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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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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)
for that game. Call it a weblog of game playing activity if you will.
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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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Simcity 2000 (PC) by Eclypse |
| I thoroughly enjoyed this game. I enjoy types of games where you start from scratch and you make a civilization. |
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most recent entry: Monday 28 March, 2011
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Summary
Simcity 2000 was released February 28, 1995. It is a simulation of building a successful city. This involves building power plants, a water system, roads, power lines, an education system and so forth. Not only does the player have to build these things, but also has to manage resources and taxes so that the city brings in profit for expansion. It is considered a strategy game. There is no war in this game, only the creation of a city.
Luck vs Strategy
This game involves having a strategy on how one wants to efficiently and creatively set up a city. There are endless options as to how to build a city. As a player repeatedly plays the game, he or she will gain skill on how to better play.
Story vs Non-Story
There is no story in this game. There is no main character to follow, only a city that has many many needs.
Realism vs Abstraction
In Simcity 2000, the goal is to create your own realistic city. Being that this game was made in 1995 the graphics were limited, however; the cities made in this game are very similar to a city that one might see in real life. There are industrial areas, residential areas, and commercial areas of a city that can be grown. Overall, the game is geared towards realism with a couple of exceptions. These exceptions include making the natural disaster of a "Monster" occur on your city, or the making of an arcology, large buildings that hold 60,000+ people.
Player's Role
From the very beginning of the game, the player is put into the god-like role. The player is able to shape the terrain of the map. The map is divided into small tiles. These tiles can be raised, lowered, made into water areas in whatever manner the player wishes. Also, in this game the player plays the role of the supreme leader, who makes all of the important decisions of when to have a natural disaster, what city-ordinances to pass, or even the percentage of city resources that are used, such as fire department, police, education, transit maintenance. The player manages the city as it matures.
Game Limitations
There is a limited amount of space on which a player can create his city. A player is limited to the amount of money that he or she has. At the beginning of the game a player can either start off with $20,000, $10,000, or a loan of $10,000. This is to give difficulty to the game. Also, a player may have technological limitations. At the beginning of the game a player may choose to start at 1900, 1950, 2000, or 2050. The technology available for building during the game will depend on what option the player chooses at the beginning of the game, of course technology will become available as time passes in the game.
Gameplay
In this game you start off looking at a landscape from a top down view. You are able to edit the landscape with a toolbar. You can fill the area with trees, water, raised or lowered terrain in whatever combination that you want. After you finish editing this, you move on to the city part of the game. You select a money amount to start off with and a year that will determine your starting cash and technology level. From there you have a clean slate of landscape to work with. You can start off by building any structure you want. I usually start off with a power plant, then add residential, commercial, and industrial tiles in a 6 x 6 manner. Then connect them with roads and add power lines to go from the power plant to each of the type tiles.
Every building in the game has to have power and water. Next, building a water tower, couple water pumps, and water pipes to connect them all to each type of tile so that the buildings that will build will have water. The residential, commercial, and industrial tiles differ by color. Residential is green, commercial is purple, and industrial is yellow. After these tiles get water and power, they will begin to self build structures on top of them. These structures are built on their own and the player has no control over how large or small the buildings are. These are the core elements needed in a city to get started.
After these elements of the city are established additional elements can be added from the categories of: education, civil services, and entertainment. The education section includes buildings such as: school, college, library, or a museum. The civil services section includes: police station, hospital, fire station, and prison. The entertainment section includes: small park, big park, zoo, stadium, and marina. In addition to these, the player can add subways, railways, an airport, and bridges to enhance the traffic flow of the city.
Along with building the city, the player must choose which departments to pay services, how much to charge in taxes, as well as which city-ordinances to have in affect. If the player doesn't pay a department enough in services, that department will cause problems for the player. Example would be not paying the fire department enough money, the city would have more fire accidents and buildings would burn down. an example of a city-ordinance would be Tourist Advertizing, Legalize Gambling, Parking Fines, and more.
Once a player has a city that has a population in the millions, and is consistently bringing in a profit, then that person has essentially won the game. The "winning" of this game is based off the satisfaction the player has with his city. When a player thinks he or she has an awesome city and is done building onto it and playing with it, then that is when the game is over for that person. There is no official way to "win" this game.
End Game
A player is satisfied with his or her city or a player runs out of money and does not have enough resources to continue building a city.
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