What I Played Today: August 1-5

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Various

Hey, I was at a sales conference, so I didn't play a lot of games! In my downtime, I managed to put in a couple of seconds of Pokemon, in which not a lot of stuff happened! Because this game is supereasy! I thought this was a roguelike! Where the rogue?

Also, I don't know if this counts, but I did play (and win) a trivia game on the plane, and was forced to play a few icebreaker-type games. Probably one that I didn't hate was a bingo game in which each square was a fact about a given employee and you had to walk around have a person sign their fact. It was clever and chaotic and allowed you to learn some interesting facts, plus to show off that you have done things in the past. Of course, being in a restaurant with other patrons made it slightly obnoxious.

What I Played Today: May 7

Clarence’s Big Chance, Various

I completed Clarence’s Big Chance, the last level is fairly interesting, in which you’re called upon to remember all that useless information you’ve collected throughout the game and apply it during an actual date. They do make a small deal about the fact that you were basically stalking this girl to make sure you had all the relevant information about her, but that doesn’t change the fact that if you manage to get and utilize all the information, you will get the girl. In the ending I got, I only managed to have a fairly decent date with a pretty enough woman, and eventually Clarence gained enough self-confidence to actually gain a love life. I don’t know, at least it wasn’t a joke ending, I guess.

Also played a few iOS games that I haven’t touched in a while. Only recording for the sake of recording, don’t actually have anything to say.

What I Played Today: December 21

Various

I must state that I've been playing a lot of these new-age web games lately because I am toying with the idea of creating one that does not suck. Researching what is being done, what is being done wrong (Answer: A lot) and just suffering through a lot of pointless gameplay. It's not any fun, I hate most of it, but I keep doing it because it's the enemy you know, right? But...I'm not going to be saying what they are and what I think, because I'm trying a different one every other day, and the answer is usually "It's all terrible." There we go.

What I Played Today: March 14

Descent, Various

I played a few video games today, nothing really interesting to talk about. Passed Shadow Complex with 100% items, did some more walking around in Final Fantasy XIII, killed some fatass in Overlord, in all, just killing time until tonight’s attraction, playing an introductory game of Descent to reacquaint the group to the rules before we started the Road to Legend campaign.

We played a quick game of Dominion before getting started. I won, but I couldn’t tell you how, except that laboratories are awesome. We then took a bit to get started, picking character classes. I played a tank, a character I wasn’t familiar with who was able to move whenever they interrupted on the overlord’s turn. The dungeon was an odd one, where the whole center area was wide open and filled with ranged attackers. We started to clean up the center room and trying to decide which room we were supposed to move into, and so we picked the one closest to the door, only to be greeted with a master giant, which would take us probably a good six or seven turns to kill.

We tried to get some good gear by opening a nearby bronze box, only to find that the box didn’t contain any treasure, and we’d have to run back to town in order to get a good treasure. I was seemingly intent on destroying the giant, which was a bad plan, and so I didn’t try to run back to town until it was too late. We abandoned the giant to run across the dungeon to the other room...only to find that we couldn’t actually get into the room except through the room that giant was in. It was a terrible trap, and we had run out of time, as the overlord had played a card that drained his deck fast. So, we lost, which is fine, because at least we knew how to play, and learned about some awesome combos that could really help if we can replicate it in the campaign game. So, it was fun, if a bit of a low-morale game.

What I Played Today: February 26

Plants vs. Zombies, Various

I played about five games for about five minutes today, but I did play a game constantly throughout the day; Plants vs. Zombies on the iPhone. For what its worth, if you have an iPhone, it is a fantastic value, as it’s maybe half the game at 15% of the price, a fantastic offering. You get the entire adventure mode, and all you miss is the added minigames, which is not that big of deal.

I keep on telling myself, “this is not a tower defense game,” even though it obviously is. I mean, you set up towers, the only difference is there are 5-6 different lines to worry about and your towers are in dangers way instead of safely off the path. Having to worry about the different routes makes the strategy more interesting, as well as the fact that your resources comes from the towers on the field instead of individual monster killed, as well as fairly limited space to build and a small selection of available buildings to attack with.

Needless to say, addictive and silly, and the transportability really helps with the matter. Each level takes about five minutes to play, and while it’s a bit easy, like all Popcap games, it has a certain flair, and the goofy atmosphere adds more than your typical tower defense. I ran into the Zomboni today, which doesn’t make any sense but is hilarious. It’s just so well designed, as most recent Popcap games are, and it’s great to have it on the iPhone so that I can (shh) play it at work and on the train.

As for other games; I’ve run into troubles. In Mass Effect, I managed to die because I stupidly stepped into the vehicle I need in order to leave the planet when it was completely damaged (apparently it was on fire inside and I stupidly stumbled in), and that was so obnoxious that I quit. MegaMan 9 is still hard as hell, Dungeon Solitaire (or whatever it’s called) took about a day to get stupid (too much luck, not enough helpful cards), and Shadow Complex remains the same game as I played the first time around. Hopefully I’ll get better luck over the weekend in getting over this hump.

What I Played Today: February 24

Various

Taking the day off, let's just say I played some stuff. Thanks.

What I Played Today: February 15

Mass Effect, Mega Man 9, Various

I had a bit of trouble getting anywhere in games today. Trapped between a rock and an asshole in Shadow Complex, and accidently got to the part in Mass Effect that made me stop playing, because for some reason the game thinks I can kill 15 geth in one instance without a chance to get behind cover. Hopefully I can cope and find whatever it is I’m looking for on this lava planet, I think it’s some blue chick.

