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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 5 February, 2012
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Here is the continuation of the story from my first Alpha Centauri gamelog:
As promised, now I shall discuss secret projects. These are much like the Wonders of the World in the Civilization games; once a secret project is completed by an empire, no other empire may build the same project. Secret projects confer special benefits to the faction that builds them, some of which are more important than others. For example, there is one secret project, named the Supercollider, which doubles research at the base at which it is built. Another project, which we will encounter later in the gamelog, is called the Neural Amplifier and boosts the psi defense of all a faction’s units. There are quite a few other secret projects, many of which can easily tip the balance of a game.
Now, back to my account of my gameplay experience:
As you may recall, I was fighting a war against CEO Nwabudike Morgan, using my mind worms against his conventional units. I had also recently met several of the other faction leaders, including Chairman Sheng-ji Yang of the Hive, who I resolved to defeat, one way or another. This, then, takes off from that point.
After my initial difficulty conquering Morgan’s territory, I finally take a city on the edge of his domain. By this time, I have a rather large number of mind worms swarming into the area, and the other nearby cities also fall quickly. This helps me in several ways. First, and most obvious, conquering Morgan’s cities means that he has fewer cities at which to build or buy troops, limiting the number of units he can produce per turn. This also means that I can start training my own military units at my newly conquered cities. Second, each time I conquer one of Morgan’s cities, I get to steal one of the technologies that he has researched and which I do not possess. As a result, several of Morgan’s other cities fall to me, one after the other. Finally, I send my troops to his capitol and take it, with surprisingly little trouble.
At this point, Morgan is no longer a significant threat to me. He still has a couple of cities and a fair number of military units, but my cities now surround his on all sides. When Morgan again begs for a cease fire, I accept it, wanting to concentrate on preparing for a war with some of the other factions, namely the Hive.
Shortly after signing the ceasefire with Morgan, Yang (of the Hive) contacts me and demands several key technologies from me in return for letting me live. I refuse, and he declares war on me. Fortunately, Yang is already at war with just about every other faction (Including, as I later find out, Morgan). Unfortunately, most of Yang’s bases are on an entirely different continent, which means that if I want to get to him, I’m going to have to build boats, and, if I want to be even mildly effective, I’m going to have build lots of strong, defensible boats.
I never do get around to properly building my boat army. Before I have a chance to build more than one or two cheap transport ships, Yang has conquered one of Morgan’s cities, right there on my continent. Sensing an easy way to strike back at Yang without building large numbers of boats, I gather up all my mindworms that aren’t in defensive positions. With this rather impressive force, I attack Yang’s newly conquered city. Unfortunately for me, I had neglected to consider several facts before I attacked. First, all of Yang’s bases, whether built by Yang or conquered from someone else, contain the Perimeter Defense structure. This structure doubles the defensive power of all units within a base. Second, Yang owns the Neural Amplifier secret project, which increases his defense against psi attack by half. Taken together, these two factors make a significant difference in the effectiveness of my units. As a result, my attack fails miserably and does not manage to kill even one unit within Yang’s base.
After my failed attack, while I am outgunned in just about every way imaginable, I continue to try to beat Yang, lost cause though it may be. Instead of attacking his units inside their bases, I wait until they leave to attack them. This goes much better for me, though my units still take heavy losses.
And then Yang defeats Morgan. As unflattering as it is, Yang clearly had not been devoting a great deal of attention to fighting me; once Morgan goes down, Yang becomes much more aggressive against me. I find out, the hard way, that Yang could build air units. Like their analogues in reality, these air units move long distances quickly, do devastating damage, and then disappear like smoke on the wind. While my psi units are better equipped to deal with Yang’s jets than most other units would be, even they don’t really stand a chance. My armies, already spread thin by my aggression, cave in rather quickly under the combined might of Yang’s ground and air units. After my last city falls to Yang’s forces, a cinematic sequence plays in which I hear my faction leader screaming as he is interrogated by the Hive, and the game ends.
Reflections:
Even after this exploration of Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri, there is still much more to discuss. This gamelog reflects a single playthrough of only one of the six SMAC factions and, even then, is only a very basic overview. The depth of play in this game is deeply impressive. However, there are also other important elements that this gamelog did not discuss. The various sounds throughout the game serve to both immerse the player into the gameworld and to inform the player of what is happening. Quotes from the various faction leaders and from various famous people also help provide background, immersion, and something of a personal feel to various elements of the game. The game’s cinematic sequences, while made with hugely outdated and graphically unimpressive technology, still remain impressive. (If you’re interested in an example, you can search youtube for “Alpha Centauri Self Aware Colony.”) Of course, one of the reasons why these quotes and cinematic sequences are so effective is that they build on the faction leaders’ established personalities and tell a story about how each faction chooses to cope with the challenges of surviving on Alpha Centauri. These two attributes, depth of play and personal story, and the quality with which they are executed are a large part of what makes Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri so compelling.
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