Lake: A Pleasant Idyll

Played this on my X-Box/S and have finally learned how to take and transfer screenshots! Not easy, but I did it. 

I've finished the game, and even replayed the last section to get a different ending (turned out to be not very different). This is a sweet little game. The plot almost doesn't matter. The gameplay is mostly involved in trying to control the mail delivery truck that you're driving. That is no simple task. The controls are super-sensitive and the truck weaves all over the place if you try to go too fast and correct at all for steering. I found that constantly tapping the right trigger on my controller (the accelerator) was the only way to reasonably control the truck movement.

Driving along the pretty lake shore

The roads and street signs look completely realistic. The problem is in keeping the truck centered, or at least in, the traffic lane you're navigating. Our view of the truck is almost always from behind, so you really can't see things you'd see through the windshield. Still, I suppose it does give you more reference about when you're weaving in and out of your lane, especially with oncoming traffic moving toward you in the other lane.

However, the game doesn't care if you hit stuff. I hit plenty of stuff, although I did manage to avoid mowing down pedestrians and a deer. You can reverse with the right trigger and actually found that easier than driving forward. There are realistic bangs when you drive into a rock wall, and when you drive up over the sidewalk the truck does just that, quite realistically. I hit a car on purpose and nothing happened except the crash sound.

Getting through bridges, especially a narrow covered bridge, provides some suspense. Go slowly. Go very slowly. Somehow I never hit the side while within a tunnel, and I wonder if the game provides some assist there.

Can you get through it?

I was particularly proud when I managed to park the truck actually in a parking space. It was mostly luck, but I'll take the credit.

Not bad, eh?

Yes, I'm talking about driving instead of the plot. There is a plot, and even a few achievements. But it's the driving difficulties that make this a game more than just a little interactive cartoon. Driving is tough. The game itself is easy.

The main character is a lady who is taking two weeks off from her high-pressure job to return to the sleepy, picturesque little Oregon town where she grew up. It's 1984, and we get some nice references to that time: videotapes are how people rent movies; when the parents call they run out of coins for the pay phone they're using. But mostly it's just the story of a woman returning to her home place and reconnecting with the people she knew back when.

To fill the time, she takes over her recently-retired Dad's job as the town postal delivery person for two weeks. The other challenge of the game, besides driving, is finding all the addresses and actually delivering the mail, including packages. For that, we have a really handy, zoomable map.

Delieveries on the left

The map shows your current position and the direction you're headed. Plus, a small insert map helps guide you to the next address in the bottom left of the screen as you move. Very handy.

I managed to figure out most of the main delivery sites after the first game day. The game throws a few challenges at you by putting some deliveries in a wooded, hilly, cabin area (the area shown in the map above). Good luck not hitting trees or rocks in there.

Delivery to Burt at the fishing pier

As we deliver our stuff, we meet people, many of whom we used to know. A main challenge in the plot is reconnecting with the former best friend, whom we've neglected all these years. Also, there are two possible romances to pursue, and some cats to help (I regret that I did not take the cat-sitting job. Should have). When people ask us for favors, we can accept or decline. I advise accepting everything just to get more out of the game, but we have lots of choices.

Main Street

Main Street at night

I didn't find the plot to be all that compelling, but it works fine for this game. It's mostly about the choices. Of course, in the end, we have to choose whether to stay or go back to the lucrative but stressful career in the city.

One major complaint: the mail truck is equipped with a radio. That thing plays the same country-western song over and over and over and . . . . You can thankfully turn it off, but the same song is always playing in the general store, the video store, and the diner so it's impossible to escape. It isn't a bad song. It just goes on and on and on. I've still got an earworm of the thing.

We go fishing

For me, the game was a nice, pleasant time driving around delivering mail, which I enjoyed. The only real difficulty is in controlling the truck, but without that problem the game really wouldn't have much challenge at all.

