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Bee Simulator (PS4) by jp (Oct 20th, 2020 at 22:07:28) |
I've been enjoying this. It's simple, easy, educational and completely unexpected. I think it's the freshness/novelty I enjoy as well as my sheer surprise that a game like this even exists.
It's also surprisingly easy to describe in "game design terms". I can do this poorly...for example, by saying that it's like an open-world game (al a GTA, Assassin's Creed) with a central story-driven narrative and in-world side missions and quests. You fly around to certain locations (often see in the screen as a pillar of light in different colors according to the type of quest) and activate them. These function like mini-games: there's a combat game, a racing game, a pattern-matching (mimic the bee dance!) game, and a collect-stuff game. There are also (very few, it seems) some story-driven side missions like helping an orphaned baby squirrel, feed squirrel kids, and a few more I don't recall right now.
I think what I like about it is that is has this structure, but it's applied to a game that is not 80 hours long. It's probably about 8 hours - I'm guessing even less if you only stick to the main storyline. I think I'm 90% done with the story in 4 hours of gameplay?
It's also surprisingly earnest and serious - the characters are modelled in a realistic fashion (not cartoony) and it the issues are...well, real? I mean, maybe its closer to the antz movie than bug's life...but it's not a cartoon in the over-the-top sense. Like, I really am collecting pollen (by flying over flowers, which is not realistic) and learning about different flowers and...who the bees don't get along with (wasps, hornets), and how important it is to have enough pollen for the winter...and, stuff like that.
So far, pleasant surprise!
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Photographs (PC) by jp (Oct 17th, 2020 at 19:08:55) |
Whoops. I should have started this gamelog a while back. However, I have played recently - so I guess that works.
I really like the photography mechanic here - it's implemented in a way that feels authentic with nice detail on the focusing and the audio. The photography, however is not really the central activity - since most of the game is really about puzzle solving. So far I've played through 3 characters' stories (I had no idea how many there would be - to be fair I still don't know but interstitial messages suggest that there'll be 5 of them). The first was a sad touching story about a grandfather saving his granddaughter (at least that's what I recall at this moment). The puzzles here were sokoban-style - you have to get characters to an endpoint by making them go in a direction. The 2nd story was about a teenage girl on a school diving team and how she dopes to win, but then loses it all. This episode seemed a bit long for me - and the puzzles were of the "shoot cannon and make the projectile land in a spot, sometimes hitting a thing along the way". You could change the direction of the cannon and sometimes also moves items in the environment. I didn't really enjoy these puzzles - they seemed to trail-and-error-ry to me.
The 3rd story, which I finished yesterday - was MUCH more interesting, here I felt that the puzzles were much more connected to the theme of the story. It's about an indigenous people who welcome settlers, but then the settlers take over, the indigenous people are starting and stuff (tragic stuff) happens. The puzzles here were tangrams - but once completed the area you placed them in would grow food and different characters would eat. In a few of them the "lines" (plow lines?) would not line up with the majority - and those tangram pieces had an indigenous character on them. When the food would grow - they wouldn't see any food grow on their piece and would go hungry that turn! Whoah! I thought that was really cool - and the same idea was also used later when doing a puzzle in a riverbed area (that's dry - they went hungry again).
I recall being interested in this game due to the picture taking mechanic (there aren't that many games with it - though the WWI game (11-11?) is a recent example I remember), but I'm surprised there's more to the game than that. I'm curious what the last two stories will be about. So far there doesn't seem to be any common thread tying them all together...
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Before I Forget (PC) by jp (Oct 15th, 2020 at 21:17:30) |
This one's unusual. I cited this game in a paper based on description from an interview (or something published, I don't recall off the top of my head). But, I never actually played the game.
So, now I have!
It's nice and short and the subject matter definitely puts it in the "this is not supposed to be fun" category.
I was confused for a bit because I wasn't sure what to do - you're given an impossible objective (find someone) and then the game doesn't let you complete that (which is fine) but it kind of stalls out if you don't start exploring...basically finding objects and interacting with them. At that point color returns to the area where that object was - and you start to learn about the character you're controlling.
She's got alzheimer's, is easily confused, and doesn't really know what's going on.
