Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1269https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7953Easily beatable in 2-3 hours, Sword of the Sea is by the same folks who did Abzu. It shows. This is another movement-focused journey (also akin to Journey) where you bring the ocean back to a desert (hello Journey), befriend a dolphin and a shark (hello Abzu), and fight an evil fire serpent (hello God of W...wait, no). Where the swimming in Abzu could be frustrating, the "snowboarding" in Sword of the Sea feels excellent. The level design is also much improved, especially readability in terms of where you need to be going. I was NEVER lost, which is saying something! I remember swimming around rather aimlessly sometimes in Abzu, though there were always beautiful schools of fish and whales and things to watch and interact with. Those fish are actually here in Sword of the Sea too, plus the rideable whales, turtles, and so on. There are flags, paths, beams of light, collectibles, good camera work in cut scenes, etc. that direct your attention to the right place. The game is beautiful to look at, with stunning landscapes that dwarf your tiny figure. I don't know what else to say about it really. If you like the Journey/Abzu brand of chill, exploration-heavy, environmental indie games, this is a no-brainer. It just guided me along for its runtime, and it's like I was unaware of time passing, totally absorbed in it. Great experience! Thu, 06 Nov 2025 16:25:06 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7953&iddiary=13454https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7951This one was a trip. I had no idea what to expect. Some kind of psychological horror, I thought. It's a little bit of that, but it's got more of an experimental flavor. It actually merges two genres, a 2d pixel-art platformer and a full 3d third-person exploration game with steampunk vibes (like Syberia). I certainly didn't expect the former. The intro hooked me with an unexplained retro sequence that morphed into a great-looking Unreal 5 scene. Whoa. You play as Indika, a Russian Orthodox nun, who is tasked with delivering a letter to a monastery. On her journey, she encounters and travels with an escaped convict who is trying to go see a holy relic that he hopes will catalyze a miracle and heal his gangrenous arm. Her being a nun and traveling to see a miracle is tough because she seems to have the devil inside her. The game alternates between themes related to religious philosophy, absurdism, and surrealism. I suppose I would have expected the religious themes, but the game is funnier than I thought (also very dark). The soldier who can't aim was a good laugh. There are these moments where you are like, "Wait, what is this?!" Giant cans of fish in a cannery. Warped staircases and rooms that turn sideways. A puzzle about rearranging a bridge that made me laugh out loud and go "Whaaaat, no waaay!" in the best, most surprised fashion. The game oozes creativity, though in terms of gameplay it is pretty basic. It's more or less a narrative adventure, but with more interaction (and excitement) than the recently played The Invincible (playing Indika makes me want to knock The Invincible's score down a peg). There are puzzles, several of which stumped me. The reason they stumped me is because (a) they were far simpler than I realized or (b) I had just never encountered a puzzle like that and so I wasn't thinking in the right way. I really liked this. It's short, too, so no reason not to try it out. Thu, 06 Nov 2025 16:06:25 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7951&iddiary=13453https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7946I didn’t quite know what to expect going in, aside from this is a well-reviewed metroidvania. There are so many metroidvanias these days, and that is a genre that I get burned out on. My last one was [checks notes] Ender Lilies, back in May, so I’ve had a nice break. That said, I have good news. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is phenomenal (way better than Ender Lilies), easily one of the top in the genre that I’ve ever played. Everything about it is slick. Movement is perfectly responsive, combat is complex and challenging, platforming is tight. Puzzles will have you scratching your head. And the map is revolutionary. I’ll tackle some of these aspects of the game in order. The combat shines and is far more complex than a typical metroidvania. Your sword-based melee attack is your go-to. You also get a bow, useful for annoying flying enemies or if you want to chip away damage from afar. You can charge both melee and ranged attacks (and both aid in platforming), as well as add fire to arrows with an amulet that you can find. Small enemies can be popped up into the air by pressing up as you attack. Hold attack here and you follow them into the air. There is also a downward attack and charge attack. You can sprint and slide, which will result in you kicking enemies back or up into the air, depending. By stringing together melee attacks, launches, arrows, and so on, you can land huge combos. There is no combo meter or anything, but combos are encouraged and can lock enemies down. There is also a parry and dodge (enemies have parry-able attacks and unblockable ones), and parrying is important to learn. I have found amulets that do various things upon successful parry (heal me, fill power meter, create time bubble that slows enemies), so I’ve tried to get good at it to reap those benefits. As