Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=251https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1478The controls in Katamari Damacy just use the two control sticks on the PS2 controller. Players then navigate with these two sticks. For example, to go forward, players must tilt both sticks forward, and both backward to go backwards, and so on. Also, as I mentioned earlier, the soundtrack of this game is great, with a huge range of music, from jazz to rock to pop. The graphics of the game are cartoony and funny, obviously so that there can be more objects on screen at a given time. Also, the objects have a variety of funny animations. For example, people run away, shout, and cops will shoot you. Overall, a very fun game, but I found myself getting kind of bored with it over time, though I am not sure why exactly that was.Sat, 24 Feb 2007 00:46:55 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1478&iddiary=3106https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1478This week I played Katamari Damacy for the Playstation 2. In the game you assume the role of the Prince of the Cosmos, and after a late night of drinking, your father, the king of the Cosmos, ended up destroying all the stars in the sky. You're then required to roll up a bunch of stuff from Earth so that your father can remake all the stars in the sky. One of the biggest innovations in this game is that fact that the gameplay style of this game had never been done before. As the Prince, you are required to roll around a ball, called a Katamari, that picks up everything it touches. Thus begins your adventure of literally just rolling a ball around collecting items. You are required to make your Katamari grow to a certain size by collecting a number of items before the time runs out. Overall, this was a pretty fun game, with easy controls, and a great soundtrack.Sat, 24 Feb 2007 00:43:48 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1478&iddiary=3104https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1277Overall, I think they did a good job of balancing the weapons in the Multiplayer mode of Halo 2. The sniper rifle, while ownage at long range, is not very effective close-range, although I have met people who can still kill with it in close-quarters combat. Other weapons, such as the shotgun, require close range, but suck at distance. The key to doing well is finding a group of weapons that balance each other out, such as a combinaiton of a shotgun and sniper rifle. I particularly hate the rocket launcher. While its fine, in my opinion, for noobies, anyone who considers themselves good and still uses it a lot isn't good, since they need to rely on its one hit kill capabilities. At least the sniper requires accuracy, and the shotgun requires close-range, but the rockets are distance and power and requires little skill to use. The same can be said for vehicles. I hate being in a fight and having some douche in a ghost come and kill me. Fine for transportation, or use once in awhile, but constant use just shows that you can't kill people any way else.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 19:17:41 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1277&iddiary=2718https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1277Me and a bunch of my friends have started playing Halo 2 for the Xbox recently, and it is as fun a game now as it was when I used to play it back a couple years ago. The game is, as most of us know, about the Master Chief, a Spartan-model soldier who is fighting for the Earth against the Covenant, a group of aliens who seek to take over the world. As Master Chief, you need to kill both the Covenant and the Flood, another group of aliens, and protect the Earth from harm. Overall, however, I play this game for the multiplayer aspects, not the single-player. The Multiplayer is extremely fun, allowing up to 16 players to participate in a number of different battles, from just killing people (slayer) to capture the flag. With a wide variety of weapons, vehicles, and levels, Halo 2 is a great game to play with a group of friends.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 19:13:32 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1277&iddiary=2715https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=999I played Super Smash Brothers again today, and I was pleased to find out that I was doing much better than I had been doing the other day. I used Link primarily, but I also used Fox and Yoshi. I noticed, once again, that this game is pretty well balanced. Most of the characters can compete on par with one another so long as the players are around the same skill level. I also remembered how revolutionary this game was when it first came out. It was a four person fighting game where you could pick from any of Nintendo's classic character list. Also, the graphics for the time were great, and there was no better party game than a 4 player fighting game like SSB. Also, the fact that players had a health % instead of a life bar was unheard of. In addition, the level design was great. The idea of having 3D characters with a 3D background, but a 2D stage was fantastic. Overall, this was, and still is, a great game.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 21:55:44 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=999&iddiary=2401https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=999For my game I played Super Smash Brothers on the N64. I hadn't played this game in a number of years, so it was nice to play it again. I was hoping I would do as well as I had when I was big on the game; I prided myself on being good. However, when I played the game, I noticed that a lot of my former skill was gone, presumably due to inactivity. I play as Link and most of my friends usually play as Fox, Pikachu, or Kirby. I always seem to do good against those players, since my friends back home played as those characters, so it wasn't too hard to adjust to their attacks. My biggest problem was switching from the controls of Super Smash Brothers Melee to the controls of the original game. In SSBM, you can do a ground dodge and aerial dodges, whereas in this game you cannot, and since I am fond of both of those dodges in SSBM, it took some time to adjust. Once I did, however, I was playing fairly well, and won most of the games. Also, it was fun to play with the items and on the levels that aren't in the second game. Overall, while there are some characters clearly better than other, most characters are fairly balanced. It depends more on the player than the character. Obviously, some characters are stronger, so on, but in the hands of a good player, characters like Jigglypuff and Ness can still whoop ass.