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Super Columbine Massacre RPG (PC) by Shadow (Jul 30th, 2010 at 21:18:27) |
So, this site is really poorly organized, in my opinion, so take two:
The game is strange. The font is miserably hard to read. I have no idea what they are saying half the time and an l seems to be a t. I was also surprised the game was made by Japanese companies.
That aside, I sensed a lot of sarcasm. Items have sarcastic and strange descriptions and bonuses. Like Doom gave me extra damage. I am left to wonder the game maker's intentions. It wasn't to entertain - this game is miserably boring and a ton of dialog. I got to plant the bombs, and get the guns and go through some more dialog so maybe the game will pick up. No shooting yet. One of the kids seemed pretty occupied with letting everyone know the people that helped him - like bought him guns, and his family, and his friends weren't at fault. The other one just seemed to want revenge. Whether that was the case with the real people or just the characters, I don't know.
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Super Columbine Massacre RPG (PC) by Lucy (Jul 30th, 2010 at 18:52:34) |
Works that encourage people to look at destructive events from the point of view of the perpetrators walk on unstable ground. Though recent pieces of entertainment, notably the TV series “Dexter,” succeed in swaying the audience to the side of the villain, it’s usually in a fictional context – there never was a real Dexter, and he doesn’t come with any historical significance. It would be difficult to get people to sympathize with the instigators behind tragic events in history like WWII and the Holocaust, September 11th, and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
It would be easy for a game like Super Columbine RPG to be simply exploitative, and to be honest, that’s what I expected when the menu screen popped up with a Marilyn Manson song playing in the background. The dialogue between Eric and Dylan is pretty well written and it sets up their teen angst and us-against-the-world mentality pretty well. What we don’t get, however, is any idea of what drove them to shoot their classmates – they say they were bullied, but I never saw any actual examples of them being bullied, at least not at this point in the game. Their use of German irked me a little – they struck me as trying very hard to seem badass, and came off looking more like idiots.
The game-play is not intuitive. The violence is just about as graphic as it is in Final Fantasy VII. That is to say that it’s very difficult to disturb the player with such heavily pixilated characters, though there is something sad about the little sprites covered in bloody pixels. I felt kind of bad killing them despite the graphics being very retro, especially the Openly Gay Man character, because it was hateful, plain and simple.
Despite my distaste for the game, I admit that it must have taken courage to make it. Major game producers would never touch the subject of school shootings for fear of the controversy (and probably because they would find it distasteful, too).
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Madworld (Wii) by jp (Jul 30th, 2010 at 16:37:50) |
This game looks absolutely incredible. The only way I can describe it is Sin City. But without the noir. So it's lighter (more white?), but equally stylized. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this makes it really hard for me to tell what's going on at times which might actually be a good thing.
I've still trying to figure out the meaning (for me) of the violence in the game. I can't say that I've really enjoyed playing it so far, but in terms of the representation I find that it's so over-the-top as to be almost comical. The problem is that it's ALMOST, which leaves me in a rather gray area which, as mentioned, I'm still trying to figure out. Does it glorify violence? How much of it is gratuitous? How do I think of it when compared to the also ultra-violent Manhunt? The experience of playing them is quite different...
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Pixeljunk Monsters Deluxe (PSP) by jp (Jul 30th, 2010 at 16:33:20) |
I've been playing this in (sort-of) opposition to Plants vs Zombies. Both tower defense games, both on handheld (ipad perhaps less so) devices and both being played on (semi) alternate days. It's kind of unusual to find that the things that annoy me about one game are not present in the other, and vice versa. What is perhaps more interesting is that both games (exemplars in their class, according to review scores in any case, metascore of 86 and 88 for PMD and PvZ respectively) represent very different schools of thought regarding game design.
PvZ is incredibly polished, has incredible personality, humor, and identity and is also entertaining to watch. Playing the game isn't terribly challenging and you mostly react to onscreen cues. Click here when coin appears, click there when sunshine appears. Most of the decisions you make while playing are easy and, barring the occasional mistake, the toughest choice you have is what selection of plants you want to have available during a game.
