Where the Water Tastes Like Wine: Fireside Chats is a free 'standalone experience'

The story of Where the Water Tastes Like Wine is an interesting one. Some game sites rated it very highly, while others—including ours—were much cooler on it. Some of the tales it tells "are beautiful, and they're all important," we wrote in our review, but they're told "at an agonizingly slow pace" that brings the entire experience down. And in any event, it was a sales disaster.

Despite all that, publisher Good Shepherd Entertainment isn't letting it go quietly. Today it released a free, standalone "companion" to the game called Where the Water Tastes Like Wine: Fireside Chats, which adds new story content to all of the tales told in the 16 chapters of the core game.   

"Like the full game, the Where The Water Tastes Like Wine: Fireside Chats experience allows players wander through the United States—and through a century of history—to meet a variety of people, each with their own stories to tell," Good Shepherd said.

Fireside Chats also serves as a demo for the original release, as it includes all of the Dire Wolf's first chapter from the full game.   

Where the Water Tastes Like Wine: Fireside Chats is currently available exclusively on Steam. Good Shepherd said there's a chance it will make it to GOG as well (the core game is available there), but "it won't be anytime soon." 

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.