Hardcore Droid — This weekend, thanks to a small editorial mix-up, I wound up playing the recent android port of Framed, the indie noir comic puzzler reviewed here by my colleague Nick Walker. Things wound up working out for the best, though, as the game itself turned out to be less interesting to me than the questions it raised in my mind:
What is a puzzle, exactly? How do you define it? What is it not? What constitutes a “puzzle game” — and, crucially, what makes a puzzle game “good”?
Some games test your reflexes. These ones test your delusions of intelligence. In today's feature, Jump Dash Roll lists 11 games that made us feel smarter than we are — however briefly.
I'm generally rather good at puzzle/logic/et al typed games, but The Witness, specifically, made me feel like an obtuse idiot. I got the line puzzle thing for a while, and then the rules became more & more obscure. I gave up without making it particularly far into the game...
Now, I put part of the blame on my own skill, certainly, but also on the game for just...being nothing but 1,000 of the same kind of line draw puzzles the entire time. There are a few cool twists - some I stumble on, others seen in video - but overall, it just wasn't varied enough to make me *want* to overcome the hurdles. It's pretty, but a walking simulator with nothing but line puzzles, and no in-game hint system to help prod you along, was not a winning formula for me at least.
Kudos to those who understood it and felt smart because of it. But this doesn't feel - at least from my experience lol - to be a game on a "make you feel smart, even if you aren't" kinda list.
i was disapointed that there were nothing more beyond the "line" puzzles but i still loved the game. not sure if we could call them in-game hints, but the puzzles are designed to teach you the rules of what you can and can not do. i also like how there was nothing to cheer you up on congratulate you as you progress, it was just about your curiosity and determination. the game treated you with maturity and respect, in a way.
the audio logs were atrocious though and the ending felt totally out of place. still one of the best puzzle game of recent years.
How on earth is "Blue Prince" not on this list? It is, imho, the greatest puzzle game ever made -- I am obsessed with it! I refuse to look up any solutions, making it that much more exciting when I finally crack a puzzle. Highly recommend it to anyone on the fence - an excellent game.
Discover 10 timeless video games from the past that remain absolutely playable today. From Chrono Trigger to DOOM, these classics have aged like fine wine!
Hot damn that's a good list. The only one i never played is AOE2 and i never finshed Chrono Trigger but it was damn good.
Speaking of what's old but holds up amazingly well and plays like a dream.. i played Symphony of the Night for the first time in 2019.. yep that's right. It became one of my favourite games of all time that i replay almost every year. I couldn't believe how good it was. That is almost impossible for me with newer games let alone older ones. Truly a special gem.
The only one I’d disagree with is doom. It shows its age badly I think. After 5 minutes of play these days you put it down.
Jack writes: "Yet again browsing the latest offers in the Steam Spring Sale has led us to track down the very best. In terms of price to quality, we don’t think that it gets much better than this. Portal 2 is now less than a dollar, and if you haven’t got it already, now is the time to pick it up."
Portal deserves to be one of steams highest rated games... It's almost tetris levels of perfect game design.
Gotta love Steam. Just got Portal 2 for .97 cents CAD. Should have been $1.29, selected the bundle with Portal 1 and 2, which gets a 25% discount, already have Portal 1, so it removes the cost of that, and still applies the full 25% bundle discount to Portal 2. 90% + 25% discount.
That's sweet, I've been thinking about building a modest pc to play some oldies
