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Smashing Bottles (PC) by jp (May 30th, 2026 at 18:16:28) |
Heard about this one recently and got stuck playing the demo on itch (though it's also available on Steam) for a few hours until I got to the final (demo) ending!
It's an incremental game with some interesting things going on - you have a bat and smash bottles, but you have a limited time to do so (in seconds, like max 25 or so after all the upgrades?). When time runs out you can go again or go to the shop to buy upgrades. As expected you want to get more money from smashing bottles and there's ways to do that - spawn golden bottles, champagne bottles (when they smash the corks fly out and can smash other things), and even molotov cocktails (that explode, smashing other things).
There's a few things I thought where nice/clever:
a. The game has two distinct phases (once you unlock molotovs, everything changes, really) - the "you smash" and the "maximize money in the time allowed". In the latter, the game mostly plays itself as the molotovs keep everything getting smashed.
b. The "you smash" has rotating bottles, and since the smashing can take a few hits, there's some interest in smashing champagne such that the cork flies in a certain direction for more damage.
c. The champagne corks are pretty clever - since it gives you a reason to, in the short time you have to smash, choose what to smash a little more carefully. Go for golden or champagne hoping for a productive chain reaction?
Of course there's also a prestige/reset mechanic - from which you can lock a separate bat that smashes.
I'm curious how far things will go once the full game is out - and what the nature of the upgrades will be. I'm really hoping for more variety in the experience beyond the simple "number go up" - in that sense the molotovs seem like they're capping the experience in a detrimental way (even as they were super fun to smash when I first unlocked them.
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Donkey Kong Bananza (NSW2) by jp (May 30th, 2026 at 18:07:32) |
Still playing!
It has an interesting structure in terms of its levels and such - the core metaphor is that you're going deeper into the planet with each level, and they're both thematic and numbered. I got to a point where there's a bifurcation - go right into what I thought was "jungle land" or left into "snow land". I went right did a few more levels, cleared the boss (it was plant/poison land) and in order to continue going deeper I was then told to go back to "snow land"! There's a fast travel/teleport system involving giant worms that can move your around, so it was easy enough to do this, but I was surprised to learn that the fork was just a "choose what order to do these" situation... and also, the entire "fork" makes little sense thematically so I'm curious to see how it's explained and communicated in the interface - will it look like a fork in the "hole" going into the planet's core?
The titular ability (bananza mode!) was a bit underwhelming - you turn into a bigger DK and can now punch things you couldn't before - it lasts a limited amount of time. But, I've since unlocked a new one - DK-bird - where you can glide around (and after paying to unlock) and drop an egg on enemies. The gilding around was important/necessary in the plant/poison levels, and I'm expecting it to be similarly required in the snowy ones. We'll see!
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Hollow Knight: Silksong (PC) by dkirschner (May 13th, 2026 at 14:58:07) |
Kicking myself for not writing an entry when I was playing this 6 months ago. I am cleaning up my wishlist, backlog, and etc., and the FEELING I get when I see Silksong "in progress" is anxiety. I had jotted a few notes in December, as follows:
"It’s true, Silksong is hard. Like, really, frustratingly hard. Like punishingly difficult. I hit a wall at the end of Act 1 trying to beat the Last Judge. The game likes to place benches far away from boss fights, such that retrying boss fights involves slogging back through tough platforming and other sections of the map."
I did kill the Last Judge and complete Act 1. I remember that took a very long time, and that after the Last Judge, I died a few more times and, probably, with shaking hands and rapid heartbeat, said, "I can't do this anymore." Actually, it may have been in one of those rooms with waves of enemies. This innovation is new and unwelcome to Silksong, rooms that lock upon entering and spill several waves of challenging enemies at you. Yeah, I think that is what got me, just being pummeled over and over in one of those rooms, getting tired of exploring the maze-like map, tired of dying, tired of corpse runs, just exhausted. The game became a chore.
Besides that, I loved it, haha. I was definitely into it for a while. It was sublime until it wasn't.