Mega Man 9 is still hard as hell, mainly because I can’t get used to the constant jump puzzles they are putting me through. I did manage to get to Magma Man, only to have him stomp me to death. I’m coming to the realization that I’m going to need to spend some coins for some upgrades that’ll save me from the holes that I’m going to inevitably jump straight into. I also cannot figure out what that dog is supposed to do. I can summon him, sure, but no idea what I should do after that. Also, why is everything a damn robot?

What I Played Today: February 13

Shadow Complex, Mass Effect, Balloon in a Wasteland, Various

A long day of gaming today, and a lot of skipping around between many games. Three in particular stand out.

I finally got past the choke point in Shadow Complex, and managed to get three major upgrades, finally getting the ability to double-jump and breathe underwater, as well as the particularly pointless but essential foam weapon, which is the only weapon that can destroy fans. Don’t you go assuming that normal grenades could do it. Only explosive foam.

The game is a pretty fun Metroidvania, a genre that is slowly growing on me. The only problem the game has is it’s a 2D game with a 3D environment. (No, I will not call it 2.5D. That means nothing.) Which is great for making the game look good, but the fact that there are often enemies hanging out in the space behind you. Way too often, in fact, which makes it impossible to know how exactly to shoot them. I think you hold up, but sometimes this causes the boring brown-haired hero to look straight up, which is hardly helpful. Not to mention the background characters are invincible to the most powerful weapons, the grenades, which makes them a tough kill. There is a cool thing that shouldn’t possibly work; some pipes have openings, and if you fire a grenade into it, fire shoots out of pipes in the background, taking out any jerks back there. Ridiculous.

I also got a bit further in Mass Effect; I had completely forgotten about this big fight scene to save some girl alien. It wasn’t very difficult, but it did add some excitement to the running around and helping random aliens with all their problems, and I became a Spectre, so that’s great. I didn’t realize how much I had done the first time I played, because I keep finding myself with a sense of deja vu, making it easy to find all the sidequests, but also having a sense of “yes, get on with it!”

I also find it hard for me to act like a jerk in these games. I know that it’s going to be necessary to get the achievements, if I want them, but it just seems insincere to be an asshole. You’re supposed to be a military hero, and you don’t get that way by yelling at people and being irrational. I just think that someone in Comm. Shepard’s position would have a little restraint. (Shrug)

I also played a flash game, Balloon in a Wasteland, a few times, the latest from a designer that I admire, jmtb02, the man behind the fairly meta elephant games. This is a really easy survival game, where you have to shoot a bunch of blobs and can build a fort and try to repair a downed balloon to escape the wasteland. It’s fair, spacing out when you get certain upgrades, but the only problem is once you’ve built a fort...you don’t ever have to worry. If you can’t handle a particular wave of enemies, you just climb up the ladder and they will completely ignore you. It’s almost not a challenge, and the majority of the upgrades you won’t be able to afford unless you intentionally don’t try to end the game. The hosting site also didn’t do a very good job supporting the game.

I also tried a bunch of horrible Arcade games, one which seems like a really transparent Lumines clone, another word game one that is way too easy, and Explosion Man, which I finally got around to trying. It’s interesting, a game with only three buttons, left, right, and EXPLODE! I also like the insane characteristic of the main character...it’s hilarious, and the fact that the scientists explode into actual meat, t-bone steaks and ham haunches, makes the insanity very entertaining to play. I may buy it...still on the fence for no reason, but I’m sure I’ll come around.

What I Played Today: February 12

Various, Mass Effect

Tonight was a slow starter, as I played a couple of cheap games before digging down into something more substantial. I played a game or two of Geometry Wars, a pointless five minutes of Shadow Complex (why would they put a save point there?!), and some stupid time playing on 1 vs. 100, as well as some flash game, some bullshit about drilling, I don’t know. There’s an unwritten rule of gaming, mainly, if a game costs less than 20 dollars at the moment you buy it, it isn’t anything to write home about. This isn’t inaccurate, and while it does suck for certain games that are designed to be cheap, like Braid, it still is a bit of a flighty experience to play a game that doesn’t force you to invest. I don’t understand the rationale, but I still get a sense that when I play a game without a down payment, I’m “wasting my time.” Most of the time, I think, “I thought that was the point,” but I didn’t manage to get into it tonight.

I did get in some more time with Mass Effect, wandering around the Citadel and doing, officially, whatever. I remember this part being very engaging the first time, mainly because the suprisingly humanoid alien races of Mass Effect are still pretty interesting. The writing and voice acting of this game are top notch, a beautiful example of the standard that Bioware holds itself to. I found myself positively enraptured in the voice acting of the receptionist(!) of the Consort. That voice could convince me to spend over a thousand dollars on bullshit.

There are two bullshit fights in the Citadel that they throw in so you didn’t get bored, one time when you run into assassins who are really bad at their jobs and dead, and one time when some asshole mercenaries don’t notice that there’s a damn federal agent in the same room where they are holding a hostage. These “fights” to break up the continuous running around in the most boring part of Act I only gowa to show that Bioware should have really existed in the peak of the adventure game renaissance. But now, now they have to throw in some nonsense to keep the number-centric RPG crowd interested. Ick. If I want numbers, I know where to go. But frankly, with these writers, they should really be allowed to play to their strengths.

Sorry for the slow decrease of word count that seems to be occurring, a rough, uninspiring week at the day job, and it’s only going to get worse until Feb. 28. I’ll try to keep it interesting as best I can.