Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (PC) (1996)

Overview: A point-and-click adventure primarily set in Paris. Play as George Stobbart, an American tourist, who sets out to solve a mystery.

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George Stobbart

20171228 Part 1:
Ada and I started by playing the Director's Cut. However, various users suggested that new players start out with the original version and then, after completing the original, come back and play the Director's Cut. As such, Ada and I switched to playing the original version.*

In order to access the original version in Steam, do the following. Find the game in the list of games (in "Detail View" the list is on the left-hand side) and right click on the title. Then choose "Play Broken Sword 1: Original Version" from the menu. Note: I've included a screenshot at the bottom of this post.

We started by playing the original version at my desktop computer, but eventually I decided we could play more comfortably on the couch using my laptop. So we saved the game at 10:35PM and tried to play from my laptop.

George and Nicole Collard

Steam Game Time: 95 minutes (total game time)*

*We watched all of the intro of the Director's Cut and paused the game when it actually started. Then we played through a little of the game. Using a YouTube video as reference, I estimate we spent about 12 to 15 minutes with the Director's Cut.

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20171228 Part 2:
Unfortunately, the original version of the game could not be streamed using Steam In-Home Streaming and so I manually transferred the save files from my desktop to my laptop.

When we got things up and running, we comfortably played until one of our in-game choices resulted in our character's demise (we had him leave the hotel with the manuscript). Unfortunately, we hadn't saved since we resumed playing, so we'd have to go through the effort of going through all the (hotel-related) puzzles we had already solved. Fortunately, that should require relatively little time.

George shimmies across.

Steam Game Time: 3.0 hours (total game time)

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20171229 Morning:
Booting up the game, I set out to recover the progress we had made: repeating most actions between unlocking the hotel's location via phone call and retrieving the manuscript. This took a total of about fifteen minutes.

Ada joined me during that time and after we retrieved the manuscript, we tried out an idea for getting the manuscript out of the hotel. Success!

Steam Game Time: 3.6 hours (total game time)

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20171229 Evening:
Picking up from the point of retrieving the manuscript, Ada and I played up to the point in the game where we got stuck with a crazy goat. We then spent a lot of time wandering about, with moments of clarity, only to finally end back in a murky rut.

An ancient manuscript.

Steam Game Time: Approximately 3.5 hours (session game time). Unknown hours total.

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20180107:
Today Ada and I resumed trying to fix the sink. We showed every item we had in our inventory to every person inside and outside the bar. We then double-checked the cellar. Finally, we knew the towel could be soaked with the water but couldn't do anything with it. It was frustrating.

As such, I decided that for sake of having fun, I would look up what we were supposed to do. Finding a walkthrough, I first came across this hint: "Use the plow to entangle the goat." Unfortunately, this hint was the first thing that crossed my mind when aiming to get pass the goat, but nothing I had done worked. Despite having already tried just about everything, the hint motivated me to try various variations of previous attempts. Unfortunately, I still didn't have any luck.

At an Irish pub (in Ireland)

Consequently, we scrolled down to the actual solution (of the walkthrough) and, to be honest, I found the solution annoying. Nothing in the game up to that point suggested such a game mechanic. Never in a million years would I have solved that puzzle without a walkthrough. Oh well.

In any case, we played up until we got stuck at the hospital.

Steam Game Time: Approximately 1 hour (session game time). 8.0 hours (total game time)

---

Thoughts:
Pro:
+ Great story.

Neutral:
~ Some of the artwork feels dated, especially compared to the Director's Cut, which I experienced a little bit of

A scary goat.

~ I encountered a puzzle whose solution bothered me. And while it's no excuse, I believe bad puzzles crop up from time to time in classic point-and-click adventure games. Remark: I'm more than happy with frustratingly good puzzles.

Minor Con:
- Movement can be a little slow. Some adventure games (perhaps newer ones) implement a quick walk or allow immediately jumps when the character has previously walked through that scene already.

Con:
- Some of the transition scenes are painfully long. For example, when asking to speak to Inspector Rosso at the Police Station.

[20180129]

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What lies beyond the goat.

Summary:
Thus far I've enjoyed playing Broken Sword with my fiancee Ada and I feel like we'll enjoy finishing it. With that being said, we haven't played it recently so it's not griping enough for my fiancee to request playing it. I do, however, get inklings to play it. On the other hand, we have been rather busy and/or sick as of late. In the end, I would recommend the game to fans of point-and-click adventures.

But a word of advice, if you should play the game and get stuck at the goat for more than twenty minutes, don't be ashamed to look up the solution.

