Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1988https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6887My final play session went for about an hour and twenty minutes. I was able to finish the game and find most of the story pieces spread throughout the areas. In the end, I chose to save Ali over Hossein, simply for the reason that up to that point I had been trying to move Ali toward a better less violent path. Unfortunately, he still dies in the end, but in my mind as more of a sympathetic character than he may have otherwise been. I was genuinely surprised by the reveal of Hossein as a conspirator against Reza, and even though abrupt, I felt the ending was still satisfying enough and certainly left it open for a sequel. Many people in America, myself included, didn’t really learn much about these events in high school and it seems the game did a good job at displaying the various forces involved in the revolution. It is good to see games used as a medium for historical fiction and documentary style pieces, as the interactive aspects of games seem to lend themselves well to the genre. Even though it seems from my quick google searches that only the choice of who to save affects the ending, the developers still made the choices feel meaningful, and I feel like they still are. Even if the game doesn’t directly change with many choices, the character of Reza certainly does. As a game that is based on relationships that a character has to his country and those around him, the character that develops in Reza, whether he be a pacifist, a violent rebel, or a religious zealot, very much changes the experience of the player. The game may not give you a bunch of endings based on what you choose to do, but if you were to view each playthrough as its own movie you wouldn’t say they told the same story. As a final note, I will say that the animations and art in general needed work in some places, but the voice actors performances did a good job overcoming the issues with awkward movement.Thu, 08 Nov 2018 21:48:28 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6887&iddiary=12318https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6887My second play session lasted forty minutes. At this point I am getting further into the story, and I have chosen to try and keep Reza from truly picking sides until he absolutely has to. So far when forced to choose between only two options, I tend toward siding with Babak as I didn’t want to actively have Reza act violently or as an activist. I would like to see how far I can take him as a naïve journalist. The game certainly seems to be playing with a theme of ambiguous morals. Within the opposition to the Iranian government there are different schools of thought, and each is only presented through the biased view of Reza’s acquaintances, at least up to this point. I would assume many people in Iran at the time were in similar situations and had to form opinions with limited and conflicting information. As someone who is slow to make decisions in real life, I have trouble quickly deciding in the game when placed under a time limit. This makes me second guess many of my choices, but I understand why the time limits are in place as a means to put pressure on the player. The torture scene in particular with Reza’s brother left me wondering if I should have made different decisions. I’m interested to see how the game wraps up, and would be interested in trying another run sticking strongly to one ideology. Thu, 08 Nov 2018 00:43:06 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6887&iddiary=12289https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6887I chose to try out 1979 Revolution after checking the steam page on the game and seeing that it concerns the Iranian revolution of 1979. Being that it covers an important historical event of which I have little knowledge, I figured that the game would be fresh and interesting to me. The game is basically an interactive movie, but I haven't played many games of this type so it hasn't been boring to me yet. I played for around 30 mins, so I didn't get too far into the game. It is a little jarring jumping right into the action, but I found that I was quickly interested in the narrative of the game. I found it a little difficult at first to make decisions as I didn't know much about the protagonist, but I feel like the game is letting me shape how the narrative will develop. I am hoping the game has slight variations in the story when the player makes different decisions, and the comments the game gives of how certain characters will remember things makes be think this will be the case. I may be able to do multiple runs through the game if this is the case. The feature of additional info available for players to read is really nice, as is helps explain a bit more of what is going on in the overall history of the events. Being a fan of history, I found myself quite interested in this feature. Making near recreations of actual photos was also something that I thought was pretty neat, as the game is staging itself within a fictionalized version of a real space. Overall I'm interested to see where the game will go moving forward.Wed, 07 Nov 2018 00:15:07 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6887&iddiary=12243https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6828In my last play session, I was able to complete Four Last Things and I will say that the game was entertaining throughout. My last 30 mins of playtime went mostly to attempting to find extra secrets before I completed my last sin, which I was confident I knew how to complete. Upon