Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1052https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3829Started from where I left off in the parking lot. I killed a few kids left over in the parking lot and entered the school. I went into a couple of the classrooms and killed a bunch of kids, gaining a few levels. To speed things up, I always used auto-play. Went into the cafeteria, set off the fire alarms, and killed some kids. I got bored and before I killed everyone in the room I went back into the main hallway, then took the hallway off to the right. A clip of President Clinton giving a news comference played for a short time. There was a series of classrooms I explored, occasionally picking up pages from the Anarchist's Cookbook from the computers. I went into the library and told all the jocks in white hats to stand up. I went to the back window, shot at cops for a while, then decided to "end it all." I started fantasizing about how things could have been different, living in New Zealand. Then it showed real photographs of the boys' dead bodies, followed by a sad video montage of all the victims and their families. Then it showed photographs of the boys growing up and their graves. I thought the game was over, but no, Dylan arrives in hell and the Doom music starts playing. I fought a few Demon Soldiers, then saved it and called it quits. I didn't find the game very offensive, though I can easily see how somebody would; especially a family member of a victim. I don't think it is glorifying the actions a while lot. It does say things like "brave boys" and rewards you for killing innocent people, but I think it is just trying to show the world from the viewpoint of the boys and how they viewed their own actions. I thought it was actually a pretty powerful game, and got me thinking a lot about violence in music and videogames. When they would switch to video game representations to real photographs, it added a weight of realism to the game. It grounded the player, reminding them that this was real, and this was a serious thing, and it really happened. I am very curious how much of what is said in the game are actual quotes and what facts the made up quotes are based on. I think the game overall is a good thing. Whether you agree with it or not, it gets people talking and thinking, "why did these boys do what they did?" I think the montage of all the victims, and also the shooters growing up from innocent children was especially powerful, and shows that the creators of the game aren't just glorifying the violence. I think of Super Columbine as more of a piece of art rather than a game; The game itself kind of sucked. The combat was incredibly easy and you could just "auto-fight" the whole way through. Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:50:34 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3829&iddiary=7174https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3829Woke up in my room, turned on the stereo to play some Nirvana. Went to the phone and called Dylan, he said to gather up the gear. Grabbed a copy of Doom for the PC, apparently I was the master of Doom. Went into the basement, grabbed a Maralyn Manson CD. I say I'm not a fan of the music, but he will probably be blamed. Grabbed the duffel bags and met up with Dylan, he said its the biggest day of our lives. Had a flashback from the pizza box, lit off bombs and talked about buying guns. Watched a clip from Apocalypse Now. Recorded a very creepy last video message for the police and family, saying not to blame anybody else for this and that they had no idea, and that we are waging a two man war. Snuck into the school and planted two bombs by the cafeteria tables; it took me about four tries to do so without getting busted by cameras or hall monitors. Went up into the park on the hill and armed ourselves. A speech was given about how everybody deserved to die, and that there were too many rich snobs out there. The bombs didn't go off so we decide to just go in with guns. I ran into a kid named Brooks in the parking lot and told him to go home because I like him. Then I killed a few girls in the parking lot, went into the school and killed a few more in the front hallway. I went back out to the parking lot and saved the game. This game reminded me a lot of SNES Rpgs in terms of the graphics and whatnot. I actually found the game quite interesting; I didn't know much about the Columbine massacre before (although I'm not sure how much of this game is accurate) I remember Maralyn Manson and Doom being blamed for the shootings. The game makes you think about things from the shooters perspective, and tries to get the player to understand why they did what they did. Watching the two make the recording of themselves with the real pictures of them was very creepy. I actually liked the soundtrack of 90's songs, a lot of Nirvana and whatnot. It kind of gives you the feel of what kind of music they were listening to at the time.Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:52:03 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3829&iddiary=7171https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3788Ok I'm an idiot. I wrote my post in the browser as I was playing and it just disappeared, so I will attempt to recreate it from memory. I started the game and decided to Sweet's first mission. He explained that all the old Grove Street tags had been tagged over by rival gangs. I then drove in his car to an underpass where he showed me how to tag over gang signs. He sent me off on my own to do a few tags, then I got in his car. He took me to another location to do some tagging. I saw a rival gang member and sprayed him in the face with paint at some point, then got back in Sweet's car and returned home. I immediately did Sweet's next mission. He explained that all the Grove Street members have become addicted to drugs, and that in order to