[20180129]

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Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (PC) (1996)

Relevant Links:
Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (Wikipedia.org)
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Broken Sword 1: Original Version (Steam Store Page)

How to play the original version of Broken Sword on Steam.

Human Resource Machine (PC) (2015)

Overview: A video game with programming and math-based puzzle mechanics.

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20171223:
While there were various games to play using my current game choosing method (still via games which an unnamed Steam friend has played), I was attracted to Human Resource Machine, because it was related to Little Inferno.

String Storage Floor

There's not so much of a story. The fact that there may be hidden messages is made apparent in one of the levels. I'm not sure how many levels contain similarly hidden messages. However, if Human Resource Machine is anything like Little Inferno, it's probably all culminating in something big at the end.

Progress: Skipped 22, 24, 26, 28. Finished 33.

Steam Game Time: 3.6 hours

---

20171224:
I resumed the game today and I spent some time with some of the puzzles for which I thought I could solve the "Size" or "Speed" Challenge. Sometimes I succeeded. Sometimes I failed and eventually moved on.

Progress: Skipped 22, 24, 26, 28, 36, 38, 40. Finished 41.

Steam Game Time: 7.1 hours (total game time) / 3.5 hours* (session game time)

Progress: Skipped 28, 36, 38, 40.

Steam Game Time: 9.6 hours (total game time) / 2.5 hours (session game time)

A Cutscene

*There were moments when I stepped away with the game on. But this is probably at most 30 minutes of time.

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20171225:
Today after I had managed to complete all the levels in some form, I had the following challenges left to complete (in parentheses is my best over number needed to complete challenge):

Size: 19 (12/10), 20 (18/15), 22 (20/19), 28 (38/34), 35 (19/17),
Speed: 19 (87/82), 28 (88/78), 32 (427/393), 36 (110/109), 41 (925/714)

Remark: I achieved the Size Challenge for Year 32, but I no longer retain the solution.

The first one I tackled after making the above summary was Year 32. I got it down to 386/393.

Next I went for Year 19. I easily completed the Speed Challenge (79/82, and lost the solution), but had some trouble with the Size Challenge (10/10).

My Size Challenge solution for Year 20 (15/15) came from realizing that I should use "jump if negative" as a trigger instead of "jump if zero."

In the Size Challenge for Year 22, I played around with using jumps going upward, a technique I heavily investigated during Year 32 (my Size Challenge solution for Year 22 gave 18/19).

Yay! Size Challenge and Speed Challenge Achieved!

I was trying to crack Year 35 when I felt sleepy and decided to stop playing. I had the following challenges left:

Size: 28 (38/34), 35 (19/17),
Speed: 28 (88/78), 36 (110/109), 41 (925/714)

Steam Game Time: 18.1 hours (total game time) / 8.5 hours (session game time)

---

Remark: Technically some of the hours involves blogging time. Estimated time of 1-2 hours.

---

20171226:
Resuming the game, I started with Year 35 where I left off last night. I first accidentally created a solution that broke my record for Speed and was less of a hack (63/167). I call it a hack because it maxes out at five letters. In any case, I tried to make a Size solution based on it, but that solution turned out horrible with respect to both Size and Speed.

Eventually, I went back to my original solution of 19/17 and slowly massaged that to 18/17. It took much thought and a lot of playing around to finally get it to 17/17. Note that once again I made use of "jump if negative" instead of "jump if zero." The solution also utilized an offset of 1 between two of my counters. Both of these implementations were made possible by decreasing a counter instead of increasing it.

I love using labels.

In any case, I'm at that point in the game where the final puzzles take a large proportion of the game time. A great example of the 80-20 rule; in this situation, approximately 80% of the game was completed in 20% of the time (in truth, with a projected completion of 30 hours, 90% of the game will have been completed in 30% of the time).

Steam Game Time: 20.4 hours (total game time) / 2.3 hours (session game time)

Year 36, Speed Challenge 71/109. Also simultaneously beat my Size Challenge. It was previously 38/39, but it's now 31/39. This one wasn't that hard. Instead of reading both words in and then comparing them, this time I started comparing them as I read in the second word.

Steam Game Time: 21.0 hours (total game time) / 0.6 hours (session game time)

I tried to solve the Speed Challenge for Year 41 and I started trying to implement linked lists. While the idea might have worked, it was likely I would run out of cells. With that being said, the code and bookkeeping was cumbersome, so I'll have to try something simple. Maybe the simple solution is to sort two different lists and then merge sort.

