I've never been a car person, never really adored long drives, but always found solace in them, and dammit if Pacific Drive doesn't just nail it. Your a survivalist, surviving basically hell, your best friend a run-down half-magical station wagon, and it is addicting as hell to play. While I was never to get into driving games generally, this one really caught my attention when I first saw it a year or two ago in the trailers, and I just really love it.

The gameplay aspects can be grindy and crazy sometimes, but this game really makes you connect with the car and enjoy your time with it too. Starting from a junk-heap and building it up as you explore doing everything from calm night-rain drives, to batsh-t crazy hydroplaning dodging anomalies, getting sparked by electric towers, and getting flipped by magic extending bits of earth. I'm really enjoying my time playing this, and while I write this before the end of the review, the story and the characters is secondary in my mind and the first time in a long time I tuned them out past the first few hours just to enjoy the drive. And even with my lack of car-care, there is something so unique and... nostalgic(?) about it all, like I'm a high school kid facing the world, great stuff.

Honestly, best experience so far in 2024 for games, and I'm looking forward to more, but this one will definitely stick in my memory for quite a while.