My GameLog
A person who is seriously interested in games, game studies, and game design should play a lot of games.
To the right you will see the latest GameLog (diary)
entries I have recorded for the games I'm currently playing and my thought and feelings on the game, the experience of playing it, and so on.
If you want to see all the games I'm playing, or the ones
I'm no longer playing you can follow the "List of Games I'm Currently Playing" and the "
List of Games I've Finished Playing".
During the summer of 2003 I started a little project to keep track of the videogames I had been playing. I also wanted to keep track of my thoughts as I played them.
Thus, GameLog was born as a blogging tool for gamers. If you are interested you can hop on over and register. I personally enjoy reading about other people's thoughts
on the games they play and the more the merrier! www.gamelog.cl
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[ Games I'm Currently Playing ] -
[ Games I've Finished Playing ]
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Saturday 6 December, 2025 // Banner Saga Trilogy (PS4)
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I started playing this back in October - maybe earlier? - and it was really confusing for me. Mostly I kept making mistakes I blame on the interface. For example, I'd select a character, move it, and then try to attack only to realize that I wasn't adjacent to the enemy like I thought. So, I'd miss a turn, my characters would die - but, I moved on. In the sense that I know this game is supposed to be sad, there's attrition, you make do an move on. But overall combat was really fiddly for me - I'd bungle selecting characters, and I wasn't really understanding the system.. does facing matter? are there attacks of opportunity if you move away, etc. These aren't dealbreakers for me, I was happy to try to learn and figure things out, and since you can't really save, it just continues - I though I'd just see how far I could get. Especially since it seems really brutal! I think the upgrade points are basically how you heal? Only two points at a time - so, it really is attritional. Or maybe I'm really misunderstanding the progression system.
I did think it was interesting to follow the different stories - I have a hard time following the names and whatnot, but just seeing there were two groups, different character abilities, and such seems interesting.
Then other stuff got in the way and I wasn't able to continue playing for a few weeks.
I just came back to it, and wow - still the same UI stuff and ugh. I just don't feel like it's worth it to continue playing (a drawer full of other PS4 games doesn't help). I wonder if the console version is just worse than sitting at a desk on a PC? As in, would I make as many mistakes if I was on mouse and keyboard with the screen much closer to my face?
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Saturday 6 December, 2025 // Kirby Super Star Ultra (DS)
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There's quite a bit to do, but most of it has started to feel a bit shallow. The dungeon exploring was perhaps my favorite, there's lots of exploring to do which was fun, and it isn't that hard, and the companion helper was also a neat idea (to be honest though, I kept forgetting to "activate") - but overall I'm looking at the stack of DS games I still want to play (it's been getting quite a bit smaller, which is good -since the 3DS pile now looms) that I've decided to shelve this one.
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Friday 28 November, 2025 // Mr. Sun's Hatbox (PC)
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The game's premise is rather silly - you're a delivery guy who delivered a hatbox, but someone stole it, so you mount an entire operation to get it back, which involves developing an entire underground base with agents, research, brainwashing captured agents, a black market for items, and more.
What's both fun - and a bit annoying - is that for each mission you pick an agent, and they have all kinds of quirks and problems that they (sometimes) eventually lose as you level them up. But, if they die - well, that's it! Agent gone! Also, you'll often get wounded and you need to pay to heal them, and it takes time. So, I've had a few "favorite" agents that died on the job and then I'm stuck using the wonkier ones, which is harder on harder missions because of their quirks.
The gameplay itself is quite chaotic - which I deal poorly with since I'll panic - but I think more playthroughs will have me learning the quirkiness of the controls and mechanics and thus doing better? I've only played about 2 1/2 hours so far, so I think there's plenty to get through. Though, I have finished found two special hats.. as a sign of progress.
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Saturday 22 November, 2025 // Kirby Super Star Ultra (DS)
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I had the case and manual, but no game. So I bought the game. That seems kind of silly, but it is what it is.
So, I had to test the game - to make sure the cart worked and all that.
So far, it's pretty interesting! I played the first "mission" (it said the difficulty was easy) and it took me a bit to get used to Kirby's swallow-and-gain-special-ability power. Some enemies give you a special ability when you press a button after swallowing them. This is instead of just "firing" them. There's like three buttons and I still get them confused to be honest. We'll see what happens as I play more.
The first mission has maybe 4-5 levels. And then it rolled credits! I was surprised of course - but I knew there was more game. The credits also rolled really fast which was kind of funny. And then it played a "of its era in terms of quality" CG cut-scene/movie. Weird.
Now I need to explore all the other things that opened up. There's also a 2-player co-op mode...
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