In the end, I dug around the internet looking for "ideas." I found a GitHub that compiled solutions for the different levels. Analyzing the solution for this Speed Challenge (Year 41) (via copying the file and pasting into the game), I was surprised to learn the algorithm of choice was Selection Sort.

Choose a character to play.

Steam Game Time: 25.8 hours (total game time) / 4.8 hours (session game time)

In any case, that left me with one level remaining: Year 28, Size: 38/34, Speed: 88/78.

---

Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Novel Enough (I previously played another programming-based puzzle game called TIS-100)
+ Teaches players new mechanics at an appropriate pace
+ Addicting

Neutral:
~ I love Little Inferno, and this game takes place in the same world.
~ Like Little Inferno, the story is subtle.
~ Benefits from familiarity with a programming language; the difficulty for those without is unknown

---

Summary:
I had a lot of fun playing this game, and unlike TIS-100 (2015) or SpaceChem (2011), the levels were easy enough to complete in a short/enjoyable amount of time.

Recently I've been noticing more programming games on Steam. Either programming-based puzzle games are becoming more popular or I just haven't noticed them until now. In any case, I would definitely recommend Human Resource Machine to any player who is a fan of video games and enjoys either programming or mathematics.

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20220920 Snapshot:
There's a 0.1 discrepancy in the total. I've observed this occurring depending on where the total time is source. For this snapshot, the time is sourced from the game page.

Steam Game Time: 25.7 hours (total game time)
Last played: 20171226

---

20220920 Comment:
I was planning to play today, but there was no synced save file. I'll try and look for one.

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20220920:
I couldn't find any backed up save file so I decided to start a fresh save - in part because I love this type of game. With that being said, I did briefly consider not starting a fresh save. Having previouslyu finished the game, I focused on one of the remaining achievements: to finish the blue section. Fortunately, this is the second section of the game (the first is the yellow section).

After passing through all the blues with a working solution, I went back to try and meet the optimization requirements. I found a general optimization strategy for speed was to reorder the JUMPs. For example, the obvious logical JUMP order is the following: a | b | IN | JMPZ c | JMP b | c | OUT | JMP a. The inefficiency comes in having to run the final JMP a. Instead, by reordering the previous as "JMP c | a | OUT | b | c | IN | JMPZ a | JMP b", then JMP b is sometimes skipped. Remark: the size of this reorder is equivalent.

Among the attempts to optimize, the multiplication level was giving me trouble. It crossed my mind to try and implement a solution that involved doubling (powers of 2), but I wanted to avoid it if possible.*

Steam Game Time: 29.1 hours (total game time) / 3.4 hours (session game time)
*I eventually tried this on 2022092X. The order of magnitude of the values involved and the operations available make it so that it does not seem to be a viable method of optimization.

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20220921:
My previous entries showed no sign of difficulty with the speed requirement for year 20, and indicates a small switch to achieve the size requirement. However, I couldn't seem to figure it out.

Later in the day, I had moved onto other puzzles and when returning to year 20, I managed to get it for size and speed separately. I don't think there was a specific strategy involved in achieving them (perhaps just luck). More broadly, I had learned that speed essentially means making very specific choices particular to the task whereas size essentially means combining code as much as possible. In programming terms, it's extremely dry code for size and extremely wet code for speed.

Gameplay Log:
Along the way I had gotten the overflow error achievement.
Completing the blue section gave the blue area achievement.
I used level 2 to get the last achievement, inserting useless jumps to spend 102 lines when 25 is the cutoff for the level.

Steam Game Time: 32.9 hours (total game time) / 3.8 hours (session game time)

---

Human Resource Machine (PC) (2015)

Human Resource Machine

Relevant Links:
Human Resource Machine Webpage
Human Resource Machine (Wikipedia.org)
Human Resource Machine (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Human Resource Machine (Steam Store Page)

2064: Read Only Memories (PC) (2015)

Overview: A cyberpunk point-and-click thriller.

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20171223: (AM Hours)
I tried playing, but I was too sleepy and decided to close the game and go to sleep. 1:01AM PT

A ROM (Relationship and Organizational Manager) named Turing (voiced by Melissa Hutchison)

Steam Game Time: 8 minutes

---

20171223:
I woke up and started playing the game while in my bed. However, I would still occasionally drift off to sleep. Eventually I got up out of bed and played (without falling asleep) until the start of Chapter 1: I went to Stardust but did not yet talk to TOMCAT.

The opening narrator had a strange voice, but I liked the voice of Turing. Furthermore, Turing has a cheerful disposition that gives the game a good vibe.

Your computer.