you land attacks, a power meter fills, with which you can unleash special attacks, different ones at different levels of the meter. These are equippable, and I think I have unlocked most of them by finding special battles with alternate versions of Sargon, your character. This is one of my only criticisms of the game, and I’m probably only noticing because I’m playing on normal (which isn’t that hard). I’ve found no need to change these special attacks. I used the first level 1 one and the first level 2 one that I unlocked for the entire game, and I never even equipped a level 3 one (kept forgetting). The level 1 one is fine and I can’t see how any of the other ones improve on it. The level 2 one I’ve been using is a heal, which has saved me in plenty of fights. Basically, I will use it instead of a potion, thus saving a potion for a pinch later, and by the time the power meter fills back up to level 2, the ability is off cooldown and I can fully heal again. You can also use some other platforming tricks and special abilities in combat. These other special abilities are cool. One allows you to create a time pocket and basically “hold” any item or enemy. At any time thereafter, you can press circle to throw it. I always try to have something that explodes in reserve so that if I find a glowing yellow wall (which requires an explosive), I am ready. If you trap enemies like this, and shoot them back out, they are confused and fight for you for a few seconds, handy for dealing with multiple enemies. Another move allows you to create a copy of yourself, which you can then warp back to. In combat, you can drop a copy, fight as usual, and then when the enemy moves such that the copy is behind it, warp back to the copy and get some back attacks in, very useful for bosses. This is a puzzle-focused ability during platforming segments that allows you to reach places you couldn’t before. Later on, you get a “pull” ability so that you can rush toward enemies or yank them toward you. There are some others, and there are also your standard air dash and double jump. There are so many moves that it feels like a fighting game. The animations for the special attacks, and the boss special attacks, give this feeling too. Some platforming sections and puzzles are devilish. The difficulty ramps up as you get more abilities. I found some special platforming challenges in the main hub, spent about 20 minutes working on the first one, another 20 on the second one, and then was like, “I have to actually play the story through, not spend all day on platforming challenges!” They give 100 time crystals, which was a lot earlier in the game, but not much later. I would like to come back and conquer all these challenges because they are so hard but so clever and fun. As I got later into the game, regular platforming parts (especially those hiding secrets) got tricky too. There is one type of platforming challenge where you try to get a coin (useful for buying and upgrading items). The coins are hovering in midair and the trick to these is that you don’t get the coin until you touch the ground. So, you usually have to platform while remaining in the air (or on walls), and figure out how to get to the coin and return safely to the ground before you actually “get” the coin. I found a side quest toward the end of the game that requires you to get THREE items in the air before setting foot back on the ground. I could get two and actually never found the third one. Since I was so close to the end, I didn’t bother. If I have time left on my PS Plus subscription, I will consider going back to this and getting closer to 100%. I got 88.09% completion. The coolest thing about the game though is the map, seriously. It’s a standard metroidvania map except for the fact that YOU CAN TAKE SCREENSHOTS and save them to the map. These are called “memories.” This is in addition to regular map markers you can drop to indicate treasure or a boss or whatever. So, if you come to an area with a challenging puzzle or a path you can’t cross yet, you can capture a memory, then look on the map and see the screenshot, so you know exactly what the obstacle is or whatever it is that you wanted to remember about that spot. Whenever I got a new ability, I went through my memories checking which paths were newly crossable. I understand that the same thing could be accomplished with map markers (e.g., a yellow marker or a bomb icon or something for every yellow wall that requires an explosive to break), but this is much more interactive and you have more control over what to screenshot. Every game with a map should include this feature. It’s amazing. Could you imagine this in an open-world game? Do other games have this?! So, this was a big surprise. I thought it would be good based on reviews, but it’s great. Like, one of the best metroidvanias I’ve ever played. It apes a lot from Hollow Knight, but it’s far more accessible with many quality of life features. There’s no Souls-like death or resource loss to worry about and checkpoints are more generously placed. If you die on a boss fight, you have the option to retry it right there. I didn’t have much trouble on normal difficulty. Given how much I explored, poked and prodded for secrets, my Sargon was a beast by the end with tons of health, 5 health potions, maxed out amulets and weapons, etc. This is a must-play metroidvania, especially if you bounced off Hollow Knight because of its high difficulty or amount of backtracking. Wed, 05 Nov 2025 16:44:13 