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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
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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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Dominion (Other) by wolftrax84 |
| This game requires one or two games to understand the basic strategy, but is very fun and re-playable. |
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most recent entry: Sunday 9 February, 2014
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Game Overview:
Dominion is a deck-building game with a Medieval theme. The game can be played by 2-4 players (up to 6 players with the inclusion of the "Intrigue" expansion set). The recommended age range is 10 years or older. The game has a minimal set up time and take approximately 30 to 60 minutes to complete one game. While there is an element of chance in the game (reshuffling your deck after each pass through), the game does require some skill and strategy to construct a successful deck.
Game Assets:
The original game consists of 500 cards:
- 130 Treasure Cards
-- 60 Copper (value = 1 coin)
-- 40 Silver (value = 3 coins)
-- 30 Gold (value = 5 coins)
- 48 Victory Cards
-- 24 Estate (value = 1 victory point)
-- 12 Duchy (value = 3 victory points)
-- 12 Province (value = 5 victory points)
- 30 Curse Cards (value = -1 victory points)
- 252 Kingdom Cards
-- 24 Action Cards (10 of each)
- 32 Randomizer Cards (used to create game sets)
- 1 Trash Card (designates the trash pile for the game)
- 7 Blank Cards
For the game sessions described in this log, the following cards were also used:
Cards from the Intrigue Expansion Set:
- 90 Kingdom Cards
-- 9 Action Cards (10 of each)
Cards from the Seaside Expansion Set:
- 20 Kingdom Cards
-- 2 Action Cards (10 of each)
Game Play:
Dominion is a turn-based deck-builder. The set up of the game will be 18 card stacks on the table:
1. Estate(8 for 2 players, 12 for 3 or 4 players)
2. Duchy(8 for 2 players, 12 for 3 or 4 players)
3. Province(8 for 2 players, 12 for 3 or 4 players)
4. Copper(All)
5. Silver(All)
6. Gold(All)
7. Curse(10 for 2 players, 20 for 3 players, 30 for 4 players)
8. Trash (Trash Card)
9-18. Randomly selected Action Cards(10 each)
Each player begins with a deck consisting of 3 Estate Cards and 7 Copper cards. This deck is shuffled and a hand of 5 cards is drawn from the top of the deck. A player is chosen at random to start and play continues in a clockwise fashion. Each player's turn consists of three phases described below:
1. Action phase - In this phase the player has the ability to play an action card from his hand. These cards will fall into 1 of 4 categories
- basic action cards (allow the player to perform basic actions like draw extra cards, gain cards from the table, or perform extra actions)
- action-attack cards (allow the player to perform actions against other players in the game such as steal cards)
- action-reaction cards (allow the player to avoid the consequences of an attack from another player)
- action-victory/victory cards (gives the player extra victory points)
2. Buy phase - Once the player has no more actions or action cards available, he begins the buy phase. In this phase, the player can purchase one card from any pile on the table, except the trash, that is equal to or less than the amount of money she has in her hand.
3. Clean-up phase - After completing the buy phase, all cards purchased, played, and unplayed from the player's hand are put into a discard pile. Then five new cards are selected from the player's deck. If the player does not have enough cards in his deck to make a 5-card hand, he shuffles his discard pile and pulls the number of cards necessary to complete the hand. The remaining cards create the new deck. Then, play passes to the player on the left.
The game completes when all of the Province cards have been purchased or any 3 supply piles are depleted. At this point, the players count the number of victory points they have acquired throughout the game and the winner is the player with the highest number of them.
Play Session 1:
Set up:
The following action cards were randomly selected for the first gameplay session:
- Secret Chamber ($2; Action-Reaction; Discard any number of cards, +$1 for every card discarded; Defend an attack, +2 Cards, then put 2 Cards on top of deck)
- Courtyard ($2; Action; +3 Cards, put a card from hand on top of deck)
- Wishing Well ($3; Action; +1 Card; +1 Action; Name a card, if your top deck card matches add it to your hand)
- Great Hall ($3; Action-Victory; +1 Victory Point; +1 Card; +1 Action)
- Workshop ($3; Action; Gain a card costing up to $4)
- Warehouse ($3; Action; +3 Cards; +1 Action; Discard 3 Cards)
- Feast ($4; Action; Trash this card; Gain a card costing up to $5)
- Ironworks ($4; Action; Gain a card costing up to $4, if it is an action card then +1 Action, if it is a treasure card then +$1, and if it is a victory card the +1 card)
- Spy ($4; Action-Attack; +1 Card; +1 Action; Each player shows his or her top deck card, and the attacker decides if it is left on the deck or discarded.)
- Mine ($5; Action; Trash a treasure card from your hand, gain a treasure card costing up to $3 more, and put it into your hand)
Gameplay:
This was the first game I have ever played of this game, so it was spent more on learning how to play than a particular strategy. However, certain cards appeared to be more beneficial immediately. For instance, it became evident that the price of the cards definitely corresponded to the general usefulness of the card. Therefore, my initial strategy was to obtain higher value cards ($4 and $5 dollar range). This strategy, however, proved not to work very well. While I was focused on acquiring action cards, I neglected to continue to increase my overall buying power by purchasing more treasure cards. Fortunately in this session, I was able follow a simple progression (Feast -> Mine) or (Workshop -> Feast -> Mine) to upgrade the treasure cards that I started the game with.
