Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7831I've just finished Act IV. And, I think I understand why so many people adore this game. There's a few things I think are really interesting design-wise, but for the most part it's not really about the game's game-ness... a. The interface when you're moving around/driving on the map is really slick. It feels quite natural and it works well when you change roads and so on. b. The game changes perspectives A LOT. In most games you make dialogue choices for your characters. Here it feels like you make choices for all the characters - sometimes alternating even within the same conversation. It's a bit unsettling but really interesting in a special way. I do feel like I have to pay closer attention to see who's saying what and what I want the responses to be. c. The game really does a good job in being cinematic in the sense of having interesting camera movements and positions and framing and so on. So, it's like the photographic direction is really good. The camera pulls back after a minute in some areas, as you move around the camera follows you but may also zoom in or out and show more/less stuff. It's quite clever. My guess is that it was hand/custom coded for each scene/moment? I have no idea where the story is going, the plot is all weird and all over the place, but I am curious to see/know where it all ends.Sun, 17 Nov 2024 23:33:47 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7831&iddiary=13335https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7827It's been a while since I've played a game, at night, and completely lost track of time...and went to bed super late as a result. So, this one's special in that sense at least. I as trying to describe it to a friend and it's...a few things? There's lots of reading, and lots of choices - and there's a rich narrative with plenty of scripted things (I think!) and lots of branches and characters to interact with and so on. Options open up depending on what your attributes are - and the game is set up such that you cannot max them all out - you have to kind of pick how much time you want to dedicate to each. So, this opens up new things to do with the characters, and more possibilities of "tasks" (each task is one month of game time, and you play from age 10 to 19...with, I think, 12 months a year. You also gain stress so every now and then you need to spend a month resting). And the tasks? Each tasks causes stress but also results in increases to character stats (boost Engineering and Charisma!) and, possibly, increases to relationships with the other characters. Each task is a card game. You draw a hand of cards and then you have to play five of them and hopefully beat a target number. Beat it by a lot and you might get a bonus. For some tasks, meet the difficulty exactly to get a bonus. AND, cards get bonus points when they are next to each other in certain patterns: straights (increasing numbers), suit (there are three colors, matching is good), and value (same number neighbors is good). As you play you pick up new cards, some are better than others and they often have special effects, like boost neighbor and so on. The game was hard at the beginning because I did not understand the system really - but when it all clicked, it got super easy. As in, I never failed a challenge again. BUT, you also pick up items that you can use to help out (boost a card, draw an extra card, etc.). BUT, i still enjoyed the puzzle of getting to the difficulty number from the cards in hand. As for the story - it's really neat. You play a kid, and the kid has other friends as kids. And you basically grow up together! They change over the years, they specialize in new things, get crushes, date, etc. And all of this on an alien planet that is very dangerous and you're trying to survive (the colony is) and stuff gets worse and harder and worse. And. There's a whole mystery as well. I only figured out some stuff, but there's more to learn.Sun, 10 Nov 2024 23:57:12 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7827&iddiary=13330https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7818I'm really loving what Digital Eclipse is doing. Karateka, Llamasoft, etc. This one's a strange collection for me - unlike, I'm guessing, most non-UK game players, I am quite familiar with Jeff Minter. Not through his games, but sort of one step removed. I've been reading Edge magazine for almost a quarter century at this point and he's someone who is often brought up, interviewed a few times, and so on. So, he's a name that was familiar to me, I know of his reputation within the UK scene. But, I had never played any of his games. So, it was nice to finally get that chance. More fairly, I'm thankful that I was able to create the circumstances that resulted in my playing his games and having a closer-to-first-hand experience of what he's done. At least the old stuff (up until Tempest 2000 pretty much, but if I recall Minter then went heavily into light synths and stuff like that...returning later to videogames). Actually, to be fair, I had played some of his games - but his much more recent games on iOS app store. Sort of early ipad days. I don't remember the names of any of them. But I think I played two games? Anyways, back to the old retro original Minter stuff... If I was mean I'd describe his early games as "clones" with zany characters thrown on top. They play well, are really hard, but it's super clear that he's working on top of other ideas, trying to find new spaces within those. And, this work continued even across ports from one computer to another. A mean person would say that he's just re-hashing his stuff all the time, few big new ideas, and blablabla. And, that might be fair to an extent. Minter isn't the kind of developer/designer who seems to always be looking for another crazy idea, to really push game designs into uncharted territory and so on. That's not a bad thing. Or a good thing either. It's just who he is. He's stuck to his guns doing what he likes and refining and working on that. He's sort of like a carpenter who only makes chairs - and iterates, refines, etc. But his chairs are still chairs - and they're interesting. He's the super specialized craftsman. Other carpenters migth make tables, and then try chairs, and then decide to make a closet, and then a table chair combo, and so on. So, broad in their skills and interests. And so Digital Eclipse's work really does a great job of laying all his stuff out in front of you so you can see it, in context, and with great additional documentary details. I loved it.Sun, 03 Nov 2024 12:23:23 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7818&iddiary=13328https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7823So far, which is only 30 mins or so into the game, this is not what I was expecting! It's more "interactive" than I thought - with the 3D frozen-in-time scenes a particularly surprising stand out for me so far. I'm currently on the 2nd "scene" (chapter?) and I'm not sure I understand how the pocketwatch is meant to work - sometimes within a scene it'll be vibrating - and then I'll press X on some other part and it'll flash and then you'll see a trail of "smoke" - and I'm kind of confused as to what it's all supposed to mean. I think for now I'll just continue to play along until I get horribly stuck? I'm just worried that it's a key mechanic of sorts that has some meaning that helps fill out the blanks in the case. I liked the "fill in the blanks" in Curse of the Golden Idol - and this is similar (though earlier!) - but harder in a way? I just need to identify who died, how, and by whom. The names seems to be the hardest thing so far. We'll see how it goes.Sun, 27 Oct 2024 17:55:32 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7823&iddiary=13323https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7820This one's been a real joy so far. I've been trying to be very disciplined about not going out for help, guides, advice or anything. If anything I've been too disciplined because, when we talked about it in class, I learned that I should have been paying a lot more attention to the pages from the manual I've been finding. There was some important stuff there (like how to upgrade your health, etc.) that I did not know and it's made the game a lot harder as a result. Oops. So far I've really enjoyed how organic the discovery process has been and how it's not incredibly overwhelming - I've been able to loosely keep track of the things I've discovered and the things I have to return to. We'll see what happens when I play again, because I've had to take a break to get into another game...for class as well. So, what little muscle memory and skills I've developed, and what I know about the map and so on...it might be forgotten. I've also found some weird unexplained stuff: a. A room which was "south" of an area inside a building/cave. The room has a circle of pedestals (sort of where you'd place a bust), all empty and all had the option to interact with, but nothing happened. What is this place and will I have to return? No idea. b. I've found three "shops" (I might have missed some). It's unclear to me if they're all the same shop in the sense of what's sold - I hope so, since it seems a bit annoying to have to visit them all just to see what they're selling. I hope the wares are the same. c. I figured out the greyscale-dimension teleporting, and I teleported off a pad the took me to a small square room with no apparent exits. The teleported square was green instead of yellow like the rest. I wasn't able to do anything, I just teleported back. But, I wonder what that place was! d. There are some hooks in areas that seem like I should be able to interact with. I'm guessing I still need to pick up an upgrade/ability/item to use them? So, I'm looking forward to playing more, but I'm worried the game will get too hard for me (combat and bosses). We'll see. It got a lot easier when I did the upgrades...Mon, 21 Oct 2024 00:22:20 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7820&iddiary=13322https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7819I was half expecting not to like it just to be a sort of