The Pacific Drive Deep Dive

Support the channel at / charlatanwonder
I'm not sure if this game wasn't scary or if I've just done so many late night driving jobs that a giant floating grabber thing is the least spooky thing I've seen behind the wheel. Pacific Drive is a new game with a new twist on the survival/crafting stye of games and I'll just get it out of the way now, it's not an immersive sim. Yes, comparisons were make to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. when all the trailers were out and we will get into that, but pacific drive is definitely an open world survival first and anything else a distant second.
iPods
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod#/m...
Origin of the word "podcast"
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p038...
First known little free library
littlefreelibrary.org/about/m....
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:57 The Gameplay
12:57 The Car
17:07 It's eerily NOT spooky
20:50 Cooking Segment - Chicken Parmesan
27:26 Some odds and ends about pacific drive
27:41 The game looks good until you look closely
29:41 Why the game might be so graphically demanding
31:58 Skin-deep car customization
35:29 Pacific Drive vs S.T.A.L.K.E.R. ... or maybe Roadside Picnic
37:26 (Mild Spoilers) The premise and world of Pacific Drive
38:37 Unhinged rant about anachronistic worldbuilding
41:06 (MAJOR SPOILERS) Story summary
43:44 Final thoughts on Pacific Drive
46:13 Cat video: On an blanket in a box

[@Duterasemis]

"Nothing seriously cool" as if we are not literally watching him put sick flame decals all over his station wagon

[@CharlatanWonder]

It's still a station wagon.

[@slyseal2091]

@@CharlatanWonderyou're still a station wagon

[@ATippingBarn]

@@slyseal2091boom! Gottem!

[@CharlatanWonder]

I am dead now. I was roasted alive.

[@dwightyoung2291]

@@CharlatanWonder Cause of death: Spontanious combustion by vicious mockery

[@diltyrr]

I ended up with an alternator of sort, I got a quirk that went "Car go fast -> battery charges"

[@CharlatanWonder]

WHY DO OTHER PEOPLE HAVE ALL THE LUCK!?!?!

[@Alurkerdood]

I got one where Windshield wipers toggle-all doors shut

[@zaikolebolsh5724]

Car goes brrrrrrr battery goes 📈📈📈

[@mixingcat5213]

Car stop -> dashboard go brrr (this made things way worse man)

[@coolguychilldude3778]

best i got was "gar enter incline > all doors close"

[@Skuttie]

This game's cool, I wish station wagons were real.

[@rpemulis]

its fucked up they stopped making them , station wagons rule

[@mildly_miffed_man1414]

@@rpemulisThis but unironically

[@c4sualcycl0ps48]

Instead we have these things called “hatchbacks” what a shame…

[@ethanleibrant129]

Look up AMC eagle

[@wild_burn]

If you learned how to wrench, they can become real

[@saschaberger3212]

The only thing I needed to know is if the flame decals give more speed. I mean it's like the law and such

[@CharlatanWonder]

Waaagh! is a perfectly acceptable form of physics modelling.

[@KingOhmni]

@@CharlatanWonder Dammit Charlatan I was going to make a waaaaagh joke but you beat me to it.

[@KaiserMattTygore927]

Red goes fasta

[@czarkusa2018]

STALKER is about the horror of living in Eastern Europe, Pacific Drive is about the horror of total car dependency, one of the horrors of living in the USA.

[@TycoonTitian01]

I dunno cars are fun, so I have fun in it. If anything it’s more of “hey don’t fuck around with science”. Of course to each their own

[@keegany4r176]

Difference is that cars are fun, living in Post-Soviet countries isn't.

[@lechking941]

@@keegany4r176 *espicaly when the soviet contry wants to become soivet agian*

[@ianthompson2802]

Np it's not about the size of our country it's a horror for mechanics. I'll give you some back story for why this is an actual real life nightmare for a mechanic.. Example one( first time I have been violated by my one incompetence) this is when I was in school I fixed one of those forklifts you see on the back of lowes trucks by jumping a fuse to make it work and got cocky I spent 2 weeks rebuilding that harness. Example 2 (I thought I had a strong stomach) this was a skid steer from a hog farm to be more specific it was used to toss the compost pile that consisted of hog, hog excerement, baby hog parts, ect.) I got to it and said the forbidden words of this will be easy replaced the engine harness the control harness and replace half of the hydraulic system. Example 3 jacked up a car the front half didn't want to be lifted up the rest wanted to be high Example 3.5 watch mini truck that was rusted split cab ended up on the techs tool box bed end up in the asile in the shop Need I say more

[@allpapiodin]

Yes, the horrors of self sufficiency. Very scary indeed.

[@KillerOrca]

The fact that its not spooky and more "weird" just makes it feel more like the Northwest. "Yep, thats the Peninsula" I found myself saying a lot.

