My friend Starfish from Starfish_central gaming channel, joined IceStella, SulfurFurious and myself for another FALL GUYS multiplayer session back in September.
It’s such a fun game to play with friends!
Starfish had an amazing moment on the Slime Climb, which you can see in the highlight, above, and there are three longer videos from the livestream that I edited and uploaded recently to my YouTube channel.
(I’m loving DaVinci Resolve btw – and it’s free!)
~ J.L. Hilton
aka “Jewelsmith”
My family gave me WOLFENSTEIN II: THE NEW COLOSSUS in 2018 but due to some serious health crises and major life events, I didn’t get a chance to play until 2020. I knew you shot Nazis. That’s all I knew.
I’d played the original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple ][ computer with a green screen monitor way back in the early 1980s, but never played any other Wolfenstein games before.
I finished WOLFENSTEIN II recently and loved the characters, story, music and game mechanics. I had a challenging, emotional but enjoyable experience enhanced by smooth controls and superb design. It’s up there with God of War, Fallout 4, Skyrim, BioShock and Dishonored on my list of favorites.
I like stealth in video games (usually, not always) and the stealth in WOLFENSTEIN II is really good. Sound effects and audio balance are essential for good stealthing, especially since you can’t see through walls (like Dishonored), you can’t use VATS (like Fallout 3 or Fallout 4) and you don’t even get any little red dots on a compass. WOLFENSTEIN II relies entirely upon your powers of listening, observation and timing.
The AI is not perfect but its the best I’ve ever seen in a video game. NPC’s don’t just patrol in a set pattern or stay in one spot, their behavior changes in response to your actions. They WILL see, hear and search for you. It’s not easy to hide.
Levels are intense and stealth won’t work everywhere. I don’t usually play “run and gun” games or shooters like Doom or Call of Duty so I had to git gud to pass a few tough spots (like the courtroom escape).
My favorite weapon in WOLFENSTEIN II was probably the schockhammer, a triple-barreled fully automatic shotgun with real stopping power. But hatchets, grenades, lasers, rifles, pistols, flamethrower and machine guns all had their uses. Choosing and improving the right tools for the job reminded me a bit of the BioShock weapon wheel and upgrade system.
There are stealth, mayhem and tactical perks, earned by completing certain actions in the game. I went heavier on stealth and mayhem, getting a few tactical perks for headshots and setting things on fire.
I am in awe of the level design, because when you’re doing the main story, you go through the levels in one direction. But when you come back for side missions, like killing the ubercommanders, you start at the other end and go backwards. It blows my mind how they set things up to work in both directions, including special features of the environment for stealth, taking cover during combat, or using the Ramshackles, Battle Walker and Constrictor contraptions.
Cutscenes usually annoy me and bog down gameplay. But the cutscenes in WOLFENSTEIN II happened between levels and didn’t interrupt the action. I found myself looking forward to them and getting emotionally invested in William Joseph “B.J.” Blazkowicz and the crew of Eva’s Hammer.
Having recently played The Outer Worlds, I couldn’t help comparing the random encounters on board the Unreliable to those on board Eva’s Hammer. WOLFENSTEIN II did it right. Rather than telling me where to go and what to see every time I entered the ship and repeating the same encounters over and over, I witnessed unique crew interactions and found little side quests while wandering around on my own. It felt much more realistic and natural, and more personal, with much more depth to the writing and performances.
Every word of WOLFENSTEIN II felt real and believable, in spite of the crazy alternate-history science fiction setting and some of zany plot twists, because the writing and performances were so good. This was a case where a voiced protagonist was used to great effect, not just to offer in-game tutorial and bland observations, but to set the emotional tone of a given mission and to help me connect with the protagonist I inhabited. In this, I was reminded of how I felt playing Daud in the Dishonored DLC, Knife of Dunwall and Brigmore Witches.
