Tag: nintendo switch

Animal Crossing New Horizons – Being Outside Whilst Staying Inside:

Posted on by in Gaming, Real Life

Much like every person on the planet with a Nintendo Switch, I have been playing a lot of Animal Crossing New Horizons over the last month and a half. As it’s release date was scheduled for after my show season was over (for those who don’t know, I was production manager for a play for my university’s drama society), I’d pre-ordered it as a treat, to play as a wind down from the rewarding but incredibly stressful, show weeks. Thankfully, my show went without a hitch but the other play I was doing lighting for, had to stop due to the lockdown measures. So, New Horizons became my isolation game.

WHAT A HECKIN GOOD BOI

I have talked about Animal Crossing before on the site, with it being the second ever article posted on Mind Games (mind blowing, I know). So, if I repeat myself at all, I apologise! However, in traditional Mind Games fashion – there is more I would like to say. Specifically, about how New Horizons has kept me (moderately) sane during these trying times. If you will indulge me dear reader, by enjoying what is probably the thousandth article you have seen posted about the game. I may be no Eurogamer but hopefully something I say will strike a chord with you.

More than anything, what New Horizons provides for me is a sense of normality. Even if we were not in the middle of a world-wide pandemic, my world is at a turning point. I am graduating from university, starting a new job, and moving to a new place. Everything in my life is changing and that is a terrifying thought. So, having a game with a set routine, simple mechanics, and plenty of opportunities to make the island my own, is a great source of comfort.

This guy has been my nemesis since Wild World and I swear to Isabelle, I’ll sink his ship.

When I get up each day, I get my cereal and a fresh mug of coffee. I will watch whatever YouTube videos tickle my fancy, be that livestreams that I missed or compilations from my favourite shows. Then, I boot up Animal Crossing. I will grab the four fossils, hunt down the money rock and freshly grown money tree (who knew that there was a magic money tree), check for any visitors (or invaders like Redd) and water my flower fields. If I am missing any bugs or fish then I will go for a wander, tool in hand. Afterwards, I go about the rest of my day – maybe returning to my island in the evening once my work is done.

It becomes a constant. Others see it as tedious and repetitive, a game with no real end goal or objective – not worth the time investment. To me, it is a life ring that I cling to in a storm. In the words of the Lutece twins from Bioshock Infinite, it is all a matter of perspective. What I see will always be different to what you see. It is when you accept these different viewpoints, that you see the truth value of games like Animal Crossing in trying times like this.

Who needs to wait till Halloween for true horror, when Zipper is here.

Obviously, I am not the most social individual. At university, it means that I tend to avoid the traditional activities, such as club nights, pub crawls and various raves. I would rather meet a friend for coffee and go our separate ways afterwards. A couple of my closest friends have mastered the art of co-existing with me. We could be in the same room for hours, doing our own thing and neither of us will feel the need to fill the silence with awkward chatter.

The multiplayer aspect of Animal Crossing leans into the concept of co-existing. Often, I will visit a friend’s island and we will do our own thing. Be that fishing, harvesting fruit or wandering around getting to know all their villagers (and making them love you more in two minutes than the person who has known them for WEEKS). You get to talk to and enjoy the company of those friends that maybe you are in a different country from or those you cannot see due to the ongoing lockdown. It is not as good as the real thing, but people are finding creative ways to spend time with their loved ones using the capitalist raccoon’s island paradises.

WAKE UP BLATHERS I’VE GOT ANOTHER FOSSIL FOR YOU

The terraforming aspect of the game is remarkably therapeutic. Getting to mould and change your island into something that you feel genuinely proud of, is an incredibly satisfying feeling. Plus, you get to fix those weird cliff edges and oddly shaped ponds that your island starts out with. For those who cannot leave the house for the foreseeable future and those who live in an area without much greenery to enjoy in those brief daily walks for exercise purposes, getting to mould an ideal outside world, brings a little bit of joy that may be missing in their days.

Anyways, those are just a few thoughts I have had about New Horizons. I am keeping this piece short as I have a lot of university work to finish off and I do not want to repeat myself too much! I will post some pictures of my island once I finish the grand rebuilding process (scheduled for AFTER my dissertation is finished) on my Twitter so go follow me – @OurMindGames / @CaitlinRC

See you all soon,

CaitlinRC.

