Sunday, December 11, 2011

Far Future or Fantasy Universe - There is Always War

The latest patch for World of Warcraft, The Hour of Twilight (4.3) has been released. Besides three new 5-man dungeons, it also features a raid against the main foe of the Cataclysm expansion, Deathwing. And now with the new Raid Finder tool, I actually might have a chance to experience an expansion's climax for the first time. Just need to put in some time to re-acquaint myself with how to heal on my druid first. But between work, a dodgy internet connection and other distractions (see games below), I haven't played it as much as I'd have liked to.


Blood Ravens engage a small force of Orks

In the meanwhile, I've been playing Warhammer 40 000: Dawn of War 2, sequel to one of my preferred real-time strategy games. The main campaign, featuring the Blood Ravens chapter of Space Marines, plays quite differently to most RTSes. It's actually more of an RTS-RPG hybrid as you level up your commanders and equip them with loot, tailoring them to your preferred tactics. With no base building and this focus on small scale skirmishing, I could understand more devoted RTS fans being upset by this direction, but for me the blend works really well. With the end of the main campaign in sight, expect a review soon.


Blood Ravens Force Commander

And to indulge my nostalgia, I reinstalled Railroad Tycoon 3, the 2003 release of the Railroad Tycoon franchise. Its 3D engine is broken under newer operating systems and I had to hunt down a fan-made patch to get it working on my Windows 7 machine (available from the Hawk & Badger Railroad fansite). I've always enjoyed the train, business and stock management of the Railroad Tycoon games, and I was quickly back into the groove of the game, picking up scenario gold medals with ease. However, the game hasn't aged well, and the 3D terrain is more frustrating than beautiful. Still looking forward to a worthy successor; and no, Sid Meier's Railroads! isn't it.


Railroad Tycoon 3

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

First Impressions: Forza 4 and Rock Band 3

I started playing two of my newer Xbox 360 purchases last weekend, Forza 4 and Rock Band 3 and have put in enough hours that I have some initial thoughts on each of them. And things don't look good...


Forza 4 gets off to a bad start when you can't fully install the game until after you've completed your first "race". This isn't explained anywhere in the game or the impossibly thin manual, and trying to exit from that first race simply restarts the game, driving me crazy for nearly an hour. This was followed by trying to download the free release DLCs (for first-hand buyers) but these failed at around the 9% mark.

When I finally got to actually playing the game, it didn't feel like a huge upgrade over Forza 3. Graphics, car count and detail, track detail - all have been improved, but nothing really stands out. Maybe the interior shading and glare most noticeable during sunrise and sunset races?

The gameplay is predictably well-done simulation racing, with difficulty settings to cater for both my casual racing approach as well as my colleagues' hardcore style. There's quite a few different modes to try, though the game initially steers you to the World Tour mode as the main way to progress. I'm also quite enjoying the Rivals mode which pits you against other drivers that are near you on the global leaderboards. It does sometimes pick players on your friends list as your next rival, which isn't useful when you're not really in the same league as them.

And finally, the much touted Autovista mode for exploring the intricacies of the detailed car models, crashed my Xbox the first time I entered it. I believe it's the first time my Xbox has ever crashed like that.


Rock Band 3 is similarly problematic. It feels a lot like Rock Band 2. Most of the new features like vocal harmonizing, pro drums, pro guitar (requires another expensive controller) and keyboard parts just don't apply to my guitar playing. Still, it's quite hard to innovate in the genre and I didn't hold that against Warriors of Rock in my review. Unfortunately, Rock Band 3 has other problems...

For one, the music selection is piss-poor. I haven't encountered a single song so far that's in my music collection or that I'd want to get for it. And there have been quite a few songs that I was just happy to finish, hoping that I'd never have to play the same song again (some song by INXS springs to mind).

And secondly, the menu navigation is really poor. Every time I've played, I've had to rediscover what's in each of the different menu options, hunting for the game's main career progression mode. It's about 4 levels deep and I think it's called something like Road Trip goals, which shows you multiple goals (similar to achievements) - selecting any of these goals opens up the full list of all the tours you can do. There are other goals you can do to progress your band, but hiding the main part of your game like that is just bad design.

As an aside, I've decided to hold off on buying Skyrim for a while (Bethesda games normally need a few patches and user mods to be playable), but from reports such as this one on RPS, designers really dropped the ball with Skyrim's user interface. I know UI design isn't easy, especially for console, but these kind of mistakes in Rock Band 3 and Skyrim should never make it past QA.


So, while both Forza 4 and Rock Band 3 have some fun in them, I'm currently underwhelmed.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

KZN Settlers Tournament 2011

Last weekend I played in the 2nd KwaZulu-Natal Settlers of Catan tournament. I'm the sort of person who can take my gaming quite seriously having played competitive chess, bridge, poker, Scrabble and Magic: The Gathering at various times during my life, but this was my first time playing competitive Settlers of Catan.

I did do some basic preparation in terms of looking at some strategy from BoardGameGeek and a couple of games of the Xbox version, Catan, playing against some pretty decent AI opponents. However, when I got to the tournament, I felt as if I was surrounded by players with much more Settlers experience than me.


Preliminary rounds

The tournament consisted of 3 preliminary rounds with each round randomly matching up the 16 players over 4 tables, followed by two semi-final table for the top 8 and then a final table. Although 80 minutes for a game of Settlers sounds like plenty, we actually timed out on my first game with three of us stuck at 8 victory points (of 10). The next two rounds were good for me as I was gifted excellent starting positions in both - including two 12-spots in round 2 - and managed to win both, though round 3 was quite tense with luck initially favouring me then deserting me towards the end. In the end I scraped a win in that game and with 28 points out of a possible 30, I qualified as the top seed from the preliminary rounds.

With only the stronger players remaining, I wasn't going to get so lucky with the setup in the final. As second in the turn order, I took a gamble that I'd be able to pick up a valuable brick harbour positioned on two brick hexes, but it was taken before I could place my second settlement. My two settlements left me with plenty of sheep and brick but without a source of wood and no prospect of building quickly to a harbour. As the game developed, with qualification for the final looming over us, trading devolved into a 2v2 kind of game and the other 2 raced ahead. In the end I finished comfortably third on the table but didn't make it to the final.

My friend, Paul, finished second in the final (playing White in the setup below, losing out to Blue).


