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Casual Games Thread

Total Posts: 343

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The best games I played in 2016 are:
Enigmatis 3: Shadow of Karkhala
MCF: The Broken Hour
Parallels Cross
Dead Reckoning: Death Between the Lines
Facility 47

I have not yet played Beyond: Star Descendant

     
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I played Bridge to Another World: Alice in Shadowland several months ago and meant to post about it, but never got around to it. My notes:

Imaginative take-off of Alice in Wonderland. Main game is fun; more mini-games than HOS, with sufficient variety and occasional challenge. I needed the in-game strategy guide several times. Storyline jumps back and forth between Alice (you) and Alice’s Shadow, and you have different locations and inventories in each thread. You have a mysterious magic helper imprisoned in a bottle, a compass that tells what recently happened, and a watch that teleports, stops time, and makes espresso (ok, not espresso). Nice twist at the end. Bonus game is a prequel, not that good, too many HOs. Voice overs are average to terrible, music gets extremely repetitive, but these are niggles in a very good game. Highly recommended.

BTW, I played and enjoyed Bridge to Another World: The Others, but it is totally unrelated.

     

These days I go everywhere with a carpetbag containing a crowbar, a flashlight, a screwdriver, an oilcan, a ladder, a zipper tab, and a chihuahua.

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For those of you that can tolerate Steam, the Weird Park Trilogy is on sale for under $5 through January 30th.

I’m guessing I’m almost done with the first game, Broken Tune, and although there are a few too many HOS for my taste, the game is quite fun. I’ve logged about 4.5 hours so far without hints or skipped puzzles, so there’s good length there. The HOS are mostly of the list type with a few silhouette scenes thrown in, and the puzzles and mini-games are on the easier side, but varied. Interesting story (at least enough so to keep my interest), no map (the game world is small enough that this really isn’t a problem), no voice acting (again, for me, not a problem), and well done graphics.

I’ve done numerous searches on BFG for top rated games, but this and the other two in the series (Scary Tales and The Final Show Collector’s Edition) have never shown up in those searches. And yet, all three are very highly rated and have glowing reviews on BFG as well as Steam. Weird!

     

Life is too short to drink bad wine…

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So, I just finished the other two games in the Weird Park Trilogy (see previous post above), and they got progressively better than the first, which I thought was pretty good anyway.

The second game (Scary Tales) had a little voice acting this time, which was well done, but still no map. Graphic are top notch. Still too many HOS for my taste, and many (all?) of them get revisited several times. But, the objects are fairly easy to spot with only one instance of mis-identification: a billiard ball was called a spyglass, if I remember correctly! The storyline was pretty good, and even though it could easily be a stand-alone game, it left on a sort of cliff hanger for a tie-in to game three.

The third game (The Final Show) was great! Full VA, and a fast travel map this time. Superb graphics. Really tight story. And it seemed like there were less visits to HOS, but maybe because I was really enjoying the game play. Lots of different puzzles that I hadn’t seen before. There were even mini-games in several of the HOS which added a level of funness.

All in all I spent over 16 hours playing these three games, so while it’s on sale on Steam for $5.00 (linked in previous post), that’s a steal!

 

     

Life is too short to drink bad wine…

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Mike the Wino - 27 January 2017 05:08 PM

So, I just finished the other two games in the Weird Park Trilogy (see previous post above), and they got progressively better than the first, which I thought was pretty good anyway.

The third game (The Final Show) was great! Full VA, and a fast travel map this time. Superb graphics. Really tight story. And it seemed like there were less visits to HOS, but maybe because I was really enjoying the game play. Lots of different puzzles that I hadn’t seen before. There were even mini-games in several of the HOS which added a level of funness.

 

 

So if I only wanted to play one game in the series could I play Final Show and enjoy it without playing the first two?

     
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furgotten - 27 January 2017 11:59 PM

So if I only wanted to play one game in the series could I play Final Show and enjoy it without playing the first two?

You could, as it has the strength to stand on its own. However, a couple characters appear in all three games, and Final Show ties up some loose ends from the first two and explains how one of the characters turned out to be the way he did. So unless you can’t stand Steam (which many people can’t), it’s hard to beat getting all three games for cheap for a couple more days!

     

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I’ve been away and just come back to see this thread on page 3!  We can’t have that.

I hope Tim’s ok and that people are still playing casual games these days.

I’ll have to check to see if there’s some playthrough that’s captured everyone.

     
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Couple of things. One, it isn’t unusual to see a fairly rapid slide if there is no posting to the thread. Two, there was a playthrough going on, although it was an AGCPT with Kathy Rain. Among the notable players were chrissie as leader, me, Lady K, Becky and TimovieMan. Those name should ring a bell.  Smile They’re the major posters here, so that’s an obvious reason for the slide. I’ve had some personal issues. The major one being that my baby girl, well known at the Walgreen’s Pharmacy as “Lacey the dog Rooney” died of a massive heart attack and/or stroke on the Friday before Christmas. It’s hard to say it was unexpected because she had been on heart medication as well as an inhaler for a variant of COPD for close to three years. And, she was twelve years old. I’ve had two cockers live to be 17, but twelve is the average.

