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Mewgenics (PC) by jp (Oct 17th, 2026 at 16:52:57) |
I've been enjoying this a lot more than I expected. It's crass and adolescent in ways I no longer find funny or even charming or endearing - but the game's design is really interesting to me. So, I've just been ignoring the representational aspects to focus on gameplay.
So, it's a turn-based tactical rogue-like game. You have a squad of max 4 cats and must fight enemies while staying healthy and alive during a "run" - basically a series of fights with some treasure and shopping and "narrative" encounters. So far I've been unlocking new locations that let you go "deeper" (it also branches) and I'm curious how "deep" (i.e. long) each run can get. It's getting longer such that I cannot play a run over lunch break any more - having to save, stop, and resume the next day.
But...here's some fun/clever game design:
1. The cats are random in their stats and so on - BUT the game layers "classes" on top of that, that really help you shape what your team can do. The classes are basically "tags" (like dog tabs, but for cats) than mod the cat - give them random within-class abilities, and off you go. I was worried that the game would be too random, but here you can adapt the roles to the cats you have and try to have a well-balanced team for the runs. I've unlocked two new classes so far (it's vanilla fantasy in this sense: fighter, mage, archer,etc.): the cleric and the thief. I'd be surprised if there aren't a ton more. We'll see.
2. Once you finish a run. That's it for those cats. You've levelled them up and so on, but they can never venture out again. Sure, you can have them stick around for breeding (I can't tell if levelled up cats with good stats because they've levelled up have kittens with higher stats)...but that's it. So, you can't stick to a team - it really forces you to experiment with new cats (with different skills, etc. - while still giving you some control, see above).
3. There's durability on all the gear you find. Again, you can use stuff a few times before it breaks/runs out - but mostly you'll be using new things and such. Again, encourages experimentation. I don't think I've seen a duplicate item yet?
Things I'm not so sure about...
1. There's base building, but it seems REALLY slow and grindy. Mostly it involves donating cats to NPS, but the 2nd round of donations all need at least 10 cats...which seems like a lot to me.
2. You also have to provide for "happiness" in your base - happier cats breed more often, unhappy ones get into fights - and they can (and do) kill each other! (winner gets a buff - but if it's a veteran, the buff doesn't matter? or maybe it does for breeding)
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Sid Meier's Civilization VI (PC) by dkirschner (Oct 16th, 2026 at 14:13:25) |
Eh. I played for a couple hours and was bored. I know this is one you have to sink time into to learn and thoroughly enjoy. But I'd just rather not, now that I see just how expansive it is. I did enjoy the option to be Teddy Roosevelt, after whom I named my cat. Bully! I got this in a massive Civ Humble Bundle a while back and gave most of the expansion pass keys away. Should have given it all away! On to the next thing!
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Fallout 4 (PS4) by jp (Oct 13th, 2026 at 10:30:59) |
For some daft reason I was sure I had played this - a bit - way back when I was at DePaul on an Xbox 360. I remember starting inside a vault, designing my character, leaving the vault, and then wandering around in the wasteland for a bit. I was also confused by the VATS system, which I thought was cool - but I had trouble with the UI/understanding the controls. And then, I didn't play again...
...and now I realize, having played the beginning of THIS game, that I was confusing it with Fallout 3! Wow. I've never played Fallout 4 prior to a few days ago..which seems kind of wild to me.
I've been having fun so far, and I'm learning how to work the UI - I have to stop myself with the VATS since I often, by mistake, switch between enemies instead of between locations on an enemy. But, think I'm starting to get the handle of it. It's a neat system and I just learned (realized) that you can lock in several shots in a row, which is nice.
I did struggle with the "base building" because it took me a while to realize that when building stuff at the workbench you have to WALK AROUND to place the things - I was just frustrated that I had all the items, but the "x" (to buy/place) was disabled.
I hope to play more over the coming days...having sort-of-recently seen the show, I feel like I'm ready to dive into Fallout more than I have in the past.