Finals post-setup

Settlers is a decent social boardgame and I did get to meet a lot of new people. But with weaker players unbalancing the game for stronger players, king-making and lots of luck, it's a frustrating competitive game. Despite that I'm sure I'll play in the next tournament - the opprtunity to share the boardgaming hobby with like-minded locals is too good to pass up.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Waiting for Awesome

There hasn't been anything spectacular to get me excited in recent weeks. So I've been working through my backlog of games accumulated in my Steam account...


Syberia

Syberia is the first game in the Syberia series, a relatively modern adventure game series which began in 2002. It features Kate Walker, a young lawyer from America who travels to a small French village, famed for its clockwork toys and inventions, for the purchase of the local clockwork factory. But complications emerge which ensure that the transfer isn't going to be that simple. Soon Kate Walker is having to solve puzzles, many of which feature the village's clockwork creations, to track down the heir to the factory.

As can be seen from the screenshot above, the graphics are quite beautiful - each location is like a beautiful painting. Also the steampunk-ish setting is pretty intriguing. Despite this, I find it hard to really get into the game. The puzzles are a mixed bag, with most being of the trivial kind where it is sufficient to just find the right item and its use is fairly obvious. I've been stumped twice so far and had to resort to the hints from the excellent Universal Hint System. One was a doh moment for a simple but clever puzzle (though the ethics of rummaging around through a priest's stuff is debatable); the other was a pixel hunt for something that could not be seen on my display with its default contrast setting. This latter puzzle is what really put me off; I don't want to have to wade through these kind of annoying puzzles just for the few interesting ones. Maybe I've just gone off adventure games, because this actually sums up most of my recent adventure game experiences.


Fate of the World

Fate of the World is an interesting sim from Red Redemption You're in charge of a global organisation charged with protecting the world from catastrophic climate change. Although it's clearly a sim with plenty of stats and graphs to wade through if desired, the main interface is really simple. You recruit agents in each of the regions and for each agent you have, you can take one action in that region. Each action is represented by a card which describes the cost and affect of the action. The screenshot above illustrates a game where I have two agents in the Middle East and have chosen to Expand Oil Production and Increase Security Presence. This card-based mechanic makes the game a lot more approachable than a hard-core sim.

However, the real-world "impending doom" nature of the subject matter isn't the most compelling. The game is far from preachy regarding climate change and it's simulating of the effects of global warming might be questionable, but I think I prefer a bit more fantasy in my games. The game's certainly worth a play, but despite plenty of different scenarios available, it gets tired quite quickly.


Evil Genius

Played a bit of the 2004 reverse-spy spoof strategy game, Evil Genius. It seems to be quite similar to the classic Dungeon Keeper in which you focus most of your efforts building up your underground lair, recruiting minions and fighting off invading heroes (investigators in Evil Genius parlance). There is a bit more to it as you have your minions perform their villainy around the globe, but I can't help thinking that I've seen this game before in a different skin. Of course, if you're going to draw a lot from another game, Dungeon Keeper's not a bad choice. I still have to complete a full game, so I'm holding onto some hope that it improves.


Portal 2 - Challenges

Valve released the promised Portal 2 DLC extending the co-op campaign and adding single player challenges (histogram-style leaderboards for least portals and fastest time). So no new single player maps to really challenge you, which is a bit of a disappointment. And with my co-op partner on his honeymoon, I've been left with chasing the challenge leaderboards. However, my game crashes every few attempts, making it more frustrating than fun, so I've given up after reaching the least portals in each of the Chapter 1 maps.

Fortunately there's quite a lot of gaming potential coming up. I'm considering picking up Might & Magic: Heroes VI (the bizarrely named next game in the Heroes of Might and Magic series) or Forza 4 (the Xbox-exclusive racing game), both out now. Also Football Manager 2012 is due this weekend. What's most piquing my interest is the the next World of Warcraft patch now on the PTR (for beta-testing). It introduces the new Raid Finder tool for easy 25-man pick-up groups, along with a new raid featuring Deathwing, Cataclysm's headlining villainous dragon. I'm quite looking forward to the opportunity to do my first World of Warcraft raiding since Wrath of the Lich King.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Review: Plants vs. Zombies (PC)

It's taken me a long time to get around to Plants vs. Zombies: when I first played the demo many moons ago, I dismissed the game as too easy and targeting a casual audience that I wasn't a part of. Fortunately, I picked it up on a Steam sale and see that the demo doesn't really give the game a fair shake.

For those who've been buried under a tombstone for the last two years, Plants vs. Zombies is from casual gaming studio extrodinaire, PopCap. It's a tower defence game where you have to defend your house from zombies approaching from across your garden (and in later levels, your roof). Defending each row (lane) of the garden, you can place a number of plants by spending Sun. Some plants, like the Sunflower, earn you more Sun over time; others attack the zombies in various way, like the simple Pea Shooter; and others have more specialized uses, like Garlic which diverts zombies to an adjacent lane. If zombies reach your plants, they'll start eating them, until they've cleared a way through to your house. Each level is won by defeating all the zombies that attack before any get inside your house to EAT YOUR BRAINS!


Daytime Zombie Attack!

The main portion of the game is the Adventure mode consisting of 50 levels across five environments, Day, Night, Fog, Pool and Roof. New levels introduce new plant and zombie types, and occassionaly a mini-game such as Walnut Bowling. Much of the interest comes from the fact that you can only choose a limited number of plant types each level. Choosing plants that can deal with all the different zombie types and environmental factors in the level is crucial.


Nighttime Zombie Attack!

While fun, the Adventure mode never goes above easy difficulty. I failed a total of three levels in my playthrough, and each was to a new zombie type whose unique abilities I had yet to learn. Once you've established a basic winning strategy in the early levels of each environment, it can be straightforwardly adapted to deal with the new zombie types that are introduced in later levels.


Beghouled!

As you play, however, you unlock various new game modes including plenty of (mostly easy) mini-games, like an adaptation of one of PopCap's other great successes, Bejeweled, called Beghouled. The Puzzle and Survival modes are the best as the higher levels of each type really challenge all those skills you were learning in Adventure mode.


Full defences built for the final assault on Survival mode

Despite all the variety, the game can get a bit repetitive (and don't get me started on the "watching paint dry"-boring Zen Garden mode). But it is the kind of game that's easy to just play a level or two, maybe while waiting for your WoW raid to start. With all the different game modes available, you're bound to find one that's fun and challenging for you.

