Where The Water Tastes Like Wine & Railway Empire Free On Epic

This week’s news? There was no news, aside from Monday I covered what was added to Prime Gaming, and Zoë spoke about the stupidity that continued to fester in Ubisoft. Tuesday, after a leak the night before, Xbox revealed the Series S with a price. Wednesday, Taylor covered what Xbox All Access will do for sales of the consoles. Thursday, the Series X got a price tag, both Series X and S release dates and a pre-order date, while Dmitry covered the trailer for the Dune Remake, and Mike spoke about The Boys Season 2 controversy.

Now let’s get to the Epic Games Store and the first half of our double-bill this week that I’m going to be a little short on. The first game is a game about a mystery figure traveling across America, in order to tell the stories of people and collect those that have lead interesting lives. This is all with the goal of telling the big picture story of what the country is made of, with lies and truths playing a big part. At least that seems to be the case with my short experience of Where The Water Tastes Like Wine. It seems interesting with a strong art style, Folk-y/Country soundtrack to showcase the traveler spirit, and strong voice acting.

There is just something about it lacking punch. Mostly because Hideo Kojima made Death Stranding, which is similarly about a man telling stories and walking across America. I’m not saying the latter is better, nor can the same be said of the former either, there is just something about the “genre” of walking sims of America that lacks. I do like the voice acting, as the narrator is the voice of Kellogg from Fallout 4, and that was nice to notice.

The second game is a frontier expansion simulator. No, come back, it is a business simulator about railways and empires therein. Railway Empire is a game about the heyday of building railroads in the continental U.S, ignoring that the continental U.S you are connecting is the part previously held by natives and Mexico. That’s not a bad thing about the light Tycoon game about the days “Barry Rail,” my character, was contracted to connect the U.S from coast to coast. I’m just raising the point that, at least in the early portion, there was a complete lack of mention of the realities of it.

It also doesn’t help that it is a tycoon game that I don’t have the time to play for hours. I don’t have much to say about it other than a couple of initial impressions. Those impressions were tempered a little by the game oddly stuttering for a moment, causing me to make noises in rhythm with the audio stutter to make German House music. Really, if you’ve played any tycoon game, you know what you are getting into because it is just another one but with trains. Minor updates to the formula are there to bring the game into a contemporary tycoon game, but it is still the same as the rest.

Both Railway Empire and Where The Water Tastes Like Wine are free on the Epic Games Store, only until the 17th of September. On the 17th, you can pick up Stick it to the Man, a game by Zoink games. You might remember that Zoink Games are making Lost in Random for EA, coming next year. If we’re sticking to a single game next week, I might enjoy myself as I think Stick it to the Man and Zoink’s other game that I’ve played (Flipping Death) are interesting little platformers. Bring on next week’s article!