2014 Gaming: Broken Age, Threes, and more

More of a Media Monday today, let's talk about a few of the videogames I've finished so far this year.

- Broken Age (act 1) - ★★★★☆
The art and the dialogue are terrific. I had some real gripes with the puzzle-y parts early on, when I had the right idea for something on Vella's side and wasn't allowed to do it until I collected the hints first, and Shay has a super convenient object for no discernible reason, but I got on board a little more when the worlds opened up. Felt clever about having a prediction re: the act break.

- Cook Serve Delicious! - ★★★★☆
A steam sale purchase. I had a good time with this, collected platinum star rating, and most of the achievements except, like, serve 15,000 meals, since the whole story section only took about 7,500. Tips: You can serve a cooked item while preparing something else, and nobody ever complains when you give them extra ice cream.

- Sound Shapes - ★★☆☆☆
I think I grabbed this two Christmases ago, just finished it up now to make room for new downloads since I've joined PS+. It's an okay little platformer and all, but kind of a chore to play. I finished the campaign, but I don't care about trophies enough to work on the challenge levels, and the interface for the beat-maker thing looks like a terrible way to spend an evening. Replicating drum machine beats might be more fun in an iOS game.

- Threes - ★★★★☆
I didn't find this quite as addictive as the popular opinion. It's nice to sit and fold numbers while watching TV, so i'll still play from time to time, but right now I have the highest score of anyone I know, 27,783, and whenever I have the best score in one of these things, that releases the hooks. I don't have to play it again until it turns out someone has beaten me.