The difference a week makes, huh? Monday, Dari wrote about the NieR remaster and new mobile game to release soon, and Tuesday Taylor wrote about the Official Xbox Magazine‘s closure. Wednesday, I wrote a very adult April Fools day joke about Animal Crossing and House Party, while Taylor covered the Xbox Games with Gold. Taylor once again spoke about the issues COVID-19 is having on Xbox Live. Then lastly, I wrote about all the in-game “loot” for several mobile phone games and that stupid pizza in Rainbow Six Siege, this was while talking about the five games available to Twitch Prime subscribers.

That’s enough about things that aren’t free, because it is that time of the week once again, it’s time to talk about the Epic Games Store. Something that for about a week now I’ve said would be a problem, as it is hard to talk about Gone Home in detail without spoiling it. Gone Home is how every walking simulator should be, short, to the point, and subverts expectations. Everything about Gone Home does something that should be applauded, either the understanding of the atmosphere down to the small details about Sam’s life. You play as Sam, a young woman who’s returned home from backpacking across Europe.

She returns on a stormy night that would have the Obra Dinn on its side, with cracking thunder and flashes of light, you’d think the rapture was happening outside. Gladly it is not Everyone’s Gone To The Rapture, because it is well-written, doesn’t give away the twist in the title, and is about a million times better in every way. There aren’t even any humans in the house to get in the way, just you, Sam, the thunder, and all your presumption. A brilliant little game that you could spend, at most, about three hours in.

That’s the quick one away, let’s talk about the second of the four games. Hob is an action-adventure that is just on the cusp of all those slow indie games that draw out everything to pretend they are imbuing emotion, but in reality, they are just building a better case for drinking coffee and playing something else. We’ve walked this path before. The ruined civilization with pretty brass bits in the walls, primitive but clearly “original-character-do-not-steal” versions of the Chocobos from Final Fantasy grunting, and masonry that’s lasted stood the test of time and the nuclear strike that hit Slough.

The problem I think Hob has is how little it wants to tell you. Yes, I’ve said before games need to stop holding your hand; I’ll also say it is very pretty and has given the art director a nice cover photo for their resume. However, when I’m questioning what a mild grunt and shrug from Knack’s tighter designed brother is supposed to mean this time around, I can be forgiven for getting bored. Hob is a tightly designed game with all the cracks filled in with all the indie game seamen accrued over the years. Though, truth be told, if I wanted to explore ancient ruins and enjoy the game I’d boot up Ico or Shadow of the Colossus.

The third game this week is one I’ve already spoken about. If you are one of those who fly the flag of stupidly picking a faceless corporation to back for no reason; Firstly welcome to 90s wrestling, and secondly, this was and still is free on Steam. I’m talking about the Jackbox party game Drawful 2. Quite a few people have decided to pick up the Jackbox games of late, making it a new way of socializing with friends without them using your bathroom.

The fourth and final game I have to talk about this week, and I can’t be happier about that, is Totally Reliable Delivery Service. You may be thinking, “but hold on, didn’t that just release?” Yes, yes it did, and because it is the first in a total of five games tinyBuild and Epic are working on, one might assume this is to get people to play the first one. It is the answer to the question, what if Goat Simulator was about UPS not delivering something? The answer also becomes something I’m not playing on my own or with people.

Gone Home, Drawful 2, and Hob are all free on the Epic Games Store until the morning of Thursday April 9th. Those that want to pick up Totally Reliable Delivery Service, on the other hand, will want to be a little quicker, as it is only available until the morning of Wednesday April 8th. Three of those four are simply not my go-to games, I can’t even play Gone Home too often, but I could see others enjoying them. Given we’re all stuck inside, might as well do as a mad man said, and play some games.

Next week’s game, happens to be good. I get an easy week next week, with Frogwares‘ 2014 game Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments. it is the second-last game in the series by Frogwares, and should be interesting to play the game before The Devil’s Daughter; one I quite enjoyed a couple of years ago. However, given Epic like to scarper my plans for an easy week, I suspect I’ll be covering something else too.

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