2/8/11

CSI games, casual playing and...more casual gaming.

I admit that in spite of their flaws I tend to like playing the CSI games.
And by flaws I mean its evidently not created for players over the age of 13. I mean the whole game is really just hovering your mouse over the screen to make sure you get this icon that tells you there's evidence there.


I don't quite recall, but the first time I started playing the CSI games I think I was around 18 yrs old. That's ... 6 years ago now. I seem to recall them being harder. I seem to recall an option to turn off that damn feature where you'll see the mouse icon change when hovering over interact-able objects, and I sure as heck seem to recall you being able to try out all the different equipment on the evidence to have Grissom tell you you're an idiot to try to use plaster on a fingerprint and that doing so would lower your score.

Im not sure weather I remember it this way because I'm just a plain better gamer now then I was before (no doubt there) and can recognize the game design and miss a more "hardcore" mode on the CSI games, or if they really did shave the CSI games down so much that they've taken away the actual exploration in favor of making the game more "casual friendly". It seems more like interaction story-time for young CSI fans then a game.

I bought a CSI game a couple of days ago. Generally, I've liked playing them then I have a moment for myself. When I'm home alone, or, when the man is asleep. Then I can sit here in peace and shift through mud and used syringes, looking for evidence, nailing that bastard.
Last time I played a CSI game I still had that feeling it was perhaps too casual. But anyway...
I bought the newest CSI: Fatal Deception when I had such a moment alone, and fired it up. I felt slight disappoint that the game is basically a simplified 3D Find Waldo.

Maybe I've just outgrown it?

Either way, I fired it up and I got stuck at the first case! I was happy about this, I was hoping there was something I had missed, something I had overlooked. Something making me actually search and engage myself in the story. Some twist at the end. The blood of the suspect didn't match the hair I found, instead it matched the victim's! Were they really family, siblings maybe? Why hadn't he told us about this in the interview?

But no. After a lot of messing about, it just seemed like a bug. So I checked up on a walk-through, and the hair was supposed to match the suspects DNA. Bah. Now it's stuck at Case 1 and since the other cases doesn't unlock unless you finish case 1, I guess I need to wait for some fix.

However, when I shut down the game I got a little pop-up. I had been granted a 1 year free Elite membership on CSI: Crime City, a facebook game. Generally I'm not particularly fond of facebook games, not because I have anything against them -they just seem to be a waste of time. I've played a couple though, such as Texas Hold 'Em, Bejeweled and my favorite Word Challenge. Either way I was starved of entertainment so I figured why not. I got a elite pass and everything.

Turns out all Elite pass really does is give me a funky floor:


If you get a seizure from looking at this screenie, I cannot be held responsible.

And the possibility of buying stuff for Ubi-points (read: real money) in the shop. So, for buying the game for real money I get the privilege of buying exclusive stuff for more real money! YAY!

Either way I played it a little, and its moderately entertaining in a grid-search kind of way. What is funny about this story though is that the f2p facebook game have so far given me more entertainment value then the CSI game I originally bought.

Anyway... I just bought "Blue Toad Murder Files: The Mysteries of Little Riddle" on steam (was on sale) today so perhaps I can use my casual detecting skills there instead. I hope!

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