Perhaps it comes down to the talent of the voice actor, Brian Bloom. But I have to give credit to the other characters I loved, too, including Fergus Reid (Gideon Emery), Grace Walker (Debra Wilson), Horton Boone (Christopher Heyerdahl) and others. Even the smallest parts were delivered with sincerity, while so many other games sound like they grabbed someone off the street to read lines hastily scribbled on a white board.
I connected with WOLFENSTEIN II more than I ever expected I would, from its gameplay elements to its story to its deep emotional beats. It wasn’t just a shooter – though that part was a blast – it was so much more.
~ J.L. Hilton
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I played Glass Masquerade in January 2020, but the sequel and DLC weren’t available for PlayStation 4, at that time. So, I ended up buying the game again for PC, along with all of the add-ons, the free Lunar Year and Christmas Day puzzles, and the sequel GLASS MASQUERADE 2: ILLUSIONS.
I loved the first Glass Masquerade, which had a “world’s fair” theme featuring Art Deco style stained-glass clock puzzles in various shapes, with artwork inspired by several different countries and cultures. The DLC packs, Inceptions and Heritages, expanded on that theme.
GLASS MASQUERADE 2: ILLUSIONS is a kind of nightmare mash-up of H.P. Lovecraft and Lewis Carroll. Which sounds good, but didn’t end up being as charming or engaging as the original.
Some of the puzzles were lovely but most were strange to the point of being confusing, indiscernible, and unrelated to anything I knew about mythology, monsters, folklore or literature. Many didn’t look like stained glass, either, more like watercolors or magic marker.
The text attempted to be mysterious and intriguing, I guess, but either bad translation (developer Onyx Lute is in Russia) or bad writing made it sound like pretentious nonsense. I’d hoped for a story of some kind, explaining how I ended up in the dream world and what was happening in each picture.
You get better explanations with the DLC, particularly the Temptations expansion, which at least names the various characters – harpy, gorgon, succubus, vampiress, etc.
I’ve seen GLASS MASQUERADE 2: ILLUSIONS rated “E” for everyone online, but based on the difficulty, sexual suggestiveness and dark themes of the puzzles in this sequel and its DLC, I would put it at “T” for teens.
In spite of my criticisms, GLASS MASQUERADE 2: ILLUSIONS is still a decent game for the price, if you enjoy jigsaw puzzles. It’s only $4.99 on Steam (last I checked) and the Temptations and Revelations expansion puzzle packs are $1.99 each.
~ J.L. Hilton
aka “Jewelsmith”
For Halloween, IceStella and I discussed customs in the UK and US, horror movies, books, video games, recipes, Frankenstein, Stephen King, 90s goth, Doctor Who, Gary Oldman, and more. Just a couple of geeky gamer moms hanging out.
Several of my regular YouTube and Twitch viewers seem to enjoy the chatting as much or more than the gaming, so we thought we’d try out this sort of podcast or radio talk show format.
Recorded October 25, 2020, using PlayStation chat while I ran Fallout 4, and my sole survivor Fiona stood staring at a window in Sanctuary Hills (thus the occasional radstorm or strange noises in the background).
I broke the session up into three episodes for YouTube. Here are parts 2 and 3, below.
~ J.L. Hilton
aka “Jewelsmith”
I played GLASS MASQUERADE at the beginning of 2020 and I loved it.
For more info see JLHilton.com/2020/01/glass-masquerade
The bonus puzzles and sequel, Glass Masquerade 2: Illusions, were not available for PlayStation 4, so I bought the game again on PC and played through the beautiful Halloween DLC, with stained glass puzzles for Ireland (Halloween jack-o-lantern pumpkins), Poland (Witch), Romania (Vampire), Japan (Obon) and Mexico (Dia de Muertos).
The entire Halloween expansion is only 99 cents if you own the main game, which is currently $4.99 on Steam.
~ J.L. Hilton
aka “Jewelsmith”
I made these Halloween-themed printable inserts for my kids’ Guess Who? game back in 2014. They work with the kind of game that has a 4×6 grid of little windows that open and close.
