Mini Metro....

A game I've not played in a while(posting last October and again last Feb). Not that I've abandoned the game but Mini Motorways being the newer had taken more of a priority; That's not to say the game has been ignored by the devs either. They've updated a lot both in UI and background tweaks as well as adding new maps and challenges. Mini Motorways in many ways has been a good thing for crossover development and improvements. It's really nice to see such actions as a gamer.

It's the latest patch notes that popped up for Mini Metro that caught my attention. 

Getting back to the game was easy from a gameplay mechanic perspective. One of the new maps needed an increase to the passenger numbers in a previous map to unlock it so I set about the task.

A quick fail state later and I was back in the full swing of it and unlocked on the second attempt.

It doesn't seem so long since I was last in the game but time flies. I'm no master Mini Metro player. No min maxing of routes for perfection. Some maps hold my interest more than others, it can be fun to 'optimize' tactics for gamplay on those for the sake of playing rather than 'beating' the map. Overall it's fun to be back at it.

A game where you can go into maps thinking your gonna do things a certain way only to be left 30 seconds later with a map that looks like you just threw a plate of spaghetti bolognese at a wall. 

There's both little time to react, yet infinite time to ponder. The joy of compounded actions and a pause button.

Each map is so deceptively simple at the start. But the decisions to run one line or two, two locomotives or three or to have a bridge here and a bridge there; Or to hold back a line and a locomotive all does have impact early as well as late. Then there's some random station popup that just screws with you.

Some things work out and others not so much. The games music and sounds as much a helping indicator as a pulsing pressure. What a great game. I must make more time for it.

With a long stint away from the game there are lots of newer maps to work on.

Journey....

More recently I've been into the types of game that are about the journey. Abzu, Skye. Alpha planet, The Artful Escape to name a few as a more purist take on the type. This genre of game is hard to define, is as wide as it is deep in meaning and interpretation. From action adventure, platformer, exploration to a petal on the wind. weapons or no, abilities or none. 

Journey is a game that I'd heard about from it's launch hype as being different and special for it's take on gaming. A walking simulator and environmental narrative, the start of something that helped define the genre in those terms for the recent past. It's in the Meta. A genre easy and hard to describe at the same time for sure. Different things to different gamers.

Some of these types of games 'do it' for me, others not so much. While Limbo is a good game it's not a game for me but Alpha Planet is. 

Firewatch is all me but after watching a full (and entertaining) walkthrough the game had noting for me if I were to buy it and do it for myself...... I think with 10% doubt.....

The genre is a hard one to nail down, is a like or dislike, in a know what I like when I see it kind of way.

Various lists of the best of the genre are mainly listing games I'd not play. Dear Esther, The Unfinished Swan, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Gone Home, What Remains of Edith Finch, The Stanley Parable.

Others are an in-between like Ori, as much as I want to like both Ori games I can't get into them for one reason or another.

Twelve minutes is it's own thing that I never got into but then again so is A Plague Tale Innocence and I was all over that.....

A Casual Carebear Gamer

On the other hand Power Wash is a game I know I want but I know it'd be too much for me, too addictive and I'd go overboard with it. Hours and hours of gameplay I know I can use elsewhere to better effect(too many games too little time).

Whereas Unpacking is a game that I thought was interesting but once played was very much more into(thank you Gamepass Ultimate).

The lines blur vastly when game mechanics start down the more simulation route, Mini metro, mini motorways and Islanders. Like I said the genre really does cover a lot of ground. 

This gaming hobby is a complicated lark to explain in general never mind specifics like this.

So Journey has been in my peripheral vision for a long time. I knew it was a Playstaion exclusive game but after seeing it on Steam during the winter sale I knew I wanted to try it. -50% off at €6.25, a bargain. I guess I went into an ignore mode thinking I'd never get to play it. While I've only played just over an hour I can already say that it's worth it. The journey has just begun. If your into it your into it.

Mini Motorways....

A delicious enjoyable nightmare of micromanagement. In more ways than one Mini Motorways is Mini Metro on steroids. Both great games. It's a game type that your either into or not.

Mini Motorways like it's predecessor; It all starts off so innocently. 

Then a little more complex.

Then compounded decisions multiply into a nightmare; And you hang on for as long as you can. Making incremental changes out of desperation as the pressure mounts. The game audio cue's are so subtle but work so well.

Granted it's not all down to a players decisions. The game can be a dick. You can have a great setup and the next thing you know a red house is plonked in the middle of your blue estate. Or a single house is put across the entire map with the only destination it can go on the other side. That becomes worse when you have no motorways or have to cross multiple rivers to make it work only you have no bridges.... Choices, choices, choices. Important choices for the now or plan for the future...

The game can be awkward but has enough randomness to make it feel like you could have a better chance 'next time'. That's the nice take away.

The other way of putting it is that there's an insidiously delicious masochistic element to the game that's compelling. As the screen ever so slowly zooms out to increase the map area you know more pain is incoming; You want more. More to manage and more to cause you pain. The challenge of it. The 'I can do' and I can overcome and survive more thrown at me compulsion is strong. 

That's one of the great things about the game, it makes me want a 'next time'.

I mean look at this mess.... For this challenge they said free unlimited roundabouts.... Challenge accepted!

Problems ignored and mistakes made.... More please.

Here's my first run of the first city. Not bad for a first time.... Could have been worse.....

A Casual Carebear Gamer

Mini Metro....

With a patch yesterday a few days ago came a new map. Chongqing. Even with a first try late at night I was happy to get over 1000 passengers before the cascade of failure kicked in. 

A very playable map that's seen me do some fine tuning and better route/interchange choices.

Mini Metro....

It's been a while since I was last in Mini Metro. I've seen some pop-up's regarding updates on Steam from time to time but never hopped back in. Till last Thursday.   

Guangzhou map. Not a bad attempt for a return to the game after a long break. I was glad to get the achievement for 500 passengers first time out on the map. Amazed that I got to 700 before the end was inevitable. In retrospect better use of three lines and two exchanges would have been better.

A Casual Carebear

Mini Metro...

A nice surprise update was downloaded for me on Steam today! Creative mode lets you take any existing maps and build your metro.

Mini Metro....

Mini Metro. I saw it got an update last week. It's good to see games get long-term updates and cross platform attention.

While I'm not into the game in a role playing or minute, min maxing detail kind of way. I see it as a casual puzzler that I can have some fun with. Usually with the challenges(like get 1000 passengers to unlock another version of the map). So in terms of more serious Metro fans I'm sure my methods are messy, crazy works of despair. Speaking of which, I hopped back into the game and saw I 'needed' to unlock the 1972 version of the New York level....

Short version....

Long version....

A Casual Carebear

Mini Metro....

Definitely a sim of satisfying micromanagement. 

A quick attempt at the London 'map':

Casual Carebear

Mini Metro....

After the purchase, some game time and waffle about Mini Metro, it is a much better train management sim.... A purchase worth it.

Games....

I got the Special Transport DLC for ETS 2 as well as the currently on sale Mini Metro. 

Enjoying both, both worthy of a waffling filled post each, so more to come.....

Mini Metro....

I mentioned Mini Metro a month ago. I've had it on my steam wishlist ever since and today it's shown up as a 50% sale.....€4.99 for a €9.99 game .... nice!

Mini Metro....

That is one extreme micromanagement game (Mini Metro):

Many A True Nerd