Steam Game Time: 90 minutes

---

Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Promising story
+ Turing's voice

Neutral:
~ Many object interactions with text.

Smart headphones.

Minor Con:
- The game allows the player to enter his/her name but the voice over is incapable of reading the name. Possible solutions include having some default names or a system for pronouncing any name.

Cons:
- Sometimes too much text, even for me.
- Lacked an appeal that some other point-and-clicks have.

---

Choosing pronouns. Custom pronouns are also an option.

Summary:
While I only completed the prologue, the game had an interesting start. With that being said, I'd sooner play a new point-and-click or revisit other point-and-clicks which I've started in the past. Consequently, I don't have any recommendations to make for the game.

At the time of this blog post, users on Metacritic either love or hate the game.

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2064: Read Only Memories (PC) (2015)

Relevant Links:
2064: Read Only Memories (Wikipedia.org)
2064: Read Only Memories (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
2064: Read Only Memories (Steam Store Page)

Pony Island (PC) (2016)

Overview: You've been trapped in an arcade machine and have been forced to play a game. However, you progressively stumble on and solve puzzles stored in the arcade machine's code to try and escape.

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20171122:
Continuing to play games which a friend of mine has played, I decided to play Pony Island.

The action portion of the game: jump over the fences.

While I initially thought the game would be a retro platformer, I was surprised to learn that it was more of a puzzle game with the occasional action element.

Steam Game Time: 107 minutes

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Chatting two mysterious persons.

Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Novel
+ Mysterious
+ Awesome

"I won't let you cheat at my game." (We'll see about that)

---

Summary:
I can't pinpoint why I enjoyed this game, but it was satisfying to play.

Furthermore, I have trouble describing the game and I believe the descriptions I have given don't do the game justice.

In any case, if you enjoy point-and-click adventures, have an average amount of coordination (for jumping and pointing the mouse), and enjoy an element of mystery and suspense, then this game will almost surely deliver a positive experience.

---

20220716:
After revisiting BattleBlock Theater, I decided to revisit Pony Island. Since the old save file wasn't available, I decided to

Gameplay Log:
Got stuck on a butterfly level. The button is on the bottom left and there's a gate in the center. I can't figure out the timing required to sync up the two butterflies.

Steam Game Time: 3.5 hours (total game time) / 1.8 hours (session game time)

---

20220717:
Gameplay Log:
Today I mapped out the level on a spreadsheet (after changing the graphics to Windowed mode) and was able to solve it
Lol, that's a clever distraction by the game (Steam chat)
I think the game detected that I tabbed out
Beat the main game, only found 12 tickets out of 24 (4.4 hours total game time); beating the game unlocks an "Act Select" [according to a comment later below, this should be 8 out of 24 tickets]
Found a ticket in Credits of the "Intro" level; note that these credits are fake
I thought I would get something from having it go past level 99 (since there's no room). It just says "!INT OVERFLOW ERROR!"
Huh a ticket from the code mini-game. Did I really just miss this before?
I got a ticket for reaching 50 points on Pony Galaxy. I tried to push for 100 points but failed. Can't say if that's a possibility... Okay I tried again and got to 100 points without another ticket
Ah ha! Clicking on the icons and spelling TICKET gives a ticket. A beep sounds when it's correct. They have an icon of a ticket and their name is part of the word, e.g., "T.exe"
Using "1010011010" doesn't work with Baphomet
BAPHOMET - used to get third info ("when did I die?"); so replaying stores progress towards achievement;
Act II passwords: 2734, iamerror, ponies
Huh. I just pressed escape (during Act II) and it says 12 out of 24 tickets found. This means the 12 out of 24 above is only 8?
"where did I die?"
I read about how to get the ticket on Ticket Lake.
I also read the ticket spoilers for using the coin (the one obtained to left of Ticket Lake) and MissingNo.
Lol. Ticket at the menu of the friendly version of Pony Island. Not sure how I missed that one, since there often was something in the left Pony head.
There's a ticket in one of the pictures when prompted of the Premium Mode; actually, I saw a glimse of this solution when I was reading about tickets earlier
I read about not killing Jesus in order to get a ticket. The task itself is difficult.
"how did I get here?"; this got me "The Full Truths" achievement (so I think there are five truths)
Lol. For the Devil version of the game ("Devil Island"), I held on the left head and I figured maybe if I waited long enough something else would pop out. Eventually I noticed the screen was filling with red. Ticket.
Defeating the game again, the H0peles$0uL is aware that the player has replayed the game, again asking the player to delete the game, and closes it (actually the first time around I did delete the EXE file after the character requested it, but it didn't seem to do anything); I went on to read that there's an in-game incentive to get all 24 tickets; I'm at 19 out of 24 tickets
Read about two tickets in Act II: corrupted.exe and triangle.png. Actually I suspected somethign was up with the triangle, but I didn't connect it to the other piece...
Used "iamerror" and unlocked an achievement.
To save time, I began looking for the tickets I might not have. First is Pony Island in Lucifier's account: left head. I probably would have figured that one out eventually. Second is four hidden faces on H0peles$0uL's desktop. I probably would never have found that. The last ticket to find was in the Graphics Settings menu. The wiki says this one is only available at the beginning of the game, but I think it's also accessible from the Pause menu (when hitting the "Esc" button), but possibly only certain parts of the game in particular, any time after beating the game for the first time.
Thus with some help, 100% achievements! I think this was not a goal I was aiming for, but was easy enough to do as part of experiencing the game (i.e., defeating H0peles$0uL)