Final Score: 7 / 10 - Fun casual game with plenty of extra game modes to keep you interested.

Notes on my personal rating scale: They are entirely based on my personal feelings about the game - I don't rate a game on its own merits but rather how much I've enjoyed and how much time it's sucking out of my life. Strategy games will do well and shooters poorly because those are my gaming preferences.

0-4 = Poor game that I won't be bothering to play any more
5-7 = Decent game - fun enough that I'll try play it some more if I have the time
8-10 = Good game that I'll be playing a lot more or have already finished and greatly enjoyed

Monday, September 12, 2011

Review: The Sims 3 (PC)

I've sunk way too much time into The Sims 3. The sim couple I created has grown old and passed on, and now their children grandchildren's children are going to school. I certainly can't complain about the hours of entertainment the game has given me, but they shouldn't be equaled by those hours spent fighting game bugs.

First, for those who've missed out on the best selling computer game franchise of all time... The Sims is about running the lives of virtual people (sims). One household of up to 8 sims is under your control while you try to get them to satisfy their needs and achieve their ambitions (or quash them if that's your desire). It's all touched by a cartoony sense of humour with robot butlers, ghosts and vampires all being members of my household at one time or another.

Ground floor of my Sims 3 household

The franchise has evolved, so now the entire neighbourhood containing your household is simulated - your friends and coworkers will have families, age and die along with your sims. And if there's one thing the franchise is known for, it's laying on extra features with expansions and content packs such as overseas adventures (ho-hum), forming a band and taking it to superstardom (haven't quite got there yet) and tons of interactive items like a doll that can become a child's imaginary friend.

Rocking out in another empty dive

The Sims 3 is clearly aimed at the casual gamer. For a more experienced gamer, the needs and ambitions are fairly trivial to achieve. You can be content with a challenge-free fantasy fulfillment experience (everyone seems receptive to your romantic advances regardless of looks or personal hygiene) or set your own goals, like seeing how many simultaneous relationships you can juggle at the same time.

Things get steamy in the hot tub

Maybe you enjoyed previous games in the franchise, or maybe the above makes it sound like you'd enjoy this particular release. But beware - I've never played a game this buggy since Daggerfall. Below is a list of bugs that I've encountered that have effected my gameplay. (I've left out purely cosmetic ones like the baby bottle that can't be cleaned up and I've had to hide behind some bushes.) Some of the bugs I've managed to work around or live with as indicated.

  • The tombstone of a dead sim has become invisible and spawns her ghost every few nights - not a big problem as the ghost tends to just play games on her laptop :/
  • None of my sims are able to sleep in a particular bed; they teleport outdoors as soon as they approach it - sold bed and bought an identical replacement.
  • Vampire guests run away from my house before they're even able to ring the doorbell - romanced a vampire entirely at a dance club before marrying her into the family.
  • Sims won't leave the house while a family member is having a birthday even when it means missing a paid gig - get out of the house and to your gig really early to avoid such a birthday.
  • The negative mood modifier for being hunted by a vampire never goes away - you just learn to live with the small penalty.
  • Becoming well rested giving a negative mood modifier instead of a positive mood modifier - downloaded a mod to recalculate mood.
  • Elevators stop working - need to enable cheats and teleport out of those high-rise death traps.
  • Child sent to boarding school is never picked up; won't attend public school now either - not been able to fix yet.

No crashes to desktop or avatars falling into the void so at least it beats out Daggerfall there. (By the way, my favourite error from that game was during installation: "An unnamed file could not be found"!) From my research, major bugs introduced in the first expansion are still unfixed while the fifth expansion is being worked on. I have a mental image of a mustachioed villain cackling away in his lair built of gold coins and hundred dollar notes - it seems EA's disregard for quality just doesn't hamper their sales at all.

Final Score: 4 / 10 - It makes me sad that such a buggy mess can make so much money. There's still some fun to be had here, but it's outweighed by the numerous frustrations.

Notes on my personal rating scale: They are entirely based on my personal feelings about the game - I don't rate a game on its own merits but rather how much I've enjoyed and how much time it's sucking out of my life. Strategy games will do well and shooters poorly because those are my gaming preferences.

0-4 = Poor game that I won't be bothering to play any more
5-7 = Decent game - fun enough that I'll try play it some more if I have the time
8-10 = Good game that I'll be playing a lot more or have already finished and greatly enjoyed

Monday, August 22, 2011

Lucky for Some

After doing the Molten Front dailies every day on my main since the release of WoW patch 4.2 (Firelands), I've obtained the reward mount, the Flameward Hippogryph, and the meta-achievement title, the Flamebreaker, and am now sick and tired of these damn quests. I was hoping to get the companion pet random drop, a Searing Scorchling baby fire elemental (5% chance each day from a full set of dailies). But alas, randomness hasn't favoured me and I'll let this one pass me by.

So between dungeons, I've been playing more on my alts. Jahger, my Worgen Hunter spotted a rare (combat) pet introduced with this patch - Ban'thalos, an owl-like Spirit Beast flying high up around the entrance to the Molten Front. The tactic I used to tame it was to fly up directly from a tree, shoot Ban'thalos, land on top of the tree for minimal falling damage, immediately lay a freezing trap and then begin taming. Result: one awesome looking Hunter's pet.

Ban'thalos

Felqast, a level 80 Blood Elf Warlock, is my highest level character on a friend's server and I used him to give a couple low-level dungeon boosts for my friend's Hunter. The level 45 knick-knacks are of little interest to me, but I was happily surprised by the drop off the last boss of Stratholme - a 1% rare drop, Lord Rivendare's steed, Deathcharger. My Warlock is now the proud rider of this much-prized undead horse.

Deathcharger

Luck averages out in the long-term - here I'm more than happy to give up the Searing Scorchling for Ban'thalos and Deathcharger!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Thurgen the Flamebreaker

Still haven't had any serious time to devote to raids, but by chipping away at the daily quests introduced in WoW's 4.2 patch (Firelands), Thurgen was able to earn the Flamebreaker title.

