Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=162https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1405After getting a bit bored wandering around the world, I decided to fight a few of my favorite Colossi. The actual gameplay in Shadow of the Colossus really only consists of 3 elements: 1. Finding the current Colossus 2. Figuring out how to climb and defeat them while staying alive. 3. Actually climbing them and beating them. Despite the fact that it's the same basic thing for all 16 doesn't really matter since each of the Colossi are so uniquely designed that it's an entirely different play experience. Some might be simple traditional video game boss fights; you play a defense game until your enemy attacks and misses, leaving himself open for you to counter-attack. In these fights, the player usually focuses exclusively on the Colossus and pays no attention to the environment they're fighting in (unless it starts getting in the way somehow). Some fights are much more puzzle-like, requring the player to study their environment and exploit it. The fights that require the environment are much more immersive, as it forces the player to think "what would I do if I was actually here". On the subject I was mentioning earlier about this game being art, one effect that TRULY adds to that is the use of music. When the player is simply riding around the world exploring, there is no music whatsoever. The world is silent except for the sounds of the main character and his horse. When you encounter a colossus, quiet suspenseful music begins in the background. It starts so lightly and naturally that often one doesn't even take note that the silence is gone. Once the battle actually begins, the music matches everything going on perfectly. When the Colossus is far away, hiding underground, up in the air, etc., the music is quiet. The closer the player gets, the louder the music gets. When the player actually begins climbing his foe, it really amps up and gets dramatic. There have been times where the music matches the action on screen so well it seems almost as if it's being procedurily generated, but it's such a high quality orchestral score that this is impossible. In short, the key to what makes Shadow of the Colossus a great video game and great piece of art is the way it immerses the player totally and completely in its world, often to the point where they forget they're playing a video game until something removes the immersion, like being forced to pay attention to a grip meter/health meter or saving the game.Fri, 23 Feb 2007 11:45:48 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1405&iddiary=2975https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1405I've owned Shadow of the Colossus since the day it came out, but to me it's one of the few non-puzzle games that never really gets old. I believe this is because Shadow of the Colossus is much less an actual video game than it is art expressed in the medium of a video game. I spent the first hour of my current play session riding around the world and looking for things I haven't noticed before. The land you can explore in SotC is HUGE, and there are many parts of the map that the game never tells you to go to. Due to the structure of the game (no other characters to talk to, no items to find to progress the plot, etc.), there is no driving reason to explore these 'extra' areas, especially since the game gives you a map and tells you how to find the next Colossus you have to fight. Often, the only reward for exploring these areas is the scenery you would never otherwise see. I always think it's a interesting choice when developers put things into a game that obviously take a decent amount of work to draw and program that most players will never see simply because they're following the game's instructions. The fact that the developers care about the asthetics of the game world enough to add unessential but beautiful areas adds a lot to the game's artistic value.Fri, 23 Feb 2007 10:35:38 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1405&iddiary=2969https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1230I've read in some reviews that this game is too short and the developers use tricks, like forced backtracking, to make the game seem longer. I'm beginning to see signs of this. Most of the puzzles I've encountered so far consist of 'find item X'. Often you'll have come across item X previously but you won't be able to pick it up until you've encountered the puzzle already. For example, in my hotel room I found a conspicuous paper clip sitting on my nightstand. When I tried to pick it up, the protagonist just said 'Hm, a paper clip...' to himself. After I found a lock I had to pick (in the same room!), I examined the paper clip again and he said 'Hm, a paper clip... Better take it, might come in handy.' That's why I tried to get you to grab it before, moron! Anyway, the dialogue more than makes up for my frustration with the puzzles. The key to a good adventure game is making the player want to explore the world, and my curiousity is going crazy now that the plot is beginning to solidify.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 11:50:51 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1230&iddiary=2620https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1230I recently began playing this game. I'm a big fan of adventure games, and I've heard great things about this one, so I was expecting a lot going in. I'm only about an hour in so far, and it's good, but nothing special. From a presentation point of view, the game is amazing. The art is really captivating, in that it's shaded to look like noir comic book art, but it's animated. Black and white pencil drawn characters on full colour CG backgrounds is a really nice effect, and I'm glad the developers chose to go with it. The writing so far is top-notch too. It's hard to say much about the gameplay at this point since the story is still being set into motion. So far all I've really done is walk around and talk to people, which