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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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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.
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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: Sunday 2 March, 2008
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Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix
Gamelog entry #1:
SUMMARY
In Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix the player controls a soldier. They compete via multiplayer with other players and try to get the highest score or complete objectives. The game is fast-paced and is very difficult when playing against other players.
GAMEPLAY
While playing SOF2 your emotional state is rather intense. It is a fast paced game so you must always be looking for targets and where to go, how to get there, and what to do once you get there, all of this while not getting killed.
Characters in the game are poor. The only different is the skins of the characters or the costumes. Since the game does not revolve around individuality I do not think it plays a roll at all.
The story is the same as all first person shooters. Also the game is not bought to play the single player, it is purchased so that you can play online with other players and own some noobs.
The gameplay is very fun. As stated before it is face-paced so you are constantly being pulled back into the games magic circle. Every time you kill someone or capture something you might rest for a second (unlikely) and then are forced back into the games magic circle.
The interest of this game is completely based on the other players you are competing against. If you are the noob getting owned, chances are you aren’t having fun. But if you are doing the noob owning then you are most likely having a great time. So as long as your on top, it is fun and interesting.
There are no social interactions really in this game, it moves too fast. If there are social interactions it is usually just the quick trash talk.
I felt that I experienced the flow of the game. It pulls you in very easily and the competition and game types are fun.
Gamelog entry #2:
GAMEPLAY
SOF2 is an addicting game. It is not like COD4 where you get weapon upgrades. Everyone has access to the same weapons. But each weapon has different shooting styles so the player is forced to pick one weapon to get good with. This is extremely nice and gives all players a level playing field. The only difference between players is how much time they have devoted into becoming good at the game.
DESIGN
I would say that the most innovating element of this game is the pace. Most first person shooters are either way too fast paced like Quake or too slow like Ghost Recon. SOF2 did an extremely good job of combining both play styles and finding a middle ground that is both fast paced and allows for slower play styles. A lot of this also depends on the game mode.
The level playing field is what makes this game a good game. It give all the players the same chance to win.
The levels are varied enough. All the levels have close, medium, and long range combat. Some have more of one than others, but the levels are all well balanced and don’t give any one team a huge advantage.
The main challenge of this game is getting good enough to beat other players. The game keeps players interested because there is always someone that you can beat, and the more you play the more people you can beat.
A good example of conflict in this game would be during the game mode of Capture The Flag. The flags are placed at the opposite teams base and you are supposed to return them to yours. The conflict is the other players defending their flag and trying to take yours. Without the players in the game, it would be extremely easy and predictable, you would get the flag every time.
The interest element of this game is to dominate other players. The more you play, the better you get, the better you get the more fun the game is.
The space in the levels of this game vary. Some are very small and are geared towards close combat while others are more sniper maps. One of the more innovative elements of this game is their RMG (Random Map Generator) these are outdoor maps that you can generate by entering a string of letters. This keeps the game fresh with the introduction of new levels. As opposed to the same few over and over again.
There is nothing I would change about the game. The game is made as well as it can be and still have a level playing field. The only frustrating thing about the game is when you run into people that are way better than you. Then you just get stomped.
Overall this game is a total blast. It is easy to play, it doesn’t take a ton of time to get good at, and the gameplay overall is fun.
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