 |
|
Hello Neighbor: Hide & Seek (PS4) by jp (Sep 27th, 2026 at 16:53:00) |
I knew this game hadn't reviewed well when I bought it, but it was cheap and I was curious.
I think it's worse than what I expected. I may be a bit unfair hear, but I reacted really negatively to the game's onboarding experience - or what I would call a lack of onboarding. The game starts with a cut-scene showing your character (a young girl) playing with her brother. The game's hide and seek and you hide in a hallway cupboard, are quickly found and then...you're in control. Your brother is close by, his back turned and he's "counting" (like you do when playing hide and seek). Ok! I must run around and find a new place to hide. This makes sense with the game's title. There aren't many places to go, I run up the stairs, enter a room and somehow manage to make my way onto a shelf that's nailed to the wall a good height above the floor. This seems like a good place to "hide" - it's also, the only place I think other than just waiting in a corner? There's a bunch of looked doors but I can only peer through keyholes and none of the doors seem to open. I only "learn" this from poking into the game settings to see what the controls are.
Ok. This is fine - I just need to wait for my brother to stop counting and start searching and we'll see what happens.
Nothing happens. Oh. Am I supposed to hide in a special pre-determined hiding location? I jump off the shelf and start wandering around - maybe I missed something. I learn I can crouch - but there's a space that's too low for me to crouch under. I peer through the key holes of all the doors to see if I'm missed something. Nothing. I go back into the settings to remind myself of the "use button" (R1?). I go back to a door leading out of the room at the top of the stairs...and nothing. But then, it works and the door opens. Oh, I guess that door does open. I never go back to check the others because a cut-scene cues in and it's the girl just standing behind the door as her brother runs and in immediately finds her. The camera then pans to a clock on a dresser and control is now back in my hands.
I realize a dresser drawer opens, I can use it to jump up..and somehow pick up a dunce cap of sorts (paper cone with flag on top) and a pillow? I can't seem to use them for anything..so uh, I jump back down and open the door to leave the room and...
..it opens into a different space. Now we're in "imaginary land" - a large space with household furniture that's too large and warped and so on. This reminds me of some of the Psychonauts levels - sort of wonky geometry that looks different. Still fine, it's like the kids are imagining they're someplace they're not but there's still references to real-world things - and they're large because you're a small kid. It's ok.
I'm still holding the pillow (or the dunce cap?) and...dont' know what to do. So, I start wandering...there's a large bird creature...I see a stake under the water but can't pick it up. Oh. Then, suddenly my brother appears (in a sort of tiger costume)...and it's game over, go back to the start - I mean, a reset and I'm at the part where I entered this fantasy land space.
I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. Hide again? Find the pre-designated hiding spot, find "the spot" which triggers the cut-scene? Leave the area?
I start exploring and see a large lounge chair at the top of a rock mountain. Ok, lets go there. I make my way up (not easy, jumping is weak, you slide off things, etc.)...get to the chair - but it's more like a couch. There's a ovaloid rock...I pick it up. There's also a sort of plush animal. Pick that up also. Nothing happens.
Uh. Maybe I'm supposed to go somewhere else? There are things that seem high up and out of reach... I end up throwing the rock and the plushie - sort of by mistake (R2)... I wander/fall down...get caught by my brother.
Still no idea what to do. Time to consult a guide.
Oh, it turns out you're supposed to find these plushies and put them in a basket. What? How was I supposed to figure that out? No idea.
I do some wandering and find a door that serves as a ramp to the top of a large basket - which is where you're supposed to drop the plushies. There's a cardboard sign with...16 of them? Lots of them. I found one, but now have no idea where it is.
