Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=190https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1417Session II: So I lost my first battle with my friend and thus I decided to choose another character. I chose a girl, Seong-Ni Ma this time. During the first round while I was using Raphael, I noticed that my friend continuously mashed the buttons to attack and therefore I wanted to try if mashing buttons really helps. Apparently, the faster I mashed the buttons, the more attacks and damage I made to my friend. During the gameplay, blocking is one of the most important things to do because it gives you a chance to counter an attack and you don’t get hurt if you block correctly. Also, if you are able to power up (pressing R2), your attack can cause superior damage to your enemy, but powering up takes around 3 seconds so it can be quite risky if your opponent attacks you. One thing I did not like about this game is the advantage that long range attackers have. They are good and strong characters but I think they sometimes can be considered cheating. For example, Raphael, he’s strong and fast, but the player can repeatedly push “triangle” (it does a fencing move sort of thing) and KO your opponent very fast, if he/she does not know how to counter the attack, or block. This game definitely requires a lot of strategy and practice before you can become a pro in it. You definitely need to know the moves of the character and when it is the best time to counter an attack or perform an attack on your enemy. Even if you chose a weak person, you still have a chance of winning if you perform the appropriate moves at the right time. So overall, this game is not just all about blocking, but about how fast you can perform a move or block an attack, and I think this is what makes this game very outstanding and enjoyable to me. (This entry has been edited2 times. It was last edited on Fri, 23 Feb 2007 14:00:13.)Fri, 23 Feb 2007 13:46:04 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1417&iddiary=2991https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1417Gamelog #5 Session I This is my first time playing Soul Calibur III and it got me hooked for quite awhile. This game is a 3D fighting game, just like street fighter and mortal kombat, except with more characters to choose from in the versus mode, based on my opinion. The graphics in this game is amazing and all the characters looked very real and well developed. I found this game more interesting and enjoyable compared to other fighter games because of all the unique characters in the game. Every character has their own special characteristics: different taunts, move, agility and attacks. During the first versus round, the player I decided to choose was Raphael and I used his Queen’s Guard. My friend has already unlocked many of the weapons, thus I got to experience the stronger and better weapons. I never played this game before so I had no idea of what buttons to push. When the battle started, I just randomly pushed buttons, just like what most people do at arcades and I successfully made some good attacks. I noticed that Raphael is a very good long range attack person and his agility is very fast. He would definitely have an advantage over short range characters. Basically, during the gameplay, your goal is to inflict as much damage upon your enemy with attacks until he/she has no more health. You must KO your enemy for two rounds consecutively or else a third round would happen for the tie-breaker. Some levels allow you to ring your enemy out the stage and that instantly KO’s that person. Also, right before the battle starts, you are given 5 seconds (or maybe a little more) for a small taunting competition and I think that is what makes it very fun and enjoyable.Fri, 23 Feb 2007 13:42:41 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1417&iddiary=2990https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1172Session II Even after an hour of player Mario Kart, I still feel attached to the game. My favorite character in the game is Yoshi because I think Yoshi is average in everything and the engine speed I usually choose is 100cc. (50cc, 100cc, or 150cc). When the race starts, there would be a person sitting in a cloud counting off with a traffic light and as soon as the light hits green, you press the accelerate button to give yourself a head start boost. My most favorite item is definitely the thunder because it shrinks everyone and if you run across them, they would be trampled over. However, the better items such as the star and thunder are mostly for ones who are last (probably 5th and after out of 8). My favorite stage is the rainbow road stage in the Special Cup. Although the stage is long and difficult, it creates a lot of fun and excitement for the players. During the gameplay, there will be a monster like creature that will attack you. If you hit the monster, you will crash and flip. This will give a chance to others to pass you. The thing I don’t like about this game is that if four players are playing, the screen splits into four quadrants and it sometimes makes it really difficult to see what is coming or when to turn. Overall, this game can bring tons of enjoyment for players of all ages and I definitely noticed a lot of difference and improvements in this game compared to Super Mario Kart for the SNES. I really liked their idea of allowing players to hold their items while driving at the back to act like a shield to prevent them from being hit with shells from other players. You can also shoot things backwards =)Thu, 08 Feb 2007 20:09:34 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1172&iddiary=2510https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1172Gamelog #4 Session I Mario Kart is one of my all-time favorite Nintendo 64 game and I would always get hooked on it for a few hours. The game itself is really repetitive but it gives a lot of enjoyment to the player, whether single player mode or multiplayer mode. The game is three dimensional, but characters are 2D, and up to four players are allowed to play the game. There are eight characters you can choose between: Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Toad, Princess, Donkey Kong, Wario and Bowser. Each character’s speed is different and the items