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7946&iddiary=13452https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7950I had never heard of this (the book or the game), but picked it up on PS Plus because it sounded interesting. Indeed, it is. It’s a walking simulator (sorry), aka narrative-heavy first-person exploration game. You play as an astronaut who wakes up near her camp and can’t remember what was going on. Explore around a bit and find out that your crew are dead or missing. Eventually, you make comms contact with the crew’s supervisor, whose title is “Astrogator,” which obviously would make anyone think of an alligator with a space helmet. Sadly, he is a regular person (although I haven’t actually SEEN him…). You follow clues to search for your crew, find out what happened to them, figure out what a rival nation was searching for on the planet and what happened to that crew, learn about the strange biology of the planet you’re on, solve the mystery of why you keep passing out, and try to get off the planet. The whole time you learn more about your mission, and things get worse. There are a few tools you have with which to interact, such as a metal detector, some binoculars, a map/journal, and that’s about it. You’re really just following a trail of map markers the whole game. Doesn’t sound terribly exciting, but I dug the atmosphere and the story. It is a slow-paced game; I had trouble playing it at night because I would nod off as the characters talked. There is a lot of talking sometimes. The two main voice actors are great, but there is another guy introduced toward the end whose voice didn’t seem to fit, so I didn’t find him too believable. Apparently there are 11 endings, but I really would like to know what happens after! Maybe I’ll check out this book. And either I’m getting old or the default text is really small. Go accessibility features! But, there are bugs. My character, or the rover if I was driving, got stuck several times on the terrain. I had to reload once from getting permanently stuck. Other times, the “interact” icon would fail to appear until I walked around the object from all different angles and back. Interesting game, wouldn’t recommend though unless you really love a hard sci-fi story and don’t mind the slow pace. Later Astrogator (actual quote from the game). Wed, 05 Nov 2025 16:18:07 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7950&iddiary=13451https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7947I don’t think I would have played this if it weren’t on PS Plus, but it appeared for Halloween and I’ve been hearing about it for years. Seemed like a sort of generic jump scare horror game. I played one of the Dark Pictures games with Patrick, which was good dumb fun with lots of jump scares. I think this is one of that studio’s earlier games, and it feels similar. Same basic set-up and gameplay: you control a variety of characters (this one is about a group of friends who go to a remote cabin together and get stalked by a maniac), who walk around through spooky environments being hunted. You make basic narrative decisions, which purportedly affect each character’s “stats” (no idea what it matters if a character is more or less charitable or curious or romantic or whatever) and their relationships with other characters (again, no idea the implications of this). There are QTEs during action sequences (e.g., take the safe route or the quick route; press triangle to avoid falling in a ditch; etc.). Find clues to explain the story more. Find totems that give you premonitions of your friends dying and other actions. I’m unsure exactly the purpose of the totems. Like, what does it matter if I see a premonition? I think it’s just one outcome that you see, and potentially knowing that one outcome means you can change it? One time I saw a premonition of a man petting a wolf. Later on, one character encounters a wolf. I accidentally (I swear) kicked it, then tried to pet it and it growled at me. But I soon found a bone and gave it to it, then pet it successfully. Win. The first few chapters are campy horror movie stuff. The horny young adults are all trying to couple up and bone one another. There’s some inter-friend-group drama. You see many glimpses of a mysterious figure in the background, and the killer starts becoming more…active. The young adults are getting more and more scared, and then the action picks up and they start suffering. There’s a Saw vibe to the game. Then there are some twists, one of which I saw coming, another of which I didn’t (though one pausing to think about the plot could probably see it). More death. I think only three or four characters lived in my game (all the girls?). It's cool that later on you can start to see how decisions led to characters’ deaths. For example, one character died because I decided to open a hatch and there was something bad underneath it. Another guy died because I had (as his girlfriend) kept a gun, so when he needed it, he didn’t have it. I assume that if I had given the gun to him that his girlfriend would have died at some point because she didn’t have it. Another character died because (as him) I had made a tough call to shoot one of the girls instead of killing himself, and later when he needed help, the girl hesitated and he was killed. It was a fun and silly game, a good interactive B horror movie. Definitely not essential to play though. Also, it would have been two hours shorter if there was a RUN button! The characters spend 90% of their time