Torn's Games

End-of-week Report

What's this? June's almost over, and there's still no news of starting any games? Well, I've been playing Terraria for like a week straight now, which might explain the lack of everything else. That's going to end some day though, and by that time I'll probably have finished the Hall of Games I've been working on.

In fact, if you take a look at the sidebar right now, you can see a new page titled "All Games". As previously mentioned, that's where I will keep a record of all the games I've played, in alphabetical order. As also explained on that page, it's probably missing a few games, since I couldn't gather literally everything, and it will lag behind the actual list by a bit. Currently, it's over 400 games strong, and I hope to get that number up in the near future.

Onto the report:

Games in backlog: 280 (+1)

of which VR: 19
of which Visual Novels: 47 (+1)
of which Early Access: 61

Games reviewed last week: 0

End-of-week Report

A report at a bit of an unusual time, and after missing the last week's. See, I wasn't home last weekend, having to deal with matters pertaining to attending mandatory military service. In an unrelated case, I also won't be home this weekend, since I'm moving away for a few months. (To clarify, I will be available after moving, it's just one weekend.)

I've been making more progress on the Hall of Games, also opting to make a very basic list of all the games I've ever played (as far as I can gather). The end is somewhat in sight now, and then I just have to get into the habit of playing new games again. The habit's broken right now, so I'm reluctant to start anything new, but I know for sure that once I get back into it, and since I have time now, I will be blazing through games real fast. Just have to make that initial push away from the comfort of old games I've been playing.

Games in backlog: 279 (+6)

of which VR: 19 (+1)
of which Visual Novels: 46
of which Early Access: 61

Games reviewed last week: 0

End-of-week Report

Classes have ended, and just two exams left to go. Just a week, and then I'm free for months. Still, looking at my list and looking at the time I have been given, it would amount to roughly 3 games every single day to get through them all. I guess, as usual, the goals should be more manageable, and I should simply aim at getting my backlog to acceptable levels.

Games in backlog: 273 (+7)

of which VR: 18
of which Visual Novels: 46 (+2)
of which Early Access: 61 (+2)

Games reviewed last week: 1

Dauntless

It's a rare occasion I check something out as soon as it comes out, but this was the case with Dauntless. See, my friends and I were looking for some co-op games to play, so I had to mention this new one that just went into open beta. They ended up liking it, and so it happened I got a fair bit of game time in alongside them. Quite the optimal situation for the game, since most games are better when played with people you know, instead of alone or with random ones. Despite this, and despite the positivity they received it with, I was not as amused.

Dauntless is a game about running around on an island, and beating up giant monsters with giant weapons. Find them, kill them, collect their parts, upgrade your equipment, rinse, and repeat. And really, it is mainly because of this lack of things to do that the game feels boring.
The islands are quite similar in appearance and functionality. The monsters, or behemoths, are reasonably varied, actually, but they are recycled - the same ones can appear with a different name, some elemental effects, and just a few tweaks in abilities, but no difference in overall feel. So there's just a handful actually distinct ones. And then there's five weapons, which, while also different, don't actually have all that varied strategies associated with them. It's always just running up to the behemoth, whacking it for a while, and dodging any attacks it may do. And that really starts to get old pretty fast.

For what content is in the game, it's not bad at all. The fighting is satisfying, learning a behemoths attack patterns has a nice boss fight feel to it. Toss in co-op play, a non-pay-to-win free-to-play model, and it's pretty good. Until you've gone through most all unique content in a day, and then through literally all content in a week, at most. That is, if you play for a few hours every day.

But I simply can not leave out the horrid state it launched in, with login queues ranging from 3 to 12 hours, disconnects and waiting delays for 5-30 minutes after each mission, and the party system being broken half the time. Heavens forbid your game crashed, for then you had to sit through the queue again. I'm sure there were more problems, and while the queue and other delays have been greatly reduced or eliminated, the state it was in was still pretty unacceptable.

