Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (PC) (2006)

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (PC) (2006)*
*Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (Xbox) (2005)

Former detective Jack Walters pours over his desk as he writes in his journal..

Relevant Links:
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (Wikipedia.org)
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
The Old Ones 1.0 (SweetFX Settings DB)
DCoTE Unofficial Patch v1.5

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20151026:
Yesterday my friend gifted me this game - in part because he's been trying to convince me to play it for a couple of years - and so I decided to make an effort and give the game a try.

As the game is known to be buggy, I did some research and followed some basic set-up procedure.

A drunk NPC that asks for liquor.

Set-up:
I followed two guides on Steam:

FOV and bug fix for Steam version (DCoTEPatch 1.5)
The Old Ones (SweetFX+ENB+FOV+EXE Patch)

Specifically I did the following:

1 - Downloaded [A] SweetFX 1.5.1, [B] SweetFX Preset File, [C] ENB Bloom Add-On, and [D] DCoTE Unofficial Patch v1.5
2 - Go to [E] ..\steamapps\common\Call of Cthulhu\Engine
3 - Renamed CoCMainWin32.exe to _.original0.exe and d3d9.dll to _.original.dll
4 - Extracted [A] to [E]. Renamed d3d9.dll to d3d9_sweetfx.dll

Finally got some ammo. Now I just need a gun.

5 - Renamed [B] to SweetFX_settings.txt. Placed in [E].
6 - Extracted [C] to [E]. Extracted [D] to [E]. Ran the EXE.
7 - Checked "Skip the blue light bug!" and "Allow skip of legal video". Set FOV to 95 and Sneak FOV to 99.9.
8 - Pressed 'Play' on Steam. Set Display Mode: 2560 x 1440 - 60 hertz, Antialiasing Mode: None.
9 - (Optional) Pressed record on OBS.*
10 - Pressed 'Launch Game.'
11 - After closing the game I backed up my save files with GameSave Manager

When I opened this door, the camera zoomed in on the ghastly sight in the corner, zoomed out, and all the character could do was peek left and peek right - that and hear the rope creaking.

*I tried twice to do 10 before 9, but only managed to confirm that the game dislikes Alt-tabbing. In particular, when tabbing back to the game, I can hear the audio, but fail to see any video.

Plot & Gameplay:
The game takes place in the early 1900's and the initial portion of the game sets up the story and mood. After an opening scene, I was put in control of detective Jack Walters where I stumble upon some crazy shit and go insane.

After staying in Arkham Asylum for six years, Walters is released and the next part of the story continues in Innsmouth. Here the game continues with the exploratory gameplay and adds a little stealth into the mix.

Horror movie wisdom suggests never go into the basement.
Horror movie rules dictate one must always go into the basement.

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Thoughts:
Pros:
+Great atmosphere
+Good story
+Decent amount of tension

Neutral:
~Not overly frightening; thus far the game has only given me light jumpscares (though there have been a decent number of them)
~HUD-less

Video game wisdom suggests one must push random buttons.
Especially if the buttons are written in a foreign language.

Cons:
-Buggy and requires setup/patching to eliminate/avoid major bugs
: After one hour of playing my character got stuck when I entered a room, all I could do was peek left and peek right. I couldn't crouch and I couldn't walk anywhere. I attempted to go into the menu to see if it would reset, but it didn't. Thankfully I had recently saved the game.*
: I'm not sure if this is a bug or not, but I had the hardest time trying to enter the trap door after I opened it

*Because I heard the rope creaking, I initially expected the game had triggered a cut scene where the body would drop.

Well... this can't be good.

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Josh's Advice:
My friend Josh had the following advice:
F1) Read the Steam FAQs before starting
F2) I needed to do three things to complete the game:

a) Switch to a 24-hour clock or saves mess up.
b) Download a patch.
c) Download a save point because a level could not be completed.

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Additional Advice:
One Steam user provides the following steps for troubleshooting:

1 - Install the DCoTE Unofficial Patch

2 - Set the game in "Windows XP SP3" mode
3 - Turn off anti-aliasing
4 - Set the core affinity to one*
5 - Before entering the gong zone, use the save in the tunnel ONCE to avoid the bug with the levers
6 - When the boss in the bubble is dead (in the gong zone), change to another patch before the last run

*I assume this can only be done at the launcher before pressing 'Launch Game.'

Words for Evil (PC) (2014)

Overview: Words for Evil is a cross between a word game and an RPG*. Start off with a single character and journey your way through a world with treasure, enemies, shopkeepers and traps.

*RPG elements include gaining experience, buying potions, buying equipment, and leveling up skills. However, these mechanisms are simple and secondary to the experience. Ultimately Words for Evil is more of a word game with RPG elements than a word game slash RPG.

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Words for Evil (PC) (2014)

This six-letter word in the cente will nearly clear the entire board.

Relevant Links:
Words for Evil Website
Words for Evil (Steam Store Page)
Words for Evil (PC) (MetaCritic.com)

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My primary character.

20150325 Afternoon:
Today I played Words for Evil while on a plane. Unfortunately, while the game made for a short diversion on the plane, I don't think Words for Evil has any long-term potential for enjoyment.