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Turnip Boy Robs a Bank (PC) by dkirschner (May 12th, 2026 at 17:20:35) |
I meant to quickly beat this back in April so I could have a "completion" for the month, but I got really busy after spending barely an hour one afternoon with Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, a bizarre little twin-stick shooter about a turnip...who robs a bank. The game builds off previous games in the series, which I have never played, in which Turnip Boy commits tax evasion and, according to this game at least, seems to have started a war. Work has slowed down for the first time in nearly two months, and while I wait for my next contract to begin, I figured I'd knock this out.
The whole game is silly. The world is populated by sentient fruits and vegetables. You are employed by a pickle / mafia gang leader to rob a bank of a garlic bulb / bad guy / killed your dad. You have a base, where you can get new weapon loadouts by bringing weapons from the bank (always try to return with something new or high-powered!), purchase progression items from the "dark web," and upgrade stuff at another vendor. You go on "runs" to the bank, which are timed (starts at 2 or 3 minutes, goes up to 5 or 6 with upgrades). Runs are over when you die or when you exit the bank. Die and you lose half the cash you accumulated in the run. Survive and you are handsomely rewarded. Upgrade stuff. Go back to the bank. It's a roguelite too.
The bank has a specific layout of rooms, but you'll encounter some randomized areas too, and enemies and treasure are somewhat randomized. Throughout the bank are tons of NPCs with little fetch quests that usually reward you with pictures (fun/ny to look at) or hats (fun/ny to equip). A blueberry might want you to find its wedding ring, a lime wants you to get divorce papers from her lemon husband, a scientist pineapple wants you to find a philosopher mango and ask it an ethical question about experimenting on fruits, etc. I had some good laughs.
In each corner of the bank is a boss. Boss fights were fun, but the most challenging were early on. Once you start upgrading stats, the game becomes easy. It definitely ends up being an "upgrade everything and go nuts on all the enemies!" type game, experience being overpowered.
I haven't played a twin-stick shooter in a while, and while this wasn't revolutionary or anything, it was fun and scratched the itch. I gotta get back to Divinity: Original Sin 2. I might have some extra time till my next gig, so maybe I can boot it up, remember what I was doing, and make some progress this week.
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Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS) by jp (Apr 27th, 2026 at 22:04:52) |
I got to that point where I hit a monster/boss that just wasn't that much fun, and then I got a bit lost in terms of where to continue making progress, and the backtracking started to get a bit tiresome...as I explored and searched for different paths. So, time to bail!
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Tyranny (PC) by dkirschner |
| Cool intro and setting, playing as a bad guy. -------- Phenomenal story. Love this game. |
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most recent entry: Friday 29 October, 2021
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This is all I've played since the semester began and, though I wish I had more free time during the semester, this was a good way to spend most of my alone time. I had been looking forward to this because it built upon the excellent Pillars of Eternity, which I played some of over the summer, and it has a unique "play as a bad guy" angle. It's actually far more nuanced and has the most interesting story I've come across in ages. Here's the gist:
Kyros, the Overlord, is in the process of conquering the Tiers, part of his long campaign to bring order to (as far as I can tell) the known world. His armies are led by the Archon of War (Graven Ashe) and the Archon of Secrets (the Voices of Nerat). The Overlord him/herself is an enigmatic, god-like being, never seen, but who rules through his hierarchy of servants. Archons are people who have attained some supernatural powers and renown and who govern others in the Overlord's domain. Another Archon--the Archon of Justice--is named Tunon the Adjudicator. This is your boss. You are a Fatebinder, someone who administers the Overlord's justice on behalf of Tunon. So begins the game.
You are tasked getting the Archons of War and Secrets to work together to complete the domination of the Tiers. They have been fighting with each other, delaying the Overlord's conquest. Time to end this silliness. The Overlord sends you to read an "Edict," which will cast a powerful spell over the land that, unless the Edict's terms are fulfilled, will have a bad outcome. Edicts are how Kyros wields ultimate power. He has cast them on various swaths of land and wreaked havoc on crops, made whole regions shattered and uninhabitable, incinerated the sages' library and destroyed the knowledge within, doomed royal families, and annihilated entire armies. With this Edict, Kyros declares that unless a rebellion (the one still occurring because the Archons are squabbling) is quashed within a set time limit, everyone in this region will die (including his armies, you, the Archons--everyone). Thus, you have make the Archons fall in line.
