Cradle

I admit, I like trying games made by people from cultures different to mine1. They often structure games differently t my expectations, or the story might have a different angle from any I’d come up with.

Cradle is a game by Flying Cafe for Semianimals, a group from the Ukraine. It’s a first person perspective game which I’ve tagged it as an ‘explorable story’, but there are more puzzle and action elements to the game than that might imply. On the other hand, to get as much as you can out of the story requires a bit of poking around.

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Treasure Hunter Simulator

If your idea of a Treasure Hunter is Indiana Jones or Lara Croft, then you might want to turn your expectations down a lot.

Treasure Hunter Simulator (THS from here on in) puts you in the shoes of a ‘real’ Treasure Hunter whose tools are a metal detector, a shovel and a good pair of shoes. You travel to some quite beautiful locations and ignore the scenery as you stare down at the ground, seeking treasure.

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Hexcells Infinite

I tend to think of Hexcells as “MineSweeper on Steroids”. The same basic concept applies: some cells have a number that represents how many adjacent cells contain a special type of cell – be it mines or something else. In Hexcells the cells are: orange (not touched), black (cells with numbers) and blue (the ‘special’ cells)

Really, this has been my go-to game for any time I don’t have a brain, simply because once my brain has learned the rules, I can zone out with the game – unless the puzzle is particularly tricky.

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Kentucky Route Zero

Kentucky Route Zero (Zero) has been out, in parts, for a while now. However, they’ve now released the fifth and final chapter, so I feel like now’s a good time to talk about it. Especially since I just finished it. Again.

Frankly, any attempt to explain Zero is going to end in lots of hand-waving and incoherency. But what the hell, right?

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Far Cry 5: The End(ings)

I’m going to discuss all three endings of Far Cry 5 (FC5).  So, there will be spoilers here.

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Far Cry 5: Story Is God

I’m currently having a blast playing Far Cry 5 (FC5), However, bits of FC5 are in my bad books, and therefore I’m going to complain about them.

The complaints I have aren’t really unique to FC5, or even the Far Cry series.  They’re a problem that can arise in an ‘open’ game that also tries to keep a tight rein on its main story.  If done well, you don’t even notice you’re being corralled exactly where the developers want you.  Done poorly, you take all of the traits your character has shown in gameplay, and throw them out the window until they’ve stopped showing you this bit of the story.

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Far Cry 5

I’m not ashamed to admit it: I love the Far Cry series.  I love the visuals. I love the gameplay.

Far Cry 5 (FC5) is more of the same, with a few changes/tweaks.

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L.A. Noire: Auto Fanatic Achievement

I ended up getting L.A. Noire on the Switch. Mostly because I was really curious how they fit all that data (3 XBox 360 discs) on one cartridge2.

I thought I’d go for the various achievements this time, since I knew what to expect, and wasn’t ‘burned out on it’.

The hardest achievement seems to be the Auto Fanatic, in which you have to drive every type of vehicle (95 of them) in the game. Continue reading

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The Beginner’s Guide

The Beginner’s Guide (TBG) is an Explorable Story by Davey Wreden2. Actually, TBG is more an Explorable Biography.  Or, perhaps a look at game development.  Or … or … look, it’s something, ok?

TBG shows off various game experiments done by Davey’s friend, Coda.  Davey takes us through some game experiments written by Coda which explore various game and philosophical ideas that Coda had.  For some reason, Coda gave up making these experiments in 2011 and Davey is hoping that by putting these experiments out there in one coherent package, it might show Coda how much people can appreciate them, and encourage him to start them again.

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Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

Let’s be clear here: the last Zelda I played was Windwaker on the Gamecube.  The first one I played was The Legend of Zelda on the NES (Grey cartridge, not the gold one).  But really, I’ve missed out on everything between Windwaker and Breath Of The Wild (BOTW). Continue reading

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