What I Played Today: August 13

Deadly Premonition, Bastion

The rocket launcher can be good in some situations. One of those situations is not in a hospital corridor. Take note. Also, managed to get all the fishing cards, so all that's left is to mop up a couple of quests, and replay through all those combat segments before I'm done. Now, I'm not excited about these combat replays because they are really hard; they throw in the toughest monsters and put them pretty much everywhere, so that even the replay of the very first level is more difficult than the final dungeon. It's not a fun experience.

Finally bought Bastion, which I am amazed I haven't played yet. It's really good, graphically appealing, tight gameplay, intriguing player choices, and just the right touches in the narrative to make it a unique experience. There is a constant narrator who is describing the actions on screen, but they have just the right twists to make it telling and not annoying. I love the little touches, when they subtly remind me to do something, or they note that I'm doing something that's not usual. For example, in the beginning, when they have given me a hammer and I just start smashing everything in the room because it is a video game, the narrator says, "The kid just rages for a while." That's nice! So yeah, super excited to keep playing this.

What I Played Today: August 12

Deadly Premonition

Ho hum, just more cleaning up of stuff in Dead Prem, got through the boss rush to get the infinite rocket launcher, which I imagine will be awesome. But other than that (and playing more of the game that will not be mentioned), nothing to really say.

What I Played Today: August 11

Deadly Premonition

Yeah sure I played something else, but you don't want to hear about it, am I right? I instead did some fishing quests in Deadly Premonition, finding some cards that I was missing and getting the last component I needed to unlock the Swery 65 card. For the fishing quest, you of course have to catch the big fish that is has been around forever, and after you do so, the person who told you of this legendary fish walks up and says, essentially, "Well hot dog, let's fry this sucker." Now, usually there is some appeal to let a living myth go, and York eventually does, but for a member of the town to be so unapologetically uncaring about a piece of his rural tapestry is just weird. This character in general has said a lot of things that make me dislike him, and I'm pretty curious just what the heck his deal is. Now that I think about it, he is the one of two characters you meet who would have been alive in Greenvale in the 1950's...hmm...

What I Played Today: August 7

Rift, Deadly Premonition

So...when you play a video game until the sun is getting itself sufficiently settled in the sky, you tend to sleep until late in the afternoon and not have a lot of time to do things, including playing video games, so I just played some Rift, getting really really close now to level 50, any goddamn moment now.

Also, because I'm crazy, I'm back doing the sidequests for Deadly Premonition, because why the hell not? I tried to do the boss rush quest, and got killed because I was not paying any attention during the second fight. Then I did some other quests that expounded on some other characters who had no backstory at all before, that gave me a trading card of an object that I do not remember seeing at all. Lot left on the cutting room floor here.

What I Played Today: August 6

Rift, Kongregate, Deadly Premonition, Rune Age

Oh my it is good to be home and playing some video games. I put in some true time in Rift because that is apparently something I play and enjoy. They have started their next event, which has a total of three quests, two happening within ten feet of the questgiver, so I'm not super excited about it. I'm just trying to get myself to 50, because that's where the action is.

I put in some time on Kongregate, including for some reason going to my local Gamestop to pick up a promotional card for Tyrant that would enter me into a contest to win a very significant gift card, and also give me like an entire dollar in promo points. That's totally worth the price of gas, right? I also played a flash game that I really enjoyed, so much so that I've forgotten everything about it.

Also, tried a solo game of Rune Age, and I got my ass handed to me. Oh jeez, I thought that this game would be pretty simple, since there aren't a lot of different cards, but there are three resource types, which affect a lot of different things. Also, to fight off the huge monsters, you need to have an extremely effective hand, which you can't do when you don't have a lot of control in what gets in there. And...if you happen get attacked during the event stage, your hand doesn't replenish, so you basically lose a turn. This is dangerous in a solo game.

AND THEN. Oh dogs. I stayed up until 7 a.m. in the morning to finish up Deadly Premonition. It was a really good time and I did it because I was really curious what was going to happen next! I understand the game doesn't look very good and the controls are wonky, but I enjoyed it a lot. I played all the way from Chapter 18 to the end, when things finally started getting interesting. Now, I'm going to avoid spoiling anything, because you, YOU THERE, should play it too, get over the bad textures and the insane translations, and just experience this nonsense. I was thrown by twists a good half-dozen times (mainly because I'm superbad at seeing twists coming. I just never see them.)

