Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1959https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6655Restarting the game a few times confirmed my earlier suspicions - this is very much a linear 'amber' narrative and the supposed 'options' are inconsequential. Ironically, this is highly appropriate for the subject matter being presented. Black Friday was a force unto itself and much of the conflict was as inevitable as gravity. Even the most influential people of the era could have done little more than postpone the eruption of violence - a relative innocent like Reza has no chance to exert any significant influence. Whether you initiate violence with the police or not, they open fire on the crowd - Reza escapes but Abbas is wounded. Whether you treat Abbas' wounds or not, he pulls through to continue the revolution. Whether you support or object to getting involved further, Babak drags you to the rebel hideout at the radio station. Autonomy is an illusion and Reza continues to be swept up in events beyond his control, which strain his ability to comprehend them.Tue, 27 Mar 2018 23:55:53 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6655&iddiary=11758https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6655A rather interesting narrative experience, though I'm given to wonder just how much 'autonomy' the player has - it will take a lot more gameplay to know for sure. Being older than typical college students, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 happened at a time when I was young and naive yet old enough to remember a number of details. Of course, this was all from the Western/American perspective - while seeing it now from an Iranian perspective is an interesting experience, I can already feel some of my biases creeping up on me. Despite Islam being touted as a 'religion of peace', the interrogator's violent behavior (along with the open hostility of a number of the NPCs) is much more in tune with my experiences. Well-executed, to say the least. It's already late but I'm looking forward to walking further in another's shoes when I'm more cognizant.Mon, 26 Mar 2018 23:51:06 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6655&iddiary=11741https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6584Spent another two hours or so playing last night and I have become totally disillusioned of my earlier fangirlism. I don't seem to be making any tangible progress apart from picking up a few runes, talents, and so forth - merely retracing my former progress ad nauseum. I openly admit to being an altoholic in World of Warcraft but, at the very least, that involves over two hundred distinct combinations of races, classes, and specializations. Here, there's only Talion... ...dealing with the same uruk bosses time and again... ...who become significantly more powerful, win or lose... ...again. And again. I feel I have a sense for what the designers and developers meant to accomplish, but the execution leaves much to be desired. The longer I play, the greater my sense of frustration and futility. Death is meaningless, for both hero and enemy, and 'freed' prisoners are simply recaptured or replaced with new prisoners. What tiny scraps of advancement and improvement are gathered along the way feel insignificant in the face of such rote monotony. Maybe I'm just overlooking some key detail which would make everything else fall into place, like those magic pictures which suddenly appear when you squint your eyes just the right way. But, as things stand, this is likely going to be among the rare titles that I actually trade for some other game.Thu, 15 Feb 2018 10:59:12 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6584&iddiary=11676https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6584Got in another two hours of game time today, and the shine has quickly worn off from this game. Despite playing Story Mode (thereby expecting a somewhat linear progress), it behaves more like a single-player MMORPG. The novelty of the Nemesis system grows tiresome when you now engage one of the bosses only to have them joined by at least one additional boss and an increasing throng of minions - leading, of course, to multiple promotions which thereby ensures that they will gang up on you even more. What's more is that these same bosses seem to be on extremely short respawn timers, not staying dead for long if at all. My lack of familiarity with the mechanics and environment might be twisting my perception in this regard. Though inadvertently stabbing myself in the hand earlier tonight may play a significant role as well. One new experience, however, as I encountered my first troll tonight. Sniping (even when plugging the galoot smack in the eye) seems to do no appreciable damage and melee appears to be out of the question as well - despite some fairly artful footwork, avoiding his attacks for the most part, he eventually got the better of me while I was unable to do any noticeable damage to him. Also still at something of a loss for what I am meant to glean from this title. Killing uruks to free the human slaves/prisoners seems something of a no-brainer, unless there is something to be argued in regards to killing many uruks to free a handful of humans.Tue, 13 Feb 2018 23:09:07 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6584&iddiary=11627https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6584Stupid POS ate my entry and I'm too frikkin tired to type it up again! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * R E C O N S T R U C T I O N * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Caught halfway through a cross-town move, I almost forgot about this second series of game logs and spent most of the day (now yesterday) tearing through both places trying to find both the game and the console to get them set up. Managed about an hour and a half of gameplay which - given the overall scope of this title - was barely enough to get my feet wet. The game opens with a series of vignettes from the perspective of the game's protagonist - a wraith-like Gondorian ranger named Talion - as he 'relives' the deaths of his son, his wife, and himself. The backstory's similarities to the tales of Beren and Lúthien, accompanied by the eerily-familiar wraith effects, prompted me to check online and, sure enough, Peter Jackson and Weta Workshop were both involved in this game, working from Tolkien's own writings. As a huge Lord of the Rings fan (Jackson's trilogy in particular), these immediately altered my early apprehensions about the game. Atrocious bastardizations of Tolkien's work is fairly ubiquitous so I came into this title with low expectations - the earmarks of Jackson's influence were apparent enough to turn my thoughts hopeful. (The elf-wraith Celebrimbor reforging the broken sword - highly reminiscent of when Narsil was reforged into Andúril - was bonus joygasm!) Beyond this, most time was spent familiarizing myself with the game's controls. Inexperienced with the PS4 control scheme in general, I often found myself somersaulting over enemies I meant to attack and missing opportunities to parry. Likely far less an issue for more experienced PS4 gamers, but an additional layer of awkward when playing a swift-paced action/adventure title. Setting out, the gameplay was generally straightforward hack-and-slash. A clever ruse, it turned out. Having escaped after failing to take down the first uruk leader I challenged, I was startled when he seemed to recall my previous attempt when I took a second crack at him. This spurred me to check online again to discover the Nemesis System; essentially a simple 'learning AI'. I've been a stickler fangirl most of my gaming career and it often irked me how enemy NPCs would just casually stroll past their dead comrades and, if you go beyond the reach of their chain, they simply return to "first positions" and act as if the encounter never happened. With the joy of this discovery still settling in, I caught glimpse of a certain former Stoor (an early Hobbit tribe that flourished along rivers) named Sméagol (aka Gollum). Bonus @joygasm! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * It was getting late and I was beyond tired; encounters were running together in a blur and I began losing fights to mere minions, so I decided to call it a night. Most of this was originally written and submitted February 12, 2018 (8:55 PM host time / 7:55 PM local time) but this stupid piece-of-crap 'blog' ate it and the entry was nowhere to be found! I suspect my original entry was superior to this one but, finding it had vanished into the ether, I was in no fit condition to attempt to reconstruct it last night. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Tue, 13 Feb 2018 09:39:59.)Mon, 12 Feb 2018 20:57:36 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6584&iddiary=11599https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6543Spent most of today's gameplay (a bit over an hour) with C-Team trying to sort out the puzzles in the Rec Room. Fiendishly clever puzzles, though it took me a while to find the 'threads'. Very deep ethical conundrums to transpire. The "roll three 1s" was diabolical, particularly poor 'sportsmanship' for the number and difficulty of the puzzles to work out. Though it's hard to say if the miracle (third try) was worth it. Even more curious as the later dialog specifically mentioned the third attempt - curious as to whether the third effort would auto-succeed or if the narrative changes to match the 'winning' throw. The subsequent debate, however, got REALLY deep. Five x-passes announced, with only Phi remaining. The clear tension between the younger school chums (drawing a blank at their names atm), regret, things unsaid. Reminds me of a few things in my own life I'd like closure on.Sat, 20 Jan 2018 00:56:09 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6543&iddiary=11566https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6543Got home yesterday to find my disabled roommate in very bad shape, so I didn't get anything done towards this as intended. Fortunately, she's okay now. Most of today's gameplay was figuring out the puzzles in the Healing Room. Interesting three-stage design - using the camera to photograph shapes which resembled the harpsichord keys, using the physical keys as keys, then using the 'keys' as keys. ('Key'sian, perhaps?) The bit with the button was a particularly curious conundrum. Rather than a simple Yes/No selection, a timer counted down while Sigma and Phi argued about whether or not to press the button. An interesting juxtaposition of obedience vs curiosity. Rather dissatisfying to discover that neither course of action was truly viable - NOT pushing the button meant escape from the room, only to be assassinated individually by a cloaked figure (despite Diana rightfully escaping via the six x-passes, only to be assassinated anyways); pushing the button detonated a massive explosion. Like a mousetrap with poisoned cheese, the utter lack of any 'correct solution' was dissatisfying at best.Thu, 18 Jan 2018 10:53:18 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6543&iddiary=11547https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6543My initial conception of the game went right out the window as the nine characters are separated into immutable groups of three, so no picking and choosing specific individuals. Whether by chance or design, I called the coin flip correctly and my first playthrough found everyone safe and alive on the surface with only vague memories of what had happened. Roll credits. Further gameplay offered particularly squirrelly dilemmas. The dog (a seeming Deus Ex Machina, as it had never before been mentioned) showed up in the vent with a note from the other two groups with a plan to vote in a circular arrangement so no group would be eliminated (in theory, at least). An old bromide asserts that a person who trusts everyone will make fewer mistakes than one who trusts no one though, from the gameplay, it was difficult to discern if this had the intended outcome. Switching between groups seemed like a cheat. The incinerator proved fiendishly difficult to make headway with, as it was the first time interacting with objects and connecting the sliders on the control panel with the letters from the poster only visible through the goggles was a bit of a stretch. From there on, the puzzles were easy though the 'key' was a bit of a surprise. The resulting dilemma with Sigma wasn't as intense as it might have been. Sigma rightly argued that either option - pulling the trigger or not pulling it - would guarantee the survival of Diana and one other, but pulling the trigger (with a 50/50 chance of killing Sigma) was the only option which allowed a chance for all three to survive. What's more is that Sigma himself was advocating for this course, all but relieving Diana of any accountability for taking said course of action. The manufacturing room was simple straightforward puzzle logic throughout until the very end, when Zero conveniently disapproved of the escape plan and claimed that one of the other teams would be destroyed in the process. Considering that the system had just announced the demise of one team, this ploy turned the situation into something of a win-win. Per the available maps, the area opposite the target door could not have been normally occupied by any of the other groups. There was no certain means whereby the explosive could be stopped or, if so, stopped before detonation; additionally, the group had only Zero's word for it that anyone else was indeed in jeopardy from the detonation, only after-the-fact at that. Even assuming the claim to be true Zero would have had to move at a blazing pace to have become aware of the escape plan, devise this counter-ploy, incapacitated the other team, position their unconscious bodies on the opposite side of the door, then casually goad the first group as if he had anticipated it all along. Not bloody likely. And here's where I paused for the night. Still feeling quite terrible as I think I picked up that Super-Flu over the weekend, but at least I managed to get this much done.Tue, 16 Jan 2018 21:42:26 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6543&iddiary=11468