Spin Tires Demo

Off-road adventures may sound like fun from the comfort of your own home, but once you are stuck in the mud in the middle of the wilderness, things stop being too entertaining, at least from your perspective. In order to be able to navigate such environments, your car needs to well prepared and quite capable to get itself out of even the most difficult situations.

Spin Tires is a simulator that gives you a taste of what it takes to navigate difficult terrain, by throwing you into the middle of Russia for some hardcore off-roading. Moreover, you are also given a soviet era truck to drive, which, although has the necessary technology to handle the environment, is not too reliable when it comes to horsepower and comfort.

The game's purpose, as you are informed in the beginning, is for you to collect and deliver some logs from one point to the other. As you might imagine, the two locations are quite far from each other and they are nowhere near anything that looks like asphalt, so you are forced to navigate on some of the worst roads there are, complete with mud, sand, steep hills and annoying vegetation that make your life even harder.

What makes the game special is the amount of work that went into the simulation aspect, because the vehicle acts very realistic on the road. Thus, from torque and suspension behavior, everything looks and feels quite natural, thus making it that much more difficult to cross the wilderness without getting stuck. You also have a lot of options regarding the car's gearbox and differential behavior, which can sometimes get you out of some sticky situations, if used properly.

Graphically-speaking, the game looks and feels very nice, thanks to the high-end post-processing effects and enormous textures used for the cars and the environment. Despite that, the terrain is by far the most innovative addition, since if deforms under your wheels depending on how much you push on the gas pedal. Hence, if you are not careful, you can get stuck by your own fault, since the deformations can get deep enough to prevent you from getting out.

Spin Tires is a very convincing simulator, with beautiful graphics and very detailed landscapes. It does, however, require very much patience and attention, which might turn away players who are not accustomed to this kind of slow gameplay.