walking very slowly. Annoying! No wonder they all died! Tue, 04 Nov 2025 12:28:38 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7947&iddiary=13450https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7942If I had to offer one word for Alan Wake 2, it would be “ambitious.” The production on this monster is next-level. It integrated live action video and gameplay in ways I have never even imagined. There is a part where you, as Alan, have to navigate the backstage area of a talk show production while the talk show is ongoing and being displayed on screens throughout the backstage. Except you are also in the talk show, and except instead of talking, the show is being sung, to the backing of original heavy metal music complete with a band performing, choreographed dancers, and a light show. Add to this that sometimes the characters in the live action portion appear to be interacting with you through the screens, pointing you where to go, following you with their eyes, singing to you, and so on. And during this massive metal backstage area, enemies begin appearing and so you are fighting them with all of this going on around you. This was my favorite part of the whole game and one of the most mesmerizing parts of any video game I’ve ever seen. The ambition extends to the story, which I think is really interesting. It’s a direct sequel to the first game after Alan disappears into Cauldron Lake and the Dark Place. He spends this game trying to get out of the Dark Place, and in so doing, messes with some of his characters' lives, one of whom is the other playable main protagonist, an FBI agent named Saga Anderson. Saga and Alan's stories intersect time and again, and in the game you alternate between playing them. However, I wish the story was presented more concisely because this game can drag. There were so many neat ways that narrative was presented and ways that narrative moved forward, but this works to the game's detriment too because it beats you over the head reviewing plot details in so many different ways. For example, a key feature of the game is entering Saga's "mind place," a sort of supernatural room in her mind where she can think about cases. You might find a picture as you are exploring, or speak to an NPC, or whatever, and be prompted to go to the mind place. Go there and you are presented with a giant corkboard where Saga places pictures, notecards, and connects everything with string. You have to place clues/pictures/pieces of information on the corkboard in the correct spot. You read the description of the clue, then when you place it, some writing appears providing a little more information from Saga, and when you complete a string of clues, Saga chimes in with her thoughts. You may also have a manuscript page that says more or less the same thing you put on the board. Then you may need to profile someone in the mind place, and they may say basically the same thing you already found out. Then you go back to the game and Saga will comment again the same thing you already found out. Sometimes you have to go through all this to move things forward; other times placing all the clues on the corkboard (literally probably 200 throughout the game) seems optional. It's just like...SO slow, tedious, and repetitive. I love the mind place in theory, and I thought it was unique and engaging at first, but I became so tired of it by the end. Saga will say "So I need to go to the cabin in the woods to get the Clicker" (or something) and I am like "OMG I knew that 15 minutes ago, but I had to profile someone who told me the same thing, then go to the corkboard and pin clues that told me the same thing, and I already heard you Saga say that I need to go to the cabin in the woods in the mind place 3 times, and the person I profiled said it again, and Alan Wake narrated it because it was also in a manuscript page, AAAAAH!" The game wants you to "get into the heads" of the characters, and it certainly succeeds, but sometimes less is more. The other frustrating aspect of the game, unfortunately, was the combat. Alan and Saga control like tanks, while enemies can be much faster. I died probably 50 times. I have no problem dying in a survival horror game, don't get me wrong! But these deaths often felt unfair. I got backed into a corner and couldn't see to get out or couldn't dash past enemies. I didn't hold R2 down long enough to heal all the way and so the health kit failed. An enemy changed direction at the last second and there is just no way Alan or Saga could turn fast enough to shoot. I couldn't pick up what I needed during a fight from the ground because I would get killed while waiting for the "pick up item" animation, and even if I did pick it up, I can't equip it in the middle of combat because pulling up your inventory or map doesn't pause the action. Timing dodges, especially with fast enemies or thrown objects, is really hard to do. Etc. At some point, I realized I could run past a lot of the regular enemies, so I quit engaging except when necessary. Also, I definitely enjoy the flashlight mechanic less than I remember from the previous game. In the end, I was glad for this to be over. The story (while really interesting) and combat (while generally fine) just seemed to like bloat the game because of the repetition and slow speed. There's also Remedy's whole tie-in to the Federal Bureau of Control now, which, again, while interesting, adds a bunch of extra layers to a story that already has like 5 layers of reality going on. I'm impressed