And it's really pretty. I enjoyed the scenery everywhere: by the lake, looking at mountains, driving through forests, navigating twisty roads and driveways.

I found it worth my time.

Eastshade: Artistic Adventure

 

Months ago, when I first got my X-Box Series S, I decided to try a little adventure game that I found on Game Pass. It's a cutie, with lovely scenery and well-done cities, houses and interiors. I really enjoyed it and am glad I spent the time with it.

It starts with a shipwreck, but we land at the place we were traveling to anyway. The first-person character is a traveling artist and has gone to Eastshade at the behest of his mother. Mom had been there years ago and wanted some paintings of particular places on the island. That's the main quest, but we'll have plenty more to do while that one's cooking.

All the characters are animal-people: owls, foxes, badgers and the like. That part I found to be a bit too cute. Perhaps the developers were aiming for a younger audience? Even if so, the game works well for adults. We can travel along pathways through the lovely woods, by rushing streams, past waterwheels and isolated houses. We even have to find a boat and travel over a lake. We paint pictures as favors to various inhabitants, and advance in the game that way, and make money with which we can buy things like a sweater and a handy bicycle.

Really the game world is fairly extensive and has an open-world quality to it. The puzzles aren't terribly tough, although I did encounter some bugs. It was quite fun, actually, and a great way for me to get my feet back into the water with gaming, having not been able to play anything for quite awhile. I recommend it, if you can overlook the animal people. Fun!

The Procession to Calvary: Revels with Pythons

 

Played this on my X-Box, and it was lots of fun simply because it's an excellent tribute to Monty Python. As a game, use a walkthrough, unless you enjoy testing every node and possibility. The puzzles in this game are simply as convoluted as a typical Monty Python sketch, with the outcomes just as unpredictable. Do not succumb to frustration. Look it up.

However, the style of the game is so enjoyable that I don't care about the obscure puzzles. The artwork is real artwork, taken from famous paintings (which are collected in a gallery in the game). The music on every screen is real classical music, with the attribution given if you click on the musicians. 

The animation is simply a cutout of the main character moving across the screen. Yes, you can double-click to run, thank goodness. The story involves murder, and the main character lusts after killing people. If you do that, however, you won't really be able to play the game. So, suspend your bloodlust. Example: I got a pair of crutches I needed by hacking down the cripple who was using them. Fair enough, I got the crutches. But I later learned that nobody would talk to me because of my bloodthirsty ways. 

You'll have plenty of characters to murder in the endgame. Hold off until then and find other ways to get your items.

The game is simply insane, and that's why it's fun. If you love Monty Python, you have to play it. If not, you're not going to get the joke.

I loved it!

Call of the Sea: Lovecraftian Puzzler

 

Have been gone for awhile due to a bad medical diagnosis, but I acquired an X-Box Series S, which I'm really enjoying. The X-Box can take screenshots, but I haven't figured all of that out yet. I will be playing more games directly on my computer, which will allow me to insert screenshots, but I'll just summarize my playthrough here because I've finished the game anyway.

Didn't know what to expect from this. It was about to leave Game Pass when I played it, so I shamelessly used walkthroughs for a lot of it in order to finish before it went. Sorry I did that now because I could have figured most of it out myself. When I gave up the WTs I had more fun.

The story, which turns Lovecraftian before the halfway point, takes place in the 1930s, which I find fun. They did the time period quite well. The main character has some kind of obscure fatal disease, and her husband has traveled to the South Pacific in an attempt to find a cure. (Why? That's never explained. Hey, it's a good setting for a game.) He's been gone too long, so we go to find him. Following his trail eventually answers the question about the fatal, obscure disease. As a plot, it works.

It's a good game! Really solid adventure with excellent puzzles. A few are a bit too detailed for my taste, but you can find clues to most of it. I had a bit of trouble with navigation--the game doesn't hold your hand with that--and that was frustrating at one point when I couldn't find an exit and wound up just floating through mostly nothingness. A couple of times, though, the game takes you on a rollercoaster ride through the sea and it's fun!

