Try-It Tuesday: ADVENTURE TIME Finn & Jake Investigations

Posted on November 8, 2017 by J.L. Hilton

After the month of October, chock full of Halloween creepiness and games like Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, The Town of Light, and BioShock: The Collection, it was time to try something simple and lighthearted this week.

My 13-year-old tried the free demo of ADVENTURE TIME: FINN & JAKE INVESTIGATIONS and asked me to buy the full game and the bonus Artifact Checking adventure with Marceline, so I decided to play it, too.

This game was published in 2015 for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. I’ve seen it referred to as an “action adventure” and I guess that’s accurate, but this isn’t Grand Theft Auto or Assassin’s Creed. It’s rated “E +10” for everyone ten and older.

ADVENTURE TIME: FINN & JAKE INVESTIGATIONS is a kids’ story game with occasional arena style battles but mostly, as the title suggests, investigations. It’s similar to a escape room mobile game, where you explore a very limited map, pick up objects, and figure out how to progress to the next part of the story by using the objects in creative ways.

As someone who’s played a ton of point-and-click puzzle adventure games including Azada, Dream Chronicles, Myst, and Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy, the levels were too easy for me, but I don’t think I’m the target audience. I’ll be playing Clockwork Tales next week, which should be a little more of a challenge.

~ J.L. Hilton

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Try-It Tuesday: UNTIL DAWN Rush of Blood

Posted on November 1, 2017 by J.L. Hilton

My husband got UNTIL DAWN: RUSH OF BLOOD back when he got the PSVR, but we’d forgotten all about it until I found it the other day, still wrapped in plastic. Such serendipity! The perfect game for a Halloween Try-It Tuesday!

Warning: Turn down your volume, I’m a screamer.

This is an arcade survival horror first-person shooter, developed by Supermassive Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment in October 2016. In this spin-off of Until Dawn (which I haven’t played) you ride a twisted roller coaster through a cheesy carnival-style haunted house while shooting at creepy objects and even creepier enemies.

Virtual reality is super cool and I wish the PSVR didn’t make me nauseous and give me a headache. As games go, this was an incredible experience. Really well done. Takes first-person-shooter to a whole new level.

But I don’t usually play horror games, so this was extremely outside of my comfort zone. I don’t mind spooky stuff. I don’t even mind violence. I’ve seen the movies Crimson Peak and Stonehearst Asylum, and every episode of Hemlock Grove and Penny Dreadful. But I don’t like the serial killer clown kind of horror, so I won’t be playing any more of UNTIL DAWN: RUSH OF BLOOD any time soon!

I watched my husband play the second level, which featured a pig slaughterhouse and a pornographic dollhouse. He wore the VR headset and I watched the TV screen. Much better for my blood pressure that way.

UNTIL DAWN: RUSH OF BLOOD is rated “M” for mature audiences, due to blood and gore, intense violence, and strong language.

~ J.L. Hilton

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Try-It Tuesday: THE TOWN OF LIGHT

Posted on October 25, 2017 by J.L. Hilton

With Halloween a week away, I decided to try the psychological horror game THE TOWN OF LIGHT. Developed by LKA, it was released for PC in February 2016 and for consoles earlier this year. The setting is based on an actual mental hospital in Tuscany and the protagonist, Renée, is based on medical files read by the developers.

I usually avoid scary movies and games like the plague, but from what I saw, it lacks jump scares, monsters and blood splatter. The real horror is what human beings do to each other. The most frightening shadows are those within us.

I liked THE TOWN OF LIGHT more than Murdered: Soul Suspect, another story game aka “walking simulator” I played recently. I like first-person POV much more than third-person, but I think it’s more than that.

THE TOWN OF LIGHT felt mature and engaging in a very visceral way, with better storytelling, not just better writing, but the way the environment created a narrative with lighting, sound effects, object placement, and camera angles. Like comparing an Alfred Hitchcock film to Ghost Whisperer. Both enjoyable, but one’s on another level.

