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Suzerain (PC) by dkirschner (Sep 24th, 2024 at 19:39:01) |
I bought a narrative game bundle from Humble Bundle recently because it had a couple games on my wishlist on it, plus Immortality, which I played on Game Pass and which I loved, so now I own it on Steam. It had some others I'd never heard of, like Suzerain. It looked interesting, a political strategy narrative game. I've not played anything quite like it, but after playing it for a while, I realized I was nodding off every time I opened it. Even tonight, I'm not tired, but I'm starting to drift to sleep. That's a sign that I'm not engaged!
That's not to say I dislike it. It's well written and detailed, and the premise is intriguing. You play as the newly elected President of a fictional country with a revolutionary past. The country is in a recession and needs to carve out space for itself in the international landscape so that it can thrive. There are other alliances of countries, those which are capitalist, communist, and monarchies. You'll sort of chart your country's course (though I...doubt [?]...that you can become a monarchy), meeting with advisers and reading a lot of policy, deciding what to enact, who to ally with, and so on.
My favorite parts of the game are when the non-policy narratives move forward--when it's about your family adjusting to their husband/father becoming President, when it delves into the history between you and other cabinet members, when it explores the political history of the fictional world, when you get to attend a funeral of a communist poet and make a speech, when a violent event happens and you see how political violence affects you, your family, security, citizens in various political groups, relationships to other factions, and so on.
My least favorite parts are reading newspapers and reports, and talking with advisers about policy. There are like 6 different newspapers, and boy are they busy writing stories! It seems like after every decision you make, up to a dozen articles will be published. Papers span the range of political ideologies; one is communist, one is capitalist, one is centrist, one looks at international news, and so on. Similarly, reports from various cities and countries are constantly produced and icons beg you to read them. This all lets you know what's going on and lets you know the public's opinion on things, but it's a lot of tedium, I found. Policy wonks will love this game. Most of it is meeting with advisers about policies, listening to them banter back and forth about what they think you should do, reading about policy positions and deciding which ones to enact, then seeing their consequences on the story and the political scene.
I played about 5 hours in total, and it's losing its novelty and morphing into drudgery for the most part. I'm not committed to learning the ins and outs of the political scene. I think something like this could be used pedagogically to teach about politics, policy, and institutions for sure. Actually, I learned a new word. The game's title is an actual word in politics referring to when a state has control over another autonomous state, I suppose by influence or something. I learned this when I was giving a talk on interaction and socialization in digital games last week, and someone asked me what I was playing. I mispronounced the title of Suzerain and said I had no idea what it referred to, and some historians in the audience had their moment to shine.
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A Highland Song (PC) by jp (Sep 22nd, 2024 at 21:30:35) |
I loved the rhythm action sections of the game - I looked forward to seeing a deer (which you sort of chase/follow while doing a song). They were neither too hard nor too easy, and the music was fun. I think I might have to look it up separately because I'm sure there's a way to buy the tunes...
Anyways... it's an interesting game - there's more climbing and exploring than I expected and I'll admit I was starting to get a bit frustrated because I was late for Beltane and it seemed really hard to make progress sometimes. Mostly frustrating because there was a place I was sure had a path - but nothing. So I had to backtrack around a bunch until I found a map that showed a path to the place I was sure had the path. So that was annoying.
But, I enjoyed how much stronger Moira gets and I began to worry less about the weather and more about enjoying the views and the landscape and the journey. Some might call this careless hiking and they'd be correct. But hey, it's a videogame!
I also enjoyed the slight mystical/magical things? I mean, I got picked up by an eagle at a point, and I met a "person who lives under the mountains" also... There was lots of that sort of stuff to discover and learn. Some of it doesn't quite work - at least in terms of helping me understand when I was making progress. For example I'd find maps that had clues to parts I'd already passed through/by..so that was a bit of a waste.
But overall? Yes, not too long, not too short even if my trip was longer than it should have been? I took 10 days to get to the sea. Found 9 maps, climbed 16 peaks, named 10 of them, and blessed one. The one from which the eagles picked me up!
It seems like I can play again with the maps I've found, so perhaps it gets easier in this sense. So, is this game a sort of narrative rogue-lite with a metaprogression ?
