Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1996https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6902For my last playthrough of Little Nightmares, I decided to play around an hour. While I was not the biggest fan of this game, mainly due to a dreaded fear of horror games, I did somewhat enjoy my time playing this game. The first portion that I played through was centered around escaping a chef in a fashion similar to the long armed man from the last section. The second section was the much more interesting part though, with a bunch of fat human monsters gorging themselves upon platters of food. These monsters seemed not only famished but also consumed with the desire to eat anything in their way. They would chase after me and like monsters with only one thought in their heads, eating. Their definitely seemed to be some ethical references in this section, not only with hunger, but also with human greed. I was heavily reminded of Spirited Away and how the humans that tried to gorge on the food were turned into pigs. The end of the section also shocked me, with my character eating this little dwarf gnome thingy that offered me some food. I have a feeling that I am abandoning whatever sense of humanity I have with each progressive consumption. From scraps, to rats, to gnomes,who knows what else my character will eat. The location where the gnome was eaten, also had another hanged man over it. That creeped me out, but also made me think back to the first level where there was a hanged man there, and that was all the way back at the bottom of the map. Overall, I enjoyed this game, but I didn't have it in me to finish it. Little Nightmares is very beautiful to look at, and the way the game forces all of the horrors upon you with its size ratio between the main character and the world is very intriguing.Fri, 09 Nov 2018 00:56:37 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6902&iddiary=12332https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6902My next playthrough of Little Nightmares featured a lot more of the scarier aspect of the game. Almost immediately after I picked the game back up and got off an elevator, my character became hungry again. This time though, it seemed more drastic and my character's coughs definitely didn't help the hunger either. The continued moans of pain, creepy music, and heart thumping was quite unnerving. Eventually, the girl ate a rat and got captured by a creepy man with long arms. While the controls have stayed the same, this new section of the game focused a lot on escaping from the long armed, short legged man. Many of the ways to get past him were based around the fact that the man could not see and had to rely on his hearing and sense of touch to maneuver his way around. Compared to the beginning of the game, which was more puzzle focused, this section had a more patience and standard horror feel to it. I found it a little unnerving with how the long armed man was always able to catch up to where I was, no matter how many times I evaded him. Only at the end of the section when I managed to escape the man by pulling out a cage holding up a door to crush his arms, was I finally free from this nightmare. From what I have played so far, it is somewhat apparent that a big theme of the game is going to be hunger, but I am not sure yet what my character's increasing hunger means. One interesting aspect of the game that I found was that the weird man with the long arms, had a seemingly unnatural tenacity for chasing down my character. He didn't rest and was constantly trying to recapture me. While this section had the girl in the raincoat show that she would do anything to settle her hunger, even eating a rat, maybe the same could be said for the creepy man. His hunger could have been what was driving him to chase my player character.Thu, 08 Nov 2018 03:56:20 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6902&iddiary=12294https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6902Just from the title screen alone, I got a good feeling that Little Nightmares, was going to be an interesting kind of game. I usually don't play horror games, but I saw a screenshot of this game and it seemed like fun. The opening cutscene of the game definitely set the kind of tone for the game. Just from seeing the masked lady in the kimono, who reminded me of the movie Kuboand the Two Strings, I got a sense of there being some Japanese/asian themes in the game. It seemed kind of ironic to me that the game is called Little Nightmares, and the main character starts off with having a nightmare. The atmosphere of the game was very dark and immense, which I really enjoyed. The sense of perspective that I was getting in these levels was something that I really appreciated, especially with the way the camera would move. The way the lighting was done just made the game even more beautiful to look at. The controls of the game seemed pretty standard for a platformer along with the ability to light a lighter. So far there weren't really any characters that stood out besides the girl in the rain coat, whom the description of the game calls "Six", and the woman in the kimono from the beginning of the game. The music in the game did its job of being atmospheric and the sounds were exactly what one would expect of a horror game. So far, the main appeal of this game to me, has been the sense of size and scale between the main character and the rest of the enemies/level design. There also didn't seem to be any ethical choices or decisions that I had to make yet. What did pop out though, was the man who hung himself in the beginning of the game, and then a bit farther onwards, the part where the main character eats a scrap of food thrown away by a random passerby. When this specific part happened, heartbeats occurred, and the sound of the main character in pain along with disturbing stomach noises happened. I can't help but think that hunger has some important part to do with this game. