Paradigm and Some Show Updates
I finished Paradigm yesterday. It was bizarre, but in a good way. Ze plot: OK, I'm probably going to have a hard time explaining this one because it's so random, but it's set in a near future eastern European setting, and basically there's this company called Dupa Genetics run by a guy called Klas. He dreams of one day taking over the world and with his company he fulfills a need for parents with less than perfect children. He can make them better, genetically enhanced children called Prodigy Children, but the program kind of ends up being a failure because the children, most of them, end up turning towards the arts. You play as Paradigm who is one of the failed Prodigy Children. He's hideously disfigured by tumors, but dreams of becoming the best electronic musician ever, and he's a likeable guy with his Russian accent. Klas also had a genetically engineered sloth called Olof whose sole purpose is to vomit up candy bars for him. Once Klas died, Olof took over the company, but he's been left bitter as Klas treated him poorly. Yet, Olof wants to carry out Klas's dream to take over the world and murder Paradigm likely out of jealousy. There are also other weird genetic anomalies, strange characters, and mutants like a sentient water cooler, robots, and a talking pug. Weird enough for you yet? Anyway, all Paradigm wants to do is make some phat beatsies, but he's gonna have to save the world from Olof first.
Like the Zak Mckracken sequel, you can tell this was made by someone who is a big fan of classic adventures. The offbeat humor bears some similarities to LucasArts. There are some dirty jokes too. Those aren't usually my thing, but they weren't too bad here. In the beginning there's not much happening and not a whole lot of puzzles. It's only when you get into Dupa Genetics that there are more puzzles. And even then they're pretty easy. I think I only looked at the walkthrough maybe once. Although admittedly, I played it on the easier mode. But I think judging by the walkthrough the puzzles are still the same. I think they just take the hotspot finder away.
Half the fun of adventure games for me is looking at stuff and this game did not disappoint. There are tons of things to look at, and I spent a lot of time doing that. Pardigm literally has a comment for everything whether you look at, talk to, or try to use an object. Nowadays it's rare to put that much effort into commentary about items, so I really appreciated that.
And the effort put into other areas shows as well such as the graphics. It's an odd world, but looks strangely beautiful, and at times the cutscenes are quite cinematic, and feel more like a show you're watching rather than a game. There are also things I like to call extra goodies because I don't know what else to call them. Not just mini-games, but surprising and unexpected things that enhance the game experience. It also sort of hearkens back to the olden days. I thought of Monkey Island a few times. Even the music is done well. It's got this 80s synthwave vibe. Actually much of the game has an 80s atmosphere to it.
It's such a strange game, and while the puzzles didn't pose that much of a challenge, I enjoyed this delightfully weird journey. I hope Jacob Janerka makes more games because he has some serious skillz. :P It must have taken quite a while to make this game though. Here's a screen shot. I don't think I could explain this even if I wanted to.
I've only got two games left on my Aggies list now, the first being That Dragon, Cancer. Yeah, heavy subject matter this one. This might be tough to get through. I'm playing it on my phone. What can I expect from this one? It might be more of an art piece, possibly more like interactive fiction. I doubt it's like a traditional adventure game, but we'll see.
And now I guess I have some updates about TV shows. So I finally got to a point where I got caught up on shows I follow. Sort of anyway. Still more to watch in the fall like The Kominsky Method and The Crown. So I got to browse and pick what I wanted to watch on Netflix next. OK, I lied. I already planned on watching this show for a while: Tidying Up With Marie Kondo. This was all the rage earlier this year. I don't typically watch these type of shows, but I don't mind watching them either. It's actually proven to be kind of motivating for me. I fixed up the clothes in my drawer and folded them in her style. I don't know if I'm doing it exactly right, but the drawers do look neater now. I'm getting rid of a few clothes too. Just a few because I like most of my clothes. xD For me it wasn't about sparking joy, but whether I like them or not because I don't have such strong feelings about clothes compared to other things like books. Speaking of which, I'm also getting rid of some of those as well. I spent most of this year going through most of my unread books. Reading a few pages to a chapter of each one and decided if I liked it enough to continue, then I would keep the book. I did end up keeping most of them, but there were some I was definitely able to part with, including some books I already read as well. I'm more sentimental about books. But I'm still hoping my mom will finally get me new bookshelves so I can have more room because even though I'm getting rid of some, there still isn't enough room. But yeah, I enjoyed watching the Tidying Up show. Marie has some good tips. There's no need to follow her method exactly, but it can be useful. I wonder if there will be a second season. I admit I watched it to see what junk people have. :P
But enough about that show. Upon browsing Netflix, I decided upon Parks and Recreation. It was one of those shows on my radar I've wanted to watch for a while. Mostly because Chris Pratt. So far it has not disappointed. It's similar to The Office. Might have even been made by the same people. Some jokes and certain situations in early seasons (I'm on season two) probably wouldn't fly today heh. My favorite characters so far are Andy (He's such an awful loser lol), April (the one I identify with the most), and Ron (He has a few identifiable traits too lol). This is a long series, but I'll probably get through it fairly quick. That doesn't mean it won't be interrupted at times, (it already has) or potentially for a long time. I already got distracted by a shiny new show called Living With Yourself starring Paul Rudd. It's basically a dramedy about cloning, and I really like it. This is also short, so no big deal. I've only got a few episodes left. Then an article on IMDB informed me that Netflix has fall movies coming out that sound like potentials for award season. So, I'm probably going to watch at least some of those soon. Netflix doesn't do movies as well as TV, but we'll see.