they get from the item boxes during the gameplay would be different. For example, Toad would have a better chance of getting mushrooms than shells. There are four modes you can choose from: - Mario Grand Prix – all players play and compete against computers in groups of 8 through four stages per cup. At least one player must be 4th and above to go on to the next Battle – up to four players can play. The players each have 3 balloons attached to them and the goal is to use items to hit other people until their balloons are all gone. Versus – up to four players can play with no computers. Time Trails – Single player. The player basically races against computers and try to get the fastest time to complete a course. Four different cups in the game: - Mushroom Cup: Easy - Flower Cup: Normal - Star Cup: Hard - Special Cup (Diamond): Harder than star In my opinion, this game is very easy and pretty easy to master. Just know which button is accelerate, brake, shoot and jump for drifting. The buttons can be set based on your own preference. When four people are player, this game creates a lot of challenge and pressure because everyone wants to win and when you are pressured, you often do something wrong (fall off the road). This game really keeps the players interested because if players are competing in the Grand Prix (GP), everyone would want to win and get the trophy after completing a cup. Thu, 08 Feb 2007 20:08:32 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1172&iddiary=2509https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=932Session II Mario Party I really enjoy playing this game because the payer does not have to concentrate in the gameplay. They can talk and interact with others while playing, thus making this game really sociable and relaxing. Certain games like starfox or super Mario requires the players 100% attention because anything can happen the second you shift your eyes, but for Mario party, you can get up and have a drink and nothing will happen, unless a mini game is about to begin. I give this game thumbs up for this feature. As the game continued, it got more and more competitive for me because pressure started to hit when the game is half way through and you don’t want to lose your stars. We set the game for 20 rounds, meaning each person rolls only 20 times and the person with the most stars is the winner. This is my first time playing Mario Party, so I didn’t know much about the mini games. I lost quite a lot but won a few because I got lucky. My favorite mini game was the one where all four of us compete in drumming on an island. This game is similar to the Clefairy mini game in Pokemon Stadium. What you basically had to do was memorize the arrows and the pattern gets longer everytime. Even though I wasn’t the winner, it was still fun for the few minutes I was playing. I noticed that this game creates a lot of trash talking to each other, but that’s okay because that’s what makes it funny and enjoyable. I was pretty lucky overall with the game because I landed on the star twice and I was actually only one star behind my friend, although I was blown away a few times .. and I was really close to the star. The most enjoyable moment of this game was when my friend lost to a mini game and he had to give up one of his star. It was like a slot machine and the person it stops on will be the person he will give his star to … and that person was me. That moment was pretty hilarious. The game was taking too long to finish, so we all just gave up and stopped playing, therefore we couldn’t finish the game. This game was very fun overall and can definitely bring a lot of enjoyment and pleasure to everyone. It is definitely more enjoyable than monopoly because there are varieties of possibilities out there and you never know what you will get … or find. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:44:14.)Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:42:44 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=932&iddiary=2105https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=932Gamelog #3 - Classics Session I Mario Party is one of the first board game style video game for the Nintendo platforms. It has a three dimensional cardinality. The game was popular and fun enough to have sequels for other platforms and the most recent one was Mario Party 8 for the new Nintendo Wii. The whole game revolves around a game board and the person with the most coins or stars in the end takes the champion title. This game is designed in a way so that up to four players can play the game. You can also play this game alone, but it wouldn’t be much of a party if you don’t have your friends around, right? The rules for this game are really straightforward. You basically just roll the dice when it’s your turn and the number you rolled is the number of spaces you will move. When you get to an intersection, you can choose to take one of the two or three roads. Although it sounds easy, this game can be hard to master (especially in mini games). After each round (after each person has rolled the dice and moved), a mini game will happen and they are usually very short and simple, but still challenging in some way. The games can be a puzzle one, a racing one, a fighting one, basically anything you can think of. They can be 2vs2 (two people cooperating to win) or 1vs3 (one random person competing against three others) or just single player (only by yourself). You never know what games are coming, so this game really keeps the players excited for what is to come. At the end of the mini games, the winning person or team will receive coins and depending on the game, the losers might have to give up coins to the winners. As I mentioned earlier, the goal of this game is to collect the stars that appears randomly on the board and it will stay there until someone gets it. Each star costs 20 coins and you can purchase it from Toad if you have enough coins. Winning the mini games, landing on the blue squares or passing the starting point earns coins. Another way of getting a star, besides purchasing it or landing on the square the star is at, is to pay Boo (if you land on his square where he resides) 50 coins to perform a special service that steals stars from other players. This game seems fun right? But be careful, different squares have different consequences, but some can be good. Sometimes the square you land on might blow you away to somewhere else and you have to go from there. Also, some squares will steal a few of your coins and some are “?” ones, which are usually pre-determined for what is going to happen. In the beginning, there will be a small game that determines which player gets to go first, but don’t worry, going first doesn’t necessarily mean winning. The game is very fair and everyone has a chance of winning. