Egypt Frontiers - PC Preview

Egypt Frontiers by developer FreeMind S.A. and publisher PlayWay S.A.—PC(Steam) preview written by Valerie with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

---

Freemind S.A. has extended their building simulation games (another reviewed here) into the country of Egypt where a fellow author and myself would love to visit. Welcome to Egypt Frontiers where you, a master builder, help supervise and build Egyptian temples and monuments. Other than the jerky start I had with the first cinematic when you arrive on site, it was looking promising, but as my preview spills out you'll find a few flaws in both the graphics and the gameplay. As this game progresses through Early Access, I hope my small contributions help with the tuning up of the game.

I really enjoyed Egypt Frontiers with the setting, music, and projects you have to work on. However, the graphics in some portions of the game came up short. Like in this image below, the workers seem to be in the ground underneath the roadway you are making for transporting of brick to the next location. The help files have a couple of spelling mistakes, but the instructions are clear with visuals. There are also a couple of spelling mistakes in the dialogue screens and in the menus.

Since Egypt Frontiers is still in Early Access, there is a lot of room for improving, fixing, and adding to the game. I am excited to see what comes up in the coming months. So far, I am also enjoying the gameplay and the music which makes me feel like I'm riding a camel, however I didn't see a single one during gameplay. A couple showed up in one of those transition screens that gives you information of Ancient Egyptian culture though! 

In Egypt Frontiers you arrive at the pier of Giza where the Vizier instructs you on where to go and what to do. In Ancient Egyptian fashion you are given the tools to construct your own home, housing for workers, monuments, temples and the final Egyptian landmark. With each of the projects you are given recipes to both find and harvest the resources needed to make the tools and items required for that particular quest. I was lost a few times as to where to place things or where to go.

Your most important tool is the triangle you have to make as your first quest. After the triangle is made you equip it to your hotbar. It calls up all the things you can build with a simple left-click of your mouse. The object you have to build from your selection is in a green ghost image that you can delete at any time.

Once you finish the in-city quests, you are directed to the staging area where you, the supervisor, assign workers to production stations. After you have them all assigned, the resources needed to build the temple start filling up the pallets in front of the canopy-covered work areas. If you did the quests right, you have a couple of extra workers you can assign to actually build the structure.

After that building is completed you are directed to the next area where you do a clean-up of the site and build housing for the workers. You are taught how to repair and use your next piece of equipment. It's in this area where the first of the big graphics issues I had that appeared. The one in the first image above where the workers aren't standing on the ground placing the wooden road. Another one where the workers were in the blocks instead outside the block area hammering them in. There was also the worker in midair on the roof placing slabs of stone!

Right from the beginning in Egypt Frontiers there were numerous little things that also stood out. I found the cursor very annoying being only a small dot instead of a hand or an icon of a hammer or tool similar to what you are working on. A good example would be that hand for collecting resources, or the hammer for breaking of stone. That kind of thing would be easier to line up for the process you are currently doing. 

Don't worry though as I had sent in a bug report about it. I am also disappointed in the structure of the bug report in the game as there was no pop-up screen to add this image to the report. Just a form you fill in and check off what you're including. Once you hit submit though, nothing showed up on what to do to add an image, log, or game save. Just check boxes in the form itself and the dropdown menu for what type of bug it is.

In Egypt Frontiers you will find transition screens with information about Ancient Egypt. I actually found a few of them very insightful as I have read a lot about Ancient Egypt. Also, some of the dialogue screens had hilarious spelling errors, while others were missing a word or two. I dropped in two images where you can see one of each above. 

And with that I shall sign off with the hopes that when Egypt Frontiers releases as a complete game that all those little bothersome bugs will be fixed and smoothed over. The game itself is a lesson about Egypt back at the time of the pyramids. Parts of it felt like one of my regular camping trips, but all the same, the town buildings, the people, those boats! I am amazed. I hope at the end we get the history of the final monument built because my game froze right as I placed the last brick! 

