I got another chance to play with my friend, and that was pretty great. If I could keep up this pace, finishing ibb & obb would be no trouble at all. Unfortunately, it looks like I'm on my own from here on out, at least if I want to finish it by the end of the week.
The biggest obstacle is that this game is mentally fatiguing. In a good way, but fatiguing nonetheless. I think it's because it combines obscure puzzles with precision platforming and just never lets up. Each level attempts to one up the previous levels, introducing ever more convoluted ways of manipulating gravity and bouncing on each others' heads.
It's immensely satisfying when you get past a new obstacle, but the game stretches muscles that you don't often have to use in real life. So every step of the game is a demanding mental exercise. It wears you out fast.
And that doesn't even take into account the actual platforming itself. The places where you have to land are pretty narrow, and you often have only a split-second window in which to land on them. It's fine when I'm well-rested, but after your third or fourth level of the day, my reactions start to slow and I start to get sloppy. There were a couple of times where my friend and I found a secret level, figured out how to solve it, but had to give up because we couldn't execute the complex maneuvers involved.
My conclusion is that once the sluggishness starts to set in, I just have to put down the controller and get some rest. I'm not sure how this is going to play out with my solo attempts. There's an added complication in the fact that I'm neither expected nor encouraged to be able to control both characters simultaneously, so I'm going to fail in execution even when I'm fresh and alert. That's just going to exacerbate my fatigue. I may have to learn to just lean into it, do 15 hours in one night and just let my brain melt out my ears.
Then again, I always say I'm going to do that, but only follow through maybe one time in five. I've got three and a half weeks until my deadline so I'm not too worried about overdoing it, though I did kind of hope that I have some time to see what this blog would be like if I were responsible and only bought games I intended to play immediately.
Things are getting kind of suspenseful here.
Monday, May 28, 2018
Sunday, May 27, 2018
ibb & obb - 2/20 hours
Two days in and I've got approximately one hour with multiplayer and one hour trying to go solo.
Playing with a friend is super fun. ibb & obb is an excellent multiplayer game. It requires precise communication and coordinated movements and the puzzles are just complex enough that it's an advantage to have two people, but not so difficult that you're often stuck with nothing do. Hanging out with my friend is the best part, of course, but as a team activity, it's worthwhile.
Playing by myself . . . eh. It wasn't the nightmare I was expecting, but neither is it something I derive a great deal of fulfillment from. Controlling the two characters is fine if I can do it sequentially, but on those occasions where I need both ibb and obb to act in tandem, it's a real pain. I've gotten through the first three levels already, but I am seriously expecting to hit a brick wall sooner rather than later.
I guess there's nothing to be done but keep plugging away. I'll probably be able to arrange some more co-op sessions before this is all said and done, but it's unreasonable to expect even my good friends to make themselves available for the 18 hours I need to hit my benchmark.
Learning to use both hands, it is, then.
Playing with a friend is super fun. ibb & obb is an excellent multiplayer game. It requires precise communication and coordinated movements and the puzzles are just complex enough that it's an advantage to have two people, but not so difficult that you're often stuck with nothing do. Hanging out with my friend is the best part, of course, but as a team activity, it's worthwhile.
Playing by myself . . . eh. It wasn't the nightmare I was expecting, but neither is it something I derive a great deal of fulfillment from. Controlling the two characters is fine if I can do it sequentially, but on those occasions where I need both ibb and obb to act in tandem, it's a real pain. I've gotten through the first three levels already, but I am seriously expecting to hit a brick wall sooner rather than later.
I guess there's nothing to be done but keep plugging away. I'll probably be able to arrange some more co-op sessions before this is all said and done, but it's unreasonable to expect even my good friends to make themselves available for the 18 hours I need to hit my benchmark.
Learning to use both hands, it is, then.
Saturday, May 26, 2018
ibb & obb - Initial Thoughts
About the Game (From the Steam Store Page)
ibb & obb is a two player cooperative game set in a puzzle filled world where gravity goes both up and down. You can only succeed by working closely together.
Find a friend for some true local co-op couch fun or match up online.
Fall up and jump down through 15 levels filled with double gravity puzzles and discover 8 hidden worlds that will test your new non-Newtonian skills to the maximum.
