Reseñas recientes de Bassem

At its simplest, Papers Please is a "find the difference" game. At face value, it's about passport control at a border and finding anomalous passports that don't match their people. But it's a lot more than that, if you want it to be.

As an immigration and border control officer, you hold much power, for better or worse. Apply strict control and you may prevent a terrorist from entering the country, but you may also turn away a woman who's trying to get to her husband. Act with more humanity and you may help someone who will help you back, but you may also be reprimanded and lose vital income, or worse.

The game's art and presentation are perfect for its dystopian, dehumanising theme.

A seminal game, proof that there is still room for something new in gaming.

Looks nice, plays boring.

Well, I gave this game more than a fair shake, because I did enjoy parts of it. And it's not all bad, in fact it could be a really good game if it didn't suffer from some major game design flaws.

The weapons and movement are satisfying.

What's not satisfying is enemies being able to see and shoot you long before you get to see them, off screen. Or enemies spawning all around you (including offscreen behind you), boxing you in with no chance. Or interactions and pickups being touch based, with a very large radius, so that if you swap a weapon in one of the game's narrow corridors, you can't pass there again without it swapping again, and again and again in a loop as each weapon gets dropped and picked up again. Or the minimap and large map being complete messes. So many things.

Also the change camera key just straight doesn't work.

This is one of the earliest VR escape room games to come out, and I finally played it and it was very enjoyable. It was the sweet spot of puzzles, where it's just challenging enough to be fun without being frustrating. I really liked the simple graphics and the various interactions. My GF and I had fun with me wearing the headset and her helping by looking at the screen. I will definitely play the rest of this dev's escape room games.

Lovely art and music, and simple interactions that convey emotions well. Something we've all lived, or will live, through.

If you're into micromanagement games (like Cook, Serve, Delicious, or Five Nights At Freddy's) this promises to be a good one. The prologue is a quick primer on the basics of the game (the full game has many more mechanics to juggle). The presentation is polished, the controls are tight and responsive, and it's all tongue in cheek. I'm definitely interested in the full game after playing this.

Great VR implementation of a great game.

I can tell the dev team really considered the strengths and limitations of VR, and adjusted the experience to best fit it. This isn't a lazy port. They have added a lot of configuration options to suit different comfort options.

There are even experimental modes where you can play the game in "tabletop mode" (looking down at a tiny world and character) or "giantess mode" (you are tiny).

The video cutscenes are well integrated, by blending into a "theatre mode" to get around camera motion sickness. When the camera does move on its own, it's gentle and doesn't cause nausea. I tell you, it's a really well made port.

Apart from all that, the game itself benefits immensely from being played in VR. The immersion is multiplied tenfold. You feel like you're going on a journey with Senua, like a companion always a step behind her. The moments of emotional conflict and vulnerability are greatly amplified; you are centimetres away from Senua and you want to comfort her. The moments of violence and badassery are also amplified.

Hellblade is a very intimate, powerful experience, and even more so in VR.

I haven't played this in a long time, but I still remember that no other game made me feel like I was mobilising as part of a massive coordinated army, as much as this game did. At that time, we were about 60 people playing on a voice chat server, divided into squads and such. It was incredible.

I like the large variety of roles and specialisations that the game offers. I do NOT like the rigid movement and clunky gunplay. This gives the ARMA series a run for its money in terms of stiffness. These games should learn something from the fluid movement of mainstream shooters.

But that doesn't detract too much from my love for this game. I enjoy the fact that aside from massive coordinated efforts, I can also hop in solo, find a spot on the map where I'm needed, and contribute in a small way to the perpetual war effort. There's so many ways you can play it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibcnLqs3vek

The OG art program for VR. Sadly now lacking in features compared to others, but it's still a joy to use and I get lost for hours in there. And it has some brush effects unique to it. I hope Google focuses more effort into it.

Don't say "I'm not an artist" and skip this. Try it. Painting in VR comes easily to everyone, because we already think in 3D. It feels natural.

Table tennis is a perfect fit for VR, especially with the Vive controllers. They feel close enough to holding a paddle in your hand. The little haptic buzz is the perfect intensity for a little ping pong ball hitting your paddle. Your playspace is just the right size for a table tennis playspace.
And on top of all that, this game nails the physics just right. It's one of my "launch it to relax" VR games. Most of the time I don't even start a match, I just play with the AI in the main menu.
I do wish I could find people to play with. But the AI is great already, with several difficulty modes.