LordVader's GameLog

Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) - Fri, 23 Feb 2007 00:24:48

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 00:24:48 CDT

I didn't manage to get very far in my second hour, only to the second world. What I find myself doing is trying to run really fast through the levels, usually leading to a swift death. I am actually quite amazed at how fast Mario can run when he is going full out. When he is going that fast, a funny little high pitched beeping type noise sounds, which means that he can also jump really high, and fly when he has the racoon tail thingie. The levels themselves usually have one or two hidden things that the player can find, for example, in one level, there is a bunch of breakable blocks, and a turtle walking on top. If you jump on the turtle and then kick it back in the left direction, then it will hit a few of the blocks and then keep rolling away. Now, you jump up where the turtle shell killed some blocks, and you can reveal a pink sound note jumpy block that when you jump on it, a new level is revealed.

Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) - Thu, 22 Feb 2007 23:02:12

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 23:02:12 CDT

I haven't played this game for about 5 years, so I was a bit rusty. This game is different from Super Mario World, to which I am much more used to playing, in that in each world level thingie, you are heading towards a castle where Peach is being held. But there are these blue spade things where you can get mushrooms, or that leaf thing. You also have to store any powerups that you get in a menu that's acessible outside of the individual levels in the world map thingie. This is also different from SMW, where you have a feather or fire flower or mushroom in a little box at the top of the screen that you can acess anytime in a level. There's only a few levels in each game world, which can be good or bad, and get kinda hard as they go along. I found that the castle itself wasn't too hard. Then there's this hammer throwing guy that moves around on the world map and you eventually have to defeat before heading into the castle. It's very addicting, if a bit hard.

Jak and Daxter (PS2) - Wed, 07 Feb 2007 18:41:24

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 18:41:24 CDT

The second hour, I consentrated on going through all the levels and collecting all the Presursor Orbs that I had missed previously. I had gotten to the Lava Tube level, which is the one before Gol and Mia's Citadel, which is the last level. Now, I've beaten this game about 7 or 8 times before, so I pretty much know where everything is. I got most of everything, all Power Cells, and all but 5 Precursor Orbs in all of the other levels, then went through the Lava Tube, dying many times to make sure that I got all the Orbs and Scout Flies in this area. This level is pretty hard, but after I got all the Obs and Scout Flies, it didn't take too long. Then came the Citadel.This is obviously the hardest level, with bottomless pits everywhere, and these colored platforms that dissapear when you jump on them. There are actually only about 4 or 5 Lurkers in this level, and all the difficulty is jumping on the continually moving platforms. This whole level only took me about half an hour or so to complete, adn I ended just before the final boss battle. I have at least 100 Power Cells, and so will trigger the special end movie. But first, next time I play, I'll go back and get those last 5 Orbs in Mountain Pass.

Jak and Daxter (PS2) - Wed, 07 Feb 2007 17:37:57

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 17:37:57 CDT

For this gamelog, I chose to play one of my all time favorite games, Jak and Daxter. It was the first game I ever got for my Playstation 2, and still remains a favortie after all these years. Where to start? Well, first off, this game has amazing graphics for a game that was made in 2001, and can compare favorably to a game such as Kingdom Hearts 2. There are a few glitches here and there, but overall, they don't detract from the gameplay. The musical score for this game is amazing. Each named place in a level has it's own music, and when you go from place to place, the music smoothly transitions. The voice acting is good, as well, and the cutscenes reflect that. There aren't as many cutscenes as in other games, but that doesn't negatively affet the game. The cutscenes effectively convey a sense of progression through the game, and tell you what you'll be doing next. One feature that this game has that I always find amusing is the fact that it changes from day to night every few minutes. Some other games have this, but not on the scale of Jak and Daxter. When the spikey green sun goes down, the whole world goes dark, and you can see it as far as the game allows the player to see into the distance. The gameplay itself is awesomely addicting. There are only a few minigames sprinkled throughout, and a couple of driving levels with the Zoomer, and there aren't hordes of enemies sent at the player. This game takes some strategy at times, and is overall very fun to play.

Katamari Damacy (PS2) - Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:20:17

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:20:17 CDT

I've been stuck on the same level in this game for a while now. You have to get the katamari to be about 3m, I think. Once you get to a certain biggness, a short cutscene shows you that a new place is open to you. You have to find it and roll up a hill and things like that. There are alot of people at the top of the hill, and they are very fun to roll up. I always run out of time before my katamari is big enough for this level, and I've tried soooooooo many times. So I decided to go back and try to find presents in other levels. Then I decided to do constellations like Cancer, where you roll up lots of crabs. The music is highly entertaining and quite catchy.