return to former glory we would have to rid our streets of drugs. Ryder hopped in my car to give me a hand. We drove to our old friend J-Dups house in order to recruit him, but he had changed beyond all recognition. We then pulled up to a house and witnessed a drug deal going on. After the buyer left, I got out of the car, beat up the drug dealer, and took his baseball bat. We then drove to an apartment close by, where Ryder gave a little speech and I beat the entire apartment to death with a baseball bat. The funny thing is this mission seemed almost like a positive community activity at first. Ridding the streets of drug dealers sounds like a good thing. That feeling quickly vanished, especially after brutally murdering several people with a blunt object. At first it seemed like the right thing to do, especially after seeing J-Dup, but after doing it I realized how wrong it felt. Murder is by far worse than dealing drugs. Dealing drugs is really a victimless crime; the customers are buying drugs of their own free will and are not forced or coerced to buy them. If they want drugs, they will find them no matter what. Addicts always have a way. Its not the dealers that are the problem, its the addicts. I pretty much ruined the game for myself last night by using cheat codes, so I decided to mess around with some more. I spawned a stunt plane and flew around for a while until I crashed into a building. Then I turned all the pedestrians into Elvis, sped up the gameplay, and went on a katana/chainsaw massacre until I died.Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:48:58 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3788&iddiary=7113https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3788I left off completing the very first mission and saving in my house. When I walked outside I got a phone call from Ryder who said to come over. We then got into his car and drove over to the barber shop to get a haircut. I got the Cesar. Then I walked across the street to the pizza place and got a meal. There was a short cutscene of Ryder holding up the cashier, then I ran to the car and drove Ryder back to his house. I'm starting to remember a lot from this game the from the first time I played through. It kind of reminds me of Gone Baby Gone in a way, the film I just analyzed in my paper. People are products of their environment, and the places they lived will always be a part of their lives. Carl had straightened up, but he can't seem to escape his past and gets sucked right back into his old ways. He doesn't necessarily WANT to resort to his old ways, but his past ties and loyalty to his friends are driving forces. I also remember thinking how the characters and situations remind me a lot of the Friday movies, and also Menace To Society. Like both of those movies, Carl really seems to be a good guy, but his environment and social ties tend to drag him down and get him in sticky situations. After completing the Ryder mission, I decided to mess around with some cheat codes. First, I made Carl super fat, then super skinny, then super muscular. Then I used some weapons codes and ran around shooting cars with a rocket launcher. Cops started coming at me and I kept blowing up cop cars until I got the max wanted level and died. After getting out of the hospital, I used a code to make all cars fly like planes, and messed around with that for a while. Then I made all pedestrians Asian guys with katanas, spawned a Rhino, and went on a tank rampage. I got the max wanted level, then decided to get out of the tank and let the cops kill me. Next, I spawned a stunt plane and flew around for a while. I then remembered how hard it is to play a game legitimately and not use cheat codes once you start using them. It kind of ruins the game experience, knowing that you can give yourself as much money, health, and weapons as you want at any time, or decrease your wanted level. The first time I played San Andreas, I purposely didn't mess around with cheat codes until I beat the game for that reason.Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:44:01 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3788&iddiary=7101https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3788I’ve already played and beaten GTA: San Andreas a while ago, but I decided to start a new game from scratch. The main character of the game is Carl, a black guy from the “ghetto” of San Andreas (which is modeled after LA). He had been out of town and is returning home to bury his dead mother. On the way home, crooked cops pulled me over and pretty much forced me to start selling drugs and doing shady dealings for them. They then dropped me off in enemy gang territory to fend for myself. I stole a bike in order to flee the enemy gang territory. I rode around on the bike for a while, then stole a “Cadillac” from a guy. I drove around for a while, getting used to the driving controls again and especially re-learning how to use the hand brake for turns. I continued driving around and ended up running over a few pedestrians, provoking the cops to chase me. They chased me and I crashed my car, starting it on fire. I got out of the car and started running at the cops swinging with my bare hands and they grabbed me and arrested me. I got out of jail and decided to go on with some missions. I hijacked a car and drove over to Grove Street to do the first mission. I discover from my buddies that my mother had been murdered, along with a bunch of my other friends. A rival gang did a drive by shooting and my friends and I were forced to flee on bicycle. I pretty much had to follow the lead biker while being chased, and it was really easy. After the mission, I went to my house to save the game, then stopped playing. Most of my time was spent driving around and getting used to the controls again.Sun, 26 Jul 2009 16:41:48 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3788&iddiary=7093