Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1888https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6489I continued to play another couple of hours of Dishonored 2 today. I spend a lot of time in the game trying to find everything. Every bone charm, every rune, every bloodfly infested building. I guess I’m sort of a completionist in that way. I also appreciate the challenge of finding all the secrets. It’s interesting, I am hesitant to kill people in the game, but I don’t hesitate for a second to steal any and everything I come across. It’s time consuming looking for everything, but finding the runes has helped me level up my powers faster. As I’m trying my best not to kill anyone, Emily’s Shadow Walk and Far Reach abilities have been invaluable. The Far Reach ability allows me to sneak behind enemies, and it helps me get into hard to reach areas to reach runes and bone charms. I completed the Clockwork mansion area during my time playing today. It was extremely difficult getting through this area without killing anybody. I justified myself in destroying the Clockwork Soldiers because they weren’t human, but there were also human enemies that I either had to incapacitate or try to avoid altogether. The sleep darts have been an awesome tool to have. There were a bunch of secret areas and stuff to find in the level, some of which helped me to sneak through and avoid interacting with enemies. When I got to the boss, Kirin Jindosh, I was given another option to either kill or take a non-lethal approach, just like the Crown Killer/Dr. Hypatia. Knocking Jindosh out was easy, then I had to “kill” two of the Clockwork Soldiers, significantly less easy. Then, rather than killing Jindosh, I put him in an Electroshock Chair to take away his genius and prevent him from making any more of his evil inventions. Though I’m not even halfway through the game at this point, there have been some good ethical lessons learned. I look forward to finishing this game. Thu, 09 Nov 2017 21:23:59 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6489&iddiary=11405https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6489I played another hour of Dishonored 2 yesterday. I played through the mission in which the goal is to eliminate the Crown Killer. The game does a great job of putting the player into a moral dilemma with this decision. Do I kill the Crown Killer, effectively also eliminating Dr. Hypatia? Or do I take the extra steps to develop the antiserum and inject the Crown Killer, eliminating the murderer yet keeping Dr. Hypatia alive? Because I’m trying to play the good route in the game (as much as possible) I decided to save Dr. Hypatia. While there were several extra steps to take, I felt that the sacrifice in time and effort would be worth it in the end. Dishonored 2 is significantly more difficult when you try to be stealthy and do your best to avoid killing anyone. I appreciate that because it gives me a sense of accomplishment every time I sneak through an area or knock someone out instead of killing them. The crossbow with Emily has been an invaluable tool, because it allows me to use the sleep darts and knock out enemies from a distance. I just have to be careful not to use the regular bolts. I feel like I’m still very early in my progress of the game, which means it will likely get much more difficult. I’m still going to try and play as “good” as I can. Wed, 08 Nov 2017 17:42:46 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6489&iddiary=11387https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6489I started playing Dishonored 2 yesterday, and spent about 2 hours in the game. In the first Dishonored I played through the game without any thought to killing every enemy I came across. Going into Dishonored 2, I had the intention of playing through the game without killing. I decided to play as Emily, as her powers and abilities seemed more tailored to a stealthy approach. I played through just past the prologue of the game, and for the first 40 minutes or so, I managed to play without killing anybody. I took a non-lethal approach, knocking everyone out that I couldn’t sneak around. Unfortunately, this was short lived. I came to a point in the road where I couldn’t figure out how to sneak past the guards. I tried multiple times, but I was seen every time. Unfortunately, at this point, I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to use my sword. I made the decision to only kill if I absolutely must, but to use stealth and non-lethal takedowns whenever possible. My own ethical compromise so to speak. Towards the end of my play session, I came across a shop and found a way to sneak in the back, knock out the shopkeeper and steal everything. Sort of a selfish move on my part, but it netted me some cool gear, money, and even an achievement. It will be interesting to see how long I can keep up with the minimal killing. It certainly makes the game more difficult, and as such makes it more fun. Tue, 07 Nov 2017 13:35:47 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6489&iddiary=11373https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6460After my last gaming session playing Oxenfree, it seemed I only had about 45 minutes left in the game. It certainly was an eventful 45 minutes though. It turns out that I was right in that everything was leading up to a huge decision for the main character Alex. As the game plays out, Alex and her friends, in a Scooby-Dooesque mystery team think they have found a way to get Clarissa out of this other dimension and get them all off the island. Throughout this process, the interdimensional “ghosts” are trying to influence your decision one way or the other. When you finally get to what feels like the last decision, the “ghosts” make you one more offer. If you let them have Clarissa, you and your friends will be allowed to leave the island, no questions asked. I had been playing on the side of good for the duration of the entire game, and when given the option to sacrifice myself so that my friends could live on, I didn’t think twice about it. It’s certainly an interesting choice ethically. Sacrifice yourself, or sacrifice someone else so that you can live to see another day. After sacrificing myself, I went into another dream state, except this one wasn’t dark and nightmarish like the ones before. In this dream, Alex was in her house, and her deceased brother was there as well. The atmosphere was almost heavenly, very bright with sort of a fog. You are