Blogging the experience of gameplayhttp://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=http://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7029I've really, really been enjoying this. Perhaps what I like the most is the feeling of discovery you get when you figure out/realize some new combo or strategy. It's a bit of a shame you can't always plan/execute them (since a lot of it depends on the cards you get/are offered), but, it definitely scratches the same itch I have with magic. I guess the difference is that in MtG, it seems like everyone else has already figured out all the combos and so I always play against these stacked decks (when online). Here, since it's a single-player game, I guess it's all me all the time. I think I've been able to slay the spire at least once with all the characters - but I haven't unlocked all the cards. So, need to play some more!jpSat, 08 Feb 2020 23:35:25 UTChttp://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7029&iddiary=12496http://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7021So, I finished it. And uh... it gets more interesting, but not substantially so. I think it's mostly a matter of taste for me - the game is "fine", I just wasn't that interested or intrigued by the story and characters. Yes, it was interesting to learn more about the world's backstory and such...and yes, it was interesting to know more about the characters and see their relationships evolve. But, I guess I'm not that drawn to soap operas?jpSat, 08 Feb 2020 18:33:09 UTChttp://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7021&iddiary=12495http://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7025The longer I play, the less I like the protagonist - mostly because he's acts all righteous but then (when I control him) he does terrible things. Actually, he does terrible things in the cut-scenes as well. Still, I have enjoyed the game immensely, but I've decided I won't finish the campaign. I'm 2/3 through the 2nd act and I've realized I don't like the shooty bits THAT much - mostly because I often die because I'm stuck "crouching/in cover" and can't run/move to another place fast enough. I'm blaming myself for that for the most part - it's a way to do combat that emphasizes patience and stealth (I think?) and...I sometimes don't have that much patience. I think what I've enjoyed and appreciated the most about the game is: a. How large and interesting so much of the world is - there's all kinds of little details in the things you intercept as well as the places you can go. Having lived in Chicago is a real treat - since you recognize places and also recognize the differences. And then, a lot of the fun really comes from trying to figure out what certain places are meant to be - if anything. Sure, I lived in Chicago - but I'm no expert on the city...so there's lots of doubt in my mind about what some of the places really are. I guess this is why I decided to get the "visit all the special locations" trophy. b. The hacking was fun and I enjoyed it as an alternative to busting in to places guns blazing and all that. c. While I had a hard time shaking cops when I got into trouble, in some of the later missions I really enjoyed being able to "hack" stuff in the street to help me get away and so on. It felt pretty cool. d. I also did all the "Privacy Invasion" missions - those were REALLY interesting. Not so much the doing them, but watching all those little vignettes of life. In my view, it's one of the best things about the game - especially in the sense of them (often) being a place for social commentary on the challenges of daily life. They're kind of all over the place and some of them are REALLY serious, touching, moving, thoughtful, and thought provoking. There's one that still sticks with me..it's basically an empty house, and you see a body on the floor and the phone you hack has a message from someone the owner's son talking about how he wants to see him, he's not a bother, etc. The homeowner, an older man, is dead. Did he kill himself? Have a heart attack? So many questions! ...and so many privacy invasions were like this.jpSat, 08 Feb 2020 16:10:43 UTChttp://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7025&iddiary=12494http://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7028Whoa, new Assassin's Creed! It's been a few years. I thoroughly enjoyed Black Flag (4), the last one I played. I miss my crew and the sea shanties and firing cannonballs at other ships. But my how the series has changed. My, how it looks and feels more like The Witcher 3 and Soulsborne games! Someone's aping trends. What's Witcher about it? Well, it's got the old Ubisoft map bloat with a million icons on it, but I notice question marks all over the place now. These points of interest encourage exploration, and when you arrive you will find a beast den, a stargazing area, a guarded fort, a treasure hunt, and so on, with little objectives (kill this, steal that) to complete for a small amount of XP and some treasure. Cool, but already those question marks feel like bloat. I remember the question marks in The Witcher revealing lots of really cool things, possibly because of the fantasy setting you never knew what kind of awesome thing you'd discover. Here, trekking across the map to shoot a ram with a bow-and-arrow just doesn't seem as appealing. My favorite are the constellation ones where you get some mythology and play with stars. I've pretty much started ignoring the question marks though. There are also more refined skill trees, and the gadgets tree feels very much like the Witcher's potions tree. Side quests are more fleshed out, which is certainly an improvement over previous AC games. What's Soulsborne about it? After