I’ve heard that there are four possible endings, depending on choices made in the game. I’m really interested in seeing more than the free demo.

Rated “M” for mature audiences, due to blood, intense violence, language, nudity, and strong sexual content.

~ J.L. Hilton

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Try-It Tuesday: METAL GEAR SOLID V

Posted on October 18, 2017 by J.L. Hilton

I’d never played a Metal Gear Solid game before, so when Playstation offered the 2015 METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN free for PS+ members, I decided to try it. From a few Youtube videos, the game looked like an open world military stealth adventure with really good graphics and a few weird elements, such as hiding in cardboard boxes and capturing things with balloons.

Well, based on the hour-long totally over the top tutorial level, the game is even weirder than that.

As the protagonist, “Snake,” I woke up in a hospital to discover I had no left arm, been in a coma for nine years, and contained over 100 pieces of shrapnel, some of which were other people’s bones and teeth. Then an assassin killed my doctor and nurse with a wire, and a guy without pants (or underwear) helped me escape. We were chased by an army, Pippi Longstocking, a helicopter-eating red whale, and the X-men’s gimp on a flying flame unicorn, but were saved by a cowboy. And, no, this wasn’t a dream sequence.

If that makes any sense to you, maybe you’ve played a Metal Gear Solid game before. Honestly, the whole thing felt like someone had watched an 8-year-old boy play with a box of old toys at a yard sale and then turned that into a video game prologue.

When I got past the crazy intro and the actual game started, I picked flowers and went on a mission to return a man’s sunglasses. At that point, it was pretty much like Dishonored, without the corpse-eating rats, lore books, bath salts, and crumbling Victorian architecture. Sneak around, kill people, hide bodies.

From what I understand, if I continue playing, I’ll have my own secret base where I can kidnap soldiers to work for me, punch them for morale, and ogle a woman who’s medically required to wear a bikini.

Rated “M” for mature audiences, with blood and gore, intense violence, sexual themes, and strong language.

THE PHANTOM PAIN also used this amazing song, written by David Bowie, which somehow I’d never heard before.

~ J.L. Hilton

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Try-It Tuesday: THE DEADLY TOWER OF MONSTERS

Posted on October 11, 2017 by J.L. Hilton

Today I sampled a 2016 retro sci-fi game called THE DEADLY TOWER OF MONSTERS that pays humorous tribute to such classics as King Kong, Flash Gordon, Planet of the Apes, Forbidden Planet, and the stop-action animation of Ray Harryhausen.

This top-down shooter plays like a 1970s B-movie that’s been re-released on DVD. A “director’s commentary” offers gameplay narration that lampoons video game and sci-fi cliches, while we “watch” (play) the adventures of space explorer Dick Starspeed and the mysterious Scarlet Nova.

Buy for PS4

I’m not usually a fan of isometric button-mashers, but as someone who grew up with science fiction movies and who writes science fiction, I loved this game.

The demo was free on PS4 but I may have to buy the full game, which is available on PS4 and PC. Rated “T” for teens. Price: $14.99 (as of 10/10/2017).

~ J.L. Hilton

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Try-It Tuesday: MURDERED Soul Suspect

Posted on October 4, 2017 by J.L. Hilton

My first Try-It Tuesday game for October is the ghostly MURDERED: SOUL SUSPECT developed by Airtight Games and published in 2014 by Square Enix.

Ronon O’Connor is a detective who must solve his own murder from beyond the grave in Salem, Massachusetts. This is a third-person mystery story game that mixes a bit of Ghost Whisperer with The Crow and Dick Tracy.

It felt like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story without any actual choices. I’m not much of a fan of “games” that are more movie than game. I would have enjoyed MURDERED: SOUL SUSPECT more as an open-world action-adventure game with fewer quicktime events and cutscenes. Supernatural powers, like poltergeist and possession, were cool concepts but underused.