given a couple more dialogue choices, though I don’t know how those play out for the ending at this stage in the game. Then, in a flash, I’m waking up on the ferry and all my friends are there. I thought that maybe by sacrificing myself, I’ve actually saved everyone. The game then takes you to an end scene where it basically tells you how your decisions have impacted each character’s life. You are given one final dialog box when given the opportunity to pick your own future. I chose that Alex is going to take some time off. Then the game starts over!! As if by sacrificing Alex, you’ve doomed her to spend the rest of eternity living this weekend over and over. Crazy to think about. I have never been more tempted to play a game through a second time just to see if I can change the outcome. The ethical choices the developers have forced you to make take a pretty emotional toll, at least they did with me. They also expose players to some harsh topics, like depression, coping with loss, sacrifice and suicide. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed playing this game and it’s one I probably won’t forget for a long time. Thu, 28 Sep 2017 09:11:23 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6460&iddiary=11323https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6460As I continued playing Oxenfree for a little over an hour yesterday, I seem to be further ostracizing myself (as Alex) from my friends on the island. This game really likes to play with your emotions. The main character Alex struggles to cope with her brother’s death, and it comes up in conversation often, especially with Jonas, her new stepbrother. After yesterday’s gaming session, I didn’t know if Clarissa was dead or not. She’s apparently not, rather she’s been taken into an alternate dimension. In some sort of dream state, hallucination, temporal vortex thing, Clarissa blames Alex for Michael’s death, saying that if she hadn’t urged him to stick around he would have left town and he would have been safe. Naturally Alex gets defensive, and seems to feel a certain level of guilt. Every conversation I have continues to guide the story. At first I thought these decisions were going to result in minor changes to the storyline, but they all seem to be leading up to something much larger. As I said before, the game toys with your emotions quite a bit. On more than one occasion, a friend has either died or been sucked off into some alternate dimension. This has happened with Clarissa, Jonas and Ren. I assume it will happen to Nona at some point as well. I’m not sure if this is just how the game plays out normally, or if this is a result of a decision that I made during dialogue. The dialogue choice is usually an empathetic response of some sort, a malevolent response or an indifferent one. I’ve tried to err on the side of good for the duration of the game, but honestly that might not be a good thing. Some of these decisions might seem like the right thing for one character, but might end up hurting someone else. We’ll see how it finishes, I feel like things are leading up to something big. I feel like each decision I make is becoming more and more important.Wed, 27 Sep 2017 17:33:55 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6460&iddiary=11308https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6460I have played Oxenfree on Xbox One for a little over 2 hours now. So far, I can say that I am impressed. Within the first few minutes you see your first decision. Playing as the main character Alex, you are given the option to choose sides between your new stepbrother Jonas and your childhood friend Ren. The game does a great job with the dialogue. By creating this walk and talk approach, the developer Night School Studio has created a very organic approach to conversation. Every dialog box gives the player a decision, a side to choose. Each of these decisions guides how the game plays out and how, as Alex, your relationship with your friends develops. In one instance, you are given a choice to explore a cave or stay on the beach. Though I am not sure what the result would have been had I not gone into the cave, going into the cave was basically what started the actual story of the game by unleashing some sort of paranormal entity on the island. As I followed the story further, my dialogue decisions resulted in another acquaintance, Clarissa, jumping from a window to her death (we think). Alex, and in turn I, feel guilty when this happens. The dialog boxes are assigned to the X, Y and B buttons on the Xbox controller, as conversation happens in the game, you are given just seconds to respond, or else the game forces you into a dialogue decision. I am sort of on the fence about this so far. On one hand, the conversations flow much more naturally. On the other hand, if for some reason you miss a prompt, you could potentially change the outcome of the game, which seems like a harsh consequence. We will see how things play out going forward.Tue, 26 Sep 2017 14:56:50 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6460&iddiary=11292https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6425I played another 2 hours of Prison Architect today. I realized after my last 2 attempts in the sort of sandbox mode that I had a ton of the campaign that I still needed to finish. The campaign is more of a drawn-out tutorial, but it forces you to make some decisions and witness some pretty brutal stuff. At first, I thought that it was kind of nice playing at a slower pace after my last couple of failed attempts in the sandbox mode. It was at least slower at first. Immediately after the first part of the campaign, where I had to execute the prisoner convicted of a double murder, the game threw me into a scenario where I had to put out a fire in the canteen/kitchen and then rebuild again before meal time. I find out before too long that the fire was set in an attempt to kill the son of a mob boss. The Palermo crime family controls the drug trade within my prison, and to help stem the drug problem, I do a shakedown of the entire prison. I find a ton of contraband in the process of searching the prisoners. From a morale perspective, the prisoners for the most part weren’t very happy with me during and immediately after the shakedown. Interestingly enough, just like in sandbox mode, I have to keep the prisoners needs in check while managing the ever-growing prison population. Things can get out of control so quickly. As part of the story, the prisoners