[@CharlatanWonder]

It's how the peninsula likes to see itself. As a Californian I can say that the PNW feels like Norcal with better coffee and crappier housing. Thanks to those jerks at silicon valley Seattle's been reduced to overflow parking for techbros.

[@YTKeepsDeletingAllMyComments]

​@@CharlatanWonderAs a Californian who grew up in the mountains and now live on the peninsula in the PNW they are very different.

[@KillerOrca]

@CH-cc4lf The Penninsulas always been the weirder side of the state. It's the rainforest and trees

[@YTKeepsDeletingAllMyComments]

@@KillerOrca Yeah. I have met a few people who have claimed they had a run in with Samsquanch. Even my uncle had a giant rock come flying through the air and he doesn't believe in Samsquanch. My time hiking in the forest is like "Ok, let's turn back before we get lost."

[@TehNoobiness]

Part of why Pacific Drive is in my design notes is that it nails "weird, but not _trying_ to kill you". Like, Tourists sometimes throw nice things to you, but they also explode if you hit them. The boost anomalies are theoretically useful if you can keep control of the car (the one time I used one, I ramped off a truck and flipped the car, lol). There's at least one anomaly that straight up heals your car. It's less about being chased by monsters and more about navigating a complex space that gets less dangerous as you become more familiar with it, and you get to have the unique experience of becoming _comfortable_ around something that could seriously hurt or kill you if you're not careful.

[@trilby3447]

It’s a solid game for the dev studio’s first game, I liked it, not a masterpiece but it’s a solid fun game and that’s okay

[@MrChainsawAardvark]

I've had my own theory about the Zone in STALKER that its not mindlessly anti-human and may even be trying to help at times. The running joke that no one knows where the bread in the zone comes from for example. Or how all the PDAs connect despite the lack of cellular towers. People seem to be able to inhabit pre-built structures with relative safety rather than camp in tents. Akin to the entity in Solaris or one of Lovecraft's outer gods trying to be nice to humans, but not understanding them well enough to really know what that entails.

[@CharlatanWonder]

Those are good points. It's good to remember that the Stalker Zone was originally an attempt to alter the noosphere to remove self-centeredness and promote kindness.

[@MrChainsawAardvark]

@@CharlatanWonder I'd say bringing the C-consciousness in would be spoiler territory, then I reminded myself that the game came out in 2007.

[@chickennugget481]

​@@MrChainsawAardvark it's not really a spoiler if i have no idea what you're talking about lol

[@ryguy9876]

I remember that a while ago someone proposed the idea that the zone had a very Khornate attitude and it was deliberately trying to create a sort of "ultimate warrior" caste with many of its hazards being a means to facilitate that. This theory would also play nice with the idea of it providing open communication between stalkers and the occasional bits of bread and rations just appearing; warriors can't march on empty stomachs but just handing it to them wouldn't make them try; gotta put that stuff in obscure locations that make them work and improve.

[@bluemooninthedaylight8073]

The book Roadside Picnic hints that the anomalies and strange tech are simply waste from the "visitors" who made a pitstop. Some are beneficial and exploitative [reusable energy sources], whereas others are insanely dangerous like gravity gone horribly awry [Like a physics version of nuclear waste]. The Zone even creates strange living copies of people who have died, along with altering the Stalkers DNA to the point that they may risk having mutant children. It's a completely inexplicable place that's dangerous in the ways extreme environments are often dangerous. There is no god but the refuse of an unknowable race. Humans are the ants picking through another's trash.

[@McSquiddington]

On expecting bugaboos and cryptids... I don't agree with this being a drawback. I felt threatened at multiple times, and the Tourists (e.g the mannequins) creeped me the Hell out every single time. I constantly felt like the Cryptid in question wasn't a thing that could stalk me - it was the Peninsula itself. I don't need some side-cam KZbinr fodder to act like some poor man's Slender Man reference for the environment to feel like it's unsafe, not when the early-game floating things can actually latch onto you and toss you around after minutes of seemingly ignoring you.

[@gownerjones]

Fun fact, there is an anomaly in the game called Bigfoot that manifests as a shadowy creature just in your peripheral vision that runs away when you look at it, likely to spawn in foggy areas.

[@Tommi747e]

@@gownerjones the what

[@gownerjones]

@@Tommi747e Did you hit send too early?

[@Tommi747e]

@@gownerjones no i have hundred hours and never saw it and got terrified it might have been watching me the whole time and i was none the wiser

[@gownerjones]

@@Tommi747e Oh it was definitely watching.

[@shaunperisho787]

Man...our taste in video games could not be more different. The things that annoyed you were the things I found really immersive. Really appreciated hearing your perspective though - great video!

[@gownerjones]

I found it particularly egregious that he complained about the radio cutting out and stuff. The radio is the most immersive part of the game. It reacts to everything that happens. Anomalies cause distortions or turn it off, when you leave your car it gets muffled, the sound echoes cleanly off the car interior giving it a real presence, and every now and then you catch a stray signal from somewhere and hear someone's innermost thoughts. And the music is pretty damn good on top of that. Was happy to hear A Shell In The Pit playing during the first intro drive.

