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Portal Stories: Mel (PC) by dkirschner (Apr 26th, 2024 at 17:11:51) |
I had some Portal 2 mod sitting in my Steam library and then saw some other one released recently that was highly, highly reviewed. I thought, "I wonder what are some other fully self-contained Portal story mods with great reviews," and Portal Stories: Mel jumped out. Downloaded it, played it. It's ridiculously impressive, basically a full prequel to Portal 2. But man, is it challenging! I made it most of the way through without using a walkthrough, but eventually caved in and then relied on it to solve four or five levels. Initially, I had luck putting the game down and coming back to it later, seeing the puzzles fresh, but after a while that quit working.
It's hard in part because it begins where the difficulty in Portal 2 ended. It's a full game, but not in terms of introducing mechanics. That is to say, it doesn't introduce mechanics. It assumes you know everything and are a portal genius. That's fine as a mod. So its puzzles are difficult, and they are really clever. You have to learn new tricks, not used in previous Portal games, that it doesn't teach you. You just have to figure out, for example, that "destroying a cube" is occasionally what you need to do to solve a puzzle. It never would have crossed my mind that I would need to purposefully destroy a cube for any reason, but it pulls that trick a few times. Other times, you need to move a cube from afar using an excursion funnel. In the second level I caved in for the walkthrough, you combine these tricks, using an excursion funnel to destroy a cube, so that you can get a new cube in a different spot.
In the third level I used a walkthrough for, there is actually a decoy button and panel that you don’t need at all. I spent a lot of time messing with that button and panel! That level honestly felt mean! There is also some guesswork involved in some levels in shooting a portal where you can’t see, which was also kind of a mean trick. One trick (that I figured out, go me!) that I saw a lot of people stuck on involved sliding a cube down a slope to break the paths of a series of lasers, which opened up a series of red laser grids so that you could get to the next area. That one took a while because, annoyingly, you have to slide the cube down the slope and get it to land in a portal. You have to open the other portal after you pass the red laser grids and get the cube. But getting the cube to slide into a good spot to be able to pick it up was a pain. All these super hard levels made me feel brilliant when I solved them (typical Portal!), and like an idiot when I saw the solution online ("Ah, of course!" Or actually in this game's case sometimes, "What the hell?!?").
The story and production values are great. You play as another test subject, there is another maintenance core, and there is another AI trying to kill you. It's a direct prequel to Portal 2, which you learn after the credits. Very cool. If you're a Portal fan, it's worth playing, but just know that it'll really test you!
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Wandersong (PC) by dkirschner (Apr 26th, 2024 at 16:46:54) |
This was a freebie from somewhere or another, and it is totally worth playing. I picked it up because it looked like it had an interesting "singing" mechanic. You use the right stick to navigate an action wheel, where each of eight directions is represented by a color and produces a note. Your character is a bard, so you're basically singing with the right stick. It's pretty simple, but it is implemented in a variety of ways throughout the game. For example, you don't select dialogue options like in most games. You use the right stick to choose the option on the action wheel and the bard "sings" the dialogue option, one click on the wheel per syllable. So, "I'm a singing bard" would be like right, right, left, up, down-right. For dialogue, it doesn't matter which notes you sing, just sing the syllables. Other times, you'll have to match colors like in a typical rhythm game, or during some very cool boss fights sing notes according to colors of projectiles and environmental cues. Like I said, it's not terribly difficult, but it is such a different take on how a character interacts with the game world, and it's done in such a playful way, that it's consistently fun. I smiled through most of the game.
The entire game has a playful tone, not just the singing mechanic. The story itself plays with the typical RPG hero narrative. You aren't a hero; you're an overly positive little bard who thinks he can sing a song to save the world. There is a hero with a giant sword who calls lightning from the sky, and constantly foils your adventure, saving the world in the traditional way by killing all the bosses, but she's a jerk. The game is all about "believing in yourself" and "friendship" and "being positive" and etc. In most RPGs, you learn special moves, gain equipment to better kill enemies, get money (the bard never has any money), and so on. What does the bard find hidden throughout his adventures? A man in a mask who teaches him dances. Very silly dances. What purpose do the dances serve? None whatsoever, except to entertain you. You can dance-walk (instead of regular walk) at any time, and it is pretty funny.