As far as playing casual games…I’ve been replaying older games; primarily to keep the AGSOTD/Casual Friday going. I did pick up two new demos, Mystery Trackers - Queen of Hearts and Myths of the World - Bound by the Stone. Both demos are playable for entertainment value, and I will likely buy them both, and will review each when finished them. But neither are “knock your socks off” games that are likely to receive many votes for a CCPT.

Both, by the way, are around the sixth or seventh games in their respected franchises. And you know how I feel about franchise games once they pass the third or fourth game mark. Decline in quality is often dramatic.

And, regrettably, if you go to the BFG site, almost all of the games in the top 30 are “more of the same”. I wish we would start seeing an influx of indie developers in the same way AGs have seem the rise of indies. There were three or four good ones in 2016. Unfortunately when I find a good one, I’m probably more likely to review it on the AGSOTD thread than here, simply because it is more likely to find a wider audience. Perhaps I should re-think my priorities.

I’m also still waiting for someone to take on the role of running the Casual Playthrough thread. I got so pissed off at the lack of participation in the last two that I threw in the towel. Let someone else enjoy the frustration of putting together a playthrough when only three people are participating.

More of an explanation than you expected, or even asked for. But that is the 2017 State of the Union for the Casual Games thread as I see it.

     

For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.

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rtrooney - 15 February 2017 06:48 PM


........ regrettably, if you go to the BFG site, almost all of the games in the top 30 are “more of the same”. I wish we would start seeing an influx of indie developers in the same way AGs have seem the rise of indies.

On occasion when I’m in the mood I fancy playing a CG but I’m met with a ‘wall’ of games with the same old themes of horror, fantasy & paranormal all with a similar look & so as beautiful as the graphics are nothing stands out i.e. they all look the same.

I don’t mind different variations of the same puzzles & do enjoy HO screens in moderation but IMO, to agree with you Tim, CG developers need to be looking at presenting games in a fresher light as regards to art-work & graphics to make their game more visually distinctive to start with. Also, it would be good to see alternatives to the getting to be worn-out story ideas or maybe they could be refreshed by a different approach to the graphics? 

I’ve just played The Wisbey Mystery - it’s a ‘no frills’ game from Russian developers (I think?), voiced in English by Russian? actors with a few translation misdemeanours, a notable lack of puzzles but with a few traditional list HO screens. The story had a lot of potential to be far better than it was but the game flowed along to stand out a little due to being more of a regular mystery which was very enjoyable – there’s just not enough of them!

I’ve also just started playing the demo of Infected: The Twin Vaccine which seems interesting if challenging but I can’t remember if it’s been mentioned on this thread already?   

     
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Tim, I’m so sorry to hear about your dear Lacey.  Frown  I’m a dog fancier myself and have had my share of loss of my furry friends.  Just a year ago I adopted Missy, a maltese/poodle mix, more on the poodley side who’s about 2.  I’m hoping she’ll have a long life like Lacey.  I’ve found that rescuing a new friend shortly after their passing helps a lot with the grieving and actually honors their memory.

Also, I know I contribute little to the thread myself these days.  I’ve become politically active and that’s taking a lot of what’s left of my free time.  I’m hoping to play some games soon and will definitely be checking in.

     
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I really haven’t been able to play many casual games lately, unfortunately. Life has changed in a way so that I have stretches of free time and then stretches of crazy-business with no free time. Sometimes I can predict it, and sometimes I can’t.

I’m hoping that 2017 settles down in a more orderly style and I can get back to playing casuals again!

     

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rtrooney - 15 February 2017 06:48 PM

I’ve had some personal issues. The major one being that my baby girl, well known at the Walgreen’s Pharmacy as “Lacey the dog Rooney” died of a massive heart attack and/or stroke on the Friday before Christmas. It’s hard to say it was unexpected because she had been on heart medication as well as an inhaler for a variant of COPD for close to three years. And, she was twelve years old. I’ve had two cockers live to be 17, but twelve is the average.

I’m sorry you lost Lacey, Tim. It is such a loss even when expected. I usually play as my departed animal friends as they are never far from my thoughts.

     

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chrissie - 16 February 2017 11:37 AM

I’ve also just started playing the demo of Infected: The Twin Vaccine which seems interesting if challenging but I can’t remember if it’s been mentioned on this thread already?

I played that one and liked it quite a bit.  It has a strong story and some humor in it as well. I would say the gameplay is about average. There was a tendency a while back to set games in the US in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. You would end up visiting usually a diner, post office, hospital, school etc. For some reason i liked that kind of thing. Twin VAccine reminds me of another one that is similar called Small Town Terrors: Livingston.

The only caveat is that the premise for this story involves the death of a young girl. This is not a spoiler as it is stated in the beginning; you are searching for the twin that survived in order to develop a vaccine. If that bothers you enough to prevent enjoyment of the game be warned.

     
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We got a new pup. His name is Beamer.

     

For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.

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Awww!  He’s a cutie, Tim!

     

Carpe chocolate.

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