Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7975Not my usual cup of tea. But, I'm playing simulator games this semester and I picked this one for the list. A real positive surprise - I would call this an accessible driving game - yes, it's a giant truck, but you (I) could get by without having to do a million tutorials because there's all kinds of settings you can turn on/off to make it more or less realistic as a simulation of driving a truck. The game starts in California, Arizona and Nevada - more places unlocked via DLC, which was a bit of a disappointment. But, this was mostly because I was really hoping to drive a truck in Utah. That being said, parts of Nevada (I chose to start in Elko) were basically like Utah... The game has a really interesting time/space compression thing going on. Drives that are 4 hours in real-life take a lot less, but you never really notice when it scales down the space/time. I think that when you're on the highway/big roads time moves faster (and the distance counts for more miles), but when you're going slow in a town - it seems to go by 1:1.. It's a really cleverly designed system that gives you the experience of having along drive - but without getting bored or tired. I wasn't expecting an entire business-sim as well, though it's arguably lighter on this end? You take on jobs- get money, eventually buy your own truck. Then more trucks and end up hiring more people who also drive for you..and so on. But, I didn't get that far - there's also a levelling/XP system for you, which for the most part just unlocks perks that make it more profitable/easier to drive. Not in the gameplay/mechanics sense, but rather in that you earn more money, use less gass. So, not like "+1 to top speed" or other unrealisitic stuff.. just unrealistic stuff like "now you can do trips that are longer". For really long trips you need to plan ahead for where you'll re-fuel as well as stopping to sleep! This was way more fun and interesting than I expected and it made me think that games where you're supposed to drive from A to B, follow roads and laws, are...a rare type of game? I couldn't think of any that weren't truck simulator games... everything seems to either be a race or an openworld exploration sort of thing. Weird, huh?Wed, 04 Feb 2026 23:07:13 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7975&iddiary=13482https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7961Still playing! At this point I beat the game...but it took so much longer than I expected. This was almost entirely because I was significantly under-leveled, but...I practiced the real-time side of combat and, with a bit of patience, I basically went in and beat the final boss despite being 20+ levels under. I was level 49 or so...and the final boss was 62? And the final, final boss was 72. Or thereabouts. This was 40 hours and I was getting to the point of bailing because "I just can't be bothered", but I stuck it through (without levelling up, just by getting better at the game). Weirdly, I now want to go back and keep playing because my kingdom isn't levelled up enough! I guess I'll decide if I do or not the next time I can sit down and play for a bit....Wed, 04 Feb 2026 22:53:48 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7961&iddiary=13481https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7969I spent almost the entirety of Jan 1 playing this game co-op with my son. It's been a long time since I've played a game for that long in a single stretch! It was fun and I've really been enjoying it. That first day we almost finished Act III, which was kind of shocking because, for a hot minute, I thought that was the end of the game...it turns out there are something like 6 acts, and at the moment we've just finished act 5. So, getting there? We're playing on the hardest difficulty allowed, and it's been surprisingly easy. I'm not sure exactly why except that maybe we're over-levelled? The only reason this may be is because, when we run around the overworld map and we always do "public events" when we see them, and these drop nice loot. On the other hand, we've been playing super fast and wild - just making a beeline for the campaign goal, ignoring all sidequests, monsters on the way, etc. We barrel through everything when on horseback - no looking back. So, from that angle we should be under-levelled. It's not like we never die, it just happens rarely and often surprisingly, and mostly from inattention rather than actual challenge. I've been playing a sorceror - using only fire-based attacks, but I really like the free re-speccing and want to try something new out. My son's playing a necromancer, and it's only annoying because the screen is full of enemies all the time so it's like walking around with a posse.Sat, 03 Jan 2026 10:57:41 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7969&iddiary=13474https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7961So, it's time to head over to another kingdom to see if they're interested in joining! I've gotten to a point where I'm slightly underleveled, but I don't want to grind. And while the combat is more challenging (and thus interesting)...I've realized that I should be doing a bunch of sidequests and such...and, it's ok? The fast travel system is great, and it's unlocked really early in the game - and I love wandering around the environments - the overworld map just looks pretty and interesting and I get nice warm StudioGhibli+DragonQuest vibes... but I'm also looking at a stack of other unplayed games, and...at 20 hours in I feel like I've given this one a fair shake? (as in, I've gotten my entertainment value's worth for sure). But also, I'm curious about how the story will continue...and also, since the whole kindgom building kicked in, I've enjoyed that too and I wonder if there are some other surprises down the road? Sigh. I haven't made a decision yet, but we'll see. Oh, another thing that's kind of interesting - for me at least. There's a million different resources to collect and pick up, and it makes the game feel really rich...but, you don't have to really engage with it deeply (you probably could for some extra benefit) - but I kind of like that you can (automatically, through the kingdom) accrue all these items and then suddenly some are helpful - like when doing the bonus-quests(?) as soon as you pick up the quest. (there's a guy who appears in the cities and has quests - and many of them allow you to recruit people for the kingdom, so that's where it's helpful).Sat, 03 Jan 2026 10:50:33 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7961&iddiary=13473https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7966When we first played, we played with the "basic" (not updated/patched) version - because the patch was downloading and we wanted to start playing straight away. That might have been a mistake... When we booted it up again to continue playing (we really wanted to finish Chapter 4, and felt like we were almost there...) - we got a message that the "God skills" had been reset or something and that we should re-spec them. Not a problem because we hadn't unlocked any yet (there's three tiers of skills you can unlock, with the God skills very exciting-at least in name!)