Zinn's GameLog

Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) - Fri, 23 Feb 2007 22:40:47

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 22:40:47 CDT

It's weird to go back to this game after so many years. I've been spoiled by fancy graphics and sound. The game was running at > 300 FPS until I turned VSync on, now it's much smoother. This is probably one of my most favorite games of all times. I must have spent hundreds of hours playing it as a kid. I remember saving a hammer suit from the Ice World until Bowser's castle and using it to kill him in 3 hits, instead of letting him kill himself as usual. Anyway, it was fun to play this game again today. I still remember where all the secret whistles are. Even though I'm horribly out of practice and kept dying, I was still enjoying the nostalgia of this game. This game is the easiest Mario game on the NES, as it's very liberal about doling out 1ups and continues. That's alright because the game is so big, it would be a huge drag to get halfway through and then have to start over. It took me an hour just to get a third of the way through the third world (going for 100% completion). I'm really out of practice at this...

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Wii) - Sun, 11 Feb 2007 05:50:36

Sun, 11 Feb 2007 05:50:36 CDT

Well I finally did it! I made it past world eight without using a continue! I *almost* made it (but not quite) so many times that I was starting to go crazy. A couple shots of Bacardi 151 later, I was able to calm down enough to actually do it. My strategy was to play the hardest levels first. That way if I were to get a game over, it wouldn't be after passing most of the world. I found that using the smallest monkey to fight the boss was ideal, since he could barely touch that one. So on my fifth attempt, I finally made it all the way through! Now I can play the first secret world, "Sinking Swamp" which seems to be extremely difficult. But if I crown this world, there's one more hidden world to play! Ah, I love this game! It feels so good to finally have gotten all those crowns :)

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Wii) - Fri, 09 Feb 2007 01:47:59

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 01:47:59 CDT

It's going to be awhile before I'm ready to even try getting that last crown. Currently, I'm in practice mode and trying to perfect my technique in some of the hardest levels of the game. It's not going very well either. I expect that it will take me some time before I'm good enough to get the crown, but I welcome a challenge, especially considering that most recent games are devoid of any serious challenge. This game reminds me of how tough games used to be back when I was a kid. No, I don't think it was because I sucked at games back then. I think it's because nowadays game companies want to make games easier to beat so they can sell more sequels. Come to think of it, almost all of the games I've played recently that are actually challenging are on Nintendo systems: Super Mario Sunshine, Viewtiful Joe, Metroid Prime, Super Monkey Ball 1, 2, Banana Blitz, and Sonic Rush (DS). None of the games I had on XBOX 360 or currently play on PC are nearly as difficult as any of the games I've listed... with the exception of perhaps Gears of War in Hardcore mode. What makes a "hardcore" gamer? It's kind of ironic that the majority of next-gen high definition games cater themselves to the "hardcore gamer" and then end up using flashy graphics and cinematics as a crutch for derivative, watered-down and easy gameplay. It makes me wonder what exactly is a hardcore gamer? Is it a person who spends a lot of money to buy expensive high definition home theater systems, consoles and $60 games that want to be movies? This seems to be what many people believe, but I don't think it's true. Is gaming about graphics or gameplay? Before we had multi-core PowerPC processors, unified-architecture DirectX 10 graphics, physics acceleration, surround sound and high definition televisions, there were still a lot of great games. Game developers were limited by the hardware constraints of the platform they were programming on, and instead of dazzling people with eye-popping 3D graphics, they had to resort to great gameplay in order to make a game commercially successful. And back then, there were gamers who took gaming way too seriously and honed their skills far beyond what most people would want to, much less be able to do. These are the guys who would own the the high scores at arcades. These are the guys who could beat manic shooters like Ikaruga without using a continue. I believe that this spirit of competition and desire for mastery is what makes a gamer "hardcore." Certainly more so than how much money a person is willing to throw into a fancy home entertainment center. In any case, Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz does not have detailed bump mapping, high resolution explosions, realistic particle effects or panoramic views of bombed-out cityscapes in shades of gray and brown. Instead it has bright fluorescent colors, childish characters, peppy music, and simple graphics. Yet despite these things, trying to gain mastery of it certainly feels like a "hardcore" undertaking. Certainly more so than playing through any of the dozens of shooters on the PC and 360 over the last few years (except perhaps Gears of War in Hardcore mode). Banana Blitz makes good on the Wii's promise to bring gameplay back to gaming, and I'm loving it. And yet he complained that his belly was not full.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Wii) - Fri, 09 Feb 2007 00:53:09

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 00:53:09 CDT

HA! I collected myself and beat world seven in a matter of minutes. Now all I have to do is get the crown in World 8 and I'll be able to play the hidden worlds!

