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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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Final Fantasy XII (PS2) by CelestialWing |
| Definitely well polished and a good game, just not stellar enough for a five. Maybe, if the story starts kicking more ass again at the end, it will deserve a five - since the gameplay is quite good IMO. |
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most recent entry: Sunday 27 January, 2008
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GAMEPLAY (2)
So, once again starting with the story and characters, the story moves along very nicely and keeps you quite thirsty for more for a good while. This nice pacing and development continues until around the point where you have gotten all your party members permanently...at which time the pace of the story begins to slow exceptionally. This occurs through longer required trekking/battling/exploring segments before the next story development, combined with shorter/less actual events or developments upon reaching the next destination/objective.
The same occurs with the characters, they are each introduced well and given interesting stories and personalities - heightened by the exceptional English voice acting (unfortunately rare, though improving these days) and well-animated movements and mannerisms. Unfortunately, the lack of conversation or interaction with them outside of cutscenes/events begins to hurt their overall memorability a little. Some people may like this lack of text, but it could at least have the optional conversations in town more often. I am still debating to myself whether it would have been better or not to have talk in battles as well. Overall, the slowdown in character and story development in this game, which is completely opposite to the usual increase in most traditional RPGs as one progresses, is what led to my hiatus from the game when something else grabbed my attention. I still want to know what happens at least (meaning the story is still good), it just takes too long to reach the next tidbit.
Luckily, there are other things that keep you interested, if in a different way. Although it means even more time spent before the next story scene (I might forget what's going on here sometimes), one can begin spending lots of time taking on new hunts, exploring optional areas in the ever-widening world, leveling, finding rare items or enemies, customizing their characters with the license board and gambits (both explained below) etc. The game world certainly grows richer with possibilities even as the story slows down. This leads me to the first aspect I wish to discuss in...
DESIGN
I think Square-Enix was trying to make a MMORPG-like experience for a single-person, console game. In this vein, I think they succeeded, especially with the gambit system, which I will discuss later. The expansive, open world full of random chests, rare monsters, and optional discoveries is well-done. Although taste has turned away some who were expecting a traditional RPG from the long line of Final Fantasies, I personally feel the game is a nice change of pace - though I don't want traditional RPGs to die out either. The only part I can criticize is the downgrade of the story pace to molasses-level MMORPG style. Especially with the well-done story objectives system on the map mentioned previously, this was completely unnecessary. You don't have to take EVERYTHING that comes with the territory; especially since it is already lacking the actual social aspect of MMORPGs, it NEEDS character interaction and story development to make up for it. Square-Enix could have taken advantage of both the strengths of the console-style RPG and the strengths of the MMORPG for this single-player RPG to make it brilliant. Instead, it only succeeded in making the MMORPG style of play work in the single-player framework.
This, of course, is an accomplishment in itself however. The main component that makes the MMORPG-style play work with one player is the gambit system, which is a way to "program" your party members on how to react in battle situations. Each "gambit" consists of a condition such as [ally has less than 30% HP] and a reaction to that condition such as [Cure] or [Potion]; these combined would cause that character to cast Cure (or use a Potion) on an ally when that ally is below 30% HP. Then you prioritize which gambits are more important. For example, if you have a healing gambit above an attack enemies gambit, the member will stop fighting to heal the ally; if it's the other way around, the member will fight until all nearby enemies are killed before healing the wounded ally. People complain ridiculously about how the game "plays itself" this way. Well, first of all, who said you had to use them? You can manually input every command if you want. Second of all, you will have to change your gambits for certain enemies and bosses if you want to survive - you cannot rely on them all the time either. Lastly, it adds another aspect of the game to play around with and master; it takes some careful planning to get a great working gambit with the limited slots you have. In my opinion, the gambit system allows you to remove tedious constant commands while keeping you in control of what you want to do manually; it also gives a semi-illusion of having self-acting other party members and being able to give them suggestions over their own actions, thus making the MMORPG feeling more "correct" with a single player.
Okay, I promise this will be shorter. The License Board system is a great way to customize your characters; who cares if it doesn't make sense? When have RPGs made sense? What with levels, every new town having better equipment, monsters dropping money (which this game makes more realistic with selling loot) etc. Remember FF X? With that funky grid and all the spheres? When did that make sense? This is just a new kind of not making sense, so people have to complain about it. Also, yes you can make all the characters the same combat-wise, but you don't HAVE to. People complained about the Sphere Grid being too restrictive in FF X, so Square-Enix made a more customizing friendly "expert" grid in the International Version (these are ironically only in Japan); then when the license grid is perfect for customizing in FF XII, people complain that the characters aren't different enough battle-wise, so the FF XII International Version had a more restrictive system...go figure. The point is, it is great for customizing...take it or leave it. I'll leave the details for the game to explain since my rant was too long already.
Speaking of what the game explains, it does mostly everything in the in-game tutorials except Mist Quickenings...which you must look up in the manual for some reason...and even then is is confusing and takes actual practice to figure out how to do it right. However, overall I advocate reading manuals, and Quickenings aren't all too useful past getting more MP unless you get them early on. That's another nitpick...perhaps because limits and summons were so useful in previous FFs, they have been overly weakened to the point of being almost useless at the later stages of the game. This is due to Quickenings (FF XII version of limits) and summons using massive amounts of MP, which is usually better spent on healing/support since Black (damage) magic has also been weakened in general. This was also changed in the International version, this time to better effect, in my opinion, than the License Board change.
To end on a good note, one can certainly see the game is very well polished. The polygons may be lower than in FF X, but the textures were given the main focus this time by Square-Enix, thus the close-up details in the world and characters are excellent. The game runs smoothly and with a great cinematic quality. Overall, despite some shortcomings, it is still a game to recommend...and worthy of being a Final Fantasy.
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