Assessed Unoriginal

I'm coming to the end of a couple of weeks away, so hoping to get stuck into some newer stuff when I get back. Otherwise, still a lot of Bombe and MC Eternal.

Bombe continues to impress. Though it's mostly devolved to "Watch the rules solve puzzles for you" and "Obtuse edge case blocks you." The tools exist for refining your rules and removing superfluous overspecific edge-cases from the set, but they are a bit clumsy and don't really reapply them to old puzzles when they should.

I played most of Chasing Static, which is a short (2 hours or so) first person horror game set in some sort of haunted zone with some light adventure/puzzle gaming. The story is fleshed out via "flashbacks" in a stop-motion style, similar to a slightly animated Obra Dinn. I've been interested in this game since release, But it was drawn to my attention again recently when I noticed it was extremely low on the Hardcore Gaming 101 Top 47k Games List for what seemed like a competent game. As for the game itself, it's fairly solid so far and creates a good atmosphere without annoying jumpscares. It's at it's most effective in the opening half hour, where the protagonist stops at a diner and interacts with a waitress. After that it becomes a bit fetch-questy. Although redundant solution items dispersed throughout the main areas of the game make it less linear and monotonous then such a game usually is. Unfortunately I've become stuck missing a key item in my game, and it could be literally anywhere. Without an effective guide (I can't find any outside the "Part 56 of 78" Youtube variety) I've hit a brick wall.

The highlight this week for me has been In Stars and Time, a JRPG with a timeloop theme. I started playing this at the start of the week and have been playing an hour or two every night since, I'm about 12 hours in (including some AFK time). The game is a fairly standard RPG plot, you (Siffrin) and your crew are on a quest to defeat an evil King who has frozen time in his home castle and threatens to end the world. There's a relatively straightforward, but fun, battle system with notable novelties of Rock-Paper-Scissors replacing elemental systems, and an emphasis of gifting turns to others. The main point of the game is the timeloop, essentially everytime Sifffrin dies, the game loops (either back to the start, or later, any previous save point). Sometimes puzzles require this, other times its a necessity due to being stuck in a dead end, other times it's an accident/comic set up. The game does a good job of making this interesting, altering scenes with your new knowledge and allowing you to quickly skip previously viewed scenes. I have a few minor quibbles, there are a couple of bugs with the loop logic, requiring you to reloop a few unnecessary times for some sidequests. The first run through is a tad verbose, which serves to build an interesting start area you want to return to, but at the time it's a little bit slow and frustrating. Overall though: Excellent, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it ends.

All Games Played

• MC Eternal: Good
• Bombe: GREAT (Notable)
• Chasing Static: OK
• In Stars and Time: GREAT (Notable)

More travel and family commitments this week, and I've been working on a project and rereading House of Leaves in my spare time. But I've still played a fair few games. Still a lot of dicking around on the MC Eternal server too.

I've caught the Bombe bug like many here. It's a game with thousands of hexcells/minesweeper puzzles and it automatically solves them according to rules (eg. if a region of 3 squares with two bombs overlaps with two squares of a region with one bomb then you know the remaining square in the first region is definitely a bomb) you've written, until it can't solve anymore, at which point you have to write new rules. Despite the weird premise, it's incredibly addictive and very satisfying to watch your solver fly through the puzzles. Recommended for Zachtronics fans.

Quasimorph is a promising roguelike (actual) with elements from the popular extraction shooter genre. It's a bit complex and cumbersome, but the mouse-driven interface makes it quite playable. There's still a few occasions where the game interprets "Click on the item to find out about it" as "Walk to the square the item is on and stand there in the open and get shot to death", but I look forward to playing some more.

I started The Night is Grey. A point-and-click adventure about a man lost in a forest who stumbles on a young girl abandoned in her home. The premise is interesting, but the games dialog (unvoiced) is interminably slow and the interface is terrible. Maybe the worst thing about it is that the game is letterboxed even in 16:9 and you control the mouse pointer across the entire IRL screen like normal, but the icon of the mouse will only travel up to the edge of the letterbox and stay there until you can work the mouse back onto screen via dead reckoning or something. I'll try to struggle through it a bit more.

Arthur and Susan - Almost Detectives is another point-and-click. it's a light-hearted twee mystery-solving adventure game, which I normally wouldn't be able to stand, but I'm giving this one a go. It also completely eschews any movement and most animation. Characters stand still while you click around, moving into cutscenes made of multiple static poses whenever anything happens. It's a bit jarring, but I suspect the art quality would be significantly lower without this. I haven't played much yet, but it's neither grabbed me nor repelled me so far.

Swollen to Bursting Until I am Disappearing on Purpose is maybe the best game I've played in 2024 so far. The protagonist of the game is a postal worker in the town of "Vomit", where a UFO has crash landed. It's an excellent RPG Maker game with simple 3D graphics and even simpler combat (if your level is greater than the enemy level, you win). But combat is rare, and the mysterious setting and storyline of the game is the main draw. There seems to be a decent Petscop influence on the game, and it's probably the best any actual game has come to capturing a similar vibe. It's also free, so go play it.

I've barely started Home Safety Hotline. But it has a great retro PC interface. So it's probably going to be good

All Games Played

• MC Eternal: Good
• Talented: OK
• Bombe: GREAT
• Swollen to Bursting Until I am Disappearing on Purpose: GREAT (Notable)
• Quasimorph: Good
• The Night is Grey: Disappointing
• Home Safety Hotline: Good
• Arthur and Susan - Almost Detectives: OK