Steam Game Time: 8.0 hours (total game time) / 4.5 hours (session game time)

---

Summary:
While I would consider Pony Island to primarily be a point-and-click adventure game, it does a great job of keeping itself fresh through its story and gameplay. In particular, there are some simple shooter gameplay elements, and one segment of the game that pays homage to text adventures. As for the story, it's mostly one of mystery blended with humor which revolves around poking fun at common video game design (e.g., grinding and DLC).

---

Pony Island (PC) (2016)

Relevant Links:
Pony Island (Wikipedia.org)
Pony Island (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Pony Island (Steam Store Page)

Saints Row: The Third (PC) (2011)

Overview: An open world game with similarities to Grand Theft Auto but injected with a lot of humor.

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20171028:
Recently I was playing a classic favorite of mine, The Adventures of Shuggy (2012), with my fiancee Ada. But today I had some time to myself and picked a game using my most recent method: looking through my friend's list of played games. This led me to Saints Row: The Third.

Buying a new outfit.

Unfortunately, I oddly hadn't downloaded the game yet and while I waited I noticed I also had Saints Row 2 and Saints Row IV and so I looked into the game's story. With respect to playing the second game before the third, one forum thread suggested that it's unnecessary to play the second before the third, because while the series has a continuing story, it doesn't emphasize the story. As such, I went ahead and decided I would play Saints Row: The Third, and not Saints Row 2.

---

20171104:
Last time, I didn't actually get around to playing Saints Row: The Third. Today, however, I was able to play it for twenty minutes before being interrupted. Upon quitting, the game prompted that my progress wouldn't be saved, but I had no choice (I didn't want to simply leave the game on with no idea on when I'd be able to resume it).

Setup: Increased some of the visual settings, including the resolution.

Steam Game Time: 20 minutes.

---

20171105:
Today, although discouraged from yesterday's interruption, I decided to play again. Skipping cutscenes, I managed to just about reach the same progress I had made yesterday in about six minutes. Unfortunately, I had to quit once again. At least I only had to spend six minutes this time around.

My car.

Steam Game Time: 6 minutes.

After returning home, I saw that my heat sink fan had arrived and I excitedly set out to install my new CPU and HSF.

Eventually, I started playing Saints Row: The Third and completed the first mission. I proceeded to enjoy the game for more than four hours (with one or two breaks here and there).

Remark: As with yesterday (20171104), I tried recording my gameplay with OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) but only had mild success. While I can't remember what got the capture to work yesterday, today my one success came when having OBS set to game capture Saints Row, and then start the recording before launching the game. I'm not entirely sure, but I believe it subsequently failed after I alt-tabbed out of the game.

Steam Game Time: 5.1 hours total

Take that you big meanie.

---

Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Funny
+ Easy to enjoy
+ Wide variety of missions

Neutral:
~ The wardrobe interface isn't perfect. I wish it were easier to create matching clothes.

Cons:
- Some missions could benefit from one or two additional checkpoints.

I hope this parachute works...

---

Summary:
I don't know how Saints Row: The Third compares to Saints Row IV (2013), but Saints Row: The Third is a balanced and enjoyable game.

While I'm not an expert when it comes to open world games, I'd recommend Saints Row: The Third to fans of open world games, especially those who enjoy games like Grand Theft Auto.

---

Saints Row: The Third (PC) (2011)

Relevant Links:
Saints Row: The Third (Wikipedia.org)
Saints Row: The Third (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Saints Row: The Third (Steam Store Page)

I'm pretty sure I blend right in with the civilians.

