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Cobalt Core (PC) by jp (May 8th, 2024 at 14:25:11) |
I've since played a bunch more, unlocked more characters, etc. The story unlocks are a lot slower/grindy than I'd like and I've realized that some character combinations are pretty bad! I think I've reached the point where I've figured out a bunch of things, but am not quite ready to take my play to another level - as in, there are things it has not occurred to my to try out. This is sort of the moment where I might look at some guide online or see what the player community is saying - what does expert play look like in this space? can I pull off some of the more challenging strategies? I don't know...I'm sort of interested in exploring some more, but also looking at a (digital) stack of other unplayed games... hmm. choices!
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Signs of the Sojourner (PC) by jp (May 8th, 2024 at 14:21:18) |
Maybe it's the road trip aspect of this game, but I was really reminded of the game "Road 96" even though the gameplay and story are completely unrelated. Both games are unrelated. I don't really know why the connection popped into my head to be honest.
Anyways, interesting game - especially the deckbuilding aspects of it. The game does away with most of the intricate and sophisticated mechanics you see while simplifying some things in a way that's pretty refreshing: your deck is always the same size and at the end of every encounter/conversation you have to remove a card from your deck and pick a new one from a small selection (was it 6 options or 3? I can't recall as I write this). The game's mechanics themselves are also simple and interesting - and there's cards that have different effects and such, but not too many.
So, I really liked the pared down deckbuilding! But, the playing a little less so - I mean the playing the card game part - there are perhaps a few too many turns in which I couldn't really do anything and that's always a bummer. On the other hand, the experience aligns well with the game's theme and story! (communication, culture, how people change when exposed to others and their cultures, etc.)
Also, having only played a "full game" once - I feel strangely satisfied, I got the story I got, had the experience I had, and feel no desire to go back and play it differently...which I think is a good thing for many narrative-based games (where replays essentially becomes more about optimizing/ gaming the game than having different stories). This is because in many, but obviously not all, games - playing a gain sort of ruins the experience because you get to see too much behind the curtain - e.g. realizing which things happen regardless of your choices, what the system is doing behind the scenes, etc.
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Loop Hero (PC) by jp (May 8th, 2024 at 14:07:31) |
It's an interesting game for sure. Mostly because I enjoyed slowly figuring stuff out - which tiles to place where and why, and so on. That being said, the "learning loop" (the length of time you have to play in order to try something out and then learn from it) is pretty long - which makes the game a bit of a slog in that sense. This is because, in a nutshell, the effects of your strategies are systemic - they'll play out slowly, over time, as you play the game. In my mind this is similar to playing city-building games (which I'm bad at - I get too impatient and reactive, which means everything goes ok until it all spirals out of control once certain thresholds/tipping points are met). It also makes it hard to try out multiple things at the same time - should I focus on doing X and Y while avoiding Z? (sort of too many variables).
I'm not saying any of this as a bad thing - just as a characteristic that results from this game's design. And, like I said, it is interesting to try out different things and hopefully see success (or failure you can learn from). But, the game's moment to moment isn't that interesting - you mostly watch the game play and pause every now and then to change your loadout (e.g. equip a better weapon that just dropped).
So, the game sort of gets boring pretty soon?
Oh, there's also an entire town-building system - but it's super slow to make any progress here because you need to "farm" (from the main combat/action loop) resources - though what resources you get depends on what tiles your placing, so understanding THOSE relationships is also important.
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Mass Effect: Andromeda (PS4) by jp (May 7th, 2024 at 18:25:53) |
I know this game was reviewed quite poorly. I only remember stuff about the characters (art) and animations not being very good. I'd guess there was other stuff too, but that's all I recall as I type this.
So, I'm fully expecting to play a bit of the game, get tired/bored/frustrated, and then I'll move on. BUT, I'll be able to say - "yes, I have played one of the Mass Effect games for a few hours" and I'll have a better sense of the series even if it is coming from the least respected main-line entry.
I'm only a few hours in at this point - more hours than it should be due to technical issues with the disc: it didn't work while installing on the PS4, so I installed in PS5 instead, and then I had issues....and, anyways. I think it's all solved now... but - I've made it to the point where you gain access to a ship and I'm expecting to start flying around and doing missions and enjoying a bit more freedom than I have so far. BUT, so far it's been pretty fun and I'm genuinely curious and interested to continue playing...so we'll see!
