Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7820This one's been a real joy so far. I've been trying to be very disciplined about not going out for help, guides, advice or anything. If anything I've been too disciplined because, when we talked about it in class, I learned that I should have been paying a lot more attention to the pages from the manual I've been finding. There was some important stuff there (like how to upgrade your health, etc.) that I did not know and it's made the game a lot harder as a result. Oops. So far I've really enjoyed how organic the discovery process has been and how it's not incredibly overwhelming - I've been able to loosely keep track of the things I've discovered and the things I have to return to. We'll see what happens when I play again, because I've had to take a break to get into another game...for class as well. So, what little muscle memory and skills I've developed, and what I know about the map and so on...it might be forgotten. I've also found some weird unexplained stuff: a. A room which was "south" of an area inside a building/cave. The room has a circle of pedestals (sort of where you'd place a bust), all empty and all had the option to interact with, but nothing happened. What is this place and will I have to return? No idea. b. I've found three "shops" (I might have missed some). It's unclear to me if they're all the same shop in the sense of what's sold - I hope so, since it seems a bit annoying to have to visit them all just to see what they're selling. I hope the wares are the same. c. I figured out the greyscale-dimension teleporting, and I teleported off a pad the took me to a small square room with no apparent exits. The teleported square was green instead of yellow like the rest. I wasn't able to do anything, I just teleported back. But, I wonder what that place was! d. There are some hooks in areas that seem like I should be able to interact with. I'm guessing I still need to pick up an upgrade/ability/item to use them? So, I'm looking forward to playing more, but I'm worried the game will get too hard for me (combat and bosses). We'll see. It got a lot easier when I did the upgrades...Mon, 21 Oct 2024 00:22:20 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7820&iddiary=13322https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7819I was half expecting not to like it just to be a sort of contrarian. But no, I was wrong and I have enjoyed my time with this game. I think a big part of it is that it seems to move along at a nice pace. I get a bit tired of those puzzle games that have 100 levels and you just start cranking and grinding away and it sort of loses the joy and appeal. Cocoon is different. It's still a puzzle game, and the puzzles are integrated into the games environments and I have no idea what's going on in this weirdly organic yet technological environment. It's all very alien, but in a good curious way rather than a scary creepy one. The world reminded me very much of the animated show Scavengers Reign. There's no voice or things to read, it's all very silent-protagonist. But, the protagonist is sort of like a bug-person so who knows what that should be like. Great experience so far, and remarkably simple. I'm impressed by how easy it has been to learn to play the game, and there's only the arrows to move around and the space bar to interact. That's it. And it just seems very intuitive, which is rare and unusual for a puzzle game. Of course things get more complicated as I've picked up new orbs - each with their own rules/special-ness and I'm half expecting everything to get combined and then my brain will melt. But so far, so good. There's also action-based bosses! These I'm less appreciative of, though they do bookend moments of progress and although they haven't been easy, I have been able to get past them even if it's taken a handful of attempts. The last one had me "shooting" myself around into a giant creature that's stomping around an arena. At this point I've got 4 orbs (red, green, purple, and white) and we'll see what happens. Are there more? The menu shows I've made good progress so we'll see.Mon, 21 Oct 2024 00:14:28 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7819&iddiary=13321https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7814Ugh. Ok. This is going on the shelf. I got really frustrated at the end of the 3rd mission - you're chasing a rogue agent - all that was fine. But, at the end there's a showdown - you fight and defeat him (health to zero) but then there's "magically" a second stage where he sits behind a barrier and shoots you while goons come out and fight you with punches. By this point I had very little ammo left. Fortunately for me I had just enough so that I could shoot him and kill him - but only if I left that for the second stage. Had I ran out of ammo I'd have to punch goons, hope they dropped a briefcase with ammo, equipped it and continued. This would have been a timing nightmare (I do think the game pauses when you're checking the inventory), but still - it's extra awkward because tapping the inventory is a stylus rather than button (thus, a little bit slower). So, all of this to say that I saw how this game let me paint myself into a corner - you have to shoot the baddie in the 2nd stage - what if you run out of ammo? Sure, more can appear from punching bad guys - but you have to pick it up in an awkward way all while being shot at. So, not a design I'm particularly impressed by. BUT, it gets worse... at least my limited experience indicated it. If you kill the baddie - yay, a door pops open. BUT the goons are still there and you need to take them out. AND, they keep on coming forever...you have to run to the door. But there's little room to move around and I was already weak. So, I lost a few times despite taking out the big baddie because I thought you had to clear the rest... and they kept on coming and then I died. Eventually I just booked it to the door which I think is what you're supposed to do. But I got there with some, IMO, unfair frustration.Mon, 14 