VIDEO GAME: Toem (2021)

by benmweilertNo Comments
ToemYear: 2021Rating: ETime Played: 273 minutes / 4.55 hours As someone who enjoys photography and video games, Toem was the right fit for me. A game where you go around taking photographs for people scratched that itch by making the photography like a fetch quest—providing goals to meet with each picture. The aesthetic in Toem is charming and cozy, and the choice to be almost entirely in black-and-white was interesting but understandable (as black-and-white photography is still a thing). And while there were a few control issues I had problems with, the game was just long enough for me to be entertained and accomplish most of the missions. My only issue with Toem is the controls for the camera itself. Seeing as this is the core element of the gameplay, it was frustrating to encounter it every time I took a picture. Mostly, I found zooming in/out to be cumbersome as there wasn’t just a button to zoom in or out but...
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VIDEO GAME: Cats Hidden in Paris (2023)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Cats Hidden in ParisYear: 2023Rating: ETime Played: 15 minutes I love big pieces of art that have lots of hidden little details. There's almost an impressionism to them where you can see the whole piece if you step back, but a closer examination reveals a whole other level to the art. Most of the time, these kinds of drawings are reserved for posters or picture books. Cats Hidden in Paris takes this experience and digitizes it for a fun, albeit short, point-and-click video game. The goal of Cats Hidden in Paris is simple: find all the cats hidden throughout the line drawing of Paris. While it starts out fairly easy, the challenge comes at the end when you've scoured the entire scene multiple times and cannot seem to find that last handful of cats. Of course, this means it's satisfying when you're finding lots of cats in the beginning, but it's a different kind of satisfying once you finally find that last...
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