finishing the final sin of lust, I headed back to the church to finish off the game. I wasn’t completely sure how the game would end, but the ending really didn’t come as a surprise considering the general message I was getting from the game. Clearly the author wanted to comment on the oddities surrounding the procedures of the church, particularly the church of the past. The fact that the absolving of one’s sins can only be completed within the district the sin was committed, unless the sinner sins again in their new district shows how seemingly arbitrary the idea of absolution can be. The fear of death and damnation the protagonist feels after his dream of the original sin doesn’t trigger him to suddenly find faith, but rather he goes through the procedure necessary for him to avoid a terrible fate. The seven sins are absolute rules of the church, but are actually commonly broken as shown by the line outside the church in the game and the existence of a fast pass to confession for those who commit all seven sins. The ending of the game is a unique one that fuses a bleak message with humor, as was effectively done throughout the rest of the game as well. Despite its short length I enjoyed the game overall and think it was a very unique experience.Thu, 27 Sep 2018 20:58:28 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6828&iddiary=12164https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6828 My second play session lasted about 35 minutes, and ramped up in speed quite quickly. When I began my second time playing I was having trouble with finding new puzzle solutions, as I had the general ideas for the solutions but didn’t know what exactly to do. Eventually everything started to click in my head and I quickly started burning through my remaining sins. Sloth was one I had originally assumed I knew the solution to, but didn’t actually attempt until my second session (I guess a reflection of my own laziness). Pride was a humorous sin to commit, as I got to experiment with the humorous sculpture options and got to read more humorous writing. I would like to say that the art gallery is an interesting area, as players get to see the art that is used in the game, along with a neat puzzle. Wrath was interesting, as it was done where I had assumed Gluttony would be. When the appetite suppressant didn’t work to beat the pie king in the pie eating contest, I frustratedly tried to poison my opponent’s pie, not expecting it to do much. I was actually a little bit surprised that I had poisoned him, but I didn’t feel bad doing it as I had successfully moved forward in the game. Gluttony followed easily after, and I am left with one sin for my final play session. The game certainly does a good job at making light of acting against the moral code of the church, and many outside the church would consider the acts in the game immoral. I’m expecting that I can finish the game in my next session, and I hope it continues to be entertaining up to the end. Wed, 26 Sep 2018 18:34:33 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6828&iddiary=12105https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6828In my short first 45 minutes of playing Four Last Things, I have found many things I enjoy about the game. The art style is probably the first thing most would notice about the game, and it what was drew me in when I compared game options for these logs. The use of paintings to create the art immediately gave me a Monty Python vibe, and I’m glad I chose to give the game a chance. I haven’t played a point-and-click game in years, but I’ve enjoyed my return to the genre so far and had a good time checking all the possible options with every interactable option I came across. The music, art, and humor in the writing have all been pretty nice so far, and I got quite a few chuckles out of the meta jokes and dialogue options. The game will clearly be an interesting one to dive into for analysis, as the major goal at this point in the game is to commit all of the seven deadly sins, which the protagonist has already done at this point but needs to do again to be absolved in his new parish (this is allowed via a loophole according to the Bishops). Obviously, this goal will have players make many choices considered to be morally wrong by the church in order to then be forgiven (by the same church organization). At this point I successfully committed two sins, those being envy and greed. Already, I can see the game is successful in providing a rewarding feeling for acting immorally, as I was not only happy when I committed my first sin of envy in the game, I actually excitedly high-fived my girlfriend immediately afterwards. This seems to be a game I will enjoy to the end, and I look forward to sharing it with friends in the future. