Games I've been playing

I try to avoid spoilers, but I can make no guarantee, sorry.

Currently Playing

PowerWash Simulator

PowerWash Simulator is a 2022 simulation game developed by FuturLab and published by Square Enix.

The game is set in a fictional town named "Muckingham". You play as a powerwasher who sets up a powerwashing business.

Players are tasked with going to each location and cleaning anything that has become dirty. In one scenario for example, you clean a house.

The game is quite long, with How Long To Beat estimating around 37 and a half hours to finish just the main story, and an average of 47 hours across all the scenarios.

I do have a few complaints however:

  • The first is that the game doesn't recommend when you should upgrade your washer,

    • Here's a tip. Upgrade your washer as soon as you can, also avoid the soaps until you have the Vista Prime PRO, The final powerwasher in the game.

  • The next issue is the movement, I've found that I get stuck on parts of the building or object, meaning I have to jump and then move.
  • The game auto-completes a object when it is cleaned, the there are two issues with this, the first is that it isn't anywhere near clean, but it auto-completes, which isn't as satisfying, or the object is so clean that it might as well be sparkling, but the game still thinks there is dirt, frustrating you.

The game also has several pieces of DLC, some free. Being a Square Enix game, there are two pieces of DLC based on their games, Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider. Both of these are free, alongside a christmas DLC and a DLC made by a community vote.

The game is available on PC (Via Steam), Playstation (Both PS4 and PS5), Xbox (Both One and Series consoles) and Nintendo Switch for the price of £19.99. A VR version for Meta Quest 2, Pro and 3 is also available. Each paid DLC costs £6.50.

Played Again and Again

BeamNG.Drive

BeamNG.Drive is a vehicle simulation game developed and published by BeamNG GmbH. The game's biggest feature is it's realistic simulation of vehicles and damage.

There are several built in places to drive, most in the USA. Each location has optional missions, named Scenarios. Each scenario has a objective, for example, take this truck full of logs from one place to another, or beat this race.

There's even a experimental career mode in development, which you can play, just click it's icon a couple times.

If that's not your taste, BeamNG also has freeroam, where you can choose a location to drive at.

In BeamNG, there are no real-world brands, but instead, in-universe brands, with a selection of cars based on several brands. Each car is highly detailed and realistic.

There's even a article on their blog explaining just the door latching sounds, which you can read here.

BeamNG's biggest feature however is it's softbody physics. Put simply, Each and every car can be damaged, even destroyed. This isn't just at the surface level either, the engine's components can fail with damage too.

To demonstrate, I took the Ibishu Covet, a 80s hatchback and crashed it into a wall at 50 MPH, compare the base shape and the damaged one!

Not to mention all of the mods you can download for the game, the game has a built in mod repository, with plenty of high quality mods. Here's a few I recommend:

Vehicles

Some mods are paid, while others are completely free.

Teardown

Teardown is a 2022 sandbox-puzzle game developed by Tuxedo Labs and published by Saber Interactive (Except on PC, where it is self published)

Each level is made up of Voxels, which can be destroyed, forming the main feature, it's destruction.

The game's career takes place over a number of months, Beginning with you taking a demolition job, however, your client didn't tell you that the building was under cultural protection, and you get caught on a security camera.

In the morning, you are informed that you were caught on a security camera, however, an investigator gives you an ultimatum, help her with another investigation and she won't investigate what happened.

As you go through the game, the plot begins to unravel, not all is as it seems...

The main part of the career mode is planning out heists and jobs, as you won't have much time to get everything before you're discovered, causing you to fail.

I really like the accessibility features, allowing you to increase the amount of time you have to get each item, or decreasing the amount of damage you take.

One other feature in the accessibility options is to skip the game entirely and unlock each tool and location for usage in sandbox mode, which is the main reason I brought the game.

To put this into prospective, I have played nearly 200 hours of it since I brought it last year. I haven't touched the campaign once. All this time was from me playing the sandbox mode.

So, it is possible to play for a long time without even touching the campaign, but you still might want to, as there are 3 extra modes in the game:

  • Mayhem - Destroy as many voxels in 60 seconds.
  • Fetch - Locate and take as many chests in 1 minute and return to your vehicle before you get caught.
  • Hunted - try and get as many chests as you can while an Security Chopper is trying to destroy you

In addition, the game has built in steam workshop support, and, on console, a limited mod repository.

The game can be brought for £25.99, DLC cost vary, but generally are under £10. The game doesn't go on sale often, usually only in the summer.