No, that's fine. I don't need it back. But it's a nice, straightforward 8-10 hour story, so one you could tick off without much trouble.

You’ll probably struggle with the 52 game challenge.

RE4 was decent enough to see me through to the end, but I don’t get the reverence others hold it in, personally speaking.

Human Resource Machine
By which I mean, I’ve completed all of the mandatory levels to see the end credits. I haven’t found the most efficient solutions for all of the levels (although, I have for many) and I’ve completed all but one of the optional levels (and have achieved the optimisation challenges for a few of them, too).

For anyone who doesn’t know it, it’s by Tomorrow Corporation (World of Goo, Little Inferno, and the forthcoming 7 Billion Humans, which looks like it’s at least a spiritual sequel to this) and it’s essentially like a BASIC programming puzzle game. In each room, you have an inbox, a grid on the floor, and an outbox. Numbered (or lettered) tiles come into the inbox, and you’re given instructions as to what you need to output. You have a selection of commands, and essentially then compile a series of if-this-then-that instructions. It gradually brings in more powerful commands and, as you would expect, requires you to comply with increasingly challenging requirements.

The last level was a monster, although it didn’t help that my ultimate solution was, apparently, horrendously inefficient. I hadn’t been using the labels up until that point, but had to on the last level, to keep track of the various sub-routines and reference numbers I had all over the place. It took me a few clean-slate rewrites (and a lot of my thinking time when swimming this morning) to get my code to work then, as the code worked through the inbox, it encountered a string so long it overwrote my reference tiles, sending my results into spiralling loops. I had to go back through the whole code, moving my reference tiles to overwrite the reference tiles I no longer needed by that point in the algorithm. Then, as I ran it again, and you code churned through the long string, I noticed that the last string was one number, and I had no idea if my code was sufficiently well written to deal with just one input. I had to wait an age to find out.

It was.

Sorry, this is probably really dull, but I’ve really enjoyed HRM. It’s a while since I’ve felt the same quality of satisfaction and achievement when finding a solution in a game. Although the fact that some of my solutions exactly matching the efficiency challenges highlights that there often is one ideal solution, it feels more open than other puzzle games, more like you’ve worked out the solution for yourself, than worked out which one the developers decided you should use. Take my solution to the last level; it involved at least twice as many lines of code as I would need to meet the desired efficiency, but it’s robust, and it feels like it’s my solution.

I’ll keep going back to this game, because I want to see if I can make some of those efficiency challenges. And I need to work out how the fuck to do that last optional level; break down numbers into their prime factors, essentially just using addition and subtraction. Welp. (If you know, please don’t tell me.)

7 Billion Humans will be a must-buy for me next year.

Ah ok it's a pretty similar looking sequel. Will crack on with this for the time being.

I'm definitely getting less efficient as the levels progress ...

Nice review. You’ve inspired me to jump back in. Up to level 9.

Up to 29 now, just blasting through, most are over from the last 10, most (but not all) green before that.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna~The Golden Country
And... It's over.
My unhealthy obsession with Xenoblade 2 has reached its end, with a thoroughly satisfying ending that does what all good prequels do, setting up the next part, and it doea so with equal parts sadness and happiness that I know where the plot comes.
It has been a strange ride with the game. After getting the original title on launch day in December last year, I fell into and then out of love with it. It wasn't until round about May, I think, that I picked it up again. From then on, it was a lot of brute forcing my way through the game, as the impenetrable system of mechanics, combat levels and so forth were completely gone by then. And then, bizarrely enough, on the final boss fight, I finally understood how all the pieces fit together. So it finally finished with me sitting there going "but... But now I get it", and having nothing more to do, unless I wanted to NGP it.
Roll round to the end of September and Torna is suddenly coming. I've completely consumed it, doing a full run, with all community, meaning all side quests, and maxing out as many of the skills as I can. And I've adored it. Plot wise, it fills in a lot from the main game, particularly around Mytrha and Assam (and I guess Jin) but what I've enjoyed more is being in an RPG world where I genuinely understand everything. The mechanics, the need to ensure I was picking up stuff, the way combat works, it has all been so satisfying to me, and I've consumed it as comfort gaming as life and work have been tricky over the past few weeks. Add in a soundtrack that plays with variations of themes I already know, and some real satisfaction in narrative beats, and I'm just over the moon with it. I will, at some point, NGP both this and the main game, but not yet. Anyway, personally it has been a great crutch to rely on, it's a stunner visually, and it just has enough of that JRPG silliness to see it there. I adored it.

All levels now done, but not all optimized (and some a fair bit over....)

JonB wrote:

How many hours did you put into it?

Sorry, just edited it in. About 60 to the credits. Could certainly be done quicker though.

That's reassuring - hoping to have this completed before Red Dead Redemption comes out.


Think I can stick to the story from here without guilt - haven't been blown away by any of the side content, and have been actively avoiding fights with monsters for the last couple of hours.

Seem to be enjoying it pretty much the same as you.  Enjoyable stuff but hoping for a little more.

Still loving the graphics (some of the bosses especially look incredible) and it's old school style is very charming.

EDIT Sorry if anyone got spoiled by my post

Yeah, I f**ked the spoil tags up.  Sorry to anyone if they got spoiled.

That’s good; I’m only at 27 hours.  Should have time to finish it.  Also good to hear things pick up in general.

Ended up deleting the offending bit just to be safe!

I played for a few hours or so after the credits. I was surprised how much more story there was, rather than just some optional dungeons and bosses. But when I realised it was basically a whole new part of the game I decided to take a break and play something else. Will go back to it in a few months I think.

Also, crafting is one of the best bits. Finding recipes is much better than finding a single piece of equipment!

Just completed 'What remains of Edith Finch'.
Whoa, that's some next level storytelling right there. So much depth and layers to it. I love it!

It's also perfect Halloween fodder.

The whole presentation, and that includes the music, is stunning. Sets a new standard in interactive storytelling.