SpammyV
@SpammyV

This isn't an exhaustive list of what makes the game good, but after about thirty hours I think I'm starting to suspect that Pacific Drive may just be a Good Video Game and here are some of the reasons why. Will I add to this later when I remember more things? Maybe. Did I miss something you love? What are you going to do? Post about it?

It's a wonderfully tactile game. Being flung into the air or yoinked around by Anomalies gives you a sense of place in the world. Prompts that you must hold down the button to complete reinforce a sense of time, creating consideration in the garage and tension in the Zone. Your car isn't customized from a menu, you have to walk around the garage and move parts to and from storage. Stand in front of the paint shelf and think about how you'll decorate for this drive. Carry new shelves or other equipment to where they will go.

Also don't do what I did and assume decorations are extremely limiting. Like a full can of paint and decal roll will do your whole car so feel free to start experimenting!

I love the Mundane Weird approach to the setting. What's going on could have been constructed to be horror, and some Anomalies are right on the line, but overall the approach is that while what happens in the Zone is bizarre and unexplainable and seemingly breaks the laws of physics... It just is. In itself a natural phenomena. I always love when these glimpses of another world are not presented as if to say "The horror! The strangeness! Our minds were not made to process these sights!" but simply that as strange as it may seem, it follows its own natural laws. What's threatening and hostile to life is still only as frightening as acidic pools in the real world. Should they be here? No. But still they only exist.

You certainly can and will get surprised by the things that happen to you, but nothing's in your face or pushing body horror and ~trauma~ at you which are kinda the horror game hallmarks at this point.

It's a game that rewards experimenting with the things you find in the world to discover new solutions or responses.

Especially because fighting is not an option. "Shoot the Cyberdemon until it dies" is not on the table here.

Picking around this stretch of Pacific Northwest is great fun. How long do you stick to the road to enjoy relatively clear routes and have an easier time finding resources in the clearing around the roads? When do you swerve off the road?

This game has a sweet road trip mixtape. I love the messages that come in from other people too.

I won't tell you that you must go in blind, but for a lot of games I like to stay fresh and the mystery of seeing something weird in the zone and scanning it to figure out what it's deal is makes for a fantastic experience.

The mood is excellent when you're moving from a dense forest into the small clearing around a cabin, or finding an abandoned research trailer left behind in the wilderness, or watching stark concrete architecture cutting through the mountains.

All the voice acting is excellent. Everyone carries their themselves through their performances fantastically.

I love the mood the game creates in relation to its setting. The super-science promises of the LIM technology... the lingering resentment and rage from the people eminent domain'd out of their home... the damning-as-hell consequences of what they were messing with... The hope and the guilt that would keep some of the science staff in this zone after the government forced everyone away. It's a choice that I love that while you're primarily dealing with the scientists who stayed, you still find reports from people investigating from the outside, getting glimpses into the hell this brought on that made them throw up the mountainous walls to keep people out.

The fixed zones they've designed for the plot beats are fantastically set up to create an experience at the story moment.

Thought about throwing the "video game review" tag on this but it's really more of just me gushing about what I enjoy so let's invent a new tag.



love
@love

Do I look like I know what a void* is??? I just wa\040a666660000013a 000002a81f3f94e0 00000000fdfdfdfd 0000000000000000


love
@love

what is even the point of a compiler. what's a type. fuck it, peggle write directly to memory




gabu
@gabu

he's tiny
he's noodle
he carries a gameboy link cable around his waist
it's hub!

more art from last year, this is my noodle dragon sona "hub" who i created for when i feel small and flexible. his colors are based around the purple gba colors, and the lighter spots on his purple body are supposed to indicate a kind of shimmering scales. his eyes glow like a power led.

his basic backstory is that he's a kind of wish/luck dragon that was born from the need to have a gameboy link cable! when your friend wants to trade pokemon and you're looking for your link cable but you just can't find it!!! and you think "ohhh please let me find it".... but then! all of a sudden you find it right there and you're so relieved..... that's all thanks to hub's magic!

or to generalize it, his power is connecting people, to create friendships, through technology/cables. but... sadly his services are no longer needed as much in the age of wi-fi and internet gaming...... tragic!

he sometimes branches out to provide other types of cables such as usb charging cables but otherwise he's just enjoying his retirement, though always on the lookout for a retro gaming enthousiast in need!


gabu
@gabu

some art i drew last year of hub hanging out with my friend @gbpocket
don't get stuck now, hub!!!!

Even More Bonus Content

and they also drew a gift art back! (this ^ art by @gbpocket)

UPDATE: even more!



nes-pictionary
@nes-pictionary

_____5 ____4


solution ...okay so now i'm just gonna put in a load of text that won't show up on-screen but should pad out the off-site embeds (like discord) enough that the solution won't actually get spoiled in the embed hopefully maybe. wouldn't it be great if cohost hid the spoiler tags from the embed text? i think that'd be neat. okay hopefully that's enough padding now fingers crossed. anyway if the embed is still going then *gasp* spoilers, the solution is PAPER CLIP


p0ti0n
@p0ti0n

it's sleeping curled up. tail on left


StrawberryDaquiri
@StrawberryDaquiri
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