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Phantom Abyss (PC) by jp (Apr 6th, 2025 at 19:14:27) |
I'd heard of the game's hook (or gimmick if you will) as, everyday it's a different 1st person platforming game/run, and if you die - that's it. Play a different run later.
I'm guessing stuff changed along the way, though the concept is still here - it's a reasonably challenging rogue-like 1st person platforming game. I've had fun, you have a whip to help you climb and each level has different modifiers (the whip has an ability) and you can pick up boons in your run (if you have enough coins to afford them) and hopefully make it to the end. BUT, you see a bunch of ghosts for everyone else who played this level - if someone died, you can collect their spirit or something for a small heal! During each run you collect keys you can use to buy permanent upgrades, and so you go up the progression ladder of many roguelites...
Someone described this as first person temple run, which is close enough? I mean, the levels themselves are a lot more interesting than the "mere" reaction times that temple run goes for, here you can side-step/etc. stuff - and there are different paths, and in all you can be a bit creative for how you approach stuff...I've had fun so far - unlocked all the green levels and I've started on the blue ones!
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Cuphead (Switch) by jp (Apr 6th, 2025 at 13:37:03) |
I only get to play this when my son comes around - and we play together and I realized, yeah - I need to either start practicing seriously or just give up. And, I enjoy playing it co-op, so there's not much sense in practicing, so I decided to give up.
We did make it to the 2nd island(?), and played some of the levels there - but I was clearly starting to see a steeper path to success. As in, it too us (mostly my fault) more and more tries to make less progress. He's already played it, beat it too? So, not much point for him really.
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Sonic Rush (DS) by jp (Apr 6th, 2025 at 13:34:08) |
I started playing this from the saved game - with new(?) character Blaze on "area 2" (I don't remember the exact name). And, I just could not beat the level - it was set in the casino world, and everything was moving super fast and on "automatic" - so, you just press move and the character zips along, bounces, etc.
It's actually quite boring! Because you just do this, at some point you hit an enemy (very few enemies in the game!), lose your rings, and then carry on. But, I'd lose because I'd fall into a bottomless pit, lose three lives and then out.
I'd say it wasn't so much frustrating as it was a disappointment. Yes, the point of Sonic is that it's "fast" - that's it's thing. But I find that there's little interaction to the game for most of the levels - you just "go along with the direction". It's neat when sometimes you get bounced around automatically, but for the most part I like to control the character.
So, I deleted the save file and started a new one, this time with Sonic in the equivalent of green hill zone. This level has two areas and then a boss. So, it's like 3 levels make up a level.
And, the experience was pretty similar - run on automatic for a while, lose rings suddenly or die, repeat with a bit more caution...etc. I did make it all the way to the boss fight - which I almost beat one too many times, and I just realized - ok, this is dumb - at least the boss fights have more gameplay ( you dodge, make an attack when the weak spot is open, etc.) - but it's still a pretty boring/uninteresting platforming experience.
So, off to the shelf it goes!
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Secret Files: Tunguska (DS) by jp (Apr 4th, 2025 at 19:16:25) |
I think there's a weird moment in time when everyone thought that point-and-click style adventure games were dead, but they were not. And, I think this game is an example of a game that was under the radar of "mainstream" games press at the time? Or at least under the radar of the average consumer of videogames...
This particular game is also a strange little time capsule - it's a port of what I think was a PC game...also at a time when people where porting all kinds of things to the DS. And, it works! Well, from a UI perspective at least. And it works pretty well. At least compared to another adventure game I played recently on the DS whose name I'm blanking on as I write this. I bounced on that one because it had some character/3D interactions that were awkward and unintuitive. Here, they were much smarter about it (I'm assuming they made UI "concessions" because it's on the DS). So, while you have a 3D character that navigates a static space - you don't actually have to move the character around directly in order to interact with objects/places in each scene. Press one button and all the interactive spots highlight, and you can just tap on them directly. I LOVE this solution - especially because I was never a fun of the "hunt for the pixel" approach that many games had (on PC) - and I'm super glad it didn't come across into this DS version (for all I know, the "here's all the highlights" was also possible on PC).
But, the UI triumph aside, I still kind of bounced off this. I got stuck on a puzzle (how typical!) - and what I had to do was leave a location to visit another location and then continued...this seemed really "unfair" to me - as in, unintuitive - mostly because I had assumed I could not leave the locatio in the first place. It wasn't entirely unintuitive - but it was the sort of puzzle where I was sure I should be able to (in this case) get the key out of the aquarium - but it turns out that no, I had to leave the place, do some other stuff, and then come back. At this point I was well into the tried-and-true "try all the things with all the things", except that I did not know I could leave the location I was at. Sigh.
So, from glancing at my list of DS games I still need to play...well, I wasn't THAT interested in the story so far and the puzzles didn't feel particularly interesting either..so, it was an easy game to put on the shelf.
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Shogun Showdown (PC) by dkirschner (Apr 4th, 2025 at 18:33:00) |
Clever little tactics roguelite. It reminds me of Into the Breach and other tactics games where you are given clear information about what enemies will do each turn. It's also reminiscent of Into the Breach because of the small play space. Basically, the game takes place on a 2d plane that is divided into like 8 or 9 spaces. Any given character occupies 1 space and can move left or right. You build a "deck" of "tiles" that include attacks and other special abilities, many of which involve movement (e.g., a forward dash that moves to the nearest frontal enemy and deals 1 damage). Your goal is to build up your tiles and progress stage by stage until you kill the Shogun.
During each run, you can purchase and upgrade tiles, mostly increasing their damage or decreasing their cooldowns, purchase passive abilities, use items, and other standard roguelite stuff--make yourself stronger by strategically handling whatever random things you get.