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Wed, 26 Sep 2018 00:47:00.)Wed, 26 Sep 2018 00:45:40 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6828&iddiary=12096https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6726 My third session went for around 2.5 hours. At this point I entered fully in the Sand and Varga gang war. The game continues to create challenges by keeping up on crimes while keeping the various other agents (mafia, City Hall, officers) in the game happy. Unfortunately for protagonist Jack Boyd, I must have failed to keep someone happy, because Jack was assassinated a few days into the war. I don’t believe on that day that I didn’t do any mafia missions, but I assume making Sand angry is what ended in Jack’s death. I replayed the day to try and see if things would end differently and fortunately Jack did survive on my second attempt. I don’t believe I did any more to help Sand on my repeat, but the gang war did lean in his favor at the days end, so I must have done something better. Attempting to keep corruption to a minimum, I have avoided some of the options presented by the mafia. I still haven’t used them to kill of any of my officers, as I have had valid in-game reasons to legally fire those that were not performing optimally. It has been tempting to kill the poorly performing son of a businessman who bought me more officer slots, but even if killing him off might be better for my performance in the game I would rather not play that way. This isn’t to say I have been playing entirely cleanly, as I have sold a few of the weapons and drugs recovered in crimes to gain some extra money. At this point I have given in to the fact that the game is going to present fewer and fewer options for keeping a clean conscience. I’d be interested to know how far someone can actually make it in the game playing completely by the book, not allowing any shenanigans with the mafia or city hall to interfere. As a final note, I like the amount of character given to Jack in the story. While he begins the game apprehensive of the fully corrupt options available later on, Jack is not given an extremely defined outlook on what he is willing to do in order to make the money he needs and keep himself alive. In this way it helps make the player feel more in charge of the decisions made in the game, while still tying them into Jack’s fate. In the story, he’s the one facing the moral dilemmas, but the player is really the one left to choose.Thu, 30 Aug 2018 23:51:35 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6726&iddiary=12005https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6726 My second play session lasted about 50 minutes. Continuing on in the game, I had far more requests from Sand (the mafia boss) to ignore calls. I found that I was willing to let these crimes go when it seemed going against Sand’s wishes could end up getting Jack in more trouble. In order to rationalize my decisions to let the mob win and potentially let some civilians die, I would make sure that all of my remaining officers were working to ensure every other case was completed fully and without casualties. At this point, the game has certainly become a balancing act as I attempt to keep crime off the streets while still not angering the head of organized crime. Even though I am playing a character in the game, the way the gameplay is structured definitely pushes the ethical dilemmas onto the player. Jack is not made to be a perfect hero in his role as police chief, and the decisions his character would make are all within the realm of decisions a player is able to make. In this session I came to another major decision, as I had to choose which mafia boss to side with, Varga or Sand. I initially leaned toward Varga, as I saw Sand as the stronger organization that would need dealt with first. However, after some contemplation, I decided to go with Sand, as I believe it will be easier to have Varga lose in the coming gang war, and if I can’t backstab Sand later on it seems that he may be the more controlled evil of the two. This decision was not easy, as I had to make a choice between the lesser of two evils, and it’s very possible I have chosen the greater of the two. It seems that the dilemmas faced in this game are largely choosing between two negative paths, as no matter what a player does I don’t believe the game will always present a morally right option.Wed, 29 Aug 2018 16:48:36 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6726&iddiary=11944https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6726I went into This is the Police having never heard of the game. So far, 2 hours in and I am pleasantly surprised. The gameplay is closest to Papers Please relating to games I have previously played, but is still an experience fairly unique amongst games I have played. In terms of the games story, it has kept me very interested and I am ready to keep playing when I get the chance. Immediately the opening cutscene shows that the morals of the players will be brought into question, or at least the morals of the character they are controlling, Jack Boyd. The game forces the player to make decisions quickly, ranging in difficulty from choosing a number of officers to send to a crime scene to other groups pressuring the player to make difficult decisions. The first of these I encountered was the mayor’s office ordering me to fire all black officers. Not only would I have had to fire several officers, all of them were among the highest performing in my unit. I chose to face the wrath of the mayor and not fire anyone, and still have yet to do so. My toughest decision came when deciding whether or not to take Kendrick’s place as the Mafia’s inside man. I took a short break during this time to get some food and think on what my decision might mean in the game, and what kind of character I intended for Jack to be. I decided to help Kendrick and the game immediately made me feel like I had chosen the wrong thing, with Jack immediately thinking he was acting irrationally by allowing himself to work for the Mafia. From my perspective, I feel like no matter what I did I would end up forced to work for the Mafia, so I decided to attempt and keep Kendrick alive. It seems like the remainder of the game will be quite interesting, with more decisions on what cases to pursue and who to keep happy.Sun, 26 Aug 2018 04:22:14 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6726&iddiary=11891