Okay, I am not a connoisseur of Desert Bus however I know about the history, what's going on in the game and why it is like it is. I know nothing about Penn and Teller though so that is all new to me. With that said, this is exactly what I expected.
The gist of this game goes like this - you start a bus, you have to drive for 8 hours on a long, straight and flat road with desert scene. You can't pause and you can't just leave the game running pressing the W key. If you do that your bus will veer off to the right and get stuck in the sand, then you have to be towed back which will take exactly the amount of time you've been driving.
So... Why a 10/10? Well, originally this game was going to be on the Sega CD aka, this was an idea of the mid-90's. On the radio Penn even talks for a full hour about the game. In the interview he describes laughing at the senators and people like that going after video games and it was born of a specific person asking why games couldn't help get people jobs or something instead of the stuff we all know it for. Penn and Teller then took this idea for one of their 6 games of their cancelled compilation for the Sega CD to I guess laugh at how nobody would want to play a game like that. A game so close to the most mundane and boring of real life that anyone would shut it off.
So, again - why a 10/10? This clearly has different goals in mind. The points A and B of the 8 hour drive is Tucson Arizona to Las Vegas and while it does take 8 hours according to Google Maps no road there is as long, straight and flat as depicted in this game. Which says to me that as much as they insist it's about realism, I'm more inclined to believe it's about boredom.
It also gets better. There's a charity called Desert Bus for Hope where players are rewarded with how long they can sit through the game. Like even after the 8 hours you get a single point. Meaning if you wanted 100 hours of this, you'd need to sit at your computer and play this for 12 and a half points or 4.1 days non-stop.
Okay, so it's a desert bus on a long straight road that is meant to bore people, there is no pause button, there is only the reward of a single point if you get through it, people have made successful charities on just how long they can sit through it and they made sure that you have to sit there. Is there anything else of note? Well... Yes, when playing this in non-VR after a while I faded out a bit and started noticing the textures of the graphics, the motion and how much detail was put into it. Kind of like if you stare at a wall for long enough you notice the brushstrokes.
Save for the point climbing however, there is one massive and ground-breaking moment, a moment that will stop you in your tracks at what a rush it pulls, something that you will notice and keep you in the immersion of driving through a desert for 8 solid hours... 4 hours in a bug splatters on the windshield.
The gist of this game goes like this - you start a bus, you have to drive for 8 hours on a long, straight and flat road with desert scene. You can't pause and you can't just leave the game running pressing the W key. If you do that your bus will veer off to the right and get stuck in the sand, then you have to be towed back which will take exactly the amount of time you've been driving.
So... Why a 10/10? Well, originally this game was going to be on the Sega CD aka, this was an idea of the mid-90's. On the radio Penn even talks for a full hour about the game. In the interview he describes laughing at the senators and people like that going after video games and it was born of a specific person asking why games couldn't help get people jobs or something instead of the stuff we all know it for. Penn and Teller then took this idea for one of their 6 games of their cancelled compilation for the Sega CD to I guess laugh at how nobody would want to play a game like that. A game so close to the most mundane and boring of real life that anyone would shut it off.
So, again - why a 10/10? This clearly has different goals in mind. The points A and B of the 8 hour drive is Tucson Arizona to Las Vegas and while it does take 8 hours according to Google Maps no road there is as long, straight and flat as depicted in this game. Which says to me that as much as they insist it's about realism, I'm more inclined to believe it's about boredom.
It also gets better. There's a charity called Desert Bus for Hope where players are rewarded with how long they can sit through the game. Like even after the 8 hours you get a single point. Meaning if you wanted 100 hours of this, you'd need to sit at your computer and play this for 12 and a half points or 4.1 days non-stop.
Okay, so it's a desert bus on a long straight road that is meant to bore people, there is no pause button, there is only the reward of a single point if you get through it, people have made successful charities on just how long they can sit through it and they made sure that you have to sit there. Is there anything else of note? Well... Yes, when playing this in non-VR after a while I faded out a bit and started noticing the textures of the graphics, the motion and how much detail was put into it. Kind of like if you stare at a wall for long enough you notice the brushstrokes.
Save for the point climbing however, there is one massive and ground-breaking moment, a moment that will stop you in your tracks at what a rush it pulls, something that you will notice and keep you in the immersion of driving through a desert for 8 solid hours... 4 hours in a bug splatters on the windshield.
