Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1083https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3983Gamelog Entry #2: GAMEPLAY Black and White 2 was a fun game to play but short lived. I’m one land away from beating the entire game. What’s worse is that after the final land, there aren’t any sandbox modes to play, which is usually standard in most free form city builders and some RTS games. I’m at the point in the game where I’ve gotten all of the buildings I’m going to need, my creature has long stopped growing, and I’m just repeating a worn out formula for building my city. This time around, I tried out the evil side of things. This was surprisingly similar to the good god strategy. Building a structurally sound city is still a must, and sacrificing all of your villagers for miracle power is not recommended. The main deviation is in building a strong army and encouraging your creature to fight enemies. I found that being somewhere between good and evil was the best combination for success. I was disappointed by the lack of story in the game. Aside from providing a basic reason for why you were fighting and traveling from land to land, the game didn’t tell much of a story. The optional quests were never tied to the main story or to each other (except for the brew brothers quests) and added very little to gameplay. Overall, I enjoyed the game but it has a number of areas in which a great deal of improvement is needed. DESIGN In my opinion, Black and White 2 took the best features of multiple genres, skimmed the main idea of each off the top, threw them in a mixing pot, and expected this formula to render a great game. The graphics were impressive, the art was cute, and the premise of having a god, city builder, and virtual pet RTS game sounds like a good idea. But here’s the catch, a good city builder requires unique ways to build a city or different ways buildings can be implemented, neither of which are present in Black and White 2. Creating your city in a spider web like fashion is the only logical way to build in the limited space. Virtual pet games can be fun and are optimized by having multiple things that the player can do with the pet and requires dependence of the pet on the player. After the fourth land, I would check up on my creature only if I had nothing better to do or needed him to attack a nearby army, aside from those two exceptions, my creature was completely autonomous. The creature has three basic needs: food (which he can be trained to get himself), rest (which he can be trained to know where to sleep when its needed), and attention (which can be remedied by a couple of strokes every twenty minutes). The most important element of any good RTS would include multiple types of units to direct into battle. In Black and White 2, the player may build archers, foot soldiers, and catapults. Again, a simple formula can be applied to creating a decent army and that same formula is applied over and over again throughout the game. Of all of the things Black and White 2 can boast about having, very few can be considered more than shallow, poorly developed features. Some sort of specialization would have done this game a great deal of good. There was an attempt to create emergent complexity, but that attempt was rendered useless by the sever lack of options needed to complete each level in a different way. As for the narrative of the game, there was only one weak storyline: Stop the evil Aztec god who nearly destroyed the Greeks. The game world has a fantasy setting with Greeks, Nords, Japanese, and Aztecs races. You are a god created out of a single pure prayer from a Greek man. Save the Greeks and fight the evil Aztecs. Don’t get me wrong, this is a great basis for a story, but after the chaotic destruction of the Greeks in the second land, the story progression ends. The only encouragement to continue playing is to either complete the game or to enjoy the increase in difficulty. Rewards through cutscenes or progression in the story would have been a nice addition.Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:01:51 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3983&iddiary=7450https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3983Gamelog Entry #1: SUMMARY In Black and White 2, the player takes on the role of a god and interacts with the world through a hand that can lift trees, cast miracles, and move objects (including rocks and people). The objective of each level is to conquer the surrounding villages and cities by either building an army or by creating an impressive city. To assist in this objective, the player is given a giant creature that can cast miracles against your enemies or aid your people. GAMEPLAY The game’s beginning tutorial was helpful in teaching the basics of play, but even in my first round through the tutorial, I was aware of the inability to skip through the pointless banter of your good and evil “consciences.” The most entertaining part of my initial hour of play was just after my pet (a wolf) awoke in the first Norse land. I quickly learned how to feed, train, and workout my pet. I feel like the novelty of watching some of his goofy animations and actions is going to take a while to wear off. For example, I caught him pooping on a villager and after a couple of slaps, he promised to never poo on a villager again. Black and White 2 is an interesting RTS in that the core game mechanic is managing resources and units to conquer the land, but with strong