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Pokémon TCG Pocket (iPd) by jp (Sep 17th, 2026 at 20:24:16) |
Hmm, still "playing" though I would very often forget to "check in" when I first arrived in Rochester. So, for a hot minute, I though I might have been done with it.
The other night I played the card game - demo at a store - and was surprised to learn that the card game is basically a super set of this game. I guess I didn't have a real conception of the difference between them - I thought that the cards were all the same, but they're not! This actually made me a bit less interested in this game, since it really is a watered down version of the regular card game.
I do think it's an interesting approach that I don't know of other examples? Because it really does seem like a subset rather than a "new" or "different" or "variant" version. I wonder if someone's looked closely at them?
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Lorelei and the Laser Eyes (PC) by jp (Sep 17th, 2026 at 20:19:59) |
I feel bad that I didn't keep on playing this one. At this point all of my handwritten notes and reminders and things I'd figured out are long gone...and this doesn't seem like the kind of game you can just pop back into. I think there's too many things going on. So, I'm just going to call it my loss and close out the game log...
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Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth (NSW) by jp (Sep 17th, 2026 at 20:18:03) |
Still playing! I'm surprised myself, to be honest. I usually hit some sort of wall with these games - usually a boss fight - I try for a certain amount of time, eventually give up and move on.
I'm currently on the 5th stage, right before another boss battle with one in the can already. The story is - I think pretty obviously - one of a character (Deedlit) in some sort of nightmare/dream hell...so I'm curious how this will end. Sadly, I don't remember how/when the anime ends, and I have no idea if this game is supposed to take place somewhere in the regular continuity?
The fire an arrow at a gear puzzles are still a bit annoying - mostly because timing is a bit tricky for some of them, but I've been able to get past without too much trouble even if there's a bit of frustration at times.
I also feel like I'm getting better - in general - at the boss fights. I've realized how maintaining distance is important, I'm also getting better at swapping between the yellow/blue modes because when you're at level 3 with one, you automatically heal, so if you take a hit, switching over is a way the heal up and it's saved me more than once.
The map is really dense and convoluted in a way that's quite impressive. I guess I'd describe the overall map like a giant rectangle and it seems like it's all pretty much filled in! I wonder how much more there is to the game. The 4th stage felt rather short, and looking at the map it doesn't seem like there's many more places it could go (I guess an entirely new map would be the obvious?)
Fingers crossed that I'm able to continue...
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Bridge Constructor Portal (PS4) by jp (Sep 12th, 2026 at 16:02:23) |
Oh, the main reason I got bored is because, once the levels start to get a lot more complicated, I found myself in the situation of having to painstakingly "rebuild" bridges from scratch because my first attempt just just off by a little bit...and you can't really do things like select a whole construction and, say, move it to the left a little bit...you just have to built it again from scratch, which got a bit tiresome - felt more busywork.
That being said, because the physics simulation isn't quite 100% predictable - there are moments of genuine surprise and laughter. Each level has essentially two goals - get one cart across and get a convoy (multiple, that come out at a regular rate) of carts across. The convoy part was definitely more fun because your bridge might work for one cart, but oscillate a bit such that the next cart barely missed, and then there's a whole pileup with carts flipping and getting stuck or the entire bridge swinging out of control.
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Bridge Constructor Portal (PS4) by jp (Sep 12th, 2026 at 15:58:36) |
I played 40 plus levels, it was fun, didn't take too long but began to get a bit tiresome (which is why I've bailed and moved on).
This game is a portal-themed bridge-constructing game in which carts move automatically and you have to build structures that will sustain/hold them on their way to a pre-determined exit. It's physics based, and having taken static mechanics as an undergraduate I appreciated the load-balancing/bearing principles behind a lot of the gameplay.
However, the game's gameplay is portal-themed and not portal-based. In the main Portal games (1 and 2), the cognitive challenge comes from figuring out where to place portals and how to navigate yourself (your character, in first-person view if I recall) around an area such that you can reach the exit. In this game, the portals (and later gels for speedy and bouncy effects) are already placed - you just need to build bridges. This is fair to the game's title - just an observation not a complaint.
