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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,
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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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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: Wednesday 16 January, 2008
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Entry #2
GAMEPLAY:
Perfect Dark is an excellent 1-player game, but seeing as how I haven't been able to play this game in years, (see last entry) I wanted to explore the game's other options, so I quit playing the solo missions and started playing around with the game's other features. There is a great target practice mode in which the more you advance in single player mode, the more guns/weapons you unlock.
It didn't take me long to remember why I used to love Perfect Dark so much. What separates this game from other shooters are all the small details and features added into the game which make it extremely versatile. For example, the multiplayer mode allows you to choose the weapons in the level and where they are located, choose your own customizable character and character's name, the guns all have secondary functions which means each gun has two separate executions, a feature which significantly distinguishes stratigies, and many other specific options are obtainable. All these customizable features work greatly together and the game has more entertainment value due to multiple different set-up options.
I also must admit some bias when it comes to N64 games because this system came out at the peak of my video gaming (I would have been about 7 when I first got one) And thus I am much more familiar and skilled at this system then others. But I've been able to compare Perfect Dark with many other shooter games which came out for more advanced systems and I still classify Perfect Dark as the best shooter of all time. The auto-aim feature is a great example of how this game perfects itself from others. In Halo, you have to operate two joy sticks and there is no auto aim feature which makes it very difficult for people unfamiliar with X-box controllers, such as myself. But Perfect Dark has a much easier control style to master. It uses only one joystick to move the character and two left/right buttons to side step, which enables the character to move in anyway a Halo character could, only with more ease. I suppose the point I'm trying to make is that Perfect Dark has a very smooth feel to it. It's easy to get the hang of and once you do, you realized why this is the best of the best.
GAME DESIGN:
When reading the template for the "Game Design" portion of the entry I realized that some of my gameplay comments could have been better used in this portion of the entry. However, now I have more space to elaborate on specifics rather then broad definitions. What's great about the design of Perfect Dark is the remarkable balance between simplicity and complexion. For example, the single player mode is fairly simple in its look and objective. All that needs to be done is advance through the level without dying and completing objectives which are written out for you. The Levels are designed simply enough for the player to know where to go despite never having played the level before. This is accomplished by allowing the player to go to limited areas and although the levels are not simple themselves, it is a simple process to figure out where to go to in order to progress. Yet at the same time the single player mode offers a range of different elements. You could play the same level twice but in completely different ways. And in fact, each level has an easy, medium, and hard mode, all of which have different objectives which add to the game's depth.
Reading this you may think that Perfect Dark is nothing exceptional, but keep in mind that this game was made almost a decade ago and at the time, was the only shooter around like it. (It was the follow-up to Goldeneye and is very similar, but the new features offered by the game put it in its own category.) Also, I think this game still holds up even in the generation of newer, better-looking games. Perfect Dark has many innovative features. There are various weapons in the game and each one has its own specific features. For example, the Falcon 2 gun is a pistol which is 100% accurate but only one shot at a time can be fired. The MagSec 4 is also a pistol but is able to shoot 3 bullets at a time for faster damage, but is not as accurate as the Falcon 2. What's more, each gun has it's own secondary function which allows the players to increase their options. Take the Laptop-Gun for example. Its primary function is to be an accurate machine gun, but the secondary function allows you to throw the gun and it will become a turret which shoots enemies for you. These functions work well in a multiplayer environment due to the versatile gameplay achievable by all players, however they are specifically fun to use in single player because then the levels are actually designed to incorporate specific gun functions.
I hope elaborating on certain details of Perfect Dark has painted somewhat of a picture to those of you who have not played the game. But to summarize the game design in a more basic way I'd say: Think of Perfect Dark as a normal shooter game. Basic single player and multiplayer, reminiscent to other shooters of the time. Then add layers of features, customizable options, innovative cheat codes, advanced artificial intelligence, easy to learn-yet complex in execution control style, and a whole menu of guns all of which have been carefully crafted to fit into game play with maximum enjoyment. That's Perfect Dark in a nut shell.
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