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