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Sorcery! Parts 1 & 2 (PC) by dkirschner (Sep 3rd, 2026 at 15:47:16) |
I played Part 1 for about an hour. Apparently it's only 2 hours long, but I couldn't bother to get through it. It's an Inkle game, received in an Inkle Humble Bundle, and I had never heard of this early effort of theirs, so I was intrigued. I see the Inkle DNA in it, a branching storyline, minimal gameplay, roguelike-ish elements (this has a "rewind" button, so instead of starting a "run" over, you just rewind to a previous decision).
The story is typical high fantasy stuff. You're an unnamed adventurer going to get a magical crown. Choose which way you go on the map, see little scenarios, make little choices, engage in half-baked combat, die a lot. The combat is kind of a guessing game. You have stamina (health), and you can select how powerful your attack is, from 0 (defend) to 10 (a massive slash). The enemy will also select an attack power, but only sometimes reveals its intention in text. So if it hunkers down, then you should also defend, and not waste attack power. If it readies itself for a big attack, you should do a bigger attack, which will overwhelm it. Sometimes, it doesn't say anything, and you can be safe and defend (take 1 stamina damage) or you can try to attack. You take damage based on the difference between the attack power of your attack and the enemy's attack, though I didn't quite work out the math. So if you attack for 5 and the enemy attacks for 7 (whether or not it gave a tell), you take damage. And then there are spells, which is a whole mechanic where you manually enter three-lettered spells (HOT shoots a fireball, WAL forms a protective barrier, etc.).
That's it. I was yawning after half an hour. I mean, I found the style and setting kind of interesting, but the combat was frustrating, and it was just...reading high fantasy text. I have 10 better fantasy RPGs and fantasy books sitting around that I'd rather engage with. Pass. Sorry, Inkle! I'll try Overboard! and Expelled! soon.
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GRIP: Combat Racing (PC) by dkirschner (Sep 3rd, 2026 at 15:34:09) |
Really poor "combat racing" game. I played for under an hour. Tracks are uninspired and were already repeating themselves. The tutorial immediately made me skeptical because it would progress quickly through tooltips before I could read what the information said. It also had one part where it wanted you to use an item with R1, but the tutorial said use L1. And it was really confusing with the controls, calling L1/R1 something else, and also giving keyboard controls, because the tutorial didn't change based on whatever input was detected.
Anyway, it's a combat racing game. There are like 4 weapons only, a speed boost, a shield, and I guess a couple other things. In the campaign, you just race around the same boring tracks over and over through like 12 different tournaments, each of which (so far) has 3 different races. It's like the game has an hour of content and was like, "We'll just have the player do that 12 times," Difficulty seemed weirdly varied, like sometimes, I would be dead last forever after wrecking one time, whereas other times, I would wreck and no one would pass me. There's also a weird thing about manually resetting your car on the track if you crash/go off course. It doesn't just reset you like in any normal racing game. Instead, you have to reset yourself, and half the time I would reset myself backwards, like going the wrong way, and would waste like 15 seconds trying to orient myself. Totally unnecessary!
Yeah, really poor experience...but, it was in some Humble Bundle, and I can't resist a racing game with missiles and stuff. No real time or money lost on this one.
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Spelunky 2 (PC) by dkirschner (Sep 2nd, 2026 at 16:31:29) |
Gonna go ahead and retire this one, too. I realize there's a reason that these two extremely difficult games (Baba and Spelunky) were sitting in my "playing" category for years. Any time I picked them up, I'd go, "Nah, not right now, I'll come back to it when I have more time to devote." And I'd pick it up later, it would be hard, and I'd postpone again.
Spelunky 2 is like the first one. It's a hard as nails roguelike platformer. You die constantly. I made it to the first shortcut and I think last time I was playing (before this), I made it to the boss of one of the next levels. But today, no chance. I played for 20 minutes and don't think I lasted more than 2 minutes in a run. One thing I notice that's different about this one is that there are branching paths you can take. That is, once you get to the first checkpoint, you can go one of two ways, and sometimes those seem random? Or are they always a choice between the jungle and the volcano? Not sure.
