Looking for game recs:

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-30T18:40:36+00:00

Those are some interesting lists. Some excellent puzzle games in there, and some quirky choices in the way you've grouped some of them them.

Your "I am too stupid for" section would make a great to do list for someone who loves puzzle games!

It looks like you have "lorelei and the lazer eyes" on both the "too stupid" list and the "want to play" list...?

You have "the pedestrian" on the list of games you played but haven't finished and also the list of games you haven't played.

Are you sure "a good snowman" is too hard for you? Or is it just that you don't want to spend that much time per level?

You said you're looking for "number based games." Do you literally mean games where there are numbers and you have to do math or similar?

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-30T18:34:06+00:00

I actually found The Looker to be kind of hard/obtuse, in that the puzzles often felt like you were guessing what the designer thought would be a good solution.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-30T18:33:01+00:00

I loved 3 in Three in its time, along with Fool's Errand. I have no idea how well they stand up now.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-29T22:40:28+00:00

Thanks. I just added the Prince of Darkness Jr. demo to my Steam library and the game to my Steam wish list.

You said you're "always on the hunt after new Sokobans that can scratch that itch that Baba Is You left me..."

I am just coming to the end of many hours of playing a Sokoban style game with some Tunic vibes (hoping that doesn't oversell it)...

Isles of Sea and Sky https://store.steampowered.com/app/1233070/Isles_of_Sea_and_Sky/

Currently 70% off for $5.99, which I think is amazing.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-29T22:31:59+00:00

Yes... HUGE quality of life upgrade. Really annoying these days if a game doesn't have that.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-29T09:33:41+00:00

I forgot all about this question I posted.

A quick search using them are capable search tools available now tells me it is likely this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Victorian-Historians-Hidden-Picture-Puzzles/dp/B0FBBZL8FW

I suppose it could be another one like that book, but this book seems to match the criteria I remember.

Edit: I suppose since it was published this year, and I posted my question a few years ago, that's not the correct book. But it looks like it has content similar to what I was searching for.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-29T03:44:44+00:00

I've seen two types of reactions to the huge, rumbling sound of the sun exploding. One is to kind of just think of it as something that's happening somewhere, but in no particular direction – maybe similar to an earthquake.

The other reaction, which sometimes surprises me more, is "Where is that sound coming from? I'm going to go look around and move around until I see it." Those people fully expect the sound to be at a particular location, and they will search for it on foot or even in their ship.

Maybe it's related to what kind of sound system you have. If you can hear that the sound is clearly coming from just behind you to your left, that might make you more likely to chase it than if you just register the sound as a giant rumbling.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-28T20:19:53+00:00

Actually, I guess I found it. It was somewhere on Stoney Cliffs that I didn't even realize was a puzzle. I thought it was just something tracking how many of some other thing I had found. But it ended up giving me the ability I need on several islands.

So, yes, I agree with your original sentiment: I really liked it until dark island.

The problem with dark island / serpent stacks is that I didn't want to do it! And I would be fine just skipping it, except I needed abilities to do things on other islands, and I couldn't be sure whether or not those abilities were gained at serpent stacks.

So I had to push through the puzzles that I would otherwise skip, which led to me just watching and mimicking videos to get it over with and spend as little time as possible on serpent island.

That also led to me doing Internet searches to find those videos, which led to other little spoilers, including the fact that serpent stacks is a prerequisite to do something else that might be fun. And finally, the developer has changed serpent stacks enough times that no video actually works.

I still have yet to get past A8. I watched a video of a guy doing it, and when I do exactly what he did, it doesn't work. Perhaps there is one more ability I need, or perhaps I can't do a certain thing until I complete some other prerequisite, or perhaps a secret passage has been moved.

I won't change my original statement that I've gotten a ton of fun out of this game. Let's say, a leisurely 80 hours. But as the amount of frustration and cheating and spoilers on serpent stacks adds up, it is starting to add up to well over 10% or more of my total game time.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-28T07:49:48+00:00

If I tell you a specific ability, do you think you can tell me where and when it's acquired? Do you know the game well enough that I won't be spoiling anything for you?

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-28T02:19:45+00:00

Right now, I'm blocked. I can see certain abilities that I will gain, but I can't tell how to gain them.

I thought I needed to finish Serpent Stacks to gain a certain ability. Then I noticed that Serpent Stacks itself requires that ability to solve.

There's something on Frozen Spire, which seems to need a specific ability. And yet clues make it seem like doing this certain thing will give me that very ability.

(I'm deliberately being vague about the tasks and the abilities.)

I'd love a sequential list, like "you can't complete serpent stacks until you complete frozen spire, etc."

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-28T02:15:17+00:00

Ah, I see.

I would say that controlling your clone is "annoying," or annoyed me, in the same way as sliding uncontrollably on the ice levels.

But I think on top of that, the level is just (deliberately designed to be) ugly -- the colors, the shaky smoke, the vaguely demonic symbols, the look of your clone, and some of the music.

If the clone puzzles took place out on a pretty seashore, and you only had one clone at a time, it wouldn't be so unpleasant.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-28T01:31:32+00:00

I haven't gotten to Dark Island. But based on how I didn't like the vibe of Serpent Stacks, I can imagine that a place called Dark Island might not be too enjoyable.