by the game. It's technically pretty amazing and the story is wonderfully complex. I liked the game. But I didn't love the game, and it went on for nearly 30 hours, which is really long for survival horror. Thu, 30 Oct 2025 14:28:23 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7942&iddiary=13448https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7847I started this about a year ago on a PS Plus subscription and dove back into it for a while on this current subscription. If I recall, it was about 6 hours last time and another 12 or so this time, so I had some really in-depth sessions last week. My initial notes last time just read "hard, grindy, neat vibe." I can say after another 12 hours that these three descriptors are still accurate! Returnal is a third-person shooter / roguelite / bullet-hell game made by Housemarque, who is known (to me) for shoot-em-up / bullet hell type games like Outland, Resogun, and Nex Machina. The move to a AAA third-person shooter somehow works and retains the insanity of a typical 2d bullet hell. You play as an astronaut named Selene who crash lands on an alien planet after following a mysterious signal, and then finds herself stuck in a time loop. There's the set-up for a roguelite then. When you die, you restart at the crash site, slightly better off than the time before thanks to a slow-and-steady drip of persistent unlocks and upgrades. Selene explores various biomes, following objective markers. The biomes are pretty big and have randomly generated layouts, so every run is a bit different (though after 18 hours, biome 1 was getting really fucking repetitive). Layouts are also branching: there are main and optional paths. Following the main path will eventually get you to whatever objective marker you're following, the boss, and the way out. Optional paths feature all manner of special rooms, which can have everything between great loot to deadly minibosses. The randomness in the design makes runs ridiculously intense. You constantly have to make decisions where one outcome could help (from slightly better than neutral to overpowered boon) or hurt (from a slight annoyance to dooming the run). Such decisions can involve whether to open a chest, use an item, go into a room or not, switch weapons, acquire a parasite, pick up a health kit now or later, spend more time in the current biome or leave it for the next, and so on. Here is the anatomy of my 18 hours so far: 0-6 - Learn the basics in biome 1, die die die. Not sure if I ever even made it to the boss. 6-12 - Re-learn the basics in biome 1 after not playing the game for the better part of a year, and feel like I'm starting to get a good grasp on mechanics, enemies, strategies. Make it to Phrike, the biome 1 boss, a few times. 12-16 - Have a godly run where I finally kill Phrike, and then proceed to one-shot biome 2 and nearly one-shot biome 3. I would have one-shot biome 3 except that I FORGOT TO USE A HEALTH KIT during the battle! Uggggggggh! The boss and I were both almost dead. Like 3 more seconds and I would have killed it. I was so engrossed in the battle that I forgot I had purchased a major health kit that would have restored me to full life. I cannot believe I did this. /cry 16-18 - Demoralization makes me suck at the game. Never make it back to biome 3. Cry some more over the unused health kit. I learned that when you beat biome 3, then you forever after can start your run in biome 4. Since I failed to use a health kit, and therefore did not beat biome 3, I had to start back in biome 1 AGAIN. This was really demoralizing and after playing a couple more hours, I decided to start another game instead of beat my head against this one. Although, I know that I can best Returnal! I just need more time. The run where I did so well (and every run before that), I meticulously explored the maps, killing lots of enemies (and therefore leveling up my weapon proficiency, which makes you find stronger weapons), getting lots of good parasites and artifacts, and boosting my max HP. After the run where I forgot to use a health potion, I was just zipping to the next biome as soon as I found the teleporter, but as a consequence, my weapon proficiency was lower, my max health was lower, and I didn't have many good parasites or artifacts, which meant that everything was relatively harder. Although my skill had increased, it didn't make up for having like 25% less proficiency, health, etc. So, I need to (a) continue getting better at the game and/or (b) continue moving slowly and completely exploring biomes as I go so that I will be strong enough to tackle the challenges that the game springs on me. Since I'm on a PS Plus subscription, I have other games I want to play, so I don't want to spend too much on this one, as it could potentially take quite a long time to beat. If I have time left after finishing the others I want to play, then I'll come back. Or I might just buy this next time I see it on sale, or perhaps I'll just wait for its spiritual successor to come out next year. Tue, 28 Oct 2025 15:53:42 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7847&iddiary=13447https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7941Bought a new TV (old one died two weeks after moving), ditched the aging surround sound system (waiting on a sound bar for replacement), and upgraded my HDMI cable so that the PS5 can output 4k at 120hz. So naturally, I subscribed to PS Plus to bask in my upgraded setup and promptly selected a PS1-style game that could probably