July 27, 2023 - Day 208 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 227

Game: The Eternal Cylinder

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Oct 14, 2022
Library Date: Mar 14, 2023
Unplayed: 135d (4m13d)
Playtime: 22m

The Eternal Cylinder is a weird game. It's a weird open-world-ish adventure-slash-survival-slash-puzzle game where you play as a little creature called a Trebhum, and you can consume stuff around you in the environment in order to evolve.

Which you need to do, to try and stay ahead of the giant unavoidable titular "Eternal Cylinder", which literally crushes everything in it's path.

Including you, if you can't get ahead of it, and to one of the towers dotted around the landscape that stop the cylinder. Temporarily.

The alien landscape reminds me of the planets in No Man's Sky, but the weirdest thing on the planet's surface might be the Trebhum. These little spehroidal* creatures start out with two eyes and a snout, which which they consume (left mouse button) and expel (right mouse button) things they find around the environment.

Some of these things help the little Trebhum evolve new abilities. Like suddenly growing legs with which to jump and run away from the giant, world-crushing cylinder.

Fortunately the game autosaves a lot because, y'all gonna need it.

All the while, the game is narrated by a friendly & gentle Englishman (who's actually a New Zealand actor, Peter Hadyen), guiding you through the things you need to do to survive.

The only reason I stopped playing was because I had my late work shift and a co-worker waiting on me to make the actual phone calls due to my lack of actual voice, otherwise I would have continued playing.

The Eternal Cylinder is crushingly:

4: Good

#TheEternalCylinder #OpenWorld #Survival #Adevnture #Puzzler #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

July 26, 2023 - Day 207 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 226

Game: Samudra

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 29, 2021
Library Date: Mar 14, 2023
Unplayed: 134d (4m12d)
Playtime: 21m

Samudra is a sideways scrolling platformer-puzzler set in an underwater world that's riven by pollution.

As the game opens, a young child dressed in a Kruegeresque oversized jumper, shorts, sneakers, and... a diving bell... is sinking to the bottom of the ocean. The further they fall, the worse the pollution becomes, until they finally hit the seabed.

This is a gorgeous game. The graphics look hand-drawn. The lighting effects are wonderful.

Unfortunately, Samudra is beautifully boring with a side-order of frustrating.

The controls are simple: WASD (or controller thumbstick), and space (or button A) for actions.

As you slowly run across the ocean floor -because you're underwater, wearing a diving bell, without any oxygen hose- you will encounter things that trigger a speech bubble containing an icon above your head. There are literally no instructions. Even the "Controls" in the menu says "You have one button. This action button."

Your job is to work out exactly what the hell you're supposed to do, and how... because most of the time, the action button does *nothing*. Until it does. There's no real indication that it's become usable, so I spent a lot of time just mashing it hoping it might suddenly do something.

You can't jump... unless you can. You can't interact with things... unless you can. The game is rendered in a lot of dark, underseas tones, with much of the junk littering the ocean floor rendered in various shades of white.

It turns out there are indicators built into the environment for when actions are available... and they're also white.

Unless they're not available yet, in which case they're a slightly different shade of white.

But it's a 2D sideways-scrolling platformer, so at least that's not confusing. Except when it is.

I found myself standing on top of a crate; jumping down from the crate triggers a quick time event. You have to jump down. There's nowhere else to go. As you land on top of the slope built out of shipping containers, one hurtles down the slope towards you from the right of the screen.

You can't outrun it. You can't jump out of the way. Splat. Splat. Splat. Splat. I couldn't find any way to avoid it. In frustration I alt-tabbed out to find a walkthrough.

It turns out that you need to run *towards* the shipping container, and then use the action button to step into a shadowed nook... in the Z axis.

I have no idea what I'm meant to be doing, but worse still, no idea why. Unfortunately, the beautiful atmosphere and look of this game does not compensate for the lack of fun.

Samudra is:

2: Meh

#Samudra #2D #Platformer #Puzzler #HumbleChoice #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

Hallöchen meine #Mastonauten ich habe inzwischen #Rime beendet und muss schon sagen, es war eine sehr kunstvolle Inszenierung.

Jedoch finde ich sollte hier eine #Triggerwarnung zu den Themen #Depression und #Verlust.

Dennoch war es ein gelungener #Puzzler im #Cartoon-Stil

#sharYourGames #gaming #retroGames #Videospiele #Videogames #IndieGames #zocken #daddeln #SteamDeck #Steam #Rätsel

Keep an eye out for this cool first-person #puzzler Viewfinder coming out for #PC and #PlayStation #gaming #videogame #art #puzzle #adventure

https://churapereviews.com/2023/04/14/gdc-recap-viewfinder/

Hey folks, released a new #CritHitReview today. Specifically my coverage of #indiegamedev
Daniel Benmergu's
's #indie #puzzler - #storyteller Check out the video @ https://youtu.be/Bu2SDZ5uTzQ

I'm annoyed that for three days my favourite online game, #Pieceword, from the #Puzzler Magazine has been unavailable - I think there's something wrong with the entire site because ALL their games lead to a cover page just with blocks of dates, and it goes nowhere.

I may have to console myself with a coffee and a Magnum.

I was filling in a crossword in the #Puzzler magazine from last April (you got me, I was sitting in the loo) and one of the clues made me chuckle. I know what that is, I said to myself. "Large, elephant-like extinct mammal". What could it be?
Hmmm --- Mastodon?
Yep.
#Mastodon #crossword

Stretching out my puzzle muscles so I can get faster at completing them. I worked on two yesterday. This one is 1000 pieces and cashed "The Craft Cupboard" and it has been really fun so far. I may have to get the other two in the series.

#puzzles #jigsawpuzzles #speedpuzzling #puzzler

I have to give a shoutout to one of my favourite online games, #Pieceword.
You don't need to pay but register free just once at the #Puzzler site, and thereafter you can play all their games.
There is no "prize", apart from the enjoyment and satisfaction of solving Pieceword.
Let me know if you give it a try,
https://www.puzzler.com/online-puzzles/pieceword
#games #crosswords #wordpuzzles

Of all the daily games I play, I have to say that I find Pieceword to be most interesting and challenging. It's on the #Puzzler website (You do need to register first time) but they offer a daily puzzle - pieceword and much more. Worth a try.
https://www.puzzler.com/online-puzzles/pieceword
#game #puzzle #pieceword #crossword

Posting this a few places today ...

When the real ...

#quantum #puzzler #qmec

#benaki #benakimuseum #greece #morebenaki #benakimuseumshop #athens #ig #benakishop #ghikas #bird #handmade #aluminaticreations #aluminati #art #museum #painting #alphabetpuzzle #tv #puzzler #artist #exibition #puzzleaddict #sparmatseto #puzzleart #athensvibez #history #puzzlelover #greekalphabet #europe #bhfyp
https://www.europanews20.com/2020/11/greek-museum-benaki-will-hold-online.html