Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=176https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1276This time around, I'm going to focus more on the multiplayer aspect of the game. One thing that is different about this game compared to other shooters, is the use of the crosshair. The crosshair only shows up once you start shooting the gun and you are directly aimed at an enemy. This seems good and bad. It is good because it allows the player to develop better aim. However, it is bad, because it makes it more difficult to align your gun to be pointing right at your target. The mechanic is definitely more realistic. I know when I blow away Nazis in real life, i don't get a crosshair. If I did, I might need to get that checked out. Another device used in multiplayer is the team killing punishment. I will just say that it sucks. I was in one game where team killing was off. However, this only works for guns and explosives. You can run a teammate over to kill them. There was this one player that would continually do this throughout an entire multiplayer session. He wasn't ever kicked because of the kicking system, or lack there of. When the game maker has team killing on and you are killed by a teammate, you get the option to forgive or to punish them. By punishing them you deduct an extra 2 points from the score in addition to the 1 that is automatically taken away for team killing. By forgiving, you don't deduct these extra points. Why the hell can't you kick them out?? It was more annoying to listen to people over the headset then it was to just deal with the team killer. People would constantly shout obscenities to the guy that probably didn't even have a headset to begin with. The fact that you can't kick anyone just adds to the frustration. Playing online with friends in the real world is a lot more fun then playing with people you just know through the online world. While playing this game earlier, I was on with a friend from College 9. I would fool around and team kill him from time to time, and he would do the same to me. In this respect, I accept team killing. A Joke between friends is fine, but the other scenario was just unacceptable. Although, I did find it plain funny after a while, especially with all the yelling going on over the headset. Fri, 09 Feb 2007 20:06:28 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1276&iddiary=2728https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1276I just got this game about a week ago. I started with the offline game at first, but then I got so bored that I just went for the online. The online is spectacular compared to the single player. The single player just feels like it's trying to hard to immerse the player into the experience. I have played my fair share of WWII shooters, and I can honestly say that this game doesn't do it much different. Sure, the gameplay is largely improved over the older Medal of Honor games, but once you play through a WWII game you know what to expect in the other titles. Single player also tried to do this mini game thing when an Axis opponent pounces on you unexpectedly. Immediately, this throws the player into a grappling mini-game where the two of you are fighting to out muscle the other. This requires you to press A rapidly, or alternate between the two triggers on the back of the controller. It is definitely an interesting idea, and something new that I havn't seen before. However, this gameplay mechanic ultimately ends up just being tedious. I just want to get back to popping a nazi in the chest. I don't want to deal with this stupid mini game that leads to the defeat of only one enemy. I could kill dozens of Gerries in the time it took me to take out just this one. As for the multiplayer, I have a blast online. I can't get enough of killing my opponent over and over again. I typically enjoy the Allies better because of my favorite class. Rifleman is great on the allies because your rifle is a semi-automatic. I don't like the Mauser on the Axis side, because you have to reload after every shot. This seems to be a bit unbalanced with this specific class, but if I end up on the Axis, I make do and just go light assault. The vehicles in multiplayer are tempting, but they are basically a way to just give your opponent a bigger target. Sure you can blast many fools away with a tank cannon fire. On the other hand, a rifleman can do his alternate fire with a detonate on contact grenade. This eradicates the tank fairly quickly.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 19:07:04 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1276&iddiary=2713https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1087I actually played this game for quite a while the other day, and I am writing on that previous experience. We can just treat it as another 45 minute session. Anyway, after having difficulty with that boss, I decided to venture out for more exp. Maybe a couple of levels will help me conquer that ass. As I begin to take down regular mobs, I find that I might need some better equipment as well. Problem is, everything is so damn expensive at level 40. In order to get a lot of money quickly, you can either sell a lot of old armor and weapons (which give you quite a lot of gil), or you can obtain items from enemies and sell those. Stealing is part of the latter process and I have come to use this skill instinctively every time I encounter and enemy. All it does is treat the skill like an attack. Your action bar scrolls to the right until it reaches the attack action, and instead of attacking you steal. Vaan (the main character, sort of) is equipped with thiefs gloves. These allow me to steal more than one item upon such action. There nice for making money even quicker. Now I go back to a town close to my next story destination, and I sell everything I have acquired (plus I am happier about being higher lvl). Looks like I have enough to buy some new weapons and some new armor. I can also get some new spells, which seems like a pain to have to get the license and then buy the spell. Whatever I guess. One more issue I have with the game's fighting system is that there is no que for actions. I would like to be able to attack one target, and then put a magical attack in que upon another target. This was done quite well in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Sadly, square decided to leave this nice battle advantage out. If they decide to go with this fighting system in another FF game, hopefully they will add the que in. Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:34:35 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1087&iddiary=2335https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1087Let me just say, that after playing this game for about 30 hours now, I really don't like it. The gameplay is quite unique and ads a lot of variety to an already diverse Final Fantasy universe. Combat is interesting since it is all real time, but you do have control over each of your individual characters. When choosing an action the fighting does cease until the action is selected and then the battle commences again. I give the gameplay itself a lot of credit for this unique battle system. My main quarrel with the game comes after hours of playing through the story. At first I was really drawn into the world. I jumped right into the new gameplay mechanics and really had fun aquiring new skills through the license system. As you kill enemies, you gain license points. The points accumulate over time and you can then buy licenses with enough points to build up your character. Again, a nice gameplay element, but the fun in this only lasted so long. Currently my characters are level 40 and I am trying to obtain the 3rd esper in the game. First I had to go through a gauntlet of battles to get to the ancient city. That is my main problem with the game, it just always seems to be punishing you. Fighting regular opponents in dungeons can just be infuriating, when they keep taking your health down and adding all these status effects to your characters. Granted, this goes for all final fantasy games, but with XII's new combat system, it makes it a lot tougher to stay alive. I've not gone through a single dungeon without having my characters die at least five times. Then comes the bosses. The boss I am trying to fight currently seems to be fine at first, but as you take his health down he then unleashes his real power. His defense goes way up with low hp (a skill) and he deals more damage, devastating one of my party members in one hit. This goes for most boss battles, and I find that more tedious than fun.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:24:45 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1087&iddiary=2325https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=385 After my second go at this game, I really started to enjoy myself with the gameplay a lot more. It takes some time to get to know the controls of the game, since it is mainly a lot of pointing and clicking with a crap load of context sensitive areas that you really have to search for. After leaving the first town and starting out on my main quest, I ran into some very dark areas that Fallout 2 has to offer. Most of the towns in the game are littered with drug addicts and other characters with even shadier backgrounds. The first part of my quest involved me finding a trader named Vic, who is going to help me find the Garden of Eden Creation Kit (GECK). All I know, as of yet, is that this GECK has something to do with a place called Vault 13. My guess is it has something to do with completely post-apocalyptic setting surrounding me everywhere I go. Continuing on through several areas landed me a lot of side quests that became overwhelming after a while. I didn’t think the game would be so deep, but from the trading to the combat to the questing, there is plenty to do (not to mention you can have plenty of virtual sex as well… Sadly, no actual simulation). The dialogue options are quite deep as well. There is a lot you can say to everyone, and I even found myself intimidating a village dog. After he growled at me, I reciprocated with a similar taunt and he then decided to attack me. I shot that dog down before I realized his name was old yellow. Quite a darkly humorous game… Wed, 10 Jan 2007 00:55:53 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=385&iddiary=1107https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=385 Playing this game really took me back to the old school days of PC gaming. I almost felt like I was playing Diablo 1 since the graphics resembled its engine almost exactly. It is possible that the two games used the same engine, hence the similarity. Fallout 2 starts out like any RPG… You make your main character by choosing his/her main skills and then add points to your attributes (such as strength, agility, endurance, etc…). The first time I made my character, I decided to choose a skill in guns and skip on the melee. This also caused me to focus on a more agile and less strong character. Seemed to be a bad choice, since I died in the first dungeon. The game doesn’t do a great job of explaining the controls to the player. In fact, there is no tutorial what-so-ever. I guess this game was made back in the days when people still read the instruction booklet that came with the game. All I can say is, no instruction booklet came with my “copy.” I finally made it through my first trial once I created a stronger more melee based character. I decided to focus on a bruiser skill, a skill that makes you slower but stronger, as well as heavy handed, a skill that gives you some extra punch (so to speak). This time I kicked the first bosses ass without loosing more than 10 hp (you start with about 35 or so). The game does a good job of creating a creepy atmosphere, though there is a nice darkly comic gloss over the post apocalyptic setting. The story has yet to be thoroughly explained, due to the fact that it is an RPG and their stories have to be drawn out for at least 15 hours. I’m enjoying the game so far, so I can’t wait to dive back in. Tue, 09 Jan 2007 22:27:57 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=385&iddiary=1096