[quote=“N_N, post:40, topic:626”]
Yeh – I actually edited in the spoiler tags. To be honest, I don’t really see them as spoilers but I decided to be cautious… I did reveal some content, after all.[/quote]
Oh those were fine, I was just grateful re your ‘number’.
[quote=“N_N, post:40, topic:626”]
I do think it’s preferable though that you’re not quite sure of a sort of end point as it adds to the intrigue.[/quote]
Agreed.
Hm… is that bit spoilered for me or for people who haven’t played it?
@N_N @PiecesOfKate : I’m not sure which kind of gameplay I’ll found but I have understood that the game can be quite long, so I’ll just ask: is it the kind of game for which it is advisable to take notes or to draw maps?
I haven’t needed to so far. At some points I’ve found it useful to draw things out while I’m trying to solve puzzles. But not in order to remember anything for later. So far 
That probably didn’t need a spoiler tag but just in case (for others).
I ended up with four A4 sides of drawings. So, I’d say yes.
EDIT:
Based on what besmaller just stated, a lot of people did often take photos or use screenshots.
It doesn’t require extensive note taking or maps, but occasionally, I did resort to some work with paper, and also in some cases used my phone.
It doesn’t spoil anything for you specifically but would reveal content to others.
Thanks to everyone for the opinions.
I like taking notes and drawing maps or other things, when necessary or opportune. Beside its practical goal, it also improves my immersion in the game. 
It also gave me the superpower of navigating the TWP sewers blindfolded. 
Something else about The Witness that’s worth noting is that it’s not actually necessary to complete every single puzzle to finish the game. As it turns out, there are some puzzles that people with certain sensory impairments would not be able to complete without outside assistance. Since not all puzzle areas have to be completed, it doesn’t lock those people out from finishing the game, which of course also works to the benefit of people struggling with certain areas.
So, one bit that’s frustrating me today is the damn blue subtracting tetris blocks. I ended up looking up a solution to one of them but still don’t understand! Which is annoying because I wanted to carry on and do the next few without help, but I can’t deduct the logic from the one I ‘solved’. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
Ohhhh I think I’ve just got it! I hadn’t realised that if the yellow tiles and blue subtracting tiles completely cancel each other out, then it doesn’t matter what else is in that space. I couldn’t work out why there were all these extra blank squares in the solution I looked up.
That probably doesn’t make much sense, but don’t worry.
It’s so true that the minute you start discussing an obstacle in a puzzle game, the answer runs right into your field of vision - like a streaker at a football match.
It’s so useful often to just verbalise a problem in the open or indeed to just take a step back as to extricate oneself from a certain locked-in field of view. Anyhoo-a-boo, your description made sense to me – I know exactly where you are/were… (seems you are on the set of blue cancellation block puzzles which seem to have a logic different to all the other tetris puzzles and it sticks out as kind of random… in the swamp).
How many lasers have you unlocked so far?
Spoiler is fine for you to read.
Yep, that’s where I am. Off the top of my head, five or six lasers I think.
I play a lot of those (just played Room 1 and 2) but one of my all-time faves was Penguins!, which is very similar to Lemmings (in spirit). But I loved the music and the penguin design, and all the cute sounds they made. It was also the first game I showed my kid, so there’s that.
Also, since the penguins didn’t drop to their deaths, a huge pressure was taken off and you could basically take your time to think the solution. I don’t play games to be stressed!
Two other excellent puzzlers…
The Talos Principle (metacritic score - 85 PC)
Stephen’s Sausage Roll (metacritic score - 90)
Buy both if you’re well into puzzlers.
The Talos Principle has simply splendid puzzle design and ramps up the difficulty at a suitable pace. You can die and if you do then the level restarts, but you always lose minimal progress (most you can lose is progress within a single level). The story compelled me muchly; it deals with [MILD PLOT SPOILERS] freedom and choice and involves a lot of philosophical discourse (consciousness, humanism, what it is to “be”) through a computer screen with a mysterious other, who acts as an opposing great force to another, both forces of which have you at the forefront of their minds as you solve the mysteries of the world. There’s a lot more to say and a lot of extra immersive detail which rounds out and ties into the narrative but you’d best just pick up this game (currently on sale) and see for yourselves - I’ve given enough away. 
Stephen’s Sausage roll is pretty brutal in difficulty from the get-go and is probably the hardest puzzler I can remember playing. With patience and perseverence though, steady progress will be made. Stephen Lavelle’s brain is clearly a special place and the sheer exhaustive nature of the mechanics he’s derived out of such a simple concept (prod and roll sausages and cook them) is pretty staggering and deeply impressive.
Of all the puzzlers I’ve played recently, I think Talos has the puzzles that I most enjoyed and it also has a compelling and mysterious story (with answers), which can’t be said for SSRoll or The Witness. However, the overall polish and richness in the world of The Witness puts it over the top for me, just about.
In these days I’m playing mostly casual puzzle games, because I don’t want to invest time into the usually long playing sessions required for adventure games.
The one that I have enjoyed a lot and that I have just finished is “Hook”:
It’s a game that requires observation and some “circuit logic”. The goal is to identify the removable pieces on the screen and to route the “remove command” so that it reaches only the pieces that can be removed. It’s a very short game (only 50 levels) but the later levels can be challenging and finishing it it’s a rewarding experience. Also, it doesn’t cost much.
A perfect brain-teaser.
I have to thank @Nor_Treblig and the other people who suggested and mentioned TIS-100; I have purchased it today and I’m already playing it.
The game is able to recreate the atmosphere experienced many years ago, when I was an Assembly coder. People who want to practice a bit this kind of low-level code will find in TIS-100 a few interesting challenges.
I think that it’s possible to use this game to understand and practice the basic low-level logic of old CPUs or controllers, but I wouldn’t use the game to learn how to optimize code for speed, though. The only way to reach the top rankings is to do code parallelization, meaning that you have to discard simple (and sometimes elegant) algorithms like the following one (spoiler)…
…and focus instead on ugly and unreadable monsters that do exactly the same thing but faster, like the following one (bigger spoiler): 
It’s a very nice game, in any case. Thanks again for mentioning it. 
I just bought it on the App Store for my iPad. I’ll give it a chance this week. Thanks for recommending it.
A note about the manual of the fictional machine the player has to operate: the developers suggest to print it.
Print and explore the TIS-100 reference manual, which details the inner-workings of the TIS-100 while evoking the aesthetics of a 1980’s computer manual!
I printed it just for recreating the atmosphere but eventually I realized that it’s also a more convenient way to read the documentation, instead of continuously switching between the game and a PDF reader. So I suggest anyone to print it, if possible.
But then you’re continuously switching between the game and a paper document.
What I like about paper is that I can just throw it around the place. Wouldn’t do this with my tablet…