[@stanislaviliev6305]

Has it not ever crossed your mind that the narrative about you being unlinked with the car but it maintaining her connection with you is the developer being cheeky about how after getting to the end credits most players stop and move on to other games - ie, you become 'unbound' by the want to play the game further - but the game still exists waiting for your return

[@Deathshead419]

Man, Pacific Northwest Stalker sounds like a great concept, but, shame they didn't do very much with it from the sound of things. Oh well, I might pick the game up if it goes on sale.

[@Ghorda9]

it's a great game

[@muramasa870]

Torrent it

[@Agudname]

​@@muramasa870only do that if it's a triple a game these indie games need all the support they can get

[@philmcdonald3322]

This looks like an interesting evolution on the Jalopy formula (anyone else remember that game, about driving across Europe in an old Soviet junker car?), but going for the weird fiction approach feels like it might affect the tone compared to the more grounded feeling of being stranded in Hungary, miles away from the nearest petrol station, with an empty fuel tank and an engine belching black smoke. I'll definitely give it a go though, since I've never seen a game that tries to do anything similar to Jalopy

[@Dj.MODÆO]

Have you played “the long drive” it’s sorta like this or jalopy set during a zombie apocalypse

[@gownerjones]

I was calling the station wagon Jalopy throughout my playthrough lol

[@LORDOFDORKNESS42]

The Tourists got me twitching a few times, no pun intended. But yeah, really felt like Pacific Drive could have been a bit spookier. Still dug those desolate vibes, but was expecting more fear and dread vs... huh, that's cool/weird.

[@TycoonTitian01]

May be just me but I prefer the “huh that’s weird” rather than the game trying to make me scared

[@R33fth3b33f]

Game made me feel not scared but insignificant and little compared to all the anomalies and storms like I just got put to the bottom of the food chain.

[@theworkshopwhisperer.5902]

"Game is not spooky." let me know when you drive through a perpetual darkness, they are watching, with broken headlights. I think you just have a high spookiness tolerance. Pacific drive is definitely not stalker level punishing but I do really enjoy Pacific drive it's one of the few driving games I can just drive in. There are other driving games but I don't really want to just drive in them for the sake of driving. When you're trying to get the specific end game resource is you have to do a lot of driving just to get there and I find that quite relaxing. Strongly recommend great game.

[@WoozieFace]

DUDE thank you!! this game was great but left me feeling very underwhelmed in the end. This game desperately needed some other core element to the on foot gameplay loop, some enemy to flee or hide from, some interesting twist to make looting interesting. I spent like a week straight playing this game but started to feel kind of like the game was pulling one over on me when i realized 75% of the gameplay is hitting one or two buttons to loot.

[@emmavoid]

honestly it's interesting to see all the things you disliked about the game when i just, adore all those things? it's the vibes, i don't mind that the game isn't so dangerous that you're likely to die much if at all! either way, cool to see a video about the game from you, and it's still a great video as usual :3 (though it does drive me a little crazy that you seemingly keep the dome-light on in the car at all times :p)

[@CharlatanWonder]

I think that was a quirk I developed that I couldn't diagnose.

[@krakixel]

The problem with a game going for Vibes is that it ends up lacking meaningful content. Look at Slipgate Ironworks' Graven and Phantom Fury. They both are going for "Boomer Shooter" vibes and that's all they got. SPECIALLY GRAVEN. My god I've never seen a game with such an identity crisis.

[@TycoonTitian01]

⁠@@krakixelso? Not every game needs crazy meaningful stuff, it just needs to be fun

[@goodwithastain]

​@@krakixeli don't think there's anything wrong with a game playing one note if it plays the note very well

[@FayeHunter]

26:20 (cooking segment), you're lookin' (and cookin') great my man! ⚓

[@lamename2010]

Car items don't just have durability (damage taken) , but also durability (time used). The longer you use an item, the higher the chance of a part just breaking from being old. Wheels have miles driven, etc.

[@hyperforce]

About the Podcast issue, there are articles and scans about the zone in the game that describe how things in teh zone are never truely lost, but instead displaced in space or time. Another letter from the pneumatic tubes you can find in the game says that some people would receive letters years after they were sent, or other times, receive letters from a future corrospondence that hadn't happened yet.

[@hannyboy843]

i think this game is a well made masterpiece, compared to what the gaming industry has to offer these days. sure there is a few exceptions, but this game is clearly one of them. If you just go into the game without any expectations, just going for experiencing the game and the feelings it gives without nitpicking anything - its a really great experience. Its hard to have a bad time playing this game to be honest.

