My Week Unwrapped: November 11, 2022 – Project 3.14, Frogger and the Rumbling Ruins, Stranger Things Puzzle Tales, Qubd, Monster Train and More

Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. I have both Netflix and Apple Arcade again, so I took some time to play a couple of games on those services. I also played more of some other games I started, as well as some new ones. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s not waste any more time.

Project 3.14

Games that take place on a fake computer interface have always intrigued me, so when I saw Project 3.14, I jumped on it instantly. The dialogue at the start was not great, as it seemed forced and dragged on too long. But once I got into the game things got more interesting. So far, I managed to find five of six keys I need in order to make more progress. The clues for the first five were reasonably logical, but I just absolutely can’t figure out what the sixth clue is trying to tell me. The game does include hints and answers for all puzzles if you get stuck, but I’m trying to avoid using them. I’ll have to work at it some more and see if I can figure out what I’m stuck on. But so far, it seems like an interesting game. You can watch some of my gameplay video to get a better idea of how it works.

Frogger and the Rumbling Ruins

Frogger and the Rumbling Ruins has been out on Apple Arcade for a little while now, but I didn’t have a subscription at the time of its release. Now I do, so I wanted to give it a try. For the most part, it’s just the kind of puzzle game I like. You can move parts of the environment around and help Frogger get to all the collectibles. But this isn’t completely a relaxed turn-based puzzler. A few levels in, you’ll start to encounter enemies that can attack you — or the frogs you’re trying to rescue. So far, they move slowly so it hasn’t been too terrible. But it’s a little more stressful than just being able to mess around with the environment without having to worry about how it affects the enemies. I still enjoyed my time with it and will probably continue playing. Again, you can watch some of my gameplay video for a better idea of what it’s like.

Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales

Last year, a free-to-play match-three game based on Stranger Things released, called Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales. There was a lot I liked about it, so I stuck with it for a few weeks. But eventually the gacha aspect and the slow progression got to me and I deleted the game. What I mean with the gacha is that you’d earn special currencies through play — or buy them with your credit card — and then use those to try and roll for new characters. It’s completely random, though, and especially hard to get higher rarity characters. On top of that, it takes forever to “promote” characters, which increases their star rating and makes them stronger. You need three copies of a character to promote them once, but each time you promote them you need three copies of them at the same star rating. So it takes a lot of copies of a character in order to keep promoting them, and you get them completely randomly. It’s awful. This week, Netflix removed the old F2P version of the game and re-released it under their subscription without any way to spend extra money on the game. I assumed this would fix all the problems. Unfortunately, most of the issues still exist. They did revamp some things, like character skills. And for the first hour or so, it felt like an improvement. But I soon realized that not a whole lot changed. The gacha system is the same, just without the ability to spend money. And once again the Portal mode is the most interesting, but you can only play it 1-2 times per day. The story mode feels super repetitive and I don’t feel like playing through it all a second time. So unfortunately, I deleted the game again and do not recommend it to anyone who values their time.

Qubd

Qubd is a math puzzler that is going to appeal to a very specific subset of players. In each level, you’re given a 5x5x5 cube of cubes with some cubes missing. You need to figure out exactly how many are missing. And that’s it. That’s the entire game. The difficulty varies from level to level, with some just being a single clean chunk removed, while others are more scattered. I played the first 20 levels and it was interesting enough, but I feel like I had my full. I’d recommend watching some of my gameplay video before deciding whether it’s a game you’d enjoy.

Monster Train

I started playing Monster Train last week and was enjoying it quite a bit, but failed to make it all the way through the final boss. One issue I was having was that the game was cut off on the sides on my iPad, which meant I couldn’t see how much health the bosses had when they were off to the right for most of the battle. I stopped playing in order to wait for an update that was supposed to fix it. I thought that update had arrived this week, but I was still experiencing the same problem. I still managed to complete the game on standard mode, though, and I do want to play more. But again I’m going to take a break and wait for this issue to be fixed so I’m not playing blind. I still highly recommend it, but be aware of this problem if you plan to play on an iPad.

