Blogs - Mona_Moonlight

In comparison to other first-person adventure/exploration games I've played in the past, the greater amount of interactivity, not to mention the excellent story and environment design, makes Gone Home feel about as immersive as real life.
And while that level of immersion is great, it can, as I realized at times while playing, also be very scary.
But, not enough to put me off taking it all in one sitting ;)

If I were to describe Gone Home without calling it a game, I'd say that it's kind of like a mental time-machine, capable of putting you in someone elses body, and does exceptionally well at making you feel like you are the character that moves through the house, slowly figuring out what your family has been up to while you were away.

I'm not going to discuss the story itself (and potentially risk spoiling it), because I feel that it's something you should experience first-hand.
Instead, I'm going to ask you to go and play it right away, if you haven't already.

I just finished Gunpoint in one sitting, and now I must recommend it to everyone who likes Sci-Fi, Noir-style Detective stories, retro game graphics, and hacking/rewiring. It is brilliant.

I could tell you more, but Gunpoint speaks for itself, and you should listen to it ;3

try to run, try to hide; break on through, to the other side

I've been trying out the recent Desura update of Project Zomboid, and it is really smooth. So much so that I feel it's getting close to where I and many other Zomboid fans want it to be.
Still a bit rough around the edges, but stable enough to manage to survive for a few days, or until you get stuck while trying to jump through a window. That didn't happen often, mind you, but it was a problem in those rare cases. Other than that, I could do almost everything that was in the previous Desura build.

I did encounter somewhat of a show-stopper; an issue with moving around the skill/health/info window, specifically splitting it up into several windows, and then closing them, as that left you unable to get them back.
Oh well, that is going to be fixed fairly soon now, as The Indiestone have cranked their efforts up to eleven.

In other news, I recieved some of my Creator Pack backer rewards for SoundSelf's Kickstarter. Early builds of a virtual synthesizer module, Trioxy Synth, and a MIDI-controlled visualization program, the MIDI Harmonograph.
They do look like they will turn out really well when they're done, though I couldn't get the Harmonograph to be controlled by the MIDI output from my Roland JD-800, and I suspect that the issue lies in the interface I'm using. Same goes for Trioxy, though both are operable with your computer-keyboard as well, so...

not only play music, but compose music

I waited a long time before I started playing Don't Starve, and I hadn't read about it much, so I didn't expect much of it when I started the other day. But damn, did it ever blow me away.
Out of all the hostile gameworlds I've been in, Don't Starve is bloodthirsty to the point of... shit, I don't know.
What I do know is that the first thing that killed me wasn't starvation; it was the fact that I was unaware of the dangers of walking about in the dark.

In this world, there is some kind of thing lurking in the darkness, that you never see, but which will eat you whole unless you produce a flame. Once I got the hang of producing no less than three different types of flames, I was about to find out the next most dangerous thing you could encounter in this wicked wilderness; trees.

There is a chance that when you're chopping down trees to your health icon's content, one of them will pull themselves up, by the roots, and start chasing after you. If you let them get to you, you will die. I did so a couple times, until I had learned to be more careful with the chopping.

After that, I had some encounters with tall cycloptic birds, ravenous hounds, territorial spiders, enraged spirits, and a tribe of pigmen.

Some time later, I find myself at my wit's end, followed by a little living chest (an aptly named one, at that), inches away from salvation, when one of my more shadowy hallucinations starts to follow me around, and then kills me in one fell swoop.

However, I had at one point touched an odd stone surrounded by pig heads on pikes, and that was the place where I reappeared, after I thought that "this is the end of me".
I hurried back to the place where I lost all of my belongings, picked them up, and got to a place where I could rest and lick my wounds.

That's about where I am now, prototyping various new materials and devices, and monitoring the surrounding temperature.

At least I'm not starving.

instrumental

I really liked the first Payday game, so when Payday 2 became available for preorder, I jumped at it.
Having watched gameplay footage, I feel like my spending money on the Career Criminal Edition was justified.

Overkill have really improved a lot of aspects of the gameplay; for instance, the way stealth works is a lot more realistic, as you can sneak into a jewelry shop, disable cameras and alarms, crack open a safe, steal some valuable loot, then sneak back out the way you came, and none will be the wiser, and though this option does mean there will be valuables that you can't get at while remaining stealthy, the likelihood of a police assault will be significantly lessened.

The loot you aquire will now slow down your escape, so throwing it through the window for your teammates to pick up is sometimes necessary, in order to secure it.

There is an emphasis on customization, both with the masks and the weapons; when you've found your favourite weapon, you can customize it to make it better, and more personalized (mentions of both performance upgrades, and cosmetic customization, such as polished walnut grips for your very own assault rifle, to which you've already applied a red-dot sight and a classy paint-job).

Your character is much more persistant too; you will have to find a niche, rather than being a jack-of-all-trades. This also means that you'll have to put together a working, well-balanced gang with your friends, in order to pull off successful heists.
One of you will work crowd-control and persuasion; another will dish out massive amounts of damage to the law-enforcers and security guards you encounter; yet another will sneak past/disable security cameras, climb in through windows to disable any alarms, and allow the rest of the gang a safe passage in; and finally, one of you will set up automated turrets, crack safes about as easily as though they were eggs, and rig explosive traps for any unwanted company.