[@Silv3rM4st3r]

34:25 the reason why your stuff breaks so stupidly fast is because of a side effect. It is that [X] symbol. If you see that, you should replace the part with a fresh one to reduce the chance of breaking. Pacific Drive wants you to replace parts because no part lasts forever, thats why some issues are not fixable. Things worn out, are unreliable, or what ever else. It's always smart to have a replacement with you, but I suggest shredding every part that has an [X] on it, because it will break or do bad stuff sooner than later.

[@Yavorh55]

Btw there is a "mysterious figure" that appesrs but it vanishes if you stop looking at it so you can miss it easily

[@gownerjones]

That anomaly is called Bigfoot :D

[@shifty1927]

This car would be part of the malaise era. Maybe a little before, but definitely not after. Early 70s to mid 80s was the malaise era.

[@R33fth3b33f]

1977 station wagon 100 percent

[@gownerjones]

The game takes place in 1998, so 70s and 80s cars did exist back then.

[@robertescher3082]

I really enjoyed it... But I can agree with your criticisms as well. The story IS thinner than a piece of paper, and yeah, there were not many jump scares or such... I did find a bit more tension around some of the later anomalies and having to mad dash to the gates is always good for a bit of 'oh s*** I hope I make it!' moments. I think some of the lack of flavour comes from Ironwood Studios being a very small indie studio and this being their first game. It will be interesting to see if they intend to expand on it. Good vid. :)

[@Ghorda9]

jump scares are over done and quite frankly not needed, a jump scare isn't scary, it's just startling

[@augustuslunasol10thapostle]

@@Ghorda9 jumpscares aren’t necessary but followed up by something truly horrifying it puts you on a certain high stress mood

[@Ghorda9]

@@augustuslunasol10thapostle except there are better ways to create anxiety, like a build up of tension without a release, also flashing something into someones face isn't horrifying, what's really horrifying is knowing that something is there but not knowing what it is or what it's intentions are

[@asddsa-tv5iv]

I showed your cooking to my mother and sister. Tomorrow, we will be eating your dish for Ramadan feast. Thanks :)

[@Grasses0n]

So this is like The Long Drive, but with something actually going on?

[@mikedoestuff]

lol pretty much. i came from playing the long drive, and got so addicted to pacific drive. i completed the game in 26 hours but i really wish there was more story to it. the ending i felt was not terrible, but felt like it was too soon

[@ahumanperson8341]

On the topic of performance, can confirm that the car’s “realism” is the culprit. Background: my PC is running an RX6600 GPU and i12100CPU (on the scale of potato to riced out, this is plain white bread). In a zone with the “make it very dark” modifier I stop about 50 meters from an anchor. As I go and grab the anchor I realize my frames are getting pretty choppy, no fps counter but I’d say it dropped from a solid 30+ to maybe 15. Get back to the car, it’s parked, bumper to bark, with a small tree, and both headlights are on, casting a myriad of very pretty, but very resource intensive leaf shadows, even when I’m over a hill, though the trees, not looking at it. I absolutely L o v e this game, but it also loves to make my fans go brrrrrr. Highly recommend, 8/10, needs more foliage

[@Ghorda9]

it's the shadows, if you turn the shadows down to medium the game runs perfectly fine

[@ahumanperson8341]

Most definitely! I did that, along with kicking everything else from ultra to high - or medium in the case of shadows and mirrors- and I was able to reclaim some frames. Just stating my experience so others know that this is a common issue, and not an isolated event.

[@R33fth3b33f]

You try updating your drivers? I was getting lag, then I updated my drivers (lol) and it worked just fine.

[@glass7923]

You sir (and cat) have one of very few channels where when I see a notification, I have genuine excitement for the video. I dare say that the unpredictable upload schedule might be part of that.

[@kalebfraser5994]

Another great video from a fantastic KZbinr gotta be the best video format and always a refreshingly genuine approach to video making

[@CloseingStraw97]

I keep forgetting you're not the cat.

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

I only remember bc he told us the pics were for his grandmother, who likes the cat pics.

[@kayencarnacion9191]

First time watching your content. I really love the cooking segment it was something new and truly cut me off guard pluss learn how to cook something new. ❤enjoy watching cant wait to watch more of your content

[@amytrip]

Great video, thank you

[@MrDjhz]

Im sad to see you had quite a few bad experiences with the game. Thanks for posting the video, it reminded me to pick it up and I loved every second :)

[@slxxpyhollow]

Oh what, sick! I've been binging Pacific Drive, I really love it.

[@girthquake1413]

I love Pacific Drive, but I echo your statements as well. The game really suffers because it rapidly turns the actions of collecting materials into something that you just *do* and not a consistently dangerous exprience, outside of when the zone begins to collapse. Personally, I would love the addition of something like other anomalous cars, trap houses, and mobile enemies to shake up that formula while ALSO adding weapons. I'd purposefully make your starting weapon some kind of smoothbore single-shot pipe rifle that can't penetrate most anomolies, because such things are typically made of random bits and a bullet doesn't do much versus an animate floating scrap pile. But what said gun CAN do, is end the engine block of an anomolous car- or alert enemies to one region. It would also serve to show your future weapons have to out of the box.

