More minor game stuff

[amethyst73]

I am glad that Half-Life 2 on Steam had a demo mode.  I liked and was intrigued by the bit of Chapter 1 that they let you play.  I really really really did NOT like the body parts and blood sprawled all over the place by destroying zombies in Chapter 6.   I didn't even complete the demo portion - just quit and uninstalled.  Why don't more games let you have demos?  Like, say, Assassin's Creed 2?

Then to cure the ick factor left over from that, I played a little bit of Kirby's Epic Yarn, which I am charmed by.  Being in the beginning levels, everything is pretty easy, though it's not entirely trivial getting to the hard-to-reach places.  It reminds me of the bits of the Paper Mario games that I've played to some extent - maybe because it's a sidescrolling platformer, maybe because it's got that stupid red curtain, I don't know.  But it's pretty, with bright colors and chirpy music and (mostly) very sound controls.  (I can't reliably turn into a car yet, but it'll likely come.)  As pretty much every review has said, it does a great job of being sweet and charming while never overwhelming you with the sense that "I am a CUTE GAME FOR KIDS!  Popcorn and cotton candy for everyone!!!" 

Nope, not done with Crystal Bearers.  Just taking a bit of a break; and Kirby at 6pmish yesterday fit my feeling-icky sense better than fighting monsters did.

Comments

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

Having watched someone play Kirby's Epic Yarn, I'm really really impressed that they built a whole game on yarn and sewing mechanics the way they built the Paper Mario games on paper folding and flipping mechanics. I'm also impressed that it translates, because I didn't think many people really had much connection to the geometry of sewing and string anymore, so I was impressed that they made it work, and made it coherent, and made it make so much sense to people who _do_ sew. Maybe that's just easier than I think it is, but maybe they've just done a really good job of making those mechanics make sense to lots of people.