Rated M for “mature,” with blood, intense violence, strong language, and alcohol use.

~ J.L. Hilton

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Billie Lurk returns in DISHONORED: Death of the Outsider

Posted on September 29, 2017 by J.L. Hilton

DEATH OF THE OUTSIDER is the latest game in the Dishonored franchise, developed by Arkane Studios, published by Bethesda Softworks, and released September 15, 2017, for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

In this installment, former assassin Billie Lurk rescues her mentor Daud, who asks her to kill the Outsider, a supernatural being who spreads chaos throughout the Empire. But is the Outsider really to blame for evil? Or is he just a convenient scapegoat for the dark urges within us all?

I concluded the story in eleven livestreaming sessions, which are available for viewing on my Youtube channel.

I was really stoked to see Daud and Billie again in DEATH OF THE OUTSIDER. When I played the original Dishonored and its expansions, Knife of Dunwall and Brigmore Witches, I liked Daud more than Corvo, and I liked Billie more than Emily in Dishonored 2.

A pile of sleeping NPCs hidden in a small room near the bridge in Death of the Outsider

DEATH OF THE OUTSIDER did not disappoint me. I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed Dishonored 2. The levels were well-designed, challenging and engaging, and the writing exceptional. I cared not only about Billy and Daud, but minor characters, too. I listened to every recording, and read every note and every book I could find. Mad props to Hazel Monforton and Anna Megill.

Farewell, Daud.

~ J.L. Hilton

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Game review: Dishonored aka What Thief Should Have Been
Game review: Dishonored DLC shines like a rune in the void
Game review: DISHONORED 2 as Emily Kaldwin in High Chaos

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Try-It Tuesday: JOB SIMULATOR

Posted on September 27, 2017 by J.L. Hilton

For this weeks’ Try-It Tuesday, I not only tried a new game, I tried the PSVR for the very first time with JOB SIMULATOR by Owlchemy Labs.

In JOB SIMULATOR, it’s 2050 and robots are fascinated by the lives of the humans they’ve replaced. Players can experience amusing “re-enactments” of what it’s like to be a chef, office worker, convenience store clerk, and auto mechanic.

I couldn’t use the PSVR for very long without feeling nauseous, but I still had fun.

Rated “E +10” for everyone ten and older.

~ J.L. Hilton

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Try-It Tuesday: THE CREW

Posted on September 20, 2017 by J.L. Hilton

Starfish central gaming joined me from the UK via PS4 party chat for this week’s Try-It Tuesday livestream of THE CREW, an action-driving game developed by Ivory Tower and published by Ubisoft in December 2014.

I barely scratched the surface, but THE CREW seems to be a fun combination of story, mini-games, vehicle customization, and open world exploration from coast to coast across the US, with landscapes and landmarks that offer a vivid road trip simulation.

The game can be played alone or with a crew of friends. And, unlike other MMOs, there doesn’t seem to be much of a chance for players to harass or grief each other.

THE CREW 2 is scheduled for release in March 2018.

~ J.L. Hilton

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Try-It Tuesday: UNRAVEL

Posted on September 16, 2017 by J.L. Hilton

This week I tried UNRAVEL, a side-scrolling puzzle platformer made by the Swedish company Coldwood Interactive and published by Electronic Arts in February 2016 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows.

Try the free PS4 demo

This is a very sweet game with a soothing soundtrack that reminded me of Journey and Flower.

Similar to Little Big Planet, you play as a little doll. This one is made of yarn, aptly named “Yarny,” who unravels as you travel through the world. Yarny’s yarn is an important part of the experience, used to lasso, climb, pull weeds, swing, and build bridges.

UNRAVEL is rated “E” for everyone but can be a bit dark, frightening and emotional at times, and the puzzles may be difficult for young children.

UPDATE May 2018: I played through the entire game, which you can watch on my YouTube channel.

UPDATE June 2018: Unravel 2 is available!

~ J.L. Hilton

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