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What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them?
What have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.
It had been many years since I played The Witness, and I elected to go back and restart. I recall having to look up a few of the puzzles' answers when I played through the first time, and I didn't "100%" the game either, so my plan has been to go back and get 100% without help.
I think The Witness may be the most finely crafted game I have ever played. If you like gentle puzzle games, then give it a try. If I were to describe it, I would say that it is a very well thought out puzzle game about perspective. I think another user here described the puzzles something like this: you do a puzzle and feel like there is only one way to solve it, and then you are immediately presented with the same puzzle with a minor adjustment that makes your answer impossible, and you have to solve that, and you feel like it just can't work... and then when you solve that version, it happens again. This forces you to change your approach and look at things from a lot of different angles.
This is a go-to answer for me when people ask me what my favourite games are. I rarely use the word "perfect" when describing a video game, but
I find no flaw in this game at allthere are some very valid flaws that should be brought up when discussing it, discussed below, though they are a bit spoiler-y for specific puzzle solving mechanics.I played the witness and enjoyed it. However there was a major problem that came in the final part of the game. It's pretty much impossible if
minor spoilers for puzzle mechanics
you have motion sickness, are colour blind or are sensitive to flashing / strobing lights. Personally I started feeling very dizzy and nauseous during the final puzzles.
These issues also pop up earlier in the game and some puzzles will be impossible if you are hard of hearing. But the ending was, for me, especially egregious.
It was frustrating that after spending so long in the game, I was unable to complete it and not for any lack of puzzle solving ability.
That's a very good point and actually one that I have actually thought of previously because
minor spoilers for puzzle mechanics
I wanted to suggest this game to my mom, whose favourite game of all time is Myst, because I think that she would love it, but there are a few sections that require being able to hear, and her deafness is about 95% now, and there are a few puzzles she just would not be able to do.
So you are absolutely correct - my ableist privilege prevented me from adding a caveat for people who are hard of hearing, tone deaf, strobe sensitive, or colourblind, even though I have previously actually not recommended the game to someone because of the very flaws I didn't think to write about.
I've been playing Dome Keeper.
It's a roguelite tower defense game. You have to defend your dome from increasingly large waves of enemies, while spending the time between waves to mine for resources to upgrade and repair your dome. The difficulty is also quite brutal.
The game was fun and the soundtrack was on point, I spent a few hours playing with all the different domes / upgrades.
However there are some issues.
Because the map is randomly generated, you can die just due to bad luck. Because you never found any obsidian to repair your dome, or because in the early game you ran into harder rock that took a very long time to mine (before you could afford an upgrade), but which you had to break through in order to progress, leaving you with a dearth of resources. Conversely, you can be very lucky and find plenty resources and useful items.
After around 6 hours, the game also felt like it had shown me everything it had to offer, which felt like not enough given the price tag. I don't want to value art based on just how long it can occupy me for (lest I suddenly fall in love with the Ubisoft sandbox), however when I've paid essentially $4 (AUD) an hour to play the game, it does start to feel a bit not worth it (especially in retrospect). Although it is receiving updates so perhaps it will be more worth it in the future.
The game also lacks information on how its mechanics work. For example, when I first used the sword dome, I noted that you could stab enemies with the sword. However once the enemy had reached my dome, any stab would go right through them and deal zero damage. I lost on the first round. It turns out that if an enemy is close to the sword you must swing the sword around your dome to build up momentum and slice them rather than stab. It also turns out that you can block incoming projectiles with the sword, which is not explained either. Obvious now that I know but I struggled to figure it out. This may have been addressed in an update.
I have also heard some people mention that the released version on steam is nearly identical to the now removed demo that was out before the game released. If this is true, it kinda sucks.
I played Gas Station Simulator very briefly. It wasn’t terribly well optimized and the controls were terrible. To make matters worse the publishers recommended a default controller mapping which didn’t actually contain all the buttons you need to play the game.
I mentioned getting the Umihara Kawase collection. For those who aren’t familiar, it’s a platform we game where your character carries a fishing rod that can launch a stretchy tether that you have to use to get around the level. The game can get very difficult but the rest of the design, the music and the visuals, are all so relaxing and happy so you can continue to play for a long time before you get frustrated.