I think it might be the closest anyone's ever come to making my dream survival game. I start a new game and find myself gazing across a sea of trees. I'm immediately struck by the art style, which looks like concept art come to life. It's remarkable how much atmosphere they've managed to squeeze out of those stylised, hand-painted textures. Snow swirls in the wind as I make my way down a hill into a forest. It's a stark, barren landscape, and I feel like I'm being swallowed by it. Mackenzie is played by Mark Meer, voice of Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect series, and regularly vocalises how he feels. “My stomach feels like an empty pit.” he'll grumble if he's hungry. “That smarts, but I'll be fine.” he says if you sustain a minor injury. It's a nice, immersive touch. As I wander through the forest, I notice words appearing at the bottom-right of the screen: freezing, starving, dehydrated. I haven't found anything useful yet; just a few skittish deer that I have no hope of hunting. Night is falling and I'm about to give in and start a new game, but then I see something in the distance: a wisp of smoke. I trudge through the snow towards it, revealing the silhouette of a cabin. Relief washes over me as I open the door. There are supplies scattered around: bandages, matches, a lamp, canned food. I light the wood burner and it casts a warm glow over the room, http://www.nhl15coin.com which raises my temperature when I crouch next to it. Against all odds, I've survived the first night. Or so I thought. I didn't pay attention to my status—accessed with TAB—and went to bed on an empty stomach, dying of starvation in my sleep. Game over. Even for a survival game, The Long Dark is merciless. Mackenzie's comments give you a general overview of your condition, but you'll have to keep a close eye on your hunger, thirst, fatigue, and temperature meters to effectively manage them. I love how a lot of the tiresome chores that usually define survival NHL games, like endlessly hitting trees to collect wood, can be automated. I can instruct Mackenzie to spend a set amount of hours foraging for wood, and the game will tell me beforehand how many calories this will burn. If I have an axe I'll have a better chance of finding something, but without one there's a good chance I'll fail and find nothing. Everything you do burns calories, and the more physically demanding the task, the more you'll burn. To keep them topped up you'll have to find food. One of the easiest ways to do this early in the game is to scavenge venison from deer carcasses and cook it on a fire—but there's always the risk of contracting food poisoning. You can also find candy bars, soda, and other packaged food in buildings by rifling through drawers and cupboards.