city builder and tamagotchi influences. In order to beat each level, care must be taken to designing the city strategically as well as maintaining your creature. City defense, leaving the most fertile ground for fields, providing adequate housing, and strategic placement of storage facilities are all necessary strategies that the player must utilize in order to succeed. So far, I’ve been a good and patient god. In order to gain light side points, each level has been won through building an impressive city with happy citizens. For the time being, my wolf won’t attack (or eat) my villagers but will happily help them in construction or gathering. This method of playing the game is time consuming and doesn’t provide that interesting of gameplay. My biggest complaint up to this point is that when you’ve impressed a village to join you, they take f-o-r-e-v-e-r to immigrate to your city. By the time most of them reach my influence ring, many have become elderly or died.Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:09:09 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3983&iddiary=7447https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3961Game Entry #1 SUMMARY In Super Mario Galaxy, the player takes on another adventure with Mario to save Princess Peach. Bowser just can’t leave the poor girl alone. Mario must collect stars to continue to the next level. As usual, the player must interact with a 3-D platform game atmosphere by finding ways to navigate through the world and defeat enemies. So far, it sounds like every other Mario gaming experience, but there’s a twist. Bowser has upped his game to taking over the galaxy, and Mario must find his way through multiple worlds to save it. The new physics engine is what makes this game unique from its predecessors. Each planetary body has its own gravitational field that will allow the player to run upside down and sideways, avoid falling into black holes, and experience worlds that only the genius Shigeru Miyamoto could create. GAMEPLAY Super Mario Galaxy did a fantastic job of pulling me right in. The game began in Mushroom Kingdom, setting the player up for yet another Super Mario adventure with Toad, Princess Peach, and, of course, Bowser and Bowser Jr. flying in on a fleet of airships. The beginning cinematic was absolutely amazing and set the player up for a galactic adventure of epic proportions. Despite the nostalgic beginning and overall premise of collecting stars to advance to different stages (like Mario 64), this game quickly defined itself as a phenomenal and unique gameplay experience. The first time I sat down and played, I walked away several hours later with a number of power stars under my belt. Every planet was its own puzzle and every character was well designed with bright colors and animations. This game was a spectacular visual experience that keeps players from ever suspecting the game was limited to a 480p resolution. The artistic qualities are not only limited to graphics. The game’s soundtrack absolutely blew me away. Each song was an orchestral piece that fit perfectly into Mario’s adventures. The general story of this game is very similar to previous Mario games, except that you are introduced to a new character Rosalina who resides on the Comet Observatory. The observatory is basically Mario's base of operations, and the place where Mario returns to after collecting stars in other galaxies. The story line can be laughable at times, and doesn’t really make a lot of sense. This is to be expected considering that it uses the standard Mario storyline (which never made sense to begin with) but with an attempt to provide a background story to the Luma race and the galaxy in general. The conversation with my first “Hungry Luma” caused me to wonder if I had eaten anything funky in the past couple of hours. Here’s the quote: “If you feed me a bunch of Star Bits, I’ll burst with snacky happiness and then transform! Snackadee...Snackaday...SNACK-A-DIDDLY-DOO!!!” I then proceeded to fire star bits into this hungry guy until he was stuffed and transformed into a planet. If you are the kind of person who is bothered by nonsensical events, an enormous amount of destruction to scientific theories of the universe, and conversations like the one I had with the Hungry Luma, then this game is not for you. For everyone else who can take things like this with a smile or a shrug, definitely give this game a shot.Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:22:19 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3961&iddiary=7423https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3961Gamelog entry #2: GAMEPLAY I really enjoyed this session, because I spent more time playing around and exploring the game mechanics rather than trying to complete as many levels as possible. I even tried out the “multiplayer” option, if you can even call it that. I can see how it could be helpful in certain areas where you keep failing to get Mario to jump high enough. Aside from that small benefit, it was more of a nuisance than anything else. My friends, despite their good intentions (or not so good, I’m not completely convinced), were a lot more likely to throw me off of the planet, into an enemy, waste my star bits, or place me back at the beginning of the level than they were to actually help. Switching the controller after every star, or after five deaths, is a far better compromise when playing with someone else. The little two on the box should be replaced