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:44:31.)Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:41:50 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=932&iddiary=2103https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=670Session 2: The goal of this game is to have your opponents off the platform by inflicting damages on them using the character’s special moves. On the bottom of the screen, it shows the percent damage inflicted upon them and the higher it is, the easier it is to KO the character. Before you begin playing the multiplayer mode, you can decide which items you want in the game and how many lives each person may have, that is, how many times that person can be KO’d. I noticed that as my percent damage increases, the weaker the character gets. This game requires you to be fast in reaction in order to block an attack and you have to know when to do an attack that would inflict as much damage as possible to other players. I haven’t played Super Smash Brothers for awhile so I had to learn the moves again and regain the small amount of skills I had before. As always, I chose Kirby as my character and the battle between two of my friends began. I messed around with the buttons for the first few minutes to find out how to do Kirby’s attacks. Everything started to come back to me and I started to remember the moves. - joystick down + B = rock - joystick up + B = cutter attack (sword) - Z = block - yellow arrow up = fly (float around) - B = suck opponents - A = punch - R1 = throw These are basically all the moves you need to know to master Kirby and win. I noticed that the analog joystick is very sensitive that if you tilt it a little, the character will react to the movement. This game creates a lot of excitement because you don’t know who is going to win in the end, but it could also create frustration if you keep on getting killed. Even though this game might create some frustration to certain people and cause a little bit of swearing to each other, it brings a lot of fun to the players. I like how the screen does not split into 4 sections, but instead one big screen where everyone fights in the same boundary. Even if you are a beginner at this game, don’t stress about it because the more you play, the better you would be. It might be hard the first time, but as soon as you figure out the attacks the character posses, you have almost mastered the game. The fact that many Nintendo’s notable characters are included really made this game a popular one. I give it two thumbs up and people who never played this game should definitely give it a shot. This game certainly requires a lot of luck, but don’t let that pull you back because you never know what will happen in the end. Fri, 19 Jan 2007 00:07:22 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=670&iddiary=1668https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=670Gamelog Session #2: Classics Session I Super Smash Brothers is one of the true Nintendo classics that have made a big hit in the video game industry. It was the first game of the Super Smash Brothers series and was released in 1999 for the Nintendo 64, also known as N64. Super Smash Brothers is rated E for everyone and can be played alone or with three other friends on a Friday night (single and multiplayer compatible). The game has a total of twelve original playable characters, but four of them are classified as “secret characters/unknown” at the beginning and must be unlocked by beating the arcade mode (single player mode). This is a motivation to many players because it makes them want to discover what is hidden behind the game. The eight characters that may be chosen at the beginning includes: Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Kirby, Mario, Link, Samus, Fox and Pikachu. The secret characters are: Luigi, Ness, Jigglypuff and Captain Falcon. Every character has distinctive moves and special abilities. For example, Kirby is able to do kicks, float in the air like a ball and suck opponents, acquiring their special abilities. Also, it is able to turn into a rock for defense and use a cutter attack that is useful when the opponent is about to die. If you are playing with friends, you have the option to choose what teams you want; stock or stock team. Stock is when everyone is against each other and stock team is when you are allied with the person the same color as you (blue, green or red team). You can choose between eight different battle arenas with each of them being associated with each of the eight original characters. Peach’s Castle – Mario Congo Jungle – Donkey Kong Hyrule Castle – Link (from Zelda) Planet Zebes – Samus Yoshi’s Island – Yoshi Dreamland – Kirby Sector Z – Fox Saffron City – Pikachu Each arena is different and unique because different things happen during the gameplay. For example, in Dreamland, wind will be occasionally blowing towards one direction which makes it possible for your character to fall off the cliff and die, if you do not control the character properly. During the game, there are many items that will appear on the arena and usually has a special ability to it. It usually increases the chances of knocking your opponents out the arena. The items usually come inside barrels or boxes. These items are also associated with the original characters drawn from their own Nintendo game. Items include: hammer, star, bomb, saber, pokeball (does not hurt the person throwing it), fire flower, TNT box, homerun bat, fan, heart (recovers all damages) and gun. To me, items such as the pokeball annoy me sometimes because they’re really useless and only a few pokemon can inflict damage. Sometimes they don’t even do anything and does not hurt anyone. My most favorite item would definitely be the hammer because it is able to KO a character if their percent damage is high. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Fri, 19 Jan 2007 00:07:55.)Fri, 19 Jan 2007 00:06:11 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=670&iddiary=1667https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=402Part 2 of game log session on Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Anyways, I was stuck in the village house for a long time because I didn’t know exactly where or which doors I had to open in order to have another cut scene to happen. Even though I was going back and forth for a whole thirty minutes (before I found the camera), the game kept me interested because of the dark, quiet and mysterious atmosphere I was in. The way the character opened the wooden doors always gave me a creepy feeling because it seemed like as if the spirits are right behind the doors. The conflict that this game creates is that if I do not find all the items I am supposed to, there would be no progress in the game. So after I found the camera obscura, I tried to open a door which I was able to before, but Mio said “this door seems to be held by a powerful force”. Shortly after, my bar began to glow, but I didn’t see a ghost or anything suspicious. I quickly pressed the circle on the controller to go into camera mode and looked at the door up and down. I noticed that the bar glows the brightest aiming near the top of the door and also, the cross hair turned green, and it was originally orange. If you look closely to your screen actually, you would be able to see a really dim looking face. I pressed “X” and took the picture. The spirit was gone and I received points for exorcising the “door woman”. The door once again was able to be opened and I went in. After I went into the room, another spirit was there and I took out the camera and took the picture. I realized that in order to hurt the ghost, I must get close to it, best is face-to-face. Taking a picture of the spirit from the back does no harm. The game continued to flow the same until there was a cut scene of Mio’s (person I am controlling) sister Mayu following the crimson butterfly out the house. I had to go after her and ended up in the forest again. The fog and the whirling trees made me nervous because it reminded me of scary movies I’ve watched. I followed the trails and ended up in another small house. Inside the house was where I found the fatal frame. The fatal frame is an upgrade of the camera obscura and hurts the spirits even more. While I was walking around in the house, a woman with her head tilted towards her shoulder suddenly popped out. I gave a small scream. The controller started vibrating a lot and I used the new fatal frame camera to kill it. This time was a lot harder than the ones I encountered before. I had to center her face within the cross hair and push “X”. I almost died because the spirit strangled me a few times, but luckily I had an herbal medicine to recover my health. Overall, this game resembles a lot to “The Ring” because of the black and white shaky cut scenes and the spirits looked like the ring girl. The only frustration I would say many players would get is the pace the girl walks but despite that aspect, the game could always keep players interested because ghosts would suddenly pop out without any beforehand warning. The storyline of Fatal Frame is moved along though creepy cut scenes and definitely creates a feeling of anxiety for the player. I recommend this game to players who have a lot of free time on their hands and once you play, you will get hooked for at least a few hours. Fri, 12 Jan 2007 02:29:44 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=402&iddiary=1311https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=402Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly is the second game in the fatal frame series. It is a third person horror and adventurous game with an intriguing and fascinating storyline underlying it. This game captures the attention of many gamers because of the realistic graphics, the dark atmospheric environment and the adrenaline rush they get from playing the game. This game is more likely suitable for gamers who enjoy long adventures and unlocking mysteries piece by piece. Those who enjoy straightforward and easy to reach goals are most likely the first ones to give up because based on my first 45 minute experience, I had to go back and forth in the same boundary to finally get a little further In the game. Throughout the game, there will be many cut off scenes and unexpected events that happen, and on top of that, the controller will vibrate to give the player a heads up that something “scary” is going to happen, or is already happening. The game started out by presenting a prologue of the storyline. The physical features of the characters were very realistic the bodies were well shaped and defined. Twin sister, Mio and Mayu Amakura, sits on the edge of a small water bank in front of a forest reminiscing their childhood. Suddenly, Mayu spots three crimson butterflies and curiously follows them into the forest. Mio then follows for the concern of her sister and the game begins. I picked up the controller and began to move Mio around with the joystick. Although the game is in third person mode, I felt that the sound and quality effects of the game made it seem like as if I was actually in the forest. The joystick on the controller was very sensitive and a small push up will make the character walk forward a bit. Although I never played this game before, I knew the basic guidelines I had to follow because many adventure games are usually the same; walking around and finding different clues and items. The first place I ended up in was a small house in a village. I walked around opening doors and picking up items and finally found the camera obscura, which is my only form of defense. After I found the camera, a bar appeared on the bottom right hand side of the screen and if it lights up, a spirit is nearby and you must use the camera to exorcise it and seal it into the film. I haven’t encountered my first ghost yet in the first session, so I am really anxious to continue playing now ….. blog later. Tue, 09 Jan 2007 19:10:35 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=402&iddiary=1087