Cataclysm's Veteran of the Molten Front meta-achievement

For now the title is rare enough and sufficiently novel for people to actually whisper me in-game about it. The last time that happened was when the Wrath of the Lich King expansion was still relatively new and I earned the Twilight Vanquisher title when our raid defeated the hardest version of the Sartharion raid encounter. The Flamebreaker title is a lot easier to get and almost all of the achievements can be soloed without difficulty. Only The Fiery Lords of Sethria's Roost achievement required a group, though I tried my damnedest to solo it :)

Cataclysm's goblin starting area

I also gave the Goblin start a go (level 1 to about 13) together with a friend who plays on a Horde server. It's got a very different feel to the Worgen start and is suitably Goblin-quirky. And you get some pimpin' looks early on - that's my new Goblin in the shades in the screenshot above. Both Worgen and Goblin starts are better than even the revamped starts for the other races, and as each should take less than 2 hours, there's every reason for those with Cataclysm to just play both.

Cities in Motion - bus stops outside a metro entrance

Finally, in the wake of the Steam summer sale, I've been trying out a bunch of my new purchases. So far the most interesting are Syberia, a 2002 adventure game that has you starting out in a remote French village whose livelihood depends on the creation of clockwork automatons; and Cities in Motion, a public transport simulation similar to the classic Transport Tycoon but focused on a single city.

Still too early to judge them - more thoughts to come as I get a chance to play some more.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Review: Sam & Max Season 2 (PC)

The Sam & Max series from Telltale Games is the episodic adventure game series succeeding the famous LucasArt series (itself an adaptation of a comic by Steve Purcell). This then is the second season of this series, and while it's technically 5 separate games, each of them is short enough (3 hours each) to consider the season as a whole a complete game. The episodes of a season are typically bundled together anyway so if you're going to play all the episodes, you'll probably save by buying the whole season.

Sam and Max in their office (now the presidential office)

The story is of two private investigators, an anthropomorphic dog (Sam) and rabbit (Max), who get the most extraordinary cases and resolve them in the craziest way possible. An example of this was that midway through season 1, Max is elected as US president. And as those aware of Max's penchant for violence will realize, that's going to be trouble. (And maybe it carries just a smidgen of political commentary.) As we begin season 2, Max is still technically president though he appears to govern in abstentia as he is more concerned with saving Christmas (episode 1) and tropical island paradises (episode 2).

Sam & Max: Ice Station Santa

The game itself is firmly of the LucasArts adventure game mould (and the series is considered by some to be the archetype of the episodic adventure game). It's point-and-click with most puzzles boiling down to finding the right item to use in the right place or in the right combination. These are often unusual - one puzzle's solution even had Sam saying "I really didn't expect that to work" - and require lateral thinking or trial and error. The number of items and locations is generally small enough that trial and error will get you past almost all the puzzles eventually. There's also walkthroughs and hints but I personally haven't found the need for such help in any of Telltale's Sam & Max games so far and would consider these among the easier adventure games that I've played.

Season 2 is redeemed by the occasional really good puzzle, such as the portal-based puzzles on Easter Island (and I love a good portal-based puzzle). The rest of it is merely kept afloat by the humour. Sam and Max are a good comedic duo, and they're surrounded by plenty of wacky characters and scenarios. The problem is that it all gets a bit tired after a while. What was funny in season 1 is merely routine in season 2. I said the same thing about Friends so this might just be a case of me tiring of certain types of humour quicker than other people.

Orange and blue portals remind me of another game

As it is, I haven't finished the season. I took a short break from it about three weeks ago because of the World of Warcraft Firelands release (trailer) meaning to come back and finish it before review. It didn't happen, and with a bunch of games now filling my Steam library after their summer sale, I don't feel a great compulsion to finish it.

Final Score: 5 / 10 - Funny at times with some interesting puzzles, but there's not enough here to compel you to play the next episode. Consider buying each episode individually if you want to give the season a try.

Notes on my personal rating scale: They are entirely based on my personal feelings about the game - I don't rate a game on its own merits but rather how much I've enjoyed and how much time it's sucking out of my life. Strategy games will do well and shooters poorly because those are my gaming preferences.

0-4 = Poor game that I won't be bothering to play any more
5-7 = Decent game - fun enough that I'll try play it some more if I have the time
8-10 = Good game that I'll be playing a lot more or have already finished and greatly enjoyed

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Review: SpaceChem (PC)

SpaceChem is an indie puzzle game which draws its theme from real chemistry in a sci-fi universe, using aspects of programming as the basis for puzzle solutions. A single puzzle is about transforming molecules that come into your reactor on the left into the required molecules that are output on the right. To accomplish this you set up a route with instructions for tiny robots (Waldos) to follow. There's never only one solution - in fact the greatest strength of the game is that you know for any one puzzle you could be designing a solution that the creators never thought of. As such it's much more of a creative game than a typical on-rails puzzle game (like much of Portal 2).

The puzzles start out simple as you get to grips with the basic mechanics of the game or whenever a new instruction is added for you to use. Even these simple puzzles can be really fun as you can try optimize your solutions to achieve the best solutions globally or amongst your friends. You can see an example of this in my earlier post where I tackled Best Left Unanswered (level 8 of more than 50 in the base game) to try and match the best solutions. It's a good example of the game's mechanics and the thought processes that can go into solving a level, so I'm not going to repeat it - just go read it if you're interested.


Best Left Unanswered, an early SpaceChem level

However, what should be evident from the (cropped) screenshot above is that this isn't a pretty game. The interface is straightforward and functional, but don't expect the production values of a triple-A title. The story, such as it is, is told through (occassionaly funny) pages of text. What you have instead is a game whose prime focus is on challenging you with its excellent puzzles and nothing gets in the way of that.

Which brings me to my only real problem with this excellent game - the different types of levels. They are research, production and defence. Research levels are the simplest: a single reactor with two input areas and two output areas.


SpaceChem research level

Production levels allow you to combine reactors to allow for advanced tasks, and may involve three or more inputs and outputs.


SpaceChem production level


Defence levels are like production levels but always include a gimmick which allows you to turn your chemicals into a way to defeat the monster of the week.


SpaceChem defence level

Research levels are tightly focused puzzles which require only one or two bursts of inspiration to figure out and advance. Production levels and defence levels aren't necessarily more difficult than research levels, just bigger and with more opportunities to frustrate. For example, in a production level using 4 reactors you may have spent an hour building the first 3 reactors only to realize while building the 4th reactor that your solution can't possibly work and you'll have to start again from scratch. These kind of levels feel more like a chore after following the fun research levels. There are few optional levels which means you will have to complete these kinds of levels to advance. (I've only seen research levels in the free DLC so far, so maybe the developers have realized where the strength of their game is.)