with a one and a half. This time around, I made a point to focus on the core gameplay. Before, I was stunned by the beauty of the game world and was a little too happy to be playing a great addition to the Mario series. Determined to be a critic, I tried my best to make the camera go crazy and was well on my way to making myself dizzy when I discovered why the camera is set so far back. In Mario 64, the camera was in a closer, over the shoulder perspective, but in Mario Galaxy, the camera is zoomed out, to the point that I was a little irritated with it. I’m assuming the reason for this is due to the fact that players are going to need the camera to constantly be changing in different directions as Mario leaps into space and travels to the bottom of one plant from the top of another. Imagine if the camera was set over the player’s shoulder. I wouldn’t have to try to make myself dizzy, I would be sick. The slight irritation of having to squint on occasion is definitely worth not feeling like Mario as he jumps from one planet to another over a black hole. I would much rather make him do it and watch, thank you. DESIGN Mario Galaxy’s physics engine continues to astonish me. I wish they recorded the programmer’s faces as the designers proposed what they were supposed to create. The initial task would have sounded daunting, but they definitely pulled it off. At the time of Mario Galaxy’s creation, there was absolutely no other game like it, and there still isn’t. The premise sounds the same, the levels still progress linearly, but the physics design was so innovative that this game may as well be heralded as the best platformer of all time. What makes this game great isn’t limited to the physics engine. The qualities of a great platformer include enjoyable gameplay, spectacular visuals, a soundtrack that never gets old and suits the game’s genre, and huge amount replay ability. Mario Galaxy definitely polishes off each one of these requirements. Collecting 60 stars can complete the game, but by collecting 120, you can replay the game as Luigi. The greatest thing about Luigi is that he isn’t just a Mario clone, but changes the gameplay in that he jumps a little higher and slides a little bit more. The controls are well suited for the changing perspective. It was the first time that I played a game where holding the joystick up didn’t necessarily mean my character would travel up. Depending on where the character is located in the world, pushing up on the joy stick can mean that the character is going to travel sideways, down, etc. The designers did a great job in making this be a logical progression to shift in any given direction, but did initially take some getting used to. Also, there was absolutely no lag, and load times between levels were minimal. Mario does have the ability to obtain objects that allow him to change form, a useful and old technique by Nintendo. Some new suits make an appearance and successfully added new challenges to gameplay. My main critique is with the linear level design. Solve the puzzle on planet A, use the warp star to travel to asteroid B and solve the puzzle there, and finish with a boss fight. This time old formula has been used and reused. Some sort of level progression that gives the player multiple ways to get to the end boss battle would have been better choice. If you can’t solve a given puzzle the one way that you had to, you were stuck until you either gave up or had an epiphany. This game was rarely frustrating and was surprisingly challenging, but I could see an eight-year-old version of myself getting stuck and upset in multiple levels. Games where the player’s choices influence and even change the gameworld are becoming more popular and this isn’t just a coincidence. Player’s crave this kind of interactivity and would have made an already great game even more amazing.Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:48:24 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3961&iddiary=7420https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3936GAMEPLAY I was extremely impressed with the game’s progression in the story. Getting to view the next cutscene was a great reward for completing each level. When I realized that I could choose which planet I wanted to travel to, I was afraid that the story would be fragmented and independent from the other planets. I couldn’t have been any more wrong. The story line was extremely integrated into each planet yet the sequence in which the player travels to them is irrelevant. At this point, I’ve beaten the game with a 100% light affinity character and have just begun a character who will be on the dark side. I’ve intentionally travelled to different planets to see if there is a difference in the story, and there surprisingly isn’t. Another interesting, discovery was that my character’s affinity influences the member’s of my party’s affinity. This is dependent on my character’s influence on the given character. Playing on the light side, this affect isn’t very noticeable, but on the dark side, your friends are a lot more likely to have a dark affinity and a darker appearance. I highly recommend this game to those who are looking for an interactive storyline or the chance to run in and attack enemies à la melee style. It seems like the game forces you to be a melee type character due to the close quarter combat. I typically encounter most of my enemies standing directly behind a door that I’ve just opened. This is neither here nor there