Most every action you do takes a turn, and all characters take turns at the same time. So, you move right (1 turn) and all the enemies do a thing (one might move left toward you, one might queue up an attack). Then you queue up an attack, and those two enemies might queue up an attack and attack, respectively. Actually, it also reminds me of Crypt of the Necrodancer, which works like this, where all characters act simultaneously. In that game, when you move, everything else moves. Shogun Showdown is like that. When you do something, the enemies do something.
I beat the Shogun for the first time this evening, which was maybe my fifth run or so. I had what felt like extremely overpowered weapons, a sword that I'd leveled up to deal 5 damage with only a 2-turn cooldown. I also had a bow-and-arrow with 4 damage and a 3-turn cooldown. The kicker though was a curse that doubled the next damage on an enemy. So, I'd just queue the curse, the sword, and the arrow. That took literally half the Shogun's health bar. Did it again, dead and into phase 2. No problem. Did it two more times. Dead. Easy. When you beat the Shogun, you unlock "day 2", which is the next difficulty level. You can also unlock additional characters with different skills, and you can keep unlocking new tiles and stuff. I consider it beat after taking out the Shogun once. It's a fun game, really tight, and makes you think ahead. It doesn't do much that you haven't seen before though.
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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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2285 registered gamers and 3255 games. 7787 GameLogs with 13264 journal entries. 5110 games are currently being played.
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most recent entry: Wednesday 27 October, 2010
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It has been almost 4 years since I've touched San Andreas. I still remember when I was really into it when I was younger. I had always been about trying to complete all the missions, get all the extras, and do the main part of the game, with of course occasionally having a little fun with all the different stuff you can do. Considering how long it had been since I had played this game last, I had decided to start this game simply by playing the missions straight through and refresh my memory of the general feeling of this game.
At the start of the game, right away I am framed by corrupt cops for a crime that I did not even commit so they pretty much have me to do as they please. Along with this, I discover that I return to find out how my character's mom was killed and meet all of my “bros” and “homies”. I am introduced to my brother but I am not welcome back to my character's old neighborhood at first. You learn about your brother Sweet and how you don't have the best relationship at this point. You also have smoke who is for the most part on your side as well.
You're also explained how you're old home is used for a save point at this point of the game. After learning what I've learned, I'd give this a general sign of video games. How you're home, or base in other games, is like your safe haven and where you are able to sleep, and save your progress. You're also introduced to Ryder, a smoker and another one who is on your side, aside from Smoke (who I think is the most hilarious character). Overall, you're not very well respected as of right now in your area since you've ran away. In what I would consider the first real mission we need to take out a pizza joint and take out the owner. Right off the bat, you are given a choice. Similar to how we had discussed in GOW3 with Kratos, the only way to move on through the storyline in this game is to kill a person who was cleaning the graffiti off of walls to keep his place clean. A little Ethical Egoism is in there with a hint of Utilitarianism. By killing this man, you gain respect from your homies, and if you don't, not only can you not move on in the game, you lose respect as well. So of course, I had to do what I had to do, which brings me to another point. In GTAIII, if I remember correctly, all missions from the get co was simply cash. Now, in the first mission and I believe the next one to come, you earn more respect.
With this, I feel it is a little stereotyped in the black neighborhoods, how you need to earn respect to make sure you are safe in your area and in order to do that, need to kill people, etc... The next mission, in my opinion, is even more stereotypical, how I need to spray paint some of our walls to make this neighborhood again “ours” and to get it away from one of the main antagonists of this game known as the Ballas, who are for the most part Mexican, surprise surprise another minority.
In the next major part of the game, you learn how the hood is getting “messed up” by the fact cocaine has been sold to your people and you need to stop them and “clean up” the hood and, not surprisingly, the only way to do this is to take out the Ballas who have been making the crack. Again, this game is showing the stereotype of drugs and having to kill people and again leaves the player the choice of killing the Ballas to move on in the game and develop more of the plot, along with getting more respect, or not being able to and essentially you get killed and fail the mission. In other words, to do what is considered “good” in this game, you have to do what most would consider “evil”. Of course, most would find this offensive, however, it gives the player a sense of what truly is going on in these types of neighborhoods, specifically in LA. Although this is stereotyped for the most part, I am a firm believe that stereotypes exist because 75% of the time they are true and accurate.
In the next mission, they waste no time by going on to another major stereotype in these types of neighborhoods. However, they decide to show a little humor in this next stereotype by showing how blacks love fried chicken and how certain ones can eat a ton of it, even in certain situations. However, in the midst of their feast they get interrupted by a drive by by the Ballas and you of course are driving at this point and need to help Ryder and Sweet take them out, and of course if you drive away, you get yelled at to go back and possibly fail the mission. Again, left with that choice. Seems to be a common scenario in these first few missions, and unfortunately, I do not remember if that is the case throughout the rest of the game, but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't.
So after this mission is where I ended my first GTASA session. And overall, there is a lot of stereotyping in these first few missions, but in my opinion, accurately depicts what goes on in essentially what I would call the ghetto. Family is important among this group along with respect that one needs to earn amongst his “bros” and “homies”, and you do that through doing these missions, in which for the most part I, along with others, would consider evil. I know that it is fake in this game, but these are events that happen in real life in these poor areas amongst different minorities. Rockstar, I believe, tries to show this in their game and does a fairly good job, except for a few unrealistic aspects, such as the fact that the cops simply ignore you as you are shooting at a car, but then again, it is possible that they are so corrupt that they don't want to even get involved. There are many different interpretations that can be taken at this game. My interpretation is that it can inform someone of what truly goes on through what essentially is entertaining, but does contain a deeper message.
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