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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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they are currently playing. A GameLog is basically a record of a game you started playing. If it's open,
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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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Alan Wake (360) by dkirschner |
| Scary! I like. The playing with light is really cool. Like playing a Stephen King novel. ----------- Excellent story. |
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most recent entry: Sunday 11 November, 2012
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The boxfront says "A psychological action thriller." I'd also describe it as "Play a Stephen King novel." Another hit for me in my week of short games, Alan Wake held me at the edge of my seat the entire time. From the serenity of the opening scenes to the darkness forming and stalking Alan, to the mysterious characters and the manuscript pages of Alan Wake's latest novel that he doesn't remember writing, every bit of this story was compelling. Alan and his wife go to an idyllic cabin in the middle of a lake for some R & R and to hopefully cure Alan's writers block. But there's an evil presence in the town that capitalizes on Alan's weakness after his wife dies (how did she die?!). Alan spends the story trying to get her back, and in doing so, follows the plot of the story he doesn't remember writing. The game is divided into six episodes with cliffhangers like chapters in a book. The pacing is excellent. Each episode has just what it needs and the game was so damn good I just played it straight through. I see that there are two additional DLC episodes, as well as some other Alan Wake fictions that expand on the story. I will consider obtaining these if they are of the same writing quality.
As far as gameplay goes, it plays like a survival horror game. The light is your main weapon. Enemies, which are people taken over by the darkness, are like maniacal versions of the small town's inhabitants - loggers, policemen, all males for some reason. They come at you with various outdoor tools, ranting about various things related to their professions. I thought it would culminate with the chainsaw guy, but the buildup to that part really wasn't as stressful for me as it should have been. I was imagining hearing the rumbling of a chainsaw getting louder and louder, and the chainsaw enemy being a cut above all the others. But he wasn't the end-all-be-all of enemies. Turns out the darkness can possess inanimate objects too, so really the wheat threshers and giant farm tractors were more intimidating than the chainsaw guy. Anyway, all these people and objects are enshrouded by darkness. You must use your flashlight to burn away the darkness before you can shoot and kill them. The flashlight has limited batteries that drain as you use it, and there is limited ammunition for your few guns, including flares and flash bombs. Flares were really useful for keeping enemies at bay. But you couldn't see them very well for the brightness, though you were protected. So like, if you want to focus on killing a chainsaw guy, toss a flare to keep the other enemies away from you while you shine your light at the target. The flash bombs do tons of damage and are good when like 7 enemies are running at you. I used the pistol the majority of the time, and pulled out the shotguns or hunting rifle in serious situations. After every episode, you lose all your weapons. Usually you fell or were attacked or something plausible. After the first time, I was like, "Oh great, lost all my stuff" because I usually hate that. However, for maybe the first time in my life, I enjoyed losing everything every time. It made sense, first of all. Second of all, it made the game scarier all of a sudden having no flashlight, or only a flashlight but no pistol, or whatever.
Great game, another brilliant story with tons of references to other horror media like the Twilight Zone and various Stephen King novels (the Shining especially). Like the last two gamelogs I wrote for Enslaved and Bayonetta, the story gets better and better as it moves along. Alan Wake provides so many good twists, and that moment of illumination near the end that straight up explains it all. Actually this moment comes somewhat in episode 4 when you learn what is actually happening to Alan on the island. This is expanded upon later. The earlier episodes are when Alan is confused, trying to figure out what is going on, etc. I really liked this. Go buy it!
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