• Thirty Flights of Loving
  

  10 minutes playtime

  no achievements

Report #396: Thirty Flights of Loving

Life of Daerphen Challenge Year 2012

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Quick, very quick game. Expected at least an hour of walking simulator. But somehow after 10 minutes I already got the end screen.
A bit weird and fast paced story. Not much more to tell without spoiling everything.

Robot Overlords - April Theme

100 Robo Cats	100/100	0.4 hrs	Completed
Ben 10: Power Trip	15/28	8.5 hrs	Beaten
Total:	115/128	8.9 hrs	1/2

Procrastination is a bitch.

Anyways, I don’t think I can recap well all activity since that post back in 2022, but here’s a short recap of April so far an maybe we’ll go backwards from that.

Finally beat *Kingdom Shell, which is a good game. I wanted it to be a great game, but even as a Metroidvania fan I must admit it’s relatively limited. Five hours this month, but that was mainly mucking about a bit trying to get stronger for the final boss, gitting good at it with those limitations, and then doing a grand tour of the map to get all the final secrets. Thanks to a helpful “this is what you’re missing” inspiration (the game’s equippable upgrade system, think Hollow Knight charms) I only had to look at the guide for a final object which was in a room I had forgotten to revisit in a particularly dense section of the map. After that, one final bonus boss and a few minutes of farming were all that were required to 100% the game.

I’d beaten iZBOT last month and while I briefly booted it up in order to get one final gem from a particularly pesky level, quickly chose something else. I did play and beat IZBOT 2, which is… also okay. It’s mechanically better and the layouts aren’t as barebones as some of those in the first game, but it also lacks that spark the best platformers have and some of the levels felt like they were long due to busywork rather than challenge. That one I did complete with all achievements, even though the last one was kinda bad since all it took was replaying old levels to increase the enemy kill count.

After long procrastinating (sorry Nikola), finally grabbed myself Goblin and Coins II. The first one was charming but suffered from various design problems, but this is a significantly better experience. Still one mainly for existing platforming fans, but for that subset it’s a lovely experience that devliers beyond it’s cheap price. Plus the game kept my progress from the demo which I played a long time ago, which is cool. I’m about one third in and I am quite enjoying each level. Some more than others, though.

Won and started Evan’s Remains. The puzzles are good (even if I often just wing it rather than fully thinking them through), but the reviews weren’t kidding about how plot heavy it is. I’ve played visual novels which move dialogue along at a brisker pace. That’s not inherently bad, but it can get on your nerves (even if the overall plot is good and has me invested in the characters). It also runs slightly slow on my poor potato due to some graphical touchups it uses.

Picked up again The Almost Gone and had to restart due to accidentally brute forcing a puzzle (I must have been very distracted the last time given how obvious the intended solution was - literally just placing an item on another), and then advanced to about halfway through the second chapter where I’m stuck. I’m probably still missing something obvious, as the puzzles are pretty logical.

Finished Space Pilgrim Episode II: Epsilon Indi. The puzzle on which I was stuck just required me to re-examine an old piece of the scenery to be able to access a particular set of information. That questionable piece of design aside, this was fun. Good (albeit somewhat snarky) dialogue with characters that are pretty well characterised even with the relatively short screentime they get, and the ending does have me hooked enough to buy the other episodes of this tetralogy on the next sale.

After semi-impulsively buying it as a thank you for answering my regional price request, finally started HAAK. It’s a bit breakable wall/secret passage heavy even for genre standards (partially compensated by the map), but at the same time it does make your exploration feel rather well rewarded. I have been rather inconsistent this month, but I will pick it up soon enough, as I haven’t even left the first major area yet.

I bought Mr. Pumpkin Adventure and other adventure games ultra cheap on a recent-ish Chinese games sale. If this game is indicative of the overall quality of the games in the bundle, it seem like I’ll have a pretty good time. I did the first three chapters yesterday, and while one of the moments that had me stuck was due to not clicking in a not particularly obvious interaction (not a pixel hunt, but you thought you were done with that particular thing), the rest of the puzzles were either adequate or straight up ingenious.