This is a bulk of the game, navigating between the two Archons' armies, the two main factions, as you oversee the rest of the Overlord's conquest. Graven Ashe's army, the Disfavored, are regimented soldiers, a big family, with Graven Ashe the father figure. Graven Ashe himself protects his soldiers with magic; if they are wounded, he can heal them, make them fight through pain. They are small, tough, and loyal. Voices of Nerat's army, the Scarlet Chorus, are a brutal mass of blood-thirsty conscripts. The army is made up of numerous gangs that are constantly at each other's throats. It's survival of the fittest. When they take over a village, they force the people to join or die. Maybe they force them to kill their families to prove themselves. Voices of Nerat himself is one of the most interesting characters ever. He basically kills people and absorbs them into himself, leading to like a schizophrenic, anti-social personality (well, a bunch of personalities). He's incredibly cunning. The armies couldn't be more different, but the Voices of Nerat and the Scarlet Chorus are so damn creative that I sided with them almost immediately as soon as I got the chance to pick a side.
In typical CRPG fashion, you recruit followers along your quest, all of whom have their own goals and storylines. Your first two are a member of each army, and you later get a sage, a beastwoman, an elemental mystic, and the Archon of Song. Verse and Barik (the Scarlet Chorus and Disfavored members, respectively), Lantry (the sage), and Sirin (the Archon of Song) are all extremely interesting and well-written. Barik, for example, was encased in an iron mangle of flying weapons and armor when fighting the battle during which Kyros declared the Edict of Storms (which basically annihilated everyone on the battlefield and continues as a raging and impassible vortex). During your journey with him, you learn about how in the world this happened to him and you can try to "free" him of his iron prison. He doesn't want this though because he sees his armor as a symbol of his allegiance to Graven Ashe (who protected him with it). I pushed ahead with the quest to remove it though, against his will (which felt like a violation of trust and of his body and made me uneasy), and he was grateful in the end (though I also killed Graven Ashe, which Barik did not enjoy). Sirin, the Archon of Song, has a beautiful voice like a siren through which she can persuade people to do things. When Kyros became aware of her, he took her into his empire's power structure. When she attempted to manipulate him, he strapped a helmet on her that muffled her power and gave her to the Voices of Nerat, who kept her as a pet and tortured and abused her. I forget how she got away from him, but she winds up in your party and is basically a bard class. Also in typical Obsidian fashion, the dialogue--in addition to the story--is impeccable. I read nearly every line of text in the entire game. Well, almost impeccable because the beastwoman character (their whole existence, really) was a weak point. I actually fed her to the Voices of Nerat trying to gain his allegiance (it didn't work and she was dead for nothing, oops!).
So, you go about choosing a side and basically making them look good to Tunon while making the other side look bad. Or...you can betray everyone. I don't know how many endings there are, but a really cool thing about Tyranny is that you amass your own power, and what you do with it is up to you. You gain renown as you discover "spires," ancient, mysterious towers used by a civilization before Kyros's time. As you claim spires, you gain more followers, abilities, and so on. Finally, once you have all 5 spires, well, you've gotten Kyros's attention. You're a little more powerful than anyone anticipated you would become. I won't spoil the magnificent events that occur in the last act toward the end of the game, but my goodness, what epic story turns.
The gameplay itself is nothing special. It works, it's fun enough, but I played for the story, and spent most of my time reading. If you've played any CRPG like Pillars of Eternity or the old Baldur's Gates and Icewind Dales, it'll be completely familiar. Oh, there is a cool spell crafting system where you basically mix and match attributes (e.g., spell distance, power, duration, how many targets, cooldown, etc.) all with different intensity levels and corresponding resource costs to make the spells that serve your purposes. The only ones I really created were powerful healing and buffing spells that Lantry, the sage and my healer, used. Once I took time to play with spell crafting, honestly, I never died again. You can make some POWERFUL stuff.
So that's Tyranny! Fantastic CRPG and highly, highly recommended if you like the genre.
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