However, these concerns are minor. If you have any interest in puzzle games, you owe it to yourself to at least try the demo (available on Zachtronichs Industries game purchase page).

Final Score: 8 / 10 - Superb puzzles from easy to really challenging, and new puzzles are continuously being added for free. If it's puzzles you want, you won't be let down (just don't expect anything else - like story, music or pretty graphics).

Notes on my personal rating scale: They are entirely based on my personal feelings about the game - I don't rate a game on its own merits but rather how much I've enjoyed and how much time it's sucking out of my life. Strategy games will do well and shooters poorly because those are my gaming preferences.

0-4 = Poor game that I won't be bothering to play any more
5-7 = Decent game - fun enough that I'll try play it some more if I have the time
8-10 = Good game that I'll be playing a lot more or have already finished and greatly enjoyed

Monday, July 4, 2011

Perfect 10: Puzzle Games and Shooters

In my previous two posts, I looked at games which I would rate at 10/10: RPGs and adventure games, and strategy games and simulations. In this final post of the series, I'll look at puzzle games and shooters.

Portal (Puzzle, 2007)



The basic mechanic of Portal is very straightforward: use your portal gun to open a blue portal and an orange portal that are linked together - anything entering one portal emerges from the other retaining its momentum. But from such a simple mechanic emerges so much variety and head-scratching. The campaign is framed by a minimalist but memorable story, and the campaign levels never becoming overly complex. The campaign is a bit on the short side, but Portal's challenge maps and advanced chambers make up for it.

Portal is currently the only game I own on both PC and Xbox; it really is just such a seminal title in computer gaming. The sequel (reviewed earlier this year) is a worthy successor, but play the original first.

(Available from Steam or consider buying the bundle which includes both Portal and Portal 2)


As for shooters... none so far (and I'm not holding my breath for one).

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Perfect 10: Strategy Games and Simulations

Following on from the RPGs and adventure games to which I would give 10/10, I present the following epitomes of the strategy and simulation genres...

Civilization IV (Strategy, 2005)



The Civilization series is about leading an empire from 4000 BC to the near future, striving to dominate the world through superior military, technology, economy and, in more recent editions, culture. The series is simply the archetype of the 4X genre.

There is much debate about which of the Civilization games is the best and any of them has the ability to hook you in and not let you go for the many hours it will take to complete a single game. I've recorded my own thoughts on the latest version, Civilization V, in which I was optimistic about the direction the series was taking, but it was definitely a departure from the huge detail and complexity in its immediate predecessor. For those who are willing to face up to those challenges, Civilization IV (with the expansion pack, Beyond the Sword) is extremely rewarding.

(Available from Steam)

Alpha Centauri (Strategy, 1999)



The technological victory in the Civilization series ends with a successful colonization of the Alpha Centauri star system. Alpha Centauri takes up the story with you controlling one of the factions from the colony ship, as you strive to dominate your new home.

Like it's inspiration, Alpha Centauri is also a 4X game, and is essentially Civilization on another planet. But what a Planet! The 4X gameplay integrates with an intriguing setting, characters and story in a way that make it feel richer and more involved than even Civilization's Earth.

(Newly available from gog.com)

Championship Manager 4 (Simulation, 2003)



The premise is simple: take over any football (soccer) team from any of the supported leagues around the world and do your best over a number of seasons. Win the Champions League with Manchester United or get promotion out of the 3rd division with Huddersfield Town.

Football management games must be one of the narrowest niches there is: sport and spreadsheet-style management would seem to be on opposite ends of the spectrum. Yet there is an audience for them which, at least in the UK, is reasonably large (the almost year-old Football Manager 2011 is only behind the latest Sims 3 expansion in this week's UK retail charts). I'm not going to try convince you that you'd enjoy the sub-genre - this is definitely a case where you either get it or you don't.

So why does Championship Manager 4 deserve a 10 over its technically superior descendants, the Football Manager series. The problem is that the series shows only incremental improvements in each annual release. Championship Manager 4, on the other hand, introduced the graphical 2D view of matchday play and this feature, more than any other, is what ensured I was captivated for hundreds of hours, living an alternate reality as manager of struggling 1st division Watford Football Club.

(Essentially a franchise, buy the latest edition, Football Manager 2011, from Steam)

My pick of puzzle games and shooters next...

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Perfect 10: RPGs and Adventure Games

Since I gave Portal 2, a game I very much enjoyed, only 9 out of 10, I've been asked what would qualify a game for a perfect 10 out of 10. I think Portal 2 has the potential to get there in time with the promised post-release free DLC, but meanwhile these are the games I place on that honoured pedestal and against which I compare all the aspiring candidates...

Planescape: Torment (RPG, 1999)



You play as the Nameless One, an immortal being adventuring across planes through the planar hub of Sigil. His amnesia is more than just a convenient plot device - it's an integral part of the whole story (think Memento).

Possessing a quality story, unique setting (for a CRPG) and detailed quirky characters, Torment captures the drama of a good book like no other game I've played. The combat is the antiquated 2nd edition D&D system but it seems incidental to the story anyway, and the harder combats can be avoided with good dialogue choices!

(Available from gog.com)

Baldur's Gate 2 (RPG, 2000)



A more traditional RPG in the D&D setting of the Forgotten Realms, here you are the spawn of the dead god of murder. Initially your struggle is to rescue your fellow Bhaal-spawn, Imoen, your childhood friend who is like a sister to you. But eventually the darkness within you comes to the fore and (with the expansion) will lead you into deadly conflict with all those aspiring to claim your sire's mantle.

The story here is also really good (though you really must have the expansion so that you can see the story through to its conclusion). The 2nd edition D&D system can be quite daunting for those with more modern sensibilities, but if you're willing to embrace the system's crunchiness, you'll find that BG2 combats, particularly the boss battle, can be very rewarding.

(Available from gog.com)

Star Control 2 (Adventure, 1992)



After Earth's defeat to the evil Ur-Quan, you build a new alliance of alien species to free yourselves and eventually face a threat even greater than the Ur-Quan.

This is actually more of a hybrid as it incorporates action elements for space combat, and strategy for building up your fleet and alien Precursor mothership. However, the driving force of the game is really it's adventure elements as you explore the galaxy and interact with the various alien species of the StarCon universe. It definitely doesn't fit comfortably alongside traditional adventure games (or RPGs) and really is its own special thing. Everyone should play this game, with a walkthrough if necessary, if only to enjoy the game's special brand of humour.

