Saturday!
Brylcreem
In addition to playing Prison Architect and Papers, Please (both brilliant games in their different ways), I’m on the last world before The Big Confrontation in Knights of the Old Republic and I’m intrigued by this new “Gone Home” game… the general conceit is that you’re coming home from college and the house is empty… and you get to explore and find out why. It’s not an adventure game, it’s not a puzzle game. There’s no way to get “stuck”. You just have to look around and figure out what happened by looking at the things that are left in the house.
Sort of an anthropology game.
So… what are you playing?
Hrm. I wouldn’t call “Gone Home” a game per se. It uses some of the vocabulary of games… the WASD first person keys to move, look around with the mouse, and so on. But you’re just exploring a house, looking in drawers, finding notes, and putting together two and two and figuring out what happened.
As you find certain notes, you will hear your younger sister explain to you some of the details behind certain things… and, at the end of the day, you’ll find yourself liking some of the people whose things you’re unashamedly going through, whose diaries you’re reading, and whose lives are nakedly on display.
The game (I’m back to calling it that, I guess) can be finished (rather than “beaten”) in a couple of hours and, when you’re done, you’ll sigh the way you do when you finish a good short story.
Video Games don’t have a Citizen Kane yet, but they’re finally figuring out that one might be possible.Report
Interesting… decades ago, when I was playing through some post-infocom-era text adventures, I came across a game that was very well done as a sort of interactive short story, except the damn thing was so difficult that it interfered with the art. From that I an idea for a “game” that would really be just about discovery — as I recall, it involved the protagonist having to clean out a basement and finding fragments of a life story in the various boxes and bags. Of course actually creating something like that was way beyond my level of discipline and probably also way beyond my ability (the advantage of being undisciplined is that my actual ability generally remains untested). Anyway, I’ll definitely have to give this one a try.Report
In one of the first rooms you visit, there are bookshelves upon which various tchotchkes reside. Most of them are of a theme, but there’s one that just jumps out (“one of these things is not like the other”, if you will).
In a later room, you find a letter describing this item and telling the story behind it.
I went back to this room and picked the item up again and looked at it again… same item, new appreciation, and now I understood why it was on the shelf.Report
Yeah, that’s definitely the sort of thing I would’ve put in my game. It would’ve been awesome if I’d ever finished it. Or even started it.
This seems like “interactive fiction” in the more literal sense, rather than as a fancy term for a story/puzzle game.Report
I found an online version of Adventure for the Atari 2600. It’s been over 20 years since I’ve played it – maybe 25 – but I solved Level 1 without a single wrong turn, including the maze. It’s amazing how some things stick.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I can’t find where I laid my keys…Report
I just finished Rogue Legacy, it’s an excellent game and I strongly recommend it.Report
I’m still slowly working my way through my PS+ freebies. Just finished Machinarium (cute, mildly challenging), close to finishing a second set of three characters in The Cave (funny, not challenging). Started the Battlefield 3 single player campaign, and I’ll probably still pick at it but war games aren’t my thing. Just tried XCom an hour ago, and I don’t think that’s my cup of tea either — too many decisions.Report
Played a little bit of Bastion. I got the game several months ago, but I only played it a little bit, so I decided to restart it with the goal of finishing it this time.
I have also gotten back into Crusader Kings 2. I went back to a game I started several months ago. Initially I was the count with one or two Irish counties (I forget their names). Eventually I was able to form the Kingdom of Ireland. The island is almost entirely united under my benevolent rule (except for 2 counties that Scotland took early).
I have also formed the Kingdom of Wales, and I have almost united all of the Welsh territories as well. There is still one county controlled by the English. Fortunately, England and Scotland seem to have a lot of rebellion, and that makes it easier to take the territory out from under them. If the king is fighting a war to keep his throne, he is not going to put too many resources toward holding on to a single colony.
My ultimate goal is to form the Empire of Britania. If I can successfully usurp the Kingdom of Scotland or England, I will be most of the way there.Report