Saturday, July 30, 2022
A Story About My Uncle (PC) (2014)
20220730 AM Hours:
It was the middle of the night and I decided to play this after You Have to Win the Game; it was recommended to me on the recommendation section of the Steam Deck Home page. However, I only played for a short time before going back to sleep. On the one hand I wanted to explore and look at all the details, but I was sleepy and couldn't stay awake among all the reading (which to reiterate was optional detail that I wanted to engage in).
Steam Game Time: 7 minutes
20220730:
I decided to come back to this game. The story eventually ramps up and captures my interest - perhaps barely soon enough; I was tempted to finish playing prior to that point and if the story had dragged on then I just might have stopped playing. In any case, it takes a while to get used to the grappling hook mechanic but using this power isn't as intuitive or fun as I expected. In addition, the game is linear but it was not always clear to me where I should be going because the environment was so large. I think the main element of the game that drove me to continue playing was the story. With that being said, despite the interesting story, I wasn't a fan of the gameplay. I prefer failing against a difficult game with tight controls like Celeste or Super Meat Boy over failing at an easy game with sloppy controls.
In this section, I'll list my complaints about the feeling I have when trying to play the game - perhaps these problems aren't a cause of concern to other players. First, there's a super jump which is activated by holding down a button. On the one hand this might be more thematic, but from a player point of view, the delay feels bad. I'd rather have a super jump which can be instantaneously activated and goes on cooldown. Second, the game eventually gives a grappling hook whose activation sometimes has a small window while either the target or the player is in motion. Third, I'm curious what will get added to these movements. The simplicity of the movements results in boring gameplay, which is fine if there was more room for error. But there was one situation where reaching a platform should have been easy, but the game put the platform out of reach in hopes that the player release the grappling hook at a better spot (to achieve tangential motion as per actual motion of a tethered object). However, I feel like the first-person view makes this difficult. In general, if I were the game producer, I would have envisioned a more fluid platforming experience.
Steam Game Time: 80 minutes (total game time)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/278360/A_Story_About_My_Uncle/
It was the middle of the night and I decided to play this after You Have to Win the Game; it was recommended to me on the recommendation section of the Steam Deck Home page. However, I only played for a short time before going back to sleep. On the one hand I wanted to explore and look at all the details, but I was sleepy and couldn't stay awake among all the reading (which to reiterate was optional detail that I wanted to engage in).
Steam Game Time: 7 minutes
20220730:
I decided to come back to this game. The story eventually ramps up and captures my interest - perhaps barely soon enough; I was tempted to finish playing prior to that point and if the story had dragged on then I just might have stopped playing. In any case, it takes a while to get used to the grappling hook mechanic but using this power isn't as intuitive or fun as I expected. In addition, the game is linear but it was not always clear to me where I should be going because the environment was so large. I think the main element of the game that drove me to continue playing was the story. With that being said, despite the interesting story, I wasn't a fan of the gameplay. I prefer failing against a difficult game with tight controls like Celeste or Super Meat Boy over failing at an easy game with sloppy controls.
In this section, I'll list my complaints about the feeling I have when trying to play the game - perhaps these problems aren't a cause of concern to other players. First, there's a super jump which is activated by holding down a button. On the one hand this might be more thematic, but from a player point of view, the delay feels bad. I'd rather have a super jump which can be instantaneously activated and goes on cooldown. Second, the game eventually gives a grappling hook whose activation sometimes has a small window while either the target or the player is in motion. Third, I'm curious what will get added to these movements. The simplicity of the movements results in boring gameplay, which is fine if there was more room for error. But there was one situation where reaching a platform should have been easy, but the game put the platform out of reach in hopes that the player release the grappling hook at a better spot (to achieve tangential motion as per actual motion of a tethered object). However, I feel like the first-person view makes this difficult. In general, if I were the game producer, I would have envisioned a more fluid platforming experience.
Steam Game Time: 80 minutes (total game time)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/278360/A_Story_About_My_Uncle/
You Have to Win the Game (PC) (2012)
Reason for Playing:
In the recommended section of the Steam Deck Home Page.
20220730:
This game reminded me of VVVVVV. With that being said, the core movement is different: in VVVVVV jumping is replaced by a reversal of gravity. In both games, theres difficulty in the environment mixed with a need for exploration and problem sovling. It is cool for a free game. That is, even if it weren't free it would be a great game, but the fact that it's free makes it even better.
Steam Game Time: 36 minutes (total game time)
In the recommended section of the Steam Deck Home Page.
20220730:
This game reminded me of VVVVVV. With that being said, the core movement is different: in VVVVVV jumping is replaced by a reversal of gravity. In both games, theres difficulty in the environment mixed with a need for exploration and problem sovling. It is cool for a free game. That is, even if it weren't free it would be a great game, but the fact that it's free makes it even better.
Steam Game Time: 36 minutes (total game time)
Friday, July 29, 2022
Aperture Desk Job (PC) (2022)
20220729:
I got my Steam Deck today and so I decided to start with this game which acts as an introduction to various controls for the Steam Deck. In addition to the practical utility of the tutorial aspects, the game had the same kind of humor found in Portal 2, and a great thematic addition to the Portal universe - the story basically tells the origin story of the Aperture turrets.
Overall, I would highly recommend this game to Steam Deck owners. I'm not sure how the game plays with just a controller on the PC (the game warns that it cannot be played with a keyboard and mouse), but if it works okay, then I would also recommend it for fans of the Portal series.
Steam Game Time: 32 minutes (total game time)
20231228:
I reinstalled the game onto my Steam Deck to let my brother-in-law try it out. There were some problems loading the game (the game was taking longer than expected to load). I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the game but that didn't work. I tried changing the compatibilty mode. Finally, by someone's recommendation in a Steam thread, I tried restarting the Steam Deck and the game was able to launch!
Steam Game Time: 65 minutes (total game time) / 33 minutes (session game time)
I got my Steam Deck today and so I decided to start with this game which acts as an introduction to various controls for the Steam Deck. In addition to the practical utility of the tutorial aspects, the game had the same kind of humor found in Portal 2, and a great thematic addition to the Portal universe - the story basically tells the origin story of the Aperture turrets.
Overall, I would highly recommend this game to Steam Deck owners. I'm not sure how the game plays with just a controller on the PC (the game warns that it cannot be played with a keyboard and mouse), but if it works okay, then I would also recommend it for fans of the Portal series.
Steam Game Time: 32 minutes (total game time)
20231228:
I reinstalled the game onto my Steam Deck to let my brother-in-law try it out. There were some problems loading the game (the game was taking longer than expected to load). I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the game but that didn't work. I tried changing the compatibilty mode. Finally, by someone's recommendation in a Steam thread, I tried restarting the Steam Deck and the game was able to launch!
Steam Game Time: 65 minutes (total game time) / 33 minutes (session game time)