Read More

Besiege from Spiderling Studios Available Now on Nintendo Switch!

Besiege, the best-selling PC game from British indie developer Spiderling Studios, is now available on Nintendo Switch in Europe & America! (With Asia coming 12th December).

Spiderling has teamed up with Ultimate Games S.A. to bring the Top-250 rated Steam game (95% positive) to the Nintendo Switch, with Ultimate Games acting as the console game’s publisher. PlayStation 4 & 5 versions are set to release later this year, as well!

Besiege is already available on Xbox One & Series X|S, but the Switch version has received extra attention, offering the seamless integration of the Switch’s Touch Controls, to the classic gameplay experience.

Core Features

• Single player Campaign with 55 Levels
• 3 Sandbox Environments
• 70+ Weapons, Blocks, Devices & Mechanisms to build machines
• A suite of Advanced Building Tools
• A “Workshop” to download other player’s machines or upload your own to share
• Touch controls for interactive building and destruction

About Besiege

Besiege is a physics-building game about constructing mechanical machines to annihilate armies, obliterate castles and overcome challenging obstacles. Players can conquer their way through a 55-level campaign or experiment & explore in expansive sandbox environments.

Create tanks, planes, helicopters, sports cars, catapults, rockets, giant mechs- anything you can imagine- with Besiege’s intuitive & flexible building system and extensive 70+ block collection!

Besiege’s intricate physics system creates a satisfying building & simulation experience, whether you’re the harbinger of destruction or your machine is falling apart.

Conquer your way through a singleplayer campaign of 55 destructible levels. Spanning across four island nations, each with its own environment, the campaign will pit you against unique civilizations ripe for conquest.

Cruise through Besiege’s huge sandbox levels, terrorizing their inhabitants, honing your craft & testing your ingenious prototypes.

The console version also includes its own “Workshop” where players can browse through machines created by other players or upload their own creations to share with the community!

Touch Controls

Besiege on Nintendo Switch offers a new way of playing the classic game, with the portability of the Switch allowing players to enjoy the creative sandbox anywhere, anytime. The intuitive controls and touch-screen capabilities of the Switch have been seamlessly integrated, offering new ways to interact with and build your machines. Place blocks with a tap of your finger and use the drag god tool to smash enemies and fling your machine about.

Get Besiege on These Platforms:

Nintendo eShop: 

• https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/besiege-switch/

Microsoft Store:

• https://www.xbox.com/games/store/besiege-console/9ppfbqg81q5j

Steam:

• https://store.steampowered.com/app/346010/Besiege/

Article by: Susan N.

Read More

Captain of Industry Preview

Captain of Industry by developer and publisher MaFi Games—PC (Steam) preview written by Hayden with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes. 

---

Indie developers MaFi Games have delivered an exemplary entry into the colony-building genre with Captain of Industry, hitting lots of strong points with very few hang-ups. Here, you’ll go from a small group of survivors off a damaged cargo ship to a thriving industrial hub with aspirations of space travel. Or maybe you’ll end up with a deserted industrial wasteland of rusting machinery after your fertilizer production broke down and your people starved. Whichever way it goes, it’s all up to you and your ability to juggle ever more complex industrial chains.

A factory in the rain, probably on the road to ruin unless I can solve its power problems.

First Impressions

The new player experience is often critical to the success of a game, especially for the colony and management sims. It doesn’t matter how many features and tools a game has if the player can’t find them or gets overwhelmed. The first time I loaded up Captain of Industry, I worried that this was going to sink the game. A single window pops up of “things to do asap” didn’t really provide any explanation of how one was supposed to proceed.

By the time I had bravely poked at a couple of buttons unguided, however, I found these worries were unfounded. Captain of Industry provides tutorial notifications as small banners on the left side of the screen. Clicking them opens text explanations (with pictures!) of how things work, in a clear and straightforward manner. I quickly found myself up to speed with the basics and noticed a nice touch: further tutorials popped up notifications as items unlocked via research in the game’s extensive tech tree. Unlocked the ability to build a mining control tower? Here’s a pop-up directing you to tutorial pages on how to set up mining zones, dump unwanted products, etc.