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Wed, 07 Nov 2018 22:23:34.)Wed, 07 Nov 2018 22:22:17 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6902&iddiary=12273https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6846My last Hitman playthrough for this class was a mission in Sapienza to eliminate Silvio Caruso and Francesca De Santis. Once again this mission required the assassination of two targets, but I didn’t really think too much of it. Compared to the heavy indoors fancy venue of the last level, this mission was a lot more outdoors and open. I believe that this was planned by the developers so that players get a breath of fresh air from the last mission, and are able to experience the exact opposite visual layout. Unlike the last mission where the two targets were manipulating world class information, the targets this time were working on a virus that could be programmed to target specific individuals by DNA. The opening cutscene posed the question of what if there was a bullet that could pass through anyone unnoticable until it was too late. The game posed it as “A world of armchair assassins killing with impunity”. This question not only sets up why it is vital that the targets are taken out, but also brings up the moral implications of assassination so easy that no one is truly safe in the world. It really made me think of how if a bioweapon like this ever got produced, the countermeasures would never be fast enough with how easily passable and undetectable it would be. By starting off the level with this, the developers were able to create a sense of purpose into the player that Agent 47 doesn’t have, because he only follows orders. The gameplay progression this time around felt more standardized now that I had gotten used to how the game was feeling. There was a good variety of outdoor exploring compared to last time with pretty much only indoor action. An interesting part that I noticed during my time playing was how a variety of tools and potential methods that one could use were locked behind areas that involved subduing an individual with access to that area and getting in there. Designing it this way made me feel as if there was a lot of time and preparation needed to pull off a really strong assassination. The map definitely rewards players for taking the time to explore and replay levels opening up all the different ways to successfully take out the target(s). Hitman was a lot of fun for me to play, and while the game doesn’t feel anything like a triple A budget game, it does have a strong feeling of polish and effort put into it that really shines.Thu, 27 Sep 2018 20:58:39 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6846&iddiary=12165https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6846In the next segment of Hitman that I played, I got to explore my way around Paris with the task of assassinating Victor Novikov and Dalia Margolis who are high powers in a spy ring called IAGO. The last time I played this game I had a lot of fun playing through a tutorial simulated mission, and I was looking forward to trying out an actual level. The stage for this mission turned out to be a fashion show happening at a large venue full of wealthy individuals. One of the first things that I really enjoyed was right after you enter the main building and you encounter a large crowd of people. Here the game introduces one of your targets, but I was more entranced with how natural the crowd felt. The interactions that each individual performed with others and how they acted were very realistic. The overall controls of the game hadn’t changed from when I last played, but instead, the amount of possibilities had definitely opened up. Both the boat and the air hangar facility didn’t have a lot of things that I could work with, but here there was a large amount of the level that I could interact with. A good example would be how there was a museum section of the building that had old artifacts and relics and you could break open the glass and equip a pair of swords. Hitman does a really good job of making the player feel as if every part of the level has purpose and activity. There was never a time where I felt I was in a major deadzone of a level, and there was always something new that would spark my creative juices on how I could use this to my advantage. While there was no new development that occurred with 47, there was an ending cutscene that involved Victor Novikov handing over some data and a post foreshadowing of him getting taken out by Agent 47.Thu, 27 Sep 2018 19:30:14 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6846&iddiary=12158https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6846Hitman is a game that I was not expecting to enjoy a lot. I thought it seemed interesting from the premise and idea that you are playing as an assassin, but I honestly did not seem fully into the idea. So far, the story has not been anything amazing, but it seems that my Handler, Diana, is very inquisitive about 47’s backstory. From the beginning dialogue, it is made apparent to the player that my character came here of his own free will and that he is a man of mystery. There is also an added element of mystery which adds to all of the assassin, espionage world. I have been through the basic mission training of the ICA facility so far. The controls and gameplay has been fairly easy to understand so far as I went through the tutorial missions. I really enjoy how the game makes the player feel as if they are actually going through basic training by putting them in an actual scenario map while still having ui pop ups that teach you the mechanics of the game. The first part was fairly self explanatory, but already I was getting a good sense of how the game was supposed to feel. The way the human ai works seems interesting so far, but I am not yet sure how it will develop. The tooltips in the upper left corner seem put there to help players when they are lost, and I am excited to see if the next missions will let me explore more. While there weren’t really any moral or ethical dilemmas so far in what I have played, what really stood out to me was how the plot mostly seemed to concern Agent 47’s backstory and his humanization. The ending dialogue of 47 telling Diana to turn his tag number into a name really seemed to echo of potential character development to come.Thu, 27 Sep 2018 18:12:41 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6846&iddiary=12154https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6733Today I finished A Mortician's Tale for my third entry. I believe that a simple game like this really had a strong way of putting a message out there about funerals thanks to its strong ties with death and simplicity. The last three levels that I encountered all had a lot stronger narrative and moral implications than before. Charlie is asked if she is okay with burying a young man who committed suicide. There is then the option of deciding whether you want to do an open funeral for this man or not. I chose to do the funeral which was against the young man's wishes of wanting to be cremated. While attending the funeral and listening to the grieving family was sad, I felt worse when preparing the body, because I felt as if I was