PMD is less polished, has a strong identity and is also well-designed. However, rather than focus on easing the execution of your actions (call it interface polish if you will), it worries with providing tense in-game decision making moments through a combination of different incentives and risks. It is also a much harder game (I've barely made it into the "Medium" difficulty levels.
Here's what I mean:
(a) As usual, you need to build towers. However, their effectiveness varies a lot based on their placement and each level has a different geography that makes placement decisions a lot harder.
(b) Enemies arrive quickly and for the most part move quickly as well. You don't have a lot of time to think.
(c) You control a little guy who must go where you want to build a tower. So, traversing the map is important. You can waste a lot of valuable time simply going back and forth.
(d) You can upgrade towers by spending gems. You only get gems by collecting them from dead guys. If your guy runs into an enemy, he gets knocked down (losing coins and gems). Not only is it quite risky to collect gems, but they also disappear fast as well!
(e) Coins are dropped in the same way, but you spend them to build towers.
(f) You can also upgrade your towers by standing still on them and "dancing". THIS creates a lot of tension since the impulse is to go out and collect the coins/gems. Towers can also level up by doing damage, so it is often the case that you need to pick the ideal moment to dance on a tower so that it levels, without losing coin collecting opportunities.
(g) At the end of each wave, you get a bonus amount of coins that is a percentage of the coins you currently have banked. Another interesting point of tension! If you wait too long to build a tower, it wont' get built in time, but you can get the bonus coins. On the other hand...
(h) You can also spend gems to unlock (for that level only!) special towers. These are pretty much essential during the levels. So, there's a lot of tension involved in deciding when to lose time heading back to your home (where you can unlock the special towers) or if it's better to simply use the gems to upgrade.
Almost none of these tensions exist in PvZ even though, especially if you look at someone playing, both games SEEM very frantic and tense. Honestly, PMD is the real contender for the mental anguish prize.
It also doesn't help that it's taken me a while to figure the game out. For example, I assumed that all upgrades to a tower were essentially the same: do more damage. It turns out that (there are little icons, but they weren't explained anywhere), different towers upgrade differently. Some upgrades increase range, some damage, and they can vary even for the same tower. So, Lev1 to Lev2 might increase range but Lev2 to Lev3 might increase the damage.
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Super Columbine Massacre RPG (PC) by yewonkim (Jul 30th, 2010 at 12:50:06) |
Before I even downloaded Super Columbine Massacre RPG (SCMRPG), I was excited by the name of the game itself. Although this may sound unethical, I am highly interested in grotesque things such as the Manson family murder stories, and the fact I get to play a game about the Columbine massacre caught my attention. Before I started playing SCMRPG, I mapped the game out in my head. I imagined the game to start with two high school students talking about their plans at home, and getting prepared to go to school. Using my experience with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, I expected to see highly computer graphic imaged teenage boys running around in their school yard and shooting innocent students. I was not living in the U.S. when the shooting occurred, but I have heard a lot of things about it and seen multiple TV show episodes regarding the incident (Too Young to Kill, for example), so my initial goal (or hope) of playing this game was to figure out how the massacre went in details.
I was quite shocked when I started playing SCMRPG. Not only did the game started out with someone knocking on Eric’s door saying he has to get up since he is “going to be late for bowling class”, but it reminded me of Pokémon that is played on a Gameboy. I was not expecting to see such a pixilated game where the character moves around like he is on ice. Trying not to laugh at how the game looks, I paid attention to the phone conversation he had with Dylan to see how they are setting up their mission. I was immediately disturbed when Dylan said, “what fun is life without a little death?” As a psychology major, I wanted to do a research on him to figure out if he had a troubled childhood that might have caused him to view death as something “fun”. I mean, maybe it is Marilyn Manson’s music that might have affected him? Just joking. Except not really.
Nirvana playing in the background? Okay!
Then I got really disturbed by the idea of SCMRPG. What kind of person would program a game that reminds people of such a catastrophic event? I mean, I wonder if someone out there is secretly working on Super Virginia Tech Massacre RPG! I can understand that this game is to raise awareness of gun violence, especially in young adults, but seeing that this game is available for free online, the age group that plays SCMRPG can be hard to get statistics of. It could be males in their late 20's, and it also could be females in their teenage years. I believe SCMRPG is unethical because it could give people an idea of "How to destroy [insert a place name here]" by showing them that a certain weapons can be used. Also, the placement of bombs and the fact that you are able to control the time of it could tell people that it is one alternative way of adding a nice little cherry on top of your "big day".
