 |
|
Before Your Eyes (PC) by dkirschner (Apr 14th, 2024 at 13:51:13) |
I've been looking forward to playing this, especially after playing One Hand Clapping, which had a singing mechanic. That game activates your mic and you use your voice, raising and lowering pitch, to interact with the game. Before Your Eyes was similar in that the game activates your webcam and uses your eye blinks as input. Before Your Eyes works WAY better than One Hand Clapping, and it's the better game all around. I figure that detecting blinks (yes/no) is easier than detecting notes along the range of human vocal pitch, so kudos to One Hand Clapping for trying.
Blinking in Before Your Eyes doesn't do anything unless you do it over a prompt (mouse over the prompt, then blink to interact) or unless you do it when the metronome icon is visible, which progresses the story to the next scene. The rules are simple, and it became a game in and of itself for me to blink strategically. I imagined that at the end of A Clockwork Orange, Alex's eyes are forced open so that he could successfully complete this game. At times, I felt like holding my eyes open with my fingers. This is because your eyes will get tired/dry/itchy while playing and you will screw up and blink when you don't mean to, skipping dialogue or ending a scene early. That's frustrating enough. Make sure you do the blink calibration, but I think that no matter how well you do it, it will still occasionally register some non-blinks as blinks. This really didn't happen much for me; through calibration, I think I turned the sensitivity way down, and I wonder what effect wearing glasses had. But like I said, it works surprisingly well.
So, the game itself is narrative-heavy. It's an obvious play on the idea that a life can pass in the "blink of an eye." You're picked up by a ferryman of souls who asks you to tell the story of your life. Back in time you go to remember it: your childhood, your parents, your career, etc., blinking your way through each scene. I won't spoil the story, but there is a twist that I absolutely did not see coming (though I should have paid more attention to the mysterious dark scenes) that changes the narrative and the tone of the game. This is one you can spend time reflecting on.
Aesthetically, it's got a simple visual presentation, sort of painterly, with some really nice piano music. The voice acting is good, with the exception of the girl-next-door (who sounds the same at 10 as she does at 40). For some reason, they also used the same voice actor for your dad and her dad, which made the one scene with her dad calling her very confusing ("Why is my dad at her house?!"). But I liked the dad and mom's performances. I was wondering through the whole game if your character was mute and/or on the spectrum because he doesn't talk--only through a typewriter later in the game--and otherwise expresses himself through his prodigious musical and artistic talents. But I think he's just a silent main character, not actually mute.
Anyway, the game won a BAFTA for a reason. It didn't blow my mind, but it's a neat experience that's worth having. It's short too, doesn't waste your time. I'm considering incorporating it into a class.
read all entries for this GameLog 
- add a comment 
|
|
Stray (PC) by dkirschner (Apr 13th, 2024 at 12:00:39) |
Patrick and I have been playing this together this semester, and finished it a couple weeks ago. We were talking after beating it about despite how simple and straightforward of a game this is, it manages to be something new. Playing as a cat (and being able to do cat things like curl up and sleep, scratch things, knock objects off tables, etc., so cuuuute) was novel, and the setting and story were interesting. But really, playing as a cat. I smiled a whole lot throughout the game. The lil companion robot was cute too.
On the other hand, I was often tired and bored while playing, and literally fell asleep during several sessions. Patrick would be making dinner or something in the kitchen, and I'd snap awake, cat walking into a wall, and I'd pretend I had not fallen asleep, and that I was just watching the cat walk into the wall and thinking. Like how my dad always used to claim he was "resting his eyes" when he'd fall asleep on the couch.
I would not call the game exciting. It was a lot of wandering around the city and talking to robot NPCs, fetching things for them. The city is a really good-looking dystopia, and the robots are quirky, but I wish they had more dialogue. You don't get a sense that many of them have personalities besides whatever one-note thing they do. I mean, the lack of dialogue makes sense, and it's not really "dialogue" since the cat can't talk. The fact that you are a cat adds a whole layer of silly to the game. Like, why has this lil robot befriended a cat? Why are all these robots putting all their faith in a cat to save them? Cats don't understand what we're saying to them, and cats do whatever they want! Playing as a cat in a game where you're doing fetch quests (fetching is dog stuff!) and doing things to help people is very un-cat-like.
But, you know what? The ability to play as a cat and do cat things trumps how little sense it makes, and I would play as a cat in this dystopia again. Idea for next time: more cats. And what do you think? Were there cats at the end?! Optimistically, I think so.
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
Hadean Tactics (PC) by jp (Apr 7th, 2024 at 13:32:36) |
This game is supposed to be a deck-building tactical game and it sort of isn't, but very lightly is - at least in my experience so far.
So, like CD2: Trap Master this game REALLY wears it's Slay the Spire inspirations on its sleeve. Again, there's a path you that branches and you need to pick which nodes to visit - and there's fights, boss fights, resting spots, stores, artifact/rewards, and shops. Oh, there's also "story encounters" where you make a choice that often results in a benefit and a drawback. VERY Slay the Spire - though I noticed the way the events are distributed is different and that it's much more important to plan your way through it since the paths intersect a lot less and you can, for example in my last run, set yourself up with 4 rest/upgrade a card spots in a row!
