Pine Free On Epic Games Store

Monday, I wanted to rip my own face off one skin layer at a time while writing this month’s Prime Gaming article. Also, Mike is excited about a few games this month. Alexx is excited about a rogue-like, again, and I mourned the death of an old friend. Tuesday, Sony bought a stake in Discord, and something WoW-based is set to release in June. Wednesday, that Apple Vs Epic case is getting interesting, another Wonder Boy game is coming to the Switch, and more claims of a toxic behavior at CD Projekt led to a resignation. Thursday, the next Fable will use the engine for Forza Horizon and Motorsport, and Incredible Mandy has released on PS4.

I’m not going to jump straight into Pine anyway, so I’ll just say this: I was provided a key for Incredible Mandy by the publisher, it was good. While we’re on games I’ve previously played or covered: Epic’s first 9-months of free games is an interesting little story. It was in the news this week, but there has been quite a bit more revealed from the court case: such as Nintendo having a clause stopping partners working with the yakuza (but Uncle Kaz is fine). A team at Xbox enjoyed TLOU 2, not a single Xbox console has turned a profit, and they also expected Bayonetta 3 (which Alexx is “salty” about), Metroid Prime 4, and BOTW 2 last year. Also, Sony makes developers pay for cross-play.

I like the smell of dirty laundry in the morning, it makes for good news days in the games industry. Anyway, onto the Epic Games Store and this week’s free game, which might have cost Epic $200,000-$500,000 going by other releases. It’s fine, Fortnite made about $9-million in two years, I think it balances out. Pine, an open-world action-adventure puzzle game by way of a desaturated child of Breath of the Wild and Horizon Zero Dawn, released in 2019 and didn’t make all that big of a splash. Not like this Valhheim thing did a few months ago at least, though it hasn’t been heard of since, I wonder why they do that?

The long story cut short is: it is fine. Don’t get me wrong, I like open-world adventure games too, and Pine is a very nice looking and well-made game to the point of it being admirable, but it was never lighting a fire in my underpants. I don’t think it is bad, but like most things I’ve covered this week where I’ve given my opinion, it hasn’t been something I’ll be talking about for weeks to come. Put your pitchforks away, it is your typical indie adventure game, but there is just something missing. The puzzles are a particular “I’m just bored by this” moment.

As usual, my perspective on Pine might be altered with several things, most notably the constricted time I have on getting these articles done. When it comes to these articles, I need to be a little quick in every aspect. Having played several (hundred) games similar to Pine in small ways helps but also hinders it. As I said in the article on how much Epic has shilled out for the free games, Twirlbound and Kongregate are given the money they were not guaranteed otherwise, just as any sale of the game you might not have heard of was not guaranteed. So pick it up and check it out, you might like it.

All this week you can pick up Pine for free on the Epic Games Store, ending on the morning of the 13th of May. From there on you’ll be able to pick up Mi’pu’mi Games’ The Lion’s Song, a little episodic adventure game about some Austrians in the early 20th century. Part of me is excited for what that will be, and the other (dyslexic) part of me hates the idea of covering an indie narrative adventure as it means stylized fonts… My favorite type of headache!