The game's early intro is interesting - for an RPG in my view - because it leads with all-action stuff! There's moving around and jumping and shooting... Sure, there was some story and cut-scenes and what not. But the gameplay was all on-planet action based! I was like "woah, this is not the RPG I was expecting". And then there's an important story moment (my father dies! I'm now the pathfinder, so much responsibility), and the entire next section of the game is sort of the introduction to what'll probably be the main cast of other characters - namely everyone else on the ship we're on as part of a big "lets colonize other galaxies" effort. I walked around, talked to people, accepted missions/tasks, solved a case of someone sabotaging something in the ship and got a big info dump on "what is generally going on here".
So, in these few hours I feel like I've just had the intro stuff and that now the game will "open up" into the rest of the game!
I'm pretty excited to be honest and yes, the characters don't look "great" and I saw the AI do some weird stuff...but, it's all good.
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Cuphead (Switch) by jp (May 7th, 2024 at 13:25:08) |
I've been playing this with my son and yes, it is as hard as I'd heard. And no, we probably won't be able to finish it. But, we'll see how far we get and how much fun we're still having. We've just (almost) cleared the first island (only missing one of the run-n-gun missions).
What stands out so far?
a. Levels are a lot shorter than I expected - in a good way. I was sort of kind of dreading having to play these really long levels. But no, they're pretty short which is nice.
b. I like the variety! Not just in the enemies and their attacks and whatnot. But, so far there are run and gun (typical Contra-style running, platforming, and shooting), flying levels (only one so far, like 2D shooters of yore), and boss fights (multi-stage single screen battles). It's nice to mix things up and I've enjoyed that part of the game.
c. I did not remember their being an upgrade system wherein you could purchase different weapons, boons, and variations on your super attack. I'm not a fan of the "this upgrade also has a drawback" (e.g. get one extra heart, but do less damage in your attacks). But still, I like the variety overall.
d. Many of the boss fights have SOME randomization which is interesting (to me, not saying it's a huge novelty in the genre) - for example the boss might change into one of three different enemies (I'm thinking of the first flying level where you either get a bull, dancing twins, or an archer). The slot machine level was fun for this - even if the different attack patterns (even if one of them, the golden platforms was significantly harder for me).
e. In this game it never makes sense to not shoot all the time - I wish there was just an autofire toggle or something.
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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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2160 registered gamers and 3114 games. 7617 GameLogs with 13108 journal entries. 5078 games are currently being played.
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Skyrim (360) by jwhite16 |
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most recent entry: Tuesday 4 December, 2012
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Skyrim is an amazing adventure role playing game that continues to inspire me to keep playing it. The first time I played the game I chose to be an Argonian, a lizard like creature that is able to breathe underwater and has unique healing abilities. Skyrim lets the player choose what they want to do, what weapons they want to have, whether the person wants to be a male or female, and the abilities can be chosen by them too. I love that Bethesda made a very unique and expansive game because it has so much replay-ability and continues to be exciting throughout the game. The dragons are made very well and I love how they made each dragon unique. There are different dragon types that the player has to deal with: 1) blood dragons, 2) frost dragons, 3) ancient dragons, 4) elder dragons, and more. Skyrim has done an amazing job with quests and missions as well. The player is not told to do the main missions of Skyrim, in fact I have played the game for a while without completing the main quest, just because there were so many other missions that I was doing. There are many side quests that people can join in Skyrim. They can join fighting groups like the companion’s guild, the dark brotherhood, the thieves’ guild, and in the new downloadable content they can join the vampires. Each one of these groups have their own side missions that they have their own rewards that follow when completing their missions. I like how they made the inventory organized in the game and that when the player is holding too much it slows down the character, much like in real life. The way they categorize each item, how the player is able to add items to their favorite list, and how they sort their magic and shout abilities is also done very well. This game is amazing when it comes to combat. Skyrim has added many features in battle such as critical hits, parrying, and slow motion attacks. This includes archery, magic, two handed weapons, heavy weapons, and light weapons. With all of these unique features in the game, Skyrim always has more room to grow. There are constantly new DLCs for this game and it continues to be better as they add more to it.
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