Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1851https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6837Seems like I left off yesterday right before things picked up. Played for a lot longer today, about 2-3 hours. Honestly would rather be playing right now than typing this up. I think the biggest part to talk about would be the amusement park section. Think section made me spectacularly happy, I loved seeing all the little adorable robots with balloons having a good time. Some of this game choices seem like a better version of Spec Ops : The line to me. Standard game-play would tell you when a giant enemy that you are told is dangerous comes out you have to kill it. Nines even tells you that you should attack and kill this giant boss. In this play through I think I'm going to be consistent and only even attack after an enemy attacks. So I walked up to the tank and no hostile actions where taken. I just took the staircase and left them on their little party float.While I do love the combat and boss battles so far, the boss battle after this made me wish there was a peaceful pacifist solution to every battle. I would love to do a run of this game seeing just how few machines I could harm. First time through this battle I hesitated at the hacked android bodies and was hoping there was some way to save them. In some ways it seems out of character for 2B but as long as the mission doesn't require it I will not kill an enemy.Wed, 26 Sep 2018 22:57:32 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6837&iddiary=12113https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6837Started out Nier and I knew from the get go that this game was gonna take a bit more time to get a reasonable way through. Instead of the usual half hour play sessions I ended up playing this first time for an hour and a half. Good start, the game was engaging. Full disclosure this was my roommates favorite game so I'd seen a bit of game-play from him here and there. Turns out my roommate is a monster, and played this game the most genocidal way. Machines are from the start of the game set up by the characters as a thoughtless enemy, your whole purpose and reason for being is to destroy them. It's very telling then that the first open area of the game the majority of machines there are just kind of... Minding their own business. Non hostile to you. My friend likes nier's combat so I only ever saw him Chewing through the machines in this area farming them for experience points. I instead, sat in the water with them and did some fishing. (Note I wrote this yesterday, but just now posted it to gamelog)Wed, 26 Sep 2018 22:39:47 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6837&iddiary=12111https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6719I finally got to hug a gnome. So far, for me this game has had one ethical choice mechanic and its a stretch to call it a mechanic. It's more like a collectable. Freeing these little gnome guys has been the goal and highlight of most my play sessions. And it finally happened. After freeing our friend from his glass jar prison, he paused and out stretched his hands. And I got to embrace him the only character I've been able to have real contact with the entire game without immediately dying. Now that I've gotten that highlight out of the way, on to design things that have nothing to do with this class. This team is young, or if not they keep making small mistakes a young team would make. The use of lighting is confusing at times, they nail the atmosphere but sometimes obscure objectives. In one particular sequence you have to sneak under the bed of a sleeping monster. If you do this you see a single light marking your objective, a key. BUT this key is unlit and blends into the backroom when the monster wakes up (on a trigger while you are under the bed). The problem arises when you accidently move too quick opening the door. The monster wakes up instantly and turns on the light, the player loses the one clue about what the objective of this room is. I spent far too long scouring the room and following platforms that lead nowhere. The key is for a door on another floor, several screens away. In a game with few multi-screen puzzles they really need to remind the player that this door is openable and that their goal is to open it not to traverse and find another way. Little nightmares is frustrating. Not because it is bad but because it has very slight very fixable problems that hold it back from being great.Tue, 04 Sep 2018 08:51:23 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6719&iddiary=12030https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6719I finally got to hug a gnome. So far, for me this game has had one ethical choice mechanic and its a stretch to call it a mechanic. It's more like a collectable. Freeing these little gnome guys has been the goal and highlight of most my play sessions. And it finally happened. After freeing our friend from his glass jar prisonFri, 31 Aug 2018 07:17:38 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6719&iddiary=12016https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6719I finally got past the last "puzzle" that stopped my play session last time. Turns out you have to climb up a chain. In my opinion, there was some bad design choices in this particular section that comes up during other sections. Little nightmares has a very dark background and little light, which makes light and color a very powerful tool for guiding the player. Now I know the developers know about this tool and have taken it from their tool box a couple times. Why then didn't they here? The character has climbed some things to get to this chain but it is not obvious that the chain is climbable or that you are supposed to be traveling up. A little bit of lighting would have definitely helped guide the player up through this section and cemented the idea in the players mind that climbing is always an option and to try climbing more objects. Enough of the design tangent. We still haven't seen much of ethical choices in the mechanics of the game (Save for that " Choice" to save the little gnome) but there has been some interesting use of set dressing on already used mechanics to give the ethical player a pause. During the section in question the player is captured by the monster, and to escape the player has to solve a puzzle. To this point this puzzle and mechanic of exploring the environment and then using it in some way to reach their goal has been done a good number of times. This puzzle though gives you pause. The box isn't just a box, but a cage holding a captured child like you. There is no way to free this child, I tried. You just have to drag the helpless chap, climb up his prison, and free yourself. That , in my opinion, is a very powerful use of set dressing to make a standard mechanic more compelling. Lastly, the gnome friends have been more prevalent in this play session! They have been scampering away from the same hiding places the monster has you diving for. There was one particular section that affirmed my decision to free the earlier gnome, and was also a very successful use of tension. You use an elevator to reach a higher level and clear your path, before entering the elevator was a section of you hiding and being chased by the main monster. The elevator is very sparse with not much cover, and I spent