Potion Shop

Tips/Discoveries:
1) When you buy potions, you can only use them outside of battle. Make sure to plan ahead.
2) [20151024: When there are members with only one ability, short words are better. Later when multiple party members have multiple abilities, it becomes beneficial to form longer words (preferably in the center of the board).]

Item Shop

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20151024 Afternoon:
Today I played more of Words for Evil. And as I played more and more, I realized that perhaps the game had more entertainment value than I gave credit to it. With that being said, the game might be a bit too minimalist for me. For example, items stack their bonuses - which is great - but it'd be kind of cool to look at a list of all the items on a character.

Tips/Discoveries Continued:
3) Equipment bonuses stack. In other words, you only buy equipment for their bonuses, you don't actually equip them in a traditional RPG fashion.

4) At most three members can be in a party.
5) At most three potions can be stored. In other words, a slot must be empty before you reach the shop in order to make a new purchase.
6) The benefit of long words is that they clear more of the board, and thus more of the colored tiles, and thus stronger abilities get triggered.

I tested picking up the Mountain King and dropping the Swordmaster. I did this to test whether or not the Swordmaster would have his upgraded skills the next time I encountered him. Answer: Yes, the Swordmaster had all the abilities I had given him the next time I encountered him.

Figure out the anagram to revive.
I couldn't figure this one out...
The game will give you the answer.

7) You keep all your experience when you die.
8) My failed strategy was swapping out my healer and trying to level two lower level characters alongside my first character. This led to a dragged out lost of my party. That's how I discovered #7. You do, however, lose all your gold.
9) I read in a thread that if you choose to stay on a level, you just remain in that level until you die. This felt true, as the next time I encountered the book was after dying.

XP gained is never lossed.

10) It's not worth giving the Forest Shaman any attack damage because she only has one attack. If anything, just make sure she has armor so that you can use the heals on other party members.

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20151024 Evening:
I beat the final level today at about the 5 hour and 40 minute mark.

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Summary:
In the end, I would modify what I said about lacking "long-term potential for enjoyment." Having spent four hours with it today, I'd be a hypocrite for saying otherwise.

A quick visit to howlongtobeat.com provided the following: it took one user 6.5 to complete the main story, 11 hours for another user to complete it with 100%, and 17.5 hours for yet another user to complete it with 100%.

In any case, if you enjoy anagrams and other word-related puzzles, then you'll probably get at least three hours of fun out Words for Evil. Even if you don't get hours of enjoyment, Words for Evil is most certainly a refreshing addition to the word game genre.

What words do you see?

[20151024]

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FAQ:
Q: Where can I get official help?
A: The game features a "How to Play" section at the menu screen.

Q: What's the point of leveling up?
A: Leveling up allows a character to upgrade his/her skills at the next fountain. You can upgrade any skill you want.

Page 1 of 10 of the How to Play section.

Q: How does eliminating adjacent tiles work?
A: Four letter words eliminate adjacent tiles. Five letter words eliminate adjacent tiles and those adjacent to them. Six letter words eliminate adjacent tiles and those adjacent to them and those adjacent to those. And so on and so forth. (Horizontal/vertical adjacency only)

Q: Do items stack?
A: Yes, they do.

After the end of my first play session.

Q: What are the stats?
A: More strength is more HP, more agility is more damage, more mana is more skill tiles, more luck is more gold.

Q: How does the party system work?
A: Up to three members can be in the party. When a character is swapped out, he/she will have all his/her upgrades the next time you encounter him/her.

[20151024]

Samorost (Browser) (2003)

Samorost (2003)

Level 1

Relevant Links:
Samorost 1 (Amanita Design Website)
Samorost (Wikipedia.org)

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20120728:
On 20151024 I found a single screenshot of the second level of this game.

Level 2

The screenshot was taken on July 28, presumably after I completed Samorost 2 (PC) (2005) and possibly before I replayed Samorost 2.

Level 3

However, the existence of only a single screenshot suggests I never played more of the game.

Level 4

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20151024:
Regardless of whether or not I completed the game three years ago, I played it today and finished it in 24 minutes (040252 to 042633).

Level 5

I should note, however, that the level with the ant took me the longest to figure out (11 minutes).

Level 6

Running through the game again off of memory took less than 7 minutes (044143 to 044807). I'm guessing its possible to beat the game in six minutes (also it depends on what you consider the start and stop times*).

Level 7

*On both runs, I started the timer from the moment I'm ready (I take the first screenshot) to the moment the rocket reenters the home.

Home Sweet Home

Prince of Persia (PC) (2008)

20141225:
I started playing Prince of Persia and I definitely liked the introduction and artwork. The gameplay was also pretty good, but there seemed to be a bit of input lag. Maybe my laptop was low on power or the graphic settings were too high.

On a different note, the game would crash whenever I alt-tabbed out of it. 12:29AM PT

[20151023 Edit]

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20150101:
I tried to play more today, but it got buggy at the map select screen. I wonder if it was because the interface doesn't like the keyboard/mouse as the inputs.

