 |
|
Please, Don't Touch Anything! (PC) by jp (Sep 20th, 2026 at 13:12:20) |
It's weird for me to think/write that the most important "contribution" this game has had for me is how useful/intriguing it's been to show students in experimental games class. The game is strange and quirky and funny and genuinely interesting as a puzzle box style game, especially once you've peeled back a few of its layers and understand how the game's support to work.
Over the years fewer students have heard of it, or played it, which is both good and bad. Good means there's more room for it to be genuinely surprising to them, bad means it's also increasingly more "strange" - I've found that students have a lot less to go on with this game since it is so exploratory in the beginning. Hmm. it would have also made a good addition to the "thinky games" cycle when we did the game design seminar...
Now that I'm at a new place with a new group of students, I wonder how it would go with them?
It's been a while since I've played it - and I don't recall which endings I got or anything like that, but it seems like I did make decent progress since I've only got 5 locked achievements. One if for every ending, the other for ending 25 without unnecesary buttons being pressed. 3 are hidden.
read all entries for this GameLog 
- add a comment 
|
|
Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth (NSW) by jp (Sep 20th, 2026 at 12:41:02) |
I'd been playing until I got stuck on a fight - it's a two-parter boss against a soldier guy. The second part is against a sort of zombie/ghoul version of this soldier guy who spews green venom and turns into toxic clouds.
After scouring the map for missing things - found a few new upgrades (not interesting ones at this point) and filled in the map a bit more which was nice - I finally realized that I could buy more than one health potion (up to 10!) and I've come to better appreciate how the magic select menu works. So, I devised a new strategy for the boss fight. I'd get to the 2nd phase and swap out the spell with healing potions and try to use those to stay alive. And it worked! I was down to 3 or so...but still.
Yay!
I'm now in Stage 6. I think this might be the last chapter?
So, I kept on moving through new areas...and went back to older areas too - found a few secret areas as well (null space on the map)...and then I hit what I hope does NOT become a new wall.
Maybe this is the end/last battle? It's basically been - so far - a gauntlet of all the bosses (I think all?) in the game. And, while I don't think they've been scaled in difficulty (meaning some are way easier than when I fought them originally), it is quite tiring.. I did quite well until I got to the boss fight I'd just been stuck on earlier. My hands were cramping up and I just...couldn't.
Thankfully after I forget which boss there are items between them to heal up and such...but still. I think I lost this one from nerves and cramps more than difficulty? Though, I dread to see what happens AFTER this one. Will there be another boss? Sigh. I hope not.
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
The Silver Case (PS4) by jp (Sep 20th, 2026 at 12:26:42) |
As I was installing the game I wondered why I had picked it up in the first place. So, I flip the case over and read the back - nothing really stands out until I look down and see "Grasshopper Manufacture".
Ah. Ok.
Grasshopper's oeuvre is interesting in that it's always weird, and strange, and they somehow manage to stay in business which makes it also surprising to me. I think the last game of theirs that I played was "Sun Flower..something..something". A strange DS game that was strange and creepy and I don't think I ever finished. I won't open a separate tab to check my gamelog for that one...but whoever reads this might want to.
Anyways. The game has a really striking visual style - and it's really "noisy" i the visual UI sense. Lots of text coming on, and pictures of the characters in different places on the screen (not always the same place), and words that sort of float around in the background...and little animated effects. It's all very busy, attention grabbing, and just - to me - visually noisy in a way that made me less interested.
Apparently the version I have is a remaster of an older one, so I wonder if the low-res poly graphics (e.g. car driving down an embankment at night) and such are kept in smaller windows because it wouldn't look good today and all the rest of the decorative screen stuff is what's been updated?
Anyways. There was lots of reading. Watching stuff, more reading and very little gameplay...and when the gameplay started it was "fine" (moving around a 3D environment in first-person view, but grid-based, like the old CRPGs Bard's Tale or the dungeons in Ultima and Wizardry). It didn't feel interesting - story least of all - so I finished the first chapter and called it quits.
I just bounced off the writing, the story/context seemed strange but not intriguing...so, time to move on.
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
Pokémon TCG Pocket (iPd) by jp (Sep 17th, 2026 at 20:24:16) |
Hmm, still "playing" though I would very often forget to "check in" when I first arrived in Rochester. So, for a hot minute, I though I might have been done with it.
The other night I played the card game - demo at a store - and was surprised to learn that the card game is basically a super set of this game. I guess I didn't have a real conception of the difference between them - I thought that the cards were all the same, but they're not! This actually made me a bit less interested in this game, since it really is a watered down version of the regular card game.
I do think it's an interesting approach that I don't know of other examples? Because it really does seem like a subset rather than a "new" or "different" or "variant" version. I wonder if someone's looked closely at them?
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes (PC) by jp (Sep 17th, 2026 at 20:19:59) |
I feel bad that I didn't keep on playing this one. At this point all of my handwritten notes and reminders and things I'd figured out are long gone...and this doesn't seem like the kind of game you can just pop back into. I think there's too many things going on. So, I'm just going to call it my loss and close out the game log...
