September Challenge on SG
"Started when I was twelve and never lookedback. Pretty much the only thing keeping me
sane." – Kathy Rain
I’m participating in the September is “play a game you won on Steamgifts” month challenge on Steam Gifts. I got challenged to 5 games and beat 3 of them, posted below. Two remaining challenge games are Undertale and Alien: Isolation.
The Museum. Awesome to explore in a 3D game.
The Stanley Parable
★★★☆☆ (3 hours | 8 / 10)A fun, short game, but I think a bit overrated. Basically a choose your own adventure in 3D. The real draw is of course the narrator’s philosophical musings with the player. I found the game more than bit boring. Felt a bit played out after the first 10 minutes.
"Say hello, Mr. Rag! 'Hello, Mr. Rag!' "
Grim Fandango Remastered
★★★★☆ (8 hours | 47 / 47)A great classic point-and-click with a fresh coat of paint. Great characters, decent story, and some interesting episodes thrown into the mix. Stumbles because some of the item combinations are unexpected, can’t fast travel between screens, mandatory animations on certain screens, and could be more straightforward and polished. Still, I’d recommend it to anyone.
Cruising on a '76 Corley.
Kathy Rain
★★★☆☆ (4 hours | 20 / 20)A modern point-and-click with retro graphics. Cool main character, pleasing graphics, and the first few days of the story were decent enough, but from there it went downhill. The main plot of the story was not worth hearing, and our protagonist went through like five revelations in her character in quick succession. When a game puts story ahead of everything, I want it to rise above the average video game story, and this just doesn’t deliver.
I liked the references, which I now get some of having played through a few classic point-and-clicks. Corley Motors, tombstones for p&c protagonists, and a whole lot of theme borrowed from Twin Peaks.
Star Wars Episode I: Racer
★★★★★ (4 hrs 23 min | 100%)One of the best arcade racing games I’ve ever played. Tons of unique characters with unique racers, upgrades for your podracer, different places to buy upgrades, a buy-trade system if you know how to use it, great tracks, and epic sound effects. A couple of the tracks are actually quite hard too, so there’s a nice difficulty curve. My main complaints are the upgrade system isn’t perfect, and if you don’t know about the buy/trade system you can be strapped for cash with no way of getting more because each track only pays winners once, ever, so if you don’t get first place you’re going to be low on funds.
congrats! You’re doing great in the challenge! :)
Hello! Thanks! I’m trying for Top 10, but realistically I probably won’t keep my spot. There’s too many on here that complete games as easy as breathing, and I don’t go through half as many in a month as they do.
A bunch of people here might not be participating, so I’d say you have a very good chance to stay on top. :)
I wasn’t as wowed with Stanley Parable as other people were (I’m much more a Beginner’s Guide fan) but my favorite part was, as you pointed out, the Museum. I think having that be the setting where you explore different WIP images, models, and layouts as well as messages from the developer was absolutely fucking genius. It lent a real weight to what in other games would just be a menu of images you flip through, and is the only part that stuck with me.
One thing that stuck out to me is I’m used to using ESDF layout, and so when the narrator finished I meant to move toward the door but accidentally closed it. So my first ending in the game was over very quickly.
HA! That must have been incredibly abrupt!
Oh yes, I remember the Pod Racer game. It’s the best thing to come out of Episode 1.
A lot of the games from the prequel era (99-2005) were good, whether they were based on the movies (Racer) or not (KOTOR). I liked the movie adaptation of Ep 1 back in the day as well. It’s on my backlog to play again since I’ve not played it since it came out. The prequel era was the heyday of star wars games to me. I wish they’d make more.