As always, I have far too many games to play. In what will probably not become a regular feature, I came up with an unoriginal idea and realised it would allow for that awful title pun: play each game for fifteen minutes, no longer, and then make a decision. If I want to keep playing, that's great! If I don't, then at least I haven't wasted too much time.

For this first (and perhaps only?) time, I've got opinions on six "games".

A New Beginning: Final Cut

A New Beginning is a 2009 point-and-click adventure about a time traveller and a scientist from the past/present who attempt to avert some kind of global catastrophe. I don't know what the difference between the original and 'Final Cut' version is, but presumably the latter is better.

The story, from what I saw of it, seems interesting, and the visual design and quality is fine. The time travel bit might make for some interesting puzzles - I didn't get far enough to learn if anything like that happens - and the fifteen minutes ran out just as I reached the first conversation, which looked like a perfectly decent system. On the other hand the only proper puzzle I solved was fairly silly, character control was mildly annoying (for instance standing in front of the object I want to interact with, and facing away from me when talking about it), and there was more than one spelling error in the subtitles. Also, I don't know if I'm a huge fan of the motion-comic style cutscenes.

Do I want to continue? Yes, but not urgently.

Bientôt l'été

Bientôt l'été is some kind of surreal art-game from 2013. Unfortunately, I've had my fill of surreal games recently, and I quit four minutes before the timer ran out. I don't mind that it exists - some of my best friends are artistic games - but I don't have the patience to experience it.

Do I want to continue? No. If I get curious about what I missed I'm sure there's plenty of videos and articles about it.

Machinarium

Machinarium is a 2013 point-and-click adventure game about a robot. It is adorable! I literally laughed out loud a few times, and could happily have kept playing past the fifteen-minute marker (or perhaps not, I suspect I'd just reached the first actually-difficult puzzle). I love the art style, I like the gameplay so far, and I'm curious to figure out what the story is and where it goes. The only problem? I forgot to save my progress - so it's even lucky I didn't play for longer. I previous played Botanicula, by the same people, and liked that, so I've got high hopes for this one.

Do I want to continue? Yes!

Intermission

War Operations

War Operations is a bad game about controlling two soldiers from a kind-of-top-down camera view. I quit it after two minutes, and that includes loading screens and menus. Admittedly, I paid less than a dollar for this and fully expected it to be mediocre, figuring I'd risk my pittance on the chance it had a diamond hidden inside. Nope, it's just bad.

Do I want to continue? No. Well, a tiny bit because I really didn't give it a chance, but I have so many better games I'll never be desperate enough to return.

1953 - KGB Unleashed

1953 - KGB Unleashed is yet another 2013 point-and-click game, but more like Myst in that it's first-person and each location is a panorama. It started off poorly, with the first five minutes spent sitting at loading screens. The rest of the time I struggled to restart a generator, complete with irritating buzzer and dim red emergency lighting. Despite that, the control scheme was tolerable (I couldn't tell if the scenes were actually 3D or just pre-rendered views, but probably the latter). I might have been able to solve the generator puzzle with another minute or two; I didn't, so I'm still 90% clueless about the actual plot of the game. I remembered to save though!

Do I want to continue? Yes, as long as loading doesn't always take that long, and I don't have to resort to a walkthrough for the introductory puzzle.

Mars: War Logs

Mars: War Logs is a game, and that's all I can say for sure. A few minutes into the opening cutscene I got distracted by an errand, and couldn't find a way to pause them. It seemed okay from the little I saw, but I suspect this one might need a little more than fifteen minutes to give it a fair go, and definitely longer than the five it got.

Do I want to continue? It's impossible to say since I never got to gameplay, but I'm willing to sit through the cutscenes again - eventually.