This entry has been edited 3 times. It was last edited on Jul 30th, 2010 at 12:52:07.
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GameLog hopes to be a site where gamers such as yourself keep track of the games that
they are currently playing. A GameLog is basically a record of a game you started playing. If it's open,
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1265 registered gamers and 1235 games. 4208 GameLogs with 7886 journal entries. 3338 games are currently being played.
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Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas (XBX) by bmstrach |
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most recent entry: Sunday 27 September, 2009
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Brittany Strachan
September 27, 2009
CSC 295
SUMMARY
In Grand Theft Auto 3: San Andreas, players control a single character by the name of C.J. and try to earn money by completing various missions and/or tasks. As a player earns more money, they have the ability to buy better weapons and armor. Players can choose to complete missions in a story mode type game play or complete various challenges that are throughout the game. The main story behind the game is CJ, a local gang member, has returned back home to San Andreas to uncover the mystery of his mother’s death.
GAMEPLAY1
I love playing Grand Theft Auto games because I get this sense of power when I play. I have an alter ego that allows me to escape reality when I play this game. I usually play in story mode rather than just walking around and shooting people because I like to see how the plot develops. Completing missions in story mode also open up new locations on the map for me to explore and I like to see the different characters you meet throughout the game. Each character has a different personality that keeps the game entertaining and when you meet new characters, you open up different challenges that give the game variety.
In Grand Theft Auto 3: San Andreas, a user has more creativity than in any other Grand Theft Auto game that I’ve played that made me enjoy this game even more. You can lift weights to change the physique of the main character, buy a variety of clothes to change your character’s appearance, buy tattoos, and build certain attributes that help your character complete challenges easier. The ability to personalize the main character more in Grand Theft Auto 3: San Andreas made me feel more connected to the game play.
GAMEPLAY2
I love the music in the game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas game. As I play the game, I find myself being more engulfed into the game play because I’m always wondering what the next song that I can identify with is. For instance, whenever you are driving in a vehicle that has a radio, the user has the ability to change radio stations. Therefore, no matter what type of music you like, you can set the game to play that genre of music. Music is an important element of a game because it culturally connects players and the game. Personally, I was more drawn to play this game than any other game because of the idea that I can listen to music that I like while playing.
Although I love to play the missions along the story line, there are plenty of smaller challenges to participate in. For example, if you steal a police car, you can play as if you were a cop and you have to chase down these different criminals. There are also challenges in between missions. For example, throughout the game CJ has to maintain a crew and protect the gang’s territory. Rival gangs will constantly shoot at you and try to take over your property. Therefore, you have to be careful where you roam in the map because you can easily be shot to death. These challenges outside of the storyline missions keep the game exciting. There is never a dull moment in the game and you have to constantly keep track of what you’re doing because one careless mistake can cause you to lose your life.
DESIGN
The overall design of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was effective. The main story of the game was interesting and made me want to play more to discover the plot. I also like how the challenges are organized by difficulty. In other words, as you meet new characters, they present several challenges and each “boss” has a level of difficulty associated with them. Of course, as you progress through the game, the missions as a whole get more challenging, however, when you play missions associated with a certain “boss”, you have an idea of what level of difficulty the challenge will be. In this way, players know what to expect when they are playing the game, which can prevent confusion or sometimes complete frustration.
The only improvements that I would suggest to make to this game are add more customization options for users and maybe expand the storyline more. For example, players should be able to add their own flavor to the cars they steal and to the main character. Although there are some customization options in GTA: SA, players could still have the ability, for instance, to create a main character of their own (face, body, body type, clothes, etc.). For the game, players should be able to add more style to the cars they steal by adding body kits, buying rims, changing the headlights, tints, etc. Another element I would add to this game is to make it multiplayer. Multiplayer game modes create competition and help foster social atmospheres.
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