Metal Slug (PC) (2015)

Metal Slug (PC) (2015)*
*Metal Slug (Neo Geo) (1996)
also known as Super Vehicle-001: Metal Slug

Inside the SV-001. Its health can be seen in the upper left corner.

Relevant Links:
Metal Slug (Wikipedia.org)
Metal Slug (series) (Wikipedia.org)
Metal Slug (PC) (Metacritic.com)

20151231:
Today I played Metal Slug for the first time. In fact, as far as I can remember, I have never played any game in the Metal Slug series until today.

Playing the game with scanlines.

Setup: I used the keyboard for controls, set the resolution at 1920x1080, the aspect ratio to 16:9, and scanlines to 100% (I later turn off the scanlines in favor of brightness).

Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Action-packed
+ Solid graphics
+ Good

While using the turret is satisfying, the player is still vulnerable

Neutral:
~ Beating the game on 'Medium' with continues is simply a matter of patience. Consequently most of the game's replayability will come from the player's desire to get a high score or achieve various speedrun goals.

Steam: 59 minutes

20160101:
Today, after watching a speedrun on 'Hardest,' I was inspired to play the game on 'Easy' and I implemented some of the techniques I saw. In particular, I had overlooked the power of the Metal Slug tanks.

Despite playing on 'Easy,' I still had to use 14 continues in order to complete the game.

Final Boss.

The enemy dramatically falls out and splatters on the ground.

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (PC) (2015)

20151229:
Today I played this game with my friends. With a couple of explosions under our belts, we managed to play up to and including the second moderate level. For these sets of games, I was in charge of defusing the bomb, Michael was the primary manual reader, Phuong was the secondary manual reader, and Josh was the tertiary manual reader.

To elaborate, Michael was in charge of scrolling through the PDF and both him and Phuong communicated the most while solving the introductory and basic puzzles. Meanwhile, Josh mostly watched and would chime in every now and then - growing more silent and sleepy with every passing puzzle. Finally, it was mostly just Michael communicating with me during first and second moderate level bombs.

In any case, I normally wait for sales, but I simply couldn't wait to play this game. I did, however, make sure my friends were on board with playing.

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Thoughts:
Pro:
+ Fun, tense gameplay

Neutral:
~ Need a friend to play with.
~ Might lead to frustration depending on who you play with

[20151229]

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Recommendation:
Although this game may not be for everybody, I would definitely recommend it to puzzle lovers and I would also recommend players take a gamble and try it out regardless of their usual genre.

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Exploded. Ouch. (20160225)

[20151229]

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20160225:
Played the game with my coworkers during a retreat in Canada.

[20170115]

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20170115 Snapshot
Since I've gotten the game, I've played (from the start and up to some level) with a handful of people. First with my friends, once with my coworkers, once with some extended family (I was the bomb defuser, along with a kid too young to read), once with my sister (20160427, I was the bomb defuser), and once with my girlfriend (20161024, I was the manual user). I love this game!

Five modules, oh my! (20160427)

Steam Game Time: 4.2 hours (total game time)

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Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (PC) (2015)

Overview: An asymmetrical co-op game where at least two players work together through communication in order to defuse procedurally-generated bombs: one person gets to see the bomb and the rest get to see the bomb manual.

Relevant Links:
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes Website
Bomb Defusal Manual
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (Steam Store Page)

Lexica (PC) (2014)

Overview: In Lexica, the user is given letters which must all be used to fill the playing field with valid English words.

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20151227:
Today I played the first 12 easy puzzles and then tried my hand at the first medium difficulty puzzle and the difference was huge. I had trouble starting the darn thing!

Steam Game Time: 33 minutes

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20151228 AM Hours:
Getting home, I resumed the first medium puzzle an finally finished it. Then I either caught on to some technique or the game got easier, because I managed to complete the next eight medium puzzles.

The very first puzzle!

Unknown Word Log:
BANYAN - fig that starts its life as an epiphyte
DIPPY - stupid; foolish

Steam Game Time: 79 minutes (cumulative game time) / 46 minutes (session game time)

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20151228 Evening:
Today I resumed the first hard puzzle and surprisingly finished it!

Unknown Word Log:
OKAPI - giraffid artiodactyl mammal native to the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa

After the third hard puzzle, I attributed the majority of my success by knowing common letter combinations and possible letter positions within a word.

There are eight pages for each difficulty!
(That's 96 levels per difficulty!)

FECUND - producing or capable of producing an abundance of offspring or new growth; fertile.
BAILEY - the defensive wall surrounding an outer court of a castle.