This set features jack-o-lanterns and nothing scary (no witches, vampires, zombies, ghosts, etc).
SPOILER ALERT: I mention a few plot points but try to be vague and speak in generalizations.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is one of my favorite games of all time, so THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT gets recommended to me a lot.
Since the game came out in 2015, I’ve watched a few live streams and let’s play videos, and read a bit about it, but WITCHER 3 just didn’t grab me. It should have, since I love fantasy and open worlds. I prefer first-person games and creating my own characters, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying God of War. I didn’t want to devote hundreds of hours of my life to another game… but ended up doing that with Fallout 4, anyway.
So, why did I avoid WITCHER 3 for so long? After watching The Witcher on Netflix, I bought the game on sale and finally gave it a try.
The above video is from my first Try-It Tuesday livestream of WITCHER 3 on Twitch. After that, I streamed about a hundred hours, which I edited into highlight videos on my YouTube channel.
<<See my WITCHER 3 playlist here>>
WITCHER 3 is a very rich game and I can understand why people like it. There’s a massive amount of stuff to do and I enjoyed the exploration. Much of the game is very well-written, with depth, detail and emotion.
I appreciate that the protagonist isn’t a savior. He’s not The One. He’s not the only Dragonborn or the sole survivor. Geralt is just one of several exterminators who specialize in supernatural pests, like a Ghostbuster.
“Who ya gonna call? The Witchers!”
Geralt is disliked and distrusted by many, and the more time I spent with him, the more I disliked him, too. Henry Cavill was great in the Netflix show, but when I don’t like a video game protagonist, it’s hard for me to enjoy the game.
(Same problem I had with BioShock: Infinite and to a lesser extent, Horizon Zero Dawn.)
As I played WITCHER 3, I sometimes enjoyed it, sometimes hated it, but I kept going. For awhile.
After all the hype I’d heard about WITCHER 3 being “perfect,” I was surprised to encounter so many glitches, such as quests that wouldn’t progress or didn’t make sense, confusing dialog, characters sinking into the ground, messed up merchants, and rewards not received.
Many “choices” seemed to provide only the illusion of choice. For example, I detested one of the “sexy” characters in the game and tried to avoid her, but the game seemed designed to make Geralt fall for her charms, regardless. Ick.
Clunky controls felt like a game designed for PC then later mapped to a console controller, and not very well. God of War was not an easy game, but I never felt like the game itself got in my way. In WITCHER 3, I fought with the game controls not just the enemies, and no amount of gitting gud would overcome that.
The gameplay loop of fight, loot, repair, repeat, got me thinking I would make a lot more money, with a lot less effort, if Geralt gave up witchering and became a florist or an herbalist. I could gather flowers and herbs, and sell them, without wrecking Geralt’s weapons and armor for… what? I wasn’t earning goodwill. I wasn’t getting rich. Everyone I tried to help seemed to be doomed, anyway.
Skyrim has its dark corners and twisted tales, too, but it also had opportunities to make meaningful choices and to do good in the world. Try to do the right thing in WITCHER 3, and it’s always fucked up. You are always damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Plague, war, rape, misogyny, suicide, domestic violence, miscarriage, injustice, oppression, kidnapping, slavery, cannibalism and torture aren’t my ideas of fun. The excessive violence against women in WITCHER 3 made me uncomfortable. Women killed by lovers, husbands, angry mobs. Every dead wraith had a sad story.
The suicide of a major character was the last straw for me, making it too emotionally overwhelming to enjoy. Fuck anyone who wants to use the word “triggered” lightly. I’m almost 50 years old and I’ve seen some shit. I’ve been diagnosed with PTSD and yes, being triggered is a real thing. It’s not a goddamn joke. I play video games to forget about that bullshit for a little while or to enjoy the fantasy of kicking its ass.
But WITCHER 3 seemed to wallow in its misery and I couldn’t take it any more.
May 10, 2020, was my last livestream of this game, and I won’t be going back. “Tragic End” (below) is the final highlight video from that stream.
THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT is rated “M” for mature audiences, ages 17+, due to blood and gore, intense violence, nudity, strong language, strong sexual content and use of alcohol. It’s available for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
~ J.L. Hilton
I didn’t find out about DARKARTA: A BROKEN HEART’S QUEST until a representative from Tutti Frutti Interactive offered me a review copy earlier this month. The game came to PC in 2017 but mobile versions in eight languages are now being released for Android and iOS.
Other than the free review copy, I was not offered nor given any form of incentive, compensation or payment to play this game. As with all of my Try-It Tuesday posts, these are my honest opinions.
I’ve played a lot of hidden object puzzle adventures over the years and this is one of the best. The scenes are beautiful and the puzzles are incredible to look at, as well as being challenging, engaging, complex, fresh and fun. The music fits the game, especially the tune in the memories room that made me want to burst into tears.
DARKARTA is not only a story about a love triangle that spans lifetimes but is also very much about a mother’s love. Mary must find and rescue her little girl Sophia from an evil immortal. She discovers ghosts, magic, treasure, and the dark secrets from her past life along the way.
A helpful in-game journal provides character descriptions and information, in case the player ever misses anything or feels confused by the story. I noticed a few minor typos and grammatical errors but I thought, overall, the story and voice acting were much better than other HOPA games I’ve played.
There were moments near the end that seemed like they were supposed to be dramatic revelations, yet the information had already been explained by the journal or provided earlier in the game. The conclusion felt a bit rushed and incomplete but the real resolution comes at the end of the bonus chapter, Rising of the Phoenix, so make sure to play that, too.
DARKARTA has four difficulty modes, including a “custom” difficulty where you can adjust several different aspects of the experience, such as the hint recharge rate and the appearance of sparkle clues. I wish every point-and-click puzzle game had this.
Puzzles can be skipped but I didn’t take that option. I found the hidden objects, locks and other mini-games challenging but not impossible.
Inventory items can be used more than once! Hooray! If you’ve watched me play other HOPA games, you’ll know how frustrated I get when knives, axes, scissors, matches and other useful objects just disappear. I know that’s how these games usually work but I’ve long wanted a more realistic experience. At least in DARKARTA, when Mary loses her inventory, it’s because she’s had a boat accident or something that makes sense.
Speaking of making sense, in many puzzle games, the things you have to do with the objects and environment are just crazy. I once played a game where I had to put a corked gourd on some lava so the cork would shoot across a ravine. WTH? In DARKARTA, the environmental interactions aren’t so bizarre. An ax chops wood, stones are thrown to knock something down, a pocket knife cuts a cord, etc.
The only technical problem I had with DARKARTA is the fact that hovering the cursor near the bottom of a scene or puzzle gives the “go back” prompt, when I’m just trying to click a hidden object or pick up something. This got a bit annoying after about the tenth time I accidentally left a puzzle or location. Usually, my puzzle progress would be saved and I wouldn’t have to do it over again, but it was still frustrating.
The collector’s edition comes with several bonus features. Mini-games and hidden object puzzles can be replayed. You can listen to the soundtrack or download wallpaper images. There’s even a full-length prequel comic book that tells the story of the main characters’ childhoods.
I think the developers put a lot of love and attention into DARKARTA and I look forward to playing more games from Tutti Frutti Interactive.
DARKARTA is rated “E” for everyone on GooglePlay but I couldn’t find an age rating on the ESRB website. I think it’s best for ages 12+ as the violence (stabbing and fighting in flashback scenes), spooky aspects (skeletons, ghosts, etc), child abduction and frequent visions of Sophia crying for her mother may be distressing to young children.
~ J.L. Hilton
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Despite its name, MODERN TALES: AGE OF INVENTION is set in the year 1900. As one might expect with steampunk, there are steam trains, airships and crazy gadgets.
