2019-03-01_PC_Gamer

R

ows of assembly machines

stretch further than the eye

can see. Conveyor belts run

through like blood vessels, carrying

their cargo to the heart of this

self-sustaining machine. Fields of

accumulators crackle through the

night, storing the energy from a sea

of solar panels. Trains work

tirelessly ferrying who-knows-what

to who-knows-where.

I did not build this place. My forays

intoFactorio’s mix of construction,

resource gathering and automation

have been basic. The opening

moments will feel familiar if you’ve

played any building or survival game.

You craft a pickaxe and gather iron

ore, copper ore, stone and wood. You

build a furnace and refine those base

resources into building materials to

craft more complicated things.

Those things are expensive. You’ll

need plenty of iron sheets and copper

wires, which means ore and coal.

Perhaps you should build a drill to

automate parts of the process? And

maybe you could set up a conveyor

belt to transport ore to the furnace?

But to do that you’ll need power,

which means yet more materials.

And so you fall deeper and deeper

down this industrial tech tree, until

before you know it you’re surrounded

by endlessly churning machines.

Factorio gets complicated, and the

route from my early steps to the

endgame save file I downloaded from

someone who’s spent hundreds of

hours perfecting their design feels

intimidating. But once you’ve set up

the beginnings of automation, the

loop of planning, creation and

tinkering is relaxing. Even unfinished,

Factorio feels generous.

Be an industry titan inFACTORIO. By Phil Savage

FIRST RELEASED

February 25, 2016

VERSION TESTED

0.16.51

EXPECT TO PAY

£21

NEED TO KNOW

Trapped in the belly of

this horrible machine.

I

’m driving a bus down a

mountain road. Flashes of

black void flit across the

screen arrhythmically. I’m pretty

sure they’re not supposed to be

there. About halfway down, I’m

told there’s a bomb wired to the bus

that will detonate if I drop below

34mph. Unfortunately I also have

to follow checkpoints around some

tricky corners. I clip a barrier and

never recover my speed. Boom!

I’m driving through a... er... forest?

There are trees that look like big

house plants. I’m on a flat piece of

AstroTurf overlooking a bowl. I drive

over the ramp at the end and aim for

the centre of the target on the floor

below. I miss and get a bronze medal.

Welcome to car darts.

I’m driving into a black hole. Or

more accurately I was driving into a

black hole. I’ve passed the point

where I need to be an active

participant. My car is slowly dragged

towards the black mass until it flies,

bursting through the imposing mass

with such force that it leaves the map,

flying forever in an eerie grey void.

BeamNG.Drive reminds me a lot

of Garry’s Mod. There’s no rhyme nor

reason, just an ever-expanding

collection of scenarios thanks to its

community of creators. There is no

objective. Are you having fun with a

slightly shonky sandbox full of

carnage and strange, uncanny

physics? Then congratulations, you

have won BeamNG.Drive.

It’s ideal for Early Access because

the fundamentals are in place, and

content arrives from the community.

If you’re prepared to put in the work

to entertain yourself, BeamNG.Drive

is rich, weird and rewarding.

Making my own fun in BEAMNG.DRIVE. By Phil Savage

FIRST RELEASED

May 29, 2015

VERSION TESTED

0.15

EXPECT TO PAY

£19

NEED TO KNOW

The physics police are

here to spoil your fun.

Get used to slow motion crashes.

Sometimes into a black hole.

“Conveyor belts run through

like blood vessels”

Factorio / Beam NG. Drive / Oxygen Not Included

THE BEST OF EARLY ACCESS

“I’ve passed the point where I

need to be an active participant”