jess's GameLog

Heroes of Might and Magic III (PC) - Fri, 09 Feb 2007 18:47:29

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 18:47:29 CDT

This time I went for some solo gameplay, in the form of a campaign. Another great thing about Heroes is this campaign system. While often I build up my best hero to perfection only to win the map and have that hero lost, in the campaigns, you keep one hero over several maps, allowing you to really enjoy all of your effort. Today I went for the more melee oriented "stronghold" type, with my main hero a barbarian by the name of Crag Hack. I almost exclusively play the spellcaster sort of hero, so this is a challenge all its own. I am not used to suffering so many creature losses! Luckily, another thing Heroes did right is to balance the types of town, such that the melee castles get more creatures to balance the heavy losses. When I play a magic-oriented hero, oftentimes my creatures won't even come into play. They will sit on the battlefield and avoid the enemy creatures while I kill the enemy with spells. When I play Crag Hack or another hero like him, however, I am forced to kill everything with my creatures, and that means sending them into the fray. I love Heroes for its variety and options. Not only does one pick one's town and one's main hero, but as one's hero gains experience (from battle or items), one can choose abilities to improve, be it a type of magic, more ranged or melee damage, or even better movement. It allows for very custom heroes and a lot of variety in game-play.

Heroes of Might and Magic III (PC) - Fri, 09 Feb 2007 18:39:17

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 18:39:17 CDT

For those that don't know, the Heroes of Might and Magic series is a turn-based strategy, and a good one at that. I prefer the third in the series (the fifth came out last year) just because it was the one I started on and I find the UI and combat systems more appealing. For this hour of gaming, I decided to do an allied scenario with my boyfriend, Kevan. Because it is turn-based, it makes for a good multi-player game that we can play on a single computer. Kevan and I chose to do the Realm of Chaos scenario; he chose to be the red-flagged "tower" town, and I was the tan "rampart" type. Heroes play basically goes like this: the player chooses what type of town they want to be--the town you choose picks the sort of creatures you can recruit (there are eight types of creature in each town, and these creatures are what you use to fight battles) and what heroes you can be (some are more melee oriented, others are more spell-caster types, and each specializes in something, from a spell, to an ability, to a type of creature, to resource production). The player then selects a hero, and collects resources in order to build up their town to produce an army and spells with which to kill the enemies and take over enemy towns. Kevan and I, having played this game countless times before, chose to play on impossible; this means we start with no resources and the enemy starts with full resources, and also plays to the best of his ability. This means that our lands were invaded frequently and we were forced to be very frugal and careful. This option (being able to choose difficulty) makes gameplay challenging even after one has mastered the game, which is great for continued playability. I like Heroes III the best because the user interface is simple and makes it so the challenge of the game is in the content, not in figuring out what the hell to build so you can build your capital.

Katamari Damacy (PS2) - Thu, 25 Jan 2007 21:08:13

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 21:08:13 CDT

I have discovered that katamari is, sadly, not like riding a bike. I haven't played in over a year, and to be frank, I suck. Regardless, the game is fun. Katamari drew me in originally for its complete irreverence. The plot is basically that you are the son of the king of all cosmos, and in order to recreate the universe which your father accidentally destroyed, you must roll around a katamari (a highly adhesive ball) to pick up items ranging from very small--ants, coins, and thumbtacks--to the very large--buildings and whales--to the ridiculous--hopes and dreams. All of this is to make your katamari huge so your father can blast it into the sky to make a star or a planet. Sounds absurd, right? It is, but it's fun in an esoteric and quirky way. The music is addictively happy and the premise is so silly it's engaging. It is also a fun game to play with a crowd, because anyone can play (not well, but anyone can pick it up and roll around) and the music and delightful graphics are appealing.

Final Fantasy XII (PS2) - Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:59:25

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:59:25 CDT

I decided to spend some more time farming for this session, as there is a sword I was really hoping to get for Vaan, my main character. Something I didn't mention in my earlier log is the vast improvement on grinding in this FF--the chaining system. If you kill only a certain type of monster, the more you kill, the better loot you get off of them. They do this by a series of chains: after you kill 2 of the same type, it says "chain-2" and the number goes up with each creature you kill; eventually you get a "chain level" which is very obvious because the bags of loot the creature drops get much larger, and they start dropping more gil and better items. Each chain level is an improvement upon the last, until you are getting really nice items and a significant amount of gil. This system really cuts down on the time spent grinding, which was a complaint I had with previous Final Fantasy games. Another great time saver in FF12 is the port system. After you discover an area, you will find a crystal somewhere around. Touch it, and you can save, and port to any crystal you have already been to with the use of a teleport stone (which drop quite frequently at higher chain levels, I am happy to note). They also have a port system within the large cities called a Moogele porter. The Moogles are a small, rabbit-like race that operate this port system to take you to different sectors of the city, again really cutting down on the run time. Final Fantasy 12 has all the great parts of the other Final Fantasys--great characters and an interesting and compelling storyline, both of which have a depth that I find other RPGs often lack. The combat system is improved in a way, although I know a lot of fans (myself somewhat included) miss the very Final Fantasy combat screen. For the long-term playability and continued ability to bring in new fans, I think the real-time combat was a necessity, and a well-executed one at that. The makers of FF really worked on improving the areas that needed improvement (such as grinding and running time) and the result is another great Final Fantasy.