Overall, while the core gameplay was decent, the lack of content and unignorable technical problems keep me from recommending it. "But Torn, Dauntless is in open beta, you can't have your final verdict yet." Well, I don't particularly buy into that kind of stuff. For one, it's kind of like an MMO (the crappy themepark kind always made these days), and an open beta is basically launch for those. Secondly, I don't really have much faith they'll improve on this lack of content. Simply adding more weapons and behemoths won't fix the issue, they would need something more. So no recommendation it is.

End-of-week Report

It's been a rough month, but the coming week is the last week of school for me this semester. Then supposedly begins the exam period, but I've only one exam scheduled for the first week of that, so it's comparatively nothing. So, a week, and then I can get back to games at long last. And what a list I've accumulated...

Games in backlog: 266 (+7)

of which VR: 18
of which Visual Novels: 45 (+1)
of which Early Access: 59

Games reviewed last week: 0

End-of-week Report

Pulled one with that last minute review, aye? Well, that's all I can do, as I'm basically being pressed for 80 hour work weeks at the end of this semester right now. For some reason, every course I'm taking decided they want to get stuff over with quickly, so I have exams while other big tests, lectures, and whatnot are still happening, meaning I both have to finish up all projects I have, as well as study for exams, and then it's all suddenly over in June when the exam period is supposed to start. Fuck me, I'm gonna lose my hair at this rate.
Anyways, that's not why you're here...

Games in backlog: 259

of which VR: 18
of which Visual Novels: 44 (+1)
of which Early Access: 59 (-1)

Games reviewed last week: 1

Dungeon on the Endless

Hey, surprise, it's a game. Dungeon of the Endless.

I played through this with my friend over the course of a few days, and it was just barely entertaining enough to keep us from quitting midway. But was it good? No, I'm fairly sure I would not say that.

To start off with the things the Endless series has always been pretty good at - art, music, lore - those were all well present here too. Well, maybe not the lore so much. In fact, I would point out that I did feel like it was trying to push too hard on some sort of comedic value. From item and skill descriptions, names, characters, to the lore bits... Always making puns and jokes, but they weren't really good, and did take away from the precious space where something actually useful could have been. An undescriptive (but maybe slightly humorous) one-word ability name in small text, but a whole paragraph telling some flighty joke about the item that maybe bears a relevancy to what it does? Sure, it's not like I need to know what any of them do anyways. This and everything similar led to a lot of trial and error, instead of the ability to make educated decisions.

Going forward to the actual gameplay, there wasn't much. While I'm by no means against automating parts of gameplay, I find that since combat is completely automated, there isn't anything left for the players to do. Sure, positioning, building, deciding which rooms to power, but when the action is happening, you're just sitting there watching things unfold with no possibility for meaningful input.
Further, the balance was off. The vast majority of buildings - useless. Spoiler alert, but just stack food production. Get some tanky low mobility guys with tons of firepower and health regen into a room through which all enemies must path, and have one speedy guy do the final crystal carry each level. It's still by no means easy (despite the misleading difficulty levels), but it's the best strategy we found, and is fairly risk-free.

Overall, Dungeon of the Endless is a nice-ish game, which just focuses on the wrong parts of what makes a game fun. After some initial discovery, the gameplay becomes a rather monotonous rut, and I at least lost interest before too long. Maybe find some nice tower defense or rogue-like game, whichever you see in this, but I wouldn't recommend Dungeon of the Endless.

End-of-week Report

Games in backlog: 259 (+3)

of which VR: 18 (+1)
of which Visual Novels: 43
of which Early Access: 60

Games reviewed last week: 0

End-of-week Report

Fuck it, I give up. New games in the summer, anything else is too much of a promise. I'll just continue these weekly reports and feel terrified by how much is left undone in the meanwhile. But hey, on the bright side, it's been 9 weeks without new games, only 4 more until school ends for the year, and I'll have all the free time in the world.

