Brütal Legend (PC) (2013)

Brütal Legend (PC) (2013)
: Brütal Legend(PS3/Xbox 360) (2009)

Eddie Riggs (voiced by Jack Black)

Relevant Links:
Brütal Legend (Wikipedia.org)
Brutal Legend (PC) (Metacritic.com)

Brutal Legend (Steam Store Page)
Brütal Legend Webpage (Double Fine Website)
Brütal Legend (PC) (IGN.com)

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Eddie and Ophelia

20140518: 22:39 ET to 23:34 ET
So far I've only played an hour of Brütal Legend and in that hour the game was always introducing new and exciting game mechanics. In addition to the fun gameplay, the game also had some pretty cool cutscenes.

The Deuce (a.k.a. The Druid Plow)

There were two parts in the game where I died: once during the bridge collapse and once just a little after finishing the army collection. In both situations, I had respawned at the start of the corresponding sections.

Lar's sister Lita

While falling off the bridge warranted dying, I had no indication in the second situation that the main character was about to die, prompting me to ask myself, "What are the conditions for dying?"

Lars Halford

Overall, in addition to all the fun gameplay, Brütal Legend also has some pretty funny dialogue. If you like action adventure games, check out Brütal Legend.

Headbangers

FTL: Faster Than Light (PC) (2012)

Overview: FTL: Faster Than Light is a strategy game where you own a ship, maintain its systems, control its crew, and fly from destination to destination making your way through space.

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20140515:
Today I play FTL: Faster Than Light for the first time and overall I thought it was a fun and challenging game.

First I played through the tutorial, which I would highly recommend for a new player, because you won't be shown how to play during the main game. Afterwards, I played the game on normal mode another five times (the game counts six, because I restarted one), though I was very sleepy on the last try (i.e., the fifth try), so I probably should have stopped after the fourth.

Trying out different strategies, I felt as if I made the most progress by putting my money into the shield system. Unfortunately, my weapon system couldn't deal with a ship that had approximately four shields. With that being said, I might be overlooking the strength of putting money into the engine system, which will charge the warp drive system faster and allow for wicked escapes.

On the subject of escapes, I spent too much time in each sector and perhaps it would actually be wiser, at least for a beginner like me, to fly to the exits as quickly as possible. In addition, there were many situations where I was given the option to accept a surrender or avoid conflict. For enemy surrenders, I would be greedy and continue fighting, but sometimes that came at the expense of extra damage to my hull. For avoiding conflicts, I would be greedy and engage the enemy, but it wasn't always worth it.

With only five runs, there's still many details I have yet to uncover and strategies to build. Furthermore, I only have one ship layout to use and the first ship in FTL: Faster Than Light is probably like the first character in Risk of Rain (2013): great for a balanced gameplay experience.

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20140516:
Today I decide to play on easy mode. Hopefully I can unlock achievements on easy so that I can have more options for normal mode. Like yesterday, I accidentally started with the default name and restarted the run.

Today I unlocked the Engi ship and played it for a run. Overall, drones were fun and I think I would prefer using the Engi ship over the normal ship.

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FTL: Faster Than Light

Relevant Links:
FTL: Faster Than Light (Steam Store Page)
FTL: Faster Than Light (Wikipedia.org)
FTL: Faster Than Light (PC) (Metacritic.com)
FTL: Faster Than Light Wiki (ftl.wikia.com)
FTL: Faster Than Light (Reddit Page)

A Virus Named TOM (PC) (2012)

A Virus Named TOM (PC) (2012)

Rotate tiles until all of them are connected.

Relevant Links:
A Virus Named TOM Website
A Virus Named TOM (Wikipedia.org)
A Virus Named TOM (Steam Store Page)
A Virus Named TOM (PC) (MetaCritic.com)

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The game's (story) art style.

Overview: A Virus Named TOM is an action puzzle game. As the title suggest, you play as a virus named TOM. You were created by a scientist seeking revenge on the company where he was formerly employed. And, in order to carry out your creators revenge, you will navigate through circuit boards and spread the virus by connecting all the circuits to various sources. However, watch out as the company catches onto your mischievous actions and beefs up the security (puzzles get harder).

Some puzzles begin to use the sides as a connection.

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Recommendation:
The aspect I enjoy most about A Virus Named TOM is its race-against the clock nature. For me, its not satisfying just to finish a level and move on to the next. Instead, the satisfaction is in repeating the levels and figuring out where to save precious seconds of time off the clock! The satisfaction is in climbing those ladderboards! Note that this isn't the case for all games, but it works well in A Virus Named TOM.

