and throw the brakes. Pushing the brakes into the eme??rgency settings generally has the same penalty as failing to slow down entirely, so it’s better to be careful.

Scratch that; it’s better to know what’s coming up. Densha De Go is obviously desi??gned to have you perfect routes. You’re not likely going to make it to the end of one flawlessly on your first try. Instead, you need to learn the ins and outs of that route, where it’s safe to cut loose, and when you need to keep careful c??ontrol of your speed. It’s also going to take a lot of practice before you’ll be stopping in the correct spots. Braking is fundamental but definitely not easy.

You also have a number of different routes to choose from that often have their own unique train to try ??out from all over Japan. They range from rural routes to jammed Tokyo commutes, b??ut you never have to worry about what your passengers are doing, just getting to where you need to go on time.

Shingou~!

It may seem like having alarms go off every time you threaten to ram an oncoming train wouldn’t be all that relaxing, but that sort of thing isn’t terribly ?frequent if you just drive carefully. There’s a zen-like appeal to getting a route down; a perfect dance performance of manipulating the brake and the throttle. It’s also not all that?? cruel about failure, either, alarm bells aside.

The N64 isn’t the only place you can go for trains; the series was released everywhere from the PlayStation 1 to the Wonderswan. Most consoles have their own version of the controller as well, which features a throttle and brake, both of which click satisfyingly. The N64 version is technically Densha De Go 64 with an expanded Toukaidou Line and voice support. Yeah, voice, using the Hey You! Pikachu! microphone. I didn’t try out that feature due to my overwhelming fear of microphones an??d Pokemon-related PTSD.

The series has continued long past this particular installment, though, with the most recent addition, Densha De Go Hashirou Yamanote-sen, being ?released on Switch and PS4 in 2020. And yeah, you can get a special controller for those ver??sions too (please, Destructoid?).

Thomas and Friends

Nowadays, there are a lot of options if you want a train simulator. If you’re just looking to get behind the levers and buttons of a powerful iron steed, you have choices beyond the arcade-influenced Densha De Go series. Maybe you’d even prefer to lay your own track. Maybe you? prefer trains made out of wood. It’s a well-tread genre.

But for me, the N64 is already my comfort console. It’s an old, reliable friend when I need one. Sprawled out on the couch with a clicky train controller on my lap for an hour or so before I pass out for a nap is a great way to end a morning full of stressful consciousness. If?????????????????????????? only I could get braking down. Or if people would just get used to walking a few meters to the door, that would be nice.

For other retro titles you may have missed, click?? right here!

The post Densha De Go 64 is the perfe?ct way to unwind after having t?o endure reality appeared first on Destructoid.

All right, cutter. Time to polish this tap shoe

Do you remember the opening cutscene to Starcraft? No, not the one where Gerard DuGalle watches from a battlecruiser as a Zerg swarm overruns a colony. That’s what you get when Brood War is installed. No, I mean the one where a group of space hicks is salvaging wreckage and a fleet of Protoss show up to cleanse the plane??t. Have you ever wanted to be one of those space hicks? No, I don’t mean get vaporized by space elves.

There’s something serene about the whole zero gravity scene. Surveying the wreckage, celebrating the potential haul, and dying in the hostile vacuum of oblivion; it’s something that struck me in my younger days, and now Hardspace: Shipbreaker is making it a reality. Err�?They’re making it an i??nterac?tive experience.

Hardspace: Shipbreaker (PC)
Developer: Blackbird Interactive
Publisher: Focus Entertainment
Released: May 24, 2022
MSRP: $34.99

Work sims have exploded in popularity recently. While managerial games have been around almost as long as video games have, getting down and dirty with a job is a reasonably new phenomenon. There’s the argument of “maybe just get a job do??ing X�?that comes with these games, but I’d rathe??r take bites out of the mud at the bottom of the trenches than pull up a blanket and live in them.

For that matter, it can be hard to hit a special sweet spot with work simulators. It has to b?e fun, and some of these games equate that as being? weird or hilariously janky. The streamer crowd has latched onto these for that reason, it allows them to demonstrate some sort of fantastical ineptitude while still being entertaining.

