20170924: AM Hours
While watching the 2017 World Championship Play-In matches for League of Legends, I decided to play Spintires, another $29.99 valued game which I had yet to play (see footnote).
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| Trying to ford the river. |
Setup: Keyboard.
Steam Game Time: 39 minutes
20170924: Afternoon
I wanted to give the game another try. As my last game save ended with tipping over, I restarted the game. Upon tipping over again, I went to seek help (on the internet) and none of the proposed solutions seemed to apply.
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| Constantly turning the wheel left and right seems to help. |
Right. Whatever, I'll just restart just one more time and see what happens.
Tip: Automatic gear shifting makes the game much easier.
Tip: Turning the wheel left and right can help get the vehicle through muddy terrain.
Tip: Using all-wheel drive in certain situations is helpful. I assume it wastes more gas so I didn't use it all the time.
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| Using a different vehicle. |
Unfortunately, I reached a point in the game where I went to collect some logs and couldn't figure out what the game wanted me to do. In particular, I wish there was a "less simulated" mode. After all, the game doesn't make me get out and pump my own gas, why should I have to actually load my own logs?
Steam Game Time: 41 minutes
Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Great graphics
+ Realistic gameplay (physics-based)
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| Terrible way to teach a player how to play. |
Cons:
- Difficult controls. Perhaps I should have used a controller.
- Extremely difficult to use camera.
- Poor gameplay instructions.
Summary:
The depth of the simulation in this game is potentially highly rewarding for any player willing to put the time in to explore and unravel its intricacies.
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| I don't really understand this log loading game mechanic. |
Unfortunately, my personal preference on game design is that the exploration process can be organic if it's unessential to the gameplay (e.g., discovering a hidden power-up), or if it's obvious (e.g., discovering double-jump when a ledge is too high for a single jump). However, more complicated procedures should be explained or placed in a tutorial.
When applied to Spintires, I'm fine organically discovering the best ways to drive through mud, up a hill, or across a river, but I would like a broad explanation of gathering and delivering logs.
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| Making modifications to a vehicle. |
In the end, as mentioned before, the detail and complexity of the game may satisfy some players, but I was left unsatisfied.
SPINTIRES (PC) (2014)
Relevant Links:
SPINTIRES Website
SPINTIRES (Wikipedia.org)
SPINTIRES (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
SPINTIRES (Steam Store Page)
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