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Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments (PS4) by jp (Apr 21st, 2024 at 00:26:13) |
This game is way more interesting than I initially gave it credit for (and I might even play all the cases, I'm that curious!)
There's a bunch of cases, you're Sherlock and you gather clues, investigate locations, use your special "eyesight", interrogate suspects, and more. So far, this is what you'd expect.
Some clues become more important and they show up in your "brain" where you can pair it up with another clue (if it's the correct one) to deduce something. Once you have enough of those, you can reach a conclusion. ALSO, once you've reached a conclusion you can decide how to act on it (usually it's either call the cops or call Mycroft - i think...).
What's really wild is that in the brain-connecting clues interface, you can reach lots of different conclusions! (I think it's 4 per case, at least it has been that so far and I've completed two cases). OH! And, as far as I can tell, the you can get it wrong! And, you just move on...the game calls some of them moral choices - which I'm confused by. But the idea that you could arrive at an incorrect conclusion and the game just moves on to the next case is pretty wild. So far, I've gotten both right (because there's abutton you can press that even warns you - like "spoiler alert" and it shows my result in green - which I assume is that I got it right).
Anyways, that's super cool!
Oh, and the game haslots of little mini-games that you play once, and they're part of the story (e.g. taking sherlock's pulse, or arm-wrestling with a sailor)..
The 2nd case is pretty neat - it takes place in the UK, there's a missing train...and there are rich Chilean (and Mexican) businessmen involved! Whoah.
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Fights in Tight Spaces (PC) by jp (Apr 21st, 2024 at 00:19:38) |
This one's a bit weird and I'll confess I didn't play it that much (just played one mission - which is like 1/5 of a full run?). It looks like it wants to be SuperHot, but it isn't - that's ok. But, it has a "play the movie" of what you just did in a level that you would think would play fast and smooth and super action-y. But now, it's slow and it even pauses between card plays...so it looks rather boring, which is a real shame.
As for the game, there's interesting stuff going on, but I haven't fully understood everything:
a. There's a typical energy system for casting, but a secondary system (combo) that lets you play some cards with a combo cost. If you move in your turn you lose combo so it's sometimes tricky to get everything to pull off.
b. While playing I was disappointed (because it seemed unfair) that there are objectives (bonus ones) in each level - and I wasn't getting any because I didn't know what they were! Apparently they're actually shown on screen, but in a place I did not see or notice.
c. The game seemed a bit slow - I was just moving and getting out of the way as I waited to draw into a good hand of cards. This cuts the momentum for sure and also made it hard/impossible to accidentally hit the secret (not really secret) objectives. So, I'm curious to go back and try again with awareness of the objectives. They should help a lot - in that I'm more likely to try to "solve the puzzle" of each turn and hopefully get the bonus objectives.
d. It's strange that you have to pay to heal, but I thought it was neat that you can upgrade several cards (if you have the money) and that some cards are cheap to upgrade - there's different pricing for them!
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Hadean Tactics (PC) by jp (Apr 21st, 2024 at 00:11:34) |
Ok, I've now cleared the game (not unlocked everything, of course) and it really is quite fun and interesting. The 3rd character (which I was waiting on to try out because I wanted to clear the game with the 2nd one) is pretty neat as well though as I write this all I can really remember is that it has an orb mechanic similar to one of the characters in Slay the Spire.
The harder ending is basically another 3 levels, but they get shorter! The last one, if I remember correctly, is just the boss. I don't remember what deck I was running, but it was pretty good - in the sense that I had picked up some good combos..traps and all.
I'm going to stop playing, for now, mostly because the list of games too look at keeps on growing - one a week - because of the design seminar I'm teaching.
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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.
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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.
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2157 registered gamers and 3105 games. 7607 GameLogs with 13096 journal entries. 5074 games are currently being played.
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Perfect World International (PC) by Fulgetra |
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most recent entry: Wednesday 27 April, 2011
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Game-world:
The game-world in Perfect World International is a traditional Chinese themed world. This is apparent in not only the architecture of the buildings, but in the names and designs of most of the NPCs. The game world is subdivided into various cities and areas that you can explore to do quests and kill monsters. There are 5 starter cities, a main central hub city, and finally a city where there are only high-level players. This distinction of characters makes the game easier to manage and start your questing, especially at the early levels.
Features:
Perfect World has a lot of unique features that makes it stand apart from a lot of other MMORPGs, that I have played at least. The first one that you notice is the class and race system. Classes and races are both dependent on each other, as an example, you have to be a human if you want to be a blademaster or a wizard. Also there are 5 various races and 10 various classes. The classes are the Blademaster and Wizard (both human classes), Barbarian and Venomancer (Untamed), Cleric and Archer (Winged Elf), Assassin and Psychic (Tideborn), and finally the just released Seeker and Mystic classes (Earthguard). There are also professions that any character can do, and they are blacksmith, tailor, craftsman, apothecary, and runecrafting. There are 2 different kinds of servers to play the game on which are PvE(player vs Environment) and PvP (Player vs Player). The main thing though that from my perspective that sets this game apart is the fact that it has a mode called Territory Wars. This is when two powerful faction/guilds compete against one another to determine who will gain control of the various cities and areas. This can be done once a week and it helps to set the best guilds apart. Finally, in the most recent expansion they have created Guild Halls, which is a place where you can build reputation for your faction and buy special items.
Graphics and Sound:
This game is a 3D game and for a Free to play especially it is amazing the quality of graphics that all of the animations and the game world itself have to offer. This is everything from the look of the monsters and buildings to the way the ability animations present themselves. It is truly an amazing game to behold.
The game sticking with its Chinese them has some very tradition Chinese music that changes to vary with location.
First session:
During the first game-play session, I started the game from the beginning by creating a character, I decided to go with the Mystic class, which is a summoner mage class. As I started my class you are given a brief back history of your race and how it is up to you to carry on its traditions. So when I first start playing the game I start doing all of the basic quests to start leveling up. I get to about level 5 and it lets me go into my race’s city. Here I meet the elder and get the various quests from him this includes the ones for my profession I chose to be a craftsman and apothecary. I go and do these quests gathering the various materials that I need, which is quite difficult because I am have to look around the world to find where the materials I need appear. After I complete that I go back and get my profession from the various NPCs and continue on my way of questing doing all the quests that are in my main city and end this session when I am about level 13.
Second session:
The second game-play session was primarily spend progressing my character even further than the first session. This time I try to start gathering materials so that I can upgrade my crafting skill. I have also gotten my genie, which is a little sprite that can learn various abilities to help you in your adventure. While playing around killing various monsters for a quest, I start to help a friend that I know in real-life and I am invited to join his faction. This is great because now I have a couple of high-level characters to help me when I get to the upper-level quests. I continue to get my crafting skill up and I get up to level 3 crafting skill, which is as high as my crafting skill will go until I get to level 40 and get an event quest to get it increased. I play this time until I get my level 19 cultivation quest, which is a special quest that when completed will allow me access to new quest and more powerful ranks of abilities.
Overall:
Overall, Perfect World is a great game which allows for a bunch of independent decisions. It is a very sandbox game and the only thing that really limits where you can go are the high level monsters that can get in your way. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a new MMORPG to play because they care greatly for their community and it is a free to play MMO
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