the entire ride cowered in the one hiding place I could find. The ride is uneventful and you're given a bit of a tense breather. Some puzzling and some platforming follows and a chase sequences that ends up back in the elevator, this time with the monster there with you. He slowly checks the first spot, comes over to your spot and just as he is about to catch you, the gnomes run through and he gives chase to this new prey. Saved by the gnomes! Some might think this game is all about the monsters, but I'd argue that it's about the creatures cowering with you. These creatures face the same grim fate as you, but still come to your aid at times and you to them.Tue, 28 Aug 2018 12:15:22 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6719&iddiary=11911https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6719I started Little nightmares today. I will definitely say playing this in the well lit library is not the intended atmosphere but the game is pulling me in nonetheless. As far as mechanics its pretty much so far a bog standard narrative platformer. There isn't a way to attack enemies(yet) and the game-play mostly consists of trying to move forward, avoiding hazards, and light puzzles to clear the path. Mechanically this game hasn't really touched anything about ethics or ethical dilemmas. The subject of this game on the other hand seems to be pointing towards something a little deeper. The back of the case states that the game is about exploring childhood fears. Seeing the world from a different perspective is always a fun exercise. The environmental story telling in the game has been great so far, but I'm not far enough to form any coherent story line or connect the disparate story threads. A lot of environments and hazards have seemed to point to some kind of orphanage. That along with the hanging man early in the game might point to the child's fear of abandonment after their father committed suicide. I'll have to play and look around more to see if my theory is correct.Fri, 24 Aug 2018 16:01:10 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6719&iddiary=11884https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6322Another play session of Shadow of Mordor and man this is not going to be an easy paper to write! Mechanically I'm really enjoying the game, it is super fun to play the controls are tight visually the game is good looking and the theme of killing orcs and the changing power struggles of their captains is super tight. Trying to look at this game through some different lenses its not giving me much. Its hard to say all the killing I'm doing in the game, and it is a massive amount of killing, is ethically questionable when every animation and idle thing my enemy does is mustache twirlingly evil. The biggest moral question might be hidden in the mechanics and well my attention span. Everywhere you walk in this game world there is suffering and slaves that morally should be freed. But i just do not have enough time to kill every guard and free every person ans still be able to advance the story to defeat the overall threat. That might be a good ethical question to explore, whether it is better to help everyone you can whenever you can or to quickly try to decimate the leadership of the Orcs. I'll have to play more to think about this.Fri, 24 Feb 2017 17:25:02 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6322&iddiary=11046https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6322Well I was wondering where my ethical questions would come from and this play session has seemed to answer that question. Not in the amount of orcs and monster I'm killing but in the power play between killing war chiefs and promoting orcs that are aligned with my causes. This is a bit of a moral grey area because as i said with my last entry the orcs have yet to show any reason they should not be considered pure spawn of evil, but now I'm actively helping one to achieve my greater good. This offers a pretty good base for interesting ethical questions. It also brings to mind another recent game I've played with an enemy that is evil incarnate, Doom. In Doom one of the defining characteristics of the doom marine is that he faces this moral question and steadfastly abides by the code that all evil must be killed in the most gruesome way possible. This is in contrast to Shadow of Mordor, even if our character has a similar disposition to orcs he still uses them to reach his greater goal. There may be a paper in this game yet.Wed, 22 Feb 2017 23:49:45 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6322&iddiary=11016https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6322The opening of Shadow of Morrodor is a confusing mix of flashbacks and mixed with basic control tutorials. As someone who isn't well versed in Tolkien, I have no idea what is going on. This being said I'm hooked! The intro sequence is confusing and quick paced but I really appreciated it, I know the basis of the story and know who I'm supposed to kill. Speaking of killing, This game takes a lot of the moral implications of most games killing away entirely. Killing a massive amount of creatures is a lot easier on the mind whenever they are literally creatures made of hate and darkness. I thought the game might be offering some sort of moral choice with the interrogation of enemy captains, but it looks like you kill them either way. I'll have to see how these systems play out in the future, if I'm looking for moral implications that were they will most likely be found in this game, within the rival mechanics. It might take a few more play sessions to start to see them though.Tue, 21 Feb 2017 22:53:57 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6322&iddiary=10996https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6264Brothers a tale of two sons is a game that has been on my back catalog for a long time now. Part of the reason I take classes like these is to make me play through my back catalog, so I jumped at the opportunity to analysis this game. I've read a bit about Brothers and every thing I've read warns of the oddness of the controls. The warnings are due, as someone who plays a lot of shooters de-mapping the joysticks from their usually camera navigation uses is a challenge, but one that is worth taking. The act of just moving the brothers through the environment is compelling and different. Which is where my first complaint arises. Everything in this first level in the town screams to be interacted with. Every interaction gives a little insight into both brothers personalities and the world in which they inhabit, all conveyed through a coherent art design and well down animations. The problem is that the narrative explicitly wants you to hurry along with your quest. If this tutorial level would have come before the father's injury that would have removed some of the ludo-narrative dissonance I felt through the tutorial. This is a forgivable offence though because it is one many games fall into, which is why I will continue to point it out whenever I see it because it should be easily avoided. This introduction to the game is just the skin, but I know there is a lot of room within the mechanics of controlling these two brothers to tell a story, and I'm excited to see what they do with it.Tue, 24 Jan 2017 21:43:37 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6264&iddiary=10914