riot and several staff members, including the warden are taken hostage. The sheer size of my prison population doesn’t help the situation at all. Luckily from my failed game in my last playthrough, I learned what to do in the case of the riot (the game gave me instruction as well). I have to deploy riot police quickly enough while dealing with the hostage crisis at the same time. The hostage crisis sort of plays itself out as interludes during the riot. One thing I’ve learned more than anything in this game, and something that seems to be an ongoing theme from an ethics perspective is that even though I am in charge of a for-profit prison, treating my prisoners right is paramount to my success. The cost gets pretty high when riots occur. Prisoners and staff members are killed, walls are knocked down, I deploy riot police. It’s just better in the long run, if I want my game to last for any length of time, to treat the prisoners with dignity and give them creature comforts. Basically, a little humanity goes a long way. Wed, 30 Aug 2017 18:43:24 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6425&iddiary=11245https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6425Yesterday I played another 3 hours of Prison Architect. At this point I had finally made it through the initial tutorial which gave me the basic framework of the game. As you start the actual game, they basically give you a huge open field and tell you to build a prison. This seemed like a daunting task at first but you are given a finite sum of money to start with and some pretty basic tasks. I began to build. Everything seemed to be going well at first, I built a canteen (cafeteria) and a kitchen, and built a basic holding cell to hold my prisoners, one that didn’t cost too much money. I was ready for my first prisoner intake, or at least I thought I was. It wasn’t long before things started to spiral out of control. The in-game days go by rather quickly, and with each passing day comes more prisoners. Some prisoners are paroled, so there is a bit of ebb and flow, but there are quite few more prisoners coming in than there are prisoners going out. The holding cell I built was becoming overcrowded and in my haste to build it I had included a fundamental flaw, a door to the outside. It wasn’t very long before the prisoners found a way to exploit it and make a break for freedom. In the ensuing minutes, I lost about 80% of my prisoner population, either to death or to escape. The CEO of the prison system called not long after, my contract was revoked. Game failed. Restart. To my disappointment, I was forced to start everything over. I got past my initial frustration and decided that this time I would do things right, and I would do it as fast as I possibly could to keep up with the population of the prison. I was wrong, again. While I could build the holding cell larger, and even had the funds to build a cell block, I forgot one critical thing. Food. I started with plenty of food, but just as in my previous playthrough, I didn’t consider a quickly growing prisoner population. Before long, my prisoner population was large, as was their demand for food. My supply of food, along with my short-staffed kitchen couldn’t keep up with the demand. The result? Extremely hangry (hungry + angry) prisoners. They rioted, killing each other and virtually my entire staff, all the way down to the janitors. I tried to deploy riot police but it went so fast, everyone was dead before they had a chance to make a difference. Again, game failed. Another restart. In my time playing today, I had to restart the game twice. While this was incredibly frustrating, it also taught me a pretty good lesson in ethics. Even though it might be my job in this game to create a prison that makes money, I also learned that I must find a balance. I’d imagine it’s the same in the real world of for-profit prisons. If you decide to cram prisoners into tight spaces, or if you don’t provide enough food, the prisoners riot or find a way to escape. Basically, treat people with respect and dignity and there is a significantly higher chance that you’ll get treated in kind. I will see if I can’t do that in my next attempt at building this prison. Tue, 29 Aug 2017 11:54:53 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6425&iddiary=11227https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6425I started playing Prison Architect today. I've seen this game pass through Steam sales but never picked it up until now. I thought that from an ethics perspective this would be a cool choice. I was able to confirm that in the first ten minutes of playing the game. My first task in the game was to build an execution chamber for a man named Edward Romsey, who is on Death Row for committing a double murder. The game immediately goes into the process of telling the story of his crime, catching his wife in bed with another man and murdering them both in cold blood. Pretty dark start, I thought. It's at this point the game gives you your first ethical decision. Provide Romsey with creature comforts such as a window and a bookshelf, or keep him in a dark barren cell until the time of his execution. I thought, the guys going to pay for his crimes with his life, the least I can do is show a modicum of humanity until then. I provided him with the window and bookshelf. After testing and making sure the electric chair was in working order, your task is to carry out Edward Romsey's execution. When the switch was flipped, an interesting thing happened. The screen faded to white rather than black and there was angelic music playing in the background, almost as if to signal the man found salvation. Sort of an interesting choice made by the developers. This was the end of my first 30 minutes of playing the game. My first impression of the game is that it's definitely going to involve a lot of ethical decision making on my part, which should be pretty interesting. Do I provide comforts and keep the prisoners happy, or do I turn the prison into a gulag with constant lockdowns and regular shakedowns of cells? One interesting point is that the ficitional prison system in the game is a for-profit prison system. Every decision I make impacts the bottom line. Do I save a few bucks at the risk of making the lives of these prisoners miserable? Will that cost me more in the long run with riots and escapes? Time will tell I guess.Wed, 23 Aug 2017 23:30:20 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6425&iddiary=11212