 |
|
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!
read all entries for this GameLog 
- add a comment 
|
|
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.
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
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!
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
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.
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
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.
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
|
|
|
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)
for that game. Call it a weblog of game playing activity if you will.
[latest site fixes and updates]
[read more]
|
view feed xml
|
 |
|
2285 registered gamers and 3255 games. 7787 GameLogs with 13264 journal entries. 5110 games are currently being played.
More stats
|
 |
|
most recent entry: Friday 8 February, 2008
|
Gamelog #3 Session #2 for CMPS 20
Start Time: 7:00 pm
End Time: 9:00 pm
Assignment due 2/8/08
GAMEPLAY
I really enjoyed the story of L:SSSC. The characters, as I've mentioned, were absorbing and entertaining. When you play certain scenes outside of cutscenes, the faces of the characters speaking show up in various moods and emotional states. This furthers plot progression and is more interesting than text alone. When I last played the game, I had just begun on a story arc past the first major conflict. I suspect the game supplies many more conflicts, and that this is just the beginning. I really want to keep playing to find out.
The game was a lot of fun to play. A lot of that was because of content other than gameplay. This was kind of strange for me; usually the gameplay is what matters in a game. However, the music was original, the art was consistently good, and the animated cutscenes really make this game unique. They all made me want to play more of the game. It also didn't hurt that the gameplay, which could have been neglected, was awesome. With this game's scope as vast as it is, leaving things less than great was a distinct possibility, and I'm pretty relieved it didn't happen.
The game was interesting to play. Besides offering interesting characters and story, there were puzzles where you had to observe how your environment would respond to certain actions. It took me a while to figure out how to clear the path in the first cave, but after I figured it out, I was fine. Besides that, I didn't even get frustrated with the puzzles because I was gaining experience, leveling up, and gaining new abilities. In other words, the rewards in-game more than balance out the puzzles' difficulty. Even when you're technically stuck, you're usually having a great time.
However, there's not much social interaction while you're playing. The game has a small but devoted following that enjoys discussion of the game, but, there is no multiplayer option. That doesn't mean that observers don't get absorbed in the game right along with you, though. While I was playing, several people stopped what they were doing to watch me play. It has a pretty cool effect on people. Just passing by, they go from not caring to wanting to watch you play, if not play themselves.
The storyline has a strong but linear flow. I experienced a little bit of flow while playing the game. Playing the first few hours of this huge game, I got a sense that there was some urgency involved in the story. It was a little bumpy, though, in terms of coherence. Specifically, in one scene, the main characters are preparing for a festival in honor of their goddess, Althena. However, after you retrieve a treasure from the nearby cave, you make plans to depart right away. This was a little strange, considering that some of the main characters had been preparing for something they weren't going to follow through on. Real people probably wouldn't forget something like that as easily. Despite its minor flow issues, I really liked this game.
DESIGN
Some of the innovative things in this game were the previously mentioned technical achievements. I'm still amazed that you can play a game with this scope on a PlayStation. They crammed a whole lot of game onto two discs. I have a feeling this was made possible by cutting corners on the main gameplay graphics, which are solely in 2D. Cutting corners in this way, however, was surely an early game design decision, rather than one coming from a poorly managed schedule or budget. I was pretty impressed with this game.
The tone of the gameworld is excited and adventurous. The use of mostly bright colors helps with the tone. You never feel a sense of despair playing this game. The characters also have a huge emotional expressiveness. That always appeals to me. Some emotions the characters have displayed so far include the basic happiness and sadness, but also embarrassment, shock, worry, and anger. The wide expressive range of the characters helps to flesh them out and make them seem more like real people.
Some ideas this game gives me for my own project is using resources wisely. It's not necessary to have lots of hours of gameplay on a game so long as the game is fun and interesting. It helps to decide with certainty on what style to use for creative content. I may eventually make a game with cutscenes, but I won't worry about having cutscenes that look like the main gameplay. A lot of games brag about that, but most gamers don't really care. The styles on L:SSSC vary a lot, but they're always high-quality and appropriate for the tone of the game.
This game is pretty much non-emergent. There are some basic moves involved in gameplay, but it is definitely an RPG. As such, I would expect to find a walkthrough for this game more easily than I would find a strategy guide. There is a user manual for if you can't figure out the basics, but it's not really necessary. It would be even easier if the choices you could make were labeled with buttons to press beside them, but they didn't choose to do that in this game.
The cutscenes were really impressive. They support gameplay by contributing to the flow and tone of the game. The visuals and audio were always pleasant to the senses, and so I enjoyed playing more. The cutscenes don't really interfere with gameplay at all; the cutscenes are short and they're only used when the story needs an extra boost of creative expression. They are not used overly much; they are not abused.
I really, REALLY liked Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. I would recommend it to anyone.
Keep playing!
[read this GameLog]
|
|
|
