Sarah's Reviews
Sarah E Bergstrom
I'm writing these reviews quickly, and I didn't take very good notes while
judging, so they're kinda short. The order of games within a number isn't
an indication of which I liked better -- I don't rate that finely.
10*: Letters from Home *=would have been a 10 if I'd played during judging.
I like puzzlefests, and the only thing I didn't like about Letters was
the timer, since it took me *forever* to finish. But it took forever
because I was having fun reading all of the flavor-texts and because I was
trying to beta-test (as I mentioned before, a crash lost my comments, and
it was too late to try to re-create them).
9: Ad Verbum
The main reason this wasn't a 10 was that I just didn't get the basic
idea behind a puzzle or two, and I prefer puzzlefests where the basic idea is
clear while the answer isn't. I think the couch-stair puzzle was my main
sticking-point.
9: Metamorphoses
First, I didn't pick up on the multiple-endings -- I might have liked this
even more if I had. Second, I kept missing the cut-scenes by typing too much,
and there were a few other guess-the-verb type situations that frustrated me.
I also missed seeing a room exit, and while that's mostly me being dumb, I
like room descriptions and layouts that make sense to my brain.
9: Masquerade
Sometimes I'm just in the mood for romance stories. The week I spent doing
little but play Comp games was one of those times. (This is why I rated
The Big Mama highly as well.) I felt it struck a nice balance between
CYOA-type IF and more traditional IF.
8: I didn't rank any games 8, oddly enough. 8 is a rank I use for games that
only have one irritating flaw but are captivating. All of the games I found
captivating this year were also well-enough coded/designed that I didn't use 8.
7: Being Andrew Plotkin
This was a lot of fun due to the subject matter. It made me laugh. It
didn't make me think hard about puzzles or become emotionally attached to
the characters, so it didn't make the top cut.
7: The Best Man
I enjoyed the puzzles, but there were a few too many guess-the-verb
situations and a time limit, both of which annoy me. I really liked the
atmosphere, too. It really felt like an action movie. If the timer-puzzles
had been short ones rather than a whole-game timer, this would have rated
much higher. I also thoroughly enjoyed the "feelies".
7: Punk Points
Made me laugh, and the puzzles were about the right difficulty. I did
have a problem with finding a certain object -- I could take it, but I never
figured out how to know it was there without the walkthrough. [1]
7: The Big Mama
I was in a sentimental mood. If I'd been more cynical that day, I might
have rated this lower, but I liked the idea. I couldn't find that many
endings, though, and I would have liked more options. I also *didn't* run
into the illegal object bug. And I like conversation menus in this kind of
game.
7: The End Means Escape
The second section completely confused me. But the other ones were a lot
of fun, and the adaptive hints were generally good. Surreal is good, and I
spent most of my judging time wandering the first section, which I felt was
the strongest.
6: Kaged
Well-coded, but I just didn't like it that much. The puzzles were all
either too obvious or completely opaque to me, and that aggravated me, since
I kept feeling like I was relying on the walkthrough for an "easy" game. I
also couldn't figure out exactly who was on which side, etc, at times, and,
instead of feeling that was appropriate for the atmosphere, I just felt
confused. I'm going to go back and play this again and see if I missed
something.
6: Withdrawl Symptoms
Cute, short, and sweet.
6: Planet of the Infinite Minds
This made me laugh a bunch, and I liked the cards-puzzle and the camera-
puzzle, but I felt some things just weren't clued well enough. Namely, the
initial set of puzzles required to get to the area with the card-puzzle, and
I had a lot of guess-the-verb at the end. Also, I'd never heard the "polish
a turd" expression, and I just don't like scatological humor.
6: Unnkulia X
I've never played the old Unnkulia games, but I enjoyed what I got to of
this game. It would have ranked much higher if it had been an appropriate
size for the Comp, though.
Sarah's 5 and under list
5: Enlisted
The EVA suit puzzle ruined what started out fun.
5: YAGWAD
I liked the premise, but I didn't figure out how to make the spheres
puzzle work w/o hints. Namely, I realized how to make them, but not that
I should do something with them. I had thought I just needed to collect them,
and then they'd all be useful for some final key-puzzle or something. So I
got very frustrated.
4: The Djinni Chronicles
The purpose-draining bugged me. First, because I didn't notice it, and
second, because it stopped me from being able to look around and play with
things. I like to read flavor text. I don't like to have to l. undo. every
turn.
4: Dinner with Andre
The timing was too tight for the big puzzle. I figured out what I was
supposed to do quite quickly, (well, with one excursion to the hints, which
were well-done), but then I couldn't manage to do it. I tried over and over
to not run out of time, and couldn't figure out what I did differently when
it finally worked. Also, the intrusion of the plot at the end was irritating
-- puzzlefests with thin veneers of plot are good. Plot-heavy good. But
long plot-preaching interludes in puzzlefests bad.
4: The Clock
Nice, if a little trite, idea. Bad implementation. And I don't like
hunger-timers and inventory-limits.
3: Rameses
Yes, I'm going out on a limb here. But, basically, this is an IF entry in
a genre of fiction that I don't like. It was well-done, but I didn't enjoy it.
I didn't identify with the main character at all, so I didn't care what
happened to him. Basically, kudos to the author for writing a solid piece of
literature, but I don't have to like it.
3: The Masque of the Last Faeries
Cute idea, horrid implementation. I'd play v2.0, if one appears.
3: Asendent
Amusing in its badness, but still bad.