Broken Age (PC) (2014)

Overview: A point-and-click adventure which tells the strange story of two teenagers that come from different worlds, and yet share many similarities.

---

In Broken Age, plays as Vella (left) and Shay (right)

20171022: Part 1
Invoking my previous method of game selection (using my friend's Steam game list ordered from most to least played), I decided to play Broken Age.

Game Play Log:
I first clicked on the left side (girl's story) and just assumed I had to play as her. I played up until Vella's escape from Mog Chothra.
Upon exiting the game at this point, I noticed that the game allowed me to switch to the boy's story.

Tip: You can switch between Vella and Shay at any time via the menu at the bottom of the game.

Steam Game Time: 32 min

Every 14 years, maidens from a town are chosen and prepared as a sacrifice to Mog Chothra. Vella (center) sits in her dress cake plotting her escape as three girls have already been consumed by the monster.

---

20171022: Part 2
Upon resuming the game, I decided to continue playing as Vella.

Steam Game Time: 49 min (81 total)

---

20171023:
Resuming the game today, I was hooked until I finished it. Towards the end, I encountered some tricky and obnoxious puzzles. In fact, I threw in the towel for a couple of them.

Game Play Log:
1) I was stuck with the knots puzzle. I was trying to plot it out until I realized there's no pattern. At that point, I looked up the solution.
: Solution Hint #1: "Find someone who is good at tying knots and ask them for advice."

Meanwhile, Shay is stuck alone on a ship and, despite being a teenager, is literally treated like he's still a kid. (This screenshot also contains a reference to short A Trip to the Moon (1902) directed by George Melies.

: Solution Hint #2: The someone in Solution Hint #1 is Carol.
: Remark: I thought the puzzle would require walking back and forth, but the first failure after beginning the correct solution results in Shay quickly transitioning between the two necessary locations.

2) I was stuck with the jokes puzzle. Instead of exhausting all the possibilities, I decided to look up the solution.
: Remark: This puzzle was annoying, because there is no indication as to which dialogue branch would be successful. In other words, without searching for the answer, it was pure luck and/or painfully tedious.

3) The hard puzzles just kept on coming. Shay says he wish he were on his ship (to figure out the proper configuration for the robot). But I already got Vella stuck in a room with seemingly no actions. I looked up the solution.
: Solution Hint #1: Apparently the necessary information was contained in that one room! My goodness.

After Vella's escape, Vella finds herself in a city in the clouds.

4) The final puzzle of the game was annoying, because failure meant having to repeat most of the actions, and trying to debug and/or rectify the error in the long chain of actions felt painstakingly impossible. This first began with me reading about what I had missed with Vella's robot: I tried to place the robot on the navigation computer in Harp mode, but had no success. Apparently, the solution involves placing the robot on the tapestry area below the navigation computer.. As such, after trying about three to five times, with each attempt taking several minutes, I looked up the answer to find that I missed a small detail: Put Shay's robot into Hazard mode and give him the hammer. Place the robot next to the drum to distract Alex.

5) In the end, I finished playing at 5AM and I was incredibly sleepy. In fact, this sleepiness was probably why I failed to solve some of the puzzles. It was probably also the reason why I started looking up various solutions. With that being said, I couldn't stop playing because the story was gripping.

Shay has plotted his own escape by placing a blow-up doll version of himself on his bed.

6) Unfortunately, I didn't like the ending. Fortunately, every aspect of the story up until that point was enjoyable. Furthermore, with the exception of some of the puzzles at the end which felt ridiculously evil, the game had some good puzzles. Though to be fair, perhaps I was just too tired to appreciate the difficulty or the subtlety in the solutions to the supposed "ridiculously evil" puzzles.

7) Elaborating on how I feel about the ending, it seemed abrupt. I was expecting there to be a more explicit resolution with the main bad guy. I would have liked it animated in the same high quality and have it given the same spoken dialogue that was showcased throughout the entire game. In addition, I was confused by a part of the plot. Two ships were being fired on by the enemy, then there's a meltdown, and then the enemy ceases fire. How did the meltdown result in a cease fire? [20190514: I watched a clip and it might have had to do with some sort of energy being emitted prior to the meltdown]

Steam Game Time: 11.45 hours (12.8 hours total)

Guards Dead Eye  Courtney (left) and Dead Eye Dawn (right) prevent Vella from entering the Dead Eye God's chamber.

[20190514 Edit]

---

Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Great dialogue; speech and movement are a joy to watch
+ Excellent story, except perhaps the ending.
+ Ability to fast forward move between most areas. Sometimes the characters still have to walk, which is unfortunate.
+ I enjoyed the little twist at the end of Act 1.

