big_danesky65's GameLogBlogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=154Final Fantasy XII (PS2) - Fri, 23 Feb 2007 10:16:32https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1347Number two, here we go. I didn't really like the graphics in this game. The graphics in this game seem to be worse than X and X-2. It may just be that I was way more into those games, and the graphics didn't matter. Aside from the cutscenes that is. Those graphics were amazing, and the facial expressions displayed were by far the best I have seen in a videogame. I despise how often they are dispersed within the game though. It was as if Sony was trying to say "hey look how pretty our new game is." It shows today's youth's addiction to graphics and the death of actual gameplay. All this being said, I rarely noticed the graphics on the world map because of the small map/radar in the corner. The focus on moving from point to point made me never take my eyes off that little bugger. I am so thankful that the map was there, as I am thankful that it can finally be rotated to different views whatnot. But it helped to ruin my experience. The story in this game depresses me as well. In this world, there were so many minor characters and events (like wars) that happened over 500 years ago that I find it hard to care at all about them. It would be different if the game shared the knowledge of these events with me, but each time King Raithwall is brought up, it's always just some short allusion to him, and I can't get a sense of what he was all about. This makes me dislike the progression of the storyline. One thing I did like in this game, would definitely be how the character acquires money. Every other console RPG I can think of lets you get money from enemies such as wolves and bats, forcing me to wonder: what the hell an animal would be doing with money? This game gives you loot items (such as wolf pelts of cactus thorns) after you defeat an enemy, and you have to go to town to sell these items to get money. This is SO much more realistic, and is one of the few features I agreed with about this game.Fri, 23 Feb 2007 10:16:32 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1347&iddiary=2968Final Fantasy XII (PS2) - Thu, 22 Feb 2007 10:23:12https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1347Let me start off by saying that I am a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series. I've played almost all of them, and I have beaten my fair share of them. But I really don't like this one. The style of the series has changed so much from its predecessors that I feel like I'm in a foreign world while I'm playing it. The battle system in XII is very annoying. With the inclusion of the Gambit system, any player can set it up so that all they have to do is move. You rarely have to give commands in this game. I feel that all the moments of strategy with the other games in the series during battles and dungeons were taken away from XII and moved into the 10 minutes it takes to set up a logical strategic Gambit. While my Gambit "attack foe: nearest" is on, the only thing I'm doing is moving my left thumb on the analog stick towards a cluster of enemies. Also, I know this is such a small part of this game, but nevertheless, I hate it more and more each time I start playing it again. After each battle, you put away your weapon, and before each battle, you take it back out. What is the point of this? When I'm running away from an enemy, I don't want to have to put away my sword just because I can't be outside of a battle with it out. The characters in this game remind me of a daytime soap opera. Tell me more about the boy who just wants to fly, or the dude who was set up by his "evil twin." Penelo is so bland and completely left out of the games plot, that I find myself forgetting she's even in my party at all. And why did they have to go and change up the way moogles look in this game. Damn you Montblanc!!! I despise the voice acting for Vaan. He seems to be completely void of all emotion whatsoever. It's not that I hate everything about this game. But the battle system and characters are such massive parts of RPGs, that I find myself having to force myself to play this game. The music in this game is all right. It makes sense for an RPG, but it's no Indiana Jones. I do like the hunt side quests. They seem very realistic and are a great way to get new equipment and items.Thu, 22 Feb 2007 10:23:12 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1347&iddiary=2869Tetris DX (GBC) - Fri, 09 Feb 2007 23:39:00https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1286In my second session, I noticed that there are more that one modes of play, adding a lot more to just your regular Tetris game. In all of the modes, you can choose your difficulty, therefore appealing to all types of gamers with different skill levels. In one mode, you play against the evil computer, kind of making some form of conflict, but it is still mediocre at best. The best thing about this game in my opinion is that there can be three different profiles. The game will save your scores and keep track of who did what. Creating even more conflict between different players. Back in the day, there were quite a few skirmishes between my brother and I over high scores that each other could and could not get. The fact that this game is portable also makes it possible to play it wherever you go. Or even at 4 AM when you can't sleep. Yeah, I'm guilty of that one. This game is addicting.