Games in backlog: 256 (+6)

of which VR: 17
of which Visual Novels: 43
of which Early Access: 60 (+2)

Games reviewed last week: 0

End-of-week Report

Next week is the week when I get my shit back together. With the start of May, I have Monday off, in addition to my usual free days of Friday and Tuesday (homework notwithstanding). This leaves me with 5 nice consecutive days of not having to go to school. This means time. And time is just what I asked for. In relation to this blog, the first priority is finishing up the Hall of Games page, then I can play some new ones.

Another weekly report, still continuing its record consecutive growth, reaching a quarter thousand games. I fear.

Games in backlog: 250 (+1)

of which VR: 17
of which Visual Novels: 43
of which Early Access: 58 (-1)

Games reviewed last week: 0

End-of-week Report

I'm so tired my skin is deforming or something. I don't know what's happening anymore. What happens when you have no free time in a week, and then you add in a 48 hour game jam? Well, I'm feeling it right now, and I wouldn't recommend it. So this is a hastily written post, because I really can't be bothered to do anything more. It was LD41 this weekend, and the local competition didn't even last 3 days unlike the global jam, but just 2 days, because they couldn't get rooms. Game's here if you want to play it. Not super proud of it or anything, and the only reason I participated this time around, is because I need the points for my university "participation in hackathons" course. I'm quite possibly sitting out the next one in summer, or maybe doing the compo instead.

But here's the weekly report, which is running for a record time without any new games. I'm mentally basically dead because I have no free time anymore, and I don't know how to escape this hell. Send help before I hurt myself from overworking.

Games in backlog: 249 (+9)

of which VR: 17
of which Visual Novels: 43 (+1)
of which Early Access: 59 (+1)

Games reviewed last week: 0

End-of-week Report

Have I told you my theory on procrastination yet? I think I have, actually, but let me go over it quickly once more.
I think procrastination stacks. Once you start, things start piling up. As they do, you feel less and less inclined to complete them. If you give in bit by bit then first it leads to stress as you get everything done at the last minute, then it furthers to not getting some things done at all. And all the while you never feel like you have time because there's so much to do.
A lot of people start to resist before it gets to the point of some things being left undone, so they linger forever in this stressful state of not having any time, and always having so much to do. I, too, feel like I'm slowly reaching that point due to a few days of procrastination, and now it's harder to push back. The opposite of this state also exists though, when everything is done, and you have all the time you could want. New chores get completed in one of those many pockets of free time, and cause no inconvenience at all, leaving you in this perpetual state until you get really, really lazy for some period of time. I should make an effort one of these days to get back to that state - it's nice there.

Anyways, onto the report. I missed last week due to my birthday celebrations, and I completely forgot about it after the weekend. Same old though, so it's hopefully no loss. Should really be setting up another "play X games" goal sometime, but getting my real life in order might be a better idea first.

Games in backlog: 240 (+8)

of which VR: 17
of which Visual Novels: 42
of which Early Access: 58 (+1)

Games reviewed last week: 0

End-of-week Report

I've been pouring more time than I expected (and more time than it may seem) into copying games over from my private list. Can't believe it's been a whole month and then a week since I decided that I'll be doing this, and I'm still not done with it.
It's a kind of dangerously tedious type of work, since I know I tend to blow quitting out of proportion. I've been having real difficulty in deciding the new categorization of games, what makes it in, what doesn't, and all that, often taking like an hour to decide on something really simple. I hate that perfectionist side of me, but I can't just half-ass it because "why do it in the first place then?" But yeah, it's "dangerous" because I'm afraid that if I can't figure this stuff out I'll give up so hard I might abandon the whole game reviewing side of my hobby. After all, playing's the fun part. If this turns from time-consuming to frustrating, it might not be worth it anymore. Here's to hoping that won't happen and I'll instead sort this stuff out in my head, and we'll all be happier in the end.

I've actually also learned quite a lot of how Blogger works in the process. Custom overall CSS is already in, meaning I have less (mostly none, now) style info to write into each post. This also synergizes really well with the Web Application course I'm taking right now. I've noticed how terrible and kind of antiquated this Blogger theme I'm using is, but I've also learned how to fix that. Basically, I feel like I could write an entire theme from scratch, making it look like whatever I wanted. The state of things is not bad enough yet, and it would of course be a huge time sink, so I'm not doing that, but I'm glad I have the opportunity. Maybe when I'm bored in the summer.