MINIT – This Article Will Self Destruct in 60 Seconds:

Posted on by in Gaming

When a game pops up with a time limit, that aggressively counts down in the corner of my screen, I tend to panic. Any of that calm, methodical logic, goes straight out the window and is replaced with utter panic and chaos. Even the most experienced gamers can be caught off guard by a ticking clock, switching from calm professionalism to flailing back and forth, interacting with every possible object to stop the countdown. In hindsight, it is quite funny. In the moment however, it is utterly terrifying.

So, a game based entirely around a timer mechanic? It was intriguing and anxiety inducing to say the least. MINIT is a small, indie game made by Devolver Digital. An entirely black and white, goofy adventure game that requires you to find elegant solutions to puzzles within the 60 second time limit of each “run”. You have three functions in the game – MOVE, USE OBJECT and DIE. Yes, you read that correctly. The “DIE” option acts as an instant reset button. If you mess up the required items for a puzzle or realise that you are going to run out of time, then you do not need to reload a save file or lose an hour of progress.

Slightly ominous, standing behind a old bloke with a big old sword.

MINIT reminds me of the earlier Zelda games like Link’s Awakening and A Link Between Worlds. It focuses more on the top-down puzzle solving parts of similar adventure games, filtering it down to the core essentials. You have the key mechanic – the 60 second timer, triggered by picking up a cursed sword that was lying around (as they normally do). Your end goal is to go to the factory where the cursed swords are being manufactured and to shut it down. Naturally, that involves entering a haunted house, travelling to a desert island, exploring a temple, and trying not to get murdered by snakes. All in the span of 60 seconds.

What I find most fascinating about this game, is that I felt calm throughout it. Even when I failed at a puzzle, or ran out of time, I felt that I knew enough to improve on my next run. There was no creeping anxiety or shaking hands that normally accompany those timed situations. In hindsight, that is a rather sad thought to have. Regardless, we all know how impactful time restrictions and deadlines can be. Just look at the education system in most countries.

A good, pixelated doggo, to calm all your worries.

The exams that you sit in the UK, tend to be about two or three hours long, depending on the topic. Some subjects have multiple papers, like Maths, whilst others only have one or two papers, like Psychology. The dozens of hours that you have put into studying, the hundred odd hours that your teachers put into delivering the content, all come down to those precious minutes in the exam hall. Especially when some subjects do not use coursework to assess their students, your entire qualifications depend on how you perform over the course of a few weeks.

Academic exams were my nightmare. Even at university, they still are. No matter how much preparation I do, be that past papers, lab questions, aggressively staring at the content and hoping it will absorb into my skull, I always struggle. Often, I walk into the exam room, sit down and immediately panic and forget everything. My breathing grows rapid, my heart races and my hands and legs wont stop shaking. I take my exams in a smaller room due to anxiety and I do receive extra time, but these provisions only came when I was at university. During secondary school, I refused to admit that I had a problem. So, I would sit in that exam hall filled with over a hundred other students and suffer through, rarely achieving what I was capable of.

Spooky temple is spooky.

More often that not, it would stump my teachers. My performance in class and in my various homework assignments were always of high quality but whenever exam season came around, my grades would fall flat. We tried different revision strategies and calming techniques, but nothing seemed to work. Now that I am on medication and am working through my issues, my exams are not as bad to deal with, but they still are not great. I do not cope well in big action games that give me a countdown or I receive an instant game over. The number of times I have hurled a controller across the room due to failing a countdown scenario, is more than I would care to admit to on the internet.

MINIT provides the player with a list of achievements that they can aim for in the course of a initial playthrough, as well as challenges for those seeking a bit more difficulty in their gaming experiences. Some of them are goofy ones, like watering your dog with a watering can or talking to a mysterious ghost called Mary. It is a fascinating game for speed runners as well, considering the number of spawns you take has an impact on how “well” your run goes. The “Second Run” mode, only gives you 40 seconds on your timer, forcing you to think about your actions clearly.

I wonder what their rates are for an overnight stay.

As far as I am aware, MINIT is still on Game Pass for Xbox/PC so, give it a go if you are interested! It is a game that you can pick up easily and have a good time with, regardless of how much spare time you can dedicate to it! Ten minutes or an hour, I hope you will have a blast with it either way.

I hope you are all staying safe in these scary times and if you ever need anyone to talk to, reach out to me. Be that in the comments, through the contact page on the site or on Twitter @OurMindGames.

Wash your dang hands,

CaitlinRC.