Each level consists of a product with multiple parts (puzzles)
which need to be infected (solved). When all of theparts are completed,
then the product is infected, a cutscene plays, and a new level is unlocked.

Similar to A Virus Named TOM in this nature is a puzzle platformer called The Adventures of Shuggy (PC) (2012). Note that both games also offer local co-op, with A Virus Named TOM allowing up to four players to play cooperatively! While I cannot make any statements about playing with three or four players, I have played the two-player story mode and found it pretty fun. Sometimes, to make the experience truly cooperative, the puzzle will have a barrier down the center which the two players cannot cross.

The red tile must not be triggered!

Overall, A Virus Named TOM is a simple puzzle game and a great pickup if you love puzzle games and are starting to dig around towards the lower end of the barrel. Otherwise, I would recommend doing a little research into other puzzle games. For example, maybe you would prefer Cogs (PC) (2009) (another puzzle game with a race-against the clock element) or The Adventures of Shuggy (the puzzle platformer mentioned above).

[20150111]

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20140515:
Today I played the single player story and finished the following levels:

10:43 The Dog Days Are Over
13:16 Beam Me Up
13:47 One Small Step For Man
14:25 hotGirl365

Teleporter

I also got the following Steam achievements:

12:48 Leap Before You Look
13:23 Macaroni Chain
13:28 Helium
13:57 Lithium

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20141228:
Today Josh and I played the co-op story with two players. Instead of striving to get the absolute best possible times, we took it relatively easy by setting out to achieve times which were sufficient to get gold medals.

Unconnected tiles are occasionally covered with question marks.

This meant that inefficiencies such as running into each other were unimportant. It only mattered if we did what was necessary to secure a gold medal.

We finished the following level:

17:17 The Dog Days Are Over

We got the following achievements:

16:58 Peeping TOM
17:07 The Grass Is Always Greener

Gold!

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20220520 Snapshot:
Steam Game Time: 3.9 hours

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20220520:
I tried playing this game today picking up from the furthest progress but I didn't remember how to play. The following were some relevant items to know (keyboard controls):
- move with either WASD or arrow keys
- hold space while going around a tile to rotate it
- the goal of the game is to power all circuits
- circuits wrap around the sides (i.e., left edge with right edge and top edge to bottom edge)
- press alt (?) to place a glitch
- a glitch can be used to disintegrate a green enemy which can be destroyed as a power source

At the end of the short play session, I felt the difficulty of this game has reached the level where I should no longer pursue playing it.

Steam Game Time: 4.4 hours

Thomas Was Alone (PC) (2012)

Overview: Thomas Was Alone is a minimalistic puzzle platformer where the player controls various rectangles through a narrated adventure "up, and to the right."

Thomas (red rectangle) - medium jump

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20140511 AM Hours ET / 20140510 Evening PT:
This game has a great story and simple, fun gameplay. Furthermore, the game's lighting is simple, but adds a nice touch to the game's aesthetics.

Occasionally, the game forced me to repeat an action too many times. Whenever this happened, the level felt boring and/or tedious.

With that being said, I kept playing for the story and the game continually introduced new characters and new puzzle elements often enough to keep it from becoming stale.

Chris (orange square) - small jump

After an hour, I made it to the last level of the fourth chapter (completing thirty-nine out of approximately one-hundred levels) and I decided to stop playing.

I will, however, definitely resume Thomas Was Alone.

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2014????:
I absolutely love this game and today I started it over from the beginning to show my sister an example of a fun and deep game.

John (yellow rectangle) - large jump

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20141017:
Today Michael and I were talking about games and eventually it lead to him trying out Thomas Was Alone. It was fun. I enjoyed listening to the story line for a third or fourth time.

While certain levels were straightforward and would exhibit the same solution by every player, other levels were complex enough that Michael would approach them differently than I would - sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. In any case, I enjoyed watching how he tackled them.

Michael played parts 1 and 2.

Claire (blue square) - floats

Steam: 2.0 hours (total game time)

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20151129:
Today I caught up to the progress of my desktop save file (Steam: 0.2 hours) and then I eventually finished the game.

"...He felt that there was a thing called cake, but that it was a lie." (references Portal)

While the story as a whole was top-notch, the middle third of the game's story wasn't as interesting as the first third and the last third wasn't as interesting as the middle third.

Laura (pink rectangle) - bouncy

However, the gameplay was always fresh and was generally not as repetitive towards the end as some of the earlier levels.

