Hotel Dusk: Room 215

Hotel Dusk: first impressions:
I'm in the middle of the 2nd chapter of this game. So far I am getting pretty immersed in it. The mystery being set up is intriguing, but while playing I usually feel like I have some goal to finish - instead of feeling overwhelmed by just wandering around and talking to people.
Puzzles are logical so far -- For example, I was supposed to hide something in my suitcase, but my suitcase key broke in the lock. The character mused about finding some wire to open it. There was a coat hanger on a rack but it was attached to the rack, so I couldn't pick it up.
I noticed a utility closet down the hall but I couldn't yet open it up -- later on I found one of the hotel workers in the linen closet across the way, and was able to get into the utility closet and find several tools in a locker (including pliers which I eventually used to cut the coat hanger).

I'm stuck now trying to put in the right combination for a file cabinet lock (the lost and found drawer in the hotel office).
(writing on Sunday) -- I was looking on the forums and caught a hint for that one- there was a memo under the file cabinet with a connect the dots puzzle on it. I had no idea what was up with that but someone on the forums alluded that it was connected to the combination. I connected the dots and was able to open the combo.
Still very sucked into the game - on Chapter 6.
Finished the game on Feb. 7 I think and passed on to Kristina at work on Feb. 8. I had started off on a second playthrough because you can get different endings, and just to avoid having to stop playing, but this is a company game so I relinquished it.

The Blackwell Legacy

This game is by Dave Gilbert, who did an earlier game called The Shivah which was a mystery being solved by a rabbi.
I played this before starting my current job, and got stuck at the very beginning trying to get a password for the computer.

In this game, there is way more exposition (even in the very short demo/preview) than there is a action, but so far it has sucked me in pretty well.

The demo/preview turned out to have more long story exposition, than the beginning of the actual game did. That's good, but hopefully the demo doesn't turn people off who think it will all be that slow.

Roseangela Blackwell's aunt has just died, and she is scattering the aunt's ashes at the beginning of the game.
The preview takes us directly to the pyschiatric hospital where the aunt had been living, and a doctor tells Roseangela that she may also suffer from the dementia her aunt has. Back at her apt, she meets a mysterious ghost named Joey, and cheesy preview title text fills in the rest - that she is a medium and will be running around with Joey in each storyline, solving problems.

The actual game also begins with Roseangela scattering the ashes, but then luckily takes us right into solving a problem- the doorman filling in at her building because of a strike, doesn't recognize her, although he's been working there the whole time she's lived there.
So we then get pretty immersed right away in helping her get back into her apt.

I actually really liked it so far -- why -- I think the character-based story (and the strong matrilineal feel. You get lots of background on the main character's family. And there's something compelling to me personally maybe, when a story opens with someone tossing ashes into the ocean (brings up nosy questions like - who had died? what was the relationship? etc). The story does start very very slowly with lots of text, but I think would be interesting to both genders.

And the graphics, while only really "state of the art" for the early 90s, are awesome taken as they are. I remember playing "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" during this time period, and loving the detail on the animations. Same thing here.

Dave (Zarubin) and I were just playing Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past, the SNES version, tonight on the Wii. A next-gen console playing an old-school 8-bit nostalgic game, that came out in 1991.
Just as plausible to play Blackwell Legacy on a laptop capable of doing much more!

Lifetime RSVP and other Lifetime games

Lifetime RSVP

This is a simple color matching game - but it adds on the personality of matching up party guests so that they're happy talking to each other. It could have even more character, to make it seem more than the basic matching (this person's blue side should match the blue of the person next to her) but the concept is good.


Flowerpower and other simple multiplayer web games
We should look at sites like this to make our multiplayer easier to use - you just see a screen for the game, with "Match Now" at the top, basically, and it also tells you who was recently matched. This would make sense for our Match Now (the one without the ability to invite friends)