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Beacon Pines (PC) by dkirschner (Oct 9th, 2026 at 11:18:41) |
Cute little narrative game with a good, darker-than-expected story. The art style is excellent (I love the different ways that tears come out of the characters’ eyes) and the sound and music perfectly complement the setting and story. You play as Luka, a kid in Beacon Pines who discovers that some strange things are happening, and all the adults, including his grandmother, seem to be involved. Hmm…! Pal up with some friends to uncover the town’s secrets.
It features a mechanic where the narrative branches based on words that you discover (e.g., shame, fight, flight, chill, etc.). In certain situations (“turning points”), you can select from some words to use, which will change the course of the story. This was intriguing, but wasn’t used to its full potential. The game’s description oversells the impact of turning points. If you use the “wrong” word, you get a “the end” shortly thereafter. The game’s description says that using different words DRASTICALLY CHANGES EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWS and that you’ll jump back and forth between ENTIRELY DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THE STORY! Not really. At a “the end” screen, you go back to the turning point (through a menu) and choose a different word. You’ll either get another ending in a second, or it’ll be the “correct” word that continues the story. There are some actual branches, but interestingly, the game still proceeds linearly. For example, you have to go down branch A to get to branch B to get back to branch A. In other words, there is only one way through the story. Oddly, there are some words that are never used. You can’t just choose any word in your stock during turning points; only specific ones are available, which narrows the potential of this mechanic further.
This mechanic reminded me a bit of Great God Grove, which is another “word game”, wherein you use phrases spoken by NPCs to solve dialogue puzzles. Instead of using whole phrases or sentences, here you just occasionally are prompted to use a word to complete a storybook narration, which determines what a character does and therefore what happens. Great God Grove also felt limiting. I suppose that is because language is near limitless, and that makes for tough narrative design.
Despite its simplicity, I thoroughly enjoyed playing through the mystery of Beacon Pines. I wonder if they’ll make a sequel. I’d be interested to see what Luka and his friends get up to next!
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Crime O'Clock (NSW) by jp (Oct 8th, 2026 at 09:44:19) |
First, what a banger of a name for a game. Ha!
I picked this up from the box art. It looked like this was "MicroMacro: Crime City" in videogame form. A good thing in my mind. What made MicroMacro cool/fun is that it's a giant "where's wally" with an extra twist - you have to find things but then also "trace" them over time. So, a character might be dead in part of the "map", but you can look around to and see the character still alive walking to the place where they're dead, and so on. So, you trace time through space.. it's hard to describe.
This game - at least from what I've played so far does exactly the same thing with two differences. First, the map (illustration) changes - so, there are different maps for different snapshots in time (some things change others stay the same from what I can tell). Second, there are occasional mini-interactive activities you have to do (not quite enough depth to call them minigames) - these represent "computer analysis" moments - like tracing a cell phone being used to towers, or identi-kit-style assembling the portrait of a perp. They take place in a sort of "computer network" visualization that's all black background which is in direct contrast to the main map that's on white.
The art style is all black line drawing comic-style characters (like MicroMacro, but different enough) on a white background with color used very sparingly for UI-stuff.. I think it looks great.
The maps (only played on one, the tutorial and the first case) are fun to look at with lots of little easter egg style details.
I think I'm going to enjoy this!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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2323 registered gamers and 3387 games. 7926 GameLogs with 13438 journal entries. 5110 games are currently being played.
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Wii Sports (Wii) by lowens |
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most recent entry: Friday 22 February, 2008
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Gameplay 2:
For the next round of Wii sports, two people left, leaving the match up at one versus one. Therefore, my friend and I decided to play baseball, boxing, and tennis. Not having to field in the Wii baseball was a nice change from most baseball games out there. Instead, my friend and I could just enjoy having a home run derby in his dorm room using the Wii remote. Eventually, however, we discovered that it was possible to pitch balls, although Wii baseball is so simple it doesn’t have a penalty for balls and treats them as if they were hittable, thus unfairly penalizing the batter.
I found boxing to be very strenuous compared to the other Wii sports. Instead of actually fighting each other, my friend and I traded off on a practice event for boxing with a bag to see who could get the higher score. The boxing was very exhilarating, as sometimes we could find a sweet spot on the bag where swinging the Wii remote and nunchuck at just the right angle and speed would allow us to land powerful blow after powerful blow in quick succession. However, sometimes the motion sensor wouldn’t pick up a swing quite correctly, and it wouldn’t be registered in the game, causing us to have to swing again, or even use a completely different swing.
Finally, we tried out Wii tennis, and I found it to be a great medium for the Wii remote’s capabilities. First off, I enjoyed that Nintendo didn’t force a player to have to somehow move around their side of the net quickly to reach the tennis ball in one versus one, by instead just having two versions of a single avatar spread out on one side being controlled and synchronized up to just one Wii remote. I also enjoyed having the potential for my back Mii to still have a swing on the tennis ball if I missed with my front Mii. Ultimately, I found Wii tennis to be my favorite of all of the Wii Sports. Wii tennis seems to have a nice balance between laid-back play, rewarding timing over power, while still keeping the player constantly in action.
Design:
Overall, I thought that Wii Sports incorporated the Wii’s innovative feature of a controller with motion sensor capabilities in a private recreational console into five everyday sports, while still keeping them enjoyable and interesting to play. Wii Sports was a lot of fun for me because it allowed me to enjoy activities I enjoy in a new, more easy-going, video game party environment. Also, compared to most sports games, where you press a button and an avatar reacts with a single action, or reacts using a table of actions, in Wii Sports the motion is much less restricted. Being more connected to my avatar than most games, both visually and when our motions were synchronized, was pleasing, especially because the avatar was a caricature of myself.
Next, I am not sure if I have played a game that is more suited towards a party scene, and that is as appealing to a wider player base. For example, two of the people I played Wii Sports with during my first game session do not play any other video games regularly, but were just as involved as I was in Wii Sports. Therefore, Wii Sports brought people together to play that wouldn’t normally play video games together, creating a strong social activity.
However, I wasn’t completely satisfied with Wii Sports. I found motion sensor problems in all of the sports with my Wii remote. The motion sensor technology wasn’t always dependable, but I found tennis and boxing be the more frustrating in this sense. It was never fun for me to swing at the right time in tennis, and only to have the ball pass by my Mii untouched. Given enough time though, I believe a player could adapt to most sensor issues, and just learn its limits. However, if I would have Nintendo improve upon one part of Wii Sports, it would be to make the motion sensor more dependable.
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