Escape from Crimson Manor Ep.2

I also started the second episode of Escape from Crimson Manor last week, but took a break when I got stuck. I figured out what I had overlooked and managed to finish the whole game. I still have complaints about the navigation and the camera making me sick, but overall it was enjoyable enough. I did encounter some weird bugs and other quirks, though. There was one point where I saw a clue and wanted to add it to my journal, but the game just wouldn’t let me zoom in on it no matter what I did. There were also more trial-and-error puzzles than I’d like, and some others that just didn’t feel very logical. But the strangest thing was that I completed the whole game without solving one of the puzzles at all. It was a wheel cypher that needed a 6-digit word and I never figured out what that word was. I’m not sure how I was able to complete the game without that. In any case, I’ll probably stick around for the third episode whenever it arrives. I also have all my videos for the first two episodes here if you need help.

Adventure Escape Mysteries: Legend of the Time Stones

I finally finished playing the latest Adventure Escape game, Legend of the Time Stones. You can see my full text walkthrough here while I work on my videos. So far, I made videos for the first three chapters. Bear with my while I record the rest! I enjoyed the game and look forward to any future adventures with these characters.

Genshin Impact

And last, I’m still playing Genshin Impact daily. The newest character, Nahida, has made me appreciate my Yae Miko even more because of the synergy they have together. I’ve been enjoying just running around and killing things with them. Aside from that, I completed Nahida’s story quest and have been participating in the event that just started, called Fabulous Fungus Frenzy. We get to catch different fungi monsters and then train them to fight for us like Pokémon. It’s a nice change of pace and I’m especially enjoying seeing Yae Miko as part of the story. I can’t wait for her rerun banner next week so I can get some constellations for her. I’ve also been leveling all my characters past 70 for the free standard fates, since I was getting burnt out from artifact farming. It has been a nice change of pace.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week! I also finished season 4 of Manifest, which was predictably bad but I just couldn’t stop watching. I especially love how every actor on the show is unable to cry on demand and instead looks like they used eye drops to create a single tear. I’ll definitely tune in for season 5 if there is one so I can continue hate watching. On top of that, I finished season 5 of The Handmaid’s Tale. I appreciate how this season had history repeating itself. It’s a scary show because of how easy it is to see how it could happen here. I also appreciate that they toned down all the torture porn from some earlier seasons. Anyway, let me know in the comments section which games you’re enjoying and I’ll see you back here next time for more of My Week Unwrapped!

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Dr Renier Palland

    Legend of The Time Stones is my favorite Adventure Escape game thus far. Loved the original, and absolutely loved the sequel!

  2. Sarah

    Project 3.14 makes no sense (I did cheat with the last key (what it tells you to do isn’t helpful, because it doesn’t work. In case you’re still stuck, ‘normal/abnormal’ have absolutely ZERO bearing on the answer, I have no idea why they’re there. Even when you look at the answer, it makes absolutely no sense). Now I have all six, I have no idea what I’m supposed to do with them. I tried entering them in the Terminal, but that didn’t work (unless there’s a specific order, but it’s really not clear). The hints won’t allow you to proceed because it just says that “you need to solve all keys in folder_001 to proceed” which, as I’m sure you’ll agree, is about as much use as a comb is to a bald man.

    Often I think that the reason I can’t solve puzzles and riddles is because I’m an autist and my brain isn’t wired ‘right’, but this is just bad. You’re far better at these things than me, and if it doesn’t make sense to you, then it doesn’t make sense.

    If anyone understands what I’m supposed to do now I’ve got all six keys, please let me know, otherwise I’m giving up because I cannot find where to enter them (unless it’s the Terminal, but entering the answer to the first file as key 1 doesn’t work).

    I don’t even know why it’s called ‘Project 3.14’ – is that a date (although the developer is Indian and Indians write the date the sane way…😜) or a reference to π…?

    I’m intrigued by what you meant by “the dialogue at the beginning” because I didn’t have any, just the boot sequence.

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