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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: Thursday 27 January, 2011
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Clue: Discover the Secrets - Friday, January 21, 2011 (Session One and Two)
Clue: Discover the Secrets is a multiplayer board game for 3 to 6 players. The theme of the game is (murderous) mystery. Players are members of a (6 person total) party held at a posh mansion and one of the guests is murdered. Players must figure out who committed the murder, in what room it occurred and with what weapon. However, as a twist, the longer each player takes to catch the killer the more they risk becoming the next murder victim.
= Players =
Each player chooses which attendee from the party to represent and starts at a set position on the board. Each attendee has a unique ability that they can use once per game. These abilities range from allowing the player to start a rumor about the murderer to allowing the player to move instantly to any room in the mansion rather than having to roll until they can move enough spaces to reach the room they wished to enter.
= Cards =
Three types of cards exist within the game; character cards, rumor cards, and intrigue cards. Character cards represent one of the party attendees at the mansion and list that attendee’s unique ability. The rumor cards either represent a room within the mansion, a weapon, or a character. The intrigue cards mostly contain unique benefits that can be used once per game to do things like move three or four squares further across the board during your turn. However the intrigue deck also holds 8 instant death cards called the 8th hour cards that make you the next murder victim if drawn, and as such automatically eliminate you from the game.
= The Board =
The Board lays out the inside of the mansion and each of its many rooms and hidden passages. It’s broken up into a grid pattern. Players start at their set spots on the board and roll a D6 to see who goes first. Players roll two D6 dice in order to move that many squares (not diagonally) and get to rooms throughout the mansion. The die also contain a “?” that if rolled means to draw an intrigue card. The board also contains spaces on it marked with the “?” symbol. These are a double edged sword since you can either draw a card that will benefit you in some way, or draw one of the 8th hour cards.
= Game Play =
At the very beginning of the game a confidential card envelope is used to hold the card representing the killer, the card representing what room the murder took place in, and the card representing what murder weapon was used. The remaining rumor cards are dispersed evenly amongst the players. One of the players’ immediate concerns is to enter a room in the mansion as soon as possible. Each time a room is entered it allows the player to make a guess about who they think the killer is, and what weapon they think was used to commit the murder in the room that the guess is being made from. Whenever a player makes a guess the player whose turn is next must disprove an item that was guessed using one of the rumor cards that was dealt to them. If they cannot disprove any of the guessed items then they must say so and the next person must disprove one of the items, and so on until one item is shown (only to the player that made the guess) to be false. Each player has a little sheet that they mark to help keep track of what has been disproven. It is extremely important to mark the sheet wisely, as it is the only thing you have to keep track of clues as to who the killer is, what weapon was used, and what room the crime was committed in. One of my main strategies was to make a guess that included one or two cards in my hand so that if anyone had a card not in my hand they would be forced to reveal it to me. In this way I was not only guaranteed to be able to make an item elimination but also had the chance of guessing an item no one could disprove meaning that the item must be within the confidential envelope. This strategy also tends to throw other players off and lead them to false conclusions about what is within the confidential envelope. The first session the killer was Plum with poison in the dining room. The second session the killer was again Plum, but this time with a knife in the spa.
= Overall =
To be successful at Clue you must have lots of patience, well developed deductive skills, and be very accurate with recording your deductions. One tiny mistake can cost you the game. Clue is my favorite strategic mind game. I love nothing better than to fool other players into thinking one of the rumor cards in my hand is within the confidential envelope!
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