Con:
- Switching between the two characters, Shay and Vella, falls somewhere between unclear and gimmicky. I would have praised the game for rewarding the player who was able to make use between switching between the stories. However, while I played the game, the mechanic mainly served to keep me from becoming overwhelmed or frustrated when I couldn't figure out how to progress.

Dead Eye Dawn and Shay engage in battle.

---

Summary:
Overall, the game was rough around the edges, but I would recommend it to any fan of point-and-click adventures.

---

Broken Age (PC) (2014)*
*Act 1: January 28, 2014
*Act 2: April 28, 2015

Relevant Links:
Broken Age (Wikipedia.org)
Broken Age (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Broken Age (Steam Store Page)

They're just side characters, but this scene was a funny addition to the story: Dead Eye Dawn (left) and Dead Eye Courtney (right)

10000000 (PC) (2013)

Overview: A tile-matching RPG. You're stuck in a dungeon and need ten million points to escape.

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Inside the dungeon. Encounter enemies at top. Use the puzzle field to attack, build defense, and gather resources.

20171020:
At a slight loss on which game to play next, which happens whenever my current method of choosing a game begins to feel stale,* I decided to go through my friend's list of games and play whatever game he's played that I haven't played, starting from his most played, and skipping certain games at my discretion. In any case, this was the first such game.

Steam Game Time: 2.1 hours

*The method I used before this one was highly rated SteamDB games in my library I had yet to play and the method before that was the most expensive games in my library I had yet to play.

Repair and upgrade the dungeon to make improvements to combat: magic attack, melee attack, passive abilities, shield, armor, and potions.

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20171021: Part 1
Today I played until I finally felt the pain of the grind. My main weakness is that I generally don't match tiles quickly, because I'm too methodical. For this reason, I was always terrible at every Candy Crush level that was timed.

Steam Game Time: 4.7 hours (6.8 total)

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20171021: Part 2
I was compelled to finish, so I went to get my glasses and pressed on. However, my second wind came up short.

Satisfy objectives to earn money and experience.

Steam Game Time: 0.4 hours (7.2 total)

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20171021: Part 3
And later, I returned to try a little more.

Steam Game Time: 0.6 hours (7.8 total)

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20171021: Part 4
And finally I beat the game! But not all the achievements.

Steam Game Time: 0.2 hours (8.0 total)

Achievement: "Score 10000000 with all potions active"

Steam Game Time: 8.8 hours (cumulative game time) / 0.8 hours (session game time) / 8h 48m (Playnite)

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Two achievements remaining: Score ten million at Explorer / Dungeon Master.

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Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Catchy theme song
+ Catchy gameplay
+ Farming-based, yet fun

Neutral:
~ Casual

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Comparison to Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (2007):
Both 10000000 and Puzzle Quest are RPGs that utilize a tile-matching puzzle game as the combat mechanic, with Puzzle Quest using an adjacent tile-swap mechanism as found in Bejeweled.

Overall, 10000000 is simpler in every way: graphics, story, and game play. But there's still plenty of choices in regards to upgrades and the game's simplicity is not necessarily bad.

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I fell shy of accomplishing the "Score 10000000 with all potions active" achievement. 

Summary:
10000000 (ten million) is a simple yet fun game. In particular, the game moves at a healthy pace, and I only felt the need to grind for resources towards the end.

While I would never have bought the game on my own, it was presumably sitting in my library after a Humble Bundle purchase and I would recommend it if you're currently looking for a casual game. I suppose anyone who generally enjoys tile-matching games would also enjoy this one.

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20140119:
Today I decided to revisit this game. Though, to be honest, I didn't recognize ever playing this game before. It's interesting that, with respect to game time, it sits at 8.8 hours and that 8.8 hours among games that I've played on Steam qualifies for top 100; though game time doesn't necessarily indicate enjoyment or rating, there is surely a correlation.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a save file available and this game is a bit of a grind. According to my prior progress via Steam Achievements, I was nearly at the end of the game (i.e., getting all the Steam Achievements). I wonder why I didn't play the whole way through. In any case, the game is rather fun and I have thus far not cared much about the grind from the very beginning.

Steam Game Time: 12.6 hours (cumulative game time) / 3.8 hours (session game time)

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20240120:
Today I maxed out all the upgrades and tried to get the missing accomplishments. It occurred to me that these accomplishments are hard (actually I'm being greedy and trying for Explorer which is harder than Dungeon Master. What makes getting 10 million score points on these levels harder than Hero is they have a lower score multiplier. As such, it occurs to me that perhaps the reason I had never gotten these two accomplishments was not for lack of trying. Rather, I likely tried and failed. In any case, I believe my best attempt was a little over 5.5 million points.