Afterparty – They Always Said You’d Drink Yourself To Death:

Posted on by in Gaming

Hell has always been an odd topic for video game designers. 99% of the time, the underworld tends to be represented by demonic monstrosities, human suffering and a lot of torture. Doom tends to be most gamer’s first thought, then maybe the strange musical number from Saints Row. I can genuinely think of one game that gives the Devil’s domain more depth than just a place for human’s to be punished for their sins. That game is a not so well-known indie game called Afterparty. It’s coming to Switch soon and is on Xbox Game Pass if you’d like to give it a go! It’s a short game so I can wait whilst you go enjoy the experience 😉

Made by the same folks behind the brilliantly spooky Oxenfree, (which I’ll write about some today if you’re interested!), Afterparty places you in the shoes of Milo and Lola, two best friends who find themselves in the afterlife a lot sooner than they expected. Unable to remember how they died or what they did to end up in hell, they set out to find some answers and maybe a way back to the mortal realm. As it turns out, there is a way home. All you must do is outdrink Satan in a series of drinking games, like beer pong. It’s not like he’s the Lord of Hell and has been drinking since before any of the molecules in your body even existed.

My friends and I at every big event – constantly losing track of one another.

Throughout the game, you will control Lola and Milo, in order to solve problems, have … interesting conversations with demons and to down cocktails to gain powers (like courage, flirtation or complete arrogance). You know, normal drunk student behaviour. I’m surprised there isn’t an option to steal a traffic cone as kleptomania seems to be a big thing for student’s on nights out. That and having serious conversations with statues, to the point of expecting them to reply. Drunk people are weird, what can I say. Since I don’t drink much, I can’t relate that much to the drunken escapades of Lola and Milo, but my housemates can.

As much as the best friends are the stars of the show, the supporting cast of demons, fellow dammed souls and monarchs of hell are what really bring the story to life. Sam and Sister Mary Wormhorn steal the show. They are a testament that even in hell itself, well written NPC’s can raise the story to a level of quality that game mechanics alone could not achieve.

True friendship is sitting on a bench in hell, like nothing at all is wrong.

Sam, voiced by the wonderful Ashly Burch, is a taxi driver that offers to give Lola and Milo a lift to the different islands that form hells inner circles, cause you know, swimming through the river Styx doesn’t tend to end well for anyone. There’s a lot more to Sam than meets the eye, as her relationship with Satan himself is a bit more… complicated than you’d think for a demonic Uber driver. From providing exposition about the monarchs, to encouraging the friends to not give up, Sam is a character that is worth listening to, especially if you’re as invested in the fates of Milo and Lola as I was.

As you play through the game, you discover that Sam is one of the original monarchs of hell. Cast out of heaven with her siblings by God, she decided to build a small church so that souls who still wished to commune with God, could do so, whether he would listen or not. Satan didn’t take it well and conscripted Sam to her taxi driver position, endlessly driving back and forth, never settling in one place. Bit of a dick move if you ask me but then again, he is Satan. Now, as the player, it’s up to you whether you choose to befriend Sam but if you don’t be kind to Sam, I’ll hunt you down and send you to hell myself.

Tag yourself, I’m Lola.

Sister Mary Wormhorn is an entirely unique character, even in hell. She is what is known as a “Personal Demon” – assigned to ensure that Milo and Lola are continuously tormented throughout their time in hell. She is a manifestation of their inner torments, thoughts and negative experiences, able to create unique scenarios and dredge up horrific memories that the duo would much rather forget. In general, Wormhorn acts as a “summary” to each act of Afterparty’s story. She judges you for your choices, your conversations and the consequences that you will face later.

However, she also gives you more detail on the friendship between Lola and Milo as she puts it to the test. Her goal is to split the two of them up, to break their spirits and generally just torment them. Every tiny disagreement between the friends is noted by her and used later to widen the gap between them. If you side with Lola early on, Wormhorn will remember. At one point she even tries to get it on with Milo’s conscience (yes, his conscience gets ejected from his body by a cocktail) just to piss off our dynamic duo.

Some of my housemates probably could outdrink the devil. Just saying.

Ironically, Wormhorn is the closest this game comes to a moral compass. Although Lola and Milo aren’t bad people, they’re still in hell. Some of the choices you can make are morally grey and that’s the point that Afterparty tries to get across a lot. There is no “correct” choice. No matter what you do, someone will get hurt or miss out. Wormhorn doesn’t let you forget that.

Human emotions are complicated. Our choices are never cut and dry. Afterparty really dives into this, with your decisions and conversations never having a perfect solution. When it comes to the afterlife, none of us are sure what lies in store for us, nor whether our decisions on earth will save us from that eternal hellfire. Though if hell is in any way like Afterparty’s interpretation, maybe I’ll be ok. At least until my own personal demon clocks in to work and goes to town on my …less than perfect mental state.