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
|
|
|
GameLog hopes to be a site where gamers such as yourself keep track of the games that
they are currently playing. A GameLog is basically a record of a game you started playing. If it's open,
you still consider yourself to be playing the game. If it's closed, you finished playing the game. (it doesn't matter
if you got bored, frustrated,etc.) You can also attach short comments to each of your games or even maintain a diary (with more detailed entries)
for that game. Call it a weblog of game playing activity if you will.
[latest site fixes and updates]
[read more]
|
view feed xml
|
 |
|
2323 registered gamers and 3384 games. 7923 GameLogs with 13434 journal entries. 5112 games are currently being played.
More stats
|
 |
|
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core (PS2) by brigandier121 |
| One of my favorite fighting games |
|
most recent entry: Sunday 26 April, 2009
|
Overview:
Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core is a fighting game for PS2 released in 2006. It is the third update to the original Guilty Gear XX released in 2002. The Guilty Gear series of fighting games is known in fighting game circles for its unique character design and its advanced fighting system.
Story:
Unlike most fighting games, the Guilty gear series has a very expansive story. Unfortunately, none of that story is present in Guilty Gear XX: Accent core. The game takes place in the distant future, after mankind has fought a war against bio-organic weapons called Gears.
Character Design:
One thing that makes Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core stand out among other fighting games is its character design. Guilty gear has some of the most unique characters and fighting styles seen in a fighting game. The character Zappa is a man possessed by ghosts. He stands bent over backwards and summons ghosts to help him in battle. Venom fights by summoning pool balls and launching them towards the opponent with his pool cue. A.B.A is a girl who fights with a giant key, and consumes her own blood to make the key more powerful. The characters in Guilty Gear also reference many different hard rock and heavy metal bands. Sol-Badguy, the main character, is a walking Queen reference. (Queen is apparently the creator’s favorite band) Sol wears a headband that has “Rock You” written on it. His real name is Frederick, which is a reference to the lead singer of Queen, Freddie Mercury. Ky has a move called “Ride the Lightning” which is a Metallica album. Ky also has a move called “Rising Force” which is named after a Yngwie Malmsteen album. Testament and Slayer are named after bands bearing those names. Testament has a move called “Warrant” which is named after a band and a move called “Master of Puppets” which is a Metallica album.
Game play:
Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core like the other games in the series, is a fast paced 2D fighting game with an emphasis on chain combos. There are five attack buttons: punch, kick, slash, heavy slash and dust. You have the ability to dash forward or backward in mid-air and double jump. As you fight, the tension meter will gradually fill. Players can use half the tension bar to perform a super. The tension bar can also be used to perform a Roman Cancel. A Roman Cancel allows a player to quickly end the animation of an attack before it finishes normally. You can use Roman cancels to keep from getting hit after a big move or cancel a move to continue a combo. Players can also perform a False Roman Cancel by performing a Roman Cancel at the right moment. Normal Roman Cancels cost half of the tension bar, but False Roman Cancels only cost a quarter of the tension bar. If you are caught in a combo, you can perform a Burst to knock the enemy away and end their combo. You can also use a Burst while not being attacked to completely fill your tension bar. The Burst gauge is full when a match starts and fills as you take damage during a fight. The dust button can be used to sweep an opponent or launch them into the air to perform an air combo. If you want to end a round quickly, you can perform an Instant Kill. Be warned. If you miss with an Instant Kill, you lose your tension bar for the rest of the round. Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core adds Force Break attacks to the mix. Force breaks are powered up versions of special moves that cost a quarter of the tension bar.
Modes of Play:
There are five modes of play available in Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core: Arcade, Survival M.O.M, V.S. and Practice. Arcade, V.S., and Practice are the same in Guilty Gear as they would be in any other fighting game. Survival, however, is much different. Instead of fighting enemies until you run out of health, you instead fight enemies and gain levels as you land attacks on them. When you have gone up 20 levels, you fight a daredevil. The daredevil will be a completely black, EX version of a character with infinite tension. (EX characters have slightly different movesets than their normal counterparts.) If you can defeat the daredevil, you will unlock the EX version of that character. M.O.M mode is truly the odd one of the bunch. In M.O.M mode or Master of Medals mode, different sized medals will fly out of your opponent as you attack them. You must collect these medals to get a high score. As you land more hits on the enemy, medals worth more points will appear.
First Session:
For my first session, I selected survival mode. I chose to play with Ky, my favorite character. I worked my way through survival, defeating enemies without too much trouble until I reached survival level 140. At level 140, you face daredevil Ky, who seems to despise my very existence. I had an epic battle with Ky that involved trading supers, air combos, and even Roman Cancels (not me of course). In the end, I lost. It was a close match though.
Second Session:
For my next session, I selected survival mode again. This time, I chose Testament who is probably my second favorite character. This time playing through survival wasn’t as smooth. I had some problems fighting daredevil Chipp at level 40. Chipp is one of the fastest characters in the game, and Testament is one of the slower characters. It was hard for me to hit him because he was all over the screen. I defeated him and continued on. From then on, it was smooth sailing until level 140 when I fought daredevil Ky again. This time, I didn’t put up such a good fight. He completely decimated me.
Overall, I think that Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core is a great fighting game and one of my personal favorites. Even if you’re only a casual fighting game player, you will find enjoyment in this game.
[read this GameLog]
|
|
|