And my plans for Parks and Rec may be further disrupted once Disney+ is out. Let's just say there would be quite a few things I'd want to watch on there. It's not set in stone yet that we'll get this streaming service, but the likelihood is pretty high because I think I said before, I think it will be easy to convince my mom to sign up. :P But that's still a little ways away, not long now. So, I'm just going to play by ear and see how things go, but don't be surprised if I spend more time watching stuff on Disney+ than Netflix now. I'll still always come back to Netflix for shows I'm already following, or I see something advertised that looks good, but it might cease to be the main streaming service I watch.
Like the Zak Mckracken sequel, you can tell this was made by someone who is a big fan of classic adventures. The offbeat humor bears some similarities to LucasArts. There are some dirty jokes too. Those aren't usually my thing, but they weren't too bad here. In the beginning there's not much happening and not a whole lot of puzzles. It's only when you get into Dupa Genetics that there are more puzzles. And even then they're pretty easy. I think I only looked at the walkthrough maybe once. Although admittedly, I played it on the easier mode. But I think judging by the walkthrough the puzzles are still the same. I think they just take the hotspot finder away.
Half the fun of adventure games for me is looking at stuff and this game did not disappoint. There are tons of things to look at, and I spent a lot of time doing that. Pardigm literally has a comment for everything whether you look at, talk to, or try to use an object. Nowadays it's rare to put that much effort into commentary about items, so I really appreciated that.
And the effort put into other areas shows as well such as the graphics. It's an odd world, but looks strangely beautiful, and at times the cutscenes are quite cinematic, and feel more like a show you're watching rather than a game. There are also things I like to call extra goodies because I don't know what else to call them. Not just mini-games, but surprising and unexpected things that enhance the game experience. It also sort of hearkens back to the olden days. I thought of Monkey Island a few times. Even the music is done well. It's got this 80s synthwave vibe. Actually much of the game has an 80s atmosphere to it.
It's such a strange game, and while the puzzles didn't pose that much of a challenge, I enjoyed this delightfully weird journey. I hope Jacob Janerka makes more games because he has some serious skillz. :P It must have taken quite a while to make this game though. Here's a screen shot. I don't think I could explain this even if I wanted to.
I've only got two games left on my Aggies list now, the first being That Dragon, Cancer. Yeah, heavy subject matter this one. This might be tough to get through. I'm playing it on my phone. What can I expect from this one? It might be more of an art piece, possibly more like interactive fiction. I doubt it's like a traditional adventure game, but we'll see.
And now I guess I have some updates about TV shows. So I finally got to a point where I got caught up on shows I follow. Sort of anyway. Still more to watch in the fall like The Kominsky Method and The Crown. So I got to browse and pick what I wanted to watch on Netflix next. OK, I lied. I already planned on watching this show for a while: Tidying Up With Marie Kondo. This was all the rage earlier this year. I don't typically watch these type of shows, but I don't mind watching them either. It's actually proven to be kind of motivating for me. I fixed up the clothes in my drawer and folded them in her style. I don't know if I'm doing it exactly right, but the drawers do look neater now. I'm getting rid of a few clothes too. Just a few because I like most of my clothes. xD For me it wasn't about sparking joy, but whether I like them or not because I don't have such strong feelings about clothes compared to other things like books. Speaking of which, I'm also getting rid of some of those as well. I spent most of this year going through most of my unread books. Reading a few pages to a chapter of each one and decided if I liked it enough to continue, then I would keep the book. I did end up keeping most of them, but there were some I was definitely able to part with, including some books I already read as well. I'm more sentimental about books. But I'm still hoping my mom will finally get me new bookshelves so I can have more room because even though I'm getting rid of some, there still isn't enough room. But yeah, I enjoyed watching the Tidying Up show. Marie has some good tips. There's no need to follow her method exactly, but it can be useful. I wonder if there will be a second season. I admit I watched it to see what junk people have. :P
But enough about that show. Upon browsing Netflix, I decided upon Parks and Recreation. It was one of those shows on my radar I've wanted to watch for a while. Mostly because Chris Pratt. So far it has not disappointed. It's similar to The Office. Might have even been made by the same people. Some jokes and certain situations in early seasons (I'm on season two) probably wouldn't fly today heh. My favorite characters so far are Andy (He's such an awful loser lol), April (the one I identify with the most), and Ron (He has a few identifiable traits too lol). This is a long series, but I'll probably get through it fairly quick. That doesn't mean it won't be interrupted at times, (it already has) or potentially for a long time. I already got distracted by a shiny new show called Living With Yourself starring Paul Rudd. It's basically a dramedy about cloning, and I really like it. This is also short, so no big deal. I've only got a few episodes left. Then an article on IMDB informed me that Netflix has fall movies coming out that sound like potentials for award season. So, I'm probably going to watch at least some of those soon. Netflix doesn't do movies as well as TV, but we'll see.
And my plans for Parks and Rec may be further disrupted once Disney+ is out. Let's just say there would be quite a few things I'd want to watch on there. It's not set in stone yet that we'll get this streaming service, but the likelihood is pretty high because I think I said before, I think it will be easy to convince my mom to sign up. :P But that's still a little ways away, not long now. So, I'm just going to play by ear and see how things go, but don't be surprised if I spend more time watching stuff on Disney+ than Netflix now. I'll still always come back to Netflix for shows I'm already following, or I see something advertised that looks good, but it might cease to be the main streaming service I watch.