I don't remember when I first heard about Firewatch, but I remember being eager for it since that moment. A narrative game starring a fire lookout and an art style by Olly Moss sounded like a fascinating experience. I didn't want to fight fires or hunt Bigfoot; I just wanted to explore the great outdoors.

Upon its PS4 release, I was not disappointed. The voice acting of Rich Sommer (Mad Men) and Cissy Jones (Life Is Strange) established a natural, witty rapport between the two main characters, and the intriguing story allowed me to go at my own pace. While the events of the game didn't change much based on my decisions, the relationship between the two main characters did. That and an open world to explore offered high replay value.

Which is a good thing, since my first attempt at recording this Let's Play failed. Firewatch was the first one-player PS4 game I'd streamed to YouTube Live, and interacting with my friends and fans while playing was fun, especially when they pointed out things I missed. But something went awry with my recording software, and the archived version of that gameplay session was roughly 480 x 270 resolution — hardly HD. Despite having finished more than half of this short game, I started Firewatch over in a non-streaming session, resulting in what's now on my YouTube channel.

Kudos to Panic for partnering with developer Campo Santo to publish this game, making their debut in the video game industry. I've long relied on Transmit, Panic's FTP client for the Mac, and while Firewatch couldn't be more different, the high standard of quality couldn't be more consistent.

For more on Firewatch, listen to Major Nelson's interview with Sean Vanaman (26:41–49:33) upon the game's Xbox One release in September 2016.