Hardspace: Shipbreaker is interesting because it’s not particularly weird, nor is janky. It has a sense of humor about things, but it’s not poking fun at itself. Rather, it presents a satire of the modern workplace and our corporate overlords. Except it does that really effectively, so if you have ever had a really sucky boss and worked under the heel of unfeeling, unfamiliar management, it’s probably going to hit close to home. Heck, I worked in IT for nine years. It’s not the most grueling work, but Hardspace: Shipbreaker managed to find al??l the nerves my old supervisor us?ed to poke.

[embed]//youtu.be/3uEybPy-ajE[/embed]

All right, cutter. Time to peel this banana

That’s fine and everything, but it’s not necessarily the main appeal of Hardspace: Shipbreaker. From the ??first day of the job until you decide you’re finished, you float in zero gravity, through the empty corridors and crawlspaces of various industrial ships, popping them open and peeling them away.

The job is simple. Ther?e are three types of scrap, and each on goes into a different space bucket. It’s up to you to figure out how to recover every piece that you can and get it in the ri?ght spot. This requires cutting, plucking, and even exploding parts off the ship’s body.

It starts off easy; don’t electrocute yourself and be careful with that cutter around those big, red barrels. Eventually, you work your way up to much more dangerous kit. There are thrusters that you need to cut the fuel to while everything starts to burn. There are reactors that you need to prep, pluck, and dump before it?? vaporizes you and a large section of the ship. Then there’s explosive decompression, which can sometimes be an inconvenience, and other times a catastrophic setback. Time is money, but scrap is also money, and it’s worth more in one piece.

All right, cutter. Time to shave this gorilla

The act of peeling apart a ship is just so satisfying. A clean scrapping is like space music. Watching your tethers pull off the outer shell and deposit them in the proper spot is like napping in a hammock. But the?n there are tense moments, like when you find the atmospheric regulator in one section of a ship is busted, so you need to do a “controlled�?explosive depressurization. Or when you pull a reactor and realize that the path you made isn’t quite as clear as it seemed a moment ago.

If that thing does go nuclear, your employer, Lynx Salvage, has you covered. They’ll just boot up a clone and send you back to work. It’s probably the darkest little corner of Hardspace: Shipbreaker’s sense of humor. It at least made me take care of my mortal shell so death wouldn’t send me into another existential crisis. Oops, it’s happeni??n??g again, let’s move on.

That’s in the standard mode; death isn’t permanent. There’s a limited way of playing that gives you a set number of lives to spend. Then there’s a permanent death mode if you’d rather not laugh in the face of space-god. Finally, there’s a more freefor??m mode where you don’t need to worry about death or a shift clock. None of them are really touted as the true way to play, but the whole cloning thing is brought up for narrative reasons.

All right, cutter. Time to grind this stripper pole

Hardspace: Shipbreaker is quite a long game. There’s a perpetual appeal in deconstructing spacefaring vessels, but there is a start and end to the main career. In the beginning, you’re saddled with col?ossal debt to Lynx, and that’s given to you as sort of a red herring for the game’s main objective. As you gain experience by hitting salvage goals and level up, additional objectives open up and the narrative progresses to a point of termination. It’s all a rather satisfying progression, but it takes a long time to get there. Luckily, it’s helped up by a lot of different ship configurations to mess with.

I also have good news and bad news about the soundtrack. Bad news f??irst: it’s mostly country. The good news is that it’s not modern pop-country. You won’t hear lyrics about beer, the idealized virtues of small-town life, and the life lessons you learn while driving a truck. You won’t hear any lyrics at all. See, the good news is that it’s just atmospheric, twangy country. Acoustic guitars, fiddles, and then you pull that reactor and panicky techno overlaps it. As someone who detests modern country, the soundtrack didn’t really bother me. However, my brain insists that there are only about three tracks to the whole thing and refuses to stop playing them for me.

One thing to note is that the narrative can get pretty drawn out. A lot of the time you're staring at a wall listening to a character talk over comms. You never actually see these characters. It does a decent job to show the worries of the working class, but if you just want to go and cut ships apart, then I can see it getting a bit frustrating. It never ??really bothered me. I found the characters to be pretty likeable

Hardspace: Shipbreaker is successful in just about everything it attempts. Not only is its gameplay extremely replayable and constantly satisfying, but it also manages to stack it all on a very solid narrative foundation. Tangibly, it feels like keeping your head down while forces bigger than you decide your fate. Gross. But if you don’t want all the horrible management talk and resistance to unionization to drag you down, you can just go in and hack some ships apart. It’s a serene zero-g experience while a wasp flies around in your helmet. Ignore it, and maybe it will leave you alone. ??Except probably not, wasps are jerks.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Hardspace: Shipbreaker appeared first on Destructoid.