Remark: I had spent some time playing while watching Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. This was definitely reasonable while griding out the final gold needed to max up the last of the upgrades. However, I had underestimated how hard the achievements were and time spent trying to get the achievements while watching the movie were, in hindsight, a waste of time.

Remark: while I like the game's song, I agree with a comment in a Steam thread that listening to your own music somehow makes it easier to push for the achievement. Perhaps it makes the game feel less monotone.

As part of my recent effort to rate the games I play, I would give this game a 4.4 out of 5. It is good, and addicting. It's simple and yet can be difficult. I'm not good at matching quickly, but at the same time I don't value such a skill.

Steam Game Time: 16.2 hours (cumulative game time) / 3.6 hours (session game time)

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10000000 (PC) (2013)*
*10000000 (iOS) (2012)
*"Ten Million"

Relevant Links:
10000000 (video game) (Wikipedia.org)
10,000,000 (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
10000000 (Steam Store Page)

BioShock (PC) (2007)

Overview: A first-person shooter set in an underground dystopia called Rapture.

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A Little Sister and a Big Daddy.

20171020:
I played a negligible number of minutes of BioShock at my friend's house once before, so for all intents and purposes, today was my first time playing the game. Fortunately, as I was about to start playing, I had realized there was a remastered version (for which a copy had been given for free to all owners of the original). As such, I started downloading the Remastered version and played Call of Juarez: Gunslinger (PC) (2013) as I waited.

Jack (the player character) made it out of this plane crash alive.

Setup: Difficulty: Medium.

Game Log:
As a note to myself, should I ever pick up where I left off: I was heading into some medical supply store to retrieve a key for something.

Steam Game Time: 65 minutes

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Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Excellent atmosphere

The first plasmid: Electro Bolt.

+ Decent combat mechanics
+ Hacking devices via a mini-game similar to Pipe Mania (or Pipe Dream)
+ Strong story

Con:
- A little bit of micromanaging of health and other resources

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Hacking a machine via Pipe Mania mini-game.

Summary:
As I prepared to write a summary, I came to think of Half-Life 2 (PC) (2004), because intuitively I found BioShock to be a game that provides an experience nearly as good, if not just as good, as that of Half-Life 2.

But as I thought about making the comparison, I began to distinguish that BioShock is the more atmospheric and more complex of the two - although the complexity is a more neutral aspect.

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BioShock Remastered (PC) (2016)*
*BioShock (PC) (2007)

Ready to kill a splicer who's talking to a baby cradle as if it had a baby in it.

Relevant Links:
BioShock Website
BioShock (Wikipedia.org)
BioShock (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
BioShock (Steam Store Page)
BioShock Remastered (Steam Store Page)

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger (PC) (2013)

Overview: Western-themed first-person shooter. Fourth game in the Call of Juarez series.

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Silas Greaves

Special Game Mechanics:
Concentration - slows down time; the amount of concentration is built up by shooting enemies
Skill Trees - gather experience and level up, put points into three available skill trees to customize style of play
Dodge - opportunity to avoid death when the dodge meter is full
Duel - focus on the enemy and fire when his/her hand reaches for his/her gun

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20171020:
Knocking off another game in my library with a high SteamDB rating, I decided to play Call of Juarez: Gunslinger.*

Setup: Story. Normal.

Steam Game Time: 32 minutes

*Technically I first wanted to play Bioshock, but I didn't have Bioshock Remastered downloaded; so I played Call of Juarez: Gunslinger while waiting for it to download.

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Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Narration (reminds of to Bastion (2011))

Skill Tree

+ Great feeling gameplay
+ Incremental instructions
+ Excellent art design and graphics
+ Environment feels realistic
+ A prime example of great story telling in a video game

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Summary:
I only played the first level, but I immediately picked up on the game's quality. Overall, I enjoyed the gameplay experience, especially because of the seemless coupling of narration and gameplay. I noted above that this element reminded me of the narration in action game Bastion, whose narrator sounds like an old man out of a Western.

Duel

Overall, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is a high-quality shooter and any fan of Western-themed games and first-person shooters should consider picking it up.

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Call of Juarez: Gunslinger (PC) (2013)

Relevant Links:
Call of Juarez (series) (Wikipedia.org)
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger (Wikipedia.org)
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Call of Juarez Gunslinger (Steam Store Page)