(Available from gog.com as part of a Star Control 1 & 2 bundle, or as the open-sourced The Ur-Quan Masters on SourceForge.)

We look at my pick of the strategy and simulation genres next...

Monday, June 13, 2011

Thurgen - The Journey Has Just Begun

This weekend saw me push on through the new Cataclysm content to have a second character reach the current level cap of 85: Thurgen, the Worgen Druid (typically specced restoration for healing).


Since most of my time was spent in dungeons, particularly at the higher levels, I had enough justice points (basic max level reward currency) to buy a couple of items and after spending a bit at the auction house, I now have decent enough gear to start on heroic-level dungeons.


In the medium-term, I plan to do some raiding with this druid, possibly when patch 4.2 comes out making the current (Cataclysm-release) raids suitable for pick-up groups and casual raiders.

Anyways ... some statistics on my experience getting to level 85:
  • Played 107 hours, 45 minutes
  • 138 dungeons completed - 41 unique dungeons; completed Utgarde Keep (lowest-level Wrath of the Lich King dungeon) the most, killing Ingvar the Plunderer 8 times
  • 83 deaths (53 in dungeons, 7 in PvP)
  • Killed 20094 creatures (including 452 critters, though I never meant to hurt them, I swear!)

Monday, June 6, 2011

Thurgen

Not much gaming lately, but am still progressing in SpaceChem when I can, and a review for the game will be coming soon.

Meanwhile I've also been leveling another WoW character, Thurgen, a Worgen Druid. After running a few heroic-level dungeons with Jahger, my Hunter, I realized that I actually get quite bored just being a DPS character (besides the interminable queues that DPS classes have to endure since they're the most played role). I know, I should have learned my lesson from my early days when I leveled a Mage to the Burning Crusade level cap of 70 before realizing I preferred playing my Priest.


So I'm leveling a Druid now, specced for Restoration (healing) for dungeons and Balance (DPS) for questing. Unlike previous characters, I've tried to spend as much time as possible in dungeons and my time has probably been split 50/50 between questing and dungeons. The Dungeon Finder tool has made it so easy for tanks and healers to just do serial dungeon runs while leveling. While it may not give the fastest XP, experiencing content with a good group is more fun than questing in areas I've been before.

I do still have some concerns with the Dungeon Finder:
  • Lack of dungeon variety - despite multiple dungeons being available at a certain level, 90% of the time you end up in the same one if you choose random.
  • Too easy - if you have a tank that's at the higher end of the level bracket for the dungeon or has good gear then the dungeon becomes way too easy for the healer (who then spends his time just doing some insignificant DPS).
  • Gear gap - at level 80 you're forced to move on to Cataclysm content (otherwise you receive only minimal XP), but a freshly leveling character won't have the gear to be allowed by Dungeon Finder into Cataclysm dungeons. You won't be able to do any dungeons until you've replaced most of your gear with new quest rewards or from the auction house. And don't forget to keep around substitutes for your heirlooms that otherwise count as level 1 items.

Healing with the Druid is fun when the challenge is right, and I hope to be able to do some casual raiding with him in the future. But for now, I'm happy to just take my time getting to the Cataclysm level cap of 85.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Not the Chemistry I Remember (continued)

My previous attempts at the SpaceChem level Best Left Unanswered left me with an above average result compared to the rest of the SpaceChem players. But I was determined to do even better. The level was simple: nitrogen atoms input, output nitrogen molecules (N2 with a triple bond).

I saw that the best times (measured in cycles) were about twice as fast as mine. There must be something I was missing. And like much of SpaceChem, when I figured it out, it seemed so obvious. Clearly, to get a time that was twice as fast I needed to move two atoms at a time instead of one.

Like the previous attempt, to get the fastest time we'd use a straight line instead of a circuit. Each waldo would be responsible for assembling a nitrogen molecule and moving it across to the output. The two waldos would have to share the responsibility for bonding, inputting atoms and outputting molecules since we'd need to, for example, input a second nitrogen atom in the same cycle as bonding the first to it. To figure out the required placement of instructions we draw up a table and start filling in instructions.

We want red to drop its molecule last so that blue can output in the same cycle (red's instructions are carried out before blue's), so we have blue start building the first molecule on cycle 1.

CycleBlueRed
1Grab
2
3
4
5
6
7Drop
8
9
10
11
12

We then have to input the next atom and triple bond the molecule simultaneously, so constraining our options somewhat in cycles 2-4. Note that since red's instruction is run first, it has to run the in instruction before blue runs the bond+ instruction to ensure the atoms bond.

CycleBlueRed
1Grab
2Bond+In
3Bond+
4Bond+
5
6
7Drop
8
9
10
11
12

Red can't start building its molecule in cycles 3 or 4 because it leads to problems scheduling the in instructions. So the earliest we can start red's construction is in cycle 5.

Red's molecule also has to be assembled with an in instruction from red and three bond+ instructions, one of which must be run by red when blue is running its drop instruction.

CycleBlueRed
1Grab
2Bond+In
3Bond+
4Bond+
5Grab
6Bond+In
7DropBond+
8Bond+
9
10
11OutDrop
12

Now because our waldos are following a back and forth route on a straight line, each waldo's instructions will be mirrored around their grab and drop instructions. Here blue's bond+ instruction in cycle 2 is already mirrored in cycle 6, however the out instruction in cycle 11 must be repeated in cycle 3. This forces red to do a bond+ in that cycle which is already mirrored in cycle 7. Red's in instruction in cycle 6 must be repeated in cycle 4. This forces blue to do a bond+ in that cycle which must be mirrored in cycle 10.

CycleBlueRed
1Grab
2Bond+In
3OutBond+
4Bond+In
5Grab
6Bond+In
7DropBond+
8Bond+
9
10Bond+
11OutDrop
12

In addition, looking at cycle 2, blue's bond+ instruction must be repeated in cycle 12 and red's in instruction must be repeated in cycle 8. This forces blue to do a bond+ in cycle 8 which is already mirrored in cycle 6.

CycleBlueRed
1Grab
2Bond+In
3OutBond+
4Bond+In
5Grab
6Bond+In
7DropBond+
8Bond+In
9
10Bond+
11OutDrop
12Bond+

Only thing missing now is an out instruction for blue's molecule dropped in cycle 7. We have to do this in cycle 9 else there will be a clash of molecules. It doesn't matter who runs this instruction so we give it to red. This out is mirrored in cycle 1.