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Drop Duchy (PC) by dkirschner (Oct 12th, 2026 at 18:12:59) |
This really grew on me. It's a clever blend of Tetris, a city builder, and a roguelite. There's no story to speak of, so I can just explain how the game works. You choose a faction, say, The Duchy (there are only three aside from DLC). You have a few starting cards. At first, cards are either production buildings or military buildings. Production buildings generate resources (you start with the basics: food, lumber, gold), while military buildings generate troops (archers, axemen, swordsmen). You'll start on a standard roguelite map, the Slay-the-Spire-type three-lane path, and choose to move along it from encounter to encounter. You'll land on resources, peaceful regions, or battles at first (more types get unlocked).
Here's how battles work. You're on a Tetris grid. Tetris pieces appear, just like that game, and you rotate and place them, just like that game. Except the pieces are different types of terrain (say, forest, plains, and rivers). And your production and military buildings are also Tetris pieces that appear. And your enemy's military buildings are also in the deck of Tetris pieces. Buildings have various conditions and results. For example, the Farm (production building) turns nearby plains into fields and generates food. The Watchtower (military building) gives an archer for each plain in range and three archers for each field in range. You already see the synergy between these two buildings! When you complete a row, it is considered "explored", and you get resources for every terrain tile in the row (food for fields, lumber for trees, etc.). The row doesn't disappear (as in Tetris), so you have a limited amount of space to place the blocks in the deck before the round ends. If you explore multiple rows at once, you get bonus resources. So, every match is a game of managing terrain, production, and military buildings to generate resources AND to limit your opponent from generating soldiers. That is, when their Watchtower piece comes up, you want to place it next to some woods or some rocks, definitely not smack in the middle of a bunch of fields, where yours hopefully is.
You are always trying to minimize the army the enemy can raise because at the end of the round, you fight. Battles are a rock-paper-scissors affair between archers, axemen, and swordsmen. You basically move groups of units into other groups of units which stacks groups and sends them into battle. This is kind of hard to explain, but the game provides clear rules for how it works based on the size and type of groups that you're moving around, and the order in which battle happens. Just know that you want to be on the winning end of those rock-paper-scissors battles and you want to really, really think through the order in which you group your troops. One miscalculation can ruin the whole fight and lose the game.
When you complete an encounter, you choose a new card, and are thus always growing your deck. You use the resources harvested during rounds to upgrade cards. So, at the larger deck-building level, you're looking for synergies between cards, building a deck with some sort of theme, and balancing production and military. Not enough production and you can't upgrade stuff. Not enough military and you can't win battles. In my last game, my first full win, I actually had the fewest buildings I'd ever had. I'd unlocked "technology" cards, which are passive (e.g., every time you explore a field, gain 4 additional food; or, all military building upgrades are 20% cheaper; etc.). I was able to synergize really well and build a deck focused on fields. Fields all the way! I turned woods to plains, plains to fields, got food bonuses for fields, had buildings that created plains and fields when placed, military buildings with bonuses for fields, etc. I pretty much annihilated Act 3 and the last boss.
Speaking of bosses, I had no idea how they would do this. I thought bosses would just be like regular battles but with buffed cards, or maybe with more cards. But no! Boss battles fundamentally alter the grid in some way, alter your typical strategies, etc. For example, the last boss (who had killed me once before) requires "bribes," or else it'll throw you military buildings to deal with. To bribe it, you have to generate x resources over y turns and keep it up throughout the match. Every time you don't meet the bribe amount, the enemy sends a military building. And, every time you place a piece, there are squares on the grid that will automatically generate enemy troops if you place a piece there, and the squares change every piece, so you're constantly working around restrictions on the grid too. The first time I fought this boss, I got overwhelmed and lost. This time, the boss didn't send a single military building and I beat it by almost 100 troops, which is a lot.