for melee characters, but ranged characters are the most useful attacking from a distance. Their goal in most games is to kill or severely injure an enemy before it reaches the character. I personally enjoyed hacking up bounty hunters with my silver light saber, but it would have been nice to toggle between a melee or a ranged weapon without loosing a turn in the fight. DESIGN This game was clearly the sequel to the 2003 Game of the Year. Not only did it provide little to no innovation in terms of gameplay, graphics, and animation to the original, the game’s biggest claim to fame is the extended story line. Albeit, the designers found something that sold, and the game, by my own previous definition, is a game almost solely based on story line progression. The story made this game great, but at the same time, the creator’s focus on the story took away from needed improvements to gameplay. KOTOR has a number of role playing aspects that really add to immersing players into their own Star Wars universe. Most of the levels can be beaten in a number of ways, but the way they are beaten often influence the player’s alignment. The limited character creation was a disappointment, but was made up by the numerous armor and weapon choices that outfitted the character’s avatar. Adding the ability to upgrade armor and change the light saber color was a nice touch. The game creates a great deal of conflict in the player in that their decisions in conversation often carry the weight of changing the world. For example, on Telos, the player has the option to help a group dedicated to restoring the planet’s environment after the war or work for the Czerka Corp. who are interested only in credits (money) and the exploitation of certain areas of the planet for military bases. Both sides try to preach that they are what’s best for the planet, but in the end the player must decide. Another way the game creates conflict is by having to invest in skills, feats, force powers, and attributes. Depending on the player's skills/feats, there are additional options in conversation and alternative ways to completing a level. I enjoyed being able to have a character with high computer and security skills. Players who were in a level with a terminal can “slice” their way into the computer and use their skill to control doors, droids, or force fields that would have otherwise been an obstacle. (This entry has been edited2 times. It was last edited on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:58:32.)Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:50:51 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3936&iddiary=7397https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3936SUMMARY Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: The Sith Lords, otherwise known as KOTOR II, is an in depth RPG set five years after KOTOR and 4,000 years before Episode I. In some sense, the game could be described as a mystery game. From the beginning tutorial to the final end game conversations, the player is encouraged to inquire as to what has happened, the state of the game world, who the player should trust, and what moral decisions the player should make. GAMEPLAY During the first half hour of the game, the player takes control of a droid who is the only conscious being on a nearly destroyed ship (aside from a trapped droid in the storage room). The droid must repair the ship in order to save itself and the unconscious jedi in the medical bay. This tutorial can be skipped, but it does give some back-story to how the main character ended up on the Peragus mining facility. The game did a great job of keeping me on edge in the beginning. I kept expecting something bad to happen due to the morbid condition of the ship, and the background music was consistent with this tone. The story is what makes this game and the designers were clearly interested in plot twists and moral decisions. The player is given the chance to change their alignment (light or dark) depending on what they choose to say in conversation. One interesting addition to the role playing aspect of the game is that the player is questioned about why they chose to join the Mandalorian Wars, which gives the player the chance to create their own back-story. Every character that can join the player’s party has a unique personality, great voice acting, alignment, and back story that the player can uncover. So far I only have two complaints. Complaint one: it took way too long to build a light saber. Who plays a Star Wars game as a jedi without the expectation to have a light saber at least after the first boss battle? My second complaint is that combat is turn-by-turn. The player has little interactivity in battle aside from picking a couple of attacks and keeping their health meter from getting too low. The game pauses when an enemy is spotted or when a party member passes out, breaking the continuity of the game. I highly recommend turning this feature off, unless you are struggling.Sun, 27 Sep 2009 10:08:22 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3936&iddiary=7364https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3849Gamelog entry #2: GAMEPLAY Warcraft III was an excellent addition to the Warcraft trilogy and culture. It has some addicting elements, none of which dealt with its generic gameplay. I was far more interested in defeating each level so that the storyline will advance, and I anxiously waited for the next cinematic sequence. The flow of the story line was