Oh, one anecdote. At one point I found myself in a mansion looking at a picture of some ladies, at least one of which had been killed, so I think this is some creepy potential victim's picture. However, I only know of five young unmarried ladies in the town, the killer's primary target, and there are six girls in the picture. So I'm looking at it, trying to figure out what's up with that, until I realize that one of the "girls" is actually a male character you've met in a dress. Blew my goddamn mind.

What I Played Today: July 30

Deadly Premonition, Rift

I continued to play Deadly Premonition! I'm past the point of no return on some of the sidequests, but I think it'll be okay. I can go back later. There was a bit more of York's backstory, which was interesting and explained why he is so weird, although he eventually devolved into being even crazier. I also went through a huge gauntlet of enemies to get an infinite shotgun. There's a new enemy that I hate because killing it is more repetitive than threatening, and for some reason, I forgot that I had bullets for my shotgun, so I had a hell of a time killing a couple of these, until the last one, when I found out that just one hit from the guitar I stole would kill it outright. Dang.

Also played Rift, in which the main event is over, and now there is celebrations! With drinks and stuff. It's kinda dumb, but at least now I can cash in these chips I've been carrying around for a month.

What I Played Today: July 29

Deadly Premonition

I played more of Deadly Premonition today, and it is getting worse! Not as in a dive of quality, but rather the stakes are completely and utterly over the top and gruesome. It's very striking. So, going well.

What I Played Today: July 27

Deadly Premonition

I got to the next nightmare world in Deadly Premonition, after knocking off a few more quests and getting an infinite wrench and an infinite flamethrower. So that's neat, it sure makes exploration easier. Also, took a look at those cards that I've been picking up, and...there are huge damn spoilers written there. So, be careful while looking at those while you're playing.

What I Played Today: July 25

Innovation, Deadly Premonition

I forced Innovation onto the table again, and I lost again! This time really badly! I was throwing down a lot of cards to try to string together a really neat combo, while my opponent had a couple of ones that allowed him to draw a card, put it back, and score a card worth one more. Near the end, he was managing to score at least five points a turn with this method, then achieve, and I was at a loss of how to stop him. I tried to force him to return that card with lightning rod, but that backfired (ha!) and gave him seven extra points instead. So, yeah, I lost seven to one.

Then I played more Deadly Premonition, and I suddenly really like this game. I like the characters, I like the plot, I like the stupid things I'm forced to do, the bizarre design decisions, it's all great. I spent the majority of the time knocking out sidequests, because why not. My favorite one is when York shows up at the sheriff's house at night to talk to him. The sheriff opens the door about eight inches and just stares at York like he did something wrong. There is about five full seconds of pregnant pause, and then York says, "George, which do you like better? Mustard or hot sauce?" This is the greatest exchange, because it really shows off how freaking weird York is.

What I Played Today: July 15

Deadly Premonition

I played a lot of Deadly Premonition today, on the request of a friend who reminded me it exists. It's still goofy, and I still like it a lot. I shouldn't like it, because there is not a lot about it that looks good. The graphics are patchy and leaning towards awful, and it controls pretty poorly. But the story is compelling, and you want to see how Francis York Morgan handles each new problem, mainly because he doesn't act normal. Most games err on the side of making the main character so bland and pointless that you're just kinda pushing him through the story and he gets no real say, but Agent Morgan is a character who would be quirky in any other story, and here he's the main character. It's pretty interesting.

I also managed to score a bottomless machine gun, which will make the combat a lot easier.

What I Played Today: December 20

Deadly Premonition

Played some more Dead Prem today, drove around a lot, heard York tell Zach about how much he liked Jaws, met some weepy lady, and then finally got onto the plot. The sheriff and deputy yelled at me for making them wait an hour at the park, which was kind of a dick thing to do, I realize, but you know what, I didn’t expect the game to pay any attention to that. I mean, it’s a video game.

Then a weird scene in which York jumps to some dramatic conclusions, as all he seems to need is a single set of indentations and a small flake of metal to immediately know where the killer performed the deed and how he reacted afterwards. Sure enough, he is right. He literally has magic powers of deduction. There was nothing off-the-wall goofy in this part though, which is too bad, because that’s what I came for. But I got a submachine gun! So that’s neat.

