Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=166https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1339Well, this time I wanted to focus on missions. My roommate who owns the game has finished all the missions, which is why I was able to play around the entire map. I have never done the missions, so I thought this would be fun. A few times I got lost and accidently crossed a border which automatically gave me four stars and consequently got me killed. Then I had to start at the beginning. I'm not used to needing to know where I am or where I'm going, so it was tough. I think it would be better if he was just not able to swim there. Some text would come up saying something like "You're supposed to be tagging over the Front Yard Balla's." Along with that would be something on the minimap saying "Go Here" or a flashing star or something... I think that the first missions are extremely easy and then all of a sudden it takes six or seven tries to get remotely good at a mission. I think that this could have easily been improved by having a slower progression to harder missions. I barely knew my way around and all of a sudden I have to follow a Balla car driving fairly fast back to CJ's house from the drive-thru before they kill my fellow gang members. This forces the player to acquire some level of driving skill, which is a good thing, I suppose. Then it goes back to being easy when you have to go to the gym to get stronger and go buy some green clothes. This going back and forth between difficulty on the missions is a bit confusing. On the other hand, I appreciate the tactic, which probably keeps players interested. If the game just got harder and harder, players would be discouraged and want to just wander around. This way, a player gets a break from hard missions to buy clothes or get a new hairstyle or design a car with hydraulics. This keeps the mood light rather that grueling. A good choice.Wed, 21 Feb 2007 20:35:30 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1339&iddiary=2860https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1339GTA San Andreas is an excellent game because of the many options it provides as well as extreme freedom in the game world. This means that this game can be very social. For the past hour I played this game and as my roommates heard the music and sound effects, they gathered around. Since this game is a part of our cultural discourse, everyone knew the game very well. Everyone has an opinion about what to do while wandering around. A fun afternoon can be spent following friends' suggestions one after another. First, I stole cars and killed people in plain view of the police, hoping to gain the maximum of six stars without dying. If you stay outside, helicopters and SWAT come and even if you have body armour, you will die. However, if you stage the fight outside the liquor store, then when you are almost dead, you can just go inside and buy soda from the vending machine and heal. Also, you can find cheats online that give you a large selection of weapons, lots of money, a tank, the ability to have your car fly, a jetpack, or other fun things like that. The ability of a player to do practically whatever they want makes this game good for hours of entertainment. CJ can stand on the top of the pyramid in Las Venturas, the Las Vegas of the game, and shoot helicopters with the rocket launcher, a very theraputic exercise. The Strip in Las Venturas is also where the fastest cars are in general. One thing that is very frustrating in this game is that for most of the map, no fast cars are spawned unless you are already driving one. This is great if you can find a new one right after you crash yours. However, sometimes you get stranded in the middle of nowhere with nothing but big, slow trucks and tractors. Wow, I'm having difficulty even staying on topic. That's how many choices a player has. Wed, 21 Feb 2007 19:50:21 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1339&iddiary=2853https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1231Well, even after a rest, an hour of this game is pretty tiring. My roommate came back from class and gave me a few pointers, so now instead of C's and D's, I can get B's and an occasional A. Her main tip was to keep your feet on the last buttons you pushed until you need to push a new one. This one little tip made a huge difference. Now, instead of struggling to get to the middle and then back out to one of the buttons, I can relax a little bit. My main goal for next time is to pass the song Exotic Ethnic, which is my favorite one, but too fast for me right now. I noticed in playing this game for an hour, there is a sort of arc. First, I am really terrible until I warm up and get better, and then I start doing badly again when I get tired. The only time I'm truly having fun is in that sweet spot in the middle of playing. It is also fun to play this game with a small group of friends. I can play and we can all laugh about it without me feeling as embarassed as I would in front of a bunch of strangers. This game is social in this way. The goal in this game of moving up in the grading system is frustrating and rewarding. To a player just starting out, such as myself, it is frustrating more often than not. Oh, another thing that bothers me in this game is the background. It's so distracting and sometimes I can hardly see the arrows. I'll get distracted and then when the game starts booing at me, I'll realize that I'm about to fail. Ooh, another thing is that sometimes it will boo at me or say something mean when I'm getting better and about to save a fail, and then that ruins my concentration and I fail. I have to work on shutting out distractions...Fri, 09 Feb 2007 14:24:25 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1231&iddiary=2649https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1231Well, I don't own this game because I think it would be depressing to own it and still be so bad at it. My roommate does however, and she let me borrow it. I had played before at a friend's house back home and liked it enough to give it another shot. As a