3: Stupid Kittens
I don't like scat humor. Stupid Kittens was just too juvenile for me.
3: Threading the Labyrinth
Wayyy too short to actually get into the atmosphere. I like the idea,
but I couldn't give a high score to a game that only took 5 minutes to enjoy.
2: The Trip
a) I didn't like the subject matter or find the PC intriguing.
b) I hit a bug where I stayed high permanently, and had to restart.
c) I didn't like the moralizing ending, even if it was the PC's morals,
and not the authors.
2: What-IF?
This doesn't belong in the comp. But the essays were vaguely interesting,
so I didn't give it a 1.
2: 1-2-3...
Gross, and a poster-child for why conversation menus can be a good thing...
1: Breaking the Code
Not IF, and I didn't even figure out what the code was, so I was completely
bewildered.
spoiler footnote below...
[1] the object was the disk.
--
****************** Sarah E. Bergstrom <s...@mit.edu> ***********************
"Umm... You do realize that 'the Constitution of the United States' is not
what it rolls against to resist poison, right?"
-- Anson Turner, in a rec.games.int-fiction communist flamewar
Craxton
> I was in a sentimental mood. If I'd been more cynical that day, I
might
> have rated this lower, but I liked the idea. I couldn't find that many
> endings, though, and I would have liked more options. I also *didn't* run
> into the illegal object bug. And I like conversation menus in this kind
of
> game.
There is no illegal-object bug. It's a joke that some people apparently
missed.
-Craxton
OKB
Oh, boy. Pretty weird having to say this, but, yes it IS a bug. It was
sheer luck that it happened to come at a place where people could interpret it
as a joke (i.e., "hey, baybee, let's do illegal object number 357, wink-wink,
nudge-nudge"). But, if you found it funny (I sure did, when it was pointed out
to me by a kind player during the comp), more power to you. Laughing is good
for the soul. :-)
--OKB (Bren...@aol.com)
"Do not follow where the path may lead;
go, instead, where there is no path, and leave a trail."
--Author Unknown
Andrew Plotkin
>> 7: The Big Mama
>> I was in a sentimental mood. If I'd been more cynical that day, I
> might
>> have rated this lower, but I liked the idea. I couldn't find that many
>> endings, though, and I would have liked more options. I also *didn't* run
>> into the illegal object bug. And I like conversation menus in this kind
> of
>> game.
> There is no illegal-object bug. It's a joke that some people apparently
> missed.
I'm still not getting it, even after reading this post.
Where's the funny?
--Z
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
OKB
>> There is no illegal-object bug. It's a joke that some people apparently
>> missed.
>
>I'm still not getting it, even after reading this post.
>
>Where's the funny?
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
P
A
C
E
The bug occurred in a list of possible activities to do with Emily (the
NPC). The gist of it was (the actual game text was more verbose than this):
Emily asks, "What do you want to do?":
1: Watch a movie
2: Take a walk
3: Play a game.
4: <Illegal object number 357>
Some people (myself included) thought this was funny, in a
wink-wink-nudge-nudge sort of way. As Neil Cerutti put it: "C'mon baby! Let's
do <illegal object number 357> together! It'll be okay! I promise."
Of course, if you didn't get it at first, you're probably not the type to
find it funny at all :-).
Paul Guertin
> Emily asks, "What do you want to do?":
> 4: <Illegal object number 357>
>
> Some people (myself included) thought this was funny, in a
> wink-wink-nudge-nudge sort of way.
Don't tell anyone, but I've started spreading that meme in real
life. My girlfriend doesn't care for IF, but she enjoys doing
<Illegal object number 357>.
Paul Guertin
p...@sff.net
OKB
>My girlfriend doesn't care for IF, but she enjoys doing
><Illegal object number 357>.
You lucky devil, you. :-)
Matthew T. Russotto
You pervert!
I have a couple of things to say about this game
1) TXD-protected? Changing the serial number doth not txd-protection
make. Even without fixing that, txd disassembled it fine; it just
lost the symbols. Using infodump -t was more informative, however.
2) I think some of the "offensive" endings were disabled. If I'd
voted, I'd have downgraded the author for being a wuss (ok, probably
not, because I wouldn't have txd'd a competition game and used that to
affect my vote).
--
Matthew T. Russotto russ...@pond.com
"Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, and moderation in pursuit
of justice is no virtue."
OKB
>I have a couple of things to say about this game [The Big Mama]
>
>1) TXD-protected? Changing the serial number doth not txd-protection
>make. Even without fixing that, txd disassembled it fine; it just
>lost the symbols. Using infodump -t was more informative, however.
The TXD hack was something else entirely. Word on the street is that it
didn't really work, but I wasn't out to crusade against disassemblers; the main
reason I used it is that I just thought it was a cool hack.
>2) I think some of the "offensive" endings were disabled. If I'd
>voted, I'd have downgraded the author for being a wuss (ok, probably
>not, because I wouldn't have txd'd a competition game and used that to
>affect my vote).
They weren't.
Carl Muckenhoupt
T. Russotto) wrote:
>In article <hg3q1to3q9drpqk47...@news.newsguy.com>,
>Paul Guertin <p...@sff.net> wrote:
>}Don't tell anyone, but I've started spreading that meme in real
>}life. My girlfriend doesn't care for IF, but she enjoys doing
>}<Illegal object number 357>.
>
>You pervert!
>
>I have a couple of things to say about this game
>
>1) TXD-protected?
Well, I should certainly hope you remembered to use TXD-protection if
you're engaging in <Illegal object number 357>.
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