I'm begging you, Nintendo

Nintendo has been in a trend of bringing back its classic games recently �?most notably the return of its Sports series by way of Nintendo Switch Sports, as well as rumors that have been circulating about an official Game Boy Advance emulator. The company likes to hold its cards close to its chest, so to speak, because it knows the chokehold that classic games have on us fans. But now that Nintendo is finally rereleasing, revamping, and monetizing our old favorites, I have one simple request: bring Nintendogs back on Switch.

Nintendogs: what's the deal?

For those who haven't played any of these games, or just simply don't remember, let me give you a little refresher. Nintendogs is a series of real-time pet simulators released for the Nintendo DS in 2005. There were six total versions of the game that were essentially all released at once for the DS, including Labrador & Friends, Shiba & Friends, Chihuahua & Friends, Dalmation & Friends, and the Best Friends Version, with the main differences among them being the dog breeds featured in each version, as well as geographically where they were released. For example, the Shiba edition w??as only released in Japan due to the breed?'s popularity in that country.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGYZxdAS0l0

For some reason I thought there were a ton of sequels, but there's only one, Nintendogs + Cats, which was released for the Nintendo 3DS back in 2011. I definitely had more than one copy of the game, something that was popular amongst fans who wanted to collec??t them all, or try out the different breeds that the various titles had to offer.

Not only were the Nintendogs games insanely popular, but they also really paved the way for pretty much all of the pet s??imulator games to come.

Sweet, soothing gameplay

The main gameplay includes adopting dogs, pe??tting them, washin??g them, playing with them, walking them �?you know, what you do with dogs in real life.

The highlight of the Nintendogs experience for me is the training, specifically the agility course you can do, because you get to lead your dog through the obstacles and compete for the fastest time. Plus, the commentary we got from the competition's hosts Ted and Archie, which was hilarious and rife with sexual tension. It's one of those games that has plenty to keep you engaged and enjoying t??he experience, but not so much going on that you can't have a chill, relaxing time with your pups.

I know for a fact that I'm not alone in wanting a Nintendogs game for the Switch �?other players who also have nostalgia for the pet simulator series have been asking for a revival of the franchise for years. There's also a ton of crossover with the Animal Crossing and Pokémon fa?ndoms, two series that both include?? adorable animals, relaxing gameplay, and most importantly, have made huge profits for Nintendo over the past few years.

Gone, but never forgotten

It's one of those games that was so beloved at the time of its release, it has remained in the collective consciousness of both fans and Nintendo alike. I mean, the company has been putting Nintendogs references in its other games for years, so we know it hasn't stopped thinking about its legacy either. Seem?s like a fairly cut-and-dry win-win situation to me �?fans get a brand new version of one of their favorite childhood games, and Nintendo gets to make a pretty penny.

I know the touch screen and microphone were a big part of the gameplay of the original Nintendogs, but I think they could make some really fun changes with the Switch's hardware. The first thing that comes to mind is the Poké Ball-throwing mechanic in Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee �?that's something simple that would translate well to Nintendogs, and that's just off the top of my head! C'mon Nintendo, I know you guys ??are creative, an?d I'd be dying to see what a fun new spin you could put on the series these days.

Until you wise up, I'll be right here with Nintendogs m?oney burning a hole in my pocket. The squeaky ball is i??n your court.

//www.tiktok.com/@destructoid/video/7094712402133929221?is_from_webapp=1&s?ender_device=pc&web_id=7052788164067706373

The post I’m ready for a Nintendogs revival on Switch appeared first on Destructoid.

And maybe also some coffee

The demo for Cafe Owner Simulator just kept getting more confusing for me. For starters, it has a header that looks suspiciously like the one used by House Flipper and its various DLC. However, it’s not related to that developer or publisher. Then you get into it and it tells you how your freakishly proportioned father used to run restaurants?? and you’re taking over that dream.

Wait, weren't we talking about cafes?

