April 2025
World of Warships - Yamato
April 27, 2025 Filed in: Video Games
I finally achieved my primary goal in World of Warships—acquisition of the Japanese battleship Yamato. It required almost a quarter-million XP to research and over 20 million credits to purchase but I finally got it. Now, I want to add some upgrades and take her into battle. Unfortunately, these potent high-tier ships have very high service costs so you can actually lose credits in a battle. Here is the game's description of the Yamato:
The biggest warship of World War II and the world's largest battleship. Yamato was designed around the idea that an individual ship could have superiority over any battleship of a potential enemy. Her main guns had overwhelming firepower. The ship maintained a very high level of survivability due to reliable armor and robust torpedo protection. Yamato’s AA capabilities were highly efficient due to carrying numerous AA artillery guns.
Blades of Time
April 26, 2025 Filed in: Video Games
I played a bit of Blades of Time but decided not to finish it. Its female protagonist was an adventurous treasure hunter resembling Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. The graphics were good for a 2012 video game and it was enjoyable at first. Exploration was fine. However, I never really got into the combat. It was ok until the first boss battle. I usually don't enjoy boss battles and this one kind of killed it for me. From what I had read, Blades of Time isn't a very long game. Even so, I thought my time would be best spent by moving on to another game.
Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart
April 21, 2025 Filed in: Video Games
I like to play a hidden object game every now and then but I hadn't played one in a while. Recently, however, I finished Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart. It was developed by Artifex Mundi, a company that has created quite a few games in this genre. It was similar to other Artifex Mundi games I've played and that was a good thing. It focused on hidden object puzzles but there were other puzzle types as well. The length was just about right for me and I finished it in under five hours. I had the collector's edition so I played the bonus adventure as well. The story was about Captain Remington, a long dead pirate, and his lost love. It was fine but I play these games much more for the puzzles than the story.
Nightmares from the Deep is a trilogy and I have all three games. From what I've read, the two sequels are as good or better than The Cursed Heart. I'll eventually get around to playing them all.
Nightmares from the Deep is a trilogy and I have all three games. From what I've read, the two sequels are as good or better than The Cursed Heart. I'll eventually get around to playing them all.
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
April 08, 2025 Filed in: Video Games
I recently gave Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP a try. It is an indie adventure game that got its start on the iPad. The control scheme reflects its mobile roots with simple "tap" actions to control the action. You play as a Scythian warrior armed with a sword and shield, wandering the countryside. The graphics were done in a primitive retro pixel art style. The music was nice. However, the game never really hooked me and I wasn't motivated to finish it. Based on the progress indicator, I had completed a third of it when I decided to pull the plug.
Legend of Grimrock
April 05, 2025 Filed in: Video Games
After playing a few shorter video games, I took on one with a bit more length. It was Legend of Grimrock, a role-playing game with an old school feel. It would have been at home in the late 1980s or early 1990s alongside such titles as Dungeon Master or Eye of the Beholder. There is a backstory but Grimrock is not a story driven game. The setting is Mount Grimrock, a prison within the mountain. You play as a group of four prisoners deposited at the top of the prison. Your goal is to work your way downward in pursuit of escape. In typical fantasy RPG fashion, Grimrock is filled with monsters and loot. As expected, that means it is largely combat driven. However, Grimrock includes a significant amount of puzzles. There are secret areas to be found, traps to avoid, and various obstacles to overcome outside of combat. Solving some of these could be quite frustrating. Precise timing manipulating levers, switches, pressure plates, and trap doors was required.
I decided to play as the stock party: human fighter Contar Stoneskull, minotaur fighter Mork, human rogue Yennica Whitefeather, and human mage Sancsaron. By the end of the game, my party was level 13 to 14. Grimrock's magic system was a little different. It was based on runes. You needed to find scrolls to discover the proper combination of runes to cast a given spell. Combat was real-time so you needed to get proficient clicking on the different runes to cast spells quickly. There were also scrolls listing ingredients to craft potions.
Despite some frustration, I had fun playing Legend of Grimrock. It certainly wasn't my favorite RPG but I enjoyed it enough to keep playing to the end.
I decided to play as the stock party: human fighter Contar Stoneskull, minotaur fighter Mork, human rogue Yennica Whitefeather, and human mage Sancsaron. By the end of the game, my party was level 13 to 14. Grimrock's magic system was a little different. It was based on runes. You needed to find scrolls to discover the proper combination of runes to cast a given spell. Combat was real-time so you needed to get proficient clicking on the different runes to cast spells quickly. There were also scrolls listing ingredients to craft potions.
Despite some frustration, I had fun playing Legend of Grimrock. It certainly wasn't my favorite RPG but I enjoyed it enough to keep playing to the end.