[@zazbellum7350]

I did not expect to see Bartender from Jazztronauts in here, especially as I am replaying it. Love them cats and glad to see some of the devs are working on other games!

[@Yavorh55]

YES. I love seeing this game getting coverage! It deserves it!

[@Jordanationalismtion]

39:38 Now, hold on. Unless I missed something, a fifth of the nation didn't become uninhabitable. The Olympic Peninsula is a nice chunk of territory but it's quite tiny compared to the rest of the country. Now, if we're talking about the West Coast becoming a dystopian hellscape on its own, then you'd be pretty on the mark.

[@gownerjones]

I did the math. The peninsula is 0.03% of the country. 0.03% is 666.666... times smaller than 1/5. Coincidence? I think not.

[@StarkeRealm]

The Subreddit seems to think, based on the music playing on the radio, that the game takes place in, at least, 2022, with the distinct possibility that the player character was dragged forward a quarter century when they were pulled through the wall. I'm not completely convinced, and, "unstuck in space and time," is such a lazy trope these days, but there is a significant chunk of background lore talking about things getting temporally displaced in The Zone. Honestly, in this case, I'm inclined to view it as a patch job to gloss over the inconsistencies rather than a legitimate explanation, though. (Also, some of the radio broadcasts you can pick up are specifically from the 1950s, before things went completely off the rails. How we're supposed to reliably hear any of the radio exposition is unaddressed, however.)

[@CharlatanWonder]

yeah based on that tohught Oppy would be over 100 years old though. I'm more in line with your thinking as it's just lazy worldbuilding and just not checking when things were invented. The car your drive in the intro seems to have a period correct interior, but as for future stuff aside from the hipster-bait there's nothing else to denote stuff from the future being there.

[@gownerjones]

I disagree on the patch job take. I don't know why you and Charlatan both think you have forbidden knowledge about where the word Podcast comes from but this is very commonly known and not very likely to be a continuity mistake. It's just an element of style. You may not like the "lost in spacetime" trope but I find it quite charming. It's a nice way of saying to the audience "okay, look, we want to tell a story that would be worse if we stuck to historical and chronological consistency, so here you go." And I agree with that, PD would be worse if it didn't mix these newer technologies and concepts with the old 20th century stuff. Fallout is similar. Someone might say the old "x wasn't invented so history unfolded differently" trope is tired, but that's how fallout justifies mixing old with new. There is always going to be a justification for this style of storytelling and I honestly couldn't care one way or the other what that justification is. I just accept that this is a fictional universe whose rules allow old things and new things to coexist outside of chronological order.

[@StarkeRealm]

@@gownerjones The complaint here is that you care more about the coherency of the world than the game's writers do. It's not that the origin of the word podcast is some kind of esoteric secret known only to the initiated and enlightened, it's that whoever wrote Pacific Drive didn't care enough to check if the game is set before the invention of the iPod. If the writer was in their 20s or even early 30s, it's extremely likely they never even thought about it.

[@gownerjones]

@@StarkeRealm I think that assumption is a little insulting to the intelligence of the writers especially because it's not secret forbidden knowledge. Anyone even marginally interested in tech (as you would be if you're a game developer) knows about why it's called a podcast, even if born after the invention of the ipod. To me, it's a little as if you'd look up in the game, see a green sky and assume they must have not known what the sky really looks like, instead of assuming it's some sort of deliberate stylistic choice.

[@StarkeRealm]

@@gownerjones "...that assumption is a little insulting to the intelligence of the writers..." Yes? And? I'm judging the work they created. If those judgements reflect poorly on the author (and are not disingenuous) that is their problem, not mine. And yeah, what you write can tell your audience a lot about what you've experienced. For example, I now know you've never lived through a tornado touchdown, as those can result in a green sky.

[@rendsew1568]

Thank you for the review, Here a hint for the liberator only of it's "bullet" is required, and one can liberate serval pieces at the same time if they close to each other.

[@California_Doge]

Loved this game, never knew I was a fan of "Driver Survival" games like, My Summer Car, Long Drive, etc. Totally agree though about the anomalies descriptions. Took me googling it to find out what each one does.

[@JuanxDlol]

Sorry i wont watch this video as much as i love the channel and the art, but its because i rly rly rly want to play the game, will watch later tho.

[@CharlatanWonder]

Understandable, have a nice day.

[@sumbius1576]

I greatly appreciate these cooking segments. That food recipe seems interesting and I WILL try it. Just the fact that your mozzarella appeared to be actual mozzarella (if it isn't moist it isn't mozzarella) makes it seem good. Can appreciate the references as well. Gravity falls, Alien to Aliens etc. Weird that one of those mp3 players is the same one I bought at the time. You mentioned Alfredo sauce and that is a great topic for debate I don't want to go in but is worthy of a cooking segment of its own. I have been growing my own basil, thyme, oregano, parsley and a bunch of types of chives and chinese garlic chives among other things like dill, lovage and a bunch of other things. It really encouraged me to cook things like this.