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 23:39:00 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1286&iddiary=2742Tetris DX (GBC) - Fri, 09 Feb 2007 23:23:33https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1286There are no characters. There is no story. There are only falling shapes that you have to twist and move to create rows that disappear when they are full. Even with this simple form of gameplay, I find myself enjoying every minute of it. The gameplay is different than many games I have played. All you do is play against yourself and try to get a higher and higher score. There aren't enemies, so if you do "die," you only have yourself to blame. This is great for me. The same simplicity every session makes for infinite possibilities and outcomes. There is even some great stategy involved. In order to get the highest score as quickly as possible, you have to fill in multiple rows with one piece (up to 4 at the most). For the Gameboy Color, it has some decent cut scenes. Each time your session of play ends, a different type of rocket takes off, and that's that. Simple, but innovative for such a "primitive" system. By far, it is my favorite game to take on a road trip, or to play when I don't feel like reading.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 23:23:33 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1286&iddiary=2741Super Smash Brothers (N64) - Wed, 31 Jan 2007 00:31:37https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=970Second log, here we go. The aspect of secret characters is great for this game. The inclusion of secret characters not only adds more fighters to chose from, but also creates objectives in a game that might get boring after a while. After playing the single player mode just now, I noticed the diversity in levels and enemies. There is a team battle, metalloid enemy, a triple team on a giant enemy, two mini games, 3 levels where you fight up to 30 enemies by yourself, and the final boss is a giant hand. Talk about imagination. I also like how the final enemy has Hit Points instead of a percentage bar. It really added a challenge and gave me a different pace for fighting. After fighting a lot of one on one with my buddy Matt, I have to say that Captain Falcon is my favorite character. He has great reach, a fairly quick and devastating attack, high jumps, and lets not forget his stylish threads. Second favorite for me, would have to be Ness with his unconventional weapons, like a yo-yo and child's baseball bat. He remains second for me because his triple jump is a little hard to direct, causing me to die a little too much. Awesome time playing this game.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 00:31:37 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=970&iddiary=2143Super Smash Brothers (N64) - Tue, 30 Jan 2007 22:12:22https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=970This brings me back to last year. The game that took so many hours of my life with my buddies. The game that inspired one of our friends to buy a Gamecube along with Melee, taking up even more hours that could have been spent studying, doing HW, eating, sleeping, talking to women, whatever. Needless to say, this game is awesome. I love the way Nintendo took a fighting game, threw in some lovable Nintendo characters, made the fighting style like a game of "king of the hill," and created such a masterpiece. I love the health in this fighting game because you start out with 0, and when you are attacked you gain damage percent, making it easier to knock them off the level. I realize it is on an older system, but the attacks do seem to take a little long to perform. I would definitely speed it up. Also, the "A" button attacks don't seem to vary at all from character to character. I would love to see a little more move diversity (but the "B" attacks helped me out in this department a lot). This game creates such an excellent multiplayer experience because of the four controller slots and the ability to fight with your friends. So many fights have broken out because of this game for me, but I still love it.Tue, 30 Jan 2007 22:12:22 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=970&iddiary=2117Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) - Fri, 19 Jan 2007 14:56:32https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=803Yay, so I finally figured out what to do in my file. I had to search around in the depths of lake Hylia to find a message from the princess so I could help her. Well that took long enough. After doing that, I took the letter to King Zora, gave a fish to Lord Jabu-Jabu, and went deep into his belly. This part of the game was a little gross. How the hell did Jabu-Jabu get all that crap in his stomach anyways? A big negative part of this dungeon is definitely the enemy design. It's just so repetitive. If I have to fight another bubble thingy again, I might just punch the wall... well maybe not but it is a little frustrating. I also hated the part when you have to carry princess Ruto to the exit. It leaves me