Interestingly, going back to play some easy puzzles, I find them to be challenging in their own way.

SL - After finishing Puzzle 6 of Easy Pack 2, I googled "SL Lexica" and found a thread which confirmed my suspicion that 'SL' is not a word in the English language. What a strange error.
TRESS - a long lock of a woman's hair.


Cumulative Progress: Easy: 19; Medium: 9; Hard: 5
Steam Game Time: 2.3 hours (cumulative game time) / 1.0 hours (session game time)

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Requires a little trial-and-error. This is error.

Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Lots of levels
+ Automatic save system.

Neutral:
~ I got bored playing several levels in one sitting. This game would be best suited in its iOS app form where the user could play one or two puzzles a day (similar to doing a crossword in the papers).
~ As a word puzzle, the game requires decent knowledge of English vocabulary.

Cons:
- Lacks an undo button.

One letter left!

- Maybe the interface could have been improved slightly. For example, perhaps the game needs a way to keep notes.
- Lacks ability to see puzzle after completion [20240505]

Rating: 3.0/5 [20240505]

Recommendation:
While I found the game fun and challenging, it lacked growth. As such, I reasoned that the best way to consume this game would be in short intervals.

As such, if you like word games and have a reasonably sized English vocabulary, then you might like Lexica, especially if you plan to only play a couple of levels every once in a while (there are a total of 288 levels - 96 for each difficulty).

[20151228 Assumed Entry Date][20240505 Additions]

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20240505 Snapshot:
Cumulative Progress: Easy: 22; Medium: 12; Hard: 7
Steam Game Time: 2.9 hours (cumulative game time) / 2h 55m (Playnite)
Last Played: 20160414

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20240504:
Unknown Word Log:
GORGET - an article of clothing that covered the throat.

Cumulative Progress: Easy: 28; Medium: 12; Hard: 11
Steam Game Time: 3.7 hours (cumulative game time) / 0.8 hours (session game time)

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20240505:
Unknown Word Log:
SUET - "suet is the raw, hard fat of beef, lamb or mutton found around the loins and kidneys" (Wikipedia)
YEW - "Yew is a common name given to various species of trees" (Wikipedia)
EKE - "manage to support oneself or make a living with difficulty."
UREA - "Urea serves an important role in the cellular metabolism of nitrogen-containing compounds by animals and is the main nitrogen-containing substance in the urine of mammals" (Wikipedia)
GALLIC - French or typically French.
interesting, as I finished this puzzle, I parsed "DISOWN" as "DI-SOWN" before properly understanding it as the word "DIS-OWN"
CORGI - (breed of dog)
KNAP - the crest of a hill
ROTA - a list showing when each of a number of people has to do a particular job.
KEBAB - (kabob is North American spelling of kebab)
LIRA - (currency)
AERO - (not a word on the internet)

After today's session, I felt like it was time to abandon the game. While the game offers some fun, the difficult levels are sometimes hard because the words used are less commonly known words and that's not the type of difficulty I would find enjoyable in the long run. With that being said, if I just did three puzzles a day for the next 72 days, then I would complete the game. Breaking it down in this way doesn't seem like such a bad task, but the fact that it'd be a "task" is a red flag.

Cumulative Progress: Easy: 36; Medium: 24; Hard: 12
Steam Game Time: 5.4 hours (cumulative game time) / 1.7 hours (session game time)

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Lexica (PC) (2014)

Easy.

Relevant Links:
Lexica (Steam Store Page)

Spirits (PC) (2012)

Overview: Spirits is a puzzle game similar to Lemmings.

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20120826:
Purchased.

Tip: Read the 'How to Play.'
Tip: Don't overlook the fact that plants can be collected from the air (click on a spirit to release a projectile).

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20120831:
Screenshots which span half an hour (11:30-11:59PM ET)

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20151227 Snapshot:
The save file consists of Save Slot 1 (me) - levels 1 through 10 completed and Save Slot 2 (Josh) - levels 1 through 6 completed.

Steam Game Time: 50 minutes (total game time)

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20151227:
Today I started from my old save file. After completing levels 11 through 26, I was bored and stopped playing.

Steam Game Time: 1.7 hours (session game time) / 2.5 hours (total game time)

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Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Simple, yet challenging.

Cons:
- Controls can feel finicky
- Not as much variety as Lemmings.
- Feels slow and unexciting

[20151227]

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Recommendation:
I have mixed feelings about Spirits. Sometimes I found the game fun and challenging, and sometimes I found it slow and boring. Personally, I'd rather replay Lemmings before returning to this game.

