Cuphead

So for sticking with me through two weeks of the same game (sort of) the prize is... I played Cuphead!

The first thing I was told about Cuphead when it came out was that it's all hand-drawn animation and in like a 1930s style. The second thing I heard about it was that it is REALLY difficult. Both of these things are true.

It's easy for me to get frustrated with a difficult game and say screw it, I'm going to go do something else. But I stuck with Cuphead longer in one sitting than I expected to. Yes, it's difficult, and yes, it's pretty frustrating, but it's also really fun.

Kerbal Space Program

I was waiting for Birk to be available to help me with this one, because it looks entertaining, but only if you know what you're doing. After failing utterly at Beseige, I knew this game would not be fun if I attempted it on my own.

Hey look, I made a rocket! I sent Jebediah to space and back down, and had him evac once he hit the ground so he could walk around for no reason. That was pretty cool but then I found out they could go to the Moon... I mean, the Mun.

So (with a lot of help from Birk) I built a new rocket with a lunar lander, sent Jebediah, Bill, and Bob into space, learned (again, with a LOT of help from Birk) how the navigation works, then... well, Birk joked that I could evac a crew member before they hit the Mun, and how tragic that would be. So I did it, because I'm a terrible person.

I had taken a shining to Bob (he was my scientist, after all, and I was very insistent that there be science elements on my rockets) and Jebediah was my pilot so I felt like maybe he was necessary to the process of landing, so Bill jumped out of the pod a few hundred thousand meters above the surface of the Mun. He was never recovered.

But there's Jebediah and Bob on the Mun, getting ready to do the highly complex science experiment of "observe the mystery goo." (Turns out, it's less dense on the Mun. Who knew?)

Fallout

Apparently Fallout (the original) was free on Steam today, so Birk downloaded it. We weren't sure if it would stick around after today, so I played it as my game of the day.

I haven't played a lot of games that have looooooong opening cut scenes (or long cut scenes... or really cut scenes at all) so that was new to me. I am, however, familiar with the story of Fallout, so there wasn't any new information, really. I know, I know... war never changes.

It's turn-based, there are a billion cave rats right outside the exit from the vault (and they all want a piece of me), the machete only has a 55% hit chance but the pistol takes five action points... it's just a really slow start without incorporating tutorials. (Luckily, Birk pointed out that F1 gives me a list of key bindings, so I could figure out what I needed to.)

I died shortly after finding the desert entrance, because four scorpions were there waiting for me and it didn't occur to me to heal fully before going to a new area. The death cut scene helpfully informed me that "even the carrion eaters aren't interested in your irradiated corpse." Thanks, Fallout narrator.

Sid Meier's Civilization V

I spent part of my afternoon today as the great and mighty Montezuma, building, expanding, and improving Tenochtitlan. It was okay.

Games like this are simultaneously slow and stressful. I don't know, they aren't really my jam. They're okay though. Nothing close to as bad as something like Lucioball.

I played until I could build a library, then let myself quit.

I only went to war once, and that's only because Stockholm was trying to start something with Sydney while I was busy killing barbarians for Sydney. Cut it out, Stockholm; Sydney has a lot on their plates, okay?

Beseige

I hated this game. I really wanted to like this game but I'm so terrible at it, I hate it.

If you aren't familiar, Beseige is a game where you use engineering skills (of which I am apparently severely lacking) to build something to meet the objectives set before you, usually attacking some sort of establishment.

I nailed the first two (a tiny little cottage and a little wooden... lighthouse? something like that) but the third one had to do with navigating around land mines (and suicidal sheep) and I could NOT figure out how to build something that steered properly. There isn't any tutorial or anything, which I kind of like, because you have to use trial and error to figure out what you can and can't do with the pieces given to you, but at some point I have to wonder if I actually did pass physics in college. (The answer is yes, but not easily.)

Here is the most entertaining thing I managed to do in the game: