Shinrin-yoku: Forest Meditation and Relaxation

First of all: if this title sounds appealing to you, go for it, it's free. The rendering is quite beautiful. The only reasons I'd say not to play are: 1. There's just not a lot of "here" here. 2. The download size seems larger than it should be. 3. The big one: this experience has a kind of jarring mix of gamification. The extremely limited interactivity & the cartoonish appearance of the owl make me want to play this as a game. But the lack of movement and stuff to do puts it in this in a weird "uncanny valley". It's a shame. Not so bad, as you can see. I hope the developers continue to release fresh content, I think there's potential here.

⠄⠄⠄⠄⣠⣴⣿⣿⣿⣷⣦⡠⣴⣶⣶⣶⣦⡀⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄it's good ⠄⠄⠄⣴⣿⣿⣫⣭⣭⣭⣭⣥⢹⣟⣛⣛⣛⣃⣀⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄Play it ⠄⣠⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⢯⡓⢻⠿⠿⠷⡜⣯⠭⢽⠿⠯⠽⣀⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄ ⣼⣿⣾⣿⣿⣿⣥⣝⠂⠐⠈⢸⠿⢆⠱⠯⠄⠈⠸⣛⡒⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣶⣶⣭⡭⢟⣲⣶⡿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠋⠄⠄⣴⠶⠶⠶⠶⠶⢶⡀ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢟⣛⠿⢿⣷⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⡄⠄⢰⠇⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠈⣧ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⡹⣭⣛⠳⠶⠬⠭⢭⣝⣛⣛⣛⣫⣭⡥⠄⠸⡄⣶⣶⣾⣿⣿⢇⡟ ⠿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⣭⣛⣛⡛⠳⠶⠶⠶⣶⣶⣶⠶⠄⠄⠄⠙⠮⣽⣛⣫⡵⠊⠁ ⣍⡲⠮⣍⣙⣛⣛⡻⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠖⠂⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⣸⠄⠄⠄⠄ ⣿⣿⣿⣶⣦⣬⣭⣭⣭⣝⣭⣭⣭⣴⣷⣦⡀⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠠⠤⠿⠦⠤⠄

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Is not working on an Alienware Alpha i3

"Shinrin-yoku: Forest Meditation and Relaxation" is barely a game, it's a simple VR tech demo with a (possibly flipped) bunch of assets and no real gameplay... as usual, whenever a "developer" can't find it in themselves to describe their product as a game and use the term "experience" instead, you know you're going to have a bad time. What do you do in the game? Not much, just look around, tap some stuff once or twice... barely a game. The game graphics look better than you might expect, but that's just because it looks like some or all of them are "borrowed" from asset stores or wherever. Gamers can tell... and it comes across as insincere. Let's face it, nobody is going to the effort of creating all those assets and then not making a profitable game. There's also the old adage that those who lack the budget and talent to make their own game assets usually lack the budget and talent to do the rest of the job of game development properly, too. It's VR exclusive, and that shows the developer failed to understand the most basic axiom of VR game design... if the only cool thing about your product is VR support, your product is not cool. On the matter of pricing and value for gamers, most "free" games on Steam aren't really free. There's often nasty mobile app cash shops, or content locked behind DLC, or donations being requested, or any other number of shady pricing schemes that could mislead gamers, but in this case I'm glad to say this really does appear to be a fully free game. Nothing demonstrates a developers belief in themselves and their work than giving it away without any remuneration. This is a service to themselves, and the gaming industry, and should be applauded. Of course, just because something is free, doesn't necessarily mean it's valuable, or something you might want to spend your time on. Even though this is "free", it failed to appeal to the 120 million+ gamers on Steam. SteamDB showed the game peaked at only 8 concurrent players... this is a dismal public reception. This was so bad they couldn't even give it away. Bearing in mind that free games don't add +1 to your game collector count, should you bother adding this to your library and downloading it? Not this time. This isn't worth downloading. While this won't cost you any money, you get what you pay for, and sometimes, even when the game is free, it's still not enough.

Nicht sehr beeindruckende Demo, für 10 Sekunden war es sogar garnicht so schlecht, danach aber gleich langweilig. Alles was in dem Video gezeigt wird ist auch schon alles was es in dem Spiel zu sehen gibt. Damit lohnt sich nicht mal der Download. Grafisch bewegt sich das Spiel im Mittelmaß, wobei die Demo nicht ganz flüssig läuft und merkwürdige Effekte auftreten. Eine Demo aus den Anfängen von VR, die nicht mehr Zeitgemäß ist.

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