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Doki Doki Literature Club (PC) by dkirschner (Sep 20th, 2024 at 15:14:46) |
I've never played an actual dating sim, just some parodies or riffs on them like Hatoful Boyfriend and Dream Daddy. I thought this one wasn't supposed to be a dating sim, was just supposed to look like one until it subverted the genre. Well, it's a dating sim for a long time, and I don't think I care for dating sims after playing! It takes its sweet time getting to the weird stuff! Yes, there is weird stuff.
I don't know how this would land for people who like to play dating sims. I imagine they would like the part until the weird stuff more than I did, and then I think that their appreciation of the genre subversion may scale according to how many games they've played (or how much they like games) with unreliable narrators or games that "mess" with you (Pony Island, Stanley Parable, etc.). I also wonder how the experience might be different for people who read something about the game compared to those who go in without any prior knowledge. Since I knew that it had a psychological horror twist, I kept looking for it. Every time a girl went into the closet, I was thinking, "There's something about that closet!", or every time one of them would say anything at all that could be interpreted as deviant, I would think, "Aha, now they're going to be cannibals/witches/cosmic horrors/vampires/etc." I do wonder if I missed clues as to the twist, but I definitely didn't pick up on any and didn't guess what was coming.
That's all I'm going to say about this because I don't want to spoil anything, and it really is that simple of a game. Dating sim for most (too much) of its run time, then takes a distressing turn. Overall, I enjoyed it, aside from the mild boredom of the first three quarters. Am I raving about it? No. Would I recommend others play it? It's fine, but no need unless it's your thing.
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Solitaire Overload (DS) by jp (Sep 20th, 2024 at 11:05:32) |
This game's title is 100% accurate. This is all solitaire games, like you would play with a deck (or more) of regular playing cards. There's tons and tons of them. I didn't play them all but I played a few really interesting (to me) ones. I thought it was neat how they're all grouped into "families". I'm curious as to how this was all put together. My first thought is that someone bought a book of solitaire card games and then just implemented them all? So, the groupings (families) would have come from chapters in the books?
I think the game's a really great resource - and it would definitely keep you "busy" for...ever? There's just so many variations...I'm still kind of stunned. Also, to make it even more interesting there's a "rating" system that covers how much luck matters, how long they take to play (e.g. is this a mostly skill solitaire?) which is really useful as well.
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Paradise Killer (PC) by jp (Sep 17th, 2024 at 22:32:38) |
Ok, this is not what I was expecting. I though the game was mostly (primarily?) a visual novel - lots of reading, going places to meet characters, and then more reading. But, I've spent most of my time moving around a 3D environment, jumping, and collecting stuff. And yes, meeting characters and chatting - but more moving around. And, it's weirdly compelling. Despite being pretty lo-fi in terms of visuals. And I'm not a fan of the music (just not my thing, not that it's "bad"), and...well, everything is sort of "not my thing". Yet, here I am , enjoying the game. Slowly piecing together (in my head) what is going on. Discovering "secret" areas and things...and really having fun with the exploring and collecting. I know I won't get everything - and I am curious to see how it all ends (I know about the trial and blablabla, but I don't know if I'll figure everything out or not!).
We'll have to wait and see!
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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)
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2247 registered gamers and 3188 games. 7709 GameLogs with 13194 journal entries. 5091 games are currently being played.
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Super Smash Brothers (N64) by elansadeh |
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most recent entry: Wednesday 20 February, 2008
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24 hours later...I'm so hooked. I've finally gotten some used to the other special moves so I've gotten a whole lot better in a small amount of time. This design in game making makes the game experience for me much more comfortable and enjoyable. Also the more you progress in the game for instance fighting the computer progressively and with multiple different characters the more characters you get and the more levels you get to choose among.
Playing against the computer gives good practice for when you fight other people because it gets harder and harder so this makes harder more on the spot situations are easier to deal with. the space concept in the game is some what limited but thats because its part of the challenge. so it does feel confined but luckily the camera follow the characters and vast space between characters really well. I seriously think this is the most well thought up fighting game i will ever play. It consistently keeps my interest and everyone seems to have a fair advantage after getting used to playing for only a short amount of time. I don't think it needs any change .
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