No, that’s plainly a bar in the image. Then you get to the point where you actually pick the menu and you’re given options like lasagna and various Japanese dishes. So I looked up the def?inition of cafe because I’m pretty sure “cafe�?is just French for coffee. It seems Americans use it to describe everything from nightclubs to diners. I’ve probably never seen that here in Canada because it would confuse the French-speaking population.

In any case, Cafe Owner Simulator is a first-person restaurant manager and its demo is available as part of the Steam Next Fest. I just wanted to get that out of the way.

The demo for Cafe Owner Simulator starts off about as predict?ably as you can get. You’re in front of a derelict building that is covered in garbage, and it’s up to you to click on all that trash to get rid of it. Replace the windows, catch the rats, reshingle the roof; then it’s time to decorate.

Cafe Owner Simulator: Prologue shows off a lot o??f options for indoor decorations, but the ones that you can purchase in the demo are pretty limited. One interesting facet is that appliances have to be plugged into an outlet, but you can slap those outlets anywhere, like, say, directly above the sink. You build your menu, but I’m not sure? why you’d pick one dish over the other at this point. You order groceries, but don’t order more than four at a time, because any boxes beyond that will just disappear.

I slapped down some tables, hired a dude, then opened the place up. Customers started arriving one at a time. I just�?watched as they slowly loped their way down the pat??h to the restaurant. You take their order, then the dude starts making it; eventually delivering it to your register so you can take it to the custo?mer to poke at.

[embed]//youtu.be/ZIi06c3z5mI[/embed]

You can only queue up one order per employee, which is baffling to me. I’ve never worked in food services, but I know that orders are queued up on tickets, however many people cooking be damned. So you just sit t??here, staring at the customer until your dude finishes with the last person’s meal. You can buy a second prep table and hire an?other dude, which would have been nice to know before I opened the restaurant.

Eventually, the gods tire of your worthless endeavor and ??you’re hit by some sort of storm. It looks like a sandstorm, but your eatery is surrounded by coniferous trees and a wandering moose, so that seems unlikely. It does, however, fade the game to? black. Thank goodness, I was getting tired of the slow service.

Cafe Owner Simulator needs a lot of work. Not just squashing bugs, but also fleshing out some of the mechanics. The developer is collecting feedback, so hopefully, some of the many wrinkles can be ironed out. I like first-person builder games and I like management games, it’s just that Cafe Owner Simulator’s demo doesn’t make a good case for their marriage. I’ll be watchi??ng this one, so I hope it doesn’t get performance anxiety.

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I hope tacos are free DLC

If I listed the upcoming simulator games that are coming around the corner that I’m most excited for, Food Truck Simulator would be at the top. Food trucks are like North America’s answer to east Asian food stalls. They’re exciting places where salty food is just handed to you. Then you walk five feet and sit on a ledge because t?hey’r??e not as convenient as food stalls.

The Food Truck Simulator demo �?dropped as part of Steam Next Fest �?is a tantalizing look at what DRAGO Entertainment will be serving up later this year. They’re the developer behind Gas Station Simulator, which I found to be an enjoyable little title. Food Truck Simulator felt like a concept that was too go?od to be true, but strangely, the demo suggests to me they might just p??ull it all off.

Your dad died or something, and he was big into food trucks. As the son of this food truck man, you feel responsible for taking over the family legacy. I guess that’s something people feel obligated to do, but the guy obviously stopped caring quite a while before death. The food truck is in ruins. It's like he won a competition and moved on, so it's somewhat strange this is an important endeavor for you. Then again, the narrative is probably not the central focus of Food Truck Simulator.

Your first order of business is restoring the food truck, which is really just an excuse to customize it. You then pick up some groceries, drive to the first locatio?n, and get ready to serve up some grub.

It’s then a matter of manning the grill. The cooking is the right mix of deep and sim?ple. The grill needs to stay fueled, buns need to be cut and toasted, and the proper ingredients need to be slapped on before being handed to the fish-eyed customers. You start out with just burgers,? but then you move on to fries. Each sometimes requires special care to get them to the right crispiness or done-ness.

Speaking of which, there are some sick?? folks out there. I guess I can handle mayonnaise or mustard on fries, even though, as a Canadian, it’s gravy and cheese curds on fries or nothing. However, I don’t know why anyone would want a burger “well??-done.�?Listen, the founding fathers didn’t die on the beaches of France so you could pervert beef. Unfortunately, you can’t force medium rare on every customer. Apparently, you need to respect their “opinions,�?regardless of how blatantly wrong they are.