This was inevitable, I think, because there are a ton of upgrades in the meta-progression. Tons of new cards, even new mechanics. For example, you can unlock religious buildings and the "faith" mechanic, unlock mercenaries, unlock the "constellation" mechanic (which lets you manipulate a piece every 10 or so pieces, depending), you can unlock technology cards, "noble" cards, and so on. You also upgrade your starting decks and resources with each faction as you play them. I am really tempted to win with each faction before setting the game aside, but I have so much other stuff to play. I'll keep it installed and probably come back in the future!
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Beacon Pines (PC) by dkirschner (Oct 9th, 2026 at 11:18:41) |
Cute little narrative game with a good, darker-than-expected story. The art style is excellent (I love the different ways that tears come out of the characters’ eyes) and the sound and music perfectly complement the setting and story. You play as Luka, a kid in Beacon Pines who discovers that some strange things are happening, and all the adults, including his grandmother, seem to be involved. Hmm…! Pal up with some friends to uncover the town’s secrets.
It features a mechanic where the narrative branches based on words that you discover (e.g., shame, fight, flight, chill, etc.). In certain situations (“turning points”), you can select from some words to use, which will change the course of the story. This was intriguing, but wasn’t used to its full potential. The game’s description oversells the impact of turning points. If you use the “wrong” word, you get a “the end” shortly thereafter. The game’s description says that using different words DRASTICALLY CHANGES EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWS and that you’ll jump back and forth between ENTIRELY DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THE STORY! Not really. At a “the end” screen, you go back to the turning point (through a menu) and choose a different word. You’ll either get another ending in a second, or it’ll be the “correct” word that continues the story. There are some actual branches, but interestingly, the game still proceeds linearly. For example, you have to go down branch A to get to branch B to get back to branch A. In other words, there is only one way through the story. Oddly, there are some words that are never used. You can’t just choose any word in your stock during turning points; only specific ones are available, which narrows the potential of this mechanic further.
This mechanic reminded me a bit of Great God Grove, which is another “word game”, wherein you use phrases spoken by NPCs to solve dialogue puzzles. Instead of using whole phrases or sentences, here you just occasionally are prompted to use a word to complete a storybook narration, which determines what a character does and therefore what happens. Great God Grove also felt limiting. I suppose that is because language is near limitless, and that makes for tough narrative design.
Despite its simplicity, I thoroughly enjoyed playing through the mystery of Beacon Pines. I wonder if they’ll make a sequel. I’d be interested to see what Luka and his friends get up to next!
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2323 registered gamers and 3390 games. 7930 GameLogs with 13442 journal entries. 5112 games are currently being played.
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Defcon (PC) by dkirschner |
| Neat little game about mutually assured destruction |
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most recent entry: Friday 2 October, 2015
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Neat little game about mutually assured destruction. Your goal is essentially to kill more of your enemies citizens than they kill of yours. Morbid. Its pretty simple. You choose a piece of land (North America, South America, South Asia, etc.), place radars (for detecting planes and such), missile silos (for air defense and launching nukes), air bases (for launching fighters [for scouting and air-to-air combat] and bombers [for nuking]), and naval fleets (comprised of aircraft carriers, battleships, and submarines).
The game starts at Defcon 5 and as the timer ticks away, the game moves into Defcon 4, then 3, then 2, and 1. Different things can happen at different Defcon levels, though really its just 3 and 1. At 3, you can launch planes and stuff, and at 1, you can launch nukes. So you need to scout as best you can before Defcon 1 to locate enemy missile silos and cities. You also need to scour the water for enemy submarines, which can surface near land and launch nukes, and destroy the subs with other ships. When the game ticks over to Defcon 1, you need to start launching all your missiles (from silos, bombers, and subs) and just decimate the enemy as best you can because theyll be doing the same thing. Once one side essentially runs out of missiles, the other side can freely retaliate with whatever they have left. I usually try to defend a bit first, then bombard the enemy.
And thats the game. You can play online, and form alliances. Its pretty basic, but its intense and illustrates MAD very well.
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