The graphics are outstanding. The voice acting is outstanding (the lead character is the same actress who voices the female character in The Long Dark). It has six chapters, all quite distinct and engrossing. I wasn't fond of Chapter Three, which takes you to a shipwreck. You have to put together lots of little clues, all involving a lot of back-and-forth travel, to solve the puzzle. I'm not sorry I went to the WT for that one. There's a big payoff once the puzzle is finished, though.

Actually, the game gives excellent payoffs to all the main puzzles. These really make this game stand out.

The game gives you fair warning that there are two possible endings so you can save appropriately. However, it has an excellent autosave feature that will always take you to a recent point without having to replay tons of stuff. With that you don't really need to do hard saves, but I did anyway.

I really enjoyed this and I highly recommend it. It was an excellent return to adventure gaming for me. Great stuff!

Quarantine Diary

 

Hooray! This year's new Carol Reed mystery has dropped, and I have acquired it! 

It always takes me two days to play these games. This time I wasn't shy about checking the extremely handy in-game hint system, which frankly, I think is extremely necessary at various points in the game. The game is for fun. Don't let it frustrate you to the point where it isn't fun. Use the hint system, which is quite well done.

Quarantine Diary takes place during the Corona Virus pandemic, and Carol complains that her bank account is suffering. (Has she gone through all the money she inherited at the end of Remedy, the first game in the series?) No matter. We have a new mystery that has Carol, early on, investigating the lady who hired her as much as investigating the case she's hired Carol to solve.

As always, gameplay consists of visiting locations found on the map. In those locations we usually find either a clue, or an item. Items are nearly always just lying around somewhere. We'll wind up using them in yet another location. Every time.

Occasionally uses real Swedish signs

Normally inserts English signs

I like these sepia shots of buildings we are entering

A real house in Swedish red

This is just inserted for local color. No entry for us.

The locations often are very pretty, or houses that appear to be real houses and apartments. We meet people who are depicted in still photographs with voiceovers. The actors are firmly amateur and that, I've always thought, fits perfectly with these games. 

We meet several people in every game--Jonas, Carol's boyfriend, Stina, her friend, who is always a fount of local knowledge (and played by the lady who voices Carol), and, for comic relief, Bigge, who always sends Carol off on an errand before he'll help.

Jonas is an always welcome character.

Stina find information (and voices Carol in the game)

Bigge supplies comic relief

This is our client in this game

As simple as these games seem on the surface, actually their puzzles can be quite complex. They always feature numerous puzzle boxes and items needing passwords. Once we find the clues to these they become simple to solve. Or, we have to find an item that will interact with something that will reveal another clue or an important item.

The difficulty (and length) of the game increases because in almost every case, an item needed in one spot will be found in another location, with absolutely no rhyme or reason for it. For example, you need a tool to get into a new area. You'll find it just lying on the ground somewhere across town. If you happen to find it when you're there and pick it up (always, always pick up anything the game identifies), you'll have it in your inventory and will probably recognize it when you need it. If you haven't found the item you will have to use that hint system, or else traverse the entire game looking at every possible node. Use the hint system.

But it's all good fun. I've played every game of this series and look forward to a new one each year. I don't expect anything different from what I've played before, and that's what I want. 

When the year's game comes out, I buy it and settle down for a couple of days of very familiar fun, along with lovely pictures of Sweden.

Always enjoyable!

Dear Esther

I played this walking simulator several years ago using WASD, but now I'm trying to learn how to use my controller. So I thought I'd play it again just for the practice. And yes, I do need practice in navigating. Playing this has helped enormously!

(Sorry about the odd spacing in this post. Somehow the blog just isn't formatting properly.)

This is an impressive game—or was when it came out. I remember being astonished at the (now standard) graphics. The weeks swayed in the breeze and the ocean waves looked wonderful!

