AoM: Video Games: January 2017

Monday, January 16, 2017

Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt (PC) (2014)

20170116: (AM Hours)
This game was well-reviewed on steamdb.info and the trailer also looked interesting so I decided to give it a try.

Menu Screen (20170116)

While I was intending to stream the game from my desktop to my Zenbook, there was some sort of hardware issue and I ended up installing the game on my Zenbook (it gets to be the first!).

Jumping right into the game, I liked how everything about this game was retro: the menu, the art, the animation, all of it.

In addition to the game's retro vibe, the game's goals and mechanics were simple and straightforward: collect hearts by opening chests and curing NPCs; cure NPCs by talking to them and shooting diseases.

(20170116)

Although I was tempted to stay awake and finish the game, it was way past my recent bedtime and I called it a night.

Steam Game Time: 50 minutes

[20170116]

Princess Remedy (20170116)

20170116: (PM Hours)
Today (in the evening) I proceeded to finish the game.

Apparently I was only a minute or so away from the boss! After defeating him, I went around trying to collect a couple more hearts and deciding who to marry (any NPC or the Jealous chest or an empty chest).

Steam Game Time: 73 minutes (total game time)

(20170116)

Upon defeating the game (95% Completion Rate), instead of attempting to get a 100% Completion Rate, I started another save file on Hard Difficulty and attempted to avoid all chests until getting to the Jealous Chest. This, on Hard, was hard.

In short, the gate that grants access to the Jealous Chest requires 28 hearts. But for me, collecting 26 hearts was reasonable, obtaining a 27th heart was difficult, and obtaining the 28th heart almost seemed impossible until I somehow lucked into a configuration of a battle which allowed me to pick off the enemies one-by-one!

Frallan! (20170117)

Steam Game Time: 120 minutes (total game time)

20160117:
Taking a break from work, I completed Hard Mode with 101%.

Boss Tip 1: Princess Remedy will replenish full health between each individual boss stage.

The level that got me the 27th heart on Hard. (20170117)

Boss Tip 2: Related to Boss Tip 1, with all the upgrades (frog bullets), the lower boss stages can be defeated quickly by tanking some damage and being direct to immediately eliminate one/two of the attackers.

Boss Tip 3: Initially with the final stage of the boss I tried dropping all ten bombs in succession but took too much damage. On my second attempt I dodged as many bullets as possible and threw bombs when possible. By the time he was defeated, I had only used 9 out of 10 bombs.

The level that got me the 28th heart on Hard. (20170117)
Notice how the ghosts have not advanced from their position.

Steam Game Time: 137 minutes (total game time)

Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Simple and fun
+ Humorous

Some battles are tough! But there's no penalty for dying! (20170116)

+ Unlimited lives (in other words, no penalty for losing a battle)

Neutral:
~ Retro
~ Free

The game essentially challenges the player to replay the game without opening any chests. (20170116)

Recommendation:
Anybody that's a fan of older video games and/or pixel art should check out Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt.

Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt (PC) (2014)

Relevant Links:
Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt (Steam Store Page)

Initial progress... (20170116)

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Iron Snout (PC) (2016)

20170115:
It's been a while since I've played video games and today I tore myself away from my blogging in exchange for some actual game time! While I briefly considered using a Steam roulette, I instead decided to sort my games by reviews (on steamdb.info) and looked down the list; fourth on the list was Iron Snout.

Grandma, what a big snout you have.

Although using a gamepad would have been superior, I was ready to just jump right into things with my (Razer, brown switches) keyboard.

The game starts with a tutorial which implies the character's neutral position is at the center of the screen and pressing the arrow keys will have the character execute attacks and movements. After the tutorial, different types of enemy wolves will come and attack the character. The goal is to survive for as long as possible.

After playing the game twice on the same settings, I had fun, but I was done and had no interest in checking out the city (as opposed to the forest) and/or the 1 HP mode. These, however, would extend the life of the game for those who are inclined.

Get a useful tip when you die!

[20170115]

Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Simple, fun
+ Challenging
+ Good background music

Cons:
- I was bored of the game after 10 minutes

Statistics for my second attempt.

Conclusion:
While the game does get boring quickly, it's also free to play and lots of fun while you play it. As such, I would highly recommend it, even if it's just a short diversion.

Iron Snout (PC) (2016)

Relevant Links:
Iron Snout (MetaCritic.com)
Iron Snout (Steam Store Page)

Want a basket?

Counter-Strike (PC) (1999)

Looking to lay down some blog posts on some games I've previously played but never blogged about, I decided to start with Counter-Strike. More so than any other post I've written, this one attempts to draw a picture of my own boring relationship with the game.

It's strange to think about it now, having just tried to play some Counter-Strike over a 12 Mbps connection (latency ~ 16 ms), to have once upon a time have "played" the game over dial-up internet.

Counter-Strike 1.6 (20170115)

While I had some fascination with the game, I wasn't into it as much as some of my friends and classmates. Of course, I certainly wasn't good at it (and I'm still not good at it), but I definitely didn't care and simply enjoyed spawning every five or ten minutes just to execute some quick-buy scripts, throw a couple of grenades, fire some bullets, and get that one measly kill every three or four rounds.

Note that I briefly thought perhaps my interest waned on account of slow internet. But even when my parents had cable internet installed I continued to enjoy playing MUDs (Multi-User Domains) more than playing Counter-Strike.

Three remarks: 1) I totally forgot that Counter-Strike was first a mod for Half-Life until looking at some old screenshots. 2) I never went to a LAN gaming center to play Counter-Strike. 3) I've learned to enjoy first-person shooters more after playing Left 4 Dead 2 (2009); in particular, my accuracy has slightly improved.

Counter-Strike 1.5 (20011228)

[20170115][20170521 Edit]

2003XXXX: Counter-Strike 1.5
Looking for files related to Counter-Strike, I found a Counter-Strike 1.5 install file together with a Steam install file modified dates 20030713 and 20030731, respectively. Back then, the Steam platform was just a client to keep Valve games like Counter-Strike up to date.

[20170115]

20170115: Counter-Strike 1.6
I played a couple of rounds today, got bored of the lag after 25 minutes of gameplay (which by the way doubled my logged hours on Steam), and shut the game down.

Overall, I could see myself becoming decent with practice, but I have no incentive to practice. I'd sooner try and improve at a MOBA like League of Legends or Heroes of the Storm before I'd try and improve at Counter-Strike (no offense, Counter-Strike, you're a great game and all...).