I decide to restart, maybe there was a bug and a tutorial was supposed to fire but didn't? No, it's the same. Fine. I go back to the top of the rock mountain, get the plushie and drop it in the basket. There's a ding noise...and that's it. I have no idea how many are left. As far as I could tell the sign stayed the same, no checks or crossed-out plushies. I find another plushie inside a large, very large, bucket I was able to fall into after jumping higher thanks to a geyser. Nice. Oh, there's no way to get out of the bucket. I hit the menu and there's a "I'm stuck" option - this triggers a cutscene of a bird that swings down and takes you back to the start. Oh. Seems like a solution to a problem than shouldn't exist. I get it if you squirrelled your way behind some strange geometry and don't want to lose the game state. It's almost elegant in that context. Here it just feels lazy - put a required item inside an inescapable object to force you to use the bird. Ok, maybe that was on purposes (so you learn the bird thing. But, I had to poke around in the menus - instead of it triggering a tutorial text - "Hey, you're stuck inside the bucket, if that ever happens do this..".
I gave up in frustration soon after that. I was able to pick up the raw steak at one point...but the general physics and navigation felt so poor that adding the pressure of your brother coming at you to reset your place in the level felt at odds with the experience. This wasn't hide and seek now, it was a scavenger hunt...and not a particularly interesting one at that either.
read all entries for this GameLog 
- add a comment 
|
|
Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth (NSW) by jp (Sep 22nd, 2026 at 07:38:16) |
The night before last I played some more and beat the gauntlet! I felt very chuffed about that...kept on going, got to another boss (Parn!) beat that, and immediately after was ANOTHER boss...I lost really quickly and got really mad. In my mind it was boss gauntlet + Parn + final boss...with no saves in between and the thought of doing it all over was too much. So, I put the game down pretty confident that I'd just have to watch the ending on Youtube or something.
Last night I picked it up for a "last attempt" of sorts - before that though I scoured the map and found a few secret areas I had missed! And one area that was now accessible I had forgotten about. Good thing I did, I got a new weapon (the Chakram?) with great range, for a little less damage, but just the sort of thing I'd need for the final boss fight. I then stocked up on potions, swapped my spell to one I thought might work better, and went back in.
And success! (I think I had to try twice)
And in the end, was it all a dream. Sure. With some more to it...but still. The epilogue was nice, though it was weird to going back to level 1 with none of the additional movement unlocked - not that there was any challenge.
It feels strange to beat a game like this. I usually bail a lot earlier due to my lack of interest in practicing enough to improve enough so I can clear certain challenges. This game hit the sweet spot for me - it wasn't trivial, and I felt like I improved and learned the game's systems over time.
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
Please, Don't Touch Anything! (PC) by jp (Sep 20th, 2026 at 13:12:20) |
It's weird for me to think/write that the most important "contribution" this game has had for me is how useful/intriguing it's been to show students in experimental games class. The game is strange and quirky and funny and genuinely interesting as a puzzle box style game, especially once you've peeled back a few of its layers and understand how the game's support to work.
Over the years fewer students have heard of it, or played it, which is both good and bad. Good means there's more room for it to be genuinely surprising to them, bad means it's also increasingly more "strange" - I've found that students have a lot less to go on with this game since it is so exploratory in the beginning. Hmm. it would have also made a good addition to the "thinky games" cycle when we did the game design seminar...
Now that I'm at a new place with a new group of students, I wonder how it would go with them?
It's been a while since I've played it - and I don't recall which endings I got or anything like that, but it seems like I did make decent progress since I've only got 5 locked achievements. One if for every ending, the other for ending 25 without unnecesary buttons being pressed. 3 are hidden.
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth (NSW) by jp (Sep 20th, 2026 at 12:41:02) |
I'd been playing until I got stuck on a fight - it's a two-parter boss against a soldier guy. The second part is against a sort of zombie/ghoul version of this soldier guy who spews green venom and turns into toxic clouds.
After scouring the map for missing things - found a few new upgrades (not interesting ones at this point) and filled in the map a bit more which was nice - I finally realized that I could buy more than one health potion (up to 10!) and I've come to better appreciate how the magic select menu works. So, I devised a new strategy for the boss fight. I'd get to the 2nd phase and swap out the spell with healing potions and try to use those to stay alive. And it worked! I was down to 3 or so...but still.