Anyway, I as with Baba Is You, I really do like Spelunky 2, but it's bested my patience and precision, and I don't want to play it anymore or look at it sitting, judging me, in my backlog. On to something else! I'm playing the lowest rated and oldest games in my backlog next, then clearing out all non-Steam/PS5 games (i.e., freebies on Epic and GoG).
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Baba is You (PC) by dkirschner (Sep 1st, 2026 at 17:19:17) |
Ooookay, I started this years ago, have come back to it a couple times, and always set it aside again because it breaks my brain. Last week, I decided I was going to tackle Baba Is You for real, and I beat the level I had been stuck on really quickly. "Great!" I thought, "I've got the hang of it!" A few levels later: "What in the world...?" And thus a pattern was born. Get stuck. Either figure it out or watch a video and copy it. Solve a few more levels. Get stuck. Figure it out or watch a video and copy it. Solve a few more levels. Get stuck. Etc. Decide I don't want to do continue this pattern for the duration of the game. Write GameLog. Close GameLog.
I had reviewed a couple papers about Baba Is You, so I was really excited to get back to it, thinking that somehow reviewing papers on problem-solving strategies in a notoriously difficult puzzle game would give me an edge. It did not. Also, those reviews were a while ago.
The game is brilliant though. It's so simple, but combines basic commands into complex strings. You start with two rules: "Baba is You" and "Flag is Win." You are Baba. Move to the Flag and Win. Each element--words and objects--can be moved around. You can reconfigure those first two rules to say "Baba is Flag," which turns Baba into a Flag and is game over (because "You" have to be something). But "Flag is You" works just fine. Suddenly, Baba becomes inert and you control the Flag. Move "Win" over to "Baba is..." (now Baba is Win), touch Baba with the Flag (which is now You), and You Win.
The level I am stopping at has the following rules at the beginning:
Water is Sink (anything that touches Water Sinks)
Baba has Rock (if Baba goes away, there is a Rock in his place)
Wall is Stop (can't pass through Walls)
Baba is Move (Baba moves when You do [note that You are not Baba here])
Rock is Push (You [whoever You are] can Push Rocks)
Flag is Win
Keke is You
Some commands are behind Walls, so You won't be able to touch those. Others are in the open, so those are the ones You figure out how to manipulate. In this level, Rock is Push and a combination of Baba has Rock and Baba is Move (where one "Baba" is used in both commands) are in the open. There is a Flag in the a space in the middle of a bunch of Water. Baba and Keke are in the open, too. So, the question is how to get You (currently Keke) to the Flag without Sinking in the Water. I actually figured it out. I have to move the words so that Rock has Rock, which means that after Baba Sinks in the Water, the Rock he leaves behind will also have a Rock. Keke can Push that Rock, Sink it, which produces another Rock, which Keke Pushes, Sinks, and produces another Rock...continue until a path is cleared through the Water so that Keke can get the Flag. Easy enough.
Often, levels build on each other. Not just new words ("has" is new in this level), but iterations on the same level. So, once I beat this level, it might give me some variation where, I don't know, the Water is Sink and Float, or something. Then you have to deal with that new property. It's going to get harder and I'm going to get stuck and the pattern will repeat.
So, in the end, I appreciate Baba is You, but I don't want to play it anymore!
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Dishonored 2 (PS4) by jp (Aug 29th, 2026 at 12:35:25) |
Finished the Dust District - and yes, it took me a while because I discovered a (to me) fun new ending. Since I've been trying to play non-violently, I've been focused on trying NOT to kill the main characters - just render them unconscious.
The setup for the Dust District is that your trying to get into this house with a crazy puzzle lock. There are two factions in the area and if you deliver the leader of one to the other, the other will help you out. Well, I solved the puzzle - so I could have moved on to the house, but I thought I'd take out both leaders! And then I came upon this additional plot to send some people hidden in these crates - and I got a new objective, pack up the leaders of each faction instead! I thought this was pretty fun and funny...so I did that.