Early tutorial pages are simple, but later ones make good use of images to get the point across.

Beyond tutorials and instructions, the game itself looks crisp and well defined, with nice bits of artistic flair throughout. The transport trucks in the game change visually depending on what type of cargo they are hauling. Open bins let you see the contents, closed cargo containers or fluid tanks as they all appear based on truck tasks. MaFi Games has even made sure the cargo bins lift up to dump cargo here, adding to the immersion. The terrain is in a clear and bright palette where the game overlays a series of grid lines and contours when different tools are selected. Even the ocean water surrounding the island hits the right mark. Glossy highlights make it look liquid, a bit of heaving, ocean-like movement is present, but no GPU-consuming whitecaps will be seen.

Quality of Life

Captain of Industry nails its spot as a colony and management sim with very carefully positioned quality of life features. These have had such an impact that I wish these were now present in other games I have played! Most obvious at the start was the automation of the transport vehicles in the game. Using simple toggles and priority settings on virtually every building, the trucks, and vehicles fairly smartly between destinations.

This relies heavily on pathing, which is an area that many games show weakness - but not this one. Captain of Industry doesn't leave you wondering why a truck can’t take a certain route, it gives you the tools to figure it out. Every vehicle in the game has the ability to toggle a Navigation overlay, which highlights the entire playing area in green and red, showing the player where unexpected deformations may have interrupted a route.

The Navigation Overlay takes the guesswork out of "why can't my vehicles use that route?"

Next up on the list of things that I (now) wish other games had is simple, clear feedback when connecting machines. Captain of Industry offers the player several different types of pipes and conveyors to make permanent connections between machines. Connection ports are shape-coded based on what kind of connector is needed, but this isn't all.

Successful planned connections have a small green plug icon pop up above them before the placement is finalized. Use the wrong connection type, and a red plug icon pops up indicating there is a problem at the junction. These little icons alone have saved me huge amounts of frustration. Much of the chasing-down problems that other factory games have conditioned me to expect simply don’t happen here.

I never knew how much I needed a tiny pop-up to tell me something won't work until I got used to seeing this.

Before I spend too much time waxing eloquently on all the virtues of the game, I’ll leave you with one more example of the thoughtful quality of life items that MaFi Games has included - output value normalization on every machine’s info panel. Like many other production games, Captain of Industry uses different cycle speeds for different buildings.

Unlike other games, a simple toggle changes the machine’s output display from showing the value per cycle to showing output per 60 days. This setting carries over to every machine's info panel automatically. Trying to balance the output of factory cycles that take 5, 7, 9, and 13 days with each other? Simply toggle the switch, and every cycle’s output per 60 days is shown for easy comparison. The player still has to balance these, but it is terribly refreshing to not have to calculate these values myself.

What makes it unique?

A new game always has to answer the question "what makes this one different?". For Captain of Industry, it is the ability to traverse and explore the world around you. The damaged cargo ship that brought the player to the island initially can (and must) be repaired. Repairing the ship is an early-game milestone and unlocks Captain of Industry's key world exploration mechanics.

Managing your island’s finite resources only goes so far, and interacting with the world to get more is essential. From settlements you can trade with to offshore resource nodes (mines, oil rigs, etc.), refugees (providing population and a smattering of materials), and pirates, this really sets the game apart. Letting players explore is an aspect that many other colony sims neglect - too often we are given the map to play on and that’s it.

Conclusion

Captain of Industry joins a fairly crowded genre of games, falling somewhere between Factorio, Cities: Skylines, and SatisFactory. Players who enjoyed one or more of those three will likely enjoy Captain of Industry. With more features on their roadmap, this already impressive title is going to be a hard one to beat. MaFi Games has done an excellent job here, and it really feels polished even at the start of Early Access. I strongly recommend picking this title up, even during this Early Access stage. This game is on course for a 9/10, and I'm excited for what else is added before full release.