When in doubt, arm wrestle a demon.

Give Afterparty a chance. After all, wouldn’t you want the devil to take pity on you?

Until next week,

CaitlinRC.

West of Loathing – The Cows Came Home and They Have Beef with Us:

Posted on by in Gaming

Now that we are in the new decade, everyone is looking towards the new console generations and new instalments to long running franchises. Here at Mind Games, I am more focused on just trying to pass my degree. I don’t tend to play the latest games or the big releases the moment that they come out, partly because I’m usually busy working on a coursework and partly because I like to wait for the price to drop before I buy (#Student Life).

So, when I’m looking for a new game to play, I tend to trawl the online stores looking for weird and whacky games that pique my curiosity. This is how I came across West of Loathing a few years back. As seen with the popularity of the Red Dead Redemption series, games set in the Wild West tend to draw a big audience. Ironically, the fascination with cowboys fizzles out quickly when you investigate their history and realise their lives were nowhere near the dramatic, high-stakes action that the media portray them as.

Check the bookshelf several times. Trust me.

I’m not going to spoil any of the plot as despite it being a slapstick comedy game, the storyline is quite intriguing, especially when you start to branch off and explore the side-quests that open as the game progresses. Plus, it’s always more fun to experience the jokes first-hand.

An RPG, set in a Wild West world, featuring turn-based combat and a series of odd side quests alongside the main story? Sounds like most RPG’s, so what makes this one different? Well, first things first, the art style is simplistic – so much so that it’s a series of stickmen, wearing goofy hats and hurling snakes at their enemies. I love it. It’s a satirical look at most RPG’s, from choosing classes, to levelling up skills and solving puzzles with non-sensical items.

Always practise safe TNT storage kids.

The moment you open the game, it grips you with its sense of humour. Most of the hours that I have sunk into this game, I have spent with a massive grin on my face. Instead of choosing from the traditional “Fighter, Magic User or Rogue” class archetypes, you have the choice of “Cow Puncher, Bean Slinger or Snake Oiler”. Which serve essentially the same functions but are a hundred times more hilarious to play as. Why wouldn’t you want to carry around a briefcase full of snakes and throw them into people’s faces?

Skills and traits are upgraded using experience points, but you can also discover new abilities by reading books (like the nerd you are) or meeting certain criteria. Want to increase your defence? Walk into cacti until your skin is mostly scabs. Want better resistance to heat, stench and cold damage? Stick your hand into various disgusting spittoons scattered around the west to permanently taint your hand with the remnants of other people’s spit. Delightful.

Hmm. Nothing seems abnormal here.

From busting ghosts and getting spooked by the ever present “Boo’s” in the DLC, to facing down the demon clowns leader and trying not to wet yourself when he throws knives at you in the main game, West of Loathing has so much content that it’s impossible to find everything on just one playthrough. Your choice of class, partner and even a few plot crucial decisions will set you down unique paths filled with hilarity, unique encounters and EVEN MORE SPITOONS. Word of warning though, the game will heavily judge you for digging around the insides of these metal cesspools.

The writing in this game is excellent. Every line of dialogue, every action and every item description has had careful thought put into it. The passion the developers at Asymmetric Publications have for their game is clear to see and is a joy to experience first-hand. They are keenly aware of some of the pitfalls that games can fall into as well as common tropes and clichés that many developers put into their works and manage to tackle these with a sense of humour. Any references to other game series or media franchises, are done with care and subtlety, rather than beating you over the head with them (or a cow bone).

I relate to the guy on the left.

More than anything, I love this game because it makes me laugh. A genuine, full body laugh that hurts your chest after a while. Mental health issues and stressful times means that I don’t get to laugh like that as much as I should. Depression especially tends to sap the humour and joy out of things that would normally elicit laughter from us, replacing it with numbness and general lethargy. It’s something that I have combatted for many years, yet this is the first game that I’ve come across that can consistently bring a genuine smile to my face. Not a fake smile to avoid worrying others or a half-hearted smile to try and fit in, a genuine grin. It’s a refreshing sensation after so many years of monotony when it comes to humour.

That sign can’t stop me cause I can’t read.

Anyways, I’ve got a final-year project to work on and a production to prepare for so I’m going to end this week’s article here and I’ll be back soon! I’ve sent in an application for a press pass at EGX Rezzed in late March, so hopefully we get it and I’ll be able to provide more awesome content for you all at my favourite convention!