Did a bit of redundant exploration in Haiku, the Robot trying to get a few of the missing achievements. The big ones are still gonna take more time (finding all the chips), but I had fun. Also, just for the challenge, there’s both completing the boss rushes (I was rather rusty so even the basic boss one destroyed me in my first attempt after picking the game back up) and the one hit per life special mode, but those won’t be done soon. Too many games need to be played.

Advanced a bunch on Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, though the final puzzle of this section stumped me. The game has a moon phase tied aspect, and while the game suggests you can cheat, I decided to wait it out to get here. I wonder if next time I boot up I’ll still be there due to how this area works or if I’ll need to wait for another new moon.

Started a long time ago win, Marvin’s Mittens. Very whimsical and the core mechanic of your double jump getting more powerful the more stars you find scattered across the map does slightly scratch a long dormand collect-a-thon itch. It’s not particularly challenging, but it doesn’t try to be. Or maybe that’s just the early game experience.

Did another run of Demented Pixie. It was nice, even if at first I forgot it you could aim with the mouse, amking things needlessly more complicated than what they needed to be for myself.

Did a few more Trip to Vinelands attempts. Didn’t go as well as an uncharacteristically good one last month, but arcade games do trigger a Pavlovian enjoyment of seeing numbers grow bigger. Same with THOTH, where the randomly generated levels kicked my ass some more.

Booted up Hollow Knight to go fight one of the Dream rematches (I’m slowly inching myself to fully completing it), but my build resulted in me accidentally killing an enemy I didn’t want to kill, so I quit to desktop and haven’t retried again.

Played a short amount of Dungeon Escape, the precision platformer with which I have a love/hate reltionship. Got slightly more consistent at the level on which I’m currently stuck, but grew bored and found something else to do.

Finally, I got a reminder in Subject A-119 that my computer is woefully underpowered for the average Unreal Engine game, Literally didn’t load the first level. Maybe if I turn everything to low I’ll be able to play, but I wasn’t particularly curious about it. Some other time, maybe?

Alright. Great North Shelter 2 is done and dusted. I don’t know if there actually is a part one or if the title is one of the numerous meta jokes the developers thrive on lol. It is a walking simulator with hidden object elements.

You know how you watch something like a Will Ferrell movie and while you’re laughing and laughing, you’re also like “this is so stupid”? That’s this game. It’s so gamer-centric meta filled to the brim that you’ll find yourself laughing and giggling even as you’re proclaiming how stupid it is lol. However, that does not extend to the actual story, which is an exploration of time, behinnings and ends or a lack thereof, etc…although I do wonder if the serious nature of the story is itself a meta joke about walking sims.

There are also a couple jump scares and some lite horror elements despite the game very definitely not being a horror game.

The graphics are what you’d expect. Beautiful forests, lakes, mountains and so on with nicely done houses and other structures. And the audio is also what you’d expect. A mix of whimsical pieces and pretty piano tunes. Gameplay is as simple as walk or run around, click on objects, etc…and solve a couple really easy puzzles that gate progression.

It was fully Steam Deck compatible although the start up screen itself is not gamepad compatible for some reason. It did get just over an hour of battery life.

I thought this was a lot of fun. Took a little under two hours to complete although YMMV there. It retails at six bucks. That’s fair IMO. That said, this was a Winter sale purchase for me. Anyway, I highly recommend giving this hame a look. It’s pretty unique in several ways.

• Whispering Willows
  

  5 hours playtime

  20 of 20 achievements

Report #395: Whispering Willows

Life of Daerphen Challenge Year 2014

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Recently I finished I switched (again) to Linux instead of Windows. Was looking for a game that works fine and can be part of my Life of Daerphen Challenge. Found this nice, short game.
Its a bit confusing at the start, especially because you need a good memory of where things have been. You are navigating left/right like a 2D scrolling adventure game. But also there are doors that adds another dimension. Besides those “GPS” issues, a nice game.