run on a toaster. Crow Country is better than it has any right to be, a totally adept and captivating survival horror game. You play as Mara, a woman investigating a derelict amusement park near Atlanta, Georgia. I was so surprised to see it set there that I thought the devs might have been from there, but no, they are British. I am still curious if they are familiar with the old (unfortunately named) Dixieland (now renamed "Fun Spot") in Fayetteville. Anyway, the park has been closed for a couple years and there are rumors of monsters. Mara discovers that, yes, there are monsters, and that there is quite the mystery to uncover. None of this sets up Crow Country to be particularly great or anything, but every aspect of the game clicks just right. It's like a small-scale Resident Evil or Silent Hill. The story is interesting and leads you deeper and deeper into the park. The characters are intriguing, each with their own motives related to the story. The Crow Country amusement park itself is detailed, well laid out with several distinct areas, and creepy. The enemies are gross and dangerous. The puzzles are relatively simple yet clever (I got 8/15 secrets). The combat is very old-school-survival-horror, frustrating as that can be. Aiming can be a pain in the butt, but the thing I liked least about the combat was that enemies can corner you. I died probably 5 times, usually from getting cornered (though one time from ignoring a warning about pulling a book from a shelf that was titled something like "Sudden Death" and getting a spike to the face) and each time, you go back to your last save, which could have been a while ago, thanks to some old-school design. I'm most impressed by just how tight everything felt. There are "staff memos" all over the park that give you clues as to how to acquire items or solve puzzles, and I was never truly stuck. If I thought I was, I'd go back to the collected staff memos and flip through them for a reference to something I hadn't done yet, then focus on that. A couple times, not knowing where to go after getting a new key, I stumbled on a room that needed that key. Locked doors are marked on the map, and unsolved puzzles are circled, but there is never any indication of what items are to be used where (i.e., all locked doors are red on the map; there is no differentiation between those that need a silver key or a gold key or whatever, even after you have discovered the doors). Luckily, the map isn't very big, and there is, if not a "fast travel" system, a "faster travel" system that you gain access to later on. So being stuck means there are only so many places you can look. Definitely recommend for a short survival horror experience. It doesn't reinvent the genre or anything, but it's just so solid. Wed, 15 Oct 2025 16:25:14 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7941&iddiary=13444https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7935I beat this a couple weeks ago and haven't sat down to write about it because I've been busy with the move. Long story short, it didn't really land with me. I like the premise. You play as a girl in the Scottish Highlands traversing the hills to meet her uncle. You have to reach her uncle in a lighthouse before Beltane (though I arrived one day late, and I don't know what would have been different had I arrived on time). It's more or less a narrative exploration/platforming game. You run and climb through the hills, defying the rain, cold nights, and exhaustion. Occasionally, you discover objects or odd characters, and these piece together lore, a lot of tales of the mountains and the people who lived there. One reason the game didn't land with me is that these were small snippets of story, connected only through the fact that they relate to the Highlands. The narrator (the uncle) pipes up to speak for a few sentences to talk about whatever it is you've found, and then is gone again. These pieces of narrative feel disconnected. The main reason the game didn't land for me though is the platforming and navigating, both of which I found frustrating, and are what you spend most of the game doing. Your character runs and climbs, but quickly loses stamina. You often have to stop and let her catch her breath. Running out of breath while climbing results in a fall and a hit to your health. Since you are racing the clock to arrive to your uncle in the lighthouse before Beltane, it is frustrating to have to stop all the time. But you do have to stop, at least to sleep, and it's often a good idea to wait out rain, especially if you are tired or it is dark. Pushing through exhaustion increases your chance of injury. If your health is depleted, you automatically rest and wake up the next day, which wastes time. You have a map to navigate. You will find postcards and other things that mention various mountain peaks. You have some minimal zoom function to scan the surroundings to try and figure out where a particular peak from a postcard or whatever is. When you reach a peak, you can guess its name and have a wider view of the area to plan your next move. The goal here is basically to move from mountain range to mountain range, getting closer to the ocean (and the lighthouse) as you go. But you never quite know where you can move between mountain ranges. You are always looking for paths; sometimes, you'll think you see one, but you'll get there and there will be no path. Other times, you'll find a path but it takes you backward. I appreciate the exploration here, but again, doing