Steam: 5.2 hours (total game time)

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Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Great story
+ Great visuals: minimalistic art direction which focuses on shadow and lighting
+ Variety of game mechanics

James (green rectangle) - his gravity is reversed

Neutral:
~ Decent controls

Cons:
- Short game: according to my notes, it took me four hours to the game from start to finish
- Sometimes tedious / repetitive / slow-paced

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Recommendation:
I would highly recommend this game to anybody who values a video game with a good story.

In addition to the story, Thomas Was Alone is aesthetically charming and generally quite fun.

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Sarah (purple rectangle) - double jump

Thomas Was Alone (PC) (2012)

Relevant Links:
Thomas Was Alone Website
Thomas Was Alone (Metacritic.com)
Thomas Was Alone (Wikipedia.org)
Thomas Was Alone (PC) (IGN.com)
Thomas Was Alone (Steam Store Page)

Dear Esther (PC) (2012)

Overview: Dear Esther is a game where the player walks around an island and unravels a story which gets told along the way.

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20140509:
Today I played until I reached The Caves where I became too sleepy to continue.

The scenes in the game are gorgeous and game has a wonderful atmosphere.

Throughout the game, the player simply walks around the island - triggering the player character to continuing narrating his story at various locations. This can either be a good or bad experience depending on a player's core gaming preferences (e.g., action gamers are more likely to be bored, and role-playing gamers are more likely to be engaged).

Dear Esther can be considered less of a video game and more of an interactive story, where the listener is only told more of the story if the listener can arrive to the appropriate locations on the island. At times, the game began to feel dull. While soaking up the environment was fun, the exploration and beauty aspect of the game was short-lived. In addition, I wanted to hear more parts of the player character's story.

Overall, I had fun and would highly recommend the game to players who especially enjoy story-driven games.

[20140509 Assumed Post Date][20190630 Edit]

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20140510:
I started up Dear Esther again today and was disappointed to learn that I had failed to save my progress. While I was disgruntled about having to start back at the beginning, I had managed to experience some new details which I had not experienced yesterday.*

My thoughts on the ending: I got to a part in the game where a cut scene occurs. It felt like an ending, but then I heard the words, "Come back." These words were also whispered earlier throughout the game, e.g., when the player dies by falling off a cliff. In those cases, the whispered words to come back are meant to signify that it isn't time to die. Hence, when I heard those words at the end, I felt like there was more to the story. However, nothing seemed to happen. Consequently, I felt unsatisfied with the ending.

*Today (20190630) I read the following on Wikipedia: "Different audio fragments are revealed in each playthrough of the game, presenting a slightly different narrative each time."

[20140510 Assumed Entry Date][20190630 Edit]

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20140510:
Today I played the game again. After reading some forum posts and playing the game again, I was more accepting of the game's story and ending.

I suspected during this run that perhaps strafing left and right would increase the player character's speed (about the twelve minute mark of the recording). Apparently, according to the description in a speedrun of Dear Esther, alternatively pressing A and D in addition to W will in fact boost the player character's speed by about 15 to 30 percent. Watching the speedrun, there are also a couple of places where the speedrunner intentionally dies.

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Dear Esther (PC) (2012)

Relevant Links:
Dear Esther Website
Dear Esther (Wikipedia.org)
Dear Esther (PC) (Metacritic.com)
Dear Esther (Steam Store Page)

Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken (PC) (2012)

20140509:
Rocketbirds was initially fun to play. However, while the different guns were neat, the movement and gameplay sometimes felt too simple.

Hide from enemies.

Compared to Shank (PC) (2010), this game was boring. However, Rocketbirds had arguably better cutscenes and story than Shank.

Speaking of the game's story, I wish that there had been more voice acting. When the cardinals began speaking in strange cluck sounds with text bubbles in English, I had become unsatisfied.

Your enemy.

Getting back to the fighting, the main strategy seemed to be to just crouch and shoot. While the player occasionally has the opportunity to hide against the wall, the AI rarely walks past the player, which makes the mechanic of hiding a useless feature.

Another problem with the fighting is that getting flanked by enemies from behind is a pain in the butt. Due to the simplicity of the game, the seemingly only working solution is to reposition the player character to the right or left of all the enemies on the screen. In contrast, the protagonist in Shank can shoot in both directions for combos; not only is this mechanic useful in dealing with being flanked, it also feels satisfying to execute.

There is one point in Rocketbirds where I, the player, gained a skill to control the enemy. This is often used as a puzzle mechanic in which the I needed to figure out how to control an enemy in order to progress in the game. While neat, this certain did not make up for the game's flaws.

Overall, while Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken was appealing from a story point of view, the gameplay wasn't as interesting as I would have liked. For that reason, I only played so much of it before stopping and would think twice before recommending it to someone. I would, however, like to give the game another chance for its co-op mode.