... ...but my son's character was Level 1 (instead of 18 or so). Well, that sucked! We played a bit with him running away in the background while I tanked and he quickly hit level 2. As an experiment we then closed the game, and booted it up again to see if the character levelling disappeared again. It did not, so we assume the patching process screwed that up. So, what to do? We did finish the chapter - and it was a bit more fun to be fair. Well, for me at least! This is because the game was a bit on the easy-side, and now it was more challenging since it was scaled for two characters (I think), but only one was viable. The final boss fight was particularly exciting as I had to dance around, carefully fire of shots, and be very careful about crowd control - using the potion carefully, since the cooldown was also something I had to watch out for. I had thought about playing solo a bit on his account to level up the character a bit - but really, I want to know if he wants to play more or if we should try another co-op game.Tue, 30 Dec 2025 11:54:55 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7966&iddiary=13470https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7961Color me surprised! I probably would have known this had I played the game soon after it came out (which I could not because I bought it a lot later when it was really cheap). But, this game has really surprised me by adding two things unexpectedly to (what I thought was going to be) the "usual" JRPG format... a. There's sort-of-RTS-battle system! You control 2 (at first, but then you get more people to join, but it's capped at 4) "squads" of soldiers in a battle - there are different types of squads (there's a rock-paper-scissors thing that's color coded red/green/blue) with the yellow squads ranged units. It's weird because your character - young Kind Evan - stands in the middle (chibi!) with the 2 (then 4) squads arranged around him. It's sort of like he stands in the center of a compass, and the squads (I forget how many soldiers they have) are clumped in a circle on the W and E compass sports (and later all 4 cardinal directions, N/S/W/E). Everyone moves as a single unit but you can rotate the squads clock- and counter-clockwise, again, Evan always in the center and acting as the axis of rotation. So, when you move forward you can rotate the squads so, say, the red one is in front and will thus run into the opponent of the (worse-of) color first. And then fighting happens and the units that are killed fly off and disappear. You really have to pay attention to the color matching, squads gain experience and level up (different battles are tougher enemies), and terrain also plays a role. Additionally you have a set number of points that you can spend during battle to do special attacks/effects or re-supply your squads. Timing also matters, you rarely want to rush forward to attack, and I've found that probing and retreating (goading the enemy into rushing forward) can be effective. It's a fun system, and the battles aren't easy! (you often face waves of enemies over the battlefield space - so, enemy has more than 4 squads and they all move separately from each other). b. Base building! King Evan decides to start a new kingdom...and so you do (like there was a large swatch of empty unclaimed land? Sure, let's go with it)... At this point it's just a city (well, village) - so more like a City-State than a kingdom? (in size). You build buildings, assign people to work in them, do research to improve your stuff - like better spells - and more. You then have to do sidequests to find people to recruit to your kingdom! (so you can put them to work in the right places). I'm currently stuck unable to level up my Kingdom to level two because I don't have enough citizens (you need 25 I think)... It's also a neat little system, and it's kind of fun to have to wander around meeting NPCs and talking to the ones who are recruitable (indicated by a different color in the map).Mon, 29 Dec 2025 12:20:44 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7961&iddiary=13469https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7966I only picked this up because it seemed like fun AND it 4-player couch co-op. So, a nice diversion of a game I could play with my kids. The game's essentially a Diablo-style action RPG - very much in the Diablo-style, but set in the Warhammer Fantasy universe - I think it predates Age of Sigmar? - to be honest, I don't think it matters much... I haven't really gone deep in Diablo IV, but I found this game's deviations from the Diablo III design interesting... 1. There's no real tutorial. We sort of started playing, but had to figure out a bunch of stuff (easy stuff) by experimenting and paying attention. Like, how the different powers work, how to configure them, what the different numbers mean, etc. 2. You always have a healing potion, but it's on a cool down - so you can't spam 'em. 3. There's no item shop (I finished Chapter 1, so maybe there will be? There's 4 chapters to the game). There was a place where donate all your extra loot/gear and get rewards from it. There's also no items other than stuff you can equip. So no messing around with ammo, or herbs, or food, or materials or whatever. I like the simplicity here. 4. When you pick up loot, anything that's not for your character automatically goes to the right character. So, no worries about loot hogging. 