        

                                                           The Beach

We start out walking along the beach. All the way through the game we get texts displayed on the screen along with an excellent voiceover of the man who is us, apparently, doing the walking. It's all quite enigmatic, and the man is apparently depressed.

The difficulty in this game isn't moving and there are no puzzles; it's just trying to spot a path to use that will continue the journey. Three times out of four these are staircases and they're all fairly well concealed unless you turn around a lot! The only one that isn't somewhere behind us requires a leap of faith to continue walking along a ledge that looks as though you're going to fall off any second.

The "Bothy"

Getting off the beach we make it to a dilapidated cabin, but find nothing there. In fact, the whole game really is just navigation as the narrator tells us his thoughts.

Out of four chapters, I like the third best. It takes us underground into glowing tunnels. We splash around in standing water and finally figure out how to go forward. Eventually we're left with only one choice, even though it seems most strange.

                 

Candlelit underground area. Quite lovely really.

When we emerge from the caves it's nighttime, making navigation even more challenging. However, the story continues, such as it is.

It's finding the narration that tells us we're on the correct path and moving forward in the game. The scenery continues to be really nice, so it's a pleasant experience overall.

                 

The paper boats are in the story

                 

Dark but still pretty

The game takes over for the very end, and finally ends not in credits, but in a black screen with the sound of waves continuing. So if you get to that screen your game hasn't crashed; that's really the ending. 

I suppose if you tie it in with whatever we can glean from the story it makes some sense. 

This game really takes only about one to two hours to complete, but it's a landmark game of it's time and it certainly did help me to learn how to navigate with the controller! You cannot save games. Finish a chapter and then move on to the next. You can choose from the four chapters on the title page.

So that certainly was worth the time! I enjoyed it!

Sanitarium 4: Over and Out

 

Sadness. I am not going to be able to complete Sanitarium.

I've been gone for several months due to very serious computer problems--now solved with a new hard disk and battery--and very serious medical problems.

But here I am, back again. I fired up Sanitarium and used a walkthrough to try to find where I was. I actually found what appears to be where I left off and made a bit of progress, but then the game froze.

It froze completely. I had to log out of the whole computer and fire it up again. Again I did a bit and decided I'd better save what little progress I'd made.

But the game froze again on the menu screen.

So for now I'm giving up. I have more games to play. Perhaps someday I'll be able to get the game to work again. I'll try periodically. 

But alas, it's over for now. Shame, because the out-of-the-box weird imagination in this thing is astonishing. I'd like to see where it goes.

Maybe someday. But for now, it's over. 

Sanitarium 3: Curiouser and Curiouser

Finally got back to the game. I've actually played for short bursts for several days, but only now am getting to my write-up here.

The circus was really nice, although as always with this game, you have to keep a sharp eye out for teensy items that you need. At least there are some decent clues here.

In the big top

We have to play some games and visit some freaks. The games are pretty straightforward.

Got enough tickets?

Actually if you pay attention, you will find more than the number of tickets you need to get through the area.

Can you get into the roped-off section?

So I made it through the circus! I confess that I did get a couple of hints. It's a fairly extensive area, but it's quite entertaining. Upon exiting the area we get dumped into a cave.

Pixel hunting required here

The cave turns out to be an action area. Tried absolutely everything before I went to the WT and found out that I had to use an item on a very obscure spot. The main trouble with this game is that the hot spots and items are difficult to see. It really can turn into a pixel hunt. 

But, with the information I got from the WT I was able to get through the area.

That takes us into what clearly is another major piece of the character's backstory. Now it's fairly obvious that the goal of the game is to find out just who the main character is, what he did and how he got into the sanitarium.  

Is this backstory?

In the mansion, we meet ghosts of what will of course turn out to be our family. In fact, it seems that the little girl that took over in the last two areas is Max's sister, who died.

Now we're back to playing Max. 