Oct 2024 19:21:18 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7814&iddiary=13318https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7815Playing this back to back with Quantum of Solace on the DS was interesting - both games lean heavily on the stylus as the only means of interaction (ok the Bond game uses one button). And, they're both different in how they do it. This PoP game mostly has tapping - at least in what I've played so far. Tap and hold is an option too I guess (tap hold to run to a location, just tap to move). (Bond has lots of swiping and holding while moving the stylus). Which is better? It's sort of a "meh" question - depends on the game and implementation, no? As a 2D side scrolling puzzle platformer it's a lot easier to control/make sense of the game compared with the 3D sort of isometric view...but, there's still some stuff that seems a bit too hard to do in this game. I'm about 17% of the way through (according to the save file at least) and, to be fair, I've only run into one major moment where I really struggled to make progress because I couldn't get either the timing of the taps or something else in order for me to make a jump. I eventually cleared it, but even as I type this I could not say what it was I was doing wrong and then did right. Perhaps it was just a finicky thing? Was my timing off? I even went back into the tutorial/help screens to see how the different moves were described in order to see if I had misunderstood something. Sadly the info was too sparse for me to figure anything out. I'm not sure how much further I'll continue to play - so far the gameplay has gotten a bit deeper and richer, but not THAT much? And there's so many other games left to try out...Mon, 14 Oct 2024 19:12:32 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7815&iddiary=13317https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7814I guess what's most interesting about this game - from what I played - is how it is almost entirely controlled using the stylus. At this point in the platforms lifecycle I get the sense that game companies where either forced to (or desirous to try out?) to implement mostly stylus-controls. Here's it's stylus all the time except that you can sometimes press a button (or keep it pressed), any button to toggle a state change. For example, to enter shooting mode, and stuff like that. The game is also, curiously, played with the DS sideways - book mode?. This results in a taller but narrow screen. It's interesting, and reasonably comfortable, but I felt the camera was pulled in too tight so I was often getting shot at by baddies who were out of camera. Sure, you can look at the radar/map on the other screen, but it's all dots with no facing, so it's only marginally useful (when it comes to combat). The game itself has some interesting ideas, though the controls took too long to get used to for my tastes and things were still rather imprecise and wonky. Interesting ideas (for a Bond game): a. This one's interesting, but probably bad. You can pick up different weapons and they have stats - like better aim and damage. So, you need to be careful. I didn't like this too much because, while firing isn't hard - you miss a lot and it's hard to tell if you missed because you were bad at aiming/tapping the stylus or if the gun's stats betrayed you. b. Enemies sometimes drop playing cards. They each do something different (bonuses to melee damage, for example) and you can equip five of them at a time. BUT, you get special combo bonuses if you have special poker hands! Pair, two pair, that sort of thing. c. Reloading is really annoying - you have to enter inventory and drag a clip over to the gun. It's annoying to do in the middle of combat. An auto-reload might have been the better design choice here? d. Melee combat is a special mode, you walk up to an enemy, press the button and then enter melee where you must swipe the screen in different ways to do different punches. Sometimes they'll block - or be ready to block, so you need to be careful. It's a neat system, and is definitely more interesting than just tapping a button. It feels more involved. I think the game is also voice acted - by the actors, and there's images from the film. So, it's pretty authentic in that sense. Mostly I'm impressed by how smooth the game runs (for being polygonal 3D and so on) even if the camera often gets in the way - I mean, the level geometry gets in the way of the camera.Sun, 13 Oct 2024 21:34:09 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7814&iddiary=13316https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7807I loved the rhythm action sections of the game - I looked forward to seeing a deer (which you sort of chase/follow while doing a song). They were neither too hard nor too easy, and the music was fun. I think I might have to look it up separately because I'm sure there's a way to buy the tunes... Anyways... it's an interesting game - there's more climbing and exploring than I expected and I'll admit I was starting to get a bit frustrated because I was late for Beltane and it seemed really hard to make progress sometimes. Mostly frustrating because there was a place I was sure had a path - but nothing. So I had to backtrack around a bunch until I found a map that showed a path to the place I was sure had the path. So that was annoying. But, I enjoyed how much stronger Moira gets and I began to worry less about the weather and more about enjoying the views and the landscape and the journey. Some might call this careless hiking and they'd be correct. But hey, it's a videogame! I also enjoyed the slight mystical/magical things? I mean, I got picked up by an eagle at a point, and I met a "person who lives under the mountains" also... There was lots of that sort of stuff to discover and learn. Some of it doesn't quite work - at least in terms of helping me understand when I was making progress. For example I'd find maps that had clues to parts I'd already passed through/by..so that was a bit of a waste. But overall? Yes, not too long, not too short