CycleBlueRed
1GrabOut
2Bond+In
3OutBond+
4Bond+In
5Grab
6Bond+In
7DropBond+
8Bond+In
9Out
10Bond+
11OutDrop
12Bond+

The two instruction lines are:
  • Blue: grab, bond+, out, bond+, -, bond+, drop
  • Red: grab, in, bond+, in, out, -, drop

There isn't space to position the waldo starts where we'd like on the paths, but we can position them off at an angle to run just the instructions we need to get started. The completed setup is below.


"Best Left Unanswered" - best attempt

This reactor outputs 10 nitrogen molecules in just 59 cycles, less than half our previous attempt and snagging a spot in the top bar on the histogram.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Not the Chemistry I Remember

Despite the brilliance of Portal 2, I did feel let down by the lack of really difficult puzzles and challenge levels (quickest time/fewest portals). Scouring other thoughts on the matter led me to indie puzzle game SpaceChem. I was promised really difficult puzzles and competition for fastest time/fewest symbols used for each level.

Although the theme of the game is chemistry, reactors where you can manipulate atoms directly indicate that this isn't meant to be a realistic portrayal of the subject. The basic premise is that you need to take molecules (or atoms or radicals) coming into a reactor and convert them into the required molecules (or atoms or radicals). The example below shows a reactor I built to convert a methane molecule (CH4) into the required CH radical and hydrogen (H) atoms.


Disassembling methane

To accomplish this, you have two waldos, atom-sized "robots" that will follow the track laid down for them and process the instructions in the square they're currently in. The instructions include grab (to pick up an atom), drop (to put down an atom), in (to bring a new molecule into the input area) and out (to flush a molecule out of the output area).

In the example above you can see the red waldo has just dropped off a hydrogen atom and is about to flush it with the out instruction. Meanwhile the blue waldo is rotating a CH radical that it will drop in the upper output area in the next cycle (waldos move 1 square per cycle, the SpaceChem unit of time).

So far I've only played one difficult level and that was optional. I expect there are more challenging levels ahead, but in the meanwhile I'm having great fun trying to optimize my solutions to be among the best for each puzzle.


SpaceChem histograms

As an example of an early level and the optimization I did, I present my solutions for Sernimir IV's Best Left Unanswered. The level comes just as you've learned how to bond atoms together: running the bond+ instruction will cause all atoms on the special bonding tiles to add one bond to each neighbouring atom also on a bonding tile. In this level you have to make a triple bond between a pair of nitrogen (N) atoms to form a nitrogen molecule (N2). Looking at the histograms before the level shows me that players solutions typically take 200-250 cycles to output 10 nitrogen molecules and use about 22 instruction/direction symbols.


"Best Left Unanswered" - first attempt

My first attempt was fairly simple. The blue waldo grabs a nitrogren atom first (using the sync instruction, the red waldo waits for the blue waldo to have picked up its arom first) and then the red waldo grabs a nitrogen atom. The two waldos then drop off their atoms in the output area (blue's atom to the right to ensure there's no collision between atoms), Then the red waldo runs three bond+ instructions to form the triple bond followed by an out to flush the completed nitrogen molecule.

This first attempt takes 141 cycles and uses 20 symbols, outperforming the typical solution! (Perhaps it's too easy to over-engineer a solution for this one?)

The key step in optimizing here was realizing that the waldos' routes need not be a circuit. A straight line back-and-forth route was the shortest way between the input and output areas. This has the interesting side effect of each instruction (except those at each end) being run twice (once as the waldo moves left along the route and once as it moves right). This can be mitigated (e.g. running a drop instruction while not holding anything will do nothing) and exploited (e.g. we need to in two nitrogen atoms and can now do that with a single instruction symbol). By keeping the route lengths the same and choosing appropriate starting positions, we no longer need the sync instructions. A careful ordering of the instruction symbols gets us the nitrogen molecules we need.


"Best Left Unanswered" - improved attempt

To see how this solution works, we can go through the 12 cycle sequence that then repeats:

CycleBlueRed
0StartStart
1Inputs N
2Grabs N
3Inputs N
4Grabs N
5(out does nothing
6(bond+ does nothing
7(bond+ does nothing
8Drops N
91st bond N-NDrops N
102nd bond N-N3rd bond N-N
11Outputs N2(drop does nothing)

The solution takes 119 cycles (10 sequences) to reach 10 nitrogen molecules and uses 13 symbols. While a significant improvement over my first attempt, the histograms show a sub-100 cycle time is possible and can be solved with as few as 8 symbols (though probably not both in the same solution). Now that's got my brain straining for some inspiration...

An even better solution awaits in Not the Chemistry I Remember (continued).

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Review: Portal 2 (PC)

Portal 2 is a first-person puzzle game, the sequel to the highly praised Portal. I thoroughly enjoyed the original and was greatly looking forward to Valve's big budget follow-up. I wasn't disappointed. Well, maybe a teeny little bit, but overall there's few opportunities to complain and many to praise this brilliant game.

The basic mechanic from Portal is unchanged: the player acquires a portal gun which can shoot blue portals and orange portals. The blue and orange portals are linked and anything passing through one portal will emerge from the other. There are a few conditions though: you can only have one blue and one orange portal up at a time, and they can only be fired onto certain surfaces, common in the game's test chambers but relatively rare in the many sections between the chambers.


Portals linking 2 disparate points

The original Portal proved that portals plus a few boxes and buttons can provide a suitably varied and challenging experience; so what could Portal 2 add to keep the sequel interesting?

Well, firstly they added a more compelling narrative. There are a few more twists and turns in the sequel's story which is told by way of some very humorous characters with the testing overlord AI GLaDOS returning from the first game, and a bumbling personality core, Wheately, accompanying you as you begin your adventure through Aperture Labs.

But the story is still just a background element to the puzzles, and here Portal 2 keeps it fresh with new environmental components introduced almost every chapter. The new components are:
  • Laser deflecting boxes
  • Light bridges - so many uses beyond just walking on them, especially since you can use portals to make the bridges vertical
  • Light funnels - act kind of like light bridges except they force anything caught in them to go along them in their direction, horizontally or vertically
  • Aerial faith plates - spring-loaded catapults to generate a great deal of momentum
  • Blue gel - you (or any object) will bounce off it and objects can be covered in it making them very bouncy
  • Orange gel - you can run really fast on it and so is another way of getting a lot of momentum
  • White gel - flat areas coated in this goo can have portals on them

If you're interested in seeing some of these components and how they're used in the context of a puzzle, you can have a look at my (spoiler-heavy) "Let's Play a Portal 2 Test Chamber" from later on in the Portal 2 single player campaign.


