Favourite unpopular CoG?

@817819 I think ‘Welcome to the family’ is still on but @LOR just has stuff to do IRL. It’s still being worked on I think.

I want Blood for Poppies…Kel will never get to have a LI now…

@Nocturnal_Stillness I remember you mentioning ‘an office photo’… man only Pale_Strider could’ve done that :frowning:

@trollhunterthethird

Yeah he did me a teddy bear for Episode One, a badge for Episode Two. The office photo was going to be for Episode Six.

@trollhunterthethird
wait did @Pale_Strider leave forever?
i didn’t know him but he seemed like a cool guy when i was a lurker, and his drawings were just astonishing. (if it is the right guy i am thinking about) and his game…tale of phil? was awesome too

@Prototype

I was working on a game idea he had and I haven’t heard from him for about a year now. He did say he was having some cash troubles so was facing internet issues. So I hope he will return one day.

In terms of WIPS:
I was growing quite fond of @bawpie 's ‘Heal’ before she disappeared.
Blood for Poppies was also quite promising.

There was one more, a fantasy epic where you started off as a baby and slowly grew up.
I forget the name and author, but again, he’s no longer around.

For published games I quite liked the recent Reckless, and Treasure Seekers of Lady Luck. If I recall the latter, at least, wasn’t popular or overly well received?

1 Like

@Bawpie was around on the forum back in 2011 when I joined before disappearing for a while. I hope she will return again.

The one where you began as a baby was this one, I believe:

Not to mention sionns children, possibly empowered, hero’s journey, or the court.

I just replayed The Fleet, and I like it a lot more than I thought.

I don’t know about which CoGs are “unpopular” but I do have three that I regret buying.

1)To the City in the Clouds
2)The Fleet
3)Choice of the Ninja

To the City in the Clouds I regret because:-
First: It’s way too short.
Second: As someone else said the “romances”, it’s unsatisfying one night stands with bodies. It’s a waste of writing space honestly.
Third. The mask unerringly always meaning your death because of some pseudo-mystical bullcrap reasons in a setting that doesn’t feature magic or mysticism is jarring. Also the death itself is really abrupt.
Fourth. Again as someone else said it was billed as an Indiana Jones story and we got one, after it had been thoroughly Austin Powered. Kind of odd.

The Fleet was a regret for me because:-
First: Again a really short one. Too short. You flee the homeworld expecting fully to be going through missions and whatnot fighting to cobble together a force to take back your own and you find its already done, and you sit about doing nothing at all.
Second: Related to the first reason, for me The Fleet had a LOT of potential that it just doesn’t deliver on. I was expecting a BSG style adventure, and that’s not what I got.
Third: Again related to the first point. I felt really incidental to what was going on. If it was an actual game I would say it played itself and all I did was occasionally press a button to say “okay”. Nothing really felt meaningful to me.

Choice of the Ninja:-
First: What can I say here? Again it’s really really short.
Second: It ends really abruptly, you get to the end and you are expecting a race to save your patron and it just sorta ends with a “yay! he’s saved! you won!” and that’s it. You don’t actually get to do the saving. It’s very jarring.
Third: Related to the second reason is the fact that this game suffers from a similar problem to Mass Effect 3 does in places where it tells you what to feel (“this is a sad moment!”) instead of giving you reason to feel something. Example: In ME3, Kai Leng beats Shepard on Thessia not a well staged combat encounter to demonstrate Kai Leng’s superior skill, or preparedness but through rage inducing video gamey bullcrap. And then the game has the cheek to have everyone including Shepard act like he lost because Kai Leng was just better. In essence the game was telling you “you should feel upset because Kai Leng kicked your ass” instead of making you upset cause Kai Leng kicked your ass.
Choice of the Ninja does the same thing with the “relationship” with the “old friend” - it expects you to feel conflicted about your “old friend” and about the choice relating to said “old friend” when you have had practically no interaction with said “old friend” at any point. Essentially saying “feel conflicted here!” instead of giving you positive interaction with your friend so you could actually feel conflicted at the point that it expects you to.