Max is himself again

In the laboratory

The laboratory has a seriously bad puzzle. I suppose you could spend a week just trying things, but save yourself. Even with instructions this is hard to do:

Bad, bad puzzle

It's puzzles like that which caused adventure games to get a bad name—and this is a good game!

Once solved we get into an area where we have to solve anagram puzzles on blackboards. Again, just figuring out what to do is the real challenge. Once you have that the puzzle is fairly easy, and gets us into the next area.

I keep getting interrupted from this game and no doubt will be interrupted again, but according to the chapters I'm about halfway through, and I eventually will finish it! 

It is a good game!

Next Entry.

Blackenrock Preview Beta

A brief interlude. Jonathan Boakes and Matt Clark are really truly working on finishing Blackenrock, the long-awaited sequel to The Lost Crown, my favorite game. They decided to release the first couple of hours of the game in beta form for free! 

So I went back to Saxton today! This is the first time I've played a game in beta and there were glitches, but I have made it to what appears to be the end of the "demo," because I cannot go anywhere in Saxton except Harbour Cottage (on which Nigel owes rent he certainly can't pay). I can go to Saxton Shore and into the Fenland Eye, but not beyond that. However, there is a massive surprise inside the Fenland Eye! Whoa!

But I did two fun quests, which clearly were intended to get the new player used to the controls and gadgets. Got stuck at one point but managed to get myself out of it. The controls are the same as in Midnight Horror, and that's actually good. You really had to watch the cursor in TLC1 to see when it changed. This time it's larger, brighter, and much more clear. My only criticism is that when we pick a correct item from the inventory the item turns light blue instead of green, and the blue is far more difficult to see.

I do think that this sequel really doesn't stand alone. It assumes that you know the previous games. Perhaps I'm seeing that due to my experience with these games, but it really starts the day after Midnight Horror. It even references a several-minute long "game," called Halloween Haunting from 2013, now available as a YouTube video, in which Nigel and Lucy discover the word "Blackenrock" while using a Ouija board. The Darkfall games are standalone; The Lost Crown is a saga.

At the end of this demo we talk to Hadden, and he tells us something really super intriguing. Super intriguing.

The gameplay is a bit different. Nigel finally can run! If you double click you can advance to the next screen. There are a lot more cutscenes. We have conversations with people without interacting with the game at all, although we still have dialogue trees to click on when the game wants to give you choices. Fortunately, because this uses the old Wintermute engine, the mouse works correctly. No sensitivity issues of the type that plagued me in Ghost Vigil (which I mostly solved by turning down the video quality to medium) and Silent Night. EDIT: I completely solved my mouse issues by replacing my computer hard drive, which was failing. That's why I had mouse sensitivity--and controller--issues.

The game tells us where to use the audio recording and the camera, so we won't be missing any evidence. Plus, we carry our "case file" with us always, so all of our "evidence" is constantly available.

There is a brief action sequence! (Well, there is a brief action sequence in TLC1 too, of course.) This one is more exciting than the "fight" on the train tracks.

The "demo" is available for free form Shadow Tor Studios. I had to break down and finally configure my email on my PC laptop in order to get it. (I use the laptop just for games; my main computer is a Mac which cannot play this, but also could not download the link, which is transferrable via FB Messinger! Instead of a link you just get the download.) I think I'll just delete the account now that I've finished. (Which I did. That was easy!)

I was unable to take screenshots at all. I will have to wait till the game comes out on Steam for that. However, fun fact: there is a QR code on the Saxton Times in the case file. Scan it into your phone and you will get a marvelous result!

But it was so so so lovely to be back in Saxton! How wonderful! The game has exactly the same immersive feeling as the original. I am really looking forward to the full game! I suspect it will still take several months, but I believe it is moving forward!

Cannot wait!

Sanitarium 2: Freaky Fun!

Hooray! I have made it to Chapter 4 and now the game is really taking off into highly inventive weirdness!