Blue and orange gel - two of the new Portal 2 components

For newcomers to the Portal series, Portal 2 starts off really easy but quickly ramps up as the new components are introduced. This difficulty comes from having to use the new components in clever ways rather than tricky portal shots like in the original.

Now Portal veterans (like myself) were hoping that later in the game, with all these new components, we'd get some really difficult puzzles to really challenge our puzzle-solving skills. Unfortunately that isn't the case: just when things are getting interesting with one of the new environmental components, the next test chamber will feature a different component and we'll be back to easy levels again. There are unfortunately no really difficult levels; even the final "boss level" uses just a couple of the new components and is only made somewhat challenging by a timer.

To be fair, the original Portal was just as easy and quite a bit shorter. But what really helped there were the advanced chambers (one of which kept me stumped for hours) and challenges (fewest portals or quickest time to solve a test chamber). However there's none of those options in Portal 2. According to news sources, free DLC will arrive eventually to fill in this gaping hole. Until then we have just about 12 hours of gaming: an 8 hour single player campaign and a 4 hour multiplayer campaign.


And talking of multiplayer ... the biggest innovation in Portal 2 is the co-op mode. If you can grab a like-minded friend to join you in this, it will be the most fun you've had since you discovered the joy of portal making in 2007. Since two heads are better than one, it's quite easy to blitz your way through the levels as one player figures out the solution if the other gets stuck. But with 4 portals at your team's command, the sheer creative joy of figuring out some of the solutions is great.


Portal 2 multiplayer: Co-operate for Science!

I loved Portal, and I love Portal 2 so much that I want more. As mentioned above, Valve has promised us more and I can't wait until then.

Final Score: 9 / 10 - Superbly polished puzzle game with an excellent single player story and a fun co-op campaign. It's only let down by a lack of really challenging puzzles and replayability options.

Notes on my personal rating scale: They are entirely based on my personal feelings about the game - I don't rate a game on its own merits but rather how much I've enjoyed and how much time it's sucking out of my life. Strategy games will do well and shooters poorly because those are my gaming preferences.

0-4 = Poor game that I won't be bothering to play any more
5-7 = Decent game - fun enough that I'll try play it some more if I have the time
8-10 = Good game that I'll be playing a lot more or have already finished and greatly enjoyed

Friday, April 29, 2011

Let's Play a Portal 2 Test Chamber (Part 2)

SPOILERS! This post is naturally one big spoiler for one of the puzzles in Portal 2.

This is a follow-up to part 1 in which we performed a fairly thorough sweep of the test chamber to identify all the components that might help us get to the exit.

We're not going to try come up with a complete solution immediately. We have some simple sub-goals to accomplish first. We know that we'll need the first box for use on the button, and the second box, the deflection box, to deflect the laser, so our first goals are to retrieve the two boxes.

The first box looks like the easier of the two. There are no portal-accepting surfaces up near the box and the only one portal-accepting surface that is pointing in that direction is the angled surface marked T before. If we can achieve sufficient momentum and emerge from a portal on that surface we should reach the box. The simplest way to gain momentum is to simply fall from a great height and the simplest way to gain height is the same way we plan to get our box to the ceiling...


Light funnel directed through a portal

Portal at the light funnel and portal on a floor and we now have a light funnel that will force anything towards the ceiling. We step into the light funnel and are pushed up to the ceiling.


Pushed up to the ceiling

Now we have our height, shooting a blue portal anywhere will remove the existing portal through which the light funnel is being directed, allowing us to fall through the orange portal and with that momentum out of the blue portal. As indicated previously, we want to shoot out of the surface T. We simply shoot a blue platform at that surface - we fall; into orange and out of blue, and when we regain our orientation, we are atop the platform right by the box. We take it down to the main level.

Now to the pit area for the next box which is also on a raised area. There's also a conveniently angled portal-accepting surface facing in that direction. So we can try the same technique. Blue portal at the light funnel, orange portal on the floor, and up we go to the ceiling.


Ceiling of the pit area

Shoot a blue portal at the angled surface (S), we fall and are flung out from S ... straight into the light funnel. So that's going to be a problem - we're going to have to disable the light funnel in order to be flung through that gap. That's easy enough: we use our first box to block the laser.


Laser blocked by box

Now the problem is that we no longer have the light funnel for gaining height, so we need another method for gaining the necessary momentum. There a few tricks we can try by fiddling around with jumps and portals in the pit, but none gives us quite enough distance coming out of the portal on surface S. The time has come to take stock of all components in the chamber and see what might help us. Well, we haven't used the faith plate (catapult) yet and it's quite a good source of momentum!


Set up for the faith plate catapult

Orange portal to the faith plate target T and blue portal to our angled surface S. We step onto the faith plate and are flung through T->S and right next to our second box.

With both boxes retrieved, it's a simple matter to set up the finale. The deflection box deflects a laser onto a portal-accepting surface in the pit. The normal box is placed on the floor below the button.

Portals connect the laser to our laser trigger to lower the first elevator platform (4).


Laser trigger triggered

As soon as we break that portal connection, the elevator platform will rise again, so we step on to the elevator. Now to lower the second elevator platform (5), we need to project it up to the ceiling button with the light funnel. But the light funnel's no longer active because the laser is being deflected away from that trigger with the deflection box.


Laser currently deflected by deflector box

No problem! We just shoot a blue portal beneath the deflection box and it will fall out of the orange portal. The laser will trigger the light funnel which we can then use to push the first box up to the ceiling button.


Box is pushed onto button

This lowers the second elevator platform (5) - we get on it and shoot another portal to break the light funnel holding the box against the button. Up we go and we're at the exit!

This isn't the hardest test chamber in the game, but it is one of the more complex as it involves quite a few different elements. It's easy in such situations to forget about a crucial element and go off on your own tangent like I did with fancy portal jumps in my failed attempts to get up to the deflection box. But taking stock of what you have, and thinking through the requirements logically as shown here, is almost always sufficient to get you through all of the Portal 2 test chambers.