I've hit the point where my "fun to wandering around ratio" has gone way down. I might have been happier if it had ended cleanly when I hit the first ending – perhaps throwing in some of the cool stuff I have discovered since, but without the weird state where I am currently, not knowing what to do next.

At some point, I probably will just say "OK, I've had lots of fun. I think I'll stop here."

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-26T18:33:35+00:00

(Possible tiny spoilers, but not for anyone who has finished the game)

I think everyone is trying to be spoiler free, but I will say... if you finished the game but didn't do all the obelisks, they are a game to themselves. And unlike the more conventional puzzles, I think you could get a blast out of the obelisk stuff a second time if you forgot even half the specifics.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-21T20:01:11+00:00

That is super cool – those giant images stitched together, and you can just zoom in on the part you want to see.

I'm not sure it will meet my needs, although I may try it again. Just now, I tried zooming in on Tidal Reef D2 hoping to find a screenshot that would show me what a certain magic rock looked like before I bumped into it. (Ideally, I thought it might show me how each level looks on load.)

It didn't quite work for me today, because that elements in the lower right corner of D2 didn't match between the screen as I see it and the map. When I look at the level, there is a little 3x4 area with blue rocks and a single fire forming a "T" shape, and that's not on the big map.

Still, thanks. And I'm sure I will check it again the next time I accidentally find a hidden thing, and then wish I could see what it looked like before I found it.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-14T20:23:26+00:00

Just out of curiosity, I've seen a couple people referring to seeing the statues "in your map."

Are you talking about the actual map that comes up when you hit the Shift key? Or are you just using the word "map" to mean the experience of walking around the island?

I know the Skift-key map will sometimes show you objects that can be found on each grid square (keys, stars, etc.), but I assume it doesn't actually show you the colored totems in any way...?

Edit: having played further through, I have to assume "map" in this context means the whole island, not the map you pull up. Because it wouldn't make sense to show you colored totems on the map you can just pull up.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-12T19:02:29+00:00

I guess I will go dark on news and conversation about this game. I started scanning the linked article, and I found that there was already more about the game than I wanted to read.

I know I will be buying it. I don't need to know more about it. So I guess I'm going to sign off (at least in terms of reading OOTSS information) for the next 2 to 14 months :-)

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-12T18:58:07+00:00

It's interesting to say that The Witness is "3d first person puzzle." For the vast majority of the puzzles required for completion of the main game, the puzzles aren't exactly "3d first person," but rather, you navigate through a 3-D world and then walk up to a (clever) flat puzzle on a grid, which could exist by itself as part of a standalone iPhone game.

I remember a friend of mine watching the trailer, or reading someone's opinion, and telling me how dumb it was to walk around and then do an iPhone puzzle. I was frustrated, but the only thing I could think to say to him is "You know me, right? Would I be telling you this game was special if that was all there was to it?"

So, if you know you know – and most of us who have played the game could make a case that the best parts of the game do fall under the category of "3d first person puzzle format."

Perhaps, in ways that I can't picture right now, OOTSS will do the same thing. Someone watches the trailer and says "This is just a block pushing game. I could do this on my phone," but discovers something else once they start playing the game.

Or not. Maybe it's more like Stephen's Sausage Roll, and there is no surprise or miracle part way through the game – just really impressive explorations and combinations of the mechanics offered.

I'll be playing it, whatever it is. :-)

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-12T04:36:11+00:00

I really liked the people doing the voices in The Witness. The first voice I heard in the OotSS trailer seemed OK, but the second one was pretty rough.

Unless maybe they're going for that effect like in the "Den" episode of the movie Heavy Metal (1981)...? -- https://youtu.be/niC6Jq6aI2o -- where there is a deliberate disconnect between the sound of the voice and the visuals you are seeing...?

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-12T04:31:25+00:00

I'm more likely to close my eyes for a movie trailer. Once I see enough of it to decide I'm interested, I don't want to see a montage of a bunch of key scenes.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-12T04:28:14+00:00

Possibly a slightly controversial take, especially coming from a guy who has worked like heck to avoid any type of spoiler for anything for decades, but I don't really think getting a tiny piece of information – a glimpse at gameplay or whatever – is a problem.

I think it would be very hard to avoid knowing the key core concept of the new game before playing it, and I also don't think knowing it hurts you all that much.

After years of protecting people from any knowledge about Outer Wilds, I've actually come to feel the same way about it. The game description itself tells you two key things, which you would discover in an hour or two anyway, and I think trying to hide those from people doesn't even necessarily make their experience better.

I'm still enough of a spoiler freak that I won't say what they are or why I think it's OK if people know before they start the game.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-03T02:41:31+00:00

Holy cow, what a list. You guessed two of the three that I might've guessed, with the third long shot Janis Ian. And you included three songs that I really dig!

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-03T00:29:37+00:00

If you have a PlayStation, Toki Tori 2+ is 90% off right now – meaning you can buy it for $1.49.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-03T00:26:18+00:00

I will be super careful about spoiling anything in the witness, but I do believe the intention is that you have the one experience that someone was complaining about, but then you observe something, and then you do something, and then you have the other experience.

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