Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=219https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1461I played Mario Party by myself against computer opponents for the first time and while it was a fun experience, there was a lot missing from the multiplayer experience. For example, playing by yourself kinda takes away the tension of the game. Obviously you want to win, but, players are not competing for bragging rights. While playing by myself, I found that playing at the mini game tree (a place to access each minigame) was much more fun than going through the actual board game. Even though the games are simple, they are entertaining and allow players to develop their own strategiesFri, 23 Feb 2007 19:08:31 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1461&iddiary=3083https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1461I played the game Mario Party this week. I got a few of my friends to come over and we played a game for 30 turns. I enjoyed the game board style play because it allowed for conversation to happen while the game was going on. Unlike some games it didn't require constant attention, so it is definitely a game for groups of people. At the end of each set of turns, there was a mini game where players competed for coins with which to buy items. The items offer an interesting twist in the board game style adding possibilities like stealing coins or stars; or increasing the number of dice that a player rolls. These along wth the minigames make Mario Party a great time.Fri, 23 Feb 2007 19:03:47 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1461&iddiary=3080https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1037I finished my second Super Smash Brothers session, this time playing by myself. The single player game is kind of a joke although it is the only way to unlock the secret characters. I found that playing in the vs. mode against the highest level computers was much more fun and challenging. even this mode wasn't too great though. I usually easily won. It was only when I teamed up computers against me that they were able to succeed. This was extremely challenging, I was able to win sometimes but not too often. Anyway, event this got pretty old pretty fast. Super Smash Brothers is not a great single player game, then agian I doubt pong is too great by yourself. Video games are interesting in that they are usually single player oriented whereas most other types of game are either boring or impossible without others. For example, try playing chess, poker, or tag by yourself. I think this group aspect is a very important part of games because it encourages social interaction which is extremely valuable. Multiplayer games like Super Smash Brothers are also fun because you can pick up the game, play it for 15 minutes and be done, which is difficult to do with a single player game.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:42:29 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1037&iddiary=2238https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1037I have been playing super smash brothers since it first came out back when I was in middle school. I had never really liked fighting games before but, one day a friend invited me to come play one where you could be mario or starfox and I was hooked. I took a break for a little while until I found out in high school that another friend of mine really liked to play. We always had intense games, we played with other people but one of the two of us always won. I think I liked playing so much because the game was fairly simple so it allows for the player to create his own style of fighting. I think that constitutes a game of emergence. Anyway, the simplicity makes it easy for players to get competitive with each other, so there was always some trash talking between the two of us. Competition is a big reason why I like to play video games and super smash brothers is a great arena for that. I am used to playing on my game at home so coming and playing on a new cartridge was a little frustrating. After you play the game for a while you uncover some secret characters and my favorite option, a menu called item switch that allows you to turn off any items you don't like and change the frequency of items falling. Not having this took some getting used to, but, in the end the game was still almost as fun with my floormates as with my friends at homeWed, 31 Jan 2007 12:15:30 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1037&iddiary=2219https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=790My second session of Super Mario 3 was pretty similar to the first. I decided to skip the rest of the 2nd world and move straight to some later ones. I ended up in one that had lots of water. The levels were pretty difficult, but, I was able to win a frog suit at one of the mini game type huts. The frog suit let mario jump higher and get out of water easier so it was lots of fun to use. I ended up losing it however, in a level where fish jump out of the water and attack you. It was actually fairly similar to the sun level that had frustrated me before in that the only main enemy were these projectiles coming from off the main path. I then decided to warp to the last levels and try those out. Before playing I had watched a video of a player beating mario 3 in 11 minutes. He ran nonstop through the first couple of levels and got the two warp whistles then he jumped straight to the end world. On the final levels he was able to jump from projectile to projectile without being touched all the while racking up life after life as well as tons of points. When I was playing things didn't go so smoothly. I got about halfway through the first level a couple of times, but that was the farthest I made it. I decided that I should have earned the right to play in the last world because my skills were not advanced enoughFri, 19 Jan 2007 11:18:08 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=790&iddiary=1758https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=790So, I finished playing my first mario session. I had not played that much regular Nintendo before so it was a little strange to get used to the old controller, but with only 8 buttons it was not too hard to get used to. This was not the first time I had played Mario 3. I used to have Mario All Stars which was a collection of alll the mario games so I had played them a fair amount. However, I spent a few lives getting back into the swing of things. My friends and I breezed through the first couple of levels. I even remembered a few secrets and was able to find the warp whistle. The first bit of trouble I had was on the boss level. I couldn't for the life of me beat the first boss on the ship. This was pretty frustrating for me because I know that the first boss is not particularly difficult. The second world proved to be even more frustrating. The first few levels were fairly easy, although I died more than I did in the first world. I ran into a brick wall when I got to a level where there are few enemies but the sun comes down from the sky and makes attacks you. I just couldn't seem to avoid him, every time he would somehow get me. The furthest I got was to the black that indicates the end of the level. I was about 5-6 inches away from the end of the level when the sun swooped down and killed me. I was very frustrated at this point so I decided to take a break. The moral of the story is that Nintendo wasn't messing around when they made this game. It is far more challenging than many games of today.Fri, 19 Jan 2007 11:04:07 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=790&iddiary=1757https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=505I played some more Madden 2007, this time by myself. I started a new franchise in my hometown, Madison, Wisconsin. To me this was as much fun if not more than playing the actual game. I got to design the team's uniforms and choose from a logo, then I got to "build" a stadium for the team to play in. I did my best to model it after Camp Randall, our college stadium. After I designed the uniforms and stadium the game allowed me to choose an existing team's roster to use or to enter all of the players into a fantasy draft. I picked up some of the best players in the league and a few from my favorite team (the packers). After all this it was off to minicamp where I got to do drills with some players to improve their statistics/ratings. Finally it was time to get into the season. The gameplay was similar to Madden 2006 with a few improvements (in my opinion). When controlling the runner/player with the ball, the gamer used to have to press buttons to juke or spin. In the newest version, the juke controls are all on the right analog stick allowing for some pretty fancy footwork. Kicking has also been moved to the right analog stick which was much easier and more realistic than trying to correctly time button presses. One of my favorite changes was the ability to control the blocker rather than the runner on run plays. I used to play fullback for a lightweight football team so this addition brought me back to my playing days. Lead blocker also provided some of the coolest hits in the game. Anyway, Madden 2007 is a great game.Thu, 11 Jan 2007 21:53:20 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=505&iddiary=1237https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=505I love the Madden video games so, I was extremely excited to try out the newest version in the series Madden 2007. I started out by playing a game against one of my friends from swimming. I have been playing Madden for years now so the game started out a bit one sided, but, things evened out as the game progressed. The gameplay was a lot of fun as Madden has been, but, the best part for me was the competition between the two of us. Each big play provides the opportunity to get in your opponents face and be as much of a dick as you want. It was especially fun because two other friends were watching the game and providing commentary on the side as well as egging each of us on while we were taunting. After our game we watched the other two play and the experience was similar. Madden provides a great platform for fun and joking around. As for gameplay, the experience hasn't changed much over the past few years. By letting you push a button corresponding to a play the game allows you to hide what you are doing to some degree, although it is still possible to cheat. It also seemed a little easy to complete long passes. Often in the game between my other two friends, one friend would throw passes past multiple defenders to his receiver who would somehow catch the pass more often than not. Otherwise the game was pretty realistic and lots of fun.Thu, 11 Jan 2007 21:16:07 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=505&iddiary=1224