Bioshock: Exploration & Menus

I had to remind Deirdre throughout the game to go to the Gatherer's Garden to buy gene upgrades, because having to buy upgrades was not an intuitive thing to do in the fantasy-world context. It raises an interesting game design question: why would you not just get the upgrades automatically? Why can't the choice be presented to the player in a clear way? In fact, why do games love currency systems so goddamned much?

Deirdre is certainly not suffering from a lack of exploration. Again, exploration is probably her number one interest. But the menus of Gatherer's Gardens &c. aren't interesting explorations: menus are boring, looking through corpses is fun.

Bioshock: Mercy

Stumbling upon a splicer crying over a coffin with her back to Deirdre:

"What, you're crying?" *BLAM* "What, you're still crying? *BLAM BLAM*

Bioshock: Priorities

It is interesting to see the way Deirdre approaches Bioshock. She really likes exploring and looting stuff. In fact, she likes looting stuff so much that while people are shooting at her, she'll yell at them to go away while she finishes looting the body of the dude she just shot, ignoring the red screen flashing indicators until her task is done.

Strafing is not completely intuitive. Most movement involves forward/back and turning. Thus, evasion is difficult in combat, and when shot, she will often simply stand still and fire back. Because she is playing on easy, this often works without too much pain, as she is not trying to hit a moving target and can aim more effectively.

Her favorite weapon seems to be the tommy gun.

Bioshock: Shiny Things

Bioshock's lootables will flash/glint at you to help you find them. Seasoned gamers often have senses specially tuned for lootables or interactables, but this comes from practice. Sometimes, while searching for loot, Deirdre will be pointed directly at a glinting box on the ground and won't see it. She is, however, learning quickly to see them.

Bioshock

Bioshock is one of Deirdre's birthday presents, the first foray into contemporary videogames.

She is playing it on the Xbox360, getting used to the not-entirely-intuitive dual-joystick control of FPSs, but picking it up pretty quickly. Having played Spyro in the past probably helps.