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Gris (PS5) by jp (Apr 20th, 2025 at 20:25:52) |
I distinctly remember Gris getting a "meh" review score in Edge magazine. So, I was expecting to be underwhelmed gameplay-wise though wowed visually.
And yes, I was wowed visually (and aurally too - playing the PS5 version that makes use of the speaker controller in a cool way)...and the gameplay was sort of meh - but, it got better and better the longer I played!
Not counting the "hub" area, the game has four zones/levels that each introduce a mechanic, as well as some in-world things to interact with. And so, the game really goes from less to more as later levels incorporate more in-world mechanics as well as require use of the character mechanics you unlock. It also all makes sense with the game's theme and story and balblabla (ludonarrative harmony is what my students brought up).
That being said, it's a pretty relaxing and flowing kind of game - nods to Journey in there as well - and there isn't really a fail state, though you can get stuck on puzzles and some dexterity-timing dependent puzzles. There's some swimming bits that are just glorious - as you dash from "water bubble" to "water bubble" (blocks of water in the air) - and I loved swimming up waterfalls.
What impressed me the most though were two things:
1. I kept on trying to "go the wrong way" and most of the time, it was the right way.
2. The onboarding and tutorials are really, really well done. You notice a thing, or do a thing, and then that's the thing you have to do later to solve puzzles and so on. It feels very natural and very normal.
So, I'm actually excited to try Neva now...
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Lost in Blue 2 (DS) by jp (Apr 18th, 2025 at 18:46:41) |
Perhaps the strangest thing for me about this game is that it's a bona fide survival game on the DS. In my mind, the genre is more recent than 2006! I'm thinking of all the indie survival games (craft stuff, gather food, don't die of hunger or thirst) and then ones on Steam..and here's this game - a sequel no less - and it's straight up THAT. Survival. And there's two characters to boot - and you can die (I did, pretty soon it turns out).
I guess I was surprised by how quickly I did die - and, from a novice perspective, it felt sudden and a bit unfair. As in, CLEARLY there was nothing I could have done differently to survive. I spent too much time exploring was probably the main problem, and I left the boy behind in a cave we found, and I'm not sure that's what you're supposed to do? You have to keep both of them feed, hydrated and energized, and I felt like I had my hands full with just the one character.
I think my biggest mistake was probably not getting the spear for fishing made sooner? But then, I'm not even sure how you're supposed to use it - and all the other food I kept scavenging wasn't really doing much. Like, you'd eat it and not see a huge effect. I'm guessing there's something I'm not understanding and it makes me wonder if a full reset makes the most sense? (instead of loading into a saved game that's already doomed/too heavily stacked against success).
Perhaps the strangest thing (for me) about the game is that there's a super simple mini-game for cooking! You collect stuff to cook and also stuff to use as spices and then need to sort of trial and error recipes - though I could set the boy (the character I was not controlling directly) to cook and he'd come up with his own stuff... it's weird.
And it's a sequel? I guess I should look up if this is a port to DS from someplace else? It would make more sense in a way - the game is also low-poly 3D as you wander around the environment. Still...I might just put it on the shelf.
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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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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,
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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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2286 registered gamers and 3257 games. 7789 GameLogs with 13266 journal entries. 5110 games are currently being played.
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Bioshock 2 (PC) by dkirschner |
| Very good, melee with a drill is awesome. Very similar to the original. ------------- Not as good as original, lots of hand-holding and felt very same-old, same-old after a while. |
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most recent entry: Saturday 3 September, 2011
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Bioshock 2: Not as good as Bioshock. Boy, I realize I'm writing about 3 sequels, and I think all are less good than the game before. That means they'll have #3s that pick it up again, right?! Right, Bioshock Infinite?!
What to say about Bioshock 2? It was basically the same game as Bioshock 1, the biggest difference being you play as a Big Daddy, "Subject Delta." You learn about the history of Big Daddies and Little Sisters, and as a Big Daddy, you have a special relationship with the Little Sisters you see around Rapture. I also felt myself having a personal vendetta against the other Big Daddies, as in, I want to take care of that Little Sister. I also definitely felt more close to the Little Sisters than in the last game. In the last one, you kill the Big Daddies, then either harvest or save the Little Sisters. In this one, you harvest or "adopt." If you adopt, then you pick her up and take her to ADAM-stuffed corpses, set her down and defend her from splicers while she gathers ADAM. Once she gathers ADAM from two corpses, you have the option to rescue her, freeing her from the ADAM in her body, turning her into a normal little girl, and carrying her to a hidey hole.
I really liked being a Big Daddy in the end mostly because I got to use a drill. Big Daddy drills are awesome. The hulk moves like a giant, complete with metal clanking when he jumps and his breathing sounds like it's inside a diving helmet. Very cool sounds. Right, so you can dual wield a weapon and a plasmid. I ended up using my favorite combination of Freeze plasmid + drill. It was incredibly satisfying shattering splicers. And you could freeze allll the enemies, even the harder ones like Big Sisters, who are like Little Sisters mixed with Big Daddies, agile little girls in dive suits, very scary.
Enemy types were mostly the same, levels looked less cool than I remembered in the original, maybe because I'd seen all this before. The story wasn't as interesting as the original. Characters were less interesting than in the original too. There was no artist in this one, who was by far the fucking creepiest person ever. And Andrew Ryan, mastermind and architect of Rapture, was a far better antagonist than Sophia Lamb is. He was far more sinister, and his philosophical outlook seemed more rooted in something I can believe as plausible for someone to believe in. Sophia Lamb's was just like new age psycho-babble. She's only here because of Andrew Ryan anyway.
The end really didn't do it for me. There was hardly a twist, just a drawn out final mission that should have ended with an epic final battle instead of the boring waves of enemies I'd been killing the entire game.
Looking at what I've said so far, I realize this was a solid game, really, but it just pales to playing the original for the first time. It was so unique and beautiful a game and it left such an impression on me. The only part of this one that I think I'll remember (besides being a drill-happy Big Daddy) is seeing Rapture through the eyes of a Little Sister. By far, by FAR, the coolest part of the game was this little segment where you control a Little Sister for a story point that I won't spoil here. Rapture really IS a utopia through the eyes of a Little Sister. They live in this area with signs saying things like "I love my Big Daddy" and all this other propaganda, including happy music and stuff. The world LOOKS beautiful. All the furniture is nice and new and comfortable, the bookshelves tall and full, the PEOPLE look normal, well-dressed, and nice...and there are still corpses with ADAM, the "angels," except instead of looking like rotting corpses, they really do look like angels. It's really pretty, and kind of sad. When the Little Sister goes to harvest an angel, her vision briefly flutters to show the world as it really is, the bloated corpse. The first time it happened, I was like "holy shit!" And H was up here watching me play to the end, and he had the same response. We talked about why/how the little girls saw the world as beautiful. I mean, a beautiful Rapture is what Ryan and Lamb both want, a utopia. The Little Sisters simply see the world from that utopian perspective. Dead people are angels. Everything is nice. I wonder if they're spliced somehow to see the world like that, or if they're socialized or brainwashed into disregarding what their eyes perceive, laying this coat of perfection atop their vision.
Best single part of the game though, hands down. Maybe Bioshock 3 will be a stealth/action game where you play a Little Sister. Sam Fisher with a hypodermic needle.
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