5. We've been collecting gold. But have no idea what to spend it on. We both died once - and paid money to resurrect, but that's it. 6. There are these "fragments" (in four colors). Been collecting those and we have no idea what they're for.Mon, 29 Dec 2025 11:58:01 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7966&iddiary=13468https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7954So, I finished it - and there's a new game +, but it is now starting to feel really grindy. I'm a bit annoyed tbh, but I realize I'm being stupid here. So, there's a trophy for clearing all the levels for each character (1 trophy per character), and when I triggered the "true" end of the game (prior to whatever the true ending of new game + is), it reset the pit - and it takes a lot more clears to get the next level of the pit, which means that I sort of have to play the game all over again, grindier, just to get those trophies if I really want them. And I kind of do, and kind of don't, but I would if I could go back to the regular version - because then it's less of a grind and more like "mopping up". I did unlock some crazy new ball evolutions that was fun! (according to the in-game encyclopedia, I've now done them all). I might play a bit more, but mostly for "mopping up" - there's some item evolutions I haven't figured out yet, but we'll see how much more patience I have.Sun, 21 Dec 2025 14:13:17 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7954&iddiary=13466https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7961I've played about three hours at this point, probably in the middle of chapter 2 (I'll see if it's the middle or not because I've just landed in a new area - the valley of something-or-other). I think that one of the things I've enjoyed most so far has to do with the fact that I played the first game a while ago and I don't remember much about the details, but that it's all slowly coming back, but as a sort of warm fuzzy memory. I need to check details, but the games are pretty different - the combat system here is active, not turn-based, but was the first game turn based? I don't recall, would have to check. But still, the general vibes and wonder of the world is still here in interesting ways. The colors, the art, etc. - BUT, you can tell that it is all now one step removed from the earlier Ghibli collaboration. The style is slightly different - not off, or bad - just different. You wander around an open-world area, avoiding monsters if you want to, picking up loot (shiny glinting sparkles to walk over), and meet interesting characters. This time around there are "higgledies" - strange creatures that have some sort of elemental assocation, they're like spirits, but not really, they remind me of the Kodama (the little white creatures that rotated their heads) from Princess Mononoke, but also the fire sprite from Howl's Moving castle. They appear in combat and you can trigger them to help out. They can also (if you have the "right one") help with things in the environment - for now a buried clover leaf that, when activated, creates an updraft you can ride to a higher location. It's all sweet, and nice, and interesting. So, I'll keep playing until it is no longer that. The only thing that's surprised me negatively is that the camera distance seems weird. Some areas are thirdperson, but kind of close, and the camera moves really fast and I just seem to get a bit dizzy as I run to the next location (they're super linear, tbh). The overworld view seems really pulled back - I like being able to see the scope of the scenery (super cool), but sometimes wish I could bring the camera in closer? I think I might need to figure out if I should play a certain distance from the TV...Sun, 21 Dec 2025 14:08:07 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7961&iddiary=13465https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7960The weirdest thing happened when I booted this up to play last night. There was already a saved game! In my name! About 7% through the game - so, not very long or very far, but I couldn't remember playing this at all! I thought perhaps a family member did? Nope they all said. The saved game was from 2019...so , not TOO old - as in, if it was me, surely I'd remember? Oh well, no problem, I'll just start a new game. You can't. I couldn't find anywhere in the interface where you could start a new game, delete your saved file, nothing! I googled, and everyone was saying you had to turn offsyncing with Ubisoft's Origin - which won't work because I'm on PS4 AND, the saved file is in Sony's cloud saves... and I couldn't figure out how to delete a file from there either. You can only upload/download...which was really frustrating. Oh well, let's just play one of the first missions - see how it goes.. And, it goes poorly - not gameplay-wjse it's just that the whole thing was pretty buggy - I saw characters doing weird things (floating in the air, etc.) but more importantly - significant mission triggers - didn't trigger! I continued, and eventually they worked out...so, I decided to just move on to the regular missions and just be ignorant of whatever story had happened... So, I start an assassination mission - kill a guy inside Notre Dame - neat. It says there are different entryways, alternate missions you can do to make it easier and so on including a short scene with a priest who's locked out at the top and complains his keys have been stolen. I wander around outside, getting the lay of the land, and notice there's a target - person with keys - so I steal the keys! Yay! Making progress - and then I realize I can pretty much climb up the walls of the cathedral, so I do. And then I get to where the priest was complaining - and I use the keys to unlock one door. The other doesn't unlock - the priest just stands there - I go around unlock the door from the other side, and still no effect. Later on I die..so I start over, but this time my characters (Arno?) automatically unlocks a door and the priest goes like "thanks". Oh! But then, nothing else happens...and then some other part of the mission gets borked. At that point I decide to bail, because this game is now old - I'm playing, I supposed, the version with all the patches and fixes...amd it's still THIS janky? Wow.Sat, 20 Dec 2025 17:17:37 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7960&iddiary=13464