disrespecting the dead. Later on, Hillside Heritage Inc. has taken over Rose and Daughters and the scummy company practices are displayed before the player's eyes. I never knew that a funeral company had so many ways to deceive their clients. The game also presents this trickery well due to the larger company stylized website and emails from the director tricking a family into buying a package instead of doing a home funeral. The emails from the computer show how the lives of all the characters are doing and also how Charlie not only feels bad about working for Hillside, but also that she wants to respect death through home funerals and green burials. The final level reveals that Charlie has gone on to create her own eco-friendly funeral home, along with the other characters also living happily with their lives with Matthew Jeffery leaving the company to be a bus driver. I think that the way that Charlie decides to leave the company revealed through the emails and website tabs on the computer is a way that the game has the players feel more personalized with what is happening. This way, the game can spread the message of good funeral practices while the player feels as if they can make their own choices in how their or their loved one's deaths can be more respectful to not just the environment, but also to those around them.Thu, 30 Aug 2018 01:11:26 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6733&iddiary=11970https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6734In this session of A Mortician's Tale, I ended up playing through the next two trials. The gameplay this time around introduced how bodies are cremated, and while I found that it was interesting that the bones need to be crushed down in a cremulator, the gameplay was fairly standard click and drag. There was also the incorporation of a minesweeper game stylized with a death centered theme. The character development and narrative was what really shined this time around. Through the emails on the computer, I was able to get a better feeling for the other characters such as Amy's struggle as a Mom and Pop funeral as well as Matthew's care for Amy. I was also able to learn about Charlie this time around thanks to Jen Love's email. Both Charlie and Jen Love work in death related industries and Charlie has been through a bad breakup before. There aren't any ethical choices directly provided by the game this time around, but the juxtaposition of the funeral tips subscription email and the funeral attendees was very interesting. The funeral tips discussed natural green funerals and respecting the dead, especially transgender deaths. During the funerals, the attendees had a great focus on the sense of loss and what the deceased would have wanted. While these topics do not seem to be related, I felt that these levels were set up as a reminder of respect for the dead. No one knows when death will take their loved ones away from them, and respecting the deceased's last wishes and memories is something so very important.Tue, 28 Aug 2018 22:10:10 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6734&iddiary=11924https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6733In my first session with: A Mortician's Tale, I have gathered that this is a game centered around funerals and deaths from the perspective of funeral directors and the people who take care of the bodies. I chose to play this game, because it was a game that I had never heard of from the list of potential games we could play. After, playing through the first two funerals, I can confidently say that I am shocked (in a good way). A Mortician's Tale does not hold back with the themes of realism and death, and invokes emotional responses from players with its direct conveyance of information. The gameplay is very simple with everything being controlled by the mouse in a point and click style of game. This simplicity allows the game to keep the player's attention on learning about preparing bodies for funerals. While playing, I barely payed any attention to what I was doing with my mouse and focused more on finding out that the eyes sag after death so eye caps are needed to keep their lively shape intact. So far, A Mortician's Tale has kept a small cast of characters: Charlie, Jen Love, Amy Rose, and Matthew Jeffery. While each of these characters offers advice and information about dealing with death and competently doing a job at the funeral home, this tight cast allows the game to put an emphasis on the ambiguity and suddenness of death. Each new level brings a new completely different grieving family with a different request on the burial of the body. By the time the next level passes, the deceased's name has already passed from my mind, but the experience of learning what goes into a successful funeral stays. The narative of the game has not really gone much of anywhere to be honest. So far, the game has focused on preparing each body differently and learning more about the cast of characters through email. Not much is really given to the player in regards to personal information about Charlie, but I learned much about the personalities of Jen Love, Amy Rose, and Matthew Jeffery. While the game doesn't give any choices to the player, the way that the player interacts with the grieving family after preparing a body is very intriguing. This is especially interesting thanks to the email subscription that Jen Love sends Charlie which gives tips and advice on how to act during funerals and deal with the loss of loved ones. After reading these tips, and then witnessing the way the funeral atendees act really gives a different perspective on the ways people deal with death. At first, the atendees for Mrs. Garcia's funeral seem rude and anything from grieving, but the follow up email from the requestee reveals that the funeral was a success and that the family was able to get together and really heal together. This leads to an understanding of the actions of the atendees. For example, the couple joking about how Mrs. Garcia would have hated the pictures on the wall but at least she can't see them anymore at first seems rude, but now it can be seen as a way of not only putting their minds off the tragedy, but also remembering specific nuances about Mrs. Garcia. A Mortician's Tale has really piqued my interest in learning more about death and funeral preparations, because of how little is really known publicly about these sorts of prepartions and what goes into making a funeral successful along with how people deal with death.Mon, 27 Aug 2018 21:52:49 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6733&iddiary=11905