Pacific Drive Xbox Series X Review 6/10 "Now my car has a slightly stronger left door. Thrilling!" 🚘🌲@ironwoodtweets #IndieGames #GameDev

Keith was a little disappointed that the picture on Auto Trader didn't quite match the car which was on the car salesman's forecourt...

What happens when a heaping pile of things I love crashes at full speed into a brick wall of stuff I despise? Pacific Drive, that’s what! On paper, this chill, spooky, and surreal adventure is very much my bag. Within the first few minutes, it becomes clear this is a big honking homage to Andrei Tarkovsky’s monumentally awesome 1979 film Stalker, with a killer indie-synth soundtrack and fun 70s aesthetics bolted on top.

The game opens with you driving through a beautifully realized recreation of Washington state’s rainy Olympic Peninsula, before being accidentally tossed into the “Zone”. This walled-off area is the testing ground for mysterious technology, resulting in chaotic, dangerous, and surreal phenomena. After finding a working station wagon, you must figure out a plan of escape, aided by eccentric scientists and technicians on radio comms.

That crack in John's windscreen was something that AutoGlass just outright refused to fix.

Moving Houses Xbox Series X Review 7/10 "Time to Get a Move On" 🏠 @gordlittle #IndieGame #GameDev

Keith's favourite party trick was the levitating controller

A game that features bright visuals that hides a darker underbelly, Moving Houses is a 1st person title that begins with your character in the process of – as the title suggests – moving house. It starts off simply enough, grab a cardboard box and fill it up before chucking it in the back of the van blocking the driveway, whilst hurtling larger objects in by themselves – no box needed. 

You level up upon packing each batch of items and unlock little bonuses such as a jump, or the ability to fit more items in boxes etc. but what you’ll notice as you get deeper into the game is that house seems….a little…off. The further you get into the house and various rooms, the more unusual things become, it’s never outright horror or even anything close (as is evident by the age rating), but it is a touch surreal.