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Wii) - Thu, 08 Feb 2007 23:12:21

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 23:12:21 CDT

OH MY GOD. This is so frustrating. I got all the way through world seven up until the boss without getting a game over. And then, (of course) I got my game over fighting the boss. Worse still, it was because I ran out of time. I only had to hit her one more time! Arrrgh! There goes an hour of playing down the tubes. Now I have to do the whole world over again AND beat that stupid boss in order to get the crown. I am so disappointed. I was so close! My heart is still beating fast and my hands are still sweaty as I type this. This is just so not cool! World seven is so incredibly difficult. I don't even know how I'm going to do it over again. Or how I got that far without using a continue in the first place. On the plus side I will feel really really great beating the crap out of that stupid boss next time around. Now I know what to expect...

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Wii) - Thu, 08 Feb 2007 05:38:22

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 05:38:22 CDT

I'm feeling drained, a little stressed and my deodorant has gone MIA after an hour of this. And to think that I once claimed this game was too easy! Yeah, easy to learn, hard to master. Most of the negative things I had to say about this game have melted away in the last couple of days. My opinion changed greatly when I recently beat the game and learned that no, this isn't an overly short or watered down Monkey Ball game. On the contrary, this is the most challenging one yet! And why? Not just because the last two worlds were hair-tearingly difficult, but because "beating the game" really just opens the door to a new challenge: unlocking the two hidden worlds and completing the game! Apparently there are 20 levels spread across two hidden worlds, and you can't unlock them until you beat all of the previous worlds individually without getting a game over. (Each time you beat a world this way, the game puts a gold crown next to it in the world-select screen indicating your success) To crown all 8 worlds is an insanely difficult goal and one I set out to achieve earlier tonight. Hence, the sweat, stress and fatigue. I actually made it pretty far, crowning all worlds up to seven. One nice thing is that the game gives you a chance to practice in any level before you put your lives on the line playing it. So I just kept doing that--practicing in levels I felt shaky on until I could confidently beat them, then going out of practice mode and actually beating them. I got pretty far this way, but I just couldn't take any more of it after world seven. My frustration-o-meter was over the top. It's going to be crazy difficult to get the crowns for worlds seven and eight, but one thing I'm glad of is that this game was designed to reward skill instead of sheer luck, (a welcome change from Super Monkey Ball 2). I wish more games were this challenging and rewarding!

Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) - Wed, 31 Jan 2007 14:50:11

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 14:50:11 CDT

One thing I love doing in this game is causing as much mayhem as possible while seeing how long I can evade the cops. This time I threw in a limiting factor--my only vehicle would be a bicycle. The cops get pretty aggressive once they're sufficiently pissed off, so having police cruisers ramming my bicycle led to me getting killed / busted repeatedly. Oh well. The gameworld is so insanely big. I took a look at the in-game map and the first city is only a tiny chunk of the whole thing. And the first city is huge. I have no idea how the developers made such a big world but it's awesome. There's certainly some motivation now to play through the bare minimum of missions to unlock all the locales. I really don't like the "gangsta" stuff, though. It feels contrived. I spent a long time at the (in-game) gym leveling my characters physique / endurance up. It was really easy and fast to turn him into a muscle-bound hunk, but it's taking a long time to improve his endurance. I haven't really seen a tangible benefit to having the muscles, as his melee skills haven't improved. But the endurance thing is easily noticeable--he can run much farther now without getting winded. I can't say that it was much "fun" just running around in a virtual gym (certainly makes me miss the day when UCSC's gym wasn't such an insane madhouse), but I'll probably appreciate the benefit in later missions. Maybe? Oh well. No matter how you cut it, this game is a HUGE improvement over the previous GTA games!

Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) - Wed, 31 Jan 2007 14:05:32

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 14:05:32 CDT

Just got a game started, So far, this game seems much, much cooler than Vice City or GTA III. First off it's based in California in the 90s so the theme is much closer to home. Secondly, there are so many more activities available to differentiate this from earlier games. A cool new feature is the ability to ride bicycles and swim (finally). Also there's a leveling system to improve character stats such as stamina and strength as you progress in the game. Customizations such as clothes, hairstyle and physique are available depending on actions you choose. Because of these things, the game feels much more immersive when you're just running around doing stuff. I wasn't really thrilled with the missions so far because I can't identify with any of the characters, and I feel like the gang wars are petty. But the ability to run around doing whatever the heck you want is what makes this game great. There seem to be missions available apart from the main "story" missions, but I haven't found many of those yet. Also, the game keeps you limited to a certain portion of the gameworld by having cops come kill you if you stray too far. The city you start out in is based off of Los Angeles and it's pretty big, but it would be cool to see the other places in the game without having to complete the story (this is pretty standard fare for the 3D GTA games). One last thing: why is this the only game I've ever played with a black protagonist? Before this game, I never really thought about how pretty much every game hero is white. San Andreas is a refreshing change from the norm in a lot of ways!