What I Played Today: December 11

Labyrinth: The War on Terror, Mass Effect 2, Deadly Premonition

I got a lot of new games today, including 7 Wonders, Mass Effect 2 with a working first disc, and Labyrinth: The War on Terror. This is a war game by GMT, but it has an intriguing and almost terrifying premise, stopping (or controlling) the Jihadist movement in the Middle East. It’s a weird game in which there is very little direct conflict, with the US army powerful enough that it can completely take over a country with a single play. The only problem is that it locks down nearly half the units, and the US still has to worry about the Jihad taking out of governments of the 16 or so other Muslim countries in the region. It’s a weird game, that focuses on a lot of weird things. It’s also interesting to see how certain controversial events in recent US history are interrupted in game terms. For example, the Patriot Act is actually very good for the US player, because it successfully keeps the Jihadists out of the US pretty well, and enables cards that can take a big hit to the terrorist’s funding. Which is good, because if the Jihadists manage to set off an WMD in America…they win. I literally gasped when I read that was a potential win condition.

I played the solitaire game for a while, which is tough. If you don’t take control of how things are going in the Middle East, things get bad quickly, with the automated spread of extremism can go unchecked and turn governments poor quickly. I played for three hours (took a while to learn how to play and stuff), but felt completely screwed, because Europe was growing soft on terrorism, making my initial “get-er-done” attitude difficult to maintain, and I couldn’t swing it around to get rid of the massive penalty I was taking…so I cleaned up and gave up. Hopefully the next time I try I’ll know what I’m doing.

Also got to play Mass Effect 2, which I instantly like. I didn’t like the fact that the game felt like pulling a huge reset button at the beginning, but it’s almost believable, and they streamlined enough to make the game interesting without bogging it down. The amount of history is also great, although the world has changed a ridiculous amount in two years. I was a bit concerned how many robots there were just hanging around, considering…well…the Geth. But hey, guess that’s something you just get over.

Also more Deadly Premonition, in which I got past the hospital scene I saw before and got into stuff I hadn’t seen yet. Had some lunch, chatted some more, went to the gas station to see a hot chick clean my car and meet her meathead husband who likes to talk to “Benjamin Franklin.” I also found a human arm bone, which is stupid suspicious, but Agent York just takes it in stride.

What I Played Today: December 9

Deadly Premonition, Dominion

A couple of games of Dominion tonight, in which I did poorly. I lost one game to a single Duchy, and the second to the Island (for some reason, it took me until tonight to successfully tie the card to a Lost joke. It seems so obvious now) and being hit by Goons. I consistently am losing to Goons, I think I need to get over my untoward hatred for the card, and just buy it already. I did find out that part of my problem is that I like interesting cards more than I like useful cards. I actually asked that we kicked Lookout out of the spread so that I wouldn’t end up buying two of them and being disappointed.

I also played some Deadly Premonition from the beginning. It continues to be hilarious, although getting used to controls takes a while, even though I’ve seen this first section being played about two times now. I kept trying to reload with X. The driving is terrible, by the way, which I learned when I tried to do the race. Ick.

What I Played Today: December 7

Deadly Premonition

I didn’t actually play many games today, but I did watch a game being played for a good two-and-a-half hours, which is similar. The game in question has been purported to be one of the worst games to come out in the past year, and I have to wholeheartedly disagree. It appears to be a competent game, which was developed for the wrong system and written by someone with a fair idea, but virtually no chops. It also does a bunch of weird things, but does them in a way just odd enough to be really entertaining camp.

The problem is the game gives a really bad first impression. The opening cinematics features terrible graphics, a terrible song, absolutely confusing imagery, insane behavior, and probably the unintentionally funniest wrong sound cue I’ve heard. But once you get into the game proper, you start seeing some heavy atmosphere and some poorly-implemented but useable controls, and an intriguing story that slowly builds.

Probably the best part of the game is the protagonist, the decidedly weird FBI agent York Morgan, who spends about 30% of the game talking to his imaginary friend about movies from the 80’s, and doesn’t seem to get human interactions. He is more of an enigma than the actual mystery of the town, as his near mystical powers of fortune-telling and odd backstory that links this case to his past, as well as how calmly he handles being suddenly thrust into a hell dimension populated by zombies who walk in reverse and shove their hands in his mouth.

But the town is given a weird characterization as well, with distinct characters and weird coincidences, like the impossibly huge hotel staffed by a single octogenarian, the police station that separates their keys with squirrel keychains, and the moneyed son of the town founder who wears a gas mask at all times. It’s a weird place, and the odd tempo of the game makes it all that much weirder, with character reminding you that they really need to get to hospital before it closes fourteen hours from now.

But I like the game, mainly because it makes the story interesting (the same way that Alan Wake handled it, and of course, both coopting Twin Peaks’ style), but also because the cutscenes are really entertaining to watch because of how everything isn’t quite right, and the dialogue is delivered as hammy as possible. I like it; I think I’m nearly tempted to pick it up.