So, after a terribly long ramble written in the middle of the week since I needed to let off steam at the time, here is the week-end report.

Games in backlog: 232 (+2)

of which VR: 17
of which Visual Novels: 42
of which Early Access: 57

Games reviewed last week: 0

PS. Happy April Fools, or however you celebrate. =D It's coincidentally also basically my birthday, and the 300th post I write on this blog.

End-of-week Report

I think the worst of the semester is behind me now, the exam period aside. It's likely I'll have time for some new games in the next week, or at the very least the one after that, to finally end the month-long drought.

Games in backlog: 230 (+3)

of which VR: 17
of which Visual Novels: 42
of which Early Access: 57 (+2)

Games reviewed last week: 0

End-of-week Report

You like working 12-hour weekends? Me neither, and I'm not even getting paid for it. School's seriously frustrating right now, and I just want to take a break and play some games, but I can't because I have deadlines all the time.
Here's a project I'm working on though, which very much fits this blog. I hope to be keeping up the site even after the corresponding school course has ended, so I could have a place to check for games. There will be a lot of features added to the site in the future, like multiple pages, game filtering, maybe even score history. But right now, developing it is being the death of me.

For once, no change in the numbers.

Games in backlog: 227

of which VR: 17
of which Visual Novels: 42
of which Early Access: 55

Games reviewed last week: 0

End-of-week Report

Work, work, work. It's a little bit stressful already, and I want it to stop.
With a new season of Heroes of the Storm starting, I'm actually trying to play it less now. Maybe just when a new patch comes out, if there's a fun brawl, and probably just to get a rank during the season. Hopefully this will overall leave me with more time and less frustration.
Other than that, I got nothing to say.

Games in backlog: 227 (+4)

of which VR: 17
of which Visual Novels: 42 (+1)
of which Early Access: 55 (+1)

Games reviewed last week: 0

End-of-week Report

Not much going on this week either. School's keeping me very busy, and probably so for perhaps the next month, as I attempt to rush through a big course, leaving me with more time near the end of the semester. Hopefully there will be lots of games after that though.

Games in backlog: 223 (+3)

of which VR: 17
of which Visual Novels: 41 (+1)
of which Early Access: 54

Games reviewed last week: 2

Particle Fleet: Emergence

I played through the campaign of Particle Fleet: Emergence, and I must say that it isn't Knuckle Cracker's finest game.

Particle fleet is a game from the maker of the various Creeper World games, which were highly praised among free flash games, but the newest edition of that series, Creeper World III, holds up even to today's paid game standards, despite being a tad niche. This post isn't directly about Creeper World though, but since I hadn't written about it before, I figured I should. That is especially the case because Particle Fleet shares a lot of similarities, to the point of almost just being in a slightly different setting.
In both games you fight this single hivemind entity that pumps out an endless stream of fluid/particles. Your goal is to warp in to a relatively safe area, quickly establish your supply network, and set up defenses before the enemy reaches you. It's this tug-of-war kind of RTS, but the physics-based enemy is what makes it oddly more enjoyable.

I really liked the various Creeper World games despite the usual problem that plagues most strategy games based on bonuses from map control (snowballing). However, Particle Fleet feels like a step backwards. For one, the particle-based nature of the enemy slightly robs the game of it's uniqueness. Now you're fighting discrete groups of enemies, much like you would in a regular RTS. Secondly, the supply network system has been heavily dumbed down, with resources mostly just teleporting to where they are needed, as long as you are in range. Thirdly, your strategies and your capabilities are basically set in stone, because everything you can build has been predetermined, and you kind of have to use them to their fullest to win effectively. I really liked how Creeper World had a lot of different approaches you could take, even as far as not using some buildings if you didn't want to. There was fun in setting up custom rules for oneself if the missions ever got too easy. Not much of this luxury here, I'm afraid.