All levels have their own unique music, composed by Kettel, known for his warm melodic electronica.
Previous Playtime
8 hours
Expectations and Prior Experience
ibb & obb is kind of a great game. It is a co-op platformer where each player controls one of these cute blob-like creatures and they navigate these stark 2D worlds that are divided into two separate halves with opposite gravity. So you can jump from the top of the screen, fall through a hole, and then bounce right back again when gravity reverses. To get through it, you often have to use your friend as a spring board for complicated gravity-manipulation tricks. I played it all the way through with my friend Daniel and I had a blast.
Now I have to play it mostly by myself. I'm not sure it's even possible. It's certainly not recommended, and inadvisable even if it was. I imagine it's playable, in the strictest technical sense, but only if you can split your attention and separately control two different characters with each of your hands.
It sounds like a nightmare, but I guess piano players manage to do something similar, so who knows, maybe it will get to be like second nature. In all likelihood I will be miserable the entire time.
But hey, it's the last game on my list, and if I'm not going to stubbornly insist on perversely playing games in ways their designers never intended just to reach an arbitrary deadline, then what is his blog even for?
ibb & obb is a two player cooperative game set in a puzzle filled world where gravity goes both up and down. You can only succeed by working closely together.
Find a friend for some true local co-op couch fun or match up online.
Fall up and jump down through 15 levels filled with double gravity puzzles and discover 8 hidden worlds that will test your new non-Newtonian skills to the maximum.
All levels have their own unique music, composed by Kettel, known for his warm melodic electronica.
Previous Playtime
8 hours
Expectations and Prior Experience
ibb & obb is kind of a great game. It is a co-op platformer where each player controls one of these cute blob-like creatures and they navigate these stark 2D worlds that are divided into two separate halves with opposite gravity. So you can jump from the top of the screen, fall through a hole, and then bounce right back again when gravity reverses. To get through it, you often have to use your friend as a spring board for complicated gravity-manipulation tricks. I played it all the way through with my friend Daniel and I had a blast.
Now I have to play it mostly by myself. I'm not sure it's even possible. It's certainly not recommended, and inadvisable even if it was. I imagine it's playable, in the strictest technical sense, but only if you can split your attention and separately control two different characters with each of your hands.
It sounds like a nightmare, but I guess piano players manage to do something similar, so who knows, maybe it will get to be like second nature. In all likelihood I will be miserable the entire time.
But hey, it's the last game on my list, and if I'm not going to stubbornly insist on perversely playing games in ways their designers never intended just to reach an arbitrary deadline, then what is his blog even for?
Titan Quest Anniversary Edition - 20/20 hours
All done with Titan Quest. I don't think it's a game that's going to linger in my memory. It was nice seeing the mythological creatures and having anachronistic historical cameos from figures like Leonidas and Imhotep, but the story is as shallow as shallow can be, and the art direction, while fine, had an unfortunate tendency towards the dun-colored that makes the environments blur together after awhile. I'd call it "serviceable." Nothing surprised, offended or inspired me. It was just a repetitive click-fest.
Though don't make the mistake of thinking this is a complaint. Sometimes all you want is a mindless hack and slash that you can play on autopilot. Randomized loot systems are almost always addictive, especially when combined with an rpg advancement system that balances out randomized rewards with steady growth. Titan Quest was no exception. I may not have been impressed with 90% of the items I picked up, but it was still pretty thrilling to get something powerful and new.
I may have taken a bit longer than expected, thanks to the instability of my personal life, but at no point did I feel like playing this game was a chore. I probably won't finish the main campaign, though. It was a nice change of pace going from Greek to Egyptian mythology, but it's not enough to make up for Titan Quest's sprawling maps, interchangeable enemies, and conservative character classes. I just can't foresee myself ever playing this game while Path of Exile still exists.
That said, I had fun. Overall, it was a fine game to be my second-to-last.
Though don't make the mistake of thinking this is a complaint. Sometimes all you want is a mindless hack and slash that you can play on autopilot. Randomized loot systems are almost always addictive, especially when combined with an rpg advancement system that balances out randomized rewards with steady growth. Titan Quest was no exception. I may not have been impressed with 90% of the items I picked up, but it was still pretty thrilling to get something powerful and new.
