Soothing Waters

The recent Steam Spring Sale offered the chance for players to grab a few wishlist titles for a discount.  Even though I've been trying to be conservative with my gaming purchases, I decided it was time to check a title off the list.  It was a tough choice--I'm definitely eyeballing Slime Rancher 2, but it's still in early access and I would rather just wait until the full release--but in the end I decided that I needed some blissful cleaning in my life and grabbed PowerWash Simulator.

An inexplicably gross playground that needs a clean.

What the heck is PowerWash Simulator?  Unsurprisingly, it's a game about using a power washer to clean various locations.  Sounds boring?  Well, you're totally wrong!  There's something strangely soothing and satisfying about watching a mucky path become sparklingly clean or seeing an entire house go from grimy to shiny.  There are multiple gameplay modes to satisfy all your power washing needs--in career mode you take on a variety of different jobs at locations that increase in complexity.  Each job pays based on how well you clean it up--a five star job requires some very attentive washing to make sure that you've sprayed every nook and cranny to eliminate any hidden grime.

For more competitive cleaners there's a challenge mode with timed challenges as well as jobs that limit the amount of water that you can use.  Or, if you're just in it for the soothing nature of spraying you can opt for free play which allows you to clean any of the maps/jobs in the game with no limitations.  Oh, and if you want to power wash with a friend there's even a co-op mode!  All-in-all, there's a little bit of something for everyone.

As you earn more cash you can purchase upgrades to help you better combat tougher messes.  There are special attachments and more powerful washers and there also cosmetic items to help make your rubber-clad cleaning figure into a unique hero of washing.  There are even cosmetic upgrades for your sprayer--all the hot skins for all the hottest powerwashing!

There's very little explanation about why this world you're cleaning is so filthy, but as long as there's more spraying...I'm happy.  And, they seem to be periodically releasing themed additional content such as a Croft Manor map (so you can clean up all of Lara's messes) and a Midgar themed pack with Final Fantasy VII themed items to make sparkly.  My one and only gripe is that unless I use the "target spraying" option (you press C and basically aim without moving) it does make me feel a bit motion sick.  This is weird because I've never felt even slightly motion sick from other games.

I'm looking forward to many more happy hours spraying away all the dirt from a variety of quirky objects.  

Ghost Bustin' in School Spirits

The latest DLC for Two Point Campus came out on Wednesday and I've been happily trying to control the chaos of a heavily haunted campus.  I'm not completely done--because I absolutely have to 3-star every map--but I'm getting closer.  Here are my thoughts on the new ghostly addition!

Pros:

+ Two new courses.  Ghost detection students come equipped with a fancy Dustbuster and take classes in finding and capturing ghosts.  There are two new classrooms required--one, the Mediumatic, includes additional items like a creepy doll and a haunted rubber ducky.  The other new room, the Octovat, is where students learn the basics of proper ghost storage.  It also includes a Theremin to perfectly soothe the spirits of the stored ghosts.

The Mediumatic room includes lots of creepy, haunted items.

One other interesting addition to your new haunted campus is the fact that you can admit spirit students.  They specialize in a course called School Spirits which is apparently geared toward learning how to properly haunt various locations and items.  These ghostly students don't appear to follow the same room capacity rules and oddly get along swimmingly with the ghost detection students.

+ New janitorial events and training.  On this particular campus, specific rooms can become possessed by ghosts and require a janitor with ghost capture training to exorcise them.  It's important to be on the lookout for signs of possession--namely flickering lights, floating objects, and eventually a creepy, ghostly mist.  Any students and staff in a room that is possessed will suffer negative mood effects until the ghosts have been removed.  Upon completing an exorcism, janitors have to capture the formerly possessing ghosts and can place their spirits in a new item called an Ecto-vat.  Students can then access the Ecto-vat and receive a boost to certain needs--the color of mist that possesses a room indicates the type of boost from the captured spirit.

There's also a new weather event--the ghost cluster which is a combination of lightning that leaves behind zapped areas that must be cleaned up as well as a group of ghosts that must be captured by janitors.  Your janitorial staff has plenty to take care of!

Janitors bustin' some ghosts to place in the Ecto-vat.

+ Clearing new land to expand your campus requires you to perform an "expulsion ceremony" on a powerful spirit that resides on the plot.  Each plot also has specific goals that once achieved will unlock a damage bonus (basically, you want the damage bonus).  It's a bit of a clever twist on the objective based expansion.

+ Lots of fun new ghostly items to spread around campus.  There's a new monster plant and creepy pictures to decorate with.