contrarian. But no, I was wrong and I have enjoyed my time with this game. I think a big part of it is that it seems to move along at a nice pace. I get a bit tired of those puzzle games that have 100 levels and you just start cranking and grinding away and it sort of loses the joy and appeal. Cocoon is different. It's still a puzzle game, and the puzzles are integrated into the games environments and I have no idea what's going on in this weirdly organic yet technological environment. It's all very alien, but in a good curious way rather than a scary creepy one. The world reminded me very much of the animated show Scavengers Reign. There's no voice or things to read, it's all very silent-protagonist. But, the protagonist is sort of like a bug-person so who knows what that should be like. Great experience so far, and remarkably simple. I'm impressed by how easy it has been to learn to play the game, and there's only the arrows to move around and the space bar to interact. That's it. And it just seems very intuitive, which is rare and unusual for a puzzle game. Of course things get more complicated as I've picked up new orbs - each with their own rules/special-ness and I'm half expecting everything to get combined and then my brain will melt. But so far, so good. There's also action-based bosses! These I'm less appreciative of, though they do bookend moments of progress and although they haven't been easy, I have been able to get past them even if it's taken a handful of attempts. The last one had me "shooting" myself around into a giant creature that's stomping around an arena. At this point I've got 4 orbs (red, green, purple, and white) and we'll see what happens. Are there more? The menu shows I've made good progress so we'll see.Mon, 21 Oct 2024 00:14:28 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7819&iddiary=13321https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7814Ugh. Ok. This is going on the shelf. I got really frustrated at the end of the 3rd mission - you're chasing a rogue agent - all that was fine. But, at the end there's a showdown - you fight and defeat him (health to zero) but then there's "magically" a second stage where he sits behind a barrier and shoots you while goons come out and fight you with punches. By this point I had very little ammo left. Fortunately for me I had just enough so that I could shoot him and kill him - but only if I left that for the second stage. Had I ran out of ammo I'd have to punch goons, hope they dropped a briefcase with ammo, equipped it and continued. This would have been a timing nightmare (I do think the game pauses when you're checking the inventory), but still - it's extra awkward because tapping the inventory is a stylus rather than button (thus, a little bit slower). So, all of this to say that I saw how this game let me paint myself into a corner - you have to shoot the baddie in the 2nd stage - what if you run out of ammo? Sure, more can appear from punching bad guys - but you have to pick it up in an awkward way all while being shot at. So, not a design I'm particularly impressed by. BUT, it gets worse... at least my limited experience indicated it. If you kill the baddie - yay, a door pops open. BUT the goons are still there and you need to take them out. AND, they keep on coming forever...you have to run to the door. But there's little room to move around and I was already weak. So, I lost a few times despite taking out the big baddie because I thought you had to clear the rest... and they kept on coming and then I died. Eventually I just booked it to the door which I think is what you're supposed to do. But I got there with some, IMO, unfair frustration.Mon, 14 Oct 2024 19:21:18 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7814&iddiary=13318https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7815Playing this back to back with Quantum of Solace on the DS was interesting - both games lean heavily on the stylus as the only means of interaction (ok the Bond game uses one button). And, they're both different in how they do it. This PoP game mostly has tapping - at least in what I've played so far. Tap and hold is an option too I guess (tap hold to run to a location, just tap to move). (Bond has lots of swiping and holding while moving the stylus). Which is better? It's sort of a "meh" question - depends on the game and implementation, no? As a 2D side scrolling puzzle platformer it's a lot easier to control/make sense of the game compared with the 3D sort of isometric view...but, there's still some stuff that seems a bit too hard to do in this game. I'm about 17% of the way through (according to the save file at least) and, to be fair, I've only run into one major moment where I really struggled to make progress because I couldn't get either the timing of the taps or something else in order for me to make a jump. I eventually cleared it, but even as I type this I could not say what it was I was doing wrong and then did right. Perhaps it was just a finicky thing? Was my timing off? I even went back into the tutorial/help screens to see how the different moves