Well, this has been a very uneventful week. Some games won awards at an awards ceremony that was held in a room so small you couldn’t even swing a mouse, never mind the cat you’d catch with the mouse. Rockstar was accused of dodgy tax work, again. At least this time they will be making Grand Theft Auto 6 with it, so maybe they’ll make $16 billion and maybe pay some taxes on the bloody thing. Then, of course, we were playing catch up to the Cyberpunk 2077, Avengers, Dying Light 2, and Final Fantasy 7 Remake delays. Other than a mental health director saying loot boxes are addictive, it was an uneventful week so far.

With that, it is the end of the week so clearly, it is time for the free game on the Epic Games Store. This week it is The Bridge, sadly while that does sound like a sci-fi comedy about the inner working of the USS-Enterprise when Jean-Luc is off for some tea, it is not a Star Trek: Picard tie-in game. Instead, it is just an average puzzler with a central gimmick of moving the world in a tilting motion. It sounds interesting until the end of the first chapter when the tilting has become secondary and the traps become more of the issue.

My problem with puzzle games would be their inability to make you feel smart for solving it. This is why I love Superliminal, you’ll do something outside of the box, and you fist pump the air when it works. Something else Superliminal does well is how it lets you feel dumb, that level with the apples has stumped a few. With The Bridge, I don’t feel I could go wrong by doing something very stupid as most puzzles are very self-contained. It might just be that i’m experiencing the early sections of its puzzles and they ramp up towards the end, but I don’t feel gripped in the hour or so I could give it.

The only thing I did find interesting was the use of Prince of Persia‘s “Oh, that’s not how it happened” mechanic. The issue is how un-engaging it feels as, in The Sands of Time I wanted to feed the Alexander Siddig impersonator a book John Wick-style. Here I’m half-heartedly holding B and exhaling as I have to pay that puzzle some attention. In fact, I didn’t bother reading the plot. An old man was stirred awake by me bopping him across the bonce with an apple, chances are this is a dream or coma.

Nevertheless, The Bridge is free on the Epic Games store all this week until the late morning of the 30th. I’ll admit, it wouldn’t be my first choice for a puzzle game but that’s mostly because I wasn’t put on the back foot enough. If you’re looking for something a lot more challenging I’d say look at Automachef, Superliminal, A bit of Battle Chef Brigade, and even Antihero. All of these feel like a strong game to test you a little more.

Speaking of something that will test you, next week’s game is a strange choice. Farming Simulator 19 is going to be just as buggy, confusing, or boring as its previous installments depending on how you play. Given I’ve been in more farmhouses and barns than fields, I don’t think my experience of knowing a farmer and his daughter, in particular, come in handy for this one. The only time I’ve heard of John Deere is when talking about a combine harvester.

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