just finishing Bloodborne, I was surprised that the controls and combat were so similar, as AC's combat before felt unique (even though it could sometimes be frustrating). R3 locks on to enemies, just like Soulsbornes. R1 is light attack, R2 is heavy attack, hold R2 for charged heavy attack. Press circle to dodge. I suspect that some later fights may be more challenging like in Bloodborne. So far, I'm kind of shocked at how much melee combat there is (this was always a weak point in AC games), though I did just get the hidden blade, so more stealth and assassinating is in my future. I'm certainly enjoying the game. Egypt is stunning, and thanks to my new PS4 Pro, I am playing a game for the first time in 4K. I see a future where I just walk around in a video game to marvel at the environments to relax after work. Sometimes when I climb up to a view point, I'll sit up there for 5 minutes just looking out over the landscape below. I mean, it's utterly beautiful. I would love to watch an Egyptologist play the game. I'm sure there's a YouTube video for that with a clickbait title. My only real gripe is the intrusion of Ubisoft into what I wish was a single-player experience. I mean, thanks for the amazing recreation of ancient Egypt, but would you just let me enjoy it in peace? The game constantly reminds me to check out the store, it forces other players' screenshots onto my minimap which clutters it even further, and it thinks I give a shit about avenging VapeMan69's death at the hands of a hyena. Look, I don't know VapeMan69 and I don't care what he was doing or why he was killed by a hyena, but can you kindly STOP CLUTTERING THE MINIMAP UBISOFT or give me more refined filters please and thank you. I look forward to playing more and continuing with the story, which has me oddly intrigued as far as AC goes (even the Abstergo part is neat!). I look forward to uncomfortably watching Bayek and Aya make out and have sex in weird places, and I'm already sad because there's no way they would show this much making out and steamy romance if they weren't going to kill Aya. Bayek has already lost his son and he lost is ring finger (symbolic for severing of the marriage??) and he's going to need some more motivation to keep assassinating for 30 more hours. WHAT IF the twist is that Bayek gets killed and you switch to playing as Aya?! That would be awesome. dkirschnerWed, 05 Feb 2020 08:10:45 UTChttp://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7028&iddiary=12493http://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7019I actually beat this. I can't believe it. Take that, FromSoftware. Bloodborne is definitely one of the most difficult games I've ever played and one that punishes you harshly for mistakes. I learned patience, lots of patience. Here are some other things I learned that I didn't mention (or had incomplete knowledge of) in my other post: 1. If you find a good route of enemies that give lots of blood echoes (especially after you get runes that increase blood echoes), just plow through that route a handful of times and boost your level. I found a great run near the end that also supplies health potions, and I thought, "Great! I can farm health potions here if I need to!" And I did that run probably 5 or 6 times because there was a sad, weeping mother with blood on her white dress in a boss-ish looking area who I didn't want to go near. I was getting over 2 levels worth of blood echoes for that run, so I just kept doing it. 2. You might have to farm blood echoes later in the game. It's okay, very easy to do. Go back to Central Yharnam and crush all the enemies around there. You'll rack up 20+ potions and it takes like 5-10 minutes. I did it like 5 times while I was on the phone with my mom and never had to do it again. 3. If you think you might be coming up on a boss (big, open arena? check. big, double doors that you have to push open? check), don't be afraid to go back to the Dream and spend your blood echoes. It'll be relatively easy to get back to the boss and you won't lose all your experience. 4. Tired of running out of health potions on bosses? Don't use them until you can knock a chunk of the boss's life off without using one. Learn its moves. Then when you're smarter and more confident, commit to using potions and finishing the rest of the battle. 5. Learn how to do a visceral attack. I didn't know this existed until I got a run that enhanced my visceral attack. The game doesn't teach you so...I don't know how you're supposed to know. I looked it up when I saw that rune. You can do some major damage and get some rune effects. 6. Don't be afraid to use help from the summoning portal things. You can use insight to summon another hunter (NPC offline, human online). You can use the bell to summon players any time I think. I never did this. But I gather that you have to be careful because they might kill you. 7. Stat scaling on weapons is useful to pay attention to and can determine how you can best level up. I realized at some point that the sword I was favoring scaled with skill and I should quit putting points into strength. 8. Frenzy is a pain in the ass. I didn't understand how this worked until very, very late in the game in the Nightmare of Mensis. I didn't understand until then because every time I got frenzied until then I died. My resistance was super low or I just didn't get it or something. Again, no explanation for this in-game! 9. The special altars or whatever they are called are unnecessary. I went into one toward the end of the game just to see what it was. Looks like randomized or procedurally generated dungeons crawling. Probably special items in there or something. Extra content for those who love the combat I suppose. 