very well done, and the levels matched what was happening in the story. I was disappointed to see the repetition of objects throughout the game as well as the lack of ingenuity in level creation. That being said, Warcraft III is still a very good game. There are multiple strategies that could be used to beat the game. I sat on the edge of my seat during the survival levels, and I haven't played a level yet that hasn't had me watching the screen intensely. Every level has something to add to the game and I never got the vibe that I was doing a "filler." DESIGN The game had an overall lack of innovation. It did provide some similarities to your standard RPG but did not allow for any character customization or design. I was very disappointed to see that when I equipped my hero with a different armor, his avatar remained the same. However, it is clear that the game was meant to be more of a strategy game than an RPG. I was impressed to see how well balanced the races were. This includes balance between the casters of each race, the heroes, the speed and cost for individual units, and the overall strategy that each race requires. The levels of the game are very similar to the levels of most Blizzard games. I did appreciate how the level difficulty began at easy and increased throughout each campaign. The levels are more varied than some real time strategy games. There are times when the player simply has to survive for an amount of time and others when the player has to strategically build up a force to destroy another base. There weren’t any levels that stand out against other RTS games. Complexity does appear in this game in that you have to build up you own defenses, manage resources, and wage war against your enemies all at the same time. The use of hotkeys in this game is almost a necessity. The tone of the game world was that of a world on the brink of destruction. Something always seemed amiss. Each race has its own major loss and struggle that they have to deal with. Before and during most levels, there is a short cut scene in which the characters set up the objective of that level. These cut scenes were very useful as an addition to the story and often go hand and hand with the gameplay. The most frustrating part of the game was that there were some levels that were obviously designed to put the player at an extreme disadvantage. Often, the enemy base had the ability to build and create units at a faster rate than the player. Some of the things I would change about the game would be the use of sprites. A lot of the objects and buildings became very repetitive over time. The game’s reward structure was well done. By using your hero in battle, you are able to gain experience with that character and make him stronger. The points displayed at the end of each level, however were only useful in games with more than one player. The game had a strong emphasis on rewarding each completed level with more knowledge about the Warcraft universe and another stepping stone in the intense story.Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:01:18 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3849&iddiary=7207https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3849SUMMARY Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos is a real time strategy game with a touch of RPG elements in which the user commands a hero or two as well as a race, the humans, the undead, the orcs, or the night elves. The main goal of the game is to survive attacks from the other player/computer, manage resources, and complete the main and optional objectives. For example, the main objective of most levels is to destroy the enemy’s base. In the campaign mode, the player begins with the human race and its hero, Arthas. As the story develops, the player gains control over the undead. After the undead campaign is completed, the player plays as the orcs, and finally as the night elves. GAMEPLAY Warcraft III has an excellent story line, challenging campaign mode, and powerful cinematic sequences. The game began with a reminiscent view of a human and orc battling (Warcraft II and Warcraft I’s main theme), but their combat was quickly broken up by fire in the sky. The game wasn’t impossible to beat without cheats, but it was certainly a challenge. I was tempted to use a cheat to beat one particular level that was giving me a hard time just so I could find out what happens next. I was extremely attached to the main character, Arthas. When he betrayed his father and his entire race, I too felt betrayed. But the feeling of no longer being in the mutual mindset of Arthas allowed me to really enjoy the game from a more detached perspective. I stopped worrying about what the right thing to do was and more about enjoying the evil side of things. I was very pleased to find that the creators left a number of easter eggs in the game and a bit of humor. Repeatedly clicking on characters can produce some strange responses as do the mortar team's call to combat. All are simple additions to the game that helped keep it from becoming immensely depressing. The game was enjoyable to play, but its only innovation to real time strategy games was that it allowed the user to control a hero. The hero can pick up items and when the hero levels up, the player can select skills to learn. Aside from that, the normal archetypal RTS rules apply.Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:00:39 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3849&iddiary=7202