[@owennorcross4407]

For the algorithm

[@paulmurphy3655]

Great sauce recipe! I love when people make sauces from scratch. My tip would be to make it worth the cost you can scale up the tomato amount pretty much exponentially without having to drop almost any more money on the other ingredients and you'll end up with a huge amount of sauce you can freeze. Also you can skip the blanching step if you're not going to peel the tomatoes. Just use a regular blender on cold tomatoes if you're concerned about burning yourself with an immersion blender.

[@brandonf863]

Only seen two videos thus far, but damn, those cooking segments are too good though xD I wanna try some of these recipes, haha

[@docdoom1987]

The end of this feels kind of awkward. Did you edit it and forget you had already said you were done after the story finished? Because not long after that you're saying you felt like you wanted to continue to and see what the tech tree had to offer etc, but you had already said prior to that you were done and had seen that a huge portion of the tech tree was likely 'post-game'. A bit confusing... Can only assume it's a failure in editing, writing, or you just genuinely didn't know how to end on a more sincere note. It's ok to say a game disappointed you in your closing thoughts :)

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

I was gonna tease you about being a busy guy bc I saw you in the wild KZbin, but it was a Napoleon Blownapart premiere, so it only made me respect you more.

[@herladyweaver862]

I see that Bartender bobblehead....you a Jazztronauts fan, Charlatan? (Or, maybe more likely, just think a cat in a suit looks neat) Either way, I'm so happy Jazztronauts has a reference in something else too, now. Absolute favorite game.

[@B.D.B.]

Completely agree on the flavor text, some useful information could have helped, like damage type. I'm at the last mission and I too have never needed to craft the armor doors/panels. Btw, you don't have to hit the part with the liberator it works as an AOE, hit between and you could strip 2-3 parts at a time.

[@R33fth3b33f]

One quirk i got was when i turned the wheel hard the rear right door would open, another was ALL the doors and hood would open and close when i refilled the car with gas, the most annoying i got so far was when i turned the headlights on i could not steer at all. Love this game. Just beat it last night, wish there was more side content like more cryptid hunting. Hope theres dlc coming for this game

[@Spluffie]

huge fan of the quirks when they're easy to notice. my favorite one right now is wipers turn on > car jolts forward :D

[@TheInfinityzeN]

This is not a survival or open world game. I really wish it was because that is what I bought it thinking it would be. It is a crafting rogue like, in which you teleport into the semi-randomly generated "dungeon" with various modifiers and speed run against a time limit before teleporting out. I had to quit playing it because the flaws just made me more and more pissed off.

[@kristapskrumins5676]

cat

[@CharlatanWonder]

cat

[@djartyom1243]

Cat

[@bugjams]

Between this, Beware, and My Summer Car (yes I'm counting that as horror because people say they get creepy vibes from it), I think we're getting close to peak "horror driving" games. There's definitely a niche for it. Only being able to see out the foggy windows of a car, or having to scramble back inside and get it moving before something gets you, is a really effective way of conveying tension. Being chased _while driving_ is also incredibly spooky. I think the perfect horror driving game would be something like this, with more enemies (both human, and non-human), as well as enemies that could keep up with you while you're driving (be it a fast monster, or other people in cars). Just having more ambient spooky "events" (like a shadowy figure sprinting in front of your car, or a tapping sound on the back window) would really elevate an experience like this.

[@Bacony_Cakes]

the brand new "you're with the automobile" genre of games

[@mildly_miffed_man1414]

Beware is unironically a very good game and I had a lot of fun playing it

[@LaserGuidedCat]

pretty good video! im always hungry for a game that delivers on a good car experience, and while this one doesn't quite deliver on that, it still gives me a lot to chew on. better taste for what i like and don't like in a videogame car experience, that kind of thing. i have way too many thoughts on what would make a "really good" videogame car experience, so i won't elaborate on it, but i think there's enough space in a comment to say what i thought about the end of the story, which is that i thought it was weird that oppy just leaves? like i was under the impression that the goal was unbinding us from the car so that WE could leave

[@joshuagraham1800]

Okay this just seems like jalopy but way more replayability and fun

[@jacobgreiner7030]

Missed you!

[@61f757r34m]

very road-like

[@ReverendLeRoux]

I'm glad that nothing memorable happened during your playthrough of the game because let me tell you: When I was driving around and one of my tires went flat, so I got out to repair it, only to get back into my car to have a tire fall off, so I go out to repair it, to get back in and get a quirk where my DOORS FALL OFF SOMETIMES, SO I FIX THAT, AND THEN I START THE ENGINE AND MY FUCKING TIRE FELL OFF AGAIN-

[@divvu1014]

Goty

[@Lorentz_Factor]

So for example with the camo decals, round goes well because it matches the brown and you don't have the underlying portions of the vehicle which are still exposed, being a bright blue or weird purple, whatever you painted it.

