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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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2157 registered gamers and 3105 games. 7607 GameLogs with 13096 journal entries. 5074 games are currently being played.
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Call of Duty 3 (360) by ETA |
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most recent entry: Saturday 9 February, 2008
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ENTRY #2
GAMEPLAY:
After another hour of gameplay I have just remembered something I probably should have recalled before I started to play this game: I don’t like WWII games. I don’t like the guns, I don’t like the atmosphere, I generally don’t like the stories, and in general I don’t like much about them (which is not to say I haven’t like a few like “Brother’s in Arms” for example). Unfortunately, CoD3 is no exception to this rule. The underpowered “authentic” weapons do not make for an enjoyable experience and the war-torn fields, barns, churches, and battered European cities of WWII games make for pretty uninteresting level design to me. CoD3 features all of these and doesn’t pull them off particularly good or particularly bad. It falls right in the sweet spot of average.
At least the action has picked up in the second hour of playing, but not to the point where I feel this game is a must play. The wide-open areas of the game are now a little more focused and I feel like I have a little more control over what is happening in these sections of the game, but not to the point that I like in my FPS games. These areas of the game still suffer from some major drawbacks, which is a shame because these could (and should) be the best and most tension filled parts of the game.
I find the fact that my squad is pretty much oblivious to my actions to be pretty annoying. They just go about their business (shooting whoever is within range) like I am not there. In most cases I can just hang out in the back of the lines, wait for most of the area to be cleared then finish up the battle and move forward so the game can be advanced (since your squad usually requires you to make the first move forward in order to progress…which is odd since they pay no attention to you otherwise). There are also very few ways to approach these wide-open levels. The game doesn’t reward you or make it appealing to flank for example, so you are pretty much forced to play these big, wide open areas in a pretty linear and predetermined fashion.
When you aren’t in an all out fire fight, you are pretty much back to the same old same old follow the clearly marked trench/road/corridor/river to your next wave of enemies or objective. Its not particularly bad, but certainly not that original or interesting enough to keep me coming back to this game for more. In fact, nothing in this game really makes me want to “come back for more”. The rewards system in the game seems to need to get a serious kick in the butt. Like I said above, in most cases you are not reward (and usually punished with a quick death) for trying to do anything outside of follows the linear path to your goal. You there isn’t any health or much concern out ammo I’ve encountered so far so no rewards there, there is no real power-ups or specials to speak of, I don’t get anything “cool” (like nice dramatic explosions for a well placed grenade) so there isn’t much glory to be had for me either. Overall, the lack of rewards and linear gameplay put a damper on things for me.
If I recall correctly this game was pretty well received when it came out. I’m not sure if it is a case of a game that didn’t stand the test of time or if people were just desperate for a next-gen FPS, but I definitely don’t see what is so special about it.
DESIGN:
Despite its more or less lack luster gameplay and fun factor, CoD3 does have some very nice design elements. The most obvious one (and the one that has the most effect on gameplay) is the fact that you have to aim down the irons of your gun to get an accurate shot rather than just point with the cross hairs. This minor, but very important, design choice really adds a level of skill and complexity to an otherwise standard affair game. It’s a limiting factor, in that your view is pretty obstructed (except for what is in your irons) and your movement is more limited, but it adds a layer of skill and an element of emersion to the game (making the player that much more connected with their faceless in-game counter part).
Another nice design touch is the role that your AI controlled squad mates play in the game. Aside from adding to the tone of the game they serve multiple functions that would normally require a HUD or other element that would separate the player from the game world by one more degree. Yes, there is a mini-map and a way to check your objectives from the menu, but there isn’t much need for either of these as your squad mates provide most of the in game hints and objectives you need. Squad mates will issues orders, give you hints (like shouting “use the tank for cover!” at the beginning of level where you will be torn to pieces if you don’t), lead you to your next objective (either by taking point or calling for you assistance), and generally act as your in game tutorial when needed.
As mentioned above, the level design is pretty linear. This did make the game less enjoyable for me, but from a design point of view there are impressive. The world feels and looks big, but you never really feel lost or disoriented. Always knowing (or at least having a good idea) of what you are suppose to do next in a level is always a plus when it comes to level design in my book.
Unfortunately where the game falls down is on the challenge and rewards design aspects (as mentioned above). I, as a player, feel so disconnected from the action at some points in the game that most of the meaningful play, and thus challenge, are sucked right out of the game. The fact that I rarely feel rewarded for my efforts (I don’t consider progressing the game and getting pretty “ho-hum” cut-scenes much of a reward) pretty much killed the fun for me. The rewards (and cool parts of the game) are spread too thin and don’t work hard enough to keep my attention. And all the other good points in the design cannot make up for this huge flaw.
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