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Spirits (PC) (2012)*
*Spirits (iOS) (2010)

Relevant Links:
Spirits Webpage
Spirits (Steam Store Page)
Spirits (iOS) (MetaCritic.com)

Cities: Skylines (PC) (2015)

20151225:
Today I tried playing Cities: Skylines for the first time and unfortunately it wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. In particular, I was hoping I could jump right into the game as if it were The Sims, but there was actually quite a steep learning curve.

Thus far I've started a new game three or four times due to an incorrect usage of money. Some points that I've gathered are as follows:
1) Build small
2) Pause the game (certain buildings require upkeep)
3) Build residential areas first and only build electricity and drains after they have completed
4) I wrongly assumed the first map, Cliffside Bay, would be the easiest. After two or three games I switched to Grand River.

5) Electricity was confusing for me. I benefitted from reading this thread. Electricity can be shared via zones. Also this wiki page: http://www.skylineswiki.com/Power
6) Pipes have an 11-cell radius: http://www.skylineswiki.com/Water_and_sewage
7) Needs required by buildings won't go away until you unpause the game.

Steam Game Time: 75 minutes

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20151226:
Today I played more and one of the residents tweeted about needing fresh water, but I was confused because my pipes seemed set up correctly.

More things learned:
1) Micromanaging the amount of electricity and water produced/drained will save money.
2) Determine a tile's resources by going to view tiles and clicking on them. The starting tile in Grand River has fertile land and a bit of forest.

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Cities: Skylines (PC) (2015)

Relevant Links:
Cities: Skylines (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Cities: Skylines (Steam Store Page)
Cities: Skylines (Wikipedia.org)
Cities: Skylines (Reddit)

Influent (PC) (2013)

20151225:
Today I tried playing Influent but I decided to stop after 12 minutes because I wasn't in the mood to walk around and learn words. It was also noisy and so learning the words wouldn't have been optimal. In any case, I definitely liked the idea behind the game.

Comparison:
As far as software goes, I would compare Influent to Rosetta Stone. Both use the concept that language should be directly learned via an audio-visual component as opposed to the typical classroom approach of translating words to words. With the latter, the learner has a tendency to translate from concept X to native language Y to target language Z. With the former, the learner can translate from concept X directly to target language Z.

The two differ in the concepts being taught and the way the language is taught. With Rosetta Stone, the user is given images, text, and audio that must be paired together. It is, however, crucial that all text and audio are in the target language. Deductive reasoning is critical to learning the language.

With Influent, it's up to the user to explore the world and pick objects to determine their corresponding target word. This still eliminates the native language (though there is an option to reveal a hint, but such an action should be discouraged).

[20170312 Edit]

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Influent (PC) (2013)

Relevant Links:
Influent (MetaCritic.com)
Influent (Steam Store Page)

ALLTYNEX Second (PC) (2013)

Overview: ALLTYNEX Second is a shoot 'em up which belongs to The Tale of ALLTYNEX trilogy and whose story takes place before RefleX

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Armor Mode: Buster Rifle.

20151217:
Today I played ALLTYNEX Second and for whatever reason jumped right into the game and played it twice before thinking it might be a good idea and check out the tutorials.

While the game was already fun before watching the tutorials (as well as a bit chaotic), it became more awesome and fun after watching them.

Setup: The game automatically detected my gamepad and blocks me from using the keyboard/mouse (which is just something to note, though I've seen this with some other games as well so it's not entirely unusual).

Attack with the Blade (Tutorial)

Gameplay Mechanics:
ALLTYNEX Second features a ship which has a stereotypical ranged rapid fire attack (Button 1 - Main Shot) and a melee attack which also destroys basic enemy fire (Button 2 - The Blade).

Using the ranged attack places the ship in Fighter Mode and pressing Button 3 will fire ranged homing lasers. Alternatively, press Button 2 while holding down Button 1.

Defeating a boss with the blade.

Similarly, using the melee attack places the ship in Armor Mode and pressing Button 3 will fire a buster rifle. Alternatively, press Button 1 while holding down Button 2. Note that the player ship will lock onto certain mid and large-sized enemies (for the buster rifle).

Of course, both special attacks will deplete the player's energy bar and consequently decrease the power of the player ship's Main Shot (Level 1-5).

Finally, the ship's movement speed in Armor Mode is slower than when it's in Fighter Mode which encourages the player to strategically switch between the two (power vs. mobility).

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Game Over.

Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Fun shooter mechanics
+ Pretty cool graphics (2.5D).