[@0xlamon]

18:14 - well, there is a Bigfoot. I say him once in a swamp, pretty far away, long enough to scan. Pretty sure it's just a jpeg and you can't get close to him.

[@Chintmaster]

Thank you for mentioning the flavor text, I absolutely hated the total waste of time that were the log entries.

[@mrcheesemunch]

It looks pretty cool but also looks a bit tedious honestly, I might pick it up if I see it on sale some time. For me it just kinda doesn't seem scary enough, I'd prefer more of a horror vibe where you're desperately clinging to your car for dear life and maintaining it is more of a struggle than it is just the game itself. Cool idea and everything but Stalker is still The Zone for me.

[@WereScrib]

I am SO GLAD you wrote that Seattle isn't wierd anymore, because it absolutely, 100% isn't. The only thing remotely weird about it is howw far gone it is into an awful dystopian terror town with its extreme corporate nature. Problem was its no longaer a city of rural people, engineers and a mixture of young tech and old town. Its just tech. Entrenched, nightmarish tech.

[@gownerjones]

I love this game to death, I'm not shy to admit it. It's the kind of game that scratches a very specific itch for me. But god, the most frustrating part for me is the flavor text issue. When I scan an anomaly, I check the logbook to see what it is and what it does. Instead there's some scientist waxing philosophical about the state of the Zone or someone expressing their innermost emotions or someone cussing someone out. You're lucky to find any actual information on the anomalies in there. Often, it's one throwaway sentence in 3 paragraphs of text that tells you "oh yeah and we found those red things that make you sink into the ground." Often it's also deliberately obfuscated what the anomaly does. The very first anomaly I scanned was the creepy mannequin. I wanted to know what it does and in the log entry, it was just a long drawn out text about how they started seeing these pop up, that their colleague had something nefarious happen to him (they keep it deliberately vague) and it ends with a sentence like "... and you know what happens when you touch them." Like, no, I don't know. I read this entire research paper to find out what happens. My god.

[@abhiwankenobi7172]

While I agree that there's a lot that could be added to the game and maybe it *is* a little bit hollow but it still rings well for me personally to the point where it inspired me to work on a diorama!

[@WulvenWanderer]

Love it!

[@BerlinChild]

Doin the algorithm thing. Also I agree with 99% of your points. I was actually kind of hyped for this game but refunded it shortly before hitting 2 hours. I'm glad now I did, since every review I watch basically lists all my issues so it's not just me. Shame. The vibe was there.

[@KingOhmni]

Well, sounds like it was a good thing I was too broke to afford this game when I saw Splattercatgaming review it. Cos this more longform review of it has me thinking my money is better off elsewhere.

[@Xrayted8215]

Talk about unique....just casually throws in a cooking segment 😂

[@dzheliezniak]

Came for the game, stayed for the cooking.

[@connormcintosh4828]

I love roadside picnic so this got me right :)

[@jhj22]

Guys, don't show him My Summer Car!

[@CharlatanWonder]

Oh I've been meaning to get into that for a looonnnng time. I gotta do a full run of Jalopy first though.

[@jhj22]

@@CharlatanWonder Please, do me a favor. Don't rush with it. Be patient. Take everything in that game as in the real world.

[@CharlatanWonder]

Oh yeah, as far as Jalopy goes, I actually got a key for it waaaaaay back in the day when I was still an LP channel and it first entered early access. This was before you could even get to the first border because the game just wasn't finished yet. I've been meaning to revisit it now that it's done for ages.

[@Gear_Snack]

@@CharlatanWonder That'll be interesting to see. I've got a lot nostalgia for Jalopy. Although even out of early access it's pretty janky so not sure how you'd feel about it after Pacific Drive.

[@dennismikha7541]

I call this game "My Summer Stalcar"

[@Grasses0n]

I feel like this game would be much better if the world was more like Stalker, and car customization closer to My Summer Car, without the jank.

[@bokodasu]

I think people are on the wrong track comparing this game to either extraction or survival crafting games - I'd compare it to walking simulators. The important part is the story that you hear told through some amazing voice acting - everything else is just stuff to do while that's happening. And I'd include the devs in the people who maybe didn't get that's what they were doing, I only unlocked a tiny amount of stuff before the game ended and it wasn't fun to grind the massive amounts of stuff needed to get anything else unlocked. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it and would play more if they put out more story, but I'm not gonna play just for achievements, yuck.

[@squeethemog213]

My brother mentioned this game to me a few weeks ago. After watching I don't think it's something I am interested in. That chicken parm looks delicious thou :D

[@orbitaloutcast9878]

I got massive simon stalenhag (The writer and artist) vibes from this game's art, seriously amazing texture work and stylization. Everything looks beautiful.