Katamari Damacy (PS2) - Mon, 29 Jan 2007 14:06:15

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 14:06:15 CDT

I've been playing this game on and off for about a year now. This game is, in my opinion, insanely fun in a way that no other game, save We <3 Katamari, can compare.The way the game is actually played is just about the most original of most games out there. The storyline is a bit confusing, but I guess you don't really have to pay much attention to it to be able to play the game. Just roll up clumps of stuff. You start out really small, rolling up thumbtacks and stuff in a person's house, but after a couple of levels, you get to start rolling up actual people. It may seem strange, but I find the screams of terror of those rolled up highly satisfying. Now, the controlls for this game are kind of hard to get at first, but controlling the little prince gets easier the more you play. Not many games have you use both analog sticks to control your person.

Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) - Thu, 18 Jan 2007 00:56:05

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 00:56:05 CDT

I never did actually beat the last colossus this time. Too bad, because I really wanted to be able to contol a colossus again. The first time, I wasn't prepared for it, and died quite quickly. The thing I noticed more the second time through was the music. Most of the time, there is no music, just the wind blowing, Agro's hoofbeats, eagles, and trees and things. But when you get close enough to a colossus, music starts. I think the music choice for this game is excellent. The fact that there is only music close to colossi makes it even more effective. It pulls the player in and envelopes them. Then, when you're actually fighting the colossus, different music plays. The overall effect of the music is excellent. Now, the only means of transportation, besides walking, is Wander's horse, Agro. Without him, traversing the emense landscape would be slow and boring at best. I found, the second time through the game, that if you start in the general direction of the next colossus and then just let Agro go, he will get there on his own. This is an interesting thing in the game, and I'm not sure if many other players would notice it.

Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) - Thu, 18 Jan 2007 00:30:36

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 00:30:36 CDT

This is the second time I've gotten to the final colossus in this game. It's on hard mode this time, so it's, you know, a bit harder than the last time I played. Most of this session was spent actually getting to the colossus and climbing up it. Even though I knew exactly what to do, that didn't make it any easier, and in fact, it took longer this time to get to the colossus. What makes this game so effective, in my opinion, is the totaly original battle system and the enemies themselves. What other game has only boss battles the whole time? Many people might think a game that has only boss battles can't be that long, but, in fact, it really is. The first thing that hits the player is the sheer size of the area we find our hero, Wander, in. Exploring by itself is an interesting way to play. The vastness of the landscape is shown by the camera. When you move the camera yourself in a circle around Wander, the terrain blurs like a movie or something and comes to rest, letting the player look all around. I like it.

The Sims 2 (PC) - Tue, 09 Jan 2007 01:39:19

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 01:39:19 CDT

This time, I made a house for a family consisting of my sister and I. I had already made us with the help of my sister about 3 weeks ago, but had been too lazy to move us in anywhere. Well, for this house, I actually planned out all of everything. Usually I slap on wallpaper and flooring without much thought, but for this house, everything matches. The one problem I see so far with it is that I have a room that is necessary to walk through to get to the rest of the house, but it has communal showers. It's not a big problem, but if there is a Sim showering and another one walks through, they will make a funny noise, think of the showering Sim with a big X, and walk faster. It's kinda funny to watch. And I discovered these glowing box thingies that light up practicly the whole room with whatever color they are. So, naturally, I had to put at least one in every room. Then I did something else I rarely do; install lights in all the rooms. There are these disco/strobe light type things that take up alot of space but are quite amuzing to watch. The first thing I did when I actually started plaing and not just buying stuff was to send us to the community lot to buy new clothes. When I made these people, it was before I had Nightlife on my computer. Nightlife has alot of better clothes. So they bought some clothes and put them on first thing when they got home. Whew.

The Sims 2 (PC) - Mon, 08 Jan 2007 19:40:51

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 19:40:51 CDT

First of all, I have the Family Fun Stuff, Nightlife, Open For Buisness, University, and Pets expansion packs. Today as I was playing,I made a family that consisted of 6 people, including one guy in a gorilla suit. Then I got bored with them, so played a family that I had already created. There are these flame decoration things that I put outside the front door, and the maid caught fire. All of the playable sims went crazy and started running all around. The firefighter arrived too late to save the maid, but a couple of other sims had caught fire by this time, and he put them out. The gravestone of the maid is right outside the door. After that, I went to the university part of the town I was in. I played two sims that I had created specificly for college a couple of weeks ago. They were finally seniors, and they had gotten A+ report cards every semester, and this was the last semester. Only about 24 hours till the final exam. But, what's this? One of them, Carlos, was found cheating on his fiancee Robin with the cow mascot person. Robin quickly dispatched the cow and gave Carlos a good beating. Their relationship went from 100/100 to -50/-50. I went back to the neiborhood without saving.