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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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Hadean Tactics (PC) by jp (Apr 7th, 2024 at 13:32:36) |
This game is supposed to be a deck-building tactical game and it sort of isn't, but very lightly is - at least in my experience so far.
So, like CD2: Trap Master this game REALLY wears it's Slay the Spire inspirations on its sleeve. Again, there's a path you that branches and you need to pick which nodes to visit - and there's fights, boss fights, resting spots, stores, artifact/rewards, and shops. Oh, there's also "story encounters" where you make a choice that often results in a benefit and a drawback. VERY Slay the Spire - though I noticed the way the events are distributed is different and that it's much more important to plan your way through it since the paths intersect a lot less and you can, for example in my last run, set yourself up with 4 rest/upgrade a card spots in a row!
In addition to a deck of cards you have the character you chose and two "minions" (they're all monsters) that exist on a 2D grid that's quite typical of tactical games. The enemies will spawn, you have energy to cast your cards - generally you cast your cards, unpause and wait for the timer to pause the game when it hits the threshold (7 seconds) for your hand to flush, a new hand is drawn, and you get more mana to cast spells. What isn't really tactical about it is that all the fighting on the tactical grid (which includes everyone having abilities they cast once their mana is full) happens automatically. You can't (afaik) give orders to anyone. At best, if you have the right spells, you can move creatures around (your own or enemy), but they then move back to whatever it is they want to do (e.g. attack the nearest enemy).
One of my runs used a character that had access to "trap" cards which are pretty neat since you lay them on the grid and then have to trigger them (with a different card) and ALL the trap laid will trigger. Some do damage, others heal your allies, and so on. So, the game isn't tactical at all in the turn-by-turn combat and movement decision-making sense. Yes, you choose whom to roll into a fight with, which spells to cast on whom, and when to cast things. But, since you don't directly control your combat units it all feels pretty indirect.
Where the game goes pretty wild (and above/beyond what Slay the Spire does) is that once you've cleared a run - you gain access to making your own hero - choose skills/talents from a list AND choose which spells will be available (again from a list, which only has the ones you've unlocked). So, in this sense the game has a lot, lot more options/replayability and that sort of thing. But, I'm not sure it's that much more interesting?
Oh, there is a meta-progression. When I beat my first run a giant death/reaper creature appeared and said "ok, now you can start to make progress towards winning - you have to collect wings". And I've collected a few since, you get them from killing the stage end bosses (which is nice in that you don't have to get all the way to the end). I need to get 7 - so I wonder if I'll just have to play over and over until I randomly get the right bosses or will the game feed me different ones until I get them all? I've also unlocked a new (third) character...but I kind of don't want to use it because I want to get all the wings with the character I've made some progress with.
I've played about 4 hours and I've really enjoyed the "decay" and "trap" mechanics... we'll see how it goes!
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Deathloop (PS4) by jp (Apr 4th, 2024 at 11:14:36) |
Argh. The longer you go without playing, the worse this game's experience becomes. This is almost entirely due to me forgetting both how to play, but also all the localized information and knowledge you pick up - like who is where, when, and so on.
I love the idea of a "clockwork" game where you deftly navigate your way through things that happen and certain times and places - there's a sense of beauty and elegance to the choreography you develop and create (sort of like when you watch those time loop movies and see a character weave through people and places because they know what's going to happen when and they've just learned it). BUT, that beauty also creates an entry barrier - at least a psychological one for me, because the game's on-ramp is past and now you're in the thick of it. But you've forgotten everything...
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Devil May Cry 5 (PS4) by jp (Apr 4th, 2024 at 11:09:05) |
So I took a break - and then came back to the game and had forgotten how to play. It took a bit to remember (I purposefully avoided looking stuff up because I wanted to see how easy it was for me to remember). So, some of the fights with V took longer than they should have - because I had forgotten that V has to "finish off" the enemies...lol.
While I often focus (for my own personal interests) on game play and game design aspects of a game - I realized as I was playing this game that..wow, the visual design of the large enemies really is phenomenal. They're both beautiful, awesome, creepy, gross, and disgusting. It's quite the accomplishment and I really appreciated it. And, this is in the context of me playing a game that is ~7 years old and running on last gen hardware. Perhaps I haven't played enough PS5 games yet so I'm still too impressionable? Have things moved that far in terms of photorealism?
I have decided to move on even though I realize, from the back of the box, that I'll miss out on the 3rd playable character. It's no fault or problem with DMC5...it's just that I've got too many games to play and I think I've understood enough about this game to move on to another.
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Red Steel 2 (Wii) by dkirschner |
| really fun...like the controls a lot, have to think and be quick! great art style too. |
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most recent entry: Saturday 9 June, 2012
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Opened and closing a bunch of these right now. Funny story. P is out of town and I'm making use of his Wii. I figured I'd bring over all the Wii and Gamecube games I've collected over the years (6 in total, 4 Wii 2 GC). These were supposed to easily last me the month he was gone. But it's been like 4 days and I'm done with the Wii! What madness is this?! Turns out I didn't like 3/4 of the Wii games, this Red Steel 2 being the only one I enjoyed. And then I had bought a knockoff GC controller for my GC games, and turns out the yellow joystick is stuck to the right. I loaded up a Tales game and the camera just spun round and round and round...so both GC games are currently unplayable. Today I brought my PS2 over here. Glad I never bought a Wii. Wii is a weird system. I've played just a few Wii games, like these 4, MarioKart, Super Mario Galaxy, Wii Sports, maybe one or two others a little bit, and they vary wildly in how they make use of the technology! Some go all out with the motion sensor and nunchuck, for better or worse, some use a few features, and others oddly don't use a thing (Fire Emblem, I'm looking at you) and might as well have been Gamecube games. Anyway, will comment on some of this in other entries. For now, the one Wii game I liked...