Cons:

- It is a bit of a bummer that this DLC only includes one map.  I'm having a nice time and wouldn't mind a couple more campuses of ghostly-themed exploits.

Recommendation:

I've said it multiple times, but I do love Two Point, so anytime I get the opportunity for more--I'm in!  However, I do still maintain that I wish this DLC was a bit more creative when it came to the theme (even though I am enjoying the ghost capturing and possessed rooms).  It's also a bit disappointing that is not a three campus DLC like Space Academy.  If you're a fan of Two Point, you'll want to check it out.  The best bang for your DLC buck is the three campus expansion though, so if you want something meatier, maybe stick with Space Academy.

There's a new Two Point Campus DLC Coming!

Just this week Two Point Campus announced some new DLC--"School Spirits" looks to bring some spookiness to your local campus.  I was initially pretty excited, but there are some things about it that I'm giving a bit of side-eye to.  Here's the release trailer for your viewing and informational pleasure:

What looks good:

+ Two new fully animated courses.  Watching the goofiness of how the new courses function is always fun.

+ New challenge mode level.  The challenge mode levels must be popular because they keep adding them.  I'm decidedly bad at them and have only managed bronzes in the ones that I have attempted.  This new one appears to be oriented toward the ghost capturing theme in the DLC.

+ New items.  You can never have enough items, right?

+ Ghost students?  The trailer implies that you can choose to admit them.  There's also what looks like a campus-wide event to eliminate some kind of big ghost.  Maybe a new calendar activity?

+ Two new student archetypes.  The more diverse the students, the better!

Giving the side-eye to:

- Another ghost-themed level/DLC?  I would've preferred something more original because they've done spooky/ghost themed stuff in Hospital and it's a pretty stock go-to.

- Only one new campus.  The Space Academy DLC featured three new campuses and multiple new courses, so it's a bit disappointing that this feels like a half-DLC.  Sure, it's only $5.99, but I'd prefer three new maps.

"School Spirits" releases on March 15th and even though I'm feeling a bit "meh" about it, I'm going to purchase it, because deep down I have an abiding love of Two Point.

Bouncing Around

The last few weeks of my gaming time has been spent bouncing back and forth between several titles.  I have been trying not to buy a bunch of games (still...thanks to inflation) and work through some of my backlog and also do a bit of re-playing.  I'm keeping my hopes up for the next Steam Sale (you can check out the upcoming sale dates here.

Here's where my lunatic bouncing has been:

1.) Farming Simulator 19

I had previously checked out an earlier iteration of this series and spent some time playing it before I got bored.  I received this newer version free from an Epic giveaway and decided to spend some time playing at being a farmer.  There's something weirdly soothing about hopping in a tractor and caring for your crops.  However...I also find certain aspects of the game weirdly frustrating.  I haven't yet managed to figure out an ideal in-game schedule for planting and managing my crops for the best yield.  I don't enjoy trying to do farm tasks at night when it's harder to see (and yes, I could alter the speed of the in-game day and I've already slowed the crop growth speed down) and if you don't weed your fields at the right time your tractor causes damage to the crops (and yes, I could also turn this setting off--but I refuse!).  I have so far managed one good yield--just one!  There's a part of me that wants to just keep pushing until I figure out how to get those perfect yields...and there's another part that wants to rage quit as I watch my tractor destroy a portion of my fields.

I want a Spiffinmoore with wizards, punks, and cool guys!

2.) Two Point Campus

I have fully played through the main campaign (twice) and the Space Academy DLC but I do so love Two Point.  I've found myself toying around with some of the challenge modes (which I am not good at) and creating and growing sandbox campuses.  I always tell myself that I'm going to be super creative...and I'm just not.  But, there's something I very much enjoy about watching life happen on each campus.  I'm awaiting any news about future DLC's and enjoying some of the seasonal content they periodically release.

3.) Roadwarden

I decided to check out a text-based RPG that has some very positive reviews.  In it, you play as a sort of itinerant fighter whose task is to travel the backroads and convince settlements to join into a trade consortium.  It sounds relatively simple, but it's anything but!  The kingdom is fragmented and the roads are extremely dangerous--populated by monsters, bandits, and difficult terrain.  You never know what to expect with each forward movement--your path could be blocked and you're forced to rethink your route for the day or you stumble across something puzzling that you need to investigate.  Each encounter is extremely tense and it feels like you're constantly hanging on by the skin of your teeth.  It's well-written, but I've struggled to truly settle into it.  It's kind of brutal and I don't feel like I'm making much progress.  Maybe I'll return to it someday....we'll see.