video game, DDR is fairly simple I think. However, the fact that it was so new and dynamic has made it very popular. It is now part of our cultural background to know that DDR stands for Dance Dance Revolution. If you don't know this, you quickly pick it up. I can only play on Light mode (the easiest) and even then, I have to stick with the beginning and rather boring songs. Within the first hour, my skills at this game have grown by leaps and bounds, but I still suck. To gain proficiency at this game, I think I would have to play it for at least five more hours. The problem with that is that I'm already tired. I think I'll take a little break and then play again. Oh, and about the pad, wow, that's frustrating. First I end up drifting on the mat and then I can't find the buttons, and then the mat moves out from under me and I get messed up in that way. I know that the ones in the arcade don't move, and that would be nice. The only problem is that other people are there. I'm not ready to play this game in public yet.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 11:34:47 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1231&iddiary=2619https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=911So I typed this, my second entry and submitted it, but it didn't show up. That's a little frustrating, but I'll try to get past it. For this second hour, I played with someone new. I'm used to fighting the same three or four people, so it was a bit exciting. Even though there are a set number of different moves, people use them differently. People favor certain attacks or combos and it makes for a new and challenging fight when you change opponents. I played as Kirby and Ness, occasionally as Pikachu. The new person I fought favored Fox and Ganondorf. Playing against someone new made me really appreciate each character's strengths and weaknesses and how hard it must have been to balance these fairly. Kirby's not that strong, but can float around, out of danger. Ganondorf is very slow, but his attacks are quite powerful. It really makes for an interesting game. I was also thinking about the fact that this videogame has no storyline to speak of. Then I thought of the aspects of this videogame that compensate for that. Firstly, there is the inherent fun of free-for-all battle, then there is the cultural familiarity with the characters, then there is the variety of characters, stages, and attacks, and finally is the ease with which one can pick up this game. I think that these ingredients make for a lasting game, but yet, one that I might tire of. I could play this game forever if it was only once every one or two weeks. But playing every or every other day gets rather boring. OOooh, but one cool thing, I got up to 300% and the guy I was fighting just couldn't manage to kill me. Eventually, he got up to 200% or so and I killed him with a down smash. It was the most exciting five minutes in the past month. By the end, we were all squealing and shouting and laughing, proving once again that this is a great social game.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 19:12:38 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=911&iddiary=2377https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=911After playing Melee, Super Smash Bros. for N64 seems to be in slow motion. There are also noticeably fewer stages and characters to choose from. However, the essential attack styles are there. In this version I like Pikachu, Mario, and Kirby much better than in Melee. In fact, they are the only characters I can use successfully in this version. In Melee, I can do a fairly good job playing almost any character. I really like Ness in Melee. I haven't really played with him in Smash Bros. 64, so I think I'll try him out in the next hour or so I play. I find that I really like Hyrule in this version. The only thing that's really frustrating is that I get knocked into the tornado and die. I just have to watch it happening in slow motion, unable to do anything about it. But, I do like the fact that there are no moving stages, so we can put it on random without the fear of ending up on Pokefloats or the Ice Climbers stage, two very annoying ones from Melee. I also think that Saffron City and Peach's Castle are constructed very well. Saffron City has elements of danger and challenge with the two moving platforms and occasional attacking Pokemon. Also, the two outer stationary platforms (the tops of buildings) are very small, and therefor difficult to get back to, especially if someone is edge-guarding and wont let you back on. This happens to me a lot. The good thing is that when you're playing with four players, one is bound to notice that the edge-guarder isn't paying attention and can be snuck up on and thrown. This means there is a window of opportunity to get back without notice. In Peach's castle there are a few rules as limitations and also annoyances. The bottom platform that shifts from side to side makes it difficult to get back from a down attack. Since it is not possible to grab on to the edge of this platform, you are generally out of luck if the platform is on the other side at the time. The bumper over the top middle is also a bit annoying, but the wedges of platform in the air to the sides have saved me many a time.Fri, 26 Jan 2007 17:08:31 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=911&iddiary=2011https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=780I’m in the Tomb of Raithwall and I fought the optional boss Demon Wall. I have a strategy guide that advises otherwise, but it said I could get to a treasure weapon unlocked by killing him. I was out of MP for Quickenings, and was desperately switching party characters, before I remembered to use some of my many ethers. I beat him even without Vaan, whom he teleported away from the battle. This game is so all-consuming! I just realized that I played it for an hour more that the requirement…Oh well. In any case, I fought the non-optional Demon Wall next. It was about the same as the first, but I was able to get more hits in my Quickenings, so it didn’t take as long. I