A blurring of focus…

It’s my aim to focus on only one good game at a time, and I often play smaller titles in between. But right now I’m straying into multiple large titles, an old habit that left many games unfinished in years past. Dark Souls is on a slow burn for me, as I haven’t fired it up for a month now after a second visit to Ornstein and Smough to show my girlfriend how hard my face can be bashed against the floor. The Witcher is a bit slow, but mostly because it plays a lot like Skyrim (also unfinished) with a number of side quests piling up. Still, I’ve got steady progress with the White Wolf and will be on Act III soon – I’ve mostly cleared my Act II quests. But now I’ve also (re-)started playing Dishonored, and I’m liking it enough that it’s definitely pulling my attention from either The Witcher or Dark Souls. It doesn’t help that I’m playing as stealthily as I can manage, and non-lethally, which is taking a greater amount of time. So, as a result, I have no big titles from my 26 beaten for this update. But I did manage to beat these other three instead, two of which are even SG wins!…

HunieCam Studio (2016) / In Between (2015) / Human Fall Flat (2016)

HunieCam Studio: I haven’t played HuniePop yet (from the same developers), but if it’s similar to HunieCam Studio, I expect it to have an equally openly-sexual presentation while also remaining a light-hearted title. The subject matter is without a doubt definitely very adult, and the developers obviously aren’t going off of second-hand reports of what a cam show is. The true naughty bits are hidden though, which is fine – I was more curious about how Tycoon-y this game was. And it’s not. You have a limited number of turns to gain as many cam show fans as you can, catering to their fetishes and making your girls attract more fans through photo shoots. Most of this just happens with button clicks and no real fanfare. The challenge is definitely in the achievements, and I might go back to try a few more, but as a game, in spite of the cute sex-positive art, this one’s just a bit above “meh.”

In Between: Mostly, this game reminds me of Braid. If you liked Braid, you very well might like In Between. However, be forewarned that the subject matter of In Between is more morose. The basic gameplay is simple – press a button on one directional stick (I played with a controller), and gravity shifts to that direction. From there, like Braid, the developer expands on the concept. In Between will take you through five stages (evoking the stages of grief), with thirteen levels per stage, although only ten are required. It’s quite a nice game, and so a bit of a shame that the storyline isn’t really a happy one. (Also, it reminds me a lot of VVVVVV, since your main cause of death will be from all those dastardly little spikes on the walls!)

Human: Fall Flat: Nearly twelve hours in two days… not something I expected my girlfriend to put up with, but we had a really good time playing this one completely through in split-screen co-op mode. She had trouble for a while with some of the movement (she’s used to Mario and the basic D-pad in a 2D world), but did better once she switched to the PlayStation/X-Box style Logitech controller while I took the NES/SNES styled one. While you can “cheat” a lot in this game (finding alternate solutions by dragging things from other locations or climbing over walls and such), I found that to be part of the fun, and we mostly tried to solve everything legitimately anyway, keeping in mind that all of the puzzles are also meant to be solvable by a single player. Waddling around like toddlers grabbing onto whatever seems useful, we passed through a really nice variety of low-detail environments. We didn’t enjoy the boat stage so much, but it was a good challenge. Even if you’re not trying to sabotage each other (but more when you are…), it’s great fun, and it was also really nice to have two people trying to come up with solutions for things. Recommended!

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Also, I made a new list for myself. It’s comprised of games that I’ve already beaten, but I’m still fairly interested in going back to. From that list, I re-played through Machinarium since I hadn’t beaten it since they added achievements. I like Amanita Design’s games in general, and I definitely still like Machinarium, especially since you get every single achievement just by finishing it. And so it gets to travel from Beaten back into Completed again!