Final Fantasy XII (PS2) - Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:48:29

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:48:29 CDT

Sorry this wasn't posted earlier--my intarwebs were down. I've nearly finished FF12 now, but my boyfriend got an Xbox 360 so I stopped for awhile to immerse myself in Halo 2 and Fable. I came back however, not just for this Gamelog but because I really like the Final Fantasy Series, and FF12 is a great example. I spent this game session grinding gil, which is the currency in the Final Fantasy series; experience points, which are needed to level up; and license points, which are used to purchase licenses which allow you to use armor and weapons or perform special abilities. The new combat system in FF12 is somewhat of an improvement in that it allows for continuous action, although I miss the battle music (they did keep the classic victory music for after boss fights, which I thought was a nice touch). It allows for real time action and micromanagement of all of the characters in your party. They instituted a system of gambits which automate each of your characters actions seperatly, such that they will heal if anyone gets below a certain health percentage, of attack a flying creature with spells or ranged weapons. It makes the real-time combat system work; without the gambits, it wouldn't be possible to keep track of all of your characters' actions and you would waste valuable time sorting it out everytime you started a fight or killed a monster in a multiple-monster fight--you would otherwise have to individually direct each of your characters to attack. The license system seems like a good idea, and would be if I didn't farm so much just to be able to afford the very best weapons and armor available. It requires you to make decisions concerning the focus of each of your characters, be it healing magic, damage magic, melee weapons, ranged weapons, or type of armor. Unfortunately because I farm so much gil and make LP (license points) along the way, all of my characters have nearly everything on the board.

World of Warcraft (PC) - Fri, 12 Jan 2007 01:14:05

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 01:14:05 CDT

I misspelled "forty" and it's bothering me. >.<

World of Warcraft (PC) - Fri, 12 Jan 2007 01:10:41

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 01:10:41 CDT

Today (like most every day except Friday and Saturday) was a raid night. We cleared the spider wing in Naxxramas, and then killed Noth. My guild is making good progress in Naxx--although we are, sadly, having trouble with Patchwerk--and it kind of sucks that I'm going to be leaving them soon. One thing that I really loved about WoW was the social element...I've made a lot of good friends and I am really going to honestly miss these people. Anyway, we had a really good raid tonight, with great class balance, meaning not too many or too little of any one type of character. Blizzard did a great job in creating end-game encounters that make each class necessary and useful. While yes, priests are arguably the best healers and warriors are necessary for tanking, every class plays a crucial role. MMORPGs are amazing in that they take many perfect strangers and require them to work together to complete some task. In the case of my naxx raid, 40 people. We use chat software called teamspeak to talk to each other and coordinate a perfect raid, but we are really all playing a game together from all over the world. We have a mage from Wales and a paladin from New Zealand; we have people from all over the country, but our guild master went to my high school and graduated 4 years before I did. It's just incredible to me that fourty people from all over the world, who have never met before, can come together to accomplish something, regardless of the fact that it is just "killing" some pixelated spider.

World of Warcraft (PC) - Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:32:43

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:32:43 CDT

I guess I'll start with a background of the game. WoW, for those few that don't already know, is an MMORPG, and the most successful one of all time at that. Its success is due to great graphics and interface, and a constantly changing gaming experience, as well as incredible end-game content. It's based around a basic struggle between two forces, the alliance and the horde. I happen to be alliance just because a friend of mine rolled alliance first, but I think if I did it all over again I would play horde. I've been playing since release and I've just come to the bittersweet decision to quit. The expansion pack is coming out and its going to be an entirely different game, and I have spent too much of my life playing it already. I'm not going to list days played (it's a bit embarrassing), but suffice to say I am in one of the best guilds on my server and my priest is naxx-geared--and I have 3 other well geared 60 alts (warrior, mage, and druid). Anyway, I played a little today--my first time on in a month--and I decided to take my 38 paladin through Scarlet Monastery. That is one thing that Blizzard has done very well with World of Warcraft; there is a complex and very complete set of instances for levelling which allow the player to learn their class and obtain items that are very good for their respective levels. My group of 5 players (one from my guild, 3 "PUG," or "pick-up-group," people) was doing very well until we encountered one of the problems that an online game suffers--a server shutdown. We got a 15 minute warning and tried to get to the boss and kill her before the server went down, but we couldnt quite manage. Oh well, I have my triune amulet already. And I'm quitting...really.