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 02:16:05 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=999&iddiary=2165https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=589Oooh Kyuubi, I haven't met a single person who has even heard of that game lol. I like Tohno Shiki, but I think I like Nanaya more, thanks to his quick slash attack that hits for 8+ times an attack. I also tried Red Akiha, but I like just regular Akiha Tohno more. Just wondering which version do you play? Re-Act? Act Cadenza?Fri, 19 Jan 2007 05:57:25 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=589&iddiary=1747https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=688This game was just as good today as it was the other day with my friends. Once again, however, I found myself getting bored if there was no one else playing with me. Since I covered most of the gameplay in my last post, I don't feel the need to go into that now. I will, however, say that custom characters are without a doubt my best characters to play as. I found myself playing with my hallmates, and the variety of skill and character useage oftentimes leads to fun and competitive hall matches. I like this game, and while it is not one of my favorite fighters, it is still a great game, and if your looking for a 3-D fighter, Soul Calibur 3 is a great pick.Fri, 19 Jan 2007 05:52:29 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=688&iddiary=1746https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=688Today I played Soul Calibur 3 for the PS2. I've been a longtime fan of the series, having played the original Soul Calibur on both the Dreamcast and in the Arcade. Its your basic 3-D fighter, made by Namco, who also makes the similar Tekken series, which I am also a fan of. The story takes place around the year 1600 A.D., and follows a group of fighters whose goals vary, but ultimately all revolve around finding the cursed sword Soul Edge. That sword, which was destroyed at the end of the last game by its former owner, has become connected to the holy sword, the Soul Calibur, and so finding one sword would actually find both. Some want Soul Edge for power, others want to destroy it, but no matter what the intention, the sword is the basis for this game. You can choose your character from a wide list of premade characters, all of whom are connected to the game and have backstories. Each fighter also has a unique set of weapons, costumes, and attacks, so no two characters are 100% alike, making the game and each fight unique and fun, like any other fighter. In addition to these various characters, the player can also create their own character, from a list of jobs, such as Ninja, Pirate, Thief, Dancer, Sage, and a few others. Each custom character can be edited with different clothes, hair, faces, sizes, and voices. In addition, a HUGE list of equipment makes creating characters so fun, as characters will never look the same. In order to fully unlock all of the premade character's weapons, the story mode for each character must be beaten, which is not too hard, and fairly linear, but Namco added a twist to this game. Almost like a dating-sim style game, players have to make choices, such as whether to seek knowledge or power to find the sword, where to go, and whether or not to venture deeper into caverns and ruins. This adds a unique and fun variant on the classis arcade mode of fighting games. Custom characters can't participate in this mode, but by beating this mode with premade characters, mode weapons and gear for the custom characters becomes available. The gameplay itself is much like any other 3-D fighting game, you can dodge both forwards and backwards, but unlike 2-D fighters, you can also sidestep, which allows for more combos, more openings to be attacked through, and longer fights. As one might guess, this can be both a good thing and a bad thing. To counter the constant hiding and running away that could associated with larger maps and more dodging options, players can also be knocked off the ring, which results in an instant loss of that round. This also adds a unique feel to the gameplay, as you can attempt to knock someone off the edge for an easier kill, but also must be wary of your opponent doing the same to you. Overall, I really enjoy the game. I use Seigfried for the story mode version of the game, but in multiplayer modes I use either my Custom-made Ninja or my custom-made samurai. Both my Ninja (named Luc) and my samurai (named Mukuro, a la Samurai Champloo) are failry balanced, and I can juggle with both of them, so I do fairly well against opponents, but tricky characters, such as Voldo, still pose a large threat. I usually play the versus mode, since a lot of people in my hall play the game too, so win or lose, the games are always good fights and a lot of fun. On the downside, I personally get bored with the game when there is no one else to play with, and while each characters story is different, I've completed most of them, so there isn't too much that is new. There is another mode that follows the story along a strategy-type guidline, but I don't like that mode too much, because when I play a fighting game I'd rather it be a lot of fighting, whereas if I wanted a strategy game, I'd find one. This weird hybrid didn't go to well with me, and I rarely if ever play it. The fighters are pretty evenly balanced, and although some are better than others, if you know your character well enough, you won't lose to a specific character repeatedly. I like this game a lot, but I think I would rather stick to classic 2-D fighters, such as Melty Blood or Guilty Gear. However, if 2-D isn't your thing, there are few 3-D fighters that are as fun and enjoyable as Soul Calibur 3 Fri, 19 Jan 2007 05:46:11 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=688&iddiary=1742https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=589In response to Jade's comments, I watched Shingetsutan Tsukihime too, and while it wasn't one of my favorite animes, I really love the story, I just think the anime did a sub-par job of going into detail. In Act Cadenza, the combos that could be pulled off were insane. I could only pull off a 37 hit as my best, but that was not including a special move that hits for 20+ times, it was from various moves just chained together. I have seen up to a 68 hit be pulled off before, but the person getting attacked was new to the game, so I'm not sure it really counts. I can pull off 30+ combos fairly easily, but it also depends on who I am facing. In actuality, it is not extremely difficult to get out of combos. If you press attack buttons quick enough while in midair, you can recover in the air, and proceed to attack or defend as you see fit. Personally, I really enjoy large combos like that, so long as it is possible to get out of them. I have seen games where a single hit can lead to a neverending combo and you can do nothing to get out of it, ergo you lose. Extended combos can make or break the game, depending on your own personal opinion. Again, those combos are a double-edged sword. They are fun to use, terrible to get caught in. Akiha is my personal favorite character, both in the show and in the game. I really liked Warakia and Shiki Nanaya, but I'm not as good with them as I am with Akiha. She is creepy, but is actually a "good" character. Overall, Once again, I highly recommend picking this game up if you can.Tue, 16 Jan 2007 02:02:57 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=589&iddiary=1506