The demo fades to black with further hints on what’s to come. Notably, the antagonist from Gas Station Simulator vandalizes your truck and leaves you to burn in the garage. This?? can only be a narrative of fast-food revenge, and I am here for it.

What’s presented in the Food Truck Simulator demo, however, is very promising. It seems like all the pieces are there, and it’s just a matter of putting the really grea?sy picture together. I ran into some bad performance issues, especially while driving, but it’s something that I have faith can be sorted out for the final release. For that, we only have a 2022 ETA to go by, but you can bet I’ll be gassing up the grill?? for when it finally drops.

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All aboard

Legendary British outfit Team17 announced that it has acquired publisher Astrogen Entertainment. The Dusseldorf-based company was reportedly purchased for �?5?? million (or roughly $86 million USD), with a further consideration of �?5m (or roughly $28 million), should performance targets be met.

To the average video game fan, that might seem like a lot of moolah for what appears to be an unknown entity, but Astrogen is the key publisher and distributor of the games in developer GIANTS' simulation series. Titles such as Farming Simulator, Bus Simulator, Construction Simulator, and the upcoming Firefighting Simulator might be the nichest of the niche, but have been proven best-selling brand for many years �?with Farming Simulator alone having sowed over 25 million copies.

"Our goal is to become the number one brand in the field of 'working' simulation games," said Astragon CEOs Julia Pfiffer?? and Tim Schmitz. "Collaborating with Team17 will enable and help Astragon to evolve and focus on this strategy. We look forward to the possibilities that are opened up by working with what we believe to be a great partner to deliver our ambitions."

Astrogen Entertainment is the latest in a number of recent purchases performed by Team17. The Worms developer also recently opened its wallet to acquire U.S.-based indie publisher The Label, as well as the IP for Black Matter's World War II shooter Hell Let Loose. Clearly, Team17 is on something of a shopping spree. Astrogen will continue to operate as a separate entity under the T?eam17 umbrella and will work with ??its new partner to produce new titles while continuing its simulation line.

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I didn't expect to like the potion-crafting mechanic this much, but it's fun to plot out

After seeing it on the Steam top-sellers list today, I only intended to dabble in Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator, a newly-released game about creating potions for fun and profit from niceplay games and TinyBuild. Welp, 90 minutes later, that sure was naive.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV5LXRZqQ9g

I'm not sure about your history with browser-based games in the Flash era, but it was a time when I'd take a chance on unassuming games and wind up playing obsessively until I'd seen and done everything. Potion Craft?? hit me in a similar way �?it has a simple but very effective illustrated style and a laid-back "friendly shopkeep" vibe that sucked me right in. And, I'm surprised to say, the potion-crafting mechanic is pretty fun to figure out.

With an up-and-coming shop, every day you'll pluck plants from your garden, combine them in a ton of potential different ways t?o concoct potions as efficiently as possible, and sell them to meet customers' requests, some of which are hazy at best. There's some light XP-based progression unlocks (e.g., to improve your haggling or trading prowess), and some bigger goals like an Alchemy Machine to work toward, but ??that's the gist.

The mechanics of Potion Craft are easy enoug??h to grasp �?this is a mouse-based game where ??you physically drag ingredients, mash 'em up, plop them into a cauldron, and heat up the mix, rinse and repeat. The trickier part is making the most of your harvested (and purchased) ingredients each day; figuring out the optimal use of what you've got and what you ideally need to deliver. If you can keep every would-be customer happy, you'll have a great reputation. But if you try and hand them the wrong type of potion, or you just don't have the ingredients you need that day and you have to refuse them, they'll be grouchy.

_{The haggling mini-game is the most "active" part of Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator.}

About those potions: instead of mindlessly grabbing a bit of this and a bit of that to make a particular blend the same way every single time, Potion Craft allows for?? �?and eventually demands �?more creativity. When you'r?e brewing, you'll see a map with some good icons (like XP-granting books) and some bad icons (like piles of skulls and bones).

Each in?gredient has its own pre-determined "path" it will form on the alchemic map, and by strategically combining ingredients, one after the other, you'll be able to "build" a route that lets you snake you??r way around to avoid the potion-ruining spots and ultimately land on a final marker that corresponds to a potion type. While that's a pretty wordy way of breaking it down (honestly, consult the trailer), in practice, it's easy. There's depth, though.

