August 2013 Video Games
By EricMesa
- 4 minutes read - 675 words[caption id=“attachment_7110” align=“aligncenter” width=“604”] 
Civilization V game against Dave - 4000 BC[/caption]
Civilization V (31 hrs) - I’ve been playing with Dan and Dave via Giant Multiplayer Robot. You can follow posts about the game with Dave here. You can follow the posts about the game with Dan and Dave here. There will be a long overlap between those two, however, the one with Dave started a few weeks earlier and should finish earlier.
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Puzzle Agent - Solved a Puzzle Perfectly (Haven’t done that too many times)[/caption]
Puzzle Agent (4 hrs) - I continue to work my way through the dozens of games I’ve bought through the Humble Bundles. This time up was Puzzle Agent. Although I’ve never played Professor Layton, I’ve seen some of the quick looks on Giant Bomb. I’d say that Puzzle Agent is like Professor Layton, but for adults. That’s not to say that Puzzle Agent has “adult content” as we often use that phrase. It just has some scenes and storylines that might be a little intense for a young player.
The conceit is a great one that had me interested from the first time I heard about Puzzle Agent. It’s a point-and-click adventure in which you play Agent Tethers from the FBI’s Puzzle Solving Division. The fact that the FBI has a puzzle solving division told me all I needed to know about my compatibility with the game’s humor. The story, which is just a framing device for a bunch of logic puzzles, is that the eraser factory that makes erasers for the White House (another great idea) has closed due to a murder at the factory. The city, Scoggins, is populated with a handful of puzzle-crazy people of Scandinavian ancestry. Although it’s a point-and-click adventure you don’t have to put together improbable things that you’ve found all over the world. For the most part you just click to talk to people and to collect pieces of gum (for hints). It even makes fun of that trope by having a screwdriver in one scene which you can click on, but which Agent Tethers dismisses as having nothing to do with the case.
I like the art style - choosing Graham Annable was a great choice. It ends up looking like you’re watching an animated comic strip. (Somewhat similar to The Walking Dead, but more cartoony) The voice acting is also top notch. Strangely, for a game that is just an excuse for a wacky take on the typical logic puzzles, the music is awesome. I got the soundtrack along with the game and I really, really enjoy listening to it. If I remember to do so, it may end up being good study music since there aren’t any vocals.
I finished the game in early September so I know that at this point I was approximately halfway through the game. I’ll write more about it next month.
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Puzzle Agent - Learning about what happened at the eraser factory[/caption]
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (1 hr) - The game STARTED to pick up. But I just can’t find the will to play it consistently enough for it to get its hooks into me. I remember the 2012 story of Desmond being trapped in the Animus for story reasons, but I keep forgetting what Ezio is doing - other than trying to get keys to some door. We’ll see what happens because I’m starting up the Fall Semester again. Luckily I’m only about 3-4 hours into a 40-60 hour game so I can probably pick it up again in either the Winter Term (when we’re not going out as much - although I’ll still probably be spending a lot of time playing with Scarlett) or next summer. I don’t know. Right now I decided to focus on the Back to the Future Tell Tale game (bad reviews notwithstanding) because Danielle and I just finished rewatching the Trilogy. (Which made the opening scene of the game a lot of fun, but more about that next month)