Alright. Purpose 1951 is done and dusted. This is the latest release by Tonguç Bodur, and a return to the more straightforward style of walking simulator he is well known for. I feel like each time I play one of Tonguç’s games, I find myself thinking it’s his best so far, and this is no different. Which is a testimony to his ability to continue refining and evolving his skills as a writer and developer.

In this game, the setting of the story is a bit different as the name suggests. You are a doctor in the post WWII era, who through circumstances beyond his control, is blacklisted from the community he lives in. The game follows his reflections on the medical community, his relationships, and the events that led him to this moment in time in his life.

The story format will be familiar. It begins somewhat wistful and contemplative, turns dark, but then closes out on a hopeful note. It was very well written. As a side note, I was a department director at two hospitals in real life for many years, and I have some of the same perspectives regarding the medical community and healthcare as are expressed in this game.

Gameplay is very straightforward walking simulator through some stunningly beautiful locales. Each chapter offers some new things to enjoy. And, as a first for Tonguç to my knowledge, there is even a city setting for one part of the game, which was cool. Each full chapter (other than the game ending itself) ends with a puzzle that upon solving, provides a story recap for the chapter.

I really thought the area transitions were cool as well. Starting in black and white, then changing to full color or sepia tones (depending on the area) once you have control of your character was a nice touch.

Something I noticed that I thought was interesting gameplay-wise. When you’re moving downhill, you actually move faster. It’s a minor detail, but I thought that attention to detail was really cool. Additionally, there was one part of the game where the controls started the section very stiff. Then I realized it’s because you’re actually not walking. You’re riding a bike. Completely made sense.

The voice acting was comfortable and believable. Nice job there. Similarly, the soundtrack was perfect, and varied based on the moment in the game. Each track was highly reflective of the story at that time.

I played on the Steam Deck with zero tweaks required. The controls are all analog stick movement and FoV, so this comes as no surprise. I also experienced no bugs at all, although I note that the game would start to blur a bit with quick turning. However, it never quite did.

It took me right at an hour to complete this game, and I enjoyed every moment of it. If you’re looking for a walking simulator with story depth and a fantastic soundtrack, you need look no further.

I’m doing my part

Well, I spent quite a bit of time last month and this month playing Helldivers 2. I unlocked all difficulty modes and personally found eight to be my sweet spot for challenge and gameplay. But, despite its awesomeness, I did eventually get bored of the gameplay loop despite the gameplay itself never being dull. So, I’m calling that one done. I then moved on and spent the rest of this month so far playing:

Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition, which is also now done and dusted. I played this many times on console, but this was my first playthrough on PC. And for me, on an unmodded Steam Deck with the current version of Proton, and with no game mods, this ran immaculately.

In fact, this may have been one of the best games I’ve played on the Deck performance wise. Which is crazy to me considering how often the game would freeze stutter and crash when I played it previously (on console). I had one instance of stuttering in Operation: Anchorage during the final push and another instance of stuttering in Mothership Zeta, but beyond that, I literally had zero stability issues and it ran at a consistent 60 FPS on maxed settings with an average of around 25% CPU usage.

It took me forever to get around to buying and playing this on Steam due to its compatibility issues, but thankfully, those were nonexistent for me. The home screen for some reason wasn’t gamepad compatible, but everything else was and the default settings were fine.

So, with that out of the way, I want to talk a bit about the experience itself. For one, this game still looks great. Does it show its age? Yes and no. Things like character models actually look better than they do in Skyrim and Fallout 4 for some reason. But they don’t look modern of course. However, the world itself has aged very well. The audio is pretty legendary, and that will never change I’m sure.