In addition to a deck of cards you have the character you chose and two "minions" (they're all monsters) that exist on a 2D grid that's quite typical of tactical games. The enemies will spawn, you have energy to cast your cards - generally you cast your cards, unpause and wait for the timer to pause the game when it hits the threshold (7 seconds) for your hand to flush, a new hand is drawn, and you get more mana to cast spells. What isn't really tactical about it is that all the fighting on the tactical grid (which includes everyone having abilities they cast once their mana is full) happens automatically. You can't (afaik) give orders to anyone. At best, if you have the right spells, you can move creatures around (your own or enemy), but they then move back to whatever it is they want to do (e.g. attack the nearest enemy).
One of my runs used a character that had access to "trap" cards which are pretty neat since you lay them on the grid and then have to trigger them (with a different card) and ALL the trap laid will trigger. Some do damage, others heal your allies, and so on. So, the game isn't tactical at all in the turn-by-turn combat and movement decision-making sense. Yes, you choose whom to roll into a fight with, which spells to cast on whom, and when to cast things. But, since you don't directly control your combat units it all feels pretty indirect.
Where the game goes pretty wild (and above/beyond what Slay the Spire does) is that once you've cleared a run - you gain access to making your own hero - choose skills/talents from a list AND choose which spells will be available (again from a list, which only has the ones you've unlocked). So, in this sense the game has a lot, lot more options/replayability and that sort of thing. But, I'm not sure it's that much more interesting?
Oh, there is a meta-progression. When I beat my first run a giant death/reaper creature appeared and said "ok, now you can start to make progress towards winning - you have to collect wings". And I've collected a few since, you get them from killing the stage end bosses (which is nice in that you don't have to get all the way to the end). I need to get 7 - so I wonder if I'll just have to play over and over until I randomly get the right bosses or will the game feed me different ones until I get them all? I've also unlocked a new (third) character...but I kind of don't want to use it because I want to get all the wings with the character I've made some progress with.
I've played about 4 hours and I've really enjoyed the "decay" and "trap" mechanics... we'll see how it goes!
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
Deathloop (PS4) by jp (Apr 4th, 2024 at 11:14:36) |
Argh. The longer you go without playing, the worse this game's experience becomes. This is almost entirely due to me forgetting both how to play, but also all the localized information and knowledge you pick up - like who is where, when, and so on.
I love the idea of a "clockwork" game where you deftly navigate your way through things that happen and certain times and places - there's a sense of beauty and elegance to the choreography you develop and create (sort of like when you watch those time loop movies and see a character weave through people and places because they know what's going to happen when and they've just learned it). BUT, that beauty also creates an entry barrier - at least a psychological one for me, because the game's on-ramp is past and now you're in the thick of it. But you've forgotten everything...
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
Devil May Cry 5 (PS4) by jp (Apr 4th, 2024 at 11:09:05) |
So I took a break - and then came back to the game and had forgotten how to play. It took a bit to remember (I purposefully avoided looking stuff up because I wanted to see how easy it was for me to remember). So, some of the fights with V took longer than they should have - because I had forgotten that V has to "finish off" the enemies...lol.
While I often focus (for my own personal interests) on game play and game design aspects of a game - I realized as I was playing this game that..wow, the visual design of the large enemies really is phenomenal. They're both beautiful, awesome, creepy, gross, and disgusting. It's quite the accomplishment and I really appreciated it. And, this is in the context of me playing a game that is ~7 years old and running on last gen hardware. Perhaps I haven't played enough PS5 games yet so I'm still too impressionable? Have things moved that far in terms of photorealism?
I have decided to move on even though I realize, from the back of the box, that I'll miss out on the 3rd playable character. It's no fault or problem with DMC5...it's just that I've got too many games to play and I think I've understood enough about this game to move on to another.
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
|
|
|
GameLog hopes to be a site where gamers such as yourself keep track of the games that
they are currently playing. A GameLog is basically a record of a game you started playing. If it's open,
you still consider yourself to be playing the game. If it's closed, you finished playing the game. (it doesn't matter
if you got bored, frustrated,etc.) You can also attach short comments to each of your games or even maintain a diary (with more detailed entries)
for that game. Call it a weblog of game playing activity if you will.
[latest site fixes and updates]
[read more]
|
view feed xml
|
 |
|
2157 registered gamers and 3103 games. 7605 GameLogs with 13093 journal entries. 5072 games are currently being played.
More stats
|
 |
|
Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) by Mr.tadpole |
| No comment, yet. |
|
most recent entry: Thursday 21 February, 2008
|
Summary
In the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of time the player controls a character (Link) in third person. Ultimately, the player is attempting to stop an evil villain from destroying the game world Hyrule, and saving the princess of this world, Zelda of course, by accomplishing an impressive amount of tasks based largely around your sword swinging abilities as well as your ability to solve puzzles. This game is packed full of dungeons and boss’s and spans a “game-world-time” of many, many years.
