Games of two sorts

[prog]

Has something changed for the better at Games Magazine? This month's issue stands out from previous ones in two ways. First, I found its feature article, about dominoes, significantly more informative and enjoyable than the mag's features earlier this year, which I have found largely fluffy and underwhelming. (I also appreciated that the cover puzzle had a thematic tie with the feature article.)

Second, it contains an honest-to-goodness puzzle hunt! It's pretty simple and an expert solver can probably slam through it in an hour or less (especially if there's a Google nearby) but the format is unmistakable: a set of puzzles, each lacking instructions but boasting a goofy bit of flavor text, whose answers plug into a metapuzzle to reveal the One True Solution. (The puzzles are pretty goofy too... I especially liked the one where you have to translate Goat into English.)

I hope they make a habit of it. They're getting fanmail from me.

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I finally finished Deus Ex. It is a long, long game. I must have spent close to a month hacking my way through it. Fun, though I still wish I started on a harder skill level; almost all the battles were devoid of tension. (The giant security bots can still chop you up good at that level, but getting around them is meant to be more of a puzzle then slogging through the hordes of soft-n-squishy armed goons.)

Observation: the game is made substantially easier by the fact that accessing your inventory pauses the game. So when Big Mean Dude shows up, you can take your time choosing what weapons and equipment to use and which of your expensive superpowers to activate before he even gets a chance to move. The big dramatic fight with the evil twin (more or less) at the start of the endgame was over in less than two seconds, for me. (It involved a cloaking device. And a rocket launcher.)

I chose the most "transhuman" of the three endings offered to you during the finale. I'll probably just let it lie and move onto other things now. Worth the six bucks? Yes. The plot has its "bong-hit philosophy" moments, but is enjoyable enough to follow, and the voice acting is well done. I hope I can play the sequel sometime.

Comments

[cramerica.livejournal.com]

I believe I chose the same ending. I've never played the sequel...

[prog.livejournal.com]

I allowed myself to read a plot sketch of the sequel on WP, and saw with a smile that it occurs in a world where JC made the same choice. We win!

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

I believe I've noticed that Games has improved notably from its rather low-point state of two or three years ago. (For instance, it's no longer the case that every cover is an Ugly Collage.) But then again, they still seem to be printing quite a number of old puzzles; the fact that they get a few truly good puzzlemakers writing for them (i.e. Selinker and Gottlieb) doesn't, to my mind, rescue the entire enterprise. But then, I only glanced through this most recent issue.