As for ones I liked. Again unsure about “unpopular” but given some other responses in the thread…

I guess:-

  1. Apex Patrol (the only non-“official” CoG game i’ve played).
  2. Choice of Kung Fu (Kung Fu Panda is my fav movie ever so it’s no shock I love this lol).
  3. Choice of the Star Captain (kinda surprised this is considered “unpopular”).

Apex Patrol is really really good. Especially the “romance” path which adds a really compelling layer of flavour to proceedings in the game.

Choice of Kung Fu I like because china has always fascinated me, and this game really captures the essence of “china”. Romance of the Three Kingdoms is one of my favourite sets of books. And I adore Jade Empire (and Kung Fu Panda lol). So this one gets loadsa points from me.

Choice of the Star Captain is a bit confusing at first, but once you figure out how to play it it becomes really enjoyable. And it’s very well written. Although the “conflicting choice” at the end isn’t really much of a conflict when you are faced with 2 unpalatable choices (genocide the blobs, or enslave the humans), and one palatable one (achieve peace!).

I also wanna say that I was really pleasantly surprised with Slammed!

I am not a wrestling fan, and I only bought it cos I was bored over Xmas and New Year and was too ill to leave the house (actually ill not hung over lol). And the demo section of the game isn’t very good, or at least it doesn’t really showcase just how good Slammed! is. Which is very good.
My only complaints with it is that I felt it was it was a bit too linear. What “branching” there is really only extends to if your character is a “face” or a “heel” which is somewhat disappointing.

@fitscotgaymer
Since you haven’t played many Hosted Games, I suggest Zombie Exodus, Sabres of Infinity, Way Walkers, and Life of a Wizard

@fitscotgaymer If apex patrol is the only hosted game you’ve played you’re missing out some of the best and worst games on this site are the hosted games. Essentially I agree with young I posts before I saw his sorry

@817819
I can definitely agree with that. CoG is generally average, but most HG are either amazing or meh

I’d agree of course COG occasionally throws out a really good game too

Choice of dragon and choice of deathless come to mind

@817819
Oh definitely! Choice of the Dragon, Choice of Broadsides, Choice of Romance, Choice of the Deathless, and Choice of the Star Captain.

“Best and worst games”

That’s kinda why I avoided them lol. I assumed most of them would suck.

@fitscotgaymer

Apex Patrol is good, especially the romance choice.

I’d suggest Paradox Factor. I loved Paradox Factor. It is, admittedly, short, but I think it’s just as long as it needs to be and the puzzle elements lengthen it. It’s such a clever game.

Beyond that it depends on what you like in games. Zombie Exodus is extremely long, as well as so large in scope. There’s plenty of choice and piles of branches.

Of the rest, Unnatural, Waywalkers University, Sabres of Infinity, Life of a Wizard, are the must plays of the Hosted Games. Although it does depend on what you enjoy.

As for Slammed, there is branching there. You’ve a choice of what you do during your ‘break’ from wrestling. You’ve a choice of three ways to deal with JJ, be that face, heel, or real, and there’s various choices within that. There’s also a big branch near the end that leads to the multiple endings. I loved Slammed!

The thing with the Hosted Games is I don’t think there’s much in the way of quality control there. They’re also written by amateurs. I think all of the writers should be celebrated for actually getting something finished. It’s definitely an achievement to be proud of. It’s also important to remember that those first games were made just for the sheer love of it, with no thought to any financial reward. There’s little way for them to even get praise. I don’t think there was even a forum back then for them to speak to others and get feedback. I could, of course, be wrong.

I think the quality of the Hosted Games has definitely increased by leaps and bounds. I’d like to think part of that is the beta testing many of them undergo and the extremely valuable feedback they get on the forums. There’s also been much more time to actually write games, since choicescript isn’t all that old. Those first games were made without the benefit of many of the resources we now have.

@FairyGodfeather
I wrote Trial of the Demon Hunter as a labor of love, but also with financial compensation as a goal, too.

Out of curiosity where can I find trial of the demon hunter? It sounds cool butmi haven’t seen anything about it on the forum