Red Steel 2 is the sequel to the much-maligned Red Steel. I accidentally bought Red Steel instead of Red Steel 2 last year. I remember being excited when Red Steel came in the mail, then I went to look up a couple reviews again and get a time estimate for it and realized I'd mixed them up and bought the one with like a 60% on Metacritic. Woops! I sold it back and bought the one I'd meant to.
Red Steel 2 is a samurai Western shooter. Samurai clans hunt each other down in the wild west and the lone hero must find the villain who murdered his entire clan, retrieve his clan's fabled katana, restore his honor and get his vengeance. The story was simple and sweet, characters not too interesting. The art style is incredible. It's got a comic book look to it, less gritty than Madworld and with pretty colors. The animations are fluid and the game looks really good. I especially liked the backgrounds of the desert, burning oil, clouds and dust, and other slowly drifting/moving/blowing in the desert wind canvases.
As the hero, you wield both a katana and a gun, so there's swordplay and gunplay. The katana is definitely featured more and is more useful (although I annihilated the last boss with a gun, in a bizarre twist of simplicity). The game makes excellent use of the Wiimote and nunchuck for attacks. The wide range of attacks included A A DownSwing for a nice leaping charge attack that was my primary move most of the game. Later on you learn some moves that break enemy armor, A DownSwing and Back A HorizontalSwing. Another I used a lot was this defensive block move. You hold A when enemies attack to parry. If you push the Wiimote and the nunchuck forward while parrying just before an enemy attack, you kind of counter-stun them and can attack. The one I killed the final boss with was Cobra Strike, which is the very last thing I learned and it's just a gun charge by holding B and then moving the Wiimote to place 'marks' on enemies, and it just fires off bullets on targets for however many marks you put on each one, up to 6 I think. I'm still surprised I wasted the last boss with that. I was having a lot of trouble defending against him and hitting him, and I just tried shooting at him for the hell of it and it knocked a chunk off his HP. He was dead a minute later, yay.
So you encounter waves of enemies and you just kill them one by one. They start off very easy but get a bit trickier over time, and you end up having to deal with multiple enemy types at once, which depending on the mix could get interesting. There are 3 samurai clans and each had strengths and weaknesses. Ok well the first clan definitely had more weaknesses than strengths, but you have to figure out what works against each enemy type. Each clan also has a miniboss type enemy who comes out occasionally and could post a challenge, especially if they threw out two at once. Winning battles is all about keeping your cool, remembering which moves work best on which enemies, and executing. Again, the controls were phenomenal and so perfectly responsive. Obviously I have to compare these Wii games to one another, and Red Steel 2 just kills them for Wiimote accuracy and motion smoothness.
There are merchants and lots of gold, like any good Western game. The gold is in barrels and tables and boxes and...payphones and vending machines. These destructibles are scattered everywhere. There are also safes and lockers to open. The safe cracking minigame was cool. You put the Wiimote up to your ear and turn it like you're turning a safe dial. When you hear it click you push A. Get a few correct clicks and it opens. Safes always have $3000 in them. There are also hidden Sheriff's Stars and some kind of token that give $3000 and $5000 respectively. The Sheriff's Stars are always hidden somewhere out of range and you have to spot them and shoot them. The tokens are usually behind boxes and other out of the way places you have to walk to and pick up. The game progresses by quests on a bulletin board. There are main quests and optional quests like destroying wanted posters that all net you extra cash. You need all this money because there's a lot of stuff to upgrade. There are a few NPC shopkeepers who function as your allies, intelligence, support. You can buy guns, weapon upgrades, armor and health upgrades, new moves...I bought everything except most of the weapon upgrades, but I definitely had cash to buy most of the rest of them at the end, and would have done so if there had been a weapon store anywhere near the end of the game. There are 4 guns to switch between, but I used the pistol pretty much exclusively. When I bought the machine gun and shotgun, I immediately used up their ammo, but then oddly didn't find anymore ammo for them until hours later. I was wondering whether or not I had to buy ammo for those or what was the deal. Turns out it just...didn't drop yet. Only pistol ammo for like half the game.
One of the only criticisms I can level at the game is its linearity. There's 0 exploration, no NPCs to chat with, the side missions all involve just backtracking to look for wanted posters or comm stations or something. I didn't mind too too much because it was a fun ride, but the environment was so damn pretty I wanted to be let loose somewhere or just discover something interesting. Those side missions I said you have to backtrack because you can't like destroy the wanted posters or activate the comm towers UNTIL you get the quests for them, which are given linearly. So you might not get the wanted poster quest until like the 4th quest in the level, and by that time you've seen and been unable to interact with a few posters, so you have to go looking for stuff you already found if you want to do the quest. Quite annoying and not really worth the time, especially since I pretty consistently missed 1 thing in the side quests. 9/10 posters, 17/18 trucks destroyed, 5/6 bandit treasures...where are the last ones of all these hidden?! Also, as much as I enjoyed finding and shooting Sheriff's Stars, those things became annoying too because I was compelled to look for them everywhere I went. Walk into a new area, scan up down and all around for glinting yellow stars. Looking for those kind of killed the excitement of going to a new area after a while. But, easily enough ignored, and you certainly don't need to find them all.
Fun game, definitely recommend.
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