Yay!
I'm now in Stage 6. I think this might be the last chapter?
So, I kept on moving through new areas...and went back to older areas too - found a few secret areas as well (null space on the map)...and then I hit what I hope does NOT become a new wall.
Maybe this is the end/last battle? It's basically been - so far - a gauntlet of all the bosses (I think all?) in the game. And, while I don't think they've been scaled in difficulty (meaning some are way easier than when I fought them originally), it is quite tiring.. I did quite well until I got to the boss fight I'd just been stuck on earlier. My hands were cramping up and I just...couldn't.
Thankfully after I forget which boss there are items between them to heal up and such...but still. I think I lost this one from nerves and cramps more than difficulty? Though, I dread to see what happens AFTER this one. Will there be another boss? Sigh. I hope not.
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
The Silver Case (PS4) by jp (Sep 20th, 2026 at 12:26:42) |
As I was installing the game I wondered why I had picked it up in the first place. So, I flip the case over and read the back - nothing really stands out until I look down and see "Grasshopper Manufacture".
Ah. Ok.
Grasshopper's oeuvre is interesting in that it's always weird, and strange, and they somehow manage to stay in business which makes it also surprising to me. I think the last game of theirs that I played was "Sun Flower..something..something". A strange DS game that was strange and creepy and I don't think I ever finished. I won't open a separate tab to check my gamelog for that one...but whoever reads this might want to.
Anyways. The game has a really striking visual style - and it's really "noisy" i the visual UI sense. Lots of text coming on, and pictures of the characters in different places on the screen (not always the same place), and words that sort of float around in the background...and little animated effects. It's all very busy, attention grabbing, and just - to me - visually noisy in a way that made me less interested.
Apparently the version I have is a remaster of an older one, so I wonder if the low-res poly graphics (e.g. car driving down an embankment at night) and such are kept in smaller windows because it wouldn't look good today and all the rest of the decorative screen stuff is what's been updated?
Anyways. There was lots of reading. Watching stuff, more reading and very little gameplay...and when the gameplay started it was "fine" (moving around a 3D environment in first-person view, but grid-based, like the old CRPGs Bard's Tale or the dungeons in Ultima and Wizardry). It didn't feel interesting - story least of all - so I finished the first chapter and called it quits.
I just bounced off the writing, the story/context seemed strange but not intriguing...so, time to move on.
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
|
|
|
GameLog hopes to be a site where gamers such as yourself keep track of the games that
they are currently playing. A GameLog is basically a record of a game you started playing. If it's open,
you still consider yourself to be playing the game. If it's closed, you finished playing the game. (it doesn't matter
if you got bored, frustrated,etc.) You can also attach short comments to each of your games or even maintain a diary (with more detailed entries)
for that game. Call it a weblog of game playing activity if you will.
[latest site fixes and updates]
[read more]
|
view feed xml
|
 |
|
2323 registered gamers and 3385 games. 7924 GameLogs with 13436 journal entries. 5109 games are currently being played.
More stats
|
 |
|
Animal Crossing (GC) by dipolartech |
| No comment, yet. |
|
most recent entry: Thursday 12 October, 2006
|
So I pretty got in the meat of the game on this third session, by which i mean i dont have to directly report back to Tom anymore. I quickly got a firm sense of each npc in the game after going around and talking to them some more. And just because i could i planted a bunch of oranges trees to make the world a happy happy joy joy place. I can see how this game was developed to create more widespread interaction with me the player. After i have to "have a conversation" with a talking chirping fence post just to save. Menus are simplistic and any sort of communication or favor done for a npc in the game gets a overly enthused response from them, especially when you write a letter to someone and then talk to them later. Another thing about this about the game that i haven't gotten to yet but is mentioned often by the npc's is the opportunity of other players to see your work in this particular town. As a side note i believe that one of the strongest ways to make money in the long term is to have lots of fruit trees. And of course teach yourself to fish.
[read this GameLog]
|
|
|
