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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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most recent entry: Thursday 6 March, 2008
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GAMEPLAY #2
After playing the for a few more hours I have gained a new understanding of this innovative simulator. For example, I found the sum of money I started with insufficient when I first started playing. The city's money was quickly squandered on unnecessary frivolities (Who knew that a bustling city doesn't need a Hospital till the population reaches 10,000?). However, I now find the game extremely accessible and can appreciate the ways the designers alleviate a beginner's problems. For example, in easy mode the game starts you off with rather generous funds in comparison to what is required of the "new" mayor. I really appreciate that the game starts you with a rather large sum of money. I feel the game gives you a good amount of wiggle-room with the budget; which allows the player a sufficient amount of creativity and freedom in which to start their city.
Although I am still disappointed I did not find the tutorials sufficient, I have found this game extremely fun. The interactions between me, the player, and the game allow for a successful form of rather addicting game play. Much of the challenges involved with the game represent real life challenges that cities face. For example, keeping the town's funds in order is a huge source of challenge as well as reward. The player is challenged to make successful deals with neighboring towns and even face decisions involving raising taxes and maintaining utilities and services. All these aspects (and many more) contribute to this game having a very low boredom factor. I felt myself drawn to play for hours because of the game's addicting qualities. The fact that the game is very emergent, allows the player to enjoy exploring their own destiny through the building of a successful city. As the desire to maintain and improve one's city kept me playing for hours, with no hint of boredom.
This gameplay experience has left me very impressed. The game has excellent graphics, offers a wide variety of interactions, and has truly mastered a manageable level of resource management (see more in Game Design section). However, this would not be a good game log with the recognition of some qualities the game lacks. I still can not ignore some of the less intuitive parts of the game. For example, I was not able to access the tutorials tips I needed in the beginning of the game. The way to toggle them on and off was not obvious at all. It took an experienced player to tell me about them, when the game should have made them more accessible. I was also disappointed with the way the game communicated necessary information. When information needed to be expressed to me, a dialog box came up in the center of the screen. This always distracted from what I was trying to accomplish at the moment, and I was not able to pause from this position. This made it difficult to fix important problems quickly. I felt it would have been better for the dialog boxes to pop up in the corner of a screen, since they came so frequently. This would allow the player more freedom to control the game world during times of crisis.
Another qualm I have with the game involves how difficult it is to come back from mistakes. When I would be negligent and too trigger happy with the "cheetah speed" setting, I sometimes found myself bankrupt. Once your city hits bottom, it is nearly impossible to revive it. This only happened with one of my cities, but the memory of disappointment and sadness has not left me. I could not believe how difficult it was to revive a bleeding city! Cutting funds made citizens strike, and raising taxes made people leave. This makes for a very depressing situation. A city you spend hours mastering can be ruined with a few minutes of not paying attention!
Many of these frustrations accompany any resource management game. However, I feel this game did an excellent job at providing the player with a well balanced form of resource management. This brings me very nicely to the main subject of my Game Design section; which focuses on the ways this game effectively provides the player with challenge requiring proper resource management.
DESIGN
This game is clearly a game dedicated to challenge the player in the form of resource management. Many games which rely heavily on resource management can take it too far for beginners. For example, Civilization III takes resource management to the extreme, requiring the player to reach a high level of skill to surpass even easy mode. However I feel Sim City 4 had a proper learning curve for the average player. Although the player may face a slow start, learning how to use resources available to you soon becomes intuitive. In every city your money (simoleons) are your main resource you are challenged to maintain. Money is the key to a successful city in real life, why should this be any different for a game dedicated to simulating the issues associated with creating a real city?
I was impressed at how well the game designers balanced challenge with reward. An excess of challenge (especially those involving resource management) often leaves the player frustrated. A frustrated player is likely to quit playing the game and simply "give-up". On the other hand, a resource management game may be too easy, leaving the player bored and wanting to quit. There is a fine gap in which the player feels sufficiently challenged and sufficiently rewarded. I feel Sim City 4 succeed in placing the player an appropriate level of challenge.
Although I was a bit overwhelmed in the beginning, I quickly learned the basics and was able to appreciate the dynamics between resource management and game play. For example, building a successful city is not simply about making a profit. It is necessary for the Mayor to manage everything from traffic to air population. All these small aspects add up to make for an extremely awarding game play once a successful city is established. Understanding the intricacies of rule/ player interactions has led me to declare this a game worthy of playing and a game truly worthy of creative praise.
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