Shoot 'em out of the air!

[20140509 Assumed Post Date][20190630 Edit]

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Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken (PC) (2012)

Relevant Links:
Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken (Wikipedia.org)
Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken (PC) (Metacritic.com)
Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken (Steam Store Page)

Time for "some jetpaction."

Capsized (PC) (2011)

20140508: 23:34 ET to 24:29ET
This platformer is fun. In particular, I enjoyed using two of the primary game mechanics: a gravity gun and a grappling hook.

The scoring system was puzzling, because it didn't indicate the best possible score. Originally I was inclined to believe the best possible score was 10 stars, but I currently have a high score of 10.5 stars on the first level.

Use your hook to grapple ceilings.

In addition to the gravity gun and grappling hook, the game also has a variety of weapons that can be obtained throughout each level. It seems that different weapons are best suited against different enemies.

Part of the fun is to figure out how to interact and destroy different things. Of course, sometimes this can feel a little frustrating when playing for the first time.

Use your hook to pick up and launch objects.

Combining good music, great atmosphere, and manipulation of obstacles placed throughout the levels, this game reminds me of Trine (PC) (2009). However, the atmosphere in Trine is superior to the atmosphere in Capsized. Furthermore, Trine was much more addicting to play.

Some factors that make Trine the better game include the following: Trine is more beautiful, the medieval setting is more calming and/or welcoming than the space setting, equipment and gameplay in Trine are more intricate.

Firing the immolator.

With all that being said, Capsized is a good, fun game in its own right and definitely worth checking out if you enjoy platformers.

That's all I can think of to say for now. I'll have to give the game a closer look in the future.

[20140508 Assumed Post Date][20190630 Edit][20200118 Edit]

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Drag heavy objects with your hook.

20160731:
I have notes that say the following:

Capsized. Steam Controller config wasn't ideal. Josh liked the music [and] atmosphere, but obviously the controls were off. We were using one of the community configs.

Firing the pulsar while using the jet pack.

Taking into account other entries in the same file as the note, it's most likely that Josh and I were playing several games with our Steam Controllers - namely Double Dragon Neon, Capsized (this game), and Crimzon Clover.

Steam Game Time: 99 minute (total game time)

[20200118]

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Firing the plas-mortar.

Capsized (PC) (2011)

Relevant Links:
Capsized Website
Capsized (video game) (Wikipedia.org)
Capsized (PC) (Metacritic.com)
Capsized (PC) (IGN.com)
Capsized (GameSpot.com)
Capsized (Steam Store Page)

Awesomenauts (PC) (2012)

20140508:
When I first started playing this game, I thought it would be a platformer. Instead, I was surprised to find it was actually a MOBA.

Comfortable with League of Legends, I thought Awesomenauts seemed both less strategic and less complicated of a MOBA than League of Legends. Though to be fair, I had yet to try playing PvP, because I still had a lot of content to unlock. Perhaps, like League of Legends, the PvP battles require a lot more strategy. With that being said, I don't think Awesomenauts will be more fun than League of Legends.

Character Notes:
* Froggy G - None

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20141012:
I don't know when I first played this game, but I resumed leveling up today.

Character Notes:
* Coco - I might have to try her again, but I got a bad first impression from her kit.

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20141013:
Today, I actually played some games against real people. In all the games, I used Leon.

In the first, I played with Michael and Stephanie.

In the next three, Stephanie was busy, so it was just Michael and I. More wins to add to the pool.

Overall, playing real matches is a lot more fun and exciting than playing against A.I. Of course, it helps that I'm getting the hang of the game format.

One reason I like Leon, is that he just pushes towers real fast. I love pushing towers.

Character Notes:
* Leon - Leon has a great push. (I have not, however, used his clone ability yet.)

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20141014:
Today I did some practicing. Playing each champion from Froggy G to Yuri, some more than once. I played against AI and I wanted to get a feel for what each character's moves were. Sometimes, this would include experimenting the extent of the moves. Also knowing what sort of upgrades are available.

Character Notes:
* Lonestar - I like Lonestar's ability to push and manage against the robots. Double-jumping is also nice.
* Clunk - He's a tank. I dislike his low mobility. His bite is quite short ranged and doesn't help in turret pushing.
* Voltar - The tactical use of his drones is advanced. He's great for pushing, as you just span heal. Basically, if you're in a winning position, you'll probably win.
* Gnaw - I think Gnaw is interesting, because he's annoying. Place those weedlings around, do damage over time...
* Skolldir - He's pretty fun. I like his combo move, which takes some skill to land, his hurling, and his buttstomp! Meaning, I really like his whole kit. He reminds me of Riven, I guess cause of the combo punch.
* Yuri - Wow, he's pretty fun, though his flying is a bit tough to manage and he can't kite so you have to commit a bit more to attacks.