In fact, the existence of portals arguably makes the puzzles themselves more interesting because it affords larger areas withing a single screen/area. If a level in this context is a large rectangular "diorama" - there are only certain ways to navigate from, say, the top left corner down to the bottom right. Portals allows the game's designers to create different navigational paths that violate the regular rules you'd have to follow in a normal space - Portaling around is basically teleporting (going from A to B without traversing anything in between) - so you can have more "interesting" routes you need to build bridges in.
I haven't played the other games in the series, which I assume have their own interesting mechanics and level-things to avoid/make use of, and I wonder if "teleporters" were used in their earlier games? If so, then this game is a lot less interesting - after all it limits itself to portal themed things (switches, sentry guns, the gels, etc.) while the other games could presumably have all that and much more.
Still, as a theming exercise, it's really well done - GladOs and more...and fun little interstitials every 10 levels (or was it 20?).
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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)
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2323 registered gamers and 3383 games. 7922 GameLogs with 13431 journal entries. 5118 games are currently being played.
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Rogue Galaxy (PS2) by Blademaster87 |
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most recent entry: Wednesday 16 January, 2008
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Gameplay:
In the second hour of play not much changed. I still believe that the game is strong in story and combat. The special abilities of each character are varied and the cut scenes are enjoyable to watch. The battles are always random but certain monsters do appear in only one or two locations. This does make them hard to find but when found easy to hunt. Hunting is one of the side quests that I have really gotten behind. You carry around with you a battle recorder. This keeps track of how many monsters you have killed. In each level there are around six or seven monsters and after you have killed anywhere between 20-30 of each monster you get points. These points are totaled on a board that lists the top 100 hunters in the galaxy. As you kill more beasts you gain higher and higher rankings and at certain points you get rewards for attaining certain scores. This is an enjoyable and easy way to earn cool stuff. Another aspect of gameplay that I find very interesting and unique is the stamina gauge. Your player can only attack so many times before their stamina gauge runs out and you are forced to guard while it refills itself. This adds to a more realistic feeling to the game that you are not just allowed to continually attack with no regard to stamina. Another aspect that is interesting is the dual weapons. Every character has two weapons. One is ranged and the other is for close combat. The ranged weapon will run out of ammo and will take some time to reload. Weapons range form guns and swords to bows and arrows and hatchets. This creates a very interesting feeling to combat.
The bad elements of this game are that many aspects can be very repetitive and boring. One example is the weapons synthesis. You can take two weapons of low level and combine them to create a better weapon. In order to combine weapons they have to be maxed out which requires fighting with them for 10 to 20 battles. The problem is that only some weapons can be merged with each other. Because of this you may have to max out the same weapon four or five times in order to create duplicate weapons to combine with other weapons later in the game. This process while it creates very good weapons and is not a requirement to the game can become very annoying to those that want to get more out of the game than just the story.
Design:
The game world is designed very well. While many of the levels are strait forward get from point A to point B they do have a maze like quality where going in a strait line is either not advisable or not even possible. This makes the game simple to understand yet some what more difficult to execute. The levels range from a desert planet to a jungle planet to a world filled with the best technology the galaxy has to offer. That said many of the levels are very similar and many of the monsters are recycled. A monster that is called a mish will show up in later levels as an ancient mish. The differences will be that the ancient mish will be stronger and a different color but it is the same monster none the less. Another aspect of the game that is very well done is the music. The music that is played in the background adds the tone for the particular level that you are on. When entering a different area the music changes to signify weather you should be scared, alert, or safe. The music coupled with the stunning landscapes of the various worlds lends a feeling of reality that is often lost in video games. The story of the game does seem to be a little obvious at times but there are many twists and turns that add to the enjoyment of the game. There are a lot of cut scenes in the game but they are blessedly short, taking only a minute or two before and after major fights which allows the story to continue in a satisfactory manner without interfering in gameplay to much.
For those that like to complete 100% of the game it might become a little repetitive at some points but all in all this is turning out to be a very enjoyable game.
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