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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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2287 registered gamers and 3258 games. 7789 GameLogs with 13266 journal entries. 5110 games are currently being played.
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most recent entry: Sunday 21 February, 2010
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Traveling south of the parking lot, I reached a cliff that overlooked the city. To the far right stood Dylan solemnly watching civilization. When Eric nears, the two have a conversation about the atrocity they are about to commit, and how it couldn't be any other way, and how it must be done. Afterwards, the two distribute the weapons in the duffle bags and wait for the bombs to explode. However, a hitch appears in the plan as the bombs fail to detonate and Eric and Dylan are forced to proceed with their objective by starting the massive slaughter themselves. Thus the player begins to massacre the entire Columbine student body.
"Speaking of which, we've got to arm ourselves to the fucking teeth and kill as many shitheads as we can today," claims Dylan right before the duo split the armory in the bags. Inside the duffle bags are a parade of various illegal weaponry and firearms, in which how they managed to establish such an arsenal of destruction without someone noticing is beyond me. Inside is sawed off shotguns, semi-automatic pistols, a parade of knives, Co2 bombs, napalm bombs, pipe bombs, small propane bombs, the works. The player really has to question, what was the intent of the developer by showing us every single weapon used in the boy's operation? Surely for simplistic gameplay purposes a few armaments would have sufficed, but instead the player is equipped as a one man army. Why did the developer feel it necessary to add this element? For realism? For authenticity? Was the developer just trying to get the message across that this massacre was indeed horrific? Whatever the case, I believe the term "overkill" is rather appropriate in describing the boy's weapon selection. A few pistols would have certainly been good enough in the face of unarmed schoolchildren. To be angry enough to wage a full on war against a public high school must really mean the boys were either extremely psychotic, or traumatically bullied by the student body. Either way, it is a curious addition to the game.
Stemming off of the boy's weapon load out, comes the confrontations that occur soon afterwards. After the bombs fail to explode the boys decide to continue carrying out their mission by starting to massacre the student body themselves. The battle system is that of a traditional RPG, in which the player must run into one of the unsuspecting students and trigger a battle sequence. Once the battle has begun, the player is granted a menu from which to decide a plan of attack. The player can either use a melee attack, or use one of their guns to attack the opposition. The melee attack is nowhere near as effective as the duo's arsenal, so naturally the player will probably lean on the side of, no pun intended, sticking to their guns. What's so puzzling about this battle system is the difficulty, or rather lack thereof. Due to the powerful damage Eric's and Dylan's weapons cause, the "enemy" usually doesn't even have a chance to counterattack. In fact, even if you don't kill them on the first turn by resorting to a melee attack, aside from the "Jock" enemy, the opposition doesn't even retaliate. Even more astounding is the inclusion of an "auto play" option, in which the battle plays itself out by the boys typically resorting to their armory to finish off the "enemy" in one turn. The triviality of this combat system is perplexing. Why add it if it's not even worthy of a challenge? Sure, in reality the students probably ran for their lives instead of staging a fight, but couldn't the developer have inserted a fleeing mechanic for the AI in the game? After all, a normal human being wouldn't just stand around as they are being gunned down to a bloody pulp. Although part of the "joy" of the battle system would be lost if your opponents just kept fleeing, at least it would have made more sense authentically in recreating the massacre. Nevertheless, shrugging aside this aspect of the battle protocol, it wasn't very much fun gameplay wise when your opponents were so easily mowed down by your tools of terror. What I believe was the game developers intent, was to show how cruel and horrifying it was for the victims of the massacre. As Super Columbine Massacre RPG! illustrated, the opposition to Eric's and Dylan's rampage stood little to no chance against the power of the duo's masochistic arsenal. Perhaps all they could do was stand in fear as they witnessed their lives flash right before their eyes.
Something else I also noticed about the "enemies" roaming the parking lot was their names. Depending on their appearance, the children running around the school parking lot were granted titles based on the groups they belonged to. For instance, there was the "Goody Goody Girl," the "Jock," the "Nerdy Girl," the "Popular girl," the "Church girl," etc. Unsurprisingly, out of all these "enemy types" the only one that actually managed to fight back was the "Jock." Curiously though, he only managed to do minimal damage to Eric and Dylan, showing that even the mighty athletes didn't stand a chance against our "protagonists." Again, it becomes rather odd on why the developer decided to implement this enemy class system into the game, when any other generic name for the schoolchildren would have sufficed. This classification of stereotypical teens certainly brings up a plethora of questions. Could teens simply be classified so easily based upon their likes, looks, and interests? Not to mention the fact I didn't even notice one non-Caucasian walking around the parking lot, it hardly seemed fair for the developer to do so. Although I obviously never attended Columbine High School, I find it hard to believe that the teenagers attending the public school could be so easily categorized into these stereotypes. Civilized society is certainly well aware of the fact that people can be both physically and mentally fit instead of one or the other. Also, as I believe to have some sense of truth, did the developer implement these stereotypes so as to exemplify the kind of "shitheads" the boys believed they needed to wage war against? In the boy's eyes, were these the kind of people who were the source of all of society's problems? In Super Columbine Massacre RPG!, it seems that every aspect of the game's mechanics involved some sort of representation to the real life massacre. From the weapon selection, to the classification of enemies, Super Columbine seems rich with meaningful symbolism, for better or for worse.
Although it's hard to call the RPG "fun," it does certainly bring a lot of questions to mind about the creation of responsible games, the amount of influence the media can hold over a person, etc. Even though Super Columbine Massacre RPG! is classified as a game, I would say that I was more morally challenged rather than intellectually or skillfully, both by contemplating Eric's and Dylan's actions as well as the ones I myself executed. If it was the developers intent to educate, rather than entertain, than I believe it's safe to presume mission accomplished.
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