But first I had to get through Chapter 3, which mainly involves turning on the water to fill the courtyard fountain. I'm proud to say that I only needed two hints, and one of them pointed out something (very small) that I had simply missed. I figured out how to get the thing, just didn't spot it when it turned up. That is a problem with this game: it's all in a top-down isometric view so items can be quite small.

Landing in Chapter 3

First, of course, we have to go around talking to everybody. Then I realized that I could only manipulate one thing, which turned out to be the right thing to do. If you spot the necessary item it's pretty easy to figure out what to do with it, which gives you another item, which is also easy to use.

The crazy preacher and his very stiff congregation does fit into the puzzle, but only marginally.

Interiors simply reveal themselves when you enter.

That brings us to a real puzzle: turning levers to get the water flowing. This is where I needed help. No, not to do the actual puzzle, but what constituted winning it.

The clue is pretty obscure.

The trick is to know which of the four water levels you have to fill. Once you get it the puzzle really does tell you that you've won. And, again, much appreciated, if you quit in the middle the game saves your progress. You do not have to restart the puzzle every time, as far too many games would have you do.

Once the fountain is filled we get another cutscene, again in very grainy video, which I was unable to get a screenshot of. But it certainly does give some backstory to our character.

In fact, our character has changed radically once we get to Chapter 4. And that's when I got excited about the game! 

Well this is unexpected!

We land in a very freaky circus, somewhere outside of the asylum (I guess?)

It has a big top and one ring.

Let's go in!

A one-ring circus

I did just the first bit of dialogue and stopped for the day, but I am vastly intrigued! This is the kind of imagination I appreciate in a game--something totally unexpected.

Loving it!

Next Entry

Sanitarium 1: A Really Old Horror Adventure

So I decided to try a really old horror adventure game that I'd been unsuccessful with in the past, but always wanted to play. Sanitarium came out in 1998 on CDs. First I had terrible trouble getting the discs to load, and once I did I couldn't figure out how the mechanics of the game worked. How are you supposed to walk around and talk and pick up and use items? 

Actually it's fairly straightforward. Once you learn the antiquated system it isn't difficult. The game is only partially point & click, with walking done manually. The got away from the WASD movement system by using the mouse exclusively. Walking can be a tad tricky because you have to hold the right button down as you try to navigate your way around the screen.

Welome to the game!

Well finally I found a copy of the game on GOG, so I don't have to deal with physical CDs anymore. The game runs pretty well except for one time when the screen went black and I had to reload and replay for a bit.

We start out after the very grainy opening video, in an unusual asylum. We're covered in bandages and appear to have amnesia. Somehow we make it out to a courtyard filled with children, all of whom are injured or deformed in some way. There are no adults in the area. 

The Courtyard of the Children

We have several tasks here: talk to all of the children thoroughly to get the beginning of a storyline. Then find out who the mysterious "Mother" might be. She's controlling the children and won't let them explain anything. 

Also, this is an inventory game. Picking up stuff is easy. It turns out that accessing the inventory is easy too: click on your character and you will see the inventory items that you have. Once you've used an item it disappears, which is good.

The dialogue system

Eventually we will make our way across a stream and meet a girl named "Maria," who tells us more than anyone else, but stops when she senses that "Mother" has awakened. OK. That takes us into the pumpkin patch that Maria has warned us about.

Maria. Nice kid.

The dangerous pumpkin patch

It turns out that there is combat in this game! In this first area it's pretty easy. When you get killed the game puts you back at the beginning of the fight, but any enemies you've killed remain dead. That is appreciated, thanks!

Once we make our way through the pumpkin patch we will meet Mother, and have to figure out what to do. I actually got a bit of it by myself, but I relied on a walkthrough for this chapter. Now that I know what I'd doing, sort of, I might be able to wean myself from it. After all, inventory games are all quite solvable, even though a few of these puzzles are a bit obscure.

So I will continue! I have made it to Chapter Three out of eleven. Most folks say this game takea 10-12 hours to complete. Let's see how I do!

Next Entry