Now, this area wasn't small - and I was taking a long time, but it turns out the house is another level entirely! So, not like the Clockwork mansion where you make your way through other parts of the city with the mansion at the end. Here, the house is another level entirely.
I'll see if I can finish that one some time soonish!
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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)
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2323 registered gamers and 3381 games. 7920 GameLogs with 13422 journal entries. 5121 games are currently being played.
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Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS3) by JCART |
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most recent entry: Monday 16 March, 2009
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Game Log 1
February 10th, 2009 at 10:00 PM
This is only my 5th or 6th time playing GTA San Andreas. I played the game today for an hour and a half. I concluded my session because I ended up getting a very bad headache from being in front of the TV for so long. The GTA series is considered by many one f the best role-playing game series of all time. I'm one of those many; I'm a lover of the RPG. For me you can't get more in the shoes of the character then in a RPG game platform.
I love the character this game and they way its graphic world is illustrated. I usually don't indulge in games as violent as GTA because I often find myself feeling guilty from being entertained by the violent makeup of the game. I know that it is just a game but ultimately you are in control and responsible for a characters decision-making. For this reason I feel that it is natural for some players to question whether or not there play role in the game should be looked at with ethical review.
Characters
I thought most f the characters in this game were hilarious. This is extra funny because there not intended to be funny. This game completely generalizes and stereotypes with almost every character. I just couldn’t get into the story of the game because the characters are so stupid. Carl Johnson "CJ" how stupid of a name is that for your main character. He should be named Rambo or something. Every character that is in the game that is black is portrayed as a gang member or bad guy except for the cop guy played is Samuel Jackson, he is good. For me there is really no hero is this game. Your playing as CJ a gang member whose mission is to cross the state of San Andreas looking to clear his name and save his gang, and in the end making it out alive. The characters in this game don’t have any true virtues. Almost all of the common actions within the world of this game would be seen as unethical by the virtue and ethics theory.
Game play
The game play is very good. There is a lot of character freedom in this game. The missions for the game aren't structured linear so you can go around doing other missions. This helps balance out the fun factor of this game. The controls for the game are very easy to pick up. The only thing that bothers me about the game play is the screen movement.
Narrative
The story is OK nothing to amazing. Character development is poor and the script is over the top.
Game Log 2
Feb 12th, 2009 at 11:00 am.
I didn’t sleep well last night and I actually just got done playing the game a few minutes ago. I’m getting really bored with killing people and stealing things. I feel that a person would have to be very simple minded to play this game daily. I was thinking to myself how much it would actually suck to be the main character of the game CJ. Every couple of minutes he is getting shot at, the guy just can’t keep himself out of a pickle. That would be too much stress for me. CJ is hit with so many ethical decisions throughout the storyline and it just sucks that I have to make them for him. I would say that 90 percent of the time I make the unethical decision because I know that I myself will not have to face any actual repercussions. When I’m playing the game I’m notI thinking about what my player should do at that particular moment. I’m thinking about what that character needs to be doing to complete that objective. There is really no moral foundation or guidelines that apply to this game. That alone is kind of scary to think about.. Why are games built on a characters unethical actions be so insanely popular…….?
Game Log 3
February 15, 2009 at 8:40
I just played this game for almost four hours straight. It was funny because this time I played the game I was with a few of my buddy and we had just gotten back to my place from working out. I had so much more fun playing this game with other people. I was entertained watching my friends be in control of the character. I compared how they were acting in the same situations I was. For some reason all of us were playing the game with extra aggression. I think maybe because we just got home from the gym that our testosterone took a hold of the situation. GTA is a perfect example of what the world is like when there is virtually no moral code. Morals and ethics help set standards of living and these concepts and theories allow us to function together without any chaos. In GTA these boundaries are very grey. I personally think that this game shouldn’t be played by anyone younger then 13. I give this game a 7 out of 10 on the fun scale. This project was fun but I think next time you should pick a different game. Maybe something like DOOM.
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