In particular, the symptom was that the mouse cursor would only click on the colors at the bottom of the screen. As a workaround, maybe I should switch to using a controller. 10:01AM PT

Elika saves the Prince for the first time.

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20151023:
I was looking to revisit the game today, but I first had to reacquire several of the game's files. I would, however, start out playing with keyboard/mouse, because I had yet to try the game on my desktop. 11:19PM PT

Thankfully, I managed to play the game with no problems. In particular, I could alt-tab out of the game without facing any crashes, use my mouse to select places on the map properly, and seamlessly take screenshots with Fraps (assigned to the previous button on my mouse).

The animations for the interactions between the Prince and Elika are great.

Graphically I had the resolution set to 2560x1440 and the graphics quality set to high. At these settings, the game seemed to be consistently running at around 90 to 100 frames per second with occasional drops down to 40 or 50 frames per second.

After completing the intro and two of the four levels on the ???, I logged a total of 1.6 hours, playing from about 11:30PM PT to 1:00AM PT.

Ceiling runs are cool.

Game Mechanics:
Movement
In any case, as before, I absolutely enjoy the game mechanics. Not only does the game bring back all of the Prince's acrobatic and parkour-like movement from the Sands of Time trilogy, but also incorporates new movements such as a ceiling run and a jump boost using Elika's powers.

Prince prepares to jump over the enemy.

Fighting
The fighting system has also seen an overhaul that requires a bit more timing and skill. At the foundations is a simple attack and counter-attack system where you can attack an enemy who is open, defend against an enemy that is attacking, or attempt to counter by defending just before the enemy throws his/her/its next attack.

Once on the offensive, the player can efficiently attack the enemy by linking together various attack combos. Overarching combo types include "Normal," "Magic," "Gauntlet," "Acrobatic," "Throw," and "Aerial" and the game allows certain combo types to be chained together. Both the combos and combo link diagram can be found in the game's menu.

Elika saves her strength in some places by hanging on to the Prince's back.

Summary:
Overall, my experience with Prince of Persia has been exceptionally positive thus far and I would highly recommend it to others looking for a 3D platformer to play.

While part of me wanted to continue playing more straight throughout the night, I had to restrain myself in an effort to reset my sleep cycle.

The Prince uses his claw attachment to slow his descent.

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20240417 Snapshot:
Steam Game Time: 3.8 hours (cumulative game time)
Last Played: 20160109

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Prince of Persia (PC) (2008)

A reference to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Relevant Links:
Prince of Persia (2008 video game) (Wikipedia.org)
Prince of Persia (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Prince of Persia (Steam Store Page)

Myst: Masterpiece Edition (PC) (2000)

Myst: Masterpiece Edition (PC) (2000)*
*Myst (Mac OS) (1993)

The Library - exterior

Relevant Links:
Myst (Wikipedia.org)
Myst: Masterpiece Edition (PC) (Metacritic.com)
Myst: Masterpiece Edition (Steam Store Page)

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20140109:
This game was hard to navigate and the puzzles were hard to figure out. I also wish the sound was continuous throughout the game.

With that being said, I only tried to playing it for less than an hour.* I'll give it another shot in the future.

Dimensional Imager

*My steam game time as of 20151023 was 54 minutes.

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20151023:
I spent half an hour figuring out how to take screenshots of the game. Among the methods I tried, the only one that seemed to work was pressing Print Screen and pasting the screenshot into an image program. Pasting into GIMP was convenient because then I could quickly change the canvas size.*

In any case, I decided to just go ahead and play the game.

A note from Atrus to his wife Catherine.

1) Read the note > Determine the number of Markers > Entered the number of Markers into the Dimensional Imager

I realized after another half hour that the game wasn't working. After two changes, it seemed to work: "Run as administrator" and Windows compatibility mode "Windows XP (Service Pack 2)". Now when running the game there's a video introduction and the dimensional imager displays images.

The Library - interior

I first tested the three given codes (40, 67, and 47) before entering the number of markers on the island (there are eight).

2) Dimensional Imager > Figure out About the Tower (e.g., go to the library)
3) Enter file into the book > Watch the video (which also wasn't working before I made the above changes, but now it is) > Blue pages.

At this point in the game, I also realized that my screenshot program was working again (I assume it was due to the above mentioned changes).

A book from the library.

4) In the library there are a couple of books in good condition; their covers are not burnt. One of the books contains constellations at the end.
5) After reading through all four books, I clicked on the painting to the left of them which reveals a staircase. I clicked on the painting to the right of them which closes the staircase and opens the entrance. I clicked back on the left and then the right to double-check the mechanisms. Unfortunately, when I clicked on the painting on the right this time around, the game froze.**

Dimensional Imager Codes

Consequently, while I was beginning to have fun with Myst: Masterpiece Edition, I was ready to call it quits. I will, however, look to check out the realMyst version.

*The ability to take screenshots with my screenshot program began working again after applying some changes to the executable ("Run as administrator" and Windows compatibility mode "Windows XP (Service Pack 2)").

Spaceship

**I started the game back up to take some additional screenshots and this time the game froze the first time I clicked on the painting to the left of the stairs.