Emily Patterson is a headstrong, independent and educated female protagonist, who ditches skirts and corsets in favor of men’s clothing. She uses a parachute, understands chemistry, and repairs pipes, flat tires and telegraph lines. When presented with a freshly-caught fish, she says, “I’m no housewife!”
When her father and his colleagues go missing from the Paris expo, Emily pursues a suspicious character named d’Albignac who blackmails inventors and steals their inventions. This reminded me a little bit of the 2015 movie April and the Extraordinary World, which is also a steampunk story about a daughter’s adventure with disappearing scientists.
In MODERN TALES, Albert Einstein is a love interest who helps Emily steal an airship from Zeppelin himself. Coco Chanel is a fashionable friend. Ferdinand Porsche sells Emily a car.
But don’t expect MODERN TALES to be a history lesson. I Googled things that appeared in the game, such as duct tape, disc records and airplanes. A non-adhesive form of “duck tape” was in use in 1900, but the sticky version didn’t actually come along until years later. Disc record players existed but many people still had phonographs with wax cylinders in 1900. And despite d’Albignac’s clever plane/snowmobile, the first airplane flight didn’t actually happen until 1903, with stable, sustained flight in 1905.
The story and voice acting are a bit cheesy, typical of games in this genre. The scenes are lovely but the characters seem slapdash at times and look as if they’re drawn by different artists from scene to scene.
The images above are all Coco Chanel. The images below are the protagonist, Emily. I like her promotional image (left) much more than her actual in-game character. Is she a blonde? A redhead? What’s wrong with her boobs?
Overall, I had a good time with MODERN TALES. I found its quirks and anachronisms amusing. The puzzles and hidden object games are fun, the game controls are easy to use, and I didn’t experience any glitches or gameplay issues. I played on expert difficulty and the challenges felt balanced, neither too easy nor too difficult.
Don’t miss the bonus chapter, unlocked after playing the main game. Things get really bizarre!
MODERN TALES is a 2017 hidden object puzzle adventure, developed by Orchid Games and published by Artifex Mundi for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch. Rated E 10+ for ages 10 and up.
See all of my Artifex Mundi videos here
~ J.L. Hilton
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DREAM DADDY: A DAD DATING SIMULATOR is a visual novel video game released in 2017 for PC. The expanded Dadrector’s Cut was released for PlayStation 4 in 2018 and a Nintendo Switch version in 2019.
I heard about DREAM DADDY because I’m a fan of Game Grumps, the publisher, but I didn’t get around to playing the game until May 2020.
In DREAM DADDY, you’re a single dad who moves to a new neighborhood with his high school daughter. You can create and customize your dad with a variety of options, including body hair, facial hair, glasses, clothing, binder, hairstyles and more.
You have the opportunity to meet and romance a variety of dudes, including a Goth Dad, Teacher Dad, Bad Dad, Cool Dad, Fitness Dad and others. But the story is also about your relationship to your daughter, Amanda, and you can get different endings depending on how you interact with her.
There are dialog choices in DREAM DADDY, and you can choose who you date, but there’s not much choice about who you are. The protagonist is written as a messy, sarcastic loner interested in reality TV and junk food. I don’t usually play visual novels, so maybe that’s just how they are, but it kind of sucked for me.
And I get that this is a story game so, y’know, story. But this game had an awful lot of “um” “sure” “hey” and rambling conversations that made me all too painfully aware of how much I was clicking … and clicking … and clicking to get through them. If this visual novel was just a novel, it would be in sore need of an editor.
DREAM DADDY was a unique little romp with funny mini-games but not interesting enough to play all over again. I got the good ending with Amanda and the romantic ending with Brian (Rival Dad), my favorite, then I reloaded my last save and did the romantic ending with Hugo (Teacher Dad), a close second.
I didn’t like the rivalry with Brian though. It made the protagonist seem really petty and immature. I wish they’d had Brian be Cuddly Dad or Confident Dad or something.
DREAM DADDY is rated “T” for teens due to sexual themes, language, use of alcohol and tobacco.
~ J.L. Hilton
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