We’re loving this new approach to simulation games. If you’re tired of developing accurate simulations, just transpose them to another planet. Truck Driving Simulator: Saturn could make good use of those rings, and we’re personally holding out for SpinTires MudRunner: Jawa Sandcrawler edition. Don’t say you wouldn’t buy it. JCB Pioneer: Mars is out now on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, joining previously releases on Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.
It really is what it says on the tin: you are a pioneer, sent to Mars to make it habitable for future settlers. Rather than put you in Matt Damon’s shows and give you a few potatoes to work with, you’ve got a full-blown range of ultra-rugged JCBs. In your sandbox environment on the Red Planet, you’re going to be mining materials, constructing buildings for future Martians, and researching technologies that make best use of this environment.
It’s the right flavour of bonkers in our opinion, and the mixture of survival mechanics with hardcore JCB simulation is going to be a truly acquired taste. Who knows whether they will mesh to create a functional, let along entertaining game.
A lot of work has gone into the visuals, as Unreal 4 has been leveraged to try to create the rolling expanses of Mars. You’ll want to feel like you’re alone on the planet as you terraform, so it’s great that so much effort has been put into this. Heaven knows whether there is exploration rolled into JCB Pioneer Mars, as we’d love to explore the surface and see if there is life out there.
There’s certainly more than light breezes to deal with: you’ll be anticipating and protecting against meteor strikes, dust clouds and electric storms. Kind of makes you wonder why we’d want to live there in the first place.
Features include:
- * A hardcore blend of survival and construction gameplay with 100s of hours of gameplay.
- * Explore the planet, discover and mine resources, construct buildings and research new technology to grow your colony.
- * Print and Craft items that can help you survive
- * Discover secrets as you traverse the planet using highly futuristic heavy-duty construction and mining vehicles, designed with JCB engineers.
- * Overcome everything the hostile environment throws at you including meteor strikes, dust clouds and electrical storms, all Martian hazards are based on real science.
JCB Pioneer Mars is out now on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S and starts at £14.99 from the Xbox Store. It’s also out on Switch and PC.
Game Description:
Experience incredible survival sandbox gameplay and explore Mars using a selection of futuristic, ultra-rugged JCB vehicles designed specifically for the challenge. Mine precious materials, construct large-scale buildings and research new technologies to ensure humanity’s future lies beyond planet Earth
I spoke with someone in marketing and they’ve release a patch that goes live today on X Box that fix’s the sound issue as well as some other issues.
I wonder how this website describes this game is such amount of detail without mentioning that it has NO SOUND at launch. The lack of professionalism is glaring.
The game is great but for the Xbox One version still has no sound whatsoever just static here and there I have emailed to the company to let them know to fix the problem I don’t want no refund I just want to play the game it’s pretty hard to play a game with no sound but I guess till fixes out im using me imagination lol 😉
Xbox launch version is buggy like crazy. There is no game sound, other than some static click noises now and then. Sounds like you unplug your headset. And vehicles float up in the air when you interact with them. Game been released for 4 days and there is no sight of a patch to fix the launch… Just a quick money grab imo. Real shame though.