Update 6

 Well, I have been pretty sick for the last week with a bad cough. Not sure if I caught what my family had when they visited or something else. I will go to see the doctor tomorrow. Fortunately, although I haven't felt great mentally during this period I haven't felt terrible either so video gaming has been proceeding.

I forgot to mention in the last update but the part of the challenge that has to do with freezing spending on games has also been a success. I guess I have so many new games to play that it hasn't felt like much of a challenge. I just haven't felt much desire at all to spend on new games.

On the other hand, the vague third part of the challenge that has to do with somehow categorizing games or like doing write ups of where I am at with them hasn't really gotten too far. But of course as I mentioned I am not taking this part of the challenge too seriously.

As for the playing daily games, I have been going along with it although I did have a slight glitch last Thursday the 16th. Just delayed playing my challenge game while journaling (which I have done other days with no problem) but in the evening I just wasn't feeling great and just decided to go to bed early.

So here are the games I have been playing this last week.

Monday Jan 13th: House of Da Vinci 1 35 minutes. So back in December I did end up paying for da vinci 1 and 3 in the winter sale. I actually wasn't intending to play this as my challenge game because it doesn't feel that new since I played and finished 2. Basically though I just clicked on it wanting to look at the game's page and somehow the game started so I just decided to roll with it. It is very similar to the 2nd game but there are some issues that seemed to have gotten revised and improved. One of these is that both games involve some manipulation of time. However in this first game when you go to do this you have to pass a kind of check where you draw some lines. It is really pretty pointless. So that is something that is a bit better in the second game. The other thing is not really that important in a way. It's more about presentation than gameplay. Both games feature the ability on some puzzles to have some kind of x-ray vision that will help you solve them. In the second game these x ray interior parts are always tied to something that you can see and manipulate without using the x ray vision. I don't mean that there is any indication that you need to use the x ray vision but rather when you manipulate the mechanism it is always clear what you are interacting with. In the first game the x-ray portion is manipulated without any normally visible components on the surface. Like I said, it's not really problematic gameplay wise but it is kind of immersion breaking because it doesn't make any sense. So that is a way the second game is better also. I played this some more on the following days.

Tuesday Jan 14th: Creaks 35 minutes: this is a puzzle platformer with a very interesting art style. Basically it is kind of like a drawing of a very complicated and cluttered house with all these ladders and jumps and gaps. There is all kinds of stuff like skis, horshoes, clothes, etc kind of filling up space in this weird house. There are some kinds of enemies (mostly robotic dogs so far). And you proceed through a series of puzzles. So I feel a bit mixed about this game. I definitely like the art style. And I felt the puzzles were good in that they were making me think but they didn't feel impossible. I also think the game has a sense of mystery and there has been some teasing that more will be revealed so there seems like there might be a bit of story emerging. So those were all positives. On the other hand the puzzles often involve some reaction time and some precision in moving and positioning your character. This means that sometimes, even when you have figured out how to solve the puzzle that you will end up having to redo it several times if you aren't fast enough or don't position your guy right. This is kind of a turn off for me. I guess in some ways it is just inherent in the genre but I just hit my limit fairly quickly.

Wednesday Jan 15th: A weird experience called Dagon. 34 minutes. Basically this isn't really a game. It is a free HP Lovecraft story done up as a visual, very slightly interactive experience. Basically there is not a whole lot to to do. You proceed through the story by clicking things on the screen that are clearly marked. I only played for a bit over half an hour and I finished it. The only real game-like element is that there are some hidden things you can click on to get trivia about Lovecraft or the story or some of the stuff in the story. I was looking for them but missed like 3/4 of them. So I guess technically I could squeeze more time out of this if I decided to replay it and search for all the trivia markers. But overall there just didn't seem to be a whole lot to this one but as I said it was free so I don't have any complaints.

