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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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Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (PS2) by CelestialWing |
| My personal bias probably raises the score a bit, more like 4.5 - rounded up right? Its style may not be for all, but I certainly love games like this. |
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most recent entry: Tuesday 15 January, 2008
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GAMEPLAY(2)
Starting off with how the story develops, it certainly starts hitting that high-caliber epic quality of good RPGs after a while. After the first full-moon battle, there are little lead-up developments to the next dispersed in daily happenings. Your main allies develop very well just through the basic plot, and some just become very real feeling - you know, their own history, problems, secrets and motivations for being in the group. Best of all is the little personality traits that make them more realistic; for instance this one guy(Junpei) is such a love/hate character for me - he is a hilarious comic-relief at times, yet is a horrible team player on missions, but he has insecurities behind his uncooperative actions. I could go on about my faves too, but all the main characters are likable in some way, and dislikable in other ways-just not as extreme as Junpei-which makes them well-developed for me. New obstacles soon arise, and little scenes of character or story development just keeps you hyped up for the next full-moon; it's like mini story arcs with climaxes etc. at times.
A good in-between-character-development-and-game-systems aspect to talk about is the "Social Links" with NPCs (eventually these include some of your main allies). I had not mentioned previously that this game has many references to tarot, not just half-assed mentions of the Death card or Tower either. It is intertwined with the gameplay and, from what I can tell, the story. Anyway, each social link corresponds with one of the major arcana (usually with a good reason for which one it is) and increasing that social link through interactions with that character through some personal side-story gives extra levels to persona you create in the same arcana category. Also, completely finishing the NPC's story and "maxing" the social link gives access to creating the most powerful persona in that arcana, usually powerful and full of rare abilities - more on that later. The true beauty of the social links is how rewarding some of them are without the levels and persona and whatnot; some of the NPCs develop almost as well as your main allies through these "side-stories". Granted, the NPCs are usually more one-dimensional, but it is surprising how much color is given to the game world from these optional undertakings. After a while, one works out how to increase social links efficiently by learning NPC's schedules while doing the aforementioned stat increasing during times when there are no social links to be done.
Lastly, although battles and climbing through Tartarus don't change much, some things spice it up. First of all, higher levels=longer time before getting tired=better tower runs. Also, a certain NPC will begin giving you sidequests, arguably more like challenges, to do after the first full-moon for usually quite nifty rewards. Also, after certain boss battles, you get new tactics (AI Patterns) for teammates and some of these come at just the right time (right before you really need them). Of course, there is also the occasional new teammate; there is also quite a bit of flexibility in which teammates you want to level up at what time, due to the tried-and-true lower level members get more experience scheme. The real deal here however, is after the compendium opens up after the first full moon, you can recall personas you have used in fusing new personas. Also, higher levels and social links open up more possibilities all the time. Fiddling around with creating custom personas is a huge reason to continue the tower crawling. This aspect may be better for discussion in...
DESIGN
One of the best aspects of the game, and certainly a big part of that emerging complexity, is the persona fusing system. I can see why series fans so highly praise this part of the game. One way to put it is: It came before Pokemon, and it is way better. Granted, it does not have the social factor of trading and battling with friends that made Pokemon so successful (and possibly cuteness, especially compared to the personas, which are mostly references to mythology), but it makes up for it in having a system that, from what I have heard, started out better than what Pokemon has become over time. It's all there: elemental properties, passive skills, skill inheritance manipulating/rules, double-team attacks and moreso in other games in the series, multiple combatants. And the Persona 3 system is even considered "dumbed-down" by some hardcore series' fans. Suffice to say, you can spend hours upon hours making your perfect team of persona and mastering the skill inheritance system.
Unfortunately, it seems most other design aspects I have covered in my gameplay sections. Excuse my bad planning, but I'll summarize or point out some aspects here: The most innovative part was likely the social links, few other games have such great development of NPCs through side-stories, and with a gameplay reward for the players who need more than just the added interaction as incentive. The level design is hit-or-miss depending on if you like randomly generated floors with infrequent changes in visual design; the non-random parts are average I'd say. The usual RPG conventions are present in challenge (harder enemies, objectives), conflict(through the story and character interactions), and interest(new possibilities, story developments, getting stronger). One thing I would like to note is that people these days complain too much about repetition in games; the way I see it, all games have a hella lot of repetition in some form, the important thing is if the game can make it fun each time. This game does that quite well I think, which is important for an RPG. This also contributes to a tone that this game pulls off pretty well - a tone of everyday life, including how repetitive it can be, yet how great it can be. To reference a great little thought by Sayuri, about a song whose melody repeats itself over and over - but each time the tune gets just a little bit more rich, a little bit more beautiful as little layers are added each time...we should strive to make our lives the same.
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