Spintires: box of Russian sand

Florin

Merrily dodgy
Veteran
Supporter
I reckon this one deserves a mention. The tech demo has been around for a long time and it was a sleeper hit so I'm sure many of you will have heard about it by now. Perhaps you noticed the official release on Steam a few weeks ago and wondered how anyone in their right mind would pay $29 for this.

Spintires is more flagrant than most about being weird and not necessarily aiming for wide audience appeal. It could be said that it only barely qualifies as a game; Soviet soil simulator is probably a better description. But no question that it can provide many hours of entertainment.

To me it's just another demonstration of how PCs remain relevant in gaming by being the environment that gestates the likes of Minecraft, World of Tanks, War Thunder and err.. Euro Truck Simulator 2 and Farm Simulator 2013 (both surprisingly fascinating).

Official trailer. (Hilariously ill-fitting) dubstep alert:

As someone who just finished Watch Dogs, thoroughly trained in the art of circling Chicago running red lights and jumping bridges in my attempts to shake off the supernatural police cruisers, the change of pace couldn't be bigger. I spent about 6 hours in Spintires and ended up traveling a grand total of little over 6 kilometers.

Every yard can turn into a struggle. You might spend more time face to face with a particular rock than a Mars rover. Finding a path is no guarantee you'll find it again, and even if you do by the 3rd time the ground may be so churned-up that it is now impassable. Your trucks will get stuck again and again. You can send a Soviet era ICBM carrier after them to winch them out. And then that will get stuck.

I'm entertained.
 
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I have that game from day 1 and it is amazing!
I once got stuck on soft ground going slightly uphill and drove second truck to winch me out but it also got stuck about 20m from solid surface. Only by sending 3rd truck for the rescue and towing my other 2 trucks from patch with solid soil I was able to release my cars. Took me 2h to do so but I was determined not to use recover to garage option :)

This game is pure physics fun!
 
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It looks, oh so much better than the last time I had seen anything from it. And thank you for sharing your experience with the game, Florin, I found it very amusing hahaha.
 
Noticed that once it was released and was featured on Steam. Threw it on my wishlist immediately as the physics and mud engine looks quite intriguing. Couldn't push myself to spend $30 on it though so it's another one waiting for a sale. Didn't go cheaper once during the Steam sale.
 
It wouldn't have been on sale so quickly after release in any event. But I agree, I'm not sure if it's worth $30, I think that price is a bit steep for what the game offers.
 
Yeah in today's market with perma-Steam sales and mobile game pricing being what it is $30 is a bold price point. Nothing wrong with holding out for a better deal with this one. Unless you happen to be like me and are just oddly mesmerized by this particular concept.

As a matter of fact the older Tech Demo is also still out there and might well be enough to satisfy one's curiosity. It even offers a rather big advantage in that the multitude of mods out there don't (yet) work in the final version.

There seems to be a lively community which already built additional maps and various vehicles like these:


And for kicks here's some footage of the type of real life activities that this game is modeled on:
 
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