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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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    Recent GameLogs
    1 : jp's Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments (PS4)
    2 : jp's Fights in Tight Spaces (PC)
    3 : dkirschner's Blair Witch (PC)
    4 : dkirschner's Creaks (PC)
    5 : dkirschner's Before Your Eyes (PC)
    Recent Comments
    1 : dkirschner at 2022-10-12 08:51:09
    2 : root beer float at 2021-11-21 13:15:48
    3 : hdpcgames at 2021-10-23 07:42:58
    4 : jp at 2021-04-08 11:25:29
    5 : Oliverqinhao at 2020-01-23 05:11:59
    6 : dkirschner at 2019-10-15 06:47:26
    7 : jp at 2019-04-02 18:53:34
    8 : dkirschner at 2019-02-28 19:14:00
    9 : jp at 2019-02-17 22:48:06
    10 : pring99 at 2018-11-15 20:17:00
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    Random

    Mario Party (N64)    by   eazya

    No comment, yet.
    most recent entry:   Wednesday 20 February, 2008
    GAMEPLAY:

    The more I played this game the more I began to notice how unique it is. The gameplay that is set up like a gameboard allows each player to "roll the dice" by hitting a block that randomly cycles through numbers. It has a very limited range of where you can walk. sometimes you have to choose between a fork in a road to follow the path to the star. Sometimes you can buy an item, or a win an item by landing on a green item space. These are another aspect of the game, which only one player plays. It is like the 1v3 except that there are no other players involved. The one I liked the most was the barrel switch, where it shows all the items, covers them in barrels and switches them around to try and confuse you. These don't really take time or a unnecessary skill like most video games.

    The controls are usually uniform throughout all the mini games. The player usually only has to use A B and or Z along with the joystick. Usually these games consist of jumping up platforms, pressing A and B repeatedly, and or timing the buttons at the same time. At the rare occasion that there are more buttons needed, there are instructions before the game. There is also a very nifty option that allows you to play a "practice game". You can theoretically play the game as much as you want with no penally to any of the players, just beneficiary practice time for everyone to become more acquainted with the game.

    DESIGN:

    This game was very well designed and I can see why it is on the classics list. There are many different levels, and each level has its own special secrets. But the one consistency throughout the levels is the mini games. The same mini games, 2v2 games, and 1v3 games are present in every level. Yet each has their own ending when the level finishes. There is a sequence of events that lead to a "mystery hero" which is then unveiled as the winner of the game.

    A big challenge of the game, which is somewhat out of the user's control is the random dice block. When a 2 characters are really close to a star, it is eminent that you get the larger number that makes it all the way to the star or it can mean the difference between being a winner or loser. Another frustrating part is when you don't have enough coins, so you want to get a number low enough to stand right in front of the star so you can try and acquire more coins in time.

    There is so much social interaction in this game it is ridiculous. After every round of board play, you face off with every other player with usually only one winner. A lot of the time you are chasing after another player trying to hurt them in order to pull ahead, but this can lead to other players intervening and messing you up. In the case that there are teams, then it creates social ties with the teammates, and an enemy team which allows for a lot of trash talking. This is intense because you have to rely on your teammate to pull through in order to be able to win the mini game. Both of your coin counts are at stake. In the event of a 1v3 this causes so much tension between the players that it almost starts a riot. Usually the 1 player has some type of advantage, but still a very hard obstacle to overcome. So if the 1 player makes, he has full bragging rights over all the other players, and if he loses; all the other 3 players gang up on him and he is the only person out of the 4 not to get coins.

    The game does exhibit emergence complexity due to its simple controls and simple goals in each of the mini games. There is also a lot of technique involved in these games. Sometimes you have to wait and learn the most efficient way for accomplishing the task at hand. Sometimes the task is to press Z and R. But this doesn't necessarily mean who can press it the fastest. Other instances are to jump in the air with A and press Z to pound something into the ground. With experience you see that the game puts in subtle differences in how high you jump when you press Z and how far the object you are pounding goes down.

    All in all this game is very fun and one of the most unique ideas for a video game I've seen in a while.

    [read this GameLog]

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