this against the timer was frustrating, as was the fact that traversing the mountains can be so time consuming because there usually isn't a straight path left or right. You have to take higher or lower routes, winding through whatever mountain you are on, to try and get to where you are trying to go. You can see passable and unpassable routes on the map, so at least you can plan your route, though again, paths to the next range are something you have to discover. The game reminded me of another climbing game I played last year, Jusant. I remember feeling in a flow state playing Jusant, focusing on the motions of climbing. There is one type of sequence in A Highland Song that did something similar, and I wish there was more of it. Those were the musical rhythm sections when you come upon a deer. The deer will run and you chase it. Rousing folk music starts playing as you chase the deer, and you time button presses to make the character jump. These sequences were engrossing. Honestly, I had thought that there would be more music in A Highland Song. I would have liked more of these sequences! Perhaps they could have been worked into navigation to make finding paths or reading the map clearer. Anyway, this is a short game, so I don't feel like I wasted my time. My least favorite inkle game, but still with its charm. Wed, 15 Oct 2025 15:46:38 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7935&iddiary=13443https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7932Funny FMV game about working in a TV news editing room over nearly a decade during a period of political change. First off, I read somewhere that this game has the most recorded video of any game (at least at its release). It's impressive how much video content is here to watch. Well, to edit. You WANT to watch the videos, but your job is to edit. It sometimes takes away from the watching that you would rather be doing. The game reminds me of something like a cross between Don't Feed the Monkeys, Orwell, and Papers, Please. You watch people on the TV screens (like Don't Feed the Monkeys) but in doing so can influence the political direction of the country (like Orwell). And since cutting the TV footage is your job, and you have to earn a wage, there's a little Papers, Please in here too because your decisions at work affect your family, finances, and home life. That home life part is more of a simple textual narrative and serves to pass time, connect you to family, and add additional social context to the news broadcasts. So you work at this TV station manning an editing board. The various buttons and things on the control board engage you while the TV show is being filmed. You can switch between four cameras, play commercials, cue sound effects (laugh track, clapping, etc.), adjust volume, and you have to deal with various other distractions or problems (a political group trying to hack the station, power outages, wiring issues, maniacal dolls [in a bizarre dream sequence], etc.). The goal is to effectively edit the live feed to increase viewership. You do this by switching to the correct camera (general rule: focus on who is talking), by changing cameras (general rule: don't linger too long on one shot), by minimizing interference, by cuing appropriate audio (e.g., don't cue the laugh track when something serious is happening), and so on. Doing well increases viewership; doing poorly decreases it. If enough viewers leave the channel, you lose and start the broadcast over. The live news TV show that you'll be editing is so well done. The writing and acting are excellent, the stars of the game. It's so creative. There are news anchors, special guests, recurring segments, and more. The devs have really created a whole universe here, a parody of real-world news, celebrities, and politicians. My favorite actors were the first news anchor and the guy in the first DLC (which was my favorite chunk of the playthrough). In that DLC, the network is airing an old telethon from the mid-20th century. Your job is to edit the broadcast live. The telethon host is this horrible man who is inappropriate with the women answering the phones. They don’t play along with him. When he makes sexist remarks, they roll their eyes, don’t laugh at his jokes, and seem to revel in the fact that his telethon isn’t raising any money. All the guests for the telethon are stuck on a bus in traffic, and so guests are improvised from the telethon staff on hand, including a deadpan Indian performer, a Chinese worker, and a little person. A lot of the jokes rely on the fact that this is race- or body-based humor that we would find offensive today, but was totally normal for the 1950s. So you have fun with the censor button and watching the minorities, man with a disability, and women completely undermine the white male host. Anyway, that is a DLC…the main game is set over like 8 years and has a political story; it’s not a single event like a telethon (which is, for the record, related to the political story, in a way that I guessed about 5 seconds before it was revealed!). Because of that difference, after the main game the DLC felt cohesive and concise. Broadcasts in the main game will regularly occur a year after the previous broadcast. I’d definitely be curious to buy more DLC when it goes on sale. Broadcasts were usually like 30-45 minutes long, so it’d be a couple bucks for a long episode of funny, interactive TV basically. Mon, 08 Sep 2025 20:20:21 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7932&iddiary=13435