F.E.A.R. (PC) - Mon, 22 Jan 2007 04:10:27

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 04:10:27 CDT

One thing I love about a good first person shooter is the sense of godlike power it makes you feel over an enemy. In Unreal Tournament 2004 you're given the ability to "fly," in Half Life 2 you have telekinesis via the gravity gun, and in F.E.A.R. you have the ability to slow your perception of time and use insanely fast reflexes. The way these special abilities are used can make or break a game. In F.E.A.R.'s case, they keep the game from being completely boring and repetetive. As the game progresses, the enemies gain an increasing advantage due to the complicated level design. The best way to describe these levels is "maze-like." There are multiple routes to the same place and many ways to get lost trying to find your objective. The artificial intelligence has superior awareness of the level layout, while the player is oftentimes lost. Furthermore, the enemy can use the environment in ways the player can't: they can flip tables over to use as cover, they can crawl under objects and they can dive through windows. In this game, enemies don't just run at you and shoot; they coordinate their movements, they call commands and warnings to each other, they provide cover fire, they flank and they retreat to amass reinforcements. Their superior speed, numbers and reaction times make them a worthy adversary to even a veteran first person shooter player. In short, the enemy artificial intelligence in F.E.A.R. is second to none. This makes defeating them all the more satisfying. Being able to slow time down and react to things faster than humanly possible has always been a little fantasy of mine since grade school, and F.E.A.R.'s implementation of this ability is perfectly executed. When you go into reflex booster mode there's the obligatory "beeoooooowww" slow-mo noise. Colors become more saturated, and a radial blur obscures the corners of the screen for a tunnel-vision effect. Gunfire tracers similar to those in the Matrix become visible. Sparks, debris and smoke are shooting everywhere as chunks get knocked off of corridor walls, leaving visible holes. And a well-placed shotgun shot to an enemy torso sends him flying back, crashing into other enemies and knocking them off balance. Watching grenades and exploding gas cannisters (which happen to be conveniently placed in an office building) is a real treat. Visually, this effect couldn't be more compelling and whipping through enemies this way is really adrenaline inducing and visceral. The slow motion gimmick is what saves this game from being completely sub-par. The superior story and enemy intelligence alone wouldn't be able to rectify the monotony of fighting through the same environments hour after hour. If the designers had only made some variety to the locales, this game would be an easy 10 out of 10. As it is, F.E.A.R. is a flawed, but extremely satisfying shooter that I'm enjoying playing through for the third time. (This entry has been edited3 times. It was last edited on Mon, 22 Jan 2007 04:22:54.)

F.E.A.R. (PC) - Wed, 17 Jan 2007 16:45:49

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 16:45:49 CDT

The game was crashing when my CPU was overclocked from 1.86ghz to 3.33ghz, (even though I was Prime/Othos stable). So I swapped my motherboard out for a better one and now it's rock solid at 3.25ghz. At these speeds, gameplay is very smooth and immersive. It's games like this that define the PC as a platform: kind of unstable, a little buggy, nothing too innovative, but fast as heck and totally immersive if you have the specs to keep up with it. Anyway, I got through the first couple of chapters (termed "Intervals") of this game. It's hard to take much of it without freaking out. The game is very spooky and all sorts of supernatural events are happening. There's a lot of gore. The enemies are completely devious. On medium difficulty it feels like you're playing online against some fairly good players. I've never played a game with this level of artificial intelligence. The enemies work together and recognize your moves, calling out commands and warnings to each other, "He's trying to flank!" The real drawback to this game is how monotonous it is. You're fighting through very similar environments the whole way through. It's pretty much all basements and office buildings. They mix it up a little bit, but you really don't feel like you've been anywhere special at the end of the game. (These are some gigantic office buildings. Like unbelievably gigantic.) Also, a lot of the story revelation is very weak. Like you have to sit and listen to peoples voicemail, and usually its stuff like, "Bob? Are you there? I thought I heard an explosion! OMG I'm scared." The story itself is better than most shooters but not great. It would have been cool to have the same level of AI and story in more varied environments like in Far Cry. At least the action is keeping this game interesting. It really gets my heart rate and adrenaline going. This is a game you will forget about in a year or two.