The writing is also consistently funny, and there are many characters to meet. The game is broken up into seven acts, some of which are more interesting than others. They generally have a "talk to all the people" phase, then a "complete the area (side)quests" phase, then a "puzzle platform" phase, then an encounter of some sort with a fairy or a boss or the hero or someone. Admittedly, there is a lot of dialogue, and yes, I read all of it because it's good. But the characters are talkative. And admittedly the quests are not always that exciting. And admittedly the puzzle platforming leaves something to be desired in terms of how well the bard controls and in terms of length (they almost always feel too long). But damn if the whole package isn't a 9 out of 10!
It's definitely a little rough around the edges, which only added to its charm for me. The bard sometimes glitched into the terrain, so I'd have to exit and re-enter a screen. The pirate ship occasionally just refused to move in one act. Also, for some reason, when the camera was zoomed out, the dialogue could become unreadable. I assumed this had to do with the fact that the game ran in a low resolution on a TV, but it was the same on my laptop. I've watched videos where it looks fine for other people. I mean, it was like 1% of scenes that were unreadable. Most were fine, and at worst, some scenes were like looking at one of those "did u kno u can raed tihs senentce bceause the frist and lsat ltetrs are the smae??" things, which was...honestly kind of fun, like word puzzles. Obviously not ideal, but it didn't detract from how much I liked the game.
So, a big hit for me that I never would have heard of had it not been offered for free. Definitely recommend for those who like RPGs and quirky indie games.
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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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Eternal Sonata (360) by mfthomps |
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most recent entry: Monday 28 September, 2009
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****FOR THE RECORD, I'M PLAYING THE PS3 VERSION OF THIS GAME**** (I forgot to mention this at the top last time since apparently game logs doesn't want to let me put this under PS3).
GAMEPLAY
Another aspect of battle I didn't mention last time is the guard factor. I have actually leveled up my party quite a bit and once I reach party level 5, not only can I guard an enemy's attacks when prompted on screen with a little shield emblem and text that says "CHANCE" but if I get a attack like symbol with "CHANCE instead, I can hit X in order to counter attack for about 1-2 sec (if even that... it is INCREDIBLY short). The problem with this? I forget a lot that I CAN counter attack... mostly because I feel like I am rarely ever prompted to do so. Yes, you can ONLY counter attack when prompted. If you only get the shield/chance, the most you can do is guard.
Guarding is key to boss battles. Although you cannot completely block an attack, guarding can make the difference between an 8000 HP loss and say 900 HP or less (depends on the boss/attack). Also, if you're really quick and get used to being able to counter attack (I feel like I'll get to that point after I've played a little more), you can completely cut off an enemy's attack after one strike. Say you're prompted to counter as soon as they hit. If you time it right, your attack gauge reappears as the enemy is falls on it's back, ENDING it's turn early. So you basically save yourself from losing even MORE HP if you are able to counter.
Again, you cannot counter early on in the game because it is a change that only occurs after your party level has reached a certain point-- thus another example of how your strategy in battle changes as the game progresses. I realize this next comment probably goes under design, but I'm going to say it anyway. This party level aspect of the game is probably the greatest thing Eternal Sonata has going for it. Final Fantasy has done some similar things, like having players fight boss battles in which your team is unable to use magic or physical attacks or items (FF12 is a good recent example). It's good to throw some curve balls at us once in awhile you know... shake things up a bit. But in Eternal Sonata, your party level doesn't only affect your boss battles, but every regular old monster battle in between. Although I knew a girl who practically hurled her controller after reaching party level 6 (in which 3 of your button controls: X, O and TRIANGLE) switch every time you do something called a Harmony chain). Honestly, the prospect of this challenge is really exciting to me! Plus, if players REALLY wish to avoid this party level, it's possible. But they would have to give up a pretty awesome extra dungeon. I say, bring it on!