_{X marks the spot. In this example, if I get to the heart marker, I'll end up with an oft-requested healing potion.}

What's interesting is that you have a lot of control over how these "routes" are built on the map �?you can brute force it with a bunch of repetitive ingredients that cover little ground but aren't zany and hard to plot out, you can use the raw ingredient or crush it to alter the length of the trail, and you can add a bit of water to your cauldron to nudge your position on the ??map back toward the starting point. It's a pretty novel mechanic for a crafting game, and combined with the wider shopkeeper sim progression, it's a fun blend.

Once ??you've created a?? potion, you can save the recipe, at which point you no longer need to manually assemble it again (assuming you have the exact same ingredients).

_{If you line up your potion exactly right, you'll end up with a higher-tier result.}

After my 90-minute session, I ranked up a few times by consistently selling the right potions without turning too many folks away, and I checked off all of the goals in the first two chapters of the Alchemist's Path book, so I made a good dent. At the same time, the rate at which I'm progressing has slowed significantly. The lo??ng game �?the big-picture strategy �?is still eluding me?. Operating my shop in a sustainable way, without playing so fast and loose that I run the risk of eroding my alchemist's reputation, will be tough.

Now I know what you're thinking: "Early Access? Let's just save this for a rainy d??ay."

I get that, and I feel the same way about the majority of work-in-progress ?games, but everything here is polished up, and I think there's eno??ugh content already to warrant not waiting. It's a satisfying loop, even if there are some missing features (certain buttons have a "still in early access" caveat) and the options (including controls) are sparse.

Speaking of which, I?? really dig ?this visual breakdown of what's next for the game:

_{Some of the longer-term hooks aren't finalized yet. I'm most interested in the new planting elements.}

And more context about futu??re updates from the developer:

"In the current version, the player is already able to interact with the Alchemy Machine, which will be the main tool to progress towards creating a Philosopher's Stone. We are going to introduce more potion effects, recipes, ingredients, and potion bases. The process of running the poti??on shop will also expand, as players will be able to upgrade their garden, work on their reputation and develop their alchemist talents. To make sure making potions doesn't become a routine, certain customers will request potio??ns with special conditions. We also have plans for numerous quality of life improvements, for which we would need a lot of player feedback."

If you're intrigued, Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator is on Steam for $13.49 during ??launch week, so you're better off buying now, or strapping ?in for a long wait for eventual sales.

I came in with l??ittle to no expectations �?I had heard of this game once before, likely from a showcase, but never dug into it �?and I've already become a fan. It's a gem!

_{[This impressions piece is based on a Steam Early Access build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Cause I ain't washing dishes in a ditch no more

The simulator genre has gotten out of hand. Actually, it was never very well handled, but now that technology allows us to actually simulate things, it’s got?ten weirder. What used to be a look at how to fly a plane or build a city has become streamer fodder. It’s not about how accurate it is, it’s about how weird it is.

The concept has been made fun of so many times, it isn’t even a joke anymore. Okay, Goat Simulator; haha, ??it has nothing to do with simulating a? goat.

These days, buying a game with “simulator�?in the name is a roll of the dice. Are you going to land on a sloppy joke game, a lifeless attempt at replicating a job, or somewhere in between? S?omething that recreates the experience while st?ill being fun.

Gas Station Simulator (PC)
Developer: Drago Entertainment
Publisher: Movie Games S.A., HeartBeat Games
Released: September 15, 2021
MSRP: $19.99

Gas Station Simulator may be a decent exa?mple of that sort of game. Largely, it is?? what it says on the box; you run a gas station. However, it has inventive ways to make it more than sheer drudgery.

You start off with a derelict property that is barely worth saving. With a little elbow grease, you get the gas station functional ag?ain and ready to sling out petrol and snacks. The overall goal of the game is to upg??rade your gas station to the fifth level and pay back some nebulous loan to your shady uncle.

Each upgrade serves as something of a chapter. Tasks given to you by your uncle guide you through setting up your station, from getting the warehouse running to eventually hiring employees. That start is actually a pretty addicting little gameplay loop. You’re given plenty of clearance to customize your station and put extra effort into any little niche that you feel needs it, but the objectives allow you to keep track of what? you eventually need to focus on.