However, I quickly changed my strategy to include purchasing higher value treasure cards. This ultimately proved to be too late however as the other players had already increased their buying power significantly. Furthermore, I attempted a strategy of continuously buying Duchy (mid-level victory point) cards throughout the game with the assumption that amassing them would allow me to overtake a player with a fewer number of Providence (high-level victory point) cards. Again however, this strategy failed because as a consequence of purchasing lots of victory cards, my hands became diluted with them preventing me from putting together any high buying power hands with which to continue building my deck.
Other clearly favorite cards that were used by all players were Great Hall cards, Secret Chamber cards, and Ironworks cards. I used the Great Hall cards to assist with my strategy of building up my victory point count by card quantity. I used the Secret Chamber cards to counteract that failed strategy late game by allowing me to discard all of the victory point cards diluting my hands for $1 a card. It didn't solve the problem completely but it did help me to remain competitive.
Results:
The final standing were as follows:
1st Place - Will (43 Points)
2nd Place - Donald (42 Points)
3rd Place - Sean (24 Points)
Ultimately my strategies failed and I came in last place. However, as this was my first game, I did learn what not to do in future games. Also, it was interesting to notice how, based on the random drawing of the action cards, some became effectively useless in that particular game. For instance, no one in the first session purchased a Courtyard or Wishing Well card. The Courtyard card was overshadowed by the Warehouse card and the Wishing Well card basically provided the same abilities as the Great Hall card except that the Great Hall also provided an extra victory point.
Play Session 2:
Set up:
The following action cards were randomly selected for the second gameplay session:
- Chapel ($2; Action; Trash up to four cards from your hand)
- Moat ($2; Action-Reaction; +2 Cards; Defend an attack)
- Ambassador ($3; Action-Attack; Reveal a card from your hand, return up to 2 copies of it to the supply, then each other player gains a copy of it)
- Shantytown ($3; Action; +2 Actions; Reveal your hand, if no action cards, +2 cards)
- Swindler ($3; Action-Attack; +$2, each other player trashes their top deck card and gains another of equal value that you choose)
- Coppersmith ($4; Action; Copper cards are worth +$1 this turn)
- Throne Room ($4; Action; Choose an action card in your hand and play it twice)
- Scout ($4; Action; +1 Action, Reveal the top 4 deck cards, put revealed victory cards into your hand, put other cards in any order and back on top of the deck)
- Smithy ($4; Action; +3 Cards)
- Thief ($4; Action-Attack; Each other player reveals top 2 deck cards, if any treasure cards are revealed, the player can force the other players to trash up to one treasure card each and then gain any or all of the trashed cards, all other revealed cards are discarded.)
- Laboratory ($5; Action; +2 Cards, +1 Action)
Gameplay:
It became clear almost immediately that the this gameplay session would revolve around the use of the Thief card. Therefore, my early strategy was to focus on gaining as many of them as possible. Interestingly, it was generally considered that Copper cards (only worth $1) were actually more detrimental to a player to have in their deck, therefore any Copper cards that were revealed using a Thief card were left in the opponents deck. However, many times throughout the game Silver and Gold cards were stolen back an forth between players.
Another aspect of this session that was not as prominent in the previous session was the strategy of chaining actions together. Many different card progressions allowed me build up hands that were upwards of 15 cards. Chaining together Laboratory, Smithy, Shantytown, and Moat cards allowed me to build up the number of Copper cards (Silver and Gold were rarely acquired this game because of the Thief cards) in my hand so that I could purchase higher value cards. I also used the Throne Room cards to double my Thief attacks or to acquire enough actions to continue chaining cards together.
A strategy that Will used was to use the Ambassador card to reduce the number of Estate cards in his hand and dilute our hands with them. While I didn't sue this strategy, it seems to be a pretty effective one given the final outcome of the game. A strategy that I didn't see used and was surprised by was the lack of Moat cards purchased to counteract the use of the Thief cards. I didn't use this strategy either, so I guess the general consensus was that the Thief card wasn't doing enough damage to warrant polluting the deck with the Moat cards.
Having learned from my previous game, I didn't focus on acquiring victory points throughout the game. I waited until the end game when I was able to purchase Providence cards, and only then would I buy a Douchy card if I couldn't afford anything else.
Result:
The final standing were as follows:
1st Place - Will (37 Points)
2nd Place - Sean (31 Points)
3rd Place - Donald (25 Points)
While I didn't win the second session either, I definitely improved my performance from the first session. I only lost by one Providence card, which means that one turn could have changed the outcome of the game. I think Will's experience with the game probably helped him, specifically with the use of the Ambassador cards.
Final Thoughts:
This was my first experience with Dominion. While I have played other deck-building games that share many aspects, this game provided an interesting twist by requiring players to purchase money with money, and only allow one action and one buy per turn. I definitely like that the randomization of the action cards provides a very unique game session and different challenge each time. I definitely look forward to playing this game again.
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