Captain of Industry is a colony sim/management game that hits all the right notes. Clear graphics convey what the player needs to know, and a bevy of quality of life features here work so well that I wish I saw equivalents in other games.

Just having released into Early Access on 31 May, 2022, Captain of Industry already feels like a release-quality title. MaFi Games has done an excellent job here, and I strongly recommend picking this title up right away, even in the Early Access period.

Score: N/A

Read More

Satisfactory - PC Review

Introduction

Satisfactory is a 3D version of Factorio, which is to say that both are efficiency building games. I had discovered its existence through friends and signed up for the closed beta. Since I took a look at the title so close to the closed beta time frame, I didn't think I'd get a key, yet somehow I squeaked in. I found that after playing through that version of the game, I do not regret my decision to give it a try (especially since I'm not always keen on open world games with no story to accompany it.) And despite the fact that Satisfactory has had some interesting issues in its multiplayer version, I've enjoyed hours of endless gameplay refining and perfecting my factory's efficiency.

Gameplay

At the beginning of the game, players are dropped onto an alien planet to build a factory and provide data and resources to the home office. This is achieved through FICSIT and the Space Elevator, which both ship resources off into space. The premise is simple. Make things, ship things, make bigger things, repeat process. (For now...)

Satisfactory is what you make of it, which is to automate the production of materials to gain access to other buildings, and hopefully not die in creative ways. And believe me when I say there are creative ways to die in this game. First, there are the creatures that will attack you like the Fluffy Tails (although, I wonder about that name since these creatures are not particularly fluffy...) Second, there are poisonous clouds that players can encounter. Third, players can easily fall off various cliffs and buildings plummeting to their doom. However, the most creative death I've ever seen can be observed in this lovely Twitch clip. (Yes, I was in the game and was watching from the ground. The streamer and I were doing our regular co-op stream, so I clipped it. Enjoy!)

There are all kinds of things that players get access to in Satisfactory. Recently, the game received an update allowing players to use trains! Since I have not reached this tier, please check out the most recent update video that showcases the new content like the aforementioned trains, nuclear power plants, and updated map areas. Also, patch notes for this update can be found here.

Players are able to customize their train systems with the use of switches and factory design. That said, trains are available at Tier 6 and are expensive, but will be worthwhile when the tier is reached. At tier 7, the nuclear power plant and waste facility become available, along with a few new resource types.

At this time, Satisfactory does not yet have a complete narrative, very similar to the early access progression of Subnautica. However, on Coffee Stain Studio's public road map they have listed plans to include a full story for the game. There will also be modding capabilities, more crafting tiers, and much more features to be added down the line. For a game that is priced at $29.95 USD, Satisfactory provides hours of content to enjoy.

Graphics and Sound

Since Satisfactory is only available on the Epic Games store (spare me your complaints), it has standard keyboard controls and no controller capabilities. So, the keys used are the standard WASD for movement, C is used for the scanner, Q accesses the building menu, F demolishes structures, V is used for the flashlight, X accesses the mailbox and tutorial information, and Tab is used to access player inventory. Buttons 1 - 9 can be changed to suit a players needs and when constructing buildings, there are a variety floor sizes and wall types to choose from. At later tiers, there is access to walkways and transportation methods which sometimes cause interesting graphical issues. (This is a point I will address later on.)


If there was any gripe about the building in this game, it would be that at the beginning, items are crafted manually, meaning players have to hold down the mouse button for a lengthy periods of time. (This is me saying WTB "craft all" button please!)

Outside of that, there are various tools that are used to scan for objects and ore deposits on the planet, weapons to use against the alien lifeforms, and neat footwear that allows players to jump higher and move faster. What's not to love?!