[embed]//youtu.be/zDYVQ_-rCUE[/embed]

The workday is a series of mini-games. Everything you do from selling snacks to fueling vehicles has a small game associated with them. They’re not all that bad, staying simple and breezy, and never lin?gering too long. Okay, so by the 500th time you’re scanning items on the belt, it gets a little tiresome, but I’m not sure how you add variety to the experience.

There’s no micromanaging allowed, however. You can hire employe??es, but you don’t schedule what times they work or take breaks. You?? also can’t adjust how much you’re selling items for. It will tell you as you’re buying supplies whether they’re above or below market value, but that’s not really much help when you don’t know what the scanner picks them up as. In a way, I don’t want that much nitty-gritty, but at the same time, the option would be nice.

It does get a bit weird. Busses will sometimes drop off hordes of people wearing alien masks. One of the optional jobs you can do is breaking into people’s tru??nks, and it doesn’t matter if they’re standing there, watching you do it, there are no repercussions unless you screw up. Even then, you don’t get fined or go to jail, it just hurts your station’s reputation slightly.

There’s also a little rapscallion named Dennis who will spraypaint dicks on the side of your gas station. I actually don’t think they’re detrimental or affect anything, but you can paint over them. Now that I think about it, I should have just k?ept painting over his lesser graffiti and left up the dicks, so ??mine would be the gas station with dicks all over it. Inspiration always strikes me at the least opportune moment.

The AI is pretty dumb. Sandstorms will deposit sandbanks on the driveway, and you need to clear them with the excavator: my least favorite part of the game. However, it is hilarious that people blindly dri??ve up these mo??unds and get stuck.

If you manage to completely screw up traffic �?like I did every time I shut the warehouse door before the delivery truck had fully departed �?you can hit a button that summons aliens to abduct everyone at the station. Maybe including an “oops, our pathfinding is unreliable�?button is a little cheap, but at least they found a fun way to do it?.

Gas Station Simulator was estimated to me at 20+ hours, but in reality, I finished it in 13, and I spent a lot of time making my store look pretty. That’s probably a good thing, as the gameplay was starting to wear. Even managing your employees requires some juggling??, as none are as efficient as doing it yourself, and they need to be brought off breaks and paid manually. It’s better than juggling four jobs at once while keeping the storefront clean, but it comes with its own pains.

Parts of it also seem to have been scaled back.?? Early marketing showed off a modern convenience-style gas station, but you never make it past the rustic Americana phase. Likewise, there’s a derelict carwash behind the station, but if that was ever a planned feature, it seems to either have been scrapped or saved for DLC.

There’s enough content that the cut features aren’t really missed??, but the fact that there’s this vestigial reminder right out your back door is a little strange.

I had fun with Gas Station Simulator, mostly. While it helps get across the experience of running a highway petrol stop, it doesn’t feel like work. Sure, sometimes you’re run ragged, you might suffer some frustrating setbacks, and it’s hard to find good help, but it manages t?o stay entertaining through its runtime.

It’s sloppy, definitely. A lot of the jank is probably left intentionally to attract the aforementioned streamer crowd, but it’s entirely intr?usive. The weirdies are there, but the experience isn’t cheapened because of it.

Overall, it hits its niche. It lands on the edges of the sweet spot for modern? simulator??s. It manages to be fun and atmospheric. It’s a hard day’s work, but someone has to do it.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Simple and clean

A very soothing simulator has secured a new partnership to keep its development going. FuturLab has announced a partnership with Square Enix Collective to publish PowerWash Simulator under Square Enix on Steam.

This collaboration will allow FuturLab to continue developing PowerWash Simulator, which recently launched on Steam Early Access.

"Our original vision for PowerWash Simulator was to expand the game in ways that would appeal to a large audience, with the potential of licensed content," said FuturLab fo??under and creative director James Marsden in a press release. "Square Enix Collective is the perfect publishing choice as we share a united vision regarding the future of the game."

This soothing simulator really captured our attention here in the first GIF we saw, and it sounds like Jordan has enjoyed his time? with the Early Access version of the game. Hopefully this collaboration leads to even more, and possibly some wild crossover conte?nt too. I'd like to imagine Midgar needs powerwashing too, right?

PowerWash Simulator is currently available in Early Access on Steam.

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