The gameplay also holds up to modern games quite well. Gunplay is fun and VATS never disappoints. Early to mid game, I would recommend keeping a Dart Gun on you. It makes fighting things like Deathclaws much easier, especially if you use it to target legs. Once you get the Gauss Rifle though, you won’t need the Dart Gun or much else lol. It does great damage AND typically knocks enemies down as well. Nearly game breaking in its OP-ness, but it’s also incredibly satisfying.

Btw, special weapons aside, Deathclaws are still panic inducing and terrifying lol. They’re the fastest, strongest and meanest things in the game, and they have a sixth sense for being able to find you. You could be forgiven if you scream like a child when one leaps at you.

Exploring the DC Wasteland is quite memorable, and I went into this playthrough with a clear agenda for what I wanted to do and see outside of the main story. Given how well written a lot of the side quests are, there’s a lot of good times to be had.

As far as the DLC goes, I’d recommend doing Operation: Anchorage first. It’s the easiest, and although it lacks any nods to loot whores, the final payoff includes the other nearly game breaking piece of gear in the game: the Chinese Stealth Armor. Once you acquire that, the world is your oyster. Especially if you’ve leveled up your stealth. Takes maybe three hours to complete and is basically set up as a corridor shooter. If it weren’t for the armor, I’d probably skip this DLC.

The Pitt is probably the most heavily reliant on the morality system and the one with the largest grey area in that regard. The actual setting is cool and does feature the best melee weapon in the game should you be playing that way. You can roll through this in three to four hours, but it can also take longer depending on how thorough you are. Fairly easy overall.

Mothership Zeta is the quirkiest DLC. You get abducted by aliens, but you and some other abductees rebel and eventually take over the ship lol. Features some good weapons and some excellent healing/repair items. It’s probably the funniest DLC and is moderately challenging.

Point Lookout is the most difficult DLC, is at least partially inspired by Deliverance and Southern Comfort, has some good next tier versions of weapons you’ve probably been using a lot, has some cool story stuff including an important item for concluding a Cthulhu story arc in the base game, and is also the largest DLC.

Broken Steel is an endgame DLC, so once you’ve finished the main story, this one kicks off. I honestly wrapped this up in about two hours, maybe a bit less. But you could potentially get eight-ish hours out of it depending on how you handle certain situations and how much you explore and loot. Personally, I already had more ammo and healing stuff than I’d ever be able to use, so I took a more direct approach with this DLC. It does tie a bow on the Fallout 3 story, and is definitely worth experiencing.

So yeah, I was very glad to get one final playthrough in. It was still awesome in this age of gaming, and while not perfect, each individual aspect of this game holds up immaculately.

Still not done with Shadow of War. I did finish the Branor DLC, but had to postpone my run of the second DLC, Blade of Galadriel, due to a project I want to really get off the ground. I still played it a bit, and I was a bit disappointed at how same-y it feels to the base game. There’s not much difference between Talion and Eltariel, except a few moves. They did make recruiting some orcs more interesting than the “press B to dominate”, so that’s nice. You get proper missions where you help these orcs out, which I think is much better and the orcs feel more unique compared to all the orcs I faced as Talion since they relied on RNG for everything, including their personalities.

But as I have a ton of shots in my bag to keep me posting for at least a century. And since I really, really loved the Baranor DLC, here’s another shot that I found pretty cool. The photo mode is really awesome in this game and I hope that you enjoy the pic I chose for Screenshot Sunday #51, as well as my super duper secret project that I will look to complete as soon as possible.

Soon, the fort shall know the power of Chadanor

• Life is Strange: True Colors
  

  8 hours playtime

  40 of 40 achievements

Report #394: Life is Strange: True Colors

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Got this in HB Choice and was very glad that I got it. Had it on the wishlist for a while, hesitating in steam sales. Finally able to play it.
Actually played it twice as the first time was on Steam Deck without Internet connection. Lucky me, no achievement unlocked, so had to redo the whole game from start to finish.
But second time was much faster as I was using a guide to get the collectibles and already knew what to do in each chapter.

Story is good, but not as strong as for example the first game of the series.