Has finally dusted off my copy of Civilisation 5, and it immediately began as a fun experience, I'm getting back my vibes from the days I played Civ 2.
That is, until I started a file on Prince (Normal) difficulty.
I. Am. Getting. Thrashed. By everyone. Jesus Christ.
As an update, I've now decided to put this game on the shelf after hoarding a bit more than half the achievements. After getting into it, this is a much better and challenging installment than Civ 2, although I had to do some extensive reading to understand some of the more passive and subtle effects certain things had. Was also delightfully surprised to see that you can decide when on the timeline you wanted to start, so completing victories quickly through science is a good way to farm leader achievements. Also 'beat' the ggame on the highest difficulty this way, just had to be prepared to fend off an entire army around the time my first spaceship part was built, but the alterations to the standard settings certainly makes the victory less sweet, if at all. So yeah, excellent game that could have kept me entertained for a good while longer, but I have other games to play. Don't buy it if you don't have dozens of hours at your disposal.
And as context, the frustration in my above quote came from playing a file on an Earth map, which makes for much much less resources and good city spots to go with (easy to forget how many mountains and deserts our home has :V).
II've also been liking FEZ a lot so far. It's a cute platformer and the rotating camera angles adds a really cool dynamic that I dig. It's probably the game I'm most looking forward to going back to and finishing once I try out some other new buys
FEZ is a neat game, and something that should keep you busy exploring for a good while while straining your gray cells in the progress. One of the two major complaints I have are how weird the map system was, getting your bearing or simply locating a room you've been in before was rarely an easy task. The other is that several of the puzzles for the dark cubes went way outside the box in terms of thinking, I disctintively remember how one puzzle required you to spell out the name of one of the people who made the game, so solutions like that only makes me groan out loud in annoyance. Just figuring out their alphabet system too is also tricky for non-american players, since there's apparently a map with a nursery rhyme re-enacted with the text on stone slabs around it, but for everyone not schooled with it, you just see it as a nice scenery and then move on.
So yeah, good game, but while thinking outside the box is basically the plot itself, I think they overdid it in some aspects, although the regular cubes and bits were fine to collect.
Other games I've played recently:
Fireburst - Racing game, with the added twist that you can set others on fire by being on fire yourself (flawless logic). The challenge is to not overheat by not overdoing your own flame and by avoiding competitors and oil barrels, while cooling off in water puddles and water barrels, while at the same time earning a good ranking. The game feels like a parody, where every single character is a stereotype of something, and there are no cups (although personal challenges for 8 of the characters), so not buying this game won't be a loss.
Zack Zero - Decent platformer where you control three elements (fire, ice and earth) as a hero stuck in a Super Mario setting (girl kidnapped by evil lizard). The 3D graphics are actually rather nice, but while it has depth, you're only playing it as 2D, which sometimes makes you unable to hit the enemies if they're not entirely in sync with the hero's line of sight. Weirdly enough, the non-boss cut scenes were all hand drawn by an artist whose skill isn't of the level you'd expect for this game, with all of it narrated by the same voice, so the times you learned more about the plot felt more like someone reading a children's book story than developing through the game. Appropriately enough, the plot also seems to be tailored for children, since it doesn't come with anything new and just repeat the usual hostage drama. The final nail in the coffin is that the game don't actually
end, but instead result in a cliffhanger that will supposedly be solved in the next installation. If you already own the game, it makes for some fun platforming, but I advise against buying it otherwise.
Droid Assault - I played it earlier and then dropped it, but re-visiting it now, completing this game wasn't a hard challenge, in contrast to other Puppy Games titles. You're a rogue droid trying to revolt against the robotic hivemind, by seizing control of other droids. Most of the time you'll just be destroying them to progress to the next level and hopefully find some upgrades, but getting a droid of the next level certainly helps. However, of the 9 possible classes/levels, I still beat the game with a fully upgraded level 5, so the droid itself isn't everything since the improvements certainly goes a long way. Beating the bosses of each area is also made easier since this game has something that's rarely found in other Puppy Games: impenetrable covers. The last boss was certainly dangerous and had long range, but as long as you tip toe around the pillars around the area, you can beat it by thinking ahead of its movement. The levels themselves can certainly overwhelm if you're careless and let multiple droids assault you at once, so that's where the real challenge is. Overall, nice game, Puppy Games has a solid niche carved out for them.
Spelunky - Started this game thinking it was your standard bread-and-butter platformer that I would have beaten in a few hours, and BOY was I proven wrong. Everything in the levels can kill you, and if you idle around for too long, the game will make sure to fasten your pace with a homing ghost. It's a game that's just simple and motivating enough to keep playing, but that WILL cause you numerous occasions of anguish whenever you mispredict a jump or just straight up gets mauled by a stray enemy. I currently have all the shortcuts completed, so I'll have the game beaten soon enough, but it has been a long road there. Fantastic game, but it's hard. Don't think otherwise.
