Spintires

[Shilka]

This is the trucksim I've been waiting for for years. a decade ago I already wanted some sort of truck trial game, and now it's here!

This is driving Russian trucks in the former USSR, think logging operations deep into the russian waterlogged forests; You need to unluck the map by driving (discovering parts of) it, you need to deliver fuel, deliver supplies to unlock garages, deliver fuel to trucks that are low on it, grab one truck to resque the truck you got stuck earlier, and deliver loads of logs to delivery points. It's downright awesome!



I just bought the game today, and I cannot classify it anything else as downright awesome, give or take a few points that could use some attention. Instead of going on an awesome spree, let me sum up the pro's and cons as objectively as I can;

Pro's;

• The trucks, you'll have trucks in a wide range, from the russian version of a jeep upto a military grade 8x8, you will be able to put several different things on trucks, ranging from fuel tank to log hauler to crane to repair unit.
• graphics, these are great in my opinion, very detailed truck models, a very believable forest and adaptive ground textures (drive straight through the forest and you'll create your own forest track)
• truck physics; these are very good too in my opinion, there is a damage model including visible damage and deforming, plenty of action on the axels, tires will bend and fold, your chassis will flex, mud will stick to your tires and fling off again when driving on harder surfaces, awesome stuff!
• Ground physics; you'll have terrain that will be softer to more or less extent, and your truck will deform the terrain as it drives through, also in a single savegame it will also remember all the tracks you worn out, if you take a shortcut through a forest several times it will end up looking like a logging road that looks like it had been there from the start of the game. There's loose logs and boulders too, and for example if theres a log in the way of your jeep, just get a truck with crane to remove it for the jeep. Or get a tow crane on a truck and pull the jeep right over it! Oh, and theres water too, from muddy puddles to lakes with variable depths, shallow stream crossings, or not so shallow fast flowing stream crossings that have nasty logs and boulders under the surface too! Awesome again!
• Gameplay; next to the regular gameplay that has objectives like delivering logs, fuel, garage points to unlock garage, and doing map unlocks, this game makes it's own gameplay as you go along. Meaning, if you get your logging truck stuck you can just get a different truck, outfit it with a crane and help yourself out getting unstuck, or helping yourself to more fuel etc. Its good fun
• Maps: there's 5 different maps of decent size (not that it matters going 2 km/h on average anyway) that offer good variety. Next to that if your truck is strong enough (the bigger it is, the larger trees it can flatten), you can create all the extra roads you want by just driving through the terrain!
• Multiplayer! YES! This game has multiplayer, so you can team up and winch eachother out of trouble or one guy driving a fuel and repair supply to the other one delivering logs etc. You can make private sessions for your steam friends too! Or just go offroading and see how far you get!

Cons:

• steeringwheels are not supported. However, driving with keyboard is very well doable at these low speeds, AND steeringwheel support will arrive in the next patch, so it is being worked upon already. There is controller support already though.
• only external cam that is at times hard to control and takes some getting used to. However, the fact that nearby trees etc obscuring your view will be made translucent helps a bit.
• No manual saves, just save on exit, and it's a single one. Start a new map, and it will overwrite your previous game on a different map.
• You guys don't have the game yet. But good thing is this will change soon!

OK, so in short, if you like trucking you need to get this game, it is €25 at steam, so not overly expensive, and frankly, I already had €25 worth of un in just the past few hours! http://store.steampowered.com/app/263280/

Oh, and if I still haven't convinced you truck driving guys, check out the release video, and this video by someone you know;

[video=youtube;qiOt7SuHGPM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiOt7SuHGPM[/video]

[video=youtube;1IXDQLtk5FQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IXDQLtk5FQ[/video]

 

[Kenadian]

Great review NT and thanks for all the info.

Do you know if there will ever be an internal view for this game?

 

[Shilka]

well, on the dev Q'nA on steam it sais:

Q: Will SPINTIRES™ have cockpit views?
A: No - not at the moment. But due to the recognition of demand, we will include this in the future.

I take that as a might be. Would be fun as that would make the game even harder. Though hardcore mode is pretty hard already, just spent an entire eening broadcasting, and I only delivered 1 load of logs, flipped several trucks over (including the logging one, that flipped upright again after all the logs rolled off it, lol), resqued them again with other trucks, got stuck in streams, got stuck on boulders, got stuck in mod, refueled a bunch of trucks, and all of that just to get a quarter oif progression on the map mission...

 

[mondo]

Friend me on Steam and lets play! I'm a pro at flipping my truck over.

 

[Shilka]

Tell me about it, I just spent 6 hours on the hill map getting a logging truck from the logging camp to the objective point, getting it unstuck a gazillion times with a second truck, and refilling a fuel truck 3 times which got stuck all the time too, just to fuel the whole operation, and then I flipped the logging truck when turning onto the tarmac at 150 meter before the objective....

I love this game!

 

[mondo]

Well last night was intense but fun. I think the lesson to be learnt here is never let me drive the logging truck.

 

[Shilka]

I think the lesson is you need to drive it more often! Practice makes perfect

Meanwhile I made my first log delivery on the hill map in singleplayer . From logging camp to destination only took me 12 hours, and all the vehicles on the map at some point XD

 

[Kenadian]

I've only played The Hill level and so far I haven't managed to deliver a single log lol.

I finally have my one logging truck full however I got it stuck in a ditch wedged to a tree taking a wide turn so as not to roll taking a tight turn. Finally manged to get it out of the ditch (nearly swamping my tow truck in the process) only to get it stuck in the very same puddle the tow truck was in.

That was all fine until I got the bright idea I should align the logging truck better for an easy exit from the puddle. I pulled it from the right instead of more straight on and the truck rolled dumping the load.