[@TanksyTube]

yo can you get a beard net, i dont want hair in my chicken parmesan 😂

[@rododendron85]

I think in the deep zone you need to run the lim shield constantly, so your car parts live longer

[@Albert_C]

The video cover reminds me of the game Jalopy.

[@theCrystalWoods.]

that is a kickass chicken parm! also, correct me if i'm wrong, but i'm pretty sure that this takes place ~ 2020 due to the music and pride flags that you have access to, while the zone is perma stuck in a 1970-to 1990s era due to the time that the evac took place

[@krispy_kornflake]

OCD WARNING I just noticed but Frisk's bowtie is fixed in a kinda weird way to his collar... it would either need one more or one less ring. You'll get what I mean if you take a look at it, and then you won't be able to unsee it, like me 😭

[@asturias0267]

Have you heard of Hedon Bloodrite before? I just saw it in my steam recommended and it looks cool. The steam page claims its an immersive sim, but even if its not it still looks like a badass boomer shooter.

[@Glaaki13]

I love survival/building games , but I was lucky to watch some people play this to understand that this was not for me

[@Zodaxa_zdx]

honestly yeah, put 30 hours into the game for the main story then went "now what?" went 40 runs deathless just to throw myself at the first hazard to get the "unlock everything" achievment. It's really cool and I'm glad they make it very clear you can just keep playing as long as you want... I just don't know why, why I want to keep going. Absolutely has that "early access indi game" feel and saddens me a bit to know that nope, this is it, big release and yeah tada.

[@ekstrajohn]

missed u dude

[@NIgHTMaReFortyTwo]

You can't 'strap extra fuel tanks and batteries to any part' though? You can put them in the back seat or over the windows above the back wheels. That's two places. You get 6 slots you can put them in that are in two places.

[@unknown_karma12334]

Compared to today's industry i'd say the game is a masterpiece. Don't go with nay expectations in it, justgo in to feel some new experiences and it's defiently something fun. Amazing visuals, story AND music and ambient OSTs as well..i honestly loved the story too and i felt connected in some way. It's a beautiful game that is totally worth it and i will defend it

[@popatsot1]

I had to stop playing after 50 hours. Im on the last mission i think but i wanted to get all the achievements but i got burned out 😅

[@Lorentz_Factor]

So if you're properly utilize the transmuters and the pacemaker and other sets, you'll find that you can actually get a lot of what you need without going through a ton of BIOS. The pacemaker for example is fairly common, and you can get It to transmute items into tree candy. Among other things. Just hearing you mention about the tree candy. It's really a lot less grind if you grind carefully and use the positive phenomenal KZbins to your favor.

[@Enderguy059]

I think it's pretty clearly defined that a lot of the game's anachronistic elements, like podcasts delivered via tape recordings, are a result of some time-fuckery by the zone. I mean, all of the radio's songs were made post-2010, and there's an unlockable car upgrade that allows you to *slow time down*. Also, I disagree on the tech tree argument. I was able to unlock all but one of the upgrades for it, that last one requiring that I die in order to get it, which I didn't really want to do after such a long streak without dying. Now that I've finished the story, though, I'll be doing it for achievement purposes. Also, you can check whether you're generating/draining power via the small red number next to your battery meter, which has up/down arrows that indicate when power is being charged/drained; the radio & dome light don't drain power.

[@xxaquitainexx]

This man is a legend✊

[@mishterpreshident]

I agree with your assessment: The zone is not scary or dangerous enough. The anomalies & enemies are interesting but not a serious threat. The hardest and most challenging bit -- IMHO -- is the extraction. The game always seems to force the player to drive halfway across the map to extract, and sometimes the terrain makes it completely impossible to achieve before getting eaten by the storm. I've failed several runs after getting all the objectives completed but then not being able to reach the extraction objective in time.

[@mafuletrekkie]

There are very few games I enjoyed playing enough that mastering it became a huge part of the fun for me. Freespace 2, Ace Combat 6, Ninja Gaiden Black, and now Pacific Drive. The criticisms he gives are true, can't argue with them one bit. But man, mastering the Zones was so god damned fun. Realizing that the game was becoming easier, not just because the car was better (it was), but because I began to understand the zone was an amazing journey in this game. Do yourself a favor, don't look things up if you play this game. Go in blind and enjoy the drive.

[@hand6724]

Quick tip for the pasta: Get the water to a boil and then salt it. The water will come to a boil quicker if you add the salt once its boiled rather than if you add the salt before it boils.

[@BlitzedNostradamus]

This is a game where I desperately wanted to enjoy the gameplay loop but the story and a bunch of other small things made the whole experience not worth going through.

[@JoshuaAdim]

Clicked because of the cat. Stayed because of the content and the cat