In Payday 2, there are also more options available when planning the heists; studying blueprints to find optimal routes and entry-points, aquiring security codes for various systems, as well as doing on-site reconnaissance before the heist, to find out what obstacles lie ahead. A lot more like, say, the Ocean's movies. This in particular is a tremendous improvement over the first game, making for a sequel of great potential, not to mention turning the game around from a shooter to a full-blood heist simulator.

As for the heists themselves, there is now a greater variety, with varying difficulties, lengths and rewards.
Start out small to finance the bigger heists, then go all out, for the ultimate Payday.

instrumental

...on love, I mean.
After almost 8 months, my boyfriend left me, based on his opinion that we're "too different".
That's the fourth time I've been dumped; first time to be dumped by a guy.

I suppose I'm just not meant to derive any kind of happiness from love, no matter what kind of relationship.

Or, at any rate, it won't last.
Still, enough reason to give up.

Me out.

I've been away for quite some time now, haven't I?
Well, I'm back.

Been playing quite a few games recently; I've gotten into Black Mesa, the reimagined version of Half-Life, I've been exceeding photonic velocities in FTL: Faster Than Light, gathered runes carved from whale-bones in Dishonored, and consumed a ridiculous amount of bread in Dinner Date.

Black Mesa is a nicely reimagined version of of the Half-Life universe, which feels much more alive than the original Half-Life (not to speak ill of the classic, mind you), and beats the half-assed source conversion with ease (that one however, deserves it).

I've really enjoyed playing FTL: Faster Than Light; it looks easy, but it is very hard, since you have to make decisions at every junction, and knowing whether they will be the right ones is nigh impossible; should I upgrade my core systems, or buy a more powerful laser cannon? Should I travel through the uncharted nebula, or go into the pirate controlled zone?
Every decision can have benefits, disadvantages or both.
How do you like being able to vent air into space to extinguish the fire in the engine room?
I like that very much.

Dishonored must be my favourite game yet. And that is all I'll say about it.

I never knew about Dinner Date until today, when watching a stream on Twitch.tv, at which point I asked my boyfriend, who was also watching the stream, what it was about.

Maer_Blaidd wrote: exactly what it says on the tin ;3

Then he described it more thoroughly, and even bought me a copy (in fact, he also bought FTL and Dishonored for me; one of the many reasons why I love him).

You play as, not yourself, or the main character Julian Luxemburg, but as his subconscious.

While he's waiting for his date to arrive at the door, you cannot change the fact that he is waiting, just listen to his thoughts, and make him stare nervously at the clock, look about the room, tap his fingers, take bread, dip it in tapenade and eat it, and occasionally make him refill his wine-glass and drink.

Not a very fun "game", but it isn't supposed to be; it's supposed to be an interactive experience that tells the story of someone who got stood up by his date, and communicate his thoughts and feelings about it, and what he does to cope.
To anyone who has ever stood someone up, Dinner Date is food for thought.

i don't know and i'm not sure; have you lost your way?

So, a while back, I got the infamous DayZ mod for ArmA 2 working on my computer (some registry error preventing me from installing the beta), and played it.

I'm sure you've all seen some of the let's plays of DayZ out there, such as The Days Ahead, so you already know what it looks like, and how the game mechanics play out.

And for those not in the know, it's very realistic looking (after all, ArmA 2 is the most realistic army combat simulator to date...) with nice trees, shrubs, and water.
Most of what you can learn from The Zombie Survival Guide applies, though you don't risk getting infected by the zombies at the moment. That said, you can't shove them, so unless you have a weapon, going near zombies without crawling flat on your belly is an extremely dangerous business, and should only be attempted if you are certain that you'll be able to make a relatively safe getaway.

So far, I have been killed by zombies several times, fallen from tall buildings, died from blood loss and dehydration, and recently I was almost shot to death, miraculously escaping with two crippled legs; hopefully I will be able to get someone to help me out with some morphine auto-injectors...

I also managed to destroy some zeds with a hatchet. The few times I got my hands on a gun, I either got killed for it, or was chased into a horde with no way of escaping...

When it comes to moving about, I usually stick to crawling; I have managed to sneak by many more zombies than the ones that spotted me.

Anyway, now I'm waiting for the standalone version of DayZ to come out, along with the rest of you.

color the trees, color the ocean

The "Meet The Pyro"- video is immensely cute, giggly and sugarcoated, while at the same time being Grimdark to the point that it's on par with Cupcakes...

I have to completely re-evaluate my view on Pyro, and I don't think I'll be playing TF2 for a while... (seriously though, I'm really scared of Pyro now.)

come on baby, light my... fireeee!

Dead State is now a sure thing; the stretch goals come into play, with more weapons, locations, and other things...

And, well... I don't have much else to say at the moment... other than that Mari broke up with me.
Not today, or yesterday, but two weeks ago.

She started it, ended it, and moved on; she has someone else now, who just lives across the country from her.
Long-distance relationships are apparently slow death. Something to note for my future reference.

We still talk and all, but two weeks ago it felt as though my heart had dropped like a stone, into a well full of murky water.
I convinced myself to also move on, however the hell that's supposed to go.

I'm not going to dwell on it, and unless anything happens (which would be very unlikely, I might add), this will be the last time I mention her to you.