Now I have a swamped logging truck on its side, no idea how to flip it over and to make matters worse, all the logs are in the puddle that will be next to impossible to reclaim.

I may just get the truck back on it's wheels and back to the lumberyard. It's likely going to take a lot less time to do so rather than salvage the load dumped all over the road.

Incidentally, has anyone tried using logs to make the road less muddy? I've been experimenting with it and so far it appears as if it can help build a pseudo bridge over the muckiest parts of the road.

I have yet to successfully pull a rooted tree from the terrain either but my guess is it can be done (or so I hope). Tonight I'll likely experiment with this by lining parts of the road with pulled trees from either side of it.

Oh and btw, I think that orange gas truck may be the handiest vehicle in the game so far. That thing goes pretty much anywhere however it seems to take damage pretty easily.

 

[Shilka]

If you want to get used to the stuff ingame I'd advise the coast map. It's smaller, almost all unockable vehicles are in good conditioned and fueled (except for one but theres a filled fuel truck 50 meters away), and there arent overly steep nor overly waterlogged mudparts.

I think I spent like 15 hours on the hill map and just managed to get most my vehicles back to the garage and repaired/refueld after delivering 1 load... The hills is an extremely challenging map, hope the others are equally challenging or worse.. and playing hardcore mode offcourse

 

[Kenadian]

I like The Hill so I'm just going to slog through it and get it done. I have the entire map unlocked and the Northern Garage claimed so it's gotten a bit easier overall.

The challenge really is in getting the logs clear across the map.

...also, I really hope they add rain to this game because it doesn't make sense for it to be so muddy when it never rains

Putting someone in the cab, fixing the external camera while adding a dash view is pretty much all I want from this game. If they could get that stuff in this game would be pretty much perfect.

I don't even care about steering wheel support however I guess that would change if I had a cabs eye view.

 

[Shilka]

Yeah, actually I must say this game has very decent keyboard steering, of course speeds aren't high, but I'm having no problems there.
For some reason I like the external cam, once you get used to it it's actually handy. I've seen much worse for sure. I like it for streaming too, it has sort of a cinematic viewpoint.

Cab view would be aesome, with working mirrors though

Just finished the Hills today, quite a challenge, fell over numerous times, and even got the D class truck stuck standing on its nose XD

 

[mondo]

So when shall we do a four player game? Single player is fun but I enjoyed multiplayer a whole lot more.

 

[Shilka]

Well, I'm loving singleplayer, as everything takes so much longer
Can't get enough of this game.

But yeah, guess we'd need to find like a 4-6 hour window, perhapsan entire day if we properly want to finish a single map. Wish there was like a host side save possibility.

Started on the plains map today, man that is a deceptive map. When first driving around I thought, boy this is way too easy. Then I started driving with trailers, and discovered that some added weight will make you sink through the top layer all over the map, and the Eclass 8x8 can't even help out at times. Very challenging!

 

[mondo]

Have you seen some of the mods? Like the monster trucks?

 

[Shilka]

Ive seen mods, but as far as I read everywhere they are for the tech demo, so not sure how that stuff works. Wouldn't be interested in monstertrucks though I think, more in classic russian trucks i guess.

 

[Kenadian]

I wouldn't mind taking a T-34 through a level and destroying it, that would be pretty awesome IMHO.

 

[mondo]

There is a download section on the site for mods for the full game. I'd really like for them to add some tracked vehicles as well - I was thinking more Leopard 2A6 though! It would be a shame not to take advantage of such an awesome physics engine.

 

[Kenadian]

Ya the physics in this game is exceptional however there are a few spots no matter how many times you take them, Havok rears it's ugly head and a rock jumps straight into the air for no good reason at all.

...and I'm not talking a few feet here, actually higher than the truck itself lol.

I've also noticed areas where you've dug into the surface so badly that you can actually see the level beneath the mud now and then but that's a pretty rare sight indeed.

Other than those two things though, I do really enjoy this tedious-assed game.

One thing I really wish they would do though is reduce the amount of sinking in the mud that happens to your vehicles because it's just not accurate. Yes it can happen in swampy areas, marsh or just an area that rains non stop but it doesn't happen everywhere like it does in this game.

I've grown up around roads like this and while your vehicle does dig in, it's much shallower than hitting the hub because once you get to that point there is no way of getting out of it without a tow. Here you can continue driving buried to the axles which is extremely unrealistic.

Also, mud in general is far more slippery so the surface should feel almost icy if the road is that wet and hilly sections should be a bit less so as the water typically runs down the hill.

These are just minor complaints though that don't really take away from the game that much, it would just be nice to see it tweaked a bit. I just know that in BC nobody would drive those roads, they would just heli-log instead lol.

Incidentally that would be cool too, heli-logging simulator

 

[Shilka]

Nooooo, the sinking is perfect, if there's one thing they shouldn't do is nerf this game....
And it doesn't happen everywhere, there's at least 3 levels of mud 'thickness', or carying capacity if you'd like, you can actually tell from the color of the mud and grass how waterlogged it is, even on the map. You can plan your route around the supersoft stuff, and it's actually very sensible placed; where water poors through natural channels from hillsides for example the roads will be supersoft. Love this game!

[video=youtube;Vyk4YGhe0T0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyk4YGhe0T0[/video]

[video=youtube;kzGN4oxFZx8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzGN4oxFZx8[/video]

[video=youtube;kqtsjda4U3I]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqtsjda4U3I[/video]

[video=youtube;rL5OGUNfLrs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL5OGUNfLrs[/video]

 

[mondo]

I honestly think this game could develop into a wide variety of different sims. The engine seems versatile enough and Oovee have made a shit ton of money from it.