Much love,

CaitlinRC.

Baba Is You – Thankfully Less Stressful Than Coding:

Posted on by in Gaming

For those who follow my Twitter (@CaitlinRC), you’ll know that I am in my final year of university and am studying Computer Science. So programming, logic and technology are a major part of my life – academically and recreationally. Despite all the programming languages that my studies have taught me, at its core – logic statements are what will make or break a program. You can have the most sophisticated interface on the planet but that does nothing if the assumptions you’ve based it all on are incorrect.

When I spotted Baba Is You on the Nintendo Switch Shop, I was intrigued. Normally, gaming doesn’t always have the most accurate grasp on the pillars of computing as an industry – focusing more on the science fiction fantasies. These are great and all, some of which forming stellar gameplay ideas and storylines but to really understand programming, you need to understand logical thinking. My university got us to do a series of logic puzzles and problems, like those you’d find in a Professor Layton game, as tutorial work for our first module. So, a game based around logical statements, gradually growing more complex and adding new variables as you progress? Right up my alley.

Can confirm this is what my speech devolves into after too long programming.

Before I get into the meat of Baba Is You, I want to talk a bit about logical thinking and its influence on our lives. Growing up, I was always told that people tend to either be logical or creative, and that the two rarely crossed over. Those who were more creative, would go on to study drama, art and humanities whilst the logical kids would be the scientists of the future. Nowadays, we all know that’s a bunch of horse shit but as a kid it really stuck with me. I was clearly logical, excelling more at maths and science than at drawing a picture of a bunch of bananas or taking on the role of Reno in a production of Anything Goes. Art, writing and drama seemed out of reach for me.

However, logic and creativity are so strongly interlinked that one cannot feasibly exist without the other. Some of the greatest accomplishments in human history have come from the combination of logical thinking and creative ideas – such as Leonardo da Vinci’s flying machine sketches, drawn over four hundred years before the Wright brothers had their first successful flight. Any problem can be broke down and overcome with a little imagination and logic. It’s an incredible feat of humanity, that has persisted across our evolution.

2nd best duo in AC, just behind Evie and Jacob (fight me world i love them)

For me, logic rules my thinking most of the time. I am an incredibly logical person, to the point where there’s a running joke that I’m secretly an android infiltrating humanity. I can neither confirm nor deny it! When it comes to emotions, relationships and social interaction, I struggle to apply this logic to other people. I’ll examine body language, tone of voice and any other cues I can find, in order to draw a conclusion from a situation. This does lead to some apparently “insightful” and “wise” observations on my part (according to my friends anyways), but it also leads to a lot of stress on my mental state.

For logic to be successful, you need all the details. You must understand every facet of the situation in order to build your set of rules. Much like an android, I strive to analyse and understand everything and everyone around me, like a ridiculously elaborate game of spot the difference. Building the rulesets is hard. You’re terrified of being wrong but the anxiety that comes from not having those rules in place to help navigate the situation can be even worse. It’s part of the reason I love programming so much. It’s the joy of finding a solution that works, solving a complex problem and knowing that the rules are set in stone for you to follow.

YOU. SHALL NOT. PASS

Baba Is You is a cute little puzzle game, that applies logical thinking and the basics of programming to create a unique world with challenges that you genuinely wish to solve. It uses “blocks” of writing to establish three different parameters that you must play with – Actions, Objects/States and Connectives. Your aim is to win each level, by touching whatever object has been defined as “win”. Each connected series of “Object -> Connective -> Action” establishes a rule that must be adhered to as long as the rule is active. However, you can change the rules! Switching out one object for another, “deactivating” the rule as a whole or finding a sneaky loophole that allows you to skip over a seemingly unbeatable section of the level, is what Baba Is You is about.

With over 200 levels, a ridiculous amount of adorable characters and creative solutions, I think it’s a game that I will come back to a lot. If you like logic puzzles and cute little characters, I’d highly recommend trying it out.

Slightly concerned that the ocean seems to end in a light blue abyss.

2019 has been a great year for Mind Games. We launched in April and have been growing from week to week, with each amazing supporter of the site being a huge inspiration for me to keep working as hard as I can. In 2020, I am planning on upgrading the site a bit, so it looks a bit more professional and you can read some of my older posts without having to scroll through nearly a years-worth of content!

Thank you all once more and I hope you had a good festive period! Keep an eye out on the site’s Twitter for announcements, updates and ideas for new content – @OurMindGames.

Till next year,

CaitlinRC.