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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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Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) by ETA |
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most recent entry: Friday 25 January, 2008
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Entry #2:
GAMEPLAY:
After spending yet another hour with SotC I must say that the games flaws are definitely out shining everything it does right at this point. The navigation is simply horrible, and I am not just talking about the “navigate by sword” feature (which is horrible too mind you). The combination of constantly fighting the camera and a bleak, more or less featureless landscape make finding where I am suppose to go a burden. The map (access via the pause menu) might as well just not be there because it provides no help at all
Once I do eventually find where I am suppose to go things don’t get much easier. What I am supposed to do and how I am supposed to do it is never very clear in this game. And I am not sure if that is intentional or not? Coming to a giant swamp with a big “tower” looking thing with some obvious ramps in the middle scream “climb me!”. So naturally you do, but once at the top you have to navigate a series of jumps are not very obvious. The slow, slightly unresponsive controls and god awful camera don’t help making this pin point jumps any easier.
Once you finally do get to a boss/level (since they are pretty much one in the same in this game) the fun finally starts. But in my little over one hour of play I only got the chance to have one fight! The rest of that time was spent trying to find my way and doing other tasks that made me want to turn the game off and not even bother with it.
The battle itself was fun once you figured out how to climb the monster. The crypt hints are never any help in these battles. I guess I was suppose to figure out that “The armor he is wearing looks weak…” means that I am supposed to get the monster to take a swing at me while I stand on this little stone circle and move out of the way which results in him hitting the stone, breaking his armor and allowing me to climb up to his weak points to kill him…Its so obvious right? I don’t know why it took me 15 minutes and a crap load of luck?
Why am I going you boring details like this instead of discussing the game play? Well because over 1 hours of gameplay in this game is equivalent to one boss fight and a lot of wondering around. Not much interesting to report about I guess. I suppose I could have played for another hour. But quite frankly, I don’t think I want to continue play this game any longer.
DESIGN:
This game is one odd duck. This actually fights with the colossi are great. But everything else rangers from tolerable to awful.
I’ll start with the colossi battles. Simple put, whoever came up with the type of gameplay design was a genius. No levels, well not in a traditional sense, instead each level in a giant monster that is you must platform hop on. This opens up a lot of gameplay possibilities. How many other games offer dynamic and constantly changing levels? Even the design of each boss is exactly pulled off. Each one offers a few different ways to navigate them each of which has their own advantages. For example, in one battle you can climb up the front or back of a colossus. The front gets you to its kill point quicker but is harder to navigate and hang on while the back is pretty easy to climb and avoid being thrown off, but then you have to get to the kill point in a round about way. However, despite their technical greatness (in both innovation and originality) they wear out their welcome quickly because of the games other major flaws and are not enough to hold this game up on their own. Basically, the game falls down when it comes to design is everywhere else.
Lets start with the most superficial part of the experience: The music. Simply put, its terrible. It does a nice job of dramatizing battles, but it becomes annoying very quickly. The fact that it repeats so much and a boss battle can take about 30 minutes to complete means it wears out its welcome quickly. Moving on to the visuals, they are bland and unappealing. The landscape looks boring and plain and while the art style is not bad it is nothing unique or special if feel (though the monsters do look nice).
I know I keep harping on it, but the camera is the single worst design element in the game. Its hard to tell if it is just badly programmed or if the designers intentionally made it so it focuses on what they thought you should be looking at at any given moment. Its almost like they wanted to have a fixed camera, but at the last minute changed this minds and gave control to the player.
Inconsistencies in what you can and cannot climb on are also a major drag. Why I can’t just hop on a colossi’s foot and start climbing is beyond me since it looks like it is the same texture and surface as other areas that I can climb on. In fact, that fact that you have to usually wait for some kind of “action” on the part of the boss in order to start climbing it is one of the biggest draw backs to the battles. These monsters move slow, and if you have to wait for it to swing at you with a giant sword or rear up on its hind legs to get in into a position for climbing is just bad design. It makes battles longer and more frustrating than they have to be and to me seems like a mechanism to add challenge to the game in an underhand manner. Instead of, for example, by designing more complicated or well thought out levels/bosses the designers just decided they could extended the battles by making you wait anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes to get another shot at it.
On closing, I’d like to say that the controls are stiff and unresponsive (which again I don’t know if that was intentional or not), the horse controls like a tanks (and for some reason pushing forward doesn’t make it move forward, you have to hold down X) and gets in your way during battle, and the “fetch quest/go to x and do y” structure of the game is not that appealing to me. Overall, ever element in this game’s design seems to work against it or adds a layer of challenge as lazily and inefficiently as possible (i.e., to extend the life or increase difficulty without having to put too much thought into it).
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