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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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Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (PC) by dkirschner |
| It's okay. Lots of repetitive button mashing. Jetpacks awesome. Last boss sucked. |
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most recent entry: Monday 5 August, 2013
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Pretty much what I expected from reading reviews. I got this for free in some THQ pack and I like Warhammer, so I figured I'd try anyway. I found it definitely a fun game overall, but it was still very basic and drab. Quite a feat to maintain a fun factor in such a dull world.
I'll start with the pros. The "feel" of being an Ultramarine was fantastic. When you run, you hear the clank, clank, clank of metal boots on steel ground, and the screen shakes slightly. I loved that touch. The Ultramarines and the other characters also looked great. The armor, especially that of the last boss, wow, was detailed and authentic looking. Your character also gets nice blood spatter on his during battle.
The other thing I really liked was the jetpack. The jetpack segments were hands down the best in the game, but waaaay too few and far between. If I remember, you get a jetpack three times. The first time you lose it, it's because you're going into some tunnels and can't use the jetpack. I accepted that. Then it was like 5 chapters before getting it again, for a sweet sweet 10 minutes or so, and then Tidus discards it after "it's out of fuel." What?! The last time you get the jetpack "it's out of fuel" too. That's such a crappy excuse for making you get rid of the jetpack! I actually got mad the second time. "It's out of fuel? Bullshit! Find some more fuel! You're on a planet designed to manufacture war machines. There is definitely fuel nearby!" Anyway, despite having it rudely taken from me every time, I cherished our time together. You can fly around a little bit, and the best part is that you get a slam attack. You drop from the sky like a meteor crashing into enemies below, killing or stunning them. It was so. much. fun. to do. And it actually didn't feel overpowered because in the jetpack segments, they put lots of shooters on roofs and ledges, and used the psykers to fire at you and warp in more enemies and things. Those parts were nice because they ramped up the challenge and gave you the tools to deal with it.
So those were the great things - the feel of being an Ultramarine and the jetpack.
The not-so-great things were greater in number. The first one is sort of pro/con, which was the combat. I realized immediately when looking at my "move list" that all four melee weapons had about 7 or 8 moves (good) but that they were all the same buttons (bad). For example, every weapon you attacked with X and stunned with Y, and combinations included X, XX, XXX, XY, XXY, or XXXY. One weapon had an additional XXXX. Well, it took me about 2 minutes to master melee combat, and the prospect of repeating XXXY for 8 hours wasn't sounding like much fun. Luckily, you gain access to a number of guns as well, and there is a bit more variety there. You get your bolt pistol, your repeaters, plasma guns with charge, sticky bombs, grenades, sniper rifles, and a couple others. Not a huge variety, but the interplay of melee and ranged combat was enjoyable and spiced things up, especially as more and more enemy types were introduced requiring more than just XXXY and bolt pistol. Still, it was a lot of button mashing and lacked the finesse I've come to appreciate from more better combat-oriented games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta.
The game is completely linear. There's nothing optional, no exploration, no secrets, no nothing besides "go here, shoot that, watch this cut scene." It's a shame that the Ultramarines themselves and the Orks and Chaos were so detailed because comparatively the world was utterly devoid of life. Sure, there was an invasion going on, but the environments were dead and gray, there wasn't a lot happening in the background besides the occasional ship flying past, and there were hardly any humans anywhere. The ones that were there (besides the ones fighting) just sat on the ground and didn't move. There were no homes, no one doing anything like they would in daily life. It was just dead and dull and a stark contrast to the color and attention paid to the Ultramarines, Orks and Chaos.
Actually I realized that there is a lot of 'dead space' in the game too. When you play, you will get used to running to your destination and going through A LOT of doors with green lights guiding your way. Almost all of these rooms are plain empty, and by the end of the game I was just running through battles looking for the green light to move on to the next place to find the next green light, through all the empty rooms. Toward the end I was getting a little annoyed because I would find the obvious elevator or doorway or green light, but I would have to kill all the enemies first before my AI companion would announce something like "Over there! An exit!" And I'm like, "Yes, I found that 5 minutes ago and it was open. Why couldn't we go then?" Which brings me to my next point - there is just so much killing. Hordes and hordes you have to slice through, waves and waves of enemies you have to kill before the game will let you move forward. More and more and more little objectives that pop up requiring you to go to some other place before you can do the main thing you set out to do. I get that most of that is necessary for the narrative and to keep things rolling, but man, it got repetitive.
I could have used more boss battles. There were two. The first was alright. The second was really bad. I'll rag on the second one a bit. If, by the end of the game, you hadn't had enough of waves and waves and waves and waves of enemies, prepare to fight four more waves of enemies before getting to fight the final boss. These last waves of enemies suck so much. There is one wave of a bunch of the imp demons, another wave of Chaos soldiers and tough chaos marines, a wave of psykers with more demons and a final wave of imp demons and really really deadly chaos ultramarines. I died so much. I started out with the Thunder Hammer, which I eventually discarded for the Power Axe so that I could use more powerful guns, which I needed to take out the psykers and the chaos ultramarines. The first wave was ok, just kite the demons around killing them slowly. The second wave was alright, just move behind cover and take out the regular soldiers, then the more powerful ones one by one and execute the powerful ones for health. The third wave killed me the most because those psykers' energy ray laser things just burrrn through armor and health if you get caught in the open. Unfortunately though you have to run in the open because of the horde of demons chasing you. I tried a long time and finally figured I needed to take out a psyker ASAP with the laser sniper gun, then thin the demons, then take out the other psyker. The final wave was hard because of those chaos ultramarines, which were beasts. They took forever to kill, and I died a lot because I kept getting stuck in corners, which was the one big problem with the controls. You'd get your bulky self stuck in corners by big enemies and not be able to roll out of the way and you'd die, quite frustrating especially at this last battle.
Waves defeated, you get to take on the final boss, which was a complete letdown and a crappy quick-time event. I am not exaggerating when I say the quick-time event largely involved pressing XXY about 15 times in a row. Why didn't they use other combinations for the quick-time event? "Let's make it more fun and change things up." "Nah, let's just have the player tap XXY 15 times." Also, the on-screen prompts didn't indicate whether you needed to press the button once or tap it repeatedly. That cost me a couple lives, which was irritating. I guess I learned when to tap and when to press by dying, but those prompts should have been clear. And then, the end, which I liked.
And so goes Space Marine. Recommended only for hardcore Warhammer fans or if you really enjoy mashing XXY a lot. It was fun enough, short, ultimately forgettable.
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