Con:
- No screen resolution setting

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Fighter Mode: Homing Lasers

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Recommendation:
While the lack of resolution setting is a bit upsetting, the game was still pretty solid and I would recommend it to anybody looking for a new vertical shooter to play. With that being said, I'm not an expert on shoot em' ups, but apparently there was a sufficient demand bring the ALLTYNEX trilogy from Japan to the US.

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ALLTYNEX Second (Steam) (2014)*
*ALLTYNEX Second (Desura) (2013)
*ALLTYNEX Second (2010)

Some backstory.

Relevant Links:
ALLTYNEX Second Webpage
ALLTYNEX Second (Steam Store Page)
ALLTYNEX Second (Shoot Em Up Wikia)

LUFTRAUSERS (PC) (2014)

Overview: A simple, yet challenging arcade shooter with plenty of variations and missions.

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LUFTRAUSERS (PC) (2014)

Attacking a Blimp

Relevant Links:
LUFTRAUSERS Website
Luftrausers (Wikipedia.org)
LUTRAUSERS (Steam Store Page)

20151216:
The other day I laid out a new way to find some new games to play. But today, when logging into steamdb.info, I was shown an prompt to play Luftrausers (click on the "Calculator" tab). In general, the prompt shows a randomly picked from the user's library. What's nice, however, is that steamdb also shows how much playtime I've already put into the game and its steamdb rating.

Combine various parts.

Gameplay:
Combine parts for an aircraft (Weapon / Body / Engine) and destroy enemy ships and planes for points. Unlock new parts by meeting various goals such as 'kill 20 enemies in total' or 'kill 3 jets in one game.'

Basic gameplay consists of firing the aircraft's weapon, rotating the aircraft, and using the aircraft's engine (propulsion). After the aircraft is damaged, it will begin regenerating health, but only if the aircraft is not firing its weapon. Various parts will modify these stats, such as when the aircraft takes damage, how quickly it regenerates health, and how much health it has.

Pew pew pew.

A list of all the parts in Luftrausers can be found here (Luftrausers Wiki).

Research:
After many failed attempts and changes in loadout, I decided to look for info on how to kill a battleship. One suggestion said to use the Nuke body, but I didn't have that yet. Another was to use the Cannon weapon with Melee body and Underwater engine, but I only had the Melee body.

Ultimately, the most important piece of information was the following: there's no trick to it, you just have to keep hitting it without dying.

With this in mind, I was able to kill several battleships on my next run (Laser / Armor / Gungine). Attacking the battleship while kiting its barrage of fire was key.

Unfortunately, I then noticed that the mission goals were related to my craft's parts! Thus, while I managed to kill a battleship with the Laser weapon equipped, the "kill a battleship" goal was for the Original weapon.

Tip: To quit the game without Alt-F4, at the carrier, press 'O,' then scroll down to 'Exit,' and press 'X.'

Access [O] Options from the carrier.

Steam Game Time: 51 minutes

20151217:
Somewhat addicted, I return today for more.

However, I stopped playing when I reached a combination of sleepiness and slowed progress: I was attempting to complete '30 in a combo' but I was, on average, doing worse and worse - though I came close on one attempt. With that being said, I was also being greedy and trying tot accomplish multiple goals at once. In hindsight, it would have been better just to focus on one goal at a time.

'quit game' can be found at the bottom of the 'Options' menu.

Steam Game Time: 2.6 hours (total game time)

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Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Fun, simple game: only arrow keys, Z, and X
+ Simple, yet complex: interesting mechanics

Neutral:
~ A mildly steep learning curve

Minor Con:
- Somewhat short-lived as the game may eventually feel repetitive.

The dark circle represents health. Stop shooting to replenish it.

[20151217]

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Recommendation:
Some of the best games I've played are good because they consist of simple mechanics, yet complex and enjoyable gameplay. With clever use of water to accelerate and decelerate, the mechanics behind turning or falling, and the balance between regenerating health and firing, Luftrausers is definitely a game with simple mechanics, but complex and enjoyable gameplay. Thus, while the game will eventually feel repetitive, I would recommend it to anyone looking for something quick and mildly addicting.

[20151217]

Crusader Kings II (PC) (2012)

Overview:
Crusader Kings II is a grand strategy game developed by Paradox Development Studio, the developer of the Europa Universalis series. While the goal in the Europa Universalis series is to build a country, the goal in the Crusader King series is to build a dynasty.

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Crusader Kings II (PC) (2012)

Relevant Links:
Crusader Kings II Website
Crusader Kings II (Steam Store Page)
Crusader Kings II (Wikipedia.org)
Crusader Kings II (PC) (Metacritic.com)

20151215:
Recently my motivation to play various short games in my library began to decline and so I decided to temporarily move on to a new theme (see the end of this post for details). In any case, the first game using this new theme was Crusader Kings II.

There's also a menu at the bottom of the screen!

The first thing I tried doing was playing the 'Learning Scenario,' but I don't think I was initiating the help dialogues. With so many buttons on the user interface, I decided to escape to the menu and look for some tutorials.

Finding the tutorial at the bottom, I went through all the basic tutorials. At one point, I thought the tutorial I was in had froze. I eventually realized the game had paused itself when the latest tooltip appeared. In any case, the basic tutorials took so much time that I was ready to just play the game instead of continuing through the intermediate and advanced tutorials.

So many tutorials! You can also access the 'Learning Scenario' from this screen.

Restarting the 'Learning Scenario,' I was happy to see that a help dialogue would show up every now and then - perhaps because I was able to follow the instructions each time it appeared.

While I was beginning to like the game, I also felt overwhelmed by all the buttons and some gameplay aspects like managing vassals were annoyingly confusing.

Then, after 112 minutes of playing, I had lost my patience, saved the game, and exited.

Checking out a tutorial.

Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Strongly tied to history
+ Pretty good music
+ Lots of details and options. As an example, there are more than ten possible map views!

Cons:
- Incredibly steep learning curve. In particular, Sid Meier's Civilization V (PC) (2010)* felt easier to pick up.
- Tediously boring to learn

The tutorial shows you how to go by ship, but it's faster to go by foot.

*While both are strategy games, they belong to different subgenres.

Comparison:
Personally I'm a fan of games which start simple but slowly lead the player into the game's complexity through discovery. As a runner-up, I also like games whose complexity can be found as needed via a wiki. For example, I recall when I first started playing Terraria (PC) (2011) - my first ever crafting game - and admittedly I read a little snippet on getting started. However, after about five minutes I was well on my way to hours and hours of fun and discovery.

'Learning Scenario'

In contrast to the above, Crusader Kings 2 starts complex and requires a fair amount of an upfront learning investment. Unfortunately, the in-game tutorials are dry and the learning scenario occasionally feels open-ended. Fortunately, the game does have numerous external resources available to the player (YouTube, Reddit, and the CKII Wiki), but there is no escape from complexity. For example, a detailed Crusader Kings 2 Tutorial Series consists of 22 videos which last a total of about 400 minutes (= 6.7 hours).

Finding a wife.

Recommendation:
While technically I gave up on the game, I only did so after playing for almost two hours. Furthermore, I was beginning to like the game and if I played strategy games more regularly, I would probably love it. In particular, I definitely like the game concept.

Steam: 112 minutes (total game time)

It's a baby girl!

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Old Theme:
Already Played/Not: Leaned towards not
Website: http://astats.astats.nl/
Primary Criteria: Ordered by time to 100% (shortest first), Time <= 12.0 hrs Secondary Criteria: 'Score' >= 7.0
Goal: Try to achieve 100%
Remaining Pool Size: 20 - 40

New Theme:
Already Played/Not: Not Already Played
Website: https://steamdb.info/
Primary Criteria: Ordered by price, Price >= $10
Secondary Criteria: 'Reviews' >= 80%
Goal: Try to play a game until its Price (on Steam) / Time Played (in hours) is less than or equal to $10.
Remaining Pool Size: about 150

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (PC) (2011)

Overview: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is a third-person shooter which takes place in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

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Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (PC) (2011)

Relevant Links:
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (Wikipedia.org)
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (Steam Store Page)
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (PC) (MetaCritic.com)

20151215:
I've had this game in my library for the longest time and finally got around to trying it out today.

Setup:
The video options were a bit silly. First I had to set the aspect ratio to 16:9 before being able to switch the resolution to 2560x1440. Anyways, I also moved the Shadows to High and left everything else as they were.

As for difficulty, I decided to play Normal. Finally, I used my mouse and keyboard for controls.

Getting into the Game:
To start, I simply played the first level (Part I - Planetfall). One detail I liked was how the level was preceded by an introductory cutscene containing "SEGA Presents" and concluded with the game's title Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine.

First Impressions:
It's been a while since I've played an action adventure game similar to Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine and the simple action of pressing a single button to attack was a mindless relief. Besides spamming the attack button, I would also repeatedly attempt to stun enemies and regain health. This seemed like a critical game mechanic in terms of keeping the health bar high and staying alive.

To be continued...:
As a straightforward action adventure game, I will definitely look to add more time to a mere 17 minutes of gameplay (after finishing the first level I had something I needed to do).