 |
|
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.
read all entries for this GameLog  - read comments (1) 
- add a comment 
|
|
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!
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
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.
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
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.
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
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!
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 3358 games. 7895 GameLogs with 13390 journal entries. 5126 games are currently being played.
More stats
|
 |
|
Batman: Arkham Asylum (PC) by jlb1185 |
| No comment, yet. |
|
most recent entry: Friday 19 April, 2013
|
Batman Arkham Asylum: Monday, Aug. 9,2013
Batman Arkham Asylum is an action adventure game based on the hit comic book series. The player plays as the famous superhero Batman has he fights his way through the insanity that is Arkham Asylum.
=Controls =
For my play though of the game, I utilized wired X-box 360 remote connected to desktop computer. The game is on PC, X-Box 360, and PS3. With the PC version, there are keyboard and mouse input, but as a matter of personal preference, I used a controller. The controls as followed: Left Analog stick-Move, Right Analog Stick-Camera control, Directional Pad-Equipment Selection, A+Left Analog Stick-Run, X-Attack, B-Cape Stun, Y-Counter, Holding Right Back Trigger(R.B.T.)-Crouch, Y+R.B.T-Takedown, Pressing R.B.T-Quick Batclaw, Pressing Left Back Trigger(L.B.T)-Quick Batarang, Holding L.B.T-Prepare Equipment, Holding L.B.T+Pressing R.B.T-Use prepared equipment, Right Upper Back Button-Grappling Hook, Holding Left Upper Back Button-Detective Mode, Pressing Left Upper Back Button-Enviroment Analyzer
=Story=
The story begins as Batman has just captured Joker and is returning him to Arkham Asylum. Upon being released into the hands of the guards of Arkham, Joker manages to escape their grip, and with the help of his evil sidekick, Harley Quinn, begins taking over Arkham. As the story progressing, you learn that Joker has actually been working with one of the doctors of Arkham, Dr. Young, to develop a formula for a superhuman. It then become you job to stop Joker from building a superhuman army to take over Gotham. There are a few twist and turns in the story with some debut for some iconic Batman characters until the inevitable battle with the Joker himself.
= Game Play =
For my initial game play, I choose to do it on Hard mode, the highest difficulty, as a matter of preference, but I later went back to analysis the difference by playing it on the easy settings. As the overall game goes, there are the basic game elements that are used thought the game. These are the traveling element, the stealth element, and the combat element.
The traveling element was very easy because it was simply get from point A to point B. At these parts of the game, it’s really hard to fail due to the fact that in a place where you would fall off into the abyss, the game would give you the option to grapple back up and try again. Without the ability to fail at these stages, the mazes become a simple state of trial and error till the player gets it right.
The stealth element was a little more challenging. These parts of the game primarily consisted of the Scarecrow fear stages and the hostage situation stages, but there is also the stages in which the room is filled with criminals armed with guns and it is suggested that you eliminate them using the stealth approach. In the Scarecrow stage, the objective is to get through the stage without being seen by a giant Scarecrow or else it is game over. In the hostage stage, the player must make it to the villain holding the person hostage and take them out, without being seen by the villain or the criminals patrolling the stage, but if you are seen, the hostage is kill and it’s game over. As far as the stages with only armed criminals, on easier difficulties, it is sometimes possible to take out the criminals without using much stealth, but on hard, I found that this is not an option at all.
The combat element is actually the only place in which difficulty makes a difference. The only difference in difficulty is the amount of damage the player does and the amount of damage the enemies deal. Combat is composed of three different stages. These are the group criminal fights, the “Bain” boss fights, and the miscellaneous boss fights. In group criminal fights, the player is surrounded with basic criminals that attack the player. In these stages, the main objective is to take down all of the surrounding enemies. This can be done by using the takedown ability while an enemy is on the ground or damaging the enemies to a point where they are knocked out. The second option on hard is a little more difficult as well as time consuming to a point where it’s best to use the takedown technique. In this group fight, there are some special enemies that require the use of advanced fighting techniques like countering and stunning to be taken down. The next combat stage I’ll be discussing is the “Bain” style boss fights, and I have named this because throughout the game there are 5 or 6 boss fights in which the player has to use the same techniques that are used to take out Bain to take out these bosses. The basic technique is to as the “Bain” enemy is running at you, throw a Batarang at them stunning them and then attacking them until they recover. The game increases the difficulty of these fights as the game progresses by adding in criminals that fight alongside the “Bain” boss and even putting two “Bain” bosses in the same stage. Overall, these stages to me fill the game considering they are supposed to be set up as boss fights. Lastly, in the miscellaneous boss fight, the player gets to go up against one of few extra villains in the asylum. Each of these bosses has their own strategy in which the player has to use to take them down.
=Extra Content=
In the game, there is some extra content which helps keep the game going a little after the story is done. The first extra content is the Riddler Challenges which are actually done throughout the story mode but can’t be completed until the very end of the story. These challenges are interesting because they unlock bones content like Character Bios, Character Trophies, and give a little more back story into the game of Arkam Asylum and the villains that are there. Then there is Challenge Mode for the players who want to keep playing long after the story mode is over. In these challenges, a player has to complete some part of the story mode while either obtaining a high score or completing a series of tasks. There isn’t anything to unlock with completing these challenges but they can be fun to do.
= Overall =
Batman Arkam Asylum is a pretty good game overall. It has some issues with the combat system in the case that if feel like the player is doing just a lot of button mashing and the “Bain” boss fight to me personally just feel repetitive after a while. Also the player is more drawn to stay in detective mode though most of the gameplay. What makes this a good game is the story. The story is very solid as far as a Batman story goes, and the extra content involving villain profiles helped me learn more about the Batman universe. So, even though it falls short on some of the gameplay element, it’s still a good game do to the fact that it tailors to its audience, Batman fans. It gives them what they want, Batman being Batman.
[read this GameLog]
|
|
|