You piece this together by observing the environment - noticing the dates, and so on.
I enjoyed the experience and there are some nice "interludes" - flashbacks of a sort, and the whole experience is tinged with a lot of sadness as you realize that the protagonist is unaware of her situation - and her "rememembering" is there mostly for the player's benefit, or perhaps they represent "flashes" of memory? They're mostly rooted in the past - years ago...and then there is the obvious twist. The person you're looking is no longer around. You learn what happened to them and when of course.
It's an unusual game experience, to be sure. My overall emotion was sadness...not just because of the protagonists situation, but also because of the sense that her life didn't "end well" - her marriage was struggling towards the end and...well, she doesn't really have much left except mementos from the past... Her life seems, meaningless in some sense? (despite being an accomplished and important scientist - you get the feeling that her professional career also feel of a cliff in the end)
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Lego Battles (DS) by jp (Oct 6th, 2020 at 19:38:16) |
It's an RTS on the DS! And it's Lego! It's been quite easy so far - but I've only played two levels to be honest. I'm not sure the interface will be able to handle what I expect is the forthcoming craziness of tons of units and stuff happening at the same time. We'll see.
One of the neat things is that, AFAIK, this is a Travellers Tales game - so, the same company that made all the other Lego themed games (Lego harry potter, star wars, etc.). While this game doesn't have another IP slapped on it, they've kept some design elements! So, I was surprised to see that there are red bricks (dunno if you find or just buy them), there are also minikits, and so on. You can unlock new characters (not sure for what, though you do have a hero unit that has special powers - perhaps this will come into play later?)
Anyways, it's been fun to see some of that design language (not sure if it's a design language) move across titles and genres...
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James Patterson Women's Murder Club: Games of Passion (DS) by jp (Oct 5th, 2020 at 12:21:56) |
Finished it! And, I enjoyed it - the gameplay was relaxing and chill despite the terrible hit detection for finding objects.
Once I finished it I looked into a cool little side-activity. The back of the box calls it "Create your own mystery", which I was very intrigued by. It's not quite what I had imagined, but a fun diversion nonetheless. It's basically a mad-libs style mystery. So, there's a pre-written mystery you can experience but before you do that the game asks you to take pictures of specific things like "man" or "container" or "item of clothing" - these are then integrated (as in, shown on a scree) as a detective tells you about the mystery. So, the "suspect" might be the "man" you took a picture of who was covering his face with the "item of clothing" and so on. I think it was like 10 pictures or so, and they're used a few times. Fun little activity - and I like how it used the DS cameras - not that many games allowed for/made use of that potential, so kudos!
In all, a positive and surprising activity - reinforces my notion that we can learn from all kinds of games even when we're not the target audience.
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GameLog hopes to be a site where gamers such as yourself keep track of the games that
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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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2050 registered gamers and 2591 games. 7038 GameLogs with 12513 journal entries. 5024 games are currently being played.
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The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess (Wii) by ladybugch9 |
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most recent entry: Thursday 8 February, 2007
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So this was the third game I've played on the Nintendo Wii, and the first fight oriented game I've played it as well. i enjoy that the game doesn't try and teach you how to play and start the main story line of the game at the same time like in Ocarina of Time for N64. Learning how to use the sling shot and ride the horse were much more enjoyable when you don'd feel as stressed about learning the skill, and i think leads to a better learning experience. That being said, I've played the game for about 4 hours, and it seems I've just figured out what has happened and the game story has been laid out; a pretty long intro. But these beggining/learning hours were enjoyable and included the right amount of activities and cut scenes. The graphics are pretty good, and although i thought this game had changed to be super life-like, i'm glad that it hasn't really.
The link Wolf dynamic is rather interesting, and is a completely new and different for the game and the traditional Zelda series. I like that certain enemies look the same, but on some levels wish that the everyday evil plants/bats/gremlins had a new design.
My only compaint thus far is the fact that when Midna is helping you she calls to you to give you advice and or tell you to follow her. But, it seems that even after you've followed her voice and done what is needed (like retriving the sword one of the homes) she will still call to you to follow her as if something else may need to be done in the area, when in fact you have completed what was needed.
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