I may have taken a bit longer than expected, thanks to the instability of my personal life, but at no point did I feel like playing this game was a chore. I probably won't finish the main campaign, though. It was a nice change of pace going from Greek to Egyptian mythology, but it's not enough to make up for Titan Quest's sprawling maps, interchangeable enemies, and conservative character classes. I just can't foresee myself ever playing this game while Path of Exile still exists.
That said, I had fun. Overall, it was a fine game to be my second-to-last.
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Titan Quest Anniversary Edition - 12/20 hours
So, Titan Quest is kind of a dry game. Not dry enough for me to count it as a negative, but it certainly isn't one of those games I'm going to have memorable anecdotes about. . .
I guess I'll have to try, though.
So, the way you play Titan Quest is that almost everything is done with the mouse. If you want to go to a particular location, you click on it. If there's an enemy, you click on it to attack. You get various abilities that map to the numbers on keyboard. You press the number to activate the ability, but these are mostly interchangeable. There is some strategy to how they are used, but I find having too many abilities distracting, so I just bought the one that I mapped to the right mouse button.
I suppose I can blame some of the dryness on my tendency to favor passive abilities over a complicated active skill build. The issue I have is that all your active abilities draw from the same pool of resources and, cooldowns notwithstanding, there's not really much incentive to split my skill points among multiple abilities.
But mostly the game operates on such an abstract level that one enemy is very much like another and one area is very much like another. It's just a matter of click, click, clicking away until the text tells me I've run out of places to go.
I'm pretty sure I'll finish it by tomorrow, though. Repetition doesn't bother me, and finding new equipment and leveling up my character are still satisfying rewards. It's exactly the same sort of gameplay I enjoyed in Torchlight II and Path of Exile (and I do mean exactly), and if I were going to get bored with it, I'd have done so long ago.
I guess I'll have to try, though.
So, the way you play Titan Quest is that almost everything is done with the mouse. If you want to go to a particular location, you click on it. If there's an enemy, you click on it to attack. You get various abilities that map to the numbers on keyboard. You press the number to activate the ability, but these are mostly interchangeable. There is some strategy to how they are used, but I find having too many abilities distracting, so I just bought the one that I mapped to the right mouse button.
I suppose I can blame some of the dryness on my tendency to favor passive abilities over a complicated active skill build. The issue I have is that all your active abilities draw from the same pool of resources and, cooldowns notwithstanding, there's not really much incentive to split my skill points among multiple abilities.
But mostly the game operates on such an abstract level that one enemy is very much like another and one area is very much like another. It's just a matter of click, click, clicking away until the text tells me I've run out of places to go.
I'm pretty sure I'll finish it by tomorrow, though. Repetition doesn't bother me, and finding new equipment and leveling up my character are still satisfying rewards. It's exactly the same sort of gameplay I enjoyed in Torchlight II and Path of Exile (and I do mean exactly), and if I were going to get bored with it, I'd have done so long ago.
Monday, May 21, 2018
Titan Quest Anniversary Edition - 5/20 hours
Before starting this game, I was certain I was going to zoom through it in just a couple of days. It seemed like exactly the sort of game I can play for hours on end without complaint. And nothing I've seen in my first five hours has disabused me of that notion. Unfortunately, real life events have limited my available game playing time to less than 3 hours a day (a tragedy, I know).
But given the small and sporadic time I've had with this game, I'd say my first impressions are favorable. Its plot is probably the shallowest possible interpretation of Greek mythology and history, but that's more than forgivable. Any excuse to bash satyrs and centaurs and maenads is fine by me, though the stretch where I had to tackle zombies felt more like generic arpg fantasy than anything specific to the setting.
Titan Quest's biggest flaw is probably its loot system. The basic Diablo-esque idea of randomized loot drops of varying rarity is strong. It makes every enemy into some kind of beautiful death pinata. Unfortunately, the gambling-like thrill is somewhat mitigated when all the prizes are blandly interchangeable and so weak statistically that they aren't even worth the inventory space to sell . I'm at level 9 and I'm still picking up level 3 equipment. It's a huge letdown.
