Oh I definitely have not quit playing The Dark Path! But I had to take a major hiatus.
I have for yeas done book reviews for Kirkus Reviews, of young adult literature. This activity has basically ruled my life for the past several years, severely limiting the time I can spend playing games.
At last I have taken a major hiatus from that job because I wanted my life back. I'm making enough money at other things now that I don't have to do it any more, although I haven't quit entirely. However, I can now read the books that *I* want to read, and can I play games!
To that end I bought a PC laptop intended entirely for games. I'm still a Maccie for very good reason, but Macs simply don't get at least half of the games I want to play. I've been playing PC games under my virtual machine on my Mac, but that is an old XP program and it's running out of space. The newer games take up so much space that I have to delete a bunch of stuff just in order to add something, I've been playing Dark Path that way, but now that I have the new PC, I'm starting over.
Only for games (and a few websites)
Starting over is a good thing because I was thoroughly stuck in the game. So far, except for one thing, this new PC is doing exactly what I hoped it would do. (It's a Dell, 2 TB, 16 gigs RAM that I got for $699 on sale at Costco.com--whatta deal!) I learned how to take screenshots on it, but I don't seem to be able to take screenshots with this copy of Dark Path. I took lots of shots tonight but got only the underlying desktop. I hope somebody can tell me how to fix that problem. The PC takes screenshots of games I've downloaded from GOG, but this one is from Steam. Why wouldn't it work with Steam games? It really bothers me that I can't take screenshots of the game for this blog.
Update: No, the computer does take screenshots of Steam games. Just not this one. I tried it again with different graphics choices and got desktop shots and black screen shots. So I tried it with my new copy of the original Barrow Hill from Steam, and it worked fine! Also, it isn't the Wintermute engine. Mikael Nyqvist also uses Wintermute for his Carol Reed games--I just tried it on his latest and it worked fine. It worked fine for this very game, coming through Steam, on my Mac under my virtual PC. Well, this is why I'm a Maccie. Macs just work. PCs make you work to make them work, if you can.
It really is just this game. Very very weird. Well, if I really want to post a screenshot I might be able to get it on my Mac/Virtual PC game. I can upload pics to this blog just as effectively from that computer as from this new one.
At any rate, I have started from scratch. I've already found Ollie, because I was able to access the video puzzle as soon as I opened the office door. Also, of course, the password to Mia's computer is available early on, so I plugged that in and didn't waste hours looking for it. I've still got all my notes from my first game, so I'm just zooming through things. Got the plug to the microwave put together fast. Have so far collected six sim cards. I know where the seventh is, but I never found the eighth in my first game.
I'm noticing some fun things that I didn't see previously. On the tablet that you find in the cairn, there is a pear with a bite out of it instead of an apple as a logo. Also, Matt is the "organic farmer" in Emma's emails.
I still cannot finish the hidden object game on Emma's website. I don't imagine it would make any difference. I just suspect that I might learn something if I could finish it! (The problem is in finding a doll. In my first play there was a doll, and that worked, but the trailer still wouldn't open. Then I clicked on the flying saucer once and THAT worked--but the trailer still wouldn't open. Now clicking on the flying saucer--which is not easy because it moves fast--did not work.)
I have a suspicion about what I need to find to get past Mia in the farmhouse. Every time I meet her she sends me to the wishing stones. I've found all the items I need for those stones except Mia's personal object. I strongly suspect that when I find whatever that is, I will be able to get into the farmhouse.
Clearly there is plenty of the game left for me to play. I'm guessing that I'm about halfway through. I'm pretty sure we're going to be able to get into the farmhouse and look around there, and we'll be able to get out to Emma's trailer in the swamp. I think that because on the phone there are three GPS points, and Emma's trailer is one of them.
So! Tonight I'm going into the woods for the first time in this playthrough (although I think I'll go back to the cairn first because I found the runestones). I'm not looking forward to solving that puzzle with the crystal key at the Druid pool. I just bulldogged my way through that last time, but it wasn't easy by any means. Hmmm. Maybe I ought to try thinking about how to solve it this time??
Next Entry.
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