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20141015:
More practicing!

Character Notes:
* Raelynn - She's not so fun for me. I don't think her kit has great synergy within itself. It may, however, pair well with some other characters. That is, I don't think its reasonable to set up your slow for your own snipe shot. But I could be wrong...
* Derpl - I see his potential, but he really needs to be with a pusher, because he himself doesn't have a great push. Mastering the switch between his two forms is of course the key to his damage output.
* Vinnie and Spike - I really like how this character can build to assassinate and throw out high bursts. (Assassin)
* Genji - A support player. I like how his moves really turn the tides. 3v3? Nope, successful cocoon means 3v2. Similarly, droids are 2v2, nope 3v1.
* Ayla - Super fun. Kill, kill, kill.
* Admiral Swiggins - He's fun and has potential in certain team comps, but high learning curve. You have to keep track of when you want his anchor or not. Putting it down and using long range for example can be good.

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20170907:
Today I wanted to set up a 3 vs. 3 game with 2 players and an AI on each team. Unfortunately, there were two barriers to achieving this goal. First, the game stupidly required us to go through a tutorial and a match vs. AI. The game even forced me to play the tutorial again, and I've already played it!

To be clear, I believe every game should have some sort of tutorial and/or instruction, but I also believe they should be unobtrusive. With that being said, I've never experience a game whose tutorial was as obtrusive as the current patch of Awesomenauts.

The second barrier was being unable to gather all the players into a custom match; I originally thought it would be easy since we were all on the same network.

Eventually, one of my coworkers gave up and the three of us which remained grouped as a team and queued for an online match.

However, after we were defeated, we decided to switch to playing Counter-Strike Source (2004).

Steam Game Time: 21.2 hours (total game time)

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Awesomenauts (PC) (2012)

Relevant Links:
Awesomenauts Website
Awesomenauts (Wikipedia.org)
Awesomenauts (PC) (Metacritic.com)
Awesomenauts (PC) (IGN.com)
Awesomenauts (Steam Store Page)

WildStar (PC) (2014)

-- This MMORPG was shut down on November 28, 2018 --

20140503 AM Hours:
After receiving a beta key,* I immediately started installing the game. After it installed, I played a bit, found the overall experience linear, and found the ranged fighting difficult.

In addition, some of the other game mechanics were initially confusing to me, but only because I was unfamiliar with MMORPGs.**

The closest thing I've played to WildStar would probably be Path of Exile (2013) - even though Path of Exile is not an MMO and is actually quite different.

With that being said, WildStar had a lot of tutorials which helped me accustom myself with all the controls and mechanics which the game had to offer. I also enjoyed the various options available for customizing the character. On that note, the developers placed a high degree of visual customization with respect to character creation.

Perhaps a couple of different clothing options at the start would have been a nice addition to all the physical options.

*Special Thanks to RxySurfChic for giving away WildStar keys to her Twitch.tv viewers.

**I've actually played Spiral Knights (PC) (2009) and Realm of the Mad God (PC) (2011) but they're relatively simple.

[20160203 Edit]

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20140503 Morning:
I woke up and played a little bit. I was actually enjoying the game so much that I was tempted not to go to yoga.

As I played more of WildStar, I found there were more things to explore. While I enjoyed looking around and exploring, the experience would probably be boring to viewers. I should make a note not to stream games that call out to my exploratory needs.

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20140503 Evening:
After getting back from dinner I resumed playing WildStar. The game continued to keep my interest, especially as my character grew stronger and the quantity of quests increased.

On the one hand, I enjoyed exploring the world.

On the other hand, walking around without some sort of mount felt boring and tedious. In any case, I couldn't imagine myself paying the monthly subscription to play the game.

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20140504:
Today I played more.

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Final Thoughts:
For the most part, I found WildStar fun. However, since I knew I wouldn't be playing the game when it released,* I decided it was better to just stop several hours into the game.

*20160203: While subscription-based on release, WildStar became free to play on September 29, 2015.

[20140608]

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WildStar (PC) (2014)*,**
*20160203: On September 29, 2015, WildStar became free to play
**20190630: On November 28, 2018, WildStar was shut down.

Relevant Links:
WildStar (video game) (Wikipedia.org)
WildStar (PC) (IGN.com)
WildStar (GameSpot.com)