completely defenseless against enemy attacks, and plus she's pretty heavy. Woo Hoo, I finally beat this dungeon! She gave me her sapphire thingy, and now I am free to continue with the story. Even though I don't really know where to go once again... This is starting to get old really quick. I might even have to look up a guide online for this game. Oh well. This may just be the last time I play this game for a while. I think I'll be sticking to RPG's for a while now.Fri, 19 Jan 2007 14:56:32 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=803&iddiary=1799Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) - Fri, 19 Jan 2007 14:11:12https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=803Same Link, different game. Wow. Earlier today, I dusted off my old N64 and started gaming it up old school style with Legend of Zelda. I guess I always underestimated the power of LoZ when I was younger. I have only been playing for a little bit on my old save file, and it is just as enjoyable as it was back in the day. The graphics in this game are dated, but I'm sure they were top notch back during the game's prime. I never really got a chance to notice the great aspects of this game when I was younger. The control is spectacular. I love how each time I use my ocarina, it's like its own little mini game within the game. The way the inventory is situated is awesome, and even the songs you know are their own inventory. The mapping in this game is phenomenal. Not only is there a world map, but a highly detailed map in each dungeon/town. This might not exactly be groundbreaking, but I, as a gamer, very much appreciate being able to see exactly where I am in every part of the game. I absolutely love how you can save wherever you are in the game. It even prompts you to save each time you close the main menu. It's almost easier to save after leaving the menu than it is to not save. This is great because many gamers, in the heat of battle will many times forget to save when they may do so. I do not like, however, how free you can be from the story in this game. Half of the time I have been playing today has been running around on the map figuring out what the hell I'm supposed to be doing. I'm still in a bit of a hard situation right now, as i don't know how the hell I'm going to get king Zora to pay attention to me. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR. The story in this game move incredibly slowly, and I am getting a little bit bored with letting my mind wander and wonder about what will happen next (I kinda know whats going to happen as I've already played the game, but you understand). It does bug me a little bit that this game doesn't have any cutscenes, and when it does, they are of the same graphics as the regular game.Fri, 19 Jan 2007 14:11:12 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=803&iddiary=1781Wild Arms (PS) - Wed, 10 Jan 2007 13:52:41https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=435I played a little bit of Wild Arms 3 a few years ago, and i beat Wild Arms 4 over the summer. After doing this, I decided to regress and bought used copies of Wild Arms 1 & 2 at the game store. The beginning of this game is a little bit shaky, as I am a veteran of RPGs, and the beginning was mainly trying to help you adapt to this style of gameplay. But, after the initial lull, I was able to get deep into the story, and loved it. The characters were cool and the battle system was straightforward. The only real problem I had with this game was the graphics. Being released in 1997, it is expected to have less than good graphics, but I was able to move past this, and keep on keeping on. An RPG classic that I would advise anyone to play if they can get their hands on a copy.Wed, 10 Jan 2007 13:52:41 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=435&iddiary=1123Wild Arms 2 (PS) - Wed, 10 Jan 2007 13:33:02https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=378All right, today, I started playing this game at about 1AM and got a pretty good session of play. I have finally achieved a party of 3 (the full amount during battle) and some of them even have some pretty good background stories. So far, Ashley has turned into a demon, and become "the chosen one" by pulling a sword from a stone (kinda cliche, but o well). Brad has come out of prison for something we don't know about. He has an explosive collar around his neck just in case he tries to escape the mercenary group, ARMS. Lilka hasn't shown any real background other than the fact that she is living in her older sister's shadow. I actually do not like this character. Not only is her background blase, but her character design leaves much to be desired. I enjoy the way the game delivers new towns and dungeons. In order to find them, you must be told their location, and then you have to manually find them with a radar-like device while venturing on the world map. I am quite fond of the 3D town and world maps that have been added since the prequel. The rotation of the maps really lets me explore all that each town has to offer. I'm not one to count my chickens before they hatch, but this game could shows a lot of potential to finding a place in my heart.Wed, 10 Jan 2007 13:33:02 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=378&iddiary=1120