10. Before the last boss, which has that great experience and potion run I mentioned earlier, if you don't plan on New Game Plus or anything, just sell all your shit that you don't use and level up as much as possible. I squeezed like 5 levels out of selling things and using the rest of those blood gems. I think in doing that run 5 or 6 times and selling everything, I gained about 20 levels. Perhaps that's why the last boss only took 5 or so tries. 11. The story is...hard to parse. It's told sparingly, largely through environmental means. You have to work to piece it together. I read wikis. That's gotta be about it. I don't think I'm going to go back and play the Souls games, but I will look forward to Sekiro when the price drops. There's no way I can play too many of these kinds of games. My nerves.dkirschnerFri, 31 Jan 2020 22:24:46 UTChttp://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7019&iddiary=12492http://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7027During this part of playing. I found the game discusses most of the controversial topics in the world we live in, including ideological struggles, class confrontations, sexual ridicule, and racial discrimination topics, etc. they are all discussed thoroughly in the game. of course, the game There is no choice of side on any topic, everything is the player's own choice. as for the gaming part. I found very interesting that the developer considers emotion as a skill. for example, empathy is a skill in the game which you can level and if you level it up enough, you will unlock extra conversation.OliverqinhaoThu, 23 Jan 2020 00:59:02 UTChttp://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7027&iddiary=12491http://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7027Disco Elysium is a video game similar to a TRPG. The gameplay has a strong sense of drama. Its core advancement method is similar to the puzzle design of "Divinity: Original Sin II". It requires the player to dismantle a complete plot, without guiding, and let players collect and splice by themselves. The protagonist in Disco Elysium has a negative attitude towards his past. He feels dazed and apprehensive about the past. He asks himself: who am I. and he wants to escape from himself. the text is elegant and charming to read. The description of spirit and emotion is far more complicated than any game I have ever played. And that is all I feel for the first 30 minutes playing. I feel I can learn more from this game in the following playingOliverqinhaoWed, 22 Jan 2020 00:47:06 UTChttp://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7027&iddiary=12490http://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7025I've been enjoying this so far - the hacking part is neat and I like being able to take over cameras and follow "links" of things to open doors and whatnot. This game REALLY feels like it's trying to be GTA, with the driving and all the rest which I've found quite surprising. There's a whole system for getting new cars, upgrading driving-related skills/perks, and everytime you steal a car it gets added to the ones you can "rent" (if you hadn't found that model before). So far, the only REALLY jarring part of the experience for me is the disconnect between the idea that you can do good deeds for a positive reputation BUT that those deeds are often shown on-screen as really brutal physical takedowns. So, a dude robs a person, I chase them down and then I literally slam them against the pavement (passersby even freak out), but I'm good? I guess it's like I'm Batman. Ha!jpFri, 10 Jan 2020 18:00:22 UTChttp://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7025&iddiary=12489http://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7024I started playing this and I got really nauseous. I took a break, and it was still pretty bad. I'm not sure how far I got along but it was definitely the walking that got me - I want to say that the movement/navigation controls are awful mostly because I had a hard time being able to point in the direction I wanted to go. Ugh. I kind of want to say that the game has tank controls, but in VR...and it made me feel really sick.jpFri, 10 Jan 2020 17:53:27 UTChttp://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7024&iddiary=12488http://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7026It's short, it's fun enough. But it's also REALLY crass! (in ways I found slightly embarrassing). I think what I appreciated the most about it was: a. It really encourages exploring/messing around in the same way that Job Simulator does, but since there (usually) are no explicitly stated goals, you really are just messing around rather than trying to solve a problem. b. It really rewards just listening. So, that's not really interactive, and on successive playthroughs it did get a bit tiring, but there's SO MUCH DIALOGUE that I was quite surprised. c. There are LOTS and LOTS of secret areas/endings you can explore. I don't know if I found/got to them all, but it was neat to see some clues and then pull threads on them and being rewarded with secret levels that aren't in the critical path to get to the game's ending. They also start to get increasingly wacky/crazy and meta too, which was fun. On the downside, the controls are really quite wonky which is fine for MOST things except there's some stuff that requires a certain amount of precision (throwing, it's throwing) and I just found these parts annoying - mostly the trophy chasing associated with it, but still. Still, it's so crass! (I'll admit I thought the scene with the gang was pretty funny though...especially when you pick up the brick)jpFri, 10 Jan 2020 17:48:44 UTChttp://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7026&iddiary=12487