The UI polished and lightweight, mostly appearing at the bottom of the screen, allowing players to see the amazing graphics. In fact, I've spent lots of time screenshotting various locations in the game because it is astonishing. And if the scenery isn't impressive enough, some of the alien creatures are vividly brought to life, making the whole gameplay experience a breathtaking one.


As for the sound design, Coffee Stain Studios was on point with building sounds, creature noises, and music choices. There are only four songs in the official soundtrack but they create a lovely and relax ambience to the game - which is contrasted by the various demons, fluffy tails, and spiders. (I've thankfully avoided some of these so far).

Satisfactory's OST, composed by Jannik Reuterberg aka Sleepers Delight, who is a freelance composer and sound designer that specializes in chill music - a genre of music I quite enjoy. He can be found on social media via his Soundcloud, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram pages, so be sure to drop him a follow!  

Pros and Cons

There are a lot of features to love about Satisfactory like its relaxing and casual gameplay experience, vast landscapes to explore and build, and multiplayer capabilities (up to four players). Stunning graphics and an affordable price point are all things to be happy about.

Down the line, the developers plan to input a full narrative to Satisfactory, as well as many other quality of life features which will improve the end user experience. (Although, even the closed beta version of the game was spectacular, in my opinion.)

In Short the Pros are:

• Beautiful Graphics
• Casual and relaxing gameplay experience
• Hours of enjoyment
• A choice of 3 large landscapes to explore
• Alien lifeforms to discover or perhaps avoid
• Properly functioning multiplayer mode

Most of the cons that I found were only present in multiplayer games, but that doesn't take away from the enjoyment of Satisfactory. (In fact, in certain ways the issues added to the co-op experience.)

For one thing, Satisfactory suffers from the same issues that Astroneer does, which is that the multiplayer modes are established through a peer to peer connection. Often this means that issues with the multiplayer experience boils down to connection issues where objects might not show for all players. (Take a look at the screenshot next to this paragraph. The player could see the platform I placed where I could not.) Peer to peer multiplayer design also means that once a player logs out of the game, the players' model remains. While this is not inherently an issue, it allows for some friendly casual mayhem among friends - which may or may not turn out for the best.

Furthermore, the distance traveled away from the main hub will eventually cause the game to lag, which is another issue that tends to occur with a peer to peer setup. Finally, when using some of the vehicles in Satisfactory, the game would show the camera angle from behind the it like the player was no longer driving. When my game had enough issues where I needed to log out and back in, my character ceased to have a head! (And yet, I could still move around. Yes, I have screenshots of this too...)

Some other cons include:

• No factory lighting! (I BEG YOU. Please include some lights!)
• Multiplayer minor grievances (as indicated above)
• Hub collusion isn't present when the docile giant octopus leg creatures wander through the base
• The beginning of the game could stand to have a 'craft all' button
• Minor lag issues
• Occasional graphic issues (listed above)
• Game saves are NOT saved to the cloud, but locally saved (This isn't an issue unless you have to reinstall Windows, for example.)

Final Thoughts

Satisfactory is an excellent factory building simulator that I absolutely adore. With a fully fleshed out narrative, some additional quality of life features, and multiplayer issues addressed, this game will knock several of its genre out of the park. Even with the issues encountered during the multiplayer sessions, Satisfactory earns a 9 out of 10 in my books. It's fun, beautiful, and create hours of enjoyment for players. I can't get enough of this title!

Be sure to follow Satisfactory on Social Media. Here are links to the Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit pages! Don't forget to join the Discord for future updates.

For the record, I was crafting something when this bugger appeared under the crafting window, scaring the crap out of me...

Game Information

Platform:
PC
Developer(s):
Coffee Stain Studios
Publisher(s):
Coffee Stain Studios
Genre(s):
Simulation, Factory Builder
Mode(s):
Single Player, Multiplayer
Other Platform(s):
NA

Source:
Purchased

Article by Susan N.

Read More