I do like the class system, though. It's not spectacular, but it does a very specific thing that always makes me smile. You have two "masteries" (broad categories of skill like "warrior" or "storm") and each of the 36 possible combinations has its own distinct class name - like Conqueror = Warrior + Defense or Elementalist = Storm + Earth. It doesn't add a lot to any particular playthrough, because you only get two masteries and you can't change them, but I enjoy the knowledge that there's a broader possibility space. And I find the interlocking nature of the masteries to be very satisfying.
From here on out, it's just more hacking and slashing for me. I'm looking forward to it, but I can only hope that I have the time to really get into it.
But given the small and sporadic time I've had with this game, I'd say my first impressions are favorable. Its plot is probably the shallowest possible interpretation of Greek mythology and history, but that's more than forgivable. Any excuse to bash satyrs and centaurs and maenads is fine by me, though the stretch where I had to tackle zombies felt more like generic arpg fantasy than anything specific to the setting.
Titan Quest's biggest flaw is probably its loot system. The basic Diablo-esque idea of randomized loot drops of varying rarity is strong. It makes every enemy into some kind of beautiful death pinata. Unfortunately, the gambling-like thrill is somewhat mitigated when all the prizes are blandly interchangeable and so weak statistically that they aren't even worth the inventory space to sell . I'm at level 9 and I'm still picking up level 3 equipment. It's a huge letdown.
I do like the class system, though. It's not spectacular, but it does a very specific thing that always makes me smile. You have two "masteries" (broad categories of skill like "warrior" or "storm") and each of the 36 possible combinations has its own distinct class name - like Conqueror = Warrior + Defense or Elementalist = Storm + Earth. It doesn't add a lot to any particular playthrough, because you only get two masteries and you can't change them, but I enjoy the knowledge that there's a broader possibility space. And I find the interlocking nature of the masteries to be very satisfying.
From here on out, it's just more hacking and slashing for me. I'm looking forward to it, but I can only hope that I have the time to really get into it.
Saturday, May 19, 2018
Titan Quest Anniversary Edition - Initial Thoughts
About the Game (From the Steam Store Page)
From Age of Empires co-creator Brian Sullivan and Braveheart writer Randall Wallace comes an innovative action role playing game set in ancient Greece, Egypt and Asia. The Titans have escaped their eternal prison, wreaking havoc upon the earth. The gods seek a hero who can turn the tide in an epic struggle that will determine the fate of both men and gods.
In this epic quest of good versus evil, players will encounter the greatest villains of Greek mythology, brave the attacks of Cerberus, and hazard the banks of the River Styx. Players will interpret the prophecies of the blind seer Tiresias, fight alongside Agamemnon and Achilles, and use the wiles of Odysseus to conquer this dark new adventure.
Are you ready for the quest?
Previous Playtime
4 hours
Expectations and Prior Experience
A Diablo-style game set in mythic Greece - there's no way this can go wrong. Or, at least, that's what I would be saying if I was going into this raw. As it so happens, I've played it online with my friend Daniel and I know for a fact that it conformed to my expectations. I had a little trouble following the plot, but I figure this time I can take it slow and actually read the dialogue.
And if it turns out that I still can't follow the plot, well, at least I'll be able to kill monsters and gather loot, and that's more than enough to keep me occupied for 20 hours.
From Age of Empires co-creator Brian Sullivan and Braveheart writer Randall Wallace comes an innovative action role playing game set in ancient Greece, Egypt and Asia. The Titans have escaped their eternal prison, wreaking havoc upon the earth. The gods seek a hero who can turn the tide in an epic struggle that will determine the fate of both men and gods.
In this epic quest of good versus evil, players will encounter the greatest villains of Greek mythology, brave the attacks of Cerberus, and hazard the banks of the River Styx. Players will interpret the prophecies of the blind seer Tiresias, fight alongside Agamemnon and Achilles, and use the wiles of Odysseus to conquer this dark new adventure.
Are you ready for the quest?
Previous Playtime
4 hours
Expectations and Prior Experience
A Diablo-style game set in mythic Greece - there's no way this can go wrong. Or, at least, that's what I would be saying if I was going into this raw. As it so happens, I've played it online with my friend Daniel and I know for a fact that it conformed to my expectations. I had a little trouble following the plot, but I figure this time I can take it slow and actually read the dialogue.
And if it turns out that I still can't follow the plot, well, at least I'll be able to kill monsters and gather loot, and that's more than enough to keep me occupied for 20 hours.
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