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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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2160 registered gamers and 3114 games. 7617 GameLogs with 13108 journal entries. 5078 games are currently being played.
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Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) by Butano |
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most recent entry: Thursday 21 February, 2008
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GAMEPLAY:
After playing Shadow for a second time, nothing has really changed. I probably felt more annoyed by it this time. I've heard numerous opinions of the game, and they're all different. Some people think it's amazing, some think it's just a piece of crap. I think this game just isn't the hype people make it sound to be.
I never did get much more story out of it. Every Collosus you kill, the god tells you to kill another one and gives you a riddle of where it is located. I will give the developers credit that the fights are never figured out the same way as the last boss you beat.
Again, I just never felt connected to the main character as I thought I should be. Going out and looking for the monsters just felt like a huge chore, cause lots of them are somewhat hard to find. I probably won't be finishing the game, cause it's just not that replayable.
DESIGN:
Let's start big. The level design for this game is what was put in the most. The play area is just absolutely huge. Probably just a little to huge, for there being nothing at all in between the Collosi. They did a fantastic job with what you could climb and what you could not.
Another good thing about the game were the bosses. Each fight was different and challenging and required you to think. The only things that were the same were that you had to climb on the monsters and stab them in certain areas to do damage, but getting there required some strategy.
But the good things about the game just don't weigh out with the bad things about the game. Absolute worst thing is the camera. It felt like I had to do whatever the camera wanted to go, even if it's blocking my view of what I'd like to look at. Another horrible thing is your horse. Zelda: Ocarina of Time has better horse control than this game. Starting out your horse is a chore because of all the weird commands it thinks your telling it, when you're just telling it to go forward and to the right a little.
The story itself is just bad. There's very, very little depth to it at all. You're a boy who takes a girl to an alter, and the only way to save her is by killing big ol' monsters that will kill you. It doesn't say at all whether this girl is the main character's love or if it's his mother, or if it's just some random girl he found and wanted to rescue. If you're looking fo a storyline, don't have this game at the top of your list.
Going from boss to boss is just annoying. You have to look EVERYWHERE to find it, and there are no challenges standing in the way of you, like enemies. It's just a really boring game of hide and go seek, cause the bosses can hide really well. I am not a fan of the game, though it's not a bad concept. If it had been processed better, I probably would have enjoyed it.
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