Things I have played and read recently!
Dec. 31st, 2015 09:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrIncluding a bunch of very cheap games still on sale on Steam, unless the sale is done.
Games:
Contraption Maker: the new Incredible Machine. Make silly Rube Goldberg devices to solve puzzle or just for fun. Has a LOT of very simple tutorial puzzles, which is good because they're pretty much the only ones I could solve haha. And then I made a rainbow of lasers powered by hamsters. Fun! (luckily the zombie levels are skippable)
Frederic Resurrection of Music: Guitar Hero-esque music game where all the songs are remixes of Chopin songs. Has a silly, bloated and intermittently racist plot. Was very cheap, though, and the actual game part is ok. Have only played a little way.
The Bridge: Quiet puzzle "platformer" with Escher like geometry. Have only played a little bit but it was interesting and thus far involves no jumping, just turning the screen so up is down.
Enigmatis 2: Escape from Ravenwood: Supernatural thriller hidden object game with a female protagonist investigating mysterious disappearances at a park. I quite liked it! Something bugged me but I don't remember what, since this is a hidden object game it was probably racism :/
Flight Rising: I realised they'd fed everyone's dragons after an outage, so I poked about the site again and have gotten sucked back in. Am currently figuring out this alchemy thing, since it was introduced just about the time I quit. Popping in for festivals, gathering rare stuff, and selling old rare objects which have appreciated in value is a satisfyingly easy long term strategy I may stick to for a while :)
Blueberry Garden: a cute little puzzle platform exploration game about gathering fruit. You can fly, which made the platforms less annoying, but there is also a time limit, which sucked the joy right out of it for me once I realised. Fun for a little bit.
Books:
When a Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare: cheesy fluffy regency romance where a nerdy English girl with social anxiety invents a scottish soldier fiance to avoid having to go to balls, then ten years later the actual scottish soldier with that name who got all her letters turns up and shenanigans ensue. I really enjoyed this as fluff during a very bad health day but having recovered a bit am finding it difficult to finish. I find heroes with Manly Stereotypical Ethnic Traits irritating, and while a decent guy he is VERY manly and VERY stereotypically scottish, with a moderate amount of associated gender essentialism.
Manga/Anime:
My Little Monster/Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun: An emotionally cool, studious girl gets tangled up with an emotionally volatile, violent, but ultimately sweet guy who turns out to be the only person at the school able to beat her at exams. I watched the anime first then read the manga to see the end of the plot, they fit together nicely but the anime also ends at an ok place. I quite enjoyed it as a good natured shoujo romance/comedy/slice of life with a slightly unusual gender dynamic and a heroine who goes ARGH FEELINGS ARE CONFUSING I SHALL CALM MYSELF WITH MATHSand also is shown holding the hero's chain in cover art. The romance didn't entirely work for me as a ship I felt shmoopy over but I believed it well enough and just enjoyed the characters as an ensemble. Heteronormative and a little pair the spares, with some odd choices of side ships, but valuing friendships to the end. Both leads have crappy, selfish parents who messed them up and while they find happiness on their own terms there's no resolution or catharsis, their parents just go on being crappy. Which is not the worst but also not quite what I was expecting.
Games:
Contraption Maker: the new Incredible Machine. Make silly Rube Goldberg devices to solve puzzle or just for fun. Has a LOT of very simple tutorial puzzles, which is good because they're pretty much the only ones I could solve haha. And then I made a rainbow of lasers powered by hamsters. Fun! (luckily the zombie levels are skippable)
Frederic Resurrection of Music: Guitar Hero-esque music game where all the songs are remixes of Chopin songs. Has a silly, bloated and intermittently racist plot. Was very cheap, though, and the actual game part is ok. Have only played a little way.
The Bridge: Quiet puzzle "platformer" with Escher like geometry. Have only played a little bit but it was interesting and thus far involves no jumping, just turning the screen so up is down.
Enigmatis 2: Escape from Ravenwood: Supernatural thriller hidden object game with a female protagonist investigating mysterious disappearances at a park. I quite liked it! Something bugged me but I don't remember what, since this is a hidden object game it was probably racism :/
Flight Rising: I realised they'd fed everyone's dragons after an outage, so I poked about the site again and have gotten sucked back in. Am currently figuring out this alchemy thing, since it was introduced just about the time I quit. Popping in for festivals, gathering rare stuff, and selling old rare objects which have appreciated in value is a satisfyingly easy long term strategy I may stick to for a while :)
Blueberry Garden: a cute little puzzle platform exploration game about gathering fruit. You can fly, which made the platforms less annoying, but there is also a time limit, which sucked the joy right out of it for me once I realised. Fun for a little bit.
Books:
When a Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare: cheesy fluffy regency romance where a nerdy English girl with social anxiety invents a scottish soldier fiance to avoid having to go to balls, then ten years later the actual scottish soldier with that name who got all her letters turns up and shenanigans ensue. I really enjoyed this as fluff during a very bad health day but having recovered a bit am finding it difficult to finish. I find heroes with Manly Stereotypical Ethnic Traits irritating, and while a decent guy he is VERY manly and VERY stereotypically scottish, with a moderate amount of associated gender essentialism.
Manga/Anime:
My Little Monster/Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun: An emotionally cool, studious girl gets tangled up with an emotionally volatile, violent, but ultimately sweet guy who turns out to be the only person at the school able to beat her at exams. I watched the anime first then read the manga to see the end of the plot, they fit together nicely but the anime also ends at an ok place. I quite enjoyed it as a good natured shoujo romance/comedy/slice of life with a slightly unusual gender dynamic and a heroine who goes ARGH FEELINGS ARE CONFUSING I SHALL CALM MYSELF WITH MATHS
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