DESIGN
Although, as I said before, I am incredibly fond of the battle system, Eternal Sonata is not without flaws. Having a history lesson is nice (and these little lessons can be skipped), but basically each chapter of the game has a good 10 minute narration of certain important events in Chopin's life that has happened that affected/attributed to his works (each chapter seems to involve the title/music from a particular piece). What should be interesting tidbits are presented in the most boring and lazy fashion. All we get are lengthy text descriptions with slightly altered scenic images of places all over the world (basically it looks like someone used photoshop to add a paint like effect to photos). Why not have the characters interact with each other during the lesson, or better yet, how about letting US play/learn by interacting with the story.... I mean, at least most cut scenes are interesting, visually pleasing, fair voice acting (at least in the Japanese version. I take Japanese so I'm partial to the original voices). But these text dialogues are so long and drawn out... we don't really get to do anything but read a bit (and I do love to read...) but how about incorporating it into the gameplay? It's a bit of a waste really.
Another problem would be the score pieces. Throughout the game, you can find score pieces. And as my roommate and I sadly discovered, they do not all add up to one amazing piece (which we both thought would have been cool). Instead, you meet people all over the world who want to have sessions (they play one tune and you must find one to match it). Now, if you are not musically inclined... and by that I mean have no idea how to read music, this would be an incredibly tedious process. In fact, I know this because I CAN read music, and I still find it a bit tedious. Sometimes you only get one chance to pick the right song, and other times when you simply go through your list as many times as you please, you probably don't have the right piece yet (as apparently there is a second playthrough/GAME+ option). Half the time, if you do get the right piece (which if you do you'll receive some sort of ranking ranging from B-A... I can't really figure S out... because sometime you get crap from an S ranking). It's really rather strange.You mostly get EZI items.... which are basically crap that really bring down your stats or only add the effect of +1 to ONE of your stats. This brings me to the next problem: EZI items.
Now if you own the XBOX 360 version, the ONLY reason you would collect these times (which are usually accessories... but occasionally weapons/armor) is to get a trophy/achievement thing on your main system menu (they are called trophies on PS3). Because this is NOT an original PS3 game, I can't get any trophies. Even if I could, these items are the most worthless crap. One of them is a wooden sword that literally has FAKE written in parenthesis next to it). It's a bit much and quite frankly... a waste of good gameplay time, it seems to me. I just don't understand it. I mean, it's a big letdown to get a wooden sword when you finally play the right score piece... (although I will say CERTAIN sessions do ACTUALLY give you GOOD, DECENT items). But I digress.
Now on to the GOOD things about the design. As I mentioned before, the battle system is FANTASTIC. But what makes my version of this game EVEN BETTER than the XBOX 360 is the extra dungeons/playable characters. Forget the extra costumes (don't really serve any role... although one of them is rather funny). The extra characters have some of the BEST stats in the game and what I'm really thrilled about is that they aren't playable for the whole game. After all, it would be a bit to easy, right? And there has to be some challenge to make it interesting. They are only available a bit in chapter 4 or 5 (I can't really remember when exactly... I read it somewhere) and for the entirety of chapter 7 (the final chapter). Both opportunities to play them include extra dungeons (although unfortunately apparently chapter 7's only available on the second playthrough). Anyways there is ANOTHER dungeon available in both versions that they'll be pretty helpful for, and fun to level up. Which brings me to another good thing about this game: when players leave your party, they don't level up while you're gone. So yes, you have to work to get them good again when they return... but since there aren't TOO many characters like that (maybe about 4 out 12?) and it is really spread out (so they aren't all out/back in at the same time), it's time consuming, but in a good way. It's a good challenge to keep them alive long enough so they level up faster (because of course, if they're dead when the battle ends, they recieve no EXP).
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