was thinking about what makes this game so popular and I think that I settled on it. There are a few connecting threads, such as Chocobos, Moogles, and Phoenix Downs that connect these many games and worlds and this along with the name Final Fantasy, has become a part of our culture and has a certain comfortable familiarity about it. We can talk about it with many people our age and discuss our experiences of gameplay with one another. However, the characters in each Final Fantasy are new and unconnected. This means that there are new characters to add to our cultural dialogue for each new Final Fantasy. We have new favorites and villains and evil twin brothers to keep us entertained. That, and since the graphics get better and game systems can handle more, Final Fantasy gets more and more visually stunning. If you happen to see a friend playing this game, it is very easy to be drawn into it by the beauty of the graphics. All of a sudden you’re playing the game and gaining the cultural awareness until you become well-versed in the language of the game and can pass it on to others. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Fri, 19 Jan 2007 04:36:26.)Fri, 19 Jan 2007 04:35:54 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=780&iddiary=1731https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=780Well, I’ve leveled up and now all the creatures in the Westersands are one-hit kills, and don’t yield hardly any experience. I’ve leveled up enough so that I probably won’t die in the Garamsythe Waterway fighting Marlboroughs or Lizards, though they’re still a challenge. I’ve been fighting them to level up even more before I try to take on the White Mousse, Marilith, or the Ring Wyrm. These three monsters are hunts from the Notice Board. They’re a side quest, and as such, they tend to sidetrack me from the main story. But, that’s what I really like about Final Fantasy XII. Even though it’s a game of Progression, you have a lot of freedom along the set path. I’ve just purchased the Iron Hammer, and it reminded me to take a look at my license board and spend some license points. It takes me such a long time to decide which party member should take which path to which certain Quickening space. In the end, I’m so indecisive, that I unlock a little of everything. That’s what is so new about the license system. Normally, in games of this nature, you have one warrior, one mage, etc. This method is very restrictive, while in FFXII, you have the freedom of choice to decide which character you want to specialize in which weapon type or magic type. Also, if you want to, you can give your archer black magic, or your swordsman green magic, and make them well rounded. When I play this next time, I might specialize my characters, and be more precise, but for now, I’ll just play around and have fun.Fri, 19 Jan 2007 04:32:42 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=780&iddiary=1730https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=372I played for another hour and somehow wasn't even bored yet. My eyes are a little tired though... In any case, as I kept playing, I noticed that the backgrounds have a lot of detail. In both the stationary and the moving stages you can notice waves in the water, or the Three Giants lifting the moon, or trees far in the distance. I really saw this in Ness' level where there was an entire town in the background even though you only play on three buildings. Plus there are two tree branches that are bouncy and when you bounce on them, a couple of tiny little leaves flutter out. I think that it's very small things like that which you don't even consciously notice that give this game an amazing richness. Every stage is also planned out very well, especially the moving ones. I really saw this in the Rainbow Cruise level where each screen melts into another. There are stationary platforms, magic carpets, and see-saw-like platforms, and ones that disappear if you stand on them too long. Using some combination of these you can stay towards the top of the screen so you don't die. But there are many ways you can take to the top. Plus you must account for the jumping skills of the character you're playing with. I know this is all very detailed and probably not interesting to read, but I just went off on a tangent. In any case, this game has all the right ingredients for a good time and a laugh.Mon, 08 Jan 2007 22:50:06 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=372&iddiary=1059https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=372Well, I played Melee with two other people and one AI for about an hour. I love this game. I hadn't played for a few months, so I had to relearn controls, attacks, and strategies. It came back to me pretty quickly, and then I was just having fun. Smash Brothers is great for learning to laugh at yourself and your mistakes. For example, I'm always accidentally falling off the edge with jumpy characters like Falco and Pichu. It's also a very successful social game. It involves a competitive spirit, but also teamwork, especially when the Zelda/Sheik AI is going crazy and will not stop punching everyone. She actually won two games. The next game, we were determined to bring her down, and with not too much difficulty, were able to do so. When that sort of thing happens, it makes me appreciate the game's variability. Every time you play the game it is a different experience. This depends on the people you're playing with, the characters you each choose, the arena, and the settings you use. And even then, the same person could choose to utilize different attacks and you would need to adjust your own style accordingly. When comparing this to the N64 version of Smash Bros. (which I also play), you notice these choices even more. Yes, the graphics are much better, but that's not the main reason why I like it better. There are so many new characters and stages that are part of Nintendo culture. You can now play with Peach, Ganondorf, Marth, and many others. Well, off to play some more...Mon, 08 Jan 2007 20:48:40 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=372&iddiary=1050