But what has Particle Fleet improved on? Nothing, as far as I'm concerned. It's mostly the same game, but with many systems just turned down to be less fun. I'd really rather just go back to playing Creeper World III, and not bother with this one at all. Perhaps things will improve in the next installment.

Kingsway

Kingsway - The roguelike where you can fight enemies, save the world, and fend off spam email, all at the same time. I've been having fun with it for the past day or so, have two completions of the game so far, but I'm still missing some potential endings or unique areas, I think. Regardless, here's what I think about the game.

Probably the first thing you would notice about Kingsway is its unique presentation - you're dealing with an operating system. You got your desktop icons, a start menu, a little clock in the bottom right, and of course all your windows for the various applications you'll run. All of the things present on your Kingsway OS are actually usable, and none are purely cosmetic, which is nice, but I wouldn't stop on the UI for too long, since, aside from the difficulty of clicking buttons in moving windows, it has next to no implications on the gameplay - peel it away, and you're left with a more-or-less regular roguelike.
Overall, while I would give points for the way the game is presented, I would also remove some for the difficulty of use that brings. Once the novelty wears off, some aspects just become tedious.

But let's not judge the game by what it looks like then, but by what it plays like. I found a whole lot of similarities with One Way Heroics, but I couldn't really say if Kingsway managed to out-do its predecessor in my eyes. The most glaring similarity is that both games have some nigh unstoppable force approaching from the west, forcing you to advance to the east while gaining power and searching for a way to stop the march of destruction. A lot of the other aspects are generally just characteristic of roguelikes, but they're still tuned to be similar to OWH, be that intentional or not.
During your adventure you level up, distribute your stat points, choose skills that are unique per character class, allowing for different play styles across multiple playthroughs, find or buy equipment that also plays a big role in defining your character... Pretty standard stuff. Throw in towns, dungeons, quests, random events, some secrets, a few different endings, and you got yourself the core of what this game is.

I don't actually have many gripes with this game, and definitely nothing major that bugged me. I'm not a big fan of action elements in otherwise non-realtime games, so the combat wasn't ideal, but since this is the main thing that actually synergizes with the unique UI, it also opened up some fun possibilities, and I can't really blame the choice.
I would say that, as always, a roguelike is very reliant on the amount of content it has, in addition to it having to be fun to play. I think The Binding of Isaac is a fine example of this, since the amount of content will keep people playing for hundreds of hours, instead of maybe 10 or 20. Kingsway is a bit weak in this regard. I like the gameplay, but quite quickly I've seen most of what the game has to offer.

So... I loved this game. I think I'll be playing it a bit more to 100% it, and I would definitely recommend trying it.
Edit: Here's a spoilery link to what I consider "beating the game". Note the character's shield slot and the ring on the left.

End-of-week Report

It's mostly been an uneventful week, not much to report.
School's being a burden, but I seem to have some time left over to play games too.
Heroes of the Storm finally got voice chat out of the blue, so that feels pretty refreshing, and people definitely seem to flame less over voice (but they still do flame).
I've been playing some Kingsway, so a review of that is probably coming soon.

As a follow-up to that "general thoughts" section of my Rumu review, I figured, "what the hell, why not..." I currently have an internal "top 10+50", so to say, leaderboard of various games that I've enjoyed. New good games push old ones out, and there's a hard limit on how many I can fit there. But when I asked myself for justification for this format over a similar format that wouldn't make me have to discard worse games, I couldn't find any. I'd still have to do the same stuff with ranking, but worse games would be pushed down, instead of out. I'd retain the option to not add games I didn't like there, or remove some games further down the line, but I wouldn't have to.
Once I'm done making this change on my own lists, I might make a copy of this leaderboard onto a subpage of this blog as well. I've actually been wanting to share those leaderboards for a while, but I didn't really find them fitting in their current semi-sorry state.

Games in backlog: 220 (+1)

of which VR: 17
of which Visual Novels: 40
of which Early Access: 54 (-1)

Games reviewed last week: 2