even if my trip was longer than it should have been? I took 10 days to get to the sea. Found 9 maps, climbed 16 peaks, named 10 of them, and blessed one. The one from which the eagles picked me up! It seems like I can play again with the maps I've found, so perhaps it gets easier in this sense. So, is this game a sort of narrative rogue-lite with a metaprogression ?Sun, 22 Sep 2024 21:30:35 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7807&iddiary=13312https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7806This game's title is 100% accurate. This is all solitaire games, like you would play with a deck (or more) of regular playing cards. There's tons and tons of them. I didn't play them all but I played a few really interesting (to me) ones. I thought it was neat how they're all grouped into "families". I'm curious as to how this was all put together. My first thought is that someone bought a book of solitaire card games and then just implemented them all? So, the groupings (families) would have come from chapters in the books? I think the game's a really great resource - and it would definitely keep you "busy" for...ever? There's just so many variations...I'm still kind of stunned. Also, to make it even more interesting there's a "rating" system that covers how much luck matters, how long they take to play (e.g. is this a mostly skill solitaire?) which is really useful as well.Fri, 20 Sep 2024 11:05:32 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7806&iddiary=13310https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7804Ok, this is not what I was expecting. I though the game was mostly (primarily?) a visual novel - lots of reading, going places to meet characters, and then more reading. But, I've spent most of my time moving around a 3D environment, jumping, and collecting stuff. And yes, meeting characters and chatting - but more moving around. And, it's weirdly compelling. Despite being pretty lo-fi in terms of visuals. And I'm not a fan of the music (just not my thing, not that it's "bad"), and...well, everything is sort of "not my thing". Yet, here I am , enjoying the game. Slowly piecing together (in my head) what is going on. Discovering "secret" areas and things...and really having fun with the exploring and collecting. I know I won't get everything - and I am curious to see how it all ends (I know about the trial and blablabla, but I don't know if I'll figure everything out or not!). We'll have to wait and see!Tue, 17 Sep 2024 22:32:38 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7804&iddiary=13309https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7805It has been so much fun to play this again - with fresh (much older) eyes. Yes, I played it as a kid - must have been 84 or 85? I remember thinking it was cool and fun, but that the bird was super hard - but I also do remember beating it. Even knowing that you had to run into the princess otherwise she'd kick you. This time around I played on the Apple II version - the one I knew originally (though I had a monochrome monitor, so the colors were neat). It's amazing how much I remember from the sounds - and the music "flourishes". That stuff was stuck in my head I guess. I must have played 4 or five times now? Died at the gate. Died again at the gate. Died at the bird. I think I might have died some other time too.. but yes. Dying at the bird was a pain. It's interesting to see how "slow" the game is - yes, cinematic. But also slow. It has its own rhythm and it's now noticeable to me when the game slows down due to the Apple being over taxed? (it can't be the emulation I figure). So, the game has an entirely different pace from modern fighting games that are fast and snappy. I enjoyed that. It's not a hard game - just an unforgiving one with mean tricks. But, I don't think they were mean then? I remember thinking it was cool/funny when the princess killed you... hahaha. I didn't remember the healing system either. Which, seems way ahead of its time! It's slow health regeneration - and the enemies have it too, so you have to be a little bit aggressive, but not too much. The remastered version plays super well - much faster and snappier and probably more like how I remember the game being originally. That being said, I had an Apple IIe with extra memory (512kb) if I recall. Is it possible the game ran better for me? (compared to an Apple II...) I wonder who to ask... The remastered commentary was super fun and interesting - especially because of how it shed light/info on the original game.Sun, 15 Sep 2024 21:39:09 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7805&iddiary=13308https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7802I've completed some 20 or so levels? And yes, it's a clever puzzle game that innovates in an interesting direction by taking block-pushing puzzles (sokoban style) and adding a layer of rules and goals that the player can/must manipulate in order to get to a win condition. Part of me though "oh, this is neat, I get it, that's cool" but quickly got tired. But another part of me, not feeling any particular interest in continuing to play, realized that this game is perhaps more interesting, at least as an example you can use in game studies and such. And, my playing this game has coincided with a re-read of Lantz's Beauty of Games (the beauty of games is how they make thinking visible) and here's a game that forces you to think outside the usual box because you can manipulate some of the games rules! For example, generally you need to move Baba until it collides with the Flag to win. But "Flag is Win" is a rule that, in some levels, you can play around with - turn it into "Rock is Win" and then you win when you touch the rock. So, in addition to requiring that you "see" the moves Baba can make around the level - and how those interactions will play out, you must also consider possible changes to the rules! So, neat theoretical stuff made practical and expressed in a game.Tue, 10 Sep 2024 23:14:35 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7802&iddiary=13307