I suppose is standard adventure game fare. The interface, however, is really smooth. The player holds the DS sideways, instead of the normal orientation, so it's like you're holding a book. When the player is moving around, what the protagonist currently sees is displayed on the left screen, while the right screen (the touch screen) is a map of the room you're in. You use the stylus on the map to move your character around, and it seems really natural using both screens to view the hotel in different ways. One feature I'm loving so far is that whenever you hear something you feel might be important to a puzzle, you can write it down in the protagonist's memo pad. Actually, pretty much any interaction with the gameworld is done with the stylus. I've used it to ring a service bell at a hotel front dest, bent a paper clip into a wire by dragging the ends of the clip, and used that paper clip to try to pick a lock. The fact that you perform the actions in the game yourself instead of telling the character to perform them really adds to the immersion of the game.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 10:40:08 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1230&iddiary=2617https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=753I realize now that the purpose of Mario 64 was to introduce gamers to the third demension in a classic game genre, the platformer. More importantly, it introduced the analog control stick as a control device. Most of the difficulty in my original playthrough 10 years ago consisted of fighting with the camera or Mario running when I only wanted him to walk. Playing through it now, I've mastered the analog stick so the controls are no problem, but the camera controls are still choppy and often unfriendly to the player. One of the most important elements of a game is that the player has to be aware of their placement in relation to the placement of enemies, holes, coins, etc. Also, when a player has to stop and re-adjust the camera, it completely breaks the immersion of the game. Despite the frustrations with the camera controls, Mario 64 stays true to the Mario gameplay experience and was the perfect introduction to analog controls.Fri, 19 Jan 2007 01:46:47 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=753&iddiary=1690https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=753I recently downloaded Mario 64 for the Virtual Console on my Nintendo Wii, since it's the only Nintendo 64 game available. I beat it a long time ago when the Nintendo 64 first came out, so playing it all over again gives me a lot of nostolgia. I remember that it used to be very difficult when I was a child, but now with my experience playing games for 10 years after it was originally released I breeze through the levels on auto-pilot. It must have taken me a week to get to and beat the first Bowser encounter the first time I played Mario 64, but now I did it in a couple of hours. When the game doesn't present a challenge, it's not near as fun.Fri, 19 Jan 2007 00:55:14 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=753&iddiary=1675https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=510I played in two groups over the past 2 hours, one successful, and one unsuccessful. The first one was a disaster. Myself and four other random people with no strategy and no experience playing with each other. People were trying to boss each other around and the party died 3 times due to one member not doing his job, so I and another person decided to leave. In World of Warcraft, while 75% of the content can be done solo, the parts that require groups require everybody do a good job. It doesn't matter how much damage I do if the warrior can't keep the zombies from eating me or the healer can't keep the warrior alive to keep the zombies from eating me. After the failed group, some people from my guild asked me if I wanted to join their group. I've played with these people before, we all get along, and we all know what we're doing. The run went perfectly smoothly, nobody ever died once. We all talked while we played and had a great time. Nobody fought over any loot that dropped, nobody was greedy. That's one of the things I love about World of Warcraft, the social element. It doesn't matter how good you are at actually playing the game, you have to balance that with being a friendly person so that people enjoy playing with you.Fri, 12 Jan 2007 00:32:48 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=510&iddiary=1267https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=510So recently, World of Warcraft was updated with a new patch to prepare the servers for a new expansion pack that comes out next week. Part of this patch included changing around the talents for many classes of characters. Talents are the main way to personalize one's playstyle, and part of the talent changes to my class included removing an ability that I had based my whole playstyle around. Being forced to select a new character build so close to the expansion pack coming out, I decided to begin familiarizing myself with it. At first, all I could think about was how much I missed the ability I was forced to give up. For awhile I was extremely distracted by it, but I learned to live without it and played around with my new abilities on some weak enemies. I found that while I lacked the survivability I had before, my offense had been boosted to the point that survivability ceased to matter. While I'd be in trouble during longer, more difficult fights, fights that normally were quick were now even faster. I would have never picked the talent build I currently have if the ability I used to rely on was still available, so I guess it was a good thing that I was forced to give it up and try new things. Now that I've familiarized myself with my new playstyle while soloing, I'm going to try to find a group to play some 5-10 player content and see how my new playstyle works in a group setting.Thu, 11 Jan 2007 22:12:38 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=510&iddiary=1239