Thursday Jan 16th: nothing

Friday Jan 17th: Observation 56 minutes. This is kind of a freaky game. It is kind of like psychological horror in a way. There are no enemies so far. Basically you are an AI on a damaged space station after some sort of event. Basically there is one survivor who is trying to use you to get things back up and running. The horror comes from the psychological pressure of feeling like something terrible happened and you have to help this person cope and survive. (There are no dead bodies, the other crew are just missing). And the survivor is obviously like freaked out and like trying to use you to solve problems but like a lot of your systems have been damaged. Some of the things you have to do are on a timer so that also adds to the pressure. But I failed those and it wasn't game over so it doesn't seem punishing. So there is just this sort of dread. Overall I would say it is well done but I feel a bit mixed about putting myself in that position more. I think maybe it is a game for the right mood.

Saturday Jan 18th: Neva 35 minutes. This is a stylish platformer. You play as a woman forest guardian type with a wolf to accompany you. So far it seems like the wolf doesn't do anything like fight or anything but just accompanies you but you can interact with it some. Basically the art style is nice. It's like a water color forest with some evil corruption in some places. I felt the intro section / tutorial was a bit too long. There is a lot of running without much going on. Feel a bit mixed on the gameplay. It seems ok but not like amazing. There seems to be a lot of just basic movement and jumping and stuff. The enemies so far have been pretty easy although I did get to a boss where I died several times and ended up putting it down (on a later play session). One attraction for some people might be that there is a story mode so if you don't want to worry about dying but just enjoy the art and story then you can.

On Saturday I actually decided to do make up games for the 1st and the 16th. So I played Detroit Become Human and an English Haunting.

Detroit Become Human 51 minutes. This a very slick, realistic graphics game about androids. Basically it is trying to present some of the problems of having these androids be part of society. But it is from the view point of the androids. So a lot of it is about the "injustices" these androids face. There are some obvious references to racial segregation with androids having to stand at the back of the bus while there are many seats free. Overall I feel mixed. I got it thinking it would deal with the issue of the humanity of androids more from like an action oriented kind of game. Maybe something more like Blade Runner. Basically it seems like there are multiple threads where you will play as several different androids in different situation. So some of what you do is more action oriented (hostage negotiation) but some of it is like cleaning up the house of an alcoholic single father. So I kind of feel like it is already starting to make some choices (like comparing androids to African Americans) that seem pretty questionable and I kind of feel like it is signalling that it might end up being kind of preachy or emotionally manipulative. So basically I feel mixed. Part of me is wanting to see where it goes but some warning signals are kind of flashing already.

An English Haunting 69 minutes. I like this one. It is a pixel graphics point and click about a professor ghost investigator whose partner seems to have run off with a big chunk of money that was donated to help them do their work. I like this kind of game where it isn't really about combat but like solving puzzles and mysteries and like interacting with people. (That said it's not like I am opposed to combat in games at all, just sometimes like to play these slower paced games). See myself giving this more play time.

Sunday January 19th. Persona 5 Royal 60 minutes. I liked this one significantly better than I was expecting to. Basically for some reason during the winter sale last december I decided I was going to try to buy some "classic" JRPGs to kind of try out this genre and see for myself if I like it. I found a reddit thread and read the comments and decided on three games. One was Chrono Trigger, the second was Dragon Quest XI, and the third was this one. I tried out Chrono Trigger and didn't feel that hipped on it. I had some mixed impressions of this Persona game and was starting to feel some remorse about getting these games. But it seemed significantly different than Chrono Trigger so I wanted to give it a try but my hopes weren't very high. But basically so far I am enjoying it. It is basically an anime in video game format. The first hour was very heavy on like exposition, dialogue, world building that kind of stuff. So we will just have to see how it evolves if the gameplay takes up a bigger chunk in the future. But I felt engaged and like I want to continue with it.

So, still feeling positive about this challenge. Feel like it was the right choice to "break the seal" on these games (as I put it in an earlier post). I am feeling happy. I think part of it just has to do with the fact that the first half an hour to an hour of a video game is pretty stress free usually. It's mostly just getting you into the swing of things. So there hasn't been a lot of frustration with like getting stuck or whatever.