were described in order to see if I had misunderstood something. Sadly the info was too sparse for me to figure anything out. I'm not sure how much further I'll continue to play - so far the gameplay has gotten a bit deeper and richer, but not THAT much? And there's so many other games left to try out...Mon, 14 Oct 2024 19:12:32 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7815&iddiary=13317https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7814I guess what's most interesting about this game - from what I played - is how it is almost entirely controlled using the stylus. At this point in the platforms lifecycle I get the sense that game companies where either forced to (or desirous to try out?) to implement mostly stylus-controls. Here's it's stylus all the time except that you can sometimes press a button (or keep it pressed), any button to toggle a state change. For example, to enter shooting mode, and stuff like that. The game is also, curiously, played with the DS sideways - book mode?. This results in a taller but narrow screen. It's interesting, and reasonably comfortable, but I felt the camera was pulled in too tight so I was often getting shot at by baddies who were out of camera. Sure, you can look at the radar/map on the other screen, but it's all dots with no facing, so it's only marginally useful (when it comes to combat). The game itself has some interesting ideas, though the controls took too long to get used to for my tastes and things were still rather imprecise and wonky. Interesting ideas (for a Bond game): a. This one's interesting, but probably bad. You can pick up different weapons and they have stats - like better aim and damage. So, you need to be careful. I didn't like this too much because, while firing isn't hard - you miss a lot and it's hard to tell if you missed because you were bad at aiming/tapping the stylus or if the gun's stats betrayed you. b. Enemies sometimes drop playing cards. They each do something different (bonuses to melee damage, for example) and you can equip five of them at a time. BUT, you get special combo bonuses if you have special poker hands! Pair, two pair, that sort of thing. c. Reloading is really annoying - you have to enter inventory and drag a clip over to the gun. It's annoying to do in the middle of combat. An auto-reload might have been the better design choice here? d. Melee combat is a special mode, you walk up to an enemy, press the button and then enter melee where you must swipe the screen in different ways to do different punches. Sometimes they'll block - or be ready to block, so you need to be careful. It's a neat system, and is definitely more interesting than just tapping a button. It feels more involved. I think the game is also voice acted - by the actors, and there's images from the film. So, it's pretty authentic in that sense. Mostly I'm impressed by how smooth the game runs (for being polygonal 3D and so on) even if the camera often gets in the way - I mean, the level geometry gets in the way of the camera.Sun, 13 Oct 2024 21:34:09 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7814&iddiary=13316https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7807I loved the rhythm action sections of the game - I looked forward to seeing a deer (which you sort of chase/follow while doing a song). They were neither too hard nor too easy, and the music was fun. I think I might have to look it up separately because I'm sure there's a way to buy the tunes... Anyways... it's an interesting game - there's more climbing and exploring than I expected and I'll admit I was starting to get a bit frustrated because I was late for Beltane and it seemed really hard to make progress sometimes. Mostly frustrating because there was a place I was sure had a path - but nothing. So I had to backtrack around a bunch until I found a map that showed a path to the place I was sure had the path. So that was annoying. But, I enjoyed how much stronger Moira gets and I began to worry less about the weather and more about enjoying the views and the landscape and the journey. Some might call this careless hiking and they'd be correct. But hey, it's a videogame! I also enjoyed the slight mystical/magical things? I mean, I got picked up by an eagle at a point, and I met a "person who lives under the mountains" also... There was lots of that sort of stuff to discover and learn. Some of it doesn't quite work - at least in terms of helping me understand when I was making progress. For example I'd find maps that had clues to parts I'd already passed through/by..so that was a bit of a waste. But overall? Yes, not too long, not too short even if my trip was longer than it should have been? I took 10 days to get to the sea. Found 9 maps, climbed 16 peaks, named 10 of them, and blessed one. The one from which the eagles picked me up! It seems like I can play again with the maps I've found, so perhaps it gets easier in this sense. So, is this game a sort of narrative rogue-lite with a metaprogression ?Sun, 22 Sep 2024 21:30:35 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7807&iddiary=13312