Let’s start with the biggie. Just Cause 4 is a man-walking-away-from-explosions simulator, but it’s also a man-driving-towards-tornados simulator. The game’s increasingly superhero-ish protagonist, Rico Rodriguez, has no equal at this point. He can basically fly, and his weaponry wouldn’t be out of place on Thanos’s fist, so now he has to fight the weather. The format might be tired, but the huge tropical islands are gorgeous, the grappling hooks are never boring, and watching the huge, swirling wind funnels pick up an entire airport worth of planes is still fun.
I honestly think that they chose Wheels of Aurelia for the other game in this week’s giveaway because it’s the polar opposite of JC4. It’s a narrative game about driving along the Italian coast in the ’70s. I wouldn’t call it a joyride, though: your character is on her way to revisit her former kidnapper, and one passenger you meet is trying to get to another country to have an abortion. As you tootle about in your car, you pick up several such hitchhikers. How you interact with them will weave you through several different stories, and serve you up one of the game’s 16 different endings.
They’re free until April 23.