GAMEPLAY
Zelda is a fantastic game in my opinion. For this review I started a new game and just started playing the game through. Zelda first opens with a few cut scenes, which really begin to set the scene of the game. The cut scenes do a lot to develop the main character Link, as well as the world in which he lives. After the cut scenes we are soon introduced to a relatively original way of providing information to the player, and that is with Links fairy. The fairy aspect of Zelda is perfect for maintaining both an effective storyline, and also giving necessary information when appropriate. The fairy can be asked questions about certain game aspects that may not be obvious like a boss weakness or how a new weapon works.
The graphics in Zelda are also worth mentioning. For their time, the graphics of Zelda were amazing. Being the first real consol to cater to 3D gaming, Zelda really showed people what the possibilities were. The graphics of the game are appropriately realistic in the game, though everything is very brightly colored and the music of the game is very positive, which created a happy fun feeling for me. The game world is expansive in Zelda, and the controls of the game are similar to that of Mario 64 with the exception of the jump button. Link is able to jump but only at times when it is appropriate like when approaching a gap or when trying to run over a small wall or something. In these circumstances the jump option becomes “automatically available” if you will, another relatively unique aspect of the game for its time. It really sets itself apart though in its sheer magnitude of complexity though. In Mario or any other previous generation game at the time, most games simply gave you one, or at best a few, like Mario 64, paths to travel. Zelda however is completely free roam. You can meander around in you starting city for days pulling weeds if you’d like, and in order to progress from this point you must really start exploring. The game does give the player some sort of story line though, and seemingly innocent missions like collecting rupees eventually lead the player to a very nicely set up saga for you to take part in. The environmental graphics of Zelda are fairly well done as well, buildings appear 3D and can be climbed and interacted to an extent. The field of view in the game however uses the fog technique to shield distant scenery which adds a sort of mysterious feel to the game. Social interaction while playing Zelda at this stage of the game is minimal. The fact that Zelda is strictly a one player game degrades its social possibilities, however in the more challenging parts of the game it is actually very fun to brainstorm on possible techniques to achieve required tasks with other living people.
GAMEPLAY 2
After finally scoring my sword, I made it to the Great Deku Tree, which for non players is the first dungeon of the game. In the dungeons the puzzle solving really starts to form. In most games previous to this one, players would usually have a path to follow or some sort of guide or something to tell you what’s going on, but in the Zelda dungeons that is not the case. Players must explore on their own, with some help from our trust worthy fairy of course, and find everything from maps to compasses just to know what the dungeon looks like. In This first dungeon the scenery obviously became much darker and more ominous feeling. The graphics begin to include spider webs and spider like monsters instead of friendly plant monsters and green fields. The music as well becomes slightly more dramatic and dark giving the game a more intense, less unfocused feel. In the Deku tree we really get to start using all of links cool attacks and moves. While sword slashing is the main technique used to defeat your enemies, this game also includes an items pouch, which can hold several different kinds of nuts and sticks that help you to defeat your enemies. This is such a complication for video games of the time, because it made the game go from being simply slash and run to true puzzle. For instance, at some point in the dungeon the player must equip a stick, light it on fire (after realizing he can do so) on one of the background torches and run to a spider web to burn it down. This complexity was relatively unseen in video games before this, and I believe this is one of the aspects that made Zelda so famous.
While in the dungeon you definitely start to experience flow. The combination of intense sword battles combined with the complexities of the puzzle aspects of the game really start making the player feel accomplished after completing a task. This feeling of accomplishment then leads you to keep playing and keep accomplishing. Some accomplishments include the classic rupee collection system, which can be used as money to buy things, as well as a fair number of larger rewards like slingshots and bow and arrows ect. throughout the game.
DESIGN
I believe Zelda has many very innovative elements. Just to name off a list of a few I can include the auto jump feature, the traveling story teller/assistant/fairy, the extensive item bag, the night and day system, and the GIANT gameworld. All of these elements added so much to the video game experience, that it almost seems to me like a turning point in gaming history. Just to talk about the level design in Zelda for a minute, would be difficult. The world of Hyrule is enormous. It includes so many different areas of play along with so many dungeons, it would really just be a feat to explore the whole world in one earth day. The game successfully creates conflict by slowly exposing the player to the real storyline. By starting with the small picture and slowly zooming out through different accomplishments, players really feel like they are a part of the game. Conflicts then seem more personal and make the game even more entertaining to play. The tone of the Zelda world is mostly happy in the beginning pre tri force construction, and mostly dark and scary in the end post tri force construction. The game does this by making people zombies instead of people as well as darkening the whole game world and all of its characters. This game definitely showed emergent complexity, and makes me want to make a better game for my project than I ever could. The control system for Zelda also made playing the game very fun, the included Z targeting system was new at the time, and the use of the c buttons was more impressive than any previous games.
[read this GameLog]
|
|
|
