Amitte

Progress report: July ‘23 (a.k.a. Life Comes At You Fast!)

…and it came for me, too!
Why did I not post this on time? By now, my classes were over, but I still wasn’t done with my thesis, so… I started… working on it… bit by bit… and kept missing reviews for a few games, still.
So, what was on the agenda in July? Here’s your answer:

100 hidden cats 2 - Dangit, I feel like I could have completed this one with a single pan down the screen.

Disneyland Adventures - This game is a breakthrough of the old days. I mean, have you ever wanted to visit Disneyland (circa 2012) from the comfort of your own home? Well, now you can! It used to be a Kinect game, which I guess would have been a good way to get the young ones to move around, but now it’s also available on Game Pass (and on Steam), completely playable like any regular ol’ game. I don’t have the money or the mental strength to ever go to a Disneyland, so this seemed like the game for me. In the end, though, it was kind of… meh. It’s a well-made game, it really is, but the way it’s structured makes you want to go through all tasks of one kind at once. For example, you’re going to want to finish all character missions first, so the game isn’t trying to steer you to the next mission while you’re exploring somewhere else. Other character interactions won’t really happen organically either, as you’re going to want to fill out all the autograph books (and if you don’t like a character all that much, why would you want their autograph, right?) So after all those missions, there are also the many rides. A few of them are just carousels for smaller children, which… I appreciate the effort, but why would you emulate that in a game in the first place? Then there’s the actual bulk of the game - virtual depictions of rides like it’s a small world, Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain and many more. These, I feel, had good variety to them, and dare I say, informed me of what I might want to check out, should I ever be able to go to a real Disneyland (provided it happens before all of these attractions are closed/replaced, lol). Most of them were fun, until I got to the very end and had to max out my scores/get all the secrets. (I’ve seen a bunch of people mourn the replacement of the real Splash Mountain, but I think we can all agree that the virtual one is the stuff of nightmares.) From a technical standpoint, this game could use some more love. While there are a lot of clothes you can buy for your character (and I do mean a lot, even though I was still a billionaire after buying everything), there are only three presets per gender for their looks, which is just kind of sad. Also, changeable clothes stop making sense when they revert to default after you enter a ride. There are oodles of collectibles that are only partially tracked (you only get to know how many you’ve discovered when you interact with a new one), and even then, some of the ones you’ve already interacted with never stop showing as new, which is confusing if you want to go for the ultimate 100% completion (thankfully not required to unlock all achievements). Interacting with characters is fun until you realize that a good deal of their voice lines just never plays. They’re mute when introducing themselves, which you only know thanks to the subtitles, but then before they’re even done, they interrupt themselves to tell you not to be shy and to talk to them… and those lines play properly. Last, but certainly not least, I believe the game adjusts to your OS language, because it was in Polish for me and boy, oh boy… it was a time much before machine translation was a hotly debated topic and yet, this game’s translation was just incredibly bad at times. But then, it wasn’t! Listening to Chip and Dale’s quips, it’s obvious that someone was doing a good job, but then there’s a quest to be done for Black Barty, which translates “to have in store” literally… biggest double take in a while. There has to be something more to this and I really want to know what. To sum it up, if there’s a Disney lover in your life, they’re sure to like this game, but if you’re not super into it, there’s more work to be done than it is worth if you want all those sweet achievements. (Fun fact: I had to find a way to get the game to recognize my DS3 controller for the two player achievement! That was super fun!!)

PARADISE CLEANING - sex-loving family- - Another month, another one of these. Only three or so more to go, as they’re all based on existing properties… I just wish they took a moment to fix the name of one of the items (theme-wise, we haven’t been on a ship since 2018, lol) and even more importantly, the resolution. I get that Japanese devs can be weird about some things, and it’s not like anything is really broken, but I mean, come on, how hard could it be to program a game to work in all available resolutions from the start? As far back as I can remember, all of these games have to be launched in a windowed resolution (only two of a possible four are available, I believe?) and only after choosing to go full screen within the game, can you launch it at a higher resolution. It’s not even like the devs don’t know about it, they mention it in the config window that pops up before launch… ridiculous. Oh yeah, and this game also got a “localization” here. Again, couldn’t recommend you buy it if they forced me to.

RUSH: A Disney-Pixar Adventure - This game, you could say, mostly picks up where Disneyland Adventures left off (while they’re not actually related, they were made by the same studio, so I’m taking it as Disney employing them to do their bidding) - with Pixar franchises. I went into this game with a “medium” level of knowledge of the available franchises and so, I guess you could say, my opinions were mixed as well. The game itself is fun enough, but some of the engineering behind it could honestly earn it a Golden Raspberry. If you’re aiming to get all achievements, you’re going to be replaying some levels even if you fulfilled the requirements for certain unlocks, because whoever programmed them capped them! That is, say it with me now, E-GREGIOUS! At least the idea behind the game is adorable - you’re joining a bunch of kids who are big fans of the Pixar movies and play pretend together in some of the more memorable scenes. Once again, the game language was set to Polish by default and while the voice acting was great (I think they got most of the original voice actors!), not only for the characters, but also the kids, the translation was once again complete with some mysterious choices. It’s like this game and Disneyland Adventures are the two-for-one I didn’t ask for, but got anyway.

Spring and Girls - I was convinced I got another game from the same dev when I bought this one, but apparently this one’s different and all it took to set them apart was the different-looking play area! It’s weirdly stressful to know that not only is the time measured, the game also tracks how many moves you make on each level. Anyway, yeah, the play area, although still basic, looked better than the one in all the previous games. But now, my question is: Is it all the same dev or not? ‘Cause if it is, why would they spread themselves thin under two different names? And if it isn’t, how could they get their games to look identical? …is it all AI art and am I supposed to stop buying them? At least I’m not getting them first-hand…

Viki Spotter: Professions - There’s less and less I can say about these every time I complete a new one. The music is the same, the art style is the same, heck, I’m pretty sure these are just asset flips. Oh well. There wasn’t enough variety in the professions, I guess…?

Catch-up time, next week! :)

7 months ago 0 comments