013 MIN READWhat changes when you own a business
Owning something that earns without you is the most satisfying step in a life sim, and the one most likely to end the game.
↗023 MIN READA little wilderness beyond the city
Every other system in this city is counting something down. The wilderness is the one place that is not, and that is the reason it is in the game.
↗033 MIN READWhat happens when trouble catches up
Every open world lets you commit crimes. Almost none of them can afford to punish you for it, and you can feel the difference the moment the sirens stop.
↗043 MIN READMake your character feel like you
Most character creators are a shop with a mirror attached. The interesting question is not how many hairstyles there are, it is what wearing one tells anybody.
↗053 MIN READA city you can enjoy on your own
Say a game is online and half the people reading decide it is not for them. They are usually right, and the reason is not the other players.
↗063 MIN READYour first home in Craze City
Buying a house is one of the most-searched things anyone wants from a life sim. It is also the feature most likely to be a certificate you look at once.
↗073 MIN READBuilding a connected city for your phone
Every mobile open world promises one city. Most of them deliver five districts and a progress bar. The difference is not budget or art, it is where the world comes from.
↗083 MIN READDeadwood: the dangerous district across the bay
In most multiplayer zombie games the zombies live behind a menu. Here they live across a bridge, in the same city, in the same session as everything else.
↗093 MIN READKeeping zombie survival free to play
Search for a free open world zombie game and you get a hundred results. The question worth asking is not whether it costs nothing to install, it is which part of the game is for sale.
↗104 MIN READHow money moves through Craze City
In most life sims money has exactly one thing it can do, which is leave. Giving it somewhere to sit is what turned a number into a decision.
↗114 MIN READNine careers. One city to make your own.
Craze City’s nine careers give you different ways to earn, level up and build a daily routine around the city.
↗125 MIN READA closer look at Deadwood’s content and tone
A content rating tells you what a game shows. It does not tell you what it does to a kid's money, their evening, or the ten minutes after they lose. Those are the harder three.
↗135 MIN READThe quiet moments between encounters
Gore is a picture, and a picture is the weakest thing you have on a phone screen with the sound off. So the horde runs to a timetable instead, and the timetable is the frightening part.
↗143 MIN READWhy our zombies don't bleed
Almost every zombie game answers one question with blood. Taking it out meant answering that question a different way — and it turned out to change the whole mode.
↗153 MIN READHow Deadwood gets harder as you explore
There is no difficulty menu in Deadwood Quarantine. Breed, population, raid frequency and pay all come off one value, and the player sets it by walking.
↗163 MIN READWhy every round matters in Deadwood
Health bars are a bad clock. In Deadwood Quarantine the thing counting down is your magazine, and every enemy has a price in rounds.
↗
